Page 101 of Deathless
He pulled me into a hug with his good arm, careful of my shoulder, and I held onto him. Lorenzo smelled like antiseptic and gun oil and the expensive cologne he wore even into combat because he said looking good and smelling good were non-negotiable.
"You scared the shit out of me," I said.
"I scared the shit out of myself." He pulled back and looked me over. "Rafael, doesn't Diego look rugged?"
Rafael appeared beside him the way he always did, quiet and already there before you knew you needed him. He kept his hand on the small of Lorenzo's back and looked me over like he was already triaging.
"He looks like he needs a hospital," Rafael said.
"He looks like he needs a shower," Lorenzo corrected. "And a meal. And maybe a priest."
Rafael gave him a flat look.
"What?" Lorenzo's grin widened. "I said maybe."
Lorenzo looked past me at Jasper, who leaned against the Cessna with his eyes half-closed. "Both of you. Mãe de Deus, what happened in Kiev?"
"Long story," I said.
"I've got time." Lorenzo's gaze dropped to Jasper's bandaged head, then tracked to the katana still in his grip. "Is that blood on his sword?"
"It's a lot of people's blood on his sword."
"Hot." Lorenzo grinned at Jasper. "Looking good, lindo. Love the head wound. Very tortured protagonist."
Jasper opened one eye. "Lorenzo."
"Jasper."
"Shut up."
"Missed you too." Lorenzo blew him a kiss.
Rafael shook his head, but he almost smiled. He stepped past Lorenzo and gripped my good shoulder.
"Luka and Vincent?" I asked.
"Accounted for," Rafael said. "Luka took a knife to the thigh during the breach. He's already walking on it because he's insane. Hades?”
I looked past him to where Rhadamanthys stood near the entrance and shook my head. “No sign of him. He wasn’t at thecompound in Kiev. But…” I sighed. “Listen Hermano. This is where we get off the ride. I mean, the Kalderash… We’ll continue to support the resistance, but me and Jasper…”
Rafael nodded. “I understand more than you know. We’ll work out the details after you’ve both rested and had something to eat.”
I nodded and took Jasper’s arm. "Come on," I said. "Let's get inside."
We walked toward the main building. Jasper leaned into me, and I took his weight on my good side. Lorenzo fell in beside us, still talking, because Lorenzo always talked and the sound of his voice filled the spaces that silence would have made unbearable. Rafael walked on Lorenzo's other side with his hand on Lorenzo's back.
We passed the Kalderash sector on the way in. The courtyard where my cousins had strung lights and argued over coffee was half rubble now, the fountain cracked down the middle, the garden wall blown outward. But someone had already swept the worst of the debris into piles. Beni crouched by the fountain with a trowel and a bucket of mortar, patching the base. He looked up when we passed and nodded once. Someone had boarded over Rosario's kitchen window, and the board had a handwritten sign taped to it: KITCHEN OPEN. COME EAT. The walls stood, and somewhere in the main building my mother was feeding my daughter.
Jasper laced his fingers through mine as we walked through the door together.
Someone had set upa medic station in the hallway outside the briefing room. I sat on a crate while a field medic peeled the bandage off my shoulder, and Luka's voice carried through the open door.
"Achilles is dead. Myrmidons scattered. Three of Zeus's directors went dark in the last forty-eight hours, two more are crawling back through intermediaries trying to cut deals."
Lorenzo's voice cut in from inside. "Begging. The word you're looking for is begging."
"Lorenzo." Rafael, flat.
