Cloak of Deceit: An Alex Moore Novel

by Gwen Mitchell

  “Alex!” Carl yelled.

  Andreas lunged at me, growling and clawing, a blur of whipcord muscle and snapping jaws. I fell back and used my legs to launch him off of me. He landed, tumbled, and sprang back again, completely berserk.

  They’d starved him of blood.

  The realization came too late, as Andreas latched onto my arm, slobbering and snarling, lacerating it with his fangs in a crisscross of cuts. I shoved at him with my power and he flew back, only to come running again, this time straight at Carl.

  No!

  I didn’t think. If I had, I might have used my power to pin Andreas to the ground, or the wall, or to send him flying away again. Instead, I just sprang to my feet and stepped between them. Andreas didn’t slow or change his course. He leapt on me, wrapped his legs around my waist, and went for my jugular. He weighed next to nothing, but we fell back as I tried to keep my face away from his fangs. My head cracked against the cement wall. Sparkles filled my vision, but a moment later, they were gone.

  We grappled and rolled, and if he hadn’t been practically wasted away, I wouldn’t have been able to hold him off. I pressed both hands on his sternum between us, forcing him to sit up and straddle me. I cried out as he tore away chunks of my hair and his jagged nails bit into my face, trying to scratch at my eyes.

  Two shots sounded right by my head.

  Andreas slumped forward on top of me, his face slack, blood and other things leaking onto my chest.

  “Get him off me!” I screamed over the alarm, pushing as Carl yanked.

  I stood, the swirling lights in combination with my blow to the head now nauseating. Every fiber in my body screamed run! as flight instincts from the battle rode me.

  “Alex!” Julian’s voice yelled from the end of the tunnel.

  That was all the extra incentive I needed to suck it up — I took off in his direction and skated to a stop three grates down, where Julian’s hand waved through the bars. I grabbed hold of him with my good arm, the flood of relief making me weak. The instant I touched him, my chaotic senses calmed. I would have to remember to ask how he did that, if we ever got out of here.

  “What happened to you?” Julian squeezed my fingers to the point of pain.

  “We got Andreas.” I glanced over Julian’s shoulder at Esmond, who looked utterly disheveled. He was covered with sweat and blood, his clothes torn to reveal scratches and bruises. I pulled my eyes back to Julian’s tight expression. “Carl had to shoot him.”

  “Damn it, Alex!” Julian yanked his hand away. “Why didn’t you just stay put?”

  “We were attacked! I went to find you.” I cradled my bleeding arm, which started to burn as skin and sinew re-knitted itself. I was glad Esmond wasn’t teaming up on me with Julian — I had left his people and ignored his orders too.

  “You were supposed to get out with the others. I was looking for you, since you ran off on your own.” He paced the length of the grate, forcing Esmond to take a step back. “Fuck!”

  I frowned. I had never heard Julian curse. It might have been funny, except that I was pretty sure it meant we were…well. I blew out a steadying breath, trying to think. The bars looked heavy, and I was already weak.

  Esmond? Could he help me? We could pool our thoughts, what about energy?

  Without words, the other Grigoric Agent answered.

  A current of power flowed into me, crackling like electricity through my veins. I jolted, then wrangled it in and used Esmond’s lent power to lift the grate off the ground about a foot.

  The effort to channel the extra power made my head ache. Blackness ate at the edge of my vision. My neck broke into an icy sweat, but I held it long enough for Jules to roll under. I squeezed my eyes closed as pain and fatigue whipped through my over-exerted psyche. “Esmond — quick!”

  Esmond yanked his power away from me, and I fell to my knees as the grate slammed shut. I swallowed down a wave of nausea and gave him a desperate look.

  Why did you let go? I asked, shaking my head.

  Sorry, darling. I need all the strength I can get.

  “But how will you get out?”

  He cast me an ironic smile. “I have my ways. Don’t worry.”

  Julian pulled me to my feet, tore his coat off and wrapped it around me, his frustration apparent in the roughness of his movements.

  “I’m sorry.” So much for being tough. I didn’t know who I was apologizing to — Esmond, Julian, Carl — everyone. I’d never felt more useless. What the hell had I been thinking?

  Note to self: you are not a superhero.

  Esmond’s pale face bled from white to orange under the swirling lights. He kept his gaze fixed on Julian over my shoulder. “The others are waiting at the rendezvous point. I’ll try to keep the guards off of you until you reach the trees. That’s all I can promise.”

  Julian nodded.

  “You better get her out, Knight, or you’ll find me very displeased when I come to collect her.”

  Julian stalked towards the bars, his jaw set. I expected a volley of insults we didn’t have time for, but he held out his hand instead.

  Esmond clasped it.

  “I swear it,” Julian said, “and thank you.”

  I stuttered over a protest as Julian snaked an arm around my waist and half-carried me away. Carl was dragging Andreas behind us by the ankles. Julian let me go to pick his sponsor up and throw the emaciated, lifeless body over one shoulder.

  “He was attacking Alex. He was wild with the thirst. I had no choice,” Carl rushed to explain.

  “You did the right thing,” Julian said. “How many bullets do you have left?”

  Carl blinked, looking stunned. “All but two.”

  “Good, you’re going to need them.”

  Julian set off down the tunnel at a clipped pace, shoving me ahead with a hand braced on my shoulder. Carl trotted along on Julian’s other side, gun clasped in his hand, eyes wary. Two dogs sniffed a circuit in the dirt on the other side of one of the grates, and when they saw us, they threw themselves at the bars, yapping and digging at the gaps in the metal.

  “Are the guards coming for us?” I asked when Julian sped up.

  “Not yet. They’ll be searching the rest of the complex and slowly closing in on this location. The emergency doors are meant to keep the convicts detained.”

  “Then how are we going to get out?”

  “I took care of it,” he replied, jaw tight. “Getting out of the tunnel isn’t the problem.”

  “What is?” Carl and I asked together.

  “Getting off the mountain.”

  “How had you planned that part before?”

  “I wouldn’t have tripped the alarm.”

  Of course not. I never did anything the easy way.

  A steel door blocked the far end of the tunnel. Carl fell against it, his chest heaving from the exertion of keeping up with us. I pulled him back up and draped his arm over my shoulder, staring at Julian in question. “What now?”

  “Now we find out if the information I have is worth what I paid for it.” With the butt of his gun, he smashed open a locked control box on the wall beside a narrow Emergency Exit. He entered a six-digit code into the panel. A light beside the door handle turned from red to green.

  Julian waited by the door, alternating beams of red and yellow painting his stern, battle-scarred face. I wished I could tell what he was thinking. Was it determination, or fear creasing his lips into a thin line?

  “No matter what, keep running. The others are waiting due East of here. Just run straight through. Stick to the woods. If you beat me to the van, just go. Don’t wait for me.”

  “But—”

  “Just do it, Alex!” His voice reverberated down the tunnel. He closed his eyes, taking a moment to calm himself. “For once — please — just listen to me.”

  My eyes teared up with tension, my chest squeezing in regret. “Okay.”

  Julian opened the door and edged out of it, gun ready.

  Eme
rging into the night felt like falling underwater — everything colder, quieter, slower. The momentary blare of the alarms echoed into the dark, announcing our arrival. White searchlight beams sliced through the air, occasionally passing over a guard. As my eyes adjusted, I saw we were surrounded. Yet none of them zeroed in on us.

  “Thank you, Esmond,” I whispered under my breath like prayer.

  “Come on.” Julian cut through the darkest patches of the clearing at a dead-run — no pun intended. I barely kept up, dragging Carl behind me.

  We were actually going to make it! The tree line lay just ahead, nice thick cover just waiting to welcome us.

  Then, one of the beams of light passed over Julian’s back at the edge of the clearing. Gunshots peppered the trees around him, filling the air with sawdust. He broke to the right, drawing all of the spotlights and a rain of bullets, Andreas bouncing on his shoulder.

  Julian!

  Barks and howls filled the night around us, and I cried with the effort not to turn back. We kept running straight, just like he’d told us to. The underbrush whipped at my face and snagged my clothes, but I charged forward, my hand clamped on Carl’s wrist. Gunshots and yelling came from behind, but I shut them out and focused on locating the other Agents. I homed-in on the urgent current of their thoughts and bolted for it blindly. So blindly, I didn’t notice the ledge until I stepped off of it.

  Carl and I fell fifteen feet onto jagged rocks, then tumbled and rolled another ten yards until a hedge of trees stopped us. I’d let go of him on the way down, and when I found him, his wrist and leg were so obviously broken, I gagged on my sob of rage and fell to my knees in the dirt.

  “Carl!” I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled myself over him. He was alive — I could feel his thready heartbeat without touching him, but he was unconscious.

  I must have gone into shock, because something inside of me snapped. My emotions cut off, and I evaluated the situation with cool logic. I could sit there and cry, waiting for help. I could leave him there to die at the mercy of the Cloak. Or, I could pick Carl up and keep going.

  Time to prove what your worth.

  He shouldn’t have felt heavy, but I was exhausted. Even Undead strength had limits, and I had found mine. I stumbled through the trees with an uneven gate, Carl draped across my back.

  Katya leapt from the van when I appeared at the edge of the service road. She helped me carry Carl the last dozen yards and settle him into the van. She waited by the door for me to climb in ahead of her.

  I stood rooted to the spot. Julian…

  Distant gunfire answered me, and I closed my eyes as an inward battle waged.

  “Come on! Let’s go!” Amar bellowed from the front seat.

  I took one tentative step back, looking from him to Katya.

  “To hell with you you, stupid girl! We will leave you here!” Amar rapid-fired several insults at me in Indian, his voice climbing higher.

  I can’t leave him. No matter what he told me to do, I couldn’t.

  “Amar,” Katya called over her shoulder, “stuff it. We can wait.”

  I could have hugged her.

  “A minute, no more,” she said to me.

  Amar just gaped at her back. The other two seemed to take Katya’s word over Amar’s. No one argued.

  Come on, Jules. I whirled on the tree line. The gunfire had stopped. Good or bad? Katya paced the length of the van, cracking her neck as if she relished the idea of more fighting. The others waited in tense silence. Their thoughts simmered in the back of my mind, mingling undercurrents of anxiety that did nothing to ease my own. My lip was raw from chewing at it. Don’t wait for me, Julian had said. He wanted me to listen to him. I had promised. I kept screwing everything up when I didn’t trust him.

  But…

  I turned back to glance at Carl’s broken body, propped in the back seat. He needed medical attention. How long would I make them wait? Each extra second could cost us. Was Julian’s life worth risking everyone else’s?

  Despite how irrational it sounded, the answer that came was yes. To me, it was. This was all for Julian. It didn’t matter without him.

  The decision was made for me though, when Julian stumbled into the clearing. He sagged under the burden of Andreas’s body, and he was covered in blood. I ran to him. He waved me back, but I ignored him.

  Light flashed in the trees, followed by the whiz and ping of bullets hitting mud. They slung a trail of tiny explosions at Julian’s heels, climbing closer. He fell.

  No. I can’t lose him now. I will not lose him like this.

  It felt like the ground lurched out from under me. My legs ate up the distance to his side, my muscles burning. But my body felt separate from myself. I lifted away from it and dangled in the air above, cradled by…shadows. Whispers fell around me like rain, pooling together and caressing me in rivulets. I felt porous, and I soaked in the power of the collective. I fell back into my body, still running, though the world around me seemed frozen still.

  Julian lay on the ground under Andreas, face-down in the dirt.

  Several Undead armed with automatic weapons closed in on them from the edge of the clearing.

  I tossed them into the forest with a wave of my wrist — ten of them, all at once. I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t even myself. I was just a vessel of power with one goal: get to Julian. I knelt beside him and threw out my arms. Power tinged my vision with hot white sparks.

  The ground shook, and the earth underfoot rippled outward, a widening wall of mud and stone. The trees creaked and swayed, then started to topple and crash down like dominoes, drowning out the gunfire. Still, an army of guards came in waves, the entire compound focused on a single target.

  I pulled on the collective with everything I had, dove into the darkness, swallowed it, milked it. I tied every desperate feeling I had into the mix: rage, fear…and love. It all fed my hunger for obliteration of anything that wanted to harm Julian.

  The trees burst into flames. The last few Undead screamed into the night as I shoved them through a shield of fire conjured from pure fury.

  I rolled Andreas off of Julian, then flipped my Knight over.

  Katya appeared beside me and helped me lift Julian’s shoulders.

  He groaned.

  “Thank you,” I said, hefting Andreas over my shoulders. I wasn’t sure if I was thanking Katya for helping, Julian for living, or the collective for saving us all, but it was the only thing I could think of to say.

  We climbed into the van and fled the burning clearing just as the clouds opened up to add their own deluge to the destruction I’d reaped. By the time we hit the public roads, I was shaking. The Eastern horizon was bleeding to pink as we covered the miles in silence. My head lolled from exhaustion.

  “Alex,” Julian rasped from my lap.

  I’d done my best to staunch his wounds, but was sitting in a puddle of his blood, none the less. He wasn’t healing at an Undead speed, and that worried me. I lifted a sticky hand and stroked the scar on his cheek. “Yeah, Jules?”

  “I’m glad you didn’t listen to me that time.”

  I nodded and bent to kiss his brow.

  That makes two of us.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  The Grigoric Agents dropped us off at an out of the way motel that took cash and didn’t ask questions. A good thing, since they unloaded three seemingly dead bodies into the room and took off with another in critical condition.

  Carl was by my side when I stirred the next night. He was bandaged and banged up, in a splint and a cast, but shining with his signature “all’s well” smile. He filled me in on what I’d missed. Katya had called to let me know Esmond made it out alive, per my request. I didn’t remember asking her to, but I was glad for the news. The days ahead would be rough enough without the grief of another death weighing us down.

  Carl, Dawn, and Ian took nursing shifts for almost a week and kept a constant supply of blood moving into our impromptu hideout. I hadn’t sustained the i
njuries Jules and Andreas had, but I’d over-exerted and I was newly turned and therefore weaker. My metaphysical drain and the compounded stress had cost me too.

  It took Julian two days longer than me to recover, with constant infusions. I found out he’d technically lied to me — Undead could die if they lost too much blood, if they weren’t able to heal fast enough and couldn’t drink more. He came very near it. I stayed by his side the whole time, in case he woke up wondering where he was. When he did open his eyes, he only smiled softly and kissed my hand, then drifted back to sleep. I’d never seen him look so peaceful.

  I let myself finally cry that night, rocking in Carl’s arms.

  We were going to be okay.

  The dam of strength I’d built those first few days came crashing down with the knowledge. It seemed like the best time to finally fall apart.

  We kept Andreas sedated the first week to spare him the pain of his body regenerating, and because we didn’t know what sort of mental shape he’d be in when he finally came to. He’d been starved of blood for an extended period of time, and he could still be too far gone. We didn’t want a full-strength crazed Undead on our hands, at least, not until Jules was strong enough to handle him.

  Julian kept the same vigil by his Sponsor’s bedside that I had. Though relieved and grateful, he remained distant. He didn’t seem open to affection, and merely tolerated my lame attempts to comfort him. So I gave him space. I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to face the question he did — whether he would have to put down his oldest friend, whether there was anything left of the man he’d once known like a brother.

  At one point, I stumbled in on them to find Jules holding Andreas’s hand and speaking in the same dulcet tone he’d used on me, but in a language I didn’t recognize. His eyes were filled with tears. It seemed like he was praying. I never told him I’d witnessed that moment. It was private, not meant for me to see, but it made my chest swell to overflowing with love for him — my Undead Knight. He deserved something good for a change. We all did.