Within the Realm (The Gifted Realm Book 1)

by Jillian Neal

  Everyone sat in the living room floor as they inhaled pizza and reveled in their new-found freedom. Adeline stood to grab more Dr. Pepper for everyone. Logan made quite a show of grabbing her backside. This seemed to thoroughly embarrass her.

  Rainer rolled his eyes and huffed. “Man, you two have a bedroom. I do not need to see that unless you’d like us to put on a show, as well.”

  Logan shuddered as he begrudgingly agreed to keep the public displays of affection to a minimum.

  “Thank you,” Adeline giggled. She stuck her tongue out at Logan as she thanked Rainer. He raised his glass to her in a toast.

  An hour later, Emily was lying in Rainer’s lap under a quilt on the couch. He was discreetly feeling her up under the cover the quilt provided. She bit her lip in an effort not to giggle.

  “I’m kind of tired,” she lied, and Rainer gave her a knowing grin.

  “You ready to go to bed, baby?” his voice took on an excited thrum.

  Logan scowled. “Yeah, just take the dirty talk on to bed with you. We all know what you’re doing under that quilt.” Everyone cracked up. Emily smirked as she stood, refolded the quilt, and then grabbed Rainer’s hand to pull him off the couch.

  “Good night,” she sassed to Logan and Adeline, who were still laughing over Logan’s comment.

  “Yeah, and I do not want to hear how much fun you’re having. So keep it down!”

  “Hey, if you’re good, then you’re good.” Rainer shot him a pompous smirk.

  Logan promptly hurled one of the throw-pillows toward Rainer’s head.

  Past So Grim, Future So Bleak

  ~Daniel Vindico~

  He gasped for breath. Dan shook the bed and awoke violently from the same harrowing dream.

  “Amelia,” he panted as he tried to figure out where he was. “I’m sorry I left; I should have listened,” he gasped before his eyes took in his surroundings.

  Covered in salty sweat that mixed readily with the tears edging out of his eyes, he sat up. As he let his face fall into his hands, he tried desperately to catch his breath. Someone moved beside him. Dan leapt from the bed, and reached for the pistol in his bedside table when he remembered why someone was in his room. He felt his rapid, thundering heartbeat try to steady as he forced air into his lungs.

  He scrubbed his hands over his face as he futilely tried to rub away the relentless hell that he lived each and every day.

  What’s her name? He tried to recall the bar the night before. After blinking several times, he studied her face as she lay in his bed.

  Sarah? No...Samantha...maybe? After landing on Sidney -- he shook his head. That wasn’t right either. He hadn’t really cared enough to remember.

  As he glanced at the clock, he debated. He decided that three- thirty wasn’t too early to awaken her. He’d asked her not to stay, and she had anyway. He jostled her shoulder.

  “Uh… honey?” That would do. She grunted, and let her eyes open hesitantly.

  “I have to go to work early. So, I need you to go home,” he ordered gruffly. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

  “It’s not even four in the morning.”

  Dan stood, and moved towards his bathroom.

  “Yeah, I need to leave soon. So, don’t be here when I get out.” He pointed to the bathroom.

  She stood and scowled furiously. “You’re kind of an asshole, you know that?”

  “Yeah, been called worse; believe me,” Dan shut the door and locked it.

  “Well, are you going to call me later?” she demanded through the door.

  “Yeah, of course. Just have to get out of here today. I’ll call you this weekend,” he lied, and they both knew it.

  “Whatever, go to hell!” the deep offense was clear in her tone.

  “Already there,” Dan huffed as he ran a cold washcloth over his face. He heard the front door slam, and he exited the bathroom.

  After he pulled on his favorite running shorts and an Iodex t-shirt, Dan raced out his back door.

  Desperation surged through him; he needed to drown the guilt and the heartache with every pounding thump of his shoes against the trail.

  He ran faster. He passed the mile mark, and he pushed harder. He felt sweat pool and burn as it ran into his eyes. He steadied his gasping breaths; he reveled in the pain.

  Faster...just move faster...just fly away. He repeated the desperation with every frantic pounding throb of his heart. The miles passed with no reprieve. He circled and flew back to his house. He didn’t bother showering; he certainly wasn’t finished.

  He refilled his water bottle and shoved a button-down shirt, khaki pants, and a tie into his bag and then slung his leg over the Agusta. He summoned, and flew to the Senate. He made it there in less than ten minutes. No one else was on the road.

  He threw the bag onto the wooden gym floor, and racked weight after weight on the bar before he allowed himself to feel the cold, hard bench under his back.

  The Endless Chasm

  ~Rainer Lawson~

  The next morning, Rainer and Logan tried to determine what Elite Iodex members probably ate before work.

  “I don’t know. Vindico probably eats steel or something,” Logan pulled the leftover pizza from the fridge. There really wasn’t a lot of other food in the house.

  “We’ll go grocery shopping when we get home tonight,” Emily determined. She looked absolutely terrified. Rainer was afraid if she didn’t stop biting her lip she was going to draw blood.

  “You’re going to be amazing, Em. You were great at try-outs,” he reminded her.

  “You wouldn’t have made the Angels if you sucked,” Logan reasoned as she rolled her eyes defiantly.

  “Well, you wouldn’t have been appointed to Elite Iodex if you sucked, and you’re still nervous.”

  Logan inhaled a piece of cold pepperoni pizza in a few bites, and rolled his eyes. “Whatever, let’s just go.”

  He walked Adeline to the Accord, and kissed her good-bye as Rainer performed the same move with Emily.

  They both drew steadying breaths as Rainer engaged the clutch on the Mustang, and they all headed out. The beginning of their adult lives stood expectantly before them. It waited just a short drive from the safety and comfort of Haydenshire farm. They both glanced back as Rainer turned on to the two-lane road. They took in their refuge from the cold, cruel world, until it was only visible through the rearview mirror.

  As Rainer signaled and exited off of the interstate in Arlington, headed to the Pentagon, he felt a piece of himself drift away. He shivered, and felt empty for a long moment as he stood in the seemingly endless chasm between his childhood and his adult life.

  He glanced over at Logan, who looked just as lost and, quite frankly, just as scared. They’d been together since the very beginning. They’d even shared a crib together at times. There wasn’t anyone else who Rainer would want to be his partner at Iodex. He trusted Logan with every fiber of his being, and he would never let Logan down. Just like Logan would never let him down. As he let those thoughts comfort him, he pulled the Mustang onto the parking deck that Governor Haydenshire had instructed them to use until they were given their credentials and parking passes.

  Vindico looked annoyed as they entered the Iodex office. Rainer glanced nervously at his watch. They were early, he noted as he breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Ok, you need badges, credentials, and guns,” Vindico ordered.

  Rainer and Logan followed Vindico out of the Iodex office and into one of the Administration offices of the Senate.

  They moved through the long processing line, and spoke to several Academy graduates who were beginning in various departments that day, as well.

  Rainer stood for his photo ID that was made into an Elite Iodex badge under Vindico’s watch, and then printed onto an ID to get into the Iodex parking deck.

  Logan did the same thing, and then Vindico pointed out that the badges look very similar to the badges used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

 
; “You find yourself dealing with someone Non-Gifted, just flip the badge quickly. They’ll never notice,” Vindico assured them.

  He directed them to the Iodex gun ranges. Both Rainer and Logan had been trained and qualified on various types of firearms during their last four years at the Academy. They’d passed the Gifted Firearm Qualification Tests with perfect scores, and they’d out-shot every other Ioses Senior on the Urban Sniper courses they’d completed.

  Vindico jerked two brand-new Glock 22s out of wooden cases, and handed them to Rainer and Logan. They were told to target shoot from varying distances until they felt the gun was a part of them and then to return to Vindico’s office.

  “The gun is a part of me?” Logan quipped.

  Rainer laughed, “Well, at least he didn’t say ‘be one with the gun’.”

  “Uh, yeah, I really only plan on being one with my girlfriend; no firearms involved.”

  Rainer casted the pistol, enhanced the potential energy in the hammer, and took aim. He fired a line from the head, straight down the center of the paper target that joggled on the line.

  They returned to the Iodex wing after they were cleared by the range master, to find Garrett standing and laughing with Vindico. They’d been shaking hands, and Garrett was holding a new badge that matched the ones Logan and Rainer had just received.

  “What are you doing here?” Logan demanded. Rainer thought it odd that Logan seemed so irritated, until he understood what was coming.

  Garrett shared a knowing glance with Vindico. “Well, you and Rainer went and got yourselves appointed to the Elite Team, and Dan’s about to ask you to be on the task force, which we all know you’ll agree to. Mom freaked. Dad overreacted, and here I am.”

  “What task force?” Logan turned to Vindico. He looked very intrigued. The only task force Rainer was aware of in Iodex was the Interfeci task force, and only the very best were asked to be on the task force. Rainer felt pride form his smile.

  “We’ll talk about it at lunch,” Vindico brushed him off coolly.

  “So, you’re on this task force to check up on us?” Logan turned on his brother.

  “That’s pretty much it.”

  “Hey, Garrett’s an outstanding officer, and I’ll take all the help I can get,” Vindico vowed. Though neither Rainer nor Logan could argue over Garrett’s skills, they were irritated that Governor Haydenshire thought they still needed to be looked after.

  “Come on in my office. You have to fill out your insurance forms and your Auxiliary forms for your service work,” Vindico effectively let Garrett off of the hook.

  Before they could follow him, Governor Sapman moved from the Governor’s branch of the Pentagon. Vindico’s face fell as he greeted the Governor.

  “Uh, Lawson, Haydenshire, you know George Sapman. He is, among other things, the Governor over Summation teams in the Northeast.”

  Rainer and Logan offered the Governor kind smiles. They’d certainly met before at Senate functions that they’d attended with the Haydenshires.

  “Oh, yeah, Rainer and I are good friends with Jeff Strenton,” Logan recalled as he gave Governor Sapman a kind smile. “He’s dating Becca, right?”

  Jeff Strenton was a great guy. He was a better friend with Logan than Rainer, but they were all in Ioses together. Jeff was a year younger. He’d been dating Governor Sapman’s only daughter, Becca, for a couple of years.

  “Yes, he is,” Governor Sapman agreed with more than a note of disdain.

  Rainer couldn’t fathom why the Governor wouldn’t like Jeff. He was polite, got excellent grades, and was a tech genius. He’d juiced an X-box in Ioses house so that eight people could play at once. His mom didn’t have much money, but Jeff worked hard and he adored Becca.

  Governor Sapman turned back to Vindico. “Dan, I have the papers here. I couldn’t stop him; he filed this morning,” he explained morosely as he handed Vindico a file folder of papers.

  “I knew it was coming. No one could have stopped him, sir,” Vindico huffed.

  With that, he walked towards his office and began flipping through the file. Rainer and Logan followed.

  Rainer felt like he was stepping onto hallowed ground as he began studying Vindico’s office discreetly. Everything about the office seemed harsh. The substantial oak desk had two large computer monitors. There were numerous filing cabinets that lined two of the long walls. A few chairs were scattered in front of the desk.

  The back wall of the office, covering numerous floor-to-ceiling windows and preventing all natural light from reaching the room, was a gigantic, pressed corkboard. Lined up along the board, that covered every space, were pictures and rap sheets. Rainer swallowed as he noted either red or black Xs that crossed out several faces arranged neatly along the wall.

  Vindico was standing at one of the filing cabinets as he pulled out the paperwork he needed Rainer and Logan to fill out. His back was to them, so Rainer and Logan studied the wall closely.

  The first picture was a mug-shot of Dominic Wretchkinsides. His face was drawn in a simpering scowl. Beside his picture was Candor Pendergrath, the man Vindico had arrested at Mick’s on Logan’s birthday. Rainer’s brow furrowed as he noted a green X over Pendergrath’s face. As he continued his visual inquiry, he noted that a few of the other men on the board had green Xs under the current black or red ones.

  Rainer swallowed harshly as he noted the sneer of the man he and Emily had seen on the boardwalk weeks before. The snake tattoos were visible in his mug-shot. Rainer could just make out the man’s first name, Tavio. Someone, Vindico, Rainer assumed, had scribbled through his name with red marker and written the word “Cascavel” under the man’s picture.

  Vladimir Pravus’s picture was between Pendergrath’s and Cascavel’s. Rainer felt Logan’s energy swim with hate and fury. Pravus was the man who’d killed Cal. Rainer offered Logan a sympathetic glance. He wished there was something he could do or say that could take away his best friend’s pain.

  Pravus’s picture was one of numerous faces with no Xs, however. Rainer began to understand what drove Dan Vindico.

  Vindico had moved to his desk, but was focused on the monitors as he was printing something off his computer. Logan nudged Rainer, and pointed to a mug-shot on the lower end of the wall.

  Rainer narrowed his eyes and tried to recall where he’d seen the man in the photo.

  “Your uncle’s,” Logan reminded him.

  Rainer nodded, but then shrugged. He racked his brain as to why his Uncle Stan would have a member of the Interfeci Criminal Organization in his apartment. He assumed the man was probably Stan’s dealer, as Stan had abused drugs off and on for years.

  Rainer drew a deep breath. He took one of the chairs in front of Vindico’s desk. After grabbing pens from a Senate mug that was crammed with writing utensils, Rainer and Logan got to work.

  It was nearing lunch by the time they’d been assigned desks, and Governor Haydenshire and Governor Carrington made their way into the Iodex department.

  “Well, how do you think they’ll shape up, Daniel?” Governor Haydenshire smiled.

  Vindico smirked. “I figured I’d take them out to for lunch before I start abusing them, but I’ll make men out of them yet, don’t worry.” He seemed to enjoy the nervous glance Rainer and Logan shared.

  “Well, don’t go too hard on them, Dan, and give yourself a break occasionally, as well,” Governor Haydenshire urged.

  “I promise I won’t work them quite as hard as I push myself, just almost.”

  Governor Haydenshire slapped Vindico on the back as he shook his head and wished Logan and Rainer good luck.

  Amelia

  “All right, let’s go grab some lunch, and then we’ll see what you’re made of,” Vindico challenged.

  Determined not to look frightened in any way, Rainer and Logan stood out of their newly-minted desk chairs and smiled.

  “Sure; do you usually eat here in the cafeteria, or do you go out?” Rainer quizzed. He was impressed with
his own nonchalance.

  “Truthfully,” Vindico sighed, “I eat almost every meal here, but I’d like to discuss something pretty important, so why don’t we head to Frye’s? It’s just a few blocks from here. Got great burgers and, hell, if you agree with what I’m about to ask you, I’ll buy you two steaks.” Rainer and Logan shared another hopeful glance.

  As they walked into Frye’s, Logan nodded. “Oh yeah, we’ve eaten here with Dad; I think.” They stood near the hostess, and took in the dark wood moldings and hunter-green walls. The high-back leather booths were arranged around the large room, offering the guests quiet retreats from the workday.

  The hostess offered Vindico a kind smile, and gestured to a booth in the back corner. Logan and Rainer followed him and seated themselves beside one another, and across from Vindico.

  “All of the Governors eat up here quite a bit,” Vindico commented.

  They ordered burgers and baked potatoes, each matching Vindico’s order; though he requested water, and they ordered soda. Vindico kept the conversation light until their food arrived. Then, with a smirk, he began, “Here, let’s go ahead and have your first official Iodex training lesson, shall we?”

  Logan and Rainer nodded. They were eager to learn something new.

  “All right, Lawson, summon all of the sound energy you can from around our table,” Vindico ordered.

  Rainer nodded, but he wasn’t entirely certain what he was supposed to do once he’d summoned. Sound energy was certainly easy enough to draw and contain. It didn’t take much to pull, and didn’t tax his body to hold it, any more than listening to loud music did to a Non-Gifted person. Once he discreetly held the muted purple glow in his hand under the table, Vindico nodded and looked pleased.

  “Good, now listen,” he urged as he leaned across the table. “I want you to take what you just summoned, and you may have to use a little of your own energy, but I want you to create a particle displacement around our table. You’re basically creating a vacuum. Once you’ve set it, I want you to hold it so that no one else can hear the pressure and frequency of our voices. Essentially, no one will be able to hear what we’re saying.”