PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  “Shows you to ask,” Blake said to Bear.

  “Let’s go. Time isn’t on our side,” I said, and I followed them out of the room to the area of last known position.

  TWENTY

  SNOW FELL FROM THE sky in heavy flakes. By the time we reached the veil’s border, visibility lessened significantly. Our chances of finding clues to where Justin and my love had gone were slim to none.

  “We should turn back soon. I’m not getting any readings,” Blake said. “We could take the transporter and check all the places Alexander usually hangs out, see if we can’t get a bite that way.”

  Then it occurred to me. I looked at him and smiled. “How about some live bait?”

  Bear stepped forward, spreading his gaze along the horizon. “Nothing is going to get off ground if we don’t move soon. We can discuss course of action in the air.”

  “Let’s move,” I said.

  I knew there was something I was missing, a detail not taken into consideration. It kept bugging me, growing more prominent once we were in the air, making our way to the city. It nagged at the back of my mind when we landed on top of the Three Realms Club. The sky darkened from the heavy snow. On first glance, everything seemed as it should be. Maybe, that should’ve been my first clue. Nothing is ever as it seems.

  With five hours before the club would open, we needed to move quickly to walk to the eastern part of the city, and Old Eastborough, before the sun set. Once that happened, the gates would automatically close, locking out those without a key.

  Where Alexander lived was never a secret. He prided himself on flashing how much money he had and how much control over the metropolitan city he held. He owned Old Eastborough, turning it into a prestigious inner sanctum. Only those who kissed his ass soft enough got license to live there. He controlled it all. Oh, how he loved control . . .

  Which was why our plan would work.

  Alexander was looking for me. Showing up at his house, I would use my memories as leverage for him to let me in. Then, I would tell how I was kidnapped by the Nepherium and barely managed to steal a transporter to escape, and beg for his help. Because having me under his control is exactly what he wants, he’d take me in. From there, we’d infiltrate his home, find Justin and my compar, then fight our way out.

  Okay, so it was a shaky plan. But better than nothing, and I had thoroughly planned to wing it as much as possible. Bear and Blake were going to go to the space station, Tartarus. Admiral Vassarious, the commander of the Aurora Vanguard, waited for their arrival. He would know what to do. If they didn’t hear from me within twenty-four hours, they’d know to come with force.

  My assuredness dissolved as I approached the gate. It was still open. But the sun was setting faster than I could approach. Picking up my pace, I ducked through right as they slammed shut. The electrical hum of plasma coating the gate filled my ears. I gazed at the iron contraption, reminding myself there was no turning back, then ran along the streets toward the back of the city. The largest mansion faced the rest, like a kingdom with its castle at the top and all the little slaves and villagers doomed to the lesser of the vessels and living spaces below.

  The stucco wall curved toward the ground at the entrance, giving the impression that Alexander would welcome anyone into his home with open arms. Truth be known, it was really just that no one had the courage to stand against him.

  Until me.

  I strode along the path to the giant, curved awning. A transporter was parked under it. A few stone steps led to the double doors. After taking a few breaths, forcing some tears to my eyes and a frantic expression to my face, I knocked and pressed the doorbell. Breathless moments passed before the door slid open, with Alexander on the other side.

  “Elsabetha, what a pleasant surprise. What on Earth are you wearing?”

  “The only thing I could find. It’s better than what I was wearing.”

  “I don’t understand. Come in.” He stepped to the side, allowing me to step into his giant foyer with tile floors and tan-colored walls. Fancy posts, pillars, and trim decorated everything.

  Ignoring that, I went into my story. “I’m . . . I’m . . . ” I forced more tears to blur my vision. “I’m afraid.”

  “What happened to you?”

  “I didn’t listen to Jenna and let this man I didn’t know into my apartment. He said he knew me. He said you caused the accident and then he knocked me out. When I woke up, I was hooked up to a strange machine. I managed to free myself from it and find some clothing and a transporter. I nearly wrecked it on top of a building. I came here as fast as I could. Before . . . before . . . ” I added a sniff for effect and then a sob.

  His hand cupped my shoulder. I tried not to wriggle under his touch.

  “Does anyone else know of this?”

  I shook my head and blinked the false tears from my sight.

  “Oh, dear, that really was quite the story, wasn’t it?”

  Oh shit. “Huh?”

  “Just what exactly do you take me for?”

  “I . . . don’t understand . . . ” I tried to keep up my act, despite the fear burning in the pit of my stomach.

  “Allow me to make it clear for you.” He slammed his fist into the side of my face. The force of the blow knocked me to the floor. Tile hurts when you fall on it. Badly.

  “What the hell was that for?” I asked, blinking stars from my vision.

  “I can smell his stink all over you,” he spat.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “That’s no matter. You’ll tell me what I want to know or I’ll drag it out of you with every drop of blood I need to shed. Starting with your precious family.”

  His foot came down on my forehead.

  Everything went black.

  TWENTY-ONE

  THE SCRAPING OF SOMETHING dragging along a stone floor hit my ears before consciousness made me feel it. Just in time to be painfully aware of the stairs I was pulled down. Then cold stone seeped into my skin. That feeling came with a healthy dose of dread. I tried to open my eyes, but it was no use. My lids felt glued together, possibly swollen shut. My wrists were tightly bound by rope. It was from that rope that I was being dragged along. My head hurt. The movement was like being pulled through icy waters. When the scraping stopped, it took a few moments for my body to register there wasn’t any more movement.

  A heavy door was pushed open. A muffled voice above me came garbled and gruff. Something to the effect of, ‘here, take her.’ I couldn’t be positive. Then, one sudden, forceful, and final pull of my body came before the door scraped shut. The echo of a heavy lock sliding filled the room, leaving behind a thick silence. Faint shuffling came toward me before the ropes were pulled from my wrists.

  Something soft brushed my cheek. I was cradled and rocked in someone’s arms. I forced my eyes open and stared into the face of the one I belonged to with every fiber of my existence.

  I opened my mouth. Before I could say a word, he lowered his lips to my ear. “Be careful what you say. We’re being watched.”

  “Lumen cordis,” I whispered, numbly reaching for his face. He looked like he’d been to hell and back. My heart’s light. Dried blood followed his hair line, matting strands together in thick bands. His cheek was bruised, and he had a split lip. The tips of my fingers gently touched all of his wounds, wishing I could make them disappear.

  He squeezed me into him. “You remember?”

  I shook my head. He scrunched his brows together in confusion. I could tell the motion pained him. He squeezed me tighter.

  “Where’s Justin?”

  “I’m here,” he said quietly just behind me.

  I tried to turn to see him, but the movement caused a dizzy spell. I leaned into Noah’s chest. “I don’t understand. I know your name, but I can’t remember . . . ”

  Noah shook his head. A few days’ worth of stubble caught my hair. “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out, meum lux.”

  “You’re bothered by it, aren’t you? And as
soon as this is over, we’ll be having a nice little chat, just so you know.”

  His light smile faded as soon as it appeared. His lip had a small drop of blood pearling from the cut. I reached for it, but he took my hand, slipping his fingers through mine. “It’s okay. Just a scratch.”

  “You’re not going to ask me why I came here instead of completing the mission?”

  “I’m just happy you’re okay.”

  “I’d like to know where the rest of the team is,” Justin said.

  Noah shook his head. “Not now. We’ll talk about it later.”

  The door opened. A man stepped through, pulling on Noah. He struggled until I shook my head.

  “Meum lux, cor meum. Sum vestra semper,” he said as he was pulled out the door.

  They’re the words he would always tell me before leaving. The vow we made to each other. A promise I clung to. My light, my heart. I’m yours forever. Each time he’d said them before, I’d known I’d see him again.

  I wasn’t so sure anymore.

  Justin stared at the door, as if waiting for it to open up again. After a few moments of nothing, he turned his attention to me. “Give them nothing. No matter what. Give. Them. Nothing.”

  I nodded. Then someone else came and took Justin. He yanked his arm free, walking through the door willingly. As it closed, a deafening silence filled the room. It not only frightened me but angered me as well.

  The time spent alone in that room was an experience worse than waking up in the hospital with no memory.

  No sound came from the hall. Nothing to tell how much time passed. Did not hearing anything mean Noah and Justin were dead? I didn’t want to think about that, but my pounding heart wouldn’t keep the thoughts at bay. Trouble was coming. A lot of it.

  Then Alexander dared to show himself. He revealed his teeth in a wide, venomous grin. “You have company. Be a good girl and play nicely. You just may get to say goodbye to them before you die.”

  “Where are Noah and Justin?”

  A gleam in Alexander’s gaze gave away that I just handed him the world’s most renowned treasure. My weakness. “Don’t worry, you’ll join them soon enough.”

  That was all the confirmation I needed. While my heart shattered, the tears that blurred my vision ceased. A burning anger lit within me. I didn’t get more than a good fist to the side of his face before he back handed me into the wall. I fell to my stomach, groaning in pain.

  TWENTY-TWO

  BLUE AND GREEN SPECKS of light littered my vision. I closed my eyes against the vague sense of movement that came over me, making me nauseous. The movement didn’t stop, and there was a sharp pain at the top of my head. My hair was being pulled.

  I struggled against Alexander as he dragged me over cold stone and through a series of halls. At one point, I caught the corner, hoping he’d lose his grip of my hair. The maneuver was slightly successful. I lost a chunk of hair. But, he released me and called the men that took Noah and Justin to carry me. One took the upper half while the other took the bottom.

  I couldn’t see worth a damn. Only the silhouettes of a room I was taken to then tied to a nice, straight-backed, upholstered chair, situated toward the center of a room.

  Alexander kneeled in front of me. “Glad you could join us. Now the game can begin.” He smiled dangerously.

  I struggled to focus with the light of the room and a splitting headache. My head seemed to be the most popular place for pain. I watched his form blur and shift through the bright swords of light, blending with more blurred figures around me. From what I could make out, the room was circular with no discernible way in or out, except for the door that was somewhere behind me. Figures moved around me, shifting into a barrier.

  “What the hell are you doing to me?” I asked.

  “To you?” he asked cynically and chuckled. “Darlin’, I’m not going to do anything to you, except make you watch.”

  “Can’t see a thing with the headache I have. One too many injuries to the head,” I retorted, ignoring his attempt at being demeaning with the term ‘darlin’.

  “Aw,” he said making it sound like a pout. “Does wittle Elsabetha have a headache?”

  His form shifted to a tall table with a lumpy white sheet. He walked a circle around it a couple times, sweeping his gaze to me every so often, just to make sure I was paying attention, I’m sure. I noticed there were three more white masses. He reached out and pulled the sheet off the first while saying, “Say hello to contestant number one.”

  I struggled to focus, but the rustling of the sheet continued to echo in my mind. A slight rotation came over me, like I was spinning in the chair. An interesting sensation, considering the circumstances.

  “What, don’t recognize her?” Alexander’s voice took on the tone of shock.

  “I can’t see, jackass. Concussion means blurred vision along with a massive fucking headache. Apparently your money couldn’t buy you brains.”

  “You either have no idea who this is or you’re really stupid to talk to me like that.”

  I shrugged. “Whatever, buddy. But don’t think I’m the foolish one. You’re the one that wants me to see this and yet I’m about to lose consciousness.”

  I really was. A black rim outlined my vision, closing in from the top and bottom. I was getting a heavy, sinking weight to my body, like I was becoming a part of the chair. Before I got too far under, something was placed to my neck, followed by a prick. A pleasant numbness flowed through me. A nice warmth came in waves.

  My vision cleared with each blink. With no unsaid amount of horror, the figures that shifted slightly and formed a wall around us were humans. They overlooked the events with wide stares alight with fear. Fear of both Alexander and of the events they were observing. I wanted to question Alexander for it, but the white masses in front of me captured my attention. The ones I thought were tables covered in white cloth. They were people. I couldn’t guess the names of them without my heart rising in my chest and bile in my throat. Only one of them was uncovered. My mom. Her mouth was gagged with rope and her eyes swollen from tears that streamed down her cheeks.

  “Now, I don’t think you two need an introduction, but for our audience, I think it’s necessary. This is your mother, Livian Ellery, correct?”

  I shifted my gaze to Alexander. If I could strike him dead with the amount of hatred I had in me, it would’ve happened—ten times.

  “Answer me!”

  “Yes,” I snapped.

  He smiled. “Good.” He stepped to the next person, laying a hand on the sheet. “Care to take a guess on who this one is?”

  I glared at him.

  “No?” he said then shrugged and pulled the sheet way. My dad. Also bound and gagged by rope. “Contestant number two is the one and only Paulson Ellery, but bad blood between you two has formed a line of separation these last six years, am I right?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  He held up a finger, wiggling it from side to side. “Careful now. You don’t want to start with that just yet. I still have two more surprises to show you—not that you really have to guess. Well, one maybe.”

  My father’s eyes were bright and glistening. He gripped the arms of the chair so tightly his knuckles were white and the tendons were visible in the tops of his hands. Alexander strutted slowly to the next chair. I knew the pattern. Still, Alexander saw fit to keep the audience appeased. They shifted restlessly from side to side, averting their gazes every now and then. Each one of them avoided my glance, preferring to keep their sights on Alexander. He waited until my attention was back on him before continuing his game.

  He leaned on the back of the chair then patted the person’s head. “Now this next one, I’m told, was rather fond of you before you went off and got yourself bound, like a slave, to someone else. Even to a species that isn’t yours.” He shrugged again. “Neither is this one though, is he?”

  “What is your point, Alexander?”

  He smiled. “I’m simply showin
g the people in this roomhumble humans who believe in the greater goodwhat sort of blasphemy becomes of those who run with the murderous, Nepherium tyrants.”

  “You clearly haven’t looked in the mirror today,” I muttered.

  He gripped the sheet and roughly pulled it off. The sound of tearing and a moan of pain came from Justin as it was removed. A trickle of blood dripped down his forehead. A patch of hair was missing along where the skin tore. I looked at him apologetically. He shook his head and averted his gaze.

  “This contestant, ladies and gentleman, is Nepherium Justin Dobbs.”

  Whispers rushed through the wall of people. To hear the fear in the murmured words the people said pained me. As if they had been fed lies until they became truth. I tried to see the room beyond, but the lights above us were so bright, everything on the outside looked much darker and more shadowed than it really was.

  “Now, Elsabetha Ehlers,” he dragged out my name, giving it heavy emphasis and meaning, hinting he told the audience something before he brought me in. “Care to guess who the last contestant of our game is?”

  “No,” I snapped.

  “C’mon, guess.”

  “No.”

  “Guess!” His voice echoed through the room, revealing it wasn’t much larger than what I could see. Useful information.

  “I’m not playing your stupid game. These are people you’ve tied up, you sick, sadistic bastard. It shouldn’t matter if they are human or Nepherium.”

  “You will guess, because if you don’t, I’ll extinguish the light of life within them. Starting with your mother.” He stepped behind my mom and stared at me intently. “Now, guess.”

  I took in my mom, with tears still falling. She shook her head. I didn’t know what she was trying to convey, but I couldn’t let her die in semi-public humiliation. My father still looked as stiff as before. He also shook his head, very slowly. My attention went to Justin, who remained blank and locked onto the ropes tied to me. I knew what he was trying to do.