His sigh was long and his face distorted, as if this pained him. “There were ten of us created. Us three…” He waved at where Lennox and Neo stomped, just ahead. “We stayed in reserve near Big Daddy, the vehicle you seek. Yes, we were there and yes, it was a rather unique mechanism.”
“Are we going the right direction to find it?” Way to drop a doozie of a fact. “Have you told anyone else this?”
“It moved around, so I don’t know where it ended up. No, we haven’t said but if we find it, we will help you use it, if we can. But us as the great destroyers of the Ghoul Lords? I’m afraid it’s a no. Everyone who went up, when they emerged from the stairway at the Top and the sunlight hit them, they slowed as if their joints had become frozen. They shielded their eyes from the glare as if blinded.” He acted it out, held his arm over his eyes as well as he could with inflexible limbs. Vincent inhaled. “We watched it on the drone cam the doctor deployed. They were swamped and killed, or should I say dismantled, within minutes. The stinkers took them apart.”
Fuck. “I’m so sorry, Vincent.” She had nothing of comfort to say, could not fix this, but knew her face showed her grief. This was awful.
He shrugged. “I hear they hate the darkness; well, we are the opposite. Even the other beasters have that problem. Your friends like their sunglasses, yes? The nanites seem to make us light sensitive. This was not a good piece of planning by the doctor.”
“No. It was not.” Though the light did not bother her. She was the only one, again. The different one. “My leg is better.”
“Good. You will still go see Willow when we stop.”
Oh my. It was cute he wanted to mother her. Cyn smiled. “You’re a good man, Vincent.”
It mightn’t counter what he’d seen, had happen to him, but at least she could say this.
“I try to be.”
A commotion ahead drew them to look, and she saw that Rutger and Vargr had returned from scouting. After talking awhile at the head of the disheveled column of people, Rutger made a beeline for her. He came to her side and took a few paces before reaching for her hand.
So good to feel him again. The pleasant heat of contact spread through her.
“I hope you’re not stealing my girl, Vincent.”
The rockman coughed out a laugh. “No. No. We have been talking, though, and I convinced her to get herself checked over later. She had a limp.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I heard it from Willow. I’m sure it’s nothing.” He swung Cyn’s hand like a schoolboy on a date. “Vargr flew ahead to scout our route down to the Rad Zone. A long way down he found a place we are going to visit when we reach it.”
From the devious twinkle and promise in his eyes, she guessed what it might be. “Sex shop?”
“Of course. I saw such interesting things. Also, I have news for you, Vincent.” He leaned forward to speak across her. “We encountered your not-so-nice friends, some of the Adult tribe. Though they weren’t happy you were coming with us, we have permission to pass through the quarter, unmolested.”
Unmolested? “Wasn’t Willow exchanging comms with all the tribes along the way?”
“Not these. They are assholes and would barely speak to us even. Everyone sees the advantage in being one people, except them.”
It wasn’t a good omen. What if more tribes in more quarters refused to band together? No matter how excellent any weapons or strategies might be, they needed a lot more beasters to succeed at taking down the Ghoul Lords.
“I know it isn’t great, but it is what it is. There will be others, Cyn.”
“Yes.”
“The older you get…” Vincent said quietly but in his rough voice, “… the more you learn how people are never the same. It’s both good and bad.”
“Mmm.” She shook her head, still unhappy.
“Here’s something different. Something to cheer you up. Neo over there once ate a piece of Ghoul Lord and survived.”
“What?” She and Rutger stared at him.
“He found it lying on a balcony. We were exploring a distant Quarter some days ago. We are silent and good at hiding when we need to be. Like ninjas.” He grinned. “Anyway, we found a white thing like a bit of an octopus tentacle. And Lennox being the hungry fool that he is, picked it up and ate it before I could say, wait a fucking minute.” He snorted and raised his hands. “He lived. I figured out what it was from a small piece that’d snapped off. I’ve seen the analysis done on a dead one, so I know what they look like.”
She couldn’t help laughing along with Rutger until it struck her where that piece of tentacle had come from. The piece she’d dropped escaping from the Ghoul Lords. Had to be that. Was it coincidence? Of course.
It showed how tough these rockmen were.
How different they were.
Only the light above was their undoing, and they were Maelstrom just like her, these humans blown up into balls of some crusted rock-like calcified flesh. Their fingers were too thick to use as they should, their joints stiff.
Did it do this to all people? Was this why only the last desperate few had been given those Maelstrom nanites? With other beasters, the nanites seemed slower to transform. She had stalled for those five years above, while in limbo with the other feeders, waiting to be eaten. Now that she was free of the Ghoul Lords she was changing.
A chill swept her. Where was this taking her?
That night, she lay on her side on a bed in one of the abandoned apartments to let Willow examine her, deathly afraid as she’d never been before. Was her body falling apart? The mattress smelled of dust. The walls were perfectly coordinated in color with the rest of the apartment rugs and furniture. Red, grey and cream. Modern chic. Sculptures from artists of renown sat on the tables. A toy car lay on the floor, though crushed from being under Rutger’s feet.
Vincent was here too, leaning nonchalantly on a wall, as if he hadn’t knocked off part of a door frame to get in here.
“You’ve had a limp, Cyn?” Willow asked softly. She sat on a chair and held Cyn’s hands.
“Yes. But it’s gone now.”
Rutger was perched on the bed above her pillow. Vargr was absent, no surprise there. “And she gets headaches and a few pains. Anything else I don’t know?” He raised his brows.
“Ummm. The pains are mostly when I try to mess with the Lure. And yes, I am still trying now and then. It is important. I have been forgetting things but figured that isn’t new. Everyone forgets stuff.”
“True. That is me.” Vincent nodded. “My head is full of rock, though.”
“Pfft,” Cyn scoffed.
“Shush,” Willow drifted her hands higher up Cyn’s arms, the blue in her skin and eyes highlighting in brilliant specks.
In this quiet room Cyn had heard the grit grinding in Vincent’s neck folds when he nodded. Or was that from his spine? She frowned then tried to relax. Willow preferred calmness, right? Again she heard the sotto voce whispering from Willow. It seemed a subconscious action that possibly helped her to concentrate.
After five or ten minutes, Willow released her, giving her hand a last pat. “I can’t find anything like an injury, though there is one anomaly.”
She twisted her mouth. “Good or bad? What is it?”
Willow stood, stretching, then rolled her shoulders while looking down at Cyn. “This is all a new science, if you want to call it that, but I couldn’t detect any nanites in your head, brain area, not even your neck. That’s odd. They normally spread throughout the blood system.”
“Cardiovascular system,” Vincent corrected.
“Oh. Well. Is that bad?”
“Like I said, I don’t know, but I suggest you avoid head trauma.” She smiled weakly. “You might not heal from that anymore.”
“That’s everything? Sorry, I missed most of that.”
The new voice was Vargr’s, and Cyn switched her focus and saw him hovering behind Vincent. He didn’t smile but he did fix her with a stare that said something better than hate
.
For which, she gave a big thank you to whoever was in charge above. She sat up and swung her legs off the bed.
“Hi there!” Willow tried to usher him forward, but he stayed where he stood. “Yes. That’s it. That’s all I can detect. If anything else happens, Cyn, be sure to tell me.”
“I will. This was all a storm in a teacup. Pretty sure I’m fine.” She swung her legs back and forth enthusiastically, grinning. Vargr was worrying about her…
Chapter 12
Two more days of travel, and they’d come a long way too.
Rutger took a gulp of water, wiped his mouth, then tucked the canteen away on his belt. More stories down, more stairs descended or flown—because one of them had been an immense well where the wing-soldiers could wheel down like seagulls on an updraft. It was how Vargr had flown so far when they’d scouted. Apart from a few hungry animals, there’d been nothing hostile.
Having to kill a stray dog that’d gone feral had made him sadder than anything else had recently. For once they were doing something positive, not just scratching about surviving. Beasters might be the ones who would save the world after all, though it was still a very long-term goal, and that had been the reason why all of them had volunteered for the experiment—be the good guys, fuck over these alien invaders. Save the Earth.
He let out a sigh. Still happening.
Locke and Maura were ambling along together like a newly married couple, all gooey eyed and animated. Holding hands, kissing, discussing whatever made them talk. Locke had made the jump and it’d turned out well. They were bondmated, and Maura was clearly happy and fairly immune from the Lure.
When they saw him watching, they waved. He smiled and waved back. Good luck to them. One less a burden for Cyn, who’d been busting her balls, or whatever it was called when girls tried their hardest, to get the Lure under her control again.
They’d nearly reached the edge of Adult Quarter and had camped in a widely spread-out playground full of swings and slippery slides, tunnels and shallow ponds, very near the store he wanted to show Cyn. The ponds were dips in the floor with black stains where the water had dried up. Plastic had broken off some of the tunnels in big chunks, leaving a litter of red or green pieces. Fires were already smoking where meals were being prepared.
Mads had found a bicycle and was whooping and riding it in circles, his stiff white hair and wings making this seem a bizarre circus instead of a playground. Toother was galumphing after him on his big paws while Willow laughed hysterically with her hands on her knees. The nanodog’s hair fluffed out in waves with every paw landing. People cursed and scattered from their path as Toother’s drool flew from his mouth in great sloppy gobbets.
He snorted and rubbed at his chin, wondering about the management here when the shops were running. Or did having a sex shop near a playground make sense: you screw each other and make babies, and we’ll give the sproglets somewhere to go while you buy more dildos?
“Where is this store?” Cyn sauntered up to him, sexy hips pulling him to watch the movements of her body. Her amber stone-washed tights and the bulge of her tits over the top of her white corset had him dreaming of undoing those cute bows running down the front.
“Come with me if you want to get naughty. Actually, you’re coming anyway.” He ran his finger down her cleavage then down the row of golden bows. “These undo? Not sure my fingers are that good with anything tiny. I might have to bite them off.”
She scoffed. “There are clips under them. No biting my clothes today.”
“Fine, I’ll just rip it off you.” He turned her to face the store, smacked her butt, then left his hand there. “Over there. You know you’re due for fucking.”
The arch of her brow as she looked over her shoulder spoke of trouble. “Even if I am, you need better manners to convince me. I don’t lie on my back for just any beaster.”
Grinning, he picked up his pack and followed her into the store, dropping the pack at the doorway.
“Who said anything about back? Front, upside down, tied-up, I’m not fussy.”
They went past some rearranged shop dummies that were piled up in an orgy.
She poked out her tongue and skipped ahead. Looked like Cyn too was feeling happier. Good. Hope—it was the hope that was doing this. He’d swear he could feel it rising the further they travelled.
“Hey! Vargr? You here yet?”
Her mouth formed an O. Then she whispered, “You didn’t?”
“Did. Don’t worry, I’ve been talking to him. He wants this. To talk to you.”
“Hmmm. Good.” Her chest lifted, fell, as she watched the first sign of his approach—his wings bobbing above the shelves. Vargr emerged from behind a display, ducking under a sex swing that hung from the ceiling.
“This store will make even you feel inadequate, Rutger.” But his eyes were all over Cyn. “He’s right. I want to talk. Come back here where they have a throne for at least one us to sit on.”
“A throne?” Her smirk was purely from amusement, and he answered with his own slightly hesitant smile. “I bet it has a dick sticking up from the middle.”
“Nope. Wrong. Close though.” He held out his hand and she took it, then he drew her deeper into the store. “You too,” he flung back at Rutger.
Of course him too. The threesome wasn’t right, wasn’t centered without Vargr. This was all so very promising. Of all the wishes in all the world from survivalists stocking up their bunkers for doomsday, he’d bet nobody ever listed a sex store as an essential. And yet it was.
The throne turned out to be one made of a few hundred dildos of all shapes and colors. Vargr sat on it and pulled Cyn down onto his lap, reminding Rutger of the last time she’d been on Vargr’s lap while he fucked her.
The store became very hot and sweaty all of a sudden. He found a sturdy shelf to lean against—wouldn’t do to domino-destroy the store with an avalanche of toppling shelves. Then he listened. By a grand coincidence the shelving behind dildo throne was chock full of dildos.
Gold ones, black ones of elephant-size, double-ended ones, vibrating ones, knobbly spiked ones… hmmm.
“I’ve been thinking,” Vargr began, jiggling his knee until Cyn placed her hand on it.
“I’ll get sea-sick.”
“Yeah, right. Hard to know where to start, but this seems good place.” His hand slipped into the bodice of her corset to cup her breast, and he leaned her back in a smoldering hot kiss that had Rutger’s cock throbbing already. He folded his arms, and after a few minutes of painful watching, he loudly cleared his throat.
Finally, the beaster stopped with the kisses. Cyn looked pleased and subtly readjusted her position on his knee, or squirming he’d call it, and she placed her palm on Vargr’s chest. The girl was turned on. He sucked air through his teeth. Get on with it, man. Places to go, women to fuck. He pulled off his own shirt and dropped it aside to give them a hint. Now he matched the bare-chested Vargr.
“What have you been thinking?” she prompted. Vargr wasn’t going to get away with just doing, he had to talk. It was the only way to clear things between them properly.
“Rutger told me about how you’ve thought about that day. How you tried to remember it all but can’t. We know it was a Ghoul Lord, so my only problem is with the obvious—you shooting me.” She held her tongue, though Rutger saw from the strain around her eyes how difficult it was not to say anything. “Whatever you remember, you did it, and I know you did it at that moment not realizing it was me, or Tom, or anyone else you should care about.”
He paused to stare across at Rutger.
“You said you wouldn’t have shot me on purpose, right?”
“Yes.”
“It was a violation of my trust. If I knew for sure it was accidental, I would’ve been over it in a flash. Thing is, after talking to Rutger, I figure it is your modifications. Your nanomachines, and the genetic rearranging, has made this happen, so that somehow in the middle of all that crazy, you forgot to be
human.”
Though human wasn’t the right noun here, Rutger kept quiet.
“Oh.” She gulped. “And? Because strangely, I think I agree with that. It scares me, sometimes. A lot of what my body is doing is—”
“Scary,” he finished for her. “That established…” He looked to Rutger again.
Rutger nodded. This was something they’d talked to death while scouting.
“That established we both think it’s our responsibility to watch over you and haul on the reins when we feel you’re going too far.”
“Haul on the reins?” Her spluttering was adorable. “I’m… going to say okay, but I may want to add some small print to this later, such as no actual horse reins or pony play!”
Vargr was full-on silent-laughing, but he slowly calmed then directed her to face him with a finger on her chin. She blinked at him. This was a docile Cyn, but he figured she knew she had to agree or risk Vargr leaving again.
“Look, this is all so bloody important and deadly serious. Agreed?”
“I agree you’re serious and…” she hurried on after seeing his frown, “…I agree to let you tell me if I’m going too far, because actually I’d like that. What I did to Tom and you and the others, it turned me inside-out.”
The quiet grew more than a little awkward until Vargr reached for her again and drew Cyn into a gentler kiss. Rutger had had enough of keeping his distance, and he stood and went to them, hooking a large blue, knobbly dildo off a display and ripping open the packet. When they turned to face him, he wobbled it.
“Remember my promise? I deserve this after listening to him wearing my ear out.”
She hopped off his lap and backed away. “Your ear? Vargr you weren’t supposed to fuck his ear.”
Quietly, and with deliberate menace, Vargr unfolded from the throne. The two of them surpassed her in height and muscle by far, though he knew she could bruise them. If she was in a fighting mood, maybe worse. But now…
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