Surfacing the Rim (Piercing The Fold) (15 page)

I ignored the rest of Michael’s words as Corinna pulled at the restraints, beginning to whimper. “Why do you have these on me?”

Just hearing her plea, my heart pulled in my chest. I put my hand on hers, trying to still her. “Corinna, you’re safe. It’s alright. We just didn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

She stopped pulling on the restraints and looked into my eyes. Her voice was soft and delicate when she questioned who I was. “Sam?”

The sound of her voice saying my name was as strong as words being set in stone. I looked to Michael accusingly. “Give me the damn keys to the restraints.”

Michael shifted his stance. “Don’t think that’s a good idea while Reid and I are still present.”

My eyes stayed on Michael’s. I really didn’t want to know what he had done to provoke Corinna, even though I could guess how sadistic things might have gotten.

I growled at him, “Give me the keys and get out of here, both of you!”

Michael and Reid eyed each other.

I righted myself and added calmly, “Please leave us.”

Michael tossed me the keys. “I’ll be in touch soon.”

I nodded and turned back to Corinna. I wasn’t quite ready to burn a bridge over this with Michael and the other board members. There was too much riding on Corinna’s training and this mission. My future in the fellowship was even more substantial now that Sanderson was in command. I turned and focused on the giant steel-blue eyes that lay in front of me.

Reid and Michael both left the room and closed the door behind them, ensuring enough space was between them and Corinna before she was unleashed.

I slowly undid the straps binding her to the bed. She watched me work carefully, which intimidated me a bit.

This is new—a woman has never intimidated me before.

I supposed she sensed my intimidation because the next thing I knew I could hear Corinna’s thought, You are the only one I can trust right now.

As soon as she was free, I moved off of the bed and to the nearby chair, gaining some distance from her. It wasn’t a fear for her. It was just the opposite. I had never felt such an attraction or a pull with another guardian before. It wasn’t sexual, even though I was very much attracted to her. It was deeper—an intimate attraction of my soul with hers.

I eyed the medication sitting on the dresser. Reid had left it behind. I turned to look at Corinna.

“Are you in pain?”

Corinna shook her head. “No.”

The question must have triggered her memory of the procedure. She slowly gathered her hair and pulled it to one side, and then she reached to touch the nape of her neck, finding the location of the fresh scar from the implantation.

I saw the concern cross her face, and I briskly walked back over to her. “Please don’t touch it!”

Corinna’s eyes were sincere. “Why? I am healing quickly. See, the sti
tches have already been removed.”

I pulled the chair close to the bed. Corinna leaned forward so that I could get a closer look at her scar. The scar was still very pink and fresh, but she was right. It was healing. I moved my hand toward her neck, and I felt a tingling course through my hand, spurring me on to touch her and be close to her.

I quickly pulled back, clasped my hands together firmly, and resisted the need. I looked away, trying to distract myself.

“You’re right. It is healing perfectly,” I said flatly.

Corinna tossed her hair back over her shoulder to cover her neck, and then she turned to face me.

When her eyes met mine, I felt a sense of peace wash over me again. Hypnotized by her, I asked, “Can I get you anything? Are you hungry?”

Corinna replied, “I’m a little thirsty. I think it’s because of the medication they gave me.” Her eyes darted away from me to the floor, and then she continued, “They ran some tests before they brought me here.”

I felt her heartbeat become more rapid suddenly.

Corinna absentmindedly rubbed her wrists with her hand and breathlessly said, “I can’t remember very much.”

I closed my eyes briefly, knowing that they did in fact do sadistic things to her to get her to comply with them. My stomach turned, knowing that they had even touched her. I knew they had manipulated her, conditioned her, and brainwashed her thoroughly before she was brought here, and I wanted to kill them for it.

I could kill them, but then where would I be? I had to get control of myself. She was with me now, so she’ll never have to endure them again. I quickly changed the subject, not just for her sake, but for mine as well. “Do you know why you are here?”

Corinna crossed her legs and thought for a minute, like she was working something out in her head.
Then, she answered, “You helped me escape the Dobrian fellowship. They were using me as bait to get to that bitch, Jesca Gershon-Sera. You didn’t want me to get caught in the battle when Ezra Kahn and Nathaniel Sera appeared, so you sent me to Sonde to remain under the fellowship’s protection until you were safe.

“After I awoke on Sonde, Sanderson said that Balthazar, the original Sondian leader, had turned against the fellowship. He has been conspiring with Sebastian. He said that Balthazar was planning on using me as bait to get to you and the Sondian fellowship.”

Corinna shook her head. “They turned against me, Sam.” Her eyes shot up to mine. “Sanderson said that you were betrayed by the Dobrians a long time ago.”

I thought of Ezra and Anna. “Yes, I was.”

Corinna continued, “Sanderson said that he would bring me to you as soon as you were in a safe place.”

I asked, “And the procedure? What did he tell you?”

Corinna looked down for a moment and pulled at her shoelace. She tried to hide her sorrow, but I could still feel the heavy weight on her shoulders. She continued, “He said that it was necessary to deactivate the Dobrian Copula so that I could not be tracked by them. They hunted down my family and murdered them. They would be hunting me now, too.”

When she looked up at me, her lapis-colored eyes were glistening with tears. But, I knew she would be damned before she let them fall from those eyes.

Corinna said, “I had to be implanted with the Sondian Copula in order to keep my heightened abilities. Two days ago, Sanderson said that you were safe and ready for me to begin my training and mission as a Sondian guardian with you.” Corinna sucked in a deep breath and wiped her eyes with her long-sleeve shirt. “The details are a little fuzzy after that.”

I knew they were fuzzy because Corinna had blocked some of the conditioning she had to endure. Her mind was trying to reject the memories of the pain and fear Sanderson and the others had put her through. I remembered witnessing the conditioning all too well long ago.

I rested my hand gently on her leg. “Are you alright?”

At first, she stared at me, and then a coy smirk began to spread across her face.
“Apparently, I put up a fight.”

I moved my hand from her leg back to the wrist of one of her hands and held it softly. I did not say anything to her right away. I just brushed my thumb along her skin. I felt her body relax under my hand.
I whispered softly, “Come. Let’s get you something to drink and eat.”

* * *

I stop in the center of the living room, listening for Corinna’s movement.

I call out, “Corinna, I can barely sense you. You are getting very good at this.”

Her hushed laugh fuels a rush of adrenaline within me. I feel her presence in that moment, and I quickly move across the room, through the kitchen, into the office, and shut the door.

“I know you are in here, Corinna. I can feel it. I can feel you.”

Corinna opens the closet door and saunters toward me seductively. I would think I’m a schoolboy with the things her look does to me.

Her eyes are downright predatory. “This game is not as much fun when you are linked to your prey.”

I breathe in deeply to right myself and my thoughts. I smile, walking over to her slowly. Clasping her hands in mine, I look into her eyes and remind her, “The link will give us strength. Did you feel it just now—the surge of adrenaline? Our life forces are feeding off of each other.”

Corinna nods. “Yes, I did.”

Corinna pulls away from me and sits casually on the sofa. I sense she is all business now.

“Did the university receive the shipment of Copulas?”

I walk to the sofa and sit next to her. “Yes, it was twenty this time.”

“Why not more?”

I scoff at her eagerness. “Why not more? That is quite a few!”

She looks at me and smiles, knowing she has gotten under my skin. “I just think that we should be adding our numbers more quickly.”

I rest my hand along the back of the sofa. I poke lightly at her now and smile. “Have you taken a peek outside lately? It has rained for ten days straight. Then, this morning, the rain turned to sleet. The temperature has dropped fifty degrees in a few hours. I’m very sorry that we’re not playing on your timetable.”

Corinna tilts her head to the side and rolls her eyes.

I continue more seriously now. “Sanderson has spread distribution of the Copulas to more universities globally. With the amount of humans we are adding to our fellowship, along with the rest of the world, we will be more than prepared for our mission. We will need to be ready to initiate the wormhole in five days.”

Corinna asks, “Who are they? Who are the next marks?”

Sanderson sent me the intelligence three days ago. “You know, the usual—affluent people, peppered with an ambassador, two judges, and a few diplomats.”

I watch Corinna as her calculating mind works.

“Okay, so you take the ambassador and judges. I will take the rest.”

I look at her sideways, impressed by her bold attempt to outperform me. I slyly say, “Pretty confident, aren’t we, Ms. Thing?”

Corinna bows her head and smiles. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

I watch her, entertained by her laughter. Like it has a mind of its own, my hand moves from the back of the couch and runs along the side of her cheek. The instant I graze her skin, I feel the familiar overwhelming need to touch her more. Hesitantly, I pull away and look down, clasping my hands together.

Corinna moves closer to me, radiating her need for me to touch her again. “Sam, I—”

Before she can finish speaking, I get up off the sofa and leave the room to avoid losing control.

Chapter 22

Jesca

As Ezra promised, it is a long day. Nate and I have an advantage on Xander. We have experienced “the wrath of Kahn” on a regular basis. This is Xander’s first encounter.

When Ezra asks Xander to get into a combat stance and punch him as hard as he can, Xander’s face is priceless. I can’t help but laugh a little. Ezra doesn’t waste any time with the basic training we did in the facility. There isn’t enough time. Instead, he uses process of elimination to find Xander’s strengths.

By midday, it is evident that Xander possesses almost identical abilities to Nate. Xander shows he has Ushering, the ability to use compulsion on another person; Latrosis, the ability to heal another with his life force; Qi, the ability to use his life force as external energy; Telepathy, reading others’ minds; Astral Projection, the ability to project himself to another place in both lucid dreams and while conscious and awake. Of course, great speed and strength were among the list. The one advantage that Xander has on Nate is his ability to maneuver while astral projecting within a dream state.

Nate and I model our abilities separately and combined to show him how we can work together because of our link.

Xander asks if abilities can only be combined if the guardians are linked. We all look at Ezra for an answer.

Ezra crosses his arms. “It’s easier to combine abilities if there’s a link between the guardians. It’s possible to combine abilities with guardians that are not linked, but it takes a lot of energy and complete trust on each guardian’s behalf.” Ezra explains to Xander why links between guardians were created and when the reconfigured and coded Copula was introduced.

Xander asks, “Well, what about multiple guardians linking?” Xander pauses, looking at me. He continues, “Is it possible to have a link with more than one guardian?”

Ezra puffs out his lip, like he does when he’s tense or under pressure. “It is possible, but it has never been seen before.”

Xander doesn’t probe any further. Ezra rubs the stubble of hair on his chin. He looks intently from Nate, to Xander, and then to me.

“There might be a time when you have to combine your abilities with a guardian you are not linked to in order to survive in battle or save another guardian.” Ezra walks away with his head down and his hands wrapped around the base of his neck. “Trust will be the one thing that could save you or kill you.”

The way he says that makes me wonder if he’s had firsthand experience with it.

I remember Ezra telling me about Sam being in love with Anna, my mother. Sam trusted her. When he uncovered her identity, there was only one thing for him to do—kill her. How was he able to kill her though? With all of her abilities, how did he subdue her? Why was she so vulnerable?

Unless
it was because she was not in close proximity to her partner, Ezra, to combine abilities and save her. If Ezra had gotten to the cabin sooner, Anna’s life—my mother’s life—could have been saved. How can I have not asked this question before? Were Anna and Ezra implanted with the reconfigured and coded Copula? Were they linked to each other?

No, if he was linked to her, he would have known what was happening to her and where she was just by thinking of her. Were Ezra and my mother, Anna, not linked at all?

Ezra interrupts my private thoughts with his words. “Let’s break for an hour and get some food in our stomachs. We need to concentrate on combining and linking your abilities this afternoon. Eat and rest.”

I keep my thoughts private as they begin creating tangents of what ifs about Nate, Xander, me, and the link that any of us could potentially share with each other. Could it be the one thing that will save or kill one or all of us?

I quickly walk away from the three of them to head upstairs.

Nate walks over to me and whispers, “Jes, you okay?”

I don’t look at him. “Yeah, just need to put some cold water on my face.”

I move quickly up the stairs of the basement, heading up through the cabin to my room. I shut the door, leaning against it with my eyes closed to calm myself down. I need to talk with Ezra about this.

Then, there is a knock at my door.

“Jesca, are you alright?”

Great, it’s Ezra—just perfect.

“Yeah, just needed to cool off and lie down for a minute.

Ezra asks, “Can I come in?”

I put my hand to my forehead, rolling my eyes. “Um, why? I mean, I’m fine.”

Ezra pushes the door open. “Then, you won’t mind me coming in to talk.”

I flop down on the bed and sarcastically say, “No, of course not, Dad. Come on in.”

Ezra plops down on the bed next to me. He leans on his elbows, folding his hands together. “You left quickly. You okay?”

I nod my head, letting him know that I’m fine.

I can feel Ezra watching my reaction, trying to read my thoughts. I keep my eyes on the wooden floorboards while I focus on blocking my thoughts. Ezra gets off the bed, standing in front of me. I look up at him. He doesn’t speak. He just stares at me.

I get a little paranoid. “What? Are you going to stare me down until I speak?”

Ezra stares stoically at me with his arms crossed over his chest. “If I have to, I will.”

I try to stand, but Ezra pushes me back onto the bed.

“Hey!” I can’t believe he just did that to me.

Ezra holds up his hand, waving it at me. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what has you so worked up that you’re blocking it from me.”

I try to stand again, and he shoves me back down.

This is really getting annoying now.
“Stop it, Ezra! It’s not the time to talk about this.” I move one way, and then with my quick speed, I try and maneuver around him on the other side. Ezra traps me by my arms and pulls me into a bear hug. I try to break his hold without hurting him. “I don’t want to hurt you, Ezra.”

Not winded at all, he says calmly, “And, you won’t. Just start talking.”

“Ughhhh!” He is so irritating. “Fine! Take your hands off of me first.”

“Nope. Start talking, and then I will,” he says while his hold intensifies, anticipating I might try and dodge him again.

This game is pissing me off, and I react. “Were you and my mother implanted with the same Copula as Nate, Xander, and me?”

His hands loosen a little. “We were the first wave to be implanted.”

I release my mental block and let my thoughts flow freely for him to read. I let him read everything I am considering about him, my mother, and Sam, and my concern for Nate, Xander, and me.

Ezra turns me around with his hands on both sides of my shoulders. He dodges my initial question.

“Jes, that will not happen between you, Nate, and Xander. Our situation was very different from you three.”

Not letting him get away from my question so fast, I ask more tenderly, “Were you and my mother linked?”

Ezra lets go of me, putting his hands on his hips. He sucks in a breath and scratches his visibly trembling lip. “No, we were not.”Ezra’s eyes don’t leave mine. “She never found her link.”

I can only imagine my parents being in love, being re-implanted with the reconfigured and coded Copula, and then discovering they were in fact not linked. I feel my heart sink for Ezra as I search his eyes for any morsel of hope, a silver lining in their tragic love story.

Ezra says, “We were in love, Jesca. We loved each other very much, but we were never linked to one another.”

I walk away from him to the window. I swallow the knot that has formed in my throat, trying to hold back the tears in my eyes as I turn to face him.

Ezra surprises me as he chuckles while looking beyond me out the window. “When Anna and I met, we were so attracted to each other. After we were re-implanted with the coded Copula, we swore it was inevitable that we would be linked. A few days after re-implantation we tested the possibility of a link.”

Ezra looks down and sits on the bed. “We were devastated, but we wouldn’t let the fact that we weren’t linked separate us. Sebastian told us that it was difficult but not impossible to combine abilities if we weren’t linked. In order to combine our abilities, we had to trust each other completely. It took time for us to get there, but we did.”

Ezra stops his story and looks at me. “And, the time we took to trust each other is what gave us the chance to fall even deeper in love with each other. We were more than linked, Jesca. We were bonded by something much stronger.” Ezra pauses and smiles softly. “I would not change anything about our bond.”

He shifts his eyes to me after he realizes that he’s said more than he had planned to reveal to me. I feel my eyes tear up from his story. I look down and wipe away the fallen tears.

I think about Nate, Xander, and me. We are hours away from discovering if Nate and me are the only two that share a link or if Xander is also linked to me. If Xander isn’t linked to me, then how could he combine his abilities with me when he saved me last night? Did we already trust each other so much so quickly, or is there something more there?

I walk over to the bed and sit next to Ezra. He is slumped forward, leaning on his elbows.

I want to let him know that I’m sorry for the fate he had with my mother. I don’t know how to say it, so I lay my head on his shoulder and wrap my arm around his back. I release my block, letting him know that I love him and that I’m sorry.

Ezra doesn’t say anything. He simply tilts his head to rest against mine.