The Energy Crusades (19 page)

"I do know you, Kaia Robi. I
'
ve been waiting my whole life for you."

"Don
'
t say my name again!" I snapped. The anger boiled up inside of me and I grabbed his hood and yanked it off his head. His shock of white blonde hair came spilling out, but his face was still hidden behind the glasses. I reached to yank those from his face, but he struggled with me, ducking his head to avoid my hands.

"You coward!" I yelled. "Show your face!" We were against the wall, and I used my hip to try and hold him in place, but he was a big guy, at least as big as Ajax. He put up a fight and kept his head down, but I could tell he was being careful not to hurt me. It only infuriated me. I took hold of those glasses and snatched them from his face, throwing them away from our bodies. Still, he kept his head down.

"Look at me!" I demanded. "You don
'
t know me, Jason Paris. Show me your face so I know my enemy."

I put a hand under his chin and forced his face up. He met my eyes. As soon as he did, my hand dropped from him and flew to my mouth as I took a step back. I was utterly confused. The boy in front of me looked exactly like Ajax, with the same blue-gray eyes and full mouth. They were identical, except for the hair color.

"Who are you?" I whispered. My heart thudded inside my chest. He started to smile and it was Ajax
'
s smile.

"I
'
m not your enemy. I
'
ll never be your enemy." He took a step toward me and I was mesmerized by his face. Before I could make any kind of decision, he put his hands on my shoulders and leaned his face into mine. His mouth met mine, and he began to kiss me softly. My heart fluttered inside my chest and I felt a little dizzy. I found myself kissing him back, and my hand stayed suspended in mid-air, unsure whether to hold him or push him away. Thoughts swirled around inside my head. Was Ajax kissing me? It didn
'
t feel right. Was my mind playing tricks on me? Did I want Ajax to kiss me?

"Kaia!" The actual voice of Ajax brought me to my senses. I pulled my face away and brought my hand to Jason
'
s throat. His hands came up automatically, taking hold of my hands and trying to pull them away.

"Who are you?" I demanded, trying to forget the kiss. His eyes flicked in the direction of Ajax
'
s voice. He and Malik were running toward us.

"Come with me, Kaia. Come with me and I
'
ll save you." He choked. His eyes were just as beautiful as Ajax
'
s. I tightened my grip on his throat.

"You come with me, and I
'
ll save you," I told him. As Malik and Ajax neared, Jason grew more agitated. He showed his true strength as he forced his way out of my grip, then called for his solar glasses with an outstretched hand. They flew into his hands and he promptly covered his face.

"Come with me."
H
e held his hand out to me but I stepped away, more confused than ever. Just as Ajax and Malik approached, he vanished into thin air.

Athlete

I stared at the empty space in front of me.

"Personal transporters," I whispered, astonished by the turn of events. Ajax tugged at my arm and I swung around to face him.

"Were you just kissing him?" I
'
d never heard him raise his voice before, but now it echoed loudly in the tunnel. His eyes were full of hurt and confusion. There was more emotion in his face than I
'
d ever seen, but I didn
'
t understand it. I pulled my arm away and stepped back, looking from Ajax to Malik as I tried to focus my thoughts. They both glared at me angrily. But I was angry too, having seen things they hadn
'
t.

"Were you kissing him, Kaia?" Malik repeated.

"Are you part of the Resistance?" I countered, unsure, all of a sudden, who anyone was. "Are you trying to trade me?"

"What?" Ajax shouted at me. "What are you talking about? What happened to
'
it will take a woman to do this job
'
and all of that nonsense? Malik and I trusted you! We believed in you! We hustled through the streets to find you, to get back to you and make sure you were okay, only to find you making out with the enemy. You want to know if we
'
re part of the Resistance?"

"What happened, Kaia?" Malik added, when I wouldn
'
t answer Ajax.

"That boy looked exactly like Ajax!" I was agitated, confused. I struggled to hold onto my emotions. "Why does he look exactly like you?" Now I was yelling. Malik, on the other hand, started to smile as if everything was suddenly clear. It only made me angrier.

"What do you mean?" Ajax asked, his eyebrows coming together.

"He looks like you, Ajax, and not just a little bit. He looks exactly like you, except for the blonde hair. I thought maybe he was you. What
'
s going on here?"

Malik kept right on smiling.

"So you kissed him because he looked like Ajax?" Oh no. Swoosh, my cheeks turned bright red. What had I just said? Stupid girl.

"You can quit smiling Malik, I never said that."

"Then why did you kiss him?" My hand flew to my mouth and I remembered the way his lips felt on mine. It wasn
'
t quite the way I thought it would be. It wasn
'
t wonderful or anything.

"I didn
'
t kiss him; he kissed me." I was being defensive.

"Why did you have to kiss him back?" Ajax demanded. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don
'
t know. I never had someone kiss me before," I admitted. "I had no idea he would do something like that. I didn
'
t know what to think. I thought
…
" I let my voice trail off. What had I thought? Ajax stared at me, his eyes turning the color of steel. His jaw clenched tightly and his fists turned white at his sides from holding them so fiercely.

"I
'
m going to kill him," he proclaimed in a low, angry voice.

"He kept asking me to come with him. He called me by my name and said he
'
d been waiting his whole life for me. He said if I came with him, he would save me."

"What did you say?" Ajax demanded.

"I told him he could come with me and I
'
d save him."

"That
'
s our girl!" Malik laughed.

"Am I Malik? Are the two of you my friends or is something else going on here?"

Malik
'
s smile never faltered. There was no deceit in him or in Ajax. I could sense no sort of betrayal. They were my friends and the knowledge made me feel somewhat better.

"Don
'
t question us, Kaia. You have no idea how we feel when you
'
re not with us," Ajax answered. My heart fluttered in my chest.

"How?" I wanted to know. Malik looked back and forth between the two of us.

"Why did you have to kiss him back?" Ajax asked again. He wouldn
'
t let it go, but I had no answer for him.

"Where are the others?" I asked instead. The light of day was fading and I
'
d been standing in the tunnel for too long and was ready to go. Ajax sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He shook his head at me.

"You
'
re not going to answer me?"

"I answered the question. How could I possibly guess he would try to kiss me? I don
'
t understand what
'
s going on here. I thought…" I let my voice trail away.

"You thought he was Ajax?" Malik grinned.

The heat rose to my cheeks. I clenched my fists tightly at my sides and felt powerless over my embarrassment at Malik
'
s words.

"Don
'
t make fun of me, Malik!" I shouted, brushing past them to stalk off in the direction from where we came. The two of them argued in hushed tones as they followed me, but I tried to ignore them. In the deepening twilight, the streets were dark and unfamiliar. I threw my orb out in front of me to help illuminate the way. It glowed a soft white in the dark, a calm color with no signs of imminent danger. My orb could sense when trouble was near, and protected me like a shield, giving me strength in times of need.

Malik and Ajax caught up to me, walking on either side as we made our way back to our friends. I kept my eyes straight ahead.

"You got the information, Kaia?" Malik asked quietly.

"No," I answered without looking at him. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the case I
'
d taken from Jason. "It couldn
'
t be that easy, right? I don
'
t know what this is." I handed it to Malik, sure it wasn
'
t what the Reformation wanted us to find. Jason wouldn
'
t have handed it over so easily, especially when he could have transported himself away from me at any time. This was something else. Something they wanted us to see.

"Where are the others?" I asked again. Ajax walked slightly in front of us now as he led us through the streets. The temperature had dropped considerably with the vanishing sun, and I was hungry, tired, and irritable.

"Well, we chased the resisters down, just like you chased Jason, but they transported away from us as soon as one of them got caught. They didn
'
t speak to any of us. Balor, Caden, and Tory are finding a place for us to sleep. Hopefully they
'
re making something to eat."

I could see him smile at me from the corner of my eye, but I was still upset with him and didn
'
t look at him.

"I wasn
'
t making fun of you," he added after a moment's pause. I didn
'
t say anything as I struggled to sort out my emotions. A multitude of events had transpired in the last few hours and I needed time to think about it.

Why had I kissed Jason Paris back? What did the Resistance want with me? The Descenders taught us to believe the Resistance was simply a group of humans who had no desire to work for the Grids. They cared only about carving out a living for themselves and refused to work for the good of all society. Suddenly, I wasn
'
t so sure that was true. From what little I
'
d seen so far, it was obvious they were more than just
'
getting by
'
.

Jason wanted to save me, but I couldn
'
t imagine what he wanted to save me from. I was one of the lucky ones, with not one, but two Athletes in my family. As an Elite Crusader, I had demonstrated abilities beyond advanced, both physically and mentally. Anyone would say I had a bright future ahead of me. It was baffling that the Resistance would think I
'
d consider joining them, and it would seem more appropriate for them to recruit someone who was struggling in society. I had a lot of questions, but no answers.

I thought about Jason Paris and my hand flew to my mouth again. Jason and Ajax looked so much alike, I wondered if it was a disguise. If it was a disguise, I wondered how they guessed that sending someone to pursue me, someone who looked nearly identical to Ajax Baal, would appeal to me. And, if it wasn
'
t a disguise, then who was Jason Paris?

Ajax and Malik led me to an abandoned building close to the restored glass building we
'
d seen earlier. We found our friends about five stories up in what I can only describe as an empty room. The floor was concrete and the walls were bare and colorless.

"The place is safe," Caden said in response to the look of dismay on my face, “and it provides a clear view of our neighbors.” There was no glass in the windows, which allowed the cold night air to infiltrate the entire room, but we could easily see the glass building that towered over the streets a few blocks to the east.

Caden was preparing some food and a table had been set up, as well as an enclosed bathroom. Tory immediately went to Malik and put her arms around his neck.

"What
'
s wrong?" she asked him. They whispered with their heads bent together and I moved away, joining Caden as he warmed soup with his orb. My stomach rumbled. Balor was preparing a drink, some kind of tea from the looks of it. I grabbed some fruit and began to cut it up, still trying to sort out my emotions.

"Did you get the information, Kaia?" Balor asked hopefully.

"No," I admitted. "And he transported away from me before I could find out too much."

"They can transport," Caden met my eyes, and I could see his anger as his jaw worked furiously and his teeth clamped together tightly. "What happened?" he asked, after studying my face. He must have seen the anguish there.

I didn
'
t answer him because my own eyes filled with tears and I was afraid to say anything. He and Balor exchanged a worried glance, but I was saved from explaining by the sudden ringing of Ajax
'
s mailbox that interrupted all conversation in the room.

"Where is my sister?" I heard my brother
'
s voice call frantically the moment Ajax accepted his file. Tears fell down my cheeks upon hearing his voice. Balor quickly wiped them away.

"Hello to you too, Tiergan," Ajax answered drily.

"Project my image, Ajax. I need to speak to all of you.” My brother
'
s voice sounded desperate and Ajax hurriedly pulled his image from the mailbox so Tiergan could be seen throughout the room. It looked like he was outside somewhere with the sun shining behind him. He searched the room until he found me. I walked over to his image and fought the tears.

"They asked for you here!" he told me, agitated. His eyes roamed over my face, then turned to Ajax. "The Resistance asked for my sister, Ajax!" It was almost an accusation and he shouted it into the room. I could see the weariness in his face. Ajax moved in front of me and Malik joined him.

"They asked for her here too," Ajax admitted. My brother began to describe what they
'
d been going through on Danu. I
'
d never seen him scared or worried as he was then and it made my own stomach fill with anxiety.

"We
'
ve been chasing them, always chasing them. We finally found where they
'
ve been holed up, but they won
'
t fight. They simply transport away. So we
'
ve been working on interrupting their transmissions, trying to break their means of transporting. The other day we interrupted a transmission that said
'
capture the brother and the girl will come
'
. At first we thought it was a mistake, none of us was sure what it meant. But all of a sudden, they
'
ve been trying to capture us
…
me. Now they
'
re following me."

He paused, looked over his shoulder at something or someone, then turned back and continued. "They have a leader. A girl. She keeps her face covered but we know she has white hair and her name is Josiah. Josiah Paris, from what we can make out. Today she sent us a message. She said they will stop all operations and they will even leave Danu if we give them the girl. She said
'
the Athlete, Kaia Robi, is the one we seek. We mean her no harm and will protect her at all costs.
'
She went on from there but I can
'
t get my head around it. What
'
s going on there, Ajax?"

Josiah Paris? White hair? That was no coincidence. She and Jason were related, I felt sure of it. I stepped around Ajax and Malik. I needed to speak to my brother and I couldn
'
t worry about the others hearing.

"Do you trust Cadmus, Tiergan? Do you trust him no matter what?" I could hear the desperation in my own voice.

"What did she just say?" I heard an angry voice from somewhere near Tiergan. My brother took a long look at my face before answering. We stared at each other. I missed him terribly.

"Did you just ask your brother if he trusted me?" Cadmus came into view, nudging my brother a bit to the side. His presence filled the screen. Though they looked like brothers, Cadmus was bigger than Ajax, thicker and perhaps taller. His hair was sandy brown, like his father
'
s, and his eyes were much bluer than Ajax
'
s, a color that was almost purple, and undeniably beautiful. I felt my breath catch in my throat. Cadmus appeared to be as weary as Tiergan, but he was still the most handsome man I had ever seen. There was no trace of boy left in him.