Andrei

 

Agony cracked along the back of my skull as I opened my eyes and I winced, air hissing between my teeth. A throbbing ache was buried deep in the side of my neck, causing pins and needles all down my arm. I tried to move and a cry of pain escaped me.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to understand what was happening.

I almost succumbed to the darkness again, but I forced myself to wake. To open my eyes.

Dull gray metal met my gaze. Gritty with dust and scratched over.

Where am I? What is this place?

A shudder went through me as I sat up, my vision going black as my stomach roiled. For a moment, all I could do was breathe as I tried not to throw up.

“Where the hell am I?” I asked out loud, my voice a hoarse whisper. “Hello?”

Adrenaline shot through me and I forced myself to get on my feet. I was in a metal room, with no windows and a door set with thick bars.

A cage… No, a prison.

Stomach aching with hunger, I sank down and stared around. It was hard to think, but I had a horrible, pressing sense of urgency. Something was wrong, there’d been a terrible mistake…

“Nice to see you awake, cousin,” came a leering voice. “And in your proper place.”

I turned sharply and winced at the pain. Ivan was lounging behind the bars, grinning at me.

In a rush, the misplaced memories of where I’d been before I wound up in this hellhole came back to me. I’d sent a message to Drax that I wanted to talk to him, but he hadn’t met me at the front gates like I’d asked. Instead, he showed up at Kesari’s lab a while later, urging me to come with him and talk. Finni, thankfully, had to come to HQ, too and was waiting for a ride back, so he stayed with Roy and Kesari. Drax and I had gone to talk in his office.

Passing Mirois's door had been like a slap in the face. Biting down bitterness, I'd been shocked when Drax pulled me into his office and gave me a flat look.

“Why am I hearing odd things about Faye Knight’s death?”

Her name had come as a surprise and it had taken every ounce of self-restraint not to show emotion. Staring into Drax’s lined face, I shook my head.

“Boy, you better have words with your cousin Ivan, then,” Drax spat.

“Ivan is one of them,” I said heavily and Drax froze.

“Dear God,” he muttered. “He was saying some malicious shit about Knight – thought it was maybe an old rivalry, but now…”

I swallowed hard. “What kinds of things?”

Drax made a face. “Things I’m not repeating.” Something flickered in his eyes. “I knew her parents well, you know. Her dad was a friend of mine.”

I hadn’t known this and I showed some surprise.

“Yeah, well, Faye’s not the type to ask for favors. I tried to keep an eye on her and do my best by the kid, but…” His face had fallen then. “Look how that turned out.”

Swallowing, I’d considered telling Drax everything, but I’d hesitated and decided against it. I’d thought it better to have him meet her in person, see, rather than believe.

“Drax, later in the week–” I’d started to say.

But a knock had come at that moment and Drax shooed me off. Frustrated, wondering what Ivan was up to and why he was talking about Faye, I’d gone to the security room and casually asked if he was around. Pointed in the direction of the sublevel near the prisons, I’d snuck down there.

Ivan had been nowhere in sight and at that point, I’d turned to go back.

Rasoir had appeared out of the shadows, grinning. I’d taken one step when I realized I was surrounded. Six Electi, twenty TLO members and ten traitorous Shifters of Anubis.

How I had no idea. It was like they'd materialized out of the walls.

And then the lights went out.

The Electi had charged at me as one. But I’d shifted and managed to hold my own. Even when a tranquilizer dart landed in my neck, I’d roared, shifted and yanked it out.

White Tiger shifters did not go down so easily. Another had thudded in seconds later and I threw it at Rasoir. It hit him in the leg and he went down.

Using the Electi as shields, I managed to avoid the darts from the shifters and TLO members around the room as I shifted back and forth. We were making so much noise, I couldn’t understand why no one was coming to my aid…

Then one of them yanked off their mask and yelled in a cold, triumphant voice, “I have to tell you something, Andrei.” It was Ivan. “Faye Knight was innocent. You killed an innocent shifter! Ha!”

Her name had thrown me. Distracted, staring at him, I was slammed backward into the wall by the largest Electi, the heaving mass of shadow. My head had cracked against the stone and stars danced in front of my eyes. Sliding to the floor in a heap, I tried to stand and was slammed back down by another. It pinned me in place and I shifted back without meaning to.

Ivan strode forward, pointing his gun at my head. Pain flared in my neck three times and darkness rushed up.

Faye, I thought as I stared at Ivan on the other side of the bars. How did he know…?

“Do you remember how we won?" Ivan asked, grinning like a death's head now. “I knew it would distract you. Perfect Andrei, the chivalrous and righteous Zima soldier.”

“Faye Knight is innocent?” I asked quietly, my heart in my throat.

“Yes,” he said and my stomach dropped. “You killed an innocent woman, Andrei.”

I gaped at him, the pounding in my head making this hard to process. Then, out of relief, I dropped down onto the bed as I realized this meant no one knew Faye was still alive.

She’s still safe, I thought, swaying on the mattress and holding my head.

Ivan took this in a different way. “Never once thought to challenge the authority of the Order, did you, Andrei? Everyone thought that made you such a hero, but it made you a fool. An easy one to play at that.” He let out a rich chuckle. “Imagine what people will say when they find out.”

I kept my head down, gripping the back of my neck so Ivan wouldn’t see my face. Not that I believed for a second he could discern the truth in my eyes, but I was taking no chances with Faye’s life. Something was odd, though. Why was Ivan down here proclaiming her innocence to me?

“She said I could be the one to tell you when you woke,” Ivan said with relish.

“Did she now?” I sneered, angry enough to look up without fear. “Promise you the perfect way to bring shame on our family name? Don’t worry Ivan, you were already an embarrassment.”

His face contorted and he snarled, “At least I can think for myself.”

“Can you?” I asked in a tone of surprise. “I was under the impression you had no brains at all.”

“I’m not the one who will be rotting in a cage for the rest of his life,” Ivan sneered. “I’m not the one who was so concerned with being perfect that I brought about the downfall of the Order!”

Leaning back, I folded my arms and grinned at him. “We’ll see about that.”

Ivan went white with rage, but before he could utter another word, a laugh echoed through the cell and I sat up straighter. Lilian Frost slid into view and my stomach dropped.

How the hell is she here? I wondered. I’d already figured out we had to be on one of the bottom sublevels, the old prisons the Order no longer used.

“So, here is the great Andrei Zima,” she cooed, shaking back her pale hair. Unlike Faye’s, which had warmth and gold, hers seemed sapped of color. It made her wide blue eyes stand out all the more and she gave me her familiar, cruel smile. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy to get you, but well worth it. We almost thought you weren’t going to show up until after the main event, but it goes to show you…”

Frost was in the bowels of HQ. Near the actual prisons, no less, which should have been the most heavily guarded. My mind was racing forward, panicking and I gripped the edges of the bed.

“Anyway, I wanted to thank you for killing Faye Knight,” Frost said, examining her nails. “It would have been a nasty problem for me and Mirois, you see, if she was alive.” I was breathing harder now. “And it makes things so much easier for tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow?” I croaked, fearing the worse.

“Tomorrow, the world shall find out that the Order of Anubis is not so perfect as they would like to think themselves. I mean, when you have an agent who doesn’t blink at murdering one of the best and sweetest agents there is, merely because his boss asked him to…”

I stared at Frost as it hit me then.

Faye was never meant to be the instrument to destroy the Shifters of Anubis. No, too many people loved, respected, and knew her…

My heart was beating hard in my chest.

It was me.

No wonder why Mirois had insisted I come back before this Friday.

“What day is it?” I demanded, standing up and glaring at this maniacal, evil woman.

Ivan sneered at me. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“It’s Thursday, Andrei,” Frost said, smiling cruelly. “Tomorrow we enact a burn order and already shifter families flee right into my waiting arms. By Sunday, we will end Anubis. The Reckoning after the Time of Ashes and the start of the Chrysalis…”

The floor tilted sharply and I fell to my knees. I’d been out for almost two days?

And the burn order, no… Had Talori and Keon failed?

“You will be collared and presented as a trophy of the fallen Order,” Frost said and I looked up at her. “It’s only fitting. No one will dare fight me if they know the Electi can take down the likes of you by using the Order’s own weapons against itself... Perfect soldier and an innocent lost…”

“Try twenty of your men, ten traitors, and six Electi,” I spat, desperate to keep Faye’s name out of her foul mouth. “You got lucky, I almost won. And you will never end the Order. Shifters will fight back, they will not stand for this–”

“Oh, they will. I imagine most chafe under the worry of secrecy and will not appreciate finding out there was secret police keeping them in line. When shifters are known to the wider world, too, there will be no need for the Order.” Her face lit with a bestial kind of joy and my skin crawled. “Not only that but think of the world if everyone had the strength of beasts…”

“Shifting is an ancient secret for a reason, Frost,” I said with a shake of my head. “It is not about power, but connection. Something neither you nor my cousin could ever hope to grasp.”

“There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out and through,” Frost quoted suddenly. “Do you know what that means, Andrei Zima?”

“That the TLO and the Order can have no covenants, yes, imagine that,” I said wryly.

“No, you fool it is about the shifters and the inanis. So long as there are two kinds, even if one is kept secret, the inanis will be prey for the wolves, lions, and bears.” I sat up straighter, bewildered by this new angle of Frost’s philosophy. “Give them power and that hatred will vanish. Power will equalize and tame the evil in the inanis soul…”

“How benign of you,” I said snidely.

“You all thought you understood my goals, but you did not!” Frost crowed. “The research I've done, it will change the world. It will fix wars, end hunger, poverty, and ecological disasters. When we are connected, we will be whole.” Her face was fervent. “And I shall lead us there, I shall show my mother the truth about men and lions… Then no one will be better than anyone else.”

“What about the hybrids?” I cried. “The instability?”

She shrugged. It was a cold and indifferent gesture. “Oh, yes, nothing is perfect. There will be unstable hybrids, but such is the cost of great victories. Unfortunately, as Darwin realized from in his studies of the finches, natural selection can be quite cruel…”

“You think to best serve the world is to sacrifice innocents to some insane cause because your mother was too foolish to appreciate your worth as an inanis? Do not forget Lilian, you are not a shifter, you walk a line between both!” I snapped. “I know from what Kesari has told me, that instability grows… You have to take medication and supplements to keep yourself intact…”

Face twisting with rage, she spat, “I will have the pleasure of slitting that little doctor’s throat in front of you and that foolish blond cousin of yours.”

“Roy,” Ivan supplied. “And I shall have the pleasure of imprisoning him and reminding him every day how his precious Kesari died...” Both of them laughed.

Anger was rising up in me and I kept silent with difficulty.

Frost let out a cold laugh. “‘Therefore, there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall.’” Her eyes glowed at me and my lip twisted. “Remember that well, Andrei. You did not understand. And so you have fallen.

“You are the first Shifter of Anubis in my prison and you will not be the last.”

Both of them turned, walking away and I got to my feet, running to the bars. Peering out, I saw them turn down a shadowy hall and I looked around.

I’d been right about where in HQ I am, at least, I thought wryly.

This was a deep level of the prison, empty of guards and other cellmates. Closed off years ago, it was unlikely anyone would know I was down here. Never mind Frost and the traitors. They’d found a perfect hiding place and I had a feeling it had been Mirois’s idea.

Hunger was clawing at me and I sank to the floor, my hands wrapped around the bars.

Surely, someone would come and find me eventually. Someone had to know.

Yet even as I sat there, a blank kind of despair filled my chest. I was known for vanishing off on assignments. Tomorrow the burn order would go out and by Sunday, LA’s HQ would have fallen. Parts of it had fallen already. Wasn’t the fact that I was sitting in this cell proof of that?

Frost is winning, I thought.

And as though she’d heard my thoughts, her chilling laugh echoed down the hall.