“Leave that to me,” Alexander said. “I promise you, in no time we will have a legion of loyal followers.”
“Followers?”
“Of our cause,” he said. “Those who share our same desire to create a better world.”
I sighed, contented.
He excused himself then, saying he would see me at dinner, and though the sun still shone high overhead, as he walked away it was as though Alexander had taken all of its warmth with him.
By the time dinner rolled around, I felt even more confident in my decision to join with Alexander. That he had plenty to teach me could no longer be doubted, nor the fact that he was willing to do so. When I’d asked him how he was able to plot against the Root when It had access (albeit limited) to Alexander’s thoughts, he not only told me, but showed me how to do it. It was yet another variation of Partitioning and involved creating a section of the mind free of any treasonous thoughts against the Root, and having enough discipline and control to maintain it during his limited interactions with It. I followed his instructions with a small measure of success, thrilled that I had something new to work on. How long had it been since I’d experienced that at the Institute?
Speaking of the Institute, I began to ask myself, how dare they use me for their own limited ends, keeping the likes of Alexander away from me? Couldn’t they see the big picture? Why spend our lives fighting demons when we could be done with them completely? More and more I began to wonder if Alexander was right about them and they just couldn’t bear to become obsolete.
I dressed for dinner in the flowing dress I had eschewed less than seventy-two hours prior. I found myself not hating it; in fact, I wanted to look pleasing to Alexander. My mother would have been so proud.
Once again we ate dinner on the terrace, but this time it was later in the evening and the table was lit with candles.
“When can I contact my mother again?” I asked when we’d filled our plates.
“After dinner if you like,” he said. “It’s only afternoon there.”
“And Taren?” I said, knowing he must be sick with worry.
A look of irritation passed so quickly I couldn’t be sure it had been there.
“Soon,” he said, and poured me some wine. “A toast—to the new world.”
I lifted my glass, and another toast came to mind. One on a train, with my friends, my love, and we were grateful not for what was to come, but for life just as it was.
The clinking of our glasses felt hollow, and I had to force myself to take a sip.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, studying me with those penetrating eyes.
“No,” I said, giving a slight shake of my head. “I just miss my friends. I’d like them to share in this.”
“They will be given the opportunity,” he said. “All those that choose to join us will be welcome.”
He’d said that earlier, yet somehow it didn’t ring quite as true this time; I wasn’t sure he meant it. And there was something else… hadn’t he said something about a legion of followers?
“Have another sip of wine,” Alexander said.
I was about to say I didn’t care for one, but before I could get the words out, the glass was to my lips.
The rest of our meal passed as though I were in a dream. Every time I would begin to worry about Taren, about how the Institute would react to all of this, I was drawn away from those thoughts and into my daydream of a perfect world.
The lights of Nice, which had glittered sharp as diamonds when I first sat down, now took on an ethereal glow, the colors blending and merging with one another. The breeze felt almost sensual on my skin, cooling an internal flame I felt emanating from my core.
Everything was going to be fine. Nothing evil could make me feel this good. Imagine if together Alexander and I could give this gift to all of humanity. It was more than I’d ever hoped to accomplish, even knowing I was a Daemon. My aspirations had only extended as far as keeping the world safe from demons, but there was so much more I could give. People could be happy. Truly happy. Not just happy, blissful. Yes, that was what I was feeling: pure, unadulterated, bliss...
Later—a moment, an hour?—I was being carried, and it was as though I were floating on the gentlest of ocean waves. Ecstasy was my only reality.
I felt the softness of the duvet as Alexander gently lowered me to the bed. His eyes were so blue...
Even in my current state I knew I shouldn’t be feeling this way about him.
“Are you making me want to kiss you?” I said, even his face before me becoming blurred.
He smiled. “Not directly, no.”
“Because I have a boyfriend,” I said, my words sounding as thick as my tongue felt. “And I love him.”
“Of course you do,” he said. “And you have nothing to worry about. I won’t take anything from you that you don’t freely give.”
“That sounds fair,” I said, from within my waking dream.
He was so handsome. Moonlight bathed the room, making him every inch the Adonis.
Try to get some sleep,” he said and rose from the bed.
I heard the door click shut behind him, and as it did, a rush of warmth left me. I wrapped myself in the duvet and let its comfort envelop me.
25
It was the pounding that woke me.
I’d ridden wave after wave of bliss the entire night. Now, with sunlight streaming through the bay window, my head throbbed and my heart beat violently against my chest cavity. My throat was dry as dust and I felt weak, like a wrung out sponge.
Lifting my head caused a vertigo-like sensation, as though my brain were sloshing around inside my skull. I rested it back on the pillow. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tray that someone had placed next to my bed while I’d slept. Water. Orange juice. I needed those.
I reached out a trembling hand and took the juice, lifting my head only the inches necessary to get more of it in my mouth than rolling down my chin. I did the same with the water. My stomach threatened to revolt, but dehydration won out and the liquid stayed where I’d put it. I closed my eyes, willing the room to stop spinning.
What the hell happened?
My thoughts were slow in forming, my recollection of the prior evening, fuzzy. The day was clearer, Alexander had trained me. The Chasm. Then we’d had dinner, made a toast… Mom. He’d told me I could call Mom. How could I have gone to bed without—?
The contents of my stomach turned, then roiled. I stumbled to the bathroom where I continued to throw up long after I had nothing left in me to give.
Slowly, I pulled myself to my feet. I gripped the sink with one hand, splashed my face, then rinsed my mouth with the other. I took two small sips of water; I was going to need to start slow.
As I crawled back into bed, I noticed what else was on the tray. A box of saltines. Almost as if someone had known I’d be feeling like death.
I’d only had one or two sips of wine, not enough to cause this. Had my fear finally come true? Had Alexander put something in my food or drink? Nothing else made sense. My stomach burned, not just with nausea, but rage. At him, at myself for letting myself be fooled.
But why? I wondered. Why drug me now, when I was cooperating?
The look he’d given me when I’d asked about Taren—maybe he really had been annoyed. And there had been something about a kiss…my cheeks grew hot with shame when I remembered. I didn’t kiss him, wouldn’t let myself, but I’d wanted to.
What kind of drug makes you want to hook up with someone you’d normally never consider—?
The pieces, ill-fitting and half-remembered as they were, oozed their way into place.
I’d never done Ecstasy, but I knew enough people who had to make the connection. The blissful high, the horrible hangover. The irony was that Alexander hadn’t even needed to put something in my food. He’d simply flooded my mind with seratonin, the feel-good brain chemical, which is why I’d felt so phenomenal. But the body only makes so much seratonin at one time,
and once the supply is shot, you feel like crap until your body makes more.
He’d even tipped his hand, going so far as to show me his ability when he’d made the flower bloom. If he could affect its chemical processes, why not mine? He must have laughed later, at how I’d lapped up his Utopia like a kitten given a bowl of cream.
The past few days of my captivity ran through my mind like a movie, and viewed under this new lens, I became ever more horrified by what I saw.
I had toasted a new world, while the world I was actually a part of frantically searched for me. I’d repaid their concern with what? Nothing. With a side of betrayal.
I buried my face in the pillow, any strength I had left forcing a scream from deep in my belly. The tsunami came, and for once I didn’t want to fight it. I deserved to be washed away.
But that was selfish. And indulgent. And I’d been both of those enough already this week. I brought up a Partition, once again locking those feelings away.
The room was no longer spinning, but my brain still sloshed. I drank some more water. I nibbled a few crackers. I had to think.
Whatever I’d allowed myself to believe, I was captive. To a Daemon. Who had lied about everything else, so why not about his commitment to stop the Root? And he had access to Reds.
Now will you listen?
The voice was soft this time, gentle and I was too weak to block it out. I wasn’t buying it, but I couldn’t afford to dismiss it out of hand.
Who are you? What are you? How do I know I can trust you?
The questions were ridiculous. If he were a demon, he’d certainly have no compunction about lying.
I am no demon. My name is Cole and I’m Daemon, like you. As for trusting me, what choice do you have? I’m the only one who can get you out of there.
That’s not true—I can do stuff now. I was able to levitate—
Oh yes, beware the dreaded twirling ballerina.
He had a point. Not to mention that feeling as I did, unable to even keep this Cole out, I doubted I could even lift that tchotchke an inch. And now that I knew there were other Daemons, it was at least possible he wasn’t evil.
What do I do?
Damn!
His voice became urgent.
What is it?
He’s coming. He knows something is happening, but he doesn’t know what. Wait for the transfers. You have to wait for the—
Transfers, what are you—?
Alexander burst into the room, his face darkened by fury.
“What are you doing?” he roared.
I shrank back in fear. It wasn’t an act.
“I-I couldn’t keep out the voices. They were screaming awful things. Saying I should hurt myself, and…”
A steel cage clamped down around my mind and I gasped. The pressure was intense, the shock that made me stammer.
“W-what...?”
“It’s for your protection, Ember. Everything I do is to keep you safe,” he said, his tone soothing. Once again his smile looked as it had to me the first time I’d seen it—phony.
I didn’t know if he could read my thoughts, wrapped up as they were behind the cage he’d put around it. I forced myself to smile, weak though it was in my current condition.
“Thank you,” I said. “I-I was too weak...”
“You don’t need to worry about that anymore,” he said, sitting down on the bed next to me. “I’ll take care of you until you are strong enough to do it yourself.”
“Thank you,” I said, hoping I sounded grateful through my teeth, gritted in pain. “I don’t feel so well. Do you know what happened to me last night?”
“What do you remember?” he asked, his eyes suddenly sharp.
“I remember things feeling fuzzy and warm. I felt good, really good. But then I woke up feeling like this.” I was doing my best damsel in distress.
“I’m afraid it’s my fault,” he said, speaking to me as though I were a child. “I let you have too much wine with dinner. I’ve spent so much time in France, I forget that growing up in America your tolerance would be so much lower.”
Right, because American teenagers don’t drink.
“That must be it,” I said, hoping I was selling it. “Maybe if I get some more sleep I’ll feel better.”
“I’m sure of it,” he said, brushed a lock of hair from my eyes.
I shivered at his touch and a look of triumph crossed his face. He thought I was shivering with delight, with anticipation instead of disgust. It was all I could do not to recoil, but I kept my face neutral.
“I’ll have more water and orange juice sent in. Small sips until you know you can hold more,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m sorry to be so much trouble.”
“You’re more than worth it,” he said. A brush of my cheek. He was playing white knight to my damsel.
He left me, and when I threw up again, I couldn’t be sure if it was an aftereffect of his special brand of X or his touch. I was grateful though, because his misplaced satisfaction had proved my theory: my mind might be locked up, but he was on the outside.
Time passed as I lay in the fetal position and berated myself for being so stupid. The man had kidnapped me—almost killing Kat in the process. And what about the attempt in Los Angeles? How easily could someone, even an innocent bystander have been killed? How could I have ever allowed myself to believe a word he said? It was beyond stupid—it was unforgivable. I had to get out of here. I would do whatever it took—even if it meant trusting another mental intruder. Whatever the repercussions, I’d deal with them later; what choice did I have? I most certainly wasn’t safe here, and—
My neck involuntarily snapped back, my eyes rolling up into my head as I felt a sensation I can only describe as a slow scraping across my brain.
I moaned in agony.
What the—?
He’s transferring the shield. Don’t take on Alexander directly. The Reds are weaker—
And then he was gone.
The vise once again settled around my mind. I touched my ears, surprised and thankful to not find blood. I felt myself slipping, losing consciousness. I fought it, afraid of what new horror I would wake up to, but it was futile, the pain too great.
When I came to I was in the same spot I’d been when I blacked out. My head hurt in a way it never had before. It throbbed against its new encasement. A glance at the window told me the sun was setting. I’d been out most of the day. Had another transfer taken place? Who held the steel clamped down around my mind?
I pulled myself upright, causing my head to swim. I didn’t have time to hate myself. If I was going to place my trust in this Cole, I was going all in.
With no way to know when the next transfer would take place, I settled cross-legged on the bed and waited.
I found that even surrounded by what felt like steel netting, I could get still and centered. Or relatively so, anyway. I did my best to meditate, so that when I felt the scraping sensation again, I was distanced just enough from it that I was able to stay conscious, able to reach out.
Where are you Cole?
I’m here. Once the transfer is complete, start probing for weaknesses.
Weaknesses?
In the chain. Alexander can contain you on his own; the Reds need to link. Don’t try to break them, don’t even push against them or they’ll get suspicious. Just find them.
The net tightened and Cole’s voice was silenced, but once I felt the difference in strength between what must have been Alexander’s hold on me and that of the Reds, what Cole said made sense. Of course Reds wouldn’t be as strong as a Daemon, which not only included Alexander, but me.
I settled in to find the “seams.” The places where one Red had joined with another to hold my mind prisoner.
It turned out to be a delicate and exhausting process that involved mentally following filaments as fine as strands of hair for what seemed like miles. Eventually I came to a place where two dissimilar strands were joined. Unlike the flui
d linking I had learned at the Institute, which caused even the weakest Keeper to become stronger by being joined with others, this was rough, as though two ill-fitting puzzle pieces had been jammed together. Once I knew what I was looking for, the process of finding the anomalies became much quicker. I squashed the urge to test my strength against theirs, instead heeding Cole’s advice. I felt certain I would be able to break this mental prison. What good that would do me, I had no idea.
Still, I spent the entire morning searching for those ill-fitting links. I wasn’t convinced Cole was on my side, but what choice did I have but to do as he said? I was certain that whatever his intentions, Alexander didn’t have my best interest at heart.
Through the haze, a thought occurred to me.
What if I don’t push against the Reds’ hold on me? What if I just...?
I searched for the tiniest of gaps in the chain. How much space could a thought take to get through? Less than a hair, I was sure. I slid along the netting, inspecting strand after gossamer strand.
There.
A mismatched puzzle piece where a sliver of light shone through. There was no room for error. I had to slip through so softly and slowly, that the Reds holding this link felt not even a tickle.
Sweat beaded on my brow. I licked my lips and forced myself to concentrate like I never had before.
I slipped through like a coil of smoke and waited. For what, I didn’t know. The Reds to clamp down harder? An alarm to sound? But there was nothing. I exhaled, but I wasn’t done yet.
Cole.
It was as soft a sending as I could manage.
Cole.
The silence made my heart beat even faster. He had to hear me.
I’m here.
His reply was as delicate as my sending had been. I didn’t know how much time I had before Alexander was back in charge. I struggled against my desperation to keep my thoughts controlled.
You promised to get me out of here. What do I need to do? Tell me.
Have you found the weak links?
Yes. Some, anyway.
Good. You know that thing Alexander did where he took over control of your mind?
The Gateway Trilogy: Complete Series: (Books 1-3) Page 34
