The Torn Soul (The Sheynan Trilogy Book 3)

by Dylan Birtolo

  “One of the things that I think they’re doing is setting up the Arm and the Shadows to wage war against each other. They know about people on both sides and I know they have contacts in each organization. Given the amount of power they have in the U.S. government, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been pulling the strings for your battles for generations.”

  This was the critical point and this was what he needed her to believe. If she did, then she’d be willing to go along with him. If not, then his entire plan would fall apart. Darien stood up and deliberately looked down at Alyssa as she still sat in her chair.

  “They’ve been playing your entire side like pawns, and there’s no way of knowing how high the corruption goes without crashing that party.”

  It was so quiet that Darien heard rocks tumbling over the edge of the ravine and bouncing to the floor far below. He wanted to shift his weight and glance away from Alyssa’s stare, but he held it, well aware of the subtle challenge implicit in that action. After a few seconds, Alyssa broke the gaze first and looked at her glass as she swirled the liquid inside.

  “I’ll need proof.”

  He resisted the urge to jump and shout out his excitement.

  “Meet with me tomorrow in Tacoma at the Northern Star motel. I have the flash drive and I’ll be there tomorrow at six to meet with you. Bring along two people that you can trust for security. I’m also going to be inviting the Shadows.”

  The sky darkened as clouds filtered in from all directions. It was subtle at first, but Darien noticed it out of the corner of his vision.

  “They have as much of a stake in this as you do. If someone really has been playing both sides, you both need to be free of their influence. You might not be as different as you think.”

  “I offer no promises, beyond that I will listen to what you have to say and will see your proof. Also, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about this. If what you say is true, there’s no way of knowing who in the leadership might be affected. I’ll be there, with my escort. Now leave me. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

  Darien nodded and pushed himself out of the dream immediately, not wanting to give her a chance to change her mind. She’d accepted his offer and he knew she was good for her word. Half of his plan was a success. Now for the more difficult half.

  As he tried before, Darien pictured Gregory, trying to remember every aspect that he could think of for the man. He closed his eyes and strained, hoping and praying that he would feel that lurching sensation. When it finally came to him, he opened his eyes, excited that it worked. That excitement dulled as soon as he saw what was in front of him.

  Instead of a clear orb, like the other bubbles of dreams floating around him, Darien found himself staring at a solid metal orb with interlocking plates. He circled around the entire structure, searching for any opening or sign of weakness, but it was meticulously crafted to shelter the entire realm underneath. Darien put his hand on the metal and it felt cold to the touch, cold enough to burn. But when he did, he knew that Gregory was inside that shell. He didn’t know how he knew, but he was in the right place.

  When he tried to push through, the surface didn’t yield at all and grew colder to the touch. Unlike Alyssa’s passive resistance, this barrier attacked him as he threw more of himself at it. Darien took a step back, shaking his hand to try and alleviate some of the pain. Backing up several steps, he launched himself at it, hoping to break through. His shoulder bounced off the unyielding edge and he tumbled a few times before being able to right himself, still no closer to being inside the sphere.

  Darien tried several more times, pounding on the orb or trying to pry it apart with his hands, but each time it refused to yield and assaulted whatever body part he pushed against it with a cold burning sensation. He knew that physically he wasn’t bruised and burned, but it felt like it as he circled around the dream world. He needed a way to get inside.

  Moving up to the shell, Darien gently placed one of his hands on the surface. As long as he didn’t try to push through, the surface was only cold, not painful. He put his other hand on it as well, making sure the fingers were close together as if he was going to try and rip a hole in the covering. Staring at the gap between a couple of his fingers, Darien focused his will, imagining drilling a hole through the shell. At first, nothing happened, but then he felt two of his fingers begin to sink into a small depression. He redoubled his efforts, staring at the point of weakness and driving his will forward. His fingers sunk in further and started to burn.

  The cold shot up his hands and through his arms, but he continued to push on, driving into the sphere. The metal shell began to feel malleable under his fingertips. He pushed them through. With a grunt of effort, he pulled his hands apart, straining as he tried to create an opening. A small crack appeared between his fingers, showing him the world underneath. Darien didn’t hesitate; he willed himself through that opening and jumped into Gregory’s dream.

  Far beneath him stretched a vast grassy plain, stretching to the horizon in every possible direction. A herd of horses ran through the center of the field, a couple in the front jostling with each other for the lead position. They ran straight at Gregory, standing tall in front of them with his arms outstretched to either side and his head lifted to the sky. It looked like the animals were going to run him into the dirt. Instead, they parted around him, circling as they continued to run and fight each other, but still yielding to his presence.

  Darien looked at Gregory, amazed at how much he had changed. The man’s once thick and dark black hair was more grey than black. Where once he had streaks of gray that were distinguished markings, it was now more accurate to call it gray with streaks for color clinging to the youth from his past. His face also looked more weathered, with a greater number of lines around his eyes and creases near the corner of his mouth. He still looked healthy and strong, just worn.

  Before Darien was able to reach the ground, Gregory’s eyes snapped open and he locked onto Darien’s gaze. It was a stare that made him shiver and remember the cold sensation of the metal shell surrounding this dream. Darien opened his mouth to say something but was knocked out of the air by a sudden gust of wind that slammed him into the ground and sent him sliding through the grass. The sky darkened and thunder rolled in the distance.

  “I just came to talk!”

  Darien’s words were drowned as lightning ripped the sky and thunder rolled again. Gregory advanced on him, running across the ground and shifting into a horse in midstride. The black beast thundered towards him, hooves pounding the ground hard enough to make it shake underneath Darien’s feet.

  Grabbing a piece of the dirt with his mind, Darien yanked upward, creating a cliff underneath him so that he rose over Gregory’s head. The horse slid to a stop at the base of the cliff and looked up at his opponent. He reared back and slammed his hooves into the cliff making it crack and crumble to dust. Darien willed himself to fly, staying where he was and safely out of danger.

  A lightning bolt arced through the sky striking him in the chest and breaking his concentration. He dropped to the ground like a stone, stopping with a sudden thud that knocked the wind out of his body. Gregory came over and reared again, feet spinning as he aimed to bring them down on Darien’s chest. The younger man rolled away, feeling one of the hooves clip his back as he just got out of the lethal rain.

  Darien sprang to his feet and held his hand up in front of him, willing a wall of plastic to separate the two of them. Gregory snorted at it, steam billowing out of his nostrils and the wall disappeared. Gregory was too strong, too good at manipulating dreams for Darien to win this fight. It was Gregory’s home turf, and that advantage added to his strength in a way that Darien couldn’t overcome. He needed to get Gregory to listen before it was too late.

  Another snort sent Darien sliding through the grass, his feet dragging deep troughs until he slammed against a stone wall that wasn’t there before. His hands flew out to either side and he felt pinned aga
inst the surface by an invisible hand, crushing the air out of his body.

  Rather than try to fight it, Darien thought back to the dossier file, recalling how it was laid out and all the details that he could remember about Gregory from his brief scan of the information. Darien projected it in front of him, a translucent screen hanging in midair that looked like the screen on Karl’s computer.

  The storm died down and Gregory walked forward, shifting back into a human as he got close. He stopped in front of the projection and examined it, reading the lines and scanning the pictures. His gaze snapped back to Darien who was still pinned against the wall.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s your file. It’s what I came to talk to you about.”

  “You have all of this information? How do you know all of this? Are you working with the Arm?”

  “No. There’s a third player. Someone who has information on you and the Arm. He’s playing you against each other.”

  Gregory looked back at the dossier, his mouth moving as he read over various lines. For extra convincing, Darien called up the profile on Alyssa, making sure to leave sections of it blank, but projecting the same general layout. Gregory turned to face it, his eyes widening the more that he read. With a wave of his hand, the storm, the stone wall, and the force pinning Darien against it dissipated. Darien collapsed to the ground, panting and holding himself up on his hands and knees.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I thought you’d want to see this.”

  “I have strict orders to kill you, after what you did in Texas.”

  “Do you know who gave those orders?”

  Gregory didn’t answer right away. Darien knew the Shadows were distrustful of their own kind. He didn’t need to do more than plant the seed in Gregory’s mind. With the environment Gregory was ensconced in, his own imagination would lead him to the same conclusion that Darien had.

  “You think this third party could be responsible, manipulating the Shadows and the Arm for their own gains? I assume you have proof.”

  “I do. Meet me with two people you can trust at the Northern Star motel in Tacoma. Tomorrow at six.”

  “I could assemble an entire squad to take you and determine the truth of your accusations through our own methods.”

  “You could but you won’t. You know what it means for me to come here and tell you where I’ll be. And you’re too curious.”

  Gregory narrowed his eyes, but eventually nodded his assent.

  “You won’t bring more than two, because those are the same arrangements the Arm agreed to.”

  Chapter 23

  “Have I mentioned enough times that this is a horrible idea?”

  Darien grinned even though Susan couldn’t see it. She was perched up on the roof of the motel, using her rifle to keep an eye on their surroundings and talking to him through his headset. She had a clear line of sight to the room where Darien had staged the meeting, and he had the window shades pulled back. The bed was pushed back in the corner, and Darien dragged the table into the center of the open space. Three chairs sat around it, and he lounged in the one that had a clear line of sight to the door. It was the best that he could come up with on short notice. A tablet rested in the center of the table, the files from the flash drive already copied to it.

  “That’s why you’re on lookout. We both know that Gregory and Alyssa are too cautious to try anything openly aggressive here. But I don’t know who they’re bringing, so I wanted you up there just in case.”

  “Just leave the phone on the entire time. I have enough trouble seeing what’s going on, I need to hear it too.”

  “You’re the boss.”

  “Then why am I the one freezing my ass off on a rooftop while you get to sit in a heated motel room?”

  Darien could only chuckle, which changed into full bore laughter when Susan gave an exaggerated sigh into her phone. Their conversation ended as a car pulled up in front of their room and three people got out. Darien recognized Alyssa immediately.

  “Show time.”

  Alyssa walked to the door, flanked by her escort. The man on her right seemed familiar, but Darien couldn’t quite place him. He was large, even bigger than Richard was, and had a shaved head. As he walked up, he glanced all around them and sniffed at the air. When Alyssa knocked on the door, he turned his back to the wall and cracked his knuckles, standing just behind Alyssa’s shoulder.

  The other escort was a woman with her jacket open despite the chill. She kept her hands in her pockets, tugging down on the fabric. She was shorter than her companions, but not short by any stretch of the imagination. Her dark hair was pulled back and she glanced around in a subtle manner, using her eyes more than turning her head. Darien caught sight of a dragonfly tattoo on her neck just below her jawline.

  “Come in.”

  Alyssa opened the door and the woman followed her with the giant bringing up the rear. He scanned the room before closing the door, standing near it with his hand on the handle. Darien stood and held out his hand to Alyssa who shook it in greeting.

  “Darien, this is Felicity. You already know Vladimir.”

  The name brought back a torrent of memories as Darien looked at the large man. That was why he seemed familiar. It was the dog companion that Alyssa had with her just about every time he saw her. Not for the first time he wondered if the two were a couple. Darien had never seen him in his human guise before. Felicity took his hand and shook it, but Vladimir kept his hands to himself and only nodded.

  “I take it we’re the first to arrive?”

  “Yes. Gregory’s still on his way. I figured the three of us could sit here and talk. I didn’t know if you’d want your escort outside, or here in the room, so I wasn’t sure how to set things up. Hopefully this’ll suffice.”

  Vladimir grunted and opened the door, stepping outside and assuming a sentry position just to the side of it. For her part, Felicity moved quietly to the back of the room and sat on the bed. She shrugged out of her jacket, letting it fall to the bed behind her.

  “He doesn’t talk much, does he?”

  “He doesn’t approve of this rendezvous. He believes that this departure from standard protocol will only come back to haunt me. He can be a little protective at times, but I trust him implicitly. Given what you shared with me, trust seemed to be the most important factor. I’ve told no one about what you shared other than these two. I want to see this proof with my own eyes before I make any judgments. I assume Susan is on the other end of your headset?”

  Darien shrugged and offered up a smile as a way of response. There was no way to hide the headset, but he didn’t want to leave Susan in the dark. Alyssa cocked her eyebrows and then shrugged. He figured she expected no different. She had to have known that Susan would be close.

  “She can be as protective as Vladimir sometimes.”

  “You know I can hear you, right?” From her tone of voice, Darien could picture her wrinkling her nose at him and he had to suppress the urge to chuckle.

  A sports car screeched as it sped into the parking lot, tires kicking up smoke as the driver took a hard turn from the street and pointed directly at the room where they were sitting. Everyone in the room rose from their seats, knees bent and tense. Vladimir took a step towards the headlights, acting like he’d take on the car with his bare hands if need be. The engine revved as the car picked up speed until the driver slammed on the brakes, drifting sideways until the car was parked right up against the curb. Even from inside the room, Darien could hear Vladimir’s growl.

  The doors to the car lifted and Gregory stepped out of the passenger’s side, brushing off his coat as he strode towards the door, blatantly stepping around Vladimir and ignoring him completely. The driver was someone that Darien had never seen before. He rose from the car with a grace that belied his apparent age based on his shocking white hair and moustache. As he came up to the door of the room, he adjusted his turtleneck, making sure it rested smoothly up to the ba
se of his jaw.

  The last passenger to climb out of the corvette made Darien twitch and his breath catch. It was the hunter he ran into earlier when he was in the car crash. The man sported a new jaguar pelt hanging from his belt, and Darien felt his stomach churn. He knew exactly where that trophy had come from. Darien couldn’t see any visible weapons on any of them, not that shifters needed them to start a bloodbath. As for the hunter, he made Darien’s skin crawl.

  Gregory offered a smile that didn’t even begin to reach his eyes as he acknowledged Alyssa and Darien. His eyes passed over Felicity without so much as a hitch. He took off his overcoat, letting it rest on the available chair at the table.

  “Darien, Alyssa. I’m here as you requested.”

  “Who are your associates?” Alyssa asked as she took her seat and continued to watch the other two men. She gave a nod to Vladimir who closed the door and resumed his sentry duty.

  The older man stepped forward and offered a bow, the picture perfect example of a gentleman following courtly graces.

  “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Garth Hales, but everyone calls me Hales. Got saddled with that when I was young and it just stuck ever since. I’ve known Mister Marks here since before he ever joined our organization, so when he told me he needed people he could trust, I volunteered in an instant.”

  “What is he doing here?”

  Darien still stood in front of his chair and had not removed his eyes from the hunter. His hands flattened against the table and his fingers curled as if trying to dig into the wood. The hunter looked at him and offered half of a grin as well as a small nod, a gesture that made Darien tense and want to snarl. The hunter walked into the corner on the other side of the window, propping up one leg and leaning back against it, watching the entire room. Gregory spoke for him.

  “Relax. Keegan is here because I’ve hired him. I understand your misgivings. He’s a bit of a specialist and used to have a contract for your life. Considering I’m the one who gave him that contract, I’ve rescinded it. For the moment. He has unflinching loyalty towards his employer.”