Gathering Storm (28 page)

Making time for her was a
little like a respite in heaven. He was watching her closely as she
watched her own hand slide up and down on his cock. He was sure
he’d never seen anything more erotic than the expression on her
face. There was something about being the object of somebody else’s
fascination that jumped his excitement level off the scale. Rosie
was full of firsts and records for Glen. Sweetest kiss. Hardest
come. Most perfect fit. He should start a list.

Guided by instinct alone,
Rosie was leaning forward like she was thinking about touching the
tip of her tongue to the slit where precum was glistening. Glen
held his breath while every muscle in his body went rigid with
agonizing anticipation. As if in slow motion he saw her tongue peak
out and reach toward the engorged head, coming closer, closer
…

Then bam! Deliverance was
standing by the side of the bed occupying the empty space that had
been there a moment earlier. “Hey kids.”

Glen’s body jerked
involuntarily like he was seizing. He stared at the demon
wide-eyed. While his brain tried to process what just happened, his
dick deflated to flaccid faster than a balloon with a pin stuck in
it.

Rosie, on the other hand,
was perfectly calm still holding his, now limp, penis in her hand.
She looked up and said, “Grandy. What are you doing here?” as if
she’d just run into him at the donut shop.

Glen had opened his mouth
to say something along the lines of, “WTF!” when Deliverance
answered.

“We may have a line on your pop,
precious.”

Rosie dropped Glen’s cock
like a hot potato. It slumped over onto his stomach looking sad. It
isn’t every day a guy teaching the art of the hand job gets
interrupted by the girl’s grandfather.
Fortunately for Glen, Rosie’s Grandy had no puritanical
notions about sex. None. He took no more notice than he would have
if he’d found them together eating ice cream and feeding
ducks.

“I don’t want your mother
to get her hopes up and be disappointed. I was thinking maybe you
should check this one out and sign off. We don’t want to end up
with a menagerie of stray Storms to feed.”

Rosie stood up with no
apparent self-consciousness about her beautiful body and started to
get dressed in a hurry. Being part werewolf, Glen wasn’t as shy
about nudity as most, but having Rosie’s grandfather stand over him
caused him to pull the covers over himself.

“Good thinking, Gran. Take
me there.” She stopped. “Hold on.” She went into the bathroom and
was doing something with her hair.

“What are you doing?”

She poked her head out. “If it is him, I
want to look okay.”

Glen turned to Deliverance.
“Would you mind surrendering the room so I can get dressed with a
little privacy? In my
own
bedroom?”

Deliverance shook his head
and turned his back muttering something like, “Humans and their
weird ideas. How’s this?”

Glen jumped into his jeans and pulled a tee
shirt over his head just as Rosie was coming out of the bathroom.
He put his hands on her arms. “You’ve never looked better. If it is
him, he’s going to be blown away.”

She offered a little smile,
but he could tell she was nervous. “What if it
is
him?” she whispered.

Glen grinned, “Rosie, going
to meet your dad? It’s the biggest thing that’s ever going to
happen to you. When he gets back, we’re all going to celebrate
together.”
Right after he tears me a new
one.
He kissed her. “Get back to me. One
way or the other.”

She nodded, gave him a
peck on the lips, walked toward Deliverance, and they were
gone.

At the same time they
vanished, the giant goose honking alarm went off. At first Glen
thought that Deliverance and Rosie popping out had set it off
because the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. He scrambled
into boots and ran out the door not caring about the bed
head.

He was delayed by a few
instructors who were quartered on the same floor as the boys and
had to convince them to get back into their apartments and stay
there. By the time he was free, he was just plain lucky to pick one
of the stairwells that was clear. He made it to Sublevel 2 and
almost plowed over Fennimore and Angel on their way out of the
armory.

“Slow down, rookie. We’re carrying
explosives,” Fenn said.

“Sorry.”

Elora looked up when she
saw Glen. “Well, that’s unanimous. All twenty-four. Glen, this
operation is militarized until the threat has passed. I need you to
turn command over to me.”

Glen didn’t hesitate. “It’s yours.”

Elora looked at the rest
of the boys. “Are you going to do what I say?”

Falcon said, “Not if it
involves waiting this out in cupboards.”

She stared at the resolve on Falcon’s face
for about three seconds.

“Glen, give them weapons
and as many clips as they can stuff in pockets. They’re all
familiar with the Centerfires. Give Falcon a SIG. Give Jvorsten a
Braum.

“DO NOT SHOOT EACH OTHER OR
I
WILL
GROUND
YOU. PERSONALLY.

“Glen, Monq is bunkered in
Fire Testing with Helm. I need you to take Blackie and put him in
there. I knew he wouldn’t go with Monq so I didn’t even try it. He
can’t be in a closed building with live fire. What the…?” Glen
turned around to see a stream of civilians standing out in the
hall. “For crying out loud, people. Can’t anybody in this operation
just do what they’re told?!?

“Glen, give me your
belt.”

He didn’t hesitate to take
off his belt and give it to her. While she was talking she was
looping it through Blackie’s collar, to rig a makeshift
leash.

“Form a detail. Take six
other trainees. Get these people and this dog to Fire Testing and
lock it down.” She handed the leash to Glen. “Put them in there and
seal the door. If you have to.” She gave him a look.
“
Carefully.”

She gave him a small
square of C5 and he nodded.

“And,” she pulled him
close and whispered, “If you can get some of these younger boys to
get inside with them, do it. Rally point is the Hub. If you come
across those Z Team bastards, tell them I’m in command and, if they
don’t submit to my authority, I’m hauling their carcasses to
Edinburgh Trials when this is over.”

“You got it. Be careful.”

“Yep.”

Glen took Bo and Blackie
and five of the younger boys and instructed them to bring the
civvies. “Listen up folks. Stay tight and no dawdling. Bo and I
bring up the rear.”

Glen sent two of the
fourteen-year-olds ahead, weapons drawn, to make sure the way was
clear and told the three thirteen-year-olds to keep the people
moving.

Elora felt a rumbling
vibration in the floor and figured Angel and Fennimore must have
found purchase on one of the targets. “I could use a little good
news,” she muttered to herself.

“Lady Laiken?”

She turned to see
seventeen too-young faces looking at her expectantly. Each wore a
resolute expression and she knew she had no hope of getting them to
stand down. Looking them over, she noted the irrefutable evidence
that Black Swan knights might be influenced and tempered, but they
were not made. They were born.

“You’re in, but only if
you wear vests and helmets.” There was some grumbling about the
helmets. “Grouse all you want. Those are my terms.
Non-negotiable.

“Six knights and seven
trainees are deployed. We’re support. Work together. Grab as many
weapons as you can carry, but only the ones that you have T4
clearance to use. Throw everything that’s not nailed down into the
vault before I reseal it.

“Multitasking. Hear me
talk while you suit up and secure the room. We have to split up and
work in teams and that means we’ll be out of contact once we leave
this level. We basically have to go guerilla on the
intruders.

“I want to be very clear about this. These
men are here for me. To assassinate me. If you go down to S3 and
wait it out, I think you’ll be okay. It’s not your fight.”

The boys were very quiet
and didn’t look happy. Kris Falcon finally said, “Teachers think we
don’t pay attention, but we do. If they’re here for one of us, then
it’s our fight. You’re one of us, aren’t you?”

She smiled. “Indeed I am.
At this moment, proud to say so.” She stood on one of the benches
in the middle of the room and raised her voice.

“I wish I could be with
each and every one of you, each and every minute, but that would
just put you in more danger. The best I can do is tell you to pick
a partner you can trust. Stay out of the aliens’ sight. If you have
a shot that you can take without endangering yourself or any of us,
take it. If you don’t have a clear shot, stay under cover and wait
until you do. They may be wearing Shieldo. Aim for the head or the
groin.” She noticed the boys wince when she said the word ‘groin’.
“No time to be squeamish, people. You can disable a man fast with
an expando in the dick and keep him alive for questioning. The
Order has a lot invested in you. Don’t squander that
investment.

“Remember, they’re here for me. That means
stay far, far away from me at all times.

“Before you go, I need someone who can get
to the intercom undetected. Like through the A/C ducts. Have we got
anybody like that?”

“Spaz can do it,” Wakey said.

“Spaz?”

Wakey smiled sheepishly. “It’s, um, what we
call Chorzak. He does it all the time.”

Someone pushed the little fourteen-year-old
forward.

“Does what all the time?”

“Crawls
around and listens to what’s going on. He
knows
everything
.”

The implication of what
“everything” entailed was clear in the boy's undertone. Elora
jerked her head toward Spaz. He had the decency to blush, but at
the same time, couldn't completely suppress a smile.

"Shame on you, um, you
don’t mind being called Spaz?”

“No ma’am.”

“Alright, well, shame on
you, Spaz. That is
very
un-knightlike behavior."

"Yes, ma'am."

“When this is over, I’m going to see to it
that Monq outfits the ducts with a mild electric current.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“
Always
leave yourself an escape.
Rally point at the Hub. If you can’t get there, then stay away.
Primary goal is to stay alive. Everything else is secondary.
Go.”

The room cleared in a
hurry. She felt another rumble under her feet.

“Spaz.” She stumbled on
the word because she was having trouble getting past calling him
that. “I need you to get to the media room. Get on the mic and say
this. ‘I just saw Elora Laiken heading for the bottom level.’ You
got that?” He nodded. “If you can’t get to media, or if the area is
busy, go to Plan B. There’s always something else we can do and you
need to live to spy another day.”

He gave a boyish smile and
a little salute. He climbed up on the lockers and took the A/C
panel off with expert speed. She watched his tennis shoes disappear
into the duct. When she turned around, there were still two kids
standing there. Kris and Wakey.

Her eyes went to the
vault. There were no more vests or helmets.

“Shieldos and helmets are
gone. We need to get you to someplace safe and fast.”

“That’s not on our agenda,” Wakey said.

“Pardon?”

“
We’re shadowing
you.”

Elora’s face softened and
her heart just melted as she looked between the two of them.
“Thanks for the offer, guys, but nobody can be anywhere near me
until this is over. Being next to me right now? It’s more than
dangerous. It’s practically suicide, especially without
equipment.

“Let’s try to get to S1. When we’re there,
we split up. Got me?”

Kris answered just to show
solidarity with Wakey. “We understand you, but we’re not doing
that. We’re staying with you. The Order can afford to lose us.
We’re trainees. You’re another story.”

“What happened to, ‘I take orders from
her?’”

When Kris Falcon ducked
his head and grinned, it changed his face dramatically.

What a little heartbreaker he’s going to be.
If I can keep him alive.

They heard the sounds of
live fire coming from one of the stairwells, followed by another
rumble underfoot. “All out of debate time.”

Elora pulled her snub nose
Cuefire, the one that Storm had picked out for her, and started for
the stairwell with Falcon and Wakenmann close behind.

CHAPTER 21

Storm had a couple of
hours before he needed to be at the bar. He was walking around
China Town, looking at odd things in windows that were supposedly
edible. He stopped in front of the Hoang Jewelry. There was a jade
necklace in the window that caught his attention. It was a darker,
richer green than any he’d ever seen. So close to the color of his
witch’s eyes. Not emeralds, but close.

He noticed movement and
looked up to see a tiny, smiling woman motioning for him to come
in. His typical response to proprietors’ invitations to shop was to
shake his head, smile politely, and keep walking. And that’s what
he did. He walked for about ten feet, then turned around and went
straight into the store.