by Fall, Carly
Looking at the beside clock, he realized that in a two hours Sophia should be turning on her phone, unless she couldn’t do it by the stroke of midnight, or the damn thing was dead.
Blake hadn’t given much thought to what would happen if the phone was dead, or, God help him, Sophia was. If that phone didn’t start transmitting a signal, Blake didn’t know what he’d do, or how he would explain it all to Megan. Somehow, he’d hung the worth of his future on getting Sophia back. It was all that mattered to him. How would he explain to Megan that he had no idea what her father had done with her mother? She had said she didn’t like Micah and he made her mother cry, so maybe it wouldn’t be that big of a surprise to her. A surprise or not, he didn’t want to have to deliver the news.
It wasn’t because he loathed her reaction to it, which would most likely be tears and some drama, but because he cared about her and didn’t want to be the cause of the sadness.
There was a soft knock on the door, and Blake suppressed a moan as he stood.
When he pulled open the door, surprised rolled through him. It was Cohen. Blake waited a moment, expecting a fist to the jaw or a kick to the gut.
“Hey,” Cohen said, his voice low.
“Hi, Cohen. Listen, this isn’t a good time. Megan’s asleep and—”
Cohen held up his hand. “I’m not here to fight, argue, or pick bones. I’m here to help.”
“Help how, exactly?” Blake asked, suspicious.
“So, just listen to me for a minute,” Cohen said, “I know you’re in really bad shape right now. After your gym session with Jovan, he told me you’re very weak. I don’t know the effects of heroin on an SR44 system, but if you want, I can go in and take a look around, see if anything needs to be repaired, or if I can maybe put some scaffolding around internal organs and systems, try to prop them up a bit so they can heal.”
Blake looked at him, not believing Cohen’s offer and questioning his motives. Perhaps Cohen wanted Blake dead—what better way to do it than to get his energy into Blake and stop his heart or some shit like that? “But I’m part human,” he said.
Cohen shrugged. “You’re a half-breed, Blake. Everything should be fine. If things start going hokey, I get out. For all intents and purposes, Beverly’s a half-breed as well, and I never had any trouble healing her. Same with Abby.”
Blake still didn’t trust him.
“Look,” Cohen said, resting his hand on Blake’s shoulder. “You were a complete and utter fucker for the way you treated Annis and me, and then that stunt you pulled in the War Room before Noah kicked you out . . . I wanted to kill you. However, I also understand that a female can drive a male to do things he wouldn’t necessarily do in normal circumstances. You love Annis. She chose me. You are part SR44ian, Blake. We take the women we love pretty seriously. If the situation had been reversed . . . well, I don’t know what I would have done. I get it, Blake. I get the pain, okay?”
Blake stared into the violet eyes, listened to Cohen’s words, and heard the honesty there. Maybe a future of friendship with Cohen lay ahead, if they allowed him to stay.
“So, are you going to let me work on you?”
A thread of doubt still lingered, and Cohen must have sensed it.
“I promise not to make your heart explode, or tear out your colon, or shrink your brain. I’m a healer, Blake. Just the thought of those things violates every instinct I have. I couldn’t hurt you even if I tried, no matter how badly I might have wanted to in the past.”
Blake nodded. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
Chapter 53
Sophia sat on the bed, the phone in her hand. Taking a deep breath, she turned it on.
She stared at it, waiting for something to happen, but she wasn’t sure what. Would Blake call her? Was she supposed to phone him? If so, how? She went into the address book but didn’t find any listings.
After gripping the phone for a few more minutes, she set it down on the bed, tears stinging her eyes. Perhaps Blake was part Colonist and he’d killed Megan and gone on his merry way to terrorize others, as Micah said. She simply couldn’t believe it, though.
Wasn’t something supposed to happen? She tried to remember what Blake had said. When she turned it on, it would activate something. It’s a way for us to find you. In her panic, she hadn’t heard much beyond that. Perhaps nothing was supposed to happen. Maybe she was just supposed to sit here and wait, staring at the blank screen on the phone.
The door to the top of the stairs opened. Sophia grabbed the phone, turned it off, and shoved it under the mattress, careful not to cut herself on the knife she stashed there.
She stood just as Jael came around the corner with another tray of food. At least the toast looked edible.
“Good morning, Sophia,” he said.
“Good morning,” she mumbled, her body trembling.
“Come. Sit down and eat something. You need to keep your strength up.”
Sophia walked on unsteady legs to the couch and sat down. As she nibbled the dry toast, Jael ran his fingers through her hair. She moved over on the couch to try to put some distance between them, but Jael grabbed her hair and pulled her closer, causing her to cry out.
“Don’t you try to get away from me,” he hissed in her ear. Her body shook in fear as he traced his tongue up her neck to her cheek. “You taste lovely this morning,” he whispered.
He moved his hand from her hair down between her legs and cupped her sex, roughly massaging her through her jeans.
Revulsion tore through her. She pushed him away and ran for the stairs. Forget the phone—she just needed to get out of her jail cell and away from Jael.
She bounded up the stairs two at a time, the open door her focus, Jael right behind her. She reached the top landing and kept running, trying to remember which way they had brought her in. Hanging a left, she ran into an open living room with only a couch and a couple of chairs pushed to the walls. To her right she noticed a sliding glass door and headed for it, the sun shining brightly, beckoning her to freedom.
Jael snaked his arms around her waist and slammed her backward to the hardwood floor, leaving her breathless. Her head hit and stars appeared before her eyes. Jael stood above her, breathing hard, and unbuckled his belt. She scooted away from him, but she was unable to stand up. Jael flipped open the button to his jeans. “You do not deny me what is rightfully mine,” he hissed.
Sophia’s vision blurred through the tears. Rolling onto her stomach, she tried to stand, but could barely make it on her hands and knees. Jael grabbed her, reaching around the front to unbutton her jeans. She slapped his hand away, and he ripped her head back by her hair. As she saw the fury in Jael’s face, she knew he was going to violate her body right then and there.
“Jael!” Micah bellowed. “Enough!”
The grip on her hair lessened, and finally, he let go. She fell to the floor, catching herself before her face hit the wood.
“I am the one to use her this mating cycle!” Jael yelled. “I do what I want, when I want!”
Micah walked over to Sophia and held out his hand. “No, you don’t, Jael,” he countered, hauling her to her feet.
Relief flowed through Sophia at Micah’s words.
“You are only allowed to use her during her fertile time. Until then, you are to leave her alone.”
Jael stepped back and buttoned his jeans.
“Sophia, head back downstairs,” Micah murmured.
She looked around for another escape route, and Micah grabbed her by the upper arm. “Don’t forget your place,” he said in a low voice. “Your place is to keep the SR44 race alive and well, to produce offspring so that we can continue our species. We’ve already been set back to square one by your carelessness of letting little Megan be kidnapped.”
Sobs wracked her body, but Micah continued. “Go downstairs and rest, and make sure you’re eating. We need your body nourished for the next mating cycle.”
He led her to the top of the stairs. “Now go,”
he said, giving her a gentle push.
As Sophia trudged down the stairs and the door above her shut, she couldn’t help but feel she was stepping into her own coffin.
When she reached the bottom, she went directly to the bedroom, feeling utterly defeated and completely frightened. She took out the phone and lay on the bed. Turning it on, she rested it on her chest and prayed something would happen.
Chapter 54
Blake awoke to his phone vibrating on the nightstand, letting him know that the tracking device in the phone he gave Sophia had been activated. He hurled himself out of bed without waking Megan and headed to the War Room, surprised by how much better he felt after Cohen’s healing the night before.
When he arrived in the War Room, the computer screen was alive with a map and a red dot showing the location of his old phone. He sank down in the chair in front of the computer, looking at the diagram. He didn’t recognize the area, and he zoomed out to get a better grasp of where it was in correlation to the location of the silo. Suddenly, the screen went black.
“No!” Blake yelled, reaching around and checking the connections. What the fuck happened?
All the cords and wires were exactly where they were supposed to be. Panic surged within him. Someone had activated the phone, and then turned it off. He shut his eyes and prayed it was Sophia and she had been interrupted, and not something stupid like the phone had officially run out of battery.
“No, what?” Rayner said, entering the War Room with two cups of coffee.
“The phone was activated, and then it went dead,” Blake said.
“No shit?”
“None.”
Rayner pulled a chair over and sat down next to Blake, running his hand through his blond mop.
“Here,” Rayner said, sliding the coffee over. “I was bringing this to Faith, but you go ahead and drink it.”
“I don’t want to take Faith’s coffee,” Blake mumbled, pushing the cup back at him.
Rayner shoved the cup back at Blake. “She’s not even up yet. Trust me, she won’t miss it.”
They sat staring at a blank computer screen, sipping coffee in silence, waiting for something to happen.
The ping started up again. “There it is!” Blake shouted.
“Where is that?” Rayner asked.
“I should call her,” Blake said as he studied the map. “I’ll call her, you figure out where the hell she is, okay?”
Rayner nodded as Blake dialed.
It rang twice, and then there was a whispered, “Hello?”
“Sophia?” Blake asked.
“Is that you, Blake?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Sophia sniffled in the phone and sounded like she was crying.
“What’s wrong?” Blake demanded. “Are you okay?”
“Blake . . . I’m . . . is Megan okay?”
“She’s fine, Sophia. She’s sleeping right now.”
“Please wake her,” Sophia sobbed. “I need to hear her voice.”
With Sophia being so upset, he didn’t think it would be a good idea to talk to Megan, but he also understood that Sophia needed verification that her daughter was safe.
“I’ll tell you what,” Blake said, standing. “I won’t wake her, but I’ll send her image to you over the phone. You can see she’s fine.”
“Yes, please,” Sophia sniffed.
“I’m going to get into an elevator,” Blake said, striding into the kitchen. “Sometimes it doesn’t have the greatest reception, so if we get disconnected, I'll call you back, okay?”
“Okay,” Sophia whispered.
When Blake landed on his floor, he stopped just outside his door. “Sophia? Can you hear me?” he murmured.
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’m going to have to call you back so we can see each other, okay?”
“Okay.”
He hung up, and quickly redialed while opening the door to his quarters. The room was dark, except for the nightlight in the bathroom. Blake turned on the overhead lighting and dimmed it so a soft glow lit up the room. It wasn’t bright enough to wake Megan, but it illuminated the sleeping girl on the bed.
Sophia answered, her tired, scared face filling his screen. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he whispered, concern whipping through him.
“Yes. Please, just let me see Megan.”
As he walked closer to her, he zoomed in on her face. He could hear Sophia sobbing, and pushed the mute button so Megan wouldn’t wake.
Megan shoved her hair aside and rolled over to her back. Blake focused the camera in on her for another minute, and then slowly panned out around the room showing Sophia that Megan was in a good place, just as he promised she’d be. He even gave her a glimpse of the Lego masterpiece Megan continued to work on.
As he stepped out from the bedroom and shut the door, he unmuted the phone and glanced at a blank screen.
“Sophia?” he whispered.
“Yes. I’m here, Blake,” she said, picking up the phone, her face filling the screen again. “I needed to get a tissue. Thank you for showing me Megan. You’ve done more for her in the past thirty-six hours than I could do in three years.”
“No, that’s not true,” Blake said, stepping back into the elevator. “I may lose you again, but hold on, okay?”
“Okay.”
When Blake reached the kitchen, he said, “You still there?”
There wasn’t an answer, so he redialed again. Sophia picked up immediately.
“So as I was going to say before we got disconnected,” Blake continued, “Megan’s fine, but she needs her mom.”
Sophia sobbed again. “Blake, I can’t do this.”
“Do what?” Blake asked, her words churning his stomach.
“This,” she whispered. “I can’t fulfill my role any longer. Micah wants me to mate with Jael in the next mating cycle. I can’t do it.”
Sophia wailed, and Blake’s whole body went cold, a stone settling in his heart. “What are you saying? We’re coming for you, Sophia.”
“I had an . . . altercation with Jael today,” she murmured. “He’s not going to wait another week before trying to mate with me. I won’t allow that to happen. He grabbed me down there . . . he won’t touch me again.”
Blake stopped in his tracks and sunk to his knees on the plush carpet, feelings of absolute terror and raging anger swirling within him. “What did he do to you?”
“He pulled my hair and tried to remove my pants—”
“That fucking bastard,” Blake whispered.
“Micah stopped him, but I can’t stand him.”
“We’re coming for you, Sophia. Just hang tight for a little bit longer, okay?”
“How can you be sure that you’ll arrive in time?”
Blake got to his feet and ran the rest of the way to the War Room. Cohen and Jovan were there with Rayner, all staring at the large white screen hanging from the ceiling.
Scanning the map, he still couldn’t pinpoint where she was located. Why couldn’t he find some sort of landmark on the map he recognized?
“Where the fuck is she?” Blake hissed, covering the mouthpiece.
“Don’t worry, Blake,” Jovan said. “We’ve got her location locked. We know where she is.”
Blake nodded at his friend. “We know where you are, Sophia,” he said into the phone as he stared at the map. Jovan seemed to read his confusion and went to the computer to zoom out. Blake scanned the area and finally found Buckeye, Arizona, which was the closest town to the silo. The ping emanated about seventy-five miles away. “I see where you’re at, Sophia,” he said, trying to calm his voice. He needed to give her some hope that they would definitely be there. Today.
“I’m not going to let Jael do that me, and I have no doubt if Micah leaves this house, he won’t hesitate to come for me.”
Blake sat down and shut his eyes, feeling possessive while different ways to kill Jael flashed through his mind. “Sophia, we’re less than two hours away from you.
You need to hang tight, honey.”
“A couple of hours?” Sophia whispered.
“Yes.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Sophia? Are you still there?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“What do you say? Can you hang for a couple of hours?”
“Yes. But if he comes in here, I will do everything in my power to kill him.”
Blake chuckled. “That’s exactly what I would expect you to do. Take him out.”
“The phone has just under half a battery left, Blake."
"That's good. You keep it close to you."
Sophia sniffed again. "Blake?"
"Yeah? What?"
"I'm very afraid."
"There's nothing to be afraid of, Sophia. We're coming for you."
"I'm afraid you won't arrive in time. I'm afraid of Jael. I'm scared of what I will find beyond living under Micah. I’m afraid of my future. At this moment, everything in my life is so uncertain, and I’m not used to that. I’m used to knowing what each day is going to entail."
“But it can also be exciting, Sophia,” Blake murmured. “Think of all then new experiences your brave actions have given Megan. Think of all the new things that are waiting for you. Sometimes the scariest things are also the most fun.”
Noah walked in and nodded at Blake, and Rayner updated him in low tones.
"You're afraid because it's the unknown,” Blake said. “Megan said the same thing. You just . . . you trusted me with Megan, now trust me to get you out of there and you can start your life over with good, kind people who want you around.”
“What if they don’t, Blake? What if everything you’re telling me is a lie?”
Blake ran his hand through is hair. “I’m not lying, Sophia. I need you to believe that. It’s important to me that you trust me. The Saviors want to take you in.”
Noah turned at those words and walked over to Blake. “Give me the phone,” he murmured. Blake handed it over.