“Liar,” Michael said. “You were with her when you were attacked, and someone who knew what to look for took her patch. Pretty convenient, isn’t it?”
To Alexia’s relief, Damon ignored her partner and addressed Alexia again. “We considered the likelihood that the gunman who attacked us the first time—”
“The first time?” Michael interrupted.
“—after Carter left us,” Damon went on with a severe glance at Michael, “was from the colony, attempting to drive off intruders. That still seems the most likely explanation for the second attack. Though I knew nothing of this patch or its importance, it is quite possible someone in the colony did.”
“And why would they take it?” Michael asked. “I can see why Erebus would want anything that they could turn into a weapon against us, but an illegal settlement wouldn’t have the Citadel’s resources. Were your friends planning to trade it to Erebus in exchange for being left alone?”
“The colonists are not my friends, ” Damon retorted. “I am here to—”
“Do you have any proof that the colonists did this?” Michael asked, thrusting his face closer to Damon’s as if the rifle weren’t jabbing him in the belly. “Or did you make sure there was no evidence to find?”
Damon bared his teeth. “I’ve had enough of your accusations,” he said. “If you say another word, I’ll put a gag in your mouth.”
“He didn’t do it, Michael,” Alexia said, her mind foggy with exhaustion. “They hurt him, too. He could have died.”
“You really don’t see it, do you?” Michael demanded, disbelief in his voice. “What in hell are you thinking, Alexia? Who screwed who?”
With a grunt of rage, Damon hit Michael on the side of the head. Michael staggered and fell to his knees. Alexia rolled onto her stomach and crawled over to him, grabbing his arm as much for support as to protect him.
“Kill me first,” she said, looking up at Damon’s stony face. “I’m going to die, anyway.”
“No,” Damon said. He tossed the gun back into the bushes. “Tell me what must be done.”
“There’s nothing to be done,” Michael said, rubbing at his temple. “Not unless I can get her back to the Border and into a hospital.”
Alexia tried to laugh. “That isn’t going to happen,” she said. “I thought about it. But I’m a lot weaker than I expected to be at his point.”
“What else?” Damon asked Michael as if she hadn’t spoken. “There must be another way.”
Mike stared straight ahead, his jaw working. “I might be able to reach the Border in time to get her another patch.”
“Then that is what you must do.”
Implacable hatred still burned in Michael’s eyes. “Why do you care? What have you to gain? Another chance to screw her while she’s helpless? Drain her dry?”
“Michael!” Alexia said, jerking on his arm to silence him before Damon decided to do it himself. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t let you risk it. We’ve been shot at twice, and at least one unknown Nightsider is probably still at large in the area. You’ll be killed.”
“But the defensive perimeter was clearly established to prevent us from going near the colony,” Damon said, staring at Michael with death in his eyes. “They would surely allow a retreat.” He backed away, letting Michael get up. “You will return to the Enclave and acquire one of these patches. I will provide cover in the event that you are attacked.
Are we agreed?”
Michael glanced down at Alexia, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. What she didn’t understand was why he was still acting like an untrained novice who hadn’t learned to keep personal emotions out of the job.
And that was why she had to let him go. Her own emotions told her to protect him, but he had to get back to Aegis, not for her sake, but to tell them about the patch. There was nothing else she could do to keep him from harm or prevent him from attempting what she knew he had in mind.
“Agreed,” Michael said to Damon, avoiding her eyes. “You’ll have to return my weapons.”
Damon waved his hand. “Take them.” He bent to help Alexia to a sitting position, but Michael got between them and did it himself. He rested his hand possessively on Alexia’s
“good” shoulder and faced Damon with head high and shoulders drawn back in defiance.
“Are you sure you can’t make it, Alexia?” he asked without looking at her. “You know you can’t trust him. Even if he didn’t have any part in stealing your patch, he’ll still do whatever his masters tell him to. You don’t have the strength to fight him now. If they tell him to kill you, he will.”
“They gave no such orders,” Damon said, holding Alexia’s gaze.
“But you’d destroy anyone who stood in the way of your mission,” Michael said.
“Even if it meant your own death.”
“And we would do the same,” Alexia said before Damon could answer. “I’m not afraid, Michael. Not of Damon, and not of dying.”
Michael swore and walked away. He retrieved his weapons and returned to set his VS and a box of ammunition on the ground beside her.
“Take this,” he said. “And take care of yourself, Alex.” He cast Damon a scathing glance and strode to the other side of the oak to wait.
“Alexia,” Damon murmured, kneeling beside her.
His nearness set her nerves to jangling again. She had to be tough now. She couldn’t afford any vulnerability when she was completely in his power and sick enough to lose her head the way she had just before Michael’s arrival.
“If you’re going to go, go,” she said, struggling to pull her jacket up again.
He helped her, though she shook him off once the jacket was safely closed over her chest. “If I had known—” he began.
“Do you think I’d admit that kind of weakness to an enemy?”
She could have sworn he flinched. “I would never harm you,” he said softly.
“Don’t lie for my sake. Michael was right. We may have worked as a team and saved each other’s lives for the sake of expedience, but you’ll kill me if you thought it was necessary to protect your people.”
“But it is not,” he said. “Quite the contrary.” He picked up his jacket and pulled it on.
“You are being irrational. As I told you before, if I’d been sent to kill you, you would be dead. As your partner must know, if he could look beyond his hatred.”
She met his gaze again. “Don’t you hate us just as much?”
“My personal opinions are hardly relevant.”
“I know what hate is, and I see it in your eyes when you look at Michael. I’d say that was pretty personal.”
His mouth tightened. “My judgment of your partner changes nothing. I won’t let you die.”
“You might not have any choice.”
He leaned over her, bracing himself on his muscular arms. “I forbid it.”
“I’m not one of your harem serfs.” Her face grew hot, and she hardened her will. “Or do you think we have some...connection because of what happened before Michael showed up? That was my sickness, not me.”
“I was not ill,” Damon said huskily.
“But you have your instincts. You may be an outsider among your own people, but you’re still a predator under your civilized exterior, just like the rest of them. I was vulnerable, and you thought you could take advantage of that, one way or another.”
“And you wanted something from me, Alexia,” he said, “or was that your sickness, as well?”
“I was crazy. If you think I wanted to have sex with you—” He drew back, his expression going blank. “I will not trouble you again.”
Because I’ll kill myself first, Alexia thought, though her cheeks burned under his gaze.