Sword

by JC Andrijeski

  “Nobody move!” I said. My voice was surprisingly steady.

  I stood there, Revik’s gun pointed at Wreg, my hand out to the rest of them.

  “Nobody fucking move!” I said, my voice louder, and now slightly harder. “You’re all going to listen to me very carefully! I don’t want to hurt anyone!”

  One of the young seers started to run for the cockpit.

  Without hesitating, I unfurled my light again. I threw him into the wall, hard enough to knock him out.

  He collapsed at the base of the bulkhead, his head bleeding.

  I barely noticed. I was gasping, fighting to hold in my light, to keep it from spilling out over the rest of them. If I lost control, that was it––I could kill all of them, even Revik.

  I fought my way out of that high place, biting my tongue until I tasted blood.

  Once I was back in my body, I gasped, looking around the plane. Focusing briefly on the other seers sitting in front, I saw nothing but wide eyes in pale, slack faces.

  I looked back at Wreg, sensing movement.

  Seeing him reaching for his second gun in his boot, I clicked the trigger just enough to deactivate the safety of Revik’s Glock.

  “Stop!” I said.

  He froze, holding up his hands, but I saw the predatory look in his eyes.

  “Don’t make me kill you, Wreg,” I said. “Please. I really don’t want to.”

  “Just what do you think you’re going to do here, Bridge Alyson?” His eyes shone cold with silver light, fathomless. “You really think you’re going to hand your husband over to those Adhipan fucks? You’ve in for a hell of a surprise.”

  “Am I?” I swallowed, shrugging. “Well, I guess that fits. Remember my stats, Wreg. ‘Risk-taker,’ right?”

  He didn’t smile. Instead, the hatred in his eyes deepened.

  “It should have said ungrateful, disloyal cunt…”

  I flinched, but didn’t lower the gun.

  “Why would you do this?” he burst out. “Why? You are his mate! You are his goddamned mate! He told me you chose him! That you asked him!”

  I nodded. “I did,” I said. “And I’m not giving him up, Wreg. I’m not. Not like this.”

  Wreg snarled, “Do you have any idea what you did to him? You broke his goddamned heart! You fucking shattered him! And for what? He would have done anything for you, Bridge. Hell. Any of us would have! You throw it away for some Adhipan prick.”

  “Is that what he told you?” I nodded, feeling tears come to my eyes anyway. “Yeah. I guess that’s how he would see it.”

  “You have no idea what kind of pain you’ve brought down on you and yours, Bridge Alyson. No fucking idea. We may not be able to kill you, but we can kill anyone you’ve ever given a damn about… starting with that Adhipan who did this to you. Do you have any idea what we will—”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I held up a hand. “I got it, okay? I’ll writhe in pain. My friends will die. The world will suffer. Puppies will spontaneously explode…” I forced a smile. “You Dreng really need to learn some new lines.” I motioned with the gun.

  “Your handcuffs, Wreg. Please.”

  “No fucking way.”

  I shot him in the leg.

  He let out a yell––as much in shock as pain.

  Watching him grip his thigh, gasping as the actual physical pain kicked in, I could only hope the anatomy lessons I’d gotten from Balidor––and even longer ago, from Revik––were as precise as I remembered them. If I’d hit any major arteries, he would bleed out before the plane taxied to the terminal of the private landing strip outside the Forbidden City.

  He didn’t seem to be bleeding that much, though.

  Well, considering.

  “Cuff yourself to the seat,” I said, swallowing. “Right there.” I motioned at the middle seat. “The thick part, there. The dead metal… not the organic. Or the next one’s going in your neck, Wreg. I can’t promise I’ll miss anything important there.”

  I kept a hand up towards the younger seers, my aleimi split as I watched all of them, including the stewardess behind the wall.

  I waited while Wreg struggled over to the seat I’d indicated. Then, stepping closer, I watched him cuff himself to the seat. Once he’d yanked on the binding, proving to me it was secure, I pulled my own drink off the table behind me.

  I handed it to Wreg.

  “Drink it.” I aimed the gun at him. “…All of it. You pour it out, and I’m just going to shoot you. I’m trying to keep you alive, Wreg.”

  “You should kill me, Bridge,” he said, his eyes holding murder. “I’m going to cut your Adhipan boyfriend into tiny pieces while he breathes, if you let me live. I’ll make you watch, Bridge. Then I’ll do it to your goddamned worm brother next––”

  I swallowed. “Okay. I’ll let him know.” I waved the gun at his head. “Now drink the damned drink, Wreg. You have two seconds.”

  I watched him down the whole thing, tilting his head back. He didn’t stop glaring at me through it, his dark eyes holding silver flickers of the Dreng.

  A minute longer, and he was out cold.

  Once he was, I felt myself exhale.

  I frisked him, taking off the two remaining guns, finding a knife I didn’t know about. Then I walked to the front of the plane, looking at the two seers who sat together in the first row. They both stared at me, their eyes wide.

  I glanced at their buddy, infiltrator number three, but he was still out cold.

  “Where’s that stewardess?” I scanned the cabin, found her in the side compartment. “Come out here, now!”

  She walked out, her eyes holding almost as much hatred as Wreg’s.

  “Are you going to kill the Sword?” she said.

  “Kill him?” I stared at her. My throat hurt, badly enough that I couldn’t answer her at first. “No, goddamn it. I’m trying to save his fucking life.”

  She stared at me like she thought I was insane.

  It crossed my mind that my own people would probably view me the same way, once they saw what I’d done.

  “Come here,” I told her, my voice thick. “I want you to cuff all of them to the legs of the chairs… tired boy over there, too,” I added, motioning at the seer I’d already knocked out.

  As she did what I told her, I found myself counting backwards in my head.

  It was going to be really close.

  Really, really damned close.

  When she finished, she rose to her feet. Her eyes still held that cold anger.

  “Now get me a bottle of something,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Get me a bottle,” I told her. “Now.”

  “Of course… Bridge.” She said the title with contempt. “What would you like?”

  Pulling out the second vial of tranquilizer I’d brought with me, I showed it to her, fighting to control my voice.

  “It doesn’t fucking matter,” I said. “Just get a bottle, and a glass. Or I start shooting your friends. Understand?”

  She blanched, but gestured yes. She came back seconds later with an unopened, flask-sized bottle of rum and another rocks glass.

  I couldn’t help snorting a humorless laugh.

  Motioning for her to open the bottle, I pulled it from her fingers once she had. I took a few swallows off the top to make room, then poured the rest of the tranquilizer vial in the space that was left. Watching the drug disperse through the alcohol left in the bottle, I recapped it long enough to shake it for good measure.

  Pouring the first glass, I handed it to her.

  “You first, sister,” I said.

  When she raised the glass immediately to her mouth, I added, “You might want to sit down first.” At her surprised look, I shrugged, still holding the gun on her. “…Not everyone has my husband’s constitution.”

  She pressed her lips together, almost like she was forcing herself to stay silent. I watched as she sank to the nearest passenger seat, then motioned for her to drink up.

  Once
she’d had her dose, I moved on to the next.

  And the next.

  Rinse, and repeat.

  48

  STOLEN BACK

  I DIDN’T GO into the cockpit until the plane had taxied to a stop.

  The two pilots hadn’t noticed anything.

  Revik told me once, on our way to São Paolo, that they kept a separate construct for the cockpit, in case they were ever boarded.

  It was a lucky break that he had.

  I’d managed to shield that construct, too, without tipping off either pilot as to what was happening in the rear cabin. It also allowed me to make sure Balidor had successfully knocked out each and every communication link to and from the Rebel compound in Asia.

  Otherwise, news of what went down there after we left would have reached the plane by now, as well. Gods only knew what Revik would have done, if that had happened.

  Once we were down on the ground, I paid our seer pilots a visit. Luckily, there was still enough left in the rum bottle for two last doses.

  It hadn’t taken much to reach Balidor after that.

  They reacted about the way I’d expected them to.

  Still, they were there, waiting for me, which was what mattered. Of course, they’d told me they would be. Jon used all the same codes Balidor taught me in Beijing, but it was easy to second-guess everything when I had to function in the dark… and alone.

  For months now, I’d never felt so alone.

  The harder it got to lie to Revik, the more alone I’d felt.

  Balidor got out of the car first, followed by Dorje, Tenzi, and Illeg. Jon climbed out of the second car as soon as it came to a stop, followed by Cass and the giant Wvercian, Baguen.

  When I saw their faces, a flush of emotion hit me so strongly, I gripped the back of the pilot’s chair, probably grinning like an idiot.

  At that point, adrenaline held me up as much as anything.

  They rolled the staircase into place at the doorway before I’d figured out how to open the hatch. Once I got it open, Cass and Jon smothered me in a mutual hug. I heard Balidor laughing as they did, and Tenzi grabbed hold of me not long after, followed by Dorje who spent a full minute squeezing my hand as he pushed past me onto the plane.

  It had taken a little convincing to get them to go along with what I wanted.

  Even Balidor looked nervous when he saw Revik passed out in the back row of the plane, the collar around his neck.

  He knelt down next to him, checking the collar, then his pulse.

  “Allie.” He looked up at me. For a second, I saw something in his eyes, a kind of frustrated pride, mixed with something else, what might have been relief.

  “Allie, what were you thinking?” he said. “Do you know how easily he could have killed you? Maimed you, at the very least?” He clicked at me. “All you had to do was keep them occupied here… to shield them, so they wouldn’t know what we were doing back at their stronghold in China.”

  He rose to his feet, his eyes still holding a rebuke.

  “He didn’t even have to know,” he said. “Not until he got back. That was the plan… do you not remember? If things went badly, you promised you would get out. You said you would try again a different way with him, but not risk him coming after us.” His expression held that frustration again, but I saw more of the other emotions leaking through. “You risked all of us! With this crazy thing you did. Do you not know that? If you’d been caught—”

  “I know.” Leaning my hands on the back of the seat, I swallowed. “I know, ‘Dori. Sorry.”

  Reaching me in two strides, he startled me, catching hold of my arms.

  He pulled me against him, kissing me. He kissed me hard, wrapping his body around mine, and for a moment I let him, falling into the kiss as he caressed my back, clutching my hair in his fingers, winding his light into mine.

  I pulled away just as I felt him wanting to go further.

  Then his eyes were on mine, softer as he looked at me. He glanced at Tenzi and Jon, but both were studiously not looking at us as Balidor tightened his hold on my back.

  “Allie,” he said, caressing my face. “Allie, I’ve been out of my mind. I was so afraid we’d lost you.”

  Emotion rippled out at me; it caught in my throat when I felt just how terrified he’d been. He kissed me again, brushing my hair off my neck with his hand, kissing my throat close to my ear.

  “I think I will kill you for real before I let you do something this crazy again,” he murmured. “Gods, my darling… I cannot forgive you for this.”

  Meeting his gaze, I felt my throat close, seeing the expression in those gray eyes.

  He saw the look in mine, and the softness in his faltered.

  Without knowing I intended to, I turned, looking down at Revik.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off his face, lost in how different he looked, with his body sprawled out on the seats. A faint glimmer of pain remained etched in his features, but I couldn’t stare at it for long before it brought up the same in me.

  When I finally glanced back at Balidor, I saw that his expression had changed. I felt his light touching mine, almost tentative, as he studied my face.

  He released me a second later, taking a step back from where I stood.

  I wanted to say something to him.

  I wanted to, but I couldn’t.

  We’d been over it again and again, even in Beijing. Even before I had about a million more reasons to say no to him because of Revik.

  He’d never had a chance, really.

  He knelt by Revik’s sprawled body, once more checking his vitals.

  “Voi Pai?” I said, swallowing. “Did she get what she wanted? Did my shield hold?”

  A bare pause went by before Balidor nodded.

  “Her people landed in the mountains not long after your plane left,” he said. “I’m assuming they didn’t feel anything here?”

  “No,” I said. “No, they didn’t.” I bit my lip, watching him touch Revik’s neck. I had to fight the impulse to tell him to leave him alone, to not touch him. Instead, all I said was,

  “Is he all right?”

  “He’s fine. We need to move him though, Allie. If you’re serious about this crazy plan of yours… we need to go. Now.”

  I nodded, still staring at Revik’s expression. Pain hit me again, enough that I shut my eyes, longer than a blink. A stab of fear followed as I remembered the look on his face right before he’d lost consciousness.

  “You still think you can save him, Allie?” Balidor said.

  I glanced down, meeting his gaze.

  He’d been watching me look at Revik. I saw pain in his eyes, but I couldn’t deal with that, not yet.

  “I have to try,” I said. “I have to, ‘Dori.”

  He nodded, his face neutral.

  He didn’t look at me again. I continued to stand there, feeling numb, as he, Jon and Dorje hoisted Revik up, carrying him off the plane between them.

  Glancing around at the leather-seated interior, at the virtual monitor Revik had been using before I sat down next to him, I let my eyes pause on Wreg, watching Tenzi as he bound up the infiltrator’s leg with gauze, stopping the flow of blood.

  Wreg would live to hate me another day, too.

  I admit, the thought relieved me, even after the last thing he’d said.

  Forcing a last exhale, I turned away from him, as well.

  But not before I felt a last whisper of regret.

  I still cared about all of them. Wreg, Nikka, Holo, Jax, Ike, Qualen… even that grumpy bastard, Loki. I remembered Chandre then, and realized I still hadn’t seen her since that night in New Delhi.

  Jon and Balidor carried Revik awkwardly down the aisle to the port side door. Illeg was helping them now too, helping them navigate Revik’s height and long limbs through the narrow opening. Avoiding looking at the collar around his neck, I followed behind them as we all vacated the plane, taking a deep breath just before I walked though the oval doorway and emerged into brig
ht sunlight.

  Weirdly, just standing there, under that yellow-tinted sky, with the high clouds scuttling overhead, I felt better.

  I really did.

  * * *

  READ THE NEXT ADVENTURE WITH ALLIE AND REVIK!

  Check out the next book in the series:

  SHADOW (Bridge & Sword: Awakenings #4)

  Following the disappearance of the infamous “Sword” and leader of the anti-human rebellion, Allie finds herself despised by every free seer in the western world… and most in the East. Hiding in an underground cell to stay alive, Allie also struggles with yet another visage of Revik, who turns into a feral animal once free of the Dreng. She only has one shot at saving him, and it means learning more about his past than she ever wanted to know. It also means re-earning his trust, a near-impossible task given what she had to do to get him free. Meanwhile, a mysterious force rises, known only as "Shadow,” boasting an army of powerful and ancient seers with a darker agenda than even the Rooks.

  ~ or ~

  WANT TO READ ABOUT SEERS IN A WORLD CLOSER TO OURS?

  Check out the Quentin Black World, starting with:

  BLACK IN WHITE (Quentin Black Mystery #1)

  Forensic psychologist Miri Fox has an uncanny sense about people. When police think they've nailed the "Wedding Killer," she agrees to check the guy out, but the suspect, Quentin R. Black, isn't at all what she expects. When he confronts Miri about the nature of her peculiar insight, she is drawn into Black's bizarre world and a game of cat and mouse with a deadly killer who just might be Black himself. Worse, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Black, a complication she doesn’t need with a best friend who’s a homicide cop and a boyfriend in intelligence.

  * * *

  JOIN MY MAILING LIST:

  THE REBEL ARMY

  For new releases, invitations to review advanced copies of books, exclusive content and giveaways.Your email will be kept private, you will never be spammed and you can unsubscribe at any time.