Authors: Dean Murray
My
heart practically leaped out of my chest when I recognized Adri. I'd
seen her shooting at Brandon, but somehow, in the heat of the moment,
I hadn't realized that Adri was the shooter. Now that I recognized
her, even the grimness of our circumstances almost wasn't enough to
stop me from singing out in joy that we were finally a few paltry
feet away from each other.
She
made as if to stand and leave, but Agony shook his head.
"No,
you should stay too, Adri. You're Taggart's heir. Alec, Carson,
Isaac, Taggart, Adri. You're the five who will be carrying on the
fight once I'm gone."
Taggart
looked like he was going to protest, but Agony silenced him with a
look.
"Are
they all gone, Taggart?"
"Yes,
Cyrus. Everyone else is gone. They're out of earshot, it's just us."
Agony…Cyrus…nodded
and then grimaced in pain. "I'm sorry, old friend. There is one
secret I never told you. I would have, but I was always worried that
they would find out and come after you. My silence was the only thing
that kept you safe. As long as I didn't tell anyone about them, this
could remain a purely shape shifter conflict."
"What
do you mean, Cyrus? I don't understand."
There
was an edge of hysteria to Taggart's question, but that was
understandable. The things that Agony seemed to be implying were
terrifying.
"There
are layers inside of layers, Taggart. It goes back much longer than
any of us initially realized, but by the time we understood what we'd
gotten ourselves into it was too late to back out. You've all spent
your entire lives thinking that the Coun'hij was the ultimate threat,
but in many ways, they are just another pawn on the board."
Agony
was visibly weakening with each passing second. He tried to get
something else out, but another coughing fit came over him and when
it was done his skin had gone an alarming blue-white.
We
all watched, helpless, as Agony gasped for breath one last time and
then died before our eyes.
Adriana Paige
Ambush site
Southern New Mexico
Taggart's
scream was a terrifying, heart-wrenching thing. I reached out to him,
risking skin addiction by touching his bare arm, but he shrugged me
off as he stood and pointed a finger at Alec.
"This
is your fault. You caused this to happen. Either you're a traitor or
someone on your side of the operation leaked your plans to Kaleb and
the rest. Stay out of my sight. The next time I see you, I'll kill
you with my own hands."
Taggart
stalked off, heading towards the road and the battered Coun'hij SUV's
that we'd always planned on using as our getaway vehicles. I stood to
follow him, but Alec grabbed my arm, stopping me with a firm, but
oddly gentle pressure.
"Wait,
Adri. We need to talk, all of us really, but if Taggart won't talk to
us then you need to be here to hear what Carson and I have to say."
My
heart had started to soar when he'd said that we needed to talk, but
as I realized what he actually meant my joy turned to something
harder.
"Isn't
one skin-addicted girl enough for you, Alec?"
He
let go of me like I was burning him. His reaction was so abrupt that
I almost fell over.
"How
did you know that?"
I'd
been cruel. I'd known that what I was saying wasn't fair even as the
words came out of my mouth, but I couldn't take them back now. I'd
defended Alec against Taggart, but now that I was here face to face
with him I couldn't bring myself to give him the benefit of the
doubt. It hurt too much to know that he'd bonded in that way to
someone.
I'd
thought that what we'd shared in the dream had been something
special, some kind of one-in-a-billion kind of link, but the reality
of things was that it had probably been nothing more than some kind
of dream-land shadow skin addiction. Alec and I had never had any
kind of chance of being together, not really, not as equals.
Alec
shook his head. "Never mind. Taggart must have seen me dreaming
about her and told you. It wasn't something I meant to have happen. I
tried very hard to keep her from getting addicted to my touch but
there were powers outside of my control working that night."
I
shook my head. "I don't care about that. Say what you need to
say. I need to go to Taggart. He's just lost his best friend, the
only person he knew he could count on for the last however many
decades, and he's scared of what comes next."
Alec
ignored my request to focus on the business at hand, instead looking
at me oddly. "Are you addicted to him?"
"No,
I'm not addicted to him!"
"Maybe
it's so subtle that you don't even realize it."
I
stood back up and turned to go, but once again a hand on my arm
stopped me. I turned to give Alec a piece of my mind, to lash out at
him with all of the hurt I was feeling, but it wasn't Alec who had
hold of me this time. It was Carson.
"Let
her go!"
Alec's
order came out in the kind of low growl that I'd learned meant his
vocal cords had already started to lengthen. He was mere heartbeats
away from a transformation.
Carson
slowly released me as he made a calming gesture with his free hand.
"Please,
both of you need to avoid doing anything hasty. Adri, Agony said that
you are Taggart's heir. Is this true? Are you able to enter people's
dreams?"
"Yes.
As of a couple of months ago, I'm a dream walker. It's not exactly
how things work for him, but it's close enough."
Carson
nodded thoughtfully. "Alec, you should know that while humans
with powers are very rare, there have been incidents in our history
where they came into frequent, extended contact with shape shifters.
There haven't ever been any recorded instances of humans with these
kinds of gifts forming a Ja'tell bond with one of the moonborn. Adri
is acting out of concern for a friend, nothing more."
It
should have clicked for me before then, but it took Carson's
explanation to make me realize that Alec wasn't just acting like the
arrogant alpha male that Taggart always described him as. He was
acting
protective
.
He hadn't been trying to control me, he'd been concerned about my
welfare.
Carson
didn't give me a chance to respond. "Adri, you should know that
Alec was telling the truth just now. He didn't mean for Brindi to
become addicted to him. More than just being able to sense the truth
of Alec's words, I have it from another source who witnessed the
events on the night when it happened. I've only known Alec for a
handful of days, but I've never seen him treat her with anything less
than complete respect."
I
opened my mouth to tell him that he didn't need to lie for Alec, but
that would have been the anger talking again. Luckily Isaac
interrupted me before I could say yet another thing that I would have
later regretted.
"They
are telling the truth, Adri. It's not a hundred percent certain, but
either they are both incredible liars or it all really went down like
they are saying it did."
I
shook my head. "I don't know how you all live like this. Always
knowing when you're lying, always knowing what's going on inside of
each other's heads."
Alec
gave me a tentative smile. "It's hard, but not as bad as you
might think. Mostly it just makes things easier unless someone
decides that you're an expert liar. Then things get harder."
"I
guess you know that I was lying a few seconds ago when I said I
didn't care that you'd bonded to this Brindi chick."
"Yeah.
I really am sorry, I never meant to hurt either of you."
Carson
cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but maybe this is
something that it would be best for Isaac and me not to be here for."
Alec
shook his head. "No, you're right, but don't leave. We need to
talk about Taggart's accusations. I haven't intentionally betrayed
anyone, but he's got a point. Someone told the Coun'hij to expect an
attack here."
Isaac
looked doubtful. "But using a plane like Brandon just did is the
perfect insertion method for countering an ambush anywhere along the
route. It doesn't necessarily mean that we were betrayed."
We
all sat in silence for a couple of seconds before Carson frowned.
"No, I think that Alec is right. There were far too many hybrids
with Brandon and there were more enforcers with the caravan than I
would have expected. They came ready to fight a force several times
as big as anything we should have been able to field."
"Exactly.
They either knew about both our groups, or they knew about one of the
groups and the fact that we had Grayson or Heath along to even out
the odds."
Alec's
words had obviously given Isaac something to think about. "It's
possible it came from my side of things. I have a high degree of
trust in my people, but all it would have taken is for someone to
call the next point in the communication chain rather than meeting in
person like they were supposed to. It's always much harder to tell if
someone is lying over the phone."
The
way that Alec closed his eyes made it seem as though for a second the
weight of all of the responsibility had become too much for him. He
looked like a man who wanted to drop his burden and walk away from
everything. Hopeless fights to the death were something Alec could
take in stride, but doubting friends and allies looked like it was a
step too far for him.
It
was only an instant. The three of us saw a rare moment of weakness
and then it was gone. Alec opened his eyes and once again he was the
strong rock that you could build something lasting on.
"Okay,
please follow up as much as possible with your people. Do it yourself
wherever possible or delegate to one or two very trusted individuals.
We want to keep this as quiet as possible or we'll have people
defecting back to the Coun'hij in droves."
Isaac
nodded. "If it was one of my people I'll find out and they'll be
punished."
"Thanks.
I almost hope it is on your side, but I'm pretty sure it isn't. Shawn
Bishop was supposed to show up with a bunch of help. Since he didn't,
I can only assume that he got cold feet and decided he'd be better
off running to the Coun'hij."
"That's
terrible news on practically every level. If the Chicago pack has
started to shift towards the Coun'hij, then there's nothing left to
stop the Coun'hij from going after people like Jaclyn Annikov."
It
was Isaac who had spoken again, but Carson seemed fully in agreement
with Isaac's analysis of the situation. Alec gave him a chance to
interject, but the older hybrid simply waved Alec on.
"Yeah,
it means that the battle lines have finally been drawn. We might have
a few weeks, maybe even a few months, but sooner or later the
Coun'hij is going to try and purge all of the dissident elements. We
need to come up with a plan before then that will let us get groups
like Jaclyn and her people out alive wherever possible."
"And
if it's not possible?"
Carson
wasn't questioning Alec, he was just asking what we were all
thinking.
"Then
we have to make sure that the Coun'hij loses a lot more people than
they kill. We're only going to get one chance at this. We need to
ensure that the balance of power doesn't get any worse or none of us
will live to see next year."
"We're
going to have to come up with a counter for Brandon soon or nothing
else we do is going to matter."
Carson
stood and put a hand on his sword. "You're right, Isaac. I can
train Alec in use of his weapon, but even that might not be enough.
We'll either need another equalizer or we'll need the perfect set of
circumstances. I will think on this."
As
Carson gravely pulled his sword out from Agony's chest, Isaac also
stood. The two of them picked up Agony's body and carried him in the
direction that Taggart had gone. It was just Alec and I now and there
weren't any listening ears close enough to overhear whatever we might
choose to say.
"I
really am sorry, Adri. That night we talked, when you came into my
dream, it was the most amazing experience I've ever had."
"Then
why didn't you come looking for me?"
"I
didn't remember the dream until recently. It's the oddest thing, I've
been having dreams about you for years, but they were just dreams. I
remembered them, or at least remembered most of them when I woke up,
but I didn't remember the one and only time that I actually met you."
I
didn't know what to say to that. My emotions were such a tangled mess
that it was going to take weeks to even begin to sort them out. I'd
gone from loving Alec to hating him and back so many times over the
last week and a half that I didn't even know which way was up
anymore.
Alec
seemed to be waiting for me to respond, but after nearly a full
minute of silence, he took matters into his own hands.
"Come
with me. I can't guarantee your safety, nobody can make a guarantee
like that in the world we live in, but I want to get to know you.
There's a hole inside of me. I don't notice it most of the time
because I'm not some kind of broken shard of a person, but it's
there. It's like a splinter that I can't help but worry at, only when
you're around it's not a bad thing because the hole was perfectly
designed for you. It's like we fit together, like we were meant for
each other."
"So
you just want me around to complete some kind of metaphysical ratchet
set?"
"No,
I want you around because of how I feel around you. You're good and
brave. You risked your life to save Carson and me. You care about
people and you try to do the right thing even when it costs you. I've
spent less than an hour around you, but I can already see that. I
want to get to know you better and yet I'm scared you'll send me away
because how could perfection ever agree to spend time with me?"