Tangent (A Liminals prequel novella) by Maree Anderson

Tangent: Chapter Three

Tangent

By Maree Anderson

Chapter Three

This time Rixon came to sprawled on a single bed, in a room-cum-cell that could have been a twin to the one where Lily was being held. He groaned, stretching aching, throbbing limbs that felt like he'd put them through a week of abuse. Staring at the ceiling, determined not to give in to the despair that lay coiled in his gut, he muttered a heartfelt, "Well, shit."

"Got your arse royally Tasered, huh? Been there. Suffered a dose of that. Makes you feel like shite."

Rix rolled off the mattress to his feet, fists raised, poised to inflict grievous bodily harm... except the room spun, and the tiny pulsing spots dancing before his eyes made him sway like a drunk on a major bender.

"Hey, easy there, mate. Give yourself a moment or three to recover, eh? Not to mention it's only polite to check whether I'm a friendly before you come out swinging. Just so's you know, I'm mostly harmless."

Rix honed in on the direction of that voice until he spotted a kid leaning on the wall by the bottom of the bed. He was barefoot, dressed in gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt. He was tall but lanky—all arms and legs. It was hard to gauge his age. A year or so younger than Lily, maybe?

"Take a load off before you fall over and knock yourself out or something," the kid advised. "Which would be a truly dumb-arse thing to do, considering I'm about to fill you in on how things work in this bloody hellhole. Such as don't waste your time 'n energy trying the door. Ditto with phasing. Take my word for it, you're stuck here."

The kid nodded approvingly when Rix flopped back on the bed. Not that he'd had to think too hard about complying. For one, the kid wasn't brandishing a motherfucking Taser so there was no harm in chilling for a bit. Beat the heck out of falling on his ass, anyway. And two, knowledge was power. If this kid wanted to share what he knew, Rix had nothing to lose... and Lily's freedom to gain.

"Good decision," the kid said. "Cool dreads, by the way." His eyes were freaky—a light shade of blue that looked too bright and intense to be real—not to mention just plain weird paired with the black of his pupils. And his accent was English—like that vamp from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

With the memory of the TV show that had been his mom's secret vice, came a pang of loss. If his parents had been alive, they could have taken Lily in, given her the stable home and love she deserved—

Rix clipped the thought before it could take root. This wasn't the time to mourn the past and get all wishful about what might have been.

"To be honest," the kid was saying, "when His Terribleness brought you in and dumped you here, it just about scared the bejesus outta me."

Rix stilled, his full focus now on the kid. "Did this guy wheel me in or—"

"He phased you in. Hence me being taken completely by surprise."

Shit. Shit! "Describe this guy to me. Was he around seventeen-eighteen, white-blond hair and green eyes? Did he have—?"

"A truly unoriginal facial piercing?"

Rix nodded, hiding his dismay. "Gold hoop through the left brow."

"That would be Liam Kincaid, AKA Terrible Twin Number Two. His father is the guy who runs this hellhole."

Well, hell. Looked like Blondie had managed to get through Rix's defenses to force a sync. Which meant that if Blondie was as good as Rix suspected, he'd mapped Rix's energy sig, too. Just his shitty luck to encounter an unusually well trained, strong-as-fuck lim.