by Elle Cross
I smelled Creed a moment before he came into view. A growl escaped my throat before I could control it. "Doyle. Where the fuck you think you're going?"
Fucking Creed. "Where you think? The control room. Where she is needed."
The wolf shot forward, cutting me off. I stopped, not wanting her to wake. Her eyes needed to heal, just a little bit. The electrical surge I orchestrated when I compelled that tech was just a little bit more than I expected. But it still ended the way I needed it to: with Soleil free, and Guerin’s clone hogtied.
I would deal with him soon.
Creed took one look at Soleil and stepped toward me as if he could take her from me. I wanted to see him fucking try it.
A flutter of wings hovered around me, before a rumbling voice hit me from behind. "Really not the time." Osiris shook his head as he sidled up to us. I didn’t take my eyes off Creed, the would-be alpha of his pack. He’d been asleep for nearly a century, his mind, body, soul, untouched by time. Unlike other shifters who’d been culled by Reapers, endured countless years of experiments under the direction of AEGIS scientists.
Of my pack, I was the only one left, the only one who survived, who’d endured the years of torture.
I would release her when I was damned ready to.
"Doyle, take her up to the control room as you said. Vin is already there, and she can recover under his healing touch. We'll round up these other fuckers and place them in their clever prisons."
I raised my brow at Osiris’ pronouncement. Like me, he’d been one of the ones experimented on for a bit. But unlike me, the preacher was able to smuggle him out, back to Earth before too long.
After that bit of smuggling, the safeguards were tightened even more, and I was left alone. At least Osiris felt a bit of freedom.
I wondered what that felt like.
So much loss of time…
“You plan on letting the scientists live? Why?” I asked him with genuine curiosity.
He raked his hand through his hair. “Because some of them actually have answers to some of our questions.”
“Doesn’t matter. Most of the station was being evacuated to their black site anyway. They took their new control subjects and continued on their way.” Repulsive, really, these scientists who just couldn’t let Earth fall to the Judas species they created.
Wasn’t this a prime example of survival of the fittest?
Soleil shifted in my arms. Survival. That was the most important part and she was key to that. I looked down at her resting with so much trust against me, her lashes fanning beautifully against her cheeks. She would wake to blindness if her retinas weren’t repaired immediately.
Creed would think that he won this little faceoff with me, but what he didn’t know was that I’d already slipped into Soleil’s mind, and discovered that he and the rest of his misfit pack rated barely closer than kind strangers to her.
“Move aside Creed, or did you want to be the reason that Soleil becomes permanently blind? Because you’re too stubborn to put her above your own pettiness?”
His fangs dropped significantly and a low bass growl filled the air. Creed didn’t say anymore though, which surprised me most of all, and merely stepped aside.
I continued on to the control room, where the space station’s foredeck had a front row view of Earth.
“Get up, ramina. It’s time to wake up now.”
That voice. It was familiar, and there was an urgency in it that I couldn’t ignore. My eyelids were so heavy though; I wanted to wake up but couldn’t. “Creed?” My voice was barely a whisper.
Long elegant fingers framed my face. “I’m here, Soleil. Please, it’s time to wake up now. Your skills are needed.”
Hands propped me up in an oddly-shaped seat. Belatedly, I realized that I was nestling against someone. A very warm and large someone. My face was pressed against a warm neck, the pulse echoing under my ear reassuring yet my eyes refused to open. “Creed, is there something wrong with my eyes?” Fingers trailed my face in answer, while a soothing hand rubbed my back.
“Nothing is wrong with them. The electrical surge just got you a bit harder than expected, is all.” Creed was barely able to push that sentence out from between his gritted teeth.
~Don’t worry, ramina. Just follow my voice.~
How was Doyle talking in my head when no one else could?
~Keep asking questions like that one. That’s it.~
And, just like flipping on a light switch, my eyes opened to find a relieved-looking Creed in front of me. “Welcome back,” Creed said, the pained look around his eyes at odds with his tone of voice.
Just beyond him, Doyle leaned against the wall. I was about to greet him, but he held a finger to his lips.
~Not right now, ramina.~ Then Doyle faded into the shadows of the ship.
I sat up, a little too quickly, the room spinning once before becoming still again. Vin braced me, and I realized that he was the living seat who nestled me with comfort. “Hey. Thanks.” My witty banter impressed me yet again.
“Hey. Any time.” Vin’s response was a low rumble from his chest. Despite the terse greeting, he kept a large hand at my back, warm and soothing.
“Where are we?” I asked Creed. I surveyed the room we were in, and it was something out of a science-fiction. A huge, wraparound vista screen took up the wall, showing the infinite expanse of space. Earth glowed like a jewel resting in black velvet.
There seemed to be a stillness. Almost a dead calm. Nothing seemed very hurried at all, or urgent.
I scanned the rest of the room. We seemed to be alone among computer stations and drab gray walls. I didn’t know where Hugh and Osiris were, and I definitely couldn’t guess where Doyle disappeared to, but something still felt amiss.
My gaze rested back on Creed, who silently watched me. It was nearly eerie. “What aren’t you telling me?”
His jaw clenched, the action reminding me so much of Doyle. “When we separated, we were kept shackled and imprisoned in glass cells. Somehow, there was a surge of electricity and we were able to rush the guards. They weren’t expecting a lot of resistance.” Creed glanced at Vin then looked back at me.
Before I could ask about the look, Creed appointed Vin as a look out, and gestured me to the main console. I rose to my feet steadily enough, and followed him to the smooth gray table that gently curved in echo to the curve of the vista wall screen. There, he swiped and tapped into various touchpads on the console until a holographic projection floated in front of us.
It was a set of images. On the right-hand side was a flurry of computer code that rained down letters and numbers faster than I could blink. On the left, was some kind of topographical map with various red dots blinking throughout. And in the middle was a digitized blank screen with a cursor waiting for its next command.
“What’s this?” I asked. “I mean, I know it’s a kind of prompt, and this whole thing is a computer but what’s this got to do with anything?”
Creed cleared his throat, shifting his gaze from mine. “Key personnel left in a hurry, and they were sure we wouldn’t follow them. They said we’d be too busy dealing with this.” He waved his fingers, and the topographical map grew larger. He clicked again, and then again until the image magnified and I saw that the areas that lit up were towns.
I didn’t know where exactly; geography was never my strong suit. But the universal demarcations of trees, mountains, and rivers were clear. This area was my home, or damn near could be given the terrain. There were enough glowing red dots that indicated that there were more settlements than I thought possible.
There were others. More people, more life, so much more than I’d dared dream was possible. We’d been so isolated, surrounded on all sides with a dense forest and hidden monsters, that we’d felt all alone.
A thought itched the back of my mind, though. If certain people like Gabriel and Zorah St. Clair knew more than they were telling, then they also had to have known that other towns like theirs ex
isted. I swallowed down that hard truth and absorbed it for another time.
For now, there was a significance that I was missing beyond the startling revelation that a kind of civilization survived. I held out a shaky finger, pointing to the holographic projection in front of me. “These are towns, right? This one could be my town? One of several possible ones?” I bit my lip, afraid to ask. “Are they in some sort of trouble?”
Are we?
Is my dad?
Creed nodded gravely. “Remember what the message said? About the reckoning? I think AEGIS just bumped up their time table.” With another tap, another screen floated into my field of view, pushing the topographical map back to the left. This screen was also recognizable.
On the top half of the screen was a blinking black dot; on the bottom half was a timer that counted down. I took in the descending numbers, the blinking red dots on the aerial maps, the fact that the personnel left confident that they wouldn’t be followed…
I was witnessing a sort of doomsday device.
Dread flooded my body and sent shivers down my back.
Hellfire will rain down the mountain.
This was the source of the Hellfire that ruined so much of the world. This space station wasn’t just a research facility. It was a weapon. One that had been used to rain destruction on the cities, the one that created the After.
“This is a weapon about to go off, isn’t it?” I asked Creed, my eyes locked on the numbers growing smaller and smaller. I didn’t know how much time we had left but it wasn’t long. Less than an hour.
“We sent others through that rainbow bridge that connected back to town, hoping to get the people underground. If the worse happens, they should be able to survive.”
“Should?” I asked, still transfixed to the holograph in front of me.
“The church basement must have been built as a shelter, given how roomy it was, with all those provisions. Getting the rest of the town underneath there in time would be the problem.”
I nodded. If they were kept in ignorance like me, the idea of sheltering would be a nuisance, especially if a preacher had shielded them from Hellfire in the past with nothing more than his words.
Words.
I looked at the blinking dot, as if ready for some input. Like a password. Or a code.
My hands reached for the keyboard on the console before my brain had time to process the gut instinct that hit me. Creed had said it before. The key word is Soleil.
I typed in the letters of my name, and the top half of the screen shifted until five lines appeared across the screen. What now? “Okay, clearly my name was the right password for that, but any clue about this?”
And then we said it at the same time. “The cipher!”
“But, do you even remember it ramina?”
Whenever Creed was less worried, and we weren’t facing the imminent demise of mostly innocent people, I would have to remind him to quit calling me that.
I dug into my pocket instead of answering him, and pulled out the bit of worn paper. There were so many combinations of letters, it would be impossible to know which one.
“It could be any one of these words and in any combination,” he said.
I scanned the paper, knowing it had to be simpler than that. I was overlooking something really simple.
That line of numerical code on the bottom jumped out at me, mainly because I hadn’t used it anywhere yet. The first set had equated to “C4.” Something about that and the way the lines on the screen looked…reminded me of very distinct memories. Of my father teaching me how to play on the piano. Of finding middle C.
“It’s a musical sheet,” I whispered. I plugged in the corresponding numbers and letters and pressed enter. A digitized swirl of dots landed on the holographic screen, notes rising and falling up and down on the treble clef.
When it was done, the dot blinked again, this time I recognized its position just under the ledger line, and more importantly what it meant.
I turned toward Creed. “So, now what?”
“I think you’re meant to sing, Soleil.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“Sing. I think you’re meant to sing. Think about it. You’re the key. There were harmonics on the rainbow bridge. Voice recognition would be as good a cipher to use for an encryption? Why not use it to lock and unlock programs. It’s worth a try.”
The way he looked at me full of hope, I knew that I couldn’t let him down. I had to at least try, no matter how silly it felt. The countdown wasn’t going to go away, and looking foolish didn’t matter in the face of death.
I cleared my voice, and breathed deeply, and hummed out the middle C. The dot jumped to another note. And then another. Each time I was just able to hum it. It wasn’t quite a song, but more like a recognition of pitch and cadence. That was when the notes started to rush together and form a song.
I followed the notes at first as it bobbed along, but soon a song drifted up from my most favorite memories. A simple spiritual that I recognized, and started to sing rather than hum. “Wade, in the water…”
I didn’t quite remember the lyrics, and I may have flipped the verses around some, but the computer cared more for the notes and the voice rather than the words themselves.
A tiny little double beep broke me out of my reverie of song. I stopped mid-word to see that the countdown had stopped. The console seemed to unlock, and power was being restored to the rest of the station.
The glaring red dots on the aerial maps turned into a docile blue, and I had to believe that the towns were no longer targets.
“You did it, ramina. You did it.” Creed said it in awe and when I turned toward him, he looked at me with that hope and feeling again.
“I don’t supposed I can break you of that “ramina” habit now, huh?”
He grinned. “After a show like that? Absolutely not. Though I would still like to be able to call you by your name. If you’d like.”
I smiled at him. “I’d like.”
Another double beep at the computer, and something called the archangel files had come up. Something told me that I would want to investigate further.
For now, I needed to get home, to see my dad and question the St. Clairs.
“Was there something else we needed to do here?” I asked Creed.
“Well, you stopped Hellfire from raining down a mountain. I’d say that we could call that a good day’s work, apocalypse or no.”
I agreed with him.
We stood at the other end of the rainbow bridge. Osiris and Hugh would stay here for now, leaving Creed, Vin, and Remy to go with me back to the base. While I’d been singing the Hellfire away, the rest had been rounding up as many scientists as they could to keep in the same cells as they had their experiments.
They would be dealt with soon enough was all the answer Osiris gave me.
I didn’t see Doyle again, and no one mentioned seeing a prisoner of his description. The piece of paper in my hand was so crumpled and weathered that there were no longer fold marks. It seemed more cloth than paper.
I folded it again, and tucked it neatly in my pocket.
“Ready?”
I turned toward Creed, who waited to lead me back through the rainbow bridge. He promised to take me out to the Hill Country, where I could meet the elders. I wasn’t expecting a homecoming, though he promised there would be one for me.
My mother had always hoped that I would find my own truth, and I was finally coming around to understanding what she meant. I didn’t need validation for my powers. I didn’t need to live out the legacy that had been laid out before me. I could create my own truth, just as my dad and ma lived out their own truth with me.
Ma was an herb witch and scientist. Dad was a word mage and preacher. Both had protected me. Ma, with her blood on a deadly night. Dad, every time he preached and fortified our shields against Hellfire.
Me? Well, I was a word mage, too, it seemed, but also a singer. Where my dad shielded us fr
om Hellfire, I was able to stop it completely.
Whatever we were individually, together we were family. Even though I had no biological kinship with them, I took after them, didn’t I? Wasn’t that more kin than blood?
After all, home was anywhere there was love. And family wasn’t about blood but about being with people who chose to be by your side and fought to remain there.
I had a ton more questions than answers, sure, and I wanted to know more about the family that I had and the ones that still searched for me. For now, though, I was content with heading back to my dad, and home.
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The story continues in Wolf Cry, coming October 2018
If you want to read more of this story line, please consider leaving a review. I take into account what my readers want to read and focus my time accordingly.
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Thank you!
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–Elle Cross
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Preview of Requiem
Book one of the Dies Irae Society
Preview of Requiem
Book One of the Dies Irae Society
CHAPTER 1: Requiem Aeternam Hale
Requiem
A burst of purple lights appears before my eyes just as Saoirse makes me come. She's kind of become my lover and best friend by default. There hasn't been many of us close in age growing up in the world we’re in.
So long as we aren't obvious about our sex life, my parents don't care what I do and who I do it to. Her parents are another story, which is only weird because we're in the same Society. People who are all right with being mercenaries and killers-for-hire should also be okay with a daughter who prefers women to men.
Especially the types of men they want her to be with.
Oh well. Saoirse will always be welcome in my house. My parents practically guaranteed it when they suspected her home life wasn’t ideal.