by Dannika Dark
Gem was a sensitive girl, so Claude understood why she hadn’t joined them. People needed to say goodbye in their own way. As much as Claude wanted to hang on to hope, every man deserved dignity. Claude wouldn’t want to be a vegetable—not in a million years. Giving up on Niko hadn’t been easy, but it was the right thing to do. They had all joined Keystone knowing the dangers and likelihood of losing teammates, but stepping out of that room was a punch to the gut. Claude couldn’t even remember the last thing he’d said to Niko when they were on that train, but it probably wasn’t something good. He regretted his jealousy and anger in that moment and wished he could have told Niko how much he appreciated his going to Gem’s aid.
After all, Claude knew the value of a good friendship. His family had taught him a lot about close bonds. Viktor advised each of them to be careful about getting too close to one another because of the innate dangers of their job, and that was another reason he’d created that rule about sexual relationships. Immortals learned how to keep a safe emotional distance from others, but it hadn’t been easy for Claude.
Especially when it came to Gem.
That girl had won his heart the first time he’d seen her roller-skating down the hall with her crazy hair, which was pink at the time. Gem had always covered her pale roots with outrageously bold colors until Claude volunteered to dye it a lovely shade of purple. She’d never gone back to pink, blue, green, or any other color since. The hues often varied, as did the special effects, but Gem trusted him completely with her locks. She made him laugh, and styling her hair had brought them closer together. In some ways, she reminded him of his sister.
So when Claude heard her screaming, he lost it.
Raven held out her arms for balance when the mansion shook. “Is that an earthquake?”
Claude smelled fire. When he followed the scent to an open window, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He spotted Gem in a net of blue and orange light. Had she lost control of her emotions and wielded an energy ball, one she couldn’t contain? Lightning struck a tree in a blinding flash, the source coming from the ground and not the sky. The tree was ablaze, and everyone rushed to the window to look.
“Holy Toledo!” Wyatt exclaimed.
Christian peered over Claude’s shoulder. “The wee lass has finally gone and set herself on fire.”
Claude took off. He sprinted down the stairs and across the lawn at Chitah speed, his heart banging against his rib cage like a hammer. When he reached her, golden embers had filled the air, and the grass around her was charred.
Gem had collapsed onto a pile of ash. In her hand rested a brilliant opal. When he tried to take it from her, the stone burned his fingers, and he dropped it on the ground.
Claude gathered her in his arms. Her feverish skin was hot to the touch. “Shepherd!” He powered up the hill toward the house, trying like hell to tamp down his emotions. The last thing he needed was to go primal. If he flipped his switch, he wouldn’t allow anyone near her, and Gem needed medical attention.
Shepherd appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “Medical room!” He swung around and headed toward the back.
Claude ran ahead of him and kicked open the door to a small room. He laid Gem down on the metal table and searched her face for signs of life. While he understood a Mage’s power, Gem had never mastered hers.
Shepherd flipped on the light and circled to the opposite side of the table. He touched her forehead and grimaced. “Damn, she’s hot.” He glanced back at the team, who had gathered by the door. “Stay outside. I need room.”
Claude panted as he stared down at his partner. “Will she be okay? Her light was everywhere.”
Shepherd felt her pulse, and Claude could smell his adrenaline spiking. Shepherd was one hell of a man. No matter how bad things got, he always kept his cool and never showed fear or doubt.
Shepherd lifted her eyelids one at a time and shined a light in each. Her pupils weren’t responding, and Claude knew that was bad. Shepherd set the light down and looked at her palms. Her hands were red as if sunburned, and beads of sweat covered her brow.
Claude slammed his hands on the table. “Will you say something?”
“Maybe it’s a Mage virus,” Shepherd offered. “What Niko has.”
“It is not what Niko has.” Viktor squeezed through the crowded doorway and stood at the foot of the table. “Is she alive?”
“Yeah.” But Shepherd shook his head, his brown eyes dark and intense. “There’s nothing I can do for her if it’s just energy depletion. She’s got a slow pulse, like when a Mage doesn’t level down and their energy drains. My guess is she lost control and one of her energy balls turned on her. That would explain why she feels hot. The only thing I can do is cool her down with some ice.”
Claude grasped her wrist. He’d never seen anything like that before. When a Mage didn’t level down, their energy reversed and knocked them out for a few days. But all that burnt grass and fire—it just didn’t make sense. If she’d wielded an energy ball, why would she have held on to it?
Viktor lowered his head and sighed. “She will need rest.”
Shepherd shot him a stone-cold look. “Should we line up the beds in Niko’s room? We’re dropping like flies around here. Who’s next?”
“No one,” Viktor said coolly. “Niko is awake.”
“What?” Blue’s eyes widened, and she bolted from the doorway.
“Son of a ghost. This is exciting!” Wyatt ran after her like a kid in an amusement park.
Viktor cast his gaze upon Gem’s unconscious body and rested his hand on her ankle. “My dear, you were willing to sacrifice everything. The fates will reward you.”
Claude tried to read Viktor’s emotional scent, but all he detected on his palate was admiration. “What are you talking about? What sacrifice?”
Viktor backed up against the counter to address everyone. “Niko was held under a curse using Mage magic. The source of this curse was indestructible, or so we thought. Gem found a way, and that is why she did not join us to say goodbye. She was hoping this courageous act would save him, even at the cost of her own life.”
Raven blinked at him. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“The source of this magic had the power to destroy the world as we know it. Even now, this is not something we can share. The fewer people who know about it, the better. Had we not succeeded and it fell into the wrong hands…” Viktor shook his head.
“And you let her do this?” Claude snarled. “Without telling us?”
“It was her choice. We each must choose our own destiny.”
Claude picked up nothing but truth in Viktor’s scent. Still, it gutted him to think that Gem had gone off to die alone.
Viktor gave Shepherd a sullen look. “Do what you can within your power. I do not know if she will wake from this.” His phone chimed. Viktor muttered something in Russian as he turned away and answered. “Viktor Kazan speaking.”
Shepherd reached into a box behind him and pulled out a saline IV bag. He set it on the table and dragged a pole from the corner. “She’s burning up, so maybe fluids will help keep her from becoming dehydrated. It’s not the same kind of fever humans get, so I can’t give her medicine to knock the fever down.”
Raven stepped inside the room. “Can I do anything?”
Shepherd removed supplies from a drawer and set them on a metal tray. “Get me a bag of ice or frozen peas. Let’s cool her down.”
Raven turned on her heel and left with Christian right behind her.
Claude watched Shepherd prep her for an intravenous line. “How can I help?”
“Just give me room.”
“Where did this happen?” Viktor asked, still on the phone.
Claude leaned over Gem and put his lips close to her ear. “Brave female, why did you not tell me what you were going to do? We’re partners, remember? I would have understood.”
He brushed her wavy hair back while Shepherd adjusted the drip. Claude wanted so much for her to wake up so
things could be back to normal again. Would they ever be normal? If only he hadn’t wasted all that damn time washing his car. Gem had probably needed someone to talk to. He didn’t even go looking for her when he noticed she was absent.
“Understood,” Viktor said before hanging up the phone. He turned back to them. “Gentlemen, I need everyone in Niko’s room.”
Claude dipped his chin. “I’m not leaving Gem behind.”
“Bring her. She will need a place to recover, and Niko can keep watch over her.”
“As can I.”
“That is what I need to speak to you about. Come. We have no time left.”
Niko struggled to sit up but found it impossible. Shortly after Niko had woken, Viktor excused himself. That had given Niko a few minutes to get his bearings since the last thing he remembered was fighting Cyrus. Why did he feel so weak?
Blue and Wyatt moved to either side of the bed. Blue fluffed his pillows while Wyatt helped him sit up.
“You just rest, amigo.” Blue covered his legs with a blanket. “Are you cold? Do you want me to get you a shirt?”
“No,” Niko croaked. He rubbed his sore shoulder and neck. “What happened? Is this my room?”
Wyatt patted his arm. “You’re home, buddy. Have any wild dreams?”
Blue finished adjusting the covers. “Wyatt, shut up and get him some water.”
“Hey, don’t act like I’m the bad guy here. We’re all curious.”
Blue sighed, and Niko found amusement at the way her light crackled with annoyance.
She patted Niko’s wrist. “Back in a jiffy.”
He watched her red light blaze into the bathroom. Niko had no real concept of colors. He had given each variation a name based on what he knew of the world and all the color schemes. Blue’s was the only color he somewhat understood because it matched the intensity he often saw in flames, which he knew to be a mix of red, yellow, and orange. He couldn’t be certain if they were the same hues as what everyone else saw, but that didn’t seem relevant. There might be colors he could see that were off the spectrum and not visible to the naked eye. In his world, colors and textures served as identifiers.
Blue returned and stood beside him. “Here, drink this.” She put a glass in his hand. “Do you have to go to the bathroom?”
Wyatt snorted. “Just what every guy wants—a girl carrying him to the toilet.”
Realizing his throat was parched, Niko took the glass. He drank greedily until the water spilled down his chin. “Apologies,” he said, handing her the empty glass.
Wyatt used Niko’s bedsheets to dab at the water he had spilled on his chest.
Blue sat next to him on the bed. “You don’t remember anything?”
“I was fighting Cyrus, and then everything went dark. I don’t remember anything about the trip home. I must have been out for a while.”
“You got that right,” Wyatt said. “You’ve been asleep for over a month.”
“A month?” No wonder it felt like his muscles had atrophied. Niko surged forward when he remembered the final details of the attack. “Where’s Gem?”
“She’s okay.” Blue pushed at Niko’s shoulders. “She’s alive.”
Wyatt cleared his throat, and Niko noticed his light shift deceptively. They were communicating with head shakes and lip-reading. Niko had been around long enough to recognize the sound a person’s mouth made when shaping silent words.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “What are you keeping from me? Is she hurt?”
Blue’s voice dropped an octave. “She survived Cyrus. I really don’t think you should hear this right now. You just woke up.”
He reached out and gripped her arm tightly. “Tell me, because your light gives away so much more than your tongue wishes to reveal.”
“Maybe we need to wait for Viktor,” she said, backing away and pulling her arm from his grasp.
“We were about to pull the virtual plug,” Wyatt blurted. “After five weeks, Viktor had no answers. You were wasting away, and we didn’t think that was how you wanted to live.”
“Five weeks,” Niko mumbled as he lowered his head. He felt a tickle against his chest and reached up to discover a beard.
No. It wasn’t how he would have wanted to live. He felt ashamed at the very idea that his team had been changing his linens and nursing him.
“Yeah, five weeks,” Wyatt repeated. “Either we could feed you intravenously and keep you alive like a plant, or we could watch you starve and waste away to bones. That’s a hell of a lot worse than limbo.”
“What are you not telling me about Gem?”
Blue’s light briefly dimmed. “We had all come in here to say goodbye to you, but Gem didn’t show up. Then a few minutes ago, something bizarre happened. The earth shook, and we saw an explosion of light outside. Gem was at the back of the property, maybe wielding an energy ball that got out of control. After the explosion, Claude brought her inside, and then Viktor said you woke up. I don’t know what the hell’s going on.”
Niko’s blood went ice cold. The last thing he remembered was Gem casting a spell from the book. That spell must have put him to sleep. But for a month? What had woken him up?
A knock sounded at the door. “Strangest damn thing I’ve ever seen,” Christian remarked as he sauntered into the room. “Nothing but a pile of ashes out there… and this.” He held out something in his hand.
“What is that?” Wyatt asked.
Niko could see the object clearer than anything else in the room. Whatever Christian held contained Gem’s brilliant light. He recognized the deep amethyst hue and silver flashes. The light burned brighter than anyone else’s in the room, almost blinding him.
“It’s an opal,” Christian answered. “Not very big, but easy to spot with all that black shite everywhere. I found it lying on the ground. I’m not sure how opals form, but did you know that diamonds aren’t made from coal? Geologists believe they were formed in the earth’s mantle and brought up by volcanic eruptions. Do you think she made this with that ball of light?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Blue replied.
Niko reached out his hand. “Let me see it.”
“Afraid not. It’ll melt your skin clean off.”
Niko averted his eyes and thought about the five weeks that had come and gone. Gem must have been searching for a reversal spell. Why else would she have been apart from the team? He remembered how their hands had glowed. He remembered glimpsing an explosion of light before everything went dark. A spell was the only thing that could have had the power to wake him, but at what price? That book didn’t give without taking away. Niko believed in the balance of the universe.
Niko cleared his raspy throat. “Where is she?”
“Medical,” Blue answered.
Several familiar light sources entered the room, and Blue rose from the bed.
“Put her by the fire,” Viktor instructed them.
Niko stripped the blanket off his legs and leaned to the left as Claude—recognizable by his sage-colored light—set Gem on the floor. Her light was visibly depleted and barely covered the length of her body. He often saw that with victims of juicers but only when they were on the brink of death. She had no injuries that were apparent to him, but her hands were an ugly shade of orange.
“I have no time to explain details,” Viktor said in a rush. “Gem performed what I can only call Mage magic, and it was strong enough to wake Niko. We hired cleaners to take care of Cyrus and his men, but there was one more who was still alive.”
“Kallisto,” Niko said on a breath.
“Da. Kallisto. Now you all have his name. We turned him over to the higher authority, and they were keeping him in Breed jail. The facility is full, and they needed his cell. He has been unconscious this entire time, like you. They assumed it was safe to transport him, but I did not think of this before Gem and I made an agreement. I should have remembered. I’d assumed he would be behind bars.”
“Where did they take hi
m?” Raven asked.
“They were on their way to a facility fifty miles west of Cognito but never made it that far. I received word that the van overturned. Everyone is dead except the prisoner, who is missing.”
Niko tried to move his legs, but they were too weak and heavy. “He’ll go to Cyrus’s home. What condition is it in? Did anyone clean up the blood?”
Viktor paced to the foot of the bed. “That is why we must go now, while he’s still in the city. The higher authority placed him on the top of the outlaw list. We cannot delay.”
“Take Wyatt with you,” Niko urged.
“Uh, excuse me?” Wyatt’s light crackled with annoyance. “I’m not part of the search-and-rescue missions anymore.”
“No, but you’ve seen Plato. It’s possible he followed Kallisto.”
“Plato?”
“The ghost who followed me home.”
“Oh, that Plato.”
Viktor snapped his fingers. “Put your shoes on.”
Wyatt hurried out the door.
“We cannot let him leave the city,” Viktor reiterated. “Kallisto will not have a vehicle unless Cyrus stored one at their apartment. The cleaners did not find any car keys, so I do not believe he has an easy way to get around. Perhaps he took their only vehicle to follow us on our mission. The higher authority has notified all public transportation insiders. Niko, do you know where else he might go?”
“He’s loyal to Cyrus. He’ll want to find him first. If the cleaners left behind any blood and he realizes his brothers are dead, he’ll flee the city. But if he believes Cyrus to be alive and away from home, he’ll stay there or search for him. I don’t know if they have other property.”
“I’ve seen them at two bars,” Raven said. “You can drop me off at one and I’ll ask around.”
“Take care when you find him,” Niko warned everyone. “Kallisto is a Jumper and is immune to stunners.”
“What about Chitah bites?” Claude snarled.
“He boasted to be immune to those as well, but that was many centuries ago when I traveled with them, and he lied a lot. I cannot say with absolute certainty.”