by Brey Willows
“Yes, I imagine you would. Your appetite for women is well known. And along those lines, let me introduce you to Sasha. She’s a good friend of mine, but she’s willing to be a good friend of yours as well.”
The Amazon gave Kera a small smile and brazenly looked her over. Her eyes were cold, and her smile could have been carved from ice. Kera gave her a fake smile in return. “That’s quite thoughtful. But she looks like she could break me. No offense, sweetheart.”
The woman’s eyebrow quirked, but she didn’t say anything.
“Oh, she could, Doctor. I wouldn’t leave you with just any woman. You see, I’d like you to be as comfortable here as possible, and I’ll try to provide for your needs. That includes women like Sasha. You’re going to be here for as long as it takes for me to get the result I need, and I’ve always been a firm believer that happy employees are better employees.” He moved to the window next to Kera and looked outside. “If you were wondering, this window is sealed shut. It’s also alarmed, as are all the windows in the house, should it be broken. We’re ninety miles from the nearest town, most of which is abandoned. There is no main road for nearly two hundred miles. The area is heavy with bears and mountain lions, both of which are very hungry this time of year.”
He turned to look at her, and she shuddered at the lifeless evil in his eyes. He saw her reaction, and it seemed to please him.
“If you do as I ask, this will be like working in a luxury resort. Beautiful surroundings, good food, lovely women, and high-end equipment.”
“And if I don’t?”
He sighed. “That would be a shame. I’m aware from our previous encounter how little you value the lives of those who work for you. That’s why I didn’t bother with your sidekick back in Haiti.”
The little bit of strength Kera had was failing, but she didn’t want to fall in front of the bastard who had made her life hell. Just when she knew she’d have no choice, Amazon Sasha came over and draped an arm around her waist. She led her back to the bed, and although Kera tried to keep her back straight, she knew she’d failed miserably. She crawled back into bed and pulled the comforter up over her. “I cared deeply for the innocent people you killed. I just wasn’t about to let you kill even more.”
“If you had truly cared, you would have done as I’d asked, and we wouldn’t be here today.” He pointed at her, and his face flushed. “And I wouldn’t have had to put my plans on hold until I found a way to get to you, until this place was ready to go. You’ve made me wait far too long, and now you will do as I say. If you don’t, I will kill every employee you’ve got, and I’ll go back and have a long talk with your father that will end with him going to see your mother.” He closed his eyes, clearly calming himself down. “However, I have a much more interesting incentive for you on site. Someone will bring you dinner shortly, and then I’ll give you a little tour.” He turned to leave and ushered Sasha out ahead of him. “Oh, and if you think your pretty pale girlfriend can help you, you should know this house was built by atheists and was later turned into an astronomy academy. Thanks to their studies, the cabin is densely insulated and has a surprising amount of metal built into it. Something to do with their telescopes or aliens or something. I know you’re not religious, but after seeing that beauty you’ve been spending time with, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d changed your mind. I just wouldn’t want you to get your hopes up, you see. Prayer won’t work here.”
She could hear him laughing even after the door shut and locked behind him. Kera slumped against the pillows and tried to think, but she was exhausted and defeated. She had no idea what he meant about the atheist or metal thing. She and Tis hadn’t talked about the way prayer worked. Is that all it takes? A bit of tin foil and someone who doesn’t believe? Fucking hell. She closed her eyes, and though she fought it, she drifted to sleep once more.
When she woke up, the room was dim, with just the final rays of sunlight pushing into the evening sky outside. A tray of food sat on a cart beside the bed, and it looked like it had long gone cold. She quickly drank the large glass of water and then the milk, even though it was warm. She tore into the bread roll, not bothering with the butter. She wasn’t sure when she’d last eaten, and the hard roll tasted like a delicacy.
The door opened, and Amazon Sasha came in with a fresh tray of food. She turned on the light and swapped the trays, all without saying anything.
Kera finished chewing, though the smell of the pasta dish was making her salivate. “Do you speak? Or did our Russian Romeo out there cut out your tongue?”
She pushed the tray toward Kera. “I speak. If I want to. My tongue is very useful.” She turned away and went to the closet. “I can assume you would like to change clothes before we go out, yes?”
“No, thanks. I love flower dresses. I’ve always wanted one but could never give myself permission. Now that I’m in one, I don’t ever want to let it go.” The food was excellent. That, or she was so hungry bear scat would have tasted gourmet.
“There’s no need for sarcasm.”
“I disagree. Sarcasm is the most honest language I know.”
Amazon Sasha brought over a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes. You don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Actually, that’s not true. I’d very much like to keep him waiting. Until he’s dead, in fact.”
Amazon Sasha left, and Kera was irritated she didn’t rise to the bait at all. She felt like a good fight. More sleep and no more drugs meant she had some energy, and the food was doing wonders for her too. She finished, all but licking the plate, and got dressed. There were socks but no shoes. She opened all the drawers, and there wasn’t so much as a pencil in them. Amazon Sasha came in again, but this time she had a wheelchair with her.
“Is that for you? Is it too exhausting, walking around with all that height?”
“It’s for you, Doctor. The area is very big, and you are not healthy yet.” She stared at Kera for a moment. “Please do not make this difficult. There will be plenty of time for you to be difficult later.”
“Choose my battles, huh? Okay, Amazon Sasha. Let’s go for a ride.”
Kera sat in the chair, unwilling to let the woman see that she was already tired from the exertion of getting dressed and eating. Her wrist throbbed, and the rest of her body felt like she’d been hit by a bomb. Oh, right…
Amazon Sasha pushed her down a number of long hallways and down several ramps in place of staircases, and Kera was surprised at how massive the place was. It wasn’t just a cabin, it was more like a hotel, but the doors they passed had signs that read things like “white dwarves,” “black hole assignments,” and “corona conjunctions.” Names she assumed were meant to be funny to those in the know, but which just reinforced what her personal psychopath had said about the building. They stopped at an elevator and took it to the basement. When they got out, Kera’s old nightmares hit her full force.
It was a lab. Pristine, shiny, new. A few people in white coats tapped away at computers, but for the most part, it was empty. Degrovesnik entered from another door across the lab.
“Doctor, I’m glad to see you look better. Welcome to your new work station. I’ve taken the liberty of having all your old workbooks and notes left on that desk there. Anything else you need, you have but to ask.”
“I told you, I’m not—”
He held up a hand. “Yes, I know.” He motioned to Sasha, who pushed Kera’s chair across the room. “If you wouldn’t mind, please have a look here.”
Kera stared at the long glass wall, the dinner she’d eaten threatening to come back up. “You’re a fucking monster.” There were children, at least thirty of them, ranging in age from about six to ten. Some huddled together, some sat alone. Many were crying, a sound she could hear faintly through the vent at the top.
“Without question, Doctor. But I’m a monster with a mission, and if you don’t help me complete that mission, I will kill one of those children every time y
ou oppose me. If I think you’re stalling, or trying to deceive me, I will kill one. I’ll leave their bodies outside for the animals directly outside your bedroom window, so you can see what your integrity has cost. And of course, they’ll always be right here to remind you of that.” He turned to Sasha. “I think our doctor would like to rest now. Doctor, I’ll give you some time to get your strength back and to understand the rules of this game. I’ll come see you tomorrow.”
Back in her room, Kera crawled into bed and pounded on the pillows. “Fuck. Fucking murdering psycho bastard fuck!”
Sasha turned at the door. “You should conserve your strength.”
Kera threw a pillow at the door as it shut and then curled up on her side, the images of all those children like a horror movie in her mind. She had to think of a way out. For all of them. “Jesus, Tis. If I ever needed someone in my life, I need you now. If you can hear me, now is the time.” She thought about the crap Degrovesnik had said about the building and hoped like hell it wasn’t true.
Chapter Twenty-six
They flew as fast their wings would carry them, the ocean a blur of turbulent white-tipped glass. Tis’s thoughts were flying even faster than she was, but without any direction, they were far less useful. When she heard Kera’s voice, she nearly lost her balance and fell into the ocean.
“Kera. Baby, where are you?”
“YES! I promise to believe in every god you want me to. Just get me the fuck out of here, fast.”
“But where are you? I can’t feel you the way I should be able to.”
“That’s creepy, but we’ll talk about it later. I’m pretty sure I’m in the States, but I’m in the wilderness. All I can see are trees, but he said there are bears and mountain lions. And he said something about it being an old astronomy building. Does that help at all?”
Tis motioned to Meg, and they landed on the shore. She grabbed Meg’s hand and brought her into the conversation.
“Trees and animals don’t help much, baby, but the astronomy thing does. And thank the gods I can hear you. Are you hurt? Papa Ghede said he could hear you too, but he couldn’t figure out where you are.”
“Well, at least the telepathy thing works, right? I’m not great, but okay. But things are going to go to hell if you can’t find me.”
“Can you stall? If you can keep talking, I’ll try to zero in on you. But it may take some time.”
“I’m okay, and I can fake sick with the best of them. Someone’s coming…”
She faded away and Tis looked at Meg, who shook her head.
“That’s weird. If she was somewhere like they took Alec last year, we wouldn’t hear her at all. But I can’t get a read on her location. It’s like she’s just in the air somewhere.”
Tis nodded and tried to focus on Kera, but she’d stopped talking, and her energy had faded away. Astronomy means science. If there hasn’t been faith in it, it’s like the place they took Alec. Meg touched her arm.
“Now that we know she’s safe, and she’s not hurt, we need to get to the office. We’ll go get her, but, well. You know. Zapping and burning and angry gods and stuff.”
“And stuff.” Tis sighed. “Yeah, I know. Let’s go.”
They flew the rest of the way to Afterlife, and Meg back-winged when they were in sight of the building. The walls were shaking, several windows were broken, and the air crackled with furious energy.
Without looking at her, Meg said, “Have I mentioned lately how glad I am I’m not you?”
“Not within the last few minutes. Thanks for the reminder. Let’s go in the back door.”
The inner courtyard was a flurry of agitated gods, some sitting by themselves, others in clusters. When they saw Tis and Meg fly over, they began heading toward the main building.
“So much for a stealthy entrance.”
“I want to see Zed first, but I’m not sure how to get to the fourth floor—”
Just then, a door opened above the fire escape to the fifth floor. Clotho, one of the Fates, opened the door and waved her and Meg over. They landed on the metal steps in front of her, and she motioned them inside.
“You’ll never make it through the crowd down there.” She closed and locked the door behind them, then led the way through the dimly lit back hallways. She opened a cleverly hidden side door that looked like the rest of the wall. “This leads to Zed’s office. Good luck.” She walked away, humming what sounded like a carousel tune.
Meg rolled her eyes. “Some people are so dramatic.” They made their way quickly to the door leading to Zed’s office. Before she turned the handle, she looked at Tis. “They don’t play tricks anymore, do they? Like, we’re actually at the gate to Hades and have to make it back in time to save Christmas or something?”
Tis gave her an incredulous look, and Meg shrugged. They entered Zed’s office, and Tis ducked as a vase shattered against the wall beside her. The air smelled like…bacon.
Meg sidled around the table and grabbed a piece of pizza from the box.
“It was just ham, until Big Man here lost his temper and crispied it with one of his lightning bolts.” Ama sat in Zed’s desk chair, pieces of her hair standing on end like someone had rubbed her head with a balloon.
“MY TEMPLE. MINE. They’re wrecking MY TEMPLE.” Lightning cracked against the glass wall as Zed spoke with his hands. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Tis fluffed her wings to get out the electricity. She hated when they were full of static. “Zed, I need you to calm down. I need to understand what’s going on, so I can get out there and help.”
He turned to her, his face flushed, and his eyes alight with rage. “It’s like they’re saying on the news. Every major religion has had at least one sacred place set on fire. And each one was started at the same moment as the others.”
“And was anyone caught setting the fires?” Tis was lost. As organized as Humanity First was, it didn’t seem like something they’d do. They were against the death of innocents, and any one of those temple fires could have killed people.
Zed seemed to calm down slightly. “They’ve caught a few, but no one has gone to speak with them yet. Thanks to the laws we’ve put in place, none of us thinks we could question humans properly without killing them.”
“That’s remarkable self-restraint. I’m impressed.” He tilted his head in acknowledgement, and Tis could see the flames in his eyes as he watched his most beloved temple fall. “Meg, can you go to the Hindu temple in Malibu and see if anyone there was caught? Let’s start close to home.”
Meg swallowed the last of her pizza, saluted with one hand, and licked the fingers of her other clean before she went to the secret door in Zed’s office. “Will do. Listen for me and I’ll shout if I’ve got anything. Alec says she and Selene will be here in a minute.”
Tis waved as Meg left and was glad that she’d have Selene’s cool, philosophical approach there soon. She turned to Ama. “The temples on fire—are all those gods here?”
“They are. Some of their underlings are out in the world trying to deal with things, but like Zed says, there isn’t a single god who doesn’t know he’ll fry the person who has desecrated his temple the moment he sees them.”
“Okay. Let’s go to the main hall.”
The three of them made their way past gods in various stages of distress. Unable to stop herself, though she knew she should be focused on the here and now, she called out to Kera and was weak with relief when she answered right away.
“I’m here. Can you hear me? Are you coming?”
Tis felt the question like a blow to her soul. “I’m going to, baby. We just need a better handle on where you are. And I’m kind of in the middle of a crisis…”
There was a long pause, and Tis thought she’d lost her again.
“Yeah, I understand. I’m sure I can figure my way out of it. Don’t worry about it.”
Kera faded, and Tis nearly doubled over from the sense of loss. “Don’t shut me out. I’m coming, baby. I p
romise.”
There was no answer, and Tis felt the tears well in her eyes. They entered the foyer, and her knees weakened at the sight of Alec and Selene talking to Cerberus. Alec opened her arms, and Tis let herself be wrapped in her sister’s embrace.
“Tisera, we need to get to the assembly room.” Zed’s voice was sharp, his stress loud.
Alec looked at Tis, her expression searching. “Meg says you can hear her.”
Tis nodded. “I can. But I can’t leave.”
Selene took Tis’s hand. “If you don’t, who will? So, the world is falling apart. It’s always falling apart. Save it today, tomorrow some other part will burn.” She pressed her palm to Tis’s chest. “Sometimes, Tisera, you have to make a choice. One only you can make.”
Tis flinched inwardly. It was the third time someone had told her she’d need to make a choice. By the gods, I hate oracles. She thought about the way Kera made her feel, about the way Kera’s touch made her ache and soar, and about how disappointed and detached she’d sounded moments ago. She thought about how lonely she’d been before Kera came into her life. She looked at Selene and Alec and let her tears fall.
“Tell me what you would say. As a stopgap, what would you tell them to go do?” Selene asked.
Tis thought fast. “They need to overstep the line and take drastic measures. They need to use the weather to put the fires out in the temples and take care of the people in the affected areas. They need to go be among their humans, right now, at their sacred places, so they can see they haven’t been abandoned and their gods do care, no matter what the physical space may look like. They need to calm their believers, grant as many prayers as they can, as fast as they can, while the rest of us figure out what happened and who caused it.”
Selene took Alec’s hand. “Go.” She grabbed Zed’s forearm and pulled him along. “Leave her alone. We’ve got this, and she’ll hardly be gone for any time at all.”
Zed stared at Tis, his eyes wide. She hadn’t seen this kind of fear in him since they’d stopped worshipping at his temples centuries ago. “I’ll be right back, I promise,” she whispered, knowing he’d hear her.