Synnergy, Chaos Time Book 3 (9 page)

“Oh my god! Who are you?” she wailed, and he jerked
her hand forward in front of her eyes so that she could see the
blue markings he’d painted on her.

“I’ve painted you everywhere. You cannot change. I’ve
blocked your power. You have one last chance, shifter, or else I’ll
cut you into a million bloody ribbons and your friends will be
next. Now, who the bloody hell sent you!”

Sable used whatever intelligence she possessed to try
and figure out what exactly was going on. She could no longer feel
the phoenix inside her.

Whatever crap Alice/Brown hair/One Eyed Jack had done
to her had nulled the ancient source she’d always felt like a
comforting presence. The absence of it made her want to curl into a
ball and suck her thumb.

She’d never felt so helpless in her entire life.
Blood hammered through her veins, it would be so easy to give into
the blackness creeping in on her. But she fought through the
crippling wave and studied the man holding the knife to her
throat.

“Answer me.” He shoved the blade in again.

“I don’t know what you want from me?”

He growled. “The truth. Who are you? Who sent you?
Who do you work for?”

“I...I work for myself.”

“I don’t believe you.” He punctuated his sentence by
shoving the blade in a little more, this time she hissed, feeling
the first warm drops of blood.

How dare he tie her up? How dare he cut her? Threaten
her? How dare he? She wanted to scream, memories rushed her of
being forced down. Shoved down, needles stuck in her. Not again.
Never again. Fear turned to fury.

“I don’t freaking care if you don’t believe me! It’s
the truth,” she screamed it at him, then spit in his eye. She
kicked her legs, trying to wrap them around his waist and haul him
off her. But the damn dress tangled her up and she growled.

He narrowed his eye and Sable inhaled when his blade
moved a fraction of an inch off her. He seemed confused by her
sudden volatility.

“Who are you?” he asked again, but this time there
was no heat, no anger and the lack of it made her pause.

“I already told you.”

“No,” he shook his head, the knife slipped even
further. “No, you said you’re working for yourself. Do you not
fight for the Enigma.” He didn’t sound certain; his words were more
of a question than a statement.

He seemed confused. Good. Because so was she. What in
the hell was he talking about? Who was he talking about?

“Who’s the Enigma?”

He released her, back crawling off. The knife nowhere
to be seen. She blinked. She couldn’t remember him tucking it away,
but suddenly it was gone.

“I don’t understand,” he mumbled, “I was so
certain.”

“Well that makes two of us.” She rubbed her neck,
noticing he’d told the truth. She was covered in swirling patterns
of robin’s blue paint. “What did you do to me?”

He blinked and then shook his head like a dog. “I’m
confused. I sensed your true nature. Surely you’ve come for
me.”

“For you?” she laughed, the sound a little harsh in
her ears, “I had no idea you were,” she pointed at him, “whatever
you are, until just now. And what exactly are you anyway?”

“Hmm, perhaps we should talk under a more auspicious
setting.”

“What?”

But he didn’t answer her. One Eye shifted doing that
freaky melt thing again. Now he was Alice.

She cocked her head, Liza’s warnings ringing loud in
her ears. Was he trying to put her more at ease? She stayed on
guard, not trusting this sudden shift in attitude.

Her hair curled untamed around her face and her voice
was no longer the harsh grating sound, but soft and melodic. “After
last night I could have sworn, all the questions about the Bandit.
I thought,” she shook her head, her brown eyes studying Sable
intently, “I thought you knew it was me.”

“Wait.” Sable held up her hand. “You’re the Bandit?”
At Alice’s nod she tensed up again, wondering how in the world to
strip off the paint so she could shift.

Alice’s eyes grew wide. “I’m not a killer. Not
really.”

“Of course you are. You were right there, you heard
them accuse you of killing.”

Alice scoffed. “Tall tales, nothing more.”

Sable snorted. “So you never killed anyone. Sure
could have fooled me the way you held that knife to my throat. That
wasn’t a novice doing it, I can tell you that much.”

“Okay, aye.” Alice got up and walked over to Ari’s
bed. She plopped onto it. “I am, but not the way you think. Do you
not know who the Enigma is?”

She shook her head.

“It is his people that I’ve killed. He is the black
devil of the mountains.”

Sable’s heart started to race. Could she be talking
about a Lord?

“Everyone attributes all the deaths to the Bandit,
but,” she shook her head, unaware of Sable’s growing suspicions, “I
cannot claim more than two souls to my blade.”

“So that I’m clear, you are not the Lord? That’s what
you’re telling me.”

Alice wrinkled her nose. “I don’t follow. Who is this
Lord?”

Either she was a really great actress, or she was
being 100 percent honest. Judging off the blank look in her eyes,
Sable was inclined to believe the latter.

“Tell me what you know, and I’ll tell you what I
know. Maybe we can meet somewhere in the middle.”

Alice nodded and then settled back into Ari’s bed.
“Before I begin, I must know.”

“Yes?”

“Who are you?”

Sable started to open her mouth, to utter the lie
she’d been telling nonstop the past two days now, but Alice shook
her head.

“The truth. Or there will be nothing from me.” Her
lips pressed into a thin line.

Could she tell her? Should she?

Alice, One Eye (whatever), had just held a knife to
her throat. It made no sense to trust her. She narrowed her
eyes.

“What did you do to me before? Did you drug me? Am I
still drugged?”

Alice nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry. I spelled my body with
scent that would attract you. I had no way of knowing how sensitive
you’d be to it. For that I am sorry.”

She hugged her arms to her body. “I felt
compulsed.”

“You were.”

Sable no longer felt that pull to obey her, but she
still had to know for certain. “Am I now?”

Alice shook her head so forcefully the curls bounced.
“No. But in this, I need truth.”

She took a quick breath. “Hunter will probably kill
me.” Nervous energy caused her to stand and pace beside her bed,
“but he’s not here. Fine.” She straightened her spine. “Obviously,
you know I’m a shifter. I have no idea how, you’ll have to tell
me.”

After only a moment’s pause, Alice nodded.

“My friends and I are from the future.”

There, let her chew on that
. Funny, sometimes
truth really was stranger than fiction. She wouldn’t blame Alice
for not believing her and started to tick reasons off on her finger
to convince her, but she needn’t have bothered.

“Aye.” Alice shook her head. “You can stop. I knew it
already. Saw the brawny fellow with the black hair and blue eyes
step out his portal the other night.”

“Wait. What? That was you?” Sable planted her fists
on her hips. “But I don’t understand, how did you know we were from
the future?”

“He is not my first time jumper. I’ve seen one other.
T’was a test and you passed,” Alice said with a very light trace of
an Irish brogue. “Had you not told me truth I would have killed you
as a spy.”

She shivered when she saw the knife that had
disappeared a while ago suddenly appear from thin air. And Alice
who’d been sitting with her ankles crossed on the bed was now mere
inches from her side.

“Now we talk,” she said, “you might want to sit.”

“I’ll stand, thanks.” Sable scooted around her, still
feeling the tingles shooting down her back at the thought of how
exposed she actually was. Without her phoenix, she was a human. A
simple, weak human. She licked her thumb, wetting it and hoping
she’d be able to rub some of the paint off, but it didn’t smudge.
It didn’t even smear a little. It was embedded deep within her
flesh like a tattoo.

Alice was in front of her, again too quick for
Sable’s eyes to follow. “Stop doing that,” she snapped,
startled.

“It is a spell I cast. It cannot be removed by
water.” Alice’s warm hand gripped hers and she began to hum. At
first the sound was low.

Something cold and foreign slithered beneath her
skin. She shuddered, it felt like maggots rolling and slinking
around inside her. She tried to scratch it out.

“Stop that.”

“Feels weird.” The rolling maggots suddenly became a
rush of movement, undulations swimming through her blood and
bringing tears to her eyes.

The humming was now an angry swarm and just when she
reached the point that she thought she might pass out, a shimmering
blue veil tore from her flesh and entered like a lightning bolt
into Alice. For an instant her skin glowed with tinges of blue.

“How do you feel now?” she whispered.

Sable heated her palms and Alice yelped, releasing
her immediately and sucking on her thumb.

“All better. Thanks.” She couldn’t help but
smirk.

Alice walked over to the dresser and picking up the
water pitcher, poured some over her hand. When she finished she
resumed the same sitting position as before.

“What about Long Nose,” Sable asked when Alice was
settled. She couldn’t stop wondering about the heated whispers
she’d heard this morning.

“What about her?”

“Is she, one of us?” Might as well just tell the
truth now. “I saw you guys this morning. She was upset with you
about something. Who is she really?”

Alice chuckled. “A Madam. Nothing more. She was angry
because she felt I was shirking my duties and disappearing at all
hours of the night.” She winked. “Little does she know I rarely
leave this place.”

“I thought maybe...”

“No, there are no others here. Too dangerous for many
of us to gather in one place. That none of you were detected is a
marvel.”

“Why are you here then?” Sable asked.

Alice sighed. “I work for an agency, we specialize in
the capture of specials.”

“Specials?”

She talked around the thumb she’d placed back into
her mouth. “Those with talents beyond the norm and who’d expose us
all to the public at large. You must understand we live in a day
and age rife with superstitions, should it ever be discovered that
there are humans capable of extraordinary things, we’d be captured,
vivisected most likely, and then of course killed to keep us
silent.”

Now it made sense what Hunter had told her before,
how there’d always been specials around. If there was an agency
already in place, dedicated to keeping them on the down low, it was
no wonder neither she nor anyone she knew had any knowledge of a
world that existed outside what was taught in schools.

“How long have you guys been around?”

She shrugged and her robe slipped off one shoulder.
“Since the dawn of man, I’d imagine. Specials have walked this
Earth from its inception.”

“Are you immortal?”

She laughed so hard it took her a moment to catch her
breath. “Goodness no. None of us are.”

Sable frowned.

“Could you imagine if we were? The sheer chaos we’d
inflect. No,” she shook her head, still wearing a lopsided grin,
“the good Lord gave us checks and balances. That is not to say
however, that we aren’t long lived. I’m presently—” She scrunched
up her nose thinking, “well over a three hundred, at least.” She
snorted. “Ancient, by our standards.”

This wasn’t making sense. Hunter said he was
immortal. And so was Dragden. Or were they? She was trying to
recall what exactly it’d been that Hunter had told her all those
weeks ago.

“Old enough to recognize a threat should I scent it.”
She tapped her nose.

“Huh?” Sable glanced up. “You smelled me?”

“Aye.” She glanced down at the floorboards. “And the
others.”

“How?” she asked.

“You smell good.”

She narrowed one eye and lifted the brow of the
other. “I don’t understand.”

Alice’s cheeks were a rosy hue and her brown eyes
twinkled with mirth. “The essence of who we are,” she tapped her
chest, “lies within the scent. Specials smell of the wild. Earth, a
gentle spring rain, flowers, fruits...” she ticked the list off on
her fingers.

Sable had always smelled these same things, but had
never known what it was. In fact, thinking back on it, she’d
smelled lots of smells similar to this. How many people had she
known who’d been like her and she’d never realized.

Alice blew on her thumb. “You gave me a blister, you
did,” she said it accusingly, but without any anger. She looked at
Sable. “What are you?”

“The phoenix.”

Alice inhaled, her smile could not have gotten any
bigger. “I’d always hoped to meet you. I’d heard the legends, never
thought I’d get the chance to know you.” She giggled

There she was again, crowding Sable and walking
around her. Touching her wrists, her arms, the base of her neck and
running her fingers down the back of her spine before Sable could
turn and tell her to stop it. She tucked her hands against her
chest.

“Forgive me,” she clapped her hands, “I’m simply
amazed to see you. How do you hide your feathers?”

A little embarrassed by Alice’s enthusiasm, she took
a step back. “I don’t hide them. I’m me,” she ran her hands down
her sides, “and when I call the fire, I’m her.”

“Amazing,” she breathed again, eyes large and roving
her body as if trying to peel away the skin to see the bird
beneath. “I don’t often come across shifters. In fact, you’re only
my second. We’re quite rare, you know.”

She didn’t know. “What kind of shifter are you?”