Shiver (14 page)

Lian couldn’t believe this. “So I’m not even human? I’m just a tool.”

“You are very much human. A more advanced and enhanced human with nanotechnology inside your body.”

The colors brightened to the point of blinding.

“Do not let emotion overcome you. I will help you use your power so we may all survive.”

“You keep saying that, but what am I supposed to help you do?” She didn’t feel she could live up to the potential of freaky-super-psychic human able to rescue anyone.

“Lian, you have to take control of the Network. We cannot allow your mother’s next move to forge ahead.”

“What’s she done now?”

Silence filled the colorful world around her. Lian’s heartbeat sounded as it were beating somewhere else—faraway down the line, loud enough to breach the space between.

“As I said, we suspected that Y-030’s destruction would spell the chaotic end of everything. We were right,” the voice answered.

“What, why?”

“When the reactor powering the house reaches critical mass, we will all cease to exist.”

The colors shifted, churning into flames she subconsciously knew couldn’t burn her, yet still made her recoil. “Am I somehow responsible?”

“No,” she said. “Someone else is.”

Meiling.

“The Network has grown into a large virtual world filled with sentient beings. Y-030 and I spent years harvesting much of what exists, but it now grows naturally. We are a vast and capable inner sanctum that will perish if you do not fix this.”

“I don’t know how to fix it.” So her mother was going to blow everyone up and make her escape? “I didn’t even know what Dad meant.”

“This virtual world might not seem real to you, but you are
inside
the Network. Everything inside this house is powered and controlled by the Network, and because it is all connected, it will be easy for you to access whatever you require,” the voice said.
“Visualize
where you are in the house, get your bearings, and go where you need to go so you can unlock the doors and windows. Give everyone the freedom they have been denied for so long.”

“How is that going to save the virtual world?” She just couldn’t wrap her head around any of this.

“We are handling that.” Silence buzzed around them. “Everything that resides inside this virtual world is now uploading straight into your mind via the installed port. We’ll live inside you until you find another Hub for us to inhabit.”

Lian wondered how any of this was possible. Then she remembered the nanotech. She’d read a little about this subject when she was younger and knew the potential of such technology was endless. Manipulating matter on a molecular level provided for many advances throughout the galaxy. Of course, she’d never seen any live examples herself.

“I am really sorry, Lian, but there is no more time for questions, explanations, or doubts. You have to go now.” A sigh echoed around her. “Go and unlock the physical doors and windows for the humans to survive. You can do what we can’t—affect the physical world via your telekinetic abilities.”

The mention of the guards, maids, cooks, and maintenance staff trapped inside the mansion made her realize that as unreal as all of this sounded, she had to at least try to help. This was her chance to do what she’d always wanted—free everyone inside this damned house. She remembered Vera’s obedience collar was no longer winking green. They could run without the risk of them detonating.

“Where do I go?”
 

“The switches are hidden behind one of the walls inside the control room. Follow the heat.”

She focused every bit of mental strength she possessed trying to visualize the control room. It took several tries and a lot of frustration—it was hard to concentrate with so much on her mind—but the colors soon swayed and instead of resembling a rainbow, the room slowly came into view. It looked different, grainy—devoid of details, just the outlines and shapes in a gray tone.

Her physical shell might be strapped to the chair, but Lian could move fluidly toward the glowing wall of controls. She swam through the monotone color, leaving the female voice and her commanding, unseen presence behind
.

The female’s instructions made sense when she noticed one of the walls wasn’t gray, but pulsated red—meaning heat. She made her way toward it, placing a hand on the metal surface she’d thought was just another of the four sides inside this box. Her palm fit into a barely-there indent and she could feel it humming.
 

Lian closed her eyes and as she physically pushed her hand to the wall, imagined the motion inside her mind, willing it to open psychically until it clicked.
 

She wandered past, and inside found a large metal panel with a multitude of switches—the controls for the doors and windows. Raising her left hand to the panel felt like running her palm through a bathtub full of water—warm and inviting, but with subtle pressure. She pressed her fingertips against the first switch but nothing happened. Her hand kept going
through
instead of
moving
it.

After several failed attempts, she paused. This was her virtual-self roaming
within
the Network, so the same rules didn’t apply.

Lian focused on each of the separate switches in front of her until she pushed them in the opposite direction with sheer, psychic determination. The staff could now open the doors to safety.

Lian sighed and it spread around her like a cool breeze.

Now she could rescue those who would suffer the most because of her—Hogan, Vera and Knox.

This time when she whirled around, she shot past the doorways, through the kitchen and back into the foyer littered with red-colored blobs. She continued on her way, and didn’t take long to reach the cells. If she didn’t get Hogan off the Ledge, he’d die. She could only pray he hadn’t frozen to death already.

Lian pushed against the unlocked door, but of course it didn’t open. Nothing worked unless she
psychically
made it happen. She concentrated hard on the door, so impatient to reach Hogan that it flung off the hinges and tumbled over the frozen ridge.

“Hogan,” she whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear her.

The monotone environment shifted, slowly taking shape to reveal what was in front of her. Hogan lay in the snow and wasn’t moving. She couldn’t cover him, but she could move him. Lian willed his body to shuffle forward but nothing happened.

Concentrate, concentrate.

She put all the psychic strength she could summon into the thought, until Hogan’s shape began to inch along the icy ridge and eventually through the gaping doorway. Her virtual body wobbled, as if she was weakening, but she had to finish this. Hogan was a heavy weight resisting her, but she pulled against him until he was lying in the corridor and no longer at the whim of the elements. It was all she could do for now.
 

“Hold on, Hogan I’ll get help for you.” Only one man could help her friend now.

Lian swam down the corridor until she was inside the other occupied cell.

“Knox.” The sight of him made even the monotone gray walls vibrant. It reminded her of the surveillance images on her room monitor—grainy, but with enough detail.

He wasn’t a red blob. She could actually see him clearly. He was still chained and kneeling on the ground. Most of his wounds had healed into scars. Even his face was back to normal, but smoke puffed from his shoulders.

It took her a moment to realize what was going on, why everything looked clearer in this cell. The sky overhead was lightening, and a patch of sunlight shone above him.

“Knox, wake up.”

He raised his head, opened his eyes and met her gaze. “Lian? Am I dreaming again?”

“Not exactly.” She floated to the ground, concentrating until her feet skimmed the icy concrete. The cell looked like a paintbrush had turned everything hazy and dreamlike.

She headed for the wall and found the panel had malfunctioned. He’d been released from his chains and hadn’t even realized it. When she pressed her fingers to the silver cuffs, one flew off his wrist, half of the other remained stuck to his skin. The chains clanged to the ground and he swayed.

“If this ain’t a dream, I was right,” he said. “You
are
the angel of death.”

“I’ve already told you, I’m no angel.” She couldn’t help but laugh, then stared in wonder when he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her. As if she were really in front of him, not just some virtual memory running around the house. How was this possible? “You have to get out of this cell. The sun is rising.”

His grip suddenly fell away from her and he collapsed, falling right through her. The sun bathed his body with its deadly light and more of him began to smolder.

“Knox,” she screamed. “You need to get up!”

He opened his mouth, fangs bared. “I think I’m…dying.”

“No, you’re burning. The sun’s out, you have to get out of here!” She closed her eyes, trying to move him, but she couldn’t. After the effort it took to push Hogan’s body, she was spent.

His face was blistering. “I need…I need strength.”

She knew what he meant and thrust her wrist in front of his face. “Here, take my blood.”

Knox tried to close his fangs around her offered arm, but of course, he couldn’t. He fell on his side, and appeared to be dissolving into the snow.

Lian’s heart beat so hard it caused the colors to tremble around her. He was going to melt away like a burning candle and there was nothing she could do. She dropped to her knees beside him.

“Don’t give up, Knox. Don’t die on me.”

He moaned. His skin was waxy with sweat and she tried her best to drag him away from the sun’s path but she was getting even weaker.
 

“It’s not the sun. It’s the change. I have to do this.”

She wanted to shout, “Don’t give up!” but felt a tugging in the pit of her stomach. What was going on?

“I’ve found something worth living for,” Knox said, as if he was caught in the middle of a hallucination.

The sudden pull within her midsection made her skitter back, until she was forcibly dragged away from him. “No, I can’t leave him.”

“You must.” It was the computer voice. “You’ve released everyone, now you must return to the Network Hub.”

But she hadn’t
saved
everyone. Knox was dying, Hogan was lying outside in the corridor, and Vera hadn’t woken up after being injected with something.

“No, not yet. I have to get them out.”

Unable to resist the pull, Lian’s ghostly body slid out of the cell, down the jumble of corridors, and back into the bright colors.

“I have to save them!” she yelled.

“You already have.”

Agony rocked through Knox’s body, burning his flesh.

At first, he thought Lian was part of the same hallucination making him think he was finally free of those damn chains. But no, this was really happening. He was
really
at the mercy of the sun, and burning.

The sky above was gunmetal gray, but the patches of sun filtering between were thick and many. Pools of water surrounded his body as the sun’s rays melted the snow.

Wait a minute!

Why was he lying on the ground? He pushed up onto his elbows, struggling to sit. The silver cuff on his right arm was gone, leaving it raw. But the other hung loose from his left wrist because some of the silver had stuck to his skin.

So it hadn’t been a delusion or dream.
Somehow, Lian had released him from his bondage. It was now up to him to get the hell out of this cell before he burned to a crisp.

His body felt stiff and alien. The blood pumping through his veins and into his heart had slowed. Actually, his heart had stopped for a moment when Lian disappeared.

The woman in the market had been right. He had faced death, and came out on the other side with something worth living for—someone who made him feel
alive
. Even though this curse had finally claimed him, he was still Knox. He was still himself—heartbeat and all.

The hunger had intensified, though. He was ravenous, so much so that his fangs protruded from his gums.

He shook his head, trying to get his inhalations steady and thoughts straight.
At least breathing is still an option.

Knox clawed at the ground, dragging his body forward. The sun bore down on him like a weight, a pressure driving into his spine and making his body stiffen with every move. He couldn’t even get to his knees.

It took him too long to clear most of the cell. By the time he reached the open doorway and extended his right hand, the skin smoldered. Shit. He rolled his hand in the pools of icy water. The cool liquid soothed him and the charred skin repaired itself a lot quicker than he’d expected.

When a sizzling sensation spread along his scalp, he summoned every reserve of strength he had left within his wretched body to drag himself out of the cell. The short distance should have taken seconds, but with his smoking limbs, it felt like hours passed before he cleared the doorway completely. He collapsed in a tired heap.