She gave a scathing curtsy and marched for the door.
“Thank you, Elise,” Carlisle called after her, his tone apologetic.
She wasn’t gentle with the door on her way out.
“Why can’t we tell her anything?” I asked.
Carlisle sat down next to my bed. “I suppose we could, but to what end? Whether it’s sensible or not, Franco wishes to shield her from all of this. It’s not our place to deny him that, especially while we’re making use of his resources and hospitality.”
The fact that I’d arrived at a similar conclusion didn’t lessen my desire to argue. It simply wasn’t fair for her. But I wasn’t sure what to do about it right now.
“Fine. What have I missed? How long have I even been out?”
I glanced at my palmlight to answer my second question. Well into the afternoon already. I’d slept for about fourteen hours, by my guess.
Carlisle tilted his head in deference to the palmlight. “A good while, but I expect you’ll be needing plenty more rest. You haven’t missed much. It’ll take quite some time to decrypt most of the data we retrieved. Franco says Vantage’s digital security is every bit as thorough as the physical.”
“Yeah, that’s easy to say for the guy who didn’t have a roomful of hungry lizard people trying to eat him.”
It might have been funny if the underlying reality wasn’t so horrifying. The guilt pressed heavier as my thoughts shifted back to the pale, helpless men and women still bleeding out in slow motion on those racks.
“All those people back there…”
“You tried, Hal. There was nothing more we could have done.”
“I don’t think that’s much comfort to them.”
“All the more reason to stop the raknoth as quickly as possible. Many of those victims will likely survive for cycles to come. Maybe longer. There might still be hope.”
I wanted to believe that. Something told me I shouldn’t hold my breath.
“Where do you think Alton got them? And those creatures…”
“Hybrids.”
I frowned.
“A designation we’ve been using for now, at least,” he explained. “Thinking back on how they felt in my senses, that’s my best guess. Part human, part raknoth. And what little we’ve uncovered so far suggests many of the hybrids and the blood donors were actually Vantage employees not too long ago.”
My frown deepened. “Why in demon’s depths would they do that to their own people?”
He cocked his head. “Well, aside from the observation that the raknoth don’t seem to greatly value humans to start with, I suspect these particular employees might’ve known too much. More efficient to make use of their loose ends rather than kill them outright.”
“Well how gropping responsible of them.”
Alton Parker’s sneering face arose in my mind, calmly declaring humans the new livestock of Enochia. I felt like I was going to be sick.
Carlisle started saying something, then seemed to change his mind. “We’ll get to the bottom of it when we decrypt the contents of that drive. Luckily, you should have plenty of time to rest and heal before then. We couldn’t make out everything on Franco’s scanner, but you have some cracked ribs at the very least. James administered nanites while you were out, but you’ll still need a few days’ bed rest.”
My aching body and its obscene gallery of bruises told me he was absolutely right about that, but it was the last thing I wanted to hear—the last thing I wanted to do, lying here while Vantage continued draining their own people and turning out Alpha knew how many more of those hybrid creatures.
Carlisle hesitated over his next words.
“There’s one more thing. A rather frustrating piece of news.”
“Couldn’t all be flowers and sunshine, huh?”
Carlisle just gestured the display on the opposite wall to life and navigated to a WAN newscast dated from that morning. My stomach sank at the headline.
Apostate Terrorists Raid Vantage Research Labs.
Both of our images—taken from Vantage’s upper floor cameras and, admittedly, pretty damn terroristic with the battle gear and the tense expressions—hovered over the caster’s shoulders as he explained how the two of us had broken into Vantage planning to secure materials to synthesize bioweapons for terrorist attacks on Divinity.
Vantage security, of course, had oh-so-heroically routed our evil efforts.
“Alpha be damned,” I growled under my breath.
It was a win-win for the raknoth. No doubt the public would fear the two of us now, and be on vigilant lookout. But Vantage also got to look like the shining, trustworthy hero—certainly not the kind of company that would devour their own employees to build and feed a monstrous army that apparently drank human blood.
“It gets worse,” Carlisle said quietly.
I wasn’t surprised to hear I’d been recognized from the footage they’d captured on our way out. What did surprise me was the part where the caster explained that my mysterious resurrection had Legion authorities speculating I’d been responsible for the fire at my house. Responsible for the death of my own Alpha-blessed parents. Along with the help of my mysterious partner, of course—the man known only as Carlisle.
I said nothing.
At least until the caster went on to reveal that, while tragically injured in the attack, the magnanimous CEO, Alton Parker, had bravely attended to his people in the aftermath and now had something to say. With that, the feed cut to a posh medica suite to show Alton in a cushy hospital bed, very much not dead.
“How is that son of a bitch alive?” I growled.
But Parker was already launching into his usual ludicrous fluff—apologizing to the families of the guards we’d allegedly brutalized, insisting that he didn’t know what it was we’d hoped to gain from a facility whose only goal was the advancement of medical science but that he sincerely hoped we’d be caught by the authorities before we had the chance to harm any more innocent people.
“I’d hoped we had ended him as well,” Carlisle said, pausing the feed. “Next time, we’ll be more thorough.”
Next time…
I studied Carlisle, calm and poised as always, and it made me feel a small measure better.
Next time, it was. Because we were just getting started, rough as that start had been.
“How’s your arm?” I asked.
“Healing quickly after a less-than-pleasant setting.” He moved the arm a little to demonstrate. “I had the nanite treatment as well. Should probably still have it immobilized, but…”
I blew out an amused huff. Carlisle was about as likely to back off as I was to stay in this bed for a few days’ rest. At least for today, though, I might not argue.
After he gingerly assisted me to the privy, Carlisle moved to take his leave, but paused at the door. “You did good back there, Hal.”
I didn’t realize until he said those words just how completely I disagreed with him. All at once, though, it came flooding out. “I didn’t do scud,” I said, staring at my hands. “Didn’t help you. Didn’t save a damn single one of those people. All I did was nearly get you killed trying to save me.”
For a long moment, there was silence. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Carlisle. All I could think about was what Docere Mathis would have to say. About what my dad would’ve done if he’d been there. About how he would’ve found a way, or at least gone down fighting for what he believed in.
Captain Martin Raish wouldn’t have left those people to die.
I tensed when Carlisle laid a hand on my shoulder. I hadn’t noticed him move from the door.
He waited until I forced myself to meet his eyes.
“I left them there too, Haldin. I was afraid too. This isn’t about which one of us scored the most points out there. We’re one step closer to bringing this operation of theirs down. And I, for one, was glad to have a partner in there. I’m not so arrogant as to believe I couldn’t have frozen or missed something had
you not been there to cover me.”
He was pandering to me. He had to be. There was no way he would’ve frozen down there.
I just shook my head, pushing it aside. “Whatever. I still couldn’t take him. How am I supposed to bring the High General of the Legion down if I can’t even hold my own against an Alpha-cursed biotech CEO? He’s probably, like, the pansy of their evil empire or whatever.”
Much as I didn’t mean to be joking, I couldn’t help but smile a little as I said it.
Carlisle smiled too, holding his healing arm up. “I’ll remind you that that pansy took me by surprise as well.”
“Only because you were busy catching me.”
“Haldin.” He kneeled so our eyes were level. “You survived your first fight with a raknoth. I can’t name a single person outside of this room who can claim as much. That’s not so bad for a seventeen-year-old tyro.”
“Ex-tyro, I think it’s safe to say.”
He smiled and squeezed my shoulder. “You’ll only grow stronger from here. Have faith in yourself, Hal.”
I was hardly convinced, but he didn’t appear to plan on leaving until I gave him something, so I mustered a curt nod to appease him.
When he was gone, I closed my eyes and finally allowed myself to think about the failure I hadn’t given voice to.
Kublich.
Back on the rooftop. The ultimate failure of the night.
His stern visage floated up in the reddish darkness of my eyelids. He’d been so close. So damned close. Never mind that Carlisle and I had both been injured. Never mind that a knife to the back, a skimmer to the front, and a ten-floor fall apparently wasn’t enough to end a raknoth.
Kublich had willingly come within my reach, and I hadn’t been strong enough to do a damn thing about it. And now we were terrorists in the eyes of Enochia. All for trying to help.
Fourteen days. Barely more than a cycle since I’d sat at supper with my parents and that murdering bastard, and now I was officially a wanted man. A public enemy, on the run, fighting a war I never would’ve believed existed just fourteen short days ago.
I cursed as I realized that Elise would have almost certainly seen the news on the reels before we’d talked. There was no way she’d have missed news of a terrorist attack. And yet she’d said nothing—only listened to what I’d had to say.
I should have told her more. I wished I could have.
I let out a heavy sigh and sank deeper into the bed, weariness making itself known throughout my battered body.
I’d make it up to her somehow. Just like I’d pay Kublich back. Somehow.
And, somehow, we’d stop the rest of the raknoth too. Stop them from turning all of Enochia into blood banks and breeding grounds for their monstrous hybrid army, even as the people of Enochia called for nooses on our necks.
But for now, my body insisted, I’d have to start with at least a few more hours’ sleep. From there, we’d see.
Somehow.
23
Sunshine and Flowers
The next morning, I gritted my teeth, removed my IV, and pulled myself out of bed. Having officially reached my limit at thirty hours of bed rest, I sidled gingerly out to the hallway to find the others, refusing to be waited on a moment longer.
I headed for the kitchen, figuring I might find them at breakfast, and ran into James halfway there, carrying the tray of bacon and eggs he’d been bringing to me. After only minimal fussing, we adjusted course and joined everyone else in the kitchen, where a choir of relieved smiles and well-wishes greeted me. Even Phineas gave me a stoic little nod, which was more of a greeting than I’d ever merited before.
Maybe the beating I’d taken had earned me an ounce of respect in his eyes. Or maybe it had something to do with Franco having made it clear that Carlisle and I were officially welcome residents of their home, terrorist status or no.
Much as I blessed his name for that, he also made it clear, with a pointed look at Elise as I joined them, that we wouldn’t be discussing business over breakfast. Elise rolled her eyes at the look, but said nothing.
I don’t think talking would have accomplished much anyway without more information. Clearly we needed to stop Vantage, but how? Destroy the facility? What about all the innocent civilians? And what if they’d already built another one, or several? We didn’t know the first thing about what they were truly up to, or how extensive the operation was. Until we did, anything we had to say would be blind speculation.
So we tried with limited success to enjoy a normal breakfast. How are your ribs feeling, Haldin? Cough up any blood lately? What do we do if the Legion comes knocking, asking about our harbored fugitives? You know, normal.
With the aid of the nanites, I did heal remarkably fast over the next couple days. Elise probably deserved a good chunk of the credit too, keeping a smile on my face in the many hours my recovering body proved too exhausted for me to train even with my mind.
I apologized to her for trying to keep quiet about Vantage. She shrugged it off and said it wasn’t like I owed her anything, and that she might have done the same were our situations reversed. She still might’ve been a bit hurt underneath the bravado, and continuing to keep secrets from her ate at me, but I didn’t know what else to do.
Mostly, I trained with my abilities, day in and day out.
In addition to refining my Shaping, Carlisle began instructing me in the basics of guarding my mind. As usual, we started off with Carlisle encouraging me to simply follow my intuition and try to keep him out as he telepathically probed for weaknesses in my defenses.
There were a lot of them.
It didn’t grow any less bizarre or unpleasant with practice, having another sentience break into my mind. Carlisle kept his own mental barriers tight, as he claimed an enemy telepath would when invading. It made it feel like a nameless, faceless entity rooting around in my head with the wispy tendrils of its presence rather than my caring mentor. Still, I recalled my experiences with Smirks and Kublich well enough to know that Carlisle was still taking care to be gentle each time he invaded.
“Let someone make it this far,” he reminded me, “and you’ll likely belong to them until they see fit to release you.”
As testament to his claim, he had my body begin hopping in place, up and down without a single thought from me. I watched in morbid fascination as the hops continued despite my attempts to stand still. I honed in on Carlisle’s wispy presence and tried to force him out to no avail.
Up and down. Up and down.
I gasped as he released me. “Agh sweet Alpha, man, that’s sick! Agh!”
“Would you prefer a fowl dance next time?”
I glared at his faint grin. “Ha-ha. How about you just tell me how the scud I’m supposed to actually stop you? And if you say practice and creative thinking, you’re gonna have to break into my mind again to stop me from killing you.”
Carlisle fought back a smile, but the effort only made him look more amused. “Right. I won’t say it, but you know how this goes. It’s best you find your own approach. Personally, I like to cover my mind in a slick, oily film that’s impossible to grab onto. Imaginary, of course.” He smiled at some memory. “Cassius used to focus so thoroughly on the mental image of a stone that there was simply nothing left on the surface for another telepath to find.”
“A stone? Like a plain old, side-of-the-road stone?”
He nodded, his smile reaching his pale eyes in a way it rarely did. “One in particular that he’d picked up one day and carried for years after. The perfect stone, he called it. Cassius was an interesting goodfellow.”
“Sounds like it.”
But what was my tactic going to be? What would be my stone?
“How does one manage to fight while thinking about nothing but a stone?” I asked as I deliberated.
“Not easily, at first. No matter what trick you find, it’s going to take practice to do much else while maintaining your guard. But it’s necessary to safely use your abiliti
es around the raknoth or the Seekers. With enough practice, it’ll become second nature.”
“And here I thought I was starting to get the hang of all of this stuff.”
“At every step, another fork,” Carlisle said, his expression sympathetic. “Try to remember that you’ve already come a tremendous way, Haldin. And in under two cycles, no less.”
It hardly felt like a tremendous way in light of my all-too-recent failures at Vantage, but I nodded, sat down, and settled into a meditative state, searching for the thing that could be my rock. Elise came to my mind unbidden. For a second, I thought about emulating Cassius’ technique. But no. It would be beyond foolish to put her image out there to anyone intending me harm.
Something else, then. Something safe.
I found myself thinking about the fortifications I’d grown up around—the thick walls and massive gate of Sanctuary. The two gargantuan darksteel doors, so heavy and well-guarded that they were only closed during times of emergency.
Who in their right mind would ever march on Sanctuary anyway?
Acting on instinct, I pictured those great doors nestled between the walls of a barren canyon—a canyon that made its narrow, winding way to the outside world from the landscape of my mind. I solidified the image until, sitting behind my impenetrable gate, sheer stone walls rising a hundred feet high on every side of me, I was sure I was ready for Carlisle’s attack.
This time, my mental sanctuary didn’t fall so easily.
He came slowly at first, the tendrils of his mind brushing lightly at my gate, seeking any cracks through which they might slip. Finally, he withdrew—only to return a moment later in a violent rush.
The weight of his mind crashed against my gate. Somehow, it held. He pushed harder, and I braced the gate with everything I had. Somewhere, far away, fingernails were digging into my palms and sweat was trickling down my forehead. Carlisle’s attacks only grew stronger until, finally, my gate gave way.
I swore and slapped the mat in frustration when he released control back to me. He told me to relax so we could try again.
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