by Elise Jae
“Don’t flatter yourself by thinking you know me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
I don’t tell him my next thought, that I don’t want to know him. He seems like the sort who might lash out if confronted by distaste.
“But you still need to cut these off.” Again, I considered how much easier it would be if I could just do it myself.
Then again… he might see me as a threat if I did. And for the time being, I’m not worth his attention. The fact that he wasn’t giving me any made that perfectly clear.
With an irritated sigh, he crosses to me, pulls a knife from his waist, and slices the bindings.
I watch that blade, hoping to see some weakness in its holster that will make it easy to grab next time, but there isn’t one… the device next to it though, that catches my eye. My curiosity alerts him though, and he thinks I’m staring at the knife, so he places it on the console beside him, well out of my reach, and nowhere near where I’ll be able to snatch it away.
A dozen monsters crowd around him, like dogs looking for pets and praise.
“Why do they attack the brotherhood, but not you?”
His hand moves to the hip with the device. A habitual gesture.
Then, he smiles down at them scritching this one’s ear, stroking that one’s side. “Because they’re well trained.”
“You hijacked their brains.” I remember enough about what Jessica told me.
“That too.” He pats one on the head and points to something in the far corner. “It’s remarkable what you can do to a creature when you’re the one who made it.”
Something in his voice makes me think…. “You didn’t make Arc, or Shock, or Risk.”
“You’re right, that’s why they’re not here like obedient lap dogs, but I did change them. And that is why I know exactly what they’re going to do when they find out you’re missing.” This time, he turns that smile on me and it’s as chilling as the metal. “It’s going to tear them apart.”
He’s wrong. I know it in my bones, but I know he won’t give me the chance to argue. So I keep asking questions.
"Were you the one who had them snatch me off Earth?"
"Yes."
"What would you have done if they'd managed to get me to you the first go around."
"Oh you're mistaken, girl. I'm the one who blew up the ship. I'm the one who made sure they kept you in that escape pod—their ship didn't have anything resembling a brig, so it was the best option anyway. And I'm the one who brought them down. The one who popped your capsule when I knew you'd be seen by Arc on one of his patrols. My dear boy is always so helpful, being just where I need him, when I need him."
"You wanted them to find me. They did... so why come after me again."
"Because I have access to all the data in their medical unit."
What he meant was: because I'm pregnant.
"So the real monster was always you."
He doesn’t seem to hear me.
“It wasn’t an accident.” He says moving to the enormous wall of screens showing the Zone. “I chose you specifically. You were perfect for my boys. Dropped you in their proverbial laps, and let hormones do the rest.”
“You knew there could be multiple bondings?”
“Only when their DNA is programmed that way. And you were injected with a chemical cocktail of my own design.”
“What did you do to them?”
“I made them better.” He chuckled and moved to the machinery. “I will admit, I had no idea what would happen. I thought maybe your child would be a combination of all three.”
“You clearly don’t understand female biology.”
He shoots me a look that is all menace. “I understand so much more than you could ever hope to know.”
“If you know them so well, then you know they’ll come looking for me.”
“They’ll spend too much time fighting.” He sighs, and it’s almost wistful. “Arc, my dear sweet boy… he’s never been able to feel true acceptance. Except, perhaps with you, but now that you’re gone, he’ll begin to question if you chose someone else, after all, you bonded with three men. What sort of woman does that? And why wouldn’t you go off looking for a fourth.”
“I am going to assume you’ve never been bonded. And, based on your thrilling speech, I know you’ve never been a pair of a polyamorous bonding… so I’ll enlighten you on something you clearly weren’t prepared for. I didn’t just bond to the three of them. They bonded to each other. So Arc won’t have to question anything. He knows how Shock and Risk feel about him. That’s not in any doubt.”
He’s glaring at his computer screens and I can tell he wasn’t expecting that.
“Whatever you do to me, they’ll feel it, and they’ll feel it together. You may think you’ve gotten what you wanted… but you’re wrong.”
One of the monsters closest to me growled and snapped. I flinched back, and the Maker laughed.
“Do you keep sending these out to die, just so you can keep the guys close?” I look down at the creatures and wonder, “Or were they another one of your mistakes?”
“They got a little out of hand, I’ll admit, for a while I’d thought the boys were my only hope for dealing with them. But once I developed the bio-organic control chip, they were easy enough to direct.”
The air is bitterly cold, but the man who's just kidnapped me is colder.
"Do you have a real name?" When he glances at me and turns back to his computer, I add, "I'm not a child you've spent years abusing. I don't think you're some kind of sick god sent to punish me. I know exactly what you are."
"You have no idea what I am. And if you think you do, you're probably the most naive woman I've ever met."
"Have you met many? Women, I mean. Have you been outside of this cave for longer than an hour or two?"
“My connections are vast.” He pauses, watching me. "You know, I paid a great deal of money to a man so that he would bring me your sister's child. And then Ric... my poor beautiful boy had to make a mistake and grab the wrong one from the Agency ship. It worked out in the end. I found out the man was double dipping. He was going to sell the child to someone else. Apparently, I wasn't threatening enough behind my screen."
"You're sick."
"I understand why you might think that. But, you should know, it wasn't my intention for her to die. I didn't know he was that demented."
"Are you sure? They say it takes one to know one?"
His glare darkens. "I took care of him. There's no chance he'll be hurting anywhere from wherever they spread his ashes."
"You killed him because he didn't kidnap an infant for you."
"No, I had him killed because he couldn't do a simple job. And who knew what secrets he might have spilled.”
"And what about me. What are you going to do with me when this is all over?"
"Oh, I'll keep you around. After all, you have three babies to take care of and I'm not going to separate them from you.... until you make me."
A cold shiver ran down my spine that had nothing to do with temperature, but….
"Well, if that's the case then you at least need to turn up the heater. I'm freezing to death in this icebox."
He looks at me, glaring as if he doesn’t believe me. “You didn’t complain to them.”
I was not about to let him keep me warm the way they did.
RISK
The snow is thick, floating down in heavy chunks, but it isn’t enough to obscure the tracks. Not after we’d been hunting the monsters so long. The Maker hadn’t even tried to obscure his route… as if he had been certain we wouldn’t come after her. Underestimating us had been his downfall before.
The entrance to the maker’s lair is in a long, dark fissure, and we stop, just before it, certain she’s there. With the strength of our bond, I don’t know how we could be wrong.
“We should call Drift and the others for back-up. Who knows what’s in there.” Shock says it, but I can feel his hesi
tancy. Feel Arc’s unsettled nerves.
“How are we going to explain he’s alive?” Arc asks, eyes never leaving the dark slash in the icy blue wall.
“They don’t know what we did.” I remind him. “It’ll be easy enough to keep it that way.” As long as we don’t give him the opportunity to talk.”
“Can we afford to wait?”
“Can we afford to rush into a trap?
“If he hurts her….”
“He won’t. He needs her.” We all know why.
The compounding disgust is nauseating.
Shock makes the call and I survey the top of the fissure’s walls. There are no visible cameras. No defenses. If I couldn’t feel Chris, I’d never have thought to look here. It’s just another crack in the inner Caldera wall.
“We have a problem. The Maker’s back and he’s taken Christina.”
I can’t hear Drift’s response, but from the way Shock flinches, I know it’s loud, and likely laced with expletives.
“We’ve tracked him to the inner Caldera. Ping this location, and send reinforcements.” He pauses, nods, even though Drift can’t see him. “We won’t go in until you’re here.” He hangs up the call and pulls the comm out of his ear. “We all know I was lying, right?”
Arc chuckles, but it’s low and mirthless.
We go in slow.
We all know the goal.
Leaving the bikes where they are—they’re too loud to take through a canyon like this one, we set out on foot.
The walls of the fissure rise higher around us as we make our way inside. When the ice turns to rock, Signs of life finally appear. But there is no door. To this point we’ve come up against no resistance, and I’m starting to worry. I can only hope it’s a sign of his hubris.
But there are bars on the first set of doors we find.
What’s behind them is unsettling.
A couple dozen monsters loll on the hard packed floor, like lazy dogs waiting for something to catch their interest.
“They’re not chipped.” Arc says, his tone flat, and I follow his gaze to the nearest of them. There is no dark spot between their eyes, no sign of an incision.
“He hasn’t taken control of these ones yet.”
“Is that better or worse?” Shock asks.
One rolls from its back to its feet and lopes to them, stopping a meter from the cage to watch them with interested eyes. But it’s not hostile.
“Something’s not right.”
“We’ll deal with that later.” I turn away, trying to fight back the unsettled feeling in my stomach.
I push it away, inhaling deeply and reaching out for Chris, she’s calm, and that helps. She’s close.
That helps too.
Fourteen
CHRISTINA
Movement catches my eye on the monitors behind the Maker, and I’m relieved he’s sneering at me, instead of paying attention.
“How on Earth do you expect this to work.”
“We’re not on Earth anymore, child.” His smile is cruel.
“That doesn’t matter,” I look at the cage-like cell. “I’m going to get sick if I stay here much longer, and since we both know I’m not who you want, I’m just a convenient incubation vessel—”
It’s disgusting that those words are what amuse him.
“—What was your plan for that?”
“I have somewhere to house you until it’s time, and someone to help with any complications. You may not enjoy it, but you’ll survive.”
I don’t want to know what he means when he says I won’t enjoy it.
I grip the bars a little tighter. There are too many of the monsters in here. If they come in to save me, they'll wind up getting overwhelmed. I need to do something.
“That’s not going to work for me.”
Eyes narrowed, he crosses his arms. “I don’t really care what works for you and what doesn’t. And I’m starting to think I may have to muzzle you to get through the next five months.”
I shiver and the uneven ground makes me sway, just a little bit. He stands, as if to catch me… odd, but it’ll work to my advantage.
“I’m dizzy,” I say, lowering myself to the ground. “What did you do to me?”
“I haven’t done anything yet.”
The floor is hard and uncomfortable, cold and dirty, but if it serves my purpose….
Despite the discomfort, I try to lay as still as possible.
In the dim light of the cage, I know he can’t see me, and when he calls out my name, I don’t move.
For a moment, I think I’ve lost the gambit, but he curses and I hear the rattle of keys. The cage door screeches open.
Eyes barely cracked, I watch him as he scowls down at me, stooping to press cold fingers to my throat. It puts him close enough.
I grab the device on his belt and pull both of my legs up, kicking him backward, out of the cage. He hits the console behind him with a loud thud, and the hard rush of his breath from his lungs. His curses are in their language, but the tone gets the point across. I scramble to my feet, but as soon as I get out of the cage, the monsters turn on me.
Except… they’re not snarling. They look at me curiously, like they can’t decide what I am.
He shouts, not at me, but at them. Whatever he says, all it does is pull their attention away from me. And when they don’t move, he kicks the closest one in the snout.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” I say, holding up the device to show him.
All of the blood drains from his face, and he tries to run for the door… but they trap him in, herding him. I don’t need to be here to watch that.
Using the distraction, I turn, and I run.
As soon as I clear the doors, I see them, making their way up the hallway to me, and I run straight to Arc’s arms.
ARC
It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but I hand Chris off to Risk. “Wait out here with her. We’ll take care of him.”
She’s shivering, and she needs one of us to stay with her to keep her warm.
“Wait,” She says, twisting, but not moving out of the circle of Risk’s arms.
“Take this.” She hands me a small device, hard plastic, the size of my palm. “It’s what he used to keep them from attacking him.”
That would be very helpful.
I kiss her forehead before turning to the alcove she’d run out of moments ago.
Shock moves in close behind.
A quick sweep of the space, almost makes me think he escaped, but the monsters are circle, looking up.
He’s dangling from a support scaffolding, his legs pulled up behind him, and the monsters take turns jumping up to snap at his knees.
He sees us almost immediately.
“Do something.” His commanding tone is thin, he’s getting tired.
“We thought you burned up in that fire.” Shock says, and I note the burned skin where it’s visible. “Why would we save you now?”
“Because I made you!” He all but screams at us and has to readjust his grip.
I turned to Shock. “I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy.”
Shock doesn’t look at me. No emotion passes over his face, though I can feel the tumult churning inside him. “You kidnapped the woman we love and our unborn children.”
“I delivered you to her. I made those children possible!”
“Do you think that makes up for what you’ve done? To us? To the others?”
I snort and it almost sounds like a laugh. “It doesn’t even scratch the surface.”
“You can’t just kill me.”
“You’ve forgotten. You’re already dead.” And none of us want him airing his dirty laundry in a courtroom.
“Let’s see how your pets feel about your survival.” I pull my gun up and it takes little to no effort to correct my aim.
One squeeze of the trigger, and he cries out, a hole through his wrist. But he manages to hang on with the
other, dangling, blood dripping down and driving the monsters into a frenzy. Shock doesn’t make him suffer for long, though he’d deserve it. He doesn’t bother to aim carefully and the hole cuts through the side of the Maker’s wrist, but it does the trick.
With a scream and a heavy thud, the Maker falls to the floor amongst his other creations, and they tear into him.
We watch, backing to the doorway, waiting to see if he’ll escape—knowing there’s no possible way he could.
I hear the others before I see them. And after a single, confirming glance, I don’t look back. Don’t acknowledge Drift until he’s standing beside me.
“What happened to waiting?”
“You knew we weren’t going to. Would you, if it had been Kimba?”
“No.”
At least he wasn’t going to lie to me.
“I assume the Maker is what was on the menu?”
To that, I just nod. Then, I draw my gun up, the monsters are done.
Some turn back to us, others lop out of the space through a tunnel half hidden by the cage he’d no doubt kept Christina in.
They look at us a moment longer and I hold onto the device a little tighter and wonder.... “Get out of here.”
I say it low, but recognition flashes in their eyes, and they turn, following the others out.
“What the hell just happened?”
“Chris said he controlled them with this.” I hold it up and then hand it to him.”
Nausea hits me a moment later, and I turn back to see Chris standing beside Jess, looking at the body. I turn, stepping between them, blocking her view. “You’re alright.”
I say it, knowing it with complete certainty.
We can’t leave yet. At least, not all of us. I look up at Risk, “Will you take her home?”
He nods, scooping her up.She’s bundled in a heavy coat now—something Jess must have brought with her.
“I’m going to stay,” she says, looking at Trench as if she knows he’s going to tell her to go back as well. “I want to check on the monsters he has caged… the ones without the chips.”
She goes without waiting for permission, and Trench turns back to the lab, moving in with a beleaguered eye roll.