At first, Jace thought it was the alcohol's doing. He'd taken a shot to find himself feeling dizzy and impaired. He was a lightweight but still, only one drink shouldn't be having such an effect on him. The boy was already taken by disorientation when he realized that he'd been drugged. His head was spinning, eyes seeing double.
And worse, he'd lost sight of Piper and their friends who'd gone to the bar for more drinks. Even in his state, Jace knew better than to venture into the mass of writhing bodies in search of his lover. But instead of waiting around for whoever had drugged his drink to come looking for him, Jace found a door out the back and stumbled into the alley. The boy fumbled for his phone, cursing his stupid fingers to cooperate long enough for him to hit Piper's speed dial. He would try to vomit once the call was over, but his instinct told him to contact Piper first.
He hears the break in the line signalling that Piper had picked up, and a moment later the man's voice was raspy and soft in his ear.
"Hey shawty. I'm back at the table but you're gone. Why is that? Don't you know how dangerous it is to be alone in a place like this? Where are you?"
He was waiting for an explanation, an answer, but the phone was knocked from Jace's hands by someone who'd crept up behind him. Jace turned and was met with broad set shoulders, a man who wore a sickening smile. In his confusion, the boy hoped that someone had come to help him-
And got his disappointment in the form of a fist connecting to his jaw, followed by the suffocating pressure of someone's forearm pressing against his throat, throwing him back against a concrete wall. Two more men stood behind his assailant, nearly wild with excitement.
"I told you we'd get him alone."
One of the others stepped forward, reaching out to roughly seize Jace by his chin, turning the boy's face this way and that. He let out a sickening grunt of satisfaction. "I can't wait for my turn. What a little beauty you are."
The pressure on Jace's neck increased. The arm wasn't positioned on his windpipe like he guessed the man thought it was. It might be possible to scream, but Jace couldn't find his voice. He thought his clavicle might crack under the strain, the drugs had made him so weak that he couldn't find his footing. The mans arm pinning him to the wall was the only thing that kept him standing.
They didn't know what Piper would do if he saw this. Jace knew. He hoped Piper found him in time.
The forearm moved and he was jerked forward into a headlock, the others laughing as he struggled to make his legs work.
"I'm kind of disappointed. You seemed like more of a fighter. But maybe you really are a whore, huh? Maybe this is turning you on." The arm tightened, and Jace struggled harder to loosen it but it wasn't enough and soon his legs gave out.
He was beginning to worry that he'd black out and these men would have their way with him-
But then the door swung open.
Piper was standing there with his phone pressed to his ear, murder burning in his eyes. He slowly snapped the phone shut.
"Making friends , Shawty?"
Jace shivered at that voice. Piper had never sounded like that, so cruel and sickly. Until this moment, Jace hadn't thought it possible for Piper to reach such a level of dangerous hatred.
The man holding him let go, allowing Jace to drop completely in favor of turning to face Piper. His friends were at his side, all obviously thinking that this was going to be easy. Piper was only one man.
Jace didn't catch most of what happened next. He was struggling to breath air into his burning lungs when the sound of fists meeting flesh surrounded him. By the time he finally made it to his knees, two of the men had already collapsed into the street. Piper was holding the third, the one who'd been choking Jace, by his throat. The man was dangling, suspended in the air while Piper continuously drilled him in the face with his other hand.
If he didn't stop soon, the man would suffocate-
Or have life long brain damage.
"Piper, stop." Jace's voice sounded weak and hoarse even to his own ears, but Piper stilled immediately. He looked slowly over to Jace, his face splattered with blood but soft as he gaze at his lover. Despite his expression though, Jace knew that Piper was still burning hot with rage. If he didn't stop the man now, he'd be a murder.
"Did they touch you?" Piper's face hadn't changed, but the mans voice was a terrible thing. The life still clutched in his hand depended on Jace's answer.
"No, Piper. No."
It seemed to take everything he had, but Piper let the man drop. He swept Jace carefully into his arms, stepping over two broken bodies in order to carry them both out of the alleyway and into the street. He walked in silence until they were at least two blocks away from the men. Piper was gasping for breath by the time he felt comfortable enough to stop. Jace slipped out of his arms and onto a nameless stoop
Piper was pacing then, rubbing at his bloodied knuckles in frustration. He only ever paused to kneel in front of Jace, taking in the boys split lip and bruised neck before the anger was so much it sent him to pacing again.
"I should've killed him anyways."
"No, Piper. You've already been in so much trouble, if you get caught for this they might throw you in a pen, behind bars. And I wont get to see you anymore. So really, no Piper. We should just go home."
The man stopped in front of him, his face torn between anger and guilt. "You don't get to worry about me. You were almost raped back here. Don't you dare worry about me, yo."
"I wasn't raped. I just got roughed up a little bit. You came in and took care of it. You always take care of it. You always worry about me, so I should be able to worry about you, too."
Silence fell over them, so heavy it forced Piper down onto the stoop at Jace's side. He had nothing to say, hatred was like fire in his veins and it wouldn't let him speak.
"You could have killed them, you know. They could have killed you."
Piper huffed at the statement.
"I kill for you if I have to. I die for you if I have to. That's how this works, shawty. It's what you signed up for when you decided to make me love you so damn much. You're my ride or die."
Sometimes Piper's devotion surprised Jace. He knew the man loved him, but he hardly ever grasped how much.
"Why don't you just live and stay safe for me, yeah? So that when it's time to take care of me, like tonight, you'll always be there."
Piper responded by kissing him, soft and sweet.
"I'll do anything for you, shawty."
