The Betrayer (Crossing Realms Series Book 3)

by Rebecca E. Neely

  “I’m controlling the Vitality,” she interrupted. “Re-purposing its energy. Same way I did with the Similitude when he used me to field test it,” she said bitterly. “I don’t know how much longer I can sustain it.” She lowered her voice, prepared to negotiate, cajole. Whatever it took. “I have a lot to tell you and not a lot of time. We can help each other, Kemp. Please listen.”

  Still gaping, he inclined his head a fraction of an inch, a gesture she took for agreement.

  “The clan. They saved me.” Curtis’ face flashed in her mind. She barreled on. “There’s a chance for you too. Maybe for the others who want to leave the brood.” She moved a step closer. “To become a Keeper,” she said, enunciating each word.

  He clutched his hair in his hands. “I don’t understand. How?”

  “I was starving. I hadn’t absorbed any dark energy in days. You knew I was a mongrel, Kemp. One of the Keepers gave me a transfusion of Vitality energy. It transformed me. If you want to have a chance, you must deprive yourself. Ready your body for a transfusion of Vitality.” She recalled her experience in the reno. “I don’t know if it will work the same way for you, since you’re all Betrayer. I need you to be willing to take that chance. Right now. Because there’s something you have to do. For Magpie.”

  “Magpie.” His eyes lit, but he sank to the bench. “I haven’t seen her for days. Not since I . . . left you in the warehouse. You know where she is?”

  Pity sliced her at his undiffused, almost childlike hope. “She’s in the compartment beneath the desk in Abel’s office.” Her voice faltered. “She’s dying.”

  Kemp’s face crumpled. “Bastard. He tried to kill her. Didn’t he?” He clenched his fists, rising. “Why?” Tears thickened his voice. “He’s known and trusted her all his life.”

  “That ought to tell you something about what he’s capable of.”

  Kemp’s eyes locked on hers, acknowledging the truth of her words. “This doesn’t make sense. How do you know where Magpie is?”

  It was safer for him if he didn’t know about her ability. “There’s no time to explain. Do you think I’d risk my life to come here and tell you this if I wasn’t sure?” she demanded. “I know you love her. You’re her only hope. You have to get her out of there.”

  “Get her out? If he—”

  She rushed ahead, voicing his inevitable conclusions. “If he catches you, he’ll kill you. And once he finds out Magpie is missing, he’ll know it was you. Either way, you’ll have to leave the brood. It’s the only way to save Magpie. And it’ll be the only chance you have for a real life, Kemp.” She paused, hoping what she’d said was sinking in. “Where is Abel now?”

  “He’s with the other brood masters. On the streets, thieving energy.” His gaze darted back and forth, as if discovery was imminent. “He could be back any time.”

  “Then you have a window of opportunity right now. Get her out, go through the tunnels so the others won’t know. To the warehouse. It’s a half mile from there. You’ll have to carry her.” From her pocket she produced a slip of paper and shoved it into his hand. “Go to this address. It’s on the North Side. Someone from the clan will be waiting for you. Kemp.” She waited until she had his full attention. “It’s going to be hard on you, seeing her injured and weak. You cannot, under any circumstances, lend her any of your dark energy.”

  Grimacing, he released an animal groan. “I think I’m going to be sick.” Rushing to the corner of the anteroom, he dropped to his knees and retched, twice. His chest heaving, he stood, wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt and turned toward her, his hair hanging in his eyes. “I’m scared.”

  Me too. “I know you are. I know I’m asking a lot. Asking you to believe a lot. You can do this.”

  He yanked a handkerchief from his suit jacket pocket and mopped his face. “How do you know?” he moaned.

  “Because you have to.” She bit off the words. “Because you love Magpie.”

  Determination sparked his eyes, even if his face remained pasty. “Will I see you again? How can I reach you?”

  “The clan will take care of it. One last thing. The portal.” She waited a beat. “Is it ready?”

  “You know about the portal too?” He threw a hand in the air. “Don’t tell me how. I don’t want to know.”

  “Is it ready?” she repeated.

  “Not yet.” Sweat beaded on his upper lip. “It will be. Soon. He’s had dozens of the brood rendering Vitality stones into Similitude. Stones the other brood masters brought. He’s been trying to find a way to do it faster.”

  Sean had been right, about all of it. “How soon is soon?”

  His brow furrowed, Kemp lowered his head. “Eighteen hours. Or less.”

  Eighteen hours.

  She ordered herself to believe the clan still had time. “You have to go. Right now.” Jordan’s voice softened. “Please tell Magpie how much I love her. I’ll be with her very soon.” The control she’d maintained over the Vitality was slipping. Keeping it in check so as not to harm Kemp, she glanced at her watch. Eight minutes remained for her to return to the tunnels.

  And Curtis.

  “I will. She loves you too.” He swiped his bangs from his face, offered her a sad smile. “She always said so.”

  Hearing him say it spurred her. “Good luck, Kemp.”

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple doing a dance. “Thank you, Jordan.” He raced from the anteroom.

  Less than seven minutes to get out, same way she’d come in. She charged into the tunnel, but the effort of re-purposing the Vitality was taking its toll. She wanted to revel in what she hoped was her success, but dread bombarded her. Creeping along silently, she retraced her steps, refusing to look back, and prayed at this very moment, Kemp had extricated Magpie from beneath Abel’s desk. That they’d both be given a second chance.

  The jagged edges of the cinder block wall came into view.

  Halfway there.

  Dark energy skewered the atmosphere. Retreated.

  The portal.

  Gaining steam.

  Suddenly dizzy, she stumbled and fell. Blinked at the numbers on her watch. Four minutes.

  Hoisting herself to her feet, she called on the clan’s training. Energy, filtering unto itself. She fingered the stones around her neck. To draw on either would expose her, but she had no choice. Either she utilized the Vitality to continue the re-purpose or called on the Flint to fight the Similitude.

  Her vision graying, her head throbbing, Jordan steeled herself against the wall of the tunnel and dug her fingers into the rocky earth.

  Hold it off. Heal yourself. Gripping her Vitality stone, she used every strength she possessed, learned and gods-given, to command its energy. She rallied, but her resources seeped like water through a sieve. Her movements uncoordinated, she faltered, sank to the ground.

  Huffing, she crawled around the corner.

  Abel stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

  No!

  Her cry echoed only inside her mind.

  “Vitality energy.” He inhaled deeply. “Its scent is unmistakable. Yours is quite distinctive.”

  Her head lolled back.

  The Similitude around his neck shone, robbing her of breath. Frigid energy suffocated her, mind and body, entombing her.

  Chapter 24

  Abel dragged Jordan through the tunnel by her ankles, his blood pumping hot and fast in his veins.

  Kemp had betrayed him. His brood master. Defied his orders to kill.

  The fact the mongrel bitch lived proved it.

  And she wears a Vitality stone.

  Along with Flint. He scoffed at the arrogance, embraced the futility. Stopping abruptly, he released his grip. Her legs slammed to the ground, useless.

  Kneeling, he rea
ched for her stone, every one of his senses alive. Sweat pooled at the small of his back and froze on his skin. So easily, he could snuff her out. Pluck the Vitality from the leather strap and add it to those stones being rendered into fuel for his portal.

  Then he’d never learn how she’d come to be in possession of it.

  Or how it might threaten the brood, and their success.

  He surveyed her, every fiber of his body rigid. Only one thing made sense.

  And he refused to believe it.

  The green stone glinted in the dull light, proving otherwise and mocking him.

  Thoughts pelted his brain, racing in a dozen directions. He wiped his mouth, and a thin sheen of desperation keened his system.

  At this moment, he knew only one thing for certain. Nothing, absolutely nothing, would prevent him from readying his portal. Even unfinished, it was a thing of beauty. Fascinated, he stared at it, appearing then disappearing in the wall of the tunnel. A black hole, relentless, an almighty shifting of earth and energy—

  The child he’d birthed. A predator, greedy for more, as was he.

  Eager to cross realms and claim the quarry. To crush the Keepers and own humans.

  In those terms, goals once again crystallized.

  A smile played across his lips. Nothing will stop me.

  Let alone a damn mongrel.

  Feverishly, he worked his Similitude stone between his fingers, as if he could conjure an answer from its depths. He’d ceased draining her Vitality energy, just shy of her expiring. Fuming, he monitored his prey. For now, he needed her alive, to question her. He’d already tried probing her Vista, to no avail. As he recalled, shielding it had always been a particular talent of hers, and her bastard father’s.

  Leaving her in a heap, Abel paced the area outside the fallout shelter that led to his office. Think, dammit. Was the clan nearby? Readying for attack? If so, how many Keepers were there? Would he sense them, as he’d scarcely been able to do with the mongrel? Currently, most of the brood was fighting on the streets, escalating the Rebellion he’d set in motion. Good for the Rebellion. Bad for him.

  He clutched his goatee with a trembling hand and reminded himself for this precious space of time, the advantage was his. Inhaling the lingering scents of the mongrel’s Vitality, his hand sanitizer, and the subterranean earthiness, he relaxed marginally.

  Humans hadn’t a clue about the underworld teeming beneath the city. It was his metropolis. Amid the miles of pipe, walls of brick, and acres of cement supporting the humans’ myriad infrastructures, the brood’s labyrinths branched off, dovetailing them in some places. All were methodically laid out, offering him possibilities.

  Order. Discipline. He called on them like a mantra.

  You have no order, and you have no discipline. You’re pathetic.

  The voice twisted in his mind like a demon. “Father?”

  Once the brood masters find out Jordan is alive, they’ll see you’re weak. As a Betrayer and a leader. Incapable of controlling your own brood. What I’ve always known.

  “No,” Abel shouted. “You’re wrong. I’ll fix this. Order and discipline are what keeps this brood together.”

  The answering silence taunted him.

  “Kemp!” he hollered.

  In the cavernous space, his shout echoed and died.

  Slapping aside the plastic sheet, he strode into his office. Sitting at his desk, he tapped a nervous rhythm on the trapdoor below with one of his boots. He adjusted the sleeves of his trench coat and traced his finger along the perfect ninety degree angles his papers created.

  He narrowed his eyes. Is my desk farther away from the Victrola?

  His stomach clenching, he leapt from his chair, sending it to the floor with a thud. Kneeling, he muscled his desk back a foot, wrestled with the trap door, flung it open and stared.

  Magpie.

  Gone.

  Never trust a damn woman.

  Again, his father’s voice invaded his mind. Pounding his fists on the ground, cursing, he saw his fingers, shackled around Magpie’s neck, draining the life from her.

  I’ve loved you since we were kids.

  Magpie’s proclamation rang hollow, shattering him.

  Kemp had betrayed him yet again. Humiliated him.

  How did he find her?

  Snarling, he bolted the trap door shut, pushed himself to his feet, and another realization speared him.

  Kemp and Jordan had been working together. How was it possible?

  Nothing made sense.

  By the gods, he was going to get answers. Now.

  He stormed to the entrance of the tunnel and stopped dead.

  Jordan leaned drunkenly against the tunnel wall, staring into the portal opening.

  Panting, her face chalk white, she turned, her icy gaze lancing him. “When is it going to be ready?” she rasped.

  ~ ~ ~

  From the depths of the portal, lethal energy surged and receded in tandem with Abel’s proximity.

  Bombarded, Jordan eyed the Similitude around his neck. Though it remained dark, they both knew it would be pathetically easy to kill her. Instead, he’d deigned to let her live—no doubt to interrogate her.

  Apprehension stole into her bones. Forty-one. Sixty-three. The habit and her father’s dying words gave her a slim measure of calm. Be with me now, Dad.

  Through the haze threatening her, she willed the numbers on her watch into focus. Almost fifteen minutes had passed since she was to have returned. Curtis promised he’d come for her.

  Curtis. Promised. The words solidified in her brain. She clung to it, and the image of his face. Her lifeline. Tears stung her throat. Would she ever see him again? Get the chance to tell him she believed in him, and his promises?

  That he’s my mate?

  Slumping to the ground, she again summoned the Vitality energy. Briefly the fate Zane had met speared her. If she didn’t make it out alive, she’d relay to Curtis whatever information she learned about the portal, Abel, and the brood through his Vista or hers.

  Her duty as a soldier.

  The portal surged forth, opening, a mighty beast, its jaws gleaming, its fangs sharpened.

  Abel advanced into the tunnel.

  The beast master.

  “The brood will finally claim what’s ours.” He moved a step closer. One more. Scuffed the dirt with the toes of his boots. The distinct pattern of stitches outlining their thick rubber soles, even from yards away, loomed large in her mind. “You’re going to tell me how you knew about the portal, and how you got those stones.”

  Already depleted from re-purposing the Vitality, Jordan was no match against Abel’s dark energy, let alone what pulsed from the portal. Wiping her hand across her mouth, she inched away from him, the effort it required hideous. “Go to hell.”

  “Wrong answer.” In two long strides, he closed the distance between them. Rearing back with one of his work boots, he drilled her in the stomach. Her thigh. Her left arm. Her upper back.

  Like strikes of lightning, pain exploded. Screaming was impossible. Curling into a ball, she shrank from him to no avail. Now he used his fists to pound her face, her head, until the agony he inflicted morphed into dull thumps, into something happening to someone else. The ringing in her ears receded. The hard-soled rubber clanged like iron against her ribs. Her vertebrae. Her shins.

  This is the location where she met Kemp. I’m sure of it. It can’t be much further.

  Curtis’ voice filtered through her torture, a mere whisper.

  Her head was yanked up by her hair, then released and bashed into the dirt. Her brain rattled inside her skull.

  “Ready to talk now? How’d you know about the portal?”

  She smelled him, sensed him, caging her like an a
nimal, a wolf ready to pounce.

  Never would she betray her gift.

  “Overheard you.” The words slid from her mouth like a slow pour of molasses, along with blood and teeth. “The brood masters.”

  “And the stone?”

  I never should have let her go by herself.

  Stop blaming yourself. We’re going to find her.

  Her heart leapt, transcending the pain. The Vitality pulsed around her neck. With broken fingers, she cradled the stone, calling on it with the last vestiges of strength she possessed. Warmth, low and distant, heated her, slowly.

  Under the radar.

  She opened the eye Abel hadn’t battered shut. Like sharpened knives, threads of silver glinted in Abel’s goatee. She stared at his lips, peeled back. His eyes, black and soulless.

  She wasn’t dead yet.

  “I have you to thank, for turning me out of the brood. The Keepers saved me.” She drew in a monstrous breath. “I’m a Keeper.”

  “You’re no more a Keeper than I am.” He guffawed, kicking dirt in her face.

  The moist particles invaded her mouth, her nostrils, clinging to her dry, defenseless lips. “Wait,” she panted. “See.”

  “If you’re a Keeper,” he jeered, “use the Vitality stone to fight me.”

  Desperately, she tried to push herself into a sitting position and failed. “I’m a Keeper,” she repeated, the words barely a whisper.

  In that moment, she fully embraced what she’d been, and what she’d become. She dragged herself a fraction of an inch away. Scorching pain arrested her. “I’m going to kick your ass,” she croaked.

  He laughed, merciless. “Where the hell is Kemp?”

  His voice detonated in the tunnel, crucifying her ears. Moment by painstaking moment, she gained power from the Vitality. It wasn’t enough to fully heal or protect herself. He could still crush her.

  Keep him talking. Buy time. For yourself. The clan. “Miles from here.”