“I got out of their restraints, waited until they came to take me for more tests, and then I took them all down. I set fires and used some of the chemicals from their labs to explode their computers.” Walter smiled in remembered satisfaction. “I left them with nothing. But I didn’t get the boss.”
“Who was it?” Michael asked, trepidation knotting his shoulders.
“They called him Dalhard. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” Walter clenched his fist.
The same man hunting this family across generations. The revelation sickened Michael.
“They know now,” Walter said softly, his shoulders hunching in tension. “They know that my children have my gifts, though they may not realize I survived. At first, they wanted me alive. It’s probably the only reason I could do as much as I did. When they figured it out, someone gave the kill order. I took four bullets. One in my left shoulder, one in my leg, a graze on my right arm, and the one that buried itself in my spine.”
“How…?” Michael wanted to know how Walter could have survived, but stopped before asking, uncertain if he were being rude.
“Luck and generation after generation of pigheaded stubbornness to draw on. Too damn ornery to let them win. I tore myself up, barely made it to a phone and called Virginia. She called in every divine favor she had to keep me alive.”
Michael couldn’t imagine the kind of adamantine willpower it would have taken to crawl away with a shattered spine. But he could feel the core of determination in Walter, the same core he felt in Walter’s daughter. That must be the night from the flash, the one Gwen told him about. It was all connected. “Gwen said her mother had been pregnant, and whatever she did ended up driving Gwen crazy.”
“Hard to tell. Gwen was always going to be powerful. Those with great power often lose touch with reality. Frankly, I always thought Superman should be crazier.”
Michael smiled at the reference. The two men fell quiet, listening to Virginia issue orders over the telephone through the open window.
“I hope we can do this,” Walter said quietly. “I hope it’s not already too late.”
It couldn’t be too late already. Michael frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Dalhard. I never saw him, but he’s still hunting us, and those with him haven’t given up. We’ve survived this long by running to new places. We fled Babylon when it fell, heading north to the barbarians on the steppes or across the sea to northern Africa. We were on some of the first ships across the ocean. Lots of people drowned, but a few made it, driven by desperation. But there aren’t many places left to hide. Where can we go to escape a multinational corporation with webs across every continent? Everything is documented, numbered and filed. We need a new strategy.”
Michael’s contentment with the gentle evening soured. They had to stop Dalhard this time.
Walter braced himself as if to deliver something unpleasant. “Without Dani’s cooperation, we don’t have a chance.”
“You’re asking her to destroy herself to save you.” Steel crept into Michael’s voice despite his training. His verbal line made it clear: go no further.
“We’re asking her to become more than she is. To help her people. Dani’s always been stubborn. And her mother, bless her soul, has always been more comfortable giving orders than collaborating.”
“You think she’s putting everyone in jeopardy to rebel against her mother?” Michael struggled to keep his irritation in check. If this was the best fatherly insight Walter could offer, he’d pass.
“No. She ran away to rebel against her mother. Insisted on having a normal life. Or as much as she could, under the circumstances. Virginia wanted to drag her back, but I insisted we let her go. Maybe it was a mistake, but I still think it was the right thing to do. Dani always needed to do things on her own schedule, and I believed she would get bored quickly with having to hide herself and pretending to be less than she was. But somehow, she lost her connection to the community. It’s made her hard and cynical. Between you and me, I thought she was gone to us permanently. Until last night.”
“Last night?” Michael repeated, suspicious. Was he watching us?
“Last night she begged for you to return, she protected you against her own family. She loves Gwen and her brothers and she’s always helped them, but she keeps herself at a distance. With you, she’s found something she’ll fight for without thinking about it, without fearing the consequences. She didn’t have that before. But I need to make sure you understand.”
“Understand what?” He knew he wasn’t going to like where this conversation was going.
Walter turned to face Michael, and he suddenly felt as if he’d come under the gaze of an enormous predator: something that could kill him without breaking its stride. “If you break her heart, it’ll destroy her and whatever hopes we have. So I’m asking you now: what are you doing here? Are you enjoying playing in a new world, being a superhero? Or are you willing to sacrifice to join her here?”
It was official. He didn’t like it. Michael wished he could escape. “It’s a little early to be—”
“It’s exactly the right time. I need to know. We don’t play by society’s rules. We never have. Are you willing to let go of what you’ve been taught to want?”
Michael’s head whirled. His first instinct was to appease and soothe, following his training. But instead he issued a challenge. “That is between Dani and me. Not you.”
“Are you sure about that?”
The sense of menace grew until Michael could practically smell rotting flesh in the air as if the breeze had become the breath of a gigantic predator. Walter seemed larger, as if he would leap out of the chair at any moment to attack.
“I won’t be part of manipulating her.” Michael stood and walked away from the house, ending the interrogation. He expected to hear the chair coming after him but heard only silence. Had it been a test? Had he passed or failed?
His sympathy for Dani increased. His parents had been willing to sacrifice anything to protect their secrets, even their son. Hers were dedicated to this ancient cult. Somehow they’d both broken free.
His parents had never tried to contact him after he’d left for school. It was as if they hadn’t wanted to remember they ever had a son. Dani’s family was still trying to snare her, sacrificing their daughter on the altar of an ancient religion. There must be another choice.
And if there isn’t? His doubts pricked at his resolve. There are thousands of lalassu worldwide, all of them in jeopardy. Families with children. Isn’t that worth some sacrifice?
Every instinct rebelled at the thought. There had to be another way. He just needed to figure it out, fast.
Chapter Thirty
“C’mon, Bernie,” Chuck whispered. “You gotta stay strong.”
“I miss my mommy,” Bernie whimpered. Her fingers hurt from holding on to her bear and doll.
“I know. I made a mistake about her not wanting you. She loves you a whole lot.” Chuck twisted his hat in his hands.
“She gave me away.” It hurt too much to say the words without choking, but Chuck understood. He always understood what she said even if she didn’t say it out loud.
“She didn’t. She just made a mistake. You gotta be strong.”
“I’m tired. I don’t like it here.” Bernie cradled the teddy bear in her hands. “Michael said he’d come get me.”
“He’s coming. Talked to him myself. Told him to hustle.”
“Why is it taking so long?” she whimpered. He’d promised to come get her.
“I…” Chuck’s confidence abruptly vanished, his face twisting into little boy confusion. “I don’t know, Bernie-baby. Wish I did. Let me go talk to Gwen. I’ll find out. Stay here.”
Where else would I go? Bernie closed her eyes. It was easier now to push Chuck and the others aside, ignore what they were saying. She took refuge in her own mind instead of listening to the dead around her. Michael and her mother and all the doctors told her Chuck was part
of her imagination, under her control. But he was real, like the others were real.
She pictured a beautiful cottage, high on a cliff above the sea. No one else there. Only her and Molly and Teddy. She could lie quietly on her bed and watch the blue and white waves crash against the rocks.
Michael will come. He’s coming to save me. She repeated the words over and over to herself, holding to them as tightly as she could, trying not to be a little girl abandoned to people who poked at her like an insect. Michael will come.
Karan stared at a video feed of the little girl curled on the bed, clutching her toys. Dalhard had overstepped himself in this case. He had gone with the recruitment personnel and used his gift to persuade the mother to give up her child. His impatience for the acquisition threatened everything. The man knew his influence was not permanent in all cases. Strong emotional ties could overwhelm the alien programming. Dalhard should have anticipated the mother would be a problem again. Despite hasty additions to her records, someone in the Perdition police force had taken her claims of kidnapping and coercion seriously. If his boss had only taken the time to set things up properly, they could have whisked the girl away without anyone being the wiser.
Dalhard was completely ignoring the results from the genetic enhancement project. For years, Karan had worked in Dalhard’s shadow, increasing the man’s financial power and, incidentally, his own. He had always known that a time would come when their interests would no longer converge. Looking at the chaotic mess his boss had caused, he began to wonder if this was that time.
New precautions were in place to deal with the potential problems but he would not breathe easily until they were all back in Europe. If Dalhard insisted on having the sister, he would get her and have the jet on standby. When she walked into the meeting tomorrow night, she would not walk away again.
After his confrontation with Dani’s father, Michael sought the quiet of the trees while Gwen slept. After years of being in a darkened room, her sleep cycles no longer bore any resemblance to a typical day. He needed time to put things together in his own mind. If Walter was right, then the family couldn’t just disappear and set up somewhere else. Dalhard would track them down again. He had to be stopped, which meant he would have to accept being part of an illegal break-in and kidnapping. People would get hurt—not faceless guards from a movie but real people who had accepted a job to pay their bills and had nothing to do with what their bosses decided. It horrified him.
But he couldn’t make himself believe that what they were doing was wrong. Perhaps not right, but it wasn’t wrong. The law didn’t offer a way to restore Bernie to her mother quickly enough to stop Dalhard from disappearing across a border. Not with forged allegations of abuse and neglect in her file. Leaving Bernie with her tormentors while the slow wheels of justice ground to a conclusion simply wasn’t an option.
And what about Dani? He scrubbed his hand through his hair. He loved her and wanted to be with her, a partner to her. But he didn’t want to give up his entire life or his beliefs. Walter’s threat gnawed at his confidence that they could find a new path.
The buzz of his phone offered welcome relief from brooding. He didn’t recognize the number, but even a telemarketer would be a much-needed break.
“Do you ever answer your godsdamn phone?” The gravelly voice assaulted him as soon as he tapped the screen to answer.
“Who is this?” Michael demanded, afraid Dalhard had tracked him down. “Vapor.”
“Is Dani okay?” The words popped out, driven by his rapidly pulsing heartbeat and sudden dry mouth.
“Depends on the definition. She ain’t hurt. Yet.”
Vapor’s words did not fill Michael with confidence. She’d left so abruptly this morning. “What happened?”
“You trust me?”
Michael closed his eyes as if it would erase the loaded question. Did he trust Vapor? A criminal hacker, but a criminal hacker helping them to find Bernie. “I trust you,” he said.
“She’s got a way in to Dalhard’s building tomorrow night. No witnesses. It’s a trap.”
There was oxygen in the air, but somehow none of it was getting into Michael’s lungs.
“She’s gonna try to deal with it on her own. Don’t let her,” Vapor said.
“How?” Michael managed to shape the syllable with great effort, his mind still whirling around one word: trap. He wasn’t surprised Dani would try to take on Dalhard by herself. She wanted to protect those she cared about at any cost, even her own life.
“Figure it out, genius.” The connection clicked.
Dani sat in her car on the lawn outside her parent’s home, unable to force herself to take the final steps. This was the moment she’d been dreading for decades. She would tell them that she’d decided to do the ritual.
The cop’s words kept echoing in her head: If he gets hurt going toe-to-toe with these people, he’s going to get himself dead. And Vapor’s words: You gotta take someone’s help. Michael was determined to play hero, but he didn’t have the kind of strength she and her brothers took for granted. He couldn’t snap a fence pole in half with his bare hands or heal a broken bone in less than a week. If he gets hurt going toe-to-toe with these people, he’s going to get himself dead.
He might think he could survive the Huntress, that he didn’t have any secrets, but she didn’t trust the coiling creature, even if it had been strangely quiet since she stood up to it in the club. Less than twelve hours ago, it was demanding a Hunt, stirring up emotions. But she hadn’t Hunted and it still slumbered. Dani frowned, trying to remember the details. She’d mentally wrestled with it and then been thrown into a panic attack full of flashbacks. Could she have Hunted herself? Cracking plastic reminded her to loosen her grip on the steering wheel. Third one ruined this year.
“Dani?” Michael’s voice interrupted her thoughts. The scent of apples and vanilla caressed her as he came out of the trees, smiling as he saw her. She forced the cracks of her armor back together, praying it would hold a little longer. The mental image of his eyes glazing over with numb fear as the Huntress devoured him… her chest physically ached at the thought. He might recover physically, but his unique blend of earnestness and optimism would be gone. She would kill him as surely as any bullet.
If only she didn’t want him so badly. Michael was different from any man she’d ever even considered dating, let alone those she Hunted. Despite the nice-guy exterior, he was filled with passion and interest. He believed strongly enough to make her cynical heart ache with emptiness. She didn’t want to show him the world as it was; she wanted to make the world live up to what he believed it should be.
And he was gorgeous. Her body flared in renewed appreciation, flooding heat and moisture to her groin and plumping her breasts and lips in anticipation. If he’d been slightly less interesting, she could still have happily spent hours worshipping his body with hands and tongue. But he had to have a brain and personality to go with his marble-statue-worthy good looks. It was more temptation than any woman should ever have to face.
“I heard you pull up. Where did you run off to?” he asked, his smile fading.
“I had a meeting with your buddy, Joe, who told me I should leave you alone if I cared about you. And then I picked up the blueprints from Vapor.” Dani gestured at the papers on the passenger seat.
“I had a talk with your dad. Dalhard is the one who hurt him,” Michael’s earnest eyes stared into hers, searching.
“It can’t be. He’s too young,” Dani blurted.
“What do you mean?” Michael’s brows knotted.
“He showed up at the police station when Joe took me in. We talked. He’s my age, maybe a little older. Dad was hurt twenty years ago.” Dani smelled Michael’s hurt as she revealed her lie of omission, but her mind was reeling with the implication.
“You met with Dalhard. Is that what Vapor meant when he called? Was that the trap?” Michael demanded.
“For an illegal hacker who works for a secret soci
ety, Vapor has a damn big mouth.” Dani exhaled sharply, tilting her head back to stare at the brilliant noon sky.
“Dani, you can’t leave me out of this. We’re partners.” Michael’s quiet declaration ripped at her armor, shredding it to pieces.
“I’m doing this for you. Joe was right. You could get hurt. They shot my brother. They’ll shoot you too.” Dani suddenly couldn’t bear to be cooped up, even in the minimal walls of the car. She jumped out of it, walking toward the forest, eager to lose herself in the shadows.
“Dani, I’m not letting you walk away.” Michael chased after her, leaves and twigs cracking as he followed.
She stopped, cursing under her breath. He wouldn’t let her be. She could feel him like an extension of herself only a few steps behind.
“Talk to me,” he whispered, and she couldn’t help looking back. He leaned against a tree, his long hair pushed back from his face. He fit with the forest, like an ancient druid. And she knew she couldn’t run from him or her decision any longer.
“I’m going to do the ritual,” she said quietly.
“No!” he shouted, his face pale and his fists tight.
“I have to. We both know it. It’s the only way to get Bernie and my brothers back safely.” Why can’t he just understand and leave it alone? His protests hurt too much to bear.
“There’s another way. We’ll find it.”
Deliberately, she summoned up the Huntress, setting her eyes aflame. Michael stepped forward, closing the gap between them, but she held up her hand. “I’m a monster, Michael. The hero is supposed to kill the monster to save the good guys, not try and save me and risk getting them killed.”
“Bullshit!” Michael spat out the word. It sounded so strange coming from him. “I see the darkness in people every day. I know all about monsters. You’re not one of them. I’m not afraid of your bogeyman in the dark, and I refuse to accept that it gets to win.” His face softened, and he smoothed her hair away from her face, tilting her chin up gently. “I want you, Dani. All of you, including your crazy family and the Huntress. There’s no piece of you I would leave behind. So you’re not leaving me behind either. And that’s final.”
Revelations: Book One of the Lalassu Page 20
