Soulwalker (14 page)

“If it hasn’t happened by now…”

“Are you always this impatient? No wonder…” Asher stopped.

“What?” Tarris’s eyes bored into Asher. “No wonder what?”

“Nothing. That ring had been in place for a number of years, Tarris. It’s not going to repair itself overnight. But if you want me to leave, fine. Just let me get my clothes.” Asher turned on her heel and walked toward the bathroom where she had placed her discarded clothes from the night before.

Tarris regretted her harsh words. Asher had been there to help her, and she was prepared to throw her out on her ass the first opportunity she had. Her grief had taken priority over what Asher had revealed to her.

Her mind wandered back to the passion of last night, and Rya shifted around restlessly. Her shadow didn’t want to remember, but Tarris needed to know what had caused the sudden explosion in her back. What had scared Rya so badly that she had to slam into her body at such a terrifying speed? Tarris’s attention turned outwards as Asher re-entered the room.

“Do someone a favor,” Asher said, “and they kick you in the teeth. Of all the ungrateful…” She looked at Tarris. “What? I’m not moving fast enough for you?”

Tarris shook her head. “It’s not that. I was trying to remember what happened last night that made Rya scream around the room and cause so much destruction.”

“I was meaning to ask you about that.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“You wouldn’t let me.” Asher’s voice rose in aggravation. “You were too busy wallowing in self-pity.”

“Wait just one minute—”

“No. You wait. You came to me, remember?” Asher’s finger jabbed the air in Tarris’s direction. “So don’t you go blaming me for this.”

As soon Asher was within arm’s reach, Tarris grabbed her and pulled her down swiftly to meet her. Her lips found the softness of skin and kissed it. The stirrings she had experienced last night resurfaced. What she felt then was no mistake. Tarris pulled back and panted lightly from the contact. Why on earth did she do that?

“Why on earth did you do that?”

Was Asher a mind reader? Considering how tumultuous Tarris’s life had been recently, it wouldn’t have surprised her. “I have absolutely no idea. I… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“Me, either.” Tarris looked away from the intense stare. She was full of surprises today. “Maybe it’s all that emotion rolling around inside me.”

“I thought troopers didn’t have emotions.” Asher shook her head. “A romantic trooper. That’s sort of a contradiction in terms, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Tarris said and returned Asher's grin, “but there’s always a first time.” She sobered. “Look, I’m sorry about before.”

“Don’t be. I’m sorry I let off a bit of steam.”

“And I didn’t say thank-you. You were right. I was feeling sorry for myself. I had hoped that after the operation everything would be all right. I guess I was wrong.”

Asher perched herself on the edge of the mattress. “To be honest, I don’t know what to expect. The wound itself is fine, but what your nerves will do… I don’t know. My research covers only patients with recent nerve damage, not damage sustained sixteen years ago. Still, we had some luck with the removal of the ring, so anything’s possible.”

“You…” Tarris was hesitant to say it. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

“Hey. I have to keep an eye on my patient, don’t I?” Asher smiled. “But do you really have to get up?”

“Yeah. I don’t want them to know I was injured.”

“Why?”

“Because it makes me appear vulnerable. Now that I know they’ve watched my every move, it matters even more.” Gingerly she tried her body and eased into the wheelchair next to her bed. As she lifted her legs onto the footpads, she thought back to last night. “Do you remember when Rya jumped out of your body?”

“You didn’t feel it?”

“Sure, but it was such an explosion of images that I can’t make any sense of it.”

“I have a theory about that.”

“A theory? That sounds so analytical.”

“I’m a mediprac, remember? It’s my job.” Asher grinned at her. “Rya flew out of my body just as… as… you know.” Her hand rolled in the air as if to supply the missing words.

“As what?” Tarris didn’t understand.

“When I”—Asher inhaled deeply before she finished the sentence—“climaxed. I was wondering whether that might have had something to do with it.”

Was that what that feeling was called? Maybe Tarris should have paid more attention to the conversations going on around her when she was growing up. Before the accident, she was too young to pay attention, and after… Well, immediately after the fall, she had tortured herself with what she would be missing about sex. Besides being counterproductive, her fantasies about sex made her both frustrated and angry. After a while, there was just no point dwelling on what she would never have.

“Maybe,” Asher said, “the feeling was too much for her to absorb.”

“Maybe. It certainly scared the crap out of her.” Tarris searched for her twin who cowered in the deep recesses of her mind. No amount of cajoling was going to bring her out at the moment. “She doesn’t want to come out to play.”

“Tell her I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare her.”

“We didn’t know what would happen. Now we know.”

“Yes, now we know.”

Asher managed to keep a disgruntled Tarris in the apartment for the morning. She had explained that normally with such surgery, the patient would be on her feet by now, but Tarris had suffered a horrific trauma to her back, which scattered pieces of metal in all directions.

With help from Asher, Tarris had donned her body suit. She walked over to the wall and removed the dead camera, which left a deep gouge as a reminder of what had been there, or more to the point, what they had done to her. Her anger simmered all the while, which lent a certain viciousness to its removal. With that out of the way, she and Asher spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mess from the explosion.

The apartment looked a little different from the night before. In one corner was heaped the remnants of Tarris’s electronic lifestyle. A pile of twisted metal and circuitry sat there, formerly a screen, a computer, and a food re-constituter. Fortunately, her wheelchair could be maneuvered manually; otherwise it would be on the junk pile as well.

One of the few things not scrapped was her body suit, and for that she was grateful. Luckily it had been sitting in the spare room with her exercise equipment when Rya freaked out. Her suit was the only thing that made her feel anywhere near normal.

“How are you going to replace all this stuff?”

“I have absolutely no idea.” Tarris didn’t want to think about it. While she lived comfortably, her finances were not good enough to replace everything. And now that she knew the Council was against her, some of her possible avenues for help were closed. “But I’m going to find out.” The brightness of the day was fading to twilight. There wasn’t even a sun today, only gray skies, and it pretty much summed up her life at the moment. “I’ve got to go.”

“Where are you going?”

“To see Derille.”

“And what do I do? Stay at home like the good little woman?”

“Where on earth do you get these ideas? That sort of thinking hasn’t been around for over a hundred years.”

“But the sentiment is the same,” Asher huffed. “You expect me to wait here for you?”

“Fine. Come with me then.”

“Oh, no, no, no. It’s safer here.” Asher held up her hands in surrender.

Just as Tarris was about to leave, Asher stopped her. “Did you forget something?”

“I don’t think so.”

Asher held up the tiny box that had been attached to the ring around her spine. “If you’re intent on carrying out this charade, you might need this. Turn around.”

Tarris reluctantly did so, and Asher taped the tracker to her back. She still had to hide from the world, and it galled her that she just couldn’t be herself. Angrily, she left her apartment to venture out into the dangerous, dark world of night.

Tarris strode down a number of streets that led to a place she had visited once before. The two tiny cameras were clutched tightly in her hand and cut into the meaty pad of her palm. Rubbish fluttered as she passed by, stirred up by a light zephyr that wasn’t there.

“Give us your code.” A disembodied voice cut through the darkness.

“In your dreams.” Tarris was in no mood for a mugging.

The assailants stepped into the halo of light and waved a stunner in her direction. “Come on, your wrist.”

“I don’t think so,” she growled. A simple step would have moved her back into shadow and Rya could help, but her anger needed an outlet and this seemed the ideal opportunity. As she took a step toward her attackers, she reached behind her to release the locking mechanism on her suit. It was not something that she did lightly. One false move would collapse her legs. But at that moment she wasn’t working on logic. She was pissed. Really, really pissed.

“Would you look at that?” A broad-shouldered figure moved farther into the light. “She wants to play.” He laughed merrily.

Tarris didn’t like being underestimated. She lowered her shoulder and rammed herself into the larger of her two assailants. They both fell to the ground, leaving Tarris at their mercy. The servo suit was useless for getting up from the ground.

She looked up at two faces that seemed amused at her helpless state. The whole world was laughing at her, and she let them.

The thinner of the two robbers hunkered down next to her and moved his laser scalpel over her wrist. “Now, this won’t hurt a bit. It’ll hurt a lot.” He chuckled at his own morbid sense of humor.

The first touch of pain pushed her to the limit. Tarris lashed out and knocked the ruffian with the scalpel on his butt. Before the larger man could touch her, she reached behind her neck and massaged the tab under her skin.

She knew what the reaction would be when they realized who, or more to the point, what they had caught. Their smiles dropped and were replaced with fear. They backed away and searched frantically for an unseen force ready to pounce on them.

Tarris smiled, her expression showing a kernel of insanity and a healthy dose of anger. “Get them!” she called. They didn’t wait around to see whom she talked to.

She just lay there. Threatening them with who she was wasn’t how she wanted to defend herself, but it was effective. She crashed her fist against the ground in frustration. The whole world seemed to be her enemy these days, and she didn’t know how to turn it around. The pain in her head pounded against her skull. By instinct, she reached for her wrist and massaged it until the pain slowly subsided.

She sat up and leaned back on her hands. How was she going to get up? The overhead lamp dangled by a thread, the brightness flickering on and off. Her hand fell upon a discarded flask. She latched onto it and threw it in a fit of anger. It flew high into the air and connected with the swaying bulb with a bang. The lamp exploded and threw the area into darkness. She felt the welcoming arms of Rya lifting her to her feet. Automatically, her hand slipped to the locking mechanism to make sure that when Rya let go she was going to stay upright.

She couldn’t even protect herself; surely, she had hit rock bottom. There was nothing more she could lose.

*   *   *

By the time she reached Administrator Derille’s house, Tarris’s back reminded her of the abuse it had taken the night before. She pushed the pain and discomfort aside and stopped near the closed gate. The grounds appeared to be deserted, but with Derille’s penchant for gadgets, that didn’t mean they weren’t guarded. It took a great deal of prodding to get Rya to emerge, and it was only the reassurance that Asher was back at her apartment that drew her fighter out.

You are such a wimp…
she mentally scolded her.

She scared me, sister.

Tarris stopped.
What did you just say?
While the images were still in her head, Rya had started to verbalize. Their communication had always been on the basest level, and while she knew her shadow could speak a word or two if the need arose, it wasn’t something that happened spontaneously.

The light. It was so bright, it hurt. I never felt that before. Only through you, sister, do I know what pain is.

Rya had never strung so many words together before.
The light?

Within your friend.

Asher.

Yes, Asher. Her light shone brightly. It drew me, and I couldn’t look away.

Do you…
Tarris was nearly afraid to ask.
Do you feel any different?
She was comfortable with their relationship, because she understood all the nuances that they shared. If Rya had changed somehow, their dynamic had changed also and she wasn’t sure she could handle that.

Different? What is different?

Not like before, Rya. Just… just… different.

I don’t understand.

Understand? Such a concept would indicate rational thinking, wouldn’t it? Tarris swept a hand over her brow. It was all too much. Her anger had been pushed aside, and she wasn’t quite ready to let it go. Her righteous indignation was slowly bleeding away, and she needed to focus her attention on the where and why she was here.

Rya, I need to see Derille. Please.

As you wish, sister.

As you wish. This was going to take some getting used to. At least the rush as Rya left her was still the same. She didn’t want to experience the contact of last night anytime soon.

While she couldn’t see her shadow move toward the house, her mind’s eye saw it perfectly, in the eerie glow of Rya’s night vision. Indeed there had been the usual assortment of invisible laser beams, but there was the odd new trick added to Derille’s arsenal. Not that it slowed down Rya. She effortlessly slid to the front door and barely paused as she slipped through the crack to materialize on the other side like black smoke. Low voices drew Rya away from the door toward the source of the conversation. The shadow found her havens in the room, taking a roundabout route to get across the foyer. The light from the large room cast a muted glow over the floor and stopped Rya from getting closer.