Nox nodded. “If Santiago’s team wasn’t there or you hadn’t contacted Tatum, we’d all be dead. We can’t hope for odds like that every time. And as much as my heart breaks for the little brother, he’s a liability aswell.”
Seeing the once great Josephine Pearl have to pin him down to keep him from running, had beenawful.
Maxine shot out of her seat and turned on Nox. “It’s not his fault this fucking war ruined him. We can’t all go into the massacre every night and then come out to whittle woodpeacefully.”
Uh-oh.He’d lit Maxine’s ragefire.
Nox stood, resting his hands gently on her shoulders, as he looked her straight in the eyes. “You’re right. I’msorry.”
I saw the moment she melted under his touch, his words dousing herfire.
Oh God. This wasn’t going to end well. They’d sleep together for a week, and when Maxine tired of him and dropped him, he’d break. Nox was my sensitive one. He’d lie on the roof for hours on a cloudy day trying to spot birds, any wildlifeleft.
I shook their budding romance from my mind and addressed the situation again. “I guess the question is can we really live with ourselves if Damien and his family go in to test out the next prototype and get killed, taking their technology to the grave withthem?”
Brisk grabbed the tequila bottle. “I couldn’t. I’m in. If there’s a chance to end this, I want to give it my all, even if I dietrying.”
He took a swig of tequila, and then Ronnie ripped it from his hands. “I’m in too. I have to believe I have a greater purpose than patching people up so they can live to die anotherday.”
She chugged it until Maxine grabbed the bottle. “To be totally honest, I fear we’ll all die with them, but I can’t walk away from the hope that we could change the world.” Then she took aswig.
Nox took the bottle at that point, though he didn’t drink. He never said why, but indicated once that it was because of his father. “I’ll follow you guys anywhere. You’re the only reason I’m alive anyway.” He poured a splash of tequila on my concretefloor.
That got a laugh out of all of us. When things got too serious, Nox was usually the comedicicebreaker.
I reached across the counter and took the bottle from him. “You better clean that mess up,” I told him. “I’m in too, because there are too many people out there suffering, and if we have a chance to stop it, then we have to try.” I took a swig of myown.
“And Damien Striker is super hot,” Maxine added, and Igroaned.
“That too,” Iadmitted.
My comment riled Ronnie up, and the shit-talkingstarted.
“How many more days do you think until Kit jumps him? I’m taking bets.” Ronnie held her hand out. Brisk pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and that was when I turned to walkaway.
While my friends were taking their sweet time roasting me, I pulled out my phone and sent Damien atext.
Kit:We’ll see you tomorrow night at8PM.
His reply was almostinstantaneous.
Damien:Thank you! You should see my smile right now. P.S. Jeremy really wants to study yourbrain.
I chuckled tomyself.
Kit:Nope.
I hoped I’d made the right choice. Only time wouldtell.
Chapter Seven
The next nightas we pulled up to Damien’s house, an uncharacteristic nervousness crawled throughout my body. It was hard to get in a good mental space when you knew flying sentries were waiting to pounce on you. Those tall alien bastards were scary enough, but I liked when you could see them coming from a mile away instead of swooping down fromabove.
“I’m in control. I project peace. I give protection. I harness strength,” I whispered softly, clutching my Zen as hard aspossible.
This feeling was foreign to me. I couldn’t get in my zone like I normally could. I just kept thinking the worst, which was not good. I’d even called Master Aki earlier and told him what happened, but all he offered was some cryptic “what will be, will be”type of shit. Then he’d thrown “create your own destiny” on top of that and confused the hell out of me. I wished I’d had the time off to go visit him in San Francisco. He’d do that thing with his singing bowl and smoke and chanting, and I’d feel all better. But instead I was here and he wasthere.
We signed in with the guard at the gate and he waved us through. I was surprised when I saw Tatum and her mom waiting outside, leaning on the trunk of their beat-up Volvo, because her little sister was there. She didn’t normally come, and if she did, she stayed in the car for a quick drop-off.
