A Shadow of Wings by Linda Gayle Page A

brother , he wanted to say. God, how he wanted to tell Dylan everything. To live with the weight of so many secrets on his shoulders was a curse of its own. Part of him envied Dylan his simple, uncluttered life. “He’s my mentor,” he said instead. “We travel together, and he teaches me how to be in the world. How to speak to others. History, philosophy, everything. He’s very wise.”
    “And a fucking homophobe.”
    Cam shook his head. “He isn’t. It’s just that I shouldn’t be with anyone.”
    “For fuck’s sake, Cam, you’re twenty-one. Ain’t you even had a boyfriend before?”
    “It wasn’t permitted. Besides, there wasn’t time. I was always on the move. I was allowed to be with others, in class. I spent three years at a private school in Bann with—” He caught himself before he said humans. “With others my age.”
    “Didn’t you make no friends?”
    He’d wanted to. Badly. But because of his eyes… Because he was a monster who could kill with one glance… “There were some I liked. But Tash kept me busy. Said it would only be asking for trouble if I got involved with anyone.”
    “Tash.” Dylan drawled it like it left a bad taste in his mouth. Then he pushed off from the wall and ran his hands up and down Cam’s arms. “Well, Tash ain’t gonna come between us. Not here. Not now.”
    “I told you, I can’t stay long. He does expect me back. I only told him I was dropping off Gertie.”
    “What’s he gonna do, come looking for you? There’s no way he’d find you here.”
    That was true, he supposed. “He’d be angry.”
    “So what? How angry does he get? He don’t hit you or nothing, does he?”
    The chain weighed heavily around Cam’s neck. “No, but… He’s hell to live with when he’s mad, and he’ll make my life miserable.”
    “Well, then,” Dylan said with a smirky grin, “you seem pretty fucking miserable already. What’s a little more?”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Look at you. You slink around like a whipped puppy with its tail between its legs. For someone who can fight, it’s like you got no fight in you. That’s no way to live.”
    “It’s the way I have to. You don’t understand. There’s no way you could.” When he tried to walk away, Dylan grabbed his arm tight.
    “Then explain it to me.” His fingers were like a vise. “Because it pisses me off to see you so beat down. Being sheltered is one thing. Being confined like a fucking animal is another.”
    “I’m not an animal.” But the chain seemed to tighten around his throat, and he hooked his fingers around it.
    “What is that thing, anyhow?” Dylan pushed his hand away. “What’s this, some kind of gimp collar?”
    “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “Did Tash put this on you?”
    “No, the brothers did,” he answered without thinking.
    “There’s more of them? You got other brothers?”
    “Not like that.” He’d said too much. His heart beat like a wild bird. He didn’t belong here, shouldn’t have come. “I have to go.”
    “Why’s there no clasp?”
    He stared at the floor, realized his feet hadn’t obeyed his command to move toward the door. “What?”
    “On that chain. I was looking at it last night while you slept. It’s one continuous piece. No ends.” Dylan pulled down the neckline of Cam’s T-shirt. His fingers felt cool on Cam’s skin. “I never seen nothing like it.” He touched the gold collar, and a shiver flushed over Cam’s entire body.
    Dylan rolled the charmed collar between his fingers, his knuckles brushing against the pulse pounding at the base of Cam’s throat. “Why’d they put this on you?”
    “I can’t say.”
    “Can I take it off?” His fingers tightened around it, testing.
    “You must never.” Cam jerked away, eyes nearly meeting Dylan’s before he remembered and dropped them. “You must never,” he said more evenly.
    “Why not?” Dylan approached again, backing him against the wall, trapping him with his voice,