"Platonic love: Two people playing with a gun, thinking it isn't loaded."
Peter was still a little dazed on the drive to Roman's.
Help him remember who he is.
Fan-friggin-tastic. As if he didn't have enough things to deal with already. Yet it had seemed vital to Destiny that should go at once and help Roman on a journey of self-discovery. Or whatever. So, who is he? My best friend was the first thought that shot into his mind. Scratch that. The upir was his only friend. He could see clearly now that Andreas and the other gypsies had never been his friends.
Maybe two people can be a pack. The random thought seemed weird at first but he bounced it around in his head and came to the conclusion that he quite liked it. Me and Roman against the world. He admitted to himself that in the drama his life had become he might have neglected the upir a little. He decided to make up for it somehow. All of a sudden, he remembered himself and Roman, sitting in his car, smoking, laughing. God, how he missed those days. The easy companionship they had shared, the strange chemistry between them, unlike anything he had ever experienced with another human being. No, he corrected himself, nothing I have ever experienced with a human being.
When had it all gone to shit? It was difficult to put his finger on an exact moment. It looked like things were just progressing from bad to worse every day of their lives. He wondered what the hell had gotten into Destiny. She had never been particularly fond of the upir. It was very out of character for her to just send him over there, especially since they had been in the middle of something themselves. Peter sighted and put the thought out of his mind.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the liqueur store on the other side of the road and stepped on the brakes. That's it. he thought. I'll get some nice whiskey and we'll take an evening off from the shit storm that our lives have become. He grinned at the thought of just hanging around with Roman like in the old days. It gave him a warm, fuzzy feeling in his stomach. Maybe it was time that he took action against the downward turn his life had taken. God knew, a lot of it was his own damn fault. He resolved not to think about the drama and the battles still ahead and, at least for this one evening, just have a good time with his best friend for once.
Roman sat on his couch, a glass of whiskey in one hand, staring into the distance. In his mind, the day's events replayed on a loop. The shooting, the strange sensation of seeing somebody else's thoughts in his mind, the fight he'd had with Annie before she'd stormed out.
They had a chance now. They could track Spivak down using the images from the dead man's head. He'd find Nadia and Miranda. It was not too late. A noise at the front door interrupted his thoughts. He tensed before he realized that it was just Peter using his key to enter the house. Roman noticed that he had jumped up halfway from the couch and sat down again, forcing his muscles to relax. For weeks now he had been feeling more and more restless and on edge, but it seemed the shooting at the office had given his frayed nerves the final push to shatter completely.
Peter came in and, seeing the upir on the couch, gave him a broad smile. A strange sensation spread in Roman's stomach and he couldn't help but smile back.
"Well, somebody is awfully chipper today."
Peter dropped on the couch next to Roman with an audible thud.
"Yeah, you know I thought we could take the evening off. No drama. Just drinks."
He lifted the bottle of whiskey suggestively.
"But I see you already started the fun without me.", he added, looking at the drink in Roman's hand.
"Bad day at the office", Roman grunted.
"Do tell."
"What happened to your 'no drama' policy?"
"I've had enough of my drama. Distract me with your problems."
Peter grinned again and got up to get himself a glass. When he had dropped down on the couch again and propped his feet up on the table, he made a gesture for Roman to continue his story. Roman gave Peter's feet on his table a disapproving glare but then decided that he actually didn't give a flying fuck.
"Well, to start, I was almost gunned down today."
"Sheee-it."
"Yup. Spivak got to one of my employees with some mind control bullshit and made him start a blood bath in the board meeting. Only me and Pryce got out alive."
Peter sat up suddenly, the relaxation gone from his voice.
"Did you get any information on Spivak from him?"
"A guard shot him down before we could question him. But Pryce did some of his tech mojo and we extracted some of his thoughts. We could see him being carried by Spivak back to his hide-out. At least, we think that's what it shows. Blinsky is running some software thing to pin the location down as we speak."
Peter gave him another smile. While the others had seemed a little forced, this one was the real deal. It did more funny things to Roman's stomach that he refused to think about.
"That's great news! Finally a real clue that can actually get us closer to Nadia and Miranda."
Peter raised his glass.
"To Pryce's tech mojo!"
Roman gave a startled half-giggle and raised his almost empty glass as well. "To Pryce's tech mojo!", he agreed.
"Another thing", Peter said. Roman looked at him expectantly.
"Who the hell is Blinsky?"
