Apostate

by Frankie Robertson

  She’d wondered about that, too. **My best guess? Because I don’t want to.**

  The vague whispering that she’d followed into Shadow grew louder. Indistinct man-sized figures kept pace with them, gliding over the technicolor landscape without casting any shadows. There were other creatures, too, following on four legs, surging closer than falling back.

  Tasha’s nerves grew taut.

  None of the Shadow beings glowed with their own color. Instead, they seemed to absorb the light. One of the Shadow men moved closer than the rest, but she couldn’t see it clearly. Heart pounding, Tasha slowed and stared, trying to see what was tracking them. Something about it was familiar, too much like the source of her childhood terror. A cold sweat prickled over her skin.

  Kellan drew his sword with practiced ease. Indigo light danced down its edge and some of the Shadow-figures drew back.**I’m here.** He pulled her closer to him. **You’re not alone.**

  **I know.** She didn’t know if he could do anything to protect her here in Shadow, but his effort to reassure her gave her courage. She could do this.

  **What are they?**

  **I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out. Let’s not dawdle. ** She picked up the pace, resuming her jog.

  It seemed to take forever to reach the house. The distance telescoped, constantly lengthening like a hallway in a horror movie. She’d promised Kellan and Dave she could do this, but with every step the creature pacing them seemed to come closer, and the U’dahmi’s drag grew heavier. She felt like she was towing an overweight suitcase through a never-ending airport. If only she could rest for just a minute. Step out of the Shadow and into the normal world for just a moment. All she’d have to do is release Kellan’s hand, or just pull him out with her. She could flee the Shadow Creatures and catch her breath.

  But there was a black metal pole just in front of them, with a camera mounted on top. Whether it was motion-activated or infrared, if they stepped into the physical world they’d be seen and the sentries would be alerted. Their mission would fail even if they stepped back into Shadow immediately.

  She kept going.

  One of the voices grew more insistent.

  **Natasha.**

  She flinched as it called her name.

  **What’s wrong?** Kellan asked.

  She didn’t answer. The Creature came closer. She wanted to run but she wouldn’t leave Kellan alone here. Any second now it would reach for her, but she wouldn’t look. She wouldn’t.

  Kellan stared at it and frowned, blinking and narrowing his eyes as if trying to see it more clearly. He lifted his sword and tried to position himself between her and the creature, but she didn’t let him stop.

  She pulled him onward.**Don’t look at it,** she warned. **That only encourages them.**

  And then they were at the house. Tasha didn’t hesitate. She stepped right through the wall, towing Kellan after her. He grunted with the effort. They’d left most of the Shadow creatures outside, but the one dogging her followed them, though it stayed beyond the reach of Kellan’s blade.

  Tasha looked around, trying to orient herself. They’d entered the house near the end of a large living room decorated with heavy Mission-style furniture. To the right was one of two bedroom wings. Dave had shown her the floorplans from when the single-story house was built so she knew where the master bedroom probably was. They hadn’t seen any updates, but not everyone filed for permits when they remodeled—especially if they wanted to create a secret safe-room—which Dave believed The Lion would have done.

  She entered the hallway. Sconces illuminated a floor paved with terracotta and Talavera patterned tile. Art in expensive frames hung on the walls. Gray mist shrouded the corridor, as if the fog outside had invaded the interior. She could pass through the walls, but following the hall was less tiring and would make it easier to keep track of where they were. Tasha poked her head through the first door she came to. The room was unoccupied. She continued onward. The next two rooms were empty, too. The huge house had at least ten bedrooms. With her luck she’d probably have to check every one of them before they found The Lion, and every time she looked into one of the unlighted rooms she sensed the Shadow creature. Once she thought she felt it brush a wisp of hair from her forehead and she jerked back abruptly.

  Kellan pulled her close. **Are you all right?**

  **I’m fine.** He had to know she was lying, but he didn’t press her.

  When would the creature finally pounce? Why hadn’t it already?

  A fit man wearing a shoulder holster and dressed in a black t-shirt and cargo pants rounded the corner just ahead of them.

  Tasha froze.

  **Merde.** Kellan raised his sword into a ready position, but he didn’t release her hand.

  Tasha doubted the sword would have any effect. What would happen if the guard walked through them? Would he feel them? Dave had seemed to sense something when he swept his hand through them. Would he raise the alarm?

  The guard continued at a measured pace, his gaze fixed on a point behind them. Just before he passed through where they were standing she pulled Kellan backward, through the wall. There was no point in taking the risk.

  The bedroom they were in wasn’t in use. The top of the dresser was bare of personal items, the bedspread lay smooth and unrumpled. It looked so inviting, and she was so tired. Would The Lion put cameras in his guest rooms? Maybe—if he was kinky—or paranoid. But they probably wouldn’t be monitored by security unless someone was using the room. She could step back into the physical world for just a few minutes and lie down. No one would see them here.

  The passage back to the physical world popped up in front of her as if summoned by her thoughts. All it would take is one step and she’d be through it.

  Something cold barred her way. **No. Not yet.**

  Fear rippled through her. She stepped back as her heart pounded.

  **What is it?** Kellan asked.

  He hadn’t heard the voice.

  **The Shadow creature. It’s talking to me.**

  Kellan shifted as if he wanted to stand between her and the Shadow.

  The doorknob turned and the door opened. Tasha jumped and turned, pressing back against Kellan who held her still. A man stood in the opening, silhouetted by the dim hallway light. He held a gun in his hand. He surveyed the room, his gaze passing right over them. He flipped the switch, turning on an overhead light, banishing all but the smallest shadows.

  Tasha froze, clenching her teeth as she pulled the idea of darkness around them. They were in the realm of Shadow, but they stood in the middle of the gray room glowing faintly with shades of green, and blue, and purple. It seemed impossible that the guard could miss seeing them. The brightness felt like a fifty-pound weight on her shoulders, and she was pretty sure that if they so much as breathed too hard while bathed in so much light their movement would reveal them.

  “There’s no sign of anyone here.” The guard spoke with an eastern European accent into the mic on his headset after he checked the walk-in closet. He holstered his gun as he walked over to a statue of a fish on the dresser. He fiddled with it for a minute. “I don’t see any reason for your camera to be glitching. If you want me to do a sweep, you’ll have to send someone over with the equipment.”

  Apparently, the person on his headset waved off that idea because the guard turned out the light and left, closing the door behind him.

  In the absence of light, a weight rolled off her back. Tasha sagged with relief. Kellan’s arms tightened around her. **I’m all right.**

  Tasha waited until the guard should be well down the corridor, then leaned forward to make sure the way was clear. A chill force pushed her back.

  **Wait.**

  Tasha obeyed.

  **Now,** the voice murmured.

  Tasha poked her head into the hallway. A second guard had just passed. The creature had warned her, prevented her from stepping right into the man’s path. Maybe it didn’t mean her harm.

  T
hey continued down the passage.

  The snoring alerted Tasha even before she checked the last door on the left. The huge bedroom was occupied. Just inside the door, an expansive marble-lined bathroom opened to one side, and a massive closet on the other. Against the far wall a king-size bed held a single occupant. If The Lion had a lover, she—or he—didn’t sleep with him. Given the snoring, Tasha wasn’t surprised.

  The guest bedroom they’d stopped in had a monitored surveillance camera, but unless The Lion was into recording his sexual encounters—and that was a possibility—this room probably didn’t. She hoped that was true, anyway, because Kellan had to be in the same plane as his subject to do his thing. With relief, she pulled Kellan out of Shadow and back into the physical world. Weirdly, the dark seemed thicker than in Shadow, but the heaviness weighing on her vanished. If she weren’t so tired, she’d feel buoyant.

  Still holding her hand, Kellan sheathed his sword and locked the door. Tasha met his gaze. It was on the tip of her mental tongue to ask, Are you sure you want to do this? but his decision had already been made. Instead she said,**You’re up.**

  Dave held his weapon at the ready and stepped back to stand beside a palm tree on the edge of a neighbor’s property. It wouldn’t give much cover, but the fog provided more than enough concealment from visible spectrum cameras. He was confident The Lion had infrared cameras, too, but he was equally confident that they were aimed to cover the area inside the fence line. Otherwise, the three of them would have already set off their alarms and he’d be seeing more activity near the perimeter.

  Now all he had to do was wait. As a SpecOps warrior, he’d had to learn patience. Enemy patrols never showed up on schedule, and he’d often had to wait until all the politesse of negotiating with village leaders had been fulfilled before a mission could be completed. This was easy compared with that. But he’d still rather it was him putting his ass on the line instead of waiting while his team went into the fire zone.

  That thought brought him up short. When had he started thinking of the Apostate as a member of his team? Probably when the guy had offered to put himself at risk to save Julie. The idea of anyone “wearing” another person’s body, otherwise uninhabited or not, was still abhorrent to him. But that didn’t change the fact that Kellan had proven himself to be a stand-up guy on more than one occasion.

  Watching Tasha and Kellan disappear had been unnerving, but passing his hand through where he’d last seen them was even more so. His hand had tingled with the absence of what he should have felt. His palm itched now, just thinking about it, and he rubbed it against his pants. Was that why Tasha had been kidnapped last spring? No wonder the bad guys wanted her.

  He’d been waiting about twenty minutes when dogs a way down the alley between properties started barking and growling with frantic urgency. A jolt of adrenaline heightened Dave’s attention. A burglar? That would be his luck, but no alarms were shrieking.

  A dog at the next house closer took up the hue and cry, but it was a muffled bugling, as from a foxhound inside the house. Was something coming his way, or was the dog just complaining about being left out of the party?

  Maybe it was a cat. But would a cat set them off like this? Maybe. It only took one dog to go nuts and then they all had to get in on the bark-a-thon. Dave assessed his situation. He had no real concealment in the alley beyond the obscuring fog. A row of palm trees marked the edge of the nearest neighbor’s property line, but his block wall was five yards away. Just the right distance to get a running start to vault into the yard for cover, if he needed it, though the owners probably had their own security set-up that might alert the rent-a-cops to an intruder.

  He readied his weapon, just in case.

  Scant moments later ghostly shapes came at him out of the mist. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Dogs? No. A pack of coyotes. They were one of nature’s success stories, thriving among humans, scavenging garbage and hunting pets and other small animals.

  And sometimes, when they had the numbers, they took down larger prey.

  The animal in the lead paused, lifting his nose to scent the air, then it looked in Dave’s direction. It saw him and lowered its head in a classic stalking mode. They lived among humans. The mere sight of a man wasn’t enough to frighten this leader. The other members of the pack spread out, flanking their alpha. Three were adolescents, but their teeth were just as sharp.

  The suppressor on his weapon would keep him from drawing the attention of the neighborhood watch, but firing was the last resort. Szegedy’s men would be attuned to the sound of weapons’ fire, suppressed or not, though with the racket the dogs were making, they might not hear. Just the same, Dave didn’t want to give the guards any reason to go on alert—not with Tasha and Kellan still in there. He also didn’t want to be torn up by a pack of opportunistic predators.

  The coyotes stalked closer, hackles raised.

  Time was running out. Once they committed to an attack, he’d be in close quarters combat and Dave would be at a disadvantage. And if they drew blood, they’d never let him go.

  Dave waved his arms, barking, and growling, his voice joining the chorus of the neighborhood dogs.

  The alpha drew up, clearly confused, and Dave almost laughed. He wasn’t making the kind of warning noises a man usually made, and he didn’t smell like a dog. The big male took a step back, assessing. Dave took a step forward.

  That was the wrong thing to do.

  The alpha saw it as a challenge and charged. His pack followed, leaping for him.

  He had no time to take careful aim. Dave pointed his gun and fired.

  Kellan released Tasha’s hand after reminding her, **Stay behind the door, just in case. If I’m discovered, leave me. Get out of here.** Just in case something went very wrong and guards came crashing in, he wanted her out of harm’s way. They’d been over this before, and she’d refused. She didn’t argue now, but she didn’t agree either.

  He wouldn’t force her to his will so he let the matter drop and went to stand beside the bed.

  The lone occupant was a middle-aged man who’d enjoyed a few too many rich meals. That probably contributed to his snoring, which was loud enough to rattle the window panes. Unfortunately, the snoring would also disrupt his sleep, making Kellan’s job more difficult. A job that was necessary to protect an innocent woman and her child, and one he wished he didn’t have to do.

  Tasha had been right. Even though he was now U’dahmi, and committed to living in secrecy, he was still a Lightbringer at heart. He still believed that in an ideal world, humans should understand reality, and needed more information not less. But this wasn’t an ideal world, and this man would use his knowledge and power to hurt others if it suited his ends. It would be a simple thing to stop his heart. That wouldn’t require Kellan to steal any knowledge. But that would violate his vow to not harm humans, and killing The Lion would leave a power vacuum. His successor would very likely pursue The Lion’s agenda.

  And so Kellan was here to make a man believe a falsehood.

  He knelt beside the bed and nicked the inside of The Lion’s arm with his belt knife. Szegedy’s snoring stopped. Kellan quickly sealed his lips to the wound and slipped into his mind. The sip of blood wasn’t necessary, but made the deep work easier.

  The steady rumble resumed.

  It was simple to find The Lion’s belief that various stories he’d been told about his recently recovered money required examination. Stealing from him had to be punished, but who was it? Someone was lying to him, and he was going to find out. It wasn’t enough to eliminate the people responsible for this clusterfuck. Discipline in his organization required a demonstration of his omnipotence and omniscience. Anyone contemplating defiance must know that they’d be discovered and punished. He hadn’t found the courier yet, but that buffoon’s girlfriend, Julie, might know if Chad had betrayed him, or one of those idiots he’d had killed. And he wouldn’t even have to touch her. Just a whisper of a threat to her boy and she�
�d beg to tell him everything.

  Kellan swallowed the bile that tried to crawl up his throat and wove a different story into Szegedy’s memory.

  The Lion resisted. He was firm in his beliefs. He didn’t change his mind easily, without clear and abundant proof.

  Kellan slipped deeper into the man’s stubborn mind. He’d dealt with men like Szegedy before, though not in this way. Pushing directly against them didn’t work. Instead, he crafted a plausible alternate reality, weaving a believable pattern that fit into his world-view.

  The guy his people had intercepted had elaborated on his phone call under questioning. Chad had brought The Lion’s money to them, and they’d planned to keep it for themselves and let the courier take the heat for stealing from him. Chad was in the wind, but they figured they needed to kill the girlfriend to keep her from contradicting their story. It should have been a quick in and out. But the three guys who’d gone into the hotel didn’t return and after a while, he’d panicked. He went back to the house to get his share of the cash, but there’d only been three piles. His buddies must have planned to cut him out of the deal. So he’d called The Lion to rat them out.

  It took no effort at all to plant a feeling of disgust for the guy’s stupidity. If he’d just taken the cash and disappeared he might have been able to enjoy the high life for a week or two before The Lion caught up with him.

  Szegedy struggled to breathe. His sleep lightened as his lungs strained, pulling against the barrier of his soft palate blocking his airway. Suddenly he sucked in a deep inhalation with an abrupt snort. He’d come close to waking himself. Kellan soothed the man as he turned onto his side and waited until he settled before continuing.

  Chad’s girlfriend didn’t know anything. She was just a loose end those morons had wanted trimmed. There was no profit in going after her or her kid. Chad had run because he’d seen the handwriting on the wall: those imbeciles were going to pin their theft on him and would have killed him to protect their secret. It wasn’t worth going after him either.