Erin M. Leaf (20 page)

He laughed softly, still holding
on. “I trashed the place. I went through their headquarters and held a general
up against the wall. I was
pissed
.”
He lifted his head. “And the man
lied
to me. Right to my face. That’s
when I knew I had to go. I had to find you.”

Bea blinked. “How did you get away?”

He smiled, but it wasn’t a nice
one. “They couldn’t hold me.” He let go and raised his arm.

Bea stared at him. He was wearing a
short sleeved t-shirt. Silver sparks flowed over his skin.
Through
his
skin.

“Oh,” she said, faintly.

“Yeah.” He glanced around. “They’ll
probably be here any moment.”

Shit
. She grabbed his hand
and began to drag him to her car. “Time to go, then.”

He let her pull him along. “I’m all
for running, but where? I’m out of ideas.”

“I’m not.” She dug in her pants for
her keys. “You’ll see,” she said. Her patients were in good hands with the
other doctors. They could get along without her. This was more important.

****

“Oh my God,” Theo said, looking
around the caves. Bea had dug out the rubble from the explosion and was living
inside.

“It seemed safe,” Bea said quietly.
She walked over to the wall with the runes and put her hand on one. “They don’t
work anymore.”

Theo shook his head. “They wouldn’t.
It takes all three of us to activate the portal. And Gideon isn’t here.” He
stared at the runes. The question of whether Ella and Ivy made it back to Earth
had been answered, and not the way he wanted. He’d tried to come back here, to
the cave, but he’d veered away when he’d realized he was being followed. He
didn’t want to lead the military to the portal. Or any rogue Sitnam. He thought
his sister would find him, but she never had.

Bea looked up at him, eyes
luminous. He mourned her curves, not that she looked bad this way. She could
never look bad to him. She was no less beautiful, but now her looks held a sort
of sharp strength he found disturbing even as he yearned to touch her.

“Ella and Ivy have been on Terrene
this whole time,” he said, looking away from her. He didn’t want her to see him
cry. Every time he thought of his sister and niece, he choked up. “Eran will
take care of them.”

“I don’t think so,” Bea said,
shocking him. Before he could ask what she meant, a sound had him turning.

“Uncle Theo!” a girl shrieked.

Theo stared, his heart in his
throat, and then Ivy hurled herself against his chest. He caught her, too
stunned to say anything.

“Well, it took you long enough to
come back, bro,” Ella remarked, coming out into the cave, too. She stood in the
entrance to another tunnel, one that Gideon had told them didn’t go anywhere.

“Ella?” he asked, not believing his
eyes.

“One of the same,” she said, coming
over to hug him. After they’d embraced, she explained. “Your nifty little
explosion opened up another chamber, further inside the ridge.”

“Oh my God,” he said, voice
shaking. He hugged her tighter. “Are you okay?”

“We’re fine,” she said, stepping
back.

Ivy didn’t let go. Theo wrapped his
arms around his niece. “You’ve been staying here? With Bea?”

Ella nodded. “It seemed the safest
option. Bea helped unblock the cave entrance.”

Theo glanced at Bea. She was smiling
at Ella. In that moment, even after their separation, he realized he loved her.
He loved her as much as he loved Gideon. “Thank you,” he told her.

“Of course,” she said, sitting
down. “Did you eat anything today?”

He shook his head.

She rummaged around in a box,
coming out with a package of crackers and some cheese. “Sit down. Eat
something. Tell me how we’re going to find Gideon.”

“What about Eran? Didn’t he come
through the portal too?” Theo asked.

Ella shook her head. “No. He
dropped us at the cave on Terrene and then left. I never saw him again.”

He frowned. “That’s odd.”

“I always thought he was strange,”
Bea muttered.

Theo unwound Ivy’s arms from his
waist, kissing her on the head, and then sat down next to Bea.

“What about Gideon? Is he all right?”
Ella asked as Bea handed him the crackers.

Bea explained what he’d told her
while Theo ate the first solid food he’d had in three days. When she was done,
Ella shook her head. “I’m not surprised. Gideon wouldn’t betray you. He’s
family.”

Theo rubbed his face. “Yeah. That’s
why it was all so damn weird, the way he was acting. He kept pushing me away.
He’s
never
done that.”

“How are we going to find him?” Bea
asked again, her voice low.

He glanced at her, not liking the
look on her face. “We’re going to find him the same way I found you.”

She frowned at him, watching as he
ate the last of the cheese. “And how’s that?” she finally asked.

He swallowed and leaned back
against the cave wall. “Close your eyes.”

She stared at him. He stared back
until she did as he asked. “Okay. Now what?”

“Picture the night sky,” he
murmured, watching her.

She opened her eyes and glared at
him. “How will this help?”

“Trust me.”

She sighed and closed her eyes
again.

“Picture a thousand, million stars,
winking in the dark,” he said, keeping his voice low. Soothing. “Imagine that I’m
one of those stars.”

She frowned a bit deeper, then
suddenly, her forehead smoothed out. “What the hell?” she whispered.

He grinned, knowing that she was
sensing the exact same thing he had, the first time he realized that their bond
was more tangible than he’d expected.

“You’re there, brighter than the
rest,” she said.

“Yeah,” he murmured, sliding his
hand over to touch hers. “Now concentrate again. Look for Gideon.” He closed
his eyes and did the same thing. The two stars that were his bond-mates winked
brightly into his mind’s view.

“Oh my God,” she breathed. “He’s
there.”

Theo let out a breath. She
understood. “He’s somewhere in the west.”

“But you’re as bright as a sun,”
she said, opening her eyes and staring at him, silver flaring in her irises
like a spark of pure energy.

“We’re right next to each other,”
he murmured, willing her to understand.

“Proximity matters?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Whoa,” she muttered. “It’ll be
crashing through the forest in a straight line.”

He snorted. “Exactly.”

She winced and gripped his hand. “It
doesn’t matter. We’ll do what we have to.”

He pulled her close, finally giving
into the urge to hang on and not let go. “Yes we will. We’ll get him back. Whatever
it takes.”

Chapter Thirteen

Gideon fought hard against a groan
and won, keeping silent. He hurt. His muscles ached. The cuts on his thighs
burned. The worst part, though, was the mental battle he waged to keep the
healing ability he’d acquired through bonding suppressed. He wasn’t always
successful, but he’d managed to keep his body from healing everything except
minor wounds in non-obvious places, and only when he absolutely couldn’t resist
any longer. He had to fight it, constantly. He had to fight it because the
healing took energy he couldn’t afford to lose. They rarely fed him. He also
had to fight it because healing like that would prove beyond a doubt that he
wasn’t human.

“He’s awake,” the guard said
contemptuously.

Gideon was on the floor, hunched
into a ball in an attempt to keep warm. When he heard the voices, he rolled
over, curling his lip when he saw who looked down upon him. “General, come to
visit the zoo?”

The man sneered. “I don’t know why
you don’t just tell us what you know.”

Gideon rolled back over, turning
his back to the man. He had nothing to say to that bastard.

“Still as stubborn as ever, I see.
Bring him in,” the general said.

Gideon’s shoulders twitched, but he
refused to turn back just to satisfy his curiosity. They threw someone to the
floor, hard enough to elicit a suppressed groan. He heard shallow breathing, as
if the pain was almost too much.
Dammit
.
He desperately wanted to see who’d they shoved in here with him, but he didn’t
dare give them any indication of curiosity. Any emotional reaction could and
had been used against him. And he couldn’t afford that. He would never talk. He’d
never give up Theo and Bea to these monsters.

“Let’s see how you like having a
roommate, Detective Cearvall,” the general said.

Gideon didn’t move. What did it matter
who was in here with him? He heard footsteps, then the sound of a shut door. He
tilted his head slightly and stared at the cameras stuck in the corners of the
ceiling and the floor. It didn’t matter who it was. He couldn’t react.

“Gideon.”

He stopped breathing.
No, God.
No,
he thought as every muscle in his body went tight with his struggle to
not react.

“Gideon, roll over. Please,” Theo said.
He sounded awful.

Shit.
Gideon took a deep breath and rolled.
Theo slumped against the opposite wall, swollen knuckles wrapped around his
knees. He’d been beaten, but like Gideon, he must be suppressing the healing
reflex because he looked like hell.

“Hey,” Theo said, smiling crookedly
at him as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

Gideon ground his teeth against the
rage that flared in his chest. He’d endured torture to keep Theo out of this,
and yet here he was, locked in the same damn cell. “What the fuck are you doing
here?”

Theo looked around. “Lovely
accommodations. I really like the grey cement and cinder blocks, so post-modern.
And no windows. A single light bulb and four cameras. Nothing but the best for
us in clandestine torture and incarceration.” He aimed another half-smile at
his partner.

Gideon wasn’t amused. He glared.

Theo abruptly lost his air of
flippant humor. “And here I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

“You thought wrong.” Gideon rolled
back over, wincing as his cracked ribs protested.

“You know, it just never occurred
to me that the General of the Army would stoop to the illegal torture of a U.S.
citizen.” Theo paused, coughed, then continued. “Sorry, the illegal torture of
two citizens.”

“Shows what you know,” Gideon said,
staring right at the camera above his head.

“Yeah, I was always slow when it
came to shit like this,” Theo said, then fell silent.

When Gideon couldn’t stand it
anymore, he rolled back over and looked at Theo again. His partner was still
slumped against the wall, but he’d put his head down on his arms. Gideon wanted
to ask him about Bea, but he knew that would be a mistake. He’d managed to keep
her out of this entirely.

“For some reason, they think we
know something about this invasion,” Theo murmured. “As if sneaking onto a ship
and setting the self-destruct takes some kind of supernatural power.” He made a
disgusted sound.

Gideon rolled his eyes. “I don’t
care what they think. And I’m trying to sleep, so shut the fuck up.”

Theo ignored him and kept talking. “I
remember Arnold, our old dispatcher, saying he couldn’t believe how good we
were at destroying things. Almost like we weren’t human. So stupid.”

Gideon’s breath caught.
Oh my
God,
he thought, finally catching on to what Theo was trying to tell him.
He remembered the car dealership, when he’d said he ‘wasn’t from around here.’
I
admitted I was from another planet. I am such a fuckup!
He wished he could
punch himself in the face right now, but instead he had to lie here, trying not
to react at all.
Fuck!

“And apparently Arnold was in the
Army a few decades ago, did you know that? He’s old buddies with our friend,
General Thorazn.” Theo sighed, shifting enough to stare at Gideon from under
his arms.

Gideon stared back. “I still can’t
sleep, because someone keeps yakking in my ear,” he managed to say, pretending
irritation. Inside, he was shaking.

“Yeah, well, you’ll be happy to know
that Arnold got himself and his wife out of the devastation zone with the help
of his old friend. It’s nice to know that someone from the station survived.”

Gideon wanted to hurl himself at
Theo and make him shut up. Or possibly kiss him, he wasn’t sure which. He
sighed loudly and rolled to a sitting position. “You’re not going to shut up,
are you?”

Theo lifted his head, brown eyes
gleaming with silver highlights. “Not a chance.”

What that statement, the metal door
opened. “I’m so glad to hear that, Mr. Gray. Because we have a guest who
desperately wants to listen to everything you have to say,” General Thorazn
said, sauntering inside the cell.