Dog Warrior by Wen Spencer

town closer to Boston, called Hull. We’ll be at Hawg Heaven on Nantasket Avenue. Meet us there at seven.”
    â€œFine,” Atticus said, anxious to be done. His thoughts kept straying to Ru—and Ukiah was about to drop over completely.
    Daggit followed his gaze and smirked. “Well, you three have fun. We’ll see you tonight.”
    Eternity passed before the Iron Horses roared off on their Harleys.
    â€œWhy shouldn’t Ru handle it?” Atticus snapped as Ru muscled his brother to the couch.
    â€œIt’s death.” Ukiah sagged back onto the cushions.
    â€œThey said that it’s harmless,” Atticus said. “They all use it.”
    â€œThey’re wrong.” Ukiah slid sideways so he half lay on the couch, eyes closed, his feet still on the ground as if he were too weary to move them. “They’re all dead men.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    â€œIt’s Invisible Red. It’s . . . it’s . . .” Ukiah mumbled and then made a raspberry. “It’s too hard to think. I just know.”
    â€œWill it hurt Atty?” Ru swung Ukiah’s feet up onto the couch so he was fully lying on it.
    â€œNo,” Ukiah said. “Not that little, no.”
    â€œIt has affected me,” Atticus said from across the room, keeping his distance from Ukiah and especially Ru.
    Ukiah breathed deeply as if asleep for a minute, and thenmumbled. “You’re a . . . a breeder . . . it will make you want to have sex . . . but it won’t hurt you . . . you’re a breeder . . . it was made to make you breed.”
    And then he was truly sound asleep.
    Â 
    Atticus took a cold shower, scrubbing the last traces of the drug from his skin, but could do nothing to remove what raced through his blood, filling him with artificial desire.
    Ru waited outside the shower, towel in hand and a worried look on his face. “Are you okay?”
    â€œI’m just horny.” Atticus accepted the towel.
    â€œWhen are you not?” Ru teased lightly, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes; he was worried.
    â€œI’m fine.”
    â€œLasker dropped dead after using it only a couple of times. The autopsy said he died of an aneurysm.”
    â€œI come back from the dead.” Atticus scrubbed his short hair dry.
    â€œWe don’t know if you come back if you’re poisoned.” Ru picked up another towel and wrapped it around Atticus’s waist.
    It was the barest brush of Ru’s fingertips over his hip, the warmth of his touch gliding across skin, that undid Atticus. It was like a large wild animal awoke in him and shoved him aside to use his body for its own pleasure. It pushed Ru roughly against the wall, bruising his mouth with Atticus’s lips, tugging impatiently at his clothing with Atticus’s hands. Tasting blood, he tried to stop, but his body continued, leaving him mentally crying No, damn it, no ! Only after the first, frantic, rough union did he manage to wrestle control back.
    â€œOh, shit, Ru, I’m sorry.”
    â€œOh, don’t you dare think I’m not enjoying this.” Ru pulled him back, and he was lost again, but this time he didn’t care.
    Â 
    Kyle returned with a generator and had it set up before the drug wore off. Atticus caught him up to speed, explaining the Iron Horses, the drug, Ukiah’s identification and caution of it, and the buy scheduled later in the day.
    Kyle had only one question. “What are we going to do with your brother during the buy?”
    Atticus jerked to a full halt as every quick answer he thought of fell flat. Take Ukiah with them? They couldn’t put him in with Kyle—they needed Kyle to act as backup, not babysitter. Nor could Atticus and Ru take Ukiah with them in the Jaguar—the last thing they needed in the middle of a buy was someone who could read Atticus’s thoughts. Even