by R S Penney
“That doesn't change matters.”
“I agree,” Melissa said.
The sound of his daughter's voice made Harry's heart try to burst through his chest. Damn it, he wanted to keep the girls out of this. But he supposed that he should know by now that his eldest would always find a way to throw herself into the fray.
When he turned his chair around, he found Melissa standing in the open doorway in gray sweatpants and a tank top, her black hair tied up in a braid. “Were you going to tell me about this plan, Dad?”
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Damn it. You've really learned how to imitate Jena.” It took more willpower than he would have expected, but he managed to stand up and support his weight with the cane. “I told you before that I don't want you anywhere near Leo.”
“And I told you,” Melissa countered, “that I am better equipped to fight him than you are at the moment.”
“She has a point, Mr. Carlson.”
“You can't seriously be telling me that you're willing to let a first-year cadet go up against this murdering bastard.” He knew those were the wrong words when they were still popping out of his mouth, but it was too late now. Somehow, he just could not stop himself from putting in his two cents. Jesus Christ, he was turning into Anna.
“No,” Andalon said behind him. “I wouldn't let a cadet go up against someone like Leo.” Melissa stiffened at that, and the anger in her eyes made it clear that she was about to offer some form of protest, but Jon pressed on before she could open her mouth. “But your daughter is no ordinary cadet.”
Chapter 13
Streetlights illuminated a gently curving suburban street where trees along the curb sighed as the wind passed through their dripping leaves. There were still puddles on the sidewalk, remnants of the storm that had passed through hours ago.
The little dome-shaped houses on his right sat quietly in the darkness with only a few displaying lights in their windows. Some people worked well into the night, but most had gone to bed now. It was quiet. Peaceful.
Perfect for what he intended.
In gray pants and a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, Leo shuffled along with his head down. You never knew when someone might recognize your face, and he had been to this neighbourhood before when he left that little surprise for Hunter and Carlson at the supply depot.
Valeth's spies had told him that Harry Carlson had returned to his miserable little house, perhaps in some act of defiance. The two girls were still absent – Leo didn't know where the decrepit old fool had hidden his spawn – but Carlson would do. Slade wanted him dead as well, and Leo had no doubt that he could handle one washed up old police officer; he had been doing that long before the Inzari had granted him the ability to Bend space-time.
Carlson's house was a round, two-story building with an arched entryway over its front door. It was dark, almost too dark to see, but he could sense it with this new-found awareness of his surroundings. He stoked the rage within him, fanned the flames of his fury until his blood burned like acid.
He walked across the road.
At the edge of Carlson's property, Leo squatted and blew out a breath. “You really thought I was gone, didn't you Carlson?” he whispered. “I promised to make you suffer, and you should know that I keep my promises.”
He thrust one fist out, pointing his multi-tool at the cobblestone path that slithered through Carlson's lawn to the front door. When he activated the scanner, blue holograms appeared on the path's surface, indicating the presence of piezoelectric sensors beneath it. The house's security system was active.
Leo tilted his head back, squinting at the house's roof from within the darkness of his hood. “Damn Leyrians and their damn gadgets,” he whispered. “If a man can't protect his home with his own two hands, why should he have it?”
Trying to walk through the grass would probably trigger other sensors. The doors and windows would sound an alarm if he tried to force them open, and there would likely be force-fields as well. Leyrians were thorough; he had to give them that much. Luckily Valeth had given him a few gadgets of his own.
There was a window above the front door and a little to the left. One of the bedrooms, most likely. That would do.
Leo stood.
He bent his knees and leaped, using Bent Gravity to propel himself over the lawn and slowing himself when he got within range of the window. He reduced gravity's pull to nothing at all, allowing him to float, though he could only sustain the Bending for ten seconds. Maybe twenty.
He retrieved a small disk from his pocket and slapped it against the window pane, pressing a button in the centre when it was firmly attached. There was a flash of sparks as the scanners and force-field emitters gave out. The strain was becoming hard to manage. His skin was tingling, and there was a dull throb in his temples.
Leo forced the window open.
He crawled through, releasing his bending and landing softly on the floor. His body ached with fatigue, but he refused to give in to weakness. He was a man, not a child. Pain was the fire that forged him. Strength, he thought, slowly getting to his feet. If Hunter can endure the pain of Bending, then so can you.
This room had a large canopy bed with a stuffed unicorn nestled safely between the pillows. What little illumination came through the window made the walls appear to be pink. The youngest daughter's room, then.
Cautiously, he pressed on and found himself in a narrow hallway with doors in the wall to his left and a banister on his right that overlooked the stairs. The master bedroom was across from the head of those stairs.
With spatial awareness, Leo could sense that the door was open despite the fact that his eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness. He could hear the soft, rhythmic breathing that indicated a man in deep sleep.
Carlson was here.
Grinning maliciously, Leo shook his head. Wretched old fool, he thought, moving forward without a sound. You should never have come back here.
He stepped through the open doorway and discovered Carlson lying in bed with a thin sheet pulled up to his waist. The man's chest rose and fell but otherwise, he was still. How fortunate that he would die in his sleep. So few people knew that privilege.
Leo took a small knife from a sheath on his belt.
Slowly, silently he crept closer until he was just a few feet away from the bed, then raised the knife in one fist with the blade pointed down. Ending Carlson's miserable life was going to be-
“Hello, Leo.”
He froze.
Carlson lifted a hand with the palm out toward him, and despite the darkness, Leo saw what appeared to be a rippling in the air. He sensed it when a force-field came upon him with all the fury of a tidal wave.
Leo was thrown backward like a rag doll, his spine colliding with the closet next to the bedroom door. He bounced off and landed on his knees, shaking his head as he tried to get his bearings.
In an instant, he was on his feet and charging for the bed like a wild animal on the hunt, brandishing his knife. He leaped and raised the weapon over his head, intending to ram it down into the other man's chest.
Carlson rolled toward him, falling to the floor.
Leo landed on the mattress, dropping to one knee and plunging the knife down into the soft fabric. “The Inzari curse you!” he bellowed, pulling the blade free.
As he turned, he saw Carlson pop up next to the bed and thrust a hand out toward him. The air rippled once again, and another force-field came at him, slamming into Leo before he could think.
He was hurled off the bed and through the large rectangular window in the house's back wall, glass shattering on contact. With a shriek of pain, Leo fell amid jagged shards to the patio behind the house.
He landed on his side, then bounced and flopped onto his back. More glass rained down on him, some of it cutting up his cheek.
Leo clenched blood-stained teeth, then winced and shook his head. “You think that you're so clever, old fool?” he
screamed. “Face me like a man! I will rip out your throat and bathe in your blood!”
He got up.
Lost in the fury as he was, he barely noticed when someone stood up on the roof of Carlson's house. A man in pants and an open jacket. He was a silhouette in the light of the street lamps. “Did you really think it would be that easy?”
Leo backed away from the house, into the grass beyond the patio, and he raised his fists instinctively. “Who are you?”
The other man leaped from the peak of the rooftop, somersaulting through the air as Bent Gravity eased him gently to the ground. He flipped upright and landed on the patio, grunting on impact.
In the dim light, Leo could see that he was tall and lean with a round face of dark skin and hair that was buzzed short. “You scream for your Inzari,” he said. “But would it surprise you to know that I've faced one?”
With his mouth open, Leo blinked at the other man.
The newcomer shut his eyes and breathed deeply. “It's true,” he said. “On a world called Abraxis, I faced one of the creatures that you revere as gods, and I can promise you that they are nothing of the sort.”
Leo turned to flee.
At the edge of the backyard, trees rose up like silent shadows, their leaves sighing in the wind. If he could hide in that little patch of woodland between this street and the next one over…but no. His mind perceived movement long before his eyes did.
A young woman emerged from between two trees: tall and slender in black pants and a t-shirt. Her long hair was braided and left to fall over one shoulder. Leo felt rage the instant he recognized her.
Melissa Carlson studied him with lips pursed, then nodded once to her companion. “Did you really think it was going to work, Leo?” she asked. “That you would just come here and kill my father?”
“You set me up!” Leo screamed.
The other man was smiling as he moved across the patio, chuckling softly under his breath. “Ironic, isn't it?” he asked. “All your little ploys leading people into traps you set up in advance.”
Leo tapped a button on his multi-tool, activating a comm channel. “Help me!” he shouted. “Help me!”
No response.
He charged head-on at Melissa, then leaped and used a brief surge of Bent Gravity to propel himself into the air. The girl leaped as well, flying up to meet him, surprising him by clamping a hand onto his throat.
She hurled him back to the ground.
Leo fell hard onto his backside, grunting when his head rebounded off the moist grass. Despite the pain, he sat up.
Melissa landed in front of him, crouching down and scowling from the exertion of what she had done. “You're not leaving,” she said. “We're putting you back in your hole, Leo, and this time, you're gonna stay there.”
“Where did a girl like you learn to fight?”
“Wouldn't you like to know?”
The sound of something landing on the roof made him focus on spatial awareness, and he became aware of another figure standing atop Carlson's house. This one was short and slim with long flowing hair.
Valeth.
She jumped and flew over them in a wide arc, dropping to land behind Melissa, at the edge of the small forest. “Two on one,” she said. “Hardly a fair fight.”
“Valeth,” Leo pleaded. “Aid me.”
“Fool!” she spat. “Do not speak my name.”
Melissa stood with her back turned, her fists raised in a defensive posture as she moved toward the other woman. “So, you're one of Isara's lackeys,” she said. “You know I beat your boss, right?”
Leo sprang off the ground to land poised on his feet, then rounded on the other man; if Valeth wanted to handle the girl, he would deal with this newcomer who claimed to have faced the Inzari. “Come on,” he said. “Let's see what a man who would challenge a god can really do.”
Tension left a dull ache in Melissa's chest as she watched the other woman back away into the trees. Only some of that anxiety came from Melissa herself. Her symbiont recognized this woman; she could feel Ilia's distress. And that could only mean one thing: Jena had fought Valeth at some point, and Valeth was still standing.
Melissa wrinkled her nose in distaste, then shook her head with a heavy sigh. “You know I abhor violence, right?” she began. “I don't suppose there's any chance that you'll just come quietly now.”
The other woman was a shadow in the forest, but Melissa could make out every contour of her body with spatial awareness. “Carlson's child…a Justice Keeper,” Valeth said. “You know we never paid much attention to you.”
“That supposed to rattle me?”
Her enemy ducked behind a tree and then came around the other side, grinning as she flowed toward Melissa. “I suppose we should have considered this possibility,” she said. “Your father always was a nuisance.”
Melissa squinted at her, one fat drop of sweat sliding down the length of her nose. “Yeah, we have a knack for getting in the way of low-life scum,” she snapped. “So, are we going to fight or just taunt each other.”
Dried leaves crunching underfoot, Valeth strode forward without the faintest sign of fear, halting when she was within arm's reach. “If you wish,” she mumbled. “I find there are better ways to solve my problems, but since it seems that you're determined to remain intransigent.”
Valeth threw a fierce right-hook.
Melissa leaned back in time to watch a fist pass within mere inches of her nose. The other woman spun, one arm lashing out for a back-hand strike.
Melissa turned her body, catching her opponent's wrist in one hand. The other went onto Valeth's upper arm, and then she had the lady dead to rights. With the strength of a Justice Keeper, she whirled around and sent her enemy stumbling toward the nearest tree.
Valeth jumped.
The woman planted both feet on the tree trunk and pushed off like a spring, back-flipping through the air. As she fell, she drew a small pistol and then turned upright to land behind Melissa.
Melissa twisted around, raising one hand in time to erect a Bending. Bullets came at her, then curved upward and sped into the open sky. More and more converged at her. It seemed as though Valeth intended to empty her magazine, forcing Melissa to tire herself by maintaining the Bending.
A rock on the ground.
Melissa kicked it and sent the stone flying toward her adversary. It Valeth's closed hand and made her fingers uncurl, the pistol falling from her grip. In that brief moment of surprise, Valeth was disoriented.
Releasing her Bending, Melissa ran forward and leaped. She kicked out, driving a foot into the other woman's chest, forcing Valeth backward until her spine was pressed to another tree trunk.
Melissa landed in front of her.
Drawing back her arm, she punched as hard as she could.
At the last second, Valeth ducked, and Melissa's fist hit the tree trunk instead, wood splintering contact. The jolt sent a wave of pain up her arm, and she barely noticed when Valeth slipped away.
In her mind's eye, Melissa saw the other woman behind her. Valeth jumped and kicked out behind herself, slamming a foot into the back of Melissa's skull. Pain drowned out awareness of everything else.
By the expression of sadistic glee on Leo's face, it was quite clear to Jon that his adversary was deranged. The other man advanced on him with a smile that was nothing short of demonic, a knife held in one hand with its blade pointed down. A psychotic with the power to Bend space-time; Jon couldn't imagine anything more terrifying.
He set his jaw and held the other man's gaze. “You're in no condition to fight,” he said in a voice as hard as stone. “Surrender now, and you will be given medical care. We can help you, Leo.”
“I don't need your help.”
Jon shut his eyes, his nostrils flaring as he forced out a deep breath. “I don't want to fight you,” he said softly. “But if you leave me with no other option, I will put you down. Even if it means I have to kill you.”
His opponent stood in
the grass with knees bent, ready to drive that blade through Jon's heart. A snarl made Leo look inhuman. “Your kind lacks the stomach for killing,” he said, marching forward. “Spare me your idle threats.”
Leo slashed with the knife.
Jon hopped back, the tip of the blade nearly slicing a gash in his shirt. The other man spun for a back-kick.
Bending low, Jon grabbed a black boot with both hands before it made contact. He gave a twist and flipped Leo onto his back, the other man landing in the grass and then pulling his leg free.
With a screech, Leo curled his legs against his chest and somersaulted backwards. He came up in a crouch, seething with rage. Lightning quick, he stood up, then jumped and kicked high.
Jon raised both hands to intercept the man's foot before it hit his nose. The impact made him stumble backward, onto the patio. Quick as an alley cat, Leo came at him once again, raising the knife and stabbing downward with it.
Jon reached up with one hand to grip his opponent's wrist. He slammed the heel of his other hand right into Leo's nose. Blood leaked over the other man's mouth, dripping from his chin.
Stepping forward, Jon thrust his arm out to the side and wrapped it around Leo's midsection. He flung his adversary to the ground, watching as Leo landed on the concrete and rolled across the patio to put some distance between them.
The other man came up on his knees, blood streaming from his nostrils. He gave his head a shake.
Before Jon could react, Leo scooped up a handful of glass shards and hurled them at him. Bent Gravity turned each one into a deadly projectile. Jon crossed his forearms in front of his face, but the shards ripped through the sleeves of his jacket and left cuts in his skin. One or two punched through his shirt and embedded themselves in his stomach.
He cried out as he sank to his knees, then tossed his head back and screamed for all the world to hear. Hunter was right, he noted through the haze of fiery pain. This man is incredibly dangerous.
