by Milana Jacks
“That’s what Knight said,” I blurted. Shit.
Arthur narrowed his eyes. “One of the perks of having my dragon is the ability to promote fertilization. And not just of the ground. So you see, I can tell a woman who’s been seeded. Sleeping with Knight is not a good idea. You are my bird. Your loyalty is with me.”
But my heart was with Knight. Didn’t that count for something? “I’m not sleeping with him.” We didn’t get much sleep last night, so I didn’t lie.
“I think it’s best to move today.”
“There’s some sort of crazy that comes with you dragons,” Seven said. “It makes you think you can come in here and tell us what to do.”
“You can stay.” Arthur pulled out a green tie and slung it over his neck. It went well with his dark gray suit. He looked sharp today. “But Clementine is moving. She belongs with me, and the longer I linger in Knight’s territory, the longer I’m exposing us to the cyborgs. Now that the Cy have landed in this habitat, I can’t risk us being discovered. I have work to do.”
Seven pressed her lips together, suppressing her laughter.
“What about our shop?” I asked.
“You’ll have a new shop.”
“Oh, so I can keep my day job?”
“Of course. Why wouldn't you keep it?”
Seven glanced at the clock. “Shit. We’re late. Gotta go, Arthur. Sorry.” She walked to the front door and opened it.
Arthur got up and paused at the door. “I’ll escort you ladies to Detroit.”
“We can ride the dragon?” Seven asked. “Because that might make me move.”
Arthur smirked. “Maybe.”
I believed Seven swooned. Damn. She closed the door behind him and leaned against it.
I lifted an eyebrow. “You have the hots for Arthur?”
“Not even a little bit. But oh, them bedroom eyes.”
Agreed. “You’re really gonna move to Detroit?” I made my way to the sink to wash my hands and get on with my day, fully aware Arthur wasn’t gonna provide me with any fresh flowers. Good thing I’d dug up roots and dirt and planted pots in the store. They wouldn’t last long, but they’d do fine for this Christmas season.
“No,” Seven said.
“I think he believes we’re gonna stay behind and pack today.”
“I think he does too.” Seven chuckled and picked up her backpack. “Load up today’s cart, and I’ll roll it to the shop.”
“Take a day off,” I said. People like Seven who took care of others rarely ever asked to be taken care off.
“It’s not a problem for me, Clem.”
“I know. But it’s not fair you work more than I do either.”
Seven winked. “Load the cart.”
14
Knight
Stark naked, I wondered if my blood would freeze as I stood in front of the pink plasma barrier in the worst part of the ground level, about a block away from the tavern where Arthur and I had met. I pressed my finger against the barrier, testing it in my human form. No current zapped me, so I walked through. I didn’t know how the current in the plasma worked. It bugged me, and I intended to figure it out.
Inside the habitat, once my balls unthawed, I stared at the barrier. Particles of air came into view. I clearly saw the structure of the plasma and the tightness of air in the packaging. Air molecules came together around a pink circular molecule in the center. I couldn’t make out what the pink thing was, but that wasn’t what caught my attention.
This thing had the ability to attract the air we breathed around itself, and when it did that, it appeared to do it in a way so as to close itself in a diamond-shaped capsule. Structurally, diamond possessed one of the strongest natural occurring bonds, so it was made to withstand impact. Like that a two-ton dragon could inflict. Hm. In human form, I weighed two hundred and sixty pounds for my six-foot-four height. In dragon form, I weighed just under two tons. From tail to the tip of my horns I was about sixty feet with a wing span of sixty-two feet.
I looked around the area outside as people walked behind me.
On the ground level, nobody gave a shit that a naked guy just stood there observing the great outdoors. People had more problems than to worry about my nakedness. Still, I didn’t want to draw attention. I swiped a black coat from one of the homeless with a promise to self I’d pay him for it, then I returned to my previous spot, spun the air around a construction crane, and threw the crane at the plasma. People screamed and ran the other way. Good. Now, I’d have some privacy.
The crane didn’t fall inside the habitat or bounce against the barrier. It stuck to it.
The pink plasma molecules around the crane ignited, turning red, and the red color bled into the barrier. I poked the plasma, then rubbed my fingers together. Smooth but also gooey. The red molecules packed tightly against the crane and held it in place. Ah-ha! The pink thing ignited, turned into a glue-like substance only around the area of impact, and that was how the plasma trapped large objects.
The air behind me whooshed. I glanced back, thinking someone had joined me, but didn’t see anyone. I moved away and leaned against the building so I could observe the barrier from a distance. An air disturbance appeared right where I’d been standing, and more pink molecules bled into the barrier as if something had fed them inside the plasma. The air from the outdoors stuck to pink forming a diamond around it while pods filled with cyborgs busied themselves around the crane. They would unstick the crane with their magnetic cars and take it away.
The moment they took away the crane, the red molecules turned back to pink and the air formed a diamond shape around them. Back to pink plasma. Just like that. What the fuck?
I focused on the place where I’d been standing. I clearly saw pink molecules traveling into the plasma. Where were they coming from? The disturbance? Well, if plasma could be made of air and other things, then I should be able to pack air too. I stacked air around the disturbance, trying to make it out. As the air packed, it formed around a tall, willowy shape that appeared to be bent with hands outstretched and touching the plasma. I believed I just made out a Cy alien engineer sent to fix the fucking plasma. I approached it, and it didn’t fucking flinch, probably under the impression I couldn’t see it, but the more I stared at it, the more I could see it. I inhaled, trying to catch its scent.
This didn’t prove easy. Thousands of scents assaulted my brain. I compartmentalized, sifting through all the ones I could identify. Blood, sweat, desperation, cyborg mechatronic parts that smelled like rusted iron… A tightening in my chest. Something caught my dragon’s attention. I perused the scent, but it was too faint. I couldn’t make it out, and I wanted to be able to compare it to something earthly so I could describe the scent to my wolves.
The Cy alien rose. A further tightening in my chest told me my beast wanted me to follow it, and so I did. I followed the Cy all the way to the market street, and as I walked, the scent got stronger and stronger, and I grew more and more irritated. This scent, while pleasant, and…clean, irritated my nose. I rubbed and wrinkled it, noting the start of a headache, one of the side effects for creatures with sensitive noses.
Not even a block away from Clementine’s shop, I sensed my bird. I lifted my nose and sniffed but saw her before I could smell her. I followed her descent and rounded the corner. Theresa perched on the dumpster. When I came around, she hopped off and landed on her human feet. From under the dumpster, she pulled out a backpack with her clothes. She put on jeans and a black T-shirt. “Hey, boss, what’s going on?” She patted her afro.
“A whole lot.” I briefed her on Rose. “Can you tell me anything?” Theresa reported once a week or sometimes even two weeks, depending on how much she’d gathered. I mainly had her looking over the military headquarters.
“Bad news first?”
“Shoot.”
She looked me up and down. “You look like a serial killer.”
I gave her a blank stare.
“Okay, okay.” She wave
d a manicured hand, then took a minute to tie on a bandana, keeping her hair out of her eyes. “The colonel is planning something. Something big.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Yet. My sources tell me there’s been a lot of chatter about habitat expansion and a major push for…hold on. I got one of the things they’re doing.” From her backpack, Theresa pulled out a flyer and handed it to me. On it were only two pictures but they spoke a thousand more messages than words. The image on the left was a picture of a homeless human family sleeping on the street, and the image on the right was the same family, now a cyborg family, in their car with big smiles on their faces. You can have this life, the flyer said. An address at the bottom.
“They are recruiting.” I tore up the flyer and flung the pieces into the garbage.
“Massive recruiting. It’s almost like they’re gonna turn every human in the habitat into a cyborg.”
“But they’ll have reproduction issues. Cyborgs are less fertile than humans.”
“What if,” Theresa said, “they’re working on extending cyborg lives? Some cyborgs I’ve seen haven’t aged.”
I thought about the colonel and my stepmom. “Plastic surgery has been around before the Cy.”
“Right, but what if the Cy know the secret of cell regeneration.”
Then we’re fucked. Nature dictated all living things live, then die to make room for new life. “Thank you, Theresa. The good news?”
“Caught Arthur hanging out with cyborgs last night.”
“And this is good news because?”
“He says to tell you the Cy have landed. They are everywhere and in large numbers. He estimated over twenty thousand.”
I shivered. All the hairs on my body stood on end. No wonder I’d detected a new scent. “The good news?”
“Your circling of the habitat fucked up his grand plans. He’s leaving soon, likely in a few days.”
“And his bird?”
Theresa eyed me sideways as birds often did. “Um, the birds go with the dragons.”
“No way he’s taking my bird.” I marched toward Clementine’s shop, panic that he’d already removed her from the habitat fisting my heart.
Theresa caught up with me. “I thought we wanted him out and inside his own turf.”
“There’s a complication. His bird is my spirit.”
“Clementine?”
“Mm-hm.”
“How is that possible?”
“Don’t know, but I’ll fix it.” I gave Theresa orders, and she disappeared into the crowd.
I rounded the corner and barged into the store, expecting the worst. Clementine had her hands full of dirt, and she was digging up a flower from the pot. By the smile on her face and the way she looked at the plant, she hadn’t lied about loving her job. I ought to let her work here. But I couldn’t, especially now, with the Cy roaming around and recruiting. Their version of recruiting went beyond voluntary.
In New Orleans, Nentres had discovered they’d kidnapped people and brought them inside the military quarters, some to make into cyborgs, but others for a purpose we hadn’t yet uncovered.
I didn’t disturb my spirit, and she was too busy to notice me at the door. I walked down the street, thinking about rubbing shoulders with the Cy. The only way to expose the Cy was to tear down the plasma barrier. Nentres had nearly died trying, nearly destroyed the habitat and the people inside. I had more people at ground level now than in the summer months, but if the Cy landed and started recruiting, I’d stop them.
Before I tore down the habitat, I needed to get my sister out, get Clementine and her sister out, notify Theresa, and deal with Arthur. I was pretty sure he’d take Clementine with him back into his territory. Which would not happen.
I stomped toward the tube transport, intent on riding it to the upper levels and getting Rose. The line for the tube made me groan. I glanced over a man’s shoulder and read his pass. A free pass to the upper levels. How fucking convenient. The cyborgs would load up all these people and take them to the Cy ship for implants, or implant them right here in the habitat. I wondered if the ship I’d hit yesterday hovered near the surface to expedite a massive human intake.
I wrinkled my nose and glanced behind me. I would know Arthur’s scent out of a million people. Our eyes locked, and he joined me.
“Hey! You’re cutting in line,” a man behind us shouted.
I glared, projecting my mood today until he averted his gaze.
Arthur wore a gray suit, a green tie that matched his eyes, and gel in his hair. He looked sharp and sleek, unlike the dirty, hungry kid I’d met all those years ago. “Can you smell them?” Arthur whispered.
“I think so.”
He turned up his nose. “I can’t but I can feel them as if they’re crawling all over me.” He popped his cuff link, rolled up the sleeve, and scratched his forearm. Red marred it already.
“If you scratch so much, you’ll make it bleed,” I said.
“You’re such a mother hen.”
“Shouldn’t you be on your way out of my territory?”
“After my brunch and a few other things.”
“Why are you attending cyborg social events?”
“So I can figure out what they’re up to.”
The tube shot up in the air, and the line crawled forward. “This is my habitat. I’ll take care of it.”
“And I’ll help you.”
I shook my head. “If something happens to you, Arthur, we can’t move on with our plan. Lie low.”
“I could say the same about you.” The line moved again. “Don’t worry, I’m leaving soon. With my bird, and I can’t fucking believe you’re sleeping with her.”
“I’m not sleeping with her.” The cyborgs’ security had doubled since yesterday.
“So she says.”
“She’s my spirit.”
Arthur jerked his head my way. “She can’t be. She’s m—”
“Don’t use possessive nouns when you speak of her. I will kill you where you stand, and it would fucking kill me to have to do that. You cannot have her either. I’ve claimed her already. My dragon and his spirit are united. And even if they weren’t, you can’t have her, because she’s lovely and I’m crazy about her.”
The line moved at a snail’s pace. The cyborgs guarding the tube stood there like statues. Everything appeared normal, and I wondered if level fives could see the Cy or take orders from the aliens directly. So many things we didn’t know about our enemies. They didn’t know much about us either, and I took great comfort in knowing that.
“Okay,” Arthur said, a smile splitting his face.
“Okay what?”
“Clementine is yours. Congratulations. She is lovely.”
I rolled my shoulders, the tension in my back receding. “I thought she might’ve triggered your element.”
Arthur chuckled. “I make flowers grow and move a few vines. Do you really think that’s the extent of my element? That I’m gonna be a flower girl with eternal flower power?”
He hadn’t mentioned a minor earthquake. Hm. “You’d make a great flower girl.”
“Fuck off.”
I put my hands in my pockets and tapped my foot. “So, how did you get to do even that bit that you do?”
“Obviously because my spirit’s into me.”
“But?”
“We’re having issues. They’ll resolve themselves in time.” He chuckled. “I hope.”
Excellent. My mood lifted. Arthur had found his spirit, and it wasn’t Clementine. “Let me know if I can help with anything.”
He cleared his throat. “Highly doubt that.”
I threw an arm over his shoulder. “We good, my brother?”
“We good.”
Since we didn’t have free passes, Arthur paid for our tickets, and we waited for the next transport. If Rose made it home, the colonel wouldn’t give me Rose, likely wouldn’t even let me see her. So I would need to take her. It’d get ugly. Perhaps I really
could use Arthur’s help. It pained me to have to ask. “I need a favor,” I said.
“I fucking knew it. You’ve been kissing my ass this entire conversation, and I kept wondering why you were so nice all of a sudden.”
“It’s important. I’m on my way to see Rose.”
“Rose?” Arthur stepped back as people packed inside the transport. We’d miss it.
“Yeah, Rose, my sister.” I went to load up in the tube.
Arthur put a hand on my shoulder. “I know who she is, damn it. You look worried. What’s wrong? Spit it out.”
I couldn’t say much because the cyborgs were listening. “Can you take Clementine and Seven to my house?”
“Right now?”
“Mm-hm.”
The tube closed, and we’d lost our turn. Just as well. We weren’t done here, and I wished telepathy worked in our human forms.
“You can’t just get Rose, Knight, and you know it. But the colonel and I are sharing a table at the brunch.”
“Good. He won’t be at home.”
“Negative. His home is guarded, and now the guards have doubled. There’s no way he’ll let you walk out with Rose. But I can gain entry into the house.”
“How?”
“We are friends.”
“You and the colonel?’
“Mm-hm.”
“Are you sure you can get my sister out?”
“And your spirit. I simply send an emergency message to Lord Knight that requires she walk there with Seven. You keep them. Done.”
I chuckled. “I’ll see Clementine next week or when she’s good and ready to deliver the message.”
“She’ll tell you when I tell her to tell you.”
“Nah, not this bird.” I scrubbed my face. “How long do you think before you can get Rose to my house?”
“However long it takes.” Arthur gripped the back of my neck and stepped closer. He whispered, “No man is an island. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Give me a day or two. I can do this. Trust me.” He backed off.
I nodded, eyes locked with his. “I can’t have aliens on my turf.”
Arthur smirked. “I’ll get Rose as fast as I can.”