Healer's Heart
Section 9
by
Ann Marie Olson
Story © 2002 Ann
Marie Olson
Chapter 46
Danyel took a deep breath of the sweet spring air. The evenings were still cool. He hoped it would cool Dimitri's temper a bit.
"You're still angry with me." Dimitri sighed. Mitka curried Danyel's ear, providing at least this much emotional support.
"I'm not angry." He sighed, reaching up to scratch Mitka between the wings. They rustled at his touch, the familiar sound nearly lost in the whispering of the new leaves overhead. "Not now." They'd run back to Kaon just in time to help Tami get cleaned up again and dressed for her family. Danyel stretched, trying to ease the worst of the cramps from his tentacles. She was lucid again, barely, but even so her disability was impossible to miss.
"Would you help me as we helped Tami?" Dimitri's question caught him completely off guard.
"Of course," he ran his tentacles through his hair. It had dried flat and he tried to get some of it to at least look groomed.
"You don't have to preen for me." Dimitri's own field was hardly zlinnable, even against the backdrop of the night darkened park.
"I want to." He coaxed Mitka down into his arms. Mitka glanced off into the darkness, his eyes reflecting the solitude of the forested corner of Kaon's grounds at this time in the evening. Dimitri's stomach growled. "We ate." He murmured, stroking the tense muscles of Mitka's neck, trying to get him to relax a bit. It was like stroking a rock.
"I'm hungry again." Dimitri's shoulders bowed.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of." Danyel flipped Mitka over on his back. "Its just I've never seen anyone eat quite so much."
Dimitri's sparse field glowed as red as a coal.
"Dimitri," he stopped, tugging Dimitri around to face him. "I want you healthy."
"I'll get fat."
Danyel pinched him. "There isn't an ounce of fat on you. Except maybe between your ears." He cocked his head. "Who have you been talking to?" He didn't remember this being a problem before.
"I was listening to a few of the other Donors in the commons." Dimitri's feet scuffed at last year's leaves still littering the side of the path. The only light out here was their fields, as no one had ever set up even gas lights this far out on Kaon's property.
"Why?" Danyel blinked at him. "I don't like skinny Gens."
"I thought if I looked more like what you were used too ..." His voice trailed off into silence.
"You great big goof." Danyel pinched him again. Mitka nibbled the base of his thumb, his body finally softening a bit in Danyel's arms. "What am I going to do with you?"
"Feed him." Mitka chomped a bit too hard. Danyel yelped, nearly dropping him. Mitka's claws laced over Danyel's hand, not piercing the skin. He'd learned a great deal in the past month and a half. "I'm hungry too."
"Still?" He gathered Mitka back in a ball. It was a slowly oozing ball of scales and wings as the tension left him.
"He's been starving himself." Mitka's tongue lolled out. "I don't like it."
"I thought you'd like not ending up so deep in need." Dimitri jammed his hands into his pockets, shoulders slumping further.
"You haven't even gotten me that sandwich you promised last month." Mitka snorted, wetting Danyel's chin. He wiped it off on Mitka's scaly head. Dimitri started to hand him a kerchief, but Danyel shook his head. He'd become quite used to Mitka's affections, enjoyed them, actually.
"What kind of sandwich was it?" Danyel asked Mitka directly. Dimitri shifted his weight restlessly from toe to heel, then back again.
"I wanted a fish sandwich." Mitka's tongue wrapped around one of his fangs. "I'd take chicken if its easier."
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked Dimitri.
"Because I know you can't stand to be around a dead animal." His shoulders arched forward so far he looked humpbacked. Danyel pinched one, then the other, making them go back again.
"Stand up straight." He growled. "I think if I can deal with your cutting up a rotten human body in front of me and even making me touch parts of it, I can deal with your eating a fish sandwich."
"That was after I'd lost my appetite."
"You loose yours in need too?" Danyel rolled his eyes. "Come on, I think we can find something to eat downtown." He hefted Mitka back onto his shoulders. Even if it weren't for Mitka's protection, he'd have wanted him there. It felt good to have him so close, so protective. Danyel loved it. He'd never been allowed to fondle any Gen's nager, really, at least not the way he caressed and petted Mitka.
Usually their fields had either been unreactive or withdrawn. Admittedly Sevrin's had been active, but not to him. Danyel could now admit he'd been more than a little jealous of the attention Vanesa got from him and had wished he could find out what it was like. Now he knew. He stroked Mitka's dust fine scales over his eyelids. Mitka's purr vibrated Danyel's arms all the way down to his fingertips.
"Did you know you are utterly beautiful when you do something like that?" Dimitri's field twinkled against the backdrop of stars as they came out of the trees.
"I bet it looks strange to anyone who can't zlin Mitka." Danyel didn't really care. He stroked Mitka's cheek with his own. The constant contact was another thing he didn't know he'd been missing until he'd experienced it. Now, he knew, he'd feel horribly vulnerable and exposed without Mitka's wonderful company. Dimitri's eyes seemed to look through both of them for a moment. Danyel'd rarely been able to see the reality behind Mitka's illusion. "You have a towel around your neck."
"I didn't know that." Danyel glanced down at Mitka. He flipped his wings to his back, his eyes daring Danyel to say anything about it. "How long have I had this towel?"
"All day, most likely." Dimitri grinned. "I rarely look."
"I usually can't see it." Danyel scritched Mitka under the chin. If he'd had whiskers, they'd have touched in front of his nose. A light flicked on over their heads. Dimitri glanced up.
"You're as crazy as that woman your brother is messing with." A loud crash brought Danyel to a halt.
"I don't have all year to sit on my butt and get fat." Miran's voice got louder as he neared the window. "What are you two staring at?" He shouted at them, through the now open window.
"Who are you talking to?" Larin's equally strident tones were muffled by Dimitri's brother's body in the way. "Let me see." A handful of thumps reached Danyel's ears. He grinned at Dimitri, under cover of the shadows, of course. Mitka snickered in his ear, then licked it. "Oh, its you." She pursed her lips.
"You're going to get wrinkles like that." Danyel was feeling too lighthearted again not to tease.
"What difference does it make?" Dimitri didn't really sound confused anymore, just resigned. Danyel glanced back up at her. At one time, he'd have thought to possibly make a friendly pass at the woman. She was not hard on the laterals, and knowing she was no renSime only added to the attraction. Or it had.
"I like it when people keep themselves up." He wished, just for once, he could slither under Dimitri's arm. Dimitri was so much bigger than he was, it would have been nice, occasionally, the be able to hide against him as he'd done with Donors. Well, maybe not exactly like. He found the steady ebb and flow of Dimitri's field wonderful.
His field turning a faint, delicate pink, Dimitri put out his arm. The gesture was endearingly awkward. Danyel took advantage of the situation before Dimitri could change his mind. Dimitri's muscles knotted against Danyel's cheek, then quivered, as if stuck like a bell. Danyel kissed the side of his chest. "In public?" Dimitri purred, his voice so low Danyel felt it more than heard it.
"Eh," Danyel shrugged, "its just your brother and his Sime." That came out sounding very strange. Dimitri chuckled.
"Is that better?" Larin's scowl was audible. Danyel didn't bother to look up. Dimitri's stomach growled again.
"Bye!" He waved, still wallowing in Dimitri's field. He didn't usually get to do this, at least out of bed, and certainly not with Dimitri's own private field protecting him as well as Mitka. He tried to zlin outside the range of Dimitri's field and it was like trying to zlin through glass. Possible, but not very accurate. With a lean learned from years of nudging Donors into looking as if they'd not just fallen asleep on their feet, Danyel steered Dimitri towards the car.
"I can do this." Dimitri's field threw off a handful of glittering sparks.
"Get back here right now!" Miran shouted.
"Get your but back in bed!" Larin shouted right back at him. Neither of them seemed at all diminished by their disaster of a transfer. "You have a transfer burn and I'm not going to let you make it worse."
"You died!"
"She what?" Vanesa's voice broke in. "Its late, children."
"Even out here I can zlin her interest is not in dealing with difficult kids, it's in making them." Danyel muttered to himself. Mitka's snickers were drowned out by Dimitri's.
"Kolya's adorable." Dimitri murmured, hugging him in tighter. "I wish you liked kids more."
"Its not that I don't like children." He wished he could purr the way Mitka did. "This is wonderful, by the way."
"What?" Dimitri shook his head as he glared at the door handle. "I think you get to drive."
"Will you keep holding me?" He grinned.
"Do you really like it so much?" Dimitri waited for Danyel to open the door for him. Danyel sighed. Some things never really changed.
"I do." He nearly jumped away when Dimitri tugged him down. Dimitri licked his lips, his whole body softening, as if to make up for the few moments of what he felt were inappropriate behavior. Although Danyel did like this part of Dimitri's passivity. He also had learned to enjoy kisses before transfer as well as after. By the time he came up for air, he found himself sitting on Dimitri's lap with the door open chime ringing in his ears.
"I hate that thing." He pushed the button to shut it off. "You have to eat."
"I'll get by." Dimitri purred, his huge hands slipping inside Danyel's shirt.
"I thought you said we couldn't have sex." Actually Danyel had no interest at all.
"Doesn't this feel good?" Dimitri murmured against his neck. Then he nosed Mitka out of the way and worked his way down to Danyel's collarbones.
"Very," he held Dimitri as close as he could in the awkward confines of the car. "But I'm not giving in on getting you to eat."
"I'll be fine." His mist gray eyes had faded from their normal vibrance. Danyel could see as much, even in the yellow light from the tiny bulb in the car.
"As soon as I get you fed properly." He slipped over Dimitri's lap into the driver's seat. He patted the spot next to him. "Vanesa got this car so Sevrin could sit right next to her." He winked at Dimitri.
"We're stealing Lord Kaon's car." Dimitri blinked at him.
"I prefer to think of it as borrowing." He reached across Dimitri's lap and closed the door. Dimitri stole a kiss, momentarily pinning Danyel stretched across the entire front seat of the car. "We're going to give it back."
"I don't want to think about what she'll say if something happens to it." Dimitri slid up against him as Danyel started the car. He reached over Dimitri again to fasten the seat belt. "I wear one, you get to."
"I'm Sime, I can augment."
"I don't care." Dimitri buckled him in. "If you aren't quick enough, you'll break your fool Sime neck."
Danyel tried to look back over his shoulder to see where he was going.
"You're clear." Mitka looked up into the mirror.
"I have to see where I'm going." He put his chin on Mitka's back, squishing him down. Mitka's talons pricked the surface of Danyel's skin. He hissed as the almost pain sent a shiver up his arms. Dimitri looked down, then ran a fingertip up Danyel's forearm. No one else could make him so aware of his larity. At least not when it wasn't in a transfer suite. He put his hand over Dimitri's, holding him close for a moment. He backed out of the driveway. "Do you have any preferences?"
"I think I can get by with the place we went our first night together." Dimitri slowly slipped his arm around Danyel's shoulders, as if not at all sure of his reception.
"I like holding you and I like being held by you." Danyel kissed the back of Dimitri's hand at a stop light. A car honked behind them. Danyel held up a pair of crossed tentacles.
"And where did you learn that gesture?" Dimitri grinned. "Hey, this isn't ... we just passed that place." He looked back at the bar where they'd eaten after Marc's change over. He didn't want to think about why they'd gone to a bar.
"Which one?" Danyel headed toward downtown Navean. He knew it had changed since the days of Risa Tegue, although sometimes he wondered why.
"The place we ate after getting Marc and Lira safe." He was still looking back over his shoulder. Danyel took the opportunity to nip Dimitri on the neck. Dimitri shivered all over, tightening his hold on Danyel's shoulders for a moment. He was really glad Vanesa'd gotten one of the new cars with the automatic shift. He put his free hand on Dimitri's knee. They'd changed as soon as they'd gotten back to Kaon. The lightweight cotton pants Dimitri often wore did more to display his body than hide it. Danyel sometimes wondered why he even bothered.
He slipped the gauzy material along Dimitri's thigh. Danyel had to stop rather hard when he noticed the red light at last. "I think I learned the gesture from Vayer." He answered the other question. Where could they go where Dimitri could get what he wanted? Danyel didn't really know any of the Gen only eating places on this side of the river. A pair of headlights appeared in his rear view mirror. He didn't like them.
"Go ahead." Dimitri murmured. Danyel glanced through the intersection. Someone was coming the other way. If he waited a moment he could slip right in front of them. The powerful, heavy car lurched forward. The car behind them gunned its engine, then tires squealed as it fought to a stop. Danyel slipped his own car into a dark alley. No normal Sime could zlin it went through. Even he wouldn't have trusted it if he hadn't know the area so well. It actually came out beneath an old arcade. Dimitri chuckled softly.
Danyel slipped the car back out into the streets. There was no sign of their tail. "I do wonder what that was all about."
"We're driving Vanesa's car so who knows."
"Do you think they knew it was us?" Danyel figured since it wasn't so very late, they could go all the way down to Norleans. Although he didn't really want to. Then he thought of a place he'd always wanted to go to as a kid and never managed. "Do you eat pork?"
"Love it, actually," Dimitri's nager pinked even as his stomach growled so loudly Mitka stared at it for a moment. "Are you really sure about this?"
"I can't be any worse than the autopsy." After Danyel said it, he realized how true the words were. "I'm sick of being chained by my expectations."
"Just don't eat any." Dimitri hugged him close for an instant. Danyel got on the eyeway and pulled out the stops. The engine thrummed with power, chirping the tires slightly. "This is a really nice car."
"I wonder why Vanesa got one with the twin turbines." Danyel glanced at the speedometer for a moment, then blanched. A hundred and forty was excessive. They weren't going all the way to Norleans. A cop showed up in his rear view mirror. He reached for the flashers. The cop blinked his lights, then slowed. "I think he recognizes the car."
"Hard to mistake something this red."
"True," Danyel admitted, relaxing into the luxurious upholstery and even better, Dimitri. "I wonder how much this thing costs."
"You could just keep borrowing it." Dimitri's field twinkled. Mitka settled his tail more firmly about Danyel's throat.
"I do want another car."
"Not another house?"
"If I'm going to follow you to Moskva, it would be pretty silly." Danyel sighed. His house had been rather awkward to live in, at least before Dimitri'd refurnished half of it.
"But sometimes silly things are important." Dimitri hugged him tight. "I know it meant a lot to you." Then he chuckled. "Oh, your insurance is going to cover the cost of rebuilding it."
"I thought they decided on negligence?" Danyel glanced over at him for a moment while shifting over toward the exit.
"Officer Kerts decided to file her report as misadventure." Dimitri chuckled. "I think she approved of our handling of Mister Volen."
"I think she just wants us out of her sheathes." Danyel slowed as they left the eyeway. The dark night seemed to suck all light out of the air. Frogs and crickets vied for air time.
"Things did quiet down afterward." Dimitri's field grayed. Mitka shivered, his claws caressing Danyel's collarbones. "OK, I stopped being such an ass."
"You were under a lot of stress." The huge old building Danyel remembered appeared out of the gloom. Half a dozen cars were strewn about the dirt lot at the side. He pulled the car around so if they had to leave in a hurry they wouldn't have to back out.
"Paranoid?" Dimitri asked.
"Practical." Danyel winked, not wanting to think about it. There was no way anyone out here would think to look for a Russian Sharm Lord or a Techton channel. Particularly the latter. The sounds of a shiltpron, played wildly on both the nageric and audible levels rocked Danyel back on his heels. Mitka hissed, his head coming out of Danyel's hair in protest. "You'll be fine." Danyel took a deep breath and set himself to tune out the worst of the ambient noise. Through Mitka's protection, he could still zlin the shiltpron.
"You're going to have to drive back." He warned Dimitri.
"Any particular reason?" He let Danyel help him from the car. This time Danyel relented and offered Dimitri his arm.
"Because I'm going to be as drunk as a whisky drinking renSime after half an hour in there." He pointed to the building.
"The music?" Dimitri tipped his head so one ear focused on the building. "I don't understand."
"Whoever's playing that shiltpron has the nageric mode set to its highest volume." Danyel clenched his laterals as deep into their sheathes as he could when he opened the door. The combination of wild ambient, shiltpron, and roasted meat nearly knocked him onto his butt. "Its as if they're playing for deaf people."
"Probably are." Dimitri's hand covered at least one set of his laterals. A waiter blinked at the two of them.
"You do know what this place is." He stared at Danyel's wrists.
Feeling quite selfconcious, Danyel tried to not zlin the nearest gens all staring at him. "I do." He managed to get out, probably not loudly enough. The Gen stared at him some more. He managed a tight nod.
"Don't blame us if you can't cope." He shook his head, then put his thumb to the corner of his jaw and flipped it up. The pre-Unity gesture for selyn blind crazy was nearly as surprising as the way everyone went back to their conversations. "The bathrooms are that way." He pointed, then sat them in a booth right next to them.
"I'll be fine." Danyel slid into the leather seat with a sigh of relief. "Do you have anything to drink?"
"You sure?" The man leaned back.
"I'm gonna be so drunk it isn't even funny, I might as well enjoy it." Danyel winked at him.
"If you say so." He blinked. "The specials tonight are, of course, pork ribs. We can set you up with all you can eat or for half price, a half rack. I think we might even have a few stray vegetables for something like a salad." The server gave another of those dazed looks.
"I'll have ..." Dimitri said. Danyel cut him off.
"All you can eat for my friend, and if you have some cornbread, I'd love it."
"Its made with lard." He warned. Danyel growled to himself.
"Go ahead." Dimitri nodded. "It probably won't make you sick."
"Are you sure?" Danyel'd never even thought to break this taboo.
"Yeah, it doesn't have the proteins in it that will make you sick." He waved his hand at the waiter. "Although it seems I don't have a whole lot of choice here."
"You'll like it." The man chuckled. "Beer for you, too?"
"No," he winked at Danyel. "I'm driving us home. How about some of that sweet, fizzy drink?"
"Where you from?" He leaned on the table for a moment. His field softened, as if trying to attract Dimitri's attention. Dimitri straightened in his seat, as if someone had suck a broom handle up his butt. Not that he reacted exactly that way when Danyel stuffed him. He felt his cheeks burn when Dimitri stared him in the eyes.
"We're together." He took Danyel's hands.
"Different folks." The guy pushed himself off the table. "I'll bring your drinks right up." The sway to his hips was as unmistakable as the look he gave Dimitri over his shoulder.
"Thanks," Dimitri muttered, all his concentration still on Danyel. He was obviously oblivious to the other Gen's flirting.
"You really don't react to other Gens, do you?" Danyel stroked Dimitri's hands. "He could have been my sib."
"Do you really think he's Ferris?" Dimitri actually glanced toward the kitchen door. He'd already vanished. "I didn't get a good look."
Danyel tightened his hold on Dimitri's hands. "I've rarely been so flattered."
"I like Simes." He put his fingers between Danyel's. The shitpron player hit a thundering nageric chord progression, making Danyel's wrists ring. Dimitri slipped his hands up to cover Danyel's wrists. "Although you look stressed."
"More the ambient is thick enough to walk on." Danyel struggled to not zlin as much as possible.
"I can tell." Dimitri winked at him. The waiter returned with their drinks. Dimitri didn't relinquish Danyel's wrists until he reached over to get his beer. It was the real thing. Danyel blinked at it.
"This is good." He took a deep draft, enjoying the complex bitter/sweet mixture of tastes. Porstan, without the hops or carbonation, was never as good. "Now I know where to go for beer."
"Can I try a sip?" Dimitri smiled.
"Sure," Danyel handed it to him. Dimitri blinked at it a bit, then took another, bigger drink.
"They do hop it really well." He handed the glass back.
"I like hops." Danyel savored the combined effects of the wild ambient and the shiltpron. Fortunately, the musician wasn't leaning on anything, just playing loud. He noted more than a few of the Gens, many of them obviously renGens from their sparse fields, nodding in time with the nageric beat, not the audible ones. "Huh, they can feel it?"
"You'd have to be completely senseless to miss that thing." Dimitri pointed to the shiltpron. "And she doesn't even have much of a field to begin with." The curiosity in Mitka's sudden glance at the player nearly choked Danyel. He took another hefty swallow of his beer. That worked.
"Could we play one?" Mitka asked, still staring at the musician. She raised her eyes from her instrument, then went off beat for a fraction of a pulse before recovering neatly into another time signature. Now the music was a bit more lilting, inquiring. Mitka chuckled, licking his lips and drooling selyn down Danyel's shoulder. "She can see me."
"So she can." Danyel leaned back into the supporting embrace of the high backed seat. The room had stopped throbbing around him with the musician's settling into a calmer rhythm. Now it seemed to sway gently, like a hammock on a lazy summer afternoon. "She's good."
"Do you think I could learn?" Dimitri asked, a lazy smile crossing his lips.
"Not in public, at first." Danyel didn't want to think of what kind of havoc Dimitri could create with Mitka helping out by working the times that amplified the music onto the nageric level. It could be beautiful, it could also put any Sime under the table in minutes. "When I recover from my hangover, I'll show you how to play. Do you play any instruments?"
"The flute, a little." He looked up at Danyel through his long, gold lashes. "I used to sing."
"Used to?" Danyel wondered at this.
"The last time I sang was for Chernoye." His smile turned sad. "I was a treble."
"Then let me show you." He took Dimitri's hands in his own.
"Do you think we could make money in places like this?" Dimitri was looking around.
"If I can keep from ending up drunk off my ass." Danyel blinked away some of the fog in his head. It rolled right back in. Mitka crooned in his ear, in time with the music. "Although don't you have enough ways to make money?" He'd meant to ask, don't you have enough to do.
"I'd like to stay out of trouble." Dimitri glanced up toward the kitchen. "And here's food." He stared at his plate when the waiter had set it down in front of him. Danyel could see him swallow. Mitka slithered down onto the table, covering Danyel's wrists like a scaly muff. The scent of cooked meat wasn't really as bad as he thought it would be. The idea of eating it himself made his stomach churn, but he wasn't being asked to do any such thing.
The waiter put down the cornbread at his elbow. "Anything else?" He asked, all his attention focused on Dimitri. He lifted one end of the rack of ribs with a fork.
"Oh, no," Danyel answered for him. The man gave him a dismissing flick of his nager, but wandered off anyway. "Thank you." he finally remembered to add.
"You are getting drunk." Dimitri chuckled. "How do I eat these?" He glanced around the room.
"With your fingers." Danyel winked at him. He broke off a bit of the cornbread, drizzled some of honey over it and nibbled on the corner. It tasted a bit odd, but was otherwise very good. Dimitri touched the ribs then licked a bit of the sauce off.
"Oh, yes," he purred. "Are you sure?" He looked around again.
"Yes," Danyel grinned. "I won't be offended."
"Its not very, well, civilized." Dimitri protested.
"Here, it doesn't matter." Danyel leaned back, not to avoid the smell, which was everywhere, but to keep from sliding under the table. "You're probably going to have to carry me out of here."
Dimitri had his mouth full. His eyes were closed, a grin of pure bliss showing through the dark red bar-b-que sauce. It had all been worth it. Danyel slid into the corner, where he could prop himself up on both sides. Like a few other people, he put his feet up on the bench and enjoyed the music and Dimitri. Well, he hoped they weren't enjoying Dimitri. Dimitri was his Gen. Dimitri gave him a brilliant smile. The light had come back into his field, only to be matched by the light in Mitka's eyes.
Chapter 47
Dimitri knew he should probably move. He really didn't want to. The waiter had refilled his drink twice and he knew he'd never make it home if he kept on like he was doing. Danyel was managing a pretty good visual imitation of someone who was only moderately drunk. His field, however, showed he was as drunk as a boiled owl.
The musician gave him a lazy smile as she packed away her shiltpron. Dimitri grinned at her, hopefully not inviting her over. He wasn't at all sure how Danyel would cope with another nagerically aware Gen in his vicinity. She headed for them, her shiltpron case over one shoulder.
It was too late to flee now. Dimitri slipped off one shoe and slid his toes along Danyel's leg. He straightened suddenly, at about a ten degree tilt to the vertical. "You're leaning." Dimitri muttered under his breath. Danyel glanced down at Mitka. He leaned further, eventually landing back in his slump. "I think its about time we go home." Dimitri was getting a bit dizzy just from the normal contact between them.
"Nosh neshessary." He slurred, waving one hand around. "Oh, yer a pretshy one." He tried to brighten. This worked about as well as his straightening. "Shides. Gonna have to go firsht." Danyel headed for the edge of the table, getting lost in the process.
"And what are you two doing here?" She stared at Danyel, far longer than Dimitri would have liked. "Most Simes can't get past the doors." Her attention turned to the plate with crumbs on it, from Danyel's three pieces of corn bread. He'd just kept eating while Dimitri did. "What are you? Some kind of Zaor specialist."
"Don call me tha'." Danyel blinked up at her. His spine was 'S' shaped. "Gotta go."
"Don't let me keep you." She slid over to block Dimitri's egress.
"I think I'd better at least see him to the door." Dimitri hoped they had split larity restrooms here. It would have been nice, but he'd never seen them here in the West.
"Time to go?" Danyel said this last so loudly everyone could hear in the now quiet establishment. Dimitri didn't like the looks of the musicians setting up. The wrist thick power cables did not zlin promising. "Lets go!" He headed for the door.
"Excuse me." Dimitri shoved his way past the musician. She giggled, following them, of course.
"I think we're not going to require help." Dimitri muttered.
"Oh, I want to be sure you get safely to your car." Her voice had dropped to a dusky purr. She chuckled, rubbing up against Dimitri's elbow.
"Keep an eye on him." Dimitri wished he could trust her for help. Danyel'd slipped between two very large Gens and bounced off the door frame. Dimitri caught him just before his behind hit the floor. "Up we go." He tried to put Danyel on his feet. It didn't work.
"Come on." Dimitri put Danyel's arm over his shoulders and half carried him out the door. A few nearby patrons chuckled at the spectacle, but their fields were soft. They weren't offended, just mildly amused. The musician took Danyel's other arm.
"Not into the car yet." Danyel dug in his heels. "Gotta go first."
"This is what I was a afraid of." Dimitri looked around. He had to go too, but wasn't going to use the wall.
"There's a box out back." The woman headed off toward a patch of shadows. "It isn't much, but the proprietors decided giving you guys a target would keep you from pissing on the walls."
"Excuse me?" Dimitri stared, aghast, at the crude wood barrier. Behind it was a shallow trench lined in coarse gravel. A trickle of slimy water wended its way through moss blackened stones. Danyel sighed. Before he could make a mess of things, Dimitri struggled to get out from under his arm. Their difference in heights made it nearly impossible to do quickly.
"Let me." The woman reached down.
"No you don't." Dimitri managed to get Danyel turned to him. "Don't you dare urinate on me." He growled, fumbling with Danyel's pants for him.
"I won'." He nearly fell over the low barricade. "Oh, tha' feelsh good." Danyel arched his back. Dimitri struggled with not wanting to expose the musician to anything so crude. A stream of urine hit the ground right next to his foot. Dimitri gave up and turned Danyel to the target.
"I'm impressed." The woman glanced down.
"Don't," Dimitri was mortified. He was desperate to use the facilities as well, but did not want to do anything so crude as use this travesty. Danyel reached over and fumbled with Dimitri's pants.
"I'm not built for it." She shrugged. Danyel slipped his hand into Dimitri's loose pants and gripped his penis. "I think he's trying to give you a hint."
"I know he is." Dimitri tried to arch away from Danyel's ill-timed intrusion, but he had too good a grip. The woman chuckled softly.
"It isn't like I haven't seen one before." She shrugged. "I have brothers."
"Its different as an adult." Dimitri put his hand over Danyel's wrist. Mitka's tail was guarding his sheathes. Dimitri couldn't get any leverage to get Danyel to stop. Between the trickling water and other things, his bladder was about to burst. "But you're a Gen." He finally reconciled it with himself. He unbuttoned his pants. Danyel giggled, stroking Dimitri to no effect at all.
"He's not." Dimitri could not relax at all with Danyel's burning hot hand holding him so intimately. "Would you quit." He finally managed to get Danyel to let go. He sagged against the other Gen, finally passing out completely. "I'm sorry about my partner." He finished his own business as quickly as possible.
"He's actually very sweet to bring you here." She met Dimitri's eyes over Danyel's shoulder. The warmth in her gaze was unmistakable. "Is he like a Tegue?"
"He's actually Ferris." Dimitri's overfull stomach cramped as he realized another Gen was holding his Sime. She nearly dropped him. Dimitri caught Danyel before he could hit the ground. "He's different from most of them, from what I gather."
"Very," her eyes were wide. "I didn't mean to intrude, Sosu." Her face had paled, reflecting the new risen moon.
"You didn't." He managed to get both of them put back together. "Thank you for your help."
"Oh, it was my pleasure." She looked Dimitri up and down. This was one gesture he'd never mistake for any other.
"We're partners in all ways."
"Even going out and getting drunk?"
"I didn't drink." He smoothed Danyel's unruly hair back from his forehead. "Good thing, too."
"I play as loudly as I can on the nageric level in there." She glanced back to the building. Dimitri picked Danyel up. He was as limp as an overused dishcloth. He tucked Danyel's head under his chin. "Do you play?"
"Not anymore." He wished this person would go away. "He said he'd be teaching me." He bent over and poured Danyel into the back seat of the car.
"There are some things he can't teach you." She patted him on the behind.
"Don't do that!" Dimitri smacked the back of his head on the door frame. The loud thud must have woken Danyel.
"Gonna join me?" He held up his hands, like Kolya when he wanted to be picked up.
"I'd like to roll around on the back seat of Her car with you." Dimitri tried to remind Danyel of where they were. Danyel rolled over, then looked back over his shoulder.
"Don't do that." Dimitri was painfully aware of the Gen standing right next to him. "Thank you for your assistance."
"Are you sure you won't need help when you get home?" Her hand hadn't moved away, only slid down. Dimitri tensed his muscles, trying to draw away without giving offense. "You do have a cute butt."
"He does." Danyel wasn't helping any. Mitka snickered, although he was about as limp as Danyel. Danyel nibbled on the leading edge of one of Mitka's wings. It was a good thing he'd hit his head, or such intimacy would have Dimitri's forearms so red even Sevrin would have been able to see them. "I wanna go home and roll around in bed."
"You have a wife?" The woman's voice went cold, as if Danyel were a bother.
"More or less." He grinned, putting his hands at the small of the back. The obscene posture overcame Dimitri's headache. He rubbed at his wrists, sliding his bracelets over the sensitized skin.
"I need to get him home." Dimitri slithered away from the musician. Her pout was not at all attractive. Dimitri shut the door of the car before Danyel could get confused.
"Where do you live?" She leaned against the front door.
"With him." Dimitri drew himself up to his full height. "Now, if you'll excuse me." He shoved past her. She pressed her soft, oversized breasts against his arm. Karola had been almost as large, but she was certainly all Sime despite the fact. This young woman was purely Gen. "We have to go."
"You sure did earlier." She snorted. "I had to try."
"Barking up the wrong tree." He slipped into the car.
"I can tell." She winked. "Maybe see you back here sometime? Sounds like you can sing." She shouldn't have said as much. It gave Danyel ideas. He broke into song; a particularly vulgar drinking song, in English. "He's not a normal Sime, is he?"
"No," Dimitri winced at the chorus.
"My laddie's dick hung down to his knees
For my lady she's a beggin him please."
It wasn't even a good song. "Would you hush?" Dimitri wondered if Danyel'd learned the song by rote, for if he hadn't, then he should have known about his own proportions.
"I'm havin fun. Join me!" He slithered into a mostly sitting position.
"You throw up, you get to clean it up." Dimitri might have been trained in medicine, but there were some things he didn't enjoy dealing with. He'd have much rather done three autopsies on badly decayed subjects than clean up after a sick drunk.
"I can hold it." He burped threateningly, then settle back against the seat. "Onward!" He waved a hand in the air.
"My channel calls." Dimitri grinned.
"He's a channel?" Her eyes widened. The gravel covering the parking yard crunched beneath her feet as she backed away. "There are no gay channels."
"If I hear that one more time, I'm going to throttle the person." Dimitri shook his head. "Good night, Miz, and thank you again for your help." He started the car.
"I'm not going to get involved in Techton business." She fled, holding her instrument case close to her body. What was that all about?
"Paranoid, isn't she?" Danyel leaned against the front seat. "I am sooooo drunk." He winked. Mitka was draped over his head, wings spread wide. Dimitri'd never seen him intoxicated before, at least not like this. He slid over Danyel's face, suddenly snoring. "I think he's had too much." Danyel shook his head and Mitka flopped onto the front seat, flat on his back.
"I think you've both had too much." Dimitri found out really quickly to be careful with the accelerator. After a couple of false starts, he got them on the way back home. It wasn't difficult, other than making sure he hadn't gone down some other path he'd accidentally picked up out of Danyel's memories. He'd been down this road a lot.
"Did you enjoy dinner?" He reached over the seat and rearranged Mitka's wings so the right wasn't caught under his body.
"Very much," although Dimitri wasn't entirely sure it had been worth it. "I don't have to eat meat."
"Its good for you." Danyel hiccuped. "Although I don't know how often we can do stuff like that."
"At home there's a separate section to the sharm commons where meat is served." Dimitri yawned. It had been a long day, particularly as it had started a couple of days ago. "That's the first time I've seen any kind of meat on sale at all."
"Its not encouraged in city limits." Danyel pointed to a sign going by. "Go there."
Dimitri didn't ask why. He slipped through traffic. A couple of drivers honked at him. "What's their problem?"
"Don't drive like Iter." Danyel had turned and was looking through the back window. "You came within a couple of feet of both of them."
"I knew I could make it cleanly." He took the exit Danyel'd pointed out. "Its no different from parking between two cars."
"At eighty?!" Danyel blinked.
"Same skills," Dimitri shrugged. "I knew they weren't going to do anything weird."
"You're weird, lover." Danyel grinned. "In a great way!"
"Oh?" Dimitri shook his head. "You're drunk."
"Yeah, makes me almost honest." He pulled out his deck of cards, looked at them, crossed his eyes at them, then put them away. In their place, he grabbed Mitka by the tail, smooshed him into a little ball, like wadding up a kerchief, then stuffed him into his pocket with his cards. Now the snoring came from Danyel's pocket.
"I should be offended." Dimitri hid his giggles. They made him sound like he'd forgotten to put on his veil.
"He likes it." Danyel then pointed to a grove of trees. "Park near there."
"Are you sure the ground will support this car?" Dimitri didn't like the look of the dark loam.
"Don't pull off the road too far."
"Someone might hit it." Dimitri protested.
"You worry too much." Danyel opened the door as soon as Dimitri'd pulled over. His shoes squelched in the thick mud until he tossed them back into the car. "Get out here."
"Are you sure you aren't going to fall over?" Dimitri removed his shoes before he got out of the car and then locked it. The mud was gritty and coarse. He vaguely remembered being told this was true of poor soil, but this near the river, shouldn't it have been better? Frogs warbled their lovesick songs into the dark night. Danyel bounced off into the darkness. Dimitri didn't run after him. He didn't want to land in the muck. Besides, Mitka's whistles of laughter were plenty to follow them by.
Dimitri squelched through the mud. The cool night air only made the mud colder. He hadn't thought Danyel would do something like this. Mitka buzzed out of the darkness. Dimitri caught him up, holding him close for the first time in weeks. "I missed you." He whispered.
"Really?" Mitka stared back, eyes wide. "I thought you liked what I was doing?" The sound of water dripping onto wet earth warned Dimitri to duck. A wet splat on a nearby tree made him glad he'd done so. Dimitri stayed low to the ground, although he wasn't going to crawl. "This is fun." Mitka chortled.
"I'm glad you think so." Dimitri stroked Mitka's empty little head. He nibbled at Dimitri's fingers. "Why didn't you do him when you had the chance?"
"Because I want the time to be right." He slipped Mitka into his pocket. "And yes, I like you being with Danyel, but that doesn't mean I didn't miss you being with me."
"You're always together." Mitka had one eye plastered to the buttonhole.
"Not always." Dimitri ducked another gobbet of mud, mostly. A bit splashed onto the back of his neck. He charged Danyel. Damp leaves rained down on them. Danyel stared up at him, then he opened his mouth. Dimitri couldn't resist. He brushed those wonderfully expressive lips with his own.
"Kiss me, you idiot." Danyel pulled him closer.
"I haven't brushed my teeth." Dimitri felt horribly self conscious.
"I'll live." Danyel insisted, nearly bruising Dimitri's lips against his own teeth. He gave in to Danyel's frantic kisses. "You still taste like Dimitri."
"I probably taste like dinner." He let his hands wander down Danyel's arms. A bit of gritty mud had gotten between his sheathes. Dimitri could only hope he hadn't gotten any into them.
"You're so stuffy." Danyel's tentacles came out, despite the mud all over the place.
"You're going to hurt yourself."
"No, I'm not." Danyel grabbed Dimitri's wrists. "Quit being so overprotective!"
"I'm not." Dimitri wiped as much of the grit off Danyel's tentacles as he could manage.
"You are." Danyel's tentacles clamped down. "I'll be fine."
"You'll get mud in your sheathes."
"Then you'll just have to clean them out." Danyel countered. "Why are you being so fussy?"
"Because I'm worried about things." He admitted, sighing. "I keep thinking I hear someone messing with the car."
"They won't." Danyel told him. "Everyone in the area knows its a Kaon staff car. Even the cops left us alone earlier because of it."
"What about the tail we had earlier?" Dimitri couldn't help but remember the night the bastards had gotten Danyel's car and nearly turned them against each other. "They knew it was a Kaon car."
"Yeah, and they were probably some kids out on a lark." Danyel was still none too steady on his feet, so Dimitri held him up. "Don't worry so."
"I will." He admitted, sighing, "But I'll try not to worry so much." The sound of a car's tires on the road nearby made him struggle not to go running off.
"Lets go back." Danyel's field flattened, despite its meandering.
"No," Dimitri held Danyel to the tree with his own body. "You promised me more kisses." The sound of a door closing made him jump. "Shen!" He bolted.
"You're right." Danyel beat him back to the car. He could move fast when he wanted to. The second car, if there'd been one, was gone. Dimitri backed Danyel from behind. He couldn't do anything but blind him with his own nager from in front. Danyel was nearly as silent as a Sharm Lord, although he was no where near as fluid, having almost a caricature of the Sime jerkiness in his movement.
Mitka flitted out of his pocket, growing all the while. He slithered around the car. Through his eyes, Dimitri could see the selyn tracks of someone who'd been here quite recently, someone who'd been quite high field. They'd tried all four of the door handles to the car. He felt in his pocket for the key.
"They didn't get in." He stepped out and unlocked the door. The smell of blood churned his full stomach. He normally didn't eat before surgeries, particularly not meat. After breathing deeply, he looked down. The woman from the pawn shop stared up at him, or at least her head did. It rolled out of the car and landed on his foot. Her body had fallen into the footwell. She'd been killed in the car.
Dimitri didn't dare say the words he felt. The sound of Danyel's retching came to his ears. He nearly joined Danyel when he felt the hot blood soak his bare feet. Instead he bent down and picked up the head by the hair. Her eyes were wide open, staring at something only she knew of now.
"Eeeeewwwww," Mitka cringed away. Dimitri examined the stump of the neck. Whoever'd killed this woman had done so very quickly, meaning either the implement had been extremely sharp, or else the person doing it very strong. He'd guess the former from the lack of crushing damage to the cartilage of the throat.
"How did they do this?" Dimitri looked at the incredible volume of blood that had poured onto the floor of the car. If he hadn't known better, he'd have said it had been supplemented. "Do you know how the radio in this thing works, Danyel?"
"Yeah," he came back out of the woods. He was green with nausea, but surprisingly sober for all of that. "I have to get in there to call, though." He stared at the corpse, as if it would rise up and try to choke him.
"I don't want to move her body yet." Dimitri reached in and turned on the cabin light. It was yellow, and turned all the blood to black.
"That's better." Danyel bit at his lower lip for a moment. He reached into the car and got the mouthpiece. "Ambulance and homicide team at two miles past 10576 Riverrun road."
"Who the shen is this lorsh?" The night radio operator spat back.
"Hajene Ferris, you shidoni idiot. Get me someone with a dynopter of sense." Danyel's face was ashen beneath his normally sallow skin.
"I'll get you sense."
"Don't you dare cut off." Danyel growled. "Get Sectuib out of bed if you have to."
"Don't think I won't."
"Its her car." Dimitri added.
"Oh, great, now we have grand theft auto to add to the list." The fool replied. It had to have been a Sime.
"Neither of us murdered the woman." Dimitri took a deep breath. "Get Officer Kerts on the line."
"She's not going to be happy to see either of us again." Danyel muttered, too softly for the pickup, Dimitri hoped.
"She'll get over it." Dimitri didn't even dare touch the car. "Get her here." He wondered if he'd see anything more under the artificial lights. "Can they bring lights? I don't want to wait until morning to check for tracks. They might well be gone in the mud now."
Danyel passed this on.
"What in shen are you doing out there in the middle of the night, Sosu Sergei?" Officer Kerts' familiar, if not particularly liked, voice came on the line.
"Murder victim, age forty-seven, name of Juju Isason, last seen, by me at least, going to Kaon to discuss a private matter with the Sectuib's husband." Dimitri felt his palms sweat. It joined the sweat at his hairline. "Found in Sectuib Kaon's car, most likely murdered in it."
"Why did you leave it unlocked?"
"I didn't."
Danyel knew he wasn't sober, even though he sure felt it. The hangover hadn't started yet. He couldn't be sober. Under the harsh lights, with the thrumming of the generators grinding on his nerves, the crime scene didn't look quite so bad. Or at least he was distracted enough to manage to forget about throwing up.
He'd managed not to so far, and was staying up wind to keep it that way. He'd come awfully close, but had managed to keep his dinner where it belonged. Danyel rubbed at his temples, the rough grit still on his hands a decent counter-irritant to the unease in the pit of his belly.
When Dimitri'd opened the door to the car, all he'd seen was what looked like enough blood for three people come pouring out. Although Danyel'd never seen how much blood really came out of a badly mutilated body. In his world, people died neatly of things like the kill, or small caliber bullet wounds, not decapitation.
Then the head had come out. The hollow sounding thump it had made when it hit the dirt was what had sent Danyel for the bushes. He'd gagged a bit, but had managed to recover. Dimitri held up the head, by the hair. He was examining it from all directions. Danyel hadn't needed to see that. He sat near one of the generators and let the noise of the thing blank out the background chaos.
"Time of death, between nine forty-two and ten oh-eight." Dimitri put the head on a gurney set next to him for the purpose.
"How do you know?"
"Pretend I asked Hajene Ferris." Dimitri's field was so sharp any Sime who could zlin it could cut themselves on it. He bent down and leaned into the car. "I've measured everything I can in here. Will someone give me a hand with her feet?"
"Ain't no one who'd come out with me who'd touch a hunk of dead meat." Officer Kerts glared at Dimitri's back.
"Then you do it." Dimitri's field tightened even more. "I can't do all of this by myself."
"Coulda fooled me like a ren."
"Being ren doesn't mean you're stupid." Dimitri straightened back up. He towered over everyone who'd come out here tonight, standing nearly a foot taller than half of them. Everyone stopped and stared at him. "Yeah, I mean that. Selyn capacity has nothing to do with brain capacity."
"Never thought I'd hear that from the likes of you." She put her hands on her hips. Danyel pried his butt off the generator.
"What do you require?" He knew he zlinned like shen. Normally he was pathologically flexible, however finding corpses in locked cars bothered him. Danyel wasn't exactly sure why, but guessed it had something to do with the ability to trust locks. Which while sober made no sense to him at all. Something was bothering him bout this whole situation.
"I want you to open the far door and lift her legs back up onto the seat." Dimitri's eyes were black under the lights, or perhaps it was the stress.
"I can do that." Danyel tried to open the door. He glanced at Dimitri. He threw Danyel the key. Danyel unlocked the door. "Why didn't the automatic locks work when you unlocked the driver's side door?"
"Oh, shen, I don't know!" Dimitri shook his head. "What else have I missed?"
"Let me zlin." Danyel came around the car. Juju's blood couldn't dry for all the mud in the area, but at least it had cooled. He closed his eyes for a moment before looking. The woman's body had obviously been lying on the seat at one time, from the way she fell. "Why did she fall off the seat?"
Dimitri raised an eyebrow at him. "Good question." He ran his fingers over the seat. A foot long slit appeared in the leather, right where her neck would have been if she'd been lying on it. "Because bodies move after you cut off the head."
"So someone locked her into the car, cut off her head, opened the door, got out, closed the door, locked them, somehow damaging the lock system, then escaped." Danyel tried to recreate the scene in his mind.
"No, not quite." Dimitri pointed at the door. There was blood splattered up to the windows, invisible in the darkness of the night, but now painfully obvious on the glass. "They locked her into the car, cut off her head, then vanished."
"Vanished!" Officer Kerts croaked. "I don't believe in ghosts, goblins or Giant Killer Gens, Sosu Sergei. Find a real criminal for me, not a Pen Gen's tale."
"Then you tell me how someone could cut off someone else's head in this tight a space." He put his hand between the wheel and the back of the seat. "You have to have room to swing a sword, and a knife won't cut like this."
"Why not?"
"Because it will leave a jagged edge." Dimitri pointed to the woman's neck. Danyel winced. He could see her throat, the spine, the spinal cord, everything. Human bodies were not supposed to be cut open like this. Death by misadventure was supposed to be neat and clean. "This was done in one stroke, from front to back."
"How do you know?" Kerts asked. Danyel went back around the car. He didn't want to see this.
"Because the bone, which couldn't be cut as neatly as the soft tissue, was cut into the spinal column from the front." Dimitri was probably pointing. Danyel didn't want to see it. He'd take Dimitri's word for it. "Although there's relatively little blood on the seat as well, and almost none in the cut through the surface of it. Something made a wet sucking sound. Danyel really didn't want to look.
"So she bleed to death on the floor."
"No, she died because her head was cut off." Dimitri sighed. "Lets get her out of here."
"Good idea." Danyel sucked his tentacles as far in as they'd go. He really didn't like touching dead bodies. And this one still had traces of selyn in it. He probably should have taken what had been left in her corpse. Then he thought of the missing fifth contact point. It was too much. He turned away and threw up on the pavement.
"Get a couple of Gens over here!" Dimitri shouted. He was around the car before Danyel could wave him away. "I'm sorry." He put his arm over Danyel's shoulders. Danyel wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Get me some water!"
"I'll be fine." Danyel struggled with his stomach muscles trying to clench again.
"We have to get back to town." Dimitri led him away from the car.
"No we don't." Danyel dug in his heels. "Give me a moment." He took a deep breath. Someone handed him a bottle of water. He sluiced out his mouth and spit the foul tasting stuff on the ground. Finally he managed a few sips. "I don't want her death to go to waste."
"It won't." Dimitri looked back over his shoulder. When Danyel tried, Dimitri blocked his view. He could hear a heavy thump as someone dropped the body, probably the chest.
"This isn't getting the job done." Danyel sat his butt back down on the generator. "Go finish up." He poured half of the water over his face. His clothes were a lost cause at this point anyway.
"Alright." He hurried off, his bare, muddy feet oddly in congruous in this situation. Although Danyel'd seen all of the Russians going barefoot for their morning runs and certain heavy work, like when no one could stop Nashen from helping out in the warehouses. He just took off his shoes and pitched in, even though his Simelan was poor at best. Somehow he knew exactly how to get everything where it should go. Although Danyel had also noted he was illiterate, which was not something he'd ever mention to anyone.
Dimitri grabbed a clipboard from under a renSime's arm, then stole his cigarette as well. The brightly glowing cherry gave Dimitri's face even harsher shadows than the bright lights. Mitka also gleamed in the lights, event though none of them truly reflected off his hide. Right now, Danyel was glad he was back with Dimitri.
"Get in there and get her feet, Officer Kerts." Dimitri took a deep drag off his cigarette. Danyel wished he dared light one while siting on an electrical generator. So he slipped off his seat and hid behind the light. Here in the darkness, he felt more isolated from the events going on in front of him, as if they'd happened to someone else. Dimitri winked as Danyel lit a smoke.
His nerves steadied with the nicotine hitting his bloodstream. Distanced by the drug and the lights, he watched his lover deal with the situation. Danyel was not at all used to being shunted to the side. He was used to being the center of attention and earning his selyn.
Around Dimitri, he often felt himself lost and excess to anyone's need. The end of the cigarette glowed brightly in the damp air. Here he was upwind and couldn't smell anything. Although another renSime dashed out into the woods and he could hear her being noisily sick.
At least he had an excuse, more or less. His scalp was still tight. He took another deep drag off his cigarette. Danyel'd seen and dealt with a number of ugly situations. Why had this one gotten to him? Dimitri took his cigarette out of his mouth, with a hand covered completely in blood to the point where it was black. It didn't seem to bother him at all.
Although he'd seen Mitka burrow deeper into Dimitri's pocket, as if he didn't want to see what Dimitri was doing. There had been some signs of unease, but even so, he was amazed at how tough Dimitri was. Sure, Dimitri was an adult, anyone past establishment or change over was an adult. But few of them acted like it until their early twenties now. particularly as there was more to being an adult now than dealing with crops, raiders and babies.
Dimitri, with his massive build, bold gestures and self confidence would never have been mistaken for a pen Gen. Not that he would have been mistaken for any Sime, either. Actually, watching him take charge so very easily, Danyel imagined many of the famous Gens in history must have looked like him. Maybe not physically, for there Dimitri looked very much like his genetic family, but the stance of power and presence was unmistakable. Had Sergi ambrav Kaon looked like that, so self assured, so driven to do what he felt was right.
Did Sergi ambrav Kaon boss Risa around the way Dimitri did him? Now there was an interesting question. If Risa'd been anything like her descendant Vanesa, Danyel guessed Sergi didn't have an easy time of it. Probably a lot harder time than Dimitri had with him, he had to admit. Danyel couldn't stay frustrated or angry at Dimitri for very long.
Mitka zlinned to that. Danyel missed Mitka's sorta physical presence on Danyel's shoulder. He put his hand on his shoulder anyway, feeling lonely as he'd rarely felt in years. He'd lived alone, slept alone, ate alone and just about had transfer alone, or so it felt now. Dimitri and Mitka together had dragged Danyel's tentacles out of their sheathes and not let go. He wasn't complaining, but he was also still a bit stunned at the differences they'd brought into his life.
"We're going to have to get this car towed and ourselves back home, Officer Kerts!" Dimitri's voice rang over the hum of the generator. He was so angry he actually clipped his words with the accent so many other Russians showed in Simelan. Danyel was stunned. He headed for the pool of light and Dimitri. He waved Danyel back into the shadows. "Hajene Ferris has been traumatized by your bungling of this situation. If you don't compensate us in a reasonable fashion, you'll have no one to do your autopsy in Miz Isason."
"I'd shen the both of you if I could." Kerts' face was a skull mask in the brilliant lights. "But as you're Gen and he's Ferris, I don't stand a chance. "I'll call for a tow truck and you can ride back in it."
"I want better for Danyel."
"You ain't gettin it."
"I insist." Dimitri loomed over her.
"You don't intimidate me."
"That should." Dimitri pointed toward the gurney, now covered with a blanket.
"Let me guess, you think this is all part of some great big conspiracy?" She cocked one hip.
"Not think, know." Dimitri didn't look away, but rather bore down on her until she had to lean back to look up at him. "There have been multiple attempts on my and Danyel's life in the last month. You have not done anything to prevent further crimes in your jurisdiction, as I would guess murder is your jurisdiction."
"Is that why you didn't tell me Volen was killed?" Her voice was low, but Danyel was zlinning and nearly right behind her.
"Yes," Dimitri said, his hand spread. "That and he wasn't killed by a Sime." His voice was even lower.
"You killed him." Kerts' back knotted.
"He died of heart failure. His heart gave out under stress." Dimitri's gaze never wavered. Neither did his field.
"Everyone dies of heart failure, in one way or another, even Juju the heroin addict."
"She was trying to go clean."
"She's clean now." Kerts glanced away first. "And what are you doing back here, Hajene Ferris?"
"Looking after my interests."
"After you puked up your guts like some kind of rookie?"
"I was the deener at the autopsy of Mister Volen." He stared her in the eyes. "Tell me who's the rookie."
"Why'd you puke then, punk?" Her lower jaw jutted out. Danyel nearly laughed in her face. He recognized her tricks. All Simes, to one extent or another, would put on a show for a Gen they wanted. Thing was he wasn't going to let Officer Kerts at Dimitri's wrists.
"Probably from the lard in dinner." He met her eyes. She looked away from him with a shudder.
"Probably," her field flattened in total supplication. "How could you?"
"We ate at The Roadhouse." He shrugged. She turned green, looking up at Dimitri and shrinking away from him, as if he had Shaking Plague.
"Why don't you ride back with Officer Garin?" She pointed to a young man who was leaning against a tree, matching its green leaves.
"Good idea," Dimitri went to pat her on the back. She ducked, squelching through the mud. "We'll expect our shoes later."
"Don't worry about it." If she'd had a tail, it would have been between her legs. Danyel heard her muttering, "A Ferris channel, in The Roadhouse? How had he even managed past the front door?"
"It might have been." Dimitri's eyes twinkled.
"Nah, I just lost it." Danyel winked at him. "Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it." He looked down at his hands. "Although I want to wash off."
"Why didn't you use gloves?" Danyel's stomach had settled completely.
"Because I don't think to." He poured some water over his hands and proclaimed himself done.
"Under the nails." Danyel pointed.
"Alright," he scrubbed and scrubbed until his hands were pink with rubbing. "Is that better, my fine Sime?"
"Perfect." Danyel offered Dimitri his arm.
"Thank you." He leaned slightly. "I don't like it either, to tell you the truth." The approached the young Officer Garin. He swayed onto his feet. "You've been given the dubious assignment of taking us home."
Garin's brows drew down. Danyel was very glad he'd had Dimitri scrub. Then he glanced down. Their feet were caked with mud, and other things. "That sounds fine by me." His voice was breathy. He lurched in the direction of the car. Danyel grabbed some more water and tugged Dimitri to a halt. On the pavement, he rinsed off their feet. The mud had kept the blood from really getting much of a hold on them.
They slipped into the back seat of the patrol car. It resembled Vanesa's big beast a great deal. She'd probably gotten it from the same supplier.
"Problem is, we don't have one."
"Then where're you stayin?" Garin flipped the car around, showing off from his wink at Dimitri. Oh, all Simes seemed to want to show off for him. Danyel put his hand over Dimitri's. They passed back through the pool of light amid all the darkness and headed back to the eyeway.
"Any suggestions?" He added to Dimitri alone, in Russian, "I don't trust Larin not to have told Lorn about our staying in the center.
"Eighty-sixth and Dee." Dimitri said, before Danyel realized it. When he did, he nearly choked.
"That's Juju's place!"
"Was," Dimitri leaned against the back of the seat. "You are stressed." He tugged Danyel into his lap. Danyel didn't protest. He collapsed into Dimitri's arms, as he'd never done with any other Gen. Danyel'd always kept a certain distance with them, and had with Dimitri too, he now realized. Would they every stop coming to layers of isolation or would they someday truly be open with each other?
Danyel didn't know the answer to this question. "Will we ever know each other, Dimitri?"
"I can't see the future for myself, Danyel." His soft voice carried no farther than Danyel's ears. "I'd like to think so."
"Then we'll work on it?"
"With all my heart."
"With all our hearts." Danyel coaxed Mitka out of Dimitri's pocket.
Chapter 48
Dimitri hid the door from the police officer still sitting by the curb. Mitka slid down his arm and clicked the tumblers into place with his tongue.
"Cheap lock." He muttered, then shook saliva from his jaws. "Filthy, too."
Dimitri chuckled softly. Danyel waved to Officer Garin. The car pulled away from the curb. Dimitri opened the door and they stepped inside. He tried to wave up the lights, wanting to see where he was going before he tripped over anything. Of course it didn't work. Dimitri'd never before lived anywhere without the automatic lights he was used to, at least not by choice. The cell Salkov'd bound him in hadn't had them, and so he'd never liked living without them for any reason since.
Danyel fumbled around on the wall and found the light switch. The tube lights buzzed angrily in Dimitri's ears. Mitka protested and returned to Danyel's shoulder, hiding again in his hair.
The store was mostly as Dimitri remembered it, the changes that had been made easily explainable by the regular buying and selling of any used goods dealer. His footsteps echoed despite the well stocked shelves. He looked into the glass cases, and noticed something very odd.
"Come here a moment." He waved Danyel over.
"I just saw another cop car cruise past." Danyel murmured under his breath.
"We'll go in back in a moment." Dimitri pointed. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes," Danyel slipped around behind the counter. He pulled a lockpick out of his wallet. In moments he slid the door back and pulled it out. A filigreed Southern style bracelet rang on the counter.
"Platinum," Dimitri picked the thing up. It was heavier than it had looked, then he noticed the black sapphires set into the open spaces in the metal work. "This is not a trivial piece."
"Who left it here?" Danyel opened a box and flipped through some papers. "There's nothing here."
"She'd destroyed the paperwork on mine." Dimitri folded his fingers around the thing. "Its my size, or close enough to it."
"Cadek?" Danyel asked.
"I don't think so." He looked through it to the light. The gems glowed a deep midnight blue with the occasional flaw to make them sparkle even more. "This was probably not Russian made."
"Oh?" Danyel's lips pursed. "Who else wears them?"
"We do, the Southerners, all through North Africa, the Mystics to our south and east, the Silk Weavers and even some of the Island Folk."
"Are we the only people who don't?" Danyel's field shifted restlessly, glowing with an artificial warmth, as if he were ashamed of something.
"No," Dimitri shook his head. "Only those who had ties with Islam, the dedicated non-killers of the peoples of what used to be called India, or the extreme pacifists of some Eastern peoples. Even so, there are still huge swaths of open land where no one survived and raiders, both Sime and Gen, wage their wars." Dimitri fought back the memories of his ancestors. They remembered, far too well, the great battles fought for dominance over the city of Moskva. "If we hadn't learned of our spiritual kin to the south, early in our history, we'd have never grown to power."
"You'll have to tell me the whole story, sometime." Danyel grinned at him. "So, any guesses?"
"The stones come from the east. The metal had probably been melted down from other things." Dimitri turned it over again in his hands. "There's some script inside it, but I can't read it, which means its not from Russia or the South, originally." He shrugged. "Although where it came from last is anyone's guess. Its old, I know that much."
"How old?" Danyel stared at him.
"Centuries, at least." Dimitri shrugged. "I'd guess at least four or five."
"It can't be that old!"
"If it had been in a case for half or more of that time?" Dimitri looked at him. "My father's sword is nearly eight-hundred years old."
"That's impossible."
"No, its quite possible." Dimitri grinned. "We know exactly who wielded it and when. Oh, many of the stones have had to be reset over the years, and the hilt has been redone repeatedly, but the blade is the same one Lord Gartiry Fatima wielded in the fourth century after founding and he'd inherited it through the Fatima line, which was the second Demense, founded shortly after Kirov."
"Didn't the metal wear down with repeated sharpening?"
"It wasn't used against armored people." Dimitri thought again of the way Juju's head had been cut off. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it was that sword, or one just like it, which had been used to murder Juju."
"You said there hadn't been enough room to use a sword in the car. But if someone could teleport into the car, why couldn't they have teleported her body into the car?" He smacked himself on the forehead. "The cut on the seat. What can be done with magic?"
Dimitri chuckled, holding the bracelet so it soaked up the heat of his hand. The stones warmed to his touch. He looked down. They'd turned a brilliant blood red. "Oh, my, God," he breathed, staring at them.
"They changed color?" Danyel leaned back.
"Yeah," Dimitri licked his lips. "I'd never thought to see another of these, much less a whole bracelet. I thought the last heartstones had died centuries ago."
"Heartstones?"
"Yes, they can only live for a few weeks between wearers." He breathed on them. They glowed gold and amber in response to his life. "They were made by Kirov before the collapse of Mir, the first Mir." Dimitri pressed the bracelet against his chest, warming all the stones. "When they turn completely black, they die and shatter into dust."
"So those had been fairly near death." Danyel pointed with a grubby tentacle.
"Heartstones, the first ones, had been created for my ultimate ancestress in the line of Sergei, Lord Gartiry's lover, Sharm Lord Dimitria." Dimitri set the bracelet back on the counter. This time the ringing of the metal and stones seemed to chime with an unearthly significance.
"Is that why you were named Dimitri?"
"Maybe," he'd never thought of it like that. "Its beautiful."
"Maybe it was meant to be a gift to you." Danyel's idea had merit.
"How would whoever know we would come in here after we found Juju dead?"
"How did whoever get her into that car?"
"Yes, well," Dimitri had far more questions than answers. Footsteps came from overhead. He and Danyel passed each other with a rush of displaced air. Danyel hit the light switch. Dimitri hit the floor. Then he reached up and grabbed the faintly glowing bracelet and hid it beneath his shirt. It warmed until it felt like a Sime's touch. He wanted that bracelet on his wrist as he'd never wanted any bauble.
Footsteps came down a set of creaking stairs. Dimitri hived his vision to primarily nageric. The footsteps broke off in midstride, after the shift to go down the next riser! "What in shen is going on here!" He stood up and wrenched the back door open. "I don't believe in fucking ghosts!"
"I'm not a ghost." Cadek's voice came from behind him. Danyel slipped around behind the counter. Dimitri saw him slip a gun out of the rack.
"Did you leave the bracelet?"
"Yes," he nodded. "It had been mine."
"Why did you leave it here?"
"Because I knew you'd follow the lead on Juju's death." He was wearing neither veil nor kador. In the simple tunic and trousers he looked incredibly vulnerable.
Dimitri'd had too many shocks in the last twenty-four hours. He sagged against the counter.
Ka-chunk. "Stay put." Danyel held a long arm against his hip. The barrel looked big enough to swallow a horse. "Put your hands behind your back."
"I'm not here to murder anyone."
"This time." Danyel's face was in shadow and he looked like one of Maryam's demons.
"On my honor, I've never killed."
"Only murdered."
"No," he said simply, putting his hands behind his back. "I've never taken a human life."
"I know you've ordered killings." Dimitri trembled inside, where he knew Cadek could see it, but hopefully he wouldn't say anything.
"I have." He tipped his chin up. Without his protective clothes, he very young. Dimitri could see the fine cloth of his shirt tremble, as if caught in a breeze. "If you're going to do it, do it now."
"Who's ordering the murders?" Dimitri held up his hand to hold Danyel back. Mitka's wings were raised, forming a black halo behind Danyel's head.
"I don't know." Cadek said so simply Dimitri was tempted to believe him. "Its one of the Fellowship."
"I've been part of it." Dimitri hands slipped on the glass counter. His knees threatened to give way. "No one can hide anything from within the Fellowship."
"Only while they're part of it." Cadek's pupil's dilated for an instant. He collapsed with a crash.
"Put it down." Dimitri panted.
"If you say so." Danyel stayed back. "I can't get close to him."
"Shen and shidoni." Dimitri swore. With his last bit of energy, he knelt at his Uncle's side. His breathing was regular, if fast, but his heart and selyn were racing.
"You're going to have to strip some of the selyn from him." Dimitri put his hand over Cadek's heart. "He's in underdraw."
"I thought that was a myth." Danyel snorted, his field showing no scorn, just a resigned amusement. "I'm not doing so well myself."
"He won't strike out at you." Dimitri held out his hand for his partner. "Although I'm going to have to be very careful."
"How far over is he?" Danyel straddled Cadek's hips, as if he were merely a renSime. Dimitri winced at the posture. "Oh, I have no intentions on letting him into my pants."
"He's probably a lot sweeter than I am." Dimitri brushed the edges of Cadek's engorged nager. "He's burning up."
"I can feel it." Danyel took his hands, without his tentacles. "Is there anything I should know?"
"He's probably going to try to latch onto you, or at least his field is. Just draw him down as you would a Donor who'd gotten overfield."
"I've never zlinned an overfield Donor."
"Then do it like you did Tami." Dimitri was not thinking straight at the moment.
"So hard?" Danyel laced his tentacles around Cadek's wrists. "He's been beaten."
"What?" Dimitri ran his fingertips over Cadek's wrists. There were bone deep bruises on both of them, with numerous cracks in all the tiny bones. They hadn't been crushed, but someone had wanted him incapable of ever giving transfer again. "No Russian could strip him like this."
"Oh, its not too bad."
"It would be for one of us." Dimitri caught Danyel's eye. "Someone meant him to die on us."
Danyel stripped as much selyn from Dimitri's Uncle's body as he could manage without harming either of them. Cadek's field had writhed in his grasp, fighting him with every pulse. He could feel the resistance of the pinched nerves all the way up Cadek's arms.
"He was tortured." Danyel ran his tentacles up Cadek's arms, tracing the nerve damage. "I don't think we were supposed to find this until I tried to strip him."
"Then he was a stalking goat." Dimitri drew a deep breath. He clenched his jaw. "Lets get out of here before the cops come back."
"Good idea." Danyel hefted Cadek over his shoulder. He didn't have the strength, even with augmentation, to carry him in his arms. Hopefully this wouldn't damage him more.
"Hold your position in the front of your mind and relax your barriers." Dimitri said.
"That makes no sense." Danyel blinked as Dimitri turned off the lights. Cadek was still high enough field to zlin by.
"I can't show you unless you drop those barriers." He put his hand on Danyel's shoulder. "You're orientation is finer than mine."
"He'll be disoriented?"
"Probably," Dimitri shrugged. "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
"Neither would I." Dimitri struggled to relax.
"You're almost there." Dimitri breathed in his ear. "Think about talking with Mitka."
"That's a lot more help." Danyel glanced at the dragon, now grooming between his toes on the glass counter. Mitka looked up, one foreclaw in his mouth.
"Like that," Dimitri breathed. There was a sense of warmth to the air, swirling around all three of them. Danyel's eyes widened. "Go with it." He purred, hand caressing Danyel's shoulder. All the living things in the room seemed to sparkle with a glowing heat. The bracelet in Dimitri's shirt, however, nearly burned to this new sight. Danyel had to work to not pull away from its brilliance.
"This is very strange." Danyel headed for the stairs, thinking about where he was in the universe and watching it slip beneath his feet. "Can anyone do this?"
"Most Sharm Lords, at least those who have psychospatial orientation, and all Simes, even renSimes." Dimitri pushed him to one side and Danyel realized he'd been about to run into a set of shelves. "You'll probably have a hard time zlinning really new things like this."
"Those shelves are new?" Danyel tried to blink away his now tripled vision. Cadek gasped, stiffening in Danyel's hold. He relented and went back to being confused.
"Very," Dimitri chuckled softly. His hand was ice cold on Danyel's shoulder. "The stairs are so old they'll probably be perceivable for another century." He murmured, guiding Danyel with field and words together. One of the stairs glowed a dull, sullen red.
"What's that?" He pointed.
"Someone had been murdered there." Dimitri told him, as if it were nothing.
"Murdered?" Danyel blinked, head spinning with the excess of information.
"A wire across the stairs, a bullet, even a kill, perhaps." Dimitri gave him a gentle squeeze. "It was a long time ago."
"Can you see it?"
"No," he chuckled softly. Tiny motes of light shivered in the air around them. "I can't see the past like that. I'm not sensitive enough."
"And I am?" Danyel found the landing by stumbling over it. With Cadek's selyn, he didn't have to worry about profligate augmentation. With each step, he felt better than he'd done since the last time he'd been 'given' hundreds of dynopters from a young Gen who'd actually been a Donor and was hiding from the Techton. She'd eventually moved on, as her job often enough required her to move from place to place. If he knew then, what he knew now, Danyel would have made a play for her into his bed, not just hard strips.
"Different people have different talents." He pulled out the bracelet. It was nearly blinding. Danyel had to turn his attention away from it. "Ahhhh," Dimitri breathed, putting it back into his shirt. "Later." He opened a door. The leather hinges were poorly done. The door scraped along the floor.
The tiny room smelled of stale sweat, heroin, blood, old tobacco smoke and urine. The floor was dead black, as if it didn't really exist. Danyel's bare feet tried to arch away from it.
"I can zlin it." Dimitri muttered. He opened another door. "Its better in here." Danyel followed him as quickly as he could, still juggling all the things that went on in his mind. The smell of stale tobacco smoke and sweat were still very strong, but the floor wasn't the matt black pit beneath his feet. An open window faced a wall six inches away, but it let in a cool breeze to carry away the worst of the funk. "Over here." Dimitri led him on by voice.
Danyel cracked his shins on a low box bed and nearly dropped Cadek. Dimitri tugged him off Danyel's shoulder and put him down on the bed.
"Before you go back to holding your shields." Dimitri got the bracelet out again. Danyel looked at Cadek. His heavy frame was outlined in amber and gold, all but his arms, wrists and hands. They shaded to blood red at his fingertips.
"Is he going to recover?" Danyel brushed his fingertips over Cadek's. Mitka nipped him hard enough to make him yank his hand away.
"Yes," Dimitri put a thin cover over his Uncle. "He'll heal now that he can produce selyn freely again. You didn't have to help him."
"He was hurt to try to get us." Danyel sat on the edge of the bed, next to Dimitri. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep in the same bed with both of you." He rubbed at the ear Mitka'd bitten.
"I'll sleep in the middle." Dimitri's fingers contained the glowing bracelet. "What does this zlin like to you?"
"It zlins like molten gold and liquid fire." Danyel held out his hand. Dimitri placed the bracelet in it. The stones felt slightly warm to even his touch. "They're warm."
"Yes, they're alive, like we are." Dimitri's thumb brushed the curve of metal. "Its why there are so few left."
"Because they died?" Danyel's tentacles twined around the metal and gems. The gems seemed to pulse beneath his tentacles, like Dimitri's selyn did.
"Yes," Dimitri nodded, releasing the bracelet completely.
"Hold out your hand." Danyel knelt on the floor, between Dimitri's knees.
"You can't." He leaned forward, holding out both of his hands.
"It came to you." Danyel felt very strange. He'd never really been one to believe in magic, even when he'd had Sevrin rubbing his nose in the stuff for years now. "This has nothing to do with the murders. It brought Cadek out of Russia as a conveyance."
"And to save his life?"
"Yes," Danyel winced. He sounded like a total idiot. Light spilled through his fingers, as sunlight poured through a partly cloudy sky. "It saw him attacked. It can't know individuals clearly, except those who are Sergei, but it was on his arm when he was crippled."
"Don't ever think you have no gifts." Dimitri bowed his head for a moment. "You're so beautiful, Danyel."
"Because I can talk with rocks?" He blinked.
"Because you can hear." A tear appeared in Dimitri's eye. "I'm crying after turnover."
"I'm flattered." Danyel looked at the two bracelets on Dimitri's arms. "What's the difference?"
"The right is for this month, the left is for life." Dimitri's lips trembled. He began to pull his left hand back.
Danyel grabbed it.
"There's no going back." Dimitri spread his fingers slightly.
"Ever?" Danyel felt himself tremble inside. "What if we find someone else?"
"Then we are free to go, but there will always be at least a shared obligation of friendship." Dimitri took a deep breath. "As you would have a life long obligation to Kaon if you swore to Kaon."
"Ahhhh," Danyel pressed the bracelet against Dimitri's fingers. They folded into the ring of metal.
"Who gave you this one?" He pointed to the firestone, glowing nearly as brightly as the heartstones.
"Vayer," Dimitri said. "We were already bound for life, but the gesture is beautiful nonetheless."
"True," Danyel worried about scraping Dimitri's knuckles.
"Do it, if you so choose." Dimitri braced himself.
"I'll hurt you." Danyel winced away.
"Then it will be truly set." Dimitri caught his eyes.
"Yes," he smiled, scraping the bracelet over Dimitri's thumb. "That's not coming off again. At least not easily." He grimaced at the blood coming up in the scrape on Dimitri's knuckle.
"It'll heal." He licked at it. Danyel tried not to shudder. "Oh, remember, I'm not going to give myself an infection."
"Its still pretty icky."
"Better than leaving it to bleed all over the place." He showed Danyel his hand. The little sore had already formed the thinnest layer of delicate new skin. "I hate little cuts like this. They're messy."
Danyel bent over and kissed it as well, trying and failing to show Dimitri anything like need. He had more selyn in his public field than he knew what to do with.
"You know you're pretty darn wealthy now." Dimitri gave him one of those crooked grins.
"I am?" He blinked. "I don't have any more cash in my pocket."
"We'll go down and cash in some of that extra selyn you're hauling around tomorrow." Dimitri's grin turned wicked.
"I didn't think you could sell selyn."
"Cadek told me a few more things than I think his master wanted him to." Dimitri's tone grew grim. The brilliant lights surrounding everything faded to what Danyel knew as normal duoconciousness. "Feel better now?"
"Much," although there seemed to be an empty place as well. Even the black floor'd had its own sort of negative beauty. "I don't think I could live like that."
"Probably not," Dimitri pulled Danyel up into his lap. "Cadek not only showed me where the local selyn market was located, but the member of the Fellowship Tzakiran sent over here before his death and the mosque."
"The what?" This last word sounded utterly alien to Danyel's ears.
"Where the faithful meet. Those who deal regularly with people like you. The Southerners." Dimitri's last words made his blood run ice cold in his veins.
Chapter 49
"Danyel, don't worry." Cadek murmured in Danyel's ear. They'd both had to raid Sevrin's closet for kadors. Neither was white, but then Dimitri wasn't so sure he wanted to be recognized as Sergei. Mitka was still glaring at him from Danyel's hair.
"You're a big dragon now, Mitka. You can cope." Dimitri'd let Danyel clip his veil over his face. He'd never gone veiled in his life, even though he'd actually looked forward to the few years most young people went through veiled, even if they ascended themselves at establishment. Mitka'd thrown such a fit Dimitri'd gone straight into a Sharm Lord's kador.
The heavy metal threaded material weighed him down in a way he couldn't have imagined. He blinked back at the scowling Mitka. "He's just trying to remind you he's still there." Dimitri murmured in Danyel's other ear.
"Everyone is looking at us." Danyel muttered back. "But no one is zlinning."
"You fit in, in your features, but very few have two Gens at their beck and call." Cadek seemed to actually be enjoying this.
"I'd thought you couldn't live without the Fellowship?" Dimitri turned it into a question by tone. Arabic was a good language for that.
"I can't understand what anyone else is saying, don't make it worse." Danyel's shoulders straightened.
"Sorry," he rolled his eyes. Cadek winked at him from behind his own veil.
"I'd thought as much too." Looking into Cadek's veiled face was so much like looking into the mirror this morning. "When I established, I took for granted what everyone'd told me all my life. That since I was so much stronger than Diomid, I'd collapse under the weight of my memories, without assistance."
"I couldn't get by without Mitka." Dimitri admitted. He nudged Danyel with his field, pointing him at a chemist tucked between a grocer and a clothier. Dimitri nearly tripped on his own hem as he ogled a plain, but beautifully crafted kador in a rich, dark gray.
"And the Fellowship taught me how to balance within my own mind." He said, then raised an eyebrow. "What are we waiting for?" He used an obscure, long dead, circumpolar language. Probably one of the original ones the tribes had brought down from the north.
Dimitri answered him in the same language. "I have no idea." He reached up inside his veil and scratched at his already sweaty face. A Sime hissed at him to behave himself. "What are we waiting for?" He asked Danyel in High Simelan.
"The door's locked."
"Ring the buzzer." Cadek supplied. "Two short, one long, repeat once."
"I didn't know that." Danyel's nager flared in irritated spikes.
"I love thee." Dimitri murmured in Mitka's trilling shorthand, probably the only language Cadek wouldn't pick up on. Danyel chuckled, then rang the bell in the peculiar pattern. In moments, a wizened looking lord, well, caliph opened a tiny portal in the door.
"Be welcome to my humble exchange." He opened the door onto a tiny room. They had to squeeze together to fit. Dimitri patted Danyel's behind with a gloved hand. Danyel didn't quite jump, so Dimitri stroked one silk clad finger over his arm.
"Our Caliph does not speak Arabic." Dimitri knew he sounded like a whining sharm lord. Mitka gave him a juicy 'pbtpbtpbt'. His veiled soaked it up instantly.
"I don't like you wearing that thing." He grumbled.
"Its useful." He winked at Mitka.
The caliph zlinned back over his shoulder. "I can tell you are here to sell, although I warn you the buyers today are not very hungry."
"We can change that." Cadek straightened his shoulders at last. Being out in the world had changed him tremendously. Although when he extended his hand to Dimitri, he had to think about it for a moment before accepting the gesture. It was very common for brother Sharm Lords to be close, some even bed partners, but Dimitri still wasn't entirely sure if he wanted Cadek as a brother Sharm Lord. Danyel didn't really even have enough need for Dimitri alone.
"You must be careful." The man opened the second door. A raucous mix of languages, nagers and old fashioned noise washed over them. Danyel crashed backward into Dimitri's chest. He put his arms around the Sime. "You are a seer?"
"Yes," Dimitri said, holding Danyel as protected as he could.
"Their selyn can earn far more." He vanished into the crowd. Dimitri'd gone to the selyn market in Moskva with his fathers, but it had always been much quieter than this tiny, enclosed space, being open to the elements in a corner of the great square before Kirov, or in Kirov's main courtyard.
A greasy haired Sime descended on them. His face was deeply pocked with old acne scars. "I'll start the bidding at eighty." He meant nineteen point two hours for every day Danyel had stored in his public field.
"I'll bid eighty-five." A much younger Sime called out. Before long, they'd actually bid over a day. It slowed around one hundred and thirteen, an amazing price for stored, but not packed selyn.
"Sold to the Sime in red for one-fifteen." Cadek called out. A few of the bidders slipped back into the crowd at this breach of etiquette.
"You have any more?" The Sime zlinned Cadek openly, her laterals flickering pink. Cadek managed to look down his nose at the woman through his veil. Her dark eyes lit in a pleasure she couldn't be feeling. Danyel grabbed the fields, creating a nageric barrier around all five of them. "I'm impressed. Seer?" She asked.
"Yes," Dimitri nodded. "I thought you knew when you bid."
"I was after him." She flicked a tentacle at Cadek. "He's too much for the seer."
"I am." Cadek's chest rose and fell quickly beneath his heavy kador. "Although my brother is his partner."
"And you're even higher." The gesture wouldn't have been a sneer if she'd not been in need. Dimitri tightened his hold on Danyel, and got bitten by Mitka for his help. Not that it did much through the kador. "Oh, I grew up here." She jerked her chin toward a door on the far wall. They followed her into another room, this one lined with heavy silk rugs on the walls.
Dimitri dropped his veil with a sigh of relief. Cadek echoed the gesture.
"One twenty, personal, here," she glanced at all three of them. "For all of it."
"Its a good price." Dimitri murmured in Danyel's ear, in Russian, hoping she wouldn't understand the language.
"Rus?" She blinked. When Dimitri nodded, she said. "You're a long way from home."
"I, at least, plan on returning home at some point." He continued to hold Danyel close. His nageric trembling had stilled, although that might have been because Mitka was guarding him like, well, a dragon with one egg.
"This is home for me now." She leaned against the back of a chair. "I'd like a full transfer, with consummation, but I'm not willing to barter for that as if I were trying to attract a whore."
Cadek's field explored the tiny room. "Can you keep me?" He stripped off his gloves. The injuries done to him had faded enough they wouldn't restrict the selyn flow through his arms.
"You might want to do the shoulders today." Dimitri warned. "Someone tried to cripple him."
"And you healed him?" She glanced at Dimitri. "Very generous, when he's closer to your partner than you are."
"He's also my sire's twin." Dimitri liked this woman. She was not young, probably in her early thirties, but she wasn't old, either. A good age for Cadek, actually.
"Ah, family," her need darkened field hardened for a moment. "Do you speak for yourself?"
"I do." He said quietly. "I'm Cadek Sergeyevich, by Vanya Sergeyevich out of Gitanya Sergeyenova."
"I've heard some of why the Tribes distrust you." Her lips tightened.
"I had no say in the decision." Cadek stiffened. "I never knew sire, dam or kin."
"Then it wasn't your fault." She came around the table. "I'm Alyabet bint Halima, born Elsebet Baker. When I was in change over, my parents, such as they were, kicked me out onto the street to die. Caliph Halima took me in and I had first transfer from his first Companion. We became good friends and I renounced my past."
"I don't renounce my past or my kind, any more than they've put me out." Bright spots of color appeared on Cadek's cheeks, fever spots.
"How much did you take from him?" Dimitri murmured, not wanting to jar the delicate negotiations going on in front of them.
"Um, by your standards, a hundred days, maybe?" Danyel blinked. "Oh, for a renSime, maybe four months worth of selyn."
"Not a whole lot then." Dimitri winced.
"I couldn't take anymore. I've been cramming in selyn everywhere I can." Danyel said quickly.
"I'm sorry." Dimitri put his hand on the table. "I think, first, we should get what we came for."
"So he is your partner?"
Dimitri showed the new bracelet, on his left wrist.
"Then I'm only an extra." Cadek slipped around to stand behind Alyabet.
"So quickly?" She glanced back up at him.
"Try it for this month and see how it works. I'd not be the extra at the feast." He winked at Dimitri. There was still an undercurrent of longing in his field, but Dimitri knew it would probably always be there.
"I have a wealth of Uncles, but as soon as I met you, I knew you would be the most valuable of them all." Dimitri wished he had a bonding gift to give Cadek. "I give you my wishes for happiness, health, and long life."
"Not children?" He winked.
"Not yet," Dimitri's breath caught. He'd seen people fall in love at first sight, but not often in the selyn market. "Stay in touch?"
"I will." He nodded, then replaced his veil. The gesture, one very much of the south, showed his willingness to give his new attraction to Alyabet an honest trial. Dimitri nodded.
"I love you." He deliberately used the formal, as he'd always thought of Cadek as a senior, no matter what Cadek might have wished, unfortunately. "I wish we could have been closer."
"Me too." He put his arms around Alyabet.
"I'm not." She held his hands close. "You're an amazing man, Cadek."
"I can be difficult."
"So can I." She looked back up at him. "I want to try it."
"Then we shall." He brought one of her hands beneath his veil. Her need deepened to a pounding rush, like the river Moskva in spring. Cadek's eyes brightened, turning hot with his own need.
"Why don't we hurry things along so my Uncle and my Aunt can enjoy their seclusion." Dimitri tried to push Danyel forward. His feet seemed to be glued to the floor. "She won't hurt you. Its just like all the selyn shifting you do as a Channel."
"Oh," he breathed at last. Dimitri followed so close his kador brushed Danyel's heels.
"You're Ferris?" She cocked her head. "I've heard about you."
"You've heard about Ferris'." Danyel's field glowed with health and good humor. His recovery time was amazing. Dimitri wanted to be in bed right now, preferably curled up around Danyel and sound asleep.
"Danyel's different."
"And I've heard about you." She let out a whisper of a chuckle. "If you can manage to work with one of these big Gens, giving me the excess selyn in your secondary shouldn't be any great hardship."
"No," he shook his head. Dimitri let him go.
When he'd given her the promised selyn, she drew in a deep breath, blinking. "You're fast and good."
"I'm only a second."
Dimitri pinched him on the behind, hard! He yelped, swatting at Dimitri.
"Stop it." Dimitri growled.
"Here, you're a seer." She frowned a bit. "I hadn't know what we call seers and the Techton calls Ferris were the same thing."
"We call it Southerner's Syndrome." Dimitri added the capitals for clarity.
"Ahhhh," she breathed. "I take it Danyel is special to you."
"We are wrist bonded." Dimitri showed off his new bracelet again. Alyabet gasped, all her tentacles coming out at once. "It and he, are mine."
"Good pick." She reached into her shirt and pulled out a tiny bag. The tinkle of gold reached Dimitri's ears. She tossed it to him. "I'd not expected a transfer."
"I'd like my cut." Cadek frowned.
"There's more in the vault." She turned to him, putting her arms around his neck.
"Ahhhh," he breathed. "Then if I'm good?"
"I know you'll be good." She purred. "I want to keep you that way."
Dimitri felt his cheeks heat in a blush. He weighed the bag in his hand, then quickly tucked it inside his own shirt, although he didn't have as convenient a hiding place for it. Although Alyabet was small breasted, even for a Sime. Without saying a word, he tugged Danyel out of the room.
"Shouldn't we have said good bye?" He asked.
"I doubt if either of them are still dressed." Dimitri made sure the door locked behind them. He put his hand over the bag of gold. He felt as if he'd sold his Uncle into slavery, although he knew it had been Cadek's initiative.
"I wonder if we'll see either of them again." Danyel murmured.
"We will." Dimitri promised himself, as well as Danyel. "I don't have so many relatives I can afford to lose any of them." He moved closer to Danyel, wanting to feel the heat of Danyel's body. "Most of all, I can't afford to lose thee." He murmured in Russian, for Danyel's ears alone. Danyel's quicksilver nager shimmered with pleasure.
Danyel didn't want to be here. The bell at the front of the store rang. He nearly jumped over the counter. "What are we doing here?" He muttered to Dimitri.
"Dusting the counters?" He added a swipe with his cloth. Danyel'd heard Nashen make similar comments. He'd hoped Dimitri would have escaped that bad habit.
"Why don't we go back to working at the center?" Danyel desperately wanted to hide behind Dimitri.
Miran's toothy grin was the first thing that registered on Danyel's addled brain.
"What are you doing here?" Dimitri leaned on the counter.
"You have a customer. I can't think you're getting enough business to pay the rent if you treat all your customers like this?" He leaned in close to his brother. So close their kinship was unmistakable.
"Quit teasing him." Larin kicked Miran in the shins.
"If I can't tease him, then can I tease you?" Miran gave her an equally lazy grin. "And you were wrong about my state after transfer, brother mine."
"You got it up?" Dimitri snorted.
"None of your business." Larin wrinkled her nose. "He did well enough."
"I don't think you quite managed to give the Sime what she wanted." Dimitri pressed against Danyel's side even harder, giving his brother a suggestive leer. Danyel pinched him. Dimitri wiggled his hips.
"Quit goading him." He muttered under his breath.
"Don't worry, you have the best of the Diomid boys." Dimitri told him.
"I think Kirin's a little young, even for Danyel." Miran smirked.
"How old is he?" Larin blinked.
"A little bit older than Shanir?" Dimitri hadn't really been keeping track. "Five I think."
"Oh," she said.
Danyel was trying not to say anything. Or even hit anyone. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Yeah," Miran pulled a thick envelope out of his Russian style tunic. "You're squatting on Kaon property."
"Juju Isason had no will." Dimitri's muscles tensed. Danyel stepped on his foot.
"Oh?" Miran slipped the folded, legal sized, sheets from the envelope. "Isn't what we found in Kaon's vaults." He flipped them onto the counter.
"You lying bastard." Dimitri glanced at them. "She left no such documentation."
"You're the bastard." Miran leaned against the counter. "Who is Vanesa going to believe?"
"Sectuib Kaon, idiot." Larin kicked him again. Danyel wondered how bruised Miran's shins were going to get by the end of the month. He kicked back at her, missing by a foot and a half. "You're slow."
"I don't care." He stared into his brother's eyes. "Well?"
"The papers." Dimitri took them, then flipped through them. "You lorsh." He scowled. "There's nothing on these I can prove falsified."
"What about the witness signature?" Danyel asked.
Dimitri raised an eyebrow. Miran's field didn't shift, but a few beads of sweat appeared at his hairline.
Miran smacked Larin on the butt. "You're a good Sime." He grabbed her as well. She blushed, a completely different woman than Danyel'd known. Larin gave Miran a look that completely belied the fact he was hardly more than a month past establishment. Danyel tried to hide his disgust. Miran was far too young to be in bed with someone as obviously experienced as Larin.
"Uncle Sevrin kicked us out." Miran tucked Larin's hand under his arm, pinning it away from her explorations of his butt. "Not here."
"They're family." She leaned against Miran. If he'd shown himself any less mercenary, Danyel would have worried about him. As it was, he tried to ignore the predatory gleam deep in Larin's nager.
"He's too young." Dimitri's hands tightened on the edge of the counter.
"My hands still work." Miran shrugged.
"The details, however, are none of your business." Her nager hardened protectively around both of them. Danyel wished he could do the same for Dimitri. Dimitri slid up next to him, copying his brother's position. Danyel had to work not to smile. He ended up with a much smaller than normal Dimitri under his arm. He glanced down. Dimitri'd bent his knees behind the protection of the counter. Danyel knew his nager had to be as bright as polished steel.
"They're distracting us." Danyel wanted to snarl. He took the papers. "Back off." He glared at Miran.
"Why?" He showed a few more painfully crooked teeth.
"Do it." Dimitri slipped out from under Danyel's arm. As if he'd been trained for it, he took Danyel's shoulders and gave him a Donor's support. Although Danyel'd never worked with a first, much less, with Mitka, what zlinned like a first, four-plus. The temptation to loose himself in Dimitri's field was nearly overwhelming. "Lean on me. I can keep you from loosing yourself."
"I trust you." Danyel let out his breath, and with it the shields he'd held, up until a few days ago. Outside of Mitka's wings, he could dimly sense a handful of objects glowing brightly on the shelves, but none brightly enough to catch his attention. The paper in front of him, however, was matte gray. No one had ever cared about it, for good or for ill. His own fingers were black shadows, although his tentacles were a shimmering white. Danyel chuckled to himself at this proof of Dimitri's attention.
He studied the signatures. There was a coruscating rainbow of light surrounding the witness signature. "Sevrin?" Danyel brushed his fingertips over the letters. They'd been unevenly pressed into the heavy paper, as if the writer hadn't known the name he or she had been writing.
"He never signs anything." Dimitri's voice rang in Danyel's ears, as if something were causing it to echo. "The name, as written, is First Order Channel Lorn Nargin."
"He'd never sign anything for a renSime like Juju." Danyel dropped the now burning hot paper. He shook out his hand. His vision returned to normal, with only a few things still showing an afterimage, like spots after looking at the sun. "This is a forgery."
"Prove it." Miran's tongue touched his front teeth.
"I don't have to." He took the papers at his highest level of augmentation. "Now, now, Larin." Danyel slipped the document into his own shirt. "We can possibly make a deal."
"What kind of deal?" Dimitri and his brother said in unison.
"I want enough cash to get the two of us back to Russia." Danyel demanded.
"You can't!" Dimitri pounded on the counter so hard it cracked. "Its not safe."
"All our worst enemies are here." Danyel pointed out. "They're trapped here." He traced a lazy circle on the glass counter. "We'll take Aliana and Jarmin back with us as soon as they arrive. You'll be free to pursue whatever you like from this store. No repercussions after you 'buy' it from us."
"You don't own it." Larin's nostrils flared.
"No one did." Dimitri's breath cooled the sweat forming on Danyel's scalp. "We do now."
"Because you murdered Isason." Miran grasped at empty air with his free hand.
"No," Dimitri said, then his soft chuckle cooled Danyel's sweat more. "Although did you see my autopsy report on her?"
"Yeah," Miran shuddered. "Decapitated."
"No," Dimitri shook his head. Even Danyel'd thought so much. "Although I now know it wasn't you trying to murder me." He shifted his weight. "Want to give it another try?"
"Fuck, it was an overdose, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," Dimitri sighed. "She was so full of horse she couldn't move. Brain dead hours before she was decapitated."
"Get out of here." Miran tossed a wad of cash and payto chits on the counter. "I don't want you dead."
"I don't want it either." Dimitri nudged him. Danyel tried to zlin the money and ended up with that bizarre second sight. The cash glowed with the same rich greens and golds he'd seen deep in Dimitri's field. "Silly." Dimitri stroked Danyel's arm. His sense of touch returned following Dimitri's hand. "You really should work with Sevrin some, before we go. I can't teach you."
"He's too rough." Danyel picked up the money. It was a roll of hundreds and thousands. With a quick zlin, he figured it was nearly a quarter of a million. "You carry this around as pocket money?" Danyel's hand sweated as he folded the huge lump into his pocket. A few pockets just to be careful.
"Yeah," Miran winked. "I can always get more."
"How old are you, chronologically?" Danyel had to ask.
"Fourteen, fifteen, something like that." He shrugged. "Old enough to vote here." Miran grinned. "If you're willing to wait for the check, I'll buy your property off you too."
Danyel's selyn ran cold at the thought. He'd loved that little, awkward, old house.
"Yeah," Miran's field s