The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Regrets and Memories

It was sometime later that found Jeriko carefully studying Mordecai's face over the rim of a mug of hot chocolate as the big man scanned over the headlines in the morning's copy of the Herald. Even here, she could see the intensity etched onto his features, a cold fire that burned all else away. Completely focused on the task that lay before him, even though all talk of the Brotherhood and their Armageddon Project had ceased. At least, for a while, as they had enjoyed a simple breakfast in relative anonymity.

Before last night, under the flashing lights of the nightclub, Paris had been the last time Jeriko had seen the big man. And that was nearly two years ago. If anything, he was even more handsome than he had been then, and he was heart stoppingly good looking in the city of romance.

Behind them, shining through the windows of the Tim Horton's that Mordecai had led them to, the bright beams of the early morning sun made dust motes dance in a halo of light around the man in black. And, for a brief moment, he wasn't the dark angel of death, but the bright messenger of promise. Promise for all Humanity, that their course of development would be determined naturally, not by outside forces. Especially not by these people in this Brotherhood, with their plans of a coup against normal Humanity.

Then she sighed and silently put the mug down. She had better nip these feelings in the bud. It was no use trying to court the fanatically isolated Mordecai. She had tried in Paris and, before that, Geneva. But the man in black studiously avoided relationships beyond the rare night to satisfy animal need. He basically pushed away any woman who showed any sort of interest in him. Why? Jeriko looked out the window at the street beyond, just now beginning to fill with cars, trucks and other vehicles as the city continued to wake up.

Probably because he didn't want to curse any mate of his, and subsequent children, with his dark gift. Mordecai's ability to witness Probability and Reality unfolding as it happened was well known amongst the long gunmen. Known, respected, and feared. No other gunman had the power so strongly that it gave them visions, as Mordecai did.

Who would want their children to be pulled to metaphysical hotspots for the rest of their lives, their heads filled with visions of death, destruction and horrible change? It wasn't something he would wish on anybody!

Still, Jeriko had wondered why the big man hadn't even wanted that animalistic night of sex for fulfillment with her. It wasn't that she was unattractive. She considered herself very attractive. But the big man shied away from her every time she had attempted to broach the subject. The only reason Jeriko could think of for Mordecai's reluctance to enter her bed was that he seemed to genuinely like her and respect her powers and abilities. Maybe that's why he hadn't allowed the one-night stand to happen, something the Swedish hardwire had regretted ever since.

Burn her to ash, but he was one good looking man, with a body any woman would give anything to have holding her close at night. Damn, just look at those shoulders. And that chin, and those eyes. They were enough to inflame her completely. Add to that his sense of honor and justice, his practical nature and intense personality, and what woman wouldn't want him?

A slight smile touched Jeriko's lips. The man did seem to accumulate women wherever he went. She personally knew several of the lone gunmen women that would give their right arms for a chance to bed him. And she didn't even bother counting the many psionic and normal women that wanted him. 'What's the term?' she thought with a grin. 'Chick magnet? Yeah, our Mordecai is a regular chick magnet!'

The smile faltered somewhat. If Mordecai wouldn't take her, what other choice did she have to find companionship in the world? Love, even? Jeriko sighed and took another sip of her hot chocolate. She supposed she could always go in the direction some of her fellow lone gunmen had gone, choosing homosexuality as a way of finding love without the danger of producing children with the dark gift. Some had even joined with fellow lone gunmen in trying to form a relationship.