Page 28 of Golden Eagle

7

They split up after breakfast with the intent of searching for Gustav’s trail.

“See you tonight?” Jamie asked Lanny at the door, just before he and Trina headed off in the other direction.

“What’s tonight?” Trina asked, and it was probably good Lanny’s back was toward her, the way his eyes went suddenly, comically wide.

He shrugged and managed a casual, “Yeah.” He turned to Trina and they walked off toward her unmarked car. “Hitting the gym,” he told her. “I’m gonna get our young Jamie super jacked.”

She snorted.

Alexei stuck his hands in his pockets and started the opposite direction, Jamie hustling to catch up. “That was stupid.”

“Shit, I know,” Jamie said with a wince. “I forgot.” He chewed his lip a moment as they walked, expression troubled. He had such a conscience, this boy. So very, very young as an immortal, still doubting, still resistant to his own nature.

But Alexei felt a certain softness for that kind of doubt. “You think Lanny’s being foolish,” he guessed.

“I think Trina’s gonna be really pissed when she finds out he’s been fighting humans for money.”

“Weak humans,” Alexei said. “Who want money. They fight willingly.”

“With no chance of ever winning,” Jamie said, voice growing frustrated. “It’s not a fair fight. Lanny’s stronger than all of them, and he’s absolutelydestroyingthese poor guys. Where’s the sport in that?”

“You think he does it for sport?” Alexei stepped around a letter-carrier who was opening a mailbox, and dodged a woman’s leashed, snapping Yorkie. “He’s doing it for fun,” he continued when he and Jamie came together again. “Because he’s strong, and because it feels good to put that strength to use.”

When he snuck a glace, he found Jamie gaping at him, horrified.

“Don’t look so innocent. You fed from a man’s throat.”

“Yeah, but – but,” Jamie sputtered. “That was – that was different!”

“Because that man was a rapist?”

“Well…yeah!” He closed his eyes a moment, and made a frustrated sound – and nearly ran into someone handing out fliers. Once he’d straightened, and apologized, and caught up – Alexei had kept walking during the awkward giving of sorrys and excuses – he let out a deep sigh and said, “If you’re a lot stronger than the people around you, you shouldn’t abuse that. Maybe that’s just what I believe, but it’s important. And Lanny’s not playing fair. He’s taking advantage. I don’t like that.”

“And yet,” Alexei said, voice going sing-song, “you play his bookie every night.”

No comment. A glance proved Jamie had caught his lower lip between his teeth, chewing it unhappily, a fang glinting in the sunlight.

Alexei relented and put an arm around his shoulders as they walked. “You are very sweet.”

Jamie made a half-hearted attempt to shrug him off.

“You are. Just like my father.” Bitterness rose, a sudden, choking tide of it. “And look where that got him.”

Jamie looked at him, eyes wide – he could feel it. But he didn’t look back, steering Jamie down an alley.

“Here. I want to show you something.”

Jamie tried to hold back, but Alexei pushed him on. “Show me what?” Less curious, more hostile.

“A place I’ve been going to. You’ll like it.”

That earned a dramatic sigh, but Jamie stopped resisting and went along.

In the bald daylight, the entrance to Nameless looked less sinister and more sad. A gritty, greasy, falling-apart shell of a building, its floor littered with detritus better left unidentified. The hatch opened with a groan.

Jamie peered down into it, and then cast Alexei a flat look across the dark opening. “You’re not serious.”

---