Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3)

by V. E. S. Pullen

  I wasn’t sure what we were all worried about though — except the unceasing worry I suspected we’ll have for the rest of our days knowing the precious treasure we protected — because these men were hers. The transformation started the moment she rooted through a bag, pulled out that vax gun and a bag full of vials, and said “Let’s get down to business.”

  All it took was one, the very first vaccination, to make these men true believers, more acolytes in the church of Azzie.

  Or, more appropriately, Aesli.

  Because that’s who she was, when she administered that first dose to Justice with everyone standing around watching. She wasn’t just a girl — wasn’t just our girl — she became something else, something more. She became a symbol.

  Aesli peeled the sleeve of his shirt up over the muscle of his bicep, as professional as any doctor or nurse examining a patient with detached interest. She checked both arms, looking at the matching clear patches among the tattoos, raising one eyebrow. “As a rule, and if it’s not already too late, we keep space open. Seemed a long shot, men like us getting vaccinated,” Justice told her with an odd tone in his voice, disbelief tinged with something heavier, “but not leaving room seemed like a guarantee it would never happen.”

  She nodded. “A lot of strange things happen in this world,” she said, glancing at us, then looking away quickly, “and sometimes all that hope pays off.”

  He grunted, then grunted again after she cleaned his skin with alcohol and pressed the open side of the vax gun against his arm, holding it steady before pulling in and holding the trigger. “First is the registration mark,” she said off-handedly, watching through the tinted frame as the laser “tattooed” the barcode and check code on his arm, “and then the needles,” she finished, as there was a solid click as what felt like a thousand tiny needles bit into his skin in the distinctive sunburst pattern. I knew from experience that it hurt like hell; the injection site would swell up over the next few days, and then a ridged scar would form where the needles chewed up the skin like a meat tenderizer on crack.

  “Motherfuck!” Justice burst out, “I was not expecting that.” He glanced over to see the five of us nodding.

  “It’s necessary,” Aesli said, holding the gun in place as it finished injecting the vaccine. “The needles have tiny, almost microscopic hooks on the ends, and they punch down into the muscle — if you inject it directly in the bloodstream, the immune system kicks in too fast, might actually absorb and destroy the antibodies before your body catches on to what’s happening. Having it start in the muscle, it slows things down, gives the body time to recognize what’s happening. The damage from the hooks help trigger the immune response. Same reason to distribute it across a bigger surface rather than a single needle poke, makes the body have to work harder to try to get rid of it, buys the vaccine time to work.”

  She lifted the gun away and stared at her handiwork, one gloved fingertip hovering over the registration number: AAV-07d25-11.

  “You’re my first vaccination, the first one I’ve done personally. Those are my initials,” she said quietly, almost like she didn’t mean to say it out loud. “Every person with that mark on their arm, has some of me inside them. Like the virus, I invade, and the body adapts. It changes. No one is ever the same once I’m done, I fucking change you. You can’t ever go back to how you were, before. Before me.”

  “Lost my daughter to JANUS,” Justice said gruffly, voice cracking. “Wouldn’t fucking want to.”

  She looked up at him, as disoriented as if she just woke up, suddenly and mid-dream, and her face seemed to crumple as she looked between him, Sasha, Sev, and Luka. “I forgot,” she said, eyes wet but no tears falling, “Sasha told me but at the time— I forgot. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner.”

  “Not on you.”

  “No, it’s not,” she agreed. Her jaw clenched and the deep well of rage she kept inside rose up for just a moment, turning her into something almost otherworldly. Voice thickened and raw, she continued, “It’s on them. They withheld it, what I gave freely, what I suffered for. And I’m going to make them pay. For your daughter, I’m going to make them fucking pay.”

  “How?” he asked, dismissively, grief breaking open a wound that will never fully heal. “You can’t touch them.”

  “They rule through fear,” she said, low and rough, “and I’m going to take it away. You can’t stop what you can’t control.”

  Aesli’s a black swan event: rare, unpredictable, with widespread consequences that only seem obvious in retrospect — she’s a force of chaos descending on an unprepared world, leaving disruption in her wake. Every man in that room became a believer at that moment, there was not a single doubt that she’d do what she claimed.

  And like the virus — like Aesli — hope changes you, and you can’t ever go back.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Spider

  Even though she was exhausted and her hands began to shake halfway through, Aesli insisted on personally vaccinating every man in the room. It wasn’t until she got to the last man, the prospect named Rufus that she’d had a tussle with, that I began to understand why. She was proving something to them, and instilling in them the sense that this was a momentous occasion, so they’d take it seriously. Take her seriously.

  She swabbed his arm and paused before setting the gun against his skin. “You’re going to be able to tell your grandchildren about this,” she joked, “the night you got immunity right from the source herself. After she gave you a concussion.”

  He scoffed at her teasing, looking up at Luka. “The thing I’m going to be bragging about is surviving a fight with one of the Hellspawn Triplets, and Pike Kolek no less.”

  “OH!” Her mouth was a perfect O, her eyes wide, then she carefully lifted the gun away. “Well if he’s the important one here…” she trailed off, looking up at Luka and winking. He grinned back at her, then leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips.

  “Quit messing with him, Azzie-pie,” he chided her, giving an approving chin tilt and a look to Rufus behind her back. “And don’t be jealous that I’m more famous than you — in some circles.”

  “Don’t see your initials tattooed on his arm,” she grumbled under her breath, pulling the trigger.

  “He’ll tattoo them on his chest if I ask him too,” Luka bragged. “Or even better, I’ll sign my name and Gwen can tattoo my autograph on him.”

  In a high pitched voice, she mocked him with “Me me me mememe… my name’s Luka and I punch people real hard.”

  “Mememememe. My name’s Azzie and I bleed a lot!”

  “OH!”

  I kind of wanted a picture of her shocked face. It was both adorable and made me want to shove my dick in the perfectly round circle of her lips. I glanced over at my brother and he had a look, and I knew he was thinking the same thing.

  Sev coughed and turned around, pretending to search for something.

  Those two didn’t even know what it was like, being with her. The mix of innocence and decadence — her inexperience making everything new and exciting, combined with what seemed like a complete lack of inhibitions — it was addictive. Like the three of us had been explorers discovering sex for the first time in an ancient temple buried in the wilderness, and she was open and willing to try everything. The way she welcomed every kiss, every touch — demanding more of whatever felt good — I didn’t even care whether I got off or not. All I wanted was to keep pushing her further and further just to see the look of wonder and delight when she came, and then that lazy satisfaction post-orgasm until one of us got her going again.

  Since being with her in the bunker, I’ve fallen asleep every time thinking about her and planning for the next time we could be together, whether alone or not. For someone who’d never shared a woman before, I strangely didn’t care at all whether my time with Azzie was solo or not; solo would probably always be my first choice — no, being with Azzie was my first choice, in whatever way it w
orked out.

  As soon as we were safe, as soon as we had time to catch our breath… hopefully with a real bed, or couch, or really any flat surface — a couple throw pillows on the floor, a blanket on a stretch of ground without rocks… I wouldn’t be picky as long as she was comfortable and safe. I didn’t forget the promise I made to her, that I’d be as gentle as she needed for the rest of our lives, but when the three of us were together, and even the last few days as we traveled, it made me think that she was more resilient than either of us realized when I promised her “gentle lovemaking” instead of rough, pounding fucking like I think she feared she couldn’t handle.

  Nice to think we might have both.

  Rufus cleared his throat, snapping me out of my Azzie-sex-daze. “Since having your initials mean I might actually have a chance to have those grandkids, I think I’ll side with you on this one, even if Pike can kill me with one hit.”

  “Smart man,” Sasha hummed, and lifted the gun out of her hand.

  After we’d devoured a platter of a dozen or so burgers the owner had grilled up, assuring us it was actual beef, Azzie left with Sev and Tai — a lot of the men dispersed at that point, most rubbing their arms and looking a little worse for wear — to get some sleep. It was almost dawn, and Justice wanted to head out in the afternoon, as soon as Azzie finished vaccinating the rest of the local club and their families.

  A small group of us were still too wired to sleep, used to late nights and short naps during times of heightened threat, and we gathered at a table with a round of beers.

  Luka sat down with a gusty sigh and muttered complaints like he was some ancient mariner settling down into his favorite chair before the fire, resting his bones after months at sea. Sasha rubbed the space between his brows as he watched his brother sorting himself out, while Lore looked to me and rolled his eyes. I folded my lips in and tried not to laugh.

  The legit “old-timers” were far less dramatic, taking their seats to a chorus of metallic shrieks as the chair legs scraped against the ground, arranging themselves around the table with their beers and smokes and the random lighter or object to fidget with. The triplets’ dad and his men, Horse and Rollins, squared off opposite his sons and me. Lore and the leaders of the local club — Trick, the president; Gamble, his VP; and Ishaq, the club Sergeant At Arms — were scattered in the open seats in between.

  “Start talking,” Justice said without any preamble, looking to his sons.

  Sasha glanced between me and Luka, then nodded. “Spent two days at the base in Pennsylvania — like you expected, it wasn’t our final destination. They separated us, did all kinds of scans and tests, we were interviewed by a half dozen different people, and filled out about a hundred forms and questionnaires. Mostly medical stuff, family history, and like highest level of education. Very little about who we are or what we do, which was surprising, but looking back it feels… negligent. They gave no fucks about who they brought in to— shit. We’ll get to that. Anyway, after all that, we were put on a cargo plane with a bunch of others, including some girls. All twins except for us three, Spider and Tai included. We were flown to an unidentified airstrip in the middle of nowhere, then transported in the back of a truck for a few hours to get to the base. Thought it was going to be the one in Virginia, but the three of us recognized it right away as the secret base in Michigan. Security is… intense.”

  I interrupted him there, and a few eyebrows went up but Sasha just nodded and let me speak. “We have a contact high up on the inside, he’s the one who got my brother and me pushed to the front of the line for consideration. Referring to security as intense is an understatement. The soldiers and staff brought onto the base are carefully chosen, going through weeks and sometimes months of evaluation and vetting even after needing to catch someone’s eye for consideration in the first place. Most of the rank and file soldiers would’ve been special forces or special ops in the old days, it’s that level of elite, and even the civilians brought on base to fulfill a need or position have gone through extensive investigation and have the highest level security clearance. From the lunch lady dishing up lasagna in the school cafeteria to the doctors on staff in the medical center, every person on that base has been carefully vetted. And not a one of them knew that acceptance to a position or deployment to Salem was the end of the line. It’s a terminal assignment: there is no quitting, or being reassigned, or even going away on vacation. Once you enter the gates on base, you will be there until you die.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Trick asked, looking around the table. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “You knew this—?” Luka sounded sick, like it had never occurred to him what we’d gotten involved in.

  I shook my head. “No, we didn’t. We were warned that it was an extreme situation, but we were the only two candidates that could possibly qualify and had the training and expertise to succeed in our objectives.” I really hope they didn’t probe deeper regarding who we were working on behalf of, and both Sasha and Luka communicated to me without words that they had my back.

  “So all that stuff during the meeting about the study phases and a second round of recruitment if we failed… they weren’t just going to send us home with their thanks and a muffin basket as a consolation prize?”

  “Apparently not.”

  “How did you—?”

  “Azzie,” I said, hunching my shoulders in. It had been another one of our intense conversations, and to say it haunted me was an understatement. “She does not like to talk about it,” I warned them. “Over the years, some soldiers go reassigned,” I made air quotes, “because of problems on base, and she told me she has to treat it like pets going off to live on a farm or she might lose her mind. At first she thought people in the study would be different, since our families weren’t relocated to the base too, but then we were told officially who she is, and she knew right then that we were doomed. It’s why she kept adding to the group as it became clear who knew about her and who didn’t, and why she and Mouse had such an elaborate plan in place for evacuation to begin with. They knew all about what being on that base meant.”

  “Back up a bit,” Justice said, leaning forward. “So she wasn’t exaggerating about the study being about her? What was the purpose of twins— oh fuck.”

  “Pretty much,” Sasha leaned back in his chair and tapped a finger against his bottle. “We didn’t know right away, we didn’t even know she was involved or important— she was just this girl that we all had contact with in some way. Tai worked at the lab where she got her blood draws done, the three of us had classes with her — oh yeah, by the way, we were brought in as high school students — yeah, you should laugh. That’s a whole other fucked up story. Anyway, yeah… Spider here was her teacher.”

  Six men looked at me with a mix of disbelief and amusement. “I actually am a teacher,” I explained, and I could see the moment that a few of them started entertaining the teacher/student porn scenario.

  “And a soldier. And a sniper,” Luka contributed helpfully, and some of those looks became more assessing. I shrugged.

  “Maybe I’m not following,” Trick said, “or maybe I just want to hear it for sure because what I’m coming up with in my head is really fucked up. What exactly was this study?”

  “Phase one of the study was to make contact and develop a relationship of some kind with Azzie, organically, not knowing who she was. Phase two was develop that relationship to include sex, and knock her up. No one explained why, but we all figure they were hoping for twin or triplet babies, for more sources of the vaccine.”

  “I thought you said there were girls in the study?” Gamble wasn’t the only one confused now.

  “There were. Young kids too, ones that Azzie never even met — only seven of us were deliberately put in her path. Our assumption is that the others were red herrings of some kind, meant to mask the real purpose of the study.”

  “From who? You? Didn’t you say they told you what the study objective was?”


  “From her.”

  That’s when Luka began to laugh. “She figured it out even before we did. They thought they were being so clever, covering up why we were there, having girls in the study too… So fucking subtle. First day — first time she saw any of us — she knew something was up, and basically told us all, repeatedly, to go fuck ourselves when we tried to talk to her. What was it she said to you when you met her?” He looked at me.

  “She said she’s not stupid, and I should go back to whoever sent me and tell them that their heavy-handed bullshit wasn’t going to work.”

  “And we didn’t even know she was part of the study at that point, so there’s this little girl just fucking reaming us anytime we even try to be nice to her, making us feel like the biggest, most clueless jackasses—”

  “Fucking reaming anyone who tried to talk to her, let alone fuck with her.”

  Luka started bouncing in his seat, visibly excited. “Dad, oh my God, you don’t even know… she fucking— in the middle of class—”

  “Calm down and use your words,” Justice advised, smiling affectionately at his son.

  “These girls— they were in the study too, and these total ball-busting bitches, like the meanest of the Mean Girls, and they decided to fuck with Azzie because, well, I don’t really know—”

  “Because we were paying attention to her,” Sasha snarled. “Because to them, it looked like we treated her like someone important to us, even though we didn’t, not really. She was interesting, and at first we felt sorry for her because she was so obviously sick and everyone else there was so healthy and we got protective when we shouldn’t have, drew attention to her.”

  “Yeah, but it didn’t matter, did it— Azzie didn’t need us to protect her. I mean, she probably doesn’t need us now except people would try to take her—”