Simon didn’t speak to her, and she was decidedly conscious of the fact thatshe wasn’t going to talk to him. She was angry at him for holding back and nottalking his feelings out. She didn’t blame him for that; she didn’t want to talkabout her feelings either. In fact, she wasn’t sure what she was feeling.Everything was mixed up. And that was stupid because it wasn’t like any of themhad a future.
A few minutes later, they stood once more outside Akehurst Sanitarium. The wounded Templar still rode the back of another. Simon checked on the wounded man, and Leah liked that he did that. But it reminded her how open the Templar armor was to attack from within. All of their armor was designed to support the unit so that subsystems overlapped. Leah’s wasn’t like that.
Simon turned to her and his faceplate irised open. She was immediately struck by how tired he looked. He also looked uncertain.
Leah thought about the hidden fortress he’d established outside London. Somany people, civilians and Templar, depended on him to be right. And he was so young, only a year or two older than her.
If the roles were reversed, would you be able to handle everything this life has asked him to deal with?
Leah didn’t know the answer to that. She only hoped she’d never be in thesituation Simon Cross had found himself in. Given her circumstances, she never expected to be.
“Where can we leave you?” Simon asked as they stood there in the overgrowngrounds of the sanitarium.
An uncomfortable feeling of loss squirmed through Leah’s stomach. She’dwanted to be released from the Templar, but she didn’t know where the separationwould leave them. If Simon told her to never come back or be in touch with him, she didn’t know what she’d say. She only knew that she didn’t want him to dothat.
But her alliance to himto whatever degreewas going to be a problem with thepeople she’d sworn her allegiance to. She cursed herself for getting into theposition she was in. It was her fault.
“I can make my way from here,” she told him.
He frowned in annoyance at that.
Leah knew he felt responsible for her. That was his nature, and it was partly why she had gone out of her way to help him when she had. Simon Cross was one of those individuals who could be given to, then counted on to give back at the appropriate time.
That made dealing with him difficult as well.
“I’m not comfortable with that,” he said.
“Comfortable or not, that’s how it’s going to be.” Leah knew she was deliberately being stubborn. She could have allowed him toaccompany her close to where she needed to go to rejoin her group. At the very least she could have pretended that.
Except that she had the distinct feeling that he would know if she were lying to him. She sighed in frustration. Dealing with him was hard.
“I want you to be safe,” he told her.
“I’ve been taking care of myself in London by myself a lot more than youhave,” Leah pointed out. “I don’t travel with a group as a general rule.” Bothof them knew that was true. Every time they had met up she’d been on her own.“What I’m able to do, I’m best able to do on my own.”
“All right.” Simon reached into his shoulder bag and took out the tube. Therewas no hesitation in him when he handed it to her. “If you get anything fromthis, you’ll let me know.”
“Immediately.” Leah knew that she wasn’t just accepting a task. She wasaccepting a responsibility that came along with a lot of strings. And she was accepting his trust in her.
She was also walking on the knife-edge of compromising herself with one side or the other. She put the tube in a rucksack on her back.
“It would be best if we got whatever information you might recover first,”Simon said.
“I know,” Leah said. But she was aware that both of them knew she hadn’tagreed to his terms. She wasn’t that free with her commitment.
“Be careful,” Simon said. His faceplate irised shut. Then he turned andwalked away into the shadows.
For a moment, Leah watched him go. Apprehension vibrated inside her as she wondered if she would see him alive again. She knew she would miss him if something happened to him. Theworld would be a lot colder place without him in it.
When she could no longer see him, Leah turned to go. She amped up her suit’scamouflage capability and faded into the darkness.
THIRTY-FIVE
Warren sat in front of the book and flipped through the pages. Images stirred on them, but none caught his interest. He tried talking to the voice, but it was silent. He didn’t know if that was because the voice didn’t want to talk to himor because it had been more exhausted than it had let on.
Naomi slept in his bed. She’d been too worn to do much more than walk up thesteps and lie down. Warren didn’t know if her fatigue was from the energy she’dused from helping him or from his healing her heart valve.
The fact that he’d done so amazed him. He’d read about power like that.Eastern medicine gave the healing power several different names, but they’d allclaimed it had existed.
He raised his human hand and flexed it. On impulse, he closed the book and got up. He walked to the bathroom and stood there for a moment.
With his enhanced vision, he saw the curtain draped over the full-length mirror on one side of the room. When he’d first moved in, he’d covered themirror immediately because he could no longer face the monstrosity he’d becomebecause of the patchwork demon skin stretched across his features. That alien skin had grown back in the areas where the burns had ravaged him worst four years ago.
He steeled himself,
