Crux (The Aurora Lockette Series) (9 page)

Mr. X had made no appearances except to escort me to the bathroom
and back to the room.

I saw the light around the boarded window, and I wondered what time it was.

The door to my room opened, revealing a tall muscular man with a shaved head. He smiled. “And how are you doing this fine morning?” His voice was monotone, but I recognized something about the cadence of his speech. That, and my body was screaming he was a Shyama.

“
Outfit change?” I sat on the bed, very deliberately putting myself between him and Keith.

He laughed in his odd way.
“You’re very smart. The old body gave out, but this new one should last a bit longer, I think.” He flexed his biceps. “See, this one’s strong.”

“
I don’t care what mask you wear. Keith needs antibiotics. Presumably you want him alive or else you would have killed him already.”

He came closer to the bed. I didn’t move an inch. He peered down, staring at the weak white figure in the bed.
“Yes, he appears to be very sick, near death even. I’m quite curious to see how long he will live without a handler.”

“
Enough,” I said impatiently. “Did you get antibiotics?”

“
Mr. X has a shot of broad-spectrum powerful antibiotics that he will administer on my command.”

“
Do it.” I pointed to Keith.

“
Now, now, we need to chat first.”

He removed the first aid kit and water bottles from the small wooden chair near the door, then sat down.

“You will be taken to Asag soon,” he said.

“
And where is he?” I leaned against the wall and draw my legs up on the bed. I faced the window, not the Shyama-man.

“
The underworld. Once you go, you cannot come back for a very long time.”

Ice moved through my veins, but I kept my face composed. Keith shifted in the bed next to me. He must have heard, too.

“What do you people want from me?” I finally looked at him. “Why haven’t you killed me?”

“
Asag wishes you to survive the cleansing. Consider it an honor. You will live while all will die.”

“
What?” I stood up. “What cleansing?”

“
It is time for humans to leave this world. Asag will rise again, Ki will rule the underworld, and he will rule the earth.”

I sat down, leaving my feet on the ground
. Did he really just say he was going to wipe out all human kind? My fists clenched and my muscles screamed.
Be still, be calm.

But I couldn’t. I thought of my mother, walking me through the forest and showing me the different kinds of birds as a young child. My sister and I collapsing in giggles in our shared room in
our childhood home. Gavyn, his face staring into mine as he slipped the engagement ring on my finger. I folded my thumb in and felt the cold metal press into my skin. It brought me back to the present. I found my voice. “Ki is his second wife,” I said out loud, as I now remembered from my long ago education.

The eyebrows rolled up on his human host.
“And how did you know that?”

I shook my head.
“It doesn’t matter. Why?” I rested my hand on Keith’s hand. It comforted me. “Why would you hurt innocent people?”

He shifted over the window, pulling off one of the boards. The light pierced the room and nearly blinded me. It was a new weakness for me, light sensitivity. Keith groaned and shifted in the bed.

The Shyama man smiled at me, the light backlighting him. Even with his human skin, I could see the monster underneath. “I see no harm in letting some light in here. We will be leaving soon.”

He pulled off the rest of the boards, as easy as if he was peeling an orange, flooding the room with light
. He threw the boards on the floor, then dusted his hands. “There. It’s time for our history lesson. Come!” He gestured for me to come toward him.

I found my feet, steadied myself, and walked to the window in slow steps.
“There,” he whispered, pointing to the distance.

I squinted into the light. The sun filled every pore in my face. The initial shock of light hurt, but after my eyes adjusted, I welcomed it. After a few moments, I could see what he was pointing out
—a small shadow in the distance. “What is that?”

“
The tip top of a very large underground rock system. That is where you will meet Asag. For demons like me and you,” he laid his finger on my shoulder, “they can be entries to the underworld.”

I wanted to scream at him that I was not a demon. I’m not evil. I am a human being, a creature of light and love and good. But I didn’t. Instead, I stared at him, resolute, unwilling to verbalize my struggle.

He dropped his hand from my shoulder and shifted his weight until he was looking out the window again. “I saw the conflict in your eyes. You don’t want to believe it, but you do. You know it’s true, then.”

I shifted my gaze away from him, letting it roam over the outdoors, which I hadn’t seen clearly in days.
“Go on,” I said. My voice was shaky.

He smiled.
“Asag is the Son of An, the God of Heaven. An was the most powerful of all the powerful, but long gone from this world. Asag had two wives. His first wife was Uras, the Goddess of the Earth. That is where your kind comes from. His second wife was Ki, Goddess of the Underworld. That is where mine come from. You see, we are two sides of the same coin.”

I staggered a few feet. My back hit the softness of the foot of the bed. I sank to the floor.

I’m a demon. He’s a demon. We’re the same.

“
Then why are we so different? We look different.” I pointed at him with a shaky finger. “You can possess a human, but we are human.” I dropped my arm back to my side.

“
Oh, no. You’re not human. Not by a long shot.” He laughed.

I cringed, pushing myself further away from him.
Get a grip
. I crossed my legs underneath me, placed my hands on my knees, and took several deep breaths.

I opened my eyes. He was still standing over me in his new host, laughter dancing in his eyes.

“This doesn’t make any sense. Why do we have handlers, then? And you don’t, right?”

He nodded up and down.
“No handlers. Ki, wife number two, was jealous of Asag’s intense love for Uras, wife number one. So, she put a very powerful curse on Uras. All her descendants’ souls were splintered to make you weak and easy to find and destroy, which Ki has instructed us to do, even if it takes a millennium. Your handler holds the missing fragment to your soul. Your precious Gavyn is your soul mate, if you’ve heard that term. It doesn’t necessarily mean romantic love, but for you, that was the case. I must say, he did a horrible job of protecting you.”

Anger pulled through my body, lighting me end to end. But I didn’t say anything. I focused on the ring on my finger, the cool metal encircling my skin. The forever that
was going to happen with Gavyn.

“
What happened to Uras?” I asked.

“
She disappeared many centuries ago. The old gods are dying out. Asag still weeps for her.”

“
Then why all this?” I pointed to the room around me. “Why bother with me and Keith?”

“
Because you and Keith are rare in that you are descendants of both Uras and Ki. You are both kinds in one soul.”

I paced over to Keith and sat down near him while I processed this. His cheekbones shot out from his face, his pale skin smooth and shiny. He was slipping away while I was arguing with a monster. I took Keith’s hand.
“Please give him the shot. It’s his only chance.”

The Shyama moved closer to the bed.
“Actually, it’s not. He will probably die anyways, without his handler. But, it will extend his life.”

“
Do it!” I turned to face him, eyes blazing. “What the hell are you waiting for? Do it!” I shouted.

He tilted his head to the side.
“Only if you agree to come with me willingly and calmly.”

If he wanted me to come willingly, he must be
a little afraid of me. Why bother to ask a captive to cooperate? I looked back to Keith, who was grunting in his sleep, every breath a challenge. “I’ll come.”

“
Right,” the Shyama said. He raised his voice, “Mr. X?”

Mr. X appeared in the doorway.
“Yes, sir?”

“
Give it to him.”

“
Does it matter? Kid’s dead anyways,” he said, leaning in the doorway.

“
Now,” said the Shyama, irritation in his voice. “And don’t question me again.”

Mr. X straightened his posture, all cockiness gone from his pose. He left the room without another word. I’m thankful he was at least afraid of something, because he sure as hell wasn’t afraid of me. He came back a short time later with a needle in his hand. He stood next to Keith, holding the syringe in his hand.

I clasped on to Keith’s hand tighter. “Shouldn’t you wash your hands and sanitize his skin or something?”

“
Get out of my way.” He used his free arm to sweep me out of the way then plunged the needle deep into Keith’s shoulder. Keith didn’t react to it at all.

I pushed Mr. X aside
and squatted beside Keith. I placed my hands gently on his chest, relieved to feel it rise and fall at an even pace, his heart thrumming deep in his ribcage beneath my fingers.

I heard footsteps behind me, the loud plodding ones of Mr. X and the near noiseless ones of the Shyama. The Shyama paused behind me somewhere, probably near the door.
“We leave soon,” he said. “Remember your promise.”

GAVYN

Daylight hit my eyes
and I covered them with my hands. I sat up slowly on the bed I’d crashed out on in the middle of the night, in the safe house in Vegas.

I was still alone. She was still out there. Another day had gone by without her. The worry gnawed at my chest. It had been too long.

“Gavyn?” Carmen walked in with a cup of coffee. “We’re going over strategy. They’re going to get her in a couple hours. Thought you would like to be there.”

I took the coffee from her and followed her into the living room. I used to drink tea in the morning, but after living with a coffee-loving Aurora, I’d converted. I sucked half of it down, feeling the caffeine rush into my body. Soon, I’d be wide awake.

Dennis had a map drawn out on a dry erase board. The living room was so full of people—there must have been at least thirty—I could barely see the board.

“
Attention here, please.”

Everyone stilled their
conversations and waited for Dennis to talk.

He pointed to the building at the coordinates where she was being held.
“We have two of our own in here, being held for unknown reasons.” His fighters in the crowd shifted. “Our mission is to retrieve them unharmed. Secondary mission is to kill the Shyama involved. Tertiary mission is to capture the involved humans.”

“
What are we going to do with the humans?” a man with a tall mohawk and a face full of piercings asked.

“
I don’t know yet,” Dennis said.

“
What don’t you know?” the mohawk man asked. “They’re captors, drivers, and consorters with the Shyama.” He rested his hands on his hips.

Dennis turned to him.
“Yes, we know that, but we don’t know why. Maybe their spouses and children are being held captive. Maybe they’re being paid. The ‘why’ is the most important piece of the puzzle for our continued survival.”

The
mohawk guy bobbed his head, then stared at his feet. I wanted to punch him for distracting Dennis right now.

Carmen wound her arm through my elbow and gently patted my forearm. She could hear the tenor of my thoughts and knew I was getting angry. She reminded me to calm down and stay focused on the only thing that mattered: Aurora.

Dennis was talking again. “We will have three teams. Team One will perform the extraction.” He read out a list of names, including himself, that would storm the house and remove Aurora. Several burly men and women came forward as he was speaking, machine guns slung over their shoulders. Soldiers. Good.

“
Team Two will create a perimeter around team one. Team Two will protect team One, provide covering fire, remove any targets that approach, and prevent any Shyama or humans from leaving the scene. Gavyn will lead Team Two.”

I straightened my spine as everyone stared at me. Silence reverberated throughout the room, louder than any noise.

I knew they doubted me. They thought I would be distracted, that I was too close to handle it. Several of the fighters shared glances. No one said anything, but they didn’t need to. Me, a puny handler, a Hollywood actor. They thought I was soft and weak and spoiled. They thought I was not capable of fighting.