Secret Worlds (487 page)

She rubbed her hands through her hair, mussing it in frustration. He could see the very direct Lena was both frustrated by and not particularly good at being circumspect. Alex had to assume she wanted to spare Jackson the details behind her theory, because it certainly wasn’t because she was remotely shy about sex. Either way, it didn’t matter to him.

“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” He squinted at her. “What happened was related to you and me, not how I was talking to the Dust. They’re machines. You think it was because I was whispering them sweet nothings?” Alex lowered his voice to a husky murmur. “‘Dust, when I put my lips here, you spark out over there.’ Is that what you think?”

Jackson stopped nodding agreement, going still and stoic beside him.

“Well, if that’s how you were going to do it, I’d think your bedroom manner needs work.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my bedroom manner, as you damn well know.”

“Exactly!” She tossed a look at Jackson and held up a finger to keep him from walking away. Her face flushed with frustration and temper under the freckles. “Alex, when you were…using your bedroom manner, were you ordering the Dust to respond? Or were you focused and…seductive? Because whatever you were doing, it was successful.”

He smirked.

“Stop it. That’s not the point.”

“What is the point?” Jackson demanded.

Was he not enjoying the conversation as much as Alex?

“The point is you don’t go around thinking about the Dust affectionately. But I do.” She held up her hands and shrugged. “I think it’s a male-female thing,” she continued. “We express ourselves differently. And yes, I know, intellectually, they are machines. But I don’t get how you cannot feel affection for something that is always
there
, waiting to do what you want. It’s so eager to please. How can you not respond to the constant comfort of knowing—?”

“What do you mean by ‘always there’?” Jackson interrupted.

“Always there. Waiting. You know, at the back of your mind. Can’t you feel them, even kind of hear them, all the time?”

And suddenly Alex understood. He rolled his eyes and rocked forward, burying his face in his hands as he let loose a string of curses.

Jackson, who must have understood a moment behind him, tried to explain Alex’s frustration to the mystified Lena. “The first lesson we get when we get to the Ward School is how to keep from accessing the Dust when we don’t mean to, so we can keep ourselves and everyone else safe.”

Alex looked up. It made absolute sense. “We learn how to block it off. They teach us to silence it except when it’s needed for charging. It’s the first series of lessons for every powered child, whether they rate the Ward School or not. Except for you. You didn’t stay in school long enough to shut it out. You learned to listen. And I’m guessing it liked being heard.”

***

Alex bent over the lockbox at the door, not in any particular hurry. Jackson and Lena laughed as they came up the street arm-in-arm behind him, posing as a young couple out too late. Alex wasn’t worried about this stretch of their journey. They’d already made it through the worst of the public streets without any attention. Fortunately, the “new prosperity” Councilor Three bandied about in his speeches meant it was no longer uncommon for young people to be out at obscene hours.

They turned into the alley. He waited inside the entry. As soon as they joined him, Jackson dropped her hand like it had burned him. She rolled her eyes as she passed Alex, leaving the two men together in the small space. He was tempted to comment, but Jackson had done the job. Anyone who had been paying attention would have believed they were a young couple drunk on love.

“Let me get her settled in then I’ll take you around through the gates so you can check in proper.”

Jackson gave him a restrained nod. No more babysitting. Jackson was now Agent Lee.

Alex entered the small living area as Lena returned from the tiny hallway at the back which held the entrances to the three tiny sleeping areas and one bathroom. He gave her a grimace of apology, knowing she’d be stuck here for the week. “It’s small.”

She laughed. “It’s positively palatial compared to the last one. And the kitchen is ‘wow.’”

He nodded and looked over at the kitchen opening on the left of the living area. Bigger than the main area, it had broad counters, a wide, energy-sucking refrigerator, and an old-style stove. Even the sink was wide and roomy.

“The kitchen is the point,” he told her. “You’re going to be spending most of the next week learning how to cook Three’s favorite meals from memory.”

“I—what? Why?”

“Because that’s your cover.”

“I’m a cook?”

He wasn’t sure her face could be any more doubtful. He wished he’d bothered to ask if she could cook. He’d assumed, since she lived alone, she could. She’d have to be a fast learner. Done was done.

Instead of voicing his concerns, he nodded. “You are a cook. It was the easiest placement and the best way to keep you out of Three’s sight. He has very specific tastes. He takes a chef and one assistant from his favorite restaurant for himself and his senior staff. You are the sous chef. This keeps you out of view, for the most part. Three is the only one who can ID you concretely—Hernandez is dead, Lucas is gone, and no one else got significant face time.”

“What about the guards who were in the room? The ones who brought my Mom? They left, but they were in there for a little while.”

“They’re not an issue.”

She raised her brows at the stern certainty, but she let it stand. “And the chef? He’s okay with this?”

He felt satisfaction and knew it reflected in his smile. “The chef is absolutely okay with this. In fact, I’d say he’s eager to start.”

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What did you do?”

Alex shrugged. “I didn’t do anything.” He changed the subject, gesturing down the small hallway. “You have your pick of the bedrooms. Jackson will be in temporary Agent housing because he’s official now. My people will be drifting in to leave status updates. Use them to give you feedback on the cooking.” He grinned. “We’ll have your official papers by Thursday, and you’ll show up for inspection and placement on Friday with everyone else. It’ll be a madhouse. Three doesn’t travel to Council small.”

She had all the information she needed. He should go. Instead, he paced into the kitchen and opened and closed the pantry and the refrigerator doors, inspecting the contents. Everything was in its place and fully stocked. Of course it was.

Her recipe book rested on the counter. He slid it toward himself to flip through it. “I don’t have to tell you to stay put and work your ass off to learn these recipes, do I?”

“No.” She laughed. “Other than Ace, there’s no reason for me to want to leave.”

“Ace is gone.” He closed the book and handed it to her. “I checked to see if he could keep you company, but he was prepping for his own trip out. He left this morning with the trade caravan. They head in early to be set up and ready for all the Council households and their C-notes. It’s quite the experience.”

She nodded, obviously not surprised. She flipped the pages of the book, but seemed distracted.

Alex waited.

She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it.

“What? Lena, speak up. I need to be confident we have everything dealt with before I leave you alone.”

“I would like to see Danny, if it’s possible?”

Her brother. Alex’s heart fell. He’d been afraid she’d ask for him. “It’s not,” he told her. “In fact, it would be a very bad idea.”

She looked up at him, eyes enormous and ridiculously green, and she shook her head imploringly.

He made himself go on. “He’s not interested in seeing you.” He wanted to be as gentle as possible, but he needed to be thorough.

“Danny was always supportive. He put himself at risk just to be sure I—”

“I know. But after everything happened, he was under a lot of pressure. He was investigated, and then he had your sister to cope with and your mother’s funeral.” Alex sighed. The sister alone would turn anyone sour. He rubbed his mouth. “I’ve been working up in Council Central,” he said, referring to the upper floors where Council business was conducted in a warren of offices by cutthroat aides. “Danny was a rising star. His rise is on hold, and he’s pissed. He’s blaming you. I don’t know how much of that is trying to salvage his career or his life, but I can’t risk you seeing him. A betrayal now would be catastrophic on a number of levels.”

“He would never turn me in.” At Alex’s questioning look, she insisted, “He wouldn’t betray me!”

“I’m not so sure.”

Lena looked at the floor. She picked at one fingernail, shoving her thumbnail into the edge of it over and over until the tip tore away. She made a soft sound and brought the finger to her mouth, sucking the blood away. Her lowered lids and lashes hid her wounded eyes.

It was clear that she wanted to pretend the tears in them were from the nail she’d torn past the quick, but Alex wasn’t fooled. He took a minute to berate himself for feeling sick he’d been the one to hurt her. He couldn’t afford to care. But he did.

He slid his hand along the counter and stepped closer, taking her hand away from her mouth. He looked down at her finger. Blood welled up from the torn nail. He curled his hand around the finger and took a deep breath, focusing his intent.

Nothing happened. The Dust didn’t even swirl in acknowledgment. Alex huffed a nervous laugh and tried again.

“Dust. This should be easy, but I suck at healing. I’m sorry.”

At least he’d made her smile.

“It’s okay. I’ve got it.” The bleeding slowed, and her torn skin grew back together. “See? All better.”

“Not quite.” He drew her hand up to his own mouth and settled his lips on her fingertip, pressing a kiss onto the new skin. He held the kiss for a long moment. Her pupils dilated, and her lips parted, drawing him down deeper.

Let her hand go. Back away. Right now.

Behind him, Jackson exited the bathroom and entered the living space. Alex lifted his head, glancing back at Jackson standing awkwardly behind them, keeping his focus everywhere but on them. Alex returned her hand to her, but waited a long beat before he stepped back.

She sighed, glanced at Jackson, and then refocused on Alex. “So,” she said, her voice almost normal, “do you guys have time to practice dropping that shield you have before you leave? I want to know if I’m right about the Dust. Again.”

“She wants to see Danny.” Alex scrubbed his hands over his face as he brought up the last issue he had to discuss with Thomas tonight before he could head back to Azcon on the train. Just thinking of her face, her vulnerability when she’d asked for her brother, made something inside him tighten. It had been eating at him since the night before.

That wasn’t true. The deception had been eating at him for months.

“She can’t. It’s too dangerous at this point. It’s not possible.”

“I know. That’s what I told her. But with everything she’s been through…He’s essentially the last of her family. I think she needs it.”

“And if he slips? If he tells her what’s really going on? You know how volatile she is. At best, she’d walk away. At worst? She guilts Danny into going with her, and everything we’ve built that hinges on him falls apart. She goes to Ace and shares with him then
he
somehow shows our hand to the wrong people—”

“I told you months ago we should groom him, bring him on board—”

“I won’t trust anyone associated with Dragonfly House. Ever.” Thomas reached up to run his index finger over the smooth, scarred skin under his eye where the slaver’s brand had burned Thomas’s face as a child.

It was an unconscious movement. Thomas had been doing it since they were boys, and always at the mention of anything to do with his childhood captivity. Alex should have called him on his dislike of Ace at the beginning. A current-day entry-level trade house dealer had nothing to do with the decisions and backroom deals of the trade house thirty-odd years ago. Ace shouldn’t pay for what had been done to Thomas before Lena’s friend was even born. And Lena shouldn’t pay by extension.

But the emotional investment in decades of hatred made Thomas intractable. Perhaps if Alex appealed to his friend’s emotions, he could win a small victory for Lena—a private meet-up with her brother?

“You haven’t spent as much time with her as I have.” Alex had to tread carefully. Thomas hated it when he thought Alex was trying to finesse him. “She’s hurting. This would help.”

Thomas shook his head and tapped a finger on the desk in front of him. “There’s more at stake here than her pain and you know it. So you’re going to have to put your dalliance behind you—”

Alex narrowed his eyes and met Thomas’s hard gaze with one of his own.

“—until it’s time for us to use it, and
focus
.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my focus. And we’re not using what happened between me and Lena. Period.”

Thomas arched a brow and smiled, though the expression seemed on the sad side to Alex. Perhaps his friend wasn’t as comfortable with his own decisions as he seemed.

“Unless she turns up pregnant.”

Alex shook his head. “That’s not a possibility.”

“Alex. It’s always a—”

“Not with Lena. She’s got her reproductive system on lockdown.” At Thomas’s expression, Alex laughed. “I don’t know why either of us would be remotely surprised. She’s not one to be pushed around by fate or circumstances. Of course she’s using her abilities to maintain her own health, with everything that implies.”

“Well, that’s damned inconvenient.”

“Inconvenient? It’s her life.”

“It’s our future. I was never going to force anyone on her, Alex, but we need this. We need the children she could produce. We need her—”

“Happy. We need her happy, Thom. And she’s damn well earned it.”

Thomas leaned forward and steepled his hands in front of him. He met Alex’s gaze and took a careful breath. “She is happy. Happier than she has been. You could convince her—”

“No. That’s not going to happen. Leave it be.”