He pressed his lips together.
“I’m not going to lie and give false hope to anyone. Especially not when that false hope could then turn them against us. We go with the original plan, and we bring down Malcolm. We bring down the patriarchy, and we free the Vladul from monarch rule. Maybe it’s time democracy had a chance, eh?”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. Vladul need strong leadership. They need a monarch. It’s always been that way.”
“That doesn’t mean it should remain that way. The answer is no.” I pushed back my seat. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Don’t be. We’ll do it your way. But I had to ask.”
I inclined my head. I could understand the need to do whatever it took to save the people you cared about. He was a prince without a people. He was trying to preserve his mother’s legacy, but I wasn’t the woman to help him do that. I had too many demons of my own to fight.
He pushed back his seat. “I should get back to the lab and Noah. We’re almost done with the satellite imaging.”
“I’ll come with you.”
We headed out of the kitchen and down the corridor side by side. And for the first time since meeting him, there was no unease.
Chapter Nine
We passed several humans dressed in black; they stared at Elias, eyes wide with wariness as they walked around us, giving us a wide berth.
“They hate me,” he said.
“Can you blame them? Your people haven’t exactly got a stellar reputation. They attacked the djinn camp.”
“I know that, but it still stings.”
“Eva!” Jace appeared in the corridor ahead of us. “I was just coming to find you. Jamie has the lab ready if you have time to give some blood?”
“Sure.” Best to get it over with. I looked to Elias. “Can you please tell Noah I’ll be there in a moment?”
“I can do that.” Elias headed off into the hub, and I followed Jace to the medical lab.
Jamie looked up as I entered. He had all his vials ready, and latex gloves covered his hands.
“Have a seat, Eva.” He indicated the trundle bed.
I propped myself up on the sick bay bed as a question that had been bugging me surfaced on the forefront of my mind. “Is my blood still human enough to feed the Fangs?”
He looked up in surprise. “Good question. Valid question, but your base genome is human, so yes, it should be. Even if it wasn’t, the fey aspect of your genetic makeup would still make your blood more than palatable to the Fangs.”
He was so clinical and matter of fact, as if I were a subject in a lab, which for him, I had been, but still there was no denying the annoyance that fluttered to life inside me.
I rolled up my sleeve. “Have at it then.”
Jamie worked quickly and efficiently, and it was hard not to stare at him, to see my father in his features and mannerisms. But he wasn’t my dad, because if Dad were here, I’d have some choice words for him, for the lies, for all the fucking lies. My hands felt suddenly too warm.
“The last bloods I ran don’t look good,” he said softly.
“I don’t want to know. If I drop, I drop. I just need to keep going as far as I can.”
His smile was tainted with pity, and my palm itched to slap him. Where had this anger come from? I’d been fine with him several hours ago. I’d understood his predicament and had no ill will toward him, but now I wanted to yank his hair out in tufts and scream in his face.
Jace took a step closer to me and placed a hand on my thigh. Did I look angry? Could he tell I was about to unleash?
I grit my teeth. “Just hurry up. Please.”
Jamie placed vials of my blood into a metal tray as he worked. He got to four when Jace cleared his throat to get the clone’s attention.
“Shouldn’t we stop?”
“She can take it,” Jamie said. “Trust me.”
And he was right. I didn’t feel lightheaded or woozy in the least, but the way he’d said it, as if I were a fucking machine. A blood-producing tap. Oh, God. Rein it in, Eva. I took a deep breath through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. It took the edge off my need to pummel the parasite leaching off me.
Jamie finished up a moment later, and I hopped off the bed. “If that’s all …” I headed for the door.
“Eva?” Jamie said tentatively.
“What?” I kept my back to him. Not wanting to turn around, not wanting him to see the rage struggling to take control of my facial muscles.
“For what it’s worth … I’m sorry.”
But right at that moment, it wasn’t worth shit. I strode out of the room.
Noah stood, hands on hips, staring at the large monitor screen—the one that had dominant place above the smaller screens. It depicted an aerial shot of the island lit up in blues and greens and dots of orange and red.
He didn’t turn when I entered, but the stiffening of his spine told me he knew I was there.
Unlike the others, he wasn’t dressed head to toe in black. Instead, he wore a pale green T-shirt and jeans. His dark hair had grown at least an inch since we’d left for the mountains, but then supernaturals healed and grew hair and nails faster than the average human. There was no sign of Elias.
“Good to see you up and about, Eva.” Noah’s voice was low and melodic and in control.
“I could say the same for you.”
He tucked in his chin and turned to face me. “You saved my life.”
I shrugged. “You looked like you could do with the assist.”
He smiled, showcasing his pretty pearly-whites. “You remind me a lot of myself.”
“What? Pretty hot and kick-ass?”
It was his turn to shrug. “That and the fact that you like to cover your disconcertion with another emotion. In your case, it’s barbed humor.” He sniffed the air. “And is that a hint of rage? Pent-up aggression?”
“I’m fine. I’m dealing. But what about you?”
“Me?”
I smiled. “What do you cover your emotions with?”
He offered me a slow blink, his lion eyes too shrewd in his perfect face, and then he turned back to the monitor. “Do you see that?”
Okay, so he wasn’t going to answer my question. I’d give him a pass, considering he’d been about to die just over twelve hours ago. I stepped abreast of him to study the map.
“What am I looking at?” I pointed at the red spots. “Heat spots in the landscape, probably due to warm air pockets in the atmosphere.”
“Yes, correct. That’s pretty standard, but that isn’t what I’m talking about.” He indicated a silver dot. “Do you see that?”
He clicked some buttons, and the picture zoomed in. The silver dot grew until it was a swirling whirlpool.
I traced the area with my finger. “You think that’s the thinning?”
He nodded. “I know it is, and it was under our noses all the time. In fact, you’ve been there twice.”
What was he talking about?
“It’s the bridge where Subject 14 is holed up, Eva. The thinning is under the bridge.”
Noah had called the main players into the hub. Jamie studied the satellite image, his face lit up by the screen glare. Ash, Logan, and Sage had grabbed seats from the various workstations while Jace and Elias leaned up against the wall by Noah’s private quarters. Kira hovered by the door, her eyes wide as she took in all the tech.
“This explains how Subject 14 was able to create the wards and keep them up,” Jace said. “He must have been drawing from the residual energy from the thinning.”
“It also explains why he managed to survive the infection so long,” Logan added. “Fey magic is pretty powerful, and the whole of Faerie is said to be steeped in it.”
We had a location, and now it was time to decide on a plan of action. A way to get past Subject 14 and convince the fey to help us.
“I’ve been thinking,” Noah said. “Trying to determine who is the best candidate to go into the fey re
alm and petition for help. The best person to convince them we have a chance at beating the Vladul and the infection.” His gaze bore into me. “It has to be you, Eva.”
My heart stalled. “Me?” My voice had gone up in pitch. “Noah, I know nothing about Faerie.”
“Which is why I’ll be coming with you,” Sage said. He nodded in Noah’s direction, and the Fang smiled.
Ash signed and Noah shook his head. “She’ll be safe enough with Sage. He has a history with the fey.”
“Have you already discussed this?” Logan sounded annoyed.
“No,” Noah said. “But like I just said, the djinn have a history with the fey. They’ve been trading magic and resources for eons. They have a treaty.”
“And I am no stranger to the fey realms,” Sage said with a smile. He focused on Ash. “You know I’ll protect her with my life.”
Ash’s chest heaved, but he nodded reluctantly. His gaze flicked to me, pale eyes darker than usual. He was worried, scared even. I crossed the room and wrapped my arms around his waist. He hugged me to his side tighter than was comfortable before relaxing his grip.
It made sense why Noah would choose me. The chimera, the human with fey genes, the one who carried the cure in her blood. I was evidence of everything, but I was no negotiator, no ambassador. This was new ground.
Noah watched me with Ash, his expression troubled. “Eva, you’re our hope. You’ve always been our only hope, and I’m sorry for that. Sorry for the burden this puts on your shoulders, but I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think you had the ability to do it. You reek of honor and survival, and despite the fact you were taught to look out for no one but yourself, you are now surrounded by allies—men who would lay down their lives for you. If that isn’t proof enough of your charisma and power, then nothing is.”
I was the key, the chimera, the thing that had been created to save this world and then die. I was what the fey needed to see, and my words would ring with the truth they needed to hear.
“I get it, Noah. I’ll go. Of course I’ll go.”
Noah gave a sigh of relief. “Good. Then we can move on to the next issues—bringing down Subject 14 and opening the thinning. Hopefully, the first shouldn’t be a problem—Subject 14 is sick and weakened. He might even be dead already. But finding a way to get through the thinning may be harder. Sage explained that the fey would have made sure that only their kind could slip through to check on this realm. They would have safeguarded the thinning. Fortified it somehow?”
Jamie held up his hand. “I think I’ll be able to help with that.”
All eyes were suddenly on the scientist. He cleared his throat nervously. “Thinnings are controlled disruptions in the fabric of our reality, they are miniature wormholes that transport atomic matter from one point to another.”
“Go on,” Noah encouraged.
Jamie did the rapid-blink thing, a sign he was getting excited. “Well, this thinning will be shielded, and all we need to do is crack that shield for a few seconds. We can do that using an EMF disrupter.”
“We don’t have one of those,” Logan said dryly.
Jamie’s face lit up. “Not yet you don’t.”
“How long will it take to build one?” Noah asked.
Jamie’s eyes flicked from side to side as he made the calculations. “An hour and a half, maybe two. No longer. I have some equipment in my case and the rest I can source from the lab.” He looked up sharply. “If you don’t mind?”
Noah smiled. “I don’t mind, Jamie. You do what you need to and get Eva and Sage through that thinning. Our world depends on it.”
Jamie stood up straighter, as if the importance of the task had steeled his spine. “I won’t let you down.” He hurried from the room, eager to get to work.
Noah watched him leave and then turned to the rest of us. “Logan and Ash, we’ll be going to the bridge with Eva to neutralize Subject 14 or distract him long enough for Sage and Eva to get through the thinning. Elias, you’ll work with Jace to build a map of the foundation, the best you can from memory. You can use the schematic software on the system. That way we can all have a map.”
Elias nodded.
Kira shifted on her feet, her jaw set. “And what about me and my crew? You expect us to just sit around twiddling our thumbs?”
Noah’s smile was perfunctory. “No, Kira. I expect you to protect the humans and man this base. God forbid if anything untoward should happen to us, someone will need to carry on the work, to protect humanity and fight against the Vladul.” He sighed. “If anything goes wrong … If we don’t return, if we fail, you will be the humans’ last hope. Their only protectors.”
Kira relaxed. “Just make sure you come back.” Her gaze tracked to me. “All of you.”
The group began to disperse; each person had a place to go, a task to complete, and I needed to prepare for a trip to Faerie.
Chapter Ten
Alpha X
Alpha X
Gray eyes. Gray eyes.
Scent…must not harm. Must protect.
Contradictory data.
Abort mission. Abort Mission.
“Okay, almost got you, big guy. Just a little tweak.”
“They did it,” a male voice said. “Did you see the footage?”
“Of course I saw it, you moron. I saw it, and I sent a report to Malcolm with some video clips. The Claws have been wiped out, we have several Fangs in custody, and they killed the djinn. But we didn’t manage to bag the humans. They were interrupted.”
“Alpha X froze.”
“It was a glitch, nothing more.”
“Are you sure.”
“It was a glitch, and I’m fixing it. Alpha X made the right call. He assessed the odds and aborted.”
“Does Malcolm know about the glitch? Does he know the team was attacked?”
“He doesn’t need to know. The team is back and their objective is complete.”
“In that case, I’ll leave you to it.”
“Ben?”
“Yes, Deana?”
“This is between us. If I find out you spoke to anyone about it, you’ll find yourself on cleanup rotation.”
A door closes.
Systems back online
“There you go. All good.”
I know this voice. This voice belongs to my creator.
“There you are, Alpha X. Good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back.” My voice is deep with a mechanical edge to it. “But what happened? Where did I go?”
“You were dreaming, but now you’re awake. Malcolm has requested your company.”
“Malcolm is to be protected at all costs.” The words spill from my lips, fluid and practiced.
“Hmmm, yes.”
There is something in her voice that nudges that part of my consciousness that is always out of reach now.
“I should go to him.”
“Yes, you should.”
Her hands are at my wrists, undoing the bindings that hold me down while I dream. I blink, activating the schematics of the Foundation. Malcolm is the glowing green dot. He is on the third floor in his office.
The table holding me tilts until I am upright. “Thank you, Deana.”
She smiles, but it does not light up her eyes. “I’ll see you later, Alpha X.”
“Yes. Later.”
I stride from the laboratory and through the door in search of the man I must protect at all costs.
Malcolm looks up from the papers on his desk. “Alpha X, just in time.” He walks around the furniture to reach me and looks into my eyes. “Walk with me.”
I follow him out of the room and down the corridor. Into the lift and to the cattle floor where the humans are kept. I have not been here before. This is new territory and there is a flutter inside my chest that I cannot explain. Malcolm’s boots clip across the floor whereas I do not make a sound.
The humans roam the halls, free range, but they back up into their coops as Malcolm and I pass. He
does not acknowledge them; instead, he speaks to me.
“Do you understand the importance of this floor, Alpha X?”
“The coop is sustenance.” The words trip off my tongue smoothly.
“Yes. This floor must be sealed in the event of a breach. Do you remember how to do that?” A set of double doors ahead lead into the sunlight. We step through. “Do you recall Protocol Oblivion?”
Protocol Oblivion. Seal cattle floor and purge oxygen in access corridors to prevent insurgents from claiming the cattle.
I repeat the words scrolling across my vision.
“That is correct, and when is Protocol Oblivion activated?”
“In the event that the facility is overrun by insurgents.”
Around us, humans have stopped talking and stopped walking to stare at us. At me. What do I look like to them? Why do their eyes widen in fear? Why does it matter?
“Well done, Alpha X.” Malcolm tips his face to the sun. “Well done.”
A young woman leans down, picks up a stone, and throws it at Malcolm. My vision blurs to red and then I am standing over the woman’s silent, glassy-eyed body. Her neck is at a strange angle and somewhere someone is screaming.
“Come, Alpha X. It’s time we headed back up.”
I turn away from the body and follow my master back into the building.
Chapter Eleven
I strapped my tulwar to my back. It was almost time to leave. The EMF disrupter was ready, and everyone who was going to the bridge would be waiting. Why was I dithering? Oh, that was right, I was headed into another world, an alien world, and I had no clue if I’d be able to pull off the feat that everyone expected of me. Thank goodness Sage was coming with me. Like Ash, he made me feel safe. Strange how easy it was to become addicted to that feeling.
For the last six years, being on the run with Tobias, there had been a constant ball of anxiety in my belly. Vigilance at every moment. I’d been the eyes and ears of our duo, the gut instinct, the blade. I’d kept us alive. But being with the Fangs and Sage had spoiled me. They watched my back, they kept me safe, and they challenged me.
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