Read arbitrate (daynight) Online
Authors: Megan Thomason
arbitrate (daynight)
arbitrate
(daynight #2)
by Megan Thomason
To all the fabulous bloggers and readers who share their love for the written word.
Copyright information
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, entities, events, portals, alternate worlds and the like in the
daynight
series are fictional and products of the author's overly active imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright (c) 2013 by Megan Thomason
Cover art by Jon Thomason
Professionally edited by Jill Marie Swanson
Professionally proofread by Angelique Bodine and Sher A. Hart
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Series reading order
daynight (daynight
#1
)
clean slate complex (daynight
#1.5
)
arbitrate (daynight
#2
)
Note
arbitrate
jumps in where
daynight
and
clean slate complex
left off and does not spend time rehashing previous events.
If you need a quick reminder of where things left off in
daynight
, click
here
.
If you have yet to read
clean slate complex
(
daynight
#1.5), it is available for free on Amazon. New characters are introduced in
clean slate complex
who play important roles in
arbitrate
. If you need a refresher, or want to skip the novella and read a quick summary, click
here
.
To begin
arbitrate
click
here
.
daynight
Recap
At the end of
daynight
:
Kira Donovan was pregnant (embryos from two fathers implanted in her at gunpoint), Cleaved (to Ethan Darcton), and had been shipped off with her family and bodyguard, Jax Christo (Ethan’s best friend and brother, and an Arbiter—unbeknownst to the SCI), for her “safety.”
Half-Arbiter Ethan Darcton had been offered a seat on the Ten, separated from his Cleave, sent back to law school on Earth, and expected to help with his Uncle Henry King’s Presidential campaign.
Blake Sundry chose Exile over working for his mother (Vienna Darcton) and a potential Cleave to Kira, hooked up with former girlfriend in Exile (Bailey Goodington), and was trying to figure out how to use information Kira gave to him to Exiler advantage over the SCI (the information being that the SCI uses a mega-portal to transport resources, including military troops, between cities).
Bailey Goodington remembered her death and subsequent crossover to Thera from Earth. She believed the information could be used to help turn the Second Chancers against the SCI and get them to join with the Exilers.
Ted “Spud” Rosenberg had been Exiled and ended up with the very Exilers he betrayed (he gave the SCI information that led to their massacre in Garden City).
Vienna Darcton was appointed Senior Ten after her husband, Brad Darcton, was shot during the conflict between Militant Exilers and the SCI at Headquarters in Garden City.
Dr. Christo (Jax and Ethan’s father) believed the SCI was off-charter and wanted Ethan to intervene by using his seat on the Ten to help sway them.
Tristan, Briella, and Kira’s other friends (friends that died in a fiery explosion on Earth and ended up Second Chancers on Thera) were Cleaved, impregnated with Kira’s children, and then shipped off to various Theran cities around the globe.
The SCI was feeling very confident after defeating the Militant Exilers (and using the Exilers to kill off unprotected “undesirables” in their ranks) and having one of their own (Henry King) as the Presidential front-runner in the upcoming United States election on Earth.
The Militant faction of the Exilers was mostly wiped out leaving the Survivalists faction run by Doc Daryn. Doc wanted to negotiate peace with the SCI and have the SCI recognize an “Exiler Nation.”
To read the
clean slate complex
summary click
here
.
Begin
arbitrate
.
clean slate complex
Summary
Alexa Knight was living in the back of a van with her family (including her very sick mother) at the time a drug addict attacked her. She was saved by Second Chance Institute employee, Adam Caster. Adam arranged to have Alexa and her family moved into the SCI’s Clean Slate Complex—a new facility where the poor and downtrodden would be given “everything they needed” to get back on their feet, including housing, food, clothing, employment, and schooling. The SCI loved Alexa’s story so much that they made her the “face” of their Clean Slate Campaign on Earth.
Adam Caster had been previously rescued off the streets by the SCI, and he was a fierce loyalist right up until the time he was “reallocated” to a new location—on Thera.
Victor and Violet Black ran the Clean Slate Complex and the complex reallocation process. As people were needed in other locations (such as to bolster the SCI’s army on Thera), the Blacks were more than happy to comply and transfer the people (using very disturbing methods).
Joshua Black, son of Violet and Victor, strongly opposed the charter of both the SCI and the Clean Slate Complexes. He knew all his parents’ “dirty little secrets.” He was known for singing quirky songs, for dressing in disguise, and for having a wide variety of intelligence-gathering skills. His parents assigned him to “supervise” Alexa, but he befriended her instead.
A mystery patient was housed at the Clean Slate Complex clinic—one that drove Violet mad. Alexa and Joshua never learned his identity but did not plan to back down until they found it out.
Begin
arbitrate
.
PROLOGUE
“I know just the place for you,” the snowy-haired man told the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl.
“Follow me, Ms. Goodington.”
She scoffed. “Ms. Goodington is my mother. Call me Bailey.”
Bailey barely had time to glance back at her corpse. The man in white grabbed her by the arm, and her parents’ bathroom faded out, and an unknown destination, painted entirely red, faded in.
“Cool trick.” She smiled. “Can you teach me?”
“I’m afraid not,” he responded in a serious tone. “You don’t possess the capability. But you may be thrilled to know that you have been granted a second chance at life. I have the utmost confidence you will use your time
here
more wisely than you did your time
there
.”
“And where is here?”
“We are in Heart. However, this is not your final destination. Think of it as a transfer station.”
“And my final destination is?” she asked.
“Garden City, Thera,” he explained. “A lovely city, perhaps a little warmer than you are used to, but you’ll adjust. Just follow me.” Bailey struggled to keep up with his brisk pace as they snaked through corridor after corridor of endless red. Finally, the man came to a stop in front of a recessed panel in the hallway. He placed his hand flat against the panel and a click later, it swung inward, revealing what appeared to be a lab. A nurse greeted Bailey and ushered her behind a curtain and onto an exam table where a doctor examined her and dictated notes into a tablet device.
A full hour later, the white-haired man retrieved Bailey and took her to a second location where a gruff woman in a white coat attached probes to her forehead and muttered something about “cataloguing her memories.” Bailey prattled about fashion crimes, but the staff ignored her. Three more stops: nutrition, cleansing and photo-documentation, and then she was taken to a circular room with dozens of recessed panels adorning the walls. A desk with a large screen atop it and two chairs sat at the room’s center. One of the chairs looked like a cross between a hair-salon dryer and an electric chair. Bailey gasped in fear at the thought of being strapped to it. In the second chair, which looked infinitely more comfortable than the first, sat a young man also dressed in white.
“I’ll take what’s behind door number two.” She pointed to the young man. “Holy hell, he’s hot. I must be in heaven. Is he my reward? Can I keep him?” The only mar to Bailey’s lofty self-confidence was her less than appealing attire. Upon Bailey’s death, her tailored couture had been replaced with a hideous, potato sack shaped, gray shift. She hiked the drab material up enough to reveal her long, man-trapping legs.
The white-haired man shot her a disapproving look. “Let me introduce you to my son, Jackson. He’ll be handling your transfer.”
“He can handle me any way he wants.” She devoured the strikingly handsome, blond-haired candy with her eyes. For a moment, she considered disrobing to fully show off her goods but figured that would have to wait until the old man left.
As if he could read her thoughts, the old man’s look transformed into one of disgust and contempt. “Jackson, the tide shifts today. See to it.” Then he vanished into thin air.
Before Bailey could process the man’s sudden departure, a firm voice instructed, “Bailey. Sit.” A wide smile brightened her face as she strutted across the room. She stopped just shy of him, surveying her options. No contest, she thought and promptly sat herself in Jackson’s lap and threaded her arms around his neck.
“Gladly. Jackson, right? Are you a god? You look like one.” She stared into his blue-ringed, golden eyes.
In a flash, Jackson scooped Bailey up and dumped her into the torture chair, strapping her in tightly. “It’s Jax. And, I think you should target your charms elsewhere…towards someone who may be receptive to them. You just never know who you’ll run into on Thera. You could find your true love.” Bailey thrashed against her restraints.
“So you’re one of
those
kind of guys? You like your girls restrained? I’ll play, and even make it worth your while.”
Jax rolled his eyes at her, annoyed that his father picked this girl to help with their cause. She reeked of entitlement and he despised the type. Bailey’s file read like a novel on “how not to parent your child.”
“Sorry. No play for you today.” He wagged his finger in her face. “You’ve been a very bad girl.”
“Let me show you how bad.” She winked at him, fully convinced she could wear him down.
I always get what I want and he will be no exception.
Jax shook his head. “I have a different kind of punishment in mind for you, Bailey. I’m not going to let you forget what a despicable human being you really are.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
CHAPTER ONE
Kira
Present: Heart, Thera—One Year after leaving Garden City, Thera
I stare at my beautiful babies and marvel at the fact that I managed to get them both down to sleep at the same time.
A moment to myself?
Despite my desperate need for sleep, I can’t bear to leave the room yet. I’m nervously spinning my ring—a symbol of my union with Ethan. It has been a full year since my shotgun Cleaving and lab rape when the babies were implanted. My memories of the events are blurry, faded by time, and overshadowed by even more traumatic events. Here, in my humble but homey apartment, I do my best to shut out the past and focus on being the best mother I can be.
Eva, or as we call her, Evvie, stirs momentarily, but then her breathing settles. She’s perfect, a shock of strawberry-blonde hair, green-rimmed gold eyes, chubby cheeks, dimples, and endless giggles. A daddy’s girl through and through—unless she wants to eat. If she’s got half her daddy’s personality, she’ll keep everyone entertained and on their toes for the next few decades. I lean down and give her a kiss on the forehead. “I love you, Evvie. Wish your daddy was here.” Even in her sleep, a smile appears.
Sweet dreams, baby girl.