Nemesis: Book Six (19 page)

Michael's thoughts froze. He remembered it, the whole time when he made it back to Wren and Bryan's parents. He remembered seeing the auras when no one else could, and he remembered that one searching him out, entering his lungs.

"I woke up in this gray world." He didn't know if he was speaking to the alien or to himself. He saw it though, the place where those shades stared, hoping somehow that they could have him—have anyone.

"The Ether," she said. "All of those auras, parts of them were Morena, and Briten felt it. He called you, maybe consciously, maybe not. And now, you're him and you're us. And you're you." Michael could hear the smile in her voice as she continued talking. "You're their child, somehow, impossibly. You're the offspring of three species now, Michael. Do you understand that?"

He shook his head, staring at the hallway wall. "No. I'm the same. I don't feel any different; I don't feel like either of them—Morena or Briten."

As if she didn't hear him, she kept speaking. "I can't let you come forward, though, if you can't forgive. I can't risk what is happening now, happening again. I won't set a cancer loose on the universe."

Michael listened to her speak, but couldn't get past what she was telling him. Not only the forgiveness, but him being some hybrid creation—an alien. He moved through the other world, moved through Briten, and now lived inside Bryan. Yet he didn't feel like any of them. He felt like himself, alone as he had felt his whole life.

"We don't have much time," she said. "I thought that I could force it, but I can't. They're here."

"Who?"

"Those coming to kill me," she said. "Morena's children. I think you would call them my grandchildren."

* * *

"
F
alse Var
," he said.

The Bynum stopped at the bottom of the steps, his army behind him.

Helos looked down at him; he didn't lower his head as his mother had. He looked her straight in the eye.

"Why have you come?" he said.

Helos looked up, staring past him and at those behind him.

"Why have you come, child?" she said. "Why have all of you come?"

"You're not Var and I don't answer to you. I don't know what you are, or how you're here, but you will bow to Morena and then relinquish whatever desire brought you."

Helos heard him speak but didn't care. The Makers sent her and looking out at this crowd, she understood why.

"Michael," she said loudly, calling into the house. "Come here."

* * *

"
C
ome here
, Michael."

He heard the words, commanding him just as they had in that dead house's back bedroom.

She's talking to you
, Bryan said.

Michael ignored him, though he felt the anxiousness in Bryan's words. He didn't have time to explain anything right now. He knew what she meant though, the alien. He felt it, the ability to come forward. It hadn't been there before, or if it had, he didn't notice. Now, though … he felt like Briten must have. Because he could push Bryan aside and take over the functioning of his body.

I have to do this,
he said, knowing that what came next for Bryan wouldn't be optimal, to put it mildly.
I'm sorry
.

Bryan said nothing, but he had to feel it coming because he stepped aside, and when he did, Michael moved forward. Gone was his house or the desert; Michael moved beyond both—past them, really—and found himself staring out two eyes, now his.

I'm sorry
, he said again.

The body came into his control, and for the first time in days, Michael could move.

He didn't have time to marvel at it, though, because she was summoning him, this alien that he couldn't deny. He moved across the living room, not looking at the eyes following him or even the alien he passed on his left, barely focusing on the green aura floating around him. He simply walked through it and out onto the porch.

He didn't stand next to her, but behind, looking out at the force on the lawn. This was what came to kill her? All of these creatures? Hundreds, if not thousands, faced her, and whatever plan Will had to stop Morena—it seemed so silly now. Two guns and a man tied up with duct tape and rope. Against these colors that floated like solid smoke, all of them having traveled here as if they wore jetpacks.

"This is what you can't become," she said. "This is why you have to die, too, if you can't forgive. This power can't be unleashed, Michael. They can't forgive; they can't move past whatever it is they hate, and they're here to kill me because of it."

"Don't speak to the human, False Var. Speak to me. I'm the one to contend with."

"Go inside, Michael," she said.

Again, her voice moved him as if she controlled Bryan's legs, not him. He backed away, understanding instinctively that danger came next, danger for her and anyone around her. He passed the green aura again, but didn't stop backing away, because death was almost here.

* * *

R
igley felt the doorknob twisting
, but not from her own hand. She thought she knew how Marks had trapped her in here; he tied the outside of her door to the outside of the door across the hallway, making it so neither could open.

Someone was opening it now, though, and God, Rigley hoped it was Morena.

She recognized she was growing pretty confused in this room, doing her damnedest to get out. She thought she heard Morena’s voice in the house and she wanted to focus on it, but more and more, she was having a tough time
staying
in this house. Rigley didn’t know what that meant, exactly, only that the room around her kept turning black, and when it did, she found herself staring at some huge, red moon.

The moon bled, for some reason.

Rigley wasn’t scared of it because it had to be a dream, and as soon as Morena got her out of this room, Rigley would be able to focus again.

The door opened and Will stood in front of her. She saw him, not the blood red moon, which was good, though him standing there wasn’t what she wanted.

Morena.

She wanted Morena.

“Where is she?”

Will gave a slight bend of his head, indicating Morena was down the hallway.

Rigley needed nothing else. She took off, her feet moving with the same glee her mind felt, no longer worried about a single thing.

Her peace had finally arrived.

* * *

J
unior watched
as the false Var’s human backed away. He saw something different about this one, though he couldn't understand exactly what. It didn't matter anyway, because this false Var had arrived, and Junior clearly understood her purpose now.

She came to stop them. She would halt their progress, disobeying the true Var. She would end their species, end her
own
species.

Junior raised his arms to either side and the Bynums behind him moved, the ones in the back pushing forward, forming a large and tightly packed semicircle around the porch, layered ten deep at least. The space between each Bynum disappeared, replaced with tightly focused auras. All of them looked at the white creature.

Junior’s eyes flashed behind the false Var, seeing movement in the foyer. He didn’t wait to act, but simply whipped his aura forward. His eyes hadn’t been able to tell him who ran, but his aura did as soon as he grabbed hold. The woman who left humanity.

Her mind was pure chaos, not a sane thought moving through it. Even as he held her for a brief second, Junior felt every muscle in her body trying to rip free.

He pressed down, all at once, and his strength collapsed her organs, bones sticking through flesh. He dropped the body to the floor, his aura slowly snaking back to him.

"False Var," Junior said. "Leave now and this needn't happen."

* * *

"
M
orena
, do you see this?" Helos said.

She turned around to look at her daughter, standing in the doorway.

"This is what you've created. A force ready to kill anything that stands in its way. Even that,” she pointed toward the dead body, still warm to the touch. “What was that? He kills something that approaches you? Bynimian wouldn't recognize this. They're all strangers and you their leader."

Helos stepped forward, her own aura spreading out rapidly, moving across the porch and down into the yard, crossing the distance between her and those ready to attack. She didn't touch them, stopping a foot away from their newly created line.

"I'll do what you won't, Morena."