For His Love

by Nya Rayne

  “You’re saying…”

  “Someone had to do it. The war, my dear girl, was a godsend. When one country’s government began second-guessing the war, another would rise up and attack with all the men she had at her disposal, assuring that the war continued.” She cackled and shrugged in a matter-of-fact manner. “Thirty-one years it took. Who would’ve thought there were so many critters to be rid of?”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “That was brilliant,” Gloria corrected. “And you think after everything President Haras and the Founding Mothers have done to make this world livable again, I’m going to allow men back into my society to destroy it? Oh, no, dear, I may look like I was born yesterday, but I assure you I was not.” She stepped closer, and ripped the strips of tape from Phia’s eyelids, causing her to cry out. “You might as well get used to it. Or—maybe you don’t have to. You won’t be around much longer anyway.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The minute the heli-jet touched ground, Donté was out and running toward the massive red brick monstrosity which loomed at the top of the hill. The road upward was lined with what seemed to be hundreds of well-manicured palm trees. He heard feet closing in on him from behind, but he ignored them, his one and only concern being Phia.

  Rounding a large, marble fountain, he continued on his track, his hands balled into tight fists, his face set in a mask of sheer fury. Who in the hell had advised her she was the jury and the executioner?

  He slowed as he came to the top of the hill and the steps leading up to the front door. He scanned the first-floor windows for the yellow drapes he’d seen on the teletron. With steely resolve, he climbed the steps, only halting at the feel of a large hand on his forearm.

  “Donté, we have to take this slow,” Darius said glancing around them, his bow ready and pointing at the ground.

  Donté shrugged him off. “To hell with slow. Phia is in there.”

  “I know, but don’t you think it’s weird there aren’t any puppets out here guarding the place?”

  Donté scanned the perimeter. “They don’t have any reason to be guarding anything because they didn’t know we were coming.”

  “Perhaps, but it feels like a trap. Think about it. If we saw your woman’s little show, chances are everyone within range of a teletron saw it.” Darius looked up at the monstrosity of a house. “I’ll bet you a million credits they’ve got several teletrons in there.”

  The door before them opened wide, revealing a solitary meek-looking older woman with reddish-brown hair, a stout nose, and a wide mouth. She bowed her head to them. She appeared to be in her early to late sixties. Donté stepped back, his stance switching to one of defense as Darius raised his bow and aimed it at the woman’s chest.

  “Wait,” Dr. Lobush called breathlessly, coming up behind them. “Darius, don’t you dare!” She pushed his arm so the arrows were aimed at the ground. “Idiots, I swear,” she hissed.

  “Please, don’t,” the woman said, her hands raised in surrender.

  Darius and Donté scanned between the woman and the perimeter, but neither said a thing as the woman took a slow step onto the porch.

  “Where’s Phia?” Donté demanded, stepping toward her.

  “Where are the rest of your puppets?” Darius added, following closely behind Donté, his arrows still aimed at the ground.

  The woman stepped to the side as if to allow them entrance into the home. “I shut the Protectors down after viewing the telecast. We did not know the truth. None of us, until today,” she explained.

  Donté glared past her and into the dark home. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. When they did, he saw a long sparsely decorated hallway with women lining the sides, each gazing at and past him as if in awe of what they saw.

  “Follow me. We’ve been trying to gain entry into the room where Ms. Zen is being held. So far we have been unsuccessful. The only person other than the Higher Highness with access is Lady LaDina, who is away on business.” The woman turned and moved down the hallway.

  “Donté, what if this is a trap?”

  “Then stay here, Darius. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, burn the place down the way you said you wanted to.”

  Darius shot him a determined look. “All right, but if you’re not back with your woman in fifteen minutes this place is going up like the Fourth of July. I mean it.”

  Donté spared a glance at his companion and smiled before he turned and broke into a slow trot behind the woman, who still hadn’t told him her name.

  She turned down another wood paneled hallway, the heels of her shoes barely audible against the wood floors. When she stopped at one of the panels, he stopped a few feet behind her, senses alert, looking for any signs of deception. He saw none.

  The woman pressed her palm against a small portion of the wooden panel and the door slid open, revealing a pair of metal elevator doors. When they opened, the woman stepped in and to one side making room for him to step on behind her.

  As the elevator began to drop, Donté said, his tone gravely serious, “If this is some kind of trap, I want you to know you’ll be the first person I kill.”

  “I assure you, this is no trap, Xavier.”

  “You know who I am?”

  “Of course. I am the Higher Highness’s third in command. I was the one who tried to warn the doctor about the train checks. When I heard you and the doctor hadn’t gotten away, my heart went out to you. I knew what would come next. One of you or both of you would end up in her class. I did not take into account there was a third person traveling with the two of you.”

  “Why? Why would you help me, us?”

  The doors opened and the woman stepped off. “We are not all monsters,” was the woman’s reply as she continued down the cold, oblique hallway before him. “I have served a number of higher highnesses over the past fifty years. However, never before have I served any like this.”

  They turned down another hallway which came to a dead end at a solitary steel door. Donté’s heart began to race. His blood pulsed through his veins.

  “Since I do not have a code, I’m going to need you to stand behind me with your head down. You will be our key, Xavier.” Without waiting on an answer from him, the woman hit a button on the console beside the door and said, “Your Highness, Xavier has arrived. At your request, I have brought him down to you.”

  There was a small silence and Donté thought about looking up from the floor. He stilled his resolve and stood inert like the good puppet she was expecting.

  “Is it he?” a voice said via the speaker. “Xavier, look up.”

  Donté gritted his teeth, balled his fists, and raised his head while making sure to keep his face emotionless. His eyes met hers and then traveled for the briefest of instances to the still form behind her. He couldn’t see the face, but he could see thick locks of black hair cascading over the edge of the metal table, and he could see a silver bracelet hanging around a limp wrist. He didn’t need to see the rest to know who the person was. He dropped his gaze, forced himself to remain composed and stepped closer to the screen. Forcing a soft smile to play over his features, he looked up. “You are my goddess?”

  She smiled and nodded as she brought bloodied fingertips up and brushed a few strands of hair from her forehead.

  Donté forced himself not to snarl, and to remain calm. Dropping his head, Donté put every ounce of seduction and need he could muster into his voice and intoned, “I want to touch you. Let me devour you.” He licked his lips sensually and stared at her directly in order to drive his hunger home.

  “My…my,” Gloria said, “You are truly something else.” She glanced back at Phia and finished confidently, “Didn’t I tell you he was a rutting mongrel?”

  Donté bit back the bile and the fury threatening to overwhelm him and stepped closer to the door as it slid open before him. The room reeked of sweat, blood and something else he hadn’t ever smelled before, nevertheless he found it nauseating.

  Sh
e stepped forward, her arms out to embrace him. “My pet. I knew you would return to me willingly.”

  His large hand shot out closing tightly around her neck, forcing her back against the far wall of the tight room, shutting off her airway. He was unwavering in his desire to end her reign of terror in the only manner he knew how.

  Beep.

  Hushed voices surrounded her, and she tried to force them way, wanting desperately to remain in this place of darkness where there was no pain and no hatred. No lies and no deceit. She was warm, so very warm and safe here. Why couldn’t they be quiet and let her have this peace?

  Beep.

  One of the voices drew closer to her and with it, so did reality. She knew that voice, had known it all her life. Still, Phia shied away from it and its owner. She tried to burrow back into the thick darkness which promised her solace.

  Beep.

  The darkness slowly dissipated, leaving Phia clutching at it with mental fingers, begging it not to leave her destitute in a place where the light brought heartbreak and cruelty, wayward dreams and letdowns.

  “No,” she whispered and in her own ears, her voice sounded coarse and inhuman. “No.”

  “Phia,” a woman’s voice, her mother’s, she decided, stated, “Honey, it’s time to wake up. There are reporters that want to talk to you.”

  Reality sucked. Her arms moved, reaching out, grasping, wanting to push the person away from her. Warm hands gripped her wrists tightly, and Phia forced her eyes to open. Ice’s silvery gaze was smiling down at her, unshed tears swimming at the precipice. All she could do was stare back at her.

  “Hey, you. I thought you were never going to wake up.” Ice leaned in and brushed a kiss against her parched lips.

  Phia said nothing as she looked from Ice to her mother who was standing on the other side of her gazing down at her with what? Was there adoration in her eyes? No, never that. Tearing her gaze away from the woman, she allowed her eyes to focus on the other occupants.

  Dr. Lobush was sitting in the corner. Darius was standing behind her, both of them staring at her with soft smiles. Her eyes raced further around the room and landed on a woman she didn’t know. By her uniform, she had to be a nurse.

  Beep.

  She was in a hospital room, she decided. She moved her right arm and then her left arm, wiggled her toes, and took in the various monitors stacked around her and the cords leading to and from her body.

  As if it was being funneled into her memory cortex, Phia saw vivid images of the Higher Highness. She heard hateful words and threats of bodily injuries. She tightened her hold on Ice’s hand and croaked, “What happened? Why am I here?”

  Her mother spoke, leaning over her with a cup of water. “Here, sweetie, drink some of this. We have to get you cleaned up. We don’t want you on camera looking a mess, now do we?”

  Phia took a drink and nearly choked. Everything was starting to make sense. Especially her mother’s behavior. Reporters? Cameras? Bingo! Finally, the wasted credits her mother had spent to give birth to her were paying off.

  Varonda was by Phia’s side calling her honey and sweetie, and pretending to care, not because she was thankful Phia was unharmed, but because she had every intention of riding Phia’s coattails all the way to an office in the capitol. She, Varonda Zen, was the definition of an opportunist.

  Phia glanced around the room and at the other occupants again. “The Higher Highness? What happened to her? Did it work?”

  “Your plan worked brilliantly,” Ice said.

  “The entire world is talking about the Zoos and the men within them. Everyone is demanding answers from the Elites,” Varonda said. She smiled, brushed Phia’s hair from her forehead and added, “And I intend to get them the answers they deserve.”

  “I’m sure you do,” Phia muttered as Darius began to speak.

  “I tell you what. I may not know you well, but if you ever try any crap like that again, I will put you over my knee.”

  Phia gazed at him for a long moment as a tiny voice buried deep within whispered that someone was missing. Before she could focus her attention on who it could be, Ice interjected, “Phia, you scared the shit out of me. When the screen went black, I seriously maddoxxed! Then that, that narp started hitting you, at least that’s what I think she was doing, and I went from maddoxing to straight spazzing.”

  “I’m sorry.” Phia turned her attention to Dr. Lobush. “Are they going to let them out? The other Nurturers?”

  “Honey, don’t worry about that now,” her mother said.

  Phia glared up at Varonda. “Mother, stop it. You’ve never cared before, so don’t start pretending now.” Varonda reached out, intending to brush her knuckles down the side of Phia’s face, but Phia twisted her head away. “Just stop. I’ll make sure you get as much face time as you need to capture your seat in the capitol, okay? Just stop pretending.”

  “Sotophia,” Varonda chastised. “How dare you think such a thing? My only daughter nearly loses her life doing something beyond courageous and you honestly expect it not to affect me?”

  Had her mother been anyone other than who she was, Phia would have definitely felt remorse for her tone and her blatant insinuation, but Varonda Zen was who she was. No more and no less. Phia leaned in her mother’s direction. “Thank you for what you did, but please, for the love of the heavens, stop pretending as if you care about more than what this means for your political career.”

  Varonda snorted haughtily, turned on her heels and stormed out the door without a backward glance.

  Settling back on the pillows, Phia sighed lightly. “Now, that is the woman I know as my mother.”

  The room was silent for a long moment before Dr. Lobush slipped around Ice and settled on the edge of the bed. “Calm down, Phia. The last thing you need is to be upset right now. After what you went been through…”

  “Did it work?” Phia cut in.

  Dr. Lobush sighed. “You’ve only been asleep for three days, Phia, so it’s too soon for any real changes to have taken place. Women all over the world watched your exchange with the Higher Highness, and they’re demanding answers. The Elites are denying everything and are trying to insinuate that Gloria Gale worked alone. I expected as much, so I’ve given a list of all of the HAPs I prepared for various Elites and the location of the Zoos I know about to your mother and the other baronesses. They are all working with the town mothers to come up with a plan to properly handle this.” She leaned in, brushed her lips over Phia’s cheeks, and finished, “It’s begun. Because of you, we have a chance to save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. It was a foolish, idiotic thing you did, but I’m so thankful you did it.”

  Phia smiled up at her briefly before a frown slipped into place. “The Higher Highness? Is she in custody? Do they know about her torture chamber?”

  Dr. Lobush nodded. “Yes, everyone knows about it. Some people didn’t want to believe it, but her court has been talking about it freely and everyone is slowly coming to terms with the kind of person she was. She had us all fooled.”

  Phia didn’t miss that only one of her questions had been answered. “Where is she? She can’t be free. She can’t still be in office.” The doctor looked back at Darius, who averted his eyes. “What’s going on? What happened?” she asked, and then a memory that seemed more like a dream came rushing back. She saw Donté, his hand closed around the Higher Highness’s neck. He was in a fit of rage. His anger was such a palpable thing even as her subconscious reached for him, she recoiled from him at the same time. She pushed up weakly and looked around the room. He was what was missing. “Where is he? Where’s Donté? Did he kill her?” Two sets of hands were on her shoulders, pushing her back down. “Where’s Donté? Where is he?”

  “He’s fine,” Dr. Lobush said.

  “He is? Well, where is he? Why…why isn’t he here?” She breathed, wanting to sit up and demand more answers. Instead, her eyes drifted closed.

  Beep.

  She tried to fight it,
to push away the sleep climbing upon her out of nowhere, dragging her back down into the darkness she only minutes ago had welcomed and now hated. It was futile.

  Hands against her skin, rubbing, brushing, soothing her, drew Phia out of the darkness and into a barely conscious state. She glanced around the dark, empty hospital room, a haze of sleep clouding her vision. The hand against her stomach moved, and warm air misted over her ear before soft lips brushed against the back of her neck.

  Phia closed her eyes and melted into the body curved tightly around her in a bed too narrow for two. She would know him anywhere. Without sight, without hearing, she would know him. “Donté.”

  “Were you expecting someone else?” He chuckled, and the sound crawled through her, burying itself deep within her marrow.

  She needed to see him, to stare into his eyes. She knew he was there with her, holding her, but she needed to see him. The moment she turned in his arms, her heart leaped and twisted, her stomach did flips and her body turned into a thick, delicious ooze. He gazed back at her, his blue eyes smiling, his enticing lips turned up at the edges. He was everything she’d ever wanted and so much more. He was her beginning and her end, her salvation.

  Phia brushed her hand down his face, needing to touch him. “Where were you? When I woke up, you weren’t here. I was so scared they had hurt you.” The tears came before she could stop them.

  Donté pulled her close, kissed away tears, and brushed his lips across her forehead, and the tip of her nose. “You’re breaking my heart again, love.”

  “I thought…”

  “Sssssh,” he cooed. “I’m right here. I was out in the hall talking to your doctor when you woke up earlier.”

  Phia clung to him as if he would disappear if she didn’t. She’d thought she’d never see him again. Yet, here he was holding her, comforting her. Her tears continued to flow as she buried her face in his chest, her hands pulling on his shirt, holding him close.