Inseparable

by D. M. Mortier

  “That bastard will find you, and when he does, you should have my surprise for him,” a female voice replied.

  “I told you that something was up about this place,” Gunner grumbled.

  Andre glared at Gunner to tell him to shut up.

  “Oh, we’re ready for his shimmer show. Once he transports in, his molecules will never find themselves again,” the man replied gleefully.

  “The scientist is sure this will work?” the female asked.

  “His days of transporting are over, madam.”

  “Good, let me know once the deed is done. I won’t accept any more screw-ups on this,” the female said coldly.

  “Who is that?” Gunner asked.

  “I was hoping you could tell us,” Thorne said. “I don’t recognize the voice. It sounds like any number of women from Calison. Could you tell where the call was coming from?”

  “They did a damn good job of scrambling that, but the accent is definitely Calison,” Gunner advised.

  “I see that bastard Raoul. Do you guys recognize those men? They look military, but they could still be from anywhere in Calison.” Thorne frowned, truly confused now about who was powerful enough in Calison to mount such an attack against him. Who was so evil to kill their own people, their own children? These men were hardened mercenaries. Nothing could justify this blatant disregard for life.

  “They’re ex-soldiers, as we thought,” Gunner swiftly ran a few facial recognition scans. “Their records are here in our database.”

  “What the fuck’s going on?” Andre’s voice was filled with the same confusion gripping all of them.

  “I don’t know, but if we want to stop these acts of terrorism, we have to get to the bottom of this,” Thorne told him. “Why would they attack Europon and Garmede? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I don’t care why, what, or how these fuckers did this. They have to be stopped and put permanently down,” Andre muttered.

  “They’re expecting me to teleport in, but I want to see what these assholes are up to before we make another move. Andre, get us some backup within the hour. And then I’m walking in through the fucking front door.” Thorne’s voice was laced with deadly promise. “Gunner, I want to know everything that’s happening in that house. If anyone takes a shit, I want to know it.”

  “Yes, sir!” Gunner grinned.

  “I want to know what these guys have that they think can disrupt my teleporting. Raoul is a jackass if he thinks I won’t carve his ass up after this.”

  Andre pulled out a vicious-looking slim-blade knife. “I have just the thing to help you out there,” he muttered with chilling cool.

  Thorne checked his own lasers and his knives. “Make yourselves comfortable, gentlemen. We may be here for a while.”

  A few hours later, when Thorne had the reinforcements he requested, they had no more intel than they had hours before. They had no idea what device the terrorists had that could possibly kill Thorne. To maintain their advantage of surprise and stealth, they waited until most of the occupants had settled down for the night and probably lowered their guard.

  “Sir, perhaps you should consider staying behind while we go in,” Andre cautioned in a low voice. He had already briefed the eight men who had joined them, and they were ready to enter the building.

  Thorne gave Andre a hard stare. “Let’s get this shit done.” He turned and moved swiftly toward the building. As they expected, their extra caution before entering the building, when most of the men were asleep, paid a dividend. While a number of the terrorists were killed, none of Thorne’s men were harmed in any way. Their mission was swift and efficient. Thorne was gratified at the shocked look on Raoul’s face when they stood around his bed looking down at him.

  “Raoul, get your ass up,” Thorne demanded coldly.

  “How the hell did you get in here?” Raoul’s voice trembled with shock.

  Thorne raised an eyebrow. “Andre, make sure this piece a shit is secured for transport.” Thorne almost smiled at Raoul’s eager look at the use of that word. It made him even more curious what Raoul thought he had that could harm him. He took his time inspecting every machine, each weapon, and every substance for a clue as to what his former scientist was up to. Not having enough time or information to review everything, he had the men secure every potential item to review later. He then took a longer look at the building, trying to determine what Raoul thought could stop his natural ability to transport. Thorne had never considered what substance or weapon could be used against him. He was born with the ability to transport, so it never occurred to him that there was anything that could stop him.

  Thorne walked out of the building to find most of the surviving terrorists kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs, waiting to be escorted onto the ship to be transferred and secured for interrogation. He stalked over to Raoul, who had yet to be tied up like the other terrorists. Obviously, his men thought that Raoul posed less of threat because he was a slight figure of a man and a scientist. Thorne thought it was a mistake to underestimate the other man, but he was more interested in answers at the moment. “I hope it was worth it,” he said to Raoul in a hard voice.

  “It will be worth it when you’re fucking dead,” Raoul hissed before lifting his arm and pointing at Thorne.

  Everything happened so fast Thorne only realized that he was hit by something when he felt the sheering pain in his shoulder. He dropped hard to the ground, stunned. It felt as though something was burning a hole through him from the inside out.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” Andre muttered as he tried to cover the tiny hole with his hand to stop the blood from flowing. Someone threw a cloth to help stem the blood, but the cloth was soon soaked with Thorne’s blood.

  “Don’t let that fucker get away,” Thorne wheezed through the pain.

  “We have him, sir,” Gunner promised

  “Good.” Thorne stared coldly at Raoul, who was grinning in anticipation. Everything in him wanted to transport to his lab and inspect the laser wound. He now had a suspicion about what Raoul and the woman were plotting. From the toxic fumes coming from his wound, he deduced that any attempt by him to transport would result in his molecules dispersing into even more tiny pieces and disintegrating. “Andre?” Thorne gritted out.

  “Sir?” Andre seemed almost paralyzed with fear. He wore the same shocked expression on his face that all the other men in their party now wore.

  “Get me to my lab,” Thorne demanded weakly.

  Chapter Ten

  The travel to the lab in his aircraft was the longest five minutes of Thorne’s life. From the continued burning of his flesh, Thorne knew that there had to have been some gas agent employed. It had to be removed from his system.

  He explained to his doctors what had to be done. After all, he was probably the only doctor on the planet who could treat a wound like this. He looked at charts, took samples of his own blood, reviewed his vitals, and tried various drugs to slow down the acid-like gas that was eating away at his flesh and bone. However, hours later, they still were unable to stop the substance from burning away his flesh. The pinhole wound that Raoul had first inflicted was now almost the size of a golf ball in his shoulder. Thorne was also barely conscious given the number of drugs he’d taken for the pain and to slow down the gas agent from inflicting further damage. However, there was no medicine on the planet that could dampen his pain. He felt as though he were being eaten alive. Possibly that could be the only reason he said what he did next.

  “Andre, I need you to get my wife.” He voice was slurred with pain.

  “Sir?” Andre stared at him in confusion. “You want Anastasia?”

  Even the other doctors in the room looked up in surprise. Everyone on Parth knew about the estrangement between Thorne and his wife and the reasons behind it.

  “Good God, no!” Thorne hissed. He had no idea why everything in the room was spinning and distorted before him. The pain and the meds
were making him loopy. “I want Saina. She’s my wife.”

  There was an audible loud gasp in the room.

  Thorne then realized what he’d just revealed to a room full of men and women he had no idea if he could trust with his secret. “Never mind,” he muttered, hoping that Andre would let it go. “So, I need a volunteer to cut around this wound.” He tried to smile brightly despite the pain he was in.

  “Sir, should I go to Earth?” Andre asked.

  Thorne grunted but otherwise said nothing.

  “Sir?” Andre persisted.

  “No, Andre. Let it go,” Thorne gritted out. He then noted the stunned faces of some of the other doctors in the room and knew that he’d made such an idiotic mistake. His pain now forgotten, he knew he had to get better and get back to Saina before his unknown enemies found her first. Fuckin’ A!

  The drugs he’d taken were finally doing what he been fighting off for hours. He passed out.

  Thorne woke hours later and was immediately reminded of the imminent danger Saina might be in. He turned his head and was gratified to see Andre sitting there keeping guard.

  “How long have I been out?”

  “You’ve been out for almost twenty-four hours,” Andre told him, concern lacing his voice.

  Thorne knew that Andre took his job very seriously and wouldn’t like the medical complication he didn’t understand.

  “How much about her have they found out?” Thorne didn’t bother saying who “her” was, still hoping that, though he’d said Saina’s name, it was possible to still protect her.

  “There have been rumors for years that Saina Bahar was still alive. Your confirmation has only fueled the efforts to find her.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about the rumors?”

  “We all thought that was too great a hope to have because it would mean that Anastasia isn’t the legitimate queen. Wishing for Saina was as if we were children wishing to hold the moon.”

  “What? Our people would so easily accept Saina as their queen?” Thorne was mildly interested in what people thought, but he understood if he acknowledged Saina as his queen, Anastasia would be out on her ear. However, this wasn’t just about him and Saina or Anastasia for that matter. If someone had another idea out of this mess, he would welcome it.

  “Hell yeah everyone would accept it. They may even pack Anastasia’s damn bags for her. People had started to give up hope, as the rumors started a few years back. Besides, everyone knows how you feel about Anastasia. There’s no way you’d not admit that Saina is alive.” Andre looked at him expectantly.

  “I would if I thought that her life and the lives of my mother, my sisters, and their children would be in danger.”

  Andre stared at him silently for a few tense seconds as if Thorne had lost his mind. “You could end this and haven’t?”

  “How am I supposed to do that without hurting my sisters? My nieces and nephews? My mother? Do you remember what happened the last time I tried to rescue them?”

  “Thorne, that’s insane,” he whispered, horrified. “You’re giving up your life, Saina’s life, and hurting our people for your sisters and your mother?”

  “What would you have me do? I have no choice,” Thorne whispered.

  Andre glared at him silently for a few seconds before turning his back to his king, still unwilling to accept Thorne’s decision.

  Thorne did what he should have done days before and tried to call Saina on his statcom to her Earth cell phone. Saina never answered. He didn’t know whether to be worried or pissed.

  “I’m still waiting on a steady hand and an efficient scalpel.” Thorne kept his voice as devoid of emotion as he could. He was desperate to distract everyone from what he’d so carelessly revealed.

  “I’ll do it,” Elaine, one of surgeons Andre had called to attend him, offered.

  “Hell no!” Thorne immediately shook his head no. Elaine couldn’t hide the hate gleaming in her eyes. She had been hopeful of some kind of lasting relationship with Thorne for years. He’d hit that once, but unfortunately that was one time too many. Elaine was possessive, slightly neurotic, and plenty psychotic.

  “Adam, get the hell over here.” Of the six surgeons in the room, Adam was the youngest and least jaded. He was also the most eager to please his king. As Adam reached his side, Elaine turned and left the room in a huff.

  “Make this fast, kid,” Thorne told the young doctor. “Something tells me I need to get home.”

  Two hours later with an impressive painful hole in his shoulder and not at all certain that all the chemicals were removed from his system, Thorne teleported into the penthouse condo where Saina’s tracking device indicated that she was. Despite being gratified that he’d arrived on Earth in one piece, he was still slightly nauseous with pain. He knew that Saina would hand him his ass for getting hurt again. There was no sign of her in the apartment, but her scent was everywhere. God, I miss her. He hadn’t seen her in over a week and was unsure what kind of reception he was in for.

  It was late, well after one a.m., so he was expecting her to be in bed. However, she wasn’t there either. He turned a few lights on and was shocked to see the mess the room was in. His stomach churned with unease. Saina was something of a neat freak, and there was no way the apartment would look like this. Her clothes, shoes, and cosmetics littered the floor of the room, every drawer was pulled open, and the closet and the bathroom were a mess. He found her ring next to the sink in the bathroom. His blood ran cold when he noted a copy of her hospital schedule thrown carelessly on top of her clothes on the floor.

  He felt them before he saw them. Despite their numbers and his much-depleted state, they were still no match for his pissed-off and scared-out-of-his-mind state. Fear for her made him numb to pain, made him faster and more alert to everything around him. Their Earth weapons couldn’t hurt him anyway; the bullets just bounced off him. Only after he’d killed at least four of the men did he think to question the remaining attackers for Saina’s whereabouts.

  “Where is she?”

  “Your precious mistress is being taken care, don’t you worry,” one of the attackers told him coldly. The men he’d just fought were clearly American thugs, soldiers even. He was worried.

  Thorne grabbed another attacker by the throat and crushed his windpipe. “Who sent you?” He continued to question the man while effortlessly killing his cohorts.

  “Damn if I know, nor do I care.”

  Thorne picked the thug up by the throat, walked him to a nearby French door leading to the balcony, pushed him against the rail, and asked him again who had hired him.

  The man’s eyes bugged with fear. Being held so close to the edge of a balcony about twenty stories up by such an immobile force had the man more than terrified. “I don’t know, man! We were hired over the phone by some guy that paid us even though we hadn’t completed the job yet. This was just business, man. I swear! Just business.”

  ‘So killing a defenseless woman is worth how much these days?”

  “She wasn’t defenseless against the first team,” the attacker said darkly.

  “Good to know,” Thorne muttered before snapping the last man’s neck also.

  Chapter Eleven

  Saina was furious. Not only had she not seen Thorne in more than a week, he didn’t even see fit to contact her and explain his absence. To punish him for taking her for granted, she ditched her tracking device and she’d been staying with her old roommate. As luck would have it, Juliet had moved into a new apartment, so it wouldn’t be easy for anyone to find her. The bodyguards Thorne had assigned to her were probably still looking for her. After two days of sulking, she’d returned to her apartment only a few hours before armed men entered.

  She sensed them before she saw them. For the past two months, she’d notice the unusual powers she’d suddenly developed. She’d been afraid to tell Thorne what was happening for fear that he would learn the ultimate secret. When she’d tele
ported from the hospital to the apartment the first time, she immediately knew what had happened. She didn’t even need the pregnancy test she’d taken later to tell her what she’d already known. A few hours after she’d taken down the three men who’d entered her apartment with her bare hands, she was still in awe of the capabilities of her barely three-month-old fetus. She hadn’t killed anyone despite her ability to do so; after all, she was a healer. She simply incapacitated them so she could get away.

  Saina packed an overnight bag and moved into a hotel for the night by paying cash and using another name. She had no idea who those men were or whether they were from Parth or not. Initially she’d intended sorting out another place to live by leaving North Carolina and disappearing, but she got called into the hospital for an emergency surgery and she couldn’t leave the hospital short-staffed without notice. By going to the hospital, however, she knew that she was taking a huge risk.

  It was almost the end of her shift, and Matt was giving her a hard time about not being willing to have dinner with him, when all hell broke loose.

  “Come on, Saina, what do you see in that guy anyway? He’s almost twice your age!”

  Saina should’ve been embarrassed by the spectacle Matt was making by spreading her business in the open like this, but she wasn’t. Her mind was too occupied with how to stay ahead of her attackers. She and Matt were in the receptionist area of the emergency room wing of the hospital, and at least three of their coworkers were within hearing range of their conversation. The other doctors and nurses looked at them with interest, not even trying to hide the fact that they were listening.

  “He’s actually older than that,” she smirked, not at all ashamed, as she knew he thought she’d be. “But he’s damn fine, don’t you think?”

  “You’re shameless,” Matt hissed.

  “Hopelessly so.” Saina laughed at the outrage in his voice.

  “Saina Bahar, come with us.”