Unawakened

by Trillian Anderson

  It was time to dive back into the fray. If I wanted to survive with my life intact, I needed to stay two steps ahead of everyone else. In the past, I had waited for Kenneth’s orders before taking action.

  Over the years, I had grown used to anticipating what Kenneth would do, although I seldom thought about why he chose the actions he did. My job was to do his dirty work, not criticize his actions.

  That needed to change.

  I began with emailing the dean about my recovery, claiming infrequent but moderate to severe headaches as a result of my captivity. Doctors had verified the severity of my concussions, which had been caused when Arthur Hasling had pounded me into the asphalt. Smacking into the side of the skyscraper hadn’t helped, either. Of course, the doctors had no idea I was one of the people responsible for the robbery and vandalism of the Ivory Tower, and I meant to keep it that way.

  It had been easy to blame Hasling for my broken ribs and other injuries.

  After updating the dean on the status of my health and asking if I could return to my studies within the next week or two, I informed him I was reviewing all of the entries in the database, claiming it would take two weeks for me to sort the mess out and add the missing information for the files. In closing, I mentioned I could possibly shorten the time to several days if I had access to a more comprehensive database.

  Before the Dawn of Dae, everyone had been registered in the government’s tracking system. The police had access to those records, as did the colleges scattered around the United States. I’d only seen the interface once when I had enrolled for my Bach studies, but one look was enough.

  If I gained access to the original database, I’d be able to learn about Terry Moore’s victims and identify how they related to Dean Lewis.

  The database wouldn’t help me deal with Kenneth Smith, but I’d figure something out. I always did.

  I sent the email, shut down my college laptop, and returned to my antiquated relic of a computer. Maybe it was slow, but it had everything I needed to do my job without getting caught.

  Until I ruined Kenneth Smith and Dean Lewis, I couldn’t afford to make a single mistake.

  Chapter Four

  I worked until I did collapse into an exhausted stupor, and when I woke up, my head was pillowed on Rob’s lap. The dae’s attention was focused on his laptop, and deep lines furrowed his brow.

  Colby quivered on the coffee table between my laptop and Rob’s. Despite its lack of distinguishing features, I could somehow tell its attention was consumed by Rob’s efforts. While I wanted to discover what they were up to when they thought I was asleep, a yawn slipped out of me.

  Rob shifted beneath me and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Good morning.”

  “Morning. What did I miss?”

  “Dinner, breakfast, and lunch. It’s almost time for dinner again. You’re going to become an owl if you continue sleeping through the entire day, Miss Daegberht.”

  I stretched and wiggled my toes. Sometime after I had fallen asleep, Rob had covered me with my favorite blanket. Even without Kenneth’s drug fucking with me, I savored the way the plush material rubbed against my skin.

  The thought of the red fluid made me shiver. While I had worked without craving the impossible pleasures it offered, I tensed in anticipation of needing another hit.

  The memory of the drug’s high haunted me, and I wanted to experience the sensations again.

  I closed my eyes and sighed. I wanted another high, but I didn’t need it. The difference was subtle, but real enough for me. I could live with the nagging but resistible desire for more of the drug. Determined to keep it that way, I forced my thoughts back to Rob’s words. “Why are you calling me Miss Daegberht again? We’ve been over this before, Rob.”

  “Maybe I like all of your name. It rolls off my tongue so nicely.”

  My stomach chose that moment to gurgle its unhappiness with me. “I got carried away.”

  “I saw you had been working, which is why I let you sleep. Find anything interesting?”

  “The police are hiring. It wouldn’t surprise me if Kenneth asked me to try to infiltrate them. They’re taking anyone who qualifies and passes background checks, apparently—including unawakened.”

  “Too dangerous.”

  “The unawakened won’t be working with the public sector. It’s all private, behind-the-scenes work. It might gain me access to their databases. If Kenneth asks me to try, it means he’s desperate—if he’s desperate, that’s good for us. I can think of a lot of ways we can put police contacts to good use.”

  I meant to sit up, but Rob had other things in mind; he slid his hand beneath my blanket and shirt to trail his fingers along the curve of my throat. “Interesting. You’ve put some thought into this.”

  The way Rob caressed my skin made me want to abandon thoughts of work altogether, but I forced my attention to the immediate problem of dealing with Kenneth Smith and Dean Lewis. I wiggled away from him, sat up, and reached for my laptop. “I manually copied the database of dae from the college laptop. It has government spyware on it. My laptop doesn’t. I didn’t want to risk anyone finding out I had made a copy.”

  “How’d you manage that? They’ve been installing spyware on all systems for at least a decade.”

  “Now you know why it takes so long to boot up.”

  “Where the hell did you get it?”

  I preened at the admiration and surprise in Rob’s voice. “Stole it fair and square from the collection of an elite who had crossed Kenneth. He had a mausoleum of old computer artifacts. I grabbed the first system that booted up. I doubt he missed it; there were tons of them in there.”

  I was pretty certain the brand no longer existed; along with the formation of the caste system, companies with a more philanthropic bent, especially in terms of employee treatment, had undergone mysterious failures. Empires had fallen and disappeared, paving way for the current system.

  Those who hadn’t bent to the designs of the elite had disappeared right along with the mega corporations.

  The same elite had also possessed one of the better libraries. I wondered if the wealth of knowledge still existed. The manor had been several hours outside of Baltimore, tucked away out of sight, which made it a prime location to avoid detection.

  It hadn’t been easy busting into the elite’s vault, either.

  “A kiss for your thoughts?” Rob murmured in my ear.

  “What happened to pennies?”

  “I enjoy kisses more than pennies.”

  “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be paying me instead of the other way around, Rob.”

  “You enjoy them, too. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

  I couldn’t argue with him on the point. Laughing, I gestured to our laptops. “I was thinking about the elite I pilfered this laptop from. I don’t think the computer had ever been used before I stole it. It’s so old I had to hunt down an obsolete version of the government systems to load on it because it won’t run the newer ones. That’s part of the reason it lacks spyware; those versions didn’t have it. But in addition to the computers, he also had a lot of history books and other banned materials.”

  “You stole a lot more than money and drugs from him, didn’t you?”

  “Knowledge, and a lot of it. The elite was away for a month on business, and once I learned the schedule of his caretakers, I spent a lot of time in his place. He was an interesting fellow; didn’t have an alarm system worth shit on his house. From all appearances, he really didn’t seem to care who came and went from his place. I really doubt he noticed the machine was gone. There were probably hundreds of them just like it, still new in their boxes.”

  The man’s vault, however, had an alarm system second to none, and the idea of bypassing it a second time thrilled me.

  “That’s interesting. Do you know who the elite was?”

  “No idea. Kenneth didn’t give me his name. He wasn’t interested in that information. He wanted me to rec
over some discs and chips for him—money if he had any laying around, or items easy enough to resell without drawing attention to himself.”

  “That’s not like Mr. Smith.”

  The confidence in Rob’s voice startled me, but I was forced to nod my agreement. “I wasn’t the hound to sniff out the information on that hit. I was just the ground team to infiltrate the mansion. It was an easy hit for good money—and the laptop.”

  Of all the crimes I had committed for Kenneth, the heist on the elite’s mansion had been the easiest once I had figured out how to get inside the vault. It had also been the most profitable. The laptop alone was worth its weight in gold, and Kenneth had paid me top dollar for the things I had brought back for him.

  It had also been the turning point in my life, allowing me to really pursue Bach studies. I smiled a little at the memory.

  Maybe it had been my hard work that had resulted in my advancement in education, but Kenneth had laid the groundwork for my success, and that on its own was sweet revenge. “It’s old, but it works really well. I try to take good care of it. The battery’s long since dead, but I managed to get a converter plug for the charging cable.”

  Changing the format of the electrical outlets had been a simple way for the government to restrict who could have what; in less than a decade, no one had electronics the government didn’t want them to have.

  Only the elite were permitted to have the converter plugs. I masked mine as a multi-outlet adapter for a wall socket, something that had taken me several years to build. The plugs even worked; no one would have any reason to believe there was an illegal device hidden in the mess of cables I had plugged in. Most didn’t go anywhere, but no one noticed that.

  They saw exactly what they expected to see.

  “Do you remember how to get to the elite’s mansion?”

  “I do. It’s a bit of a drive, though.”

  “I have a car, and I can even drive it.”

  I narrowed my eyes, wondering what Rob could possibly want at the elite’s mansion. “I don’t know the elite’s name, I don’t know if he still owns the property, and I have no idea if the government has discovered his stash. Going in blind is pretty dumb, Rob.”

  “Live a little,” Rob replied, lifting his hand to flick my nose with his finger. “Admit it, Alexa. You know you want to go on a long ride in the middle of the night with me. We’ll take our time. See the sights. Have some fun while we’re at it.”

  I knew exactly what sort of ride he wanted, and I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “You’re crazy, Rob. There’s a lot of places we could go if you want to go on a drive, and they don’t involve robbing someone’s house.”

  “But I want a laptop like yours. It’s so exotic, just like you.”

  While my macaroni and cheese roommate didn’t say a word, it made a sound suspiciously like a laugh.

  “Not you, too,” I complained, throwing my hands in the air. “Fine. We’ll go on a ride. It’s a pointless trip, but if you want to get out of the apartment for a while, it’s your gas you’re burning away, not mine.”

  Rob hopped to his feet. “What should I wear?”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering what I was getting myself into. “Clothes, please.”

  It was going to be a long night.

  Ever since the Dawn of Dae, my refrigerator remained stocked full of food. Once my ribs had healed enough for me to move around without wanting to scream, I spent a lot of time in my kitchen cooking, enjoying the access to fresh and interesting ingredients.

  I discovered Rob’s true motivation ten minutes after we left my apartment. He parked his car on the street outside one of the local dives, humming happily as he got out. “Dinner first.”

  Colby bounced out of the car, flopping around at Rob’s feet. “Mommy. Food.”

  I gawked at my roommate. “You learned a new word!”

  “Food.”

  I slapped my forehead. “You both just wanted an excuse for crap food, didn’t you?”

  Colby hopped around Rob’s feet. “Food, Mommy!”

  “As much as I enjoy your cooking, Alexa, you have a serious lack of grease in your diet. We are going to indulge in as much greasy, fatty food as we can stomach. Then we’re going to go on a ride. It’ll be fun.” His dark suit didn’t match his eagerness and energy, and I wondered what he’d look like if he decided to wear something more casual.

  The Rob taking me out for dinner at a dive was far different from the one I had met during the Dawn. The years had melted away, leaving him a man in the prime of his life. The wrinkles and stress lines had smoothed away, and his smile transformed him from a good-looking man into a breathtakingly handsome one.

  Instead of him annoying me, I relied on him, and I wasn’t supposed to depend on anyone. Somehow, Rob and Colby had both worked their way under my skin, and for entirely different reasons.

  Unable to stop myself, I smiled. “Fine, but you’re paying. If you have taken me to a hellhole without bacon, you will regret it, Rob.”

  “Harsh. How can you call such a wonder a hellhole? How could you, Alexa?”

  My stomach was going to regret my decision, but I followed Rob into the restaurant without complaint. Neither of the dae asked for much, and I wasn’t going to deny them such a simple thing.

  I learned two things about Rob in the time it took us to eat dinner. First, he had an insatiable appetite for fried onions. Second, he always had ulterior motives for everything he did. As he guided me to a table occupied by a pair of werewolves, I tensed, fearing one of them was a fire breather, but when none of the telltale signs manifested, I relaxed. While Rob made a glutton of himself on fried onions, he spoke to both of the shifters in a fluid language I had never heard before.

  It wasn’t Japanese or French; I knew a few common words from both languages. I doubted it was Spanish; very few in America spoke Spanish after the reformation. There were still a few obscure laws forbidding the use of the language, and no one wanted to spend several years in prison for saying the wrong thing in front of the wrong person.

  While there were other languages spoken around the world, I didn’t know them.

  Rob did most of the talking, pausing only to eat his food like he feared it would leap off his plate and escape. When Rob wasn’t paying enough attention, Colby stole from his plate, and I bit my lip so I wouldn’t laugh. I ate enough to take the edge off my hunger before sliding my plate to my unusual roommate.

  Colby devoured my offering within moments, leaving the plate deceptively clean when it was finished. I giggled and amused myself watching my macaroni and cheese casserole toy with the other dae, stealing choice bits of food when no one else was watching.

  At the end of the meal, Rob paid for everyone and herded me back to his car, opening the passenger side door for me.

  Instead of cooperating with him, I stole the keys out of his hand and circled the car. “I’ll drive.”

  Rob’s mouth dropped open. Smirking at his stunned expression, I slid behind the wheel, started the engine, and savored the car’s rumble. “Are you coming?”

  “You know how to drive?”

  “I’m a woman of many talents, dear sir,” I replied.

  “Dear. I like that. Where did you learn to drive?”

  “Where else? Kenneth taught me. I couldn’t afford a license even if I wanted it.”

  “So you’re going to drive my car and get us both in trouble.”

  “Just pretend you’re drunk. Unlicensed drivers of any caste may drive the vehicle of an elite while they’re present if they’re unfit to drive and accept responsibility for any damages done by their temporary driver.”

  “And how will I explain you knowing how to drive, Miss Daegberht?” Rob glared at me, his mouth twisting into a scowl.

  “Simple. You are instructing me.”

  “While drunk.”

  “I never said the law made sense, Rob. It’s a relic from when they were transitioning laws during the reformation. Back t
hen, almost everyone knew how to drive, but licenses were no longer being renewed. No one removed the law from the books because the elite found it a convenient loophole. So, they teach those who can’t afford licenses to drive when it benefits them—while pretending to be drunk, of course.” I shrugged, shifted the car into gear, and eased it onto the street.

  While I had driven Kenneth’s car several times, it had been years ago. Driving hadn’t been a skill I had worked hard at, learning only enough to keep the car between the lines without crashing into anyone or anything.

  I understood how the gas pedal, clutch, and brake worked, I knew how to shift gears, and I even managed to keep the car pointed in the direction I wanted to go. As long as I didn’t have to go backwards, I’d be fine—probably.

  “Should I be worried?”

  Honesty was the best policy, and having a chance to make Rob squirm filled me with delight. “Probably.”

  “Do not crash. Please do not crash.”

  “I don’t plan on it.”

  “A lot of bad things happen to you that you don’t plan on, Alexa. Please don’t make crashing into something one of them.”

  I laughed. “I have reached my quota of crashing into things for the next year.”

  Most cars came equipped with a handle above the doors, and I hadn’t understood their use until Rob lifted his hand, grabbed his, and held on with a white-knuckled grip. I wasn’t even doing the speed limit, which annoyed a scowl out of me.

  “I’m not that bad of a driver,” I hissed at him. “Stupid dae. You were practically born yesterday. Who are you to judge my driving?”

  Rob wisely didn’t say a word.

  I didn’t crash into anything, but I managed to stall Rob’s car several times before I got out of the city, which earned me a silent glare from both of the dae. Colby hunkered on Rob’s lap, muttering dark things in its newly expanded two-word vocabulary.