The Others spoke inside Alec’s head. Rhozan and maybe others, it was hard to tell. Every time Alec thought he was hearing them clearly enough to decipher what they were muttering about, something would change, like the tone, or the words, or the level of sound. It was puzzling and frustrating. Alec knew there was something he absolutely had to hear, but for the life of him he couldn’t quite make it out. He wished that everyone around him on the ship would shut up and let him concentrate. He was dimly aware of someone holding his hand and a tiny part of his mind was tugging at his consciousness trying to gain his attention, but the compulsion to block everything out and figure out what the Others were saying was far stronger.
He hadn’t heard them in the Base or the tunnels below. But as the ship disengaged from the underground port and flung itself into the deep ocean in a mad scramble to escape the island’s collapse, the first tentative whispers had begun. At first, he’d been too absorbed with the residual panic of escaping the tunnels and the realization that rips were following their flight to freedom, but as the minutes passed, the whispering got louder. His attention had been momentarily averted twice. Once when Tyrell dropped the bomb that a Terran had contact with the Others and his sudden fear of discovery had blocked out the sound and taken precedence. The second time occurred when he’d had to grab onto Riley to prevent her from falling. For a heartbeat or so, with her warmth in his arms, the whispering ceased. It had rebounded double in strength a second later and he’d shoved her away in an attempt to hear the voices more clearly.
Now the voices were just out of range, as if he was at the back of his old math classroom and Mr. Thompson was speaking to the board instead of the thirty students, most of whom couldn’t care less about the lesson. He was getting angry. This was ridiculous. He had to hear what the Others were saying.
He slipped his hand into his pocket and gripped his orb in an unconscious gesture. The voices instantly stopped. The silence was deafening. He felt as if he’d woken up from a long sleep. He looked around.
Anna was holding his arm in a grip that was almost painful. They weren’t in the main room of the ship anymore. He was leaning up against the wall in a narrow hallway of gleaming brown metal and the ambient lighting was a dull, frightening red. Riley was sprawled on the floor at his feet. Her fingers were still entwined with his but lifeless. He tugged at her but her eyes didn’t open and she didn’t seem to notice.
“What’s the matter with—” he got no further.
“She tried to injure you,” Anna interrupted. She reached over and pulled Riley’s limp fingers from Alec’s grip. Riley’s arm dropped to the floor. “We don’t have time. We must leave.”
Alec frowned. He couldn’t remember what had been going on but he doubted that Riley would have tried to hurt him in any way. For one thing, she was so small. Even a well-placed kick wouldn’t do much more than bruise him.
“Anna, she wouldn’t…,” he started. “You must be mistaken.”
“I am not. She tried to inform Kholar of your abilities,”
Anna spoke urgently. Alec’s stomach dropped. “She is jealous of your skill. You must know this. I managed to stop her speaking to him in time but she followed us to this corridor and threatened to tell everyone on this ship you can shift in time. I had to silence her.”
Alec couldn’t believe his ears. He knew that Riley was pissed he was stronger and more capable. She hadn’t actually tried to hide it. But would she go as far as to jeopardize his life?
“You do not believe me,” Anna said in response to his frown. “I understand. You have feelings for this female. However, I speak the truth.”
“Wake her up and I’ll ask her.” Alec tried to tug his arm away from Anna but her grip was stronger than he expected and he wasn’t able to fully pull away. “I can’t believe for a second she’d try and get me killed.”
Anna glanced upwards at the ceiling. A look of fear crossed her face for a second. “There is no time. We must leave.”
“Where are we going?”
“This ship is about to be destroyed. We must teleport to safety.”
“Destroyed by what?” Alec gasped.
“The Others. They are searching for you. Any moment they will contact this ship and the hull breach will cause massive instantaneous collapse.”
Cripes. Alec reeled. He had no idea things had gotten so bad. Why didn’t he know what was going on? The last few minutes were completely blank. What had he been doing? Puzzled, he reached down towards Riley’s hand. It didn’t matter now. He’d sort things out later. Now, he and Riley had to get off this ship. Immediately.
Anna grabbed his wrist before he could make contact with Riley’s fingers. “You must not. She cannot come with us.”
“She has to. You just said the ship was going to be destroyed,” Alec cried. He tugged but he couldn’t break her grip on either his wrist or his other arm. He wrenched himself as hard as he could but her hold on him didn’t budge.
“Anna,” he began, “this is crazy. I’m not leaving her.”
“I will not transport someone who risks your life. She has turned against you, Alec. Her loyalties are with the Others. Only I can protect you.”
“No, Anna, don’t,” Alec yelled.
Too late. Before the last word was completely out of his mouth, Anna began the teleportation process. Alec’s stomach dropped to his knees with horror. He didn’t have time to shout a warning to Riley, kick her awake or anything. The ship around him slipped away and he was sucked into the uncomfortable sensations of in and out, through and around that accompanied moving in space. A horrible wrenching sensation erupted inside him, as if part of himself was being pulled out and left behind. It was a completely new and highly uncomfortable sensation. There was something completely wrong about it too. He reacted instinctively. Mentally he gathered his resources. He aimed at the source of the pull. He had to stop whatever it was that was tearing him apart and get back to Riley. He could overcome Anna, he just had to.
Anna stopped him. How she managed to connect inside his head, Alec didn’t know. Suddenly, her presence was everywhere. He fought as hard as he could but he didn’t know the trick to getting her out. She was too strong, too forceful. Reeling, Alec’s mental defenses crumbled underneath the onslaught.