Barcode: Legend of Apollo (35 page)

Hannah’s hands run across my body until I feel myself on a soft surface—a bed. With both of our bodies exposed, I take my time examining her curves and fair skin. Starting from her neck, I trace my tongue over every piece of her torso until I reach her waist. Hannah flips me over, reciprocating the favor by kissing every inch of my codes.

We continue rolling around, trying to fight the urge to join our bodies until I can no longer resist. Yet, I’m overwhelmed with thoughts of Michelle, the woman most connected to my data.

A glow as pleasant as dawn shines from Hannah’s smile and races to my eyes until I’m rushed back to the light. We’re both lying on my bed, fully-clothed. Hannah’s right hand rests on my back. She has slid her arm under one of my bandages and holds tightly onto my tattoo.

“What was that?” I ask while pushing her away. Blood drips from my arms before I notice the tiny pool we’re swimming in.

Frantically, I yank her hand from my spine. Hannah slit her wrist, though not by much. It’s enough to leave her weak and unable to stand. Before she faints, I cradle and carry her to the bathroom, where it seems I treat a lot of wounds.

Reaching into my cabinets, I grab another patch and say, “If any of you nanobots are in here, can you help me seal her cut?”

I force my eyes to zoom onto the patch as I watch about ten nanonbots climb onto the bandage. Hoping they’re enough to do the job, I thank them before slapping the seal on her wrist.

“What was that Hannah?”

She blinks her eyes and passes out. As I look up, I see Michelle standing in one of my shirts, crying. Tears sprint from her emotionless face. There’s no pain in her eyes or expression, just tears. Her legs are glowing with a dark aura.

I can sense auras now, and she knows it.

No longer able to resist her pain, Michelle whimpers and bends over as though she’d been stabbed by a knife. I increase my rapid perception and place Hannah gently on the bathroom floor. Michelle’s about to run, and if I don’t stop her, I’ll lose the biggest piece of me.

Death, if she makes it out that door, you can have me.

Concentrating, I build the force inside of me similar to what I felt when fighting Monte. Without a warning, Michelle vanishes into the black smoke. Using the same force I’m sure she has, I rush to the door. I know she won’t blow through it. That gives me a moment to catch up.

I make it just in time to see her disappear again, but a voice calls out:
Reach for it
. Remembering where her arms were, I wrap my hand around the smoke and find her. It was only an illusion. She was still there and trying to run away. She’s ready to escape by any means.

I feel a strong knee in my gut, similar to the one Arnold struck Kode with, but he didn’t have anything to live for. I do, and I’m not letting go.

I know the hit will slow me down, so I apply two disseminating strikes to her abdomen as well. She crumbles to the ground and I roll on top of her. The intensity of her fight frightens me. The undomesticated beast struggles feverishly. Wads of spit and fists fly onto my face, but I don’t let go. I promise, I never will.

“Meesh,” I shout.

“Don’t call me that,” she cries, hitting harder.

“I love you. I’m sorry. I love you,” I say, falling flat against her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I don’t even know what I did.”

Pushing my weight back up, Michelle slaps me and cries, “Don’t. Don’t.” She uses her barcode to sense my honesty, but that doesn’t calm her down. “I was in the closet.”

My eyes widen. There’s no way to erase the memory of this gory incident. Even worse, she’s suffering from the data Hannah and I exchanged.

“She was bringing you back from a place I couldn’t reach you,” Michelle punches my chest hard. “I don’t have that power, and you just went there without me. Why?”

“I don’t even know where I was or how I got there,” I shout, trying to embrace her. She continues fighting me off.

“You were taken to Hades, and on your way to Tartarus. Spencer, I’m not strong enough to pull you back.” Michelle whimpers and wipes her face, “She is. Why did you go?”

“I felt a darkness all around me and couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t leave you Michelle.” She shakes her head harshly. A few seconds later, my words register in her mind. All at once, she completely stops moving. The wild lioness stares at me with intense eyes. “But I wouldn’t take you either. You can never go. I want you alive. I love you more than anything. I wouldn’t take you.”

Michelle completely gives in and dries her eyes while screaming in pain, “But you let her. I watched everything.” She holds her heart as she realizes something, “You’re not mine. I’m sorry. I’m sorry Spencer.”

“I want to be,” I cry, but the words seem to cause her more pain than relief.

Michelle allows me to kiss her before saying, “I can sense her all over you.” I’ve smeared Hannah’s blood on Michelle’s lower body, and a few drops still creep down my back. Hannah’s bonded with my data in a world that Michelle can’t, the same way Michelle’s bonded with me in this world in a way that Hannah can’t.

The room darkens again, as though I were being pulled back to Hades. I find a strength to fight it. A tiny smile breaks across Michelle’s face. She’s reading me.

“I can win if you’re with me. Don’t ever leave me Meesh.”

She nods her head and holds my neck tightly. With Hannah still connected to me, I resist kissing her again.

A loud scream screeches from Leo’s side of the building. Damn. I hang my head and say, “This day won’t end.”

I take off my boots and the lower half of my armor falls. I’m wearing nothing but the tight undershorts.

Michelle says, “I’ll take care of her.” I look into her eyes without responding. “That was Leo. You have to go.”

I don’t want to leave her at this stage of the argument. Fear of her running away causes me more anxiety than I’ll ever experience in another lifetime. But for Leo’s sake, the friend that’s saved my life more than anyone, I depart.

Call me crazy, but I’m paranoid enough to request that several nanobots tail her. I’ll track her down if she even tries to leave.

When I make it to Leo’s room, I bang on the door frantically. No one responds and I left my cellphone in my armor’s pouch. With my barcodes dimly lit, I kick in the door.

The apartment’s junky, but there’s no sign of life in this area. I stand in front of the couch and try to mimic how Leo swiped his hand. After several tries, I make a similar circular motion and Antonio appears.

“What was that scream?”

“I better not tell. He’ll be okay in the morning,” Antonio says, yawning.

My instinct forces me to thump the screen like Dennis would. Antonio groans. A hologram image begins forming next to the couch. I turn to see a short kid a few years younger than me. The hologram doesn’t have color yet, though the hues are gradually building. The image holds its head, “That hurt you know?”

“Antonio?”

“You can’t just waltz into a place and damage valuable data.”

Too upset after a long day, I bypass laughing and say, “Tell me what’s going on or I’m going to bash your little frame in.”

Antonio stands, “I wouldn’t have shown myself if I didn’t plan on telling you.” I marvel at his calm and soothing voice. Though he looks young, Antonio sounds very mature.

He tries walking, but stumbles. Then, he blurts, “Stupid projector. Calibrate!” I hear five beeps followed by a long buzz. He takes small steps and then walks boldly into the kitchen. He points to an unconscious Leonardo. At closer inspection, I see brown goo flowing from his ear.

“Explain or die. What are the two of you?”

Antonio rolls his eyes before disappearing and reappearing on the counter with his legs crossed in a very feminine manner. “Darling, it’s a long story, and you don’t seem to have the time.” Antonio points to the blood around my waist.

“I’ll manage.”

“Very well; I’m dead and he’s human.”

“Wow. That took years, but Leo’s bleeding brown and you’re almost full-colored.”

Antonio giggles under his breath before glancing around the room. Then he scrunches his face, “That’s just a lethal drug Leo’s body formed to rid itself of his nanobots.

“Leonardo was born without a brain, he was a stillbirth. The brain rapidly formed and within a week, it was normal size. After some time, his parents noticed him crying regularly and bleeding from the ears. With extensive research and examinations, they discovered his brain was overloading his skull. If they hadn’t found the issue when they did, his head would have popped.

“Leonardo’s parents used nanobots to eat the excess growth, leaving enough cells in certain areas to make him a boy genius. Over the years, Leo developed stronger technology for his parents and his own brain, but he’s no longer able to innovate quickly enough. With the new pathogens forming, Leo only has another year or two before his nanobots will be unable to live in his brain.

“Are there any other options? Can I journey to the mountains in the East and find a wise man able to save him?” I expect Antonio to confirm that Helios has a cure, but he doesn’t. There is no cure unless Leo creates it.

“Leonardo’s last resort is to drink X-Eyes regularly. The alcohol kills brain cells rapidly, but he’ll be a permanent drunk, unable to think of a new cure. Once he gets to that point, there’s no sobering up or coming back.”

“Why X-Eyes, of all drinks? I’m sure he could make his own, right?”

Antonio laughs, “He did make it, and gave his friend the rights to sell it. The Moreno can’t be associated with something so...” Antonio trails off.

“Beneath them?”

“Yes. For lack of a better word, beneath them.”

I carry Leo to his bed. Now I understand why he was stressed out on the roof.

Once he’s tucked in, I make my way to the door. Antonio escorts me out. He stares at me as though he were scrutinizing my thoughts and bloody situation.

“Long story.”

“Like the one I told moments ago?”

“Much longer.” Antonio nods his head and tries to turn around. “I’ll be honest. I’m sure Leo doesn’t want you to tell me, but I want to know why he stopped the match between Kode and I.”

“Spencer. I can’t”

“But you will. Tell me Antonio. Please.”

“It’s just…Kode set him up. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but he’s a genius. Possibly smarter than Leonardo.”

“Possibly.”

“Manipulative.”

“You speak like you know him well.”

“Leonardo hacked into Kode’s computers, a challenge he set up when you were running in your two-minute intervals. It seems he used his projector and wrote, ’Think you can hack my computers without activating my deathnote?’ Leonardo happily accepted the duel.”

“I knew better than to leave them alone.”

“And you shouldn’t have. After working for an entire weekend, he finally broke in safely. There were many letters about you. Leo had them analyzed, but kept me away just in case I’d receive a virus. Eventually, he came across plans Kode had sketched out from the beginning, including you two finding the men he killed—Helios’ men.”

“He left blueprints of this?”

“Essentially, yes. His final scheme involved ‘accidentally’ killing you in the exams.”

“But that wasn’t his actual plan.”

“No. He wanted Leonardo to find this, and the information about a school he researched where top students spar with other gladiators. Leonardo found many documents of Kode studying Mr. Miyamoto’s power, trying to figure out a way to defeat him and take over the school. Kode seemed deathly frightened of the warrior. Thus, Leo set up the match on his own.” Antonio shakes his digital head, “He felt so much guilt that he began sipping on X-Eyes. You found him moments after.” Antonio looks over his shoulders, down the hall into Leo’s room. “That’s the pain he felt for killing Michelle’s father.”

“I feel the same,” I say with my head pointed to the ground. “We all played into his hands.”

“There’s no way we thought he could kill Mr. Miyamoto.”

“I understand. Have a good night Antonio.”

“You as well. I will have the nanobots clean the blood and discard them in a sanitary manner.”

“Thank you.”

When I make it back to my place, Hannah and Michelle are gone and employees from the house are cleaning up the mess without question.

I hop in my tub and activate a blood wash shower while tracing the nanobots. They’re in the hospital.

After dressing in my signature jacket and baggy shorts, I walk to the arena and wait outside for Michelle. Half an hour passes before she strolls out and sits next to me.

“You put a tracker on me, didn’t you?”

“Damn right.”

We stand and Michelle interlaces her fingers with mine. She’s still dressed in my shirt, stained with Hannah’s blood. The beautiful girl isn’t wearing pants and I notice her toes wiggling as her lions shine. We head back towards the house looking deathly unhappy.

“I’m not leaving. I promise.” She’s not smiling. Neither am I. Still, there’s more pleasure pulsing through my veins than I ever had before. Through our connection, I can assume she’s experiencing the same feeling.

Thirty Seven

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and I’m happy to spend most of it with Michelle. We started the day making breakfast and damaged the furniture in my living room from a play fight that got a bit too out of control when our tattoos were thrown in the mix.

As night approaches, we head separate ways. Like I promised, I hug her tightly before opening the door. I try releasing her, but my arms don’t follow my instruction.

“Don’t want to let me go?” Michelle smiles and winks.

“No.”

“Oh you’re serious?”

“Yep.”

I scrunch my nose and her eyes drift down my hallway to the bedroom.

“I’ll come back tomorrow and spend Christmas night with you.”

“I’d like that.”

“You never said what you wanted for Christmas.”

“I know.”

“You can unwrap me.”

“Wait. Hayley didn’t give you any more sexy underwear or something, right? I can’t handle that.”

“You shouldn’t flirt with me so much if you’re going to choose Hannah.”