Alterant

  Storm said, "Okay, okay. I promise. Now let's go."

  No one loitered on the sidewalks running along the front of eclectic retail shops and restaurants between the parking deck and the MARTA station. That still didn't lower her anxiety when they reached the subway station and Storm stepped behind bushes to strip down and shift.

  The black jaguar emerged, blending into the obsidian night except when he turned bright yellow eyes on her. He stalked around the station for a minute, sniffed one spot twice, then turned to Evalle.

  She asked, "Got it?"

  He gave a nod and took off along McDonough Street with her right behind.

  Storm hung close to the walls. When he reached an older neighborhood surrounded by woods, he padded up to a two-level brick apartment building. Judging by the simple window and door trims thick with paint, the structure had probably been new in the '80s.

  Evalle waited at a spot where she could see both entrances to the apartments while Storm searched around the building. When he headed back to her, he nodded.

  The Alterants were here.

  But the real confirmation had just stepped out from the far entrance behind Storm.

  Tristan held an umbrella for a young woman he had his arm around. She had brown hair--nothing like his blond locks--and wore hers in crazy curls piled on her head. When she lifted her head, Evalle saw a blink of bright green eyes. Neither Tristan nor his sister had Evalle's night-vision eyesight, or they'd have been wearing sunglasses to hide their eyes in the dark.

  Evalle waved Storm off to the left before he reached her. He could meld into the dark pocket of thick bushes surrounding the corner of the building.

  When he hesitated, she mouthed the words, You promised.

  Storm conceded and backed into the dark, watching.

  She called out to Tristan when he got within twenty feet of her. "Don't be a fool thinking VIPER will not get you."

  His head jerked up, green eyes shining in the night. He shoved his sister behind him. "Get out of my way, Evalle."

  "I can't go back empty-handed, and you have nowhere to run. Stand and fight with me, just like I did with you today."

  He handed the umbrella around to his sister. "You're wrong. I can take us far away from here to live safe."

  "The only way you could do that is by flying, and I heard people in the subway station talking about Harts-field being covered with the fog." Big lie, but he wouldn't know that.

  Tristan's sister stepped up beside him with a hand on her hip. "That's just bullshit."

  He scowled at her.

  Evalle looked his sister over. An attractive young woman, if someone liked petite and mouthy. "I guess you're Petrina."

  The young woman gave her a duh look. "I guess you're the ass-wipe that wants to use us to buy your freedom."

  Snotty little twit. Evalle ignored her. Tristan drove the decisions for his group. "The Tribunal will give Sen freedom to hunt you himself. His philosophy is the only good Alterant is one that is never seen again. And that doesn't even take into account the Nyght Raiders."

  "Who?" Tristan asked.

  "A black-ops group run by a man who lost his best friend to an Alterant. They've had a kill-on-sight policy for much longer than VIPER. You're putting your sister and the other two at more risk than you realize." She looked around. "Where are those two?"

  Petrina started to mouth off again, but Tristan squeezed her. He said, "They're busy."

  Evalle changed her tactic. "You can risk your life and your sister's, but it's unfair to jeopardize Webster's and Aaron's without giving them a chance to have their say."

  Tristan snapped at Evalle, "You're holding me up. Move aside. We're leaving."

  "When we were in the maze, you said you'd share information and help me once your sister was safe."

  "She's not safe yet."

  "Neither of you will ever be if you don't work with me."

  Indecision finally entered Tristan's face.

  Evalle jumped on her opening. "Let me at least take Webster and Aaron with me if they agree. Give me enough information to plead for the three of us. I won't go anywhere without them, and they'll be safe from the fog if they're at VIPER headquarters."

  Maybe Brina could argue that Evalle had brought in two of the three escaped Alterants that were still alive. How could the Tribunal expect Evalle to deliver a dead Alterant?

  Petrina said, "She's lying."

  Evalle shook her head. "You know I'm not, Tristan. I won't accept freedom unless the Tribunal gives it to all three of us."

  Rain streamed down his face while he debated. He wiped water from his eyes and finally said, "If Webster and Aaron agree to go--"

  Petrina grabbed his arm. "No!"

  He gave her a hard look that silenced her, then finished saying, "You're right. I can't make that choice for them. If they agree to go with you, then I'll tell you enough to support your case, but if I find out you've lied to me at any time, I'll make you regret using them for as long as you live."

  The weight she'd been toting on her back for days lost a few pounds.

  Petrina's gaze shifted to her right, where Webster and Aaron came walking up from across the street.

  "Hi, Evalle," Webster called, grinning.

  "Hi, Webster." She started to speak to Aaron, but she smelled sulfur. Then saw the leading edge of the fog creeping up behind Tristan and his sister. Webster and Aaron would be in the line of fog in another few steps when they joined Tristan.

  Webster called over to Tristan, "Thought we were meeting at the subway station."

  Before Tristan could answer, Evalle said, "The fog is coming. We have to get out of here."

  Tristan spun to look behind him, and just that quickly the fog began to circle them.

  A growl rattled from the bushes.

  Storm. Evalle looked at him and shook her head, pleading with him not to attack.

  Tristan said to Webster and Aaron, "Stay close to me and hold your breath if the fog catches us." When the other two Alterants joined Tristan, he turned to Evalle. "The only way out is behind you. You can talk to Webster and Aaron on the way if--"

  A man's voice boomed through a loudspeaker from behind her, "Evalle, back away from the Alterants! We've got them in our sights."

  She turned and saw nothing, which meant Isak's black-ops team was invisible in the night. When she looked back at Tristan, his face had twisted with rage.

  He shouted at her, "It's a trap. You lied to me!"

  "No, I didn't. I tried to tell you about the Nyght Raiders."

  "Bullshit. You were just buying time until you had us all in one spot. You knew I wouldn't agree to go with you and leave my sister. I can't believe I listened to you."

  "That's not true!" She caught Storm moving from cover, where fog smoked around him. She shook her head again.

  He growled viciously, padding back and forth, ready to leap.

  The sulfur stench burned her throat on her next breath, and yellow haze fingered closer to Tristan's group.

  The voice behind the loudspeaker said, "Evalle. Back. Away. Now."

  When she looked over her shoulder this time, seven men had emerged from cover in full battle gear, holding Isak Nyght's mega blasters. In fact, Isak led the group.

  She called out, "Isak, stop. Don't shoot."

  Webster and Aaron roared, and she knew without looking that they were starting to change into beasts.

  But the damage had been done the minute Isak saw Tristan's and Petrina's green eyes.

  In that moment of thunder rolling, Storm snarling and Isak shouting, everything felt as if it happened in slow motion as she realized she had a way to save others even if it meant the end of her last hope.

  She had one Tribunal gift left.

  Speaking the words that would seal her fate, she called out, "By the Tribunal power gifted me, I command Kizira's fog to disappear--" She thought fast, adding, "--and never return."

  The fog vanished.

  Aaron and Webster hadn't sh
ifted much. They looked at her as they returned to human.

  "Move now, Evalle!" Isak called through the bullhorn again.

  She stared at Tristan. "I did not set you up."

  He gave a look past her shoulder, then back at her. "Going to be hard to prove that once we're all dead."

  "I know. Get out of here."

  His eyes narrowed with suspicion.

  Putting more power into her voice, she ordered him, "Go, because the only reason he's not shooting yet is to keep from killing me. The minute he decides I'm a threat to humans, too, that will change. I could call Tzader, but he won't get here fast enough to stop Isak."

  Tristan told Webster, Aaron and Petrina to walk away single file behind him. He backed up as they did, keeping his eyes on Evalle.

  She could see his confusion and inner debate over what he should do, but they both knew he was out of options.

  And so was Evalle as she watched her only chance at freedom disappear into the woods across the street. She turned to find Isak's team moving forward, but they had thirty yards yet to cover.

  Isak called to her without the bullhorn. "That was a mistake, Evalle."

  She nodded her understanding.

  Storm snarled and she jerked around to him. "Don't come out here. You promised. If you break that promise, I bet it will hurt you as much as lying, but it will hurt me more."

  Energy flushed the rain away from her in a short blast.

  Sen appeared in front of her holding the hourglass . . . empty. "I don't see three Alterants with you."

  "What the hell is that?" Isak yelled, no longer using his bullhorn and heading toward them.

  Sen turned with an annoyed expression. Red laser dots peppered his head and chest. He lifted his hand, pointing a finger toward them, a clear sign of aggression to a black-ops team.

  A blast of power exploded from one of the weapons.

  Sen flipped his palm up, stopping the round in midair inches from his hand.

  What was this guy? Evalle expected Isak's men to unload everything at that, but they had all turned into living statues, locked in whatever position they'd been in when Sen had lifted his palm.

  She asked, "How long will they stay frozen like that?"

  Sen turned back to her with a negligent shrug. "Until I leave, and they won't remember any of this."

  What she wouldn't give to have that kind of power, especially with Sen still holding the empty hourglass.

  He glanced around with a smug smile. "As I was saying, I don't see three Alterants with you."

  "There's a good reason why."

  "Like I give two shits?"

  From the corner of her eye, Evalle saw Storm step from the shadows, eyes glittering with deadly intent. He dropped into a crouch, getting ready to attack Sen.

  A suicidal move.

  She yelled, "Don't!"

  Sen didn't even turn around or move a muscle, but she knew he was the one who sent a wicked blast of power that knocked Storm against the apartment building. Bones cracked viciously when his body smashed against the bricks. A sickening sound rattled from his lungs as he slid down into a boneless heap.

  Blood trickled from his mouth.

  She lunged for him, screaming, "No!"

  But her body halted in midair. Sen held her there for a minute, long enough to make her realize Storm's chest hadn't moved. He wasn't breathing.

  When the world started spinning, her arms and legs functioned again. She beat her fists in every direction, trying to hit Sen, whose laughter rolled through the swirling colors.

  She called up her kinetics. Useless.

  Storm couldn't be dead.

  That couldn't be the last vision of him she'd carry with her to a lifetime of isolation. The Tribunal would listen to nothing she had to say. No provision for failure.

  Oh, dear Goddess. Failure.

  If she'd thought her heart couldn't take another hit, she'd been wrong.

  What would the Tribunal do to Brina?

  What would that do to the Beladors?

  THIRTY-FOUR

  When the teleporting ended, Evalle ignored Sen, who stood next to her with arrogant pleasure. She barely noted the plush grass beneath her feet and black sky filled with shooting stars and two moons.

  The most beautiful and deadly part of this parallel universe were the two gods and one goddess positioned on a shining gold dais this time. An arch of diamond-shaped sparkling lights curved above their heads.

  Water dripped off Evalle's nose and soaked her clothes. That might be why she couldn't get her eyes to clear, but she doubted all of the water on her face was left over from being drenched.

  Was Storm really gone?

  Defeat devastated her. She wanted to curl up somewhere and hide, but not with Brina's fate still in jeopardy.

  Pele addressed Evalle. "You come before us with not one of the three escaped Alterants?"

  "About those," Evalle started in.

  Ares interjected, "Four, counting the one you helped escape."

  Denying she'd played a role in Tristan's escape would be futile. "Of the first three, one was killed by the Medb."

  No sympathy to be found on that dais.

  "I used my last gift to keep them from being killed, and I destroyed all of the fog when I did. I saved millions of lives--"

  Ares said, "You were told to deliver the Alterants. The fog had not reached the point of harming millions of lives--"

  Evalle argued, "But I ran up against the Medb while trying to bring in the Alterants. Kizira took credit for the fog and said she planned to expand it across North America."

  "And," Ares shouted to let her know she'd made a huge mistake by interrupting him, "we suspect that only the creator--who you say is the Medb--or someone associated with that pantheon could disperse the fog. If that is the case, you may now explain how you were able to wipe away a sentient fog that no deity in the VIPER coalition could affect."

  Trying to save the world had cast her as being in league with the Medb? She'd give the Tribunal credit. "I don't know. It had to be your power, because I used the gift you gave me."

  Wrong suggestion. Every regal face on the dais hardened with insult.

  Loki spoke up. "I call Brina of Treoir."

  No! Evalle tried to reach the warrior queen telepathically. Don't come to the Tribunal meeting, Brina.

  But Brina's holographic image took shape between Evalle and the dais. Brina said to Evalle, I must come when summoned.

  I failed big time. Those words cut her heart with the sharpness of a razor against raw skin.

  I know. I heard about Tristan escaping.

  That was an accident, Evalle pled. Tristan has information on the Alterants that might sway the Tribunal if they'll just let me explain, but they're blaming me with the fog because I used my last gift to make it go away permanently.

  You shouldn't have been able to do that when VIPER deities could not influence the fog.

  I have no idea why it worked. Maybe it was the power of all three of these in the gifts or the fact that I was in the fog when I called on the gift, or maybe Kizira just lied about being responsible for the fog . . . I don't know, but I swear I'm not with the Medb, Brina.

  Brina nodded, then spoke to the Tribunal. "I ask that you allow Evalle a chance to explain--"

  "That was not our agreement, Warrior Queen," Ares charged. "You accepted the terms, and I see no Alterants or the one known as Tristan, freed at her hands."

  The dark heavens surrounding them shook and rumbled with the force of his declaration.

  Pele agreed. "No deity among the VIPER coalition has been able to stop the fog from spreading. Yet your Alterant destroyed something she now tells us was created by the Medb. Based upon her own testimony, she is aligned with your enemy and yet you defend her?"

  Brina answered, "No one has proof of who was behind the fog. The Medb could have been lying to her."

  Pele's impatience was evident in her refusal to debate the fog issue further. "Regardless, this
one"--she pointed at Evalle--"has answered beyond any doubt that her loyalty lies with seeing her fellow Alterants remain free."

  The goddess directed her attention to Evalle. "Is that not so?"

  Not the way Pele stated it.

  Evalle would not stand here and have her loyalty called into question. "I am not involved with the Medb. I am loyal to the Beladors. I have no idea why the gift worked, but even with what you're accusing me of I would use it again to protect humans across this continent."

  "As well as Alterants?" Loki challenged softly.

  Evalle considered all that had transpired and figured this would be her last chance to speak up for Alterants. "Would I like to see all Alterants who've done nothing wrong be free? I never said those specific words, but as one myself, I can only answer that question as yes. We should have the right of every other free being. I left here with the goal of bringing those three escapees back to face judgment that I thought would be fair."

  Evalle paused to consider her next words. When no one on the dais stabbed her with a lightning bolt, she added, "I told the other Alterants that I believed a fair and just Tribunal would have given each of them the chance to plead his case to remain free. And Tristan has information that sheds light on the origin of Alterants and will answer many questions."

  Brina turned halfway around at that declaration, gave Evalle a questioning look, then resumed her quiet pose.

  Evalle went on. "He believes he can show that we are not anomalies of nature but a race to be recognized."

  "We would hear this Tristan, but"--Loki made a show of looking around the room--"he is not here." A sarcastic laugh feathered his taunt.

  Ares spoke with the power of a gun blast. "We have heard enough. The task was not performed. Judgment is due."

  Brina spoke up. "Can Macha not--"

  "Macha?" Loki chided. "What more would you ask of your goddess when she has been generous to offer sanctuary to this Alterant until now? There is no challenge to this judgment when the Alterants are not a recognized race and have not been accepted into a pantheon . . . unless you wish to inform this Tribunal of such a change in their status?" He angled his head in question. "No? I thought not."

  Evalle stared at the back of Brina's quiet hologram with horror.

  Pele nodded as though a silent discussion had just ended between her and the two gods. Her lyrical voice rang out with unquestioned authority. "Brina of Treoir, you are held accountable for this failure."