Raikidan smiled at me. “You’re loyal to her.”
“She’s my best friend, and I’ll kill anyone who tries to take her from me.” I frowned and looked down at the ground. “We’re the reason you two met. When Rylan, Laz, and I escaped, Zarda put a lot of effort into finding us. He was mostly after Laz, but he wanted us all if he could.”
I drummed my fingers on my knee. “This put too much pressure on the rebellion, so Laz made a plan to draw Zarda’s attention away, knowing it meant she’d never see us again. We didn’t want her to go through with it, but we couldn’t find another way. She set out on her plan without a moment of hesitation.”
“She’s loyal to all of you,” Raikidan said. “Nothing would have stopped her from doing what she thought would be for the betterment of you. And I can’t blame her. The reason I live alone is because I could never find such loyalties in others. You’re all very lucky.”
I smiled. “We’re all we have. We stick together no matter what.”
Raikidan’s lips spread into a thin line. “You should know, when I found her, she was almost dead.”
I licked my lips, my heart stopping for a moment. “That explains why she avoided my question when I asked how the two of you met.” I hid my face in my hands for a moment. “Her dying out there alone was my biggest fear all this time.” I looked at him, making sure our eyes met. “Thank you for saving her.”
He reached out and held my hand. “You’re welcome.” He let go and went back to watching Laz. “Tell me, what was up with Eira during that simulation? When she killed Raynn and went after Nioush?”
I bit my lip. “Well, it has to do with her experiment design.”
“She told me she was designed to be without emotions, but that failed.”
I nodded. “Yes, that’s true, but there’s more to it. Along with the lack of emotions, she was to take orders without question, like the rest of us. She was also supposed to want to obey these orders—to kill without mercy or regret and revel in it.” My hands clutched. “Extended fighting or exposure to blood causes the programming to surface. She does her best to keep it at bay, but sometimes that doesn’t work. Or in the case of the simulation, she let go of that control to gain the upper hand.”
“I don’t see why she couldn’t just tell me that,” Raikidan said.
“It’s a sensitive subject…” I shook my head. “It’s best to be careful when talking to experiments about their creation. We… don’t handle those conversations well sometimes.”
“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to upset you.”
I smiled. “You’re fine, don’t worry.”
He didn’t need to apologize. He wouldn’t have known.
Laz and the boys finished their song and packed up. This confused me. I would have thought they’d play a few more songs. When Laz ran off before they’d finished, I realized something must be up.
Following her with my gaze, Laz ran over to Genesis and Seda, speaking with them. Maybe an assignment came up? The three spoke, and Laz nodded before looking Raikidan’s and my way, waving us over. The two of us stood up and approached just as Aiden joined them as well.
“Bodies are all taken care of,” he said.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Aiden rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I have to head out. My little search party now has a search party of its own.”
“And I have an assignment for Eira and Raikidan,” Genesis said. “Something simple to ease him in, but an important one to be handled before the night is over.”
The boys approached, and Rylan spoke. “Aiden, do you need help? I’m sure we could come up with something.”
Blaze held his hands out to me and Genesis. “Yeah, I mean, we have Ryoko and Genesis to play mom and child when we need it.”
I crossed my arms. “Yeah, how about no. I’d prefer to play single mom as little as possible, thanks.”
Laz grinned at me. “I can think of a few nice men to play daddy for a hot single mom. All you have to do is ask nicely.”
My face scrunched, and I swiped at her, knowing exactly what she was implying. She laughed as she jumped out of the way.
“I’ll be fine, really,” Aiden insisted. “I had the bodies of the fallen moved to a new place and I’ve got a good alibi worked up. I’ll limp back to my post of the closest patrol and say we were ambushed and only I made it out. Not too hard to get them to believe that.”
Rylan crossed his arms. “If that’s what you want.”
Aiden said goodbye, promising Genesis an updated report in a week or two, and headed off. Laz and Raikidan weren’t too far behind. Seda advised we head home in pairs, as there were soldiers wandering the sewers looking for suspicious signs.
Genesis paired me with Rylan and sent us out first. The two of us didn’t speak until halfway home, when Rylan broke the silence. “So, what were you and Raikidan talking about?”
I tilted my head to find him not looking at me. “I noticed he grabbed your hand while the two of you were talking.”
He noticed that? Why? “Jealous or something?”
He snorted. “No, of course not.” See, Laz, nothing for me here with him. “I just thought it would be strange for him to do so unless it was a rather personal conversation.”
“So, I’m not allowed to have personal conversations with people?”
He sighed. “I’m not saying that.”
I noticed the tightness in his shoulders. I’m irritating him. I focused my eyes forward, not wanting to cause the two of us issues. “I was just talking to him about how he and Laz met, that’s all.”
“That’s it?”
I didn’t let myself physically react to the question. I wasn’t sure why, but it sounded off to me. “Yeah. From what he said, he saved her life.”
“Hearing that upset you, didn’t it?”
I nodded. “We’re the reason she was on the run all these years…”
He reached out and grabbed my hand, surprising me. I looked at him to find him staring right at me. “Don’t go there, please. No one but Zarda is to blame for this.”
I tried to smile, to reassure him and myself that he was right, but ended up looking away from him. I still felt a bit responsible.
Rylan let go of my hand, and a part of me didn’t like that. I wanted that close connection with him. But he doesn’t want me… He would have said something to me by now if he did.
“What do you think of him?” he asked. “Blaze, Argus, and I weren’t able to get much out of him.”
“He’s a loner, like Laz, so not much for talking,” I said. “He only engaged in certain topics. What I got from my conversation wasn’t bad. Laz seems to trust him more than I thought she did, and he seems to like her, to some unknown extent.”
“What makes you say that?”
I grinned. “The topics that engaged him the most were about her.”
Rylan’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going to try and push those two together, aren’t you?”
I held my hands behind my back, a thin smile spreading across my lips. “Maybe. Not sure yet. Depends on how they continue to act around each other.”
“Meaning you are.” He shook his head. “You need to leave her alone about those things. Let her make connections on her own.”
I gave him a sidelong glance. “This is Laz. She doesn’t know a good thing when it smacks her across the face. Or in this case, swoops in and saves her. The two of them have chemistry, and I’d be damned if I allowed her to let it slip away.”
He shook his head again but didn’t argue anymore. Either he wasn’t happy I was trying to pair Laz with Raikidan, or he didn’t like my meddling. Either way, I wasn’t going to let him get between me and what I wanted. Laz’s happiness was paramount, especially after everything she’d gone through for us.
Now… how to get this to work…
Chapter Twenty-One
(Eira)
He looked up at me with a smile. “My name is Xye.”
A hea
vy fog clung to my mind as I roused from my slumber. I squeezed my eyes tighter in hopes of blocking out the early morning sun. Sadly, that didn’t help. I sighed as I slowly opened my eyes.
I screamed and pushed myself away from where I lay. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how close I was to the edge of my bed and fell off with a thud. I rubbed my rear. “Ow.”
Raikidan chuckled and moved to the edge of the bed. “Did I scare you?”
I glared at him. “What the hell are you doing on my bed? Better yet, why were you laying next to me?”
He chuckled again. “Watching you sleep.”
Unsettling wouldn’t begin to describe this situation. “You creep! Why the hell would you do that?”
He shrugged. “You do strange things in your sleep.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, my anger rising. “Get off my bed.”
Raikidan rested his hands in his lap. “No, it’s comfortable.”
Growling and getting up, I yanked on his ear. “Off my bed! And don’t ever lie next to me again.”
He grunted and grabbed my wrist. “Hurting others doesn’t get you what you want.”
“Wanna bet?”
He squeezed my wrist, forcing me to let go, and grinned. “You mumble in your sleep.”
I pursed my lips. I hated it when he changed the subject. “Your point?”
He shrugged. “I figured you’d be curious about what you said.”
I ripped my arm out of his grasp. “No.”
“How do you know you didn’t say something you didn’t want me to hear?” he inquired.
“I highly doubt I said much.” I turned away and headed to my closet.
“You spoke Xye’s name a few times.”
I briefly stopped filing through the clothes that hung on the hangers and then continued what I was doing. “What’s your point?”
“I thought you two were only friends.”
“We were.”
“Then why are you dreaming about him?”
I sighed and stopped rummaging. “The degree of my friendship with him is irrelevant to dreams. They cannot be controlled—a mere link to our subconscious and memories. Xye is part of a memory. He will haunt me in both the waking realm and in the dreaming one.”
“You make it sound like dreaming is a bad thing.”
I pulled out my shaman outfit and stared at it. “I don’t dream. I relive my past. And as hard as it may be to believe, there isn’t much good to remember.”
To my pleasure, Raikidan went quiet. I didn’t like being questioned, especially this early in the morning, and he seemed to enjoy asking questions regardless of what I liked.
“Why do you sleep on top of your blankets?” he finally asked. “I thought the purpose of them was to sleep under them to keep you warm.”
Pulling out his Guard clothes, I walked over to him. “Why do you want to know that?”
He shrugged. “I’m just curious.” He looked at the clothes when I handed them to him, and then back at me. “What’s this for?”
“We’re going out into the city after breakfast,” I said. “I want to get an idea of how shamans are treated in the city. It’ll be a good way to also do some surveillance.”
He raised his eyebrow but took the clothes anyway. “Why not use these special clothes we’re wearing?”
“Because this is better. Don’t question me on it.”
“Okay, fine. But back to the blanket thing.”
I sighed. “Do you really need to know?”
“No, but I want to.”
I shook my head and walked away from the bed. “I don’t like being covered. Happy?”
“Why?” Raikidan asked. “I thought humans found comfort in that.”
“I don’t like being confined… Why do you care, anyway? It doesn’t affect you in any way.”
“I just feel like I should know more about you than I do at this point,” he muttered. “Why do you have such an issue with that?”
“Two reasons. What’s the point when you’ll be out of here when this is all done, and we’ll be out of your mind for good? Secondly, I’m not important enough to talk about. There is nothing about me that is interesting or worth conversation. Now if you don’t mind, leave my room so I can get dressed.”
“But—”
“Get out!”
He stood up and walked over to me. “No wonder you don’t have any friends.”
I said nothing, and he walked to the door. Just as he grabbed the knob, he stopped and stayed silent for a moment before quietly speaking. “I’m sorry. That was wrong of me to say.”
I shrugged. “Why apologize for the truth?”
Raikidan turned and looked at me. “You do have friends. They live in the same building as you.”
“And those few are all I have. Nothing worth writing home about.” I walked over to my bed and laid out my clothes. “Now please, just leave my room. You can dress yourself on your own.”
He left, leaving me alone, not that it bothered me. I dressed slowly, grumbling to myself about how much I hated these clothes, and then went about doing my hair. Once done, I fastened my cloak tightly around my neck and left my room. I walked into the kitchen and looked for something light to eat. I settled for an apple from a basket of fruit and turned around, stopping dead when I almost bumped into Raikidan. I let out a slow breath. “Do you really have to do that?”
He chuckled. “You’re the one in the way.”
I rolled my eyes and went to move, but he also moved in the same direction. Narrowing my eyes, I moved back and Raikidan did the same. “Will you stop that?”
Raikidan grinned. “Stop moving in the same direction as me.”
I didn’t feel like playing his games and gestured for him to move. He complied—a cocky grin firmly planted on his lips—and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl.
Biting into my apple, I looked over to Rylan, who sat on the couch reading. “We’ll be back later.”
“Don’t get into too much trouble,” he said, not looking up. “I don’t want to be the one who has to break it to Ryoko why you’re in prison and waiting to be executed.”
I chuckled as I headed for the basement door. “Can’t guarantee anything.”
Rylan chuckled and left it at that.
Opening the door, I looked back at Raikidan, who was still standing in the doorway of the kitchen. “You coming or what?”
Raikidan snickered. “You’re pushy today.”
“Get used to it,” I said, heading down the stairs. “You put me in a bad mood.”
He closed the door behind him. “And here I thought you were always in a bad mood.”
Narrowing my eyes, I turned midstep and smacked his hard abs with the back of my half-clenched fist. My hand bounced right off, but his grunt told me he felt it enough.
He rubbed his stomach. “You should learn to be less violent. You might have better luck making friends.”
I headed to the hidden door. “And you should learn how to stay quiet.”
My body tensed as Raikidan snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. He chuckled quietly in my ear. “Why would I stay quiet when it’s so much fun to annoy you?”
I tried to struggle away. “Raikidan, let me go!”
His grip tightened as I struggled. Turning my face to him, I locked my eyes with his. His brow furrowed as if he was concerned, and he let go.
Stumbling forward, I caught myself and fixed my clothes. “Don’t do that again, got it?”
“Yeah,” he replied quietly.
I pounded the bottom of my fist on the hidden door when I approached it. The door slid open in response, and without waiting for Raikidan to follow, I headed down the passage quickly. Neither of us spoke as we walked. I didn’t mind. I’d rather not have him with me after the stunt he had pulled, but unfortunately, I was stuck with him if I was to be dressed like this.
Taking a sharp turn down another narrow passage, we came to what appeared to be a dead end. I pounde
d the wall like I did with the hidden door at the house. The wall let out a small crunching noise and slid to the side, revealing the basement of a new building. Once Raikidan and I came through, the door closed behind us and I led the way upstairs.
Opening the door, I peered around carefully. The house should be empty aside from some furniture, but I wanted to make sure. This was a safe house, after all. Assuring myself we were alone, I headed for the front door, snatching up a key on an end table as I passed. I pulled my hood over my head to conceal my identity, and looked back at Raikidan to make sure he did the same. Faces now obscured, we left, and I locked the place up, tucking the key away for later use. I led the way down the quiet street.
“Where are we going?” Raikidan asked as we walked.
I knew the silence couldn’t last forever. “I’m going to bring you to the center of the city. It’s an active area because of the park, and it’s where all the Quadrants meet. Shamans are frequently seen there, so our presence won’t be suspicious. Then we’ll make our way to the Temple, playing up our disguise, as shamans also frequent the building. After that, we’ll return home. Are you good with that plan?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
My eyes narrowed. That was too complacent of a response for him. I didn’t like it, especially after how he was acting earlier. I made a note to keep an eye on him and we continued on.
I led Raikidan through a few quiet streets and several busy ones, pointing out important landmarks when no one was able to eavesdrop on us easily. Raikidan took in the information but rarely spoke. Reaching the end of the street we were on, I looked for any moving vehicles on the cross street before heading across. Stepping off the concrete street path, I led Raikidan down a brick path that led into the urban park. The surrounding tree line wasn’t thick, and it thinned out more as we walked. I watched Raikidan look around with interest.
“What do you think?”
He continued to look around. “It’s nice. Not a dense forest like I thought when you mentioned it before, but I like it.” He looked down at the stone path we walked on. “Why is this here? Why not dirt?”
“Due to the weather here, and use by so many people, it’s easier to maintain the walking paths if they’re stone or paved.”
Destiny (Experimental Heart Book 1) Page 33