Coveting Ava

by Rena Marks

  “Well, enjoy your lunch with Covet and tell him we said thanks and we’d love to have Baby tomorrow night.”

  “I will. Bye, Princess Olivia.”

  “Bye, Ava. Bye, Baby.”

  Baby waved at Olivia and gurgled. She squirmed in the carriage, restless from being in it too long. Ava unstrapped the wriggling infant, picking her up out of it and bringing her to her lap. Baby’s fat fists reached out to grasp hair, but missed.

  “Surprise, punkin. I just had it trimmed again.” She buried her nose in the baby’s neck, inhaling her sweet sense. Baby giggled.

  Ava kept her hair short. Originally, it was to show the tattoo on the back of her neck that marked her as needing to stay away from the gates. Now, it was easier to keep with a young baby in the house. It took all of five minutes to blow dry into the sleek bob that was longer in front than in the back.

  “Okay, let’s go see daddy, shall we?”

  “Da! Da!” Baby agreed wholeheartedly, waving her arms excitedly.

  “Come on, my little love. Let’s get you strapped back in the stroller and we’ll head out.”

  Baby kicked her chubby legs as Ava fastened the strap around her waist. With a thought, the hovercraft lifted.

  That was one cool trick to having the implant. Normally, hovercrafts worked by carrying a small device to control it. The craft would follow you within a safe distance. But as they discovered with the hoverstroller, Ava seemed to be the only one who didn’t need to carry the control disk. Her implant itself allowed her to control hover crafts with her mind.

  She stood and placed her hands on the stroller in front of her as if she was pushing. And then she and Baby were on their way.

  “I packed fried chicken and potato salad,” she told the infant as they walked. “Extra, in case Uncle Reson is there. I know Uncle Blaze won’t be, because he’s flying off to visit Auntie Irina for a nooner.” She snickered. “I brought you some applesauce, and today you’re going to try something new. Avocado.”

  “Mmm!” Baby waved her fist, making Ava laugh.

  “It’s probably going to be a green mess. I brought plenty of wipes—”

  A loud explosion cut through the air, blowing dust and smoke in a huge cloud that rose in the distance.

  Yet it was the only noise. No sirens. No screams. Nothing.

  What the hell?

  Chapter Seven

  FROM HER VANTAGE SPOT at the edge of the woods, Ava saw men rushing toward the front gate. Overhead, she saw a flock of winged Xeno Sapiens sail through the skies. The one with white wings was Blaze, the only natural flyer. His wings flapped frantically, propelling him through the air with a strength she would normally be amazed at. Instead, she was worried. The others flew with jetpacks to compensate for the major muscle in their wings being clipped during captivity. Those were the ones who were born winged. Blaze had been lucky that his had evolved later in life.

  Once the flock passed overhead, she was aware of an unnatural stillness. Normally a siren would shriek if there was danger. Lights might flash. But there was nothing—because this was the upgrade day. The day when the systems were taken offline for a few minutes to re-align the new programming. A day they all knew about and had prepared for. But something wasn’t going right. Not with the way his wings flapped furiously. This wasn’t a small thing.

  A cold trickle of sweat crawled down her spine.

  Something was happening and it had to do with the front gates. Maybe someone had tried to breach the area while the system was down. In any case, lunch with Covet would be off. But off in the distance, would he be safe? Did she need to warn him?

  Her nanny training stepped in. In the event of danger, she needed to get Baby home where she’d be safe. The Xeno Sapiens had telepathic abilities and their communications were spreading through the entire group of them. Automatically, she grabbed the handle of the carriage, even though it wasn’t necessary. It was just instinct, plain and simple. Protect her child.

  She spun the carriage around.

  “We gotta head home, baby girl,” she whispered. “We’ll have our own picnic and see Daddy later.”

  “Stop right there.”

  Ava froze. The voice was foreign, a slight accent indicating a man common to the Earth-Ground area. Earth-Ground...one of the more dangerous places was their own sector. A place where criminals lived because they wouldn’t be accepted on any of the floating cities. How one would breach the walls of their city wasn’t possible. He had to be contract labor, instead.

  Please let him be contract labor.

  Two strange men stepped up on either side of her. There were no strangers on Xenia. She knew every human here since there was only a handful and most wore security uniforms. On Tuesdays more workers arrived, but those were the days she stayed indoors with Baby, or she visited Heather and her twins. Most times, Kaden was along for the ride.

  But these men were strangers, dressed in black clothing that was covered in red, clay-like dust.

  They had breached the city somehow, and were coming straight for her.

  Her hand whitened where it squeezed on the handle of Baby’s hoverstroller. She forced herself to relax her hand. She had the upper hand on them because they had no idea she could move the hoverstroller with her mind.

  “It’s purple,” one of the men said, peering at Baby. “Holy fuck. They fucking make babies. I thought that wasn’t possible?”

  The other man, on her left, leaned in to stare at her face, scrutinizing her as if she was a bug under a microscope. He was—strangely enough, the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. Like a male model. Even covered in dust, he just appeared rugged and handsome. “Are you its mother?” The way he referred to Baby as it raised her hackles.

  Not biologically. But that was none of his business. Baby was hers in every way that was important. From the carriage, Baby sensed her unease and whimpered.

  Her precious baby girl whimpered.

  “You’re scaring her,” she snarled.

  “Shut the fuck up, whore!” He sneered, and then backhanded her across the mouth. Her lip stung where it smashed into her teeth and her ears rang from the blow. She could literally feel her lip begin to swell as she tasted a sharp burst of metallic blood.

  “How can you fucking sleep with monsters? There are perfectly good humans around.” He grabbed his crotch. “Hell, if you wanted to be a momma, I’d have made you a momma.”

  She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and glared at him. Baby was quiet, probably in shock.

  The man who struck her said to the other, “Take the carriage from her, Tom.”

  The beautiful one reached for the stroller, but she refused to let it go. He twisted her wrist cruelly, his face showing pleasure at being able to hurt her, digging into the delicate wrist bones until her fingers lost their grip and he flung her away. But she still wouldn’t let him have control of her stroller. The implant at the back of her neck flared as he tried to push it but she refused to let it budge.

  “How does it work?” the handsome man—Tom—snarled at her.

  “It’s tethered to me. Where I go, the stroller goes.”

  “Orders were for a freak. Any freak, but a baby will be easier to handle and would probably double the reward. It would be easier to grab the stroller. But this way we get two for the price of one.” He yanked her further away from the stroller, his fingers digging into the flesh of her upper arms.

  Out of her mother’s line of vision, Baby began to wail. Ava’s heart broke that she couldn’t comfort her little one. She was torn between not fighting him so things wouldn’t get worse and fighting like a she-cat and flinging the stroller away. But where would it go? They could technically pick it up once she sealed it and bring it with them anyway. If only there was somewhere nearby where she could deposit the stroller once she sealed it.

  He yanked her toward the east where another gate was. The stroller followed. This gate was never used; it was simply an emergency gate. She forced down her
panic. She didn’t see a Xeno Sapien, though she thought either Thane or Eclipse should be on duty today. Surely there would be a guard at the east gate. They couldn’t pull her through. But would her implant be affected by the east gate as well as the main gate? As soon as they got near a guard, she’d thrust the stroller at them to make sure Baby was safe. The sudden propulsion would trigger the sealing mechanism, keeping her safe, even if Ava’s mind blew and she couldn’t seal the capsule manually.

  “Ma. Ma. Ma!” Baby wailed.

  “Please. She’s scared.” She looked over her shoulder but could barely see Baby as she tried to look over the edge of the stroller’s overhang. Her straps kept her in place. “It’s all right, baby girl. Momma’s here.”

  There was no guard at the east gate. Instead, there was another group of humans dressed like the two who had her in their grips, waiting at the giant hole in the wall. Oh, goddess, there were more of them? And where was the Xeno Sapien guard?

  From behind them came a commotion. Three Xeno Sapiens and one of their humans. Reson, Tempest, Sam, and Beast, snarling as he ran their way, faster than the others. But it was too late. Ava was forcibly pulled toward the gate, her ears ringing as her implant came in contact with the metal triggers. This was her last chance to save Baby. With her baby’s cries in her ears, Ava sent a surge of power outward. With the final blast, she blew up the remainder of the gate, sending the stroller catapulting through the air with a fury raging so hard, it took the human’s arms along with it, spraying a shower of blood through the air before the choke of black smoke clouded everything.

  Ava sank to the ground, the back of her neck on fire as the implant was triggered. Now she heard the shrill shriek of an alarm. It rang through her head, through her ears, through her being.

  Someone grabbed her arm and dragged her backward before the darkness clouded her head.

  Chapter Eight

  PRESENT DAY:

  Ava woke up with a jump. After several moments, she realized she held her breath, caught in whatever feeling had woken her. She released it slowly, willing herself to come out of her head.

  Next to her, Tom stirred. “What is it?”

  “Nothing.” She answered quickly, not wanting him to notice her confused emotions. For the first time, she wasn’t in captivity. For the first time, she didn’t need to depend on Tom to keep her safe. For the first time, she didn’t have to trust him. And she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  They’d arrived here during the night. As far as she could tell, they were on Earth-Ground, though what sector was anyone’s guess. It was a tiny suite, no bigger than the basement she’d been held in. But at least this wasn’t sub-ground. No, the tiniest bit of sunlight peered through the cracks in the darkened curtain.

  She had zero trust in him, despite the fact that he’d held her all night. Just when she didn’t want him to hold her. A small seed of distrust had grown since they’d escaped from the basement. He’d slaughtered everyone—while she watched. He was the criminal she’d originally thought of him as. And what would his plan be regarding her? If he couldn’t sell her to the scientists as was the original plan, did he think to sell her back into prostituting for the monsters on Xenia? She’d had no inkling she was a prostitute until Keith told her. How could she have trusted Tom?

  “It’s time for us to talk,” Tom said warily, as if aware of her changed mood.

  They didn’t have a spare minute last night. He’d tossed clothes at her, leggings and a long-sleeved black T-shirt with a rounded neckline. Her shoes were soft, black canvas slip-ons. Easy to maneuver about. He’d dragged her from the basement, practically taking her arm off. At the top of the stairs, the bodies of the two guards who’d disappeared when Keith arrived were splayed out on the floor. Her gasp at the shock of their deaths was barely audible. Tom pulled her into the fields where they ran.

  And ran.

  And ran.

  Her heart pounded and the back of her neck was damp. Her lungs were on fire, burning with each breath. He finally allowed her to slow, though it was more of a brisk walk when he grabbed her arm and forced her to keep up with him.

  Under a withered old tree, a vest was buried. Tom had put it on, lifted her into his arms like he’d carry her over a threshold, and they had literally flown across the desecrated, savage fields that were no longer used to grow food but housed criminals and lowlifes instead. When the land grew more populated, he lowered them to the ground to walk again. Interestingly enough, his vest just looked like a normal article of clothing. Which surely wasn’t possible. She’d seen jetpacks before. They were large, clunky, and emitted black smoke as they flew you through the air. This one was clean, filtered. But out here, in the midst of Earth-Ground, it was still possible to track their escapade.

  Slow-moving drones were dispatched to find the source of flying movement, but by then they were walking. Facial recognition scans had alighted upon them to identify their features, but apparently, there were no warrants for either her or Tom because neither was detained.

  She couldn’t help feeling let down. Shouldn’t she have been missing? Shouldn’t Tom be picked up for some sort of criminal activity? She’d have to tread carefully if he was able to skirt the law.

  She was at his side when they entered the rental property. After checking the interior of the room with a small metal object, she assumed he searched for recording devices, he slipped the tube-like object into his vest pockets and turned to her.

  He’d peeled her clothes off her, his movements jerky and angry. He acted as if he owned her. He didn’t touch her sexually, though. Goddess, she was ever thankful. They’d simply fallen into bed, both completely naked. The barest inch separating them that felt more like a mile.

  After a few minutes he spoke. “What did Keith talk about before I killed him?”

  “He didn’t need to talk about anything. He showed me the files.”

  “What files?”

  She turned in bed to stare at him, allowing how she really felt about the bastard to shine through her eyes. “The files of you seducing me. Apparently, the images were quite the porn entertainment for your buddies upstairs.”

  His lip tightened. “I had—”

  “Oh, and let us not forget the fact that you once swore never to place your dick in the trash pussy where some alien’s freak dick had been. So sorry you had to go there.” She couldn’t help the hurt in her voice. She had been a prostitute, and of all ways to find out, it was through Keith. She’d never forgive Tom for that.

  “I was trying to keep you safe,” he growled.

  Damn it to hell, why did his sleep-roughened voice have to be sexy? Why did he have to be so stunningly handsome? What the hell was wrong with her that her senses couldn’t differentiate between good and bad?

  “Safe from further freaks? I know.” She exaggerated her wink. “I know the Xeno Sapiens are the bad guys who must have kidnapped me before the bad humans did. Because I certainly wouldn’t have gone to them willingly. Except for you, Tom. You are one of the good humans, correct?”

  “Not technically—” he began.

  “Oh, stop,” she said. Whatever lies he was going to make up weren’t worth it. “Stop playing games with me. Just take me to the ones who you were going to sell me to. I don’t care to listen to your lies anymore. You got what you wanted. A piece of ass. Or what you didn’t want,” she said, her voice mocking. “What you did out of duty to gain my trust.”

  “You have it all wrong,” he said, and his eyes glittered. In the darkened room, they almost looked purple.

  She gasped, scooting from him.

  The glow faded, making her wonder if she imagined it. He looked resigned. “Let’s get cleaned up and go,” he said. “You can shower first. There should be a new outfit for you in the closet. I’ll make us breakfast.”

  How would a new outfit be in the closet? Did he have someone working with him? And what was up with his eyes? Had she imagined it? She thought about the glow all during her show
er. Had it been a trick of the light? What the hell was going on?

  Instead of jumping to sarcasm when he wanted to talk, she should have just let him. She’d have to learn to hold her tongue in the future. She’d just been so hurt over knowing what he really thought of her. She must have a doozy of a case of Stockholm.

  By the time she came out of the restroom and dressed in the new clothes, balling up her old ones from where they lay on the floor and flinging them onto a chair, he had her breakfast out on the small counter. A vidcam was playing, talking about a fire that had broken out in an old property of Crested Ute Labs.

  She gasped. Crested Ute Laboratories were the ones who had created Xeno Sapiens. The structure had been demolished, but a few of the higher-ups had gone into hiding. What were the chances that the property had been demolished?

  Her eyes were glued to the vidcam, even as Tom pushed her into a seat. “It’s been playing the same news over and over. I already ate and I’m going to jump into the shower. Keep watching and let me know if there’s any talk that comes out regarding two escapees.”

  Her eyes cut to him.

  He nodded once and left her.

  That’s where they were. That basement laboratory was where she’d been held. Good Lord, if it was Crested Ute Labs that she was hiding from, she was so screwed. She ate quickly, watching the news. There was no mention of who had been inside, other than six male bodies.

  Male.

  She counted mentally. Keith. The greasy boss. The two guards. And two other men must have been in the house. Maybe with the boss? Had Tom murdered them all?

  Tom returned from the shower, his hair darker. He hadn’t shaved in the shower and the stubble along his jawline was a fine line away from being a short beard. He started a fire in the living area. “Where are your old clothes?”

  She pointed to the bundle on the chair. He swept them up and dumped them into the flames to burn, along with what she assumed were his.