by Lynn Vroman
Tarek’s eyes lost the edge. He pulled me close, and said so only I could hear, “I can’t lose you. Not again.”
I threaded my fingers through his hair, bringing his ear to my lips. “Wilma’s right. We have to think about more than us this time.”
“I can’t protect you if you leave here.” His voice shook as his fingers kneaded the small of my back.
“We’ll figure it out.” I turned to everyone else. “We’ll wait for Wilma. Until then, let’s get the supplies and find out where we’re all sleeping. I’m beat.”
Mom pulled Jake off the couch, and Belva went to stand next to Farren. He didn’t waste any time slinging an arm across her shoulders, fitting her to his side. “Ah, where’d Wilma go, anyway?”
“Back to Empyrean.” The scary, hard edge no longer deepened Tarek’s voice. Always fascinating how fast men could kiss and make up.
“Maybe I should go, too. Help her out,” Farren said.
“That’d piss her off. She’d rather have you here to be able to take these guys away fast if things go bad.” Tarek poked the fire once more and went to the trunks. “Wilma’s there in case the bastards trickle in, trying for sneak attacks.”
I followed him to the trunks, helping with the food and water. “You think they’ll…ah…trickle in?”
He handed me a box of granola. “Yes.”
TRAITOR
Avery breathed in slowly, trying to calm her rapid heart while the security scanner read her pupil. The screens being on… The coincidence did not sit well.
Once the doors breezed open, she and Nicolette stepped through the threshold for another security check, a body scanner buzzing around them. The floating balls beeped, their access lights flipping to green. With a waving hand and a bored look that defied the storm within, she sent the annoying apparatuses away.
The Creation Lab hadn’t changed in her two-day absence–hadn’t really changed in centuries. Of course, the typical rows of computers filled the room, some displaying holograms that Guides scrutinized. Others that computed formulas in bright red numbers above hunched bodies of more Guides trying to crack the few secrets left in the universe. This lab was ever efficient, ready to destroy the potential lives of energies new and old.
She passed the busybodies, who innocently believed they were making the universe better. Some pulled themselves away from their work long enough to acknowledge her. Another eye scan later, with a hand up to stay Nicolette, Avery stood in a second clear-screened room facing humanity’s worst mistake.
Numbness–the feeling as familiar as her own skin–settled on her shoulders and worked its way to her toes. Opening emotions would put her back in that dark place, the place she’d lived in before Lena came to her with a way out–an end.
Mechanical arms stripped her clothes and replaced them with the sterile, skin-tight suit and mask. She kept her attention on the bodies. Some without faces or definite shape lay like dolls in huge compression chambers. Piled in haphazard order by shape and gender, the infant chamber gave her numb shield the biggest challenge. This was where new energy ended up when deemed privileged enough, strong enough, to be an Exemplian. No parents, no real childhood. The general population didn’t know that. Implanted memories took over as soon as an energy entered a corporeal form.
Then the magic happened.
Artificial DNA thrown into the energy mix, giving these pseudo-humans abilities no one should have. Abilities like her own.
Exemplian life was not completely bleak. They’d give some bodies the ability to procreate, have life made the natural way, the right way. It all sounded beautiful, miraculous, but really it was to keep the population under control, give no one a chance to be suspicious.
Until Lena.
A sigh pushed the guilt away. She stepped from the sterile chamber. Deception never took a holiday.
Reports finalized. Check. Pairing requests authorized. Done. Older energy requesting retirement–not many. Odd. Protector to Guide ratio–completely unbalanced.
Avery leaned back, studying her screen. The new energy influx drove her bloody nuts. Too many were being sent here and all being docked as Protector. As if they were preparing for another war… “Oh, no.”
She jumped when the warning emergency light blinked and dinged politely. Before she could gauge the problem, bright, multicolored lights, hundreds of them, rushed into the energy containment tubes. The wall screens came to life with all the recycled lights’ MOS codes. All were Protectors, dumping into the chamber faster than the screens could keep up with the tally.
“Oh…no,” she repeated, as if the loud command could stop the screaming flow of Protectors, squeezed in tubes so tight the energy looked like one large, bulging light, an ancient fluorescent bulb.
She didn’t take the time to strip from her sterile gear as she tore from the room, on her way to the one office where she’d find answers.
“Cassondra!” Avery ignored the two admins trying to stop her.
Nicolette made sure the two men didn’t follow Avery inside the new authority commander’s office.
Cassondra stood in front of her screens, all tuned to Empyrean. The colorless woman, with pale hair and alabaster skin, didn’t bother to turn around. “I’m surprised. I would’ve thought you’d be here sooner, but…” she turned those watery blue eyes to Avery, “you’ve been unreachable for two days.”
Avery stayed silent, though rage made her lips tingle with everything that needed said.
“I was concerned, our Creation Lab overseer not here? Not where she is supposed to be? The Synod elders agreed.” Cassondra turned back to the screens. “We concluded now was the perfect time to re-activate the satellites. And guess what we found in our desperate search for one of our most valued members?”
Avery watched the screens, flinching at the carnage. Protectors and Empyreans lay slaughtered as the blue lights of Guides absorbed the flailing globes of Protector energy. Authority Guides also collected green orbs–the dead Empyreans. “What have you done?”
“We have traitors, Guide. Those who wish to destroy the very foundations on which this universe thrives. Months of inquisition, weeks of information processing, and we finally have answers.” The calm in the commander’s voice made Avery’s skin prickle. “But…you can imagine my surprise when I found our little wayward Guide at the center of the rebellion.”
Fear licked stinging paths through her limbs. Avery didn’t have to ask; she knew whom Cassondra meant. “Are you certain?” The composed façade had taken centuries of practice. The placid facial expressions consisted of years staring into a mirror, making sure no tells showed. But all that practice, all that time, couldn’t hide her thin, reedy voice, which sounded like a hovercraft’s vapor engine.
When Cassondra turned to face her this time, those dull eyes were alive–terrifying. “I have never been more certain.”
What have I done…?
“Perhaps we could talk to her Protector. Maybe someone has led her astray.”
“Enough, Guide. The girl is not stupid, and she has been warned. She refused to stay in her dimension, as ordered. If some…other traitor has given her false information, well I’m sure we will find out whom.” Cassondra tucked her hands inside the sleeves of her robe. “We have found this rebellion to run deeper than her present cycle. It seems she has co-conspirators who have not given up their treacherous ways.” Those dead eyes chained Avery to the floor. “And we will find all who are responsible, Avery. Every. Single. Traitor.”
The threat, as subtle as a thin breeze, ricocheted off the walls. Avery swallowed. “That is…troublesome, indeed.”
A mirthless smile tugged at Cassondra’s thin lips. “I am pleased you agree.”
Avery glanced at the screens, trying to grab hold of the calm slipping away at a much faster rate. “What shall we do with the Protector energy? Their documents… Many of those soldiers have chosen retirement after this cycle. We should make sure they are sent somewhere safe, away from the ba
ttle.”
“Recycle them back to Exemplar–all of them. If they refuse once their bodies go live, terminate their energy, file it as a Tainted.”
“But–”
“We are at war. No one gets a choice. Synod elders are in agreement with me that Empyrean and its Warden will be the first to suffer for their treason. They do not wish for our sister dimension to threaten the Exemplian population. Teenesee has harbored this traitor, and now she will pay with her world. Everyone who helps Lena will face retribution. I will take everything from her, as she…” Cassondra cleared her throat, rare emotion flitting over her face. “I will take from her before I kill her.”
Fear slithered through her blood. I did this!
Lena would pay with more than her life. So much more.
“You may leave now,” Cassondra said.
Avery backed toward the door, a plan already forming in her head. She had to get to Lena. “Very well.”
“Oh, yes, I almost forgot.” Cassondra kept her attention on the screens as more Protectors shot to Empyrean, carrying newer weapons used for one thing: complete annihilation. “The Synod elders have given permission to scan all private documents of Synod members. I trust you will comply?”
Avery’s lips grew numb and she had to hide her trembling fingers behind her back. “I–yes, of course.”
Cassondra turned to her, excitement shading her face. “Excellent.”
She knows…
Avery pushed the door open. “Good afternoon, Commander.”
At Cassondra’s nod, Avery left, hooking Nicolette’s elbow, more to keep from falling, as she rushed from the building.
Nicolette stopped her before leaving the front doors. “What’s wrong?”
“Please…” Tears threatened but Avery held them in check until they were as far away from the building as her legs could take her before they gave out. Nicolette held her up, concern in her eyes.
“She…she knows, Nicolette. We must leave. Now.”
SQUID WHISPERER
As soon as the door shut, my face heated and a tidal wave of shyness washed over me. The small cabin I had romanticized turned into a claustrophobic sauna. I had dreamed of this moment for five months. Granted the circumstances were different. There wasn’t some big dimensional war brewing. But we were finally alone, with no threat of company, and I couldn’t stop shaking.
“What’s wrong?” Tarek moved behind me, massaging my shoulders.
“I…well…” My eyes stayed glued to the narrow bed. “This is gonna sound crazy.”
“You’re scared? Nervous?”
“Bingo.”
“Me too.”
I turned. His eyes clouded and his mouth parted enough to notice his breath coming out in quick gasps. I raised a brow, covering his heart with a sweaty palm. The rapid pounding had my own anxieties bottoming out. If this man, Arcus’s Warden and certified badass, was feeling nervous about spending the night with me, maybe I was a bit of a badass, too.
I stood on my toes and touched my lips to his, smiling. “So…um…”
He grinned, trailing a finger down my cheek. “Kissing? Kissing is good.”
Relief filled my legs. I thought I was ready. Guess not. Not yet. “Kissing sounds better than good.”
He scooped me up. When he set me down on the bed, Tarek covered my body with his, all his weight supported by his elbows. He kissed me light, and then deeper, not even trying to touch me, no matter how hard I tugged. I groaned and punched him in the shoulder.
A laugh vibrated off his lips and hit mine. “Problem?”
“Kissing requires a little more touching.” I bit his bottom lip.
“Ouch! Be nice.” His tongue skated across my teeth marks. He then brushed a hand through my hair, his eyes softening and voice no longer playful. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“We can’t ignore it, Tarek. We can’t.” I pulled his head down until our foreheads touched. “But we can put it on hold.”
“That’s not good enough.”
I wouldn’t convince him; he’d never agree to anything. So I kissed him.
He went to break free, and I touched his cheek. We had hours. Hours I refused to spend in reality. “Stay.”
He cupped my face, his gray eyes belonging to me. “Always.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Hours later, we lay there, the bed too small to be comfortable for two people, but we managed. Well, I was fine on top of Tarek, using his wide chest for a cushion. He’d cramp up after more time like this.
When I pushed on his chest to get up, his arms tightened around me. “No.”
I smiled, tracing the muscles etching his stomach. There might’ve been only kissing, but I insisted we do it without his shirt on. “Hey, if you like me using you as a cushion…”
“I love it.”
“Me too.”
We had talked about nothing important, mostly me rehashing the last five months.
I missed his smile.
I missed his patience.
I missed everything about him.
But as much as I enjoyed the reprieve, time ran short. To take more would cross the line from selfish to cruel. “We can’t let them keep attacking Empyrean.”
The finger skimming over my shoulder stilled. “There’s nothing we can do to help.”
“We need to talk to the other Wardens, cause a stir, pick a fight. Get their focus off Teenesee’s world.”
“We’d need an army. Otherwise it’d be suicide.”
“It’s my fault. If I hadn’t–”
“No, stop. Stop, okay?”
Silence followed. Guilt wanted to keep arguing the point, but that wouldn’t solve any problems
He was right about the army, though. Not a thing I could do to keep an entire dimension from massacring innocent people. Farren and Jake? That’s all I had, really, besides Wilma. And she was pretty busy at the moment. Shit. Maybe– “I got it!” I jumped up.
Tarek sat, giving me that wary look a jogger gives a growling dog. “What, exactly, do you got?”
I straightened my wrinkled T-shirt. “The list! The list, the list. That’s what we’ll do.”
“You’re going to have to dial down the crazy and explain yourself better.”
Dial down the crazy? Not nice.
“Wilma gave me the list. You know. The list with all the names?”
He stared, his whole body tensing as he white-knuckled the edge of the bedframe.
“The list I wrote.” I shook my head and paced the tight space. “I mean, the past me…the old me…whatever. The one with the symbol? It has a ton of names on it. All people who obviously had some issues. We find the people on that list, we have an army.”
The wooden frame creaked before Tarek let go to fold his arms across his chest. “A couple problems with that plan, love.”
Again, silence. Ugh! The pauses were not as endearing as I remembered.
I waited thirty seconds more. “Well?”
“First, someone needs to get the thing. Protectors are more than likely waiting at your place for you to show up.” He raked a hand through his tangled hair. “And let’s say by some miracle you get the list. How are we going to find people who have spent almost twenty years hiding from the Synod? If they can’t find them, we don’t have a shot.”
“We have to try. That list is our one fighting chance.”
He stood completely still, pursing his lips. No argument would work. I was right, and we both knew it. “Why do you have to go? We’ll send Farren and Jake; tell them where to look.”
Tarek putting my safety above everything…made me realize exactly what I had been doing. I put him above everyone, too, even getting excited when the notion of danger popped up, just so I could be with him. Danger, I might add, that landed on Teenesee’s doorstep. This would be a perfect opportunity to prove to both Wilma and myself that I wasn’t some selfish kid. I wanted to show her how much I did care about what others have done for me by returning the favor. “This isn
’t Jake’s problem, and Farren…yeah, he’ll want to come, anyway. Has to so we can cross the lines. But I’m not a fragile doll, Tarek. I’m going.”
His head dropped and his feet received all his attention. “I hate that I can’t go with you.”
I went to him, lifting his chin. “I love you. More than my own life, I love you. But don’t make me resent how much you want me safe.”
That did it. His cheeks sagged as he nodded. “Okay…I… Okay.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Morning light hit us, and I awoke cramped and sweaty, Tarek’s chest was definitely not as comfortable as my bed when shoving in a few hours of sleep. I pushed off his stomach and flopped to the floor like a fish on a boat to the background music of his laughter.
“Not funny.” With a stretch, loud joint cracks followed. “Arrangements are gonna have to change if you want me to sleep over.”
He adjusted to his side, smiling. “I do enjoy our sleepovers. Perhaps a bigger bed?”
I waved my hand around the room. “Ah, perhaps a bigger place so we can fit a bigger bed? Why build so small, ace?”
“Awful demanding, aren’t you?” He threw a pillow, thwacking me on the side of my head. “And had I known I’d be with you again, I’d have built you an entire city.”
“I don’t need a city. Honestly, I don’t need a bigger place. I need you.” Smiling, I tucked the pillow under my head, enjoying the extra space on the hard, splintered floor. “But I’m surprised Wilma didn’t kick your ass, sleeping in here.”
He chuckled. “Surprising, yes. She wasn’t so upset after I let her have the bed.”
“Well, you’re a regular gentleman.” I closed my eyes, drumming fingers on my stomach.
Talking about Wilma had my mind wandering to Zander and shame washed over me. Last time I saw him he was unconscious with a nasty gash marring his temple. “Has Wilma talked to you at all? Let you know what’s going on over there? Any news on Zander?”
Tarek stood, stretching as he cracked his neck. “Zander will live. And it seems things were quiet as of last night. I haven’t heard from her since. I tried a couple times with no answer, typical when she’s in a temper. But…the Protectors’ energies weren’t left, which means the attack was calculated.” He paused, looking out the small window. “There had to be a nest of Guides somewhere, ready to take them back to Exemplar. In the past, whenever Exemplar had gone to war with another dimension, they made sure there were Guides, lots of them…”