Gus gave Caius one last lingering look.“No.Not at all.I’m done here.”
She turned her back on the commander, walking toward Brooks with calm, measured steps as she ignored the pit in her stomach saying that this was wrong.That by leaving Caius here she was in danger of becoming even more of the monster her former masters had tried to remake her into.
Kirawillcome, Gus assured herself.
Her sister was already on site and the clue Gus had left should expedite her arrival.Kira never failed.Gus had faith she wouldn’t this time either.Caius would survive and return to his House.Gus would return to Titan to resume her duties.Their lives would continue on their preset paths.Never to intersect again.
Loneliness tried to rise before Gus pushed it back down.
This was good.This was what she wanted.She could return to the life she’d carved out for herself.No more danger.No more uncertainty.Just Gus, her plants, and Titan.
“What about him?”Brooks asked, glancing back at Caius.
“His fate lies with another.”
Brooks ambled after her.“If you say so.”
“I do,” Gus said shortly before changing the subject.“Now, have you found Belladonna’s headquarters like I asked?”
Since saving Caius was no longer in the cards, the least she could do was wreak a little havoc on her way out.She should be able to handle a few humans on her own.If anything, it’d give her a chance to work off some of this frustration.
“I have.”
Finally, something that had gone according to plan.
Gus slowed as she remembered her other reason for coming here.“You haven’t run into any children, have you?”
Before she did any smiting, she should probably secure the kid.
“I don’t think you need to worry about them.”At Gus’s questioning look, Brooks chuckled.“Let’s just say they’ve found a worthy protector.”
Seventeen
Caius
Caiusconsideredtheentranceof his cell where the cloaked figure and her companion had disappeared, his feelings more complicated than warranted given the brevity of their acquaintance.Due to the drugs he’d been given upon capture, it was hard to tell what was real and what was dream.
In a sense, it didn’t matter.The outcome would have been the same regardless.
He did feel a lot more clear headed though since his dream woman’s visit.Startlingly so, given the amount of truth serum they’d pumped into him.It was potent stuff, designed to loosen his tongue and make him spill Roake’s secrets.It’d contained the side benefit of also amplifying his five senses to unbearable levels.Until something as simple as the brush of a hand felt like torture.
Caius wondered where they’d gotten it and if he could get the formula.It might come in handy during the course of his duties.There were always prisoners who needed breaking and what they’d used on him was probably one of the best examples of a truth serum he’d encountered.
Maybe hisjanicould whip something up.She seemed to like playing with drugs.
Attachments were a luxury he rarely indulged, but for her, he might be willing to make an exception.Something about her was different.Instinct told him she could quite easily become integral to his existence.That if he let her, she could become more important than the very air in his lungs.
That was why he had to send her away.Despite the craving that was just beginning to heat his blood.He couldn’t afford the distraction.It wouldn’t always be that way, but for now, distance was best for what he needed to do.
“Uncovering traitors is a thankless business,” Caius muttered.
After the lengths he’d gone to ensure his capture on the station, he couldn’t allow himself to be rescued right on the cusp of luring his quarry out from their hiding place.
He’d known something was wrong for a while now.There had been too many coincidences of late to look past.Missions that went sideways when they shouldn’t have.Intelligence gaps in a network that had always been dependable.Breakdowns in Roake’s supply trains.All small things that when added up painted a grim picture.
Officially, his visit to the enclave had been about investigating the unmarked world gates that had begun popping up in places they shouldn’t have been.The reality was a lot less straight forward.The enclave wasn’t just a haven for wanderers but an unofficial arm of House Roake.Clandestine and put into play those times Roake needed something done while also claiming plausible deniability.
Its fall had come as a shock, and he would be sure to impress his feelings regarding its fate on the traitor he expected to walk into his cell any moment now.He’d had a lot of friends in the enclave.People he’d grown up with.Individuals his parents had scouted and who’d been like aunts and uncles to him.
