She smiled but gave Phoebe an uncertain look.
“I think we should go back now,” Nadia said in a stern tone, lowering my hope that she would help.
Mia clutched my leg. “No. Don’t want to go.”
“You really should,” said Liang, entering the room.
Chapter Seventeen
NATHAN
December 17
Chicago
I failed. After disabling the first enemy and re-routing the video circuitry, I went to take out the Mutts’ leaders in the compound per the Commander’s orders. It should have been a simple task. They had allowed me limited access recently, and I had been able to wirelessly implant surveillance feeds and corrupt their networks, in spite of the first enemy’s attempts to hack my mainframe. Fools. In spite of my weakness, they are no match for what awaits them.
But then I saw her. At least, I thought it was her when she first came into view. Her face expressed surprise.
“Nathan! You’re up.” She glanced around, nervously. “Where is Luke?”
Even though I knew after a second she wasn’t her, the one I had been waiting on, she was similar enough I searched all my records before deciding whether to kill her. My data said she might be useful, but that wasn’t why I couldn’t do it.
The other, Phoebe, loved this one.
“Luke?” In less than a nanosecond I recalled. First Enemy. “He is resting.” On the floor, likely dead. With my re-awakened programming, I knew not to tell her more. “I need to speak with Gabriel Lara. Have you seen him?”
I sensed her hesitation and surprise so I smiled to put her at ease. The spike in her heartbeat, subtle intake of breath, and widening eyes could mean either attraction or surprise. My memory banks displayed her with a Mutt who must die. Caleb.
“You look surprised,” I said.
“It’s just … you seem … much better.”
“Yes, Luke has been working on me.”
Chewing her lip, she nodded. After a moment, I detected her relaxation response and she smiled. “I’m so glad. Phoebe will—” she stopped abruptly, her mood changing.
Adrenaline rushed and I advanced on her. “Phoebe, where is she?” I grabbed her arms and she sent me backward with an explosion of energy.
“Nathan, I’m so sorry!” She backpedaled when I stood and walked toward her. My electronic eye whirred and glowed. My brain battled itself.
Mission Imperative: Destroy Mutt Compound.
Mission Success: Return to Home Base.
Mission Fail: Self Destruct.
Phoebe handing me her favorite book of poems by the lake. Phoebe, crying over my broken body. Her true beauty hidden by scars. Her kind heart revealed to me.
I clutched my head and cried out. Natural flesh burned against wires, fragmented memories—Nadia!—jumbled with embedded thoughts. Emotions with programming.
“Nathan, are you all right?” A soft voice, sounded scared.
With strain, I brought both eyes into focus. The other. Not her, but necessary. Sara.
“What’s going on?” A deep voice, and hurried footsteps. I turned and my orders flashed across my inner screen.
Destroy.
I stalked toward the one called Caleb, the one I’d seen Phoebe look at suspiciously. Rapid images crossed both wires and flesh. He had tried to rescue Sara first, putting Phoebe in danger. He took Sara and left us behind to be tortured.
“Stop right there.” His hands outstretched and I felt power building in him. I had to stop him before he unleashed it. It was already buzzing against my circuits, making it hard to concentrate.
Destroy.
I leaped the last six feet between us, the added pistons in my legs faster than he could react.
“Nathan, no!" Sara’s cry echoed in the corridor.
My hands were around Caleb’s neck and he was strong. Stronger than the other had been. He managed to roll me onto my back but I sprung up, taking us both to our feet, while I attempted to simultaneously pin his arms with my body and his throat with my hands. Keep a witch from talking or gesturing.
But with my damaged circuitry, I made a critical error. He wasn’t the only witch in the hall.
The bolts were swift and furious. Arm, neck, eye.
Sara’s last one sent me down.
Caleb’s first finished the job.
Chapter Eighteen
ALLIE
December 17
Arizona
I protested when Liang told Nadia to take Mia to the playroom and wait. Mia, who must have sensed the tension in the room, clutched my leg harder.
“You come too,” she insisted.
“Allie will join you in a few minutes,” Liang said.
Nadia reached for Mia’s hand and my daughter and I both stepped back. My head jerked when Liang’s voice entered it.
Get her away from here, now. We must work quickly if you want to save your friends.
I dropped down beside my daughter. “It’s all right, pumpkin. I’ll be there in just a few minutes. Super soon, I promise.” I silently prayed that was right.
“Pinky swear?” She held up a tiny pinky and I wrapped mine around it, quickly kissing the top of her head. I inhaled the baby-soft scent coming from her hair before standing and sending her off with Nadia.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” Liang demanded. “Azkuran and Ammon will be here soon and you need to go before they arrive.”
“Not until Phoebe is safe.”
“Allie, go,” Phoebe said. She sounded scared.
“Not until I get you out of here.” I rounded on Liang. I was tall, but she still towered over me. Looking up, I begged, “Help me, please.”
Her lips tightened. I’d been around her enough lately to know that while she was loyal to Azkuran, she wasn’t like him or the others.
“On one condition.”
I eyed her warily and waited. When the answer came, the room was silent except for Phoebe’s rapid breathing.
You must break all ties with them. Convince her to let you and Laurent go. It’s the only way to keep them alive for now. I can’t promise what will happen once she’s gone, but I can promise that she and all the rest will surely die if you don’t. If you do this, you might be able to influence Az if you try.
By “try”, I knew she meant be a dutiful daughter. I glanced at Phoebe’s scared face and remembered all their faces in the well, smiling at me from both sides—Awakened, and Mutts. Turning back to Liang, I nodded. “Tell me what to do.”
She walked toward the bed, hit her hip hard against the rails, then bent over. A small black device fell from one of the short leather pockets attached to her belt. It clattered as it hit the floor and slid under the bed.
Leaving it there, she straightened and walked toward the door. “I have to speak to Az and check on Ammon. I’ll be back in about ten minutes.” Before she left, she projected an image in my head and I smiled.
“What the heck?” Phoebe protested. “What is going on?”
“Shh. We’ve got to hurry. You’re going to need to lay very, very still.” I picked up the cutting device Liang had “accidentally” dropped and approached the bed, my hands shaking.
Phoebe struggled to see what I was doing. “Seriously, hold still. I might accidentally kill you with this thing if you don’t. I’ve never used one before.”
Her eyes widened and she stopped moving. “What is it?”
“We’re about to find out. But Pheebes, before I do this, you have to promise me something—and I mean, swear it.”
“What?”
“You have to let me go. Don’t try to rescue me again. Leave me here. Leave me and Mia and Laurent here.” She started shaking her head and I pressed my hand over her arm. “I mean it, leave us here and don’t come back. Don’t let anyone come back here. You will all die if you don’t.”
“No. I’m not leaving you here. You don’t know what they’re capable of.”
“I know damned well what they’re capable of—pro
bably more than you, so you have to listen to me. I can’t save you, otherwise. Do you want Sara and Caleb to die? Nathan? Gabe?”
“You know I don’t! But they can help, they can—”
“No. Absolutely not,” I interrupted. “You have to trust me, Phoebe.”
She was still shaking her head no, and I wracked my brain trying to find a way to convince her.
“Remember the well?” I asked, urgently, and she nodded. “This is the only way we’ll all survive. I swear it. Please, just do what I say.”
Her expression revealed her inner conflict. Taking her hand, I begged again. “Please, Phoebe, leave here and don’t come back. It’s the only way we’ll see each other again. The only way to keep Laurent and my daughter alive.”
At the mention of Mia, her expression crumpled and she nodded.
“Promise me?”
She nodded again. “I promise.”
Knowing how stubborn my friends were, I wrapped my pinky around hers. “Swear it?”
“Allie…”
“You have to swear. Listen to me, I saw it in the well. This is the only way. And I swear to you, Azkuran loves his brother, and me, in his own weird, messed up way. He doesn’t want to hurt us. But if you guys come back, he might.” As I spoke the words, I felt their truth, and tears sprang to my eyes.
Phoebe’s eyes shimmered as she pulled my pinky in with hers. “I swear. I’ll try to convince the others, but Allie, I can’t promise what they’ll do.”
“You’re just going to have to convince them. We’ll be together again one day, I promise.”
Taking a deep breath, I moved back and flipped the switch on the small black device. A laser beam shot from the end, the tip of it melting one of the metal bars on the bed.
Phoebe and I yelped at the same time.
“Holy shit, that was close!” I gasped. “Sorry, Phoebe! Now, hold still.”
Neither of us even breathed as I inched closer and melted the chains that held her restraints to the bed.
We ran to the door as soon as she was free. I held her back for a moment while I checked the hall, keeping the super-cool, scary laser knife at the ready. An hysterical giggle rose in my throat. I felt like Luke Skywalker.
“Let’s go,” I whispered. “Darth Vader isn’t here yet.”
Phoebe giggled behind me and we ran, stumbling into one another a couple of times.
“Quickly, there’s a bathroom over here.” I tugged her toward one of the white doors lining the hall. “Duck behind me and hold onto my waist. Put your face against my back. We’re only going to have a second to get you in and out of here,” I whispered as I got past the iris scan, Phoebe crouched low behind me.
Unfortunately, someone else was coming out of one of the stalls. She nodded at me then looked surprised when she saw Phoebe. She glanced over her quickly—there was no hiding the metal restraints dangling at her ankles and wrists.
My fingers clutched at the laser when the other woman’s hand went for the com at her ear. Shit, I really hated to do this. In the split second it took for her to raise her hand, and me to figure out if I could stop her without killing her, a blast of energy came from behind me.
“Nice shot,” I whispered as the woman fell to the ground. Still shaking, I turned to Phoebe. “Now, I hope you still have enough energy to magic yourself out of here.”
“You mean ‘apparate.’” She smiled, and I laughed at the reference to our favorite boy wizard.
“Yeah, I guess so. Whatever it’s called, just do it.” I gave her a quick, hard hug. “And remember your promise. You have to convince them to wait for us. We’ll get ourselves out of here. You guys don’t have to come rescue us.”
I pulled back, still keeping her arms in a death-grip. “You’ve got to listen to me.”
“You’re asking a lot.”
“Do it for Mia. Please.” It was low, invoking my kid like that, but it was also true. Phoebe needed to understand the importance of her promise.
And she did. Tears on her cheeks, she hugged me again then disappeared.
Just as Azkuran burst in the door.
Chapter Nineteen
NATHAN
December 17
Chicago
Failure. Must initiate self-destruct sequence.
“Oh, no you don’t, asshole.”
Identify?
First Enemy … Luke … not dead.
Pain, sharp and terrible. I scream.
“Yeah, not feeling so good, huh?” His rasping voice taunts.
Relief and despair in my circuits. Happy, but not happy. Why glad enemy lives?
Another scream as he pulls wires from my skull.
“Easy. We’re not trying to kill him.” Another voice. Deep. Flat. Odd.
Attempt to identify voice but pain too great.
Initiate pain override … Fail.
“All we need is his blood now to find his sister. Then you can get the others and get out,” First Enemy said. “No need to keep him around. He’s a liability. Barely even human.”
“You’d do well to remember there’s a lot of that going around here.” Deep, level voice. Flatter than before. Amused but serious. Threatening Luke?
I try to see closer. Widen left ocular scope.
“Fuck. He’s still online.” First Enemy scrambles, puts something over my eyes.
Magnetized. Pressure builds behind left eye. Attempt shutdown. Fail.
I scream and second male removes covering.
“Enough,” he says. “Use something else.”
First Enemy swears and quickly covers my left eye only with dark material. “Be grateful Gabe’s here.”
Gabe? My natural eye swivels in the direction of the other male. Military. Dark. Shifter.
I sniff. He is like me, but not entirely. Part something else.
Maybe vampire?
I’m too tired to care. I close my eyes again, ready and surrender to the darkness, to complete the final part of my failed mission.
Initiate Self Destruct Sequence.
Chapter Twenty
PHOEBE
December 17
Undetermined
I must have misjudged the location. That was all I could think as I surveyed the charred ruins around me. The field had been razed. The trees were flattened as if a meteor had struck the center and toppled everything within a mile radius.
I searched for clues, hoping I was in the wrong place, yet also afraid I might be lost. Where was I? And in our rush to get me back to Illinois, why didn’t either Allie or I think about the fact that I was barefooted and without my coat?
I assumed I was in Illinois. That’s where I had been aiming. And wherever I was, it was colder than a dog’s wet nose, and snow lingered on the ground. That sounded about right.
I hopped back and forth, trying to keep the blood moving and my feet from freezing. The metal bands still attached to my ankles and wrist jangled, growing colder each minute. Nia’s fire spell flashed through my head and I quickly conjured a small flame the way she’d shown me. Irony pulled my lips down. Sure, now it all came so easily.
Wait … it was coming easily. What had changed?
I shook my head. No time to think about that. I had to figure out where I was and get back to the compound. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on where I wanted to be.
All I found was frustration. My heart was in conflict. Remembering the horrible promise to Allie, I refocused, hoping she was right that she, Laurent, and her daughter would be fine. At least until either they—or we—figured a way to get them home.
Who did I most want to see now? Nathan’s face flashed for the briefest of seconds. No, not at that very moment. But if I were honest, I did want to see him. And Sara. And Caleb. So much to say. So much to admit.
I tried again. Take me to them. Show me where they are.
I felt the power build, the air shimmer around me. I pulled harder—tugging energy from the earth and sky, weaving it around me.
Take me to them.
A lurch, and I opened my eyes. I was still there, only in the middle of the field, destruction all around. By one of the fallen trees, something barely visible in the snow caught my eye. I moved closer to investigate.
A pink mitten, sodden with mud and snow, poked out from beneath a splintered pine. Everything I’d been desperately trying to ignore for the past five minutes sent me to my knees.
I knew that mitten. I’d seen it on Julie just before I went AWOL. Knew that scorched patch of earth where a barn used to stand. Cass had been running toward it right before my meltdown. And to my left, the empty space where a farmhouse-slash-secret compound once stood.
I screamed endlessly into the cold air.
What had I done?
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Knight Shift Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from KNIGHT SHIFT, the first of the Knights of Anachron trilogy, coming soon (and free to newsletter subscribers!)
Alt-Shanghai, 2089
Winter Solstice
Ice, dark and treacherous as a bog witch’s heart, spread in a thin sheet over the walkways and nearby river. Jazmine shivered, silently cursing the Coordinates Director as she slipped and slid her way toward the darkened alley referenced by the ancient map. She’d been given nothing more than an old-fashioned gas lantern, the map, a knife, and a note she’d not had time to read before the panicked director had shoved her into the cross-dimensional time vessel and slammed the door.
She recognized the city as Shanghai – much of the architecture had survived the nuclear winter, though most of the people had not. Damn the director. If he was going to send her here, he should have at least provided her with a damned mask. And a heavier coat. It was freezing. Leaning against a brick building for support, she pulled a lighter from the small pack of supplies she always carried about her waist, and set the lantern to blaze. It came to life with a small hiss and she wrapped her fingers around the unbreakable glass for heat. She hadn’t wanted to waste the precious fuel, but the city’s lights didn’t extend far into the area her boots were treading. She pocketed the lighter, along with the map and Max’s letter, but kept the knife close at hand.
Reset: Part 1 (The Awakening Book 4) Page 7
