Page 52 of Dust to Dust

After Nova jarred the door, it took our men four hours to remove the massive door and free us. It was an error we would fix. Within your walls, you feel safe, and sometimes you think you are so safe you let small details slip. Once all the storms passed, we agreed to have our brothers walkthrough of our homes. Fresh eyes would help solve slip-ups like this.

Titan had not slept more than an hour at a time, nor did he let anyone read the letter Nova left him. He was glued to the computer as he scanned through screen after screen. He had sectioned off three entire divisions at King Corporations, now devoted to our needs. One worked on finding Nova; the other searched for Mila and the last was trying to locate Dash. These were not small teams either. The men and women working in each division headed our black site programs. They were the top when it came to covert operations. We recruited people from governments all over the world. We offered the same high they got from government work, but with much better benefits and protection. However, our teams were struggling, no thanks to The Rites of Passage, who created roadblocks in our search. Some of our intel was wiped well other sources had vanished.

The latest we knew about Nova was that she took her bike and stopped along the way a few times for gas, paying with cash, but we could track her movement through satellite images. That is until she reached a secluded patch of wood in Pennsylvania. The trees acted as a perfect cover our satellites couldn't penetrate. We covered all the road exits, but she never appeared. Forty miles west was a strange clearing surrounded by trees. When we zoomed in closer, we discovered it was a small airfield. Only a small Cessna could land on its short runway. Currently, our team was combing through flight records, but when we came up empty, I knew whoever piloted the plane was working under the radar. The aircraft and runway were most likely used to smuggle drugs—another dead end. In time we would find Nova. It was just going to take time. Time I didn't think Titan would be able to digest.

Not only did I fear for Titan, but Dash was MIA, and unlike Nova, Dash had the training and resources to vanish if he ultimately wanted to. I didn't know what was happening between The Rites of Passage and the mysterious vanishings from Empire University.

At least Titan had the sense to allow me to stay with him so I could help. He'd bark out orders, grunt and snap. He even slugged me in the jaw twice already. I'd rather him take his anger out on me than someone else. I could handle his rage. The rest of the world couldn't.

"And Dash?" Dante whispered.

A consistent raking of metal against stone hummed in the background. Anders sat in the corner meditatively as he polished the blade of his ax with a smooth stone he always carried in his pocket. When he first did this during our time at Initiation 101, it pissed me off. Like nails on a chalkboard. Eventually, the scraping sound became rhythmic, like a lullaby that calmed me, just as it settled him.

"I have no fucking idea." I grunted, "Dash has the resources to vanish. Nova doesn't."

Or did she?

"Maybe they are working together?" Dante suggested.

It wasn't a terrible suggestion, but I knew that wasn't the case. “No."

"Do you think The Rites of Passage is working with Nova?"

"Don't ask Titan that." I hissed. I already did, and he just about broke my jaw. "I think Nova had safeguards in place when she first came here. Safe-houses and connections. I believe she tapped into them when shit hit the fan."

Cillian had joined our conversation. "Why now? Why not turn to Titan for help."

What would I do in this situation?

Like me, Nova had a hard time admitting she cared for people, but she'd protect those who did capture her heart just as I protected my brothers and Isabella.

"She's trying to protect Titan, all of us," I could see it in her eyes during the terrible breakfast she continued to cook for us. As she watched us, I studied her. There was a somber look in her eyes when she smiled. She looked at the table as a whole as if she was taking a picture of it in her mind. A memory she wanted to capture before she committed herself to a kamikaze mission.

"Protect us from The Rites of Passage?" Cillian asked.

“No." My phone started to ring, "Maybe. I'm not sure yet." I shrugged as I pulled my phone out. I stepped away from my brothers and climbed the stairs. An unknown number flashed on the screen for a FaceTime call. Once I was free from all the commotion downstairs, I answered. The screen opened to a beautiful woman with sleek platinum blonde hair framing her face.

"What the fuck!" I hissed as I looked at Nova through the screen. "Where are you? Do you have any idea what you are doing to Titan!" I raised my finger, "I told you if you hurt him, I would kill you." I growled. I pulled back my anger, so I didn't crush the phone in my hands.

She rolled her big grey eyes. That's it. I was going to strangle the woman. I'd bend space and time, reach through this phone and deal with her. "Will you calm down? Gosh, so dramatic."

"I'm dramatic!" I turned and started to head towards the basement.

"Stop!" Her eyes looked around the room. She knew where I was going. "You should have called Titan." Why was she calling me, and what was up with the change of hair again? This woman was too much even for me.

"I need a favor. Go someplace we can talk in private."

I must have lost my damn mind. I turned my back on my brothers and slipped into the butler's pantry down the hall towards the kitchen. "You better tell me you were kidnapped and held for ransom."

Nova laughed, "As if someone could kidnap me."

"This isn't a joke. Do you know what monster Titan has become since you ran from him?" Pain flashed in her steel eyes. Finally, her mask slipped.

"I'm doing this for him," she licked her full lips, which were coated in a pink gloss, "for all of us. So shut the fuck up and listen. I don't have much time."

I looked behind her. She was walking down a street and then fumbled for keys as she got into a car. It was dark out, which eliminated a few places around the world. In the far corner of the screen was a parking sign in French.

Nova was in France.

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