Page 115 of The Mech Who Loved Me
"That's not technically true," Ava said, meeting his eyes. "I had... a little blood in my tea theotherday."
He looked at hersharply.
"Someone once asked me how I could expect him to accept me, when I couldn't even accept myself," she told him a little proudly, and it felt like she kicked him in theballocks.
He'd driven her to that? He felt alittleill.
"Well, I'm not going to lie to your friends," Ava pointed out, noticing the uneasy looks they gave her. "Oryou."
Maggie arched a brow, but nodded. "I can do tea. If you want blood you'll have to goelsewhere."
"Oh, no, I really don't prefer it—" Ava babbled as she scurried afterMaggie.
And then he was alone with Xander, still feeling like Ava had pulled the rug from underhisfeet.
"Bloody hell," Xander said, sitting on a barstool and crossing his arms over his chest. "I honestly don't know whattosay."
"All I'm going to do is suggest you treat Ava as you'd expect me to treat Maggie." There was a hint of growl in his voice. She'd defended him against Byrnes this morning,afterall.
Which was a hell of athought.
Xander held his hands up. "I'm not saying I dislike her. She's... not what I imagined, is all. She's your complete opposite in every way." He looked disgusted all of a sudden. "She looks like she'd faint at the sight ofblood."
"She's a crime scene investigator for the Nighthawks, and sometimes performs their autopsies. She won't faint, but she'd probably screw her nose up." He drummed his mech fingers on the bar. This wasn't an easy question to ask. Before he started working with COR, he'd not have flinched. These were his people; his friends. But he suddenly felt the distance between them, as though he was no longerthatman.
What would he do if Xander knew something about what the humanists were up to and wouldn'ttellhim?
Or worse, liedtohim?
"Spit it out," Xander said. "You've clearly got something onyourmind."
"What would you do," he asked Xander, "if you saw Maggie almost dying in front of you, and there wasn't a damned thing you could doaboutit?"
Xander flinched. "I don't know. Jaysus, K. That's a brutalthought."
"Because I do know what that feels like. A couple of days ago, I watched Ava come so close to dying it was a thin line. And it tore me to pieces. I can't let that happen ever again, do youunderstand?"
Xandernodded.
Kincaid rested his elbows on the bar, swallowing hard. "I hinted at a weapon that could destroy blue bloods the other night. Someone used it on Ava. And I'm wondering if I can trust you with information that could get the woman I love killed. I need to know you've got my backonthis."
There was a long moment of silence. "You're starting to worry me. Why does it feel like you want answers from me I might not want totellyou?"
"Because I do. I need to know what's going on in the humanist circles these days. I know you and Maggie are in the inner circles still. She mentioned the riots, and I warned her to stay outofthem."
"What's this got to do with yourweapon?"
"Because I think the people who have their hands on the weapon are using humanists to stirawar."
"I might have heard something...." Xander swore under his breath. "But you're asking me to betray my men to the blue bloods, K. Jaysus. I don't know if I candothat."
Since when have we been on oppositesides?
Since the moment Ava smiled at him that night in the GardenofEden.
"You believed in me when I had a dream," he told Xander, "a dream to escape the enclaves and gain the right for a man or woman to live life freely. And I led you to that freedom. Well, I have another dream now. A London where it doesn't matter if you are man, mech, verwulfen or blue blood. A London where all four races can survive side by side with equal rights, and forge their own futures. Peace, Xander. And not this wary mockery of it, but a truepeace.
"And someone wants to take that peace away. There's an Echelon lord who's formed this... this bloody secret society of blue bloods who want the old ways back. They call themselves the SOG, and they're the ones who created this weapon against blue bloods—their own race. They're planning on killing the Nighthawks, or any blue bloods that don't agree with them, in order to drive the remaining blue bloods who aren't quite sure which side of the fence they're on into a war againsthumans."
