Chapter Three:

Moments of life marked off in noise surrounded him from the chatter of children playing with a ball below him to the very overzealous neighbors' bed springs next door. Yet, at this stage in his life, it was the harsh voices engaged in a love's quarrel on the other side of him that held the most importance. Passing through the thin walls of his cheap hotel room, he ignored all of it, well most of it. The sickening noise of flesh colliding into flesh still made his stomach churn. Perhaps, the peculiar results of some lingering empathy left over from his boyhood days.

Frowning, he turned away from the argument squashing his cigarette ruthlessly into the ash tray. He had to stop doing this he ordered himself with each push of his butt against the glass. However, all the commands in the world could not stop his hand from moving to cover his cheek against a remembered pain that time had done nothing to dull.

For what seemed like seconds, they stared at each other.

Devoted lovers and partners no more.

Tears filled her indigo eyes, which was not an uncommon sight for him as of late.

He still felt the burning imprint of her hand on his face as the plate of food wobbled in his grasp. This had not been his intention at all.

She lowered her gaze from his and tried to withdraw her hand.

He stopped her.

"No one was supposed to get hurt. You promised me Vari."

After days of not speaking, her voice sounded raw to his own ears.

"I loved them. They were my family." She shuddered.

If they were her family, then what was he? Her dirty little secret, his pride answered.

Hurt and anger seeped into one moment of thoughtlessness. He opened his mouth to speak.

Vilandra's face blanched but that was soon lost in the flurry of movement as she ran from him.

If he had only known, he would have run after her. Moodily, his eyes drifted back to their current study of the water spot forming along the ceiling. A putrid brown orb of sewage surround by a faint caramel halo, he could almost deem attractive. Filth cloaked in the guise of beauty. He thought bitterly to himself. In the beginning, all that was new carried such a gloss.

When she had appeared in his doorway back from school, four inches taller clothed in the red satin of nobility that seemed so out of place in the slum her people had put him in, he knew something had changed.

When she had talked his ear off about trivial and inane things, the product of her schooling, he had mourned for the spirited young girl who had found fault with the wealth and power she had been born into. His friend was no more.

When her small hand shook every so slightly as it journeyed down his cheek in a gesture of good bye no different from a hundred of its predecessors. Except this time, a warmth uncurled in his belly at her contact. Alarmed, he jerked back from her caress, because this was one change he hadn't anticipated.

"It's okay you know." She breathed eliminating the space between him, so he could feel her harden breasts pressing up against his chest.

"What are you doing?"

"What I've been wanting to do ever since I was seven years old," she answered standing up on her tip toes, but in her nervousness her mouth connected just below his mouth.

"Lonnie, this is…" he made the mistake of lowering his head.

She didn't miss the second time, but that was only because he didn't want her to.

"No." Needing to be closer to the water spot, to remind himself of the fact that everything fades yet again, he felt himself rise off the bed and float up to the offending spot. "This is how it is."

"Here mom and dad always thought I was the weird one."

Looking down, he saw the shimmering astral protection of his sister. "You are supposed to be watching things while I'm gone Deva. Not spying on me," he growled while doing everything possible to keep from looking at the newborn in her arms.

"You were supposed to be back with the seal three days ago Vari. Oh, yes do give me your evil look of diabolic torture. You know how much that scares me. Is there a reason you picked this pig sty to stay in? I mean look at this bed spread. Who knows when was the last time they washed this?"

"Did you come down here to nag at me, or does your visit have a purpose?"

As if winding down some long established routine, Deva's voice changed from the combative to the serious. "The senators are getting restless. They're starting to question while they should follow your authority at all. The papers are all blaring rubbish about Zan's miraculous return day and night."

He snorted.

"You've found Max, haven't you?"

"That's one way of looking at it." His eyes finally straying to the bundle in his sister's arms. "Put the baby down Deva."

He didn't miss the dilation of her pupils or her tightened grasp. "What's wrong? Is Tess behaving herself?"

"I can handle Tess. The question is can you handle Max?"

"It doesn't appear that he's not going to take much handling after all," he answered deciding not to call her out on her obvious change in subject. "He's dead."

From the crook of her arm, he watched two indigo eyes open along with a small mouth followed by a mournful wail.

"Shh, it's okay little one." Deva cooed holding the baby up to her shoulder. "Who?"

"Humans."

"Humans, you're kidding me."

"Wish I was," he answered lowering himself back down to the floor trying to escape the sounds coming from the newest addition to their very happy club of mourners. "Will you shut that thing up already?"

"Infants can't be really reasoned with Vari. I don't understand though," she answered patting the baby's back and restoring the pink blanket around its kicking feet. "If Max's dead, who has the seal? Why didn't Tess feel Max die?"

"Because Tess isn't as closely linked to the situation as she would have us believe."

"Liz."

"Liz," he repeated hating the uncharacteristic feeling her name evoked in him never

seeing the glimpse of a smirk on his sister's lips or noticing the sudden cessation in the baby's crying.

"So tell me about Liz? I'm guessing she's not five hundred pounds and bucked tooth as Tess would describe her."

"No, she's tiny. Her eyes remind me of Telusian marble," he answered absentmindedly. "Even though, she's hurting. She goes out of her way to make sure that Rath and Vila--Isabel are okay. She has a very big heart that way."

"Oh really."

"It's not like that."

"You're in a holding position for a reason Vari. Do you think should could be reasoned with? Does she even know she has it?"

"It's hard to say. Her grief is clouding every impression I get from her." He frowned at the slight shaking of his hand before stuffing it into his pocket. This was the last thing he needed right now. "She's just like this force. I see her. I start thinking. The woman has to be playing with my head. I will deal with her the way I deal with anyone else," he growled spurned on by his anger but more by his fear.

"Because, you thinking is such a bad thing?"

"Deva please."

"Whatever you do, I'll support you."

Reaching out for her hand, his fingers pierced right through her shimmering figure. "I know you will." He frowned at the lack…. of well life coming from outside.

"What?"

"Where are you?"

"The cottage."

"Leave. You take the thalan. You lose yourself and the baby."

"I'm your envoy. What is it going to look like…"

"I don't really care what it looks like." Parting the curtains, he easily made out the tell tale silver footprints making there way up the stairs.

"Shieter," he heard Deva curse from behind him. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he watched as a green shield shot out from the baby and surrounded his sister.

"I'm thinking this isn't a good thing."

He didn't answer as he was too caught up in the last time he had seen a shield of that identical color.

"You need to get the hell out of there." He finally said speaking to an empty room now devoid of his sister's projection. "Vilandra protect them please," he begged as he readied himself for the assault. As the multi mouth creature came crashing through the window, he found himself appealing to Max Evans' aid as well.