Loyalty

by Carrie Butler

  I plunged the glass into my eye.

  CHAPTER 23

  « RENA »

  Wallace roared in agony, but I didn’t have enough breath to make a sound.

  What I’d just witnessed was far worse than the danger we now found ourselves in, or my own gaping wounds. He’d stabbed himself in the eye to stop Gail. He’d lost part of his vision to save me. I didn’t even know how to wrap my head around that. I was so dizzy.

  Sweat broke out over my forehead. They’d caught us off guard. We’d set a trap for them, and they’d still managed to take control of the situation—again. Maybe we were in over our heads. Maybe they were too big, too powerful for us to take on by ourselves. All of our efforts would prove insignificant, forever blotted out from the pages of history. I tried to climb back out through the open window.

  Wallace had fallen to his knees, clutching his eye. Gail’s influence must have left him. A small victory at a high cost. I struggled to lift my leg over the edge.

  Even clutching my wound, I felt warmth leak out around my fingers. It terrified me. A person wasn’t supposed to lose this much of themselves. This wasn’t the kind of thing you just bandaged and walked away from. I needed a hospital.

  I couldn’t go to the hospital.

  When we’d psyched ourselves up, the idea of dying for the future of humanity had seemed far off and noble. Now that it had bled into reality, I found myself panicking. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to start my life with my husband. I’d earned that much, hadn’t I?

  Maybe not. Maybe that wasn’t how the universe worked, after all. I slumped over the low windowsill, glass slicing my skin all over as I rolled out onto the concrete. “H-Hold on…”

  Wallace squinted up at me with his uncovered eye, mirroring the fear I fought so hard to suppress.

  “No…no!” Gail’s familiar shrieks came from the balcony overlooking the courtyard. She’d backed against the railing, waving someone or something off. Serves her right…

  When the figure neared, I made out a face—Cole! He had her cornered, and they both knew it. She threw a leg over the railing and cast a panicked look down to Faye, who watched the exchange with disturbing indifference. The other leg swung over the edge, and suddenly she was balancing on a too-thin ledge.

  Her eyes sparked a few times, probably a last ditch attempt to reestablish control over someone. Anyone. Failing to center herself, she lashed out at her grandmother, “What are you waiting for? Kill him!”

  Faye straightened her spine, indignant. “Since when do I take orders from you?”

  They shared a hard glare, tinged with resent and festering hate. “Since you lost the ability to lead.”

  “Why not go off on your own, then?” Faye fanned her hand out. “You’ve spent the past six months questioning me. Perhaps it’s time you learn what it’s like in the real world, outside of your grandmother’s protection.”

  “Some protection. You couldn’t even save your own husband or daughter!”

  “How dare you speak to me that way!”

  Gail made to jump off the ledge. In a barely perceptible flash, Cole whipped his belt around her and fastened it behind her neck—a breath before her weight pulled the leather taut.

  He held her suspended body with both hands over the railing, maniacal emotion glossing his eyes. “Larry Tits Moran, you have been avenged!”

  And with that, he let her go.

  Thump.

  Faye’s indifference melted into blind outrage. She threw both arms in the air, and the smoke that had been hovering around her feet rose in sudden fury. “You shall pay grievously for that. Todd informed me you intended to record your findings here, so take note of what's about to happen. Let the world bear witness to the fall of those who fought progress!”

  Shit. Oh shit.

  Adrenaline shot fire through my veins, and suddenly I was up again, running even. This was it—the do or die moment we’d all feared for months. I couldn’t breathe.

  Wallace lumbered to his feet, still clutching his wounded eye, and reached for me. But I was already gone.

  Faye’s dark, heinous smoke whirled around her, lashing out with ghostly bolts. One spear vaulted between us; another went for Cole. Her emotions had gone haywire, sending projectiles like a massive, malfunctioning blender.

  “Listen to my words, dear ones,” she shouted from within the vortex, grabbing the attention of every SAGE in proximity. “These outsiders are your enemy! Give them no quarter.”

  The commotion must have drawn the others, because I caught Clara’s line of vision at the edge of the courtyard—seconds before the SAGEs attacked her. Henry charged from behind and threw one off of her. I spun around.

  Corynn and Aiden joined the fray from the second level, bringing their own dance partners from what appeared to be an ongoing fight—Franklin and another SAGE. No camera in sight. I tried to shout, but my breathless voice was swallowed up by the screams and clangs of battle.

  Next thing I knew, Cole leapt over the edge of the balcony and tore off after a disjointed group of limbs, shouting. “Marlene!”

  Nothing made sense. It was all happening so fast.

  And then there was Faye, the heart of all this wickedness around us. The closer I got to her, the stronger her smoke grew in violence and density. It cut my arms to ribbons as I shielded my face, doing everything in my power to keep from thinking about the blood loss making the room blur.

  She’d turned to focus on Wallace, who had charged forward to intercept me. His worry pulled at me through the Nexus, an unspoken plea to give up on what had to be done. It warmed my soul to feel the depths of his concern, but we both knew it was time. Happiness, at least the long-term kind, wasn’t in the cards for us. Greater responsibility had been thrust upon our union. I understood that now.

  Within the eye of the storm, things quieted down. Scenes blurred around us. I tasted blood on my lips.

  My arms rose at my sides, palms outstretched, to embrace the energy surrounding me. Gold light erupted from my form as I staggered into Faye. Before she could turn on me, I latched on, holding her tight from behind. “This is it.”

  “Unhand me!” she shouted, her voice already hoarse.

  “We both know I can’t do that,” I whispered in her ear, using every reserve of energy to keep her still. My ability fluxed her already stretched power and charged it to unthinkable levels. I felt it reverberate in my chest, a sickening drain that spotted my vision.

  My muscles started to give out, trembling to keep me upright. I pulled down hard on her shoulders, and she struggled to keep her own knees from buckling.

  “H-How are you doing this…?”

  I coughed and something wet stirred in my chest. “Bloodline…”

  If I could have, I would’ve recited the monologue I’d fantasized about for months—explaining what we’d learned in Adelyn’s journal, showing how her own arrogance had led to her downfall, giving her one last merciful chance to give up her wicked ways…

  Instead, I killed her.

  With a sickening cry, her smoke surged toward the heavens in raw, uncontrollable power. It shuddered through her frail body and left her broken, deflated. She fell face first against the cement, and I collapsed on top of her.

  Spent.

  Victorious.

  Dead.

  CHAPTER 24

  « COLE »

  I’d expected a fight, but I never thought it’d be a bloodbath.

  Once Vlad came on the scene and George charged in with his Sanctuarians, the numbers were almost even. That was when the real chaos broke out. Dynari, Augari, Nullari, and forcibly evolved humans all battling it out for their own reasons. Some wanted to proceed with ERA’s work, others came prepared to do everything in their power to stop that from happening, but we all agreed on one thing—the fate of the supernatural world hinged on the battle’s outcome.

  We’d lived in relative peace and secrecy for hundreds of years. There was no reason why we couldn’t do it again, e
specially now that the shit-stirrers were out of the way and we didn’t need the recording. It’d just be a matter of covering everything up. The government did shit like this all the time. Surely, we could, too.

  Marlene tugged on my arm. “Why’d you come to school, Mr. B?”

  “Security,” I lied. Again.

  “Oh.”

  A few months ago, back when I’d done regular sweeps of the city, I’d taught her piece of shit father a lesson in drinking and driving—a lesson that might have left him in need of emergency medical care. I didn’t realize he’d abandoned his poor kid in the parking lot to go bar-hopping, or that—thanks to my speed—she’d only seen him collapse. When she’d innocently asked for my help, it had fucked with my head big time. It was like I’d grown a conscience over night or something. Horrible.

  Now here she was, unknowingly caught up in ERA’s endgame. They’d done brain surgery on a little girl, for shit’s sake! The second I’d recognized her, I’d zipped us both to a darkened storefront and tried to get her settled while the war raged on.

  “What happened to your folks?” I asked, keeping her back in the shadows while I surveyed the area outside.

  “Mommy was in an accident, and Daddy’s in Car-survey-did.”

  Car-survey-did? I repeated the words under my breath and smacked my forehead. Incarcerated. Her dad was in the slammer.

  “Well,” I said, blowing out a deep breath as I readied myself to rejoin the fight, “tell you what. If we make it out of here, you can come live with me and my friend Rachel.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, ‘course, I just need you to stay here until I come get you. Can you do that?”

  She nodded with creepy, unfazed eyes.

  “Good girl.”

  I charged back into the thick of things, avoiding everything from fireballs to what appeared to be acid spewing from some dude’s mouth. A Dynari chick had grown two stories to take on a horde of SAGEs, and the only thing I could think of was that I wished Tits was there. It was like a comic book come to life.

  “Cole!” my brother yelled from the center, his voice broken with desperation. “Cole, I need you!”

  “I’m here, I’m here,” I assured him, kneeling down at his side. “Wha…oh, shit.”

  Sis lay splayed over One-eye’s body, crimson coating her wedding dress, completely motionless. His hands were slick with blood, feeling all over her for a pulse. “I…I don’t…”

  “Move.”

  I reached in and pressed two fingers against the cold, clammy skin along her neck. Nothing. My stomach twisted. I tried again with her right wrist, then her left one. With my own pulse hammering as it was, I couldn’t tell if the flutter I felt came from me or her. “Got it.”

  We needed hope right now. A metric shit-ton of hope. If that meant embellishing the truth, then I’d sure as hell do it.

  “Oh, thank God,” Wallace panted, cradling Sis to his chest. He’d completely disregarded the bloody mess that used to be his eye, dropping everything to get to her. I’d seen part of it from the balcony, but I’d had to go after Marlene first. She’d been pinned by two idiots blindly rushing anyone in their way.

  Two dead idiots.

  Vlad roasted them the second I’d gotten her safely out of range.

  Someone grabbed Wallace by the shoulder, snapping me from my exhausted musings.

  “Grab Rena. Follow me,” he yelled.

  My twin raised his hackles like a dog, ready to bite at the slightest threat.

  “Who’s the gay guy?” I asked. “One of ours?”

  “I don’t know which side he’s on.”

  “Well, it’s the only chance we’ve got. I say we round up our people and follow him.”

  Wallace grunted something incoherent and carefully lifted his wife into his arms. “All right, but if things go south…”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  We’d have to fight our way out.

  ~

  I honestly didn’t care if Aiden McFreckles made the voyage back with us, but I yelled in passing anyway. “Rena’s down. Head back inside when you can. Try not to die.”

  Corynn looked up then, ducking to avoid a blow from some guy twice her size

  “You too, Muffin,” I called. She hated it when I referred to her as our English muffin. “Bust out the screwdriver!”

  She snorted.

  Darting between fights without taking damage wasn’t the easiest thing I’d ever done. George had been pinned down by a SAGE on the other end of the courtyard, so I did him a solid by using my momentum to knock the offender off—into another fight. I grabbed our newest comrade by the sleeve and made for the stairs.

  “Some well-dressed dude led Wallace and Rena away,” I informed George en route, letting go of him as we neared the foot of the steps “I’m assuming he’s good.”

  His expression hardened. “Take me to them.”

  Well, that didn’t bode well. “Give me a sec.”

  I found Grandma beating some chick over the head with a chair, while Uncle Henry waved his ink pen around like a knife.

  “Rena’s hurt,” I told them. “We found someone to help her. Come on.”

  I didn’t bring up the fact that their sister had just been killed. Or their great-niece. It had come down to us or them, and so far, we’d only barely managed to survive.

  Someone ran into me from behind, case in point, and I whirled around to deck the perpetrator—or not. Vlad and I shared a two-second blink, before I recovered enough to clear my throat. “Hurry up. We’re all meeting inside.”

  “Got it.”

  We’d spent so long psyching our allies up. Now here I was, urging them to back down from a fight that—from the looks of things—would outlast our departure by hours. The whole thing was exhausting.

  Finally, our cast of misfits assembled in the broken-down entrance to the mall, where the dude from before bounced on his toes. “Okay, here we go. I’m Darien, Dynari representative to the council, and I’ll be helping you out today. What you’re about to see is one of my infamous hidey-holes, where I go to get away when the island feels just a little too populated if you know what I mean. I ask that there be no flash photography or—”

  “Darien,” Wallace cut in, his expression grim, “please.”

  “Right, right. Time is of the essence. Follow me.” Our host guided us down a dark-ass hallway to what looked like the outline of a payphone. “Zvoni actually helped me rig this up…”

  I couldn’t see Vlad’s face, but I was sure he’d plastered that proud daddy expression on—the only contrast anyone ever saw to his disgruntled arsonist persona.

  Darien punched in a few numbers and pulled down on the hanging handset, causing a groan from somewhere in the wall. Before I knew it, the whole damn thing was shifting, letting light spill out to blind us. “Ta da!”

  A secret passage. Of course.

  We hurried inside and sealed the place up before any wandering hostiles decided to come pick us off. Beanbag chairs lay strewn all over the floor, one cushioning a random dude who barely looked up from his notebook when we entered. One of those artificial sunlight things stood propped up on a card table.

  “This is my partner Jon.” Darien gestured behind him. “Everybody say ‘Hi, Jon.’”

  A chorus of mutters followed.

  “Right.” He clasped his hands together and looked around, his blond highlights practically glowing. “Let’s get started. I’m going to need some room, so all non-essentials, please take a seat.”

  Everyone but Wallace, his precious cargo, and I took the hint. “What exactly are you going to do here?”

  “Delighted you asked, Nicholas Blake!”

  “Cole,” I corrected. How the hell did he know my name?

  “Cole, then.” He grinned. “My ability is…strange and complex. I can revert a person’s body back to its condition prior to an outside influence, by reversing the aging process.”

  Blink. “So, you could, like…make her a child
again?”

  “If I wanted, yeah.”

  Well, that was creepy.

  “I could also age someone to the point of death,” he went on, unfazed, “if it came to that. I just can’t reverse things that would naturally occur anyway, like chronic medical conditions, genetic ailments, blah, blah, blah. They’d reoccur as the person aged, anyway. Oh! And I can’t bring people back from the dead. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

  Damn.

  “Darien.” Wallace swallowed hard. “I’m going to trust you with this, but…”

  “Oh, I totally get it. If I’m lying and turn out to be one of the brainwashed idiots traipsing around here, you’ll tear me limb from limb. Very gruesome, I’d imagine. Don’t let Jon see.”

  Jon smiled and kept scribbling away in his notebook.

  Wallace shot me a WTF-did-we-just-get-ourselves-into look.

  I shrugged.

  In my denial driven mind, Sis had just zonked out like she had plenty of times before during our escapades. Whatever went down here wasn’t life or death. Grandma wasn’t crying in the corner. My brother wasn’t trembling. This wasn’t like Tits.

  “Go ahead and lay her down,” Darien instructed, cracking his neck and stretching before we got started.

  Wallace complied, but left her head on his lap like he was afraid to let go.

  “She’s still alive, right?” Darien asked, as he knelt down beside them. “I told you, much as I liked her, I can’t bring people back from the—”

  “She’s alive.” Wallace’s tone left no room for argument.

  “Okay then…”

  Frantic energy built up inside me—the nervous, twitchy kind that made me want to run laps until I passed out. Why was I nervous? She was fine. She had to be. We couldn’t lose someone else after everything that had happened, especially Sis.

  Just like that, the highlight reel started. The second I acknowledged the very real possibility that we’d already lost her, memories flooded my brain. Our unconventional meeting in the quad, me borrowing her for a few hours to force my brother’s hand, her being the little spitfire that she was and trying to assault me…