Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1)

by William Bernhardt

  “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have hurt your friend. I shouldn’t have taken you. But I did what I had to because I was desperate. I know I’ve hurt you. I’m sorry.”

  My mouth gaped. I couldn’t form words. He was apologizing?

  “I need your help. You can refuse and I’ll walk out of this room right now. I swear I’ll never bother you again. Or you can come with me. I promise not to hurt you, but I will warn you, where we’re going is dangerous. You could die. And if you don’t die, you’ll probably end up in a place worse than this.”

  “Sounds enticing.”

  “I need you,” he said. “I can’t do it by myself.”

  I mulled over his request. He was a Reven. I’d decided a long time ago that they couldn’t be trusted. But he wasn’t like the others. I was only now realizing how different he was.

  “Please, June,” he interrupted my thoughts.

  I’d never heard such desperation in a person’s voice. He spoke softly. When he said my name, I felt it in an intimate way. I felt it deep in my soul, as if he spoke directly to my heart.

  He needed something so desperately he would do anything to get it.

  “All right,” I said, my voice a whisper. “I’ll go.” I don’t know if it was his desperation that made me say it, or my fear of what he would he do if I said no, or something else, something I wished I understood. Tats—Memphis—needed me. And in some ways, I needed him too.

  I looked into Memphis’s eyes, black holes that seemed to drink me in. Mysterious and dangerous at the same time. My heart fluttered, an emotion that left me breathless, a feeling that I had no control over, no matter how hard I tried to push it away.

  “You won’t regret helping me,” he said.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Episode Eleven

  Into the Fire

  by Tamara Grantham

  CHAPTER ONE

  Someone followed me. My Shine ability allowed me to hear the heartbeats pattering in the distance. At first I thought it was a coincidence that I’d heard the same thumping beats from the first floor up, but the closer I neared my condo, the more I realized that someone stalked me.

  I spun around. No one. An empty hallway. Either I’d imagined it, or someone very skilled lurked in the shadows. With my luck, it would be the stalker.

  Walking through my condo building felt surreal. I’d dreamed of coming back so many times, but now that it was happening, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. I hadn’t seen my sister since the Revens captured me.

  Katelyn needs me, I’d told myself. She has to see me one last time.

  But what if it was the other way around?

  What if I needed her?

  What if I had to see her one last time?

  My captor turned rescuer, Memphis Stone, said I could have a few minutes with my sister before we left.

  He said he needed my help finding someone. I hadn’t asked who. I also hadn’t asked where.

  Deep in my heart, I knew the answer.

  I pushed the thought away as I knocked on the door. Nanny Gorda opened up after the third try.

  “You?” she gasped.

  “Hello, Nanny.”

  “I call the cops on you, chica.”

  “Please don’t call the cops.”

  “I already did. You know what they tell me? The city is full of runaways. They add you to the list.” She barked a laugh. “They don’t care that you’re missing.” She sounded happy about it.

  “Have you spoken to my parents?”

  “No for a week. Seattle still a war zone. Heaven knows why they went.” She let me inside.

  The place looked dirtier than the last time I was here, and that was saying something. Empty Jarritos bottles sat atop piles of unfolded laundry. Dishes sat in the sink. I would have chided Nanny, but she took care of Katelyn, which is all she’d been hired to do in the first place.

  “You have your sister worried sick, sick,” Nanny said as she led me through the kitchen.

  “Is she in her bedroom?”

  Nanny nodded.

  I avoided piles of pizza boxes to make it to Katelyn’s room. Her door was opened a crack and I peeked inside. The lights were off, but the glow from the New York City skyline illuminated the room well enough.

  “Katelyn?” I asked as I pushed the door open.

  Her bed was empty, so I scanned the room. In the milky light, her china doll collection looked otherworldly, like I’d stepped into a fairy tale.

  White lacy curtains billowed. I spotted Katelyn standing on her balcony.

  I stepped over more piles of laundry and made it to the open doors. Katelyn didn’t turn when I walked outside.

  The balcony brought back memories. Tea parties while sitting on the wrought-iron chairs, feeding the pigeons off the edge of the stone ledge—it seemed like another lifetime.

  “Hi, sis,” I said as I stopped beside her.

  “Hi.”

  Her voice sounded cheerless. Wasn’t she happy to see me?

  “How are you?” I asked.

  “The same.”

  I took another step closer to her. Her bald head shone in the dim light, reflecting off the city.

  Something shiny sparkled on her face. Tears. Good Gandhi, I’d made my terminally ill little sister cry. What kind of monster was I?

  She sniffled, and I caught her in a hug. She resisted until I hugged tighter, and then she wrapped her arms around me. She hugged me as if she never wanted to let go.

  “Where were you?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry,” was all I could say.

  “I thought you were dead. I thought I would never see you again.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. I’d come here to tell her I was leaving. How would I ever be able to tell her?

  Katelyn pushed away from me. Though it had only been a couple of days since I’d seen her last, her eyes looked more sunken, her cheeks more sallow.

  I caught Katelyn up on the past couple of days, how the Revens had captured me, how they’d taken me to a facility, how I’d tried to escape and nearly killed myself in the process. When I got to the part about Memphis, she became very still. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

  “Are you going with him?” she asked.

  “I don’t have to. I can stay here with you.”

  She bit her lip, seeming lost in thought. “But you promised him?”

  “Yes.” The word stung. I never should have given him my word, but if I hadn’t, I’d still be stuck in that facility.

  “Then you should go.”

  A gentle silence clung to the air. Usually I felt a breeze up here, but not now. The crescent moon shone bright in the cloudless sky. The fragile calm should have comforted me. Instead, it unnerved me. This moment wouldn’t last. They never do.

  “You know I love you, don’t you?” I asked.

  She crossed her arms. Goosebumps prickled her flesh. “I know,” she said in her tiny voice.

  “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

  She eyed me. “Don’t promise it, June.”

  “No,” I said with determination. I wasn’t one to break promises, so I was cautious when I entered into one. “Listen to me, Katelyn. I know how hard your life has been. But you’re brave. You’re strong—stronger than anyone I’ve ever met. I’ll come back. I love you too much not to. You’ll wait for me, won’t you?” Translation: Please don’t die while I’m gone.

  “I’ll wait for you.” Translation: Don’t get killed while you’re gone.

  I noticed something on the garden table. She scooted it toward me. It was her book of fairy tales. “Read to me before you go?” she asked.

  I didn’t need to know which story she wanted. I turned to Rapunzel. Daddy had read this to me. I had read this to her. We’d recently discovered that we both loved this story.

  I started reading.

  My sister sat in her tower and listened.

  CHAPTER TWO

  I didn’t cry when I left. I he
ld back the tears as I stepped out on the street. When I was sure Katelyn couldn’t see me from her balcony, tears welled up, but I pushed them back as best as I could.

  I’ve heard it’s healthy to cry, that bottling up emotions can actually be damaging, but I hate doing it. It makes me feel weak and helpless and alone.

  Skyscrapers loomed overhead, the lights like glowing baubles in my misted eyes. I blinked the tears back, inhaled a deep breath, and forced myself not to think of Katelyn.

  She’d be fine. What could I do for her anyway? Vacuum the floor?

  Katelyn was tougher than I’d ever been.

  She’d be okay.

  Memphis stood in a back alley. Leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, his dark clothing revealing his lean frame, he reminded me of a jaguar waiting for prey. Everything about him seemed dark. His clothes, his hair, and most of all his eyes. He could stop traffic with eyes like those, hooded in thick lashes, as if he had some great secret that only his eyes hinted at.

  My stomach squirmed as he turned his gaze on me.

  Memphis had been a Reven, a Shine bounty hunter, until he’d decided to rescue me.

  The tattoos on his forearms stood out in the muted light, black lines of script against his pale skin. I’d asked him once what they meant and he’d spouted poetry at me, something about the ancient city of Alexandria being at war with the city of Memphis, Alexandria burning to the ground, and two lovers caught in the crossfire. That’s right, the nefarious criminal had love poems inked on his arms.

  Memphis confused me. I still hadn’t figured him out. I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

  I blotted my eyes with my shirt sleeve. I prayed he didn’t notice the tears.

  “You’re sister’s okay?” he asked.

  “Yes. She’s brave. She’ll be fine.” I was surprised he’d asked. I shouldn’t have been. I’d learned that he wasn’t like the rest of the Revens. He was smarter, for one thing. And he wasn’t motivated by money.

  A choppercar whizzed high overhead, the rotors beating, echoing the soft thrumming of Memphis’s heart.

  A sudden wind gusted past, tossing empty cups and paper wrappers through the alley. I crossed my arms, the chill seeping into my skin. “When are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked.

  “Soon enough.”

  I raised an eyebrow. He’d been dodgy ever since he’d rescued me. So far I hadn’t gotten any explanation of where we were going, or even who we were rescuing. If he wanted my help, he’d have to be more forthcoming. “How about telling me right now?”

  “Not now.” His gaze wandered over the skyscrapers, searching out the deep shadows. The heartbeat that had followed me through my apartment building persisted. Someone followed me. Memphis must have sensed it.

  I knew the other Revens were out there. They couldn’t be happy that Memphis had stolen their capture. They’d be after us. They’d want revenge.

  A shadow leapt over us. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck prickled.

  “Follow me,” Memphis whispered. On silent feet he crept down the alley. He gripped a blade. Funny, I hadn’t even seen him pull it out.

  My hands felt naked without my knife. I balled my fists, my only weapon. Sweat beaded on my forehead. In the hazy darkness, my heart clattered in my chest as I followed Memphis through the maze.

  He glided through the alleys like a panther. He rounded a corner. I followed, but lost sight of him, the empty alleyway staring back at me.

  I stopped and listened for his heartbeats. His were easy to detect. Memphis had a slight heart murmur, like a whisper of a heartbeat that followed his own.

  Up ahead, I heard the sound and raced toward him.

  The heartbeat grew louder. Surely I was getting closer.

  But the pounding heart following me interfered. As I neared Memphis, it neared me.

  I spun around.

  White puffs of air left my mouth. The alley stretched empty in either direction.

  No one ahead of me.

  Non one behind me.

  Without my Shine ability, I would’ve thought I was alone. I knew better.

  I tightened my fists. “Who’s there?” I shouted.

  The wind whistled through the buildings with a shrill scream.

  “Memphis?” I called.

  Silence answered. I stood in the middle of flicking New York City and it was as quiet as a morgue.

  I listened.

  Heartbeats up ahead. Definitely Memphis’s.

  I crept through the labyrinth until I found him standing at the edge of a building. He stared with wide eyes at something up ahead.

  I stopped behind him and he held his hand up as if to quiet me.

  “Do you hear that?” he asked after a pause.

  “What?” I whispered.

  He shook his head. “I feel like someone’s following us.”

  “Revens?” I suggested.

  “Yeah, probably.” He didn’t sound convinced.

  A shadow dropped from the building. It landed with a quiet thud, and then an arm wrapped Memphis’s neck.

  Bad move.

  I’d fought Memphis once before. I never planned on doing it again.

  Memphis threw the intruder to the ground. The person wore a black ski mask and he pulled it off to reveal a head full of thick, kinky curls.

  “Naomi?” I gasped.

  My best friend, and fellow Reven-hunter, stared at me with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  She struggled, but Memphis pinned her arms to the ground. “Tell your Reven bloke to back off, will you?” She spoke with a thick British accent. Her familiar voice would’ve brought comfort if it weren’t for the hostile look she flashed me.

  “Memphis, let her go,” I said.

  “No way,” he answered. “I told her to stay away from me.”

  “Our agreement is off,” Naomi said. “I promised to stay away as long as you didn’t hurt June.”

  “I haven’t hurt her,” Memphis answered.

  Naomi stared at me. “Has he?”

  “He hasn’t touched me,” I answered. “Why are you following us?”

  She looked from me to Memphis. “You’re with him. I figured you wouldn’t be unless he’d done something bloody awful to make you.”

  “So you’re rescuing her?” Memphis asked.

  “Yes,” Naomi said with sarcasm. “I’m rescuing her.”

  He scowled. “She doesn’t need your help.”

  “Memphis, get off her,” I repeated.

  “No way. She tried to kill me.”

  “I tried to take you down,” Naomi clarified.

  “Same thing.”

  Naomi thrust her knee up, but Memphis caught it, flipped her over, and pressed his elbow to the base of her neck. “Wanna try that again, princess?” Memphis said.

  “Bloody bastard,” she shot back with her cheek pressed to the ground.

  “No one takes me down,” Memphis said. “Got it?”

  Naomi grunted something.

  “Got it?” he repeated.

  “Memphis, leave her alone,” I said.

  “Not until she promises.”

  “Leave. Her. Alone.” I enunciated each word with steel in my voice. “Or I swear I’ll never help you. I’ll run. I’ll call every Reven hunter from here to Alaska. I’ll fight you until I flicking die. Got it?”

  He looked at me as if I’d lost it, and then he stood up.

  Naomi dusted off her leather pants as she stood. Her pride looked wounded, but nothing else. She snatched a knife off the ground.

  “Do you two want to explain what’s going on?” she asked.

  “I’m helping him,” I said.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Come again?”

  “It’s a long story. He rescued me from certain death so I agreed to help him find someone.”

  “Who?”

  I eyed Memphis. “Don’t know yet.”

  “Where are you going?”

 
“Don’t know that, either.”

  “So let me get this straight.” She stuck the knife in her belt. “You’re following this bloke to bloody who-knows-where to find bloody-who-knows-who, and you’re going with him, alone?”

  “Yeah, that’s basically it.”

  “You’ve lost it.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m coming.”

  “No you aren’t,” Memphis said.

  “Listen, Reven,” she said the name with disgust. “Just because June is too naive to see what you are doesn’t mean her friends are. I’m coming. End of discussion.”

  “You are not.”

  “Stop it,” I blurted. “Both of you. Listen, Memphis. Naomi is a good fighter. Her dad’s ex-British Special Forces. She’s an army brat. He taught her everything. She knows more about survival and self-defense than you and all your Reven buddies put together.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “The point is—she’s an asset. Wherever we’re going, whoever we’re rescuing, it’ll be easier with Naomi.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Even if it were Mordock?”

  I knew it. I knew it! The only place in the world I didn’t want to go, and that’s where we were going.

  “Mordock?” Naomi said with distaste.

  “His friend is Shine,” I clarified. “At least I think so.”

  Memphis pressed his palms to his eyes. “Good Gandhi, why can’t things be simple for once?”

  “So she can come?” I asked him.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But you didn’t say no.”

  He exhaled a frustrated sigh and turned to Naomi. “Will someone come looking for you if you’re gone?”

  She crossed her arms. “Not for a few weeks. The parents are on holiday.”

  “You’re sure? No one else is nosing around?”

  “No one. I’m positive.”

  He scrutinized Naomi, and then turned to me. “Fine, she can come. But that’s it. No more friends, all right? This isn’t a flicking slumber party.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Buses are the worst way to travel.

  The smell is overwhelming. Dozens of bodies all producing human sewage is enough to drive anyone insane. I sat with my shirt over my nose, but the smell permeated my clothes.