Chapter 11

"Why do I have to wear a noose again?" Daggon grunted as Aeko helped him adjust his tie.

"For the same reason I have to wear shoes that feel like they're two sizes too small." She gave his tie a final tug and nodded to herself at the effect. "There. Perfect."

"Depends on where you're standing," he grumbled.

She chuckled. "Yeah, like this outfit is my idea of a good time?" She shook her head. "I feel ridiculous." She paused. "This is the part where you politely tell me that there's nothing ridiculous about my appearance, sir."

"Ah. You look far from ridiculous, Aeko," he assured her. "In fact, that dress is actually sort of appealing on you."

Aeko smiled and shook her head, knowing that it was as close as she was going to get to a compliment from the Cirronian. "Where are Detectives Bruno and Cruz, anyway?"

Daggon looked around for a moment, then pointed to where the two Detectives were deep in conversation. "Over there."

"Okay, let's go say hi before we start looking for her."

He nodded and offered his arm as she had shown him to. Nodding her approval, Aeko accepted it and they started towards the Detectives.

"Hey, guys," Vic greeted them.

"Oh, Aeko, what a beautiful dress!" Maria exclaimed, smiling.

"Yours too, Detective." Aeko smiled back. "That shade of blue compliments your complexion wonderfully."

Vic rolled his eyes. Although he was inclined to agree with Aeko's assessment, he was not sure how much 'girl talk' he could handle. He caught Daggon's arm and pulled him a little away from the ladies.

"So?" he asked.

"We have a guest list. All we have to do is start circulating until we find her. Between myself and Aeko it should not be difficult."

"Okay, man. Good luck."

"Thank you, Vic." Daggon smiled at him and returned to Aeko's side. The two women had moved on to complaining about how uncomfortable their shoes were.

"If they are not comfortable, why wear them?" he asked, frowning.

"Good question." Maria looked down at her feet for a moment, then slipped off her shoes and kicked them under a nearby table. "Better," she said, letting her long dress conceal the fact that she was now barefoot.

"You should take your shoes off, too, Aeko," Daggon advised.

"Dress only goes down to my ankles. I can't."

He frowned. "Next time you should wear a longer dress or buy more comfortable shoes," he advised as they moved off.

"I think John has a death-wish," Maria remarked quietly to Vic, shaking her head.

"You actually going to spend the night barefooted?" Vic whispered to Maria, shaking his head at the look Aeko was giving Daggon.

"Why not? I'll be fine as long as you don't step on my toes when we dance."

"Were we planning on dancing?" Vic asked with a faint smile.

"We will be just as soon as you invite me to," she replied with twinkling eyes.

Vic smiled and bent down. "Mar," he whispered gravely, grinning. "May I have this dance?"

"You going to step on my feet?" she teased.

"Probably. Want me to take off my shoes, too?"

"I want you to dance with me, Vicky. Come on."

"Okay." Chuckling, he offered her his arm.

"What are these couples doing?" Daggon whispered to Aeko as they circulated.

"It's a form of dancing, sir."

"Show me."

She shrugged and nodded, offering her hand. "Just follow my lead."

He nodded and let Aeko tug his body against hers and position his hands. "Vic and Maria are doing it as well," he observed as they swayed in place to the music.

Aeko nodded. "Not surprising. It's not my speed, but humans consider it romantic."

He frowned faintly. "Why?"

"Because they are genetically keyed to convey and receive large quantities of emotionally charged information via the sensation of touch. Therefore, touching frequently is considered an intimate or semi-intimate behavior."

"It is pleasant," he conceded. "But not emotional."

She shrugged and explained, "Two-part equation. Sensory input is always going to have a sensory element to it. But the emotional reaction is more a matter of psychological feedback than anything."

"Holding your body against mine would seem romantic if my feelings towards you were already romantic?" he ventured, frowning.

"Exactly." She nodded. "As it is, the sensation is merely pleasant physically." Noting that a couple dancing nearby was staring at them after having overheard their comments, Aeko looked up and smiled cheerfully at them. There was nothing cheerful about the look in her eyes, though, and the couple quickly moved away.

"Why do you do that?" Daggon sighed.

Her response was a whisper. "I'm Dessarian. We do not like getting stared at," she reminded him. "It's the entire reason we evolved like we did."

"That's an oversimplification."

"But an accurate one." She smiled up at him. "Come on, sir. We've got a needle to pick out of this haystack," she said, pulling away and starting off.

Daggon stared after her for a moment, perplexed. Shaking his head, he followed. "Needle? Haystack?"

***

"This is not how Zarreth operates!" Aeko hissed at Daggon, glancing around the room at the dozen or so gun-toting 'waiters'.

"I know." Daggon nodded, frowning. He glanced over to where Maria was speaking with the apparent leader of the band.

"Look, just calm down, okay," she suggested, holding her hands well away from her body. "We'll get a list of your demands conveyed and my people are not going to try to make any trouble. There are a lot of innocent men and women here and I don't think either of us wants to see any of them get hurt."

"Where is Vic?" Daggon whispered to Aeko.

"He left to use the restroom about twenty seconds before this went down."

"Then there is a chance that he knows what is going on?"

Aeko nodded. "He would have heard the commotion. Ten to one the SWAT is already on its way."

"Good."

"You think Zarreth is still here?" she whispered.

"Is anyone other than Vic missing?"

She scanned the crowd for a moment, then nodded. "Two someones."

"The curator and his date," he realized, shaking his head. Well, only one of them could be Zarreth. The other was likely already dead.

Aeko nodded. "We need to get out of here. You go. I'll follow."

He nodded and raised his hand to open a Hyperspeed window. Aeko grabbed his hand before he could, nodding towards a staircase. Two more men with gun were shoving Vic into the room.

Maria sighed deeply. "Caray…"

"Mar, you okay?"

"Fine, yeah." She nodded.

"Any casualties? Injuries?"

"None. Just some very pissed off terrorists."

"Okay. Sit with the others. I've got it from here."

"Vic," she protested, shaking her head.

"Now, Mar. Please?"

"Vic!"

"Sit!" he ordered, pointing.

"Pendejo," she grumbled, glaring at him as she moved to join the other hostages.

"He was only trying to protect you," Aeko pointed out gently, moving to sit next to Maria. Her little argument with Vic had given Daggon more than enough time to leave without being noticed.

"He's still a fucking idiot. I had them convinced I was in charge," she whispered.

"Your desire to protect him is admirable, but also as stupid as hell." Aeko refused to quail under Maria's glare. "Face it. The minute you couldn't provide them with a piece of information that he could, this party would have turned into a blood-bath. Starting with you, Detective."

"I know, I know, but…"

"Now the blood-bath starts with him, instead. Lovely thought, that." Aeko sighed. "Sorry. Just trust him. He's a smart man. He'll do what he must."

"I know. That's what worries me."

"You wouldn't happen to have a clutch-piece?"

"They took it." Maria's eyes grew wide as she felt cold metal against her leg.

"Now you have one. Five shots. Don't use them if you don't have to."

"You have a permit for this?" Maria asked, slipping the revolver into her ankle-holster.

"Must have left it in my other hostage situation…"

"Where's John?" Maria asked suddenly, realizing that the girl's date was nowhere to be seen.

"Doesn't matter. Try not to draw too much attention to the fact that he's missing, hmm?"

"Okay." She nodded slowly. She started to rise as the leader of the hostage-takers led Vic off.

Aeko grabbed her shoulder and hauled her back to the floor. "Don't," she hissed. "Detective Bruno will be fine. Put personal sentiment on hold for a few hours and see to these people."

Maria nodded and looked around the room. A lot of the men and women sitting there, including many of the cops, looked scared to death. She turned back to Aeko to thank her for reminding her of her priorities, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.

"What the…" Shaking her head, she firmly refused to think about the fact that the girl had vanished in the blink of an eye, not wanting to telegraph her absence.

Aeko breathed a silent prayer of thanks to whichever gods were listening for solid-colored carpets as she crawled away from the group of hostages and after Vic. His heart was in the right place, certainly, but the man was more likely than not to get himself killed without help.

***

Zin was teleconferencing with Lana and Haag from the living room of the hotel suit and Mel was in the bedroom enjoying a late-afternoon nap.

Even knowing that it was just another bid for privacy on his part, she had actually been pleased when Zin had suggested that she take the nap while he was talking with his people. Not that she had been tired, of course, but these days she never said no to the opportunity for a few minutes of sleep, tired or not. She always had dreams now when she slept, constantly. Always the same dreams, too, dreams of him.

His beautiful eyes, his gentle voice, his hands, perfectly smooth except for those strange calluses on his fingertips… Morah, beautiful. Words spoken almost reverentially as his callused fingertips brushed across her cheek, his expression one of wonder. Those same fingers stroking her throat earlier, him standing so close that she could feel the heat pouring off of him. Time seeming to hold its breath for them, the shape of the universe changing until they were the only two people in existence.

His obvious pain…

She still ached to hold him in her arms and make it all better, had to fight the urge to ask after him every time she saw Vic, knowing that if she saw him again she was likely to do something stupid. There were times when throwing away her relationship with Zin seemed like a small price to pay for a chance to feel John's hands on her throat again. She absolutely hated herself for that half the time, even if it did feel right to her. Conflicted beyond reason, she tried not to think about it, or him, too hard. But when the dreams came... that was different, she told herself.

In her dreams she could enjoy his touch and sooth his pain and imagine a different life, one spent with him, and she could do it without guilt or doubts.

"Melah en'i."

Smiling and leaning against him, "That sounds very familiar, John."

"Of course it does. It's your name, isn't it?"

"Uh, not exactly."

"If you say so..." With a tolerant smile, he reached down and began lightly stroking her throat.

Mel closed her eyes, taking a moment to enjoy the sensations he was stirring up in her, then sighed and shook her head. "Don't."

"Why?" he asked, removing his hand, his expression curious.

"I don't want Julius to know that I'm dreaming about you... He's starting to notice that something's changed."

He smiled and raised his hand to her throat again, letting it linger there. "He doesn't have to know, not unless you tell him."

Mel closed her eyes as he resumed his loving caresses of her throat.

"Who are you?" she breathed.

Opening her eyes, she found herself getting lost in his, chocolate-brown and a mile deep.

His voice a whisper, he told her, "I'm your Destiny. Not Zin, not Reta. Me..."

She shook her head. "But, Julius...He's shown me--"

"Only as much as it benefits him to show you. You know this already, Melah en'i."

"Who are you?" she repeated in a tremulous voice.

"Just a dream..." He smiled tenderly. "For now."

"For now?" she whispered hopefully.

"You saw it in my eyes. I'm as drawn to you as you were to me. We'll find each other again or your grandmother was wrong about Fate and true love." He shook his head and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "And we know that she was never wrong about anything at all."

"No, guess she never was." Mel smiled faintly.

He bent and kissed her tenderly for a long moment before straightening. "We will find each other again. Keep your mind and heart open. Follow them back to me..."

"What about Julius?"

"He's a dangerous man. He won't let you go easily. Be cautious."

Mel snapped awake with a gasp, worried by those words of warning. Pulling her legs against her chest and resting her forehead on her knees, she considered. She knew full well that the 'John' in her dreams was not Vic's friend, but a product of her own subconscious. That he could so casually deliver such a warning made her wonder what she knew about Zin that she was unwilling to admit to herself. She was half willing to dismiss the warning out of hand; it had, after all, been just a dream. But Zin himself was insistent that she always attend to the things her unconscious mind tried to tell her. She doubted he had ever expected her subconscious to issue a warning against him, though. So was he dangerous to her?

"No, that's silly," she whispered, shaking her head.

"Melanie?"

"Julius, hi." She looked up as he entered and gave him a wan smile.

"Bad dream, my dear?"

"Uh, yeah." Mel nodded.

"Ah, you poor baby," Zin said, settling behind her on the bed and rubbing her shoulders. "Want to talk about it?" he offered.

"No." Mel shook her head. "Just a dream," she told him, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of his hands as they moved from her back to her shoulders and then up to her throat, putting the dream from her mind in favor of more immediate concerns. "Just a stupid dream..."