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The secondary door opened into the containment room Koda stayed in. It was identical to Nox’s: a small bed, a table with a few books, a sink, a toilet with a measly partition around the shower and toilet giving the illusion of privacy. Koda’s scent saturated the sterile air pumped into the chamber. But it was the hum of what his body contained that pulled Nox across the threshold. He did not want to be there, but now the man in front of him was the only other person who existed. Not his teammates in the surrounding cell, not the guards watching them on camera, not the guards standing at the main door.
Only Koda because the very fabric of reality pumped through his veins, the life force he breathed into Nox, the source of existence for all of them.
Without Koda they would have been corpses. Without Koda they would become monsters.
“Nox?”
He blinked. This wasn’t the facility, it was a hotel room, and while Luca looked like his brother, he wasn’t. Nox stepped back. “Sorry, I got lost in my head.”
“It’s okay.” Luca gave a nervous smile.
“I think I saw a couple takeout places on our way in. I was thinking of running out and getting something. If I do will you eat?”
“Yeah.” Luca’s scent promised he would at least try.
“You have a preference?”
“Something light. Fruit or a sandwich.”
“Sure thing. I’ll be back in half an hour, forty-five minutes.” Nox went out to the van, pausing with his hand on the door. Luca was out of sight, but his presence moved around the small space behind the door. The sounds and sensation of life beat in every occupied room, but Luca burned brighter, his scent crystal clear, the thump of his heart a rhythm Nox couldn’t get out of his head.
He got in the van, and his hand shook as he chased the ignition with the key.
Get a grip.
Nox made a fist, and the tremor subsided enough for him to start the vehicle. Despite the sensation of glass sliding through his veins, he was able to pull out of the parking lot.
That alone proved Luca wasn’t his brother.
*****
Luca took the computer out of the box, checked to make sure everything was there, and plugged it in. The screen lit up. Once the operating system loaded, he set up the Wi-Fi.
Nox had been gone half an hour by the time Luca had everything connected.
His stomach growled, and the craving for food caught him off guard. When Nox returned, Luca would definitely make the man happy by actually eating. And at the moment, Luca was pretty sure he could eat a horse.
A very small horse, but still.
To tide himself over, he grabbed a soda. All day in the van had left the drink warmer than room temperature. Was there an ice bucket? Luca found one on the counter next to the washcloths.
Now it was a matter of locating the ice machine. He tucked his keycard into his pocket and headed out the door. A corridor splitting the building looked promising. On the left a stairwell led to the next level. On the right a narrow hallway and a door.
The word ICE was etched into the worn square of plastic tacked to the front.
Luca tried the knob and it turned. The ice machine had seen better days. Dents covered the front and the lever located under the dispenser had broken off. Hopefully, it would still work.
Luca propped his bucket under the dispenser. The machine chugged and after a long moment dropped a few cubes into the container. Another followed, then another. Either the thing was on its last leg or the management counted ice cubes. Luca jostled the lever to spur the ice maker into dispensing more than one cube at a time. Instead, it seemed to reset the thing into another long minute of shuddering before releasing cubes in single file.
“They still haven’t fixed it, huh?”
Luca startled, and the bucket jumped from his hands dumping its contents all over the floor. “Damn it.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
The guy wore jeans and a metal band T-shirt. His hair was buzzed on one side and long on the other. He tossed his head, knocking back his bangs. His blue eyes were the color of spring skies.
“It’s okay.” Luca kicked the ice under the machine to keep anyone from slipping on the cubes. He stepped back to let the guy have a turn.
