by Sophie Davis
Impressed was a vast understatement.
Even more impressive was the fact that it worked.
Andrew’s Rock. Wherever the hell that was. That’s where the Poachers had Kenly. Also, the location of the auction.
I SHOT UP straight in the bed, knocking Erik’s head off of my lap abruptly. He groaned and rolled onto his back.
“Andrew’s Rock,” I said excitedly.
“I know,” Erik said, rubbing his temples as he struggled to sit up.
“I have to go tell Victoria. Hopefully she’ll know where that is.”
My feet already sinking into the plush rug covering the floor beside the bed, I turned back to look at Erik. He was still moaning and groaning. Had I hurt him?
“Erik? Are you okay?” I asked, worried now.
“Fine, Tals. I think…I think that being yanked out of the vision like that gave me headache. It feels like a huge Band-Aid was just ripped from my brain,” Erik said, blinking against the dim light in the room, which seemed to bother his eyes.
Scurrying back onto the mattress, I knelt beside him and began to siphon the pain from him. It was the least I could do, seeing as I was the one who’d ripped that bandage away. My excitement over finding Kenly’s location had been so great that I’d yanked Erik along with me when I pulled abruptly out of her mind.
Only, after several seconds of intense concentration, I felt nothing. None of the pain Erik was experiencing transferred to me. Nor did it seem to be leaving Erik. I swore and tried again, stubbornly convinced that my powers were stronger and more effective than any painkiller on the market.
“Tals, I’m fine,” Erik said, reaching out to pat my leg. “The headache is already fading. Don’t waste your juice on me.”
We both knew I wasn’t “wasting” anything. Taking away pain was usually very easy for me to do and required little energy. Erik knew I was trying to help him and failing miserably at the task, and just didn’t want me to feel bad.
“Go,” he urged. “Call Victoria. I’m fine, really.”
Erik sat up straighter and offered me one of his smiles that I loved so much. And he really did seem okay. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips and squeezed my inner thigh, just to show me how “fine” he truly was. I rolled my eyes and kissed him a second time, lingering longer than necessary for a simple farewell. With a reluctant sigh, before his hand could climb any higher, I backed off of the bed and went to retrieve my communicator from where I’d set it by the door.
Victoria answered on the first ring, her miniature holographic image popping off of the display to greet me.
“Does Andrew’s Rock mean anything to you?” I asked, dispensing with formality in favor of brevity.
“Yes, actually, it does,” Victoria replied, golden eyes widening slightly.
If the visible reaction to my words hadn’t been enough, the fact that Victoria neither chastised me for failing to greet her properly nor called me “Agent Lyons” was enough to know that she was shocked.
“Okay…,” I prompted when the councilwoman didn’t elaborate. “And?”
“Pardon me,” Victoria replied, shaking her head as if to clear a haze. “It’s just that…never mind. You’re saying this is the location we’re looking for?”
“It is,” I said without hesitation.
“Very well,” Victoria responded, regaining her composed façade. “Andrew’s Rock is not far from your current location, a fifteen minute hover-flight, if that. That will also make getting the strike teams into position much easier on such notice. I will go ahead and finish making the arrangements for tomorrow. Your cover identities will be forwarded to all of your communicators shortly. Along with all the intel our Cryptos have compiled thus far. Please be sure to frequently check back for updates, though. They should be coming in through the night. Oh, and please inform me when the other members of the taskforce arrive.”
“Understood,” I replied. “Anything else?”
Glancing over my shoulder to where Erik lay on the bed, I raised my eyebrows, silently asking him if he had anything to add. He shook his head no.
“Tell Erik I said good job,” Victoria said, her tiny holographic smile genuine.
This drew a scoff from me, and I glared down at her image.
“Why would you just assume that it was Erik? He—”
Too late. Victoria had disconnected the call.
Erik chuckled. I scowled.
“Would it kill her to give me credit for something, besides screwing up?” I grumbled, tossing the communicator onto the chaise lounge. “And stop laughing, it’s not funny.”
“Aww, come here.” Erik gestured me over, holding one outstretched hand in my direction. Pretending it was with great reluctance, I sat next to Erik on the mattress and let him fold me into his arms. “She only gives you a hard time because you give her a hard time. I think deep down, she likes you. Maybe even admires you.”
With his cheek resting on top of my head, Erik’s words were muffled by my hair.
“Hardly,” I pouted. “It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t worship the ground you walk on. That’s just annoying.”
Erik stiffened and his mood shifted from playful to serious. At first, I thought maybe he’d been pulled back to Kenly. Or maybe Willa. Both scenarios were equally sobering. But when I tested his mental barriers and found them still down, I also found that his sharp turn had nothing to do with Kenly or Willa. It was about my offhanded comment about Victoria’s crush on him.
“Hey, I’m just kidding,” I said, twisting to look into Erik’s eyes. “I mean, she really does like you a lot. But it doesn’t bother me. Everyone considers you my better half, I’m used to bias.”
Erik laughed softly, but the worried glint in his turquoise eyes never left.
“It’s not that, Tals. Not exactly. It’s just…forget it, it’s nothing. It’s not important right now. Right now we need to rest, eat, and love each other like tonight is our last together. Not necessarily in that order.”
My glared lacked any real heat. I wanted to tell Erik not to change the subject. I wanted to force him to talk to me, to tell me what was wrong. But just as badly as I wanted to know, Erik didn’t want me to. In a rare exercise of restraint, I dropped the subject.
We did all of the things Erik suggested, though not in the order he suggested them. We were blissfully undisturbed until Frederick knocked, to let us know the other members of the taskforce had arrived.
“We have company, guys,” Frederick called through the closed bedroom door.
“Stay real still, maybe he’ll go away,” Erik mumbled, warm breath caressing my neck.
“I’m not leaving until I have both of you in tow. We have important intel to memorize,” Frederick barked. “And dinner to eat.”
It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I slipped into the role of the responsible half of our pair.
“It’s time to earn our keep,” I teased, ignoring Erik’s advice and giving him a playful shake.
“I’m not going away,” Frederick proclaimed, punctuating each word with a bang on the door.
“I hope he remembers this the next time he and Henri are trying to squeeze in some quality time,” Erik muttered, planting a quick kiss on my forehead before dragging himself from our bed. To Frederick, he said, “Dude, we’re coming.”
Five minutes later, dressed casually in jeans and tee-shirts, Erik and I joined Frederick in the hallway. On the walk downstairs, Frederick filled us in on the new arrivals.
Victoria’s chosen agents weren’t my favorites, but also not the worst of the lot. And at least I knew them, since all five were stationed on Eden with the rest of us.
Catherine Canary, a thirty-something Telekinetic who’d been with UNITED since before her eighteenth birthday, was a natural leader and someone I respected a great deal. She’d been on a number of missions with my friends and me, and was an all-around solid agent.
The same could not be said for Gina Flores. Between her perpetually neg
ative attitude and generally unfriendly nature, she was not at the top of my list of new friends. But, she was Janelle’s roommate on Eden, and the two got along okay. If Janelle thought Gina wasn’t so bad, I supposed maybe the other woman would warm up once I spent more time with her.
Of the other three agents—Thom Phan, Ronnie Bagrov, and Jay Matthews—I knew little beyond names and Talents. Thom and Jay were Morphers, Ronnie a highly-skilled Light Manipulator.
The dining room was crowded by the time the three of us arrived. Henri and Penny had saved three seats between them for Frederick, Erik, and me. We all said a quick, cordial greeting before getting down to business.
Our respective false identities had arrived ahead of schedule, as well as information about Andrew’s Rock. Skipping over the boring stuff, like how the area got its name and why that mattered, I studied the blueprint images of the compound instead. The place was huge. Like a small city. And that was just what we had on record. UNITED was trying to get some more specs with infrared imaging since the blueprints were a half century old.
My identity was that of a twenty-two year-old woman named Reya Rivers It sounded like a weather lady’s name, but she was apparently an entirely fictitious aspiring actress. Reya was the alleged girlfriend of some young, extremely wealthy software tycoon from the States named Gregory Bolt. Unlike Reya, Gregory Bolt was very real and very reclusive. He’d been invited to several of these auctions in the last five years, ever since cementing his place in the power-players-of-the-world club by netting a cool ten million in his first year as President and CEO of Bolt Software.
Despite the numerous invites, Gregory Bolt had never attended a single auction. His relationship status was actually unknown, but Bolt was purported to have a thing for tiny brunettes—a fact our Cryptos had learned by trolling the gossip sites. Images of a tall, thin man with light hair, his face obscured by everything from umbrellas to bizarre masks, always accompanied by a woman who looked vaguely like me, were provided along with the dossier of my fake life.
I just assumed that Erik would be impersonating Gregory Bolt, but when I flipped to the last electronic page, I found Frederick’s picture instead.
Weird.
“Who are you playing?” I sent to Erik, even though he was sitting right next to me. Our mental line of communication was still open and I wanted to take full advantage.
“Victoria assigned me to one of the strike teams. So I guess I’m playing myself,” he sent back, offering me his communicator so that I could read the message Victoria sent him.
The council felt it best that Erik stay in the shadows. If this farce went off without a hitch, then nobody would recognize his face when UNITED paraded him before the world as their poster boy for well-behaved Created.
As strategies went, it was a good one. However, the odds that this mission wasn’t going to end in disaster were slim. The Poachers were careful enough to code their invitations, and only give them to certain people. All it would take was for one of the real invitees whose identities UNITED was borrowing to show up at the auction and we’d be blown. Not to mention the concern that all of us had but no one was willing to say out loud: our reactions to seeing Talented, our kind, being sold into slavery. More accurately, my reaction, as head of the mission.
Just the thought of such an unspeakable act made my blood boil. I was doing a decent job of holding my temper in check now, while removed from the situation. But once I saw with my own eyes people I likely knew—one I definitely knew—up for auction…loss of control was almost certain.
I wondered if that was part of the reason Victoria wanted Erik to remain outside. In general, he was much better at controlling his emotions and reining in his temper than I was. But even she had to notice that it was taking him a great deal of effort lately. In an environment like the upcoming auction, Erik might not be able to keep the cap on the rage he had bottled up inside. And once he let the beast out, it would be impossible to put him back in his cage.
“I feel like I should buy you an expensive necklace or something,” Frederick said from his chair on the other side of Erik. “Don’t mistresses get expensive jewelry?”
“Where are we getting costumes from?” Penny asked around a mouthful of pasta from my right.
The food was fantastic, the sauce had real meat and held none of the fishy aftertaste that the stuff on the islands did. Still, most of us were just picking at our meal. Penny and Brand were the only two actually eating.
I smiled at my best friend as she speared a sausage meatball. Seeing her eat, and enjoy her food, made me happy. It was a small thing, but it gave me hope. Maybe, just maybe, Penny was starting to put the past behind her. To put the torture she’d endured at Mac’s hands behind her.
“The costumes, as you say, are already here,” Chaz or Viktor said, appearing out of nowhere like a ghost.
The two UNITED agents looked nothing alike, but for some reason, I just couldn’t keep them straight in my head. The one who’d crept up behind us was the one who hadn’t spoken at all earlier. They were both freaky.
“There are tuxedos and gowns in storage for your use. I believe Councilwoman Walburton also has jewelry you all may wear,” the UNITED guy replied. He grabbed a dinner plate from the side serving table and began loading noodles and meat sauce onto the china until I wondered if his arm was getting tired from the effort of holding the weighty plate.
“Thanks, Viktor,” Brand said.
I made a mental note that the shorter of the two men, the one with a shaved head and startlingly clear blue eyes, was Viktor.
My communicator beeped, signaling an incoming message—an update from UNITED with the infrared images of Andrew’s Rock.
“Are you seeing this, Tals?” Erik sent.
“I sure am,” I replied.
The new images revealed something that was not part of the original blueprints: an amphitheater. It was huge, stretching five or six stories high. Since the footage was infrared, the detail was lacking. I could make out shapes and was able to understand the general layout, but the finer points were too obscure.
“What about us, mate?” Riley asked, drawing everyone’s attention to the trio of non-UNITED agents.
They were huddled together at one end of the table, Willa folded into herself both literally and figuratively. I didn’t need to read her mind to know she was still channeling Kenly’s emotions. As badly as I wanted a peek, I also knew nothing good would come of looking. There was nothing more to do for Kenly tonight, and feeling her pain would only mean both of us spent the night suffering. Though there was certainly a part of me that felt like it would almost be like keeping her company, Kenly needed me to be on point tomorrow more than she needed companionship. Especially since she’d have no sense of comfort from it.
“What do you mean?” Brand asked, confused.
“I want to help. I thought that’s why we were brought here.” Riley gestured to his two companions. “So who am I playing?”
In a rare show of deference, Brand looked to me for the answer. Victoria had said we could use the civilians, but hadn’t specified how.
“Um, well,” I began hesitantly. “I’ll have to speak with the council. I think your part in all of this might be over. No offense, but you aren’t trained for something like this. I’m not really sure you’ll be useful inside. Maybe you all can be part of the backup?”
Riley shook his head decisively.
“Not gonna work, love. I want to take down these prigs, more than any of you. I’m going in, there’s no question of that. And I’d like to see you try and stop me.”
Janelle snorted, nearly sending milk flying out of her nose. Henri coughed discreetly into his napkin. Brand was less subtle, openly laughing as Riley questioned my authority. Catherine, Gina, and the others simply watched the show with curious expressions, as if they were anxious to see how this played out. Unfortunately, I didn’t disappoint.
Temper sparking, I sat up straight in my chair and levelled my gaze
at Riley.
“First of all, don’t make a promise you can’t keep. Because I’m pretty damned sure that I can stop you, you have no idea who you’re dealing with here—”
My rant had started out full-steam ahead, but abruptly cut off as Riley began to morph. My composure quickly dissolved. Eyes wide and mouth gaping, I stared in fascination as Riley Wyld became…me. It was not the first time I’d seen a human morph. Not by a long shot. But most morphers took animal form, since it was easier for whatever reason. Shifting to take on the appearance of another human was rare, and took a great toll on the morpher.
Everyone was silent as we stared at Talia 2.0 sitting across the table. The only sound was the sudden laughter of Erik and Brand, who didn’t even have the decency to stifle their chuckles.
“Still think I can’t be useful, Natalia?” Riley asked smugly.
Whoa. The only thing stranger than seeing my carbon copy was hearing it speak in a heavily accented, male voice.
Before my tongue became unglued from the roof of my mouth, Riley morphed again. This time taking Erik’s image. Then Henri. Then Frederick. Riley made the rounds of the table, showing off his impressive skills. Finally, his normally spikey hair became soft golden waves and his eyes glimmered gold. I gasped and felt Erik stiffen beside me. The boy Riley now resembled—correction, the boy Riley had become—was one I’d only seen in my head. Or Erik’s head. Or, technically, Kenly’s head. Whatever. In any case, Riley was now the spitting image of the guy from the study where Kenly was taken for questioning.
“I see you recognize me,” Riley said, breaking the silence.
“Yeah. Sort of,” I said. “I mean, I recognize you, but I don’t know who you are.”
In the blink of an eye, Riley was himself again.
“Jaylen Monroe. Lord Jaylen Monroe, the Duke’s son.”
“The Duke who owns Andrew’s Rock?” Brand asked.
“Righto, mate.”
Riley grinned and shoveled a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth.
“Um, Tal…maybe we might have a use for him?” Penny mumbled.