by LM. Preston
Dion stepped around Hedi and stood in front of Shamira. “What the hell you looking at me like that for?”
Hedi’s hand jutted out. “Back off. She’s just thinking out loud. No one here is a suspect.”
Shamira turned to Hedi, frowning. “If you didn’t notice. The force sees us as suspects. At least the Internal Affairs team does. I need to know everything if we are going to find Keeper and stop him before we, and many more people, end up dead.” She tilted her head toward Dion. “You have anything you feel guilty about? Were any of you trained to infiltrate the Mars Security Force? I found out that there’s a lot none of you are telling me about yourselves. Or about how entrenched you were with Monev before we met.” Her eyes traveled from Dion, to Kurt and the others, narrowing with each move.
Dion charged at her. Valens slipped in front of him. “Back off. Calm down. Just tell her what she wants to know. You did work with him.”
Dion pushed Valens chest. “Screw you, and her. I don’t need this shit.” He stormed off, climbed on his bike then sped away.
Hedi faced Shamira. Her hands fisted. “What’s wrong with you? Why’d you do that? We aren’t the enemy. Even if Monev did train someone to break into the Security Force—you should know we’d want to be free of th-that, horrible place.”
Shamira held her ground and folded her arms over her chest. She hated doing this, but she needed them to get out of her way in this. Now, before any more of them got hurt. “I just asked a question…one he didn’t want to answer.” She turned to Kurt. Hedi’s mumbled curse sounded as Hedi got on her motorcycle and rode off behind Dion.
Kurt came up to her, anger apparent in his features. “Where are you going with this, Shamira? First you act empathetic, then you start blame.” His jaw clenched. “We wouldn’t know how he attacks. He trained us in sustaining torture. His lackey, Blood, trained us in fighting techniques and stealth assaults. Keeper was trained by the best. Renu.” He turned away and waved a hand up. “I’m done.” Kurt calmly got on his bike and left.
Mitch shook his head. “You always did think you were better than everyone—even your friends who saved your sorry ass over and over again.” He spit on the ground at her feet before heading out behind Kurt.
Anthony opened his car door. “You’re not going to keep friends acting like that.” He threw a glance at Valens. “Check your girl, Valens, before she screws up what we have going.” He got in his car and left.
Shamira swallowed. She had to do it. Get tough and make them back off. The rest of this journey she would do alone. It was getting a bit discerning that every time they were together lately, something happened. Something deadly.
Valens released a long breath of air, his back to her as he walked to his bike. “I’ll see you at headquarters tomorrow. Tell Mina I’ll pick her up there in the morning.” He got on his bike and without a backward glance, he sped off.
Shamira closed her eyes, her heart ached. He hadn’t even tried to kiss her goodbye. Guess she’d pushed them hard enough. She shrugged the guilt away and walked to the door. This sucked. She really wanted a kiss right now, and she screwed it up. Training room tonight was a definite. The only way she could calm down enough to get sleep.
She opened the door. Her eyes landed on her mother who was dozing on the couch. Relief flooded her. She plopped in a nearby chair, the weight of the death toll following her heavy on her mind. Thank God her mom was asleep. One less person to deal with today, she closed her eyes briefly as she moved forward to get out the chair and go to the training room.
“You missed curfew.” Her mother tossed the blanket draped over her legs to the side.
Shamira slowly opened her eyes, hoping the tears she fought hard to keep in check wouldn’t show up. “Just by a few minutes,” she said hoarsely before she cleared her throat to cover up her mishap.
Her mother stood up. Admittedly, Shamira watched her a lot lately, since after the Monev takedown things had changed. Before, their relationship was strained, but now…it was just plain awkward. She knew her parents loved her. Heck, now her mom even said so more often than before. But as far as affection and acknowledgment, her mother was just the same. Oh, she gave them to David, Manny and Taren, but with her she just didn’t know what to say.
“You’re pushing my patience too far. You have work in the morning. Responsible would-be adults go to sleep so they can get to work on time.” Her mother eyed her suspiciously, “Where have you been?”
Forcing a relaxed smile on her face, she answered, “A double date. Oasis Hawaii Club.”
An eyebrow lifted. “That doesn’t sound like your kind of place. Sure you didn’t stop off anywhere else?”
“No, we just went there and raced a bit. You know…” Shamira swallowed, “to let off some steam before going to work.” Switching the subject, Shamira plopped in one of the chairs across from her mother. “Hey, did you find out anything about our promotion?”
A suspicious eye studied her, but after a moment, her mother relaxed some and leaned back. “You have a meeting with the Security Elite Mars board and the Internal Affairs officers to determine whether your team will get promoted…or terminated.”
Shamira shot up out of her chair. Heated power laced with anger hummed in her blood. “What? No, they can’t do that.”
Rubbing her temples with her fingers, her mother answered, “I’m afraid they can, and will, if they prove your team may have been negligent in Cal’s death. Your father and I aren’t allowed to vote, of course.” Cautiously, she stood and touched Shamira’s hand, then dropped it to pivot away. “I’m sorry, but it’s way past my bedtime. Mina and Taren are sleeping on the floor in your room. Don’t wake them, I just got them to sleep.”
Shamira looked at the place where her mom would have touched, then put her hand gently there and closed her eyes.
Chapter 20
Shamira exhaled the breath she’d been holding. So many thoughts were running rampant in her mind. Her control was slipping away. She had to get to the training room—now. Her shoulder lowered to crack the crook in her neck. Then she jogged to the basement, and jumped down the steps to the training room and the weapons cabinet at the bottom of the stairs. She leaned against it while she took off her weapons belt to change into her training outfit.
The formfitting suit had flexible pads that replicated the pain of a punch, gunshot, or knife attack to teach the bearer’s body to get accustomed with fighting through pain. The numbing effect of physical pain was what she needed to get her head straight; to distract her from her saddened heart.
So many suspects to consider. Her team, she trusted them, but something was off. Badly off. Why was it that whenever they went out together they were attacked when no one outside of their team knew where they’d be? Was one of them working against the team? The Force? She admitted that she trusted Anthony, Mitch and Hedi more than Kurt or Dion. She’d met them first and if she was honest, there was much she still didn’t know about any of them. Heck, there were things she didn’t know about Valens.
Were they playing with her? She honestly didn’t know.
Shamira exhaled and inhaled in a rhythmic fashion to calm her racing heart. Then she grabbed a blindfold and tied it around her head to cover her eyes. Complete darkness. That safe place she’d been able to hide in when she was blind. The place of no intrusions by friends, boyfriends or anyone. That place was where she needed to go to rejuvenate her edge. To think about who was behind this, because it just didn’t seem like one person could do this by themselves. Her thoughts flew to the Internal Affairs officers that interrogated her team.
Shamira straightened her back, then cracked it to the side before crouching. “Outside attack sequence. Big men with knives and guns.” Her command for the computer would throw her into a virtual battle with men she projected into the system. This time, the men were similar to the assassins who attacked her. With a sneer, she prepared to fight.
After a few hours of blindfolded battle, the burning en
ergy within her was at rest. “Stop simulation.” She yanked off the blindfold and sauntered to the computer. “Time for some quick research.”
She sucked on her bottom lip as she sat at the computer center to hack into the Security Force Internal Affairs database. She researched all the Security Force Officers who served as investigative committee officers for both the Security Force Elite and the Mars police. She tried to find any leads or connections that would suggest that someone was suspected of working for Monev. Only one came up.
Her fist hit the desk. Officer Garcia. She had been investigated due to her ‘friendship’ with a runner in Monev. A much younger man. Shamira figured from the sketchy details of the boy, that he was around twenty years old now—if he was still alive.
Shamira frowned. “Hmm, you’re not such a big shot after all. I wonder why they let you keep your job.” Looks like I’m on your trail tomorrow. She tapped her fingers on the desk. “Hopefully, I ticked off my team enough for them not to follow. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll find out if you are working both sides.”
Shamira shut down the computer and ran up the steps two at a time. Her door sat opened. She entered slowly. A foot away, she spied Mina, Valens’ sister, asleep on the floor near the door. Her sister Taren was sleep in her bed. Shamira couldn’t help but smile. Taren was trying to steal David’s spot in her heart. Taren also suffered from nightmares and often came into her room at night to sleep at the foot of her bed.
Shamira went to the bed and touched Taren’s shoulder. “Taren, Taren…move over,” she whispered.
Taren looked up, a smile on her face as if she’d been awake. “I was waiting up for you, Meera.”
Shamira smiled at the nickname Taren used. David had always called her that and now Manny and Taren did also. “Don’t do that. You need to sleep.” She climbed into the spot Taren had vacated.
Taren grabbed the other pillow and scooted to the far side of Shamira’s queen-sized bed. “I never can. ‘Til I sleep here, because I know you will protect me. Just like you saved me from the mines. David said you would save us, and he was right.” Taren snuggled down and within seconds started snoring lightly.
Shamira lay back on the bed and felt the weakening warmth fill her chest as her eyes watered. David, Taren and Manny meant so much to her. Unlike her friends, their love was overflowing, safe, and bonded to her. She didn’t think she could love another kid as much as she loved her brother David, but she’d been wrong. Manny and Taren gave their love and trust so freely that she couldn’t keep herself hidden from them. They’d weaseled their way into her heart; even Taren suckered her into something she’d hardly done with David. Taren she’d let into her haven, her room and shared her girly self.
At least in the morning, Taren could play in Mina’s hair instead of insisting on styling Shamira’s and helping with makeup. Makeup sessions that had turned into disasters because Shamira never wore makeup when she was blind, but thanks to Hedi, she had a full collection of cosmetics. Finally her racing heart settled into quiet rhythm. With a final sigh, she was sleep.
Her nose tickled at the smell. Slight smoky…electrical. She must be dreaming.
Chapter 21
The smell was overpowering. A side effect of being blind for fourteen years of her life sometimes made her smell things in her dreams. She turned over. A pop, then a sizzle tickled her hearing, and she jumped up in bed. Eyes open, she took in another deep breath and choked. Transparent smoke clouded the room. Her throat convulsed at the metallic taste of burning mixed with pure energy. Her blood pumped frantically through her veins; tears welled in her eyes from the smoke as fear laced through her veins.
She checked on a sleeping Taren and scrambled to the foot of the bed to check on Mina. Terror seized her as she’d awakened thoroughly and realized her dream was a living nightmare. Another pop and sizzle, then a boom as an electrical charge like thunder hit the house. Her muscles froze. A brief sharp twinge rose through her body, temporarily immobilizing her. It passed and her brow furrowed at the discomfort, but the need to get them out of there resumed with vigor. She shook Taren. Tingles of deep fear skipped over her skin as she saw a thin line of light snap out on the ceiling. Something was wrong, very wrong.
“Get up! Get—” She coughed more, tears escaped from the intensity of smoke that seemed to instantly fill the room.
Taren groggily rubbed her eyes. Then fits of coughing hit her. “What…how…Mi-na.”
Shamira jumped off the bed, dragging Taren by the hand. She crouched on her knees and shook Mina. “Get up. Mina. Wake up!”
Mina opened her eyes, and then closed them to rub with her fist. “Sleepy. Burning.”
Shamira yanked Mina up to stand. “We have to get out! Get the others…in the back of the house.”
“Daddy will get Mom out.” Taren started another coughing fit.
Shamira hurriedly pulled them toward the doorway. Moving strictly by instinct from finding her way around when she was blind, she pushed them forward.
Mina tugged Shamira’s hand. “I can’t see anything,” she whimpered.
Shamira took several deep breaths while she tried to remain calm. She released Taren’s hand for a moment to touch the doorframe. It was hot. “David! Manny!” Her throat constricted as a flash of them lying unconscious on the floor taunted her brain. She kicked the door opened. Splinters of woods flew into the smoky hall, and the door hung lopsided by the top hinge. Frantically, she groped in the darkened hall that led to the living room. Whatever that electrical shock was that hit the house, caused the electricity to die. Irritated, she hit the flattened manual light switch.
“Shamira! Where are you? Shamira?” Taren nearly screeched.
Although the initial shock of smoke had started to clear, the acrid smell of the chemical expelled in the air remained strong. Shamira heard Taren stumble and scream. Her eyes watered and she reached for Taren’s hand.
“Taren…” Freak! I can’t fight this…no one. “David!” she screamed for him. Then the blinding paralysis hit her.
The electrical shock battered the house and pulsed stronger and stronger. Shamira froze in anguish, tears ran from her eyes and she fell to her knees. “Oh…God…no.” She shook her head. Failure. Death. Like the man said, and her family too.
Like an angel in the night to pull her out of the depths of hell, she heard David. Her brother was yelling her name. Pain crippled her and she couldn’t move. It was as if her body was dead, but it wasn’t. The nanonytes within her were attacking her. Causing her muscles to spasm and lose control. Zigzags of fire cut through her bones; she felt as though someone was cutting her with a million knives. Inside and out of her entire body, she felt ravaged. Nowhere was free of the all-consuming torture. She couldn’t even speak.
“Over here!” Taren called. “She can’t move. Her whole body is just shaking.”
Mina was smoothing down her hair and rocking back and forward. “Fire!”
Shamira fought through the haze of pain and looked up at the ceiling, now filled with tendrils of fire within the small cracks. Go! Leave me! she screamed, but the words wouldn’t move beyond her frozen lips.
David and Manny rushed to her. David bent and held her trembling face within his hands. “I’m going to save you this time, Shamira. Remember. Like I told you when you saved me from the Mons.” Calmly, he smiled at her.
Her heart filled with butterflies of joy. David looked so sure. Deep down, she felt pride. Yes, she’d saved him and she prayed he could save her now.
“Manny, get the girls out. I’ll take care of Shamira,” David demanded. He sounded much older than his eleven years.
“Uh, you can’t move her by yourself.” Manny shook his head while he pushed Taren and Mina to the door. “Run! Get out. Get help for Mom and Dad.”
David tugged her a few inches. “Guess not. Grab her other arm.” He bent and quickly kissed Shamira’s forehead. “I’m sorry…but got to help us save you. You’re strong, I know it.” He sniffed as a tear stre
aked down his cheek.
Shamira managed to blink her eyes. All the warnings of not tapping into her hidden powers—a strength she’d been forced to push down in order to let the nanonytes do their job—echoed through her head. She sighed. A lot of good suppressing them did her, because now they could cause her death. Maybe even the death of her parents and her brothers.
Crack.
The ceiling broke. Pieces of it fell around them. Immobilizing pain coursed through her again. She shivered, closed her eyes and tickled it—the forbidden power within her. The energy that interlaced itself with rage and was created from the fight she put up for her life long ago. That rage was born from clawing back from the depths of death to bring her back from the dead. She was a baby when it happened, but it has cursed her for the rest of her life. It bubbled up within her, a heated heaviness that pushed through her blood, awakened and hungry. Power, greater than the nanonytes ever was able to replicate, skipped over her skin.
“Whoa.” Manny dropped her wrist. “What’s wrong with her? She’s hot.” He started to cough.
“Her power. She’s using it. It’s okay; it doesn’t hurt too bad. She can control it.” Manny tugged her again.
Her back bowed and a rush flooded her as the dead nanonytes didn’t awaken to counteract her power. Without thought, only reflex, she jumped up off the floor. The throbbing pain coursing through her veins renewed her fight to get them out of the house alive. She twisted her hand, and then grabbed their wrists.
A roar poured from her. “Run!” Shamira tugged them out of the burning smoked-filled living room. She slid to a stop as a fiery ceiling beam fell in their path, blocking the door.
“We’re dead,” Manny cried. “I don’t want to die by…” Coughing fits hit him and he covered his mouth with his fist.