nights ago."
John frowned and then winced as his temples stung. Abruptly, like someone had uncorked a floodgate, he remembered going somewhere underground. And meeting a tall man in leather. With Mary and Bella.
As the memories hit, something stirred even deeper in him. On the level of his dreams. Something old...
"I've come to talk to you. Will you let me in?"
With the gun in his hand, John went to the door and opened it, keeping the chain in place. He craned his head up, way up, to meet the man's navy blue eyes. A word came to mind, one he didn't understand.
Brother.
"You want to put the safety back on that gun, son?"
John shook his head, caught between the strange memory echo in his head and what was in front of him: a man of death in leather.
"Okay. Just watch where you point it. You don't look real comfortable handling that thing, and I don't want the inconvenience of having a hole in me." The man looked at the chain. "You going to let me in?"
From two doors down, a volley of yelling rose to a crescendo and ended with the sound of breaking glass.
"Come on, son. Little privacy's a good thing."
John reached deep into his chest and felt around his instincts for any sense of true danger. He found none, in spite of the fact that the man was big and hard and undoubtedly armed. Someone like him just had to be packing.
John slipped the chain free and stepped back, lowering the gun.
The man shut the door behind him. "You remember meeting me, right?"
John nodded, wondering why his memories had returned in such a rush. And why a splitting headache had come with them.
"And you remember what we talked about. About the training we offer?"
John flipped the weapon's safety into place. He recalled everything, and the curiosity that had struck him then came back. As well as a fierce yearning.
"So how'd you like to join up and work with us? And before you say you're not big enough, I know a lot of guys who are your size. In fact, we have a class of males coming in who are just like you."
Keeping his eyes on the stranger, John put the gun in his back pocket and went over to his bed. He grabbed a pad of paper and a Bic pen, and wrote: I don't have $.
When he flashed the pad, the man read the words. "You don't need to worry about that."
John scribbled, Yeah, I do, and turned the paper around.
"I run the place and I need some help with administrative stuff. You could work the cost off. You know anything about computers?"
John shook his head, feeling like an idiot. All he knew how to do was pick up plates and glasses and wash them. And this guy didn't need a busboy.
"Well, we got a brother who knows the damn things like the back of his hand. He'll teach you." The man smiled a little. "You'll work. You'll train. S'all good. And I've talked to my shellan. She'd be real happy if you stayed with us while you're in school."
John lowered his lids, growing wary. This sounded like a lifeboat in a lot of ways. But how come this guy wanted to save him?
"You want to know why I'm doing this?"
When John nodded, the man took off his coat and unbuttoned the top half of his shirt. He pulled the thing open, exposing his left pectoral.
John's eyes latched on to the circular scar that was revealed.
As he put his hand on his own chest, sweat broke out across his forehead. He had the oddest sense that something momentous was sliding into place.
"You're one of us, son. It's time you came home to your family."
John stopped breathing, a strange thought shooting through his head: At last, I've been found.
But then reality rushed forward, sucking the joy out of his chest.
Miracles just didn't happen to him. His good luck had dried up before he'd even been aware he'd had any. Or maybe it was more like he'd been bypassed by fortune. Either way, this man in black leather, coming from out of nowhere, offering him an escape hatch from the hellhole he lived in, was too good to be true.
"You want more time to think?"
John shook his head and stepped back, writing, I want to stay here.
The man frowned when he read the words. "Listen, son, you're at a dangerous point in your life."
No shit. He'd invited this guy inside, knowing