Illusions: A Grace Murphy Novel

by Nicole Hamlett

  Of course, I'd read — okay — skimmed the brief. Aliana, the missing Hunter, was stationed on an M-class planet connected to several others through the Rift system created by my Atlancean ancestors. She'd missed her regularly scheduled communication with George two weeks ago, and nobody had heard from her since. Because of the infrequent check-ins, nobody was sure when exactly she'd gone missing, and the locals were being tight-lipped with information.

  Drew shook his head at me and muttered something, likely a colorful metaphor, under his breath. "You’re going to be the death of me." He scrubbed at his head in frustration, spiking the tips of his hair.

  I briefly thought about giving up the dumb blonde act. Somewhere in my DNA, I was programmed to press his buttons. I wanted to see how much he'd take before he'd snap. Stupid? Hell yeah, it was stupid. But this wasn’t even a challenge, and his belief that I could be so negligent was eating away at the fun of it. I snorted and rolled my eyes at him.

  Drew sighed and clenched his jaw. "Are you messing with me?"

  I smirked at the strain in his voice and said, "Yeah, I'm messing with you." Gods, he was so easy. Having this kind of manipulative power over someone should be criminal. His right eye twitched, and I got a wink of cerulean blue.

  "Of course, I read the brief, you cretin. What I don't understand is why we had to Rift in so far away from where we’re meeting our contact. Twenty-five miles seems a little over-the-top paranoid, Drew." I hadn't signed up to run a marathon on this mission (shit, I hadn’t signed up for this mission at all), and if we did run into trouble, I was in no shape to fight.

  "I told you back in the Ops room. Rifting outside the Plains of Tenaire would give us the opportunity to see anything coming at us in plenty of time to get the hell out."

  I closed my eyes and threw up my arm, pointing to the trees that were now surrounding us. "Oh yeah, that totally helps us now. I mean, did it occur to you that they could also see us running like a couple of idiots for the last hour and a half? It's not like they couldn't have comfortably set up an ambush here in the woods we have to run through to get to the city."

  At least he had the grace to look embarrassed. "The forest wasn't here the last time."

  "How long has it been?" I asked as I looked around.

  We were standing just at the edge of an old growth forest, with thick trunks and blazing colorful leaves. The canopy overhead burst with an abundance of reds, oranges, yellows, and fuchsias. I wish I'd had time to prepare. I would have brought a camera because Dylan wouldn't believe how colorful this world was. I unscrewed the cap of the water bottle and took another drink as we walked. The temperature under the large canopy of leaves should have been cooler, but instead, it was hot and stifling. Oppressive even.

  Drew said something that I missed. Ever since we'd come through the Rift, there had been a low-level buzzing in my ear. I shoved a finger in and wiggled it, hoping that it was just an elevation issue. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. I've got this buzzing."

  "Um, about a hundred and fifty years?"

  I dropped the bottle to my side and pierced him with a glower. "You are running this mission with data that is over a hundred years out of date? Why didn't you use the stuff that Aliana had sent to George?"

  "I didn't know if she'd been compromised. The data could have been wrong." He started pacing back and forth, agitated.

  "It's like she wants to drive me insane," I muttered. "Wouldn't it have been better for Diana to send an experienced Hunter? Someone familiar with the region?"

  He chuffed. "Why do you think I’m here?"

  I gave him my best wide-eyed stare before looking pointedly at the surroundings. "To annoy me? Torture me with your physical fitness?"

  Let's pause there a moment and acknowledge that Drew did, in fact, torture me with his physical fitness. We're not talking about pushups and laps right now. (Although I could happily strangle him for those.) There's a reason Adonis aka Drew has a reputation for being the most gorgeous man in history.

  Also, you could bounce a quarter off the man's ass. It's perfect. Everything from the tips of his wheat-blonde hair with sand colored highlights to his achingly broad chest and arms, to the butt mentioned above and his suspiciously beautiful feet, was perfect. (Really! Who has feet like that?) It made me ill just thinking about it. But at the same time, you'd be insane not to lust after him just a little. Okay, back to the narrative.

  "It's not always about you, Grace."

  "Of course, it’s always about me." I sniffed and shook a loose pebble out of my shoe. Someone had suggested boots. I should have listened. "Well, how long has Aliana been stationed here? Don't we rotate the Hunters out at regular intervals? Isn't there other data we could have studied?"

  I knew better than most that pride goeth before the fall. What surprised and frustrated me here was that Drew didn’t generally end up in that trap. He didn’t let his pride or some misguided sense of machismo direct his operations. That kind of nonsense was more Hephaestus’ style.

  I was baffled by his complete reversal of character, and my face must have shown it because he suddenly blurted, "You're right. I fucked up. I should have grabbed the last hundred years of data and analyzed the best entry point."

  My mouth fell open in surprise. It was like he’d read my mind. Oh wait, he could read my mind. But, to be fair, Drew was rarely wrong, and his quick admission had surprised me.

  "Close your mouth before flies get in."

  "Are there even flies here?"

  "You're a pain in my ass."

  I grinned. "It's what makes my life worth living. I saw Georgie give you a tablet before we left. Maybe there's updated data stored there? We can check it out before we move on."

  "It should only be another 30 minutes before we meet up with my contact. If we just keep going, we'll get there faster."

  "Oh. My. God. Seriously? You're going to be that guy who doesn't ask for directions? I thought you were better than that, Drew." I finished, chiding.

  "Fine!" He shrugged out of the rucksack he'd been carrying, and it thumped heavily onto the packed dirt. The thing must have weighed close to seventy pounds.

  "I'll keep an eye out while you look. There's something here that doesn't feel right."

  He paused. "What do you mean? How long have you been feeling off?"

  "Hmmm? Oh, well - since we stepped through the Rift. Either my ears are ringing from the pressure change, or something is emitting a low-level buzz. I've felt off kilter for miles."

  "Did you do a ground check?"

  The first power to manifest was my ability to use the dirt around me as a sort of 3D radar. I could connect to any form of earth and use it to model my surroundings. It would even give me accurate details on any nearby living entities.

  I'd tried to do one when we landed, but nothing had come back to me. I'd just assumed that it was because my powers weren't working correctly after coming through the Rift. Flinging yourself through a magical wormhole isn’t normal, and it is going to throw your body out of whack. Sometimes, I'd get cut off for just a few minutes.

  "I tried one, but things seem to be on the fritz."

  He frowned in thought. "Try again. I'll take the watch. Besides, your 3D maps are probably going to be more beneficial than the outdated information we have."

  "Yeah, sure. I can try again."

  I knelt and pressed a hand to the hard-packed soil at my feet. There was nothing but a constant drone of white noise in my head. I tried forcing my will into the ground, but still, nothing happened. Looking up, I shook my head.

  "Nothing."

  "Nothing?"

  "I said nothing, didn't I?" It came out tetchy, but I wasn't going to apologize. Not having my strongest detection power was starting to make me nervous.

  "Are your powers working at all? Have you tried summoning a weapon or using fire since you got here?"

  "Well I thought about shooting a fireball up your ass recently, but I didn't act upon it."

  He sho
t me a startled look that turned into a rueful smile. "And I'm grateful for that. Thank you."

  "Your thanks are appreciated." I let him know with my tone that a fireball wasn't out of play just yet.

  "Try summoning a weapon. If your powers aren't working…" Drew let the sentence trail off, and I grit my teeth.

  If my abilities were off that meant we were stuck on this planet until Georgie checked in, and Diana could open a Rift to get us out. I didn't like feeling helpless, so I started wiggling my fingers, trying to put myself in the right headspace to summon a weapon.

  "Pull up the maps. May as well since we're not going to get the cool 3D version."

  "You're stalling," he insisted.

  "I'm not stalling," I growled. But, I was. I was terrified of what not having any powers here meant. And that, my friends, was ironic. I'd lived the first thirty-four years of my life thinking that I was entirely human. Now, I couldn't bear to live without what made me uniquely Atlancean. "What do the maps say?"

  His bicep bulged as he pulled a flat black, rectangular case from the outside pocket of his rucksack and set it on a felled tree trunk. Despite its size, that case weighed at least thirty-five pounds. It also shielded whatever was within from everything short of a direct nuclear blast. Hell, the case even acted as a backup battery. Made from metal not found on Earth, the casing had a polymer coating that converted solar energy into a power source stored inside. I'd told Georgie that they should patent it and sell it to the military. She'd grinned at me and said that there were already units in testing. Say what you will about the gods of old, but they were ingenious and financially savvy.

  I mopped at my face with the edge of my sweaty t-shirt and peered at the tablet. "Are you sure it's going to work here?"

  "Why don't you have a weapon in your hand?" he questioned without turning around.

  "I'm working on it. Will it work or not?"

  "Yes, Grace. It will work. You're acting like you've never been off-world before. Now, look at this. These two spots shouldn't be here. They've built a monitoring station here and here." He pointed to two symbols on the digital map that I hadn't seen before.

  "What are those sym—?"

  My sentence was cut off with an "Oomph" as my body slammed into his. Panic shot through me as I realized something critical. I hadn't tackled him on purpose. Someone had pushed me.

  CHAPTER TWO

  As Drew and I went sprawling, I tucked into a roll and somersaulted over his body. Popping to my feet, I made a little fist pump, and silently yelled, "Nailed it!"

  I turned to grin at Drew, ready to crow at my graceful recovery when I saw that I’d nailed nothing. He groaned and brought his hand up to cup his now broken nose. Okay, maybe I could have been a little gentler in my landing.

  "Your hip ran over my node," he muttered through the blood.

  "Sorry," I winced at the noticeable swelling and swung my head around. Something, or someone, had pushed me. I'm ungainly at best, but I don't usually go from standing still to falling over without a damn good reason.

  Large humanoid shapes loomed out of the corner of my eye, and I swiveled around to face them head on. I wish I hadn’t, because the sight made me back up a step, and that lost me ground in the pissing contest which was sure to come. Never show weakness to your enemies. Heph taught me that bitter pill, and it irked that I’d forgotten it. I threw a little bravado into my voice and drawled, “Well, that mystery’s solved."

  "Whad?" He choked a little and struggled into a sitting position. "You god someding to pack dis wid?"

  Holding up a finger to let the giant gentlemen that were staring me down know I needed a minute, I leaned over, grasped the bridge of his nose between two of my knuckles and jerked. He howled.

  "What?" I said innocently. "I saw it in a movie. We don't want you to heal with a crooked nose. And no. I don't have something to pack that with. But, we have company."

  I sidestepped out of his way and heard the soft expletive that burst from his lips. In my head, the floodgates of 'I told you so' flew wide open, but I stayed quiet. Don't get me wrong; I wanted to swear too. I wouldn't have wanted to meet any single one of them alone in a dark alley much less all three.

  Our assailants had the kind of classic dark good looks that would have looked perfect on the cover of a romance novel. But upon further inspection, they were a little too muscular – too bulky. Their pectorals popped out from their broad chests; skin stretched so tight across bulging muscles that it looked shiny like it had been oiled. Each of their thighs alone was nearly as big around as my waist. It wasn’t an attractive look, and I couldn’t help my moue of distaste.

  My eyes traveled down, and I belatedly noticed that they weren't wearing any godforsaken clothes. Who went out for a jaunt without putting on a pair of pants? What sort of backward planet had Drew brought me to? One of them cupped his crotch and gave it a good stroke. Getting caught staring at someone’s dick is without a doubt, utterly mortifying. With a heated blush, I finally forced my eyes away from the tiny loincloths covering their groins and turned back to my companion.

  After shooting me an angry glare for the nose, Drew turned his evil eye to our attackers. He wiped his arm across his face, smearing a small streak of blood across his cheek and slowly stood to face our assailants.

  The largest, an olive-skinned man with a sharp aquiline nose, and long silky black hair jerked his head at Drew. The remaining two giants rushed my companion, taking him back down the ground. He didn't go without a fight, though. His foot shot out, catching one man in the kneecap. The crunch made me wince. The stranger didn't stop or howl in pain as I'd expected. He just brought a massive fist down, smashing into Drew's face.

  My fingers were spastically wiggling around, and I probably looked like I was in Bob Fossey lineup. At any moment, I'd scream “Jazz hands!” and strike a dramatic pose. But I didn’t care what I looked like right now because I desperately needed a weapon. Something, anything, to help Drew. The twin Kukri that were my weapons of choice, usually only took a fraction of a second to appear. But like dandelion fluff, they were nothing but wishes on the wind right now.

  The man on the left drove his fist into Drew's already broken nose a third time and my partner finally fell unconscious. I fought down the rising panic. I needed a long-range weapon because getting anywhere within the range of their massive fists seemed like a terrible idea. The loincloths were beginning to tent, and I shuddered in a mixture of fear and loathing. Was it the violence that was getting them off or my fear? With absolute certainty, I knew that I didn’t want to be at their mercy.

  "If I were a weapon I would be a blank!" I shouted.

  The men who'd been moving toward me stopped, utterly confused. They probably thought I was nuts. That's okay. The sentence had focused me enough to pull in a Colt .45 caliber pistol.

  I whipped my hand up, aimed at the man closest to me and calmly said, "If you don't stop moving, I will shoot you."

  The leader snickered. Maybe they didn't understand English. Maybe they didn't comprehend the diplomatic power of the Colt 1911. I almost snorted. I'd have to put that in my report. Diana would get the humor.

  They turned and spoke to each other rapidly in a language I didn't understand. Drew had told me that when we met our liaison, we'd get devices that would help with the language barrier. A fat lot of good that did me now. One of them turned and looked me up and down before lewdly flicking his tongue out at me.

  I reared back with disgust. "Ew. Gross. What are you five? Who does that? Nobody thinks that sexy." I fired a shot on principle and hit him, center mass.

  When I was learning how to shoot, I was given two excellent pieces of advice. One - You don't draw your weapon unless you're prepared to fire it. Two - If you draw your weapon, and are in danger, shoot the damn gun. With Drew unconscious on the ground, I was certainly in jeopardy. It was just coincidence that I shot the man who'd been making the lewd gestures.

  Okay, I'm lying. It wasn't a coincidence
at all.

  "All of you get on the ground!" Was my voice a little shrill at the end? I hoped not. No need to project my panic for all the world to see here.

  The man I'd shot crashed to his knees with a pained groan. The report of a firearm is loud and jarring. They'd ignored my threat, but the shot got their attention, and now they were looking at me with undisguised shock. I moved the barrel, so it was pointed directly between the leader's eyes. “Get. Down." I ground out.

  The leader tilted his head and gave me a sly smile, but lowered himself to his knees.

  "Drew? Can you hear me?" I wanted to check to make sure Drew was still alive, but I was afraid to take my eyes off the men. The one I'd shot was now writhing on the ground, groaning. "Oh, grow a pair," I spat at him.

  Without warning, the ground beneath him opened. Large pincers the length of my body rose from the earth, wrapped themselves around the injured man, and drug him down under the earth. The last thing we heard from him was a piercing shriek. The entire episode had taken moments. I jumped back, yelling, “Jesus Christ!” then clapped my trembling hand over my mouth. What had the creature been attracted to? The noise? The blood? I offered up a silent prayer of thanks that Drew had been quietly passed out, but I crept closer to him just in case.

  The other two men had rolled away in the nick of time and were now quietly speaking. The leader was slowly edging further away from where the injured man had disappeared.

  With my heart pounding, I realized that I needed options, and I’d needed them five minutes ago. Sure, I could run, but that would mean leaving Drew behind. I could shoot them all and then drag Drew behind me, but that wasn't a better option. Killing people had ramifications that were oft-times a bitch. I knew this from experience. Besides, who knew what the noise of further shots would do?

  And people said I never learned my lessons. Hah!

  I was working through a series of possible solutions when Drew groaned, "Damn Dmitri." What followed was a string of unintelligible words. He was speaking in their language. Dmitri, the leader, answered back with a terse reply, gesturing to where the man had disappeared.