by Rena Marks
SEXTET
Rena Marks
Sextet
A Xeno Sapiens Novel
Rena Marks
Pax: He may be smitten with the delicate human female who flourishes while quarantined in his laboratory, but he knows it’s for the best to let her go. After all, he’s hiding a huge secret. At any given time, there could be as many as six of him.
Six. Six shards of his personality who are born from his body and become their own entities. That’s a lot for any woman to handle.
Serena: The hot Xeno Sapien who has given her a new chance at life by developing her bio-film skin blows hot and cold, almost like if he’s different people. But she wants the one who’s lonely. The one who avoids her. The brilliant one who’s created a sex doll.
In her image.
“As a sextet, there’s no use denying that we are rather lovely to look at.” Aspect Number 9, Vain Xeno Sapien.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Xeno Sapiens
Alien Stolen
Abducted
Space Babies
Artificial Intelligence
Stargazer Series
The Hunter
Also by Rena Marks
Chapter One
Nearly one year earlier:
FROM EVERY DIRECTION, guards began running toward the front gates. Telepathic communication was opened—and commands were running amok.
Do not leave your post unattended. Keep all stations manned.
Protect the mates and children. It could be a ploy to get them alone.
She’s demanding to see Pax. Someone get Pax.
I’m here. Pax opened his eyes with a snap, jumping from the window of his lab to his personal storage locker so he could hurriedly dress. What do we know about her?
The next thought that came through was from Steele, who had run off to join the rest when the problem first hit. This was a private telepathic link that only the original group of first-revived Xeno Sapiens—Esson Four—could access. Steele, Renegade, Beast, and Pax.
Robyn says she’s clean. She’s just a random person they picked up and strapped a bomb to.
Pax brushed his fingers through his tousled hair. It would have to do. He didn’t even reach for the glasses he normally wore. The lenses were his own creation, enabling instant magnification. He used the feature so often, he sometimes forgot to remove the glasses from his face. A fact that many of his personalities laughed at.
Speaking of which, three of the four that were in the outer lab burst through his door.
“What do you need?” Number Three asked.
“Get inside me for the ride,” Pax said. “Happy still out there?”
Number Three nodded. “He’s guarding Everly and Angela.”
His aspects surrounded him and stepped into his body, their skin softening to merge with his. It was an unpleasant feeling of loss and completeness at the same time.
At the highest count, six had emerged at once. Though, the average that would pop through from time to time was two.
Today’s brood had been four.
He walked briskly out of his lab and down the hallway that separated him. Sure enough, Happy stood near both recent human mates, Angela and Everly. Twins, mated to Zealish and Thane.
“Keep an eye on them,” he said, acknowledging Happy’s nod. Happy was in his element with the women.
He caught Angela’s eye roving along his new clothing. Not much escaped her notice, but then, she was a trained killer. One day, Crested Ute—the laboratories that created Xeno Sapiens—might be spiteful enough to release that info, despite the fact that it would damn them for training her. It was best to make sure she was within the walls of Xenia at all times to avoid taking the fall for any of their hits. He ran all the way through the building. The place was on lockdown, so he had to scan his hand print to open the doors of the main hub. They slid open slowly.
Pax burst from the front doors that led to the outside.
The compound was shadowed. Due to the current threat, Steele’s mate, Dr. Robyn Saraven, had activated a force field over the city. It dulled the UV rays from the sun to show it was in place, casting a bluish gray overcast to the normally vibrant skies.
The crowds at the gate parted for him. Near the opening, Beast squeezed his mate, Sunny, and left her side to join Pax in camaraderie. Together, they walked to join the other two of Esson Four—Steele and Renegade.
At the location, he froze. A female bowed before them, on her knees, her face pale. She was covered from the neck down in a cape—one of their own creations. Steele must have grabbed it on the way out. It served to contain the effects of bomb explosions to avoid damage to everyone else.
But it wouldn’t save her life.
“Which one of you is Pax?” she asked. For a moment, she looked confused as her gaze cut from him to Beast.
She didn’t know? Who sent her? Why was she here if she didn’t even know her target?
“She has a bomb strapped to her chest,” Renegade said, his voice somber.
“Why do you want to know which one is Pax?” Beast rumbled.
“Because they said Pax was the one who could disarm it for me.” The female looked up—directly at him. Her amber eyes were huge in her heart-shaped face, glossed with unshed tears. One solitary tear rolled down her cheek.
Pax felt his own intake of breath. Her beauty socked him in the gut. He felt the shards of his personalities rumble, trying to escape to see what was going on firsthand.
Not now. The mental command for once was obeyed.
He crouched down on all fours, releasing the backpack he’d grabbed to drop to the ground. “Who are you?”
“Rena,” she gasped. “Serena Blackfoot.”
She’d given him permission to use a shortened version of her name. But he wouldn’t use it. He had to remain as detached as possible. It was very possible she wouldn’t make it.
“Serena, I’m going to look inside the cape, all right?”
She jerked her head, giving permission. He raised his hand to the fastening of the cape at her neck. He was so close to her quivering, soft cheek. One brush of his thumb could swipe the tear away.
But he held himself in check. To give in would be to allow the other aspects of his personality to erupt and there was no worse time. They were outside the city gates and drones could be recording every detail for the underground feeds.
He lifted the cape and peered inside. He studied the strapped bomb for longer than he needed to—because he couldn’t quite understand what he was seeing.
“Pax?” Renegade said softly, reminding him of where he was. “Can it be disarmed?”
“No,” he said abruptly, flinging the flame-retardant cape from her. “It’s not a bomb.”
“What?” Beast’s eyes were glued to the device.
“It’s a sham,” Pax announced. “The timer is battery run—and not connected. See where the wires have come loose? They were there for show.”
“What is leaking?”
Without a scanner, he couldn’t tell. He turned to his backpack to retrieve one when a man’s amplified voice called out from the crowd. “Science goes against God’s wishes for abnormal procreation of deformed beings! Take out the main scientist—Pax—to teach the wrath of the Lord! Down with Pax!”
Suddenly, Pax knew what was leaking. An ignition liquid.
And a flaming arrow shot out of nowhere to pierce the pretend bomb on her chest, scattering the liquid all over her and catching him.
As the blaze caught, the female’s screams went up in flames. For a second he was startled, expecting to catch fire, too.
Everything happened at once. Xeno Sapiens rushing into the crowds of spectators, Pax reaching for the flame retardant cape he’d flung from her shoulders moments earlier. But it was tangled underneath her, costing him countless, precious seconds.
Guilt flooded his essence. She wouldn’t be burning like a witch on a stake if he hadn’t removed the cape from her shoulders.
He smothered the fire with the tangled cape. Slowly her screams stopped. He kept her wrapped in the cape as he laid her out flat, but he knew. He’d seen the damage.
Agonized, he looked into her eyes.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she whispered, as if to soothe him. “Nothing hurts anymore.”
Next to him, Steele winced. It didn’t hurt because there was nothing left of her skin. No nerves to cause her pain, the burns too deep.
She might have realized it at the same time, because her eyes rolled back into her head as she lost consciousness.
Behind him, someone brought a stretcher from Medbay. Carefully, the four of them lifted her onto it. His nostrils burned with the acrid smell of smoke—and flesh.
“They were aiming for you,” Renegade murmured. “That arrow was supposed to scatter the liquid contents of the fake bomb and catch you in the process. Why didn’t you catch fire?”
“My outfit is flame retardant,” Pax said. “Made of the same material as the cape. I’ve enhanced it to wear softer, to bend like clothing. It’s a prototype I was testing.”
“Works well,” Beast said, but his voice was somber.
Pax looked down. From the neck up, she looked like a peacefully sleeping woman. A beautiful doll. He shuddered to think of what was under the cape. Ignoring the crowds, the guards shouting commands, everything but focusing on what the woman needed, he bent to pick up his corner of the stretcher and begin the march back into the gates of the city.
Every doctor available was waiting for them at MedBay. After laying her on the bed, they were ushered from the room, where the four of them waited alone. Like they had when Robyn had worked to free them so long ago. Quietly they talked among themselves, speculating on the damages to the woman, on why she was sent. It was too coincidental that they’d just released news footage that procreation was possible for several Xeno Sapiens and their human mates. Obviously that’s what stirred up the new group who attacked.
But it felt like old times to be included with the Esson Four gang again. He spent a lot of time with Steele, of course. He had no choice. Steele worked with him in the lab a couple days a week. But for the most part, he avoided the others.
He couldn’t stand to pretend to act normal around them.
He was the only one of the four not mated. And there was no chance of ever being mated. Steele and Renegade had mated the two doctors that freed them all, that fateful day when they escaped the labs. Beast had found Sunny, another Xeno Sapien. But when Beast and Sunny finally mated, Pax felt something off. He realized he was the only one without someone to come home to.
Well, except for his multiples.
But this—this felt good, being with his brothers, discussing things amongst themselves as easily as if they’d never stopped. It was a good three quarters of an hour before Robyn joined them.
“Will she live?” Renegade asked as soon as she entered.
She removed the mask covering her face. “For now. We’ve placed her in a liquid suspended animation.”
Liquid suspension was a last resort. She might have been able to be questioned, but now? As soon as she was removed and the pain hit, she’d be unable to answer any questions.
“Any ideas who did this to her?” Pax asked. Before Robyn could answer, a burst of pain shot through him—three times.
One deliberate warning and two births.
Two of his shards—slivers of his personality—other aspects of himself, stepped from his body, their skin hardening as they erupted from him. He collapsed onto the chair behind him, exhausted from the work of instant, magical birth, as sympathy roved over Robyn’s expression. She was entirely too fascinated with his anomaly, as if being surrounded by strangeness wasn’t enough for her.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“He’s fine,” Number Three snapped, barely giving him a glance. Impatience. That was the one he’d named in his head.
“Don’t fight it,” another one said to him, more kindly. He linked his arm through Pax’s as he sat next to him. An unusual display of affection, as this aspect was unusually uptight—rigid and nervous. The others referred to him as Taut. Taut didn’t mind the name. Like Happy, he thought it was more personable than being labeled as a number according to which personalities had manifested in the beginning—from the first time they split his skin.
“You know it doesn’t hurt as bad when you just let it flow. Allow it to happen,” Taut said.
“You know it’s not always convenient,” Pax gasped, glaring at him. At them. At both of them.
“There’s never a convenient time,” Taut said. “But tell us about the girl.” He turned his face to Robyn. “Someone meant for her to die?”
Robyn nodded. “And take Pax in the process.”
“But he’s fine,” Impatience said.
Robyn nodded again. “She’s not. Ninety-six percent of her body was burned. A staggering amount. The shock alone will kill her. The only thankful thing is that she isn’t in any pain.”
“Her skin can’t regenerate?”
“Not with that amount of damage, no. Even if we encourage growth with grafts.”
“Pax has an invention that can be of use,” Taut said.
And that was why they popped out. They knew he had no intention of ever telling anyone what he was working on.
“Shut it,” he growled to Taut.
Taut raised his brows. “Why? You can help save a life.”
“This is why that nutcase wanted to kill me,” Pax snarled. “My inventions. Didn’t you hear? They called science abnormal.”
“They call us abnormal,” Taut said, rolling his eyes. “Since when does it bother us?”
“What do you have?” Robyn asked softly.
Even Impatience sounded proud as he answered for Pax. “He had a breakthrough just yesterday. Manufactured skin—the largest organ in the human body. It isn’t meant for a live body, of course. No, our Pax was working on something else. Robotics.”
“Limbs,” Pax interjected, glaring at his multiples to shut them up. “Artificial limbs. They can be covered and have the same range of feeling for the exhibitor.”
“But it won’t work for human bodies?” Robyn looked puzzled as to why the others even brought it up. For that, Pax was grateful. He’d be mortified if anyone knew he intended to create a realistic-looking, artificially intelligent sex-doll. A pretend mate for an awkward Xeno Sapien who had no social skills and lived with his aspects of fragmented personalities.
“No,” Taut said carefully. “At least not yet. But if anyone can do it, Pax can. And we’ll help.” He looked Pax in the eye.
Pax felt others bubble up from his solar plexus, roving up underneath his skin. He fought his instinct to dampen the new beings and this time, three more aspects burst from him without the usual amount of pain. The others moved toward the back of the room to give them space.
Taut and Impatience each took him by an arm, draping it over their own shoulders to haul him upright. From his
position, he could see inside the window of where the girl—Serena—was kept in a floating glass bed of transparent gel, tinted with a light blue shade.
The thickness of the gel kept her raw flesh from bleeding, from seeping blood into the fluid. It would keep her sterile and hydrated—but unfortunately, would also keep new skin from growing. Still, she floated like a serene, bloody flower.
“We need to give it a chance,” Taut said. “Give her a chance.”
“You’re close enough to figuring out how to encourage the growth beyond the seam of original skin versus bio-skin,” Impatience murmured. “I’m sure the answer is probably staring you in the face. And wouldn’t it be worth it to discover it with her? To save her life?”
Pax sighed. “Of course.” He looked beyond Taut to Robyn, who stood with them. Behind them, the other multiples were visiting with Beast, Steele, and Renegade. “How long can she be kept in the suspension?”
“No more than a month. She’ll be kept unconscious to avoid shock. But longer than that and her muscles atrophy. All muscles. At that point we risk organ failure.”
“So I have a couple of weeks to come up with a solution, try a placement and see if it grows, attaching to her raw flesh. And we pray that it can grow fast enough, or she has to be woken from the submersion, where shock and infection can kill her.”
“I know it’s asking a lot. All we can do is try.”
“You have all of us,” Taut reminded him.
Chapter Two
Three weeks later:
“I DON’T KNOW.” The aspect he called Taut wrung his hands repeatedly. “I just don’t know if it’s ready. Does anyone else have any other ideas?”
No one said a word.
“Come on, guys,” Pax growled. “You’re supposed to be helping me.”
The four of them froze, identical in their guilty expressions. Truth was, they didn’t know. He didn’t know. None of them knew how to save the woman suspended in a liquid, oxygenated gel. And time was running short.
Impatience stepped forward. He nipped his words, leaving everything personal out. “In theory, it should work. Your bio-film skin attaches to inanimate objects. It stands to reason that it should grow along her body. The inanimate object for it to attach to? We’ll place metal pins along the tops of her shoulders, where the bio-film can attach. When it merges fully, we pull the pins from her real skin and hope the edges meet. Perhaps overlap?”