Transitional Arrangements Page 3

  “Cheat?” Jesi said.

  “Cheat,” Parido agreed, grinning.

  Lord, I wanted to smack both of them.

  Chapter 3 — Transitional Arrangements

  “This would be one of your better plans, would it, Parido?” I muttered.

  “Shhh.”

  “Why? Ajui can’t hear me.”

  “No, but I can and you have an annoyingly uncultured voice. Besides, you’re distracting your boyfriend and neither of you have the brain power to spare.”

  I growled under my breath. Across the room, behind the door, Jesi put a finger to his lips. I blew him a kiss and he gave me a tired grin. I’d wanted to wait—hell, I didn’t want this at all—but Parido said it had to be this evening, and Jesi had overruled me. All I could do was help make this nutty idea work, but since success depended on Jesi being able to create mental shields after an intensive hour long-coaching session from Parido, I’d have been a tiny bit more confident that this wouldn’t end with my lover’s brains splattered across the carpet if Jesi wasn’t exhausted. Which he was. I’d pointed this out several times, but no one was listening to me.

  “Why is he staying in this dive? Doesn’t say much for your retirement plan.”

  “He’s hiding. Shut up, Langse. This plan has only a fifty-three percent probability of succeeding and every word you utter is shaving points off that figure.”

  “Fifty-thr—”

  He held up a warning finger, then nodded to Jesi. “Get ready—he’s on the stairs.”

  Jesi had two things going for him—surprise, and his greater height and strength. If Ajui wasn’t as drunk as Parido had assessed him to be, or Jesi was leaking a warning from unshielded thoughts, then there would be no surprise, and even with Jesi’s skill and build, Ajui was no easy mark. We’d fought him before, and he’d killed our own people, at least two bare-handed. Small he might be, but he had a nasty sting. Parido had given Jesi a rundown on all the weapons he would be carrying, and Jesi had removed all the ones in this room, but even with all that...it was fifty-three percent. If Parido had let that little fact slip while he and Jesi were cooking this up, I’d have pounded the bastard into the ectoplasmic dirt. Or tried to, anyhow. Too late for that now.

  I heard fumbling at the lock, and then the door swung open.

  “Sloppy, Tinu, sloppy,” Parido muttered and I agreed, but Ajui’s slackness gave Jesi an edge he needed. As soon as the door closed, he was on Ajui faster than my eyes could track him, looped chains thrown over the bastard, and pulled them taut. Ajui fought a lot harder than I thought he had the muscle for, considering Parido said he’d packed away more than a bottle of hard liquor in three hours, but Jesi was driven by more than physical strength, and kept control of him. In the end it was short and dirty and finished with Ajui right where we needed him to be—on the floor, bound, and weaponless.

  “Great, now cut his throat,” I said.

  “Do you mind?” Parido gritted out.

  Ajui, who couldn’t hear either of us, still understood his situation. “What’re you waiting for, pansy boy? Too gutless to kill in cold blood?”

  Jesi drew out his knife—his big knife—yanked Ajui’s head back by his long blond hair, and laid the blade along the pale, exposed neck. “Not that it isn’t a temptation, Ajui, but I’m not here to kill you. Yet.”

  “Careful, Gonlimi—don’t lower your shields—he’s still a lot more dangerous like that than you are.” Parido had reluctantly explained that while telepaths couldn’t control people directly, they could do a lot of damage just because they could directly address the primal part of the brain—they could kill by creating a big enough shock or panic. I had to hope Jesi’s brand-new and untested shields protected him enough from that.

  Jesi gave Parido the barest nod. Ajui spat out a strand of hair that was caught in his mouth, apparently unconcerned about the knife. “So? Give me the message and then fuck off.”

  “The message is—Keril Parido needs you.”

  I don’t think any of us were ready for what happened next. Ajui began to howl and thrash like a mad thing, like he was fitting or something. Jesi, who was sitting on his legs, was nearly thrown off and would have been if he’d weighed just a little less.

  “Fuck it, Ajui, calm down!” He grabbed the hair again and shook Ajui like a naughty pet, but Ajui just kept it up. Was this some kind of weird reaction to drugs? Parido said he was taking something, though he’d said they were sedatives, not stimulants. “Damn it, shut up! Parido! What the hell is wrong with him?”

  Beside me, Parido’s lips were pressed tight together and his eyes was firmly fixed on the thrashing banshee in front of him. “Ride it out,” he said hoarsely. “Just don’t let him up and don’t, whatever you do, drop your shields yet.”

  It went on a hell of a lot longer than I would have thought Ajui’s skinny, drunk body had strength for, and Jesi needed to deal with this like he needed another anus. But he hung on grimly, while we could only watch. Finally, after much, much too long, Ajui’s struggles died down. Jesi was still cautious, I was glad to note, and still had his knife out. “You done?” he said, shaking Ajui by the hair again.

  “Kill me, you prick! Don’t come to my home and taunt me. Just get it over and done with. I never did this to any of your people.”

  “I’m not taunting you. Look, three hours ago, I’d have thought the same as you if someone had come to give me a message from Nevo.”

  “Who the fuck is Nevo?”

  “Langse. Nevo Langse. You know, the guy your people killed nearly two weeks ago?”

  “Don’t remember. We kill so many,” he said, a nasty smile on his face.

  He was trying to provoke Jesi, but it wasn’t working. “Must be nice not to know their names,” he said calmly.

  He looked over at us—more specifically at Parido with a ‘now what?’ expression. “Tell him that you know he’s a telepath,” Parido said, “and you have shields, but you will allow him to view the upper contents of your thoughts. Put your knife back against his neck—and stay on his legs. He’s still trying to get away from you—or make you kill him. At this point, I can’t tell what he’s up to.”

  Jesi did as he was told, and jerked Ajui’s head painfully hard for good measure. Ajui sneered, his mouth twisting in an ugly way. “Shields? You got no shields worth shit, boy.”

  “No, but I do have a knife and I’ll know if you go further than I’ve given you permission for.”

  “Nice one,” Parido murmured. I was pretty sure Jesi was winging it now.

  “Why would I want to look through your midget size brain mass, punk?”

  “The name’s Gonlimi, Ajui. Jesi Gonlimi. Just so you know who you’ve killed, if it comes to that.” Ajui smirked. I bet he already knew Jesi’s name. “And the reason you need to look is to see what I can at this very moment.” Then he turned and stared at me and Parido, his expression blank.

  I knew exactly when Ajui had seen us, because he began to thrash again. “Liar! It’s faked up! Get off me, Gonlimi, or I’ll fry your fucking synapses!”

  “If you could do that, you’d have done it. It’s no fake,” Jesi said. I loved that about him—he could keep his cool when I was already bringing my boot back to kick some jerk in the nuts. “I know it’s hard to believe—but improbable or not, that’s your boss and my lover sitting there. Say something, Parido!”

  “Tinu, if you weren’t the only thing standing between me and being expunged, I’d tell Gonlimi to use that knife on you as a mercy killing.”

  “Way to go, Parido. I can see you were the motivational coach on your team,” I muttered.

  Jesi seemed a little stunned by the distinctly cold words, but it had entirely the opposite effect on Ajui, who grinned. “I knew you weren’t dead, Keril!”

  “Oh, I’m dead, which is all that’s saving you from an arse kicking, but unfortunately, I’m reliant on these two goons for communication purposes. So don’t kill Gonlimi until we’re done, all right?”

>   I punched him as hard as I ecto-fucking-plasmically could. “No killing at all, you fuck!”

  “I never said anything about after, Langse,” he said, rubbing his jaw as if I’d actually hurt him, which I doubted. “Mind you, if Gonlimi could take him down this easy, I’d say the probability is no more than eighty percent that Tinu would win.”

  “Eighty! More like forty!”

  “Gentlemen, if you don’t mind,” Jesi said. “Parido, can I get off your boyfriend now?”

  “B-Boyfriend?” I stuttered, staring at him, then Parido, in shock.

  “Of course. You think Ajui went that crazy over a team-mate?”

  “Eeeuw,” I said, leaning back from Parido. “Now there’s an image I don’t need.”

  “You think I’m ecstatic at the idea of Gonlimi buried balls deep in your low-rent arse, Langse?”

  I smirked at him. “What makes you think he tops?” Parido gagged. I just smiled. Stupid man.

  There was a petulant whine from the psycho on the ground. “Does anyone remember that I’m chained up with a knife-wielding lunatic on my back?”

  “I’m not a lunatic unless you piss me off,” Jesi said, putting his knife away and climbing off the man. “I’m going to help you up, but I’m not unchaining you until you hear your lover out, and you should remember that if you kill me, that’s the last chance you have to hear or see Parido. Tell him,” he ordered the bastard next to me.

  “It’s true, Tinu. Behave. It’s important.”

  “Still giving me orders, Keril. Isn’t that supposed to stop when you’re dead? What makes you think I’ve been hanging around, crying my eyes out?” He grunted as Jesi pulled him upright, and then shoved him into the grimy armchair. He gave Jesi the evil eye for that, then sneered at Parido. “Well?”

  “Because I’ve been watching you, Tinu.”

  And damn it if his expression didn’t just collapse. The little prick started to cry, really quiet, trying to hide his face from all of us. Jesi stood and watched him for a bit, then he pulled out his own spotless handkerchief, gripped Ajui’s head and made him turn, then wiped his face with tender care. I sure hoped he was going to burn that thing when he got home. “Leave me alone,” Ajui growled, but spoiled the effect by hiccupping.

  “Sure. After.” Jesi put the handkerchief back in his pocket, then turned to look at us. “The floor’s yours, Parido.” The only other chair was a rickety metal thing at a rickety metal table—if Ajui had spent a month living like this, no wonder he needed to drink. Jesi’s plan made more sense than this—then I remembered Parido’s remark about ‘hiding’. Something else was going on here.

  Jesi pulled up the crappy chair and sat on it, making sure he kept his eyes on Parido so Ajui could see him. Even knowing he was tired, and probably still thinking suicide made more sense than not, he was every inch the leader I’d trusted and respected and loved all this time, which made the desertion of our friends and team-mates even more puzzling. But now wasn’t the time to go into that.

  Parido motioned me to come with him, then walked over to Ajui and cupped his teary face with his hand. Ajui jerked as he realised he couldn’t feel his lover’s touch but Parido ignored his reaction. “Hmmm. You need to quit drinking and dry out. And you better stop taking those sedatives—they’re messing up your reaction time. I’ve seen ESF operatives fight better than that.” A deadly insult, I could tell from Ajui’s disgusted reaction.

  “You just come back to nag my arse, Keril? And why do you need that creep holding your hand? Get off him, you fucker.”

  I smiled sweetly, then did as he said. He gasped as Parido disappeared. “That’s why I have to hold his greasy little hand, you fucker. Now be nice or I’ll tell Jesi to kick you in the balls.” I put my hand back on Parido’s arm, and I didn’t miss the relief in Ajui’s eyes. He’d been suffering as much as Jesi had. See me not give a shit. Maybe I’d get Jesi to kick him in the nuts anyway. It’d make me laugh, for sure.

  “Tinu, accept that we need them, and ignore them,” Parido snapped. Ajui gave him a hurt look, but Parido, such a nice sensitive man, clearly didn’t give a damn about offended feelings, and launched straight into the story.

  This time I kept quiet, listening for inconsistencies that might give me a clue to what Parido’s real game was—because I was sure he was playing something. But the tale was essentially the same as what he’d told us, and Ajui didn’t seem to think there was the slightest thing odd about it. In fact, it was almost like it confirmed something he’d suspected. “I heard rumours they were looking for paranormals, but no one seemed to know what kind. It had to be these Bridges.”

  “And you never thought to pass on these rumours?” Parido looked less than impressed.

  “Hell, we hear crap all the time about the Exalted. Bunch of whackos, you know that. It’s no secret they’ve been recruiting for years, same as us. Good thing the ESF do such a lousy job hanging onto talented individuals.” He gave me a sly grin.

  “Your point, Ajui?” I said, not looking at Jesi. “The ESF officially don’t recognise paranormals, so why would they make any attempt to retain them?”

  “Yeah, why would they?” But he refused to explain and I figured he was just throwing random crap to wind me up. Wasn’t going to play that game with him. “Keril, what’s the plan?”

  “First of all, you need to get off your arse and back to our team. You’ve sulked long enough.” Well, if looks could kill.... I almost felt sorry for the bastard then. Not words you want to hear from your dead lover, I could guess.

  “No,” Ajui said coldly. “I’ve left the Marauders. I work alone now.”

  “Then you’re a dead man. No one leaves, you know that.”

  “No one cares,” Ajui said with a sneer. “You got yourself killed, our team moved on. Sasine and Nomi act like they run things, kissing arse with the directors, but nobody respects them. No one’s looking for me.”

  “You’re not living in this hole for kicks,” Parido said with lethal menace in his voice. “Now you’ll go and make obeisance to Sasine, get her on your side, get her assistance, and when it’s over, you have my permission to gut her. All right?”

  I stared at the two of them in disbelief. “You’re planning the murder of one of your own, just like that?”

  Parido shrugged. “It’s not like she’d do any different. Woman’s been trying to get me killed for years. She finally succeeded.”

  “She was behind it?” Ajui shouted. “I’ll kill her now!”

  “After,” Parido said firmly. “Tinu, you’ve got a job to do.”

  “Not with her. And Nomi’s useless on her own. The others...they won’t listen to me. Not with you gone. The pack rearranged itself, and guess who’s no longer beta male.”

  Parido’s eyes narrowed, and to my surprise, he looked at me. “This could be a problem.”

  “Hurts to admit it, don’t it?” I said with a smug grin. “Guess you need my boyfriend after all.”

  “Him?” Ajui said, glancing at Jesi. “I’d be better off putting a gun to my head right now. No way. I’m not working with some pissant ESF officer who’d spend his entire time broadcasting our plans.”

  “And yet somehow I managed to take you down,” Jesi said quietly. “My shields were good enough after an hour’s training to fool you. What’s the matter? You not up to the job of training me right?”

  “It’s a matter of I’ve got better things to do with my valuable time,” Ajui snapped.

  “Like drinking yourself into a stupor every night for a month?”

  Ajui gritted his teeth and struggled against the chains around him. Parido watched him with a blank expression—couldn’t tell if he was sympathetic or embarrassed. Probably embarrassed. I didn’t think he knew how to spell “sympathetic”, let alone act it.

  “You’re a dead man, Gonlimi. The second I get out of this, I’m sending you across to your lover.”

  “I’m counting on it,” Jesi said, meeting Ajui’s glare without flinching. “O
f course, it means that Parido won’t be able to talk to you and you won’t see him any more, not to mention the fact that you’d have pissed away any chance of being with him in your next life.”

  “I don’t believe in that shit!” Ajui bellowed, with more power than a runt like him ought to be able to produce. “And I can beat the Exalted on my own! I don’t need help.”

  Jesi got slowly to his feet. “And there you have it, gentlemen. He’s a one-man destruction machine. See you around, Ajui.”

  “Wait! You have to untie me!”

  Jesi came over and crouched in front of the guy. Ajui was breathing like he’d just run a marathon. “Was that a ‘please’ I heard?’ He waggled his finger in his ear as if to clean it. “Sorry, you’ll have to forgive me, going deaf in my old age. Was it a ‘please’?”

  “Fuck off.”

  “Ah. Then I guess it wasn’t.” He stood up. “I’ll see Sasine gets word. I’m sure she’d be delighted to know where her old friend is holed up.”

  “Gonlimi! Let me go!”

  “Don’t,” Parido said. We all looked at him. “He deserves Sasine. He’s too stupid to live. Leave him be, Gonlimi. Please,” he added politely.

  “Well, since you said ‘please’....”

  Ajui thrashed to the best of his ability, which wasn’t much—Jesi was good with chains. “Keril!! Gonlimi, damn you! You need me! Your lover needs me!”

  “Unlike you, I still have a team, and last I looked, none of them actually wanted to kill me. So no, I don’t need you,” Jesi said, sounding as serene as if he’d woken up from a refreshing night of sex and sleep, and hadn’t been about to put a bullet in his brain a few hours ago.

  Ajui roared his frustration and struggled some more. Jesi let him work the fight out of himself. “You won’t get those loose, you know. I got top marks in rope work and....” He coughed. “I put in a lot of private practice.”

  Parido retched, I jabbed him in the side. Jesi was joking, but I was the only one who knew that. Not that I hadn’t had my fantasies....

  “Spare me,” Ajui said with a sneer, and I suddenly wondered why he hadn’t picked the lie out of Jesi’s head. Maybe Jesi’s shields were too good, or maybe it was just stupid pride. I bet not many people got to put Ajui at their advantage. Not and talk about it afterwards. “All right—please untie me.”