Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One) (34 page)

51

Warnings in White

Saturday, June 16th

PATRICK

T
he next morning found the four of us sitting in a coffee shop with dark sunglasses.

“Remind me to punch you when my head stops throbbing,” I groaned at Travis as I rubbed my temples.

“Here, drink some of this. It will make you feel better,” Travis said as he handed me a flask of something.

“Do I even
want
to know what this is?” I asked as I took the flask.

“Probably not.”

I took a swig and nearly spit it back out. “Gods, what the hell is this crap? It tastes awful.”

“Hey, I said it would get rid of your headache. I didn’t say anything about it tasting good.”

“Can I have some?” Connor asked, sounding equally miserable.

I passed him the flask and washed the awful taste out of my mouth with coffee. Connor took a swig, made a horrible face, and then passed it to Shawn. He took a swig as well before passing it back to Travis.

Travis put it back in his pocket and looked at me. “
So
…aside from your head, how you feeling? You nervous about today?”

“Surprisingly, no.” It
was
surprising; I had always thought I would be nervous as hell, but after all the crap I had been through the last few months, I seemed to be all out of anxiety.

“Well, you’re damn lucky, because if it was me, I know I’d be—” And then he stopped himself. “You know if it had to be anyone, I’m glad it was you, Patrick.” Then he smiled. “I don’t think I ever did tell you that.”

I didn’t have to ask what he meant. “Thanks, Travis.”

It was nice to have a brother. To know that no matter what someone would always have my back; always be there to watch out for me. It was a good feeling to feel like I belonged somewhere. Sure, my new family had tried to make me feel welcome in their world, but I had never felt like I truly belonged there; until now. Now I had proof that I was and always should have been a part of their world—of her world.

Travis looked at his phone, and his eyes got wide. He shoved it in his pocket and stood. “Come on Patrick, we have to head out. If I make you late to your own wedding Nualla will kill me.”

NUALLA

I
sat there staring at myself in the mirror trying to calm my breathing. I had already done this once before, so why was I so nervous?

“Hey Nualla, I know it’s your wedding and all, but we really should get out there,” Nikki said as she leaned against the door frame.

“I know, Nikki. Just give me another second, okay?”

She gave me an indulgent smile and started walking out the door.

I went back to trying to calm my nerves. It was just Patrick; I was just marrying Patrick, nothing scary. Except that I would be in front of hundreds of people who were silently judging me.

I wonder if this was how Skye had felt when she got married to Nikki’s dad. Knowing Skye, she probably wouldn’t have given the slightest damn what people thought.

I heard the door open again and whipped around. “Nikki, I said I’ll be right there!” I snapped in exasperation, but the person in the doorway wasn’t Nikki, it was Natasha Jordash. “
Oh
, sorry Natasha, I thought you were Nikki.”

“Your father would like to speak with you before the ceremony starts,” she said with a smile.

I stood up. “Okay.” He probably just wanted to say something sweet and fatherly. If there had been something wrong, he would have come to me himself.

I followed Natasha out into the hall and down one of the hallways on the way to the temple. We turned the corner and someone grabbed me, but before I could scream they placed something over my mouth. And everything went dark and silent as death.

52

I Should Have Known

Saturday, June 16th

NUALLA

“C
ome on sleepy head, time to wake up,” someone said quietly as they jabbed me with a foot.

“
Nathan
?” I asked as I groggily blinked my eyes until the room came into focus.

I looked around; we were in the security office. I tried to move my hands, but they wouldn’t move. No, that wasn’t right. I could move my hands, they were just—
bound
? I tried to work through the fog in my head; tried to make the world around me make sense.

But I couldn’t.

Why was he looking at me that way? Nathan had always been kind to me, to my family. This person,
this
Nathan in front of me was so far removed from that person I knew that I was almost positive this was a dream.

Almost.

“You, my dear, have caused me an endless series of problems,” he said as he folded his arms and sneered down at me.

“Nathan, what’s going on? Why are you doing this?” I asked hesitantly.

“Your Embassy is detaining my wife and I’d like her back.”

“Your
wife
? Why would we have your wife?” None of this was making any sense and my “this is a dream” theory was gaining momentum. However the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that this wasn’t a dream.

“You mean you don’t know? Tisk, tisk. I thought you were more clever than this, Nualla,” Nathan said as he looked me over like I was some kind of experiment that had disappointed him by yielding an unfavorable result.

“What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.

“You didn’t find it particularly odd that your school was attacked by katana-wielding assassins when your father’s own personal guard is herself a world-class swordswoman? Or that she was conveniently not there when The Embassy was attacked?”

I just gaped at him in horror, my heart sputtering and skipping a beat. If Natasha was one of the assassins, that meant— I looked up at him, my eyes growing larger in shock, my breath coming up short. “You’re the inside man,” I stated on an exhale of breath, letting it all out until my lungs were empty. It made perfect sense now, why they hadn’t found the mole. The mole was Nathan, who would have made
damn
sure he wasn’t caught. It was a perfect plan, really.

Damn you Travis, for once couldn’t you have just been wrong?

“Finally using that brain of yours, I see,” Nathan said with a mirthless crooked smile. “Pity.”

Panic started to rise in my throat as the implications of what he was saying worked its way through my mind like a poison. The person who was supposed to be protecting us, the person we had entrusted our very lives to, was out to kill us. Then I realized something even worse; people didn’t tend to divulge their secrets to you if they were going to let you walk away. Which meant I was most likely about to die. But still, I just had to ask even though I knew what the answer would be. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“Oh lots of reasons, but mainly because you’re not going to live very much longer.”

I swallowed hard. “I’m not?” My heart was slamming so hard against my ribs I could barely hear Nathan’s voice over the sound of it.

“I need to get rid of you, so she can take your place; her
rightful
place.”

“
She
?”

“You’re not the only one with that pretty face of yours. As it turns out there’s someone that bears a striking resemblance to you, my dear.” He moved to give me a clear view of the security display behind him. There stood a girl who looked exactly like me; it was like looking into a horrible mirror.

“The
doppelgänger
,” I whispered as my heart shuddered to a stop.

“You two could practically be twins. The only real difference between the two of you is those blue streaks,” he said, gesturing to my hair. “And that was easy enough to fake.”

I swallowed hard, trying to push down my fear. “And Patrick, won’t he notice it’s not me?” I asked, but even as I did the horrible realization set in. Now I finally knew why the voice of the second assassin had seemed strangely familiar. Because it had been my voice.

“Oh I don’t think he will,” Nathan answered cryptically before he looked back at the screens. “Well, things look about to get underway, so I must bid you adieu.”

He rose from the table and walked over to push something in the corner behind me which responded with an electronic beep. As it started to hum and beep quietly, I didn’t have to think hard to realize what it was; now that I was more alert I could feel the titanium resonating against my skin. A bomb. A
titanium
bomb. Could he have possibly thought of anything more deadly to us—to
me
.

“A bomb—but why, Nathan? Why would you betray us? Why would you hurt you own people?”

He leaned in conspiratorially. “Let me tell you a secret honey, I’m
nothing
like you.” The air around him wavered and his horns turned a dusky red. He was a Kakodaemon.
Nathan
was a Kakodaemon. In one horrible moment the pieces all fell into place.

“Your wife’s Jane Connolly isn’t she? Patrick’s—”

“Former mother? Why yes, yes she is,” Nathan answered with a wicked smirk. “You know, it’s funny really, when I found out you two got together I thought our whole plan was in the drain. But apparently, you both were too busy running around like idiots to realize the truth.”

“But why, why would you want him? Why would you take him?”

“Joshua Centrina took something from me—something
very
precious; I simply returned the favor.”

I couldn’t find the words to speak, so I just sat there looking at him.

“But I really must be going now, I don’t want to miss that lovely wedding out there,” he said as he stood back up again. He took a few steps toward the exit before he turned back around. “You know, as much as I’d like to say I’m doing all this to put you all in your place, or that the very
sight
of you disgusts me, really it comes down to this: I needed a diversion to get my wife out, and I really had no qualms about killing you or blowing up your Embassy to do so,” he admitted with a shrug as if it was nothing.

I just stared at him, my heart thudding painfully fast in my chest.

“Be seeing you,” Nathan said as he turned and continued toward the exit. But just as he was about the pass through the doorway he stopped and turned. “Oh wait, I guess I won’t,” he said with a wicked grin as the door shut and blocked him from view.

I bit back my panic as I watched the Nathan on the security screen stroll away. When I was sure he was a safe distance away I sprang into action. Despair was a luxury I
so
didn’t have at this moment.

Unfortunately for Nathan, during our lovely chat, I had realized that the wooden chair I was bound to wasn’t bolted to the floor. Which meant his plan was totally frakked. All I had to do was break the chair, and I would be free. And thanks to the lovely TV programming they had on lately, I knew exactly how to do that. If Nathan had been as smart as he thought he was, he should have killed me on the spot. Too bad for him I guess.

I swung the chair as violently as I could into the nearby security table, and it splintered into pieces. My arms broke free from the chair easily. Now came the second way in which Nathan had underestimated me. Those dance classes I had taken since childhood had taught me more than just fancy footwork. A deep breath and a little balancing later and I had easily slipped my bound hands to the front of my body.

I ran to the door and reached out for the latch. The second I touched it searing pain ripped through my hand as if I had been shocked. I pulled my hand back so fast I almost fell over.
That bastard!
He had changed the door latch to one coated in titanium. This was just plain evil, really. And how the hell had
he
gotten out? Well if he thought that was going to stop me, he was wrong. All I needed was some fabric to act like an oven mitt. It would still hurt like hell, but at least I would be able to escape this ticking time bomb.

I looked down at where my wedding dress should have been and for the first time I realized I was only wearing a just-barely-long-enough white slip.

Oh
hells
no, that girl is not going to marry
my
Patrick wearing
my
frakking wedding dress!

Well, screw them. I would just find some other fabric. My eyes darted around the room, there had to be something else here I could use. Sure enough, slung over one of the chairs in the corner was one of the KP Officer’s jackets.

I love you SF, and your completely unpredictable weather.
Even in the middle of frakkin’ summer it could be fifty degrees with cold-ass wind.

I grabbed the jacket and wrapped my left hand—there was no sense in messing up the hand I
actually
used. I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth, and wrenched the door open. The second I released the door I nearly doubled over in pain. I would have dropped to my knees as well if it hadn’t been for what was waiting for me on the other side of the door.

Travis stood there in his slate-gray formal kimono top and
hakama
pants, looking more shocked than I had ever seen him in my life. “
Nualla
?”

“Yes Travis, who the hell
else
would it be?”

“But—I just saw you back there, about to walk down the aisle,” he said, turning back toward the temple.

“That’s not me, that’s a
doppelgänger
!” I shouted, wincing at the pain in my hand.

“I knew it,” he announced with complete certainty as he turned back toward me.

“Wait,
what
?”

“Nualla, I’ve known you nearly all your life and that girl out there isn’t you.”

“Has anyone
else
realized that?”

“I don’t think so. I only noticed because I saw the other you in the hall. That’s why I was out here,” he answered, gesturing to the hall before looking at me apprehensively. “So what the hell is going on?”

“Can’t explain that right now, Travis, there’s kind of a bomb in here,” I replied, jerking my head back toward the security room.

“A
bomb
?” Travis blinked at me dumbly for a second before looking over my shoulder in disbelief.

“Yeah, one with titanium, as if a
regular
bomb wasn’t enough of a bad thing.”

Travis swallowed hard then grabbed me by the shoulders. “Save the others, I’ll try to disarm it. If—if something goes wrong—I love you both,” he stated in a shaking voice. And with one last look he pulled me into a tight hug before pushing past me into the security office.

I looked back for one terrified second at what could be the last time I would ever see him, and then I turned and ran.

No one stood in my way; the halls were empty. Everyone must already have been inside. I could hear music, soft beautiful notes drifting down the hall, an unfair reminder of what this day should have been. A reminder of how it was being cruelly wrenched from me. I was about to lose everything, my friends, my family, Patrick. Everyone I held most dear.

Everything.