Synarchy Book 2: The Ascension (40 page)

Breathing heavily, Vasco jerked his
eyes to the ground and saw the handle of the gun sticking up from
underneath the right front tire. He moved in that direction, just
as a gunshot rang out. Its echoing boom challenged the low rumble
of thunder that preceded it, halting Vasco’s motions completely. He
looked down, but this time at himself and the stain of red that was
soaking up his fatigues. When he snapped his gaze backwards, he saw
Kayla emerge from the shadows, stalking towards him with her gun
pointed.

“
Fuck! Kayla, stand down!”
Caesar growled as he clambered to his feet, holding his head with
one hand and glaring at her. “You stay the hell out of this,
understand?”

Kayla pulled her blank gaze from Vasco
and looked over at Caesar. Nodding once, she lowered her
weapon.

Vasco had collapsed onto his knees, the
strength flowing out of him as steadily as his own blood. Gritting
his teeth, fighting against the pull of death, he stared at Caesar
just as the man came at him and kicked him right in the face. Blood
exploded from his mouth, tangling in the rain as he fell onto his
back against the bottom porch step.

Smiling viciously, Caesar grabbed the
front of Vasco’s vest, hauling him closer. “I fucked her after you
died. Constantly.”

Calm fury stained the lines of Vasco’s
face. “And I bet… it really burns that… that the entire time she
was thinking of me.”

Caesar’s eyes narrowed to slits, and he
slammed his fist with brutal force into Vasco’s face, until his
knuckles were an angry red. When he’d had enough, Caesar closed his
hands around Vasco’s throat and squeezed. “You didn’t beat me last
lifetime, and you won’t beat me this one. How does it feel
Terenzio? Huh?” He squeezed tighter. “How does it fucking
feel?”

The air was almost cut off
immediately when Caesar started choking him. One hand jerked up to
grab at Caesar’s wrists, but just to make that movement, Vasco felt
like he was lifting an anvil instead of his own arm.
No
, he thought.
No
. He would not lose,
not like this.
Not to
him
. Vasco’s opposite hand dug into the
dirt beside him, searching for something, anything. He almost
didn’t believe it when he felt the handle of a knife. The
familiarity of its shape he would have known anywhere. The dagger
had belonged to Cleona. Spots swam before his eyes, darkness
threatening to consume Vasco as he thrust his arm up and slammed
the razor sharp point into Caesar’s throat.

Immediately, the grip loosened. Air
rushed in, leading to his violent cough that sent more pain ripping
through his system. But Vasco kept sucking it in, his grimly
triumphant eyes locking with the shocked fury of Caesar’s. Caesar
jerked a hand up to touch his neck, and Vasco forced himself into
action again, batting Caesars hand away. “Checkmate,” Vasco
whispered into Caesar’s face as he ripped the knife out and shoved
it into Caesar’s jugular.

Lightening split open the sky and Vasco
held onto Caesar until he saw the life drain from Caesar’s eyes. He
ripped out the knife a final time and let Caesar’s empty vessel hit
the ground. Vasco collapsed back onto the stairs, and clutched the
dagger to his chest. His mouth curved subtly as the rain began to
slow, and became nothing more than a drizzle. Vasco tipped his
bruised face up to it.

Kayla walked slowly towards him with
her gun raised again. First, she stared at Caesar. She felt almost
relieved that he was dead. That did not change her orders, though.
She looked back at Vasco, squeezing the trigger—

“
He was your father, Kayla.
Marcello. Your biological one,” Vasco said in a quiet, firm
voice.

Kayla’s motions halted with her finger
curled around the trigger. “No, he wasn’t. My mother was raped
she—”

“
She was raped. But he
didn’t impregnate her. Marcello did. You were theirs, and your
father knew it.”

Suddenly, Kayla’s entire world
shattered. Came together. Shattered. Tears sprang into her eyes.
She swallowed them back and advanced on Vasco, her gun hand steady
despite the emotions ripping through her. “You’re
lying.”

“
No. No.” Vasco slowly shook
his head. “Front pocket. Look.”

Kayla hesitated, only for a moment. She
bent down and did as he asked, removing a piece of paper that bore
the Masonic crest. It was the letter from Deucalion, the man she
had always believed to be her real father, to Doctor Mengele, the
man with the funny smell that had programmed her into becoming a
weapon. Her mouth trembled as she read the words. When she
finished, the letter that Marcello had written her, and his
request, came floating back into her mind. Suddenly, words she had
thought cryptic, now made perfect sense.

Kayla,

Perhaps for a while, I did
it for the wrong reasons. Aside from Demetrius, you were the only
thing left of my Mari. The words that left your mouth, your
mannerisms, were all painfully beautiful reminders of her. I wanted
those, I felt like I needed those because I had lost my anchor and
there was no one there to pull me back from the edge I had to
continually step on to make sure this family was prepared for the
next stages of the game.

My want for that connection
though, allowed me to get to know you, Kayla, in a way that I doubt
would have been possible before. I know how you were made. I know
the woman you came from, and I see her inside of you. I see you,
when your guard is down and you are not playing your game. I am
here to tell you, you are my daughter. I love you, not for the
woman you remind me of, but for the woman you are. I love you, for
unintentionally keeping your father human. I love you for forcing
me to hang onto emotions, no matter how painful, in the hope that I
could express to you, what a father truly felt. This family is
yours, Kayla. You are a pivotal, deciding factor in this equation.
When the moment comes, please, be the Terenzio you are.

You father,

Marcello

“
How did he…” Kayla looked
over at Vasco. “…how did find out I was his?”

“
A hypnosis session, one
night while you were sleeping, gave him some clues as to who your
first trainer was. Joey and Marcello tracked Mengele down right
after your mother died, and it was in Mengele’s house that he found
that letter. Mengele confirmed it was true,” Vasco said watching
her face. “Your father killed him for what he did to
you.”

Kayla sank to her knees, overwhelmed.
Her own family. They had turned her against her own family; the
parents she’d loved, the father she’d wished was her own, that
actually was. She had plotted to destroy everything Marcello had
built, and he’d killed the man who had hurt her. Kayla covered her
face with her hand, still clutching the letter, and released an
agonized sob.

Vasco pressed one hand against his
side, canting his head at her, his breath coming in short, wheezing
hitches. “You can… you can make it right.”

“
No.” Kayla dropped her hand
and looked up at him. “No, Vasco, I can’t. It doesn’t matter. None
of it does. Not that Caesar’s dead, or that you’ve won. The
programming runs too deep, I’d never trust myself.” She pressed her
lips together, a decision made. She slid her eyes to her nephew’s
and gave him a tremulous smile. “Thank you. Thank you for showing
me the truth. For giving me that peace.” She pressed the gun to her
temple, and without hesitating, she pulled the trigger.

“
Kayla don—” Vasco’s words
were too late. Kayla’s body fell on top of Caesar’s, lifeless.
Vasco shook his head sadly. “I tried son, I tried,” he whispered
into the rain. Setting Cleona’s knife down next to him, he forced
his limbs to move again, and reached into his pocket to remove the
headset. Once he pulled it out, it took another minute before he
could work up the energy to simply place it over his ear. “Base,
come in, this is SVT, come in.”

It took mere seconds before he received
a response. “Vasco? Oh, thank God.” Simone’s angrily relieved voice
came through. “What the fuck is wrong with you, going off radio
contact like that?”

Vasco dropped his head back against the
step, a faint smile curving over his mouth. “Sorry, I had… a run in
with Caesar.”

“
How did that
go?”

“
He’s dead.” Vasco paused,
then added, “So is Kayla. She… she killed herself after I told her
about… about Marcello.”

There was silence on the other end.
“Jesus.” Another pause, and when Simone’s voice came through again,
it cracked. “Caleb’s dead. So is Lucien, V. He told me to tell you
that he loved you.”

Sadness twisted across Vasco’s face.
“Til next lifetime, brother,” he whispered. “Did our SVT Security
teams free everyone from the camps?”

“
They did it, V. Kicked ass,
from what was reported.”

“
Good.” Vasco covered the
mouthpiece with his hand, sucked in a wheezing breath, then dropped
it. “Listen, Simone, I know this is a different lifetime, but
history is going to repeat itself.” He could hear his sister
crying.

“
Goddammit it, Vasco, you
can’t do this to me again. I’m not Lil. I can’t do this alone. Not
without you, not without Lucien, not without Caleb.”

“
You’re not alone, Si. You…
you never are. Xavier will be there with you. Alex will always be a
friend. You’ve got people… people to lean on when you need it.”
Vasco was forced to pause, to take another a breath. “I’m tired,
Si. My soul is tried.”

Because of the length of the silence on
the other end, Vasco worried that Simone might have shot the radio
communication in a moment of fury. Finally, her voice came through
again. “I love you, Vasco.”

“
I love you, too. You were
meant to lead this family. Do us proud.” He held the device against
his chest, and then brought it back up quickly. “And
Si?”

“
Yeah, V?”

“
Mate to us.” A classic,
arrogant smirk curled over Vasco’s mouth. He pulled the headset
off, dropping it to the ground. That’s when he saw it; movement on
that old porch. Her. Come to take him home.

At the stroke of midnight, when the Sun
and planet Earth aligned with the center of the galaxy, the last
emotion that consumed Vasco Terenzio was love.

December 21st,
2012

12:12 AM

What goes here, is up to
you.

Begin Transmission…

Can you hear me? Oh, Jesus, they’re
coming. Listen, they’re fucking with time. If you’re hearing this
it means I failed, but so long as the technology exists, we can go
back and fix it. You can go back and fix it. Don’t let them erase
everything my family fought to uphold. You make sure the Ascension
happens. Please. Oh, God here they come. I’ve got to
hide—

About the Author

DCS lives in New Orleans, Louisiana,
and has joint custody of a Siberian Husky named Angelus. A radio
show host as well as an author, you can hear DCS every Saturday
night at 8 pm Central Standard Time on BlogTalkRadio’s Paranormal
101. DCS is currently studying to get her PhD in Metaphysical
Spirituality at the American Institute of Holistic Theology. She is
also working on the next two novels in the Synarchy series: Book 3:
SVT which she intends to be a graphic novel, and Book 4: The Black
Widow.

To role play with the characters from
the first two novels visit the following website:

www.commandcenter.synarchy2012.com
.
To learn more about the author, visit her blog page at:
www.themindofdcs.com and the www.theworldofdcs.com coming
soon.