“You do not care of game. You want to make the sex with him, like whore, in front of us.” Alexi folded his arms as if to underscore his refusal to un-cheat.
The woman gasped and slapped him. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that, you—”
Her shouting lasted only long enough for his little brain to process that she’d struck him. He blinked, and punched her square in the nose, knocking her over backward. Her blue-haired boyfriend responded in kind, slugging Alexi in the head hard enough to send him sliding away from the game board. Smaller kids screamed and scurried for cover as Alexi sat up with a bloody nose and pulled his gun, shouting in Russian.
Before he could fire, or the young man could shit himself, Aaron’s telekinetic yank tore the pistol out of Alexi’s hand. The woman emanated a faint pulse of psionic energy and sprang upright, a motion blur that whisked Alexi off his feet and pinned him against the wall. She glowered at him for two seconds with a cocked fist and punched a hole in the cinder blocks next to his head. Aaron caught the floating handgun.
“What did you call me?” growled the teen.
Alexi stared at the hole in the wall inches from his cheek. He squirmed, but couldn’t budge the fist that held him off the ground by the shirt. He lapsed into a panic, kicking and thrashing, still shouting in Russian, though he had taken on a pitiful mewling tone. Aaron skimmed his surface thoughts; in his mind, he saw a huge soldier in crimson armor holding him against the wall, raising a pistol to his face. Bodies littered the ground behind the man. Though he couldn’t understand the stream of Russian thoughts, his fear of using psionics showed clear. He thought if he tried to act normal, they wouldn’t kill him.
The boy had been part of the Russian Resistance.
A little Hispanic girl ran from the room, screaming.
The blue-haired teen put a hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Calm down, Dana.”
“You called me something,” Dana muttered. “Say it again.”
“Dana…” said the older boy, “he’s just a kid. A bastard, but a kid.”
Alexi kicked her in the stomach, but she didn’t budge; he grimaced as if he’d hurt his foot.
A hair-thin lightning bolt leapt from Anna’s hand to the far wall, with a sound like a rifle shot.
Everyone cringed.
“Sack it, the lot of you.” Anna glared. “Put him down.”
“Ma’am…” Dana set the boy on his feet and backed away. “He was gonna shoot Saph.”
“Saph did punch him in the head,” said Anna. “Look at his bloody nose.”
“Do you mean that in the British sense of bloody or the literal sense?” asked Aaron.
Alexi wiped at the smear of red on his face and backed away from both of them.
“He’s unstable,” said Dana. “He needs to be watched, and he shouldn’t be allowed to have a gun.”
The news broadcast ended; the screen again showed the Frictionless match, now at 2:1 in favor of Manchester. Anna’s right eye got bigger than her left and she made a series of cat-having-a-hairball noises.
“Relax.” Aurora winked. “We can download the uninterrupted stream when it’s over.”
“It’s not the same.” Anna paced about and whined for a few seconds. “It’s not live.”
“What difference does it make?” Aurora sighed. “Look. You sit down. I’ll deal with the brat.”
Aurora’s body dissipated in a cloud of wispy fog, which leaked out of her empty shirt as the fabric fell flat on the chair. Alexi let off a startled yelp, arching his back as though someone had poured ice water over him. A moment later, he adopted a feminine stance.
“There. All set. I’ll just walk the little blighter down to James’s office and that’ll be that.”
Dana and Saph looked about ready to faint. The three children who hadn’t run from the room all cried at once.
Alexi, rather Aurora, rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I scare the shite out of children.” He looked down at himself, feeling at his ribs. “I think I’m going to make sure this little bugger eats first, though. He’s all bones.”
Anna and Aaron’s heads turned in sync as the twelve-year-old boy wandered out.
“I’ll never, ever, get used to that,” said Anna.
Aaron checked the pistol, hit the magazine release, and cleared the round from the chamber, catching the little orange block out of midair. “What did you expect, giving children firearms? Has Archon completely lost his mind? Even ‘ere in the UCF they require eighteen years old.”
“With parental permission in the home,” muttered Aurora from the hallway.
“Oh, we didn’t give that to him. He ‘ad it with ‘im in the cargo box.” A streak of yellow drew Anna’s attention back to the screen. “Fuck you, Postalwaste. God dammit. No!”
2:2 tied game.
Anna fumed.
He raised an eyebrow at the caseless round in his palm. Orange propellant? That’s ACC-made. “The operative word there being had. Why didn’t anyone take it?”
“This is a black zone,” said Saph. “Somethin’ gets over the wall, you rather he have nothin’ to defend himself with? Never thought he’d go schizo on us.”
“Looking after psionic children is a lot like trying to control a room full of tiny, angry drunks with minimal impulse control and access to high-grade weapons.” Aaron rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Fucking run you wankers! Dammit Heathcomb, move your ass.” Anna shrieked incomprehensible made up words as two Arsenal defenders cornered a Manchester striker.
“I don’t wanna get shot,” whispered a little voice from inside cabinets near the disrupted board game.
Aaron settled into the sofa, with Anna freaking out on his left and Archon’s bad, bad idea all around him. He stuffed his hand into his pocket, rubbing Allison’s nameplate while thinking back to what he’d told Melissa: that he hadn’t decided yet about still being a cop.
P’raps I ought to make up my mind. What’cha ’fink, Alli?
16
A Prophet's Doubt
Althea
Holographic shapes hovered in midair over the thin slab of transparent plastic. Althea sat sideways with her feet up on Father’s tattered old sofa, staring at the three little symbols. Frustrated, she glanced up at the ceiling, wondering what Father had asked Karina to help him with that kept her away so long.
The smell of dinner still lingered in the air. Beams from handheld lights waved amid the darkness of the living room windows. Two of the city police walked by out front, small dots on their belts glowing like azure fireflies. Althea took a deep breath, snuggling deeper into the cushions and again staring at the ‘word’ in front of her. Archon had given her similar things to ‘civilize’ her, but this time, Father had asked her to use them. She wanted nothing to do with the big city full of angry people always in a hurry. He thought she should learn how those strange marks on things talked to people. ‘Reading’ seemed useless, but she would do it to make her family happy.
“Sat,” she said.
“Almost,” replied a voice reminiscent of a kind, older woman.
An image of a cat appeared, walking around the word. It stopped and meowed at her, blinked, and sat on its haunches.
“Gato,” she said.
“English please.”
Althea furrowed her brow and thought it over. “The gato.”
“Try again, you’re getting warmer.”
Her knuckles whitened on the sides of the finger-thick plastic slab. Few things had ever made Althea as angry as this thing, but she knew it was a mere object. She mulled for a few minutes, staring at the blinking C at the far left.
“C-cat?”
“Correct,” said the elder. The first letter grew large, and the others disappeared. “What letter is this?”
“Cee. It should be a kay. Cee is like ess. It’s the top half of an ess, so it should be like a shorter ess sound.” Althea frowned at the cartoon kitty, thinking this ‘reading’ thing would never make any sense. It consta
ntly broke its own rules.
Another word appeared with four letters. Beneath it, what appeared to be a mound of earth.
“La tierra,” said Althea.
“English please,” said the female voice.
Althea’s eyes watered. She wanted to throw the thing across the room, bury her face in the cushions, and sob. She bonked herself on the forehead with it twice, sniffled, and stared at it.
“Earth.”
“You’re getting warm. What else is earth sometimes called?”
“La tierra,” mumbled Althea, staring at the four-letter word floating above her knees.
Tears slipped away from her eyes and ran over her cheeks. Father would be disappointed in her.
“Try again. You can do it.” The word glowed and flipped over. “It rhymes with hurt.”
Now the thing made fun of her. How could something unalive make her feel so bad? She stared at the word, trying to sound it out. She recognized the D from dog but had no idea what the straight line after it meant. She squinted at it, wondering if it should be a U instead.
Imagining the ‘i’ to a ‘u’, she said, “Durt.”
“Very good.”
“This is wrong,” Althea whined. “What is that?” She poked her finger at the hologram, impaling the letter ‘I.’
“I,” said the voice. “One of the five primary vowels. I is usually pronounced with an ih sound as in ‘fit,’ but can also represent ur as in ‘dirt’, and sometimes i as in ‘dine.’”
“I’ll never remember this.” She flung the datapad onto the cushion beyond her toes. “I hate this thing. Why can’t a person show me?”
Althea wrapped her arms around her legs, gathering her knees to her chest and sniffled, pouting.
The pad, ignorant of its new location on the sofa, displayed another word. Three letters, with an animation of a forkful of food going into a cartoon child’s mouth.
“Eat,” grumbled Althea.
“You got that on the first try. Excellent.”
Why did it feel like it made fun of her again?
Thuds crossed the ceiling. A moment later, Father descended the stairs. Her tears stopped in an instant at the sight of him. A lime green blazer with gold buttons at the ends of the sleeves practically glowed in the dark. Under it, he wore a pink button-down shirt with a bolo tie but still had on his jeans and boots. Odder still, a strange chemical smell followed him. Sensing anxiety on him, Althea moved to her knees and leaned over the sofa back.
“Father, what’s wrong?”
He sucked in a breath and approached, ruffling her hair. “Nothing is wrong, cariño.”
“You’re scared.” Althea reached out and took his hand.
Father chuckled at the concern brimming in her eyes. “It is nothing to worry about. I will be back in a few hours, but you should be asleep by then.”
She hugged him, suppressing the urge to gag on the odd smell. Althea felt confused by his strange mixture of eagerness and dread but said nothing as he walked out. Karina crouched near the top of the stairs, peering under the level of the ceiling at her.
“How is your schoolwork?”
Althea grumbled as she rolled off the sofa to her feet. “I don’t like this.” She picked up the datapad, turning it over in her hands in search of how to make it go dark. “It isn’t alive, and it makes me angry.”
“Why?”
Althea stared at it. “It calls me dumb, and makes fun of me.” Unable to find the off switch, she trudged around the sofa to the stairs.
Karina took the device, and had about as much luck finding a means to turn it off. Out of desperation, she held it up and said, “Off.”
It went dark.
Althea followed Karina to their room and pulled her dress off over her head. “If they want me to learn the reading, why can’t a person show me?” She took a soft, cotton nightgown from the peg on the inside of the door and wriggled into it.
Karina changed as well and got into bed. “The city police are busy.”
“That is why they are all angry.” Althea crawled in next to her sister. “They don’t have time for people, so they use machines to do people things.”
Karina reached over her to turn off the small light on their nightstand. Color faded to black and white, save for a tiny patch of blue where the ceiling reflected the glow from her eyes. She lay flat on her back, thinking. The ‘lectric lamp was a new addition to their room, and not a welcome one. Many of the small children feared the dark, but Althea felt protected without light, when only she could see. The city police had told her some astral sensitives could peer half-into the spirit world to see in the dark, and somehow, she had developed a similar ability that remained on all the time. Her description of it merely being without color had baffled them, as their understanding of ‘Darksight’ made her think of how everything looked when Aurora took her ‘behind the curtain.’ In the dark, Althea saw the world without color, not full of wavy walls, strange whispers, and eerie shadows. She felt foolish, thinking of dozens of times during her years of captivity where she could’ve used that to escape had she not been so obedient. She could have eluded raiders who couldn’t see. Althea frowned at the ‘lectric lamp near the bed. It reminded her of the giant, modern city in the west.
It had never truly been dark in that awful place; she’d never felt safe.
Her mind strayed back to their conversation about Den. She scooted closer to Karina, not ready to give up the safety of her bedroom. Conflicted emotion kept her awake. She liked Den in ways that felt confusing—exciting and scary at the same time, but the idea he would take her away from her family worried her the most.
“Mmm.” Karina emitted a soft moan. “Stop fidgeting.”
“Sorry.” Althea lay still. “Why was Father dressed funny?”
Karina yawned, stretched, and laced her fingers behind her head. “He’s got a date.”
Althea looked at Karina with a confused expression, making her squint from the bright blue light so close to her face.
“Date means he’s going to Tumbleweed’s to spend time with a woman.”
“Who?”
“Her name is Alejandra. She arrived with the other one who wanted to kill you.”
“Kate didn’t want to hurt me. The Many made her do it.” Althea swished her feet back and forth under the blankets. “Why was Father afraid? Is she gonna hurt him?”
“No, Thea.” Karina laughed. “He likes her. Father is probably worried she won’t like him.”
“Oh.” She smiled. “He is not so sad now.”
“She is not my mother, but if she can make him happy, I guess it’s good.”
Sadness.
Althea rolled on her side, putting an arm over Karina’s chest and snuggling. “Sorry.”
They lay in silence for a while. Karina’s sense of loss for her mother waned after a time, replaced by love for the family she had left. Althea closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but could not settle her roaming mind. She had a loving family, a safe place to live, and no one had tried to kidnap her in a few months. Her sense of contentment worried her. Every time she had felt safe or happy in the past, something had followed soon after. Whenever she’d found a settlement that treated her well—even if she had to put up with worship—it would only last a few weeks before raiders came, and she’d spend another few months in chains or a cage. A brief moment of sleep came bearing dream memories: her vision of a sad Karina in the fields when Archon had taken her away. Fear that someone or something would take her away from her family built and brought tears. Althea curled in a ball and concentrated on not letting her feelings leak out over Querq.
She sniffled and cried.
Her sister stirred, dragged back from sleep by the sobbing girl. “Thea? What’s wrong.”
“I’m too happy.”
Karina tickled her on the stomach. “You don’t sound it.”
“I am happy,” wailed Althea. “Something bad is gonna happen, ‘cause whenever I’m happy something bad
always happens.”
“Oh, Thea.” Karina sat up, pulling her into a tight hug. “It’s okay.” She shivered. “You didn’t get a vision did you?”
“No.” She sniffled, wiping her eyes. “I’m scared. I was dreaming of you when I got taken to the city. I saw you working on the farm, crying.” A few sobs interrupted her. “I wanted to tell you I was alive, and I yelled your name. You ran off like you heard me.”
Karina’s eyes watered as well. “I remember. I did hear you, quiet like you were far away. I don’t know why, but I knew you were alive and needed help. I ran home, thinking you might be there, but you weren’t. I told Father.” She rocked Althea back and forth. “He thought I was so sad I imagined it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“The city police arrived a few days later. They said they found you and wanted to know who her father was.”
“I told them I had a father and a sister.” Althea grinned.
“We went with them because I heard you call me that day. I knew you needed us.”
They held each other for a few more minutes before they lay back down. Althea shut her eyes again, trying to sleep. Another dream came, of Nalu dragging her by the arm to the green beast.
“You cannot kill without hesitation; you are a burden here,” said Nalu in the dream.
The world changed to the courtroom. Querq’s council of judges rose into the air over her, their black robes stretching them into giant, demonic ravens. Hector’s awful wild-eyed face glowered from the shadows as he shot Karina.
“Nalu has wrong. I would hurt someone to save your life,” whispered Althea.
“Thea?” Karina’s voice woke her. “You are having a bad dream.”
Light from Althea’s eyes covered Karina in a bright azure glow, making her sister seem darker. “Nalu shut me inside an old machine because he said I could not protect myself.” She smirked. “I was too afraid until the Ravens almost sent me away.”
“You shouldn’t dwell on such bad memories.”
Althea smiled. “It is not a bad memory. It is when I knew I was home. When I felt how sad you were to watch me leave, I knew I couldn’t let them send me away.”
Angel Descended (The Awakened Book 6) Page 18
