Tokyo Ink (Gay SF Erotica)

pierced and bleeding. So much beautiful collateral damage.
    “Do you think we’ll both get a turn before Ryuu shows up?” That was Jun with his high nasal whine. He had his hand in his lap, absentmindedly rubbing at his crotch and leaning toward the suite’s door. “Mikio-san always takes too long.”
    Tetsu felt everything slow. Jun and Katashi knew about the assassin. Did that mean the target was Mikio… or the dancer?
    He checked the elevator monitors and saw Ryuu pull out a hypopress and load a blue ampoule into it. So the Iyashii enforcer wasn’t there to kill someone -- at least not until the interrogation was over. But why hadn’t anyone said something to Tetsu? Why, as head of security, was he out of the loop on a kidnapping or hit in his home base?
    He jumped from his chair, grabbed his jacket and mobile. He slid the jacket on, his thumb working the mobile’s keypad. It took three keys to temporarily shut down the elevators, three more to stop the building's live camera feed and erase the night’s video and two to send a pre-programmed message to the man that had inked Youran’s body.
    G2G.
    Go to ground.
    He pocketed the mobile and opened the top drawer of his filing cabinet. Inside were a can of butane and a lighter. He hesitated reaching in. The dancer’s skin was so exquisite, the designs covering it fleeting works of art replaced every few weeks. His chest tightening at the thought, Tetsu grabbed the accelerant and lighter and tried not to think about what things might come to. Protecting the Code came first. Heading for the stairway, he just prayed he wouldn’t have to kill Youran to do it.
    * * *
    The suite had two access points, the first through the tea room and the second by a secret hall that ran from the suite to the stairwell. Tetsu went in through the hidden corridor. He unlocked the door to the suite with his pass card then jammed it open. Seeing the dancer still down on his knees, this time with Jun in his mouth, Tetsu hit the suite’s panic button, locking the door to the tea room. At the same time, he lifted his gun, firing off a shot that hit Jun square in the forehead.
    Graceful and quick thinking, Youran rolled along the floor and took cover on the other side of the bed. Tetsu leapt onto the mattress and grabbed a fistful of the young man’s long black hair. His mind registered its silkiness even as he jerked the dancer to his feet. He resisted the urge to shove the barrel of his gun against Youran’s face and force immediate compliance.
    “I’m here to protect you.” He hoped the full truth didn’t reveal itself in his voice or his eyes. Mikio and Katashi were yelling from the other room, pounding on the door. He pulled one of the crimson silk sheets from the bed and thrust it at the dancer. “There’s a man on his way up -- a killer. Obara no…”
    Youran’s gaze widened before Tetsu could finish naming the notorious Iyashii assassin. The dancer glanced down at Jun’s lifeless body and shook his head. “You’re mistaken.”
    Tetsu felt the sharp press of time against his senses. If the guard at the front desk had any skill, the temporary lock on the elevators had been released already and Ryuu would be on his way up.
    Or waiting in the stairwell.
    “We’re both probably dead already!” He pushed at the dancer. “Now, go!”
    He prodded Youran to keep moving down the hall that led to the stairs. At its end, he pulled Youran through a second door and into the main hall, wrapping the sheet around the dancer’s body as they went. He could hear the elevators running again but couldn’t know if they carried Ryuu. Stairs, elevator -- it didn’t matter. He could think of only one way down that didn’t end in their deaths before they reached the ground floor.
    “No, absolutely not!” Youran started struggling but it was too late. Tetsu already had the panel to the recycling chute pulled open. He hit the young man hard in the center of his back, knocking him off balance and sending him forward into the chute head first. He followed after him, the sound of the elevator bell the last thing he heard before the panel door slammed shut.

Chapter Two
    The fourteen floors to the basement level took four and a half seconds. Time enough to anticipate the impact but not enough to effectively minimize it. Tetsu saw Youran plow into the clear bags filled with shredded paper, his arms protectively wrapped around his head. Tetsu mimicked the position, tucking his chin to