Destiny

by A D Starrling

  Thirty feet to her right, the team of Bastian Hunters Victor had sent to Hawaii moved carefully through the rubble of the house, searching for any evidence left by the enemy who had attacked Lucas and Anna Soul’s home.

  A shiver danced down Alexa’s spine despite the heat. The dread that had shot through her when she and Zachary had received Asgard’s call earlier that day still echoed deep inside her.

  Although she had always considered herself a loner, even while she was growing up with Marie and Tom Fawkes and Dimitri on the latter’s estate in Sumava, meeting Zachary Jackson and her Immortal family had changed that in the last seven years.

  Her past self would have considered the bonds she had forged with them a weakness. Her present self had discovered them to be her greatest strength.

  Her affection for them was something that filled her with more happiness than she had ever experienced. Not only had she found her soulmate in Zachary, she had also acquired siblings in Lucas, Anna, Conrad, Ethan, and Olivia, and even an uncle in Asgard. Her relationship with the latter had come as a surprise. Though they came from completely different worlds and eras and had little in common, she could not help but feel a strong affinity for him, as he did for her. Neither of them were the greatest of conversationalists and they were more used to their own company than that of others.

  The connection between all of them went deeper than anything she had ever felt, a red thread of fate that had its origins in the distant past and would continue far into the future, binding them to an as yet unknown destiny.

  It was something she’d experienced a hint of after she had died for the first time, when she had lingered in that twilight place between death and resurrection and lived the memories of the incredible warrior who had been reincarnated in her. Her suspicions had crystallized into certainty when she had been introduced to Olivia and Ethan four years ago. The Seer had revealed details of the nightmare that had plagued her for nearly a hundred years, a nightmare founded in the memories of her own prodigious predecessor, which had been passed down her bloodline through the ages. Memories of a war that had seen the death of Crovir and Bastian, the Immortals who had given rise to the two races. A war Alexa had witnessed herself through the eyes of the founder of her own bloodline.

  Alexa would do anything to protect her newfound family, especially the children who had become its nucleus. Her anger at what Lily and Tomas would have endured during the assault still burned red and raw in her heart, as she knew it did in every one of her kin and their closest friends and allies.

  Footsteps crunched in the sand up ahead. She looked up and saw Reid approaching. He dropped down on his haunches in front of her and showed her something.

  ‘These are not just normal armor-piercing rounds.’ His voice was hard. ‘These bastards weren’t taking any chances. If one of these had hit Lucas or Anna, it would have hurt them pretty badly, regardless of their being Immortals.’

  Alexa studied the former US Marine.

  Of all their human allies, she was especially fond of Lucas’s best friend. It was he who had helped Zachary adapt to his new reality as a superhuman, after the latter had received a transfusion of Lucas’s blood when he lay on his deathbed following a lethal injury inflicted by Alberto Cavaleti during their battle with Kronos in the Ural Mountains seven years ago. Reid had similarly been gifted with Anna’s blood a few months before, when he’d been wounded. He had acquired self-healing abilities that nearly matched those of Immortals as well as a delayed aging process, the same as Zachary. Not only that, he was also a stronger and faster fighter than he had been before.

  Alexa turned her attention to the strange casings in his hand. They were of two distinct sizes.

  ‘They look like fragmenting bullets.’ She frowned. ‘Weren’t the 9mm ones still in the experimental phase?’

  ‘The military started using them this year. If it’s the same companies producing them, we should be able to trace their supply lines. But I get the feeling these were designed somewhere else.’ Reid narrowed his eyes. ‘They look more advanced.’

  Alexa twisted on her heels. She considered the house and the remains of the yacht floating next to the pier with a thoughtful stare.

  ‘From Lucas and Anna’s accounts, the men who attacked them were highly trained and thoroughly prepared. They knew the exact location of Tomas and Lily’s bedroom and the layout of the house. They also knew where the communication dish was, even though it was camouflaged.’

  ‘Which means they’ve been watching this place for a while,’ Reid said quietly.

  They looked at each other before gazing up at the sky.

  ‘Satellites,’ Reid muttered.

  Alexa studied the pale blue expanse above them. ‘It’s the only logical explanation.’

  A figure headed toward them from the direction of what remained of Lucas and Anna’s home.

  ‘Bar shedloads of bullet casings, I don’t think we’re gonna find anything else here,’ said the red-haired immortal who stopped beside them. ‘These assholes had enough ammo to start a war.’

  Anatole Vassili was a close friend of Conrad and Laura, and a former member of the first team of intelligence operatives Victor Dvorsky had put together when he was Head of the Bastian Corps, the precursor to what would become the Bastian Counter-Terrorism Section.

  ‘I’m surprised Victor let you come,’ Reid had told the Immortal when he’d seen him with the Hunters at the airport in Kauai.

  ‘He didn’t really have a choice in the matter,’ Anatole had retorted. ‘Those kids are special. Besides, hell knows what would happen to you guys if I wasn’t here. I’m forever having to save your sorry asses.’

  Reid had smiled despite the gravity of the situation.

  Alexa had heard about the battle Lucas, Reid, Anatole, and Victor had been involved in seven years ago from Dimitri. A small group of Crovir nobles had joined forces with the Bastian First Council to prevent a second Immortal war, one instigated by Agatha Vellacrus, the then leader of the Crovir race, and her son, Felix Thorne. That both Lucas and Anna would prove to be related to their enemy had come as a shock to everyone except their grandfather Tomas Godard, who had known the truth all along.

  Anatole scrutinized the bodies of the two men Lucas had killed. They had recovered the remains a short while back from the front of the property.

  ‘You know, one thing is kinda puzzling me.’

  Alexa followed his pale gaze. ‘You mean the lack of crows?’

  Like Lucas, she suspected the men who had attacked the island were Immortals. The fact that crows had not turned the dead intruders’ bodies to ash was another confounding mystery, one more to add to their growing list.

  Reid shrugged. ‘It could mean they’re human.’

  Alexa and Anatole stared at him.

  ‘No offense, but no human could take down the guy who was once the most hunted Immortal on the planet,’ Anatole said bluntly.

  ‘He did get shot in the head by one once,’ Reid retorted. He paused and grimaced. ‘Mind you, he was drunk as a skunk at the time.’

  ‘Oh yeah.’ Anatole pulled a face. ‘Was it that time you first met him, when he was mourning that Olsson guy’s death?’

  ‘Yeah. And don’t mention that bastard’s name.’

  ‘But you killed him.’

  Reid scowled. ‘I still don’t like hearing his name.’

  Anatole’s face cleared. He nodded with an understanding expression. ‘I get it. It’s a jealousy thing. That guy used to be Lucas’s best friend after all.’

  ‘I was not jealous of him,’ Reid said stonily.

  Anatole grinned. ‘You don’t have to be shy.’

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Reid snapped.

  Alexa swallowed a sigh as she listened to their bickering. One thing about having an extended family was that she now knew what it felt like to have relatives whom she wanted to smack once in a while. Or sometimes shoot. In a non-lethal spot. Probably.

  She rose
to her feet and indicated the bodies.

  ‘Let’s take them back with us. We might be able to identify them from their dental records.’

  Chapter Seven

  ‘You mean, the barrier was still there, outside the island?’

  Shock reverberated through Lucas as he stared at Olivia.

  ‘Stay still,’ Conrad muttered beside him.

  His hands were flush against Lucas’s abdomen and right shoulder. Warmth seeped through Lucas’s body as his cousin started healing his wounds.

  Olivia nodded. ‘Judging from the fact that Alexa and the Hunters didn’t experience it when their helicopters got there, I think Lily and Tomas created the wall to last long enough until someone their powers recognized tried to breach it.’

  Lucas shared a startled glance with Anna.

  They were at the mansion in the Santa Monica Mountains. Fourteen hours had passed since their home had been attacked and their children taken from them. Shortly after coming to their rescue that morning, Asgard had flown them to Kauai and back to the West Coast. They’d crossed paths briefly with Alexa, Reid, and Anatole at the airport in Hawaii. Zachary had accompanied them for the return trip.

  ‘Did you know Tomas and Lily had that ability?’ Victor said.

  Lucas looked distractedly at the flat-screen monitor on the wall to his left, where Victor’s video call was being transmitted live from the Bastian headquarters in Vienna.

  They were in the mansion’s main lounge. Glass walls spanned three aspects of the room, offering views over the lit terraces and gardens carved into the hill on which the estate had been built. Beyond them were dark canyons leading to the distant, moonlit Pacific.

  ‘We—’ Lucas’s gaze flickered to Anna as he answered Victor’s question, ‘—no, we didn’t know they could do that.’

  He was still struggling to grasp Olivia’s startling revelation: that the protective bubble their children had created to shield them from the grenades had been there all along, keeping them safe from further attacks.

  It filled him with awe.

  ‘I suspect they didn’t either,’ Olivia said softly. ‘They must have sensed what was about to happen to you and reacted instinctively.’

  The same reverence Lucas and Anna had experienced at the time was reflected on the faces of their relatives and friends.

  Asgard looked at Olivia and Ethan. ‘It must have been as powerful as the one you two created at Yuma to have lasted so long.’

  Olivia nodded.

  ‘Can you sense them?’ Anna leaned forward where she sat next to Lucas, her green eyes glinting with hope. ‘In your mind?’

  Olivia hesitated before shaking her head.

  ‘No, I can’t. I tried during the attack. All I got was a jumble of images and feelings. I think—,’ she hesitated and bit her lip, ‘—I think they’re somewhere far away. Somewhere they and I haven’t been before. And I’m pretty sure they were sedated in order to get them there.’

  Anna’s shoulders sagged. Lucas fought back the emotion clogging his throat and linked his hand with hers.

  They hadn’t been separated from their children from the moment of their birth, not even once. Their absence was a gnawing emptiness in the pit of his stomach, an emptiness that was threatening to consume him. He could tell without even looking at her that Anna was battling the same abyss.

  He recalled the moment after the explosions, when they had suspected their children were fighting for their lives inside the helicopters. He knew then that Olivia was right about the drugs. A fresh wave of rage flooded him at the thought of what Tomas and Lily had lived through last night and what they could be enduring this very minute.

  ‘Easy,’ Conrad warned, his fingers flexing on his tense flesh.

  Lucas blinked. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be.’ Conrad looked at Laura where she perched on the armrest beside Anna. His face hardened. ‘If someone took our kid, I would burn the world to find them and rip their heart from their body.’

  Laura squeezed Anna’s shoulder, her expression just as deadly.

  Asgard rose and started pacing the floor. ‘So, we’re still no closer to knowing where they are, why they were taken, and who took them.’

  The frustration in his uncle’s voice resonated inside Lucas. Nearly a day had passed since the attack and they were no nearer to figuring out who had kidnapped Tomas and Lily and why. The latter question worried him the most. From the expression he’d glimpsed in Anna’s eyes when they were in her lab that morning, he sensed they shared the same suspicion.

  ‘We have a couple of clues,’ Reid said.

  Alexa nodded, silver eyes glinting. ‘The bodies and the cartridges we found on the island.’

  ‘What about satellite images?’ Zachary said. ‘Any way we can look at them retrospectively? Figure out where those helicopters came from?’

  ‘There wouldn’t be many Black Hawks hanging around that particular part of the Pacific,’ Anatole muttered, leaning against a wall.

  ‘I’ve already got my team on it,’ Howard said. Windows flickered and data streamed across the monitor of the laptop on his knees. ‘The nearest landmass is Hawaii so I suspect they took off from one of the islands. It might take days to analyze the images, though. You’re talking about dozens of satellites in geosynchronous orbits over the Western hemisphere at any one time.’ He glanced at them with a frown. ‘It’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack.’

  Although he was a skilled hacker himself, Lucas was grateful for Howard’s presence. As the brain behind STAEGH Corp, the Crovir was leaps ahead of any of them when it came to infiltrating secure databases and obtaining intelligence. He was also the head of a group of international cyber activists whose main goal was to subvert the illegal actions of governments and powerful corporations around the world.

  ‘We’re working that angle at our end too,’ Victor added. ‘And I agree with Titus. It’s gonna take a while to get through the data.’

  Zachary’s face suddenly brightened. He turned to Alexa. ‘Hey, honey, I think we know someone who could help with that.’

  Alexa smiled faintly and pulled her cell from her pocket.

  Lucas watched as she pressed a number on speed dial, as perplexed as everyone else in the room. Only Victor seemed to know what she and Zachary were talking about.

  ‘Good thinking,’ the Bastian leader murmured. ‘She’ll speed things up considerably.’

  Alexa handed her cell to Howard. ‘Can you transfer this to the main monitor?’

  Howard tapped a couple of keys on his laptop and set up a second window on the flat-screen on the wall. The video call connected a moment later.

  A man with a shock of tousled, dark hair and brown eyes came into view. He was dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, and was sitting in a chair at a workstation in a dimly lit, concrete and glass computer lab.

  ‘Oh, hey, Alexa.’ He glanced at them distractedly, words distorted by the popsicle hanging out the corner of his mouth. ‘What can I do for you?’

  Alexa frowned. ‘I was hoping to talk to Eva. Why are you still up? It’s five in the morning there.’

  The man shrugged. ‘You know I’m a night bird.’

  A faint noise rose from the monitor’s speakers.

  Alexa sighed. ‘Is that “Call of Duty” I hear in the background?’

  The man grinned and almost lost the popsicle. ‘Yup. I’m testing the company’s latest game. It’s ace. You should come over and have a go.’

  ‘No, thank you,’ Alexa said coldly.

  ‘Who is this guy?’ Howard muttered.

  Alexa scanned their puzzled faces. ‘Did none of you visit Dimitri’s research facility when you came to Sumava?’

  Madeleine arched an eyebrow. ‘There’s a research facility on the estate?’

  ‘Yes.’ A shadow darted across Alexa’s face. ‘Kronos destroyed it seven years ago. Dimitri had the labs rebuilt in a different location.’

  The man on the screen paused his video game and pe
ered closely at the monitor at his end for the first time. His eyes rounded when he finally registered their presence.

  ‘Whoa. What’s with the crowd?’ The popsicle fell into his lap. ‘Shit!’

  He shot out of the chair and disappeared from view.

  ‘Eva, are you there?’ Alexa said to the empty screen.

  Lucas startled when a computerized female voice replied.

  ‘Yes, I am. It is good to see you, Alexa. Zachary, I enjoyed your latest paper on the findings you and Dimitri made in North Africa last year.’

  Zachary grinned. ‘Thanks, Eva.’

  ‘Victor, I see you’re online with us too. It’s been some time since you and I played a game of chess.’

  ‘Hi, Eva,’ Victor murmured. ‘And yes, it’s been a while.’

  Howard blinked. ‘Who is that?’

  ‘That’s Eva, the AI Jordan created,’ Alexa said. ‘She looks after Dimitri’s estate and his labs.’

  ‘Dimitri has an AI?’ Howard said, shocked. ‘And who’s Jordan?’

  The dark-haired man in the sweatpants came back into view. He was dabbing at his clothes with a towel.

  ‘This is Jordan Banks, Eva’s…father,’ Alexa said in a long-suffering tone.

  Jordan plonked himself down in the chair and waved a hand at the camera. ‘Yo.’

  Alexa made introductions, finishing with Howard. ‘Jordan, Eva, this is Howard Titus. I’m sure you’ve heard of STAEGH Corp.’

  ‘Of course. STAEGH Corp is a thirty-and-a-half-billion-dollar tech company owned by Howard Orson Rodney Titus and two silent business partners whose identities have never been made public,’ Eva narrated smoothly. ‘Mr. Titus is currently number five on the list of the world’s richest tech tycoons and has consistently been in the top twenty most-wanted bachelors for the last decade.’

  Howard opened and closed his mouth soundlessly.

  ‘Are you flirting with him?’ Jordan asked the AI testily.

  ‘I am not,’ Eva replied. ‘I am being appreciative of his brains and his physical assets. By the way, I am most intrigued by the two gentlemen on the couch to the right. I can see energy being transferred from Mr. Greene to Mr. Soul. It is fascinating to observe.’