Cassius was in a meeting room tied to a metal chair. Kera, Mattius, and Levi sat respectively at the same table though they had their hands free. The meeting room looked more like an interrogation room with its stone brick walls and metal surfaces. Though he'd seen a couple of films from behind cell walls at his time growing up at the base, he wasn't too educated in the big budget film stuff. He lacked the background.
It wasn't really needed when his sole purpose was to serve Xtavia in the military. Even just tracking down Mekiah didn't need him to know how to read and write. It just happened that he did. General Iza didn't liked speaking to illiterate pieces of shit. He'd taken up the job himself.
Now that Cassius was thinking back on it, it was probably just a big cover to mold Cassius into some obedient dog. I hand't worked, thankfully. Instead, he'd turned into an annoying shit that had too much sarcastic born into his genes. He liked to think that it was one of his better qualities, but none of these shit heads cared about personality.
General Rexton walked into the room. Following him was the blond fucker who tried to beat the shit out of Cassius that second time he tried to escape. Cassius glared as the man sat down at the head of the table beside Rexton. He looked a little too smug for Cassius's liking.
"General Lucius Maxem," Rexton said. He gestured to the rest of them seating. "Kera, Levi, and Maxem."
He pointed at Cassius. "Cassius. Our Tracker."
General Lucius flickered a fleeting look over at Cassius. "Mekiah, Mica. They don't have names."
Rexton sighed aloud. "Anyway, the point is, General Lucius is going to be stepping in on this one. Kera, report first."
Kera straightened up in her chair. "We arrived at the site at approximately 14—"
"The short version, cadet," Lucius said.
Kera clenched her jaw. "We failed, sir. Mattius was unable to enter and our Tracker—"
She made an obvious show that she wasn't pleased about this one bit. "—brought something out from the Veil."
Without another impromptu, she slid over a file. Rexton caught it before it slid off the table. He flipped it open. He and Lucius looked it over.
Rexton looked up. "Where is she?"
Cassius frowned at how eager he was. The girl wasn't some thing they could study. She was a fucking little girl. It didn't matter if she came from the Veil or not.
That's easy for you to say. She's the one who went berserk and started calling you her instrument.
That didn't mean she was some demon. What he felt coming from the girl wasn't even an ounce of evil. She was good down to the bone. Unlike any of this scumbags in this room. That included him.
Kera stood up from her seat. On the wall beside her there was a two way window. She knocked on it.
The lights in the small room behind the glass turned on. Cassius had to hold back a scream when he saw the girl was strapped to a chair. There was a soldier beside her operating the switch panel to his left. Kera didn't looks surprised since she was obviously the one to set this up.
Cassius looked around at the table. Levi looked a little uncomfortable, Lucius was intrigued, Mattius was cold as ever, and Rexton looked like he ate something bad.
And Cassius himself didn't know how he felt. Though he knew that he was angry, there was no surprise in that. He was always angry about something. Water it was about his situation, about how he ws being treated, or how he'd failed once agains to escape, he always had something to be angry about. This was something entirely different. This wasn't about him. This was about a little girl that was being kept around like some experiment.
His jaw went slack. Sweat formed on his palms. Kera had stripped him of his enhancer and had put him back in chains. His magic was stripped away after he'd refused to hand the girl over. They'd gotten her.
He had a bad feeling about this. Kera thought she was a demon, but what did the others think? This was a girl who came from the Veil, who was able to stop Cassius outright from using his magic.
He knew what they did to things they didn't understand. Remu loved to pick apart things. Exterus liked to be on top. They didn't like when a power source couldn't be tapped into. They would find a way. They always did.
Rexton stood up. He walked to where Kera was standing. He hovered as he did.
Cassius tightened his grip on his chair.
"Have you run the tests?"
"They came back negative, sir."
"Run them again."
Cassius growled in frustration. "She's not a demon."
Rexton folded his arms over his chest. He turned to look at Cassius. "How do you know?"
Cassius avoided Rexton's wandering eyes. "Her energy was off. It didn't match. And the demon we're chasing would have killed me. She didn't."
"The wavelength scanner matches her magic to the demon's."
He huffed, pulling at the chains keeping him tied to the metal chair. "I'm telling you, she's not what we're looking for."
Her magic had to stay a secret. She must be tied to the Third Eye. The same as him. If one was in danger, so was the either. He had to keep himself alive as well as her. He just had too.
Rexton was watching him again. His gaze was easy to catch, but always hard to throw off. It made Cassius burn on the inside. It was always a new feeling when it was Rexton. The fire in his gut was an annoyance he wished he could easily get rid of.
"Right," Rexton said. He went back to his seat. "Put her in a cell. We're after a demon, not another Mekiah."
That was it. She was going to be labeled as a feral Mekiah child.
Cassius had to find a way to keep her in his sights.
Rexton escorted Cassius back to his room. They were alone again. The room looked the same, felt the same, but it was Cassius who had changed along the way. It hadn't been long since he'd been whipped under Rexton's command. He still felt like beating him into a bloody pulp, but there was also the other side of him who wanted to push him to the ground for an entirely different reason.
Rexton unlocked the chains binding Cassius' hands. "I know you're lying."
Cassius tossed the chains over the side of the bed. He hissed as he rubbed the bright red tender skin. "How do you figure that?"
He made sure he didn't look up and walked around the side of the bed. They shouldn't be so casual with each other. It made him feel even more like pushing Rexton around. That would complicate things way more than needed. More than either of them needed.
"I'm not an idiot."
Cassius laughed as he pulled his jacket off. "Really could have fooled me."
He turned.
"Why is it so hard to talk to you?" Rexton grabbed his arm from behind, trying to pull him to face him.
Cassius yanked his arm. Rexton didn't try to hold on.
"I'm a fucking slave. How am I supposed to talk to you?" He threw his jacket onto the bed.
Before he could stop himself, he shoved Rexton back. The back of his knees hit the bed. He almost stumbled, but he somehow regained his balance.
His bright brown eyes widened. Cassius was beyond caring what was going to happen to him. If Rexton had wanted him dead, he would have been dead the day he first disobeyed him.
He kicked Rexton's feet out from under him. He fell back onto the bed, splayed out without even a hint of resistance. There was something in his eyes. Cassius stood over him. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and then crawled over Rexton's heaving body. He had him caged in.
Fear. That was what was crossing over Rexton's face.
Cassius' eyes flickered down to his lips. "Is this how you want me to speak to you?"
By the blush growing on his cheeks, it might just be what Rexton was waiting for.
Cassius let out a dark laugh. "Un-fucking-believable."
He shoved away from the bed and walked to the standing dresser. He didn't have to say anything else.
Rexton had run from the room, slamming the door hard after him.
That night, Cassius laid awake in Rexton's bed. He wasn't imagining what it would feel like to have the man beneath him again.
He wasn't thinking about that at all.
***
Mattius thought Lucius looked good in his three piece suit. It fit well with his white blond hair and boyish face. They both had that in common though Lucius had a hard look that made him look older. Mattius still looked like he was still graduating from the military academy.
"Come here." Lucius looked up from the file on his desk. He pushed back, making room for Mattius to walk around to him.
Mattius climbed onto Lucius' lap, spreading his legs so that he fit snuggly against his chest. He put his hands on Lucius' shoulders.
"Have you found anything?" Lucius ran his hands up Mattius' thighs, squeezing tightly when he came up to his hips.
Mattius stared down at him with a cold gaze. Lucius, if he hadn't known the true side of Mattius, would have thought he hated his guts. It was a strange relationship he'd found himself in. Mattius was a young Exteru, born from two Exterus who were killed in the first Extermination. They'd met during trading together.
They didn't like each other, but they always said there was a fine line between love and hate.
But Lucius was sure this wasn't about love. Hate, maybe, but not love.
Those cold calculating eyes pierced through him. He thought briefly about Mica and how he'd once been the one to stare at him like that. Now, Mica couldn't even stand to look him in they eye. He didn't understand how they had grown so apart. At one time, they'd been as close as any Exteru and Remu could be. Adoptive brothers as they were, Lucius had always felt something deeper for Mica. It was only too bad that their differences had pushed them to opposite sides.
"The Mekiah is hiding something," Mattius said. He leaned down to nuzzle against Lucius's throat. As cute as it may be, Lucius was careful to keep his hands on Mattius's thighs. His hands ached to run through Mattius's black inked hair, but he knew Mattius wouldn't hesitate to take a finger off of him.
He had a weird hatred for people touching his neck.
How adorable.
"Hm," Lucius mumbled. "Aren't we all?"
Mattius bit his neck.
Lucius let out a laugh. "Keep an eye on him. And the demon as well."
Even as he said demon, he had a gut feeling that the thing hiding in a girl's body wasn't entirely demon. This wasn't true demon nature.
Mattius pulled away with a sharp jerk. He pushed his open palms onto Lucius's chest. His fingers dug into the front of his shirt. His thighs tightened around Lucius's hips. The look on his face told Lucius what Mattius wanted. He needed him a way only Lucius could give him. It was a compromise the two had given into when they first met. Years of hatred turned into a longing of each other's bodies that neither of them could explain.
It didn't matter if there was no love between them. This, the combining of their physical forms, was enough for them.
That's what Lucius told himself anyway.
Lucius ran his hands up Mattius's thighs, to the dip of his hips, and under his shirt. His cold hands met hot skin. Mattius leaned into the touch, tilting his head forward so that their foreheads touched. Shocks ran through Lucius as he looked Mattius in the eye. He didn't want to put a name to this feeling. If he did, then there would be no turning back from it. It was better for him to ignore how much he Mattius and pretend that it was all for the sake of satisfying his body's urges.
Lucius craned his neck to kiss Mattius. Where he was tender, Mattius pushed against him with a fierceness that was reflected when he was on the battlefield. He didn't like things to be soft. He liked rough.
Lucius gave into the hard and demanding kiss. Mattius became curious with his hands, running them up and down Lucius's chest. His breath became labored. Lucius pulled back to catch his own breath. He went to push his hands further up Mattius's shirt, but Mattius grabbed his arm.
When he looked up, he saw the cold and meticulous Mattius he'd gotten used to. Though he saw it many times when they were together, it never failed to amaze him how Mattius could be threatening, deadly, and beautiful at the same time.
Mattius shook his head. "Not now. I have to be back in fifteen."
Lucius grinned, jerking Mattius's hips forward. Mattius let out a hitched soft gasp as their crotches rubbed. "I can work with that."
Mattius gave him a glowering work. "They'll smell it on me."
Lucius flashes his teeth. "Even better."
Mattius merely rolled his eyes and then captured Lucius's lips once more to shut him up. It worked.
It always did.
"Oh." Mattius pulled back this time. Lucius pouted, trying to pull Mattius back down. Mattius swatted his hand on his shirt. "The Mekiah."
Lucius sighed. "You're ruining the mood."
"Shush. The Mekiah is what we should focusing on," Mattius said as he looked down at Lucius's soft wet lips. "Fuck. You're really distracting."
Lucius smirked. "One of my many talents."
"We need to get him transferred. Rexton's getting too attached."
"How do you suppose we do that?"
A dark look crossed over Mattius's face. "He's survived a demon. It has to be stronger than that."
Though Lucius was all about plotting with Mattius, this wasn't exactly the time he wanted to be doing it. But this Mekiah had scorned Mattius. When Mattius was burned, he always made sure to return the same but always far worse.
It would be hard to say that it wasn't a huge turn on. The power flowing from him mixed with Lucius's magic. It made him hunger for Mattius more.
He fixated on Mattius's neck. His fingers itch to touch the sensitive skin. If he had his way, he would have left marks along the it, trailing up to his ears. Claiming had always been a thing for him. But Mattius wouldn't allow it. They were quite the same when their outer layers were stripped down. Two men fighting for power, yet there had to be a give sometime.
Lucius loved to play to stay on top. He wouldn't ever admit that he loved it when he lost though.
A dark grin broke out onto Mattius's face.
Lucius's cock twitched.
Mattius rocked his hips, biting his lip as he met Lucius's eyes.
"I think I know how we're going to do it."
Lucius at first thought Mattius was talking about fucking. Of course, he thought, Mattius knew how to do that. They'd been practicing every night for the past year.
No. He was talking about the Mekiah and Mica.
Lucius returned the grin for as much as he liked fooling around with Mattius, he also liked messing with Mica's plans.