Shattered (Alchemy Series Book #3)

by Augustine, Donna

  I knew there was a problem as soon as I stepped into the hallway and saw Dodd and Buzz lingering outside the conference room door. Dodd looked like a can of gasoline with a lit fuse that was about to set him off. The moment his eyes met mine, and I saw the raw pain there, and I knew it was something to do with Sabrina.

  "What's wrong?" I asked even though I was scared to find out. I wanted to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over my face and pretend I was back in my trailer a year ago. But I couldn't do that. This was life, and when people looked upset, you asked what was wrong. The fact that lately, everyone was upset about something didn't seem to change the protocol. If things kept going the way they were, you had to wonder if at some point people would stop asking. Maybe, in a year or so, you'd only ask what was good when somebody looked happy.

  "Oslo is gone and so is Sabrina and every other person on that list," Buzz explained. Dodd was too flustered to speak.

  "Gone how?" It was a stupid question but sometimes when you are shocked, that's all you've got until the logical part of your brain starts back up.

  "Gone! What do you mean how? We don't know," Dodd snapped and I let it go. I knew all about being snappy when you were stressed out. It was one of my specialties.

  "We've got to get a group together and go after them." I looked at my funny phone's clock. "They can't have been gone that long. It's only eight a.m. they haven't had that much daylight yet."

  "Cormac is going over the surveillance camera footage. If we can get a direction, it'll be easier," Dodd replied, finally finding his voice.

  "I agree," Cormac said startling me as he approached from behind.

  "I'll go," I said. "And I'll ask Burrom." An awkward silence fell over the four of us as it was painfully obvious after last night, why I'd be the first to volunteer and want Burrom as well. We were the only confirmed people the rippers hadn't wanted to eat.

  "Dodd, you stay behind and keep things under control here," Cormac said.

  "No, not on this, Cormac. You can't ask me to stay behind this time. This means more to me than you."

  "I don't think either of you should go," I said. They looked at me and continued on when neither of them liked what I said.

  "Fine, but I want the group gathered and out within the hour. Everyone back before nightfall, whether you find them or not," Cormac said.

  "Done," Dodd said. "I'm going to go gather supplies and volunteers. Meet me in the lobby in forty-five?" he asked, including me again now that my distasteful suggestion of him staying behind was off the table.

  "Got it," I replied. I was going to head out and try to get Burrom on board when Cormac's hand on my arm stopped me. "I've got to go." The longer I have to negotiate with Burrom the better. He might want my first born, this time.

  "Back by nightfall."

  "I'll try."

  "No, you'll do it."

  "I'm not making any promises."

  He pulled me into a windowless storage closet, stacked with shelves of paper and office supplies, across from the conference room.

  He stood silent for a moment and that thing I couldn't put my finger on tugged at my brain. He seemed tenser than normal, even with the circumstances. "What's going on with you?"

  He didn't answer but closed the distance between us, pressing me back against the shelves. His hands slid up my arms and over my shoulders until they cupped my head, tilting it back. He just stared down at me, not speaking.

  "What?" I asked again, not understanding the volatility I felt in him.

  "Nothing," he said.

  His one hand moved from my hair, trailing along my jaw and down my neck. Then something snapped in his eyes and his mouth was on mine. His hands, so gentle before, roughly pulled me to him even more firmly.

  His jaw moved along my neck and I felt the scruff of his face before he pulled back, then he was gone without another word.

  Chapter Ten

  I found Burrom on the seventh floor, surrounded by his brethren as they looked over a deck of cards spread out on the table.

  "I need a minute," I said when Burrom looked up.

  "Almost done."

  The clock was ticking but I needed him happy, or in Burrom's case, not grumpy, so I tried to keep my patience. The man across from him laid out another card as I tried to figure out what kind of game they were playing. It was nothing I recognized from the casino and I clenched my teeth together trying to hold back my desire to scream that they needed to get a move on. I didn't have time for card games.

  Burrom looked down at the last card turned over which was the Joker, then looked back to me. "I'm ready."

  "You're ready?"

  "Yes," he said, walking out of the room as I followed. "You wanted me to come, correct?"

  "Did the uproar around the casino and me tracking you down in your suite give me away?"

  He simply shrugged.

  "Did you want to bring anything with you?"

  "I need nothing." He looked to where I had a gun slung in a holster over my shoulder. "That's useless."

  "Against rippers, yes. Against other things, maybe not."

  "You wouldn't need it if you could simply channel your magic."

  "Which I can't do yet."

  "Because you are too in your head. You need to be of the universe to rule its powers."

  "Okay, Yoda, but since I can't, let's try to think more practically." I was alongside him so he couldn't see me roll my eyes. I was getting so sick of everyone telling me what to do, how to do it and everything in between. "Why did you decide to come?"

  "The cards told me it was the right choice. When I can't hear what the universe is saying, the cards tell me."

  "Did the cards mention whether or not it was going to have a good outcome?"

  "Yes, but only for me."

  We entered the lobby where humans were clumped into groups of threes and fours. None of them said anything but their eyes spoke volumes as they surreptitiously glanced at me.

  "Stop being silly," Burrom said to me.

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You didn't think they were going to throw you a party after you trashed the world, did you?"

  "No, obviously not."

  "You made a choice and you knew what might come of it. Don't be stupid about it now. You did what you thought was right. You had no way of knowing what closing the wormhole would do and if you hadn't, we wouldn’t even be here. They just need to hate someone. Look, they hate me too. I don't go getting all mushy about it."

  They probably did hate him. I didn't know if I liked him either. Difference was, I felt responsible, where he didn't seem to care one iota, just like Cormac. It made me wonder if I lived forever, if I'd be half dead inside too.

  Dodd was waiting by the door with Dark and the resident wolf, Abby. Two more Keepers were also there, Donald and Alisa. Alisa didn't bother me but I hated Donald. Ever since the ride to NY, when he was laughing as the world was crumbling, he had rubbed me the wrong way.

  Dodd's eyes shot over to Burrom for a second before coming back to me. "You ready?"

  "We're here, aren't we?" Burrom answered the question for me.

  "The footage showed Oslo, Sabrina and the others leaving and heading northeast on foot." Dodd was checking the ammo he had packed while he talked. He'd need a lot if he planned on shooting the many guns strapped over his camo colored clothing.

  "Let's get going then," I said, grabbing the backpack Dodd handed me.

  He offered one to Burrom as well. Burrom took his, rifled through it and extracted a water canteen. He then shoved said canteen into my backpack. "Here," he said, as he shoved the backpack at a human passing by too close to avoid him.

  "Happy Holidays," Burrom told him.

  The human took it because I think he was too alarmed to not take it.

  "Seriously, dude?" Dark asked of Burrom. "You could have at least said happy birthday. Then you would've had a shot of being correct. It's not even winter."

  "I'm not a pack mule," Bur
rom replied, lifting his chin.

  Dodd shook his head and the rest of us shrugged it off as we headed out the door.

  I knew we could have taken a car for this, even though there wasn't a lot of gasoline available to waste. Gas was being reserved for supply scouting. At our current calculations, if the scouts didn't find more, we would be in total blackness sooner than I wanted to think about. Even still, the bigger issue was it would be easier to track them on foot. Tracking them by car would be nearly impossible.

  As soon as we got a good fifty feet from the casino, Dark let Abby off her lead. The leash was just for show inside the casino, so the humans didn't run screaming every time they saw her, and let her pick up the trail. From what I knew, Abby's sense of smell was comparative to Dark's in his wolf form. When Dark was in human form, Abby was stronger. I'd never seen Dark in wolf form but I'd seen others. Even if it was Dark, it was a scary scene to be sure.

  "Did you see the footage? Did they look like they were somehow coerced?" I asked Dodd as we fell into a pace everyone was comfortable with, not too far behind Abby.

  "It didn't look like it." There was disappointment in his voice and a wounded look in his eyes.

  "You know, she did it for the good of the group."

  "I know."

  I grabbed his arm and held him back a minute.

  "She did what she thought was right, just like you would've."

  "We aren't together. She can do whatever she wants."

  He pulled out of my grasp and walked back toward the group. He was too frustrated to see past his own feelings at that moment, so I let it go. I had my own conflicted emotions to sort through before I could fix anyone else.

  Sabrina had been acting strangely, but I never thought she would do something like this. And how the hell did she get the rest of them on board? If I could've gotten my hands on Oslo right now, I would have broken the promise myself and wrung his neck.

  Walking through the rubble, we all tried to stay toward the center of the road. Buildings were collapsing without notice all the time. There hadn't been a twister in this area in the last three days and the winds weren't bad today, but it didn't matter. Most of the structures were so impaired now, the smallest thing would bring them tumbling down.

  As we followed Abby another mile, I realized this was the farthest I'd been from the casino since we'd returned. It burned the reality of the destruction into my brain. Bits of playing cards blew through the air and landed on the ground in front of me like a ticker tape parade, celebrating the end of the world. And this was the end. Maybe not of life, but most of the people living today would never see a normal city again in their lifetime.

  My body followed the group even as my mind wandered in the surreal atmosphere. Every so often, I felt eyes peering at us, but whenever I turned, there was nothing. I knew there were still people out there that the rippers hadn't gotten to. I also suspected there were other creatures out there as well, things that might be worse than the rippers, but hadn't shown themselves yet.

  The next movement that caught my eye wasn't from ghosts lingering in burnt out buildings, it was from one of our own.

  "Dark, are you okay?"

  His hands were trembling and when he turned to me, a ravished look was in his eyes. Sweat was beaded on his forehead and he looked feverish.

  "I can't hold it back any longer," he said.

  "The change?"

  He nodded. "It's the magic," he said through gritted teeth. Before he could explain any more, his clothes were shredding off his body. His jaw elongated, huge canine teeth growing. Blond fur grew and covered his now almost naked form. Muscles twitched and grew as his body shot up an additional two feet.

  We all stopped and gawked. It was terrifying and mesmerizing. It was also something most of us hadn't seen happen in person. The wolves tended to transition in private. Now everyone knew why. Dark seemed completely vulnerable during the transition that took about five minutes. If there was an enemy around, five minutes of vulnerability was a lifetime.

  "Dark, are you okay?" I asked after the change seemed to be slowing to an end.

  "I don't think he can speak in this form," Dodd said.

  Dark stiffly nodded his head in agreement, showing that he was coherent, if not quite comfortable yet. I trained my vision on his head, since he wore nothing but fur now and he had a surprisingly large appendage hanging below the waist. I knew it wasn't the polite thing to do, but I couldn't help and wonder if it was as large in his human form. Geez, Dark, I never would've guessed.

  "Did you ever have this problem before? When things were normal?"

  Dark shook his head in response.

  "Do you want to continue?"

  He nodded again.

  "Okay, let's keep going then. We don't have a lot of time." What I wanted to say was they didn't have a lot of time. I'd keep going until the trail ran out, hopefully with Burrom, but alone if need be.

  We started moving forward again, Abby still in the lead but now with Dark close behind her. I watched him, occasionally sniffing the air or along a wall that one of them must have touched as they passed.

  When the sun was looming overhead at about one o'clock, I realized that some of our party would need to turn around or they wouldn't be able to make it back. We'd been walking this long and hadn't even made it to the desert yet.

  "We need to stop." I swigged heavily from the water bottle stored in my pack and handed Burrom his, since he was too good to carry his own. I wished I were drinking something with more of a kick than water, but I couldn't risk dehydration, so I'd left my flask behind.

  "What?" Dodd asked, clearly agitated.

  "You've got to turn around." I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my arm.

  "Not happening, Jo." He shook his head and turned around and kept walking.

  "If you don't turn around, you and the rest of the people here might not make it back. You could be eaten," I yelled after him.

  Dodd stopped again and looked around, "Anyone want to go back, suit yourself. No hard feelings."

  A deep rumbling sound emerged from Dark and he shook his massive head. Donald and Alisa both asserted they were staying as well, which I was a bit surprised by.

  I turned to Burrom, who shrugged. "I might die but it won't be from rippers and it won't be now."

  I looked at their faces and I didn't tell them what I was really thinking. I didn't want to watch them die all around me. I couldn't watch them die. I wanted to scream at them that I was at my breaking point. I couldn't take another thing. That if they wanted to die, couldn't they do it with someone else? These days, I was holding myself together with whiskey and denial. I didn't have my whiskey and denial was having a bad day.

  I didn't say these things. I just started walking. At our current pace, we'd be in the middle of the Valley of Fire, a deserted part of the desert, come nightfall. Not a great place to try and find cover if we were attacked. Why oh why didn't I bring my flask?

  We didn't stop for anything. We ate as we walked. If someone had to go to the bathroom, they went and caught up quickly. We were all too aware of the ticking clock.

  The crumpled buildings became more and more spread out until there was nothing but desert and the last rays of a fading safety were disappearing quickly.

  I knew Cormac was probably going to be on a rampage back at the casino. He'd expect us to be walking in at any moment. That only added to the stress I already felt. I threw Burrom a look and slowed my pace. He did the same.

  "If we get attacked, try to keep them in the center." I spoke low but I was pretty sure some of them heard me anyway.

  He rolled his eyes at the imposition but I knew he'd do it.

  And then we slowed to a stop. I saw Abby and Dark circling around. Shit. They'd lost the scent. Dark was still in werewolf form and he was pacing, unable to find their trail.

  "This makes no sense. They didn't just disappear," Dodd said, following after Dark and visibly crowding him. "Dark, they've got to be
here."

  Dark whined a bit. Dark was Dodd's roommate and sidekick. He also worshipped the ground Dodd walked on. He wouldn't lose the trail if he could help it.

  After another ten minutes of watching them try and fail, I was getting increasingly nervous. Standing still like this made it much easier for the rippers to find us.

  "We know where they were headed. We just keep going in that direction." At that very moment, I didn't care if we headed farther away from the casino or closer, anything but standing still.

  "You're right," Dodd agreed. "We keep heading toward Arizona."

  Back on the move again, I didn't feel relaxed but it was better than standing still.

  About fifteen minutes later, both Dark and Abby started to pick up a trail again. Moving quickly, I followed as close as I could, hoping to be a living shield if the rippers came. I knew that I needed to be within a few feet if there was going to be any shot of it working. Donald and Alisa? They probably wouldn't fare too well and I'd have to increase my daily prescription of whiskey.

  In the full dark, it was hard to see exactly where Dark and Abby were going, but I saw Dark suddenly kneel down next to a large boulder.

  "What is it?" I asked, forgetting that Dark couldn't speak in this form.

  I saw the feminine shape lying prone on the ground as I neared him. Her name was Colleen, the teenager with the purple eyes. She had been on the list of people the senator had demanded for insurance. This didn't bode well.

  She was barely conscious when I kneeled down next to her.

  "Colleen?" I asked and felt along her limbs for injuries. There were several patches of wetness seeping through her shirt and she moaned when I touched her. I looked up at the others. "We've got to get her back to the casino. She's in bad shape."

  "I can't stop. Sabrina's out there heading toward the senator," Dodd said.

  "She's not."

  Startled, we all looked down when we heard the soft voice of Colleen.

  "Where are they?" I asked the girl, her eyes now partially open.