Echoes of Memories (Nepherium Novella Series Book 2)

by Samantha LaFantasie

  Her shoulders lifted and fell. “I’m sorry.” She sounded sincere. Her energy hummed, calm and gentle, around me. “I wish I could take that experience away. From both of you. I’m afraid there is no way to do that now that I have more distressing news.”

  I pulled myself up more, leaned my back against the wall, then tucked my knees to my chest and hugged them. Once I was settled and had taken a deep breath to calm my nerves, I nodded.

  “I saw Noah while on Tartarus.”

  But she’d been on Earth as long as I had. How could she have … I’m an idiot.

  “And?” It came out in a whisper.

  Her head drooped between her shoulders. She inhaled a long breath and said, “He was awake before we were scheduled to launch. In fact, he woke while your life was being saved. He broke out of the hydro-chamber and fought off medics trying to get to you. We don’t know why he woke or how he was able to break through the thick glass, but he was sedated and taken to a room separate from yours.

  “I wanted to see how he was faring and update him on your status. So, I went to his cabin and felt for his near non-existent energy. He snapped at me. He was angry and distant. Whatever happened to him—whatever Alexander Barabbas had given him—it changed Noah. Completely. As much as I hate to say it, I don’t believe he’s Nepherium anymore. I can’t say how, but that’s the impression I got.

  “I suspect Noah has somehow become a puppet. I saw the real him, in his eyes, when he showed up here. His specific order for no visitors came from the real him. That leads me to believe he’s very well aware of the changes happening in him.”

  I held up my hand to stop her. “Are you saying he was aware of his actions when he tried to strangle me?”

  She shook her head and said, “No. I think he doesn’t have control over whatever is inside him or what’s happening to him. He wanted to protect you. When he tried to strangle you, that’s what clued me in to him being a puppet. I just don’t know how.”

  “He’s never raised a hand to me and has always been gentle in every aspect of our life. His eyes weren’t even his. They were black holes devoid of life and light.” I forced back a shiver. “I wish I knew how to help him.”

  A large lump formed in my throat again. I tried to swallow it, but it hurt and made my eyes water. The image of Noah’s face when he wrapped his arms around my neck flashed before my eyes every time I blinked.

  “What are you thinking, Sergeant?”

  “Do you really think he isn’t himself?” I asked.

  “He’s your compar. Do you not know him?”

  I shook my head. Knowing him required remembering him and the years we spent together. It meant knowing him better than I knew myself.

  “I’m afraid I still don’t remember much of him. Just bits of a puzzle that’s missing most of its pieces. I once explained it was like thinking through Swiss cheese. Just when I think I have him figured out, a gaping hole appears and sets me back a few paces. First Alexander and then this. I know what I feel for him and what I can recall. The Noah that is in that room doesn’t fit. None of this does. I can’t put the puzzle together no matter how I turn the pieces.”

  Captain Morrigan was absorbing my words. For what motive or reasoning, I couldn’t be sure. Even if I asked, she wouldn’t tell me. I understood that much. I never could underestimate her. She always gave me reasons to remain leery of her. She had reasons, hidden motives, behind her actions. I knew this from the moment I set my eyes on her when she stepped into my room on Tartarus. My regression and memories had nothing to do with it.

  After several quiet moments, she said, “No. I don’t think he is himself. Although, I think you are closer to the answer than any of us are. So, what will it be?”

  “I don’t know what you think I know or how much closer to an answer you think I am. But I do have a good inclination on where to start.”

  She lifted her hand and let it fall onto her lap with a slap. “Fine. I trust you remember how to perform missions under the Aurora Vanguard?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Good. Get some rest. I’ll be in my room if anyone needs anything. I expect you to have a plan by morning.”

  She removed herself from the bed and stepped to the door. She paused in the doorway and turned toward me. “Follow protocol, Ehlers. Eat your food. Can’t have you wasting away.”

  “I’ve already eaten,” I muttered.

  The door closed.

  I waited several moments. Long enough for her to have made it to her room and locked herself away. There was a reason she let me know that information. But what was it?

  Climbing out of my bed, I made my way to my team. I had a personal mission to attend to, and the captain just confirmed her inability to interfere.

  I found them in the commons. Bear fumbled through the fridge while Justin sat at the table, sandwich in hand, and Blake sat on the couch, staring at some advertisement for one of Alexander’s numerous properties. All of them were dressed in the standard issued sweats and t-shirts. All grey with DOE&S in black lettering up the sides of the legs and across the chest. Blake’s eyes dropped to mine from the screen, surprise etched his features.

  “Eh, boss lady, you’re up? How you feeling?”

  A smile tugged on my lips, but the feeling didn’t feel right, so I erased it. “I’m getting ready to go for a run. I still have some holiday shopping to do, and I need to get away and think.”

  “Whoa, Ghost,” Bear said, pulling himself from the fridge to turn and face me as soon as my presence was announced. “That’s not such a good idea, don’t you think? I mean, you just went through something pretty traumatic.”

  “I’m good.”

  “At least take someone with you,” he said.

  “I need to be alone. I promise I won’t do anything to get myself into trouble. Besides, I need to run.”

  “You haven’t run in a long time,” Justin said, his mouth half full of the sandwich he was eating.

  “I know.”

  “We have a track here,” Blake offered.

  I shook my head. “I need the air, and I have that shopping to do.”

  “Where do you think you’ll do any shopping? It’s late. Like eleven at night late. No stores are open.”

  “It’s okay. I want to make a list and take stock of the stores that have the items I want. I’m fine. Really. I just need to go. Thought I would tell you so you didn’t come to check on me and find me missing.”

  “That’s thoughtful of you, but I insist you take someone with you,” Bear said in his fatherly tone. Deep and final.

  “I’ll go,” Justin said, swallowing the last bite of his food. He took a swig of water to wash it down. “I need to finalize a few things myself.”

  “There,” Bear said. “It’s settled.”

  I switched my gaze between the two of them then over to Blake. He lifted his hands in the air and raised his eyebrows to form high arches along his forehead. He wasn’t getting himself in the middle of it. I made a decision, but Bear’s was always final.

  Giving in, I told Justin to get dressed and meet me outside.

  FIFTEEN

  I LEANED AGAINST THE side of the transporter, mentally running through ways to lose my brother. They knew I was up to something. I guess being ready to face the world after almost getting killed by my husband did raise a few flags. Especially with my team, since we prided ourselves on being open with each other and trusted every single member with our own lives. My team was more than my family. They were my life.

  Still, standing out in the cold, waiting on Justin to arrive, I knew they wouldn’t understand my methods. They didn’t know I had a talk with the captain, what I had learned, and what I’d pieced together myself. They would either try to stop me or join in. Neither of which were an option.

  Footsteps crunched behind me. On instinct, I reached out to feel the approaching energy and sighed in relief. “‘Bout time you showed up.”

  “Hey, I had to prepare!”

>   I faced Justin in full gear, complete with a belt of daggers and plasma gun.

  “For what?” I asked.

  He gave me a look and pointed to his temple with the tip of his finger. “I saw what you had in mind.”

  “I forgot about your telepathy.”

  “Among my numerous skills, yes. Even if you didn’t let me come with you, I wouldn’t let you go in alone. I would’ve followed you.”

  “Too bad you can’t stop things from happening.”

  “But I’ll always be there to back you up.” He smiled, and I felt safer having him with me.

  I nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Let’s go. We don’t have all night, and if we hurry, we can catch her off guard.”

  We climbed into the transporter and settled in. I took in the view of Avalon. I couldn’t help thinking that even if we did find Jenna and get her to respond, none of it would follow protocol or end very well. No meeting with Jenna ever had, except for when she was pretending to be my friend.

  No. This was going to be dirty and end just as bad.

  Something foreboding carried on the air. The feeling was almost tangible and held a physical weight. It started out faint, just after take-off, but strengthened during our flight. It twisted in my gut, making me shift in my seat.

  “You feel it too, don’t you?” Justin asked.

  I turned my gaze to him. “I’m an empath. That’s what I do.”

  “You’re still not remembering.” He sighed. “You’re close. But still wrong. Yes, you’re empathic, but that feeling, the one we share, is clairvoyance. You feel the tension in the air because there is a shift in the world’s energy. You can feel it getting stronger the closer you get to whatever it is. Once you remember how to hone in on that, you can receive images, or clues, on where the wrong is. That’s how the Vanguard has operated under the radar for so long.”

  “I don’t think I’m ever going to get all my memories back.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe not. But you won’t have to. In time, our team will help you get back on track. Have faith, Elsa.”

  “You sound like a strange combination of Mom and Noah.”

  He chuckled. “I’m your big brother. I have to sound like Mom, and Noah is my commander and brother-in-law. We both love you a great deal.”

  “Yeah …”

  Justin reached over and smoothed the cloth covering my arm a few times. “Hey, we’re going to find a way to help him. He does love you. I know it beyond a doubt. Whatever is happening to him is what caused him to attack you. Not him. Not the Noah we all know and love.”

  I turned my attention to the city below. The sky brightened as it stretched toward the horizon, kissing the ground in the first rays of the breaking dawn. The last of the twinkling city lights struggled to keep their shine against the oncoming day. Transporters shifted over the air between the buildings, keeping watch over the city.

  Moments like these always seemed more peaceful and profound than others. Sticking out like a lifeline—a symbol of hope with a message that no matter what happens, things will be as they need to be, working out in some unforeseen way that makes the world continue to turn and life continue to prosper. And it was then that something within my revelation pointed me in the direction I needed to go. One that I knew I had to take from the beginning but didn’t want to believe it until then.

  I sighed.

  “Deep subject,” Justin said. A soft chuckle entered the space between us.

  You have no idea. “Do me a favor …”

  “Of course.”

  “Let me do this on my own.”

  “No can do.”

  “Look, I can’t guarantee this is going to go down the way it needs to. If something happens to me, I can’t have you jumping in and risking your life to save me.”

  “I’m not going to let you go in alone. First of all, there are orders. Second, I would never forgive myself if something happened to you and I didn’t do anything to help. If you go down, I go down.”

  “Justin, please. I need to do this. Alone.”

  “Elsabetha, I know you don’t have all your memories back and you are very stubborn, but I’m not going to let you go in alone. I can’t, and I won’t. So drop it.”

  I pressed my lips into a firm line as Justin angled the transporter for the pad on the Academy’s campus, toward the city’s center. It was in one of several rows of transporters parked in a lot.

  “I take it you know where to go?”

  “And you don’t?”

  An awkward silence settled between us before I cleared my throat and admitted I didn’t.

  “You’re kidding me? What was your plan? Roam the city until you found her? Then what? Think you had the element of surprise and attack? Sanctus infernum, Elsa.”

  His clipped words made me recoil, but he was right. I didn’t have a plan. I remembered my combat training but not the tactical training. Not the training I needed to remember. There wasn’t enough time to sit around and wait for it to all come back to me. I had to do something, whether winging it or operating by sheer luck. But hearing the fallacy of my “plan” in my brother’s words made my mistake very clear to me.

  “No,” I muttered.

  We touched ground, landing in a soft bump before the engine was terminated and the quiet in the cab carried a loud hum of its own.

  “I was going to confront Jenna and Alexander if he was with her,” I said after a brief moment of silence.

  “Confront Alexander? Elsa, of all the people to come up against, you think you can find and confront him on your own?”

  I nodded, ashamed. This would be so much easier if I had all my memories back.

  “Elsa, you are Vanguard. And Vanguard never act on their own accord. Ever. Even if I had agreed to let you go in alone, did you honestly think I would?”

  “I feel so stupid.” My head fell into my hands, and I leaned forward onto my knees. “I should know better, but I’m desperate. I can’t remember everything and even what I do remember, it either doesn’t make sense or there’re gaps missing from the whole. I know I can take him. I can force him to tell me what he’s done to Noah.”

  “How?”

  “Using his own methods. Or bluffing if I have to.”

  Justin laughed. His hoots echoed through the enclosed space, borderline manic.

  I lifted up and glared at him. Crossing my arms over my chest, I pressed myself into the back of my seat. “Well, it worked the last time.”

  His laughs slowed then stopped, and he focused on something in front of him. I looked away, shaking my head. “Sure it did. It went just swimmingly.”

  “So what? Are we just going to sit here and wait for Jenna to strut in front of us?”

  Justin shook his head. “Training will start soon. I figured I would ask a few questions and see if anyone has seen her.”

  “I thought Jenna didn’t work here?”

  “Oh, believe me, she works here. But my sources say she’s been spotted here long after hours.”

  “Your sources?” I asked, my voice coming out flat.

  “Hey now! Watch the fragile ego. Once I woke up, I started to do some digging, too. I called in a few favors with some people I trust.”

  “And they told you what exactly?”

  Justin sighed and shook his head. “Just that they’ve seen her here much later than anyone else, and she’s often still here when they show up for morning drills. Upon further digging, there has been no authorization or reason for her to be on grounds so late. Especially since she’s not a cadet and doesn’t live on campus.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “I hope you didn’t pay for that information.”

  “Any information, regardless how useless it seems, should be followed up on.”

  “And you just decided to come tonight?”

  “I figured we could scope out the grounds, see if we can see anything that sticks out. If Jenna is here, we should find her.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” I said and
unstrapped myself. “Where has she been seen, according to your trusted sources?”

  “Make fun of my information if you want, but if it gets us one step closer to helping Noah …”

  I pressed my lips together and held my breath. “Point taken. So, how long do we wait? Or did you expect those answers to come to us?”

  Justin sat up, his gaze directed to the jogging path that ran right next to the transporter pad. I followed his gaze to Jenna Malcom, strutting along the sidewalk as if she hadn’t a care in the world. She wore all black, easily blending into the shadows of the transporters still cloaked in the last remnants of night.

  Smug little bitch.

  “Well, this is convenient,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Justin murmured. “Too convenient.”

  I shrugged, not willing to lose the one chance we had at Jenna, and started to move when Justin caught my arm.

  “Hang on. Let’s wait and see where she’s going. If we get out now, she’ll either know our position and run, or she’ll attack. In case this is a trap, our best bet is to wait until she’s just out of sight then follow at a distance. Far enough behind that she won’t notice.”

  “You’re right.”

  “There’s one for the calendar.”

  I shrugged off the sarcastic comment and took my seat. Jenna bounced in and out of the shadows between transporters. She passed us, seeming as though we were outside of her awareness and continued on. As soon as she left our sight, we stepped out of the transporter and followed along the same path she had taken, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows since I couldn’t remember how to cloak myself and Justin didn’t want to waste time teaching me. But soon after we reached the point of when she left our sight, we realized we had lost her.

  Perfect.

  “That’s the last time I follow your lead,” I muttered as I turned back for the transporter.

  “Something isn’t right. Elsa, wait!” Justin’s voice, even as a whisper, echoed through the night. I still didn’t listen as I stomped away. We’d just lost our only chance at saving Noah. Waiting wasn’t on my to-do list.