by Fletcher, MJ
“Can you really do it up close and personal, you’re mother in your face and ready to finish you off!”
When his voice raised his left arm dropped, I brought my whip around and snapped it into his side knocking him off his feet. I moved swiftly and was on him in a flash, straddling his chest, my Doorknob powered directly above his head.
“I can and I will,” I assured him with cocky confidence.
“You’re one of the best I’ve ever trained, but when you’re this close looking into her eyes will you see the woman who hurt you or the Mom that you desperately miss and love despite everything?”
I thought about Dad and Mom when they had been locked in battle. She’d called him Eli and that had distracted Dad, since for that one second she looked and sounded like the Mom that had loved me and her husband. Her voice had been so full of emotion and confusion it was no wonder why Dad had believed her and that second of hesitation was all she had needed to kill him.
My leg twisted out from under me as Gavin grabbed it and flipped me over reversing our positions. He leaned over me, his Skeleton Key mere inches from my face.
“You can’t hesitate, not for a moment. You have to kill her or she will kill you. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“I hope you do, I don’t want to go to another Masters funeral.” He rolled off me and stood up offering me his hand.
I grasped it and got to my feet, sliding my Doorknob into my pants and brushed the dust off them so I didn’t have to look at him. “I can handle it.”
“I’ve never doubted that, but wanting to do something and actually doing it are two different things. Killing someone is a hard thing to do and it leaves scars. Killing someone close to you,” —he shook his head slowly— “that can send you over the edge. We need you, Chloe, and you have no idea how much.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“If you say so, but remember I’m here if you need to talk.” He gave me a firm nod and continued. “Now, about your training, I know Archie is going to be showing you a lot of new things concerning DS, but I still want to train you when it comes to your Polymorph abilities. Right now you’re a bulldozer with your other powers, pushing ahead and taking down everything in your path. I want to show you how to be a surgeon and use those powers more precisely.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“I’m glad you feel that way. With any down time you have I want you here at the Reliquary training with me.”
“Sure, why not,” I agreed with a shrug. ”It’s not like I have a social life anyway.”
“That reminds me, I spoke with Nightshade.”
Oh great, this should be fun. “What did he say?”
“You’re right, he’s not thrilled with you right now, though I still don’t think he’s working with the First Kind. He hasn’t recalled all of his memories and I think the Forget Me Not that was used on him not being destroyed yet is a problem. But he’s too much of an asset to not utilize.”
“We can trust him?”
“I think we can use him for now.”
“That’s not a definitive answer.”
“The older you get you’ll learn most things aren’t black and white. There are plenty of gray areas and some people, like Nightshade, always work on the periphery of them.”
“Don’t forget that also means people like you and me,” I reminded him.
“Yes,” Gavin said almost sadly.
I knew what he was thinking. He felt responsible for bringing me into his little group of Polymorphs and adding an extra burden on me. What he didn’t realize was that I hadn’t been that same person since I had learned about the Old Kind, long before he had entered the picture. In a way I had been forced to grow up in a blink of an eye, and it hadn’t been a fun thing to do. I wasn’t involved in some frivolous game or silly adventure. This was all too real and all too dangerous. And I’d be damned if I wouldn’t do what needed to be done. Someone had to protect the Edgars of the world and it appeared as if I had been elected.
“What do you think of mine and Bodie’s plan?” I asked.
“It certainly is audacious.”
“Do you think it’ll work?”
“If handled right, it can, since it certainly isn’t something they’d be expecting.”
“Good, I’d like to take them by surprise for once.”
“Are you going to explain everything to your team?”
“Only the parts they need to know.”
“The moment I met you I knew you were going to be one hell of a leader, Chloe, though I never expected it would happen so quickly.”
“Thanks, I simply want to get through this and keep my friends alive. That’s all I care about.”
“What about when this is over, what’re you going to do?”
“I honestly haven’t given it thought. I need to finish my DS training, other than that I don’t know. Dad and I traveled the world. I guess I always figured that would be my life.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” Slade’s voice echoed around the training room as he walked in.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I like training here, the Wheel of the Impossible Engineers is too crowded.”
“I’ll leave you two to train, I have something to deal with anyway. Chloe, we can finish our discussion later.” Gavin excused himself and stepped out of the room.
I almost shook my head at him but stopped. He was letting me know that he wasn’t finished talking with me, though I really didn’t have any more to say.
I turned to Slade. He had yanked his shirt off and I couldn’t help but stare. I had forgotten how built he was. I realized what an idiot I must look like gawking at him and quickly said, “Want to do some fighting exercises?”
“Sure,” he said.
He circled around me and I shook my head trying to focus. I mean had it really been that long since I’d seen Slade without a shirt. He must have sensed that I wasn’t concentrating because he moved in hard and fast.
I dodged the tackle sidestepping him, causing him to miss me by inches. He pivoted his body quicker than I thought he could and his arm wrapped around my waist bringing me to the floor. I twisted and rolled my weight winding up on top of him.
“Nice move,” he smirked looking up at me.
“Shut up, I controlled the attack didn’t I?”
“Yup, you have me defenseless.” He stretched his arms out and lay underneath me quietly.
“Slade.” I shook my head and started to slide off of him, his hands suddenly at my waist held me in place.
“I know we’re just friends, but are we, friends?” His fingers tightened on my hips and I missed that strength, that feeling of being safe with someone. I’d always felt safe with Slade, and comfortable. Maybe that was the problem.
“Yeah, friends,” I spit out so fast that I didn’t believe myself.
“Way to sound like you mean it.” He pulled himself into a sitting position, his face mere inches from mine. His beautiful smile stared back at me with a hint of hurt in it.
“You know why.”
“I’m sorry, you know that.” His smile faded while the hurt grew. We both knew that we were referring to him finding it more important to save the Impossible Engineers Artifact, rather than me.
“You were always so perfect, maybe that was my mistake thinking you a boy scout. But now the problem is how do I ever completely trust you again?”
“You could give me another chance?”
“As a friend yeah, but no more than that. You forget there’s Nightshade.” The silence in the room was palpable. I had been dating Slade when Nightshade and I had first kissed and revealed our feelings for one another, though it was after Slade had deserted me like a sinking ship
“He doesn’t even remember you, Chloe.”
“I know,” I whispered, “but I remember him.”
“You don’t have to punish yourself for what they did to him.”
I pulled myself o
ff of him, stood, and kept my back to him. “I’m not.”
“Damn it, Chloe, yes you are. You walk around like it’s your fault that he’s messed up. He chose to do it, and to this day I wish I had. I wish I had been the man I always thought I was and had saved you. It should have been me, and if it had been I would never have expected you to take the blame for it. I don’t think Nightshade would either.” His voice was sharp and filled with frustration and on some level what he had said was true. But the pain was all I had left of Nightshade. If I let that go I had nothing else.
“I can’t do this not now.”
“You don’t have to be a vagabond. You could have a life with the Old Kind, a family.” Slade walked over to me and rested his strong hands on my shoulders.
“Slade, please.” First Gavin and now Slade, I’d had enough. “Not now.”
“I care about you and I hate seeing you this way. Everyone has suffered enough through this ordeal, it’s time to stop.”
Damn, that would be nice, but I’d have to be a fool to think that more suffering wasn’t coming my way. And I’d rather be ready for it than have it punch me in the gut. “I have to concentrate on finding Edgar, all this other crap can wait.” I shrugged letting his hands slip away from me and took a step back from him.
“I’m not the only one who’s worried about you. You have friends who care about you.”
“I’m fine, really.” I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying what I really wanted to say like leave me the hell alone.
“If that’s so, why then are you sulking around the Reliquary like this?”
“I’m not sulking; I’m training.”
“You’re hiding away. You have to let someone in, Chloe.”
“I’m not hiding and as usual I’m doing fine on my own.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“You’re fooling yourself.”
“I don’t need your help,” I shot back.
“What about Declan?”
“What about him?”
“Would you rather be talking to him?” He crossed his thick arms over his chest and his eyes narrowed.
“What if I do? That’s none of your business anymore.”
“I guess you’re right, it isn’t. But are you sure you can trust this Declan guy? You’ve only just met him. You need to be careful.”
“Really? You’re talking to me about a guy, a possible date. Isn’t this a conversation I should be having with a girlfriend and not my ex-boyfriend?”
“Somebody had to talk to you about it and your girlfriends are afraid you might hurt them if they bring it up, so I got elected to do it.”
I turned to face him. “Are you telling me that they put you up to this?”
“You could say that.”
“I’m going to kill them. Who was it Val or Jess?”
Slade raised his hands and backed away. “We’re just worried about you.”
“Worry about yourselves and tell Val and Jess to knock it the hell off.” I swung my arm in an arc, a tail of blue energy gliding behind it as I let the excess power flow off me.
“Maybe we should talk about this another time.” Slade shook his head and backed out of the room.
I didn’t give him a second look, I attempted to lose myself in training exercises, wanting desperately to rid myself of the anger and frustration that had built inside me, or perhaps it continuously sat there waiting to rear up and torment me. It wasn’t working. Slade’s comments kept playing in my head. What did I want out of life? Family, friends, a place I could call home?
I was so busy concentrating on all my problems that I never really considered what would happen if everything finally got settled. What would I do if there were no more bad guys to battle? Dad and I traveled the world for his magic act. I knew the entire show. I could do it blindfolded. I laughed since part of it was actually done blindfolded. I could always take on the mantle if I wanted to. But I wasn’t the showman Dad had been and I doubted I ever would be. Plus I’d grown accustomed to the world of the Old Kind. Maybe there was a place for me there with family, friends, a permanent home, and perhaps a good, lasting relationship. If not that, then what?
I stopped training, not that I had been doing much, and walked to my bag and dredged through it until I found my phone. I tapped the screen and scrolled through the numbers until I found the number I was looking for and took a deep breath. I hit the call button and put the phone to my ear.
“Hi, can we talk?”
Chapter 18
Status: I am a glutton for punishment... no seriously I am.
I sat at the table and fidgeted in my seat, cursing the day I met Val. She was the reason I was wearing a dress, and I made a mental note to murder her when I got home tonight. My legs were cold and the high heels I wore made me feel like at any moment my ankles might snap. I would have given anything for my boots and hoodie right now.
If I wasn’t in the middle of a fancy restaurant that I had no business being at in the first place I would have opened my personal portal and grabbed my spare clothes. But I had no such luck tonight. I had done this to myself, letting everyone get to me about moving on and having a life. What the hell was wrong with my life, I liked being alone. I didn’t need some guy around telling me how to live.
But—no—I had caved to the pressure and agreed to a date. I made another note to check myself in the mirror and make sure that there were no strings attached to me that someone was pulling.
I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I laid them on the table but it seemed odd so then I placed them in my lap and felt uncomfortable. Then I decided that maybe I could make the utensils all fit perfectly alongside one another. So I played with them attempting to put them in what I imagined would be the perfect order in which I could use them to attack my date if he did pretty much anything I didn’t like.
“You look rather determined.” Declan stood over the table smiling down at me.
I looked up at him in what imagined was a deer-in-headlights look. I would have been more at home just about anywhere other than here and I had a feeling it was obvious.
“Trying to pass the time.” I nodded toward the wall to the right of the entrance where a massive clock hung and the large hands pointed to half past eight. “I thought we were meeting at eight.”
He laughed. “Sorry about that, HVO business.”
“Anything interesting?”
“No, just a routine pick up.” He slid into the seat across from me, flagged down the waiter, and ordered himself a drink.
“So you make a habit of being late to dates?”
“Only for the beautiful ones.”
“Is that so?”
“You bet it is.” He smiled.
I leaned forward and laid it on the line. “Just to warn you in advance, your line of bull won’t get you very far with me.”
“Then it’s a good thing it isn’t bull.”
“Are you always in a good mood?”
“Most of the time, why?”
“It’s unnatural.”
“You think?”
“For me it is anyway. I’m used to a little less crazy happy all the time.”
“Maybe no one has ever given you reason enough to be happy all the time. We can work on that.” His hand brushed across mine.
The image of Nightshade shot into my head and not just any image but the one where our hands met against the barrier that had kept me safe and left him vulnerable to the First Kind. Damn how I had ached to feel his touch. I suddenly got the feeling that I was betraying Nightshade, crazy as that was since he was dating, but I couldn’t handle the maddening thought right now.
I eased my hand away. “Let’s deal with dinner first.”
“Sounds good to me.” Declan waved over the waiter and we both ordered entrees, he got a pasta dish and I went for the steak.
“Steak huh?”
“Yeah, what did you expect me to get a salad? I’m not some girlie girl just so you k
now.”
“I can see that.”
“Is that a problem for you?”
“No.”
“Good.” I smiled, trying to relax but having a hell of a time of it, and grabbed my napkin off the table and flipped it open dropping it across my lap.
“Anything on the search for Edgar?”
Now this was a subject I was more comfortable with. Plus I needed to get Declan on board with our plans for Storm Reach, and I figured now was as good a time as any. Emory had given me the all clear signal for Declan. It didn’t appear that he’d been compromised like the upper echelon of HVO.
I knew though that if I did bring this up now, I might as well kiss our date goodbye. But finding Edgar was the most important thing, plus I was so damn uncomfortable I didn’t think there was a chance this date was going to go well anyway.
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“That’s great.”
“That depends.”
“That bad?”
“He’s being kept in Storm Reach.”
“What?” Declan’s smile disappeared and he looked around like he expected someone to be watching us. He leaned in closer and whispered, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, we’ve confirmed the dimension location.”
“Damn it.” He fisted his hand and stopped just before slamming it into the table.
“You’re more angry than surprised. Why?”
“Things have been weird for a while now. Everyone is being reassigned and HVO members have been going on secret missions and not returning. Then last week two of the longest serving members of the HVO Council resigned and were replaced with people only a few years older than me. There have been rumblings for awhile that something is going on.”
“Do you know DI Emory?”
“Yes, he went missing a few days ago, or did he?” He cocked an eyebrow as he asked the question.
“They tried to take him out; the HVO has been compromised. I’m sorry.” I reached across the table and grasped his balled fist.
He opened it and took my hand, squeezing. “Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me.”
