Summoner of Storms (12 page)

Sean had the audacity to look hurt.
“John—”

“Shut up.” John started for the front door,
then paused. “If it was up to me, I’d bury you where no one would
ever find you.”

The door slammed behind him.

* * *

John stood in the weed-choked lot and stared
up at the sky. Only one or two stars showed, the rest blotted out
by the glare of city lights.

When he’d been little, his family visited his
grandfather’s farm every summer. Granddad lived way out in the
country. Stars filled the sky there, and fireflies the fields. John
would catch the insects gently in his hands before letting them go
again, careful not to crush their fragile bodies. Dad sat on the
grassy hillside with him, teaching him to recognize the
constellations: the Seven Sisters, the Big Dipper, the bright path
of the Milky Way itself.

Goddess. He hadn’t thought about the farm in
years. He’d been thirteen the last time he’d set foot there. The
summer before his paranormal abilities manifested. The last summer
Dad loved him.

John closed his eyes against the burn of
tears. He’d told himself over and over it didn’t matter if his
parents voluntarily gave up custody to the state. It didn’t matter
Granddad never wrote or called to make sure he was okay. Because
he’d replaced them with a family who cared about him, who accepted
him. Fuck, who wanted him
because
of his paranormal
ability.

SPECTR.

But he’d just been a tool. Someone to be lied
to and used. And he hadn’t even seen it until almost too late.

Etheric energy brushed his back, and he
opened his eyes in surprise. He’d half-expected Caleb to come after
him, but not Gray.

The sparks of lightning in Gray’s black eyes
sporadically illuminated his face in the darkness. Unlike a human,
who would have hesitated or spoken first, Gray simply walked up to
John and embraced him. And there was something comforting in
relaxing into Gray’s more-than-human strength.

“I hate this,” he whispered, because Gray
wouldn’t judge him. “I want...I want everything to be like it was.
For SPECTR to be what I thought it was, for Sean to be my
friend.”

A soft sigh escaped Gray. “Forgive us.”

“For what?”

“If things had occurred differently, if Caleb
never fell and I was never forced to change hosts at the wrong
moment, this would have passed you by.”

“No!” John pulled back, just far enough to
look at them. “Ignorance isn’t bliss, okay? This would still have
been going on, and maybe no one would have known to stop it. Or
maybe Tiffany would be fighting this by herself. Or dead already.
It’s not an acceptable trade.”

“Sean—”

“It hurts. It does. But he made his choice.
Not you.”

“He acted out of love for you.”

John tightened his hold and buried his face
against Gray’s shoulder. “I wish he and I never met. I wish he’d
been a homophobe and thrown me out of his room at school. Anything
except this.”

Gray said nothing for a long time, only held
John with preternatural stillness. John clung to him, breathing in
deep the scent of desert sand kissed by rain, of ancient incense
and ozone.

“Caleb says what I feel is natural,” Gray
said eventually. His voice was a deep rumble against John’s ear.
“To hurt because another is in pain.”

Despite everything, John smiled a little
against the leather coat. Because it still seemed incredible, to
have not just one but two amazing guys. Even if they were in the
same body. “Mortal nonsense.”

“There are many things I do not understand,”
Gray admitted. “The memories I gleaned are not the same as
experience. But I would never hurt you.”

“I know.” John tilted his head up. “Like I
said before. I trust you. Sean thinks you’re part of the pain that
dragged me down. He doesn’t get you’re the joy lifting me up.”

Gray kissed him with surprising tenderness.
Not the possessive, hungry kisses of before, but something soft and
startlingly sweet. Once their lips parted again, Gray nuzzled his
hair. “This moment, to be allowed this, is a miracle to me. But it
came at great cost, to you and Caleb, and I never wished for
that.”

And shit, John had never even thought about
what this might be like for Gray. If he’d wanted this existence, or
if he’d sacrificed just as much as Caleb. “Are you okay with this?
It’s too late either way, but...is this what you wanted?”

“Above everything except for Caleb’s pain. I
wanted to truly live, but not at the cost of his life.” Gray
paused. “Caleb says I am being foolish. He made his choice and does
not regret it.”

“You should listen to him. Caleb’s a smart
guy.”

“Yes.” Affection there. What did Caleb say
about Gray loving him in some strange way beyond anything
human?

And, insane as it seemed, John was certain
Gray loved him, too. Gray hadn’t said the words, but he’d certainly
shown it in every action. Maybe John had lost his home and what he
thought of as his family, but he had this. Two people who cared
about him enough to alter their entire existences for him.

“You’re the miracle to me, darling,” he said
past the constriction in his throat. “You and Caleb. And if you
guys think we should let Sean help us...I don’t like it, but I’ll
accept your judgment.”

Gray made a soft huffing sound. “I do not
like the other mortal. He has hurt Caleb, and he has hurt you, and
I would prefer he cease to exist. But killing him would do you
greater harm, and Caleb and Tiffany believe he can be of help.”

“Caleb trusts him?” And maybe it was a little
underhanded to ask Gray, whose first instinct seemed to be honesty.
But he needed to know.

“Of course not.” Gray’s rumble threatened to
turn into a growl. “But Caleb thinks he acted as he did out of
concern for you, not because he believes in Forsyth’s cause. Just
as I once accepted you wished me dead, not out of malice, but
because of what you thought your duty.”

Goddess, out of all the things Gray might
have said, this cut the deepest. “I’m so sorry, I never—”

“Yes; we have already discussed this, have we
not?” Gray sounded genuinely puzzled. Apparently once something was
settled with Gray, it stayed settled, without a grudge.

John nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” And if Gray could
believe—with good reason—John meant to kill him, but still want
him, still care about him, maybe John could listen to his gut and
accept Sean wouldn’t turn on them the first chance he got.

“All right.” He pulled gently away, sliding
one hand down until he wrapped his fingers around Gray’s. “Let’s go
back inside and talk to Tiffany. See if we can find some way to let
Sean be useful.”

A couple of hours later, they camped inside
yet another seedy motel room, pizza boxes and a six pack of beer
strewn across one of the twin beds. Caleb sat on the other bed
beside John, while Tiffany perched in the lone chair. Sean sat on
the very edge of the first bed, picking at the toppings on a slice
of pizza. Neither he nor John ate much, and didn’t exchange a word
or even a glance.

Caleb couldn’t blame John. He finished off
the last bite of his veggie deluxe, wiped the grease off his
fingers, and put his hand lightly on John’s knee. After a moment,
John covered Caleb’s hand with his own, fingers curling together
securely.

On the ride over, Tiffany had filled Sean in
on what they knew. Which was depressingly little, considering all
the effort they’d gone through. Now Sean popped open a beer and
took a long swig, before saying, “We need to figure out where the
NHEs are being shipped. It would also be nice to know when Forsyth
is going to start forcing them into people, instead of relying on
soldiers willing to take the risk.”

Caleb remembered the poor bastard possessed
by a werebear, whom Forsyth had made Gray fight as part of their
tests at RD. The grunt had obviously thought himself a bad ass,
confident in whatever lies SPECTR had spun to make him sign up for
demon-hosting duty.

Had he healed from the breaks and
dislocations Gray dealt out? Was he in some underground cell right
now, a control collar around his neck? Or was he one of the
soldiers hunting down the Vigilant, every day that passed stealing
a little more of his humanity until only the monster remained?

“Anything else, Captain Obvious?” Tiffany
asked Sean.

He shot her a glare. “Damn it, Tiff, I’m
thinking out loud, okay? And maybe somebody does need to state the
obvious. Like what is Forsyth really up to?”

“We saw it at RD, didn’t we?” Caleb said.
God, this was weird, talking to the guy who’d shot him in the head,
as if nothing had ever happened. “He’s building an army, trying to
figure out ways to control demons and make them fight for him.”

“Right. But now he’s graduated to kidnapping
people and moving enough bottled NHEs around for someone to take
notice.” Sean set the beer aside, picked up another slice of pizza
and just stared at it, like the answers might be spelled out in
pepperoni and onions. “But once he’s got a bunch of new demons,
then what? Is he planning on just sticking them in underground
bunkers like out at RD? It doesn’t seem very efficient—you have to
feed them, have to put guards on them, have to run power and
security systems and God knows what else. Not to mention the risk
of escape.”

Caleb’s stomach constricted around the pizza,
and he wished he hadn’t stuffed a whole pie in his face. “He must
need them for something. Fuck.”

Tiffany leaned forward and clasped her hands
in front of her, staring at them with a frown. “If Sean’s right,
this is worse than we thought. You don’t make an army unless you
plan on using it to attack something. But what?”

“Which is the million dollar question, isn’t
it?” Sean dropped the pizza slice back in the box without having
taken a bite. “One other thing—I don’t know if it means anything or
not, but Forsyth’s been working out of the Charleston office this
week instead of going back to RD. He took over Kaniyar’s
office.”

John stirred but didn’t look at Sean. “And
what have you told people about why she’s gone? Why we’re
gone?”

At least Sean didn’t ask where she was. Not
that they had any idea...so far as Caleb knew. Tiffany might. She
had to be talking to somebody on those late-night calls, after all.
But she played it close, and John hadn’t asked any questions, at
least in Caleb’s hearing.

Maybe he thought she wouldn’t answer. Maybe
she wouldn’t. What they didn’t know couldn’t be tortured out of
them, if things went sideways and they ended up in Forsyth’s
hands.

“I haven’t told them anything.” Sean
inspected the label on his beer can. “The official story is you’re
all on special assignment. Of course, Forsyth’s team came in and
made off with everyone’s computers, so I’m pretty sure no one
actually believes it. People have bugged me nonstop. Figure I’d
know the truth because we’re...we used to be friends. And because
of the bruises.” He gestured at his face. “Forsyth told me to take
a few days off, but I couldn’t stand the thought of just sitting in
the apartment.”

Caleb chewed on his lip. “If Forsyth is
hanging out here, does it mean whatever he’s planning will go down
in Charleston?”

“That’s crazy.” John shook his head. “How
does he expect to hide an operation in the middle of a city?”

“I can try sneaking into his office,” Sean
offered. “I don’t know, bang around on his computer some, see if I
can find anything? Or...I think one of the storage facilities is in
Atlanta, where the euthanization furnaces were supposedly located.
I could go down there, pretend I’m following up on some kind of
discrepancies in the shipping records. It would at least tell us
where the NHEs are going.”

Tiffany tapped one finger thoughtfully
against her lower lip. “All right. Here’s the plan. There are four
of us and two potential leads. I can get some damn good fake IDs,
but it will take a few days. I can also get a decryption program
for Forsyth’s computer. Sean, you’re taking Forsyth up on his offer
of a couple days off. I’m not giving you the opportunity to roll
over on us, intentionally or not. Once we have what we need, two of
us will head down to Atlanta and investigate the storage facility.
The other two will stay here and get into HQ.”

“Are you insane?” John let go of Caleb’s hand
and stood up. “We can’t go to HQ! We’ll be recognized.”

Tiffany glared at him. “No shit, dumb ass.
Which is why you and I are going to Atlanta. Sean isn’t in any
trouble yet. He can stroll right into HQ without anyone wondering a
thing. The empath guard at the gate won’t be able to get a hit off
Caleb. And Caleb can kill Sean without much effort if he betrays
us. It makes sense to send him to HQ.”

“No.” John took a step forward.

“Um, I’m pretty sure people are going to
recognize me,” Caleb said. “I mean, I kind of stand out a little
amidst all the suits.”

He didn’t like the grin Tiffany gave him.
“Exactly. Everyone sees the hair and the leather, and doesn’t even
register your face. A suit and a crew cut, and your own mother
wouldn’t recognize you.”

John looked faintly stricken. Caleb felt the
same. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to grow my hair out
like this?” And okay, it was kind of petty compared to everything
else at stake, but damn it, he hadn’t visited a barber since he was
ten.

Gray stirred.
“I can regrow it.”

But...oh fine.

“All right,” Caleb said. “Gray says he can
grow my hair back out. But I’ll need a few years of therapy to get
over the trauma of wearing a fucking tie.”

* * *

Three days later, John sat in the passenger
seat while Tiffany negotiated through Atlanta’s infamous rush hour
traffic.