Jake swallowed and nodded, keeping his gaze on the wet floor. Vars couldn’t resist the urge to stroke his head. “Second?”
Vars cleared his throat, wondering how to best put his question into words without revealing things Jake might not yet be aware of. “You saw something strange here, didn’t you? Tell me everything you know.”
Jake chewed his lips as if intent on turning them into mince. “It started before New Year’s. I went down to this creepy cellar in the old part of the building. We were all looking for Elliot at the time, because he disappeared, and he really liked it down there, so I searched extra thoroughly. I looked under a carpet and found a… cell under the floor. There was a creature in there. A bit like a bat. I thought it followed me in there, or was hurt, or something. Then everything went crazy, and it clung to me like some fucking face-hugger. When I woke up I thought it was all a bad dream, or a hallucination of some sort. But things started happening to me. Weird, ominous things. I’m always too hot, I choked up fire, and this black… syrup keeps trying to come out of me. I think I’m dying,” he choked up on the last words and hugged Vars tight.
Vars pulled him closer as well, no longer caring that he was sitting in a pool of cold water. He needed to be there for Jake, somehow help him out of this impossible situation. “You are not dying. But you need to reconsider. What if anyone else goes down there and is attacked like you were?”
“The room’s hidden. No one goes there, and there was only one of these… creatures. I’m freaking out. The clubhouse is my home. The guys are all I have. What if they’re scared to touch me after they find out?” Jake pulled away slightly, looking like a lost boy, not a man of drinking age.
Vars shook his head and drew Jake right back into his embrace. Unable to stop himself, he pressed a kiss to Jake’s temple. What was he to do? He’d wanted to retire and enjoy himself, not take care of others, but how could he leave Jake alone with this?
“No, that wouldn’t happen. They’re your friends,” he said despite his own doubts.
“I’ve had… people betray me before. Someone I trusted. I don’t want to risk it. Have you never had someone turn on you once they found out something they didn’t like?” Jake curled his fingers in Vars’s T-shirt, triggering all of Vars’s protective instincts. Jake was supposed to be a friend with benefits, no strings attached, and yet here Vars was, letting the boy cuddle up to him, and entangling himself in Jake’s problems.
Vars exhaled, and his features twisted, surely revealing emotions he didn’t want on the table. “Quite recently in fact. That’s why I’m here. That bastard’s not gonna find me in this place.”
“Right. Your ex. That bad?” Jake glanced up at him, but started pulling up his jeans.
Vars scowled. If Jake wanted to change the topic and feel reassured that he wasn’t alone then Vars could indulge him. “You never know what to expect from a guy when you first start fucking. I was too enamoured to care. Everyone thought he was a freak. He’d be randomly appearing behind you, like a ghost, and you wouldn’t hear him coming into the room. But I listened to my dick more than to my brain, so here I am.”
Jake zipped up his jeans and looked up at Vars, his blue eyes clear and attentive. “What did he do though?”
Vars’s lips dried, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe, as if he were underwater and needed to keep from inhaling. “I might as well tell you, considering what we’ve just done. He was my submissive.”
Jake pulled away slightly, watching Vars’s every move. “Oh? So wasn’t he the one um… more vulnerable?”
Vars smirked and rubbed his wet face. “He felt invincible. He wanted danger and thrill, the kind I didn’t want to give him, but he kept demanding more and more.”
Jake licked his plump, kissable lips that just minutes ago spouted some kind of liquid monster. “What kind of things?”
Vars exhaled, slowly untangling himself from Jake to get out of the water. He wished he didn’t have to talk about this, but all things considered, he owed Jake honesty. “He wanted to be beaten with fists, choked... drowned. I’m not comfortable with that.”
Still dripping with water, Jake got up as well. “Yeah, but how could he possibly force you to do anything like that to him?” Still, Vars could sense Jake’s wariness from a mile away.
The water clung to Vars’s skin, slowly soaking into his body, all the way to the bones. “Stuff like that never just happens. You don’t see it creep up on you. You think you love someone, so you want to give them what they want, but it’s never enough. I was a tool to give Damon his kick. A guy like that will call you a pussy if you don’t want to choke him. He’ll act out and sleep with someone else to show you you’re disposable to them.”