Authors: Dean Murray
I
found the tunnel up to the store towards the end of my exploration,
but I didn't waste time going up it at that moment. I simply barred
the door with the massive metal rod obviously intended for that
purpose and hurried back to the bunk room to get the blankets for
Taggart.
A
few minutes later I had Taggart wrapped up with three quilts
underneath him to serve as a cushion and insulation from the floor. I
would have carried him into the master bedroom, but even in human
form he was simply too heavy. It was all I could manage to roll him
to one side so that I could get the blankets underneath him.
I
closed the giant garage door and then headed back towards the tunnel
leading up to the store. The store was empty when I arrived, which
was a good thing because it gave me time to figure out how the latch
on the back wall opened the hidden passage back down to the bunker.
The
sun was starting to set, but there was still enough light to see that
I was bloody and dirty, so I spent a few minutes in the bathroom
cleaning up. I spent another half an hour up in the store figuring
out how the pumps worked and then I locked up, grabbed a selection of
the healthiest food on the shelves, and carried it back down to
Taggart.
Taggart
wasn't awake enough to choke down any of the food, so I ate, made
myself a bed with some clean bedding from the closet next to the bunk
room, and went to sleep. I half expected to enter a nightmare
immediately, but my control seemed to be getting better.
I
was tempted to go find Cindi, or maybe Tristan. After everything I'd
been through in the last forty-eight hours I really wanted a hug and
a chance to talk to someone who was a step removed from all of this
violence and death, but I knew doing that would tire me out too much
to find Alec, so I forced myself not to reach for either of them.
Besides,
I wasn't sure how well Cindi would handle knowing just how close I'd
come to dying, and seeing Tristan was a bad idea. I'd told Cindi that
she had a green light to pursue him and I'd be sabotaging her efforts
if I kept popping into his dreams.
Instead,
I shifted my surroundings, which had been the bunker I'd gone to
sleep in, to my room back in Minnesota and then I climbed up onto the
top bunk and closed my eyes. Thinking of Alec was easier than almost
anyone else. Even after all of these weeks, I still remembered
exactly how he'd made me feel.
The
thrill as he'd kissed me had been like nothing else I'd ever
experienced, and it was the only time I'd really felt safe since I'd
started dream walking. I took a couple of deep breaths and then
entered the Zen-like state that allowed me to start spinning out
filaments of myself, self-aware threads that knew enough to look for
him.
I
hadn't been able to stomach as many calories from the convenience
store. There'd been too much sugar and not enough fat for my tastes,
but I still figured I had enough energy stored up to make contact
even if Alec was all the way across the country from me.
The
filaments continued to spin away from me, draining strength and
energy away from me at an alarming rate, but I just kept telling
myself that there wasn't any reason to panic. I'd done this before
and I'd never had any problems. There wasn't any reason to believe
that it was going to be any different this time around.
Except
it was. The threads seemed to search forever without finding
anything. I'd never used this much strength up without finding the
person I was looking for. Some of the filaments even stopped moving
out and away from me. They were moving to the side now, almost as if
they had searched as far as they could and now were hoping to find
Alec inside of the sphere of their reach.
I
was shaking now, but I couldn't tell whether it was just in the dream
or if it was happening in the real world and was just bad enough that
it was echoing here too. Just as it seemed that I didn't have
anything left to give, I felt an odd kind of click. It was odd not
because I'd never felt it before, but because I'd never realized that
was what I was feeling when the threads connected. Always before
there had been other sensations that drowned out the click, but this
time those other feelings were absent, or maybe just muted.
My
subconscious took over, reeling in all of the other strands of
consciousness that had been searching, reabsorbing the strength that
they'd drawn out of me. My heartbeat steadied as my reserves started
to fill back up, and then it was time to push enough energy down the
remaining thread to firm it up so it could be used to pull him to me.
Part
of me just wanted to go to him. It would be easier—it seemed to
require a lot less out of me to go to someone else rather than
pulling them into my dream—but at least some of Taggart's
paranoia had rubbed off on me. Inside of Alec's dream I would be
almost completely at his mercy, but inside of my dream things would
be different. I got the feeling that Alec was strong-willed enough
that he'd still be able to effect
some
changes on my dream, which wasn't a small thing when you combined it
with the fact that he had all of a shape shifter's inherent strength
and speed, but at least I'd have a chance.
I'd
let my mind wander as I'd been feeding my filament power. It was a
dangerous thing, but I'd only let my thoughts drift for a second
which wasn't much longer than it would have taken even if I'd been
paying attention. I reached for the cable that I'd been expecting the
filament to have become, but it wasn't there.
I
hadn't lost the connection, but the thread hadn't grown any thicker
despite all of the energy it had pulled out of me. My reserves were
already dangerously depleted, I might have enough inside of me to
strengthen a normal connection to the point of usability, but there
wasn't enough left to pull myself to Alec let alone enough to pull
him to me.
I
reached towards the glowing white filament with a heavy heart. The
night was a waste, but there wasn't anything to do but try again
tomorrow. It should have been the easiest thing in the world to snap
the connection between Alec and me, but when I tried nothing
happened.
The
thread wasn't any thicker than it had been a second before, but was
stretchy and refused to snap like it should have. The panic that had
been present in the back of my mind ever since I'd gone to sleep
burst out in full force.
I
was going to die here in the dream, sucked dry by something I didn't
understand, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I was as
good as dead, which meant that Taggart wouldn't make it either.
Alec Graves
Club Pure Vertigo
Chicago, Illinois
Jack's news was worse than anything I'd expected. Agony had outsmarted Kaleb
and the rest for decades. Agony had been running from the Coun'hij
since before I'd been born. He'd been running from the Coun'hij since
before Kaleb had even been on it. Agony was a living legend and his
capture couldn't have come at a worse time.
I
didn't have any illusions about the amount of power and influence my
friends and I actually had. Two hybrids and a couple of wolves
weren't a lot to throw against the awesome might of the Coun'hij.
Luring Jack out into semi-active rebellion against Kaleb and the rest
was a good start, but even so we were so outclassed it wasn't even
funny.
Kaleb
could send Brandon and a dozen hybrids to wipe all of us out and not
even have to ask the rest of the Coun'hij for help. The Sanctuary
pack all by itself outnumbered us by so much that we couldn't hope to
win any kind of standup fight. Our only hope was to remain mobile,
stay hidden and choose our battles carefully.
It
wasn't a very reassuring position to be in. If something didn't
change quickly I didn't expect us to last for long, but what we
lacked in actual combat power was more than made up for by the symbol
we represented.
We'd
bearded the lion in its own den. Kaleb was one of the most powerful
members of the Coun'hij and the Sanctuary pack was the largest single
group of shape shifters in all of North America. Even with Kaleb
having detached so much of his strength away fighting the jaguars and
the vampires, most people wouldn't have thought that four teenagers
could steal away Kaleb's own daughter.
Of
course it had helped that Rachel had
wanted
to escape with us, but it had still been an incredible
accomplishment. Even more amazing, I'd fought Brandon to a standstill
in the process. I'd been armed with Kaleb's sword at the time, and
Brandon had been seconds away from killing me, but that didn't change
the fact that I'd come out on top in a fight against the single most
dangerous hybrid in the world.
That
would count for a lot with the right people. Almost as much as the
fact that Kaleb's own son had rebelled against him.
That
was where our real power rested. There was a chance that Jack and his
people would just be the first rumbling in an avalanche of
discontent. If I could continue to persuade others to come out
against the Coun'hij then I could have an impact all out of
proportion to what anyone was anticipating.
It
was a long shot, but it had just become even longer if Agony had
really been captured. I was a symbol, but I was a relatively new,
untested player. Agony was a symbol that had stood the test of time
for decades. If he wasn't in the picture anymore, then there were
some people who would be less willing to act against Kaleb and the
rest.
I'd
been hoping that someone would be able to disprove Jack's news, but
that hadn't stopped me from moving forward on the assumption that it
was all true. James, Jasmin, Jess and I had started driving towards
Chicago as soon as we'd been able to steal a clean car out of the
parking garage where we'd ambushed the enforcers.
Jack
had wanted to come with us. It had taken a lot of convincing, but in
the end he'd agreed to proceed with the original plan we'd formulated
before I'd gotten on the plane to fly back from the Caymans.
I
didn't particularly trust Ulrich any more than Jack did, but I had
debts to pay off. I couldn't afford to drag all of my people up to
Chicago or I risked defaulting on the most important remaining
obligation.
The
North American packs were a motley bunch. They ranged from Jaclyn in
Tucson who was a hairsbreadth away from open rebellion at any given
moment to Onyx in New Orleans who practically worshiped the ground
Kaleb walked on.
Between
those two extremes there was a lot of room, but Ulrich was notable
precisely because he was so good at walking the line between getting
his people killed and becoming a vassal of the Coun'hij. It was a
delicate balancing act at the best of times, but Ulrich had managed
it with flying colors and he'd done so while controlling the second
biggest pack in existence.
Most
packs were either for the Coun'hij or against it, and once you
crossed over to one side it was as though every force in the world
aligned to try and push you further towards the extreme. Even a small
pack had a hard enough time remaining neutral simply because everyone
else on 'their' side of the issue was constantly trying to cement
relations in preparation for the day when the tensions broke out into
outright hostilities.
For
a pack the size of Ulrich's it was all but impossible to remain
neutral. Ulrich was effectively the biggest single unclaimed piece
still on the board. If I had to guess, I would have said that him
having remained neutral was the only thing that had stopped the
Coun'hij from trying to destroy Jaclyn and the other more outspoken
pack leaders. Kaleb and the rest were worried that if they attacked
the more rebellious groups that it would result in Ulrich choosing
against them.
The
smart money all seemed to think that the Coun'hij would still come
out on top, even in a fight where Ulrich came down on the side of the
radicals. It was hard to bet against people like Puppeteer and
Brandon regardless of how many bodies you had to throw at them.
Of
course that wasn't the full story. Ulrich would have loved for his
pack to look like a single monolithic structure, but in reality he
was dealing with a balancing act inside of his pack that was nearly
as tricky as what he was doing with the Coun'hij.
Inside
a pack as big as the Chicago pack even the factions had factions. The
most outspoken group was headed by Ulrich's own son, Shawn Bishop. It
added an interesting dynamic to things. Shawn wasn't the most
powerful hybrid inside of the Chicago pack, but then again when it
came to straight-up combat prowess neither was Ulrich.
Ulrich
kept control of his pack by way of a complex web of personal loyalty
from some of the more dangerous hybrids in Chicago, playing off the
various factions against each other, and heavy use of the Bishop
fortune. If something were to happen to Ulrich then Shawn was
perfectly positioned to take over his father's pack, except for the
fact that Shawn wanted to destroy the Coun'hij and reinstate the
monarchy, presumably with Shawn in the top spot.
It
meant that the Coun'hij had a vested interest in making sure that
nothing happened to Ulrich, but by the same measure, Ulrich was fond
of his only son. He'd made it very clear to Kaleb and the rest on
more than one occasion that if Shawn was to suffer some kind of
suspicious 'accident' the Chicago pack would all be on a first name
basis with Jaclyn and the Tucson pack within hours.
With
Agony captured, the situation had become even more complex. The
Coun'hij would have their eyes on anyone they thought might be
inclined to break Agony out.
Jaclyn
and the other more militant packs would no doubt want to free Agony,
but they would be the ones least in a position to actually do
anything. I wanted Agony free, but the only way for that to happen
would be if I could get help from a group of wolves and hybrids that
the Coun'hij wasn't watching very closely.