by Pearl Foxx
His jaw tightened, and his eyes darkened. For the first time, Veronica thought he looked terrifying. “They won’t hurt it anymore.”
“What are we going to do?”
“There’s no ‘we’—”
Veronica straightened away from him, swiping at her tears. “I’m helping you. You can’t stop me, Maxsym. This is too important.”
He studied her for a long moment. She had no clue what he saw in her eyes, but whatever it was made him sigh. “Fine. Together, then. Let’s go save the Katu.”
Chapter Eleven
Maxsym
“What the hell kind of lock is this?”
Maxsym knelt eye level with the door leading into the lab. There was a hole, almost like he was supposed to slide something into it, but he'd never seen an access panel that worked this way. Maybe it required a special data chip. They’d already put in Winston’s security number, but he hadn’t expected to encounter this strange locking device.
“It’s an old-fashioned lock and key.”
"I could break it down," he said, glaring at the hole, and Veronica rolled her eyes.
"Oh, I'm sure you could. You're very manly. Why don’t you let me take a look at it?" She knelt and poked at the hole, peering inside and wiggling her tiny pinky finger.
Maxsym glanced behind him toward the convoy lift. The hall on Level 1162 was quiet—for now. But he hated the low ceilings and the rattle of the air vents. He wanted to be inside. He wanted to free the Katu. But mostly, he wanted to rip and tear something apart with his bare hands. “Just let me break it.”
"I can open it." She reached into her hair and pulled out one of the many hairpins keeping her styled curls in place despite an evening spent running around the space station.
Maxsym watched as she pulled the pin apart and slid the two points inside the hole.
She peered into the hole and moved the hairpin in tiny circles. "I just have to find the right angle and the right leverage point…"
“This is going to take too long—”
Click
"It worked!” She stood and dusted off her hands. "We should go inside before anyone comes.” She swung the door open and rushed inside, her small body vibrating with the urgency to rescue the Katu. If Maxsym hadn’t been distracted by the idea of a trapped and abused Kladian, he would have been tempted to steal a kiss.
They stepped inside, and Maxsym looked around at the expanse of metal cages and the horrible, wretched scent of fear and death. He didn’t even remember to whisper. "What the fuck?"
Veronica looked back at him, tears returning to her eyes. "This isn't even the worst of it," she whispered.
She led him past rows of desks all set up with large paper binders held together by massive metal rings. They were keeping all their records manually, no digital evidence at all. With one spark of fire, all evidence against those who were committing these crimes could be destroyed.
"This is so much worse than we thought,” he said.
Veronica didn't respond and continued to lead him toward a row of cages farther back in the room. She stopped beside one, her expression pinched as she knelt.
In a small metal cage, a Katu huddled in the corner, shaking. The unfortunate thing must have gotten stuck and couldn't shift back. But maybe that was for the best considering the trauma the little cub had experienced. Katu preferred their animal form over their human one.
Veronica wiggled her fingers toward the animal. She cooed gently to wake it. It opened its sleepy eyes and huddled farther back against the metal bars of the cage, probably used to abuse coming from the hands of anyone who approached.
"Can you unlock the cage?" Maxsym asked.
Veronica fiddled with the lock and shook her head. “I might be able to figure it out if we had more time, but I think we should hunt around for a key."
"Don't bother.” Maxsym reached around her body and took the locking mechanism between his thumb and two fingers, snapping them apart with barely any effort.
Veronica looked up at him. Her eyes widened, and her eyebrows lifted up to her hairline.
He shrugged. What could he possibly say to explain that away? But he wasn’t letting this Katu child spend one more second inside a cage.
“We’ll be talking about that later.” She pulled the cage door open and reached in with one hand, palm up, making little chittering sounds at the Katu.
"It understands what you say," Maxsym informed her, betraying the degree of knowledge he had about the creature.
She glanced back at him in surprise. “Like if I speak to it?”
“Yes.”
"Okay, you can tell me about how you know that later too. But right now, there is a cat stuck in a cage, and we have to figure out how to get it out. I wish we had food or something."
The Katu lifted his head and sniffed in her direction.
"You're hungry?” she asked. “I don't have anything on me. But if you come with me, I'll make sure you get something super yummy to eat."
The Katu looked at Maxsym, bared its sharp teeth, and hissed.
He raised his hands. "Hey, buddy, I'm here to help. Promise."
"You think he doesn't like men?"
It was all Maxsym could do not to burst out laughing at the ridiculous statement. The Katu didn't trust him because he was a Draqon. The animal could smell it, just like the musky scent of the shifted panther overwhelmed his senses.
Veronica backed away from the cage, continuing to encourage the Katu to follow her. When she drew the Katu out, it bared its fangs at Maxsym and swiped at the air with unsheathed claws.
"I’m not here to fight. Plus, you're what? Nine? Ten? I appreciate the display, though. I hope you gave the humans a hell of a fight."
This time, when Veronica turned and looked at him, she tilted her head, narrowed her eyes, and placed her hands on her hips. Shit. She was about to start asking serious questions. He needed to watch his mouth.
"We should get out of here." Veronica found a lab coat hanging on the back of a chair and placed it on the ground. "Come on, kitty. Get in the coat and I’ll wrap you up and carry you.”
"I don't think he’ll like that," Maxsym said, but much to his surprise, the Katu stepped onto the fabric and sat, looking up at Veronica with large golden eyes.
She wrapped the fabric around the Katu, covering it completely except for his little snout and shining eyes. She pulled it up into her arms, and the animal melted against her.
"I’ll be a Hyla fucker," Maxsym whispered, earning yet another raised eyebrow from Veronica.
"There's one more thing I want to show you," she said, a hint of trepidation in her voice. She walked farther into the room and rounded a corner Maxsym hadn't noticed. Anticipation sped up his heart rate. What could she be nervous to show him after this?
There was another large metal door.
"What's in there?" he asked, not wanting to know the answer.
"I don't know. Winston doesn’t even have clearance to go inside, so it can’t be good."
Maxsym swore under his breath. The control panel was not only biometrically locked, but it also had another lock-and-key mechanism that appeared more complicated than the one for the main door. "You think you can open this one?"
Veronica shook her head, chewing on her lip.
Maxsym placed a hand against the door, feeling for any information he could sense—how thick it was or what material it was made of. He moved along the wall, tracing where he imagined the door led. He shoved aside a desk to access a section of wall shared by both rooms.
He looked at Veronica and paused. What would he do if she freaked out? If she started screaming or dropped the Katu and ran? All his work here on the station would be for nothing. But as Veronica held the wild panther in her arms, wide eyes looking up at him with trust, he decided to fuck all the rules and forget everything he ever thought he knew about humans. They had to know what was on the other side of that door and that meant trusting her.
Maxsym took a step
back and freed his wings from the prison of his flesh enough to engage the Draqon side of him. His pupils dilated and his body trembled. The desire to spread his wings to their full width ran through him, but he kept them tight against his back. Their outline wasn’t visible through his shirt in the dim light, but the partial shift allowed the familiar power of his inner beast to swell.
“Maxsym?” Veronica asked, her voice pitched slightly higher than normal.
"You two, back," he commanded, letting more of his Draqon take over. It wanted to fly through the wide halls of the station, break down every door, and sink its talons into Gideon's body. He’d carry the commander out to the docking bay and eject the man responsible for all this horror into the void along with the space trash.
Maxsym took a deep breath to center his focus. He swore to himself that as soon as he got home he would fly for days. He would soar to heights no Draqon had ever reached and circle the whole planet just to reward his beast side for everything he had put up with these past few months.
He clenched his fists, widened his stance, and ran at the wall. He pivoted at the last moment, flew through the air, and slammed his shoulder into the unforgiving metal.
He did it again, and again, and again.
He did until Veronica screamed his name. His animal focus tuned her out, hearing only the small cracks of his success.
Finally, the crack in the wall crumbled, and he punched his way through the rest. His shoulder bled, and layers of skin had been scraped off his knuckles, but he didn't care. As he ripped away the remaining metal and stepped through the wall, what he found took his breath away.
Bodies of shifted Kladians and humans filled table after table.
Veronica pressed against his back. "What do you see?"
Maxsym couldn't speak. The room reeked of death. It was putrid and chemical, and everything about it insulted his Draqon sense of smell. He retracted his wings, pulling himself back to his first form so he didn't have to experience this horror so deeply. Madness, worse than anything he’d felt before, wriggled in his brain at the sight of his people in such a state.
Veronica finally shoved him aside, and he was too shattered to resist. When she stepped into the room, she gasped and clutched the small Katu even tighter.
"Oh my God. Are those people?"
The fury running through his veins threatened to overtake his senses. He looked around him in a daze. He approached the first examination table. A dead shifted Vilka lay on its side, its snout strapped inside a muzzle that would have barely left enough room for it to breathe when it had been alive. It had been shaved down completely and looked nothing like the ferocious mongrels he'd been at war with his entire life. He may still dislike the Vilkas, but they had earned his respect. And no one, even the Hylas, deserved this treatment.
The animal had been sliced from sternum to lower belly, split open and emptied out. Maxsym could see exposed rib bones, and the smell of blood and death swirled around it.
"They're all …" Veronica began, but the word stuck in her throat.
Maxsym could only nod. He wandered to the next table and found a human strapped down to the table by his wrists and ankles. His naked body had a patch of fur on his shoulder and a line of yellow scales running down his arm to a shifted hand. The man’s wrist hung broken under the weight of the massive Draqon talon.
Maxsym traced his finger along the familiar curves of the Draqon talon. "I'm going to fucking kill him," he muttered around his rage. He knew his eyes had dilated back to black, but he didn't care what Veronica thought at this point. Her father had to pay.
Veronica cradled the baby Katu in her arms. Maxsym couldn't tell which one of them trembled more. The smell must have been worse for a shifted Kladian than for him in his first form. And Veronica had just come face to face with her father's true nature.
"What … what does this mean?” she asked through chattering teeth.
Maxsym didn't answer. She knew exactly what this meant.
He looked over a few more bodies, humans and Kladians tortured in ways he couldn't even begin to imagine. Their bodies dissected and put back together in all manner of unthinkable configurations. He wondered how much had been done surgically, and how much had begun on a cellular level. But it didn't matter. At one of the last tables, he found a small jar filled with red powder.
He stared at it in disbelief.
Relics.
The Hylas had gone so far as to trade relic powder with humans when they still resisted sharing it with their fellow Kladians to help save the children of other clans.
Veronica came closer and reached for the jar. “What is it? Some kind of drug? Dried blood?”
Maxsym snatched up the jar and snarled at her. “It's not for you."
She stepped back, and for the first time, he smelled fear on her. After everything he'd done, smashing in the wall with inhuman strength and the blackness in his eyes, she hadn't been afraid, only curious. The idea of her fearing him filled him with shame.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap.”
She looked down at the Katu in her arms and then back at him. "We need to get him somewhere safe. That's what's important.”
She turned her back on him and picked her way through the rubble of the wall.
When she was out of sight, Maxsym allowed himself a moment of Draqonian indulgence. Smoke puffed from his nose, and his fingernails hardened and lengthened. He grabbed the jar of relic powder and slipped it into the pocket of his cargo pants before destroying everything he could get his hands on in the room. He knocked over the tables, spilled bottles, and threw glass containers holding moons only knew what substances designed for whatever horrible purposes Gideon could imagine. Acid swelled in his mouth, and he spat it at the Kladian bodies. They disintegrated into nothing. It wasn’t the burial he wanted for his brethren, but at least their bodies would be spared any further disgrace. He screamed, and fire came unbidden from his mouth, and in a flash, a stack of papers went up in smoke.
"Maxsym!” Veronica screamed above the noise of his destruction. “You're making too much noise. We have to go now."
Maxsym whirled on her, his face contorted with rage. But he held himself back from shifting or attacking at the last moment.
He followed her out, his heart heavy and angry, but by the time they reached the main door, he had himself mostly under control.
"Let me look outside and see if anyone is there," he said. "Anyone who sees me will think I'm just a guard in the wrong place, but if someone recognizes you they’ll know you're not supposed to be here.”
Veronica nodded, and he headed out into the hallway. The dim lights took on an ominous glow, but the hall was empty. He held the door open as she quickly followed.
"Where to?” she asked, but her voice cracked and her eyes swam with tears.
Maxsym considered his options for a long moment. The priority was getting as far from the lab as possible with the Katu. “Your rooms for now. I have friends who might be able to help us with the Katu.”
Veronica frowned. “The human resistance?”
“No.” His lips twisted into a satisfied snarl. “These friends will make the resistance look like pacifists after they hear what your father did in that lab.”
Chapter Twelve
Veronica
Veronica entered her suite in silence. Maxsym followed closely, not saying a word until he’d slid the door shut behind him.
"Look, about what—"
"I feel like there's something you need to—"
They stopped speaking and just stared at each other.
The last few hours had been stressful, to say the least. She'd witnessed the real extent of her father's treachery against not only Kladians, but also her own people. After rescuing the Katu, she felt like she was drowning in all the things she didn't understand.
"Let me get this little guy some water and food first."
Maxsym nodded. “I’ll contact my friend. Where’s your vidscreen?”
&
nbsp; She lifted her chin toward the bedroom before carrying the Katu into her spare room and tucking it in on the settee she sometimes used for reading. The sleeping cat curled into a contented ball and purred. Quickly, she got two little bowls and filled one with a purified water packet and the second with a processed meat ration. It wasn’t anything like real meat, but the Katu devoured it in just a few bites. She gave him two more rations before he slowed down and lay back down. Before she left, she covered him with a soft blanket, turned off the light, and closed the door behind her.
When she returned, Maxsym waited on her bed, her vidscreen in his hands. He sat nearly still. He did that sometimes, disappear into the nonorganic items of the room.
“Did you get in touch with your friend?”
He nodded. “She’ll arrange everything. But it’s on us to keep the Katu safe for the rest of the night.”
Veronica nodded, not even feeling a hint of jealousy that Maxsym’s “friend” was a woman. It spoke volumes of how shaken she was. "So, that Katu … it can turn into a person. It’s a shape-shifter?"
Maxsym nodded
"And Katu are a kind of Kladian?"
He nodded again. He opened his mouth to speak, but Veronica held up a hand. He clamped his mouth shut, working the muscle in his jaw.
"There were different kinds of creatures in the back room. Some kind of bird and a dog and the cat."
"Katu are like panthers on Earth, and the Vilkas are more like wolves. The talon you saw wasn’t from a bird. It was from a Draqon." He held her gaze but shifted his weight an infinitesimal amount.
"Draqons. And those are where the scales came from?"
"Yes."
Veronica thought of everything she’d seen Maxsym do tonight, all the strength and power he contained. She swore she’d seen smoke come from his mouth. He wasn’t human. And he’d spoken to the Katu like he knew exactly what type of creature it was. Even the slowest detective on the shows she watched would have figured it out by now.
Maxsym was Kladian.
He was an alien.