Red Sky in the Morning (The Covenant of the Rainbow Book 1)

by Elana Brooks

  Sarthex swam up to the containment field and thrust his snout in Adrian’s face. Adrian felt cross-eyed as he focused on needle-sharp teeth barely an inch from his nose. He would have felt the breath of Sarthex’s whistling, clicking voice if there had been air between them. “You may think you’ve found a clever way to foil me, but you’re wrong. If one method of questioning proves unproductive, I’ll be forced to employ others less gentle. This is your last chance to save yourself from that fate.”

  The vision hit Adrian hard and fast. His own hand lifted high and swept down. The many-tailed whip he wielded cut deep gashes into Beverly’s back.

  This time he made no attempt to keep his reaction away from the soul bond. He opened his mind wide to the feedback. It built so fast it knocked him out within a second.

  When he revived, all Sarthex’s agitation was gone. The Seraph leader stared at him with a deep coldness far more frightening than his earlier bluster. Adrian stared back, transfixed, his momentary triumph shriveling into formless terror.

  After what seemed a very long time, Sarthex turned to one of the Order Police. “Take him back to Corrections,” he said with terrible calm. “I’ll call for him again when I’m ready.”

  Adrian tried to be glad of the respite, but as the Order Police towed him back to his dark cell, he couldn’t shake a deep sense of dread. No matter how he wracked his brain, he couldn’t figure out what else Sarthex might have planned for him. But he had a sinking conviction the Seraphim Commander wasn’t bluffing.

  After they left him alone, Adrian tried to settle his mind. The field still wouldn’t let him close his eyes, but he hoped he might be able to sleep, or at least drowse, anyway. He needed to fortify himself as much as possible against whatever trials awaited him.

  But he’d barely started working through a basic meditation ritual when a whisper called his attention back to his surroundings. “Adrian?”

  “Rabbi Sensei? Thank God.” His relief at hearing the familiar voice was so great the fervent exclamation escaped before he could censor himself.

  Rabbi Sensei must have accepted it as an honest prayer, because he didn’t chide Adrian for taking the Lord’s name in vain the way he usually would have. Instead, he let his astral form revert from its amorphous shadow to his true shape. “Have they harmed you?”

  “Not really.” Everything he’d been through seemed trivial now. His pulse thudded in his ears as hope and fear warred for dominance. “Please, you’ve got to cut my tether. Quick, before they come back. I haven’t told them anything yet, but Sarthex won’t stop until I do.” He didn’t know how Rabbi Sensei had known he needed help, but it didn’t matter. This chance was too precious to waste time in useless talk. “I don’t think there’s any way for you to get me out of this containment field to escape. So that’s the only way.” He was proud his voice didn’t shake.

  “Of course, my son.” Rabbi Sensei’s gaze was as direct and compassionate as ever. “First, though, tell me. Did you accomplish your mission?”

  “Yes.” There was so much the Covenant needed to know. Now that information wouldn’t have to die with him. “I—”

  “Stop!” Beverly burst through a wall and flung herself between him and Rabbi Sensei. “That’s not him! It’s a trick!”

  Adrian clamped his lips shut as a second Rabbi Sensei appeared next to the first. This one locked eyes with Adrian for an instant, then moved his gaze deliberately to Adrian’s chest, focusing on his tether and tracing it to the spot where it emerged from the containment field and stretched away toward Earth.

  The first Rabbi Sensei lunged to deflect the ball of energy that burst to life in the hand of the second. Simultaneously Beverly did the same. Their shields met and reinforced each other, sending the deadly missile bouncing away from Adrian's tether.

  The second Rabbi Sensei launched an attack against the first one. His voice was strained. “Beverly, you must let me do it. It’s the only way.”

  “No!” Beverly cried. She whirled on Adrian, eyes blazing. Her hands came up and poured energy into the containment field. The bright balls vanished as they hit the gray mist, which remained undisturbed.

  “Let him,” Adrian pleaded with her. “Please. You have to get out of here before more—”

  Too late. A half-dozen Order Police burst into the cell and sent energy balls flying.

  Suddenly Steve and Keiko were there, too, joining the fray. Adrian was helpless to do anything but hang motionless and watch. Energy flew wildly in every direction.

  The fake Rabbi Sensei feinted an attack against the real one, crying, “It’s a trick! He’s trying to kill Adrian!”

  Steve and Keiko hesitated for a moment. The real Rabbi Sensei didn’t say anything, only launched another ball of energy at Adrian’s tether. The false one batted it away.

  Keiko stared at the two copies of her husband. Swallowing, she hurled a brilliant energy globe directly at the one Adrian knew to be fake.

  The Seraph shielded himself against her attack but clung stubbornly to his disguise. Suddenly one of the other Seraphim shifted form as well. Within moments all the rest had followed. Two Steves, two Keikos, and two Beverlys joined the originals. Astral forms darted around the cell. Adrian tried to track their movements, but soon he could no longer tell friend from enemy.

  Adrian prayed for one of the balls of energy to find his tether. Once he was dead, Beverly and the others could flee to safety. The longer they lingered, the greater the chance the Seraphim would manage to kill them or capture them in one of the gray containment fields.

  A ball of energy splattered against the gray mist directly in front of his face. The glare blinded him for a moment. As his vision cleared, he focused again on the battle. The counterfeit forms of the Seraphim were as confusing as ever, but after following the pattern of the fighting for a while he figured out how to tell the impostors from the real humans.

  He laughed, feeling more than a little manic. His allies, except for Beverly, were trying to kill him. His enemies were fighting to save his life.

  One Steve—it must be the real one—had Adrian’s tether in his hands, pulling with all his strength to rip it in two. Another, along with a false Keiko, wrestled to get the shining cord away from him. Two Rabbi Senseis were locked in battle with two more Keikos, giving him no clue which was which. A Beverly defended herself against two other Beverlys and the remaining Steve, all four of them breaking off to block any shot that threatened Adrian’s tether.

  This had to end before more Seraphim arrived. The others were barely holding their own. They’d be doomed if more Order Police showed up.

  An energy ball exploded in front of one of the Rabbi Senseis, severing his tether. One of the Keikos screamed and dove for the loose end as it writhed away. She caught it and whirled back, fear and fury blazing in her face. With one hand she sent enormous, intense balls of energy at the other Rabbi Sensei and Keiko, as with the other she jammed the end of the tether into its owner’s chest.

  Her attacks burned through the enemies’ shields, scoring hits on them both. The Rabbi Sensei that Adrian was now sure was the real one ignored his healing tether to follow up with attacks of his own against the impostors. One lost a big chunk of its head. The other’s hand, reaching for the end of its severed tether, burned away. Together the real Rabbi Sensei and Keiko advanced on them ruthlessly, battering them with attack after attack, until they both faded into nothingness.

  To his other side, frantic voices rose. Adrian turned his eyes to see that the real Steve had succeeded in breaking his tether and was holding the ends apart, resisting all attempts by the disguised Seraphim to thrust them back together.

  Adrian took a deep breath. This was it, then. Let death take him swiftly.

  Beverly’s scream sliced into his ears. She lunged past him, eyes wild, to grapple with Steve.

  “No!” Adrian yelled, but of course she didn’t listen. She fought like a wild animal, lunging and thrashing and biting. She tore one end of his tether fr
om Steve’s grasp and went after the other. All the disguised Seraphim leaped to help her.

  He couldn’t let her succeed. Defying the creeping languor that urged him to surrender to soft, peaceful darkness, Adrian summoned up the memory of the first vision Sarthex had shown him, of Beverly imprisoned helpless in a containment field before the Seraphim commander, sobbing in terror as he flooded her mind with vicious, inventive torments. He gathered every scrap of pain, anger and fear the image provoked and hurled them down the soul bond, opening his mind to catch the rebounding emotions, intensify them, and reflect them back.

  Beverly faltered. Pain mounted in Adrian’s head until it was a deafening shriek. He clung to consciousness as long as he could, willing the pain to escalate, higher than he could ever have imagined he would be able to bear.

  At last, when the universe was solid flame, burning him like the fires of an exploding star, Adrian lost his grip and fell into the nothingness of oblivion.

  Chapter 33

  She would not black out. She refused. What she had to accomplish was too important.

  Beverly walled away the screaming pain along with most of her consciousness, keeping only a tiny corner of her mind to focus on her task. She plowed forward like a tank, letting nothing stop her. One hand kept a death grip on the severed end of Adrian’s tether. With the other leaden arm she reached for what seemed an infinite distance. Other hands were grasping her target and forcing it closer. She would have thanked them if she’d had an atom of energy to spare. Instead, she stretched to the uttermost limits of the universe and closed her fingers around the second broken end.

  Bringing her hands together felt like dragging a couple of elephants, or skyscrapers, or planets. But at last the severed surfaces touched. Slowly, slowly they began to fuse together. She poured all her will into their joining. Once the tether was whole, she’d be able to quit fighting and let the pain send her into darkness.

  But she couldn’t. As Adrian’s tether finally reached the point she could release it without it falling apart, something grasped her shoulder. Snarling, she threw herself at this new foe.

  Soothing words reached her ears, gradually penetrating the fog. “It’s all right. He’s safe now. You can stop.”

  Warily she blinked and took a deep breath. Rabbi Sensei smiled at her, the expression echoed by Keiko and Steve. “You did it, Beverly. See? Adrian’s alive. We won’t let anyone hurt him.”

  The pain was gone. When she closed her eyes and sought Adrian with her mind she met blankness, but the solid presence of the soul bond assured her that he was only unconscious.

  Something was wrong, though. She shook her head, trying to re-integrate the parts of her mind she’d had to block to keep going. Gradually things fell back into place.

  Comprehension came in a rush. Rabbi Sensei and the others had been trying to kill Adrian, to prevent him from revealing the secret of their alliance with the Bleaters. She’d had to fight them more than the Seraphim. Why would they now be reassuring her he was alive?

  She jerked her eyes open and yanked herself away from the comforting hands. Beyond the shielding ring of her false allies, dozens of Seraphim crowded the room. More poured through the walls. Three more spheres of gray mist had joined Adrian’s, each holding a captive. Foggy wisps were coalescing around her, twining around her arms and legs, wrapping her in soft, immobilizing bonds.

  “No!” she gasped. She wrenched free of the clinging strands. Seraphim, their disguises dropped, surrounded her. She sent energy bursting around her in an undisciplined, untargeted storm. The Seraphim pulled back, dodging her wild attacks.

  A despairing glance confirmed her fear. She had no way of freeing Adrian or the others. She’d be lucky to escape herself.

  The Seraphim wouldn’t kill him, though. Nor the others. Not as long as they still hoped to learn why they’d come.

  Beverly dove through the floor, sending blast after blast of energy at the Seraphim who rushed to pursue. She was stronger than any of them, and faster. Pouring all her effort into speed, she gained distance, until at last she plunged through the ceiling of a storage compartment while her pursuers were still two decks away. In the instant she was unobserved she turned aside and ducked into a pile of large crates. She pushed through the solid mass, deeper and deeper, until in a distant buried corner she stopped, assumed the appearance of the stacked bags of some powdery substance that filled the crates, and held herself as still and silent as she could.

  She heard the calling voices of her pursuers as they flashed through the compartment. She listened to the telepathic announcements that echoed through the ship, warning all Seraphim to be on the lookout for the alien, who might be disguising itself as one of them. When an organized search began, she slunk ahead of it, sliding through walls and decks until she found an opening to duck through the ranks of astral Seraphim and reach an area they’d already cleared.

  When at last she was confident she was safe from discovery, Beverly curled up inside a bulkhead to rest and think. What was she going to do? She alone remained free. Common sense urged her to flee back to Earth. There she could warn the rest of the Eight what they faced. She could pass on knowledge of Miheel’s willingness to collaborate. She could recruit a party of helpers, and together they could return to battle the Seraphim and free the captives.

  But it would take at least the eight hours of the round trip before they could return, plus whatever time she needed to persuade them that a rescue mission must be undertaken and to organize it. Far too long. Without her nearby to use the resonance of the soul bond to protect him, Adrian would have no defense against Sarthex’s tortures. And while Rabbi Sensei and Keiko might be able to use the same tactic against him, Steve wouldn’t. Someone would break and give Sarthex the information he sought.

  And then he would kill them all.

  She couldn’t let that happen. Somehow she’d have to find a way to rescue them alone.

  Or—but she flatly refused to consider the thought. It wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to sacrifice three members of the Eight. Let alone her beloved.

  If they could only fight the Seraphim by killing each other, they might as well surrender now. It was wrong. It might seem sensible, it might appear to be the only course that offered Earth a chance, but it wasn’t.

  She wouldn’t let it be.

  Of course, she knew what that meant. She’d have to face Commander Sarthex. Now that she’d seen the powerful astral form that went with the overwhelming mental voice, she was more terrified of him than ever. Just thinking of him made her shake. When she imagined standing before him, challenging him, vulnerable to his penetrating yellow eyes and probing mind, she wanted to vomit.

  He would know. He would see the huge empty space inside her, begging to be filled. She longed to run, fast and far, back to Earth, back to her weak and ugly body. She craved food, any food, in her mouth, in her throat, in her stomach. She would eat until all her fear and pain and grief were numbed, crushed beneath the weight of what she consumed, crowded out by the volume that might, this time, if she tried hard enough, be sufficient to fill her.

  But that was an illusion. Hadn’t she proven it to herself over and over? Was she going to fall into the same trap one more time?

  Or was she going to stand up to her demons at last?

  Now, before it was too late. While she still had the chance to salvage the self-respect she’d begun to gain as a member of the Covenant. While she could still save Adrian. Before the opportunity to give and receive real love, to experience an honest-to-god healthy relationship with another person for once in her life, was lost forever.

  If that wasn’t enough motivation to put on her big girl panties and act like a freaking adult for a change, nothing would ever be.

  Her hands shook, her stomach felt like she’d swallowed a black hole, and a voice in the back of her head gibbered at her that she was crazy. But Beverly thinned her astral form into a long, flat shadow and began to sneak upward toward the
bridge.

  Commander Sarthex wove around the four gray spheres, staring at each of their occupants in turn. Adrian clenched his jaw and stared back when the Seraph’s yellow eyes gleamed into his. Even though everything was probably lost, he still wouldn’t let himself crumble beneath Sarthex’s intimidation.

  At least Beverly had escaped capture. He fervently hoped she’d fled back to Earth. The Covenant wouldn’t have much chance of stopping the Seraphim with three of the Eight out of action. Even less if Sarthex found some way to force the knowledge of the Bleaters’ defection out of them. But Beverly had her plans to survive the invasion. Please, God, just let her live. It was all he dared hope for anymore.

  At last Sarthex stopped and fixed his attention on Keiko. “Your weakness is a great gaping hole in your defenses. It permeates your mind so completely your feeble attempts to shield against me can’t come close to hiding it.” He moved to hover next to Rabbi Sensei’s sphere, at the point where his tether emerged. Keiko’s sphere swiveled around until her gaze was fixed on him, her eyes held open so she was forced to see.

  Sarthex summoned a ball of energy and let it drift close to the defenseless tether. “I feel your fear, no matter how hard you try to conceal it. This one’s life is so precious to you that you’ll do anything to preserve it. Won’t you?”

  Keiko’s voice didn’t shake, but there was a dead quality to it that sent a chill through Adrian. “Nothing I do can save him now. Even if I were to tell you what you wish to know, I don’t believe you would spare him.”