by S A McClure
“J, if you love me at all, you will let me go. I need to help.”
“It’s too late,” he said, pointing at one of the screens. “You’ll never get there in time.”
Amber jerked her head towards the vid display in question. Morta, wearing a tight, leather outfit swept down the street. Wisps of opal luminescence swirled from Spade’s soldiers as she strode past them. Amber had never seen her absorb another human’s energy like that before. Normally, she needed physical contact. But now, she sucked their life-force from them as if they were nothing more than gusts of wind.
Dozens of soldiers fell in her wake.
A brave, or stupid, Spade soldier rushed towards Morta. The barrel of her pulser pistol glowed red. Amber screamed as a series of darts erupted from the muzzle, streaking light behind them as they raced through the air.
Three of them struck Morta in the back. She stumbled forward as she released a cry of pain. Shrapnel left ragged holes across the front of her shirt. Crimson blood was already pooling at her feet as she slowly sank to her knees.
“No!” Amber screamed. She reached towards the holographic image. Although, cognitively, she knew she couldn’t touch Morta, the impulse to protect her was overwhelming.
She stopped breathing as Morta lifted her chin to look at a figure approaching from farther down the street. Amber recognized the man as Laurie LaRue. His face was hard and impassive as he stared down at Morta.
His lips moved, but the audio was too low for the drone’s microphone to pick up. Her flesh crawled as he lifted a pulser pistol and rested the barrel against Morta’s forehead.
In that moment, Amber could only think about saving her. Her stabilizers blazed to life as she concentrated on the single, permeating thought of rescuing Morta from this situation. She knew she was too far away. She knew her abilities had never extended that far before. But she couldn’t stop herself.
As if in slow motion, she watched as Laurie depressed the trigger. Her arms burned with fire. Still, she continued to focus on the single thought of saving Morta. Pain exploded in her mind as she envisioned something, anything rescuing her from the dart that would inevitably strike her.
A brilliant explosion filled the screen as it zoomed in on the barrel of the pistol. Smoke made it impossible to see what had happened. Amber released a breath as she collapsed to the ground. Her head banged against a coffee table on her way down.
She glanced up at the screen in time to see Laurie LaRue’s mangled hand dripping blood, and Morta wrapping her arms around his neck. His essence seeped from him and was absorbed into her. The wounds on her back slowly stopped leaking blood as more and more of his soul was transferred to her.
A smirk crested Amber’s lips as she let her exhaustion overpower her. She didn’t understand how she’d done it, but she knew she had. She’d saved Morta.
Amber awoke to the sound of explosions. Groggily, her eyes fluttered open, and she stared up at the ceiling. Light streaked across holographic screens, causing a wave of nausea to wash over her. She coughed as she sat up.
Her muscles felt as if she had been lifting too-heavy weights for days. She lifted her arm to massage her shoulder muscles but was too weak to keep it up for more than a few seconds before needing to let it drop again.
“What?” she mumbled, her words catching in the back of her throat.
J crouched before her. He frowned as he placed a cool hand on her forehead.
“What happened?” she attempted again. This time the words formed properly.
“Shh,” he murmured as he scooped her into his arms and cradled her to his chest. “Don’t waste your energy.”
He walked with her towards the door. The ice melted as if it were bearing the brute force of the sun.
“Wait!” she said, panic swelling within her. She needed to know what happened. The sound of more explosions drew her attention back to the vid displays. The flurry of movement made her stomach squirm, but she forced herself to look on.
She saw Morta. Engaged in a battle with Guinevere and Frost. Jasper had his back pressed against her, protecting her from behind. Bella was there, too. Her face was scrunched together as she concentrated on using her fire.
“Please,” she begged when J didn’t stop heading towards the door. “I have to see.”
He stared at her for a long moment before finally nodding and turning around so that they could both watch the events unfolding on the screen.
Frost’s blue cybernetic eye blazed as gusts of winter wind buffeted Bella, Jasper, and Morta. Ice formed on the tips of Morta’s fingers as she stretched out her arms towards him, clearly attempting to steal his soul. Flickers of his life energy writhed towards her, slowly merging with her hand.
From this angle, Amber saw a small, lithe figure dart from the shadows. They flung themselves across the short distance to Morta and jabbed a syringe into the other woman’s neck.
The light emanating from Frost immediately snuffed out. Amber watched, horrified as Guinevere aimed her plasma rifle at Morta and fired.
Chapter Nineteen
Amber stared at the screen. Unseeing. Unfeeling.
Limp.
She couldn’t believe the charred, smoking body on the ground was Morta.
Numbly she clung to J.
He kissed her brow. Rubbed circles across her shoulders and back. Whispered that everything was going to be okay.
She didn’t believe him.
Nothing was okay.
Nothing would ever be okay again.
She just continued to stare.
Bella’s fire surrounded Frost. His blue eye dimmed as her flames engulfed him.
A shadow erupted from Jasper’s back and flowed across the street until it wrapped itself around Guinevere. Her face contorted into pure pain as the shadow strangled her. Her eyes bulged as she grasped at her throat, unable to get a hold on the shadow.
Soldiers rushed forward, forming a circle around Morta. A ballistic shield established a perimeter.
Amber knew it was too little, too late.
The charred body.
Her shoulders wracked as she attempted to hold back the scream. Tears flowed freely from her eyes.
This couldn’t be it.
But she knew it was.
A guttural wail erupted from her. Over and over. She cried. Weakly, she pounded her fists against J’s chest.
She’d unlocked a new dimension to her power. She’d manipulated the firing mechanism on the puler pistol. She’d saved Morta from Laurie.
It hadn’t been enough.
She hadn’t been strong to save her.
J held a cloth to her nose. She breathed in deeply before she could stop herself. There was a putrid scent followed by a hazy, warm feeling as she slipped into unconsciousness.
She woke to the clicking of fingers on keys. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. She sat up too quickly, the blood rushing from her head and leaving her dizzy. She peered around the dimly lit room.
Curtains billowed slightly from a phantom breeze. She lay on an old-fashioned four-poster bed with sheer curtains encircling her. Through the haze, she could see J hunched over a desk, wildly tapping away. Paintings hung on the walls.
She breathed in and out. Sat in her own fatigue and numbness.
The image of the charred body shoved itself to the forefront of her mind.
Morta was gone.
Clenching her fists, Amber pulled back the curtain surrounding the bed and lunged towards J. Her legs were still weak from whatever he’d used to drug her, and she stumbled. Her chin slammed into the back of his chair as she fell forward. She tasted hot copper as she bit her tongue.
“The effects will wear off in a few more hours,” J said, without breaking his concentration from the screen.
Gingerly, she prodded at her already swelling mouth. She wasn’t used to physical injuries since her ability protected her from harm most of the time.
“I’ll take you home once you’ve regained your stren
gth,” he continued.
She punched him on the side. He flinched slightly, but didn’t respond.
“Look at me!” she demanded.
He finished typing a last string of code before stretching his arms out before him. His joints popped faintly as he pulled his fingers outward and held the position for several seconds. Then, he peered down at her, an expression of mild curiosity on his face.
“Yes, dear,” he said.
It took all her willpower not to smack him in his smart mouth. He was the reason Morta was dead. If she had been there, if she hadn’t extended herself in saving her the first time, maybe—most definitely—Morta would still be alive.
“I want to go home now,” she said.
He brushed his fingertips over her forehead. The corners of his mouth drooped. “You’re not quite well enough—”
“You are not my owner, J. You don’t get to tell me when I can and cannot do things. Take me back to the Underworld or—”
“Or what? You’ll report me to the authorities?” he smirked at her. “You and I both know that you would rather eat durfian dung than do that.”
She breathed out heavily through her nose and pierced him with a wild, angry stare. She motioned between them, “We are not friends, J. You kidnapped me! Do you realize what you’ve done? Morta is dead because of you!”
All the smugness left his expression at her words. “You want to be angry, fine, be angry. But I will not allow you to blame her death on me. She was stupid enough to start a war against the powers that be, and it cost her everything.”
Amber slapped him. Her hand stung and her arm felt as if she had been carrying a plasma rifle for hours. A thin, pink line blossomed on his cheek where she’d struck him.
“Was that really necessary?” he asked, rubbing his jaw.
“I don’t want to be here anymore. Either take me home now, or I promise you, I will report you to the police.”
He stared at her. At first a look of wry bemusement covered his face, but the longer he held her gaze, the more it morphed into an expression of contemplation.
“Fine,” he finally said. “I’ll arrange for Merlin to provide transport back to the Underworld.”
“Your AI can drive?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I designed a body for him and taught him to do all sorts of things. I built him myself.”
“Oh.”
They sat in silence for several moments. Amber remained on the floor. She still felt woozy and was afraid that if she moved, she would collapse entirely. Sometimes it is better to let things ride than force them into submission.
“Can you, at the very least, tell me who you really are?” she asked. She wasn’t sure why she wanted to know.
“How do I know you won’t try to kill me—or worse—ruin me if I tell you?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I think we’re past the point where you should be worrying about that. You kidnapped me. Stopped me from saving Morta. Forced me to sit back and watch as everything I loved was destroyed. Trust when I say that if I wanted to kill you, it wouldn’t be because I discovered your real identity.”
He laughed. He laughed so hard, in fact, that his whole body shook.
Amber scowled at him. “Really? That’s how you respond?”
He shrugged. “You’re cute when you’re angry.”
Her glare deepened. “You do realize that you’re hitting on me right after I tell you that you’ve ruined my life.”
“I didn’t ruin your life, Fortuna. I kept you out of harm’s way.”
She sighed. “Agree to disagree.” She scooted backwards and out of his reach. “Your name,” she prodded.
“James.”
“James what?”
“Li.”
Her skin tingled at the name. She’d heard it before, but she wasn’t sure where. “Why do I know that name?” she asked. She didn’t think she’d ever heard it mentioned before, but her ability flared as if she was supposed to know something about him.
“Oh, you know, infamous gambler and charlatan. The great Don Juan. King of Taurus.”
She blinked at him. “King of Taurus,” she paused, “The King…You’re the King?”
“And I thought you would have figured it out faster than that.”
She stuttered over her words. She couldn’t believe that this arrogant, cocky, kidnapper could be the leader of the Taurus Syndicate. He was a mystery to everyone. Few knew what he looked like. Fewer still knew his real name.
“I don’t understand,” she began.
“Mort and I go way back,” he said. “She was my first friend when I landed on Thoth, similar to you. Though, I must say, I was significantly younger than you when I was brought here. She helped me distinguish myself.” He turned away from her, his voice cracking slightly as he continued. “She asked me to help her in the fight against the LaRues and the ones backing them. I declined.”
“Then why—”
He held up a finger, stilling her lips as he continued, “Then I saw you. I don’t know how to explain it, but I knew then that you and I were meant to do great things together.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You don’t even know me,” she whispered. “How can you believe that we’re supposed to fulfill some great destiny if you don’t even know who I am?”
“Call it intuition,” he shrugged. “The point is, Morta asked me to ensure your safety if I sensed something was about to happen.”
Amber stilled. Her heart pounded in her chest and she took short, shallow breaths. She doubted Morta would have trusted one of her rivals to protect her. And, she certainly didn’t believe the bit about James seeing her and knowing from first sight that they would ‘achieve great things together.’ If that was true, he was more delusional than she thought.
She rose to her feet. Swaying slightly as her legs absorbed her weight, she rested her hand on the couch.
“Even if I did believe you, and I’m not saying I do, why would I trust you now? Taurus was the largest gambling syndicate on Thoth. You own more upscale casinos than any of the others. Well, you did, anyway.” She smirked at him. “Now that the Underworld has acquired Spade, I guess that makes Morta’s syndicate the largest.”
“And you the new queen,” he replied, a smug smile stretched across his face. “Or did you forget that Morta named you her heir.”
Amber’s hands dropped to her sides at his words. “How did you know she offered—”
“She didn’t just offer. She explicitly named you. I saw the paperwork myself.”
She gaped at him. She didn’t understand how that was possible. Morta had showed her the will only a few hours before the fighting began. There hadn’t been time for her to show them to James.
“I can tell you’re trying to figure this all out. All I can tell you is that I have sensed something would happen to Morta for a very long time now. I told her of my concerns, and she made me promise to protect you. Of course, she didn’t know that I had already decided I would do the latter.”
It was too much for her to think about now. Every time she closed her eyes, flashes of Morta’s charred body mixed with the dead girl’s eyes. Her father’s wheezing, last breath. The smell of decay.
All she wanted to do was curl into a little ball and sink into sleep. Maybe when she woke, the nightmare would be over. One could hope.
“Please,” she finally said, “just take me home.”
His lips parted as if he were going to say something else, thought better of it, and then shut it again.
“I promise I’ll have guards posted outside my room. I just—” she trailed off, unsure how to say what she was feeling. “I just need to be home.”
He nodded. “I can understand that,” he finally said. “As I said, I’ll arrange for Merlin to drive you—”
“You won’t take me?” she asked. Her hand twitched at the question. She didn’t know where that had come from.
His eyes widened, and his cheeks flushed a light pink. “Are you sure that’s
what you want?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
His expression vacillated between a deep hunger and confusion. Amber cocked an eyebrow at him, amused by the clearly warring emotions he was experiencing.
“Fine,” he finally barked out.
He turned to face the screen again, his fingers already tapping on the keyboard. “But I’m going to check on the status of survivors. What happened today was a verifiable bloodbath.”
His words left Amber’s insides in knots. The last she’d seen Jasper and Bella were still alive. But, that didn’t mean they still were. The fighting had continued after Morta’s death. She didn’t know for how long, but she knew that she hadn’t wanted any part of it.
“Merlin, pull medic reports for the LaRues and,” he glanced back at her, “anyone else Fortuna requests information on.”
“Of course, sir,” the AI replied. “Miss Fortuna,” it said, drawing her attention back to him, “are there specific people you want me to search the medical database for?”
“Er, yes,” she said, hesitantly. She wanted to know if Jasper and Bella had survived. And Frost. He might have been a major pain in her ass for the duration of the negotiation, but she’d seen him outside of work, too. He was fun and intelligent. And, he had saved her life. Or course, that could have all been a ploy to get her to trust him, but still. It had worked.
She provided the AI with her short list of names and waited while Merlin went away to data mine. It only took him a few minutes to return to the screen.
“All humans listed survived.”
“What!” she whirled toward James. “How is that possible? Do you still have the vid feed? I need to see what happened.”
Her hands were clammy. She knew what she had seen. Frost died in a ball of flames, and Guinevere was strangled by Jasper’s shadow. There was no possible way they’d survived.
James tapped a file on the holographic screen, and a series of videos populated the space before them. There were at least eight different angles. Amber’s jaw dropped open as she saw Thoth’s police force storm into the street seconds after the guards surrounded Morta’s body. They tackled Jasper and Bella to the ground and tased them.
