Paired Pursuit

by Clare Murray

  Gareth had taken Hailey’s death particularly badly. He’d been the one to find their foster-mother’s body, and his grief had been long, dark and deep. When they’d buried her in a grave outside Chicago’s walls, he had left a simple cross behind, engraved with the word Mom.

  In a way, his Twin had lost a part of his soul that day—the part of him that trusted. Finn hadn’t seen Gareth truly trust someone since. He tended to hold people at arm’s length, even the other Twins they considered part of their inner circle of friends.

  Being privy to his brother’s unguarded thoughts, Finn knew why, of course. Gareth couldn’t be there for everyone, couldn’t guarantee his protection by controlling their every movement. With Finn, that was fine, since they were never apart.

  With Mari, however…

  “You know you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink, right?”

  Gareth’s reply was long in coming. “Yeah. But you can sit there with a water pail and make damn sure they don’t dehydrate.”

  Finn pulled back, shielding his thoughts once again. It had been a tense day. He was glad they’d found Mari when they did, because Gareth was spoiling for a fight. The man sleazing over her back in the gaming hall had gotten off lightly.

  Besides, they’d run Mari’s name through several of the government databases. They hadn’t found anything—until Gareth suggested they try spelling her name with an i. That had narrowed the list significantly, bringing up one Marisol Aquino, only daughter of Jorge Aquino, the scientist they sought. So that was what she’d been trying to hide.

  Not that Finn blamed her for keeping quiet. Likely, she was scared stiff, and her father’s death was recent. Still, they would have to have a little chat at some point, talk the situation over.

  “They didn’t bargain for this,” Gareth suddenly sent.

  “What? The scientists?” Finn tried to follow his Twin’s thoughts.

  “Yeah. When they laid out our DNA, what the fuck were they expecting? That we would be simple machines to go fight their wars?”

  “I don’t know. Hailey said the alien ships were spotted from the largest observatories shortly after the turn of the century. That gave them almost forty years to prepare. Creating us was part of that preparation, except nationalism, politics and corporate greed got in the way.”

  “As always. Did our creators expect us to need the same woman?” Gareth’s mindvoice was bitter.

  “I don’t know. Hailey did mention something about us responding strongly to certain pheromones.” Finn stared into the darkness from his bed, trying to recall the women he’d been attracted to prior to Mari. None of them even remotely compared, and none of them had been attractive to Gareth either. They’d all been quick, short fucks, easy flings that ended on mutually amicable terms.

  Hell, Mari probably wasn’t the only woman in the world whose pheromones called to them both. Finding a woman who both turned them on and accepted them hadn’t been easy, and with the human population so whittled down, Finn knew the pool of candidates had shrunk drastically.

  They’d both been drawn to Mari the moment she stepped into the train. Finn had immediately wanted to crawl between her legs, bury his nose there and prove that she smelled and tasted as sweet as she looked. To his utter surprise, Gareth had much the same thought. When she’d fallen from her seat, it had provided the perfect excuse to dote upon her, making sure she didn’t take another nasty tumble. Despite her sensible demeanor, Mari possessed a sweet gentleness that he never wanted to see tarnished.

  “I don’t want it tarnished either,” Gareth sent. “That means getting her the hell out of here as soon as possible.”

  “That means convincing her to come. And finding Dr. Aquino’s device.”

  There was a pause. “Gotta break the news to Mari that we know who she is. Why do you think she didn’t trust us?”

  “Don’t know. It’s something we ought to take slowly and carefully, though. She has no living family members, she said, so Jorge Aquino is dead. Looks like that was recent enough to cause her serious grief. Maybe that’s why she didn’t mention it.”

  Finn closed his eyes. They would need to get cracking on their mission, given their lack of time. Although he doubted Dr. Aquino had discovered anything groundbreaking, apparently the man had contacted the Complex to report that he’d found an interesting alien device, something he deemed important. Then he’d disappeared off the radar.

  To Flagstaff City, apparently, where he’d raised his daughter. After they’d found Mari’s name in the database, Finn had sent off for more information, and the idiot powers-that-be had unearthed the fact that Dr. Aquino’s wife, Mari’s mother, had died of cancer in Flagstaff about seven years ago. Why they couldn’t have found that information before sending them away from the Complex, he didn’t know.

  In any case, it was a fortuitous coincidence that they’d run into Mari on the train. Their previous visits to Scar City had been utterly fruitless, but maybe they could coax a lead out of Mari.

  “Not that much of a coincidence,” Gareth interjected. “I mean, yes, it’s a stroke of luck, but we’ve spent a lot of time going back and forth from the Complex to this City. There aren’t that many trains routed through Flagstaff, and the world’s population isn’t near what it used to be. So if you ran the probabilities—”

  “All right, point taken. I’m still glad we ran into her.”

  “I don’t disagree with you.”

  Finn lapsed into silence, eyes still closed. Train tickets were expensive. How much had it cost the government to send them to this City?

  “All that money spent on defense, and we couldn’t fucking find a cure for cancer.”

  “Stop reading my thoughts and let me catch some sleep,” Finn sent.

  His brother complied, and Finn fell into a fitful doze, waking four hours later. Fully rested and energized, he dressed himself and went to relieve Gareth.

  “I don’t need you to spell me.” His brother looked up as he approached. He sat on an overturned bucket across from Mari’s front door, watching and waiting.

  “She’s asleep now,” Finn pointed out. “You might as well sleep while she’s sleeping.”

  “You’ll wake me when she does, then.” His tone brooked no argument, and he stood only reluctantly. “Goddamn. I don’t think I’ll relax until we’re out of here.”

  “Neither will I.” Finn settled in to wait. He’d long since mastered the art of entertaining himself during long stretches of downtime. Concealed in the shadows, he watched the streets of Scar City. Its denizens were mostly asleep, although there were more than a handful of hardcore junkies who called this City home—mainly Turquoise addicts who huffed the blue-green, chemically manufactured powder.

  Turquoise was cheap, once you had the facilities to make it, and the stuff was apparently hard to overdose on. Out here, there seemed to be a never-ending supply of it. Turq tended to make people boisterous, active, with an aggressive edge. Not an environment he wanted his woman to stay in.

  He frowned into the darkness. My woman? Yet the words felt right, despite their short acquaintance. Even now, so soon after taking her, he wanted her again.

  His cock was stirring to life again at the mere thought of sex with Mari. He’d thoroughly enjoyed taking her ass last night, gentling past her initial resistance until she actually screamed with release. Finn sighed, shifting atop his perch so his erection didn’t strain against his jeans quite so much. He wished he could go into the house now, find her room, and kiss her until she woke up.

  He gave himself a mental shake, running a hand through his short black hair. He’d accused Gareth of moving quickly—what was he thinking? Hell, they hadn’t even discussed rules. Were there rules in this situation? He’d never considered discussing this with the one pair of Twins they knew with a wife. They would have to have a chat once they got back to Chicago.<
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  As dawn approached, the howls of the aliens dissipated, leaving a brief, eerie silence. Then a pair of roosters began to crow, making Finn smile. As a boy, he’d often wished he could live in the country instead of at the Complex. After the Invasion, the country came to him, in a way.

  The Complex, once full of state-of-the-art technology, now boasted a roof garden and greenhouses—once used for experiments—chock-full of crops. The courtyard housed goats, who were built-in lawnmowers and also their source of milk. Chickens roamed freely.

  Mari would like it there, he thought. As their openly acknowledged woman—wife, if she wanted it—she would be a trailblazer of sorts, but she could handle that. She was strong, resilient.

  “And if the scientists tell us we cannot have her?”

  “Gareth, you’ve only been asleep three hours.”

  “I’m perfectly rested. Seriously—you know how some of the scientists have frowned upon what Mitch and Jake have going on with Arianna. The way they push birth control on everyone makes me think they want to continue to control us.”

  “It’s been two days since we met her. Let’s slow down a little, take things one issue at a time.”

  Gareth sent the mental equivalent of a huff, and Finn tried not to smile. In all honesty, he was ecstatic that Gareth was coming out of his shell, showing affection and real interest in something other than pure survival or fighting aliens.

  In the back of his mind, he was aware that his brother was on the move. Judging by the uppermost thoughts in his head, he was searching for breakfast. Stretching, Finn rose from his seat and began to pace the alleyway, limbering up his muscles as the sun spilled golden across the decaying City. On his tenth lap, Gareth appeared, clutching a bag of food, and Finn raised his eyebrows at the delectable smell. Freshly baked pastries?

  “Who’d you kill to get that?” he asked.

  “I found a little bakery of sorts on my way here. Bought every muffin they had. Stupid expensive, but the smell got me just right.” Gareth glanced toward the door of the house they’d been watching over all night.

  “Hope she doesn’t like to sleep in,” Finn said.

  “I hope she does. Then we’d have an excuse to hand-feed her muffins in bed.”

  “Way too messy.” Finn gave his Twin a sidelong look as they approached the door. He’d have to get it through Gareth’s head that Mari needed some freedom, at least.

  Finn rapped on the door, and a low growl sounded behind the wood, followed by a bark. He met Gareth’s eyes in wry approval. They’d both been tacitly wondering how the elderly woman, Patrice, had managed to live alone in this City. A good guard dog, however, would put off all but the most desperate junkie.

  There was a shuffling behind the door, an eye pressed to the peephole, and a long pause. Then: “If you’re looking to kill Barks, you’re in the wrong place.”

  Finn quelled Gareth with a nudge. His brother didn’t do diplomacy, but Finn put on his most charming smile. He held the bag in front of the peephole. “We brought some muffins for Mari.”

  “Huh. Muffins?”

  “Yeah, I think we got too many. Might need help eating them.”

  Chains rattled, and the door cracked open. “How much help?”

  “Lots.” Finn increased the wattage of his smile. “You don’t need the gun, lady.”

  “I might do, if you don’t behave.”

  “Depends on what you mean by that.” Even Gareth smiled now.

  Patrice snorted, pushing the door all the way open. She was on the short side, five foot four or so, but she looked as if she’d brook no nonsense. Tightly curled gray hair crowned her head. Her face was wrinkled and dark as a prune.

  Setting the butt of her rifle down, she regarded them. “I wouldn’t be allowing you in if I hadn’t seen the expression on her face yesterday. When you were passing by in the road, she wasn’t afraid of you. In fact, she looked wistful, like she kinda wished you’d seen her duckin’ down behind my rocking chair.”

  “Wistful?” Finn asked.

  “Yep, I’d say so.” She took hold of her dog’s collar and led him to a blanket in the corner. “Down, Tank. Stay.”

  The Rottweiler complied but kept his eyes trained on the Twins. Gareth gave him a once-over. “Good guard dog. Barked once but didn’t keep yapping once you knew we were here.”

  “I used to be a trainer. Most of my dogs had Schutzhund titles.” Patrice gestured toward the kitchen table. “Tank is my last. He more than earns his keep, but it’s slim pickings for humans, let alone dogs.”

  Finn could see that. Patrice’s arms were bonier than they should be. It hadn’t been easy for the remaining humans to survive once most of the ready sources of food had been looted. Still wasn’t easy, even though people were adapting.

  “So you kept your dogs through the Invasion and its aftermath,” Gareth commented. “A fine woman,” he sent. “Clearly she feeds him better than she does herself, though.”

  “Yep. Tank was part of my very last litter—my last remaining bitch produced two pups. I kept Tank and sold the other to a friend.”

  “Twins,” Gareth mused. “Funny how nature has a mind of its own. The scientists initially tried to breed us in litters. More bang for their buck.”

  “I bet that made you feel real good, like a human instead of an animal.”

  Gareth laughed. Actually laughed. “I like you, Patrice.”

  “Yep, well, I’ll see if I like you after I scarf down one of your muffins.” But she smiled.

  Finn breathed out in relief. Gareth could be more than touchy when it came to the topic of how Twins had been created. The scientists who’d created them hadn’t thought twice about screwing with DNA, essentially creating superhumans who were physically superior to normal people. Those scientists tended to totally disregard any emotions the Twins expressed, viewing them as born soldiers who were bred to take commands with nothing more than stoic acceptance.

  That attitude was mostly over. Mostly. Vestiges of it persisted, with the Twins still tightly controlled in some areas.

  A smell of warm muffins filled the house as Gareth laid them out on the kitchen table. Finn’s mouth watered. They hadn’t eaten much last night since they’d been too busy searching for Mari. Instinctively, he turned to seek her, looking through the small kitchen-diner door toward the steps.

  “Maybe we should wake her,” Gareth sent.

  “No, I think that’s too much, too soon. She wanted space.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet.”

  “I don’t want her to bolt.” Finn met Gareth’s eyes in silent warning. “We need to handle this right.”

  His brother sat, albeit reluctantly, and tucked into a muffin studded with dried fruit. Patrice flicked a gaze toward Tank and chose a seeded one.

  “Take one for the dog too,” Finn said, and she cast him a grateful gaze, biting into her chosen muffin immediately.

  “Good call, otherwise she would have shorted herself again.” Gareth’s comment was tacit apology, one Finn accepted with a slight nod. Finn looked over at his brother as he ate, and caught the instant his Twin stiffened, head coming up like a panther scenting prey.

  Finn followed his gaze and saw Mari standing uncertainly on the stairs. Clad in a thin nightgown, barefoot and with tousled hair, she looked like a sleepy angel. His cock immediately twitched to life.

  “Now who’s being too hasty?”

  Finn ignored his brother, smiling at Mari. “Come down and have a muffin with us, sweet girl.”

  “I—I should get dressed.”

  “Eat first. Would you like a blueberry or a raisin muffin?”

  Mari placed her foot on the next step, as if drawn toward them by a magnet. “There’s blueberries in that muffin?”

  “Dehydrated, maybe, but it tastes like sheer heaven,” Patrice said through
a mouthful. She patted the chair beside her and that seemed to be all the remaining impetus Mari needed to come forward.

  Finn slid her a blueberry muffin and tried not to stare as she nibbled its edges, closing her eyes in bliss. For a few minutes, everybody concentrated solely on eating. A decent breakfast, something he had taken for granted pre-Invasion, was now a luxury. Gone were the days of toast, bacon, sausages and other standard breakfast fare. You ate what you had on hand, or you went hungry.

  Occasionally, a looter would uncover a bottle of maple syrup and trade it to the Compound. Then they would cook French toast, a rare treat these days. Finn’s gaze went back to Mari, who was taking the last bite of her muffin with evident satisfaction. She closed her eyes for a few moments, giving him—and Gareth—the opportunity to blatantly stare their fill.

  Her red nightgown was modest, covering her to the neck, mid-arm and past the knees. The material, however, was thin, affording them a glimpse of her nipples pressed against the fabric. She was naturally curvy, although she could certainly stand to eat a few more solid meals.

  Turnips, Finn thought in disgust, and quickly averted his gaze when Mari opened her eyes. She squirmed, dividing a curious look between him and Gareth.

  “She totally caught us staring,” his brother sent. “She’s blushing.”

  “Guess we’re not too slick.”

  “No, but I hope she is.”

  Finn hid a grin, then sobered as Patrice stood. She reached for a cane that hung on a peg behind her chair, leaning on it as she walked toward the Rottweiler. Finn was willing to bet that the cane had a blade hidden inside—there was a subtly placed lever on the side that probably triggered a concealed knife.

  Bending to feed the dog his muffin, Patrice straightened and regarded the Twins for a moment. “Would you mind housesitting for an hour? I haven’t been out of here since my last lodger. Didn’t want to leave this place unattended.”

  “When did your last lodger leave?” Mari sounded horrified.

  “Oh, last week. I only take trustworthy-looking people on, which is why I called out to you when I saw you walking past.” Patrice clipped a leash to Tank’s collar as the dog finished sniffing around for the last crumbs. “I have a friend who lives a few streets over and I stockpile food, so I’m never in any need. But it’s nice to get out and about sometimes.”