Alpha

by Jus Accardo

  Maybe…

  My fingers twitched, and before I realized what she was doing, her hands were at her shirt, lifting it over her head. Slowly, carefully, like one wrong move would have me disappearing.

  She wore a simple tank underneath it. The neckline, while not overly low, gave the smallest preview of what lay beneath. The way the material shifted as she breathed in and out, creating a frustratingly perfect tease, was what tore at the remains of my protest. It broke me in the most amazing way.

  “You told me once that we were fighters. That together, we could deal. Whatever your life was—whatever Cora did to change you—is irrelevant.”

  “Irrelevant? Are you cr—”

  She covered my mouth with her hand. “Because even if some small fraction of what you think of yourself is true, I negate it. I’m your light, and you’re my darkness.”

  I moved her hand away. “You don’t need any more darkness in your life.”

  “Don’t I?” She took my hand and held it to her chest, over her heart. “I believe everyone needs an even balance. You can’t have one without the other.”

  My arms encircled her waist and hefted her off the ground, across the room, and to the bed, where I set her down on the edge. “Are you sure that’s what you want?” My voice sounded wrong. Deep and desperate. The protests I’d had moments ago, the ones I would have sworn life and limb on, were forgotten. I stood in front of her. Inches separated us, but we didn’t touch.

  “I think I’ve had more than enough time to think about it.” She lifted her head to look up at me, voice trembling just a little.

  I dropped to my knees beside the bed and leaned forward but stopped before brushing my lips to hers. I wanted to. In fact, I’d never wanted anything more. But that inner voice kept stopping me. Whispering all the ways that I was bad for her. With great restraint, I ran a single finger across her cheek, skimming it lightly over her bottom lip.

  I ran my finger down her arm, tracing random patterns against her skin just like she had on mine. The soft whimper that escaped her lips and her quickened breath were the only response I got.

  My pulse pounded in my ears, so damn loud that I could barely think. The world fell away until all that was left was Sera. Really, she was always what it came down to. Every one of my actions since stepping across that cell threshold had been motivated by her existence. She was the sun in my world, and I was simply a planet caught in her gravitational pull, helpless. Without her light, I would wither and die.

  I leaned forward, lips lingering at her ear. “You’re right.” I didn’t dare move an inch closer. “The last thing I want to do is leave you behind.” I knew I had to—that I should—but the actual act of walking away? It was inconceivable. “Hell, I don’t even know if I could.”

  “Then the solution is simple.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me to her so that there was nothing separating us. Without hesitation, she kissed me.

  Or, she tried. I pulled away.

  “Please don’t do this, Sera.” It was two parts begging her to listen, and two parts praying that she wouldn’t.

  “You can’t get rid of me. Not that easily.”

  My resolve broke. The action terrified me, but I couldn’t deny the hold she had over me. I pressed my lips to hers, hesitant. She pressed back, moving her lips ever so slightly. I responded, unable to resist.

  I brought my hands to her face, skimming both cheeks then up to thread my fingers through her long hair. A soft noise escaped her, and she wrapped her arms around my waist, pulling me closer. Nothing. There was nothing on any version of Earth that could compare to this. Nothing would come close to the euphoric feeling.

  “While I’m sure this would be entertaining to watch for Cora, I’m not the voyeuristic type…” The door creaked open.

  The room came crashing back, the remnants of the adrenaline rush making me twitch. Karl stood in the doorway. He came into the room and closed the door behind him, as Sera stood and pinned him with a glare. Me? I didn’t know whether to kill him—or thank him for the interruption.

  “Adrenaline helps with the symptoms of the poison.” She smacked the side of her head. “Oh. Wait. I don’t mean poison. I mean virus.”

  Karl snickered. “Oh, yes. Giving in to those teenage hormones was all for the sake of quelling the symptoms, I’m sure.”

  Sera said nothing, and I had to remind myself to stay where I was.

  “Cora always wondered what you two would do if given the chance. She wanted to conduct an experiment. Stick you both in the same cell for a few days and watch what happened.”

  Sera’s face paled. “You’re a sick bastard.”

  He lifted his hands and shook his head. “I said Cora, not me. I’m the voice of reason who talked her out of it. She is the one with the weird obsession with the lot of you.” He shrugged out of his jacket and laid it carefully on the bed before bending down to retrieve my shirt. “Moving on—since you’re here, I can assume you’ve found me what I requested?”

  “Sort of,” I said.

  “It’s more complicated than handing over a piece of tech.” Sera looked from him to me, then back again. “But yes. We found a way to keep you off Cora’s radar.”

  He clapped his hands and grinned. “Wonderful.” He waggled greedy fingers. “Let me have it, then.”

  “Yeah. Like she said, it’s more complicated than that.” I yanked my shirt from his hands and shrugged it over my shoulders then tugged it into place. I had nothing to be shy about, but a small part of me was too conscious of the assortment of scars that covered my body. I hadn’t given it a second thought when it was Sera’s gaze, but someone else? It made me itch in ways I wasn’t comfortable with.

  Sera nodded. She was totally at ease, and I was in awe of her calm. One wrong flinch and we could blow this. “It’s not something that can be given to you. It’s something that has to be done to you.”

  “Done to me? Like Cora’s chip?”

  “I don’t think it’s a chip,” I said. “I didn’t get the specifics from MaKaden.”

  Sera cringed, and I regretted not running it by her first, given their history, but it was the most convincing sell. Karl knew Phil—Rabbit to Cade and Noah. He knew the guy was a genius, and if anyone could perfect the tech he wanted, it would be him.

  “So I have to go to him?” Karl’s eyes narrowed. I couldn’t blame the guy for being suspicious. Not with a woman like Cora.

  We’d agreed to keep things as close to the truth as possible. Less chance of a mix-up that way, considering all the moving parts in this plan, as well as the fact that we were improvising a large portion of it. “The Phil from Cade’s world has what you need. He can make you virtually invisible to Cora.”

  “This is the Cade who freed you, yes?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And I assume I’m not supposed to be suspicious?”

  I shrugged. “You can be whatever the hell you want. You asked for a way to free yourself from Cora, and that’s what I got. Take it or leave it—but hold up your end of the deal and tell me how to fix Sera’s chip.”

  Karl thought about it for a minute. His gaze darted between Sera and me. “Cora followed Ashlyn to Cade’s home world. She couldn’t get to her.”

  “Their military is protecting her.” Cade had been right about that, at least. Cora couldn’t get to any of them there. “They’ve given me permission to bring you there for the procedure. You’ll be given twenty-four hours to leave. Then if you don’t skip out, you’ll be fair game.”

  “Fine,” he said. He grabbed his jacket and shrugged it back on, then gestured toward the door. “Let’s go visit another world.”

  Sera let out a breath and pushed past him to open the door. Without waiting, she stepped into the hall—and gasped.

  Dylan was standing at the other end.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sera

  Maybe if I hadn’t frozen the moment I saw him… If I’d just ducked back into the room and quietly
closed the door… Of course, that hadn’t happened. I’d stopped dead in my tracks, giving Dylan ample time to take in the sights, turn around, and spot me standing there with my mouth hanging open like an idiot.

  G was right behind me, Karl pulling up the rear. For the longest moment none of us moved. No one spoke or breathed. Of course, I’d spent enough time with Dylan to know the silence never lasted as long as I wanted it to. Eventually he reacted—and everyone paid the price.

  He came closer, stopping five or so feet from where we stood. A cruel laugh, followed by two quick pats of his jacket pocket, and he grinned. “Miss me, baby?”

  “Not even a little bit, asshole.”

  G came up beside me. “So what’s the plan, Dylan? Gonna rush all three of us? Pretty sure that might go badly for you.”

  “Gotta say, man, I’m really disappointed to see you’re still alive and kicking.” Dylan’s grin got even bigger. He patted his jacket pocket again. “I don’t think it’s gonna be an issue too much longer, though.”

  G laughed. “That right?”

  “Feel like handing Karl over? I promise to make the rest of this quick. You know… Kill you, steal the girl. Yada, yada.”

  “Think we’ll pass. You understand. But, if you feel like making things easier on yourself, you can hand over the antidote.”

  Dylan fished into his pocket and pulled out an odd-looking weapon. “I don’t think you’ll need it.”

  The next few seconds were a complete blur. G grabbed my hand, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Karl’s fingers knot into the material of his shirt. He jerked up his wrist, waking the chip and skipped us to a random frequency—but not before Dylan launched himself at me. The contact wasn’t much. His fingers brushed the toe of my shoe—but it was enough. We all skipped together.

  The second we landed, they were at it. Dylan lifted the weapon, and G let out a horrible roar. Karl backed away, lingering on the edge of the fray. We were still in a hallway—it looked like the hotel we’d just left, except the walls were painted deep blue instead of the hideous floral wallpaper. The carpet, which had been bright yellow, was now a neutral beige.

  “I’m done waiting for that shit to kill you slowly.” Dylan took aim at G. “Time to be done with it.”

  I rushed him, taking us both to the ground. We hit hard, and he immediately swung out. The blow caught me in the gut, and I coughed, rolling off him and gasping to catch my breath. I wasn’t a fighter like G was. I was fairly sure I never had been. In fact, I had watery memories of being weak. That me, whoever she’d been, was dead, though. This girl, Sera, she was strong. She was able to stand on her own and do what needed to be done.

  G roared and charged again. He bent seconds before impact, jamming his shoulder into Dylan’s stomach and lifting him off the ground as he barreled past me like a freight train.

  As they fought, Karl dragged me away from the fray. “Probably best to steer clear. A man battling himself is a dangerous thing.”

  I watched them, riveted by the scene, the ferocity of it. It was something out of a nightmare. Two versions—one dark, the other, well, darker—squaring off against each other. Dylan swung with a roar. His attacks were ruthless and bold with a clear statement: death and destruction. G pivoted, ducking with ease and retaliating with an expertly placed jab of his own. His moves, while just as brutal, screamed not of devastation but of defense. Of survival. Dylan fought to harm. G fought to survive. They were both in so much pain, but for as many ways as they were the same, they were vastly different. And in that moment, I realized what the biggest difference was.

  Dylan had been hiding behind his anger, lashing out ever since he’d lost his Ava. He’d hurt anyone he could just to feel something. G had embraced his anger so that he didn’t have to dwell on the pain Cora had inflicted. Despite the fact that he kept denying it, the only one he continuously hurt was himself. But, it’d always been that way.

  …

  They’d brought him back a while ago. I’d managed to mark the passing days, but we had no way to measure the hours and minutes as they ticked away. Maybe it’d been an hour. Or maybe it’d been ten minutes. Who knew?

  I was about to call to him, to ask if he was okay, but he let out an enraged howl. For a second, I thought they had come back. That they were trying to drag him away again. It took a moment to realize that we were alone.

  He thrashed. Incoherent screams and random sounds of chaos. I heard the ping of the metal bowl they sometimes gave us water in. It clattered and clanged as it whipped around the cell, at the mercy of G’s rage. The metal springs on the cot groaned and creaked, followed by something—presumably the metal frame—crashing against the wall. It wasn’t until I heard a rhythmic dull thump that I tried to stop him.

  “G,” I said carefully. When he got like this, it was so hard to talk him down. “G, please. Listen to me. Hear me…”

  He let out one last roar. There was a thud as something hit the floor, then…nothing.

  I went to the far end of my cell, the one closest to his, and slid down the wall. “When they bring me upstairs, when they’re…” I swallowed and tried to keep my tone even. “When they’re doing their work… I picture myself fighting back. I imagine getting free and attacking them. I punch, and I kick, and I use whatever I can get my hands on with the sole intention of watching them bleed.” I expelled a shaky breath. “Sometimes I feel guilty about it. Like I’m a bad person or something. For getting angry. But I’m not. It’s okay to be angry, G.”

  “It’s so easy, isn’t it?” Material rustled softly. “When there’s nothing but pain and you can’t feel anything but helpless. Anger is easier. It’s more comfortable than pain.”

  “I think it’s okay to be angry to block out the pain, but only if it’s a temporary thing, ya know? Like, we’re using it now. To survive.”

  …

  A red light flashed in the hall. It was followed by a shrieking sound. The chaos caught the attention of the boys, who had just climbed from the ground and were faced off and catching their breath.

  “What do you suppose the law is like here?” I heard G say. His grin was wicked, almost inviting Dylan to make a move. “Come at me again so we can find out.”

  Dylan hesitated. There was fury in his eyes. His gaze flickered to Karl. “We’re not done.” His attention swiveled to G for a second before ultimately landing on me. “None of us.”

  Without another word he disappeared around the corner. G nodded in the other direction. “Right now, that seems like a good plan. Go!”

  We managed to wind our way through the chaos of the main lobby—people had come pouring from their rooms when the alarm sounded—and out the front door without anyone stopping us. After the scene the fight caused, we decided it was a good idea to keep a low profile. The timer was up, so we were stuck here for the next twenty-three hours or so. I didn’t have any desire to spend them in a jail cell.

  After wandering around a bit, we finally settled on a low-budget motel on the far side of town. Neither G nor I questioned it when Karl whipped out his wallet and slapped the currency of the land down on the clerk’s desk. There was more to Karl than outward appearances—and I wanted no part of any of it.

  “So,” Karl said, flopping onto the first bed. “How are you two enjoying your freedom? Shall we trade war stories?”

  G braced his boot against Karl’s hip and gave a violent shove. The older man slid from the bed and landed on the floor in an overly satisfying thud. G grabbed one of the pillows and yanked off the comforter, throwing them down beside him. “First, you’ll be sleeping on the damn floor. Second, this isn’t a friendly vacation. The only reason I haven’t killed you is because we need you. Otherwise, you’d be dead. I haven’t forgotten the time we spent in your basement.”

  Karl grabbed the edge of the other bed and hauled himself off the floor, making a great show of his struggle. “As I said, Infinity was Cora’s baby. I had a hand in it now and again, but all the sub-level projects were her ball
of wax. I handled mostly the public face of the company.”

  “That doesn’t make you any less responsible,” I said. I understood G’s anger because I felt it, too. “You knew what she was doing to us. You didn’t do a damn thing to stop it. That makes you just as guilty.”

  His expression soured. “I can tell you with one hundred percent honesty that I regret not stepping in. Things got out of control, and by the time I made the decision to do something, it was already too late.”

  “So instead you decided to steal from her and run away when you could have acted?” I sank onto the edge of my bed. “Classy.”

  “You haven’t said yet…” G narrowed his eyes. “Why did you run? Weren’t you and your batshit wife blissfully happy?”

  Karl frowned, and even though I hated to humanize him in any way, there was sadness in his eyes. Regret. “I loved my wife. I still do. But she is out of control.”

  “So what was the actual plan? I mean, you had to know she’d follow you, right?”

  “Honestly? I’d hoped she’d be arrested and I could leave without her realizing. At least not right away.” He sighed. “Like I said, I love my wife. My plan was to simply leave and find her again. To start over.”

  I stared at him, sure I must have heard wrong. “Find her again? As in, you were going to, what, hunt down another version of Cora?” Just like Dylan… What the hell was wrong with these people?

  “That’s the gist of it, yes.” He lowered his head, almost like he was ashamed. “I want to be with Cora, but my Cora had taken her interest in science way too far. It overshadowed everything in our lives.”

  “Too far?” I got the feeling we were talking about something other than stashing teens away in a jail cell and wiping their memories. Suddenly I was very curious about the thing Cora was desperate to get back. “What was on the flash drive you stole?”

  He hesitated for a moment, then sighed. “I guess you could call it a recipe.”