The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3) (26 page)

“Nualla, run.”

“Run from what?”

“From me.”

Patrick—Aku—had been warning me. Trying to protect me even as he shoved the blade through me. Trying to save me even as he tried to end my life. Two forces vying for control. Two storms of want and intention, colliding.

A single tear rolled down my face, and I bit my lip. As much as I wanted to hate her, I realized she was as much a victim in all this as I was. As Patrick was.

TRAVIS

A
fter about an hour of
standing in the dark The Embassy finally came back to life.

“Integration complete,” KARA informed us cheerily from the main terminal. “No errors encountered.”

I let out a heavy sigh of relief, and looked down at my phone. “Only about fifty-eight minutes, not bad.” I looked over at Akiko, and immediately regretted my words. She looked like she was going to have a nervous breakdown any second now. “
So
…lunch is on me,” I offered with a slight grimace.

Akiko glared at me like she very much wanted to punch me. “I think lunch for the rest of the
year
is on you.”

“Fair enough.”

“I sure as hell fucking hope so,” Akiko snapped a little hysterically.

“So where do you want to go for lunch?” I asked as I held the server room door open for her.

“Somewhere expensive that also serves plenty of alcohol,” Akiko growled as she stormed past me.

“In the middle of the
day
?!” I blurted out stupidly. I mean sure, I was probably verging on drinking too much myself, but I at least
tried
to keep it till after five.

Akiko turned around, and gave me a withering glare.

“Drinks it is,” I said quickly.

NUALLA

W
ith a jolt the elevator
came back to life, and continued its descent. A moment later the doors dinged and opened, and all the lights on the floor turned on like a line of dominoes. Apparently KARA had finished integrating herself into our systems.

Roy and five Protectorate were on the other side of the doors, looking a bit anxious.

“Arius Nualla, are you alright?” Roy asked as he tried to eye Kira covertly. But it was clear that he had been worried to have her so very close to me.

No, I’m not. Everything is so unbelievably fucked up, and I just want to crawl under a blanket and hide from the world.

“I’m fine,” I said as I stood, and walked toward the elevator door.

“I’m fine too, if anyone cared,” Kira stated sarcastically as she launched herself up, and stormed past us. The Protectorate watched her go before turning back to me.

Roy looked me over a moment longer before he turned to the Protectorate. “You can go. See if anyone was hurt during the shutdown.”

In near unison, all the Protectorate’s right fists came up and across their bodies to their hearts as they bowed their heads in the salute of the Protectorate. “Yes, Grand High Councilor,” they all stated before marching quickly down the hall.

Roy grabbed my shoulder gently, and asked, “Are you
sure
you’re okay?”

I looked back at him. The Protectorate had moved on, and no one else was currently in ear shot. “No Roy, I’m not okay. I just spent the last hour trapped in a elevator with the person who—with
her
.”

I wanted to say it;
the person who tried to murder me
. But I couldn’t, because Kira wasn’t that person, not really. Not anymore. The mental picture of her—of Aku—that I had built up over the weeks had just been shattered, and all I wanted to do was go home and cry. But I couldn’t, because I was the future Chancellarius of Karalia. And a
chancellarius
could never show weakness.

The Unexpected

Thursday, December 20th

TRAVIS

T
he door opened, and I
grinned at her. “Did someone order fish and chips?”

Parker smiled at me for a moment before her whole body jolted forward and she turned, bolting through the living room and down the hall.

I took a step into her apartment, and called out to her. “Parker?” The only answer was the sound of someone throwing up.

“Parker, honey, are you alright?” I called out as I crossed the entry way into the living room. Which was a stupid thing to ask since, well, no one is ever “okay” when they’re throwing up.

I set the food down on the coffee table, and walked slowly toward the bathroom. When I peered in, she had both her hands pressed against the toilet seat.

“What the hell was
that
?” Parker asked in a hoarse voice.

“What was what?” I asked in confusion.

“The food in the bag,” she clarified with a shudder.

“Your favorite, from that little place down by the wharf,” I answered a bit taken aback.

“Well it smells awful,” Parker said, looking a bit green.

“Do you need any—?”

“Get
out
!” she shouted at me as she leaned over the toilet.

When the sounds of throwing up finally stopped, I crept back toward the bathroom. I thrust the glass of water through the doorway first, and then peered in cautiously. Parker was breathing heavy, her face flushed, her body shaking slightly.

“Do I have permission to enter?” I asked tentatively.

She didn’t answer, just gave one short nod.

I walked slowly into the bathroom, and set the glass of water down beside her. Then I leaned against the wall, and slid down it to sit next to her.

“The food smelled just fine to me, but I threw it out anyway. Did you want me to get you something else?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m
so
not hungry at the moment.”

“Did you want to stay here a bit longer? I could go get you a blanket or something,” I offered.

“No, I don’t think there’s anything left in my stomach to throw up,” Parker said with a humorless snort.

“Do you think it was something you ate for lunch?” I asked as I shuffled through ideas in the back of my head.

“Can’t be, I didn’t
eat
lunch,” Parker replied, still breathing a bit heavy.

“Oh.” I kept shuffling through ideas until one stuck out. “Maybe you have the stomach flu or something?”

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Parker agreed before she took a sip of the water. Then she choked, and nearly spit it out as she asked abruptly, “What day is it?”

“Thursday.”

She glared at me. “I meant the number.”

“The twentieth,” I answered uneasily. “
Why
?”

She didn’t answer, just continued to stare into space.

“Parker?” I asked nervously.

She held up a hand. “Shh, I’m counting.” And then her eyes got really wide, and she sat back on her heels. “It’s not possible,” she whispered as her hand slid down to her belly.

“
What
isn’t possible?”

She looked back up at me with frightened eyes. “I…I think I might be pregnant.”

Really Frakking Dumb

Thursday, December 20th

NUALLA

I
looked down at the text
again.

Today 8:42 pm

Travis Centrina

Meet me in aisle 6 it’s an emergency!

Just that, and an address. That’s all Travis had sent me. Just cryptic enough to get my heart racing nervously, because really, it could be anything. It could be a stupid joke. Or an evil plot by the Kakodemoss. Or the answer to life as we knew it.

And so when I arrived at the address in a part of San Francisco that I was pretty sure was actually Daly City, I was expecting to find a whole hell of a lot more than a rundown drug store with a practically ancient flickering sign. If the text hadn’t had an aisle number I might even have thought the address was wrong. As it was, I was a tad bit uncomfortable leaving my Vanquish among the collection of beat up Cadillacs, a rusting lime green Yugo, and a Civic with a missing fender circa 1980-something.

I walked through the doors into the drug store and a blaring bell sound rang out, making me jump a good foot. My eyes darted around in alarm, but the only person in sight was a checker girl reading a magazine and chewing gum. And she hadn’t even looked up at the sound.

I took a deep, settling breath, and started off across the worn but surprisingly clean linoleum floor, my shoes squeaking with every step. I had run out of the house in such a hurry I had forgotten my umbrella, so I was mostly soaked through from just the short walk into the store.

The drug store wasn’t huge, and in only a minute or two I had found aisle six. I stopped at the head of the aisle and looked down toward the other end. Sure enough there he was, staring straight ahead at the shelf in front of him, his hands shoved into the pockets of his black pea coat.

I leaned against the shelf, and looked over at Travis. “Do you want to explain to me why I had to meet you at a drug store on the other end of the city from where I live in the middle of a frakkin’ rain storm?”

He didn’t answer and I leaned my head back against the shelf, staring at the one across from us. “Or maybe you want to explain why we’re just standing here in the feminine hygiene and toiletries aisle?”

“Because I didn’t want to do this alone,” he finally answered as he shifted his weight uneasily, and stared at his shoes.

“What exactly
are
we doing in the first place?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

Travis didn’t answer for so long I gave up and looked over at the shelf across from us, trying to figure out what he had been staring at.

“Parker thinks she’s pregnant,” he stated in a quiet voice after a few very long moments.

I whipped my head back to look at him, and he finally met my eyes.

I just gaped at him. “Are you serious, or are you screwing with me?” I asked as I searched his eyes for the answer.

“Do you honestly think I would joke about something like
this
?!” Travis snapped indignantly.

“No, it’s just…
wow
,” I said, a bit dazed as I just kinda stared at him.

“Yeah…” he agreed distractedly before he turned to look back at the shelf across from us.

“So that’s uh…
big
,” I stated, still a bit caught off guard by the turn of events. “But, um, why am
I
here?”

In response, Travis pointed at the shelf across from us which I now noticed held a whole hell of a lot of pregnancy tests.

My mouth fell open again in disbelief. “Wait, you don’t even
know
if she’s pregnant?”

Travis turned back to me, and said—a little on edge, “Did you miss the part where I said
thinks
she’s pregnant?!”

“Right, okay, just chill.” I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “So you want me to pick one out for you presumably because I’m a girl, and would, of course, know anything about this,” I said with just a hint of sarcasm.

“Basically.”

“I’m going to take your current predicament into consideration in deciding not to be offended by that assumption,” I said flatly.

“And for that, I thank you,” Travis said a bit sarcastically.

I huffed at him, and then reached out to pick up the box of the brand I had used myself. Which of course
he
didn’t know. Because I hadn’t told
anyone
.

“Grab three,” Travis blurted out as my fingers touched the box.

“Why the hell would you need
three
?” I asked dubiously.

“Because I want to make
damn
sure, and I don’t want to have to come back here.”

Travis looked like he was barely keeping it together so I decided not to press the issue.

“How did this even happen, Travis?” I asked as I pulled three different brands of pregnancy tests from the shelf. “I mean, did it…did it break or something?”

Travis just looked at me nervously for a second, his face flushing bright red. “Um…not
exactly
… You see we didn’t think she could get…you know—so we didn’t—” he babbled, speaking faster as he went.

“You didn’t use
anything
?” I blurted out in shock, nearly dropping the boxes.

“Not the first time.”

I let out a heavy sigh. We had been taught during both the seventh and eighth grade in The Embassy school that the Bonding between two daemons wouldn’t work if there was “something” in the way. Which was also why you had to be
damn
sure that the person was your One, because there was always a risk of this.

I looked at Travis appraisingly. I had never taken him for a traditionalist, but maybe… Well, then again, I had never really
asked
either, had I?

“Oh, well that’s—”

“Or the time after that, or the one time—two times in the shower, or that time in my lab,” Travis continued to admit, his grimace growing wider with each instance he had to tack on to the list.

“You didn’t use something
any
of those times?” I asked in disbelief, my eyes huge.

He didn’t answer. And that’s when I kinda lost it.

“
Gods
, Travis, for a smart person, sometimes you can be really frakking dumb. I mean
hell
, look, they even have a whole shelf right next to the pregnancy tests labeled
Condoms
. Try using one next time, genius!” I snapped sarcastically as I shoved the selection of pregnancy tests at him. And then I just kept walking so he wouldn’t see I was nearly in tears. “I’ll be outside!”