by KH LeMoyne
“And the Archives—”
Briet’s voice rang loud and clear as she moved to the forefront of the crowd. Ansgar moved at her side, his body wedged between her and the gun sights from the machines. She moved and the robots shifted and recalibrated. The sights moved forward and back on her as their target.
“The Archives make no reference to the designation of a mate as Guardian, Salvatore,” she said.
“You’ve defied our order.” The man glared. He stood rigid, long silver hair visible to his hips, the glint of his silver eyes, cold and emotionless.
The gray mist swirled and pulled, but Jason struggled to remain in the dream. He needed to see. He needed to know. He needed to see this man, Salvatore.
True to her natural sense of justice, and disregard for danger, Briet started in again.
“Your dictate to sequester the women was all to restrict our access to the Archives—the only mechanism we had to dispute the limitations you’ve set on our people.” Pain filled her angry words.
“Such an accusation is beneath you, Briet, and not without serious repercussions. Perhaps you have become infected since you’ve disobeyed those rules of the Sanctum meant for your protection. We can get you help and then work through the muddled logic you’ve created.”
“There is nothing wrong with her logic,” Ansgar snapped.
Turen moved, blocking Briet’s view of Salvatore.
“We carry the souls for the human race. What value could you conceive beyond the weight God has bestowed upon us?” Turen’s voice ended in a roar.
Salvatore laughed. “Can your limited imagination only conjure what you are told to do, Turen? Loyalty, mating, love,” Salvatore spat the words like a disease from his mouth. “All to create more progeny, to release precious souls that humanity will only squander. We breed and lose our destiny. We have the intelligence, the power, the vision to grow beyond those limitations. To evolve.”
Salvatore’s face displayed no expression, his words merely force and volume. The man was insane and dangerous.
Briet ignored the distraction Turen had provided. “I tested Maitea’s remains. Did you feel any remorse at the death of her child, for the pain and terror she endured?”
Despite her question, Briet’s attention flickered to the additional weapons silently sliding from openings in the robotic guards’ center consoles. The movement had caught the attention of Tsu and Ansgar as well.
“I’ve tested Isabella’s samples. I’ve seen the photos of her mate, his mark. She worked loyally with you for years. Did you feel anything for her as she died? After you killed her?”
The other occupants in the room shifted with threat. Hostile grumbles rose around her, aimed at Salvatore. If he had a following before this argument, it had disappeared. Passionate anger showed on the faces of all the men and women in the room.
The gray swirled again and cleared.
At first relieved not to have been kicked out of the dream, Jason sickened at the sight before him.
Mia resisted, held against Salvatore’s chest, his arm around her neck, his knife sheathed in her shoulder, a good six inches of the bloody tip visible. Her injured arm hung limp, her free hand desperately shielding the head of her young infant son in a sling at her chest. Determination radiated from her face as she locked gazes with Turen. Reciprocation and determination filled his expression as he raised his hand to her.
A series of electrical bursts lit from Salvatore’s fingers.
A circle of flame shot from Turen’s hand, covering Mia’s body and the baby.
No flinch or waver shook her body as she met the flame with eyes open and hand extended. The assault was enough of a surprise to momentarily loosen Salvatore’s hold on her.
Ansgar lunged and grabbed her. His water met her flame, steam following them to the floor.
Salvatore sent a bolt of current toward Mia’s back. Turen met the assault with a streak of flame, the connection of the two powers dispersing a wide shower of sparks. Not letting up, Turen released another pulse at Salvatore’s chest.
Jason sucked air into his lungs as mist overcame his will. He gave in to the grays and blacks pulling him from the images. He didn’t bother to open his eyes, but his fingers moved to check the pulse in Briet’s wrist, still clutched in his hands.
Her racing pulse slowed with his stroke.
He had been so close to the man. Recognition had been instantaneous the moment Salvatore had appeared the dream. You could change the basics: hairstyle, color, clothes. However, the posture, the bearing, the disdain—was all too familiar to camouflage.
Toré Valas. Salvatore.
The facial structure, the aquiline nose, the haughty confidence—definitely the silver hair and eyes would have stood out. No wonder he’d changed to the bland brown hair and tinted contacts.
Salvatore must have been quietly laughing at Jason throughout their whole meeting at the fund-raising event. The setup, sending his men after Briet, Jason’s cursory attempt to save her from one attack only to have her succumb to the final assault. All one grotesque game for the sick bastard.
Jason swallowed hard, the thin film of sweat on his body cooled him to an uncomfortable chill, yet the sensation brought life affirming reassurance.
He was here, Briet was alive, and he had a completely new respect for Mia and Turen.
Two minutes, maybe twenty later, he glanced over at Briet. Her expression was still peaceful on the pillow beside him. He ran his knuckle against her cheek. “We’ll figure out what he did to the DNA and we’ll fix this. I promise.”
CHAPTER 26
The next morning Jason left Quan on bedside detail with Briet. He joined Ansgar, who was waiting with unprecedented patience in the hallway. The lack of animosity and sarcasm signaled a marked change. One Jason hoped wasn’t indicative of a diabolical turn in his own well-being.
He let the thought go and opted for the direct approach. “So why the company?”
“Grimm mentioned you’re trying to intensify the dimensional view today,” said Ansgar.
“I didn’t get that was any big deal.”
They started walking and Ansgar slid him a glance. “It took Briet a while to get the hang of this process. The first couple of times really drained her. I’m sure Grimm would keep you from the edge—he just doesn’t have her experience.”
Jason frowned. “But neither do you.”
Ansgar nodded once in concession. “I was with her when she started to learn the process. Grimm only saw her after she’d developed control.” He gave an off-handed shrug. “She would want me to be there with you.”
“Do you know what it’s like or did she give you any details?”
“She compared it to a picture of an apple versus the real thing. The slides represent the picture, two dimensions, flat. She has the capability to turn the picture around in her field of vision, see all the sides, and expand it to see all the dimensions.”
“What’s the benefit?”
Ansgar raised a brow. “Starting to get out of my sphere of technical detail here, but my understanding is if you can handle the dimensional view, you can also manipulate the object.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed. “Dissect it, or change its composition?”
“You would need to ask Grimm that question.”
Surprised, Jason let the conversation drop with the buzz of his phone. Turning partly away from Ansgar, he checked the call. “What’s up, Frank?”
“We need to meet. The scope of the situation you outlined has changed.”
Jason blinked and stared at the marble patterns on the floor. He’d hoped Frank could fetter out some details before Briet woke up. His foster brother worked for a private company. Though Frank had never described his operation in anything but remote references in the myriad letters, it had sounded like high-risk, low-profile security operations. Jason had hoped for some sort of miracle. “I understand if you can’t get the information—”
“No,” Frank cut him off. “I
’m solid with your request. There is just a lot of information and you’re going to have to see it for me to explain.”
“How long do you need? I can’t leave her for very long in the state she’s in.” Jason glanced at Ansgar. There was no change in the calm expression.
“I understand,” said Frank. “An hour would be good.”
That long? How much could Frank have uncovered? “We can meet at my place. I’ll need to call you later this morning with a time.”
“Good. I’ll wait on you.”
“Thanks.” Jason slid the phone closed. Ansgar didn’t ask anything but stood waiting for an explanation. Well, time to test the waters of the tribe. “My foster brother’s been tracking down details on the man—men who attacked Briet. If I get Grimm’s okay, I need to meet with him today.”
Not even a flicker of an eye, amazing. Jason resisted the urge to look through the doorway next to him and out the far window. It was possible hell had frozen over since he’d woken up.
“Let me know when you need to go,” Ansgar replied and walked into Briet’s lab.
Jason flicked a quick look to the window anyway, before he followed him.
Grimm had the trays set out on the table. The day before, he’d had Jason work with esoteric samples of pond water. A comfortable sample to establish the focus and the lock, but nothing of high complexity.
Jason was chomping at the bit to get started, wanting to find some answers before Briet returned and pushed herself to the extreme.
He glanced over the samples, all labeled, and lined up as before. He’d asked for the rest of Briet’s samples, Annie’s from before and after her death, as well as samples from the other children. Fortunately, Briet had brought Annie’s samples to the Sanctum’s lab prior to the attack. Grimm had everything he’d requested, organized by timeline.
“Are there still samples of the other women, Maitea and Isabella?” Jason drew in a deep breath at the intense look on Grimm’s face. He was fairly certain he’d gotten the women’s names right. He only had that one dream to go on.
“She’s told you of them?” asked the healer.
“No.”
That won him a frown from Grimm and raised eyebrow from Ansgar, who leaned back against the far wall.
“It was in dreams. She shared information about the women with me in a dream.”
Both men relaxed. He wasn’t quite comfortable with their total acceptance of the unbelievable though. It required a entirely different mindset.
Grimm glanced at the steel doors of the fridge as if considering for a moment. “She has Maitea’s sample here. However, Isa didn’t die from a toxin and while that doesn’t mean he didn’t infect her, there’s nothing here to test.”
“She kept Isa’s sample at the lighthouse,” Ansgar piped up from his position. “I can retrieve it.”
They both waited on his response. But looking at all the slides he had to review today, Jason figured he might not have time. “I’ll work with what we have here, for now.”
Ansgar moved to the table and straddled a chair as Grimm activated the room’s shields.
Giving a shrug of his shoulders, Jason reached for Annie’s slides. “Back light.” The beam of light cut a yellow path beneath the glass top. He looked to Grimm. “How do I work the dimensional aspect?”
“Get to the level you were before, then I’ll talk you through it.”
Positioned over Annie’s most recent sample, Jason let his focus drop. Cells and tissue combined in the sample retrieved before the autopsy. A marked absence of crystals distinguished Annie’s sample from the blood extracted from Briet.
Not right. There should be toxin in the sample, some concrete evidence of Annie’s death, some evidence of Salvatore’s crime.
Jason considered a shift to a lower level, except Annie’s cells only displayed rupture and damage. Most likely, the result of the defibrillator used to try to resuscitate her? He didn’t think so. There was little else to check and he had no reference point to try a new process. He pulled back and looked between the slides.
Using Annie’s older sample, Jason descended to observe the DNA. As Ansgar had said, the image looked rather flat.
“Now what?”
“Focus on the edge of the cell,” said Grimm.
Jason didn’t bother to explain he was in deeper than Grimm had specified. “Then what?”
“Briet described it like gripping the edge with your eyes and refocusing. Very slow, very subtle. Concentrate on the edge and pull back in the smallest increment you can imagine.”
Jason tried a bit more focus, a squint, even ripping out of the focus a little faster. Nothing.
“She said it felt kind of like doing back flips,” Ansgar’s deeper voice vibrated in the air.
A back flip? Jason stared at the DNA strand, focused on the top edge and let his imagination roll the segment.
It moved. The reaction startled him so much he blinked out of focus.
“Steady. Slow and steady.” Grimm’s voice thrummed from a distance, but calmed him. The hand on Jason’s shoulder infused a wave of heat counteracting the shock of cold produced by the quick loss of focus.
“Think I almost had it.” Jason had learned long ago that knowing what to experience was half the battle. He focused again, deeper and steady this time. He counted through the process as Briet had coached him for his breathing. The numbers offered a counter measure and with a patient series of moves, the strand moved one hundred and eighty degrees. The image no longer flat, rounded in shape, defining chiseled curves from the shadows.
Cool shit.
The added black splice of DNA, still partially visible, was recessed beneath the three dimensional image. Patiently, Jason worked the view until the strand stood on end and rotated with the foreign splice clearly visible. At a loss for what to do now, he let it float back into two-dimensional form and locked his focus to return to normal.
Normal in terms of super science. Jason waited a second and blinked. Grimm and Ansgar both stared at him.
“What?”
“Do you realize how long you’ve been working on the sample?” The narrowing of Grimm’s eyes gave Jason a hint the answer wasn’t obvious.
“No clue. Few minutes. Fifteen, twenty?”
“An hour and a half.” Grimm punched the control panel to confirm the time and glanced back at him. “I’m not sure you should do any more today.”
Jason held up a hand to stop the lecture Grimm was about to deliver. “I need to check Briet’s one more time. Let me do that one this new way and then we’ll call it quits for the day.”
Grimm glared at him. “Not as long this time. When I tell you to come out, you need to stop.”
“I hear you.” Jason pushed away Annie’s two slides and stomped down the disappointment at not finding something earth shattering in her samples. With a roll of his shoulders, he took Briet’s post-infection sample again and focused.
He hadn’t delved very deep the last time. Grimm had restricted him to only the cells. Now, he planned to see the composition of the toxin the attackers had injected.
Dropping into focus was easier. Faster, too. He was more proficient with easing in and out of focus, maintaining the levels, and more familiar with his limits as well.
The rhombus crystals formed before his field of vision, no globules, given the toxin had already mutated by this point.
Letting the focus go deeper, he counted. One breath, in for five counts, five more on the exhale. The drop was startling. Briet’s DNA registered. Not quite as he expected, but not altered like Annie’s, possibly as a result of the unique Guardian physiology.
What bothered him was the change in the crystal. The entity was stagnate, but lodged in Briet’s cells, paralyzed in the act of attack. Unable to believe what he was seeing he concentrated on the flip.
“Jason, stop.” Grimm’s voice floated through his mind, buffered as if behind a wall of cotton balls, hazy, fuzzy, and distant.
He could get t
his. The flip brought the object free of Briet’s cell, turning and spinning the multi-sided form in his view.
“Jason, no. Back out, now.” Ansgar’s voice vibrated like a cymbal through his head.
Just another minute. If he could just separate a portion of the form—. His eyes burned like hot coals and his brain felt ready to explode, but he was so close.
“Jason. Stop.”
A hand gripped his shoulder, while another covered his eyes. The focus short-circuited. A cold chill splashed over his skin as his legs buckled and he crumpled to the floor.
“Jason.” Grimm’s voice echoed from the side of his head before fingers touched along his jaw, temple, and forehead. “What were you thinking?”
He didn’t open his eyes. It still hurt too much, even with them closed. “Almost had it.”
“Almost got it, you mean,” said Ansgar. The odd concern and lack of vehemence in Ansgar’s voice made Jason crack open an eye. Brother and healer were crouched next to him, both frowning.
He remembered being pulled away. When he had ended up sitting against counters under the table was a little fuzzy, but the force fields were down so it had been several minutes.
“They’re not crystals—in Briet’s virus.”
Grimm’s frown deepened, but he reached behind him for a bottle of water and wrapped Jason’s fingers around it.
Jason didn’t move fast enough to satisfy the man and Grimm tipped the end for him to drink. With a long, cool drain on the bottle, he plopped the plastic on the floor beside him, puzzled to see it empty. He drew a breath and wiped his face. Streaks of blood covered his palm as he drew his hand back.
“Your nose,” said Grimm.
A tissue was pressed into his hand and he wadded it beneath his nose. Bright red dotted the white, though not a significant volume of fluid. “That why you stopped me?”
“That, and the fact your whole body was shaking,” said Ansgar.
“It’s computers.”
“You sure he doesn’t have any brain damage?” Ansgar asked Grimm.
