I whacked him in the arm. “That’s just cruel.”
He grinned. “I know.”
If Keith had prisoners, then maybe I could help him. These days, the non-Warriors did most of the interrogation. We caught them; they got information out of them. Never before had we been so in sync.
It wasn’t the Warriors versus the non-Warriors anymore. Now we were the habitat Genesis against the world. Or at least against everyone involved with Icahn.
It worked for us. Sharing a common enemy made us better to each other. Kind of sad, but it was the truth. I had a hard time imagining no one else on the planet—not that there were that many people left—had risen up against their version of Dr. Icahn. According to him, and who knew if we could even believe him, there had been a lot of scientists involved in the downfall and they all ran their own habitats or locations all over the planet.
Had anyone else ever revolted against the oppression? How had they won?
Or had they all lost? Did superior force beat out what was right every time?
I hit the elevator button.
Wasn’t there any justice in the world? Had there ever been?
It opened up and I stepped inside. I’d always hated the elevators, almost as much as I hated living below ground. One of my not-so-secret wishes was that we would eventually get to live on the earth’s surface again. We had done so very briefly, before I’d made a terrible mistake and Icahn had moved all of us below ground.
Sometimes I wondered why any of them even spoke to me anymore. I wouldn’t blame them if they wanted to just get rid of me.
I traveled upward. If there was a big battle going on, I’d try to stay out of the way. They didn’t need me becoming a hostage or getting someone killed. My days of causing problems that would make everything worse were behind me. I wanted to win, I wanted to end Icahn, but if it wasn’t my destiny to be the one to take him down, I’d be fine, too.
Mostly I wanted everyone to survive. Any other eventuality could be lived with.
The elevator groaned to the surface. One day it was going to quit working. I shuddered at the thought. To be stuck forever somewhere between the surface of the earth and Genesis? Would I run out of oxygen first or die of thirst? The elevators didn’t run on the same oxygen supply pumped in from above that the habitat used. If we got trapped inside of it, eventually we would die. Or so they’d told us. Who knew what was true?
It shocked me Icahn hadn’t yet blown up our only means of transportation up and down. Doing so would stop us cold. Of course, he wanted Genesis back. For some reason, he was obsessed with the place. Blowing up the entrance would make it impossible for him to use it.
Why did my head have to go to those places? Particularly when I was inside the device.
The doors opened and I stepped out. Silence met me, which meant whatever battle had occurred hadn’t happened right against the doors. Something positive, at least.
My senses remained quiet. No Werewolves around, which was a good thing. The only Werewolves gunning for me these days were my ex-boyfriend’s pack. They blamed me for his death, which they were correct in doing.
Jason had had his problems—a lot of them. But he’d ended his life saving mine. Until the day he died, he’d insisted I was his mate. Maybe I was. I’d never really know if he’d actually scented we belonged together, or just convinced himself he had. I’m not a Wolf. I’m a human being. I fall in love, and I can fall out of it. There is no promise of forever for me.
In the meantime, I fully expected his father to come looking for me with death on his mind. As soon as he managed to extricate himself from Icahn, who held him prisoner. Jason’s sisters might make a run for me, too. Or any of his pack members.
Basically, if a Wolf caught me, I was royally screwed.
Once in the woods, I moved quickly toward the prisoner-holding center. Order and logic commanded how we did things these days. One stop for the prisoners before they were shuffled Downward to be interrogated. Not the mess of disorganization that had destroyed a lot of our chances before.
Keith’s voice caught my attention, and I moved toward it. He’d probably be with the prisoners. I rounded a corner, passing a rather large oak tree that I knew well because in some battle it had been sliced up so it now bore a marking that resembled the number three. I thought of it as the three-tree. Seeing it in the distance whenever I’d been away meant I’d almost made it home.
My mentor held his machete. I walked toward them a little and could see him engage in battle. He swung, and a man, taller than Keith, with light brown hair, surged forward, his own sword drawn.
I covered my mouth to force myself not to scream out a warning. Keith didn’t need my help. He’d taught us all to fight—or maybe he hadn’t. Maybe that was a misconstrued memory, planted by Icahn. I could never deal with the ramifications of all the mind manipulation. I’d long ago decided that if I remembered it, then it held some truth—whether it had actually happened or not.
Keith remained, in either version, the strongest fighter I knew. He dodged out of the way and I pumped my fist in the air in silent celebration. The man tripped, hitting the ground. Keith stormed toward him and, with a slash of his machete, took off his head. It bounced when it hit the ground, blood squirting everywhere, like some kind of deranged soccer ball waiting to be kicked.
I gasped. Why had Keith killed him when he could have spared his life? I closed my eyes for a second to hold back my gag reflex. Killing monsters didn’t bug me, but this new life we lived, where we had to fight our own kind and end their lives? I couldn’t deal as well.
I’d seen Keith kill before. To save me, he’d eliminated one of the Icahns. Of course, they’d cloned my attacker and brought him right back. The victim had run a lab for his father. His death didn’t really get to count.
Somehow, I had to not be a baby about this. But it always made me want to scream, even though doing so made me a hypocrite. I wanted to kill Icahn. I would if I got the chance. I’d set out to kill Jason, whom I’d once made out with even after I’d known he was a Werewolf.
“Atrocities happen in war, Rachel.” Keith had his back to me and he wiped off his machete with a towel he’d worn around his waist.
How had he known I was there? I stepped forward. If we were going to talk then we needed to be closer. I didn’t feel like shouting.
“I heard you had prisoners.”
He turned to smile at me before he shook his head. “Had being the operative word.”
“They’re all dead.” Huh. My world had shifted on its axis a little bit. We were no longer taking anyone alive? When had this happened, and why had no one told me? Not that it mattered what I thought, exactly, but shouldn’t I have known? Somehow I had to get back Downwards where I could find a hidey-hole in Genesis and cry about this for a little while without anyone knowing what a wuss I really was inside.
He walked toward me, determination in his step. “It’s not like I’m exactly thrilled about it. We tried to take them prisoner, but I’m not going to keep and feed people carrying these things on them.”
In his hand, he held a small device. He placed it in my palm. I stared down at it. “Some kind of receiver.”
“Yes. I think he’s trying to spy. Send us a bunch of fighters who can’t speak our language and then listen to us talking in front of them. We only lucked out on finding it because Micah took one down and it fell out of his shoulder. They’re implanted.” He shook his head. “Not going to risk it. They all get to die.” He shouted into receiver. “Dead. Dead. Dead.”
He threw the thing on the ground and shook his head. “Feel better I feel shitty about this?”
I wasn’t used to him and vulgarity going hand in hand. Lately, the grown-ups had been treating me like I was one of them, which I guess I now technically was.
Still, it felt…weird.
“I don’t like any of this.” I stared up at the sky. The sun hung high above the horizon. When had I last been Upward in the middle of th
e day?
My skin warmed, a nice change.
Keith sighed. “Me neither. What kind of world is this for my son? I mean, it’s terrible I preferred the lie of it all. The untruth that we lived with for so long. It would have made raising him easier.”
“My fault, then.” I’d pretty much single-handedly altered things by reappearing in their lives after I’d been erased from them. I hadn’t meant to do it but my arrival had created the change.
“No. It’s not your fault. Sometimes things just are. Don’t you remember what I said to you right before we were frozen? In the Before Time?”
“You told me not to believe Icahn or any of his people and you weren’t exactly sure what was going to happen to any of us.”
Keith put his arm around my shoulders. “Still good advice. Don’t trust Icahn. Everything else is just dust in the wind. We have no control over it. We never did.”
His words sounded kind of depressing. “It has to change, Keith. He’s not some kind of divine entity. He’s an old man who had too much power. Now he has less.”
Something moved in the bushes behind me. “Ahhh!” An unknown person screamed.
Two men charged us. I hadn’t seen them or had any idea they were there. Keith ducked, shoving his machete into the chest of one of them. I reacted without thought. Like I would have if a monster had been the one wielding the weapons.
I shoved my machete right through the other one’s neck. Blood spurted all over me. It drenched my face, covering me from head to toe. I’d been disgusting before, covered in monster blood, and yet I couldn’t take my eyes off my hands this time. Because the red mess hadn’t come from the undead or a Werewolf. It was human.
My fingers were sticky, slimy even. The blood coated my skin, immediately sinking down like it wanted to invade my system, using my own body as its transportation system.
Diseases like AIDS were a thing of the past. When Icahn had us under cryogenic sleep, he’d taken the opportunity to cure us of such afflictions. So I wasn’t going to get sick because I’d chopped off this dude’s head.
Still, I darted to the side to keep Keith from being struck by my vomit. I emptied my stomach onto the ground, retching uncontrollably as I did.
I’d just killed my very first human. And I’d done it without one single conscious thought.
Chapter Two
Chad passed me a slice of bread. It tasted stale, but I chomped down on it, staring off into the distance like the white wall of my parents’ cabin held some new, intriguing facet I’d not noticed before. Truth was, I just didn’t want Chad to see how shaken I still felt after the morning’s event.
How could I be acting like I’d just killed for the first time when I’d ended the lives of so many monsters?
“You okay?” He scooted next to me on the bench and I leaned my head on his shoulder. I took a deep breath, bringing the familiar scent of his soap into my nose. If I could have closed my eyes and rolled around in his aroma, I would have done so.
I could also make out leather, cleaning fluid—the kind we used to make sure our weapons were spotless—and oil. He had to have been tinkering on one of his cars again. Once, in this After-time, he’d gotten one to work. I didn’t know if he’d ever achieve success again in our new world. He still tried, which never ceased to amaze me.
“Going to answer me?” He ran his hand down my arm and I shivered.
My parents were fighting the monsters tonight. I should be, too, but Keith had benched me after finding out the man I’d ended had been my first human kill.
They’d all had to handle it for months. How I had managed to make it this far without having to do it before now I really had no idea. However, something on my face must have prompted Keith to give me the night off. I either looked like a person on the verge of a meltdown or he wanted to ensure I didn’t suddenly become a psychopathic slaughterer of millions.
Neither eventuality seemed very likely to me.
It was my non-reaction, my thoughtless swiping of my machete like ending the man’s life had come naturally to me, bothering me.
“I don’t know if there is anything to say.”
Chad rubbed his hand up my arm and goose bumps appeared. “Sure there is. It’s a big deal.”
“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow and pulled my head up to stare right at him. “How many people have you killed? I don’t even know. We’ve never discussed it. Micah has ended a whole bunch, I’d bet. Even Glen. No one told me anything about their experiences. None of you had meltdowns. Why is it such a big deal I finally took the plunge?”
Chad smiled, a crooked turn of his lips that meant no amusement accompanied his facial expression. “Because you’re Rachel.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He stood up, putting his hands in the air in the act of surrender. “Whoa. I’m waving my white flag. I come in peace.”
“Damn it, Chad.” I put my head in my hands and leaned on the table.
“What I meant….” He came behind me to rub my shoulders. I doubted it would make any difference. Tension in my back kept me upright. I really had no idea if removing the kinks would send me plummeting straight down to the floor. “Is that you’re special. You think about things, consider them.”
I turned around to look at him. Chad made every day…better. Reaching out, I stroked his chest through the cotton of his green shirt. “Obsess, you mean.”
He kissed my nose. “Maybe a little.”
“I love you.”
His eyes widened at my statement. Chad told me of his feelings all the time. I’d confessed mine, but I knew I didn’t say it enough. His reaction lent credence to my belief. It apparently shocked him I’d just come out with it, without some kind of near-death experience or upcoming battle we might not survive.
I guess I didn’t do small, tender moments that well.
“I love you, too, beautiful.”
He kissed me. If once I had been hesitant for physical contact, those days were behind me. When Chad kissed me, my body came alive. Warmth spread throughout me and I couldn’t get close enough to him.
He pulled back and held my gaze. His dark eyes, if possible, seemed more smoldering. “Have you thought about what I asked you?”
My heart stuttered. “About moving out?”
“Exactly. We could be together all the time. Wake up together, go to bed together.”
We’d never actually been together and I knew the time had come to take that step. The question remained as to exactly when it should be. “Should we move in together before we’ve, you know, done it?”
If there were more articulate ways to say what needed to be said, I couldn’t come up with them.
“I don’t know if we’re ever going to get enough alone time to be intimate….” Chad could always come up with better phrasings than I could. “If we don’t take this step.”
“We’re alone now.”
He leaned forward and bit down on my bottom lip. I shuddered. “You’re right. We are.”
Like they had sex radar, my parents walked through the front door. We dashed apart, Chad moving a foot away from me faster than I’d ever seen him do before.
“Rachel.” My mother came over and put her arms around me. “Chad.” She acknowledged him. In the Before Time, they had not liked Jason as my boyfriend. It turned out their parental instincts had been right on. He’d been bad news.
Now, though, they liked Chad and only gave me relatively disapproving looks when they caught us together. But I guess there was a big difference between not liking your daughter’s choices at fifteen and eighteen. What were they really going to say?
Tia had a baby. I hadn’t. Comparatively speaking, I looked pretty good.
“I thought you were fighting tonight,” I said. Had there been a shortage of monsters to take out? Patrick, Chad’s father, only required half the staff?
“We had a meeting and I thought it appropriate to discuss the decision with you.”
Chad’s focus
shifted immediately. I could tell by the way his eyes darted to my mother’s face. “Why weren’t we informed there would be a meeting?”
“It was a rather impromptu discussion I had with Patrick.”
My father rolled his eyes. I watched him as he walked to the fridge. Even though he’d been different in this incarnation, changed since my mother had been brought back, I still tensed up. Would he go for the booze? He picked up a glass, filled it with water, and turned to us. “Maybe meeting was a bad choice of words.”
“Okay.” My mother threw her hands in the air. I got my defensive streak from her. “Conversation, then. Are we all going to nitpick everything I say?”
I covered my mouth so she couldn’t see me grin.
“Please go on, Mrs. Clancy.” Chad leaned against the wall. “I’m interested.”
And he managed her just like he did with me. My father leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Keep him.”
I intended to.
“Well, we’ve decided to present the idea to the Council that the children and non-Warriors be removed from here.”
“Why?” We’d all finally come together as a cohesive group. Patrick and my mother thought it best to disrupt the newly found accord?
“Because we’re going to lure Icahn into an all-out battle and we don’t want there to be unnecessary casualties.”
I stood up. So, they’d decided the time had come. I’d wondered how much longer we could go on as we had been doing, particularly with Keith’s earlier comments about his son. Things had to change.
“When do you propose doing this?” The clock was ticking. One way or another, everything would end.
“Patrick is going to call a meeting right now. We’ll get together, there’ll be a vote, and then decisions will be made.”
Chad nodded. “We need to be somewhere secure, somewhere where we can absolutely guarantee there are no recording devices, so Icahn can’t possibly hear us.”
The Warrior Page 75
