Synarchy Book 2: The Ascension (29 page)

§

“
Show us, Christopher. Show
us all that proud loyalty, now.” Dominic’s smile was cold and laced
with the shadow of victory as he watched Kayla walk over to
Christopher, pull back the hammer on her revolver and press the
muzzle against his forehead.

Isabella let her eyes fall shut. She
was no fool; she knew what happened next—to her little brother. Her
heart began to ache, and her years felt like a sudden weight on her
back. She pressed her hand to the left and found John’s, squeezing
it tightly. John had been in charge of her personal security for
years. And some of the rumors about their relationship were true.
It was a small comfort when he squeezed back.

Kayla’s gray eyes were a blank steel
wall as they locked with Christopher’s. “Choose.”

§

Simone had little choice, as those two
simple words infused her with a fresh dose of memories. How many
times had Kyle said them to her the lifetime before? A hundred
times? A thousand? And how many times had those two simple words
coursed through her, ripping a sharp cry of pleasure out of her? At
least once more, before Caleb sealed their mouths and the first
tightening of sensation slipped through her. Simone pressed against
him. She lifted her hips. She spread her knees and dug her nails
into his shoulders, urging him closer, begging him deeper as she
slaked her thirst for old lusts and new love in the heat of his
mouth.

§

Christopher stared up at Kayla. “Your
father knew what you were, Kayla. We all did. He loved you. We
loved you. Be a part of this family. Stand on the right side.” The
latter sharpened and raised his voice, his heavy mix of emotions
tightly expressed.

There were five seconds of
silence. Lucien felt like his heart was going to pop as he watched;
felt like the breath would never get down into his lungs. His eyes
darted from Kayla’s gun to Uncle Christopher’s face. He had to do
something. Someone had to do
something
.

Vasco kept his steady,
impassive gaze on Olivia and Amadeo. Inside, the heart that lived
with the pain of the loss of three others prepared for the loss of
another.
Goodbye,
Christopher
.

“
Wrong answer,” Kayla said
softly. She squeezed the trigger.

§

Simone’s cry vibrated against the hard,
messy press of their mouths. Caleb pulled back, but only far enough
that he could watch the way the lines of pleasure moved on her
face, so he could make a new memory and paint it in the color of
her eyes, drowned in passion, dark with love. He wanted her to be
as lost as he was; so far gone that past and present collided and
exploded, leaving nothing but the emotion that had brought them
together from one lifetime to the next. Caleb demanded more out of
her, tested the nearly nonexistent lines of his own control when he
met her raised hips with shorter thrusts. Each hard movement earned
Simone’s answering cry. Each cry was sharper than the last. Every
touch became more desperate, until she was clutching at him, raking
him with her nails, and writhing beneath him. Sweat glistened in
the hollows of her body. Her breath came in half, shuddering gasps.
She kissed him hard enough that she tasted blood.

"Caleb," she panted, "I'm… Kyle, I'm—!"
Simone went rigid, breathless anticipation etched onto her face,
and with a wavering cry of release, she broke.

§

“
You fucking bitch!” Lucien
jumped up from the floor in a blind rage, and was knocked down
again by the furious strike from the butt of Amadeo’s gun. He
didn’t get back up.

Olivia smirked, and spoke to Lucien’s
motionless form. “Don’t worry, she’ll ask you, too.”

A single tear slipped from the corner
of Isabella’s eyes as she heard the sickening thumb of her
brother’s body hitting the floor. Kayla stepped in front of her.
Isabella looked up at Kayla with firm; immovable Terenzio resolve.
“You know my answer.”

Kayla pressed the muzzle of her gun
against Isabella’s forehead. “Yes, I do.”

§

Caleb groaned roughly into her hard
kiss and went with her, shuddering against her, pulsing hotly,
deeply inside of her and clutching her to him in a bruising grip
that would leave its own passionate mark.

Surrender had never been so
sweet.

Trembling from exertion, Simone sank
into the welcoming folds of the couch and pulled Caleb down with
her, pressing a damp, flushed cheek to his. Her heart pounded
against his chest, beating an answering rhythm to his own. Smiling
faintly, she closed her eyes and let herself drift in the haze left
in pleasure's wake.

When he could catch his breath, Caleb
murmured lazily against her skin, "Do you know how long I've wanted
to do that to you?"

§

“
Do you know how long we’ve
been waiting to do this?” Olivia asked Vasco

Ignoring Olivia, Vasco called out to
Kayla, “If only your mother could see you, now.”

Four out of five pounds of pressure sat
on the trigger of Kayla’s gun. Isabella was certain she saw
something move, come to life, in Kayla’s cold, blank
stare.

“
If you don’t shut up,
Vasco, I’m going to make you.” Dominic slanted his darkly promising
eyes over to his cousin.

“
You remember Marilyn, don’t
you?” Vasco asked, ignoring Dominic’s warnings.

Kayla stiffened, turned her head, and
set the full force of her gaze on Vasco.

The corner of Vasco’s mouth curled;
just enough. A second later, the door at the far end of the
ballroom blew open.

§

Simone pieced together the presence of
mind to laugh, and to give Caleb’s shoulders a light squeeze. "No,
I don't." Her smile deepened when she caught a glimpse of his, and
she tilted her head back to meet his eyes. She stroked his face.
"How long?"

Caleb took the opportunity to kiss her,
softly. "First time we met, five years ago. The day I dropped
coffee on your shoe." His smile grew.

Simone grinned faintly. Had he known
who she used to be on the day he spilled coffee on her shoe? Had he
known who he used to be? She opened her mouth to ask him those very
questions when his phone buzzed across the floor. Caleb tensed and
pushed off her. It was the last thing that he wanted to do, but, if
his phone was ringing, nothing good was happening. "You should
probably start getting dressed."

It wasn't the phone call itself that
had Simone moving, but the tension in Caleb’s body, and then his
suggestion. She pushed off of the couch and snatched her dress off
of the floor. "What's wrong?"

Caleb looked down at the message that
appeared, and his blood ran cold. “Everything.”

Chapter 15

“
The most authentic thing
about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to
transform, to love and to be greater than our
suffering.”

–
Ben Okri

December 1, 2012 - 11:22 PM

Alcyone Island

Phoenix Resort Hotel

When the door blew open, all hell broke
loose a second time. All eyes flew to the smoke filling the
entrance way. It barely concealed the movement of the military
police as they began to rush into the room, guns blazing. John
threw his body into Isabella’s, knocking her to the floor and out
from underneath the muzzle of Kayla’s gun. Vasco took advantage of
the distraction, lowered his shoulder, and went barreling into
Amadeo and subsequently Olivia. Thrown off balance, Amadeo went
crashing to the floor under Vasco’s weight and Olivia stumbled
backwards, barely managing to catch herself on a bar
stool.

Kayla drew her gun’s attention away
from Isabella and pointed it towards the doors, backing up as the
PLFs moved to cover her. Another explosion rocked the room when the
second ballroom door blasted open, this one behind Vasco’s
position. A swarm of Dion Corp Security guards came rushing in,
crouching down and moving quickly over to the two heirs.

Amadeo moved fast, throwing his fist up
into Vasco’s jaw and flipping him off. Amadeo clambered to his
feet, just to duck down as bullets flew over his head, coming from
the Dion Corp guards. Amadeo grabbed Olivia by the arm and pulled
her towards the doors that led out to the beach. One of the doors
stood open, with a member of the PLFs crouched inside of it and
waving a hand at them.

“
C’mon, we’ve got to go!”
Amadeo shouted at her.

“
No, we don’t!” Olivia
wrenched back from his grip, pointing her gun at Vasco, who was
bent over trying to pull up his brother. “Not until they’re
dead!”

The MPs formed a line and raised their
bullet proof shields to provide cover. Leone saw Olivia from across
the room, raised his own gun, and fired at her. Luckily, Amadeo saw
it and knocked Olivia to the ground just as she pulled her own
trigger, both bullets barely missing their targets.

“
We can’t kill them in here.
Wait for back up. They won’t get off the island alive,” Amadeo
hissed, and roughly grabbed Olivia’s arm and hauled her to her
feet, dragging her.

John got Isabella safely out into the
hallway. She was shaken, but otherwise as sharp as ever and mad as
hell. “Get me a radio. Is the triplets’ plane ready?”

“
Army is scrambling,” a MP
solider told her, handing over an ear piece. “Two fighters are
going over to Loyalty right now. The others are getting ready to
engage the enemy. They’ve got more coming.”

“
Sir, we’ve got to go!” one
of the Dion Crop security guards shouted at Vasco, grabbing him by
the arm. Vasco smacked Lucien across the cheek again, and his
brother came awake with a start and a groan.

“
My fuckin’ head,” Lucien
muttered, wincing.

“
C’mon. Get up.” Vasco
pulled him to his feet, following the guards out into the
hallway.

“
Where is Madame
President?”

“
Upstairs. You send a
chopper to the roof and bring them to the airfield. Do it now,”
Vasco ordered, and the Agent brought his wrist to his mouth,
speaking hurriedly into the radio. Vasco looked over at Isabella.
“We need to go.”

Isabella met Vasco’s eyes. “Yes, you
do.” She stepped into him and kissed his cheek. “You finish it.
Go.”

For a brief moment, Vasco’s brow
creased. He took Isabella’s hand, squeezing it tightly. Lucien
stood at his brothers’ side, his eyes raw and pained. “We’ll get
them, Aunt Isabel. I promise.”

Isabella gave Vasco a quick, reassuring
smile, then turned it onto Lucien. She kissed his cheek. “He loved
you like his own son,” she said, meaning Christopher. “And he was
very proud of you. We all are.”

Tears sprang into Lucien’s gray eyes.
The image of Uncle Christopher’s death would haunt him for a long
time. “I love you,” Lucien said in a trembling voice.

Isabella smiled and patted his
cheek.

Leone rushed over to them, the sounds
of shouts, gunfire and violent chaos echoing out around them.
“They’re going to overrun this hotel any second. You’ve got to get
out of here. We’ll hold them off.”

“
Let’s go.” Clasping his
brother’s shoulder, Vasco nodded once at his family. He didn’t
expect to see them again. Not this lifetime. He and Lucien jogged
off with the small crowd of Dion Corp security agents around
them.

Outside, it was a war zone. Dion Corp
agents stood around a bullet proof Hummer, frantically waving Vasco
and Lucien over. The sky above them was littered with the black,
hulking shadows of attack helicopters that deposited wave after
wave of men in combat uniforms. They carried machine guns and fired
at the Alcyone army below.

“
We can’t leave without
Simone!” Lucien shouted at his brother as they were shoved into the
back of the hummer.

“
We won’t. Caleb’s with her.
They’ll make it.”

Lucien nodded, his jaw setting in quiet
fury. “I’m going to fucking kill every one of them,
Vasco.”

“
Yes, brother, yes we
are.”

§

Dominic and Nicholas had taken cover
out on the beach behind a line of black SUVs that had transported
the PLFs. Kayla stood with them for a time, coordinating where she
wanted the organic robots, and then stepped away from them once
sufficient reinforcements had arrived.

“
How long have you been a
part of this?” Nicholas asked his father.

Dominic spared his son a brief glance.
“Thirty-eight years.”

Nicholas felt a slow fury
crawling over him. His father would have been deeply entrenched in
the Brotherhood when his family was killed. It was unlikely that
the Brotherhood would forget to warn both of them. “Did you know
about my family? Did they warn
you
?”

Dominic thought that his son’s family
was dysfunctional. If Nicholas had a wife and a mistress, that
would have been fine properly handled. Instead, Nicholas had a wife
and a lover—a male lover; one who was allowed in Nicholas’s home
and allowed to taint Dominic’s grandchildren with his disgusting
lifestyle. “It doesn’t matter. Stay focused on the matter at hand,”
Dominic snapped.