Internally I laughed at my own sentimentality. Four vehicles back and two rows over, the older model, metal-bodied mechanical beast of burden waited, reflecting starlight off the well maintained, original two tone paint job. Tim, the head mechanic, really loved his work and it showed.
My legs started walking forward before I even consciously gave the command, crunching down on summer dry grass then transitioning to white, glittering caliche.
That was new. No paving of any kind had been inside the compound as a sort of defensive strategy before. Somebody with enough clout had gotten tired of the mud—at least around the motor pool. Our feet made the hardpan rattle and rub together in a soothing, whispering way as I turned to look at James.
He seemed more in control as I examined him in the bright—to me at least—moonlight. Dark hair hung down to cover most of his forehead. The fingers of both hands were splayed across his thighs, just above his knees, as he knelt trying to collect himself.
First one leg unfolded, sliding his foot forward and then James rose in a single motion, placing his hands on his hips and breathing deeply in his nose and out of his mouth. Faintly he mumbled a few choice words at the sky, as if it was to blame, then lowered his head to say in a voice that carried rather well on the wind, “You planning on leaving me here or are you going to wait up?”
“Do they still leave the keys on the dash?” I asked in answer.
Inhaling one more time to settle himself, James dropped his hands from his waist and strode forward with purpose. “What exactly is it that you’re going to say or do that will make Kara listen when I’ve tried everything I can possibly think of? My sister isn’t the same as she used to be, so don’t expect her to be happy to see you, especially if you’re going to rain on ‘the fun parade’.”
The rocks shifting under his feet with each step grew steadily louder, increasing the feeling in my mind that we were totally alone in a hollow, echoing, alternate reality. Blinking to clear my imagination and focus my thoughts, my gaze wandered lazily from his feet all the way to his perfectly shaped, almost black eyebrows, then settled back to lock onto his jade eyes.
James lost a step, before recovering himself enough to draw on an endless pool of cocky.
Extending a hand for him to accept and wiggling the waiting gloved fingers impatiently, I turned away to indicate my desired direction. Our body pivoted back only to be pulled off balance as James yanked an arm toward him with a burst of enhanced strength and speed. I ended up pinned to his chest with both hands held securely in one of his at the sway of our back. Raising his free arm, James brushed the loose hairs the wind had forced from our low ponytail back against the side of our head and lowered his mouth to that vulnerable section where neck met ear, breathing in the scent of the sensitive skin there. Goose bumps raced across flesh from the bottom all the way to the top in a rush that made the hair follicles tingle with electricity.
Deep and primal, his voice vibrated against the lobe of a vulnerable ear. “Don’t ever teleport me anywhere without a warning again. Are we clear?”
Sucking in a shaky breath but enjoying every minute of the physical sensations frolicking like invisible lightning bugs in my being, I croaked, “Crystal clear…unless of course it’s life or death, then I’ll do whatever needs doing, whether you like it or not.”
His arms squeezed in steel bands against the sides of our ribcage, pressing our bodies so tightly together I could feel his body stirring to life in response. Abruptly James released his hold and our feet stumbled on the shifting hardpan before balance was restored. We stared at one another, breathing heavily in the night air as small gusts of cooler wind buffeted us from the north.
I recovered first, shifting to take in the light of distant and in many cases, long dead stars. “There is no plan for Kara, mi heofonlic freond…only a feeling inside that she needs help before we do anything else.” He began to follow my lead as I walked toward my desired mode of transportation, our feet crunching over the caliche in unison.
James narrowed his eyes in thought. “Their language sounds suspiciously similar to Old English…?”
My grin was wicked. “Kinda makes you wonder about the whole Axsian no interference policy, doesn’t it? We asked Kal about it once but he only gave us Spock face.”
James rubbed his stomach. “So…what did you just say a second ago?”
I winked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
When we reached the well preserved 1990 four wheel drive SUV, I walked around the hood to the passenger side without any hesitation and James opened the driver’s side door to slide behind the wheel. Once we were both buckled up on the long bench seat, he grabbed the keys from the dash to insert them in the ignition, turning them to elicit an immediate throaty growl from the engine. The worn vinyl-covered cushion under our behinds vibrated with the power of a 5.7 liter, 210 horsepower V8 and I was sure it ate gas but it made me feel safe - like riding in a tank.
James looked sideways and raised an eyebrow. “No complaints about me driving?”
I shrugged. “I don’t have a license, genius. Are you encouraging me to break the law?”
He grinned as he shifted into drive and turned the wheel to guide the Suburban in between the rows of patiently waiting vehicles. The headlights shone yellow when they reflected directly back from a car, then faded into the distance in the gaps. “You don’t need encouragement.”
The tires made a racket on the hardpan as James turned us again, leaving the gravel behind, to bump onto the muddy track or ‘road’ running along the fence line that led to the front gate.
In my head Silver remarked, “He isn’t wrong, Sister. I prefer to think of us as conducively commonsensical.”
Out loud I said, “Silver, you just made that up…conducively isn’t a word.”
With our mouth she growled back playfully, “How exactly did you think language evolved? People call a ‘thing’ a certain word and then other people like it and before you know it whammo, you’ve got a new entry in the dictionary. My favorite is ‘grossening.’ It’s a combo of gross and disgusting I think could really take off—easily used in a sentence. For example…James was really grossening when he puked in the grass like a sissy. See…it’s perfect!”
I darted a glance at James but his only reaction was a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel as we approached the guards on duty at the gate. He cranked down his window as we rolled to a stop to address the vaguely familiar man who approached the driver’s side.
When he came even with the door recognition flared and I remembered his name as Smith from Malcolm’s sparring session all those years ago. Smith didn’t look that much different and it was still almost impossible to guess his racial heritage. His smooth tan skin could have hinted at any number of genetic combinations and his facial features were a beautiful blend of indeterminate handsomeness.
Smith’s voice was deep but friendly. “Lee.”
James nodded his head. “Smith.”
The guard’s eyes squinted across the cab of the Suburban to search out our quietly observing form and Silver took over to wiggle our fingers whimsically in greeting.
James cleared his throat, drawing Smith’s attention again. “I’m headed into town to find Kara. Hopefully we’ll be back tonight. Did she take a car or did one of her ‘friends’ pick her up?”
Smith focused inward before he said, “Day shift said she caught a ride around six pm from that same guy in the beat up blue Ford F150.”
James started to roll up the window. “I know the truck. Thanks. If we run into any trouble I’ll call in to Control.”
Smith stepped away from the driver’s side door to give a signal for the gates to open. Once we were clear of the chain-link, I glanced back through the big rear window to see it close then turned our body back around to watch the dirt road appear in front of the farthest reaches of the headlights. The big SUV rocked and rolled over the ruts, causing the suspension to creak with every flex over the uneven track
through farmland to civilization. We continued at a slow if steady pace for a long stretch until the reflective black and white sign came into view advising of a farm to market road. Once the tires hit the blacktop the ride got much smoother and the view through the windshield became one long flat stretch of two lane road that disappeared into the inky void of the night, even with the moon lined up front and center.
Silver broke the silence but only in our head. “Kal knew his replacement on Earth was a Shiva sympathizer and he didn’t tell us. He also didn’t have any good theories for the attack on Gerome. We’re missing something. There are things afoot of which we aren’t aware.”
I snorted out loud in exasperated disgust, earning a curious look from James before answering Silver internally. “There are always things afoot of which we aren’t aware, Sister. Today is no different than any other day. Omniscience is not a quality we possess. Live one moment at a time until there are no more.”
The dim lights from the gauges on the dash threw different patterns across the cab and across James’s face making him look surrealistic. Silver groaned in our head, then took over our mouth to spout out of nowhere, “Listen, Romeo, we need to get a few things straight before I let you see Cass…are you listening?”
Frantically I beseeched my sister to stop but she’d gotten much more accomplished at piloting over the years and I couldn’t take back control of our mouth right away.
James warned, “Oh, I’m listening, Silver…but when you’re done I’ll have my own things to say.”
“I just bet you do, sweetie. When Cass decides to love or care for someone she doesn’t do it halfway and those same people have the capacity to cause irreparable harm. No matter how badly you wound her, she won’t stop loving you and she will never, ever admit her pain. You aren’t strong enough to be what she needs you to be. In the end, you’re going to let her down. I can’t stop Cass from loving you but I can make your life a living hell if you hurt her.”
Whether she would have said more was up for debate because I swung our hand up to cover our mouth with a horrified slap.
James slammed on the brakes, causing the tires to squeal and the smell of burned rubber to seep in through the vents. He threw the Suburban in park then unbuckled his seat belt and launched himself across the bench seat to grab our lapels.
“Cass, put Silver front and center. I’m not saying this to you, I’m saying it to her.”
His eyes were wild with barely contained anger and if we weren’t perfectly capable of defending ourselves I might have been scared.
Silver rushed to the forefront and snarked, “What are you going to do, Romeo…slap us around?”
His voice, when it issued forth, was deep, low and barely controlled. “You think you know better than everyone else around you, Silver. You don’t and your arrogance is going to get someone killed, maybe even you and Cass. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to live with two different minds in one body, but I know you could be a lot more considerate of Cassandra than you are. You’re a bully. You just took it upon yourself to tell me about your sister’s feelings for me before she even had a chance, taking away a moment that should have been ours alone. I don’t love anyone halfway either, even if they come with a parasitic bitch-tastic twin.”
James released us as if he were a deflated balloon to slide back behind the wheel, refasten his seatbelt, and put the vehicle back in drive. Thankfully no one else had driven by on the lonely road while we were stopped crookedly in the middle of it.
I left Silver in control, wanting to see what she would do. My sister could sense my expectation but I left her to her own devices when she reached out to connect more directly.
Internally I gave her a nudge, “Fix this, now.”
With an outward slump, Silver said, “Bitch-tastic isn’t a word.”
James snorted. “Don’t worry, if enough people get to know you, it will be.”
She smacked denim. “Argh! I still don’t like you and I still don’t trust you. For Cass, I promise to be as civil as I can.”
James adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, making the leather cover creak. “That’s not good enough, Silver. Cassandra isn’t your personal property. She’s a human being with the right to live her life the way she sees fit. You don’t run her.”
Silver thought in a small, hurt voice, “Do you really think that about me?”
I paused too long before I answered out loud and my twin recoiled in pain. “Sometimes you take it upon yourself to make my decisions for me, Sister. I don’t think it’s out of meanness, you’re just trying to protect me…like you always have.”
Before I could say anything else, my twin was gone in the Web, leaving only the vaguest of connections through which tiny echoes of pain leaked.
Turning on the vinyl-covered seat caused our leather duster to creak, protesting the friction. “You shouldn’t have called her parasitic, James. She’s my other half and a part of me, not some curse of nature. If that’s the way you really feel about her…” I had already threatened to end our ‘relationship’ once tonight over Silver and I couldn’t make myself do it again because it sounded hollow and petty.
James said in a dull clipped tone, never taking his attention from the road, “I’m trying to stand up for you. Silver says things that are hurtful. I was only giving her a taste of her own medicine. If I need to apologize later I will.”
The rest of the ride into town was so silent, at some point our forehead ended up leaning against the passenger side window and sleep snuck up like a silent wave on an invisible ocean.
Dreams are important. They can give a person clues into life that otherwise eludes a waking mind. This dream started innocently enough with a picnic on a blanket depicting a map of the compound. A fierce wind blew, threatening to blow the blanket away, so I put containers of food in each corner to hold it down. Ants marched in, trying to carry away all of the food, biting any skin that came close enough to their mandibles. First thunder and then bright blue lightning flashed in the sky before rain fell in a drowning deluge to wash everything away in a muddy debris-filled river.
Luckily enough a large twisted tree rushed toward us and we grabbed at it frantically, breaking off whole fingernails before gaining a solid enough hold. We weren’t the only refugees perched precariously in the branches, either—we saw a fox, badger, coyote, wolf, and many other animals lodged here and there growling and snarling at one another.
A rainbow burst forth from the clouds to make a bridge onto dry land but not one animal would move from their perilous perch. The river swelled so high the tree roots were torn from the waterlogged earth and every one of us were pulled under to drown in the wild black current. Just before we sank below the surface I noticed our hands were no longer human but the paws of a panther.
A touch on our left shoulder jerked me out of the dream abruptly and I reached for the foreign appendage instinctively to defend from attack, until James’ voice registered.
“Cass, wake up. You’re having a bad dream. We’re here.”
Pain traveled up our neck and Silver groaned out loud, reaching for the base of our skull to rub out the kink. When our eyes were open they took in the full parking lot around the Suburban and the shining lights of a sign advertising Tonks, which appeared to be a club not a bar.
I thought at Silver, “Did you get sucked into the dream, too?”
My twin grumped out loud in a sleep rough voice, “I did and I’ve got no clue what it meant, Sister—other than if we all keep fighting between ourselves it’ll lead to ruin.”
James shifted closer across the bench seat. “What’s going on?”
Silver removed our hand from the back of our neck to press the meaty part of our palm against the area on our forehead that had been trapped between our skull and the window glass. A red spot would probably be blooming nicely and we didn’t have any bangs to cover it up.
I took over our mouth when it didn’t seem like Silver was going to answer J
ames. “Do you remember the day I dreamed about the girl in the grass? It was another one of those kinds of dreams. That time, all those years ago, Silver got shut out but this time she got pulled in. Why are we at Tonks? I thought you told me she was at a bar called Hazards?”
James bit the inside of his cheek then squinted at the herd of cars outside. “There’s probably pool tournaments going on at Hazards so all the spots were taken. This was the only space I could find unless you want to park in a field. We’ll walk down to the other side.”
I focused our eyes down the length of the single story, dark brick strip mall to see another glowing plastic sign at the end but our angle was all wrong for the words to be made out. Silver stopped rubbing our forehead and pulled open the passenger side door, carefully holding the edge so the wind didn’t rip it from our fingers to ding the purple Dodge Challenger parked next to us. We scanned the lot for a beat up blue Ford F150, but unfortunately there were three of them I noticed right away. Texas was truck country after all.
I thought at my twin as we wove between side mirrors toward the tattered white awnings of Tonks, “I’d like to try reason first. No attitude or knocking heads if we can help it.”
Out loud Silver said, “Reason it is, but if she refuses to come with us I reserve the right to drag her out by her hair.”
James grunted in agreement. “I almost like that plan better. I’ve done enough nice. We’ll talk to Kara outside and if she refuses to leave from there just teleport her butt into the Suburban and we’ll head back.”
Silver slid a sideways glance to James, following it with a tentative half smile. “At least we agreed on something tonight.”
James stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket to hold it closed against a gust of wind. “I’m sorry I called you a parasite.”
VECTOR (The Weaver Series Book 3) Page 9
