by April Zyon
Demaratus made a humming sound. “We’ll talk about that during your training,” he said. Shifting his hold around her, he pulled her in closer to him and brushed a light kiss to her lips.
“Are you still going to try to teach me to work a gun? I’m not liking that, at all. Sorry, but I don’t think I’ll do well with guns. I’m so much better with computers.”
“You will learn. Only on the very remote possibility that you will need to use one. You will also learn how to hurt someone before they hurt you, how to escape from various holds someone may use on you, and a few other less than honorable tricks that might very well save your life. Only for use in worst-case scenarios, Holly. But I cannot with good conscience leave you without at least the basic knowledge.”
“So, if you are going to train me on some fight moves, does that mean that I get to train you on how to do some computer things? Maybe write a program, or something fun like that?”
The look on his face was akin to her having asked him to eat something nasty off the bottom of his boot. He did seem to be considering her words, though. If she had to make a guess, he was weighing his options. “All right, but only if you don’t point the finger my way when something fries out or explodes without apparent explanation.”
“Trust me, if I can do it without frying the computer, then so can you. Although, when I get really upset I fry them by accident. I’ve gone through a number of computers. Which reminds me—I need to ask your leader guy to ensure that the room I’ll be using is lined with electrical blockers so I don’t fry the whole base.”
“Computers don’t like me all that much,” he confessed. “I think they realize I’m way out of my element and time and do things that are illogical to mess with me. There’s one still in the hub that’s screwed up from me attempting to find a map for a small town we needed to check out. Helen couldn’t figure out how I’d gotten it as messed up as I did. You’ll have to take a look and see if maybe you can fix it.”
“I’ll have a look and see if I can find anything on it. If I can’t, then maybe it’s possible that there isn’t anything wrong with the computer.” She had a feeling that Helen had done a lot more than just try to get Phoenix and Alexander killed.
“There was definitely something wrong with it,” he said. “Everything went crooked, spasmed, and it began to smoke. It was not good. All I needed was a map.”
“From now on, just come to me, and I’ll get you anything you might want, okay?” She hoped she would always be able to make sure he had all he needed at any given time. “I only mess up computers when I get upset. When I’m upset, all things electronic react and try to reach out to protect me.”
“I will come to you, as you should come to me. If you’re upset, you need to tell me so we can find a way to make it better.” Stroking his hand over her arm, Demaratus pressed his cheek to hers. “There’s no reason to blow up all the equipment when you can climb into my lap and relax with me.”
“Oh, that’s a very good idea. See, you say something like that, and I know, without a doubt, that I want to do that.” Just the thought of curling up with him had her calming. “For now, though, we’ll just worry about spending time together.”
“Lots of time,” he told her. Suddenly, he sat upright and looked around. “Holly, where is your HR packet that we need to have back to Deidre in less than an hour?” By the look on his face, he realized exactly where it was. Still in the dining hall with his jacket, exactly where they’d left everything when he’d carried her off.
“Son of a biscuit-eating, goat-herding, monkey’s uncle,” Holly swore. “Grab a pen. We’ll fill it out down there and hopefully have it to her in time.” She’d gotten so caught up in him that she’d forgotten all about it.
“I’ll bring two. Knowing our luck, one won’t want to work.” Helping her up, he moved over to a desk she only noticed at that moment. It was partially hidden under a very large, very green plant.
She frowned at it and cocked her head to the side. “How old is that plant?” The root base looked massive, almost as big as the pot it was in.
Taking her hand in his, he pulled her out of the suite and into the hall. “Old” was all he would tell her while ushering her into the elevator. When she continued to look at him, he shrugged. “The original root ball is roughly six hundred years old, but I’ve had to cut it back and split it a few times. Alexander has a portion, as does Gaius. Even Eric has one, I believe.”
“Wow. That’s crazy. You have an ancient plant. It doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before. I bet there are historians and plant specialists who would love to get their hands on it, as well as talk to you guys.” That was why she had been drawn to what she’d thought were manuscripts. The history of most of the men had been in the back of her mind as she’d read them.
“Yes, I’m sure they’d love to dissect the original Jason of the Argonauts, or His Royal Highness Gaius, the biggest pain in the ass around, or even Wild Bill Hickok. That’s why we keep everything under wraps. The number of people that would storm the gates, as it were, for our miracle, mortality cure. The number of people that would be willing to kill us off to get what we have for themselves. Quite frankly, it scares the hell out of me. Humanity isn’t ready to learn of the guardians. And if we do our job right they will never have to.”
“True. Well, I mean, it’s not like you have William Wallace or Robert the Black, so these are good things. Right?” The Scottish would definitely storm their walls if they thought anyone from their past was there. “Did you know Jesus Christ? Was he really a god, or was he just a man?”
Demaratus just stared at her and gave her one of his barely there smiles. Humming softly, he turned his gaze up to the ceiling. Once they came to a stop, he pulled her through the doors as they were still opening and hustled her down the corridors to the dining hall.
Holly saw the folder there still with his jacket and headed toward it. Once they were seated, she began to fill out the paperwork. “My bra size … what the hell?” she blurted out a moment later. “Why do they need my bra size?”
“For ordering clothing. Everything is done online and sent to a variety of PO boxes we have in several different counties. They are all paid for through a corporation that is owned by another corporation that is owned by another. A way of shielding us, as we don’t age. We have it planned so that, in the range of twenty to sixty years, we sell it to another of our companies, so that it always belongs to us. It’s only something we’ve had to start doing in the last century, as record-keeping became more and more accurate and available to anyone.”
“Ah, okay, well, that makes sense.” Several minutes later, Holly set the pen down and sighed. “Okay, I think I’m done.” She read back over the file and nodded. “Yep, I’m all done. Let’s get this back to Deidre.”
Pushing to his feet, Demaratus grabbed his jacket and waved her toward the doors. He was right with her, fortunately, so she ended up pointed the right way once they were out of the dining hall. He kept a hand on her back as he guided her through the maze of corridors back to Deidre’s office. When they stepped inside, the woman glanced at her watch, looked to them with an arched brow, and held out her hand.
Holly passed off the forms and felt herself blushing. “Sorry. I’m afraid that I got distracted and distracted Demaratus as well. I found my mouth spewing things that I shouldn’t have spoken out loud in the cafeteria, and it ended up with DC here carrying me off. Not that I minded, but yeah. Thankfully, he recalled the paperwork and we got it done, though.”
At her side, Demaratus had a hand over his eyes as he shook his head and groaned. Deidre shook her head and began to go through the papers, one by one. “You need to initial line fourteen on here,” she said, holding out a sheet. The woman continued to flip through while Holly scrambled to comply.
She felt like she was a kid standing inside of the principal’s office, waiting to see if she was going to get in trouble or be set free. She shifted on her feet and finally
asked, “So, all done?”
That question earned a look that had her pressing her lips together. Demaratus eased back a slow step, then another. “Line six needs your initials.” Another page was whipped out and held up for Holly to take. Deidre kept clicking her tongue softly as she continued through the file.
Holly looked over at Demaratus and allowed her eyebrow to cock up. It was killing her, the wait. She shifted nervously as she did so.
“Quit fidgeting. It’s extremely annoying and distracting. I’ll be done when I’m done. Currently, I’m not. If you keep it up, I’ll lose my spot and have to restart. Do you really want me to have to start over, Ms. Smith?”
“Crap, no, I don’t.” Holly stopped moving around and bit the inside of her mouth. She reached out, took Demaratus’s hand in hers, and simply waited.
Deidre finally flipped over the last page and closed the folder. “Stand in front of the wall, please, chin up, but looking toward me. You should be looking in the vicinity of my forehead.” Digging out a Polaroid camera, the woman came around her desk and lifted it up to look through the viewer. “No smiling, but for the love of all that is good, relax your face. You look like you’re in front of a firing squad.”
Demaratus had a sudden coughing fit that he tried to smother as he turned to face another wall, his shoulder shaking ever so slightly.
Holly just stared at Deidre. “You’re a cute woman, but good heavens, you’re a task driver. I never would have thought that someone who looks so innocent and sweet could be such a hardass.”
Harrumphing, Deidre took the picture and pulled the Polaroid free to wave it around in the air. “One needs to be tough when dealing with a bunch of ancient warriors who all have really backward thinking.”
“Good point. I’m sure that more than once they’ve given you a hard time, haven’t they?” Holly could sympathize with the woman. “Well, if they give you a hard time and you want help getting back at them, let me know. Us girls have to stick together, right?”
For a moment, Holly wasn’t sure she’d get an answer. Finally, Deidre sent her a quick wink before ducking her head down to finish her work. She held out a card with a clip attached to it. “This is your identification to get through any of the doors that don’t have keypads on them. You can also use it to bypass the keypads but not the biometrics scanners.”
“Thank you, Deidre. I appreciate it.” Holly looked to Demaratus. “So, now that I’m official and all, where are we going next?”
“Anywhere you wish,” he said. He gave a small bow to Deidre and rushed Holly out of the room. “Normally, Helen would have done up the cards, but Mercury had to create yours since you weren’t officially on the payroll. When you get a moment, double-check that it’s actually activated. He’s almost as technologically challenged as the rest of us. One thing Deidre didn’t mention is that there are three places your card will never allow you access—Mercury’s office, private quarters, and the armory. For obvious reasons, the armory is behind some extremely heavy security.”
“That makes sense.” She nodded. “I see me having a number of conversations with Mercury when I take over IT, because there are things that I see need change. For example, no one other than Mercury and myself should have access to the computers on the base. There are far too many classified documents that could get out. Not saying cut off all Wi-Fi for the Marines, but they shouldn’t be able to wander in at will.
“We should also ensure that the security cameras are linked in not only to security but ran through my department as well. I would be able to run a program that would tell us if anyone snapped in and was looping feeds where your guys couldn’t see it.” If she was going to do this, she was going to be the best at it. She had to protect Demaratus, after all.
“No one but those with access can get into your department. All the security does go through your computers, inside and outside. The warning system runs through to you, too. It also goes to the security department offices on the main and upper levels of the complex. Everything is closed circuit, from what I understand. You have to be inside the base to screw up any of the feeds. It was a measure Mercury implemented as soon as we were able to put in the first of the cameras.” Demaratus stopped in the hall and pointed up at a light fixture. “What do you see?”
“Yeah, but even then the closed circuits can be bypassed.” Holly looked up and smirked. “I see what you guys have done there. Smart, very smart.” They had used hidden cameras in the lights.
He laced his fingers with hers and pulled her along. “The decorative strips on the walls hide scanners that look for body temperature changes. The system originally freaked out over all of us. We’re warmer than a normal body, so it saw us as a threat. We had to tweak it a little more to allow a slightly larger gradient. Our head doctor helped with that one after a number of tests to get us to our warmest possible temperature, which is on average fifteen degrees warmer than a healthy human body.
“The floors on every level can be turned into a minefield. Depending on the code of the day is where the mines are placed. Which means, if you are aware of what the code is when they are activated, you know the pattern and how to avoid blowing yourself up. And the last resort is the several hundred pounds of C-four equivalent explosives that will bring the entire mountain down in on itself to destroy everyone and everything inside.”
Holly’s eyes were huge. She knew that they were because of how shocked she was. “Would you really do that? Kill everyone in here?” She had no idea what the base held, but now she wanted to know more about what secrets they were keeping from the world. Just the idea that they were willing to destroy everything spoke volumes of their determination to keep humanity safe.
“If it was the only option, yes. It’s the last resort if every other viable, or insane, option has been taken away. While not a one of us likes it, we also know exactly who we’re fighting against. They wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to us.” He lifted her hand to press a kiss to her knuckles. “I would hate to do it, especially now that I have you in my life.”
“I would really hate it if you did that, too. I don’t look good wearing mountain, you know.” She was trying to make light of the situation. It was serious, and she hoped that there was never a time for it. “You’re all great. You know that, right? What you guys fight for … it’s amazing.”
“You haven’t even read the files yet,” he said. “You should do that before you start complimenting us. We didn’t always play by the rules.”
“I know. You forget that I have read the files, most of them anyway. Remember why you were sent for me? Granted, I thought they were for a series of books.”
“Those weren’t all the files,” he corrected. “Those are only the recent ones with some background Helen had obviously put in. But she was missing huge chunks of time. If you ever saw our personnel files, you’d understand. Everything in them is now file numbers, because if we didn’t do that, we’d each need a room to hold everything we’ve done over the last centuries on paper.”
“Wow, that’s impressive,” she told him. “Okay, I’ll amend my former statement and tell you that what I did read about you guys made me think that you’re the good guys. You’re all honorable, with a few exceptions, of course.” She thought about the file she’d read on Billy the Kid, and it made her teeth ache.
Squeezing her fingers lightly, he stepped into the elevator again and pulled her into his arms. He turned them so her back was to the corner, with his large body blocking her view. “We are who we are, Holly. We were once mortal men, but the medallion doesn’t stop us from suffering the same foibles as others.”
“This is true. People are people, sadly. It doesn’t matter if they live for a blink of an eye or for a thousand years, they are simply human. They are flawed beings, through and through, right?”
“Some of us have a few more flaws than others, but yes.” Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he shifted enough to rest his head on hers. “What about you? Do you have any flaws
that I need to be aware of? Don’t tell me you eat crackers in bed, though. That’s a deal-breaker for me.”
“Nope, no crackers in bed. I’m claustrophobic, afraid of the dark and a few other things. It’s all good, though. I’m also one of those women who, once I have something on my mind, I can’t let go until I have the problem figured out and all that fun stuff. You know how it is. I also code, like seemingly all the time. I always have some program or another running through my mind.”
“Impressive,” he said. “I’ll try to remember your fears, so I never put you in a situation that is uncomfortable for you. In training, if something is too much, you have to let me know. Especially when we get to grappling.”
“Grappling? What? Wait, that means going up high, doesn’t it?” She was frowning now. “I have a plethora of things that I hate to do and that I’m afraid of. Sorry that you got saddled with me.”
“No, little warrior, it doesn’t. It means to grab hold and to hold fast. Hand-to-hand combat, without any weaponry, is a form of grappling. You’re thinking of rappelling, which is when you are using ropes to descend a mountain.”
“Yes, that thing. Never want to do that,” she agreed, then suddenly smiled. “So, will I get to hold on to you? Will you hold on to me, too?”
“Of course.” Putting action to his words, Demaratus slid his arms around Holly. He rested his cheek against her temple as he spread his hands over her back.
She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest. Taking in a deep breath, she let it out just as quickly.
“You’re such a tiny thing. I worry about hurting you,” he said. Exhaling, he lifted his head when the elevator let out a discreet ding. “Let’s get back to the suite so we can be more comfortable and out of sight of the cameras.”