Rusk smiled and shook Robert’s hand back, though Robert did most of the shaking. “It’s good to see you again, and Mrs. Ross as well. How is little Felix?”
Felix? Must be the baby’s name. Thank God, they hadn’t named him Nicholas.
“Healthy,” said Alexandra with a smile. “His breathing is so much better now. Mr. Vander thinks he’ll make a full recovery.”
“We wanted Mr. Vander to look at him one more time,” said Robert, “before I have to go back on duty.”
I frowned. Alexandra’s baby had been sick? Maybe this Vander guy really was a medical specialist of some kind. And Rusk’s daughter had been in a coma, hadn’t she?
Before I could pursue that line of thought further, the door behind the receptionist’s desk opened, and a wiry middle-aged man with graying hair stepped into the room. He was wearing a button-down work shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dusty jeans, and battered work boots, and he looked like the sort of man who would be good with his hands. Like he’d be more comfortable with a power saw and a paintbrush than with people.
Rusk straightened up at once. “Lord Vander.”
The middle-aged man, presumably Lord Vander, winced. “Don’t call me that.”
“Sorry, sir,” said Rusk. “I got excited.” He swallowed. “Is she…”
Vander smiled. “Awake right now and asking about you.”
Rusk went white.
“I think you’d better go talk to her, yeah?” said Russell.
Rusk nodded, and Vander and Russell walked him to the door behind the desk. I waited until they had gone through, and then slipped through the door before it closed behind them.
The next room looked sort of like a medical ward. There were two hospital beds against one wall, and a long table held a lot of medical supplies – bandages and pill bottles and things like that. One of the beds was empty, but the one farthest from the door held a teenage girl. She didn’t look healthy. Her skin was waxy, her eyes sunken. Her head had been shaved down to stubble, and there was a nasty scar on the right side of her forehead and temple.
A surgical scar. It looked like she had been shot in the forehead.
This had to be Rusk’s daughter. She had been shot in the head during the Archon attack a century and a half ago…I mean, last year. The doctors hadn’t been able to do anything for her, and even Lord Morvilind’s magic hadn’t been able to heal her. The reason was obvious. A bullet that entered her skull at that angle would have destroyed most of her brain. That she was alive at all was nothing short of a miracle, and the best she could have hoped for was a persistent vegetative state.
But she was awake, and a tremulous smile went over her face.
That wasn’t possible. That just wasn’t possible.
“Dad?” she croaked.
“Jill?” said Rusk. He staggered forward and dropped into the chair next to the bed, staring at her.
“I…I couldn’t save Mom,” said Jill, blinking tears from her eyes. “We tried to run, but those orcs were everywhere, and…”
“I know, honey, I know,” said Rusk, and he kissed her forehead. “I know. It’s…I’m just very glad to talk to you again.”
“What…what happened?” said Jill. “I woke up, and there was this red light everywhere. Mr. Vander said I should be able to stay awake now.” She smiled at Russell. I guess my brother could charm even coma patients. “Russell said that this was a clinic, that Mr. Vander had cured me. But…I don’t understand what is going on.”
“You were really hurt,” said Rusk. “None of the doctors could help you. His lordship even tried to help you, but he couldn’t do anything. Then I met Russell Moran. He wanted to talk to me about…well, some other things, but he said that Mr. Vander might be able to help you.”
“I guess he did,” said Jill. She frowned. “But…don’t I know you from somewhere?”
“I’m your father, honey,” said Rusk.
She smiled. “Don’t be silly. I remember you, Dad. But…my head’s all scrambled up, you know.”
“I’m afraid there will be some permanent memory loss that I was unable to reverse,” said Vander.
Jill’s eyes shifted to Vander, and she frowned. “But I remember you now. That…carpentry competition I won? The chair I made? Mr. Vander was one of the judges there. He’s…a shop teacher, a shop teacher at a high school somewhere. How did a shop teacher know how to cure me?”
Then the memory clicked.
I had driven Russell to school often, and one of his favorite teachers had been the shop teacher, a guy named Nathan Vander.
A shop teacher. A shop teacher had somehow healed Jill Rusk and helped Alexandra’s baby.
A wave of bafflement and confused anger rushed through me. My brother was standing in a building with Lord Morvilind’s butler, the butler’s daughter, two people I had met while doing Lord Morvilind’s jobs, and a shop teacher. Somehow the shop teacher had been able to heal a catatonic girl and a sick baby, and this was all happening within a half mile of a warehouse owned by a Rebel front company.
What the freaking hell was going on here?
I suppose I could have slipped away, surveilled Vander and Russell for a few days, shadowed them and worked out what was going on. But I had been badly frightened to see him here, and I wasn’t thinking clearly.
So, I dropped my Cloak, stepped forward, and said, “What the hell is going on?”
That got a reaction, let me tell you.
Vander took two quick steps back, his hand coming up, lightning snarling around his fingers. He could use magic – he must have been a member of the Wizard’s Legion. Jill only looked confused. Likely she was still too foggy from her ordeal to react to much of anything yet. Rusk spun around in his chair so violently that he almost fell over, and he had to grab at the hospital bed’s rail to keep upright.
Russell’s jaw fell open, and his gray eyes went wide.
“What the hell?” said Vander. “Who are you? Identify yourself!”
“Dad?” said Jill. “Who’s the woman? She wasn’t there a minute ago.”
“Miss Moran?” croaked Rusk. “What are you doing here?”
I barely heard all of them. I was staring at Russell. He looked…
Relieved. Overwhelmingly, overpoweringly relieved.
“Nadia?” he said, his voice soft.
I opened my mouth, closed it again, tried to force moisture into my dry throat.
I suddenly realized how glad, how very glad, I was to see him again.
“Yeah,” I said.
Russell took a step closer.
“Wait, Russell,” said Vander. “Wait! She might not be what she appears to be. An illusion spell, or a shapeshifter.”
Russell paused. “Can you check?”
“Yeah, hang on,” said Vander. He dismissed the lightning globe he had summoned and cast the spell to sense the presence of magical forces. I couldn’t help but think that his technique was…clumsy. Heavy-handed, even. But the spell worked. “No, no illusions. And she’s human.” He peered at me, like someone meeting a person they’d heard about. “Is that your sister? She looks a lot like…”
Russell covered the distance between us and caught me in a hug.
I flinched and then found myself hugging him back, my face pressed into his shoulder. It had been a long, long time since anyone had hugged me. A long time since anyone had touched me. I mean, Nicholas had kissed me, and Lorenz had groped me, but I had almost wound up killing both of them over it, so that didn’t count.
I had really missed my brother, and I hadn’t realized how much.
The emotions hit me like a punch to the stomach. My eyes started to sting, and I blinked a few times.
Russell stepped back, smiling, but I could see the strain on his face.
“Nadia,” he said. “You look…”
“Like shit, yeah?” I said.
“Well,” said Russell, “I was going to say that you look like you’ve lost weight, which is what you’re supposed to say
to women, and you actually have, but…”
I laughed. “You haven’t changed, have you?”
But he had. He was taller, for one. Everyone was always taller than me, which wasn’t fair. But he did look…harder, somehow. More confident, and Russell Moran had never lacked for confidence. And he had definitely put on muscle. Like a surprising amount. He had always been on the spindly side because of the frostfever, but now he looked sleek and lean. I didn’t look good, but he really did. Even the white hair worked for him, made him stand out. I had always worried that he would have trouble in life because he would never serve as a man-at-arms, but now I wondered if he would have to keep the women away with a stick.
My brain started to work through my emotions again.
“Russell,” I said. “Just what the hell is going on here? What are you doing here?”
Russell let out a long breath. “Well, I was hoping you could tell me.”
“Miss Moran?” said Rusk. “Does…his lordship know you are here?”
“I really doubt it,” I said.
“I mean,” said Russell, “I’ve been looking for you for a year, and then you just appeared out of nowhere. So…”
“Wait,” I said. “You’ve been looking for me?”
He blinked. “Well, yeah.” My eyes flicked to his temple, and I saw the faint scar left from where I had accidentally hit him with the door. “You just disappeared. No number, no contact information, nothing. I had no idea what had happened to you.” He frowned, and the tension in his expression sharpened. “I tried to find you. Of course I tried to find you.”
I stared at him, blinking, and then a monstrous wave of guilt washed through my head.
I had accidentally hurt him after the Eternity Crucible, and fearing that I would lose control and kill him, I had Cloaked and fled, breaking up with Riordan a few moments later. In a fit of rage and grief, I had smashed my old cell phone. Which meant that Russell had no way to contact me. I had done it for his protection, of course, which was the same reason I had broken up with Riordan. It had been for their own good. They had to be kept safe from the dangerous, unstable person that I had become.
Except…
I hadn’t really thought about what my disappearance would do to them, had I?
If Russell had just freaked out and disappeared without a trace one day, I would have torn apart heaven and earth to find out what had happened to him.
Something else occurred to me.
I hadn’t told anyone about the Eternity Crucible. From Russell’s perspective, it would seem like I had snapped for no reason, fled raving into the night, and never come back again.
Oh, God. What would it be like to watch someone you loved do that?
What had I done?
“Russell,” I said. “I…”
The door to the waiting area opened, and Robert stepped into the room. He had the tension of a man ready for action, and he was holding a small revolver against his hip.
“What’s going on?” he said. “I heard shouting, and…”
His dark eyes fell on me. He blinked once, and then astonishment went over his expression.
“Miss Novoranya?” he said.
Why did he call me that? Oh, right – he thought my name was Irina Novoranya.
“Hi,” I said. “Uh. Congratulations on the baby.”
“Then you really are her,” said Robert, shaking his head. “Russell’s sister. I thought it was just a coincidence, but it makes a lot of sense.”
“How did you find Russell?” I said, uneasy. Had Rusk and Robert joined forces to track down Russell? Not that it would have been hard for Rusk to find Russell – he knew Russell lived with the Marneys.
Robert snorted. “I didn’t find Russell. Russell and Vander found us.” His voice grew quiet. “And thank God for that. Felix might not have survived his illness otherwise.”
I looked at Vander. He was watching me uneasily, like if he wasn’t sure I was going to attack him or not. It was a reasonable fear – if Vander had hurt Russell, or was trying to use him for something nefarious, Vander’s remaining lifespan would be measured in seconds.
“What’s going on here?” I said. “Why are you all here?”
“It is as Russell said, Miss Moran,” said Vander.
“I was trying to find you,” said Russell.
I blinked at him, a sense of unreality going through me. Had Russell gathered together people from my past in one place? How? And why? I almost expected to see Armand Boccand stroll through the door, or maybe Hakon Valborg or Rosalyn Madero.
“I…” I started to say.
The door swung open again, and Alexandra hurried into the room, Felix in her arms. Her expression was tight with alarm.
“Robert?” she said. “Robert, I think you had better talk to…”
She saw me and froze in astonishment. “Irina?”
Rory Murdo came in behind her, his expression hard. Right away that set off alarm bells in my head. That was the expression he wore when there was trouble.
Then he looked around the room and blinked in surprise.
“We’ve got a problem,” said Murdo.
“Yeah, I think we do,” I said.
“No, we’ve got a problem right now,” said Murdo. “I just saw an orcish mercenary drive past.”
That caught my attention, and my mind snapped into combat focus, my emotions falling away.
“What?” I said.
“Where?” said Robert.
“Unmarked white van,” said Murdo. “Like the ones we saw at the Rocky Mountain Mile.” I nodded. “The van was circling the block, so I got suspicious. Got out my binoculars, and I saw an orcish mercenary in the passenger’s seat.”
“You’re sure?” said Robert. “Whoever you are?”
“Name’s Rory Murdo,” said Murdo, “and I’m positive. I’ve fought orcish mercenaries more times than I care to remember. And there aren’t too many people on Earth with blue skin and tusks.”
Vander looked disturbed. “Are they scouts for an Archon attack?”
“Actually, the Rebels own one of the warehouses nearby,” I said.
“What?” said Rusk, his face going white. He stood up as if interposing himself between Jill and anyone else who might come through the door. “Rebels in Milwaukee?”
Vander’s dark eyes narrowed as he considered me. “You’re not with the Rebels, are you?”
“I’m here to set fire to their building,” I said, “and I found you guys by accident. So, no. Rory, show me.”
“Alexandra, wait here with Felix,” said Robert. Alexandra nodded and moved near Jill’s bed. Russell crossed to one of the cabinets and reached inside.
He drew out a semiautomatic pistol. Where the hell had he gotten that? I wanted to tell him to stay here, but Murdo had already gone through the door.
And looking at Russell’s face…his expression had gone hard and determined. I realized he wouldn’t listen to me. And why would he? I had gone nuts, nearly killed him, disappeared from his life for a year, and then appeared out of nowhere into this weird little clinic he apparently ran with Vander. Why the hell would he listen to a word I had to say?
That thought just made me sad.
I pushed the emotions aside. At least I could be sure that Vander wasn’t a Rebel. A Rebel wouldn’t have reacted with alarm at the prospect of an Archon attack. For that matter, Robert Ross was a patriotic man-at-arms of Duke Carothrace, and a member of the Graysworn. If Nathan Vander was a rebel, Robert would have shot him in the head without hesitation.
Later. I could figure out what was going on here later.
The four of us walked into the front room and stopped near the window. Murdo pointed just as a big white van drove past. It was the same sort of windowless van that the anthrophages had used in their attack on the Rocky Mountain Mile. I couldn’t see the driver and the passenger clearly, but I did catch a flash of blue skin, of white tusks rising from their lower jaws.
Shit.
“Is that the same van?” I said.
“Nope,” said Murdo. “Different license plate.”
“We need to call Homeland Security right away,” said Robert.
“Is that a good idea?” I said. Russell gave me an odd look.
“Miss Novoranya…Miss Moran, rather,” said Robert. “If there is an Archon attack about to begin, people will die. The faster that Homeland Security and Duke Tamirlas can mobilize, the more lives we’ll save.”
“Yeah,” I said. A flash of insight came to me. “But I bet you, Alexandra, and Felix do not want to be caught in the same room as Mr. Vander.”
Robert hesitated. That was all the answer I needed.
“Let’s get everyone out of here,” I said. “Rory, you got the plate numbers?” Murdo nodded. “Once we’re gone, we’ll make an anonymous call and give Homeland Security the plate numbers. Then everyone’s safe, and Homeland Security can figure out what’s going on. Satisfied?”
“Fine,” said Robert, stepping back from the window. “Someone will have to give Rusk and Jill a lift. He always parks his car a couple blocks away and walks.”
“I have room in my SUV,” said Murdo. “We…”
And then it all went to hell.
Two white vans roared into sight and turned right. The strip mall’s parking lot had two driveways, and the vans screeched to a stop in front of both. Behind the two vans six more came to a halt in the street, blocking traffic.
The side and rear doors on the vans burst open, and orcish mercenaries boiled out. Most of them stood six or seven feet tall, and they wore body armor and carried the same kind of AK-47s that I had blown up at Vernon’s supply dump in New Mexico. That was bad enough, but anthrophages also emerged from the vans, gaunt and gray and spiny, and they carried guns, their yellow eyes sweeping over the parking lot.
Some of the orcs and anthrophages spread out, forming a perimeter, but a dozen rushed towards the clinic.
They were coming for us.
Chapter 4: Security Contractors
“What the hell?” said Robert, his revolver in both hands. “They’re attacking us?”
“Yep,” I said, but my mind kicked into overdrive. Were Murdo and I the targets? That seemed unlikely. I mean, how could the orcs and the anthrophages have known where we were going? Until twenty minutes ago, I hadn’t even known this place existed, and I would have noticed if they had been following us. You can’t hide that many damn vans. That meant they were here for Vander, Russell, Rusk, or Robert.
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