I put my arm around Bella and pulled her close. “You don’t have to be afraid. Our home is safe. Besides, you have me. I’m Fearless, remember?”
I held up my arm and pulled back my sleeve to show her the delicate mark at my wrist, the beautiful script that formed my destiny—Fearless. The F looked a little faded, and I quickly smoothed my sleeve down to cover it.
Bella held up her own wrist, tracing the tightly closed rosebud that marked her flesh. “I want to be Fearless too.”
A spike of anxiety pierced my heart. “No babe, you really don’t.” But I didn’t have a say in the matter. Her bud would bloom with her first bleed, and her destiny would be revealed. With the boys it was different, varying to when their bodies truly hit puberty.
“Sam at school says Fearless run in families.”
My stomach clenched. “Yeah, only sometimes though. Wouldn’t it be cool to get Fortune though? I mean you could forge your own destiny.”
Bella shrugged. “I guess. But then I won’t get an everlight blade.” She pouted, then giggled as I tickled her.
We fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Please let her be claimed by fortune or even fate. At least she would have a destiny. I fingered the mark on my arm.
Bella sighed. “I want to be just like you.”
My chest tightened. I was an anomaly, a liar, and I didn’t want her to be anything like me.
“I pray to god every night to make me just like you.”
God? I bit the inside of my cheeks. I refused to pollute her with my derision for a god who had let so many down. But I’d stopped believing a long time ago. How could I believe, in the face of all the atrocities and needless deaths I’d witnessed? No. We were either on our own, or god just didn’t care. It was a shame that the majority of the citizens of Lindrealm didn’t agree. New houses of worship had sprung up in the boroughs outside of Everlight. Houses of the One Creator—one god for all.
I blew out a breath. “I just want you to be happy.”
Bella propped herself up on her elbow to stare down at me with those piercing eyes of hers. “And you’re not happy?”
I blinked up at her. So young and yet so insightful. “I’m happy, sweets. I got you and mum. Things are hunky dory.” I pulled her down for a final squeeze. “I got to head back to base for a bit, but I’ll be home for supper.” Releasing her, I rolled off the bed and moved to the door.
“Kenna? How did the monster get into the school?”
Good question. I paused at the door. “I’m not sure. But I promise I’ll find out.”
Leaving her to her homework, I headed to my room. Frieda needed a luma top up and my sanctioned stash was on my bedside table.
I worked quickly, unscrewing the lid to the vial and tipping a little of the luminescent contents onto Frieda’s hilt. The words came next, tripping easily off my tongue; et perducant te in lucem. The sigil etched into her hilt flared blue for a second. I flicked my wrist to summon the blade. It blazed brightly, forcing me to squint.
“That’s my girl.”
Deactivating her with another flick of the wrist, I headed back downstairs.
I was slipping on my coat when mum came out of the kitchen carrying a Tupperware box. Her silver-blonde hair was pulled up in a messy bun and her face was free of makeup, which only made her look even more beautiful. She gave me the squinty-eyed looked and held out the box. “Your lunch.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I was good and that I’d eaten, but she shoved the Tupperware toward me, and a whiff of yummy bread killed my protests.
I took the box. “Why’d you tell Bella about the school?” Mum shrugged. “It’s the world we live in, and forewarned is forearmed.”
I rolled my eyes. She was always doing this, answering my questions with quotes or proverbs or whatever. But she did have a point. Bella would be wary now. And a wary child was a safe child.
“Love you,” I said.
“Love you too.” Mum went back into the kitchen and I headed out the door.
Funny how whenever it rained, traffic just seemed to pile up. And even on my ride, which could weave through the stationary traffic, I knew I was going be late.
My stomach gave a nervous twist.
Blane was so gonna kick my ass.
CHAPTER2
C entral base was on the outskirts of the city, and I always found the contradiction amusing. We were the main port of call dealing with dispatch to the other bases, and responsible for over a third of the boroughs in Lindrealm. The building was a grey and white stone mammoth, surrounded by an acre of lush green land, electric fences, and search lights. It had once been a prison, but after the scientists messed up, nothing was what it was meant to be any longer.
The gates buzzed open on my approach so I didn’t have to slow my ride, and the wards flashed green as I drove through. I was a familiar figure to the guards, and a favoured one. I kept them sweet with mum’s freshly baked cookies. I raised a hand at the guard station as I passed but didn’t slow down. The meeting had started ten minutes ago, and I was in for an ear bashing.
I swerved around the building and into the tunnel leading to the underground garage. Parking my ride next to Brett’s and pocketing my keys, I hurried to the lift.
Exiting on the second floor I strode past empty cubicles to the huge glass office at the back of the room. The meeting looked to be in full swing. Maybe I could slip in and—
Blane’s eyes locked on mine through the glass. He stopped speaking and folded his arms across his broad chest. Every head in the office turned to look at me.
Fuck!
I skulked in, shrugged out of my jacket, and slipped into the seat next to Brett.
“You’re late,” Brett whispered.
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
“Thank you so much for joining us Miss Carter,” Blane said acerbically. “So sorry if this meeting was an inconvenience to your already busy schedule.”
I bit back the smart retort that jumped to mind and offered him a tight-lipped smile. He stared at me for a beat longer, his warm brown eyes hard and unyielding.
Okay, enough with the reprimanding. Just get on with it.
As if reading my thoughts, he released me from scrutiny and turned back to the group as a whole.
“So, dispatch will be screening calls based on taxes paid.”
Exclamations of disgust and dismay rippled across the room.
I elbowed Brett. “What the heck is going on?”
Brett didn’t take his eyes off Blane. “The government has decided that boroughs behind on their taxes won’t be getting Fearless assistance.”
“What?” I looked to Blane “Seriously? You’re gonna let them do this?”
The room went silent, and Blane once again fixed his reproving gaze on me. “We are a government run agency. We don’t have a choice.”
Arguing back was a no-no, and I would so pay for this later, but sometimes shit just needed to be said. “We’re Fearless, chosen by a higher power to help those in need. The fucking government doesn’t own us. No one owns us!”
Blane’s jaw tensed, the tell-tale tick letting me know he was about to lose it. His tone dropped to a lethally soft level. “And where would you be without the resources to be a saviour? Without the everlight to feed your sword? Without your ride, or protective gear? The government owns everything.”
Not Evernight, I wanted to say. Not Twilight, and most certainly not the fifth dimension that lay beyond. But I swallowed the words and leaned back in my seat, folding my arms across my chest to illustrate my disapproval of the whole thing. Blane cocked his head, silently asking me, are we done now?
I grudgingly inclined mine.
“Final item on the agenda. Everlight prices have just gone up.”
Seriously? What the heck? Higher prices for everlight meant higher taxes, which meant more boroughs unable to pay and being left up shit creek when they needed Fearless aid.
I stood up and walked out the room.
/> I was done listening to this bullshit.
***
At one time in my life I’d thought being a Fearless Officer meant something. That I’d be able to help those in need and make a difference. I’d had the luxury of choice, and I’d chosen this life only to discover how wrong I’d been. Chosen by destiny, Fearless were simply puppets for the government to use. Now they were lording their power over those unable to fight back. It made me sick to think we would be turning a blind-eye to cases where we could help, because of a few coins.
I sat at my cubicle, heat churning in my chest, and stared at the pen with a colourful fake feather that Bella had given me for my twentieth birthday. My tight-lipped reflection glared back at me from my blank laptop screen, and an ice-cold cup of coffee, complete with manky skin, dared me to take a sip.
I was in for a tongue-lashing from Blane, but I didn’t give a damn.
The meeting broke up, and officers began filtering out of the room. Brett ambled over, his expression grave, and then my phone buzzed.
The yellow light blinked at me tauntingly.
Blane.
“You best get that,” Brett said, “get it over with.”
He was right, as usual. I reached for the handset just as the doors behind us burst open and Unit Beta came spilling onto the floor, covered in blood and wreathed in screams.
CHAPTER3
G emma’s moans of pain were covered by Kev’s cries for help. Julie and Victor made up the rear, bloody and grimy. Ben, one of our medics, came rushing out with his kit to help Kev haul Gemma into the medical room.
The rest of us just stood around in shock.
Julie fell into the nearest chair, covered her face with her hands, and began to sob; raw sobs that tore at my heart.
“What the fuck happened?” Grabbing a box of tissues from a nearby desk, I shoved them at her. Victor fiddled with the hilt to his everlight blade. His hands trembled and he clasped them together to hide it.
Brett placed a hand on the shaken man’s shoulder. “Victor? Shit. Come on.”
Victor took a shuddering breath. “It was horrific. Crawlers. A fuckload of ‘em. We called for back-up twice. It was horrible, but we were making head way until . . .” he shook his head. “Dispatch called us in, they told us to abort.”
Kev, the unit leader, joined us. Almost as big as Brett, he was the resident mini tank, and to see him so cut up was unheard of. “We refused to abort; we couldn’t just leave innocent civilians to die. They said if we disobeyed a direct order we’d be stripped of status.”
Julie’s sobs cut off. “They forced us to leave them. There were children. Babies! Oh god!” she hiccupped. “We have to do something. We have to send some units back there.”
Kev, jaw set, strode toward Blane’s office, but Blane was already walking toward us.
“Sir, we have a situation where—”
Blane held up his hand. “I’ve been informed. Get cleaned up and take the rest of the day off.”
Kev’s brows snapped down. “But sir, West Borough needs—”
“A clean up, and we’ve authorised one.”
Julie slapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears. A clean up meant only one thing—there were no survivors; only bodies to be disposed of. The crawlers had taken what they wanted and slipped back home to Evernight.
“We should have stayed, we could have helped,” Victor said.
Blane’s jaw ticked. “You followed orders. That is what you do. Now go, get out of here.”
For a moment I thought that Kev would argue, but then he clamped his mouth shut, turned on his heel, and stormed out the door.
Blane turned his attention to me. “My office. Now.”
He didn’t wait to see if I’d follow. He knew I would.
***
“What the fuck was that all about?” Blane asked. “I thought I made myself clear. You do not question my authority in front of the other officers. Not ever.”
I placed my hands on my hips. “Your authority sucks and you know it! I know you don’t buy into all the ‘government owns everything’ crap. You know they’re just as powerless as the rest of us. This is their way of exerting some measure of control. Instead of looking out there for answers, they’re turning our world into one big fucked-up prison! They let those people die today! They killed those people!”
“And you think I like it? You think I want to be the bad guy? My hands are tied!”
We faced off, chests heaving, eyes blazing. Blane was the first to back down. He fell back into his leather swivel chair. Man I loved that chair and the things we’d done in it, but I was too pissed to get warm and fuzzy thinking about it now.
“It’s the way it has to be, Kenna. The only way it can be until something changes.”
“But why raise taxes? Why stop us helping those in need? I mean, how does letting people die benefit anyone?” I slumped in the seat opposite him.
A darkness crept across Blane’s face, a secret he was keeping from me. Not for long though.
I softened my tone. “Come on babe, I just need to understand. Why?”
Blane sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. “Twilight’s crops of luma are failing. If they can’t salvage enough, then we’ll do more than raising taxes . . . We’ll be abandoning boroughs all together.”
My heart sank. It made sense now. I didn’t like it but I understood it.
“Have they contacted Erebus?”
Blane shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess so. But you know how that goes. That ungodly creature is a law unto himself. His aid comes at a price, and I have a feeling that unless we see some drastic results the government may chose not to continue to pay.”
I shuddered at the thought. I’d never seen Erebus in the flesh, but I’d seen depictions of him in texts, some of them pretty lewd and overly generous when it came to proportions of certain parts of his anatomy. Erebus was a dark djinn, and our only connection to the world beyond Evernight. No one knew for certain why he’d chosen to assist us, but we paid heavily for it—thirteen humans, once a year, chosen by lottery. That was another benefit to being Fearless—I was exempt.
“No, they won’t do that. The shit that gets in is bad enough. I don’t know if we have the capacity to deal with all the crap Erebus and his clan keep at bay.”
“If they keep it at bay.” Blane leaned forward across his desk.
“What do you mean?”
Blane licked his luscious lips. “How do we know there is anything worse out there? How do we know for sure that the tithe we pay every year isn’t for nothing more than his satisfaction? Fuck, it kills me to wonder what he does with those souls we hand over.” He sat back, lip curling.
“The government wouldn’t have set up the system unless they thought it would benefit us.”
“A minute ago you thought the government were arseholes.”
“Still do, but . . . come on, they must have verified the existence of the larger, more dangerous otherworld denizens before signing the treaty.”
“They sent a man, yes. He confirmed. But who’s to say he was telling the truth? Our world was in dire straits then so we did what we had to.”
His cynicism was reassuring. For a moment, at the meeting earlier, I’d seriously begun to doubt falling for him.
I stood up and moved toward the window overlooking the office. Blane’s secretary, Vanessa, glared at me through the slats of the blinds. Smiling widely at her, I flipped them closed before walked over to the door and turning the key to lock us in.
“What are you doing?” His voice was strained.
I began to unbuckle my belt. “Saying sorry for being such a difficult bitch earlier.”
Blane glanced at the door; I could see his mind ticking. What were people thinking? Did they suspect? Course they did, but no one would say a thing. I kicked off my pants, and Blane stopped glancing at the door.
I swivelled his chair away from the desk and straddled him
.
Blane stopped thinking.
***
Belt done up, hair smoothed back, I was almost ready to face the world outside our steamy little haven. My cheeks were warm, probably flushed, but there was nothing to be done about that. To be honest, I kinda liked it. So what if people knew what I’d been up to? It felt deliciously sinful. We’d been doing this for almost two years now. That swivel chair had seen some serious action, and one time we’d actually broken his bed with our antics. He hadn’t been in charge when I’d joined central base—the promotion had come two months later—but he’d been one of the more seasoned Fearless. One look and I’d known I had to have him. Hadn’t taken me long either. Sometimes I wondered if our relationship was purely physical, but then he would look into my eyes, like soul searchingly deep, and I’d forget what the heck I was worrying about.
“We really need to go on a date sometime soon,” Blane said. He locked gazes with me. And there it was. The look.
Damn, I loved the way he drank me in. His attention never lingered on my birth mark. Almost as if he didn’t see it, and to be honest, since I’d been with him I noticed it less and less myself.
I flashed Blane a grin. “Yeah? Well maybe you can speak to my boss? He’s a real slave driver.”
Blane chuckled. “Life of a Fearless, eh?”
True. Our social lives were minimal; shifts often ran back to back, and a recent high mortality rate had left us shorthanded. It wasn’t like we could just recruit. Fearless were born, and until they matured there was nothing we could do but cope.
I leaned over him, and he lifted his face for a kiss. His lips were soft and undemanding now that he was sated, and I lingered a moment, inhaling his scent. He always smelled so clean, fresh, and sharp.
Running a hand down his cheek I straightened. “See you tomorrow for briefing.”
Beyond Everlight: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Fearless Destiny Book 1) Page 2