“My name isGage—a perfectly fine name for a man. It’d be good for you to learn it—to use it—if you want to see me on yourside.”
Those fiery red eyes of his illuminate the night as he presses all of his own rage into me. I can feel it, scalding me from the inside like a boiling kettle. “And so itbegins.”
He evaporates into the night, and a calm fills the surroundingarea.
And so it begins. My heart thumps hard in my chest as Logan and Demetri make their way out onto the porch. Is Dudley right? Am I already teaming up with Demetri simply because of my disdain toward that particular Sector? Shit. I can’t let that happen. I’ll need to find a way to make peace with him somehow. There’s no way I should be caving in so easily. Dudley is one of the good guys whether I want to admit it or not. This isn’t the time for me to be an asshole and hold past grievances againsthim.
“Everything okay?” Logan pulls out his keys, and his truck burps tolife.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Why don’t you head back to Whitehorse and take care of whatever it is you have to do with Lex? I’m gonna hang out for a sec. I’ll teleport home. Better yet, I might just walk. I think I need to clear my head abit.”
“No worries.” He slaps me five and takes off into thenight.
“Come.” Demetri tries to lure me back into the house, but I make my way up to the porch, and that’s about as far as I’m willing tomove.
“What’s going on?” I call out into the night as if he were on the other side of the island. “I need you to be truthful with me at all times if this thing between us is going to work.” There. Those are words I could never have said around Logan. For as much as Logan wants me to burn this area of my life to the ground, a part of me understands that I had better own it before it ownsme.
Demetri lands his right hand over my shoulder, his dark eyes bearing into mine. “I solemnly swear on all that is holy that I will always be truthful with you, my prized son. You are my child, born of my own flesh and blood. You are my heir, the light of my eyes, the life-force that makes my heartbeat.”
“I see two problems with this,Pops. Your eyes shine like coal, and I’m pretty certain you don’t have a heart. I’m a pawn. I get it. You need me. You are confident in my lack of understanding of the situation, and you believe with all of the heart you don’t really have that I will inadvertently, all on my own, fuck things up for my wife and herpeople.”
He winces with the expletive. “In truth, yes and no. I do believe that your lack of understanding is your own, but like anyone in life, you’ll ask the questions and seek out the answers. The answers stem from you as much as the questions. And as for foiling the efforts of your precious beloved, I cannot foresee that the things you will do to hamper her efforts—perhaps they will be accidental on your part.Dudleymay have underestimated your wife on occasion, but I never have. You see, I understand the principle that once someone is filled with a holy desire to do right by their people, there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can stop them. Skyla is her father’s daughter. Far more dangerous than that, she is her mother’s daughter. Both of those aforementioneddeceasedin-laws of yours were never ones to follow the rules to get what they wanted. They both paid with their lives, Gage. Let that be a lesson to you.” His eyes flare like heated coals, an irony within an irony. “You will pay with your life if you decided to forge a path that bristles destiny’sdesire.”
“By destiny’s desire, you mean the curse I’ve cloaked myselfwith.”
“It is a blessing, son.” He steps down and pulls me into a partial embrace. “And one day you will see it that way, too.” He heads inside, and the door seals itself shut with ahiss.
The fog moves in quick, covering the porch in a dense billow of clouds, and it’s hard to tell which way is up in this whitewashed worldanymore.
My phone buzzes in my pocket— it’s a text from my dad. The only father I’ll ever have in myeyes.
Rev says the refrigeration unit is on the fritz again. Are you able to run by themorgue?
I text right back.I’m onit.
I’d walk around the proverbial block for my father, but for Demetri I wouldn’t cross thestreet.
That stone Skyla handed me all those weeks ago at the boys’ christening party comes back to mind. Everything Demetri just said was bullshit because I happen to know that no matter what I do, my days arenumbered.
I’m about to bristle destiny’sdesire.
That’s for damnsure.
* * *
Idon’tbother with the late night walk I had hoped would clear my head. Instead, I use my old tried and true Levatio transportation system and teleport over to themorgue.
The Paragon Cemetery bears the family name, albeit subtly on a wall plaque as you head into the foyer. My father, the one who I count as such, is a humble, decent man who would move the heavens to make sure I had my true heart’s desire, a simple life with Skyla and my children by my side. I’m pretty certain that whoever is in charge of doling out destinies up there—and yes, Candace, I’m looking at you and your cohorts—that they royally effed up because I’m no king, no prince of the Countenance underworld. I’m not even remotely interested in helping the Fems or the Sectors if you get right down to it. I’ll go kicking and screaming all the way down to the armpit where they store that rusted out throne they think I’ll call home one day. Nope.Bristlingjust so happens to be my new favorite word. I am bristling destiny, out loud, in the open, for everyone seated in that destination station tosee.
There’s a light in the room indelicately called the kitchen—the prep area for corpses. My dad has a smidge of Ezrina in him, and that’s one of the things I like about him amongmany.
“Rev?” I spot him kneeling over an electrical panel in the back. His hair is growing back from its recent shorn state, and he looks halfway like a law-abiding citizen—halfway. His beat-up leather jacket rides up his back, exposing a mean looking tat scrawled over his torso. Rev, or Revelyn, is Dr. Booth’s son. I’m not sure how many kids Dr. B has, but if they’re all like Rev here, I don’t care to meet toomany.
He falls back on his ass before bouncing to his feet. Rev is tall and wide as a linebacker. He’s a little older than me, but looks hardened by life with a nasty looking ridge outlining his cheek that looks as if it was gifted to him by way of a knife and currently three steady lines that dig into hisforehead.
“Dude, this whole system is shit, but I think I fixed it.” He kicks the grill shut and slides his tools toward the wall. “I called the service, but the fastest they can get out here is Monday. It should hold until then.” He wipes the sweat off hisbrow.
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I know my dad does, too.” Suddenly, I’m feeling for the guy. He’s a part-time employee running a little more than an internship as he works toward his mortuary science degree. He’s been a good guy to have around the place, and I’m glad my dad is finally getting some trustworthy help. “Why don’t you take off? I’ll lock up aroundhere.”
