Shards of Hope (9781101605219)

by Singh, Nalini

  Judd tried to imagine being away from Brenna for so long, only seeing her after long stretches, couldn’t. It made him understand why the water-based changelings had stayed separate and alone for so long—it must be frustrating to not be understood, to have outsiders constantly finding fault with a life most simply could not comprehend.

  “We want a chance to talk to both Jim and Olivia,” Miane said. “They will not be able to lie to me.”

  Hawke glanced at Judd.

  He stepped forward. “The squad wants to keep them under surveillance, as they may lead the Arrows to a bigger player—and, I’m guessing, to the people behind these vanishings.”

  Miane Levèque’s cold black eyes held his. “We’ll be patient. But they are my people.”

  Judd wasn’t about to be intimidated, but he could understand her response. “The squad has little interest in them beyond the contacts either might make.” His phone vibrated at that instant, in the pattern he’d assigned Aden. “Excuse me. I have to take this.”

  Aware of the others continuing to talk as he put the phone to his ear, he listened to what Aden had to say, felt his blood ice. “I’ll pass on the news. BlackSea will want to come to Venice.”

  “Vasic is happy to complete a ’port if requested.”

  Hanging up without further words, Judd returned to the meeting. When he caught Hawke’s eye, the alpha leaned closer. Dropping his voice to the subvocal level that he couldn’t actually hear himself, Judd passed on the news. Hawke’s features grew hard. “Miane,” he said, interrupting the other alpha midsentence, “your man is dead.”

  The BlackSea alpha went eerily motionless. “The Arrows?”

  “No,” Judd responded. “Jim jumped off his balcony onto the street. The Arrows on watch went immediately to his assistance, but his neck was broken.” Since the balcony wasn’t that high off the street, the working conclusion was that the other man had either landed wrong or been dead when he was thrown over the edge. At this point, however—“There’s no evidence of outside involvement, though the squad will be performing an autopsy to check for signs of psychic coercion.”

  “Tell your friends to treat him with respect.”

  “Aden has offered a teleport should you request it.”

  “No. We’ll make our own way there.” Returning her attention to Lucas and Hawke, she said, “I must leave. We’ll talk further after I discover why a bright young man is dead and another member of my pack is suspected of a terrorist act while her daughter remains among the missing.”

  The three sea changelings disappeared into the water seconds later, no bubbles coming up to betray their presence as they swam their way out.

  “I think,” Judd said slowly, “you should seed sensors even deeper out.”

  Lucas crouched at the edge of the plascrete, looking at the water that kept its secrets. “Yes. These allies are a little too quiet to trust just yet.”

  • • •

  ZAIRA looked around Jim Savua’s small apartment. It was anonymous, the furniture the kind of hard-wearing and inexpensive pieces a landlord might use to furnish a place. Zaira was no expert, but she’d learned how to judge such things as part of her Arrow training. A person’s surroundings could tell you a great deal about that individual.

  What this apartment told her was that the man hadn’t lived here long. When he had, it had been a place to sleep, nothing else. His clothes still lay in his suitcase and his cooler held no food, though there were a couple of take-out containers in the trash. Also in the trash were multiple disposable injectors.

  Like long-use injectors, these could be placed against the skin or pulse point, depending on the drug involved, and the drug punched painlessly into the bloodstream. The only difference was that they were much cheaper and sold by the box. While disposable injectors did have legitimate medical uses, they were also popular with recreational drug users.

  “Did his body show signs of long-term drug abuse?” she asked Blake Stratton, who’d been on watch with his partner at the time of the incident. She hadn’t been pleased to discover his presence. Nerida had made a last-minute substitution when the squadmate Zaira had cleared for the op broke a femur quite badly. The other woman should’ve contacted her, but hadn’t—a mistake Zaira would make sure Nerida knew not to make again.

  She didn’t trust Blake, did not want him in her city.

  When he came to stand beside her, the tiny hairs on her neck and arms rose in primal warning. “It was difficult to tell with the damage caused by the cobblestones, as well as the blood,” he said. “But I did notice he had scars from what appeared to be healed scratch marks, and his skin was yellowish, in the way that occurs with users of Halcyon.”

  Halcyon was the street name for a highly addictive substance that worked on all three races, though on Psy, it had a tendency to lead very quickly to psychosis. It did also cause some users to scratch their skin bloody. Breaking away to make a call to the pathologist, she asked him to do a complete drug profile.

  “Thank you,” she said to Blake afterward. “Your shift is complete. Return to Central Command and check in.”

  The other Arrow left without comment, but she didn’t turn her back until he was gone. About to return to her survey of the apartment, she glimpsed Yuri coming toward her. He was one of the people she’d chosen, a forty-seven-year-old Arrow who’d been with her in Venice since the start. Pragmatic and reliable, he wasn’t flashy in his abilities or even in the way he carried himself, but she knew if she asked Yuri to do something, it would get done and get done well.

  Zaira, we may have a problem.

  Chapter 47

  SINCE, OTHER THAN Yuri, the room held only her and two trusted forensic people, the fact that he’d used telepathy was a sign of something serious. What is it?

  I was on watch with Blake when this happened. I was on the street side, Blake on the other side so we could cover all exits.

  Zaira didn’t need him to spell it out. Do you think he pushed the dead male?

  I don’t know. Yuri put his hands behind his back. I know we considered that the victim might’ve been thrown dead over the balcony, but from my perspective, it appeared as if he jumped. However, he could’ve been trying to get away from a threat inside the room.

  Alert to the fact that her strong dislike of Blake could color her viewpoint, she said, See if you can find any surveillance images from street cameras.

  I’ll do it now. A pause. I apologize. I should’ve kept him in my sights.

  Zaira’s eyes met Yuri’s and she saw in them the same deep unease she felt when it came to Blake. If it was him, we’ll make sure he doesn’t have a chance to do it again.

  A nod of agreement.

  As the older Arrow walked away, Zaira considered whether to pass on Yuri’s suspicions to Aden and decided he had to know. If the squad had a traitor in their midst, he had to be rooted out.

  She called in a quick report once she was out on the street alone. “We need to watch him.”

  “I’ll make sure of it. He’s down to run combat sessions over the next three days, so he’ll be under the eye of a number of senior people.”

  Zaira wanted to smash Blake’s mind open, uncover the truth, but she knew it wouldn’t be that easy. “He’s too well trained to break under interrogation, but he is arrogant enough to lead us to his handlers if he’s somehow part of a larger conspiracy.” They both knew that even if he had caused Jim to die, Blake might simply have been acting on his own distasteful urges.

  “Yes. What about the woman?”

  “Safe and alive, though she is acting erratically.” Zaira was aware that if they showed their hand, they’d lose all hope of tracking the woman back to a handler, but they also wouldn’t have anything if she was dead. “I say we bring her in.”

  “Do it,” Aden said. “Judd’s also just passed on the information that Olivia Coletti h
as a child aged two. Look for any signs of her.”

  That data immediately affirmed Zaira’s decision to act. She did not want a vulnerable child in the hands of a Halcyon user. Giving the order to the team watching Olivia, she walked back to the compound through the early morning streets. It was only four thirty; even the bakers didn’t appear to be up yet.

  She wasn’t surprised to see Aden heading out of the laboratory hidden in one wing of the compound. “Pathologist find anything definitive?”

  “No signs of a struggle, no mind-control lesions on the brain. Tox screen is pending but he’s certain it’ll confirm Halcyon—the body shows all the outward signs of long-term use.” He walked into the courtyard with her to wait for the second target to be brought in. “If Blake is working against us, he’s renounced his status as an Arrow.”

  Zaira knew how much loyalty meant to Aden, how seriously he took it, so she could guess his reaction to any betrayal. “Blake fit Ming’s regime. Yours asks too much of a man who’s only ever cared for his own skin.”

  Aden glanced at her. “Did he hurt you?” Ice-cold words.

  She shook her head. “The look in his eyes reminds me of the look in my parents’ eyes.” Psychopathic and self-involved, not an ounce of empathy. “I want him to be a traitor so I can kill him.”

  “That’s why we have to have proof.”

  Zaira nodded reluctantly, knowing Blake wasn’t the only Arrow with a problematic past and personality. To go after him without proof would splinter the trust that held the squad together. “This conspiracy,” she said, leaning against the wall, vines growing up the weathered plascrete on either side. “Why target one of the most lethal groups in the world? What is the payoff in having the squad out for vengeance?”

  “I don’t have an answer yet.” Aden leaned beside her, his own arms folded. “We might get some indication when the BlackSea alpha arrives.”

  As she listened to what he knew so far, she was hyperconscious of the fact that his arm was touching her shoulder, that his uniform pants and plain black tee showcased the muscular strength of his body, that he smelled good enough to lick.

  Pushing off the wall without warning, she walked around the corner and into a small alcove hidden from the world by a heavy mass of overhanging vines as well as its position tucked in between two buildings.

  “Zaira.” Aden followed her. “What—”

  Slamming him against the wall, she pressed her lips to the strong, powerful beat of the pulse in his neck. Since she was already falling into the abyss, her control shredded, why deny herself the pleasure that was the flip side of the nightmare memories she could no longer stifle?

  He shuddered, one hand sliding up to curve over the back of her neck. And then their mouths were meeting and it was wild and undisciplined, wet and hot, and she stopped thinking, the rage in her drugged into a haze of want focused on this beautiful man whose hunger for her seemed as feral as hers for him.

  Sir, we’re almost at the compound.

  She dug her nails into Aden’s shoulders, the raw need inside her threatening to turn her blind and deaf to all other concerns. “The woman is about to arrive,” she rasped out, giving a telepathic order at the same time. Take her to room 7A.

  Twisting her so that she ended up with her back against the wall as the last words left her mouth, Aden kissed her again, his hard body pressed to her own and his hair tumbled from her fingers. One hand came up to cradle her jaw as he ran his tongue over her lips and took and took until she couldn’t breathe, and that was absolutely fine because he was doing things to her that made pleasure singe her nerve endings.

  Sir, the target is in place in room 7A.

  The rage that wasn’t rage with Aden went to shove aside that interruption, but her Arrow training kicked in at the last instant. I’ll be there soon, she replied and forced herself to break the kiss. Aden.

  Chest rising and falling in harsh breaths and pupils dilated, Aden watched her mouth as if he’d devour her all over again.

  Zaira was fine with being devoured. Fine. “I’m meant to be the out-of-control one,” she whispered.

  He shot her a look that made her burn, made her realize just how much he kept contained beneath his calm, stable skin. It felt as if he’d shown her a secret, shown her a small madness within himself. She couldn’t stop herself. She pressed close, claimed another kiss, was claimed, that strong hand on her jaw and his body crushing her to the wall.

  And Zaira realized that some prisons could equal pleasure, not pain.

  • • •

  WHEN they entered room 7A, it was to discover Olivia Coletti was neither blindfolded nor gagged, but she wasn’t struggling, her dark blonde hair hanging limp on either side of her badly scarred face as she sat motionless in a chair. Her dazed brown eyes and the yellowish tinge to her otherwise pale skin tone—pale to the point of translucence—explained her lax state.

  “Halcyon,” Zaira said, knowing this woman would give them nothing. She was too zoned out. First they’d have to dry her out. Though chances of intel were low even after she was sober—Halcyon also had one major side effect: it affected long-term memory.

  She did make an attempt, got nothing except for one single word.

  “Persephone,” Olivia said, her eyes staring out into nothing. “Persephone.”

  The tone of Olivia’s voice disturbed Zaira. The child may be a hostage, she said to Aden. Even if not, her situation can’t be good. If the little girl was even alive.

  Aden nodded. We’ll get Olivia into detox, but I’ll grant access to the BlackSea alpha when she arrives—depending on Olivia’s place in changeling hierarchy, she may feel compelled to answer her alpha’s questions.

  Look at the scars on her face. To Zaira, they looked like healed cuts. If those aren’t from a previous injury, then it might not only be Halcyon that’s keeping her silent.

  Aden’s response told Zaira he was following her train of thought. We’ll make sure the medics assess her for further signs of torture.

  Giving the order for Olivia to be taken to an Arrow medical facility, Zaira spoke to Mica, who’d led the team that had brought the woman in, and asked if they’d discovered anything in her apartment. The answer was expected: “Nothing but a four-day cache of disposable drug injectors preloaded with what must be Halcyon—though I’m having it tested to confirm—and some clothing.”

  Zaira released her lieutenant to his duties and walked back outside with Aden. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier”—because she’d decided to pounce on him instead—“but it looks like both Jim and Olivia simply took a water taxi into Venice a week ago. We’re working on backtracking further, but my instincts say we’ll find no paper trail that leads back to anything substantial.” This entire conspiracy was too well organized.

  “Update me if there are any developments.” Ordinary enough words, but his eyes took her back to their stolen kisses, her body humming at the proximity to his. “I have to return to the compound, but I’ll be back soon . . . and we can finish our earlier conversation.”

  Her heart slammed against her rib cage.

  Chapter 48

  BEATRICE STARED AT the target she’d taken as part of her first live mission, nausea churning in her gut and threatening to erupt from her throat. The girl was crying again, begging to be released. Beatrice had given her water and some food, so she wasn’t emaciated, but her face was thinner, her eyes red.

  “I don’t think she knows anything,” she dared whisper to Blake. “I’ve used every viable interrogation technique.”

  Blake backhanded her. Hard.

  She fell to the floor, stayed there when he came to straddle her body and wrench back her head with a grip in her hair. Blood trickled from her nose, her entire face a throbbing pulse. “You used only the nonviolent methods,” he said, his voice toneless and cold. “You’ve failed the test.”

&nbs
p; Her eyes burned. “No, please.” If she lost him, she’d have nothing and no one.

  “Stop sniveling and get up. I’m going to show you how a real interrogation is done.”

  Rising to her feet, she wiped away the blood and tears and followed him to stand beside the girl, who looked at her with scared eyes. “Please help me,” she begged. “Please.”

  Blake grabbed the girl’s jaw in a punishing hold. “There is no help here.” Taking a hunting knife, he cut a deep line over her left breast while muffling her screams with his palm.

  Blood blackened her thin red top, but he’d cut with care to cause pain without doing a debilitating injury. Beatrice’s stomach lurched nonetheless and she would’ve stumbled back if Blake hadn’t raised his head and said, “This is how you get answers.” Removing his hand from over the woman’s mouth when her scream died to snuffles, he held the knife, point down, over her abdomen. “Your father is a scientist, is he not?”

  The woman nodded frantically. “Yes, yes! He is!”

  “And he’s creating a serum to neutralize Psy abilities.”

  “Yes!”

  “Good, we’re finally getting somewhere.” Turning, he held the blade handle out toward Beatrice. “Get the rest of the information.”

  Chapter 49

  IT WAS AFTERNOON in Venice by the time Zaira was able to go off shift, and though she’d been up for well over twenty-four hours, she went to bed with a deep sense of frustration at how little she’d unearthed about the conspiracy targeting the Arrows.

  The pathologist had just confirmed that Jim’s brain, while showing signs of Halcyon damage, wasn’t the Swiss cheese that scans showed his female partner’s to be. Even after a full detox, Olivia might never salvage large blocks of memory. Jim, on the other hand, might well have made a total recovery.

  According to the pathologist, the male may have been “one of the lucky few who have a kind of natural protection against long-term Halcyon damage.”