Range (20 page)

That did not explain anything. "Lucan really
is
God?"

Gid laughs. "I'm not sure I'd go that far, but he's been protecting this system since ancient times. Being forbidden to set foot on Earth was his punishment—"

"Punishment for what, though, Gid? I don't get it."

"For killing off the early pre-humans and engineering a new race of people using special genetics."

"Ho-leee shit. How the hell did he get away with that?"

I watch the grin creep up the side of Gid's face in profile. He lets out a breath before he speaks the words. "He engineered a virus, a virus that corrupted the High Order genetics and they simply had the good sense to leave. The only problem was—"

"It corrupted the avian genetics too, didn't it? Lucan caused that degradation of the code, didn't he?"

Gid nods. "It corrupted him too, Junco. This Satan thing he has going on when he's here on Earth is how it manifests. He's growing weaker."

"Like dying?"

Gideon just shrugs. "Maybe, or maybe he's just changing into something else, something we really don't want to see. I mean, if what he becomes when he's here is so great, why did he avoid it for thousands of years?"

Very good question. I have no answer.

"Why
did
he stay, Gid?"

"He felt compelled to set it right. For you, Junco. I warned him, told him I'd take care of it and call for him when Sera figured out where they had you. And really, we got that info pretty quick, a few weeks maybe. But Inanna had you in the tank and you couldn't be pulled out. Even Lucan conceded this point, you couldn't be pulled out or it would've done… terrible things to you."

They knew. All that time, they knew. How horrible to know. "Did Tier know?" It hurts to ask this actually, because if he did—and everyone knew when I was able to be pulled out—then why wasn't he waiting for me? "Why didn't he come get me? Why Lucan?"

Gideon doesn't answer, just shrugs and continues on about Lucan. "Lucan spent that whole time on Earth hunting down and killing everyone he could find who might have had contact with you, back in camp and stuff, you know."

I think about this, about the secrets that still exist about that camp. About my newly acquired memories, about Gideon's part in everything. About Tier abandoning me here on Earth while Lucan punished people.

About one last thing I need to set straight.

"What's in Vegas?"

His body stiffens next to me and I wait for it.

"Bad stuff, Junco. You really don't want to know."

We sit in the silence of the abandoned compound apartment for a while. His breathing matching mine automatically, his heartbeat so familiar to me it feels like an extension of my own.

"I need to know, Gideon."

He lifts my chin up with his fingertip and stares into my eyes. They dart from one to the other, an uneasiness in his expression.

"I need to know, Gid. If you know, then just tell me."

He considers this for a few moments and then turns away with a sigh. "I have an idea."

"I have an idea as well. But that's not good enough. And if they have those things, then we need to destroy them, Gideon."

He simply nods. "I wish we had our SEAR knives, Junco. We need to get them back."

Finally! Something I can do to make him happy. I disentangle myself from his embrace and stand up, reaching under my shirt as I study his face. He's not sure, I can tell, but then the faint sound of a SEAR knife being pulled from a body dock reaches his ears and his expression changes from confusion to astonishment as I withdraw the weapon and the loop of plasma bursts forth as a small yellow dagger.

His laugh bursts through the silence of the decrepit apartment, echoing off the walls. "Where?"

"I had it made." I power it back down and then fish through my lime-green purse until I find the little black case. I hand it over to him and wait.

"Junco," he breathes. "Is this—"

"I had one made for you too. My senior year of cadets, after you went missing in the summer. I did all these unsanctioned jobs with Hando down in Texas and James gave me the order papers for our SEARS and—"

"James?"

"Yeah, he helped me do all of it, Gid. All of it."

He opens the case and peers down at his weapon, astonished. "It's… onyx?"

"Onyx. Just like the original."

He grabs it from the case and slips his hand under his shirt, then stops to look at me. "You have no idea how long it's been."

I love him so much I could kiss him right now. "I do know, Gid. I remember it all now."

He cocks his head at me. "All of it?"

I just nod.

His face falls a little at that revelation and it makes my stomach turn.
Not all of it
, it says. He slips the little black wand into his dock and we wait, holding our breath, until we feel the slight jolt as the SEAR is charged.

He removes the weapon with the respect it deserves and he powers it up. The loop of plasma is dialed way down to a small blue pocket knife.

"Is it coded?"

I grab the case and set up the test, pricking his finger for some blood and waiting for the reaction to start. Or not.

Not.

He just stares at it, almost in awe. Like he's never seen anything so beautiful in all his life.

"But mine's not coded for me. My morph fucked up my genetics, I think. I had this made after your Archer morph, so it's still good."

Gid's expression changes immediately. "You cannot use it then, Junco. No way. Hand it over, right now."

I shake my head. "Fuck that, Gid. I'm never,
ever
giving up my SEAR again. I felt—"

"Empty without it?"

"Yeah," I breathe. "Empty without it."

"Well, fuck. You know what this means, right?"

I nod and let out a wild laugh as I bounce on the couch next to him. He holds his SEAR up so it can't cut me, laughing, but I ignore the danger. "Today is a very good day to get them back, Gideon! A very good day to get them back!"

"I think," he says and then pauses to stare lovingly at his SEAR knife before turning his bright blue eyes up to me, "that we are the scariest motherfucking apexers on the face of this planet."

I couldn't agree more.

"OK, now listen carefully, Snowbird." He retracts the SEAR blade and docks it, takes a moment to sigh with… relief? Or maybe contentment? Then pulls out a sheet of thick paper, unfolds it, and smooths it out flat over his leg using his fingertips. He touches the corner and it lights up with patterns.

"Wow, that's pretty cool. What is it?"

"Synthetic vellum, it's just a tablet you can fold and stick in your pocket."

"I've never seen that before, where'd you get it?"

He smiles, a devious, all-knowing, I'll-never-tell smile. "Someplace special, is all."

"Why not just use a comm?"

He winks at me and I giggle. Gideon.
Winking
.

"This," he says, waving it slightly, "has the processing power of an AI."

"Why do we need that? We have Sera." And HOUSE, I don't add.

"Fuck Sera. I don't trust her."

OK. I keep my mouth shut, he said to keep my secrets, so I will.

His fingers deftly maneuver across the surface. Icons appear, then some text. A few voice commands from Gid and finally a holographic map bursts forth and begins to rotate in the center of his lap.

"This"—he points—"is the plan, little sparrow. Are you ready?"

"Just tell me what to do, Gid."

He breathes out, like he's letting go of a lifetime of disappointment and waiting, like there is nothing more powerful than those words I just spoke, like we are about to embark on our greatest journey ever.

Like we are one.

I look up at him. My Gideon is awesome. I see who and what he is in that moment. He is my Alpha and Omega, my First and Last, my Beginning and my End. I see all that and more in the letting out of one small breath. In the heat of his body that he lets me borrow. In his unwavering march towards vengeance, justice, and retribution for what they did to me. To us.

He is my everything.

And then he begins to talk.

Gideon is my saving grace. Because no matter what we do, we are righteous as long as we do it together.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Irin is in the main tunnel screaming obscenities at Gid and me. We can hear her before we even make it out of the small hallways that house Gid's apartment.

He leans down in the dark and kisses me on the head. "I better get back to Tier before he goes insane from my insubordination. He's not very adaptable, that guy. I have no idea what you see in him."

"What's with you two anyway? I mean, I know you never liked each other, but shit, Gid. Brawling? That serves no purpose."

He squeezes my shoulder as I study his face, lit up by my internal night vision. "I said I'd help him, but it's a fucking favor, Junco. I'm not his goddamn warrior, I'm not his fucking Five, I'm nothing to him. So next time you talk to him you tell him I'm only here because of you." He pauses for a moment to reconsider. "And your parents. But that's it. I'll deliver Tukker to his assigned spot so he can raise his djed, but after that our plan is the only thing that counts."

Our plan. So much stress and worry leaves me just thinking about it. So much. "He thinks he'll be short a team member? That's why he's pissed?"

Gid actually guffaws at this. "Short a team member? Shit, Junco, he's got fifteen million warriors en route to Earth as we speak."

"What? Why the hell did Lucan order that?"

"Lucan's not in control anymore. I keep forgetting that you don't understand what's happened since Inanna took you. Tier's in charge. Lucan gave up his position when he stayed back here to find you. He's out. Rikan took over as the legal heir, but Tier took over as the one that holds power and directs the Aves warriors." He stops for a moment to consider this. "I'm not sure they're all on the same page anymore, better be careful."

I'm stunned. He never said. "Lucan's out? Because of me?"

Apparently Gid doesn't see this as a very big deal because he calls out for Irin to shut the fuck up with her screaming as we enter the area of the camp that used to hold the old market. They are arguing from across the empty expanse of tunnel before I can even make out the dark shadow of her offensively postured wings.

Lucan is an afterthought to everyone, except me, maybe.

"Junco, goddamn it!" Irin is her usual bitchy self as she storms up to me and yanks on my arm to remove me from Gideon's influence. "I want to know what the plan is, I'm tired of this bullshit. Maybe I don't raise my djed? You guys ever think of that? I'm tired of being in the da—"

Gideon knocks her on her ass so hard she actually slides across the floor.

"What the fuck, Gid!" I go to help her up but he's already there.

His anger is real and I'm a little frightened by the quick turn. "I told you, Irin. You
will
raise that djed. It's part of our plan too, so you make one more fucking threat about screwing up our chances for survival and I'll make you wish you never left Vegas. You got it?"

I actually hear her swallow in the darkness. "Fuck! Fine, OK, I got it."

She accepts my hand as I reach down to help her up and then Tier approaches, his green eyes blazing as he makes his way over to us in full stride. "Junco, if you three are making plans—"

Gid cuts him off. "Yeah, asshole. We made plans. Your fucking plans, OK? I'll take Tukker to his djed, Irin will raise hers, and I'll meet up with Selia and Junco and take her when the time comes." Gid stops, maybe to let those demon-red eyes of his gather energy to properly emit the blinding flash that comes out of him, or maybe to just add emphasis for his next statement. "And if you try and stop me from being there with Junco, we'll continue that fight right fucking now."

I blow out a big breath of air and my hair goes flying above my eyes. "OK, you guys have some serious leadership issues here, ya know that?" I look up at Tier and gentle my voice to placate him. "Tier, we'll do it your way, OK? But I have a side trip to do before it's my time to raise that djed thing."

I watch with amusement as all three of them begin yelling at me. Gid is so perfect, God, I love him. My shrill whistle stops everyone at the same time and then I turn to look at Irin. "Gid was kidding about those threats, Irin. But we are going to Vegas because the wait is over, Sister. The time for truth is now. You wanna do this with me?"

Tier makes to object but I put up a hand and he stops.

Irin weighs her options. I know she had a rough life, Gid filled me in back on Sargassum and I know that just the mention of Vegas is enough to drive her towards insanity. A little bit like talking about what really happened in the Stag might do the same for me.

Even in the dark, under the influence of the imperfection of biological night vision, I can see the smooth green sheen develop in her eyes. I take her hand and hold it in both of mine. "It's OK, Irin. I'll take care of it, I promise."