Vicinus (Walking Shadows Book 3)

by Talis Jones

Mom looks calm but her jaw only clenches like that when she’s mad. I know because I’ve caused it a lot. “I’m a mother. I’m not against the Confederation, I only wish to ensure my daughter will be cared for if I can’t be the one to do it.”

  “This is not a negotiation,” the woman cuts in. “Will you cooperate with the surrendering of your child?”

  “Don’t fight it, Tanya,” Dad pleads softly. “You could go to prison and we could lose everything. The Confederation is for the people and we’re getting an opportunity to help further its cause. This is an honor.”

  Mom’s eyes look uncertain but finally she nods and turns a smile towards the woman. “It is an honor. Forgive me my emotions.”

  “Overlooked,” the woman allows graciously. “Come, Maddy. It’s time to go.”

  “I don’t want to,” I whisper, speaking up for the first time. “I want to stay here.”

  “Maddy,” Dad warns.

  “Mom,” I whine starting to panic now. I don’t know who these people are or where they want to take me but I know once I leave I won’t come back and I’m scared.

  Mom kneels in front of me, looking me in the eyes and wiping away my tears. “I want you to be safe and I can’t protect you here. You need to go with these people, okay? You’re a light, Maddy. Grow brighter, grow stronger, help leave this world even a little better than you found it.” She pulls me in close for a hug and in my ear she whispers so low I almost miss it, “Don’t forget, your best friend can go with you anywhere even if I can’t.”

  I hug my mom as tight as I can then make myself let go even though I’d rather stay in her arms and cry. “Okay,” I say in a small voice.

  Dad pats me on my back with pride. “Do us proud, kiddo.”

  “Okay,” I say again in that small half-there voice.

  The woman holds out her hand and I take it. It’s cold. The Martial opens the door and I look over my shoulder to see Mom smiling and waving, Dad doing the same with an arm around her shoulders. I’m going away and never coming back and they look so happy to see me go. A part of me tries to hold onto my mom’s reluctance and Dad’s mention of prison, but too loud is the voice that tells me they just sold me for things. I’m worth a new couch, a better job, and something to boast about to anyone with ears.

  Fine, I’ll take my best friend with me and face this new life with Him and leave those traitors behind. This lady said I’ll be a hero. That sounds a lot better than school and a government-selected job. A sudden smile lights my face and I almost skip the rest of the way to the waiting car. That’s right, I’m going to be a hero.

  Nineteen

  CASTOR

  Nyx and I trot inside the back entrance of Boone’s gym and find Arcas, Frocket, and KJ waiting; one pacing the mats, one curled up in the corner, and the third watching everything with a hawk’s eye including our arrival. Adrenaline still flows in my veins though I keep my face straight, my eyes instinctively seeking out Yosef for answers. His absence opens up a whole new bag of very bad possibilities in my head.

  “Took you two long enough,” Arcas snaps, finally giving the mats a rest.

  Funny to see an Android acting restless. Does he feel it or simply imitate the behavior? They can be programmed to mimic emotion well enough to be cast in small roles on the screens but Arcas has always been different, too human, or maybe that’s just the result of Yosef’s tampering. I joined up after Arcas so I only know him as he is now. Besides, I’ve nothing but other Androids to compare him with and those are generally lower tier models while Arcas is elite. If it weren’t for the exposed patches of circuitry here and there I’d be at risk of forgetting what he is at all.

  “So sorry,” Nyx hisses back. “We were too busy slicing our way through bodies to get here first and prepare a waiting picnic for you.”

  “Settle, Nyx,” I frown and my eyes glance toward the child in the corner. “He’s just worried. We’re all worried.”

  “What the hell happened?” our lovely assassin demands not settling down one bit, not that I expected her to. No one can contain her fire. “Everything was clockwork then shit hit the fan and I want to know why.”

  Arcas snorts. “You mean you want to know who to kill for it.”

  The hungry glint in Nyx’s eyes confirms that translation.

  “Botched job, ambush, Maddy and Yosef missing…” I close my eyes against the flood of bad case scenarios filling my thoughts. I used to be far more focused, regimented, but now my military training only seems to surface during a job, a fight, and abandons me swiftly after leaving me reeling. Deciding on the most helpful question to ask I try to regain my balance. “Where is Yosef? Has anyone heard from him?”

  “No,” KJ replies and he looks downright steamed over it. “He isn’t answering his com. Maddy either. We last tracked them both just outside the diplomat’s hotel then their signals went dead.”

  “Scrambler?” I ask. It would make sense for a powerful politician to come prepared with tight security.

  “Possibly,” he nods. “From what Arcas picked up prior, Maddy was rescuing Osman and Yosef was dead set on killing him.”

  I grimace. “And we’ve no way of knowing how that turned out except to sit and wait.” I hate waiting. I’ve done a lot of it over the years, been trained to do it well, but I still hate it. Even waiting in a simple shopping line sometimes hits me wrong and makes me antsy, panicky, and I start sweating with itchy feet ready to move or hit the deck waiting for a shot to go off or a bomb to detonate. It’s why Maddy often volunteers to buy the ingredients I need when I cook. She’d noticed. Any errand she could run so I didn’t have to she’d jump to take pretending it was simply a grand excuse to get out and do something instead of being stuck inside bored half to death. I knew whatever excuse she spun was only ever a half-truth but it doused me in relief all the same.

  “Do you think Maddy will be okay?” I murmur, not really meaning to voice the worry aloud.

  “I think if anyone comes out of that scenario still breathing it’ll be Maddy,” Arcas shakes his head. “Both of them seem to have it bad for her. At least Yosef does and if not Osman then he’s putting up the act for a reason I can’t figure out.”

  “I told her to hide her light,” Nyx chastises coldly. “Dark things are drawn towards the light and she needed to hide hers but instead she just grew brighter each day. For their own reasons, both men want her, and I’ve a feeling we aren’t going to like the why’s or how’s of it.”

  “Change is coming,” I agree. I can feel it in that mysterious way one can sense a storm while it’s pure sunshine outside.

  “They’re going to break her,” Arcas worries. “She’ll try to save them both and it will break her.”

  “How safe are we here?” His words pierce something in me and I need a distraction, a practical focal point to fixate on.

  “Seeing as everyone remembered to ditch their masks and costumes, presumably in a smart location, we should be okay. I have my senses on alert for the perimeter and I’ve tapped into the nearby cameras. We’re fine to wait a bit longer.”

  Nodding I stride over to Frocket and kneel down. “Hey, kid,” I smile gently trying not to look too large or intimidating. The Gentle Giant, that’s me according to Maddy. I have too many demons in my heart for it to be as true as she believes but she has this way of spurring me into wanting it to be when before she came I’d finally grown comfortable with blood on my clothes.

  “Hey,” Frocket squeaks back. She looks stricken, as is understandable, but I’ve got a good sense for people and just as when I first found her roaming the streets I sense it now that she’s not as scared and breakable as she seems.

  “You okay? Are you hurt or anything?”

  She shakes her head. “I spotted the bad guys, told Arcas, and ran before even Maddy knew about it.”

  “Smart kid.” I ruffle her hair with a grin. “Don’t worry about her and Yosef. If anyone can slip free of trouble it’s those two.”

  It comes a split s
econd too late to be honest but she lets her shoulders and face show a bit of relief. I don’t really believe my words either. Except if anyone had a shot of escaping it really would be those two. Maddy is good with talking and Yosef is quick on the draw.

  “Yosef?” KJ calls out in a rush of hope.

  I straighten up and rush over to catch the news. Arcas fidgets with his tech and suddenly we can all hear Yosef’s voice.

  “Osman isn’t what he seems,” he seethes. “He is and he isn’t. He works for an organization and they want Maddy. Have Maddy for all intents and purposes.”

  “They what??” I bark angrily.

  “Her past has returned in flesh this time and now that they’ve found her they’re not going to let her go.” Yosef follows that with an elaborate dose of swearing harmonizing with KJ’s. I think of the nightmares everyone’s heard her suffer and how despite her own fears she still worries about mine, about all of ours. Nyx was right, she’s our little light in the darkness and I at least am not willing to let it go without a fight.

  “Where is she now?” I let my voice slip into the old tone of command. Normally not something to use on Yosef, but he’s uncharacteristically out of sorts and seems to need it.

  “She’s here with me,” he answers in clipped tones clearly unhappy with the situation though I allow myself a moment of relief until his next words hit me like a brick to the brain. “They’ve given her a trial and allowed the option of us helping her through it. We’ll be there in twenty. I’ll explain then.”

  “Fuck,” Arcas curses and I feel the same way.

  “She’s bringing in heat,” Nyx adds in a slightly accusatory tone.

  “Trouble,” KJ shakes his head. “Always knew she’d bring that trouble someday.”

  “It isn’t her fault,” Arcas bites in, ready for a fight.

  “It is though,” Nyx laughs humorlessly. “Maybe not intentionally, but it’s only because of her that we almost died tonight and why whoever this shadow organization is now knows about us. That’s just facts, Arcas. I thought Androids deal in facts.”

  Arcas’ face goes blank and KJ steps in before he can rip her head off, possibly literally.

  “We all bring trouble one time or another,” KJ growls darkly. “We made a vow to fight that trouble together. It is the way.” The usually silent wraith stares us all down until we drop our gaze or look away. He has that ability, to somehow make even the most dangerous enemy submit. He also, despite his dark aura, has his own sense of honor that goes down to his very bones and further.

  “We don’t know anything yet,” I decide firmly. “No decisions until they get here and fill us in.”

  “And then we decide whether to ditch her or save her,” Nyx gives in.

  Arcas’ eyes glow brightly promising murder to any who might vote to abandon Maddy to the wolves. It sounds like that might be our only option if we want to save ourselves. These people want Maddy, not us. We’re expendable. We’d be giving up everything, our money, our jobs, our lives, for this girl I brought in from the orphanage four years ago. Her eighteenth birthday is within grasp and yet as a gift her world, her shield of safety she’s found here, has been shattered.

  Maddy is our light in the darkness, but do we all willingly march into our graves to save it? We were fine before her and we’d be fine if she left. And that was true. We would continue to afford our luxuries, continue to receive jobs, continue to defend our corner in the city’s underbelly…and yet it would be as it was before with the small difference of knowing how life could be and had been.

  Yosef and KJ had already begun making a name for themselves, especially with Arcas on the team, when I joined up with them. They found the jobs, planned them, contracted whoever they needed, then everyone got a cut. An equal cut. Not only was the pay surprising, they had the resources and brains to put together plans that were safer than some of the other jobs I’d occasionally taken on. Yosef gave me two trial jobs then when he offered a third he required an answer: fights and independent jobs were fine so long as I gave a tithe to the crew, but to keep working for him then I’d have to agree to only take crew jobs exclusively through him. I’d agreed in a heartbeat. Better pay and better chances of survival were all I’d wanted or needed.

  Yosef keeps the crew small, keeping it to five or six and no more. An unusual move for most crews but it has the benefit of getting to know each other so well we can anticipate one another’s moves whenever a job runs into a hiccup and remain calm knowing we won’t be abandoned. We’re a team. Since our last attempt at a sixth had failed it’s been just the five of us for a long time.

  I’d bring in strays once in a while and Yosef put up with it because kids could be useful in ways anyone older could not, but Yosef doesn’t demand exclusivity until the age of adulthood in the Alliance. None of the kids I’d brought ever stayed that long, choosing other crews, other lives. Bodi actually left to go to one of the few universities still standing and went on to become a successful lawyer and Zenith chose a path in the medical field. Both hold loyalty to Yosef and Yosef takes full use of those favors. Maddy though…Maddy is the only one who’s stayed knowing full well that her eighteenth birthday means she’ll have to choose whether to join permanently or go her separate way. We all counted on her staying, assumed it really.

  We were colleges, a team, but it wasn’t until Maddy that we became a family. She insists on birthday parties, holiday celebrations, and doing things “just for fun.” She loves music and dancing and laughing. She has a way of prying us open to find out who we really are and what we like without it ever feeling like prying. When I found her she’d been terrified and half-starved, a wild thing who kept herself locked up tight as if shielding herself from the world around her.

  When she came to our base, for an entire week she said hardly a word and I kept waiting for her to run, but then one day Yosef stubbed his toe and she’d laughed. She’d laughed so hard tears came down until it turned into heavy sobs. No one had known what to do, not even me who’s generally seen as the people person in the group. Then Yosef said, That about sums it up, and somehow those words allowed her to gather herself. The next day she had life in her eyes and just like that, day after day without us noticing until it was too late, she embedded herself into our lives and transformed us into a family.

  To make matters worse she is good. A genuinely lovely spirit shines through her, makes us protective of that light even if by standing too close it reveals the monsters within the rest of us. The jobs we took shifted from anyone who could pay to carefully researched targets. Still only those with deep pockets could stir Yosef’s interest, but he began turning down not only the frivolous jobs but the ones that targeted innocents. In fact, KJ let slip to me once that they now even warned those innocents since once they turned down a job it would likely just be offered to someone else. Oh we’re all still ruthless killers and swindlers, but we now have light to stay warm, a compass to follow (when other temptations aren’t too great), and an anchor to keep our wandering souls steady and draw us home.

  My mode had been survival for so long and yet as I stand here ignoring the bickering between Arcas and Nyx, letting my thoughts dig through this rabbit hole, I know I’ll try to save Maddy. I won’t go back to the life I had before and even if I fail and Maddy can’t be saved I’ll still try to keep this altered course she’s set me upon. I’ll try as hard as I can.

  MADDY

  Anger still churns in my every breath, every pound of my feet on the pavement, at the nightmare this night has unveiled. Two men kissed me. Two men betrayed me. Two friendships teetering on the edge of lost. Oh, and my life has been thrown back in chains.

  What. The. Hell.

  I ignore Yosef as he contacts the others, keeping his tone so soft he has to shift his mic from his ear to his hands where he pretends to blow on them, warming them in the cold to cover up the truth from any cameras. We’ll reveal everything when we get to the meeting spot. It doesn’t matter what he says before the
n. My mind can only focus on trying to untangle the chaos and confusion this day has brought.

  “These are strange days, can we come out and play, no the world is turning, these are strange days…”

  Music filters through my thoughts, my mind instinctively reaching for something to calm me, reassure me, protect me. Except no song settles and instead they mix together like fidgety fingers on a radio dial. “They say move for me and I groove for me nobody can take this beat away…”

  Suddenly Yosef pulls me aside, drawing us both into the shadows of a narrow alley void of even rats to eavesdrop. He slips something from his coat pocket then presses it into my hand. It’s my music box. Was I humming aloud again? He holds my hand as if reluctant to let go but he finally does. He lets our hands drop and he looks me in the eye with an emotion I can’t begin to decipher. Can it possibly be guilt?

  “It was a job, Maddy,” he murmurs.

  Was that supposed to be an apology? “When did you know and why didn’t you tell me?” I demand.

  He looks away for a beat then meets my gaze. “I’ve known since before you met him,” he confesses. “While Karter and I were researching the diplomat for the original heist we received some anonymous intel. We looked into it, found just enough to know he’s associated with those monsters who tortured you, and decided to accept the bonus offered for eliminating him. We didn’t tell anyone anything except that the job had changed to include a hit. I didn’t tell you because…”

  Yosef at a loss for words? Unacceptable. “Tell me, Yosef. Tell me why you lied to me about this. After all the shit you gave me about hiding things from you, why?”

  “Because you fucking befriended him! I was so pissed with you Maddy because I care about you and knew how much danger you were in. To know you’d run into Osman on the street and he could’ve taken you right then and I might never have found you… I shouldn’t have gotten so angry, I was just scared. And I should have told you the truth the moment we found out but I couldn’t. I still can’t shake the haunted look in your eyes when I first saw you, the incessant paranoia you suffered. I just couldn’t risk putting you back in that place where you’d be terrified of your own shadow again.”