The Warrior - Initiation Driven Subversive Redemption Justice

  I didn’t know how she always managed to be grace and dignity, but she did. I loved Tiffani and I pulled her against me for another hug. They had been a perfect match, another example for me to hold onto in my heart for my own marriage.

  Pulled backward, I was embraced all at once by Micah and Deacon. They both laughed while they did it.

  “Sorry, Tiffani,” Micah called over his shoulder. “But I have to take my sister with me before Chad takes her away for the whole night.”

  “Careful with her.” Tiffani laughed.

  “Where are you taking me?” As Chad and I had been the first out of our group to marry—outside of Tia, who had years earlier—I had no idea if there was some sort of custom I’d forgotten.

  “We’re not taking you anywhere.” Deacon smiled. “We just thought maybe you should actually taste real alcohol. Now you’re a married woman.”

  He handed me a glass and I stared down at it a second before giving it back to Deacon.

  “No thanks.” I’d seen more problems come out of glasses like that one. For me, the contents of the yellow cup held no interest. “But thank you anyway.”

  Micah laughed, patting Deacon on the back. “I told you. She’s not a drinker.”

  “So.” I ignored the two of them. When men got like this, I had no idea what to do with them. “Have you two discussed it yet?”

  Deacon wiped at his mouth. “What are we supposed to be talking about? Other than events like this, we don’t spend a lot of time talking, Micah and me.”

  “Right.” I nodded like I understood. They both stared at me. “Except I think that should change since I think you should be going together on your big adventure.”

  “Big adventure?” Micah looked between the two of us. “What big adventure?”

  “Huh.” Deacon’s brow creased. He hadn’t hollered and run off like I’d suggested the worst thing he’d ever heard.

  I knew he wouldn’t because Deacon would see just what I did. Micah would be invaluable out there in the great beyond. We’d miss his skills here.

  Micah, however, needed to get going. At least for a while. Before he exploded.

  I left them alone to discuss it. I had a husband to find.

  ***

  A pounding on the door woke us in the middle of the night.

  “Tell me the truth. Is this usual? The waking-the-bride-and-groom-on-the-wedding-night thing?”

  Chad groaned and rolled out of the bed. He shoved on his pants. “I have no idea, but if this is drunk Micah, I’m going to pound him.”

  I rubbed at my arm, which ached. It never really stopped; I’d gotten good at pretending I could ignore it.

  “They need us.” Chad poked his head back in. “Something has happened.”

  I jumped, nearly tripping over part of the sheet that had fallen to the side. I managed to right myself and not face-plant on the floor. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m confused. There’s a lot of talking going on but it has something to do with Isaac Icahn.”

  I pulled on my shirt. “How?”

  “No idea, babe. No idea.”

  ***

  Holding Chad’s hand, I stared at the brown-wrapped package lying on the table in front of me. Patrick stood across from us and waited while I examined the unknown object causing havoc in our lives.

  A man, now dead for months, had left a package with my name on it, for us to find.

  Chad spoke first. “Tell me where you found this.”

  “Below one of the elevators. The crews have been searching this place piece by piece for anything left behind. This had been set to the side on a small ledge. They almost missed it.”

  I wished they had. “Um.” I shook my head. “Maybe we should just burn it.”

  Patrick gawked at me. His eyes practically bugged out of his head. “Without opening it?”

  “She makes a point, Dad.” Chad pointed at the package. “I mean, burn it and let us go back to bed.”

  “You think I’d bother you on your wedding night if this wasn’t hugely important?”

  Chad nodded. “Yep. I think you would.”

  “Chad.” I squeezed his hand. “Don’t antagonize your father, please.”

  “Obviously, we can’t burn it up now. There’s a crowd of people out there wanting to know what’s in it.” I picked it up, half-expecting it to explode in my hands when I touched it. “Have we eliminated the idea this is a bomb? Set to go off as soon as I take off the wrapping?”

  “Rachel.” Chad ripped it from my hand. “Why are you holding it if you think an explosion could happen?”

  I took it back from him. “Don’t grit your teeth. You’re going to give yourself a headache.”

  If it was going to blow, I didn’t want it exploding on him.

  “Rachel.” Chad definitely clenched his jaw. I could hear it in the way he said my name.

  I tore the paper like a bandage I had to get off because it would do nothing but cause me pain if I didn’t. I don’t know what I expected to find. It could have been any number of objects but a DVD was not one of the things crossing my mind.

  Patrick scratched his head. “I haven’t seen one of those…well, I don’t know how long it’s been…not since Before.”

  “I’ve seen one.” I wanted to stomp my foot but instead opted to dig my fingers into my palm. “Come on. We have to go.”

  Chad followed without question but Patrick called after me before catching up to us. “Where are we going?”

  I groaned. This time it was my turn to grit my teeth. “Redemption. We’re going back to Redemption.”

  “Why?” Patrick questioned.

  “Because that is where he kept his DVD player, which he knew I know because he used to drag me into the room all the time to have conversations.”

  “Rachel.” Chad shook his head. “You stick the DVD thing in the player and it might blow up.”

  “You’re suggesting this is a trap.”

  “I think you are the one who first presented the idea, my love.” To give Chad credit, he hadn’t hauled me by the arm back to our rooms and insisted I leave it alone. That’s what I would have done to him.

  “It won’t. Not until he’s shown me what he wanted me to see. He’s so egotistical. I hated him. I still do. And now he’s managed to insert himself into my wedding night. From the dead.”

  Patrick laughed. If he’d been anyone but Chad’s father, I might have struck him. Instead, I walked out into the night and waited for the elevator that would take me Upwards and out to Redemption.

  Whoever wanted to come could. We could all go watch Dr. Icahn’s final message to me. Or at least I hoped it was the final one. I didn’t want to still be trying to figure out how he planned to ruin my life ten years from now. By then, I wanted him cold in his grave, never to resurface again.

  ***

  It took ten tries to get the DVD player to work, which accounted for half an hour of wasted time. Chad eventually figured out that everything needed new batteries. We were in short supply with them. But he did find some buried in a drawer in Icahn’s old office. Bit by bit, we were going to have to go through this place and gather what we could use from his assortment of supplies.

  Finally, his face appeared on the screen. I flinched and Deacon, who had joined Micah, Darren, my parents, and half of Genesis in our trek over here, rubbed my arm. I smiled. It was nice to have friends. Even on nights when you’d rather be left alone in your bed with the man you’d married only a few hours earlier.

  A honeymoon was probably out of the question.

  “Hello, Rachel Clancy.”

  Icahn’s voice resonated throughout the room. Micah leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Not your last name anymore.”

  Huh. I hadn’t thought about it. Chad shushed him, and I concentrated on the madman in front of me.

  “If you are watching this, then I am dead because otherwise I would never allow you to see it.”

  “Asshole,” my husband cursed. I understood the
sentiment but raving at a dead, crazy person didn’t help.

  “And if that is the case, then I see no harm in letting you know a little secret.”

  “Why me?” I knew he couldn’t hear me to answer. Yet I couldn’t keep myself from asking.

  “You were obviously involved in my demise. You are the only one around here with enough evil left inside of them to pull something like my death off.”

  Chad looked at me. “Don’t let him infect you. You don’t need the noise in your head. You’re nothing like him.”

  I swallowed. I wouldn’t—couldn’t—deny to myself Icahn hadn’t been totally wrong. I had orchestrated his death. I’d brought Andon in and I did share some of Icahn’s deviousness.

  If I’d become that type of person, then he’d made me that way.

  “There is a reason I wanted Genesis. You see, prior to destruction, I hid something there. A liquid I don’t dare try to move. You see, my dear Rachel, I did manage to find a way to solve the Vampire problem. It wasn’t, however, a cure for the disease; rather, a way to put an end to the undead. I never had the stomach for it. They’re people who were made very sick. You, by contrast, you can do it, Rachel. And if I’m dead and no longer around to control them, I’m going to suggest you do it. All of those Vampires below ground? They’re going to run through their food supply. Without my serum to tame them, they’re all going to come up and need to eat.”

  I could hear my heart beat in my ears. His words sank in. The meaning, the implication.

  “Imagine it, Rachel. All of them. Coming right at you. Every single night. Dig below my lab. You’ll find what I hid there. If you’re woman enough to use it.”

  His face vanished and left in its spot nothing. Gray static lines and the sound of impending doom remained.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The sound of drilling woke me. When Icahn had said the stuff had been buried beneath his lab, he hadn’t been kidding. No wonder he hadn’t been able to give up on Genesis. His Vampire-killing device, or whatever it proved to be, had been buried twelve feet under, inside a steel room.

  We were blindly doing what he’d told us to do. I winced at the thought. What the hell was it?

  I groaned and covered my eyes with my arm. This had been going on for days, and I’d been averaging three hours of sleep a night.

  I’d come to believe Icahn hadn’t been lying. There might not be a gaggle of mad scientists heading toward Genesis in a horde, ready to kill us, but there were Vampires aplenty going really nutty.

  We were under constant nighttime attack, and our days were filled with trying to get into Icahn’s secret compartment.

  Chad snored gently next to me. He could sleep through everything and these days it seemed like I couldn’t manage to ignore a sound. Maybe it was because I constantly worried they’d break into the big old hidden safe room of Icahn’s and find it was filled with poisonous gas, ready to turn us all into zombies.

  I really couldn’t put destruction past Icahn. Dead and still running things. It seemed totally unfair.

  I looked at the clock on the wall. I’d slept for two straight hours. My arm ached and I rubbed it, checking the skin to make sure it hadn’t swollen and no new sign of infection surfaced. Scarred, but healthy. I had to live with the idea of constant pain.

  I sat up, trying not to wake Chad. He rolled over mumbling, and I sneaked out of bed. He’d taken out three Vampires the night before in one giant staking. I’d been impressed. We’d seen no Werewolves whatsoever and I wondered if they smelled or somehow knew what was about to happen to us and were waiting to jump in for a last-minute slaughter.

  After I dressed, I walked outside into the fake sunlight of the world Icahn had created for us.

  I looked up and moved slowly toward the sound of the drilling. In fact, I became so interested in the fake lights and how they glowed down at me I plowed right into Micah.

  He oomphed and we both hit the ground. I rubbed my arm, which had, of course, taken the brunt of my fall.

  “Sorry.” Micah groaned. “I was distracted.”

  “Yeah.” I stood and offered him my good arm to grip so he could do the same. “Me too. A dangerous combination. You and me, distracted.”

  “Right.” He smiled. “So where were going in such a hurry?”

  “The drilling. You?”

  He shrugged. “From the drilling to try to get some sleep. Nothing much to see over there.”

  “No progress?” Damn. I’d really hoped that this morning there would be a change. Something to plan, some way to make progress.

  “You can go see for yourself. Maybe you’ll be their good-luck charm.”

  I shook my head. “Micah, I’ve never been anyone’s good-luck charm.”

  “I don’t think that’s exactly true. Chad would disagree immensely. So would my whole family, in fact. He wouldn’t be with us, if not for you. And your family. They’d have been dead or made Vampires if Jason hadn’t wanted you to make it through the onslaught. Pretty lucky.”

  My cheeks were so hot they throbbed from the sensation. I did not do compliments well. “Stop it. You don’t have to say those things to me, brother.”

  He grinned at my choice of words. “Oh, right. We’re family now. You officially have to take all my crap whenever I want to dish it out.”

  “Or I can let Chad pound on you, either way.”

  “Fair enough.” He rubbed his face. We could all do a wonderful job of hiding exhaustion but just for so long. Micah’s showed in his eyes. “Listen, I talked to Deacon. You think I should go with him to who knows where to do who knows what?”

  “I really don’t get to have an opinion. Only you can know what’s right for you. I wanted you to know it was an option.”

  Truthfully, I wanted him to go. Not because I wouldn’t miss him. I would, in a major way. Micah not being there would be a huge hit to me and not just because he fought so darn well but because he was my friend.

  But there was no way he could go off into the wilderness because Rachel told him to.

  “Right. Well, Deacon’s leaving soon. I need to think about this some more.”

  “Sure.” I patted his arm. “I know you’ll do what’s right for you.”

  I watched him walk away for a few seconds before I turned and headed back toward the drilling. I wanted the vault place opened and I wanted it opened now. Too bad my internal temper tantrum couldn’t actually get anything done.

  ***

  It took another three days before they finally broke through. It was the middle of the night and every person in Genesis had turned out to see it opened up.

  “I’m going to go in first when they yank the metal back.” Patrick spoke to the crowd. None of us had discussed what would happen when they finally accomplished the goal.

  “I think Rachel should go.” Deacon spoke out. “Icahn left this for her.”

  “I’m good. I don’t always have to be the first person out of the foxhole and into the fire. If Patrick wants to go first, he’s more than welcome to have at it.”

  Chad grinned at me. “Did that hurt you? Did making such a declaration cause you physical pain?”

  “A little bit.” I smiled. I did want to get down there. My hands itched to make it happen.

  “Let’s go together.” Patrick patted me on the back. “None of us should ever go alone into danger.”

  A few minutes later, armed with my machete, stake, and a flashlight, I climbed down into the darkness, following Patrick into the unknown.

  “You doing okay, Rachel?” Patrick called upward.

  “Yes. Fine.” The only problem with having a partner was the constant reassuring.

  My feet finally hit the floor, and I unhooked myself from the rope. I stepped out into and looked around. There were lights set on low, illuminating the room. I guessed I wasn’t going to be using the flashlight unless I whacked someone over the head with it.

  The only object was a large safe.

  Patrick swore. “Are we real
ly going to have to break into something else now?”

  “No.” I knew the code. He’d left this for me; he’d want me to be able to get into it.

  “Can you open it?”

  “I can.” I walked forward and stared at the dial. With a spin, I started to enter the code I felt would open the safe. My birthday. And as I suspected it would, the safe gave way. Son of a bitch.

  The sound of the seal breaking filled the room and a burst of cold air hit me.

  Patrick pulled me back. “Careful. We don’t know what’s in there.”

  “I don’t think he’s kept a Vampire on ice this whole time, waiting to come out and eat me. And none of my Vampire alerts are going off.”

  “Why make us Warriors at all?” Patrick shook his head. “I’ve always wondered. Why not just leave us plain humans? Totally dependent on him.”

  “Someone had to keep him alive. He needed an army who could keep the Vamps under control in case they got away from him.” I peered into the safe. “It’s okay. There’s nothing inside going to hurt me. Not right now, anyway.”

  “What is it?” Patrick looked inside.

  “It’s vials.” Three of them, actually, with a note attached to the inside of the door. I handed it to Patrick. He could read Icahn’s words and decide if we’d be doing what the maniacal asshole wanted us to do. I knew without looking what it would say.

  Somehow, some way, I’d be risking my life in a way I hadn’t anticipated in order to do something with those vials.

  “If we add this to the Vampires’ food supplies, then we’ll be able to wipe them out. It’ll kill them.”

  “Add it to their food supply?” I turned to Patrick. “Their food supply is their human slaves. The people trapped with them. How do we add it to their food supply?”

  Patrick didn’t say anything and it took me a minute to catch on to what he’d realized much quicker than I did.

  When it hit me, the truth of what Icahn had left here for me to do, my head throbbed. “He wants me to poison human slaves, people who have spent their lives underground, being abused by Vampires. I should go ahead and poison them because in doing so I can end the undead, thus freeing those people who caught the virus and have been trapped in that kind of hell for generations now.”