Gabe stormed up to them just as they finished eating. Drake jumped up and out of his reach while Alex automatically placed herself between him and Gabe. Cale and Rile joined their brother, expressions wary.
Drake stood tall, almost as tall as Gabe, with a lithe body, sharp features, eyes a stormy brown, his nostrils flared, as if ready to run.
"Drake, get out of here. You're poisoning Alex's mind, pulling her back into the filth of your lifestyle and profession." Gabe pointed a claw, unable to push it into Drake's chest like he usually did.
"Former profession," Drake said with exaggerated cordiality. "And as for poisoning Alex's mind, I wonder if you really reassure Alex as to her worth as a Guardian? Or is it that half-hearted encouragement so that she doesn't truly believe it and you keep her under your claws?"
Cale and Gabe froze, but Rile closed the gap between them, shouldered Alex aside forcefully, grabbed Drake's tunic, and pulled his fist back to punch him.
"Only when there's a ring of truth does the guilty react like that," Drake told him, unresisting.
Alex caught Rile's fist and gazed steadily at him, but she spoke to Drake. "Drake, don't blame the brothers for my brain-damaged psychosis."
"Don't accuse us of how you manipulated your own prostitutes," Rile said, refusing to be the first to look away from Alex's stare.
Alex pursed her lips and broke her gaze. Her eyes were glazed with unshed tears.
Drake looked between Rile and Alex, making no attempt to free himself from Rile's claws on his tunic. "I forgave everyone's debts, remember? Forgave them all, as Alex wished. Her own personal gift."
"Don't try to out-manipulate the master manipulator, Rile," Cale warned. "Stand down, brother. Give Alex credit; she is doing this of her own accord."
"Not until he agrees to leave and stop poisoning Alex's mind."
"Rile, now you don't blame Drake for my brain-damaged psychosis," Alex's voice was firm, but her tone gentle, and her hand on Rile's glowed warmly until his fist relaxed. When he released Drake, Alex said, "That's better."
Then she snatched Drake and disappeared in a speed-burst.
While Rile cursed, Gabe said, "That's his specialty: stealing our family."
**
Alex set down at Drake's campsite, a tent under a copse of trees by the river. "What are you doing? You are not endearing Rile to yourself." Her tone was plaintive, her eyes pleading.
Drake looked at her with an amused smile then took her hand and kissed the palm. "You still don't understand, do you? Not everything is about endearing myself to Rile. I don't want to see you manipulated by such a dirty method. It's disgusting, one of the lowest tricks that 'pimps' like myself use. Even I thought the perfect brothers were above it."
"They are," Alex said. "If you had ever seen them try to reassure me, you would know. They've tried everything. I want to believe them. But I can't stop...oh never mind, I'll sound crazier than I already than I am."
"Aren't we all crazy? Besides, it's your fear talking now," Drake kissed the palm of her hand again then pulled her into a sit by the smoldering remains of the campfire. He gathered his knees up and set them against his chest and wrapped both arms around them. "Please tell me."
"Only if you promise to never again accuse them of that again," Alex said.
"I promise." He rubbed her hand between both of his.
"I hear...voices...different ones calling me...all sorts of names. Mostly it's Morgan's voice. Sometimes it's the voice of The Adversary. Sometimes it's my own inner voice, though. I feel like I'm trying to climb a crumbling mountain. My boots keep sliding back down the hill. I keep trying to climb, but I never seem to get any closer to the summit. The brothers have tried everything and I want to believe them." She shook her head and buried her face in her hands. "I wasn't kidding about big illegal machines being used on my brain. If I don't sleep with," she sighed, "Rile, then I have nightmares. I'm sure you can guess about what. The next day the voices are louder."
"Who else stops the nightmares?"
"None of your business, nosy."
"So there is someone else."
Alex growled in frustration and looked up from her hands. "It was on a mission. I freed a group of Anolis males. I was their hero. We all slept together for protection and political reasons. Just slept!"
"I don't doubt that," Drake said politely.
"It was an easy world to be on. Fight, free them, fight some more, free some more. I was a hero there."
Drake leaned forward and said softly, "You're a hero here."
"So you say. You and Cale and Gabe and Rile. The rest of the world, not so much." She shrugged and looked away, brushing a lock of hair from her brow.
"And the Mercy Tent inhabitants. And the priests. And the healers," Drake said pointedly.
Alex shrugged. "They have to."
"They speak the truth. The priests are required to do that, I believe," Drake said, stopping Alex cold with his words.
She picked up a stick and poked the embers for a while. The flames feebly licked at the wood, but they died out in seconds. "Why don't you start a fire? It'll be cold by the time Rile finds us."
"Is that what we're doing? Waiting for him to find us?" Drake asked bitterly.
"You have a better suggestion?"
"I would like dinner and wine, but I'm not prepared."
"We could do that by your boulder by the Mercy Tent. Dola is always happy to feed me and my friends."
Drake stood up and bowed lavishly. "Then our boulder awaits."
***
Alex and Drake had started the bread and were sipping the wine when they saw Rile stomping up. Drake moved and Alex put a hand on his arm.
"Don't do anything," she whispered. She placed a third plate onto the boulder, splashed wine into a third mug, and set about slathering butter onto the fresh hot bread.
She waited until Rile was in earshot and called to him. "Please sit down, love."
"You're kidding." Rile walked up and stood over her.
Alex craned her neck up at him and smiled. "I am not kidding. Drake gave up something very important to himself to make sure I wasn't being taken advantage of. I expect you to honor that and join us for dinner."
Rile goggled at her, speechless.
Alex held up the mug. "Drink. It helps."
"Drake helps himself and is a skilled manipulator," Rile replied.
"We all help ourselves in one way or another. Now drink the wine and join us," Alex said. "We'll speak of manipulation later." At Rile's hesitation, she said with a mischievous grin, "I promise to make it worth your while."
"Since he won't do it because you simply asked him," Drake said in a flat tone.
Alex shot him an exasperated look and Rile's was pure anger. He sat down and took the mug. He drank deeply of it while Alex piled his plate high. She waited until his mouth was full before she spoke.
"I want Drake tobecome a Guardian."
***
Surprise! Do you think Drake can become a Guardian?
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