by Jaye McKenna
Definitely a man to watch.
While Kyn wasn’t exactly uncomfortable to be around, there was something odd about his mythe-shadow. Cameron had called him psi null, but Draven didn’t think that was quite right. He kept picking up brief flashes of emotion, as if Kyn had a thick, impenetrable shield that kept flickering out for just a split-second.
Interesting.
Now, Kyn turned to glance at Draven, who closed his eyes, but not in time to keep up the ruse.
“Draven,” Kyn said.
When Draven opened his eyes, Kyn was still standing at the sink, but he’d turned around and was leaning against the counter, watching him with an unreadable expression. Draven made a show of yawning and stretching as he sat up. Not so much of a show, really; he was tired all the time. He’d complained about it to Eleni when she’d been out to see him this morning. She’d said it was his body’s way of telling him to rest, and seemed pleased with his progress. Draven wished his strength would return faster. Knowing he wasn’t strong enough to protect himself was unsettling.
“Is that your first name or your last name?”
Draven gave Kyn a flat stare. “It’s my name.”
“Your only name?”
“Is that a problem?” He wasn’t about to share his real name with anyone else. That was between him and Miko. And Trinian, but she was gone, he hoped. Fled far away, when he’d told her to make herself scarce the night the DeMira estate went up in flames.
Kyn narrowed his eyes, and Draven returned his stare, keeping his expression carefully neutral. Something about Kyn had been tugging at his memory ever since they’d met four days ago. Shaggy blond hair, icy blue eyes that didn’t miss a detail, and he cast only the faintest shadow into the mythe.
Draven was certain he knew Kyn from somewhere. The hot sparks of anger flashing through the mythe when Kyn looked at him — there and gone again almost before he could register them — suggested that Kyn knew him, too, and didn’t like him. It never showed on Kyn’s face, but it was there, simmering behind that intriguing shield.
“What?” Kyn asked. “What are you trying so hard not to ask?”
“I was wondering where I know you from.”
“Aberdeen,” Kyn said in a terse voice. “The Cy-Tek facility. You kidnapped Rhys Tyler. I was on the team that got him out.”
“Ah.” Draven remembered. He’d only had a brief glimpse of the men who’d stormed the facility before someone had stunned him. Cameron had been there, too, he recalled. Might have even been the one to fire the stun-shot that had put him out.
“Is that all you’ve got to say about it?” Kyn demanded. “We lost a good man that night.”
Draven didn’t rise to the bait. Getting into a fight with his jailer wasn’t going to solve anything, and would only make trouble for Cameron. He continued to stare at Kyn until Kyn made a disgusted sound in his throat and turned back to the sink.
After the dishes were finished, Kyn headed toward the door and said, “Get your coat on. Cam wants you at the campus.”
Draven’s stomach twisted. “For what?”
“He didn’t say.”
“I thought he wanted to keep me away from the campus.”
Kyn shrugged. “Maybe that’s why he waited until after hours?”
Draven put on the coat and boots Cameron had left for him and followed Kyn out to the flyer. It was bitterly cold, but he inhaled deeply. He hadn’t been outside in days, and it felt good to breathe the crisp, winter air.
Kyn didn’t say a word to him during the flight, so Draven stared out at the stars and wondered how far away he was from home. Then he remembered that he didn’t have a home anymore, maybe never had.
Where would he go from here?
Cameron had said he might find work for him. He hadn’t said what kind of work, but he knew damn well what Draven’s responsibilities had been when he’d worked for DeMira. Working for Cameron couldn’t possibly be worse. Might even be better. He could hope, anyway.
Hope was about all he had left.
* * *
Cam paced the floor just inside the rooftop elevator access of the research building, trying to burn off some of the nervous energy crackling through him. Bringing Draven here was a calculated risk, but Miko said the ID Draven had used to come into the Aurora system was an amateur job and wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny. Miko wanted a new set of biometric data to work with, which meant Draven had to come to the campus.
Kyn brought the flyer down on the landing pad and escorted Draven to the elevator. “All yours,” he said. “If you don’t need me for anything else, I’m going home.”
“Go ahead. I’ll fly him back out when we’re finished. Did you talk to Anja?”
“No, but Mom called and told me the Wanderlust was on-station. She said I’m responsible for making sure you show up for dinner this weekend. I told her we might have a conflict.”
“You can go,” Cam said. “In fact, take the whole weekend. I’ll be working, anyway. Might as well do it at the cabin. That way, at least one of us gets some time off.”
“Thanks.” Kyn shot him a grin. “I’ll tell Mom you’re busy, but don’t expect to get out of it that easy. She’s been on the warpath ever since you didn’t show up for the last gathering.”
Cam sighed. “I’ll call her.”
“I’ll tell her you said that.”
Kyn left, and Cam hit the call button on the elevator and turned to Draven. “You doing okay? I figured you were strong enough for a short trip out. We don’t have far to walk.”
“I’m fine. You’re in charge of this place, then?”
“Not completely. I’m the director, but I still answer to FedSec.”
Draven smirked. “And your mother, apparently.” Cam scowled, but didn’t comment. “Quite a step up from a Sapphire Guild interrogator.”
“You know damn well I wasn’t working for the Guild.”
“Not until I went into your mind.” Draven’s smirk morphed into a feral grin. “Your secrets were a long way from the surface. Digging them out was the most fun I’d had in a long time. The others were all too easy. I stripped their minds clean and picked the bones, after. But you… you were the most interesting challenge I had while I was working for the Guild. You would have fooled any other psionic interrogator.”
“But not you.”
“No. Not me. I know all the secret ways to get inside. Puzzles and patterns. Locks and keys. Mazes and prizes. It’s a game… finding my way through the web of lies to the soft, bloody secrets hidden inside. Your web of lies was so convincing, you believed it yourself. Do you still, I wonder? Does it still protect you?”
Cam didn’t answer. He stepped into the elevator and touched the lit square for the second floor, where Data Services was located. Draven still talked crazy, but some of what he said hit too damn close to home.
“Do you miss it?” Draven asked suddenly. “The thrill of the hunt… always on the edge, one foot in each world, never more than a single misstep from disaster.”
“Yeah, I miss it. Budget projections and performance reviews are about as exciting as they sound. Come on.” Cam stepped out of the elevator and led the way down the hall before Draven could ask any more uncomfortable questions.
“What are we doing here?” Draven asked.
“You asked if you could see Miko. And he needs to see you. He says the ID you came in on is the worst forgery he’s ever seen and he’s going to fix you up with something better.”
“Ah.” Draven’s expression gave away nothing, but Cam sensed both interest and excitement. “What does Miko do here? Besides make fake IDs?”
“Information security, mostly. He’s a wizard with the net.”
Draven nodded. “Hardly surprising. He foxed DeMira’s security system the night you took him from the estate.”
They stopped outside Miko’s office, and Draven’s eyebrows rose as he read the nameplate on the door. “Miko Asada. Interesting. Did you marry him or adopt him?”<
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Cam shot him a glare. “You have to ask?”
“I saw the vid feeds from your suite, Asada. You seemed to enjoy having him on his knees.”
His face grew hot, but he managed to keep his tone steady, even as he wondered why he felt the need to defend himself to Draven, of all people. “I gave him a home and a name, and that’s all. I always regretted that it had to start that way with him. We were under surveillance. It wasn’t as if I had a choice.”
“No, no choice at all. Not if you wanted to survive. It was a test.”
“I thought it might be.” He glanced at Draven. “Why the hell would you watch?”
“Curiosity. I wanted to see what you would do. Miko said you were the one. I wanted to know what made him so certain.”
The words tripped a memory of that last night at DeMira’s estate. “Before you let us go… you asked him if he was sure I was the one.”
“He said you would save us both,” Draven said softly. “I didn’t believe him at the time. But here I am. So I guess he was right. He usually is.”
Cam knocked on the door, and when the light on the lock-plate turned green, he pushed it open.
Miko stood in the center of the room, amethyst eyes fixed on the door. When Draven followed Cam in, Miko’s lips curved in a rare smile, and he stepped forward.
Draven smiled back, and that smile took Cam’s breath away. It wasn’t sardonic or feral. For one brief moment, the cold-eyed assassin was gone, and in his place was a man who actually looked human. And… happy.
Something about that smile made Cam’s stomach flutter. Had to be nerves; he was worried about being discovered here with a man that at least half a dozen of the Institute’s residents would happily kill.
Couldn’t be that, though. Nerves wouldn’t leave him unable to take his eyes off of the man.
Three steps closed the distance between Draven and Miko. Draven stared down at Miko for a long moment before pulling him into his arms. Instead of shrinking away, like he did with most people, Miko wrapped his arms around Draven, pressed his cheek to Draven’s chest, and held on tight.
It was a long time before they drew apart. Neither spoke, but from the expressions on their faces, they were communicating silently, the way Miko did with Tarrin.
“Thank you, Cameron.” Miko’s electronic voice drifted through the room. It was the same warm tenor Miko used when he wasn’t trying to be cold or off-putting, the voice Tarrin always got to hear, and Cam only sometimes did. “Draven says you saved his life.”
Draven cocked his head. “Clever. Sounds nothing like your mind-voice, though.”
“No,” Miko agreed. “My mind-voice sounds like Rafe.”
“Yes, it does. He found you, then.”
“He remembers me, Diri. He remembers me talking about the dragons. He’s my twin.”
“Your twin. Is that what he told you?”
“No, Damon did. After he compared our gene-matrices.”
“Not clones?”
“Damon says not.” Miko studied Draven’s face, a slight frown marring his smooth features. “Rafe’s mythe-shadow hurts me. Does it hurt you, too?”
“It does. He’s… uncomfortable to be around. I had to work with him at the research center on Lyra. It was… difficult.” Draven narrowed his eyes then, as if something else had occurred to him. “You’d think if he was from the Before Time, you would have seen his thread.”
“I can’t see his thread at all,” Miko said. “And even if I could, it wouldn’t help. The Pattern is broken. I see flashes of threads, but they don’t go anywhere. I can’t trace their paths out of the now like I used to be able to.”
“If the Pattern is broken,” Draven said slowly, “then… what?”
“I have to close the circle.”
“And the Pattern?”
“Begins and ends with the circle.”
Draven nodded as if he knew exactly what Miko was talking about. “The mythe folding back on itself.”
“Yes. Only… I don’t know what that’s going to mean. Or how I’m supposed to make it happen.”
Draven stared at Miko for a long time before saying softly, “I missed you, little brother. You’re like a breath of sanity.”
Cam leaned against the door, shaking his head. He’d never heard Miko described as sane, and it just figured that the craziest son of a bitch he knew would describe him that way. But then, Draven and Miko shared a history Cam could only guess at. A history that predated him and the Institute.
“Diri… I need to give you a pattern.”
“What kind of pattern?”
“One that will let me find you, even if you’re far away.”
“I’m right here.” Draven’s voice was surprisingly gentle. “You don’t need to find me.”
“I know, but…” Miko blinked up at him, a single tear tracking slowly down his cheek. “It’s all broken. I can’t see the way out. Something is coming. If I can’t find you… I’m afraid you’ll be lost.”
“Give me your pattern.” Draven wiped the tear gently from Miko’s cheek, then bent to press his forehead against Miko’s. The sight of them like that took Cam back seven years, to the night he and Miko had escaped DeMira’s mansion on Alpha. Draven and Miko had pressed their heads together just like that, right before Cam had taken Miko through the underground tunnels to freedom. He’d never understood what it was they’d been doing, only that it had exhausted Draven. Had Miko been giving Draven a pattern then? Or had it been the other way around?
When they finally pulled apart, Draven straightened up and shook his head, as if waking himself out of a trance.
“Do you feel it?” Miko asked.
“Like a thread…” Draven murmured. “Glowing in the mythe.”
None of it made sense to Cam. He wished sometimes that he could see the world the way Miko did, just enough to understand some of the things Miko said. Though Miko was much more present than he had been before he’d met Tarrin, sometimes it still seemed as if only half of his mind was in the real world. The rest of it was off in the mythe, a world Cam had never seen, and never would.
“Yes, just like a thread,” Miko said with a small smile. “You feel tired. Let’s get the data I need to build your new identity, and then Cameron can take you back and put you to bed.”
It didn’t take long for Miko to do the required scans. Retina scan, fingerprints, and a tiny blood sample for a genetic profile, all of which would be linked to the new ID.
When he was finished, Miko reached out to touch Draven’s cheek gently. “You hurt, Diri.” The synthesized voice sounded almost real, and full of tears. “You’re lost. Drifting. You need—”
“I don’t,” Draven whispered fiercely. “Not ever again.”
Miko stared past Draven and met Cam’s eyes for a moment. “You will,” he said.
“Never,” was Draven’s whispered response.
“You feel it.”
“Maybe. But I’ll fight it.”
“You can try.” Miko pulled Draven into a quick hug, then pushed him away. “You need to go.”
Draven bent to brush a kiss across Miko’s forehead and whispered something to him that Cam couldn’t hear.
“Get him to bed, Cameron,” Miko said as Draven turned toward him. “He’s a lot closer to collapsing than he wants you to know.”
The scowl Draven shot Cam was pure bravado; Cam knew it, could feel the man’s exhaustion.
“I’ll take care of him,” Cam promised.
Miko gave him an enigmatic smile. “I know you will.”
* * *
Miko was right, damn him. Even the short walk back to the elevator was almost too much for Draven. His legs felt like jelly, and by the time he and Cameron were crossing the roof to the flyer, Cameron was more than half supporting him. Draven didn’t even have the energy to protest when Cameron helped him into the flyer and strapped him in.
“We maybe should have waited a few more days to do that,” Cameron said as he climbed in
to the pilot’s seat beside him.
“Maybe,” Draven agreed. “But it was good to see Miko. Thank you for that.”
Cameron didn’t say anything as he activated the lift field and guided the flyer into the air.
“You and Kyn… you don’t look like brothers,” Draven observed.
“Foster brothers.” Cameron turned his head to give him a frown. “What, you didn’t pull that out of my head, too?”
“Not every detail,” Draven said. “Only the interesting ones.” If he hadn’t been so exhausted, he might have pushed harder, just to see how far he could go, but verbal sparring was beyond him tonight. He leaned back in his seat and soon drifted off.
He didn’t wake up until Cameron was bringing the flyer down on the island. The nap had helped, and he was able to climb down to the ground unassisted. The night air was cold, and finished the job of waking him up. As they trudged through the snow toward the cabin, Cameron stopped suddenly and turned to face him.
“How do you communicate with Miko?” he asked. “He’s not a telepath.”
“It’s not psi,” Draven said. “Miko says it’s… deeper than psi.”
“The mythe,” Cameron said.
The sound of that word in any voice but the one Miko used in his head was startling, and made Draven wonder all over again what Cameron’s relationship with Miko truly was. “You know about the mythe?”
“No. Not really.” Cameron started walking again, and Draven fell into step beside him. “I can’t sense it, so… most of what Miko says about it makes little sense to me. Does it make sense to you?”
“I see it,” he admitted.
“The mythe?”
“Yes. I see the mythe. And the Pattern. If Miko’s spoken to you of the mythe, then surely he’s told you of the Pattern.”