by S. L. Gray
Amrhic tilted his head, the barest hint of a smile ghosting over his lips. "Not exactly, no, Melanie, but our options are somewhat limited. We cannot give them what they ask."
"Not even to save a life?" She didn't really need to hear the answer. Given the relief she'd seen in Amrhic's face when he’d studied the tablet last time, given the history he'd shared, there wasn't a chance they'd let it go again. "Never mind."
The custodian laid his hand against her shoulder and she fought the urge to shrug it off. It wasn't his fault. She didn't even blame him. One man, when considered against the organization, didn't matter much. Except to her, apparently.
"They will bring him back," Amrhic promised. "Though we won't sacrifice everything we've worked for just to save him, he is important, Melanie. He's done good service. He's a friend to all of us. Close as kin to Garamendi. I can guarantee they won't give up unless there really is no other choice."
"It's what happens if there isn't a choice that I'm worried about," she confessed, pushing her hands through her hair. She gathered handfuls into makeshift ponytails and held on, as if that might make her thoughts become clear.
Amrhic took a deep breath and his hand slid away. "You need something to take your mind off of all this," he announced. "I have just the thing." He wandered toward his shelves of figures and expensive-looking pottery, fingers resting against his lips as he considered. He paced back and forth along the glass-fronted cases for a moment, then shook his head and rocked back on his heels. "I must have put it in the back," he said as he wandered toward the curtained doorway at the back of the room.
Melanie sat up straighter. "Amrhic, you don't need to—"
He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "I know exactly where it is, now that I've thought of it. I won't be a moment, I assure you." That said, he brushed the curtain aside and ducked out of sight.
She could hear him moving back there, some odd trick of acoustics caused by the shape of the room. She heard him mutter something, then his voice grew quieter. She thought she heard something fall and she climbed to her feet, just in case. If he kept anything large back there, he might need her help.
He didn't call out, however. The noises in the back grew quieter still. Who knew how deep a storage area might go?
So Melanie wandered, arms first folded across herself, and then her hands plunged deep into her pockets. Her palms itched, her scalp itched, every fiber of her body demanded that she do something and yet she didn't have anything to do. She had to be patient. She had to wait. She couldn't just take matters into her own hands.
Or could she?
Her gaze went unerringly to the cloth-shrouded shape on Amrhic's table. The tablet Dr. Moore wanted lay there, solid and heavy and seemingly carved not of stone but pure temptation. If she was fast enough, quiet enough, she could disappear with it before anyone knew. She could find the cabin again, she felt certain. She didn't intend to hand it over. Once Kade and she were together, they'd think of something. They worked best side by side, didn't they?
She had to be quick.
The tablet felt lighter than she remembered, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins had allowed other women in desperate situations to lift cars off fallen children, just like Kade had said. A piece of stone hardly measured up. She held it cradled on one arm and brushed her fingers over the inscribed surface. She understood why they wanted to protect it. As a museum piece, it was priceless. As a record of personal history, it was irreplaceable.
She snatched the cloth that had covered it and wrapped it again, just in case. The thin material wouldn't serve as much cushion if she lost her grip or tripped and fell, but it might buy her a few seconds if someone spotted her mid-theft. When she found Kade, it might mask the tablet's glow as well. No sense in showing her hand before all the cards had been played.
Once bundled, she clutched the stone against her chest, arms crossed over it and her nose all but tucked into folds of colorful cotton. It was precious. It was crucial. She would guard it as best she could and she would bring it back.
But "back" implied leaving in the first place, and she could hear Amrhic moving again. He muttered to himself and called out, "My apologies for taking so long. I'll be with you in a moment, Melanie."
Melanie didn't plan to be here. She crushed her eyes shut and curled her hands around the edges of the tablet, holding on hard to be sure it traveled with her when she went. Breathe, she reminded herself. Insubstantial. Nothing. Be a part of the shadows.
A breeze washed over her skin, faint at first but then strong enough to lift a tendril of hair. It grazed her skin, light enough to tickle, but with enough force to be felt. She opened her eyes slowly and, upon seeing Amrhic's room in shades of gray, felt relief rather than the usual dread. She'd done it. She'd stepped sideways with hardly a struggle.
Amrhic appeared in the curtained doorway. She saw his mouth move. She watched his brow furrow and his lungs fill as he no doubt drew in a breath to raise the alarm.
Time to go.
~
The pendant thumped against her chest with every stride. Her breath echoed around her, seemingly thrown back by the shadowed trees as she passed. Were there sentries among the branches? Had they already sent back a report and given her away? Did it matter? She had to keep moving.
She followed no guiding force this time, trusting her determination to lead her the right way. She had to make it back to the cabin. She held the image in her mind's eye and trusted her feet to do the rest. She turned the problem of the tablet over in her mind as she moved. She couldn't just hand it over. If she, a newcomer to the cause, tilted the balance of power to the other side, Kade's friends would have every right to kill her. Melanie didn't want to die.
The cabin suddenly appeared through a gap in the trees, looking somehow ominous rather than welcoming. Kade had brought her here to find answers to important questions. She'd left with more.
She paused on the path leading up to the porch. Her mind played tricks on her, making the building swim and ripple as though she peered through a sheen of heat. Don't let it spook you, she told herself. Get it done, make the trade, whatever it takes to get Kade back.
She heard a voice in her head, a sound that wasn't quite laughter. No, she wasn't hearing. She felt it, thick with amusement, the sensation roiling through her on a low-voiced chuckle. Melanie spun on her heel, searching the trees for the source. She squinted into spaces between tree trunks, willing whoever — whatever — it was to make itself known.
As you wish.
The tug pulled her to her knees. It didn't come with the usual pulsing knot of unpleasantness. No, this imperative came delivered with a searing jolt of pain. She cried out as she fell and lost her grip on the stone. It glanced off her knees and landed just beyond her reach, even as she pitched forward onto her hands as well. She bowed her head and arched her back, the only posture that brought her relief. Breathe, keep breathing. It will pass. Please, God, pass!
"God has nothing to do with it."
She knew that voice. Melanie forced her eyes open. She didn't remember closing them but finding them shut shocked her less than recognition.
Light blazed from every corner. Melanie lifted a hand to shield her eyes, unable to make out details while her vision cleared. The air here felt warmer than it did passing through shadows. Colors made an impression on her mind. The real world, then. They hadn't come back to the cabin. They’d brought her to them.
She shoved to her feet, pushing off a floor of cool tile, not dirt and shattered twigs. She dusted her hands and straightened her shoulders. Better to face this battle boldly. She started toward the largest silhouette. His voice had come from that direction. It was familiar, faintly reassuring somehow. Kade? If she could get close enough to see him, touch him, things would be all right.
The light shifted as another figure moved, a slighter shadowed shape that stepped directly into her path.
"You haven't been with them long enough to let them warp your p
riorities, Melanie," Dr. Moore said. Her vision cleared, sharpening and focusing abruptly on the smug expression he wore. "I confess, I'm impressed."
She stopped short, drew herself up and stepped back. Not a retreat, she promised herself silently. Taking stock, keeping her distance. "I couldn't care less about what impresses you," she answered, surprised and pleased that her voice stayed steady. "You wanted the tablet?" She gestured with her chin toward the fallen bundle. "You have it, now we're done." Her gaze flickered toward the larger figure and she took a risk: "Let him go."
Dr. Moore laughed, an exhalation of sound. "Patience is a virtue, Melanie, or have you somehow managed to miss that aphorism? The tablet for the man; that was the bargain."
"And I kept up my end."
Dr. Moore's grin widened. "I'm meant to take you at your word?" He tilted his head toward the tablet in turn. "Open it. Prove it."
She squinted at him, letting her lips curve up into what she hoped was a nasty smile. "What, don't you trust me?"
"Not as far as I could spit, and that, my dear, is a talent I have never cultivated." His grin chilled, hardened. "I said open it."
Their gazes locked and, for a moment, Melanie flashed back to schoolyard games. Which of them could resist the urge to blink the longest? Would one of Moore's henchmen come to intervene, shout in her ear or pluck a hair and try to make her flinch? She set her jaw and balled her fists, ready to settle in for a protracted stare-down.
It wouldn't solve her problem. It would prove nothing. All it meant was she could ignore the sting of threatening tears and out-stubborn a man who'd killed to get what he wanted at least once and tried several more times. Staring him down might satisfy the ten-year-old who still lived inside her and spoke up occasionally, but if she pushed him too far, stretched his temper to the snapping point again, she had no doubts about who would pay the price.
She moved. Her joints felt as though they had been filled with crushed granite, grating and scraping as they shifted against one another, making each step toward the cloth-wrapped tablet near agony. Metaphoric. It was all in her mind. She'd had no choice but to do this, for Kade. Reason couldn't outweigh guilt, and that slowed her feet.
"Dragging them only delays your happy reunion," Dr. Moore murmured in oily tones. Melanie could feel his words wash over her like the leftover water from a sink full of soiled dishes. She shuddered and moved on.
Picking up the tablet this time made her shoulders ache. Straightening with it tucked in her arms made her pulse race and a cold sheen of sweat broke out on her skin. Nerves. Uncertainty. She had to get Kade back.
She peeled layers of fabric away from stone, revealing the engraved surface. As the last edge whispered through her fingers and draped her arm, the tablet pulsed with one pale, sickly thrum of the light she'd seen before. A death throe. She swallowed hard and thrust the thought away.
She caught a reflection of the anemic light in Dr. Moore's eyes when her gaze lifted to his again. Triumph mingled with revulsion and twisted his expression into something sharper than both. He took a step forward, wetting his lips. He lifted his hands and his fingers curled as if calling the tablet to him. "Give it to me."
Chapter Twenty
He looked nothing like the cool, collected, professional man he claimed to be. In that moment, he reminded Melanie of another twisted shadow creature, desperate to touch something real, if only for a second. She almost felt sorry — no.
She stepped back and curled the tablet closer to her body. She lifted her chin. "You want the deal? Where is he?"
Dr. Moore tilted his head, the motion completely alien and unnatural. The corners of his mouth lifted. "Now really," he all but purred. "What sort of negotiator would I be if I went through with that?" Something throbbed inside her head, sharp pressure like a finger jabbed hard against her temple. "I am a gentleman. I wouldn't kill the man that you love."
In her head. He could read her thoughts!
"Get out of her mind, you son of a bitch!"
Kade! Melanie's attention was jerked away from Dr. Moore by the all-too-welcome sound of another familiar voice. The hulking shadow, the figure she'd noticed from the beginning, clarified and she could see him now, tense and strained against...what? Something held him back, she could tell that much. "Kade, are you—?"
"I'm fine." His voice rang with swallowed anger, the ends of the words sounding bitten-off and chewed. Relief swept through her all the same. For the moment, alive was enough.
It would have to be. "The tablet," Dr. Moore insisted again. When had he moved, how had he gotten so close? Melanie startled, realizing that they now stood nearly toe-to-toe.
His façade had crumbled even further. Dark brown eyes had bled nearly to black, not much hint of white to break up the inky darkness. Dark blue lines of web-like veins spread from his hairline, stark against the pallor of his skin. "Give it to me," he insisted. "Melanie. The tablet. You must hand it over of your own free will. Give it to me and I will let you go. Both of you, free to leave when you like."
"I'm not going anywhere," Kade countered in a growl. "When we leave, we're taking it back with us. Count on that, Sandoval."
He smirked and tilted his head with the same jerky, inhuman motion. His gaze left Melanie's for just a fraction of a second. Long enough to let her catch a breath. "At least someone appreciates the strength of a good name."
He reached a third time. Now that Melanie's eyes had adjusted to the light, she could see quite clearly that his hands were clawed, fingers ending in nails too long and dark to be natural. "What are you?" She watched his smile spread impossibly wide. Watched him show off far too many teeth.
And heard him answer, "Powerful," before he touched the stone she clutched to her chest.
He might as well have plunged his hand into bone and muscle and gripped her heart. She was abruptly as cold as she imagined graves must be. She felt it creep through her, stealing up her arms, crawling through her veins. Thick and cruel and stealing all her warmth, she could feel him pulling life from her body. She saw wicked glee at the act all but dancing in his depthless eyes. She had to let go. If she held on, he'd kill her. He'd break her and take the tablet whether she handed it to him or not. If she uncurled her hands, loosened her arms, he would have it and she would be saved. Safe. She and Kade could leave.
Don't. The word — the command — came sharp and unbidden. A thought that lanced through her impromptu plans. No, not a thought. That was Kade's voice. It worked as though he'd spoken aloud, stealing her attention as effectively as a hand gripping her jaw. It's a trick. A trap. Fight it, Melanie.
She couldn't move. She couldn't shift her gaze, no matter that she wanted to see him. Needed to see him. She struggled to control her body. To turn her head or even her eyes. She thought as hard, as loudly as she could, on the off chance that he could hear her. What's he doing to me?
Using you, Kade answered matter-of-factly. There was...movement? Color at the edge of her vision, pushing back the chill. Slowly but surely, Kade's image stole into her mind. Warm and comforting, a pocket of hope she wanted to cling to while the rest of her body filled with fear and dread. Controlling you, he went on. Fight him!
Kade looked as though he'd been fighting for days. His shoulders were as broad as ever, his jaw as square and the muscle lining it as tense and set as she'd ever seen, but he held himself differently. She could read lines of fatigue in his posture. This was not the struggling man who stood somewhere behind Dr. Moore. This was the truth, the soul, the spirit inside the body. It was impossible to know that, and yet somehow she did. She knew, too, that willpower seemed to keep him on his feet. His body had not yet begun to list or sag or slump, but weariness wrapped this figure like an invisible cloud.
And yet she begged, Help me. I don't know how.
I can't. Two words heavy with regret. This is what I can do. This is all I can do. You're strong, Melanie. Use that.
It wasn't enough. She could feel blade-sharp tendrils of ice beneath her skin
. Cutting her, though she saw no blood. Past her elbows now. Inching toward her shoulders and her neck.
You want to live, don't you? Kade spoke insistently. You can't give up.
We didn't train for this! She was whining. She couldn't help herself. This isn't hand-to-hand. I'm not a magician.
You're one of us. He paused and let the words sink in. You're one of us, Melanie. Shadow-born. This is what we do. This is what you do.
She wanted to shake her head. She might have if she could. Tried, yet again, to deny the inescapable, painful reality descending on her now, as graceful as a runaway Mack truck. She was one of them. A woman, a creature capable of walking between light and dark. A woman being slowly killed by a man with a power her scientific training couldn't explain away. One of you.
My echo, Kade said inside her head and somehow his voice seemed warmer. Closer. His figure more lifelike, as if all she had to do was reach for him. Part of me, he went on. His mouth quirked up, a familiar lopsided smile that made her heart lurch. Mine.
His. The thought rolled through her like a shockwave. Kade had told her about his family, about their loss. She'd felt his loneliness before. Sylvie'd filled her head with the only truth she knew, that Kade pushed everyone away. And now he'd claimed her. He needed her. He wanted her.
Not a chance in hell she'd die in front of him this way.
She closed her eyes. It didn't matter whether it was physical, whether she retained that kind of control over the shell that Dr. Moore attacked. She made her mind go dark. She shut out everything. Every denial, every refusal. Everything but Kade.
And then she pushed. She pushed with everything she had. Every ounce of strength she could manage. She pushed and strained and struggled toward the warmth that surrounded him in her mind's eye. She watched as the light she imagined around him strengthened. She gritted her teeth and wrestled her way past the shredding pain that threatened to consume her with each moment.
Closer. He was closer now. She could feel his warmth like sunlight on her skin. She swam toward it, dove and kicked and fought for every inch until she felt as though she'd been bathed in sunlight. She could feel encouragement roll off of him in waves, though she could no longer hear his voice. He was a fixed image, a single moment in time, a glimpse of the man she would spend the rest of her life with, no matter what it took.
