The Torn Soul (The Sheynan Trilogy Book 3)

by Dylan Birtolo

  “Are you sure about this?”

  Darien turned his attention over to Susan and smiled at her before giving her a kiss. He held her face for a moment and stroked his thumb across her cheek.

  “I’ll be fine. Promise. I’d love to say I’ll be back before you know it, but we both know that I’m going to be sitting on his wall waiting for most, if not all, of the day.”

  “Just be extra careful. You’re in no condition to fight right now and I can’t help you until you get back out here.”

  Darien’s smile turned into a tight line and he nodded. He knew the stakes at hand. He turned away and took a deep breath before opening the door and sliding to the pavement. Slamming the door closed, he tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket and kept his head down as he walked towards the side of the building. The route he took curved around to his left, taking him out of sight from the front entrance and any cameras that might be in that location.

  When he reached the side of the building, he leaned his back against it and checked to see if anyone was watching. He saw no cameras or people, so he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, slowing his racing heart. There was no reason to rush this. He took his time, focusing on every aspect of the shift as he became a mosquito.

  The flight to the roof took longer than he anticipated. What seemed like a short distance while in human form was a gigantic mountain to him now. Halfway up the wall, an air current whipped around the corner and he used it to help buffet his body higher. It never ceased to amaze him how much instinct took over when he was in an animal’s form. He never had to think about how to use his wings, which was a good thing. When he made a conscious effort to move them, he couldn’t. It was an odd line to walk, letting the animal instincts dictate part of his movements but still retaining conscious control.

  Up on the roof, he made a straight line for one of the vents on the corner spitting out clouds of warm air. A large fan spun at the top of the opening, something that Darien hadn’t accounted for. There was nothing that he could do about it, so he tried to time his dive right and dropped into the opening, hoping to get past the fan. The edge of one of the blades smacked into his body as he was partway through, sending him spinning in the vent and making him dizzy, but he was okay.

  Once inside, it was easier to crawl along the side of the vent rather than try to fight against the air current leading outside. He only had a general idea of where to go. Darien navigated the vents as best as he could, hoping that he was heading in the right direction. When he turned a corner and the air was blowing in his direction, he took a small hop and let the hot breeze blow him down the vent.

  There was an opening coming up on the left. Darien angled his wings to turn in that direction. As he whipped around the corner, he touched the ground, getting some grip to stop his momentum.

  Looking through the metal grating, Darien saw Karl Astor’s office on the other side. The lawyer or government agent, whatever he was, was seated at his desk and typing away at his computer. He had a headset in his ear with a small blue LED shining brightly on the back of it to indicate it was connected to something. But, if he was listening to anyone or anything, Darien couldn’t tell.

  Crawling in between the openings of the grate, Darien hugged the wall, not daring to fly. He doubted that Karl would hear the noise of his wings on the air, but it was better to be cautious. The vent was located right over one of the bookcases. Darien crawled along the top of it until he reached the window. Staying near the top edge so that he could be partially hidden by the retracted shades, Darien worked his way around until he stood behind Karl.

  Now, all he needed to do was wait. He had an excellent view of the man’s computer and could see Karl’s fingers moving furiously across the keyboard and dragging files around the desktop. Every once in a while, a window would show up that looked like one of the dossier files Darien had seen earlier, but it was too far away for him to read any details.

  The waiting was more difficult than Darien realized. As he stood there, his exhaustion crept in again and caused his head to drop. It was much easier to ignore when he was active and moving than to just stand in one place and wait for an opportunity. He didn’t dare fly around, but he began to pace back and forth along the edge of the shades, hoping that the movement would keep him awake. More than once his head drooped and he snapped it back up without knowing how much time had passed.

  Eventually, Karl got up from his computer and locked the screen with a few key presses. Darien tensed, knowing that he needed to be awake and alert when Karl returned. There was no way of knowing how many chances he was going to have when Karl left the office, so he needed to take advantage of every single one. His adrenaline coursing through his system helped to liven him and made him hyperaware. Once Karl left the office, he took off from the window and flew a few small circles before settling back against the window near the top edge.

  Darien heard the footsteps and voices getting louder long before the handle on the door turned. This was his first opportunity. He moved to the side, positioning himself so that he would have a clear view of the keyboard when Karl sat down in his chair. The agent walked back into the room carrying a manila folder. He collapsed into his chair and dropped the folder on the desk, opening it up and scanning the papers inside. Darien couldn’t contain his energy, legs moving up and down to tap on the glass.

  After what felt like an eternity, Karl pushed the papers aside and turned to face his computer. Hitting enter brought him to the log in screen and his fingers typed in a password with the well-defined strokes of muscle memory. The password was gibberish, a random collection of numbers and symbols, so Darien didn’t even bother trying to memorize it. Instead, he closed his eyes and pictured his hands typing out the same sequence of keys. It didn’t matter what the letters were, he needed to remember that sequence. It was the same way he memorized passwords back when he had a normal job for a tech company.

  Then the second waiting period began. He tried to watch what Karl was doing while he was using the computer, but without being able to read any of the words on the screen, the information that he could gather was severely limited. Once again, Darien walked around to fight off the urge to get some much needed rest.

  Sudden motion caught his attention as Karl sat up straight in his seat and leaned away from the desk. He reached up and pressed a button on the side of his earpiece.

  “Hello? Yes, thank you, Melissa. Good afternoon to you as well, Colonel Mills. I take it that you received my report? I understand, sir. Yes, sir. I received the email this morning and will be leaving after work today. I look forward to that too, sir. Thank you.”

  He pressed the button on the side of his earpiece again and then got up from his chair, bending over to lock his computer before taking long strides to the door. He jerked it open so hard that the latch stuck and scraped against the door plate. When he slammed it shut, Darien felt the window vibrate underneath him.

  The time was now. He didn’t know if he was going to get another chance. Darien flew down to the floor and shifted when he was a few feet above it. He pushed the chair out of his way, leaning over the laptop and positioning his hands over the keyboard. The log in screen came up and Darien closed his eyes, typing the sequence in the air just over the keys twice before he let his fingers touch anything. When he hit Enter, the desktop appeared.

  Heart beating faster, Darien whipped out the flash drive and stuck it into the port on the side of the laptop. He opened up the dossier program and ran a quick search for Alyssa Bradford, saving her file to his drive. He did the same for Gregory Marks. They both had very long profiles complete with psychological analysis and a detailed history of their activities. Darien hoped that would be enough. He expanded the email program and scanned through recent messages, looking for something that would give him a clue about the phone conversation.

  There it was! A message sent earlier this morning requested that Karl relocate to the Seattle-based shelter due to the death of hi
s agents. Apparently, multiple people from the board were visiting. Darien had no idea how many people that meant, but it was clear that whoever was in charge was going to be here in person. Of course, he wasn’t lucky enough to find an address. Darien ran a search for all of the emails from the same email account and copied them all to the flash drive. He’d have to go through them later and see if he could find any clues.

  Scanning the hard drive and folders on the desktop, he didn’t see anything else that made obvious sense to copy. Most of the folders were installation folders, and all of those that he didn’t recognize were generic names that could have been programs or could have been code names. Without going through them, he didn’t know what to save. Darien went back to the dossier, running a search on Bridget’s name, curious to see her profile. He started scanning through it and saw that she was telling the truth about working for the agency. Apparently, she’d been employed four years ago.

  Darien heard Karl’s voice coming through the wall as he made his way back to his office. He was shouting at someone. Darien copied over Bridget’s file and then yanked out his flash drive, shoving it into his pocket. Before he shifted, he closed the dossiers of Bridget, Gregory, and Alyssa, leaving the screen as he found it. The last step was locking the computer. Darien grabbed the chair and slid it back over to where it was before he brushed it aside. Just as he heard a hand drop on the door handle, Darien shifted, becoming a mosquito again and crawled to the baseboard, not wanting to fly up right in Karl’s field of vision.

  Karl walked in, mumbling to himself and dropped into his chair without a glance in Darien’s direction. He grabbed his laptop and slid it closer to him before typing in his password and pulling up his email accounts. When he started typing a message, Darien released the breath he had been holding. It looked like he had gotten away with it. It was time to get out. Inching his way up the window, Darien kept turning to glance at Karl, but the man was engrossed with his email messages. After crawling into the vent, Darien gave one last look back and was relieved to see that Karl hadn’t moved.

  The first part of the mission was a success. Now he just needed to convince two very strong-willed people to meet with him and not kill him on sight.

  Chapter 22

  Realizing that he had no other options available to him, Darien slipped into his dream world. Here, he might have a chance of finding Alyssa or Gregory. He was too nervous to call Alyssa, fearful about who might be listening in on the call. As for Gregory, he never had a number to reach the man. All of their communication had been through dreams or in person before. Given the tricks that Darien had learned, it was time to put them to use.

  He sat in the clearing, taking a few moments to gather his thoughts before he set out in search of the other two shifters. The mission had been a success and they’d made it back to the motel room without any trouble. He drew comfort from the fact that Susan was there in the real world, watching over his sleeping body and keeping an eye on the door. They both knew dreams could be dangerous. She stood by ready to wake him if need be. Not that either one of them knew what would happen if she woke him in the middle of one of these dreams, or if she even could.

  Worrying about such things only delayed the inevitable. Darien was stalling, and he knew it. He needed to put the pieces of their plan in motion and see how the chips fell. With luck, he would soon be ready to set the stage for the next piece. With the flash drive, he was confident that he could convince both Alyssa and Gregory to put aside their differences long enough to deal with the agency.

  Alyssa was first. She would be the easier one to convince given their history. Plus, he’d already found her once before. Darien let his mind slip away and eased himself into the sky, floating until he reached the edge of his dream world. There was that slight resistance as he pushed through the boundary and then he was in the blackness between dreams, watching other people’s thoughts float by like bubbles on a wind he couldn’t feel. Darien didn’t waste any time to voyeur on those dreams. He pictured Alyssa, trying to think about everything he knew about her.

  The worlds swam before his eyes as he felt a wrenching sensation and jerked to a stop as he looked into a dream. It was familiar, with Alyssa standing on a tree over a canyon, looking for quarry. This had to be her safe place, what she would dream about when she needed to meditate and clear her mind, just like he had the field to lie in with grass thick enough to keep him afloat and the sun warming him in a clear blue sky. It almost felt like violating her sanctuary to enter this dream unasked, but he needed to.

  Darien reached out and put his hand against the surface of her dream. He pushed, feeling a slight resistance, stronger than when he invaded Callie’s dream. His brows knit together as he willed himself forward, trying to penetrate into her personal thoughts. The barrier fought back, passively resisting his intrusion. Once he did break through, it welcomed him, sucking him in and propelling him to the ground. He let out a shout of surprise which transferred into a grunt of pain as he smacked into the dirt and tried to roll to absorb some of the damage. At least in this reality he didn’t have to worry about his physical injuries limiting him or breaking open again.

  “Darien? What are you doing here?”

  As he righted himself and pushed himself up to a standing position, he turned, looking for Alyssa. He stumbled a bit, trying to catch his balance. His face reddened, painfully aware of how ungraceful he looked with his fumbling entry. It was not the impression he wanted to make.

  She was in her human form, standing in front of him with her head cocked to one side, her platinum blond hair reaching down almost to her waist in a straight rain. She appeared in the sleek red dress he had first seen her in, when she came to his dreams before he knew they were more than just flights of fantasy.

  “Hey, Alyssa. I’m sorry to intrude, but I needed to talk to you.”

  “I haven’t spoken to you in months. You’re the one who broke off contact with me, if you remember. Now you appear here, without my will? How did you find me?”

  “I thought of you and found myself staring at your dream. From there, I just entered it I guess. I thought of moving into the dream like how you taught me how to manipulate things and then here I was. So much for the grand entrance though.”

  Alyssa straightened her neck and tilted it back so that she could look down at Darien through narrowed eyes. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and widened her stance.

  “There have been disturbing rumors about your activities lately. You’re not invited here. I should report you to my superiors for this intrusion. They’d also be interested to learn of your advancements.”

  Darien held up his hands with the palms out and to either side of his body. He needed to show her that he was not a threat.

  “Please don’t do that. At least, not yet. Hear me out first, and if you don’t like what I have to say, then you can report me to your heart’s content and I’ll leave you be, never entering your dreams again. That’s all I ask.”

  For a few moments, the two stood still and stared at each other. A dry wind picked up and whipped around them, making Darien’s nose tickle with the dust that it kicked up. The air was dry and he had to lick his lips to keep them from cracking. He kept his vision firmly focused on Alyssa, waiting to see her reaction and what she would do. He could feel the weight of her stare as she looked at him and tried to weigh his words.

  After some time, a chair appeared behind her, red leather with dark wood trim, and she sat down in it. A wine glass appeared in her hand, filled with a dark red vintage that she swirled. She took a sip and then eased back in the chair.

  “For our history, and the fact that you’ve not acted against the Arm as far as I know, I will listen. But know that if I don’t like what you say, I’ll try to trap you here and summon help.”

  So far so good. It was the best that he could hope for. Darien willed a rock into existence behind him and sat on the edge, letting his feet dangle above the ground. He leaned forward on his elb
ows as he spoke, sitting up straight every once in a while to gesture with a hand.

  “I don’t have time for the full version, so I’ll have to give you the cliff notes. You know how I went into hiding for a bit, trying to get away from everything? Well, for a bunch of reasons that I can’t get into right now, I wound up on a military base and was considering working for some agency that knows all about shifters and tracks them. Yes, I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. They have a vast database where they essentially tag, analyze, and track a whole bunch of shifters.”

  “That’s insane. We’d know if there was a group like that.”

  “I know. But, trust me, they exist. Hell, I’ve seen your profile. I haven’t read the whole thing, because that felt like a violation of privacy, but I can tell you that they know you’re in Oregon at the moment.”

  Alyssa opened her mouth to respond, but Darien cut her off.

  “They also know you went to Adams Secondary School.”

  Her mouth closed and a single eyebrow raised. Darien paused for a moment for the news to sink in before he continued.

  “Point being, they have tabs on all of these different shifters, and I have proof of it. I have in my possession a flash drive with your profile on it to show you that I’m not making this stuff up or finding out some other way. I also have some emails that I copied off of the agent’s computer. I haven’t had a chance to go through them yet, but they show that there’s a big get together going on, one that I think we should crash. And I’m not going to be able to do it alone.”

  “Even if you’re telling the truth and right about all of this, what does it matter?”