Ghost in the Machine (Corwint Central Agent Files) Read online

  “Velstrae.” I love him. “Velstrae, Ethan.”

  When the unknown word passed her lips, he quickened his movements inside of her. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and clung to him with all her strength as she repeatedly whispered it. He didn’t know what the word meant, but the more she said it, the more tightly he held onto her. The connection between them compounded until neither of their minds could contain it. Pulling her down against him one last time, his body released into her as she cried out with the force of her orgasm. Pressing her to him as she shuddered against his chest, he gave voice to the word echoing in his mind.

  “Velstrae, Orynn.”

  20 Everything

  Velstrae.

  Orynn’s whole body clung tightly to Ethan and refused to let him go as the word hung in the air. She knew he didn’t understand its meaning, but hearing it from him brought a joy to her heart. Even if it was a false joy, it was still hers, and she would hold it with her for the rest of her life. She knew that she would always love him, even after he had long forgotten her existence.

  I do love him. That is why I must protect him. I must protect them all.

  The sudden sadness that built up inside her heart made its way through the connection before she could control it. Ethan leaned back away from her and moved aside the strands of hair that clung to her face. He found her eyes glistening with the tears she was fighting back. One tear broke free of her captivity and slid down her cheek. He wiped it gently from her skin with his thumb and looked at her with concern.

  “I’ve done something wrong?”

  She brushed the back of her fingers along the side of his face and smiled at him. Pulling his cheek against her chest, she shook her head slightly and leaned down to rest her cheek against the top of his head. Her grasp on him tightened as she closed her eyes. When she quelled the sadness, she whispered softly to him. “No, Ethan. You did everything right.”

  With his head pressed against her chest, he could hear the beating of her heart. Despite her efforts to mask it, he could still feel the pained sadness of her emotions. “Then what is it?”

  He heard the beating of her heart quicken, but she remained silent. In a brief moment of clarity, their thoughts joined through the connection and he understood. He pulled away from her chest and grasped tightly to her shoulders. “You’re planning to make me forget this? Forget you?”

  When her eyes looked to the side, he had his answer. A desperate anguish filled him. “Why?”

  The anguish in his voice destroyed her. She slid from his grasp and moved away from him. The emptiness she felt without his warmth inside and surrounding her made her spirit shudder. “You know why, Ethan.”

  “Because it’s safer that way?” He growled and reinitialized his gravitational stabilizers. His feet touched the floor and he cleared the distance between them with angry strides. “For who? Me? Don’t give me that shit.”

  The deep anger in his voice shocked her. “Ethan, I...”

  He didn’t want to hear the excuse. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around to face him. Pinning her against the wall so she couldn’t run from him, he pressed his body against hers. “I won’t let you take this from me.”

  “You think I want to?” Her voice was broken and choked.

  “Then don’t.” It was so simple to him. If she didn’t want to do it, then she shouldn’t do it. “What just happened, what we just...”

  He had trouble finding the words to describe what he was still feeling. It had been sex, of course, but it had also been much more than that. They had shared a connection that went beyond the physical pleasures he had experienced. “There is no way I could ever forget this or you!”

  Her resolve was crumbled by the determination in his voice. He didn’t want to forget her, and he wanted to fight to keep her. In a mocking gesture, her hair clip floated past her line of vision.

  Proud of yourself? I hope that little bit of self-indulgence was worth the pain you are causing him. I hope it was worth the danger you will put him in if you do not do what you know is necessary. Did you learn nothing last time? You disgust me. Tihgaros.

  The lump in her throat rose into a sob and the tears broke free of the reins she held on them. “I have to, Ethan. You do not understand. You do not know!”

  “Then show me!” His raised voice brought her eyes back to him, but his anger faded as he watched the tears run down her cheeks. “Then show me, Orynn. Brom said you showed him memories. Show me. Help me understand.”

  “You do not know what you ask.” Her lips trembled.

  Show him. Show him so that he will hate you.

  He leaned down and kissed her softly. She didn’t fight him or pull away. He nuzzled against her cheek and let her tears soak into his skin. “I am asking you to trust me. Velstrae.”

  Her eyes closed as he spoke the word again. How could she refuse him?

  “Alright, Ethan. I will show you.

  I will show you everything.”

  At first, the connection between them simply steadied its pulsing energies. She relaxed against him and he cradled her against his chest. The pulse’s volume grew louder and filled his mind. A bright light seared his vision, but he didn’t back away from it. Instead, he held onto her more tightly as the light blinded him. The pulse became a monotonous buzz, then faded to background noise as the light dimmed. As his vision cleared, he felt the connection to her mind finalize and the memories flooded in.

  “A’kai!”

  Mother...

  “A’kai!” A small female child bounded across a field of tall grasses, her feet barely touching the ground and her white curls bouncing behind her as she made her way to a tall figure in the distance. She giggled and held her arms out to the figure. “A’Kai ostra!”

  My mother is home.

  The tall figured turned and took the girl in her arms. “Orynn, ostra’ruka.” The woman smiled. “I have come home to you, Orynn.”

  “Noha O’kai?” But where is father?

  The woman hugged Orynn tightly and shook her head. “I was wrong, Orynn. I was wrong and my sisters were right.“

  “Noha O’kai?” The girl cried.

  The woman cried too. “Your father is dead because I could not let him go.”

  The figures and field faded away to darkness. The darkness parted and another field appeared. Instead of a bounding girl, this field was full of corpses. The stalks of the grass were broken and bent over with the weight of blood, and the air smelled of charred flesh and smoking embers. The tall woman stood among them, the blood clinging thickly to her boots. A look of fear filled her eyes as she turned to face another woman with silvery white hair and mercury eyes. “What have you done, my daughter?”

  “They hurt him, A’kai.” Orynn’s hands trembled with the force of her rage. She was barely eighty and just newly allowed off world. “They hurt O’kai.”

  “Oh Orynn...” The woman’s fear was replaced by a look of sad disappointment. “That was over seventy years ago. These men are the children of their children. You cannot kill all Xen’dari to account for the loss of one man. You must forget the past. ”

  “How can you just brush him aside?!” Orynn’s anger flared as the smoke curled around her. “How can you just forget him? Forget what they did?!”

  “My poor daughter.” The woman hugged Orynn’s trembling figure and kissed her brow. “I have failed you. There is so much of your father’s heart beating within you. It is so beautiful, but you must not allow your emotions to override our teachings. I forget him because I must. I forget what happened because if I did not, it would consume me. You will come with me from now on, and I will show you the truth of this universe. You will learn why Vesparians must forget and be forgotten.”

  Ethan felt Orynn’s body trembling against him and the turmoil building inside of her. He could smell the blood on the field, and he understood her rage. Years of memories flashed by as he tried to process the images and emotions that accompanied them.

&n
bsp; Her mother took her to the known worlds and showed her how to make her way through them. She taught Orynn how to hone her skills to gather information and use it to complete missions for Central. Orynn learned how to make herself exist and not exist at the same time. They walked through the world together, with only each other to hold as proof that they existed at all.

  “A’kai!” Orynn’s scream filled the air as her hand outstretched to her mother’s still body. Another explosion rocked the spaceport they were on and a beam fell from the ceiling between them. It was the Hedarion Resistance War of 1418ot. Orynn and her mother had been caught in the crossfire as they attempted to identify a Xen’dari sympathizer who had been feeding Hedarion battle plans to the enemy.

  “Orynn, c’mon!” A young, brown haired man with bright green eyes grabbed her hand. “I’m sorry, but she’s gone. We will be too if we don’t hightail it out of here.”

  Orynn pulled away from his grasp. “I will not leave her here, Hankarron!”

  Ethan’s body went rigid. It was Hank’s father.

  “Orynn.... go...” Orynn’s mother opened her eyes and looked at her daughter. A cough rocked her body and brought blood to her lips.

  “No!” Orynn stood and ran toward the fallen beam. Hankarron’s arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back as another beam fell against the first. A fire erupted to the left of them and singed his jacket.

  “Fuck.” Hankarron coughed as smoke filled the corridor. Orynn continued to fight against his grasp, but he yanked her around to face him. “Orynn, please. I don’t know who that woman is to you, but we need to go.”

  Orynn frowned in distraught frustration as the port came apart around them. The memories of the past few weeks were being pulled from Hankarron’s mind by her mother’s remaining strength. He was forgetting her, but she could not. Watching the identity of her mother fade from his eyes after all they had been through cut her spirit. Even in death, her mother refused to break the rules of their teachings.

  Rule six. Leave no trace, and you will leave no pain behind you.

  It was such a load of shit.

  “Please.” Hankarron shook her shoulder. He swept a hand through her hair and she lifted her eyes to him. “Please.”

  “Get your asses moving to the hangar, now!” Jhonis’s voice bellowed down the corridor as he ran toward them. The younger version of the man Ethan had known appeared from the smoking haze, his dark green eyes full of intent and his long brown hair flowed behind him from a loose ponytail at the base of his neck. The fire and falling debris didn’t falter his strong strides. His eyes fell to Orynn’s mother and he slowed. “Tersai?”

  “Jhonis, please get her!” Orynn called out to Jhonis, hoping he would act before her mother’s memory alteration began to affect him.

  Without stopping fully, Jhonis scooped Tersai into his arms and hurdled the fallen beams. “Go!”

  As Jhonis joined them, Hankarron gripped Orynn’s hand tightly and raced with her down the corridor towards the hangar. A short Hedarion woman joined them from a side shaft which erupted in fire behind her. Her bright red hair blew around her face with the heated wave of the blast and she cursed.

  Hankarron glanced over to the Hedarion and smirked. “Cutting it a little close again, Jehdra?”

  “Suck it, Hank.” Jehdra glared up at him.

  “Report.” Jhonis’s voice showed no sign of fatigue as they continued their sprint.

  Jehdra glanced up at Jhonis as she sped her legs to keep his pace. “I uploaded the central computer to the Telasari and wiped the drives, then rigged the mainframe to overheat. If the Xen’dari want this port so bad, they can damn well have it shoved up their fat asses. We’ve got about fifteen minutes to get off this trash heap before it goes critical.”

  Jehdra may have had to take two steps for every one of Jhonis’s strides, but she was no more winded. She glanced over at the woman in Jhonis’s arms as she let out a soft groan of pain. “What the fuck happened to Tersai?”

  “Who the is that woman?” Hankarron said with an annoyed tone.

  “Have you lost your brain, Hank?” Jehdra looked over at him in confusion.

  “It is not his fault, Jehdra.” Orynn ignored the confused look on Jehdra’s face and focused on the tight grip Hankarron had on her hand. “I will explain later.”

  They had to take several detours due to debris or fires, but they made it to the hangar with minutes to spare. It was a chaos of people scrambling to prep the remaining vessels for departure. Crates of supplies, medicine, weapons and food were being loaded into the vessels of the Resistance. Jhonis called out to any within ear shot. “Leave it! Get off this station before it blows. Pass it on.”

  Those around him dropped what they were doing and rushed to tell others. Ships fired up their engines all around them as they made their way through the maze of abandoned supplies to the large class one command ship. The Telasari had never looked so beautiful. The loading ramp was down and a man the same height and build as Jhonis was waiting at the bottom. He had the same wavy brown hair and bright green eyes as Hankarron, and he was obviously older than both of them.

  “Bout time you showed up.” Keith yelled out to his two younger brothers. “I think you outdid yourself this time, Jehdra. The whole port is going to blow any minute.”

  “Oh really, Keith? You think so? Thanks for the fucking update.” Jehdra pushed passed him and ran up the ramp.

  Keith laughed. “How does she fit so much anger in that tiny little body?”

  “Any stragglers?” Jhonis took a last glance over his shoulder at the hangar. Two small cargo ships were left, but they were already lifting off the ground and turning toward the exit stasis fields.

  “Negatory. All stations reported clear. Those ships taking off are the last.” Keith looked down at Tersai. A trail of blood ran from the corner of her mouth and the stomach of her shirt was soaked red. “Shit. C’mon, let’s get her to the medical bay. Hank, head to the bridge and help Jehdra get this heavy bitch off the ground.”

  Hankarron nodded to his brother and headed up the ramp with Orynn still in tow. When they reached the top, Jhonis and Keith rushed passed on their way to the medical bay. As Hankarron hit the panel to close the loading ramp, Orynn pulled free of his grasp and followed Jhonis. “Orynn, wait! We’ll need you on the bridge.”

  “I must go with her.” Orynn continued her hurried pace.

  He jogged up to her and grabbed her wrist again, pulling her around to face him. “Who is she?”

  “She is my mother.”

  “Your what?” He looked wide eyed at her in complete confusion.

  She sighed at the confused look on his face. “I will explain everything later, I promise.”

  He took in a deep breath and reluctantly let go of her wrist. “Okay.” He wrapped his fingers around her shoulders and gave them a small squeeze. Concern etched across the features of his face, but he nodded and finally let her go. “Okay. I’ll meet you after this mess is over and we can have a chat.”

  Orynn nodded and turned away, not reading into the emotions evident in his voice and in his eyes. She took the corridor to the right as Hankarron went to the left and boarded the lift to go up two decks. Her heartbeat quickened as she neared the medical bay door.

  Three weeks.

  She and her mother had been working with the crew of the Telasari for three weeks and the crew still had no idea who they really were. Her mother had been doing most of the work of clouding their memories and holding up the guise, but now it was left up to Orynn’s less experienced abilities.

  Orynn frowned. Despite all her mother’s training and repetition of the Rules of The Sisterhood, she still had trouble not believing it was all pointless. Hiding who you are to people who were supposed to depend on you was wrong.

  She paused outside of the medical bay door and pressed her hand onto it. That was her father’s heart talking, her mother would say. ‘You are Vesparian.’ her mother would chide.

  Rul
e three - Vesparians cannot allow friendship, for it will always be they who pay the price.

  She entered the room to find her mother on one of the three medical beds, her shirt torn open and Jhonis holding a pack of gauze to her stomach. He looked up as she entered, the hopeless distress clear on his face. Keith turned to her, his hands covered in blood. The look on his face wasn’t concern. It was anger.

  “Who the fuck are you two?” Keith hissed. “Are you spies here to infiltrate Central?”

  “No.” Orynn took in a deep breath to calm her nerves. It was obvious that her mother was too far gone to continue masking their true appearance. She went over her options in her head. She could either try and repair the guise in their minds, or she could attempt the harder route of erasing the old one and building a new one. She wasn’t sure she had the ability or the strength at that point in time to try either.

  “Answer me.” Keith’s eyes narrowed.

  “It can wait, Keith.” Jhonis was starting the scanner attached to the arm of the bed and running it over Tersai’s stomach. “She’s got a ruptured... damn, I don’t know what that is.”

  Orynn approached the table, giving Keith a wide berth, and looked at the scanner. A sob caught in her throat at the sight of the extensive damage, but she forced herself to swallow it. “That is her repository lung. It allows us to take more oxygen from the air so that we can breathe off-world.”

  “Off what world?” Jhonis looked up and stared at her. “You said you were from Berian Two. Even your file from Central... Orynn, what is going on?”

  Orynn glanced down at her mother’s unconscious form and rested a hand on her leg. Her mother was going to be so disappointed, but she had made up her mind. No more hiding and no more lies.

  “She is Vesparian.”

  The silence that filled the room was heavy and oppressive, but Orynn’s spirit had never felt so free. She had said it. She had actually said it. She had broken the number one rule of the Sisterhood and said the word forbidden for the ears of but a select few. She repeated it, just to be sure she had actually said it out loud.