SNEAK PEAK

Alchemy Secrets: Aether Walker 5

CHAPTER ONE

Monday, November 14th

KANDICE HUNKERED DOWN FOR THE NIGHT in an abandoned house, with Lance and Slava. The cheap plywood front door, and windows with holes throughout, did little to keep the bugs out. The worst part of the place had to be the heavy odor of animal piss, so pungent she avoided deep breaths.

Lance and Slava were dead asleep on the rickety wooden floor in sleeping bags. The smell kept Kandice from drifting off. Regret of meeting Lance haunted her thoughts. Hunting Aether Walkers should have meant staying in nice houses for a couple months at a time before moving. No one told her that the Council only maintained influence in major cities, and that they'd be frequenting small town USA.

Not that it mattered. The Council wasn't on speaking terms with Slava for taking Kandice along before the Biancardi twins examined her further. Everyone agreed after the first encounter with the twins, there was no reason to allow a followup examination.

They left in such a hurry from Austin that they almost forgot to inform the Council of the plans to move. Regardless, the Council made contact in Dallas to explain that the three of them no longer had the Councils resources and protection until further notice. Exile was better than death, but it brought with it several issues, the largest at the moment being her stuck in a rotting house. The floor offered little comfort and no matter how many times she moved, no spot allowed her to relax.

They spotted the house earlier from the highway. It was in the middle of a large farm field, and Lance figured it would be empty. He and Slava slept in plenty of houses just like it, across the US. They assured her everything would be fine. But that was apparently a lie, or a misunderstanding of the exact definition of fine.

Animals scurried in the walls, causing her hair to stand.

Enough!

She slid out of the sleeping-bag, rolled it up and went out the back door they'd pried open earlier. The night sky was breathtaking. The glow of lights from a city was unseen in any direction. It felt like she was at sea with only the stars to guide her. A longing to understand the stars filled her; if only she knew the constellations. This had to be how the original pioneers lived.

The clean air refreshed her body as it filled her lungs. There would be no way to block out the aroma of piss enough to sleep. Austin was always an option, her mustang parked behind the house tempted her. If she drove away now, she'd be back in Austin within 48 hours, depending on sleep.

The thought of sleep made her realize how tired she was. Since leaving Austin she hadn't been able to sleep more than a couple hours at a time.

How does Slava live on that schedule?

Blake's bloody corpse kept haunting her dreams, plus her mother appeared each night to remind her this whole mess was her own fault.

Kandice took a pack of cigarettes from her pants and lit one. She shouldn't have started, but the pain of smoke in her lungs helped take her mind off Blake.

Once the cigarette finished, she flicked it away from the house, onto the gravel driveway.

She rolled the sleeping-bag out on the porch under a hole in the roof; crawled in and stared up to watch the stars. With any luck she'd be able to sleep until the dawn broke. She tried to count the stars, but only made it to 137 before drifting into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

"BLAKE LOOK OUT!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, the sound echoing off the walls of the mayor's house.

She stood on the upstairs walkway looking at Blake on the staircase.

The guard raised his gun in slow motion. He pulled the trigger, the shot filled the room with light. She yelled out again, but the bullet struck Blake in the chest. He toppled over and tumbled down the stairs towards the guard who stood at the base.

Kandice leapt over the rails to kill the guard, but he disappeared before she landed.

The next moment, she stood in a dark room lit by a small desk lamp far in the distance.

"You failed," the Mayor said. "It was your fault, and you couldn't kill me. Now I will kill you."

He laughed in a monotone voice, which reminded Kandice of old Kung Fu movies she used to watch with Blake.

"No. I'll fucking kill you!" Kandice screamed.

"Honey," her mother appeared next to Kandice with an arm on her shoulder. "You have to let it go."

"I can't. I have to kill him for Blake, and I have to find the one who killed you."

"It's okay sweetie. It's your fault Blake's dead and killing the mayor won't bring him back."