Last Ascension

by Rebecca Royce

Until he couldn"t keep things silent anymore and then, if it all went well, everything could go boom. In a major way.

  He tugged at the vent they"d picked out as their entrance point. Draco"s computer had an abundance of useful information once he knew where he had to go. Downloading the schematic for the building had made planning much easier. He wasn"t guessing. Lael knew which way to go to get this job done.

  They had entered the vent and were crawling through the system when Margot whispered to him. “I hate confined spaces. They scare the crap out of me.”

  “Keep it together.”

  He wanted to focus on the job at hand. Nothing could be more pressing. But Margot"s sudden terror of everything around them seemed really off-putting. This was a woman he had taken, hard, on the bed, not four hours earlier. She hadn"t seemed to be terribly frightened of life then.

  Nor had she wept in terror when the green light had assaulted them. She"d been scared when she lived alone in her small apartment, but not staggeringly so. What the hell was happening?

  He shook his head. After they pulled this off, he"d figure it out. Find someone to help if they needed it. There was no shame in asking for assistance when needed. He"d had to ask on many occasions after coming in off the streets.

  Hell, he still didn"t particularly enjoy anyone touching him besides Margot. Maybe they could find some kind of group thing to do together. Afterward, they could go out for Tapas.

  Focus. He gritted his teeth. They weren"t going anywhere if he didn"t get out alive, end of story.

  Arriving at the spot where he had to maneuver out of the vent, he looked over his shoulder.

  Margot looked pale, but her eyes were determined. Good enough, for now.

  With a glare of his eyes, he unscrewed the metal screws holding the vent in place. He wasn"t Ace, he couldn"t make metal work all the time, but small things he could manage. Lael jumped down and then reached up to help Margot.

  She nodded at him, and they walked together down the hall. “Don"t forget, you take care of the machines, and then you take cover.”

  “Got it. Trust me, I"m no heroine. I"m not charging out carrying an axe.”

  “Nonsense. You"ve been brave; I"ve seen it.” He pulled her against him and planted a quick kiss on her mouth because not doing so seemed wrong somehow. Beautiful girlfriend, possible last opportunity, he"d be an ass not to do it.

  She poked at his shoulder. “This isn"t goodbye.”

  “Nope. Hate goodbyes. Never say them.” He motioned toward the door. If the diagram of the building was correct, then they had arrived where they needed to go. One large room, perfect for storing all kinds of things, including his brothers.

  He"d seen it when he travelled with Ace"s machine, and now he"d do what had to be done.

  “Just the machines. Then you take cover.” He repeated his statement to make himself feel better, not because he thought she needed to hear the instructions again. She must have understood or else she was ignoring him. Either way, she didn"t comment.

  The doors he needed to go through were steel and bolted. Also, they looked alarmed to the teeth. Every possible bell and whistle he"d ever seen manned the outside of the door. The only thing missing was a man with a machine gun, which didn"t bother Lael at all. It had been years since he was shot, and he"d rather not go through it again.

  “Stand back,” he told Margot before he slammed his body into the steel. Draco could have taken it down with one hit, but it took Lael two tries. Of course, any semblance of quiet went out the window with his version of knocking on the door.

  Everyone had to be aware he was coming.

  The alarms blared, and lights flashed everywhere. Lael didn"t give a shit. He wasn"t leaving without the other Guardians. They all left or no one did. Except for Margot.

  ****

  Margot wanted to throw up. It was everything she could do to keep the little she"d eaten in her stomach. She ran forward. Lael needed her. She wouldn"t let him down.

  The room was loaded with neon-blue cages. She didn"t know what the substance was, but it smelled similar to lemons, and it made her eyes burn. If it affected her badly, how awful must it be for Lael?

  Lael coughed, and someone across the room sat up in the cage.

  “Lael.” She recognized the voice from when he"d saved her. It was Draco Powers. “It"s a trap, brother. Get out of here.”

  “No shit.” He coughed, but he yelled at his brother. “I got this.”

  She knew he did. And she had a job to do as well. Several of the machines had turned on when they"d come through the door, whether it was from the alarms or Lael"s presence in the room, she didn"t know. All she could do now was make sure they did no harm while Lael handled the cluster fuck this was sure to become.

  The Organization had stuck something inside of her, enabling her to manage the machines, and she intended to use her ability now.

  A metal dog surged forward, heading straight for Lael"s leg. She put her hand in front of her in the gesture of stop, and it did.

  “Good dog.” She pet it on its heated surface. Was it her imagination, or did it wag its tail?

  Who built these things?

  She heard a crash and rushed around to see what had happened. Lael had gotten one of the cages opened and shoved the door to the side the way other people might discard unwanted paper towels.

  Draco crawled through the entrance. “It was all a trap to get you here. Dad, he wants all three of us. Needs our blood supply to fuel some Organization project. Something about mind control.”

  “Right at this very moment, I don"t give a shit what he wants.”

  “Ace is bad.” Draco gestured at the cage, but she didn"t get a chance to see Ace or regard the scene. Because Ben had arrived. Lael"s father, the man who had orchestrated this whole thing, who had called her a present, made all their lives hellish.

  Lael rounded on his father as he called over his shoulder to Draco. “Get him out of the cage.

  Get them all out. Use the cloth. Don"t touch the bars or let it rub on your skin.”

  “Good call. Wish I had thought of it myself when I first got here.”

  Another machine came to life standing up. A gigantic bumblebee floated in the air. She shuddered at the mechanical stinger. What sick fuck had designed this stuff? With the amount of

  talent these people in the Organization had, they could be curing cancer or building modern roads in third world countries. Why waste so much genius on these instruments of destruction?

  She ran toward the bee and called to it. Even though she knew it was a machine, she had to speak to the bee like it could hear her. Maybe it could. She shoved the thought away.

  Nonsensical thoughts could be dealt with later.

  “Listen to me, bumblebee, you don"t want to sting them. That"s a silly thing to do. There have to be mechanical plants somewhere you could pollinate.” She waved her hands in the air, and the bee turned its attention to her. “I can talk to you. The people here they made that possible. Somehow. I figured it out in the warehouse, so I"m going to use those skills. Power down and sit. Or float. Or whatever mechanical bees do.”

  “How we doing over there, Margot? Still fine?”

  She whirled around to look at Lael. He was fighting his father hand-to-hand now as they flung themselves around the air.

  “Don"t worry about me. Take care of yourself. Ah, finish him.”

  Margot watched for a few seconds. Lael wasn"t winning, and, if the room around her was any indication, he wasn"t going to get any help anytime soon. Draco held Ace, who she didn"t think she had met but whom she recognized from television, in his arms, and the other Guardians didn"t look much better. They were all sprawled out on the floor in various states of injury.

  If Lael lost to Ben, they"d all be in trouble. Not to mention her sweet man would be dead, and she couldn"t allow his death. Her hand tingled, and she stared at it. The tingling changed quickly to burning, and her fingers shook violently.

  The movement brou
ght the knowledge, or maybe it had always been there, of what she had to do. Fear pressed down on her shoulders, and she almost fell over. Handling the machines while Lael did the dirty work was one thing, but actually engaging? He"d ordered her against diving into the fray.

  Margot didn"t know how she got her legs to work at all, particularly since her gut wanted her to go and hide. Was she a coward? Most of the time, yes. But she"d insisted on coming, and it wasn"t so she could be another burden on Lael.

  She rushed forward, calling up to Lael. “Hey. Get out of the way.”

  “Little busy here, Margot.”

  Damn man. “I said get out of the way.”

  Draco yelled out something, but she didn"t hear him. Lael darted slightly to the left, and she raised her hand to release all the pent-up power in her fingers on Ben. Lael"s father had machinery all over him, and she knew how to make the Organization"s mechanics shut down.

  Ben grabbed at his throat, and sweat broke out all over her body. She"d just taken away his ability to speak. Good. No one needed to hear the crap he spurt out anyway. But there was more she could do.

  Lael came up behind her. “What are you doing? “

  She gritted her teeth from the pressure in her head, but she managed to get her words out somehow. “I am shutting down the machine.”

  “How are you doing this?”

  “He has Organization tech inside of him. And that stuff responds to me.”

  Ben fell to his knees. She knew next to nothing about the ifs or whys this worked, but she could feel the small currents of electricity that were attached to his internal organs shutting down. If she kept this up, she would kill him.

  “Lael….”

  “Don"t do it.” His soft voice whispered in her ear. “You"ll never be able to live with yourself. Death, it never goes away. Not really. Not when we"ve caused it, not when we"re the responsible party. Ben deserves this, but I won"t have him take you down with it. I killed a bad person when I was sixteen and ended the life of an innocent when I was nineteen. I know what I"m talking about.”

  His words made sense. She"d never been bloodthirsty. A sense of dread nearly overwhelmed her. Everything always fell apart. Killing him solved nothing. She shook her head. Where did those thoughts come from? Why did they always assault her?

  She sighed and stuffed her hand in her pocket. It still ached, but it wasn"t burning as it had earlier.

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  She smiled. He looked exhausted. Lines formed at the corners of his eyes. Her knees threatened to buckle at any minute.

  “You"re welcome.”

  “Lael.” Draco"s voice shook when he called out to his brother. “Ace"s heart has stopped. Fix it.”

  What? Margot followed in Lael"s wake. How did Draco want Lael to make this better?

  Tears sprung to her eyes. She didn"t know Ace, but she knew pain, she knew loss. Lael would blame himself for this….

  Lael placed his hands over Ace"s chest. Was he going to do chest compressions? She

  couldn"t watch medical shows. They scared her, made her think she was about to die, but she"d seen the procedure. Would CPR help Ace if he"d been killed by exposure to the stinky blue substance?

  Her love cried out, and she could see electricity streaming from his hands. She gasped. Lael had never told her he could bring people back from the dead. Could he restart hearts?

  Draco"s hand touched her arm. “He"s done this before.”

  That was good and fine, but this was hurting him. His neck muscles strained, and his skin looked pale.

  “Lael.” She cried out not knowing what she needed from him—just to stop, to not injure himself. Margot didn"t want Ace dead, but Lael couldn"t trade places in the process.

  Ace gasped and sat up straight. He was red in the face, but his eyes were wide and alert.

  “Lael.” His voice sounded rough. “Did you do it again?”

  Her love laughed, sitting on his heels. “Always my pleasure to keep your ticker ticking.”

  Ace rubbed at his eyes. “Asshole. Thank you.”

  “Welcome.”

  She heard something—a scratching noise akin to something being dragged—but there were so many noises in the room she didn"t pay attention to it. They were in a building filled with the Organization"s stuff. Anything could be happening.

  Maybe it had been a difference of two seconds. If she had looked up even that much sooner, she"d have seen Ben dragging his legs behind him as he crawled toward Ace. He had a gun in his hand. A big one, and he pointed it toward Draco. With a roar which drowned out her shout of warning, he raged while he shot the bullets straight at Draco"s head.

  She had been seconds too late, but Lael wasn"t. Leave it to his superior hearing to miss nothing. His brothers were basically down for the count, but her lover wasn"t. He jumped up, throwing himself between Draco and the bullets. She barely had time to gasp as a red stain blossomed over Lael"s chest.

  He was a Guardian. Bullets shouldn"t have hit him like that. Except he was wounded, exhausted, he"d just used all his energy to bring back Ace. Draco jumped to his feet as she dashed to Lael"s side. Her heart beat so quickly she could hear it in her ears. This was what she"d been afraid of; this was what she"d known was going to happen. Everything had gone wrong.

  Tears sprung from her eyes. Draco must be dealing with Ben. She didn"t care. Margot stared down at Lael"s lifeless eyes. Seconds earlier, he"d been joking, and now he was dead. Of course he was. Everyone she ever loved left her. Her world ended all the time. Everything bad that could happen did.

  All her fears washed over her, and she couldn"t keep them in, couldn"t contain them. She"d gotten good at it over the years; she"d learned how to swallow all that went wrong so no one else had to be bothered with it. But not now. Lael was dead. There was no holding it away.

  The energy in her exploded. Everything went white. Then nothing.

  Chapter Ten

  The clock in Draco"s sparsely decorated living room ticked loudly. Tick. Tick. Tick. Over and over again. He"d never had a problem with the grandfather clock before. Currently, however, he wanted to smash it to pieces.

  “I need a better explanation, Draco.”

  Lael wanted to punch his brother in the face. He had so much pent-up energy he wasn"t sure what to do with it, and, if he wasn"t careful, his brothers intended to lock him up in the aggression room until they were sure he couldn"t hurt anyone. Well, Draco would. Ace was still asleep. It might be days until he was up for anything other than eating and passing out.

  But Lael"s girl was awake, and she wasn"t okay. Margot"s beautiful eyes stared forward, as they had since he"d woken up on the ground, surrounded by screaming and crying Guardians.

  Apparently, he"d been dead. Somehow, Margot had saved him. Frustratingly, no one could tell him exactly how, and Margot wouldn"t come back from wherever her mind had gone since then.

  She sat on a couch in Draco"s house. Wendy fussed over her, but Margot didn"t eat, didn"t drink, didn"t respond. And that was how she had been for two days. The IV in her arm kept her hydrated and nourished. Making sure she didn"t dehydrate was the best anyone seemed to be able to do. Not. Good. Enough.

  “The EEG shows brain activity. We"ve run every conceivable test. She"s in shock. An extended one, but that seems to be it.”

  Draco"s limp was less noticeable but still present. Powers had shut down for the foreseeable future. With no staff uninjured, the Guardians had to go on vacation. A first in their long history.

  “She"s not dead.” Lael had to say it aloud. “Or dying.”

  “It might help if you told me more about it. What happened between the time I dropped her in the apartment near you and you finding us. I hoped you"d catch her somehow and take care of her. Hell, I knew you would.”

  Lael sighed. “I heard a woman screaming, and I went looking. What I found was Margot on the street. She hadn"t been out much in a week.”

  “Who was screaming?”

  He shrugged.
“I have no fucking idea. I found Margot. I got distracted.”

  “Hmm. Go on.”

  “Thanks.” Had Draco always been this obnoxious? Or was the fact Lael wanted to pound on something making him feel this way?

  “Can you sit or are you past that now?”

  He rubbed at his temples. They throbbed. “Long past.”

  “Shit. I"ve never seen you this amped up.”

  Lael slammed his hand down on the table, and the whole thing shook. “You"re not the only one who loses it when things get out of control. Okay? I"m not the concern here; Margot is.”

  “I"m worried about both of you. I can do multiple tasks. You"re my brother. I love you, damn it. If you"re developing some of Ace"s aggression issues post-death, that is something I need to address.”

  Ace had suffered with adrenaline problems most of his life. He"d had to learn to meditate to handle them. It had been a long struggle.

  “You don"t love me, Draco. You never did. You were burdened with me, and I am grateful to you for all you did. But you don"t love me. Not the same way you do Ace.” Lael held up his hands in surrender. “It doesn"t matter. When we can get Margot under control, I"ll go away again. I"m glad I could help you, and I"ll always be available. I don"t need to be managed like one of your problems.”

  “Lael.” Draco"s voice shook. “You think I don"t love you?”

  “We don"t do this. Forget it. I don"t need to get all sappy and stupid. Let"s focus on the issue at hand.”

  Why had he said anything at all? It had to be all the tension bubbling around inside of him.

  What else could possibly have made him confess?

  “I"m not pretending you didn"t say that.”

  “You"re not my father. It doesn"t matter.” Shit, he was really going to have to talk about this now.

  “No, I"m not. Our father—the man who made all of us—is dead and buried. I took care of him. Should have found him years ago and figured out what nasty crap he was involved in.

  That"s on me. I preferred to ignore it.”

  Lael shrugged. “Can"t blame you.”

  “I"m not your father. I"m your brother. I don"t love Ace more than you. I"ve known him longer. That doesn"t mean I love him more.”