Dragon: Allie's War Book Nine (7 page)

“Di’lanlente a’ guete…”
he cursed, taking a step back. He switched to English. “What in all the lowest hells––”

“Fucker!” she spat. “It wasn’t enough to drag her into your bed? You had to wine and dine and ditch her, too? Lowlife piece of shit…”

Still staring at her in shock, Loki raised a hand to his cheek, where the skin and bone throbbed in pain. He fought to think, to understand the fury in her eyes.

Her words made no sense to him whatsoever.

“Cousin!” he said, breathing hard. His voice grew openly wounded. “Do you really think that is an appropriate response to our disagreement?”

But she was already shaking her head, her eyes murderous.

“Don’t fucking
read me
without my permission!” she snapped, glaring at him. “You all think I’m stupid…that I don’t notice when you’re pulling your iceblood
crap
…”

She motioned at his head angrily with one hand, her teeth gritted.

“…If I wanted you poking around inside my head, or giving me some iceblood-induced
lobotomy,
I’d tell you…”

Feeling his confusion clear slightly, Loki held up both of his hands in a peace gesture.

“I did not do this, cousin!” he protested.

Dante took a step forward and he took one back, nearly stumbling.

As he did, he could feel and hear the amusement in the Barrier space around him. He didn’t dare join them there, however, fearful that Dante would punch him again.

“I assure you, young cousin,” he repeated, still holding up his hands. “I was not doing any of those things. I was in the Barrier, but only to communicate with them…”

Loki motioned to where Vikram, Raddi, Yumi and Anale clustered in a small but very conspicuous group by the elevators, grinning at them as they watched the show.

“…I was reassuring
 
my brothers and sisters of my intentions,” Loki added. “They spoke to me in my mind, and I responded. It would look the same to your eyes…”

At her skeptical look, Loki burst out with an angrier stream of words.

“…Do you really think I would read you for no reason, cousin, when you’d just
told
me you intended to talk to me about something?” he said. “Why for the love of the gods would I not simply wait to see what you said, first?”

Dante stared up at him, her eyes momentarily confused.

Then he saw her thinking about his words. Her gaze slid past him to where most of the seers had resumed their conversations. Loki followed her eyes, just in time to see Vikram and Raddi disappear through an elevator doorway.

“Would they just
leave
you, cousin, if I was a danger to you?” Loki retorted.

Slowly, she lowered her fists back to her sides. Her eyes flickered to his cheek, which likely now held a mark from her hand.

Loki watched as Dante’s own complexion darkened.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. She clenched her hands at her sides. “You can’t exactly blame me, you know. It’s not like I’m not outnumbered here…”

Loki waved away her words, although since his jaw still ached from the hit, his dismissal was more out of politeness than true feeling. Even so, his infiltrator’s mind didn’t shut off entirely. He found himself thinking she had some fighting ability, if that punch was any indication. He hoped Vik and the others had been giving her training.

As he thought it, he looked down to her knuckles and saw that they had swollen.

“Are you all right?” he said, unthinking.

She let out a snort. “Don’t act like you shook that one off so easy, Holmes.”

Loki made a negative gesture. “I am not,” he said. “It hurt. It will continue to hurt for several days. I am wondering, though…did you break your hand?”

She looked down at her hand, wincing. She held it strangely now, Loki saw.

“Maybe,” she admitted.

“Should we go to the fifth floor infirmary?” he said.

Realizing it wasn’t really a question he should be asking her, given her age, he made up his mind, motioning with his head towards the stairs.

“Come,” he said. “We will go now.”

“Go to hell,” she said, backing off.

Glaring at her, he shook his head. He felt his jaw clench that time, even as something rose in his light. He found himself turning over what Vikram said about her bullying him and what Gina herself had said, implying the same. He couldn’t avoid the obvious truth of their words, now that it stared him in the face. He also couldn’t help realizing just how much he’d let Dante manipulate his guilt over the past weeks.

Gina was right. He had been played.

He realized something else. Dante had also taken advantage of his insecurity about Gina’s feelings for him. He had feared Gina would cease to like him if her daughter did not.

“Come,” he said, motioning more sternly with his head. “Or I will call your mother and she can escort you. Of course, that will necessitate a number of explanations.”

He saw a flicker of surprise in her eyes, visible before she could suppress it.

She went back to glaring at him seconds later, but Loki could see that his words had reached her. Clearly, Dante wasn’t happy about the idea of her mother learning what she’d just done.

He waited for her to weigh possible responses to his demand. He watched in something like fascination as she pursed her lips in that pause, staring at the floor, her left hand growing redder as the seconds ticked by and probably hurting her more, too.

Finally, her shoulders abruptly unclenched in a teenager’s dramatic sigh.

“Fine,” she snapped. “Let’s go.”

Without another word, she stomped past him towards the stairs.

Loki felt himself relax. Even so, he let her get a pace or two ahead of him before he followed cautiously behind.

After all, she still had one good hand.

Gina opened the door, a smile on her face and in her eyes, hopefully because he’d announced himself. Once she saw his face, however, she gripped the edge of the wooden door until her knuckles whitened.

Loki simply stood there as she looked him up and down, her eyes wide.

“What the hell happened to you?” she said. “Were you in the ring again?”

Loki sighed. “Not exactly.”

“Someone punched you though. Clearly. Who? That Sword guy?”

Clicking softly, Loki shook his head.

“Then who?” she said.

He rolled his eyes a little, but smiled. “Can I come in?”

“Not until you tell me who hit you!”

Loki glanced down the carpeted corridor, feeling his face warm. “Do you promise not to be angry?” he said.

“No,” she said at once.

Sighing, Loki folded his hands at the base of his back then straightened, meeting her gaze. “Would you believe that a sixteen-year-old human girl hit me?” he said. “That she caught me completely without defenses?” He smiled, trying to lighten the storm he could see brewing behind her dark hazel eyes. “It was quite humbling.”

Gina’s face flushed bright red, but not in embarrassment.

Loki watched as that concern he’d seen in her just now, what had been a near-fear in her eyes, turn to unbridled anger.

“That little shit…” she exploded.

Loki held up a hand, trying to head her off. “It is all right.”

“It’s
not
all right!” Gina snapped. “I’m going to
kill
that kid.”

“I’m quite okay. She hurt herself more than she hurt me.”

“So what?” Gina said, glaring up at him. “Would you let your child just go around
punching
people because they didn’t like what you’d done?”

“We haven’t done very much yet,” Loki reminded her, again trying to lighten the mood.

Gina’s frown only deepened into a scowl.

“Whose fault is that?” she snapped.

There was a silence.

She continued to grip the edge of the door, but she wasn’t looking at him now. Instead, she stared off to the side, her face contorted in an expression caught somewhere between anger, frustration and what might have been embarrassment. She bit her lip while he watched, and Loki felt a surge of pain hit his chest, catching him off-guard. It brought back the more heated flavor to his light, reminding him of how he’d felt when he’d left the area of the security station after talking to the Bridge.

“Can I come in?” He cleared his throat, flushing when he realized he could hear the pain in his voice. “…Please, Gina?”

She looked up at him, starting, as if she’d just realized she’d left him standing in the corridor. Stepping back and to the side, she took the door with her, leaving him plenty of room to pass through the opening. He continued to watch her face as he walking inside, his feet sinking into deep blue carpet that filled the sitting room of the two bedroom apartment.

He continued to watch her face once he’d turned around, cautious when he felt flickers of anger on her light, along with guilt and frustration about what to do with Dante.

He knew she’d been frustrated with how little time her daughter had given her since she’d gotten here. He’d felt the same frustration on Dante earlier, after he’d taken her up to the infirmary to have the medical techs bind her hand.

Remembering that, he clicked again, that time, in regret.

“She broke her hand,” he told Gina.

Gina turned, staring at him. “Dani?”

He nodded, once, indicating his own face. “Apparently her hand is less hard than my face…and the bones in it less strong than her arm.”

Gina scowled again.

Loki felt some alarm when he saw her eyes brighten.

She broke into a quiet sob while he stood there. Feeling strangely helpless, he continued to stand there, giving her space as she brought herself back under control.

“Damned kid,” she muttered, wiping her cheek with her knuckles. “It’s been like this forever with her. Since she was a little girl…she just has to fight everything, all the time. The whole world is a war zone to her. You give her a rule and she just wants to break it. You give her an authority figure, and she just wants to take them down…”

Loki walked towards her, feeling a rush of protectiveness.

“It is okay,” he assured her. Feeling her light open, he wrapped his arms around her when she let him. “These qualities will probably serve her well in this world she was given, Gina. And what happened today, maybe it is good, too.”

At Gina’s incredulous look, he shook his head.

“…Not her hand. Her and I. It is better now. She was afraid for you…for months, she thought you were dead. Then she sees us together, and it is like I stole you from her again. Moreover, she felt responsible. In her eyes, you were someone
she
left in harm’s way. This is love, not mindless rebellion. It speaks well of her, not the reverse. And she thought I was leaving you. On this assignment the Bridge and Sword have given me. She was protecting you again.”

Seeing Gina’s eyes brighten more, he held her tighter.

Feeling his pain worsen when he realized she was grieving his leaving that time, he shook it off, focusing on what he’d been saying before.