The Siren (Laments of Angels & Dark Chemistry Book 1) (25 page)

“We can hold his parents or his girlfriend hostage,” Vladimir said. “That way we’d get Ashburn first, then the mutant, and you’d stay safe.” 

“That will work,” Kian said. 

When it came to fighting wars, the two men closest to her thought the same way, more than they wanted to admit. But if Lucienne used Ashburn’s family against him, he’d never forgive her. “No,” Lucienne said. “The Furys are sheep, and I’m not a butcher.”

“We’re at war, Lucienne,” Vladimir said. “We do whatever it takes to win.”

“Blazek has a point this time,” Orlando agreed.

“We’re at war with Seraphen, not with Ashburn Fury,” Lucienne said.

“What’s the difference?” Vladimir rolled his eyes. “They’re the same.”

“Not to me,” Lucienne said.

Vladimir’s jaw tightened and his eyes went hard.

“I can’t just think in terms of war,” Lucienne said. “We need Ashburn to help us figure out the puzzles and then we can all move forward.”

“I hope that’s the only thing you need from him,” Vladimir said.

“What does that mean?” Glaring at Vladimir, Lucienne slammed her hand onto the table. A map on it trembled.

“You know exactly what I mean, Queen of Secrecy.” Vladimir struck out his jaw, glaring back.

This was their first public fight. Lucienne bit her lip. “If you don’t want to be around me, take off!”

“It’ll be sooner than you want!” Vladimir barked back.

Lucienne swallowed, her face reddening.

“Time out,” Kian called. “Both of you.”

Vladimir and Lucienne still glared at each other, tense as steel, though Lucienne softened first. “I won’t corner Ashburn and burn the bridge. I know exactly what I’d do if anyone ever used you to get to me. There’d be no forgiveness.” 

Red anger faded from Vladimir’s eyes, but bitterness remained. He tried to mask his helpless look, but Lucienne knew it too well. He hated letting her walk into danger alone.

“If you won’t go for the hostage plot, then we’ll play politics. We can use the king and the natives to force his hand,” Kian said.

The Sphinxes team had been monitoring the natives through cameras in Nirvana. Consequently they had been privy to a recent inspirational speech made by Prince Felix in the tavern. “The gods’ light does not shine as brightly as it once did because Ashburn the Extra has brought curses to Nirvana!”

“Some nights the light suddenly goes out,” someone had murmured. 

“Everything went downhill after the filthy outsiders came,” said the guard who had been humiliated by Vladimir in the Fury house. “That witch queen put a spell on the kingdom.” 

“The outside queen isn’t too bad, though she does have a terrible temper.” The prince turned his fire on his one true enemy. “Ashburn led the outsiders here. He betrayed us!”

“One of the most lethal weapons is to manipulate the masses and brainwash the populace by planting fear,” Kian had said as he had viewed the footage. 

“That bonehead knows we can stop the king’s guards,’” Lucienne had agreed, “but we can’t stop a mass attack by the town’s civilian ‘vigilantes’ on Ashburn.”

Now Kian also wanted to make the natives threaten Ashburn, so the Fury boy would seek asylum in Sphinxes.

“Ashburn is only vulnerable when it comes to Violet and his parents,” Lucienne said. “Peder and Clement would rather die than leave their home.”

“If you’re so worried about hurting him and his folks, then you should know snatching him away will hurt them just the same,” Vladimir said coldly.

“That’s not the same. His parents lost him once, and they actually benefited,” Lucienne said, but she wouldn’t explain. Over Vladimir’s weary look she said firmly, “I’ll meet Ashburn alone, and I’ll come back to you safely.” She laid her hand on his arm, and her touch calmed him. The edge gradually eased out of his eyes. “I’ll have to borrow your motorcycle, Vlad,” she added.

“You ask too much,” Vladimir grunted. But the next day, Lucienne rode Vladimir’s motorcycle to the Fury house alone.

She brought the Furys gifts and told them she’d like to live with them for a while, to learn their customs and the tongue of Nirvana. Clement and Peder insisted on giving Lucienne their master bedroom, but Lucienne responded that she would take the spare room next to Ashburn’s.

From the absence of the auto-light that night, Lucienne knew Ashburn was inside the Rabbit Hole. Before bedtime, she shrugged off her motorcycle jacket and wool pants in favor of a ribbed top and pajama pants. The material was soft against her skin; the blend of silk and spandex allowed her to practice her nightly Tai Chi for the next hour.

When the Fury house became quiet, Lucienne snuck out of her room and slipped into Ashburn’s. Holding a specimen bag, she headed straight into the bathroom adjoined to his bedroom. She found a wooden hairbrush in the cabinet, but there wasn’t a single hair on it. She swept the flashlight over the sink, and then the floor. Everything was clinically spotless. Empty-handed, Lucienne moved back into the bedroom, hoping to find a hair or two on the pillows.

“What are you looking for, Queen Lucienne?” a voice called from the bed. “Perhaps I can help you find it?”

Lucienne jumped, almost dropping her flashlight. “Ashburn?” she asked in a small, incredulous voice, shoving the specimen bag into her pocket in a hurry.

“Who else would you expect to find in my bed?” Ashburn asked.

Lucienne turned her flashlight toward the bed.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t shine it directly into my eyes. If you need light, all you have to do is ask, nicely,” Ashburn said. The room instantly glowed with a natural, warm light.

Blushing, Lucienne turned off the flashlight. She’d never been caught spying before. This boy seemed to catch her every vice.

From her position in the bathroom doorway, Lucienne took in the length of Ashburn. He lay in bed, his hands crossed behind his head on two pillows. He wore a peacock blue sweater and black sweatpants. His silver hair flowed gracefully down his broad shoulders, creating an image more beautiful than any male model on the cover of
Esquire
.

This was the first time she’d seen him in person since her injury three weeks ago. Lucienne was suddenly self-conscious about dressing in her pajamas as his ice blue eyes roved over her. 

Then, before she could stop herself, she advanced toward him, acquiescing to her urge to get closer to him, envisioning herself tracing the outline of his beautiful lips before resting her head in the crook of his strong shoulder.
It’s the pull. It’s manipulating me again.
Lucienne stopped in her tracks. It was getting harder to deprive herself this pleasure, let alone enduring the throbbing heartache every time she resisted the pull. She tugged at the hem of her pajama top. “When . . .” she stuttered, “when did you get in?”

“A while ago. I was napping.”  

“Oh, sorry. But why didn’t you announce yourself?”

“And miss watching your intriguing adventure?”

Lucienne flushed deeply.

Ashburn sighed. “Since you were determined to live here in my house until I made an appearance, there was really no point in trying to avoid you.”

“You shouldn’t have avoided me in the first place.”

“You’re planning to kill my only protector and then kidnap me,” Ashburn said. “Why wouldn’t I flee?”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. Come with me to Sphinxes. I’ll promise you a good time.”

“As a prisoner or a lab rat?” Ashburn asked. “You have a strange definition of a good time, Queen Lucienne.”

“Don’t call me queen!” Lucienne said. “Ash, I’ll treat you as a friend. You saved my life. I’ll not hurt you; not the way you imagine. But we need to decode the data inside you, so that we can learn more about the Eye of Time. Don’t you want to solve the puzzle?”

“That’s exactly what the TimeDust wants us to do.” Ashburn gritted his teeth. “If we open the door to the dark side, we’ll become part of it. We’ll walk down the path of destruction that has been paved for both of us.”

“What if it’s the door to enlightenment?” Lucienne’s eyes sparkled brightly, and in her enthusiasm, she let down her defences against the lure. She crossed the room and sat on the edge of Ashburn’s bed. “We could lead the human race into the age of quantum evolution.” Her rich voice was full of passion and hope. “That
is
what we’d do, together.”

Ashburn removed his hands from behind his head and sat up, facing Lucienne. His eyes swayed between shades of silver and grey as he gazed into her rich brown eyes.

Lucienne could hear her heart stuttering like the ticking of a clock. Her body heated, responding to Ashburn’s desires. She warned herself to move away from this dangerously beautiful boy, but her body rebelled and stayed. 

“You don’t understand,” Ashburn said, his eyes locking on hers. “I am programmed for evil. I felt its menace when I activated the Eye of Time, so I broke free before it could upload all of its data into me. Seraphen said it’d happened before, and it caused the flood that almost wiped out all humankind. Now it has started again, with us—you and me. If we go with the TimeDust, we’ll cause the apocalypse. It would be worse than the flood. Seraphen isn’t the bad guy here. He is doing whatever it takes to preserve the human race. I can’t undo what the Eye of Time did to me, but I can resist the TimeDust in me, so the world will be safe from us.” 

“Knowledge is never evil.” Lucienne reached out and laid her hand on Ashburn’s. “Our hearts decide the course. We can build a new world, with ancient knowledge at our disposal. Seraphen is wrong. Even he admitted parts of his memories were damaged. How do we know they weren’t twisted or altered? You saw how crazy he was when he tried to kill me, and he still wants to murder me, though I’ve done nothing to deserve it.”

Ashburn looked at Lucienne’s hand curving around his. “It isn’t just Seraphen. When the Eye of Time transmitted the data to me, a subprogram that was secretly built inside the mainframe and hidden from the Eye also reached me. The subprogram opposes the TimeDust, and it’s been trying to get in touch with me to unveil the truth. It also warned me to stay away from you, but I’m not doing too well listening to that counsel.”  

“Ash,” Lucienne whispered, “I’m on your side. It isn’t our fault we’re connected, and it doesn’t mean we have to serve that dreadful purpose. We can fight it, together.”

“We can’t fight it. It wants us to be together, but if we are, we’ll lose the battle. We wouldn’t succeed in building a new world; we’d destroy it. I don’t know how or why, but I’ve sensed a terrible fate lurking ahead.” Ashburn extracted his hand from under Lucienne’s and put his head in his hands. “It’s already begun, Lucienne. I can no longer fight whatever it is that draws me to you. It hurts so much!”

“Listen, Ash.” Lucienne caught his cool hands, pressing them between her warm ones. “I’m a warrior. I promise you we’ll not go down—”

“You still don’t understand what lies ahead.” Ashburn pulled his hands out again and pressed them firmly against Lucienne’s cheeks.

“Ashburn, what are we doing?” Lucienne tried to pull away. Her soft voice and light touch were meant to persuade him to go along with her plan, not to lead him on.

Just then a bolt of black lightning exploded in her mind. Lucienne cried out in shock, but the dark lightning didn’t burn her. It opened a channel, a tapestry of images flowing like an electrical current in front of her. Lucienne was experiencing what Ashburn had gone through—

Ashburn entered the terrain of Hell Gate on his wheelchair. Thick fog and howling winds traveled over the wilderness. Ashburn switched on a light bar, but its light couldn’t penetrate the mist. An eerie noise clicked on and off around him. 

Lucienne felt unmistakable viciousness from the place.

“Who’s there?” Ashburn’s voice quavered. “Don’t get any closer! I have weapons.”

Something that sounded like sharp metal closed in on him, then the fog lifted. A silvery gate materialized, rising high into the sky. A
hollow, metallic noise echoed from the gate. Strange symbols, numbers, and alien characters flashed on it—the same symbols Lucienne had seen in the Eye of Time.

Ashburn veered his chair around the gate, reading the streaming numbers and symbols in amazement. After a while, he seemed to awaken from a trance. His face sank. “Violet!” he shouted, veering his wheelchair away from the gate.  

“Wait!” a voice called. Lucienne recognized the voice of the Eye of Time.

An intense light blinded Ashburn, and Lucienne blinked.

A metallic eye blazed on the gate at Ashburn’s eye level. “I am the Eye of Time. I am Xρόνος. I am beyond time and space,”
it said. “I am a species of the highest intelligence. I am the first and the last.”

“If you say so,” Ashburn said with a shrug.

Nothing impresses this kid,
Lucienne thought.

“Where are you from?” Ashburn asked politely.

A chart of an unknown star system twirled inside the dark mirror of the Eye. Ashburn leaned forward to study the chart, but jerked back as a wave of light surged toward him. The expanding band of light transformed into a holographic chart of stars.