by Maya Carnage
Rosalind blinks away the flood of tears welling in her eyes. Seesil killed Todd. The naïve tech support guy. Damn it he had nothing to do with the attack. None of them did really, but they were the ones who did the heavy lifting.
Kayla and the others on Teraz came up with the plan, but it was the eighth and second wards on Earth who implemented it. They don’t know where the footage came from or what’s next. The most they’ll get out of one of them is that the rebellion is responsible. She’s pretty sure Seesil already suspects that.
But it doesn’t matter because Seesil will continue picking them off one by one until they are all gone. This isn’t about the attack. It’s about saving face.
They were humiliated by the rebels when they leaked that video showing their training methods. The cyborgs who go join the military section that works on Earth go through their own program separate from all the others. The Malviks brainwash them while they are there. Scientists strap them to an operating table, cuffing their arms and legs down with restrains designed specifically for cyborgs before they crack open their skulls and begin reprogramming them.
The second ward sifted through all the files on the Malviks mainframe and found that the cyborgs’ consciences are being damaged. The Malviks are recreating the original soldiers from the war.
It explains a lot. The cyborgs serving in space and those on Teraz are rising up against the Malviks because they know who they really are, but the ones left on Earth don’t. That’s the way the Malviks want it, too.
Everything the Malviks do is to serve their purpose. There are rumors that their personal guards’ consciences aren’t even intact. That they took them out completely to make them into brainless warriors who wouldn’t object to their bidding, but the rebels didn’t find anything concrete on that though. It’s nothing but speculation based on everything they know about them.
They are heartless monsters, and one of them has his sights on her.
Cold chills race up her spine, but she doesn’t break Seesil’s stare. She may not be the strongest, but she’s not the weakest either.
And that means she’s going to have to find out a way to protect the rebels in the basement from him. Seesil doesn’t know who he’s up against. She’d jump in a fire to save her family. She might mess up and trip over a rock on the way to the flames, but she’d get there.
“You’re going to regret this,” she says through her teeth.
“No, I quite enjoy making humans wail and beg. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that sweet, sweet music. There is plenty of rebels down there to help me make up for the lost time.” Seesil glances at them one last time before slinking out the door, locking her in with the cyborg.
Chapter Six
Gregor
This isn’t what he expected.
Rosalind sighs audibly before plopping on the bed. She swings her feet back and forth, bouncing on the bed slightly. “You were on The Pursuer?”
“I was,” he answers.
She tugs at her bottom lip with her teeth. Her dark brown curls fall forward, obscuring her angel like face as she stares down at the floor. “Since you’re here, I’m going to assume that you’re the one who ratted us out.” She doesn’t budge, continuing to look at the ground after hurling Gregor’s actions at him.
There is no bite in her words, but they sting none the less.
“Todd’s dead because of you.”
“He’s not the first rebel a Malvik has killed.”
“He won’t be the last either, but his life could have been spared if you hadn’t betrayed Axe and them.”
“I would have broken my vows to the Malviks if I had done that!” No one seems to understand that a person’s word has to mean something because if not, then what good is he? Staying behind and helping Axe would have been easy, and for a second, he considered it, but in the end, the guilt of breaking his vows again was too much. He can’t face that shame again. He won’t.
She jumps from the bed, startling him. Throwing her hands in the air, she begins to pace the length of the room. “Out of all the cyborgs on Earth, they had to stick me with you. My luck can’t get any worse.”
“It’s not like I want to be here,” he murmurs.
She stops and glares at him. “Then go. You aren’t the prisoner here.”
“What does Seesil want with you?” He crosses his arms over his chest. Seesil is responsible for questioning and torturing those the Malviks capture, but he’s never pinned his full attention on one person before. At least, not that he knows of anyway.
She shrugs before she goes back to pacing.
He watches as she strides from the door to the far back wall. Her body stops inches from the lavender colored paint before she spins around, heading back this way. It’s like watching a ping pong match. Back and forth. Back and forth. Driving him crazy, he snaps, “Stop!”
At the harsh rasp of his voice, she trips. “I really don’t like you.” She gives him the stink eye as she picks herself up.
“I’ll find out eventually what he wants from you. I might be able to help you if you tell me what’s going on.”
“I bet your crewmembers believed that, and look what happened. I’d be stupid to trust you,” she says.
Fine. He won’t beg her to trust him. This is just another job to him, and so, he’ll treat it as such. He doesn’t have to be friendly with her. If she’s not going to try, neither will he.
Going over to the faded yellow armchair in the corner of the room next to the armoire, he sits down and stretches his legs out. He activates his portable comm, and begins reading the book he purchased a few days ago.
Rosalind huffs.
He looks up, raising his eyebrows. “Need something?”
“Nope.”
“Then be quiet, I’m reading.”
“Jerk,” she whispers.
Maybe the Malviks are testing his patience because there’s a huge chance he’s going to strangle this woman before this assignment is over.
Chapter Seven
Rosalind
Her heart hammers in her chest as Gregor escorts her to the torture chamber. He doesn’t grip her arm or pushes her forward as most guards would. He just walks beside her silently.
They haven’t spoken since yesterday, and she’s somewhat to blame. She won’t take full responsibility because he’s part of the reason why they are here, but she was rude to him, and she feels guilty over her behavior.
She’s usually the nicest person in the room, but being imprisoned for the last month has really messed her up.
She crosses her fingers that Kayla figures out a way to save them before it’s too late. Seesil’s already threatened her that the rebels in the basement are going to have the same fate as Todd, and there’s nothing she can do to stop him.
That stupid grin on his face is driving her crazy, too. He’s strange for a Malvik. They aren’t supposed to have emotions or personalities, but he does. It’s off-putting.
Not paying attention, she jerks away when Gregor holds her arm as they begin descending the stairs.
He sighs, shakes his head, and shoves his hands into his pockets.
Damn it she didn’t mean it as an insult. He surprised her. She was lost in her head when his hand brushed her bare skin. His emotions overwhelmed her. It’s one of the reasons she doesn’t like people she doesn’t know to touch her. She has no idea what’s going on inside them, and it could cause her a lot of discomforts.
Why would she willingly put herself through that? She rarely does, and it sucks because she’s a natural hugger.
She should explain that to him. Maybe it would help smooth things out between them, lessening the tension leftover from last night. “Look, back there isn’t what you think. I’m not a big fan of being touched, okay?”
He doesn’t bother to turn his head to talk when he speaks to her. “It’s fine. I get it.”
“I really don’t think you do,” she says. “There isn’t enough time for me to tell you every
thing, but I can feel your feelings when you touch me. Actually, touching doesn’t need to be involved because I can sense emotions that are close to me. I can put up a block though to keep myself sane, but it doesn’t work with skin to skin contact.”
She glances at him to see his reaction at her words, realizing that he’s not next to her. Frowning, she turns around.
Gregor a foot away from with a pensive look on his face.
“You good?”
He looks up. “You’re an empath?”
She smiles. “Yes! You know what they are? Not many do, so it’s surprising. The Malviks know about them, but that can’t be a good thing.”
“That’s what Seesil wants from you.”
She nods and sighs. “I don’t know why. What’s so important about an empath?”
“Your kind can do more than feeling a person’s emotions. You drain them.” He strides over to her, ushering her forward.
“Have you ever done that?” he whispers.
“What? No!”
“That’s what Seesil wants from you.”
He wants her to drain people. Gregor can’t be serious! I could never do that.
The closer they get to the white door that leads to another experiment, her feet become heavier. A cold sweat spread over her. She begins to shiver. “Why would he want that?”
Gregor doesn’t answer immediately, as if he’s thinking over his answer. “To weaken the rebels. It makes sense. The farmers won’t revolt, and neither will the cyborgs on Earth. The rebels are their problem. They extinguish them, and this whole mess goes away.”
“This isn’t just a mess, Gregor. It’s about what’s right and what’s wrong. Everyone has the right to freedom.”
“The Malviks don’t believe that.”
“I’m not on the Malviks’ side, but you are.”
He doesn’t get the chance to respond.
The white door’s open. Seesil stands there waiting for her with a sinister smile on his face. Rosalind clenches her fists as Seesil steps toward them. “I’ll call for you when we’re finished.” He wraps his cold fingers around her arm, tugging her into the sterile room after him. He leaves her by the table as he shuts the door on an unhappy looking Gregor.
White walls. White Tiles beneath her feet. A black reclining chair. A wooden table against the wall with objects she doesn’t want to look at for too long. The room’s pristine with the strong smell of bleach in the air. None of that steals her breath because she saw it all yesterday. What’s catches her attention and makes her heart skip a beat is the one bright red drop of blood on the floor.
She doesn’t remember that being there. “Did you hurt one of my teammates?” she asks with a tremble in her voice. She doesn’t take her eyes off the droplet.
“Isaac,” Seesil answers.
She whimpers, closing her eyes. Her last conversation with him pops into her head, and tears sting her eyes. He warned her of this, but she was naïve enough to believe that they’d get rescued before anything else happened.
She grinds her teeth together, willing herself not to cry. She won’t give him that satisfaction. As much as she wants to mourn her friend, she can’t. Her focus needs to be on figuring a way out of this hell hole because she can’t wait for Kayla. Every day that passes means another person dies. She can’t live with that knowledge hanging overhead and do nothing.
But how in the world is she going to break twenty people out of a house filled with cyborgs and one Malvik?
“Were you close?”
She glares at him. “Yes.”
“I wish I had saved him for today then.” Seesil gestures at the table. He hums as he straps her down. “Would you like to know what I have planned for us today?”
She swallows thickly. “Is it going to be painful?”
“Hmm… Yes.”
Well, he could have lied. A lie would have been better, though, because now her heart is racing. She’s never been good with pain. Maybe it will be the minimum of pain and over quickly?
She hisses when Seesil pinches the skin of her left ankle as he tightens the strap.
Ah, shit. She is screwed. It looks like Seesil will get to see her cry after all. By the end of this session, she will be blubbering like a baby.
“Gregor’s correct,” Seesil says, “but we want to use your empath powers against the rebellious cyborgs, too.”
She shifts, as much as she can, in her seat. “How do you know what he told me?”
“You’re not the only one with special powers.” He stares down at her, and she can see a spark in them even though they are pitch black.
“My abilities might not effect cyborgs.” It’s a lame attempt at trying put doubt in his head, but it is all she has right now.
Seesil stands up straight and tilts his head. He smiles, then taps her on the nose before walking over to the table. He begins to hum as he collects an assortment of items. “You can feel Gregor’s emotions. What’s stopping you from draining them? Nothing.” He comes back over to her with a pile of wires in his arms.
She jerks away, but the straps dig into her skin, stopping her. “That doesn't mean I can do anything else with them just because I can feel them.”
“That's stupid. Your abilities are linked together. If you can feel an emotion, then you can take it. It’s that simple.” He untangles the wires, and Rosalind sees that they are the type that doctors attach to you when they want to monitor your pulse. He lays them across her middle. “I’ll be back.”
As soon as the snick of the door reaches her ears, she begins to struggle against her binds. She groans as she tugs with all her strength to break free. She only needs to free one arm.
Just. One. Freaking. Arm. That’s all she needs. Just one arm!
“Damn it, come on, Rosie. You can do this girl,” she says out loud.
The thick black straps cuts into her skin. The cool feeling of blood trailing down her arm doesn’t faze her. She keeps pulling until a fire licks up her arm and all she wants to do is scream. Scream from the pain. The deep ache inside of her soul because she’s trapped and at the hands of a Malvik and people she considers family is dead or about to die.
None of it’s fair. It kills her that she can’t do anything to stop it either. She’s stuck here, and it sucks. It’s really freaking sucks. What sucks even more, is that she can’t even bring herself to say some more crass than freaking. She’s lame.
“There are metal wires running through those leather straps.”
Damn it. She didn’t hear the door open. She drops her limbs back to the table. Her eyes widen at what Seesil’s brought into the room with him.
A white box about the size of an old-fashioned microwave sits on a grey table with wheels. There are several knobs and a meter on it with a set of wires running from it and resting next to it on the table.
Holy shit, he’s going to electrocute me.
Chapter Eight
Gregor
He should have known something was wrong when they asked him to leave. If he could, he’d go back in the past and punch himself in the face for being so stupid. Leaving Rosalind there by herself was a crazy mistake, and he’s smart enough to know not to trust the Malviks, but he did. He’ll never do it again.
Pax messaged him last night to give him the location of the agriculture farm where he is working. Since he was ordered to leave, that is where he went, and Rosalind was getting tortured by Seesil.
A sickly paleness was in place of her usually warm brown skin. She walked sluggishly out of that room, and Gregor hurried to her side, wrapping an arm around her. He didn’t spare Seesil a glance. He was too worried about Rosalind. She hung onto him as they made their way upstairs to her room where she collapsed on the bed.
That was two days ago. Two long, agonizing days of Rosalind refusing to leave the safe comforts of her blankets. An uneaten bowl of oatmeal lays abandoned on the nightstand beside her. At least she drank some of the orange juice.
“You can’t stay in there
all day. You need to get up and get moving. It will be good for you.” Gregor rests on the edge of the bed. He lays a hand on her leg, shaking gently. “This isn’t the snappy woman I meat three days ago.”
“She died, so back off,” she says. Her voice comes out muffled through the layers of fabric.
He sighs, rubbing at his eyes. What the fuck can he say to her? He doesn’t have a fucking clue about what went on in that room. He tried getting something information out of the cyborgs, but they are tight-lipped and refuse to give him anything. If that bastard Seesil was still her he’d go to him, but he left right after he hurt Rosalind. The council needed him.
“Seesil’s gone,” he says, hoping that it might lure her out of her cave.
She stiffens beneath his hand. “Where did he go?”
“There was an emergency council meeting.”
She sits up quickly, jerking out of his grasp. “This is the perfect time to escape!” she whispers.
He shakes his head, point at her. “You’ve barely slept in the last forty-eight hours. How the hell do you plan on leading a breakout?”
Dark circles ring both of her hazel eyes, and her face is pale but not as bad as it was at first. “Any rebel worth their weight can go days with sleep and still complete a mission. This is my mission. I am responsible for those people down there. I have to do something to save them. Isaac and Todd are dead. How many more lives will get taken before someone else comes to save us?”
Humans are pests to Malviks. Killing them is equivalent to someone stomping their foot on a cockroach. Seesil intends to kill all of them, but he’s sick, and so he’ll take his time. He will draw it out because he likes causing pain.
“I’m your guard. Why the hell would I let you save them?”
“Because you aren’t a bad guy.” Rosalind leans forward and takes his hands, squeezing them between hers. “I’ve been thinking about your being here. It’s not a coincidence. Pax being here, too. Kayla sent you two!”
His hands tingle from her warmth, and he stares at the contrasts between their hands. Hers are soft where his are calloused and hard. His are pale, and hers are a warm brown. Her tiny hands barely cover his, and it reminds him how delicate she really is. She might be a spitfire, but she’s also soft and gentle.