Shadow Borne (16 page)

Words swirled through my mind like a fine
red mist. Where it's safe. Be reasonable. What he really meant was
'sit down and be quiet'. Like a good girl.

Like hell. I gripped his arm, braced one
foot firmly on the floor, bent ever so slightly at the knee and
flipped Mike over my left shoulder.

He landed on the hard wood floor with a thud
that seemed to vibrate and echo through the entire downstairs level
of the house. I refused to feel embarrassed, even though I felt my
face heat when a heartbeat later, Mike's entire family rushed into
the front parlor to take in the scene.

Mike lay on the floor, looking slightly
dazed, staring at me with what could only be called disbelief.
Well, he'd asked for it. Behind us, his mother and one of his
sisters gasped. Ashley and Sienna ran ahead of the adults who had
clustered in and around the doorway, anxious to see what the
commotion was and clearly not wanting to miss a moment of the
action.

"Uncle Mike!" Ashley ran to his side and
glanced from him to me and back again in question.

Claire pushed past the group and strode to
where Mike lay and I stood and the children gawked. "Everybody go
back to the kitchen."

Predictably, nobody moved. Mark looked
mildly amused, Bob looked confused and Marta seemed almost...proud.
With the exception of Claire, Mike's family was slightly less
amused. His parents and Megan all wore expressions that varied from
open speculation to dread to tight-lipped irritation. There was no
way I was mistaking Mrs. Roberts' disapproval now. The warmth
spread from my forehead and cheeks, down to my neck.

"Mike," Claire demanded. "what did you
do?"

“
I grabbed her.” he
grimaced and climbed to his feet without taking his eyes off
me.

“
Oh, Mike–” she
groaned.

“
In my defense she was
insisting on walking home in the dark while we've got those
damn...things...running amok.”

“
They're called Coatyl and
Aries can handle herself. You shouldn't have grabbed
her.”

“
I'm sorry.” I interrupted
Claire's defense of what I'd done, not that I didn't appreciate her
coming to my rescue. Clearly, the majority of the suddenly crowded
room didn't share that sentiment. “Maybe I shouldn't have flipped
you like that, but I did ask you–nicely, I might add–to let go of
me.”

“
That you did.” Mike's
lips twitched and he stretched where he stood. “That was a neat
trick, by the way. I didn't even see it coming.”

“
It's not a trick.” Claire
frowned at her brother before I could form a reply. “Aries is a
soldier, she's been trained to fight.”

“
I apologize for trying to
restrain you.” Mike finally told me.

“
Apology accepted.” I
nodded and forced myself to look away from his penetrating
scrutiny.

“
Would you all mind giving
us a moment?” Claire asked the family
members-turned-curious-onlookers behind us.

“
It's fine, Claire. I
don't need any privacy.” Mike shrugged and turned to his family.
“In case you're all wondering, yes, I am involved with this woman.”
he declared, gesturing toward where I stood gaping in
disbelief.

Was there no limit to how low he would stoop
to try and force my hand? To make me acknowledge him in some
way?

“
We are not involved.” I
told his family.

“
We used to be.” Mike
explained before turning to me. “We should be again.”

“
No, we shouldn't.” I
steadfastly refused to look at anyone else in the room right then
except Claire and it was to her that I addressed my next statement.
“Thank you for your offer of dinner, but I have several things to
get done this evening.”

“
I understand.” Claire's
eyes radiated sympathy. Even Ashley and Sienna were now quietly
accepting of my decision to leave right away, which probably meant
I didn't just feel ready to crack, but looked it, too. Great.
“Goodnight.”

“
I'll be over in the
morning to help you clean up your house.” Claire leaned forward and
enveloped me in a quick, brief hug before stepping away and herding
the children in the direction of the kitchen.

“
Goodnight, aunt Aries.”
they mumbled on their way out of the room.

“
Goodnight.” I murmured
back. “It was, uh, nice to meet you all.” I told his parents and
Megan with as much dignity as I could muster.

Mike followed me to the door, looking like
he was about to raise hell at any moment. Mark fell into step on
the other side and opened the door for me. The sky beyond the front
door and white-washed porch was jet black, but the moon was a huge
bright orb high above and large stars peppered the world beyond the
house. It was the stars that I chose to focus on as I crossed the
threshold and planted my boots on the porch.

“
Damn it.” Mike swore.
“Don't make me carry your ass back into that house. And don't think
you're going to flip me again because I'll be ready for it this
time.”

“
Goodnight,
Mike.”

“
Aries,” Mark stepped
around Mike's tense form and subtly put himself between us. “You're
on patrol tomorrow?”

It took a few seconds for my scrambled brain
to process this abrupt shift in the conversation. “Yes,” I took a
deep breath. “Lerna. The east border.”

“
Good. Can we beef up the
patrol in the area?”

“
Sure. You're expecting
trouble?”

“
No, nothing specific, but
that zone's been too quiet lately. I don't like it.”

“
How many extra soldiers
do you want?”

“
At least two more on each
post.”

“
Okay.” I squinted through
the porch light to meet his eyes and nodded. “Consider it done. Do
you want me to run out that way tonight and station some extra
men?”

“
Not necessary.” Mark
smiled and turned to go back into the house. “It's already been
taken care of tonight. Claire told you we leave for the coast in
two days?”

“
Yes. I'll be
ready.”

“
How in the hell can you
let her do shit like this?” Mike protested angrily, taking a step
toward me. “She's going to get herself killed. What if another one
of those Coatyl catch her alone?” he demanded. “Huh? What
then?”

I snorted and turned to go, but not before
Mark paused, fixed Mike with an amused look and said–

“
Who did you think killed
the first one?”

Before Mike could form the retort I knew was
sure to be instantaneous and blistering, one of Mark's men broke
through the tree line and made his way up the driveway. Mark
quickly excused himself and went down the porch steps to meet the
young man half way.

Turning my back on
Mike, I focused my complete attention on Mark and his murmured
conversation with the blue and tan garbed soldier. Something was
wrong. Despite the newly hushed, somber atmosphere, I had to step
closer in order to hear the exchange between the two men.

"We're getting some
intelligence about a possible threat, sir."

"I'm already aware
of the Coatyl organizing."

"No, sir." The
man–boy, really–shook his head and took another step closer. "Not
the Coatyl. We've had reports of an underground facility, where
things are...tested." the soldier frowned.

"Tested?" Mark
stilled and threw a glance at me. I moved to stand fully beside
him.

"What sort of
testing? Weapons?" I asked, hesitant to voice the suggestion. As if
we didn't have enough problems on our hands right now with mutant
Coatyl. Oh, no...

My eyes flew to
Mark's and it was clear the chilling theory hit us as at about the
same moment. "The facility where the Coatyl are being mutated?"

"Supposedly." The
young man's head wobbled on his thin neck. "Some of Aranu's men
captured a pair of guards outside of Belleview. Northern border,
sir. The two spoke of an underground lab where Kahn organized
genetic tests on, well, creatures." he wavered, clearly disturbed
by the message he'd been sent to deliver.

"A labful of Coatyl.
Hell." Mark swore and I became aware of Mike inching closer to
stand at Mark's other side.

"Yes, but the guards
said there aren't Coatyl there anymore. Those were all released
during the last full moon. Something else was brought in to take
their place."

At this, Mark, Mike,
and myself exchanged uneasy glances. "Did they say what that
'something else' is?"

"They called them
Life Breathers. A band of creatures Kahn collected and altered in
the facility."

"Creatures from
Coztal?" Mark's brow furrowed.

I wracked my brain
for a few moments but couldn't recall ever having heard of, or come
across, a creature called a Life Breather.

"No, sir. Northern
creatures."

"Did the guards say
anything else?"

"Only that the Life
Breathers are worse than the Coatyl."

Mike's eye's
widened. I gasped. There was something worse than what Kahn and his
men had done to the Coatyl?

"What did they do to
the creatures?" Mark asked, stone faced now.

"They didn't say.
But seven days past, Kahn ordered the creatures released and the
facility shut down."

"What about the
scientists who worked in the lab? Where are they?"

"Dead, sir."

"I see." Mark
snapped his palm against his thigh and turned toward the car,
motioning for me to follow. "Take us to Aranu. I want to speak with
the two guards."

The boy paused,
swallowed audibly. "I can't do that, sir."

Mark paused and
raised one eyebrow.

"Both guards are
dead, sir."

"I see." Mark
responded after a long, terse silence.

My own lips
tightened into a grim line and privately I cursed Aranu's brash
move even if it didn't really shock me. Hadn't he realized we would
need to interview the pair? If they had that much inside
information–info we badly needed–hell. I shook my head. We could
have forced them to reveal the lab's location. But now...well,
there was no sense dwelling on what might have been, I sighed and
turned to catch Mike watching me.

"I have to go." I
muttered, shouldering my way past Mark and hurrying down the
driveway.

"If you see Aranu,"
Mark called after me, "tell him I want to talk to him."

"Will do." I turned
and nodded before spinning around and continuing on across the yard
and into the forest, knowing I wouldn't say anything to Aranu about
what he'd done. Knowing that it wouldn't do any good.

Chapter Eight

Lahuel

I halfway expected Mike to run after me. He
didn't, and for this I was grateful. I don't know what I would have
said to him if he had been foolish enough to follow me. As I walked
through the dark forest on my way to the cabin, I remembered the
look on his face when Mark told him I'd been the one to kill the
Coatyl. It had almost made it worth having to deal with him
tonight, and right now I didn't particularly care if that sounded
petty or small minded.

A fine mist began to creep along the edge of
the forest, close to the ground. Great, just what I needed, fog
moving in for the walk home. Icy tendrils of fear played at the
back of my neck, and it was no wonder. The soldier's news continued
to weave a trail of discomfort through me. What in the hell was a
Life Breather? Well, given that whatever else the things were, they
were also running loose, I had the feeling I'd discover the answer
to that question soon enough.

The forest was dark, more so than most
nights, the tree canopy blocked out the moon here. The short walk
to the cabin was safe enough, even at night. It wasn't anything I
haven't done a hundred times before.

But usually when I decided to take a stroll
in the evening there weren’t mutant Coatyl–and worse–running around
and lurking in places that I didn't even want to think about. If I
thought about it I might be tempted to do something really stupid,
like rush back to Claire's house. Sure, it might have been the
sensible thing to do, but if I was ever going to have any chance at
all of having Mike and people like him take me seriously, it
wouldn't do to turn tail and run back to safety. Or, I should say
perceived safety.

Because as much as I or anyone else wanted
to believe differently, truth was, Claire's house wasn't much safer
than my own. Really, the only difference between the two was the
fence and we all knew that could go at any moment. Not that I
wasn’t grateful to have the protective barrier but, in recent
weeks, more than one person had remarked upon the oddity of
Grandview's fence still being intact while the rest of the world
pretty much 'went to hell in a hand-basket' as Claire would
say.

I will admit it was strange and a little bit
disconcerting, almost as if we were all waiting for the other shoe
to drop, for the ax to fall, as it were. It was probably safe to
say Kahn was responsible for the zone failures around Terlain,
although nobody seemed to know for certain.

Still, even without knowing this to be fact,
it made sense. To say Kahn was capable of concocting such a scheme
would have been the understatement of the century, and I had to
admit it was a good strategy–if that's what he was going for. What
better way to wreak complete havoc and destruction than to herd
everyone into one place and then move in for the final kill.

It was just the sort of blunt force planning
the wizard was known for and was probably closer to the truth than
anyone knew. And yet there was no getting around the fact that the
Matrons had allowed this, all of this, to happen. The group of
eight elder counsel-women who had cast the original protective
enchantment years ago were still incredibly powerful, but no one
seemed to know why they had remained, thus far at least, absent and
silent in the face of such devastation. Once, a long time ago, Mike
had told me that everything happens for reason...