Judgement 8 (Subject Alpha #1)

by D H Sidebottom

  “Sir!” one of the guards called out. I closed my eyes briefly, my teeth sinking into my bottom lip. “Sir. Can you . . .”

  I didn’t give him chance. I ran. It was the only hope. I heard his feet slapping the ground behind me as I burst through the doors, my senses hyper with all the smells and sounds drowning my brain.

  Swinging my head left and right as I tried to find the way that seemed the most concealed, my gaze settled on an alleyway across the road. If I could make it across then I hoped it would provide us with a chance.

  I ran down the main steps, a few security men chasing after me now, a couple of them shouting at me to stop. Reaching the edge of the road, there appeared to be no way across. It was too busy, a relentless stream of traffic flying past one after the other.

  “Shit!”

  I’d have to risk it, there was no other way. Usually I’d fight them off but with Elina in my arms, that wasn’t a viable option.

  I closed my eyes and prayed before I snapped them open and took a step forward. My heart stopped when a car screeched to halt in front of me and the passenger door flew open.

  “Get in!”

  What—the—fuck?

  “Get in!” Ruben shouted. I glanced behind me. All the hospital security had been deployed to deal with me, making me wonder exactly how much they knew. Seeing no alternative, and after all, I was taking Elina back to Judgement anyway, I grabbed the rear door handle and bundled Elina in, Ruben slamming the front door closed as I pulled the rear shut after climbing in after her.

  The tires squealed when he hit the accelerator and I was flung back in my seat.

  We didn’t speak until he slowed down, deeming it finally safe and confirming we weren’t been followed.

  “Why aren’t you dead, Ruben? Elina fried you!” I asked as I stroked Elina’s hair off her cheek, the utter peace on her stunning face giving me cause to smile.

  When he didn’t answer me I tried a different question. “Did Janice send you?”

  “Yep. She wants her daughter’s body back.”

  I frowned then took a glance out of the window. “Then why are we heading in a different direction to Judgement?”

  He flicked a glance to me through the rear-view mirror. “Because we’re not going there.”

  “Shit, Ruben. We need to. I need Janice to help Elina.”

  He laughed. “Trust me.”

  “Trust you?” It was my turn to laugh. “Give me one good reason why the fuck I should trust you!”

  He lifted his eyes to the mirror again, his gaze dark and as furious as mine. “Because we’re going to get Elina help without risking both your lives at the same time. We don’t need to like each other to share a need to help Elina, but you need to let me help her, help both of you!”

  “And how the fuck am I supposed to do that after everything?”

  He shrugged, concentrating on the road again. “Do you have a choice, McCallum?”

  Sighing, I yielded and shook my head. “No, I suppose not, but at least tell me where we’re going.”

  I frowned when he gulped. “I can’t tell you yet, and it’s not because it’s a trap,” he blurted when I started to argue. “I’m not even sure how you’ll react but . . . but she’s the only one who can help us.”

  “I don’t like this.” I glanced back at an unconscious Elina. I knew I didn’t have a choice. The problem was, Ruben knew that too.

  I frowned when we pulled up at a small terraced house. It was old, built in the fifties by the looks of it, the paintwork crumbling and a mass of overgrowth stealing the path leading to the front door.

  Ruben peered over the seat at me, his eyes darkening when they found Elina. “You know,” he said quietly, his eyes still secured on Sleeping Beauty, “she deserves better than you.”

  I quirked an eyebrow at him, my head cocked to the side as I smirked at him. “You mean you?”

  “No.” He pursed his lips before turning and facing front again. “I don’t deserve her either.”

  “What the hell is going on, Ruben? It was only a few days ago you turned up at Jonah’s threatening to take us all out.”

  He shook his head refusing me an answer as he opened his door. “Come on.”

  I mumbled something about him being a knob as I climbed out, and leaned back in for Elina. She was still out cold, her tiny body limp. I wasn’t even sure I had it right but something told me, after figuring out what she was, that I was right.

  The front door to the house opened as we walked up the path. I released a growl when I saw Janice waiting for us.

  She noticed my expression but scowled and shook her head. “We don’t have time for this now. Bring her down.”

  She was right, but that didn’t mean I was any less eager to rip her apart. I followed her slowly, the hallway dark but clean; clinically clean.

  “Where is this place?”

  Janice turned to me from a door at the top of some steps leading downwards. “It’s Elina’s childhood home.” She turned to Ruben. “Take Elina.”

  “You’ve no hope!” I said as I stepped back, pulling her tighter into me.

  Janice sighed. “Reid, we’re not here to hurt you, we’re here for Elina. But you need to give her to Ruben. I don’t want you dropping her.”

  “What the fuck? I won’t drop her.”

  “Trust me, Reid. You will.” She flicked a glance at Ruben who nodded then took a step beside me.

  Janice turned to the open doorway and nodded, holding out her hand.

  Ruben caught Elina when I went down, my body dropping into a heap as a sob tore up my throat.

  “Daddy!” Lettie squealed as she jumped for me, her tiny arms flinging around my neck as her legs wrapped around my body and she buried her pretty little face into my chest.

  “Oh my God,” I choked out as I pressed her harder into me, her grip as tight as mine as I inhaled her sweet scent for the first time in eighteen torturously long months.

  5 months Earlier

  “WHAT?” I STARED AT Lettie, my heart refusing to beat.

  She smiled up at me. “It’s not so bad, El. I’ve never had anything else, so it’s like they say, you can’t miss what you’ve never had.”

  I sighed, then walked over to the side of the elevator building and retrieved the blanket I stashed inside one of the broken pipes.

  “But, I’ve only known you for a year. I’d never seen you around Judgement before then. I mean, how . . . ?”

  She settled onto the blanket on her back so she could stare up at the sky, her hands tucked behind her head. “My parents were both subjects.”

  “Oh. You’re a perfect test subject for Janice.”

  She nodded and turned to me. “It’s how it is, Elina. This is my life.”

  I copied her pose, settling myself back down. “Where are your mum and dad?” I tensed as I asked the question, worried for the answer she would give me.

  “They’re dead.”

  “Oh God, Lettie. I’m so sorry, sweetie.”

  A tear slid from my eyes, mirroring the one that ran down her face. She rolled over and buried her face into me; her sobs tortured my soul. “I miss them,” she whimpered. “So much!”

  “I know, baby. I know. But I’m here, and I’ll never leave you. We’re two halves of the same soul. I promise. I promise.”

  BUT I DID. I left her. I promised her. I promised. And I was never one to break my promises.

  I gasped, my fingers clawing at my skull with the pain scorching my head.

  “Hold tight, El.”

  I frowned, my mother’s voice penetrating the hum that accompanied the thousand wasps stinging my brain. I was tempted to scream but I relaxed instantly when a tiny hand lay on my cheek. “It’s okay, El. Wait.”

  “Lettie?” My hope forced me to peel open my swollen eyes. Her beautiful face smiled at me. “Oh my God,” I breathed through the pain. “I missed you. I’m so sorry I left you.”

  “You didn’t leave me.” She leaned forward and plac
ed a kiss beside her hand, the softness of her lips sending a shiver of warmth through me. “You’re always in my soul remember?”

  I smiled back at her but blinked when she grew serious. I felt the heat seep into my head so I opened to her despite the throb that made me feel nauseous.

  “El.”

  “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

  I frowned at her hesitation.

  “Nothing is wrong as such.”

  “But?” I urged her gently.

  “Well . . . my Daddy is here.”

  I pulled out, staring at her. “Really?”

  Janice sighed heavily. “What have you been taught about Cognitive Interaction?”

  I turned my head to her, finally acknowledging her. “In Judgement, CI is the only way to keep your guards from torturing us.”

  She winced and lowered her eyes, nodding her head. “Yes. I appreciate that, but it’s dangerous. It isn’t because I don’t want you to have the connection with another.”

  “What?”

  She checked something on the monitor beside the bed, choosing not to look at me. “There’s lots you don’t know, Elina, lots of it from what I have led you to believe.” Her eyes found mine again. “You do know they monitor your brainwaves. And . . .” She tapped her teeth together as though it was painful for her to be truthful. “And they have a program that interprets all your CI conversations?”

  “Oh my God!”

  She nodded solemnly. “That’s the reason I wouldn’t allow it, because in those private conversations, you are more likely to reveal your secrets than when openly talking. And that, El, is very, very dangerous in the wrong hands. As soon as Reid connected with you, they pinpointed his unique indicator and that’s how they knew where you were. Why I had to send Ruben out to fetch you . . . before they did.”

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “That’s for another time, when you’re one hundred percent.” Janice turned to Lettie. “Honey, can you go tell your father that Elina is awake, please.”

  I gawped at Janice. This wasn’t my mother. She was a clone. A nice clone. Something occurred to me. “You knew I wouldn’t die, didn’t you?”

  She stilled as she prepped some syringes in the metal tray beside my bed. “I wasn’t sure but I figured it out the day you escaped.”

  “How?”

  She slid the tourniquet over my arm, tapping at a juicy vein she found. Eventually, she let my arm drop and sighed. “They flooded your chip that day, El. They found out about things and fried your processor. I didn’t realise until I found your faint signal the next day. I thought you had completely broken free. I hid it so they couldn’t trace you. But when you found Reid and he made a connection the night of the storm, your identifier fired up with his.”

  “You mean they’ve been monitoring Reid all this time?”

  She shook her head. “Not all the time. They can only track him when he links with another.”

  “But.” I squinted at her. “If you weren’t tracking him, how did you know he’d been in my head if they weren’t monitoring me either?”

  “Because he wasn’t the only one in there. When he made the join, another slipped in with him. They tracked you both through that connection.”

  “What? Who?”

  She quirked her eyebrow at me. “Blaine’s sister. Heather.”

  THE DOOR OPENED, CUTTING Janice off when she was about to say something. My heart seemed to explode in my chest when my gaze found Reid staring at me, his face dark, as if he was brooding.

  “Okayyy,” Janice muttered when she witnessed the same specimen as I did. “I’ll leave you two to it.”

  Reid moved out of her way then closed the door softly behind him, his eyes never leaving my face.

  “You’re okay.” Why did I always say stupid things? If he wasn’t he wouldn’t have been there glaring at me. I gulped when he seemed to grow angrier. “Is there something wrong?”

  I backed up a little when he paced across the room, stopping by the edge of the bed, his chest heaving. My eyes widened when he leaned over me, scooped me into his huge arms and walked out of the room.

  “What are you doing?”

  He carried me through the house and into my childhood bedroom, and lowered me to my feet.

  He stood close to me, his breath whispering over my face as his eyes scrutinised every pore, every contour and every inch. A breath left me when he reached up and softly cupped the side of my face, his eyes secured on mine.

  “Before you blow anything up. Before anyone bursts in and threatens to kill us. Before that mouth of yours gets you into trouble and before you have the chance to overthink this and get a strop on.” He inclined further, the tip of his nose touching mine. “I’m going to strip you naked and worship every single glorious fucking part of you.”

  I nodded, my throat making a funny sound when Reid brushed his lips across mine. His arms curved around me, clamping around my waist as his tongue followed the route of his lips and my legs decided to play silly games and go completely numb.

  He scooped me up again and laid me gently on the bed that held so many memories. Now it would hold a new one. A good one that would bury all the bad ones.

  He nudged my nose with his own as his lips swept over mine and I gave in, surrendering under him as my own lips parted and I kissed him back. He owned me, his dominance governing every single twist of our tongues, every single bite of lips, and each soft movement of our mouths.

  His lips trailed kisses down my neck, his tongue following the ridge of my throat and circling around my Adam’s apple. A moan slipped free when his fingers found the gap between my top and sweat pants, the tips of them tracing the edge and dipping into my navel. I giggled, squeezing my eyes closed in embarrassment.

  “You’re ticklish there, huh?”

  I looked down at him and nodded. A wicked smile lit his face as his eyebrows rose high on his head. However, he suddenly grew serious, his eyes holding me in his before he leant down and placed a kiss where he’d tickled. He hooked his thumbs under the hem of my t-shirt and slowly gathered it upwards. When the material bunched under my breasts, I took it from him and peeled it off.

  His gaze didn’t allow me to move my eyes from his as his thumbs stroked across my ribs, the tips off his fingers brushing the underside of my bra cup.

  Reaching down, I snapped the front fastener, my heart racing under the touch of my own fingers as I pulled the lace aside and bared myself to him.

  He groaned, briefly closing his eyes before he opened them and greedily devoured what I had exposed to him with just a look. I was on fire, the heat he generated from the awe on his face was mesmerising, holding me hostage under his intense perusal.

  He dragged the tip of his nose up the centre of my body until his mouth found the dip between my breasts and then his tongue took over the exploration, its damp trail causing me to shiver when Reid’s breath wisped over it.

  “Reid,” I breathed when his lips enclosed my swollen nipple and his tongue swiped across it. My back arched as I pushed myself against him, hungry for more.

  He released my flesh and moved slowly across to the other one, his lips kissing their way across. “Your skin is so soft,” he whispered against me.

  I gasped when his teeth grazed me. “Tesco peach bath foam.”

  He paused, his forehead resting against the rise of my breast as he chuckled. “I’ll remember that.”

  I nodded again. “99p.”

  His eyes rose to mine, one of his brows elevated. “Elina, don’t be nervous. I won’t hurt you. Ever. We’re in this together. You don’t like anything, anything I do, then you tell me. Okay?”

  I nodded again and smiled. “Okay.”

  He locked my gaze for a few moments before his fingers hooked the waistband of my bottoms and he peeled them down my legs, taking my knickers with them.

  I shrank back into the mattress with embarrassment when he slung them aside and knelt up at the bottom of the bed, his scrutiny slowly
moving up my body and then back down. “My God,” he breathed. “You’re so beautiful.”

  A blush swept from my toes to my hairline, my skin flushing under his idolisation. His eyes found mine and he smiled, a soft one that grew wider. “Are you panting, El?”

  I smiled with his shortening of my name, happy he was comfortable enough to use it. “You’re wearing way too many clothes and I’m hungry.”

  His eyes popped wide but a chuckle left him as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted it over his head.

  “Fuck!” I whined. “Now I’m hyperventilating.”

  He laughed as my stare took in the glorious hard ridges that adorned his impressive torso. He was perfection enhanced. “You see.” I tipped my head and studied him. “You can’t be real. I mean, men like you, they only exist on magazine covers and . . .”

  He fell on top of me, taking my words and consuming them as he devoured me with as much hunger as I had.

  I moaned into him when his hand slid between my legs and he swiped a finger along my sex, making my pussy weep for him.

  “You’re so hot,” he murmured when his long finger slipped inside me. He eagerly watched my pleasure as I stared up at him. “And so wet.”

  The back of my head pressed into the pillow when he pushed in another finger and his mouth started another round of torture on my breasts. He fucked me slowly with his fingers as he teased my flesh with his mouth, and when he pressed his thumb against my clit, my back shot off the bed. “Oh Christ, Reid. I need you to fuck me.” I gasped at my own outburst.

  “I want to feel your pussy feast on my fingers before you get my cock,” he replied from somewhere mid-portion of my body. He chuckled when his words had my walls twitching readily. “You like it dirty,” he whispered.

  My body clammed up and I scrambled up the bed, my head shaking from side to side as I tried to push him back with my feet. “I’m not dirty, Reid. I’m not! I’m not!”