Venom withdrew his hand as a smile stretched his lips.
“Traitor. We should have killed you.” Raptor spat the words out in a seething rage.
“But you did not,” he said in a smooth tone.
Raptor shook her head vigorously, pressing herself back into the couch. “I don’t know how you pulled this one off, but it ends now. I’m going home, and you’re going back in your box.”
Sliding away from him, she pushed herself up and started toward the door with determined steps.
“The little room in the mental institute?” Venom half smiled at her and then sneered. “I think not.”
A man about three feet tall stepped out from behind Venom’s desk. Moving swiftly, he made his way to the door and reached it before Raptor did.
Raptor stopped and glared down at him. His shoes were made of brown, stain-covered leather with bulbous toes and fraying shoelaces.
“You,” she snarled. It was the man who had attacked her at the fair and stolen the Stone of Power. Now, he stood in her way.
He gave her a toothy grin, pulling the Stone of Power from behind his back. She froze, recalling touching it and how it had stripped her of energy. She did not want to repeat the experience.
Venom smirked. “Sit down, my dear.”
Raptor spun around and walked over to the couch. Lashing out would be a mistake. If he did mean to kill her, he already had it planned. She had to save her strength until a moment to escape presented itself.
“Not there,” he said.
She turned to glare at him.
Venom smiled as he walked over to a small table with a pair of chairs. He pulled one out.
Raptor glanced to the small man with the Stone of Power. If she tried to make a break for it, the man would attack her with the Stone. She may overpower him, but with Venom also there, she could never do it fast enough. Sighing in frustration, she made her way over to the table, easing past Venom and settling into the chair.
Venom ran his hand down Raptor’s cheek, causing her to shudder. He let it come to rest on her shoulder.
Although he had never said anything outright, she had always suspected that he had feelings for her, even if she never had returned them. They had been friends once. He had mentored her, taught her to be the warrior she was, but he had betrayed her.
Raptor clearly remembered the day Bringer died. She had been away when it happened, but upon returning, she found the base in disarray. The others had stopped Venom from escaping but not without a cost to themselves. Venom was a powerful Keeper, able to use plants to cause great devastation.
At first, she had been overwhelmed with grief, but when she saw the pain Venom had inflicted on the others, it turned into inconsolable fury. If Earth had not stopped her, she would have killed him. Instead, she disconnected Venom from Earth, preventing him from using his powers ever again.
She thought, at the time, she had done the right thing, but now she had doubts. Maybe if she had kept him locked up in the Keeper base, then he would not be standing here now, threatening her.
Venom reached down and picked up her hand. Burns covered her arm, bright red welts wherever the creature had touched her. “I hope my pet did not hurt you too much.”
Wrenching her hand away from Venom, Raptor clenched it into a fist. “That thing was yours? What are you doing?”
Venom lifted his hands. “It is for the betterment of the world.”
“Better? It killed innocent people at the fair!”
A cold smirk pulled across Venom’s lips. “You must not have watched for long. The deaths were far from random.”
Raptor frowned. If it did not kill randomly, then who was it targeting?
“Questers,” Venom offered as if reading her thoughts. “Earth’s.”
Raptor gawked at him. “You wouldn’t …” She started to stand up, but Venom put his hands on her shoulders.
Forcing her to sit down, he spoke in a firm tone, “Do not move again.” A vein on his forehead twitched in annoyance.
Raptor closed her eyes, trying to refocus her thoughts.
Earth’s humans were Questers, but some were more powerful than others. If Venom killed the stronger ones, then he removed any humans who could resist him as he tried to amass power, making it easier to force weaker Questers to follow him.
Humans could be extremely fickle. They banded together for all sorts of reasons and fought over just as many. When powerful Questers of Earth became a leader, they could inspire a great number of people to enact change in the world—good and bad.
If Venom took control of enough Questers, then he could become an architect of change. The problem was, the changes would be of his own design and most likely would not align with Earth’s plans.
Venom tightened his grip on her shoulders and leaned over. He whispered, “Do not worry, my dear. You can trust me.” He pulled back, a disarming smile making his eyes squint.
“You’re killing people. So excuse me if I don’t.” Raptor tried to pull away from him. “This is wrong, and you know it. Earth won’t stand for this, and I’m going to find that creature and pulverize it.”
He held her in place, physically stronger than her. “Would you like me to release it so you can fight it? There is a reasonably sized town nearby.”
There was no way she could win in a one-on-one fight with the monster. Besides, Venom was taunting her, trying to draw a reaction out of her.
He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth. “Relax, or I will turn it loose again.”
Raptor took a deep breath and let her shoulders drop, her body relaxing. It was easier to play along, let him think his threat had affected her.
“Better,” he said. He walked over to the opposite chair and promptly took a seat. Motioning to the short man, Venom said, “Tor, get us something to drink.” He turned his gaze to Raptor and set both hands on the top of the table, folding them together. “What would you like?”
Raptor did not answer him. She hoped he would volunteer more information on his own.
Earth’s fear was still buried inside of her. Only when she got the answer right would the planet stop pressing on her emotions. She thought she might be close; the intensity of the emotion was less. Whatever Earth feared had something to do with Venom.
Venom rubbed his temple. “Fine. Just bring her a glass of water.”
Tor shuffled over to the desk and placed the Stone on the corner of it. Then he hobbled over to a small bar jutting out from the wall. Grabbing an empty glass from inside the cabinet, he filled it with water from a pitcher sitting on the top of the bar. A shuffling step brought Tor back to Raptor, and he offered her the glass.
She took it from him with a glare but did not drink it.
Venom smiled at her. “It has been awhile, three years to the day. Ever since … well, you remember the day he died, I’m sure.”
Raptor clenched her hands into fists. This whole scenario played out like some bad movie. Now all that needed to happen was for Venom to reveal his plans and leave her tied up while he went off to take over the world. Then, by some improbable chance, the Keepers would come to her rescue, riding upon dragons to slay the villain—heroes of the day.
That would have been ridiculous, but now that she thought about it, Raptor halfway hoped he would tell her something of his plan.
“You are oddly quiet, even for you,” Venom said. “Come, you must have something to say after all these years? Do you not remember all the fun we had?”
Raptor sneered at him. Their relationship had started out rocky, but in time, they became friends. She remembered a particular time when Venom had pledged his loyalty to her.
* * * * * *
The wild boar feigned a charge, its bristles standing up straight on its back. It skipped a step and jumped off to the side just as a small bush rose from the ground right in front of it. The leaves were a rich emerald green, covered in tiny white hairs.
“Well done, Raptor,” Venom said as the plant grew large
r, attempting to reach out to the boar.
The boar jerked away and then transformed into a teenager about fourteen years old with dark red hair. The metamorphosis jarred her every time, taking up a lot of energy. She knew she would have to practice to become faster at changing.
Raptor jumped back from the bush as it reached out for her again. She knew if it touched her, she would regret it. The stinging plant could give a painful burning sensation that persisted for hours. Raptor observed the rest of the forest. Plants covered the ground and every towering tree was a threat. She had to keep her wits about her if she did not want to become tangled up in one of Venom’s traps.
“It would be a lot easier if I could just shoot you!” Raptor picked a rock up off the ground and threw it at Venom, trying to disrupt his control of the plant. She had to dodge as a vine snuck up behind her, trying to wrap around her foot. It threw her aim off.
Venom jumped over the tall buttress root of a giant tree and ducked behind it. The rock slammed into the root with a heavy thud.
“Beating me is not the point of this exercise. You need to master changing forms.”
Raptor snarled and shape-shifted again, becoming a large bird with deep black feathers and a tall crest on top of her bare, blue-skinned head. The cassowary was flightless, but it made up for it with a pair of long inner claws on its feet that could rip someone apart, if she could get close enough to him.
Venom was a challenging adversary to get near, especially in the rainforests of Nicaragua. She would have to go on the offensive if she wanted any hope of winning. Just once, she wanted to beat him.
Raptor jumped straight up as a tree shot up under her, growing faster than she could keep up with. She found herself tangled in its branches as it continued to grow larger. Her best chance was to get to the ground before he boxed her in. Kicking off a branch, Raptor propelled herself downward as other branches crossed in front of her. She used her wedge-shaped body to push aside vines and limbs.
The tree gave way, and the large bird fell into a pile of vines waiting for her on the ground. It was like the maw of a terrible green monster with heart-shaped leaves for teeth. She impacted the ground and kicked out at the plant, her talons slicing through a number of vines, but they wrapped themselves over her body and pinned her to the ground.
Raptor shifted back into her human form as Venom stepped up beside the vines. He grinned down at her. “How many is that now?”
“It’s two to zero,” Raptor grumbled. The vines withdrew from across her body and loosened their grip around her limbs. She sat up, brushing the plants away. At least this time thorns did not cover them.
Venom offered her a hand and pulled Raptor to her feet. “Admit it, you enjoy this.”
She shrugged at him, but it was true. “It’s not fair. I can’t use my human form to its full advantage.”
“You need to master changing forms before you master shooting a weapon or fighting. Besides, you retain your intelligence. You should use that.”
Raptor snorted, but a smile pulled on her lips, knowing he was right. Her range of animals was limited to things about her weight. Changing into larger or smaller versions of other animals was impossible—too many problems associated with it. Larger animals had thicker bones; the hearts of smaller animals beat faster, and those were just the start of the complexities. There were muscles, nervous systems, and other organs to consider.
Raptor reached up and rubbed her shoulder where she had hit the ground. Any injuries she took while transformed carried over to her human form.
“Are you all right?”
“Just came down wrong.” She could manage the pain, but she knew she would not be able to lift her arm again for a few days.
Venom reached over to touch her. “May I?”
Raptor stepped closer, turning her back to him. Venom pulled back the collar of her shirt. “How bad is it?” she asked, twisting her head to peer at the injury. No blood at least, but her skin was already starting to bruise.
“Not broken, but we should get it treated.” He let go of her shirt.
She rolled her shoulder, a tight pain pulling at her muscles. “Ugh, I can’t wait until Dynamos and I develop the retrovirus. It’s going to change everything.” She turned to face Venom, her voice rising in pitch as she became more animated. “Our healing will be faster, we won’t need as much sleep, and it might even open new ways for us to use our powers.”
Walker had discovered a tiny dimension of energy they could tap into and, with the right tools, use. The trick would be building the tools. The retrovirus would just be the first part.
When introduced to the body, the retrovirus would enter the nucleus of their cells and insert itself into their DNA. In effect, it would teach their bodies how to draw energy from the tiny dimension.
“I might be able to change mass because of it!” Raptor added, glancing up at the sky as she grinned to herself. With access to limitless energy, she could theoretically change mass. While energy and mass were intertwined, they could not be converted back and forth at will. Instead, the energy would be used to drive cell division, which in turn became mass. It would be how healing worked. Decreasing mass meant ridding herself of the extra weight. Possibly, she thought, into the dimension of energy, but she would have to experiment with it.
Mastering it would be demanding, but Raptor wanted to learn to change into a bird and fly. It was her dream, reflected by her chosen name: Raptor—after the birds of prey.
Venom leaned in closer, his hands clasped in front of him. “Are you certain about this? Once we do it, it cannot be undone.”
“We keep discovering increasingly dangerous worlds and races. We almost died running into the Sonay like that—appearing right in the middle of their fleet. Then talks with them broke down.” She let out a long sigh. “You warned me not to go snooping on their planet afterwards, but I did anyway and got caught.” The Sonay were aliens in the same universe as Earth. Their technology was several centuries beyond anything the Keepers had.
“Took us days to get you out.”
Raptor frowned, reaching out to touch Venom on the arm. “I’m sorry. I should have listened, but I’m being careful with the retrovirus. I don’t expect it to solve all of our problems, but you, Bringer, and several others were critically injured. It crippled our capacity to do anything for weeks. If the Sonay had managed to follow us or figured out where Earth was, we would have been helpless. This will let us get back on our feet faster; that’s all I know for sure. I’m just speculating about the rest.”
Closing his eyes, Venom spoke in an unenthusiastic tone. “This is your call.”
Raptor scoffed, knowing he was trying to avoid a confrontation just by agreeing with her. “No, don’t you go there again with that Earth-put-me-in-charge stuff. You’ve been doing this longer than me. I need your approval on this.”
He shuffled from one foot to the other. Finally, Venom opened his eyes. “Once you are finished, we will test it and go from there.”
“Thanks.” She smiled as big as she could, hoping he would know she was not upset at him. “I want us to be friends, for real, and not because Earth forced us to be.”
Venom smiled in return. “Me too.”
“Now, could we please go home? My arm is killing me.”
* * * * * *
Raptor shook the memory from her mind. Setting her glass down, she gave him a weak smile and said in a sarcastic tone, “So, what’s your plan this time? Capture me so you can threaten Earth to make it take you back? You know how well threats work with the planet.”
Venom leapt up, his chair scraping across the floor, and started toward Raptor with surprising speed. Grabbing her glass of water, she threw it at him as she jumped away.
The glass hit the side of Venom’s face with a thud. Water washed over him as the glass fell to the ground and broke into several large pieces. He wiped the water from his face. “How dare you!” he snarled.
Venom was acting far more reckles
s and cruel than Raptor remembered him being. Even at the lowest point in their friendship—when he had screamed at her for being foolish and that she should have died on the Sonay planet—never did she think he might hurt her. Then he had killed Bringer. Her trust in him had vanished, and she knew he meant to hurt her now, if he could catch her.
Raptor had already gained some distance from Venom, heading toward his desk and the Stone of Power. The risk was huge, but it would be her only chance. Everything the Keepers were working on hinged on that Stone.
She touched a finger to an area behind her ear and felt a small bump under her skin. Pressing it activated the communication device hidden there. “Mouse!” she yelled. It would take him a few seconds to respond. All she had to do was avoid Venom long enough for Mouse to portal her out.
Just as she reached the desk, Venom sent the small table flying toward her with a growl of rage.
Raptor grabbed the Stone and dove behind the desk as the table slammed into it. She hardly noticed the blow. The Stone ate through her energy, causing pain to flood her body. She pushed it from her mind as she backed away from Venom. She needed an escape.
“Raptor?” Mouse sounded worried, his voice quivering.
“Get me out of here!”
Venom caught up to her and seized her by the arm. “Yes, take me right into the middle of your compound.” He wrenched the Stone from her hand.
“Locking on,” Mouse said.
If Mouse portaled her now, then Venom would end up coming with her to the Keeper base. She would not risk the safety of the other Keepers, not without knowing a lot more. “Ignore that order,” she said to Mouse.
Venom glared at her.
“Ven—” Raptor started, but Venom snatched her hand away from her ear, severing the transmission.
“They cannot save you.” Venom tossed the Stone to Tor, who hovered nearby like a pesky fly.
Tor caught it and clutched it tightly between his hands.
Venom wrapped an arm around Raptor’s waist, keeping her from slipping away. “This is your punishment for the way you treated me. I am the rightful leader of the Keepers, and you should be taking orders from me. I should be Earth’s herald.”
Stone of Power (Keepers of Earth Book 1) Page 9