Chapter 5 #2
"A Pulse is usually associated with Nova.
It refers to a rapid, spontaneous surge in Nova density—seemingly originating from no fixed locus.
It—it propagates outward, similar to a shockwave.
Unreaped Souls within its radius will undergo Rogue conversion.
And the very nature of a Pulse sees acute Nova oversaturation—it always constitutes a mass casualty event.
The way her"—he gesticulated—"Stella pushed outward resembled the onset profile of a Pulse. But it’s not really Stella, is it?
" Nessen hurried around the leather chair, swinging the large circular piece until it hovered over Vesperin’s steadily breathing chest.
Lucien tensed immediately.
Rhyden lifted a hand. "Let him work. He’s done it to her before."
Lucien opened his mouth, but whatever he wanted to say died as Nessen centered the device over Vesperin’s heart.
It whirred faintly as he pressed a control on the side.
On the monitor, the outline of her body localized on the center of her chest—where the empty mass hovering in the middle was lightless and bleak. Still no Stella. Rhyden knew that much.
"Her Aether signature is missing. Well, not entirely. It is there. See this shape. That is where one’s Stella is harbored.
The anatomical locus and biochemical components are entirely absent.
That absence traces back to this." Nessen tapped against the monitor—and the strange, undulating mass of purplish-blue light.
Nessen’s red eyes met Rhyden’s. "While you were away, I ran some tests.
Your associates, Miro and Daryk, brought back a Rogue for me to study.
A lowlevel. Strange, that the same structural markers that make up the Nova inside the Rogue are also showing in her.
" He nodded toward Vesperin. "And yet, it is entirely different.
As if someone tried to mimic the Nova inside her, because what I found in the Rogue is almost synthetic… engineered."
Rhyden heard the telltale rustle of fabric from the trying-to-be-stealthy Soul Searcher as he reached for his scythe.
"You have pieced together, then, that she is not ordinary?" Auren inquired lowly, gloved fingers tight around the handle of his scythe.
Nessen tensed, stammering, "I-I will not tell anyone—I swear it. You have to understand. This type of scientific phenomenon is nothing like I’ve ever seen in the Aetherborns I have studied before."
At Rhyden’s sharp look, Nessen promptly bit his tongue.
That didn’t stop the others from catching on.
Lucien, who had been silently listening to the doctor, eyes tracking over the tubes and wires leading up to the ceiling, said with precision, "What do you mean, Aetherborns you have studied before?
These wires, I know them—I have seen them.
You are siphoning Aether here"—his keen green eyes swung to Rhyden’s—"aren’t you, Valkar? "
God fucking dammit.
Rin woke to a calm heart. As she slowly turned her head on whatever soft thing she was lying on, the first thing she saw was deep red eyes, and darker red blood crusted around a cut on the vampire’s lower lip.
"What—" Rin said groggily. "Rhyden?"
The lights were too bright. She weakly moved a hand, then froze when she realized she couldn’t move her arms. Panic flared as she glanced down at the soft cuffs around her wrists.
Voices came to her then, hushed like they were trying to be careful around her.
Her eyes watered from the offending light. Rhyden’s lips moved as he ordered the light to be dimmed, and suddenly the pounding in her skull relented as the whole room was bathed in a dim, blue-tinted glow from the monitors and large cylindrical pipes flowing up to the ceiling.
"What happened? The last I remember is the—the Rogue!" Rin tried to sit up, the haunting image of Auren tumbling to the ground, the roars of the Rogue, the trembling exhaustion on her arms as she’d tried to—
Lucien hushed her, and she turned her head, finding him sitting at her other side. "Don’t try to move yet. Your body is still healing from what happened. We’re at Rhyden’s base in Lunar City."
She could barely see him in the dim light. "What happened?"
Lucien removed his glasses and shifted back, the wheels of his rolling chair squeaking. He scrubbed his eyes. "You had an episode—a Pulse. The Nova inside you lashed out and killed the Rogue. What do you remember?"
"Not much."
"You used your Echosword. We believe it acted as a conduit for the Pulse, killing the Rogue directly from that point of contact. It took a toll on you. Your heart started to fail. We had to—I had to…" Lucien trailed off.
Rin got the sense that there was something he wasn’t telling her. She thought they were past the secrets. Anger welled in her tired body.
"Auren?" she asked suddenly. "Is he okay?"
Lucien gestured to her other side, where she found Auren standing silently in the darkness of the room, watching. The Star beneath his eye glowed in the dimness. He was right behind Rhyden, and Rin met the vampire’s hard red eyes in her search for Auren’s.
As the blue lines of her heart rate flickered on the monitor with steady beeping, it made the dried blood on Rhyden’s lip glow purple. She scrunched her brows, trying to shove down the damn anger at the sight of him with a bloodied lip—she knew he deserved it, whoever it was that gave it to him.
"Auren? You’re okay, really?"
The Soul Searcher stepped forward, scythe in hand. "I am okay, Hunter. My immortal body heals swiftly, and I can take much more than you are able to. That was the second time I had to bear witness to the Nova inside you taking its toll—never again do I want to feel so helpless."
"Me either," Rin mumbled. All things considered, she felt strangely rested now, a little groggy, but not terrible. Her eyes kept being drawn to the terse line of Rhyden’s shoulders and the blood on his lip. She had to ask… "What happened to you?"
Rhyden stiffened. "What do you mean?"
Her fingers twitched in her desperate plea to move her hands as she felt herself come back from whatever sleepy haze she’d been thrust into because of the Nova inside her.
She jerked her arms with a huff. Lucien caught her fingertips, stilling her.
Gently, he loosened the cuffs. When she was free, she rubbed her wrists.
The fabric had been soft—there were no marks—but that wasn’t the point.
She didn’t want to be tied up—especially with Rhyden in the same room as her. Who knew what he’d do when she was unconscious, at his mercy?
Rin waved toward his busted lip, purposefully using his last name. "Walk into any doors, Valkar?"
It worked.
He surged forward, his chair violently rolling backward as he stood and placed a hand on the reclined bed she was on. Leather creaked, and his peppermint scent softened the air around her. Why did he have to be so enticing?
"I thought we talked about this already, wife? You call me by my first name—or you don’t fucking say my name at all."
"Sounds good to me," Rin snapped, the frustration of always being weak and hurt burning in her chest.
Lucien tightened his hold on her hand, anchoring her like he always did.
"Do you want us to leave so you two can fuck some of that tension out? I mean, I can stay if you want me to. I give great pointers," Cyrus purred.
Just like that, the crackle of fiery tension between them was snuffed out as droplets of water splashed on Rhyden’s cheeks.
He flinched away from her, standing with his arms crossed as he shot the incubus a look that could make a lesser man cry; nevertheless, Cyrus just laughed and raised his hands.
He sat on a large, low recliner, wires popping from the back as he’d clearly moved it to be right at the foot of where she rested.
Cyrus rested his chin on his folded hands, red hair tumbling over his forehead. "I see you’re feeling better, doll. Much more like yourself."
Rin carefully sat up, feeling a twinge in her chest, but that was all. No dizziness or nausea.
"I do feel better—a lot better," Rin stressed, tucking her legs closer to her and wrapping her arms around them. "So what happened after the… Pulse? And why do you all look like you want to kill each other?"
"Not each other. I actually quite like your other Soulbonds. Well, Rhyden and your childhood love leave something to be desired," Cyrus sang, the shadows under his eyes pronounced in the low light as he swung his head around to stare pointedly at Rhyden. "Why don’t you let him tell you?"
Some time later, the lights still dim, Rin asked softly, "So you know?"
"We know," Lucien sighed. "I can’t believe Rhyden works with the Aetherborns.
When he first told us, we thought he was hurting them, taking from them against their will.
" His other hand, the one that had been tucked beneath his thigh, settled on the chair at her side.
His knuckles were red and busted. She reached for him, running her fingers softly over the cuts, tutting beneath her breath.
"We all acted on instinct. Auren even tried to cut him down with his scythe. It was Cyrus who stopped us. He’s good for you, you know?"
Rin’s cheeks warmed. She was glad they were alone now.
In the middle of their talks, Auren had been called away to reap, then Rhyden left once they were done, mumbling something about teaching his underlings a lesson.
Cyrus trailed after him like some strange little puppy, flicking water droplets at the back of his head.
They’d stayed quiet until she’d heard Rhyden’s curses and Cyrus’s laughter echo from beyond the shut doors.
So, it was just Rin and Lucien.