Falling One by One

by S. A. McAuley

  His hand circled the base of my dick and he pumped me, lips meeting fingers that tightened around my shaft and frazzled every thought I was trying to hold on to.

  “More, Armise,” I begged. “Please.”

  He let go of my cock and tugged at my balls, sending a flash of pain sizzling through my stomach and up my spine. Then I was being pulled to the ground as he removed my boots and slid my pants off me. He lifted my legs and propped them over his shoulders as he shifted me up and tongued at my asshole. His massive hands held me, palming my ass and moving up to the arch of my spine so he could drive his tongue inside me.

  I took hold of my cock and slid my hand over the spit-slick skin. I gasped as he added a finger, then two, thrusting inside me with his tongue and hand. There was no other choice for me. There never had been. I needed him, wanted him.

  All of him.

  “Fuck,” I ground out. “Inside me. You’re right there, just…get inside me.”

  I still had marks all over my body from the last time we’d had sex in the AmFed. I could feel the places where his teeth and hands had claimed me, then, as he gripped my hips. Those bruises from days ago would be covered with more bruises, more marks to match just how much he fucking owned me.

  He didn’t ask if I was sure. He went to his pack and got his canister of balm. He stripped himself of all clothing and his boots as he walked back to me. I removed my shirt then pumped my cock and watched him undress—exposing each inch of skin, each scar and each tattoo. I thought I’d known the story, the origins, of most of them.

  But maybe there was more to Armise than I’d ever tried to learn.

  When he was naked, he settled over me with care. Care that a man like me didn’t deserve. He slicked his cock then my ass, his fingers working inside me, around my hole, readying me with a gentleness I’d never experienced before.

  When he pushed inside me, his cock splitting me apart, there was the pain, but even that couldn’t last as long as I wanted it to. Armise drove deeper, harsher, and I pumped my cock to his thrusts. I clamped my eyes shut and let him fuck into me until I could barely breathe. He draped himself over me and took my nipple ring into his mouth and I moaned.

  He propped himself with his hands above my shoulders and his ragged breath brushed over my cheeks before he leaned down and kissed me. He lapped at my lips, at my piercing, unwinding the tightness in my chest until all I could breathe in, all I could feel, was him.

  His tongue, his dick and my hand…there was no way I could last.

  Then he pulled away from my mouth, slowed his thrusts, and I could feel his eyes on me.

  “The way you open your mouth when you’re about to come for me… It kills me, Merq.”

  I opened my eyes. I had to see the smirk I could hear in his voice. The sight of him—teeth locked onto his own lips, the corner of his mouth tipped up, shoulders and arms rippling with restraint as he rocked into me—sent me over the edge. I circled my hand over the tip of my cock then back down and came over my stomach as he threw his head back and clenched his jaw, riding out his own throes.

  He didn’t pull out. He draped himself over me and kissed me with a languid tongue and gasping breaths. I sighed into him and wrapped my arm around his shoulders.

  Fifteen years wasn’t enough.

  A lifetime wouldn’t be enough.

  I sucked in a breath as he pulled out and collapsed on the ground next to me. That tightness was gone, replaced with the warmth of his skin as he laid his hand on my chest.

  “Okay,” I relented. “We may not be good men, but that is always good.”

  My heart stuttered as the rumble of Armise’s chuckle shook the floor around me.

  * * * *

  On the aircomm screen in Grimshaw’s command center, Chen held up the Singaporean shielding chip Armise had brought back with him from his time with Ahriman. “The shield is composed of two components. A mask that dampens the electrical signatures. That’s the piece that repels sonicbullets and fucks with our instruments, making it appear as if the person in front of us doesn’t exist. The second part uses innate biological magnetic fields, boosted by localized geologic signatures. It picks up on the disturbance created by a bullet and activates to reverse those fields, focusing them outward.”

  Standing behind me, Armise said, “That is why we can use knives yet it repels bullets.”

  Chen nodded. “Bullets made of ferrous materials, yes. Which all of ours are at this point.”

  I had no idea what type of material that term encompassed. “What?”

  “Not important for now. What is, though, is that this is a sophisticated biological weapon. Yes, it’s a chip, with similarities to how transport, comm and trackers work. But it’s not a passive object like they are. Once inserted it invades the body at a cellular level, like a virus, reforming basic functions and corrupting the user’s programming.”

  “Their DNA.”

  “Their epigenetics. The chemical reactions that influence the expression of DNA. Since we’re talking about hybrids with extensive genetmods who are mostly using these shields, I don’t know how that changes the equation. But this is the important part. I think whoever created this technology made it both a protection and a vulnerability. And I can only assume he did so on purpose.”

  I furrowed my brow. “He?”

  “Dr. Calum Blanc. Ahriman’s father.”

  I shook my head. Dr. Blanc was a contemporary of the president. Or rather, had been. “I thought he was dead.”

  Armise straightened. “He may be now. Last time I saw him was when I handed him over to Ahriman.”

  It was another clue about the year and a half Armise and I had been separated, and of course it came at a time where I couldn’t prod him for more information. I stored that fact away and left it for later, focusing on Chen again. “How do you know it was him that created the shields?”

  “His signature is all over it. He put a kill switch in the code. Buried it. Every time Ahriman or anyone else uses that shield they’re disintegrating their mind and body. The code eats away at them.”

  I looked to Grimshaw. “You used one of those in the bunker.”

  Grimshaw cleared his throat and adjusted his position on his seat. “I was carrying it. Didn’t implant it.” He put his focus on Chen. “It’s always gradual?”

  Neveed appeared in the corner of the screen. His beard was gone and his black curls were pulled back from his face. “Chen thinks we may be able to turn it on full blast.”

  “I don’t think anything,” Chen argued. “I know. There’s no other way to interpret what I’m seeing here. This is a kill switch as much as it’s a shield. And I guarantee it can be used selectively or en masse.”

  “Drop them all at the same time,” Grimshaw ground out. It appeared his distaste for the idea bordered on anger.

  “That’s a hell of a lot of collateral,” I agreed with him. “Too much.”

  Neveed stared at me through the screen. It wasn’t an answer he’d expected to hear come from my lips. It wasn’t one I would’ve been prepared to give a year ago. Neveed circled his hand around the nape of his neck, pushing fingers into the muscle there. “It’s one strategy,” he backtracked. “Not the only one.”

  “What else do you have for us, Chen?” I prompted.

  “Nothing on this chip. But I want to transport in. I’ll be able to do more on the front lines with you than I will from here. The atmosphere in Kash isn’t conducive to remote work.”

  “It’s not happening,” Neveed snapped.

  “It needs to happen,” she fought back, and from the sheer force of her words I could tell this was a conversation she and Neveed’d had already. “I can’t track them from here in a reliable way and I definitely can’t activate the switch if that’s needed. My on-field connection won’t be stable. I can guarantee the dronebots will go dark from the interference. I’m too far away and I can’t leave them blind.”

  “It’s not happening,” Neveed repeated.

&
nbsp; The door to Grimshaw’s building slammed open, Athol and who I had to assume was his twin Elina barreling through, dragging my mother and father in fisted hands.

  Athol threw my father to the floor and pulled his pistol, aiming it at Lucien’s head as he stomped a foot on the back of Luc’s neck. “Elina and I are going to execute them.”

  “We’re going to have to call you back,” Grimshaw said to Neveed with complete calm and disconnected the aircomm. He stood. “You voted.”

  Elina tipped her chin up. “Didn’t need to, but we did.”

  “Nothing happens in this camp without their agreement,” Grimshaw offered to Armise, Jegs and me by way of explanation. “We don’t have facilities to hold prisoners and it’s their safety these two are compromising by being here.”

  “We won’t hand them over or let them go,” Athol added.

  “And I won’t go against their vote.” Grimshaw peered down at Lucien and Tallitia. “This is Kash, not the States.”

  “As if those boundaries mean anything.” Jegs sniffed. “As if there were enforceable laws anywhere.”

  Jegs had a point, but it wasn’t the most important one.

  “As if they deserved to live,” I added.

  “When we die, all the knowledge we have dies with us,” Lucien pleaded, spittle flying from his lips.

  Grimshaw turned to Armise. “Manny said something about Anubis. I’ve heard the name before. Is there anything there we need to follow up on?”

  Armise shook his head. “They won’t talk about it.”

  “And we won’t apologize for it,” Lucien gritted out under Athol’s boot. He struggled until he was in a position where he could look at Armise. “If they kill me, Merq has to remain alive. Make sure of it. He will be the last living Grayson. If you know anything about Anubis you’ll know why his life means more than yours.”

  Armise sneered. “I don’t need to know Anubis to know that.”

  My mother didn’t say anything. She’d always been stronger than my father and she would enter into death with the same ferocity. I had to respect that.

  I didn’t turn away as Athol and Elina executed my parents with two professionally placed bullets to the backs of their skulls.

  Chapter Six

  My mother’s and father’s blood stained the floorboards and no one hesitated to walk over the twin spots. They ground the patches of rust color into a smudge of dark gray with every boot step as we crowded into Grimshaw’s command center to make plans for the oncoming battle to D3 the hybrid camps. I leaned against the wall in the same spot I’d occupied since our aircomm with Chen, and Armise stood with me, separated from the flurry. Like me, he’d said nothing as Athol and Elina had dragged my parents’ bodies over the rough-hewn floor and out to the wasteland, returning them to dust and dirt. They’d been sentenced to death without trial, assassinated without hesitation, dumped without ceremony and forgotten within seconds. It was a fate they’d asked for, and one I’d likely share with them someday.

  There were two screens mounted at the front of the room, one that cycled through images of the camp on the Kash border, and the other a secured channel to Simion, his lips drawn into a thin line and his ocean-blue eyes locking onto each hybrid in the room. I had the feeling that he was memorizing each face so he could recall them individually for gratitude if we succeeded. To ensure that they were remembered if they didn’t make it home. I’d never been more aware that this wasn’t a mission we could win or lose. The best we could hope for was an end to the camps.

  “It will be a simultaneous assault in all countries,” Grimshaw said, standing next to the screens.

  “Nationalist and Revolution forces together,” Simion stated for anyone left wondering.

  Grimshaw nodded. “We’re going to need all of us. There’s no way to take Opp forces by surprise at this point. In Kash, Revolution forces will be the distraction.”

  “No blow to the ego, Colonel Grayson,” Simion said with a sly smile. “The hybrids are much more equipped than we are when it comes to fighting their own. They will be the strike and extraction teams. You and Armise will be leading the forward recon team. The dronebots will buffer the two fronts and bridge the areas we can’t have eyes on.”

  “Athol and Elina are leading the team of hybrids heading into the camps—” Grimshaw started.

  “I want Elina with us and Athol in the camp,” I interrupted.

  “They won’t be separated,” Grimshaw answered for them.

  I smiled. “How’s that for motivation to make sure both teams are successful then?”

  “The war or winning a battle isn’t our priority here,” Simion continued, as if I hadn’t spoken. “Killing enemy forces isn’t our priority. Freeing the pre-hys and D3ing the camps is. Let’s be clear on that.”

  Armise crossed his arms. “Any hybrids who have undergone the full transformation are going to think we are attacking them, not trying to free them.”

  Athol stepped forward. “They’re not going to give a shit why you’re there at all. They’re just going to fight.”

  “Grimshaw said you can’t be controlled,” Armise prodded.

  “I said some—” Grimshaw started.

  I put my hand up to stop Grimshaw from pushing this consideration away. “We need to know what dynamics we’re fighting under. Do we have to worry about the hybrids turning on us more than facing the unknowns at the camps?”

  “We’re willing to sacrifice our lives for your president,” Elina spit out.

  “The object isn’t for you to sacrifice your life for me or the good of the Revolution,” Simion cut in, his voice booming, silencing us. Everyone’s attention immediately snapped to him. “The object is to force the other hybrids into sacrificing their lives for their cause, whatever they think it is. Allow them to die with honor if you can.”

  I stared Elina and Athol down. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live for the Revolution than die for it.”

  Athol smirked.

  Elina put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Then it’s our privilege to fight with you, Colonel Grayson.”

  “This mission is fucked before it even starts,” Jegs said, a wide grin spreading across her face. “Thanks for at least bringing me in for the good part.”

  “Do they have real weapons?” I asked, ignoring Jegs’ bloodthirst.

  “We made sure their store of bullets disappeared. They only have sonic now,” Grimshaw verified. “We’ll wear our shields against sonic weapons and prepare for close combat.”

  Athol scanned the faces of the other hybrids in the room. “We’re your best weapons in this fight. It’s not just the Opp hybrids that have shields against all types of bullets.”

  I caught eyes with Grimshaw. “Did you tell them what Chen found?”

  He shook his head. “There wasn’t time before. Athol. Elina. You and the other hys need to know that the Opp shielding tech also has the capacity to kill you. Allow me to correct that statement—it is killing you. Every time you use it. But that’s not all. A Revolution analyst says she knows how to activate it remotely, which means we have the capacity to kill you all at once. You have to know we have the power to do it. It’s not an option we are pursuing, but the possibility is still there.”

  “We could scrap the battle plans and work on safe chip removal for all of you first,” Simion offered. “We can remove your chips and just activate the kill switch for anyone else who’s been embedded and not have to face the potential for a fight to destroy the camps. But that means the others will die. Everyone with a shielding chip will die, regardless of where they are in the transition and what side they and you are on.”

  I shook my head. Simion’s offer was diplomatic, very presidential, but it wouldn’t work. “If we start removing the chips we also have to be prepared for Ahriman to be tipped off that we know something he doesn’t.”

  Athol looked to his twin and she nodded, the other hybrids echoing the motion as he looked to each of them in turn.


  “We choose to fight,” Athol answered.

  Elina let go of her brother and gripped the pistol at her hip. “We’ll let you know when we choose to die.”

  * * * *

  I examined Jegs with the clinical bend of newfound intelligence instead of secrets unearthed. I cataloged the tilt of her head as she listened to Armise and Grimshaw talk to each other about weapons and ammunition stores. I watched the minute twitch of her fingers—forefinger brushing down the length of her thumb and back up, over and over again—as she considered each of them.

  I took in the way her body was shifted away from Armise, only a fraction closer to her brother, the subtle curve of her shoulders putting a barrier of sorts between her and Armise. She wasn’t shutting him out, or closing herself off, but she wasn’t providing any modicum of welcome. It was no wonder I’d never guessed there had once been something between them. She didn’t carry any hint of familiarity or anger, or even forced detachment, in how she interacted with him. She didn’t hesitate to make eye contact with him or to engage him in the back and forth of their battle plans. She treated him as if he was like any other soldier with intimate knowledge of death—not an intimate knowledge of her life.

  She and I had been in the same room most of the day and it wasn’t as if I was ignoring her. Until this moment I’d merely skimmed over her presence, much as I would have done any other day. She was a member of my team, someone I trusted at my back when the world fell apart around us. I just hadn’t known that she’d once held that position in Armise’s life as well. And to an even greater extent with him—possibly—than with me.

  Just as I had been picking apart the enigma that was Grimshaw Jegs, I was now doing the same with his sister. And I found my hands balled into fists, my survey of Jegs more glare than gaze. This discomfort with her presence couldn’t last. It wasn’t conducive to our working relationship. I attempted to separate out my emotional attachment to Armise as I watched them interact. I had no doubt I was failing.