Chapter 8
CHAPTER
EIGHT
RISK
Arc will be home soon, and he won’t be alone.
“What is that for?” Chrys asks as I fill a large bowl with water and set it down on the floor.
“We’re going to have a guest.”
Shock looks down at it and says, “I haven’t seen Faith bringing over Mr. Jones.”
“She isn’t. Arc made a friend.”
Chrys pokes me. “Who’s Faith, who’s Mr. Jones, and what do you mean, friend?”
“Faith is Breaker’s bondmate. Mr. Jones is her zurgle, and I mean… friend. I don’t know what else to call him.”
The door opens before I have to come up with a real answer, and Arc steps aside, letting an enormous green zurgle in.
It views us all with amethyst eyes and sits, poofy tail wrapped around its paws, like it’s waiting for introductions.
“Amethyst.” Arc snaps his fingers. “That was the word I couldn’t remember.”
“I thought zurgles were like house cats?” Chrys scoots behind me, holding my arm and using me as a shield. “That is not a cat. That is a freaking lion.”
“This is Kissu.” Arc puts his hand on the zurgle’s head, patting. “He is going to stay with us until he decides he doesn’t want to be here anymore.”
“Kissu, this is Shock, Risk, and hiding behind him is Chrys.” He looks down at the zurgle and huffs a single breath of a laugh. “I will tell her, but she might not believe me.”
She will.
I don’t know what he’s about to say, but I know that Chrys will believe him.
“Kissu wants me to assure you that he will not hurt you.”
Arc wouldn’t have brought him home if he would.
“He’s never met a… wiffan?” Arc looks down at Kissu and shakes his head. “Apparently, that’s what they call human women. He’s never met one before, only seen you from a distance. He would like to smell you if that’s alright?”
“He wants to smell me?” She swallows and then says, “Okay.”
Slipping out from behind me, she looks at me and then Shock, and I know she’s checking to see if either of us would warn her against it. Kissu’s not lying, he won’t hurt her.
“Hello, Kissu.” She holds out her hand and he pads forward, big paws making soft sounds on the stone. “I’m Chrys.”
I take one step back, sitting on a stool by the counter to watch them as Arc starts to disassemble his gear.
Kissu is the biggest zurgle I’ve seen. But he’s too small to actually be a lion.
Sniffing her hand, he makes little happy puffing sounds and then butts his head against her and makes her pet him.
Luckily for Kissu, she likes him. She laughs and takes over the movement so he doesn’t have to keep moving his head in such unnatural ways.
“What happened out there?” Shock asks. “It can’t have been too eventful if you had time to stop at a zurgle adoption center.”
“Kissu was alone in Calisan.”
“So, he’s the second stray you’ve brought home in a week,” Chrys says, scrubbing at Kissu’s ruff and making him purr.
I have the pleasure of feeling the gut-wrenching dread and disgust before and after Arc tells us what he found.
“We almost caught them before we got back to the city, but they disappeared. Kilo, Riann, and I combed the satellite imagery and the road cameras… we can’t figure out where they went. The others… CSS is watching and waiting. They know where some of them went, but they’re still making plans.”
“They won’t do anything until they’re sure the kids are safe, right?” Chrys asks, now fully on the floor with Kissu. “And anyone who might be involved unwillingly?”
“That’s the main reason they’re holding off.”
“And the other?” Shock asks.
“CSS wants to see if this is temporary. If everyone goes back to Calisan when they think the proverbial coast is clear, then CSS hopes they can question all of them, instead of just a few.”
Arc looks sharply toward Kissu and Chrys and when I see why, I also stiffen. The zurgle locks its mouth around her arm and stands.
“What are you—?”
Before she can finish the question, Kissu drags her across the floor, and she looks up at us from her back with an incredulous smile as Kissu drops her at Arc’s feet and then turns, padding over to the water bowl.
“He brought you to me for safekeeping.” Arc helps her up and then glances at me. “Kissu says thanks for the water.”
“How did he know it was me?”
There’s a pause before Arc snorts. “The bowl smells like you.”
When he’s done, we let Kissu prowl through the outpost. Arc looks at us blearily.
“You’re home just in time for us to leave,” I tell him.
He knew already.
“I’ll make sure he goes straight to bed,” Chrys promises, her hand on his chest, already pushing him toward the back hall.
He looks tired enough he’ll probably do anything she tells him to without question.
“Do they know about Kissu?” I ask before they can get too far away.
“Drift, Kimba, and Kilo do. But Kilo should be at home, sleeping.” Yawning, he says, “He’ll probably do his big reveal thing when he thinks it will cause the most stir.”
“Undoubtedly.”
I listen as they head to the bedroom, Chrys asking if he’s ordered food for Kissu and if litter boxes are a thing here.
Kissu will be fine. Chrys will be fine. Arc will be fine. Shock and I are the ones about to hope that monsters call us out into the Zone before we actually get to Drift’s.
SHOCK
They’re looking for Arc.
Risk and I pass through the other gathered brothers and their mates and all of them are confused when our third does not arrive.
There’s a murmur underneath the other conversations that can’t even be drowned out by the burbling of two weeuns babbling goey words at each other from Andrea and Cindy’s laps.
Even the brothers on the other side of the caldera, watching from the screen behind the in-person crowd, look for him.
I ignore them, going directly to Kimba.
“Is she ready yet?” she asks quietly. I know Trench will hear her, but as long as she’s vague, I’m not worried.
“No.” That's all I’ll say here and now. “Arc stayed at the outpost. He said you’d understand, given how long his special assignment was.”
She nods. “He and Kilo dropped by on their way back. We’re aware of what happened.”
When I turn back, Trench watches me with more intensity than anyone else. Hopefully the report on Calisan will be enough to keep him from asking other questions.
Our nearly late arrival means almost everyone is already in a conversation and I can join Risk in our normal seats without much scrutiny. We’re just slightly separated from everyone else here. Almost like we had always left space for Chrys to fill.
“I wish Fault was here.” Risk takes a deep breath and crosses his arms. “He wouldn’t be looking at us like we’ve lost something.”
“It’ll happen sooner than anyone else expects it.” I don’t know why yet, but something makes Drift mad enough to break his own rule and drag Fault into these meetings.
Hazard doesn’t keep his distance like the others. He comes around behind the sofa and leans on the back between us.
“Coffee?” he asks, holding the can out.
“No, thank you.” I know he’s looking for a reaction. Neither of us will give it to him.
“You sure? You’ve got plenty in your fridge at home.”
Others hear him and they look at us, confusion betraying the questions they haven’t asked.
I look at him, my jaw tight. “I’m sure.”
He laughs as he walks away. He wanted to pay me back for not sharing our secrets.
Luckily Kimba joins us and all attention shifts to her.
She says something to Drift and then sits in the section of the wraparound sofa I’ve begun to think of as the command point.
The rest of us are in the pit; we’re all trapped in here at one time or another. I glance at the others. Some of us more often, some less.
“Thank you for coming in today,” Kimba says, shifting herself into a more comfortable position. “We have some Company news as well as other points to cover.”
“I know you’ve noticed that Arc and Kilo aren’t here. They—”
“I’m here,” Kilo says, yawning, and making more than half of us curse.
“I hate when you do that,” Cindy says, scooting her and her weeun closer to Core.
Andrea, on the other hand, who is seated right next to him, laughs and bounces the weeun in her arms. “If you always assume he’s there, he can’t really surprise you.”
“And,” Kilo says, holding up a finger while he yawns again. “If you think I’m there and you tell me to get lost, I will. I respect boundaries.”
“Can we make our entire outpost a boundary?” Laurel asks, also yawning and glaring at him for it. “Because I do not need you lurking in my home.”
“If I don’t have your access codes, I can’t get into your place.” He smiles at her. “Most of you are safe.”
We’re safe because he doesn’t have the codes, and even if he snuck in, Arc would know he was there.
“Fine,” Kimba says. The word is sharp enough to pull everyone’s attention but doesn’t sound aggravated. “You’ll have noticed Arc isn’t here. That’s because he did as he was told and went home to rest.”
She goes through the information that Arc found and then updates them on the crashed ship.
There’s a big commotion when they finally turn to the screens to introduce Roxy—Echo and Ion’s new bondmate.
Plans to meet up are made and I watch the interaction, wondering what kind of fervor Chrys’ entrance to the group will cause.
I haven’t seen that yet.
Jessica and Laurel distract me through most of the meeting. They are very like their sister, but they are so different too.
They’re both going to be worried, and then they’re going to be mad.
The meeting itself isn’t productive. I already know everything Kimba and Drift have to tell us. And I can’t ask Roxy, Echo, or Ion how they wound up bonded as three. No one else is rude enough to ask it outright either.
By the time Kimba wraps up, the only thing I have learned is that Andrea trusts Kilo with her weeun, despite how tired he is, and Cindy has plans to bake everyone a batch of something called Nanaimo bars before the next meeting.
I’m more than ready to leave when the others start to pack up, but that isn’t in the proverbial cards.
Jess barely waits for the others to leave before she rushes straight to me.