Probably half of Third’s body ached, but she didn’t care. It was the familiar ache from deserved manhandling, not from killing zombies or from longing for a hug.
TamLin had touched her. As she trotted along behind him, she felt like beaming or skipping or something. He had touched her, and she didn’t even care that he’d left bruises behind.
She was aware that there was something very wrong about that.
“Your mods the same as Janni’s?” he tossed at her over his shoulder.
As far as Third knew, yes, but Janni didn’t have the “Governor chip.”
He let out a quiet curse. “Boundaries?”
“Everything but merging, pretty much.” She could Jump through the chip’s limitations, but not easily. She wasn’t a navigator, either, so her precision wasn’t the best even when her Jumping wasn’t being blocked.
Second was a fantastic navigator.
She sighed and tried not to think about the fact that she would soon be watching Second die. Again.
“How did you survive, back home?”
Third shrugged, but he couldn’t see it. “Training.”
He nodded once, an acknowledgement that he’d heard. “Reflexes, hand-to-hand, senses, and targeting are overdeveloped, then. Special skills minimal; social skills moderate.”
The murmur wasn’t intended to be heard, but her ‘overdeveloped’ senses caught it. He was processing what he’d told her and its implications—and arranging it to help him remember it later.
Did that mean he intended for there to be a later?
Third frowned and smacked her own bruised cheek—just as TamLin turned to face her.
He rocked back a step. “What?”
She shook her head.
“Third.”
She didn’t want to tell him, but…his reaction could help her quash her misplaced affection. “I like you too much.”
Bewilderment flashed through his expression before he schooled it. He paused, processing her words. “I should ask you to clarify,” he commented, resuming their walk, “but I get the feeling I don’t want to know what you mean by that.”
Third let out a sigh as a silent breath. Did he hate Janni that much? Why didn’t they dissolve their bonding, then? Or was he just appalled at the thought of an infatuated Nameless?
Even her universe’s TamLin had never said, but some details made Third suspect that his father had been one of the Nameless in his mother’s keeping. Growing up with his mother being legally required to psychologically and physically abuse his father couldn’t have done him any favors, in the ‘mental health’ department. Might’ve even been why her TamLin…
In any event, this TamLin was currently Janni’s, whether he wanted her or not, and they had to rescue his girl from Third’s Nev before Janni, too, paid for First and Second’s folly.
A folly that would cost the lives of Second and the baby.
Third looked at her left wrist, wondering if she would end up another fatality from the situation. She had the governor chip for good reason, and nothing she’d seen had promised her she would survive removing it, escaping Nev, or crashing from the aftereffects of both.
Well, if she died, she died. Janni would escape—or so Third chose to believe, since Janni wouldn’t be there when Second died—and TamLin could work things out with his bondmate. Third wouldn’t have to deal with the desire or temptation to—
TamLin discreetly ran a hand up his leg and torso. Third followed the movement enough to recognize that he was grabbing another tab. He kept it hidden in his palm and rubbed his nose to hide getting it in his mouth. Anyone who didn’t know his predilection wouldn’t realize what he’d done.
If she did survive this, she’d have to double-check what this TamLin took, to get him some as a thank-you for helping her with Nev, because there was no way she’d be able to tackle her sister by herself.
That left the question of what, exactly, she was going to do about her Named sister. Third still hadn’t come up with a plan for that.
“Not to put too fine a point on this, but does anyone have any idea what we’re up to, other than jumping in and hoping we don’t end up slaughtered?” Raleigh asked mildly, hoping First wasn’t the type to get offended when someone pointed out a hole in his logic.
First snorted. “Nev won’t touch you.”
“That’s nice.” Did he assume she was that shallow because he had been raised to consider himself expendable, or had she given him reason to believe she valued him that little? “But that still leaves you and Third as open targets. And if Nev’s taken Janni, she might go after TamLin, too, even though he isn’t from your universe.”
“That’s our problem.”
Raleigh stared at him sidelong as she strode with him. He truly was that clueless.
She stopped outright, and he kept on walking.
Well, that attempt to catch his attention failed. She huffed and jogged back up. “Jumping in without a plan might’ve suited whatever was wrong back in your hellverse, but if you do it now, it could get everyone killed. Nev’s evidently here by herself, right? What if she’s set traps?”
First gave her an odd look.
“Alert systems, tripwires, darts, lasers—there are all sorts of things she could set up so she doesn’t even have to touch you before—”
“If Nev’s set anything, it’ll be a contact poison,” First said blithely, and Raleigh shivered. “She’s a medic, not a soldier. Makes her decent with assassination, but the only reason she’d likely trump us in a fair fight is none of her mods are throttled. Even not-that-great reflexes don’t matter so much if you’re naturally faster than the better-trained person.”
Raleigh bit her tongue. She didn’t understand enough about the soft mods to properly comprehend what he was saying, but…
She clutched the collar of her shattersilk coat and let herself fall back behind First. She stared at his heels as she followed.
He noticed. She knew he noticed. But didn’t even pause.
Could be misogyny or disinterest in her as a person, but she suspected it had more to do with the detail that she was properly Named. So technically, by the laws that governed him, she was someone for him to protect, not someone for him to fight beside.
Raleigh grimaced. While she appreciated not being used as cannon fodder or treated as a tool, she didn’t care for the ignoring of what she could bring to the coming battle and discussion. “Shouldn’t we catch up to Third and TamLin?”
She was admittedly concerned that TamLin might, perhaps, be taking out his temper on Third now that the girl was without anyone to stop him. Between the drug addiction and the convoluted, horrific laws governing the Nameless…
First snorted. “I’m a First. Nev can’t touch me. She’ll be leery of TamLin. And Third can merge into her surroundings and keep Nev from”—he tapped the side of his head—“hearing her.”
He jerked his chin forward, and Raleigh glimpsed the red glint to Third’s dark hair as the girl slipped down an alley up ahead. The two of them caught up and followed, twisting around trash bins and refuse and furniture and a discarded vehicle until Raleigh nearly stumbled over TamLin and Third. The pair were inconspicuously crouched amid the mess. Their posture and positions fit perfectly with the surroundings, almost minimizing the detail that their clothing was too clean.
Raleigh thought they made a cute couple, but she had enough sense to avoid saying as much. For all she knew, even that appearance could ‘warrant’ Third another beating.
“They’re the next warehouse down,” TamLin said. “Cams put Janni along the south wall.”
They were a little northwest of the building.
“Third’ll merge and sneak around to let Janni out,” TamLin continued. “First, you’re with me. We’ll see if we can distract Nev, get in a good position to take her out. Raleigh, try to stay out of the way. I’d rather not have to explain to Janni how I got you killed. Thanks.”
He was trying to be polite, not insulting, Raleigh reminded herself, but she still wanted to smack him. She hadn’t come along just to stand around and look pretty.
But she held her tongue and let the three of them proceed as directed.
And then, once she was the only one of them standing out in that alley, she pulled up her software and reactivated things she preferred leaving forgotten. The too-familiar metallic taste bit her tongue, and she strode around the building towards the private entrance her scans had noticed.
Nev wasn’t the only fully functional representative of a violent universe at that warehouse.
The silence grated on Third’s ears.
She double-checked that she was merged with her surroundings, so she wouldn’t show up to a psychic scan, and cautiously slid her feet sideways as she moved south, her back to the building’s western wall. Crates and netting and all sorts of junk kept visibility to a minimum, and any sound would be far too loud in the warehouse. She barely dared to breathe.
“Seriously, don’t you have anything better to do than to pick on a Named version of your baby sister?” Janni’s voice asked loudly from across the warehouse.
Third grimaced. Nev was stubborn and self-absorbed, not stupid. A captive who suddenly started chattering was trying to distract her from something. And how would a psy-weak captive suddenly know rescue was coming, unless that rescuer gave her resonance?
“How well would that go over, do you think, if your people back home found out you’d targeted a Named?”
“That would require anyone to find out,” Nev answered coldly, her voice full of warning.
“Naw, if you were plotting to kill me, you would’ve done it, already. You haven’t even tried. You’re worried about what I have that Third doesn’t.”
Third had gotten close enough to overhear Nev’s answer of a huff. She tried, hard, to send Janni a mental Shut up!, but she knew better than to hope it had gotten through. Or that Janni would listen even if she heard it.
The cut-off yelp and scent that followed made Third freeze. She’d rather be torn by zombies than electrocuted. At least with zombies, you could keep fighting even as they chewed on you. Electrocution caused paralysis, and then you had to deal with burns, which were a lot harder to heal with what medical supplies that Nameless were permitted to use—never mind the long-term effects on the skeleton and internal organs.
She forced herself to keep moving, but her discomfort knocked her off-balance, and she bumped into something metal that gave a hollow clang.
Third immediately grabbed a breath and sprang away—too late. Nev grabbed her telekinetically by the throat before she could get out of range. She forced her pulse to steady and slow. Panicking would only make her run out of oxygen sooner.
The grip about her neck yanked her forward. Third lost her footing and barely caught herself before she struck her chin on the cement floor. Grit drove into her palms, and the impact jolted up her arms. Possible fracture in her wrist.
Third managed to grab another breath before Nev realized she’d loosened her psychic grasp, then Nev yanked her up, high enough that Third had to teeter on tiptoe to avoid putting all her weight on her neck.
Nev glared at her, the fully active soft mods glowing through her veins and swirling over her skin. “Third.”
Third’s usual response to that was a flippant ‘Sis,’ because Nev loathed being reminded that she came from stock so bad that all her siblings had ended up Nameless. There had been others, beyond First and Third, but only the three of them had survived to date.
But even if Third had been able to breathe and speak, she wouldn’t have been stupid enough to antagonize Nev now.
“By all that’s holy,” Janni said, sounding more shocked than she probably realized. “I’ve never met a Nev who would treat me like that.”
“You’re Named,” Nev replied icily. “Not a waste of supplies.”
Janni, still crouched in the same cage Third had seen earlier, narrowed her eyes at the back of Nev’s head.
Third had never felt safe or comfortable enough to do that, but she’d lived with Janni for some time, now, and she recognized the signs. “Don’t!” she managed to gasp.
Nev sneered. “’Don’t’?” She lifted her hands, and energy jumped out of the veins and danced around her fingers.
Third adjusted her hormones so the terror wouldn’t take over—carefully, gradually, because Nev could notice that kind of thing, and it was something that either Nev couldn’t do or Third wasn’t supposed to be able to do. Third never had been suicidal enough to figure out which, not after how Nev had reacted upon even suspecting Third could control her body like that.
Janni’s glare moved to that energy Nev was playing with, and a wry smile tugged Janni’s lips. “Pe-rett-tee,” she said, with such a soft r that she was mixing petty with the pretty, even if that wouldn’t have been obvious to most hearers.
Nev turned towards her, nose curled with contempt. “Pretty?”
Janni shrugged as if nonchalant, though she was too tense to truly be feeling comfortable. “My Nev doesn’t play like that. Says it’s a waste of energy.”
Nev’s focus whipped from Third so fast that she nearly fell off her feet. Third caught herself in a crouch before her knees hit the floor, and she focused on breathing quietly, on not reminding Nev that she was there, on not distracting Nev from retaliating against the insult.
Janni bit off a yelp.
Third sprang forward before anxiety could stop her, and she struck Nev about the middle. They fell together, Third on top, and she grabbed her sister’s hair and slammed Nev’s head to the concrete as her own intake of breath cut short.
Pain darted through her fingertips from Nev’s scalp, and Nev grabbed her neck with a hand.
Third smelled cooking meat and felt her heart stop.
Male growling and muffled clanging came to her ears, sounding as if she were wearing earplugs.
Someone grabbed her by the back of her neck and flung her away from Nev. Her mind processed the feel and scent of the calloused hand, and she realized it had been TamLin just as her back and head struck something.
She managed to turn, to land on her stomach, and pain shot up her arms. Definitely fractured.
Third smelled more burning flesh, heard snaps and grunts and thuds, but she couldn’t so much as lift her head. She grimly focused through the pain to get her heart and diaphragm working again. She couldn’t do anyone any good if she passed out.
Her pulse and breathing jumped straight into double-time, and she wrangled with them, seeking to get them back to healthier levels.
A hand that felt as if it buzzed wrapped around her throat. Third was still having to focus too hard on her breathing to be able to move, to be able to get away.
“Take your bitch,” Nev said over her. “Take her and go, or this dies.”
Test her! Third begged silently, though she knew they wouldn’t. If she died here, she couldn’t end up the girl in the cage who was digging out her governor chip.
She heard the retreat of three sets of footsteps—Janni, First, and TamLin. TamLin was limping. Nev stayed put, not moving nor making a sound.
Seconds ticked by. Turned to minutes.
When was she going to be put in the cage?
Nev snorted and pulled her hand from Third’s throat. “Idiots, all of them.”
Because they’d cared enough about her survival that they retreated rather than letting Nev kill her Nameless shield.
“At the very least, TamLin should’ve known better than to… Eh, but he isn’t ours, is he? Where’s ours?”
The scent of burned flesh and hair tickled Third’s nose, familiar yet not, because Nev usually contained this particular ability of hers. Usually had no reason to use it.
Memory fluttered up. Of coming returning early from a mission to find TamLin lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. Of that very smell, mixed with salt and…
Loathing filled Third, as much toward herself as her sister. She’d left him alone with Nev more than once. He must’ve thought she hated him.
Her eyes stung, her shoulders shook, and she gasped with a sob.
Nev picked her up via telekinesis and threw her in the cage that had been so recently vacated by Janni. Her vision flashed black then spun, telling Third that she was perilously close to her limits.
Nev slammed the cage shut, locked it, and turned on the crane it was connected to. The cage swayed as it rose, making Third dizzy.
“It would be polite of me to thank you,” Nev said. “It will be ever so amusing to watch Second try to rescue you.”
Ice gripped Third.
Ice, then the wildfire of fury. Nev had planned this all along—using Third as bait to draw Second to her.
Second was navigator class, and she wasn’t handicapped like most Nameless. She would come for Third.
She would come, assuming Third had been the target all along, and it would be the death of her.
And there was nothing Third could do to stop it.
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