The way of bug, p.1
The Way of Bug, page 1
part #2 of Tales of the Gatekeepers Series
The Way of Bug
Tales of the Gatekeepers Book Two
Orlando A. Sanchez
Contents
About the Story
Quotation
Dedication
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
Author Notes
Special Mentions
About the Author
Bitten Peaches Publishing
ART SHREDDERS
Acknowledgements
Contact Me
Thank you
About the Story
Porter is missing, Bug doesn’t know where he is, but she’s going to find out.
Someone has kidnapped Jericho Porter.
After destroying the Gatekeeper HQ, the list of enemies is long.
It doesn’t matter.
Bug is going to find Porter even if she has to leave a trail of bodies in her wake.
When Corman tells her there’s a group of rogue Gatekeepers called The Black Riders who may be behind Porter’s disappearance, Bug does everything possible to locate them and get Porter back.
What she uncovers will challenge everything she thought she knew about Gatekeepers and companions. Secrets will be revealed, and lives will be threatened, starting with her own.
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The difference between me and them, I accepted and embraced my darkness. They fight against it. I know who I am. There’s no way to survive hell without taking a piece of it with you. This is something only dark souls can fully understand.
-B. Vigil
* * *
Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.
Aristotle
Dedication
This one is for (to me) the parents of UF. Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker.
We are still telling your stories.
Thank you for leaving me room to stand on your shoulders.
ONE
Your first and only priority is the life of your Gatekeeper. If your Gatekeeper falls in battle, your death should follow, right after you have destroyed as many of the enemy as possible.
—The Tenets
* * *
I walked into Croft’s and the room became quiet as a hush fell. I was used to that reaction. Especially tonight, when I wore my resting murder face.
I stepped up to the bar and nodded at Croft, who nodded back.
“Where is she?” I asked, taking in the room. I saw her and let my eyes slide past where she sat. She hadn’t changed much.
He motioned with his chin behind me, confirming my thoughts.
“Any news?” Croft asked, concerned.
“Nothing,” I said, still scanning the room. “You?”
“Nothing,” Croft said, shaking his head. “Do you need a hand?”
I gave Croft a long look.
He was solid and, if it came down to it, he was the kind of person you wanted at your back when the dying started. He was also Porter's friend, one of the few.
Port would never forgive me if I managed to get Croft killed. I had a feeling that the path I had to walk to get Port back would involve plenty of death.
“I do, but it can't be you. No offense,” I said. “This is going to be a bloody trail.”
Croft nodded and returned the look. An entire conversation in a glance.
“If it goes sideways and there's no one else to call, you have my number. He's my friend too.”
I nodded.
“Did she come alone?”
“So far.”
I glided over to the table where the lone woman sat.
She was a companion like me. No, not like me. Violence was never her first reaction. This companion was known for being level-headed, diplomatic even.
She glanced in my direction as I approached, but I was certain she’d noticed me the moment I entered Croft's.
I sat opposite her and stared.
There were so few of us left. We avoided gathering in groups these days. The Gatekeepers had ended the companion purge, but that didn't mean some overzealous rookie wouldn't try to take one of us out in an effort to make a name for themselves.
She wore runed gear similar to mine, functional and prepped for combat. In black combat armor under a long trench coat, she was doing a perfect imitation of a dangerous femme badass. She still wore her hair short. Her yellow cat-like eyes locked onto mine.
Furi.
“Bug, what am I doing here? Besides wasting my time?
“He's gone,” I said, struggling with the words. “Port's gone.”
“What do you mean, gone? Did you...?
I gave her a look.
“Did I what?” I asked, resisting the urge to slap some sense into her. “Finish the question.”
“Did you kill him?”
“I would never hurt Port.”
“Every companion says the same thing until they snap and take out their Gatekeeper. Did you end him?”
“I guess I deserve that question,” I admitted with a short sigh. “No, I didn't kill him.”
“With your rep, we all felt it was only a matter of when, not if.”
“Fuck you.”
“You have a funny way of asking for help.”
“I know my reputation... I helped create it,” I said, letting the edge slide into my voice. “The rumors you hear about me are true. All of them.”
I let the words settle between us for a few moments. Furi flexed the muscles of her jaw before speaking.
“You threatening me?”
“I never threaten. You know me better than that.”
“You're blood bonded. Track him.”
“I can't. The bond, it’s jammed up. All I know is he's still alive.”
“So what you're telling me is that you lost your Gatekeeper?”
“Yes,” I said, the single word a stone in the pit of my stomach. “He’s gone.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Furi said. “No one loses their Gatekeeper. He's not a pair of socks you can misplace.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled, making a conscious effort not to rip her throat out.
“I didn't lose him exactly,” I clarified. “He was taken.”
“Taken?” she asked. “Who wants a washed up, retired, Gatekeeper? Are you sure he didn’t just try to escape you?”
“Like you said,” I answered, pushing the image of using Slice on her out of my mind, “we’re bonded. He was taken.”
“Where were you when this taking happened?”
“It's complicated.”
“Complicated?” she scoffed. “Is that code for saying you fucked up?”
“You going to help me or not, Furi?”
“I’m leaning to not,” she said, leaning back and shaking her head. “Right now, you and your Gatekeeper are toxic. He knocked down a building, and not just any building, no, he had to be dramatic about it and knock down the Gatekeeper HQ.”
“I know. I was there.”
“Everyone wants you both dead.”
“Occupational hazard.”
“Then you can understand when my answer is fuck off,” Furi said, clenching a fist. “I won't help you. No companion will. You're on your own…Bug.
She stood and paused.
“Thanks for nothing,” I said, glancing at her. “I hope you never need my help.”
“If I’m ever in shit that deep, trust me, I wouldn’t call you.”
“Always good to know where you stand,” I said. “So much for companion solidarity. I always knew it was BS.”
“I’m doing you a favor,” she said, her voice softer. “You approach any of the other companions with this, their response won't be as polite as mine. You want my advice? Give Porter up and start fresh. Let this go before it gets you killed.”
“You know I can't do that.”
“I know you can’t,” she admitted. “It’s you after all. I had to try.”
“Thanks, but I’m not abandoning him.”
“You want my advice? You walk down this path, it's death.”
I smiled.
“Not mine.”
She shook her head.
“Don't contact me again.”
“I won't, unless you’re part of this,” I said, my voice low and full of the promise of pain. “If I find out you are, you're going to beg me to make it fast, but I won't. You will die slow.”
“Wouldn't expect anything less from you. Goodbye, Freybug.”
I nodded in her direction without looking at her face, my mood considerably darker than when I came in. I hadn't expected her to leap at the opportunity to help me, but, at the very least, she could have pointed me in the right direction.
I cursed under my breath.
I really needed to learn how to use tact. I heard it was useful in moments like these.
Furi walked away, leaving me to my thoughts.
“You sure do know how to make friends,” a voice said from behind me. “I don't know how she didn't jump at the chance to join you, what with that
Corman.
TWO
Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer. It makes stabbing them easier.
—The Tenets
* * *
“Walter, what are you doing here?” I asked without turning around. “Don’t you have some wet behind the ears Gatekeeper to train?”
“I’ve been put on administrative leave, officially,” he said with a growl as he sat across from me. “I’m here because I hear the ale is the best in the city.”
“It is,” I admitted. “Croft”—I glanced at the bar where the huge bear of a man stood—“makes it himself. Some kind of special home brew passed down in his family. What about unofficially?”
“I’m here to help you,” Corman said, keeping his voice low. “To find him.”
“I don’t need help,” I said. “Besides, when was the last time you were in the field? No offense, but you’re not exactly spry.”
“Never have been,” Corman said with a wry smile. “I belonged to the blitzkrieg school of combat. I don’t need to be spry when I can overwhelm you with greater force, which I possess in vast quantities.”
“Still don’t need help, even with all your dizzying amounts of force.”
“You trying to get yourself killed?” he asked. “Is that what this is, a suicide mission because you screwed up?”
“What?” I asked, surprised. “What are you talking about?”
“I heard what Furiosa said. She’s right, no other companion is going to go near you right now. You and Porter are toxic.”
“Knock down one building and suddenly everyone gets their panties in a twist,” I said. “It’s not like he was trying to knock it down.”
“Really?” Corman sat back and crossed his arms. “What exactly was the plan?”
“Fine, he did destabilize the building,” I said. “It wasn’t the original plan. We went in to stop the attack.”
“And you did,” Corman said. “The destruction of the Gatekeeper HQ was a side effect. I heard about the former Director.”
“From whom?”
“The current Director,” Corman said. “Malkah said he betrayed her at the end. Porter saved her life as the building was falling. He could have left her. Why didn’t he?”
“Because Port has lost his damn mind,” I hissed. “What the hell was he thinking? Saving her? She’s probably the reason he’s missing.”
“Love is a tricky thing,” Corman said after a moment of silence. “I agree, the rational thing would have been to let her perish in the building.”
“Exactly.”
“But love isn’t a rational thing,” he said. “It defies explanation and surpasses reason. It makes us do the unexpected and—”
“Insane, it makes people do the insane.”
“I wasn’t going to say insane, but yes, it can make us act in crazy inexplicable ways,” he said. “Like a companion seeking other companions to help her find her Gatekeeper. Irrational.”
“What? Did you hit your head on the way here? I don’t love Port. I can barely stand him.”
“Of course not,” Corman said with a sage nod. I really wanted to smack that smile off his face, but the possibility that he would kick my ass all over Croft’s made me think twice. He was old, not frail or powerless. Besides, I liked the cranky old man. “It’s not like you would risk your life or anything for him. Why not just walk away?”
“You know I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“We’re bonded…a blood bond by the way.”
“Ah, yes, the blood bond,” he said with another nod. “So, sever it.”
“A blood bond can’t be severed,” I said, staring at him. “Not without a ritual, which is lost, or the death of one of those who have been bonded.”
“I know the unbinding ritual,” he said, staring back. “Now, we can cut the bullshit, get to finding Porter, or I can unbind you. You can go on with your life, or you can admit you care deeply for your Gatekeeper and we can find out who’s behind this. Your call.”
“You don’t abandon your partner, bond or no bond—period. Port stood up for me when no one would. Not because I was his companion, but because he cares.”
“Like you care for him.”
“Of course I care for him,” I said. “Would I be asking Furi for help if I didn’t?”
“There, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Corman said with a smile. “The truth is always refreshing.”
“I really hate you, old man,” I said. “How do you know the unbinding ritual?”
“It was never lost, just hidden,” he said. “The binding ritual isn’t either, despite the rumors to the contrary. It’s just too dangerous to perform these days. Nobody wants to manipulate blood magic. It’s too great a risk.”
I stared at him in silence.
“What? You’re serious?”
“Irrelevant,” he said in a voice that told me the topic was closed. “Do you have any leads? What happened after the HQ renovation? Enlighten me.”
“We dropped off Malkah at Gatekeeper Medical and made sure Ryk and Sava got out of the country.”
“How?” Corman asked. “How did you get them out of the country?”
I glanced at the bar again.
“Croft used some of his contacts in the Peacekeepers,” I said, lowering my voice. “At least that’s what Port told me.”
Corman steepled his fingers and became silent.
“I didn’t expect Porter to create this much attention,” Corman said. “He was retired and living a quiet life. He got out, you both did. What changed?”
“Malkah,” I said the name as if it were a curse, which it was. “She called him back because of the Ryk situation. It was a setup.”
“She was set up too.”
“Oh please, she was in on it,” I spat. “She was after what she had always been after. Power. And she got it, didn’t she? She’s a Director now and Port is MIA.”
“She’s also the one that put me on administrative leave with one simple instruction: find Porter and bring him back—alive.”
“Well, if that’s the case, now I trust her completely,” I said, letting my expression convey the sarcasm. “This is Malkah. If you believe her, then you’ve lost your mind.”
“I never said I trusted her,” Corman said. “I said she was the one that sent me to find Porter. Repeat that in your head and let me know when the lightbulb turns on.”
“Oh…shit.”
“Yes,” Corman said with a nod. “Porter falling off the grid isn’t exactly breaking news. Retired Gatekeeper goes missing? I’m going to assume that besides you, Croft and now Furi, no one else knows that he’s gone.”
I shook my head.
“How did she know to send you looking for him?”
“That…is an excellent question.”
THREE
Never hesitate.
Hesitation is the greatest threat you will face. Hesitation will kill you faster than any creature on the street. Always remember this.
—The Tenets
* * *
“I need to speak to her,” I said. “Can you make that happen?”
Corman stared at me for a few seconds before laughing.
“Now who’s the one who’s lost their mind?” Corman said, raising a hand and getting Croft’s attention. “I can tell I’m going to need some of that famous ale.”
“I don’t think I’m being unreasonable,” I said. “She owes us.”
“She owes Porter, not you,” Corman corrected. “He saved her life. You, on the other hand, retired the Trinity, permanently.”
“She mentioned that, did she?” I said. “Didn’t have much of a choice; they were coming for us and it wasn’t for hugs and warm conversation.”
