Byzantine Heartbreak (32 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Spetsopoula, Greece. 2263 A.D. One week later.

Despite his size, Brenden’s landings were always as light as a feather. He was cat-like on his feet, so when the room coalesced into place around them, there was no disorientation.

Nia stepped out of Brenden’s arms, looking around the big room with interest.

“He won’t come in until he knows you’re here, in case he crowds the landing,” Brenden told her. “The main rooms are through that door there.” He pointed.

Nia nodded. “Thank you.”

Brenden stepped forward, giving himself room. “I’ll be getting back,” he said. He turned into another jump and was gone.

The room was distinctly larger without Brenden in it. She took in the pristine white stone walls and the ancient heavy dark beams overhead, the terracotta tiles underfoot. All very traditional Mediterranean decor that made her feel almost homesick, except for a complete lack of overblown Byzantine decorations, textiles and filigree. This was Greece and the room was minimalistic and...well, Spartan.

There was a large wood-grain desk—faux wood, she assumed—pushed quite close to the wall. To make room for arrivals, she realized. It was a modern desk, with built-ins, projectors, plug-ins and more.

This was Cáel’s study, then.

“Nia,” Cáel said, from behind her.

Her heart jumped all on its own. Nia turned.

Cáel stood in the doorway that Brenden had indicated led to the other areas of the house. He wore white casual pants and a white short sleeved shirt that was so old and had seen so many washings it was nearly see-through. The only other item he was wearing was a double gun holster, with a pair of laser pistols, one under each arm.

A bruise, faded to yellow now, coloured his cheek under one eye. And there was a deep cut writhing up one arm, healing beneath the gro-skin that had been sprayed over it.

“It’s a scratch, Nia. It’s healing,” he told her. He moved toward her quickly. “Don’t look like that. It just makes me feel like the biggest jerk in the world, Nia, don’t...” He kissed her and that was when she realized that she was trembling in reaction to the sight of his cuts and bruising, for he brought her up tight against him and
he
was the rock steady one.

Nia let herself cling to him, allowing herself to feel the weakness, the fear. When Cáel finally let the kiss end, she rested her head against his shoulder. “A whole week without either of you, in the midst of all this sadness and disaster. Cáel, I think I might have gone quite mad if I’d had to wait another day.”

He lifted her chin, making her look him in the eye. His expression was grave. “There’s a reason I made you wait, Nia.” He took her hands from around his neck and held onto one of them. “Come with me.”

He led her through the door he had come through. On the other side was a high vaulted dining/lounge/entertainment area that ran for eighty feet in length. It was cool and airy in here, for the roof soared for twenty five feet above the floor and big ceiling fans circled lazily. Plas-glass doors along the whole length of the room gave access to a white-walled patio that was almost as big as the room itself. The patio was shaded by a pergola that held up an abundant, riotous and thick growth of grape vines and bright pink fuchsias. The torrid sun was trying hard to scorch the flagstones there, but failing to do more than dapple them with shade.

Ryan was walking along the patio. Or rather, he was shuffling along with the help of a cane, which he leaned on heavily with one arm, while he swung his leg stiffly as he progressed down the long patio, concentrating hard.

Nia halted, a hand to her mouth, shocked into inner and outer stillness.

Cáel turned back to face her. “This is why I had you wait,” he said gently, his voice low. “You had enough to deal with, keeping the agency people together. He’s made rapid progress just in the last twelve hours. Twenty-four hours ago, he could barely move. He only woke thirty hours ago.”

“He’s been unconscious for
five days
?” Nia breathed. “What weapon could do that? To a vampire?”

“That is something you must find out, Nia,” Cáel replied. He tugged on her hand. “Come.”

He padded across the smooth terracotta tiles, his bare feet silent. Nia’s boot heels crunched loudly in comparison. She unbuttoned her heavy coat as she neared the doors. It wasn’t like she could really feel the overwhelming heat, but it was a bit uncomfortable.

As Cáel pushed the door open, she took the opportunity to shrug the coat off altogether, leaving her in just the black pants and top and boots that had been her working clothes for the last five days. She dropped the coat onto the outdoor table that sat next to the door as they stepped outside.

Ryan looked up as the door opened and came to a halt. When he saw her, he closed his eyes and took a quick, deep breath. He lifted his free arm and held it out to her.

Nia hugged him gingerly, afraid that she might overbalance him or hurt him. But Ryan’s arms—both of them—pulled her in tight against him. She heard the cane clatter onto the flagstones.

“Cáel said you got me off the station just before it blew,” Ryan said. He was shaking. “But the others...did everyone make it?”

Nia shook her head, sadness sweeping through her.

Ryan sighed. “Who?”

“Marguerite, William Alwyn, Ginny. That’s who we know of. We’re still trying to find and account for everyone. You took the most of whatever it was Gabriel hit you with, but what was left over was enough to keep Tinker unconscious for two days.”

“You were lucky,” Cáel said, from behind them.

Nia turned. Cáel was sitting on the edge of the table, his arms crossed.

“Lucky?” she repeated.

“You’ve been busy, so I imagine you haven’t heard about the rest of Gabriel’s stunts.”

Nia shook her head.

“When I predicted that Gabriel would pick a fight with you,” Cáel said, “I had most of it right, but on one detail I was dead wrong. Gabriel doesn’t see vampires as his enemy.”

“He destroyed the agency. He’s not a friend,” Ryan growled.

“You’re not alone, Ryan. He destroyed the United Nations building in New York. And humans don’t have the ability to jump away from danger.”

Nia moaned. “How many?” she husked.

“Thousands. They’re still counting.” Cáel’s expression was grim. “He tried the Worlds Assembly, too.”

“The Assembly?” Ryan frowned. “Why didn’t he succeed there?”

“Force fields. They’re always up when the Assembly is in session...or pre-session.” Cáel grimaced. “But you never heard that from me.”

“Force fields were proved theoretically impossible,” Ryan pointed out.

“So was faster-than-light travel, once, but look at us now.” Cáel shrugged. “The Assembly bought the patents to the technology at a price that guaranteed secrecy and exclusivity.”

“They didn’t want to share?” Nia asked mildly.

“They didn’t want anyone else to reverse-engineer the technology,” Ryan said, “and build a weapon that could get past them.” He looked at Cáel. “The price must have been beyond reason.”

“It just paid for itself.” Cáel grimaced. “At least, that’s what the assembly members are telling themselves. I look at the mess in New York and wonder if the price was too high.” He shifted uncomfortably on the table.

Ryan studied him. “You know something,” he said. “Something else.”

Cáel sighed. “We know why they did this.” He ground the heels of his hands into his eye sockets and they waited him out.

Finally, he sighed. “A month ago, as close as we can figure it, the government on Demetrios rounded up a dozen freed psi and sterilized them. The next week, they did two dozen more. They didn’t announce it on Demetrios, or to anyone else.”

There was a little silence. Nia felt sick. “But they’re mind-readers, for heaven’s sake! Telepaths!”

“I think the Demetrions know that,” Cáel said heavily. “Since they’ve got the largest population of psi and scions in all the worlds, except Earth. They exported them heavily when they were first released for commercial purposes and by the time the rest of the worlds figured out that psi were really useful cheap labour, it was too late. The off-world ban had been instituted by then. So there’s only tiny pockets of psi on the other worlds.”

“Demetrios is a heavy world. They would find life intolerable without the psi. Why would they do this?” Ryan said.

 
“Because of their numbers. At the rate psi and scions breed, in about three years time, they would have out-numbered humans.”

“The psi weren’t a threat to them.”

“Apparently, the Demetrions felt differently. Communications from Demetrios is sketchy at the best of times, Ryan. We’re learning what we can, but frankly, the psi are better able to get up-to-date information from Demetrios than humans can. They can talk to each other.”

Nia clenched her hands together. “Gabriel learned what had been done on Demetrios and he acted.” She grimaced. “He
reacted
,” she amended.

“That’s our best assumption right now,” Cáel agreed. He rubbed at his eyes again. “We’re waiting to talk to Demetrios, to get them to halt their sterilization process, if they haven’t already. Fact is, we can’t seem to reach them much at all.”

“The psi there would have reacted, too,” Ryan pointed out.

“That’s what we’re afraid of,” Cáel replied bleakly. “But if we can get them to stop and if we can contain Gabriel’s people here, then perhaps we’ll be able to find a way out of this.”

“We?” Ryan repeated.

“The Assembly.” Cáel stood up. “It was due back in session next week. It has just been returned to emergency session as of tomorrow.”

A queer ache began in Nia’s heart. She was looking at Cáel, the man she loved and also seeing Assemblyman Stelios, the ruthless politician she had first met. He had changed right in front of her eyes.

Cáel rested his hands on their shoulders. His thumbs stroked their necks. “You should know that over a year ago, a week after I met you, I decided I wanted you both in my life and I would work for however long it took to make that happen. I didn’t think I would end up loving you as much as I do, but there it is. I love you, both of you. I have given up state secrets to ensure your safety because of my love.”

Ryan drew in a sharp breath and Cáel touched his finger to his lips, silencing him.

“I’m human, Ryan. I’m a weak link. Gabriel will exploit that if he discovers it.”

Fear ripped through Nia as she stared from Ryan to Cáel. She clutched at Cáel’s shirt, afraid that he might disappear at any second. “What are you saying?” she demanded, her voice shaking.

Cáel covered Nia’s hand with his. “You have your people settled. Somewhere safe and invulnerable, yes?”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “You need to take Ryan home, Nia.”

Her fear blossomed into a full-blown terror. “And leave you
here? Alone
? No, Cáel! No!”

He shook his head. “I’m heading for Macapá tomorrow and I’ll be there for weeks, while the Assembly is in session. You have to understand, both of you...” He closed his eyes briefly. “You have to know this, even if no one else does. I’m human, yes, but I have dual loyalties in that assembly now. I’ll be fighting as hard, if not harder, for your rights as I ever have for human rights.”

“They’ll crucify you,” Ryan said.

“They have to accuse me of wrong-doing, first,” Cáel replied, with a wry grin, “And I’ve learned how to cover my tracks from the very best.”

He looked at Nia. “I can’t come with you. Your new base is only known to vampires and Gabriel can’t read their minds...not until he visits them personally and they all know what he looks like now. But he can read my mind whenever he wants and he doesn’t have to be even close by. I could betray you just because I’m human, Nia. As much as I want to be with you, as much as I planned and counted on it...I have to let you go. For now.”

“For how long?” she demanded. “Until Gabriel is dead? Until the world stops turning? Until time itself makes sense? How long?”

Ryan held her. Soothing her. But it just made her shake harder.

Cáel took her in his arms, instead. “I don’t know how long. Until Gabriel has been stopped, that is for certain. No one knows how long that will be. I will still see you and Ryan when I can and if you’re feeling kindly, you can take me back into time so we can escape every now and again. But we can’t go all at the same time. Someone must always be here in this time. Someone must always be at your base, keeping watch. We can never let down our guard again. Not until Gabriel has been dealt with.”

She shook her head in mute denial, all the while knowing that what Cáel was saying was perfectly correct. But she wanted to wail like a child.

“Ryan...” Cáel murmured.

Ryan didn’t move. “You decided over a year ago, huh? You
decided
?”

Cáel grabbed the back of his neck. “You want an apology? It’s what I do, Ryan.”

“I’m just glad you’re on our side,” Ryan replied. “You played me like a harp and I’m nobody’s fool.”

“Thank the gods,” Cáel muttered and kissed him.