There are wines in my family wine cellar that are more than a hundred years old,he thought as Max splashed the vinegary-smelling contents of the bottle into the cups. She had only two cups, but she had come up with a paper coffee cup for Javic. "It was on the floor," she explained. "Don't worry, I don't like milk in my coffee, and coffee by itself doesn't really spoil."
"How reassuring," Javic said. He took the cup, half full of dark liquid, and swirled it around without drinking. Gio hoped his own misgivings weren't visible on his face as he took the tin camp cup.
"It's Argentine wine," Max said. It was hard to tell if she was genuinely offended or just playing. "My homeland. My culture. Mypeople. Have a little respect."
"Vintage of—" Gio finally managed to get a look at the bottle. She had been telling the truth, it was Argentine wine, or at least imported from Argentina. It had cost $3.95 at somewhere called Jim's Budget Liquor Emporium. "—this year, apparently. A very good year, all three months of it so far."
"Heathens," Max said. She held out her cup. Gio clinked it with his. Javic kept his fingers curled around his paper cup, looking like he was seeking the trap in all this, before finally holding it out.
"Salute," Gio said. "Which is to say, in Italian, to your health."
"Cheers!" Max said.
Javic looked at them both as if they were crazy and cautiously sipped his Argentine rotgut.
Gio sipped his mostly to be polite. Max cheerfully knocked hers back and then shuddered.
"You're right," she said. "That's bad." She topped off her cup. "All right, we have drinks and we're all friends—oh, and keep your other hand where we can see it, by the way."
Javic obediently placed his wire-bound hand on his thigh. "What do you think I'm going to do?"
"We don't know, that's the problem. Getting back to business, how about you tell us what you are?"
Gio was genuinely not expecting an answer, but Javic said, "I'm a phoenix."
Max blinked. She glanced at Gio. "I didn't realize that was a real thing."
"I didn't either," Gio said. "But I'm pretty new to all of this."
"As far as I know, I'm the only one," Javic said. "At least I don't know of any others. I'm fairly new to this as well. The way I understand it, you—shifters—that's what you are, right?" He waited until Max nodded. "You're usually born that way, correct? From parents who are shifters."
Max nodded. Gio saw no reason to point out his own unorthodox history; they had been fighting Javic's crew when it happened, after all.
"Well, I wasn't," Javic said. "It was given to me. I didn't ask for it, and I don't want it."
Gio laughed. He couldn't help it. "We have something in common, then." He raised his cup and took another drink. The wine was improving on prolonged contact. Then again, maybe he'd had some of his taste buds knocked out in the fighting today—or killed on the first sip. "I'm earth, you're fire. I don't suppose you know how to get our unwanted shift forms out of either one of us."
"Not in my case," Javic said. "I think the only thing that'll do it is my death."
That brought a moment of silence to the conversation; then Max said briskly, "Moving on. Okay, you're a phoenix. I assume you can't get free or you would have already. Can the others track you the way they can track Gio? Are you the only person who can open portals, or can they do it too?"
Javic hesitated.
Gio reached for the wine and poured a little more into both their cups. "Do you need help getting away?" he asked Javic.
Max gave him a surprised look. Javic's expression was much harder to read.
"I don't get the impression that you're too happy working with them," Gio said quietly. "This could work both ways. You help us, we help you."
Max immediately picked up the thread, as smoothly as if they had rehearsed it. "Why are you working with them, anyway? Do they have some kind of hold over you?"
Javic looked away.
"She's good at making problems go away," Gio said. "That's why she's here. I hired her to deal with—well, with you. But we can do the same thing for you, if you want."
"Howcouldthey keep a hold on you?" Max asked musingly. It sounded almost as if she was talking to herself, working through the options. "They could lock you up, but then you're no use to them. They have to be able to let you go out in the world. And between the portals and the fire, I'm guessing that they'd have a problem on their hands if you decided to fight your way free anyway. Are they blackmailing you?"
She was right, Gio thought as Javic continued to stare off into the darkness. He was working for them under duress. But what could make someone that powerful, someone who could escape to any corner of the world and had a literal phoenix inside him, follow orders if he didn't want to?
