Pleasures of the Night(62)

“Permission requested to speak freely, sir.”

“Granted.”

The lieutenant took a deep breath and said, “I would have preferred for you to come to me with your questions personally, rather than sending Morgan.”

“But then you would have been put in a position you could not retreat from gracefully—defy your commanding officer or betray the Elders. With Morgan, you could easily say no and avoid the discomfort.”

Philip snorted. “I’ve defended your back and saved your life, but you can’t approach me as a friend and ask me for help?”

“Every friendship has its limits,” Connor said grimly, leaning his hip against the railing.

“Yours with Captain Cross seems to have no bounds.”

“He is like a brother to me.”

“And I owe him my life, many times over.”

Connor sighed and sank into the nearby chair. When Aidan was home, every door was opened wide to allow the breeze to enter. Now the sliding paper doors were closed, barring the interior from enjoying the simulated sunrise. The lack of Aidan’s dynamic presence brought an unusual and uncomfortable silence to the place. “He’s not the same man you knew, Wager. He’s a fugitive who’s stolen the Key, and abandoned his men and duty.”

“You don’t believe that any more than I do.” Philip gestured to the bench and asked, “May I?”

“Of course.”

Setting his elbows on his knees, Philip studied him with a narrowed glance. With his long queue and stormy gray eyes, he had a renegade appearance to go along with his loose-cannon reputation. Because of his volatile nature, he’d been a second lieutenant for centuries longer than he should have been. “The Elders seriously misjudged you. They’d hoped the promotion would win your favor away from Cross.”

“Yeah, and they failed. So they undermine me, assigning patrols to the Dreamer without my consultation.” Connor shrugged. “You got beer in that cooler?”

Smiling, Philip reached inside and withdrew an icy canister. He tossed it over and then grabbed his own. “The captain has kept his woman far from the Twilight, but her own defenses are formidable. The Elders requested a contingent from the Corps of Engineers, and they said the only way to get past that door is if she lets us in.”

“Impressive.”

“Did you expect Cross to choose a woman who wasn’t?”

“Her unusual ability is unnerving, isn’t it?” Connor’s gaze drifted beyond the porch to the green grass and rolling hills beyond. This was his world, and he would continue to defend it with his life. “Doesn’t it create doubt in you? Have you thought perhaps Cross is wrong about her?”

“Of course I’ve considered it. But he’s never been wrong before.”

Connor tossed his head back and emptied his beverage in three large swallows. Like Philip, he was withholding judgment on the Dreamer until he met her himself, but it didn’t look good so far. “So now what?”

“My team waits.”

“Excellent.”

“Care to share your plan?” Philip held out a second beer, but snatched it back quickly when Connor reached for it. “Sharing works both ways.”

“Cheeky bastard.” Connor laughed for the first time in weeks. Aidan had been absent only days, but the mess he’d made of his life since meeting the Dreamer had pretty much killed the humor Connor relied on to make it through eternity. “The less you know, the better for you.”

“Oh yeah, and I’m known for doing what’s best for me.” Philip finished his beer in much the same way Connor had. “You’ll need help. You can’t go it alone, and I can’t think of any other Elite besides you, me, and Cross with balls enough to take on the Elders.”

Connor’s grin widened. “All right. I need to get into the control room at the rear of the Temple.”

“What control room?”

“The one Cross saw before he left.” The one Connor had seen briefly in Aidan’s thoughts the first night his friend had been gone. They’d met for a moment through Aidan’s dream, but the captain had been vulnerable with fever, and the connection hadn’t held. The dream had been like nothing Connor had ever seen before. Misty, a bit distorted, like a television channel with poor reception. Whether that was due to the unusual illness or to some genetic differences from humans that altered penetration into the Twilight, he didn’t know. And Aidan hadn’t returned in a dream state since then to help him find out.

“What’s the control room for?” Philip asked.

Grabbing the beer from the other man’s unsuspecting hand, Connor chuckled at the scowl he got in return. “Hell if I know, but we need to figure out what exactly the Key is supposed to do, if we want any hope of preventing it from happening. That knowledge should also give us a pretty good indication of whether or not Cross’s Dreamer is the Key, or if the Elders have made their first mistake on record.”