Chapter 16 Spark #2
"He says we were married," Rin shared. Cyrus knew most of this already, and the incubus nodded at her words, letting her speak. "He says I framed him for something. I don’t remember, of course. I probably never will. I’ll die, and he’ll still hate me." Her voice dropped to the lowest of whispers.
Had Rhyden heard? Somehow, she both wanted him to and not, at the same time.
"Never say never, Hunter," Auren said, matching her soft tone. Everything about him was quiet and kind. He seemed a gentle Soul. Rin wondered what that might be like. To be gentle again. She felt like all the gentleness had been stolen from her in her youth.
"Never say never," she echoed, smiling wistfully.
"Want me to beat some sense into him, doll?
I will for you," Cyrus spoke up. "I’m not good with my fists, but I could drown him just enough to make him regret that he didn’t drop to his knees and worship you in that motel.
" Water danced at his fingertips, swirling around her face in tiny cyclones, droplets wetting her lips.
Her smile turned a bit brighter, fuller. A little laugh escaped her, so out of place in the shadows. "I’ll let you know. Who knows, a little revenge could do us both good." It was risky, but she pitched her voice higher, enough that the vampire would catch every word.
Rin’s breaths were warm under Cyrus’s hand, as the incubus held his palm over her mouth to quiet her shocked curse.
Rhyden was back; he’d shoved himself in the small space between Rin’s side and the boulder, but the distance between them felt vacuous.
She watched with wide eyes, her lips parted behind Cyrus’s hand, as a rumble of trucks filled the night. Reinforced steel, with huge black tires, spikes jutting out from them.
Auren was still and deadly. His blue eyes met Rin’s, and he placed a hand on Cyrus’s arm, forcing it to lower from her mouth.
"What is this?" Rin furiously whispered, torn between staring at the three males around her and below—where armed people spilled out from the hangar doors, automatic rifles slung over their shoulders as they stood sentinel, welcoming the three trucks that had arrived.
The trucks’ headlights were white and bright, blurring the sights of the hangar. Even from this distance, she struggled to make much out.
"What are they doing?" Rin breathed.
"Quiet, wife," Rhyden warned lowly from her side. "Watch."
Her fingers gripped the edge of the rock as she peered below, and she forgot all about her cold and uncomfortable state.
The doors opened, revealing more armed guards. They were dressed in dark clothes, carrying no visible weapons, but something about the way they moved was unnatural. Nearly ten guards exited the vehicles, their postures straight as an arrow.
One scanned the perimeter, walking closely to the base of the mountain where they hid.
Rin tensed up, and the four of them scooted back, Auren reaching for her fingers in a death grip.
A loud baying noise filled the night. Their voices drifted to her from below.
"I thought you said the area was secure?" said one of the guards.
One of the people who had exited the hangar doors stepped forward. It was a woman. Her dark hair was pulled in a tight bun behind her head. She spoke strongly. "No Nova Zone is truly secure."
The guard who stood directly below the mountain tensed, and the trilling call of the Rogue increased. The only warning, before a huge, rock-like monster tore through the forest below.
Rin bit her lower lip to stifle a gasp.
The Rogue lunged for the guard, and he didn’t even move. He was covered head-to-toe in dark clothing. It was a flash of darkness Rin saw as he moved, swift as shadows and deadly as the night.
The guard’s bare hands gripped the Rogue’s neck, squeezing. Thrashing, it bayed.
In a sickening crunch that echoed up the stone walls and wrapped around her—a sound she’d never forget—the Rogue went limp in the man’s hold.
He threw its lifeless body to the ground.
He stood there for a long moment, head tilting as he stared, as if awaiting more Rogues.
He lifted his head. Auren’s fingers tightened on hers.
The guard stilled, and she swore he seemed to stare right at her.
Silently, he turned away, each moment seeped in precision, as he reclaimed his post, standing sentinel around the trucks.
The back door of the middle truck swung wide.
A leg stepped down—black boots, plain trousers.
And as her eyes trailed up as the man stepped fully out of the vehicle, her whole body locked up.
Brown eyes, a dusting of freckles across the nose—the same face in the photograph on her dresser.
Her blood ran cold, like shards of ice through her veins.
Another figure followed, a woman in plain trousers and a fitted blouse. Her smile was sharp and cruel. Her impeccable blonde highlights stood out in the darkness.
As Sabine and Talor Blackfall stepped into the midst of the guards, shaking hands and talking lowly, Rin could only stare.
And when Sabine Blackfall—her adoptive mother—stepped forward and spoke, she felt all the air in her lungs leave her cold and empty.
"The Aetherborns are here for us? We do not have much time to waste."
A man stepped forward, wearing a lab coat. No weapons. "Yes, Mrs. Blackfall. The shipment is here. Loaded in Hangar 3."
"Wonderful." Sabine’s voice was thin and echoey from the distance.
The same voice that had been slightly detached but never as cold as this—surprising her with her favorite cake on her birthday, helping her with her dress for her parents’ funeral…
"Are they ready to be tested?" Talor spoke up.
The man said something Rin didn’t catch. Was it the distance, or her shock, wearing her down?
In a daze, she watched as Talor clapped hands with the man. He and Sabine both were led into the hangar, the deep metallic clangs resounding from within the belly of the earth as they disappeared into the shadows.
The guards trailed after, keeping formation, while one or two watched their surroundings to ensure no Rogues would follow.
A loud whirring sound emitted, and the hangar doors slowly groaned shut, falling closed with a resounding thud that she felt in her skull.
Below, only the empty reinforced trucks and the dead Rogue remained.
They were quiet for some time, scared to move too soon or suddenly.
Rhyden was the first to speak. "Did that answer your questions?"
Rin’s eyes were wide, breaths far too loud in the quiet as she met his eyes. "No." The word scraped out of her like broken glass.
Auren’s hand tightened around hers, a warning and an anchor. His voice was low, careful. "Vesperin… that was—"
She snapped her gaze to him, heart thrashing. Cyrus’s eyes were just as wide as hers. He’d seen the photos on her dresser. He knew, too.
"Blackfall. Sabine and Talor Blackfall." The words were dragged out of her, breath by breath. "My adoptive parents."
Auren was used to the quiet, but the one that befell them all at the vampire’s dark, shadowed base nestled deep underground in Solar City was one that even he could not bear.
The base was small, tucked deep within the heart of a decrepit parking garage.
When they’d first left for it, it had been Vesperin who questioned the vampire.
The feared leader of Noctis had been silent as he drove the car into the parking garage, spiraling down, down, down, until it reached the lightless bottom, where he’d scanned his palm against a hidden keypad, revealing a door set in a wall.
A small, hidden base for the Noctis leader, there in Solar City, unbeknownst to them all.
And it was there that they went after witnessing Sabine and Talor Blackfall prove their guilt.
Vesperin was quiet, and as the car pulled into the garage, the headlights the only source of illumination as they ventured deeper below, she did not say a word. Even her breaths were tempered.
Rhyden exited the car first, Cyrus following, turning to hold a hand out for Vesperin. She didn’t seem to see it.
Auren gently nudged her, keeping his voice calm as one would when speaking to a cornered animal, as he said, "You cannot stay here in the dark car."
She turned to look at him, as if wanting to say she could, but instead, she took Cyrus’s hand and exited the vehicle. Auren followed, and together, they walked inside the small base.
It was akin to an open flat or bunker—a bed pushed against a far wall. Two large couches with pillows and rumpled blankets, where they’d rested for a few hours before their journey to Nova Zone 21 for the drop. Exposed beams and pipework in the ceilings, with a plain kitchen and a tiny bathroom.
But what made this truly different from a normal flat was the floor-to-ceiling display of weapons on the far wall.
With Cyrus leading her, she stumbled to the couch and sat, arms wrapped around herself.
The incubus crouched before her, his hands resting on her knees, red hair messy from the high winds outside. "What can I do, Ves?"
Her jaw clenched. She shook her head.
Auren felt useless. His scythe was a weight on his back, dragging him down.
Rhyden ignored them all, grabbing the laptop on the counter and opening it, clicking away as the screen made his red eyes appear tinted with blue.
"I need…" She scoffed. "I want Lucien. I think we should talk."
Cyrus’s hands moved to the pockets of her fitted coat, dipping inside. He tugged her phone out. "Then, I’ll make sure you have him, doll."
The incubus turned to meet Auren’s eyes, inclining his head to Vesperin. The Soul Searcher got the message, but he felt entirely out of his depth.
He meant nothing to her. To Vesperin, Auren was the newest interloper, claiming to belong.
Her actions with the incubus spoke of familiarity.
Cyrus seemed to get her, down to the smallest of things.
Lucien loved her, had loved her, and kept her safe for years.
Even Rhyden, she felt something for—hate was the bitter twin of love.
But he wanted to try. He could try. For her.