Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (23 page)

Less than a year ago Savior located one of Gideon’s most lucrative overseas investments and seized the funds for his own use. Since then, Gideon’s resources had fallen into decline for the first time in decades. At their current rate of decay he could support the team for only a few more years. His impending financial ruin wasn't what caused the tightness behind Gideon's eyes, however. It was the fact that as quickly as the money was disappearing, it still might outlast the human race.

The clearance code came through, and Gideon guided the shuttle off the platform and into the night sky. Beside him, Nikki sat deep in the passenger seat with her knees pulled up against her chest. She’d spoken very little on the walk back to the docking tower, and not at all after climbing into the shuttle. She sat in silence, gingerly touching her swollen cheekbone and split lip and casting dark glances at Cole hunched in the back seat.

"So you guys know each other," she said finally. It wasn’t a question. Gideon hadn’t expected it to be. Nikki was sharper than she liked to let on, which was to be expected considering her genes.

Gideon glanced at Cole in the rearview, not surprised to see his unwavering stare locked on Nikki. Had the situation been different, Gideon might have been pleased that his plan for securing the man had worked exactly as he’d anticipated. Cole Magnusun hadn't come with them by choice, however, not entirely. He'd come because Gideon had known exactly which of the man’s buttons to press. He’d known exactly how to manipulate him.
 

When they were younger, Gideon had been in awe of Hale's ability to manipulate people seemingly without effort. Crippled by his own social awkwardness, Gideon had tried to emulate his friend, to duplicate through focus and study what came naturally to the man who would one day become Savior. He succeeded, in his own way. Gideon’s manipulation was more obvious and far less elegant. His was a bludgeon to Savior’s scalpel, but it was no less effective. His success brought him none of the joy and comfort he’d once believed it would, however. He’d tied Elias to him, maneuvered the Daemon into the uneasy agreement that kept them useful, convinced Nikki he was only trying to help her. And, greatest of all his sins, made Michael believe the choice to give up his life for his sister was his own.
 

Now he’d trapped Cole in his web as well, all too easily. All he’d had to do was put Nikki in place and wind her up. She couldn't resist stepping up to save him, not once her subconscious made the connection between Cole's situation and her own, the connection Gideon had known it would make, and once she acted, Cole couldn’t help but see the resemblance in her. He couldn’t help but recognize her reckless passion and stubborn will to fight. He couldn’t help but make the painful connection Gideon knew he would make.
 

Gideon had used Cole to draw out the hero he needed Nikki to become, and used that hero to strike the one place Cole was vulnerable, but the guilt he should have felt for doing so didn't touch him. He'd retreated behind the emotional barrier, the one gift of his alien side he'd learned to treasure since his failure with Michael.
 

"We do," Gideon replied. Cole met his eyes in the rearview and continued to stare after Gideon returned his gaze to the dark hills outside. "Or we did. Long ago."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Nikki snapped, fixing Gideon with a glare he ignored. "If you knew each other, you know each other. A simple yes is all I needed. You're such a drama queen."

A rumble from the back seat could have been a growl or a deep laugh, but Cole's shadowed face remained stony and impassive.

"And that Daemon guy?" Nikki went on. "You knew him too."

"The Daemon," Gideon corrected, though he didn't relish explaining their creation in front of Cole. Some memories were better left in the past.

"What, like the Pope?"

Gideon considered and rejected several ways to explain before settling on simplicity and vagueness. "Daemon is what they call themselves as a group. They don't share their individual names with outsiders, not even those of us who know their origin."

Nikki grunted her feelings on that before asking the obvious. "And their origin is…?"

"You should know, little slip," Cole growled from the back seat.
 

Nikki's eyes tightened at Cole's words, but she just studied him for a minute in silence before turning back to Gideon. "So—Savior."

Gideon nodded. "The Daemon were his final attempt to create soldiers by blending human DNA with that of the alien I brought back with me through the Gateway." He flexed his taloned hand carefully before lowering it back to the controls, memories of those first years after E-Day, before he'd seen Savior's path, still vivid in his mind.

"Soldiers, huh?" Nikki barked a laughed. "Tried for soldiers, ended up with gypsy club rats. Another epic fail for Savior. You know, for somebody who's loved by all, he sure screws up a lot."

"The Daemon did prove uncontrollable, and less physically powerful than previous attempts," Gideon said evenly, avoiding Cole's eyes in the mirror. "But dangerous nonetheless. They have abilities that should not be underestimated."

"You mean the ones you didn't warn me about? You know, when you failed to prep me at all before we walked in there. What exactly was it they were doing to me in there, before things got rough?"

"Feeding," Gideon replied. "More precisely, bingeing. Human emotion is like a drug to them. They can sense it, draw it out, drink it in as energy. The more volatile the personality—" He glanced over at her. "The more powerful the emotion, the stronger the Daemons' high."

"So, what's the big secret there?" she said, craning her head closer to the console to try to get in Gideon's line of sight. He pretended he didn't notice, even though his field of vision out of his alien eye was wider than the other. "Why couldn't you just say that before we went? Instead, you had to be all—" Her voice dropped into a crudely inaccurate approximation of his. "—only you can persuade him."
 

"Unless you wanted me to persuade them to pound on me, that is," she went on. "If that was the plan—doneski. Otherwise, you suck at plans."

Cole laughed, the sound a rich, rolling growl with just a skim of mirth riding the bitterness underneath. "This little slip burns hot."
 

"That slip business is getting old, hillbilly." Nikki twisted to shift her glare to Cole. "What's your story anyway?" Gideon looked over to see her sizing Cole up. "Wait, don't tell me. Gideon said you knew each other 'long ago,' and I'm guessing he meant long to him, not long to me. So—a really long time. That makes you older than you look, and that's gotta be really old. No offense."

Cole growled, but he looked almost amused in the rearview.

"My guess—you're one of Savior's little projects," she went on. "So which failure are you?"

"Guess again," Cole said.

When Gideon turned to look at her, Nikki was eyeing Cole like she didn't believe him. She knew she was right, and she was, for the most part.

"Cole was the first," Gideon said.

"The first what—man?"

"Savior's first and only success with the alien DNA," Gideon said, glancing at the mirror to gauge Cole's reaction. He didn't want to dredge through the past more than necessary, not until he'd tied Cole to Nikki more securely.

Cole's bright green eyes locked onto Gideon's in the mirror and the mirth disappeared. "I know what you're doing, old man." The intensity in his nearly glowing green eyes was almost enough to breach the emotional wall. "It won't work. I'm deciding which of those black limbs to beat you to death with for sticking your claws where they don't belong. Know that."

"The Daemon would not give you what you want," Gideon said, matching Cole glare for glare. "You must have seen that by now."

"And you think you can?" There was more challenge than question in Cole's voice, and that, more than his regenerative powers, was the true reason he was still alive. As desperately as he wanted the release he'd been seeking for years, his nature simply refused to cooperate. It wasn't in him, or the alien DNA inside him, to back down and surrender. His quest was futile, as he well knew.

"No," Gideon said simply, glancing at Nikki briefly before returning his gaze to the sky. Then he tied the last knot, the one he knew would bind Cole to them until the end, even if all others failed. "But Nikki can."
 

He met Cole's stare again. "She will," he said.
 

Cole's eyes narrowed at that word. He picked up on the implication. He knew what Gideon could do. Thanks to their history, he had no reason to doubt Gideon's visions, no reason to doubt their interpretation, unlike the others.

"
She's
still sitting right here," Nikki snapped, "and she's got an idea. Since you two can't seem to talk to me like a person, or make any sense at all for that matter, let's all play stick-a-sock-in-it. My head is killing me."

She fell silent and tried to rub her temples, only to curse in pain when she hit her swollen cheek. In the rearview, Gideon saw Cole watching her. His eyes were as feral as ever, but with his gaze on Nikki the intensity softened just enough to reassure Gideon that he'd made the right choice recruiting the man, made the right choice trusting his instincts.

Gideon believed Cole would be able to track the creatures, and fight them if needed, but that's not why he'd sought the man out. Cole had something Nikki had lost, something she needed back if she was to have any hope of surviving what was to come. He had a lesson to teach—

Nikki noticed Cole's stare and twisted in the seat to shoot back one of her own. "Eyes front, hillbilly. I don't know what's in that nappy old head of yours, but I've got nothing you want here, no matter what Gimpy the Pimp over there says."
 

—assuming Nikki was willing to learn.
 

She turned back and trailed off in mumbled curses that gained volume only at key words like "dirty old bastards."

From the back seat, a low rumble grew into deep, rolling laughter without a trace of bitterness this time.

*
 
*
 
*

When Gideon climbed out of the shuttle into the dusky orange light of the hangar, Elias was waiting. Gideon had expected as much. Convincing Elias to entrust him with Nikki's safety had been a delicate dance for Gideon, one he felt he'd performed clumsily at the time. Elias had given his consent, but Gideon had suspected he was anything but happy about doing so. Seeing him waiting in the doorway of the hangar confirmed that suspicion.

Leaning against the doorway at the top of the steps, arms crossed, Elias could have been perfectly at ease. His lack of expression said otherwise. When Nikki climbed out, straightening up slowly with a wince, the blasé pretense melted. Elias pushed away from the door and strode down the steps to her, his concern manifesting as anger.
 

"Remind me not to go out with Gideon again," Nikki groaned through a stretch.

"What happened?" Elias said evenly, despite his thunderhead expression.
 

"I got my ears yapped off, that's what," Nikki complained. "These two wouldn't shut up."

He gently brushed aside a lock of blue-black hair to look at Nikki's swollen eye. "This didn't come from talking."

Cole climbed from the back of the shuttle, his size making the vehicle look ridiculous by comparison. Elias reacted immediately. He took a half step to put himself between Nikki and the massive man, his hand dropping to his sidearm. But he stopped there. Cole had been in the shuttle with Nikki for over an hour, after all. If he was going to cause her harm, he could have done so long before now. Elias had to be thinking the same thing. Gideon could practically see the thought progression in his eyes. Besides, he knew Cole. His reaction had been instinctive, a soldier's reaction to a threat. More than that—it was a father's reaction.

Cole wasn't bothered. If anything, he looked amused, which might have caused trouble were he facing a less controlled soldier. Even among veteran officers, Elias stood out for his self control, his lack of ego. More precisely, he stood out for his ability to recognize impulses born of ego and will them aside in favor of logic and common sense. Gideon hadn't chosen his ally at random.

Gideon stepped in to ease the tension. He needed these men to work together, if not in a friendly manner, at least in a trusting one. A confrontation now would only make his work that much harder.
 

Once he explained the conflict at Avalon and how Cole stepped in to save Nikki, Elias relaxed, albeit only slightly. In truth, Nikki had done the saving, but only Gideon and Cole knew the full extent of that truth, and only Gideon considered it a good thing.

"Let's get you to the infirmary," Elias said.
 

"I'm fine, really." Nikki pushed away, gently brushing off Elias's hand. She wasn't used to being cared for, not by anyone in this room, at least. Gideon suspected that a part of her wanted, even needed, the contact, but the greater part of her was not ready to accept them into her life in any obvious way. What few inroads the others had made with her had come through stealth, not open overture. Nikki's defenses were too strong. If she saw kindness coming, its destruction was assured.

"I just need some time away from Jabberdy Anne and Andy," she said, stepping around Elias and heading for the door.
 

Elias looked like he was going to argue but wisely held his tongue when Nikki turned and backed up the steps to give them a double thumbs-up and a tired grin. "Really, all good here." Then she was gone, leaving the three of them alone.

"Elias, if you would show Cole to empty quarters—"

"No," Cole cut in. "But thanks," he added after a pause. "I've been inside too long. Besides," his green-eyed gaze dipped toward Gideon's alien side, "I need to get the scent of what I'm hunting."

Gideon nodded.

"You have a way out with a shorter first step?" Cole asked with a nod at the hangar doors.