Ascension Saga (Interstellar Brides): Book 6

As we paused, gauging each other, I noticed the room was deadly quiet. The floor didn’t vibrate and the electric crackle in the air was gone. I didn’t turn to look, but realized everyone was watching the two of us.

“Everyone else is dead,” Leo called. “Give up and put your hands on top of your head.”

Knowing I had backup, I glanced at the floor. It was true, it was littered with the bodies of the other attackers, all dead. Their bodies were black, motionless lumps on the floor around the transport pad. The queen’s guards were circling, squatting down and taking away pistols, ensuring no one could harm us. Thor stood at my side practically bouncing on his toes, waiting for a chance to move into my fight.

Leo had Trinity tucked against his chest, surveying the damage, ion pistol in his free hand.

Nix had his blaster out, pointed right at my opponent.

When the officer saw that, he grinned again, like a fucking Cheshire cat, and raised his hand to the side of his uniform collar where there was a small, metallic button I hadn’t noticed before.

“It’s a transport beacon! Get him!” Leo shouted.

I didn’t know what that was, but I knew it meant escape. “No!” I leaped for him. Nix fired. His blaster fire hit the wall behind where the male’s head had been a moment earlier, missing me by inches as I flew through thin air.

It was too late. Instead of tackling a big Aleran who’d been shot, I had launched myself through the air at nothing. He had literally disappeared before my eyes. There one second, then he was gone.

I spun about. No sizzle, no vibrations. Just there and then poof. Vanished. It was like something out of the Harry Potter books. Crazy.

“Too late, Nix. Damn it.” My sister’s voice cut through the silence like a splash of ice water.

Thor pulled me to his chest and smothered me, feeling me everywhere. His hands roamed over my back, my front—which in other times would have been very hot, but now a little awkward—and then cupped my face. “Are you all right? Never do that again, Faith.” I looked up at him, his eyes wild. Fierce. “Never. I can’t lose you.”

I wrapped my arms around him and clung. Now that the adrenaline—and superpowered Kung Fu mania—was wearing off, I felt shaky. And furious. What had just happened? Lord Wyse was about to tell us everything and now he was another body on the floor.

“Did they kill him?” I asked.

“Yes, love. He’s dead.” Thor kept my cheek firmly to his chest, the beat of his heart calming me, despite the fact that it was racing. “They’re all dead.”

“Order a hold on all transports to this center. Now!” Nix shouted and one of his men left the room to do his bidding.

“God damn it. Now what?” Trinity pushed Leo away and he let her escape his embrace but kept a hold on her hand, connecting them. It was as if he were afraid one of the dead guys would jump up and get her. “He was supposed to tell us where they’re keeping Mom.”

She ran a hand through her hair. I don’t think I’d ever seen her so mad. She’d made a deal with the devil himself and it hadn’t worked out.

Leo looked over the dead bodies, but it was his father and Nix who pulled off the dead men’s black masks one by one.

“Do you recognize any of them, Father?” Leo asked.

“No.” The older man frowned as he tugged at their clothing. Across the room, Nix did the same.

Nix shoved at one dead man with his boot. “They’re not wearing any identifiable uniform.”

“No, they’re not. But they are marked.” Captain Turaya, Leo’s father, shoved the sleeve up on a dead man and exposed his wrist. He held the arm up for all of us to see. There, just high enough so the cuff on a shirt would cover it, was a symbol. A dark tattoo.

“What’s that?” Trinity asked.

“The mark of the clerics.” Leo obviously recognized it because his voice was grim. “Look at the others.”

Nix and another soldier checked the other two dead men and found the same identifying mark. “Yes. They all have it,” Nix confirmed.

Shit. I wasn’t familiar with the clerics, just knew that they were an order that was supposed to be dedicated to protecting the royal bloodline, protecting order and the law. They were not religious at all. All I could think of were the Volturi in the Twilight books ruling over all the other vampires. But these dead guys hadn’t been protecting us, they’d been trying to kill us. What the hell?

“All of them? They’re all clerics?” I asked. I clung to Thor’s arm where he’d wrapped it around my waist. My fingertips dug in, hard.

“Faith? What is it?” Thor asked. “They’re all dead.”

“Yes, but they obviously knew about the deal Trinity made with Lord Wyse. They knew he was going to talk,” I said.