The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) (62 page)

The basement of the building was dark with soft orange glows throughout. It obviously stretched out much farther than simply the base of the building. This had to be the basement of the entire block. It was heavily fortified and Allison had told us there were several emergency escape exits. The Resistance had been working on this place for years, way before Allison had been named leader. 

Christopher sat next to me in a chair as the others had lunch. He placed a hand on my shoulder and I started feel as though there was nothing wrong at all. But I still didn’t feel one hundred percent. To percentdo that, he would have to use every ounce of his ability, and I could never ask him to do that. 

Feeling much better, I closed my eyes for just a moment and let my thoughts drift to Connor. I hoped he was doing better than I was.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Connor sat at a table with Jeremiah directly across from him. Connor was nervous. He had been nervous ever since he had gotten there. He had questioned himself on several occasions as to why he was doing this, but he felt calmer when he finally knew my presence was hovering over his shoulder as some invisible spectator. Though he knew I was only there to watch, it felt good to him to know he wasn’t completely alone. It was also nice to know that I could sense Connor’s emotions. I had no idea if it was the same case with everyone I looked over because I hadn’t really tried yet. But ever since early this morning, for some reason, I could know what Connor was feeling.

“I hope we can get past this morning,” Jeremiah said. “You understand why I had to do that, right?”

Connor nodded. He hated what Jeremiah had done. Heinrich had lost his life because of it. “I understand,” Connor said quietly. 

“So,” Jeremiah said. “You’ve got information. I want to hear it.”

“What do you want to know?” Connor asked. 

“Mora. What can she do? I know she can move things with her mind, but there has to be something else.”

“There is,” Connor says. “She can usually sense when something bad is about to happen. The other day, we were walking through the woods and she just knew a herd of greyskins was coming, so we climbed a tree. It was a big herd, too. If it weren’t for that ability, we would have both died, I’m sure.”

“Anything else?” Jeremiah asked. 

“Not that I’m aware,” he lied. 

When Jeremiah asked Connor about the others, a thought hit me so hard I almost lost my breath. I had told Connor when he left not to say anything about Christopher. At the time, I had no idea there was a hunter among us who had secretly been relaying information to Jeremiah. Commander Green’s mission had been to find the healer and bring him back to Screven. He failed his mission when I killed him. But Jeremiah still knows about Christopher. 

Now, Jeremiah was going to ask about Christopher, and Connor was going to feign ignorance. This would get him in trouble. 

My eyes shot open to see if there was anyone near me in the room. There were way too many people. I got to my feet and asked someone where the nearest bathroom was and he directed me. I almost ran, not caring about what he might have thought. 

I slammed the door shut and locked it. I sat against the wall and shut my eyes to be in the room with Connor and Jeremiah again. 

“And Heather can move faster than sound, I think,” Connor continued. “Then there’s Evelyn. She can’t do much. She just touches someone and knows everything about them like a palm reader or something.”

“Tell him about the healer,” I said out loud. I could tell there was confusion in his face when I said this. I know he had trouble getting what I was saying, especially since he didn’t want to look suspicious in front of Jeremiah. 

“Tell him about the healer!” I almost yell. If C怅onnor doesn’t mention the healer, Jeremiah would know that he was trying to hide something and would more than likely kill him. 

“Is there anyone else?” Jeremiah asked. He seemed calm behind his sunglasses. His only movement was the clenching of his jaw, no doubt wanting to bite into Connor to feed his lust for human meat. 

Connor hesitated for a moment. I was sure he was trying to figure out what I was telling him. But I also knew he couldn’t hesitate for too long. “Tell him!”

Connor shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. Clenching his jaw and sitting straight, he decided to go for it. “There’s a healer.” He said, though he wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. “His name is Christopher, but that’s all I know about him. Except that he has a sister that can read minds.”

Jeremiah nodded at this slowly, perhaps content with what Connor was telling him. “A healer could be very useful,” he said. “Tell me, Connor, what have you learned from Evelyn? Has she talked about me much?”

“Most everyone talks about you, what do you mean?”

“I mean about my past? What I’ve done over the years?”

Connor shook his head. “I’ve held very few conversations with Evelyn. I’ve never really gotten along with her.”

I spoke out again. “Tell him that I plan to attack Screven in three days.”

Connor turned his head downward, but tried to play it cool with Jeremiah. He didn’t want to give himself away, but he also wanted to understand what I was saying. “We will attack Screven in three days,” I said again.

“As I talked with Mora, however,” Connor said, “I found out they are planning on attacking Screven in three days.”

Jeremiah let out a laugh at this. “That just tells you how pretentious your friends are. Screven is one of the most fortified cities left. I have more than enough guards to take down a few Starborns. I wouldn’t mind meeting this healer, though.”

“I don’t imagine they would bring him along,” Connor said. 

“Why not?” Jeremiah said.

“He can only heal so much,” Connor explained. “Other than that, he has no real fighting ability that I’m aware of.”

Jeremiah seemed to accept this. “Well, I’m sure we’ll find him.” He reached over to a button on the table and spoke into a small intercom. “Send Trace and Anthony in here.”

Connor looked away from Jeremiah, feeling that it would take almost nothing for the Screven leader to realize that he just needed to kill Connor and be done with him. 

“Seems to me that you’ve told me nearly all you can about my enemies,” Jeremiah said. He stared at Connor for a long moment. “I’m finding there isn’t much more use for you.”

“Not true,” Connor said as his right leg began to fidget. “When they attack, I can be your right-hand man. I know how they fight. I know how they strategize. I will be an asset. Plus, it will be a way for me to prove myself to you.”

Jeremiah considered this for a moment. Then the door opened in the room. In came two men. One was scrawny looking and wore a dazed look on his face as if he had snorted one too many chemicals in his life. The other was a giant of a man whose presence could never go ignored. He was at least an entire head taller than Danny and almost twice as thick. 

“These are my two hunters,” Jeremiah said. He pointed to the scrawny one. “This is Trace, and the big one here is Anthony.”

Connor nodded at them nervously. 

“When you were first making your case to me,” Jeremiah said, “you told me you were a good marksman. These two a. These re going to test your word on that. They’re going to take you to the factory and give you a little target practice.”

Connor shuddered to think what Jeremiah might mean by this. He desperately hoped that he wasn’t about to send him out to target civilians or something like that. That seemed like something Jeremiah would make him do.

Connor scooted his chair from the table and stood, realizing he was big compared to Trace, but tiny compared to Anthony. The two of them motioned for Connor to go through the door. Jeremiah smiled at him as they passed and Connor found himself in a long hallway. What if this was a way to get Connor alone with them so they could kill him? He decided that he just had to be on his guard. Depending on their abilities, there might be nothing Connor could do about it if these two Starborns wanted to kill him. 

They silently made their way out of the Center and to a black SUV. Anthony sat in the back while Connor sat in the front passenger seat with Trace driving. All of them were hushed and Connor was getting more nervous by the second. He could hear chatter on the car’s radio talking about a big attack by the Resistance. 

Trace let out a curse. “These Resistance rats need to be dealt with soon,” he said. “I’m sick of it. Jeremiah provides a safe place to stay and all they can do is be selfish.” He looks away from the road and looks Connor up and down. “What do you think?” he asked with squinted eyes. “Why do they want to fight us like this?”

Connor shook his head. “I have no idea.”

Truth was, Connor really didn’t know. When he had left Springhill, he had no idea he would be driving into a war zone. Connor didn’t really know about anything that was going on. He hadn’t been there when the greyskins attacked Springhill. He probably hadn’t even heard of Commander Green yet. He was simply there to help me get to Jeremiah, though if things went badly with the hunters, he would have been there for nothing. 

“Where are we going?” Connor asked. 

Trace looked behind him at Anthony, and then back at the road. “You’ll see. We’ve got a surprise for you.”

Connor didn’t want a surprise. He wanted to be near Jeremiah. He wanted to be able to relay information about what the man’s plans were. Nothing was going right for Connor. He decided that he should at least get them to talk about themselves and give me some insight to the hunters. 

“What can you two do?” he asked. 

Trace looked in the rearview mirror at Anthony, then at Connor. “Why?”

Connor shrugged. “I never even heard of Starborns until about a week ago. I’ve met a few. Just thought it would be interesting to know.”

Trace shook his head. “Not telling you mine.” He looked out the window for a second and turned back to Connor with a silly grin on his face. “It’s a secret.”

Connor just looked away from him and shook his head. “Thought we were on the same team.”

“We’re not on the same team,” Trace said. “Once Jeremiah is done using you, you will die.”

Connor looked at him sharply, but Trace simply shrugged. “That’s why you have to stay useful. We’ve got insurance with our abilities. We can always be useful. You non-Starborn types are the ones that have to worry. You’re all replaceable. Once Jeremiah defeats Evelyn and all your little friends, you better watch out. By then you’ll hope that you’ve got some usefulness left.”

Anthony placed a large hand on Connor’s shoulder and spoke in his ear. “Otherwise you’ll be nothing but an annoyance. A little fly that he simply squashes. Then nobody will even remember you existed.”

Trace ="2em">Tlaughed loudly. “Hey, you remember Casey?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Trace shook his head. “Casey ignored a direct order from Jeremiah. Jeremiah ate him.”

Anthony and Trace both laughed at this. 

“Ate him?” Connor asked. 

“Yeah,” Trace said. “Those of us close to Jeremiah know he’s pretty sick. Greyskin stuff. He’s been searching for a healer for years. Right now you’re just about the only connection we have with one.”

“Staying useful,” Anthony said, again grabbing Connor’s shoulder. 

“How can I get Jeremiah to trust me?” Connor asked. 

“You don’t,” Trace answered. “He doesn’t trust anybody. Not even us. Ain’t that right, Anthony?”

“Yep.”

They drove for another minute or two until they came up on a large, stone partition some distance away from the Center. The wall was tall enough that in order to see over it, one would have to be high up in the Center. When they got to the entrance, a guard checked them out and opened the gate for them to pass through. On the other side was a giant, metal building. There was nothing on the outside to indicate what it was used for. There were a few vehicles parked on the side nearest them, but that was it. 

“What is this place?” Connor asked as they got out of the SUV. Trace moved around to the rear and opened the back, grabbing a long rifle from under the seat. 

“You’ll see,” Anthony answered. 

Trace led them around to the side of the building where there was a door. He punched in some sort of code and the door unlocked. He let Anthony go in first, then went in behind Connor. Trace walked up to the counter and there was a Screven guard standing ready to greet them. 

“Busy day?” Trace asked him. 

“Busiest we’ve seen in a while, Sir.”

“The last of them going out right now?”

“Just as scheduled.”

“Good to hear.” He looked at Connor and Anthony. “Let’s go. Follow me.”

Connor did as he was told and they walked down a long hallway until they reached another door that required a key code entry. Trace hit a few of the numbers and the door unlocked. He looked back at Connor. 

“Don’t breathe too heavily at first,” he said. “The smell is the hardest part to get used to.”

Trace swung open the door and the air hit Connor with a force. The moment he breathed, he gagged at least three times. “It smells awful,” he said, holding his hand up to his face.”

Trace smiled at him. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you open a room full of rot.”

Connor looked at him for some sort of explanation, but the moment he walked through the doorway, he discovered where the smell was coming from: greyskins.  

They moved out onto a walkway that edged across an entire room that was the size of a large field. The three of them stood about twenty feet above a floor, but the floor couldn’t be seen. Like a turned-over anthill, greyskins crawled all over each other, clambering to get to the three that had just opened the door. 

“They’re hungry!” Trace belted out. 

“What is this?” Connor asked. 

“This is where we keep the reserve greyskins,” Trace said as he began walking. He pointed to the wall directly across from them. “You see those bay doors?”

“Yeah.”

“Any second now, they’re going to open up to the back of our trucks.” Trace looked over at oked oveConnor with a twisted smile on his face. “It gets crazy.”