Phoenix13: Redemption (Phoenix13 Book 2)

Part #8: Una Anima: Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Blood. It clung to him like thorns to cloth, drying on his shaking hands, in his dark, matted hair. His nose burned with the iron smell of it. His mouth was coated with its salty tang. It pounded through his body, hot and spiked with adrenaline. It left tracks like painted veins across the light canvas of his skin. His head swam with a rush of it, sunlight filtering red through his tightly closed eyelids. He hurt all over, as if he'd just fallen over a raging waterfall. His chest burned as if he'd been stabbed in the heart, his ribs pried apart by cruel, merciless fingers.

"Kallie!" The first thing he heard was a voice, rough and loud and familiar. He flinched, his senses as raw and sensitive as a newborn's. Jason, the name found its way through the clouded maze of his mind. Jason, I'm here! He tried to call out but couldn't find his voice. The words died in his throat.

He opened his eyes. Sunlight spilled through the trees above him, touching his face with warm, gentle fingers. The soft scent of crushed pine and decaying leaves mixed with the overwhelming blood-smell, washing over him like a tidal wave. For a moment he was still and silent. Drinking in the soft lines of the rustling tree boughs. And then he saw them.

Bodies. Sixteen of them spread out before him in the scuffed-up dirt. They were cut open and bleeding, the trees drinking their rich life's blood. Kalligan choked, horror rising like bile in his throat. Their blood coated him, sliding between his fingers when he looked down at his hands. He was standing, swaying, his white Nathandrian clothes stained bright red. I did this, he realized. The revelation knocked him to his knees.

"Kallie." Jason burst into the clearing and stopped dead before him, green eyes wide and shocked. "Kallie, what...?" The Outlaw Prince didn't seem to be able to finish his sentence. He looked around, taking in the scene. When his gaze returned to Kalligan, his eyes were cold. Distant. "Are you hurt." There was no emotion in his voice.

Kalligan shook his head. He winced as the movement sent a shock of pain down his spine. His head throbbed; he lifted a hand to rub at his temple.

"Kallie." Jason's jaw twitched, hands clenching at his sides. Kalligan didn't miss the flash of pain in the blonde warrior's eyes. "Are. You. Hurt?"

"No," Kalligan said after a long moment of uncomfortable silence. It was a lie; he hurt all over. His response was simply a reflex born of the desire to never appear weak in front of his captain.

Jason looked at him long and hard. "Bullshit. What happened?"

The other Liberators were beginning to arrive on the scene, spreading out to form a half-circle around Kalligan, Jason, and the mutilated corpses. Kalligan recognized Rithian in the lead, longs strands of brown hair falling across his red headband; Nikki and Blayze hovered behind with a medical kit held between them.

"Caelum." Jason's voice had taken on a hard edge. There was a distinct bitterness in the way he said Kalligan's surname. Like it was an unripe berry he was forced to spit out. "What happened? Who are these guys?" He made a vague gesture at the bodies. "Did you kill them?" There was accusation in his tone, feeding the fire of his now thinly veiled anger. "Answer me!"

Kalligan shrank from Jason's contempt. "I..." He swallowed. His brain was hazy, full of dead ends and half-forgotten dreams. "I don't know."

It was the truth. After falling out of the Timeworld, his memories were a blank slate. Anything that had occurred between then and now had disappeared. Devoured by some inaccessible part of his subconscious. "I can't remember." His voice was small, timid. He couldn't meet Jason's eyes.

"You can't remember," Jason echoed, eyebrows coming together in confusion. "What the fuck do you mean, you can't remember? Fucking hell, Kallie! You killed all these people! There's blood all over you, for fuck's sake!" His voice rose with every word, a strange wildness growing in his gaze. He took a deep breath, eyes closing momentarily. When they opened again, they were calmer but more guarded. "Explain this shit, Kal, or I swear to the gods..." He turned away, reaching up to grip his short hair in both fists. He looked lost, afraid. More afraid than Kalligan had ever seen him. "What you did, I can't forgive it. Not now. Not ever."