“Siobhan sent me,” he said, and I wondered what the man was worried about; it hadn’t been like he could detach his arm and leave it in my needy fingers.
The thought of me clinging to him, caused my own face to heat, so I shoved the idea away, moving purposefully towards him.
“How’s the boy?” I asked, changing the subject, as he stepped aside to let me pass.
“Damn wolf buyers,” he said, anger curling through his words. “They were the worst kind. Conditioning began as soon as the hammer fell.”
I felt a knot form inside me.
“They made him pack?”
But Mack shook his head.
“Nothing that simple.”
“Can we get him back?”
And, by that, I meant could we get Rohan back, the boy who hadn’t been afraid to get his crew to safety, the boy who’d faced down a wolf squad in defense of his dog. That boy. Mack rested his hand on my shoulder, and then gave it an awkward pat.
“Maybe… Almost… Tens will try.”
Why Tens? I thought, but didn’t say it out loud.
Mack answered the thought, anyway.
“Because Tens is his teacher.”
I didn’t quite get that, but Mack didn’t elaborate, so I asked the next thing on my mind.
“Can I help?”
I felt him glance down at me.
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
There really wasn’t anything to say to that, so I walked the rest of the way in silence—and couldn’t help liking the fact he was walking beside me, again.
“We’re here,” he said, drawing to a halt, but whether he’d said it for my benefit or for Tens, who opened the door, I didn’t know.
“Rohan?” Tens continued after a beat of silence. “Cutter’s come to see you.”
Again, no response—not even the slightest tickle of his presence coming uninvited into my head. He was sitting on his bed, propped in the corner where two walls met, Cascade curled beside him. The dog wagged his tail when he saw me. I spared the beast a smile.
“Hey, Cas.”
His tail beat twice more, and he rolled his eyes up towards his master.
Fix Boy?
Fix? Well, okay… I frowned at Rohan, aware that Cascade had lifted his head, and was watching me with hopeful expectation on his face—and that completely infallible faith dogs had that their chosen human could mend anything they asked, but fix Rohan? I hadn’t thought he was that easily broken.
“They had us for over a month,” Tens reminded me, not seeming to care that Rohan could hear him.
The boy flinched at the sound of his voice, and I stared. Rohan and Tens were like evil twins… if twins came in a master-and-apprentice-style pack.
“Hey!”
At least Tens protested. Rohan did nothing…except… I replayed the moment after that thought, and realized his lips had twitched into what might have become a smile with a little more time.
“You in my head, boy?” I asked, and caught that twitch again.
Well, two could play at that game.
I took a step forward and rested my hands on the edge of Rohan’s bed, surprised when Cascade jumped down and stood behind me. It didn’t cross my mind that he was interposing himself between me and Mack and Tens. I was too busy trying to poke my way into the boy’s head.
“Not a boy,” he mumbled, and tossed a mental wall in front of me.
Well, that was rude!
I sidestepped the clumsily-thrown obstacle, and decided I was going to pay him back by painting the interior of his implant pink.
“You what!”
That protest came from more than one throat. Only Cascade seemed to think it was a good idea.
“Oh, Hells no!”
I snickered, and conjured up a bucket of coding that would make the inside of his head look like the girliest of princess rooms any six-year-old could desire. The next set of code he sent at me was almost unfriendly, but I slapped it aside.
“Best you can do?” I taunted, slapping away his second attempt, and dipping an imaginary brush into the bucket. “You really are a princess.”
Mack did not approve.
“Not helping, Cutter!”
Like he would know. Maybe when I was done…
“Don’t even think about it.”
I slung out a chain of code that hit the inside of Rohan’s implant and stuck. The rose-colored splatter began to spread, and I found myself having to shield against a sudden surge of black thorns, reminding me that Rohan had studied arach coding, as well.
“You are such a funny bitch!” he snarled, as I added something I’d learned from Askavor, and caused the black tangle to disintegrate.
“See me laughing?” I asked, and hit him with another spray of paint. “Do you, pinkie-pup?”
And that was all it took. I was jolted out of both our heads as his tackle knocked me to the floor. I heard Mack and Tens shouting and hoped neither of them were thinking of breaking us apart. From the sound of Cascade’s growling, he either didn’t think what I’d done was a good idea, or he was keeping the other two from interfering. I didn’t have time to work out which, because Tens had taught the little shit well, and the damn kid had been practicing.
“This has been a long time coming,” he snarled, hooking a fist back, and I swung a leg up and over him to sweep him off my stomach.
“You think you’ve got what it takes, kiddo?” I returned, pivoting into a crouch and out of reach.
Kid had gotten damn big since hitting his… I tried to remember…his sweet sixteenth? Eighteenth? Whatever.
We weren’t done yet.
“You really think you can?” I taunted.
And I sounded so much like Delight that I made myself sick.
Rohan laughed.
“No way, Cutter. You’ve got miles to go before you’re anywhere near as good as her!”
Well, that showed me just how much he hadn’t been keeping up. I’d dumped Delight on her ass on more than one occasion during that week’s training.
“Yeah, but you were enhanced when you did that,” he said, mocking. “You’re not enhanced, now, and I’m going to kick your tail.”
“You can try, boyo,” I returned, and bounced
