Spade

by S A McClure

  Amber’s gaze was drawn to movement at the bottom of the frame, and she turned her attention to the guards surrounding Morta. They scattered as the police approached them. Amber’s eyes widened as she realized that the body was no longer there.

  “Where’d she go?” she asked, her voice tight and pitched.

  James rewound the vid file by a few minutes and clicked play again. Amber trained her eyes on the spot she’d last seen Morta’s body. The guards surrounded it. A flash of bright light from a plasma rifle distorted the frame for a second. But the guards were still there. She watched until they scattered when the police force arrived.

  “I don’t understand,” Amber whispered as James clicked a button to slow down the pace of the vid file. They watched in slow motion again. And then a third time. Still, Amber couldn’t find any sign for where Morta’s body had gone. The only anomaly in the entire file was the burst of light from the rifle, but it didn’t look like any of the guards had moved.

  Fuming, she asked James if there was an angle that better showed what happened between Frost, Guinevere, Jasper, and Bella. He pulled up security footage from one of the Underworld’s cameras.

  She watched as Guinevere pulled the trigger on her plasma rifle. She didn’t look away this time as Morta’s body burst into flame and collapsed to the ground as a charred lump. Tears burned her eyes; she let them silently fall as she continued watching. Bella enclosed Frost in a curtain of flame. His cybernetic eye dimmed as he was completely engulfed.

  She watched as Jasper’s shadow tackled Guinevere and began choking her. It was difficult and yet oddly satisfying to watch the other luck-driver struggle to keep herself alive. The conflict of emotions left Amber feeling oddly guilty, although she didn’t know why.

  The police rushed in, tasing both Jasper and Bella. Bella’s flames snuffed out, and Jasper’s shadow dissolved into nothingness.

  Although Frost had scorch marks all along his face and his clothes were singed and blackened, he appeared to have been able to shield himself with his powers enough to reduce the damage. Guinevere clutched at her throat. If Amber had to take a guess, she would bet that her windpipe had been bruised by the shadow’s grip.

  Her gaze followed Guinevere until she left the camera’s frame.

  She had murdered Morta.

  Bile rose up the back of her throat. She didn’t care what it took. She wanted revenge. The LaRues had taken away the one person since her parents died who had showed an ounce of care for her.

  She would make them pay.

  Chapter Twenty

  Amber paced Morta’s rooms. It had been two days since the massacre on Calcipher Ave. That’s what people were calling it. Over one hundred were dead, distributed evenly between those loyal to Morta and those who served the LaRues.

  Thoth’s police force were struggling to track down the ones responsible for the killing. Witnesses claimed that the Underworld attacked first. Other say the LaRues charged in with pistols and rifles blazing. She’d asked James to supply the police with the vid files he’d captured that day, but he’d refused, stating that he’d already wiped them clean so as to protect the identities of the NAs.

  She doubted the veracity of his claim.

  He’d received a vid call from Justine LaRue during the battle. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, had received multiple messages from the hag hours after the massacre ended as well. He could claim he’d kidnapped her to protect her. He could plead his case that Morta had entrusted him to watch over her.

  But she didn’t believe him. Or trust him.

  For all she knew, he was just another pawn in Justine’s plans.

  She snatched up her baton and flipped it in her hand. She caught a glimpse of herself in Morta’s mirror. Dark bags were under her red eyes from all the crying she’d done over the past two days. Her hair was limp and dull. Her scars prominent beneath the tattoos covering her forearms.

  She dropped the baton into its holster and double-checked that her pulser pistol was secure in the holster at her hip. She lifted the lid to Morta’s jewelry box and lifted the interior box out to reveal the secret compartment beneath. A sad smiled crept over her lips as she pulled out a pair of twin blades from the box.

  Although small, they were razor-sharp. Emeralds and black diamonds encrusted their hilts. Amber depressed the miniscule button at the bottom of the hilt, and the blade on the first dagger began to burn with blue fire. She repeated the action on the second blade, which hummed with electricity.

  Although the blades were meant to be more ornamental than functional, she’d given them to Morta only the year before as a birthday gift. They were hers now. Left to her in Morta’s will.

  She’d left everything to her.

  The casinos. The money. The resorts on other planets.

  Everything.

  Amber wasn’t sure how she was going to manage all her new responsibilities without Morta’s advice.

  She hadn’t been able to sleep since she’d returned to the Underworld. Riddled with guilt that she’d ever believed Morta would have acquired Spade for the sole purpose of continuing the illegal research on the NAs, she tossed and turned all night.

  A voice whispered in her mind that it was her fault.

  If she hadn’t argued with Morta. If she had given her a chance to explain herself, none of this would have happened. She would have been there to protect her.

  Anger at James for stripping her of her choice to defend the Underworld and Morta was almost suffocating. She couldn’t believe that she had been so stupid as to believe that he had been her friend.

  She sighed heavily.

  It didn’t matter. She would extract her revenge on them all.

  Starting with Guinevere.

  She slid the daggers into her boots and checked herself in the mirror one more time. She hoped Morta would be proud of the fighter she had become.

  On a lark, she retrieved one of the death cards Morta made her deliver to her victims before leaving the bedroom. She stared down at the hollowed-out eyes. Fitting that it was the Ace of Spades.

  The streets were silent as she made her way to Spade. She owned it now. The electronic paperwork had already been filed by the time the street fighting broke out. Both sets of signatures emblazoned on the contract. Closing would take place in another two days to give time for the remaining LaRue family members and their staff to move out of the facilities.

  She’d asked James to hack into their system and discover which room Guinevere lived in. She didn’t trust him not to alert the LaRue family that she was coming, but she didn’t care if they knew or not.

  Despite the lack of sleep, she felt confident. Strong.

  Lucky.

  She turned down an ally way and followed the crooked path until it dead-ended at a steel gate. She glanced to both sides before unholstering her pulser pistol and pressing the barrel against the gate’s frame. Switching the dart to armor-piercing, she pulled the trigger.

  A loud kaboom rang in her ears, and she coughed as dust and smoke filled her lungs. Her eyes watered, and she felt dizzy for a second as the concussive explosion hit her.

  Closing her eyes, she focused on her breathing. Her heart rate decreased and her mind cleared. She’d come here for one reason: to kill Guinevere.

  She ran through the mangled gate.

  Her bracelet buzzed against her skin and a holographic diagram of Spade’s blueprints popped up before her. She scanned the walkways until she found the tiny, purple dot indicating Guinevere’s rooms.

  She passed a few people as she raced through down the hallways. None of them stopped her, for which she was grateful. She didn’t want to have to fight anyone else. Not even Frost. She just wanted to end the woman who’d taken Morta from her.

  She rounded a corner and skidded to a halt. At the end of the hall was none other than Justine LaRue.

  The matriarch was alone, her back to Amber. The faint blue glow of a tablet illuminated her face, but cast shadows all around her. Amber cr
ept forward as silently as possible. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears.

  She was less than one meter away from the other woman when Justine suddenly said, “I know why you’re here, Amber Alcott.”

  Amber froze. How had Justine known her name? Had James betrayed her to the LaRues afterall?

  She bit her lip to stop herself from responding.

  “I don’t care if you kill my luck-driver,” Justine was saying. “Her usefulness has run out, anyway. The police will take her if you don’t. She killed a wounded woman in cold blood, after all.”

  Slowly, Justine turned towards Amber, her blue eyes seemed to glow in the light from her tablet. She smiled at Amber.

  “It’s such a pity that you chose the wrong side,” Justine said. “You could have done great things with us.” She sighed as she closed the tablet and crossed her arms over her chest. “Morta always bragged about how you were one of the strongest little auggies she’d ever met.” Her lips curled into a cold, cruel smile. “Too bad she never taught you how to properly control your abilities.”

  Amber took a step back, her hand instinctively landing on her pulser pistol. “What do you mean?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? I can sense the untapped wealth of power in you. Surely, you’ve sensed it yourself. How else do you explain how you’re still alive?”

  Amber remembered all the times people had manipulated her into doing their bidding. Used her abilities like she was a genie in a bottle, able to produce any desire they had. That’s not how her ability worked. Or, at least, that’s not how she wanted to use it.

  She didn’t consider herself a good person. Or a hero. She just wanted to survive and ensure the survival of those she cared about. Was that too much to ask? She didn’t think so.

  “I don’t know what you think you know about me, Justine, and I don’t really care. Your time on Thoth is over. Spade is mine. I’m the new queen in town.” She started off so confidently, but the more the words came rushing out of her, the more she found herself thinking she sounded like a petulant, scared little girl. She snapped her mouth shut and waited for Justine to reply.

  When she didn’t, Amber continued, “I’m not here to kill you, Justine.”

  “As if you could.”

  Amber ignored the other woman’s response. She’d come here for Guinevere. No one else.

  “Leave Thoth and never come back. That’s the price of your survival.”

  Justine shrugged. “I never wanted to come back to this void of a place anyway.”

  She stalked past Amber, her heels clicking on the metal floor. Amber watched her go, unsure how to respond. She hadn’t been anticipating seeing the woman anyway.

  “Oh, and by the way, I will leave you with two bits of information I’m sure you’ll find most interesting,” Justine said with a slight drawl. “Number one,” she held up a single finger and smiled at Amber, “I drugged Guinevere’s food tonight. Consider it a parting gift to you. She won’t be able to use her cybernetic abilities to save herself. So, have at it.”

  Amber didn’t know how to feel about that. She had anticipated in an even match between them. She didn’t know if she wanted to win the fight just because she could manipulate the odds in her favor. Although it had never bothered her before, somehow, the fact that the other woman had been drugged to make this possible left her feeling icky about the whole situation.

  “Two number,” Justine continued, “your little friend, Teddy Marsh—AKA Frost—has been dealt with. You can thank him for your life.”

  Amber raised an eyebrow at the other woman. “What do you mean?”

  “Didn’t you wonder who drugged you that day in the café? Or why Frost knew where to find you?” she laughed viciously. “He disobeyed direct orders to save you.”

  “You were the one who ordered my death, then?” Amber hissed. This only confirmed what she had already suspected, but the fact that Justine was willingly offering her this tidbit of information made her uneasy. What game was the matriarch playing at?

  Justine giggled. “Of course, it was me. Your little powers were becoming a nuisance that needed to be squashed. So, I arranged for one of my special pets to be waiting for you in the tunnels. With a little help from the café owner, it wasn’t difficult to spike your drink with the debilitating serum.”

  “Why go through all that trouble just let me live now?” Amber asked. Her hackles rose as she glanced from side-to-side, anticipating an attack any moment.

  “You’re more useful to me alive than dead now that you’re in-charge of both the Underworld and Spade.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Because at some point, you will realize that your idealized version of Morta was wrong. She was a coward, Amber. A weak woman who fed on the fears of others. In time, you’ll come to see that what we can offer you is more valuable than you can imagine right now.”

  “Uh huh. And you think, what? That I’m just going to accept your lies as truth right from the start? I know about your illegal tests on NAs, Justine. You and your family are monsters.”

  “Pft, such strong words for a child barely old enough to vote on galactic matters. You know nothing of this world, Amber.”

  Amber’s lips snapped open as she prepared to deliver a sharp retort. But, she couldn’t think of anything witty enough to say in response, so she simply turned away from Justine and whispered, “I will never be a part of whatever plan it is you have to replicate NA abilities in the ungifted,” she said.

  It was Justine’s time to freeze. Her breathing became quick and shallow as she stared down the hallway at Amber, who took a step away from the other woman. She didn’t know what the matriarch would do, but she doubted it would be pain free.

  Justine shuddered, her cheeks flaring a brilliant red before she quickly crossed the divide between them and gripped Amber’s chin between her fingers. The nails bit into her flesh, leaving her feeling powerless to defend herself. Her nostrils flared as she stared Amber straight in the eyes.

  “One day, when you’re begging me to let you have an audience with my employers, you’ll think back on this day with regret, Amber. You are nothing in this world. A weakling who doesn’t even know how voided she is.” She released her hold on Amber and stepped away.

  Amber didn’t say anything as she watched the matriarch wander down the hall and slip around the corner. She didn’t understand why she hadn’t taken her shot. She could have killed her. Right there. It would have been over. But, something had stopped her.

  Something to ponder later, she decided.

  She checked the blueprints one last time to ensure herself that she was outside the correct room.

  “I will avenge you, Morta,” she whispered as she kicked in the door to Guinevere’s room.

  Guinevere turned towards Amber, a scowl on her face.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice high-pitched and twangy.

  Amber aimed her pulser pistol at her. Her arm shook as she set the dart selector on shrapnel blast instead of stun.

  Guinevere laughed. “Do you honestly think you can beat me, Fortuna? Haven’t I shown you that I am stronger than you already?” She strode across the room until her forehead was pressed against the barrel of Amber’s pistol. “I’m not afraid of you. You couldn’t even save your pathetic master. What makes you think that you can outmaneuver me now?”

  Amber’s finger twitched. She wanted to pull the trigger. To be done with it. She wanted the person who had taken Morta’s life to suffer. To rid the universe of her. Yet, as she stared into the other woman’s eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger.

  Guinevere wrapped her hands around Amber’s, holding the pistol in place. “Go on,” she hissed, “Do it.”

  Her finger on the trigger tightened. She could see it now. The shrapnel tearing through Guinevere’s skull. Her brain matter splattered across the floor. The satisfaction she’d feel knowing that she’d extracted revenge for Morta.

  This was what Morta h
ad always wanted her to be. Strong. Unyielding. Willing to do whatever it takes for self-preservation.

  To maintain her legacy.

  Her name.

  Morta.

  Amber pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Amber’s stabilizers burned beneath her skin as her pistol made a stranger chirping sound. She looked into Guinevere’s eyes to see a look of triumph there.

  Justine had lied to her after all.

  Guinevere hadn’t been drugged.

  She still had her powers.

  With a growl, she threw the pistol to the side, where the dart launched from the barrel and exploded into dozens of metal shards that lodged themselves into Guinevere’s bed. Amber lunged for the other woman. Her stabilizers hummed as she pulled one of her daggers from her boot and swiped at Guinevere’s side. The blade sliced a thin line across her abdomen, leaving a crimson trail.

  “To think that you actually thought you were the luckiest woman alive. Who calls themselves ‘Fortuna,’ anyway?” Guinevere mocked. “You were so smug, so full of yourself that you didn’t even stop to consider how weak you actually are.”

  She threw a punch at Amber’s temple, which Amber was able to dodge by scant centimeters.

  “Void!” Guinevere exclaimed.

  Amber engaged the button on the bottom of the dagger, and blue flame swirled around the blade. She flipped the blade in her hand and feigned a strike to the left. At the last moment, Amber changed course and drove the dagger into Guinevere’s side, right above her hip bone.

  The other woman screamed as Amber wrenched the blade free, and blood flowed freely from the wound.

  “You were saying?” Amber asked, tossing the blade to her other hand and backing up slightly. Her hackles rose, and she ducked just in time as a spray of high-velocity darts shot over her, in the exact position her head used to be. She stole a glance behind her to see Frost standing in the middle of the entrance of a hidden door.