Devourer of Sins

DEVOURER OF SINS CHAPTER TWO (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Mad Queen of Plotbunnies, where's Ted gone off to? He's missed his coffee klatch with Billy and Joaquin... Mille grazie for betaing and throwing the bunny! :) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are supergroovy for archiving (go check out their sites...the Queen commands ye). Readers/Reviewers: You had me at hello... *tear * The ducks are still silent. I suspect the CIA is involved...


"Did we land yet?"
"Yes, Liebes...you can open your eyes now!" Kurt was vaguely amused at Kitty's phobia, if only for the fact that it made her cling to him like a limpet for the entire flight. Jean had put on her headphones once they were in the air and was out like a light, leaving Kurt to deal with Kitty's panic every time the plane changed altitude or even so much as "sounded weird" to her. Kurt had toyed with the idea of suddenly shaking her arm and telling there was a gremlin on the wing1, but ded ded being phased out of a plane was not the way he wanted to die.
"If I open my eyes and we're still in the air, I'm going to scream," she warned, opening one eye, then the other. People were jockeying for position to get off the plane, filling the aisle with carry on luggage and bodies. "I think I'm claustrophobic."
Jean murmured, eyes still closed, "Bad time to find that out, Kit..." With a jaw cracking yawn, she sat up and stretched, garnering a stare from the man across the aisle. "Back off buddy," she mumbled, sending a rather painful thought his direction. "Professor Simpson is supposed to meet us on the other side of customs...you guys have everything?"
"Ja," Kurt said, standing carefully to avoid whacking his head. The hood of his sweatshirt was up, just in case the magnetic fields of the plane had made his holo fritz, and he presented a rather sinister picture to more than one person as they parted to let the trio into the aisle. "Kitty, you okay? You look a little...green."
"I'm fine...just a little mmmpph!" She leaned over the seat in front of her and let go of the little of of lunch she was able to pick off the tray. "I'm so sorry!" she said to the appalled looking woman, still seated there.
"Katzchen," Kurt cried, taken aback. "Are you okay? Here, let me help you!" He shoved a vomit bag under her chin and held her hair back.
"Kurt, I'm, like, done...Ma'am, I'm so sorry..."
The lady, dark eyes blazing, glared at her. In rapid Spanish, she spat invectives at Kitty, gesturing to her ruined clothes and then at the three of them. Jean soothed, "C'mon Kitty...let's go...we're holding up the line. It's only gonna get worse if we stand here!" Kitty nodded glumly and, seizing Kurt by the wrist, dragged him behind her, luggage in tow.
"I'm so embarrassed!" Kitty said, cowering against Kurt as the made their way down the concourse. "What if she tells the authorities?"
"Tells them what? A girl got airsick? They can't arrest you for that!"
Jean smirked. "The look on her face was priceless, though..."
"That's not nicKittKitty cried. However, she snickered after a moment. "It wouldn't been a little funny if it didn't just happen..."
"See? Now you're feeling better!" Kurt saw customs looming ahead and cringed. "Schatz, am I showing?"
Kitty ran her eyes over him quickly. "Nope---all pink and non-fuzzy, Fuzzy." She smiled, still looking a little green. "I hope the professor lets us go by the bathroom...I have to brush my teeth!"
Jean was first. She produced her documents and made it through without a hassle. Kurt was next. He held his breath as they swept him with the metal detector, his holo bobbling briefly. Kitty could not help the involuntary gasp that escaped her lips as she caught a glimpse of his blue fur. The agents did not seem to notice and waved him through. Kitty barely paid attention to what the men asked her, so intent was she on staring at Kurt, making sure he did not become Nightcrawler in front of God and Everybody in the Mexico City airport. She guessed she answered correctly because they let her pass and she hurried to join Jean and Kurt. Jean had found a rack of postcards and was busy buying a handful, one for each day of their stay, to send to Scott. "You know we'll be back before he gets those, right?" Kitty said, sagging tiredly against Kurt.
"Eh. It's the thought..." Jean counted out her pesos and handed the man behind the counter the amount needed, smiling at Kitty. "You going to brush your teeth or what? We need to find Professor Simpson and I don't want to keep him waiting..."
Kurt rolled his eyes. "The Professor is right-you are the most responsible one here! Ooh...food court!" Kurt was off like a shot, leaving the girls in his dust.

Professor Simpson was easy enough to find. He was holding a large white placard that read "Xavier Institute" in bold, black letters. The dark-haired man smiled as he saw the three teenagers approaching. "Ah! I was hoping your flight was not delayed! Welcome to Mexico!" he said jovially, giving the word it's Spanish pronunciation. In fact, Kurt noticed, he accented _all _ his words. "You must be Jean," the man said, sticking out his hand for the girl to shake. "The red hair..." he explained to her quizzical look. "Which makes you Kitty and you're Kurt, the lovebirds..."
Kitty blushed. "Nice to meet you, sir..." she shook his hand and elbowed Kurt to do the same.
He narrowed his gaze at Professor Simpson. "I'm sorry...your accent surprises me..."
"Ah, because my last name is Simpson, you did not expect a Mexican? Well, I was adopted by a missionary couple when I was five and have lived here my whole life. My birth parents were Colombian, actually." He smiled pleasantly at Kurt, but Jean was disturbed. She had caught a flash of malice before finding herself blocked from the Professor's mind with heavy shields. "Now," he said, startling her by fixing dark eyes directly on her own blue ones, "we have a bus to catch!"

The bus ride was miserable. Goats and chickens rode with people, seats were scarce and Kurt was jumpy. In he end, Kitty and Jean sandwiched him between them to make sure no one brushed against him. "I'm hot," he murmured to Kitty, his voice sounding strained.
"When we get to Templo de Muerte, you can take off those clothes and be all blue and fuzzy," she promised. "We'll be the only ones there..."
"Templo de Muerte...what does that mean?" he asked sleepily against her shoulder.
"Te of of Death," Simpson supplied, close to his ear. His voice was loud enough to make several people nearby cross themselves at the name. "We'll take the bus until we can't anymore then the jeep into the site..."
Jean did not like the feeling she was getting off the man. _He's a friend of the Professor's but still...he's...oily. _ A man across the aisle caught her eye and she stiffened. "Kitty, look..."
"Yeah, I saw the goat when we got on."
"No...that man in the Black Sabbath shirt...he was the one on the plane!"
Kurt raised his head to look where Jean was indicating. "There was more than one man on the plane..."
"He was staring at me when we landed..."
"Jean," Simpson said as if greatly amused, "you have bright red hair in a country where most people do not...you will get stares during your stay here!"
Jean frowned deeply, still not comfortable with the staring man's presence on the. _. _It's just a coincidence, I'm sure...but how many people are going to the back end of nowhere that were on the plane other than us? If he gets off when we do, I'm contacting the police... No! Not the Mexican police...the embassy. Where's the nearest embassy to Templo de Muerte? Damn it! _ She was so wrapped up in thought that she only caught part of the professor's drone about Aztec burial practices.
"Just the drowned on Kur Kurt asked, curious despite his nausea.
"Well, the lower class people, too, would be buried under the floorboards of the homes," Simpson explained, droning on again.
Ugh Jean thought. Simpson was looking predatorily excited about Kurt's interest. She noticed Kitty scowling at a goat and nudged her ribs. "What?"
"Your paranoia is catching...I could've sworn I just saw that lady I threw up on sitting next to the goat..."
"It's the heat," Simpson snapped, seemingly annoyed. "I'm sorry...I get testy on these long rides..."
" 'Sokay..." Kitty mumbled, but clung closer to Kurt anyway.

Ten excruciating hours later, they tumbled out of a battered Jeep into the Mexican dusk, the heat still pressing in and the jungle sounds starting up. "Is that a monkey?" Kitty asked after a shrill cry broke the silence.
"I don't think so..." Kurt frowned. "It sounded like a kid..."
"Nonsense...there's no one around for miles! The village is over the next hill and this site is in a valley of sorts...we're isolated." Simpson spoke with a smile but there was little happiness in his voice.
Jean raised her eyebrows. "I thought the professor said we would be closer to a village, that I had to act as a chaperone for Kurt and Kitty to appease their moral fiber..."
Simpson laughed. "No...I'm afraid he was mistaken. Another site I work on, closer to the coast, is in the middle of a village...that is where you would have to be more circumspect in your actions..." He clapped his hands and grinned. "Now, come...I'll show you where you are to sleep!"
Kurt eyed the hammock dubiously. "Are you sure there not not mattresses?"
"The hammock will keep you cooler, sweetie," Kitty said around a yawn. "Air circulates..."
"If you say," he shrugged, throwing his duffle bag onto the floor from his shoulder. "Where are you two sleeping?"
"Across the clearing in that hut thing...Jean already has the hammock by the window so I get the dark corner..." Kitty sighed. "Does it creep you out, sharing a hut with Simpson?"
Kurt made a face. "Not really...I just don't like being so far from you..."
"Get over it, Kurt," Jean's voice teased, "she's twenty feet away!"
"Twenty feet too far!" Kitty said mock-hurtfully, accepting a white blossom from Jean, "Where did you find this?"
"Climbing up the back of the hut! Come see! They glow..."
The flower smelled divine, a heady aroma neither floral nor musk. "Glow?" Kitty said, sniffing deeply.
"Come see!" Jean repeated, tugging Kitty's hand. Kurt followed perforce, sighing as the girls giggled over the exotic blooms.
Indeed, they _did _ seem to be glowing. "Unglaublich!" Kurt breathed. A faint purple shine emanated from the wide, lacey blooms, the fragrance teasing their senses as all three teenagers just stared. "Kitty, do you see this?" he said, incredulous.
"See it, yes. Believe it, no..." She reached out to touch one of the blooms, suspended from a thick, twisting vine, so green it was almost black, creeping up the hut. The bloom shut like a parasol, twirling into a neat bundle. "Wowza..."
Jean smiled goofily. "I picked these two but when I tried to pick a third, they closed up!"
"Ah, I see you've been experiencing some of the rare flora of the area!" Simpson loomed out of the thick stand of trees to the right of the girls' hut.
_How does he do that? _ Jean wondered. "What are these? They're so strange!"
"The jungle holds many mysteries, children...living things adapt to protect themselves. These plants, while beautiful, are deadly. The sap," he said, taking Kitty's bloom from her, "is used to make a drink that can paralyze a full grown man in minutes. If ground and eaten, the leaves and petals are a deadly neurotoxin that creates hallucinations and dementia before the victim finally dies a horrible death, usually at his own hand...I had a worked ingest some powder from the petals. Poor man beat his brains out with a rock, thinking demons were taunting him in his skull..." Simpson discarded the bloom casually, spreading his hands wide. "Now, I have dinner prepared...it's late and we should eat and get to bed if we want to get started while it's still cool in the morning!"

Kurt watched Kitty and Jean carefully through dinner, Simpson's tale of his unfortunate worker ringing in his ears. Kitty nibbled on a salad, eyeing the stew dubiously. Simpson seemed taken aback that she was a vegetarian. "I'm, like, sorry...I thought Professor Xavier told you."
"No, he did not," the man snapped. Taking a deep breath, he forced a smile. "Tomorrow, a runner from town will come to restock my supplies. I will ask him to get some canned vegetables and fruit for the next time he comes back."
"Thank you," Kitty murmured, scooting closer to Kurt on the bench.
Jean was first to rise. "I think I'm going to bed...Kitty?"
"Yesmetoo!" she answered, leaping to her feet. "Kurt, walk me?" she begged.
"Sure, Katzchen..." He wiped his mouth and nodded to the professor. "I'll be coming to the hut soo"
"
"Children! No need to explain yourselves to me...If Professor Xavier does not mind your carrying on, I certainly don't!" His smile was tight but he did not exude malice.
Jean backed away several feet before turning and almost sprinting to the hut. Kitty and Kurt were close behind her. They night was deep and velvet, Kurt's holo still projecting a normal-appearing boy against the darkness. Kitty shut off his watchh a h a touch, sighing when she saw his yellow eyes. "Thank God! Something not creepy!"
"You're skeeved, too?" Jean sighed, leaning against a daubed wall.
"Ja...he's just...off."
Kitty nodded in agreement. "It's not like he's done anything, but it's like he's...not normal. Like he's mad at us already or something."
Rolling her head from side to side, Jean said with some irritation, "Well, I know I'm too tired to work myself into knots trying anceance around Simpson...maybe he's just tired from travel. If he's still weird tomorrow, we'll worry about it then." She shook her head and went into the hut, an effective good night to her friends.
Kitty turned her face up to Kurt's and murmured, "I wish we could sleep together..."
"Me too, Schatz...maybe we can find somewhere private tomorrow, hmmm?" He nuzzled her neck and nipped her earlobe. "To be honest, Liebes, I think I'm too tired to do anything tonight..."
"Okay," she sighed. nosenosed his chin until he turned his mouth to hers, joining lips in a sweaty, tired, kiss. His hand halfway moved to her breast but he sighed and squeezed her ribs. "Too tired," she muttered.
"Ja...sorry, Liebes."
"Don't apologize. Just get some rest...I'm sure we can sneak away tomorrow..." He smiled tiredly at her, rubbing her arm absently. "Night, love."
"Night..." he whispered, disappearing into the dark.
Damn it. _The one night I could screw anything that moved and he's tired...wellwell. It'll just be twice as good tomorrow. Ow! _ "Ow!"
"What is it?" Jean mumbled from her hammock.
"I thought it was you..." Kitty kicked at whatever she had tripped over. "I think it's a loose floorboard...turn on that lamp..."
"Kitty, please! I'm trying to sleep!"
"Just for a sec...I'll push it down so we don't eat shit in the middle of the night, tripping over it..."
"Fine." There was a scuffling noise and Jean flipped on an insanely bright battery-operated lamp. She was out of bed in a flash, Kitty's sharp intake of breath preceding a bloodcurdling scream. "What? What is it?"
In answer, Kitty only screamed again, the sound raw in the night air. She stumbled back and ran into Kurt, not even noticing that he had 'ported blindly to her. "It's...oh my God!"
Jean covered her mouth with her hand. "It's a kid...and...oh, God..."
Kurt felt dinner rise in this throat. Under the displaced floorboard, the body of a child lay. No more than six, his chest was open and blood drying. _What have we gotten into? _

A/N Sex is coming (heh)-promise!


1 Anyone else remember that episode of Twilight Zone?