Snooke(Demon Warriors 2)(6)

Chapter Two




Snooke sat at the table in the Melting Pot. He listened as Marino talked about the two shifters that had encroached on his territory and was trying to sell placebo narcotics. Snooke was against drugs period, but it ticked him off even more when he thought of someone selling fake drugs that were probably laced with household cleaners. Some people had the soul of the devil and the conscious of a pea.

Snooke looked around, half-listening as he thought of Kane.

All he thought about was Kane. All he talked about to his friend Chris was Kane. All Snooke craved was Kane. So why in the hell did he panic and leave when given the opportunity to be alone with Kane back in the warrior’s apartment?

One of the major reasons was because Snooke didn’t want the warrior involved in his messed-up life. It was bad enough Snooke didn’t walk the straight and narrow, but Kane didn’t deserve to get caught up in his mess.

But those copper-brown eyes were all Snooke could see at the moment. His head snapped up when Marino called his name. He needed to focus, get Kane off the brain. “Huh?”

“Look at him.” Marino laughed as he pulled his elf boy-toy close to him and pointed in Snooke’s direction as he chuckled to the men around him. “Some girl has his mind turning to mush. Who is she?”

He. “You know I don’t roll like that. No chick is going to have me all twisted up.” Snooke gave a hallow laugh, void of any humor as he looked at Marino’s goons around the table. The large demons always creeped him out. “I may bang the chicks, but none of them have my head twisted.”

Although Marino kept a male elf like a man kept a mistress at his side, the guy would blow a gasket if he found out Snooke was gay. Marino was fucked in the head like that. Do as I say, not as I do. What a screwed-up motto. And the really fucked-up part was that he only applied this motto to Snooke.

“Good. I want you to keep your head on straight. You have work to do, and I don’t want no dame screwing with it.” Marino sat back, looking like he owned the world. Snooke glanced from one man to the next wondering if any of them could see past his façade.

None of them were paying any attention to Snooke. This was good. He began to think again, for the hundredth time, how he ended up in Kane’s apartment and how he had been beaten up. As hard as Snooke tried, nothing came to him.

“Go on, get out of here and do your job.” Marino waved Snooke off as the large demon ran his hand up and down the elf’s arm. He could see the elf shiver, but Snooke knew for a fact it was out of repulsion. The slight grimace on the elf’s face proved it. Why the elf stayed when Marino made his skin crawl, Snooke could never figure out. Elves could shimmer in and out at whim.

Snooke forgot about the elf as he walked out of the Melting Pot. His mind once again raced back to the one person he couldn’t stop thinking about. He stood just outside the door, wondering if Kane would welcome a visit from him when he saw Kane and another warrior, Rainerio, step out of Diablo’s.

Snooke began to panic, his eyes darting around for a way to escape. He couldn’t allow either man to see him here. If they ever made the connection to who Marino was and where he hung out, they would connect Snooke to it as well.

He plastered his back against the door as the two warriors rounded the corner and walked down the alley that separated Diablo’s from Malcor’s Melting Pot. Snooke crept along quietly until he was at the edge of the brick building and then peered around. The two warriors were talking, but Snooke couldn’t make out what they were saying.

He watched as the pair walked toward a darkened shadow and then vanished. Snooke felt relief flood him as he walked down the alleyway. He crept over to where the warriors had disappeared. He knew they traveled through the shadows, but Snooke wanted to stand where Kane had just been while he thought of the man who haunted his every thought. In a small way, it made him feel closer to the guy.

“You look awfully guilty standing there.”

Snooke spun to see the neighborhood know-it-all standing behind him. What the hell was Torky doing here? He straightened, squaring his shoulders as he pulled a calm demeanor out of his ass. “What the fuck do you want?”

“I saw you coming out of Malcor’s. And I saw you watching Kane and Rainerio like you were hiding from them. I wonder if they’d be interested to know these facts. You think I don’t know what goes on in the Melting Pot.” Torky stepped closer, a hateful glare glittering in his eyes. “I may be a lot of things. Money-hungry, nosey bastard, et cetera, et cetera, but I won’t have you plotting against them.”

“You’re talking out the side of your head. I’m not plotting a fucking thing.” Snooke brushed past the nosey bastard. “You can tell them what you want. None of it is true.” Fuck, now what? That’s all he needed. For the neighborhood know-it-all to go running to Kane about what he’d just witnessed. Snooke turned and asked Torky in a low voice. “I thought people had to pay you for the info?”