Rebirth (Cross Book 1)

by Hildred Billings

  Two earthquakes in the United States, a sudden storm surge in Southeast Asia, an avalanche in Switzerland – the list made the Earthlings in the room flinch. The amount of deaths was on the lower side, but the panic across the globe was in full effect.

  “It’s begun,” Marlow sighed. “Earth is dismantling.”

  “Old Man,” Danielle replied, her throat dry as she grasped how close she was to having a blown-up planet on her hands again, “that Relic we got better be in Fort Knox.”

  “I have it checked on every day. And as long as Nerilis doesn’t get his hands on both Relics, we still stand a chance. But there’s enough unease aimed at Earth right now that it’s understandable its spirit is unstable.”

  “Is there any way to stop that so people don’t get hurt?”

  Marlow’s face tightened. “Only to bring the Relics back to where they belong, but we obviously can’t do that.”

  “Then what do we do?” Danielle pointed to the pictures of bodies carried away on the news report. “If this continues, people are going to start dying more anyway. Maybe even us!”

  She grabbed the back of Marlow’s chair and almost emptied him onto the floor. “Isn’t this futile, anyway? Are we going to spend the rest of our lives trying to keep St. Lucia away from Dunsman? He’ll always be after it, and it can’t be away from where it belongs much longer.”

  “Yes, that sort of plan would be futile. But I have a feeling it will not come down to that.”

  “Why not?”

  Marlow refrained from answering for a few moments – there were still things, even a thousand years later, he was not comfortable revealing to either of his mercenaries. “That’s the question you’ve been asking yourselves since you lived on a backward planet made of sand.”“I guess we’re getting a little frustrated,” Danielle said. “The whole dying thing is getting old. Would be nice to have more concrete direction to go by, thanks.”

  Marlow flipped the volume on again. Devon wandered away, as confused as Danielle was, but apathetic to the world he inhabited.

  Five minutes later, he and Alicia hashed it out yet again.

  “I know you don’t listen to me much, but I’m telling you, go to Boston.”

  Alicia swung her injured leg out. “Why should I go running there?”

  “Because you’ll be safer there! You’re a target now, or did you not notice? Look, I know you hate your parents, but get over yourself and go be safe.”

  “He’s right, Alicia,” Danielle concurred with muted breath. “You’ll be much safer on the other side of the country than you will be here. And besides… just in case the world blows up, you should be with your family.”

  Alicia’s black hair fell before her face. “I hate the fact that you’re both right.”

  “We can’t protect you like this. It’s not that we don’t care about you. Everyone we know will have to evacuate if they don’t want to get shot. Our entire city isn’t safe as long as we stay in it, and we can’t exactly go anywhere if we want to actually, you know, save people.”

  Neither Danielle nor Devon were convinced they got through to their ex. Alicia rolled over and took their advice, promising to return to her natal home as soon as she was physically able. After that reassurance, Danielle apologized to Marlow for going behind his back to save Alicia.

  While he chastised Danielle for her recklessness, Devon took Alicia back to their world. Danielle knew it was the last time she’d see Alicia for a good long while. But she would remain alive, the first name on a list of associates from their environment if they valued their lives at all. Some were easier to remove than others.

  ***

  Miranda closed her curtains after seeing the amassing Shadows in her neighborhood. Joggers and people walking their dogs continued to go about their business, completely oblivious to the spiritual manifestations of their possible futures.

  I wish I could not give a shit, Miranda thought. There were many curses to the kind of life she lived. One of them was seeing the signs of the end of the world. Right there, on the edge of her fence.

  Her body ached, even after taking a hot Epsom salt bath. Going against Syrfila was never an easy feat, whether they horsed around or engaged in a battle for another woman’s life. Miranda would never entrust Danielle or even Alicia’s life to someone like Syrfila. There were days when Miranda was convinced she was the only person in the universe who could handle a deranged criminal.

  And yet… Miranda had once engaged in many similar practices.

  That had been many lifetimes ago, when she was the teenaged brute raised in a culture of violence and every man for himself. She had killed her first innocent at the tender age of sixteen. After that, it was as simple as forgetting the people she was paid to kill were even human. Ants. All of them. Including an equine breeder and his lovely wife.

  She sat on the edge of her bed. This was the first real breath she had to herself all day. Now that she was sure that Danielle – and Devon, she supposed – was safe, it was only a matter of time before Syrfila came after her. Revenge. Reprieve. Either way, it ended with Miranda in pain. Pain she often thought she deserved.

  The box containing her favorite blue ring was soon in her hand as she lay across her bed, wondering if this would be the life she finally got a chance to live.

  Back when she first found this ring in a small shop in Japan, she had no idea what it meant, the spiritual energy it contained, or that it was the ninety-eighth time she had encountered it in the past thousand years. Now, she understood. Shortly after meeting Syrfila and Nerilis, Miranda’s mind and soul were reawakened.

  Regression, the julah called it.

  The face looking back at her in her mirror said she wasn’t Miranda Hotchner. She knew who she looked like. A celebrated julah woman who was prophesized to save the Void, and therefore the universe. That prophecy was made thousands of years ago. The woman who it was about had ascended to the Void a thousand years before Miranda was first born. This body was recycled. The same old shell with a new soul.

  Much like the ring in Miranda’s hand. The same old shell, with brand new spiritual energy that had the power to destroy the world – or save it.

  “You know what you have to do,” Joiya Lerenan’s voice said in the back of Miranda’s head. Sometimes, inheriting the body of the Head Priestess of the Void meant channeling that faraway remnant of a woman long gone. “You must give this Piece to them. You must give it to her, the only other person special enough to recognize it.”

  Miranda’s hand enclosed the ring. A thousand years ago, it had been a trinket she commissioned by a julah artisan to give as a gift to the woman she loved more than she loved her own life. Now? It was their pain. Their joy. Their horror after they realized what they had done on Cerilyn.

  It was Danielle’s turn to take care of it. But a woman as avoidant of the truth as her needed to work for it. She needed to think it was her idea to take it.

  A plan already brewed in Miranda’s head. She quieted the voice always lurking in her subconscious, and she ignored the amassing Shadows always waiting to feast upon her soul.

  ***

  Rolling over in bed became a new test of stamina for Alicia. When she awoke a little after midnight, an itch on her side forced her over. But her ankle betrayed her. She grumbled in dreary resolution and made herself wake up so she could change position.

  The bedroom Alicia occupied in Jenna’s house was rather large, with a queen-sized bed that rivaled the one she once shared with Devon. This suited her well that night, since it allowed Alicia to sprawl her bad ankle across the bed without worrying about it dangling over the edge. No wonder she was confused when she bumped into something.

  Alicia shot up, her ankle throbbing but adrenaline pumping as she got ready to fight or flee. The lump on the bed looked over its shoulder, meeting Alicia’s cold and dark eyes. The moonlight from the window gleaned off black hair.

  “Devon!” she hissed. “You scared the shit out of me!”

&n
bsp; Devon turned his head far enough to still see Alicia while keeping watch on the window. “Just sitting here,” was all he answered.

  Alicia let her comforter fall around her waist, exposing her bare arms to the humid night. “I don’t think they’re going to come back for me.”

  “So what? It beats going back to our old empty place.”

  Alicia closed her eyes. “How in the hell did you get in here?”

  “Picked the locks. Snuck in. Been sitting here for about half an hour.”

  “...How?”

  He shrugged. “It’s old hat.” Part of Sonall’s job as a mercenary was running reconnaissance between factions, and even for someone of his large build, this meant walking so softly that nobody knew he was there. When Devon was outside Jenna’s apartment, it came back to him.

  Alicia lowered her eyes. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”

  “Just wound up here. Guess I’m not acclimated to the idea of us being broken up yet.”

  “Yeah, it’s kinda weird.”

  Devon didn’t address the awkward silence hanging between them. “Guess we...”

  “Do you love her?”

  Devon clamped his mouth shut. Of all the things to ask. “What?”

  Alicia bit her lip to contain the laugh wanting to burst forth and slap Devon across the face. This was too ironic for her to take seriously. “Do you love Danielle?”

  He weighed the options. Truth won. “Yes. Does that hurt you?”

  “Not really, I guess.” Alicia looked away. “I asked her the same thing earlier about you. She said she doesn’t love you.”

  “I’m used to it. I’ve always loved her.”

  “Is it really love?”

  “Yes. I’m sure it is.”

  “Romantic love?”

  Devon shuddered. “I’m not gonna try to defend myself. I can’t explain it, but many of the things I felt then I feel now as well. I loved Danielle back when she went by a different name. Why would I feel differently now?”

  Alicia shook her head. “At least I know what you were talking about when you asked me if I believed in reincarnation. I wish you would have told me what was going on.”

  “As if you would have believed me.”

  “That’s true. I probably would’ve suggested you go see a shrink.”

  “Worse than that, you would’ve kicked me out for being delusional and for talking to your ex-girlfriend I was never supposed to know about.”

  “You make me sound like a psychotic dumbass.”

  “You had your moments.”

  Alicia scoffed. “Did you love me at all, then? If I was such a...”

  Devon craned his head around. “Of course I loved you. In this life, you were the first woman I loved.”

  “Then Danielle showed up and suddenly you loved her again.”

  “Like it matters, in the end.”

  “It matters to me.”

  “Alicia,” Devon resituated himself on the edge of the bed so he looked upon the woman he thought he might still love. A little bit. Enough to want to see her safely away before the world ended. “For some reason you were attracted to the both of us. Maybe you met Danielle and dated her, and broke up with her, and I was drawn to you because I felt Danielle’s connection to you. I guess you can hypothesize that I spiritually used you.”

  “That’s...” Awful. Terrible. Disillusioning.

  “But I never felt any less for you. I apologize for putting you through that.”

  Alicia felt at the edges of her comforter. “I wonder if we would stand a chance again.”

  Devon laughed beneath his breath at first, and then louder, as if making Alicia hear such laughter would alleviate the tension in the bedroom. “I can’t answer that, you know... because right now I have to focus on saving the world. It’s not that I don’t care about you, or how you feel about any of this... it’s just that I can’t put the focus on anyone, Alicia. Anyone. Until the world is safe, that is. But at least I guess you know why I was never excited about getting a job. Kinda hard to want to get a job when you don’t even know if there will still be an Earth to work on the next day.”

  Even though it was no match for Devon’s laughter, Alicia snorted in disdain. “At least you have some priorities settled.”

  The final pause between them begged Devon to reveal the last thing he wanted to tell her. “I used to have a sister, you know.”

  A smile fell off Alicia’s face. “When? Then.... now?”

  “Then. Way back then. She was older than me, but only by a year, maybe. I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately, ever since I got my memories back.”

  “I take it she died?”

  “She killed herself.”

  “I’m sorry. May I ask how?”

  Something surged up Devon’s throat. How did his sister even kill herself?

  Stole stinger berries, he recalled. We used them to cure cuts and bruises, but they could be poisonous if ingested. And she ate a whole bunch of them.

  “Poisoned herself,” he finally muttered.

  “I’m sorry. What was her name?”

  Devon pushed himself off the bed, his throat dry and his mind tired of the games. “I’m sorry. I can’t answer that right now.”

  “That’s all right. Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know. Home, maybe.”

  “I thought you were going to protect me.”

  “I was, but like you said, you probably don’t need it. Just promise me you’ll go to the doctor and get out of here as soon as possible.”

  Alicia nodded. “Please promise me that you’ll get this guy who is trying to destroy everything. I don’t want to die.”

  “As someone who has before, I can’t recommend it.”

  “What’s it like?”

  “To what, die?”

  “Yes.”

  Just when he thought he was ready to flee, Devon almost sat down again. “Leading up to it, all you feel is pain. Then when it happens, you grow still and cold. But I can’t say much else, I suppose, since my soul never really did what it would normally do if I wasn’t in this stupid Process.”

  “Don’t die again.”

  They said their final goodbyes. But before Devon had the chance to leave, he hid in the shadows of her room, undetected. He thought about his sister and her death, about Sulim and her death. The women Sonall grew close to died. No wonder he feared for Alicia’s life.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Neither Danielle nor Devon were surprised to find each other in Marlow’s office late Sunday afternoon. They researched in silence, fruitless, frustrated, and without their mentor since Marlow tended to business elsewhere.

  In yet another apathetic move, they got dinner to go and went back to Danielle’s apartment, sitting in silence while they ate and watched the sun set. The two of them sat on the couch and watched television without a lick of interest.

  The closest they came to socializing was when Danielle lay out across her couch, propping her feet up on Devon’s lap. He curled his left hand around one of her ankles while she flipped channels, darting between news they avoided for their sanity and unenergetic love scenes. She settled on a home remodeling show.

  “I don’t get it,” she muttered while a contractor tore down a median wall. “I don’t get what we’re supposed to do now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Danielle eyes flitted between Devon and the television screen. “We can’t bring our Relic back here, otherwise the bad guys will get it, but we can’t keep it in some vault, because Earth will go haywire. No wonder we suck so much... there’s nothing we really can do.”

  “I suppose, but we can’t really think that way. If we act defeated, then we really will be.”

  Danielle propped herself up on the arm of her couch. “I don’t remember ever agreeing to keep living like this over and over. Do you?”

  He grimaced. “Vaguely. As I recall, you were half dead when you agreed to enter the Process.”

&nbs
p; “Oh?”

  “Yeah, you were fatally wounded when we found you. Dunsman got to you while you were saving a Relic from capture. The whole planet only had an hour or so to live, so Marlow put us into the Process since he didn’t trust anyone else to fight for him.”

  “But why? Why would I agree to do that?”

  Devon shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s probably something you have to remember by regressing.”

  “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

  “Even if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.” Devon leaned his head back, hands still curled around Danielle’s ankles. “I think it’s best that we try not to think about that right now.”

  “It’s kinda hard not to, don’t you think?”

  “Of course, but...”

  “Whatever.” Danielle punched the pillow beneath her head. “I’m sorry, I’m being snappy.”

  “No, you’re fine.”

  Danielle picked up the remote once more, tearing their attention away from home improvement and settling on an ‘80s teen comedy. It served to remind her that Devon was not yet born when she first watched it in theater.

  She sighed. “I told myself a long while ago that I wouldn’t mess with anyone so much younger than me again. Alicia was seven years younger, and see how that ended?”

  “Yeah, I’m not Alicia.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Regardless of what’s been going on between us, I’m not going to ask you to date me again, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

  “Even if I said yes, now wouldn’t exactly be the time for that sort of shit.”

  Devon bit the inside of his cheek and looked away. “What about afterward?”

  “Let’s not go there right now.”

  “Right.”

  Danielle rolled her eyes and stared at the TV. Why was Devon so insistent on getting ahead of himself all the time? As if she wanted to think about that! It was one thing to have had sex on a spiritual whim a week before, but quite another to imply they had a chance at dating once the world was saved. After all, Devon was a full eight years younger than her, barely out of college, and not her type at all, men considered. She wasn’t even sure she had a male type.