Independents: Taoree Trilogy #2

by Michele Notaro

  A voice I didn’t know said, “This is from Ozias.”

  A moment later Orr said, “Thanks,” and the door slammed shut.

  He came back to the bedroom door holding a piece of paper. “The Taoree you found,” he said to me, “he’s awake.”

  My eyes went wide. “You mean the guy that… was skinned?”

  Orr nodded. “Ozias wants me to meet him in the medical wing so we can question him.”

  “Can I come with you?” I asked.

  “Of course, but… he is still not… whole.”

  I cringed at that, but nodded. I was still going to go with him. I looked at Cal and Nol. “Can one of you stay with the kids? I’ll be back in a few hours.”

  “They’ll be fine, J. I’ll stay with them,” Cal said. The kids didn’t have school today, so they’d be home.

  I nodded my thanks and went into my room to get dressed. I smiled at Orrean when he snatched Colt’s blue hat off the dresser and placed it on my head as we headed out the door. It made me happy that he was always so willing to help me honor and remember Colt.

  Ozias was waiting in the hall outside the room, looking pretty grim. He simply nodded at us, then held the door open and followed us in. I hadn’t been to the medical wing since I was released from that clear tube and at that point, we’d been the only ones there, at least while I was awake. I hadn’t needed to go to the medical wing otherwise. Orr and I healed our friends with the help of our juheres and the few times I’d been severely injured, Orrean had healed me without me even asking.

  Now, though, this place was overcrowded and filled to the brim with people in pain. There were Taoree and humans on beds and in chairs, all in different states of health. They weren’t even using curtains to block the patients from one another and give them privacy. There just wasn’t enough room for the curtains. Well, for most of the curtains. There was one curtain pulled around a table all the way in the back. I had a feeling that was where we were going. I was sure they didn’t want the others seeing just how badly the Taoree was hurt, or the fact that he hardly had any skin left on his body.

  I felt like I was walking through a house of horrors as I passed the many injured men, women, and children.

  Ozias pulled open the curtain and the three of us slipped inside. I cringed at the sight in front of me. I’d thought the guy would’ve looked a lot better than he had the other day, since he’d been healing for a few days, but he honestly didn’t look any better. At. All. He was missing so much skin and I could still see his… insides, but at least they had white net-like sheets on top of his open wounds. I knew from the little bit of medical training I’d received over the months that it was a skin graft. Unfortunately, I could still see through them a little.

  Ozias walked closer to the guy’s head and quietly said, “Innaku? Are you awake?”

  I gaped at Ozias.

  “Innaku, we’d like to speak to you,” Ozias said softly.

  “What did you just call him?” I asked in a whisper.

  Ozias tilted his head at me. “His name is Innaku.”

  I closed my eyes as the memory hit.

  Orrean was sitting across from me in my old living room answering the questions thrown his way. Colt was beside me with his arm around my shoulders as he told us, “My Taoree friend, Innaku, was part of the Resistance. I believe the Independents do exist.”

  “He knew Colt,” I whispered.

  “What?” Orrean asked.

  “He,” I pointed to the unconscious alien, “knew Colt. Don’t you remember when Colt told us about Innaku?”

  Orrean slowly closed his eyes. “Yes, I remember.” Orrean was making a strange face that I couldn’t interpret.

  “Is Colt here?” a rough, hoarse voice asked.

  I looked over and saw that the alien was slowly blinking his dark-green eyes. I moved closer to his face and whispered, “I’m so sorry. He didn’t make it.”

  Innaku closed his eyes and muttered almost under his breath, “I’m sorry, my friend.”

  I cleared my throat. “We tried to meet you. We waited for you at your meeting spot, but you never came.”

  He stared at me with furrowed brows. “Who are you?” His voice was quiet and pain-filled. I couldn’t even begin to fathom the amount of pain he was in.

  “My name is Jeremy Ettner. Colt was my friend… my boyfriend in the end.”

  “Jeremy?” he asked. I nodded. Something like a small smile formed on his barely-there lips. “He liked you.”

  I felt tears in my eyes. “I liked him too.”

  His smile fell. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you.” I hesitated, then said, “I’m sorry we didn’t find you. I wish we would’ve waited longer or looked harder. I’m sorry for all you’ve endured.”

  He tried to shake his head a little, but grimaced and held still. He still sounded like he was in pain and having trouble talking, but he pushed through anyway. “No. You did the right thing. I’d already been captured… right after my last meeting with Colt, they arrested me.”

  My eyes went wide. “That was nearly a year ago.”

  “That long, huh?”

  I nodded with wide eyes. “Were you tortured that whole time?”

  “They would torture me, then throw me in a cage to heal, then torture me again and repeat. So no, it wasn’t every day.”

  “What kind of information were they after?” Ozias interrupted.

  Innaku blinked as he tried to focus on the other Taoree. “Ozias?”

  “Yes, my old friend. You’re safe at the Independent base.”

  “It’s good to see you.”

  Ozias chuckled. “It’s good to see you too, though I wish the circumstances were better.”

  Innaku smiled, then frowned. “They mostly seemed to do it for fun… like they enjoyed watching me suffer because I was a traitor.” He coughed and it sounded like his lungs couldn’t get enough oxygen. “And they always took as much skin as they could and saved it, but I don’t know what they used it for. The most commonly asked question was where the Independent bases were located.”

  “And you never gave away the locations?” Ozias asked him.

  “Of course not. I’m a professional.” Innaku looked offended. I, on the other hand, was disgusted that part of his job had required him keeping quiet when tortured. What kind of training had he undergone in order to prepare for keeping his mouth shut when he was skinned alive? I glanced at Orrean. Had he gone through the same training? Was he trained in being tortured? The thought made me shudder.

  Orrean must’ve noticed because he placed his hand on the small of my back before asking Innaku, “Can you think of anything else they asked you?”

  Innaku brought his attention to Orr. “You must be Orrean. I’ve heard about you.”

  Orr nodded. “I’m sorry to meet under such terrible times, but it is good to meet you.”

  I glanced at the three aliens. It was weird to me that Ozias had called Innaku an ‘old friend’ but Orrean didn’t even know him. I had to keep reminding myself that for the past twelve years, possibly longer for all I knew, Ozias and Orrean had lived completely separate lives, away from one another. I still didn’t understand how Orrean stood living that way for so long; surrounded by enemies, away from his true family, and unable to be himself without risking detection. I would’ve never survived that amount of loneliness.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you,” Innaku whispered.

  “Don’t believe a word my brother says,” Orr said good-naturedly.

  Innaku grinned, then frowned. “I remember them asking about specific names. Sometimes I recognized them, sometimes I didn’t. I didn’t tell them anything.”

  “Why did they bother keeping you alive, then? If you weren’t talking?” Ozias asked.

  Innaku glanced at him, then sighed. “I told you they were using my skin for some… project or something. But they also used me as a… they would torture me in front of others to get them to talk. I lasted longer
than many, so it was easier to use me to get more information out of other people.” He looked away as if he was ashamed, as if it was his fault he was tortured or others were hurt.

  I looked down and grabbed his hand, the uninjured one. Without thinking, I pushed my light into him, trying to heal his pain. I heard him gasp, which made me look around to see why he was gasping. To my utter surprise, I saw the skin around the gaping wound on his chest start to close up. It looked like he was growing skin right before my eyes. The outer ring of skin was gripping onto the skin graft that covered the wound and slowly climbing to the center. I pushed more light into him and he gasped again. The other large wounds on his cheek, legs, and arm all started growing closed too.

  “J… you’re going to use too much energy.” Orrean’s concerned voice sounded distant, even though I knew he was right there.

  Without a word, I grabbed Orrean’s hand with my free one. He immediately started pushing his light into me and we continued healing Innaku together. It took a few minutes and most of my energy, but soon Innaku’s injuries were all healed.

  When I released my energy, I fell back a little, but Orrean was there to catch me and wrap me in his arms. I sank into him, completely depleted. I closed my eyes for a moment and wrapped my arms over his as I caught my breath. When I felt like I could, I opened my eyes, only to discover Innaku and Ozias both staring at me with wide eyes. But Innaku was sitting up, so I smiled at him.

  “Feel better?” I asked.

  He nodded slowly.

  “Good.” I looked over my shoulder at Orr. “I’m really hungry now. We skipped breakfast, so can we go eat?”

  He grabbed my head and kissed my temple, whispering, “Soon.” I grumbled, but was resigned to my fate because I could tell the aliens around me still wanted to talk. Orr looked at them. “Not a word to anyone.”

  “Of course not,” Innaku whispered, then looked around the curtained area that was the opposite of private since there were probably a hundred people in the room with us.

  Ozias asked him, “Can you walk?” Innaku nodded. “Okay, come with me… all of you.”

  Since we were in the back of the room, Ozias was able to pull another curtain shut to block the back door from sight. Then we followed him out that door and all the way to his quarters where he shut and locked the door, then motioned for us to sit in the living room. I gratefully took a seat on the couch, then grabbed Orrean’s hand and yanked him down beside me. He looked a little surprised, but I didn’t really understand why.

  I grabbed his hand and laced it with mine. Both our lights were weakened, but they could help replenish each other with our palms together. And I totally wanted to use his shoulder to lean on, so I did. He was stiff and stressed. I kissed his shoulder and he blew out a long breath, releasing just a hair of his tension.

  When I looked around, I noticed that all the Taoree seemed seriously tense. What the actual fuck?

  “What the fuck?” Apparently I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. “Why are you all being so weird?”

  Ozias was the first to speak, though not until a long-ass minute of silence passed. “What you did down there should not be possible.”

  “What do you mean? I just healed him. It’s not a big deal.” God, why are Taoree always so damn serious?

  “Jer,” Orr said, looking down at me. I hadn’t moved off his shoulder. “Do you remember that I told you we can heal one another because we’re Balu and we could heal Wes because he’s a blood relative?” I nodded. “For everyone else, you need to use a juhere… but you just healed Innaku without one.”

  “Oh.” I just shrugged.

  Orr closed his eyes. “If someone finds out you have this ability, they will try to exploit it.”

  “You think someone’s going to make me, what? Heal people to death?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I think. That they will make you heal people to your death.”

  I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut. Then I shrugged. “Okay, so we don’t tell anyone, got it.”

  “People will see Innaku and want to know how he healed so fast,” Ozias said.

  I had nothing to say to that.

  Innaku cleared his throat. “Then I will stay hidden until enough time has passed that a juhere and the skin grafts would’ve healed me.”

  Ozias nodded. “That is the only option. You can stay here. I have an extra room.”

  I narrowed my eyes at Ozias, thinking about how he could’ve offered Tenj a place to stay if he had an extra room. What a dickhead, douchenugget, cocknozzle, buttmunch.

  Ozias smiled at me. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  “I highly doubt you’d be smiling, then.”

  He chuckled, then sobered and said, “I am hardly home, so I couldn’t offer Tenj a place to stay. If he were older and okay on his own, I would have, but I cannot take care of a child, let alone one with medical issues, when I have so many other responsibilities and my hours are always changing.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, then thought about it. I guess I could understand that he had a busy schedule, what with running the whole war and whatnot, but still… Ugh. And I guess I did have others living with me that could help, so maybe I did understand… a little. “I’ll give you a pass… this time.”

  Orrean let out a resigned sigh, but Ozias chuckled at me. Innaku’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. I guess he wasn’t used to people speaking to their leader that way, but whatever. He’d get used to me after a while.

  When Orrean and I left the apartment, I whispered, “Do you know why I could do that?”

  “I don’t know, Balu. Maybe because you’re human?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “That doesn’t make sense. Humans can’t do any of the shit you Taoree can.”

  He just shrugged, then grabbed my hand to continue replenishing our lights as we walked down to the mess hall, where we figured Cal would’ve taken Mandy and Tenj by now. Luckily we found them.

  As soon as my ass was on the seat, Cal said, “What the fuck happened to you? You look like shit.”

  “You’re always so kind,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “I’ll tell you later.” As soon as Orr sat beside me, I grabbed his hand. Not only did I want the contact, but our lights still needed to heal one another. The food would help, but I figured I’d feel crappy till tomorrow.

  Cal eyed me, then nodded and turned his attention to Orrean. “So, Orr, since you’re now with my best friend, I have a few questions for ya.”

  “Oh god,” I muttered. “Really, Cal? As if you haven’t been living with him for like eight months or some shit.”

  Cal completely ignored me and asked Orr, “What are your intentions toward J?”

  Orr chuckled, looking at Cal amusedly, and said, “I have many intentions toward him.”

  I snorted at that and elbowed him.

  Cal narrowed his eyes and said, “I won’t let you hurt him.”

  My eyes widened at his seriousness. I’d thought he was only joking around.

  “Of course not. I would never hurt him,” Orr said quietly, making me look at him. Now he looked serious too. What the hell?

  “Wow, okay.” I cleared my throat. “Both of you need to chill out.” Poor Tenj was just sitting there looking back and forth between them.

  “We know you have at least one crazy, asshole brother. Are you going to have any other random family members pop up on us, Orrean?” Cal asked him, still completely ignoring me.

  “Oh, I forgot that you have a sister,” I said, trying to insert myself into the conversation. “What’s her name again? Where is she?”

  Orrean looked at me with a sad look on his face and whispered, “Her name’s Tyzlihin… that is a long story and not something I wish to speak of in the mess hall. May I tell you at home?”

  “Of course.” I kissed his shoulder, then left my cheek there and said to Cal, “Are you done with your crazy-talk?” He narrowed his eyes at me, so I rolled mine at him. “You’re being absolutely ridiculous.”


  I was surprised that Orr was the one that argued, “He loves you and wants to make sure you’re safe.”

  I sighed at that and muttered, “Whatever.” But I still noticed Cal and Orrean exchange a few looks, almost like they were speaking telepathically. I had no clue what they were doing. So I looked at Tenj and said in Taoree, “Has Mandy been able to translate for you?”

  “Yes,” he answered softly.

  I nodded. The kid admitted last night that he understood most of what was said in English, but he couldn’t speak it, so Mandy would’ve had to translate anything Tenj said to Cal today. Cal understood very little Taoree and spoke even less. I said to Tenj, “I’m glad. Is your new room okay? We can paint over the walls if you’d like? Figure out something that you like instead?”

  “I like the walls,” he said with a small smile.

  Nolan and Tabby ended up bringing food over for us and we all sat there and ate, though I barely moved off of Orr’s shoulder. Even after the food, I was still really depleted, so we all wound up sticking around in the mess hall for a while, just talking. Luckily, Cal and Orr’s weird whatever the hell it was had seemed to pass and everyone was in a pretty good mood.

  “Orrean, I need you to come with me.” Ozias’s sudden voice startled me. He sounded fierce yet sad.

  Orrean stood, so I nodded at Cal, who nodded back, then I gently squeezed Tenj’s shoulder and said, “We’ll see you in a bit, buddy.”

  He nodded, so I stood and followed Orrean. I heard Ozias sigh after he looked back to see me following them, but Orr reached back and grabbed my hand. Apparently sighing at me was no longer restricted to only one twin. Fun.

  When we reached the control room, there were pictures running over all the monitors… pictures of the Northern Independent Base… or what was left of it. There was so much smoke it was hard to see, but I could still see the lick of the flames shooting high up into the sky. What I saw under the smoke, though, that was the most terrifying thing. There was just a… crater. A huge hole in the earth with pieces of metal and brick and wood burned to a crisp.

  I looked at another monitor that was circling the area around the crater. There were bodies… so many fucking bodies and body… parts… and So. Much. Blood. I had to look away.