-Friends and Enemies-
This is the first extra taste of the LGBTQ+ action romance series. See the softer side of Raze as he gets himself a nanna of his very own. In between snatcher hunting, some healthy fights to the death, and waiting for Kid.
Raze swung his legs. They dangled over the metal lip of the balcony.
He was resting his chin on the railing and, as if he were seated in a theatre gallery box, he was enjoying the show playing out down the street.
“I wonder who that is,” Raze remarked conversationally.
Hato and Seethe were seated outside a café, sharing a table with a young woman. Raze could glean that, like regular human beings, they were all chatting over coffees.
Now, that was odd.
Hato and Seethe were not the types to indulge in the coffee culture at trendy cafés.
They didn’t usually pass the time with such apparently nice, ‘normal’ acquaintances either. She had to be a civvy; standing out like a lovely ray of sunshine in a yellow cardigan over a baby blue dress.
“Do you know who she is?” Raze asked inquisitively.
The young woman was small beside the wiry, dangerous Seethe, and she was downright tiny against Hato.
“Mmmf,” there was a grumble for a reply.
The snatcher sharing the fire escape with Raze was still rather put out.
Raze sighed. “I went to the trouble of making you comfortable, I’m trying to include you in a civil dialogue, and all you’ve got for me is ‘mmmf?’”
Raze reached back to pull the black balaclava with the fanged mouth emblem off the snatcher’s head.
The snatcher glowered.
Yes, he was propped up nicely against the apartment building wall. True, he couldn’t feel the hard steel grates digging into his legs.
But, he couldn’t feel his legs at all. And that was why he was quite unhappy with Raze.
“You snapped my neck,” the snatcher spat. “You crippled me! I’m not talking to you.”
Raze raised his eyebrows. “I tweaked your neck. You really are talking to me. And the fact that you can cross your arms like that and sulk tells you that you’re not totally crippled, doesn’t it?”
The snatcher bristled.
“I bet you can even feel pins and needles in your feet now,” Raze went on. “You’ll be back out there kidnapping kids and attacking people in no time.”
“You’re first on my list,” the snatcher promised. “I’ll make a proper profit off you, pretty boy.”
The snatcher really was starting to feel some twitches in his feet. If he could manoeuvre the dead weight of his lower half, he’d be able to knock this crazy stranger out. The team could wind up taking out Hato, as well as collecting a good looking youth to sell.
The hit on Hato, who’d been confounding local snatchers for too long, already promised an incredible pay-off. But one didn’t turn a blind eye to other opportunities if they happened to be sharing the same balcony as you.
“There’s a real drive in the market for pretty things right now,” the snatcher chuckled.
“There’re prettier ones out there,” Raze waved him off. “And I’m more trouble than I’m worth. Your buyers will want a refund. It’s happened before.”
Raze was back to watching the scene down the road, but the snatcher had fallen silent – gaping.
As Raze had waved his hand, the snatcher had caught sight of something alarming.
He couldn’t take his eyes off it now that the hand was back on the railing.
A delicate, traditional Japanese tattoo was inked into Raze’s pointer finger. It was a lotus. A signature tattoo, and something the snatcher had heard rumours about.
“You’re not …”
There were dark patterns inked on the handsome youth’s neck too, starting behind his ear and disappearing behind his leather jacket collar.
“Hmm?”
While the snatcher recoiled, contemplating Raze’s identity, Raze was busy speculating on that of the mystery lady at the café.
From the distance, her frizzy blonde curls gave her an angelically soft appearance that was completely incongruous with the hoodlum vibe of Hato and Seethe.
Her posture made Raze think she was nervous, but in a jittery rather than terrified-of-the-gangsters kind of way. The astonishing fact was, she was tilting toward Seethe rather than trying to inch away from him.
Most people unconsciously edged as far from the mean-faced Seethe as possible.
“You’re …” the snatcher gulped. “You’re not … Raze, are you?”
The snatcher’s heart was racing.
“Oh, so now you want to make friends?” Raze huffed. “From silent treatment, to threats, to sharing nicknames. You best tell me yours so we’re even.”
The snatcher managed a hoarse exclamation. “Of all the bad luck in the world.”
There would be no profiting from this young man. Raze could only bring misfortune. As soon as possible, the snatcher had to take him down.
“It’s your own fault that you were silly enough to go out in broad daylight with your mask on,” Raze scolded. “That was like asking me to go after you.”
The snatcher had only worn the mask back at the docks at the very start of the day. Once he’d got word that their target had been spotted, he’d taken it off and walked all the way here without it. He hadn’t once noticed anyone following.
The snatcher had seen how busy the café was, and had slipped down Ochre Way for a safer perch. Ochre Way was quiet, but it looked out onto the café on the opposite main road. A perfect place to watch and wait for the kill.
He’d only just been masking up again after climbing up here to await the ambush, when he’d instead been accosted himself.
The snatcher moaned and clunked his head back against the brick wall.
“Who knew you and your friends would lead me here to my own people, to watch this weird scene?” Raze shook his own head in wonder.
Seethe was apparently being a nice person today. The lady leaned back and appeared to laugh gaily at something he said.
Since when was Seethe funny?
Seethe was even sitting up straight rather than assuming his usual broody slouch. He was really putting in some effort.
“You leading me to them makes sense, though,” Raze went on. “I did try to tell the gang that Hato had a target on his back. Which is very obvious right now.”
Raze was still swinging his legs gently, to and fro. He pointed a lotus tattooed finger down the peaceful street, pinpointing two distant snatchers who were skulking at the end of Ochre Way. Then the pointer moved to identify another three snatchers, further away again, on the café’s side of the next road.
He’d identified them easily, despite them being unmasked in public.
“I guess your buddies will follow Hato on his way back to base. They’re assuming he’ll head down sleepy Ochre Way. Which, he will,” Raze mused. “It’ll be just right for a fast hit. And you and I will have front row seats.”
The snatcher was becoming increasingly red in the face.
“Silent treatment again?” Raze commented. “You’re so hot and cold.”
Hato, Seethe and the unidentified young woman were receiving food now. It was quite the proper catch up between friends.
They hadn’t even noticed their snatcher audience. So out of character!
Raze was impressed that Seethe and Hato even knew how to keep polite company. They were protectors of the vulnerable, but they were not great conversationalists.
“It’s so nice that your buddies are willing to wait it out,” Raze chuckled. “Letting them eat their meal. Hato eats a lot to fill his great size, you know.”
The other snatchers really had no choice but to watch their target dine. They could only hang about in annoyance as the time dragged on.
“Their legs will get tired if they keep just standing around like that,” Raze continued. “They should order some sandwiches.”
The snatcher grimaced as he tried to drag himself quietly toward Raze – who was just that bit too far away to be strangled.
“At least you won’t get sore legs while you wait,” Raze told him, reaching back and thumping the snatcher in a numb shin. “But if you keep shuffling around, I’ll snap your neck for real.”
The snatcher froze at once.
“You know, it’s thanks to you guys that I learned so much about manipulating necks and hitting nerves,” Raze informed him. “If you hadn’t sold me to the meds field, I would never have been snapped every which way, and wouldn’t have picked up all these tricks myself.”
The snatcher swallowed heavily.
If he could just lift the weight of his legs, and fish out the switch blade in his back pocket …
“Hello, young man,” a whisp of a voice came from a window beside the snatcher.
The snatcher paused awkwardly with his hand wedged under his buttocks.
The elderly owner of the apartment had spotted Raze on her fire escape balcony.
Her shock of white hair was like a soft cloud around her dark, round face as she opened the window all the way to talk to him.
She didn’t appear alarmed. Rather, it was as if she was pleased to have a visitor. She seemed to like the look of the charming Raze.
“Good afternoon, ma’am,” Raze greeted her winsomely. “I’m sorry if we startled you, using your balcony like this. We just wanted a place to sit.”
She noticed the unmasked snatcher beside her and offered him a warm, crinkly smile too.
“Not at all,” she reassured Raze. “I was just worried for you. It’s not safe to sit on the edge like that.”
Raze blinked down at his dangling feet. He was only one level high. However, he cheerfully swung one leg up and swivelled to the side so he could see her.
“How kind of you to care about a stranger,” Raze remarked. “It’s so good to find a nice person. There are just not enough of them around.”
It was a pointed dig at the snatcher.
She, on the other hand, swelled with gladness.
“Come now,” she chided, while clearly quite chuffed. “You have your friend here. I’m sure he’s nice.”
Raze eyed the snatcher. Still sitting on his hand, pretending not to be searching for a blade.
“My friend is such a killer,” Raze pouted. “He ignores me all the time.”
Her lined brow furrowed at this news.
“Dear, we must be good to our friends,” the old lady reprimanded the snatcher. “I know how lonely I get without mine.”
The snatcher finally closed his fingers around the blade in his pocket, right as Raze slid over to put a hand on the snatcher’s neck. The snatcher felt Raze give a friendly squeeze, disguising a very real threat.
“You’re right ma’am,” Raze told the elderly woman sombrely. “And, there’s no need to feel lonely. You can add me to your list of friends.”
She paused, her lips forming an ‘o’ as her gaze read the honesty in his face.
“I’ll even skip you straight to nicknames!” he grinned. “I’m Raze.”
The snatcher felt the pulse throbbing in his neck, gulping at the pressure of Raze’s grip.
“You are precious,” the elderly lady put a hand to her bosom, as if her heart had truly been warmed. “I’m Miss Dorris,” she said. Her tone was all honey and sweetness. “How lovely.”
“So lovely,” Raze agreed genuinely.
The snatcher puffed out unhappily.
“I should bring my new friend a cup of tea,” Miss Dorris announced with excitement. “I’ll find you my nicest cup!”
She was enlivened for a moment, but then she stopped to rub her forehead.
“Oh,” she uttered with disappointment. “I probably can’t. I have an appointment for my arthritis.”
Real sadness deepened the soft wrinkles on her face and made her stoop a little lower.
“Never mind,” Raze reassured her. “That’s important. And we’ll be leaving very shortly anyway.”
Sure enough, a waiter at the distant café was taking away the empty plates in front of Hato, Seethe and the young woman. They would be wrapping things up. They would soon cross the road. The snatchers would be getting ready to stalk them down this exact street.
Miss Dorris was truly deflated, her deep, dark eyes becoming watery.
“It’s so unlucky. I never normally have to go out. Usually only on Sundays to sing gospel at church. And sometimes I even forget that,” she confided. “I forget so many things.”
The snatcher puffed again.
She wasn’t the only one having bad luck. The nerve that ‘precious’ Raze was squeezing in the snatcher’s neck was making him feel dizzy. One wrong move, and Raze would snap him for sure.
Raze frowned at the small woman sympathetically. “What time was your appointment, Miss Dorris?”
She tapped her chin. “I can’t remember. Half the time I don’t even remember to lock this window,” she admitted. “You could have come right in if you’d wanted.”
“You really should remember that,” Raze told her with concern. “Like I said before, there are not always good people about. You want to stay safe.”
Miss Dorris regarded him balefully. “I’m sorry to say, I will even forget that I have made a new friend after today.”
She dabbed at her cheek, where a tear really had settled onto the delicate skin there.
“Miss Dorris, we’ll wait right here while you go and check your appointment time,” Raze told her. “Then we’ll say goodbye when you’re ready.”
The snatcher glared ahead. He didn’t have much choice but to ‘wait right here’.
Miss Dorris nodded, brightening slightly.
“Ma’am, would you mind bringing a pen and paper back with you?” Raze added. “I’d like to borrow them.”
“Of course,” she nodded. “You can borrow anything of mine you like. I have a collection of warm jumpers, three peacock brooches, a cabinet full of flower tea cups, and a car as old as I am.”
The snatcher couldn’t risk scoffing, swallowing his scorn at how stupid these things were. And she’d offered them with total sincerity.
“You are very kind,” Raze told her. “For now I just want to write you some reminders on a note.”
She brought her hands together with joy. “What a wonderful idea,” she agreed, turning to dodder away into the apartment.
“She might forget to come back,” the snatcher scowled.
He hadn’t missed the fact that she hadn’t been offering him any tea. Or cups, jumpers and brooches either.
The grip on his neck tightened.
“I think I’d prefer you go back to the silent treatment,” Raze told him in a low voice. “You were going to use her to threaten me, weren’t you?”
The snatcher paused. His hand was numb from sitting on it, and his head was fuzzy.
He’d actually been planning to try to quickly slash Raze’s throat when he was distracted. Then he’d have dealt with the screaming bat afterward. It would have been messy and loud, yet quietly using her as a hostage hadn’t occurred to him.
“Now, I know more feeling is probably starting to return to your legs,” Raze said. “But if you move a muscle when I take my hand away, I promise I will quite literally break you.”
Back at the café, Hato and Seethe were standing at the curb. Seethe even deigned to hug the young blonde woman in farewell.
There was a shuffling sound, and Miss Dorris had tottered back to the window.
“I have to leave right now at this very moment,” she announced regretfully, and with a touch of embarrassment. “I’m half an hour late!”
She held out a notepad and pen, and Raze removed his hand from the snatcher’s neck – after another fast, warning squeeze.
“Please feel free to climb in when you’re ready to return the notepad and pen,” she said trustingly. “You can pick your favourite tea cup to fix yourself a warm drink,” she beamed. “And you should stick your note on the fridge where I’ll see it, or I might forget this even happened.”
Raze accepted the notepad gratefully.
“I’m so glad to have met you,” he told Miss Dorris, and her rheumy eyes shone.
“I hope I remember how happy this encounter made me today,” she replied.
She reached out from the window to cup Raze’s cheek.
When she left, Raze made sure to use his best handwriting.
The snatcher rolled his eyes as Raze wrote:
Miss Dorris has a friend called Raze, so she doesn’t need to feel lonely. She was kind to Raze, and is a good person, so Raze will never forget her. In return, she must never forget to lock her window.
He drew a smiley face under the note, and underlined ‘lock her window’.
“Mushy,” the snatcher jibed.
“Jealous,” Raze countered. He angled the notepad away and jotted down his phone number, in case she ever needed it. “Of course you wouldn’t get it.”
Raze spotted Hato and Seethe making their way down the street, approaching the balcony.
He carefully placed the notepad and pen on the window sill.
The snatcher’s eyes gleamed. Any minute he’d be able to shout for help – the other snatchers were slinking onto Ochre Way now too.
“I wouldn’t,” Raze said lightly.
The snatcher ignored him – his lungs swelling; ready for a fast bellow.
Yet Raze’s quick, solid punch into the snatcher’s stomach was faster.
Instead of loosing an almighty yell, the snatcher made a strange squeal as his breath sucked inward. He doubled over, wheezing painfully.
Then Raze stood to peer over the railing.
“Hey guys, you’re being followed,” he told Seethe and Hato helpfully.
There was a surprised cussing from below as Seethe and Hato froze, peering up at where Raze leaned over them.
“Are you following us?!” Seethe hissed.
“Hato followed me just the other day, remember?” Raze drawled in reply. “I hardly need remind you he even got me stabbed,” he went on, while reminding them of exactly that.
Hato crossed his arms.
He peered at the snatcher behind Raze, still gaping like a fish.
“But this is sheer coincidence,” Raze admitted. “I was tailing some snatchers, who turned out to be tailing you.”
Seethe and Hato finally deigned to check out the snatchers stalking up the street. The snatchers were in the midst of pulling on balaclavas and making themselves all threatening, when they realised they’d been spotted.
“Sprung,” Raze smirked.
The snatchers faltered for a moment.
This was meant to be a surprise.
“Who was the lady you were meeting?” Raze asked Seethe curiously.
“Shut up,” Seethe scowled. Definitely not pretending to be nice anymore.
“I met with a lady,” Raze shrugged. “And I’m not ashamed.”
“Shut,” Seethe enunciated clearly, “up.”
The snatchers had no choice. This was going to be a brawl instead of a hit and run. They picked up their pace, charging toward battle.
They were the image of fanged demons, released from the depths of hell. They hadn’t yet realised they’d bitten off more than even they could chew.
“Bit defensive, aren’t you?” Raze tapped his fingers on the railing.
Seethe threw him a venomous glare, before lobbing his knuckles into a fanged face.
The snatchers piled on Seethe and Hato – five against two.
Raze turned when he heard a heavy thumping noise as his own snatcher clumsily tried to get up.
He’d fished out his back pocket weapon at last.
Raze side stepped the snatcher’s blade, and even caught the snatcher mid tumble as he tripped over his own leaden feet.
“I said I’d break you if you did that,” Raze tutted. “And I thought we’d been making progress.”
The snatcher yelped as Raze tilted his hold, launching the snatcher up and over the railing – head first.
The snatcher landed on two of his own comrades below, dropping like a sack of potatoes and landing too awkwardly to ever be a threat again.
Seethe ripped another snatcher off Hato’s back, half choking the fiend with the snatcher’s own collar.
Liking that strategy, Seethe kept it up.
There were gurgles and rasps as the strangling continued.
Hato in turn grabbed two snatcher heads, cracking their skulls together as if beating two rocks to make fire. Instead, he made a loud thunking sound and created two big skull cavities.
Six snatchers were down, leaving only a grumpy Seethe, a grinning Raze and an indifferent Hato in the serene street.
It was over so abruptly, no residents had even emerged to find out what was going on.
“I’ve been told we must be good to our friends,” Raze announced airily. “So, no thanks are needed.”
“Get down here and help with the clean-up,” Seethe demanded. “It’s not over yet.”
“Oh, I don’t need to be that good to my friends, surely,” Raze negated. “I gave you warning. That should do it for today.”
“You nearly squashed me with your snatcher,” Hato answered drolly.
Raze snickered. “Nothing could squish you, big guy.” He turned away. “I have to go put something on a fridge.”
A crumpled snatcher gave a final spasm, and Seethe gave him a final booting.
“That’ll take two seconds,” Seethe argued, not even questioning the oddity of Raze’s excuse. He had his phone to his ear, already calling base for someone to bring a car.
Hato began rolling the snatchers together into a pile.
“Hmmm,” Raze agreed. “But then I’ll go walk Kiddo home from school.”
“He needs to focus,” Hato rumbled in his deep voice. “Don’t disturb his studies.”
“School normally has to end for me to be walking him home,” Raze explained patiently. “I mean, I never attended. But I understand that much.”
“You like him,” Seethe said flatly. Referring to Kiddo.
Seethe almost sounded protective. “Better not just be because he’s a ten.”
Kiddo was too aesthetically appealing for his own good. He’d nearly been snatched recently. It had been quite the bonding experience when Raze had intervened – definitely speeding along the getting-to-know-you phase.
“He’s an eleven,” Raze answered. “And you’re lucky that I’ll be watching out for him. You’re also lucky I’ve come back to watch out for you two.”
Hato didn’t say anything.
He was relieved that Kiddo now had such an attentive body guard, with Kiddo now so firmly on the snatchers’ radar.
With everything going on, Raze reappearing after being lost for so long was a blessing in many ways.
“But I can’t count on Kid to get detention every single afternoon, so I won’t be wasting any time on a clean-up,” Raze grinned.
“Fine,” Seethe answered – snakish. “Remind him to pick up my beers.”
He jabbed a finger at his phone screen, re-dialling the base.
“Sure, sure,” Raze waved over his shoulder.
He grabbed the notepad and pen, stepping over the window sill and disappearing into Miss Dorris’ apartment.
He made sure his note was front and centre on the fridge, held up by some spangly butterfly magnets.
Then he opened a glass cabinet and selected the finest floral tea cup and saucer he could find. After a quick search, he surrounded the cup with a little tin of sugar, a dainty teaspoon and a fragrant pack of tea leaves. They would be waiting for Miss Dorris when she got home.
“Finding good people really does make all the difference,” he said to himself.
And he left to go and pick up his own good person from school.
Shelley Cass is an Australian author.
She is the author of the LGBTQ+ romance action series, Raze Warfare. She is the mother of the epic fantasy trilogy, 'A Fairy's Tale', and has penned eroticas, dystopian futures ... and Sleep Sweet children's books.
For information on her novels, visit BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!
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