The Church of Sleep (Central Series Book 5)

by Zachary Rawlins

  “How did you know what I was thinking about?” Alex glanced about nervously. “Are you reading my mind?”

  “A bit,” Emily admitted cheerfully. “It would be more accurate to say that I am sharing your feelings. We are holding hands, and you know that contact facilitates empathy. What did you expect? Vivik and I are doing the same, if it makes you feel any better.”

  Alex and Vivik both made faces. Emily laughed.

  Or worse, Emily added, winking at Alex as she opened a private telepathic channel. Don’t be angry with me. Please?

  Couldn’t you just make me not care?

  I absolutely could have. I have not done that, though, have I?

  No.

  That should tell you something important about my intentions, then.

  “Don’t confuse this mess with what we originally intended,” Vivik explained, looking a bit confused. “We did the best we could with what we had.”

  “Really?” Alex glanced around at the disintegrating landscape. “This is your best?”

  “I’ve had to improvise,” Emily said. “Not everything worked out ideally. I’ll give you that.”

  “No shit?” Alex laughed bitterly. “Well, that’s something.”

  “You complain a lot for someone who shouldn’t even be alive to complain,” Emily said. “I’m trying to explain myself and help you out. I don’t have to do either of those things.”

  “We are your friends, Alex,” Vivik said, trying to meet his eyes. “Don’t forget that.”

  “You both used me,” Alex replied, eyes firmly on the horizon, which was infused with an unearthly green glow that made his mouth dry and his stomach clench. “Is that what friends do?”

  “That’s what everyone does,” Emily said, leading them into the shadow of one of the massive metal outcroppings. “That’s life. Did Michael and Rebecca do any better by you? What about Eerie?”

  “I…”

  “Did you ever plan on killing anyone, Alex?” Emily smiled at him. “Did you ever consent to any of this?”

  Alex grimaced.

  “I haven’t been completely up front with you, it’s true,” Emily said gently. “I won’t deny that. At the same time, do you really think you are being fair to me? You know everything that I’ve done was to survive, to make a place for myself in a world that doesn’t ask permission before it takes. Have you done any different?”

  Vivik watched him closely, looking for some sort of reaction, but Alex just set his jaw and stared straight ahead as Emily led them into a bank of Ether that spilled into the Outer Dark from nowhere in particular. They shivered as grey tendrils of mist entwined around their ankles.

  “Who has been a better friend to you, Alex?” Emily continued. “Who has dealt with you more honestly or cared more for your interests?”

  The ground beneath his shoes softened, and he sank slightly with each step as if they walked through mud, but Alex could see nothing below his knees, aside from the uniform grey of the Ether.

  “That’s not fair,” Alex said, shaking his head. “Eerie has been…”

  “Your involvement in this world is entirely her fault,” Emily said. “Every misery you have endured, every moment of torture and grief you experienced, all of that is by her design. You can choose to forgive her – that’s your right – but you cannot shift responsibility to suit your preferences. Eerie did this to you.”

  The Ether swallowed them entirely. Alex closed his eyes and sucked in air, shocked by the sudden cold. Emily tugged him onward gently.

  “That’s…that’s ridiculous. That’s not the way…I mean, I don’t agree, but even if I did, what about Katya?”

  Emily paused and frowned.

  “Katya’s impact on your life was an unintended consequence, at best,” Emily said reluctantly. “The way it worked out was sheer luck. She would have killed you if Anastasia had asked her to do so. That request was simply never made.”

  “You’re wrong,” Alex said. “I don’t think she would have…”

  “There’s no reason to make assumptions,” Emily said, wrinkling her nose at the smell of smoke as she led them into the partial sunlight. “Why don’t we ask her?”

  The sun above the Far Shores was more obscured than usual, a result of the solid black column of storm clouds looming above the Sea of Ether, and the brown smoke from the fires burning in distant Central. The feeling of even this diminished light and heat on his skin was euphoric, and he couldn’t help but smile as they stepped from the monotone chill of the Ether onto a half-dead lawn in the commons, not far from the Auditor’s building.

  Katya, dressed in sweats and a second-hand Arsenal jersey, stared at them in shock, a granola bar slipping from her limp hands.

  “Katya, dear? Alex has a question. Would you have filled his brain with needles if your Mistress had asked you to?”

  Alex released Emily’s hand. He took a step forward.

  “Katya?”

  Katya charged over and grabbed Alex around the neck, pulling him into a hug that very nearly took them both from their feet. He patted her clumsily on the back and felt her wet cheek against his neck.

  “Alex?” Katya sobbed. “Oh, holy shit! Alex!”

  She pulled away to examine his face, her fingers tracing the area around the eye he had lost to Alistair’s knife, since replaced with a cold and artificial organ courtesy of an infusion of vampire blood, if Emily was to be believed.

  “What the hell? Are you okay? Oh, fuck! Alex, we tried so fucking hard to…are you…?”

  “Shh. It’s okay,” he said, grinning at her. “I’m fine. It’s so good to see you, you have no idea.”

  She pulled him close and sobbed on his neck.

  “What a heartfelt reunion! What a joyful scene!” Emily clapped her hands and looked delighted. “You see, Alex? It’s like I told you. Who’s been a better friend to you than me?”

  Katya stiffened and shot Emily a poisonous glare.

  “Where is Eerie?” Alex asked, looking around. “You told me that…”

  “John Parson snatched her,” Katya said, downcast. “I tried to protect her, Alex. I swear I did. We were so close, too. If Emily’s vampire had just shown up a few hours sooner…”

  “I dispatched Leigh as soon as we located you,” Emily said. “The Changeling was gone before she arrived.”

  “We’ll worry about this later,” Alex said. “We need to find Eerie.”

  “We will, man, I promise,” Vivik said. “I’ll start working on it right now.”

  Alex looked as if he were about to lose his temper, but then he suddenly deflated, his shoulders slumping and his expression slackening.

  “Just let me know, okay?” Alex looked defeated. “As soon as you find her. That’s all I ask.”

  “Of course,” Vivik said. “I promise. I want to find Eerie too.”

  “As do I,” Emily said. “It is absolutely crucial that we locate the Changeling. You don’t need to worry, Alex. We all want the same thing.”

  “You will give us the afternoon,” Katya demanded, taking Alex by the arm and dragging him away. “No interruptions for any reason other than finding Eerie, the end of the world included.”

  Vivik nodded, while Emily smiled and waved.

  “Certainly. Why not?” Emily spoke too quietly for anyone other than Vivik to hear. “I have better things to do anyway.”

  ***

  Simeon Yurchenko took a deep breath and then exhaled completely, all his attention focused on his target and the view through his rifle’s scope. He made final adjustments to his position and slowed his breathing. Every chromed component of the rifle had been treated with anti-reflective gel, and his arms and face were stained with it as well.

  One click left, Brandon Cree advised, staring through binoculars while he lay prone beside Simeon in the brush, close as lovers. The shot is easy enough, but the timing is brutal. Are you sure?

  Simeon considered it while he made a tiny adjustment to his scope, viewing the scene at the oth
er end of the valley with professional detachment. The clearing was in use as a mass grave, the result of the Thule-led purge of the Black Sun and rival Hegemonic cartels from Central.

  Equality in death, Simeon thought. He was certain he had read something about that.

  A backhoe parked near the tree line had been used to make four grave pits, while a fifth pit was partially dug out and awaiting completion near the creek. Two pits were already backfilled and flattened, bare patches of dirt in stark contrast to the vivid grassland all about.

  The other two were in active use, lime spread liberally across the stacked bodies to encourage decomposition.

  One held a small family, recently liquidated, a middle-aged man sprawled upside down, frowning across the distance at the Black Sun Operators, the hole punched in his forehead as perfectly centered as a third eye. A Thule Operator leaned on his rifle nearby, stock resting on the ground, while another lit a pair of cigarettes.

  A bruised man with his hands tied behind his back knelt by the edge of an adjacent pit, his knees sinking into the dirt, his expression resigned and distant. His head had been crudely shaved, and when Simeon adjusted his scope, he could not help but notice that he was missing both of his ears. Two more Thule Operators stood nearby, chatting casually while one of them fed rounds into an antique revolver.

  Let’s try it, Simeon thought. I’m feeling lucky.

  Timing is about four seconds. I’ll count down.

  Simeon exhaled again, paying careful attention to the rhythm of his heart, his finger squeezing the trigger until he felt the slightest change in resistance.

  The Thule Operator laughed and put the revolver to the kneeling man’s head.

  Firing in three, two…

  Simeon was only vaguely aware of the telepathic countdown, his attention utterly focused on events within the aperture of the scope, the increasing tension in the Operator’s trigger finger, the indifference on the face of the man about to be executed.

  One.

  The Thule Operator pulled the trigger, and Simeon did the same, putting a single 7.62 mm round between the eyes of one of the Operators at the adjacent pit.

  The prisoner’s head snapped forward, and he tumbled gracelessly into the pit to take his place atop the lime-sprinkled corpses. The executioner paused to investigate his revolver in confusion. The remaining Thule Operator tossed his cigarette aside and bent to check his comrade, who was slumped against the wall with his hand pressed to his forehead, blood pouring down his face.

  A nearby sentry tower was hurriedly manned. The siren at the Thule encampment wailed belatedly as Operators took defensive positions on the hill above the mass grave. The Operator Simeon shot was dragged up the hill and into the encampment by his companions, with very little care shown to his mortal wound.

  “Well?” Daniel Gao shifted quietly in the blind behind them. “Did it work?”

  Brandon Cree said nothing, his eyes shut and his forehead creased.

  “Be quiet,” Simeon said, ejecting the spent shell casing from his rifle, and catching it before it could hit the ground. “Brandon is still…”

  I’m finished now, Brandon said, shifting beside Simeon. The plan worked, if you are curious. The distraction was enough for me to access unprotected short-term memories.

  “You have a location, then?” Simeon worked quickly to break down the rifle, while Brandon and Daniel bagged the rest of their gear. “Is she already in Thule hands?”

  Brandon nodded grimly.

  “She was picked up yesterday,” Brandon explained. “One of the Thule goons saw her alive this morning. She’s exactly where she said she would be.”

  “A whole day in captivity,” Daniel Gao said, narrowing his eyes. “What sort of condition is she in?”

  Brandon shrugged.

  “Alive,” Brandon said, with an uncomfortable shrug. “As of this morning.”

  “I doubt that Thule would liquidate her,” Simeon said. “Sara’s contact claimed that she was picked up specifically, on orders from high up, maybe even the Thule family itself. She wasn’t just inconvenient, like that lot,” Simeon said, jerking his head in the vague direction of the charnel pits. “They want her for something. Besides, she gave us advance warning. She must still be alive.”

  “Unless they already got what they wanted,” Daniel said doubtfully. “One of those Thule degenerates might have just had a thing for her from class or something, you know. Lots of personal stuff mixed in with the actual conflict.”

  “It’s possible,” Brandon agreed, capping the lenses on the binoculars. “That’s an awfully negligent way to treat a precog, though. They don’t grow on trees.”

  “Yeah, she’s valuable,” Simeon said, hoisting the rifle bag on to his shoulder and unzipping the rear exit to the blind. “Let’s hope that’s enough to keep her alive.”

  ***

  “You want a beer?”

  “More than love or money or fucking anything,” Alex said, sitting beside Katya in the negligible shadow of a recently planted willow. “Yes, please.”

  “Thank God for that,” Katya said, laughing as she opened a muddy cooler. “I’ve been drinking alone since yesterday, and it’s getting boring.”

  Alex laughed and took the dripping can she offered.

  “Since yesterday? What happened?”

  “A vampire – Leigh Feld, you know her? – bailed me and Renton out of some Thule dungeon. They rushed him straight into surgery while I was stuck in the back seat of a jeep for hours, watching Leigh drive around Central, waiting for something to happen. We got back to the Far Shores yesterday evening. Emily brought some people with her, from the Outer Dark, or wherever. Some of them I recognize, most I don’t. They set up where they liked, and my whole dorm was appropriated. There are two boys staying in what used to be my room,” Katya said, wrinkling her nose. “Anyway, I slept in your room, but I cleaned up first. I washed the sheets before and after.”

  “Come on! My room isn’t that bad.” Alex sipped his beer. “What was Leigh waiting for?”

  “I’m not sure, but it has something to do with Processing,” Katya said, lowering her voice. “And something to do with a guy named Adel.”

  “That sounds familiar,” Alex said, pinching his lip. “Can’t place it, though.”

  “We were supposed to pick him up after we left the Thule base,” Katya said. “Something went wrong, and we never even went near Processing. We just drove around until Leigh got telepathic instructions, then we drove out here.”

  “And there was, you know,” Alex said, lowering his voice as well, “no one here?”

  “You mean Auditors, or staff, or something?”

  Alex nodded.

  “The Audits facility was empty. First thing I did was excuse myself to take a shower, then I ducked out the bathroom window and ran over to the Administration building. It was deserted, too,” Katya said, gesturing at the vacant commons. “Emily’s people set up in the townhouses they built for the permanent staff out here, and they are using the labs and the commissary and stuff, plus a couple of the dorms, but everything else is empty.”

  “Everyone must have left,” Alex said. “Where did they go, do you think?”

  “No idea, but it’s a safe bet that Thule has something to do with it. Same way they are responsible for, you know,” Katya said, gesturing with her can in the direction of the columns of smoke trailing from Central, “all that bullshit.”

  “This is so fucking weird,” Alex said, drumming the numb tips of his replaced fingers on the can. “Where are the Auditors when you need them?”

  “I think ‘the Auditors’ is pretty much just us, unless we got kicked out. I sure haven’t seen anybody else.” Katya tossed an empty can into the brush. “Can I ask you something?”

  Alex nodded.

  “Of course, anything.”

  “Good, ’cause I have a bunch of questions.”

  “I figured. I’m kinda curious about a couple things, myself.”

  “I
didn’t accidentally flirt with my cousin on a beach in Vietnam, though, so I go first.”

  “I hoped you had forgotten about that.” Alex reddened. “Sorry. I, uh, didn’t know.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ve been hit on by more obnoxious cousins.” Katya laughed as she rummaged through the cooler. “There’s no easy way to ask, so…yeah. Are you aware of what your girlfriend has been up to?”

  “You mean Eerie?”

  “Yes, dimwit. Eerie. She is your girlfriend, right?”

  “Right. It’s just strange to hear you say it. Time got very weird for me, while I was in the Outer Dark. Is she okay?”

  “She was okay when I saw her last. I’ll explain, I promise. But my question first. What the shit, Alex?”

  “What?”

  “Eerie! You know, right? Who you used to be? How you got to be this way?”

  Alex shrugged.

  “You don’t get off that easy,” Katya said. “Answer me. What do you know?”

  Alex tried to turn away, but Katya grabbed his forearm and held him there.

  “Alex. No bullshit. C’mon.”

  “Fine. I know…” Alex sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing the one he could just barely feel, the eye that had the disquieting tendency to continue seeing, closed or not. “Samnang showed me some things. Not memories, I can’t…they were dreams, I guess. I still don’t really remember any of it, not like it happened to me; just little things I dream about sometimes. In the dreams, everyone calls me Alexei something…”

  “Rostov,” Katya said quietly, her lip trembling slightly. “Alexander Rostov.”

  “Yeah. Part of a family,” Alex said, with a clouded expression. “An important one, in the Black Sun. I remember little bits of that.”

  “Really?” Katya perked up slightly. “Like what?”

  “I remember what I think might be my mother, occasionally,” Alex said. “Not anything concrete, just her hair, the way it smelled.”