Warrior Reborn (28 page)

Turen looked from the staff to Tsu with a soft laugh. “You think we’re too hard on Jason?”

Ignoring Ansgar’s deepening frown, Tsu answered. “I don’t mean to diminish Mia’s past challenges, but I think the transition is more awkward for Jason than for her. Women are more flexible by nature and focused on the healing of the community.”

Turen nodded. “Given your perspective, he’s made remarkable strides. But you’re preaching to the choir. I have no doubt of Jason’s commitment or his love for Briet.”

“His interests until now have been money and fast cars. Power and prestige.” Ansgar’s words were weighted more with sadness than anger as he crossed his arms. “He spends his free time playing games and chasing women.”

Turen raised a brow.

“Really?” said Tsu. “I would be very surprised.”

With a small shake of his head, Ansgar conceded. “Perhaps. There have been no women since my sister. But there were damn plenty of them before her.” He looked pointedly at Tsu. “You’ve yet to meet him, how would you know what he’s like?”

“I listened to Briet when she came to speak with me. She loves
and
respects him.” Tsu met the fierce, brown gaze.

“Your opinion only. He’s
dating
my sister. No commitment, no kids, no different than all his other relationships.”

Tsu looked to Turen, their leader, the man respected by all Guardians because he acted from logic and not raw emotion.

Turen took a deep breath and rounded on Ansgar. “So let me see if I’ve got this right? He’s driven. Competitive. Smart, with a strong need to demonstrate success. He has singular focus and doesn’t settle for second best. His acquaintances with women…prior to Briet seem to have been casual and brief. Or has he littered his past with women
and
children?”

Ansgar’s scowl deepened. “It doesn’t appear so.”

Turen leaned closer, planted inches from Ansgar’s face. “I know you well. You leave no stone unturned. You would have sought out information on this man and his past.”

Ansgar blinked. “His relationships have been casual. Always clear about no commitment
and
no children.”

“Until he showed up here, looking for his mate after we took her from him.” Turen continued despite Ansgar’s look of betrayal. “If he were born one of us, these qualities would make him a valuable member of our team. Is it because he’s human and operates to achieve within the constraints of his society that you perceive him as unworthy?”

“You twist this. He’s materialistic—it will take too much for him to change.”

Ah, closer to the truth. Finally. Tsu watched the two friends, glad for once not to be the voice of reason in a debate with Ansgar, or Turen for that matter.

“I understand you’re worried for Briet. I agree a reluctance to have children could be a rough hurdle for them to overcome,” said Turen with a quick hand gesture to stop Ansgar’s rebuttal. “But—and this is just an opinion—I think someone with Jason’s character has strong convictions and purpose motivating him. We may not understand what’s below the surface of his choices, yet I trust Briet does. It might take a lot to change his rule set. However, if he is convinced something is worth changing for, he strikes me as the type of man to redirect all his efforts to succeed.”

Tsu decided to take the heat off Turen. “He’s no fool, Ansgar. He’s already waged a huge battle to be at her side. If a man such as this chooses Briet over all he previously perceived as accomplishment, then it’s because he’s decided she is what he wants. He won’t vacillate. If he chooses her, he’s not going back.”

“All this from a little talk with Briet?” Ansgar raised his brow toward Tsu.

“His actions and your sister’s opinion are all I require. In the past, they were all you required as well,” said Tsu.

While Ansgar’s look bordered between desperation and frustration, Tsu could tell Turen was trying not to laugh. Instead, he tried again. “Jason’s a competitor. He discerned Briet to be of value. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love her. Would you truly want a meek, mild accountant for your sister?”

Ansgar ran a hand across the back of his neck and sighed. “I think I always figured she and Grimm—”

“No, you didn’t. Those still waters are going to erupt in our brother one day, and we will all make sure the pieces fit back together, but he and Briet were never a match.” Turen’s tone was so adamant Ansgar backed down with a shrug.

“They are too much alike,” added Tsu. “And there is no passion there. She is intense about Jason. He found his way to her here even though he is totally out of his element. He rises to the challenge. From my discussion with Grimm, Jason seems to thrive in the face of adversity. Driven he may be, but Briet is now his catalyst.”

Ansgar clenched his fists and his brow furrowed as he turned a harsh glare one last time toward Turen. “Mia didn’t have to struggle to embrace this life.”

“I’m glad my mate and I made everything look so easy,” said Turen. “I can tell you that having the life of the one who means more than the world to you threatened is an effective way to refine one’s focus. Jason is here. He hasn’t left Briet’s side. My guess is that he won’t, except to find answers.”

Ansgar released a long, exaggerated breath.

Turen seemed to take pity on him. “Mia endured hardship and made very difficult and dangerous decisions to help me. Her struggles, ours, were not played out in front of all of our people. It may look easy now, but there is no easy way to shed one life and embrace another. You don’t want easy for Jason, Ansgar. You want a man who will struggle and win. One who will love your sister with a fierce, singular passion. With the trials we face, it will make the difference between life and death. It already has. Someday, this drive will make a difference for their children as well.”

Ansgar scowled, the furrows between his blonde brows merging. “I don’t see children here.”

Tsu rather thought that horse had been beaten to a pulp. “He has personal demons. Since when is what a man says, or even does, always the true indicator of his thoughts?”

Finally, silence from Ansgar.

“You raised your sister. You love her as a brother and a parent.” Turen’s voice took on a stronger tone, signaling the discussion was ending. He was the chosen leader of their people. Tsu’s goal in starting this conversation as Ansgar entered was to promote Turen’s verbal endorsement. An approval Jason would need to succeed and be seen in a different light by Ansgar—a help to them both.

“You set a high bar for her care and protection. Recognize to what standard you hold the man. Do you push him so hard because you fear letting her go?” asked Turen. “This is Briet’s mate. He deserves to struggle and
win
. He deserves to care for her as much as she needs him. He is one of us. Our goal should be happiness for them both.”

Whether Ansgar bought their advice or not was hard to tell, but Tsu looked forward to meeting the newest Guardian to cause such a fuss.

***

The pale hues of dawn streaked through the window. Doorway, actually. Sometime during the night, Jason noticed the room had a floor-to-ceiling doorway leading to a sheltered copse of green leaves and branches. Maybe Grimm would give him clearance to carry Briet out there for some fresh air when her body could handle the movement.

He pressed his nose closer to her neck, trying to feel the thread of her pulse.

“I don’t have an answer for the kid situation, baby.” He rubbed his forehead against her jaw, needing some feedback from her body so he didn’t feel like a lunatic talking out loud. “I don’t know what I’d do if—” With a groan, he closed his eyes and slid his arm along her waist. Debate was pointless. He drifted, lulled by the quiet of the early morning and the rhythm of Briet’s breath.

Gray turned to dark, the pull of dreamscape blending a haze of white into the sudden clarity of images.

Jason looked about the scene, a clear view of the interview room on the children’s wing of the hospital. He watched, unable to move. His gaze remained riveted to the scene playing out before him. Mario Sanchez sat, his head bent, tears visible. His hand gripped the carved chess piece, Jason sitting by his side.

How could he be watching himself? From someone else’s eyes?

The alter image of Jason sat by Mario’s side, giving the child space and speaking. A slow gesture of the alter’s hands motioned to the chess piece until Mario looked up at him. A shy smile at first, and then in response to another question, the boy’s face lit with a bright smile, both surprising and heartening in its innocent joy.

Compassion. Caring
. The words swirled in Jason’s mind, as clear as speech, yet not a part of the memory playing out in dream.

Mist and gray swirled. The dream shifted venue, clearing to focus on the same room, only the alter image of Jason now sat beside Annie. The child’s portfolio of drawings was spread on her lap, with one in her hand held out for Jason. The same glowing innocent smile brightened the girl’s face in response to the alter Jason’s words.

Children know whom to trust
.
The words drifted to him, clearer in tone and delivery, but still within his mind. Briet.

The gray swirled again, the mists parting. An image of the alter Jason leaned against the window of the same interview room, outside in the hallway now. Annie was still within the room receiving her treatment but Jason’s alter focused on the person beside him.

This was after Sanyu’s eruption in the staff meeting when he had come to find Briet.

“I want you to trust me.” The words his alter spoke echoed from the vision and sounded in his memory.

I trust you. I will always be there for you
.
Her words—no dream, but fresh, whole and present.

Jason jerked awake, blinking as he stared at Briet. Her voice still rang in his ears. She was still comatose, yet the images were just as crisp in his mind with his eyes wide open.

The dream had been hers? He never dreamed of himself, and her words were clear with the images. He worked to calm his racing heart as he touched his forehead to her pulse. Her heart was beating faster than his. Too fast.

“Easy, baby. If that was you, I’m here. Don’t risk yourself trying to talk to me.” Her pulse slowed beneath the pads of his fingers, returning to a steady rhythm. “That’s it. Relax.”

He brushed a kiss across her pulse. “Just don’t give up.”

CHAPTER 24

“She’s stable. She’ll also be fine for an hour or so without you,” said Grimm. “Mia will let us know if there’s a problem. I suspect you’re ready to try out the lab.”

The healer’s voice did nothing to ease the tight twist in Jason’s gut over leaving Briet’s side. But the need for answers drove him to take the risk.

“Would you talk to her?” He ignored the lift of Mia’s brow. The coma state wasn’t death. Briet’s lack of response didn’t preclude her ability to absorb information and remain mentally active. Uncertain his point might be misconstrued as anxiety, he pressed again. “Just—small talk.”

Mia’s hand brushed his arm, her eyes kind. “I understand the need for interaction. Trust me. I have plenty to tell her.”

With one last glance at Briet’s still form, Jason followed Grimm from the room and down a wide hallway.

He hadn’t considered the size and breadth of the Sanctum. Now outside the limiting four walls of Briet’s sick room, he marveled at the vaulted ceilings and carved stone walls. The precision cuts in the stonework, the tight piecing, and the intricate design of the marble inlaid floors spoke to more than just subsistence-level survival. Their footfalls on the marble echoed down the hallway.

Twenty feet along, they veered off at an intersection. Flickering panels of glass and plasma were set at shoulder height in the walls every three yards and broke the smooth expanse, giving instant reminders of the current technology and advanced skill of these people.

Jason lagged behind, attempting to glance in open doorways. Many were clear of furniture, none indicative of a hospital wing’s decor. He caught Grimm’s turn at the next intersection and met up where the healer waited outside a closed door a few paces away.

“How big is this place?”

Grimm placed his palm on the luminescent plate beside the door and titled his head as if considering. “The original floors were built into the mountain’s face, intending to hold approximately fifty people. I can’t give you a specific footage, but the structure now holds suites for a hundred residents, several laboratories, office space, the kitchens, and a conference chamber, which dates from the original structure. Oh, and the cryo chamber.”

With a frown, Jason looked to Grimm for clarification on the last comment but the healer had proceeded into a large windowless room.

Moving to a series of ten-foot high stainless steel doors, Grimm glanced back at him over his shoulder. “There are many layers to this building, many to the grounds of Eden as well. Each generation has added and modified the framework of those who have gone before.”

“Pretty impressive.”

Grimm removed a series of plastic trays from one door and placed them on the long glass table dominating the center of Briet’s lab. “We are the longest surviving generation. Perhaps the impact is lost on those of us still here.”

Ah, no mates. No children. An eternity of rebuilding the building. Yeah, could be boring.

“I’ve never seen outside. Is there a big bubble to keep human beings away, or just fire and brimstone?”

Grimm stopped and gave him a strange look, though the corner of his mouth seemed to inch up. “No fire. The sky is blue with no rain today. The Sanctum is at the far edge of Eden. In lieu of brimstone, we’ve plants and gardens, mostly as a result of Tsu’s skills.”

Shit. Gardening wasn’t an ability Jason had considered. “And Kamau and Turen?” Jason hesitated. “Or am I not supposed to ask?”

Grimm’s brow lifted, but he shook his head as if discounting the need for secrets. “Kamau is a companion of creatures: land, sea, and sky. Turen and Mia, fire. They could give hell and brimstone a run for the money. The grounds do have a force field. Certain DNA is restricted from entry.”