“Is there any way to stop them from tracking that thing? Can we block the signal?”
Tas turned the device over in his hands and frowned. “Perhaps, but I do not have the skill. My friend, Frelinray, always tinkered with human tech, trying to rebuild what was damaged. If it is possible, he would know.”
“I’m guessing from that frown we can’t exactly pick up the phone and ask him,” Juniper said.
Tas opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment, Chloe exited the bathroom in a cloud of steam, vigorously rubbing a towel over her wet hair. “Why not make a Faraday cage?”
“A what?” Juniper asked.
“It stops electromagnetic fields.”
Juniper and Tas stared at Chloe. She stopped drying her hair. “What? I know stuff.”
“How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “I saw it on TV. You know, that show where a plane crashed on an island that wasn’t purgatory but then it turned out to be purgatory after all.”
“How do we acquire this cage?” Tas asked.
Chloe shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe there’s a YouTube tutorial.” She reached for Juniper’s phone, sitting on the charger. “Cool. You finally got a new phone.”
Juniper snagged it out of her sister’s hands. “This is a burner phone. Do not call anyone back home. No texts. No social media tweets. We don’t want the number associated with us.”
Chloe wrinkled her nose. “I’m not stupid, and no one tweets anymore. Only old people and bots do that.” Thirty seconds later, Chloe announced, “It was the first hit. I love the internet.”
According to the video, they only needed three items, a galvanized bucket with lid, a rubber bucket, and aluminum tape. They would tape up the seams, put the rubber bucket inside the metal bucket, and that was it.
“We can stop at a hardware store in the morning,” Juniper said, as it was too early for any stores to be open. Until then, they needed to move.
19
Juniper
Juniper knew little about the northern part of her home state. She found I-80 and took it west. Tas refused to sleep until they could make their Faraday cage. If the Syndicate found them, he needed to be alert. He had a point. She couldn’t wake him from his last stone sleep and she didn’t want to be caught with a stone gargoyle snoozing in the backseat. Also, he would be stone and heavy. That couldn’t be good for the suspension or the gas mileage, either.
Nothing had really gone smoothly and she felt like she was constantly two steps ahead of disaster, but that was how she felt in her everyday life. The stress was different—but not so different she couldn’t handle it.
As she drove, her stomach rumbled, so she stopped for coffee and a bagel sandwich. Woman couldn’t live on Halloween candy alone, though Chloe was trying.
Tas ate his fair share of the candy, too. The two bickered over the rapidly diminishing bag.
“I am using a great deal of energy to maintain this disguise. I require sustenance,” he said, wearing his human form.
“Well, I’m a growing girl and I’ve been traumatized. I need chocolate and caramel to cope,” Chloe retorted.
Juniper could not pull into a big box hardware store fast enough. When Tas climbed out to join her, she said, “No shirt, no shoes, no service. Put a shirt on, man.”
He grumbled but shuffled into the toucan shirt. Chloe insisted on a selfie with him. With that important activity taken care of, Juniper set off in search of the items the video recommended. Tas and Chloe reappeared, arms full with bags of Halloween candy.
“Energy,” he said.
“Trauma,” Chloe said, adding her pile to the conveyor belt.
“I’m not paying to fix your cavities,” Juniper muttered sourly as she paid the bill.
Back at the SUV, it took no time at all to seal the seams on the metal canister, including the lid, insert the rubber bucket, chuck the alien cellphone inside, and throw the lid on. Problem solved.
Juniper updated her mental checklist.
Capture Gargoyle. Completed.
Rescue Chloe attempt one—fail.
Regroup. Done.
Rescue Chloe attempt two—success!
Meet with Tas. Done.
Deal with the sigil. Mission accomplished.
Drive her gargoyle boyfriend to the intergalactic pick-up location so he can leave Earth and live a long, safe life back on his home planet, and no man will ever make her feel as desirable or safe as when Tas had his arms and wings wrapped around her, but don’t cry because he needs to go home and she needs to not be selfish and let him go.
Fuck me.
Juniper didn’t want to think too hard on the last item. Fortunately, Chloe peppered Tas with questions.
“So you’re, like, from a different planet?”
“Yes,” Tas answered.
“Does it have a name or do you call it the rock with sulky dudes?”
“Duras. And the sky is violet,” he added, heading off any follow-up questions. “You would not like it because the environment is too harsh for your human skin. You are not built for it.”
“I bet I would like it,” Chloe said, stuffing a piece of chocolate in her mouth.
“Don’t fill up on candy. We’re stopping for lunch,” Juniper said.
“I’m saving room for burgers and fries. Ugh, I’m thirsty. Do we have any water?”
Tas handed her a bottle of water from the cooler and the questions continued.
“So you were captured by those nutjobs in 1940?”
“Yes.”
“Why aren’t you, you know, old and stuff?”
“I am 1,458 years old.”
Chloe made a high-pitched noise of disbelief. “What!? You don’t look that old,” she said, barely pausing to let Tas answer. “But they had you for almost eighty years. Why didn’t you go crazy? And the world must look super weird to you now.”
Tas huffed. “I spent several decades in my stone form, but I cannot tell you the exact number of years. It was like sleeping. And though the world may have advanced, it is not so different.”
“We have computers now.”
“There were computers then.”
Another snort. “The size of buildings! This phone is more powerful than all the computers used for the moon landing—and it fits in a cup holder.”
“The moon landing really happened?” His voice took on a soft tone.
“Sure. One small step for man. Here.” Chloe pulled up the famous moonwalk footage and passed the phone to Tas.
“I thought my handlers lied to me, to confuse me,” he murmured.
“They liked to fuck with your head, huh?”
“Language,” Juniper said.
“Sorry. Mess with your head,” she corrected.
“My handlers changed often, to prevent them from growing attached, I imagine, and they frequently changed their codenames. I was moved from facility to facility. Sometimes I encountered the same agent but under a different name. They denied any previous relationship.” He frowned. “If you call that a relationship. They would not tell me the date or the year, but I could track the seasons from the odors on their clothes. All in an effort to confuse me.”
“So how can you look like that?” Chloe asked, rapidly changing the direction of the conversation.
“I can shift some of my features. It is an innate skill.”
“You were in the military?”
“I still am. My ship was on a mission before a solar flare disabled it, causing it to crash into your charming ball of dirt.”
“Nice attitude, and very clever calling us all dirtballs. Score one for the gargoyle. What did you do in the military? Let me guess.” Chloe twisted in her seat and tapping her index finger against her chin. “Demolition. You blew shit up.”
“Language!”
“You say worse all the time, Junie,” Chloe said.
“Intelligence, actually. I gather information.”
“Because you can change your appearance? So… you’re a spy
?”
“Crudely put, but yes.”
“Cool.”
The conversation drifted toward general questions about his planet and his family. Juniper felt remorse that she never thought to ask him such questions. She had been so focused on her own panic and worry—over Chloe and then his health—that it never occurred to her.
They neared Toledo at noon. Hungry and needing coffee, she pulled over at a rest stop.
tas
“Lunch,” Juniper said, pulling the vehicle off the major thoroughfare and into a service area. “At this rate, we’ll hit Chicago in four hours. Then I need a break. I want a hot shower and a back rub.”
Tas nodded, willing to give his mate the relief she needed.
“Gross,” Chloe declared, rolling her eyes. At first, he feared the youngling would be obnoxious, but he found her amusing and enjoyed the way her questions quickly changed directions.
Juniper handed Chloe currency and instructed her to bring back caffeine and sugar, while Juniper went to use the toilet.
“We need to talk, gargoyle.”
Tas grunted as Chloe sat down opposite him. She brought two cups of hot chocolate, a bag of air puffed marshmallows, and one latte, judging by the smell. The young female had an air of determination about her which unnerved him, but he accepted her offering of chocolate.
“What are your intentions toward my sister?” Chloe asked, her tone firm, as though issuing a challenge.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re fucking my sister, aren’t you? What do you think I mean?”
“Such vulgar language is not befitting a young lady. I know your sister pays handsomely for your education.”
Chloe gave a little snort. She didn’t say it, but Tas understood that Chloe’s education was why the sisters were tangled up with him. So strange to think that if Juniper made a different choice years ago, they would have never met. Someone else, or maybe no one at all, would have stolen his cage from underneath Agent Rhododendron’s nose.
“Blame TV and stop deflecting,” she said.
“Vicious little thing,” he muttered. “She is my mate.”
“And that’s like marriage?” Chloe added a handful of marshmallows to her cup. “That’s cool and all, but I haven’t seen Junie date, ever, and now one day she brings home a gargoyle husband? A girl has concerns.”
Tas glanced at the crowd milling around them, mindful that the Rose Syndicate could have an agent in the crowd. Chloe was remarkably indiscreet. Fortunately, the humans were focused on their meals and their own conversations. No one paid attention to them. “Please be mindful of who can overhear our conversations, and yes, a mating is like marriage.”
“’Til death do you part? Not like until you get sick of each other? Or a two-year contract?”
He snorted at the absurd notion. Human lives were like mayflies, brief and fleeting, and their matings reflected this. They might tell themselves their marital unions were for life, but often those bands only lasted a handful of seasons.
“For life,” he said.
“I knew you weren’t the type to hit it and quit it,” Chloe said.
Youth and their slang. Tas missed several generations of slang and did not regret the lapse.
“You’ll take us with you,” she said with a nod.
Tas set down the cup. “I cannot.”
Perfectly valid reasons sprang to mind. The environment on Duras was too harsh for soft human skin. If Juniper were ever caught in a dust storm, she’d be torn to shreds. Not to mention that many buildings and older cities were designed for wings. Tas would have to procure a dwelling on the ground and leave the family’s aerie, or have stairs installed. Only the aged and the injured required stairs. Chloe would require tutoring, but it would leave her isolated with few opportunities for socialization. Integrating into a Khargal school would be difficult because she would be behind the younglings roughly equivalent to her age. If Tas learned anything over the last few days, Chloe required frequent socialization.
“Bullshit. You’re scared,” Chloe said.
Tas narrowed his eyes. He disliked the way the teenager perceived his thoughts. “Have you considered what your life would be like on Duras? It will not be easy.”
“Have you considered what our lives will be like once you leave?” she retorted, twisting his words against him.
He imagined it would be the same as his: empty and devoid of joy. The idea of being without Juniper gutted him. It wasn’t just physical, though they certainly enjoyed a shared physical attraction. It was more. She was more. In a short while, the female became his world.
“Empty,” he admitted.
“We’ll be dead.” Chloe raised her brows and held his gaze. “We can’t go home. If the police don’t get us for Mickey’s murder, someone in his organization will. But that’s not the problem. The Syndicate will be after us. Those people,” she shuddered, “you don’t know what it was like. They just came in and started shooting. They didn’t ask any questions. They already knew.” Chloe added more marshmallows to her hot chocolate. By this point, the drink had to be all mallow, but Tas said nothing. Let the child have her sugar and comfort.
“These Syndicate people don’t strike me as the type of people who give up. They’ll chase us ’til we can’t run anymore,” she said.
She described persistent hunting, chasing prey until they depleted all their strength. Humans were very good at it and the Rose Syndicate was particularly skilled at chasing down his kind.
“They will only disturb you if they think you are hiding me,” he said.
“That’s the point. Unless you send them your itinerary, they don’t know you’re going home, which leaves Junie and me in a pickle. But you mate for life, so it’s not like you were fucking my sister for a week or two and planning on ditching her, right?”
Tas leaned back in the chair. Chloe had trapped him with words as surely as if she used chains, and he had not seen it coming. His wing buds itched and he longed to leave the confines of the building and fly. “You are awfully clever.”
Chloe snorted. “That’s what they tell me. So?”
The afternoon light emphasized the golden threads in her hair. For a moment, Tas could see the girl Juniper had once been, with large dark eyes, a soft, round face, and a too-sharp chin. Experience and worry wore her down, leaving something severe but quick to transform with a smile.
Chloe would mature into a female as striking as her sister, attracting undue attention with her unique beauty and her quick intelligence. Males would want to court her and Tas already felt protective. How he would tolerate courting males visiting their home, he had no idea. He added this to his list of concerns.
“As you say,” he said. “For your safety and because Juniper is my mate, you must come with me. If she agrees.”
“Then you better convince her,” Chloe said, and drained her cup.
juniper
Chicago couldn’t come soon enough. Eight hours on the road—not including pit stops—and she was exhausted. She found a modest-looking motel on the outskirts of the city and booked a room with two beds. She might want two rooms in the future, but Tas needed to do his stone sleep thing, she needed to sleep, and she didn’t want a wall separating her from Chloe if something happened. Tomorrow they might be champing at the bit for some space, especially after spending a day cooped up in a car.
A quick shower washed the road away and she fell into the bed after giving Chloe money to order pizza.
The glorious aroma of cheese and pepperoni roused her. With her eyes gritty and tired, she debated just skipping dinner and sleeping, but her stomach would not let her fall back to sleep.
She finally lifted her head from the pillow, only to find Tas crouched in front of the television with Chloe standing nearby. The vibrant colors glowed brightly in the dim room.
“This is television? But you made it sound complex and highly detailed.” He frowned and poked at the screen, the plasma rippling in a
shimmer of colors. “This is two-dimensional.”
“Don’t poke it. And the stories are complex.”
“There is no headset? Or full virtual immersion? You cannot interact with the actors or impact the story in any way?”
“Nope.”
He huffed. “I am disappointed. I had hoped to find something similar to the immersive games I used to play with my siblings.”
“Do you want to watch something or do you want to criticize the technology?” Chloe used the remote to flick through the channels.
The bed dipped as Tas sat on the edge. “That sounded interesting.”
“It’s in Spanish.”
“I speak Spanish, as well as French, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and Mandarin. Probably a few more, I forget. And English, obviously,” he added.
“Well, I only speak English.”
“I’ll translate.”
Juniper couldn’t fight her smile as she sat up, pleased to have Chloe and Tas get along. Sort of. She wanted the two most important people in her world to like each other.
She was such a softie when it came to Tas even though she knew she should be keeping her distance. Emotionally, at least.
“Hey,” she said, stretching with a yawn.
“Eat,” he said, handing her a slice of pizza on a paper plate.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” she asked around a mouthful of hot cheesy goodness.
“I wanted to wait for you to wake first,” he said, his voice rough with exhaustion. While the wounds on his arms had faded to a dull pink, he still had chunks taken out of him. Tas might not want to admit it, but he was dragging.
“You should have woken me,” she said.
“You needed your sleep more.”
Seriously, how could she not get all gooey and mushy about this guy? She didn’t know how she’d be able to say goodbye.
20
Juniper
“Next time, no teenagers on our camping trip,” Juniper said, dropping to her sleeping bag. She sat near the fire, enjoying the warmth.
Taken for Granite Page 14
