“They killed him?” Ahead the train tunnel widened at a platform. They were close to home.
“Not exactly. As good as. I followed until they dragged him up an elevator shaft, past the actual elevator, and trust me, squeezing him through there was not good for his health. I almost swallowed bits of him.”
“Why take him back then? I’m assuming they aimed to take him to the top.”
Again with the shrugging.
“Funny, ain’t it? If he was the doctor, he’s a pile of dead flesh now.” His gaze swung on Rutger, his wings lifting a little, settling.
Rutger knew the body tells of the winged soldiers. Here it came.
“Tell me what you did to Cyn back there. I’ve been planning to ask, once I was sure I wouldn’t rip your bloody head off.”
His smile spread, an unabandoned grin really—couldn’t stop himself. “As if you’d stand a chance. However!” He held up his palm to stop the insults and arguments Vargr was lining up, judging by the deep scowl and the opening of his mouth. “Sorry. Let’s both be calm. I did what I had to.”
“And that was?”
“Hold on. We get to exit here.” He pointed and leaped onto the platform, waited for the others to follow. Toother would fit through the main platform doors, and that led onto a wide thoroughfare. “Vargr, she was wiped out by the Lure, all bloodied from the fight and struggling against us nonstop.”
Okay, that was a small lie. She’d quieted after they washed her, even sat still while he jerked off, had looked damn fascinated. He was not telling Vargr that part.
“I did the one thing that might help, considering the nanites in us help kill the Lure effects.”
Rutger paused in the double-doored entrance to the Trainway platform to let the others go by.
As when he’d set out on the journey to the Mercantors, the thoroughfare was silent and filled with the debris of the invasion days. Funny how he always listened for the sound of crowds. On walking out here, for that first millisecond he always found the emptiness, the lack of people, a gut-wrenching surprise.
Handbags and discarded magazines, cellphones, lost shoes and stuffies, prams, shops with their electronic doors shut and the goods inside pristine. Get your Gucci for free.
He never looked in those prams. Ugliness in there. Rutger winced. Well, he had once, once only. Never again.
Babies too young to crawl had been deserted by loving parents who’d wandered off to see the Ghoul Lords. He advanced a small way into the street.
“So. Keep going. What did you do?”
“Oh. I fed her some of my come,” he said it absentmindedly, lost in the past.
Vargr’s grip on his shoulder was violent, and his snarl was raw anger.
He twisted away.
Those wings ripped open to their full span, and the others around them spread out, giving them room.
“Hey. We can’t afford to fight among ourselves. He was good to her, Vargr.” Tom was trying to do something to settle this, even though he had no clue.
From how Cyn was staring at his horns, he wondered if he’d grown a few more. His fist clenched automatically, but he relaxed them, breathed. “What would you have done? She liked it. Wanted it. And it worked.”
Waving an arm, Vargr indicated for the others to pass them by. “Move on! We can handle this. Not you.” After a few seconds, they did, walking down the street slowly with only a few last glances. Except for Cyn, of course.
She had that evil twinkle spawning in her red eyes.
“What’s this about, boys?”
Boys?
Both of them shot her an exasperated stare. Maura was loitering not far away. The others had moved further.
“We need to sort this out.”
