Codex

by Megan Fatheree

  The guards came running from the top floor. Doon didn’t wait for them to arrive. He dashed for the basement ahead of them. “Bring the first aid kit, Amorette. Whatever happened, we should at least try to do something.”

  Amorette had never been happier to oblige. They could use some ice packs, too. Since she didn’t see any obvious wounds on the guards, that meant they must have hit their heads. Judging by Melodia’s headache this morning, it would make sense to ice their injuries.

  Urgency roiled inside of Amorette as she headed for the kitchen. Someone needed to wake up and tell her what went on down there. She couldn’t stand the suspense. Something about the whole situation nagged at her, but Amorette didn’t have time to place it.

  She pulled an empty ice pack from a cabinet and turned for the refrigerator.

  A silent silhouette in the doorway dragged a sharp yelp from her throat.

  “Hunter!” Amorette pressed a hand over her heart. “You’re back?”

  “Your head hurts?” Hunter nodded toward the ice pack in her hands.

  Amorette shook her head and yanked the freezer open. “Something happened downstairs. The guards are knocked out and my dad is sick. I thought it might help.”

  “Sometimes, what we think will help actually hurts people more.”

  Amorette tossed a confused smile over her shoulder. “Wow, okay. You’re angsty today. What’s with the deep thinking?”

  Hunter blew out a breath. “I really didn’t want things to end up this way. I genuinely developed feelings for you, you know?”

  “I thought we discussed this earlier.” Amorette paused. “Wait, earlier, you said...”

  Something small and sharp pricked the side of her neck. Amorette’s hand flew up, only to meet a needle and Hunter’s fingers. She turned to look at him. Hunter blurred in her vision.

  “H-Hunter?”

  She didn’t understand. Hunter was her friend. What was going on? The world rocked on its axis.

  Amorette heard only one thing before everything went black. One simple sentence.

  “I’m sorry, Mi Amor.”

  [Episode 16]

  Final Episode

  TRAFFIC JAMS. OF ALL the times to be stuck in traffic, it had to be tonight.

  Eadric tapped the brake for the fortieth time in half as many minutes. He should be home by now, but no. Cars crept along beside him as if yielded by molten tar. If he could, Eadric might tar whoever started this craziness.

  The concept remained simple. Drive the car at the posted speed limit. How did this happen? How did traffic come to a complete stand-still?

  Eadric slammed a hand against his horn, more out of frustration than actual anger.

  The cars trailed along the highway in all directions. If he could get out of the downtown area, getting home wouldn’t be as bad. He needed an exit.

  Eadric checked the time and sighed. He should call and explain he got caught in rush-hour traffic for the first time in his life. Eadric tapped Amorette’s number and settled a blue-tooth device over his ear.

  The phone rang. And rang. And rang.

  Strange, that she wouldn’t answer his call. Amorette always answered. Maybe she left her phone up in her room again.

  He tried Doon’s number instead with much the same result.

  In a last-ditch attempt not to panic, Eadric phoned the only person on the planet he hated more than Codex. Hunter’s phone didn’t even ring, but instead directed Eadric straight to voicemail.

  Eadric tossed the blue-tooth onto the other seat and laid on the horn again. Two might be a coincidence. Three? He didn’t believe in coincidence that much.

  The nearest exit pointed him toward his home, so Eadric took it. If he took the back roads, he could speed without much repercussion.

  A few quick taps on the screen of his cell phone pulled up Collins’ emergency number. Eadric pressed dial and coasted around another corner.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Something’s wrong at the house. Bring as many of the personal security detail as you can.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The conversation took all of three seconds, but both men knew the stakes. How could they not, after the night they endured?

  Eadric worked his jaw from side to side. Even the terrible scraping noise his grinding teeth made didn’t help ease the anxiety.

  He dialed Amorette’s number again. Still, nothing.

  Only two miles left.

  Eadric pressed the gas pedal to the floor and disregarded any twinge of conscience about disobeying the law. Lives were at stake this time. The traffic law could bow to the urgency of the situation.

  The gates hung open, which should have been Eadric’s first clue to the gravity of the situation.

  Eadric climbed from the running SUV and opened the guardhouse door. The guard on duty lay sprawled in the chair, a needle still extended from his neck. Thankfully, Eadric found a pulse on the first try.

  A glance to the security panel showed all the cameras had been turned off. Of course. Codex wouldn’t make anything easy.

  A rush of nausea nearly brought Eadric to his knees. He raced back to his vehicle and sped up the drive. At the front door, he yanked the keys from the ignition and dashed inside. The house was suspiciously devoid of all sound.

  Everything seemed in order, which worried him more than any signs of a struggle might.

  Eadric did a quick assessment of what he could see. A scuff mark on the polished floor by the basement door caught his attention first.

  The basement. He could start there.

  Eadric slipped and slid down the stairs. His heart beat so hard he feared it might explode. In his wildest dreams, he didn’t expect to find two needle-pricked guards at the bottom of the stairs.

  Eadric rolled one man over to check his pulse. Realization dawned upon seeing the man’s face. These weren’t the guards from the stairs. These were Amorette’s guards. The two he left specifically to keep a close eye on her.

  Eadric scrambled to the next room and flung the door wide.

  “Doon!” He sank to one knee beside the unconscious man. “Doon, wake up! Tell me what happened.” A strong shake of Doon’s shoulder did little to rouse him.

  A quick glance around the room revealed two more unconscious guards, but no Joseph.

  How could the man have disappeared? Could it have been Joseph that instigated all this? A man on the inside... was that their plan all along? How did he not anticipate such a thing from Codex?

  There were plenty of men on their way to take care of these casualties. Eadric sprang to his feet and skittered up the stairs like a rabid dog. There were others that resided here. Other people he felt a responsibility for. Eadric silently prayed they were all well. That, perhaps, this was all a dream.

  He took the stairs three at a time up to the second floor.

  A quick glance into the room adjoining Doon’s offered a small breath of relief. Melodia slept peacefully, sprawled under a single blanket. At least one inhabitant remained untouched by whatever cruelty invaded the manse.

  With Melodia’s safety ensured, Eadric sprinted up to the third floor. Please, please be here.

  Eadric came to a halt outside Amorette’s open bedroom door. Despite all his knowledge, he had hoped to be wrong this time. His fingers twitched at his sides, ready to do battle with whoever dared to invade his personal asylum. Hunter had better be missing too, or so help him, he would throw punches at the negligent youth.

  Eadric raced down the hall, only to find Hunter’s room empty, as well.

  Three missing, and no conclusive story to show for it. With the evidence presented, a few scenarios seemed plausible, but Eadric still couldn’t quite figure it out. Until the others woke, he wouldn’t know what happened. The security cameras wouldn’t show anything since they had been turned off.

  This job reeked of inside information, but he didn’t have time to ponder that. Under the assumption that Codex took Amorette, Eadric needed a plan and a way to find
her.

  He opened an app on his phone first. He’d been too chicken to plant a tracking device in the phone he gifted her. Thank God he came to the decision that he needed another way to find her if something like this happened.

  Unfortunately, once the application triangulated a position, it didn't give him a definite area. Which meant either someone discovered the GPS tracking device or too much cement surrounded her. Even the best satellite couldn’t deal with cement too thick.

  Though the app narrowed it down to a part of town containing storage units and warehouses, it couldn’t pinpoint her exact location.

  Eadric growled and slammed a hand against the wall. Fine. He would start elsewhere. He couldn’t traipse around an area so large without some insight. He needed to research. He needed someone who might know something about the vanished persons.

  But, who?

  A voice floated through his mind. A voice that sounded familiar, as if he heard it recently. Then, for the first time, Eadric remembered the face behind it.

  Shoving his phone in his pocket, Eadric bolted back downstairs.

  His SUV waited where he left it. It took seconds to ignite the engine, a minute to make his way back to the road.

  By the time Eadric sped his way across town, the sun had set. He didn’t care. Amorette’s old neighborhood was the only place he could find answers.

  Eadric parked the car at the top of a hill and shoved the keys into his pocket. He wouldn’t take chances tonight. Codex may not be lingering around this neighborhood anymore, but he couldn’t say that for certain. Especially when Joseph was one of the people vanished from the house.

  His boots pounded against the sidewalk with the purposeful rhythm of a man on a mission. The street lights still flickered around here, but it didn’t bother him. Eadric could hold his own in a fight. Yet, tonight, he didn’t come here to start a brawl.

  Instead, he stopped before a pile of scarves and blankets.

  Eadric squatted down and rested one arm over his knee. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it... Nanette?”

  A face full of drawn lines turned up. Nannie grinned.

  WAVES OF NAUSEA ROLLED over Amorette like a rip-tide. Her eyelids felt heavy, as if cement weighed them down. Still, she managed to open them halfway. The scene before her morphed through a haze of hair.

  “You promised not to hurt her.”

  That voice. She knew that voice, almost as well as she knew her own. Come on, Amorette, pull it together. Focus.

  “You said you could keep her from falling in with that malefactor. You failed.” A second voice seemed familiar, as well.

  “You’re the one who had me keeping an eye on her. You think I didn’t develop feelings during all that time?”

  “If you had, I expect you would have fought harder.” A cluck of a tongue. “Pity. In the end, she’s brought to this demise by your own hand. You shouldn’t have gotten so involved.”

  “Demise? Professor, you promised not to hurt her!”

  “Do you think there’s any other option at this juncture?”

  One of the men turned. For a brief moment, everything clicked into focus. A soft gasp parted Amorette’s lips. Hunter.

  Of course. She remembered now. The kitchen, his odd behavior. He must work for them. Them... Them... Why couldn’t she remember who they were?

  Amorette let her head loll. She wanted to go back to sleep. At least then she didn’t have to deal with harsh reality.

  “You have to save her!” Hunter cried.

  The second man sighed. Amorette glanced up in time to see him rest a hand on the back of Hunter’s head. “Don’t worry over it. I’ve cared for you until now. I won’t let a silly girl get in the way of that. This is the way of things. All we’ve worked for. Don’t you trust your own father?”

  Silence met the question.

  Amorette closed her eyes and gave in to the darkness begging to take her under. Eadric would come, or she would die oblivious. Either was preferable to the truth before her.

  NANETTE UNCURLED A scarf from around her neck and tugged the wig off her head.

  “There. That’s better.” She positioned her fingers in front of the vents in Eadric's front seat. “I’m surprised it took you so long to recognize me. But, then, you were preoccupied last time.”

  “How long have you been keeping an eye on her?” Eadric tapped a hand impatiently on the steering wheel.

  Nanette shrugged a shoulder. “Since she was small. When one doesn’t have a family, it’s advantageous to treat someone like they matter. After that incident as a child, I made sure to stay close.”

  “Codex didn’t recognize you?”

  “You didn’t even recognize me.” Nanette tilted her head, sharp eyes piercing Eadric’s indifferent demeanor.

  Eadric sighed and nodded his head. “You always were a good spy.”

  “There must be a reason you sought me out.”

  “You know more about her than anyone else. I need to know who betrayed her and where they took her.” Eadric didn’t beat around the bush. Nanette wasn’t the kind to take kindly to that kind of political diplomacy.

  “They got their grimy hands on her, then?” Nanette blew out a breath. “Fine. Ask what you need to ask. I’ll try to answer what I know.”

  “Nanette, I need your honesty.” Eadric frowned. It had been decades since he last saw her, but she hadn’t changed much. A loner, easy to talk to but harder to get information from. “If you don’t help me, she’ll die.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Nanette whipped her head to face him. “That child is more my daughter than her own father’s. I don’t plan on letting her meet the same fate as...” Her lips snapped shut. “No matter, she won’t die if we have anything to do with it. So tell me where to start.”

  “How did Codex get into my house? Was it her father?”

  Nanette laughed. “You really know nothing, do you? Joseph is on the very fringes of the organization. He couldn’t have orchestrated something like that.”

  “Then who...”

  “Listen carefully, Eadric. Codex has had their eye on her from the time she was born. They’ve orchestrated ways to keep her under their thumb. They’ve sabotaged every avenue of escape from that household. Until recently. Now, why do you think they allowed her to move out so suddenly? Could it be that they wanted her in your house?”

  “Stop talking in riddles.” He didn’t have time for this kind of nonsense.

  “You weren’t the first place she stayed after running away, you know. Amorette found refuge elsewhere for a while.”

  “Yes, with that school chum of hers.”

  “That school chum has attended the same class as Amorette since they were ten years old.” Nanette folded her arms across her chest. “You don’t find it odd? Since he lives on the other side of the city?”

  “He moved there after he graduated high school. You’re not making any sense.” Eadric gripped the steering wheel harder.

  “You’re not looking past the obvious. Hunter has never lived in this area. They only know each other because an anonymous benefactor paid for all her tuition bills. Coincidentally, even though they didn’t move in the same circles, Hunter attended all her classes and showed an interest in her.”

  Eadric’s suspicion peaked, a wailing siren in his logical mind. “He was a child when they met. He couldn’t be...”

  “Oh, he could.” Nanette bit out. “I watched him because I thought he might grow apart from them, but blood ties are hard to break.”

  “Blood ties?” Eadric’s head spun.

  Of all people, could the culprit really be Hunter? The one man who challenged Eadric’s fascination with the lovely Amorette. The only one who protected her regardless.

  Nanette nodded. “Now you understand.”

  “Exactly who is that boy?” Eadric gritted his teeth. If Hunter so much as laid a finger on Amorette, he wouldn’t spare him.

  “That boy...” Nanette arched a brow, “is The Ben
efactor’s offspring.”

  Eadric sneered at the term. He felt the same way. “He has a son?”

  “You’ll have to ask him the details, but yes. If I had known the child wasn’t trustworthy, I would have taken care of the matter long ago. I’m as cross as you are about this matter.” Nanette sat straighter, as if a sudden thought occurred to her. “Take me with you. I’d love a shot at that weasel.”

  “You can’t kill him.” Eadric shook his head.

  Nanette scoffed. “You never studied up on lore and legend, did you? Whatever will I do with you?”

  “Hopefully nothing scandalous.” Eadric rolled his eyes. How did she not change over the course of her long life? Always talking in circles and riddles. “Tell me.”

  “There’s always a way to die, silly goose.” Nanette patted a hand against Eadric’s shoulder. “Even for those of our kind.”

  “Nanette.”

  She smiled patronizingly. “Alright. I’ll tell you on the way. She may not have time.”

  “Are you going to tell me where they’re holding her?”

  “I don’t know. Not really. But I followed Imran to an old factory once. Recently. You could try there. Be prepared for a fight.” Nanette batted her eyelashes. “Let me come? It’s been too long since I fought. I’m afraid my skills might get rusty.”

  Eadric put the car into drive, not because he wanted her to come along, but because she wouldn’t stop arguing if he said no. Right now, he needed all the help he could get.

  “We have a stop to make first.”

  “Of course. Who are we picking up? It isn’t Lim, is it? You know I can’t stand him.”

  “It isn’t Lim.”

  “Oh, thank heaven.”

  Eadric gritted his teeth again. Nanette reminded him of times he would rather forget. Not because of regret, but because those times brought them to this day. If he acted differently back then, they wouldn’t have so many problems now.

  He knew now what started all of this. No one meant for it to happen, but one person placed blame. Eadric feared the retribution that Imran planned.