The Innocents

by Riley LaShea

  “In theothy?” Cain uttered. “Tho, you’the netheh uthed it?”

  “Of course not.” His distress the one thing she could find pleasing, Auris powered the machine on and watched Cain wince where he leaned against it. “We have no idea what it might do.”

  “You knaw you needth meh to do whath Haythn wanths.”

  “But this won’t kill you, right?” she questioned. “I mean, nothing can do that. You’re not like us. You don’t even need your heart. You don’t really need any of it. Whatever happens, you’ll live. Isn’t that true?”

  When Cain looked bothered, Auris knew she was spot on. Cain just didn’t know how much she wanted to put his eternal existence to the test.

  “You’ve even survived the betrayal punishment.”

  “Ith doethn’t look finithed.”

  “Well, it’s not ready to go to market.” Auris looked to the exposed wires hanging from their housing. “But the fundamentals are in place. I think. You gave a list to Garcia, so Samuel’s not really here to ask. Now, get in.”

  When he made no move to follow the command, Auris helped Cain around the curved wall and into the chamber, holding him steady as Gijon yanked his arms to the bar overhead and locked them into place. Feet strapped to the floor, Cain stood like one delineation of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man as they backed out of the white cylinder.

  “Now, remember Cain,” Auris said. “Pain heals.”

  Hitting the button to close the door, she grinned at Cain’s terrified face through the window, remembering what Samuel had last told her about his machine. It needed further testing, he said, because, although it appeared to work, it killed every specimen on which he tested it. Mammals, he hypothesized, simply couldn’t endure such a level of pain.

  “Here we go.” Auris couldn’t wait to find out how an immortal mammal handled it.

  Cain’s scream as she pulled the lever utterly gratifying, she watched the lights arc inside Samuel’s machine, finding a thousand things to repair at once and putting them all back together without mercy.

  If pain healed, he was a new man.

  Scream still on his lips as the energy that fused his insides came to a stop, it trailed away slowly, still unconvinced it was over.

  Arms fastened to the bar above, he couldn’t fall, but he wanted down, to be at rest. Until the door opened and his arms were released, and his landing on the floor wasn’t nearly as gentle as he would have liked.

  “All right, Cain.” Yes, that was him. He almost remembered that now. “Let’s take a look. He looks pretty good for a backstabbing prick, doesn’t he?”

  “Except for the piss down his legs,” Gijon said, and Cain looked down to find said piss real and warm as it dripped toward his ankles.

  “Lift your arms.”

  Assuming it was a bad idea to decline, he discovered, with some amazement, he could, as the metal rings Haydn put in him dangled from his skin.

  “Look at that.” Cain could manage only a weak breath as Auris jerked one metal ring out of his elbow. “It looks like Samuel really did do what all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t. That eye is grotesque, though. Want me to just rip it out?”

  “Leave it.” Cain finally found some control.

  Shielding his face, he felt faint and ill in the wake of Auris’ laughter. Uncomfortable sensation of expulsion traveling up his esophagus, he bent double to vomit on the floor.

  “I’m going to get an infection.” The trace metals were clearly visible in the contents of his stomach as spittle dripped from his lip.

  “Then, let’s flush you out,” Auris said, and, over her particular brand of care, Cain wanted no more help as Auris dragged him out of the X-ray room and to a table in the main part of the medical facility.

  Yelping at the cold vinyl as Auris pushed him down atop it, Cain shivered in his nakedness.

  “Don’t you have any clothes?”

  “Here, Sisterfucker.” Gijon came at him with a small bundle. Unrolling the thick fabric tossed to the table beside him, Cain was sure the floral print was once worn by a matronly figure, but, colder than Lilith’s tit, he wasn’t proud.

  Glancing to Auris once he got the nightgown over his head and his freezing feet tucked beneath it on the table, Cain watched her hook IV lines up to what appeared to be the lab’s main water line.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. “You can’t just run water -”

  “I know what I’m doing, you little shit.” She barreled toward him with the IVs and a metal table as if they were weapons. In her hands, Cain wasn’t so sure they weren’t. “The water here is on a desalination system. The salt levels are alterable.”

  “Genius,” Cain uttered.

  “Yeah, he was,” Auris declared, grabbing a long plastic packet from the table’s edge and ripping it open.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s a catheter. You won’t be able to move and you’ve already proven you can’t hold your piss. Sucks to be human for eternity, huh? So messy.”

  Recognizing that the next few minutes of his existence were going to be very unfortunate, Cain wished he could say they were some of the worst. Really, it was just par for his personal course as Auris jabbed the catheter and needles in him without anything resembling care.

  “Your blood should run clean by morning,” she said, yanking the last metal ring from his shoulder.

  “Could I get a pillow and a blanket?” Cain asked as she and Gijon started to go.

  “You’re lucky you got a table,” Gijon responded, and, as they shut him in, Cain realized he was in for a long night.

  Everything was off.

  Hours passed and, still, Haydn hadn’t returned.

  Having left in a flurry earlier, Gijon and Auris weren’t back either.

  Even Kiara’s puppy was missing.

  Sitting in the parlor with those people who were once her fellow captives, then friends, and now, she guessed, some sort of reluctant acquaintances, Delaney was just waiting for a sign as to where any of them might have gone.

  Getting it in the form of Auris’ voice, talking in a hushed tone that moved closer to the second floor, Delaney pushed out of her seat, crossing before the television, and stepped out onto the second floor landing as Auris and Gijon made it to the top of the stairs.

  “Where’s Haydn?” she asked, and, glancing her way, neither of them chose to answer. Swinging around the post instead, they continued toward the third floor as if she hadn’t even spoken.

  “Auris? Gijon? Please,” Delaney pled. She knew they would never be friends, competitors, as they were, for Haydn’s affection, but she didn’t know why they had to treat her like the enemy. “Where is she?”

  First to hesitate, not at all to Delaney’s surprise, Gijon glanced to Auris as she turned beside him, not exactly encouraging, but not stopping him either, and when at last Gijon looked back, he appeared almost sympathetic.

  “She went back to Lilith,” he said, and, before Delaney could wrap her head around the statement enough to come up with more questions, or accuse him of lying, he continued up the stairs with Auris and out of her sight.

  Left in the aftermath of what felt like a bombshell dropped on her, Delaney stared at the place they had been. Not believing it, refusing to believe it, she wasn’t sure where to go to prove them wrong. Gaze drifting from where they just gone to where they had been, she began by retracing Auris and Gijon’s steps, crossing the entry hall of the first floor and passing through the door that led to the stairs outside.

  Hearing a small bark as she turned the light on, Delaney felt a thimble of relief, knowing where at least one of her missing had gone.

  “Brooks.” She realized, in an instant, the name had little significance. “What are you doing down here?”

  Bending to rub his head, she watched Brooks’ tail wag as he stared toward the door, and it occurred to Delaney she wasn’t the only one who had been waiting for Haydn. Assuming his focus on the door meant Haydn went through it
at some point recently, Delaney pressed the handle, putting her shoulder against the surface it wouldn’t budge. Pressure failing to have any impact, she slammed against the barrier again and again, until there was at last space for Brooks to slip through, and, determined to follow, one last hit made enough room for Delaney to slip out and she regained her breath in the cold sea air that floated up the stairs.

  Rapidly descending, she stepped out onto the dock, looking to the empty spot where Haydn’s boat usually sat. Still refusing to believe, she turned at Brooks’ bark, finding him at the bottom of the other steps, the ones that led to the cave lab. Hoping he knew more than she did, Delaney went over, hearing Brooks hopping the stairs behind her, and passed through the cave where prisoners were kept what felt like ages ago to the door of the medical room.

  “Cain?” she uttered when she opened it to find him the only patient inside, and, glancing toward her, Cain shifted his gaze quickly away again. “What happened to you?”

  Getting no response, Delaney looked at the machine on the metal table, the tubes that ran red in and out of Cain’s body.

  “Are you cold?” she asked when he shivered, but Cain didn’t respond to that either. Staring at the ceiling, he seemed perfectly content to pretend Delaney wasn’t even in the room.

  “Did Haydn really go back to Lilith?” If he wasn’t going to respond to her, she may as well stop pretending it was his well-being she cared about. When Cain shivered again, though, Delaney was struck by the fact that he was the only one who was there, the only one she could help. “Is there anything I can get for you?”

  When at last Cain looked her way, she thought she might have broken through to him, but he didn’t meet her gaze. Staring through Delaney instead, when he opened his mouth, it wasn’t an answer, but some nonsensical drinking song on Cain’s lips.

  “Talk to me, God dammit.” Delaney lost all civility, but it had no effect since Cain’s had been nonexistent the entire time.

  Realizing he wasn’t going to tell her anything, that he wasn’t even going to acknowledge her presence, Delaney turned out of the room. Slipping through the ajar castle door when she made it down and back up the exterior steps, she whirled as Brooks’ came to a stop behind her.

  “Brooks, come on,” she said when he settled back down inside the door, head on his paws as he stared out the crack. “She’s not coming.”

  Reality crashing in on only one of them, Delaney sobbed, rushing up the inside stairs and emerging in the entryway. Staggering into the hulking main door, she sagged against it, trying to stifle her sobs so no one would hear, not sure if she had said too much to Haydn, or not enough.

  39

  The wind in her hair felt like the last vestiges of freedom.

  At her final stop, in Mykonos, Haydn traded the high-speed she picked up after landing in Athens for a less flashy alternative, and drifted in unassuming style in the far warmer waters of the Mediterranean.

  Not sure what to expect as she neared Lilith’s shores, she discovered it a far different arrival than before. Hands waiting at the dock to catch the ropes she tossed in, the faces that went with them weren’t quite happy to see her, but they were willing to pretend to avoid angering Lilith.

  Inside the door, the feel was more genuine. Smiling freely now as he rushed up to her, Aramen wrapped Haydn in his big arms.

  “Welcome home,” he whispered. He always had been affectionate. She didn’t know how she had forgotten that. “She’s waiting for you on the main balcony.”

  “The balcony?” Haydn returned. “Not her sanctuary?”

  Reaching out to touch his face as Aramen nodded, Haydn felt his stubbled skin beneath her fingers, his smile so much like Gijon’s it gave her hope. Not everything would be bad.

  “You shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

  Yes, they both knew that was a bad idea.

  Crooking his arm, Aramen offered her an escort, and, needing a friend more than ever, Haydn slid her hand inside the warm bend of his elbow, letting him lead her up the stairs to the high floor and the ornate black doors of the main balcony.

  Turning toward her as they came to a stop, Aramen smiled again as he raised Haydn’s hand to his lips, pressing a reverent kiss to her knuckles, though he wasn’t hers anymore. He was Lilith’s. They were all Lilith’s now.

  Door pushed open for her, Haydn stepped back into the night air, hearing the door close at her back, body hitching as Lilith turned to face her.

  “Haydn.” Fiery hair curled against her shoulders, tan dress hugging everything at the top and flowing at the bottom, Lilith almost looked soft. Almost like a docile creature. Undeniably beautiful, but deceptively mild.

  Watching the wind lift red hair, repositioning it against the curve of Lilith’s neck, Haydn said nothing, waiting until Lilith held her hand out to step forward.

  “I wasn’t sure you were going to make it.” Lilith’s hand closed warm around hers, pulling her in.

  “I got here as fast as I could,” Haydn said. “I even flew. Not on my own, of course. But I had to slow down once I left the mainland. I assumed you wouldn’t want me drawing attention to this abandoned island, encourage more curious adventure seekers.”

  It was always an issue when she lived there before. Though, more of a minor inconvenience than a real problem. Both people and small watercraft were notoriously easy to make disappear when they washed upon the wrong shore.

  “Still so smart.” Lilith drew her closer, eyes searching Haydn’s as if looking for something in particular. “Are you going to stay this time?

  “Yes.” Haydn never deluded herself into thinking it would be temporary. She had always known, if she ever returned, she would never leave again.

  Free hand reaching out for the railing, Lilith tugged at the red ribbon looped around it. “Do I need this to be sure?”

  Watching it blow like a banner in the breeze, Haydn almost expected it, the Élan Vital Tie. Made to bind life forces, the only object in the universe that could make an eternal knot truly eternal, Lilith used to tease her with it, say she was going to tie Haydn to her so she could never get away. She didn’t believe it then, though, that Haydn would ever actually go anywhere, so she’d never made good on the threat. Or the promise. Haydn wasn’t sure which it was for Lilith.

  Cain did say Lilith would bind her tightly. He never said anything about her getting a choice.

  “No.” To her great surprise, she actually had one. Staring at her for a moment, as if deciding whether or not she believed, Lilith astonished Haydn by letting the tie fall to the balcony.

  “Promise me.” She pressed close, hand clutching more tightly to Haydn’s instead. “Kiss me like you mean it.”

  Warm body she knew so well flush against her, blue eyes, so different from, and so much like, Auris’, it wasn’t hard to do. Sliding her hand from Lilith’s to cup her face, the part of Haydn that would always be hers wanted nothing more than to kiss her again, to remember when Lilith treated her like someone precious and irreplaceable.

  “I need some assurances.” The part of Haydn that took so long to return held back.

  That Lilith, the one who doted on her, who could seem almost loving, wasn’t the only Lilith. She wasn’t even the most prominent one. The Lilith quick to anger, the one who never failed to make that anger known, the Lilith who had done what she had done to Cain, that was the Lilith in power, and Haydn didn’t believe, for a second, she would be able to contain her forever.

  “What kind of assurances?” For the moment, though, Lilith was remarkably compliant.

  “I want you to leave my clan alone,” Haydn said. “Promise me you will never search for them, or for their innocents, ever again. They are cutting their ties to me. You have no reason to hunt them.”

  Eyes moving over her, Lilith gave no indication as to how she felt about the request. “MacIntosh.” Head tipping slightly in Haydn’s hands, she glanced to the door as the giant guard opened it. “Call off your brothers.”

  Fa
ltering at the command, Haydn’s hands fell from Lilith’s cheeks to rest against the silky fabric at her shoulders as she realized what that meant.

  “You sent someone after me?”

  “Well, to be fair,” Lilith uttered, “you were being petulant.”

  Mission called off, having just seen it done, Haydn still looked to the balcony doors, wondering if it would be too late, if there was something underway that couldn’t be stopped.

  “Don’t worry.” Lilith’s fingers pulled her face back around. “They won’t disregard my orders. But I’m going to need something too.” Knowing instantly what that something would be, Haydn fought the urge to prematurely shake her head. “I need Delaney.”

  “No.”

  “Haydn.” Lilith brushed the hair gently out of her face. “I have to know you’ll be safe.”

  “It’s not possible,” Haydn declared. “She’s already gone.”

  The look of surprise on Lilith’s face all the assurance Haydn needed, that Cain hadn’t told Lilith how she found Delaney, or how she herself had once found Haydn, she realized Delaney could actually be free.

  “Gone where?”

  “I have no idea,” Haydn said. “You have to leave her alone too.” She was making a lot of demands, she knew, for someone who hadn’t returned entirely to Lilith’s favor yet.

  “After what the shadowmen saw at Cain’s shop.” Lilith fingers skimmed the sleeve of her jacket. “I would have thought you’d want her close, your innocent.”

  Close, Haydn tried not to react. Close, with a collar around her neck. Close, called to the altar at Lilith’s behest. Close enough to be beguiled into the bed between them.

  “I want her to have a normal life,” Haydn declared. And to be as far from Lilith as the universe allowed.