Chapter 5

Shilo ran frantically trying to get away. They were hot on her trail and there didn't seem to be any escape. Luigi and Pavi were catching up fast and she was terrified. Amber stalked down the street behind them at a distance, her two muscular valets at her side as always. Shilo kept glancing behind as she raced down the street. She could see the glint of a knife, a crazed smile. She didn't know why they wanted her, but she knew that if they caught up with her it would be the end. It was getting hard to breathe. As she stumbled past the opening to an alley a pair of hands grabbed her...

Shilo tried to move in her semi-conscious state only to find that her arms were pinned. Her eyes immediately snapped open in fear. She began to twist in an effort to escape her captor. By the time she realized that it was just a dream and that the man holding her was only a very startled Graverobber, the damage had been done.
Shilo's frantic movements had awakened the half naked Zydrate king who had been sleeping quite soundly with his arms around her. Before, he could react, she had begun to thrash about and whipped her head around inadvertently hitting him in the face in the process. Graverobber's hand flew to his face and he half rolled, half fell off the bed. Shilo spun around and looked at him. He leaned on one elbow on the floor where he'd landed and wiped a smear of blood from his lip. There was a slight cut on his lip and more blood dripped from his nose and ran down his chin and onto his bare chest. He gave her a confused look and stumbled to his feet. Shilo's eyes widened in shock and her jaw hung open in horror at what she'd done. Graverobber glared at her and picked a rag off the floor and began wiping the blood from his face. "I think maybe it's time for you to go kid."

Shilo's eyes widened even more, this time in fear. "No, please. I'm sorry. I really didn't mean it."

"Look, you're starting to be more trouble than you're worth."

"Please believe me, I didn't know. I had a bad dream, I'm sorry"

"I'm not playing around. You don't belong here," he sounded bitter and yet, there was a hesitant quality to his voice, as though he were saying the words against his will.

Tears began to well in Shilo's eyes. "Please, it was an accident. It won't happen again. Please don't make me leave. I don't have anywhere to go. I don't know what to do." Her voice wavered as she begged and the tears finally cascaded down her cheeks.

He shot her an annoyed glance. "You have more than most. You have a home to go to. You'll be fine. You'll figure things out eventually." He turned his back to her and dipped the rag in some water and continued to wipe at the blood. He couldn't look at her while she was crying. The sound of it made his cold heart want to break. He was right though, it was time for her to go. She would just hold him up. He couldn't do his job and be worrying about her all the time, it didn't work that way. He was a graverobber, graverobbers worked alone, they didn't have families or girlfriends, or even friends for that matter. They worked alone and when they needed a little something extra, well, that was where girls like Amber came in. A quick fuck in some rotten alley that he knew wasn't about to stick around. And she did have a lot more than most of the people he saw in a night. She'd be fine and he'd be fine... if only he could get her to leave, if only he could walk away from her.

"Please," her voice was barely above a whisper. "Please don't send me back there," her voice cracked. "I can't go back there.... I'll do anything."Graverobber glanced over his shoulder at her. She was sitting on the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest. Her face was buried in her hands and she was oblivious to the fact that her panties were peeking out from underneath her dress. Seeing her like that sent a shiver down his spine and aroused him more then it should have. He looked away again and closed his eyes tightly until the feeling had passed. With her looking so pathetic, and yet so hot, he couldn't kick her to the curb.

He faced her once more. "Anything?" The tinge of playful perversion was back in his voice. He looked at her with hungry eyes.

Shilo looked up. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. The look in his eyes made her shrink back. "You don't mean... you don't want...."

"You said anything." She eyed him worriedly. He rolled his eyes. "Don't worry kid, I'll be nice. You can stay for now, but remember.... my rules." He grinned, causing the cut on his lip to reopen. "I'm going to hold you to that though. One of these days I'm going to collect on that promise." He licked the fresh blood from his lip and pulled his shirt from the pile on the chair.

At first Shilo couldn't speak. She was digging herself into a hole and she knew it. She was so afraid of being left alone again that she was selling her soul to a man that she knew nothing about other than the fact that he was a criminal, a drug dealer, and completely amoral. It wasn't the smartest thing of her to do. What would she do when it came time to pay her debts? Still, she was too grateful that he wasn't going to throw her out in the cold that she jumped from the bed and threw her arms around him.

He stumbled backward from the force of her surprise hug. Unsure what exactly to do, he awkwardly patted her on the back and pulled away to put his shirt on. He went to the corner of the room where Shilo's bag sat on the floor and picked it up. He unzipped it and dumped out the few contents that Shilo had in it. A tin can, bug book, and a bottle of pills fell to the floor. He loaded the empty backpack with his holsters and Z-gun. "Come on, lets go," he said throwing her the bag.

Shilo just barely caught it. She looked at him questioningly. "Where are we going?"

He looked at her with a cocky half grin. "Look kid, you might be cute, but you'd be a whole lot cuter if you got cleaned up a bit. Besides, you're starting to smell a little ripe." Shilo glanced downward at her disheveled self and turned red with embarrassment. She wanted to comment that she couldn't possibly smell any worse than a man who made it his business to play with the dead on a nightly basis, but she knew he was right. He strapped on his bag and grabbed his coat from the chair. "Follow me kid, and try not to attract attention." He didn't put the coat on, but instead carried it over one shoulder. Shilo shrugged her bag over her shoulder and followed Graverobber through the house to the window with the loose boards that served as an entrance. He peeked his head out and looked up and down the street. Satisfied that they wouldn't be noticed he crawled out and offered Shilo a hand.

Something about Graverobber bothered Shilo, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what it was. She followed silently at his heels for more than a block before it dawned on her. He hadn't bothered to apply his face paint. She wondered about that, and about the fact that he had chosen to store some of his more important property in her bag instead of strapping it all on as he had every time she'd seen him. He'd left his gear the night before too. Shilo wasn't sure what to make of it. She quickened her footsteps so that she was walking alongside him. He seemed oblivious to her. He never slowed and his eyes seemed to be constantly scanning the crowds and the streets. Shilo cleared her throat. He gave her a quick glance and continued on his way. Gathering up her courage, Shilo spoke. "You're not wearing your make up." Graverobber was surprised by her sudden interruption, though he didn't even bat an eyelash. He looked down at her and away again without a word. "Why is that? Every time I've seen you up til now you've had your face painted up and you wore all your gear and stuff."

Graverobber didn't break stride as he answered her. "Graverobbers will be executed on sight, remember?" He asked. "The face paint and the gear are tools of the trade, not something I want to advertise during the day."

Shilo pressed her lips into a thin line and said nothing as they made their way through the city to Asylum St. Graverobber stopped in front of a seedy looking, run down building. There was a red light out front next to a sign with the words The Cat House printed on it. Shilo looked at the building uncertainly. She glanced warily around and spotted several less than savory looking figures lurking in the shadows. Graverobber rapped his knuckles on the door. It opened a crack and a face peeked out. Techno music drifted into the alley. The man in the doorway looked at Graverobber and held a hand out expectantly. Graverobber dropped a few credits into the waiting palm and pushed past the bouncer with Shilo at his heels. She could feel the doorman leering at her and shivered in disgust. Graverobber carefully picked his way through the club to the bar. It was not the kind of place Shilo should be. At the front of the club girls in varying states of dress swung from stripper poles as men and women watched eagerly. The girls draped themselves over the men, and the occasional woman, and danced suggestively for the money that they slipped mindlessly into their waiting hands. Shilo watched as one of the girls took the customer she had been dancing for by the hand and led him through a door at the rear of the club.

Shilo looked away from the debauched scene at the front of the club and sidled closer to Graverobber. He smiled his wolfish smile and leaned over the bar. One of the attractive young women tending bar made her way over. He said something that Shilo couldn't hear to her and the woman laughed and poured a glass of beer. She set the glass in front of Graverobber and, throwing a look at Shilo, asked him something that was drowned out by the music. Graverobber smiled and shook his head. The woman shrugged before leaving the bar and disappearing through the door at the side of the stage. Graverobber leaned on the bar and downed half the glass in a single gulp. He emptied the glass as the woman came back through the door and motioned them to follow. Behind the door was a hallway that led, no doubt, to the dressing room for the girls on stage and a stairway leading to the second floor of the building. She led them up the stairs. Shilo followed behind Graverobber as close as she could. Shilo felt a twinge of jealousy toward the woman. She was sure that, at this very moment, he was staring at her ass as she led the way to a room near the end of the hall on the upper floor.

The club on the main floor took up only a small portion of the overall building and the top floor was proof. There were twenty or so rooms, some with their doors open, others shut tightly with do not disturb placards on the knobs. The woman stopped in front of a room whose door stood open. She nodded toward the door and smiled seductively before slipping wordlessly past Graverobber. She brushed against him on her way past. He watched her go and Shilo felt a spark of hatred toward her. He stood outside of the room and gestured for Shilo to go in. She stepped into the room and wrinkled her nose at the drab interior. The room was remarkably empty. A king sized bed covered in well worn linens sat in the center of the room. There was a small night stand beside it with a lamp and clock on it and a floor lamp stood on the other side of the bed. A trash can half full with refuse sat under the night table. A door on the opposite side of the room opened into a small bathroom. There was a single bare window at the far side of the room that overlooked the alley below. Graverobber followed her in and shut the door. Dull club music throbbed up through the floor. The walls weren't half as thick as they should have been and the moaning from some of the occupied rooms leaked in. Graverobber strolled across the room toward the bed and plopped down. "Why don't you go and get cleaned up a bit," he said indicating a tiny bathroom on the far wall.

Shilo looked at the bathroom. It looked dingy, but it had been a long time since she'd had a nice hot shower. She dropped her bag next to the bathroom door and hesitantly stepped inside and flipped the light switch. The room was filled with bright light and she found that she had to blink rapidly to regain her sight. She glanced at Graverobber lounging on the bed before slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door. The space was small and cramped. A towel sat on the tiny sink. Shilo peeked behind the off white shower curtain and was happy to see that it was relatively clean. She turned the knob and the shower sputtered to life. She turned back to the door and locked it before stripping and stepping cautiously into the stream of hot water. She took off her wig and let the water flow over it before setting it aside. She leaned against the back of the shower stall and closed her eyes.

The water battered her face and body as she thought about the night she had defied her father and left the protection of his house. For the first time she let the events of that night wash over her. She reflected on the horrible truth of her mothers death, her fathers deception, Mag's murder, and cried.

The lies she'd been told all of her life stung, but now she understood why her father had deceived her. The world inside her bedroom was bliss compared to the cruel uncaring world that she had watched for so long with envy. She no longer blamed her father for his actions and she wished she could have had the time to get to know the man beyond the mask he'd put on for her sake. As she allowed the memories and harsh realities flow over her the pain that came with them seemed to lessen. It seemed almost as if it was washed away with the water. She stirred herself from her thoughts and picked up a bar of soap and washed off.

She turned the shower off and stepped out feeling like a new person. She toweled off and rearranged her damp wig on her head. She looked at her discarded clothes and grimaced in her mind. She felt so good and clean that she wished she'd packed an extra set of clothes in her bag when she'd left for the opera. But she hadn't and her options now were to either put on the dress she'd worn for over a week without washing, or to walk out dressed in the towel and hope that maybe Graverobber would be courteous enough not to stare and make rude remarks and get her something to wear. She picked up the dress and slipped it on. She knew Graverobber enough to know that rude comments were one of his specialties. She adjusted her wig and smoothed out her dress as much as she could before going out to face Graverobber.

He was sitting in the window staring down into the alley when she stepped out of the bathroom. He heard the lock click and the door open on squeaky hinges and turned around. She was still in the dirty rag that she'd been wearing for much too long now, yet she looked... perfect. Her shoulders were wet from her wig and her skin glistened. Graverobber got up from where he was sitting. "Take that off." Shilo was taken aback by his blunt instruction. She was about to protest but before she knew it he was standing before her, hands on her hips. He leaned in close and inhaled deeply. Her scent mingled with the smell of the soap she'd used. Shilo was stunned into silence. It was hard for her to think with Graverobber so close. She didn't know what to do. Part of her wanted to reach out to him, wanted him to hold her, kiss her, do whatever he wanted to her. The more sensible part of her wanted to slap her silly for even entertaining such thoughts. It screamed at her to get away now because she couldn't trust him, but the torrent of emotions drowned it out.

Graverobber's hands slid down to her thighs and he smiled slyly. The smile made Shilo melt. "You know, you'd look much better without this rag on." As he spoke he began to push the dress torturously up her thighs, over her hips and stomach before letting it fall back into place. A sudden unexpected sigh escaped her lips causing Graverobber's Cheshire cat grin to widen. He caressed the side of her face while his free hand snaked up behind her and unzipped her dress allowing it to fall to the floor. He gazed at her, with the slightest twinge of guilt mingled with his arousal, letting her standing there wearing nothing but a dirty pair of underwear with her dress at her feet.

Shilo gasped as the dress fell free. The reality of the situation hit her full force then. The voice that she'd pushed to the back of her mind broke through then. She pushed Graverobber away and struggled to cover herself. She bent down to grab her dress from the floor when she was startled by Graverobber's laughter. She clutched the dress in front of her in a vain attempt at modesty. Graverobber continued to chuckle as he sifted through his bag and pulled out a dark long sleeved cropped jacket, a white shirt that was see through lace from the high collar to the bust line, a black miniskirt, a pair of thigh high stockings, and a frilly pair of panties, and a matching bra and handed them to Shilo. She grabbed them indignantly when she recognized them as hers. She stormed into the bathroom and got dressed. All the while she fumed silently at the knowledge that Graverobber had been in her house, her room, poking through her underwear.

Graverobber leaned against the wall and let his head fall back. He took a few quick deep breaths and let himself calm down and regain his composure. He almost had her. The thought both tantalized and unnerved him. He'd lost his cool. The idea of being with her no longer made him stop and think, but he'd only planned to bring her here to get a hot shower and a good meal. Instead, he'd lost his control and that bothered him most. If anything were to happen, it would happen on his terms, not on impulse. A knock on the door roused him from his thoughts.

Shilo wasted no time in peeling off her old panties and stuffing them in the trash bin. She pulled on her clean under things, still slightly fuming that Graverobber had been in her room. What else had he touched? What else had he touched and rifled through? She pulled on her stockings. Odd, she was more angry with him for going through her things than she was about anything else. She wasn't even mad at him for, for what? For taking advantage of her? Could she really say that he had? She'd let him do it after all. She could deny it all she wanted, but she knew that deep down she wanted him to touch her, to kiss her at the very least. He was the only man she'd ever really known and from the time she'd first set eyes on him in the graveyard she'd found him both attractive and disturbingly scary. She liked him. She couldn't deny that anymore, but she could at least show a little more self-control. She scolded herself mentally for letting her hormones get the best of her. She pulled the shirt on and buttoned it at the neck and slipped into the skirt only to discover that it was one of her older ones. It must have been given to her before her growth spurt because, although she could still zip it up, it barely covered her. Her embarrassment at Graverobber having seen her nearly naked, and her anger at him having gone through her things, was replaced by annoyance. He'd probably brought her the too small skirt on purpose. She pulled it down as far as it would go on her hips and smoothed it out. She didn't bother to put on the jacket, but slung it over her arm, pulled on her shoes and stepped back into the room.

The sight that greeted her was not what she'd expected. Graverobber leaned a shoulder against the wall by the door with his back to her. A cart had been wheeled into the room by the girl from the bar. She smiled flirtatiously at Graverobber and twirled a finger in his hair. He leaned close to her and whispered something that Shilo couldn't hear. The woman looked over his shoulder at Shilo and scowled before turning on her too high heels and storming out the door.

Graverobber turned and looked Shilo up and down. He grinned in approval. "Well kid, I got to admit, I was liking the way you looked a few minutes ago a whole lot, but this isn't too bad either." Shilo's face turned red and she pulled nervously at the hem of the skirt, wishing once again that it were longer. Graverobber noticed her nervousness and chuckled. "Take it easy kid. I thought we'd have a nice hot meal for once," he said gesturing to the cart. "Then maybe later if you want you can help me clean up a little." There was an unmistakable gleam in his eye.

Shilo raised her eyebrows. "I don't think so."

Graverobber shrugged it off. "Suit yourself," he said grabbing a beer and a styrofoam container off of the cart and heading toward the bed. "But it's a whole lot more fun when you have company." He glanced back at her and grinned as he flipped open the container lid and picked up a french fry. "Grab the ketchup will ya?" With that he popped the fry into his mouth. Shilo picked up the bottle of ketchup and tossed it to Graverobber. Shilo took her own carton of food from the cart and a can of soda and sat at the foot of the bed. Graverobber couldn't help but let his eyes wander over her as she nibbled on her food. Before long he'd finished and tossed his empty container in the trash and set the ketchup bottle on the stand. He opened the door and called out down the hall.

Shilo continued to munch on her food, grateful to finally have something more substantial than sandwiches for a change. She eyed Graverobber with curiosity. Within a few seconds one of the girls from the club, not the girl that had been so furiously trying to flirt with Graverobber, Shilo was relieved to see, had entered the room and was standing by the door. While she waited Graverobber removed his coat and tossed it carelessly onto the bed. He then proceeded to take of his shirt, scarf, and began unfastening his pants. Shilo nearly choked on her food. "What are you doing?" She shrieked.

He rolled his eyes at her. "I don't happen to have a house full of clothes to change into Kid." Shilo was relieved when he went into the bathroom and shut the door. He came out a minute later with a towel around his waist and his pants and socks balled up in his arms. He added his shirt to the pile and handed it to the girl at the door. She took the bundle of clothes and left, closing the door behind her. Graverobber made his way to the bathroom and stood in the doorway. Shilo couldn't help but stare at him. He looked good standing there, wearing nothing but a towel, silhouetted by the light streaming out of the bathroom. "You know, the offers still there if you want to join me," he said.

"Uh, I don't think...."

"Don't think, just..."

"Stop it! I- I mean, I can't... just...."

"Calm down kid, I'm just teasing." He moved toward her and stroked her cheek tenderly. "I won't make you do anything you don't want to. But, I'll leave the door unlocked. In case you change your mind." With that he disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.