Oh, right. Only I could see this particular weirdness. “Yeah.” To Izan, I said, “First off, why have you been ignoring me? I’ve been calling to you for weeks, and nothing. I needed you.”
“I have been delaying Baku’s inevitable return, and that has taken its toll on me.”
Huh. I couldn’t very well yell at the guy if he was really trying to protect us. “Okay, fine, but next time something nasty is coming, a little heads-up would be nice. Now, who is Baku, and what contest is he talking about?” The way Baku had talked to the absent Izan made me think the two of them had been at it for a while, so why didn’t Asher know Baku?
“He was the ruler of their world, their monarch.” Izan hung his head, his voice falling soft. The wraiths’ world existed in one of the other true realities beyond the veil. “Their demise is partially my fault, and his hatred for me knows no bounds. I have kept him out of your reality for the last century, and I’d hoped to give you more time, but he has found his way through the veil again by absorbing the souls of his own people. He is growing ever stronger, and I grow weary.”
The thought of the dragon mantis eating the misty blobs of wraithy goodness made me gag. They gave him energy? But they were his people before they’d died and become wraiths. Oh, that was just wrong. Frowning at Izan, I processed the rest of what he’d said. “Wait, how is their demise your fault?”
“I was trying to help…he was impatient. That is not important now.”
I thought it was pretty damn important, but there were other questions that demanded answers first. “So I’m guessing he’s taking out his revenge on you by destroying us all, blah, blah, what else is new? Why not start with how he got Mom when you were supposed to be hiding her, and no jerking me around?”
“I do not know how he found her, only that Baku keeps moving her around the Shift, and I cannot pinpoint where. He is skilled at using his energy to hide himself, and her. Now that he has come to this reality, he will begin consuming human souls, which are far more potent than those of the dead.”
Not on my watch, he wouldn’t. “What the hell for?”
“What’s he saying?” Asher asked, but I held my hand up to him.
That expressive face in the mirror darkened, and I swallowed hard. “He will take you if he can. You must complete your evolution and start the Mortal Machine before he grows so powerful that you cannot stop him from what he will use you for. He cannot be reasoned with, and I can no longer contain him as my energy stores are depleted from maintaining the Shift for so long.”
“What? I hardly know who I am right now without adding a few more bullet points to my freak status. Has the Machine ever been working how you want it to?” I knew I was avoiding the most important question about what Baku wanted me to do, but my inner chicken held on to that one with a death grip.
“No, the Machine has never successfully come to life.”
Great, so I had to do what had never been done before. “How long are we talking here before this guy goes nuclear and turns into Super Dragon Mantis? What happens to Mom while I’m chasing my ass?”
“I believe she will be safe for the time being, as he has threatened that if you do not do as he wants, he will use her to disintegrate the veil, which means she must be strong.” That shot down my theory that my arrival had stripped her of Architect power. He dropped his gaze, his arms stiff at his slender hips. “You have at most a few days before he goes nuclear, as you say.”
I pushed away from the counter, shoving my hair out of my face. “A few days? If I had a year, maybe, but…how… Are you freakin’ insane? How am I supposed to do this? And why does it fall on me?” I clamped down on the rest of the rant that wanted to leave my mouth and tried to concentrate on the important questions.
“I will help you, but you must trust my methods, for they are necessary not only for this fight, but for the ones the Machine will face in the future, if you are successful.” That was a pretty damn big if.
Asher crowded me. “A few days for what?”
I waved him off and concentrated on Izan, who pointed his black eyes at me. “Fine, just tell me what to do.”
“You are the pulse of the Machine, child, but you have lost your heart. It alone holds the key to start the Machine, and only you can find it, so that it may beat for your people. I have no map to give you, only advice, as what you seek is not an object or a destination but part of you. Follow your instincts. They will lead you to all you have ever needed and all you will ever need. Even if you do not understand, you must listen to your soul, for it contains a wealth of knowledge and skill you are as yet unaware of.”
“Why is everything with you a goddamned code?”
“I do not mean it to be, but…you know what powers the Machine, do you not?”
“Marcus said something about emotion being the most powerful force across all realities,” I said. “Is that what you mean?”
He dipped his head. “So knowing that, even if I had straightforward answers to give you, if I simply gave you what you need, what emotion would that stir in you?”
I frowned at him, afraid I knew what he was getting at. “I’d be pretty damned relieved that we’d get through this. But I guess I wouldn’t feel a whole lot else.”
“And if you have to fight and suffer until you achieve understanding on your own?”
“I’d probably be shouting from the rooftops and jumping up and down. That’s pretty risky considering what’s at stake here. If you tell me, I can still shut him down, right? Who cares if I’m not at max emotional power?”
Asher moved in on me again, and I shoved him back without looking to see why he gasped.
“Even with you at full power, it still may prove too little against him,” Izan continued. “You need the guardians to see the force you can become, and they can become if assembled as the Mortal Machine. Only with them behind you does the human race have a chance to survive this and retain the state of life you have known. If you fail, the best scenario would be enslavement to the wraiths, and the worst would be complete annihilation.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it or anything.” I wrangled my tone down out of its frantic heights and considered what I needed to know. “Okay, let’s say I manage to unravel the mysteries of the Mortal Machine in a few days and find this mystery thing I’ve lost—I’m guessing my mother—what will happen then? What will the Machine do, exactly?”
“The Machine is but a power source that can be used in any number of ways, depending on who has control of its Architect. You are a double-edged sword, child. I wish only for you to shield Earth from what lies beyond and end this war, but Baku will try to convince you he is the hero, and I, the villain. Only you can decide which is which. Even if he fails to convince you to help him, he may yet prove too strong when you go against him, and he will take what he most desires from you, and this world will end anyway.”
I backed up to the wall before I collapsed. Why did Izan think Baku could convince me to help him?
Asher pressed his fist into the wall next to me. “Tell me, and don’t even think about pushing me away again.”
I relayed the gist of our predicament.
“Christ,” he said. “Then we have to kill Baku before he can do whatever he has planned.”
“No,” Izan shouted inside my head. “You must not kill the wraith king.”
Figures he had to be their freaking king. “Why not?” I asked.
Izan’s image began to fade as he said, “He is all that keeps Marcus on the other side of the veil, and to unleash the former sentinel’s near insanity and lust for your blood unto this world would be the end of us all, for death has changed him. Baku needs you alive for now, so he will keep Marcus at bay to prevent him from interfering—and most likely killing the king’s only chance to use you as he desires. You will find your heart and assemble the Machine. You will face Baku and find a way to remove the threat without killing him. This is your path, child, one you must walk swiftly. Use your time well.” And t
hen he was gone.
“Wait, what does Baku want me to do, and what did you promise him?” I shouted at my own reflection. “Dammit, Izan!”
Oh God. Marcus. The guy was all kinds of crazy, and I’d come close to dying to send him through the veil. I thought we were done with him, but he was still out there. Could he really come back?
The room tilted. Fighting vertigo, I rushed past a wide-eyed Asher and out of the room, hotfooted it down the hallway to the main corridor, and then made a beeline for the common room with him after me.
“Addison, wait.” he shouted. “What did he say?”
I needed something in my hands, something soft or…Asher. Since that wasn’t happening, I needed something else. That craving for coconut reared its head.
Once in the kitchen, I rummaged around in the fridge and the cupboards, coming up with exactly squat.
“Would you please stop and tell me what the hell is going on?” Asher loomed on the other side of the serving counter cutout in the wall. “What did Izan say about killing Baku?”
After pouring myself a glass of water from the tap, I rushed into the dining area, staring into the far side of the room that held a few sofas, a TV, two pinball machines, and a pool table. “I need a minute to think this through. Izan said he was partially responsible for whatever destroyed Baku’s world in their reality. Probably should have demanded a better explanation for that before he disappeared on me.” I set aside the Baku issue for the time being and wondered how I could break the Marcus problem to Asher.
I sipped some water and put it down on the table. “Um…please don’t rip my face off, but we have to talk about what happened after you got knocked out that night in the chamber.”
Asher blew out a breath and crossed his arms. “You did what you had to do,” he said. “Marcus had to die, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”
Oh, hell. “But he didn’t…I mean, he didn’t totally die, not exactly.”
He gave a sharp laugh that held no humor. “Now who’s pinning a flower on her dirty deeds? I took his body to the cremation furnace myself. With great pleasure. He’s as dead as he’s going to get.”
“Oh yeah, his body’s dead all right.” I took up the glass again with a shaking hand and took another sip.
Only a few seconds passed before Asher shoved fingers into his midnight hair, the bone-straight tresses sticking up. “You didn’t have any weapons, which would explain why there were no wounds on him. Did you push his soul out?” Arms dropping back to his sides, he shot around the table while I rammed back into the wall, stunned when he moved in so close, the heat of him swept over me. “What happened to him after that? Is he roaming loose around the Shift somewhere or hidden in a body in the true reality?”
Fighting the itch to throw myself into his arms to drive back the lingering chill in me, I said, “He must have become a wraith. I didn’t have enough juice to hold the other wraiths on the dark side of the veil and crush his soul into energy or whatever.” I hadn’t known at the time humans could even become wraiths. The Mortal Machine bible said they were created in the bugmen’s original world when their souls had been ripped unnaturally from their bodies. If they died naturally, their energy returned to the universe to be used again. The ultimate recycling program.
Apparently it could happen to humans, too—like Marcus—so why didn’t we have any other once-human wraiths floating around in one of the realities? Maybe we couldn’t see them? Or maybe any means of destruction we had on Earth—other than sentinels of the Machine—couldn’t rip out a soul?
“I didn’t know if you were dead or dying after the way he hit you, so I kind of…shoved his soul through the veil to the wraiths’ reality. What was I supposed to do?” I almost went on to say he shouldn’t criticize when I had to do all the thinking and murdering, but I didn’t want to rub any salt in that wound.
What could have happened to Baku’s world that would have ripped so many out of their bodies? Some catastrophic natural disaster? War? Some funky spell gone wrong?
Pushing away from me, Asher rushed toward the kitchen and glared at the wall, his fist poised to pound a hole in it. “We were barely keeping up with them when they were driven by nothing but blind instinct, but now Marcus is over there with all of our Machine knowledge and no doubt a massive and murderous hard-on for you. And now the goddamned king is coming after you for hell only knows what. How am I supposed to…?” Letting out a muted roar, he punched the drywall, caving it in.
I moved to keep the table between us before dropping the last bit. “Marcus is on the other side, and Izan said Baku is all that’s keeping him there, which is why we can’t kill the king.”
“This is a disaster,” Asher whispered, rubbing his knuckles.
I hated that air of utter disappointment I always put in him. “How was I supposed to know that dick would still keep his mind and god complex without his brain?” I ran my hands along the bodice of the dress to bring me down a notch. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I have two, maybe three days to figure out the Machine and get strong enough to win a fight against a dead freakin’ alien king who has a major beef with Izan, or we’re all toast.” I tossed up my hand. “No pressure or anything.”
“I’m sorry,” he said in a voice so gentle I choked on a sob. I knew he meant that he hadn’t been able to protect me from Marcus.
“This isn’t your fault, but don’t yell at me right now. I know you said after tonight we’re done, but…will you please help me? I’m scared.”
He reached for me, pulling back before his fingers reached my cheek. “It’s not a good idea for us to hunt together anymore, so I’ll finish this myself.”
My brow crumpled. “Really? Ten tons of crap is about to hit our collective fans, and you can’t even suck it up and breathe my air for two days? In case you weren’t listening, I have to kick Baku’s ass, not you. You know what? Forget it.” I headed for the door. “I don’t have time for your bullshit.”
He slammed his body against the door before I got it open. “This isn’t about…I can’t…dammit.” After a moment, he moved closer, aligning the cuffs of his shirt with the suit jacket, glancing at me as if afraid I’d grow fangs and chomp him. “I’ll hunt with you this time only.”
“I’ll do my best not to disappoint you again,” I said, going for mock sincerity, but it came out soft and full of old hurts. When he opened his mouth, I pressed my fingers against his lips, enjoying the silk of his warm breaths sliding across my skin. Unable to resist touching him, I let my hands drift slowly down, straightening his tie and smoothing my palms along his lapels.
A flash of memory ate me alive, and I closed my eyes against the brilliance of it. A man’s arms around me, his words a song in my soul even though it sounded as if he whispered them from across the universe. The taste of coconut filled my mouth. His breath fanned across my face while trees crowded around us, and that soul-bathing voice whispered, “I will never leave you.”
I stretched for that face that remained out of reach, but as usual he faded out, and nails pounded into my brain when I tried to mentally race after him.
Asher’s warmth left me, and my world grew cold again. By the time I opened my eyes, he’d fled to the far side of the pool table. “I said I’d help you,” he growled, “but that does not include acting as your personal feel-me-up doll. Go find a piece of silk to satisfy your tactile-junkie issues.”
Crap. “Fine, I’m sorry.”
“You keep saying that, but it’s not good enough. I see the way you look at me, the way you blush when I’m near you. I’d hoped when you realized I can’t be your conduit, and that I don’t even want that with you, that it would stop, but it hasn’t. I’m not sure how to convince you that I can’t be what you clearly want me to be. I promise that when this is over, you’ll find a man your Architect soul likes, you’ll fall in love as he becomes your conduit, and I’ll…I’ll be happy for you.” His gentle voice fell into a whisper. “Until then, you need to accept that we’
re coworkers and nothing else.”
It took some effort, but I finally managed to take a breath before I passed out from the pain in my chest. I pried open my teeth long enough to say, “You lost me at ‘love’ and ‘happy,’ because they’re a little low on the priority list right now. And don’t presume to know what I want, because it certainly isn’t you. In fact, I hope Izan sends me some hot, powerful stud, so I can get the bloody hell away from you.”
We stood there for moments in silence. Desperate to break it, and still caught up in what I’d seen, I had to know one thing before we faced Izan’s seemingly impossible puzzle. “Did I live somewhere that had a dock during the time of my life you erased? Or in the woods somewhere? Did I have a boyfriend I used to go there with?” Maybe I should have felt guilty for pawing Mr. Moody if I had someone out there who loved me the way my soul knew he did. He couldn’t have been part of the Machine, or I’d have met him by now and he’d have been my conduit. Somehow, I knew that that level of emotion was part of the partnerships in the Machine.
Asher morphed into that arrogant grace he’d had since the day we met…when was that again? “I suppose that would be your ideal date, tromping around some insect-infested forest.” He laughed, shaking his head, and he almost sounded normal. Well, normal for him, which was arrogant and insulting.
I rolled my eyes at him, aware he’d avoided the most important part of my question. “Why don’t you restore my memories, so I can see it for myself? Maybe something during my life then will help me figure this out.”
He sighed, clearly annoyed. “Later. It takes energy I don’t have right now. Do you know why Baku called you Adaline?” Back to business. Great. “I saw him touch you, but I was concentrating on getting out of the Shift, so I didn’t get all of it.”
“We fought, and he…um…I mean, his wraith fingers kind of went inside my neck right before you arrived, but my storm threw him back before he got very far. He changed after that, and my head felt weird, like he’d been crawling around in there. I’m guessing he tried to read my mind and only got a glimpse of it. Maybe he got my name wrong?”
Midnight Dawn Page 6