Hello! Sorry it took me so long to update, I was out of town and I’ve been so busy with track and everything, I’m so sorry! Good news though – it’s on the agenda to finish Omega by June 12th (my last day of school) because after that I won’t be able to write for like 5 weeks, so I’m going to do my best to finish. 47 days! This is pretty stressful. So hopefully I’ll be able to upload mas frecuentamente. So enjoy this chapter and please comment loads, tell me what you think! What’s going to happen, who’s going to do what?!

Gracias!!! <3 vb123321

***** Recap: ******

“I am wondering a couple things, though.” Astrid didn’t let him speak. “Why don’t you have a British accent?” And as Pierre rolled his eyes, she continued. Only the sudden tautening of the skin across her cheekbones gave me warning; her voice didn’t change at all as she said calmly, “And why is that Stephen guy from the SIS sitting at that table over there?”

Chapter Twenty-One



♦ Charlie ♦



SIS? What was she talking about?



I stiffened, glancing over Pierre’s head as he managed to pull off a reasonably good look of fake surprise. The college kid I had seen earlier and then ignored was half-facing us, seemingly focused on the laptop before him, but I got a good look at him. His sandy hair was hidden by a baseball cap that also hid his face as he slouched in his booth. I wasn’t sure if it was really him – after all, I’d only seen him once on the train back in France and didn’t know him personally – but if Astrid said it was him, then it was.



And those men in business suits…why did they keep looking up?



How could we have been so stupid? Immediately I stood, taking Astrid’s arm and pulling her up as well. Pierre got to his feet at the same time, one hand in his pocket as he looked at me warningly.



“Don’t do anything stupid, Charlie.”



“Who’s being stupid?” I shot back, clenching the handle of my gun in my pocket. “We’re just going to leave now, if that’s okay with you.”



“It’s not, actually,” he said passively, stepping into my path as I tried to push past him. I glared at him, my mind working furiously as I glanced from the nervous-looking cashier to the men in the suits to Stephen. Calculating. How many of them would risk firing a gun in a public café? Those teenaged girls couldn’t be part of their agency.



“Pierre.” Astrid was so taut that I thought she might snap. “You gave me your word that I could trust you.”



“You thought that meant something?” I would’ve laughed if the atmosphere wasn’t snapping with tension.



“You can trust me.” Pierre’s face hadn’t changed expression. “No one’s threatening you. Come back with us; we can help you.”



Astrid was wavering, just a little, but I shook my head, scoffing, “Please, spare me the crap. You don’t want to help us, you want to use us. We know you want the kid, Pierre, but we also know what else you want.”



He looked at me sharply, his jaw clenching in anger, but I took the opportunity to take advantage of his momentary surprise and shove him backwards. As he stumbled against a chair, I moved towards the door of the café, Astrid right behind me. The SIS agent, Stephen, rose from his chair as the bell on the door jingled, a gun in his hands and pointed at us. The cashier screamed, ducking behind the counter, but Astrid and I were already moving, sprinting out of the café and across the street.



Two shots echoed behind us before the sound of someone yelling stopped the gun. As we reached the car and threw ourselves into it, we saw Pierre come out of the café, a phone pressed to his ear, the other men dashing towards us. Swearing, I slammed my door shut and braced myself as Astrid reversed the car rapidly, turning out of the parking lot onto the street. She was trembling, I noticed, but more from anger than anything, swearing under her breath as she stamped on the gas.



“That little…” She then proceeded to call him every unprintable name she could think of.



“Hope you don’t mean me,” I said, feeling strangely triumphant. Even though I could see in the rearview mirror that one of the men was a block behind us in his car, the fact that I had one up over Pierre was enough to make me grin.



“Shut up,” she snarled, clearly not thinking the same as me, and I obeyed as she steamed through a red light and whipped around a corner. I pressed myself back in the chair as we hurtled down the street, keeping my eyes on the rearview mirror as the car drew nearer and nearer.



“Astrid,” I said warningly.



“I know, I know, I see it!”



The car was coming too close for comfort, the man behind the wheel staring at me in the mirror as I began to make out the muscles tightening in his jaw and the sweat beading on his forehead. Something in my stomach flipped as I focused my eyes back on the road in front of us, my eyes widening as I realized that we were heading for a narrow turn bordered on each side by massive stone buildings.



“Astrid –”



“Don’t worry,” she said confidently, the picture of calm, but I whipped around to look at the car behind us, putting the pieces together just a second before it happened.



“Holy crap!”



Something slammed into us from behind, jarring my entire body and throwing me forward into the dashboard. Something white exploded in my face as my palms slammed into the windshield, and dimly I heard Astrid swearing at the top of her lungs. I removed my head from the airbag, blinking to clear my vision, staring at the road. Astrid had managed to keep us in the street, her face strained as she pressed down hard on the brake.



But the man had done what he had planned: Though Astrid was able to control the car’s speed, she couldn’t handle the rotation as the car spun around wildly, the wheel twisting out of her hand as her mouth opened in a scream that never came out. I braced myself for the impending collision, squeezing my eyes shut as the side of the car crashed into the brick building, throwing my body to the right. My head snapped back hard, cracking against the glass of the window, and for a moment I could make out a fuzzy-looking Astrid crying my name.



And then I blacked out.



It was only a manner of seconds before colors erupted across my vision again. I raised my head groggily, instinct already making me duck before I was even fully conscious. Astrid was crouched in her seat, firing out of the shattered window on her left, and even as I pointed my own gun at the other car, one of her bullets hit the man. He toppled into his windshield, and Astrid sank back into her seat, looking over at me.



“You okay?”



Her eyes were wide. I nodded, reaching across her to struggle with the door handle. She sprang out of the car before me, swinging her gun up in a one-eighty movement to check out the road as I straightened dizzily. My head ached, but I ignored it, clutching my own gun tightly as I looked around for somewhere to go.



“They’re coming,” said Astrid suddenly, tensing. “We have to get off the street.”



Looking down the street, I saw another car swing into the road, braking as a couple men stepped out of it. Making several decisions all at once, I grabbed her arm, gesturing towards the stone building into which we had crashed. It didn’t look like it had been hurt in the slightest by the collision.



“Let’s check this place out.”



We darted around the car, staying low, and I moved cautiously around the side of the building, confident that the men couldn’t see us from that angle. It was only a matter of time before they did – it wasn’t like they couldn’t walk – and so it was with relief that I spotted a set of doors. Jerking my head to Astrid, I slipped inside the building with her behind me, immediately flattening against the inner wall.



It was some sort of reception hall and we were in the foyer. I led Astrid into the back of the room as I looked around carefully, gun held up close to my chest. The foyer was empty, but people’s voices came from the room beyond; most likely some sort of party was going on. I could hear singing and laughter, and through the glass doors were the bright colors of party dresses.



“Find a way out,” hissed Astrid, so close to me that I was having difficulty breathing.



“I’m trying!”



I walked around to the other side of the foyer, yanking open a couple doors, but they only led to coat closets and bathrooms. What kind of place was this that there was only one entrance and exit? Swearing inwardly, I turned back to Astrid, who was watching the door. She flashed me a warning look – they were close – and I gritted my teeth.



“One way to do this,” I said grimly, gesturing her over to one of the doors. “Maybe there’s another door out of that reception room; through the kitchen, I’m betting.”



“What, we’re just gonna barge in there? You should’ve told me to dress for the occasion.” She shut up as she saw what kind of closet it was, grinning at me as she took the dressy coat I was handing her. “You’re brilliant sometimes, Charlie,” she said as she began to shrug it on.



“Only sometimes?” I shot back, pulling a large overcoat over my sweatshirt. She looked at me for half a second, obviously hiding a smile, and I reflected sourly that the coat was built for a much larger man. Ignoring how stupid I most likely looked, I stuck the hand holding my gun in my pocket and took Astrid’s arm, pushing open the door to the reception room slowly.



No one reacted to our entrance. They were all too busy ooh-ing and ah-ing over a massive white cake at one end of the room, where a young woman in a long white dress stood next to a man in a tuxedo. Great, a wedding. I sent up a silent prayer that we wouldn’t ruin it for the happy couple – who wanted their wedding to be screwed up by rogue spy agencies?



Astrid and I stuck to the sides of the room, maneuvering our way around the crowd. I kept one eye on the door, my hand slipping out of my pocket and holding the gun behind my back as I saw dark figures in the previously empty foyer. Pierre’s agency had arrived. Astrid saw them as well, her eyes darker than usual from the tension as we crept along the back wall.



And then my heart nearly stopped beating as a man in a suit turned around and made direct eye contact with me. His eyes were piercing blue, paralyzing me for a just a second as I recognized the slight bulge under his shoulder and the defensive stance he took, and then Astrid exclaimed, “Wulf!”



I remembered who he was then, exhaling in relief that he wasn’t an immediate danger, although I still wasn’t sure if we could trust him. Astrid remembered the agent who had found the safe house a moment too late, tensing again as Wulf stared at us.



“What the hell are you two doing here?”



“Hiding,” I said shortly, peering over at the door. “Crap, they’re coming. Excuse us, won’t you?”



Wulf turned slightly to look at the door, his eyebrows rising. “Why are they – they’re after you?” he asked, realizing, but we were already moving away. He followed us, hiding our movements with his bulky figure, and I wished he would just leave us alone as we reached the other end of the room. A door was there, a swinging one that led to the kitchen area, and Astrid and I burst through it without thinking twice.



“Sorry,” I muttered to a surprised waitress as we pushed past her to the back exit. Astrid followed me through the door into a back street, a blast of cold air greeting us, and we both fell against the brick of the building as Wulf came through after us. I jerked my gun in his direction but he waved it away, keeping on eye on the kitchen.



“Why is Delta here?” panted Astrid, still poised to flee.



Wulf looked at her, his eyes snapping tensely. “I can’t tell you that –”



I swore loudly; the adrenaline pumping wildly through my veins left me with little control, and my head still pounded. “Just freaking tell us – what are you doing here?”



“We had a lead about Cloying’s bunch.” Wulf spoke quickly, still looking over his shoulder. “I’m supposed to be in position, I can only stay a moment. Something about this place is important; I’m not going to say exactly what. It really doesn’t concern you guys.”



“Well, thanks for calling us out to every Delta agent in the building then.” Astrid’s voice was acid. “You really think any of them missed you running after us?”



Wulf glowered at her but didn’t react to that, just said, “You better get a move on before they come out. I’ll try and hold them off.”



“We’re leaving now,” I said tersely, ripping off my borrowed coat and tugging Astrid’s arm as she stripped off hers as well. “Come on, we should get out of here. Josh will be flipping out.”



“Is he with the kid?” asked Wulf, glancing at me, and I frowned briefly.



“What’s it to you?”



He made a noise of frustration. “Can’t you guys ever trust me? I’m not trying to hurt you or turn you in or anything, I’m trying to help.”



“Yeah, well,” Astrid’s face was tight with anger, “that’s what Pierre said, too. Take a good look at those guys back there from his agency – see the guns in their hands? Help getting us to the next world, maybe.”



Wulf scowled. “All right, then, go – but I’m serious, if you ever need something, just tell Josh to call me. I swear that I’ll do anything I can.”



“Yeah, thanks,” I threw over my shoulder as I began moving down the street, Astrid behind me. As we drew away from the reception hall, I glanced back to see Wulf staring at us, but when I caught his eye, he turned and walked around the side of the building to go back in. I shrugged him off, concentrating on the road in front of us, because if Wulf said that Delta was here because of Cloying, that meant –



It was as though my thought had conjured him up. My eyes were distracted by a figure moving in a side alley, walking towards us, and I jumped into hyperactive mode immediately, whipping my gun in his direction and shoving Astrid away. She stumbled slightly on the pavement, pointing her own gun at the man, but I grasped her wrist and pulled her away from the alley, backing away as well.



My blood pounded violently through my veins, my breath coming short and fast; his effect on me was tremendous, though he had yet to move aggressively. He stopped about ten feet in front of us, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at me impassively. I was transfixed, caught like a deer in headlights, and though Astrid was pulling at my arm and yelling at me to shoot him or run or both, I found that I was unable to respond.



Those dark, pitiless eyes held me captive as he said, “Saudades de mim?” Miss me?



I opened my mouth but no words emerged; his stare had taken hold of my vocal cords as well. It was as if I were trapped in one of my nightmares with him standing before me, his dark features hiding a madman, and some little part of my brain woke up enough to whisper: Astrid. I brought up my gun, my arm shaking like a leaf, but my finger was unable to move on the trigger.



“Going to shoot me?” The Portuguese looked amused, his native tongue flowing off his lips and translating itself instantly in my ears. “Or are you too big a coward?”



Why was it this so hard? What was it about him that made scared me to my very core?



“Kill him, Charlie,” whispered Astrid from behind me, and vaguely I wondered why she didn’t fire her own gun.



“Você não temo nervo,” Finn sneered. You don’t have the nerve.



He was going to hurt her. He was going to kill her. And he wasn’t even armed – no gun was in his hand, but there was one in mine. I had done it hundreds of times before, pull my finger back to release the trigger to send the bullet spinning forward – I could almost see it happening in my mind’s eye, and yet still my hand was frozen. My entire body was shaking, my only thought for Astrid’s safety – I kept shoving her backwards as she tried to take my arm – but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t shoot him.



“Why don’t you put the gun down?” He was still motionless, watching me. “You know you can’t use it…you know what happens when you threaten me…or have you already forgotten? Do you need reminding?”



His eyes flicked to Astrid, and my heart almost stopped.



“No!” I threw my arms out to protect her, momentarily dropping my gun hand.



And suddenly he moved, as quickly and mercilessly as a striking python, one hand chopping down on my wrist so that the gun fell from my nerveless fingers. At the same time, he punched me in the face, knuckles crunching against the bone in my nose, and even as blood began to trickle down my face, he grabbed me by the throat, whipping me around as if I was a rag doll and crushing me against the brick wall. Gagging on blood and from his grip, I kicked at his legs, my eyes fixed on his. Their black pits stared me down, filling my entire vision, darkening it as I gasped for air.



The sound of a shot rang out, and after a split second of confusion, the grip on my throat lessened and I collapsed to the ground, retching and spitting blood all over the ground. Finn had stepped backwards, dark red blossoming from his left shoulder, and I pushed myself shakily to my feet to see Astrid with a gun in her hand, about to fire again. The Portuguese began to back away, disappearing into the alley again, his eyes fixed on me as I stared at him.



“Next time,” he said, not raising his voice; the words reached me anyway, they would reach me anywhere. “Next time it’ll just be you and me. And then we’ll see just how big a coward you really are.”



And then he was gone. If not for the blood still pouring out of my nose and the constriction of my throat, I might have thought that he had never been there. Even so, I was mentally disorientated, spinning on the spot to look at Astrid, see if she was all right, because if this nightmare were real, then he would have gone after her. But she was fine, though her face was pale, and she looked at me as though I were a wild animal.



“Why didn’t I kill him?” My voice was a thousand miles away.



Astrid had a funny look in her eyes as she shook her head wordlessly.



“I had a gun in my hand the whole time…”



“Come here,” she said quietly, but I couldn’t move, glued to the spot by the confusion of my mind. My palms were sweating, my head spinning, and the adrenaline was fighting the fatigue of my body, speeding up my breathing. The coldness of the air was slowly coming back, making me shake even with my jacket on. One hand rose unconsciously to my throat, touching the bruises his hand had left, and I gagged as a reflex, coughing into my arm.



Astrid was suddenly right in front of me, tucking her gun into her pocket as she reached up and pulled my hand away from my throat, holding it tightly. “You’re okay, Charlie,” she said softly, her voice soothing in my ears, but I shook my head in dizzy bewilderment.



“He was going to kill you.”



“I’m fine.” She dug for a moment in her jacket pocket before pulling out a Kleenex and then began to gently mop the blood off my face. “How about you? Nose broken, do you think?”



Something logical. Gingerly I felt the bridge of my nose, forcing myself to think rationally so that my mind didn’t fall to pieces. “It’s okay,” I said after a moment. “Nothing like tough old cartilage.”



Astrid smiled, relief glittering in her eyes. She didn’t step away, even though my nose had stopped bleeding by that point, and I realized all at once how close she was to me. Her eyes swamped me, filling my vision like Finn’s had, but in a much different way. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, breathe her in, believe that she could take away the fear. She was safe.



“Maybe we should get out of here.” She stepped away from me, and my lungs expelled all their air in one long whoosh. “Those Omega agents –”



“Omega?” I repeated distractedly, wiping my palms on my jeans and scooping my gun up off the ground.



She shrugged. “It’s what I decided to call Pierre’s agency. That sign was on that card, remember, and did you notice how strongly he reacted to what I wrote on the table?” A self-satisfied smirk appeared on her face, and I couldn’t help smiling as I looked up at her.



“Called his bluff, babe. I’m proud of you.”



Another blasé shrug as she pretended to look like she wasn’t upset with the whole encounter, but I saw in her eyes that she was hurt. She looked over my shoulder down the street, her eyes narrowing as she said, “I think they’re coming…”



We were both mentally out of it, I realized as her words clicked. The agents – Omega, I thought with an inward smile – were emerging from the back of the reception hall; I wondered for a split second why it had taken them so long. And then where my brain had gone.



“Why are we still standing here?” I wrapped my fingers tightly around my gun as I grabbed her arm and began to sprint down the street. Adrenaline spiked through my veins again, making my heart race as someone shouted behind us.



“We can’t run all the way back to the hotel,” Astrid pointed out as we ducked around a corner, and I swore.



“Pierre set us up. Of course he’d make it far away from where we were in hope that our car gets conveniently totaled.” I was so angry with him that I could barely speak coherently, my words tumbling out as I looked in back of me.



Unbelievably, Astrid still found time to defend him. “But how could they know where we were staying? Like, how did he know just how far away to make out meeting place?



“Do you always have to be so freaking logical?” I demanded, slowing as we came to a more civilized area. “Maybe it was luck.”



She ignored this, looking around. Thinking fast, I pulled her into the nearest shop, which happened to be a ladies’ clothes store. As we both stuck our gun-hands into our pockets quickly, Astrid began rifling through a rack of shirts, her eyes flicking to the shop window. I turned my back to it so that they couldn’t see my face if they looked in, even though I hated not being able to see the street. Fortunately the clerk was busy with another customer; one look at our sweaty faces and the blood all over me, and there would be a 911 call quicker than anything.



“I think they’re gone,” she breathed, peering over my shoulder as I held up a shirt on a hangar to block my face from the clerk. “They moved past. Should we leave?”



“Let’s get out of here,” I agreed fervently. Before he comes back, I didn’t say, trying to breathe deeply and gain control of my quirking nerves. “Then we can call Josh or Google how close we are to the hotel or something.”



She nodded. “’Kay. Should we go –?”



“Excuse me, can I help you?”



We both jumped as the clerk called in our direction, and Astrid pasted a smile on her face, waving one hand airily. “No, we’re good, thanks. We’ll look somewhere else.”



“If you’re sure –”



“Too right I’m sure,” I muttered, sliding the shirt back onto the rack and pulling my gun discreetly out of my pocket once more. Astrid tucked her hand into the crook of my arm again as we walked casually out of the shop, or at least as casually as one could with a bloodstained, sweaty face. I tried not to show how her touch was only making my nerves even jumpier.



We moved out of the shop, immediately scanning the street. No one was near us, but as I looked further down the street, I caught sight of the men again; they were made distinctive by their straight backs and tensed arms that meant they had one hand on a gun in their pockets. I clutched my own a little more tightly, jerking my head in their direction. Astrid had already seen them, her dark eyes flicking around, looking for some way out.



“What should we do?”



“Blend in,” I hissed, my heart pounding as I looked behind me. I couldn’t tell if there were men there, too, but I didn’t want to go anywhere near that reception hall again, not where I had seen him disappear. My mouth was still drenched with the taste of blood. Catching her hand, I dragged her into the shade of a building, pulling her close to me. I could almost feel her confusion coming off her in waves and released her hand before I did something stupid.



“How do we blend in?” she asked, like she wasn’t a professionally-trained agent, peering down the street with worried eyes. “Don’t you think we should backtrack?”



“Kiss me,” I said wildly, the words coming out before I realized what I was saying. Immediately I clamped my mouth shut as her eyebrows shot up in half-amusement, half-puzzlement. I swore silently, cursing myself for being so stupid; why wasn’t my brain wired correctly right now, why couldn’t I think logically? The adrenaline coursing through me was taking over.



She laughed, out of the blue. “Kiss you?”



It was teasing, but it tore at my heart. Bitterness welled up inside of me, my smile weak as I tried to look like I was joking as well. “It’s so easy for you to kiss Pierre, or Jay, or anyone else. Why not me?”



It didn’t come out as a joke. And Astrid hadn’t been trained to notice mood changes for nothing – her eyes widened slightly, the smile sliding off her face as realization, or something near it, began to dawn on her face. She was almost there – she was so close to understanding – there was still a chance for me to take it back. But the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth, those words to put relief and laughter back in her eyes as her mouth opened and closed again.



“Charlie…”



I extended a hand, placing it gently on her lips. “Don’t. Don’t even say it.” I took a deep breath and dropped my hand, sticking it awkwardly in my pocket. “I’m sorry. That was a stupid thing to say.”



“No–” She was blinking rather rapidly, hands covering her own mouth now; she looked almost as though she could be sick. “No – Charlie – I –”



“I said I didn’t want to hear it.” The words came out more roughly than I intended; I turned away from her so that she couldn’t see the tears that were forming in my eyes from the shock in her own. The confusion. The incomprehension. All this time, she really hadn’t known?



“Charlie…” she tried again, but I brushed away her outstretched hand, stepping back into the street.



“Come on.” My voice sounded harsh, too harsh, but I had no control. “You’re right, we should backtrack. Let’s go, then, while they’re distracted; we better get back to the others.”



And before she could say anything, I began walking down the street, knuckles white around the handle of my gun, even though it wouldn’t have been any use: My vision was too blurred to aim properly.