Summon Lyght (24 page)

"
…seem to share some genetic material. Is a common ancestor possible? If so, at what distance?" The mystery voice started up again, surprising Tyler once more. It seemed similar to the doc's voice this time. Listening carefully, he moved closer to the doc and waited.

"
Tyler?"

Tyler moved to stand in front of the doc, but didn
't try to reply. He searched for some sign of awareness in the man's face, and found absolutely none. He was still in an unconscious-looking state, eyes rolled back, lips parted, jaw slack, looking for all the world as if he'd had a few too many beers and just dozed off.

"
I thought so. Continuing notes. Subject demonstrates ability to overhear thoughts. This might be cultivated to become telepathic communication. Tyler, I want you to respond to me. A simple yes or no will suffice for now."

The idea to be difficult came as a knee jerk response and he didn
't answer.

"
Ah, so you prefer to play charades? Fine. No matter. Remember, I can read your thoughts. Obstinacy serves no purpose."

Great.
"Okay."

"
Thank you for being reasonable. Now that we have that settled, you practice moving about while I figure out which of your relatives contributed genetic material to the original makeup of these beings."

Tyler really could care less about that at the moment and headed for the door, elated that his powers were in fact real. Wonder how far he could move from his body without problems? If any. Only one way to find out.

"By the way, you do not need the door. In this state, you are not solid. You can pass through walls."

Tyler looked over his shoulder, almost expecting to see the doc standing there with that odd smile of his, but he was still in his beer trance.

He held his breath and approached the wall, ready to test that cool ass theory. He touched the surface with his fingertip, except instead of touching, they sank right into the wall, and his hand followed, up to the wrist before he stopped. The sight of his arm ending at the wrist, without a hand, created an uneasy nausea and made sweat bead across his upper lip. Sweat? Is that what that was? Seemed odd. He reached up to touch and see, then hesitated. What if his hand passed through his body? He was sure he wouldn't dig that crap. He touched his arm instead and encountered a normal feeling arm. Wow. The doc had said he wasn't physical, but he sure felt it. At least to himself.  

Before he could change his mind, he took a step and moved his body into the wall. The nausea increased with one eye looking into the next room, the other seeing only the darkness inside the wall. The wall was made of dense matter, and seemed to press against his eyeball. Really weird feeling. The black hard surface was highly magnified that close. Just amazing. Like
his eyes worked like a microscope. 

He took his mind off the discomfort in his stomach by thinking about Francis
' plan some more. The doc's words about his ability being a possible asset for spying kept replaying in his head. If he could get within whatever range, he could travel without his body and maybe walk right into the gang's territory and find the best way to win that boy away. Or maybe find a better candidate. Or hell, maybe find out enough information that they didn't
need
a candidate. Even better. Except for the boy being stuck in that douche bag gang. No reason Tyler couldn't do both.

Tyler walked around, not venturing too far. He became aware of a pull from all around him. Outward. Like a soft suction, compelling him toward it. When he thought about it, it seemed to grow and pull more. He focused on it and the pull increased.

"Stop." The voice belonged to the doc and it was all business. "You continue thinking on it and it will suck you right into another dimension. Your thoughts are like propellers in this realm. The worlds are drawn to them and you to them. A void to be filled."

Tyler quickly filled his mind with other thoughts. Peggy. Think of Peggy. In a matter of seconds, the pull disappeared and he breathed in deep, making his way back to his body. Sucked into another dimension? He shivered at the thought and focused on the image of Peggy
's perfect lips, smiling at him in that way. In that way that made his heart flop around in his chest like a fish out of water.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Toren waited with Dorn and Kassern for Peggy and her siblings to arrive. With a plan. What sort of plan? And where in the
fuck
was Zool? He needed the bastard to not be so fucking mysterious for once in his existence.

He hated that he couldn
't touch Sam. So fucking insane. The Diamond Warrior laying there holding the hand of his
wife
. The
farechtera
had to put a shield around them to move them to the Conference room without touching them. If the screws holding Toren's temper down got any tighter, he'd blow the cap off. And the Onyx prick nowhere to be found without sending out flares. Fucker. He held the key. If he didn't show up soon, Toren was going find him and kick his ass for taking so
fucking
long.

Toren needed something to do. A mission to get his mind off of his
wife
in that box with his Brother. Yes, they were unconscious and yes, he was positive his Brother wasn't hurting her, and yes, he knew Lyght would take care of her, whatever was happening, but this operation was too dangerous and she was still too human.

Toren
's mercury kept him stiff one second, then ready to explode through the roof the next. The door opened and he was glad for the meeting to start, glad for—

What the
fuck
?

The Brotherhood all stood abruptly when four strangers walked into the room.

The tall thin man/boy stopped, both hands raised. "It's us, Dad."

"
Francis?" Kassern frowned, then laughed, sounding amazed. "Wow, you're…"

"
Like a human, yes." He shuffled his feet before the long table and Toren leaned forward, trying to see the girl hiding behind him.

"
Peggy." Unreasonable rage hit him as she stepped out from behind Francis dressed like a teenage…heretic. Toren's mercury shot toward the boiling point. He pointed at the door. "How about you go change into something more decent? Like right
now.
"

Peggy
's beautiful eyes filled with sadness and hurt. She looked down at her outfit then around.

Everyone, including his Brothers, glared at him as if he
'd kicked their puppy. Fuck. He felt like the worst jerk in the Nine Universes. Note to self. Find a better way to deal with supernatural female teenagers. One that didn't make him look like a foolish cruel tyrant. 

"
She looks fine." Kassern looked critically at Peggy. "I mean that's
modest
compared to some of the outfits Karly gets in."

"
She's a child" Toren honestly tried to at least sound nicer. "Karly's not only an adult, she's a married woman."

"
I am
not
a child!" Peggy's voice hardened.

Toren
's mercury formed inward pointing spikes in response to her anger, reminding him exactly how much she was a part of him. 

His stubborn anger struck back.
"You are not a woman, either." He pointed to the door. "Go change."

Her bright blue eyes flashed with tears. A heavy brown woolen robe with a hood suddenly covered her head to toe.
"There, are you happy? Is that good enough?"

She looked eerily like the captive women at Kharef
's convent. Ice water slid through his veins, washing a dreadful premonition over him.

"
Brother, she's fine." Dorn put a hand on his shoulder, rocking him with a blast of aquamarine calm.

The effort to defuse him only served to piss Toren off more.
"Get your calm off of me
,
brother. If I want it, I'll absorb it from your happy ass."

"
You might not want it, but you sure as hell need it. And we can't afford extra negativity in our lives. We have more than enough."

Shit. He was being an absolute fool. A jerk. Acting like a superstitious human. Toren sat down. He wanted to apologize to them all, especially Peggy, but couldn
't unhinge his jaw. He also wanted to direct Peggy to come sit next to him so he could…be next to her. Strange fucking emotions made no sense. Was he really going to act like her father just because she took a human form?  What did he know about that shit? Zero. Not entirely. He knew how to take care of a woman. And now that she was…something like that, maybe his instincts naturally followed that path.
Of course. That's how your powers work, stupid.
 

Peggy came over and sat next to him anyway. Utter relief flowed over him like a soothing bath. 

What the—

Toren spied her other hand firmly entwined with the large awkward one of that gangly human teenage boy!

—
fuck
was going on? "So you're married now?"

She looked at him, her forehead puckered with annoyed confusion. Toren raised his brows and aimed his gaze at their joined hands. She rolled her eyes and ignored him. Sudden instinct reared its head to deliver the boy a warning. But if he dared speak his mind on the subject, he would lose any influence he might have with her, leaving him powerless over her in more serious situations. Son-of-a-bitch.

She attempted to pry into his mind and Toren mentally smacked her away, not in any mood to be have her reading him like a rude brat.

She would certainly answer for this behavior.

Eventually.

Her siblings took their seats across from the Brothers. Who was responsible for this ridiculous human form idea? Peggy stood as if to go join them and Toren yanked her back down. She gave an exasperated huff but stayed put. Good thing for her.

The human boy leaned and whispered to her. "You look perfect, don't worry about it. He's just upset about Miss Kassie, Lyght, and especially Miss Sam."

The mercury in Toren
's body immediately receded and he realized it had prepared to physically reprimand the kid had he said the wrong thing. But the worst was the realization of how sane the boy behaved in comparison to an
Archangel
. God, he needed to get a hold of himself. He had never been so on edge in all his existence.

"
So we were thinking." Francis crossed his long fingers with the short ruby nails on the table before him. Toren barely managed to listen to his harebrained scheme.

"
Wait, wait, wait." Kassern cocked back in his chair, calmer than he had a right to be, considering the insanity these kids would get up to on their own. "Are you referring to the human boy?"

"
Tyler." The human's brows leveled into a faint scowl. "My name is Tyler. The human Tyler. And I'm fifteen. Not a boy."

"
Doesn't matter Tyler." Kassern shook his head. "It's not happening. It's not safe. You have no training. This isn't a game."

Fifteen? Toren looked at Dorn to see if he
'd caught the lie. But which was the lie, the first age he'd given or this age? Toren had thought the boy seemed kind of big for thirteen. Toren eyed Maxwell and Robert. Weren't they supposed to be…teenagers too? They looked like grown men. Young. But grown. Which was probably why Peggy felt the need to overdress.

"
I don't mean to intrude on your thoughts Mr…Toren." Robert kept his voice low and timid. "But I can't help it. You're practically
placing
them into my mind. To be sure, Peggy is merely doing what she feels is necessary for the operation. She helped us obtain our wardrobe and physiques. She's quite proficient in that department it seems. We're all grateful."

As Mr. Toren should be
went all but spoken. Cocky diamond prince. Toren didn't miss the sweet smile Peggy flashed him. All of it rubbed his mercury wrong. There should be no joy at this time. None. It was frivolous and ridiculous.

"
I think the idea is a good one." Dorn raised a hand asking for time to explain. "Aside from the boy going, of course. We'll find a place for him in the operation to be sure, but not on the field. Too dangerous."

"
I've been trained in survival, I—"

Toren cut him off cold.
"You were found in a warehouse of sex traffickers, scheduled for rape and prostitution. And you're attempting to argue with the Brotherhood. None of this reflects well on your
survival
training." A
chill out
glare came from Kassern, but Toren ignored it. His every fiber vibrated with mercurial wrath, forcing him to stand and pace next to the table. "We are not doing one more reckless thing in this operation. No one is to
move
unless we say so. No one is to use any
powers
unless we say so. As it is, we aren't certain if our location has been compromised. There is something about the boy that upset the creatures, and until we find out what that is, he stays put."

"
You act as though he is a spy." Peggy's voice went shrill, betraying the degree of her anger. "He's just a kid."

"
I am
not
a kid." The kid's brows lowered in a genuine frown.

Peggy grabbed his arm.
"I'm sorry, Tyler. Truly, I don't mean it in a bad way." She lay the back of her fingers against the boy's cheek. "Pure and-and innocent is what I mean and not someone who would spy and betray us."

Toren stood openly smirking at her desperate display of affection.
"If you're getting tied in knots over that term, human, you're definitely not mature enough to go in the field, you'll get yourself killed and compromise the operation just to prove yourself. That's not happening. Get over it."

"
Do you have to be so mean about it?" Peggy glared at him.

"
He's right." Tyler put his free hand over Peggy's where it rested on his arm. "I'm sure there's something I can find to do here. Francis will train me for whatever job there is for me. That's fine by me." He turned to Toren and the other Archangels. "But I can tell you, I didn't do
anything
to those creatures. Nothing. Didn't say a word to any of them. Didn't look at them wrong. Whatever's wrong with them isn't coming from me."

"
Not that you
know
of," Dorn said. "The doc has agreed to stay around to see if he can learn something. In fact, that's something you can do while they carry out this mission. You can continue to work with him on figuring out what it is about you that triggers them."

Peggy threw up her hands.
"So don't let him on to the dangerous field, but put him with the monkeys that tried to tear him to pieces. Real intelligent."

Monkeys? Toren couldn
't believe his ears. He stared at her, floored she'd just referred to what had been her
children
until just a second ago, as
monkeys
.

Dorn turned to him, puzzlement on his brow.
"When is the last time Peggy went in the Purifier?"

Well thank God he wasn
't the only one that noticed her left field behavior. He looked at Peggy. "I think you've been only once?"

A guilty look crossed her face.

"You
haven't
been? Once?" Toren reached her in two strides, yanked her up, and headed to the chamber, with her making excuses as they went.

"
I
was
going to, but you know I don't like boxy spaces, and I know how to detoxify, you taught me that."

"
That's different, Peggy, this is Earth, the rules and laws aren't the same. You're definitely in need of it. You are
full
of symptoms. God, you are like a walking contagion, I have to wonder if you're not the one that brought these problems."

"
What? What do you mean, I haven't left from here."

He stopped and jerked her to face him.
"You haven't left from
there.
When you come inside this sanctuary, you carry
that
into here." He pointed toward no particular exit. "And that's why we have the damn purifier in place, Peggy, to ensure we remain free from demonic influence."

"
I'm not
influenced.
"

He continued hauling her down the hall.
"Bullshit! You are soaked in influence."

"
Because I have an eye for
fashion?!
"

"
And a sudden enamor with that human?"

She screwed up her face.
"E-what with that human?"

"
The lovey dovey, touching and petting him and calling your own children
monkeys.
" He stopped and pointed in her face. "That was the teller."

"
Oh please." She jerked out of his hold and crossed her arms.

"
Look at you. Just like another stubborn human girl, aren't you?"