Reckoning

by Sonya Weiss

  “Problem?” one of the humans with the guns asked.

  Agent Davis slid the band off. “No.” He moved down the line.

  I tried not to gape after him. He’d known my band was useless and he’d let it go? Was he setting me up somehow?

  Adler jarred me from my worrying when he put his arm around my waist, drawing me close against him as if he was flirting. “See the Supernatural over there? The guy with the red hair? That’s Martin. The humans were holding his twin brother, the last member of his family, and he died this morning.”

  Understanding dawned. “He has nothing to lose and the humans know this.”

  “Right.” Adler shot a dark look back at the agent. “My guess is Davis will take Martin out and call it an exercise mishap. Are you going to let them kill him right in front of us?”

  “No.”

  “All right, enough socializing. Let’s get started.” Agent Davis clapped his hands.

  We all approached the edge of the field, and I ended up beside Riley. I flexed my leg and sucked in a breath. Riley looked at me. “I’m right here if you need my help.”

  “I can take care of myself. Keep yourself safe.” I dug my nails hard into the skin on my forearms and didn’t look at him. The guilt was eating me alive, turning my stomach inside out. I wanted to hurl at the sour taste in my mouth. Kill Riley. My God, how was I going to do that?

  Agent Davis nodded his head at one of the vest-wearing men who brought his long-range weapon up slightly. I breathed out slowly, shaking with adrenaline as he swung the tip of it in Martin’s direction. Nixie, Adler, and I exchanged a glance. “Go!” I yelled.

  Riley didn’t move. The minute the teams began running, a red dot touched the back of Martin’s head. I spun around and fired a short burst of my power at the weapon, causing the tip of it to melt and droop. Steam rose from the gun, and the man dropped it with a loud curse. Agent Davis screamed at me. “Did you use your power against a human?”

  “No. I used my power to stop a murder.”

  The other men brought their guns up and aimed them at me. They pulled the triggers in unison.

  Riley raised his hands and waved them out. Power erupted from the portals in his palms and sent the bullets and guns spinning to the sides of the humans. They landed in a melted pile on the asphalt. One of the men yanked a smaller gun from a shoulder holster, and Riley sent a shot of power toward it. The gun flew from the man’s hand.

  “Stand down,” Rick shouted to the rest of the men when they scrambled for the guns on their hips. “What the hell are you doing? You were given explicit orders not to fire at Juliet unless I commanded you to do it.” He whirled on Agent Davis. “You’re out of line, Davis!”

  “You don’t know the first thing about a war with this species,” Agent Davis snarled.

  As if aware we were still in listening range, Rick motioned at Riley and me. “Get out of here. Join the rest of your team.”

  I didn’t stick around. I ran hard and my still-healing leg felt like someone drove nails through it. I ducked when one of the Jeeps parked at the edge of the field exploded behind me. I turned in time to see the force blow it into the air. It broke into pieces and careened toward the ground. The humans hit the asphalt, covering their heads with their hands.

  Riley lowered his hands and backed away from the Jeep, running to catch up to me.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted above the noise.

  “I don’t trust them. I’m making sure they don’t shoot us in the back.”

  We hadn’t run far before a second vehicle in the parking lot exploded. I kept running, not looking back as sirens wailed all across the base. I hit a car with my power, and the back of it exploded into several pieces, shooting it backward across the field.

  The explosions of the Jeeps had taken the humans by surprise, and it was like poking a wasp nest. Now they were angry and buzzing about. They darted onto the field toward us, gaining quickly on me.

  Martin came out from behind the second burned Jeep, moving fast and low until he was behind the humans on the field. From the blank expression on his face, I could tell he’d already decided how his story ended. Saving him hadn’t mattered because he didn’t want to be saved. He rushed forward, aiming his power, his intention clear. He wanted them to kill him.

  “No!” I ran toward him, dodging the pellets landing all around me.

  Two humans fell under the force of Martin’s power, and I didn’t need to check on them to know they were dead. He’d hit them directly in the chest. No human could withstand a direct hit of our power to the heart. Even if it didn’t blow a hole in them, it disrupted the heartbeat, causing a fatal arrhythmia.

  One of the humans turned toward Martin. When the human raised his weapon, Martin’s face changed into a mask of rage. “This is for my family!” He raised his hands and fired toward the human.

  The human shot Martin repeatedly, and his body fell as if in slow motion. Blood seeped from his mouth, running across his lips. “Run,” Martin choked out to me, his eyes already beginning to dull.

  I turned, blinking to clear the tears from my vision, and ran toward the tree line, crossing the field in record time despite my bad leg. I dove under a broken spot in the fence, and the back of my uniform snagged on a jagged edge of wire, ripping as I pushed free. The cold November air sunk in through the thin material of my uniform.

  Beyond the field was a small creek and on the other side of that was a road. I planned to circle around and rejoin the others in the parking lot.

  “Hey!” Nixie slipped under the fence to join me, then stopped.

  Across the road, a figure moved steadily toward us. At first, I thought we’d been caught, but then I recognized Mallen.

  He rushed to me and dug his fingers into my shoulders. He looked like he’d seen a horror too awful to describe. “Where’s Riley? I must warn him. It’s a lie.”

  The warning whine of a bullet zipped past my ear. I shoved Mallen too late. The bullet slammed into his abdomen, a direct hit to his life force. His body crumpled and I caught him as he fell, staggering beneath his weight. I lowered him to the ground and touched the side of his face, wanting him to be okay. He was important to Riley. “Hang on, please.”

  Nixie crouched beside him and tore open his shirt, frantically trying to save him.

  “I can try to help—” I said.

  “No,” Mallen said in a labored voice, feebly pushing me away. His lashes fluttered and he began to shake as he struggled to draw in a breath. “Get away from me, betrayer.”

  RILEY

  I couldn’t run fast enough to outrun death when he arrived. You want to know what helpless feels like? It’s having the power to blow apart a mountain and still be unable to save the ones you care about. How’s that for being a king? I could dominate humans. Rule my people. Death, however, had no master.

  I knelt beside Mallen. “Why didn’t you listen to me and stay out of sight?” I slammed my fist into the ground, breaking open the skin on my knuckles. “You crazy old fool.”

  Mallen tried to reach for my hand but was too weak.

  I took his hand. “Mallen…”

  “The Untolds…” He sucked in a breath, and the air whistled from his lungs as he struggled to get the words out. He tried to inhale again but couldn’t. “My king,” he whispered as blood trickled from his lips. He blinked once, then was still. I clenched my teeth and closed his eyelids with the tips of my fingers. He was one more loss that didn’t have to happen. I bowed my head as death carried off my friend.

  A volley of bullets slammed around us, and I stood eager to make someone pay for killing the old Guard. The human who’d killed Mallen moved toward me. I raised my hand, aiming my palm at him. One blast. Straight to the center of his body. He would explode in pieces.

  He blinked as he pulled the trigger. His weapon jammed. Yanking it up to examine it, he frantically tried to find the problem.

  My hand shook from the force of not using my power. I could easi
ly evaporate this man who’d killed Mallen. I wanted to. An eye for an eye, wasn’t that what the humans believed? When he realized his weapon wasn’t going to fire, the human backed away, fear in his eyes. “My daughter is only seven,” he whispered.

  Mallen had watched over me. Kept me safe more times than I could count. I’d failed him. I could kill his killer. Give him justice.

  “Please.” The human’s shoulders sagged.

  I lowered my hands. “Go, and never forget it was an alien who showed you mercy when you showed none.”

  In the distance behind the man, other humans began running in our direction. Dirt kicked up beside Juliet. I was willing to bet the men weren’t firing pellets at us.

  She grabbed my hand, tugging insistently. “Riley, come on!”

  I turned and ran with her, pain over losing Mallen pounding through me each time the heel of my boot connected with the road. We rounded a curve in the road that ran beside the base.

  A Jeep skidded to a stop between the bullets and us. With a hat pulled low over his face, Rick leaned across the passenger side and threw the door open. “Get in!”

  I dove into the front and Juliet in the back. Rick took off at a high rate of speed, leaving the men chasing us in a cloud of dirt.

  “I’ll take you to the other side of the trees. Work your way back from there.” He drove the mile around the parameters of the field and pulled onto the grass on the other side.

  “I saw what happened,” Rick said. “I’m sorry.”

  I climbed from the Jeep the second it stopped. “Mallen was a friend. He wasn’t threatening the humans and yet he was murdered.”

  “I know that.” Rick lifted his hat to scratch his head. “Don’t retaliate and give them a reason to kill you.”

  I held up my hand. “Silence, human.”

  Rick slammed his fist against the steering wheel. “The guy who killed Mallen saw a Guard coming toward the base. He probably thought Mallen was there as the forerunner of an attack. The guy on the base was doing his job, he—”

  I held my hand up and fired a burst of power toward a tree beside the Jeep. The tree cracked in the middle and the top portion fell, coming down fast over Rick’s head. With a cry of alarm, he covered his head with his hands and tried to leap from the Jeep, but the seatbelt held him in place.

  Juliet waved her hand, using her power to send the tree hurtling behind the Jeep. One of the branches slammed into the rear of the vehicle, jostling it hard enough to make Rick’s hat fall off.

  Rick raised his head, his hands shaking. “What the hell was that, Riley? You’re trying to kill me?”

  “I knew Juliet would save you.”

  “And I’m trying to save the both of you,” Rick said, raking his hand through his hair. He looked over his shoulder at the tree. “This is the thanks I get,” he muttered, staring off toward the base. “They’re coming. Get out of here.” He backed the Jeep up and took off. The tree branch dragged behind him for a second, then fell off in the middle of the road.

  Juliet wasn’t happy. “What are you doing? Rick is trying to help.”

  “He’s human.”

  She sighed as if I were a child who needed pacifying. “Riley, he’s—”

  “Don’t expect empathy for a species you care so damn much about after the human mowed an old Guard down simply because he wasn’t one of them.”

  Juliet looked pained. “I’m sorry.”

  Her sympathy didn’t do a thing to appease the anger seeking an outlet. “Don’t be sorry. Stop straddling the fence and fight for your people.”

  Sympathy fled, replaced with an attitude. “I’m connected to them because of Maisy. Or would you prefer I kill the half of my sister that’s human?”

  “Would you kill me to save Maisy? Hmm?”

  Her expression paled and she avoided eye contact.

  I took deep breaths, trying to quell the hatred toward the humans that my father nurtured in me. I didn’t want to be like him. Hatred and bitterness could overtake a man. I didn’t want my legacy to be a mirror image of my father’s. I was better than he was. I was better than a human who could pull the trigger and end an old man’s life. I didn’t know how to talk to Juliet without letting the grief spill out of me in harsh, ugly words. I walked toward the trees, feeling her gaze on my back the entire time. I wanted to lash out and demand to know why she wasn’t on my side. Wanted to hold her until I stopped aching. I did neither. I was a king. I didn’t need anyone.

  When we reached the edge of the field, we found Nixie lying near the base of a tree missing bark in several places. “They missed me,” she said with a grin. Her grin faded. “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” I answered before Juliet could.

  Nixie rolled over onto her back. “I’m sorry about Martin and the Guard. I wanted to save both of them but—”

  “Nixie,” Juliet warned.

  Motioning toward me, Nixie said, “It’s okay. Riley knows what I am.”

  We all ducked when footsteps neared. Adler ran toward the trees, pumping his legs so fast it looked like he’d windmill any second. A small zip tore through the air, and his body arched, jerking backward before he fell face first onto the field. Using one arm, he pressed it into the dirt and started dragging himself toward the tree line.

  “He’s hit.” I scrambled to my feet.

  Nixie looked out where the Supernatural had fallen. “It could be a trap.”

  “Stay here.” I ran out to the field to grab Adler by the arm.

  Keeping her body hunched over, Juliet ran into the open and took Adler’s other arm. Pellets kicked up dirt all around us. Together we brought him to the safety of the trees.

  I ripped open his shirt to reveal a small pellet hole on his left side with the end of the pellet still visible. I tried to clamp on to the ends of it, but the blood made it too slippery and I kept losing my grasp.

  “It’s not life threatening,” Nixie said. She held out her hand, hovering over the wound. “I’ll fix it.”

  “No.” Adler grabbed her wrist. “They’ll know you’re a healer.”

  “How did you…”

  He grinned. “I saw you heal a kitten when we were in school.” He eased into a sitting position. “It’s okay. The humans know they got me.” He touched the blood and the pellet hole on the front of his uniform. “I’ll wait here for them to bring me in.”

  “You two go. While the humans are distracted, see if you can find anything we can use,” I ordered. I grabbed Juliet’s hand. “Stay alive.”

  “You too.” She squeezed my hand, leaned forward and gave me a kiss, then drew back reluctantly.

  Nixie didn’t want to leave Adler, but Juliet tugged on her arm. “Come on.”

  Chapter 15

  JULIET

  Running at a low crouch, we kept to the trees and circled back until we were behind the humans. Their attention was focused on the exploded Jeeps, no doubt trying to figure out where the hits had come from. Agent Davis shouted into a cell phone demanding to know what had happened. While Nixie kept watch, I ducked beside the last of the undamaged vehicles and reached inside.

  I found a small cell phone, powered it off to keep it quiet, and stuck it in my pocket. I picked up a weird looking gun with yellow markings on the handle and showed it to Nixie.

  “It’s a taser. Take it.”

  I slipped that into my pocket too, then we slowly made our way from behind the Jeep.

  Agent Davis finished the phone call and swung to face me. He waved his hands at the destruction around him. “Did you do this?”

  I started to tell him no, but then one of the mangled Jeeps exploded a second time.

  Everyone hit the ground, covering their heads with their hands. Once the dust settled, Agent Davis scrambled to his feet, his face red. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. His lips pulled back to expose his teeth. “You have blood on your uniform.”

  I looked down. It was Adler’s.

  The agent glanced at Rick. “Take
her to the hospital and have her checked out. We wouldn’t want to anything to happen to her.”

  Rick clamped his hand around my elbow. “This way.” He led me to the only remaining Jeep, and I got in beside him.

  “Who were the humans firing at us? Military?”

  Rick shook his head. “Independent contractors.”

  “A polished up term meaning assassins for hire.”

  “Yes and no. They’re part of the Enforcers. We usually send them into hostile situations in foreign countries rather than keep them stateside.”

  “When the war is over, if the humans win, the ones in charge have no intention of letting us go about our lives, do they?”

  He frowned and navigated around the base to the hospital. The Jeep lurched as Rick bumped the front tires against a parking block. Finally, he said, “No.”

  “Then what are their plans for us?” I got out of the Jeep and waited for him.

  “I don’t know yet. I’m working on finding out.” He joined me, and we walked to the front of the hospital.

  The doors swished open, but Rick didn’t walk in with me.

  “Room 223,” he said.

  I didn’t wait for him to leave, but went into the hospital and down the hallway, following the arrows until I reached the empty nurse’s station. Looking around and seeing no one, I walked to the room and pushed open the door. My stomach tightened when I saw who was in the bed. I rushed over and flung myself at him.

  “Easy,” Stone said. Dried blood crusted in a wide line on his neck. One wrist was handcuffed to the bed railing.

  I pulled back to look at his face. “What have they done to you and who did it?”

  “You don’t want to know the details, but Agent Davis was the ringleader.”

  “How’d you get caught?”

  “I didn’t.” Stone looked offended at the idea. He shifted in the bed, then groaned. Touching the tip of his tongue to a split in his lip, he winced, then said, “Someone dumped me unconscious beside the base. The humans found me when they patrolled.”

  “You left me in the Void.”