Erin M. Leaf (9 page)

He could never fool his sister. “Yeah,”
he answered, voice hoarse.

“What does it say?” Ivy moved
closer, squinting as if that would help her see the symbols. “You know, don’t
you Uncle Theo?”

He took a deep breath. “It says
Terrene.
”

****

Theo lay in the dark, trying to get
comfortable on the hard floor. It wasn’t working. Now that he
could
sleep, his body wouldn’t
cooperate. His stomach rumbled because they’d missed dinner and he wished he
could just fall asleep for a few hours and forget all about what had happened.
Sweet oblivion.

He listened to Bea breathing
against his right side, head pillowed on his shoulder. She’d fallen asleep
quickly, despite the damp cave. He knew she’d worked a long shift at the
hospital, so he wasn’t surprised, though she’d missed her dinner too. On his
left, his partner lay unmoving, just as awake as him.

“Stop it. Go to sleep,” Gideon
whispered.

Theo sighed. His sister and niece
were lying together on Gideon’s other side. He had no idea if they were
sleeping or not. His stomach rumbled again and he cursed silently. His sidearm
was poking him, too. He’d have a bruise on his ribs tomorrow. Gideon poked a
toe into Theo’s shin threateningly.
Damn, he has sharp feet,
Theo
thought to himself.

“Sleep,” Gideon murmured.

“I can’t,” he replied quietly. “I
can’t sleep.” Gideon’s arm pressed against his, reminding him of the elevator.

“We can just forget all about it,”
Gideon said, as if he knew exactly what Theo was thinking about.

Theo didn’t bother answering.
Gideon would torment him forever if he knew he was obsessing over the kiss they’d
shared.
And the rune with his name, can’t forget that,
he thought
irritably. He forced his thoughts away from that and concentrated on Bea,
instead. She smelled good, despite all their frantic running around.

Gideon shifted, rolling onto his
side. He smelled good too, dammit. His face pressed up against Theo’s arm,
mirroring Bea’s on his other side. When he spoke, his warm breath made Theo
shiver. “You know I’m bi.”

Theo closed his eyes in
frustration. “So?”

“So, maybe you are too.”

As if. “I’ve never been bi before,”
Theo bit out. He had a lot more to worry about than a stupid kiss. Like aliens,
as ridiculous as that seemed. And weird symbols on cave walls.

Gideon pressed his forehead to Theo’s
arm. “You’re an ass.”

Theo nodded.
Yeah, sometimes.

“Come here.” Gideon moved again.

Theo went stiff. “What are you
doing?”

“Shh. Ivy and Ella are asleep.”
Gideon somehow shimmied up until his face was level with Theo’s. His lips
brushed against Theo’s jaw.

He felt like he’d been zapped with
electricity. “Are you crazy? We have alien insects on our planet trying to kill
us and you want to make out?” Theo struggled to keep his voice down.

Gideon chuckled. “Shut up. This
will help.” His mouth moved closer to Theo’s lips.

Theo bit the inside of his cheek,
hoping the pain would help him think. “Help what?” he asked, even as he told
himself not to speak. Gideon always did what he wanted, regardless of what Theo
said. Of course, that same action had saved his ass countless times on the job,
but right now, the last thing he should be doing was kissing his best friend on
a cave floor. With his sister and niece asleep just a few feet away, not to
mention Dr. Gorgeous lying on his shoulder.

Gideon backed off a little. “I used
to come here when I was a kid. Long before we ever met,” Gideon replied,
confusing Theo.

“What does that have to do with
anything?”

“You know I was in foster care,
right?” Gideon asked, resting his forehead on Theo’s.

Theo tensed, but didn’t back away.
He wasn’t actually uncomfortable, although it was a little weird.
You like
it,
he told himself, in the back of his head. “I know you lost your parents
when you were really young,” he said, shushing the voice in his head. So what
if he liked lying close to Gideon? It didn’t have to mean anything.

“I don’t remember what happened,”
Gideon said, even quieter now. “I was only four or five. Or younger, I’m not
sure. They didn’t know exactly when I was born, so they made up a birthday for
me.”

Theo had to strain to hear him. “Why
are you telling me this now?” He didn’t understand. They had so much to do just
to survive the next day. He didn’t want to hear about Gideon struggling to survive
as a kid. Frustratingly, Theo had asked about it before and Gideon had brushed
him off.
Why pick now to talk?

Gideon ignored his question. “I
remember living somewhere in a desert. The sun was redder than it is here. And
we lived in a huge complex, almost like a tower, on top of a huge golden pillar
of sand.” Gideon closed his eyes, eyelashes tickling Theo’s face.

“Are you sure you’re not just
remembering dreams?” Theo had to ask. It sounded like a fairytale. Pillars of
sand strong enough to live in?

Gideon sighed and moved back a
little, putting his head down on the cave floor next to Theo’s. His lips were
right at Theo’s ear. “I don’t know. For years I thought I was remembering stuff
I’d made up because my mind couldn’t handle the truth. I thought I’d remember
what had really happened when I got older, but instead, I just kept having more
dreams about this place.”

“What else do you remember?”

Gideon put his hand on Theo’s arm.
His palm was warm. “I remember my father putting on this dark armor. It was black.
The edges of it were so sharp I couldn’t touch him without cutting myself. No
one could touch him when he put it on. My mother hated it, but she had her own
armor, too. Same stuff.”

“You remember your mother?”

“She had red hair. And she smelled
good. I don’t recall anything else. My father, though, well…” Gideon trailed
off. “And there was someone else, too, another man.” He frowned. “Silver eyes,”
he muttered, inexplicably.

Theo didn’t know what to say to
that. “Are you sure you didn’t see a movie when you were three or something?
And maybe that’s what you’re remembering?”

Gideon laughed. “That’s exactly
what I thought. When I was a teenager, I started watching every movie I could
get my hands on that had armor in it. Nothing matched my dreams. I was obsessed
with the one Dune movie, the one with Sting in it, you know? I watched it
twenty times. Maybe more.” He shook his head. “I hated the thought that no one
knew what had happened to me, like I have a hole in my brain. It’s why I became
a cop.”

“You wanted to make sure it didn’t
happen to anyone else.” Theo understood that.

“Yeah. And I was such a great cop,
I ended up a homicide detective.” He sighed again. “I wanted to
help
people who were still alive, not
find the ones who’d been killed.”

“Finding killers
does
help. Because we make sure they
never kill again,” Theo murmured. About this, he was certain. It’s why his dad
had been a cop. Why
he
became a cop,
too.

“I know. That’s why I agreed to it
when they promoted me. And it’s how I met you, which I will always be grateful
for.” Gideon rolled back over, away from Theo, taking his warmth with him. The
loss sent an unexpected pang through him.

He frowned, reaching out until he
caught Gideon’s hand in his own. Gideon seized on it like a drowning man, but
he didn’t roll back over. He stared at the ceiling as he spoke with that eerily
quiet voice that freaked Theo out almost more than anything else that had
happened today. When Gideon spoke like that, it usually meant some bad shit was
about to go down. He didn’t let go of Gideon’s hand, hoping his presence would
anchor both of them.

Gideon was silent for a long time.
Just when Theo thought maybe he’d fallen asleep, he spoke again. “But I never
stopped dreaming, Theo. And my dreams never changed. It was always the desert
with the tower on the high ridges. And that damn armor.”

Theo stared at his best friend, his
partner, wishing he could fix this. “Maybe—” he began, but Gideon cut him off.

“The dreams have something to do
with this cave. And those runes.” Gideon looked up at the wall above their
heads. The symbols were still glowing, not as brightly as before, but still
illuminating the rock enough to cast faint shadows over them.

“What are you talking about?” Theo
tightened his fingers around Gideon’s hand.

“I don’t think I’m from around
here, Theo,” Gideon said.

“Well, duh. We live in
Pennsylvania. There are trees everywhere. You remember a desert.”

Gideon chuckled. “No, I mean, I don’t
think I’m from this planet.”

Theo froze. A week ago he’d have
said Gideon was nuts and made a joke out of it. Now? “You don’t look like a
giant bug to me,” he said, voice harsh. What if Gideon was right? What did that
mean?

Gideon snorted. “I’m not.”

Theo let a long moment slide by
before responding. “Fuck.”

“Yeah. That’s pretty much what I
was thinking, too,” Gideon replied.

Chapter Six

Bea groaned as she woke up. Her
back hurt. Her neck hurt. And she was freezing. A cave wasn’t her preferred
bedroom, but she supposed she couldn’t complain about it. She’d rather be cold
and sore than snatched by giant alien insects. She stared at the cave wall,
eyes lingering on the runes still glowing slightly. Someone had left a small
LED light on. She looked away, but there wasn’t much else to see. Stone walls.
More stone walls.

She rolled over, trying to get more
comfortable, and bumped into Theo. They’d moved apart sometime during the night
and the loss of his body heat had her shivering. She burrowed into him, not
caring that she’d just met him a few hours ago and she was effectively hugging
a stranger. The kiss in the elevator made her bold. He sighed and pulled her
closer in his sleep. When she slid her leg over his, trying to cuddle up to as
much warmth as possible, she wasn’t surprised to discover Gideon on the other
side. He wasn’t asleep either. She could still remember the taste of him on her
lips.

“Don’t wake him,” Gideon whispered.

“I won’t,” she said, staring across
Theo’s chest. Even in the dark, she could tell Gideon had only slept for a
little while. “Why are you awake?”

He gave her a wry smile. “I had a
long nap right after I got off work yesterday. Theo didn’t. I’m staying awake
to keep an eye on things.”

She looked at him. His red hair
looked dark brown in the dim light, but his blue eyes were still bright. “Does
Theo know you’re not sleeping?”

He pursed his lips.

That was all the answer she needed.
“Of course not.”

He smiled at her. “Theo needs the
rest. His leg is probably aching.”

She grimaced, thinking of the
wound. She hadn’t had time to check it. “I need to make sure he hasn’t damaged
anything.”

“You just want to get your hands on
him,” Gideon teased.

She blushed, suddenly grateful for
the dark. “So do you.”

His smile fell away. “Yeah.”

“How long have you been in love
with him?” She had no idea why she was suddenly so certain about that.

He stared at her, not speaking for
a long moment. She stared back, willing him to be honest with her. “A long
time,” he finally said.

She nodded. “Does he know?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“You have no idea if he knows.”

He turned his head, avoiding her
gaze. “He’s not used to thinking about guys like that.”

“Does he know you’re bi?” she
asked, circling her fingers lightly over Theo’s shirt. It felt really soft,
like an old favorite.

“Yeah. I told him when we first
met. I didn’t want to hide anything from my partner. Our job is too dangerous
for that,” he said.

Bea sighed. “You ended up hiding
things anyway.”

He shrugged and rolled away. “Some
things you can’t help.”

Thinking about her sister’s death,
Bea was about to agree with him, but a deep rumble had her catching her breath.
Gravel fell from the cave walls.

“What was that?” she asked, sitting
up. She strained to see, but the little lamp didn’t give off much light.

“I don’t know,” Gideon said,
standing up. He straightened his jacket and checked his holster, unsnapping the
safety buckle. “Wake Theo up,” he instructed when another rumble shivered
through the cave. He turned toward the entrance. “I’m going to check it out.”

“Shit,” Bea muttered as he
disappeared into the dark. Why did he have to run off like that? She put a hand
on Theo’s shoulder and he came awake all at once.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, not even
groggy-sounding. “I felt something.”

It must be the cop thing,
Bea thought, as he
scrambled to his feet. “We heard something,” she said aloud. She stood up too,
straightening her clothes tiredly. Her stomach rumbled with hunger, but she
ignored it.