Changing Fortunes

Part 14

"Now that you know the truth about Balint, do you still want him?" Weasel asked.

Cam felt an icy calm settle over himself. He'd just had a lot of information thrown at him but that didn't make him upset. Even Weasel's question didn't make him upset. He was beyond upset. "Was that the reason you told me, Weasel? Because you thought I wouldn't want him anymore and that'd leave him free for you and your fucked up lover?"

Weasel stared at Cam as if he was crazy. "Pardonez-moi?"

"Don't give me that look. One second you won't tell me anything, the next you're revealing everything. I saw how he kissed you, Weasel. I saw how hot you got."

"You really think that?"

"I know that."

"Cam," Weasel warned, "you're going into territory you really don't want to step into."

"What're you gonna do?" Cam challenged. "Kill me?"

"That's it," Weasel muttered, moving with preternatural quickness to the door, "you can deal with this yourself. I'm done." Green eyes glittered. "Angelo was right. Vache are not worth the air they breathe."

"Radu used that word. The least you can do is speak English, you leech."

"If you insist." Weasel smiled coldly. "Vache are cattle. That's what we call Norms and that's what you are. Sangsue blood or no Sangsue blood. And for your information, your Sangsue lover did a number on me and I'm getting hungry again so if you don't mind, I'm gonna hunt and you can go fuck yourself."

And before Cam could say a word, Weasel was gone.

Weasel's words had been meant to wound, to bait, but they all meant one thing. Even though Cam might have a little of that blood, he was the other, he didn't belong. Balint did and Cam wasn't good enough for him.

Well Weasel could go to hell, Cam wasn't gonna buy it. He didn't want to belong to a group of freaks like them and Balint really wasn't one of them. Well, maybe he was by default but he'd been with Cam all that time and had never once...

Cam knew he was only fooling himself. Balint just was careful never to do it when he was around. And if he did catch Balint in the act of taking blood, one mental nudge could make him forget.

But Balint wouldn't do that.

Balint himself had said that his Maturity got worse because of the effect Weasel and Angelo's blood had on his own so maybe if he was away from them his Maturity would stop.

Cam had to get Balint away from here now, before Weasel, Angelo and the rest of the Sangsue had any more influence on him.

Before either boy was able to completely seduce Balint.

Cam ran out of Angelo's room without shutting the door, served the asshole right; maybe his room would get nice and trashed now. The thought brought a spiteful smile to his lips. Then he made his way down to the main floor of the Nocturne and searched through the throng of people for Balint.

Cam couldn't find him. Where the fuck was he?

"Ela, Cam," he heard Dimitri's voice call out from the bar, "come here a moment."

Fucking great, the last person Cam felt like dealing with. On the other hand, maybe he knew where Balint was. He went towards the back and to the bar. "Yeah?"

"Your boyfriend isn't here."

"I can see that," Cam snapped, then realized that as big a scumbag as Dimitri was, he was Cam's only ally so it'd be in his best interest to be nicer to him. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Where is he then?"

Dimitri shrugged. "Don't know. He left the Nocturne a little while ago."

A little while ago. All that time he'd been arguing with Weasel, he could have come here and gotten Balint already. All this would have been avoided if he'd just gone after Balint to begin with and didn't listen when Weasel had suggested he wait for Balint to cool off.

And Cam hadn't stayed there just long enough for Balint to leave.

He'd been set up again.

Then Cam thought back to when Dimitri found him in the stockroom. How he befriended Cam when he revealed that he was out to kick Angelo's ass. Just like Weasel predicted he would. Dimitri had also told Cam to wait, not to do anything until the two boys were in Angelo's room. Only instead, Balint had taken off in a huff before Cam could reach him.

Right before Radu had shown up and he and Angelo managed to distract him just long enough for Balint to be starving by the time Cam had gotten to him.

Fuck.

"You fucking bastard!" Cam roared. "You were fucking in on the whole thing!"

"Shut your trap," Dimitri hissed. "You want the whole club to hear you?"

"I don't give a shit who hears me! You were double dealing me the whole time you dick!"

"Look Cam," Dimitri growled, "you have ten seconds to shut the fuck up or –"

"Or what?" Cam heard an unfamiliar voice purr. He turned around to see a dark haired young man with grey eyes. He smiled at Cam. "Is he bothering you, cher?"

Cam could feel it was another Sangsue. Shit, this place was crawling with them. They were worse than cockroaches. The sooner Cam got out of here the better. "Yeah and so are you."

"There's no need for that, mon ami. Now, why don't you tell me what de problem is?" the man asked almost solicitously.

There was something about that lazy Southern drawl that made Cam instantly bristle.

"None of your fucking business."

"Come." One simple word but it was said in a way that left no room for argument. "Come, cher," he repeated, "we gonna talk, you and me." He slung an arm around Cam's shoulder. "Be a good little Breather and cooperate," he whispered in Cam's ear; dropping the pidgin English completely, "or the only way you'll leave here will be in pieces."

Cam shivered. It wasn't the man's threatening words, it was the danger he felt behind them. Quiet menace that flared through that honeyed caress of a voice.

The grey eyed man took Cam's silence as acquiescence. "Good. Now, since you like the stockroom so much, let's go there, oui?"

His grip was iron around Cam's shoulder, so it wasn't as if he had a choice.

As soon as they reached the stockroom, the man shut the door. "You've been nothing but trouble since you and your partner came to the Old Quarter," he told Cam, his tone velvet steel. "However I'm not surprised that Sarin hired you. I can only keep my dark beauty on a leash but for so long. All over a silly territory war."

His dark beauty? Did he mean Angelo?

This wasn't just one of Angelo's lovers. This was someone who owned Angelo. Someone who had lost control of his pet.

Ardoin.

"The poor creature brought it all upon himself," Ardoin said. That fleshpeddler should never have sent his minions storming into the Nocturne when I told the fool that I wouldn't sell it to him." He smiled thinly. "He had no idea of who he was dealing with. I'm not a gutless club owner who will buckle under his intimidation and I had Angelo show him how much I don't appreciate threats."

Cam gasped. "He butchered those boys under your orders?"

Ardoin laughed. "You're suggesting that Angelo needs an excuse to kill savagely. All I did was tell the boy to send a clear message to Monsieur Araby. How he sent that message was entirely up to him. I'd rather that he hadn't been so … messy about it but Angelo wanted to hit Sarin where it hurt the most: the wallet."

If he wanted to piss Sarin off, Angelo definitely accomplished that. In spades.

And now he was trapped in a room with someone who knew that Cam had been hired to carry out a hit on his errand boy. "So what're you gonna do to me? Make an example of me to teach Sarin not to fuck with you?"

Ardoin cut his eyes at Cam. "You must be mistaking me for the common thug you work for, cher. I don't operate that way."

No, he was gonna fuck with Cam's head instead. "What am I here for then?"

"Consider this a friendly warning to another of my blood."

Cam realized that Ardoin didn't give a shit about the hit. He didn't care about anything but the fact that part of Cam was Sangsue; however little it was. Cam didn't have patience for this crap. "And that is?"

"You're playing with fire, boy. Be sure that it doesn't consume you."

"You threaten like a thug," Cam sneered.

Ardoin smiled but it was more like a baring of teeth. "You do realize that your young friend only has two choices, don't you? To be Changed or die."

"So that's how you operate, you snake. You won't touch me, but you'll use Balint as your trump card?"

Ardoin's eyes glinted with cold amusement. "Ah, but I won't have to do a thing, dear boy. His body is failing all by itself."

And then Cam was alone. The doors had never even opened.

Ardoin must have teleported the hell out of there and Cam was beginning to suspect that was how Weasel and Angelo made their exits as well.

He was getting fucking tired of these dramatic vanishing acts.

But the meeting with Ardoin had served one purpose. Now Cam knew where Balint was headed. He only hoped the Gypsy hadn't made it there yet.

At least Cam could leave the Nocturne the same way he came in. Right out the back door of the stockroom. His arms were aching from pulling that steel door open just wide enough for him to slip through but he did it.

He didn't bother to push it back. It didn't matter anymore.

There would be only one way he could successfully do this. Cam would have to track and hunt Balint as he'd hunt any other target. He unshielded and ran as fast as he could; letting his instincts guide him to his prey.

Cam couldn't see Balint but he could feel him; could sense that maelstrom of turmoil inside his partner, the guilt, the fear and most of all, the insatiable hunger that was racing through Balint's body. He locked on to it, allowing the emotional tornado to lead him to Balint.

All of the sudden out of the corner of his eye, Cam caught a glimpse of Balint, who must have sensed Cam because he turned around to face him and shook his head.

Then Balint moved with inhuman speed, showing just how much he'd been holding back and Cam lost track of him completely.

But Cam would find him anyway because he knew where he was now. Right in the direction of Sarin's pick up point; where his Black Guard were stationed.

Balint had casually mentioned that Angelo and Radu had gone to "take care of Sarin."

And there was exactly where Balint was shooting for.

Cam ran into the woods, still not feeling Balint and began to panic. What if he didn't reach Balint in time? What if Cam was finally getting what was coming to him? This was his last chance and he wasn't even gonna be able to take it. The thought filled him with an almost overwhelming sadness.

And then he saw the bodies.

Corpses littered the landscape; all in various states of carnage. Some were dressed with the only thing even hinting at any disarray being the familiar bruise on their throats. Others were much more grisly. Bodies that were nothing but dried out husks. Half-eaten carcasses.

The Black Guard never stood a chance.

Cam fought the urge to vomit, choking back the bile, knowing Angelo and Radu couldn't be far, the kills were too fresh. Some were even still bleeding.

"That's it, matya mou," he suddenly heard Angelo say soothingly, "keep drinking, you're almost there."

Fuck!

Cam ran faster than he ever had in his life, his breath searing his lungs, his throat dry as dust; until he could see Angelo's black leather jacket. And Weasel, it figured. And of course, Balint who was grasping Angelo's wrist, drinking….

Panting, Cam managed to stumble towards them.

Only for Angelo to smile evilly at him. "Sorry honeychild, you're a little too late."

"I tried to warn you," Weasel told Cam with a tone of resignation, "but you wouldn't listen."

Cam's eyes darted to Balint, whose throat was trickling blood from where Angelo had bitten him. Angelo had pulled his wrist free and now Cam could see that Balint's eyes were already starting to glitter with that same craziness as Weasel's and Angelo's.

Weasel had known Balint had made his choice. That was why he'd asked Cam if he still wanted Balint. To see if Cam wanted Balint badly enough to accept him no matter what. To accept that he'd been Changed into this creature that could easily kill him at any time.

And to let Balint know that he loved him before he lost him forever.

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Last updated 2/13/03

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