“He's not actually from Hades, Merrick. They use similar expressions.”
“Not so similar,” Jeb countered in vague disagreement.
“Do you guys speak English?” Jacky asked, giving Jeb a sharp look.
“Latin,” Jasper admitted reluctantly.
“Wait a sec,” Madeline said. “You—I knew something sounded familiar.”
“What?” Jacky asked, walking over to an old camping light and pulsing it on with his thumb. “Awesome! Still works—sweet!”
His enthusiasm was contagious. If things hadn't been so dire and their return so important, Jeb would have enjoyed conversing casually with Threes for the first time.
Normally, he and a Reflective partner were in foreign sector for only twenty-four hours before returning to Papilio for a day's respite. If the next jump’s purpose wasn't collecting intel, it was reconnaissance, or—in the case of the latest jump—completing a small but critical mission.
Bright light surged through the space, and Jeb took in upturned milk crates used as makeshift furniture, the lamp that burned brightly, and a small—what is that? Jeb broke from the group and walked to the small box.
He opened it, releasing a smell that was so awful, it made his stomach turn. Jeb coughed into his hand, slapping the door shut again.
“That's rank, man!”
“It's an old fridge,” Madeline said evenly, and Jeb could see she thought he was a dipshit.
He felt like one.
“Anyway,” Madeline began, “I'm catholic, and I’ve heard that word, Papilio. I know what it means. It took a while, but my mom's made me go to mass since forever, and there was this Sunday school teacher that had little stickies…”
Beth frowned.
“Little pieces of paper with a sticky edge to attach to stuff,” Jacky explained.
“Hmmm,” Jeb said, palming his chin, listening.
“So one of the stickies was stuck to a butterfly.”
“You're from the butterfly world?” Jacky asked. With disbelieving snort, he laughed. Then he guffawed, holding his ribs.
“That's wicked funny.”
Jeb didn't think so. “They're a sacred insect on my world.”
Jacky got quiet. “Okay, I don't wanna dis you, my man, but butterflies?”
He flapped his hands near his shoulders.
“They identify Reflectives at birth,” Jasper said.
Madeline sat up from her perch on the plastic crate. “Really?”
Jasper nodded.
“Are they pretty?” she asked.
“They are beautiful,” Jeb said without a hint of embarrassment.
“So you kick-ass military guys”—Jacky turned to Jasper—“and girl…”
Jasper smiled.
“Get picked to be Dimensional by bugs?”
“Technically, they're insects,” Madeline said.
“Yeah, whatever. It's too weird for words.”
He was giving Jeb a speculative look.
“I think it's neat,” Madeline said.
“Nobody says that anymore, Maddie.”
“My mom does.”
Jeb felt the silence.
“You're concerned about your parent.”
Madeline exhaled in a rush. “She works grave so Chuck'll sleep it off or tear the house up. He won't get her.”
This time. No one said it, but Beth was certain they had all thought it.
“Your mother works in the evening,” Jasper clarified, and Madeline nodded.
“She is safe until she returns.”
Madeline drew her pulse out of the pocket of her denims, swiped her thumb, and sat silently for a moment. “Nine hours, thirty minutes, and five seconds.”
Jeb scrubbed his face. “Does she—is she Dimensional?”
“Too old.”
The mother of a daughter as old as Madeline would not be in that segment of the population affected by the Zondoraes’ intervention. Only adolescent younglings inoculated with their chemical concoction manifested the assortment of paranormal talents these younglings possessed.
“Chuck doesn't have dick, except access to the nearest bottle.”
Jeb frowned at the crude tongue on the boy, but the information was good to know.
“I have an idea,” Jasper said slowly.
Jeb had been stewing over the inevitable: Jude Calvin's arrival because of the botched mission. He was open to reasonable suggestions.
“If Madeline doesn't need a surface, I can act as a sort of focus, and we can get home—tonight.”
Jeb shook his head. “Sounds good in theory but what if something goes wrong?”
“She's Reflective, Merrick.”
He turned on her. “No, she's not. She doesn't need a surface, Jasper—she just jumps.”
“They've done something. Messed with a process.”
“You mean, you guys didn't get a shot? No one made you this way?” Jacky asked.
Jeb shook his head again. “No. We are born Reflective.”
“I'm doing this jumping, but you need…?”
Jasper looked at Madeline. “We need a surface that reflects to jump.”
“There are varying degrees of finesse, of course.”
Jacky gave a low whistle. “So those ass cracks, the scientists—”
Madeline cocked her head to the side. “Zondorae.”
Jacky snapped his fingers.
“Yeah, those butt munches. They're the ones that gave us the special sauce then ran off with their pathetic peckers…”
“Jacky—God, quit!”
“It's true, Maddie.”
“Yeah, but you're not being a very good example of our world or whatever.”
Jeb's thoughts turned to the corrupt law officer and Chuck, the female beater.
He said in a low voice, “I don't think he's the worst of what we've seen in Sector Three.”
“That's what you call Earth?”
Jeb nodded.
“Let's go, Merrick. We can explain things to Rachett.”
“You mean I can.”
Jasper had the grace to look embarrassed.
“I don't want to get anyone in trouble,” Madeline interjected quickly.
Mind made up, Jeb decided returning with a Three who was a Reflective—or at least this world’s version—would be the order of the night.
What is the Three expression?
Better to beg for mercy.
*
Jeb had trouble navigating the narrow and shallow tunnel that led out of the partially submerged pile of old motor vehicles. Something similar had existed on Papilio, but the old machines had been reduced and reused for clean-burning fuel two hundred years before.
Jeb’s small band poured out of a diminutive opening, and Jeb straightened. He put a hand to his back as he arched into a stretch after the stooping walk through the tunnel.
“Sucks to suck,” Jacky said, surveying Jeb trying to un-cramp.
“Jacky, put a cork in it,” Madeline said.
“Nah, it's fun to stick it to the big guy.”
Jeb's eyes narrowed on the youngling. He was almost more trouble than he was worth.
The new moon cast the landscape in nearly total darkness. As Jeb's eyes adjusted to the night, he could make out just enough of their environment to avoid plowing into everything that rose up into the sky ten meters high. There was perhaps a two-meter-wide random pathway between the two mountains of collapsed metal debris.
He and Jasper made their way to the center.
“This is where we part ways, Jacky,” Jeb said.
“No way, dude! You're not my dad,” he said critically to Jeb.
He and Jasper made their way to the center.
“You're not a Reflective.”
“He's a Sensitive,” Beth acknowledged.
“So?” Jacky said.
“Your kind sees us.”
“You've been outed in the past so I get penalized because some clowns ratted on you?”
“Your kind is not well-liked. Yo
u would not be welcome in Papilio.”
“Yeah? I've got a boatload of charisma. Wait till they get a load of my charm.”
“Is he always like this?” Jasper asked.
“Only when he's awake,” Madeline quipped.
“I feel responsible for you. We're breaking every directive in The Cause just by taking the girl. You would be…”
“Bad,” Jasper said.
Jeb could only shrug.
“Yes.”
“I want Jacky to go,” Madeline said in a quiet voice.
“Know this,” Jeb warned. “Time moves differently from one sector to the next. There is no guarantee what year it will be when we return. As much as a season could have gone by here.”
“You have to decide,” Jasper said.
“My mom…” Madeline said.
Jasper shook her head.
“You can't defend yourself. What makes you think that you can protect your parent? Why is this something that you feel is your responsibility?”
The standing water in Madeline's eyes welled, and she sucked in a breath.
Female tears.
The night had just sunk to an all-time low for Jeb.
“My father…”
“Chuck?” Jeb asked.
“No way, not that dick,” Jacky interrupted, and Jeb held up his hand for silence.
“Whatever,” he muttered, kicking a small pebble with his sneaker.
“No, my dad died when I was five.”
Her voice warbled, and Jeb swallowed. He had not noticed the color of her eyes until just then; they were a midnight blue kissed by violet. The light from the streetlights slanted across her face in unnatural brilliance.
“He made me promise to take care of my mom.”
“He couldn't have meant for you to be her champion,” Jasper said quietly, placing her hand on the girl's arm.
Fat tears chased each other down her face.
“Maybe,” she whispered, “but I meant it.”
Those large eyes closed then opened, blinking away a sadness that would never leave her.
Merrick saw Jasper's face and understood that the emotions of this young female, mirrored some of her own.
*
They linked hands.
“What do I do?” Madeline asked, her lower lip rolled into her mouth, her teeth gnawing on it.
Jasper squeezed her hand.
“Close your eyes, and Merrick and I will guide the jump. We need you to—”
“Kick-start the whole tamale,” Jacky said.
“Are we really taking him?” Jeb asked.
“Yup!” Jacky said, rocking back on his heels, swinging longish sweaty hair out of his eyes.
Jeb made a noise in his throat.
He wasn't sure what would be worse: Rachett's fury at the fucked mission or the Threes he was returning with.
It was a toss-up, but Jeb was betting the extras would get them roundly punished.
They stood, hands joined.
Jeb could hear the breathing of the younglings, and Jasper's was predictably smooth and measured.
They were taking a risk by using a Reflective with no experience, no locator, and no reflection to get them back home.
Jeb heard Jacky shift his weight impatiently, and that's when Jeb felt the first stirrings of heat.
Power.
It climbed his legs and made him gasp when it exploded inside his throat, warming his body like a deep-burning fire. His eyes sprang open.
Jasper's hair lifted from her body with what appeared to be electrical charge.
Madeline's eyes blazed like captured blue stars.
She threw back her head and gasped.
Jeb clenched Jasper's hand.
“Focus,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I am,” Jasper answered, just as fiercely.
When the sliding hold on the world let go, they were plunged in the familiar pathway.
Jeb tucked Jasper against him and fought to retain his hold.
His anxiety was a knot in his stomach. If they were lucky enough to land on Papilio, he would have to face whatever discipline came his way—and do his best to shield Jasper.
*
Jeb was tossed out like a tumbleweed onto the unforgiving street of his home quadrant of Barringer.
The air in his lungs punched out of him as Jasper was flung on the softer moss that lined the sidewalks.
Jeb assessed his environment.
The air was colder, and he knew immediately that they had lost a good deal of time.
He lurched to a sitting position, his lungs filling again. He sucked in the pure air of Papilio and relished it for the two seconds before Jasper and one of the younglings joined him.
“This rocks!” Jacky said, looking around in awe-struck wonder.
Swell. Jeb was already second-guessing his decision making abilities.
Dawn broke across a thin blue sky, clouds like stretched and bleeding taffy danced across the horizon, and the mountains’ white caps were changing to red.
Madeline walked toward them. Jasper's jaw dropped, and Merrick was stunned. He had heard of such a thing but never seen it.
While Madeline wandered around, looking at everything new, she was unaware of the change that had come over her.
She swiveled her face to Jeb and Jasper. Her expression of wonder faded, turning somber.
“What is it? What's wrong?”
The waif that had been a Dimensional in Sector Three had blossomed into the full bloom of womanhood, no longer thin but robustly healthy, every curve in the right place.
Lush hair had replaced the unhealthy wisps, and her eyes were no longer blue-ish but an arresting deep purple, a navy ring bordering the iris.
“Damn—damn, damn,” Jacky said, circling her.
Madeline self-consciously smoothed her riot of hair. “Tell me this second what the problem is. Am I okay?”
Jeb thought she was more than okay.
Jasper gave him a sharp elbow to the side and he grunted.
“You're staring, asshole,” Jasper said.
His brows rose at the name.
“It's worth a stare. You can't deny it.”
Jasper just shook her head. He was right.
Madeline DeVere was incredible looking.
Jeb tensed, sensing an approach. All his abilities were heightened on his home planet. He moved in front of Madeline, and when Jacky tried to get cocky, he pulled the youngling in beside him.
Lance Ryan appeared, along with Jude Calvin and Dave Kennet.
What the fuck was Ryan doing off Sector One already?
Jeb didn't know but was forcibly reminded of his duty to The Cause when it was all he could do not to jerk Jasper behind him, as well.
He would have to let Jasper go.
Jeb couldn't Reflect properly when his mind was constantly on her protection.
“Well, hello, Beth,” Ryan said, his entire body tensed.
“Dial it down, Ryan,” Calvin said.
Jeb didn't like the look Ryan gave Calvin, but he said nothing.
He trusted Calvin with his life.
Ryan's face went from Jasper with nothing but disgust then moved to the youngling.
It settled on Madeline and remained there.
Ryan's eyes moved in slow perusal over her body, and when he finally got to Madeline eyes—hers were cast to the ground.
The heat of her embarrassment was clear to any fool with half a wit.
And Jeb knew Ryan was no fool, but a deliberate fuck.
Why Rachett hadn’t trashed him was anyone's guess. But after a thousand years, his commander was very aware of natural selection.
Jeb just didn't happen to agree.
“We felt the break in the continuum. Rachett sent us, Jeb.” Calvin didn't ask, but his eyes begged the question.
“Picked up some stray… Threes.” Ryan made an impressive stab in the dark.
“Yes.” Terse, one-word-only answers for that prick.
“Rachett's going to get a hard-on for this that'll never let go,” Ryan said.
Jeb scowled.
Madeline was looking at them all and asked, “Are we—are they going to hurt us?”
Ryan slung his stabilizer over his shoulder. A state-of-the-art mini-pulse machine gun, it had auto accuracy when the target was thought into the thumb pad.
He went straight to Madeline, and she back peddled, moving closer to Jeb.
“Don't be a shit, Ryan,” Jasper said.
“Get off my D, mongrel.” Ryan's eyes glittered down at Jasper while Madeline watched with frightened eyes.
Jeb bet Madeline wished she'd stayed in her own sector.
From where she sat, Papilio was more dangerous than the place she’d just left.
True.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Beth
“And you're going to make me?” he scoffed.
“I think we've been through this.”
Beth gave him the look the comment deserved.
His eyes narrowed on her.
“I thought—I thought you guys were all fine with each other?” Madeline asked uncertainly.
“How can you understand them?” Jacky asked.
“Understand what?” Madeline asked.
“Catch a clue. They're speaking that Latin crap.”
Jasper and Jeb looked at Madeline.
Ryan leered at Madeline.
“Don't,” Beth warned.
“I'm not going to hurt the female.”
“Right, that's why you've been cooling your heals in One.”
“I served my time, you bitch mongrel, so shut your fucking mouth.”
Merrick was on him, swinging the butt of his own stabilizer into his face, spraying blood.
Ryan staggered back, clenched his fist, and came after Merrick.
“If you were smart, you'd stand down,” Merrick said casually.
“He's not, Merrick,” Kennet said offhandedly.
Ryan hesitated, his hand covering his split lip. “You giving Jasper the beef injection?” he sneered.
“What a jerk,” Jacky muttered.
They ignored him.
“No,” Merrick paused, making sure he spoke in Latin in front of the youngling. “Who I fuck is none of your business, but it wouldn't be my partner. It goes against The Cause…”
“Yeah, yeah, Merrick… you're such a do-gooder. We all know the tenth.” He swiped blood off his mouth and spread it on his uniform.
Tenth: reconcile emotion for The Cause, not another.
Ryan looked at Madeline.
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