Nine Lives (Lifeline Book 1)

by Kit Colter

  No, something else was wrong.

  “You sure you want to go back?” Sirian asked. “They’re looking for you.”

  “It depends on who they is,” Erin said.

  “The Gemini’s boss,” Sirian said.

  “Green Eyes,” Erin said, remembering the woman in the white dress—the woman with blurry edges who had ordered the Gemini to kill her. “What other choice do I have?” she asked.

  “I’ll take you anywhere you want.”

  Erin thought for a moment. “I just have to find the twins. They’ll know what to do.”

  Sirian started the motorcycle. Erin clasped her arms around his waist, but he didn’t shift the bike into gear. He was thinking about something.

  “Alright,” he said finally, and the bike lunged forward onto the road. The cold air whipped across Erin’s cheeks and neck and pushed through her clothes to her skin. Despite the logical part of her mind that understood the danger—of being bitten, of giving him the wrong idea, of giving herself the wrong idea—Erin pressed her face against Sirian’s back, closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the wind. She couldn’t imagine how he could stand this kind of cold. Erin shrugged it off to parasites and steroids, narrowing her body as much as possible to hide behind the width of his shoulders. Since he didn’t pull off the road to bite her, she figured she was safe for the moment.

  They drove nearly all night and spent the next day in a motel room. Sirian taped pillows into the windows. Erin slept most of the day. She guessed Sirian did the same, as there wasn’t much else he could do in the cramped room. When night fell, Sirian guided her to the motorcycle, though Erin didn’t need much guiding anymore. In addition to borrowing Sirian’s sight every so often, she was starting to get an odd sense for things. Almost as though she could feel them without touching them. Objects were just there, though she wasn’t always sure what they were. Erin guessed echo-location was something like this—only she wasn’t causing echoes. Everything seemed to have its own vibration, its own aura, its own specific density of energy. And she could feel it. She was fairly accurate within a six foot reach. After that, things got a bit hazy. Telling inanimate from animate was amazingly easy. Animals, people, insects—they were just different than nonliving objects. She could only explain it as warmer, yet the sense she got was nothing like heat at all. The energy was busier, not thicker exactly, but deeper. More dimensional.

  Erin kept thinking about the twins’ explanation of psychics and wondering if that could explain it. She didn’t tell Sirian what was happening, that she could almost see without her sight.

  Chapter 23

  They crossed into France long before sunrise. Sirian stopped at another motel and paid for a room. He left, brought Erin back some food, and sat in the corner as she ate. Erin finished the meal in minutes, then turned her attention to Sirian.

  “I guess you’re leaving then,” she said.

  “The Gemini will be here by sunrise.” He moved to his feet and pulled on his long black jacket.

  “Thanks for the ride,” Erin said as he walked out the door.

  Erin focused on him, somehow tracked him with her senses, down the sidewalk, around the building to his motorcycle parked in the ally, where he stayed for a full hour before finally driving away. Erin felt both relieved and disappointed by his departure. She forced herself not to wonder where he was going.

  Less than ten minutes passed before the door burst open and the twins leapt into the room shouting.

  “On the ground! Face down! Make a single move and we’ll blow your brains all over the wall!”

  Erin felt the muzzle of a gun jab into her temple. She didn’t know what was going on, but she got down on the ground to avoid getting jabbed in the head again.

  “What the hell are you guys doing!?” she growled.

  “Hey! Did we say you could speak!? I said don’t move!”

  “Guys, what the—”

  Derek dropped to ground, straddling Erin’s body as he pulled her hands behind her back and cuffed them. Simultaneously, he leaned in close to her ear. “Just work with us here. We caught you, alright? We caught you. Now hold still for a sec. This is going to hurt.”

  Derek ripped off Erin’s boot and jammed something sharp into the space between her first and second toe. An intense burning sensation spread from that point up her foot, ankle, thigh, then whooshed across her body. Erin gasped against a sudden wave of nausea. Had he just stabbed her with a needle? Had he just injected her with something?

  Erin vomited.

  Then darkness. She was still awake. She could hear the twins shouting. She could hear herself breathing. The sound of traffic outside. But she couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t sense anything. Not the room. Not the twins. Nothing. She was suspended in complete and absolute blackness.

  “Derek, what the—”

  “Shut up!” Seven said.

  “Get on your feet, damn it!” Derek was shouting. “You’re gonna wish you never met us!”

  Seven jerked Erin to her feet and pushed her out the door. She could only tell by the change in sound. She could hear people. Lots of them. She could hear their boots thudding against the ground behind her as Seven shoved her down the hall. She could hear the metallic clicking sounds of something familiar, something like guns.

  Was she being followed by a SWAT team?

  The twins steered Erin, shouting all the way, out to the street where a vehicle was idling at the curb. They pulled something over her head and taped it around her neck, then shoved her into the back seat. Derek and another person got into the front seat. The engine revved to life, and the car sped forward.

  “Found yourself at a dead end, haven’t you!?” Derek shouted back at her. “Turned the wrong damn corner, didn’t you!?”

  Erin leaned back into her seat, clenching her jaw against the fiery ache burning in her skull. The nausea returned with it, and the two sensations seemed to feed off each other for several horrifying moments when she wasn’t sure if she would collapse or vomit again. Then the sensations receded slightly, still present, churning in the background. Erin didn’t know what was going on. For some reason, she couldn’t sense either of the twins. Moreover, she wouldn’t have known they were there if they hadn’t shouted. Fifteen minutes ago, she could have sensed a trash can or a table lamp. So, why couldn’t she feel the twins or any of the men with them? Derek was still shouting at her. She didn’t have to read him to know he was having a good time with it. What were they doing?

  She had to trust them.

  They drove for a full hour before the vehicle took a right turn and seemed to drive several yards down a slope. The car came to a stop and Erin felt hands grab her arm and jerk her out of the car.

  “Bet you’re wondering what you’re in for now, aren’t you!?” It was Derek again, and he was the one pushing her forward—through a door, to the end of a hallway. Down some stairs. Down another hallway.

  “What’s up?” It was Seven. She said this very quietly.

  “Guys, what—”

  “Did we say you could speak!?” Seven roared, slapping Erin on the back of the head.

  “Hey!” Erin cried.

  “Silence!” Derek warned, shoving her through another door.

  They took twelve steps across what felt like tile. Then Derek pushed her down. For a moment, she thought he would force her all the way to the floor, but she found herself sitting in a metal chair with a very high backrest. Erin felt metal cuffs snap down around her wrists and ankles, pinning her to the chair. One of the twins locked the last cuff around her neck, securing her head to the backrest. Then the sack was pulled off her head. Erin directed her face toward the floor. She didn’t want them to know she was blind.

  Reaching out with her mind, Erin attempted to probe the room.

  She found nothing but darkness, and the sudden return of nausea and pain. It was so intense she didn’t even try to pretend. She gritted her teeth, felt sweat breaking out across her back and neck, and panted until
the sensation died once more.

  A door opened somewhere to the left, and footsteps proceeded through it, crossing the room. The walker was bare foot, and came to a stop beside the twins only inches away from Erin.

  “We got her,” Derek said.

  “All for you,” Seven chimed in, though there was a certain edge in her voice.

  “She’s already been to Austria,” Derek said. “Got her on the way back.”

  “Shoulda seen this coming,” Seven said.

  Erin felt a hand touch her face. Slide up over her brow. Then across her eyes.

  “I cannot read her,” the woman said, and Erin recognized the voice. Green Eyes.

  “No?” Derek asked.

  “Well, you said that happens with psychics sometimes,” Seven said.

  “Sometimes,” the Green Eyes said slowly. “Very, very rarely.”

  “Well, she’s a special girl,” Derek said, clapping Erin on the shoulder.

  “What happened in Austria, Erin?” Green Eyes asked.

  “I went to Annexus Mons. The Dachsteins, I mean,” she said. “A monk tried to kill me at the monastery. Then I went to the cave. I can’t remember much after that.”

  “Nothing?” she asked.

  “No. I ended up climbing the mountain to a cave. I just—I couldn’t stop myself. I can’t remember what happened though. I had this vision I guess, of this woman and a demon. She killed him while he was trying to possess her, I think. I don’t really understand it. The next thing I know I’m lying in the grass.”

  “You’re blind,” Green Eyes said slowly.

  Erin nodded. “This demon—I guess it was a demon—but she was more like wind, said her name was Nekhiros. I don’t know what she did, but I’ve been blind ever since.”

  Instead of lying, she tried to stick to specific bits of truth. Green Eyes was psychic. She would sense a straight out lie. She felt an overpowering need to conceal as much as possible. She already knew that Green Eyes wanted her dead.

  “I’m really confused right now,” Erin said. “The monk told me this story. About, I don’t know, some Sauth Rahn guy and maidens and magic. Just crazy stuff. Then he tried to kill me, so I guess I can disregard pretty much anything he said. I don’t know.” She frowned. “Can somebody tell me what’s going on?”

  “Now,” Derek said, “does that sound like a walking apocalypse to you?”

  Green Eyes let out a hiss of irritation.

  “You said you wouldn’t miss it,” Derek continued. “It’s supposed to be obvious, right? This whole apocalypse thing?”

  “Maybe the myth’s bullshit,” Seven said casually.

  “Always sounded a bit melodramatic to me,” Derek said. “Maidens and demons and monks—all we’re missing is a unicorn.”

  Green Eyes let out a slow breath.

  “Look, I don’t know what you’re looking for, but you said it was a big deal, right?” Derek said.

  Erin felt the woman probing her, still trying to read her.

  “Psychic or not, she couldn’t overpower the two of us,” Derek said. “Walking apocalypse should be able to do something like that.”

  “She was supposed to change,” the woman said quietly.

  “Mm,” Seven grunted. “Kinda disappointing, huh?

  “I was excited about it myself,” Derek added.

  “She did climb up the mountain,” Seven said thoughtfully.

  “Against her own will,” Derek added.

  “She’s the descendant of the fifth maiden, and Annexus Mons is a very powerful place,” the woman said. “It is only to be expected.”

  “Weird,” Seven mumbled.

  “Can’t you just take some blood tests or something?” Derek asked.

  “There are no tests,” Green Eyes snapped. “Do you think this is hepatitis we’re looking for?”

  Derek shrugged. “Guess it couldn’t hurt.”

  The woman sighed again, louder this time. “We’ll keep her here for a time. Until we can be sure.”

  “That’s an awful lotta work,” Derek said. “I don’t know why you don’t just kill her.”

  “I’ll do it,” Seven said.

  The woman glared at them both. “You didn’t seem so eager last time.”

  “That’s when I thought she might be special or something,” Derek said.

  “Yeah,” Seven chimed in, “this isn’t interesting.”

  Green Eyes stood there in silence for a time, just staring down at Erin. “Perhaps the monks were wrong, and the nine souls died with the fifth maiden. It certainly seems as though they did not pass to her progeny.”

  “Woulda been cool though,” Seven said.

  “We will see,” the woman said. “Take her to cell fourteen.”

  Derek promptly released the cuffs pinning Erin’s ankles, wrists, and neck to the metal chair. Seven jerked her to a stand and led her out of the room, down a hall, and down another set of steps.

  “Shut up!” Derek shouted for no apparent reason.

  Erin tried to feel her surroundings through the twins, but she could hardly feel either of them, much less feel through them. Instead, she listened hard and paid close attention to the ground beneath her feet. Bare concrete. She couldn’t feel any light.

  “What’s going on?” she whispered.

  “Ah,” Seven said quietly, “she’s finally caught on to the whole whispering thing.”

  “I said shut up!” Derek shouted again, then continued in a lower voice. “I was starting to worry about your IQ.”

  “What’s happening?” Erin asked.

  “Not sure, Peaches,” Seven said.

  “They think you’re some humanoid power ball or something,” Derek whispered. “Sounds worse than that though. Do you feel like a walking apocalypse?”

  “Not really,” she said, very quiet. “Why can’t I sense anything? Why couldn’t Green Eyes read me?”

  “Green Eyes,” Seven muttered with a laugh.

  “If you pull that one more time!” Derek shouted. Then he went quiet once again. “You remember the pain in your foot back at the hotel?”

  Erin nodded.

  “Electromagnetic nanoparticle injection,” he said. “Confuses psychics. Kinda like a smoke screen, but it feels natural since it blends a bit with your natural energy. Too complicated to explain right now. It should keep Green Eyes from reading you.”

  The twins stopped, and Erin listened as Derek heaved open a thick metal door.

  “Hope you’re not claustrophobic,” Seven said, steering Erin into the room.

  “I can’t see the walls anyway,” Erin replied.

  “That’s the spirit,” Derek said.

  Erin listened as they stepped out.

  “And you stay there, goddamnit! If I catch you trying to break out, I swear you’re gonna wish you never met me!” Derek roared.

  “We’ll be back,” Seven whispered.

  “Yeah, so don’t go all lunar or anything,” Derek added.

  “Thanks,” Erin said, feeling a forced calm. She had to trust the twins. If anyone could get her out of this, it was them. And she was sure they would try.

  Erin listened to the lock grind shut. The air was cold in the room, and she just stood there, reaching for anything with her mind. The reality of being blind seemed to wrap around her in the dark. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the chilled steel walls. The feeling of entrapment was overwhelming. Erin thought the only thing that kept her from sinking into terror was the fact that she had completely run out of panic.

  She had used it all in the last few days. She was almost glad.

  So, Erin stood motionless, rooted to the spot, for what felt like hours. Trying not to think or feel. Trying to just exist—to breathe. The soreness in her feet broke her from the trance, so she finally moved, searching out the dimensions of the cell by running one hand along the walls. Ten steps long. Five steps wide. There was a pile of blankets in one corner. They smelled like dusty attics and human sweat.

  The cell had a
history she didn’t want to know.

  Erin sat down on the floor in the corner, icy steel against her back. Her mind slipped back to Las Cruces, to her parents, to Espy and Grandma and the Rez, to her friends in Phoenix ... to Isaiah. She stopped herself. She couldn’t think of Isaiah. She wouldn’t.

  Erin leaned her head back against the wall, opening hers muscles and veins to the exhaustion she had been holding back. She was asleep in seconds.

  * * *

  The twins entered at some point, shouting and cursing at her. Warning that if she didn’t tell the truth they would smash her brains out on the floor. Then Seven pulled off her boot and stabbed between her toes. Erin didn’t even bother standing up. She just curled up on the floor, panting against the pain and nausea, and waited for it to be over.

  * * *

  Erin didn’t know how long she was in the cell before she could sleep no longer. It felt like a long time. The twins continued to burst in every few hours, shouting and cursing, to inject her again. So, she sat there, keeping herself occupied with the easiest thoughts she could wrap her mind around: softball strategies, the art of a perfect pitch, childhood memories of holidays. Found herself humming Wild Thing. Her sister used to listen to that song. Erin hadn’t understood it at the time.

  Between each memory, her mind kept replaying Sirian’s hesitation. Straddling the motorcycle with one foot on the ground.

  I’ll take you anywhere you want.

  Erin didn’t know why she was thinking about it. Maybe she shouldn’t have tried to go home. It made her laugh to think of all the stories she had read, all the movies she had seen, all the times the main character chose to go home and walk into a trap they knew was already set. She had always said it was silly to give up your life when there was a whole world out there. Just start a new one. If she had done that, if she had taken Sirian’s offer, she wouldn’t be here.

  But there wasn’t a whole new life out there. Her parents were her life. Her older sister and brother were her life. Espy. Her grandmother. Her friends. College. Softball. Isaiah. Erin just wanted it back.