Califax Read online

  Califax

  Terina Adams

  Copyright © 2020 by Terina Adams

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover by Melissa Stevens at The Illustrated Author Design Services

  Edits by Hot Tree Publishing

  Petrice

  For the kick up the bum I needed

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Author’s Note

  The Dome

  About the Author

  Author’s Note

  I can only assume, since you’ve downloaded Califax, you’ve read the first in the series, Dominus. I will also assume that if you’ve moved on to Califax Dominus was your cup of tea. Yippee!

  So glad you enjoyed it. There is plenty more in store for Sable and the team.

  If you would like some ya sci-fic fantasy action in your inbox now, join my newsletter and receive four stories straight away.

  Happy reading

  Chapter 1

  He could’ve been looking at me right now, obscured within the heaving crowd of gawkers bustling for the perfect vantage point. I glanced around, scrutinizing the faces of the crowd pressing into me. I’d see Carter if he wanted to be seen. And what about Holden? Would he bother to show his traitorous face?

  Jax sat alone on a bus bench across the street, slumped forward, elbows on knees, wrapped in a black overcoat, looking like some misfit suffering from a heavy night on the drink. He was suffering, but the results were not self-inflicted. He stopped taking the pain suppressants, because apparently, they dulled the mind and senses, which meant he’d be feeling the effects from his fight with one of Carter’s Aris minions.

  I'd known Jax only a couple months, and of all the people to betray me, he would’ve had the greatest reason, but he didn’t. According to the twisted principles in his world, we were enemies, yet here Jax and I were, two opposing factions, relying on each other to get through this mess. For me, he promised to help his greatest enemy—Dad.

  The lady beside me elbowed me in the side as she raised her phone to take a photo of the missing top of the Amex Tower. What was once one of the most impressive buildings in the city, the tower now looked like an ugly scar on the landscape, a survivor of some unforgiving savagery. The needlepoint spire that made the building the second-highest building in the city lay blocks away. The top point pierced the paving as if a giant used it for a javelin.

  The police had erected yellow tape three blocks back, while essential personnel moved around the disaster site. Less than twelve hours since the devastation, but already men and women in jumpsuits and booties were combing the area for survivors and clues. This far back and the dust coated all surfaces. It still hung in the air, leaving a chalky smell that scratched the back of my throat. The buildings adjacent suffered damage with a few blown windows but appeared to remain structurally sound.

  The crowd jostled, curious onlookers hoping for a better view. The camera rolled on a news reporter standing just inside the barrier tape. I was keen to hear the latest update on what they knew so far, so I relinquished my spot and shuffled farther right—a tight squeeze by any standard. Desperate to hear her report, I ducked under the tape and stumbled over the debris, making sure to keep close enough I wouldn’t be easily spotted as being on the wrong side of the barricade.

  “No deaths have been confirmed as yet. Initial reports claim everyone on the top floors had already evacuated due to a fire alarm.”

  “Hey, lady.” On hearing the shout behind me, I ducked under the barrier tape and disappeared through the crowd. I heard all I wanted to hear. No deaths so far. It was as good an outcome as I could have hoped.

  The immensity of the destruction ran a slow, winding hand of dread around my heart. No one should be able to do such a thing, at least not with their mind.

  There’d been the slimmest hope I would succeed in stealing the grafter. Even so, I’d been prepared to do it. If not for Tyren’s betrayal, I may have succeeded. What about Holden? I believed in him, believed he meant every word of his lies about factional family being stronger than blood. After everything he'd done for Dad, everything he said to me, I thought I could rely on him.

  Jax didn’t bother to look up as I slid down beside him. He wanted me to stay in his world. He feared Carter would still be around, but Dad was languishing in jail, and Mum and Ajay were missing. Our argument spun in roundabouts until Jax finally gave in when he saw I wasn't going to change my mind. My home world was the only place I could think of finding answers.

  He’d made a remarkable recovery thanks to the pills. Even so, he looked like the loser in a heavy-weight championship gone wrong. I couldn’t shift, so I dragged him, sagging sack of bones and all, back to earth with me, driven by selfish reasons. I gained one thing from Dominus, but I lost everything else—everything worth living for. Carter would be stopped, but I needed to find Mum and Ajay first. Until I could hug them both again, nothing else mattered.

  It was only after my terrible act of destruction that I began to understand what Jax meant when he said we weren't nice people when we became our true nature. On numerous occasions, I'd witness the soulless desire of bloodlust Jax took on when his factional nature won through. I felt the lure to become destruction many times while in the game and then during our fight with Carter at the top of his tower. Jax was right. Releasing the constraints on my ability felt like a sudden injection of something wild and vital, something addictively delicious.

  The shock of Jax's injuries and a narrow escape from Carter's control dampened my need to continue destroying. But while I had laid beside Jax, listening to his steady breath, the power coursed through my veins, fighting to engulf my rational mind and turn it into a weapon I could wield. In equal measure, the idea attracted me and repulsed me, but at times, the attraction felt greater than the repulsion.

  “What do you think of your handiwork?” He used a flat tone devoid of sarcasm or smile.

  I looked at the back of the crowd then ran my eyes up the tower to the gaping wound at the top.

  “It will get better.”

  “What will?” I snapped at him, which wasn't fair. The weight of the last six hours came out as one long sigh, sounding as heavy as the feel of my body.

  Jax ignored my outburst. “Over time, you'll become stronger at controlling your ability, not just in use, but also in desire. The hardest part is the beginning, accepting what you’re capable of and the yearning to allow that side of yourself through. The first acts are the hardest to face. At some point, you become numb to the shock of what you're doing. That's the dangerous time. Allow yourself to be consumed, and your factional nature's all you’ll become. Find t
he balance, and you don't have to be a monster. It's not easy, but you can do it.”

  Only days ago, Jax confessed his pain at being Aris. To him, allowing Aris free was to become a monster.

  “Do you still believe it’s important to release everyone from their grafts?”

  Jax wouldn’t meet my eyes, nor did he seem in any hurry to reply. He winced as he moved on the seat, making me wince too. I rested my palm on his upper arm. “Are you all right?”

  “Recovering with each minute.”

  I was about to apologize for dragging him back here, when he said, “Carter freed me of my graft, and then he stuck me in Dominus. Maybe it would’ve been different if I’d not been forced to use my factional nature in such a way. It made me believe I was nothing else but the desire that consumed me.”

  “You don’t believe that now.”

  “I’m here with you, not with him. That means something.”

  “It means you’re good inside. That’s the real you, not bloodlust.”

  He flashed me a small smile. Hopefully because it hurt to do anything else and not because he thought me sentimental. I had to resist offering my hand as he inched up from the bus seat. I wanted to help him, but he would appreciate the sentiment as much as he would appreciate a poke in the eye.

  “We should go. Every moment we linger, Carter moves closer to his goal. I need to get to the warehouse and see if Dominus is still there.”

  “Maybe Carter’s monitoring the place for our return.”

  “Or perhaps not. It’s stupid to return there. He wouldn’t think me that foolish, so it may work.”

  “What does it matter if Dominus is still there. Who are you going to train?”

  “I want to go back inside. I need to train myself."

  “I don’t think you need any more training.”

  “I need to enter the tunnel. It's something none of us did. Carter forbade it.”

  “You've never been down there at all?”

  "Sure, some parts. I helped build the real tunnel back in our world. But we were all assigned to building separate parts. That way, no one would know the whole route. He planned for only a certain few of us to ever enter the tunnel and then on to the Dome when the final confrontation came. No one but the Senate of Factions and staff have entered the Dome. The staff are grafted individuals. They work within the Dome in strict confidentiality, with harsh penalties for any who slip up, so no secrets ever come from them. It's impossible to breach from the outside. That's why we built the tunnel, so we could enter from underground. Carter and Nixon designed that part of the Dominus program; no one else knew what it looked like.”

  “But what about your tattoo?”

  “It’s a faithful representation, but I’ve never used it.”

  His coat disguised the map snaking up his forearm. Otherwise, my eyes would be walking over it right now.

  “It doesn’t make sense. Why would he be so secretive about reaching the Dome?”

  “You should know by now that there’s no trust between anyone. Not even those who are on your side. Not even amongst your family.”

  “I wish I didn’t know.”

  Jax gently squeezed my arm. “It happened. There’s no point dwelling on it, only in changing the outcome.”

  I inhaled big, taking his words in, forcing them deep within my body so I could believe them enough to know we would change the outcome.

  “Are you the only one with the tunnel tattooed on your body?”

  He nodded. “In our world, the Dome has always been shrouded in secrecy. Few questioned why, as that’s how it’s always been. I hope to learn the secrets the Dome holds before we enter the place for real. I don’t want any surprises, especially from the senate. Hopefully, Carter and Nixon stayed true to our world when they created the replica in the game.”

  “How long will it take you to get through the tunnel?”

  “To be honest with you, I’m not sure. I don’t expect you to follow.”

  “I want to see my dad.”

  He shook his head. "It's too dangerous. Carter may have planted spies at the prison waiting for you to do just that. As Nixon is still in jail, he will be wondering why you have not used the grafter yet to reverse your father's graft and set him free."

  “I have to see him. He'll be wondering what's going on.”

  “No.”

  “I have to let him know I failed. And what Holden did." Jax may not have liked my idea, but I wasn't going to let it go. "This is my family."

  “You want to care for your family, then keep your head down. Don’t let Carter know where you are. Don’t forget your father’s vulnerable too. He’s grafted, but Carter isn’t, nor are a lot of his followers. Now that you’ve escaped his noose, Carter has no reason to keep him alive.”

  The realization turned my legs to lead. “Jesus.”

  “As long as you stay away from him, Carter will see no point in touching him.”

  “I can’t leave him. I have to know he’s all right.”

  “You could be signing his death warrant.”

  “But he’s my dad!”

  “And he killed my family!”

  And there it was, brought out in the open in harsh shouted voices. The ugly wound I was afraid would surface at some point to drive a wedge between us. No matter what Jax did for me, the truth would never go away. I was the daughter of the man who murdered his family. There would be no real forgiveness.

  Both of us stared at each other before Jax collapsed into the seat again like a balloon figure of a man deflating.

  I didn’t have the luxury of stressing over the divide between us, something we would perhaps never be able to erase. There was no time to regret the past, especially actions I had no control over. “Please, Jax.”

  “Going to see your dad is a bad idea. Every part of me says so.”

  “I can say the same about entering Dominus, but I know I can’t stop you.”

  “Ditto for you.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. Jax looked at me from his better eye, the other still visibly injured. I wanted to run a gentle hand down the side of his face and with one magical touch make it all better. He suffered because of me. I remembered that one horrible moment when I thought he betrayed me. Never had relief felt so immense and beautiful as it did when Jax walked through Carter’s office door. Without his interference, my confrontation with Carter would’ve ended badly. Instead of being caught in his web, we were fighting against him.

  All of this because my enemy, someone I was supposed to loath—an Aris—saved me, while a member of my faction—what Holden called family—betrayed me.

  “All right. We’ll get this over and done with. Your father first, and then we go to the warehouse. I also want to find Elva and learn who else is on our side.” The decision seemed to rally his strength, dragging him to his feet.

  “Maybe she went with them.”

  “No, I know her well enough to know she would not do that.”

  “She followed Carter in the first place.”

  “No, she followed me.”

  I tried my hardest, but the look on Jax’s face said I failed. He should never know how I felt. I didn’t even understand the depth of it myself. But when my heart exploded with relief at seeing Jax walk through the door of Carter’s office, to know he hadn’t betrayed me, it had exploded with something more.

  Jax said he and Elva had never been romantic, and she was obsessively stuck on Holden. So stupid, but jealousy was the first emotion to flood my insides. The first emotion was always raw and honest. Only later, when your mind churned through the situation, could you alter your perception and distort how you felt. Yet I had been jealous. Bad, bad timing. These were the wrong emotions to feel. He’d hate them too.

  “We’ve known and trusted each other since we were kids.”

  “Then I’ll trust your belief in her.” Our surroundings became more important to stare at.

  “Months ago, I would’ve said you were foolish to trust m
e.”

  This drew my attention back. “And what do you say now?”

  “It’s the only thing that will help us survive.”

  Chapter 2

  From the prison parking lot, I scanned the wire fence and the surrounding area. Jax disappeared ten minutes ago to skulk around the perimeter, checking the prison surveillance plus any extra surveillance the prison may not be aware of. Carter was too shrewd to make obvious mistakes, so I doubted Jax would find anything.

  Ten minutes, that was all, but the minutes were more like hours. I shifted my weight from foot to foot then paced under the canopy of a large tree. A lusty bloom of wide leaves flowing to the ground from thick boughs created a secluded nest. Parting the leaves, I could see the camera towers at the four corners of the parking lot. According to Jax, they wouldn’t be a problem. Carter’s surveillance system was all we had to worry about, but maybe Dad was no longer of interest to him. Jax scoffed when I made the remark.

  After too much time elapsed, Jax made his way back toward me, taking a different route from the one he departed on. His gait reminded me of what he suffered to get here, a place he didn’t want to be, to see a man he loathed. I could think of no words that would express my feelings adequately enough. Best to focus on what needed to be done.

  “The place looks clear as far as I can see.”

  How confident was he in that assumption? Best not to ask. We both knew how thin the path was we’d chosen to take. Nowhere was safe. No one was our friend. Nothing was reliable. They were the only truths we had left—live by the moment, the only reality we faced.