The Purest of the Breed (The Community) (41 page)

“No,” she whispered.

Alex knew a cue when he saw it. He walked up to Luvera, and then he
did
go down on his knees, right in front of her. “Go out on a date with me,” he said, taking her hand, “and we’ll start from there. The past gets left in the past and we’ll only look to the future. If it ever comes to us getting together, all I care about is that you honor any commitment you make to me then. Nothing before
us
matters.”

“I would never be unfaithful to you,” she vowed quietly.

“I know.” He squeezed her hand. “So we’re good.”

“O-okay.” A tear leaked from Luvera’s lashes even as her face lit up. “I’ll go out with you, Alex.”

Alex blinked, once, twice. “Holy Moses, really?” He glanced over at Dev. “Did she just say yes?”

Dev laughed. “Just hug her, you space cadet.”

Grinning widely, Alex leapt to his feet, tugging Luvera up with him. He hugged her tightly, inhaling her innocent daisy scent, warmth filling his chest to overflowing. What would be proper protocol at a moment like this? A “wahoo!” or “hot dog!”

Before he could decide, the courtroom door was flung open, and Thomal charged inside with Llawell, his fist tangled in the scruff of the body shop guy’s shirt. “I gotta interrupt,” Thomal barked.

Llawell was clutching his chest and his legs looked rubbery enough that, if not for Thomal’s supporting hold, the man would’ve been on the floor.

Jaċken surged out of his seat. “His radar’s going off.”

Tonĩ jumped to her feet and moved rapidly around the Council table.

“Yes, yes, it’s my wife.” Llawell bared his teeth in pain. “I think something’s happened to Candace.

Chapter Forty-one

Alex sat at the main console in the computer command center, his fingers flying over the keyboard, his eyes pinned on the screen as information steadily scrolled past. “According to the Travelers’ schedule for the day, Candace isn’t due back into the community for another few hours.” He looked up at Tonĩ and Jaċken, both hovering over his chair. “She’s not even officially late.”

Tonĩ glanced over at Llawell, who was on his knees at Roth’s feet groaning. “Well, something’s obviously wrong.”

“Has Candace checked in at all?” Roth asked in a clipped tone, his expression about as cheery as the Grim Reaper’s.

Alex shifted his focus to the screen of another of the ten computers he commanded. “No. But that’s not unusual, is it?”

“Why don’t you do a quick scan of the local hospitals, just to humor us,” Tonĩ said. “You should be able to search the ones you’ve already hacked into relatively fast.”

“All right.” Clackity-clack went his fingers while everyone waited for him.

Jaċken held himself with that strange battle-ready stillness that every warrior seemed to excel at, while Roth paced, and Llawell moaned with hair-pulling ceaselessness. Dev and Thomal were upstairs for the moment, escorting Shọn and Luvera to upstairs bedrooms, where they would remain under house arrest until their cases were decided. At least they weren’t being detained in basement jail cells. Alex didn’t think he could’ve borne imagining Luvera there.

A soft bleep sounded, and a silent
oh, no
passed through Alex’s brain. That meant Candace’s name had popped up at a hospital.

“Crap.” Tonĩ knew it, too. “What is it?”

Alex skimmed the information, and went cold to the marrow of his bones. “Tonĩ,” he said in a hushed tone. “Candace’s name just came up at your old hospital. Scripps Memorial.” He spun his chair toward Llawell. “I’m so sorry.” His throat worked around his next words. “She’s in the morgue, Llawell.”

“My God.” Tonĩ’s lips parted. “What does the report—?”

Llawell threw back his head and let out a deafening howl.

“Ahhh!” Alex pressed his hands over his ears as the raw, piercing anguish of the sound ripped through the command center, ricocheting off every corner in the room.

“Watch out!” Jaċken shouted.

The overhead light fixtures began to burst apart, the exploding bulbs
boom-booming
like a volley of mortars.

“Get down!” Jaċken grabbed Tonĩ around the waist and Alex by the shirt, dragging them both to the floor.

Alex belly-flopped to his stomach with a hard splat. Blade-like pieces of glass showered down from the ceiling, and Jaċken shoved Tonĩ deeper under the long desk. Alex scrambled to get farther under, too.

Pow
!
Pow
!
Pow
! One after the other, his computer screens exploded, glass blowing outward across the room. Through squinched lids, Alex watched the shards hit the opposite wall.
Jesus Christ, no
…

With a long, gasping moan, Llawell finally stopped his tormented cry. Toppling over onto his side, he buried his face in his hands and began to weep.

Jaċken lifted to a crouch above Tonĩ, his eyes wild on his wife. “Are you okay?” His hand cupped her belly, still slender and flat, but nevertheless in charge of baking Baby Brun.

Tonĩ nodded mutely.

Alex crawled forward and cautiously popped his head above the edge of the desk to check out the damage. His heart sank into the earth. It was the apocalypse. Only
one
of his precious computers hadn’t been destroyed.

Roth rose from his own crouch, his face red. “Explain this,” he demanded of Alex. “What did that report say about Candace?”

Alex glanced at Jaċken. “Why don’t we take care of Llawell first?”

Jaċken helped Tonĩ up, then moved over to Llawell and did the same. “Come on, man. Let’s get you to a couch to lie down.”

Bracing his hands on the edge of the desk, Alex shoved himself to a standing position. “The autopsy report was only preliminary,” he told them just as Jaċken re-entered. “But it said the body showed signs of torture.”

“Torture,” Roth hissed. He bolted a look over to Jaċken. “This means the Topside Om Rău got hold of her.”

“We can’t be sure of that,” Jaċken argued.

Roth’s eyes snapped. “Who else would want a Traveler?”

“How would the Om Rău even know about our Travelers,” Jaċken countered, “or be able to identify one?”

Alex looked between Roth and Jaċken. “And why torture her?”

Roth’s spine locked stiff. “As a Traveler, she knows how to get in and out of our community.” Roth exhaled air through his nostrils. “Those creatures are trying to find our entrances!”

“If that’s the case,” Tonĩ intervened, “then we need to discuss security options for—”

“There’s no time for
discussion
,” Roth plowed over her. “If Candace was tortured, we have to assume the Om Rău were able to extract information from her. We must go into full shutdown right away.”

“No.” Jaċken chopped a hand through the air. “Full shutdown is too drastic for the amount of information we have.”

Tonĩ frowned. “What’s full shutdown?”

Jaċken reached for his cell phone. “Let my men and I confirm this before—”

“Confirm how?” Roth’s jaw could’ve rivaled Jaċken’s for hardness. “It’s daylight topside.” Roth moved toward a metal lock-box on the far wall. “Every moment we wait is a further risk to our lives. Our enemy could be breaking into one of our elevators even as we stand here deliberating.”

Jaċken followed him over. “Dammit, Roth! Stop!”

Roth spun the combination lock and jerked open the metal door, exposing a button not unlike those used for the community’s 911 system.

“
Don’t
.” Jaċken planted his hands on his hips, looking like he wanted to stop Roth physically—maybe, in the process, ripping an arm off—but the Vârcolac were still a little funny about going against their leaders. “You’ll cut us off from everything.”

“Would somebody please tell me what a full shutdown is?” Tonĩ demanded sharply.

Alex’s heart tripped. He was beginning to get nervous about that, too.

“We must consider ourselves breached,” Roth ground out. “Shutting down the community is our only recourse.” He slammed his hand against the button.

“Uh, oh,” Alex breathed as the world instantly went black.

Chapter Forty-two

Not a soul in sight.

Not a sound to be heard, except for the scuff of Dev’s boots on the rocky cave floor and the soft, steady tap-tap of his rifle muzzle hitting a button on his trench coat.

Ţărână was the darkest he’d ever seen it…no lights inside a cave, go figure. Only dim yellow security lighting filtered out from the occasional corner. The whole scene gave off an eerie, abandoned vibe, like a ghost town, empty of life. Shops and homes were shut up tight, doors locked and curtains drawn, everyone probably huddled around flashlights and trying not to let full-on panic set in too deeply. Made the place feel damned creepy.

Fucking Roth
. The man had butted his nose in where it didn’t belong—in security—and now they were all stuck in a full shutdown, water and electricity switched off and being rationed, all contact with the outside world disabled: comm. plus the elevators. That amounted to Dev being completely cut off from Marissa; she couldn’t get to him and he couldn’t get to her. And right at a time when, oh, the Topside Om Rău just happened to be torturing the community’s women.

Dev gritted out a curse, locking his molars together.

The thin beam of a penlight swept over him, then Arc Costache resolved out of the shadows, dressed all in black and sporting as many knives as his body could hold. “Hey.”

Dev jerked his chin in greeting.

No rest for the warriors when the community went to pot. The men had been up all night, pacing the town, keeping things safe down
here
while they figured out how the hell to get up
there
. The idea had been tossed around that Candace’s murder was being used as a ploy to distract them, perhaps getting the Vârcolac to divert all of their resources topside so that Jøsnic could attack, making good on his threat against Beth and Hannah. It wouldn’t be the first time the Topside and the Underground Om Rău had worked together. Jøsnic probably hadn’t figured on the Vârcolac being doofus enough to get themselves
stuck
in Ţărână…but it was only a matter of time before he found out.

Yeah, well…good luck to Jøsnic on launching an attack. Arc had an eat-shit-and-die look stamped on his face that suggested the likelihood of anyone getting through him to his extremely pregnant wife was damned slim.

Dev checked anyway. “Any action over by the tunnels?”

“No, everything’s chill,” Arc answered, then countered with his own question. “What’s the word on Cleeve and Alex’s progress?”

The community’s two IT guys were struggling to hack through the time-locks of shutdown and get systems back online as fast as possible. But with only one computer at their disposal, things were moving teeth-gratingly slow.

“No word, except—”

The security lighting snapped off, dousing the cave in inky blackness.

There was a far off, frightened cry from the direction of the residential neighborhood.

“Great,” Arc drawled. “Just what the women need is more of the heebie-jeebies.”

Dev growled a breath. All of the warriors felt like total failures when their females didn’t feel safe.

Thomal jogged toward them, the beam of his penlight swinging crazily.

“Hey, Thomal,” Dev called, “you got any idea why the security lighting just went out?” Something Dev could’ve radioed in to ask, if they had any fucking comm. Disabling inner-town communication was pretty stupid-ass, but the whole shutdown system had been installed back in the days when there hadn’t been the technology for differentiation. After this fiasco, he bet there’d be a whole lot of updating going on.

Thomal slowed and stopped, clicking off his penlight. “Alex got one of the elevators up and running, but he had to divert all auxiliary electricity to do it. It’s sunset, Dev, and Jaċken wants the Special Ops Topside Team to check the security of all the entrances.”

“We’re heading up?” Dev was
all over
that idea. “Halle-fucking-lujah.”

Thomal jammed the penlight into his back pocket. “Jaċken’s taking my place on the team, so that I can stay here with Arc.”

Arc’s eyebrows lifted. “I wasn’t aware I needed babysitting.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Thomal winced. “Beth just went into labor.”

Wave bye-bye to Arc.

“She—?”Arc’s eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. “No,” he denied hoarsely. “She can’t have the baby now. We’re in the middle of a shutdown.”

“I don’t think your kid’s aware of that.” Thomal grabbed his brother’s shoulder. “Beth is gonna be fine, Arc. Doc Jess is jerry-rigging some equipment for her. Let’s head over.” Thomal pulled his brother in the direction of the hospital, calling over his shoulder to Dev, “Meet the team at the four-man in the east corner of Stânga Town.”

The passenger-only elevator? That was actually a good idea. The rarely-used elevator was tucked away at the end of a long tunnel. He doubted many of the Travelers knew about it, making it the safest option for avoiding a topside ambush.

“Stay tight,” Thomal added, then double-timed it off with Arc in tow.