Authors: Theresa Kay
“My bondmate was part of one of the first teams to arrive. She was pregnant…” He takes in the details of my face as if he’s looking for something or someone, a sad and almost defeated look on his face. “Our daughter was born here on Earth soon after my bondmate arrived. Following our traditions, she was named for her father’s line, my line… Jaslyn.”
The name— my mother’s name— sends me back a step and my eyes widen. Jastren moves closer and my hand brings the glass shard up higher.
“Stay back.” The command is softer this time.
“There is not much time. You need to get out of here. We—”
“How did you find us?” I step closer, brandishing the glass in front of me. “You’re dressed like them… the ones that locked us up. The ones that… studied us. Why should I trust you?”
“Right now you have no other choice. I imagine at this point I am just as much of a target as you are and I know another way out.”
“Target? Why would you be a target?”
“Although I had nothing to do with what happened to you and your brother, I know too much. The same reason young Steliro was meant to be here when that bomb hit.”
“But how would the humans even know…”
Jastren shakes his head. “Do you really think this was the human’s doing? This is an unmarked building well away from any potential targets, but that last one was almost on the doorstep. Vitrad is making his move and your arrival gave him the perfect scapegoat. Wipe out the Vestras and who would be left? Who would the people turn to for direction? Who will fuel the flames of their anger and incite this war with a few well picked targets?”
“But why?”
“That is a story for another time and right now we need to get you and your brother out of the city.” He hesitates for a moment and then strides forward, glancing from my face to my hand.
Oh. I’m still clutching my improvised weapon. He’s the only help I have so I’m going to have to trust him. I lower my hand slowly. “How are we going to get Jace out?”
He doesn’t answer, merely shifts through the rubble until he finds a long metal rod and then slides it underneath the concrete. Pushing down on one end of the lever, his face reddens and there’s a small shift in the rock, enough that I’m able to slide Jace out from underneath.
After I pat his cheek a few times, Jace’s eyes flutter open and focus on my face. He struggles to stand, but his leg is twisted in a direction it’s not meant to go in and his face goes pale before he can reach his feet. Leaning down, I pull him up and throw his arm over my shoulder. I’m not strong enough to hold him up though, so Jastren steps up.
Jace furrows his brow and looks at me. “You sure seem adept at finding alien admirers. This one’s a little old though.”
I chuckle and Jastren tries to conceal a smile. “Yeah, say hi to Grandpa.”
THIRTY
I scavenge for a change of clothes and a pair of boots as we navigate our way out of the building. There is only so much blood covered fabric I can take and the gown keeps sticking to my side one moment and ripping away the next. Not the most comfortable feeling in the world, plus it keeps the wound from clotting. Thankfully, I’m able to scrounge up one of those snazzy gray uniforms that everyone seems to wear around here and a pair of boots somewhat close to my size.
There’s more to my change in wardrobe than temporary comfort, but not something that I’m willing to share with the guys yet. Jace will not approve and I’m not entirely sure what Jastren will say.
Once we stumble our way through a maze of back hallways and outside, I can see the edge of the forest from where I stand. So close. Everything in me just wants to jog into the trees, leave all this behind and go hide somewhere familiar and safe, but I can’t leave without Lir.
And that’s what is going to make for a very uncomfortable conversation with Jace right now.
“That outbuilding over there looks like it might be a good stopping place.” I point to a small shed right inside the shimmering barrier that surrounds the city.
“Stopping place?” Jace leans forward from beside Jastren. “Why would we be stopping?”
Deep breath. “I’m going back for him.”
“For…”
“For Lir.”
I expect Jace’s protest, but not Jastren’s. “Steliro Vestra is not to be trusted. I do not know what your experience has been with him, but he is Vitrad’s.”
“Yeah, Vitrad’s nephew. Why shouldn’t I trust him? I thought you said he was a target too.”
“He is, but should he have survived that bombing, I am positive Vitrad will find another use for him. He—”
“Wait a second here,” Jace breaks in. “This Lir guy is one of the Vestras and he’s related to the Vitrad guy? The one that started all this? The one that wants to kill us all? Hell no, Jax. You aren’t going anywhere. It’s bad enough you broke him out of lock up. You don’t owe that guy anything.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Damn right I don’t. We’re together. We’re alive and mostly whole. Why would you want to risk yourself on a rescue mission for some alien that probably doesn’t even need to be rescued?”
I stop walking and curl my fingers into my palms, digging in to prevent my temper from exploding. “You don’t even know him.”
“Yeah, but
he
does.” He jerks his thumb at Jastren. “And even he thinks it’s a bad idea.”
“And you trust him, just like that? What happened to your whole aliens are the devil spiel?”
They’ve pulled a few feet ahead of me and Jace finally stops to face me. “Verifying the family connection is pretty simple stuff. I checked him out as soon as he came over to help.”
Pretty simple stuff? Maybe for him. Is it worse that Jace kept things from me or that he’s so dismissive about my feelings and abilities? If he hadn’t kept me in the dark for so long, none of this would be necessary. I clench my teeth and try to rein in my growing irritation.
“Fine then. Go hang out with Gramps. I’ll be back.” I spin around and take off running. Jace calls out my name and the wound in my side screams, but I ignore both. I refuse to let them see me falter. Before I round the corner of the first building I call back over my shoulder, “Why don’t you get in touch with Flint while I’m gone, you know arrange a ride or something. Should be pretty simple stuff for you, right?”
I don’t wait for an answer.
* * * * * * *
The streets are deserted. Great news for me, but also a little disconcerting. Where is everyone? They’re under attack, or at least they’re supposed to think they are, so where are they?
My steps have slowed to a jog and each empty block I traverse just increases my desire to turn around. Each time my chest expands, my indecision increases. What am I thinking? I’m putting myself and my brother in more unnecessary danger for a guy I’m not entirely sure about. I’m basing everything on Rym’s assertion that Lir didn’t know, that Lir was a victim of Vitrad’s manipulations, but what if he was lying? And even if he told me the truth, what was Lir doing out in the clearing that day? Jastren, Jace and Vitrad planted the seeds of doubt and now the questions slink into my brain, taking root in my suspicion and confusion.
I round a corner and I’ve just made the decision to turn back when I nearly run into a blue-haired E’rikon standing at the edge of a large crowd that’s gathered in front of a smoking pile of rubble. Stopping just in time, I avoid a collision and back up until I’m huddled in a recessed doorway, hopefully far enough away that I won’t be seen. Not that anyone appears to be looking at anything other than the oversized hologram ahead showing the elevated platform that holds three bedraggled E’rikon, a perfectly poised Trel beside another gorgeous E’rikon teen, a coldly smiling Vitrad and an ash-covered Lir.
Lir’s face is carefully blank but even at this distance I can feel the sorrow rolling off of him. Shoulders pulled back and ramrod straight, only the tension in his jaw gives any hint of the anguish simmering under his features.
The platform is blocks away and a sea of bodies rest between me and it. Even if I made it up there, how would I get to Lir? This was a stupid idea. It’s not like Lir couldn’t find his own way out of the city and to me— if he wanted to— and I’m just asking to be caught by standing here. I risked everything to get Jace back and being here is just putting me in unnecessary danger. I’m turning to go when Vitrad’s voice booms out over the crowd, freezing me in place.
“We have lost too many today. This is all that remains of our great Council,” he gestures toward the three, “My dear daughter narrowly escaped with her life and that of her friend,” Lir moves jerkily to put one arm around the friend’s shoulders, pulling her closely against him, “My son is still unaccounted for, and my nephew has lost his parents, my sister, our steadfast leaders…” Vitrad bows his head and shakes it sadly for a moment before raising his eyes slowly and sending a glare directly at the crowd. His next words are edged with a fervor that could easily be mistaken for anger, but that I recognize as triumph. “This will not stand.”
“Now is the time to act,” he continues, “We cannot stand idly aside anymore and we must adapt to these new and tragic circumstances. Steliro has declined to step into his father’s place and has instead chosen to stand behind me as I unite our Council and our military into one unit for the betterment of our race…”
The rest of Vitrad’s words fade into the background and all I can do is stare at Lir’s face in horror. Standing behind him, supporting him, the man who locked me up, who locked him up, who… wants to kill us all? My hand flies up to cover my mouth and contain the wail that threatens to break free. The cold sense of betrayal seeps into my limbs, infiltrating my body until I almost shiver from it.
I take three slow robotic steps back, shaking my head and fighting against tears. This isn’t happening. This can’t be right. My denial rings false even to me. Jastren was right. Lir
is
Vitrad’s, his gofer, his follower, his lackey. And I am a fool.
I steel my nerves and feed the spark of anger brewing in my stomach until it’s a raging inferno pushing away any more denials and overshadowing the icy betrayal twisting through me. My narrowed eyes go back to the holo, focusing on his face, willing him to look at me, to face me. And he does.
A barely perceptible widening of the eyes, the clenching of his teeth and one hand curling into a white knuckled fist are the only outward signs of emotion from him. But it’s the other emotions, the ones he can’t— or won’t— show flowing through the link and nearly knocking me over. Anguish. Indecision. Regret. The eyes that meet mine are swirling green pain shot through with golden lightening. He opens his mouth, but quickly closes it again, pressing his lips together as if to hold the words inside. His eyes close and two words make their way into my head.
I’m sorry
.
It doesn’t hurt when the bond snaps, when Lir breaks it, but I feel it all the same. A loss, like something I didn’t even notice before is missing. Quick and painless, but it leaves me reeling backwards with my arms wrapped tightly around my stomach to anchor me, to hold myself together in the face of this new fracture in my already broken world.
“Jax, it’s not—” A hand lands on my back and sits for only a second before I whip away and whirl around to find Rym behind me. “Look—”
He has nothing that I want to hear. A mixture of loss and rage, that molten lava kind that’s been simmering since they tortured me, bubbles up and…out. It overflows and heads straight at the golden haired alien in front of me in a concentrated stream, smashing into him and bringing him to his knees with his hands pressed to his head and a silent scream on his face. There’s no wound, not a single mark on him but it’s no less a weapon than a knife and infinitely worse. A cold, cruel part of me smiles at his pain, but then a single thought pulls me back and sends me sprinting away as Rym crumples to the ground unconscious with green blood leaking from his nose.
Is that what I looked like when they put the
kiun
on me?
My heart pounds along with my feet, each step taking me farther and farther away from the crowd, the holo, Lir, and Rym’s very still body laying on asphalt. Tears drip down my cheeks and put a hazy film over the world in front of me. I don’t even bother to wipe them away, just let them drip off my chin and hit the ground beneath me.
I keep expecting to hear the sound of boots behind me, chasing me, just itching to drag me back into that underground facility and run more experiments. I’m sure my newfound skill would be of interest to Vitrad. Is it something they all can do, the focused mental gutting? No, it can’t be. If it were, they would have used it on me.
Now that I’ve used it, my anger feels like a living thing rattling at the cage of my body and anxious to get out. Its cry is convincing.
Let me out. You will find peace with me. Just like before.
It would be so easy to go back and just lay waste to their entire population and some enraged, primal part of me practically salivates at the thought.
The E’rikon have no clue that they created a monster, one that hates the darkness but also craves the serenity that would come with its embrace.
No!
I refuse to be a weapon of destruction. I already know what it feels like to kill and I will not give in to it. I will find another way.