“Yeah, like for a woman.” I ran an index finger along the flat side of the blade. “How hard would it be to make this into a pair of earrings and leave the carvings intact?”
Arty patted at his chest until he found his glasses in his shirt pocket. He put them low on the bridge of his nose, then picked up the weapon to inspect it carefully.
“Well, the blade is real silver. That’ll make it easy to cut and shape.”
“Cool, let’s do that.”
He looked at me shrewdly over the top of his glasses, mouth tightening into a frown. “Gunner, this knife is somewhere around five hundred years old. You could buy all your wildest fantasies with this thing, and you want it cut into earrings for one woman?”
“My wildest fantasies have all come true already,” I grinned at him. “So you gonna do it or not?”
“You youngins,” he groaned, pinching his shiny forehead. “Always thinkin’ with your dicks.”
“Honestly, it was never my favorite knife.” I shrugged. “I would’ve thrown it in the box with the other stuff, but my girl likes it. Figured I’d make it into a little keepsake for her.”
Arty just snorted, turning the blade over in his hands like it was a precious relic.
“So you gonna do it or not?” I asked him with a harder edge to my voice.
“Yeah, Gun. I got you,” he sighed longingly.
“You’ve got plenty of weapons here to fawn over.” I leaned both forearms down on the counter and snatched one of his pens and notepads. “Now here’s what I’m thinking for the earring design.”
With the load on my bike now twice as light, I made the ride home in half the time. I felt a lightness in my chest too, picturing Mari's face when I gave the earrings.
Knowingly or not, Reaper and Jandro set a precedent with their gifts to her. She only took off her necklace and ring in the bath or for work, and I wasn't about to be the odd man out that didn't have something for her to wear. I just hope that she liked what I came up with.
As the Steel Demon flag waved at me on the horizon, I sat upright, relaxed on my ride, taking one hand off the handlebars to rest at my hip. Only a few more runs to liquidate assets, and then I wouldn't have this homecoming view again.
For nearly four years, we had called this place home. I never expected it to be ours forever, but having to leave had crept up on us sooner than expected. And just when I found someone I could make a permanent home with.
The thought of Mari brought my hand back to the grip, the machine accelerating with a gentle thrust between my legs. After spending so much time pushing her away, I stuck to her like velcro now. I soaked up every beautiful laugh, sigh, and kiss, and then took every opportunity to fill her up with more. There was no undoing the hurt I caused her already, but I swore I'd never be a source of pain for her again.
Horus screeched above me, his shadow running along the ground just to my left. As we approached the gate, I glanced up just as he dived. Wings folded back, he hurtled through the air, almost faster than my eye could follow. I squinted, watching him, and slowing the bike down as I met up with Benji at the front gate.
"Welcome back, captain. Your bird hunting?" He shielded his eyes as we watched Horus's missile-like form together.
"Shouldn't need to. He ate this morning."
I spotted Horus's target as soon as the words left my mouth—a black-feathered bird roughly the same size as him and nowhere near as fast. Panic stole my next breath as the realization hit me.
"Oh shit! Is that T-Bone's bird?"
"Sure as fuck is."
We both whirled around to find the Sons of Odin Sergeant at Arms staring at us through the gate. Unlike Benji or me however, he didn't seem at all concerned about his raven becoming a snack for my falcon.
Tattooed arms crossed as T-Bone leveled his gaze at Benji. "Mind if I have a word with your captain?"
The kid scurried away without a breath of argument. I wondered if he'd run to get Reaper or Jandro. If T-Bone was out for my blood, I wasn't about to go down without a fight.
He leaned in close to me, wrapping his hands around the wrought iron bars that separated us. "Haven't been inside your bird’s skull in a bit, have ya?"
I bristled at the question, a knee-jerk reaction. I wasn't used to people knowing about my ability to see through Horus, much less meet someone who could do the same thing.
"I don't fly and ride," I huffed. "Been on the bike running errands all morning." My head cocked to the side. "You don't seem all that concerned, though. Confident your raven is still alive? It's been a minute."
A grin tugged at his lips. "See for yourself, Youngblood."
The dude was testing me. If his ability was anything like mine, he lost control of his body while seeing through his raven. He could stab me through the gate right now if I saw for myself.
Except for the few times Horus seemed to pull my consciousness into him himself, which I had no control over, I only looked through him when alone or with those I trusted most.
I still didn't know T-Bone from Adam, but he and his two fellow Sons proved to be trustworthy at every opportunity so far. The Sons of Odin killed my uncle—something he deserved, but I'd probably never have the balls to do—after he violated their contract and kept them prisoner. They stopped a drone attack on us, then allowed themselves to be detained, tied up, and questioned by us. All the while, dealing with the loss of their clubhouse to a fire that spared no one.
So even my skeptical ass was willing to put a tiny bit of trust in T-Bone's hands.
My eyes rolled back, my consciousness leaving my body as easily as a breath. The next thing I saw was the entire compound from five hundred feet in the air.
I was light as air and just as free. No dead prey in my talons weighed me down. A black blur caught my eye and then Horus was diving again.
No, don’t kill that bird! I yelled silently as the wind rushed past my feathers.
Horus ignored me, zeroing in on the raven like a target-locked missile. The bird cawed and beat its wings hard, but it was no match for the sky’s fastest predator.
Stop! Stop!
My, our, his, talons stretched out, wings spreading out to brake hard. One more second and those glossy black feathers would be in our reach.
Ah—fuck!
At the last possible moment, Horus twisted in midair. We veered off course, wings spread wide and floating on the momentum. Chirps and screeches left my beak, Horus’s happy sounds. The raven followed me, cackling as we began to fly in tandem.
Like a slingshot, my awareness slammed back into my human body. I grabbed onto the gate for support through the vertigo, blinking my eyes rapidly while T-Bone looked at me expectantly.
“They’re…playing,” I breathed, when I finally found my feet under me.
“Like a couple of kids on the playground,” T-Bone chuckled. “What do ya make of that?”
“I think,” I grinned back, “you should open this damn gate and I’ll pour you a drink.”
Two
MARIPOSA
"What in the fucking hell is this shit?" Jandro's voice floated all the way through the house from the backyard. "Foghorn, what the fuck did you do?"