by Colby R Rice
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Zeika had waited until after 11:30 PM, after AP activity around curfew had slowed down. Cold biting wind whistled through her clothes, and her back itched terribly. Yet she continued to walk, boots crunching in the snow, Caleb's duffel bag on her shoulder. She passed under the Kingsbridge Road train station as she approached the front doors of the Demesne Five Headquarters, and almost lost her nerve when she saw a cop smoking in the distance. He extinguished his cigarette against the stone, not noticing her as he turned to walk back into the station. She clenched her gloved fists, to steady the trembling in her fingers.
You can do this. You have to do this.
She leaned against one of the metal balustrades holding up the empty train station, the front of the police headquarters in clear view. There was little traffic tonight, so she stood there in the middle of the street, gathering all her courage. The cold gnawed her ears and close-shaven head; she missed her hair now more than ever, never realizing how warm it had kept her most of the time. Finally swallowing her fear back, she reached into her robes, pulled out her black ski mask, and rolled it down over her head and face. She threw on her hood and started walking towards the police station.
Inside her robes, she put a firm grip on her Beretta, fully loaded and chambered. She stretched her vocal cords, dropping her voice an octave, and making sure to keep it there, though not much talking was going to be done.
She walked through the gate and into the front doors, where the warmth and the light of the station filled her, where purpose filled her—
Do it.
—and she lifted her gun into the air and fired three times, filling the warm place with angry bursts of thunder. People in the lobby began to scream, duck, and run.
"Get on the ground!" Her deeper voice fell foreign on her own ears, but it felt in control. Powerful. "Or I'll blow your fuckin' heads off."
"In most recent news, a bizarre string of crimes very rarely seen in the Protecteds: a rash of grave-robberies have been reported throughout all three Civic Demesnes over the past month. Troubling to city officials but even more disturbing to Civilians in the wake of the Ninkashi attacks, police are now scrambling to solve these strange crimes as soon as possible. WKCO6 news reporter, Frank Romana is live in Demesne Six's Saintland with a story you'll see only on WKCO6."
"Thank you, Alicia. The citizens of local neighborhoods are shocked and appalled, but most of all, they're frightened. Here's what some of them had to say."
"I mean, it's crazy, but this doesn't really surprise me. The Protecteds are so poor, people probably think the bodies have gold on them or something," one witness said. "Ugh, barbarians!"
"It's one thing to steal stuff from the coffin, but to actually take the (beep)-ing body? That's gross. What are they gonna (beep)-ing do, a blood sacrifice? Eat it? Boink it? What the (beep), man. Sick."
"Zombies. Let's just call it what it is. Zombies. With those vampire things walking around, you didn't think this would happen next? After the attack on Guild Five, I'm scared to come out my home! Seriously. The world has gone crazy."
Caleb scoffed as he came out of the shower into the living room, drying off. He'd heard the whole thing from the bathroom and snatched up the remote to change the channel to something more reasonable. He had hoped Joseph had been pulling his leg, but clearly not. Stealing corpses? People were officially going nuts.
He flipped channels, but nothing was on this late, so instead, he found the public access channel that broadcasted proceedings in the Silver Chamber. There was nothing nearly as pivotal as the Articles39 repeals, but he liked to stay informed— even if they were only talking about demesne budgets.
He threw on some clothes and walked into the kitchen to start breakfast. He cracked a window, lit a cigarette, and before long, a shot of espresso and a slice of pound cake had been neatly arranged on a tray. Next to it sat a bowl of miso soup and steaming hot rice. It had been a long night after he'd left the murder scene, and it wasn't over. His search for Taitt had once again turned up a lot of dead ends, locked doors, and busy signals, as though he and everyone he'd ever known had collectively decided to skip town all at the same time. So Caleb had come back home to score a few hours' sleep and a meal before going back out and re-doubling the search. It'd done him some good.
He blew a long string of smoke out his window before turning back to beating his eggs. He'd just started to pour the yolks over his rice when the Congressional crawl was interrupted by a siren blare— all coming from the television.
What a bullshit cable connection…
"Ladies and gentlemen. This just in: at 11:49 PM last night, a rogue Alchemist stormed his way into the Demesne Five Police Headquarters and opened fire—"
Caleb sputtered and whipped around, staring at his television.
"—though not directly at officers. The rogue apparently just wanted to get their attention for a greater scheme: the robbery of their weapons cage. Luckily, no officers were killed or harmed in the attack. What you are about to see is real footage of the robbery, and we do warn you, the footage is disturbing."
Eyes glued, Caleb walked over to the television, balking when he saw the 5'5" shrimp walk in through the front doors, lift his gun, and fire off a few rounds. He was wearing a balaclava and the wolf-moon robes of a Desmene Five Civilian. But what came next was unreal. As the officers pulled their weapons, the intruder lifted his hand— and changed the cops' clothing from cotton to bronze, encasing them in full-body casts.
Holy hell.
He watched as one of the cops, still encased but with hands unencumbered by metal, began to squeeze the trigger of his gun. The gun didn't respond, and the robber walked up to him and snatched the firearm from his hand before making rounds to the other cops. The robber plucked the misfiring weapons from the human statues and threw them into the duffel bag on his shoulder. Metal to fabric. Caleb snapped his head to the kiln of soft blue silk hanging over the back of his love seat, understanding. This had to be the same Alchemist, the one who'd trashed the Sigma Express.
He looked at his watch. 4:29 AM… this happened hours ago. Why the hell hadn't anyone called him?
The newscaster continued on. "Even more disturbing, the robber looked no older than a teenager, though alchemic law enforcement has no record of teenaged Azure Alchemists currently missing in action. The Demesne Five Headquarters Police Captain, Jebediah Palmer, could not be reached for comment—"
The newscast muted as the front door slammed behind Caleb, his breakfast going cold on the counter.
Dear Awesome Reader,
Thank you so much for spending time with Zeika, her friends, and foes in THE GIVEN! I hope you enjoyed the ride! The second & final volume, THE TAKEN, is available now and completes the story for this book. You can even get it for FREE if you sign up to my email list. ;-)
Even better, the next installment in the series, THE IRON MAIDEN, will be out this 2015!
If you enjoyed THE GIVEN, then I'd love it if you could leave a review on the site where you bought it. I'd love to hear your feedback and get your advice on how to make the next book even hotter! Also, reviews really help other urban fantasy and dystopian sci-fi fans find my work, and I'm excited to share my work with as many people as possible.
Thanks so much for your support, happy reading, and keep imagining! Also, feel free to hit me up on my website, Facebook, or Twitter if you want to say hi!
Warmly,
Colby R Rice
www.colbyrrice.com
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