Dammit! I cursed within my head.
Hey! Some people in here are sleeping you know, Aku stated tersely.
Sorry.
So being that I’m awake now, what are you cursing about?
I locked myself out of the hotel suite.
Well that was mossing brilliant, Aku said with a snort.
I ignored him, and looked down the hallway. And then I groaned as I realized I was gonna have to go down to the lobby and explain how I had managed to have locked myself out of my room. In nothing but a bathrobe.
I started walking down the hall, as I texted Shawn back, No sorry. As I hit send I turned the corner, and froze. Someone was sitting in one of the plush chairs by the elevator. A daemon with black hair. His arms flung over the sides of the chair, and his head tipped back, staring at the ceiling. And when I realized it was Damian, I silently cursed the gods.
Unfucking believable.
Oh this is going to be fun, Aku said sarcastically.
I started forward again, because trying to delay the inevitable was fucking pointless. At the sound of my approach Damian’s head snapped up quickly, and his hand jerked to his side. But when he realized it was me, he relaxed just a bit.
A look of confusion crossed his face before it shifted to a crooked grin. “She toss ya out?” he asked with a smirk.
“Nope, I locked myself out,” I admitted freely, because he would have gotten the truth out of me anyways.
“That’s grand,” Damian said, his smirk sliding into a full blown grin.
“Ha, ha, laugh it up jackass,” I grumbled as I kept walking toward him.
“Oi! Who’s the plonker who walked out of his hotel room wearing nothing but a dressing gown, ey?” Damian pointed out as he leapt to his feet.
I folded my arms across my chest, and glared at him. “You’re never gonna let me live this down, are you?” I asked flatly.
“Not a snowball’s chance, sahavi,” Damian said as he put a hand on my shoulder. “Though I will go get you a new room key so you don’t have to go down to the lobby damn near stark naked.”
Yep, never gonna live this down, I mumbled within my head with resignation.
“Thanks, Damian,” I replied as the elevator next to us dinged.
“No bother. It’s me job to—” he started before he shoved me aside.
I rolled as I landed, nearly disrobing myself as I stepped on the belt of the robe.
“Hey, Damian, what the fuck?!” I shouted angrily as I looked up. But he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking into the elevator. And then I saw them—the three tranq darts. One in his shoulder and another two in his chest. He looked down at them slowly before he crumpled to the floor.
A man looked down at the unconscious Damian as he stepped out of the elevator. His dusky red horns catching the light in such a way that they looked like a dying fire. I tried to jump back into a defensive position, but stepped on the robe and fell back onto my hands.
The man turned his head toward me, a wicked grin spreading across his lips. “Hello again, Aku.”
Oh gods, Aku breathed and my body began to shake uncontrollably. Aku’s fear mixing with my own. Because I knew that face. Even though I didn’t know how, I knew his face. Because his was the face that haunted all my nightmares. A monster with the face of an angel and a hint of unfathomable cruelty behind dark-blue eyes.
Run! Aku shouted hysterically. Patrick, run!
But I couldn’t, because as I stared at that face in horror, something hit me square in the chest—right above my heart—and the whole world started to get fuzzy.
I dropped to the floor, my arms unable to hold me up any longer.
“Normally I don’t do field work myself, but I decided to make a special exception for you,” the man with hair the color of honey informed me as he stepped over Damian. And I could barely make out the shape of him anymore, because his image was swaying and multiplying with every beat of my heart. Which seemed impossibly sluggish in the face of terror that was surging through me.
Gods, no. Please, no. Please don’t make me go back there again. I beg you! Aku cried out within my head.
“Why do you look so surprised, Aku?” the man asked as he reached me. His head cocked to one side slightly, like a viper about to strike.
The man leaned over me, and I was helplessly unable to make my body move. “Did you not believe me when I told you that you could never escape us?” he whispered cruelly into my ear before everything went black, and still as death.
404 Location Not Found
Tuesday, December 25th
TRAVIS
Urr, urr, urr, an alarm blurred before KARA’s voice informed me, “Tracker 1 offline.”
I flew into action, but succeeded only in falling out of bed in my effort to defend myself against the jarring noise.
I blinked up at the ceiling from the floor. “What?” I asked KARA, but she didn’t answer because I hadn’t addressed her by name.
“KARA, what did you say?” I asked again properly.
“Tracker 1 has just gone offline,” KARA informed me.
“Tracker—wait that’s Patrick’s tracker!” I righted myself quickly, and lunged for my phone.
Tues. December 25th 12:47 am
Tracker 1 offline
I stared down at the message. This had to be a mistake. As much as Patrick hated the thing, he knew why he had to continue to wear it. He wouldn’t have just taken it off unless—
Unless he had gone rogue.
Frak!
“KARA, locate Patrick Cen—locate Patrick Galathea,” I ordered frantically.
“Tracking offline,” KARA replied.
It could still be a glitch. It had to be a glitch. But even as I wanted to doubt my own workmanship, fear of the truth raced through me like an electrical current.
I slid my fingers across the screen nearly calling Parker instead of Patrick, because my hands were shaking so badly. The call went straight to voicemail. I hung up and called again, but the result was still the same. And that’s when the horrible twisting in my stomach got worse. Patrick never turned off his phone. Ever.
“KARA, locate the device last called from this phone.”
“Current location is 335 Powell Street, eighth floor,” KARA replied after a few moments that seemed like an eternity.
“KARA, what building is that?”
“335 Powell Street is the location of the Westin St. Francis hotel.”
“A hotel?” I repeated in confusion before I remembered.
The hotel! Patrick had said he was at a hotel.
With Nualla.
Oh gods, please, not again, I pleaded frantically as I launched myself to my feet.
Please just be a glitch. Please just be a glitch, I repeated to myself the whole elevator ride up to the eighth floor. But no matter how much I wished it was true, I couldn’t stop the images of Nualla bleeding to death in the rain from filling my mind.
When the elevator doors finally opened, I launched forward, but stopped abruptly when I saw what was on the other side. A dark-haired guy was collapsed on the floor just outside the elevator, with a fairer-haired guy kneeling over them. There was a single heart-stopping moment when I thought it was Patrick before I realized this dark-haired person was much too tall. And it was only a second later that I realized they were those Kaigan Midoraian Protectorate, Damian Corkoran and his brother James.
“What happened?” I asked in a startled voice.
James’ head jerked in my direction, his hand jumping to the holster at his hip before he realized it was me. But even then, his hand never edged back away from his hip. “I…I don’t know, I just got here.”
The elevator door started to close, and slammed my hand against it. I took a step out of the
elevator, and something bumped up against my foot. I stared down at the object, a thin piece of silver metal in the shape of a nearly closed oval.
The tracker bracelet!
My eyes darted quickly back to James. “Did you check their room?”
“What?” James asked in confusion.
“Did you insure the safety of the Arius and my brother?” I asked with a sharp edge to my voice.
James’ mouth just fell open, but no answer came.
“You idiot!” I shouted as I shoved past him, and rushed toward their door.
NUALLA
As I drifted toward consciousness I reached out…into emptiness. My eyes shot open, and I blinked into the darkness. Patrick wasn’t in the bed next to me. I tried to tell myself that he had just gone to the bathroom or something, but as I spread my fingers across the sheets I realize his side of the bed was cold. That he’d been up for awhile.
I sat up quickly. “Patrick?” I called into the darkness, but only silence answered back. I tried not to panic as I slipped out of the bed.
I threw on a robe, and pulled the belt tight as someone started pounding on the door of the suite. I rushed through the living room portion of the hotel suite, too startled to even check who it was before I wrenched the door open.
Travis stood in the doorway with wild fear in his eyes. His hair even more untamed than usual.
“Travis? What are you—?”
“Please tell me he’s in there,” Travis barked out as his eyes darted past me frantically.
I didn’t answer, and his eyes returned to mine. And the longer we stood there just staring at each other, the more his expression started to change. A haunted look seeping into his eyes. The same look I had seen after we had transversed the sea of bodies during the last Embassy attack on our way to KARA’s main terminal. The same look as when he had told me about the day his parents had died. The day he’d lost Patrick.
“He’s not here, is he?” Travis stated in a choked voice.
“Travis, what’s going on?” I asked, my heart beating a panicked rhythm in my chest.
He didn’t answer—just looked down.
My eyes darted quickly to his hand. To the thing that he was clutching tightly. A silver bracelet. Just like—
“Travis, what’s going on? Where’s Patrick?” I asked in a quivering voice.
Travis opened his mouth, and then shut it as he looked down at the floor. “Gone.”
“Gone?! What do you mean gone?” I asked, in confusion.
“They took him,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper as he finally looked back up into my eyes. “And I have no idea how to find him this time.”
And then it finally hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. Without the bracelet, without the chip, we had no way to track him—to find him. That this time he was really and truly—gone.
A Sporkfull of Nightmares
Thursday, December 27th
AKU
Was I just being paranoid, or were the room officers watching me more closely than they normally did?
I crossed the cafeteria uneasily after spotting Den sitting alone at the Astari table. A few of the facility personnel traced my movement with their eyes as I walked, and I tried to pretend like I didn’t notice them staring. But it didn’t stop the feeling like a million eyes were burning holes into my backside.
I slid my tray onto the table, and dropped down onto the long bench.
“Has Den seen Kira or Chan-rin?” I asked Den as casually as I could while I poked my spork at whatever it was they were having us Astari eat today.
We didn’t eat the same food as the facility personnel. Their food smelled unbelievably delicious, and looked just as good. Ours was a mostly flavorless mush that was also usually an unappealing color as well. And don’t get me started on the metallic-tasting nutrient water. Because I’m fairly certain the toilet water probably tasted better.
But I wasn’t going to let the terrible food get to me today. No, not today. Today was the day. The day I got the three of us—Kira, Chan-rin, and me—out of here. I had spent nearly a whole year studying the layout of the building, the routines of the personnel, the blind spots in the surveillance, and today—tonight—I had been planning to make my move. But all that planning would be for naught if I couldn’t even find Kira and Chan-rin to let them know. I had called out to them within my mind, but had been met only with silence.
Had the Kakodemoss figured it out? That the three of us could communicate with each other within our heads? Was that what the silence meant?
“Den heard Kira and Chan-rin were on an extended mission,” Den answered as he shoved a sporkfull of the greenish-gray mush into his mouth.
“Oh,” I replied, pausing with my spork halfway to my mouth.
Moss! I cursed loudly within my head. Had the Demoss found out my plan? Was that why they had sent Kira and Chan-rin on a mission without me? Splitting us up because they had uncovered that we were planning to escape?
“Like the one Aku just came back from,” Den continued as he shoved another sporkfull into his mouth as if the taste—or lack thereof—didn’t bother him.
“What?”
Den finally put down his spork, and looked at me uncertainly. “Aku has been gone on an extended mission for nearly four years.”
I looked at Den uneasily. A four year mission? That just wasn’t possible. For starters, as far as I knew, Chan was the only one who had been approved for long-term extended missions. And secondly—and most importantly—I distinctly remembered training with Kira the day before in the training room. And kissing her. Kissing her in that small corner near the locker rooms. In that place that the cameras didn’t quite reach.
Had they caught me and Kira and altered our memories? Or was Den the one with altered memories? It was so very hard to keep things straight sometimes. Not knowing if it was you or them who had been fed the lies.
“Yes, the one Aku just came back from,” I nodded along with what I was pretty certain was a lie. “Aku would say it was good to be back but, well, Aku really doesn’t know,” I mumbled sarcastically.
“They took them?” Den asked with an arched eyebrow, his voice pitched low.
“Apparently,” I shrugged. It might have been a lie, but some tiny part of me was afraid—always afraid—it was actually the truth.
I looked curiously at Den as he went back to eating. When had Den gotten so tall? We had always been relatively the same height, but now—now I was certain Den was pushing 6'2". And that wasn’t the only thing that was different. Den’s skin had always been black as the night, but now it seemed paler somehow. Maybe I really had been away for nearly four years. Or maybe it was just the result of one of the many experiments they put us through.
I kept staring at him, trying to force my brain to pick out what was putting me on edge. The piece of the puzzle that was out of place.
A piercing surge of pain flashed behind my eyes, and then it finally hit me. What it was that made Den look so different than before.
Den looked up, and then cocked his head to one side. “What?”
“Den has horns!” I blurted out in utter shock.
“Yes, Den got them about a year after Aku left on Aku’s mission,” Den stated in a way that said it was beyond old news. “When did Aku get his?” Den asked before taking a sip of his nutrient water.
I just blinked at him, open mouthed. “What?”
He pointed his plastic cup at me. “Aku’s horns.”
My hands flew quickly to the sides of my head thinking he must be teasing me, but sure enough, there were horns. They weren’t full grown—maybe only five or six inches long—but they were definitely there.
“Aku…Aku doesn’t know,” I answered with a trembling voice as I ran my gloved fingers over the ridged
surface of the horns. There were few things more frightening than waking up and finding your body wasn’t the same as when you had gone to sleep.
“Those horns of Aku’s aren’t the only new thing around here,” Den stated before he took another sip of his nutrient water.
I looked at him curiously, and he jerked his head toward the other end of the Astari table. I turned my head slowly, and nonchalantly raised my plastic cup to my lips. A pale girl about our age sat with Chan-aya and Var. A full set of blue horns sliding out of a curtain of blond and light blue streaked hair. Her hair was cut sharply at a forty-five degree angle, the back shaved—marking her as newly chipped—and the front nearly brushing her shoulders. The girl’s hair was so short—shorter than I had ever seen an Astari girl’s hair before. But it was the silhouette of her face in profile that really struck me, because it was nearly an exact copy of Kira’s.
“She is new?” I asked before my eyes drifted back to my cup, and I took a sip.
“They call her Chan-cen,” Den answered. “Chan-cen showed up the same time as Aku.”
A new Astari? This was interesting. The last new Astari was Chan-rin and that was nearly four years ago. Or eight years ago, if Den was to be believed.
My eyes drifted back to the new girl, Chan-cen. The familiarity of her face was unsettling.
“Chan-aya and Var seem to like Chan-cen,” I said conversationally as I watched the two of them talking cheerily to Chan-cen. Var seemed to perpetually have a mischievous grin on his face, so it was a little hard to tell if he was actually fond of anyone or if he was just planning his newest prank.
“Chan-aya and Var like anything that is new,” Den said dismissively.
Chan-cen said something and Chan-aya and Var burst into laughter. At the loud noise the room officers edged closer to the group. I couldn’t blame them though. Really, it was a toss up between me and Var as to who the most dangerous thing in this place was. But really, the main difference was that Var would have a wicked grin on his face as he murdered you in your sleep.
The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3) Page 30
