Page 58 of Taken for Granite
Chloe gave a little snort. She didn’t say it, but Tas understood that Chloe’s education was why the sisters were tangled up with him. So strange to think that if Juniper made a different choice years ago, they would have never met. Someone else, or maybe no one at all, would have stolen his cage from underneath Agent Rhododendron’s nose.
“Blame TV and stop deflecting,” she said.
“Vicious little thing,” he muttered. “She is my mate.”
“And that’s like marriage?” Chloe added a handful of marshmallows to her cup. “That’s cool and all, but I haven’t seen Junie date, ever, and now one day she brings home a gargoyle husband? A girl has concerns.”
Tas glanced at the crowd milling around them, mindful that the Rose Syndicate could have an agent in the crowd. Chloe was remarkably indiscreet. Fortunately, the humans were focused on their meals and their own conversations. No one paid attention to them. “Please be mindful of who can overhear our conversations, and yes, a mating is like marriage.”
“’Til death do you part? Not like until you get sick of each other? Or a two-year contract?”
He snorted at the absurd notion. Human lives were like mayflies, brief and fleeting, and their matings reflected this. They might tell themselves their marital unions were for life, but often those bands only lasted a handful of seasons.
“For life,” he said.
“I knew you weren’t the type to hit it and quit it,” Chloe said.
Youth and their slang. Tas missed several generations of slang and did not regret the lapse.
“You’ll take us with you,” she said with a nod.
Tas set down the cup. “I cannot.”
Perfectly valid reasons sprang to mind. The environment on Duras was too harsh for soft human skin. If Juniper were ever caught in a dust storm, she’d be torn to shreds. Not to mention that many buildings and older cities were designed for wings. Tas would have to procure a dwelling on the ground and leave the family’s aerie, or have stairs installed. Only the aged and the injured required stairs. Chloe would require tutoring, but it would leave her isolated with few opportunities for socialization. Integrating into a Khargal school would be difficult because she would be behind the younglings roughly equivalent to her age. If Tas learned anything over the last few days, Chloe required frequent socialization.
“Bullshit. You’re scared,” Chloe said.
Tas narrowed his eyes. He disliked the way the teenager perceived his thoughts. “Have you considered what your life would be like on Duras? It will not be easy.”
“Have you considered what our lives will be like once you leave?” she retorted, twisting his words against him.
He imagined it would be the same as his: empty and devoid of joy. The idea of being without Juniper gutted him. It wasn’t just physical, though they certainly enjoyed a shared physical attraction. It was more.Shewas more. In a short while, the female became his world.
“Empty,” he admitted.
“We’ll be dead.” Chloe raised her brows and held his gaze. “We can’t go home. If the police don’t get us for Mickey’s murder, someone in his organization will. But that’s not the problem. The Syndicate will be after us. Those people,” she shuddered, “you don’t know what it was like. They just came in and started shooting. They didn’t ask any questions. They already knew.” Chloe added more marshmallows to her hot chocolate. By this point, the drink had to be all mallow, but Tas said nothing. Let the child have her sugar and comfort.
“These Syndicate people don’t strike me as the type of people who give up. They’ll chase us ’til we can’t run anymore,” she said.
She described persistent hunting, chasing prey until they depleted all their strength. Humans were very good at it and the Rose Syndicate was particularly skilled at chasing down his kind.
“They will only disturb you if they think you are hiding me,” he said.
“That’s the point. Unless you send them your itinerary, they don’t know you’re going home, which leaves Junie and me in a pickle. But you mate for life, so it’s not like you were fucking my sister for a week or two and planning on ditching her, right?”
Tas leaned back in the chair. Chloe had trapped him with words as surely as if she used chains, and he had not seen it coming. His wing buds itched and he longed to leave the confines of the building and fly. “You are awfully clever.”
Chloe snorted. “That’s what they tell me. So?”
The afternoon light emphasized the golden threads in her hair. For a moment, Tas could see the girl Juniper had once been, with large dark eyes, a soft, round face, and a too-sharp chin. Experience and worry wore her down, leaving something severe but quick to transform with a smile.
Chloe would mature into a female as striking as her sister, attracting undue attention with her unique beauty and her quick intelligence. Males would want to court her and Tas already felt protective. How he would tolerate courting males visiting their home, he had no idea. He added this to his list of concerns.
“As you say,” he said. “For your safety and because Juniper is my mate, you must come with me.Ifshe agrees.”
“Then you better convince her,” Chloe said, and drained her cup.
* * *
