“San Francisco.” She glanced over her shoulder. “And now it’s time to run.”
With a final glance at Damon’s pale face, Alexia turned and hurried back to Emma and the humans.
“You take the others to the cave as fast as you can,” she told Emma. “I’m sending the Darketans and Sergius with you, but I’m staying behind to hold off anyone who comes after you.”
“You can’t do it alone,” Emma protested.
“I’ll do what I have to.” She waited for the Darketan woman and Damon to join them.
“I don’t care what’s between you and Damon. Take care of him. He’s going to need your strength.”
“It is not what you seem to think, Alexia,” the Darketan woman said. “But I promise I’ll take good care of him. For you. Good luck.”
As she and the others set off at a jogging run, Sergius limping ahead of Emma’s rifle, Alexia quickly replaced the magazine in her rifle and arranged both her and Damon’s weapons within easy reach. She was straining to listen for nearby movement when something vibrated on her hip.
The communicator. She reached for it, her gaze still sweeping the surrounding landscape. The touch screen had come on, flashing red. Alexia pushed the recessed button on the side.
There were new words on the screen, but they were not from Aegis. As she read, she began to understand the full scope of what was happening, and how one man’s hatred might destroy them all.
“Put the weapon down.”
Alexia emerged from her trance and looked up at the soldier in Aegis camouflage gear crouched a dozen meters away. Slowly she put the rifle down and locked her hands behind her head.
The soldier ran to her, keeping low to the ground, and patted her down. He removed the communicator, glanced at the blank screen and attached it to his belt.
“My name is Fox,” Alexia said. “Agent Alexia Fox. I need to speak to your commander immediately.”
The soldier looked at her through his tinted visor. “I think that can be arranged,” he replied.
Damon opened his eyes. A face filled his cloudy vision, familiar even before he smelled her and heard her voice again.
“Damon,” Eirene murmured, resting her hand on his cheek.
He closed his eyes again. This couldn’t be real. Eirene was dead.
“I know it’s a shock to you, Damon,” she said softly. “They must have told you I was dead. I wish I could have gotten word to you, but until this happened I thought my remaining in San Francisco was more important than anything else, even though I knew you would suffer. I’m so sorry.”
Half of what she said made no sense to Damon, and the pain coursing through his body made it difficult to concentrate. “You were...in San Francisco?” he asked hoarsely.
“The Council sent me there. Not to die, Damon, but as part of an agreement with the Enclave government. It was supposed to be a gesture of goodwill. Allow Aegis to study a Darketan for a time, within strict limitations.” She stroked Damon’s damp forehead.
“But the Council had another motive. I was supposed to spy on Aegis at the same time, collect information and escape. But I chose to stay. I’ve learned so much, Damon. About the dhampires, and—” The moment she spoke the word
“You must rest,” Eirene said, pushing him down again. “I promised to take care of you, and I won’t let you leave. You’ll have to walk through me to do it.”
Damon fell back. “Alexia,” he whispered.
“When I left her, she was fine.”
“Does she...know who you are?”
“Not my name. Did you speak of me to her?”
“Yes, but—”
“It was her choice to stay behind, Damon. To make sure all the humans would be safe.
And because she loves you.”
“Let me go, Eirene.”
“I can’t.”
“The Expansionists... Sergius—”
“Disabled, and not likely to cause trouble for a while. Sergius is here in the caves, and so are the humans. I made sure no one would find us.”
Damon struggled to find the right words. “Aegis. The strike force...”
“They are in the area. I discovered what they planned just before they left the Enclave, and escaped in the hope that I could warn you and Alexia in time.”
“Warn...us?”
“I made myself so much a part of Aegis over the years that they became less careful about what they let me hear and observe. I knew about the colony, and that Alexia and Agent Carter were sent to observe it. But I also knew you had been told to meet them, and that both of you would be in the area when the strike force arrived.” She took his hand. “I know what they were sent to do, how Agent Carter lied to them so he could get them to help start a new war.”
Agent Carter. Michael.
“What lies?” Damon asked, fighting against the drowning weight of exhaustion threatening to plunge him back into darkness.
“He sent a message to Aegis claiming that the colony was being used as a laboratory to experiment on humans, alter their minds to make them completely obedient to Opiri. I knew that many in Aegis didn’t believe that could go on without their knowing about it, but there are certain parties in the Enclave government who want war as much as the Expansionists. They pressured the government to send the strike force to attack the colony and free the humans.”
Suddenly, out of the tangle of bizarre events over the past few days, the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together. “The colony...” he said. “Theron wants peace. Equality for humans.”
“Then it’s worse than I thought,” Eirene murmured. “And they’re planning...” She broke off. “There’s nothing we can do now, Damon. You’re too weak. You could die if you try to move too soon.” She squeezed his hand tight. “Alexia is a brave woman. But she always was, even when I gave her my blood.”
“You...gave—”
“I have so much to tell you, but not until you and Alexia are together again. You are both unwittingly involved in an experiment approved by factions in San Francisco and Erebus. The truth has to come out, and I’m going to help make sure it does.”
Now nothing she said made sense. But one thing did, and it was all that mattered now.
Alexia was in danger, and he had to save her.
Levering himself up on his elbows, Damon pushed Eirene aside. She tried to hold him back, but the shadow-thing inside him was taking over again—not mindless, not savage, but driven by a purpose that would not be denied. His wounds were far from completely healed, but he hardly felt the pain, and they couldn’t keep him from his objective, even though part of him knew that Eirene had reason to fear for his condition. He clambered to his feet, strode past the humans whose ghostly faces looked after him in astonishment, and found his way to the entrance of the caves.
“Damon!” Eirene called after him.
He forgot she had spoken the moment he stepped out into the night.
“It’s a lie,” Alexia said, crouching opposite the strike force commander under the cover of a dense stand of madrones. “The colony isn’t conducting any experiments. They want peace, and freedom for humans.”
