“Retaliation? How politically correct of you. More like murderous rampage.” I hugged my son again, planting a solid kiss on top of his bowl-shaped haircut.
35
HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
O n Cayiel’s insistence, we gathered as many of the survivors as possible. Numerous searches for the scattered Fallen and one meeting too many had passed by, minus any retaliation from the Malakhim or Lighted Ones, both too busy recouping and fighting their own battles.
The meeting had a decent turnout. Cayiel introduced us to the DanJal survivors. Seven showed up from the Screnian clan. Jesse, one of the few human liaisons welcomed inside the Caderen stronghold, stood with them. The rest consisted of the Caderen. Cayiel joined the other nine and took a seat. All who were left except for the missing Originals had made an appearance. No one knew how they fared.
I mentioned that Loree offered us a pact. No more attacks if we left them alone. I kept the possible retaliation from the Lighted Ones unsaid. Convenient how a Lighted One, most likely Athorsis, had summoned his minions, including Loree, to ward off my attack. His agenda had eluded the best of our minds.
Then a bad apple showed up. Farian. The leader of the seven who orchestrated Turian’s execution was sure to cause problems. I had foreseen some of the why, how, but not the outcome. Jesse mentioned the rogue’s hatred of humankind. More than once, Sabree warned me about his father’s treachery. Most of all, I had seen Farian in action and vowed to keep an eye on him.
Then we discussed how the Colton tabs would free new generations of the Fallen from dependency on human or animal blood. Finally, something I said had given them hope, and they showed it by all speaking at once. Remarks about no longer hunting humans and healing quickly roared the loudest. Probably the only reason they listened to me from that point on and offered me the position as second in command to ensure their fair share. Hand of the Clan Elder. A year ago, the Fallen considered me no more than a ghoul. Today, I would help Cayiel lead the combined clans.
Not one to usually keep silent, I said little during the rest of the meeting and listened to the slew of ideas, arguments, and objections. Hours later, after the exhaustive banter, I retired to the recreational facility with Azrian asleep on my lap.
The windowless room, decorated with glass-blown lighting, modern art, and moss terrariums, lacked an organic ambiance. The sunless complex irked me. Adapting to the life of a cave dweller reminded me of Eric—another personal vexation. A secure retreat, disconnected from humanity, the underground facility was our home for now. Scotland called louder than ever.
The door slid open. Azrian asleep in my lap, I raised a finger to my lips when Sabree and Ariane entered together. “What’s up?” I whispered. Neither responded, their moods gloomier than usual. My gaze narrowed, certain they were up to no good. “Houston, we have a problem,” I said to myself. Sabree walked by, feigning interest in the floor to ceiling canvas of eyes that, in my opinion, displayed little soul. A quick glance at my sister left me unsettled. Her eyes rivaled those in the painting.
“The artist tried to capture many souls but failed,” Sabree said. He bent closer to examine the signature. “Figures, Abyss painted it.”
The snide comment broke me free of my sister’s scrutiny. I stifled a chuckle when Sabree glanced my way. His gray eyes revealed a color—an emotion—I had never seen. Fear? My stomach rolled. Something ugly loomed.
“Sabree, take Azrian to his room,” Ariane said as if his superior. “I have something to say to Brian.” She waited until Sabree carried the sleeping toddler out of the room. Two lab coats entered next and flanked her sides like bookend bodyguards.
Six months altogether had slipped by without incident, and already the plot thickened. Sabree had warned me how she threatened to take control in my absence, furious because I skipped out and left her behind to clean up the mess. “What’s going on, Sis?” I leaned forward, keen on a quick exit should the situation turn ugly. “What’s with the techs?” Both were male and taller than me. Conveniently sized or her favorites?
“I’ll explain.” Ariane settled on the couch next to me, keeping silent until our eyes met. “During your three-month hiatus, in addition to the three months you and Sabree herded the survivors, I took matters into my own hands. No choice. Selfish as always, you left me in charge to safeguard the Caderen from residual Malakhim attacks. Worse yet, I had to protect my daughter from untrustworthy clan members.”
Sabree had warned me this would happen. I leaned forward again and ran my fingers through my hair. A thumb snagged the band that held my tail and yanked it out. I pulled on it like a slingshot and released it at one of the lab coats. “Selfish? Are you kidding? Aye right, I purposely sat my ass on K2 just to avoid you.”
“Whatever, it’s not important.” She fiddled with the star locket. “The Caderen assigned me as Chief Science Officer. The whiny bitch, Serine, took second spot. I learned new skills, regulated the labs, their science projects, and with newfound enlightenment, I uncovered a few devices. Nothing frivolous like your silly steampunk contraptions.”
“Silly?” I spat the word. “The hobby kept my mind off the dreams.”
“Nothing came of them.”
“No kidding, Sis. It was a bloody hobby.” My fiddling with old-fashioned machines decorated with watch parts, gears, cogwheels, and other gadgets related to the Victorian age helped preserve my sanity.
“To each their own.” She placed a hand on my chest, forcing me to remain seated. “I gained full control of the decrepit lot by threatening to unleash you if they didn’t comply.”
“I think you have me confused with Fang.”
She brushed the remark aside, oblivious to its humor. “I knew you’d return sooner if not later. Devised a safety net to protect everyone from the Malakhim and Athorsis. I evolved, became more aware of my surroundings and ability to morph. Developed a unique science borrowed from insects.”
“You morphed into a bug again? After I warned you not to.” Where was she going with this? Her features seemed as inanimate as one of my steampunk mechanisms. Did she learn to empathize with insects? With buggy minds? A new type of insanity? The unknown tightened my core until my innards ached. No desire to seek the truth, I asked anyway, “What have you learned from them?”
“Mechanics, maneuverability, empathy, science.”
“Bugs have science? Empathy?”
“Yes. Incredibly, your steampunk creations sparked my idea.” She smiled, however, the sinister edge to the curve of her lips left me feeling on edge. “The Caderen have stones of every type. One acts as a surveillance device capable of tracking a Fallen’s whereabouts. Not a mister’s sword, it’s undetectable when implanted inside the body. Its artificial intelligence immobilizes Fallen gifts… their abilities.”
Certain the answer would be anything but pleasant, I asked, “What do you plan to do with it? Inject it inside Sabree so you can keep track of him?” My attempt at laughter ended up a squeak.
“Inject it inside you to keep an eye on your anti-ness, dear brother.”
My breath hitched. “Control me? Ridiculous.” There it was in black and white: my sister was jealous over my anti-ness. Too bad she didn’t realize I had paid dearly to join the elite club. Still shelling out God-knows-what to maintain my membership.
Ariane disregarded my grimace. “Your ability to manipulate time is an abomination. Why you can time travel and I can’t? I tried in your absence more than once. Nothing happened.” She rose and strolled over to the painting. A finger flicked the largest eye before she spun on her heels. “From now on, I will know exactly where you are on Earth. If you even think about entering the portal or travel time, the device will shock you. Just a harmless electrical spark.”
Un-bloody-believable. What was she thinking? No way in hell would I let her insert a stone inside me. I stared at my sister without seeing her at all. She still envied my abilities, craved the anti-powers we didn’t share. The day she stopped taking the
anti-vamp serum, her sanity suffered. The status between us spun a one-eighty. My near insanity stemmed from nightmarish portal trips, hers from sharing minds with nasty insects. “You’re daft.”
“We’re in this mess because you exploited time.”
“I saved your boyfriend!” I shot off the couch, only to be shoved back by one of her lab techs.
She waved the lab coat off me. “I didn’t ask you to bring Sabree back from the dead,” she said. “I had what I wanted. His child.”
If I had been standing instead of forcibly planted on the couch, I would have toppled over, stunned by her callousness. Did she mean what she said? “I promised the Malakhim that I’d restrict my portal usage to a bare minimum—”
“Unless desperate,” Ariane said finishing the sentence. “See, there’s no stopping you.” She loomed over me and nodded at the two scientists. They stepped forward. “Let me inject it now. It will be best for all.”
“No freaking way,” I growled. “Best for you only. What’s stopping me from JLS-ing out of here?”
“Your son. I already injected him.”
The pressure behind my eyes throbbed, the irises flaming embers. First time ever, I bared my fangs at her. Ariane had stepped over the line. I lunged at her, but one of her bodyguards shoved me back. I hit the couch like a sack of bricks. Rage spoke for me. “You installed one of those focking rocks inside Azrian?” A vibration from my inner core warned me to cool down or inadvertently dust my sister in retaliation. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on Azrian. No worries. With Jesse’s help, I’d remove the stone. Sister, twin, my own flesh and blood had violated my son.
Tears blinded my prudence. “I have always put your safety before my own. Gave you my share of the anti-vamp serum. Gave up the idea of having a lover.” Ariane never would have threatened me on her own. Had Loree warned her to keep me in line or Zoeree would suffer.
“Azrian’s fine. The stone will not inflict pain, because he doesn’t travel time. But he won’t get far if he uses the portal.”
A long breath, held on purpose, calmed the fire seething within me. My queen-bee of a sister dared control us both. I refocused on my son until my eyes cooled. “I will never forgive you for injecting Azrian. Me maybe. Him, never.” Did she install the same safety net in her daughter? “What about Zoe?” Easier to pronounce, I shortened her name on purpose.
More likely a lie, her nod surprised me. “What’s going on, Sis? What’s your motive? Guilt, envy, paranoia, or good old-fashioned greed to gain ultimate power.”
Her blank stare uploaded a distant memory. I had suffered near insanity the first year after my artificial birth, and now my twin tottered on the verge of losing her own. Guess hormones, fear of the unknown, guilt, and envy raged as one after she delivered Zoeree. To make matters worse, I hadn’t been there for her. Bugs replaced brotherly love. Never would I empathize with her reasoning. “You won’t get away with this.”
Together, the two heavies stepped forward to prevent my escape. Two motives rationalized her cruel agenda: she lost her mind by morphing into insects or Athorsis had possessed her during my absence. I hoped, no preferred, her mind had gone to the bugs instead of the latter. I leered at the two lab coats. “You win. I concede. Give me the injection.”
Her fingers brushed the hair out of her eyes. She relaxed her posture. “You won’t regret this. We are family.”
Often deejayed at weddings, the song played in my mind. I stared at her eyes for a hint of flames while she instructed one of the lab coats to inject me. No sparks. Blackness deadened the windows to her soul. Instead of a big stick, most stones measuring an inch in diameter, it eased into the energized part of my arm. “Ouch,” I lied.
A serene coolness flowed through my limb. I slouched low on the sofa with the promise that I’d do everything possible to remove the device from Azrian after my own. My sister, or Athorsis, played with fire—a smoldering flame, inextinguishable, forever ablaze within my soul. Neither one had the right to control me, never mind Azrian. Family or not, this meant war, one I promised to wage without remorse.
Ariane blinked back tears as she wrapped her arms around her torso. “Look, I’m not a monster, just a touch paranoid. Your crazy antics, ones swayed by Turian’s memories, and now Athorsis, have me on edge. You can’t be trusted. No choice but to place you on an electronic leash.”
Well, how was that for the distrust that matured between us? She claimed Athorsis controlled me while I alleged the same, but vise-versa. Tit for tat.
She knelt beside me and gazed into my eyes. “Try going to another time. Say Uncle when you want the pain to stop.”
Instead of my reflection in her irises, an insect wiggled its antennae and stared back with piss-yellow beady eyes. Either Ariane wanted to make sure the device worked, or she enjoyed the torture inflicted. I doubted the latter, unless Athorsis influenced her mind. To test the stone’s viability, I willed the portal open without letting the Malakhim detect that it had. The portal winked at me. I winked back. Sure enough, the injected stone obeyed my will as did all others. A fake yelp filled the room. I win, Sis, you lose.
36
HAD ME AT THREE PLACES
A top K2, this time with a friend, a bagful of Colton tabs, and two large flasks, I stared at the horizon. Such a peaceful place, no wonder Hindu monks meditated and pondered at these heights. Perched on top of the world surrounded by divine scenery and thin atmosphere, enlightenment levitated us beyond the petty experiences of man or the Fallen. I glanced sideways at Sabree. “Magnificent, isn’t it?”
“Oui, but a bit nippily for my taste.” He bumped my elbow as we shared the summit peak. His chuckles bounced off the mountainous range.
“I understand Ariane’s logic for keeping me under her thumb. Time travel is a volatile sport, but I learned my lesson. If I went back to undo her morphing, I might create another rift more destructive than the first.” Time travel paralleled my steampunk hobby: clunk, clunk, remove the wrong cog and end up with junk. “Imagine a vintage clock built with thousands, no make that millions of cogwheels, springs, cams, and gears all working together as one clockwork. One misplaced miniscule gear, and boom, a change in time or motion is set. Look at the rift I triggered to save your sorry ass.”
Sabree’s silence breezed over us like a somber mellowness caused by the thin air. Still acclimated from my three-month hiatus, I tossed the flask back for another gulp and then offered it to him. “Let Ariane think she’s in charge. She has no idea the stones bend to my will, or that I can be in two places at once. Overdosing on Colton tabs energizes my speed tenfold. While she thinks I’m off on some mountain, I’m really in one of the labs helping Jesse remove Azrian’s stone.”
“You had me at three places.” Sabree swigged a double shot. “So, you’re an illusion?”
“Here for one nanosecond, there for another, and back again. So fast, it looks like I never left. My ultimate speed is JLS squared. But it takes a bagful of tablets to pull it off.” I wiggled the Ziploc baggie of Colton tabs in Sabree’s face. “This is the third bag. Care for one?” I laughed at Sabree’s wide-eyed disbelief. Yet his eyes clouded to a colorless gray that partnered his somber mood. Best reassure him. “In answer to your question, aye. At this very minute,” I mumbled while chewing on a handful of tablets, “I’m with my son while he naps.”
I leaned into Sabree, feeling the pressure rise behind my eyes, pretty sure the soft amber hue blazed like orange fireballs. “Can’t believe she thought I’d let her regulate our comings and goings. Threatening me into submission is one thing, but my son, big mistake. She used to be smarter than that. Plus, she hurt you. When we get back, let’s find a way to help her deal with the buggy attitude. Nip it in the bud.”
“Good idea.” His head still bobbing, Sabree stared at the mountains. “I had a scary thought. Envision the numerous mountaintops surrounding us.” Sabree swung a hand before us almost tipping the flask. “Now imagine you perched on top of each one.” He forced
a chuckle at first, only to join in with my hearty laughter.
Our amusement echoed off the mountain range. As it dwindled to a few snorts, Sabree wrapped an arm around my shoulder. For warmth or companionship, it didn’t matter. “What Ariane doesn’t know won’t hurt her. You’re one badass anti-being, but as always, you can count on me. I’m Team Brian.”
“Deal,” I said followed with a swig. When I handed him the flask, his eyes glinted a hint of aurora borealis green in the gray irises. The unusual color made me squint, curious as to which direction the green reflection originated from. My gaze raked over the northern peaks.
Across the horizon, brilliant rays of neon green almost blinded me. “What the—did you see that?” I asked him.
“What?”
“Nothing, I guess.” Nothing my ass. The aurora borealis-like anomaly forewarned me of things to come. I raised the reserve flask to make a toast. “Here’s to the end of the beginning.”
Part Two
37
THIRTY-THIRD TIMES LUCKY
(Sometime in the past)
T he temperature inside Jesse’s ranch climbed, the air conditioning on overdrive. If Athorsis hadn’t materialized in a Malakhim body, Jesse, his ranch, and property would char to cinders. Turian’s body no longer available, the archangel borrowed Draven’s ethereal form. The flames radiating from the eyes broadcasted his true identity. Regret for extending an invitation to the fiery archangel soared with the heat.
Beads of sweat formed from both the heat and tension. Jesse guessed most of it came from nerves. This particular scenario had played out many times, but never in his home. Maybe a sign of good things to come. Like success. He finally said, “I’ll make sure there are ten minutes to go this time.”
“Yes, the order and timing of tasks must be followed in exactness. Or all will be for naught. You’ve been through it—experienced it—numerous times already.” Athorsis counted his fingers on both hands and shrugged. “Lost count. Get it right this time or forgo your placement as a Lighted One.” He paused. “As you know, I see all from beginning to end. All times exist as one within my realm. Your realm also, should you succeed.”
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