Healer's Heart
Section 6
by
Ann Marie Olson
Story © 2002 Ann
Marie Olson
Chapter 28
Danyel zlinned Dimitri's descent into need with a sort of wary fascination. He sure hoped he didn't turn into such an idiot every month. "Hold still." Dimitri growled, waving a straight razor far too near Danyel's nose for his peace of mind.
Dimitri's hands no longer shook, as they had during turnover or the hectic night following it, but that didn't mean he was at all stable emotionally. Danyel was pretty much certain Dimitri never was stable emotionally. Danyel held still. This was probably the better part of wisdom.
With an ease any paid barber would envy, Dimitri whisked away lather and whiskers. He then leaned over Danyel's shoulder and did his own face. Danyel'd become used to Dimitri's utter disregard for anything even vaguely resembling privacy. He did wish, however, he could have kept at least his bathroom for himself, if only for a few moments a day. This morning had been a prime example.
They'd both been up very late last night dealing with an awkward change over case at the center. The child's parents had dumped him on the steps of the center with chains binding his wrists and ankles. With Dimitri's help, they'd managed to heal him enough to get first transfer into him, but he'd been unstable all night until Danyel could get a second transfer into him.
When they'd gotten home, Danyel'd poured Dimitri into bed, as usual. However, this time, Dimitri's instant sleep as his head had hit the pillow had dragged Danyel down with him. Together with Mitka and all their clothes, that was. Dimitri was still bone tired, from the aches showing in his tensed field.
"You should go back to bed." Danyel said, giving in to having Dimitri so near and hugging him tightly for a moment. Smelling of shaving lather and musk, he hugged back. Dimitri's skin was still cool, but Danyel could feel it heat slowly, with each passing day until he knew it would be as warm as his own, promising him new life out of his own need.
"Uncle Sevrin said he had a message for us." Dimitri glanced down at him. Danyel slipped the razor from his grasp and tidied up the spot on his chin he'd missed. "Don't do that." Dimitri's lips twisted, as if he couldn't decided whether to frown or to smile. Danyel grinned.
"You would have been patchy." He tugged a hot towel out of the steamer and wiped Dimitri's jaw clean with it, then his own. Danyel's tiny house had changed in ways he never could have imagined. Dimitri'd descended upon it in a storm of redecorating Danyel could have never imagined before meeting him.
"Breakfast should be ready by the time we're done here." Dimitri leaned toward the mirror. Danyel winced as he tugged a hair from his brows. "I can't be sloppy." This seemed to be one of his favorite lines. Danyel flinched again at a second tug. This one didn't come so easily and left a tiny blood spot behind. Dimitri grimaced and dabbed at it with a styptic pencil. "Easier than healing it."
"Why do you do all of this?" Danyel asked, leaning against the sink.
"Which?" Dimitri shuffled through the medicine cabinet, showing none of the skill he'd use with a deck of cards. Although the fact Mitka had the sense around here this morning and was still sound asleep on the bed, might have something to do with it. He dabbed some stuff around his eyes and rubbed it in. Out of another little bottle he smoothed something into his cheeks. A third was some sort of rock he wet and then rubbed under his arms. "I have to shave again." He stared at the hair.
"Why?" Danyel shoved himself upright. Normally he didn't sleep much at all in need. Around Dimitri, he slept at least four hours, which was how long Dimitri slept. It should have been longer for him. Danyel shoved one of Mitka's feet out of the way and sat on the edge of the bed. His shoes were across the room, lined up neatly with Dimitri's. He didn't want to get up and fetch them. He yawned, wanting very much to go back to sleep. Who was the Sime around here anyway?
"Because its unGeninine." Dimitri sniffed, as if this answered everything. "You don't want some coarse, hairy barbarian in your bed." Danyel blinked at each of this descriptors, wincing inside as they each rather held true to himself. His own hairy, bony ankles stuck out beneath his pants legs, tied to rather long, awkward looking feet. "You're Sime, that's different." This seemed to end all arguments for Dimitri.
But all his arguments and opinions could have been turned ninety degrees to gender. A bell pinged in the kitchen and Dimitri flounced off. It was very strange to see over two hundred pounds of indisputably male Gen, 'flounce'. Danyel'd seen male donors who swished, flounced, pranced, lisped and otherwise acted like very foolish girls. They slept with other male donors, for the most part. Dimitri'd been sleeping with him, although since his turnover, it had been like sleeping with a chilled cat.
Not that Dimitri was physically cold, even if he was cooler, literally, than Danyel. No, more that he acted like a cat that had been left out in the cold all night long and had just been let into the house. He found the warmest spot, Danyel, and flattened himself to it. Danyel was not complaining, usually. Sometimes it was awkward, such as first thing in the morning when he really had to get to the bathroom. Dimitri's 'Haris' jokes didn't help any in that regard.
"Good, grief, Dimitri," Danyel shook his head, smiling none the less. Dimitri had a huge tray, with fried eggs, boiled eggs, both cold and hot, breads, rolls, soft cheeses, preserved fruit, fresh fruit, juice, milk and what smelled like coffee.
"I'm hungry." He yawned, then grinned at Danyel from under lowered lashes. "You make us feel good." He set the food down on the table. Mitka sniffed and then crammed his head under his wing. "Come on, it'll get cold otherwise."
Danyel padded over to the table Dimitri'd moved into the bedroom. It made the tiny place seem even smaller, but it was very nice to not have to go out onto the tiled floor in bare feet. "I'm getting some rags from a thrift store near here in a day or two. I'll be making at least one, maybe two, rugs for the front room." Dimitri sat, politely, looking at the food. Danyel bowed his head, then glanced at Dimitri from under his lashes. He had to be waiting for something.
Trying not to wince at his own clumsiness, he poured both coffee and some of the orange juice he knew Dimitri adored. Dimitri grinned and finally began serving himself. Danyel poured a cup of coffee, added cream and sugar, then sipped at it. Before he knew it, someone, who could only have been Dimitri, had managed to slide under his nose, two fried eggs, bread, toast, one of the bagel things Dimitri was so fond of with a soft, creamy cheese on it and cherry preserves, and a whole glass of orange juice.
Dimitri whistled a song Danyel knew quite well. Sevrin had taught it to him when he'd first come to Kaon and had been painfully lost. The song, "The Invisible Ren.", was subversive as shen by the standards Danyel knew for Russian culture. It was about a renSime who could become invisible at will and went around stripping renGens in the sharm. The premise would never work here in the West, since no standard donor, not even a GN1 could so easily satisfy a renSime's need, but in Russia, well, things were different.
Danyel leaned back in his chair, put up his feet, and sipped at his coffee. It was rich, strong, and woke him up as well as Sevrin ever had. "Do you like getting up early in the morning?" Danyel tried to figure out how the weather was going to turn out. He couldn't tell. It was still gray and foggy with morning. He yawned, feeling every gram of fat and protein Dimitri'd crammed into him while he wasn't zlinning.
"I hate it." He gave Danyel one of those crooked grins. Quickly, he cleaned up all the dishes. They zlinned to have vanished, although Dimitri returned far too quickly to have washed them all. "If I never saw another dawn in my life, I'd be thrilled." Danyel flinched at first, then he thought about it. "Oh," he grinned. "They aren't so bad from the other side."
"So you say." Dimitri yawned, covering his mouth with his coffee cup. "My uncle calls," he upended the remaining coffee into his mouth and set down the cup. It was already stained dark with the countless cups he drank every day, black.
"I remember hearing Vayer say something about your not liking coffee." Danyel wished he could clean the last bit of grunge from his mouth. The coffee wasn't quite doing its job. He yawned again, then finished his own. It would be the best he could do.
"I didn't." Dimitri snorted. When Danyel stood, so did he.
"You don't have to keep up your elegant party manners around me, Dimitri." Danyel'd finally had it with the little dance they'd been performing the last week. "Sit, stand, eat, drink, whatever you wish." He waved his hand at the table, nearly knocking over the carafe still sitting there. "This is as much your place as it is mine, now."
"I'm not paying you rent."
"Oh, shen, Dimitri!" He snapped. "Get it through your thick skull. You don't owe me a shenned thing." Dimitri paled with each repetition of the word 'shen'. Danyel wanted to make his point. "Shen and shidoni, Dimitri, there's no language police here, no nager police, no laws or even traditions making you cater to my every whim. Stand on your own two feet. Just because you don't have tentacles doesn't mean you have to follow me around every moment of the day!" Danyel grabbed his shoes and socks. The cold floor was a shock to his bony feet, as it had been every day since he'd moved in here. Why had he never thought to get or make rugs?
Danyel snapped a shoelace as he tied the first one and cursed, even more vulgarly, most likely, in Dimitri's opinion. Danyel didn't much care.
"No, Danyel," Dimitri appeared, as if by magic, holding a needle and thread. In moments, he'd repaired the shoelace and tied it neatly in an elegant, tasteful bow.
"Would you stop that?" Danyel untied it. When he retied it, the bow was uneven. Danyel snorted. "I can tie my own shoes."
"Oh?" Dimitri asked, glancing up. "Don't spread your toes." He brushed the base of Danyel's foot with his knuckles. Of course Danyel flexed his foot. Before he knew it, Dimitri's slipped his sock on, shoe as well, and was tying his other shoelace. Danyel bent over, in preparation to swat Dimitri away. "You're in need." He murmured, rubbing at Danyel's calves. This was cheating. Danyel melted.
He sighed, leaning back against the cushions, his eyes blurring. He didn't care though, all he cared about was Dimitri's hands on his legs. "We come back this afternoon and you let me rub your feet again?"
"Sure," Danyel answered, not thinking about it. "What about work?"
"We're off today." Dimitri loosened the knotted muscles of Danyel's calves. It was hopeless. Danyel was utterly lost. He couldn't remember anything but how good this felt.
"You're a witch, Dimitri. A witch here to tempt me out of my soul." He murmured, looking down his body at the younger man, cocking his head to the side.
"I do not ride around in a flying mortar nor do I have a hut that dances on chicken legs." Dimitri snorted. "Nor, I hope, am I an old crone."
"Neither old nor a crone." Danyel relented. "You're beautiful, Dimitri." All the play had gone out of his voice. With each day that passed, Danyel's desire for Dimitri's selyn, his life, multiplied, or was that exponentiated? Danyel'd never been at all good at math, except for probability. "I want thee." He added in Russian.
Dimitri rested his head against Danyel's shins for a brief moment. "I want thee." He looked up. "Is that so wrong?"
"No," Danyel shook his head. "There's nothing wrong with desire."
Dimitri knew Danyel wasn't going to vanish on him. If nothing else because separating Mitka from him would have taken three crowbars, six augmenting lords, eighteen months worth of selyn and a signed letter from Allah. They were beautiful together. Dimitri leaned back against the seat. He had no desire, whatsoever, to learn how to drive one of these automobile things.
Danyel did it very well. It wasn't the speed that bothered Dimitri. In his otherworldly memories he remembered traveling far faster with the power of thought. No, it was the lack of elegance inherent in the little plastic and metal boxes. They had no grace of workmanship or style of handling, for they were mass produced and required no training.
Although he did have to admit he liked being driven and cared for. Danyel helped him out of the car as if he'd been helping Sharm Lords from their conveyances all his adult life. Probably Sevrin had taught him for those times Vanesa had not been available. "Who taught you your exquisite manners?" Sevrin had come out to greet them. Dimitri wanted to give Danyel a chance to shine.
"Mitka and I discussed it. He said to treat you like a lady." Danyel's voice was low, but his nager twinkled brightly over his growing need. The mirth it in was unmistakable, as was probably Dimitri's unease.
"I'm not a woman." Dimitri drew himself up to his full height and had to arch his neck to look down on Danyel.
"Oh?" Danyel ticked off points on his tentacles. "You cook as well as any professional, you clean everything in sight, you wear makeup more often than not, you shave not only your face but under your arms,"
"I trim." He glanced up and caught Sevrin's wince.
"You pluck your eyebrows, Dimitri. What am I supposed to think?" Danyel's lips twisted. "You act like a girl!"
Dimitri was mortified. From his extremely awkward cough, so was Sevrin. Danyel spun around and then, of course, backed into Dimitri. Danyel didn't even think of him as Gen. "I'm not a girl." Dimitri growled, his voice cracking for the first time in months. Danyel looked up at him.
"Is it really so horrible?" He didn't turn, just pulled Dimitri's arms around his shoulders. His entire attention, from his nager, was on Sevrin. Mitka was draped over Danyel's shoulders, but from the little snores, Mitka was sound asleep. No, Danyel hadn't meant to dismiss him, he trusted Dimitri to guard his back.
"I'm male, Danyel." Dimitri pulled Danyel close. His voice had dropped as low as it went, vibrating deep in his chest, beneath the core of his selyn production. "Never forget that."
"Now?" He asked, pressing his hips back against Dimitri's. There was the faintest shiver through him, as if his memories were eating at his soul.
"Well," Dimitri relented, leaned down, and nuzzled Danyel's other ear, the one without Mitka draped over it. "I'm Gen, too." He murmured, unable to stop his grin from tickling his lips. "At the moment, very Gen and getting more so." Dimitri could nearly taste the cool darkness forming beneath Danyel's skin with the growth of his need.
"What's wrong with Mitka?" Sevrin asked. They both jumped in place. Dimitri'd forgotten everything but Danyel.
"He's asleep." Dimitri checked again. Mitka'd wedged himself into the crevice at the top of Danyel's ear and locked his talons around the curve of it. He really did look like a bizarre piece of jewelry. "Can't you hear him snoring?"
"I can." Danyel muttered, settling himself more firmly against Dimitri's front, this time without the quiver of unease. "No, I don't suppose at the moment I really think of you as anything other than Gen."
"Then we can work on the male/female thing?" Dimitri chuckled, not really caring as much now as he had earlier. Danyel's warmth all along his front was more than enough to still his trepidations.
Danyel glanced down, even as his tentacles twined with Dimitri's fingers. The touch of them was enough to make Dimitri's mouth water to overflowing. Danyel chuckled. "I don't think I'd notice if you drooled on me, too."
"Its sticky." He muttered, trying to catch all of it. A tiny drop tangled in Danyel's black curls. Dimitri rubbed it in, smelling the roniplin and dark musk of Danyel's body. His forearms burned with need. "You're teasing me again."
"I know." He rubbed his face against Dimitri's jaw.
"Quit flirting in the courtyard." Sevrin growled. Dimitri held Danyel even closer, protecting his Sime from the interloper.
"You're making it hard for me to breathe." Danyel muttered.
"Sorry," he let go a bit, skin tingling in the first flush of embarrassment. Vayer had never let him be quite so intimate, having kept his distance from Dimitri, if not Mitka, at all times in public. Danyel never complained, so Dimitri had assumed he didn't mind.
"You don't have to go too far." Danyel leaned back, away from Sevrin. Dimitri's head spun. Never before had he caressed a Sime so openly before another Sharm Lord. Danyel was his, heart, soul and nager. Or at least nager. He lipped Danyel's ear, wanting to taste his skin again, to know more of him than normal touch could ever transmit.
"Dimitri!" Sevrin snapped. In the last week, Dimitri'd become very protective of Danyel. He was very fragile, particularly without Mitka's active defense. He slapped away Sevrin's offhand attack. Visible sparks rained down on the flagstones. Dimitri blinked at them. In broad daylight, for them to have shown, Sevrin must have tried to hit him hard. Dimitri struck back, annoyed at his Uncle's incredibly rude gesture.
Sevrin flinched back, his own field shying away from the blow. "Why did you do that?"
"You would have murdered him." Dimitri said, with no exaggeration. Even Vayer would have felt a strike like that one.
"Who? Danyel?"
"Yes," Dimitri didn't want to release Danyel. He never did, even for moments at a time. He'd spent so many long, lonely days without Sime or friend. He cherished every single moment he had with Danyel as if it were the last of his entire life. Danyel's tentacles were still twined with his fingers, holding him close.
"I'd meant to speak with you alone, Sharm Lord Dimitri." Sevrin's reminder of his loss hurt. He'd so desperately wanted to be part of Sergei. "This is no business for an outsider."
"Danyel gave me back my bracelets." Dimitri defended him with all his will. If Sevrin truly were angered, he could go through Dimitri's protection of Danyel as if it were paper. "We are bonded." Arkay had taught him the basics of nageric combat, but not enough to withstand his Uncle. As far as Dimitri knew, no one could. He'd certainly been unable to except when Sevrin was so post he could hardly sense fields at all.
"For this month, at least." Sevrin's scowl grew.
Danyel glanced up at him in question. "This month?" He asked silently, a shiver running through his whole body, from head to toe. Dimitri knew Danyel'd only offered the chance, but he couldn't let this last dream go. Not now. Not in need.
"Later," he mouthed and tried to put the lightest possible kiss on Danyel's lips, just to show Uncle Sevrin he was serious. Danyel's mouth opened to his, hot, very wet and holding only the thinnest veil over the ice black need he sensed behind the heat of Danyel's body. Dimitri wanted him with all his heart. Wanted to taste more than Danyel's mouth, he wanted Danyel's need opened beneath him as he'd only dreamed of. A knot behind his chest warned him of his forbidden longing. "I want thee." If he could have cried, he would have. As it was, even his near vision blurred, despite the glasses Danyel'd taken to reminding him to wear.
"Thank you," Danyel reached up and pushed said glasses back up onto Dimitri's nose. "I think they look quite fine."
"I look like a half blind lord." He demurred, even as Danyel's flattery soothed the rough ache left by the truth.
"You look like Dimitri." Danyel never used Dimitri's patronymic. Sometimes it hurt. Today it was wonderful.
"Inside you two." Sevrin swatted them with his field again, this time for show, but again deadly dangerous to Danyel. "Oh, he's so well wrapped in your field even Tzer's lightning couldn't touch him." Sevrin gave them both a wink. "I am worried about you though." He spoke under his breath as they reached the landing.
Dimitri reached out to take his hand, but found Danyel's had gotten there first. Mitka stirred, at last, his breath hissing between his teeth.
"Not when he's in need, Danyel." Sevrin said, as if training a young lord. Dimitri would never talk down to Danyel so blatantly. It was rude. "Oh, Danyel knows about my ability to offend anyone."
"I do." Danyel's nager lightened. His hand flicked back. Mitka was leaning over his shoulder now, staring at their hands. Selyn dripped down Danyel's shirt, forming a long damp trail. "And I'm not." He jabbed Sevrin in the ribs. Sevrin's field flailed about, not striking, but certainly putting on a good show for any outside observer. "Vanesa told him he'd be skinned alive if he hurt me." Danyel winked at Dimitri.
Dimitri dared a soft chuckle he didn't really feel and helped Sevrin with the steps. Alone, he could often find them well enough with his own field, but others created interference patterns in the ambient he couldn't sense through clearly enough to find the risers.
"I can see through Mitka's eyes." Sevrin tried to pull his hand away.
"You idiot." Danyel recaptured it. This time Mitka was annoyed beyond control. He crammed his nose between them, forcibly separating their hands. "Mitka." For the first time Danyel sounded truly annoyed with Dimitri's nager, even though his field was still warm with an odd pleasure. "There's no way I could take Vanesa's place."
"Too true," Sevrin opened a door. The tiny room was not as Dimitri'd left it, even as it was the same one he'd lived in when he'd first come to Kaon. Torn between wanting to stay with Danyel and straighten up the horrible mess left behind, he quivered in place.
Sevrin chuckled at him, throwing himself backwards into an huge, overstuffed armchair. "Oh, I love being able to do this, even if it gives me a headache."
"Sitting in a chair?" Mitka snorted.
"Being able to see." Sevrin's eyes still didn't meet theirs, but his attention was nearly palpable. "Why'd you leave this place such a mess?"
"I didn't." Danyel said, glancing around. "Someone else has been here since I packed Dimitri's things."
"Who?" Sevrin straightened instantly, his nager hardening to diamond. "I don't have the key anymore." Dimitri blinked and reviewed his memories. The door had been locked. Sevrin had unlocked it by telekinesis, not a key. "I rarely use them, actually. I look like an idiot fumbling with the things."
"Don't move." Dimitri said, leaving Danyel in Mitka's protection. He went to the door and studied the lock for a moment. He got out his precious pocket light and flashed it into the lock. There were no scratches on the tumblers, or at least no recent ones, he grinned and raised an eyebrow. At one time, this lock had gotten picked repeatedly. "Well, this thing hasn't been picked since I left here." He nodded as Danyel pulled out the key he still wore around his neck.
"You didn't have to be so careful with it." Sevrin held out his hand to toward Danyel. Everyone, including Mitka, stared at it. Well, Mitka glared at it as if Sevrin had claws like his own.
"Its all I have." He said, holding it in his hand.
"Hush," Dimitri looked again. No, Danyel didn't have any earrings. The chain really was the only piece of jewelry he owned, or at least wore. This was a travesty. Dimitri remembered a small box with a few things in it, bits and pieces really, nothing wearable.
Sevrin reached up toward his ear.
"No," Dimitri shook his head, trying to think. "I want something from me." He licked his lips, trying to think. Danyel looked at him, one dark eyebrow arched. It would have been two on anyone else.
"Arkay is always leaving stuff lying around. I'm sure some of its Sergei." Sevrin waved at him. "You have a right to at least some of old Vanya's jewelry."
"Are you sure?" Dimitri'd never really had cause to rifle through the Sergei jewels. Because Diomid had not formally received Sergei from his father and Vayer's regency had been so awkward, until Dimitri'd established, no one but the Veiled had been able to get into the old safe in his grandfather's rooms. "I wish I had the vault now."
"Ask the Veiled." Sevrin waved a hand at him. "They could bring it to you."
"I don't want them going through it." Dimitri, even though he knew they could at whim, just didn't like the idea.
"No one else will ever be able to get into the vault." Sevrin looked him in the eyes this time, even though they remained unfocused. "Miran can't do it and Kirin hasn't established yet."
Dimitri grabbed the back of Danyel's chair in both hands. "So my sire has an heir?"
"No," Sevrin said. "Go get a ring for your partner." He waved a braceleted arm toward the door. "I want peace and quiet out of you while we talk about this."
"I don't have to get an earring for that." He tightened his lips. Normally his Uncle was voluble to a fault. This secrecy was not at all like him.
"Yes you do because otherwise you'll be fretting the whole time." Sevrin snorted. "Go on with you. I won't bite him." He flicked his hand noisily at Mitka. "I don't want to be bitten. If you want, look through my collection as well. Master Tzakiran sent a few pieces to me after his death."
"And you haven't given them to Vanesa?" Dimitri's fingers itched. The Veiled often had ancient pieces and Tzakiran was the last in a long, unbroken line of Fatima Sharm Lords.
"They're too heavy." Sevrin piqued his interest further. "Go look, silly. I think the only ones Arkay left are brass. Besides, I know he didn't leave a needle."
"I didn't bring my bag." Dimitri realized, only now glancing down.
"You were too busy holding onto me to grab it." Danyel teased. Dimitri drooled, not wanting to leave him at all. Mitka glanced at him, placing himself squarely between Danyel and Sevrin.
"Go," Sevrin waved at him. "The sooner you do it the sooner you'll be done. Now get out of here."
"All right," he made sure Mitka wasn't going anywhere. Mitka nodded, rasing his wings to hide even more of Danyel from Sevrin.
Dimitri closed the door behind himself, not locking it in case he had to get in quickly. He really didn't trust his Uncle around any Sime in need. Someone had tried to cause problems for either him or Danyel. As it looked like the Veiled, he'd much rather have them come after him. Danyel couldn't even protect himself from a Veiled renSime, without Mitka that was.
He took the steps three at a time. The wonderful new shoes Danyel'd given him made it so easy. He'd only been running ten klicks a day and he felt the strain in his thighs by the time he reached the top. "I'm going to have to get more exercise." He leaned down and rubbed at his shin. It still ached, getting worse with each day that passed toward transfer.
"Oh, I didn't know you were here." Dimitri tried to back out the door.
"Come in, silly." Vanesa waved him in. Kolya looked out the window. He squirmed, reaching for something outside. Dimitri could clearly smell the problem.
"Let me." He stepped forward. Kolya's eyes widened as he turned his attention to Dimitri. "Hey lad." He tickled the youngster under the chin.
"I'm not a baby." He wrinkled up his nose. "Wanna go out."
"You will." Vanesa brushed a strand of dark hair from her brow.
"Wanna go out now!" He nearly got loose. Dimitri captured him and set him on the changing table with a wet plop. Kolya decided it was time to play eel. Dimitri tickled him, earning an ear splitting squeal. Giggling and laughing, Kolya finally submitted with marginal grace.
"You do that so easily." Vanesa snorted, pointing under the table to the bucket. "Mornings are the worst."
"Sevrin vanished on you?" Dimitri finished up and tossed the lad in the air. This time his squeal of joy echoed. He wuffled Kolya's belly, laughing himself.
"Scratchy," Kolya squirmed.
"Yeah!" Dimitri did it again, this time with an even louder blatting sound. It had been a while since he'd gotten to play with a toddler. He tickled Kolya's pits.
"No, no!" He laughed, struggling to get loose.
"I'm gonna get you!" Dimitri let him go then chased him around the room. Kolya was a little terror. He dove under the bed. Dimitri really wished he had Mitka here, not that Kolya'd be able to see him, but Mitka could point out the little imp. Dimitri fished for him. There were no dust kitties here to make him sneeze.
Finally he grabbed a sheet and netted him up just like a fish. Dimitri bundled him up and wuffled his back.
"Enough horseplay," Vanesa laughed. Her nager was so bright it outshone the sun, even so close to turnover. Oh, Sevrin would have faced a challenge from Dimitri if he though he had even half a chance of winning Vanesa's affections. Her eyes twinkled as he deposited her son back in her arms, still wrapped up like a parcel.
"I don't wanna go to work." Kolya's face fell. "Boooooring." He whined.
"We all have to go to work, sweetie." Dimitri told him, tickling him under the chin again and untangling him from the blanket at the same time. He was so big Vanesa could hardly hold him. "Why doesn't Sevrin take care of him?"
"He's going to be in the clean room most of today." Vanesa frowned. "I know, you think he should be taking care of Kolya all the time. But I want some time with him too. Viasha and Sivaya are both already in lessons." Her frown deepened. "I miss them, Dimitri."
"I know its different here." He managed to filch Kolya back for a moment. Kolya stood on his hands and put his little arms around Dimitri's neck.
"I love you." He left a big, wet, noisy kiss on Dimitri's ear.
"And you're great!" He freed a hand and held the child to him. The youngster's soft hair tickled his nose. "Just like your papa." As soon as he said it, Dimitri knew he'd goofed.
"Where's papa?" Kolya said instantly.
"He's doing some delicate work today." Dimitri had no idea what a clean room was, but clean and young children didn't go together.
"I wanna be with you!" He bounced on Dimitri's hand. "Let me go with Uncle Didi! Please? Please, please?" Kolya looked at his mother. Dimitri wasn't sure if she was trying not to laugh or cry.
"You're stealing all my boys." She said, frown winning for an instant. "Don't keep him, Dimitri."
"I won't." He put the lad up on his shoulders after dressing him quickly in a red jumpsuit. Dimitri remembered his fathers carrying him like this so many times. Before she changed her mind, Dimitri prepared a bag with diapers, clothes, snacks, a big scarf and a few little carved wood toys, probably made by Sevrin. They held no resemblance at all to anything. "Although I came up here to find a ring for Danyel." Dimitri didn't know why he was blushing.
"Get on with you then." She waved him to their rooms.
"I don't get to come in here anymore." Kolya told him, in all seriousness. He was actually a fairly quiet, reserved child, only noisy when Dimitri egged him on.
"You can go anywhere with me." He said, careful of his little rider as he ducked through the doorway.
"That's fun!" Kolya's hands grabbed his ears. Best purchase, probably. Dimitri didn't have enough hair for him to hang onto.
"Here, m'lad," he tugged out the scarf and made a more secure seat for him.
"I like this." He giggled, leaning back. "This is fun. I like being so tall."
"So do I." Dimitri laughed with him.
"How long did it take you?" He was already starting to go limp now that the excitement of having a new caretaker began to wear off.
"Seventeen years." He stroked one of Kolya's little feet. Dimitri finally found Sevrin's jewelry box. It was filled with baubles and bright glittery things. Most of it was pure junk, like a magpie's nest. Glass and paste 'gems' were set in cheap bronze and verdigried copper.
Dimitri picked through the top layer, not finding anything at all acceptable. He knew Danyel had allergy problems, although not as bad as most of the channels here, as his anti-kill wasn't effective. Dimitri actually despised anti-kill conditioning. He'd seen too much of the damage it did to the nervous and immune systems.
One of his memories was of reading about the decision to bar anti-kill conditioning in Russia. At one time, many lesser lords had been subjected to it. The practice had been stopped when more lords were dying because of the conditioning than Gens because of accidental kills.
A black velvet box caught his eye. Most people put their good jewelry aside in such things. The nap of the velvet was worn shiny with age on the corners. It opened with a click. Inside was more flash. Dimitri started to close the box. It was too heavy.
He examined it closer.
"Somethin wrong?" Kolya asked, from his convenient perch.
"Its too heavy." He said.
"Whatcha lookin for?"
"I want a ring for Danyel." He dug through the tangle of cheap chains. Many of them had already been kinked and badly damaged. Half of this stuff should be sold for scrap.
"Papa likes the sound." Kolya told him.
"Ahhhh," Dimitri breathed his understanding of the magpie nest. "And some of these feel really good." He pulled out a huge paste diamond. The slippery surface was interesting. Kolya's hand shot out past his ear.
Dimitri handed it to him. "Don't put it in your mouth." He said, knowing quite well the futility of mentioning it.
"Mrmph mot?" He said around the diamond.
"Because some things will make you sick." Dimitri closed the box and turned it upside down. There was a second, tiny catch beneath the first. He flipped this one and opened the second compartment.
"You wouldn't give me a bad thing." Kolya handed him the very sticky, wet 'diamond'. Dimitri cleaned it on a scrap of cloth set aside for the purpose, possibly, in the box. He had no idea with Sevrin. The soft chamois might be as interesting to him as the polished metal and glass. "I trust you."
"I'm glad." He tickled the bottom of Kolya's foot. Kolya giggled.
"Can I have that?" He pointed with his toes.
"What?" Dimitri finally got to see inside the box he'd opened. This was another tangle, but this time of a fortune in precious stones and metal. It was a Sharm Lord's stash, probably a dozen generation's worth. Real diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and opals winked at him amid settings of platinum and gold.
"Maybe someday," Dimitri tried to remember to breathe. Finally he found what he was looking for. Someone, probably in the far, far east had carved a black pearl into the arch of a dragon diving into water. The dragon was grabbing an opal fish beneath the platinum waves. From a distance, it would look like a simple half ring. "This looks just like my dragon."
A bit concerned about its age and fragility, Dimitri examined it closely. The whole thing had been artfully reinforced with diamond! This had been someone's lifetime masterpiece. Nothing short of a sledgehammer would damage it.
"Does your dragon like to fish?" Kolya asked.
"He likes to try." Dimitri chuckled. "He's not very good at it."
"Why not?" Kolya asked. His hand was out again.
"Because he can't tell the difference between looking at things in air and looking at them in water." Dimitri didn't want to close the box. He wanted to take it with him. Kolya's hand brushed his cheek. No, this was for Kolya, when he grew up and was looking for a partner. Dimitri wasn't going to cheat him of his future. "These are for you when you grow up."
"Oh," Kolya whispered, his hand turning to find Dimitri's mouth. Dimitri kissed the soft, slightly sticky fingers. "When I'm big like you?"
"Yup," he said, putting the box back. "You saw how I opened it?"
"Uh-huh," he nodded, patting Dimitri on the cheek. "Will you remind me how to open it?"
"Yes," he promised. At one time he wouldn't have, before he'd met Danyel. Now, even if they never did share transfer, Dimitri knew it was possible for someone to want him. He'd live, and he wouldn't be alone forever. Although tomorrow might be a different matter, on both accounts.
Only when the door clicked shut did Danyel realize, truly, he was alone with Sevrin. Yeah, sure, they'd worked together with no one else around, but this was different.
"Don't tell Dimitri anything about this little conference." Sevrin pointed at Mitka. Danyel'd never seen him make any sort of gesture like that.
Mitka sniffed at the finger. He bared his teeth, threatening to bite.
"I'm over here, you're over there. You're going to have to leave Danyel to bite me, idiot." Sevrin leaned back, rolling his eyes. His hand held the arm of the chair, fingers sliding over the worn cloth as they always did. "I'm glad you have good taste in clothes, my friend."
"Oh?" The complete non-sequitur tripped Danyel for a moment. "I'm glad you like." He warmed under Sevrin's approval. Mitka's claws dug into the back of Danyel's hand. Danyel leaned back, not quite trusting this now.
Sevrin nodded, for the first time his incredible indigo eyes lighting with the gesture. As each moment passed, his reactions grew more and more true. "I could tell they felt good, but not the colors."
"I tend to select a lot of blues and greens for you, which makes Vanesa furious." Danyel grinned, stroking Mitka's back in reassurance. He narrowed his eyes at Sevrin. "Although I'm not so sure she'd like you flirting with me."
"Oh?" Sevrin cocked his head. "What about Dimitri?"
"He knows I won't betray him." Danyel met Sevrin's eyes. They didn't quite perfectly focus, but he knew Sevrin could sense the attention. "I wouldn't."
"What about when he kills you?" Sevrin's field was set. Danyel couldn't back away. Not on this topic.
"I won't let him." Danyel continued to stroke Mitka. He'd never zlinned a single dynopter of cruelty or kill lust from him. He'd zlinned it in Cami, even Vanesa once or twice for a moment when Sevrin'd done something truly spectacular to irritate her. His tentacles came out and slipped around Mitka's ribs, beneath his arms. Mitka melted all over his lap, purring. "No, he's not harmless, but neither am I."
Danyel'd never been able to forget attacking Dimitri for the kill in the dream. He'd heard rumors of kill mode transfers for technically junct channels. If it was anything at all like what he'd experienced, even in the faintest echo of anticipation, Danyel knew he'd never want to go back to bland, safe, normal transfers. The way Dimitri'd responded to his touch, with no hesitation or reserve, only made Danyel want to know more. He wanted to know all of it.
"I want him, Sevrin." He said, trying to frame his thoughts into words. "I do."
"I know." Sevrin's mouth tightened into a hard line. "I wish I could have stopped you two."
"I don't." He glanced down. "Mitka is fascinating."
"He's dangerous."
"So am I." Danyel flicked out the knife he always wore, around Dimitri, at the back of his neck. Dimitri had a habit of holding Danyel around the waist. He trimmed a snag off one nail with it.
"I mean Mitka." Sevrin pointed out, quite unnecessarily.
Danyel lowered the blade so Mitka could see himself in the reflection. Sevrin grunted. "Good steel."
"I like it." Selyn glittered against the hardened metal. "Few channels can stand to be around anything sharper than a butter knife." He blooded and sheathed the blade, daring Sevrin to make the comparison.
Sevrin laughed, nager bright with good humor.
Dimitri came back in at last, stepping around the edge of the door and still scanning everything. "They weren't after anything in particular, were they?" He ran his hand over the thin layer of dust on the dresser. He started to reach in up under one of the opened drawers. The outfits Nashen'd bought from Karin gleamed on hangers in the open closet. Danyel'd deliberately left them behind, thinking they'd be safer here. They'd been moved, but he couldn't zlin any damage to them.
"Don't," Sevrin stood. "Let me." He put his hand on Dimitri's shoulder.
"I don't know if I want you riding me after you spent nearly an hour flirting with Danyel." He glanced at him, as if asking something. Mitka's tail coiled firmly around his wrist. Dimitri grinned slightly.
"What's he doing here?" Kolya's voice came from the odd bundle on Dimitri's back. "You said he didn't work here now. I want Uncle Danyel!" Little baby arms waved on either side of Dimitri's face.
"Hold on." He untied the brightly colored scarf and swung Kolya up in a hug arc.
"Gimme!" Kolya nearly fell out of Dimitri's grasp.
"Catch," he grinned, tossing the lad. Danyel's heart was in his throat. Mitka'd pinned one of his hands and the other held his knife! But before he could panic, Mitka vanished and he could slip his knife in its sheath before he plucked Kolya out of the air.
"Now you can see if there are any traps." Sevrin snorted. "Throwing my son around indeed, with live steel nearby on top of it." He glared at his nephew.
"I trust Danyel." He said.
Kolya's bright blue eyes were little tiny slits he was laughing so hard. Danyel didn't dare toss him around the way Dimitri did, but he did laugh along with Kolya's infectious joy. Even need paled before it.
Dimitri removed all the drawers completely, looking under each one as he did so. "It does." Dimitri said softly, then knelt and looked inside the dresser. When he was done, he brushed off the knees of his pants and replaced the drawers. "Any idea what I'm looking for?"
"No," Sevrin sighed. "Needle trap maybe, if they want you dead."
"Who?" Danyel's heart had still been racing after his earlier scare. Now it pounded. "Someone is trying to murder you?"
"Or capture," Sevrin glanced at him. Kolya'd climbed up on his lap and he was reaching over Danyel's shoulder.
"No you don't, m'lad." Danyel managed to keep the hilt of his knife from Kolya's grabby little fingers. "Don't want you hurting yourself."
"He's not going to be a Donor." Sevrin glared at Danyel this time. Mitka's protection still guarded him from Sevrin's smack, but he did feel a bit singed around the edges.
"He's still a baby." Danyel cuddled him, as he'd wanted to be held. Of course Kolya didn't think much of this and tried another grab for his knife.
"Show it to him." Sevrin's words were irresistible. He was moving before he could stop himself.
"No," Dimitri stepped between them. Free of the compulsion, Danyel trembled all over.
"Sick?" Kolya asked, after having jerked back. His brows drew down and he sniffled.
"No," Dimitri reassured him. "I'm fine."
"You just have southerner's."
"What's that?" Kolya asked, of course. He was more curious than an whole litter of kittens.
"Actually, I'd like to hear your answer too." He managed to get Kolya's attention on his family. Kolya sorta collapsed to a sitting position. Danyel bounced him a couple of times to resettle his weight. He was getting big, fast. Nikolai was going to be at least as big as his father, which was good sized, even next to Dimitri.
"Well," Dimitri knelt at Danyel's feet. Normally he insisted their positions were reversed. The change in perspective was startling, even if Dimitri was talking with Kolya.
"Southerner's syndrome is a genetic problem. Do you know what that is?"
"No," Kolya fussed, trying to turn around again.
"He got it from his mama or his papa."
"Oh," Kolya managed to turn around this time. He frowned, pursing his lips. "Is that why you're so funny looking?" Dimitri's pained grimace might have been funny in another place and time.
Danyel opened and closed his mouth a few times before anything came out. What did was a bit choked, but hopefully intelligible. "More or less."
"He's not funny looking." Dimitri's eyes blazed, making Danyel's breath catch. Danyel'd seen a Sime hunt. Shen, he'd seen and zlinned Simes attack Dimitri, including himself. But the heat in Dimitri's eyes had nothing to do with the cold starving death of need, but was rather its mirror image, the hot, self-charring fiery need of too much life. Danyel had to swallow. Kolya stiffened in his arms.
Danyel looked down and realized his tentacles had come out, all of them. He yanked his laterals back in and blushed, for the first time in his life realizing they might not be something for a child to be staring at. Some of it might have been from Dimitri. Danyel knew he often enough picked up attitudes and even mannerisms from Donors, but some of it was purely himself. After all the attention Mitka and Dimitri gave his arms, they seemed to be somehow special now.
"Yes he is funny looking." Kolya tried to grab one of his handling tentacles. This was a lot safer. He twined them, rubbing Kolya's hands off one to another each time he grabbed. Kolya giggled and relented, even though he still held one. It went in his mouth, of course.
"You're teaching him bad habits." Sevrin both growled and grinned. Kolya sucked on it, as he would a nipple. A bit of drool ran down toward his arm. Danyel was used to that now after having played with Mitka so much, although this was a lot stickier.
Kolya cocked his head, staring. "What papa say?"
Danyel revised the conversation. Sevrin's single comment had been in Simelan, whereas the rest had been in Russian. He was loosing track of which language was which. He was startled Kolya didn't understand Simelan. Danyel tried to remember if he'd spoken it with the child. Sevrin shook his head, putting a finger to his lips for silence.
He wanted to protest, but Kolya was not his child. Much of Simelan was nearly impossible for a child to learn, and at one time, he'd have said a Gen. Both Sevrin and Dimitri had no Gen accent in the language at all, and when Dimitri wanted to, he sounded like a Kaon native.
"He said you probably shouldn't be chewing on my tentacle." Danyel kissed the child's soft hair, slipping his very soggy tentacle back into its sheath. There were times, like right now, he really did wish he dared have children. Dimitri gave him a soft smile. Kolya grabbed his toes and tried to put those in his mouth instead. Danyel gave up and let Kolya have the tentacle back.
Dimitri chuckled. "Southerner's syndrome is called that because as far as we know, it came from a place we call the South. Its a dry place, with sand and camels and horses."
"Does it have guns?" Kolya was so surprised he forgot all about Danyel's tentacle, although he still had it captured in one chubby fist.
"Yes, and they shoot them from horseback." Dimitri tickled one of Kolya's feet. "Maybe someday your papa will take you there."
"Only if I have a Sime who knows Jaffa to help me."
"I could learn." Danyel found this absolutely fascinating.
"No," Sevrin said. "You'd be as restricted as I would. They'd give you two choices, become a hermit or die."
"What?" Danyel didn't mean to shout. Kolya jumped a bit, then turned to stare at him.
"That would be bad." Kolya said, drawing out the bad to at least three syllables, maybe four.
"Very," Danyel nodded. "How do they get," he paused, looking down at Kolya. "This is silly. How do they get transfer?"
"What's transfer?" Kolya, of course, latched onto the one concept Danyel wished he would have let slide by. Sevrin winced.
"Its one of those adult things. Part of how you came to be here." He bent down and tickled Kolya's belly through the jumpsuit. The red really didn't suit him, but Vanesa was very fond of the color. Kolya giggled and swatted at his father's hand.
"OK, then tell me more about him." Kolya's jab in Danyel's direction landed right at his throat. He coughed a bit and cleared it. Rescuing his Adam's apple from further harm in the process, he kissed Kolya's hand and put it in his lap. It didn't stay there for long, but this time Danyel distracted him with a tentacle first. That worked.
Dimitri chuckled, resting his cheek on Danyel's knee. His field was softer even than normal, almost adoring. "I do adore thee." He murmured in Simelan, the word making absolutely no change to his field, only strengthening it. "Have you ever seen mama get excited about things you can't see or hear?"
"All the time." Kolya's grin spilled over on all of them. Mitka finally made a reappearance. He sniffed at Kolya and went back in Danyel's pocket. It seemed not everyone here liked children. Or at least not right now. "She, um, when papa, those." He pointed at Danyel's lateral sheathes.
It was Sevrin's turn to blush.
"Those are called laterals. When you're older, papa will tell you all about them." Dimitri jabbed his Uncle with his field so hard Sevrin grunted out loud. "I did that with something you can't see yet. That something is called a nageric field, or field for short.
"The problem Danyel has is that he's very vulnerable to those fields. He can't protect himself like normal people can." Dimitri's mouth tightened to a harsh line and his chin quivered a fraction. "I have a very good friend, the best in the world after your Uncle Danyel," Mitka snorted, getting Danyel's shirt wet. His pants were probably going to be a lost cause here soon. They'd been talking for a while and Kolya only had the foggiest notion of toilet training yet, he was a little slow in that department. "His name is Mitka."
"Like yours!" Kolya pointed, almost catching Dimitri in the eye.
Dimitri grinned and caught the errant finger "Yes, just like mine. Mitka is protecting him, so he won't be hurt. He's the dragon I talked about."
"What would happen without Mitka?" Kolya went completely still, an event of monumental significance when he wasn't asleep.
"He would have had an accident."
"I have those all the time." Kolya giggled, although he was not yet moving around again. "You don't mean like I do."
"No," Dimitri shook his head. "He'd be dead."
"No!" Kolya wailed, turning and wrapping his arms around Danyel. "I don't want you dead. You're my Uncle Dan'el. I love you!" He babbled on and on. At first all Danyel could think of was how could any child so young know what dead meant, but realized how agricultural Kaon still was, in some ways. There was no way Vanesa or Sevrin would hide such a thing from their children.
"I love thee, little Kolya." He hugged the child back. "I'm here, your Uncle Didi is keeping me safe. Don't be afraid. I'm not." He rocked Kolya slowly until the worst of his sobbing slowed. "I'm not going anywhere."
"You're not?" He rubbed away tears with a little fist. Danyel did him one better, using his tentacles. Of course he didn't have a handkerchief. He rarely carried one after turnover. Dimitri handed him a square of silk.
Danyel wouldn't have used silk to clean a child's face, but it was what he had.
"Pretty," Kolya looked at it. Marbled in blues and greens, Danyel couldn't deny Kolya's comment. "Can I have it?"
"May I?" Dimitri corrected gently.
"May I?" He ducked his head. "Promise me you won't go like old Whiskers?"
"I won't go." He promised, holding Kolya's hand. Dimitri reached up and Danyel took his with his other hand. "I won't leave you." He promised them both.
"Can I hurt you?" Kolya said very slowly, his big blue eyes wide.
"Not yet. At least not in that way." He stroked the back of Kolya's head, amazed as always at such brilliance in such a tiny package.
"When?" His face hardened. "I'm getting to be a big boy."
"When you establish and start producing selyn."
"Then I won't." He stomped one foot, thankfully unshod. "I won't, I won't." He bawled, screaming his rejection to the world at large. Danyel waited again for him to settle.
"You will establish, just like your brothers will." Sevrin's grin was more than a bit smug.
"Have you caught Vanesa again?" Dimitri got what Danyel thought of as his vacant look. He winced and glanced out the window.
"No," Sevrin's lips tightened for a moment. "But I will." His impish sense of humor came back so quickly Danyel wondered for a moment if he'd just imagined the interlude. Dimitri shook his head no.
Oh, shen, Danyel thought. He knew Sevrin and Vanesa had been trying for another child for a few months now. It would have been obvious to anyone at Kaon who spent much time with them. Normally Sevrin was very watchful of Vanesa around transfer, but now it was worth your life to come anywhere near her if you were Gen and vice versa for him.
"Maybe this month." His hand descended on Dimitri's shoulder. Mitka peered out of his pocket again, having been sorta squished out by Kolya's enthusiasms.
One of Dimitri's dimples returned. He didn't look up at Sevrin, he didn't even nod, but it was obvious he knew something the rest of them didn't. Sevrin squeezed his shoulder.
"Come on youngster, lets take you back to mama for the day." He made a grab for Kolya.
"No," Dimitri was faster. Kolya chirped in glee, distress completely forgotten in the excitement of having so much attention, which was as it should be. Danyel thought about it, looking at Dimitri's impish grin and kept Kolya to himself.
Danyel put his arms around Kolya and carried him off. He hunched his shoulders and made a huge show of hiding Kolya against his chest. "I won't let them have you. You're mine, you're mine!" He cackled.
Very, very sharp claws digging in all the way, Mitka scaled Danyel's shoulder. "They're getting close!"
Danyel whooped with glee. He'd never played like this, always being afraid someone would get carried away with their nager. The door was opened a crack. He bolted for it, augmenting. Kolya shrieked so loudly Danyel paused a moment to check on him. Then he yelled, "Go, go, go!"
"Get a move on, Sime!" Mitka added. Danyel didn't require any more prodding, although he seriously wished he were wearing running shoes, not dress shoes.
"I'll get 'em." Mitka slithered down his leg.
"What are you doing?" Danyel muttered. He'd hid around a corner and was doing his best to hide his field. Although both Dimitri and Sevrin were visually handicapped now. Dimitri'd taken off his glasses again.
"There," Mitka flitted back to his shoulder. Danyel chuckled. He flicked off his shoes and since he had time, socks as well. Barefoot, he could run far faster, a trick he'd learned back at school.
Now silent, he danced across the yard and jumped the hay bales set up to corral the kids. Kolya snickered softly, shoulders shaking with the effort he was putting out not to laugh. Then Dimitri hit him one. Danyel himself went blind. He blinked, trying to see anything but white.
"I'm here." Mitka said, nudging Danyel's face. "Go there." He said.
Danyel followed his directions, still trying to blink the film from his vision.
"This is a scary game." Kolya said. "Watch out!"
Danyel jumped six feet straight up in the air.
"In front of you." Mitka prodded.
With his free hand, Danyel reached out and grabbed the pole. Recognizing it, he dropped his grip to the line for the flag and let the cord carry him to the open window. He swung inside and thank goodness landed on his feet. In the darkened room, he regained some of his vision.
"Its like snow blindness, but instead its selyn blindness."
"They genslammed me?"
"Sorta," Mitka murmured, wings trembling. "It was a lot more specific. I could have stopped a Genslam."
"I don't like it here, Uncle." Kolya said. "They know where we are."
"You still want to play?"
"Yeah," he leaned forward, looking all over. "I can help you see, just like Dimitri's friend. He won't tell on us?"
"No," Danyel said before Mitka had a chance to respond. Mitka purred, rubbing up against Danyel's chest, right above Kolya. "Come on." Now Danyel had to zlin and hear. The former was fuzzy, as if he had caught the edges of a Genslam, but at least his ears had stopped ringing.
The hallway was deserted. Good. Hajene Ferris didn't want to be caught barefoot trying to steal Sectuib Kaon's only son. Danyel stopped in at the room they'd just left. The big scarf was right where Dimitri'd left it. Danyel managed a sling and Kolya perched on the edge.
He'd heard of opossums, although he'd never seen one. They had a pretty good idea. Now he could really run. Danyel heard Sevrin's and Dimitri's voices, then silence. Sevrin's nager, however, spilled up the stairway long before him. He always forget about Danyel's sensitivity.
Danyel chuckled to himself and pointed. "There," he crouched, holding Kolya still. The lad trembled, so excited he couldn't hold still. Dimitri's short hair peeked over the top step.
"Hi there!" He chirped, straightening up. Dimitri growled, lunging forward, Sevrin hardly a tentacle width behind. For a second, shock froze his feet to the floor.
"Move your skinny butt, Gen!" Mitka clawed him, again. Danyel nearly ran right into their arms.
"Other way, other way!" Kolya yelled, bouncing up and down. Danyel really hoped he'd made good knots.
One hand on Kolya, the other on Mitka, he turned and bolted for the attic.
"That's a dead end." Mitka bit his ear.
"No its not." Danyel rescued what was left of his earlobe. A bit of dampness hit his front of course. He shook his head and ran. It wasn't worth bothering with.
The darkened attic held countless generations of dust and cobwebs.
"Oooh, scary," Kolya became a bit damper. Danyel sighed, although he really didn't care. At the far end of the attic was a grimy window. He didn't wipe clean a spot, just opened it. As quietly and quickly as he could, he stepped out onto the ledge. The old Kaon household had been build for defense. All the ledges had been designed to hold a Sime's weight, so defenders could get from one side of the household to the other quickly if they had to.
Danyel shut the window behind them and then realized he couldn't see his landing.
"Three, um," Mitka peered. This was not reassuring. "Fourteen feet, six inches, up two feet."
"That's huge!" Danyel'd known Simes could cross the household by the rooftops, doing it seemed to be another matter.
"A foot's like a cent, right?"
"No," Danyel shook his head, "or at least I don't think so." What had he gotten himself into? Mitka muttered something unintelligible.
"Um, your height plus, um, a hand, and up again maybe a hand and a half."
"Gotcha." Danyel jumped. The air whistled past his ears, but the next ledge was exactly where he'd expected it. He slithered in the window just as the two Gens were opening the first.
"Don't go out on the ledge. You're too heavy." He crowed, taking Kolya with him. Kolya cheered, laughing and well, being too excited. Mitka went 'pbtpbtpbtpbt' very enthusiastically at the two Gens. Danyel was now soaked, front and back.
Chapter 29
Dimitri remembered doing this very recently. "Hold still." It was pointless, but he had to try anyway. Kolya nearly squirmed off the table. Dimitri pinned him with a glare and a threatened poke with a pin. Kolya giggled, pointing at him. He knew Dimitri'd never poke him, but at least he stayed still long enough to get the sodden diaper off the little worm.
Kolya bit at his lower lip, flipped over and headed for the door, through meters of thin air. Danyel caught him, in his shirt. He tied the little beast into it, laughing. Kolya wiggled even more, dripping a bit. Dimitri sighed, tossing a diaper under him. It didn't help much.
"How much does this child urinate, anyways?"
Kolya just giggled at him, looking around for something else to get into.
"A lot," Sevrin sighed, capturing his son and flattening him slightly on his belly. Kolya tried to crab out of this, his father's hand and Danyel's shirt notwithstanding. "Vanesa thinks we should try stocks."
"She might be right." Dimitri folded a clean diaper, two of them for good measure, and then used his big hands to hold Mitka to the table. He was laughing like mad, the little imp. "You're holding it." He tickled. Dimitri was right.
Danyel was even laughing, despite need and his own clothing issues. It was a beautiful day out, although Dimitri could well understand not wanting to run around with no shirt. He hadn't done so since he was close to Kolya's age. Although he'd always known he'd turn out Gen. For Danyel it might be different.
Dimitri cleaned up this new mess and managed to get his nephew into a clean, dry diaper. The carnage had been four wet for one dry on the child. He wasn't doing very well on the odds today. "Let me get a few more before we take this problem child home."
"Kolya's coming home with us?" Danyel blinked, staring at him as if he'd grown tentacles.
"Why not?" Dimitri knew they hadn't had any plans for this afternoon. Kolya'd be going down for his nap soon enough and he was no trouble at all. He collected enough diapers this time to fill the bag and a plastic throw for the bed. There were somethings he really liked occult materials for. Plastic pants were equally good in his opinion, although why Vanesa hadn't used them was beyond him.
"He's had a few problems with rashes." Sevrin told him.
"Oh," Dimitri, "OK then." He put them back. Mitka was sound asleep again.
"How did he know what you were doing?"
"Sound." Dimitri said.
"I can hear his mind." Sevrin said. Dimitri stared at him. It probably didn't do any good at all.
"Oh?" Danyel cocked a hip, and an eyebrow. "You've never been quite this up front about it before."
"You're family." He grinned, taking Kolya and putting him up to his shoulder. In moments, Kolya'd passed out, as limp as a dishrag. A very well used one. "You usually hand them back before you get messy." Sevrin's field, however, was pointing straight at Danyel's ear.
Dimitri washed his hands again, this time scrubbing them as completely as he would for surgery. Healthy people almost never got infections now, but some did, and Danyel's immune system was not as healthy as it could be. "Could you light the candle for me?"
"What is he going to do?" Danyel's voice was steady, low and very wary.
"Give you an earring." Sevrin was moving slowly, but Dimitri figured that was as well with fire. Dimitri closed his eyes and cleared his mind. He'd never placed an earring before. It wouldn't have been appropriate with Vayer, and, well, he hadn't had the nerve with Karola. Valtanir had just been too skittish, like a high strung horse and Lexi'd placed the hole for him.
"Then why are you lighting a candle?" Danyel's voice stayed low, but tension latched down on it like a Sime's handling tentacles.
"To sterilize the needle." Sevrin's answer lacked a certain degree of tact, not that this was anything at all unusual for his Uncle. Dimitri may well have fainted if he'd been tactful.
"He's going to put one of those things through my flesh?"
"Don't worry about it." Sevrin struck the flint and quickly had the candle lit. Dimitri held his hands out, letting them, and the needle, dry a bit. Most people didn't go to this much bother, but he wanted to make sure Danyel's first earring was perfect.
When he went back out into the other room, Danyel had turned gray.
"I'm not going to hurt you." He didn't understand why he was so nervous. Danyel pointed at the needle with a shaking tentacle.
"Its the needle." Dimitri still didn't understand. "Did you think I'd not block the pain?"
"Dimitri," Sevrin chided him.
"OK, its traditional to not painblock an ear piercing for any kind of binding, even one a private one of tentacles alone. But I know you probably don't deal well with pain and don't understand the symbolism." His chest ached with the rejection, no matter how inadvertent.
"Dimitri, yes," he said, pushing his hair back.
"You won't feel a thing." He promised, dipping the needle in pure alcohol and lighting it.
"No," his neck corded. "I want it done right."
"It does sting." Dimitri's heart pounded. Kolya squirmed, turning around on his father's shoulder.
"What are they going to do?" He said in a whisper loud enough to be heard in the courtyard.
"Danyel gave Dimitri back his bracelets and placed the one on Dimitri's right, which means he asked for Dimitri's selyn. Now Dimitri is going to pierce Danyel's ear and put an earring in the hole so Danyel will always have something of Dimitri's as well as his selyn."
"Won't all of Dimitri's selyn be gone some time?"
"No," Sevrin smiled. "That's one of the beautiful things about selyn, it never all vanishes, little bits are left over when a Sime gets more, so eventually they have a tiny, tiny bit from every person who's ever given them selyn."
"That's neat!" Kolya caroled. "I wanna be a Sime."
"I know sweetie, but you're going to be a Gen like Dimitri."
"Really?" Now he sounded interested. "Then I can give selyn to a Sime."
"That's right." Sevrin chuckled softly. "Its a great thing."
"OK, then, I'll be Gen." He giggled. "When?"
Dimitri knew and gave a prayer to Allah for the knowledge that the lad would at least grow strong and straight so far. He winked at Sevrin though, saying nothing and keeping the knowledge to himself. Although he might end up getting beaten for the information, as he would establish very late, even for a Tegue. Sevrin narrowed his eyes, hammering at Dimitri for the information.
"No," he raised his hand, the Fellowship of the Veiled coming into his mind for the briefest moment. With the touch of the Fellowship, however, he found out his intruder had not been one of them. "What the ...?" He couldn't swear in front of a child, but he sure wanted to.
Danyel didn't know what to think. Kolya was wide eyed, tears beginning to form in them.
"You're going to grow up to be a healthy Sharm Lord." Dimitri smiled, at least his face did. "I thought you'd like to know."
"Thank you," Kolya said, slowly. "Who are you?"
"What you heard was a group of people, all acting as one. We call it the Fellowship of the Veiled."
"Big words," Kolya glanced around. "Are you still going to do it?"
"Yes," Dimitri's smile reached his eyes this time. Danyel wished he dared ask questions the way Kolya did. Actually he wished he could recover the way Kolya did. "Do you want me to?" There was a shadow behind his eyes, as if Danyel'd refuse him now. "You're afraid of me."
"No," he smiled, knowing the truth as he said it. "Although your hand is shaking."
"So it is." He glanced at it. Instantly it stilled, but Dimitri's whole body was so tense he looked as if he'd grown another two sizes from muscle.
"What has you so shaken?" He looked into Dimitri's storm gray eyes, trusting him completely despite the fact he zlinned as if he were ready to kill anyone who dared so much as sneeze.
"I'd thought the Veiled had searched this room looking for treason on my part because when I left, the note I left, well ..." he glanced down, dimples appearing shyly.
"I know." Danyel grinned. "No one other than me saw that note."
"Oh," Dimitri's field regained its cheer. Mitka'd slept through the whole exercise, of course. He was sleeping a lot lately, as if there were still something wrong with him. Although Danyel had no idea what his normal sleep patterns were like. "Is Mitka all right?" He stroked Mitka's scales, reveling in the selyn he could zlin so near the surface of his hide, yet again.
"He sleeps a lot before transfer, when he trusts his partner." Dimitri's addition brought Danyel's head up. "He trusted Vayer?"
"Yes, eventually," Dimitri nodded. "Lets finish this so I can pet him too. Although you might want to wake him before I do this."
"You're right, he wouldn't want to miss it." Danyel tickled Mitka gently under the chin. His jaws were broadening and deepening as the month went by. Mitka moaned, a sound hardly louder than the sigh of wind amid leaves.
"I wish I could see Mitka." Kolya sniffed.
"You will." Dimitri said.
"How can you be sure?"
"Yeah!" Kolya seconded him. "How?"
"Remember what I said about Danyel getting things from his parents?"
"Yeah," Danyel said in chorus with Kolya. He giggled, still hugging his dad's neck. They were adorable together. Both with blue eyes and blond hair, although Kolya's skin was paler than his dad's, more like his mom's and his eyes were closer to truly being blue rather than the darker violet-indigo of his dad's, but even so, there was no chance Kolya would ever be mistaken for someone else's child.
It had been a lot of fun running around Kaon with Kolya. They'd made a good team. He missed having the youngster in his arms. Instead he cuddled Mitka.
"Why is he holding his shirt like that?"
Danyel blinked, glancing down with his eyes alone. "Mitka," he winced, knowing full well where that shirt had been. It was still quite damp and unfortunately fragrant, although not as bad as it could have been, he supposed.
"It was all I could think of." He glanced up, then yawned, wincing. "I don't feel good."
"What's wrong?" Danyel bit at his lower lip. Mitka stared. So did Dimitri and Sevrin. Kolya tried the same stare. It didn't quite work. He was a little young. Mitka glanced up at Kolya without turning his head, as if Kolya could see or hear him.
"Need," he put his face back down then jerked it up. "Ow." Mitka worked his jaws, four very sharp fangs flashing into view for a moment. "What's going on?"
"Dimitri's going to stick that big needle through my ear." Danyel still wasn't too sure about this idea. It had sounded good at one point, but he really didn't like needles.
"Won't that hurt?" Mitka asked.
"Yes," Danyel tensed, thinking of all the times he'd accidentally cut himself in the kitchen. Then he thought of the blood and his stomach churned.
"You don't feel well either." Mitka put his chin back down on Danyel's lap, gingerly.
"It will be over soon." He nodded to Dimitri. "I trust you." He moved his hair back again.
"This is scary, too." Kolya said.
"Yes, it is." Sevrin told his son. "That's why we treat it with such respect. All pain is scary. If we weren't afraid of pain, we'd be very sick and have to go to a healer."
"Oh," Kolya bit at his lower lip, tiny baby teeth making a deep impression. "Its very important to be able to do this?"
"Yes," Sevrin nodded.
Danyel couldn't keep from staring at the bright metal in Dimitri's hand as it came towards his face. Dimitri did something with his hand and it vanished. "Better," he murmured. Without the sight of it, his heartbeat slowed a fraction. He could deal with pain. He'd suffered quite a bit of it in his life. "Needles bother me."
"Oh," Dimitri's dimples reappeared for a moment. "Thank you for telling me." His forearm brushed against Danyel's hand. His tentacles came out and grabbed it. "I have to be able to move that."
"Oh," Danyel grinned at him, forcing them to relax a bit. They didn't want to. He wanted to keep that sharp thing as far away from his hide as possible. Mitka was staring up at Dimitri. There was no reflection of the real world in Mitka's eyes, only shimmering lights reflecting the ambient. Dimitri held Danyel's ear tight, pinching it hard. His tentacles locked down again, but Dimitri didn't say anything.
"Now," a sharp stab seemed to go through his entire body, then the aching burn of a small cut radiated out from the hole. Dimitri's finger slid behind where he'd placed the needle and Danyel could feel it prick his skin as well. "From my heart to thine, for thy need to mine."
A wash of shimmering heat filled the ambient, calling on his own need to take. Danyel gasped. Then the sensation faded, as did the last echoes of pain. Dimitri slid the needle back out, painlessly. "I, well you, healed it already." He held out a tiny half ring of shimmering black-green and gold. Danyel looked at it closely.
It was incredible. A tiny dragon had caught a fish beneath silvery waves. Oh, the dragon didn't quite look like Mitka, but it was close. "That's beautiful, just like Mitka."
"I thought so." Dimitri handed it to him. Of course Danyel had to show it to Mitka.
"That's neat." Mitka beamed. "But I didn't like it when you hurt him."
"I know." Dimitri said.
"I don't know how to do this." Danyel admitted after a long moment with everyone staring at him.
"Like this." Dimitri worked a tiny clasp at the back, untwisting it half a turn and then pulling it off. The post was massive, nearly as large as the tail of the dragon. "It won't come off by accident."
"It looks fragile." Danyel set it to his ear. Unable to see, he couldn't figure out how to make it work, then he could, through Mitka's eyes. The area around the new hole was hot to Mitka's sight and bright red with the remaining flush of selyn from being healed so quickly. It felt very, very strange to push something solid through his body and he shuddered all over. Dimitri did have to help him with the clasp.
"There," Dimitri stroked his hair back. Through Mitka's eyes, he could see the tiny reflection of Mitka himself diving into the waves. "And don't worry about it particularly. Its not fragile. Its been treated. It was meant to be worn, not sitting in a display case."
"I'm honored and flattered." Danyel was full of too many emotions to name them all. He'd felt pain, knowing it was coming, and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as he'd feared.
"As am I." Dimitri said. "Although I'd like my hand back."
"Oh," Danyel let him go. Dimitri rubbed at his wrist, reddened lines of bruises already forming. "I didn't mean to grab you so hard."
"I know." Dimitri's grin was a bit lopsided. "I'd like to think of it as a reminder of what I have to look forward to."
"You want me to mark you?" Danyel winced. Dimitri's hand slid along the curve of his newly pierced ear. The attention of his touch sent a shiver through his body. For a moment, everything dissolved into selyn and light. He wanted and needed the core of that light as he'd never desired anything else.
"Not in front of Kolya." Sevrin's voice broke the spell. Dimitri stiffened, for a moment eyes blazing black with fury and need denied. He caught his breath, looking straight into his eyes. Danyel saw his reflection, equally as aroused. This wasn't intil. That was a cold, clinical term. This was desire of a sort he'd never known, not even at first transfer.
"No, indeed," Dimitri chuckled softly, then added for Danyel's ears alone. "He's going to be taking a nap and we'll be uninterrupted for hours."
Danyel winked. "I think I'm going to want to go home and take a nap myself." He grinned at Kolya.
"I'm not tired." His eyes kept drooping shut, even though he would force them back open with his fingers. Finally he yawned and collapsed again with a thud.
"Let's go." Danyel, of course, got to carry all the bags and Kolya's seat for the car. Maybe things were a bit better when Gens did the work. But then Dimitri winced, sniffing the air pointedly. Maybe not.
Chapter 30
Dimitri wondered for a long moment if maybe he might be better off asleep with little Kolya. Danyel yawned in his ear suggestively.
"No," Dimitri swayed, wondering why he felt as if he'd been pressed flat below the great stone monstrosity of Kirov's.
"I don't feel so lively myself, even though it isn't sleepy." Danyel's nager blurred and frayed on the edges. Or maybe that was his own vision. He could hardly see more than a meter in front of his nose. He rubbed between his eyes and found his glasses.
"Ugh," he slipped them off and blinked. It didn't help. Dimitri set them on the bedside table with a delicate click. Before he could move, Danyel'd slid around and was tugging at his shoes. "You don't have to do that."
"I want to." Danyel's warm hands rubbed the soles of his feet. When he started using his knuckles, driving into Dimitri's feet with nearly augmented strength he moaned. He'd never thought of himself as particularly fascinated by ... "Oh, yes," he sighed, grasping at the blankets and wanting to arch up off the bed. Danyel's tentacles slid between his toes, rubbing the sensitive skin with just the perfect amount of pressure. Then he tugged at them, one by one.
With each pop, the skin on Dimitri's hands and wrists tightened down until every hair was standing on end and quivering. Danyel slid up his body and looked into his eyes. There was still a flicker of hesitation back there, as if he weren't sure he should be doing this. Dimitri found the strength to slide Danyel around.
"A moment," he padded off to the bathroom on his now tingling feet. He brought back a basin of hot water, a rough cloth, a soft one and a good sized quantity of the cleaner used on sheathes. Dimitri'd always wondered if this would work. He wet the rough cloth and quickly but still gently cleaned the worst of the dirt from Danyel's feet. He obviously didn't go barefoot enough. Dimitri felt the hot spots on the sole where Danyel'd cut them on sharp stones or thorns. He cooled them with a thought, breathing on the warm water to finish the sensation.
Danyel sighed, leaning his head back. "You do know how to seduce me."
"I've just started." He slipped his hands up Danyel's slender calves for a moment, letting the coarse wiry hair tickle his sensitive fingers. They often tingled after turnover, and Danyel's warm skin only made his mouth water and his whole body vibrate. "This can't be comfortable." Dimitri reached up and unbuttoned Danyel's pants, watching his face very carefully.
Danyel's eyes widened a hair, but he didn't stop Dimitri. His attention flicked to Kolya for an instant, blissfully sprawled in the nest Dimitri'd made for him. "Even if he wakes, he won't know or care. Its not quite as obvious to the little ones as sexual intercourse." Saying the actual words made Dimitri's whole jaw feel tight. He swallowed heavily, watching the expressions cross Danyel's face one by one. "I should know."
"What?" Danyel slid up a bit.
Dimitri chuckled. "I remember watching my parents making love. I was even younger than little Kolya there. It didn't hurt me."
"And Sevrin is like you." Danyel said slowly. "I've never done this."
"Neither have I." Dimitri knew his eyes were bright and glassy. He was so excited his heart was racing and every nerve was alive. Mitka shuffled his wings and legs, not really wanting to wake up. He opened one eye a bare slit and then shut it. "I want thee." He breathed, tugging at Danyel's buttons, then stopped in a fit of mortal embarrassment. What if Danyel slapped him? What if he kicked Dimitri out and told him to never come back?
"Oh, hush," Danyel sat up the rest of the way. He scooted to the edge of the bed.
"Let me." Dimitri breathed.
"We've been sleeping together naked for weeks now." Danyel made it sound utterly foolish.
"I never undressed you." He said. "Its different. Skin is just skin. This time I'm looking and you know it." Dimitri'd lost every bit of whatever glib tongue he might have gotten from his sire. "I want to see you in the light of day and touch you and make love with you."
"We can't have sex."
"But we have selyn." Dimitri took a deep breath. He ran his fingertips up Danyel's spine, from bottom to top. Danyel arched his back, his shoulders, then his neck, giving to and then following Dimitri's fingers. His breath hissed between his teeth and he gasped when Dimitri tugged so very lightly on the tiny short hairs at the base of Danyel's skull.
"Oh my," he breathed. Or at least tried to. His whole upper body had tightened, and all twelve tentacles were showing. "You want my pants off?" Danyel stood, eyes traveling around the room, as if he were shy of Dimitri!
"I do." Dimitri finished what he'd started and slipped them over Danyel's slender hips. He was so Sime. Not over delicate like Khristov or massive like Vayer or his brother, Valtanir. Dimitri hadn't thought of that before. He winced.
"You don't like?"
"Oh, relative problems."
"Hmmm?" He gestured for Dimitri to stand. His knees were knocking.
"I just realized why I had such a difficult time with one of my transfer partners." He glanced at Kolya, who would have been snoring if he'd been older. "He was my father's baby brother."
"Oh," Danyel applauded this lacking witticism by chuckling. Now there was fascination, someone who'd laugh at even your worst jokes in need. "I don't suppose that would be conductive to romance."
"No," he said quickly. "Or the fact he has a dozen years on me as a nagerically active adult. I hardly have six months, even over a year past establishment and all of that with relatives."
"You sound like you've been dealing with shuven since you established." Danyel snorted and shook his head.
"Yeah, pretty much." He admitted, glancing down at the older man. "But you have never had a great love."
"More or less." His hands, with tentacles, unbuttoned the top button on his shirt. Dimitri got to practice his deep breathing exercises. It made it possible to brush his skin against Danyel's quivering fingers.
"I won't hurt you." He ducked his head as Danyel slipped his shirt off, never getting to the bottom buttons. Dimitri never did. Although he did intercept Danyel's toss, then tossed the clothes himself in a pile. Danyel laughed, his nager loosing its horrible rigidity.
When Danyel reached for the button to Dimitri pants, however, it was different. He'd felt Danyel's zlinning hundreds of times. He knew Danyel watched him traipse in and out of the bathroom every morning. He even had turned off the light on Dimitri's reading a few times just so he could cuddle more. They'd slept intertwined like puppies in a basket. Why was he so nervous? Danyel's eyes asked him the same thing.
"I'm nervous because before, it was a dream, a hope, a prayer, a fantasy. Now," he reached up and touched the fantastic earring. "Now its real." His voice cracked. "I don't know what's going to happen."
"I thought you did?" Danyel's hands stopped.
"Not with you." He caressed Danyel's flank, just wanting to feel the warmth of him, nothing more. Simple human touch. "Not since we took our first ride in the car."
"What happened?"
"I lost my healer's heart." He let his hand slip down Danyel's side to his thigh. He bit at his lips, more afraid in this moment than even when he'd faced the Lords of the Demense for his freedom. "I can't heal those I love."
"That isn't true." Danyel slipped Dimitri's pants off as if he'd done it hundreds of times. "I've done a lot of medical prep."
Dimitri gave a soft chuckle, wishing Danyel'd taken more time.
"You've healed me."
Dimitri shook his head slowly. "I can't cure you, Danyel. Its too deep, in your blood, your bones, your very genes. No Sergei, no one ever living, could cure you."
"What of someone who'd never lived before now?" Danyel's words came out as harsh and strained. "Has there ever been anyone like Mitka?" The reference to Mitka as a person, as an 'anyone', took Dimitri's breath away. "I've never been so free in my life, Dimitri, as bound to him." He opened his mouth and then closed it without a word. "I love him as I love thee." Danyel's use of the informal, for the first time so naturally and easily, stunned him.
"But I've lost my ability to care." Sevrin's harsh words still burned his heart like acid. The shame of his shortcomings being so coldly exposed before Danyel and Vanesa made sweat spring out on his brow.
"No," Danyel helped Dimitri step out of his pants. "Someone is lying to us. I don't think its Sevrin."
"Who?" Dimitri didn't know anyone who could or would care.
"What about your Uncle Cadek?"
"He's part of the Fellowship." Dimitri dismissed him instantly. "He can't live without them, not for more than a few minutes at a time. He lives only because of the Fellowship."
"And they protected you when Sevrin attacked."
"Yes," he nodded, then added, "and none of them were involved in what had been done to the rooms in Kaon."
"Who else could get into a locked room without picking the lock."
"You did." Dimitri pointed. "Still mostly blind, too, with my little cousin in a sling on your chest."
"Mitka told me how far I had to jump."
Dimitri felt himself start to pale at the idea of trusting Mitka like that, then flushed with shame. Of course Danyel had to trust him, otherwise he'd be dead this time next week. The lines of fate trembled beneath his feet, as he'd only felt one time before in his life
"Get the Shen out!" Dimitri screamed. He grabbed Kolya. Kolya shrieked. Danyel could only pray Danyel'd listen. He ducked his head. The window gave before popping. Something dark and heavy landed on him with a thud. Two, three, four heartbeats went by. Kolya wailed his upset and fear. Had Dimitri guessed wrong?
The fireball was worse than he could have imagined. Heat like the open door of a blast furnace washed over them. Danyel covered them, protecting Dimitri and little Kolya. Dimitri led both of them through the cinders. Danyel yelped in pain and Dimitri's whole body tightened. He couldn't protect Danyel. He could hardly protect a child. Turning, he saw Danyel's beautiful little house awash with flames. Mitka arrowed out of the inferno, reflecting the orange and red flames on his black hide.
"What's that?" Kolya pointed. Dimitri blinked and realized the ash formed a perfect outline of Mitka.
"That's Mitka." He explained, not wanting to deal with the terror and despair threatening his very life. "He's my second best friend in the whole world." Mitka's tail lashed. "Right after the man who saved our lives, your Uncle Danyel."
Danyel glared at him for an instant. Dimitri felt another chill run down his back. "You were the one who warned me."
"Great lot of good that did." All those beautiful things, those clothes, those books! "The books!" He cried out, holding Kolya in his arms.
"We're safe." Danyel put his arm around Dimitri's shoulders. "Although if you can tell me why the shidoni some lorsh is trying to kill us, you, me, I don't care who, I'd like to know."
"Don't you want to know who is doing this?" Dimitri shook his head as he watched Danyel's beautiful little house burn to the ground. The fire crew had arrived, at last, and were soaking down the neighboring houses with the help of their owners. There was nothing to be done for Danyel's.
"If we can figure out why, or even what, we'd be ahead of the game."
"What?" Dimitri obviously hadn't read as many mysteries as Danyel. There'd been a whole row of them on his bookshelf, now all gone! He'd only gotten to read two of them.
"We don't even know if this is an escalation or an accident or if it had anything to do with us. We'd probably have been out of the house if you hadn't volunteered to take care of Kolya this afternoon." Danyel snuggled him in close. He kissed Dimitri's shoulder. Lousy aim, but Kolya was a bit in the way. Now that he was alive, healthy and generally safe, he wanted Danyel's touch in the worst way.
Danyel clucked his tongue, glancing down. "Dimitri, I didn't think that was possible."
"I'm seventeen." He muttered, trying to ignore the problem. "OK, so, life threatening situations get me excited, haven't you heard of that before." He got out all in one breath. Kolya giggled.
"Yeah," he shifted his weight, as if to pull away.
"No," Dimitri just slid behind Danyel. "I don't want Kolya's skin to get dried out." Kolya stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. Well, another second head.
"You seem to have a problem Mister, um," he didn't even glance at Dimitri or Kolya, which was probably for the best. Dimitri's knees were shaking. They'd all come far too close to death. If Danyel'd balked for any reason, they'd be dead right now, since Dimitri'd have gone back in after him.
"Hajene Ferris, Danyel Ferris. That was my house." Danyel's slick good humor came through need, nakedness and his enormous loss. "Not even a penny of equity yet, really."
"I'm sorry to hear that Hajene Ferris. Now houses don't normally blow up like that, nor do naked people stand around in the front yard." He waved a tentacled arm. Dimitri wouldn't have ever gone near a fire with bare arms, of any kind. "Whatcha lookin at?"
"Oh, trying to figure your life expectancy." Almost fell out of his mouth. He was loosing touch with the ambient and reality. "I think I'm about to faint, officer." The world swayed around him, true, but more he really didn't want to be dealing with this shit right now.
"Dimitri," Danyel breathed, entirely the rescuing Sime. He couldn't have worked it better if he'd staged it in a play. "Oh, what can I do for you Sosu?" Although Danyel was badly overacting.
"Get me some clothes." Dimitri did not like being naked in front of all these Simes, particularly not when his body had decided it was party time since it'd managed to survive. Danyel came back with the nice officer's coat. It was a lot better than nothing and it also gave him a safe place to keep Kolya. The lad was shocky and very unhappy still.
"I wanna go home." He said at last, lips tight and eyes tense. "I'm scared."
"You should be, young man." The officer boomed.
"Get us the shen out of here right now, Danyel." Dimitri commanded in Russian.
"At your will, Sharm Lord." Fell out in all one word. Danyel helped Dimitri into the back seat of his car. The door slamming shocked the tears loose from poor little Kolya.
"I love you so much, Kolya." He told the lad, rocking him gently.
"I'm scared, Un'ca!"
"We're safe and you'll soon be back with your parents."
"Want you." He grinned through his tears. "You, you," Kolya sniffed. "I remember you jumping through the window and, um, rolling all around me on the grass. It was fun."
"I honestly didn't remember you'd opened the window." He looked up into Danyel's shocked expression. "I ended up going a lot further than I'd planned."
"And your glasses were next to the bed."
"Afraid so." He admitted, grinning a bit. They'd sounded like a good idea at the time, although he'd found he couldn't stand them. "They made me look like a Sime."
"Nothing could ever make you zlin like one." Danyel snorted. It was a snort worthy of Mitka, including in dampness. Danyel rubbed his own nose. "I'd never owned a house before, even with the bank."
"If nothing else, whoever did this is going to pay." Dimitri promised. Danyel looked up into the mirror. At first, doubt made the ambient icy. Dimitri held Danyel's gaze. Danyel nodded. Yeah, the son of a syphilitic whore was going to pay for this.
"This report is pure shen." Danyel slammed it back down on the desk. "My partner clearly remembers turning off the gas before we left the house."
"How many people can remember a detail like that? Something they do every day?" The Sime's attitude was how many 'Gens' could remember.
"I do." Dimitri said, snapping out the words. In his dark, harsh voice and even harsher field they had a nearly physical impact on the renSime. Mitka was nowhere to be seen, but Danyel could feel his spirit reinforce Dimitri's growing field to near normal levels, for a second order Donor, that was. "You aren't going to call me a fool because of my larity, now are you? That would be discrimination which is illegal in Gulf Territory." His fist came down on the desk so hard the surface laminate cracked.
Dimitri spread his hands quickly, the gesture of a killer Sime dropping a corpse or grabbing a Gen. Danyel wanted to back up a step. "It was no accident."
"We don't know that." Danyel tugged on Dimitri's sleeve. He'd insisted on wearing sleeves, for the first time since Danyel'd met him. As exotic and alien as a creature from outer space, his presence as well as his height towered over everyone in the room.
"I do."
"You're too close." He reminded.
Dimitri sighed, closed his eyes and glanced away. "You're right." He turned those sights back on the police officer. "But if I hear one more discriminatory or defamatory remark, Officer Kerts, I'm gonna rip your laterals out by the roots." Officer Kerts looked like she was going to faint. "Believe me." He stormed from the room. Danyel watched his arms move for far too few seconds before he realized he had another problem on his hands.
"If you don't tell Sosu big shirt over there to tone it down, he's gonna get arrested for public indecency and nageric hooliganism."
"Do you really think anyone here has the lats to arrest him?" Danyel tried Dimitri's tactic. It felt pretty good, actually. At least he got some revenge.
"Uh, no," she packed the report into a binder and shoved it in an overstuffed desk drawer. "Good bye," her nageric shove would have been far more effective if she'd been anything but a renSime. Danyel, however, was not going to quibble. He wanted out of here too.
"Let me guess, she threatened me with endangering the pubic welfare and incitement to intil."
"Close, indecency and hooliganism," Danyel tossed the package on filing a counter report in the back. Dimitri'd taken to riding up front, at Danyel's side. Mitka's attention never stopped flicking from side to side, examining everyone they met with this dancing will 'o wisp of light glimmering in the ambient.
Only Vanesa, of all the channels Danyel'd been able to mention it too had zlinned it, but so far they'd caught eight petty thieves, two murderers, one semi-junct living off junkies like the pawn shop owner, which was actually where they'd found the bitch through a contact Cami'd left behind, three wife beaters and one child abuser. The last they'd not turned in. He'd already murdered his seven year old son, after wrecking his mind. Mister Volen was now at the bottom of the river.
"I could get used to this lifestyle." Danyel glanced in the mirror.
"Down!" Dimitri slammed his head beneath the level of the seats. Glass shattered over their heads. Danyel swore, loudly and creatively. He slammed the car into max. Driving by nager, he slipped through the next intersection before glancing up.
In the mirror, he saw someone dressed in black on a motorcycle. A large truck came between them and the figure was gone. One of the veiled? Danyel hadn't been able to see the figure's face, it had been covered with a helmet.
"Pay attention!" Dimitri yanked on the wheel. The tires squealed. Something slammed into the rear end of the car.
"Oh shen," Danyel could zlin the selyn leaking from the secondary storage battery. If that stuff, already volatized, hit the condenser the car would blow sky high, just like his house.
"Shen you to hell!" Danyel screamed at the top of his lungs as he dragged Dimitri with him out of the car. This time he cried. Transfer was supposed to be tomorrow and he cried. His car was the last thing he'd owned, and he'd paid it off years ago.
The click of a gun being cocked brought him out of his sorrow in pure fury. Who ever'd done this was going to die. Snarling in hate, he hunted. The world dissolved into light and dark. Dimitri's field cast shadows so harsh they should have burned permanently into the earth.
"No!" Dimitri's rejection of his fury was too much. Danyel turned on him. He never felt the blow. The lights just went out.
Chapter 31
"We found this at the bottom of the river, Sosu Sergei." Officer Kerts tossed a picture of a very badly decomposed Mister 'child killer' Volen.
"Looks like a corpse." He lit a cigarette. Dimitri was not in the mood for any of this nonsense. Danyel was still unconscious, knocked out by the combination selyn explosion and death shock of his prey. What hurt worse was his betrayal. He'd trusted Danyel to come to him for selyn. "A badly decomposed one. You want me to do the autopsy."
"If you would, Sosu Sergei." He handed Dimitri his own 'bread knife'.
"What the fuck do you mean by this?" Dimitri reversed the forty cent long blade, turning it into an unmistakably lethal weapon. "This is mine."
"It is, Sergei." She sat on the edge of the desk. "You're lying to me. Even Hajene Ferris couldn't lie to me."
Dimitri flipped the knife back the right way. He could have murdered the woman in a heartbeat, but she knew something. He looked up at her through the slowly rising blue smoke. "I'd rather do it now than later."
"It isn't going to make a whole lot of difference in smell."
"Today I can't smell a thing." He snorted. Poor Mitka didn't know what to do. He'd taken to curling up with Kolya for a lack of anything better. In hard need and alone, Dimitri couldn't smell a thing. Officer Kerts narrowed her eyes.
"Then how do you know you turned off the gas?"
"Because I know, Officer." He stood and put out the cigarette. Dimitri glanced down at the image of the harsh, buzzing lights in the knife. Were they any less painful in that other world? "I don't forget things."
"Then why don't you remember Mister Volen?"
Dimitri cocked his head, waiting for an answer. "That sounds like a rhetorical question, Officer. Am I supposed to answer it?"
"Yes, shen you." She snapped. Dimitri raised the blade. The thought reminded him of Danyel.
Dimitri said nothing. "Yeah, Danyel and I met him. He crossed the street in front of us. He tripped and dropped three oranges, a bundle of celery, a bag of carrots, four large potatoes, a pound of salted butter and half a pint of what passes for heavy cream here. The container of cream split open, spilling forty-three percent in the original impact and the remainder before Mister Volen could right it."
"Shen and Shidoni," Officer Kerts reached for something beneath her desk. Dimitri stopped her with his knife. He'd never really been taught to fight with a knife, but he'd have had to be oblivious as a child not to have seen it done. Vayer and Nashen were constantly sparring, and now Vayer and Tzer, although Tzer didn't have his father's flair.
Drawing on all his memories of Nashen's incredible sense of style, he brought the knife up to Officer Kerts' throat.
"This blade is sharp enough to cut half way through a human body in one stroke."
"Get it away from me." Her eyes kept flicking down. "We need the autopsy done, unless you can deduct cause of death from the photo."
"Why me?" Dimitri asked. "I'm about to go into seclusion."
"Sectuib Kaon said you were the only one who might be able to determine if the cause of death was selyn failure or a kill."
"Why me? Don't you have real people, Simes, to do this sort of work?" He glared at her. Dimitri didn't want to be here. He wanted to be at home, back with Danyel, with Kolya, napping together on the huge bed, waiting for transfer.
"Because she said it might not be a Sime kill."
"Don't tell me you believe all those stories about Giant Killer Gens." He exaggerated the capitals for effect, not incidentally letting the knife slip away from her neck. "Come now?"
"Sectuib Kaon seems to think so. She had another of her people do the autopsy on Hajene Cami."
"Who?"
"I don't know." She snorted, looking him up and down. "What difference does it make to you?"
"Someone's trying to murder me."
"Get used to it." Her eyes met his, daring him to lie in her nager.
"Never," he scowled, "Where are the rest?"
"We found them in the vault. The evidence vault." She said. "Someone wants you scared, Sosu Sergei."
"Who, how many, why?" He braced himself. "Lets do it."
Officer Kerts led him to the autopsy room.
Dimitri always used a chain glove on his off hand. Few prosectors did anymore, but the old renSime he'd learned from had always used one, so Dimitri did as well. If nothing else it had saved him from a couple of scars. Dimitri set the light higher.
He nodded to the deener, no one had any idea why they were called that, or even if it had any relevance at all by this point, but it was traditional. Again he gave many thanks for occult materials.
"The trough is that way." Dimitri hit the water flow. He unzipped the bag. Sure enough, the renSime barely managed to turn around before he threw up. He did get vomit all over the front of his nice white coat. Dimitri snorted in bemusement. He couldn't really feel a whole lot more.
This was going to be really interesting. Officer Kerts was after something. She knew he'd had something to do with Volen's death, not that he really cared. But if Danyel recovered, he'd have to be cleared of all complicity. What in hell had happened?
Dimitri turned all such thoughts from his mind, the last being the image of the black pearl dragon Danyel still wore in his ear.
"Let me up." Danyel didn't dare yank on the restraints, they were right over his laterals. Need clutched at his gut. "Where is he?"
"I'm right here, Hajene." A slick, professional, Techton nager crawled up next to his and died there. Dimitri swallowed back nausea, leaning as far away as he could. "This month you don't have to worry about a thing."
"Get the shen out of here and get me Dimitri." Danyel didn't shout, didn't growl. "I'm not touching anyone but Dimitri."
"You will." He said, in that same, calm, professional tone.
"What are you doing here?" Sevrin's entrance was like being smacked in the face with a bucket of boiling water after having been soaking in ice for days. Danyel screamed, unable to get away. He yanked back against the restraints, heedless of the damage he did to himself.
Someone hit the releases. Danyel crashed against the wall. The shenned Donor lay sprawled on the floor. He hadn't released Danyel. He was flopping on the floor like a landed fish. Sevrin's attention washed over him again. He whimpered, fear, pain, terror, loss all ripping him up inside. None of these things were his. Danyel struggled to master them.
"Get out here." Sevrin backed, tripping over the table and nearly falling himself. Danyel augmented wildly out of the room. The slick floor left him bouncing off the walls. His wrists burned with abuse. He pounded down the hallway, desperate for any way out.
A nurse shouted, "He went that way." Danyel dove back under his nose as fast as he could augment and zlinned for a window. They were all barred. There was one door he hadn't tried yet, so he tried it.
As soon as he slipped inside, he knew he'd made a mistake. His breath steamed in front of his face. Dark rubber bags hid mostly human shaped figures. Danyel didn't want to think about the more oddly shaped ones. They all had names, dates, places and other information on the outside.
A loud thump interrupted Danyel's ruminations. The faintest crack of light warned him. He skittered beneath the nearest rack. On hands and feet, he stayed out of the light, holding his nager as tight to his body as he could. What had happened to his knife? The shock of it nearly gave him away.
"There he is!" The really awful Donor shouted. How'd he found his own wrists? Danyel zlinned a gaping black hole. He'd learned prayer from Dimitri. Danyel prayed it wasn't the incinerator and jumped.
"Shen!" He bit off the rest of his curses. Chest deep in sub freezing something and standing on more of those bags it felt like, Danyel wished he could panic. But it wasn't in him to panic. Dimitri had a really good thing going with his 'fainting'.
Danyel caught the flash of selyn before the channel zlinned down the chute. Danyel held his breath and dove. Why he even bothered when the first thing he did on going under was scream, Danyel had no idea. The thick, viscous, syrupy fluid clung to his whole body, trying to invade his tentacle sheaths which should have frozen shut by this point. One point in his favor was he couldn't zlin through the stuff. He could hardly see through it. Danyel clutched at one of the bags. This one didn't feel like it had a body in it. It was all random lumps and curves, with a few sharp edged places.
Then, out of sheer Ferris curiosity, he zlinned through the bag, inch by inch. It was a body. It was a body that had been crushed and burned! He jumped out of the fluid and scrabbled at the wall. Again and again, no longer caring at all if anyone found him.
Burning hot tears streamed down his face. But even so he examined his entire surroundings. Another of those horrid bags joined him, splashing the freezing goo all over the place. If Danyel didn't get out of here soon, he'd die of cold, not need!
Danyel looked up. He reached in between the bags with his feet. Even in the deepest part of the pool, where they should have been the fewest bodies between him and the bottom, he couldn't touch anything but more bodies. What in the name of shen was going on in this madhouse?
Hospitals were supposed to be places where people talked to those who didn't quite have a solid grip on reality and Channels came in to assist when there was something more physical wrong. They didn't have body storage rooms! Was he going mad? Where was he? Was this an old kill depository? Where juncts had dumped their kills to be collected for 'recycling'? Danyel gagged at the thought, even though it was probably the right one.
"None of it will matter if you don't get out of here, Ferris." Talking to himself seemed to help keep his jaws from freezing shut. That would be a real disaster. Working as fast as he could without augmenting too much, he piled all the bodies he could reach on one side.
They were slippery and awkward. Often enough, the cause of death was painfully apparent to a casual zlin. Actually, almost all of these bodies had been accident victims of one sort or another. Usually crushing or other mangling sorts of things. Danyel swallowed down his queasy stomach again. He'd never look at another dead body the same way again. All the ones he'd seen had been fairly neat. A few bruises, maybe a burn mark or two.
The body bag Danyel'd grabbed broke in two, spilling its contents all over him. Danyel lost it. He doubled over, retching and gagging. The cold air choked him as much as his own bile. Danyel glared up at the opening far overhead, the one on the far side of the room from where he'd come in.
"Why didn't you just jump across, you moron?" Danyel glanced at the two. Then he hoped he hadn't gotten them confused.
"Get out of here and then worry about it." He scrabbled to the top of his pile. Slick with condensation ice, they began returning to the pool from whence they came. Danyel ran. At least they didn't smell.
His pile was melting beneath his feet, or at least sliding away. Danyel ran faster, augmenting frantically. Long before he reached the top, he started falling behind. He leaped, praying he could at least win out on momentum. His fingertips screeched against the steel. He slid down the slick surface, frantic for any purchase. Then his feet hit empty air. He'd over jumped.
"Shen!" Danyel scrabbled harder. Leverage was not on his side from here! As his feet went in, his butt stuck out. And worse of all, the bottom of the tunnel was further out than the top. Probably good design to keep anything from going the wrong way, like say Danyel, but it didn't help!
Something tugged at his foot when it slipped on the edge. Visions of living dead, getting revenge on Danyel for having disturbed their frigid rest, ran through his mind at augmented speed.
"Its me, Mitka, idiot." His unique, hissing voice brought Danyel out of his stupor.
"How's Dimitri? Is he all right? Did the explosion get him? What's going on?"
"You're delirious." Mitka's tugs weren't much, but they gave Danyel the momentum he needed to get his weight over the lip of the tunnel. He collapsed on his knees, panting.
"You stink." Mitka wrinkled his nose. "But not like Dimitri?"
"What?"
"Come on," Mitka rolled his eyes. Danyel followed him. Before long there was a small drain and then Danyel had to crawl through a lot of things he never wanted to think about again. Fortunately he was empty or he'd have thrown up again. Although it didn't seem to help someone up ahead any. The awful sound of dry heaves was nearly contagious.
"Get me some real help?" Dimitri's voice, harsh but completely unmistakable caught Danyel's undivided attention. He reached out to the sound, unable to even extend his tentacles for cold.
"Help me."
"Why did you abandon us?" Mitka asked, even though Danyel could zlin his eyes loose their icy sheen.
"I never did."
"You went after that Sime."
"What Sime?" Danyel asked. "I was furious. That car was the last thing I owned." He turned away. "He hates me now." Danyel shivered, clutching at himself, trying not to freeze solid.
"Yes," Mitka hadn't had to confirm it. Danyel glanced through the grate.
"I have to talk with him." With warmth, of any amount, life was coming back to him. "I can't leave him like this."
Mitka glanced around.
"Get this puker out of here." There was a loud thump as if Dimitri'd actually kicked the poor man who'd been so sick.
"What's wrong with him?" Danyel asked.
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