by Christi Snow
“You got that right.” The other voice lowered with lust. “Too damn bad. I’d have her on her knees every night.” A rough hand grabbed her ass fingering the lace edge of her panties before he turned her over to her back. She wanted to bat his groping hands away, but couldn’t. All she could do was flop.
“How much sedative did you have in that thing? She wasn’t supposed to be unconscious, just unable to fight back. The magistrate won’t like it if she’s carried out of here looking like this. He wants a show for the cameras, so you need to juice her up so she doesn’t appear like a victim.”
Oh, God. Who were they talking about? What kind of show?
“We’re fucking dragging her out of her bed that she shared with him in the middle of the night,” a third voice muttered with compassion. “She is a fucking victim.” A pinprick of pain jolted in her neck, and suddenly Lori could open her eyes.
“Holy shit!” The man, who just seconds before had been expounding her victimized status, now backed away from her, his eyes wide in fear.
All three of the men wore ES Enforcer uniforms, the same expression of horror etched on their faces.
“No one said she was an Other,” one whispered in a shocked and horrified voice.
Her eyes must be glowing, either from the leftover energy from using her power this afternoon or the new adrenaline shooting through her system. She glanced down to hide the glow, an instinct from years of hiding her Other status. It was way too late for that now.
She needed to take advantage of their shock and fear, but her muscles refused to cooperate. Dammit. Her eyes filled with tears. Weak. She couldn’t even fight back. She scanned the bed, desperately searching for a weapon as her fingers began to tingle. Feeling slowly crept back into her limbs. Frantic, she had to move before they realized how truly helpless she was right now.
“What’s the hold-up in here?” a voice she recognized growled from the doorway.
She raised her gaze and looked directly to the man who’d made her day miserable—Detective Morris. Fuck.
His scowl quickly morphed to a smile full of evil intent that had nothing to do with happiness. “Ms. Renshaw,” he cooed. “Now, isn’t this a surprise. What goes around comes around, eh? We didn’t get Mr. Dupree, but I think I can be okay with that since we have now contained a dangerous Other. We will so enjoy having you in our custody.”
Terror liquefied her stomach and she tried to stifle the pure panic running through her. She had to stay in control if she had any hope of getting out of this alive.
“You have thirty seconds to get her dressed and downstairs,” the detective instructed. “Let’s make this a good show for the magistrate.”
They dressed her, dragged her into the hallway, and hauled her down the outside stairs of her apartment building. Blue, red, and yellow flashed in pulses of light in front of her as they dragged her into the onslaught of people gawking on the street.
In the middle of it all stood Teddy looking toward the crowd and photographers as they surged forward. For a brief moment, she nurtured a trickle of hope, but when that oily politician’s smile lit up his expression as he faced the crowd, her stomach sank. He didn’t even man-up enough to meet her eyes.
“Rest assured.” His voice carried out over the melee. “The government in the ES will do everything in our power to eradicate threats to your safety.” He waved a hand at her.
Shock stunned her. What kind of threat could she possibly pose? She designed and manufactured clothing for their people. He’d always praised the fact that she worked in such a necessary part of their new society. They all needed clothes and she’d taken the reins to get one of the largest manufacturing plants up and running again. In the years after the Veil fell, their society as they knew it had to readjust. Everyone was scared, but she’d stepped up and helped re-establish a vital part of their supply line.
“Whatever it takes,” he droned on. “I am the man to lead our society into the next era. I am willing to make the hard decisions.”
The man who had shown the sliver of compassion in her apartment held her right arm. “He’s a cold bastard, ain’t he? Fuck, you were his girlfriend, weren’t you?”
“Fiancée actually.” Tears choked her throat. This was a nightmare. “Please, help me,” she implored the man, searching for some shred of compassion to aid her.
For a moment, their eyes met and her hope surged. He pressed his lips together and glanced away. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled under his breath.
They shoved her into a detention van while Teddy continued to lecture on in the background, pontificating about the wonderful ES government.
She’d been so stupid. Weak. Her chest seized with the ache of betrayal, but the anger at her own naivety took front and center. Her need to believe in Teddy’s commitment to her had outweighed the knowledge that she could be making a grave mistake.
And now she’d paid for it with her life.
Betrayed by someone who’d vowed to love her forever.
If she got her freedom back, she would never be this trusting again.
Marcus – Western States
Marcus Hughes watched Audra walk toward him, her long, red hair swaying in time with her lush hips. The moss green wings on her back twitched. She knew exactly how she affected him. He was so in love with this woman, his woman now for five years. If her fourteen-year-old brother, Shane, wasn’t in the house and likely to walk into the room at any moment, he’d risk being late to his meeting and take her right here, right now, up against the counter.
“Are you sure you have to go to the meeting?” She gave him a fake pout, even though she knew his job as a Warrior for the WS meant he couldn’t miss Bethany’s council meeting with the districts.
She stopped before him and ran her fingernail across the placket of his jeans where his cock pulsed in reaction to her. “I would make it worth your while to skip it.” She leaned up on her tiptoes to graze her teeth across his earlobe.
He groaned low. They’d lived together five years and he still responded to her like it was their first time, every time. She was perfect for him.
“Hmm,” he hummed as she continued to stroke and tease him. “You know I’d love to, but I have a responsibility.”
She knew that, but this was part of their game. She loved to flirt and tease him. It was a little thing that kept their relationship fresh and feeling new.
“It’s a beautiful day.” He needed to distract her before her temptation worked. “Why don’t you take Shane out for a picnic or something? The kid has been moping around ever since that girl he liked moved away.”
She’d raised Shane since he was two, so he was basically her child instead of her brother. And right now, that child was going through a difficult time.
“Okay, I see that distraction for what it is.” She lifted an eyebrow at him and smiled. “But that’s actually a good idea. I hate that we don’t have more kids in the village his age. It makes things so lonely for him, but it might be good to get him out in the forest where he can communicate with the animals.”
Shane had been two and the youngest survivor in the WS when the Veil fell. But as the youngest, he had the oldest gifts, which grew stronger every day. He was the first to develop his wings, telepathy, and his individual ability to talk mentally to the animals. His ability with animals seemed to ease some of his adolescent turmoil. Audra and Marcus tried to make sure he was able to use his talent as much as possible. They couldn’t do anything about the lack of friends, but they could make sure he had access to animals.
“When Griff and I were out scouting yesterday, we saw a herd of elk north of the millhouse,” he told her.
“Really? It’s been a while since the herd has been in the area. Shane will love it if we can find them again.”
“Just plan to be home by dark. We haven’t had any Predator attacks lately, but there’s no reason to tempt fate. Besides, our meeting should be close to over by then and I have plans for you.” He cupped her breast
through her shirt, and her nipple pebbled under his palm.
Her desire sparked along their telepathic connection amping up his desire a few more notches. Mmm, playing with her sounded so much better than his meeting. Leaning back, he looked at her speculatively. “Think Shane would want to spend the night at Drake’s tonight? Some time with your brother might help take his mind off his troubles, too.” Drake was the middle brother and also lived in the village. Her two younger brothers didn’t get along that well, but at his age, Shane didn’t get along with anyone particularly well.
“I’ll convince them both. It’s been a while since we’ve had the place to ourselves and I think—”
“Oh, good Goddess.” Shane’s disgusted exclamation separated the two quicker than ice water. “Can’t you wait until I’m at school, or asleep, or something? There are certain images I cannot get out of my innocent brain.” Shane stood in the doorway, squinting at them through the fingers splayed across his eyes.
“Well, far be it from us to corrupt your innocent young mind.” Marcus chuckled softly. “I have to get to work, anyway.” He leaned down to brush a soft kiss across Audra’s tempting lips, twitching with humor at her brother’s dramatics. Inhaling her signature musk of lilacs and mint, he whispered in her ear, “Tonight…”
He redirected his gaze to Shane. “I trust you to keep her safe in the forest today.”
Shane swung his head around to Audra, his face alight in happy surprise. “We’re going into the forest?”
She grinned at him. “Yep. Marcus said the elk herd was in the vicinity yesterday. Let’s go see if we can find them, okay?”
“Yes! Just let me go get my gear,” Shane said as he shot through the open door. His dark green wings flapped furiously as he launched into the air and flew up to his bedroom on the top level of the treehouse.
“I think he’s excited,” Marcus said. “And I have to take off, too. Let me know where you all are so I can find you if the meeting ends early.”
Her freckled face lit up and her moss green eyes sparked with enthusiasm. “Do you think that’s a possibility?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Marcus grimaced in anticipation of the long afternoon of political meetings. “But we can always hope.” He brushed another soft, lingering kiss across her cheek. “You guys have fun, but be careful.”
* * *
Marcus worked to stifle the yawn. The seven Warriors who served as Bethany Harris’s private security contingent circled the periphery of the meeting room, watching for any threat from the other fifty-four people attending. As a general rule, the people within the WS weren’t violent. When the Veil fell, there was enough loss of life when everyone over the age of eighteen suddenly died. Since all the survivors had been children at the time, they definitely lost a taste for death. Most threats now came from Predators.
But if anyone wanted to remove Bethany from power and take over as the ruler of the WS, it would probably be someone in this room. Twice a year all the districts in the WS sent representatives to Springlake to discuss issues with Bethany. This room held all those leaders. Several of them thought they could do a better job than Bethany running the entire government, but they would be wrong.
They were forgetting what they owed her, and that was a dangerous thing. When the Veil fell, she was the oldest at eighteen. After a couple weeks of chaos, she took control, held them together, and helped them rebuild when they were nothing but a ramshackle group of terrified kids. Thanks to her and her knowledge of the Earth, they had a functioning society again.
“Someone needs to put an end to this meeting soon, or else Aaron isn’t going to have any molars left,” Griff said mentally along the telepathic connection between the Warriors.
Marcus slowly glanced over to the Warrior leader’s glowering countenance and agreed. That tense jaw couldn’t mean good things for his dental hygiene.
A study in black from his jet black wings, dark hair, black scruff, and black clothes, Aaron radiated menace. Right now that ire was directed toward the man speaking. Aaron’s six foot four inches of pure muscle and physical size would deter most men from challenging him, but the cocky leader from the Fennel district continued to blatantly hit on Bethany while at the same time, worked to completely discredit her.
Bethany had a beautiful and ethereal aura which drew men and women alike to her, but this nitwit desired the power more than the woman. Could the man truly be so clueless? Couldn’t he feel the force of that glare?
Bethany definitely could as she sent her own censuring glare toward Aaron. He shrugged his shoulders innocently but returned to his intimidating stance as soon as she turned away.
Garrison was the youngest of the Warriors at only twenty years old. Like the other Warriors, he stood behind the delegates watching the proceedings. Up until now, he’d been practically comatose with boredom. Now he’d perked up. “Want to lay odds on how much longer Aaron’s patience will last before the dude from Fennel gets kicked out? I’m guessing he won’t last another five minutes.”
“You’re on, pup,” Marcus said. “If Aaron’s patience didn’t go that far, you’d be dead. He would have killed you during water training last year when you almost drowned him.”
Garrison didn’t handle water well. In fact, he had quite a phobia over it which they loved to give him a hard time about.
All the Warriors chuckled mentally, although looking at them, no one would guess their private conversation. They all stood at stoic, watchful attention.
“Well, if Aaron doesn’t kill him, Bethany might,” Brooklyn, Bethany’s younger sister and the only female Warrior, said. “She’s ticked.”
Marcus studied Bethany’s posture, but besides her occasional warning glances at Aaron, he didn’t see anything to show she was upset with the Fennel delegate who continued to drone on.
“I don’t see it. What do you see that the rest of us don’t?” he asked Brooklyn.
“Look at her left hand. Do you see how she keeps flicking her pinky finger with her thumb? That’s her tell when she’s angry. She hides it well, but her temper is about to explode. Look, it’s getting faster. Be ready to react in case this doesn’t go well.”
“Mr. Kramer. Nick.” Bethany’s strong, authoritative voice stilled everyone in the meeting. The man in question half-rose from his seat until Aaron, who had silently moved behind him, stepped closer. Bethany waved a hand at him. “Aaron, stand down.”
Across their mental telepathy, she told him, “Let me handle this.”
“While I appreciate your opinion that we should be a more economic-centric civilization…I disagree, especially with your proposed methods. All our studies on the gorge show that deep-earth drilling caused that fracture in our world, resulting in the appearance of the gorge, and later, the Veil. I won’t do anything like the mass mining you’re suggesting. It would hurt Mother Earth even more. She won’t stand for it and neither will I, so think long and hard about what happened twelve years ago before you continue to pursue this.”
As a Wiccan, Bethany believed Mother Earth reclaimed her soil after humans destroyed it. Marcus wasn’t religious, but he figured that explanation worked as well as anything. Fifty-two years ago, a gorge had suddenly appeared, splitting the country in half. A mile deep and a quarter mile wide, the gorge spanned from Mobile, Alabama up to Quebec City, Canada, literally splitting the country.
Then twelve years ago, exactly forty years after the gorge first appeared, the Veil of mist fell during the summer solstice, only going halfway across the width of the gorge and blanketing the WS. They’d had half a day after the fog first rolled in before they lost complete contact with the Eastern States. The newswire had already taken to calling the thick fog “the Veil” because it looked like a wedding veil draped over the Western States between the gorge and the Mississippi River. The fog became an impenetrable wall between the two sides. A wall no one was able to cross ever again. As if that wasn’t devastating enough, within two days every single person over the age of e
ighteen was dead and their bodies completely gone. Disappeared.
For a moment, the smarmy man looked like he planned to continue on this thread, but with a glance around at the Warriors—especially the glowering Aaron—he sat back down in his chair. “Beg pardon, Bethany. I meant no harm or disrespect.”
Bethany gave him a sharp nod. “Thank you, Nick. I appreciate that not everyone sees things the way that I do, but no one can debate that the Earth has taken care of us since the Veil fell.”
Within a year of the Veil falling, they’d all been gifted with their telepathy, wings, fast healing abilities, and various other supernatural gifts. Bethany felt that was the Earth’s way of making up for their incredible loss of all the adults in their world.
“Otherwise we would not have survived,” Bethany continued. “We need to remember that and take care of Her in turn.” She gave a sharp nod that said the matter was settled. “It’s been a long meeting. Let’s break for thirty minutes to revitalize and stretch. There are snacks outside the door if anyone is hungry. Then we can push through and finish with the last details on the agenda.”
While the members from the districts filed out of the room, Marcus, Aaron, and Brooklyn stepped forward to protect Bethany as she strode to her private office. The other four went out to monitor the district delegates.
As Marcus closed the heavy, solid wood door behind them, Bethany whirled on Aaron. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“My job,” he bit out. Aaron’s nostrils flared as his hands balled into fists. “Protecting you is my number one priority.”
“The last time I checked, disagreeing with me will not actually hurt me. In fact, it’s good for the WS. I will not have you intimidating any of those people out there unless they actually pose a true threat of physical harm. We’re not running a dictatorship here.”