Upset over the loss of Patrick and baby Laila to the Angels, Alia was quieter than usual at the table. Noticing this, our hosts said a whole bunch of things to cheer her up. Scott told her that Dr. Land and Patrick had made a difficult choice, one that might bring them greater happiness than freedom from psionic control. Rachael reminded her that even a psionic king’s conversion could be broken by the king’s death, and that the Lands would return to us if we won this war. Both assured my sister that she would see Patrick again soon, and meanwhile she still had plenty of friends and admirers right here in Wood-claw.
Alia knew that they meant well with their words so she did her best to smile, but in truth, she would much rather have been left to eat in peace. My sister had always dealt with her emotions in her own way, and in her own good time. This would be no different.
To spare her from more unwanted cheering-up, I steered the conversation over to the events of the previous night. Everyone insisted on hearing the full story with every little detail. I got Ed Regis to do most of the talking so I could concentrate on eating. Walter and Daniel got a big kick out of our crazy escape, but Scott had known Ms. Decker back in New Haven, and wasn’t as amused.
“Jodie Decker was a good friend of my mom’s,” said Scott. “She had three sons.”
“At least the plane didn’t kill any innocents on the ground,” said Rachael.
“Unfortunately, the good news stops there,” I said. “If the Wolves are no longer hunting the Angels, then we just lost our strongest ally.”
Candace looked over at the empty seat at the end of the table, saying, “Still, you’d think Terry could have joined us here and told Mrs. Harding tomorrow.”
“Terry’s just trying to score a bonus point with Harding,” I replied with an evil grin. “We’re going to need her help, and lots of it.”
“Terry is right to be afraid,” Ed Regis said gravely. “Psionic factions have always made connections with local government officials to hide their tracks, but to do that on a national level is unprecedented. And I’d bet anything the Angels aren’t handing out bribes. They’re converting.”
“How long do you think we have?” I asked.
“Difficult to say,” he replied. “It depends on how much of the government the Angels actually control, and which agencies. But my guess is that if this is happening here, it’s probably happening worldwide. The Angels wouldn’t want to lock themselves into one country in case they’re exposed before they have enough political footholds internationally.”
I laughed. “Never ask an adult to give a straight answer to a straight question!”
Ed Regis chuckled, and then said seriously, “Two years, tops.”
“What if we just go public?” suggested Daniel. “You know, tell the whole world what’s happening? Tell them that if they don’t do something, they’ll all be living on Planet Randal soon.”
Ed Regis gave him a grim smile. “An all-out war? It won’t work. People would laugh, and those who believed us would quickly disappear, lose their memories or suddenly have a change of heart. And even if it did lead to open war, it would mostly be a war between common people, between countries, not psionic factions. The Angels could easily create enough confusion to guarantee that no one would know who they were really fighting.”
“Besides,” added Scott, “you’re forgetting the most important thing, Daniel. What if we win? Do you really want to live in a world that knows we exist?”
Daniel frowned at his plate. “I guess not.”
“We can’t ask the world to pay for our mistakes,” I said quietly. “This is a psionics’ war. We have to settle it.”
I was a little surprised at my own words when I said that. In the past, I had always tried to distance myself from this conflict, insisting that it wasn’t really my war and that I was only in it for personal reasons. But perhaps just being psionic is in itself a personal reason. As long as this war continued, one way or another, I would probably be a part of it.
For dessert, Scott passed out slices of cinnamon apple pie which, according to Walter, was a rare treat in this house. It tasted great, but I didn’t have room left for all of it.
As we wrapped up our little gathering, I offered to help with the cleanup, but Rachael insisted that we get rested. I didn’t offer twice.
Candace saw us back to our apartment door. Ed Regis and James quickly went inside, but Alia stayed by my side, which was annoying.
Candace asked me, “Do you know how long you’re staying in Wood-claw?”
“Terry hasn’t said anything?” I asked.
“No.”
“Well, that’s for her to decide,” I said with a shrug. “Terry’s the leader. I just stumble along in her wake getting shot from time to time.”
“I’ve seen you be a leader, Adrian,” said Candace. “A really good one.”
I smiled and shook my head. “Blind luck.”
“I hope you can stay awhile.”
“Me too. Thanks again for everything.”
We ignored my sister and took our time saying goodnight. There was no telling how many days I could spend with Candace so I wanted to make them count.
Once she disappeared into the elevator, I rounded on Alia, who was looking up at me disapprovingly.
“What?” I asked brusquely.
“Nothing,” said Alia. “I just thought the Historian told you never to have kids.”
I fixed her with a withering stare. “Kissing doesn’t make kids, Alia.”
While it was true that I was forbidden offspring, that didn’t mean I couldn’t have friendly relationships, and I really didn’t need my sister to be chaperoning every minute.
Entering the apartment, we found that Terry hadn’t returned yet, but we weren’t too surprised. Terry had stayed with Mrs. Harding for dinner, which probably meant tea and more chatting afterwards. Mrs. Harding lived with her daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren, so she wouldn’t have been able to discuss much with Terry over their meal.
James had the spare keys to the second guest apartment, so we opened it up and looked inside. It was the same size and shape as our first: a moderately spacious living room, a kitchen, a dining room, and three bedrooms furnished with two beds each. That came to a grand total of six bedrooms between our two apartments, so this time I could stuff my nosy sister in her own room and take one whole bedroom to myself.
Or so I thought until Alia reminded me of a little promise I had made to her back at the Historian’s mountain. “You said we could share a room until I didn’t want to anymore, Addy.”
“I suppose I did,” I admitted. “You didn’t take that seriously, did you?”
“Oh, come on,” Alia moaned into my head as she wrapped her arms around my waist. “Give me a break. Please?”
I could kill people any day of the week, but I never had the stomach for this kind of battle. Patting her back, I gave her a reassuring smile. “You know it’s okay, Alia. Always.”
My sister had come a long, long way from the days that she had to snuggle with me under one blanket to keep her nightmares at bay, but it had been only twenty-four hours since she had a gun pressed against her forehead. And when we finally got out of harm’s way, Alia had discovered that one of her closest friends had turned Angel. Definitely not one of her best days.
James and Terry were already settled in the first apartment, but there was still one empty bedroom over there. Nevertheless I asked Ed Regis to stay in the second apartment with us. Alia trusted the ex-Wolf just as much as she trusted me, and I knew that it would be better for her to keep him close. Ed Regis took the bedroom next to ours.
Our bedroom here was almost as big as the one we used to share in Cindy’s penthouse at the top of New Haven One. The beds were comfortable singles with soft pillows, and there were two dressers and a small table. Two still-life oil paintings hung on the walls. Even with the boarded-up window, it was a fairly homey place.
Sitting down on her bed, Alia looked at me embarrass
edly, mumbling, “Thanks, Addy.”
“It’s alright,” I assured her. “Are you going to be okay now?”
Alia nodded. “I guess so. I’m just sad about Patrick.”
“I’m sad about the Lands too, Alia. I was really hoping to see how big that baby got. I’ll bet she’s talking by now.”
Alia smiled and said teasingly, “At least you have Candace to talk to. But only if you can keep your lips apart.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to be pestering me about Candace every second of every day here?”
“Of course!” Alia laughed, and then asked seriously, “But are you going to spend every second with her?”
“As far as I’m concerned, that’s the main reason we came to Wood-claw.”
“Because I want to talk to her too, Addy.”
I shrugged. “That’s okay. I know she’s your friend too.”
“No, Addy,” Alia said emphatically, “I mean just me and her.”
“Oh?” I said, taken aback. “You make it sound like an interview. What do you want to talk to her about?”
Alia looked away and mumbled, “Stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“Just… stuff.”
“What stuff, Alia?” I pressed.
Alia gave a little shrug. “Girl stuff.”
“Girl stuff?!” I repeated, staring at her in surprise.
“You know… girl-only stuff.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you were a girl.”
“Addy!” Alia threw her pillow at my face, but I stopped it in midair.
As I levitated the pillow back to her, I said awkwardly, “I’m sorry I asked, Alia. Really sorry. I guess you can’t exactly talk to Terry about girl stuff.”
Alia replied in her best sarcastic tone, “I’d just as soon talk to Ed.”
There was a sharp knock on our door, and Ed Regis’s voice said, “Hey, I think the bath is full now.”
Alia had started running the bath water as soon as we entered the apartment, and I silently thanked Ed Regis for interrupting this embarrassing conversation not a moment too soon.
Alia jumped up from her bed. “Finally! Finally! A real bath!”
I laughed. A real bath for Alia was one that lasted two hours or more.
“Can I please go first, Addy?”
“Go ahead,” I said. “I’ll take my bath in the other apartment. Try not to fall asleep in the tub. And don’t expect me to wait up for you either.”
Alia grabbed her duffle bag and headed for the door, but then stopped and looked back at me timidly. “Um, Addy?”
I nodded. “I’ll make sure you get some time with Candace, okay?”
As she closed the door behind her, I slowly shook my head and muttered to myself, “Girl stuff…”
A minute later, Ed Regis popped his head in to bid me goodnight. It was only a little past 9pm, but I wasn’t surprised. Alia and I had managed to get a little sleep in the homeless man’s van, but Ed Regis hadn’t closed his eyes in two days.
“Goodnight, Ed Regis,” I said to him. “Thanks again for keeping us safe.”
Ed Regis looked like he wanted to say something, then changed his mind, and then changed his mind again as he stepped into the room and faced me.
“What?” I said hesitantly, remaining seated on my bed.
“Adrian,” Ed Regis began equally hesitantly, “about your lack of plan the other day…”
“Oh, come on!” I groaned. “I feel stupid enough about that already. Do you really have to rub my nose in it?”
But Ed Regis insisted on having his say. “Adrian, you are not a child anymore. One of these days, you’re the one who’s going to underestimate your enemy.”
I growled at him, “You know perfectly well that I’ve already done that, Wolf!”
“Then all the more reason to take me seriously.”
“Are you finished?!”
Ed Regis sighed. “Yeah. I’m finished.”
After an awkward silence, I stood up from my bed and said to him quietly, “I’m sorry, Ed Regis. It’s not that I don’t appreciate you looking out for me. It’s just that–”
“That I’m a Wolf?” asked Ed Regis.
“You’re a soldier,” I said, looking away. “I’m not. I don’t have your tactical experience. And I think there’s a big difference between being overconfident and being desperate.”
“Perhaps,” said Ed Regis.
“Just out of curiosity, though, what would you have done?”
“I would have waited for the right moment.”
“And what if the right moment never came?”
“Then we’d be Angels right now,” said Ed Regis, chuckling lightly. “Goodnight.”
Ed Regis let himself out.
I grabbed my bag and made my way back to Terry’s apartment, where I discovered that Terry had returned from Mrs. Harding’s and that the bath was currently occupied by James. Terry informed me that James had only just started his bath, but I had a feeling Alia wouldn’t be out from hers until she really was falling asleep, so I decided to wait here.
As we plopped ourselves down on the living-room sofas, Terry asked casually, “Did you finally get your own room this time?”
She was going to find out anyway so I told her.
“Why am I not surprised?” laughed Terry. “For all the complaining you do, Half-head, when it comes to parenting, you have absolutely no spine.”
I just shrugged. Terry was probably right anyway.
“How’d it go with Harding?” I asked.
“Well, you’re in luck,” said Terry, putting her feet up on the coffee table. “She’s not going to prosecute. In fact, you’re actually a bit of a hero now for giving us a heads-up on the Angels’ accelerated progress.”
“Good,” I yawned. “Now if only we could do something about it.”
“Harding still wants to hear the story directly from you and Major Regis to make sure she has every little detail, but she promised to wait until after breakfast tomorrow, so you owe me for that. As for doing something, it depends on how this all plays out. We’ll just have to wait and see. But I have some good news. Harding told me that Wood-claw does have occasional contact with the Guardian Resistance in Lumina.”
“It really exists?” I asked.
Terry nodded. “It does. Harding sends them money and sometimes lends them Knights. I think Scott shamed her into it.”
“And?”
“I don’t know yet,” Terry said lightly. “Harding wants to share our information with several other breakaways and the Resistance too. Like I said, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Days?” I asked. “Weeks?”
Terry smirked. “Candace asked me the same question yesterday.”
I refused to bite, and we sat silently for a while. James was taking his time in the bath.
Suddenly Terry asked, “So how’s your sister doing, anyway?”
Her question threw me for a moment. “Fine, I guess,” I said, shrugging. “Why wouldn’t she be?”
Terry stared at me in disbelief. “Because you chucked her out of an airplane!” she cried in an exasperated tone. “Because her first boyfriend turned Angel on her! Take your pick! Just because I don’t treat her like a teddy bear doesn’t mean I don’t care about her.”
I waggled a finger at her angrily. “First of all, Terry, I do not treat Alia like a teddy bear. I’m letting her sleep in my room, not my bed. Second, I didn’t throw her out of the plane. That was Ed Regis. And third, Patrick was never…” I shrugged. “Okay, maybe he was, but she’ll get over it.”
Terry started laughing.
“Anyway, Alia’s fine,” I repeated. “Or she will be soon. You know how tough she is.”
Terry nodded. “Yeah, I know. Alia’s really grown.”
“No kidding,” I said, thinking of the awkward little conversation I just had with my sister.
Between the Angel takeover of the Wolves and Alia’s sudden mention of “
girl stuff,” I had been far less psychologically prepared for the latter. I felt a little guilty about talking behind Alia’s back, but I couldn’t resist telling Terry how my sister wanted some private time with Candace. To my surprise, however, Terry wasn’t nearly as shocked as I had been.
“What did you expect?” was Terry’s attitude. “She’s almost twelve years old, right?”
“Theoretically,” I said evasively.
Alia was officially eleven and a half, but even Cindy had admitted that she was only “pretty sure” about Alia’s age.
“Twelve years old, Adrian!” said Terry. “And you’re wondering why she has questions about girl stuff?”
“But Ed Regis is right,” I said. “She does look like a nine-year-old. She doesn’t even have… you know…”
“Have what?” Terry asked bluntly. “Tits?”
“Well… yeah,” I said uncomfortably. Then I laughed, adding, “Even Decker called her a little girl – right before Alia slapped the gun out of her hand.”
“There you go,” said Terry, shrugging. “She’s not a kid anymore. She hasn’t been for a long time.”
“I suppose.”
Terry threw me a nasty grin and gestured to my clothes. “Anyway, you’re hardly one to talk about size, Adrian. That’s Daniel’s shirt you’re wearing, isn’t it?”
Before I could think of a retort, a frightening thought popped into my head. “Hey, what if Alia’s like the Historian, Terry?” I asked seriously. “You know, never-aging?”
Terry laughed loudly. “She’s just a late bloomer, Adrian! It’s not so rare with undersized girls, especially if they do sports.”
“Are you sure?” I asked uncertainly.
“Trust me. The Historian’s power is one of a kind. If Alia had it, the Historian would have known. Don’t worry. She’ll grow tits soon enough.”
I frowned. “That’s kind of what I’m afraid of too, actually. I never really pictured Alia as a teenager.”
“Well, ready or not, she’s going to be one soon,” said Terry. Then she laughed again, adding, “And I bet you haven’t even given her the birds-and-bees talk, have you?”
Guardian Angel (Psionic Pentalogy Book 5) Page 8