by Joshua King
"What does it say?" Jaxxim asked from where he was smashed into the corner, his face turned away from the rest of us and the light on the floor.
"What are you seeking?" Bex read. He looked up at us. "That's it? That's the question we have to ask to use the portal?"
"Malakan," Aurora said matter-of-factly.
"Doesn't that seem too simple?" Brielle asked.
"She's right," Ashe said. "It has to be more than that. Besides, it says what, not who. It can't be that straightforward. It has to be asking us something more intuitive."
"What do you suggest?" Jaxxim asked.
"Well, we are all doing this because we believe in the opposition, and we want to fight to preserve the Underworld for our future. Every step of the way we learn something new and are better prepared for what inevitably is going to come." Her eyes widened. "Maybe that's it. Maybe the answer is ourselves."
She said it with the same heavy, dramatic significance I would expect something like that to be said with. Rolling my eyes, I crouched down and reached for the inscription carved into the floor.
"You people seriously need to experience after school specials. You essentially are one of them right now." I pressed my fingertips to the inscription. "Malakan."
The light turned off and an instant later another formed on the wall in front of us. It looked like a neon blue crack forming through the cream-colored paint.
"It worked," Bex said.
"Not everything is so complicated. Sometimes the answer to a question is really just as easy as answering it."
"How did you know that was going to work this time?" Aurora asked.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the note the woman had given us and its simple words inside, holding it between two fingers as I flashed it at her.
"Malakan told me."
The crack in the wall got bigger and I shoved the note away again, gripping my bags and weapons to ready myself. It took a few moments for the wall to break the rest of the way open so we could step through. After all the portals we had gone through so far, I was expecting to step through the wall and end up in some new outdoor environment in another area of the Underworld. Instead, the wall opened to a wide, dark hallway.
We all hesitated before stepping out of the wall. Red light glowed down from emergency lights at the top of the walls and industrial gray carpet underfoot felt strangely, uncomfortably familiar. I moved a few steps further into the space so the rest of the group could come out into the hall and felt all the muscles in my body tensing.
"What is this place?" Brielle asked.
She sounded dazed, but my mind was totally clear. I knew exactly where we were.
"Nakatomi Tower," I said, my voice growling low in my throat. I tried to control myself, but there was nothing I could do to stem to surge of white-hot anger that burst from the center of my chest and flowed out to every tip of my body. "What the fuck? Why would Malakan send us on this ridiculous, twisted scavenger hunt only for us to fucking end up at Nakatomi Tower? Did he want to feed us right to Darian? Is the Prime waiting somewhere in here with a flock of Shades and a bib around his neck?"
A new thought shot through my mind and in one movement I had Jaxxim by the throat, his feet off the ground as I pinned him to the wall.
"Hayden!" Aurora gasped.
"You did this." I forced my voice through gritted teeth. "You brought us here."
"I didn't have anything to do with it," Jaxxim gasped, his hands clawing at my wrist to try to force me to let go.
"That doesn't make sense, Hayden. Think about it. Malakan is the one who sent you through the woods to the Fae-protected portal. That brought you to the train. Even though Jaxxim was on there, he didn't know why. There would be no point in sacrificing that many men just to go through with following Malakan's instructions to the inn and then through this portal. If it really was him, Jaxxim could have just as easily handed us over to Darian somewhere else. Malakan is the one who led us to that portal."
The tension in my arm slowly lessened and I lowered Jaxxim back to his feet on the carpet. He dropped back to lean against the wall and run his hand over the reddening patch of skin on his neck.
"Then what?" I asked. "His note didn't say anything about coming here. He would have told us if he planned on funneling us to Darian."
Beside me Aurora took a step closer, her eyes locked on the former Shade in front of me. Jaxxim was still rubbing his neck, trying to get rid of the feeling of my hand pressing him against the wall. We were loyal to each other, but my superior strength and power obviously bothered him. He turned his eyes to Aurora, his face expressionless as she stared at him. Suddenly her head went from tilted to straight.
"It was Jaxxim."
22
Jaxxim Immediately ducked out of my way, his eyes going dark and his face registering an expression of horror and confusion.
"I didn't have anything to do with this," he said. "You have to believe me. Darian chose me to go on that mission, but I had no idea why we would be going there."
"You said you knew it had to do with me."
"I wanted it to. Ever since the group broke up and Ty and I went back, I've regretted leaving you. When I made the decision to leave the Shades, that should have been it. We had our reasons at the time, but they didn't make sense to me anymore. When he chose me to be part of that mission, I could only hope it had something to do with finding you. That would let me join back up and do what I promised to do in the first place. Why would I go through all that just to bring me back here? Like Brielle said, at any second I could have just handed you over to the Prime if that's what I wanted to do. He could have been waiting anywhere and I could have led you to him. What would be the point of going through that fight on the train and nearly getting myself smashed into oblivion, going to the hotel, avoiding the Council members, and going through the portal just so we could end up back at the Tower?"
"I didn't say anything you did made sense," I spat at him.
"No, Hayden, it doesn't make sense. Think about it," Ashe said. "He made that pact with me not to have any more near-death experiences. It was a joke, but it came from a very serious place. Think about everything he's gone through because of this. There would be absolutely no reason for him to put himself at such incredible risk."
"Then why did Aurora say it was because of him?"
"It's not his fault. We are here because of him, but Jaxxim didn't know, and there was nothing he could have done to control it. I'm right, he didn't do this on purpose. We are here because of one person and one person only, and that is my father."
"I don't understand," Jaxxim said.
"Did anything unusual happen when you are still at the palace? Especially after the Prime gave you instructions to go on this mission?" Aurora asked.
"No. There wasn't anything strange. I just went back to the palace and stayed in the guard quarters like I always did before."
"Think. I need you to think. This is really important. Think back right after you found out you were going to be going on this mission. Did Darian or any member of his council do anything unusual or different?"
"I guess there was one thing, but it wasn't just me. He did it to all the guards."
"Did what?"
"There was new training. We were all taught new combat methods and to use different weapons. After the training, we all had physicals."
"Physicals?" I asked.
He nodded, looking over at me like he still didn't trust me. It was a safe bet. Regardless of what Aurora was saying, my hands were still tingling with the desire to close around his neck. I had trusted him completely and he had essentially led us right to the slaughter.
"Yes. The palace doctor performed full physicals on us to make sure we were still in good health and determine if we needed any further training or improvement."
"Physicals?" I asked again.
Aurora looked over her shoulder at me with annoyance on her face.
"Yes, Hayden, physicals."
"I'm sorry, I'm just still trying to wrap my head around the need for a vampire to have a doctor check on his health. Seems a little counterintuitive to me."
"There are still illnesses that can impact vampires. They don't cause death, obviously, but they can lead to serious debilitation if not managed properly. They are usually magical in nature, more a curse than a germ. The doctor was probably checking mostly for lasting injuries and defects."
"Of course. Defects. Because Darian's super army can't be anything but perfection."
"During the physical, did the doctor do anything? Give you any kind of medication or anything?"
"Yes," Jaxxim said. "He gave me a shot. It was supposed to boost the effectiveness of the training for the next mission."
"Well, it did," Aurora told him. "Because it implanted a tracker in you."
"A tracker?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Jaxxim demanded.
"It's a piece of technology Darian has had access to for some time now. It isn't just a normal tracker. This isn't a GPS system he can use to babysit his guards. Not only does it track the location of anyone it's implanted into, but it also has the ability to essentially rewire any portal that person tries to use. No matter where the portal is or what the original destination is supposed to be, it immediately brings that person directly to Nakatomi Tower, which means anyone else in the portal also go there. That's why it was important for Jaxxim to meet up with us when he did. The Prime knew at some point we would move through another portal, and if Jaxxim truly was loyal to us, he would come. That meant we would all be brought here."
Jaxxim looked horrified and stumbled back away from us several steps.
"I didn't know," he said. "I had no idea."
"We know that," I assured him.
"I have to get away from all of you," Jaxxim said, taking a few more steps away from us. "If I stay close to you, the tracker can be used to find out where you are."
"I think it's a pretty safe bet the Prime already knows where we are," Ashe pointed out. "He didn't choose the tracker to bring you and whoever you were near to Nakatomi Tower for no reason. This is where he wants us to be, and if he hasn't already figured out that we've gotten here, he will soon enough."
Jaxxim gestured toward the end of the hallway and the elevator I knew was standing there. My memory was already contending with the images that being in this hallway again brought back. We weren't in the Prime's hallway, but several floors below, on the floor where I had watched Ashe decapitate a guard during my first battle against the Shades. Not for the first time, I wondered how the aftermath of that fight was covered up.
"You can escape. Just get out of here. Hayden, Aurora, Ashe, you know the building, especially you, Aurora. You know how to get through the floors and can get back out into the city. You'll be in New York again. It won't be easy for him to find you there. There are plenty of places you can go and stay for a while, then later you can make your way back through to Solan City. Ty is at the portal again and I'll let him know to be expecting you, so he doesn't leave his post until you get there. I just have to get away from you so they can't find you through me."
His words were coming so fast they were piling up and sound like they are tripping over each other. His eyes keep flickering around him at the smooth walls and empty floor like a trapped animal trying to find some way to escape. None of us had taken a step close to him, but even a slight movement of our hands made him jump.
"It won't work," Aurora told him.
"Of course, it will. I'm sure Darian has Shades in New York right now, but it will take a long time to track you if you keep moving or go somewhere he's not familiar with. Hayden, you know the city. Or leave the city all together. Go somewhere else until the heat dies down. I'll go back and turn them off the trail."
"That's not happening," I said. "What do you think they're going to do when you just show back up? Everyone else in your crew was killed on the mission, and you disappeared, but then you just stroll back into the palace like nothing happened? You honestly don't think they're going to figure out what happened and who you were with?"
"I don't care if it keeps the rest of you safe. Me coming back put all your lives at risk."
"You are one of us, Jaxxim. You are a member of this group like anyone else, and just like I wouldn't let any of the others break off from us when it would mean certain death to leave, I'm not going to let you do it."
"It wouldn't matter even if you did," Aurora said.
"What do you mean?"
"Even if we were willing to let Jaxxim go, it wouldn't be that easy to separate him from us and stop the effects of the tracker from letting the Prime find us. At this point, Jaxxim getting away from the group isn't going to protect us."
"Why not?" Jaxxim asked.
"The tracker is contagious."
23
"Contagious?" I asked. "What do you mean it's contagious? It's a tracker. How could something like that possibly spread to anyone else?"
"Remember I told you Darian had dealings with some rogue mages many, many years ago?"
"Yeah. They dabbled in the dark arts and forbidden magic, and he went to them for help, but the arrangement went sour. That's why he aged."
"Exactly. I don't know everything about it. He is predictably unwilling to share many details about that time in his life. If there's anything Darian doesn't like, it's admitting when someone has gotten the best of him. I'm not sure of everything he got from them or learned from them, or even the full extent of the damage their punishments did when he crossed them and eventually killed them, but this is one thing I do know."
"So, he has been using these trackers since then?"
"Right. The ability to use the type of magic that creates these trackers is part of what he got from those warlocks. It is extremely rare and very dangerous magic, but something he uses constantly. The only reason nothing happens to him is because nobody knows what he's doing. These trackers are implanted into new Shade guards as a basic part of their intake process. As soon as they decide to join up and the Prime selects them as part of his force of protectors, they are implanted with their chip. I would venture to say none of them realize what's happening. Being one of the guards is such an incredible honor that they wouldn't dare question anything being done to them out of fear it would take their position away from them. Besides, there’s so much about being one of the Shades that's held in tremendous secrecy. The guards learn more as they advance through the levels of the hierarchy, but even ones at the same level often don't know the same things. It creates an atmosphere of distrust and absolute loyalty to the Prime. If each of them feels as though they know more than the person beside them, or maybe know less than them, they're going to do anything it takes to get closer to Darian and prove themselves invaluable."
"If Jaxxim has had his tracker since he first joined, why hasn't your father used it to find us before? We have gone through portals with him, so why didn't we end up here?"
"The trackers are put in as a contingency plan. Like I said, the magic used to make them work is very rare and dangerous. Even he knows not to flaunt that he has access to it and use it regularly. He only puts them into the new guards, so he has control over them and is able to make use of that power whenever it becomes necessary."
"What happens when it becomes necessary?" Jaxxim asked, obviously both infuriated and fascinated by what he was learning about himself and what he had offered himself up to when he took his position under the Prime.
"I don't fully understand it. It's not something that was ever explained to me to its fullest extent, and there are details about it I don't know. But from what I understand, when the Prime determines it’s time to utilize the tracker in any given guard, he activates it using a concoction the warlocks taught him to make."
"The shot I got during the physical."
The reality of his life and everything he had given up for Darian, all the manipulation he had fallen under, and the chaos he had been a part o
f orchestrating, were unfolding in front of Jaxxim and it was painful to watch. Aurora nodded gently.
"The warlocks gave my father the power to use ultimate control over people. Once the chip is embedded and activated, it will essentially melt down and becomes a part of the person. After that, he is capable of monitoring them from his computer. That's where it is like a GPS system. He's able to use his computer system to watch the movements of whatever guard he wants, and at the moment he desires, he can force the tracker to switch the portal. That's why even after the chip is activated, it doesn't always transport a guard straight back here to Nakatomi Tower if he gets into a portal. It only happens when Darian specifically wants to use it."
"A computer system? Like... a computer system? The machines found in virtually every nook and cranny throughout the other world? Darian is just sitting there tooling around the internet playing a very seriously high-stakes version of an RPG? What's his handle so I know not to add him to my team the next time I go on a gaming binge?"
"It's not quite the same," Aurora said.
"It just doesn't sound much like warlock magic to me. I spent a lot of time in Malakan's stone chambers and visited the house in the mirrored place inside the cliff. There were a lot of books and potions and strange objects, but I barely saw any electricity anywhere and not a single computer."
"Magic can come in many different forms, Hayden, including enchanted objects. The development and evolution of magic didn't end in the dark ages, though a lot of the masters of the craft would want you to think it did. For those who want to see it as such, magic is just another form of technology. People in your world think nothing of things like electric lights, phones, TVs, and laptops. They are just regular, fully integrated parts of your daily life. People in this world see magic the same way."
"This is my world," I say, trying to keep the aggression her comment made me feel out of my voice.