The Bend-Bite-Shift Box Set

by Hardin, Olivia

  “Took them? What do you mean took them?”

  She shrugged. “They said it was time for them to answer to the council.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would the Company do that? We work for them.”

  She licked her lips but didn’t speak.

  “C’mon, Gerry. You’ve been with the Company a helluva lot longer than I have. What the hell is going on?”

  Gerry shrugged again. “I really don’t know, Nicky. The Company does things their way. We don’t just work for them. In a way… in a way be belong to them. They control everything that happens in our world.”

  Nicky lifted his jacket at the collar and tugged it better into place before starting for the hospital. “We’ve gotta find them, then. If we don’t have the Company, then we have our team.”

  “Nicky…”

  He turned slowly and looked at her, again marveling at the vulnerability he saw in her eyes. She looked at him. Then she squinted those dark eyes as if thinking with all the capacity her mind could muster.

  “What is it?”

  “The box, Nicky. We need to get the box. We need to get it now.”

  He rolled his eyes and growled low. “We’re going to go save the gang. They came for us, Gerry. Langston came to save us in New Orleans, and we owe them that.”

  “They’re the reason we need to get the box. I know I haven’t earned it, but this once can you trust me?”

  If she had asked him two months ago the answer would have been instant and unequivocal. Now he wavered, chewed on it, considered it. He wanted to be nasty and give her a tongue lashing. He wanted to tell her she was a lying bitch and even though she was his wife, he didn’t have any confidence in her at all.

  Instead, he closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side as if cursing himself for even thinking about trusting her now. “Damn you, Gerry.”

  Kristana was almost hysterical when they told her what had happened to Langston. She went on and on about how she had been waiting for over a century to be with him, and she couldn’t go on without him now. Jill wasn’t in much better shape. Not only was her best friend missing along with Langston and Kent, but Charlie’s injuries from the scuffle seemed to be serious.

  The children had all been released from the safe room and were rambunctiously playing in their rooms in little groups. Their screeches and cries could be heard echoing down the hall. They were behaving just as one would expect children to react to the unsettling commotion in their lives —with hyperactive energy.

  Gerry stood stoic against the wall, her arms folded across her breasts. She watched the nervous movements around her. Nicky paced back and forth, his hand twitching. She figured he wanted a cigarette. Doc remained still, though the muscle in his jaw clinched and unclenched at a furious pace. Charlie was lying in bed under a pile of blankets, caressing his grizzled chin as if in deep thought.

  In the center of the room sat Belle, her face stained with tears and her cheeks flushed deep red in contrast to her pale skin. Jill, who had been quiet during Charlie’s explanation of the events earlier in the kitchen, placed her hands on the arms of the chair so that she could go nose-to-nose with the young girl.

  “I swear, Belle. You’d better tell me what the hell is going on here. Former child-patient or not, I’ll rip you to shreds if you don’t fess up.”

  “Jill…” Doc murmured, reaching a hand out to her.

  Violet eyes raged back at him as Jill looked over her shoulder. “Don’t, Doc. You know what Devan did for us. You know how Langston kept me sane. I promise I won’t lose complete control, but I’m gonna get some answers from this girl.”

  Gerry reached out with her mind to touch Belle’s emotions. The girl was afraid, confused, and desperate. She honed in on the desperation. Pulled it to the surface and twisted it to her needs. The black-haired girl flashed her frightened eyes to Gerry and began to cry. Nicky glanced at her with a knowing grin then turned back when Belle sobbed aloud.

  “They told me I could take my children and they wouldn’t follow me. They promised I’d be free. Free from the Org and free from them.”

  “From who?” Jill stood and placed her hands on her hips to glare down at her. “Who told you this?”

  “The Company. They sent a man named Michelangelo to see me over a month ago. He said they just needed to find you guys and that you wouldn’t be harmed. Especially you.” She looked at Jill with tearful eyes. “They promised me you wouldn’t get in any trouble. The kids are all I care about. I don’t care about all of this that you are involved in. Just let me go.”

  Gerry couldn’t sense vampires like she could people, but she saw the moment Jill broke down. Her shoulders slumped, her hands slid off her hips, and she reached out to cup Belle’s wet face.

  “You should have told us. We’re trying to save the kids, too. You know that.”

  Belle shook her head even with Jill’s hands on her cheeks. “Not all the kids. All I care about are my three, the three from the Bittners’ house. They’re as much my children as anyone’s. I’ll take them and go and never come back. Please!”

  Shoving off the wall with her shoulder, Gerry walked to the center of the room and sucked in a breath. “I know none of us like the situation we’re in and the options we have. I know who Michelangelo is. Kent is the best the Company has. Mich’s not far behind him, but he’s a solo worker.”

  “They sent one of our own after us?” Nicky muttered, incredulous.

  “We should have known they were this intent to find us. Hell, Nicky, they sent us that message before we even met back up with the others. We belong to them and they’re not gonna let Kent and the others thumb their noses up at them. There’s nothing we can do about that now.”

  “What are you saying?” Kris demanded, her expression broken but her face carrying a hidden fire.

  “We have to find them. We need to go save them now,” Nicky insisted, and every muscle in his body was tense. He was keyed up and ready to attack someone.

  “Where?” Gerry asked, her dark eyes steely.

  He stopped, opened his mouth, but didn’t speak.

  “Nicky, we don’t know where they are. I’ve worked for the Company for years longer than you have, and I have absolutely no idea where their center of operations is. They’re phantoms. Those damned aliens Charlie told you guys about looked a helluvalot like phantoms.”

  She approached Nicky and looked up at him with an intense gaze. She wanted to caress him with her mind, but she couldn’t find him, couldn’t feel him. Instead she reached out and took his hand. “The only thing we have to go on is getting them to come to us. And I think I know how to do that.”

  He sighed and rolled his shoulders back. “The box. You still want to go for the box?”

  “What box?” Jill demanded, stepping close so they had to look at her.

  “It’s a box that Gerry found while we were in Dallas. She thinks we need to get it.”

  “Tylie’s box?”

  It was Belle who whispered the words. All eyes turned to her.

  “What do you know about Tylie?” Gerry insisted, slithering into the girl’s mind to press her.

  “She’s been sneaking information to the children for months now. No one knows who she is, but all of the children know her. She told them that when she found the secret box someone would come for them. All of them have been told how you people would start saving them, bringing them here.”

  Nicky brushed his hands through his hair. “That’s crazy. How could some kid know that?”

  Doc, who had been silent all through the discussion, approached Jill and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’ve come to realize there are a lot of crazy things that I have a hard time explaining. Two months ago I was dead and now I’m not. I don’t think I have the luxury of questioning magic right now.”

  “I think we need to hurry. We have to get the box. Nicky?” Gerry squeezed his hand.

  “Jill?” Doc spoke, pivoting her body so she would look at
him.

  The blonde vampire shrugged and exhaled a loud breath. “We have to do something. The box, whatever it is, is about all we’ve got.”

  “Good,” Gerry nodded, raising her chest and moving away from Nicky. “Then here’s the plan. Nicky and I will retrieve the box. Belle, you’re not going anywhere until all of this is over. I want you and Charlie with the children…”

  Ignoring the astonished look on Nicky’s face, she rattled off instructions with a point of her finger at each person as she addressed them. She too might have been astonished at her own commandment of the situation, but at that moment she didn’t have the luxury of surprise.

  When Nicky looked down, he saw Gerry white-knuckling the car door handle. He shook his head and turned his attention forward. The airport was quiet considering the clear sky above. Nicky tilted his head and leaned out the driver’s side window. The day was what would be called “severe clear” in the aviation community. The orange windsock across the field only barely lifted on the light breeze.

  “Driving won’t take that long. We can be there by early morning,” she told him.

  Nicky flicked his eyes to her. Not much frightened Gerry. That in and of itself usually scared the hell out of him because it meant she jumped right in the midst of danger with little forethought. His wife was undoubtedly afraid right now.

  “If we drive, we’ll get there during the day, and the safest time to retrieve the box will be at night, when there aren’t crowds of people around…” She raised a hand to stop him. “Okay, okay, I’m not saying a word about where the damned box is, but if we have to wait for nightfall to get the box and then drive back, that just means more wasted time. You said we needed to get that box. You said we had to get it to save the team. Waiting isn’t an option.”

  She inhaled a shuddering breath and shook her head.

  “C’mon.”

  He left the vehicle and started for the field base of operations, or FBO. After a few paces he realized he didn’t hear her steps behind him. When he looked back he saw that she was still sitting in the car, staring straight ahead. He turned back, approached the passenger side, and opened the door.

  Bending at the waist and stooping inside, he placed a finger on her chin and turned her head to meet his eyes. “Gerry, you’ve gotta trust me on this. I’m a safe pilot. I know what I’m doing. I checked the radar at the hospital and a front pushed through late yesterday. That means clear skies all the way to the coast. We won’t get weather like this every day this time of year. It’s almost a blessing.”

  Her eyes widened when he said the word blessing. She reached down for her bag, and he moved aside so she could exit the vehicle. Her face was stoic as she followed him inside the building. When he got to the door he held it open and placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her through the entry, just in case she got the urge to turn tail.

  It was sheer luck that Charlie knew the guy who ran the flight training school at the little municipal airport near the hospital. With a simple phone call and a credit card Devan had left the hospital for emergencies, Nicky rented himself an airplane. He wasn’t sure where the former mosquito-spray pilot thought they were taking the old bird, but he at least didn’t expect them to return it until the next day.

  “Ought to be a good day for a cross country flight, I figure,” LaGrone commented as Nicky filled out some paperwork.

  “Yep, I imagine it will be. I don’t guess there’s a GPS in there?”

  “Hehe,” the man laughed. “Nah, but I’ll rent ya one of those too if you want?”

  Nicky nodded as he glanced over his shoulder at Gerry. She was standing at the huge plate-glass windows and glaring at a low-wing aircraft taxiing to the runway. LaGrone handed him the keys and a small hand-held GPS unit, both of which he took in one hand before pushing himself away from the counter.

  “Ready?”

  She simply nodded and followed him into the sunlight.

  After a few paces, he stopped a moment to admire the airplane waiting for them on the ramp. It was an older model Cessna 172, not painted white as most planes were but sporting its original polished silver skin. The accent stripes were gold and resembled what Nicky had seen in old aviation books. LaGrone hadn’t said, but he knew it was probably a late 1950s model because it had the straight tail feature that phased out of that model just a year or so into the ‘60s.

  Gerry touched his shoulder to get his attention. “What’s wrong?”

  He laughed at his own sentimentality and shook his head. “Nothing. She’s just a beautiful plane is all.”

  LaGrone told him he’d done a walk-around inspection for him already, but there were some things Nicky didn’t compromise on. He sensed Gerry watching him as he started at the nose and worked his way around the entire plane, examining the prop, the wings, the tail, and other mechanical workings before opening the door to get inside.

  He took several moments to familiarize himself with the gauges and knobs in the cockpit before hooking up the GPS. After connecting the two sets of headphones – provided by LaGrone for another extra fee – he turned to hand a pair to Gerry. He noticed she had buckled her seatbelt and harness so tightly that it looked like the straps would sever her into pieces.

  He reached across to loosen them so she would be allowed to breathe and helped her place the headphones on her head. Pulling the master switch to power up the electronics, he adjusted the mic on his headphones and turned to her. “Can you hear me?”

  She just nodded, her face pale and her eyes wide.

  “Baby, I need you to answer me so I’ll know your mic works.”

  Her hand flew to the arm of the microphone extending from the headphones and she pulled it to her mouth. “Okay?”

  “Yeah,” he grinned, patting her knee. “Okay. I hear you loud and clear.”

  Turning his mouth toward the pilot-side door, he lowered his mic and called out, “Clear prop!” to warn any people in the vicinity that he was about to start the engine.

  After priming her for fuel a few extra times due to the chilly air, he pulled the starter and watched the prop turn once then twice before catching. The rumble of the engine was smooth and steady. It was a sound he realized he missed. He hadn’t flown since the current mission began months ago in Dallas.

  The plane took off fast and easy, floating onto the air like it was weightless. He turned them on course and set the nose to five degrees pitch so they could climb to altitude. There was nothing like the sky after a front pushed through. It was the cleanest, clearest turquoise blue anyone could imagine.

  Minutes later and after some minor corrections and adjustments, Nicky set the trim on the plane and let her fly herself. It wasn’t the same as automatic pilot, but on a plane like the Cessna 172, a clear day and proper trim allowed the pilot to relax.

  Gerry looked anything but relaxed. She was clutching the upholstery of her seat on either side of her bottom and her eyes were clinched tightly closed. He took a hand off the wheel and leaned over to touch her knee. She jumped and shuddered in alarm.

  “Calm down, Gerry. Everything’s fine.”

  She took a few deep breaths, her chest struggling to rise and fall against the tight restraints. For a moment he thought she might hyperventilate, and he again reached over to help her loosen the straps.

  “Better?” he asked, patting her cheek to get her attention.

  She turned her eyes to him and nodded, forcing a hint of a smile.

  The plane shook and then dropped suddenly. Gerry screamed into the mic, piercing his ears with her terror. Nicky returned his hands to the wheel, easing the plane back on course with even movements of the rudder and wheel. When the rough patch settled out, he leaned over and pulled the microphone away from his still screaming wife before shaking her shoulder to get her attention.

  “Hey! Hey, stop. Look at me.”

  She did, tears streaming from her dark eyes.

  “It’s just clear air turbulence. We’re not in trouble. We’re n
ot gonna crash. Okay? In aviation, we sometimes say the ‘bottom fell out.’ It just means the air changed and the plane lost some altitude. Think of it like swimming through the air. We just hit a wave.”

  “Swimming.” He was sure she’d said the word, though he couldn’t hear her because he’d removed the mic from her mouth. He reached over and moved it back toward her lips, and then he faced forward again.

  “Yeah, so swimming. And there could be lots of reasons for that bump…” He began rattling off about aviation to her, trying to keep her mind away from her fear. After a few moments, she touched his leg.

  “I think I’m going to throw up.” She looked appalled even as her complexion took on a green appearance.

  “No, no, no,” he told her, shaking his head. “Just swallow. Swallow a few times and focus on the horizon. Calm down and concentrate on not getting sick.”

  She did as he instructed, and after a few minutes her coloring returned to normal and she looked like she was relaxing. He was just about to speak to her when she reached down with one arm and searched for her bag. When she had the handle she tugged it up onto her lap and plunged her hand inside, searching for something.

  “Ah,” Gerry murmured and pulled a container of saltines from the recesses of her purse. Like a bird she began nibbling one corner of a cracker.

  “I thought you were going to throw up?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Kris says these might settle my stomach.”

  “Are you sick? Do you have a stomach flu or something?”

  She closed her eyes and dropped her head back against the seat. Without opening her eyes, she licked her lips before speaking. “I’m not sick, Nicky. I’m pregnant.”

  Eyes still closed, Gerry’s stomach lurched. When she looked she saw that the nose of the airplane was down and they seemed to be flying toward the ground. She glanced at Nicky with panic churning in her veins.