“Ash and I were just discussing the future.”
“All right, I got my bag; I just need to take it to the living room. Ash, I think Brook needs some help she was looking at it and said it looked too heavy for her to pick up. Something about not wanting to risk it.”
Ash was up out of the chair and running up the steps before Jaz could even take a step backward.
“You know Brook is pregnant?” she asked him.
“I know but how do you know?”
“I can look at her and tell.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I can see the light of life within her. I can’t explain it. It’s simply something I have always been able to do.”
“Is that a side effect of being a clone?”
“I don’t think so. As far as I know, I’m the only clone that can do this.”
He gave her a puzzled look before standing to pick up her bag and take it to the living room. He turned around and took her in his arms when he dropped the bag. She moved closer and let him hold her.
Jaz knew there was no guarantee of tomorrow or even of tonight. It made her want to hold on tight to the good she was finding in life.
“I know your favorite color and the fact that you don’t yet have a favorite food. What is your dream? The one thing you always wanted to do.”
She took his hand and led him back upstairs into her room. They walked until they came to stand in front of a wall of pictures.
“I have always wanted to go to the ocean. To walk on the sand on a beach and feel the waves wash over my toes. I was never allowed to leave A’rouk Medical Facility. When I petitioned to see the ocean, I was denied.”
Her hand reached out to touch her pictures, her fingertips gliding gently over the waves. Then she touched the holographic one. If she stared at it long enough, it was like she was there.
“Have you ever been to the beach?”
“I have,” he guided her back to the love seat. “I was there long before people coveted the experience. I was there when it was so crowded it wasn’t nice anymore. I was there during the alien-human wars, and I was there after the wars when it was declared off limits. It sits desolate waiting for bare feet and spontaneous laughter.”
“I thought it was so bad that no one could go anymore.” Her eyes sparkled at the thought of walking on a beach that wasn’t crowded with the last of humanity all fighting for a spot of tranquility.
“There’s a lot that humans can do, but they don’t because they believe the investment or time would be too much. We cleaned the beaches up a long time ago, but wisely kept that knowledge to ourselves.”
She peeked out the window to see what the assassins were up to before turning around to talk to Mick again. They stayed on the loveseat. She eventually curled up against him resting her head on his chest.
“Mick, do you have any children?”
“No,” his voice sounded faintly sad. “We can only have children with our mates.”
“Why?”
“It’s has something to do with the DNA cocktail that went into creating us. That’s what Damon says anyway.” His gut clutched with the need to mate with her, but he knew better than to press her. “If one day I were to take a mate, I would have to exchange DNA with her. It would synch our bodies, and she would change just enough to be able to carry my child.”
She thought about what he said, becoming someone’s mate was never something she would be able to claim. Now she was a loose cannon in a sense, she could do or be whatever she desired.
“Do you think your Scientist did that deliberately?”
“No, I believe they meant us to be sterile, and they would have succeeded if not for our mother’s DNA. It’s sentient. That’s why we can connect with memories of her as well as memories of our fathers.”
“How is that possible?” She had stretched out, by now her head was on his lap.
Mick kept taking deep breaths. If she moved over an inch, she was going to get a big surprise, but he didn’t want to scare her by jumping up. It would also make her feel like he didn’t want her. She was totally unaware of how desirable she was.
“We believe she comes from one of the oldest races in any of the galaxies. Her abilities are so far advanced because of what she was.”
Jaz nodded her head feeling extra warmth by her face. She was tempted to turn her cheek and nuzzle into it, but the tenseness of Mick’s body said it probably wasn’t a good idea.
“Do you want children?” Her voice hesitated when she asked him. It seemed like a more intimate action than kissing him had been.
“I do, but I never dwelled on it because I believed the universe would never grant me a mate much less a child. What about you?”
Now she was the one who was tense, how did she answer a question like that?
“I never thought of it. For a clone, the sentence for getting pregnant is death by burning. Any child conceived by a clone is looked upon as an abomination and mother and child are burned for the good of humanity.”
His hands clutched at her stomach. They shook with fury as he tried to control himself.
“I will destroy anyone who tries to harm you, Jaz. You have my word.”
His word sounded like an oath. The kind he would kill to fulfill, the first layer of the protective covering over her heart ripped to shreds.
She smiled up at him and then rose up to kiss him. This time, her tongue slipped into his mouth with ease. The more she kissed him, the more she liked it. Her nipples hardened, and she leaned into him rubbing against his chest feeling the flare of desire hit the pit of her stomach. If she had known that a simple kiss could feel like this, she would have defied the Clone Council years ago.
“Mick, get down here!” Ash’s voice came up the stairs like a command breaking them apart.
Mick turned to look out the window. “Oh shit.”
He stood, grabbed her hand, and ran for the stairs.
Chapter Seven
“What is that?” Jaz asked staring at the vid screen. There was a massive square object on wheels moving slowly towards the house. There were more than twenty men pushing it. It was progressing slowly but steadily.
“That little gem helped us win the alien-human wars. It can vibrate at any frequency and therefore destroy any shield. When it finds the right frequency, it aligns with the frequency and changes it enough until it blows a hole into the shield and whatever it’s protecting. It is affectionately known as the ship killer. Which means we’re leaving.” Mick answered her question wrapping his arm around her.
“Both of you need to change your clothes. Long pants and long shirts.”
“How are we going to sneak out? They have lights.” There was a worried look on Brook’s face as she stared at the vid screen.
“Let us worry about that. The two of you just go change.” Ash gave her a tender kiss before sending her upstairs.
“Who do you think provided the ship killer?”
Mick stared at the screen before answering. “The Patron.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“You realize I’m going to kill him.”
Ash tensed, “What gives you the right to kill him?”
“Right now, you and Brook are just collateral damage or loose ends. The one he is after is Jaz and it’s time for him to realize that coming after the mates of the Created is a death sentence.”
“I should have killed him when I had the chance,” Ash said.
“You gave him a chance to live, Ash. It was his choice what to do with that chance and he chose to throw it away now I will end him.”
Ash nodded. The patron needed to die, but he wasn’t sure if Mick would get to him before he did. Either way, he would be dead.
“What now?” Jaz asked as she and Brook entered the room. They dressed in dark jeans; courtsey of a shopping trip Brook had taken them on. Both wore a long sleeved tee looking like they might be twins.
“Why are they after me like this?” Jaz looke
d up at Mick expecting an answer.
“The patron hates to lose; since he couldn’t have Brook he set his eyes on you. I don’t know why the Clone Council is so determined to kill you, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to let them succeed.” He pulled her close for a moment.
Brook reached into her back pocket and pulled out a slender tablet and took a picture of the four of them. She looked at Ash, and her face crumpled.
“What’s wrong?” He was at her side in a moment.
“The pictures of your family. It will all be gone, destroyed.” Tears came to her eyes as she thought of all the memento’s Ash had of his life over the last few centuries.
“They’re just pictures. Yes, I will miss them, but I have the memories of a life lived well stored in my heart. As long as you survive along with Mick and Jaz, everything will be fine.”
Brook clutched him closer and sniffed. Every reason she fell in love with him was highlighted in that one second, and she wondered again what she did to deserve him.
They all turned and watched as the attackers wrestled the ship killer into place.
“Shouldn’t we be leaving?” Jaz turned to look up at Mick.
“The ship killer can tell you how many people are in range just before it goes off. So we want it to register our heat signatures just before it fires, meaning we will have to move fast. Go to the living room, I will call out when its time.”
“Ash,” Brook clutched at his shirt not wanting to leave him.
“I’ll be right behind you, I promise.” She gave him a tight hug and followed Jaz into the living room.
Mick ran his hand over the seam of the rug next to the wall until he was tugging back a floor panel they had never noticed before. He took the bags and tossed them down waiting for Ash to tell them to go.
“Now!” Ash hollered from the other room.
Mick jumped down the hole landing on his feet. Ash ran into the room picked up Brook and dropped her into Mick’s arms. He repeated the action with Jaz giving them just a minute to clear the space before he jumped down. The house reverberated with the first blast.
Ash handed Jaz and Brook lights that he had stashed so they could see and led them quickly away from the hole as bits of the house began to fall over them.
“You should have hired a housekeeper to come down here and clean once a month,” Brook said in a low voice. The cobwebs were thick, and she kept batting them away as the smell of dust and mildew assaulted her nose. She was thankful that she had something to focus on instead of the fear trying to incapacitate her.
“Next house I’ll make sure the escape tunnel has a self-cleaning feature.”
“I’m with Brook,” Jaz tossed in. “Escape tunnels need to be clean.”
Ash looked at Mick to see him smiling. They knew the women were complaining about the conditions to distract themselves and keep moving.
The house shook above them again making Jaz and Brook jump as more dust shook loose from the ceiling.
“It’s going to fall with the next blast.”
“We’re no longer under the house. I own the property that adjoins mine on all sides. We’re close to the barn on the adjacent property.”
“How will a barn help us?”
“That’s where Ash stores his get-away hovers. He has some beauties in there.”
“You have get-away hovers?”
“I do, all my brothers have them.”
“Are they different from your everyday hovers?”
“Yep. I keep those in the garage attached to the house that is presently under attack. That means no one will be expecting us to escape by hover.”
Jaz just stared at him. Ash continued to amaze her.
They walked a little longer stopping when the house collapsed, there was no missing that. The ground shook even though they weren’t under the house and the dust and the debris were enough to choke them. Mick pulled Jaz close burying her head in his chest protecting her from most of the dust.
When she finally pulled away, she realized that Ash had done the same for Brook. All teasing and conversation stopped. They concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other before someone got wise and realized they weren’t in the wreckage.
They stopped when they reached a wall of dirt with a flimsy looking ladder attached to it.
“Are we here?” Brook asked, her brown eyes looked cloudy and her body was trying to sag.
Jaz was worried about her and could see the same concern reflected in both Mick and Ash. She wasn’t sure, but it stood to reason that having a child, which was half alien would take a lot out of you.
“We’re here, Love. We will come out on the other side of our property, but we need to be quiet. Hopefully, their attention is focused on the house giving us time to escape.”
Every eye focused on Ash as heads nodded and waited. He climbed the stairs pushing the heavy grate open overhead. Jaz sighed in relief when it opened without making a sound. It seemed the Created had kept his emergency escape path in great shape; he just hadn’t been thinking of spiders when he had it designed. She decided she could forgive him for that one oversight.
Ash’s upper body appeared in the tunnel as he lay flat on the grass outside. He placed his finger in front of his lips before gesturing to Mick to hand Brook up to him. He picked her up without even flinching and handed her to her mate.
This was not the time, but Jaz was turned on by his display of strength. He turned around and picked her up, giving her a small smile and a wink before handing her up to Ash who put her next to Brook on the ground. Ash moved, and Mick made the jump appearing beside them.
They were all standing by the time Mick reached the surface. Ash took the time to lower the grate to keep anyone from realizing they had escaped. The scene before them was incredible. There were men screaming and hollering as they approached the house trying to put out the fire that engulfed it.
“Are they dead?” someone shouted, and dark laughter followed.
“If they’re not, they will be when we’re through.”
A dark shudder went through her body. It bothered her to know that humanity could be so dark. What had she done, really what had any of them done to deserve what was happening? Was it too much to be left alone so she could enjoy the same life the males around her were enjoying? What had she done to deserve the double standard?
Her arms came around herself, and instead she immersed herself in the present. The air was clean without a hint of dust in it. She breathed deeply, enjoying what she knew could be her last breath.
Mick touched her gently on the shoulder, not wanting to startle her. He pointed towards the barn, and she nodded. They needed to get going before one of the Patron’s men looked back and saw them standing there.
Turning around, she followed behind Brook’s back as she followed Ash. They walked quietly, carefully, not wanting to give themselves away. Ash opened the barn door that was also well oiled, so it didn’t make a sound.
An alarm went up. There was a voice yelling that they were escaping. She looked over her head to see that someone had turned around and caught sight of them.
Their pace picked up as they went into the barn. Even running it would take a while for the men to reach them. The barn was a good distance away from Ash’s home.
She walked in to find at least twenty different hover cars. Ash was wealthier than he let on. Maybe it was because he lived so many years on the Earth that he accumulated so much wealth.
He reached down to pick Brook up and take her to a hover. Her breathing was sounding strained, and she didn’t look like she could stay on her feet much longer. Jaz turned to follow them, but Mick caught her and directed her to another hover.
“We’ll be taking different hovers. It’s safer that way and will make it harder to pin one of us down when they’re looking for the car holding you.
She agreed. There was less chance of Brook’s life being in danger if she wasn’t in the car with her. Mick told her to get in but she cou
ldn’t. She ran to the hover Brook was in and hugged her one more time just in case she never saw her again. Jaz wanted Brook to know just how much her friendship meant to her.
With a watery smile, she ran back to the hover Mick was standing by and climbed in.
“Ash?” Mick called.
“I’m going to blow the structure, but I need them to be a little closer. Make sure you raise your shield.”
Mick nodded. Ash would take some of them out and reduce the chances of them being able to fire at them as they gained altitude.
Ash pushed a button in his hover and the cars that weren’t in use flipped over and slid underground.
The voices were close now, and they tensed up waiting.
“They’re in here, bring the laser pistols.”
Blowing the barn was going to give them a rocky ride and the technique was unproven. If Ash calculated correctly, the structure would blow outwards while the roof went straight up breaking into small enough pieces that they would be able to get the hovers through it.
He waited until he could see a mass of shadows around them before he blew the barn. The structure flew outward catching the men standing close to it about to fire up their weapons.
A quick touch on the instrument panel had the hovers lifting straight off the ground.
Jaz kept her eye on Brook’s hover as it took the lead position. Mick touched the panel again checking the integrity of the shield around them. Laser fire finally came from the Earth only to bounce off the shield. Brook’s hover broke the barrier where they were no longer able to be reached. Jaz looked down at the men on the ground. Were they trying to aim that ship killer at them?
Next, they broke the barrier where they should be safe. She could no longer see the males on the ground. Now all she could do was look at Mick and wonder what was next?
Chapter Eight
“Are we safe?” She knew safe was a relative term but at that moment she needed just a little reassurance.
“For the moment, the men on the Earth can’t reach us, but we are still being pursued.”
Mick (The A'rouk Brothers Book 1) Page 5