The Community Series, Books 1-3

by Tappan, Tracy

  “No,” she whispered.

  Alex knew a cue when he saw it. He walked up to Luvera, and then he did go down on his knees, right in front of her. “Go out on a date with me,” he said, taking her hand, “and we’ll start from there. The past gets left in the past and we’ll only look to the future. If it ever comes to us getting together, all I care about is that you honor any commitment you make to me then. Nothing before us matters.”

  “I would never be unfaithful to you,” she vowed quietly.

  “I know.” He squeezed her hand. “So we’re good.”

  “O-okay.” A tear leaked from Luvera’s lashes even as her face lit up. “I’ll go out with you, Alex.”

  Alex blinked, once, twice. “Holy Moses, really?” He glanced over at Dev. “Did she just say yes?”

  Dev laughed. “Just hug her, you space cadet.”

  Grinning widely, Alex leapt to his feet, tugging Luvera up with him. He hugged her tightly, inhaling her innocent daisy scent, warmth filling his chest to overflowing. What would be proper protocol at a moment like this? A “wahoo!” or “hot dog!”

  Before he could decide, the courtroom door was flung open, and Thomal charged inside with Llawell, his fist tangled in the scruff of the body shop guy’s shirt. “I gotta interrupt,” Thomal barked.

  Llawell was clutching his chest and his legs looked rubbery enough that, if not for Thomal’s supporting hold, the man would’ve been on the floor.

  Jacken surged out of his seat. “His radar’s going off.”

  Toni jumped to her feet and moved rapidly around the Council table.

  “Yes, yes, it’s my wife.” Llawell bared his teeth in pain. “I think something’s happened to Candace.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Alex sat at the main console in the computer command center, his fingers flying over the keyboard, his eyes pinned on the screen as information steadily scrolled past. “According to the Travelers’ schedule for the day, Candace isn’t due back into the community for another few hours.” He looked up at Toni and Jacken, both hovering over his chair. “She’s not even officially late.”

  Toni glanced over at Llawell, who was on his knees at Roth’s feet groaning. “Well, something’s obviously wrong.”

  “Has Candace checked in at all?” Roth asked in a clipped tone, his expression about as cheery as the Grim Reaper’s.

  Alex shifted his focus to the screen of another of the ten computers he commanded. “No. But that’s not unusual, is it?”

  “Why don’t you do a quick scan of the local hospitals, just to humor us,” Toni said. “You should be able to search the ones you’ve already hacked into relatively fast.”

  “All right.” Clackity-clack went his fingers while everyone waited for him.

  Jacken held himself with that strange battle-ready stillness that every warrior seemed to excel at, while Roth paced, and Llawell moaned with hair-pulling ceaselessness. Dev and Thomal were upstairs for the moment, escorting Shon and Luvera to upstairs bedrooms, where they would remain under house arrest until their cases were decided. At least they weren’t being detained in basement jail cells. Alex didn’t think he could’ve borne imagining Luvera there.

  A soft bleep sounded, and a silent oh, no passed through Alex’s brain. That meant Candace’s name had popped up at a hospital.

  “Crap.” Toni knew it, too. “What is it?”

  Alex skimmed the information, and went cold to the marrow of his bones. “Toni,” he said in a hushed tone. “Candace’s name just came up at your old hospital. Scripps Memorial.” He spun his chair toward Llawell. “I’m so sorry.” His throat worked around his next words. “She’s in the morgue, Llawell.”

  “My God.” Toni’s lips parted. “What does the report—?”

  Llawell threw back his head and let out a deafening howl.

  “Ahhh!” Alex pressed his hands over his ears as the raw, piercing anguish of the sound ripped through the command center, ricocheting off every corner in the room.

  “Watch out!” Jacken shouted.

  The overhead light fixtures began to burst apart, the exploding bulbs boom-booming like a volley of mortars.

  “Get down!” Jacken grabbed Toni around the waist and Alex by the shirt, dragging them both to the floor.

  Alex belly-flopped to his stomach with a hard splat. Blade-like pieces of glass showered down from the ceiling, and Jacken shoved Toni deeper under the long desk. Alex scrambled to get farther under, too.

  Pow! Pow! Pow! One after the other, his computer screens exploded, glass blowing outward across the room. Through squinched lids, Alex watched the shards hit the opposite wall. Jesus Christ, no…

  With a long, gasping moan, Llawell finally stopped his tormented cry. Toppling over onto his side, he buried his face in his hands and began to weep.

  Jacken lifted to a crouch above Toni, his eyes wild on his wife. “Are you okay?” His hand cupped her belly, still slender and flat, but nevertheless in charge of baking Baby Brun.

  Toni nodded mutely.

  Alex crawled forward and cautiously popped his head above the edge of the desk to check out the damage. His heart sank into the earth. It was the apocalypse. Only one of his precious computers hadn’t been destroyed.

  Roth rose from his own crouch, his face red. “Explain this,” he demanded of Alex. “What did that report say about Candace?”

  Alex glanced at Jacken. “Why don’t we take care of Llawell first?”

  Jacken helped Toni up, then moved over to Llawell and did the same. “Come on, man. Let’s get you to a couch to lie down.”

  Bracing his hands on the edge of the desk, Alex shoved himself to a standing position. “The autopsy report was only preliminary,” he told them just as Jacken re-entered. “But it said the body showed signs of torture.”

  “Torture,” Roth hissed. He bolted a look over to Jacken. “This means the Topside Om Rău got hold of her.”

  “We can’t be sure of that,” Jacken argued.

  Roth’s eyes snapped. “Who else would want a Traveler?”

  “How would the Om Rău even know about our Travelers,” Jacken countered, “or be able to identify one?”

  Alex looked between Roth and Jacken. “And why torture her?”

  Roth’s spine locked stiff. “As a Traveler, she knows how to get in and out of our community.” Roth exhaled air through his nostrils. “Those creatures are trying to find our entrances!”

  “If that’s the case,” Toni intervened, “then we need to discuss security options for—”

  “There’s no time for discussion,” Roth plowed over her. “If Candace was tortured, we have to assume the Om Rău were able to extract information from her. We must go into full shutdown right away.”

  “No.” Jacken chopped a hand through the air. “Full shutdown is too drastic for the amount of information we have.”

  Toni frowned. “What’s full shutdown?”

  Jacken reached for his cell phone. “Let my men and I confirm this before—”

  “Confirm how?” Roth’s jaw could’ve rivaled Jacken’s for hardness. “It’s daylight topside.” Roth moved toward a metal lock-box on the far wall. “Every moment we wait is a further risk to our lives. Our enemy could be breaking into one of our elevators even as we stand here deliberating.”

  Jacken followed him over. “Dammit, Roth! Stop!”

  Roth spun the combination lock and jerked open the metal door, exposing a button not unlike those used for the community’s 911 system.

  “Don’t.” Jacken planted his hands on his hips, looking like he wanted to stop Roth physically—maybe, in the process, ripping an arm off—but the Vârcolac were still a little funny about going against their leaders. “You’ll cut us off from everything.”

  “Would somebody please tell me what a full shutdown is?” Toni demanded sharply.

  Alex’s heart tripped. He was beginning to get nervous about that, too.

  “We must consider ourselves breached,” Roth ground out. �
�Shutting down the community is our only recourse.” He slammed his hand against the button.

  “Uh, oh,” Alex breathed as the world instantly went black.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Not a soul in sight.

  Not a sound to be heard, except for the scuff of Dev’s boots on the rocky cave floor and the soft, steady tap-tap of his rifle muzzle hitting a button on his trench coat.

  Ţărână was the darkest he’d ever seen it…no lights inside a cave, go figure. Only dim yellow security lighting filtered out from the occasional corner. The whole scene gave off an eerie, abandoned vibe, like a ghost town, empty of life. Shops and homes were shut up tight, doors locked and curtains drawn, everyone probably huddled around flashlights and trying not to let full-on panic set in too deeply. Made the place feel damned creepy.

  Fucking Roth. The man had butted his nose in where it didn’t belong—in security—and now they were all stuck in a full shutdown, water and electricity switched off and being rationed, all contact with the outside world disabled: comm. plus the elevators. That amounted to Dev being completely cut off from Marissa; she couldn’t get to him and he couldn’t get to her. And right at a time when, oh, the Topside Om Rău just happened to be torturing the community’s women.

  Dev gritted out a curse, locking his molars together.

  The thin beam of a penlight swept over him, then Arc Costache resolved out of the shadows, dressed all in black and sporting as many knives as his body could hold. “Hey.”

  Dev jerked his chin in greeting.

  No rest for the warriors when the community went to pot. The men had been up all night, pacing the town, keeping things safe down here while they figured out how the hell to get up there. The idea had been tossed around that Candace’s murder was being used as a ploy to distract them, perhaps getting the Vârcolac to divert all of their resources topside so that Josnic could attack, making good on his threat against Beth and Hannah. It wouldn’t be the first time the Topside and the Underground Om Rău had worked together. Josnic probably hadn’t figured on the Vârcolac being doofus enough to get themselves stuck in Ţărână…but it was only a matter of time before he found out.

  Yeah, well…good luck to Josnic on launching an attack. Arc had an eat-shit-and-die look stamped on his face that suggested the likelihood of anyone getting through him to his extremely pregnant wife was damned slim.

  Dev checked anyway. “Any action over by the tunnels?”

  “No, everything’s chill,” Arc answered, then countered with his own question. “What’s the word on Cleeve and Alex’s progress?”

  The community’s two IT guys were struggling to hack through the time-locks of shutdown and get systems back online as fast as possible. But with only one computer at their disposal, things were moving teeth-gratingly slow.

  “No word, except—”

  The security lighting snapped off, dousing the cave in inky blackness.

  There was a far off, frightened cry from the direction of the residential neighborhood.

  “Great,” Arc drawled. “Just what the women need is more of the heebie-jeebies.”

  Dev growled a breath. All of the warriors felt like total failures when their females didn’t feel safe.

  Thomal jogged toward them, the beam of his penlight swinging crazily.

  “Hey, Thomal,” Dev called, “you got any idea why the security lighting just went out?” Something Dev could’ve radioed in to ask, if they had any fucking comm. Disabling inner-town communication was pretty stupid-ass, but the whole shutdown system had been installed back in the days when there hadn’t been the technology for differentiation. After this fiasco, he bet there’d be a whole lot of updating going on.

  Thomal slowed and stopped, clicking off his penlight. “Alex got one of the elevators up and running, but he had to divert all auxiliary electricity to do it. It’s sunset, Dev, and Jacken wants the Special Ops Topside Team to check the security of all the entrances.”

  “We’re heading up?” Dev was all over that idea. “Halle-fucking-lujah.”

  Thomal jammed the penlight into his back pocket. “Jacken’s taking my place on the team, so that I can stay here with Arc.”

  Arc’s eyebrows lifted. “I wasn’t aware I needed babysitting.”

  “Yeah, sorry.” Thomal winced. “Beth just went into labor.”

  Wave bye-bye to Arc.

  “She—?” Arc’s eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. “No,” he denied hoarsely. “She can’t have the baby now. We’re in the middle of a shutdown.”

  “I don’t think your kid’s aware of that.” Thomal grabbed his brother’s shoulder. “Beth is gonna be fine, Arc. Doc Jess is jerry-rigging some equipment for her. Let’s head over.” Thomal pulled his brother in the direction of the hospital, calling over his shoulder to Dev, “Meet the team at the four-man in the east corner of Stânga Town.”

  The passenger-only elevator? That was actually a good idea. The rarely-used elevator was tucked away at the end of a long tunnel. He doubted many of the Travelers knew about it, making it the safest option for avoiding a topside ambush.

  “Stay tight,” Thomal added, then double-timed it off with Arc in tow.

  Sedge, Gábor, and Jacken were already waiting by the long, dark passageway when Dev arrived. They made one helluva grim group. He didn’t know which was worse, a guy being cut off from a mate who was stuck topside, like he and Sedge were; Kimberly was either at her law firm or her apartment, probably none the wiser about the possible threat to her safety. Or having to leave his woman behind here in uncertain danger, like Jacken and Gábor.

  “Arc fucked up?” Jacken asked.

  “Yes.”

  Jacken paused, then nodded stiffly. “He’ll be okay. Let’s do this thing. Nichita and Pavenic, you’re on point.”

  Jacken put his hand on Dev’s shoulder; Sedge did the same with Gábor. Then the two of them with Pure-bred eyes set their retinas on flashlight-mode and led the way down the black-as-pitch tunnel.

  When they reached the elevator, Jacken moved over to the control panel. “Give me some more light over here, Nichita.” He waved Dev closer, then punched in the door-release code.

  Nothing happened.

  Jacken muttered under his breath and pressed the intercom button. “Alex, you there?”

  “Yes.”

  “What the fuck? The doors aren’t opening.”

  “Uh, I know, sorry. Unfortunately, the elevator codes were all erased when the community shut down. I have to reset everything.” They heard computer keys clacking over the intercom. “Just punch in 4-8-4-8 for now.”

  Jacken braced a hand on the side of the elevator. “Is that the same code I’ll use to get back in?”

  There was a pause that lasted a second too long. “Um…I’d have Plan B ready to go, just in case.”

  Jacken pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, this mission is off to a splendid start.”

  Dev dimmed his retinas as he slid his gaze over to his boss. Kind of not his usual badass self right now, was he?

  Jacken punched in the new code and the doors cranked open.

  The four of them stepped inside.

  “Hey, Jacken,” Alex’s voice came out of the intercom again. “As soon as those doors close, we’ll be cut off from all communication. So, um, good luck, okay? Toni, she…she really loves—”

  “Got it.” Jacken rammed his forefinger into the close button and the doors thunked shut.

  Not a great time for a warrior to get all squishy inside.

  The elevator jerked, then rose, clank, clank, clank, like a dumbwaiter being hauled up from Hell.

  Gábor stared up at the elevator’s fluorescent lights, watching them flicker. “Fuck, I hope the electricity holds.”

  Dev glanced upward, too. How fun would that be to get stuck mid-ride, one-half mile deep in the earth with nothing but a whole lot of climbing to do in either direction?

  They rode in tense, ready silence. Dev rolled his head from side to s
ide, loosening up his neck. Twenty minutes of this was going to be a killer.

  Sedge glanced over at Jacken. “Facing death’s tougher now that you’re going to be a dad, isn’t it?”

  Dev stopped fidgeting and fixated on the elevator’s open-close buttons. If the Topside Om Rău had somehow found out about this elevator exit and were waiting for them, then they’d be walking into one helluva shake and bake. But, shit, it was kind of an unspoken rule not to talk about the possibility of dying before a job. Or ever.

  Jacken didn’t answer. For a minute Dev thought he was following the tacit agreement not to jinx the mission, but then he did speak. “Toni cried when she said goodbye. She tried not to, but she did.”

  “Shit,” Gábor murmured. “I couldn’t even face Chelsea.”

  Sedge swung his rifle up, resting the stock on his shoulder. “Welcome to married life, gentlemen.”

  Dev snorted. More like welcome to—“Aargh!”

  Together, the three other warriors turned to look at Dev, their eyes dropping to the hand he had pressed to his breastbone.

  Jacken’s eyebrows stabbed together. “Your radar?”

  Dev’s mouth went dry. “It feels like it. Fuck!” Something was wrong with Marissa.

  “Any reason to believe that Marissa would’ve left her hotel?” Jacken asked.

  “No,” Dev gritted.

  “Then you need to assume she’s safe, Nichita.”

  “Well, my fucking chest is saying otherwise, Jacken.” Ow. This was open heart surgery performed with a spork.

  “Jacken’s right,” Sedge said. “My radar’s been doing a number on me, too, Dev. I think we’re all just spooked.”

  Dev rubbed his sternum with the flat of his palm and took an uneven breath. Okay…okay, yeah. The pain was lessening a bit now.

  Shaking his head, Gábor faced forward again. “What a group we make.”

  They rode the rest of the way in silence. Minutes reeled by, one after the other. Could this elevator move any slower? The damned box finally bumped to a halt.

  Jacken was fully back in the game now; if they’d needed to dig themselves out of the cave, his jaw was hard enough to do it. He gestured them into position.