Nemesis: Book Six (22 page)

"Morena, I can't go on with you anymore," Briten said. "I'm dying and you know it."

Her face changed, concern wiping across it like a washcloth. She knew it was true, but had pushed it away as she faced everything else. She simply decided that he wouldn't die and when the time came, they would figure out how to keep him alive.

"You're not going to die," she said.

"Yes, I am. Soon, now. That's why this body looks like it does; my aura has nowhere to go. It's dying and wrecking this body at the same time. It'll turn black and I'll pass from here."

"No," she said, forgetting about the boy, about her mother and children.

He nodded.

She knew it was true, then. Not simply that he was dying, but that she couldn't save him this time.

"He can do what you're wanting, Morena. I think he can, at least. She was sent by
The Makers
. Will you defy them so that your will be done even though they've sent you a proxy? They've sent you a creature that can ensure Bynums survive."

Morena looked to her right. Her mother stared at her still, though her eyes were nearly dark, her aura almost black.

"Kill them all or let them live, Morena. I die no matter what."

* * *

"
S
top
."

The word was spoken softly, but traveled to Junior's ears like an arrow shot with precision. His Var spoke and her will couldn't be confused.

Junior halted his attack, his aura flaring to the sky alerting all those around him to follow suit. Their auras moved almost in tandem, the attack paused. Junior watched the false Var fall to the floor, her body slumping over. Her eyes remained open and she stared at the wooden porch beneath her. She didn't move, and her once white aura now hung around her barely clinging to existence.

Junior looked to his mother but she didn't look back. She stared at a boy hanging in front of her. He watched as her aura slid out the door and cupped her mother like a hand, lifting her and slowly bringing her back inside the house.

* * *

M
orena felt
her mother's aura and knew that time was short. She withheld for as long as she could, but in the end, she faltered. Morena could do nothing, not outside of extend her life by moments, if that. But she needed to speak with her; she needed to be
sure
.

Is this supposed to happen?
she said, her voice passing through Helos just as it had the boy.

Weak, barely more than a heartbeat, Morena heard,
It's the only way.

And what after?

You've done what you could. You've performed as Var.

Morena listened to her mother's words, understanding the meaning—at least part of her embracing it.

What about you?
she said.

I've performed as Var too. I've done what I could.

I'm sorry
, Morena said.
I'm sorry that I disappointed you.

A weak smile moved to Helos' lips.

Child, how did you disappoint? You went to lengths that other Vars couldn't imagine to ensure the safety of your kind. It wasn't your limitations, but the limitations of the universe. It's not meant to bend to our wants.

Morena felt her mother's voice continuing to weaken, each word fading that much more.

Go now, before it's too late,
Helos said.

Yes, mother,
her daughter said.

* * *

T
hank you
, for trying,
Bryan said, though to Michael it sounded as if his friend lived in another galaxy. He barely heard him; nor could he see much anymore. Michael's vision only picked up the vaguest hint of green from the alien's eyes, but nothing else.

He tried and he couldn't ask for anything else.

Michael strained as hard as he could, trying to turn his head just a bit to see his father. Against the wall, next to the dead man, though he could hardly make out any shapes. His father was still alive. That's all he could tell.

And, then, everything went black.

Michael felt a pull, something sucking him out of … but he didn't know out of what. He only felt movement, quickly, though the blackness all around him showed him nothing. Silence still filled his ears despite the movement, no sound of wind or travel of any kind.

Suddenly he saw the gray world. He flew high above the shades that he saw earlier; they looked up at him as one, their hungry white eyes shining, but they could do nothing to him besides crave. He had no body any longer in this place, could see no hands or feet or torso, yet he still saw beneath him. As he flew across the sky, he saw Briten's aura in the same place as his body had been, a floating mass of red and black, though the black now took up much more space than before.

He saw it all with a disinterested glance, as if none of it affected him any longer.

Michael turned his vision to the sky and saw an opening. Maybe a mile away, maybe farther—he couldn't tell. Another black hole and he knew that's where he was heading. Perhaps he died and that black hole was the afterlife.

What waited there, he wondered.

He came to it soon enough and left the gray world of the Ether behind.

* * *

M
ichael opened his eyes
. Actual eyes, not whatever he used inside all these other bodies he'd inhabited. He saw it immediately, the colors whipping around him. He remembered the gray world that he had traveled through, floating through the sky like a cloud. Remembered the opening into the black, knowing that he was somehow seeing death.

Looking through the colors, though, he saw the same house that he'd spent the last few days in. How had he died and ended up back here? What kind of hell had he entered?

"Michael."

The voice was both feminine and authoritative, a voice that he couldn't forget ever. Had she followed him here, to this death? Could anything be worse.

"Stand, Michael. You're not dead."

How did she know my thoughts?

He lifted his torso up, immediately feeling different than he had when in control of Bryan's body. A strength that hadn't been there before; lifting himself was like tearing a tissue in half—it took no effort.

"What?" he said to no one. His mouth hung open and words ceased movement through his mind. He saw the body he inhabited, not his own, not Bryan's.

The body he lifted from the floor was thin, lanky, and Christ Jesus, he didn't even know how to comprehend what he saw. Colors, multiple colors, moved across his skin. Orange, red, white—they all traveled across his skin with their own will. They mixed with each other and separated again. They spun in circles in certain places, almost playfully. He followed the colors as they moved from his chest and down his arms; there his eyes caught onto the colors floating around him.

His aura.

The same three colors moved as that see-through smoke Morena possessed.

And he controlled it. He felt it as if it were an appendage, something he could move … but more, too. He was in control, but it wasn't inactive, simply waiting on his command. Intelligence lived inside it.

"Why are you calling it Michael?" his father said from across the room. Michael looked to him, standing against the wall, but no longer pressed against it by Morena.

She stared at Michael but spoke to Wren. "Because that's our son."

* * *

T
he world had changed
in a few moments and now Morena stared into that change. The body that she held containing her mother, now contained a creature not fully Bynum, not fully human, and not fully Lorn either. A mixture, now staring at a body he hadn't expected but unable to escape from.

She asked him to stand, but he still sat, staring at himself.

"What is this?" he said after a few seconds.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" his father said from behind Morena. "Where the hell is Michael?"

"He's there, Wren. He's right in front of you," she said.

Morena didn't know exactly how to feel. So many emotions swirled around inside her that she couldn't possibly keep up with them all. An army waited outside, an army of her children. An army that didn't appear to have a war anymore, not if Morena went through with her mother's wishes. She didn't have to; she knew that. She could kill this … but he wasn't human any longer. She could kill Michael before he learned anything about the body he possessed. Kill him, kill everyone in this house, allow Briten to die, and move on with this war. She could live and her species could live, the ones she created here on this Earth—not the hybrid before her, some half-breed that now inhabited her mother’s resurrected body.

"Wren," Bryan said. "Something's happened, and you need to listen to me."

Morena didn't turn at the sound of the boy's voice. She couldn't pull herself away from this new creature and the world she could walk away from or continue creating.

"Morena."

Her lover's voice called from the other room.

Morena pulled herself away from the creature still looking at his aura, turning her attention to Briten.

"Come here," he said.