Atlas (The Atlas Series)

by Becca C. Smith

  “No, but he can.” Kala nodded toward Talan and found it hard to not think about the fact that Turner already worked with Talan in a different form.

  Roberta apparently had enough small talk and she went up to Kala and hugged her. “I’m so happy to see you safe. Now tell us who he is.”

  Kala hadn’t been sure if Talan would show himself to Roberta and Turner in his current form. He had told her before that he came to Roberta as an old black man and to Turner as a scientist; Kala had thought Talan might come to them in either of those forms. The more she thought about it, though, the more Kala realized that Talan wasn’t ready to retire his two disguises. He wasn’t done with the couple yet.

  “This is Talan. He’s an Angel.” Kala knew that sounded absurd, but she also knew that at least the couple believed in Demons and Angels. And she didn’t want to get into the whole Grigori thing.

  Turner’s head jerked back, startled slightly. “Really?”

  Kala looked directly at Turner. “I need your help.”

  But it was Roberta that answered, “Anything.”

  It was then that Kala saw the kind of symbiosis Turner and Roberta shared in their relationship. It was almost like they were one person. Whereas Turner may have been on the verge of objection, by Roberta promising her help Turner was completely on board, no questions asked. Kala wondered what Turner would do if he was in Kala’s position and was asked to kill his wife.

  “I need to die,” Kala stated simply.

  Turner raised his eyebrow in curiosity. “That can be arranged.”

  After Kala explained her plan, Turner and Roberta brought Kala and Talan to the basement of their mansion. Floor after floor of the house made Kala dizzy. She could never live in that much space, she’d get lost for sure. Her one bedroom apartment was plenty. As Kala glanced in each passing room, she realized that Turner and Roberta needed the space. Catching glimpses of electronic equipment and scientific gear, made Kala want to stay out of their business altogether.

  Kala glanced over at Talan. She knew he was probably responsible for most of their scientific discoveries, but Turner had obviously taken the research to a whole new level. Talan’s eyes met Kala’s as if he felt her looking at him. He smiled gently. She looked away. Kala couldn’t handle Talan being so supportive and nice right now. It made her annoyed for some reason though she was grateful for his help. The opposing thoughts confused the crap out of her so she figured it was best just to avoid as much contact with Talan as possible.

  When they stepped into an elevator, Kala was impressed. An elevator in a house?! It blew her mind. The elevator went down four more floors to reach the basement. Exiting the elevator, Kala stepped into a giant room full of lab tables. It looked like a college chemistry lab, from the size of the room and the beakers, Bunsen burners, and sinks at every seven-foot long table. With all the steam and bubbling, Kala expected to see at least a handful of scientists at work, but she only saw one. He came hurrying up to them.

  The man was short-ish with gray hair and brown eyes. His features were overly small, making him almost rodent-like in appearance. Although he had gray hair, his face still looked relatively young, perhaps only in his mid-forties. Turner introduced him to Kala and Talan. “Ms. Hicks, Mr. Talan, this is John Fortski.”

  Kala shook his hand and noticed when Talan shook John’s hand that Talan knew him. It was just a small moment, a flash of pride, but it was enough to give Kala a surge of relief. If Talan had trained this guy, then Fortski would be good.

  “John is the man who devised the ‘death cocktail’ you took before. John, you can explain it better.” Turner gave the floor to Fortski.

  Fortski looked extremely nervous, especially around Roberta, furtively looking at her as if she was likely to scream at him any moment. Then he focused his attention back on Kala. “The drug I gave your team slows the heart rate down so slowly that any EKG will register it as stopped. It has a time release adrenaline shot that jolts you back to the living. I can make the time release up to two hours, but anything after that, you could run the risk of actually dying.”

  Kala looked at the clock.

  0d 13h 55m 23s.

  4:05 P.M.

  Time was flying. Kala had less than twelve hours to fail or complete her mission, but she needed enough time with Atlas to either trick him or convince him to take his job back. If Kala ever needed the talent of negotiation it was right now.

  “Give me an hour to be safe,” Kala qualified.

  “I’ll set the parameters.” Fortski nodded. He went back to the table he had been working at when they arrived.

  Turner nodded toward the back of the lab. “We’ll set you up back here. I had a cot brought down.”

  The four of them walked to the area, where Kala found a standard issue army cot, which was somewhat comforting. It was familiar and familiar felt good at the moment. Kala lay down on the hard mattress and tried to calm herself for what was about to happen. Talan kneeled down beside her.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Talan asked with concern.

  “Yes, positive.” Kala had no doubts. This was her one shot to save Jack: she was going to take it no matter what.

  Fortski walked over with a metal plate and syringe resting on top. “Here we are.”

  Kala knew the procedure, having experienced it before, but it still gave her a bout of butterflies.

  Fortski knelt down next to Kala on the opposite side of where Talan was. Kala figured Fortski thought that Talan was her support system and didn’t want to deprive her of him.

  “Should I invoke a protection spell?” Roberta asked Talan.

  “Yes, I’ll help. We need to keep Demons and Malaks out, Malaks especially, since they’ll want to kill Kala directly. Demons will just want to take her,” Talan qualified. “I shifted her DNA, but once she’s in a mortal state, she may be trackable.”

  Roberta seemed to light up at this new knowledge being presented to her. She obviously knew about Demons and Angels already, since she had learned to harness their powers, but to be working directly with one was definitely making her happy. Little did she realize, she’d been working with Talan for years and just didn’t know it.

  Talan squeezed Kala’s hand before she could scold him for it. “We’ll keep you safe, just do your thing and don’t worry.”

  Kala reluctantly squeezed Talan’s hand back and grudgingly mumbled, “Thanks.”

  Talan stood up and went to Roberta’s side.

  Kala heard them start to chant in a language she didn’t recognize. In seconds Kala physically felt some kind of invisible force laying on top of her like a blanket. It was a strange sensation, like waving your hands over goose-pimpled hairs. She didn’t know if it would protect her or not, but she figured it couldn’t hurt.

  Looking up at Turner, he seemed fascinated by the whole magic thing. Kala could tell that this was new to him as well. She guessed that Turner hadn’t taken it as seriously as he should have and now, witnessing it in action, he was seeing some of its uses.

  Talan’s observations about the Turners suddenly rang true for Kala, thinking that the combination of their magic and science would make them unstoppable. Kala was just relieved she was on their good side. She’d hate to think of the poor sap that got on their bad side.

  Fortski gave Kala a nervous smile as he readied the syringe. “You should only feel a slight prick.”

  “Yeah, yeah, just do it.” Kala wanted it over and done with.

  Not having to be told twice, Fortski injected Kala with the serum.

  It felt the same as before: cold liquid entering her blood stream. It was almost soothing in a way, like an I.V. drip after being dehydrated. Then the fun began. Kala felt the sweat beading on her forehead as her heart physically started to slow down. The drug was forcing her to relax, which instinctively made Kala a prisoner in her own body. Slower and slower her heart pounded, loud in her ears. The last thing Kala saw was Talan’s face as she entered into darkness…

>   “Well, well, isn’t this interesting.” Kala heard her own voice talking — to herself.

  She opened her eyes. Kala was standing on a white sand beach with bright turquoise waters lapping gently on the shore. Sitting on a beach chair was herself drinking some kind of fruity tropical drink. A large umbrella dug into the sand providing generous shade for the other Kala. An empty identical beach chair lay under the umbrella set out for the real Kala.

  “Atlas?” Kala asked her doppelganger.

  “In the flesh, or in your flesh I should say. How on earth did you pull this one off? I give you kudos, this is definitely new. I’ve never talked to an Atlas in their own form before.” Atlas looked genuinely amazed.

  It was strange talking to a mirror image of oneself, but Kala knew better than to dwell on it for long. She didn’t have much time and didn’t want to waste any of it. She sat down next to Atlas and an identical fruity drink appeared in Kala’s hand.

  “Drink up. Enjoy yourself while you can because when you wake up, it’s back to business.” Atlas toasted Kala, then took a drink herself.

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Kala started, “I tried to tell you before, this was a huge mistake. I wasn’t meant to do your job. In fact, I’m not going to do your job. The world will end. You don’t want that, do you?” Kala said in a rush.

  “You think you’re the first to shirk their duty?” Atlas laughed as she took another drink. “The longest an Atlas went without completing their mission was two years. You do remember the Black Death, don’t you? That Atlas hid in a hole until the next Chosen One tracked him down and killed him. It took the world almost 150 years to recover from that little mishap.”

  “But this is different, it’s not just going to be a horrible event that humanity can recover from. A Grigori Angel showed me the future, he showed me that I was something called the Fated One and Jack is a potential or something. We can’t exist together. It’s written in some kind of scroll thingy.” Kala sarcastically commended herself on her eloquence.

  Atlas stared at Kala without saying a word. Watching the image of herself looking at her made Kala’s skin crawl. Still there was one advantage to Atlas taking on her form: Kala could read Atlas’s facial expression because it was an expression Kala had felt many times before: doubt.

  “We’re running out of time. You have to stop this,” Kala pleaded. Kala had figured if Atlas knew what was at stake, he (or she at the moment) would be willing to switch back.

  “How dare you,” Atlas seethed.

  When Atlas didn’t elaborate, Kala stood up. “How dare I? How dare you! You’re going to let this planet die all because you’re too lazy to do your own freaking job!”

  Atlas stood to face her, eyes full of fury. “No, you’re going to let this planet die for not doing your job!”

  Everything that had happened to Kala finally reached its peak, and her fury matched Atlas’s. “You’re weak and pathetic! You’re supposed to be a god!”

  “I didn’t want to be a god!” Atlas shouted back. “I still don’t want to! And do you think I care what a measly human thinks of me? You’re the one who’s weak and pathetic, crawling to me, begging for me to let you out of your responsibility. One task. One simple task and you save the whole world. That’s a gift not a curse! You ungrateful peon!”

  Rage burned through Kala like a fire. Atlas wasn’t going to release her. Atlas was going to just sit and drink Mai Tai’s until the world collapsed around him. Kala had thought for a moment that the real threat of the world ending would make Atlas do the right thing. But Kala could see now that Atlas wanted the world to end. He just wanted it to be over.

  “Then you don’t deserve this gift,” Kala raged.

  Terror flashed in Atlas’s eyes. “What are you doing?”

  Something inside Kala was terrified as well, but the stronger part of her took over. It was as if she were accessing some secret file somewhere hidden inside her. Though her conscious brain had no idea what she was doing, Kala’s subconscious took over.

  “You are no longer worthy, and you will be punished.” The words came out of Kala’s mouth, but she had no idea where they came from. A tiny part of her was screaming for herself to stop.

  Atlas started to back away, his body shifting into something else. He looked human. But something more as well, he was almost alien-like in his perfectly symmetrical features, like a living statue. And he grew. Grew so large he was well over twenty feet. Standing in front of Kala was a god.

  And it meant nothing to Kala.

  Towering over her, Atlas was still puny to her.

  Atlas cowered, whimpering like a caged animal.

  He knew what was coming, even if Kala hadn’t figured it out yet.

  From deep inside Kala, she screamed, “I AM TAKING WHAT’S MINE!”

  Kala couldn’t stop herself, she didn’t know what she was doing.

  Atlas howled in shock and fear as his body started turning into a white swirling smoke.

  And that’s when it happened.

  Kala opened her mouth and devoured him.

  The white smoke poured inside her body like ice in her veins. Kala felt like she was swallowing a giant snake that wouldn’t end. The more she consumed, the more power she felt growing in every cell of her body. When the last wisps of smoke that were Atlas were swallowed, the realization of what Kala had just done hit her like an explosion of torment.

  Kala was a god.

  Kala was Atlas.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Kala’s eyes opened and she sat up in the cot like a lightning bolt had shot through her back. She could barely hear Fortski’s panicked voice as she tried to regain her senses, “The adrenaline shot must have activated too early.”

  “Relax, John, we’ll figure it out later,” Turner’s voice tried to calm Fortski.

  Kala had to stand up and pace. The enormity of what just happened wasn’t processing in her brain yet. She had consumed a god. Of course, Kala hadn’t known what she was doing at the time, but there was obviously a part of her deep down that knew exactly what she was doing. Her body tingled all over like she was having a panic attack, but Kala knew that wasn’t true. The tingling was her human body adjusting to becoming a supernatural one.

  Her brain could not seem to wrap around the fact that she was now Atlas. Not a human being tricked into taking on the job, but the real Atlas. So many questions raced through her mind. How did she know how to devour a god? A Titan? Why did she do it? Where had those words of power come from? Could she take it back? Vomit him out or something? What did being a god mean? Did she have powers? Could she be killed? Kala instinctively knew the rules were different now that she was no longer an emissary of the god, she just didn’t know the specifics.

  Kala felt a hand on her shoulder. It brought her mind back into focus.

  Everyone in the room watched her intently, Talan being the most concerned hence the hand belonged to him. “Kala,” he said her name in shock.

  Kala could tell from his face that he knew what she had done. Seeing him there, not knowing what to do, so worried for her, Kala fell into his arms.

  Kala looked up at Talan. “Am I what I think I am?” She hoped he would tell her it was all a dream.

  Talan nodded.

  “How did that happen?” was all she could think to ask.

  Talan held her close and spoke quietly in her ear. “I don’t know. It’s never happened before, Kala. Never.”

  His words scared her even more. When she had said the words to consume Atlas, it had felt like remembering the lyrics to an old song. At first she didn’t think she knew what to say, but then the words came out of her mouth in perfect formation.

  Kala’s body suddenly jerked backward in Talan’s arms. She screamed from the pain. It felt like her cells were fighting against each other. “What’s happening to me?”

  Fortski was at her side next to Talan, feeling like he was the most “doctorly” of the bunch. “Maybe it’s the adr
enaline kicking in. Come sit down.”

  Turner and Roberta were arm in arm, watching Kala with concern, though Turner looked more fascinated than worried.

  Another jolt of energy surged through Kala and she arched her back in anguish. “Talan, make it stop!”

  “I can’t!” Talan’s face was wracked with agony. “Kala, your body is trying to fuse both sides together. The human part of you is rejecting the power of the Titan.”

  “Am I dying?” Kala screamed as another jolt of pain surged through her.

  “Humans aren’t meant to have a god’s power Kala,” Talan looked at her with grief in his eyes.

  “So that’s a yes.” Kala shrugged him off and let Fortski sit her back down on the cot. She screamed again. It felt like her blood was on fire.

  Kala took deep, calming breaths.

  Roberta knelt beside Kala and Talan. “What can I do?” she asked.

  Talan shook his head. “Her body is trying to integrate with a god and her body won’t allow it.”

  Kala fought the urge to scream again as the pain intensified.

  “So we have to find a way for Kala’s body not to reject this god’s… power? Aura? What?” Roberta was obviously trying to get a clearer picture of the situation.

  “His being. The Titan has died and Kala consumed his energy. It’s not like there will be two people living inside her, she is becoming the god itself,” Talan tried to explain.

  Kala could barely listen to their conversation. It started to feel like every cell in her body was popping like popcorn.

  Roberta grabbed Kala’s hand. “Squeeze as hard as you like.”

  Kala obliged and felt bad when she heard a slight gasp from Roberta.

  Roberta asked Talan, “I’ve been working on ways to astral project. Do you know what that is?”

  “Traveling from one body to another through dreams.” Talan nodded.

  “Yes, through dreams, but in waking as well. I can go inside Kala’s head to try and connect the two entities together,” Roberta offered.