Page 33 of From the Noblest Motives
While Damien understood the leap of logic, and it was entirely likely, the one didn't necessarily follow the other. Though, yes, staying would have been foolish. "Who, Shudder?"
"Who arethey, you mean?" Shudder waited for his nod. "Oh good. I still speak fluent Damien. The people who hate me, I'd guess. The variaphobes in government. Someone like that. I don't have names, though. Mr. Assassin didn't give me his dossier. Rude."
That sounded more like Shudder. The meds must have been working.
Blaze hugged him hard. "Didn't you think a call about a lost kid out of the blue might be a trap, dummy?"
"Of course I knew it could be. That's why I went on my own. If there was any chance the kid was real, I couldn'tnotgo." Shudder heaved a sigh. "Just thought I'd always be able to get away if things went bad. Yeah, it was pretty stupid."
"No. Just very you," Damien said softly, and Shudder's laugh might as well have been a sob.Somewhere safe. We need to get him somewhere safe. "We can't take him on the hover platform."
"Yeah, not quite big enough." Blaze set Shudder back against the sofa so he could pull up a map display on his palm phone. "I'll go back for the truck. Floyd, it's a big ask, but could you get them here?"
He pointed to a spot slightly west of Meemaw Sekhet's village, where one of the old interstates still showed as viable.
"For Mr. McKenzie, do my best." Floyd gave a sharp nod. "We don't use mechanicals out here, but I take them to Jericho."
"Who's that?"
Floyd pushed his hat back with a slow smile. "Not a who. A where, hunter man. We keep some things in common there. I'll take them. Won't tell you, though."
A muscle in Blaze's jaw twitched, and for one anxious moment, Damien thought he would start shouting. Instead he shrugged, with bad grace but still a de-escalation. "Whatever. As long as you get them there. It'll be a faster trip back, since I can take the roads instead of hunting through the woods and shit, but I'll still need time. Let's say meet by sunrise."
With that, Blaze took his board and his pack and left, thunderclouds riding behind his eyes.Worried. I am, too, and I didn't even say to be careful before he left. Maybe that would've been a ridiculous thing to say, and it would've sounded like doubt instead of concern.
Floyd told them to sit tight while he saw to a couple of things, and Damien took Blaze's place on the sofa. Shudder made a discontented sort of sound, scooting toward him. The creeping feeling along his skin that Damien had when people got too close didn't manifest. Though he knew that about Shudder, of course. He still held his breath in anticipation of the awful feeling until he could be certain. Instead of jerking away as he normally would, he set his arm along the back of the cushions so Shudder could nestle against him.
"How are you doing?" Damien asked, though even through their clothes, the decrease in Shudder's temperature was noticeable.
"Better. So much better. I'm sorry, beautiful. For dragging you into this."
"You didn't drag. Blaze and I came charging in."
Shudder sighed against him. "It's good to see you. But why are you together? I mean… I'd heard…"
"We were on a job together when we saw your arrest on the newscast."
"Oh. Did Blaze say he told me so?"
He loves you. He was frantic. "He said something about it finally happening." Damien cleared his throat, since it suddenly had a rock lodged in it. "He was… worried."
"He does still worry. It's nice." Shudder yawned and slid down so his head lay in Damien's lap, his poor, ravaged head. "You don't twitch around me. That's nice, too."
"You're… Dr. Parma calls you buffers. She's one. You. Blaze. Something about you blankets my nerves. My fight response. But buffers are rare. I've only met four."
Damien explained a bit about how that felt and what a relief it was, but he wasn't certain how much Shudder heard. He had fallen asleep.
8
A STRANGE AND PRIVATE PLACE
Jericho, it turned out, was a hummock island in the swamp with what appeared to be an ancient hangar perched on its flat top. Not a practical or expected place for one—Shudder wouldn't have been able to navigate even his small skimmer clear of the trees—but these old buildings cropped up in unlikely places. When it was new, on an airfield, the land would have been dry and clear of trees.
Floyd beached his coracle and helped Shudder out of it, since he'd asked to walk. Not that he could on his own, but help was better than being carried. Woozy and shaky, he managed the five steps to a nice big boulder, where he sat. Whatever Damien had given him had doused the fever for now, but he didn't have any illusions about how ill he was.
Yep. Everything's all wavy. Nowhere close to well. His head ached, his leg ached, and various ribs and joints ached, though it was better than having bone sticking through his skin. He hoped never to go through that again.
While Floyd opened a series of padlocks for the hangar, Damien came to stand by… no, to hover beside Shudder. His expression blank, he still radiated concern, and Shudder didn't miss the way Damien's hand would reach for him and pull back, twitch and pull back, as if he were uncertain whether comfort would be welcome.
