Xelan popped into the security room. The wall on the left was lined with over two hundred security camera feeds split-screened across twenty-two monitors supervised by only five humans. None of them were his.

When Lucas had first informed Xelan The Brethren intended to take control of this installation and initialize it as headquarters four months ago, he’d wanted to tell Caedes to take his men and his bald head and go straight to hell. But for strategic purposes, it made more sense to keep this cloistered group of Icarean boogie men close to home. No matter how much it stressed Xelan out.

The terms had proved more strenuous than he’d expected. They annexed all security measures save for the front gate and overall recruitment. Xelan stayed in charge of those. They limited freedoms such as his troops’ ability to come and go as they pleased. They ran interrogations on the units. Then came cargo. Loads of crates, freights, and tankers. Xelan inquired as to the contents, and Caedes shut him down. Regardless, he didn’t mind relinquishing some control to an ally as he’d done with Lucas. But Caedes had stormed in and usurped Xelan.

The right side of the room contained the backup servers for the cameras. A state-of-the-art installation, Xelan saw to himself. This place was his home, and he wanted it safe for his soldiers and his Shadow. He scanned the monitors, smiling to himself at the assignment of the word for a collection of jaguars. It worked for his Progeny descendants.

Several times a day Xelan scanned the perimeter for intruders. About two months ago, a member of the Cult of Night had tried to sneak onto the grounds. Xelan had expected CoN to know their location, but he’d wanted to keep the groupies off his property. At least their intrusions kept him fed.

After the intrusion, Xelan had demanded the security team on duty were reassigned elsewhere. To his surprise, Caedes had agreed. He also conceded to Xelan’s executive rights in the security room. For now, anyway.

So he patrolled. Often. And with the Shadow Progeny in the building, he planned to increase his visits. “Wait…”

Xelan stared at a screen down at the end of the bank. There was an example of why he needed to patrol. He asked a guard, “Did you not see that?!” A piece of paper was flapping against one camera. Written on it was the word, Banana.

“No, sir,” the short man muttered.

Incredulous, Xelan asked, “How long did you go without noticing it?”

The man peered at his colleague and then back to the monitor. “Maybe five minutes?”

“Consider yourself reassigned.” Xelan stormed out of the room, his boots stomping along the way. Of all the fucking, juvenile, macho shit…

Xelan rushed out the back door of the hangar and groaned the moment he stepped foot into the parking lot. Scuffling boots, grunts, and the sound of fists hitting skin made Xelan pinch the bridge of his nose. Please don’t be his Shadow. Please don’t be his Shadow.

“Matt, stop!” A young woman shouted. She was not one of his.

Kyle’s unmistakably irritating voice shouted, “C’mon Andrew! You can do better than that!”

Take care of the more dire, pressing situation at the perimeter? Or break up a childish fight on the dawn of the apocalypse? Around the corner erupted a vague metal crushing sound.

Childish fight, it was.

Xelan rounded the corner, saying, “Break it up!” They smelled of excess testosterone, marijuana, and… fear? Andrew’s fear. Why would Andrew fear an average young man?

Matt had pinned Andrew to the hood of his car. Kyle, Tameka, Jack, and a young woman Xelan had seen without meeting earlier bordered the scene. They looked too afraid to get close while also attempting to pry them apart. Matt never glanced at Xelan. He was focused solely on Andrew, whose eyes bugged out of his head under the pressure of the hands around his throat.

“I said break it up!” Xelan called again.

Matt ignored him.

Not on Xelan’s watch. He ran to Matt’s side within a blink and made sure not to touch him. Yet.

The human’s pupils were dilated, blown completely out. Matt was breathing deep and even. He showed no signs of elevated adrenaline or aggression. Something wasn’t right.

Xelan said, “Let. Him. Go.” Calm, assertive, with a threatening edge, he hoped to solve this without killing the young man.

Matt eased off Andrew a millimeter at a time.

As air filled his lungs, Andrew whispered, “My bad. My bad. It was my bad.”

Xelan glanced from him to Matt. Neither wanted to talk at the moment, so he checked the rest of his unit. He raised an eyebrow at Tameka, who pointed at Kyle. Xelan said, “Out with it.”

Kyle clicked his tongue before saying, “We were hanging out on Matt’s car.” When the auburn-haired boy spun on him, Kyle threw up his hands in surrender. “We’re sorry. We’re cool,” he reasoned.

Xelan palpated Andrew’s throat with tender fingers, asking, “Can you talk?”

Andrew coughed once, nodded, then said, “Yeah. Barely.”

Xelan wanted to push and evaluate things better. How did Andrew lose a fight to this untrained individual? Fatigue? Xelan couldn’t blame him for that, but there was something else. The fear.

Xelan glanced at Matt. The young man’s pupils had contracted, and his breathing never changed. He appeared unphased by the entire event aside from the way he stared at the dented roof of his car.

“Matt?” the unfamiliar young lady called.

Centimeter by centimeter, Matt’s demeanor changed like a wave had washed over him. His muscles relaxed, his breathing shallowed with exertion, and his skin flushed. Interesting. He said, “I’m fine.” He held out a hand to Andrew.

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Xelan took a few steps aside.

Andrew glanced at Xelan, then back at Matt’s hand. He hesitated longer than necessary, and Xelan really wanted to know what was going on. In the end, Andrew allowed Matt to help him off his dented hood.

Matt said, “It’s all I’ve got now that the world has ended. I know it’s not very pretty, but I’d like to keep it while I can.”

Andrew nodded. A few too many times. Then dropped Matt’s hand like a live grenade and worried at his throat. “Yeah. It was my bad. I got on it first.” He broke eye contact with Matt and glanced at anything but anyone’s eyes.

Later. Xelan would ask him later. “Are we done here?” He searched between the two.

The young lady approached Matt, and he nodded, saying, “Yeah, we’re cool.”

She peered at the hood and the roof, mumbling to herself.

This was not normal, but what about this day was?

Tameka and Jack checked on Andrew.

Xelan ordered, “Kyle, come with me.”

“Ugh. I guess.” Kyle followed in Xelan’s wake as he walked into the airfield. “Where are we going?”

Xelan said, “Security has been lax around here lately. I need to check something.” It was a half-truth. He knew exactly what he was after. There was only one person who would leave ‘banana’ on a note inside Xelan’s installation, and he wasn’t looking forward to discussing Korac with any of them. They reached the edge of the perimeter.

Kyle glanced off to their left and their right and even above. Smart. He asked, “Are we really about to go traveling across the continent?”

Xelan detected excitement in his tone. “Yes.” As much as it irritated him, they had to visit the other bases on a long parade to prove Rayne was a capable general. Pathetic. In the meantime, it gave the bone in her arm time to heal, and time for them to train one-handed.

Iona-01 was Xelan’s home. While the other twenty-nine locations were adequate, this was where he imagined spending most of the war. He’d stocked their provisions here, built an on-site training ground here, and established his best company here. But what did this mean for his Progeny? He’d had the luxury of travel while his Shadow hadn’t left Little Rock over the last four years.

Curious, Xelan asked, “Are you looking forward to it?”

They approached a small outbuilding positioned for security. It was empty, of course.

Kyle said, “I mean yeah. I didn’t get to go to the Grand Canyon or nothing like that. The opportunity wasn’t there even before you showed up.”

Xelan wanted to offer some kind of sympathy when he noticed a dumpster had been reduced to scrap metal, cut completely in half by a blade.

“Fuck! I just want to go to sleep. What the hell did that?” Kyle asked, gesturing wildly at the bin.

“I can take a guess,” Xelan growled. He reached up and snatched the flapping white slip of paper from the security camera.

Kyle scowled, “More fucking love notes? At least this one’s not written in blood like at Fair.” He threw his hands up in the air and stomped a few paces away muttering things like, “I can’t fucking believe it,” “In the middle of a war,” and “leaving presents like gerbils.” Xelan noticed that even during his rant, Kyle still cautioned a glance in all directions, leaving his back to the Icarus. Not bad.

Glancing down at the note, it said nothing more than Banana. Why would that insurmountable thorn in Xelan’s side leave this? As a joke? As bait? No, Korac wouldn’t lead Xelan away like this unless he wanted him alone. Even then, Korac knew better. The only answer left was that Korac was a perpetual shit-head and just wanted him to know he was standing in this very spot without a single alarm. A leashed threat.

Xelan said, “It’s time to tighten down security.”

“You’re telling me. We’ve got things a lot more valuable around here than trash cans,” Kyle grumped.

Xelan brushed by him back into the open field.

Kyle sounded a little suspicious as he asked, “You know who left it, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Xelan answered, hell-bent to replace the entire security team with his own people ASAP.

Kyle stopped following. When Xelan turned, the younger man asked, “Is she safe here?”

Xelan clenched his jaw. Kyle needed a girlfriend, but that made his concerns no less valid. “They won’t attack again for some time. Nox is planning something, and he’ll focus on gathering humans. Rayne will be safe with us for a while.”

“And what then?”

Xelan said, “I’ll die before I let him take her.” And he meant it.

Satisfied, Kyle brushed by him. “Dude, you don’t have to be so melodramatic all the goddamned time.”

Xelan rolled his eyes and followed his Progeny back over to Matt’s car. Tameka was leaning in the doorway to the main hangar. She looked like hell, but the smile she gave Xelan swept the darkness back. A sharp pain struck the center of his chest. Her smile was so similar to Merit’s.

Xelan asked, “Where did everyone go?”

“To bed. Which is where I’m heading in like five seconds.”

Kyle glanced from Xelan to her before saying, “Yeah, I’m hitting the hay.” He paused in the doorway long enough to rake his eyes down Tameka and look back over at Xelan one more time. He added, “I wonder what tomorrow will bring.” And chuckled as he disappeared into the hangar.

Tameka made to turn into the building when Xelan called after her, “Tameka, can you wait for me? I’d like to talk to you.”

Immediate sparkle and shine. The freckles went high on her cheekbones when she smiled, and it reached her eyes. “I’ll wait inside,” she promised.

“Thanks.” Xelan gave her a gentle smile. She beamed even brighter, if that were at all possible, as she stepped through the door. He turned to Matt and the girl with him. “Hi, I’m Xelan.”

Matt said, “Sir, thank you so much for giving us a place to stay. I’m sorry about earlier. I don’t normally lose—”

Xelan interrupted him, “I’ll talk to you in a minute.” He turned to the girl. “What’s your name?”

She surprised him by throwing out her hand and smiling very white, very straight teeth. “I’m Lucy. Do last names matter anymore? ’Cause I’d like to change mine.”

The random string of words Lucy put together made Xelan grin. She was turning out all right. He said, “Do what you like, I suppose.” He clasped her hand in a semi-firm grip and shook it. “You’re both welcome to stay, and recover as much as you need. We have a body shop with some really well-trained technicians that can bang those dents out for you. They fixed some scratches on a motorcycle earlier. The customer seemed satisfied.” He dropped her hand and glanced between the two of them. “But Lucy, I hope you don’t mind, I need to speak with Matt alone.”

She gazed at Matt for a long moment. The drawn lines of her face showed she could assess the situation more than Xelan had originally thought her capable of.

Lucy said, “Sure. I’ll go find Tameka.” Then she stepped inside.

Alone. Xelan could tell by the scent. He turned to Matt. “Have you killed anyone, yet?”

Matt’s eyes shifted ever so slightly before he said, “I killed six of the Icari during the battle.”

“I think you know that’s not what I meant.”

Matt started again, “Look, sir, I think you have me confused. I’m not in the armed forces, and I’m too young to have seen combat—”

“Avoid the question one more time, and I’ll throw you out of my installation.” Xelan’s tone stayed even with a hard edge.

“No.”

“Why not?”

Matt answered, “Because I don’t know who I want to kill, yet. Or how.”

Xelan pressed on, “How long have you felt this way?”

“My whole life.” Matt’s voice remained steady. His entire body relaxed. His breathing and heart rate was normal, and he gave perfect eye contact throughout the conversation.

Xelan asked, “How long do you think before you lose control?”

Matt stopped. The furrow in his brow implied he was considering the question. After a time, he said, “In this climate, with a steady rate of Icarean kills, I’d say I’ll be fine. If I don’t see action soon, the anticipation and environment might overstimulate me.” He nodded to the hood of his car. “I’ll have more trouble this way. It’s why I started taking on sports at school. To distract myself.”

Xelan said, “Very healthy mindset.”

Matt was a ticking time bomb. He couldn’t stay here with his unit. It was too risky, but the Icarus didn’t want to punish him for something he couldn’t help. And then a plan came to mind.

Xelan said, “I’m going to ask you to do something that could help save the worlds.”

“I’m listening,” Matt said. And for the first time since Xelan walked outside, a light shone in the young man’s eyes.