Abysm (43 page)

“I think so, too.” Marlee nodded firmly to emphasize the point.

Caleb came over to crouch in front of his niece and tousled her hair playfully. “Hey, muffin, Alex and I need to go for a bit, and your mom says you have to go to school. But we’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“ ’Kay.” Marlee clambered off the couch and slunk to her mother, who promptly scooped her up while waving at them over her shoulder as they disappeared down the hall.

Alex watched them depart until a door closed behind them. “You told her about your father?”

“She took it better than I did. Probably some sort of lesson in that.” He offered her a hand. “Come on. We have a date to keep.”

S
ENECA
N
ATIONAL
F
OREST

The mountainous forest so closely resembled the place they’d visited on the doppelganger Seneca that it triggered a powerful surge of déjà vu. Alex laughed. “This is strange.”

“Now you get it.”

“I do. It’s almost eerie.” She breathed in the crisp, fresh air, enjoying the chill it created in her lungs.
Real.
“But also wonderful.”

“I want to tell you something, because I’m just…I’m sick of secrets trying to tear down my life, and I never want to keep any from you. I know you know this, and it never stopped being true, but it’s been a weird few weeks. I want to get back on track.”

She’d recognized his increasing nervousness on the way up here but hadn’t pushed him for an explanation. Now she squeezed his hand. “I’m listening.”

He exhaled. “Jude Winslow didn’t commit suicide.”

She smiled softly. “I know.”

“You…how? Is this a Prevo thing? Did Harper say something to Morgan and—”

She shook her head. “Not this time. I used my all-too-human brain and deduced it all by myself. There was the highly coincidental timing of your mysterious absence that morning—I realize he didn’t die until later, but I figure you have ways—plus the proximity of the confinement facility to IDCC Headquarters and your presumably easy access to the necessary tools. Also the fact you’d already encountered him once in a negative manner. And your profession, obviously.”

“All right, then.” He looked a bit nonplussed and took a minute to absorb the information before continuing.

“I’ve seen too many monsters like him. With what we have coming, I couldn’t leave him here to slither his way out of prison and responsibility while scheming to destroy everything all over again. It wouldn’t surprise me if we learned it was people such as him who led the Anadens down the wrong path long ago. I couldn’t take the risk.”

Funny, she’d had the same thought about Jude’s mother. They had been quite the pair. “Also, he ordered Abigail killed. Tried to have Mia, Devon, pretty much all of us killed. So there’s that.”

“Yes, there is. But…” he paused, his lips pursing “…it wasn’t vengeance. I’ve felt vengeance—I’ve exacted vengeance. It wasn’t even justice. It was judgment…” his face screwed up in such adorable perplexity “…and you’re okay with it.”

“I am. How many times do I have to tell you? I know who I married. I would’ve been okay with it if it were vengeance. He deserved it. But thank you for telling me.”

“But I didn’t talk it over with you first. I simply made the decision and did it.”

She flashed him a teasing pout. “I’m not your keeper, remember?”

“Hmm.” He drew her into his arms and seemed to relax. “Well, if you wanted to be from time to time, I wouldn’t argue.”

“Oh, do not even start with—”

He placed a finger to her lips. His voice was barely audible. “Shhh. Turn around slowly, and don’t make a sound.”

She did as instructed. His hand ran down her arm to her hand and lifted it to point down the hill, to a dense copse of trees. “See it?”

She gave only a tiny nod, afraid to move and startle the creature.

The
elafali
munched idly on the leaves of one of the trees. Dark, velvety sable fur covered a body easily as tall as a Rocky Mountain elk. The midday light reflected luminously off spiraling, lustrous coral horns. 

It was stunning.

They watched it in silence for endless minutes, Caleb standing behind her with his arms around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder.

Finally the creature lifted its head high—and stared directly at them. Had it known they were there the entire time?

Eyes of shining, iridescent copper regarded them calmly. It felt as if the creature was somehow speaking to them; she only wished she could comprehend the language.

Then it spun and bounded off at a graceful lope into the forest and was gone.

43

SENECA

C
AVARE

A
VER ELA-
P
RAESIDIS TWITCHED.
His arms twitched, his eyes, his jaw. He could not calm the compulsion.

The
diati
tugged him in multiple directions at once, demanding actions he could not provide.

If he studied the impulses, it seemed…yes, three separate directions called. Two were quieter in isolation, but when combined they prevented him from following the strongest pull.

At least the
diati
still obeyed his explicit commands. He instructed it to open the door to the ship bay, and it complied.

He stepped inside. No alteration initiated in the
diati’s
behavior, nor did it pull him closer to the ship itself.

The
diati
wasn’t drawn to the ship as he’d first thought, then. But the ship was nevertheless the key. Likely the target was one or more proto-Anadens who had traveled on it, now presumably departed.

He studied the vessel for entrances and found two: an airlock on the port side and a flush ramp beneath. The latter was the better entry option.

He started to force it open when his skin flushed hot and the
diati
activated far beyond his need for it, perhaps beyond his ability to restrain it.

Alex chuckled as they strolled down the corridor toward their hangar bay. “I did not have a bonding moment with Marlee. Or if I
did
, it’s only because I panicked and lucked out.”

“It was precious.”

“Terrifying.”

“Delightful.” They reached the door, and he started entering the passcode.

“I had no idea she…what’s wrong?”

Caleb frowned, his hand hovering over the control panel. “It’s open. Did we forget to lock it?”

“Are you kidding? We never forget to lock a hangar bay. But it’s possible we’re more relaxed than we realized.”

“Maybe.” His senses prickled, suggesting otherwise. He reached for the blade hilt attached to his waistband and removed it from the sheath. “Let me check things out first, just in case.”

“All right.” She glanced around the corridor then stepped to the side, out of line of sight of the doorway.

He opened the door and peeked inside. A man wearing a delft blue hooded cloak stood beneath the hull of the ship.

Every instinct Caleb possessed trumpeted the
wrongness
of this man, propelling his senses to full combat alert.

He had left his Daemon on the ship. Too relaxed.

Alex, run. Get security, but run.

She runs, and so do I—in the opposite direction, sprinting into the bay. My speed fueled by the release of a flood of enhanced adrenaline, I rapidly close the distance to the stranger. Thirty meters to start becomes twenty, fifteen.

His arm sweeps upward—no obvious weapon in it—and a force slams into my chest. I careen backward through the air and crash into the wall.

My head swims. I’m on the floor. Can’t breathe. My eVi sends commands to shock my diaphragm out of its temporary paralysis, and I’m able to suck in air as I crawl to my feet.

The man moves deliberately but not hurriedly toward me.

Suddenly I’m lifted three meters into the air, held there by nothing at all. Helpless to move. What
is
this?

The man growls something incomprehensible, and pressure rises in my chest. It chokes off my air, and this time my eVi flashes warnings that it can do nothing to rectify the problem, or explain it.

“What’s going on here?” I glance to the left as a security guard steps inside, Daemon drawn—then Alex appears behind the guard.

Get out of here!

On seeing my situation, the guard immediately fires on the man. The energy diffracts into nothingness halfway to its target.

The assailant’s left hand gestures toward the doorway—Alex and the guard fly in opposite directions across the hangar. Alex lands hard on the floor after thirty or so meters and continues to skid until she hits the force field exit barrier.

Fuck! Please please please be okay.

The opposite wall is closer to the doorway, and the guard smashes into it with a sickening
crack
then drops to the floor. He doesn’t move.

My eVi is working its hardest to hone my attention, directing my diminishing oxygen where it most needs to be, but it’s a pointless endeavor if I can’t
move
. And am floating in the air.

I do the one thing I am able—I study the being, no longer convinced it’s a man at all.

He considers me from beneath the hooded cloak, an expression on his face that would be curiosity if he were human. The air around his hands begins to sparkle in pinpoints of crimson. He cocks his head and mutters more peculiar words, though a tiny corner of my brain observes it sounds vaguely like mangled Greek.

The pressure on my chest abruptly vanishes, and I plummet to the floor. Instantly I’m back on my feet, gasping in a breath and moving forward in the direction of the assailant while re-activating my blade.

He glances at the blade. The crimson flecks of light coalesce into a tapered edge and spring forward.

I lunge to the right, avoiding a direct hit, and the ethereal weapon slashes through my upper left arm. I try to lift it, but the outer deltoid has been severed, leaving the arm hanging limp at my side.

But the blade is in my right hand. I follow through on my momentum to sweep around then into the side of the assailant. I sense the resistance as the blade penetrates the soft tissue beneath where ribs are on a human.

My head snaps back as his fist connects beneath my chin. I’m flying back again, slamming into the hull of the
Siyane
and collapsing to the floor. Blinding pain scores through my skull before the neural suppressors kick in.

Not a man. No human is that strong.

My vision falters. Boots approach me, blurry and shifting. I raise up on an elbow and shift my grip on the blade hilt.

The kick lands at my ear with the force of a missile. I think I’m screaming, sliding across the smooth floor until my shoulder impacts one of the docking clamps.

Blood seeps out of my ear. Eardrum is ruptured and my upper jaw crushed.

But the assailant lurches unevenly now, because as his boot made contact my blade had sliced across his Achilles tendon. A blood trail forms behind him, and he closes on me more slowly.