by Theresa Kay
I bite my lower lip and turn my head. “You said I didn’t have to choose.”
He throws his hands up. “I’m not asking you to. I’m asking you to be realistic about what… who your brother is now.” His voice lowers. “You cannot ignore this and expect it to go away.”
The truth of his words burns through me, and I close my eyes to hold back tears. I could deny it. I could yell at him, blame all his pessimism on his dislike for my brother, storm off, and refuse to speak to him. And a month ago, two months ago, that’s what I would’ve done. But not now, not when I can feel his anguished sincerity through the bond. And even without that, I trust him enough to know he’s not trying to be cruel. Just realistic.
“You’re right,” I say softly. “Maybe not about the locking him up part, but about how unstable he is. And how far gone. I just…”
Lir pulls me into his arms and runs a hand up and down my back. We stand in silence for a minute or two. It’s one of those times when words aren’t needed, when anything we need to say can be said with our embrace. This is another moment I wish I could stay in.
But I can’t.
The silence around us finally registers. “Where’s Rym?” I ask.
“He went to speak with his sister. To, uh, find out if she…”
“Sent Miri to kill Jace?” I lean back to look at Lir’s face.
“Yes.”
“He’s… okay, right? Jace didn’t hurt him too badly?”
A sigh. “Nothing but a headache. Thankfully.”
I let out a breath. Thank goodness. I didn’t want Rym to be added to my brother’s tally. Or my conscience.
A series of knocks, sharp and frantic, sounds against the door. Lir and I share a look. He shrugs and gestures for me to answer.
I open the door to find Gavin standing outside, wide-eyed and slightly out of breath. “Jax, your brother, he’s gone. There was blood… I don’t know what happened. General Carter… I don’t know. He might have done it, but I don’t know where else he’d be keeping him.” He shuffles his feet and rubs at the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I told you he’d be safe there and—”
“It’s okay,” I say. “Jace is here. He, uh, left after one of the E’rikon attacked him.”
“Attacked him? How did—wait—he left? He had enough drugs in his system that he should have been out all day.”
“Jace is a hybrid,” says Lir from behind me. “I imagine there are a number of reasons why the drug may not work the same on him as it does on us.”
Gavin glances up and down the hall. “Can I come in?”
I step back to allow him entrance and sweep my hand toward the couch. “There isn’t much in the way of seating arrangements, but make yourself comfortable.”
Gavin sits on the couch, bows his head, and pinches the bridge. “What do you want me to do? I’ve kept your brother’s escape quiet for now, but it’s only a matter of time before the news gets out.” He raises his face. “It could cause a panic. And I don’t know what Carter would do. Your brother killed two of his men when he stole that ship, and he knows what your brother is…” He shakes his head.
“Jace will stay with me for now. I’ll take full responsibility for him.” I glance at Lir. In everything that’s been going on today I haven’t had a chance to tell him about the chat I had with my dad. “My dad said he wanted to examine him. Do some tests. He said he might be able to find a way to help him.”
The muscles in Lir’s jaw pop as he clenches his teeth, but his face is carefully blank.
Gavin picks at the edge of the couch, avoiding my eyes. “I don’t know if your word’s going to be good enough for Carter. He’s already raising hell about, well, everything, and while President Taylor might have the final say in most things, this base belongs to Carter. He has the men. And the weapons. Things have been rather tense here, and it seems they went further downhill while I was in Bridgelake.” He blows out a breath. “I know Carter looks kind of harmless huffing and puffing like he does, but he’s not.” That dark, almost haunted look he had on his face back in his office in Bridgelake appears again, and his voice drops to a strained whisper. “I wasn’t exaggerating about what my superiors—including Carter—would force on you. How they’d use you.”
On an explosion of breath, he pushes to his feet and paces to the other side of the room, clenching and unclenching his hands. His voice takes on a manic tone. “To be honest, I don’t know how you’re still walking around free. I played the alliance card to keep your boyfriend from being locked up—I knew Taylor has been itching to bang out some sort of deal with the E’rikon—but I can’t figure out why Carter is playing along.” He crosses the room again, this time with his hands folded together behind his back. “I thought you’d have a meeting or two, make some vague promises, and then be on your way before anyone found out about Jax.”
He laughs to himself. “But then your brother took the ship and we took that jaunt to the city, lost two more of Carter’s men. And then, for some godforsaken reason, the head of the E’rikon military ended up here with nothing more than a few bodyguards. Carter couldn’t have planned it better himself. Hell, for all I know he somehow did. Something’s been off about this whole thing from the beginning.”
“What exactly are you trying to say?” asks Lir with ice-laced words.
Gavin throws up his arms. “I don’t know. That’s the whole problem.” His chin drops to his chest. “Sorry. It’s just… when Holmes told me Jace was gone, it made me realize it would have been simple for Carter to make him disappear, or to use him for his own ends, whatever those may be. And I wouldn’t know. Since I lost control of Bridgelake and showed up with a group of E’rikon, Carter’s been keeping me out of the loop. I have men under me who are loyal, but if you go sideways or up the chain of command, I have no idea what’s going on or who to trust.” He shakes his head. “And I can’t help but think, why would they bother to keep things from me unless something big is planned? Something I would disagree with. Like an action against Taylor, or against the E’rikon. They know I wouldn’t participate in any sort of coup or hostile takeover.”
“And what would my uncle’s presence have to do with that?” Another carefully worded question from Lir. Distrust leaks through in his tone.
“I’m not sure. But if Carter knows how important he is to your people—and I’m sure he does—how easy would it be for Carter’s men to kill him? How would that affect your people?”
“It would be… inconvenient, but nothing we could not recover from,” Lir says. “The loyalty of the askari would simply pass down the line as part of the blood oath.”
Gavin’s eyebrows go up at that, but he doesn’t ask. “Do you know where your uncle is right now?”
“Why?” Lir’s eyes narrow.
Nostrils flaring, Gavin shoots him a hard look. “Listen. I’m on your side, and I think I’ve done enough to earn your trust by this point. Please don’t insult me by dancing around the question like I haven’t put my life on the line for you and your people.”
Lir averts his eyes and sighs. “I apologize. Last I saw him, he was headed to his quarters.”
“I’m going to have my men pick him up and take him somewhere safe, okay?”
Gavin pulls a radio from his waist. He directs the person on the other end to find Vitrad and take him to “the factory.”
At my confused look, he shrugs. “A few years back I set up a kind of contingency plan with my men in case of something like this. It was only a matter of time before things became destabilized to the point where even the chain of command couldn’t be trusted. Hell, I’m not even sure if President Taylor can be trusted at this point. Anyway, there’s an old paper factory a few miles out that I had stocked with necessities. I think it’s probably best if you and the E’rikon head out there and make yourselves scarce until things settle down and we know more about what’s going on.”
Lir jerks his chin up in assent, and I nod.
“What about Jace?” I
ask.
Gavin winces and rubs his chin. “To be honest, I think he’s a liability.”
“I do not want him around my family,” says Lir sharply. He turns to me, eyes hard and chin tilted up. “I will not put what is left of my family in danger. I promised I wouldn’t ask you to choose between your brother and me, so if you want to stay here with Jace, I will stay with you. But I will not permit him to be around them.”
My mouth drops open, and words desert me. “I…”
Gavin glances back and forth between us.
“I’m staying,” I finally manage. “At least until he wakes up and I can figure out how much of that was exhaustion and pain, and how much was actually him.” I swallow, desperately trying not to let my devastation at Lir’s non-ultimatum show. “And there’s Bree to consider and Ethan as well. Carter doesn’t know—”
“Ethan? You mean Stu’s little brother?” Gavin asks.
“Not exactly. He’s a hybrid too. Bree was part of Dane’s experiments—and she’s pregnant. Jastren wants them both—badly, apparently. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to take them off the base, where there are multiple layers of protection. I think the military presence is the only thing stopping Jastren from strolling in and taking them.”
Gavin’s brow furrows, and he pinches his lips together. “Do you know for sure that Carter doesn’t know about Ethan? If Vitrad isn’t as crucial as we thought, then taking him out has zero benefit for Carter. What if he has his eye on something else, some other goal, maybe something that has to do with hybrids?” He looks to Lir. “You encountered the other team in the city, right? Those were some of his best men, and he sent them in with Mitchell for what was supposed to be a minor mission.”
Lir bristles beside me, and his voice is cold. “I would not consider kidnapping my little sister a minor mission.”
Gavin lowers his chin in acknowledgment. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I meant that’s what Carter told us it was—minor, unimportant. But why would he send his best? Even if the end game was to get rid of Mitchell, that could have happened anywhere, any time. Why then? Why wait until they’re in hostile territory? They wanted Mitchell to get them into the city, but for him not to walk out…”
My head is spinning, trying to put the pieces together, but the picture is still blurry. I wasn’t there when Lir met up with the military team. He told me about it and what ended up happening to them. They had Stella and Trel, but neither one of them is a hybrid, and without my dad, what good would that have done them? It was my dad who was working on reversing whatever problems Jastren had caused, and it was my dad who needed the… specimen. What other scientist would—
My eyes widen as some of the little things that had bothered me before—like the fact that Jace knew where this base was, and that Jastren hadn’t been at all surprised to see me in the city—start coming together. They form a picture I don’t like.
Jastren had to get the information from somewhere—and who better to get it from than someone in charge, someone who’d definitely have all the information he needed? A person who, although not fond of the E’rikon, didn’t seem very worried about Jastren.
Carter.
The E’rikon children are useless to Jastren; he wants hybrids. But Carter? His men were going to take Stella and Trel, with or without my dad’s help. What if it’s Carter who wants to use the children for something? And what if Jastren is helping him somehow? Or, knowing Jastren, pretending to? What could he have promised Carter?
And that stupid three-day deadline… it always felt a little arbitrary to me. Why give me any time at all? Why not just demand I bring him Ethan and Bree right away? Unless…
Unless Jastren was trying to distract me by making me think there was time—while Carter quickly and quietly delivered what Jastren wants.
“I think Carter’s working with Jastren,” I say, staring blankly at the table. “I don’t know why or what he wants out of it—or really, if Jastren would ever truly give Carter anything—but there are too many things about Carter’s actions that don’t make sense otherwise, and too many things Jastren knows that he couldn’t have found out anywhere else. And I’m pretty sure while we’ve been making plans on how not to give Jastren what he wants, Carter has been planning the opposite. He’s going to deliver Ethan and Bree to Jastren somehow. I don’t know when, but I know it sure as hell isn’t three days from now.” I look up, meeting first Gavin’s eyes and then Lir’s. “We need to get to them. Now.”
Jace…
The voice snakes into my dream, where I’m dipping and soaring through an open sky. It pulls me from sleep, slowly drawing my consciousness out until I’m awake enough to recognize it.
Grandfather.
He’s here.
He’s close.
I blink my eyes open. My head begins to clear as he drifts through my mind, putting familiar blocks in place, shutting out the memories, the pain, the—
No!
Springing to a sitting position, I pull my knees up, squeeze my eyes closed, and rock back and forth. I can’t let him back in. I’m stronger than this. I’m stronger than him. I rip away the bandage on my arm—the one Jax put there—and pick at the stitches my sister sewed into my skin.
If I can…
If I can…
Grandfather sends a wave of power to crash over me, but I hold fast to my own mind, hold fast to everything I am and what’s left of everything I used to be. I won’t let him wash me away again. A whimper escapes my mouth as Grandfather’s power continues to batter against my mind, poking and prodding and stabbing.
Rocking rocking rocking…
Where’s Jax? She was here, and now she’s not. My muscles tense. I can’t stay here. I need to move. I need to find my sister.
I unfold my body from the ball I’m curled in and rise to my feet.
He’s still there, trying to get in. I can feel it. But the feeling is weaker now that my mind is set on finding my sister. Now that blood is running down my arm again.
I have to be normal. Not like when I left that cell; then I only wanted out. Then, I was able to avoid people. But I don’t know where Jax might be, and there might be people there, or on the way.
I look down. I’m not exactly clean, but the clothes I’m wearing are fresh. That’s a start. But the blood drawn out by my searching fingers, the blood created from my one painful defense against Grandfather… that will call attention to me.
A jacket. Long sleeves. Maybe a hood. Like the one hanging on the back of the door. It’s not my sister’s—the shoulders are too broad, the arms too long. It must belong to the E’rikon. Steliro Vestra. Lir.
Anger flares. I push it down. He is not my enemy, no matter how much the voice that isn’t mine screams at me from inside my head. I might be broken, my mind in pieces, but I saw it, I saw them. I felt it, what they have between them. And no falsely planted thoughts can compete with firsthand knowledge.
My sister is no fool, and she loves him, trusts him, looks up to him even. Better yet, he hates me nearly as much as I hate myself, and that means he’d protect her from anything—even me if it comes down to that.
I slide the jacket on, zip it up, and pull the hood over my hair.
The mental assault from Grandfather has faded into the background. Is that because I’m effectively fighting him off, or because he’s trying to lull me into a sense of security? Either way, I’m thinking somewhat straight, and getting to Jax is my priority. She’s stronger than him. She’s stronger than me. She can help me block him.
Out the door. Down the hall. Down the stairs. And to the street.
The world outside is edging into dusk, and darkness is gathering in the street. The chill in the air clears my head, more than the sleep and the food, and I feel almost normal. Few people walk the streets, but the ones who do are simply going about their day-to-day business, chatting with friends, hurrying home. It’s all so normal. They have no idea about the snake somewhere in their midst—c
lose, maybe just outside the gates. Maybe inside somewhere. Maybe inside me.
I could find out for sure where he is, but I don’t dare reach through the mental connection to Grandfather to figure out his exact location. Instead, I concentrate on Jax as I slink between houses and through narrow alleys. I carefully extend my mind around each corner before turning—utterly terrified each time I do that Grandfather might be on the other side.
I manage to avoid the people. Or they avoid me. I incline my head at the few who pay any attention to me, trying to act as if I belong here and know exactly where I’m going. I suppose I kind of do. Know where I’m going, that is—not belong here. I’ll never belong here. Not anymore.
I’m approaching the section of the base with all the warehouses when my soft brush against the minds at the next intersection tells me there’s a large group ahead, larger than any I’ve come across so far. And they’re different. They’re tense, on edge… waiting.
Slowing my steps, I duck farther into the shadows and plaster my back against the wall of the alley I’m in. I pull my mind back and creep forward until I’m close enough to see what’s going on.
A group of armed men are circled around a shorter, older, and vaguely familiar man. Where do I know him from? I slide closer.
“… are retrieving the child and the girl. We will deliver them to the rendezvous point at 2100. We need to make sure the erks are taken out by that time so we can be sure there aren’t any holdups.” The man in the center looks at each of the men around him in turn. “Remember, though the reward for completing this mission is great, if you fail, you fail not just me, but your species as well.” He jerks his chin up. “Now get to it, and be quick about it.”
