Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series)

by Augustine, Donna

  "We might not get another shot," Dodd said. "We just cover all the angles."

  "I'm with Dodd and Jo. I think we go for it," Buzz said.

  "Fine, it's your call," Cormac said looking at me. "We all sink or swim with your decision."

  The senator had chosen the downtown mall outside the Golden Nugget underneath the neon lights to make his speech. I was shocked by the amount of people that had come out to see him, just to hear someone say everything would be okay. Countless monsters over many generations had come to power in this exact same way, but not this time, not this monster. Even if I didn't kill him, this would be the end of his career.

  Cormac, Buzz and Dodd all had snipers aiming at the place he would take the stage. Even Dark was getting in the action and he posed as a blind man, perusing the perimeter for the unexpected, with Abby playing guide dog. I was playing decoy in the front row. Cormac hadn't liked the idea but it wouldn't have worked with anyone else.

  When the senator stepped up, waving at a cheering crowd, he saw me and almost tripped; I knew it worked. He was completely disoriented and his eyes kept coming back to land on me.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, I know that these are scary times and I promise to get the answers your government is withholding from you…" the senator opened to cheers from the crowd.

  What a bunch of bullshit.

  I looked at my watch. At exactly fifteen minutes in, they were going to simultaneously open fire. I'd agreed to this, but it wasn't my plan. They'd never have agreed to mine if I had told them. Cormac was right, I really did need practice at working as a team. I eyed the Secret Service, who were more relaxed now that everything seemed to be moving along smoothly, and I made my move.

  I pulled out a Colt gun, jumped onto the stage and had the senator in a strangle hold with my gun against his temple in under ten seconds. The senator froze, bent over awkwardly since he was quite a bit taller than I. The Secret Service moved to rush me but stopped as bullets rained down around me and held them back, exactly as I hoped they would.

  "This man is not who he appears to be," I screamed out into the crowd, as I waited for the senator to evaporate. Maybe he couldn't? Maybe when I touched him I interfered with his mojo somehow? Is that why I sensed he was afraid of me? I might never have this chance again. I pulled the trigger of my gun, jammed against his head, and watched the spray of blood explode everywhere.

  He collapsed immediately. Before I could get another shot off, to make sure I'd killed whatever he was, someone, presumably the Secret Service, slammed me to the ground, ignoring the spray of bullets now. The gun was wrenched from my hand; I sent some juice to the guy holding me down but when he rolled off me, crying out in pain, another just simply took his place. I decided to wait this out until I could get a better idea of the numbers.

  I'd be able to get away eventually, or Cormac would figure a way to break me out when he was done being pissed off that I'd gone solo. I'd thought it all through. I'd escape, lay low for about thirty years until they'd be looking for someone in her fifties and then be able to regain a normal life. Immortality has some real perks to it.

  The bullets had stopped and sirens blared in the distance as I was yanked roughly to my feet. I heard someone cry "He's dead!" in the distance as I was walked toward the waiting cop car. I also heard the words "Murderer!" being spewed at me and all I wanted to do was smile. He was dead.

  It appeared that every last cop showing up for duty had swarmed in to help escort me to the police department. I was glad that I didn't have normal parents because this might have been a tad embarrassing for them. Me? I couldn't fit any other emotion in with the overwhelming relief that filled me.

  The cop that held me read me my rights as I did the perp walk to the waiting squad car. My wrists were cuffed behind my back and there were about fifty other cops witnessing my departure. I didn't think I could take that many without having my hands free. I wished I had Cormac's melting metal ability. That trick would have come in handy right now. This cop didn't know how lucky he was.

  The cop placed his hand on my head to duck me into the backseat when I heard shouts of pain and yelling. I jerked away from him and saw a man in a black ski mask, bent forward as he charged through the crowd like a linebacker. Every person he touched fell to the ground and cried out in pain.

  A hand, presumably the cop behind me who was mad I had pulled out of his grasp, grabbed me by a fistful of hair and rammed my face into the car. I saw stars as another set of hands grabbed me, hoisted me up and carried me away from the scene. I looked back through blurry eyes to see the cop lying on the ground in much worse shape than I.

  "Take that, you big bully!" I screamed back at the cop on the ground.

  The next moments flew by in a haze. A truck screeched to a stop so close that I thought it was trying to hit us. The back popped open and the masked man threw me in the back as he quickly followed me. We peeled out before the back door closed.

  Cormac ripped off his ski mask and I saw Buzz in the front seat and Dodd behind the wheel. Dark and Abby were in the back.

  "Can you ever go along with the program?"

  "You know it had to go down like that," I said in my defense as I sat up.

  "You should have discussed it with me," he screamed, but he had to in order to be heard over the sirens of the police cars chasing us.

  "If the bullets didn't kill him, we needed everybody to see he wasn't human. They had to see him get shot like that, in their faces, with a lot of blood."

  Dark leaned in on the conversation. "They definitely all saw it. The stage was a mess. It was gnarly, like a zombie movie come to life."

  "And he was dead?" I asked, not caring about much else.

  "He looked to be but that doesn't mean he'll stay that way. We still have no idea what he is, exactly."

  I felt the stickiness on my skin and knew it was the senator's blood. I went to grab the towel and Cormac stopped me.

  "Hang on." He took a glass vial and scraped the edge along my skin, collecting a sample of the blood. "Now go ahead."

  "What is this thing?" I asked referring to the truck that was stocked with all sorts of supplies.

  "It's one of our emergency vehicles. I like to keep it stocked for occasions like this," Cormac answered.

  "Have there been a lot of these occasions?"

  "Not recently. I'm going to get this checked as soon as we get back." He packed the blood away.

  The sirens started to fade and I looked through the back windows to see all the cop cars falling behind.

  "This thing can move." We must have been cruising at somewhere near two hundred miles per hour.

  "It's rigged for nitrous."

  "Where are we going?"

  "You wanted to close the space holes, didn't you?"

  I nodded.

  He placed a duffle bag, filled with clothes, next to me.

  "Then we're heading to Mexico."

  Chapter Eighteen

  We drove through the night to get to the space hole. The defectors didn't arrive for another seven hours, so we stopped at a resort on the coastline to rest up for the next day.

  Cormac's Spanish was impeccable, or sounded like it. I wasn't sure what exactly he was saying but he seemed to be fluent.

  "I got us a couple of suites," he explained as we left the desk with the keys. "This place should've been booked solid."

  I looked around the lobby. Same as everywhere else: empty.

  We ordered room service, fed Abby a couple of burgers and then we all crashed, exhausted from the day's events.

  When I woke the next day, I found a pair of large sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat waiting beside the coffee.

  "What's with this?"

  "News of the senator's killing is on the news here," Cormac explained. "Just makes things simpler if you're not recognized."

  "What are you doing?" I asked as I poured myself a cup of coffee from the room service tray. Cormac was piling seemingly random items on a table.


  "Making some gold to bribe the Mexican government with so that they stay clear while we do our thing." He pointed toward four different piles. "Each metal type needs to be changed by itself."

  "Can I do it?" I hadn't tried to do anything since I lost my nickel.

  "Go ahead."

  I grabbed a silver necklace from one of the piles and concentrated on thinking of gold. When I looked down at it again it was still silver.

  "Why can't I do this?"

  "Not every Keeper can do the same things. It just depends on what knowledge was embedded and passed on. Sometimes the genetic memory skips stuff. You might never be able to do it, but it doesn't matter."

  It was still frustrating as I watched Cormac turn pile after pile of silver, then tin and all sorts of other metal objects, to gold.

  "I'm worried about doing this hole with only the few of us and Linus and his men."

  "It's not that much different in size to the Nevada hole. It'll be okay. We're better off having the other guys rest up before we try NY."

  "Yeah, I know. Did you notice anything weird about the ground, after Nevada?"

  "It was softer."

  "Yeah." A knock at the door jarred my attention, and I went to go answer it, Cormac hot on my heels. I turned and stopped before I got to the door.

  "I can handle stuff on my own."

  "Funny how you didn't complain when I was dragging you out of the swarm of cops."

  "There's a difference, I needed some help then. Now I don't."

  He stood back and with a flourish of his hand said have at it.

  I opened the door to Linus, and his group who stood behind him, filling the hallway.

  "It's for you," I said to Cormac. I hadn't had nearly enough coffee to deal with them yet.

  "Don't look at her," I heard Cormac growl as I walked away.

  Linus nodded. When it became obvious Cormac wasn't going to actually let them into the suite, I got dressed quickly and let Dodd, Buzz and Dark know we were leaving.

  It took a caravan of SUVs to get us to the site. We stopped a good distance from the location of the space hole. Cormac and I drove in alone, with a suitcase of gold, to bribe the Mexican officials to play deaf, dumb and blind to our actions.

  "What did they say?" I asked as two officials walked away with the suitcases.

  "The gist of it was 'if you're stupid enough to get close to that thing, you'll be dead soon and not our problem.'"

  "Oh well, that's nice."

  We watched as they cleared the area. It wasn't as large as New York but it wasn't that much smaller, like we'd thought. Cormac let out a loud whistle and the rest of the SUVs came filing down.

  The group piled out and we lined up just as everyone had in Nevada. It was a bit harder but didn't feel that much different. I could feel a bit more strength coming from this group. Maybe they had something to prove.

  It was going exactly like the last time, except it felt perhaps a tad easier, until the silver ribbons started showing up.

  I looked down at my ankles as everyone else stared, transfixed, at the massive space hole. The ribbons wrapped around my legs in an ever tightening vise. I tried to shake them off but all they did was start to nip at my skin.

  Cormac looked at me, and then down at my leg.

  "What the hell is going on?" he whispered.

  "Ignore it," I told him and I tried to do the same.

  I could tell he didn't like it but he didn't have much of a choice. The wormhole slowly edged shut and the ground around us softened. just like in the Nevada desert. The silver strands eventually gave up and disappeared again. The air felt slightly different, but I couldn't put my finger on what the difference actually was. Tingly didn't quite describe the charge that lingered.

  Once we finished, we made arrangements to meet Linus and the other Alchemists at the marina in New Jersey two days later. From there, we would sail over to New York City and close the last and final hole and hopefully put this entire mess behind us.

  Chapter Nineteen

  "What's going on?"

  I collapsed on the bed in my room back at the suite. I'd hoped to be alone for a minute but Cormac had followed me in.

  "I don't know what they are."

  He grabbed my leg where the silver things had wrapped themselves around me.

  "You're bruised," he said, as his thumb ran over the flesh of my ankle.

  "Which won't last long."

  He dropped my leg. "There is something off here. You can't tell me you don't feel it too."

  "Of course, but what other choice is there?"

  "I can't see another alternative, but I think the silver strands are trying to stop you."

  "I know."

  He turned and walked the length of my room. Cormac pacing was never a good sign. He finally paused and looked back to me.

  "Every cell in my body is screaming out 'danger,' but I can't figure out another path to take."

  "Because there isn't one. If we don't close the last hole in NY, who knows how unstable our universe will become. We might have had a choice at some point, but I don't remember ever having many options. It doesn't matter now because there is only one option left. We both know it." I crawled out of the bed even though I wanted nothing more than to crawl under the blankets and sleep for days. But we had to get on the road.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Taking a shower before we leave."

  "Sleep for a while."

  "I'll sleep in the truck on the way."

  I watched as he shut the door to my room and slowly closed the distance to where I stood. He didn't say anything but he didn't need to. He didn't rush at me, but purposely took his time, and I realized he was making me silently acknowledge that I wanted him when I didn't move, just waited.

  One arm curved around my back as his other cupped my neck, and his lips slowly sucked my lower one before he completely covered mine. And I wanted him, right then and there.

  Then he pulled back.

  "What are you doing?" I asked as he walked toward the door.

  "Giving you time."

  "Why?"

  "Because there is no turning back, so you better be sure."

  Then it hit me. "Because of the contract."

  He paused by the door, his eyes intent, and he shook his head. "No, because of who I am. Once I get what I want, I don't let it go."

  I was ready twenty minutes later and we headed out. The tension in the car was thick and somehow I managed not to be seated near Cormac for the majority of the ride back to The Lacard, where we'd take a plane to NJ. I needed to get my head clear for what was coming and he unnerved me.

  I was reclined with my eyes closed in the front seat while Dodd took a turn driving, when the car suddenly swerving woke me.

  "What the…" I didn't have to finish the question. A massive twister had just formed and touched down not even a mile from the car.

  "Go left!" we all screamed at Dodd, and even Abby yelped, as the thing started to turn, looking like it would barrel down on us at any second.

  He drove the Escalade off the road as we bounced all over the place, and watched the massive tornado grow larger and larger. We swerved around and got back on the road where we could drive faster. The four of us not driving turned in our seats, and Dodd watched from the rearview mirror, as the huge tornado tore up everything in its path.

  "When did Nevada start getting tornados like that?" Buzz asked.

  "Since Nevada started getting space holes," Cormac answered.

  Nevada's had small twisters in her past, but the emphasis was on the word small. This thing was a monster, even by Tornado Alley standards. I'd never thought such a thing possible in the Nevada climate.

  "The real question is, is closing them making things better or worse?" I knew Cormac was right about what he'd said. Something was changing. Buzz and Dodd knew it too. Their silence in answer to my question was deafening. We all felt it, but nobody knew what exactly was happening or what the hell we could do about
it.

  I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes again, to block out the rest of the world and try to concentrate on another way to solve the problem posed by the space holes. Nothing, there was nothing.

  "If we left the last one open, what then?" I asked aloud.

  "Radiation would continue to spill out, with no end in sight. We would be okay but eventually it would spread to the point that a large chunk of North America would be uninhabitable. Eventually, over a long enough period of time, civilization would die, including us," Cormac answered. "I keep trying to figure out a way around this but I can't think of one."

  "We have no choice," Buzz said. "We all know it. I'd rather die by fire than death by a thousand cuts."

  "Agreed," I said. "It's got to be done."

  I didn't realize the magnitude of what was wrong until we hit the Vegas Strip. It was empty, as it had been recently, but that wasn't what was surprising. What shocked me is it looked like a war zone. Several prominent buildings had crashed to the ground, street lights lay knocked over and there were several fires burning, grey smoke clouds hovering above.

  The road became impassable about a mile away from The Lacard. Dodd stopped the car and we all got out.

  Buzz and Dodd went to clear the road of several steel poles that were lying in the way.

  "Just leave it. We'll get it later," Cormac told them as he started to walk ahead. He pulled out his phone and I heard Kever answer on the other side of the speaker. "What the hell happened?"

  "Boss, it's real bad here. An earthquake of some sort hit."

  "When?"

  "About twelve hours ago," Kever responded.

  We all did the math. Just as we we're closing the hole. I wanted to throw up. By the sounds coming from the bench Buzz just ducked near, he beat me to it.

  "Why didn't you call me?"

  "I tried. Cell service is completely down and you must have been out of range of the new circuit."

  "Is everyone okay?"

  "Yeah, there's a few more, though."

  "What's that mean?"

  "You'll see."

  "I'll be there in a couple of minutes."