Authors: Tracy Cooper-Posey
“We all know each other’s minds. That’s more than we had before,” Justin said reasonably. “Plus, there’s one course of action we’ve all overlooked.”
Santiago raised his brow. “I did?”
“We all did,” Justin assured him.
“There
is
no other option. Not that I can see,” Deonne said.
“There’s just one,” Justin said. “We do nothing.”
Invisible fingers tripped down Deonne’s spine, making her shudder.
Santiago snorted. “That’s not action. That’s giving up.”
“No, it’s deliberately acknowledging the future we know might happen and embracing it. Come what may. We don’t fight it. We don’t try to change it – not consciously, anyway. We stay here and we live our lives and—”
“Enjoy them,” Santiago finished. “Live them large and swallow them whole while we can.” He sat back, a small smile playing on his full lips. “That, I can do. Deonne?”
She jumped. “You want me to agree? To what?”
“We let this play out with no pressure to change anything,” Justin explained. “No negative contemplation about what the future might bring. We forget about the future and just…enjoy.”
There would be no pressure to do anything she didn’t want to do. “But…the blanket bomb,” she said, dropping her voice very low. “We might…we could die.”
“We may,” Santiago agreed. “Or we may not. Justin Edward, there, is one of the most relentless people I have known, when it comes to survival. He is in a class of his own and even though I made him, I found I still had much to learn from him. If Justin is by your side, your chances of living through whatever the future brings are considerably greater because he never surrenders.”
Justin rubbed at the back of his neck. “Where I come from, that’s just called being a right stubborn bastard.”
Santiago grinned and looked at Deonne again. “Do you agree?”
“Justin?” she asked.
“It was my idea. I’ve already agreed,” Justin told her. “Now you know the risks, it’s your turn to agree.”
She swallowed. “I can’t see that there’s any other way to play this,” she conceded. “You
are
staying here, aren’t you?”
The corner of Justin’s mouth lifted in a small smile. “I wouldn’t miss this.”
“Then we are agreed,” Santiago said, sitting back. He lifted his hand and cracked the knuckles between his other fingers, in a ‘let’s get to business’ way.
Deonne’s breath caught. The mannerism was almost a replica of the same gesture Justin used occasionally—the gesture he copied to make himself look more human.
Santiago’s action brought home to Deonne the fact of their previous association in a way no words or other actions had managed. The knowledge had been intellectual. A fact without meaning or emotion. Now she understood with her body and heart. They had loved one another. They had been lovers.
Would they be lovers again?
* * * * *
Detroit-Rocktown Supercity, 2264 A.D.:
After five minutes of being submerged in the water in regular repetitions, Rhydder spluttered as he came up for air and lifted his hand. “Enough,” he growled. “I’m as sober as I’m going to get without food and coffee.”
Brenden hesitated and looked at Kieren, his brow lifting.
“He looks awake enough,” Kieren judged and lifted the bowl away, carrying it to the old and chipped sink.
Ryan tossed Rhydder a cloth that had been lying on the counter. It was ragged and unhemmed, but looked like it had been serving as a drying cloth. The apartment didn’t provide dish recycling.
Rhydder wiped off his face and upper chest, while Brenden pulled the single chair up close to the sofa and directly in front of Rhydder’s leather-encased knees. “Now you’re going to tell us where your contemporary self is, right now.”
Rhydder lowered the towel slowly, staring at Brenden as if he was a particularly odd but fascinating species. “
That’s
why you dragged me away from my party?”
“You know who I’m working for now, don’t you?” Brenden demanded.
Rhydder considered him for another long moment. “Sure,” he said at last. “I watch the nets, just like everyone in Detroit does. It’s the only entertainment to be had.”
“Hacked, I’m sure,” Kieren guessed.
Rhydder rolled his eyes. Then he looked at Ryan. “You’re Deasmhumhain.” Then his gaze travelled to Cáel. “Stelios,” he said slowly. “Worlds Assembly. I’ve seen you on the nets, too.” His gaze moved to Kieren. “You, I don’t know.” His gaze lingered. “But I never forget a face once I’ve seen it.”
“Kieren,” Kieren told him. “That’s the name that goes with the face.”
“D’ya have a father, Kieren? One that gave you a last name? Or is the celebrity act permanent?”
Kieren grinned. “If I’ve got one, I’m not sharing it with you.”
Rhydder gave an equally smooth smile in return. Stalemate. He looked back at Brenden. “So what does the fine and mighty Chronometric Conservation Agency want with me?”
“We don’t want you at all, human. We want you in vampire form. Where are you, right now?” Brenden demanded.
Rhydder’s face closed over. His expression shut down. “Get the fuck out of my house, Christos.”
Brenden didn’t move. Nor did anyone else.
“We’ve come a long way to talk to you,” Brenden told him. “But I’m not discussing agency business with someone from the future. It’ll fuck up god knows what timelines and I’m dealing with too many crises already. Don’t add to my woes, Rhydder. Tell me where the fuck your contemporary self is. I’ll speak to him.”
Rhydder scowled. He lifted his hand and pointed toward the battered door. “There’s the exit. Sorry you had such a long trip. Now, fuck off. I don’t want to see your face for another seventy years.”
Ryan, who had been leaning against the wall, straightened up with a jerk and grabbed at the cane that was resting against his hip. “Jesus Christ, Mary Mother of Saints…” he breathed. He worked his way across the room, studying Rhydder.
Rhydder scowled back. “You can have your epiphany outside, where you won’t get it all over the furniture,” he told Ryan.
“How far back did you jump?” Ryan demanded. “How many minutes?”
Brenden snapped his head around to look at Rhydder, his mouth opening. “
Minutes
,” he breathed. “You stupid son of a whore, how long have you been timing it? How long have you lived two minutes into your past?”
For the first time Rhydder showed something other than belligerence. His dark brown eyes revealed just for a moment a deep tiredness. He shifted on the sofa, ostensibly looking for somewhere more comfortable to sit, and when he raised his eyes to meet Brenden’s there was no emotion left in his expression. “I’ve already pointed to the door. Try using it.”
“You don’t want to hear my offer?” Brenden asked.
Rhydder held up his hand, his forefinger and thumb a fraction of an inch apart. “I had this much interest in the first place. You’ve killed that interest stone dead. You could offer me the wealth of Demetrios…no, you could
give
me Demetrios itself, and I’d just shove it up your ass.” He considered Brenden for a minute. “With my boot,” he added.
“We could help,” Ryan said quietly. “Whatever it is. The Agency has seen and heard nearly everything a vampire can do to himself and we’ve got very good at it.”
Rhydder’s jaw rippled as he stared at Ryan. He stayed silent for another dozen heartbeats. “I like it here just fine,” he said, his voice flat with controlled anger.
It was Brenden’s turn to study the man on the sofa. “You might like it just fine, but this life you’ve invented isn’t doing you any good at all. I’m not a physician, but I’ve seen the signs too many times to miss them. You’ve been in the past too long. You’ve been going forward to recover, so you’re avoiding the early symptoms of Stasis Poisoning. But the more often you jump into your past without a full recovery in between, the shorter the time before Stasis kicks in. It’s going to catch up with you, Cade. When it does, it’s going to slam you into the ground like a cartload of bricks and before you can draw breath, your body is going to dry out and crumble into dust.”
Rhydder stared steadily back at Brenden. His expression didn’t alter.
“He knows,” Kieren said.
Rhydder’s gaze flickered toward him, then back to Brenden.
Brenden got to his feet. “I’m not sticking around to watch that happen to you,” he told him. “I’ve seen it before and I won’t witness the end of one more great life, because you’re too stupid to get out of your own way.” He turned to look at everyone else in the room. “Let’s get the fuck out of here, like the man suggested.”
Ryan didn’t hesitate. “Good idea,” he said, and made his way to the door.
Kieren and Cáel followed the pair silently.
“Finally!” Rhydder cried after them. “You’ve learned how to listen to someone other than your own parade ground baritone, you lumbering great bloody giant!”
Kieren shut the door behind him, leaving Rhydder alone.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Liping Village, East Yunnan Province, China, 2054 A.D.:
Deonne would never have predicted that she might ever enjoy her time in Liping, but five days after Justin’s return, as she was locking up the compound after a half-day of work, she caught herself humming.
She stopped the soft sound and paused in the process of locking the gate with the big old-fashioned key, marveling.
“You are finished for the day, then?” Adán said, straightening up from what must have been a slouch against the dun colored wall, two meters beyond the gate.
Deonne was still silently laughing at herself, so she found it easy to smile at Adán. “Yes, finished and more than ready to go home and relax.”
“That is a very good idea indeed,” he agreed, and held out his arm.
Deonne curled her fingers over his forearm, feeling the coolness of vampire flesh beneath her fingertips. It wasn’t a chill. Vampires were not completely cold as many of the basher nets liked to report. They simply ran cooler than humans, who self-generated heat via their metabolisms and all the functions that were continually at work maintaining their bodies.
Vampires were essentially inert humans. Blood was constantly needed to keep what passed as their metabolism moving sluggishly along. Or at least, that was what Deonne had begun to understand from the few hints and comments Justin had ever provided.
“Thank you for seeing me home,” she told Adán. “Although I formally protest once more that I can walk back to the apartment without danger. This is Liping.”
He patted her fingers and moved them so her hand was more firmly tucked under his arm. “Liping is a village that will be attacked by terrorists somewhere in the near future. We think. Neither Justin nor I will chance you being on your own when that happens.”
She gave up the argument and instead lifted her chin to the sun and let it warm her face, as it peeped between dark, gathering storm clouds. Thunderheads roiled in the distance. It was probably the last thunderstorm they would have for the summer was waning. Soon, leaves would begin to turn. She would have been in Liping for nearly a year.
“The sun suits you,” Adán murmured. “You should be illuminated brightly as often as possible.”
Deonne found herself smiling at him once more. “Why is it that everything you say comes out sounding like poetry? Justin tries it and he goes red in the face and sounds like a fool.”
“That is because he does not speak from here.” Adán touched his chest. “When Justin tries too hard to woo, he forgets to be what he is and tries to be something else and it sounds all wrong.”
“You speak from experience, of course,” Deonne teased him.
Adán grinned, his dark countenance lighting up with good cheer and his eyes sparkling with humor. His very white teeth flashed briefly. “Do not tell him I told you this, but I think you and I are the only ones who can speak from experience about Justin’s affections.”
Deonne sighed. “There have been others in his life. I know that for a fact.”
“You speak of Ryan, I would guess.”
“He told you?” Deonne asked, surprised. When Adán nodded, she felt a spurt of something that was very close to jealousy. “He has never spoken to me about his past. I had to find out from someone else.”
“You must not resent that he talks to me, my lovely one. I
am
his past. Any conversation we have begins there or ends there. We have a very big gap to fill in each other’s history.”
“While I don’t want to know about his past at all?” she asked.
“For you, he would like to pretend that he has no past to speak of. Justin wishes to be human for you. You know that, don’t you?”
Deonne’s heart squeezed. “No, I didn’t know. Not put like that. He hates that I want to become vampire, but he has never said…” She glanced at Adán once more. “Why would he want that?” she asked him, sure that he would have the answer. Adán had become her go-to resource for answers to any riddle that Justin presented her. Unlike Justin, he had no trouble talking about the past at all. The last five days had been a series of revelations for her. She had learned more about Justin from Adán than the sum total of what she had put together about Justin since meeting him.
Adán pushed his lips together, pursing them. It made him look like he was pouting. “Why would any man want to live a human life with a human?” he asked gently.
She had taken another few steps before his meaning became clear. “A
human
relationship,” she breathed. “Children, even.”
“A gift that only you among anyone Justin has ever cared about could possibly give him,” Adán concluded.
“Oh,” she whispered, feeling even worse.
“Of course, you are not a woman for keeping the campfire burning and the stewpot full,” Adán added.
Deonne drew in a breath. A sigh. “No, that’s not me at all,” she admitted.
“He knows that, too.” Adán gave one of his big shouts of laughter, that Deonne had quickly grown used to and had begun to like. He threw back his head and laughed properly, making his hair and eyes dance and the ring in his ear to swing just a little. “You have given Justin so many conflicts, just because you are who you are and you do not compromise on that. He loves you for it, but he is sorely tried, too.”