by DCS
Christopher stared up at Kayla. “Your father knew what you were, Kayla. We all did. He loved you. We loved you. Be a part of this family. Stand on the right side.” The latter sharpened and raised his voice, his heavy mix of emotions tightly expressed.
There were five seconds of silence. Lucien felt like his heart was going to pop as he watched; felt like the breath would never get down into his lungs. His eyes darted from Kayla’s gun to Uncle Christopher’s face. He had to do something. Someone had to do something.
Vasco kept his steady, impassive gaze on Olivia and Amadeo. Inside, the heart that lived with the pain of the loss of three others prepared for the loss of another. Goodbye, Christopher.
“Wrong answer,” Kayla said softly. She squeezed the trigger.
§
Simone’s cry vibrated against the hard, messy press of their mouths. Caleb pulled back, but only far enough that he could watch the way the lines of pleasure moved on her face, so he could make a new memory and paint it in the color of her eyes, drowned in passion, dark with love. He wanted her to be as lost as he was; so far gone that past and present collided and exploded, leaving nothing but the emotion that had brought them together from one lifetime to the next. Caleb demanded more out of her, tested the nearly nonexistent lines of his own control when he met her raised hips with shorter thrusts. Each hard movement earned Simone’s answering cry. Each cry was sharper than the last. Every touch became more desperate, until she was clutching at him, raking him with her nails, and writhing beneath him. Sweat glistened in the hollows of her body. Her breath came in half, shuddering gasps. She kissed him hard enough that she tasted blood.
"Caleb," she panted, "I'm… Kyle, I'm—!" Simone went rigid, breathless anticipation etched onto her face, and with a wavering cry of release, she broke.
§
“You fucking bitch!” Lucien jumped up from the floor in a blind rage, and was knocked down again by the furious strike from the butt of Amadeo’s gun. He didn’t get back up.
Olivia smirked, and spoke to Lucien’s motionless form. “Don’t worry, she’ll ask you, too.”
A single tear slipped from the corner of Isabella’s eyes as she heard the sickening thumb of her brother’s body hitting the floor. Kayla stepped in front of her. Isabella looked up at Kayla with firm; immovable Terenzio resolve. “You know my answer.”
Kayla pressed the muzzle of her gun against Isabella’s forehead. “Yes, I do.”
§
Caleb groaned roughly into her hard kiss and went with her, shuddering against her, pulsing hotly, deeply inside of her and clutching her to him in a bruising grip that would leave its own passionate mark.
Surrender had never been so sweet.
Trembling from exertion, Simone sank into the welcoming folds of the couch and pulled Caleb down with her, pressing a damp, flushed cheek to his. Her heart pounded against his chest, beating an answering rhythm to his own. Smiling faintly, she closed her eyes and let herself drift in the haze left in pleasure's wake.
When he could catch his breath, Caleb murmured lazily against her skin, "Do you know how long I've wanted to do that to you?"
§
“Do you know how long we’ve been waiting to do this?” Olivia asked Vasco
Ignoring Olivia, Vasco called out to Kayla, “If only your mother could see you, now.”
Four out of five pounds of pressure sat on the trigger of Kayla’s gun. Isabella was certain she saw something move, come to life, in Kayla’s cold, blank stare.
“If you don’t shut up, Vasco, I’m going to make you.” Dominic slanted his darkly promising eyes over to his cousin.
“You remember Marilyn, don’t you?” Vasco asked, ignoring Dominic’s warnings.
Kayla stiffened, turned her head, and set the full force of her gaze on Vasco.
The corner of Vasco’s mouth curled; just enough. A second later, the door at the far end of the ballroom blew open.
§
Simone pieced together the presence of mind to laugh, and to give Caleb’s shoulders a light squeeze. "No, I don't." Her smile deepened when she caught a glimpse of his, and she tilted her head back to meet his eyes. She stroked his face. "How long?"
Caleb took the opportunity to kiss her, softly. "First time we met, five years ago. The day I dropped coffee on your shoe." His smile grew.
Simone grinned faintly. Had he known who she used to be on the day he spilled coffee on her shoe? Had he known who he used to be? She opened her mouth to ask him those very questions when his phone buzzed across the floor. Caleb tensed and pushed off her. It was the last thing that he wanted to do, but, if his phone was ringing, nothing good was happening. "You should probably start getting dressed."
It wasn't the phone call itself that had Simone moving, but the tension in Caleb’s body, and then his suggestion. She pushed off of the couch and snatched her dress off of the floor. "What's wrong?"
Caleb looked down at the message that appeared, and his blood ran cold. “Everything.”
Chapter 15
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”
–Ben Okri
December 1, 2012 - 11:22 PM
Alcyone Island
Phoenix Resort Hotel
When the door blew open, all hell broke loose a second time. All eyes flew to the smoke filling the entrance way. It barely concealed the movement of the military police as they began to rush into the room, guns blazing. John threw his body into Isabella’s, knocking her to the floor and out from underneath the muzzle of Kayla’s gun. Vasco took advantage of the distraction, lowered his shoulder, and went barreling into Amadeo and subsequently Olivia. Thrown off balance, Amadeo went crashing to the floor under Vasco’s weight and Olivia stumbled backwards, barely managing to catch herself on a bar stool.
Kayla drew her gun’s attention away from Isabella and pointed it towards the doors, backing up as the PLFs moved to cover her. Another explosion rocked the room when the second ballroom door blasted open, this one behind Vasco’s position. A swarm of Dion Corp Security guards came rushing in, crouching down and moving quickly over to the two heirs.
Amadeo moved fast, throwing his fist up into Vasco’s jaw and flipping him off. Amadeo clambered to his feet, just to duck down as bullets flew over his head, coming from the Dion Corp guards. Amadeo grabbed Olivia by the arm and pulled her towards the doors that led out to the beach. One of the doors stood open, with a member of the PLFs crouched inside of it and waving a hand at them.
“C’mon, we’ve got to go!” Amadeo shouted at her.
“No, we don’t!” Olivia wrenched back from his grip, pointing her gun at Vasco, who was bent over trying to pull up his brother. “Not until they’re dead!”
The MPs formed a line and raised their bullet proof shields to provide cover. Leone saw Olivia from across the room, raised his own gun, and fired at her. Luckily, Amadeo saw it and knocked Olivia to the ground just as she pulled her own trigger, both bullets barely missing their targets.
“We can’t kill them in here. Wait for back up. They won’t get off the island alive,” Amadeo hissed, and roughly grabbed Olivia’s arm and hauled her to her feet, dragging her.
John got Isabella safely out into the hallway. She was shaken, but otherwise as sharp as ever and mad as hell. “Get me a radio. Is the triplets’ plane ready?”
“Army is scrambling,” a MP solider told her, handing over an ear piece. “Two fighters are going over to Loyalty right now. The others are getting ready to engage the enemy. They’ve got more coming.”
“Sir, we’ve got to go!” one of the Dion Crop security guards shouted at Vasco, grabbing him by the arm. Vasco smacked Lucien across the cheek again, and his brother came awake with a start and a groan.
“My fuckin’ head,” Lucien muttered, wincing.
“C’mon. Get up.” Vasco pulled him to his feet, following the guards out into the hallway.
“Where is Madame President?”
“Upstairs. You send a chopper to the roof and bring them to the airfield. Do it now,” Vasco ordered, and the Agent brought his wrist to his mouth, speaking hurriedly into the radio. Vasco looked over at Isabella. “We need to go.”
Isabella met Vasco’s eyes. “Yes, you do.” She stepped into him and kissed his cheek. “You finish it. Go.”
For a brief moment, Vasco’s brow creased. He took Isabella’s hand, squeezing it tightly. Lucien stood at his brothers’ side, his eyes raw and pained. “We’ll get them, Aunt Isabel. I promise.”
Isabella gave Vasco a quick, reassuring smile, then turned it onto Lucien. She kissed his cheek. “He loved you like his own son,” she said, meaning Christopher. “And he was very proud of you. We all are.”
Tears sprang into Lucien’s gray eyes. The image of Uncle Christopher’s death would haunt him for a long time. “I love you,” Lucien said in a trembling voice.
Isabella smiled and patted his cheek.
Leone rushed over to them, the sounds of shouts, gunfire and violent chaos echoing out around them. “They’re going to overrun this hotel any second. You’ve got to get out of here. We’ll hold them off.”
“Let’s go.” Clasping his brother’s shoulder, Vasco nodded once at his family. He didn’t expect to see them again. Not this lifetime. He and Lucien jogged off with the small crowd of Dion Corp security agents around them.
Outside, it was a war zone. Dion Corp agents stood around a bullet proof Hummer, frantically waving Vasco and Lucien over. The sky above them was littered with the black, hulking shadows of attack helicopters that deposited wave after wave of men in combat uniforms. They carried machine guns and fired at the Alcyone army below.
“We can’t leave without Simone!” Lucien shouted at his brother as they were shoved into the back of the hummer.
“We won’t. Caleb’s with her. They’ll make it.”
Lucien nodded, his jaw setting in quiet fury. “I’m going to fucking kill every one of them, Vasco.”
“Yes, brother, yes we are.”
§
Dominic and Nicholas had taken cover out on the beach behind a line of black SUVs that had transported the PLFs. Kayla stood with them for a time, coordinating where she wanted the organic robots, and then stepped away from them once sufficient reinforcements had arrived.
“How long have you been a part of this?” Nicholas asked his father.
Dominic spared his son a brief glance. “Thirty-eight years.”
Nicholas felt a slow fury crawling over him. His father would have been deeply entrenched in the Brotherhood when his family was killed. It was unlikely that the Brotherhood would forget to warn both of them. “Did you know about my family? Did they warn you?”
Dominic thought that his son’s family was dysfunctional. If Nicholas had a wife and a mistress, that would have been fine properly handled. Instead, Nicholas had a wife and a lover—a male lover; one who was allowed in Nicholas’s home and allowed to taint Dominic’s grandchildren with his disgusting lifestyle. “It doesn’t matter. Stay focused on the matter at hand,” Dominic snapped.
“You knew,” Nicholas said lowly, but louder the second time. “You knew?!”
Dominic looked back at his son, sneering in revulsion. “Of course I knew. I didn’t tell you to teach you a lesson. I hope you’ve learned it. Now, get ready to move.”
For seconds, Nicholas saw red. He had known his father was a hateful, spiteful, selfish man, but Nicholas had never thought him truly evil. Until then. Nicholas raised his gun and pointed it in his father’s face. “I’m not on your side. I never have been.”
Dominic stared at his son with furious incredulity. “How dare you. Get that gun out of my face. Of course you’re on this side.”
Nicholas laughed bitterly. “Oh, no. After my family, I turned. I’ve been ratting you all out to Marcello for years. And I’m going to make sure that you rot in hell.”
Dominic’s eyes widened, his face turning red; a combination of anger and sudden fear. “Nicholas—”
It was the last word he spoke.
Nicholas pulled the trigger, blowing a hole in his father’s face. Stepping over the dead body, Nicholas shot him again, just because his rage bled that thickly. The sound of the chaos around him finally roared back into his ears and spurred him into action. He shot out the tires on three out of the four vehicles, ran to the fourth, opened the driver’s door, and killed the man at the wheel. Yanking out the dead body, Nicholas climbed into the drivers’ seat, peeling out and pulling out his cell phone. He needed to get to his sister. Then, they needed to leave.
§
“Roger that, we’ll meet the helicopter on the roof,” Caleb said quietly, poking his head out of the door to the suite. On this floor, the hallway was quiet. “C’mon.” Gun in hand, he slipped from the room and took Simone’s hand in his other, moving quickly towards the stairwell.
“Just what the hell is going on down there, Caleb?” Worry clouded Simone's features.
“I don’t know how bad, but the island is under attack. We’re in evac mode.” Caleb halted her by the door to the stairwell, listening. He pushed the door open a crack, his gun raised as he stepped in. He looked over the railing, just as Kayla looked up from three floors below. “Shit. Move fast and stay low, babe. They’re on our ass.”
Heart pounding, Simone took off her heels and ran past Caleb as he instructed, darting up the staircase and keeping herself bent over. She could hear shouts below her, immediately followed by the sound of gunfire. Bullets ricocheted off the metal, sending off small sparks and pulling a startled cry from Simone’s lips.
“Keep moving. Eyes straight ahead,” Caleb urged from behind her. He didn’t bother trying to shoot back yet. He needed the rounds for when they got to the roof. He touched his ear piece and said, “That helicopter better be waiting.”
“It’s a fucking shit storm out here, sir,” came the static-filled reply, “but we’re almost there. AF is cleaning house.”
“That guy better be as good of a pilot as you used to be!” Simone shouted, slightly out of breath.
“Few pilots are as good as I used to be, but so long as he can dodge bullets and not crash, we don’t have that far to go.” Caleb managed a quick grin, hoping Simone could hear it in his voice.
They reached the door to the roof, and Caleb used his security code to get the door open, pausing to quickly check outside and make sure they were alone. When he didn’t see anyone he motioned Simone through and shut the door, just as a hail of bullets ripped into it. Caleb stepped back and shot the control panel, buying them some time.
They ducked behind an air vent and he trained his gun on the door. “This would be a lot more fun if you had that cute little revolver you used to carry on your thigh,” Caleb said, double checking his clip.
Simone smirked. “I’m really pissed off right now that I don’t.”
“It’s okay. Now, I don’t have to worry about accidentally shooting myself in my haste to get you unclothed.” Caleb winked at Simone, and she smiled at him, just as the door to the roof blew open and their helicopter appeared. An Omega Cadre sat in the open helicopter door, letting loose a round of cover fire.
“That’s your ride, babe. Go, I’ll cover you.”
“Tell me you’re coming with me,” Simone demanded.
“Right behind you. Playing hero applies this lifetime, too. Go on.” Caleb poked his head around the vent and fired two shots that landed in one PLFs’ head as he tried to get out the door. Simone hesitated, but relented, and ran over to the helicopter. The Cadre reached down to help her up and was pulling her inside when he got shot in the neck.
Simone fell in and looked over at the soldier, startled. The pilot looked back, confirmed that she was on board, and began pulling them up into the air.
“Wait!” Simone grabbed the machine gun out of the dying soldier’s hands and leaned out the side of the helicopter. In her cu
rrent incarnation, she had never used a machine gun, but she had a few of Liliana’s memories to rely on.
“Ma’am, I have orders to get you to the airfield!”
“If you move this helicopter without my husband, I will shoot you myself!” Simone snapped, and then jerked her eyes back to the ground. She didn’t even notice what she had called Caleb. What she did notice was that he was pinned behind the vent as the PLFs began creeping out onto the rooftop.
“Caleb, get over here!” Saying a little prayer, Simone hoisted up the machine gun and squeezed the trigger. The first few rounds went haywire, and she cursed like a sailor. Memory, sharp and vivid, flashed behind her eyes. She adjusted her grip on the gun, and the next time she pulled the trigger, a heavy tide of bullets sent two of the soldiers that looked human, but didn’t, right to the ground.
Caleb jerked a glance over his shoulder and saw Simone with a machine gun in her hands, eyes blazing determinedly. Suppressing a grin, he pushed off from behind the vent and sprinted over to the helicopter. “Take her up, take her up,” Caleb shouted to the pilot as he jumped in. Simone fired another round at the soldiers below, just because she was pissed, as the helicopter flew away.
Kayla pushed past the PLFs and came out onto the roof as the helicopter gained altitude then whizzed off towards the airfield. “Are you all this useless?” she snapped her eyes over the PLFs and brought her radio up to her mouth, “Simone got away. All forces to the airfield. The triplets don’t leave this island alive.”
§
Agata was in her office in the Dion Corp building when the world went insane. Three men in all black fatigues with a strange symbol painted on their faces had rushed into the building, nearly deserted at this hour, and pulled her from her office. Her demands to know what was going on were only met with the response that her father had sent them.