Lethal Engagement (An Unbounded Novella) (3 page)

Stella paused, giving me a gentle smile. “Mari, you’re the right one for this job—no, the only one. We weighed every option, including using Unbounded from the New York cell. Their leader and Ava, along with the rest of us, all came to that conclusion.”

A portion of the weight on my shoulders lifted. “Well, truthfully, it sounded kind of fun before Ava got all serious.”

Stella laughed and put an arm around me. “That’s
her
job—keeping our minds on the goal. I’ve been wishing I could go with you because you know how I worry, but I really think you’ll enjoy the experience, and that’s the best kind of op. With Keene there, you’ll be in good company.”

Truthfully, I thought it was rather strange that they’d send a mortal who could be killed, but Keene had gone with Erin on a major op in New York, so maybe he was that experienced. He’d absolutely best me any day in a fair fight, and probably in an unfair one as well. His inner knowledge of the Emporium and his former infiltration of the Hunters gave him added advantage.

Still, what if I messed up and he was hurt? Cort and Jace would be in DC, but maybe too far away to help.

Stella came to a stop. “Look, frankly, I wish we’d had more time to prepare the world to know about us, but we’ll do what we have to, and that’s making sure mortals see us as allies and not as a danger.”

Most of the Renegades felt the way she did, that the announcement had come too soon, but I was glad the secret of our existence was out to the mortal world. I wanted to be accepted for what I was, not what I’d been. A mere four months had passed since my Change, but already the life I’d lived as an accountant seemed a faint memory, one I didn’t care to hold onto. I didn’t miss being cooped up in an office all day or trying to convince Trevor that it was time to move forward with our family, never realizing that he was a Hunter and wouldn’t stoop to having a child with me.

All that mundane stuff was gone. The clients, the daily grind, Trevor’s lies. Everything but the numbers. They were still with me, in me—and my life was so much better. I wanted to shout my joy to the world and use my ability whenever I felt like it, not hide in the shadows and hope no one noticed I was different.

“So about the shopping,” I said.

Stella looked at me for a full two seconds before she replied. For Stella, that was an eternity. “Oh, a few hours ago, I sent instructions to the salon and the boutique, so they know what you need. If anything, I’ve erred on the side of too much. I’d go with you if I didn’t have monitoring to do, but Ava promised to see if Erin would go. I’ll drive you to the airport later, though.”

“All right.” Was it just me or was she distracted? Stella processed information so quickly that normally she came across as being three steps ahead of everyone no matter what else she was doing or thinking at the time. But several times of late, I’d caught her delaying like she had just now. I’d wondered if that was because of Chris Radkey, our pilot and Erin’s older mortal brother. Stella had been spending a lot of time with him and his two young children. Well, I could only hope he was the reason. She’d lost too much in the past months, and I wanted her to be happy.

Stella hugged me and brushed a light kiss on my cheek before moving toward the stairs, probably heading to her suite on the third floor. Her neural headset blinked furiously, signaling that she was already back to work.

I reached out to find Erin, first making sure that the numbers for the shift didn’t match up with the location of her bedroom. Or Ritter’s separate suite. Since their marriage two months ago, I was far more careful about where I located her because they were almost always together.

Erin was one of the few Renegades I could find no matter where she was. I could also shift to Dimitri, and more recently to Cort and Stella. The more I worked with someone, the more vibrant their location in my mind. They were actual numbers themselves, but unlike regular locations, their numbers represented colors, similar to hex color codes. Erin was a shade of vibrant red, Dimitri a steady brown, Cort a medium shade of blue. Stella had been orange, but now she was both orange and yellow, though I didn’t know a reason for the change. The other Renegades I couldn’t “see” yet, but Cort was sure it was only a matter of time as I worked more with them.

Erin was downstairs in our expansive workout room. I chose numbers that made sure I’d come out near the wall. Before solidifying completely, I always checked to see if I was shifting to a place already occupied by a person or object and could alter my location at the last moment. It didn’t hurt anyone for me to almost appear inside them, but it was unsettling for both me and the person. I still didn’t know what it’d do if I solidified inside someone, and it wasn’t a phenomenon I planned on investigating any time soon. Appearing close to the wall generally assured free space. It also kept me clear of whoever might be attacking Erin, which was a common occurrence.

Sure enough, Erin and Ritter were at it again, exchanging blows with their escrima sticks at an incredible speed that told me she was channeling his combat ability. They were beauty in motion, each twirling two sticks, blocking and slamming in an odd dance that also radiated sexual tension. Their faces, necks, and bare arms glistened with sweat. Ritter’s black hair was completely soaked, while the top portion of Erin’s long blond hair, swinging free, was still partially dry.

The instant I appeared, they altered their positions slightly, their momentary glances measuring me as if I were some dangerous foe, but there wasn’t a noticeable change in their ferocious play. Both continued moving for nearly a minute after I appeared, and then, as if by some silent agreement, they stopped simultaneously, chests heaving under their workout tanks.

I was glad they were on my side.

“Hey, Mari.” Erin lowered her sticks. The color of her hair, the shape of her face, and even her eyes looked like Ava’s. Funny how the same gray eyes seemed so much warmer on her.

Ritter dipped his head in greeting. “What’s up? Want to have a go?” He spoke as if offering me a great favor.

I wasn’t the only one on edge from the past two months of relative inactivity. Ritter was our ops leader, and like all combat Unbounded took downtime poorly. He had increased our four a.m. workouts from two to four hours, and if Erin hadn’t kept him occupied with other endeavors, he probably would have doubled that yet again.

“No, thanks,” I said. “But you should know that I’m now engaged to Patrick Mann.”

Erin laughed. “Oh, so that’s why Ava’s asking me to go shopping or somewhere with you.” She made a face, which I understood all too well. She didn’t enjoy shopping like most women.

Her silent communication with Ava, wherever our leader was at that moment, reminded me to pull my shield over my thoughts. At first, shielding had been awkward, like trying to close my ears until I heard a rushing sound in my head, and had required a lot of effort. Now I barely noticed when my block was in place. Living in the same house as two sensing Unbounded, especially one as strong as Erin, we all blocked as a matter of course. Only when shifting did I have to drop the shield or it would interfere with the numbers.

“Sorry,” I said, “but I could really use the company.”

“It’ll be good to go somewhere besides those boring political meetings.” She laughed. “But seriously—engaged? I never knew you had it so bad for Patrick.”

“Me and thousands of other women apparently.”

She whistled. “Wow, Ava just showed me. Now that’s scary.” She gave her escrima sticks to Ritter, who was grinning, so I knew she’d shared the image from Ava with him.

“Take Jace to the shops with you,” he said. “He needs to release a bit of energy.”

I gaped at him. “You think shopping’s going to do that? He’s worse than Erin.” Jace definitely shared his sister’s lack of shopping skills.

Erin laughed. “No, but he can patrol the streets. And it’s better that he work some of his energy out before you get on the plane. It’s a long flight to DC.”

“With all that’s going on out there,” Ritter added, “it’s better to go in a group. The Emporium has figured out that we’ve rebuilt this house, and it’s only a matter of time until they come knocking.”

Erin grinned. “I’d like to see them try to get in.”

The Emporium had attacked our safe houses before, with fatal consequences, but the Fortress could withstand anything they could do without attracting too much attention—and a lot more. We were finished running.

“I’m just going to jump in the shower,” Erin said.

“Okay, I’ll go tell Jace.” I shifted away as Ritter kissed Erin goodbye. I didn’t have to be a sensing Unbounded to feel the attraction pouring off them more copiously than their sweat.

I couldn’t locate Jace yet by shifting, to his great annoyance, but sometimes I thought I could almost feel his color. Maybe a purple. Instead, I shifted to the second floor outside Cort’s office, more from habit and a need to give Erin privacy than because I was trying to find Cort. I wasn’t surprised at my choice. Cort and I had worked a lot together these past months as we tested the limits of my ability. His talent was to see and understand how things interacted on a quantum level, but he hadn’t been able to figure out why I couldn’t take anyone with me when I shifted.

At first he’d hypothesized that because I couldn’t shift more than I could comfortably carry, I also wouldn’t be able to shift distances longer than I could physically walk within a certain period of time. But that wasn’t true—I’d shifted from locations several hundred miles away without straining a muscle. I just reached for the numbers that represented where I wanted to go and moved myself to that place using the
in between.
It felt like a blink or an involuntary breath. Simple.

So in theory, I should be able to move someone with me, and not being able to do so felt a lot like failure. But even when Erin channeled my ability and we shifted together, we could drag someone with us only as far as the next room—less distance than we could physically carry that same person. I’d tried repeatedly to choose different numbers to take us farther away, but we’d always ended up dropping randomly out of the shift.

I pulled out my cell phone to call Jace. The Fortress was big and he could be anywhere on its three floors or in the basement, which had a playroom and a climbing wall for Chris’s kids. I should have looked there before leaving the basement, but Jace could just as likely be outside, either alone or in the gardens with his niece and nephew. We had a hundred-year-old tree that was the largest I’d ever seen anywhere, and the kids loved to climb it.

I’d punched in Jace’s number and brought the phone to my ear when Keene’s raised voice reverberated from Cort’s office. “I can’t do that!” he said. “I won’t! Not until it makes a difference.”

“I think you’re making a huge mistake. It could mean life or death.”

“Yeah,
her
life or death. I don’t want to risk her.”

Cort’s snort was loud enough to hear through the door. “That’s funny coming from you, Mr. Honesty. She should have something to say about it. This could give us a huge advantage in the battle ahead. We all have to make sacrifices. Maybe your inability doesn’t have anything to do with why you don’t want to tell her. Have you ever thought of that?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” Their voices were louder, so they were either near the door or the heat of their argument was increasing.

“You
have
to tell her,” Cort said, his voice lower now but firm.

Keene’s response was so low that I didn’t hear.

Her.
Who was this “her?” I couldn’t imagine Keene being able to hide anything from Ava and Erin for long, and Stella was Ava’s closest confidant. So who could it be?

Me?
My stomach dropped.

“Hello? Hello?” said a voice in my ear. “Mari, can you hear me?”

“Where are you?” I asked Jace.

“In the garden.”

The office door knob began to turn. I shifted.

JACE WAS OUT IN THE
mid-April sunshine. The top of his white blond hair reflected the light, while the lower half lay dark and wet along the edges of his face and the back of his neck. He held a sword in one hand, so I knew he’d been practicing. Despite all our guns and advanced tech, often with the Emporium it came down to swordplay and who was faster. Jace was our youngest Unbounded Renegade, having Changed at twenty-eight, and was talented in combat. His quickness rivaled Ritter’s.

When he spied me, he pulled the phone away from his ear, pocketing it in his black sweatpants. “What’s up?”

My mind churned, trying to figure out what I’d heard, what Keene was hiding. I couldn’t imagine that it was anything regarding the Emporium, but he had served them nearly his entire life, and Cort had sounded worried about the battle. I felt sick not knowing. And sicker that I’d shifted away before demanding to be told. That was more like the old, mortal me. Not me after my Change.

Jace sheathed his sword and put his arms around me. “Mari, did something happen? You’re so pale.” He held me closer than I felt comfortable with, especially given how much he always flirted. Unlike the gray eyes of his siblings, Chris and Erin, Jace’s were blue, with faint white patterns that made him seem perpetually alert.