Page 2 of Guiding Desire

“Shit,” Senlas mumbled. Not all Hounds could withstand a Guardian attack, but there were enough. This particular Hound, unaffected, leered at Senlas, pointy eye teeth showing, and drew a sharp knife about the length of Senlas’s forearm from a thigh holster.

Senlas got ready for hand to hand, his weight shifting to his back leg before he was consciously aware he was doing it.

The sharp metallic bang of a bullet’s release made Senlas stall for the fraction of a heartbeat. He watched as the Hound with the knife sagged forward, hit. His yellow eyes still found Senlas’s anger bubbling there, but the Hound’s grip on the knife had slackened.

The Hound’s hand slapped the ground, but stupidly, Senlas’s eyes were drawn to a cream drop, petals barely just open but their white covered with a smear of red, the ruination of what could have been an uneventful mission.

Senlas tore his eyes from the roadside growth and glanced left to see Karmine crouched on the hood of the vehicle, gun in hand, face passive. He would shoot again if he had to.

“I was aiming for his eyeball,” Karmine said.

“Clear!” someone yelled from a vehicle behind them, followed by several more confirming echoes. The Hound was down, now attempting to drag the one with the spear still stuck in him back while barely able to stand on his own feet.

Senlas released the larger rocks around him from his awareness and called, “Clear,” then made for the vehicle, turning away from the two Hounds who’d tried and failed.

Karmine floored it even before Senlas’s door was fully shut, and that was that. Senlas reached for the communicator mounted to the front dash.

“This is Lead to all Follows. Report.”

“Follow One, all clear, no casualties,” the vehicle behind them said.

The others reported in order, and only Follow Five had taken some injury.

Senlas switched channels. “This is Lead seven-oh-nine, reporting to Oversee One. We had a bit of an ambush just now. All cargo safe, but one of the Ferrean guys got his arm sliced up. Have medical stand by for when we get in the door.”

“Why is it you always call me to say the same thing?” Coldis said from the other end. He had the audacity to sound almost bored.

Karmine sniggered. “Oh, beautiful, I think Sen is trying to flirt with you.”

“I will break your face,” Senlas said to Karmine.

“Aww, don’t be mean, Senny,” Coldis said. “Don’t you like my face?”

Senlas rolled his eyes. “You two’re idiots.”

“And you’re stiff. Always so stiff. Not in the way I’d like you to be stiff,” Coldis said.

Senlas pinched the bridge of his nose. “If I buy you a drink later, will you get me out of the damn parade to do some paperwork? There has to be paperwork, right? We had an incident. Incidents mean paperwork.”

Coldis blew a raspberry, which was annoying over comms. “I set up a form for that. Because it’s you, Senny. My office AI could fill it out. And I cannot get you out of the parade. I know you got the Covenant Week memo. It had the word mandatory in it, which I underlined only for you.”

“The one that said attendance ismandatoryfor all A-classers and over,” Karmine added with a smirk.

“Thanks for shooting that Hound, but also: fuck you. Coldis, can you get me a checkup with medical?”

“Karmine saved your hide, again?” The clicking of a keyboard could be heard as Coldis added that to his form, no doubt. “And unless you’re bleeding very badly or show overload symptoms, no, you are not getting out of this. See you in Eight. Boop.”

The line went dead, and Senlas frowned. “He knows he’s supposed to say Oversee out, right? He knows that. He knows these are subject to review.”

Karmine snorted. “Is that why you tried to bargain your way out of showing that handsome face of yours for the Guardian Parade? Or is it just your S-classer entitlement?”

“Neither. Crowds. Don’t like them.”

“Hmm.” Karmine pointed at the radio. “Maybe some music? To lighten your mood?”

“You can still drive with one broken finger,” Senlas said, which had Karmine chuckle.

They were quiet for the rest of the drive to Argentea. The fog was still thick, and only because the Wild Hounds had tried and failed once didn’t mean they wouldn’t try a second time.