{Phoenix, AZ}

The glow from the burning hospital illuminated the SUV’s interior. Colton and Cypher drove the satiated Icari back to Iona-28 in the Hummer. It was hard to fly with indigestion.

Xelan had boosted a Lincoln Navigator for the Shadow to get Lucas home. Tameka knew Xelan wanted a full heart-to-heart when he trusted Kyle to drive. From the third row-seating, Tameka glared at the back of his curly brunette head.

They would all die in a fiery car crash.

Rayne spoke into the glass, reflecting firelight in her eyes. “We have to accept Nox’s invitation.” She didn’t wait for a preamble. She usually let Xelan have his say first before diving right into it. Maybe she and Tameka needed to spend less time together. Tameka was the direct one in this friend group, dammit.

Sagan threw her hands up in frustration and said, “You have got to be kidding me?!” She pinned an incredulous stare on Rayne. Some invisible thread tugged tight between them.

Trouble in paradise?

Kyle called from the wheel, “Just how well do you expect that to go?”

Xelan turned in the passenger seat to face Rayne on the second row. Into the pure undiluted resolve on her face, he reasoned, “We can’t.”

With Lucas’ unconscious, injured head in her lap, Rayne argued, “You’ll be there to protect me.”

“I won’t be able to protect you there.”

Tameka snorted loud enough for Xelan to hear two rows ahead of her. She said, “You know damn well there’s nothing out there that would stop you from getting to her.” She pointed her finger at Rayne. “But that doesn’t mean I agree with you.” There was no sense in encouraging her.

“We have to go,” Rayne repeated. This woman was a brick wall.

“Why? So you can freeze up like you did on the roof?” Xelan winced at his own words. Tameka flinched, but he needed to say something stern enough to get through Rayne’s thick skull. Still, the entire car fell silent.

The calm before the storm. Anticipation filled the air. They waited for the fight to start.

But Rayne grinned at him. “Your eyesight’s going, old man.” She tossed a spherical object at him, and he caught it with shock plastered on his face.

Tameka peered at the device in his hands. Pale blue and shimmering with electricity. He gaped at her, “How…?”

Rayne said, “I call it ‘After Burn.’ Moving so fast I leave an image of myself behind. It’s a little something I’ve been working on with Lucas.” She glanced down at the groaning Icarus taking up the rest of her row. “And while I snatched the orb thingy, you distracted Nox enough that he didn’t notice it had gone missing. Thanks, by the way.”

Xelan beamed at her. “Callahan, if you keep this up, I may have to stop holding back during our sparring matches. And we need to work on your naming conventions.”

Rayne returned his radiant smile. “Anytime you’re ready, Wingmaster.”

Sagan mumbled from the third row she shared with Tameka, “Her head’s getting too big as it is.”

Kyle took his eyes off the road a little longer than Tameka preferred to examine the ball. “What is it?”

Quietly, Sagan answered, “It’s a projector.” Tameka detected a hint of sorrow in the blond girl’s voice. Was something wrong? And how did Sagan know what it was?

“That’s right,” Xelan confirmed. “It’s a short-range projecting device. I invented them eons ago.” He peered at it, puzzling away like he was holding a Rubik’s cube. “They’ve made some modifications, but it looks like they never increased the range.” Then he did something utterly sexy. He grinned with inspiration, all geeky and techy. “But I can figure it out.”

“Yeah. But first, we gotta take care of a problem,” Kyle said as he pulled up to base.

Extra vehicles were parked in the front roundabout. The messenger convoy had returned. Tameka swallowed so hard it carried throughout the Navigator’s interior. “Do you think John made it back?”

“In one piece…” Sagan whispered.

“I think we’ll make it through this as we’ve done everything else so far. Together.” Rayne locked eyes with each of them. Even when the SUV rocked as Kyle put it in park. “We face this together. We’ll survive it together.”

Tameka reached out her hand, and Rayne gripped it hard enough to hurt. “We can do this.”

Kyle and Rayne carried Lucas out of the SUV. Xelan, Sagan, and Tameka flanked them. Tension weighed down all of their shoulders. Fire burned in Rayne’s eyes. Sagan sniffed beside Tameka, her face hidden by her hair.

Something hot brushed Tameka’s hand. She looked up at Xelan from their eleven-inch height difference. He gave her a sad smile, supporting her. She took the hand he offered and held it tight.

They walked into Iona together and made a beeline for the more spacious areas. It was training hour. Grunts and cries carried from the fitness center. This wasn’t unusual.

As their Shadow filled the entryway, Pablo flipped in the air and brought one leg down on Lynn’s ankle. She fell back, howling in pain on the polished wooden floor. There were no mats to soften the blow.

Meanwhile, twenty or more of Frullop’s human staff watched from the bleachers along the far wall with two full-fledged Brethren members in tow. Fifteen of Xelan’s crew, including Six and Smith, struggled to break through a human barricade.

Six called, “Lynn!”

Smith switched open a knife.

Froot Loop salivated at the display.

Sagan hissed. Tameka gaped, and Xelan dropped her hand.

Rayne lost her shit. She gave Lucas’ weight to Kyle, broke onto the floor, and screamed, “Somebody had better tell me what the fuck is going on.” She glared at Pablo.

Before she took a chunk out of him, Andrew called from the sidelines, “Rayne, no!” He shook his head, horror in his turquoise eyes.

While the team spread out at the front preparing for something big, Tameka ran to Lynn’s side. Her leg was swelling like a grapefruit. “Hey, sis, hang on.”

Lynn nodded and sucked in ragged breaths, busy watching the events unfold.

With Frullop’s men on them, John stood with Andrew. Grief had diminished his Osage complexion to ash. Dark circles entombed his deep brown eyes beneath heavy, furrowed brows. He’d spent at least a few days in mourning.

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Dead.

Their parents were dead. And Frullop’s men had killed them after all.

At the sight of him, Rayne’s entire body flushed like a thermometer.

Sagan shrieked, “No!” and fell to her knees.

Kyle knelt at her side, guarding Lucas, and rubbing her back.

Adrenaline clogged Tameka’s hearing and made her vision too sharp and contrasted. Blood rushed too fast, affecting her concentration. Three months this motherfucker had lied to them, and they had to put up with his abusive, sabotaging staff. No more.

“Who did it?! Who gave the order?!” Rayne shouted. Her angry voice carried through the rafters.

In the stands, the spectators remained silent, but their expressions spoke volumes. Ravenous, hungry. Their eyes glinted with zealous mania. Only two in the audience frowned and stared at their companions in confusion. Quiet, pensive Dolor stared aghast upside Froot Loop’s head. Behind him, Tempest glared at their host with as much naked rage as Rayne. They were both members of The Brethren. They were both unhappy as hell.

After the staring contest carried on a few heartbeats longer, Froot Loop stood, straightened his lapels, and said, “Nox.”

Rayne crossed the space in a blur of motion and stomped the bleachers. With a groan, the telescoping mechanism retracted and cascaded back into the wall section by section. Frullop’s zealots in the first two sections died in seconds, crushed by wood and metal. The latter sections realized in time to escape, including the two neutral Brethren, jumping or climbing out of the way. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Beauty became the beast. Rayne ripped the first guy’s throat out and smashed her skull into the next one. As a dozen opponents bogged their girl down, Xelan jumped into the fray likewise cracking bones. His teeth sank into more than one. Kyle put the mace to good use, standing over their prone friend. Tameka begrudgingly admitted he wielded it deftly, taking out his fair share.

As the surrounding battle carried on, Tameka worried about Lynn. “Pablo,” the redhead called. He laid someone out on the ground and spared her a glance. Tameka asked, “Is it safe to move her?”

“Yeah. I’ll help in just a second!” He grunted and kicked his opponent square in the chest.

“He had to do it,” Lynn muttered from the floor. Her face twisted in pain, brown eyes squeezed tight.

“What?” Tameka asked. She tried not to let any anger in. Pablo’s excuse for breaking the ankle of the girl he obviously loved had better be good.

Lynn groaned to say, “Frullop made us fight… until one of us… one of us was severely injured.” Her entire face was scrunched, and then she continued, “We stalled as long as we could.”

“Okay. Okay.” Seemed legit. “We can talk about it later.”

“Please. Please don’t let Rayne punish him,” Lynn said on the verge of passing out.

Tameka peered up at Pablo, who finished his opponent with a proficient snap of his neck. She said, “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” They’d all come so far from the children they were at J. A. Fair. Even the Shadow, with all their original training, had grown up fast and dark in the apocalypse. Three months ago, Pablo had feared the monsters. Now, the monsters should fear him.

He went to his knees beside them. He never so much as glanced at Lynn. He asked, “She’s out? Okay, so we’ll pick her up like this—”

A shot rang out. A proper gunshot. It resonated in Tameka’s ears as the sound bounced off the gymnasium walls. The fighting stopped with Frullop aiming a smoking Desert Eagle in her direction.

A shadow was cast over Tameka. It wasn’t there before.

Tameka twisted, and Caedes towered over her at her back. His deep green eyes gazed down at her with his face drawn in concentration. Something rattled through his teeth as his jaw shifted around. He held his hand to his mouth and spat an object into it. He held it out to the light. A bullet. He just took a bullet for her.

Tameka gaped at him. “Caedes,” she breathed. She caught sight of Rayne in the crowd, staring at him with her mouth wide open, gratitude naked in her eyes.

Caedes offered it to her. “Lucky bullet?”

Frullop tried to shoot Tameka in the back, and Caedes saved her. She started, “I…”

Before Tameka could even think of how that sentence would go, a cry screeched through the building. Both turned to look at the source.

Xelan held Frullop on his knees. Her man’s arms were wrapped around him, ready to snap his neck. The last remaining freaks fell to their knees, mid-fight, and collapsed.

What the fuck? Those nearest to her foamed at the mouth.

In a voice meant to carry, Dolor said, “A crime against The Brethren is a crime against Earth. Your heinous acts betray your purpose, the only purpose we share: defending Earth from Nox.”

Tempest continued, “You confessed your allegiance to him. Confessed to your crimes. There is only one sentence and only meted out by members of our ranks. Who claims the right to his execution?”

Andrew called, “I do.”

“Do any contest?” Dolor asked.

Xelan growled, “No contest, but I want to help.”

“As do I,” Caedes said. He glanced back at Tameka as he laid the bullet in her hand and closed her fist around it. His soft smile was filled with more than she’d expected to see.

What a crazy night.

Caedes joined the others by the bleachers.

While they laid Frullop out, he screamed and writhed like a bitch, shouting, “Nox will kill you all. He’ll take her and kill you all!” They shoved a sock into his mouth.

Rayne and Sagan joined Tameka on the floor with Lynn and Pablo. Kyle, sans shoe and sock, stood with the others and watched. As Xelan held down Frullop’s arms, Caedes held down the jerking Icarus’ feet.

Andrew took the modest knife Tempest offered. He called out, “For Lynn.” The good guys, which since the fight started was comprised of Cypher, Colton, Smith, Six, and their two friendly Icari whose names Tameka couldn’t pronounce—the entire crew—grunted in unison. “For Tameka.” Another grunt with a few cursory glances at her. Then Andrew’s entire demeanor changed from solemn to lost. In a heavy voice, he said, “For our parents.” There was no grunt. Just the sound of the knife plunging into the coward. He cried muted screams as the nacre healed him even as Andrew fished for it, cutting the wounds deeper. After some time and some struggling, Andrew ripped the nacre from the guy’s chest. He held it high.

“The injustice tempered but never repaid. We convene in the morning to prevent a repeat of this dishonor,” Tempest promised. She and Dolor left the room with him shaking his head at the calamity.

Tameka’s blood finally flowed at a steady pace. Her vision and hearing was restored to normal. The floor was littered with bodies.

Xelan hopped away from the dead Icarus and, in hard strides, rushed to Tameka’s side. He paused when another sound other than his boots echoed through the room. Since they’d started dating, she marked the slight changes in his body when he relied on his Icarean instincts. He sniffed the air, subtly. Then he trained his sights on Sagan.

The other Icari also looked her way. Tameka turned to see the blond woman with her head bowed. Nothing about her body gave her away. This brave warrior cried silent tears on the battlefield.

Rayne and Xelan crossed the room. He knelt between Tameka and Pablo. He glanced at Lynn’s unconscious body.

Their General knelt beside her lover and best friend.

Everyone glanced away.

Some set about dragging the bodies from the room. Others, like John, leaned against the nearest object willing to support their weight. While the knife twisted in Tameka’s heart, some part of her had given up on her parents long before they began the investigation. The messages Frullop’s men had ‘delivered’ from their parents never matched their personalities. It was too sweet a thought that they were waiting out there somewhere for her, safely.

No.

Those were gifts not meant for them in this world.

In her mourning, Tameka had learned to keep busy. This was her family, now.

And at the moment, one of them was badly injured. “Xelan,” she said in as soft a voice as she could manage.

He peered at her with haunted eyes. “Yes?”

“Can you please help me with Lynn?” Tameka tried to ignore the rattle in his speech.

He visibly shook himself from the state she’d seen him in. He said, “Absolutely.” He turned to Pablo. “You went for a clean break?”

Pablo blanched but nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“We’ll talk about it over setting the bone, then.” He placed his hand on Pablo’s shoulder. Tameka stifled a cry at the tremor in Xelan’s hand. Something was very wrong. He said to Pablo, “I’m sure you had no other choice.”

A sheen cast across the reverence in Pablo’s hollowed eyes. He swallowed and left his part of the conversation on a nod.

They all stood and watched Xelan lift Lynn like she was air, careful for her leg. Into her ear, he whispered, “We’ll get you fixed up.” The soothing tone of his voice was one of Tameka’s favorite sounds.

Rayne helped Sagan to her feet across from them, saying, “We’re going to bed.” She glanced down at the blood and bits clinging to her skin and clothes. “We’re gonna shower, then head to bed.”

Kyle called from across the room, “I’ll join you!” He started jogging over as John and Andrew helped a waking Lucas stand on his own feet.

Tameka resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and for once just let that boy’s twisted sense of humor wash over her. She laughed. With all the mess around them and the awful state of things, she laughed so hard she snorted and didn’t care who heard. Beyond her laughter, she heard a deeper echo of it. Then another. A chorus erupted. The entire gym carried on until tears sprung to their eyes.

Tomorrow.

They would mourn, together, tomorrow.

Static from Cypher’s walkie killed the moment. He stopped laughing and responded. Then he called out, “Wingmaster. Front gate says you have a visitor.”

Xelan recoiled at the unusual interruption but asked anyway, “Who the hell is it?”

Tameka peered at him as he multi-tasked between caring for their injured friend and leading their entire operation. She loved him.

“Visitor identifies himself as Tumu. The guard doesn’t think he’s human.”

Xelan shared, “That’s cause he’s not. He’s a Tritan, and he’s our contact from Enki.”