Unawakened Read online

  Unawakened

  Dad Portals Book Two

  R.J. Blain

  Trillian Anderson

  Contents

  1. I found my katana’s lethal beauty to be somehow honest

  2. Would I ever be capable of trusting anyone?

  3. I had changed.

  4. A kiss for your thoughts?

  5. There’s really a treasure trove of old history in here?

  6. Maybe these will satisfy your endless appetite.

  7. “How does this benefit us?”

  8. “You’re something else, Alexa.”

  9. I didn’t need yet another bad habit to kick.

  10. “You’re the unawakened.”

  11. “Explain your choices.”

  12. “They weren’t exactly wearing a whole lot.”

  13. Criticizing cops was a good way to get arrested.

  14. “We’re only going to do a little shopping.”

  15. “Your angel is annoyed with you.”

  16. Too late, I understood.

  17. I smiled at the thought of turning the tables on Rob.

  18. “It’s been a while, Princess.”

  19. My sentient noodle casserole was quickly becoming the most normal part of my life.

  20. My worst-case scenario scared me.

  21. Who knew a unicorn could master such a lecherous leer?

  22. Death happened, even to dae.

  23. I couldn’t undo what had been done.

  24. Snow shimmered in the haze of an obscured moon.

  25. “You like the octopus more than you like me.”

  26. “I’m sorry you had to eat parts of a ship, Colby.”

  About R.J. Blain

  Upcoming Releases, as of April 27, 2021:

  From Outfoxed

  1

  I found my katana’s lethal beauty to be somehow honest

  Three months after Kenneth Smith’s attempt to murder me, I returned to his home with a katana and a gun. I wore the sword as a message and a promise I wouldn’t go quietly if Kenneth or one of his hounds tried to kill me again. The gun would be how I kept my lethal promise, and its weight in my shoulder holster reassured me.

  Despite the early winter chill, I left my leather coat open so I could reach my Beretta if I needed it.

  I likely would.

  Violence I understood, and I found the presence of both my weapons comforting. Despite the odd way I’d come into possession of my sword, it suited me more than the gun. Then again, everything about life counted as strange following the arrival of the dae.

  One day, I might get used to it.

  Still, I found my katana’s lethal beauty to be somehow honest, even when it waited in its sheath.

  The morning was ripe for bloodshed, and my sword and gun wouldn’t help me against many of the magical dae and their powers, but I did my best to ignore that fact. If all went well, I’d be in and out without a fuss. If not, somebody’s body would hit the ground, and I hoped it wouldn’t be mine.

  Had I brought Rob or Colby with me, I wouldn’t have been as worried. While I wasn’t bonded to either one of them, they cared about my fate and acknowledged my mortality.

  The bonded humans tended to forget they remained mortal, which annoyed me. Not so long ago, the bonded had been regular humans without the strength and power the magical dae gave them.

  The smart people remembered the purpose of a sword, and the dae bled when cut. The problem would be getting close enough to kill them before they killed me.

  Despite everything, I remained human. Most had not.

  The dae and their bonded moved with preternatural grace and speed. Sometimes, that worked in my favor. As long as I kept a firm grip on my sword, idiot dae attacking me added to their injuries when they slammed into the honed edge. The trick to beating them involved keeping my hold on the weapon and waiting for the right moment to transform their aggression into my victory.

  Rob enjoyed teaching me how best to protect myself.

  With a little help from him, I’d learned how to use the dae’s strengths against them, transforming their power into an unexpected weakness.

  When Rob said none of Kenneth’s dae could resist my sword’s keen edge, I believed him. He knew his kind far better than I, although I learned more every day.

  The sunrise painted the eastern sky in red and gold, and while I wanted to find somewhere quiet to admire it, I didn’t dare. I had a limited window of opportunity to act, and I couldn’t afford to waste it.

  Before the Dawn of Dae, the early hour wouldn’t have been so peaceful, safe, or quiet. The emergence of magic had turned sunrise into an eerily serene part of the day. Many of the dangerous dae returned to their homes to sleep, while the more cautious and mundane remained indoors, waiting for the sun to fully rise.

  In an hour, the city would awaken. I wanted to be done with Kenneth Smith so I could get on with my life, not that I was sure what sort of life waited for me. While I hadn’t been expelled from college, classes hadn’t resumed, and no one was really sure if they would.

  For the moment, education came second to restructuring society. The police and military ruled in a state of martial law, implemented at the government’s decree. Despite the chokehold on the population—or because of it—things began the slow climb back to normality. Well, as normal as a world filled with magic could be.

  Most businesses had reopened, and life went on. Most of the bonded and their dae had adapted to their new partnerships and circumstances, although there were still those like Arthur around, who wanted to use their newfound powers to control, destroy, or change the world.

  Dae like Arthur, ready and willing to use their powers to get what they wanted, frightened me far more than I wanted to admit. Because of Rob, I bore no scars from my time in captivity—not visible ones, at least. Some of the wounds the fire breather had inflicted on me wouldn’t heal, not until I saw to Arthur’s death myself.

  I’d let Rob and Colby help. They deserved satisfaction, too. Before I could hunt that foul murderer of children, I needed to deal with Kenneth Smith.

  I wanted my freedom. I doubted he’d give it to me.

  I reached his street, and it didn’t surprise me to find Kenneth’s favorite bitch, Lily, waiting on his doorstep. Unlike me, she held her gun out in the open, and the instant her gaze settled on me, I understood her silent message.

  One of us would walk away. The other wouldn’t.

  I smiled. Lily’s challenge changed nothing. Kenneth Smith would fall, and if I had to take out his favorite bitch first, so be it. Business was business.

  We had never liked each other anyway.

  Lily’s eyes narrowed at my approach, and her eyes caught my attention. Before the Dawn of Dae, they had been blue, accenting her porcelain skin. The emergence of the dae hadn’t been kind to her, graying her complexion and turning her irises a burning orange.

  A few blotches of red on her cheeks indicated the woman suffered from the same cold going around town. Thanks to my illness, I hadn’t been able to check in on Kelsie as often as I wanted. When I couldn’t go, Rob did, and he always took care to take the refrigerator offerings to her.

  No matter how quickly I emptied my apartment refrigerator, the coming-and-going dae found ways to earn their keep—or at least pay their price of passage.

  I really needed to get my head back into the game before I got myself killed. Ignoring the tell-tale sign of illness, I considered Lily with wary interest.

  Passion, love, hatred, and anger gave fire breathers their strength; that much I had learned from Rob. Lily fidgeted, flexing her left hand. A thin coating of yellow fur sprouted over her skin.

  I sighed, well aware of the lethal combination of werewolf and fire breath
er. In a way, I had hoped Lily hadn’t bonded with a dae, although the development didn’t surprise me. People like me, the unawakened, were few and far between, and most dae didn’t know what to make of us.

  I didn’t know what to make of us, either, which didn’t help matters any. I’d yet to meet someone like me, someone who lacked a dae to teach them the new ways of the world.

  For all I knew, I was the only unawakened in the entirety of the Baltimore area.

  “You shouldn’t have come back,” Lily said, and flames crackled in her voice.

  Why did she carry a gun? I considered her weapon; it was an antique, far older than my Beretta. Rust marred its surface. It was the type of weapon Kenneth liked, so old the government didn’t view it as too much of a threat. If the authorities found it, the deteriorating state of the pistol would convince most it wasn’t a real danger to anyone.

  Kenneth, thanks to his rank, would probably get away with having it, as long as no one found any ammunition to go with it.

  I knew better, though. Maybe the gun appeared damaged beyond repair, but if Lily cocked it and pulled the trigger, I’d die all the same—assuming she’d maintained the gun otherwise. I would assume she did.

  Kenneth didn’t keep useless things around, people included.

  Lily’s gaze lowered to my katana, and the woman smiled. “That won’t save you.”

  “Nice to see you, too. Is Kenneth around?”

  “You won’t be seeing him.” Lily’s smile widened, and she fiddled with the hammer of her revolver. “I’d be happy to leave a message for you, though.”

  I glanced in the direction of Kenneth’s house and smiled for the hidden cameras. “Yeah, I have a message you can give him.”

  “Oh?” Lily adjusted the grip on her pistol, her thumb poised over the hammer, although she didn’t cock it.

  Fool woman, underestimating me as usual. It would be the last mistake she made. Even if she killed me, I would take her out with me when I went.

  Rob had taught me well.

  In addition to the cameras, the front of Kenneth’s house was wired with microphones, so if my boss was watching, he’d get my message loud and clear. I matched the woman’s fake smile and crossed my arms over my chest. I slipped my right hand beneath the leather jacket Rob had given to me.

  Lily’s posture remained relaxed, and her thumb slid away from her pistol’s hammer. “Well? What’s your message? Tell me and leave. You don’t belong here anymore.”

  Escaping Kenneth Smith wasn’t so easy, and Rob had told me my boss wanted to speak with me. Rob hadn’t been happy about relaying the message, either.

  The next day, he had disappeared.

  A week later, I’d come to put an end to it. If Kenneth Smith was behind Rob’s vanishing act, I’d do a hell of a lot more to him than kill his favorite bitch. I’d ruin his wealth and reputation before I murdered him and his dae.

  In a way, the Dawn of Dae had been a blessing in disguise. I had Rob, and I had Colby. Maybe my future was uncertain at best, but I no longer needed Kenneth to survive. New paths had opened to me.

  Lily glared at me when I remained silent. “I’m not letting you into the house.”

  “Are those Kenneth’s orders?” I tilted my head to the side. “I was given a message he wanted to see me.”

  “I’m not letting you into the house.”

  Two could play the repetition game, and I had no intention of losing. “Are those Kenneth’s orders?”

  “Are you deaf? I’m not letting you into the house. I’m giving you one chance to turn around and walk away. I’ll shoot you and throw your body in the river. No one will miss you.”

  If I turned and walked away, she’d shoot me anyway; I saw her desire for my death in the way she smiled. We had been on neutral terms for a long time. When I made her job with Kenneth harder, I had bribed her, but because of my stubbornness and my inability to sleep with our boss, she had many reasons to hate me. Just hearing my name was probably enough to anger Kenneth since Rob had stolen me from him.

  I preferred to think I had stolen Rob with no intention of letting the dae escape me, but that was another matter entirely. My sometimes roommate, frequent lover, and partner-in-crime wouldn’t be happy when he found out I had gone to see Kenneth alone.

  At the very least, he would have expected me to take Colby with me, except I’d kept asking Colby to figure out where my man had vanished off to. As a general rule, I didn’t have any problems with Rob wandering off, but I had problems when he vanished and I had a damned good reason to think Kenneth might have been somehow involved.

  I’d have to worry about Rob later. For the moment, I needed to deal with the fatal conclusion of my relationship with Lily. The remorse of killing the woman would hit me later, but such was life on the fringe while working for the elite. Kill or be killed, and I had no intention of dying quite yet.

  After several months of waiting for my broken ribs to heal, my patience with Kenneth and his operations had grown thin. I pulled my gun out of its holster, took aim, and before she could do more than gasp and flinch, I fired.

  I’d regret my choice later, but not until I dealt with Kenneth and made it home safe and sound.

  Lily crumpled to the sidewalk, twitched, and fell still. I waited until her blood pooled on the ground around her before stepping to her body, gun ready in case she decided to get back up.

  Even the weakest of the dae and their bonded had ceased decaying to ash last month. Rob had sounded both pleased and annoyed by the development. I crouched, careful to avoid her blood, and touched my fingers to Lily’s neck in search of a pulse.

  She was already cold, as though all of the heat had been sucked out of her body right along with the fires that had burned in her eyes. Crimson stained my fingertips, and I expected I’d develop a rash within minutes, although it would be easy enough to treat once I made it home. Some people loved to kill, but I wasn’t one of them. I couldn’t even force myself to look at her. I swallowed several times so I wouldn’t throw up, rose to my feet, and headed for Kenneth’s door.

  It opened before I had a chance to knock. Kenneth scowled at Lily’s body before turning his attention to me. “Was shooting her necessary?”

  “She would have shot me if I turned around, and she wasn’t letting me in.”

  “All I have to do to lock you away for a long time is make a single call and inform the police you shot someone,” my boss hissed through clenched teeth.

  “And I’ll tell them she’s a fire breather who was armed with an illegal gun. She threatened me.” I stowed my Beretta, pulled out my wallet, and flipped it open so Kenneth could see my concealed carry license. “Unlike her, I’m allowed to shoot people who threaten me, Mr. Smith. Rob told me you wanted to speak with me?”

  “Come in, Collie.” Backing out of the way to give me space to slip in, he shut the door behind me and gestured to the basement stairwell. “I’m surprised you came.”

  “Rob approved of our meeting.” Rob hadn’t been happy about it, but if he thought it was important to involve me in Kenneth Smith’s dealings once again, I’d listen—and look for a way out of working with him permanently.

  More importantly, Rob had wandered off on me, and if he didn’t show back up after I talked to Kenneth, I’d be creating the bastard many problems. And if Rob had wandered off to make sure I went to see Kenneth, I’d have to acknowledge his cunning ploy.

  Rob enjoyed playing tricks on people.

  “He has you eating out of his hand,” Kenneth snarled, stalking me down the stairs to his basement lounge. I flopped on the couch, propping my booted feet up on the antique coffee table. If Kenneth noticed the fine leather, I hoped he would wonder if I had purchased them for myself or if Rob had acquired them for me.

  While Rob had made the purchase, I had paid the dae back for the boots by doing tedious paperwork for him—one of the few activities I could manage while my concussion and ribs healed.

  Working with Rob had a lot more
perks and a lot better pay than dealing with Kenneth.

  I allowed myself to sneer, hoping Kenneth understood exactly where he stood with me. “So what? Business, Mr. Smith. You need me for something, else you wouldn’t have talked with Rob. I just killed your favorite, and you’re ignoring it. What do you need me for, what’s my pay, and when do you need it done?”

  “As astute as ever. Very well. I’ve gone over the documents you provided, and I want you to sniff out Terry Moore’s associates, including the dean of your college. I also have a second job for you, if you’re up for the challenge.”

  The evidence I had implied Dean Lewis had been paying Terry Moore to murder women while they were under the influence of Kenneth’s drugs. Not only had Terry murdered them, he had raped them, and the drugs had ensured they enjoyed it right up until he had killed them.

  The thought of killing again didn’t enthuse me, but I was prepared to make an exception for the dean of my college, assuming the evidence proved to be legitimate. I still had the video evidence, hidden away where no one would find it without my help. I still had a copy of them on my personal laptop, too, waiting for me to delve into their horrors in search of answers. I didn’t need them anymore, though. The videos’ content was seared into my memories, and I woke too often from nightmares where I was one of Terry’s victims.

  Sometimes, Terry became Arthur in my nightmares, and those were the nights I woke up drenched in a cold sweat. The dreams had gotten worse since Rob had vanished, as though his presence in my bed somehow kept them away. A few times when I had woken up from nightmares and Rob had been there, he chased them away and replaced my fear with more pleasant things.