Mindbreaker (A Cassidy Edwards Novel Book 3)

by Carmen Caine

  A bloodcurdling scream tore through the darkness.

  I recoiled, almost bolting.

  For a moment, I swore I saw the Fallen One’s long, spaded tail outlined against a sudden flash of light exploding near the Rowle family crypt.

  I stood on edge, wondering if I should run to help or simply run away.

  It didn’t matter, because the next moment, the nanos almost caught me by surprise. They were close. I heard their metallic buzzing rumbling towards me like an avalanche and then, the shadows on the ground around me shifted.

  I didn’t have time to think after that.

  Instinct rose, unexpectedly unleashing the full specter lying dormant within me.

  It was all much simpler then. A piece of cake. I saw a much easier way to change the nanos’ vibrations. With a smile, I whispered to the Nether Reach mists, summoning them to dance with my fingers. Bony fingers. Wasted and with little flesh. But I didn’t mind it so much now, and this time, the lack of flesh for the nanos to latch onto was a decided advantage.

  Grinning, I plucked the mists swirling around me. It really was like plucking a harp string, cajoling them to play Samuel’s particular frequency—an annoying strident tone. The mists shifted the energy around me, sending out vibrations, transmitting them.

  The nanos didn’t stand a chance. They waved their feelers in front of me, bowing like millions of brainless, worshipping followers and then they zoomed away, zeroing in on their new target.

  Part of my soul sickened at how easy it had been. Yes, I was a natural at everything my father strove for. So he’d built his ring as a kind of transmitter? A gate? His daughter was both.

  I paid for that last-moment lapse in concentration.

  As I lulled the specter in me back to sleep, returning to just be Cassidy once more, I felt a tingling in my toes.

  I stamped my foot. Crud. Apparently, a few of the suckers had trailed behind the others and hadn’t gotten the message the mission had changed. While I’d been distracted with the Mindbreaker thoughts, they’d apparently bored holes right through my boots.

  Quickly, I hissed Samuel’s vibration. No reaction. My foot still hurt.

  I yanked my boot off and groaned at the sight of my toe glowing like a lightbulb.

  Cripes. Apparently, once they’d burrowed into the flesh, they couldn’t be reprogrammed. It couldn’t be more than two gnawing at my toe, but two was plenty. It was excruciating and felt like someone was methodically slicing my flesh from the inside.

  I scowled.

  Great. Just great. I’d have to figure out how to dig them out. Maybe Ricky could help—if I could wake him out of his latest turmeric-induced stupor.

  But I didn’t have time to waste. I had to get back to my apartment before anyone discovered I’d been gone.

  Shoving my foot back into my boot, I flashed back to my waiting taxi.

  It was close.

  I barely made it back to my couch before Lucian rapped on my door and boldly let himself in with a quick, soundless step.

  Yeah, he and I were going to have to chat about boundaries. Soon. But right now, I didn’t want to talk much, lest I betray any signs of the unfriendlies trolling through my muscle tissue. How much did they plan on eating? Would they stop before they reached my brain?

  As one of the nanos began crawling up my tendons, heading for the ankle and making strategic cuts the entire way, I forced my lips into a smile and greeted the harried-looking warlock with, “So, the nano deployment was successful?”

  The sound of Lucian’s calm, steady breathing filled my apartment as he joined me in the living room. “Yes, they’re loose,” he replied rather grimly, and his silver-blue eyes narrowed with displeasure. “There’s been a problem. Well, nothing to do now but wait. I’ll stay here until Tabitha comes, if you don’t mind.”

  Huh? I did mind. “Why?” I asked, clenching my jaw as the nanos gnawed on my anklebone like I was some kind of chew toy. Frick. Were they trying to amputate my foot? It sure felt like it. It hurt worse than a Terzi hex net.

  “And how are you feeling, Cassidy?” he asked in his butter-smooth baritone instead.

  Feel?

  Like I’m being eaten alive—well, I actually was. But I couldn’t tell him that. “Fine,” I said, swallowing the lie. “Really need to catch some z’s, so you can let yourself out, ok?”

  Yeah, he ignored that. Sitting on the back of the couch, he offered instead, “Let me know if anything hurts and—”

  I never did find out what he was going to say.

  A pounding on my door interrupted him. He was there in a flash, throwing it wide open.

  Heath stood framed there, his red Hawaiian shirt roughed up and his hair a little wild, but he had a wide grin splitting his face. “No need to worry, Lucian,” he said. “The nanos were primed to the right target. See? Caught him already. It’s a done deal.”

  He stepped inside my apartment with, wonder of wonders, Samuel in tow and in handcuffs.

  The oily warlock looked ghastly. His eyes? Wild and bloodshot. His clothes were in tatters and his arms bruised.

  Already? They’d caught Samuel already? Just how quick were those little fiends?

  Crud. It meant I couldn’t catch a few much-needed moments of rest. I couldn’t lounge on the couch until morning. I had work to do. I had to replace the mana in the vials. Pronto. My original plan of waiting until the sun rose didn’t look so hot now…

  It struck me like a ton of bricks.

  Astounded at my sudden understanding, I missed the next few conversational exchanges. It was no small wonder that the watchers hadn’t griped when I’d helped myself to Emilio’s sketchbook.

  They’d thought I was Emilio.

  Finally, something working in my favor!

  All I had to do was breeze up to Emilio’s penthouse and switch out the mana, any time I pleased, providing he wasn’t in the room.

  And providing the nanos left me a foot to use. For the first time, I understood how people could saw off their own limbs to escape a trap.

  “Then take him to Emilio at once,” Lucian was saying when I zoned back in. “Did you bring the nano containers?”

  Tabitha entered my apartment then, her brows drawn into an angry line. She looked about as happy as a cobra having a bad day. Doubtless, because it wasn’t me in those cuffs. Stepping up to my counter, she dropped the nano containers onto its black granite surface. “They’re deactivated,” she said tersely.

  Huh?

  One of the nanos began trekking up my shin bone. Deactivated? I didn’t think so. My leg felt on fire.

  Chomp.

  Forcing myself up off the couch, I joined the others in the kitchen as Lucian moved away to call Emilio on his phone. I eyed the nano container. I had to hit that red button. Fast. I could hardly stand with the nanos happily chewing my shin bone.

  Samuel began to gripe, spewing a few insults that set Tabitha off—man, she really was on edge—and as Heath stepped in to calm her down, I seized my chance.

  Without hesitation, I slammed the red button.

  The nanos took another bite.

  Crud. I hit the buttons again, several times, but with the same results. Yeah, it was the definition of insanity. Or so I’ve been told. I saw it differently now, though. Repeating the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result can also be a sign of desperation, not insanity.

  Closing my eyes, I let loose a string of curses under my breath.

  Apparently, when I’d primed the nanos to go after Samuel, I’d changed the frequencies of the red buttons, too. They no longer worked for me.

  Well, that was just great.

  Now I had these foreign invaders headed for who knew what body part, just when I needed every asset at my beck and call. And my head? It was beginning to throb again, though what Emilio was trying to accomplish with that was a mystery—a mystery I didn’t really want to unravel now.

  Lucian’s voice interrupted my thoughts, “Emilio’s waiting upstai
rs. Let’s end this.”

  “Alright yeah, boss, let’s get this thing done,” Heath replied. He grabbed Samuel by the arm and began pulling him towards the door, but he tossed me a friendly smile over his shoulder along the way. “Just keep on resting, Cassidy, we’ve got this covered.”

  Not in my books. Now just might be the last chance I could get to finish the job.

  “I can always rest later,” I said, clenching my teeth in pain but doing my damndest to turn it into a smile. “I’m impressed how fast you got him.”

  “Yep, the nanos ferreted him right out.” The werewolf grinned. “Had our confession in less than a minute.”

  I didn’t doubt it. Not with millions of mini razorblades shredding him. I felt a twinge of guilt. It died a moment later when Samuel opened his mouth.

  “I’ve been framed,” Samuel accused on our way to the elevator. “No doubt, you lot did something to the nanos in the Fringe during the sale. It won’t stick, you know. And you, Cassidy, you’re an atrocity. Trash. An abomination, really. I’ll have Emilio teach you—”

  “Enough, be quiet,” Lucian’s cool voice interrupted as he entered the elevator car behind us.

  I bit my lip in pain. Lucian’s eyes dropped on me at once.

  “Are you well?” he asked. “Are you—”

  “I’m not a fragile flower,” I snapped acidly, a little more vinegary than I’d planned, but with the level of pain in my leg, I couldn’t exercise finer control.

  Lucian’s mana-infused irises actually strayed to my boots and stayed there for at least three seconds. Did he know? It was hard just to stand there, pretending everything was hunky-dory when the nanos in my leg weren’t missing a beat—or bite.

  “A botched job,” Samuel complained. “You’ve really bungled this one, Rowle. I’ll see you executed for this. I’ll—”

  As he went off on a new tirade, Lucian’s attention snapped elsewhere and I heaved a breath of relief.

  I slid my hand into my jacket pocket and clamped my fingers over the turmeric jar.

  I was close.

  So very close.

  I just had to switch out the mana, and then I’d call True. Surely, a Night Terror knew how to deactivate two rogue nanos.

  The journey to Emilio’s apartment was an excruciating one. Every step felt like a million paper cuts—or nano cuts as the case may be. Finally, we arrived, but before Lucian could even knock, Emilio yanked the penthouse door wide open, revealing a face dark with rage.

  As his eyes fell upon Samuel his lips parted. “You,” was all he said.

  They took Samuel into the living room then, but Heath lingered behind the others. “Coming?” he asked.

  I quickly shook my head. “Not feeling it,” I declined. “Maybe I’ll go back after all.”

  “Yeah, you look a little down. Go get some rest,” the werewolf suggested.

  He didn’t wait for a reply. That was fine with me. The instant he disappeared after the others, I was off.

  It was now or never.

  Crossing my fingers that I wasn’t too late already, I ran to Emilio’s study as fast as I could and slipped inside.

  The place was silent. Dark. But the open curtains allowed enough light through to illuminate the watchers and the mana vials they cradled between them.

  Thank heavens. The vials were still there.

  I flew to the desk and snatched them as fast as I could. The watchers didn’t respond. Not a peep. The emotional part of me would’ve preferred to hear them screech. Their silence just damned me to the certainty that Emilio was my father. The finality of that—well, I couldn’t dwell on it now. I could vomit over it again later.

  The nanos hit my knee then, munching into a nerve.

  I gasped and collapsed against the desk, but biting my lip, I forced my fingers to move. I couldn’t waste a second and I couldn’t let myself focus on anything other than the vials. Removing Samuel’s turmeric bottle from my coat and setting it down, I picked up one of the Nether Reach vials, praying I could, as a specter, crack the Nether Reach seal.

  The mana caught my attention then. It appeared different than before.

  I frowned and squinted closer.

  Strange. The color had changed. Not as pink and purply, and it was undeniably more gray. Strange. I wondered what it meant, but I couldn’t let it stop me. Maybe it worked in my favor. Yeah … not really. The disgusting gray gobs sloshing around in my bottle were a far cry from the gray dancing with the pink and purple strands.

  Oh well, it couldn’t be helped.

  I gave the lid a twist and surprisingly, it came right off. Good. Guess it wasn’t just a keeper who could crack Nether Reach seals. It was nice to have things go my way for once.

  A waft of the pink-purple-gray mana curled up to my nostrils then, and I gagged in surprise.

  I recognized that stench. Rank and rancid.

  Samuel’s?

  Huh?

  Why were the bottles already filled with Samuel’s mana? And not the dying version of it, but the real, live vibrant strands?

  I didn’t hear him. He moved so softly.

  The next moment, Lucian’s lips brushed under my ear as I heard him whisper in that oh-so-silky smooth butter of a voice, “I knew it was you, sweetheart. All along.”

  Case Closed

  Caught like a rat with its cheese. All my fancy maneuvering had failed. At the end of the day, the simple trap, with simple bait, had won out.

  I couldn’t see a way out of it this time. Reflex made me start, reaching for my knife, but I didn’t carry that through. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t plunge a knife into Lucian’s heart.

  “I wanted you to run,” Lucian confessed into my ear, his voice a deep rumble. “It would’ve had made it all so much easier.”

  “What are you going to do?” I asked harshly, driving to the point. I gave up all pretense of hiding the pain then, and gasping, leaned against Emilio’s desk.

  But Lucian wasn’t really listening to me. “For a brief time, I wanted to get even with you,” he admitted, waving his hands to trigger the lights in the room with his cool warlock trick. “Tell me, why didn’t you run?”

  “How can I?” I asked through clenched teeth. Heck. One of the nanos had given up on my knee and had decided to nibble its way up my soft inner thigh.

  “What’s stopping you?” Lucian insisted.

  I just tiredly waved my wrist in his general direction and snapped the black puppet string still tied there. I didn’t need to say the words.

  “I think it’s more than that,” he said, shaking his sexy head. “You are cunning, daring, and deceptive. I’m impressed. Truly. Quite a feat in reprogramming those nanos. Frankly, I didn’t know it could be done. They weren’t supposed to be released, not until Strix had reprogrammed them to Samuel, but the arrival of the Fallen One at the cemetery interrupted everything. It was almost as if the Fallen One knew … well, enough of that. Suffice it to say, the nanos were released, but I’m sure you know that.”

  What the heck? Of course I knew it. The nano arriving in my groin confirmed it. Cripes. I didn’t know there were so many nerve endings there. Sweat beaded my brow as I struggled to focus on what Lucian was saying. Reprogrammed? Huh? They were reprogramming it all to Samuel? Or was I hearing things now with all the pain wracking my body.

  Oh hex it all. I just didn’t care anymore. “Ok, so you caught me,” I confessed, wiping the sweat off my brow with the back of my forearm. “And since I’m going to prison anyway, can you just switch off these mini, interior razorblades? Please!”

  No wonder people couldn’t resist the suckers. Right now, I probably would have said anything to get them turned off—well, clearly, I just did.

  Lucian’s wickedly sensual lip twitched up a millimeter. Huh? Was he enjoying my suffering? Just a tad?

  “You find this freaking funny?” I all but shouted.

  “No,” he replied, taking the time to smirk. “But think about it. It’s a form of justice, maybe?”


  My mouth dropped open.

  He apparently read the raw fury in my eyes then, because he immediately bent down and waved his long, elegant fingers over my leg.

  Relief. Cool relief. Beyond words.

  R.E.L.I.E.F.

  “Emilio will be here shortly,” he said then. “We can catch up later, sweetheart. Be quick now. Replace the vials.”

  I blinked. What? I think that was the first time I truly realized he might not just turn me in.

  “Now,” he repeated, patiently but in a voice of steel. “I would do it, but the watchers will screech if I do. Even I cannot control a watcher.”

  Was it a trap? I frowned. How could it be? He’d already witnessed me removing them. He already had his proof that I shared the Mindbreaker’s signature, but then … he’d already known that, hadn’t he? I gave up trying to figure it out and simply replaced the vials back where I’d gotten them.

  Mission accomplished, I turned on him. “I don’t get it,” I said. “Why aren’t you turning me in?”

  “Should I?” he murmured, arching a brow.

  That made me frown. Drawing my brows into a line, I said, “I’d have thought that you’d be a lot more furious with the person who set Dorian free.”

  “Oh, but I am,” he promised softly.

  He stood there, calm, collected. And was that a gleam of superior humor in his eyes? “You sure don’t show it,” I said.

  “Really? Then you don’t know me, Cassidy,” he replied.

  I lost patience then. “What game are you really playing?” I was lost and I didn’t like being lost. “Is it blackmail?” Yeah, blackmail had to be it. With this hanging over my head, he could exploit me to the fullest. I glanced down at the puppet string still tied around my wrist. I was his puppet now, more than ever.

  He surprised me by closing his fingers over the black string and pulling me hard against his chest. “Maybe I have a thing for bad girls,” he whispered into my hair. “Or maybe I believe in holding my end of the contract. I did promise I’d protect you.”