by Gary Jonas
I wanted to speak, but blood gurgled in my throat. The wizards finally stopped pushing their spell and the pain in my head eased. The pain in my stomach and shoulder held steady. I tried to hold the cut in my midsection closed, but it was deep and with the amount of blood I was losing, I wondered if I’d last much longer. There was nothing I could do for my shoulder.
“This has been fun to watch, but there’s no need for it to go on any longer.”
Liz’s New Mother voice was like honey dripping down a steel rod. Even I felt the soft pull of her words and wanted to sink down into them, intoxicated, waiting for her to tell me everything was going to be all right. But corpses littered the ground, and a little girl had tasted flesh, and I was dying so nothing was all right.
I wanted to believe this was a mistake, and that the woman I laughed with over drinks a month ago was still standing at the bottom of the hill. That Amanda knew something about Liz’s plans which I didn’t – something that made it okay to side with Liz.
Otherwise, I’d lost another best friend, and I didn’t want to go to my grave with that as my last thought.
I shook my head to fight off the sudden lethargy but found myself sinking deeper.
Bliss looked up. She was a little girl again, and frightened. She reached for her mother’s arms and Kess took her. Jiggs put his arms around both of them. Lee sobbed in the grass. Bliss had torn her up pretty badly. I can’t say I was sorry.
“Is Ned going to be okay?” Lee asked.
Liz, the New Mother, nodded. “I know you tried, Lee. You were so frightened at the prospect of losing your son to the taste, you didn’t think about the rest of your Kin. Those dirty wizards had to let you go immediately to find your niece or else you would have torn the place down. Look how they manipulated you.” With that warm, sweet voice, it was no wonder they called her Mother.
Tears poured down Lee’s ruined cheeks. “I love my son. I love Ned. Please help me get him back. Please don’t—”
“Shhhh.” New Mother put a finger to her lips. “Ned is far away and safe from DGI, just like I promised. Just like I want all our children to be.”
Lee cried in relief. “Thank you, New Mother.”
Liz nodded and walked up the hill. She kept nodding as she approached Lee. “I’m just sad that you’ll never be together again.”
Lee froze.
“See, you betrayed your Kin, which means you betrayed me. All I want is to make the Kin strong, no matter the individual sacrifice.”
“What are you saying?” Lee asked.
“You’re weak, Lee.”
“I’ll do better, New Mother. I promise.”
I strained to turn my head and watch, but Liz had her back to me as she spoke. “Now we’re going to talk about all that fear locked up in your soul. That sweet, delicious fear. I can smell it, just like little Bliss did.” Liz turned toward the girl. “Hello, my dear. No wonder you took a bite. Your aunt is irresistible.”
“Leave me alone,” Bliss whispered. “What I did was bad.”
“You did what you had to do to survive, because you’re strong. The taste makes you that way. Stop fighting it. You’re still so hungry. I know. Because I am, too.”
Liz turned toward Lee one more time and grabbed her chin. “Bliss, would you like to finish your meal?”
Lee moaned and struggled but New Mother held her chin fast in her grip.
“I just want to go home with my Mommy and Daddy.” Bliss buried her face in Kess’s neck, smearing it with fresh blood.
Jiggs squeezed his family tight and stepped back suddenly. A look of shock crossed his face as New Mother shook her head.
“No, I’m afraid there are no shadows for you, my friend. You won’t be escaping that way.”
I tried to get up but the grass was so soft and I was so tired.
New Mother turned toward the group below me. “Marcus, dear little Bliss won’t eat, but I’m still hungry.”
Marcus closed his eyes as a huge grin spread across his face. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said he was stoned.
“My pleasure,” he said, and walked up the hill, stepping over corpses until he stood next to Liz.
Then he tore into Lee.
Liz moved around and watched the slaughter with an equally blissed-out expression. Her eyes glowed a brighter orange while he feasted, as if she were the one consuming the body. Jiggs and Kess looked on in horror while their daughter hid her face. They were too stunned to react.
“You’re up,” Amanda said behind and below me.
I turned and saw her pat Brand on the shoulder. He nodded and started up the hill, that black duster flowing out behind him like Superman’s cape. He stopped when he reached me.
“Something wrong with your healing powers, Grandma?”
“Fuck you,” I said.
“Another time,” he said. He reached down, grabbed my good arm and dragged me toward Liz.
She glanced over at him.
He gave her a smile. “You want me to drag this one back to DGI or can I kill her here?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A river of white light appeared above us. The light felt like a sunburn on my skin. Amanda called out, “I can’t hold this forever!”
I’d never known Amanda to have so much power. She trudged up the hill toward us, pushing more magic into the air. She didn’t seem concerned about the other wizards or the army of ghouls, but none of them did anything. They wore the same stoned expressions as Marcus.
Marcus wiped the last bit of Lee’s blood from his lips. “I think we have a traitor.”
Liz smiled at Amanda. “Careful pulling up the magic, my dear. We’re standing over a powerful spot.” She pointed at Bliss. “I require my new daughter.”
“Leave her alone!” Kess shouted.
Jiggs leaped at Liz, but Marcus swatted him down.
Amanda shot another burst of energy into her white river and motioned downward. The river of white light pushed down on us, making dark shadows in spite of the ambient light.
Liz backhanded Kess. Her head snapped back and she lost her grip on Bliss.
“Mommy!” Bliss shouted as Liz grabbed the little girl and dropped into a shadow.
“No!” Jiggs yelled. He kicked Marcus to the side.
Kess regained her senses. “Bliss!”
She and Jiggs dived into the shadow after her.
Marcus spun around and Brand drove a dagger into his chest. “Oh,” Brand said, “Sorry, dude. You gotta watch where you’re going.”
Marcus spit blood.
“Not on my coat,” Brand said. “You’re a dick.”
Marcus collapsed.
“Guys,” Brand said, “we’re about to have company.”
An army of Sekutar ghouls raced up the hill toward us while the other wizards focused on erasing the river of white light. Evidently, they had standing orders once Liz escaped. Unfortunately, we were the main course.
“I can’t take out an entire army,” Brand said. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
“I’m wiped out,” Amanda said, kneeling beside me.
Brand grabbed Marcus, and pulled him to his feet. “You want a quick death or do you want me to feed you to the army?”
Marcus coughed blood. “I’m dying anyway.”
“That’s why I’m giving you a choice. Fast or painful, bro?”
Marcus focused on the army closing in. “Fast.”
Brand pulled Marcus over to me. He pulled off his duster, and pulled it over us, throwing a shadow on the ground. “Take us through the shadow.”
Marcus hesitated.
The ghouls were five feet away.
“Want to get eaten?” Brand asked.
Marcus pulled us through the shadow.
I felt the earth drop beneath me, then I settled into a couple of inches of muck. The world seemed dark.
“Thanks, Marcus,” Brand said and snapped his neck.
Amanda rubbed her face with the palms of her hands and
groaned.
“Worst. Hangover. Ever.” She really looked at me for the first time now that things were calm. “Kel, your shoulder. Oh shit, your stomach! What—”
“It’s fine. It’s nothing.” Now that the magic was gone, the pain faded away. I couldn’t say the same for my wounds, which stayed stubbornly, well, wounded. “Where are we?”
“Looks like the Platte River,” Amanda said, “but I could be wrong.”
“Those wounds aren’t nothing,” Brand said as he examined my shoulder. “They should be closing up by now. I’ve seen you heal dozens of times and… I mean—”
“What? What do you mean dozens of times?”
“Nothing.” Brand looked at Amanda and tilted his head. “We gotta get her some help now.”
Then I passed out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I half-woke in a soft bed with a patchwork quilt pulled up to my chin. I tried to sit up, but a hand on my good shoulder gently restrained me.
“Slow down, pretty lady. I don’t want to try and stop that bleeding again.”
My eyes focused and I looked up at Brand. “You stopped it? What about Amanda?”
“She tried to staunch it with magic. That nearly killed you.”
“Where am I?” I looked around. The small bedroom was in an older home, with a coved ceiling and dark woodwork around each window and door. The shades were drawn and the only light shone from a lamp on the bedside table. A row of picture frames covered a dresser across the room and I squinted to make out the faces. I recognized two of the women, though one was a lot younger in the photo than when I’d met her.
“Oh. I know where I am.”
They’d brought me to Lina’s house. Lina was a healer. I didn’t trust most practitioners, but she was different. I met Lina years ago, when I rushed Jonathan to her in the hopes she could save him. But like all magic, Lina’s wouldn’t work on him and he had to heal naturally.
Brand studied my face. “What’s happening to you? Amanda wouldn’t say.”
I didn’t say, either. A full glass of water stood on the night stand and I was dying of thirst. I grabbed it and chugged. Brand pulled the glass away as I started coughing.
“Easy! Little sips only.” He tilted the glass and held it to my lips while I tried not to down it all at once. “Now, what’s going on with you?”
I could only move one of my arms. The other was heavily-bandaged. Under the quilt, I ran my hand over the abdominal wound and felt a row of stitches holding me together.
Brand grinned. “That’s my work. I stitched you together in a stolen car on the way over.”
“Where’d you learn that? They didn’t teach us first aid back in Sekutar school.” We were engineered not to need it, and we were expendable anyway.
“Before DGI, I was a medic in the military. Back stateside, I was an unhappy EMT until DGI recruited me.”
“How do you go from being a medic to an assassin?”
The corner of Brand’s mouth twitched. “That’s a story for another day.”
I pulled the quilt down to get a better look at my wound and realized I wasn’t wearing a top.
“Whoa!” Brand looked away quickly, which I found kind of adorable. He’d obviously already seen me naked, so it wasn’t a big deal. Well, to me at least.
The stitches were thin and white where I’d expected heavy black thread. And they smelled … minty.
“You’ve got to be joking. Is this—?”
“Good old dental floss. You learn to work with what you’ve got in the field. I found it in the glove compartment.”
“I think they need to come out. Why hasn’t Lina healed me?”
“She wanted to wait until you were awake, and hopefully a little stronger.” He looked like he wanted to say more, probably ask me again what my problem was, but thought better of it and kept his mouth shut. So he was learning.
“How long have I been out?”
Brand still wasn’t looking at me. “Most of the day. I think you heal a little faster when you’re asleep.” He handed me a button-down shirt. “Throw this on so I can take a look.”
“What’s the big deal? You’ve already seen me naked.” I grinned when I saw Brand’s cheeks redden.
“Hey now, I’m just trying to stay professional here. You don’t make it easy.”
I gingerly wrapped the shirt around me. I was pathetically weak, and I felt both hot and shivery.
“Really? You were quite professional in the practice room when you tried to kill me.”
“Bygones. And as I recall, you were trying to distract me with your hot bod then, too.”
I remembered the feel of his rough cheek under my fingers, the way he whispered my name.
“That was somebody else.” I didn’t know if I meant me or him. Or both of us.
“We’re back to the layered time thing, huh?” Brand examined the wound. “Well, you’re right.” He paused and for a second I thought he was talking about layered time. “The skin is trying to heal. These stitches should go and then Lina can do her thing.”
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
Brand squirted something from a bottle onto his hands and rubbed them together. The sharp smell told me it was antibacterial gel. He picked up a pair of scissors from the bedside table and touched my belly.
“Whoa, Kelly, you’re hot.”
“Thanks.”
“I mean, you’ve got a fever. Infection’s setting in.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand why your body’s not fighting this off.” Brand snipped away at the stitches and pulled them out, leaving behind a neat double row of red dots that marched across my belly. I wondered if they would heal, or if I’d be left with the scars. Maybe I’d be dead before either could happen.
I felt a twinge of something deep inside, somewhere past my body. Old memories. No, this couldn’t be fear. It couldn’t. I wouldn’t let it be.
“Kelly.” Brand was looking me in the face. “Enough with the stoicism. What the hell is going on?”
I looked back into his eyes, now brown and flecked with green. Jonathan had seen me weak and I’d survived the encounter. But I couldn’t show weakness in front of another Sekutar warrior, especially Brand.
Then I laughed. I’d shown him nothing but weakness, almost since we’d met.
“What?” he asked. He looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was. Maybe it was the fever.
“Apparently, I have a kill switch.” The words pushed past my lips. “And I’m pretty damn sure it’s been activated.” I closed my eyes. “So much for the badass Kelly Chan, huh?”
Brand laughed and I opened my eyes. “What are you talking about? You’re amazing, Kelly. This ordeal would have killed any lesser woman. Hell, this would have killed any lesser Sekutar.” He grinned. “Maybe even me.”
“You can’t tell anyone. They’ll kill me if they know I’m this weak.”
Brand touched the back of his hand to my forehead. “I’ll blame the fever for the crazy talk. I have my Sekutar 2.0 friends on standby. I think we just quit without notice, and we’re going to need someone to follow. Tag. You’re it.”
Now it was my turn to look at him like he was the crazy one. “I can’t even keep my new fish fed. You should be the Sekutar leader, not me. You’re the strongest fighter of your generation by a long shot.”
“Trying to stroke my ego?”
“No. I’m trying to shirk my responsibility.”
Brand laughed again. Then he got serious, which I imagined physically hurt the guy. “You know why I’m such a good fighter?”
“It’s obvious. You trained outside the program’s sucky parameters.”
I expected him to laugh, but he stayed serious. “Do you know what I studied?”
It was hard not to get sucked into those hazel eyes. “No, of course not.”
“Old training videos from Sekutar Generation 1.0. Specifically, footage of the great boogiewoman Kelly Chan.”
I could almost hear my o
wn eyeballs click. So that’s where he’d seen me heal dozens of times.
“Wow. Stalker much?”
Brand frowned and shook his head and I almost felt bad. “It wasn’t like that. Sure, you’re gorgeous, but I was more interested in how you moved. The way you fought, fearless, like the thought of losing never crossed your mind. It psyched out your opponents. It psyched me out, when we were up against each other.”
“You did just fine.”
“That’s because I lied when I said you and I are nothing alike. I imitated you, copied your technique. Like you, I try not to let anyone know when I’m afraid. I cover the fear with humor.”
“So I created the cocky monster that is Brand. Great.”
Brand shook his head again, this time annoyed. “Exactly. See, you’re doing a perfect demonstration right now.”
“I’m not covering anything. I don’t show fear because I don’t feel fear. I’m not afraid.”
Brand smiled. “You’re so good at what you do, you’ve even got yourself convinced.”
“No, I’m serious. They engineered the fear right out of us.”
Brand’s smile disappeared. “I know.”
“How? Is it part of my legend?”
“That you’re not afraid of anything, yes, that’s a part of your legend. But not why.” Brand looked away from me like he had when I was exposed earlier. “But I know why because there were more than just training videos.”
My stomach dropped. “Look at me.”
He did. Every last trace of cockiness was gone from his eyes. He looked pained. “I hacked into the system to find more videos of you because I wanted….”
“What?” I leaned toward him. “What did you want?”
“I wanted to know why the first time I watched you on the screen I felt like I already knew you.”
Like I already knew him, the first time I laid eyes on Brand in the practice room.
“So I found other videos of you, when you were younger. When they first brought you to DGI.”
Brand took my hand. It was calloused in the same places as mine. “What they did to you was awful, Kel.”
“I got through it. I wouldn’t be who I am today if they hadn’t changed me.” I pulled my hand away.