Away From the Dark

by Aleatha Romig

  “Agent, we understand that you became close—”

  “She was assigned to me as a wife—nine months ago!” He didn’t seem to understand. “She’s pregnant with my child.”

  The interior of the SUV went silent. Not even road noise registered any longer.

  “She’s not dead,” I said.

  “Agent, we don’t—”

  “No. I know. I don’t know if I ever believed in this shit before, but I would know. I would feel it if she were dead. She’s not, and I’m going to find her.”

  He didn’t respond as we continued to drive. Finally I managed to pull my thoughts from Sara and broaden my scope to the entire mission. “What about Gabriel Clark?”

  “We have him. We have them all—him, the members of the Commission and Assembly. Well, unfortunately, we’re missing one member of the Assembly at the Eastern Light. He could have been at the mansion. Also, one of our forty-six casualties is a member of the Assembly at the Northern Light. I don’t know if you know anything about that. He was found in a hallway of the pole barn near the offices attached to the hangar.”

  “I know he was sent to accompany me to the hangar”—it was then I remembered the envelope—“to recover”—I reached into my jacket and pulled out the envelope and handed it to Special Agent Adler—“this. I have no idea what’s inside, but whatever it is, my gut tells me that I owe my life to it. Father Gabriel was suspicious of me since Fairbanks, four days ago. I’d received this letter from a brother at the Western Light. I’d forgotten all about it, with everything that happened with Sara.” Saying her name caused my heart to clench. “I have the feeling if he didn’t need me to fly him back to the Northern Light or need whatever this contains, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

  My handler looked closely at the innocuous-looking envelope. “We’ll take it in to the field house and have it analyzed.” He turned toward me. “Jacoby, you have hours, days, and maybe even weeks of debriefing ahead. You have more knowledge of The Light than you’re even aware. As you know, we have people who can help you recover that information. I’m deeply sorry about Stella Montgomery. Maybe in all that information floating around in your head you’ll see how what you did, what she was willing to do, was beneficial to the success of this mission. Agent, because of you and her, we’ve opened a Pandora’s box of illegal activities. You’re right. We don’t have a body count at the mansion, but there have been hundreds lost to this organization, even one more is one too many. Your sacrifice will not go unnoted—and neither will hers.”

  I did my best to hold it together, to be the agent I’d been trained to be, but I couldn’t. “I promised her I’d keep her safe. I promised her a few more days. I even pleaded . . .” My teeth ground together. “Where is he?”

  “Who?”

  “Where is Gabriel Clark?”

  “He’s still at the Northern Light. We’re arranging transport here to Anchorage.”

  “I need to see him as soon as he’s here.”

  Special Agent Adler’s head moved slowly back and forth. “You know we have protocol.”

  Anger and hatred seethed from my every pore.

  “I want to look the motherfucker in the eye and tell him that I was the one who brought him down.”

  “Agent, one thing at a time.”

  CHAPTER 36

  Dylan

  “Good-bye, Stella Montgomery,” I whispered as her body fell limp against mine.

  Damn her! This was all her fault. She could fucking listen to her husband, but she wouldn’t listen to me. I didn’t want the submissive shell he’d created. But how hard would it have been for her to keep her damn nose out of The Light?

  None of that mattered anymore. I wasn’t sure what exactly had happened in the last hour. On the phone, Joel had said all the campuses had been raided. I mean, what the fuck? How all? My mind was a cyclone. This was never supposed to happen. The Eastern Light, sure. There was always that possibility. That was why I hated going over to that place. But all of them?

  I tried to rein in my nerves as I laid Stella on the couch. Somehow she had something to do with this. US Marshals? I needed information and I needed it yesterday. Someone in the Shadows will know something. If I only had my real damn phone! It was cleared to access the network on the dark web.

  The medicine I’d given Stella wasn’t the memory suppressant, not yet. What I’d injected was only something to knock her out. The other shit was touchy, and I didn’t know enough about it to risk administering it. If I gave her too much, too quickly, all of her memories could be lost—everything including things like eating and speaking. I’d heard stories from when they’d first started using it. On more than one occasion they’d been left with an infant in a woman’s body. Then again, if not enough was given, there was that chance it wouldn’t work.

  She’d already had the medication in her system once. Did that mean she’d built immunity and she needed more, or that only a little would work?

  I ran my hand through my hair and exhaled. I wanted to know what the fuck was happening. Where the hell were Joel and Chloe? I needed to prioritize. I also knew that if Gabriel were here, he’d never think a woman was worth this much trouble.

  The way I planned it, once Joel and Chloe arrived, Joel could help me carry Stella to one of the bedrooms. Before they were banished, Chloe had worked with her father in the lab at the Northern Light. She understood all the science stuff and how the medication worked. She could administer the memory suppressant while Joel and I figured out what the hell was happening with The Light and the Shadows.

  Once Chloe erased Stella’s memories, Sara Adams would be gone forever. If she really did have feelings for that guy, this would be easier anyway. More than likely, Jacob was already gone—polar bear food. Gabriel had forbidden me from keeping Stella, but as I grabbed another beer from the refrigerator, I reasoned that if he was now in FBI custody it was no longer his decision. It was mine. And once Chloe was done, the woman with me wouldn’t be Sara or Stella. We’d find her a new name.

  I paced from the kitchen to the couch and back, fisting my hair.

  Too fucking much!

  All of this was on me. I tried again to call Joel, but the circuits were all still busy.

  I flipped on the television. The first thing that came on was an interruption of normal programming. On the screen in front of me was aerial coverage of the Bloomfield mansion explosion. The caption read, “Gas leak suspected as the cause of an explosion in Bloomfield Hills. House is believed to be the part-time residence of accused cult leader Gabriel Clark.” As I was about to change the station, a reporter appeared, broadcasting live from Whitefish, Montana. Behind her were buses filling with followers.

  Clenching my teeth, I didn’t listen to what she had to say. Instead, I shut the damn thing off.

  Taking deep breaths, I reassured myself that I’d learned how to do this. Most of my life had been spent in preparation for my role in assuming power. I needed to take the lessons I’d learned from Gabriel and put them to use. First and foremost, no one would or could argue with my decisions. As long as Gabriel was out of commission, I was in charge. Second, as leader, I could authorize and/or witness activity, but I was always to stay at least one step removed.

  Keeping his hands clean was what Gabriel had done. It was how he would survive whatever was about to happen. No matter how far and wide the Shadows were scattered, we all knew Gabriel Clark would survive. Like a phoenix he’d rise again.

  When I finally got a hold of Joel, he was both shocked and elated to hear from me. He’d tried my other phone and I hadn’t answered. He said the chatter among the Shadows was that I’d been in the mansion.

  Maybe I was the phoenix, rising from the ashes of the explosion.

  My plan was to lie low for a few days and let the dust settle. This house was a great place to do that. It didn’t have any connections to me or to The Light. It was connected to MOA. After a couple of days of organizing our strategy, we’d be ready. An
d after a few days of pumping the drug into Stella, she’d be ready. When we woke her, she’d be whomever we wanted. I would convince her that she was part of the Shadows.

  In our brief conversation Joel told me that Gabriel had passed the mantle. He’d told the Shadows I was in charge. I just hadn’t known it, or seen it. I looked over at Stella.

  “Because I don’t have my fucking phone!” She couldn’t hear me, but saying it out loud made me feel better.

  While my temples throbbed with the task ahead and the responsibilities Gabriel had bestowed upon me, I still managed to grin, knowing I wouldn’t be doing this alone. Shit, in The Light Stella had been chosen. In the Shadows she’d believe she was married to the leader—to me. It didn’t get much fucking higher than that.

  I wasn’t interested in a harem or brides of the Shadows. There was one woman I wanted. And now that I was the leader, my every desire was obtainable. I wanted the old Stella, but I’d take an improved version. She really was smarter than shit. I liked her quick tongue and questions. In the new version, I’d encourage her strengths, as long as she knew that when it came to my word, it was indisputable. I smoothed her hair away from her face and tried to ignore the blackened eye. With her beside me, and the Shadow resources, we would be unstoppable.

  My first official proclamation after Joel arrived with a new phone would be to assure Thomas Hutchinson’s fate. My neck straightened as I brushed my thumb over her swollen eye. Before he died, that fucker would know the fear Stella had experienced when he threatened to rape her.

  I paced by the large window, the glow of Gabriel’s house still lightening the horizon. Shaking my head, I tried again to log my MOA phone onto the private network, but it didn’t have authorization. Fuck! I’d missed so much by not having my real phone. At least now I didn’t need to worry about anyone finding it and connecting it to me. With that explosion, they might not even be able to identify my car, and they definitely wouldn’t find Elijah.

  That stupid asshole.

  Under my regime things would change. Then again, I wasn’t as narcissistic as my uncle. I understood that not everything had to be my way. He believed he was invincible. I’d warned him to have contingency plans at all the campuses. He wouldn’t listen. He was so damn sure that the isolation would be enough.

  I didn’t need to worry about that with the Shadows. Our growth over the last few years had knocked the number of followers on the campuses out of the damn water. We’d also known that what had happened tonight was always a possibility.

  My phone buzzed. Finally. Maybe the damn circuits were catching up.

  Joel: WE’RE HERE. LET US IN.

  I glanced at Stella, still sleeping like a baby, before I walked through the house and opened the front door.

  “Shit, D. This is worse than we imagined,” Joel said, shaking his head as they entered. By their expressions they both looked as if they’d just suffered through an FBI raid, not heard about it.

  “Get your head in this,” I said as I patted Joel on the shoulder.

  Chloe buried her tearstained face in my chest as she wrapped her arms around my waist. “Dylan, I never thought . . . do we know yet? They have Gabriel. Don’t they?”

  I shook my head and gently rubbed her back. The three of us had been friends for most of our lives. Their parents and mine had been some of the first followers. While their parents had gone to the campuses, mine had gone to work in the Shadows. Gabriel had known he needed reinforcements scattered about. “I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t have my real phone, only the MOA one, and it’s not authorized for the network. Besides, the damn circuits have been swamped. If Gabriel did try to reach me, well, he couldn’t.”

  “The last communication didn’t sound good,” Joel said.

  Slowly Chloe released her hug, and I led them back to the kitchen.

  “We can’t reach anyone at the Northern Light,” she stammered. “M-my mom. My dad . . .” She walked toward the back living room.

  As Joel reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a beer, he asked, “Where’s your phone? Why don’t you have it?”

  “Dylan!”

  Joel and I turned toward Chloe’s scream. Her lips were pressed together and her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at Stella’s sleeping body.

  “This! She? Are you crazy?” She didn’t wait for my answer as her earlier sadness morphed to indignation. “This is that woman, the one you were dating, the one that was sent away. Isn’t it?”

  I pulled my shoulders back. “Yes.”

  “Gabriel told you—”

  I took a step forward. “Gabriel isn’t in charge anymore, at least not currently.”

  “But he said—”

  “Chloe,” Joel warned. “D’s right.”

  “Either you’re with me on all decisions or on none,” I declared.

  Fuck! I sounded just like my uncle, but at the moment I didn’t care.

  Chloe took a deep breath. “Fine. Is this why you wanted me to bring the drug?”

  “Yes. She’s spent the last nine months at the northern campus. When she first disappeared there was a lot of press and police activity. It’s safer now. She’s old news.”

  “D, man, I’m not questioning you, but are you sure?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. When I first brought her here, I was thinking I could get her to the Western Light.” I ran my hand through my hair. “She’s a pain in the ass, but I’m not ready to let her be banished.” I scrunched my nose. “I also wasn’t going to leave her at the mansion.”

  Chloe’s lips moved upward. “So instead you’re decreeing that she’s banished like us.”

  I scoffed. “I guess I am. I didn’t think of it like that, but yes. Your exit from the Northern Light was a little more voluntary, but the end result is the same. She knows too much to be released, and while carrying out ultimate banishments doesn’t bother me, like I said, not with her.” I stood and watched as my childhood friends stared, first at Stella and then at each other. When they didn’t respond, I said, “Help me carry her upstairs.”

  I got my arms under hers and lifted her shoulders while Joel lifted her feet. I continued talking as we walked. “I figured we could lay low for a couple of days. Gabriel’s directions were for radio silence. We’ll do what he said. It’ll be easier on the Shadows if things progress the way they expect. Then, once we wake her up, we can move. She’s smart. She’ll adapt. Fuck, she adapted to the Northern Light. This time she’ll have her real life back, well, kind of.”

  Chloe wrinkled her nose as she watched us lay her on the bed. “She’s going to need to be cleaned up. Who the hell did that to her back? And why is she dressed like a bride?”

  “Mark,” I replied. “We had words. There was only so much I could do.” I clenched my teeth together. “Fucking Gabriel told me I couldn’t have her, and then I found out he planned on making her one of them—one of his brides.”

  “Jesus!” Chloe said, shaking her head, “I’m not questioning Father Gabriel, but I just don’t get it.”

  Joel looked to his wife and narrowed his gaze. “Just because we’re in the Shadows . . .”

  Chloe continued to move her head slowly from side to side, her brown hair falling over her shoulders as she tended to Stella. The Shadows didn’t follow all the doctrine of The Light. That was part of the reason Joel and Chloe had asked to move into the Shadows. The extent to which each Shadow followed varied, but Father Gabriel’s teachings were still the cement, the binding that held the Shadows to The Light.

  “You need to keep the messages going, for those who want it, who need it,” Joel said, talking to me.

  I nodded as I watched Chloe set up the medication. “I’ve been thinking about that. Man, you’re my first Commissioner. I was wondering if you . . .” My words trailed away. The Light doctrines and preaching weren’t my thing. I’d spent most of my life avoiding them. Joel knew the lessons backward and forward. He and Chloe had lived it before they were married, and after
at the Northern Light.

  “If I wanted to preach, I’d have stayed in Alaska.”

  I stood taller. “As my first Commissioner, I’m not asking you.” Joel’s lips thinned, but he didn’t respond. “The way I see it,” I went on, “you two know that side better than I do. I can oversee the operations and the money. You’re right. There are Shadows who’ll need to hear Gabriel’s word. I figure you two can give them what they need until the dust settles. We have Shadows everywhere: police, judicial, fuck, even federal: FBI, CIA, Homeland Security. I could keep going.

  “What happened tonight will be big news. I was just watching some coverage on TV. It’ll be like Stella’s disappearance was. Give it some time and then it’ll die down. When that happens we’ll do what we do. It just takes one—Raphael, Michael, Uriel, one of them. Once we get one of them out of custody, the Shadows will eat it up. It’ll be like he was raised from the fucking dead, and then he can do the preaching.”

  Joel nodded. “Fine. We’ll do it. But I don’t know why we should stop there.”

  Chloe began putting bandages around Stella’s head.

  “What are you doing?”

  “The loss of vision,” Chloe answered, “is vital. I remember reading my father’s research. If you want her to believe she’s someone else, it takes time.”

  “Father Gabriel,” Joel continued. “He needs to rise again. The Shadows have the power. If they think getting one of the originals out of prison is a miracle, getting Father Gabriel out will be better than walking on water.”

  I nodded and smiled as I watched Chloe cover Stella with a blanket.

  When she turned my way, she said, “I’ll need to get some more medical supplies if she’s going to be unconscious for a few days.”

  “Thank you, Chloe. We all need to bide our time.” I slapped Joel on the back. “But I agree, man. We can’t let Gabriel rot behind bars any longer than necessary. In the meantime—”