Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series)

by Augustine, Donna

  Shit. How the hell had I missed that? "He wanted you to think you'd won. You wanted him to think you won as well."

  "Exactly. This meeting was a farce on every angle. If he had put up a fight I would've known he had nothing to do with it, but he rolled over."

  "You think Hammond is alive and still out there, helping them?"

  "He's alive. He must be. I just don't think that the defectors that left would have had the juice to do it."

  "And we haven't been shut down long enough for it have gotten easier for them, yet."

  "We've got to shut Hammond down. Without him, they're dead in the water."

  Words failed me as the truth of it sank in. I didn't know why it bothered me. I'd helped almost kill Hammond, Father or not; had I expected him to run and find me afterward? We were on different sides in a war, and yet it still stung. It didn't make sense. I guess things didn't always need to make sense to hurt.

  "Jo?"

  "I'm fine." I wasn't. I felt another crack in the mortar chip off my wall. That's another thing about cement walls, once they start to crack, it always spreads. Problem with them is, it's not like you can go back to before you had the wall. No, now you just have a big messed up landscape with clumps of cement all over the place. "Next time, you better fill me in."

  "Because you clue me into your plans?"

  I didn't fight with him because I knew the only place it would end was some agreement on both our parts to full disclosure. I wasn't sure I was ready for that. I'd rather be in the dark every now and then.

  We slowed to a stop as a line of cars spread out in front of us, with no end in sight.

  "What's going on?" I asked, trying to peer over the truck in front of us, which was very hard to do in a Ferrari and when you're barely off the ground.

  "I don't know. Can you drive a stick?"

  "Not very well."

  "Hop in the driver seat and move the car up if we start moving." He was opening the car door and was getting ready to step out.

  "I said I CAN'T drive a stick," but he'd already gotten out as I said it. "And people wonder why I repeat myself. Obviously, I have to."

  I grabbed the keys from the ignition, just in case someone else here could drive a stick and decided to take the opportunity, and I followed him. As soon as I got to the side of the road, I could see how far the line of cars went. I could barely make out where the line stopped.

  Cormac turned and stopped when he heard me, waiting for me to catch up. There was a look in his eyes that chilled me, probably because I felt it too. There was something very wrong here. Not like a car accident wrong, I could feel it in the air. It even smelled weird.

  The sun beat down on us as we walked further up. We weren't the only ones walking. The closer we got, the more people I saw, all headed in the same direction, to find out what was going on. Now that I thought of it, I hadn't seen any traffic coming from the opposite direction in some time and then it struck me that I hadn't heard any sirens. Why weren't there any police or fire on their way to whatever calamity had occurred to stop a major roadway like this?

  On a hunch, I pulled out my phone. "There's no cell service."

  "Sometimes it's sketchy over here."

  "You know that's not what it is," I told him.

  First, I saw the people; there had to be at least a hundred of them all gathered. I realized most of the cars were abandoned by this point, their owners all searching for the problem like we were. I was worried, but not as alarmed as I was when I realized the air and sky past them didn't seem right. The closer we got, the more it appeared to take on a grayish murky appearance. With each step, it grew darker, until we were standing on the edge of an abyss like I'd never seen before. It was as large as five football fields and dome shaped. One gigantic wormhole stood open, in the middle of the desert, looking out onto pure space, interstellar space clouds and all. I tried to feel with my Keeper senses for the edges of this wormhole, but it didn't have a normal perimeter. It wasn't an area being forced and held open like we did when we traversed them, it was a violent rip. There was no closing this wound. Nothing to close it with. It was the difference between a razor slicing your skin and a wild beast tearing away a chunk of flesh, muscle and all, from your body.

  Our universe had been mauled.

  I looked for an opening in the crowd, where I could get a better look, but Cormac's hand on my arm stopped me.

  "I don't think it's a good idea to get too close."

  I stopped because I knew he was right, even though my curiosity compelled me to step closer. This thing was pumping out radiation that would be lethal to even a Keeper if we lingered. I looked at the people gaping at the monstrosity in all it's beautiful glory and knew they were dead men walking, every one of them. They simply didn't know yet.

  "All these people…" I didn't finish my sentence.

  "There's nothing to be done."

  I looked away from them and focused on his face. I wanted to look anywhere but at them. I saw the regret I felt in his eyes.

  I angled my head back in the direction we had come from. We needed to get out of there and figure out what happened. He paused, taking in the scene one last time and then walked with me.

  "Other openings are doing this," I said, once we were a few hundred feet away.

  Cormac didn't reply. He didn't need to. I knew he didn't know the exact reasoning behind the way portals had to be operated, only that they had certain parameters that needed to be upheld or there could be dire consequences. These parameters had been passed down, verbally, through generations. We had known there could be explosions, but I didn't even think Cormac had been aware of this possibility. It was hard to tell because he was back in stone faced mode. I was starting to wonder if that was, in part, for me. He had to be freaked out. There was a gas nebula sitting in the middle of Nevada. It was impossible to not be freaked out.

  I pulled my phone back out but still, nothing. In the larger scheme of things, it was my smallest problem, but man did I hate being phoneless. With everything else going on, I needed my bars to show up or I might completely snap. I held it up in every funny direction possible as we walked back.

  "Jo?"

  "Yeah?" I answered, distracted and clinging to my phone and what felt like the last shred of my sanity.

  "Don't lose it."

  I stopped, looked at him and took a deep breath. He didn't have to say anything else. Things were getting uglier by the second. The people that could, or would, help were few in numbers. I was one of those very few and among the stronger of them, at least in certain areas. I couldn't lose it. If I did, the hole would become that much deeper and there were a hell of a lot of innocent people that had no clue what was happening. People that were closer and closer to a world of utter mayhem if we couldn't stop this train from derailing. I nodded and slipped my phone into my back pocket.

  It was time to step up. If I couldn't handle it, who would?

  Chapter Twelve

  The Ferrari completely sucked at off-roading and we had to abandon the car. Cell service came back after we'd gotten about five miles away from the space hole. 'Space hole' wasn't the most creative name for it, but it was better than goddamn mother fucking thing that popped a hole in my world. Even shortening that into an acronym would still have been a tongue twister, so space hole would have to do.

  Like I was saying, five miles out and we'd been able to get Dodd on the phone. He'd personally flown a helicopter out to get us. Cormac had taken the controls and flown us back. Nobody had bothered to tell me The Lacard had a helicopter pad on top of the garage parking lot. You'd think someone might have mentioned it when I'd complained about UFOs waking me up in the middle of the night when my trailer had been there. Considering what I knew about aliens, I'd found it rude of them to have laughed at the idea.

  "Should we order up some food?" I asked, looking at the barren conference room I'd never seen before, located two floors below Cormac's penthouse.

  "Yes, I'm starving!" Do
dd was always starving and always stealing the food off my plate.

  "How many do we have coming?"

  "Vitor, his mother and cousin. Burrom and his second. Rogo…" Cormac started to rattle off.

  "Why is he coming? You didn't tell me you were asking him."

  "Because whether he admits it or not, he helped make that mess out in the desert. He can deny it all he wants, but he better pitch in and figure out how to clean the shit up."

  "Okay, I can live with that. Who else?"

  "Rogo and his seconds. I asked Sabrina to come up."

  As soon as he said Sabrina, my eyes shot to Dodd. He wouldn't admit it but I knew he had a thing for her. It was a bit shocking, considering how respectable she was. I wondered if he knew he'd probably have to take her to dinner.

  "Oh yeah, I asked Dark to come as well," Cormac said. Dark was growing on everyone, including me. "I think it might help him decipher the events in the book if he knows what's going on."

  "I'm confused about one thing. Who's in charge of the Fae? Is it Vitor of Burrom?"

  "Technically, Vitor. But if you want something Fae related done, you go to Burrom."

  "Then why would we go to Vitor to break the initial contract for the portal?"

  "Because his ancestors forged the contract. The magic would respond better to him. He'd be able to sense the connection easier, as well."

  "And what about Keepers? Did your ancestors help forge the original contract?"

  "No, but yours did. Hammond is the second generation of Drake. I'm still wondering if that had something to do with the events of the evening."

  I knew he was referring to the magic tethers.

  "Are Burrom and Vitor cool with each other?"

  "On the surface, yes. Deep down?" Dodd made a stabbing motion accompanied by the Pyscho sound when Norman Bates stabs his mother.

  "Gotcha. Where're Buzz and Ben?"

  "I sent them out to the other portal locations. I want to make sure they are completely shut down."

  Sabrina showed up just as the food came, looking stunning in a red suit, her thick chestnut hair brushing her shoulders. Dodd definitely noticed how good she looked too.

  Vitor and his family arrived at the same time as Burrom and his entourage. I thought that Burrom was only bringing one other, but maybe he wanted more numbers. I'd never seen Vitor and Burrom together. There was a tense moment as I wondered if they were going to fight over the seat at the foot of the table. I found it telling how no one tried to take the head chair.

  I think they were leaving it in respect for Cormac, but he didn't sit down. I took the head chair instead. Why shouldn't I? The freak senator was more my problem than anyone else's.

  Everyone settled in and I felt a shift on my chair as Cormac leaned his forearms on the top of it. All eyes were on him, then me, then him again. No. It probably didn't look as bad as I thought. I was just being overly sensitive. He probably didn't even realize how it looked.

  "I'm sure everyone in this room knows why I called this meeting," he opened. All eyes moved to Rogo, his girlfriend Carlene, and the other guy he'd brought, who'd been introduced as Mace.

  "We didn't do anything!" Rogo stood when he said it and at that moment, I thought all chances of having a peaceful meeting were through.

  The Fae, strangely in unison now, stood as well and I thought some ugly shit was about to break out. I still hadn't seen them in action. A hazy aura started to grow around Burrom and I was almost hoping he would show a few of his talents. I didn't care for Rogo anyway and I was dying with curiosity. Dodd jumped to his feet. It might have been to get ready to break up a brawl or hop in for some fun.

  Every Fae in the room started yelling back at Rogo, and his crew, that they were to blame. They screamed back that the Fae were elitists and had no idea what they spoke of. They continued back and forth with who was doing what, until I couldn't make out what anyone was screaming anymore. I slumped in my chair, ready to let them all fight it out. It was clear the anger in this room went much deeper than the space hole eating up Nevada.

  "Stop." It wasn't a scream, but somehow everyone heard it and turned toward Cormac. "It doesn't matter who's to blame for this thing. Right now, we need to get it under control so that we don't have any more. We can place blame later."

  "How do we know she didn't make it?" Rogo said, looking at me. "We know how she makes wormholes anywhere she wants to."

  "Hey, dumb dumb! Why would I trash my own planet?"

  I heard Cormac clear his throat from behind me, indicating he wasn't thrilled with my approach when he was trying to form some sort of unity.

  "It's not my fault if he's going to say stupid things," I directed back at Cormac.

  "How do we know it's your planet? I heard about some other things you've done that aren't exactly human, are they? I don't even think she should be here. She might be behind all of this. No one knows her. She shows up out of nowhere and we are supposed to trust her?"

  All eyes were on me now. I looked around the room and Burrom wasn't looking at me. Rogo stared accusingly along with his people.

  "You are doing some very unpredictable things," Vitor said in an apologetic voice.

  Even Dodd raised his eyebrows when I looked at him. "Oh no, don't take that the wrong way," he said when I gaped at him. "I've got your back one hundred percent. But you've got to admit, they make a pretty good case."

  "That does not make me feel better!"

  "I thought we were being honest?"

  "It doesn't matter what anyone thinks," Cormac said, "she's with me and that means she stays."

  With me? I don't blush. Haven't in years but I swear he would be the downfall of my twenty year run. He's got to be doing this on purpose.

  Then I felt his hand on my shoulder. Okay, he was just stressing his solidarity with me, not marking his claim. When I heard Dodd snicker to my right I wanted to belt him, but it would just make the situation more awkward than it already was. I had to settle for kicking him under the table.

  He gave me a look that said that was mean. Then I rolled my eyes towards the doctor and smirked.

  He stopped laughing.

  "Portals are being opened. I don't care how or why, right now. I just need to know where and I need them shut down immediately, before we end up with another hole somewhere."

  The room fell quiet and everybody again eyed up Rogo and his people.

  "It wasn't me," he said defensively. I still didn't like him, but I believed him.

  I stood up and walked closer to his chair and swung it around to face me, daring either anyone to try to stop me. I hovered over him."You know who and where, though, don't you."

  His girlfriend growled but remained seated. His other comrade, Mace, didn't even bother to growl. Rogo looked scared. They knew they were outnumbered and no one, not Cormac or the Fae, would interfere if I let loose a little pain on them.

  "It was already going on when I took leadership. I had no part in starting it up."

  "Who did?" Cormac asked, from over my shoulder. I hadn't even seen him move in.

  "That politician guy. He had it running way before I got voted in."

  "Why? What did he want in return?"

  "He said he wanted nothing."

  "And you believed him?" The sarcasm dripped off my tongue like a sweet claret wine.

  "No," he shot back. "I just couldn't stop it."

  "I thought you were their leader now?" I said. "Doesn't that mean you call the shots?"

  "It doesn't work like that with the wolves," Dark started to explain.

  I stepped back and looked at Dark, more interested in what he had to say than Rogo.

  "You don't speak for us anymore." The venom in Rogo's tone was lethal and he stood now to lean over the table in a threatening manner toward Dark.

  "He speaks for me," Cormac interjected as he grabbed Rogo's shirt and shoved him back into his seat.

  Rogo looked pissed but he didn't say a word. I guess Dark was officially with us
.

  "Is he doing it alone?" Cormac pressed Rogo.

  "No, he's got one of your guys. Hammer something or other."

  "Hammond," I corrected. Every Fae in the room looked at me, but no one said a word. I went from being an orphan to having a father who was teamed up with a monster and destroying Earth. It just kept getting better and better. "Do you know where he is?"

  "No, but I can find him pretty easily."

  "Do it." I anticipated a fight, but he simply nodded and I went back to my chair, not wanting to be that close to him anymore, Cormac following me like some sort of bodyguard I neither needed or wanted.

  Cormac stepped up to the table and leaned his hands on the surface. "On to the next problem. Does anyone know what the senator actually is? He's got human records but we all know how easy it is to build a fake past." His eyes shot to me. "He's anything but human."

  "You mean besides that your people made him?" Vitor asked.

  "Yes, something helpful would be good. Especially since you seem to like our planet so much, I'm sure you don't want your new home trashed either."

  I looked around the room. "How does no one have any idea? Rogo, your people were working with him. You had the closest contact. You know nothing?"

  "He only came around once or twice. Haven't seen him since and I already asked around. And as Vitor just said, you guys made him and don't know. How the hell should we?"

  "See? He does make a pretty good case sometimes, even for being an idiot," Dodd said softly to me.

  "Whatever. He's still a dick," I whispered back.

  "A dick with really good hearing," Rogo said from across the length of the table.

  I didn't apologize. He was a dick.

  Cormac cleared his throat and I swear it was to disguise his own laughter. "We need to take him down."

  "What about the hole?" Burrom asked.

  "We make sure all portals are shut down and we hope we don't get anymore."

  "Can she fix it?" he asked and pointed to me.

  "No, I can't. Not alone, anyway. It isn't a normal wormhole where you can just press it open and once you release the pressure, it closes. This is a tear."

  "Another reason that we need to work together to take him down." Cormac stood up again and walked toward Sabrina. "What about the radiation it's releasing?"