Nicolas and William pressed hard and walked fast through the city streets. Their directions were good and they made good time. The sun was directly overhead and they had already walked almost ten miles. William thought that they may actually make it out of the city by day’s end. He smiled up at the sun. Then his stomach made itself known and the answering cry from Nicolas’s own stomach wasn’t comforting.
“We need to get some food.”
William nodded, “Yeah, I know, but we still don’t have any money. Where do you suggest we eat, Nick?”
The built man shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know. If we were in New York, I would suggest rolling a dirty water dog vender.”
William looked at him with eye brows raised. “A dirty water dog vender?”
“Yeah, you know, the guys that walk around New York with the hot dog carts. We always called them dirty water dogs.”
William nodded slowly, “Okay, I’m pretty sure L.A. doesn’t have anything like that.”
Nick nodded and kept walking up the street. “If we weren’t on such a tight schedule, with the sun and everything I would suggest we beg for some food.”
“Are you serious?! Beg for food?”
“What? You too proud to ask for a little help every now and then?”
William shook his head and took the lead. “I will never beg for food. Even, when I was traveling and hadn’t found my forest yet. I never even thought about begging then, and I sure as hell am not going to start begging now.”
“Hey whatever you say, fearless leader. But if I die from starvation my ghost’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.”
William glanced back over his shoulder, “I’ll keep that in mind. Come on, we have to get out of here.”
The two young men waited for the crosswalk sign to turn green before cutting over to the right of their current intersection, making just one more of the many detours that they had planned back in the gas station.
The two kept walking, and the sun kept traveling overhead. William never had time to think about it but now that his life depended on where the sun was in the sky he could, probably for the first time, understand how ancient peoples saw the sun as some massive chariot being pulled by mountain sized horses, driven by a gleaming god. He just wished that whoever was driving the thing could slow down for a bit.
“Why did you stick around?” William asked suddenly.
Nicolas turned toward him, “What?”
William looked at him and asked again, “Why are you sticking around? I thought you would’ve been gone as soon Ansuya was captured. Isn’t that what you want? Your freedom?”
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The blond shook his head and ran his hands through his hair, laughing quietly. “Why is it that everyone automatically thinks the worst of me?” He looked William in the eyes. “What did I do to make you think that I would just leave the first chance I got?”
William tried not to laugh but couldn’t help a bark escaping his lips, “Are you serious? Nick, since the day I met you, you’ve done nothing but complain about how the city cramps your style, you can’t wait to leave, you don’t want to put up with this bullshit. That incident between you and Katherine is enough to prove you’re an asshole that only thinks about himself. What about when we were going to get Chelsea? You deliberately walked while the rest of us ran. You are the antithesis of a ‘team player’.”
Nick lowered his head and kicked at an unseen pebble. “You think you got me all figured out, don’t you? Listen, do me a favor, don’t talk to me for a while.” He buried his hands in his pockets and strode a few steps ahead of William and kept the distance between the two.
William watched the man’s back for a while then lowered his eyes to the pavement. He really couldn’t care less if Nick was hurt or not. He didn’t even try to make an excuse for what happened between him and Katherine. The guy was just a spoiled brat of a kid in a twenty-two-year old’s body. Nick may be bigger and stronger in human form between the two, but they both knew that William would win in a fight.
For the dozenth time that day William turned his attention to his other pack mates, Aceso, Charles, and Katherine. Their faint imprints on his consciousness hadn’t gotten any closer than they had been last night. He wondered if they were ever going to come for them. If they weren’t coming to get them then they must not realize that anything’s happened. Which raised the question of how long did they expect the two of them to be gone with the Elder? How long did it really take to search through a database? Surely not more than a few days, but even still, the Elders would know that Ansuya wasn’t with the two of them or that they were separated, wouldn’t they? How long would they be forced to try and live out in the desert till someone realized that something had gone terribly wrong? Those questions were filled with paranoia and unfounded fears, funny how things like that eat at one’s mind when one has nothing else to do except think and walk.
Up ahead Nick made a left hand turn and cut across the street. He stopped on the far side of the street waiting for William to catch up. When he did Nicolas asked, “Just what do you think happened between me and Katherine, anyway?”
William was a little taken aback by the forwardness of the question. “Charles told me that it was pretty much the beginning of a rape but Katherine threw you out of her room before you could get your pants off.”
“Rape!? So, I’m a rapist now! WOW! That’s fucking news to me!” He shoved a finger in William’s face. “Who the fuck do you think you are to pass judgment on me?! You weren’t there! Who the fuck is Charles?! Was he there?!” Nicolas turned around and punched the concrete side of a building.
William watched the outburst, not without some sympathy. Unfortunately, Nick was right, he hadn’t been there and perhaps he came to the wrong conclusion. But Katherine didn’t want to talk about it and she was very upset afterwards so he assumed the worst. He might have been wrong.
“So, what did happen then?”
Nickolas turned around and sneered at him, “What the fuck do you care? You and everybody else have already judged me. What the fuck does it matter what I say happened?”
“It matters.”
If he didn’t look so pissed off William would have sworn he was about to laugh. “Okay, you want to know what happened? Fine. Yeah, I went up to her room and tried to get some, sure that parts true. Katherine is not exactly comfortable in her own skin and I told her so. She has these massive tits that are so squeezable I just want to bury my face in them like pillows. But she wasn’t having any of it. I told her she needed to appreciate those tits of hers and start acting like they are the gift from god that they are. Then she fucking exploded and threw a statue at me. That’s when I fucking left and I’ve never talked to her since.” Nick looked hard at William. “Does that sound like I fucking tried to rape her to you?”