Estranged (12 page)

And then it happened. Something
entered her body. It started where their hands touched and moved up
her arm. It was like the darkness, but... different. Her own
darkness grabbed and pulled at this new entity, trying to rip a
piece free. But this thing resisted the attacks and instead pushed
her darkness back. It felt... great. As Kalei’s darkness retreated
from her arm, she began to feel relief. Her arm felt normal again.
She’d forgotten what it was like to be without that deep, aching
throb. Then, quite abruptly, the other force pulled out and Kalei’s
darkness slammed back down her arm. A small cry escaped her lips as
the pain came with it.

When she looked up, Erit was standing
on the table, holding someone’s wrist. She didn’t think he was
capable of being angry, but there it was, etched fiercely on his
young face. She turned around to see whose wrist he held. A young
woman — Kalei guessed she was in her late teens by the soft curve
of her cheeks and tightness of the skin under her eyes – stood
behind Kalei. She wore a red blouse that was a size too small and
buttoned up more to support her breasts than to contain them. Her
short brown hair sported streaks of black and fell into her eyes.
She laughed at Erit. “Wha’? I just wanted ta say hi.”

Erit threw her hand away from him and
stepped forward. “No. I believe we both know that was not your
intention. Get out of here, Shenaia.”

Shenaia slowly moved backwards toward
the far corner, hands up, a slight sway in her step. Half
seductive, half seemingly intoxicated. “Is this far enough?” she
asked silkily. Then she waved at Kalei and raised her voice in a
mocking, “Hiii, Kalei! How’s it crackin’, sista!”

Kalei could have smacked her forehead
into the table. Another person knew her name. “Does everyone in
this fucking place know who I am?”

Mar shot a glare across the table. “I
don’t know who the fuck you are, and I don’t give a fuck
neither.”

Kalei saw Shenaia open her mouth to
speak, but Erit interrupted, “Mar has it; not everyone knows your
name. Although your show in the foyer a couple weeks back did
nothing to improve your anonymity.” He had regained his composure
for the most part, but he continued to glare at Shenaia.

Oh yeah. That.
Kalei remembered screaming beneath Walker’s grip
in front of a crowd of people.

Shenaia seemed perturbed by some
silent exchange with Erit, but then she laughed and yelled, “Haha,
dat was great! You were kickin’ and punchin’... an’ man, did you
make Walker jump when you took a swing at Terin! Ha!
Beautiful!”

“
Shenaia was there,” Erit
clarified.

“
I gathered as much,”
Kalei replied dryly.

Erit walked to the edge of the table
and stood between Kalei and Shenaia. The fresh crack squeaked under
his weight as he passed. “Okay, Shenaia, you’ve had your fun. Now
be on your way.”

Shenaia pulled away from her corner.
“I don’ think so.” She crossed over to the seat directly in front
of him and sat down. “I wanna be a Recruit.”

Erit’s composed mask threatened to
slip again. “Come, Shenaia. You are not interested in becoming a
recruit. Recruits and Wardens alike are required to be sober around
the clock. We both know you hold your precious highs too dear to
give them up for a life of work, be it for the common good or
not.”

Shenaia leaned back and crossed her
arms. “Who says I need ta be sober ta be a Warden?” Erit didn’t
give. Shenaia sighed and rolled her eyes. “You know what? It don’
matta.” She uncrossed her arms and held them up in surrender. “I
can be sober.”

Erit jumped off the table and turned
away from the young woman. “Hardly.” He began to walk back to his
seat at the head of the table. “SWORDE doesn’t have any need for
the likes of you.”

“
Oh, but I think you do.”
Shenaia leaned forward, her cleavage all too apparent through her
red blouse. “I have knowledge and skills dat I know you
would
love
ta use
and abuse.” The little boy didn’t seem the least bit interested.
“Besides,” she leaned back again and threw her arms behind her
head. “Terin won’ say no.”

Lovely,
Kalei thought to herself, disgusted.
S
he must be sleeping with the
bastard
.

Erit conceded. “Fine.” He
sat down, leaned forward. “Let me put this in terms you can
understand.” Erit pointed his index finger at Shenaia’s face,
pronouncing every word clearly. “You are to stay the
fuck
away from the other
Recruits. Can you manage that?”

A cocky smirk crept onto Shenaia’s
face. “Sure thang.”

CHAPTER SIX

Water on the
Floor

Shenaia’s promise lasted all of five
minutes.

“
Sorry for the delay—”
Erit began.

“
Hey there, school boy,
don’t forget to teach me too,” Shenaia called from the far end of
the table.

“
You are not forgotten,
Shenaia. As of this moment, you are to wait until you come down
from your high. Can you do that for me?”

“
Roger that, Teach.” She
rested her head on her hands and watched Erit and Kalei intently.
Kalei turned away to face Erit, but she could still feel Shenaia’s
eyes on the back of her neck.

Erit squared his shoulders
as he continued to watch Shenaia, and then he broke his gaze and
turned back to Kalei and said in a quiet voice, “Rule number one in
SWORDE, Kalei.
Never
trust an Estranged.” Erit returned to his seat, casting
another glance at Shenaia.

Kalei raised an eyebrow.
“But—”

“
You’ll recall earlier
when I asked for your hand? Your hesitance was the correct
response. Of course, given as I am instructing you, it is asked
that you lend at least some level of trust to the validity of what
I am saying. Then, one day when you are finished with your
training, you will be assigned to a team, and that team will ask
for some amount of trust as well. Nonetheless, to work and live
among Estranged you must learn to
never
give your full trust to any
one Estranged. When you work with an Estranged, you are not only
dealing with the individual, a trustworthy soul perhaps, but you
are also dealing with their darkness. The darkness is not an idle
entity, Kalei. It works for its own ends. Much like any parasite,
it wishes to thrive.”

Kalei stared at him. “You’ve lost
me.”

Erit sighed. “I suppose I have not yet
explained the mechanics of the darkness. When our hands touched,
what did you feel?”

“
Nothing.”

“
And then?”

Kalei hesitated, trying to find the
words to describe it. At the time, she had felt excitement and
relief as the darkness was pushed away from her arm. Now that it
was over, she felt as though this whole exercise was stupid. She
didn’t see the point. She didn’t see any reason to go along with
some ten-year-old’s games. She didn’t even know why she agreed to
join SWORDE anymore. Franklin, SWORDE, all these people; it was all
stupid. She just wanted to go find a place to sleep. She wasn’t
tired, but she couldn’t think of anything else worth doing in this
damn world.

Erit leaned forward,
“Kalei—”

“
Can’t you see you’re
boring her?” Shenaia’s voice interrupted.

Erit stood up abruptly as Kalei heard
Shenaia’s footsteps approach.

The footsteps stopped behind her
chair, and Shenaia called out, “Come on, girl. Let’s go raid the
closet!”

Erit stood up. “And what makes you
think I’m going to let you take her?”

“
Because I want to,”
Shenaia replied. Kalei saw a cell phone fly over her head toward
Erit. He caught it. “Take it up with Terin if you’ve got a
problem.”

Kalei heard the slides from a pair of
guns clicking into place. She turned around to see Shenaia aiming
two pistols at Erit.

“
I’ll take her by force if
I have to.”

Erit glared at her for a moment. “If
you lay a single hand on her—”

“
She’ll be fine!” Shenaia
replied, holding the guns out for a moment longer. She looked at
Kalei and nodded her head toward the door. Kalei took the cue and
obligingly stood and started moving toward the exit. As Kalei
walked past her, Shenaia holstered the weapons in their concealed
places behind her back and said, “I’ll bring her back safe and
sound, little boy.”

“
You know what I mean,
Shenaia.”

She raised both arms as she shrugged.
“What? I can’t control what she does. If she jumps me to get a
high—”

“
Shenaia!” Erit’s voice
was strict.

Shenaia dropped her arms. “Fine.” She
turned toward the door and casually raised one hand into the air to
wave goodbye. “But only ‘cuz Terin told me to play
nice.”

Shenaia took Kalei down the hall and
up a different set of stairs than the ones Kalei had come down
originally. Kalei went willingly; she didn’t have the energy to
object.

Along the way, the walls they passed
sported chipped and flaking paint, but were otherwise bare.
Occasionally, they passed a spot where the paint was lighter,
usually in the shape of a perfect square. Presumably, these lighter
patches marked the places where paintings had once hung, and in
some cases, it seemed that their removal had been violent as the
squares sometimes sported massive holes in the plaster.

Then Shenaia stopped at one of the
many doors that lined the hallway. She flashed a grin at Kalei and
opened it.

Kalei was met with a massive room that
had been cleared of all furniture and debris. The room wasn’t
pristine, but relative to the rest of the hotel, it was sparkling.
The walls and floors were bare, but for the most part, clean and
undamaged. The ceiling was entirely intact, and the windows along
the far wall didn’t have so much as a scratch. In the center of the
floor stood more than a dozen racks of clothes and accessories.
Tall racks, short racks, bright colors, subdued shades; rack after
rack labeled by size and type.

"What's all this for?" Kalei asked
apathetically.

“
According to them that
writes the checks, this is all for undercover missions. Wardens can
blend in, go anywhere, be anyone. Sounds hella fun, right?” Shenaia
leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “But you want the real
answer?” She paused as her smile widened. “This is my fucking
closet! Haha!" Shenaia left Kalei and fervently descended upon the
racks.

Kalei wasn't comfortable with the
thought of Estranged going undercover in the city. She filed the
subject away as something to share with Landen Franklin, but
otherwise, she let the subject drop.

"OO! How are we going to dress you up,
Sister? Celebrity appeal or backstreet whore? Oh! You would look so
damn good in a cocktail dress!" Shenaia flitted from one rack to
the next, pulling out and replacing one garment after
another.

Kalei found a chair in the corner and
sat down. She didn’t want to raise suspicion by asking about the
undercover operations, not that Shenaia would know anything anyway,
so she brought up another subject instead. "Why do you want to be a
Recruit?"

Shenaia squealed, "Because it sounds
like fun!"

"You think it’s fun being an
Estranged?" Kalei asked.

Shenaia held out an orange shirt and
looked it over. “Hell, yeah!”

A flash of rage overwhelmed Kalei.
"How the fuck can you say that? People die because of
us!"

Shenaia swiftly turned her back to
Kalei and put the orange shirt back. She stood there for a moment,
not speaking, not moving. Then she said, "Hey, we've got it good,
sis.” She turned around, and the smile was back on her face. “We’ve
got bodies that never die! Looks that never age! And we can get a
high that takes us higher than any drug on the planet! How can you
argue with that?"

"Try endless pain! You think death is
something to laugh at? What about the people who are left behind!
What about the families ruined? You think that's something to laugh
at?"

The smile slid from Shenaia’s face.
"... no." A couple of hangers clicked together as she resumed
sifting through the clothes. She shrugged. "Maybe that's why I want
to join." Another pause. She turned and started on another rack.
"Hell, that's why I quit Tusic."

Kalei was surprised. "You used to be
with Tusic?"

A couple more hangers
clicked. "Yeah." Shenaia took up a deep breath and her upbeat
energy returned as she resumed her search. "Man, they knew how to
party! None of this sober crap. Them boys knew how to keep a
good high on the down-low.” She turned and faced Kalei. One hand
danced to the tune of her story. “They could walk around high as a
kite and you wouldn’t even know it by lookin’ at ‘em. Landen tells
‘em to go out and get shit done, and boy, they got their
shit
done
. Don’t
need to be sober for dat. And SWORDE wants everyone to stay clean?
Ha! They can't touch Tusic, even with all this high and mighty
goody-two-shoes shit."