by Keri Arthur
A rubbed my arms against the growing chill within. “How soon can you be ready to move?”
“Within the hour.” He smiled, but it failed to lift the concern swirling through me. “Why don't you catch some sleep while I get everything in motion. My sleeping pack is over near the tower.”
“Thanks.” I pushed up and walked across. Once the pack was unrolled and the air mattress inflated, I climbed in. And went to sleep with the wild, rich scent of cat filling every breath and the happy chatter of the ghosts washing through my mind.
It wasn't Jonas who woke me—it was Cat, and her energy was filled with uncertainty.
“Is everything okay?” I climbed out of the sleeping roll and hastily tugged down my tunic. Jonas's quick amusement told me he hadn't missed the movement but he didn't say anything. Which was good, because how could I explain the ease with which I walked around naked in front of strangers, and yet was so totally reticent to do so in front of him? Except, perhaps, as a reluctance to tease the one person who actually meant something to me.
Branna went into Deseo, she said. He did not come out.
Deseo was the brothel on Twelfth Street that Sal had not only once owned, but one that held a false rift sitting in its basement. “You've checked the entire building?”
Yes. He’s not there, but Bear still watches the exit.
I glanced across at Jonas. “Meaning he might have left via the rift that exits into Carleen. Do you think he suspects the rift they took Penny into might be my next point of attack?”
“It's possible, given he knows I'll be pushing for you to follow Penny through it.” He hesitated. “The bigger question is, how did he even see the Deseo rift, let alone enter it? I can't do either, and I now share your DNA.”
“Perhaps Dream reprogrammed the rift to allow him passage.” And perhaps he had one of those eye things the sand base’s people used to see them.
Jonas hesitated, his gaze briefly distracted. “Nuri says she doubts that's possible given everyone who is capable of using them has vampire in them.”
“But if he didn't go through the rift, where the hell is he? He can't just disappear.”
“No.” He paused again. “Nuri's going to send Ela into Deseo to scan the owners and guards. Branna can’t have gotten into a locked basement without someone either seeing him or giving him access.”
Ela was not only a mercenary, but also a telepath of some power. She’d been sent into Deseo when I'd first discovered the rift there, but as far as I was aware, hadn't uncovered anything. I very much suspected that, other than confirming Branna’s presence there, it would probably be the result once again.
“What if Branna comes back and sees her?”
Jonas’s smile was grim. “Simple—she’ll kill him.”
I didn’t think there’d be anything simple about that particular task.
What do you want Bear and me to do? Cat said.
I hesitated, but given my earlier promise, it was better if they were here, where it was relatively safe, to wait for that call.
Bear, come back, I said, and then returned my gaze to Jonas. “Is everything ready to go?”
He nodded. “I'm meeting Nuri and a crew of mercenaries in the old forest. Once you're through the rift and we pick up the signal, we'll move.”
“And the tracker?”
He held up a hand. Between two of his fingers was what looked to be a rather long white pill.
“I'm gathering I have to swallow that, because it sure as hell is going to be obvious if you stick it in my arm or even my foot.”
He smiled. “Unlike most trackers, this one is made of a substance that can't be picked up by scanners.”
I frowned as I plucked the pill from his fingers and studied it. “What about bioscanners?”
“The newer ones might.”
“So it could be a problem if it’s still in my system for tonight's dinner with Karlinda.”
“No, because private residences rarely have bioscanners installed. They're too expensive.”
“Ah, good.” I grabbed some water and quickly swallowed the thing. It felt like I was swallowing plastic. “What about a comms device? If something happens this time, I want to be able to contact you.”
“I have an ear-mic ready, but you'd better kit up before we place that on.” He paused, amusement tugging at the corners of his lips. “I asked your little ones to bring up some clothes from your bunker. They rather cleverly brought up weapons, as well.”
They giggled and danced around with pleasure at the compliment. Jonas shook his head and handed me the neatly folded combat pants and a camouflage shirt. They'd obviously retrieved them direct from the old stores because the machines that washed my clothes no longer pressed them.
I arched an eyebrow and, with a snort of amusement, Jonas turned around so I could change. The little ones then handed me two smaller guns, a machine rifle, ammo for them both, and my knife. Jonas attached the ear-mic, his scent filling my nostrils and stirring desires that could not be acted upon. Not yet.
“Do you know how to use one of these?” His voice held the slightest hint of huskiness.
“Yes. It automatically activates if someone contacts me, but I have to press it to reply.”
“Make sure you keep us posted.” He stepped back, giving me space I wasn't entirely sure I wanted. “I want to know when you're at the rift, when you're through, what you find. We need to know what to expect if we need to come in and rescue you.”
“Will do, though I don't expect—” I stopped as Bear reappeared.
Sorry for losing Branna, he said. I looked everywhere, but there are no exits out of that place aside from the one we were watching and that rift.
“It was hardly your fault,” Jonas said, before I could. “I don't think either Nuri or I would have done any better.”
I should have hit him harder when we were in Chaos, Bear said somewhat gloomily. It would have meant fewer problems.
“None of us were to know that he'd be so filled with hatred he'd side with Dream,” I said.
“And I'm not entirely sure he is doing that,” Jonas said. “He undoubtedly wants you dead, but I doubt he knows Hedda is actually Dream. I think he's merely accepted the contract, and that's as far as his involvement goes.”
“Except that he disappeared from Deseo, and as Bear pointed out, that rift was the only way he could have done so without them seeing him.”
“Also true.” Jonas hesitated, and half shrugged. “I just find it hard to believe he’d betray us in such a manner.”
“Except I don't think he sees it as a betrayal. I think he sees it as a service—he's ridding the world of a monstrosity that should not exist.”
“Possibly. Discovering your existence after losing most of his kin in the war... I think it has unhinged him.”
“You lost people in the war, Jonas. You're not unhinged.”
“Some would refute that statement.”
Branna didn't head immediately to Deseo after leaving the ball, Bear commented. He met with a woman at a cafe on Tenth.
“A woman who resembled the chancellor, by chance?” Jonas asked.
No, Cat said. She was dark-skinned and had green eyes.
“The same woman who watched Rath Winter slap me around via a comms unit?” I asked.
Yes, Bear said. That one.
Jonas swore and scrubbed a hand across his jaw. “Did you by chance hear what they were saying?”
No, Cat said. We didn't want to get too close, in case she sensed us. But she gave him a small bag.
“A bag?” I said. “What type of bag?”
A small leather one, Bear said. It didn't look like a gun. It was the wrong shape.
“Given he met her before he went through the rift, maybe it was a means to pass through it.”
“Maybe.” Jonas walked across to the door, his anger and frustration evident in every stride. “Either way, you'd better be careful when you're in Carleen.”
We could come with
you, Cat said. And keep watch.
I hesitated, and then shook my head. There was a chance—however minor—that the item Dream had handed Branna wasn't a device to slip through the rift, but rather some sort of weapon capable of dealing with ghosts. After the events in Winter Halo, she had to have guessed I had help that was not of flesh and blood. It was better that they kept out of the way for the time being—presuming, of course, Branna had ended up in Carleen when he'd gone through that rift. For all we knew, Dream had reprogrammed it to take him somewhere else.
But what if he attacks you? Bear asked, concern evident.
“Then I'll kill him.”
Good, they both intoned.
Once I'd again said goodbye to the little ones, I walked toward the now open door. Dawn was spreading plumes of pink across the sky and the air held an electricity that spoke of an oncoming storm.
“What is the range of the tracker?” I asked, as I stopped beside Jonas.
“Extremely long, hence the size of the thing.” He touched my back briefly. “Don't worry. We won't leave you stranded out there. Not this time.”
“Good.”
And with that, I left.
The day was still too new for either the drawbridge to be down or the pods at the station to be powering up, but I nevertheless made my way swiftly across both City Road and the rail platforms, and into the park beyond. This place had always been a green barrier between the city and Carleen, but these days it was a silent place, devoid of any life. The vampires—who lived in what remained of the underground sewage and utilities systems—guaranteed that.
It took an hour to reach Carleen’s southern border. I stopped on the edge of the clearing that separated the park from the broken city ahead. Though Carleen was now little more than a vine-covered mass of rusting metal and disintegrating concrete, it had once been home to over twenty thousand people, most of them families. Unfortunately, it was still home to many of those people, as the evacuation order had been issued far too late. Even then, many of the people who’d died here had done so in the one place they thought they'd be safe—the massive bomb shelters under the city's main plaza.
The only scents riding the strengthening breeze were that of decay and neglect, and I could see no movement beyond the wall other than the occasional bit of bright plastic being chased along by the wind. I couldn't even feel the presence of the ghosts, but that wasn't surprising given they'd recently relocated to the other side of the city. They hadn't done so willingly—they'd been forced into it by the false rift that was now, in their words, staining their bones with its corruption.
I hesitated a bit longer, unsure as to why, then pushed on. After leaping onto a low section of wall, I stopped again, taking in the ruptured remnants of buildings and—farther to my left—the remains of what once had been a main road through the city. It was littered with building rubble, weeds, and trees that had been twisted into odd shapes thanks to the eddying magic of the rifts. Those eddying bits of plastic added spots of bright color to many darker corners, but this place remained eerily shadowed. And while a pall of darkness had hung over this city ever since its destruction, it now felt deeper.
Darker.
The false rifts—and the magic Dream used to create them—was corrupting not only the bones of those who had died here, but the entire city.
I jumped down from the wall and made my way through the luminous splashes of alien moss and the broken remnants of life and buildings until I reached the main road that sloped up to the main plaza. I was barely halfway up it when the faint but foul caress of alien energy touched my skin. I stopped abruptly, knowing immediately what it was but unable to believe Dream's shield had grown to such an extent that it now covered half the hill. I reached out with one hand, just to be sure, and a jagged whip of light instantly appeared, snapping toward me with a speed and strength that was frightening. I leaped back, but even so, the very tip of it hit my arm and raised a welt not unlike that of a burn.
I cursed and moved off the road, picking my way through the both the rubble and the moss that was beginning to take over the entire area. While the moss had been present in Carleen for as long as the rifts, ever since Dream had created the false rift that now dominated much of this hill, its spread rate had all but doubled. Maybe it was feeding off the energy coming from her rift—an energy that felt almost as alien as the moss itself.
But the bigger question was, why would Dream want a rift so large? It was now more than double the size of the ones they'd used in Winter Halo to transport trucks and was, in fact, as big as some of the old battle cruisers I'd seen in the war. I had no idea if such machines still existed, but even if they did, surely Dream could not acquire one without alarms being raised.
Unless, of course, the size of the rift had nothing to do with transporting machines across this world, but rather transporting them to this world.
Cold dread stepped through my body and I shivered. Perhaps Dream’s plans had evolved since the deaths of her partners. Perhaps she and the wraiths were now planning an all-out war, and this hideous rift was their starting point.
I pressed the ear-mic and said, “Jonas, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” he immediately said. “Is there a problem?”
“Yes and no. You know that rift Nuri investigated—the one hovering over the bones of Carleen's dead?”
“Yes.”
“The shield protecting it has grown massively, and it also rather weirdly seems to be feeding the alien moss. Nuri needs to find a way to either stop it from growing any further or destroy it.”
That's presuming she could do either, of course. It was always possible that this rift had grown so strong it had not only taken on a life of its own but was now beyond any chance of destruction.
“I'll pass the info on, but she won't be able to do anything immediately.”
“Okay,” I said, and signed off again.
I was nearly back at the old curtain wall before I found a way around the rift's girth. I picked my way through the thin strip of land between the two, trying to avoid both the acidy moss and the whips of energy trying to grab me. My arm still burned even though the first whip had barely touched me, and the skin remained red and puckered. Given the wound was neither very serious nor deep, the healing process should have at least kicked in by now and eased the pain.
Unless, of course, a wound caused by such unnatural magic was beyond even my rift-enhanced healing capability.
It was ten minutes before the foul caress of the rift’s energy began to fade, and by that time I was on the other side of the plaza. The desolation here was almost complete—beyond the remnants of the road, there was just dust, weeds, and the occasional splash of the luminescent moss. I had no sense of the ghosts, though they should have been here somewhere. Had Dream gotten rid of them? As an earth witch, she had that power.
Concrete and metal dust puffed up with every step until I was surrounded by a cloud of fine gray soot that not only announced my presence, but made breathing difficult. If Branna was here, he would see me coming.
If being the operative word. I still had no sense of him, but then, he was soldier trained and I was not. It was totally possible I'd never see him—not until it was too late.
Once again the desire to call to my ghosts stirred, and once again I resisted. I just didn't like the feel of this place—or the fact that the Carleen ghosts seemed to have disappeared. If something here had so frightened them that they hadn't even appeared to remonstrate my lack of progress in freeing their bones from the rift's taint, I simply couldn't risk bringing either Cat or Bear here.
As I neared the bottom of the hill, foul energy began to lash my skin, though it had none of the power of the rift at the top. Up ahead, to the right of the road, was an odd, circular patch of darkness in an area that was nothing but sunshine and dust. That darkness wasn't the rift itself, but rather the wall of gelatinous shadows that protected it.
I paused, waited until my accompanying cloud had be
en swept away by the wind, and then drew in a deep breath. There was nothing to suggest I wasn’t alone in this place. And yet... the more I stared at the rift, the more I was sure I was walking straight into the arms of a trap.
I should just turn around and walk out of this place. It would be the sane and sensible thing to do. But I'd already broken one promise, even if for a very good reason. I didn’t want to break another—especially when, in reality, one was linked to the other.
Penny might yet be saved. The chances might be remote, but while the slightest speck of hope remained, I could not ignore it. For Jonas's sake, if nothing else.
I unclipped a gun and held it at the ready as I strode toward the shadows that protected the rift. The minute I stepped into them, they thickened, becoming a real and very solid presence that pressed down upon me like a ton of weight. Every step forward was an effort, and all too soon my leg muscles were quivering and I was gasping for air.
Then, with little warning, the shadows lifted, and I was stumbling forward in an effort to catch my balance.
I barely had when I realized I was not alone in this place.
Before I had the chance to see who or what it was—before I could even raise my gun in an effort to defend myself—something hit my shoulder, spun me around, and left me kneeling on the ground in a whole world of pain.
Chapter Nine
For several, all too vital seconds, I simply couldn't move. It was all I could do to keep breathing. My left shoulder had become a raging inferno and the sheer heat of it had my entire body shaking and sweating.
The stirring dust told me my attacker approached. I drew in a breath, tasting within it the sharp, dry scent of grass and sand.
Rhea help me... Branna.
Here, in the one place neither my ghosts nor Jonas could help me. And that was undoubtedly deliberate.
I closed my eyes for a moment and fought for calm. I could survive this. I would survive this.
Though I remained hunched over, I forced my head up. He walked toward me casually, a gun in one hand and some sort of oblong-shaped device in the other. His expression was one of grim satisfaction.
