Gravity (44 page)

smell of brisket in the air.

Justus strode into the room wearing only a pair of silk boxers and my silver necklace.

Simon’s eyebrows shot up, his jaw hit the floor, and he went into silent laughter with his hands

over his knees.

“Subtle,” I said, pointing at his jewelry.

I’d had very few glimpses of Justus when his guard was down. If it wasn’t the ego from the

flocks of women who adored him, it was his quiet side that got in the way of me seeing who the

real Justus was. Now he stood before me as a gentle man. He laughed and showed no sign of

embarrassment—not even a scowl. I’d never seen him walking around in his underwear in all the

time I’d known him. Frankly, I was a little mortified.

“Did Page go home?”

He moved past us into the kitchen and lifted a tall glass from the cabinet. “She’s asleep.”

“I just bet she is.” Simon snickered. “All tuckered out?”

“Do you have a problem?” Justus asked with a raised eyebrow, leaning casually against the

counter. He crossed his feet, and his relaxed posture almost sent a wallop of laughter out of my

mouth as I turned my back to him.

Simon winked at me and walked by with a serious face. “Do you mind slipping into something a

little less… dramatic? There are Learners present,” he said, clucking his tongue.

“Jealous? Maybe we should hug it out,” Justus teased.

I barked out a laugh. They often shared banter as old friends do, but this was over the top.

Simon folded his arms. “No, I’m afraid I can’t bring myself to do it, Justus. You’re all… dewy.”

That was my cue to leave. “I’m just going to pretend that someone gave you two a

hallucinogenic and this will all go away. I’ll be downstairs; I need to give Logan a call.”

I headed down the hall as Simon’s hyena laugh echoed through the house.

***

It may have been chilly, but I had dressed for winter in a tightly zipped-up hoodie, fingerless

mittens, and my black furry boots, which were becoming my current fashion statement.

The bell jingled when I opened the door, and the smell of Chinese food wafted from the

entrance room. Novis sat in a corner booth next to one of those cheap pictures you see at the mall

that light up a moving waterfall. I made my way to the buffet and filled up my plate, taking the

seat in front of him. He didn’t look impressed with the lemon chicken.

“This is different.” I folded the mitten attachments away from my fingers, securing them on the

back of the glove with the tiny button.

“Cool gloves.”

“Simon got me into these, except mine are less… leathery.” I could keep my hands warm and

still use the chopsticks. “Ever been here before?”

He shook his head. “I’m having second thoughts, but some of it seems edible.”

“I have something serious to discuss with you.”

He lifted his plastic cup and sipped on his tea. “I’m ears and all.”

I didn’t even bother to correct him. “I’m seeking your advice, or maybe just giving you a heads

up.” My chopsticks tapped on the plate as he watched me in absolute silence, fingers laced

together.

A little girl with brown ringlets all over her head ran up to our table and held out her hand. A

miniature Barbie was in it with hair sticking out in every direction. She was just a toddler and

smiled at Novis. He leaned over and looked her in the eye, smiling back. He had such an agreeable

young face with piercing eyes and black hair. He patted her on the head and she giggled, spinning

on her heel and darting off to another table. Her mother followed close behind, snapping her

fingers impatiently.

“Logan is in a lot of trouble. I’m not sure how much has been circulated, but you know what

happened with Tarek. That could mean a death sentence for him. I won’t allow it, Novis. We have

testimonial evidence from the scientist that my mother was a Chitah, and it might be enough for

me to keep him safe. The only way he could be absolved of the crime is if he can prove that I’m his

kindred spirit.”

“You realize the repercussions of your actions? You may save one life, but at the expense of

how many more?”

“How long do you think this can remain a secret? The knowledge is already out there and we

have no idea how many other people know about it. Could be a dozen, but it could be hundreds.

Can we spend the rest of our lives chasing down something we’ll never have a full grasp on? If it

leaks out eventually, then what was the point of this?”

His arm almost knocked the tea over and he quickly grabbed it, setting it beside the napkin

holder. “What if you’re wrong, Silver? What if we can stop this? If you expose it, then we have lost

the opportunity.”

Novis ran his finger over his bottom lip.

“What if? What if? Isn’t that what hindsight is for? To tell us what we should have done? But

we live in the present and can’t possibly know all the outcomes of our actions. What if we expose

the truth and people collaborate to protect the Breed and take these men out? What if it has no

impact one way or the other? What if a new race is created? Life goes on, Novis, or it doesn’t. But

we can’t control life; we’re not gods.”

“True, but if you knew that crossing the street in a busy intersection would cause a car to

crash, would you still do it?”

“It depends. Am I going into the street to save someone from getting hit by the car?”

Novis watched me carefully with amusement on his face and wisdom in his ancient eyes.

“Heard of the butterfly effect?”

“Don’t even go there, because I can one-up you on that. Back to your scenario. What if I didn’t

rush into traffic and I let that person die? As a result, all civilization ends fifty years from now

because of that one event. It could go either way. We can only follow our instinct, but there’s no

way to see the domino effect of our actions.”

Depressed, I dropped my chopsticks and stared at my plate. It was hard to eat Chinese food

with another man, because it had become a “Logan and me” thing.

“Silver, I am your employer, not your warden. I cannot stop you from whatever you intend to

do. Just be prepared for any consequences to your actions. You may not see them now, but they

will come.”

“All actions have consequences, Novis. That can’t be helped.”

“I’m sorry that you must make such choices.”

“Not your fault.”

“Of course it’s not,” he mused. “We’ve all been faced with difficult decisions in our lifetime, but

I’m pleased that you’ve uncovered the truth. It must come as a relief to finally know who you are.”

I removed my gloves and set them on the table. “I don’t know everything about who I am. My

mother isn’t my real mother—just a surrogate who carried a fertilized egg. All this time, my mom

was a Chitah human child. My real mother I may never know, and there’s still a big question mark

over who my father is. Jesus, what if I’m related to Logan?”

Novis literally fell back laughing, slapping his hand on the table and drawing a few inquisitive

eyes. His laugh was animated and completely unexpected.

“It’s not funny,” I murmured.

He sipped his drink and snorted out a little tea. “Let me assure you that you are not related to

Logan Cross. I am a very old Mage, and I know a lot about many different Breeds. Chitahs know

their own blood; there’s a connection between them that can’t be explained. Logan would never

be able to bed a woman that gave him a… sister vibe. It goes against everything in his nature.”

Novis snorted out a few more laughs. “I do apologize; I didn’t mean to make light of this. Logan is

not your relation. The same way a Chitah knows their soul mate is similar to the way they know

their siblings. You could split apart twins at birth, put them in a crowded room full of people, and

not only would they find each other but they would know they were related. I’ve personally

witnessed this myself. A young Chitah once grew curious about his human son after the baby was

given up for adoption. He’d never seen the child since birth, but after a long search, he located the

school the boy went to and somehow managed to nose him out.”

“Good to know.”

Meanwhile, my inner self threw her head down on the table and sighed in relief. Then I

wondered about Logan’s human sister, Sadie, and if he’d ever try to find her.

Novis dipped his finger in a puddle of sauce and his expression soured when he tasted it.

“Whatever path you choose, Silver, you will have my support.”

“It feels like no matter what choice I make, I’m going to betray someone.” I leaned back in my

seat with a huff. “I think I need some rose-colored glasses for Christmas.”

Novis laughed cheerfully and stole a piece of beef from my plate. “I can arrange for that.”

I scraped my fingers through my hair and rested my elbows on the table. “How’s Sunny? Did

she wake up yet?”

Novis nodded and pulled in his lips to lick them. “She’s damaged from this tragedy. This is why

I once warned you about growing attached to things that die so quickly.”

“I’ll love my friend, whether she dies tomorrow, or a thousand years from now. We’ve already

had this discussion and if you can’t see how precious life is, then what have you really learned

through immortality? I want to see her.”

“That can be arranged. She needs someone to speak to her.”

“Why haven’t you?”

He straightened his shoulders and looked uncomfortable with the topic… and quite familiar with

it at the same time.

“You can’t give consoling words to a woman who has watched her lover die in her arms.” His

eyes looked down and a glimmer of emotion sparked in his face before disappearing. “Let’s enjoy

what we can salvage of this dinner, shall we? Too much discussion of serious matters; let’s not fill

personal time with woes. So often, people will pollute table conversations with words that spoil the

taste of food and drink. I’ve learned in my life that there is always time for both. I have given you

my answer. Now tell me more about Page,” he said with a curious quirk of his brow.

***

The thing about Relics is that they aren’t just a plethora of information—they’re a sponge.

Particularly with any knowledge related to the Breed. Each generation not only inherits the

knowledge from their ancestors, but has an opportunity to build upon this to pass along to their

own children.

While Christian had performed a complete memory scrub, no one knew if Slater’s would be

permanent. Maybe he’d never regain his memory, but the knowledge was potentially hard-coded

to his genetic memory, so he would be carefully monitored. It didn’t occur to us until we were

sitting at the table discussing it with Page, who was now fully involved through no fault of her

own. She insisted that no physical harm come to him, and on Justus’s word, that would be so.

I lent her some clothes, uncertain if I should ask how permanent the situation was between her

and Justus. I’d never seen him bring a woman home before, and now I was wondering if I would

be forced to sleep upstairs if she moved in. Just the idea that I might overhear Justus in the throes

of ecstasy made me crash on the sofa the next evening.

The wall monitors were set up to display a starlit night, and I was curled up on the sofa in the

dark room, stargazing.

“I haven’t forced you to sleep up here, have I?”

Page walked into the room, wrapped in a dark green blanket.

“No. I’m having a little insomnia,” I said, watching a shooting star blaze across the screen. “A

lot going on in my head.”

“Do you mind?” she asked, pointing at the spot beside me. I shrugged and she sat down,

throwing the blanket around both of us. Page tucked the edge around my legs. “There. Snug as a

bug in a rug.”

The indentations in her nose were more pronounced; she must have been recently reading.

She absently rubbed them and yawned.

Max sauntered into the room and collapsed on the rug before us—stretching out his beautiful

black body and licking his front paw. He had adapted nicely to his new home and had already

claimed a few spots in the house as his. Justus scolded him whenever he caught him licking the

monitors on the lower end of the wall, but Max had always been a window-licker.

Page sat to my right with her legs curled up. “He’s lucky, you know. To have you in his life. You

do so much for him and I hope he realizes it.”

“Thanks. Why does everything have to be so damn hard? Now that I know what I want in my

life, it could be taken away from me.”

Page touched the ends of her brown hair and smiled wistfully as she recited a few lines:

“Doubt thou the stars are fire,

Doubt that the sun doth move,

Doubt truth to be a liar,

But never doubt I love.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear, watching another shooting star blaze across the screen.

“What is that?”

“Shakespeare,” she said with a light chuckle. “I’ve always loved that verse.”

“Why did Slater take you?”

The shine in her eyes wore away. “He was trying to impregnate me. All that crap they’ve been

doing over the years, and he thought he had some kind of epiphany. He primed me up with