by Angela White
As the lights began to illuminate her prison, Angela saw the adjacent room down the tunnel across from her and studied the furnishings. That room was clean and freshly stocked, judging from the lack of dust. There was a crib, a bassinet, a swing, and stacks of supplies for a newborn. What there weren’t, were any adult furnishings, Angela realized. He didn’t plan to keep her with her child.
Across the hall, Adrian saw the same thing and calmed his rising worry. Angela knew what she was doing. He would play his role. But it was hard to do when her entire presence suggested defeat. He was praying it was all an act on her part, because he had no idea how to erase such desperate depression from anyone, let alone someone he loved.
Angela felt the witch exploring the facility and shut her lids, glad to at least be still. Donner’s driver had hit every bump in the road it had felt like and her stomach was sore, tight.
Angela sent a calming hand over her belly, sending energy and strength and felt the muscles relax. None of this had been easy on her and the worst was yet to come.
6
“State your name.”
“Adrian Mitchel.”
“Are you a descendant?”
“Yes.”
“Do you work for the government?”
“Not anymore.”
“Who do you work for now?”
“The Alpha.”
“And who is that?”
“Angela White.”
Donner hit stop on the recorder and studied Adrian. There wasn’t much the blond could tell him about their gifts that wasn’t already in the files, except for the one thing Donner had longed to know for decades. Now, he would have his answer, but it had to be extracted. Donner suspected he would get results with Angela when he threatened Adrian’s life.
“Are you obsessed with her, like the rumors say?”
“You might call it that.”
“What would you call it?”
“Love.”
Donner frowned and hit the record button. “Tell us where you’ve been since the war and why you didn’t turn Safe Haven over.”
Adrian didn’t respond and Donner nodded to Trey, who leaned over and punched the blond man in the stomach.
Adrian gasped for air, doubled over.
Trey delivered another hit to his ribs.
Adrian slid out of the chair, coughing, as Trey stepped back.
“Tell me why you turned traitor to your oath,” Donner insisted.
“Why did you?” Adrian forced out.
Donner scowled, nodding again.
Trey came over to kick until Adrian’s hand went up for mercy.
Trey again retreated, relishing the feel of the man’s blood on his knuckles. Adrian had once been an Alpha himself, with great power. Having him grovel was a powerful moment for the mercenary. Trey had come through his own training while listening to stories of the great Adrian.
Adrian sucked in air to talk with. “I needed…the protection at first. Long trip to the bunker. Then she came…and it all changed.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed in me,” Adrian confessed. “And I had…to try to live up to what I saw in her eyes.”
“So you threw it all away for a shot with a woman who didn’t want you. Interesting.”
“She does want me!” Adrian growled, wincing at the pain. He was fairly sure one of his ribs were broken.
Donner chuckled and nodded to Trey.
Angela listened to Adrian’s beating without responding. She knew Donner wanted her to. He didn’t need any of the information Adrian had, yet, but he did need the advantage over her. He was hoping this abuse would get it for him.
Angela sank down into her mind, wondering how her camp was, how her son was, where Marc was. He had to be close, but she couldn’t feel him. It made the sense of isolation even stronger.
“Hit him harder!” Donner yelled.
Angela’s resolve wouldn’t take much. To stop herself from caving, she took the first door in her mind that the witch lit up and left only her body. She didn’t usually dream walk, but in this case, anywhere was better than here, listening to Adrian be hurt. The only thing worse would be if Marc or Charlie was in there. She was incredibly grateful that they weren’t.
Donner sensed it when Angela stopped paying attention and didn’t order Trey to do any more damage. He’d been testing her, seeing what her reaction would be. He wasn’t discouraged. She hadn’t been able to stay and listen. He would use that when the time came for more important things. Right now he was choosing how to deal with her while the facility was brought up to full power and the bunker sent instructions. Thanks to Angela’s little Smallpox bluff, the bunker had gotten involved and Donner now had to walk a fine line with them until he got what he wanted. Once Adrian and Angela made the call, he could cut contact with the bunker, safe in knowing they didn’t have any more troops to send out in pursuit of him.
His career had been spotless, except for Canada, and they thought he was loyal to their cause. By the time they found out differently, the call would be made and he and Angela would vanish into the sunset. A few of the men with him would go along for labor and security. The rest would remain here to handle any Safe Haven rescuers that survived. The first group of those should be arriving soon and Donner was ready for them. Unlike before, when he’d needed to capture some of them, this time, Donner wasn’t going to hold back. He would wipe them out while Adrian and Angela watched, powerless to stop it.
7
“I’ll keep her with me,” Hilda stated, taking the baby from Kyle. “Get a shower and a meal.”
Kyle handed Peggy a note from Jennifer and then moved toward the gate he’d just entered. Jenny had insisted on him bringing Autumn to Safe Haven. He hadn’t argued much after witnessing her attack a small team and kill them all. The odd soldier was in danger from her, not the other way around. Still, it bothered him to have her out there alone and he slipped back into the darkness with a renewed sense of urgency. Even if she didn’t need him anymore, he wanted to be there and see the new thing she’d become.
Is that how I view her now, he asked himself. As some sort of thing or creature?
Kyle considered that question, aware that it didn’t make any difference to his feelings for her. She could be a purple alien from Uranus and he’d still long to be with her.
But, yes, he admitted. I do see her differently. And so will the camp.
Safe Haven had accepted the descendants in many ways, but Kyle didn’t think that newfound tolerance would extend to those who’d done the fighting in this latest war. Some of the stories would be passed off as fantasy, but the others would cause fear. He and Jennifer wouldn’t be staying in Safe Haven once it was all over.
Kyle grabbed the dirt bike he’d left outside the gate, glad to be able to control it with both hands now. Autumn would be safe surrounded by so many camps and Eagles, and he would spend the ride back convincing himself that he still held some value to Jennifer.
Kevin watched Kyle leave, then went to his next spot for a check-in.
“Everything okay in here?”
“Yes,” the doctor answered without looking up. He had Conner healing patients and no issues with the quiet teenager. “These check-ins are becoming distracting.”
“Life’s hard, doc,” Kevin said cheerfully. “Especially when you’re a criminal.”
The doctor wanted to argue on Conner’s behalf, but he didn’t know what the boy was accused of. With his kind, it could be about anything.
“I was stalking someone,” Conner said quietly.
“Why?” the doctor asked, surprised. It wasn’t what he would have guessed.
“I like her,” Conner answered, blushing.
“Ah.” The doctor wanted to comfort the kid again, but he couldn’t. Stalking wasn’t a minor crime here and shouldn’t ever have been in the past, either.
“I wouldn’t ever do those things,” Conner defended. “I just watch her.”
“You might not
right now, but later, when the…illness grows, you could,” the doctor told him tonelessly.
Conner didn’t like the picture of losing his control, his sanity, and stopped helping with the man who’d been shot through the ankle. The Eagle was one of the few wounded left and the boy staggered to his feet. “Stepping outside.”
The doctor hated his orders, but obeyed them. Marc’s wishes had been clear. “Guard!”
Conner glowered as the Eagle appeared in the door, but the doctor refused to show weakness. “He needs a shower and meal before he goes in the cell. He can’t keep helping me if he isn’t cared for.”
Kevin had no intentions of starving or abusing Adrian’s offspring, but he didn’t plan to coddle the boy. Everyone was waiting to hear Angela’s choice on the Conner. Until it came, the camp would keep their distance.
Kevin trailed Conner as he headed for the shower, where clean outfits were waiting for anyone who needed them. The tables outside the campers were staffed with Eagles who had orders to keep track of people who were here, who they were with, and at what times. Marc’s new security procedures didn’t seem so unnecessary with Angela missing.
Kevin spotted Samantha at the mess with her men and approved even as he swallowed his jealousy. Cynthia and Daryl were in that crowd somewhere too, but Kevin hadn’t run into them yet. He hoped to act normally, but he wasn’t sure if he could. They would find out together. Her switching so quickly was sitting badly with him. When Angela came back, he needed to talk to her about that. Had she known all along that he and Cynthia weren’t a match? Kevin had suspected it, but hadn’t wanted to believe their leader was capable of such ruthless manipulations. Now, he wasn’t so sure, and that was a life-changing confirmation for him. If Angela had played with his life that way, he wasn’t staying here. This wasn’t his home anymore.
8
“Have you heard of the Master Call?”
Angela acted as if she hadn’t read it in Adrian’s files. “I’ve picked up bits on it from you and your men.”
Donner motioned for the guard to leave them alone in the interrogation room. Subtly watching, he saw Angela’s eyes go to the bloodstains on the floor, the wall, the chair she was sitting in. They hadn’t killed Adrian, but after six hours of making him scream, she had to know Adrian would die if she refused what he wanted.
“What are master calls?” she asked obediently.
Satisfied she understood the unspoken threat, Donner pushed a cup and a pack of cigarettes toward her.
Angela lit one using her gift again, but let the flame flicker weakly. The drugs would naturally dampen some of her power. Donner would be looking for it.
“Legend tells of a series of calls that can be made by Alpha descendants, calls that go from your heart, straight to the master’s mind.”
“The master?”
“The Lord, our God.”
“Really? Interesting.”
Donner knew she was bluffing again, but played along. “We can reach god, beg to be taken home. You can.”
Angela’s eyes showed a deep fear. “We’re not ready for that. It’s why Alphas are usually kept apart, to keep them from drawing the master’s wrath upon such disappointment.”
Donner scoffed, “How could anything be worse than aging and dying on this miserable little rock?”
Just for an instant, Angela agreed. And then that dauntless spirit slapped him with a view she knew that he hadn’t ever thought of.
“Is there a time that it’s okay to make the call? Nothing I read had an answer for that.”
Donner was speechless. In all his studies and experiments, he’d never thought to research it. He hadn’t cared about getting permission.
“I still don’t,” he growled, suspecting her delaying tactics.
Angela kept quiet, letting him work it out. Like with sex, it was better if both parties were willing. If the requirements were simple, he could have double the chance of success, of making contact.
For Donner, his entire life had been about this quest. He’d been the only one in his family to have the gift. When his parents had perished, he’d been close enough to feel their pain and regrets, their horror at the empty blackness rushing toward them. I have to know!
“And you shall,” Angela muttered as Donner left the room, waving her guard in. She’d bought an hour at best while he searched her topic. Despite Donner’s lack of interest in the subject, Adrian’s notebooks had stated that the government data banks contained a short, but detailed answer. It was there that Angela had placed all her chips. No one knew what any of the calls would bring or what they were for. Angela had hoped the Butcher might have that missing piece, but it was clear he didn’t. Over the centuries, the information had been lost. She was going in blind.
9
“I see you planted the seed.”
Adrian’s voice was thin, like he was barely there.
Angela didn’t pull him from the grayness. His injuries weren’t life threatening, but the broken ribs and cracked teeth had to hurt.
“Not as much as you in that room, alone with him,” Adrian said, head lolling against the wall.
Trying to concentrate, Angela frowned, sending a small current. Adrian had been in her cell when the guard brought her back. She hadn’t argued.
Adrian jerked and then slid over on the bunk. Angela returned to her plotting, devious mind using the meal and her child’s needs as an excuse for her actions.
“If you’re going to keep him in here, you’d better feed me more. I won’t share.”
Angela was sure Donner would listen to every word that she and Adrian uttered.
That confirmed when the guard slid a third tray into the window a few minutes later.
Angela hurried to it as if she was either starving or trying to claim it, hoping to throw Donner off a bit more. She didn’t wake Adrian.
Angela was still thinking about the images in Donner’s ugly mind. His run to Canada had hidden an attempt much like this, between two alphas that he had thought were a match. It had resulted in disaster and the government ordering a full sanitization to bring it under control. Some of Donner’s men had been compromised. More than a few of them had committed suicide in the last month.
The Canadian’s were powerful, Angela thought. Stronger than her and Adrian, and it had gone badly. Would the same thing happen when she and Adrian were forced to do it? A Maker’s Call was impossible to fake.
She needed to know what had happened when Donner tried this before. All she’d found was a huge explosion in his mind, with no details or obvious clues. Had the Maker been furious and destroyed the alphas? She was almost sure that hadn’t been the case. If the Maker had been angered enough to come back, one county or even one continent wouldn’t be enough to avenge all the wrongs that had been done in His name. Humanity would be wiped out when the Maker returned. That could never be allowed to happen.
10
“He isn’t going to wait much longer,” Adrian mumbled against her hair.
Angela acted as if she was still asleep, not ready to face any feelings. During the night, Adrian had turned toward her from their back-to-back position and she hadn’t protested, too tired and too warm. Now, with fake light coming in from the ceiling to tell them what time of day it was, Angela didn’t like the closeness.
Adrian rose from the only cot and moved to the hard chair, sighing heavily. The sleep had done good things for his injuries, but it was far from over. Donner was a psychopath fanatic that had to be eliminated.
“No worries on that,” Angela stated, trying not to picture it. Donner had to know they were planning his death, but he didn’t care so long as the call was made and he got his answer. Except, Angela didn’t know what would happen. If nothing did, Donner was likely to try to kill everyone here. She had to get her plan finished before that and she spent a minute clearing her head and heart. They would make a call today that might change the world.
“Do you understand what causes the power? What sends the
call?”
“That wasn’t in the books,” Angela answered.
“Thought it best to leave that part out,” Adrian admitted. “Sometimes details are too…harsh.”
“Great,” Angela sighed. “What is it now? We have to mind-meld and reveal all our…” Her eyes widened. “Son of a…”
Adrian coughed, hoping to cover.
Angela jerked around to stare at the walls so neither he or Donner could see her expression. She hated lying.
“We’ll be bonded. Forever.”
“We already are,” Angela forced out, sounding angry. “But you don’t know what it will bring and neither do I. That has to be made clear to the Butcher or neither of us will be alive tomorrow. He isn’t the type to take disappointment well.”
“So you don’t think it will work?” Adrian asked, curious. Had she foreseen the outcome?
“No, I think we’ll make the call, I just don’t know who or what might answer. Makes me nervous.”
“Donner makes me nervous,” Adrian said, staring at the hair he’d caressed before she’d woken. “Don’t deny him.”
“I’ll do what I have to,” she answered, but inside, she was celebrating. She could feel Donner coming towards them, confident in their agreement now that he’d listened to them work it out. He was about to get all that he’d asked for and then some.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Limited Information
1
“I had to be sure they knew the target was here, that all of the top descendants were here. It was the only way they were going to get bunker babies to go passed my second ring,” Angela explained tonelessly. “I tried to show them how deadly we were even without our gifts. I gave them every opportunity to make the right choice and leave us alone. I also tried to kill as many of them as I could through that second ring. I needed the odds to be even for the final fight. I came close, you know?”