The Catalyst: (Book One)

by Devi Mara

  “Hospital,” one of her guards yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the tent.

  Robin gripped the gun tightly, hugging it to her chest. The second guard appeared on her other side and the two of them set a fast pace. Robin struggled to keep up.

  “I can’t use this,” she said between gasped breaths.

  “What?” the soldier on her right yelled.

  “I said, I can’t use this!”

  Her guards look at each other.

  “Just aim and pull the trigger!” one of them yelled back.

  They pushed her to a faster pace that made arguing impossible. Robin was so busy trying not to stumble on the cracked sidewalk, she slammed into someone. The two of them hit the ground and her gun skidded away. Before she could fix her helmet, the other person was up and running. It was only after they were out of sight, she realized her gun was missing.

  Robin gasped. She turned to look for her guards, but they had been swallowed by the crowd. She turned her head both ways, searching the fleeing people. Nothing. Robin swallowed back the panic that wanted to overwhelm her. She had to think. They mentioned the hospital. Robin glanced down the street to her right.

  The one-story, brick building sat on the next block. After only a brief pause, she broke into a run down the sidewalk. When the sidewalk was too congested, she leapt into the street and dodged the people running at her full speed. Over their heads, in the direction she was headed, the black cloud of the aliens’ power hovered in the sky.

  Suddenly, the ground shook with the thunder of the ship. The screaming around her grew louder, as the ship landed. She had never seen one land. They were always hovering in the sky. Someone bumped her shoulder hard enough to spin her around. She fell to one knee, but quickly rose when the bodies pressed in on her.

  Robin shook her head. She pushed across the street and up onto the sidewalk in front of the hospital. From the building’s front steps, she could see over the heads of the crowd. Her hand clenched on the metal stair railing.

  She had only seen Addar’s people attack on the TV. Seeing them in the flesh was infinitely more frightening. They appeared from the dark cloud like ghosts, their skin pale and gray-tinted. At the lead was a familiar face. The woman she held at knife point several days before. Her long black hair flowed around her as she moved, but it was her eyes that made Robin pause.

  They were red and they fastened on Robin, before she could duck out of sight. Robin thought she saw the woman’s lips quirk up into a small smile, but it was gone almost as fast as it came. The line of Addar’s people moved forward down the street.

  As she watched, more and more of them appeared. Dozens turned to hundreds and still they came. Robin turned and ran up the stairs to the front doors of the hospital. She did not know where the army was waiting, but they were not defending the hospital. The doors opened like a flood gate and all of the able-bodied people came pouring out onto the sidewalk.

  Robin pressed her back against the wall beside the door until the crowd had passed. Then she hurried inside, pulling the doors closed behind her. She looked around for something to block the door and her eyes landed on the table holding several stacks of magazines. She shoved them onto the floor and pushed the table up against the door.

  Robin stacked two waiting room chairs and a small book case on the table, before she was comfortable leaving it. She could hear the screams moving further away and peeked out the window to see Addar’s people walking right past the building. She let out a soft sigh.

  A crash from down the hall made her jump. Robin looked both ways down the white, sterile hallway. Nothing moved. Taking a deep breath, she started down the hallway on her right, passing the empty nurse’s station. Another crash came from further down the hall. Robin crept closer until she heard murmuring. Her boot squeaked on the tile floor.

  The voices fell silent and a door swung open with a muted whine. Robin had no time to duck out of sight. She froze in place, as the familiar woman stepped into the hall. The two of them stared at each other in silence. The woman cocked her head to the side, a habit Robin recognized from Addar, and gestured for her to come closer.

  Robin frowned. “No.”

  The woman tipped her head the other way and repeated the gesture, murmuring a few words in a foreign language. It almost sounded like she was trying to be soothing. Robin’s frown deepened.

  “Robin,” the woman said, matter-of-factly.

  Robin stared at her with wide eyes. Slowly, not sure if it was a trick of some kind, she nodded.

  “Yes.”

  The woman smiled and Robin blinked at the sharp teeth. “Robin.” She gestured for Robin to come closer.

  After a moment, Robin approached her. She kept her steps slow and watched for any sign of aggression. The woman simply watched her come closer.

  “Robin,” the woman said, pointing to her. When Robin nodded, she pointed to herself. “Vanor.”

  “You’re name is Vanor?”

  The woman seemed to consider her words, then she gave her a curt nod. “Yes.”

  Robin raised her eyebrows. “Do you speak English?”

  The puzzled look returned and Robin nodded to herself. The woman learned quickly, just like Addar, but she was only mimicking the word she knew to mean affirmative. Robin walked forward until they were standing a few feet apart.

  “Do you know Addar?”

  The woman’s unsettling burgundy eyes lit with recognition. She murmured something, Addar’s name woven in with the foreign words.

  Robin found herself smiling. “Did he send you?”

  The woman, Vanor, frowned in confusion.

  Robin struggled to think of a way to communicate her question. She had just settled on a series of hand gestures, when a quiet noise came from the room Vanor had exited. Robin took a step to the side to peer around Vanor. The sound came again.

  A moment later, a pale Amber stumbled into view. Robin stared at her in shock. While the dark circles remained under her eyes, the wrinkles had faded. She looked exhausted, but twenty years old, again. Robin jerked her eyes away from her assistant to see Vanor staring at her.

  Robin pointed to Amber. “Did you do that?”

  Vanor looked from her to Amber. She nodded.

  …

  Addar stalked down the street, ignoring the humans. They had formed a herd. He watched them run away from the center of town, trampling their own in their panic. Addar shook his head. Robin’s people or not, he still believed most to be lacking in intelligence. The more he saw, the more he realized how rare Robin was among her people.

  He pulled his gaze from the fleeing bodies to glance around. Robin’s scent mingled with the other humans and the scent of his own people. He tipped his head back to inhale deeply. After a moment, his eyes snapped open. She was near. No more than a few blocks away and Vanor’s scent was mixed with hers.

  Addar turned away from the smell of gunpowder and jogged toward his second’s presence. He felt the moment Vanor sensed him. She nudged her awareness against his in a show of acknowledgement. As he turned a corner and caught sight of a red brick building, another scent joined the mix.

  He frowned. It was Robin’s noisy assistant, absent the fruity perfume she preferred. Instead, sickness clung to her. He had never scented anything like it. He pushed open the door at the back of the building and looked both ways. The hallway was empty, but his senses lead him to the right.

  Addar passed several empty hospital rooms, most of them messy, as if the inhabitants had left in a hurry. Finally, he reached the last door on the right. A red sign on the door declared the room a quarantine zone. A box to the right supplied medical masks. Addar ignored them and pushed open the door.

  He saw Vanor first. She stood by the window, watching the street for any coming danger. She turned when he entered and bowed her head in acknowledgment. The only bed in the room was obscured by a blue, fabric curtain. Addar shut the door with a click. He looked down to see a pair of boots standing bes
ide the bed. As he watched, they turned and moved toward the edge of the curtain.

  Addar raised his eyes from the floor to meet Robin’s above the mask covering her nose and mouth. The tension eased from her posture when she caught sight of him. Without a word, she bridged the space between them and threw her arms around his neck. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair.

  “You’re here.”

  He hummed in agreement, wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her tight to him.

  “Can you stop this?”

  Addar raised his eyes to meet his second’s. Vanor simply stared at him.

  “Addar?” Robin questioned, pulling back when he did not answer.

  He looked at her face, taking in the watery quality of her eyes. He frowned. She did not know what she was asking. Robin seemed to see some of his thoughts, because she took a step back from him.

  “What is it?”

  He could kill Ilan, he could even kill the commander, but it would not stop Earth from being harvested. Addar dropped his gaze and stepped around her to speak with his second. He could feel her confusion and pain at his dismissal, but he could do nothing to ease her concerns.

  “The virus?” he asked Vanor.

  She turned to look at the hospital bed. “Deadly and fast-acting.”

  Addar growled under his breath.

  “Brother, what will you do?” Vanor’s eyes moved from him to Robin, who was watching them with a frown.

  He resisted the urge to look at Robin. “You will keep the human alive?”

  Vanor looked at Amber. “Yes.” She paused for a moment, then spoke again. “Shall I take her to the ship?”

  Addar shook his head. “No.”

  He started to turn away and Vanor took a step toward him.

  “You will kill Ilan?”

  Addar nodded.

  “And the commander?”

  He nodded, again.

  His second clasped his forearm. “Go well, brother.”

  Addar hid his surprise at her unflinching loyalty. He gave her a curt nod and walked away. At Robin’s side, he paused. She looked up at him with a frown. Her eyes moved away from him to fasten on Vanor, before coming back to his face. She raised an eyebrow.

  He ducked his head to press a kiss to her temple. “I will return.”

  “Who is that?” she said in reply.

  “My second-in-command. She will protect you in my stead.”

  Robin wanted to argue, he could see it in her eyes. She nodded. “Fine.”

  He looked into her eyes for another moment, before he forced himself to go. It would be far too easy to stay with her. He left the hospital and headed toward the sound of fighting and the lingering scent of Ilan.

  By the time he reached the next block, all of the civilians had either been slaughtered or fled. The only ones left were heavily armed and engaged in battle with his people. Some of his soldiers had abandoned their power to fall back on hand-to-hand fighting. Drawing out the slaughter. Addar stood back to search the battlefield for the presence of the assassin.

  When minutes went by and he had not located him, an odd feeling began in his stomach. It took him a moment to realize what it was. Fear. He turned to face the direction of the hospital and inhaled deeply. There it was. The unmistakable scent of Ilan. He had circled around him to get to Robin.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Robin stood beside Amber’s bed, watching the younger woman sleep. Whatever Vanor had done, most likely something similar to Addar sharing his energy, had greatly improved Amber’s condition. Robin glanced at Addar’s second-in-command from the corner of her eye. The woman stood at the window as still as a statue.

  As Robin started to speak, her world exploded into agony. Vanor whirled around to stare at her in shock, as a spear of dark energy stabbed through Robin’s chest. She was vaguely aware of someone screaming, before everything went dark.

  …

  Robin’s screams cut him like knives. Addar slammed through the front doors, sending several small pieces of furniture into the wall across the hallway. He ignored them, already running toward the sound of Robin’s pain. The screams abruptly cut off.

  Addar flew around the edge of the door and saw Robin hanging limply in the air, supported by Ilan’s power. His mind went black with rage. Like a leviathan, his full power rose in him and burst into view. It easily swallowed Ilan and his shrieks of agony lasted only a few seconds, before his presence vanished from the back of Addar’s mind.

  When Addar came back to himself, Amber and Vanor were kneeling over Robin’s still body. His second looked up at him. In her eyes, he could see the realization of what he had done. To kill one of his own was a crime with the greatest of penalties. He nodded to Vanor. There was no going back.

  Addar dropped to his knees and gently lifted Robin from the cold tiles. Her head lolled against his shoulder. He could hear her heartbeat, faint but present, but her breathing was ragged and shallow. He pulled her against his chest and reached out with a small amount of his power. She did not stir.

  As he fed her the energy he had taken from Ilan, Addar watched her face. For a long moment, he thought she would die. Fall deeper into her sleep, until nothing would wake her. Then, her eyelids fluttered and rose. Robin’s dark eyes stared up at the ceiling. With a small frown, she turned her head to look at him.

  “Ilan was here.”

  Addar laughed despite himself. “Yes,” he nodded. “He was.”

  With a quiet gasp, Robin sat up from where she had been reclining against him. She looked around the room.

  “Where…?”

  “Dead,” Vanor said, one of the few words she knew in English.

  At the same time, Addar said, “Gone.”

  Robin looked back and forth between them. “I see.”

  She tried to stand on her own, but slumped back to the ground. Addar rose, gently pulling her up with him. When they were standing, Robin tucked against his side, he turned his head to look at his second.

  “You should go,” he told her in their native tongue. “You do not have long.”

  Vanor gave him a small smile, shaking her head. “You wound me, brother.”

  Her eyes moved to Robin and across the room to where Amber sat huddled on the bed. She sighed.

  “I will stay.”

  “Vanor—” he started.

  For the first time in their lives, she interrupted him.

  “No. I have made my decision. I will stay here, on this small planet, with these loud creatures.”

  Addar stared at her. “You are certain?”

  “Yes.”

  As if her decision had been broadcast throughout the consciousness of their people, he heard the ship take off. Robin tensed in his arms.

  “The ship is leaving.” She tipped her head back to look at him. “Why is the ship leaving without you?”

  He stared at her silently.

  Her eyes widened. “Your people would leave you here?”

  She looked to Vanor who watched them in silence.

  Addar studied Robin’s expression, watching the rapid fire thoughts move across her face. Finally, she fixed her gaze on him.

  “They will come back, won’t they? To finish all this.”

  He nodded.

  It may be days or months or even years, but eventually his people would return to claim the planet.

  Robin took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alright.”

  With that, she turned away and crossed the room to speak with her assistant.

  …

  Addar had saved her life, again. The thought filled her mind, as she helped an unsteady Amber down the sidewalk. The realization that he was stranded on her planet was something she was pushing to the side. Every time she thought of it, a surge of happiness welled up inside her and she had to wipe the smile off her face. His people had left him, she was wrong to be happy he was staying.

  Her eyes slanted to her left to see Addar’s strong figure prowling through the
trees. He and Vanor were bracketing the two humans. They made their way from the hospital to the high school without seeing anyone. Alive. Robin kept her eyes straight ahead to avoid looking at the bodies strewn across the street.

  “Up ahead on the left,” she called.

  Addar nodded without looking at her, moving ahead of them.

  The gym doors were blocked from the inside. Robin stood back with Vanor and Amber, as Addar gave them a solid kick. The doors leapt open. Somewhere deep inside the gym several people screamed. Robin raised her eyebrows at Amber.

  “What do you think, Dr. Kay?”

  Robin frowned. “Soldiers, maybe a few of the scientists.”

  Addar glanced over his shoulder at her. At her nod, he stepped through the doors and slipped into the decontamination area. The screams grew louder.

  Robin hurried forward to follow him. She pushed through the two decontamination areas to enter the main area of the make-shift lab. Addar stood just a few yards ahead of her, his gaze fixed. Robin stepped up to stand beside him and her eyes widened.

  “Robin!”

  Her parents stood with a small group of survivors. No more than ten. Among them, Shannon and George. Robin could not hold back a wide smile. She started forward only to have Addar grab her arm and pull her back. She turned her head to frown at him, when she heard the click of a revolver.

  Robin slowly turned her head to scan the group again. Along with three scientists, there were three soldiers. It was the last uniformed man that caught and held her gaze. The sergeant. He held a shiny, silver gun. As she watched him, he raised it to point at Addar.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  Addar narrowed his eyes.

  “You with her?” the sergeant demanded. He gestured with the gun toward Robin.

  Addar was standing between them before she could reply. She frowned at his back.

  “You will not point your weapon at her,” Addar said, a dangerous growl entering his voice.