by Romi Hart
How many of them mated with their own kind in the air? Most never dared to take wing. They dwelt in hidden communities out of sight of humans. They laid low so the military didn’t come after them.
They would never know what they were missing, but he did. Now that he knew, he couldn’t ignore it. Even if something happened to Riley and he never got her again, he would spend the rest of his life searching for this. Nothing could ever satisfy him but that dizzy, heavenly flight into the great beyond.
Hours after it ended, the spasms kept rocking him. The instant he thought about the flight, the catastrophic intensity drowned him in orgasmic rapture. He couldn’t stop it. He concentrated all his power to hold it back, but he could snap back there with a single thought.
Finn would never know. Bryce would never know. No one would ever know. Victor harbored this secret within himself. He would carry it until his death.
8
Riley woke up feeling…. she gazed through a space in the board wall. A patch of clear sunshine radiated warmth to the world. She relaxed into the sight and felt…amazing. She couldn’t remember feeling this good in a long time.
She sat up and surveyed the tiny cabin. Hewn planks formed the floor. All the shacks in this village seemed solid enough even if they did look ready to crumble if anybody looked at them too hard.
This house might appear a little rough around the edges, but it would stand the test of time. All these forgotten bayou houses did. They slouch into the muck, but they just kept on standing century after century. They kept standing long after human beings forgot they existed.
Her eye drifted to the corner without her meaning to. Victor lay asleep on his side. A woolen blanket covered his body and it moved with his breathing. He pillowed his shorn head on his elbow. His other hand cupped his bicep.
Riley scrutinized him. This was the first time she got a chance to really look at him without him looking back. He fascinated her and repelled her at the same time.
She couldn’t shake off the memory of their flight. Whatever happened up there, whosever fault it was in the end, he got into her blood. Part of him entered her that had nothing to do with his cock and he left that part of himself inside her. She couldn’t get rid of it.
He attracted her in strange ways she couldn’t understand. Bryce was better looking. Lincoln was taller. Shit, all of them were better looking. None of the others radiated that hulking brutish quality. It tricked her into thinking he was some stupid, backwater dope without an education or a clue in the world.
He might be a little strange. He might even be uneducated, but no one could mistake him for stupid. The others treated him as their leader. He made the decisions and they followed his orders. Even Finn, who always laughed and made sure everyone knew he could come and go as he liked—even he obeyed Victor when push came to shove.
His father’s people obeyed Victor, too. The instant the two parties joined, they all fell under Victor’s authority second only to his father. That told her all she really needed to know about these people’s command structure.
A scuffle drew her attention to the other corner. Bryce peeled himself out of his blankets, got up, and stretched. He raked his straight hair out of his eyes and shot Riley a rakish smile.
Bryce always gave Riley the impression he was flirting with her. He joked and smiled a lot, but he never took it any further. He always stopped short of actually suggesting anything could happen between them. Why would he do that? Because he wouldn’t intrude on his brother’s preeminence, of course. What other reason could he have to hold back?
She cringed at the thought that Victor might hold some prerogative over her, but some secret part of her wanted it that way. Some part of her wanted him to feel that way because she felt that way about him. Thank the stars no women belonged to this party. Riley would have gouged out their eyes for even looking at Victor.
What was she thinking? Of course she wouldn’t gouge out anyone’s eyes. She didn’t give a crap about Victor and she sure as hell didn’t want to own him. If he got fixated on another woman and lost interest in her, so much the better.
Bryce crossed the room and squatted by the cold remains of last night’s fire. A bunch of ash and charcoal lay in the grate and he started shoveling it into a bucket. Then he laid a new bed of kindling and lighted it.
He cocked an eyebrow at Riley while he got busy with breakfast. “What’s on the docket for you today?”
She faced him. “I didn’t know I had a docket. I didn’t know I was allowed out of this house.”
“You can go anywhere you like as long as you don’t leave the village. Victor posted a perimeter to keep an eye on you. If you get too far out of your range, you’ll run into somebody or other. Other than that, you can do what you want. You can put yourself to some use around here.”
She inspected her fingernails. “I never really thought about doing anything. I didn’t think that far in advance.”
“You’re gonna be here a while. You might as well do something. What do you do in the human world?”
“Do?” Why should the concept surprise her? “I don’t know. I guess I always worked.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You never did anything?”
“What about you? What do you people do with yourselves?”
“Oh, all kinds of stuff,” he exclaimed. “Some write. Some play music. Some paint. Everybody’s got something they do. I thought it was the same on the outside, but I guess I was wrong.”
“No, you’re not wrong. They do the same thing.”
He rounded on her. “But not you?”
“I never really thought about it.” Man, she felt stupid now. She persisted in this ridiculous notion that these swamp mutants were brainless, purposeless trash. All this time, she was the one who never pursued any hobby or purpose in life.
She never once considered what she would like to do. She gave all her attention to her career while the rest of her life withered to nothing. It took Bryce Griffin to point this out to her.
He put a pot of the burning sticks and emptied a water jug into it. “We’re going hunting later so you’ll have plenty of time to think about it. No time like the present to pick up something. If you really want something to do, you can repair those baskets.”
He waved to a pile of cane by the door. Each article revealed some tattered corner or a handle flopping off. “I don’t know how,” Riley told him.
“You’ll figure it out. Go find yourself some material outside and dive right in. What do you have to lose?”
She blinked at the stack. Basketry? She never gave it a passing consideration. She was a highly-trained fighter pilot in the US Navy. What use did she have for basketry?
Bryce lifted off the boiling water with a rag. He dumped it into three cups and sifted in a handful of some herb. It gave off a sharp, pungent smell.
Then he set up a spit over the fire. He skewered several thin lengths of meat and seared them to a crispy, juicy brown. He cooked. He worked around the camp. He never stopped working. He made himself useful, unlike her.
Drops of fat sizzled in the flames. The noise roused Victor. He heaved up on one chiseled arm and scowled at Bryce and Riley. Then he hopped to his feet and flung off his blanket.
Without a word, he folded it up and dropped it on the floor. He scratched his scalp and barged out of the house without saying anything to anyone.
Riley’s stomach tightened. Bryce looked up at his brother, but he only smiled when Victor left.
“Why doesn’t he stay?” Riley asked. “Where’s he going so early?”
Bryce’s cheeks flushed. He stole a peek at her. “He doesn’t want to hang around you if he can avoid it. He hates you.”
She dropped her gaze to her hands in her lap. So he hated her. “If that’s true, why does he come back here?”
“Pop makes him. He wouldn’t do it otherwise and he doesn’t have to stick around during the day. I don’t suppose you’ll see much of him in the next few days. I’d ste
er clear of him if I was you.” He slid four pieces of meat into a clean piece of cloth and deposited the bundle in Riley’s hand. “Eat your breakfast. I’ll see you later.”
He picked up his tea and his food and sauntered out of the cabin. Riley stared down at the package in her hand. Globs of juice glistened and sizzled against the meat’s marbled grain. It smelled delicious. These New Breed hunters ate a lot of meat. They probably never got access to processed food. They hunted for themselves and lived off the land.
She pulled her teacup toward her. The smell worked on her brain. It relaxed her even if it didn’t smell the best. She picked up a piece of meat between her thumb and forefinger and took a bite.
She chewed it while she thought over her prospects for the day. She didn’t want to fix those baskets. She couldn’t think of anything she wanted to do in this village. She didn’t want to expend her efforts helping these freaks or participating in their existence. She wanted to get the hell out of here and never see them or their godforsaken village again.
In answer to her thoughts, footsteps beat against the ladder. Someone climbed up and entered the room. She stiffened when she saw Finn.
He bestowed his most charming smile on her. In an instant, his eyes caught her in their indomitable sway. Before she could blink, he wiped every thought out of her head and she couldn’t look away.
He folded his legs on the floor. He didn’t sit next to her and he didn’t sit across from her. He sat at a ninety-degree angle so he spoke to her in a confidential, intimate tone. “I just wanted to let you know Victor posted fliers around the perimeter to keep you in. That means dragons, so don’t think you can fight your way out.”
She struggled to maintain a grip on her rational mind. His eyes did something to her. Even as she recognized that, she found herself powerless to resist it. She dove into their brown depths. The black pit of his pupil enveloped her. It expanded until it erased everything outside itself. It grew bigger until it represented a world unto itself.
“You’re the one who’s dangerous, Riley,” he murmured. “You’ll always be a threat to them.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t clear her thoughts. “Why are you telling me this? Did Victor tell you to come here and talk to me?”
He suppressed a smile. “Victor doesn’t know I’m here. He’d be furious if he knew I was telling you his plans.”
“Why would he be furious? I already knew he posted guards to stop me leaving.”
“He doesn’t want you to know certain things. He doesn’t want you to know about the natural gas plant in Breaux Bridge, for instance. He doesn’t want you to know about the communications relay there. He thinks if you knew, you would try to get there and send a message to the military about where you are.”
A snapping sound popped in Riley’s ears and the enchantment shattered. The fog blew out of her head and she found herself sitting on the floor with an ordinary black man like any other. In a fraction of a second, she could think as well as ever.
A natural gas plant near Breaux Bridge? Communications relay? A thousand ideas flooded her brain. She could get out of here. She could send a message to Major Dickerson. She could get the military to send out a rescue to get her the fuck out of this mess.
Finn’s easy-going smile didn’t change. “You be careful of yourself, Riley,” he breathed. “Everyone in camp is watching you right now. If anyone finds out I told you this, they’ll rat you out to Victor.”
He got to his feet and slipped out of the house. He left an empty hole in Riley’s middle. Someone in this madhouse cared about her. Someone was trying to help her.
She seized that information with all her heart and soul. She was getting out. She just had to figure out a way to circumvent the perimeter, give Victor and his buddies the slip, and get to Breaux Bridge.
How was she going to do that? If she could get out of the Atchafalaya Wildlife Refuge, she could hit Highway 10. That would lead her straight to Breaux Bridge. From there, she could only cross her fingers and hope to Hell someone gave her directions to the gas plant.
It was worth a shot, anyhow. She sure wasn’t getting any closer sitting around here. That left her with the most challenging part of the whole project: getting out of the village.
Everyone would be watching her. She had to be especially careful around Victor since he already anticipated this plan. She didn’t bother to come up with an alternative. So what if he was expecting it? She could beat him.
She stuffed the rest of the meat into her mouth and swallowed without tasting it. She bolted the tea and strode outside. She halted in the sunshine to sweep the yard.
Seven or eight of these mutant forest people sat or walked or talked around the village. They all engaged in some activity or other, even if they just conversed with their comrades.
Their presence gave Riley pause. She didn’t think she could just walk out, did she? She had to make a show of doing something ordinary, something unobtrusive that would give her a chance to scope the perimeter and form a plan.
She turned to her right and headed for the stream. The sun dazzled her eyes after being inside so long, but the fresh air lifted her spirits. Now she had something really useful to work toward and it didn’t involve baskets. She was still a military officer. She had a duty to get back to Barksdale any way she could.
She walked halfway through the village before she dared to look back. No one saw her. No one paid any attention to what she was doing. Maybe Finn made a mistake about…..She bumped into something solid and whipped around fast to find Victor glaring down at her.
9
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Victor snapped.
Riley fished in her brain for something suitably subservient to say. “I’m going over to the stream to look for some materials to repair those baskets. Bryce said I could work on them to keep myself busy.”
He furrowed his brows and his eyes smoldered. “You’re not allowed out of the village.”
The lie took on a life of its own. Once she knew what to say, she embroidered it with detail. “I’m not leaving the village. I’m just going over there. Maybe you can tell me what to use.”
He jerked his chin sideways. “You can’t cross the stream. That’s out of the village.”
Her heart sank. “Then what am I supposed to use?”
“I don’t care,” he snarled. “Do whatever you want. Just don’t cross the stream. You have to stay here. That’s Pop’s orders.”
He started to walk away from her—again. Her temper flared. “Hey! Wait a second.”
He halted to look over his shoulder, but he didn’t turn around. “What do you want?”
She didn’t know what she wanted from him. She only knew she didn’t like him turning his back to her like that. He couldn’t just delete her from existence. “You said we’d forget about what happened.”
“I did forget it,” he returned, “but I can see you didn’t.”
Riley swallowed hard. She didn’t realize talking to him would take so much out of her. She didn’t think he would be so hostile. “If you forgot it, why do you hate me so much? You won’t even talk to me.”
For a second, he gazed across the village at his comrades. She dreaded him just walking away without saying anything, but she couldn’t think of any other outcome. She couldn’t imagine him doing anything else if he hated her so much.
All at once, he flicked his chin sideways one more time. His eyes touched her face for a fleeting instant before he looked away. “You’re trouble. You’re trouble to all of us. You’ve been trouble since we first found you and you’ll keep being trouble forever. You’re more trouble than you’re worth.”
“What did I ever do to you?” She hated that note of strain in her own voice. She would give anything to expunge him from her consciousness the way he did her.
To her surprise, he didn’t walk away. He spun around and both his arms flew out from his sides. “Go on, then. Go on across the stream like you planned.
Don’t give me that line about fixing the baskets ‘cuz we both know it’s a stinking pile of bullshit. Do you think I’m that stupid? Huh?”
“No,” she murmured. “I don’t think you’re stupid.”
“You must if you used that on me. You’re trying to escape. Admit it.”
His words shattered the dam holding all her emotions inside. Now that he started talking, she couldn’t help but do the same. “Well, how can you blame me? I don’t want to be here. You’re holding me against my will. Any sane person would try to escape if they could. What the fuck do you expect me to do—sit around and fix baskets for the rest of my life?”
“No one’s holding you against your will!” he thundered. “Jesus fucking Christ, what is the matter with you? We’re holding you for your own stupid fucking protection, though why we should do that, I can’t figure out. What do you think is going to happen when you leave here and go back to whatever the fuck you call a life in Barksdale? Huh? Tell me that, Ms. Genius. What exactly, in your infinite wisdom, do you think is going to happen?”
Riley opened her mouth. She could think of a lot of things that would happen, including her rejoining her old team—whatever was left of them. If any of them survived the air battle, maybe they’d be ready to take on the dragons again.
Victor broke in on her thoughts. “No ideas? Well, let me give you a little insider’s view. The very first thing they’re going to do is give you a medical exam and they’re going to find out something is rotten in the state of Denmark, if you catch my drift. The second thing that’s going to happen, if they don’t kill you first, is they’re going to lock you up and experiment on you. They’ll do anything they please to you to find out what happened and what you’re all about, now that you’re a dragon. Do you honestly think the US military gives a fuck if they hurt you or even kill you in the process of finding out what they want to know? Of course they don’t. Once they’re done with you, then they’ll kill you. They’ll put you down with a bullet to the back of the head and they’ll dump you in the motherfucking swamp to rot.”