“Don’t come back. This is over. Stay with him, Atlanta,” Zhang says. “You can consider that an order if you need to.”
I don’t take orders from Centauruses. I don’t care if they’re the rulers of the Nebuli. The most they can do to an Orion for small acts of belligerence is a slap on the wrist, and that’s fine with me. Most don’t bother to push me.
Zhang knows this, so if he’s saying something like that, he’s concerned.
Snatching my jacket, I slide into it. What a fucking pain in the ass it is having younger brothers. I’m the lucky bastard with eight of them—Treyu, plus the six we helped raise, plus the newest little Orion I haven’t met yet. Treyu isn’t even the biggest pain in my ass, though, he’s one of the top contenders. In human terms, we’d all be considered half-brothers, except for the triplets, because we all have different mothers. Stars don’t think like that, though. If you share a father, you’re siblings for all your days.
The end.
Whether you like it or not.
Gem transforms from coy and submissive, to full eldest brother mode. He sits up, letting the thin blanket fall to his waist. “Why are you covered in demon blood? I wasn’t aware you had an assignment. Were you attacked?”
“Treyu is in danger,” he says. “I’ve been … keeping an eye on him, but I’m done doing that. He’s your problem now, Orion.”
“He’s always been my fucking problem and always will be.” I clip my belt of mags around my waist. “How’s he in danger?”
“I can’t… gah!” It’s like he’s trying to say something but can’t. His eyes search the room until they land on my harness with my starblades, he grabs that for me and shoves them against my chest.
“What’s the hurry, Zhang?” I say.
“I want to go home. I need Gemini to do that. He won’t with your Orion ass here. Get out.”
I hook the harness around my arm, not bothering to hook my blades onto my body and search out my wallet, keys, and my assault rifle. I won’t go anywhere without my assault rifle.
Fuck me, though. Zhang’s upset. I don’t care but Gem will care, and if Gem cares he’ll expect me to do something about it since it was likely my brother’s angry shit that did this to him. Not that I jump to the whims of a fuck buddy, but it’s Gem and it’s complicated.
“What did my brother do, Zhang?”
“He tried to stab me in the Godsdamn heart.”
Fuck. What drama. “I’m sure the feeling was alive in his little black heart—for a fucking minute—but he also knows he’d never be able to accomplish that. He knew you’d stop him.”
Zhang freezes, his red hair swings in time with his jacket, and his narrowed eyes soften. His hand moves over his heart in an unconscious gesture I’m not sure he realizes he’s doing.
“Oh. Yeah,” he says as two distinct words as though he’s having some realizations of his own. “Fuck. I left him with an entire bar of alcohol. I have to go.”
I stop him, grabbing his massive arm. Zhang is a behemoth. “He’s home. He might not live through the night for other reasons, but he’s not going to accidentally impale his heart with something because he drank a bottle of tequila and then hopped onto his motorbike.”
Shit. So much fucking shit to deal with.
“What happened?” Gem tries again, staring at Zhang, taking in the state of him.
“He was sent to take out a shadow demon by himself.”
“Trey can take out several shadow demons on his own,” I say.
“Not one like this. It had seven arms—tentacles—and was at least four times as strong as any shadow demon I’ve ever seen. It grabbed him and almost sucked out his soul.”
That’s fucking disturbing. “I’m assuming you think whoever sent him in knew what he’d face.”
“I have reason to believe so.”
“Facts. I need facts, Zhang.”
“I don’t have facts, but what happened tonight is enough to confirm it for me.”
Not for me. I don’t like it, but for now, it’s nothing but an assignment gone wrong, which happens at the best of times, and it’s not the best of times. “I’ll handle it. What were you doing there?”
