Destiny's Shift (14 page)

needed. Maybe getting a little action now that he didn’t feel like hiding in a sixty-foot

hole every time he touched someone would take his mind off of Liberty.

Twenty years was just way too long.

He put his hands on his knees to rest for a moment and heard a groan. He’d

almost forgotten about Mr. FBI.

As he strode over to him, he grabbed a towel off the towel rack, and took off his

gloves and tossed them aside. Mr. FBI rolled over so he was facing Jovan and put his

hand on his head. Jovan got down on his haunches in front of him, wiping his face.

“Rise and shine, princess.”

“Oh, man.” Mr. FBI squinted up at him.

“You were out for quite a while. Either Hudson hit you pretty hard or you’re a

Grade-A pussy.”

The guy muttered something Jovan couldn’t hear and sat up.

“Where am I?”

“Well, you’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.” Jovan studied the man and

wondered what his fate would be.

“Can I get some water, please?”

Jovan stood. “A princess with manners. How nice.” He walked across the room to

a small refrigerator and got out a bottle of water.

When he turned to walk back, Mr. FBI was now standing, although still looking a

little woozy. Jovan handed him the bottle, and he drank it down in one long drink.

When he was finished, Jovan reached out to take the bottle. With one hand he

grabbed it and wrapped his other hand around the guy’s throat.

“Do you know what your daddy was?”

Mr. FBI’s face began to turn red, but he shook his head and didn’t fight Jovan.

“And you know where my people are being held by your government?”

He nodded.

Jovan concentrated, but he felt nothing but truth rolling off the guy, and he

became more confident that he was reading him correctly.

And still no fear.

This guy was a ballbreaker.

Jovan let go of his throat, and Mr. FBI began coughing. Jovan turned to throw the

bottle away, and Mr. FBI said, “What does a guy have to do to get a shot of whiskey

around here?”

Turning, Jovan said, “You like whiskey?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Jovan checked the clock on the wall.

“And I’m hungry.”

“Don’t push it, fucker.”

“A guy’s gotta eat, man.”

True.

Jovan walked over to the phone and dialed Noah. “The princess is awake and

wants some whiskey.”

“Did you . . . test him again? Or whatever the hell you do?” Noah asked.

“Yep.”

“Anything?”

“As truthful as a saint on Sunday.”

There was a moment of silence. “All right. Bring the asshole up here to the War

Room.”

Jovan hung up the phone and walked over to Mr. FBI. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“Wherever I say we are, douchebag.”

Mr. FBI looked at him hard. “Listen, I’m tired of being treated like I’m a piece of

crap. I don’t know what it’s going to take to make you fuckers realize that I’m here to

actually help you. I’m going against my government, and I’m going to lose my job and

lose everything so you can get your people back and I can find out what I am. Why the

hell can’t you get that through your thick skull?”

Jovan watched as Mr. FBI paced around the room, his arms across his chest.

“What do I have to do? Make some sort of vow? Cut off my left nut?”

Jovan grinned. “Watch what you offer, Mr. FBI. There are some who would like

to see that.”

“Blake.”

“Excuse me?”

“My name is Blake. Not douchebag, Dorothy, Princess, or Mr. FBI.”

Jovan studied the man. The guy had brass balls, and Jovan’s respect for him

increased. He might be a son of a Colonist, but that didn’t always mean bad news.

Sometimes the evil skipped generations, and maybe it had happened here. Blake seemed

like a solid guy. He hadn’t tried to attack Jovan at all, and Jovan knew that he was telling

the God-honest truth about everything.

Maybe he needed to go a little easier on Blake.

“All right, Blake. My name’s Jovan. Let’s head upstairs, get you that whiskey, and

have a little more chitchat.”

Chapter 29

The elevator doors opened, and Jovan and Blake were greeted by Orange Eyes,

Yellow Eyes, and Red Eyes, except for this meeting, their eyes were all black, which let

Blake know that they were sitting somewhere in the daytime. He remembered the beings

in Area 2 lost the glow of their eyes when the sun came up.

Yellow Eye’s gun immediately found its place on Blake’s forehead.

“Oh, for God sakes,” Blake muttered. “Do we really need to do this again?”

“Yep.”

“Follow me,” Orange Eyes said.

Blake did as he was told, falling in step behind him with Jovan and Red Eyes as

his wingmen. Blake turned slightly, and Yellow Eyes gave him a small, unfriendly smile,

and then pointed the gun at him again.

They led him through the kitchen area and down a hall. The place was beautiful.

Plush gray carpet muted their footsteps, and as they rounded a corner, Blake caught a

glimpse of a dining room with a large oak table. He was led into a room that had three

walls of glass and a large, black marble table surrounded by plush leather chairs. The wall

had a large white screen on it, and in the corner were a couple of computers. Blake felt

anxious, but there still wasn’t any fear. He knew that he was close to finding out what he

really was.

“Sit,” Orange Eyes said.

Blake did as he was told, the leather chair creaking as he sat down. He watched

the others find their chairs, all staring at him.

“What’s your name?” Orange Eyes asked.

“Blake. Blake Birmingham.”

“I’m Noah. I’m in charge around here.”

Blake nodded.

“That’s Rayner,” he said, pointing at Red Eyes. “The guy sitting next to you is

Jovan, and this is Hudson,” he said, hitching a finger at the guy with the gun. “He’s got

an itchy finger and loves to shoot your kind, so don’t do anything stupid.”

Blake nodded again. Now that the introductions were over, might as well get

down to business. “So what’s my kind?” Based on his father’s behavior, he knew it

wasn’t good, but he might as well finally get the truth.

“Hold up, Blake,” Noah said. “The deal is that we tell you what you are and you

tell us where our people are, correct?”

Blake nodded. “That’s the way I remember it.”

“Okay then,” Noah said. “You, my friend, are what is known as the son of a

Colonist.”

There was a beat of silence.

“And that means what, exactly?”

Jovan turned to him. “Let me guess. Your daddy was a cocksucker. He probably

beat you or molested you or locked you in a closet, and he did the same to your mom.”

Blake nodded, running his hand over his skull-trimmed hair.

“So your daddy was one of us, except he’d gone bad. He’d committed some

terrible crimes on SR44, our planet, and was sent to The Colony. It’s a moon of ours that

doesn’t get much daylight. Our SR44 forms are the color you saw our eyes glow last

night. When one of our kind was sent to The Colony, the soul turns black. The evil takes

over. Some of those bastards escaped and made their way down to Earth. We,” he said,

gesturing around the table, “were sent to kill them. It was supposed to be a short mission,

but things got fucked up and we’ve been here a lot longer than we thought we’d be.”

Blake studied his reflection in the shine of the black marble table. A black-souled

criminal was his father, and this didn’t surprise him. In fact, his father being from another

planet didn’t faze him either. He knew he had bad shit flowing through his veins; he just

didn’t know how deep it went.

Yet, a part of him felt some relief that he wasn’t as bad as his father. He wasn’t

pure evil. Some of his mom’s good genes had made it through. Besides that urge it kill

when he got angry, things could be a lot worse for him.

“What about the other . . . Colonists?” he asked, turning to Jovan.

“We’re knocking them off one by one, but most of us think it’s a never ending

cycle because the evil is passed down through the generations.”

“Jovan,” Hudson said, nodding toward Jovan’s hands.

Jovan put his hand on the back of Blake’s neck, and he began to pull away.

“Relax, Blake,” Jovan said, and he did.

“Have you ever killed anyone, Blake?” Hudson said.

Blake was silent for a moment. “No, I haven’t. I’ve thought about it though, but

I’ve never acted on it. Not like I’m walking down the street and I want to kill someone.

It’s usually when I’m pissed off.”

Hudson nodded and looked at Jovan.

“Nothing but the truth, man,” Jovan said as he let go of Blake’s neck.

“Why the hell do you keep grabbing me and asking me questions?”

“I’m using my voodoo powers on you.”

There was silence around the table for a few minutes.

“Jovan said you like whiskey,” Noah said.

Blake nodded. “I think I could use some right about now.”

“Jovan, you’re with me,” Noah said.

Blake watched Noah and Jovan leave. He glanced over at Hudson who glared at

him. Definitely not the friendliest one in the bunch.

He thought about what he had learned. So he was the son of evil. Not that it

surprised him—his father had been a cocksucker. He realized that the Intel also revealed

that he was a half-breed? Part SR44ian and human. He obviously didn’t get any cool

psychic ninja skills like Jovan, just a good dose of crap DNA.

Super.

He glanced over at Hudson again and wondered if he had anything special about

him.

“Do you have any otherworldly skills?”

“Nope. I’m just a normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill assassin.”

Great.

He turned to Rayner. “What about you?”

Rayner shrugged. “I see people who aren’t alive, but aren’t dead.”

“Wow.”

“Pretty much.”

The three sat in silence for another few minutes.

“Exactly how long does it take to get a bottle of whiskey?” Rayner grumbled.

Blake wondered the same thing.

A few minutes later, Noah and Jovan came in, trailed by four women, one

carrying a baby.

And no whiskey.

“Goddammit!” Rayner said. “Faith, I don’t want you near this guy!”

“Rayner, please relax,” she said, and went to sit on his lap, her eyes never leaving

Blake.

“Beverly, come sit next to me please,” Hudson said in a tight voice. The blonde

woman with the baby took the chair next to him. Hudson then looked at Noah. “Have you

lost your mind?”

“Relax, Hudson,” the woman with brown hair said. “We wanted to meet him.

Noah and Jovan tried to stop us.”

Blake caught Hudson grumbling something about females never listening to

anyone.

A smaller woman peeked around Jovan. Blake met her stare.

“This is Liberty,” Jovan said, bringing her forward. “She’s got the same gift I do,

except it is much more powerful. We’d like to ask you some questions with her touching

you.”

Blake nodded, and Liberty came toward him, Jovan on her heels. He noted the

ringlets that hung around her face, and her wide, dark eyes. She was really pretty.

Jovan snarled at him.

Liberty sat in the chair next to Blake and smiled at him. “Hello,” she said

demurely.

“Hey.”

Jovan stood directly behind her, staring daggers at Blake.

“If I may place my hand on your arm now.”

“Sure.”

Her tiny hand moved to his arm, and she stared at him.

The rest of the men in the room peppered him with questions, most he had

answered before. After a few minutes, the questioning stopped.

“What do you think, Liberty?” Jovan asked.

Liberty removed her hand. “I do believe your original assessment of the situation

was correct, Jovan. He is truthful in his words. He means no harm.”

Blake looked around the room and couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that crossed

his face. He’d passed their tests and was ready to hear more about his heritage. He also

knew time was ticking for the beings in Area 2.

“Hudson, take him back downstairs,” Noah said. “We’ve got to figure out what to

do with him.”

Dammit. Apparently, he wasn’t out of the woods with these people, these SR44

beings, yet.

And he still hadn’t gotten that whiskey.

Chapter 30

After Hudson and Blake left the War Room, Noah asked, “Okay, people, what do

we do?”

Rayner absently ran his hand through Faith’s hair. “I don’t know, man. The way I

see it is that we have two options: we believe him and take him to this Area 2 place with

us, or we kill him. Since Liberty and Jovan gave him the thumbs up, I vote for option

one.”

“But what about after?” Noah asked. “Do we keep him around like a pet, or do we

trust him that he’s not going to say anything or just kill him?”

“Noah,” Abby chastised him. “Don’t even think about killing that man.”

“If it protects you and everyone in the house, I won’t hesitate, Abby.”

“There has to be another way besides ending his life, Noah,” Abby said.

It was quiet for a moment, and then Neptune, Abby’s big black cat, announced his

presence with a howl.

“Isn’t one pet around here enough?” Jovan said as Neptune jumped in his lap.

“I’m sure as shit not letting Blake sit on me.”

There was a beat of silence, and then Liberty said, “If I may speak, Noah.”

“Of course you can speak, Liberty. Anytime you want to, as a matter of fact.”