Fated: Karma Series, Book Three

by Donna Augustine

  “What?” Fate didn’t bother looking up.

  I started looking through one of the bags on the ground, not that I knew much about the serious machinery in front of me but I didn’t want to look lacking.

  The Gun Guy’s eyes shifted to me and back to Fate as he stalled. Articulate, he was not.

  “If you want to know something, ask,” Fate barked out impatiently. “I’m not holding your hand or staying for a picnic out back.”

  The words might have sounded harsher than he’d intended while he was looking down the scope of an automatic rifle. Or maybe I was overly sensitive, not being a gunrunner.

  Gun Guy’s feet shuffled and I saw Fate look at them in a way that made me wonder if he was imagining target practice. Maybe I wasn’t so sensitive and Gun Guy should’ve been more so.

  Finally he spat it out. “Do you know what’s going on? Is that what all this shit is for? Do you know what’s coming? I mean, half the people I know in town are acting like animals.”

  My head shot up, waiting to see if Fate would answer. What he would say.

  Fate cocked an eyebrow. “Do you really think you should be throwing stones?”

  “Really, man, I need to know. Look, I’m freaked out.” Gun Guy’s eyes shot to me once more, as if nervous to say anything in my presence before he blurted out what he wanted to say to Fate anyway. “Whatever you are, man, I know you know things.”

  I looked at Gun Guy. He was scared, and for all the criminal activity he seemed to be knee deep in, considering what most people’s karmas were looking like these days, he was fairing pretty well. Actually, he was doing better than I would’ve anticipated. He might have even been bright a few weeks ago.

  I swallowed, holding back any lame explanation I could offer and was grateful Fate had to field that question. I certainly didn’t know what to say. There is some crazy non-human creature who is the epitome of anger on the loose? And he may either be the cause of this or maybe worse, a symptom of a problem we can’t pinpoint?

  I saw a quick glimmer of something that might have been pity flicker over Fate’s expression. I unzipped the second bag of guns, pretending to be counting them but really trying to hide my face. I didn’t want Gun Guy to see the myriad of fear, dread and defeat probably written all over me.

  Fate placed the rifle on the metal table in the center with a soft clank. “I don’t know what’s coming but maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to lay low—really low—for a while. Get yourself stocked up and stay put. You’ll be fine if you don’t go into a city, no matter how small.”

  The guy rested his hands on the table, looking like he was close to breakdown mode. I recognized the signs well at that point due to my own current emotional instability. He looked down and when he started talking, I wasn’t sure if it was to himself or us.

  “I saw a gang drag some chick into the alleyway the other day. I managed to scare them off with my gun but nobody else seemed to care. They dragged her off, kicking and screaming, in the middle of the afternoon. Everyone saw it. They just went about their business like it wasn’t happening.”

  When Gun Guy paused, I sneaked a peek at him. He wasn’t scared. He was terrified. A look of utter dread crossed his face and his next words made some of that same dread creep into me. “Man, don’t you get it? If I’m the good guy, we’re all fucked.”

  I abruptly zipped up the duffle bag I was looking through and told Fate I’d meet him outside. I didn’t want to hear this today. On my way upstairs, and back to the car, all I could think of was that Gun Guy was right. We were all fucked.

  I threw the bag in the backseat of the truck and waited for Fate. He showed up several minutes later and dumped the other bags alongside mine before he climbed behind the wheel.

  “He’s right,” I said as the engine roared to life the way only an eight cylinder could.

  “So that’s it? You sound like you’re ready to throw in the towel.”

  He sounded aggravated but I’d seen the feeling he had on his face when he told Gun Guy what he thought. He could pretend none of this bothered him but it did.

  “You know that’s not my style. I’m more of a going down with the ship type. But I’m also realistic. I still feel the water climbing up my legs as I’m going down.”

  “No, that’s not ‘realistic’, that’s morbid. Realistic is having a back-up plan, which I do. Either way, we’ll be okay. I meant what I said to you in the office.”

  I hoped he was right and he had a parachute for us.

  “So let’s hear about those back-ups you’ve got,” I said, placing the sole of my sandal on the dash.

  He eyed the offending strappy footwear. “I’m starting to realize why you got the work car you did.”

  I put the other one up next to it. “Back-up plan?”

  He did the subtle shake of his head, which I took to mean he thought I was being too human at the moment and it was best to let whatever irritating thing I was currently doing go since I didn’t know any better. “As to back-ups, I’ve got places we can go.”

  “Like a safe house or something?”

  “More like a safe island or something.”

  “You’ve got an island?”

  “A lot of people have islands.”

  “No, they don’t. Not in the normal world, anyway. How many people can we fit on your island?”

  “It’s large enough to accommodate the office staff. Some employees won’t need a retreat, like Jockey or Santa. They’re secure.”

  “What about your guys?”

  “They’ll be staying. I’ve already spoken to them. This isn’t bothering them much.”

  I thought of Cutty, Angus, Bic and Lars. Yeah, I could see how this might just be a blip on the radar for them.

  “And the rest of the world?”

  “I can’t fit them all.” He shrugged. “Eventually, they’ll kill each other off until they’ve dwindled down to more manageable levels, and then maybe there’ll be something we can do.”

  I didn’t ask if he was joking. I knew he wasn’t. And that was the difference between having a human past and watching from the loftiness of Fate’s position. The idea of the world’s population dwindling down until it hit manageable levels, whatever number that might be, wasn’t the silver lining for me.

  I hit the down button on the window and let the wind hit me full in the face until it was hard to breathe. I wasn’t going to try and explain. He didn’t get it. He wasn’t a transfer. He didn’t have roots here, people who’ve given everything they had and stood by him.

  “I’ve got to get my parents out of here somehow.”

  “I’ve already handled it.”

  My head whipped in his direction. “You did?”

  “Yes. As of this morning, they’re on a plane to an all-inclusive resort vacation on a private island. It’s a long-stay vacation they won in a raffle that a friend entered them in.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” It was possibly one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for me and he hadn’t said a word about it?

  He threw the truck into fourth gear, kicking up dust and gravel on the dirt road behind us. “I wasn’t sure you wanted to discuss them but I knew that if things got worse you’d want them safe.”

  “Thank you.”

  He looked at me and his lips turned up but just slightly; nothing that would be described as a real smile or even one of his sexy smirks. But there was something there, something I felt like he wanted to say.

  He didn’t though and he wouldn’t. He reached forward and raised the volume on the radio, the moment passing. I’d never know exactly what it was he wanted to say.

  I wanted to ask. The words were already formed; I was just unable to break past the barrier of my pride that sat as thick as a cinder block wall between us.

  I reached forward and changed the channel.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I awoke to the feel of Fate moving around and getting up from the bed. I wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or p
lanned, but this was the second time I remembered going to sleep alone to wake up with company.

  I lay there, feigning sleep, knowing he’d leave soon and not wanting to deal with the after cuddle awkwardness that came with the morning. We weren’t a couple but friends didn’t spoon every night. Fate and I were officially in relationship no man’s land.

  It took him about twenty minutes to shower, dress and leave. I could hear him come close to the bed, like he had yesterday, and he stood there for a few moments while I tried to keep my breathing even.

  Then his fingers grazed my hair. He hadn’t done that yesterday.

  The door shut and I could finally breathe again. Another twenty minutes of cushion time elapsed before I felt confident he’d be truly gone. Somehow, after he left the house and came back, I could pretend everything was normal again, as if it were a reset button.

  An hour later, I was on my third cup of coffee as I sat on the couch and holding a copy of the watch schedule I’d found in his papers. I’d been snooping around. My philosophy was if he didn’t want me to see them, he shouldn’t have left them sitting in plain view on the dresser.

  “What the hell is this about?” The paper crinkled where I gripped it.

  Fate, aka my nighttime cuddle buddy, had insisted on taking care of it only to completely cut me out. My name wasn’t anywhere on there. Didn’t spooning give me any privileges? Shouldn’t there be some adjusted rate, even if there wasn’t any sex, like benefits times half?

  I looked around the living room, wondering where Fate—aka cuddles—had run off to this morning. Bet he’d love me calling him that next time he was about to blow some guy’s head off.

  I was utterly alone in the room, which was miraculous considering we were packed in like sardines. Well, except for whoever had watch duty currently and was stomping around on the roof.

  I was about to grab my phone off the table, planning on alerting Fate to my disgruntlement over his scheduling, when Paddy popped up in front of me. I jerked back before my head collided with his kneecap, his cane nowhere to be found.

  “You seriously need to work on your entrance. It’s borderline rude.” I leaned back, checking out his golfing plaid. “Late for tee time?”

  “Where is he?” Paddy asked, searching the room and ignoring my critique and question.

  “Fate? I don’t know.” I narrowed my eyes, looking up at him. “Why?”

  “Get up,” he said, waving his hands in an effort to hurry me.

  “You haven’t said why yet.” I leaned back into the couch and put my feet up on the table in front of me.

  “We’ve got to go meet people.” He reached down to grab my arm, but I yanked it away.

  It was an action I was coming to find more and more annoying. It was ranking right up there with being treated like an idiot because I was a transfer and Malokin making all the humans crazy. “I don’t know if I want to meet those people.”

  “You need to meet them, and we need to go before Fate comes back.”

  Fate didn’t want me to meet Paddy’s “people,” and I wasn’t sure I disagreed.

  “How do I know I’ll walk out of there?” Wow, even having to utter that sentence aloud really sucked. That I was on a speaking basis with someone that I feared might leave me for dead would’ve been bizarre to me when I was human. But due to Paddy’s past, he was starting at a deficit. He’d already left me hanging out to dry before. I understood why but couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t do it again if things got hairy.

  I trusted no one with my life. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. There was one person I had complete faith in to keep me alive but he was currently trying to use me for sex. Thinking of it like that made it clear I might have made some wrong turns along the way.

  “You’ve got my word,” he said, putting a hand over a heart I wasn’t sure he had the anatomy for, not with all the glowy stuff going on inside.

  I clucked my tongue, still doubting. “I’m not sure that counts if you’re not human.”

  “It does.”

  I let a loud undecided sigh escape as I thought it through. He might have screwed me up in some places but he’d dug me out of some holes too.

  “Okay,” I said as I stood, and he grabbed my hand.

  “But, how long…”

  Is this going to take faded from my lips. One second I was standing in the living room and the next I was standing under the stars of what looked like the entire universe, complete with nebulas and gas clouds.

  The floor beneath my feet had a pattern similar to marble but was unlike anything I’d ever seen on Earth. The veins running through it glowed intermittently, as if the light were coursing through it. Grecian columns ran the length of an expanse too huge for my eyes to see or my brain to comprehend. It didn’t look like there was an end.

  “Paddy, where are we exactly?” I tried to keep the awe in my voice to a minimum.

  “Home.” There was a reverence in his voice that was so un-Paddy-like. He was standing with his head thrown back and his arms out to his sides. His eyes were closed and a smile warmed his face. I watched as he took a long deep breath. He looked like a man who’d just been let out of jail and couldn’t get enough of the open air flowing through his fingers.

  Watching as he stood there like that for a moment, I realized I was seeing the first hint of who Paddy was. Not what he was made of, but what made him. We weren’t so much different from humans, if I thought about it. We were all simply organized energy. If you broke it down far enough, what defined everything was what mattered to you—what you cared about and what you would sacrifice for, work for, live and die for. This place was something he would die for.

  His chest rose and he exhaled in a way that made me imagine him shedding some horrible weight. He opened his eyes again and turned to me, seeming somehow brighter. “Come, it’s time.”

  I followed after him and had a feeling he was slowing his pace for my benefit. We walked and walked, and I started to wonder if this place would ever end.

  At first, they were a speck of white against the stars behind them in the distance. As we got closer, I could make out a raised dais with four massive and intricately carved thrones upon it, one of which was empty. Paddy’s seat.

  The other three were occupied by two women and one man. I’m not sure why I assumed they’d look older, like Paddy, but I was horribly mistaken. All three had perfect forms, which appeared to be in the prime of a human life, just so much better.

  I glanced over at Paddy and looked him up and down.

  “What? We can’t all be beauty queens,” he said defensively, and it made me wonder if I’d ever really know him.

  I was fairly certain Paddy wasn’t his real name; I didn’t think his true form was an old man at all. But whatever Paddy and these three were, that they weren’t human was obvious. There was a sheen to their skin that seemed to glow slightly and a gloss to their hair that didn’t seem human. Or maybe it was the exquisiteness of their features—I wasn’t sure—but I knew if I’d seen them walking down a normal street in the afternoon, surrounded by a crowd of shoppers, I’d still know they weren’t human. They had a certain perfection that I’d never seen.

  Or maybe just not quite to this extreme. I had seen something similar on someone quite close to me, and I’d be having a chat with my cuddle buddy as soon as I got back.

  The interest wasn’t one sided. They seemed equally as intrigued by me but perhaps not quite as impressed. Or at least one of them wasn’t.

  “Closer,” the woman on the far left said, vast amounts of coiled dark hair shimmering as she raised her chin with the command.

  I hesitated, not really caring for the order or the tone it was delivered in. A please would’ve been nice.

  Before I could decide whether I’d comply or not, the man seated in the center started laughing. “She’s got spunk! She doesn’t care what you want her to do, Fia.”

  “Silence, Fith!”

  “I don’t need to mind your wishes, Fia,
” the man said, not losing any of his humor, his temperament as light as his coloring.

  “Come,” Fia barked out toward me, a trembling undertone accompanying the order.

  I felt a compulsion start to sneak up upon me then. It was odd, almost like moving my legs forward was an itch I wanted to scratch. No pain, just a feeling that I’d gain great satisfaction if I did step forward.

  My legs didn’t move. I didn’t want to go to her. I didn’t care who she was or how powerful she might be. If they were that great, the world they were in charge of wouldn’t be falling apart. I wouldn’t be the one dealing with Malokin. There wouldn’t be a Malokin.

  “Go forward,” Paddy urged from next to me. There was something in his manner that made my senses prick. Why did he care? Wasn’t he on equal footing with these three? What was his stake in me placating her?

  “What’s going on here?” the one called Fia demanded, as if something was very wrong and she’d just discovered it.

  The laughing man suddenly stopped. Fia looked enraged, and the other woman wasn’t speaking or portraying any emotion.

  “Paddy, what did you do?” Fia barked across the room.

  “I did what had to be done. I did what was necessary while the rest of you would’ve sat back and debated for another century.” He slammed down the cane he was carrying again.

  “You did not have our consent. Fix this! Take it back,” Fia screamed.

  Take it back? Things were making a little more sense now. I guessed they didn’t appreciate me having some of their glory stuff in me.

  “It’s done,” Paddy shot back.

  “Now I see,” the silent woman finally said, but no one seemed to be listening to her. Paddy and the woman called Fia had broken into fully-fledged argument. The man was mediating, or trying to.

  The silent woman waved me over. She didn’t try any funny tricks to lure me closer, just requested my presence. Her I obliged.

  “I’m Farrah,” she said when I got close enough to hear her speak over the yelling. When Farrah smiled, it felt like the sun coming out after a week-long snowstorm.

  “Nice to meet you.” And it was. I didn’t know if it was some sort of magic universe voodoo that made me like her instantly but I did.