Her thoughts came through as if she were using a megaphone. “Are you ashamed I’m pregnant, Cass?”
“Uh, no. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to advertise something that could be used against you. I’m trying to protect you, Sister.”
Her eyes darted to Mez and Kal. “I wish we could speak mind to mind with everyone.”
I disagreed as I stared into Marco Chavarria’s impassive face. “Not everyone, Silver. Plus the connection goes both ways—would you really wanna feel what he’s feeling?”
She saw the direction my face was aimed and used her long slender arms to push her posterior off the floor and then dusted her shielded hands against one another in an unnecessary nervous gesture.
“Point taken and seconded, Cass.”
Malcolm used his impressive strength to lift himself from the couch and place Maggie on her feet at the same time. He tucked our aunt in on his left side and aimed his eyes everywhere but Maggie’s face.
She wove her pale fingers in his and whispered, “He gave us his blessing, Malcolm. I’m not going to leave you.”
Muscles that I didn’t know human beings could clench released in Malcolm’s cheeks and he kissed the top of Maggie’s head, stopping to breathe in her scent.
Silver clapped her hands at the room. “So, we have a way in that the Warps know nothing about. Now we need to decide how to use that to our advantage. Those that compose the tesseract are a given. Who else?”
Corinne raised her hand like a prim school girl. “If I’m in then Kevin is in.”
Malcolm hooked his free thumb in his front pocket. “We have to leave a rear guard for defense. Melody has proven herself effective and the Prana students can hold the enclave with her.”
Maggie nudged his arm with the back of her head. “You’re talking like you won’t be here…”
I spoke up in Malcolm’s defense. “He has the most real world military training and experience, Maggie. He has to go.”
Chavarria interrupted whatever Maggie had been about to say. “I will be accompanying you as well, mula loca. My superiors want a man on the inside to report. If you do not allow me to join you I’ll consider this a breach of our cooperation and so will those above me.”
I blinked and wrinkled my nose like I had an itch. “You’ve got Outsider training but you’re a liability in the ability department. You can’t use Prana, hide yourself in plain sight or teleport. What kind of tech can you offer to make up for that? I know you espionage types always have cool toys.”
Marco plastered a stiff grin over his white teeth. “We’ll see won’t we?”
Chapter Twenty-Six: Out of the Deep
It was decided we would meet in the clinic meadow in four hours. Corinne scattered to find Kevin. Maggie shoved everyone out of her office and slammed the door in Silver’s face to be alone with Malcolm. Chavarria scuttled away, murmuring into his phone in some sort of unintelligible code.
Kal turned his shining obsidian pools my way. “You should prepare for battle.”
I shrugged. “I am prepared. I’m a lethal weapon all by myself. Don’t you remember the men I killed—or did you decide to forget about that part?”
Mez tugged on Silver’s arm and the wrinkles between his brows betrayed his worry. I was willing to bet he would be going on this mission to protect her, whether it went against his oath as an Agent or not. As they passed, Silver trailed her fingers down my arm.
Kal, in a squared off stance, locked his hands behind his waist. “I sense you believe you were wrong for ending those lives out of necessity today?”
Crossing my arms over my breasts, I tried not to erupt in anger. “Wasn’t I, Kal? Aren’t I supposed to value life? I’ve ended lives to save my own and others. Sometimes I enjoy it while I’m doing it. Is that normal? Maybe I’m just a natural born killer like Declan, or maybe the Soul Eater really is my biological father and I’m going to become a crazed lunatic?”
Kal laughed and I stiffened, offended that he found my moral dilemma amusing. I turned my back and he grabbed my ponytail. It didn’t hurt with my shield in place, but I wasn’t going anywhere unless I wanted to fight Kal. As awful as I felt, for a moment it was tempting.
“No, you will not run from me, Min Gemedrian.”
He twirled me toward his chest and I stuck his sternum with both fists. To Kal’s credit he didn’t let go. His longer arms pressed me to his snap front shirt as my breath came in great heaves. My shield fell as I sagged against him. “I’m not yours, Kal. We’re nobodies who belong nowhere and cause trouble wherever we are.”
Kal chuckled deep in his lungs, making the ribs under his flesh vibrate. “You are mine as is Silver and you cannot fight it. I will love you both until I die and then my memories will love you forever. Stop your wailing and anger. You must be proud in your adventures and not falter so you may come back and add the tapestry of your lives to my ancestors.”
I mumbled into his shirt, “I don’t like killing, Kal.”
“And that is why you will never be a monster, Min Gemedrian.”
My fists flexed against his abdomen and he released me to arm’s length, eyes watchful “So as long as I feel remorse for the bad things I do, then it’s all good? That sounds too morally and ethically convenient. You know that, right?”
He bared sharp edged teeth. “Annis will welcome all her warriors home, as death is a part of life.” His hands fell to his side. “Call your James and prepare. Mez will accompany you, I know, but I cannot. His unborn children and Tal’s rank will keep him from disgrace. I have no such excuses or allies. I would that I could be with you.”
I hugged my surrogate father of my own volition this time and strode down the hall all the way through the clinic and out the front door.
James hunched his shoulders against my hesitant touch as I drew my fingers into my palm until the sharp nails dug into the shield with a satisfying pressure. Pressing the energy into itself could approximate the sensation of a real injury. When I opened my hand to examine the incomplete ‘m’ in the creases there were no half-moons of castigation.
He turned, hugging his middle with one arm and cupping his nose and mouth with delicate spindly fingers that were far more suited to playing a piano than delivering death blows in my opinion. Maybe in another life we could have been kinder, gentler people but we weren’t and that was that.
“She feels terrible about it, James. If Silver had a do-over she wouldn’t have slept with Mez in Kara’s body. She was distraught and he was trying to comfort her. It’s the worst possible time to start a family, and we have no idea how the babies will turn out. The pregnancy could abort itself due to the genetic differences. Kal inquired with Sil and as far as recorded memory shows there hasn’t ever been a successful crossbreeding of the Aniy and a foreign species.” I didn’t believe James would strike me in anger, but the fury in his eyes made the green glow like burning barium.
He ran both hands into his hair and yelled at the ceiling. Red streaks of emotion ran up the sides of his neck. The sides of his nose all the way to the gap between his eyebrows contracted every time he breathed in.
When he dropped his arms to his sides he looked defeated. “You always defend her, don’t you? Silver makes a mess and perfect little Cass scurries to clean it up. Your sister screwed up! She had no business using my Kara’s body that way and you know it.” His fist punched the air to finish the accusation.
I took a deep breath. My eyes closed to soak in his pain and anger. I spoke into the flimsy darkness I’d imposed upon myself. “It was wrong, James. And now we’re all paying the toll for their terrible choice. We’re about to go risk our lives to save this clan—possibly all the Weaver clans that remain. I would hope that peace can be made in case we die in the doing of it.”
Gentle, shaking hands cupped my shoulders and I felt our shields being peeled away in earnest. The heat of his skin sunk into my own and his lips made a path across mine to my ear.
“I love you, Cassandra. I’
m more than mad but I can put it aside until we’re done. As angry as I am, I can’t foresee a life without you in it, and I can’t hold you responsible for what Silver does. You have peace with me. I promised you had me and you do.”
He sighed into my ear and it tickled, so I squirmed.
“Open your eyes, Cass.”
My lashes fluttered as my irises adjusted to the incoming light until his jade circles came into focus. His nose rubbed against mine and he pressed his forehead painfully tight to my own.
“The Council needs to know what we’re up to. Ramon passed on a warning but they need more. If we fail they could experience a lethal immediate backlash.”
I felt a tug from the Web.
James hitched one side of his mouth upward in a humorless smile. “Speak of the devil.”
I grazed his cheek with my knuckles. “Yeah.”
Corinne poked her head in my bedroom through the open door. “Get your damn shields up! Do I need to superglue a post-it note to your cheeks or what?”
My finger curled in a come-hither motion and she popped the door jamb with her fist. “Step into my office please.”
Corinne’s shoulders rolled under her fitted biker’s jacket. The outline of a small handgun stood out in the waistband of her skin-tight leather pants under her plain green t-shirt. Tension lines ran under and around her eyes and tiny imbedded ridges at the corners of her mouth made her pale skin seem dry as an autumn leaf.
“What, Cass? I can feel the Council pulling our chain. Do we have time for that?”
I held out a still unshielded hand in a stop motion. “They can wait. Are you going to be well enough to go on this mission with us if you haven’t purged? Just do it woman!”
Her eyes squinted to blue slits and all emotion leaked from her face. “I can’t explain why I can’t, but I know I can’t alright?”
James made a ‘T’ with his raised hands. “Time out! What are you guys arguing about?”
I kept my focus on Corinne but directed my words at James. “She’s been absorbing emotions around her to make other people more comfortable but they’re all jammed up inside making her bloated and stressed like an aorta that’s about to burst or an aneurism. Corinne could die if she keeps this up, but she won’t let off the pressure like I ordered her to.”
James bit the calloused skin on the tip of his right thumb and spit it on the carpet.
In unison, Corinne and I harped, “That’s disgusting!”
He laughed and gave us both a pantomimed punch to the chin which neither of us appreciated.
James cleared his throat. “Okay, see you can agree on something. That aside, do you think her ‘problem’ is why Gerome said Corinne had to come on this mission whether Kara was alive or not? What if what she’s bottled up can be used as a weapon against the Soul Eater?”
I rubbed my chin then picked at the gap between my two front teeth with a nail before I shrugged at Corinne. “Do you think you can aim? Your mother blasted us once in the Web and you protected us the best you could with your shield. Now we have our own shield. Can you do what Cora did?”
She raised one eyebrow and looked down her nose. It wasn’t something she could have accomplished with James since he was too tall. “Why do you think it would work? If the Soul Eater isn’t human how do we know it would do anything but piss him off?”
James turned earnest eyes to Corinne. “We need to buy Silver time to alter his occupied body enough for it to become a cage. Even if what you do is nothing more than a distraction, it could still make the difference.”
Corinne shook her head as she stared off into space, thoughts racing on and exploring outcomes to an unknown future. “I can’t be the plan. You can’t depend on me to do something I’ve never done. What are our other alternatives?”
I sighed. “If we injure the host enough he’ll just leave it and we’ll have to locate the Soul Eater all over again. We have to keep the bastard engaged so Silver can work her magic.” I was already tired and we hadn’t left yet.
Silver knocked on the door jamb. “Hey, how come they get to stand around with no shields?”
Mez loomed over my sister’s head, eyes gleaming with the need to protect Silver. I sniffed the air. “Tone it down, Butthead. We’re all on the same side. Direct your aggression elsewhere.”
The tendons in his neck flexed as his head twitched side to side like a threatened snake’s. “Speak to your lover, not me.”
James puffed out his chest then deflated. His downcast eyes searched the palms of his hands until the redness receded from his face. “I won’t say I’m happy you got knocked up in Kara’s body, Silver. You’re both irresponsible and inconsiderate. I also won’t say that the babies should be aborted because their lives shouldn’t hinge on any decision of mine. We’ll talk about this after we all get through this alive. Satisfied?” His green eyes rose to meet Mez’s wide blackness. Defiance swam under the delicate, paper thin peace offering.
Silver bowed her head and tangled her tan fingers in the dark ones resting across her collar bone. “I’m sorry, James. I loved Kara and I should’ve thought more before getting wrapped up in our emotions. I was selfish and I didn’t think about how you would feel. Now it’s too late.”
Corinne choked like she had a hairball and doubled over. “Stop! Just stop with all of this! I’m not going to make it anywhere if y’all can’t get ahold of your emotions. They’re eating at my mind like acid dipped flies.”
Mez pulled on Silver’s shoulders and they backed into the mint green wall in the hall. Corinne dragged in a ragged breath. James shuffled until his calves hit the side of my bed. I stuffed all my feelings down deep and stretched my arms over my head as if I’d just woken up with a jaw cracking yawn for accompaniment.
A tug came from the Web again, this time with more force. My voice was detached from the present as I suggested, “What say we check in with the Council? Corinne, you stay put and take a chill pill. Silver, Mez and James come with me.”
I cocked my hip to set my feet in place and closed my eyes without waiting to see if anyone would object. The essence stadium formation of the Weaver Council was back. And none of them were happy. Jadus’ black whorls were spinning like tropical storms across his bright yellow crust. No one was listening.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Ring of Fire
Jadus Skurzewski roared over the cacophony, “I will have order!”
Silver slid in on my right with Mez and James snugged up on my left. Our short line formation brought to mind soccer players guarding a goal. My twin manifested soundless fireworks that would have put the best Fourth of July celebration to shame, and I released an exact copy of Corinne’s call for the Council but this time I added the vibrating boom of a thunderclap.
Silver sent a tight thought down our connection. “I know you guys were talking strategy before Mez and I showed up. One thing, knowing you, that wasn’t brought up is my ability to burn a Weaver out of the Web, Cass. If I did it to Calvin maybe we can do it to Laser Eyes.”
The attention of the Council was on us and it took all of my will power not to supernova my fury all over Silver at her terribly timed suggestion. I had nothing constructive to say so I directed my attention to the now quiet gallery of Weavers.
“James warned you. There is open war with the Warp Faction. The Wind Runner Clan plans to take steps. I would suggest the rest of you batten down the hatches or whatever the hell you’ve gotta do to get ready.”
Ski’s pinwheels spun faster and tighter. “In case you’re curious, it was the Rolling Hills Clan in Oklahoma that was exterminated. Every man, woman and child is gone. What do you need?”
The palpable emotions of those gathered were a mixture of a desire for revenge and fear thicker than grease vat sludge.
Ramon’s voice forestalled the answer to the Speaker’s question. “I have seen what the Wind Runner Clan can do. They saved some of my family today. You know I saw the bodies of our compeer’s and it is a sight that I will never f
orget. We must act and quickly, but we are not warriors of old. How many of you have trained in armed combat? Since the Council shut Weavers away from Outsiders, how many of you have entered the military? None!”
His forest green looked like it might be burned by the vehemence of his words. “We are a sad collection of cattle waiting to be slaughtered, and we have done it to ourselves. Mesa Verde will stand behind Wind Runner, even if they do not abide by Council rule.”
James mimicked my thunder gong of moments before. “You should know in the next few weeks whether or not we’ve succeeded. If your compound isn’t fortified then I would suggest you relocate. It’s hard to massacre a community if they’re no longer there. Split up if you have to, but don’t make yourselves easy prey.”
Apparently we were keeping the ‘when’ of our Warp invasion to ourselves. I sincerely hoped Ramon hadn’t spilled the beans to an ally already. We could be royally screwed if the Soul Eater had a spy on the Council. It would be easy to do really, just threaten them or fool them into a ‘truce’ as long as they fed information to the Warps. If I’d had skin to chill I would’ve been covered in goose bumps of terror at the thought. How could we trust any of them?
A feminine voice with a heavy French accent sprang from the crowd. “You’re telling us to leave everything we know and run? How is that fighting back? That is just letting them win. Vouz avez plein de merde!”
Mez spoke and his mental voice was strong, like the growling engine of a race car. “There is never shame in retreat or evasion. There is however shame in dying for pride. As long as you survive to fight another day your enemy is not victorious. To value life is not a weakness but a strength that your enemies do not share. Choose to persevere and…the universe will smile upon you and yours.”
I caught the hesitation in his last sentence as he substituted the universe for Annis. We needn’t confuse the issue with alien beliefs.
PHOENIX (The Weaver Series Book 4) Page 22