Bryce, page 10
part #2 of Anarock Shifters Series
She blinked. “Yeah? So?”
“Think about it,” he breathed. “There we would be on the ground miles from the fucking Omega Battalion. We wouldn’t be able to fly, but we could walk away in the opposite direction. Once we took our human form, there would be no one around to stop us. We’d be free.”
She didn’t say anything and he went back to adding stems to his rope. He pretended they weren’t discussing escape at all while the scenario played in his mind. He searched for a flaw anywhere, but he couldn’t find one.
The bottom dropped out of his world when she murmured. “That won’t work.”
“Why not?” He dared not look up. “What’s wrong with it?”
“There we would be, miles from anywhere. We would have to walk or run to get away. We would never make it to Anarock in time to warn our people.”
His head snapped around before he could stop himself. “But what about….?”
She gazed at him waiting for him to finish. “What’s the point of leaving if we can’t warn them of the danger? I’m not leaving the Battalion as long as there’s a chance we can stop the attack. Once we left here, we could go anywhere in the world as long as we never took our dragon forms. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere but Anarock. If we did that on foot, we wouldn’t make it in time. The Battalion would get there before us and I can’t chance that. We’d be better off staying here and working against the Battalion from the inside.”
His shoulders slumped and he went back to braiding. He watched his plan shot to pieces before his eyes. Now what was he going to do?
“Bryce?” she asked. “Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.”
“Well? Do you still want to leave even knowing it could cost Anarock its only chance?”
“Of course not!” He checked himself and dropped his voice again. “You’re right. I know you’re right. I just hate to lose this chance.”
“I heard everything McCain just said to you. He trusts us—at least, he trusts us as much as he’s capable of trusting anyone. This could be the break we’ve been looking for. If he trusts us to fly around the Quag, maybe he’ll give us enough rope to do other things.”
He nodded down at his hands. He wrenched the strands tighter until they almost broke. Fucking shit! Just when he had it all worked out, his plan fell apart. He could punch somebody or something right now.
Alexa was right, though. They couldn’t risk leaving if it meant putting Anarock in greater danger. Right now, he and Alexa were the only things standing between Anarock and destruction. Christ, for all he knew, they were the only things standing between the whole world and destruction.
Bryce never pictured himself as the hero type and he still didn’t. He couldn’t leave his friends and family hanging out to dry, though. He also made up his mind to put that fucker McCain in his grave along with the rest of this lunatic Battalion.
Alexa got to her feet. He expected her to walk away and leave him to stew in his own juices. Instead, she laid her hand on his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get over there and see what’s what. Then we’ll have a better idea where we stand.”
She didn’t take that hand away. It communicated all the magical delicious beauty of last night through his bare skin. She was still there. She was still the mystical angel he tasted and delighted and experienced last night. Her fragrant essence came back to him when she touched him like that.
As if by some divine destiny, her palm glided up his shoulder to his neck. She traced his hairline and the bony knob behind his skull. Those fingers infected him with surreal energy. He had to respond.
He dropped the rope and stood up. He faced her and she lowered her hand. Her mouth parted into a bright, toothy smile. He couldn’t remember her looking so radiant and mesmerizing.
She pivoted and they walked off together toward the trees. Beyond the tents, she ran a few steps and launched. She extended her arms above her head and lunged forward. In a split second, she transformed into a dragon on the wing. She flapped over the Quag and into the heavy air growing hot with the rising sun.
Bryce jumped after her and the wind caught his wings. He streaked aloft and took his place at her side. They spiraled over the camp and Bryce glared down at a few people watching them go. Alexa stalled on the airstream to wait for him. Then they both turned their noses north.
The trees closed to a dense mat of greens and browns interspersed with patches of glistening water. Bryce could see gators slithering through the murky slime and turtles basking on exposed snags.
Farther north, a continuous carpet of Quag stretched to the farthest horizon. How easy it would be to get lost out there. He could dive into one of those lakes and never show his head above water until the Omega Battalion vanished out of existence.
A blanket of haze smudged the eastern rim of the Earth. New Orleans was over there somewhere with all its New Breed living their lives unawares. Did Victor and Colonel Weeks even know about the Omega Battalion? Did one of McCain’s people have the ability to mask the Battalion’s presence from any other seer?
If that was the case, how was the military able to detect them? The Battalion’s seers expressed surprise that anyone could tell where they were or when they were watching. Maybe that device of the military’s was a new thing. Maybe it would change the whole conflict. Either that or McCain out and out lied to his seers by saying no one could detect them. Maybe he did it to give them a false sense of security.
Bryce had to deal with the situation as though Victor and Colonel Weeks didn’t know and would never know. He had to consider himself and Alexa to be Anarock’s only line of defense.
Alexa spiraled higher into the cloud. When he looked back, Bryce found himself above the line of hills the military crossed last night. He didn’t see them anywhere nearby. That meant they didn’t retreat to the same place after the battle.
So where were they? He ascended to Alexa’s side. From here, they could sweep hundreds of miles, but they still picked up no sign of the military at all. That was strange. If the military launched this strike against the Omega Battalion, why would they abandon it after one confrontation?
The pair ranged far to the east and west. They covered thousands of miles, but the military vanished without a trace come daylight.
Bryce tilted on the wind. How peaceful and uncomplicated life was up here. He wished he could stay airborne forever. He noticed Alexa lingering on the undulating ripples. The air rustled across her scales. She looked calmer up here, too, but that was just an illusion.
Bryce didn’t feel like playing or racing now. Too many cares and concerns disturbed him. He wanted to protect Alexa from their situation, and he couldn’t do that up here. If anything, staying away from the Omega Battalion put them in greater danger. Their only hope lay in mollifying McCain and making him think Bryce and Alexa were his loyal supporters.
Alexa turned back first. Bryce fell in at her wing without a protest. They flew back to the camp brooding in silence. Long before they got there, Bryce picked up something he didn’t like one bit.
They came in sight of the camp and Bryce’s heart sank. The Battalion—Bryce hesitated at always referring to them as freaks—packed up their gear and loaded their monsters. Already a few meandered out of camp and hit the soggy trail.
Bryce rushed to the nearest person, who just happened to be Forsythia. “What’s going on? Where are we going?”
“East,” she replied. “McCain gave orders this morning.”
“But what about….?” Bryce stopped. What was the point in asking any of these people to explain what McCain did? Only McCain could explain himself, but he never did.
Bryce looked around him, but the horrible truth couldn’t be plainer. The Battalion was moving on toward Anarock. In his infinite wisdom, McCain didn’t give a shit about the military.
Holy fuck, did he send Bryce and Alexa to scout north knowing they would find nothing? He probably already used Boris or one of the other seers to check. Was the whole pretext a ruse to test Bryce’s loyalty? If it was a test, Bryce failed. Now McCain knew Bryce wouldn’t jump and fetch like an obedient puppy.
McCain’s one true power lay in keeping all his followers confused and chasing after wild geese. He did it before and he would do it again. He did it to Bryce and Alexa now by sending them in the opposite direction while he directed his people to move out eastward.
Alexa touched his arm. Her gentle voice penetrated his brain. “Come on. Let’s get our supplies and then we can go report to McCain.”
He didn’t see her enter the tent. He couldn’t stop staring at everything in shock. So McCain tricked him again. If McCain was already two steps ahead of the pair, did they ever stand a chance of warning their friends?
Alexa walked past him holding their food bundle and the water canister. She inclined her head to signal him to follow. She didn’t have to say a word.
12
Bryce and Alexa sat side by side and gazed across Temple Bay. Lake Salvador spread out farther away. Alexa couldn’t see the other side. She didn’t have to.
Behind their backs, the steady noise of the Omega Battalion pitching camp came to her ear. They stayed constantly vigilant over the last four days since the military attack. Not even that could enlighten Bryce and Alexa to any opportunity to tip off their friends to the Battalion’s inexorable advance.
Now here they sat watching the bay turn purple and teal in the twilight. They were right back where they started with nothing to show for it. Anarock was in more danger than ever and there wasn’t a thing they could do to stop the impending assault.
A bustle of footsteps advanced from behind and a voice called out, “Where do you want your tent? Is right here good enough?”
Bryce jumped up. A second later, Alexa heard him talking to that young guy who usually dealt with their everyday requirements like food and blankets. In the last few days, Alexa finally bothered to learn the kid’s name. The others called him Francois, although he didn’t look very Cajun to her. He looked like a white boy. Maybe his real name was Frank and he changed it to Francois to impress the girls.
Alexa didn’t turn around. She didn’t want to deal with anybody right now. She just wanted to sit and think. Correction. She wanted to wallow in her depression and think about how hopeless her life was. She wasn’t even a dragon shifter anymore.
Bryce came back and sat down next to her. He unfolded one of those ubiquitous paper packages and held it out to her. “Eat something.”
She took a slab of pemmican and ate it. She didn’t even taste it anymore. After a week on dried fish and pemmican, she didn’t care enough to hate the food that kept this miserable existence going.
Her endless silence with Bryce had changed its tone, too. Instead of dwelling in a halo of cosmic togetherness against all others, they rotted into an even more intractable loneliness. That misery united them more than anything.
She snorted at the irony of that statement. Against all others. What a joke. She and Bryce were against all others, all right—all others except the Omega Battalion. She got tricked into helping the very enemies she most wanted to destroy.
Just then, Jamison came striding along the water’s edge. He walked right into Alexa’s view and annoyed her by cutting off her line of sight toward Anarock. “McCain wants you two on guard at our eastern perimeter.
Bryce’s head shot up. “What—now?”
Jamison nodded and pointed behind the camp. “You’ll take your stations over there. Francois cast a tripwire spell to alert you if anyone breaches our perimeter. If anyone enters, you’re to take them captive and bring them before McCain—no exceptions.”
Jamison stood there with that empty expression on his face. He didn’t leave until Bryce got to his feet and wrapped up the food. Alexa didn’t budge until Jamison walked away.
Bryce touched her shoulder. “Come on.”
She got up and followed him, but she refused to look at anyone. She long ago gave up getting away or letting anyone in Anarock know what was about to happen. Watching her friends and relatives slaughtered and enslaved would be nothing less than she deserved for failing so miserably at this, her one chosen mission in life.
She didn’t look where she was going. She followed Bryce and bumped into him when he stopped. She cast a vacant scan into the trees, but she didn’t see anything.
The tents dotted a narrow piece of solid ground in an intractable swamp of sedge and weed. Moss dripped from the tree branches. If anybody tried to walk through this marsh, they were as likely to step on a gator as to sink up to their knees.
Bryce drifted closer to her side. He startled her by whispering in her ear. “As soon as the sun goes down, we’ll slip off. No one will see us. They won’t know we’re gone and no one will trip the alarm. We’ll have a straight shot to the city.”
She snapped out of her reverie in a flash. “Are you nuts? We would still never get there in time. If we could shift and swim through the lake, we might have a chance. As it is, we would have to hike all the way around Lake Salvador and all the way into town. Even if by some miracle we got there before the Battalion launched the assault, find Victor and tell him what was going on, he couldn’t react in time to save anyone.”
“Well, we have to do something. I’m not sitting around here waiting for McCain to destroy the city. If we don’t find a way to break out and raise the alarm, we’ll wind up getting sucked into attacking our own people. We won’t be able to fight against the Battalion. When they launch their offensive, all Hell will break loose. Christ, we’ll probably have to use our dragon powers just to stay alive and that means killing New Breed of Anarock.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Alexa fired back. “Don’t you think I’ve thought this over a million times?”
“Well, what do you expect me to do—just sit back and give up? I’m not going to do that.”
Alexa raised both hands and shook her head fast, but that did nothing to clear her thoughts. “I can only think of one thing. We go into camp right now and catch Susie. We bind and gag her and drag her out into the Quag. We threaten her life and make her reverse the spell. That’s our only chance.”
He looked over her shoulder toward the tents. “Do you really think that will work? What if someone sees us?”
“Of course it won’t work!” she hissed. “Nothing will work! We’re fucked, all right? We’re screwed and so is Anarock.”
“I can’t accept that.”
She whirled away. This topic was getting too awful and depressing even to think about.
They fell into another silence from which Alexa didn’t see any escape. She wished she was dead rather than face tomorrow. She didn’t even want to see Bryce anymore. He reminded her too much of everything she stood to lose, including him.
They paced up and down while darkness fell over the landscape, but Alexa didn’t bother to study the surroundings. If any intruder came upon the Omega Battalion, she really didn’t care. She didn’t see how anyone or anything could threaten this band of traveling monstrosities. They were just too powerful.
If by some chance the hypothetical intruder did threaten the Battalion, so much the better. She hoped such an intruder would do more than just threaten it. Maybe they would even distract the Battalion from assaulting Anarock or even do some damage. She could only pray.
Bryce passed her going the other way. She didn’t even look at him. She didn’t want to see the same despair distorting his features.
In the last four days, they floated farther and farther apart. After that one night when they had sex, they spent one more night kissing before they both fell asleep. The next night, they lay down side by side but didn’t touch. Now they didn’t even bother to share a bed. They both retreated to their own cots and pretended the other one didn’t exist. That’s what came of defending each other’s lives. Nothing came of it. That was what both their lives were worth now: bupkis.
She lacked the energy to do any of this. She even lacked the energy to pretend to stand watch. In a fit of spite, she flung herself down on the grass. “Fuck it. I’m done.”
He scrutinized her from a few feet away. Then he wandered to her side and crossed his legs next to her. He sat close enough to suggest there might be something between them beyond indifferent strangers. “I know it looks bleak, but we’ve come all this way. There must be something we can do. Let’s talk it through one more time. What do we have to lose?”
She sighed and let her head fall into her hands. What was the point? “Fine. What do you want to talk about?”
He turned his back on the perimeter, so he must not care much, either. Instead, he viewed the camp. When she followed his gaze, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “You might be right about targeting Susie. Maybe instead of taking her out into the Quag, we kill her in her sleep. Maybe the spell will dissolve when she dies.”
“And if it doesn’t? What if it doesn’t dissolve and she can only break it when she’s alive? We would be stuck like this forever.”
He scratched his chin in thought. “You’re right. What about one of the others? What if one of them can break it? It’s worth a shot.”
She rounded on him. She hated this conversation that got them nowhere. “Do you really want to go tent to tent asking people, ‘Hey, could you possibly break a spell that Susie cast on me at McCain’s express order? Hey, thanks anyway.’ Come on. Use your brain.”
He cracked a grin for the first time in days. Against her will, he sucked her back into thinking about it. “All right. Scratch that. What about McCain himself? If we can’t fight against the Battalion, what about killing McCain or somehow stopping him from launching the attack?”
“How are you going to get near him when he specifically ordered us to man this post?”
His eyes slid in her direction. “We would be breaking that order by going after Susie, so what’s to stop us going after him? If I knew for certain that killing him would stop the assault, I would do it.”
