Heart of Annihilation (28 page)

My heart skipped, and then resumed beating in a completely different rhythm. My breathing paused, and then came an inhale I didn’t control, tongue flickering out to touch my lips in an obsessive gesture. My eyes blinked open of their own accord and stared down the road, past Fort Hunter-Liggett, zeroing in on a barely visible building.

I tried to scream again, but nothing came from my mouth. I knew the worst had happened. Something I should have anticipated. Caz had taken over, leaving me nothing but an observer in my own body.

She didn’t look back at the soldiers. I wasn’t even sure she remembered they were there.

One foot in front of the other, Caz followed the road as she had over twenty years ago after her blind jump through the portal. I witnessed her memories as she recalled the heat of the sun on her skin and the dust clogging her throat. The stickiness of Vin’s blood clinging to her skin.

But none of that mattered now. For over twenty years she had been trapped as I was now, and during all that time she only had one desire.

Step, step, step.
I couldn’t stop my feet. Caz’s mind rattled through memory after bloody memory. Xander, Manny, Zell, Vin. Engineering the Heart of Annihilation. Murdering the council. Vin’s ultimate betrayal. We lost track of the present as we circled the past, leading us to the one thing we wanted more than anything.

My feet stopped their mindless tread, and Caz looked up from the ground. A building stood before us, long and squat with arches trailing to the left into the darkness of the night. The entrance had three larger archways topped by a matching number of bell towers. A cross was mounted above the center bell, another one behind on the higher roof.

Caz breathed in deep, remembering the man with ancient, wrinkled skin standing before her, dirt smudging his hands and face. A large wooden beam had laid at his feet near a small pile of tools.

He’d been kind and compassionate, sensing Caz’s need if not her violent state of mind. He’d helped her hide the Heart of Annihilation so that she could one day return to claim it.

“Is it dangerous?” he’d asked. And Caz had lied about the horrific potential of the unremarkable silver sphere. Lied so he would save it for her in this moment in time. Lied so she could finally claim the object that had consumed her life.

My knees hit the ground in front of an old wooden cross. Gravel bit into my flesh and pain jarred through my body. I felt Caz recoil from the pain, weakening her hold even as she reached for the cross.

With every ounce of willpower I possessed I surged forward, squeezing my hand around the pain like an anchor connecting me to my body. I could have cried in relief as my fingers obeyed my commands, closing into a fist. I dug my nails into the scorched flesh, sending pain racing through my hand and up my arm. With a nauseating wrench and agonizing pressure in my brain Caz cried out, freeing me from her control.

I gasped, my eyes tightly shut, my hand still clenched in a painful fist. Slowly I relaxed my hand and opened my eyes. Soldiers pressed all around me, their eyes on something in front of me.

Only then did I realize where Caz had led us.

A primordial and animalistic cry of the deepest pain echoed through my head and wrenched from my mouth.

I stared at the cross, trying to put Caz’s memories into the context of why I was kneeling here. The building behind it came into focus. Delicate white arches extended for several hundred feet, accentuated by the scalloped roofing and the triple bell towers of the Mission San Antonio de Padua.

My hands went to my head. What had I done?

I hadn’t managed to get myself killed, that’s what I’d done. I’d been so focused on saving Thurmond and Rannen, and concentrating on the commander and her men, that I hadn’t factored in Caz’s will to live.

That was your plan?
Caz snarled. She was so strong.
You were going to kill us? You stupid little girl!

“What have you done, Caz?” I whispered, my breath shuddering in and out. “What have you done?”

“Live to fight another day,” Caz replied, using my mouth.

Motors rumbled around, accompanied by the tread of boots on gravel. The commander’s troops massed in the dried grass around the mission’s circular drive.

“Boderick!” the commander’s voice rang out.

I jerked my head up. The commander stood next to me, her mouth pulled into a pucker of excitement. She breathed an exhilarated snort through her nose. Her eyes were on the concrete base of the wooden cross.

“Boderick!” the commander called again. I finally registered the name. Boderick? Bodie. The Rethan tech guy. The one who knew everything about portals.

“Set up the portal.” The commander smiled. “We have the Heart!”

The sphere lay for over two decades, sunk into a foot-by-foot slab of concrete and then buried by more concrete designed to stabilize the cross. The only visible portion of the Heart of Annihilation was a circle the size of a cookie showing a weathered imprint of the symbol: a half circle and dot where the center should be. Like the brand on my hand. Like my pendant. I reached for it.

The commander pushed me aside and crouched next to the base of the cross. She laid a trembling hand on what was visible of the Heart. She breathed in, her eyes lifting to the stars. I rose to my feet.

“So that’s it, huh?” I couldn’t decide whom I hated more right now, her or myself.

The commander caressed the Heart one more time before getting to her feet. She yelled across the chattering of her troops, “Sanderford! Get over here and find a way to get the Heart out from under this cross!”

Sergeant Sanderford limped past. The commander turned back to me. “Caz, look at this! Just look—look at it! You want it, don’t you? I can tell.”

“I don’t,” I said in an unconvincing sputter.

Of course I wanted it. No. Caz Fisk wanted it! Not me! Caz—
Kris—
Caz! Dad would never forgive me if I grew up to be the DCC Slayer.

I buried my face in my hands. My head ached so badly. And I was afraid. I grated my fingernails against my scalp as my mind sorted through Caz’s sinister database of two hundred thirty-six ways to murder a massive congregation of people.

The vehicles assembled themselves in the dry grass around the mission’s circular drive. A Deuce and a Half rumbled up, making a wide turn. The soldiers gave it room to back up to the mission steps. The brakes squealed. Men climbed in the back before the motor had even shut off and started unloading large silver crates. I recognized them from the Rethan camp in Arizona. The crates were opened, and the silver plates belonging to the portal were pulled out.

“Stay close, Specialist Rose. You’re not going to want to miss this.”

As soon as the commander called me by that name, I knew I no longer had her attention. Caz Fisk was the person she wanted to share this with. Specialist Rose was just an irritation.

“You can set it up on the main archway!” she shouted, her boots crunching on the gravel.

Camo-clad figures washed around me, the single stationary buoy in a piranha-filled lake. No one paid me any attention, although they were careful to give me a wide berth. Just people—humans—about to start a war with a dimension they understood nothing about.

Boderick scuttled by, flanked by two soldiers. His shoulders were raised to his ears, his chin on his chest, and his hands opened and closed at his side. My breath escaped in a short, angry burst. Light erupted from my fingers and plowed into the soldier on his right.

The bolt struck him square in his torso. He spasmed onto his knees, clutching his stomach before falling onto his side. The next volt took the other man high on the shoulder. His rifle clattered across the blacktop.

We covered the twenty feet or so in seconds and wrapped our fingers around Boderick’s throat. Our nails dug into his skin. A distant upheaval marked us as a target but Caz only had eyes for the ratty little face. His mouth opened and closed, gawping like a fish drowning in air. Hands scrabbled across my arm.

“Ricks, you traitorous little rat! I’ll kill you for this!”

“Cazandra.” His eyes rolled. His lips turned blue. “Caz, p-please don’t. Xander he’s . . . help!”

Caz lost her control of my body. The pain in my head receded. Xander what? I released Boderick’s neck, raised my hands, and dipped my head in preparation for the assault.

A body struck me from the side. My hip hit the ground first, followed by my bare arm. The graveled road skinned my shoulder in a bloody, searing skid. It was all I could do not to scream. I kicked at the man on top of me. Sergeant Sanderford wrestled me up. The second I was on my feet Sanderford forced me back to my knees, beckoning for assistance. Blood warmed my stinging shoulder. My upper arms were grabbed from behind. I groaned. Sergeant Jacks held one arm. I blew silver strands of hair out of my eyes and glared at the owner of the other clammy set of hands. Luginbeel’s mouth hung slack, his eyes locked in terror on my face. He only held onto my arm with two fingers and a thumb, as if that would keep him from getting electrocuted.

Sergeant Sanderford brushed at his pants. He raised a fist. I flinched, waiting for the strike. Sanderford gave a self-satisfied grunt and pointed a finger at my nose.

“If the commander hadn’t told us she still needs you for something, you’d have a bullet in your head right now.”

“Go to hell,” I whispered. The darkness all around fed Caz, increasing her mental girth, starving me out.

“Keep her contained until she’s called for.” Sergeant Sanderford did a military back-step and limped off toward the mission.

“Hands up, Rose,” Luginbeel blustered the order, his voice nasal. I clenched my teeth.

“That’s
Specialist
Rose to you, you little dipstick,” I said. “I still outrank you.”

The muzzle of a rifle poked into my back, and I reluctantly lifted my hands. Gravel bit into my shins and legs. Blood trickled from my skinned shoulder, saturating the shredded bandages Xavier had put on only hours before.

With a cracking sound the wooden cross toppled, crashing into the weeds. Jagged shards of wood spiked from the splintered bottom. I couldn’t help but be struck by the sacrilege of destroying a religious symbol of peace and love in order to retrieve an object of unimaginable destruction.

The concrete crumbled away from the sphere, as if the Heart had waited all these years to be freed. The commander knelt next to it and brushed away the debris. The sphere pulsed with a pale yellow glow. Its intense power leeched to me across the distance. Caz eased forward, reaching for it.

The commander blew at the remaining dust and worked her fingers into the half circle and dot symbol.

A commotion drew my attention. I blinked to clear the spots of yellow light from my vision. A head of silver worked its way through the crowds. The soldiers fell away to reveal a team of familiar faces. I’d hoped for him, even said a few prayers, but honestly I hadn’t really expected him to show up.

Xavier wore the same red shirt and black leather pants but exuded a distinct aura of unkemptness. Angie followed a step behind him and carried a large designer bag that looked unusually heavy.

They passed within several feet of me. Xavier gave me a cursory glance that revealed nothing. I looked in the direction he’d come, hoping he hadn’t found Thurmond and Rannen to bring along with him.

The men closed back in. I breathed a small sigh of relief. The commander lowered the Heart, amusement in her face.

“Xander Fisk.” She drew out the name, tasting it on her tongue. She held the Heart in one hand and put the other in her pocket.

“I heard you were looking for me.” Xavier’s voice was smooth. His eyes showed no emotion.

“I don’t need you anymore.” She hefted the Heart of Annihilation. “I found what I was looking for.”

“I didn’t come here to talk to you about the Heart.”

“I don’t know why you’d want to talk about anything? There was a time when you wouldn’t even acknowledge my existence.”

“Don’t patronize me, Zell. Things were going south well before this whole thing started.” Xavier sounded tired, like he’d explained this a thousand times before. “I only came here to watch Caz’s expression when you do away with that fluxing thing.”

I deflated. Xavier wasn’t here to help?

“You mean when I set it off in the Thirteenth Dimension? Are you sure that’s the dimension I’m after?”

Xavier stiffened. “The Thirteenth Dimension killed Vin. Who else would deserve the kind of attention you’ve put into this operation?”

“Xander, Xander.” The commander waved her head, a smile on her lips. “Destroying the Thirteenth Dimension was Caz’s passion. I’m hardly one to go about fulfilling the greatest desire of the one who destroyed my life.”

“Then what dimension are you after?” Xavier pressed.

“Retha.”

There was a sickly blanch to Xavier’s face. “Because?”

“Retha failed me in every way. Etiquette and serenity? Please!” The commander’s lips trembled. “I had nothing to do with what Caz did! I was a victim as much as anyone, and yet it wasn’t enough to sentence Caz. She had to have had a partner! Right? It had to be the one who found Vin! The one with a known relationship with that—” the commander jabbed a finger at me, “that—”

“They failed me too, Zell,” Xavier said. The commander dropped her arm.

“That’s hardly a line I would have expected to hear from a member of the Dimensional Congressional Council.” She didn’t move, but it looked like it was costing her a great effort. As to whether she wanted to run toward Xavier or away, I couldn’t tell.

Angie shifted behind Xavier. She fingered the latch on her bag. The commander shrugged and walked off toward the mission. Xavier hesitated, cast me a look, and then hurried to catch up with her.

“The DCC is dead. I’ve moved on from their delusional spouting.” Xavier did double time to keep up. Angie followed. “They banished me as efficiently as they did Caz. As they did to you when they sent out that warrant for your arrest. The two laws have turned the new council into a power-mongering—”

The commander whirled on her heel. Xavier almost ran into her.

“Is that right?” She leaned toward him with a leering smile. “So after all these years of stringent standards and brotherly loathing toward that slag of a sister you, what, finally decide to make genocide a family affair?”

“This isn’t about Caz!” He spoke a little too fast. “She took everything from me! My work. My home—”

“Your fiancé?”

Xavier stared at his hands, his face in shadow.

“But you got something in return. Didn’t you?”

He jerked his head up, his eyes wide, warning her off. A grin stretched across the commander’s waspish face.

“Poor abandoned thing needed his uncle Xan to play daddy
and
mommy. No room for an evil stepmother in little Manny’s life.”

Manny!
Tears pricked my eyes at the anguished cry. My head blistered in pain.

I struggled to pull my arms free. Sergeant Jacks’s fingers slid through the blood covering my shoulder.

Xavier and the commander stopped before the main entrance to the mission, observing the nearly completed assembly of the portal. The Heart pulsed under the commander’s arm as the two Rethans stood shoulder to shoulder in a familiar and almost friendly way. I wanted to kill the both of them. Make them suffer, destroy them for what they’d done to Manny, to me, for even touching my Heart of Annihilation.

I rolled my head to alleviate the pain in my head. When I opened my eyes I found I was staring at Angie. Her fingers flew over the screen of her phone. She caught my gaze and opened her bag wide. She placed her phone inside next to a dull, silver, soccer ball-sized sphere. Hooking the strap of her bag on her arm, she gave me a prompting nod. I stared at her for a few seconds, perplexed. Then her thumbs and forefingers came together, making the shape of a heart.

Of course! The Heart replica! A plan blossomed in my head. Angie left her bag open. She dropped her eyes and moved closer to Xavier. I needed to provide a distraction so she could switch the hearts.

My brief count of the men came to just over sixty, with only about three quarters of them visibly armed. Flexing my fingers, I tried to judge how much electricity I had absorbed. Not enough to take them all out, but it would be sufficient to give Angie what she needed.

A bright light flared from the mission entrance. Like the portal back at the Rethan camp, it sent hundreds of thousands of tiny blue charges skipping from plate to plate, creating a solid-looking wall of color. Through the color, however, I could see a landscape beyond filled with elegant infrastructure, much more highly advanced, technology-wise, and the active bustling of a populated city.

Retha. But not Retha as before. Retha’s population. Their people. The commander wanted to set off the Heart of Annihilation there and destroy the entire dimension? My two hundred and thirty-six kills suddenly seemed like a pittance.

I inhaled deeply of Earth’s rich scents. The dirt, the wind, the vegetation. Despite my Rethan heritage, this was home. I loved this dimension and the wonderfully flawed people that populated it. I concentrated on all the souls who didn’t know they were counting on me for their survival, in Earth and in Retha. My mind cleared.

The distraction Angie requested would most likely get me killed. I knew that. I’d made peace with my demise. I’d taken so many lives out of this world, my own life was a small price to pay to try to make things right. I only wished that I’d been able to part with Thurmond on better terms.

A ripple of laughter rose from the commander and Xavier. Their heads tilted together, their lips smiling. Anger flared in me again but this time without the unbearable pain. It was more like righteous anger, something that seemed downright pure compared to the devilish malevolence that embodied Caz Fisk.