Page 47 of Guiding Desire

“Asshole.”

“Love you too. Taros will never replace you.”

Taros snorted. “As if.”

Vin let out a hissing breath. “You will all shut up now. I want to watch that sex scene. I don’t buy that the explicit bits are AI generated.”

“Hmm.” Karmine tilted his head this way and that. “Do you really think a normal cock looks like that with all of those piercings?”

Taros twirled his purple hair around a finger. “One of you two is too thirsty, and I’m not sure which one.”

Colreturnedlaterinthe day when the sun was about to set. By that point, someone had come up with a drinking game that required them all to down shots of the cheap kuvana liquor Senlas kept for just such stupidity.

“Are you serious?” Col asked. He’d changed into a long summer dress, black unless he moved and the colorful creases showed. A matching, wide-brimmed hat was in his hand.

“I’m supervising,” Senlas said.

“It’s true. He’s drinking us…making us drink alone,” Karmine said. “Because he has to administer meds to the cutie.”

“So long as you behave, I don’t actually care,” Col said and made his way to the fridge. “We are meeting with the Ferrean group tomorrow, during the Covenant cookout. Just casually saying hi. Senny, if Orrey is feeling up to it, you should bring him, he might feel less like the awkward new person among the Ferrean Conduits.”

“I’ll ask him.”

Col pulled out a container of sorono hummus and some spicy guan sauce, then dumped the contents of a whole package of three-color crackers in a bowl. After candy, sorono hummus was his second most favorite comfort food, and Senlas took that to mean Col had had a stressful day.

“Why’s he not here?” Col asked.

“He’s asleep. I checked on him an hour ago. He managed some basic channeling earlier, then there was a lot of buffering.”

“M-hmm,” Col said as he walked over, then dropped on the couch next to Senlas. “Buffering, huh.”

“I’m so jealous,” Taros said. “I’d like to buffer someone.”

Col loaded one of the crackers with sorono hummus until there was only just enough cracker visible for him to hold on to, then daintily drizzled guan sauce on top of that straight from the bottle without spilling anything. “The thing is, when they’re this drunk, I can never tell if they’re just drunk or being their normal annoying selves.”

Both Taros and Karmine slapped themselves in tandem.

“What—“

“Hey!”

“Drunk,” Vin said. “Could take over their nervous system, and they’d never know it.”

“Well, you’re drunk too,” Taros said.

Col ignored them, and everyone went back to watching what had to be season four or five ofMy Secret Guardian.

By the time the credits of that episode rolled, Col said, “In case you hadn’t heard, there are three victims in that other bombing now. Three dead.”

No one said anything, but the atmosphere changed. In a lot of ways, Senlas, Karmine, Taros, and Vin could go about their days when they weren’t on missions, but Col was a high-ranking operative who worked with regulars, with protectors, when it overlapped with the Grounds’ interests, which happened often enough. And safety was without a doubt everyone’s concern. As such, he had to feel at least some sort of responsibility.

“I’m sorry,” Senlas said, and the others nodded, reached for Col to squeeze a hand, pat a shoulder. Karmine handed him his newly filled liquor glass, which Col took and downed before handing it back.

“They’re putting the names on the memorial in Meridian Park. There’ll be a small ceremony. Say Orrey had run a little faster or had jumped out of the auto-drive a little sooner, they’d be adding a fourth name.” Col crunched down on a chip, the sorono hummus forgotten. He jammed his elbow into Senlas’s ribs. “How many Conduits you can imprint on do you think are out there, hmm? You have to take care of him, you get that? You only get this one chance.”

“I know that, Col.”

“Op-AI will have you make a meds drop near a settlement area, and you will be taking a few newly developed plants and seeds with you. After the meds drop, you’re supposed to split up, you heading back to Argentea. The Ferreans will take the plants and head home. Which I hate. I wanted to send him out there with two teams. He’s never been. It’s so scary, the first time. And a meds drop—“