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Cory. We weren't me and Green. I was pretty sure Bracken knew that.
Bracken gave a strategic squeeze and said, "Yeah, it's a real fucking hardship
feeling you up.
My body responded, and I loved that. I had enough bad memories to still
cherish the pleasure of someone who cared about me, touching me. Caring about
me back. "You know who would be my real dream girl, mate?" I asked, groaning
under his touch.
"If you say a man, I'll bite it off." Bracken laughed, unbuttoning my fly and
pulling my jeans down my hips.
"No..." He was about to take me in my mouth and I'd taught him well. I had
about thirty seconds left to tell the truth before all that mattered to me was
cock and come. "My dream girl would love us both." I gasped. Bracken moved his
mouth down to my base and then back up.
"You and me?" He asked, surprised, even as he made love.
"Me and Green." I told him, soberly, looking down my body to make sure I could
meet his pond-colored eyes. He blinked, understood, accepted.
"You asshole!" he laughed then, "For that I'll leave you hard at dawn!
He was kidding. I grabbed the back of his head and thrust into his mouth, and
he showed me how well he knew me.
I awoke the next night alone, which wasn't a surprise. No one wanted to sleep
with a corpse. But the room smelled like me and Bracken, and Arturo was
knocking on the door.
"Yeah, mate, make yourself at home." I bitched, and Arturo barged in, rolling
his eyes at the messy bed.
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"You're going to want to clean this up." He said disgustedly. "You don't have
to settle for tweedledum anymore." Arturo loved Brack Brack was better at
being a sidhe than I was at being a vampire.
"Why." I asked shortly. "Who's stepping up for the job?
"Who do you think, genius." He asked, throwing me a pair of jeans. I shoved a
foot in, but I don't wake up quickly, after the day dies, and I found myself
falling sideways onto the bed. Arturo stood with his hands on his hips and
rolled his eyes.
"Jesus, I can't believe you ever learned to fly.
"I was in the remedial course what the fuck is the goddamned hurry?" I
snapped.
"Your gas station clerk she dealt with the police last night.
"Fuck." I spat, sitting down abruptly. I hadn't thought of that. No wonder
Arturo barely trusted me to tie my own shoes.
"Yeah, fuck." Arturo echoed. Then, surprisingly, "Don't beat yourself up about
it I should have taken care of it too..." He shook his head and smacked me in
the back of mine. When I looked at him reproachfully he said, "Jesus, kid, I
must really love you, because you fuck up my logic like no one else." I
blinked, so surprised to get a compliment from the man, I wasn't sure what to
do with myself. Abruptly, Arturo plopped down on the bed next to me.
"She covered for you, kid." He said softly.
"What?" And that I couldn't wrap my head around either.
"The police had her against the wall Dannin op Creely was there." Cory knew
him as Danny. "He said that she totally covered for you didn't even mention
your name.
I nodded. Thought about it, found myself smiling like the child I didn't
remember being.
"Christ Mary, Adrian!" Arturo said, exasperated. "Put those things away before
you spell me!
Like I had that much power. Regardless, I dimmed down my smile a little and
took off my jeans. "Where's Green?" I asked.
"On a business trip." He answered. Crap now I remembered. He'd told me the
night before, but I'd been so busy beating up Bracken that I'd forgotten.
"What the hell are you doing? You know I don't fly that way." Arturo asked
mildly.
"I'm taking a shower." I said, running butt naked like a kid. "I'm taking a
shower and brushing my fangs, and the next time she sees me, I'll be done up
right.
"She loves you anyway, you fucking moron!" I could hear Arturo laughing. It
didn't matter, because the water was on and I was cleaning up for my
redemption.
Cory
What's under the blackberry bush?
The curiosity was literally stopping my breath: what was under that blackberry
bush? I didn't want to know. I really didn't. I wasn't kidding about that
paper I had to write it was part of the final for my 1B class, and the teacher
was one of those people who was really disappointed to realize that the best
he'd ever be is a professor in a tiny Junior College on the edge of a hick
town. He made disparaging comments about working students all the time he even
walked into my store once, took one look at me typing at the counter and
sneered "It figures" before ignoring me while he paid for his coffee. And to
top it off, he was a misogynist. I hadn't watched a woman raise her hand yet
who hadn't been shut down and ripped up. After the first time it had happened
to me I'd kept my hand down, my nose clean, and put Cory Kirkpatrick on all my
papers. So far I'd done all right, but I wasn't going to press my luck by
turning in anything late at this stage in the game.
But that smell was in the air the one I'd thought was a cow or a horse or a
cat and it had been getting worse as it had been getting warmer, and I wanted
very badly to know what it was that Adrian had not done.
I compromised with myself. First I finished the paper. Then, when the store
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was empty, right when the air got really cold and the sky began to get the
tiniest bit light, I walked down the slight slope from where the station was
perched, and investigated the gully with the blackberry bush.
The smell got worse as I approached. I looked behind me, but no one was
out usually there was a good ½ an hour lull between customers this time of
morning, and this night was no exception. I wanted to turn back glory, did I
want to turn back but I thought about that raw look on Adrian's face when
Arturo had accused him, and wondered if my face looked like that when my
mother asked me if I were dating anyone or my father asked me why I had to
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