“What am I supposed to do?” I asked again in a choked voice as I slumped down into a heap on the floor. “He was my little brother. I should have been there to protect him. But I couldn’t—I couldn’t do anything!” My shoulders sagged in utter defeat, my arms falling lifelessly to the wooden floor. Because as much as everyone else had failed Patrick, I had failed him the most.
“Travis?” Kiskei asked hesitantly.
I didn’t answer, just continued to stare into nothing as I tried desperately to keep it all in. But like everything else, it was a useless failure.
My body shook as I tried to stop the onslaught of tears that were escaping down my cheeks. I said not to cry, you idiot!
“There wasn’t anything we could do then, but we can now,” Kiskei continued gently.
“What?” I asked with a sniffle, still unable to get my shaking body back under my control.
“What I actually came here to tell you tonight was that we have to go brief the Amurai for the mission,” he said as he crouched down in front of me.
“What mission?” I asked, looking up.
“The rescue mission.”
I just stared at him in non-comprehension as the tears continued to slide down my face.
“You didn’t look over all the files did you?” Kiskei asked with a small sigh.
I shook my head, because I couldn’t manage to find the words to say something.
“The address of the Kakodemoss facility—it was hidden in there,” Kiskei said as he stood, and held out a hand to help me to my feet.
“What?” I said, finally able to make my lips work again.
A small weary smile spread across his lips. “Travis, we know where they are.”
All the Things You Didn’t Want to Know
Friday, December 28th
TRAVIS
“I still have some questions, you know,” I said sourly, because Kiskei was making us take his car. I didn’t like riding in other people’s cars—mainly because I wasn’t the one driving them.
“Of course you do, you’re a Centrina,” Kiskei answered sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. I scowled at him, and a small crooked grin spread across his lips. “Well, ask them already.”
“Why did you all feel the need to invent James Varris?” I asked with narrowed eyes, completely convinced he was about to lie to me.
Kiskei was quiet for a long moment before he answered, the grin slipping from his face as if it had never been there. “After Nikk died—or well, we thought he had died—somehow the names of some of Karalia’s Amurai were leaked to the Kakodemoss. Either they tortured them out of him or they just cracked into his mind and took what they liked. Either way, those who could, fled. And the rest…found other means. But as a potential chancellarius, Skye could not disappear. So she and her daughters were protected in the only way left.”
“How did you know the names had been leaked?” I asked, my eyes still narrowed at him.
Kiskei turned to look at me seriously. “Because they started picking us off one by one.”
I stared back at him, meeting his glare. “So if we were in such danger, how come I didn’t get a fake name too? Was I just so unimportant that no one gave a fuck if I got murdered in my sleep?”
Kiskei slammed on the brakes, and his car screeched to an abrupt halt. “Why the hell do you think we up and moved you back to San Francisco? For the bloody sunshine? We placed you in the most secure place we had. I mean, gods, Travis, use your head. The orphanage is practically in the center of the most secure building in all of Karalia, for crying out loud! So don’t you dare get off thinking that we just abandoned you because we didn’t care.”
I blinked at him, too stunned to even find the words to say something. “Green,” I said eventually.
“What?”
“The light, it’s green,” I replied, pointing to the streetlight that had changed from red to green.
Kiskei’s eyes darted back to the road, and he pressed his foot to the gas pedal.
About five blocks and several stop lights later I asked, “So whose bright idea was it to infiltrate the Kakodemoss by impersonating Eskel Valerik?”
“The entire team decided it was the best tactical use of our resources,” Kiskei answered, gripping the steering wheel a little more tightly.
“Oh really? You guys couldn’t have picked someone a little less obvious than their director of operations?” I asked with a derisive snort.
“Those obfuscation pendants do have their limits, you know,” Kiskei countered with irritation. “They work fine when it’s just a little color swap, and basic facial feature altering. But they don’t exactly work when you’re trying to change too much.”
“So what you’re saying is your buddy Nikk just so happened to look a whole hell of a lot like the most horrible daemon who’s ever lived?”
Kiskei glared at me with narrowed eyes before turning his attention back to the road. “Nikk was selected for the mission because he had the training, knowledge, and ability to infiltrate the Kakodemoss facility. The fact that he shared a high percentage of physical traits with facility director Eskel Valerik was the reason Eskel was chosen as the person Nikk was to impersonate.” Kiskei continued to glare at the road with hard eyes. “We couldn’t have known the operation would backfire so badly.”
“Little computer chips that can control people? Sure, ‘cause that was never going to go wrong,” I snorted bitterly as I folded my arms across my chest, and scowled out the window.
“You know I’m not above dumping your ass out on the curb and making you walk, right?”
“I would love to see you try,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
Kiskei tapped his brakes and I flew forward, nearly slamming my head into the dash.
I whipped my head toward him, staring daggers. “What the frak was that for?”
“That was for sleeping with my daughter,” Kiskei replied flatly.
I just stared at him open-mouthed. If he was still that mad over me sleeping with her, I was fairly certain he was going to kill me when he realized Parker was pregnant.
“Or for being an ass. Really, they’re both true, so take your pick,” Kiskei continued, challenging me with his eyes.
I glared back at him before I finally gave in, and looked away.
“Why did you design the chips, anyways? What possible reason could you have had for them other than to control people?” I asked as I slumped back into my seat, and folded my arms across my chest again.
“I didn’t, actually,” Kiskei answered with a slightly indignant huff as he rolled to a stop at another red light. “The chips where Josh and Nikk’s pet project, not mine. And they weren’t for mind control. They were going to be used for undercover Amurai operatives. To aid in constructing unbreakable personas so we could infiltrate the Kakodemoss and take them down from the inside.”
“You made the chips to use on yourselves?” I asked in disgust. “Why would you do something like that?”
“Because some things are impossible to forget,” Kiskei answered sadly, like the ghosts of his past were dancing in front of his eyes. “The thing you have to understand is that the chips weren’t only being designed for undercover Amurai missions. They were also to give us peace.”
“Peace?” I spat out skeptically. “How on earth were they supposed to bring anyone peace?”
“When you kill someone—even if it’s the right thing to do, even if it’s to protect someone—it rips your soul apart,” Kiskei answered, his eyes fixed firmly ahead of him. “You see, we couldn’t change that we were Amurai—it’s in our blood—but we thought maybe we could make something to lessen the burden. Give the Amurai the freedom to leave behind the knowledge that they were killers when they took off the uniform.”
Kiskei looked over at me
appraisingly, arching one eyebrow. “Tell me truthfully, if you could leave behind that kind of pain with the flick of a switch, wouldn’t you?” When it was clear I wasn’t going to answer, he looked back at the light.
Would I? If I could forget the horrible night my parents died, would I? The fact that I couldn’t definitively say I wouldn’t made me more than a little uncomfortable.
“Whose idea was it—this mind fragmentation? Was it yours?” I asked, defensiveness making the words come out a little too harsh.
“No it was Kass’ idea,” Kiskei replied distractedly as he flipped on his blinker and changed lanes.
“Kass?”
“Parker’s…mother. Kassandra “Kass” Zahorsky,” Kiskei replied as he made another turn. “She was my assistant for the Avensana Project, but really, she was the truly brilliant one. It was her research that lead to the development of those chips.”
“How so?”
“She proposed that we are all merely a sum of our memories. And if you could change those memories, you could change someone’s soul. Because so much of what we are is in our memories.”
Kiskei fell silent as he turned a corner, and I continued to study him. There was something in the way he talked about her. The way his voice softened when he said her name.
“You were in love with her, weren’t you?” I asked, but I was fairly certain I already knew the answer.
“Very much so,” Kiskei admitted with a small, sad smile.
“But you never told her, did you?”
Kiskei’s face fell, filling with regret. “No, I didn’t. I thought I had all the time in the world to tell her, and then I didn’t, and she was gone.”
“How did she…?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word die.
“She died bringing Parker into this life.”
“Oh,” I said, letting out all the air in my lungs in a heavy breath.
I shifted and looked out the window, watching the buildings as they slid past. “So who is Parker’s dad?”
“I am,” Kiskei stated firmly.
I turned back to look at him. “But you just said—”
“I didn’t say I was her biological father, but I am her dad,” Kiskei clarified before he looked back at the road. “Have been since the day she was born.”
I narrowed my eyes at him in irritation. “So where’s her biological father then? What happened to him?”
“Parker doesn’t have a biological father,” Kiskei stated without looking at me.
“What?!” I sputtered. “That’s not possible, everyone has a—”
“She’s a clone,” he stated without feeling as he glided his car to a smooth stop at the curb.
“Excuse me?” Both my eyebrows shot up and I gave him the most dubious look I had ever given anyone.
“Parker’s not an exact copy of Kass. That, apparently, wasn’t horrific enough of an experiment for them. No, they had to throw Kakodaemon and Amurai genes into the mix,” Kiskei stated as he gripped the steering wheel like he was trying to choke it to death.
He looked down at his hands, still gripping the wheel, and slackened his hold on it. “With her dying breath, Kass asked me—begged me to kill Parker when she was born. Because of what she was. Because of what they had done to her. But when I looked down at Parker, at the fact that she hadn’t done anything wrong but be born, I just couldn’t.”
I just stared at him in stunned disbelief. When I had started down this road to uncover their secrets, this was the last place I’d have ever imagined I’d find myself.
Parker was a clone. A Kakodemoss experiment, and her mother had wanted her killed because of it. And Kiskei had spent the last nineteen years with the reminder that he had denied his One her dying request, beside him.
I swallowed hard. “Does Parker know she’s a—?”
“No, and if you tell her, they will never find your body,” Kiskei threatened, and I was fairly certain he wasn’t joking.
“I wouldn’t.”
Kiskei studied me for a long time before he looked away. “I believe you.”
I looked out the window. The street was deserted save for a few cars, and an overturned recycling bin. I turned my attention back to Kiskei as I felt the engine cut out.
He looked at my confused expression as he pulled his keys from the ignition. “We’re here.”
“Your secret base is behind a corrugated cement wall,” I asked skeptically.
Kiskei’s expression finally slid back into something resembling a grin as he opened his door. “I find plain sight to be the best cover.”
Amurai Protectorate
Friday, December 28th
TRAVIS
“Well color me impressed,” I said with huge eyes as the door fell open to reveal a stone walkway that crossed a five-foot moat to a set of ebony-colored double doors with a lotus carved into each of them. A pair of gazelle statues on either side of the doors like stone watchdogs.
A smug smile pulled at Kiskei’s lips as he shrugged. “It works.”
I was about to step through the gate when the strangeness of it all finally hit me. “Why are you including me in this, Kiskei?” I asked skeptically. “I’m not Amurai.”
“Because I think it’s about time we had some more technical support,” Kiskei answered with a slight smirk like he found my skepticism amusing. “And if I left you out, you’d just come charging in and probably get yourself killed doing something stupid.”
“Saving those people wasn’t stupid,” I mumbled under my breath as I stepped through the gate, and crossed the stepping-stone bridge.
“No it wasn’t,” Kiskei agreed with a sigh as he followed me in, the door closing behind him.
As I crossed the stone walkway I let my eyes trace my surroundings, shocked as fuck that something like this had been hidden here all this time.
As we neared the doors, I realized that someone tall and blond was standing in front of a large wall altar to the goddess Kalona. Their hair seeming to dance in the flickering candle light like living flame. But even though their back was to me, there was no way I’d ever have been able to mistake it for someone other than—
“Shawn?” I asked in disbelief, just gaping at him.
His body jerked, and then turned quickly toward me. “Travis?” Shawn echoed, equally confused at my being there.
“Oh this is fucking brilliant,” I snorted as I added this puzzle piece to the collection in my head.
“Is everyone else here?” Kiskei asked Shawn, completely ignoring how startled he was.
“Mostly,” Shawn said, his eyes darting away from me to Kiskei as he answered.
“Good,” Kiskei replied as he put a hand to each of our backs and pushed us forward down a hallway until we entered a large room.
The room looked like a training hall straight out of a kung fu flick or a Japanese period drama, with mat-covered floors and dark wooden beams and panelling. A few people stood in small groups around the space including—
Parker.
The minute I noticed Parker I was unable to make my eyes look anywhere else. The moment she noticed me staring she looked away, and my heart sunk.
“You all play nice, I’ll be back in a minute,” Kiskei ordered as he crossed the room, and disappeared down a dark staircase. I just continued to stare across the room at Parker, where she leaned up against a wall next to that guy James, who had picked a fight with me in the hotel hallway.
Which was how I didn’t notice the short guy walking over to us until he was right in front of me. “You’re another Centrina, aren’t you?” he asked abruptly.
Before I could answer he lashed out quickly. I leaned back, successfully missing his strike, but falling over backward in the process.
“What gave me away?” I asked in a flat
voice from the floor.
“Well it wasn’t your coordination, that’s for sure,” a female voice snorted as she and another guy walked over.
The guy held out a hand to help me up. “I’m Simon,” he said with a warm, apologetic smile.
“Travis,” I replied as he jerked me up to my feet.
“I think you have a few more titles to add to that,” he said as he crossed his arms easily across his chest.
“I think you really should forget about ever using them,” I mumbled defiantly.
Simon’s lips quirked up to the side and the curvy Indian woman beside him burst into a full blown grin.
“Right snarky bastard, ain’t he, Isha?” Simon commented to the exotic woman with cinnamon-colored skin.
“If he had any more of Josh in him, he might just split at the seems,” she agreed with a snort.
I was about to mention that comparing me to my father wasn’t going to win them any brownie points with me, when Kiskei came back up out of the darkened stairway with a slight Asian girl behind him. And as she looked up from the tablet in her hands my heart shuddered to a halt.
“Akiko?!” I nearly yelped in disbelief. “What the fuck is my assistant doing here?” I asked Kiskei accusingly as I stormed toward them.
Akiko looked at me like she wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to say.
“Miss Miyakawa is here for the same reason you are, because she’s an Amurai Protectorate,” Kiskei answered as I stopped in front of them.
“An Amurai Protectorate?” I repeated in confusion.
“Just like you.” I arched my eyes at Kiskei, and he clarified. “Not everyone born to an Amurai is an Amurai themselves. However they are in the know, so many of them become Amurai Protectorate—Warrior protectors. Those that keep our identities safe, act as tactical support, and cover our tracks when we need it.”
Keep our identities safe. That was precisely what had gone wrong the last time. What had gotten most of the previous Amurai of Karalia’s District One killed.
The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3) Page 33