“Sucks to suck,” Jacky said, surveying Jeb trying to un-cramp.
“Jacky, put a cork in it,” Madeline said.
“Nah, it's fun to stick it to the big guy.”
Jeb's eyes narrowed on the youngling. He was almost more trouble than he was worth.
The new moon cast the landscape in nearly total darkness. As Jeb's eyes adjusted to the night, he could make out just enough of their environment to avoid plowing into everything that rose up into the sky ten meters high. There was perhaps a two-meter-wide random pathway between the two mountains of collapsed metal debris.
He and Jasper made their way to the center.
“This is where we part ways, Jacky,” Jeb said.
“No way, dude! You're not my dad,” he said critically to Jeb.
He and Jasper made their way to the center.
“You're not a Reflective.”
“He's a Sensitive,” Beth acknowledged.
“So?” Jacky said.
“Your kind sees us.”
“You've been outed in the past so I get penalized because some clowns ratted on you?”
“Your kind is not well-liked. You would not be welcome in Papilio.”
“Yeah? I've got a boatload of charisma. Wait till they get a load of my charm.”
“Is he always like this?” Jasper asked.
“Only when he's awake,” Madeline quipped.
“I feel responsible for you. We're breaking every directive in The Cause just by taking the girl. You would be…”
“Bad,” Jasper said.
Jeb could only shrug.
“Yes.”
“I want Jacky to go,” Madeline said in a quiet voice.
“Know this,” Jeb warned. “Time moves differently from one sector to the next. There is no guarantee what year it will be when we return. As much as a season could have gone by here.”
“You have to decide,” Jasper said.
“My mom…” Madeline said.
Jasper shook her head.
“You can't defend yourself. What makes you think that you can protect your parent? Why is this something that you feel is your responsibility?”
The standing water in Madeline's eyes welled, and she sucked in a breath.
Female tears.
The night had just sunk to an all-time low for Jeb.
“My father…”
“Chuck?” Jeb asked.
“No way, not that dick,” Jacky interrupted, and Jeb held up his hand for silence.
“Whatever,” he muttered, kicking a small pebble with his sneaker.
“No, my dad died when I was five.”
Her voice warbled, and Jeb swallowed. He had not noticed the color of her eyes until just then; they were a midnight blue kissed by violet. The light from the streetlights slanted across her face in unnatural brilliance.
“He made me promise to take care of my mom.”
“He couldn't have meant for you to be her champion,” Jasper said quietly, placing her hand on the girl's arm.
Fat tears chased each other down her face.
“Maybe,” she whispered, “but I meant it.”
Those large eyes closed then opened, blinking away a sadness that would never leave her.
Merrick saw Jasper's face and understood that the emotions of this young female, mirrored some of her own.
*
They linked hands.
“What do I do?” Madeline asked, her lower lip rolled into her mouth, her teeth gnawing on it.
Jasper squeezed her hand.
“Close your eyes, and Merrick and I will guide the jump. We need you to—”
“Kick-start the whole tamale,” Jacky said.
“Are we really taking him?” Jeb asked.
“Yup!” Jacky said, rocking back on his heels, swinging longish sweaty hair out of his eyes.
Jeb made a noise in his throat.
He wasn't sure what would be worse: Rachett's fury at the fucked mission or the Threes he was returning with.
It was a toss-up, but Jeb was betting the extras would get them roundly punished.
They stood, hands joined.
Jeb could hear the breathing of the younglings, and Jasper's was predictably smooth and measured.
They were taking a risk by using a Reflective with no experience, no locator, and no reflection to get them back home.
Jeb heard Jacky shift his weight impatiently, and that's when Jeb felt the first stirrings of heat.
Power.
It climbed his legs and made him gasp when it exploded inside his throat, warming his body like a deep-burning fire. His eyes sprang open.
Jasper's hair lifted from her body with what appeared to be electrical charge.
Madeline's eyes blazed like captured blue stars.
She threw back her head and gasped.
Jeb clenched Jasper's hand.
“Focus,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I am,” Jasper answered, just as fiercely.
When the sliding hold on the world let go, they were plunged in the familiar pathway.
Jeb tucked Jasper against him and fought to retain his hold.
His anxiety was a knot in his stomach. If they were lucky enough to land on Papilio, he would have to face whatever discipline came his way—and do his best to shield Jasper.
*
Jeb was tossed out like a tumbleweed onto the unforgiving street of his home quadrant of Barringer.
The air in his lungs punched out of him as Jasper was flung on the softer moss that lined the sidewalks.
Jeb assessed his environment.
The air was colder, and he knew immediately that they had lost a good deal of time.
He lurched to a sitting position, his lungs filling again. He sucked in the pure air of Papilio and relished it for the two seconds before Jasper and one of the younglings joined him.
“This rocks!” Jacky said, looking around in awe-struck wonder.
Swell. Jeb was already second-guessing his decision making abilities.
Dawn broke across a thin blue sky, clouds like stretched and bleeding taffy danced across the horizon, and the mountains’ white caps were changing to red.
Madeline walked toward them. Jasper's jaw dropped, and Merrick was stunned. He had heard of such a thing but never seen it.
While Madeline wandered around, looking at everything new, she was unaware of the change that had come over her.
She swiveled her face to Jeb and Jasper. Her expression of wonder faded, turning somber.
“What is it? What's wrong?”
The waif that had been a Dimensional in Sector Three had blossomed into the full bloom of womanhood, no longer thin but robustly healthy, every curve in the right place.
Lush hair had replaced the unhealthy wisps, and her eyes were no longer blue-ish but an arresting deep purple, a navy ring bordering the iris.
“Damn—damn, damn,” Jacky said, circling her.
Madeline self-consciously smoothed her riot of hair. “Tell me this second what the problem is. Am I okay?”
Jeb thought she was more than okay.
Jasper gave him a sharp elbow to the side and he grunted.
“You're staring, asshole,” Jasper said.
His brows rose at the name.
“It's worth a stare. You can't deny it.”
Jasper just shook her head. He was right.
Madeline DeVere was incredible looking.
Jeb tensed, sensing an approach. All his abilities were heightened on his home planet. He moved in front of Madeline, and when Jacky tried to get cocky, he pulled the youngling in beside him.
Lance Ryan appeared, along with Jude Calvin and Dave Kennet.
What the fuck was Ryan doing off Sector One already?
Jeb didn't know but was forcibly reminded of his duty to The Cause when it was all he could do not to jerk Jasper behind him, as well.
He would have to let Jasper go.
Jeb couldn't Reflect properly when his mi
nd was constantly on her protection.
“Well, hello, Beth,” Ryan said, his entire body tensed.
“Dial it down, Ryan,” Calvin said.
Jeb didn't like the look Ryan gave Calvin, but he said nothing.
He trusted Calvin with his life.
Ryan's face went from Jasper with nothing but disgust then moved to the youngling.
It settled on Madeline and remained there.
Ryan's eyes moved in slow perusal over her body, and when he finally got to Madeline eyes—hers were cast to the ground.
The heat of her embarrassment was clear to any fool with half a wit.
And Jeb knew Ryan was no fool, but a deliberate fuck.
Why Rachett hadn’t trashed him was anyone's guess. But after a thousand years, his commander was very aware of natural selection.
Jeb just didn't happen to agree.
“We felt the break in the continuum. Rachett sent us, Jeb.” Calvin didn't ask, but his eyes begged the question.
“Picked up some stray… Threes.” Ryan made an impressive stab in the dark.
“Yes.” Terse, one-word-only answers for that prick.
“Rachett's going to get a hard-on for this that'll never let go,” Ryan said.
Jeb scowled.
Madeline was looking at them all and asked, “Are we—are they going to hurt us?”
Ryan slung his stabilizer over his shoulder. A state-of-the-art mini-pulse machine gun, it had auto accuracy when the target was thought into the thumb pad.
He went straight to Madeline, and she back peddled, moving closer to Jeb.
“Don't be a shit, Ryan,” Jasper said.
“Get off my D, mongrel.” Ryan's eyes glittered down at Jasper while Madeline watched with frightened eyes.
Jeb bet Madeline wished she'd stayed in her own sector.
From where she sat, Papilio was more dangerous than the place she’d just left.
True.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Beth
“And you're going to make me?” he scoffed.
“I think we've been through this.”
Beth gave him the look the comment deserved.
His eyes narrowed on her.
“I thought—I thought you guys were all fine with each other?” Madeline asked uncertainly.
“How can you understand them?” Jacky asked.
“Understand what?” Madeline asked.
“Catch a clue. They're speaking that Latin crap.”
Jasper and Jeb looked at Madeline.
Ryan leered at Madeline.
“Don't,” Beth warned.
“I'm not going to hurt the female.”
“Right, that's why you've been cooling your heals in One.”
“I served my time, you bitch mongrel, so shut your fucking mouth.”
Merrick was on him, swinging the butt of his own stabilizer into his face, spraying blood.
Ryan staggered back, clenched his fist, and came after Merrick.
“If you were smart, you'd stand down,” Merrick said casually.
“He's not, Merrick,” Kennet said offhandedly.
Ryan hesitated, his hand covering his split lip. “You giving Jasper the beef injection?” he sneered.
“What a jerk,” Jacky muttered.
They ignored him.
“No,” Merrick paused, making sure he spoke in Latin in front of the youngling. “Who I fuck is none of your business, but it wouldn't be my partner. It goes against The Cause…”
“Yeah, yeah, Merrick… you're such a do-gooder. We all know the tenth.” He swiped blood off his mouth and spread it on his uniform.
Tenth: reconcile emotion for The Cause, not another.
Ryan looked at Madeline.
“I'll escort the female.”
Madeline shook her head, leaning against Jacky.
“He is the King of Putz. Yʼknow—I don't even have to understand Latin to know this guy's a dick.”
Ryan's eyes narrowed on Jacky. “You brought a Sensitive.”
“It's a long story, Ryan.”
“Rachett got four signatures. He knows you brought some Threes back.” He reached out, grabbing a piece of Madeline's hair, and she cringed against Jacky.
“Back off, numb nuts,” Jacky said.
Ryan dwarfed him by a foot in height and a hundred pounds of lean muscle.
“You've got brass balls, youngling,” Ryan said.
“Switch to English, ya toad.”
Ryan glared. “I understand every word you utter, cretin.”
Beth saw Merrick smile and chuckled.
It was perfect beyond measure—comeuppance by the plateful. Beth was contemplating leftovers.
“Stop touching Madeline. If you have to ʽtake her to your leader,ʼ take away, but stop being a jackass about it.”
Ryan dropped the piece of hair and gave Madeline a speculative look, which Beth didn’t like.
Ryan had tried to kill her so naturally, she didn't like him.
They moved through the upscale neighborhood of Barringer. She was not the perfect specimen in Papilio and definitely not the perfect Reflective. The elite who lived in Barringer had never welcomed her. She escaped being heckled only because she was Reflective. It was the unspoken backwardness of Papilio. They thought themselves so enlightened compared to other sectors. In reality, her world still had improvements to be made.
Ryan took Madeline's arm, and Beth knew she was terrified of him. She need not be. It was only Beth he hated.
Beth had met Ryan's parents at the Reflective ordination. They'd been aloof to the point of being indifferent toward him. His father was especially cold.
She imagined his home life had not been ideal, not that it gave him license to kill another Reflective.
“Stop pulling away—I will not hurt you,” Ryan said in Latin, and Beth remembered something from before.
“You don't require English?” Beth asked Madeline.
The group slowed for the questioning.
“I heard you as though you were speaking English. If Jacky hadn't said anything, I would've thought you guys were all just still speaking English.” Then she laughed, pointing at Merrick. “Except—he always sounds…”
“Stiff?” Beth offered, and Merrick scowled.
Madeline laughed, and Ryan watched her.
“What is she?” Ryan asked as he gently dragged her behind him.
“They call them Dimensionals on Three,” Merrick told him reluctantly.
“Well, isn't that interesting. Because somehow, you two fuckups got home without a locator, toting two Threes, one who's a Sensitive and another who's…”
“A Dimensional,” Madeline admitted quietly.
Ryan turned her to face him.
“Cut the shit, Ryan—just turn them in to Rachett. He'll square it right up,” Calvin said.
“Yeah, but we've got time,” Ryan said.
“We don't need to hash this out here,” Kennet added, scanning the perfection of the Barringer Quadrant.
“It's okay,” Madeline said, her voice breathy.
Everyone stopped in their tracks when she burst into tears.
The men stepped back and looked to Beth, who had not shed many tears in her life.
“What?” Beth asked. “You think because I'm female I have some inside track?”
“That's usually how that chick crap works,” Jacky said.
Beth rolled her eyes.
“You wanted to take her, so you take care of it, Ryan.”
Ryan stepped forward. “What… what ails you?”
Beth grinned. This is rich. The great Ryan was about to be brought down by a female's tears.
“I'm scared. I'm scared of you,” she said, glaring up at him through the hair that had fallen forward. “I'm scared of going back, only to be hurt again.”
Ryan pushed the hair back from her face, and Merrick gave Beth a hard glance. She lifted a shoulder. She didn't know where her would-be murderer had carved tenderness from.
“Who has hurt you?” Ryan asked, bending down from his considerable height to peer into her face.
“She's got a shit stepdad who beats the hell out of her when he piles on the booze.”
Ryan jerked back from her, giving Merrick a quirked brow.
Merrick spread his palms. “We came upon her abuse by a Three male… and Jasper taught him an apt lesson in manners.”
Ryan's hands clenched into fist. “What did you do?”
His voice was low. His concern for a female he didn't know was so much more than his transgression against her.
The irony didn't escape Beth.
“I subdued him.”
“Then she kicked him in his testies,” Jacky said in a pleased tone.
The males winced.
Ryan didn't.
“Good,” he said slowly and tucked Madeline up against him. No longer did his hand latch onto her arm, but went around her slender shoulders instead.
“He won't hurt you ever again.”
“What about the rest of you?” she asked, a tremulous shiver making her body tremble.
Ryan shook his head. “No—no male will hurt you here.”
“Why? What's to stop them?” she asked. Beth understood and it was a fair question from a Three.
“Because I'll kill him.”
“Oh,” Madeline said.
After a moment, she wiped her face with the back of her hand and allowed Ryan to escort her to The Cause.
*
Beth strode up the familiar steps that rose out of the pavilion and intersected The Cause headquarters.
The traditional shape of a butterfly appeared between the words The and Cause. Centered beautifully, it had been etched and re-etched several times over the last millennium.
The Threes stopped, mouths agape. Beth followed their gazes and guessed that the building was a sight to behold for the first time.
The architecture was very much like the ancient buildings of Three's Greater Quadrant of Rome. Pillars flanked its entryway, and marble columns in a burnished apricot supported a triangular pediment that heralded the entrance.
Jacky and Madeline walked forward. She ran her fingertips over the life-sized sculpture of a swarm of butterflies in flight as they just begin to unfurl their wings.
As though summoned, a shadow dropped over the group, and they came in a single drove.
Between Death (#6.5): Dark Dystopian Paranormal Romance Page 27