The Reflective Dissent Read online

  THE REFLECTIVE DISSENT

  A Reflection Series Novel

  Book 3

  New York Times Bestselling Author

  TAMARA ROSE BLODGETT

  All Rights Reserved.

  Copyright © 2016 Tamara Rose Blodgett

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  www.tamararoseblodgett.com

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  Cover art by Willsin Rowe

  Editing suggestions provided by Red Adept Editing

  CONTENTS

  Works by Tamara Rose Blodgett and Marata Eros

  Marata Eros NEWS

  TRB News

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Synopsis

  Could you find your soul mate in thirteen worlds... would you survive long enough to claim them?

  Reflective Beth Jasper flees Sector One, intending to return Jacky and Maddie to Three, only to find she's bent time during the jump. They've come back to the worse scenario possible—with Reflective Ryan in tow.

  In a bid to locate Beth, then rescue Commander Rachett from certain torture by Nightlopers—Reflectives Merrick and Jasper, along with Slade, the Bloodling Prince—jump from Three.

  When a tragedy occurs during the jump, Beth is separated from her party and finds herself at the mercy of an unheard of group from Sector Thirteen. The First Species.

  Beth's choice becomes a dire one, the only imperative she can control. As her life ebbs, the First Species struggle to save her while Jeb and Slade ride her tailwind to Thirteen, subsequently discovering what she's done.

  Can destiny control her choices? Does The Cause still remain? Or will fate manipulate Beth's life, regardless of her will.

  Works by Tamara Rose Blodgett and Marata Eros:

  Tamara Rose Blodgett

  The BLOOD Series

  The DEATH Series

  The REFLECTION Series

  The SAVAGE Series

  Shifter ALPHA CLAIM

  Vampire ALPHA CLAIM

  Final Enforcement Vampire ALPHA CLAIM

  &

  Marata Eros:

  A Terrible Love (New York Times bestseller)

  A Brutal Tenderness

  The Darkest Joy

  Club Alpha

  The DARA NICHOLS Series

  The DEMON Series

  The DRUID Series

  Road Kill MC Serial

  The SIREN Series

  The TOKEN Serial

  Final Enforcement Vampire ALPHA CLAIM

  Shifter ALPHA CLAIM

  Vampire ALPHA CLAIM

  The ZOE SCOTT Series

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  Directives of The Cause:

  First: Right the wrong

  Second: Bear no injustice

  Third: Change not what must be

  Fourth: Reflect only when unobserved

  Fifth: Protect the young

  Sixth: Take life only in defense of another

  Seventh: No death is without consequence

  Eighth: Defend those who cannot

  Ninth: Forsake not honor, for it is all that remains

  Tenth: Reconcile emotion for The Cause, not another

  Eleventh: Divulge not your identity

  Twelfth: Disturb not the continuum

  Thirteenth: Forsake not The Cause

  Sectors:

  Sector One – Nightloper/Bloodlings

  Sector Three - Earth

  Sector Seven - Blood Singers

  Sector Ten - Papilio

  Sector Thirteen - Spheres

  Unexplored sectors:

  Two

  Four through Six

  Eight

  Nine

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Dedication:

  Carina

  For all your dedication and wonderfulness.

  Music that inspired me during the writing of this novel:

  Sound of Silence

  by Disturbed

  Directives of The Cause

  Seventh: No death is without consequence

  Eighth: Defend those who cannot

  Ninth: Forsake not honor, for it is all that remains

  CHAPTER ONE

  Beth

  I am Reflective.

  Be that as it may, Beth Jasper is scared. She eschewed the protection of all who would give it. Now she is on Three, in the middle of a time-continuum breach with only herself to blame.

  Gunnar, her natural Bloodling father, is cooking within an enchanted patch of forest from the scorching he received from Three's single, strong sun.

  The corrupt Reflective, Lance Ryan, has somehow followed her tailwind to this place.

  This time.

  And Chuck, whom she and Merrick dispatched before, has sprung back to life because she dialed them back to a time before his demise.

  The abuser of Maddie stalks to their location as Ryan corners her.

  I am Reflective, Beth repeats.

  She does not retreat, though her heart beats its resistance.

  “Dickbag!” Jacky screams.

  Beth doesn't react, flinch, or move in any way. Chuck is stalking toward them with real purpose, but that is the least of her problems.

  “Hello, mongrel,” Ryan calls softly, circling where she stands. His tall form is tense—ready. His golden good looks glow softly in the dim shadows, whereas Beth's dark looks must blend with the gloom of the deep shadows provided by the canopy of trees.

  “Beth,” Gunnar croaks, reaching for her, his liquid gaze following Ryan's progress as he draws nearer.

  “We're going,” Ryan says in his certain way, and he whips out a small reflective triangle.

  Facing away, of course. He can't have Beth reflecting in avoidance.

  Beth's breaths are hotly stacked as she searches anywhere for avoidance—she can't let Ryan get his hands on her.

  A crash of brush sounds harsh in the near silence. Even the small creatures of the forest know when violence holds its breath for the unnatural birth of tragedy.

  Ryan's pale aqua eyes flick to Maddie, and he frowns.

  At that exact moment, her stepfather, Chuck, blunders into their circle. “What the fuck, Maddie?” Chuck bellows, his sloppy and vulgar speech hurting the sensitive Reflective hearing.

  Ryan flinches.

  Beth's blades are naked in her hands, and she backs away from the men, sparing a glance for Gunnar. She's relieved to see he
is halfway to healed.

  Not near enough to help me. As before, Beth is utterly on her own. She loosens her wrists, ready to slash and hack.

  Chuck laughs. “Isn't this fucking perfect?” A loathsome belch bursts out of his thick lips, and he continues, apparently without noticing, absently scratching his thick side. “We've got that loser brother of Chase, and”—he raps his knuckles against his head—“you deliver this little slut into my arms. She ran off with you, huh?” Chuck looks at Jacky.

  “Dickbag,” Jacky repeats sullenly. But Beth sees his eyes are all for Ryan.

  Jacky must understand where the real danger lies.

  Beth adjusts her grip on her ceramic daggers.

  Ryan seems to notice the minute shift and grins. “I'm going to enjoy taking you apart, Jasper.” A vein stands out on his forehead as he inches closer.

  Gunnar growls, and Ryan doesn't even bother to look at her father. The scent of Gunnar's singed flesh fills her nostrils, and she knows that he'll need much blood to restore himself.

  Chuck surveys his surroundings, his eyes falling to Beth. “And you.” His beady eyes narrow on her like a target, but she dare not take her eyes from Ryan. “You're back for a lesson in manners. I feel like I've won the lottery.” He shrugs, seems to notice his sheers for the first time, and lowers them beside his leg.

  Beth tracks for reflection, but the dull blades are smeared in wet grass.

  Chuck's beady eyes sweep Ryan then her Bloodling father on the ground.

  “What in the Sam Hill is this thing here?” He points the sheers at Gunnar.

  Leave my blooded father alone, Swine.

  “He is a One in need of elimination,” Ryan says in an offhand way, and she feels the whip of heat as he uses the dull and shadowed reflection of the sheers to jump within striking distance of Chuck.

  Beth misses the bare spot on the metal but uses Ryan's tailwind. His absolute discounting of her is the thing that wins her time. Othersʼ arrogance has saved her before.

  Ryan grips Chuck's neck with one hand. No small thing, as it is thick—like his head.

  Beth dips low and pounds her knuckles into Ryan's kidneys like exacting gunfire.

  Organ strikes don't hurt instantly.

  Ryan whirls, and Beth jumps back out of his extensive reach, her hands throbbing.

  “I'll kill you,” Ryan manages then drops to his knees, his mouth forming a silent O.

  Beth spins, kicking him in his exposed jaw. Something cracks, and Beth doesn't wait to figure out how fast he'll heal from the injuries she just gave him.

  She leaps backward. “Blood passage!” Beth shouts into the canopy of the trees, praying they know her on Three—as they did on Sector One.

  Her arms rise.

  The trees don't need a second invitation.

  “Maddie—Jacky,” Beth hisses, jerking her chin upward.

  “Beth Jasper of Papilio,” the trees thunder at her. Leaves spiral down from the deep timbre of their collective voices, and her eardrums pulse.

  The Threes raise their arms.

  “Fuck, that kills!” Jacky hollers.

  Maddie whimpers as the barbs of the great trees set deep in all their flesh.

  “Gunnar,” Beth whispers, dropping to her knees, lightheaded. Her fingers bite into the fine, slightly damp moss of the forest floor.

  Ryan approaches from behind as Beth is being bled. She can't avoid him, and as she attempts to, the barbs drag at her flesh.

  “You bitch!” he shouts, and the breath from his words lifts the fine hairs at her nape, warming her neck.

  He latches onto her braid, winding it on his forearm. He'll pull her, and she'll have holes all over her body.

  Beth clenches her eyes shut as he begins to drag her backward.

  Then the trees bind him as well—at his throat, his arms.

  “No!” Ryan bellows at them. To Beth it sounds like an abbreviated gurgle.

  “Kind of a harpy, ain't he?” Chuck says to no one in particular.

  Chuck is still in the game.

  Ryan jerks Beth's head back, and she stifles a scream as the barbs lance her arms, and her scalp sings with painful tension.

  Chuck stands above her. “This is too perfect. First, I'm gonna do you, then I'm gonna do her.” He jerks his meaty jaw toward Maddie, and she mewls as excess blood runs down her arms in small rivulets. “Her mama didn't tell me where she was hiding, even with all the encouragement I offered.”

  Encouragement with fists, Beth guesses, her scalp on fire.

  Chuck looks at Ryan struggling against branches that don't yield. “Where's that gray peckerwood who was cooking?”

  Gunnar.

  “Father,” Beth croaks, beginning to lose consciousness. Too much blood has been spilled to feed the trees, and Ryan's hold is too tight for breath, for thought.

  “Right here, spawn of Three.” Gunnar stands tall, holding the sheers high. He slices them in a downward arc. The tips pierce the top of Chuck's worthless skull.

  Beth's eyes shut, her scalp throbbing as she hears Chuck's mouth open and close. The thrashing of his body disturbs the underbrush as death throes consume him. Finally, his desperate struggles subside.

  Beth's lids lift.

  Gunnar, seven inches taller than Chuck, twists the closed blades sharply.

  Chuck's head moves with the momentum, his neck breaking with a wet snap. Gunnar kicks the abuser in his posterior, and he stumble-walks, his arms outstretched, then falls on his face to the forest floor.

  Beth cranes her neck at Gunnar then directs her attention to Ryan. His hold has loosened. He can't maintain it while he's struggling to inhale. Blood is infringing with his breathing. The barbs have sunk too deep.

  Where is the mirrored rectangle he had?

  A tree branch wraps Ryan's throat tighter, and he chokes, struggling to excise himself. His fingers slide out of her unwoven braid.

  Beth wants to rail at him. Tell him he deserves to die. She does none of it.

  “Enough!” she says into the silence of the woods. The barbs hurt as they tear out of her arms.

  She, Jacky, and Maddie fall forward, their fingertips stabbing the soft earth.

  Gunnar moves forward. All that remains of his suffering by sunlight is skin so red it appears sunburned.

  No lesions remain.

  Beth's exhale is shaky with relief.

  “I need blood,” he says in a matter-of-fact way.

  His eyes move to Ryan.

  “No,” Beth says automatically. She can't let a Bloodling feed on a Reflective. Even though Ryan's presence means her certain torture and death—even though Ryan corrupted their world—The Cause.

  She would be exactly as he is if she allowed that.

  Gunnar cups Beth's chin, and Ryan's fingers sink into her hair once more, the only abuse he can inflict.

  She grits her teeth against the agony.

  Gunnar spins, his hand whipping out in Ryan's direction. His palm connects with the Reflective's chin, snapping his head back against the trunk, stunning him.

  Still, his fingers remain latched onto her braid, and Gunnar peels his fingers away and gently lifts her.

  “I could have broken his fingers, and I will take blood from the deserving. My kindred blood has given her essence to those of the Tree for safe passage.” His shrug clearly says, It is settled.

  “Don't take Reflective Ryan's blood,” Beth manages through her pain.

  “Ah, my little hopper”—Beth's Bloodling father smooths from her eyes the hairs that have come loose from the braid—“he will pay in any way I wish.”

  “No,” Beth rasps, shaking her head. Her vision swims with pain, tears, and her body knitting the damage of the barbs.

  Gunnar sighs, laying her down on the cool moss at the base of the living trees. Their wide eyes follow him, their lashes blinking like great fronds of fern. “He does not deserve your protection. Look away, Beth. The Enchanted Forest came to your aid, incapacitated Ryan—for you. Let me take
what is mine.”

  Principle help her, she does. Beth lets a Bloodling feed on a Reflective.

  She turns her head away, meeting Jacky's bright green eyes.

  “Fuck him, Jasper. It's a damn mercy.” Beth doesn't reply to Jacky. Instead, she squeezes her eyes shut.

  Damn, damn, damn.

  She listens to Gunnar feeding and Ryan's powerful struggle to fight both him and the tree's vice-like grip. Ryan eventually stops thrashing.

  Beth's breath stills, and an abiding and profound guilt begins to take hold. She knows her feelings aren't reasonable. That Ryan is evil.

  That he meant her death.

  But somehow, she's let The Cause down by allowing such a violation against him. How many directives did I break just now?

  Many.

  The insidious sounds of suckling and noisy slurping are the only music of the forest.

  When Jacky and Maddie come to where Beth lies, she keeps her eyes closed, and they reach for her at the same time, each putting a hand on her shoulders.

  Her emotions wrack through her body, shaking her like the leaves that fall with the murmurings of the magical treesʼ voices.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Slade

  As Slade seems to fall without landing, fire and ice extinguish the heat of his body. Chills and fine, needlelike pressure stab along his skin like many fine-toothed insects. Nausea rolls out like a carpet inside his body.

  When he lands, it is without finesse but brutal, in a clumsy, arcing thrust upon the sand beside the greatest lake of Sector One.

  Slade rises from his hands and knees as nightlopers converge around him and Merrick. His guts beg to evacuate, and his bowels push for release.

  Vertigo seizes Slade, and he shakes it off with difficulty. The hopper's method of travel is beyond destabilizing. It's sickening.

  He forces his eyes to sweep the nightlopers. Their many half forms of taloned hands and large bodies with heavy muscles are too many to overcome, even with his skill in battle. Even coupled with Merrick's tenacious Reflective skills, they are outnumbered fifteen to two.

  Slade casts a lustful gaze over his shoulder at the sparkling grayish-blue water of the great lake of One, knowing Merrick can command a jump from a single reflection off a wave. Of course, thinking that makes him all the more acutely aware of Beth's absence.