“Yes,” he had to practically force the word out to answer Burke. “I’ll go and talk to him now.”
He left the office to seek out Ji-Su, stopping in one of the guest baths to wash his hands first. Before he could decide where in the house to look for his blood pet, he ran into Gloria. “Do you know where Ji-Su went?”
“He’s out on the deck off the great room.”
“Thank you.”
Raul passed through the great room heading for the deck doors. Before he went outside to join Ji-Su, he watched him through the glass. He stood there unmoving, staring at the clouds rolling in for the coming storm, his arms tightly wrapped around his body. He looked small, cold, and alone. Raul wanted to gather him up in his arms and comfort him. But Ji-Su might not welcome so familiar a touch from someone he barely knew. Inwardly chafing at going against his instincts to take care of Ji-Su in the manner that he wanted to, he grabbed a throw blanket from the back of the couch and stepped outside.
Chapter 8
Ji-Su tipped his head back, trying to stop the angry tears gathering in his eyes from escaping. He focused on the thick, gray clouds moving across the black sky, racing toward the ranch. Their energy matched the turbulent storm building in his chest. He couldn’t believe what Cedric had done. Destroyed all of his belongs simply because he’d lost the chance to hurt him as he pleased. He was glad to have escaped from Cedric, who was clearly abusive, but he’d never felt anger like this.
A quiet voice spoke behind him.
“Here. This will warm you up.”
Ji-Su turned. Raul had come out on the deck and he was holding out a knitted afghan. Ji-Su made a poor attempt at a smile of thanks as he accepted the blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders to ward off the chilly night air. “You don’t have to tell me what he did to my stuff. It’s enough to know that it’s not usable.”
Raul nodded. “All right.”
“Thank you for looking through the boxes for me. I’m glad I didn’t have to see what he did.”
“You’re welcome. I’m going to have to report this to your agency. Behavior like that is unacceptable in a blood patron. He’ll definitely be blacklisted from using their service now. And Everett sure as hell won’t allow him to use any of the Sanguis Syndicate auctions. Word will spread and he’ll find himselfunable to use any of the convenient services in the city before long.”
“The Sanguis Syndicate?” Ji-Su had never heard of that business.
“That’s the organization that I work for.”
“Oh.” Raul looked like he wanted to say something else but changed his mind. Ji-Su didn’t question him about it. His head was too full of despair for what he’d lost to be curious about Raul’s job.
“I wanted to ask—.”
“Those weren’t just—.”
They both started to speak at the same time. Raul gestured from Ji-Su to go first.
“Those weren’t just video games and consoles that Cedric destroyed,” Ji-Su said in frustration. “I mean, they were. But they were much more than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we met, I told you that I’m a gamer and that I stream.”
“I remember.”
“Well, I do that professionally. I’m the leader of an esports team. We enter tournaments to win cash prizes. And when I stream game play it brings in money through viewer donations and ad revenue. I’m still up and coming in both esports and streaming so I’m not bringing in the big money yet. Plus, I had medical bills to pay off from a bad car accident I was in and I help support my parents. That’s why I took the job to be a blood pet. It got me the money I needed to upgrade all of my gaming and streaming equipment and pay down my debt. And it gave me the time I needed to be able to practice and improve my skills because I didn’t have to work the usual hours of a day job.
“Cedric destroyed everything I recently bought and the stuff I already had when I signed up to be his blood pet. My entiregaming and streaming set up is gone. Now I’m worse off than I was when I went to stay with him. I’m going to have to start over. In the meantime, I’ll miss practice runs with my team and lose out on streaming revenue.”
Raul looked angry hearing the full scope of what Cedric’s destruction had cost him, but his voice was gentle when he spoke.
“I’m sorry, Ji-Su. You didn’t deserve that.”
Ji-Su shook his head. “It’s not your fault. It’s Cedric’s fault for being awful and abusive.”
“But he might not have gone that far if I hadn’t taken you away from him.”
“It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.” He shrugged, ignoring the tight ball in his chest that made him want to yell and curse and cry. “Did you want to ask me something?”