Gods of Blood and Bone (Seeds of Chaos Book 1) (55 page)

She screamed the scream of being separated from herself, as her insides bucked and bubbled and burst. It was a horrible sound, reverberating through my bones and echoing from every surface in the courtyard.
 

Then her bleeding eyes rolled back in her head, and she went limp.
 

The overpowering storm of rage in my head hadn't calmed yet, and I wanted to continue hurting her until she died, if she hadn't already. I wanted to keep smashing her like the bug she was, until her body was nothing but an unrecognizable lump of flesh and blood and bone.
 

But I took my second breath, a gasp this time, and released her fist and my power.

Chapter 39

Hello, darkness, my old friend…I’ve come to talk to you again.

— Simon and Garfunkel

The fighting down below had stopped, as everyone still standing looked up at me with wide eyes.
 

In the sudden silence, my knees almost buckled from the backlash of my attack. My head spun as the rage and triumph tried to take over again, and I was as tired and hurt as if I'd just fallen out of a plane with no parachute. If no one had been watching, I would have fallen to the ground and let my consciousness slip away. Using Chaos twice in such short succession should still have been impossible for me.
 

But this was neither the time nor place for weakness, so I straightened and put on a mask of calm confidence. "You will concede defeat," I called down to the still conscious attackers below, "or I will come down there and destroy you all."
 

They raised their hands, and the three that could still move backed away from Jacky and Adam. The other was unconscious, and didn't look like he'd be waking up any time soon.
 

A muffled boom sounded from down below, and then one of the concrete doors burst open, rubble flying as an explosion ripped it apart.
 

A uniformed woman stumbled out, ignoring the surprised call of, "Commander! Wait!" from behind her. Metal stripes glinted on her shoulder.
 

"Is it her?" I called down to Adam.
 

"Yes," he said.
 

"I am Commander Nadia Petralka," she shouted. "Please, stop now. I've come, like you requested."
 

"Do you know who I am?" I asked, again running my claws over the surface of the damaged sphere.
 

She nodded, but her eyes were drawn to the downed girl at my feet. "You're Eve Redding, one of our highest ranked Players. Stop what you're doing. There is no need for further destruction or violence."
 

I frowned. "You say that, but you people are the ones who started all this. And suddenly, when it turns out you may have taken on the wrong opponent, you call for peace? I warned her to leave us alone if she wanted to live."
 

"Is she...dead?" Nadia Petralka's voice threatened to waver, and she clenched her jaw instead, keeping a calm face.
 

I reached down for the pixie girl's throat, and Nadia took half a step forward, hand lifting, before she seemed to remember herself and abruptly stopped.
 

I smiled down at her, and found an erratic pulse in the girl's neck. "She's alive. I'm not sure for how long, without medical attention."
 

"She's just a girl. She doesn't have anything to do with this. Let her go, and we can talk."
 

I laughed. "Why would I let her go when you so badly want her to be safe? She serves double duty for me, as a bargaining chip and a ticking clock. It couldn’t be more perfect if I planned it myself.” Wow. I sounded like a comic book villain.
 

Her mouth tightened, and she snapped her ID sheath link straight, turning it into a flat screen. “You want something, and I want something, Eve. Maybe those two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” She held up the screen toward me.
 

On it, I saw the small figures of Sam, Blaine in his mecha suit, and two smaller children and a blonde girl surrounded by people with guns. Sam and Blaine were in protective stance, the three rescuees placed between them.
 

“It was a nice try, Eve. But did you really think we weren’t keeping tabs on the Rabbit group Moderator? He was sneaky, sure, but opening that door was kind of a giveaway. It’s too bad you didn’t all come from that direction. We could have captured you immediately, and none of this,” she gestured around to all the bodies and general destruction in the courtyard, “would have had to happen.”
 

I raised an eyebrow. “So you got a couple of my team. I let them attempt the rescue for their own satisfaction. A kind of reward for the work they’ve done. In fact, it has no bearing on my larger plan.” I stood up, looking down at her. “And do you really think you could have captured us all? Do you realize the situation you’re in?” I sent a quick Window to Sam, telling them to sit tight and not do anything stupid.

I could still save them. They may be caught, but they weren’t captured, and they weren’t dead. “Do you know what my teammate was doing down below, besides just shooting those spectacular lightning bolts? He was gaining access to your computer system. The whole thing. Including the whole slew of data and records of what you’ve been doing. In five seconds, we could have that streaming to every link in the nation.” I pointed to the girl collapsed on the ground. “I’ve got a hostage of my own.” Then I put a hand on the sphere. “And this thing that you use to send us to the Trials? A few more pushes from me, and it’ll be nothing more than a crushed lump of metal. Do you think you can win against me?” I shouted down.

She smiled, an expression that chilled my blood, and waved her hand in the air. “You’ve done spectacularly. Truly. You’ve got a higher score than almost any Player before entering NIX. And I’m particularly curious about that Skill you just used. But did you think we’d just allow you to run wild? You created some leverage to get what you want. I’ve done the same.”
 

A familiar
thwump-thwump-thwump
sound headed our way, filling the sky. Soon after, three heli-pods came into view, and sank to the ground of the courtyard behind Nadia.
 

My heart sank in my chest.
 

The heli-pod in the center’s belly opened up, and three men stepped out. Two of them held my brother restrained between them, and the third held a gun to his head. Zed’s mouth was covered, but when he caught sight of me, he renewed his struggled and muffled shouting, till they kicked his legs out from under him and forced him to the ground.
 

Birch was being held in a soldier's arms, and when he saw me, he began his little scratchy roaring again, and managed to struggle free, racing out of the heli-pod.

“Your brother,” Nadia said. “From what I know of you, that’s an awful big bargaining chip of my own.”
 

How
dare
they? My tenuous control of my temper slipped, and I grabbed the gray-skinned girl by the back of the neck and jumped down from the platform.
 

Soldiers rushed up to Nadia Petralka’s side and pointed their guns at me as I strode forward, dragging the girl, but I ignored them.
 

I continued to move until I was close enough to smell the commander’s skin and feel the warmth of her breath. I could see the beat of her heart from the pulsing in her neck. I dropped the girl unceremoniously at her feet.
 

Nadia Petralka’s eyes followed downward with concern, but I stepped forward those last few inches, until I could look down right into her face, almost nose-to-nose, and brought her attention back. “You have no idea the hell I’ve traveled through, the things I’ve done. If you want to deal in threats, I should let you know that I’ve got the bigger gun. What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time? That power that you want so desperately for yourself, the power of a god? I’ve got it. And if you cross me, I will annihilate you, and NIX, everything you’ve ever worked towards, and everything you’ve ever loved.” I looked pointedly to the pixie girl, who shared Nadia Petralka’s hooked nose, and probably shared a father, as well. “So if you want to deal in threats,
think again.
” By the last bit, I was literally snarling into her face.
 

She swallowed, but didn’t back down. “It doesn’t have to be a threat. If you cooperate, none of them have to get hurt. They’re still alive as a gesture of my goodwill to you. I want to talk, and I want to show you some things, and I want you to listen. If you’ll do that, I can assure you, no harm will come to your team.”

I smiled in my head, but kept it from my face. “You want to talk? Talk.”

“Not here. Come with me, alone. Your team can stay here. This information is highly classified.” She said it loud enough for everyone to hear.
 

“Hell, no!” Adam said.
 

“Don’t listen to her, Eve,” Jacky said. “We’ll find another way to save him. We can do it, I promise.”

I stared into Nadia’s eyes for a second, and then turned my head back to Adam and Jacky. “I’m going. Don’t worry, I promise I can handle it.”
 

Nadia looked down to the girl at our feet. “Take her down to medical!” she snapped at one of the guards whose gun was still pointed at me.
 

He stepped forward, but I raised a hand and he stopped in his tracks.
 

“Let me return your gesture of ‘goodwill,’ Commander,” I said. “One of my team you’ve got surrounded down below has a healing Skill. Send them up, and he’ll see to the girl. Of course, feel free to keep your men with guns on them.”
 

She stared at me for a second, and I knew she understood my meaning. The girl’s life, which she obviously cared about, would depend on my team, and therefore, on me. If Nadia tried to pull a trick, she’d pay the price. She gave the order, and Sam and the others stepped into the courtyard soon after, escorted by the armed guards.
 

“Lead the way,” I said, clamping a clawed hand on her shoulder.
 

* * *

Zed’s eyes followed me as I walked by, and I gave him the most reassuring smile I could. “I’ll be back soon.”
 

Birch mewled at me, but stayed with Zed as I asked him to do.
 

Nadia led me through the concrete door they’d blasted open, turning back once to take in the scene of destruction and carnage. “It’s going to take a lot of time and money to fix all the damage you caused. The Shortcut alone…” she sighed. “Not to mention the loss of life.”
 

I noticed a familiar face watching from the windowed halls across the courtyard.
 

Vaughn grinned and threw me the victory sign, forefinger and middle finger spread in a V. So that’s where he disappeared to.

“What’s a few lives lost, to you? It’s nothing new,” I said.

She shot me a look of controlled ire, and turned her back, heading farther into the hallway. “Every life is my responsibility. Whether they die in the Game or defending our base, it’s still on my shoulders. Whatever you think, I’m not running from that fact. But I realize there is a greater good at stake, and a reason that we are willing to sacrifice a few, in the hopes that we might save many. In the prayer that we might save us all.” She was muttering by the last bit.

I stared at her back and snorted, and then took a few quick steps to catch up. Getting separated from her might not be a good idea. Any attack on me would be a possible attack on the Commander, if we were close enough together.
 

“What do you know about the Game, Eve?”

“I know enough.”
 

“Well, then. Let me tell you what
I
know.”
 

We turned a corner, and stopped at a door, which Nadia opened by pressing her thumb to a fingerprint pad. I started to mentally track our route and the necessary security passes in my head, in case I needed to leave again, without a guide.

“The Game is more than just the Trials,” she said. “You know you’re all being monitored?” When I didn’t respond, she continued. “Of course you do. You managed to slip out from almost all our avenues of observation. You’re only the thirty-fourth to ever do so. But the point is, we keep tabs on you because your actions outside of the Trials are also part of the Game. Your reactions to the situation, the danger, the artificial stimuli, the almost inevitable solitude…it’s all part of a calculation. A score. A ranking, if you prefer.” She stopped at the next door and swiped a card from within her jacket pocket, gave a full handprint scan, and a retinal scan.
 

The door beeped sharply when I stepped through behind her, but she said, “Allow guest,” and continued walking.
 

I looked back at the door closing behind us and caught a glimpse of my face. The whites of my eyes had turned blood red, every little vein and capillary burst within them. The light blue of my eyes stood out against them creepily.
 

“We’re looking for a certain type of person,” she said.

I turned my head forward again just in time to stop myself from smashing into her, as she’d stopped to get through the security of yet another door. “What type of person? Why?” I asked, distracted from my tactic of biting silence mixed with sarcasm.
 

“Why don’t I show you?” she said, instead of answering.
 

The door opened onto an immense room that seemed to be a mix of mechanical workshop, laboratory, and hangar. I saw what looked to be a jetpack on one side, huge glass tubes of colored liquid that looked like the cloning tubes I’d seen in movies on another, and a smaller sized attempted replica of the teleportation sphere in another.
 

But what really caught my attention was the plane at the back. At least I thought it was a plane. I’d never seen anything quite like it. It was a gray so dark it would look black without the bright spotlights shining at it from every direction. It looked kind of like what an airplane might look like if it was actually a stingray-shaped crustacean. Or made of a giant crustacean monster’s hollowed out shell.