their flight never touched down in Dubai as originally planned. He thought about the attack and knew he was missing something. Numbers kept jumping into his mind for some reason. So did locations. Strategy and figuring out connections had always been his strong suit, living or dead. He toyed with the logistics, knowing there was a clue within them, becoming agitated that his loss of additional insight and powers of discernment that he would have had if he were still a vampire, blinded him to the root cause of the attack. Daybreak couldn't come fast enough for him, especially now that they were over land. Once they'd neared the Red Sea, all Hell had broken loose on their thirteen-hour flight. There was a connection; thirteen had to be a bad number; he could feel it in his bones.
He glanced up and saw Rider stand up and noted the time. Four A.M. In an hour they'd touch down. It would be dawn. If they could just get to the ground in Addis Ababa without any more drama, that would be enough for him. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He was too exhausted to fight.
All of a sudden, he felt a presence standing over him and he opened his eyes.
"Can we talk?" Rider said, looking down at Carlos.
Carlos shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."
Rider sat down next to him. "I'm sorry about the jaw."
"It's cool," Carlos said, and stared out the window.
Rider held out his hand to Carlos.
Carlos turned his head, looked at Rider, then at his outstretched hand. After a few long seconds, he accepted the handshake. His pride still stung. A forty-five-year-old guy had flattened him.
"Listen," Rider said carefully, when he went back to talking to Carlos's profile. "We're all a little touchy right now. Everybody's senses are off, except maybe Marlene's. So we may not be making the best decisions." He rubbed his jaw. "I know while you were a vamp, you had to do what you had to do to survive," Rider finally said through a weary sigh.
"Yeah, I did," Carlos muttered. "You have no idea what kinda shit I had to contend with, man. Having people who could watch my back was imperative."
Rider nodded. "Your boy, Yonnie, is cool... he'll honor your marks?"
"Yeah. He's cool, man," Carlos said, looking at Rider for the first time.
He saw real fear in Rider's eyes.
"Look, man," Rider said. "I've done a lot of shit that I'm sure she knows about, and, by rights, she could..." He glanced away, finding that same vacant space on the horizon that Carlos had been staring at. "We've been together a long time, dude, and she means the world to me."
Carlos nodded. "He won't hurt her. I never rolled like that and neither does he."
Rider looked Carlos in the eyes. "That's not what I was worried about, dude."
For a moment, neither man said a word.
"I'm forty-five, and I'm the only one she's even... you know what I'm saying?"
Carlos nodded, this time understanding fully. Wasn't he plagued by the same fear? That Damali might stay with him because she just didn't know what else the world had to offer her yet. The word "yet" burned in his mind.
The older Guardian drew a shaky breath and let it out slowly.
"If you made him, dude, he's strong," Rider said quietly. "But him being a good guy is what could get under her skin." Rider's voice became distant as he spoke, telling Carlos what haunted his soul in halting sentences. "And he's in my house with my woman who I see maybe once a year." Rider shook his head. "My baby's never taken a throat nick from a master, done a mind lock, or..." His voice trailed off. "I'm human. I'm getting older. I'm not what I used to be when we met."
"She loves you, man. She'll be cool," Carlos said quietly, becoming lost in his own thoughts. His statement was as much for his Guardian brother as it was for himself.
"The two of them together, on the run," Rider said softly. "Relying on each other to survive, under siege. You know what kind of bond that forms." He chuckled sadly and closed his eyes, leaning back in the seat. "Been there. That's how I met her."
Carlos glanced down at his knees. "Yeah."
"But it's even more than that. They're both vampires, first. I'm just a human on the outside looking in."
Carlos rubbed his face with both palms. What else was there to say? That Rider was wrong? That there