Naked

by Alexandra Christian

  Though he could not shift, the venom still oozed from his lips, burning her skin and thinning her blood.

  “Your blood,” he groaned. “It’s like liquid fire.” Phoe could feel the strength returning to his limbs as he held her and his eyes cleared of the intoxicated haze the more he drank. The blood was rushing into his cells, repairing the temporary damage done by Oliver’s antidote in an instant.

  “Cage,” she whispered. “It’s too much. You have to stop.”

  Her words fell on deaf ears. He began to suckle at the wound until the blood was dripping down his chin. He was greedy for it. He wouldn’t stop until he’d taken it all.

  “Stop,” she screamed, gathering all of her strength to push him away. He flew backward, slamming into the wall behind him hard enough to shatter the bricks.

  * * *

  “Fucking hell, Phoe,” he groaned, swiping the back of his hand over his bloodstained mouth. “Whatever they gave you…” His words trailed off.

  Phoe lay prone on the floor, still dripping blood from her wrists as she crawled. She looked up at Cage, her eyes flashing with a crazed faraway glow before her entire body burst into flames. She seemed to rise up, almost levitating, as her fiery figure changed shape. The flames became feathers of orange and gold and red, her arms stretched out in wings of fire. Her shifting was beautiful and terrible.

  Cage sat there transfixed by the enormity and splendor of her. As the flames died down, she raised her head, letting out a shrill screech.

  “My God,” Cage sighed, entranced as she took wing and landed on the floor in front of him. She screeched again as if to say, “Get up, nancy boy.”

  Cage got to his feet, and she flew to his side, lighting on his shoulder. He smiled, his body filled with vampiric fury once again.

  “Let’s go get the son of a bitch.”

  22

  Manning’s plan had certainly worked, Jess thought as she edged around the corner and into the corridor leading toward the hangar. All around was the sound of shouting and creatures growling. She took a deep breath and sprinted down the hall. The guard’s clothes were ill-fitting, but in the confusion, it helped disguise her appearance somewhat.

  She’d watched the guards unload the cruiser that had brought Phoe and Cage to New London along with their belongings. Phoe mentioned that she had hidden the amulet in a book in Cage’s knapsack. It was a good idea, but she was surprised they hadn’t found it yet.

  Jess heard voices and ducked behind a doorway.

  “The lab’s been breached,” was all she could make out as two weres ran past.

  Shit. She didn’t have much time. Soon the entire estate would be crawling with Others. Manning had been a genius and a fool to let those things out. Jess had been here long enough to know that Machine had prepared for such an event and that the disinfectant sequence would begin any second to prevent the creatures from spreading into the city. When that happened, shield doors would come down and poison gas would flood the entire area, taking out The Others and every living thing with them.

  Taking a deep breath, she began to run. When she finally reached the hangar doors, she stopped and stood on the tips of her toes, peering through the small square of tempered glass. The room was crawling with guards still going through the confiscated items removed from the hotel. They were good dogs. They wouldn’t stop until Machine gave them the order to run. She put the autopistol behind her back. She was comforted by the slick, cool feeling of the steel in her hands and her heart slowed.

  “Okay, Jess. You can’t go in guns blazing. This isn’t the Old West. You have to be smarter than they are to survive.”

  She often gave herself these little pep talks when she was about to do something incredibly stupid. She began counting the guards in the room. Five between her and the table, ten more around the perimeter. “Fifteen of them and one little me. Perfect.”

  The great thing about an autopistol—it was quiet. Unlike its clumsier counterparts, the barrel of the gun was shorter, and there was a thick layer of lead lining the inside that muffled most of the sound. It was often thought of as a beginner’s weapon because one didn’t have to squeeze the trigger hard. One precise squeeze was all it took. At point-blank range, they were near silent.

  Jess moved with feline precision through the doors, using the shadows and the general panic to her advantage. Crouching low, she moved along toward the long table where all of Phoe’s and Cage’s possessions were laid out for inspection. An entire arsenal of guns and daggers, pieces of clothing, and an empty blood bag were visible.

  The knapsack lay on the end of the table, already opened. The book lay on the floor, obviously having been discarded as unimportant. A guard barked some order and began walking toward where Jess crouched. She slid back on her hands and knees behind a cabinet. Looking around, she spotted an eSlate lying on the shelf above. She held her breath as she reached up, grabbing it and bringing it down before hurling it with all her might at the opposite wall. It caught the guard’s attention and he looked up, giving her enough time to spring forward and shove the barrel of the pistol into his ribcage. One squeeze and she dropped him quiet and easy to the floor at her feet. “One down, only fourteen more to go,” she whispered.

  As she gathered the courage to run for the book, there was a commotion on the other side of the room. The guards began shouting and scattered about the room. Some of them shifting and others running for their lives. Then she spotted why.

  What appeared to be an enormous man was breaking through the bricks and into the hangar. It was at least ten feet tall and so wide that it blocked out whatever was coming behind it. It growled and shouted unintelligibly and Jess could see that it had a row of sharpened, jagged teeth. But most disturbing was the single eye adorning the middle of its forehead.

  The human guards began shooting, trying to drive it back through the walls to little avail. It merely absorbed the impact and kept coming. For a moment, Jess could only stand there staring, like everyone else. Her brain was simply unable to process such a creature, but then, as one of the guards ran past, he kicked the book across the floor. It skidded toward her, and she grabbed it. Unfortunately, this gave the guard the opportunity to see her.

  “Who the hell are you?” he snarled.

  Not knowing what else to do, Jess opened fire. The guard fell, a blossom of red spreading over his chest from the smoking hole left by Jess’s bullet. The noise drew the attention of the others and immediately three Hellhounds galloped over, their fangs bared for blood. “Nice dog,” she said, leveling her gun with the largest of them and clutching the book tight. They only snarled in response, closing in on her.

  “How about picking on someone your own size.”

  Jess’s head snapped up to see Cage stalking toward her, a bird seemingly made of fire perched on his shoulder. He winked at Jess just before his form blurred with his shift. It was fascinating to watch as his body stretched and contorted, growing exponentially until a massive lion stood between her and the Hellhounds. He roared, shaking the walls with the force of the sound.

  The phoenix took flight, going toward the Cyclopean creature wreaking havoc on the other side of the hangar. Jess hugged the book to her body, backing up toward the door, trying not to draw attention, but she was fascinated by the scene before her. If she wasn’t positive she was awake, she might think the whole thing was some ridiculous fantasy.

  The hangar was chaotic. Weres and soldiers, creatures of all types ran back and forth as they tried desperately to escape. Jess heard a screech coming from the phoenix that seemed to reach down into the depths of her soul and tear at her entrails. Turning toward it, she was nearly blinded by the fiery light emitting from its form as it tore into the eye of the one-eyed creature that stumbled and pounded through the crumbling wall. Werewolves and Hellhounds barked pitifully as they were stepped on and crushed to bits. Still more creatures were finding their way inside.

  Jess shoved the book down into the back of her pants and ran
toward the lion.

  * * *

  The Hellhound hunkered down, growling low and circling Cage. It arched its long neck and let out a long bray that called the attention of the others behind. Slowly they closed in, surrounding the lion who pawed at the ground, growling low to bait them. Cage concentrated, the position of everything in the room laid out before him like a blueprint. Carefully, he observed the movements and body language of his opponents, deducing which of them would strike first. Aha. The smallest didn’t pace like the others, and his growling was a continuous, undulating rhythm that mirrored his heartbeat. He was young and eager for his first kill. Let him come.

  Cage struck first, lunging toward the smaller dog. It was over quickly, his heavy paw knocking the smaller beast to the floor and pinning it to its side. It roared weakly as Cage sank his teeth into the soft spot at the beast’s throat. He tore at the wound, making it bleed faster. As soon as the smaller one was down, the others pounced. Out of the corner of his eye, Cage observed the largest of the pack standing back. The Alpha.

  Cage made quick work of the others, dodging their sloppy lunges and using his muscular back legs to kick them away as they tried to tear and bite at his flesh. In a matter of moments, the rest of the pack lay in a heap of whimpering bodies, some half-shifted and trying to crawl away.

  The Alpha started toward him, but a sound somewhere between a screech and woman’s scream caught his attention. Cage raised his eyes and let out a thunderous roar. The Cyclops was batting at the phoenix who had effectively blinded him with her talons. A heavy hand came down, slapping the bird out of the air where it was caught by a group of zombies that lurched through the gaping hole torn by the enormous bodies of the chimera and the Cyclops creature. The brainless undead passed the firebird from one to the other, pulling and tugging at it as if to rip it apart. She screeched and flapped her wings wildly. Her talons clawed at the creatures as they tossed her in the air like a toy.

  “Cage. They’re killing her,” Jess screamed, pointing toward the scene and taking off toward her sister.

  At that moment, the Alpha, the amulet, catching Machine—none of it mattered. Phoe was in trouble and protecting her was more important than anything else.

  With a swipe of his paw, he threw the Hellhound aside and bolted toward where she was falling. He watched as she spiraled from the high rafters toward the floor, desperately flapping her wings and trying to regain some control.

  Glancing sidelong, he could see Jess running toward her as well, drawing the attention of the chimera. As they intersected, Jess reached out for him and Cage slowed, bowing his head to let Jess grab his mane and pull herself up. As soon as she was seated on his back, he swerved to his left, butting the chimera with one shoulder.

  With a roar, he called to Phoe, hoping that she could understand. Phoe screeched, casting her gaze in his direction. As she did, another erratic swipe from the zombies threw her aside. Jess gasped, watching as the phoenix collided with the crumbling wall and disappeared in a cloud of ash and brick dust.

  “You have to get to her,” Jess whimpered. Cage roared one final time, leaping into a shift. His lion form gave way to the red dragon and he breathed a plume of fire toward the zombies.

  Jess screamed as she desperately tried to hold on through the shift. “What the fuck are you doing?” she shrieked.

  With a single flutter of his wings, Cage crushed the chimera and a whip of its tail scattered the zombie hoard like tiny tin soldiers. The Cyclops creature bellowed behind them.

  Jess looked over her shoulder and screamed. “I think we’ve got company.”

  The enormous thing was half the size of the dragon, but strong. It grabbed the massive, barbed tail and jerked with all its might. Cage faltered and Jessica slid from his shoulders and onto the concrete below. He had no time to stop for her as the Cyclopean thing gave another howl and stomped his foot on the ground, obviously baiting Cage.

  He roared, maneuvering his awkwardly large body in the small space to face the beast. The Cyclops rushed him and Cage kicked off from the floor, scattering mortar and men in his wake. He used his claws to grab the creature when it came near and held it wriggling in his grasp as his beating wings tore the walls apart.

  He flew straight up through the epicenter of the house, taking the creature with him and using it to bash his way through glass, wood, and marble. Higher and higher he climbed, and the more the creature struggled, the tighter Cage’s talons held him. As soon as he cleared the spires of the house, Cage dropped the beast, watching as it plummeted toward the ground behind him before sweeping behind the clouds in a mask of ash and mist.

  23

  Machine paced around the room nervously, trying to block out the sounds of his world crashing down around him. The constant din of shouting and destruction was overwhelming, but he tried to stay calm. If the brain went haywire, the body would give out. That was basic physiology. He had to hold it together or all of his intricate plans were going to spiral out of control. He glanced at the monitors that were still functioning. That idiot, Manning, had sabotaged everything with his little trick. St. John was gone. God only knew where the amulet was. Derek’s list of allies was shrinking fast as they were devoured by Others. As God as his witness, Machine would make sure every one of them suffered.

  “Come on, Derek. We have to get out of here.” He turned to see Eve standing at his door. “This place is going down like the Titanic. St. John is gone. My brother is missing. The only option we have left is to disinfect the whole place and start over. If we head into the city, we can lay low until we can get transport back to Earth or one of the other colonies.”

  Machine chuckled softly, going to the window of his study that looked out on the distant landscape of New London. The skeletal figures of progress marched ever forward on the horizon. Soon, the city would be just like the one on Earth, only better. His vision of a better tomorrow, free of disease and ugliness, would be realized here on Mars. Was she suggesting that he abandon it now? “I’m not going to go hide in a hovel like some snake.”

  “Derek. Open your eyes,” she shouted. “We have to go.”

  “No.” Machine grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her fast before him. “What we have to do is find that amulet. Or everything, everything that I’ve worked for is over.”

  “Don’t you get it? Oliver released those things and they’re picking off your little private army one by one. And not only that, they’re fucking breaking out the others. We have to get out of here.” There was another loud crash and growl coming from the corridor behind. “Now, Derek.”

  Machine looked toward the door just as something crashed into it, nearly breaking the frame and taking the reinforced metal door off its hinges. It bowed in and in another instant the creatures would flood into the room.

  “This way,” he snarled, jerking Eve toward the bookshelf on the other side of the room. He pulled back one of the books and a secret door swung open.

  “You have a panic room?”

  “I never panic,” Machine said coolly. “But I always have a plan.” He led them up a narrow spiral staircase higher and higher into the top of the house. The muffled sounds of men dying and the smell of burning flesh permeated the walls. That would all be taken care of with the disinfectant process. Once they were on the shuttlecraft and on their way to safety, he’d make the call and the whole place would be gassed, killing every one of those creatures.

  “Where are we going?” Eve asked.

  “Victoria. It’s the only colony where the IU won’t be able to reach us.”

  Eve laughed. “What makes you think they can’t reach us there?”

  “They have no idea it exists.”

  They emerged at the top of the stairs onto the hangar poised at the highest spire of the house. The hangar where Machine’s own private spacecraft would be waiting to shuttle them to safety.

  Only it wasn’t. Machine’s fists clenched as it began to dawn on him that his plan B had been stolen right out fro
m under him. “Where?” he breathed, for the first time completely speechless.

  “Looking for something?”

  They whipped around to see a small girl that could only be Jessica Addison’s pitiful little sister limping toward them. She was completely naked save for a few well-placed streaks of soot and her hair was wild. “Ah. Miss Addison the younger. Phoe, I believe they call you. We finally meet face-to-face.”

  “I’m afraid the pleasure is yours,” Phoe replied.

  He gave her a once-over, admiring the view. “So it would appear.”

  “Careful, Phoe,” Eve said, stepping in front of Machine. “Remember what I told you about survival of the fittest,” she said, pulling an autopistol from the holster at her side.

  “And you’ll remember what I told you about seeing you in hell.”

  “The amulet. It’s dangerous.” Derek could see the bristling of scales along Eve’s arm. Any second she would shift and annihilate the girl. “Give it to me, Phoe. It’s of no use to you.”

  “Giving it to you would be like dropping a nuclear bomb on the world.”

  Eve trained her pistol on Phoe. “They’ll never stop hunting you, you know. The IU, your own government. They may even send Cage after you someday.”

  “And someone else may get it,” Machine said with a silky tone. “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. And I can assure you that my only intentions are to create a safer world, Miss Addison.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” Phoe said. Her tone had taken on a dangerous indifference. Machine recognized it easily. This woman felt she had nothing to fear, nothing more to lose. “I might spend the rest of my life in prison or be taken down by an assassin, but it would all be worth it just to taste your blood, Eve. But the funny part is, I don’t have the amulet.”