Page 54 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
The silence made Damien turn toward them. Both men, big, glowering ginger and rangy, quirky blond, were watching him, apparently waiting for his decision. He had to blink the surreal tinge from the scene before he could think properly. No one had ever depended on him, for anything, certainly not to make decisions for them.
"My suggestion would be to arc around to the east." He pointed, describing a half circle in the air in front of him. "Get around whatever it is. Ditch the vehicles. Hike in from there. The Raptor's looking rough and the skimmer's older. So long as we're not heading toward whatever this is, we'll just look like another small band of outlanders. On foot, electronics disabled, we won't ping most systems."
"Don't like leaving our mobility behind." Blaze squinted at the Raptor as if it would offer an alternative.
Shudder clapped him on the shoulder. "We'll get in as close as we can. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Gonna be shoved up your ass if you don't move that hand," Blaze snarled.
"Taking me dry? Wouldn't be the first time."
Damien caught the hairpin turn in Blaze's mood just in time and shot out his arm to block when Blaze threw a punch at Shudder's head. He met Blaze's furious glare without flinching. "Blaze, breathe. Please."
The low growl in Blaze's chest didn't give him much hope, but suddenly the arm shoving against his relaxed, and Blaze turned away with a frustrated grunt.
"And you." Damien put a hand against Shudder's chest and pushed until Shudder backed up three steps. "You're angry with him. After all this time, you still are. But don't bait him. We need to focus on what's in front of us. Tear each other apart when we're done."
Shudder's cheerful façade slipped, his jaw tightening. "He deserves to have a new one ripped. Maybe a few. But you're right. We don't have time."
"When we've found the ends to all these trails, you'll have all the time in the world to straighten things out."
"You're a nice man, Damien." Shudder covered the hand still on his chest. "He doesn't deserve you."
Damien's hand suddenly felt trapped. He pulled it away, careful not to jerk it back. "We should… get going."
When he climbed into the Raptor, it was with a seething, silent Blaze. He still hadn't come back down from his fury. That much even Damien could see. But he had no idea how to fix it.
After a few minutes of angry, tight-jawed driving, during which Damien wondered if the steering wheel would survive Blaze's grip, he thought he'd better try something. "Blaze—"
"You like him, don't you?" Blaze grated out, his eyes unaccountably red-rimmed.
Damien wondered if there was a right answer. There seemed to him to be several wrong ones. "Yes."
"Of course you do. He's funny and gorgeous and fucking Robin Hood with perfect teeth and—"
"Blaze." Damien slid a hand across the seat to settle it on Blaze's thigh. "I do like him. But I don't have the urge to crawl under the blankets with him."
"Yeah?" Blaze slid a glance sideways.
"Yes."
"You wouldn't just say… no, you wouldn't." Blaze rolled his shoulders, still tense but apparently no longer close to some terrible breaking point. "Good. That's good."
Jealous. Blaze had been jealous. But Damien wasn't sure of whom or over whom. "You're still not over him."
"Oh, fuck, yes! Over him years ago. Over him the night he walked out on me. I don't have time for that shit."
The protestation was a little too heated, and Damien found himself more confused than when he'd started. At least Blaze seemed more himself again, and this was not the time to conduct experiments in social dynamics.
Of course, for him, there was never an appropriate time for that.
He shook off all the odd, tangled thoughts of Blaze, Shudder, pasts he had no part in, and maddening sexual yearnings to concentrate on directing again. The compound—he knew there would be one now, even if he didn't know its nature yet—was clearly a terminus for several trails. Tara's was less clear. It led here…but the trails were oddly confused. There were too many overlays. The jarring emotional content grew clearer as they closed in, clouding the trail lines.
Suddenly, whatever might or might not still lie between Shudder and Blaze faded into insignificance.
"Stop the car," Damien whispered, clutching his head.
"What now—shit! Damien!" Blaze powered down in record time, flung himself from the driver's seat, and jogged around to yank open the passenger side door. "You gonna hurl?"
