Page 70 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
"What about the truth?" Blaze cocked his head at Damien.
"The truth." Damien laughed, and it was a hollow, brittle sound, boots treading on broken glass in a sodden, midnight alley. "Truth is often a product of perspective. Rarely pure and never simple. We've all found our own. You, me, Shudder. We've carved truth out of pain and rejection, out of who we are and who we can't be, no matter how hard we try. We've forced truth out of lives that could have otherwise crushed us. Let these kids have theirs. Just because someone has found a happier solution, don't ruin it for them."
"Ah." Blaze swallowed hard, his throat constricted. This was the Damien the world never saw, a man of desperate, flaring passions. A man whose beliefs had been shattered but who had picked them up and reassembled them into a tightly packed, closely guarded work of prickly art. "So what are you telling the Guild?"
"One day I'll have to let you read my contracts." Damien slumped in his chair, scrubbing both hands over his face. "I don't do contract work directly for the Guild. Not anymore. Debrief sessions… more than one turned unpleasant."
Did you go after Sledge with a shovel?Blaze entertained the image because he was enjoying it but didn't ask out loud. "Okay. So who gets all the details?"
"Dr. Parma receives my reports. For Federal jobs, we work with an assigned agent who also receives joint reports. This is not a Federal contract. I've never lied in a report. But there are things I haven't said. Things I won't say, in this case."
"I wasn't talking about giving alocation," Shudder offered softly, his gaze on his sheets. "But the feds, they'll find these people, these kids, eventually. They're not mobile like my band. They're not safe in secret."
Blaze dared to take Damien's hand, and those often-twitchy fingers settled quietly in his. "Maybe. Maybe not. But he's right. We advertise they're out here, we guarantee they get dragged away."
"I could—"
Damien glared, a muscle in his jaw jumping. "You could what? Protect them? From Utah?"
"No." Shudder whispered. "No, I…" He closed his eyes and was quiet a long moment. "Are either of you thinking of coming back? Staying on?"
"Nah." Blaze waved a hand in dismissal. "Not my kind of place. They'd kick me out soon, anyway."
Damien squeezed his fingers. "Our truth, it's still out there. For all three of us. For different reasons, but none of us belong here."
"Smart and pretty. No wonder he's like a puppy around you," Shudder murmured.
His eyes were still closed, so he missed the flash of pain in Damien's eyes. Blaze sure as hell didn't.
"Tara—Dryad—said there were a few kids here who had parents to go back to. Most of the kids the lab took had no one. That seems to be one of the criteria. Kids from the state homes and foster families. But a few have families. Poor ones I guess they thought were powerless. Doesn't mean their parents love them any less." Damien heaved a long breath. "I'll come back for those kids. Get them home. Admit that I found them out in the wilds, which is a species of truth. But after the labs. We have to get those kids out first."
Blaze didn't miss theIinstead ofweregarding coming back to the valley for kid retrieval. Argue about that later, Emerson. A lot can happen between now and then.
Shudder folded his hands in his lap, looking laughably proper. "So now we plan?"
"Tomorrow." Damien patted his shoulder. "Dryad will meet us here in the morning. We'll all be in better shape for thinking by then."
"Oh? Is Blaze getting a brain transplant?" Shudder called after them.
Blaze flipped him off behind Damien's back, relieved to hear Shudder laugh.
Outside, instead of heading back toward their cabin, Damien wandered up the slope. He settled on a flat rock and patted the space beside him.
"I'm still wearing blankets."
"It's not as if you look bad in them." Damien tipped his head back to offer a smile-quirk. "Pretend you're a Roman-era Londoner or something."
"They wore blankets?" Blaze settled on the sun-warmed stone with a huff and stretched his legs in front of him.
"I have no idea." Without taking his eyes from the mountaintops, Damien reached over and twined their fingers together. "I'd like… Could we just sit for a bit? Watch the sunset?"
Blaze leaned in to smooth the hair behind Damien's ear. "Of course. Only until my ass starts to freeze, though."
"We can't have that." Damien's fingers moved restlessly, stroking along Blaze's. "I do this at home when the weather's good. Stop at the end of the day. Just stop. And watch. It's like the colors are bleeding up from the world into the sky."
High clouds stippled the sky above the mountains, slowly drinking in shades of purple and gold. "It's beautiful.A grapy dusk."
Damien leaned into him, snuggling closer when Blaze wrapped an arm around him. "Are you quoting?"
