Sarah Jennifer nodded. “I do. Did a fair amount of communing with the land myself before the Madness hit.”
“How old are you, anyway?” Caitlin asked.
“Old enough,” Sarah Jennifer answered. “Not as old as Kain.”
“Or me,” Mary-Anne cut in.
“That’s not an answer,” Caitlin complained.
“It’s the only one you’re getting,” Sarah Jennifer replied with a smile.
Selah and Margit returned, carrying a bag apiece. Sarah Jennifer turned her smile on them. “Are you ready?”
“We are,” Selah replied. “But we have a problem. Artemis isn’t here.”
“Well, where is he?” Ezekiel asked. “Can’t you just…” He put his fingers to his temples. “And find him?”
Margit shook her head. “He’s not in range. We need to find him. If he’s gone into the Madlands again…”
“Where the remnant gather,” Selah explained in response to Sarah Jennifer’s questioning look.
This was going to take more than one Pod. Sarah Jennifer activated her Etheric comm and called for Enora. “Don’t worry,” she told the mystics. “We’ll find him.”
“Damn nomads,” Ezekiel muttered under his breath as he brought the Pod around to sweep the next sector.
“What have you got against nomads?” Kain asked.
“Nothing personal,” Ezekiel assured him. “You know why the remnant didn’t get the cure along with everyone else, right?”
Kain shook his head. “Can’t say I was paying attention. I just know they’re cannibals, and for some reason, this Artemis dude likes living dangerously.”
“It’s like this,” Ezekiel told him. “Back before the Affliction hit the Weres, there was trade in Were blood as a drug that prolonged life. Before the Weres, the leeches would target vampires.”
“I can confirm that,” Mary-Anne chipped in. “Had to outrun them a few times, the persistent sons of bitches.”
Ezekiel nodded. “The nomads were the leeches’ best customers. They passed down those stolen nanocytes to their children, who mostly all went Mad because the nomads didn’t do a damned thing to control the spread of the Madness. They turned their Mad loose without a care. That’s why you won’t find anyone from Salem or the Defense Force who doesn’t find the nomads a sore point. Their irresponsible behavior cost a lot of lives, and it was always the Defense Force that had to go in and take care of their messes.”
“That explains a lot, actually,” Kain told him. “So, what turned them into cannibals instead of them getting the cure?”
Ezekiel sighed. “Esme and Lilith weren’t able to fully reverse the Madness in them. The nanocytes we used to cure them are based on the Matriarch’s and kind of on mine, as well. I’m immune to the Madness; that’s why I was able to help Helena and Mary-Anne last a bit longer by feeding them my blood.”
Kain narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t know you then,” Ezekiel admitted. “I didn’t want to have to fight you if you decided to try to drain me to save Ma.”
Kain turned in his seat to look at Mary-Anne. “You have some restraint, lady.”
“I wasn’t about to kill the only lead we had for the cure,” the vampire retorted. “How could I face Caitlin if I did that? Keep going, Zeke. Although, I’m going to guess that the reason that Esme and Lilith couldn’t restore the nomad descendants is the same reason it would be a bad idea for me to take a big old bite out of Pooch here.”
Ezekiel pointed over his shoulder. “Ten points for the smartest vampire in the world. I’m not going to pretend I understand the finer details of nanocyte programming, but I do know that vamp and Were nanocytes are incompatible.”
Kain put a hand to his chest. “And there I was thinking we clicked, Ma. Now I find out eating me would be the vamp equivalent of three Taco Bell trips in one day. It kinda makes me question everything.”
Mary-Anne sighed. “I miss Taco Bell. And McDonalds. And Chili’s. Denny’s, too.”
Ezekiel gave Kain a nonplussed look.
“Fast food and diners,” Kain told him.
Ezekiel was about to reply when the comm squawked.
“We’ve found Artemis,” Sarah Jennifer informed them. “He’s penned in. Coordinates incoming. Meet us there.”
The narrow valley was swarming with remnant. Linda threw up a hasty wall to block the remnant closing in as she and Artemis darted into an abandoned shack. She slammed the door and put her back against it as she tore a strip off her dress.
Artemis looked at the gaping wound in her side with dismay.
Linda ignored him, focusing on stemming the blood flowing from the wound. “Distract them,” she told him. “Don’t let them see we’re in here.”
The mystic nodded without saying anything. He crept to a hole in the wall, his eyes white as he cast a vision to confuse the remnant separating them from Sarah Jennifer and Adrien.
Unfortunately, his magic also confused Sarah Jennifer and Adrien, who had joined the group to search for the mystic. They paused as the shack vanished and the ground where it had been turned to lava.
“Is that…” Adrien hesitated to step on the cherry-red flow.
“Mind magic.” Sarah Jennifer ignored the illusion. She opened her comm. “Enora, did you find a landing site?”
“I found an open space half a kilometer south of your location,” the AI responded. “Selah and Margit aren’t too happy about being made to stay aboard.”
“They’ll have to deal with it,” Sarah Jennifer responded. “I don’t need to have my focus split protecting noncombatants.”
“Where are Linda and Artemis?” Adrien ground out, his eyes turning black as his magic surged just beneath the surface. “Whatever that mystic is doing, it’s stopping me from finding her.”
Sarah Jennifer sensed the pull on the Etheric coming from the shack some fifty feet ahead and pointed as she picked up her pace. “There. Dammit, she doesn’t have a comm.”
Adrien blasted a remnant with fire as he dashed toward the shack, yelling, “Linda!”
“In here!” The reply came from Artemis.
“I could use some help,” Linda called. “That remnant got me pretty good.”
Adrien’s face drained of color. “How badly are you hurt?”
“Losing a lot of blood.” Her voice was shaky. “I need a healer.”
The remnant weren’t cognizant enough to realize they were being tricked by Artemis’ mind magic. They turned their focus on the people they could see, altering their course to attack Sarah Jennifer and Adrien.
Sarah Jennifer regretted leaving her Jean Dukes Specials aboard the airship. She pulled a shard of ice from thin air and launched it at the remnant nearest them.
“Incoming!” Ezekiel called over the comm.
The ground exploded in a shower of dirt as Ezekiel brought the Pod overhead and fired at the remnant.
The next moment, Kain and Mary-Anne jumped out of the Pod, scattering the remnant as they landed. Kain was in his Pricolici form, and Mary-Anne had vamped out.
Sarah Jennifer breathed a sigh of relief as she covered the last few feet to where she thought the shack was.
Adrien was already there, yelling at Artemis as he felt for walls he couldn’t see.
“Artemis, drop the illusion,” Sarah Jennifer commanded. “We can’t help if we can’t get in.”
“No!” Artemis shouted. “There’s too many of them! I don’t want to die!”
“Then you shouldn’t have fucking come out here!” Adrien roared. “Linda!”
Linda didn’t answer, which drove Adrien into a greater rage. “I’m going to kill you if you don’t let us in!”
Ezekiel ran from the Pod when it landed, his eyes blazing red. He cut through the mystic’s magic and dropped the walls of the shack with a wave of his hand.
They all saw Linda lying on the dirt floor in a puddle of her own blood.
Adrien screamed in fury and fear. He rushed t
o Linda’s side and scooped her into his lap, looking up at Ezekiel. “She’s not breathing! Heal her!”
Ezekiel dropped to his knees beside them, his hands glowing as he reached for Linda.
“Behind you!” Kain shouted.
Sarah Jennifer turned as three remnant rushed them. She had no time to call on her magic before they were on her. She jabbed her fingers into the throat of the first and kicked him in the face as he folded. The next she grabbed and swung into the third, giving herself room to maneuver as the first recovered and came at her again. She snapped his neck, leaving herself open to the other two.
Mary-Anne and Kain had their hands full with the other remnant. Sarah Jennifer flung her arms wide, shaking off the grip of the remnant who had jumped onto her back and sank its teeth into her shoulder.
She reached over her shoulder and grabbed the remnant by the hair. It screamed in rage as Sarah Jennifer tore it free and slammed it onto the ground.
Sarah Jennifer blocked with her arm as the third remnant attacked, stamping on the head of the one who had bitten her as she shifted her stance. Her shoulder burned where the remnant had taken a chunk out of it. Realizing she wasn’t fighting a Mad, she shifted to her wolf form on the spot and shrugged out of her discarded clothing, her shoulder knitting back together in seconds.
She snapped at the remaining remnant, driving it back enough to give herself room for a leap at its throat. She landed front paws first on its chest, knocking it to the ground. Somewhere in the background, she was aware of Ezekiel and Adrien screaming and Kain’s snarls. She blocked it all out, tearing out the remnant’s throat with a toss of her head.
More came, unperturbed by the deaths of the others. Sarah Jennifer was bitten on the flank as she attacked another head-on. She danced away and turned to bite back. The remnant piled on, burying her under the weight of their bodies. Sarah Jennifer twisted and clawed at them, biting and tearing her way clear.
Her breath came in ragged growls as she dived onto the writhing pile. She hadn’t fought much in wolf form since the risk of infection when fighting Mad was too high. Still, it came naturally to her. She relied on her instincts, her wolf senses telling her where to go and how to move.
The remnant scrambled to escape her, to no avail. Her mouth was full of blood, and there were still remnant to kill. She leapt and ripped into the soft flesh of a remnant’s ankle, severing its Achilles tendon. She tore out its throat and moved on to find the next, her whole world reduced to the need to remove the threat the remnant posed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Sarah Jennifer.”
She didn’t hear Kain.
“Sarah,” he repeated, “It’s done. Ezekiel needs you.”
That snapped her out of hunting mode and back to the moment. Ezekiel’s soft sobs drew her attention.
Kain held out her shirt, turning his head to look away. “Here.”
Sarah Jennifer took the shirt in her jaws and shifted back before shrugging it on. She turned to the remains of the shack and saw Ezekiel kneeling on the floor by Linda’s body, surrounded by red light. Adrien had his hand raised, his eyes black and his lips pulled back in a snarl while Artemis choked for breath.
She ran to the shack. “Let him go, Adrien. This isn’t you.”
“He doesn’t deserve to live!” Adrien retorted. “Linda is dead because of his cowardice!”
“That doesn’t give you the right to take his life,” Sarah Jennifer told him.
Kain and Mary-Anne joined them in the wreckage, neither of them knowing what to do. Artemis continued to choke, his face turning blue.
Sarah Jennifer had no choice. She punched Adrien.
His knees buckled, and the black light faded from his eyes as he crumpled unconscious to the ground. Artemis gasped as the restriction on his airway vanished.
Sarah Jennifer cut the mystic off before he could thank her. “The only reason you’re not dead right now is that Adrien has lost enough today. He doesn’t need being a murderer on his conscience as well. Get out of my sight.”
Artemis backed away slowly and slunk out of the remains of the shack.
“Not so fast,” Mary-Anne told the mystic, grabbing him by the collar. “I’m going to make sure you don’t get killed on the way to the ship. Kain, you coming?”
Kain nodded. “Yeah. You want us to take him with us?” he asked Sarah Jennifer, pointing at Adrien.
“That would probably be best. He’s not going to be happy with me when he wakes up.” Sarah Jennifer’s eyes were on Ezekiel as Kain slung Adrien over his shoulder. “Pick up Caitlin and Jaxon from Craigston. We’ll take the Pod back to Arcadia.”
Ezekiel noticed none of the exchange. He rocked on his haunches as he continued to pour his magic into Linda. The air around him was static with the intensity of his effort.
Sarah Jennifer’s heart fell. Another death was too much to bear for either of them. However, Ezekiel needed her help to keep it together. She took a knee, shuddering as the magic passed through her, healing the injuries she’d taken during the fight. She put her hand on his shoulder. “She’s gone, Ezekiel.”
“No, I can bring her back,” he stated through clenched teeth, refusing to meet her eyes. “I won’t give up.”
Sarah Jennifer’s bum knee gave up its eternal complaint as he ramped up his magic. She felt the cartilage regenerate, her magic reacting to Ezekiel’s outpouring and her acceptance of the unfairness of loss. It would have been easy to rail and cast blame, but losing Esme and Linda in such a short time was a shock to the system that forced her to realign her thinking.
She gently pulled Ezekiel away from Linda and wrapped him in a tight hug. His magic faded, and he began to sob. She knew he loved Linda. He hadn’t acknowledged how much he cared even to himself.
Ezekiel curled up on the ground with his head in Sarah Jennifer’s lap. “I know, sweetheart,” she murmured, stroking his hair as he cried. “I know. Let it all out. I’m here.”
They stayed that way until long after the sun had set and the red sky grew dark, the stars obscured by the BYPS grid. Eventually, Ezekiel sat up and wiped his face. He leaned over and gently brushed Linda’s eyes closed. “We need to take her back to Arcadia.”
Sarah Jennifer nodded. “I’ll get the Pod.”
Another funeral, another gathering of the leaders from around the connected world. Adrien had stepped up to give Arcadia the leadership they needed in Linda’s absence. He took the chancellorship with a heavy heart as Ezekiel prepared to leave the city.
Sarah Jennifer pulled him aside after Linda’s wake. “I want to make sure you can handle this,” she told him as they walked the corridors of the academy.
The muscles around Adrien’s eyes tightened, and he pressed his lips together. “I will do my duty by the people. Whatever it takes to provide stability for Arcadia.”
Sarah Jennifer felt for the young man. “You’ve lost a lot. Lean on your friends, Adrien. Alexander, Selah, Amelie. The masters will support you in building the academy, and the rest will come in time.”
The slump in Adrien’s shoulders lessened. “I will honor Linda in my every decision. Arcadia will become a place of beauty and learning. I have Saul to help with day-to-day government decisions. Alexander will manage the forest and the druids. Selah and Amelie will teach their magic to those who show aptitude, and I will pass on everything Ezekiel has taught me about physical magic. I will institute commerce with towns and cities far and wide and welcome everyone Ezekiel sends here.”
Sarah Jennifer laid a hand on his shoulder. “Linda would be proud of that. Her goal was always to support Ezekiel in spreading the knowledge of magic across the world.”
Adrien nodded. “That’s why I have decided to chair the academy.” He continued to talk about his hopes for the expanding city as they entered Linda’s former office and sat on opposite sides of the desk. “How long until you leave?”
“Two days,” Sarah Jennifer told him. “I’m headed up to the BYPS later today to swi
tch off the grid. After that, I’ll recall the Pods from Mars to transport everyone, and my people will finish collecting any pre-magic technology still on Earth.”
“The Defense Force is really leaving.” Adrien sighed. “I have to admit, it feels a little intimidating knowing we won’t be able to call on them in times of trouble.”
“You will establish your own ways of taking care of any trouble that arises,” Sarah Jennifer assured him. “You should get with Saul to talk through what law enforcement in Arcadia is going to look like. You’re too close to the Danelands not to think about protecting yourselves.”
Adrien snorted lightly. “We are already seeing a large number of Danelanders coming into the city. They are welcome as long as they adhere to the rules. Saul suggests we incorporate some of them into the city guard.”
Sarah Jennifer nodded. “Not the worst idea. Integration is key to building a stable society, as you know.”
“It made all the difference when we merged Bad Salzig with our neighboring towns before the melt pushed us inland,” Adrien agreed. He broke off, looking pensive.
A knock on the door interrupted whatever he had been about to say.
“Come in,” Adrien called.
A woman Sarah Jennifer didn’t recognize came in. “Adrien—” She saw Sarah Jennifer and closed her mouth.
“Ah, Monica,” Adrien smiled, “I was hoping I would see you today. Sarah Jennifer, meet Monica LeFevre, my minister for trade.”
Sarah Jennifer got to her feet. “Good to put a face to the name.”
Monica’s face flushed.
“Wait for me in the meeting room downstairs,” Adrien told her.
She inclined her head in Adrien’s direction and closed the door behind her.
Sarah Jennifer got to her feet. “I’ll leave you two to work. I have Enora waiting to take me to the BYPS.”
End of the Line Page 24
