Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series)

by Augustine, Donna

  I walked back to the car as casually as I could, while he talked to whoever was so goddamn important that we were losing the senator. I was a foot away when he swooped in quicker than I'd ever seen him move and shut the doors, the lock sounding as I looked on. I would've taken a swing at him, I was so pissed, but he was already ten feet away, still on the phone.

  "I don't want to be partnered with you anymore!" I yelled in his direction. "You suck at this!"

  Aggravated beyond words, I started walking in the direction of California. I knew it was stupid. I knew I wasn't going to be able to catch the senator on foot but with having no other option, I couldn't stop the compulsion of at least moving in the right direction.

  I'd taken only three steps before I found myself dangling over Cormac's shoulder as we both retreated from the border.

  I tried to punch him in the kidneys but it didn't even slow him as the jerk still talked on the phone. "No, keep looking. It's in there. Ow! That hurt," he said, as I grabbed a fistful of his hair. "No, I'm not talking to you. Just keep looking."

  "What are you doing?" I demanded. I took another shot at his back.

  "Okay, now look at line six. You've got to undo that," he said, ignoring the blows I rained upon him.

  He dropped me onto the ground about twenty feet away, just as I got a good bite at his left tricep.

  "Don't move," he said.

  Ignoring him, I both stood and moved. When I moved right, so did he. Same thing when I went left.

  "It's done? Good." He shoved his phone back in his pocket and then stepped out of my way.

  "You better tell me what is going on right now, partner." I squinted my eyes and took the most threatening pose I could.

  "I'd prefer not to," he responded, unfazed by my scary posture. He strolled back to the car and leaned against it.

  "Tell me anyway," I said as I followed him.

  "We should talk about this on the way back."

  I crossed my arms and shook my head. "Tell me now."

  "You're not going to like it." He grimaced a little. "Remember the first contract you signed?"

  "Yes," I said as I thought back to it. "It only stated that I couldn't repeat anything."

  "But I told you that you couldn't leave the area."

  I shook my head. "That wasn't on the contract. I remember every line. It was only about repeating things."

  "Just because you didn't see it, doesn't mean it wasn't on there. I told you specifically that you couldn't leave the area." He said it in a manner that laid the blame for this mishap on me. "The state line served as the boundary."

  "What would have happened if I'd have crossed the border into California?" I took a couple steps in that direction to accent my point and because I was getting so angry it was hard to stand still.

  He rubbed he shadow on his jaw. "It would've been pretty painful."

  "Would it have killed me?"

  "No, it just would've hurt like hell."

  I marched up to him, mad as hell and letting it show in every step I took. "I want those papers destroyed when we get back." I shoved his shoulder. Or tried, it didn't actually budge him.

  "Not all things are reversible."

  "What's that mean?"

  "It means that some of the things can't be taken back."

  "Just how screwed am I?"

  "Don't talk to humans and alls good. For the most part."

  "I want everything that can be undone destroyed by today."

  He nodded. "Done. I will undo everything I can."

  He turned and opened the car door for me and waited for me to get in. I paused by the door, and thought that he'd relented to easily.

  "I'll do it," he said again.

  I nodded and got in the car. We started to drive back, the senator long gone.

  Now that the chase was over, Rick's image floated into my head again. When someone says that something is burned into their brain, it's not far from the truth. The mind isn't like a computer, with a fixed anatomy, but changes throughout our life. Seeing Rick die today had changed a part of my brain. That image would be with me forever.

  "If we are going to take this thing down, we need to know what it is," I said with a new conviction.

  "Agreed."

  "We need information, and the only place I've heard of there being records is with the wolves. We need it."

  "They aren't going to just hand it over."

  "Then we take it."

  Chapter Six

  "Sure you're ready?" Cormac asked as he eyed my sneakers. He had told me to wear hiking boots but I drew the line at tennis shoes.

  "Cormac, how many times are you going to ask me that?" I went on the offensive before he commented on my jeans.

  "The air is going to be thinner."

  "You told me."

  "And it's darker."

  "Whatever, it is doesn't matter because we aren't going to be there long." I hoped.

  "Dodd, Buzz…give us a minute." They'd been lingering in the back of the room, waiting to see us off.

  I watched as they both left the portal room.

  Cormac stood, hovering slightly, dressed all in black. "You aren't taking this seriously. It can get rough over there very quickly. On this side, there is at least the pretention of civility. Over there, in the wolves' territory at least," he pointed to where the wormhole would open, "you piss them off and they just kill you."

  I laughed a little. "Yes, that's so much different to what I've experienced here," I said making an obvious reference to them trying to kill me.

  Cormac didn't laugh. "Take this seriously or I'll take Dodd instead."

  "Relax, I get it. Let's just get on with it already." I knew he wouldn't go without me but I didn't feel like spending the next twenty minutes arguing about it.

  "You think you're tough, but you don't know what's out there."

  "I think I've got an idea."

  He shook his head. "You stay by me the whole time. You don't leave unless I say so. And if I do tell you to leave, you do exactly as I say."

  "Who made you boss? I thought we were partners?"

  "That's the only reason I'm even letting you come." He took a couple of steps toward the door to call back Buzz and Dodd.

  "That and I'm probably the only one that can open a wormhole up from the other side in a hurry," I said.

  That stopped him in his tracks as he looked back to me. "Goddamn it, Buzz can't keep his mouth shut." He sighed audibly and opened the door as the guys walked back in.

  "What?" Buzz asked as Cormac shot him a look.

  "Must you repeat everything to her?" he asked, still scowling.

  "It's not my fault. She said I owed her. It was either tell her or she was going to hit me over the head when I least expected it."

  I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my smile, not wanting to gloat.

  "Forget it. We're going in. I'll open, then you guys shut it behind us," Cormac said as he walked away from Dodd.

  I stood back and watched as Cormac opened up a portal. I wasn't sure if it was because he was older and more experienced or because he was strong, but it was flawless. He opened it just large enough for two people to walk through and the edges didn't fluctuate even a smidge. That might sound like nothing, but we were talking about warping the space time fabric of our very existence. That's some heavy shit to be able to pull off seamlessly.

  He looked toward me and held out his hand. "You ready?"

  "Yes." The adrenaline pumped through my veins as I moved toward him. In less than a minute, I'd be on a different planet. How many people could say that? Actually, I wasn't even going to be able to say that. Damn contract took all the fun out of things. Half the joy of doing some stuff is being able to talk about it after.

  Oh well, this was still the coolest thing I'd ever done in my life. It was scary as hell, but cool. I was going to travel through a wormhole to steal documents from a group of werewolf aliens. I felt like a live wire as energy pumped through me. Maybe I was made
for this hero stuff. Maybe this was what I was meant to do. Maybe I should keep the hero thoughts to myself until I made it back in one piece.

  I'd stepped into this wormhole countless times, but I'd never gone further than a few steps beyond the entrance. The lavender sky became more brilliant the closer I got.

  "They won't see us stepping out?" I asked as we neared the other side.

  "No, this opens to an empty area. They are a superstitious lot. They think that living too close to this energy could affect them negatively," he replied from slightly in front of me.

  Cormac stepped out first and I watched, a small part of me afraid he'd fry on the spot, but he didn't. I took a deep breath and my first step into a different universe. The ground was slightly springy, covered with a moss-like surface that was a turquoise color. Trees, or what would've been trees on Earth, hovered higher than I'd ever seen, bigger than even redwoods, like sky scrapers. But the thing I noticed the most was the sweet, cloying scent on the air as I breathed deeply.

  Cormac stood close by and watched my slow adjustment. "You'll get used to it. The oxygen level is lower, but it's not dangerous."

  I nodded, not willing to waste my air on speaking yet as the feeling of not being able to get enough was threatening a bit of a panic. He grabbed the backpack off my shoulders and threw it over his, now carrying two. I would've argued but I was too grateful to pick a fight about my independence.

  "Come on, I want to get deeper under cover. The area isn't occupied but that doesn't mean we can't be spotted."

  I followed him sluggishly as he moved around the larger trees.

  "Do you know where we're going?" I asked as I realized I had no idea.

  "You just thought of that now?"

  He annoyed me just enough to waste my oxygen. "I wouldn't talk. If your people hadn't been paranoid freaks and destroyed every ounce of history, we wouldn't be here."

  He stopped in his tracks. "How many times do I have to remind you that they're your paranoid freaks as well? And yes, I do know where we are going. I don't need a map. I've been there before."

  "So where is it exactly?" I looked ahead, nothing but trees as far as I could see.

  "We've got a two mile hike ahead of us." He started back in the same direction we'd been going.

  "And you don't think the place is guarded?" I asked, staring at his back.

  "This isn't one of the main settlements. They'll have people in the area, but I don't think too many. The Fae have no interest in their records and wouldn't bother. I don't think they'll have any idea that we would try to take them."

  "Are you sure asking wouldn't have worked?" I asked. I tugged on the backpack he was carrying and we stopped. I dug through my pack and grabbed a water bottle, taking a swig.

  "I know you haven't talked to too many of them, but what do you think?" He raised his eyebrows.

  No answer was needed. I stopped talking, not wanting to waste anymore of my air on it and we started back through the trees. Suddenly, the area cleared. When he had said hike, he'd really meant it. The ridiculously wide trees had blocked the rocky hill that lay ahead of us.

  As we started to climb a craggy surface, I bit back a small yelp which turned into a larger squeal as my foot slipped on some moss, interspersed here and there just to make traveling the rocks that much more unpleasant.

  "You okay?" Cormac asked, as he doubled back a few feet to check out the nasty gash that bled down my leg. The sharp rocks had cut right through my jeans.

  "Yeah, I'm fine." I looked up at the rest of the way ahead. "Can't we float or something?"

  "Alchemists can float but it's an up down thing, we don't move forward."

  "That just sucks."

  "At least I can float." He seemed a bit insulted over my comment.

  "What's that supposed to mean? I've floated. You've seen me."

  He took a step back and stared at me. "Go ahead, float. I dare you."

  I shrugged. "Maybe I don't feel like floating right now."

  "Not to take anything from you, you are exceptional at opening wormholes, but you seem to have deficits in other areas." He kept moving forward as he talked and I had to scramble to keep up.

  "Are you calling me slow?"

  "More like an idiot savant." I couldn't see his face but I could sense the smile on his face from the change in the tone of his words.

  "Then what are you? You needed me here to be able to make sure you could even get back."

  "I also didn't get stuck to a ceiling."

  I opened my mouth but he beat me to the punch.

  "I know why you carry that nickel around."

  "That, sir, was a low blow." I raised my chin to the air and pushed past him up the slope without looking back.

  I could feel him behind me. I always felt him when he was close by; it wasn't a comforting feeling, no, not comforting at all. It made me conscious of every move I made. If I didn't have a point to prove, I would've let him take the lead again. We'd see who was slow.

  It took us about another twenty minutes to reach the top. Lying on our stomachs, we peered over the cliff at the valley below. I could tell it was a town, of sorts, but like nothing I'd ever seen. The same gigantic trees lined the perimeter of an area that looked to be several miles in diameter. What I thought were huge boulders turned out to be buildings as I watched people walk in and out of carved doorways.

  "What we need is supposed to be in that one," he pointed toward the middle.

  "The one in the dead center?" It was surrounded by at least fifty other stone-like structures in the heart of all the activity.

  "Yes."

  "The place is crawling with people." At least they were all in human form. I remembered what Tracker had looked like that night in the basement which seemed so long ago now. He hadn't looked like a wolf, but a monster. Seeing them walk around in human form was much more comforting. "Do they ever go to sleep?"

  "In about eight hours they'll start. They don't sleep much, but they sleep like the dead when they do.

  "We couldn't come any earlier. The light from the wormhole is too bright. Even several miles away, it can be seen at night. It wasn't safe." Cormac shimmied a few feet back from the edge and tugged on my ankle to get me to follow him as we settled in to wait it out.

  When I awoke sometime later, I noticed the air had gotten chillier and that I was snug up against something very warm and hard. My arm was draped across his ridged stomach and my leg draped over his thighs. It was my traitorous subconscious who took over as I slept and clearly couldn't get enough physical contact with this man. I lay there for a moment while I tried to decide how to detach myself without waking him.

  "How was your nap?"

  Too late. His deep voice reverberated through me since I was lying pretty much on top of him.

  "It's quite chilly now," I replied as I sat up, not having the nerve to look at him as I detached. I looked up and saw the massive moon hanging above us. I'd seen glimpses of it from the other end of the wormhole a few times, but didn't realize just how large it would be. In person, it was awe inspiring.

  While I straightened myself and tugged my hair back into a ponytail, I watched Cormac walk over to the edge.

  "Are you ready to do this?" he asked as he came back over.

  "Yes. Let's do it. How do we get down there?" I started looking for a trail of some sort.

  "We're going to float down."

  "I can't float reliably, remember?"

  "I'll float us both down."

  I peeked back over the edge of what had to be a five hundred foot drop. "Are you sure you can float two people? That's a whole hell of a way down."

  "You're going to have to trust me on this."

  "You drop me and this partnership is through."

  "I've never dropped a girl by accident, only on purpose," he said, and smirked as he dug out a bag he'd stashed in one of the backpacks.

  "What's that for?"

  "Supplies we might need to steal stuff." He took a ste
p closer. "Put your arms around me."

  "Is this the brightest way to go in?" I asked, having second thoughts. "Maybe we should take a less direct path in?"

  "We could meander in slow and steady, but sometimes hard and fast is best."

  I couldn't look down, and now I couldn't look at him either. He was probably talking about the matter at hand, but I wasn't really sure. I just wish it hadn't sounded so sexual while I was draped over him for the second time in less than an hour.

  We stepped to the edge and took a final look down. Actually, I only looked for a second because my fear of heights was already starting to get the best of me, but from what I saw, nothing and no one stirred. He pushed off with his foot and we slowly started to float down. We both wore black but if anyone woke and looked, they'd be able to spot us in the light this giant moon reflected.

  We hit the ground silently a few moments later and I followed him quickly to the side of one boulder. I could see door openings but none of them had windows. Cormac grabbed my hand as we moved, boulder by boulder, closer to the center of the area until we were at the one that supposedly housed information. It was the largest by far, with about a thirty foot radius.

  We circled until we came to the door, or sort of door. It was simply a flap of leather that hung down over the opening, like the rest of the buildings. Cormac turned and held up a hand and mouthed for me to 'wait there.' I nodded in agreement and then followed immediately behind him anyway. Would he never learn? If I hadn't wanted to not get caught, I would've laughed.

  When we entered, it was pitch black inside; I couldn't see a thing and walked straight into Cormac's back.

  "I thought I told you to wait?" he whispered to me.

  "You did. How are we going to find anything?"

  I heard him rustling in front of me as he pulled out a very dim flashlight and handed me another. I held it up, scanning the walls and my breath caught. It was lined, from floor to domed ceiling, all with books. Shit! Getting in had been the easy part. Finding the stuff we wanted was going to take forever.