It took them a while to get the truck back to presentable condition, but it was well worth the effort. Logan found a key to their collars.
“I think I want to keep mine,” Marie said, stopping him before he opened the metal band adorning her neck.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Logan asked, swatted her hand away and opened the collar.
“You’re not going to keep this. No way,” he said sternly, throwing the collar out to the desert. She followed it with her gaze until it fell to the ground and sighed.
“Do you have any idea how much easier it would have made my life?” She asked.
“And do you have any idea how much easier it would have made for the Army to capture us?” Logan asked. Marie shook her head.
“They have tracking devices installed to those. Every fucking Guard and Hunter within ten kilometers radius would have located us. Now all they will find are those collars and few corpses.”
“Plus I don’t want to see that shit on you. Or on anybody for that matter. It makes me sick,” he added when they climbed in the truck.
“Hungry?” Marie asked, offering him an energy bar she had found. Logan took it little reluctantly. He needed to eat, but he felt a little queasy. He could still smell the blood. Feel the fragments of the bullets that hadn’t cleared from his system yet. He could practically taste the fear that had landed on him as soon as he had realized they had been caught. If it hadn’t been for his passenger…
“What’s your name, kid?” He asked.
“M… Marie. It’s Marie.” She spoke it little hesitantly. But she was telling the truth.
“Haven’t used it for a while?” He asked. He wasn’t really that interested, but he needed a diversion. Something to keep his mind off from what had happened.
“I left home when I was twelve. Started to call myself Rogue. Marie… It was something I left behind.” Her explanation was short but thorough. Too short. He had nearly eaten the bar and started the engine of the truck.
“Keep talking.”
“About what?” Marie asked.
“I don’t fucking care. Talk, sing, shout… Anything.” He started to tremble, and turned off the engine. He wouldn’t be able to drive. Not yet.
“Talk to me,” he was shivering so badly that his words came out a bit slurred.
“I don’t know what to talk about…” She started. Logan curled his arms around his sides and leaned his forehead to the steering wheel. His shoulders were heaving in the rhythm of his breathing. She couldn’t find words. Instead she scooted to his side and placed a hand on the back of his neck, rubbing gently. Logan squeezed his eyes shut and his trembling stopped. He stopped even breathing. Just sat there, stock-still. Thin sheen of perspiration had broken on his skin. She took a wild guess. Logan wasn’t liking very much at what she was doing. She pulled back her hand. Logan grabbed her wrist before she had the time to move out of his reach.
“Nice try. Appreciate it. Come here,” he gasped, pulled her on his lap and nearly smothered her with his embrace, burying his face to the crook of her neck and inhaling deeply.
He wasn’t crying, but she could tell from his rigid muscles and erratic breathing that it wouldn’t take much to make the tears fall. His skin against hers felt cold and clammy. That’s when she noticed it. He was touching her. Bare skin on skin, and nothing happened. He wasn’t writhing in pain. He wasn’t in her head screaming and spewing curses. She wanted to squeal from joy, clap her hands, bounce around and kiss him, but she just sat there, snuggling closer to him.
“We got away, right?” He finally asked, breath tickling her throat.
“We got away,” she affirmed. He loosened his hold from her and leaned back, eyes still closed.
“I fucking hate this…” He groaned, opening his eyes and offered her a weak smile. She answered to it with her own wild grin that spread from ear to ear.
“You touched me. You touched me and nothing bad happened.”
“Yeah. Noticed that earlier. At the desert. When you hugged me.”
“I touched you? Why didn’t you say something?” Marie asked.
“I thought you knew,” Logan said.
“Can I do something?” Marie asked shyly. Logan shrugged his shoulders, still slowly coming out of darkness that had tried to invade him. He had closed his eyes again. He could hear Marie tugging her gloves off. Then soft creak of the leather of their seat. Feel of warmth when she scooted on his lap. Hands on his face. Soft lips against his own. A kiss. His hands rose to her hair instinctively and he tried to respond, to deepen it.
What had started just as an innocent experiment, ended few minutes later. They were both flushed and panting.
“Wow…” They gasped almost simultaneously. Marie fumbled awkwardly off from his lap, keeping her eyes averted from his face.
“Thank you,” she whispered. Logan reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Thank you. Nobody’s done that before. Felt great.” If he was completely honest, it felt better than great. At first he had thought that he was going to have a heart attack. Then that fluttery feeling from his chest had settled to the pit of his stomach, and wonderful feel of warmth and peace had flushed over him.
“Can I do it again? Maybe not now, but…” Marie asked.
“We can do that when ever you feel like it.”
“We’ll arrive to the settlement soon,” he said. He had been stealing quick glances of her from the corner of his eye, hoping she would ask him to stop. Hoping she would want to kiss him again. It had been a good feeling. He wanted to feel it again. Marie had been in turn dozing off, thick veil of her brown locks covering her face, and in turn keeping an eye on the scenery around them, delicate features of her face revealing nothing to his prying eyes. Logan didn’t have any sexual experience, save that one kiss with her, but his body seemed to know what was good and fit for him. Before their kiss he had seen her as a possible companion, somebody to spend time with, but now his attention was slowly turning to other possibilities.
She was fully clothed, but shirt and pants she wore were tight, outlining the form of her body. Slim legs and arms, toned stomach, narrow waist, and swell of breasts. Full lips. Eyes almost too big to her face. Small gap between her front teeth.
Bloodstains and small tears on her clothes. Bruised skin. Bloodstains and huge, jagged tears on his clothes.
“Shit,” he suddenly yelped. He could see the first huts of the settlement ahead and stopped the truck. Marie looked at him surprised.
“We have to change our clothes. Can’t go walking around in these rags,” Logan explained. There were many different styles to wear, but torn and bloodied was still the type to draw attention and raise unwanted questions.
“Here. I’ll go change outside,” Logan said, giving her the smallest shirt and jeans he could find from his bag. She waited until he closed the door of the truck before taking off her bloodstained shirt. For a moment she just held the shirt he had given to her, enjoying the feel of soft cloth. Shirt was old and worn, but it was clean. Black T-shirt. She pulled it on. It was too big for her, but she figured it didn’t matter. Nobody would look twice a girl wearing too big shirt. Jeans were too big. She had to roll up the sleeves to keep them dragging on the ground. She wondered if he would have a belt for her. If not, she would have to keep them up with her hands, and that would be awkward.
He changed his clothes quickly, donning a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt. Rolling the sleeves up to his elbows. Ever since they had installed the claws in him, skin of his forearms had been especially tender. Not sore, not itching, but it felt like all the little nerves on it were somehow more alert than the rest of his skin. He knocked on the truck’s door. Waited until Marie shouted it was okay, she was fully dressed. Then climbed in.
“We have to get you some new clothes,” he said, taking in her appearance. She practically drowned to the shirt and jeans he had given to her.
“Yeah. But before that, you wouldn’t happen to have a belt?” She asked.
“What do you think?” Logan asked, cocking an eyebrow and turning to rummage through his bag once more. It wasn’t until now that she noticed the brown belt, and huge buckle that held it on place on his waist.
“But this will be too long for you unless…” Logan muttered. One claw slid out from his hand. He cut the belt in half, and then poked few new holes in it before handing it to her.
“Here.” She took it and looped it to her jeans, sighing from relief when it fit.
He tried his best not to look at the strip of the skin she had revealed when she had lifted the hem of the shirt to get the belt on its place. He had gotten a glimpse of pale skin, and even paler, hand shaped scar on her stomach. His hand had been there.
“Can I look…” He gestured towards her stomach. She fiddled with the hem of the shirt for a while, and then lifted it a bit. Clear, white imprint of his bones. Palm, five fingers. He placed his hand on top of it. She flinched a bit.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking… I just wanted that collar off and get out of there. I didn’t think that I was hurting you.” She didn’t say a word. He took a moment, just kept his hand on her and enjoyed the soft feel of warm, living surface. Usually touching for him was related to blood and violence. This was something different. And felt almost as good as their kiss earlier.
“Yeah. I’m sorry…” He grunted, taking his both hands to the steering wheel.
His hands had been hot. Hot as coals in her fathers forge. Now those same hands were warm. His palm felt good against her skin. She nearly stopped him when he retreated and started the engine, but swallowed her disappointment fast. No use to start something they weren’t ready to finish.
“This looks better…” Logan said when they stopped near the marketplace. Settlement was much smaller than the one they passed earlier. Only few permanent buildings, surrounded with small tents. Nothing that would draw the Army’s attention.
“Here. Get what you need. I meet you here in two hours. That okay?” Logan asked, giving her a thick wad of cash. She stared at it, mouth hanging open. There was more money she had seen during her whole life.
“Uh… Don’t you need any money?” She asked. Logan frowned.
“I told you I have enough for both of us. That’s yours. Spend it as you like.”
“But this is… There’s so much of it.”
“And it’s all yours. You have two hours. Then come back to the truck.”
Had Logan think things more thoroughly, their little shopping trip would have ended nicer way. But he wanted Marie to know he wasn’t expecting her to turn a pretty little whore over the money he gave to her, so he thought it would be wisest to let her go on her own and spend it as she liked. Bad idea. Very bad idea. He was beginning to realize it now. Standing in the crowd, in front of a wooden platform. Slave market. And Marie was somewhere up there, among the rest of the merchandise.
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