Rebirth (Cross Book 1)

by Hildred Billings

  But she never shot him. She waited to fire her gun until Devon had pulled Alicia into his arms and carried her as quickly as he could away from the scene. He would have to trust her. He had no choice.

  Even though…

  Even though she was the one who had taken everything he ever loved, time and time again.

  My parents.

  My sister.

  Sulim.

  Miranda fired two bullets into the ground. As soon as Alicia’s gasp of fright died, Miranda took off, burning with the wherewithal to save the one thing she would never be able to live without.

  ***

  Devon and Alicia had hobbled halfway around the block, searching for a door to escape through to Marlow’s interdimensional pocket, when the first hint of a Shadow appeared.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Devon spat, his arm looped around Alicia and propping her up with the last of his borrowed strength. It was the last thing he would say, for the fear surging through his veins begged him to stay as still and quiet as possible.

  Too bad Alicia never got that memo.

  “Devon,” she muttered, eyes half open and ankles buckling. “My ankle really hurts. I think I twisted it. Help…”

  The Shadow snapped its blackened head around. The golden eyes holding the soul responsible for this possible attack threatened to devour the last of Devon’s will. “So much potential,” a voice echoed in the back of Devon’s head, as he struggled to keep Alicia’s dead weight upright. “So much boundless energy in one man’s body.”

  Shadows had haunted Sonall throughout most of his lives. Marlow had explained that they were attracted to his soul, trapped in the Process and holding within it the opportunity to live a million lives. He and Sulim were feasts in the making. One wrong move, and this desperate soul, lost on its way to the Void, would pounce and destroy what was left of him.

  What would that look like to Alicia, who couldn’t see them? Would Devon simply collapse before her, dead? Or would she feel that bone-chilling cold as it swept by her and sucked his throat dry?

  “It was a vampire,” she would later say in the hospital. “I swear they exist now!”

  “Alicia,” Devon whispered. “We have to be very still and very quiet. Can you do that?”

  The Shadow had heard him. Blind, but not deaf, it searched the narrow passageway between freight crates in the hopes of locating that source of endless life.

  But they couldn’t stay still forever. Devon needed to find a door and get them out of there before Syrfila realized they hadn’t been executed – and before the Shadow heard their thunderous hearts beating in fear and fatigue.

  “Devon…”

  He held Alicia closer to him, hand in her hair and eyes locked on the Shadow’s. Are you sure it’s blind, Old Man? He thought. Those golden orbs certainly seemed to peer right into his delicious soul.

  It was only when Devon held Alicia between them that it finally backed away, crumbling into a million delicate pieces. When Devon attempted to take a step forward with Alicia, she cried out in pain, her ankle useless against the ground beneath them. He was so consumed with pushing her forward to the first door they could find, that he never thought to look up.

  Just as well. The circle of Shadows lining the perimeter of crates would have frightened him half to death.

  ***

  Syrfila’s blood pressure was already at maximum capacity.

  “Goddamnit!” She shoved Danielle aside. Instead of finding two bleeding bodies, she found no bodies and two smoking bullet holes in the ground. Where was the blood? Where were the faces frozen in eternal terror? Where was one person barely hanging on to life for Syrfila to finish off? That was supposed to be the best part!

  She had to act quickly, because she doubted that an unarmed man and his hobbled girlfriend were strong enough to fight back without any bloodshed. That meant she had been betrayed.

  “Let’s go, sweetie, before someone tries to be a hero for you.” Her eyes darted around the alleyway before she pushed Danielle toward one of the warehouses.

  Inside was clear, aside from some dusty crates lining the cobweb decked walls and grimy windows. Danielle choked on the humid and sordid air while Syrfila proceeded undeterred. After closing the door behind them, she lit up another cigarette.

  “This way.” Syrfila hauled her hostage to the far end of the room.

  Something clanked outside the window. Syrfila came to a complete stop with Danielle still in her hand.

  “What the...”

  While Syrfila was distracted, Danielle looked around for anything to rub her hands against, in hopes that her binds would tear. Nothing, aside from a rusty pipe that was too far away.

  “That fucking bitch...” Syrfila opened her phone. A rueful grin spread across her face.

  A ringtone echoed in the empty room.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are...”

  “Hands up,” someone said.

  Syrfila obliged, but only because the figure appearing behind her had a gun pointing at someone else’s head. Danielle took two steps back without thinking. She couldn’t recognize Miranda with the hood back on her head, but Syrfila did. “What are you going to do? Shoot me?”

  Miranda kept her gun pointed at the back of Syrfila’s head. “Hold still,” she said to Danielle, before slowly sidling up to her and cutting bindings with a pocket knife. “Go. Now.”

  There was no reason to argue, although Danielle was not a complete fool. She kept her eyes on Syrfila and the other woman, sidestepping toward the exit. In the end, Danielle would be without her gun, but at least she still had her life... and her car, theoretically.

  She was halfway out the door when Syrfila struck. Swifter than a gust of wind, she swung her right leg around and knocked Miranda off her feet. Danielle chose that opportune time to run out the door.

  “Stop!” Syrfila fired at Danielle. The bullet missed by a whistle’s breath. Danielle stumbled long enough to almost fall to the ground. She saved herself at the last moment, in time for Syrfila to attempt firing at her again.

  Miranda knocked her flat on her ass and took her gun. It slid across the floor toward Danielle, who grabbed her own firearm before anyone else had the chance.

  “Get the hell out of here.”

  Danielle ran.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Danielle rolled out of the spare bed a few hours later. The time between running for her life and waking up, however, was foggy at best. She had found her car, driven away, and ditched her car in a mall parking lot in case she was followed. Everything after was still hazy, probably because by the time Danielle got to Marlow’s office, she was too tired to notice Alicia passed out on the couch. She had no idea where Devon went.

  It wasn’t until she went back into the hallway that she remembered Alicia was there, strewn across the couch.

  “You okay?”’

  Alicia opened her eyes and almost rose with a start. Too bad she was too worn out to do anything other than fall ball back against the couch. “No,” she muttered. “I’m not okay. I’m not okay at all.”

  “How much do you know now?”

  Marlow, who sat at his desk only a few feet away, answered on Alicia’s behalf. “I took the liberty of telling her the important issues.”

  “In other words,” Danielle bent down, “you’re about as confused as a dog losing its own tail right, right?”

  “Sounds accurate.” Alicia crossed her arms. “Or more like I lost my leg, because I sprained my ankle trying to make a run for it. You’ll be shocked to know I had little strength in me after almost a whole week in captivity.”

  Danielle beckoned Alicia’s left leg with her hand. “Let me see your ankle.”

  Alicia hesitated before lowering her afflicted ankle down. Her teeth shot out and bit her lip as she held in a groan.

  “Yup, it’s sprained. What a beauty.” That sarcasm held an aching familiarity to the person stuck on the couch. “Hey, Old Man.”

  Marlow kept
his eyes on his work as he opened a drawer and pulled out a roll of athletic tape. He tossed it over his shoulder. The roll hit the floor and spun in a tight circle before coming to a stop halfway toward Danielle. Charlie snatched it up in his jowls and brought it to the couch.

  “Uh, thanks.” Cute trick, but nobody, least of all Danielle, was impressed that the tape was now covered in drool. “Did you ice this?”

  Alicia flinched. From pain. From the emotional torture slowly turning into PTSD. From the gentle touch her ex-girlfriend gave her. “Yes, but it melted. That gentleman over there gave me some while I waited.”

  “At least someone around here knows that I’m a gentleman.”

  Danielle ignored him. “I’m sorry you got involved in this.”

  “I’m fine.” The tape lined up with Alicia’s ankle but didn’t yet touch her skin. “Although I’m so confused.”

  “Imagine how I feel.” Danielle wrapped the ankle, much to Alicia’s painful chagrin. “I’m expected to help fix the whole mess.”

  “For what it’s worth…” Alicia held back the rest of her words until Danielle no longer touched her. “You always did seem really...”

  Danielle stopped. “Really what?”

  Alicia looked away. “I don’t know. Like whether you knew it or not, you lived in a different world from me.”

  What could she say to that? “You’re taking all of this fairly well.”

  “It’s not like I really have a choice. I mean, I was kidnapped.”

  “Because you’re the overlapping ex-girlfriend between Earth’s two possible saviors.”

  “Yeah. I know how that would look.”

  “To a bad guy, yup. I would’ve kidnapped you, too.” Danielle tightened the bandages.

  When the pain subsided again, Alicia confronted the elephant in the room. “At least I know how you met Devon now.”

  Her statement coincided with Danielle finishing the wrap. “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know. He went to the back somewhere. He wouldn’t talk to me.” Alicia briefly made eye contact with her. “What’s going on with you and him, exactly?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re having sex with him, obviously.”

  “That was one time.”

  Alicia swallowed. “Are you in love with him?”

  Danielle laughed. “No.”

  But Alicia did not laugh back. “Oh.”

  “I’m not in love with Devon. Our relationship is complicated, as you can imagine, but we’re not going to go get hitched or anything.” Danielle scowled. “You should talk to him. If he’ll let you. Pretty sure he genuinely loves you.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Do you still love me?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  Alicia caught her breath. “Jesus...”

  “Whatever you think you could still feel for me, I know he still feels for you, no matter how much of an ass he acts like to you today.”

  “Did he ever once mention me while you two screwed?”

  Hesitation erupted between them “I don’t think so,” Danielle said.

  “Then he doesn’t. Don’t you think he would have if he loved me?”

  “You got me there.”

  Alicia continued, “I only stayed with Devon because I had already lost one person who loved me out of my own stupidity. I was trying not do it again.”

  “Ally...”

  “But when I saw you two together, all I could see was a man who must not have loved me enough. So I left. I won’t go back.”

  Danielle stood. “At least tell him that much to his face.”

  “I will.”

  Danielle left her there, wallowing in her own self-pity. She knew she would find Devon in the library, and there he was, flipping through the folders, eyes heavy.

  He turned another folder over when she entered. “You’re awake.”

  “I’m not the only one.” Danielle remained in the entryway. “Our woman is out there with a badly bruised ankle and ranting about how much you don’t love her.”

  “Seriously? I don’t love her?”

  “Not my deal, really, you two can work it out.” She motioned for Devon to scoot over. “What are you reading?”

  “Junk. There’s nothing, as usual.”

  “Oh, so then you must be hiding.”

  The dust on the folders flitted into the air as Devon closed more of them and pushed them into a neat pile – how long had he been in there, anyway? “Is it that obvious? I couldn’t stand being around Alicia after I dropped her off here, for reasons that I don’t think I have to explain. So I came back here to wait for you. I was worried about you. When you finally showed up, you were so trashed you went and passed out. You okay?”

  “Yeah, just... I really dodged a bullet today, literally.”

  “What happened?”

  She briefly mentioned the appearance of another woman who seemed to have no mission other than thwarting whatever Syrfila did. Like shooting at poor, innocent blond women. Danielle made sure to say that she had never ran so hard or so fast in her life when she had the opportunity.

  “So, Alicia must be awake?”

  The corners of Danielle’s lips turned into a frown. “Yes. She’s conscious. We talked a bit. I already told you the relevant stuff.”

  “She thinks I don’t love her?”

  “Do you?”

  Devon shrugged, his thoughts bouncing between his ex-girlfriend brooding on the couch with a hurt ankle and his ex-lover preening on the bench next to him. “I don’t know anymore. I thought I did, but that was before...”

  Breath caught. Danielle waited for him to speak some more.

  “Before anything happened as it is now. I’m second guessing why I even started dating her. Because if she was your ex, that must mean I was attracted to her on a subconscious level. Does that mean I sensed you around her?”

  “Don’t think so hard about it. It’s just a crazy cosmic coincidence.”

  Devon scoffed. “Shit, I don’t want to talk to her.”

  “Nobody’s asking you to reconcile with her. Just tell her that you don’t hate her.”

  He gripped the edge of the table. While Danielle continued to speak, he pushed away and stood up, realizing what he had to do.

  Alicia was still on the couch, ankle elevated and dog lying limp near her other foot. Devon squared his shoulders and sucked in his breath. Thankfully, Marlow was less than interested in eavesdropping on their conversation. Or confrontation. Whichever it was.

  “Alicia.” Cordial, at best.

  “Devon.” Her ankle kept her confined to the couch. “Thank you for earlier.”

  “It was my job.”

  “Either way.”

  Ridiculous. Even if Devon felt nothing in his heart, there was no explaining his curling knuckles and his drying throat. “I hear you think I hate you.”

  “I didn’t say that. I said you must not love me.”

  “Moot at this point, don’t you think?”

  “Why are you dragging this up?”

  “Because it’s foolish to think I didn’t love you.”

  She flinched, her eyes still down, her hands still curled. “Danielle said that when you two....” Alicia gagged on her words, “you never once mentioned me. You cheated on me.”

  “You weren’t there.”

  “Thank God.”

  “Alicia...” Devon had no idea how to explain this to an outsider. How the fuck was he supposed to explain what happened when two people were in the Process together? He couldn’t begin to formulate the words that would accurately convey that he was lost, Danielle was lost, and regardless of who else was in the Process… they were in it together. Their souls entered at the same moment, by the will of the same person who had the power to bend the Void to their whim. That meant they would always be drawn to each other. Always cursed – or blessed – to need each other in ways few would ever grasp. “You have to understand that what
Danielle and I have goes somewhere else entirely. I never mentioned you because I wouldn’t think to. You didn’t exist back then.” Because Danielle wasn’t the only one regressing that night. From the moment their lips locked, Devon had to fight to stay himself and not become Sonall in both heart and spirit.

  “I don’t care.”

  “Besides,” he had other gauntlets to throw down, “you were gone.”

  Her head continued to bow, but not in shame. “I see. So, because I needed to breathe for a while... because I was trying to sort myself out before coming back to you... you thought it was okay to fuck my ex-girlfriend.”

  “Come on, Alicia.”

  “Devon!” She tried to stand, but the weight of her heavy ankle left her flailing like a helpless windmill. “I get it, or at least as much as I can. But think of what I saw! All I know is that I came home and saw you in bed with my ex. You can disguise it behind anything you want, but I know what I saw.”

  Devon shifted between his feet, sucked his cheeks in, and looked away.

  “She told me she doesn’t love you like that, but you love her, don’t you?”

  “Is it that obvious?” Of course it was. Devon would be a bigger fool than he already took himself for to think the whole world didn’t know he once loved a woman enough to follow her into the Process. A cosmic prison that would thrust him into the edges of infinity if he didn’t find a way to break. If someone like Clyde could see it, why couldn’t Alicia, who was the smartest person Devon knew?

  Alicia closed her eyes in submission. “Forget it.”

  Before Devon could say anything else, Danielle made one last appearance for the night. “You two behaving?”

  Alicia remained speechless; Devon rolled his eyes. “Are you heading out?” he asked.

  “You two,” Marlow interrupted from his stoic seat. “Get over here.”

  They huddled behind Marlow’s shoulders, looking at the computer monitor as he brought up a local news channel from their city.

  “Is the end near?” asked the anchorman. “Some so-called prophets are asking this as an alarming rate of natural disasters scour the globe.”