Page 68 of Defiance
I was poised to argue, but bit my lip. “I won’t ask.”
Novak grinned. “Wise of you, sunset.”
I brushed my fingers down his neck. “So these aren’t scales…”
“We call it plume mail. They’re hardened with a natural electrical current. I don’t know why they’re soft when you touch them.”
“All this time I’ve been wasting on shrimp eyes, a fecking dragon jackal eel birdman has been walking ten paces behind me. Your biology is blasphemous.”
Novak smirked. “Study me all you want.Afterwe mark where you woke up and get somewhere safe.”
When the BDRE was ready, he punched the center. It fit like a custom-tailored glove, covering me from neck to toes in protective black armor. Novak held my hair aloft as it snapped into place, cutting my ruined tunic to ribbons.
“Now, do you have the strength to show me where you woke up?” he asked.
“Aye, and I think it’s the sort of thing Ferulis was looking for.”
31
Bjorek Dasin and four other agents joined them soon after Charlie showed Novak the freezer she’d been stashed in with two of her own bodies and one Imani with frost glittering around her nose and eyelashes. It was in power saving mode, flooding heat into its extremities to fight off frostbite with the end of its charge.
He studied the facsimile of his brother’svirawith calculating interest. Her scent was imprinted on hiscoleara,and like Charlie’s imposter, the scent was missing key environmental markers found in human silk and teeth and nails. He breathed in the drying aqueous humor around her eyeballs. Rather than a natural solvent, all he detected was a saline lubricant.
While seeing his brother’svirawas disturbing, Charlie’s dolls made his heart thump and his eyes wild. They were crumpled on the floor, huddled together back to chest. One had a stitch in her brow, her eyes open a sliver and staring at the darkness in resignation. These didn’t smell any more complete than the Imani doll, but their pose… These two dolls knew they weredying,not powering down for long term storage. They had living code.
Novak couldn’t look at them for long. He couldn’t turn away from Charlie either, afraid that if he didn’t keep her in his sights that she’d vanish. What if she was a ghost and her real body lay at his feet lifeless?
He pulled her from the freezer in front of the others with hiscolearaburied in her living scent and saturating the top of his muzzle with the oils of her silk. She murmured comfortingly, brushing down the plumage that had hardened again in the presence of others until the panic subsided and they wilted lovingly for her. Though he’d been able to feel the pressure and rasp of hands through his feathers’ quills before, her embrace now overwhelmed him, branded directly into the nerves beneath his flesh.
Novak had the deep, instinctive impression that no one else would be able to touch him like that.
“Clean-up is underway up top,” Dasin said, clearing his throat to interrupt. The other agents focused on their jobs, sparing them only a glance now and then as they removed the dolls on hovering gurneys.
“Clean-up for what, exactly?” Charlie asked.
Neither advenan answered, but Charlie knew. She had to. Novak had been transparent about his work from the beginning. She didn’t push, instead taking his hand and leading him into the lift.
When they exited the building amidst a buzz of activity, the courtyard was lined in white bodybags. Charlie looked on with a solemn stare, but her shoulders were straight and her chin was high. She gave Novak’s hand a squeeze.
“Thank you,” she said quietly as another bag was laid out next in line.
A commotion at the front of the campus caught his ear, drawing their attention. Shouting and scuffling, a venandi growl that could rattle the bones from a distance.
“No, I have to tell them, let me in!”
Charlie’s eyes widened. She grabbed Novak by the feathers. “That’s Sath.”
Without another word, she strode across the courtyard. Novak reached for her wrist and stopped her first.
“Are you sure you want to see him?” he asked quietly. Charlie yanked her hand away with a crease in her brow.
“Of course, I do.”
Novak reached for her hand again, more gently this time. His tail wrapped around her elbow too. He wasn’t fond of letting her walk away just yet.
“He was with Caher and Guei in the palace. He was the one holding you when you were sedated at the ball.”
Charlie blew a curl out of her face and shook him off. “Well now I definitely want to see him,” she growled, turning on her heel. She walked like a warrior into battle, the sun glancing off her wild silk like newly minted copper.
