Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (77 page)

Alice shrieked.

“They’re still here,” I said, trying to calm them quickly. “I can see their silhouettes. You can, too. Right, Kareena?”

Kareena nodded. “I can see them both.”

The soft shapes drifted past me toward Alice. She looked
down at her hand and flexed her fingers.

“I… feel something touching me,” she said.

“It’s—” Kareena started.

Alice vanished, becoming part of the white blur.

“Alice!” Brian called out. “Alice! Where are you?”

“I’m here,” she replied, her voice distorted but recognizable.

“Are you okay?” Brian asked. “Is Solus okay?”

“Yes. He’s with me,” she answered.

The entire white shape floated past me again and then st
opped. The three of them reappeared and I saw Solus lower
his glowing hand down to his side. His other hand was firmly
wrapped around his mother’s.

“Holy crap,” Brian shot over to them and forked his fingers through Solus’ hair, ruffling it up. “You did that?”

Solus looked up at him and nodded.

“That’s amazing!”

“I think Judas helped,” I added.

“Yes,” Judas confirmed. “I have explained the process to him.”

“Good boy, Solus,” Brian said, smiling at his son. “And Alice? Was it okay? Did it feel any different than when we were in it before?”

“No. Just like Times Square, Vegas, and all the rest,” she answered. “But I felt safer since Solus was controlling it.”

“Will you trust me now?” Judas asked.

“Trust is a big word,” Brian said with a doubtful shake of his head. “You have to earn it.”

Judas twitched and jerked his head again.

“Why the hell do you keep doing that?” Brian cocked an eyebrow.

“I do not believe you can understand,” he said.

“Try me.”

“Saviors are
connected. This is most obvious when we communicate. You have never seen us speak to one another.”

“So you’re like a hivemind?” I asked.

“What is that?” Judas looked at me.

“It’s when many things or minds are connected to a point
where they think collectively, not independently,” I clarified.

“This exists here? On Earth?”

“Not with humans, but some creatures do it, yes.”

“Then, yes. That is how we communicate.”

“So… then what’s with the tick? I mean, the twitching thing you keep doing?” Brian reiterated.

“Unlike humans, there has always been an unchanging
number of our kind. We do not reproduce. We evolve. Each has core energy of a single color and provides a shared resource of energy needed to continue our evolutionary process.
Until recently, we have never had access to less than the minimum
required. But when one Savior fades, we all experience the loss of light.”

Were they immortals before?

“So your kind have never had to deal with death?” I asked.

“Death was nonexistent in our society before we chose you
as carriers of fluorescent strains. It is strange and difficult to tolerate the loss of our kind after so many years. Unexpectedly, we have become subject to common mortality.”

“Now you know how it feels,” Brian said.

Chapter 16

B
rian exited the tunnel first to scout out the area. “I think
it’s an old construction site,” he said, turning to face us. “I can’t really tell, but there’s a lot of old masonry stuff lying around.” He scanned his surroundings, bringing a hand to his brow to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun. “There may be a street on the other side of the containment fence.” He pointed, squinting. “I can’t really tell from here. If not, we’ll just have to go back the way we came and try another route.”

“What are you searching for?” Judas asked.

“A place to stay,” I answered. “Mostly.”

“Do you not have a permanent place of shelter?”

“Not anymore. Not since you Saviors screwed up our lives.”

He stared at me blankly.

“I’m in trouble with the law and so is Brian, techni
cally,” I elaborated. “You don’t understand how this works, but because he left with Alice, it’s considered kidnapping. That’s a crime here, among other things. I robbed a place to get them some money to stay in hotels, and then Kareena disappeared from the police department, thanks to you.”

“So you wander? Every day?”

“Yes.”

I left the tunnel next with Lucy trailing behind. Alice and Solus followed, and then Judas’ misty shadow and Kareena.

“If we’re going to have to put up with you, you should at least be able to pull your own weight,” Brian said, trying to figure out where to look since he couldn’t see the translator. I pointed to where Judas was standing and he adjusted his line of sight. “Can you do anything to help us?”

“Help you with what?” Judas replied.

“Help us find a safe place to stay. Someplace we won’t
be in danger and where there aren’t a lot of people. You’ve got to have a better sense of direction than we do. Right? Don’t you have anything other than that breathing mask with you?”

Judas materialized and Alice gasped, caught off guard by his sudden reappearance.

Judas paused, still as a statue, and gazed off into
the distance. I couldn’t even hear him breathing.

“Judas?” I broke the silence.

“Yes,” he responded, moving again. “I have thought of a solution. I can alter the Prism’s creation to help you move more easily between locations.”

“How?”

“Let me see your wrist.”

“No way.” Brian shook his head. “I don’t trust you. The Prism gave us these to protect us from
you.
”

Brian was right, but what if Judas could help us? He was
kind of screwed at the moment, too. If it were so easy to grab Solus
and run, he would have already.

Right?

I lifted my arm. “Go ahead.”

“David?” Brian looked at me, disgusted. “What the hell are you thinking?”

“We need help, and if he can do something to make it
easier for us to get around, I’d like to know what it is and how to
use it. Don’t worry about me. I’m the one who has a shot at fighting back, remember?”

“I-I guess,” Brian replied. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Judas bent over and investigated my bangle closely. He raised his left arm, turned it over so the forearm and palm faced up, and used his other hand to pull open an inconspicuous flap on his jumpsuit sleeve. He withdrew a set of delicate silver tools and sorted through them in his hands.

With a tool that looked a lot like a sanding burr, he poked
at my bangle. Heat flushed through my wrist at the site and I flinched.

“What are you doing to it?” I asked.

“Minor adjustments,” Judas replied. “Please wait until I finish before asking questions.”

Okay then.

He tucked the first tool back into the pocket on his sleeve
and used a second one—a long, cotton-swab-like stylus with a glowing white tip—to resume prodding at the thing on my wrist. The heat continued to rise until I grunted from discomfort and pulled back.

“It’s getting too hot,” I said.

“I am nearly finished.” He blinked and waited for me to relinquish the bracelet again.

“Can you hurry up, please?” The others’ gazes were fixated on my wrist.

An electrical shock jolted through me. “Ah!” I jerked my hand away. “What was that!?”

“I am finished.” Judas slid the glow-tipped rod back into
its slot and folded the cover closed on the pocket. The outline of the pocket faded into obscurity against the rest of his suit.

“What was that shock from?”

“It was your fluorescence linking to the band. It will act as an additional power source to support the adjustments I have made.”

“Which were?”

“It can condense fluorescence, amplifying what you already have.”

“How?”

“You control it, as you always have. Direct the light toward
the band.”

I imagined yellow light skittering through me, warming
me from the core. Golden amber bolts of wild, dangerous
electricity rocketing through my veins. I concentrated on sending
fluorescence through my chest and down my arm, but the heat wouldn’t rise and the light wouldn’t spark to life.

Nothing.

“I can’t call on it whenever I want,” I replied. “What am I supposed to do?”

“The process will be simplified after it has been activated for the first time,” Judas said. “Could you do it if your daughter’s life were at risk?”

“What?” Warmth flushed through me and my hand started to tremble. “Don’t bring her into this again!”

My arm jerked forward involuntarily. An arc of white blasted from my wrist into the air and tore open a swirling whirlpool of gleaming light.

“A portal?” I stared in disbelief. It was close to what I had pictured it to be, but with a vivid, pulsating glow more brilliant and mystical than anything I could have put together in my head. Streaks of white-hot light zipped around the circumference, weaving between continuous streams of soft blue and pale copper. “And… I can actually see it.”

“Yes,” Judas confirmed. “Because it has merged with your fluorescence.”

“I see it, too,” Kareena added.

Brian and Alice appeared mesmerized by it. They hadn’t been able to see portals before.

“Where does it lead?” I asked.

“That is decided by you,” Judas replied. “You must choose a location and clearly understand where it is before you make that choice. If you do not visualize correctly, you could become stranded in a dangerous or unfamiliar place.”

Another sharp zing of electricity buzzed through me and I brought my arm in close to my chest, reeling from the heat of the sting. The spinning white portal sucked closed and disappeared into nothingness.

“Shit! It burns, damn it!” I shook out my wrist. “Why does it burn so much?”

Brian tried to take a look at the subtle reddish mark left on my wrist, but I declined his healing.

“You must learn to channel your light more effectively to minimize physical injury,” Judas said.

“Are the portals safe?” Kareena asked. “Are they exactly the same as the ones we used before? The same ones the Prism created for us?”

“They have been altered slightly. The variation allows you to power the doorway with your own energy instead of the external source previously required.”

Alice looked down at her wrist. “Judas, can you
program all of our bands to do this?”

“If you want.” Judas looked at her. “Is this something you want me to do?” He glanced at Brian and Kareena. “You two, as well?”

“I don’t know,” Brian said, his lips wrinkling with cynicism. “I don’t know if I trust you that much. I don’t know if I trust you enough to let you screw with whatever it is the Prism gave us to keep us safe from you. If it hurt me, I could heal, probably. But we haven’t tested one of the portals. How do we know they work?”

“Maybe we should test one,” Alice spoke up. “I’d… like to see my mom again.”

“Jane?” Brian faced her. “We can’t go back there. You know that, Alice. We ran away for a reason. If we go back, I could get arrested. Who knows what they’ll do to Kareena. We might both end up in jail.”

“I’m not going to jail!” Kareena yelped. “No freaking
way.” She took a step in front of me and walked toward Brian. “Brian! I’m not going back there! Because I know you’ll
get your ass arrested and mine, too! We don’t need this right
now. We’ve been safe ever since we left our homes. We should
just keep moving. It’s been working.”

“And do what?” Alice raised her voice. “Be homeless forever!?” She rolled her hands into fists—something I’d
never
seen her do before. “No! I don’t want to live like this. I want to go home. I want to see my mom and my best friend. I want to know that they’re okay! That they aren’t sick or… worse. Don’t you, Kareena? Don’t you want to see your family? Or do you not care about them anymore?”

Kareena pressed her lips thin and frowned. “Of course I care, damn it. Why in the hell wouldn’t I care about my own family? Jesus, Alice. What do you think I am? A robot? I-I
just don’t want our asses to get into trouble. We’re all the world has right now. Us and that kid of yours. We’re the only
people who have a chance in hell at saving everyone from this shit. If we die—”

“We need to know if they work,” I interrupted. “We need to know if they can get us where we want to go, regardless of where that is. I’ll try it if you two don’t want to. I’ll test it out first.”

“Are you sure about this, David?” Brian asked. “You don’t have to do this. You’ve got—”

“Just watch Lucy for me. Okay? If… by some chance I can’t get back or… something happens to me, please—”

“Of course,” Brian cut me off. “We’ll take care of her either way, but you’ll be fine, so… don’t say shit like that.”

Immediately, I regretted my decision and started to ruminate on the risks.

But I wasn’t a man who’d go against my word, so I had to suck it up and hope for the best. The ability to teleport anywhere we needed to could be a lifesaver.

I closed my eyes and tried to visualize a place. Details were fuzzy at first and then they eased into view, becoming crystal clear, complete with color and sound. Vivid imagery set free from the depths of my memory.

It was the perfect place and a perfect opportunity to test the bracelet.

“Okay. I’ve got a location in mind now,” I announced, lifting my arm. It was difficult to keep the picture in focus while I tried
to simultaneously conjure up the anger and
emotion necessary to make my skin glow.

Positive and negative emotions whirled inside. I wanted the portal to work, but I wanted to keep my daughter safe even more. If I could do both, maybe… just maybe we had a chance.

I can’t lose Lucy. I can’t get hurt doing this. I just can’t.

Heat filled my chest and I felt light emerging. I opened my eyes and watched flecks and dashes of yellow shooting
down through my veins toward my hands. Then a burst of white light boomed from my wrist like a firework and ripped
open a gash of radiant, swirling white light in front of me.