Marked

by Dean Murray

  "It was obviously the Coun'hij…wait, you think it wasn't a bomb, that this was the result of someone's power? Do you have proof that the rumors are true? Are we really up against a bunch of unknown hybrids with top-tier abilities who have managed to keep their powers hidden for the last few decades?"

  "Nothing conclusive yet, but the circumstantial evidence is starting to pile up. Alec thinks we got hacked, that the ambushes our people walked into were just a case of phones being tracked, but I'm not so sure."

  "No offense, Adri, but I sure hope you're wrong."

  "None taken—I feel exactly the same way, but I can't afford to base all our plans on the theory that we've seen everything the Coun'hij has available to them. That would be a good way to get the rest of us killed."

  Jaclyn stopped walking and panned the camera around in a slow panorama. "There was a guy that I saw loitering nearby when I first got here. A tall redhead wearing a black leather jacket. He looked out of place enough that I noticed him."

  "That's not much to go on."

  "I know. You're not going to be able to track him down using Donovan's hackers or anything, but put the word out to the rest of your people to be on the lookout for him. They'll know if they run into him."

  "How can you be so sure of that?"

  "Because he tripped every mental alarm I've developed over the course of almost two hundred years of fighting for my life against creatures most Americans don't even suspect exist. Something about him was giving off a really dangerous vibe."

  "How dangerous?"

  "Dangerous enough that I kept my distance."

  "I guess that tells me enough. Be safe, Jaclyn. Alec is going to need your help, we all are."

  I spent several seconds after she hung up looking at my phone and the final frame of video that she'd sent over. I'd thought the destruction of Graves Manor was bad, but that had been nothing more than fire—this was something else entirely, something that left me feeling somehow unclean and cold.

  "How is he doing so far, Donovan?"

  "So far so good. His blood pressure seems to be holding steady, his oxygen levels are good and I haven't picked up anything odd about his heartbeat, so there aren't any overt signs that it is about to give out."

  "How long until we can say he's out of the woods and that we don't need to worry anymore?"

  "I wish I knew for sure. A couple of days at least, but even after that it would be best if we could get him to an MRI machine and have a specialist look his heart over."

  "Except then they'd figure out that he's not a normal human."

  "I suppose that's a possibility. I'm not sure how drastic the differences in our cardiac system are when we are in human form. I was more concerned that checking Alec into a hospital might bring the Coun'hij down on our heads, but it seems as though there is no end of concerns."

  "Alec was a hybrid when he was shot; there isn't any chance that he'll have some kind of residual damage that only manifests in hybrid form, is there?"

  Donovan opened his mouth and then closed it and shook his head. "I'm afraid I must once again say that I just don't know. The normal rule is that we shape shifters recover from anything that doesn't kill us, but I've never seen anyone survive this much damage before. I'm simply unable to make even an educated guess regarding much of anything where Master Alec is concerned at this point."

  "I'm sorry to press, Donovan."

  "No, it's quite all right, Mistress Paige. I understand entirely."

  "Well then, I guess it's time for you to go get some sleep. What should I be watching for while you're gone?"

  Donovan handed me his stethoscope. "You'll want to spend some time listening to his heartbeat now to familiarize yourself with it and then check him every twenty minutes to make sure it hasn't changed. Beyond that, make sure he's not having any difficulty breathing and that his color doesn't change."

  As I draped the stethoscope around my neck similarly to how Donovan had had it just a few seconds before, the RV began to slow and then stopped.

  "Do you know where we are?"

  Donovan shook his head. "I haven't left this room since you went to sleep, Mistress Paige."

  I looked at Alec and sighed before turning back to the door. "I'd better go be leader-y. You can go ahead and go to sleep, Donovan. I'll be back here momentarily to take care of Alec."

  "If it's all the same to you, Mistress Paige, I'd just as soon stay here until you return."

  He gave me a tired smile as I stepped out of the room.

  "Why are we stopping?"

  Ruby looked back at me from the driver's seat. "Mallory flagged us down from inside the other RV. I think we're stopping to get gas."

  A couple of seconds later Mallory was pulling herself up into the RV. "Where's Alec? It's been hours without any kind of an update."

  "I told you that we had the situation under control."

  "Under control? That's medical doublespeak. What in the hell is going on?"

  Mallory made as if to push past me, but she was the one shape shifter I figured I had a decent chance against in a purely physical confrontation. She was still stronger than me, but she hurt so badly when she moved that she couldn't apply that strength very well. I didn't give way before her.

  "Mallory, you need to stop. Ruby, you can stay; I want the rest of you out of the vehicle. Turn on the noise generators on your way out."

  Vik shot me a look that said he was suffering from a bout of professional concern at leaving my side. He wasn't entirely out of line considering the way that Mallory had started shaking, but the fact of the matter was that shifting forms would be so agonizing for Mallory that she would incapacitate herself if she did so. If things were headed for some kind of physical confrontation between the two of us then it wasn't going to involve claws or fangs.

  "Now, Vik."

  I got another frown, but a second later Vik followed our nameless driver down the steps and closed the door behind him.

  "Get out of my way, Adri."

  "You need to calm down, Mallory. You're going to hurt…"

  I was suddenly looking down the barrel of the pistol Mallory had used less than twenty-four hours previously to execute some of the Coun'hij enforcers that had come so close to killing Alec.

  "You don't get to tell me what to do, Adriana Paige. I've known Alec since before he was born. You are going to stand aside and let me in to see him or I will put a bullet through that pretty little forehead of yours."

  It was one of those defining moments, one of those exchanges that determined who was dominant to whom. Mallory might be too grief-stricken to realize it, but I wasn't. I could feel three futures stretching out before me. In one I backed down, let Mallory in to see Alec and then over time she proceeded to gain the upper hand in the rest of our interactions to the point where eventually she ran the show—right up until the rebellion shattered into a million pieces.

  It wasn't pretty, but Donovan was right. Mallory couldn't hope to keep control over a bunch of shape shifters, not in the crippled old body Agony had left her with.

  In the second path I refused to back down and she killed me. Once I was dead then it was still only a matter of time before the Coun'hij came out on top. The third path was the only one that promised a chance of survival for all of the people that I'd grown to care about so much.

  I had to convince her to back down because that was the only way forward that offered a chance of me remaining in control of Alec's people. Even then there was no guarantee that I'd be able to successfully navigate the perils awaiting me, but right or wrong, somehow I'd come to believe that I really was the best person for this particular job.

  It was a moment of clarity that I hadn't expected. I'd always thought that being a dominant was a matter of aggressiveness and posturing, but it turned out sometimes dominance was nothing more than a certainty that you were right, that if you didn't stand up to someone bigger and stronger than you, everything you cared about would be destroyed.

  I
smiled, and even without a mirror I knew that the smile was somehow calm and unconcerned. It wasn't that I didn't care if I died, but for the first time in ages I wasn't second-guessing myself.

  "Mallory, you need to think about what you're doing. Pulling that trigger isn't going to get you what you want. You pulling that trigger and killing me will just mean that Ruby will rip your throat out."

  "I'll kill her too. I may be old and slow, but I'm not that old and slow. I can turn and get off at least two or three shots before she'll be able to close."

  "Maybe, but then what? How do you think Donovan is going to feel about you shooting me? How do you think Alec is going to feel? You'll be lucky if he just exiles you. More than likely he'll feel he has no choice but to have you executed. Imagine what that will do to Alec—imagine what that will do to Donovan."

  "Stop talking! You're just trying to confuse me. None of that matters if Alec is dead."

  "He's not dead, Mallory, and I'm willing to let you see him, but you're going to do so on my terms."

  "You don't order me around!"

  I saw her finger start to take up the slack on the trigger and then the door behind me opened and I felt Donovan at my back.

  "Indeed she can't, Mallory, not until you decide to let her, but you should know that Mistress Paige has my loyalty in full. Only Master Alec stands higher in my esteem than she does. If you try to harm her, it will be the end for us. I will fight—and even kill—to protect her."

  "I just want to see Alec. What is so wrong with that, Donovan? I've sworn an oath of loyalty to him."

  I could hear the pain in Mallory's voice and a tiny part of me wanted to give in and let her have what she wanted, but the armor of my certainty was just enough to resist the urge. The pain in Donovan's voice was even harder to ignore.

  "You've spent nearly your whole life as a dominant, my dearest. There are some lessons you've never had to learn. Sometimes it is not for us to question our leaders, not in a time of war. You must trust that Alec and Adri have your best interests at heart.

  "The question isn't whether or not your request is reasonable, it's whether you trust Adri's judgment. I do. The last twenty-four hours have removed any doubts I might have had, but you can't rely on my judgment, you must come to your own decision—otherwise you'll never be willing to live with the consequences of following her. Above all else, loyalty is a choice."

  Mallory was still shaking with the tiny, uncontrollable tremors of a shape shifter only heartbeats away from a transformation, but somehow that entire time the barrel of her gun hadn't moved at all. It seemed to take hours, but finally she let it fall back to her side. She still hadn't stopped shaking, but I stepped forward and wrapped one arm around her in a hug as my left hand reached down and carefully took the gun out of her unresisting grip.

  "I'm sorry, Adri. I don't know what's gotten into me. I just feel so lost. I don't know who I'm supposed to be anymore. I can't be the person I was before I was injured—I'm not in any shape these days for ruthless dominance games—and I can't be the person I was in my cabin for the last two decades. She doesn't belong in this world.

  "I left my own personal refuge to come back here and help Alec, but he keeps me on the outside of things more often than not. I just want to go back to how things were."

  I handed the pistol back to Donovan and then wrapped my left arm around Mallory so that I could give her a proper hug.

  "I'm sorry, Mallory. I wish I could promise that things were going to get easier, but I can't. If you'll swear fealty to me and promise to keep my secrets then I can start including you in on things that you've been excluded from up to this point."

  "I can't swear fealty to you and Alec both."

  "I know, but I've been thinking about that. Swear a secondary fealty to me where you only have to obey when it doesn't contradict Alec's stated wishes and that will be enough."

  Mallory stepped back from me and wiped a tear from her eye. "Okay, if you promise to take me to Alec after this then I'll give you the oath you're after."

  Donovan and Ruby witnessed the oath and then I asked Ruby to step outside and have someone fuel up our RV. Donovan led Mallory back into the bedroom as I watched Ruby leave to go fulfill my orders.

  Once she was gone I stepped into the bedroom and put a hand on Mallory's shoulder. "As you can see, Alec is alive, but Donovan isn't entirely certain he's going to survive. If the worst comes to pass I'm going to need your help keeping everything from falling apart around us. Donovan thinks there is a chance that I'll be able to bind enough shape shifters to me personally in the next few days to keep the rebellion from splintering."

  I pulled the door to the room shut behind me and then paused in confusion. I'd expected Mallory at least to run to Alec's bedside, and there was every reason to think that Donovan would want to take the chance for one last check on Alec's condition before he went to catch up on the sleep he needed so badly.

  That was what I'd been expecting, but instead the pair of them had stopped only one step into the room. It was like they were too stunned to move and I could only think of one reason for them to be shocked like that.

  I pushed between the two of them, my heart in my throat, and then fell to my knees as soon as I was able to see Alec.

  He wasn't dead, not yet at least, but that didn't mean he was okay. Every single muscle in his body was clenched tight as though he was fighting for his life, but it was his eyelids that gave things away.

  I couldn't smell his terror, but I didn't need to when I could see his eyes moving around underneath his eyelids. It was obvious he was dreaming and based on Donovan's and Mallory's responses it wasn't a normal dream.

  At that very moment Alec was fighting against Dream Stealer. His power wasn't going to be able to save him this time any more than it had been able to save Kristin.

  Chapter 8

  Adriana Paige

  Interstate 70

  Western Colorado

  It had seemed like I was just starting to get my feet underneath me. Finding out that Dream Stealer was targeting Alec was like getting blindsided by a semi-truck. I didn't know if that meant Kristin was dead or if Dream Stealer really was able to break two people at once, but I was certain that we were in even more trouble than I'd realized.

  Alec was strong and determined, but nobody could last forever against the kind of torture Dream Stealer was said to employ. Donovan, Mallory and I spent several minutes staring at Alec in shock before something brought me out of the haze of despair that I'd been wallowing in. I stood and turned so I could face Donovan and Mallory.

  "This isn't the end of the world. It's a complication, but it's one that we'll deal with. Mallory, you need to pull yourself together and get back out there and keep our people from falling apart. We need to make the meet with James, Dom and the rest. I need a bodyguard I can trust fully and we need to see if Dominic has gotten her ability in hand well enough to be able to heal Alec and then hopefully you too."

  "What good will it do to heal his body if his mind is shattered beyond repair?"

  Donovan sounded so crushed that I reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "This isn't over. Dream Stealer never breaks someone overnight. We have a window of opportunity in which to find him and kill him. If we can do that quickly enough then we can save Alec."

  Mallory looked at me in astonishment. "You're talking about finding the Coun'hij's base as though it's not something that people have been trying to do for hundreds of years. Even once we find them that doesn't guarantee anything. Nobody was quite sure that we'd be able to take down the Coun'hij even with Alec. Without him we don't stand a chance."

  I resisted the urge to shake her. She'd promised fealty, but that was much the same as promising obedience. I needed more than that, I needed loyalty and that was a living, breathing thing that I was going to have to nurture over a long period of time.

  "You don't know everything that's happened, Mallory. I'm going to try to bring you further into the loop, b
ut that's going to take some time, time that we don't have right now. Even once we have a few quiet minutes you're never going to know quite as much simply because your role is going to be different than Donovan's role."

  "What is my role going to be exactly?"

  "You're going to be my strong right hand where the rest of the shape shifters are concerned. Everyone knows that you have been Alec's secret counselor ever since he first manifested an alternate shape. You will keep our low-level people in line and working towards our goals."

  "It won't work. A broken-down wreck of an old woman will never be able to accomplish that."

  "Dominic is going to heal you. Weeks ago Alec told me that need was what finally triggered his power. We desperately need Dominic to heal Alec and we need her to heal you. It's going to work this time."

  "You can't make plans like that. It's like trying to build a house of cards on top of a beach ball. Besides, even if I could whip the rank and file into shape, that still wouldn't solve our problems. We need someone with a game-changing ability if we're going to have any chance of taking down Dream Stealer. He's going to be protected by dozens of hybrids at the very least."

  "We already have top-tier ability available to us."

  "Grayson isn't going to be enough, not when Puppeteer can throw an endless stream of werewolves at us."

  "I'm not talking about Grayson; I'm talking about Lori from the Del Rio pack. She can force the Coun'hij enforcers to turn on each other, can force them to fight Puppeteer's werewolves for us. She just neutralized the entire group of enforcers down in Nephi."

  "Careful, or you're going to actually convince me that you're out of your mind, Adri. Lori can't be controlled by anyone, let alone me. Her, Grayson, Jaclyn, none of them can be controlled by anyone other than Alec. I can't make them toe the line for you."

  "I don't need you to make them do anything, Mallory. You just worry about the people we've got here for now. They are already taking your orders and the passage of time is just going to make it more and more natural for them to keep doing so. Once Dominic gets here we'll see about getting you back to one hundred percent physically and then you can worry about the rest of our people. Leave Lori, Jaclyn, Grayson—and whoever else we manage to turn up—to me."