by J. A. Huss
"That's disgusting."
She shrugs. "We ate it all the time growing up. Peanut butter was always on the list of allowed foods and—"
That's right. Lucan mentioned that Junco had some weird food rules as a child. No wonder her eating habits are so screwed up.
I look back to the child and HOUSE is still talking. "—oat bread. Is there oat bread in there? Not wheat bread," she makes a face, "oat bread."
I go to the kitchen and she follows me, her little pink flipflops smacking her heel as she walks. My finger goes down the list on the side of Gideon's excessively stocked autocook and sure enough, there's a number for peanut butter and jelly with oat bread. I enter it into the machine and push start.
"Gideon knows what Junco likes."
I look over the list and I figure she's right. Gideon does know because his menu is mostly filled with crap. Cookies, mac and cheese, some fish, rice, chicken. Like every kind of chicken recipe on Earth. Orange juice, cheeseburgers, French fries, and blueberry pancakes.
I hate Gideon.
The cooker dings and I open it and hand the girl her sandwich, then watch to see if she actually eats it. I think she's pretending to be Junco so that food will sit on the plate and not be touched, but I'm wrong. She scarfs it down like she's starving. I raise my eyebrows at her.
"Told ya," she says, spitting out a small piece of bread as she speaks.
"Don't talk with yer mouth full, didn't Junco teach ya manners?"
"She did," she continues, again with her mouth full. "But you're rude, so you don't count."
"Is that right?"
She only nods this time, her mouth is too full to even spit. I watch her chew for what seems like eternity and then she finally swallows. "Milk," she croaks.
I punch in milk, wait for the beep, and hand it to her.
She guzzles the entire cup and hands it back for a refill.
We stand there like that, her alternating between chewing and drinking. Me watching. Her sending me dirty looks. Me sending her confused ones. Until she's finished and she lets out a big burp.
"Excuse me."
A laugh bursts out unexpectedly and I feel a little bit of the sadness leave for a few moments. I can only imagine what kind of little shit Junco was as a child when I look at this little copy. "You're excused, girl. Go take a nap or something. Don't Earth kids take naps? I want ta look at this footage again."
She yawns. "I am tired."
I point to the bedrooms down the hall. "Find one ya like."
"No, I'll sleep here by you, if that's OK. You might leave without me if I go back there."
"Where would I go?"
She shrugs. "I dunno. But everyone was always leaving Junco behind, and that was never fun. I don't want to be left behind like Junco."
She makes a little crack in my stone heart. "I won't leave, I promise. But you can sleep out here if ya want."
She does want. I settle on the coffee table, my legs stretched out and the touchscreen within easy reach so I can pause the satellite feed frame by frame. HOUSE curls up on the couch, her breath going in and out quickly, and we settle into Evening One of My World Minus Junco—Round Three.
Chapter Four
I watch the footage of dissipation particles above Pillar Seven several dozen times back to back, stopping only briefly when Ryse makes an appearance, yelling and screaming about Esta and how Junco went and fucked it all up again. I have to push him outside and take him down on the cement to make him shut up.
HOUSE sleeps right through the whole debacle, right through till morning to be precise, and I'm left wondering if that's normal. Don't kids wake easily? Isn't that something parents are forever complaining about? Shushing visitors into whispers so the kids don't wake up?
And I can totally see why they want them sleepin'. Just the one little mouth exhausts me. I cannot even fathom people having broods of them at the same time.
Or what it's like to be a Clutch Mother.
That thought physically makes me shudder.
I'm about to start the loop again when I see him out on the terrace. His hair more blond than it was last time. His clothes fitting right in with our tropical location, like he really was on a beach in Australia a few minutes ago.
I'm outside—my razors out, my fangs protruding—as I storm up to him. "You better have some answers for me." It takes every ounce of control I have not to start the brawl no questions asked.
Gideon smiles and starts to circle me. "Ya know I don't owe you any answers, Beast."
I cringe at the name. HOUSE called me that, too. The whole world is calling me that now. "Where's Caleb?" I ask, probing for information.
Gideon laughs. "Too busy to bother with you, that's for sure. If you've got a message you can give it to me. I'll see that he gets it."
My eyes burn into him as I let the revelation sink in. "It fits ya, you know? If that's the job He gave ya. Yer no Messenger, yer nothing but a delivery boy."
We continue to circle, his eyes shifting briefly towards the terrace door, then back to me. "And what does that makes you, an Angel?"
I growl at this accusation. "Say it again, Gideon, and I'll rip that pretty-boy head right off yer body. Let's see how well they put ya back together then."
He stops his circling and draws himself up to his full height. He's got like two centimeters on me but he acts like it's some insurmountable distance that proves he's superior.
I stay in my ready position.
"I just came to tell you that Sera's in there with her."
"And? That's supposed to make me feel better? You set her up to be dissipated, Gideon. You stupid. Mother. Fucking. Piece of shit." The words come out low and even. I don't lose my temper often, preferring to handle things calmly whenever possible because of the consequences, but this guy pushes my buttons like he's taking lessons from Annun.
He watches me for a sign of attack before answering. "Yeah, and she agreed to it, Tier. I might give her orders, and she might follow them most of the time. But we both know, Junco is about as unpredictable as they come. I have no more sway over her than you—"
I tackle him—straight in the chest. He goes flying backwards and we crash onto the cement. I can feel the breath as it gets knocked out of him and then his hands are around my throat, squeezing until I start to choke. I ignore that and send my claws scraping across his face. His skin opens up in long gashes that spew blood and his hands release from my neck just before the stars start closing in.
I back up and get to my feet, then watch him circle me. Blood is still dripping down his cheeks, but not as bad as it was a few seconds ago.
I nod at him, breathing heavy as I recover from oxygen loss. "That's some trick then, eh? You got that self-healing gene how, Gideon? Because from what I know of yer background, yer not supposed ta have that. You were never Aves, were ya?"
He lets out a small laugh between breaths, but it's not nearly as cocky as it was a few minutes ago. "Says who?"
"Says Junco. She told me you skipped a very important life stage. Never had wings, did ya? Ya felt her all up when she was back at Subjack's, she said, and you had no clue what you were doing. Which means you've never even spent time with a true avian, only those worthless clones they got out there in the MR. Ya have no experience with wings, right? That's what ya told her?"
His silence says I'm on to something, I'm just not sure what it is yet.
"Whose team are you playing for, Gideon? Quit yer bullshit, OK? I already know yer not him, so just tell me who ya are and we'll be good."
He laughs for real now and it has me recalculating on the fly. "Not who? Not Gideon? Oh, shit! That's what you think?"
It's my turn to be quiet and listen.
"Fuck! I thought you really were on to me, but this is priceless!" He shakes his head. "Not Gideon! That's awesome." His mood changes from amused to rage in an instant and I feel every molecule of adrenaline in my body as it's shunted to my major muscle groups.
He stalks up to
me, pushes his chest right against me, and his eyes rage red as they bore into mine. "I'm Gideon, Tier. I'm the only fucking Gideon there is." His words come out low, both in character and volume. They rumble from his throat like a snarling nightdog—a voice that could match Lucan on his worst days. "And if you told Junco this lie to make her doubt me, I will make you pay, brother. Because I'll put up with a lot from you, but I will not put up with you fucking up what she and I have."
He turns and walks back a few paces, stops and breathes deeply for a few moments, then pivots back to face me again.
"But even if you did tell her that bullshit, then obviously she didn't believe you, because she did what I told her to do, and she did it willingly."
"Yeah, she got herself dissipated into the nether," I say calmly. "That was yer grand plan? To have her kill herself. Again?" He takes a breath and I know instantly that was definitely not the plan. "What was the plan, Gideon? Because it's about as fucked up as it can get right now. She's as good as dead, you asshole! She's as good as dead!"
His smile is back, like that throaty demonic voice never happened. "This plan is not fucked up. Derailed, slightly, yes. I concede that. But as I was saying, Sera— "
"I don't want to die."
I whirl at HOUSE's terrified voice behind me and walk over and put a hand on her back, pushing her away. "Yer not gonna die, darlin'. Just go back inside."
"What the fuck is that?" Gideon demands. "You have one of those clones?" He looks at me with an air of incredulous repulsion. "Man, I always knew you were sick, but this! Sick!"
He drops his words, like he can't even think straight. And it hits me then. He has no idea who this child is, he thinks I'm keeping a little baby Junco for fuck's sake.
I look back at HOUSE and she's staring at him, but she makes no move to straighten out the misunderstanding.
My head swivels to Gideon and he's backing away from us. "You're sick, Tier." And then he disappears. Which is yet another talent he shouldn't have access to.
I rub my face in exhaustion as I start adding up all the facts about Gideon that I can count on to be true. He's a lone Seven, we're pretty sure that's true. He came from the Stag. He was raised and trained with Junco. He told her fairy tales that are not part of this world. He was taken away in his teens and morphed into something. He's got open Archer marks so he's never been claimed, by anyone. He was never avian, let alone Aves, yet he can port and heal. He spent a fair amount of time with Inanna, this he told me himself while Junco was in her Archer morph. He's definitely still sleeping with that Iliana Seven clone, or whatever she is nowadays. And he claims to knows Caleb well enough to have access.
It's the last part that worries me, although the idea that Gideon and I have shared a girlfriend, even if she was in two totally different bodies, is enough to make me retch.
Fucking Iliana. I must've been out of my mind that year.
The smacking of flipflops pulls me back from my thoughts. HOUSE slides up next to me and wraps her little fingers around my hand as she stares at the empty space where Gideon disappeared. "What do you think Junco sees in him?"
I look down at her wide eyes. They shine yellow in the early morning sunlight and I smile. "I have no idea, darlin', but I think you deserve a trip to the beach just for asking that question."
Chapter Five
The promise of a day at the beach keeps HOUSE busy making preparations while I spend the time rewinding my short conversation with Gideon over and over in my head, but there is nothing really new there. We all think we know who Gideon is working for, but Caleb has only shown himself once as far as I know. And I only know about that because Junco told Lucan during an argument and Lucan shared it with me.
And once we make it down to the beach it just feels wrong, somehow, to be lounging in an inner Sargassum cabana after Junco was smashed to particles inside that Pillar. But the truth of the matter is, I have very little to do without a completed Pillar Seven.
I watch HOUSE jump back from the waves down near the water and some of the heaviness in my chest lifts. Just slightly. I have to admit, I am enjoying Junco’s HOUSE. I might even like her. Besides, I get the feeling HOUSE has a distaste for Gideon, and that makes me more amicable in putting up with her escapades.
Of which there were many today.
First, she spent most of the morning choosing a bathing suit. It's currently a one-piece—we fought about that for the better part of an hour and still she had a two-piece delivered via the automated shop tubes and tried to put it on with a t-shirt over it, like she's the most clever child who walks the Earth and I'm just some dumb winged fool who doesn't know any better. And then she states we have to pack up a cool sack with drink pouches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on oat bread and then she refuses to let me port us to the beach, insisting that all the families she's watched on screen have to lug their crap to the sea in misery and make it a big production.
So I had to haul all this shit—towels, lotion, cool sack, and various plastic building tools and accessories—down the elevators and out to the beach cabanas, like a human. But the kicker of the morning was when she insisted I wear swim trunks. I gave in when she threw in the sunglasses. I feel like I'm living out some Rural Republic husband's vacation nightmare.
Lucan ports in waving his hands and talking non-stop. I set my beer down in the sand—the only good thing coming out of this day—and wait for him to finish.
He eyes the various seating accommodations and sets himself in the white linen sling chair, then notices me for the first time and points to my clothes. "What is that?"
"Beach wear."
He searches for HOUSE, who is down at the edge of the beach filling several orange pails with water, and then directs his gaze back to me. "She's still here." It's a statement, not a question.
"Yup, she's still here."
"What are you doing, Raubtier?"
I shrug. "She's Junco's HOUSE, little sister if I believe the kid. Junco asked me to take care of her, what am I supposed ta do? Drop her off somewhere and leave?"
He sighs. "They've located Gideon, he's at Subjack's compound in the Polar Friendly."
"I know. Well, I know he was found because he showed up here."
"He's telling everyone who will listen that you're keeping a baby Junco clone as a pet."
I take a swig of beer and swallow before replying. "Did ya correct them?"
"No. I found it too absurd to acknowledge."
"You wanna hear something funny?" I crack a smile and wait for him to agree.
He rolls his hand at me to get on with it.
"They don't know this little sister HOUSE exists. No one knows. It's like she's Junco's last secret or something. She never told anyone, Lucan. Not even Gideon or her father."
He watches the girl for a few moments as I watch him. Then I take my gaze to the child as well. "Secrets, when it comes to Junco, are a pretty big deal. Why would she keep this AI being a secret? Her father must know, how could he not?"
Lucan's still watching HOUSE when he answers. "He doesn't though, he called me and wanted to know if that clone rumor was true. If he knew, he wouldn't ask that." His face turns to me again. "Would he?"
A slow smile forms. "I feel like we've been handed a gift, Lucan. I'm not sure what it means, but it's big, I think."
"Maybe. Give me one of those, will you?" He points to my beer and I reach over to the cool sack and pull out a bottle and hand it over. He opens it with a crack of bursting air and takes a gulp.
HOUSE is chatting away busily as she approaches the cabana, dumps her pails of water out on the sand a few feet away from us, and then wipes her runny nose on her arm.
The sand splashes against Lucan's pristine black armor and I watch him scowl as he brushes it off.
I intervene before he can make a big deal out of it. "Why don't ya build yer castle in the wet sand, HOUSE? It's easier than dragging these pails of water up here."
"I don't like those ships out there," she
says, pointing to the cabana roof.
"Those are our ships. It's just security."
She huffs. "They're not all that secure, if you ask me."
"Of course they're secure," Lucan replies with more patience than he did last time. He must figure there's something to my idea about HOUSE being Junco's secret. "They're impenetrable."
"Is that so?" HOUSE asks.
Lucan is about to answer in the affirmative when a plasma cannon fires, exploding several cabanas a few hundred yards down the beach.
"What the fuck was that!" I'm on my feet asking for clarification from the ships when HOUSE puts a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. I tell the ship to wait and scowl at her.
"Did you do that?"
She nods. "I told you they're not secure. It was easy. And if I can do it, then everyone can do it." She stops to look at Lucan. "Right?"
He reaches over and pats her on the head. "I think we've found our secret."
"What's that mean?" she asks.
Annun is standing in front of us, spewing out excuses before I even know what he's talking about. "Tier, I swear, we didn't do that! Arel has no idea—"
"Never mind," I cut him off. "Take HOUSE down to the water and help her build a sand castle."
He stares at me. "What the fuck is a sand castle?"
Sometimes this guy is so stupid. I have to keep reminding myself that he never did a hosting on Earth because he's totally clueless about human culture. "She'll show ya."
I turn to HOUSE. "Annun is a friend of Junco's, he'll watch ya so you can build down by the water, OK?"
She shrugs and begins bossing him around, telling him to take some pails and shovels, and then proceeds to drag him down to the water by the shirt. To his credit he follows and doesn't even balk. I watch her for several minutes, smiling, before I realize that I'm still standing in the middle of the cabana.
"You're a natural, Tier."
I look over a Lucan as I take my seat and grab my beer again. "A natural at what?"