Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1)

by William Bernhardt

  "It gives me the creeps," Brenna said as she rubbed her arms. "I feel like it's staring at me."

  Camille's shoulder blades itched as she slowly spun around and studied the buildings that made up the ranch. She met Rachel's questioning gaze and nodded.

  Rachel approached the large red gate. "Locked." She yanked on the lock, but it held firm.

  "Well there are about a million other doors, surely one of them is open or can be easily broken," Camille said, resisting the urge to Shine.

  Rachel ignored her and started climbing the gate. "This thing's more for looks than security. I'll check the doors off the courtyard."

  "Wait," Camille called as women started in different directions. She released the hold on her Shine and the feeling of eyes on her disappeared. She met the curious gazes of her friends. "They'll hear you if you make any noise, but at least now you'll be hidden if anyone waits to ambush you."

  The sound of a door opening came from the other side of the locked gate. They all froze. A man walked toward them, his face hidden beneath the wide brim of a dusty brown cowboy hat. Rachel jumped off the gate and joined the other women behind Camille. She ignored them to watch the relaxed stride of the man. Her heart rate increased. She dropped the cloak of her Shine to reveal her group. As he drew closer, the familiar angles and planes of Jeremy's face were revealed beneath the hat's brim. His blue eyes remained impassive. Young women and a few other men materialized around him from various doors and hallways. Someone gasped behind her.

  Brenna reached up and squeezed her arm. "We found them."

  Jeremy fumbled with the chain and it dropped to hang loose on the gate. Camille remained frozen as the gate swung open and he stood framed in the opening. He studied each of the women behind her, then shifted his gaze to her. Heat suffused her body as he devoured her with hungry eyes. When he lifted an eyebrow and smiled, she bolted toward him. She forgot about her little gang of Shines, she forgot about the people appearing out of the hidden recesses of the castle. He opened his arms and she catapulted herself into his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. He slanted his mouth over hers and Camille opened to him like a desert flower to rain. His arms closed around her and she felt truly safe for the first time since she’d left home.

  A throat cleared loudly behind them. "I mean, really, you two. The rest of us are baking here," Rachel said, voice heavy with sarcasm.

  Camille buried her burning face in Jeremy's chest as his laughter rumbled beneath her cheek.

  Jeremy squeezed her hand. "There's someone who'd like very much to see you."

  Camille looked at him, confused, as he stepped back. The sound of wheels on sand tore her gaze from his beloved face. She turned toward the sound and collapsed to her knees, hands clasped over her mouth as a keening sound broke from her throat to pierce the quiet castle courtyard. Tears poured down her face as her best friend, Jenni, moved her wheelchair forward. Though she was thinner, with the dark circles under her eyes that said she was still recovering, Jenni was alive. The small Asian woman stopped the wheelchair in front of her and opened her arms. Camille buried her wet face in her best friend's shoulder and let the grief she'd been holding in for the last two months, erupt from her chest in great gasping sobs.

  Someone placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Camille clung to Jenni's hand as she pulled back and wiped her face on the neck of her t-shirt. She glanced up and the tears began to fall all over again. Dr. Pham, Jenni's father, squeezed her shoulder again and smiled down at her.

  She turned back to Jenni and another familiar face leaned over her friends shoulder. "Hello, Camille," Michael said. "Amazing, isn't it?"

  She smiled and swung her gaze back to Jeremy. "You did this."

  He pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind so she didn't have to release her hold on Jenni's hand. "I told Dr. Pham as soon as I knew we'd managed to bring his daughter from death's door. He brought Michael out here yesterday. His reaction was very close to yours." He rested his chin on her head. "We couldn't risk telling you anything until you got here. The SSS and the government are very good at getting information out of someone and we couldn't risk the lives of the Shines hiding in this compound."

  Camille met Jenni's smiling eyes and squeezed her hand. "I tried my best to be that stupid light, you know."

  Jenni rested her head against Michael's side, her other arm around his hips. "You did great, Cam."

  She looked over the faces of those dearest to her, old and new, then lifted her gaze to meet the smiling gazes of Shines she didn't yet know. She'd done it. She'd found Ohm. Her chest hurt with the emotion filling it. She'd been through so much. Yesterday, if she'd been asked, she'd have said it would never be possible for her to find true happiness again. She'd never imagined that she'd find all that and more at the end of her road to nowhere.

  Episode Fourteen

  The Gilded Cage

  by Sabrina A. Fish

  CHAPTER ONE

  Camille jerked awake when Rachel squeezed her arm. "ETA is fifteen minutes, Cam."

  She nodded, stifling a yawn, and checked to make sure the SUV carrying the other half of her team still rode behind them.

  She touched the stem of her glasses. "Okay, ladies. Just like we discussed. Team one will head to the park down the street from safe house A, team two go to the gas station around the corner from safe house B. Sophia, Brenna, and I will get the girls for team one, V, Daisy and Dahlia for team two." She paused, shrugging tension from her shoulders. "I'm feeling extra paranoid today. Keep communication live the entire time you're out of the SUV. We'll let Brenna and Daisy do their jobs then like that last roll of toilet paper, we'll disappear."

  "Yeah, V, leave some for the rest of us next time." Daisy taunted in her ear from the other SUV.

  Everyone laughed.

  "Laugh all you want, but I'm not going to risk getting my own crap on my fingers just to save a few cents. So not happening, cabrónas," V replied in a haughty tone.

  Camille waited for them to stop laughing. "Each one of us is a target for the greedy, the fanatics, and those afraid of what we can do. Each time we leave base, we risk our lives. Each one of you is family, like my own sisters. Get in, get the job done, and get back to base. In and out."

  "In and out," the other seven women chorused.

  The second SUV turned behind them and a shiver of unease moved down her back. Camille glanced at her watch. Ten minutes. She glanced over at Rachel who gave her signature no one better mess with our family look from narrowed dark brown eyes. Camille reminded herself that this was far from her team's first experience.

  When they'd arrived at Ohm two months before, the Ohm leaders, Aura and Fear, had noticed how the Shines that had come with Camille were totally loyal to each other first and deferred to her for their group's decisions. So the pair had made her little group an official team, Camille the team leader. Their assigned mission: pick up Shines from the two safe houses in Paradise, Nevada. Before leaving each safe house, Brenna the human lie-detector and Daisy the mind reading twin would question the new Shines and make sure none were spies. So far they had found only Shines desperate to retain freedoms normal Americans took for granted.

  There was a first time for everything.

  Rachel turned their SUV into an older middle class neighborhood. The lawns were artistically arranged rock and sand gardens broken up by neatly trimmed shrubs. Hardy desert trees towered inside stone and wrought-iron fencing. Rachel turned twice more before a small park, full of screaming children, appeared. Rachel parked in the crowded lot, the SUV blending in with the SUVs and minivans of the moms and nannies that’d brought their littles out to enjoy the afternoon sunshine.

  Rachel pulled out the latest edition of her favorite Hollywood gossip rag and reclined her seat. "Me and the gorgeous Arik Sova will hold down the fort while you ladies go make nice with the newbies and their handlers."

  Camille rolled her eyes. "I'm sure it'll be a real pool party
, as always." She opened her door and climbed out of the SUV.

  Sophia and Brenna slid out of the back seat. Sophia turned her face up to the sun. "It's a beautiful day for a walk, no? Russia is well below freezing this time of year."

  Camille grimaced. "I don't understand how anyone would want live in a place where it gets cold enough to make polar bears shiver."

  Sophia laughed, her usually soft Russian accent thickening as she spoke about her homeland. "You get used to it, yes? There is beauty in the cold. A clean bite that leaves the air refreshed. When the snows fall, the world sparkles, erasing the ugliness, bringing magic with each unique snowflake that lands on your tongue."

  Camille caught the longing on Sophia's face and put an arm around her shoulder. "You just have to say the word and I'll find a way for you to join your cousin there."

  Sophia smiled and shook her head. "This thing we fight, it's important, yes? You and the others in our team have become my family. My conscience wouldn't let me leave without you. And since I know you'll stay and fight, I must stay with you."

  Camille squeezed her shoulder, then dropped her arm. They moved through the parking lot away from the playground.

  She touched her glasses. "Team one, on foot, comm on."

  Dahlia, the mind speaking twin, spoke softly in her ear. "Team two, on foot, comm on."

  The pulse at the back of Camille's head began to pound. In less than a second, tiny lines, the nerves that relayed information from the retina to the brain, formed in her mind's eye. Focusing on the point where the lines formed two bunches that crossed, Camille Shined, pushing out a radio wave like command that no one see her or her team. She made sure to exclude Sophia and Brenna so they could still see each other.

  Down the street from the park, they stopped at an adobe bungalow. The white electric, wrought-iron gate stood halfway open as if the car parked inside had only just returned. They moved up the sidewalk to the front door and Camille adjusted her Shine so that those inside could see them. Then she knocked.

  Footsteps echoed from the back of the house. An older man, hair thinning and gray, smiled as he opened the door. "Welcome, ladies. It's always good to see you safe and ready to go."

  Camille nodded at him, some of her tension easing as the man used their code words to assure them all was well. "Thank you, Mr. Soren. We appreciate your hospitality."

  She was unsure why she'd been so on edge to begin with. These pickups had gone smoothly each of the previous trips. She stopped in the hall, allowing Sophia and Brenna to continue after Mr. Soren.

  She spoke softly to the sounds of breathing in her ear. "Team one in. Team two, update."

  "Team two approaching the front door to safe house B," Dahlia said as her partner, V, knocked on the door.

  Camille rolled her shoulders back, telling herself to relax as she heard V, Daisy and Dahlia greet safe house B's handlers. Everything was going exactly as planned. Focusing on her own mission, she exited the hall into an open kitchen, dining, and family area at the back of the house. Two women in their early twenties looked up at her, their gazes wary and tired.

  The elderly Mrs. Soren placed a heaping plate of cookies in the center of the table, familiar with the routine of these pickups. "Tea will be served in two minutes."

  Camille smiled. "Thank you for your hospitality, as always." She returned her gaze to the two women across the table from her. "I'm Camille. This is Brenna and Sophia. We'll be taking you to Ohm from here."

  Looks of relief flashed across each woman's face. Camille heard Daisy introduce team two to the three Shines at safe house B in her ear. She imagined the looks on those three Shine's faces matched these.

  The woman with spiky black hair in front of her let out a relieved sigh. "I was beginning to think we'd spend the rest of our lives being moved from city to city." Her crystal blue eyes glanced at each of Camille's team. "I'm Rain, by the way." She covered the clenched fist of the white-blonde haired Shine beside her and squeezed as if to reassure. "This is Celia." Shy hazel eyes glanced at Camille, then jerked back down to the table.

  Mrs. Soren began pouring tea into the tea cups in front of each of them. Camille reached for the sugar and milk, smiling her thanks.

  Brenna reached out and touched the other Shine's clenched fist. "You'll be able to relax soon, Celia." Both women responded to the kindness in Brenna's voice with smiles, never realizing her kindness hid a compulsion for the truth. "Camille found me in Oklahoma before the SSS could take me. She found Sophia in Texas. Where are you both from?"

  Rain darted a glance at Mrs. Soren as the older woman placed the teapot on the warmer in the center of the table. "Sioux Falls, North Dakota. My parents took me to a doctor when my ability appeared. When things became unsafe for those of us who'd seen the doctor, the nurse found me and told me about the chain of safe houses that would lead to a safe place for Shines."

  Brenna nodded her head, the signal for truth. Brenna moved her curious gaze to Celia.

  The blonde Shine flushed when everyone's attention shifted to her. "I'm from Portland, Oregon. I kept an old man from being hit by a car and attracted the attention of a member of the local SSS. They started harassing me. The old man's son runs a safe house and convinced my parents to let me go for my own safety." Tears filled her eyes but didn't spill over.

  Brenna nodded again.

  Camille inhaled and smiled at the two women. "You'll be able to relax soon, ladies. I promise." She turned to Mr. Soren and his white-haired wife, who stood waiting in the living room. "Ohm thanks you, as always." She handed them an envelope. "Until next time."

  Dahlia's voice in their ear made each member of her team freeze. "Chainmail."

  Daisy's voice continued to question the Shines at safe house B, while everyone in safe house A watched Camille.

  Dahlia’s voice filled Camille’s mind as she bypassed use of the radio to keep those in safe house B from hearing her report. Her name is Marla. She has an accent, possibly European of some sort. She is a mole sent to confirm that Ohm is located in Vegas then get word to her contact who will give her further instructions.

  “Was Daisy able to pick up anything about who the mole is working for?” Camille asked.

  Not yet.

  Rain tensed, her gaze darting around the room. "What's wrong?"

  Camille held up her hand. "Were the other two cleared yet?"

  Yes.

  Camille's mind raced. "Rachel."

  Rachel’s voice sounded from the radio in her ear. "On my way."

  "Sophia," Camille met the Russian girl's hard gaze. Sophia nodded then turned and headed for the front door.

  "Karen, you'll be team one driver now."

  "On my way."

  "I'll be in front of safe house A in fifteen seconds," Rachel said. "ETA at safe house B is ten minutes."

  Camille inhaled. "Keep them talking. Don't let on that anything's wrong. When Rachel and Sophia arrive, V will separate the wheat from the chaff."

  Ten minutes felt like hours as Daisy and Dahlia kept up a steady stream of conversation.

  "We parked one street over and are approaching safe house B on foot. Thirty seconds," Rachel said.

  "V, it's time."

  "Marla, you will not move. Marla, you will not use your Shine. Don't fight my voice. Sorrow and Eve leave the house and wait on the front porch. Marla, you will not move. Marla, you will not use your Shine."

  Though her voice didn't affect them, both Camille and Brenna shuddered as they imagined that voice being directed at them. They both knew that the people in the room with V would feel as though her voice caressed them intimately. Camille knew Marla, their bad egg, would be fighting with every muscle in her body. She'd struggle to resist V's command, even as her body reacted with sexual pleasure and did exactly what V told it to.

  Camille's heart pounded as V continued to repeat that Marla wouldn't move or Shine.

  "We're entering the house," Rachel said.

  V screamed.

  A crash
in the background.

  "Mrs. Rodriguez stabbed V," Dahlia cried.

  "Marla did something to her. She keeps thinking over and over that Marla needs her help. She'd do anything to help Marla," Daisy said.

  "Sophia get V out of here," Rachel yelled.

  Sophia appeared crouched in front of Camille, her arms wrapped around a heavily bleeding V. Mr. Soren pulled a first aid kit from a kitchen cabinet. Brenna took a towel from Mrs. Soren and pressed it against the bloody wound on V's shoulder.

  Rachel's voice yelled in their ears. "Dahlia, what the hell?"

  "Dahlia, no!" Daisy wailed, her voice so full of anguish that Camille knew something had gone terribly wrong.

  "What's wrong with her?" Sophia cried. "Daisy?"

  Daisy's voice sounded wrong in Camille's ear as she repeated, "She's gone. She's gone. She's gone, forever."

  "No pulse. Come on Dahlia, breathe," Sophia muttered. "Please."

  Daisy's voice provided an eerie background. "She's gone. She's gone. She's gone, forever."

  An unfamiliar voice came through the transmitter. "She's only brain dead. Her body is still very much alive." The deadly Shine paused. "For a little while, anyway."

  Daisy screamed. As sudden as it began, her scream ended and an eerie silence remained.

  "You're dead, bitch." Rachel cried as the world seemed to explode in Camille's ear.

  Sophia appeared again, tears flowing down her face as she gently cradled Dahlia in her arms. Camille met her stricken gaze. A hard knot formed in her stomach.

  "Daisy collapsed."

  The battle raged in her ear. A gun went off.

  Camille gritted her teeth. "Take me there, now."

  "I'm about used up, Cam."

  Camille nodded. She met Brenna's devastated gaze. "Karen is waiting at the park. Get V, Dahlia, and the rest to Ohm. I'm going to help Rachel put down our rabid dog."

  Sophia gently laid Dahlia's body on the floor then stood and wrapped her trembling arms around Camille.