Daysider

they’d walked right into the open. Damon managed to keep himself between Alexia and the nearest threat, but he must have known neither of them could do anything but bluff their way into making someone— any one—listen to reason.

“My name is Agent Fox,” Alexia said in a carrying voice, showing her hands. “This is Damon of the Darketans. We were both sent into the Zone to investigate this colony, and we speak for its members, human and Opiri alike. We speak for Theron, who lives his belief in the equality of all the people who share this Earth.

“We speak for peace.”

Chapter 21

Damon listened for the first sound of a finger pressing a trigger, ready to throw himself on Alexia and take every bullet that came until there was nothing left of him to shelter her.

But no one fired. He saw Theron’s face turn toward him and Alexia, his mouth opening as if to warn them away. Two of the Council troops broke from the others and edged in their direction, keeping close to the wall.

“Stop where you are!” a human voice shouted across the field.

The Opiri swung their rifles to face the new threat. In the brief silence that followed, all of Damon’s senses began firing up at once, and he knew the chance of stopping this idiocy from spreading to engulf the entire West Coast was almost gone.

“More troops,” he whispered to Alexia. “Coming west over the mountains.”

Not just a handful this time, but hundreds, headed for the valley like army ants that would devour everything in their path. From the opposite direction came the thrum of helicopter engines. Enclave choppers.

Damon didn’t have to ask Alexia what she wanted to do. As the Opir and Enclave soldiers became aware of the approaching forces, she ran straight for Theron, so recklessly that no one on either side was prepared to fire. Damon reached the Bloodmaster a second after she did, and together they dragged Theron to the ground.

Sprays of bullets turned the wall behind them into confetti. The Opir troops lunged toward them.

Then there was a cry of horrified surprise, and another, and all shooting from the valley ceased. Damon, his arms spread wide to cover Alexia and Theron, barely had a chance to look up when a half dozen tall, pale figures appeared behind the Opiri and knocked them and their weapons to the ground.

The smell caught Damon just before he recognized what he was seeing. Lamiae, standing over the dazed Council soldiers, their attenuated bodies like ghosts stretched thin by the wind. One of them approached Damon and Alexia, bending low, its red eyes glowing with intelligence and purpose. Alexia raised her head to meet its gaze.

“Michael,” she murmured. She pressed her palm to her temple. “He’s talking to me,” she said in wonder. “He says...he has all the troops on both sides under guard by...by Orloks, a whole army of them. My God.”

Damon stared at Michael, barely able to wrap his thoughts around what was happening. Theron stirred, and Damon let him up.

“Lamiae,” Theron breathed, the same wonder in his voice.

“They’ve stopped the fighting,” Alexia said. “Michael says...we have to tell the troops to keep quiet, or they’ll be killed.”

She got to her feet, Damon helping her, and faced the valley. “Your voice carries better than mine, Damon,” she said. “Tell them not to struggle.” She touched her temple again.

“Michael says—” She didn’t finish, because the chopper was nearly overhead. A spotlight fell on the settlement walls and flowed down to catch Alexia, Theron and Damon in its bright circle.

“Agent Fox,” an amplified voice boomed down from the chopper. “Are you all right?”

“McAllister!” Alexia called. She raised her hand and swept it back and forth, then held her hand palm out to the chopper. The craft rose abruptly and hovered about fifteen meters overhead, its light still focused on Alexia.

That was when the new contingent of Council troops appeared, announcing their arrival with a volley of heavy fire at the chopper. It stopped before the bullets could do any real damage, and Damon heard grunts of surprise and pain.

“How many Lamiae are there?” he asked Alexia.

“I don’t know.” She turned to face him. “You’d better make the announcement.

There’s going to be a truce as of right now, or no one’s going to like what will happen.”

* * *

It was almost too easy. One moment the tension and hatred was as thick as congealing blood, and the next contingents from both sides were approaching each other, weaponless and ready to communicate. The strike force commander was one of the humans; he eyed Alexia with enough hostility that Damon had to remind himself that he was part of the cease-fire, too. He remained close to her as Theron and the Opir commander, who had come forward with three of his men, spoke with the humans, including the man Alexia had called McAllister.

“Damon,” Alexia said. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

The soft, sad tone of her voice cut through the drone of the negotiations like fangs through tender flesh. Damon took Alexia’s arm and led her away from the others, turning the corner to the north side of the wall where the voices faded to a murmur.

“Alexia—” he began.

“Damon—” She chuckled low in her throat, met his gaze and sobered again. “You had something to say?”

Something to say. Where could he even begin? He saw this woman before him, this remarkable, brave, intelligent woman, and found his tongue hopelessly inadequate to the task.

“You did this,” he said at last. “It’s because of you that Theron is still alive and these people are talking to each other.”

“M-me?” she stammered, giving a quick shake of her head. “This is all because of Michael, because somehow he managed to get all these Orloks together and convinced them to intervene.”

Damon had too many things on his mind to argue with her. “How is that possible?” he asked. “Lamiae are beasts, killers, incapable of reason.”

“Are they, Damon?” She took his hand in hers and studied it as if she had never seen it before. “Michael isn’t only capable of reason, he’s capable of regret. Deep regret for what he did to try and start a war.”

If he hadn’t sensed a wrongness in Alexia’s partner from the beginning, Damon might have been surprised. “Why?” he asked.

“He was so filled with hatred. Hatred for both sides, Nightsider and human.” She dropped her gaze. “I never saw that side of him, Damon. I had no idea, until I read the message he left for me on the communicator. I didn’t even know it was there until you and the others went to the caves.”

“What did the message say?”

“It was because of his former partner, Jill. They loved each other, the way—” She broke off and continued in a near whisper. “About a year ago, they were sent into the Zone to meet a Daysider agent. Michael didn’t go into details, but he said it was some kind of secret mission to determine if operatives from both sides could work together.

They thought it might be some way to work toward peace on an individual level.”

“They?” Damon asked. “The Council and Aegis?”

She nodded. “Michael, his partner and the Daysider did meet, and things seemed to be going well when Michael was called back to the Enclave. Jill remained behind. When he was finally able to return to the Zone, he found Jill dead, killed by the Darketan.”

Damon felt a rising sense of dread. “I don’t understand,” he said.

“When Michael went to hunt down the Daysider, he met what he thought at the time was a Council agent, a Nightsider, who told him where he could find the Darketan.

Michael killed the Daysider, and then the Opir agent helped him get out of the area before someone from Erebus found the body. Before they parted, the supposed Council agent told him that both Jill and the Daysider had