by C Cato
“If it gets me away from these people, yes. I am starting to run low, though.”
“Cole has something for you. Soren came up with a device to do small scale charges. When I get you out we’ll get you charged. What are you at right now?”
“Twenty-five percent.”
“Okay. Conserve.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Just sit tight. We’re coming for you.”
Risa ended the transmission when the last petitioner left, grumbling under his breath about untrustworthy bitches. She couldn’t fault his logic.
Willow moved to stand in front of Mother Superior, but Risa could almost swear the woman was staring right at her. “Jenna, you had mentioned those tests you wanted to run today. I would like to supervise, if you don’t mind.”
“No. Of course, my dear. Please do. I’m eager to get the results.”
“I’ll need to take some of the Guard with me. Even with pain collars on, they are all dangerous.”
“Please. Take as many as you need.”
Willow scanned the room, meeting the gaze of every Guard that lined the walls. There were eighteen on duty, including herself. Three always rotated out so they could get some time to rest.
“You,” said Willow pointing to a Valkyrie by the elevator. “And you.” She picked ten from the waiting women, who all moved to stand behind her, then focused her gaze on Risa. She had to lock her knees to keep from taking an involuntary step back. “Come with me, Risa. It’s time you saw more of what happens here in the Temple.”
Mother Superior whined, “Oh alright, but have her back in time for her to join me for dinner this evening.”
Willow bowed at the waist. “Of course, Jenna. I wouldn’t dream of interfering with your evening’s entertainment.”
Risa wondered how she could say that with a straight face. She joined the other women in front of the dais. Willow offered her an unfriendly smirk as she took her place.
Whatever it was she had planned, it was not going to be on her top ten list of favorite memories. More importantly, she needed to figure out what she’d done to piss the woman off!
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Sonya
“It’s good news that Mother is here, but there are so many Valkyrie,” said Lafa, as she mulled over the information Risa had conveyed.
Sonya was grateful to learn the A’amoth didn’t eavesdrop on all her conversations just because they could. After a day of what were called medical tests, they were all thankful for the small reprieve. Nothing lasting had been done yet, but Sonya wasn’t holding her breath that it wouldn’t.
“I’m sure my mate-brother is planning something impressive,” said Keet, stroking her arm.
She sat braced against his chest. Lafa had given up on keeping them apart. Talic was still reluctant, but he spoke with her more, so Sonya counted that as a win.
Talic shook his head. “You have barely been in the presence of the man.”
“Do you believe your friend can retrieve the journals?” asked Keet, dodging Talic’s comment.
Sonya drew her legs up and shifted in his lap to pressed her face in his neck. He growled as she brushed the throbbing heat of him with her hip. The scent of peat moss and pine circled her head, and made her bones melt.
Fuck, pheromones. She wanted them as much as she wanted Cole.
“Sonya, remember. We mate for life. Even if the match is a bad one. You need to be sure, and you haven’t had a moment to think about it away from them,” said Lafa, sounding reasonable. Logical.
Sonya knew she was being a little irrational, but maybe that’s what this new world called for.
“I know Lafa. I just need—”
Talic and Keet pressed closer, and both growled simultaneously. Sonya moaned as the evidence of her own desire soaked her linen pants.
“We—I need you, too,” said Keet.
Sonya glanced at Talic his brow creased. This was hard on him. He moved away from them and gazed out of the cell into the room beyond. The box itself was only about five feet cubed. Not actually big enough for any of them to lay down flat inside. The room beyond was empty, but large. Probably part of the torture. The walls and floor were white and very cliché. The cell faced a single door on the opposite wall.
Without a sound, it opened, and Valkyrie piled inside to stand in front of them. Risa included. Willow stood in front of them, hands on hips. Lips pulled back into the mockery of a smile.
“Bring the women. We have a little experiment to conduct.”
Keet and Talic launched themselves at the walls of their prison and then fell to the ground, mouths open in silent screams of agony.
“Leave them alone!” screamed Sonya. “We’ll come with you! There’s no reason to hurt them.”
Willow moved her thumb away from the device in her hand, and the men collapsed. Neither of them moved. Sonya held her breath gazing intently until she saw the slight rise and fall on each of their chests. When the door to their cell slid open, she offered no resistance. Hemmed in by the silent Valkyrie, she and Lafa moved out of the white room that held their prisons to a hallway leading to a larger lab space. This one wasn’t any more advanced than the one she’d seen before. It reminded her of an operating theater from the 1800s. Instead of a gurney or bed in the middle of the room, there was a metal table bolted to the floor. Straps attached to the top. Two chairs sat on opposite sides of the table. Also metal with straps. A sour taste filled her mouth.
The testing and prodding she’d had to endure after their demonstration the day before had been intrusive. She got the impression that what was about to happen would be much worse.
“Risa?”
“I’m in the dark here.”
“Have a seat,” said Willow, indicating the chairs.
Sonya sat down and the other Valkyrie began tightening and buckling straps. Her left arm tied to the chair, her right extended forward and restrained on the table. The smallest whimper escaped.
Sonya locked eyes with Lafa.
Her pale mouth pressed into a thin line “Be strong, my sister.”
“Excellent,” said Willow once everyone stepped away from the table. “You’re probably wondering why you’re here?”
Willow shifted her gaze between the two women, but Sonya wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of speaking, and Lafa gazed straight ahead.
“Well then, we discovered several interesting similarities between you. Your genes are almost identical. It’s what we found with the other freaks. Which makes me wonder how you’ve been able to breed without significant defect rates. We’ve decided to do a few side by side comparisons. I hope you don’t mind.” Her voice was soft and reasonable, while her face was hard.
Sonya had never been prone to violence. In fact, she’d become a doctor because she hated it so much, but as she stared into the smug face of the bitch about to torture her, all she could imagine was curb-stomping her. A thought so out of character, it made her wince.
An older woman came into the room wheeling a cart in front of her and whistling to herself. She wore the white linen gown Sonya had seen before; probably a lab uniform. She stopped the cart next to the table and pulled the cloth off to reveal surgical cutting tools. Every muscle in her body convulsed and then glowed. She strained against the straps until the leather creaked and the buckles began to deform.
Spittle flew from her mouth as fire flicked across every nerve ending in her body at once. Her head fell back as she rocked until it stopped. She panted hard her vision blurred as her head fell forward again.
“None of that,” admonished Willow. “Carmen, hold the freak.”
A Valkyrie stepped forward and placed a hand on Lafa’s arm, just past the buckle.
“Risa, you get Sentinel One.”
Risa came forward without hesitation, but her eyes were almost blank. Like she was an automated doll. Disassociation. Sonya didn’t blame her. They needed to maintain the cover until Risa could recover the journals. Whatever t
hey made her do, they would both have to endure.
Her friend clamped her hand down hard on her arm.
“We know you both can heal, but we’re curious how similar your healing abilities are and what your bodies will heal back. For example...” Willow picked up a bone saw.
Sonya had to concentrate to hold back her bladder.
“Will you regenerate a limb if you lose it?”
Sonya knew for a fact that wasn’t the case. She’d already had to reattach her own finger. That had been excruciating. Was she going to have to endure that again?
Willow picked up two large serrated knives and handed one to Risa and one to the other Valkyrie. The knife visibly trembled in Risa’s hand.
“Doctor, will you prepare the patients?” Willow backed away from the table to give the white-clad woman room. The doctor draped clean cloths over her arm above and below her forearm and did the same for Lafa.
No! Her struggles renewed when she figured out the intent, but the slight stroke of a thumb on her inner elbow calmed her. Risa hadn’t completely checked out. What Sonya was about to experience would be worse than she could possibly imagine, but she would heal, and she wasn’t alone. Tears flowed without shame down her face, and she lifted her chin. The only act of defiance left to her.
To distract herself, she began to recite the various layers of her arm Risa would have to cut through, making this as routine as any surgery she’d ever participated in.
The cut will open the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis first. It’s sharp. That should be fast. Then it will begin to sever posterior muscles as they are presented on top.
“You may begin,” said Willow, her voice cold and lacking any emotion.
Risa placed the blade against Sonya’s skin.
The superficial and deep muscle tissue should part with relative ease, but hand function will cease when the ulnar is cut. Nanos should control the blow flow quickly.
She jerked as the knife sliced across her arm and dark-red blood flowed over her skin.
“Forgive me,” pleaded Risa.
Sonya bit her lower lip hard enough that blood flowed down her chin as freely as her arm, and a glance told her Lafa had done the same, her eyes clamped shut. She wished she could do that. Close her eyes to it. Open or shut wouldn’t matter. Everything was as clear in her mind’s eye as it was when she watched. Risa tried to make fast work of it, but everyone underestimates how difficult it is to cut through muscle. Ligaments. Nerves, greater and smaller.
By the time Risa reached bone, and Willow handed her the saw, Sonya was screaming. Her voice twined in a sick harmony with Lafa’s as they rose in volume and pitch. Urine coursed down her leg to drip on the floor beneath her, and she lost control of her bowel shortly after. Risa had to almost climb on top of the table to cut through her ulna and radius bones. Drool combined with blood and tears. Her head was thrown back. She shook uncontrollably, making Risa almost lose her grip. Cold replaced the burn from her arm. She was going into shock. Her teeth chattered.
Lafa had stopped screaming. Sonya glanced up to see her head lolling to the side, eyes closed. It’s for the best. Sound failed her as Risa cut through the ventral side of her arm. Leaving nothing but the sick squish of metal cutting flesh until—at the same time—two saws struck metal beneath.
Sonya stared with detached fascination as blood spurted twice from her blunted arm and then stopped as veins healed over. She didn’t know how long she watched as new cells were made, veins were closed, and skin began to form. Replacing what had been lost. Agony became pain and then incessant throbbing, only to die off to a dull ache.
When it was gone completely, Risa let her go as though she was a hot pan on the stove and backed away, one hand still holding the bloody blade.
Sonya cried for her, too.
Eventually, even her sobbing lessened to nothing. There was nothing left to give. Or so she thought.
“Interesting,” said Willow, tentatively touching her removed lower arm. “Jenna will be fascinated by this. She may ask to reproduce it, but first let’s see if it can be reattached. Risa. Carmen. Remove the skin, and we will see if the arms can grow back together.”
Sonya had been wrong. There was still more to give.
The first woman grasped Lafa at the top of her stump and leaned into it hard while Risa did the same to Sonya. She was breathing fast enough to fear passing out from hyperventilation. She flexed her fingers on her good hand when the teeth of the bone saw pressed into her flesh midforearm, and she bit into her tongue hard enough to fill her mouth with blood when Risa once again cut her open.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Risa
Risa could not leave the Temple fast enough. Covered in blood, she raced through the park to the apartment building and up the stairs. The door cracked with the force she used to open it. She didn’t care. Couldn’t see anything else. Wasn’t even aware someone else was in the apartment with her. When she got to the bathroom, she turned on the water until it was at a dangerous level of heat and stepped underneath it, clothes and all.
It wasn’t enough.
Screams echoed in her ears, and she could still feel the flexing of corded muscle beneath her hand as her friend suffered through the worst torture she’d ever inflicted on someone. Gazing down at her hands, the evidence of her deed stared back at her. Dark blood, some not even dried yet. Sonya’s blood. It stained her hands and dyed her white uniform from wrist to elbow.
Clawing at it, she ripped away the offending clothes, not caring that she cut herself in the process. It was less than she deserved. When it was all gone, when it was just her and the water, she let the tears fall. The drops came slowly at first, but built momentum swiftly until she wailed her grief. Legs turned to jelly, and she fell against the tiled wall to slide down on her ass. Arms at her sides, her vision was a blur. A figure stepped into the shower with her and sat by her side. Arms slid around her, and Risa gladly went into them. Needing the comfort, she knew Tessa would offer.
She didn’t know how long she cried, locked in her would-be lovers embrace, but eventually the tears dried and breathing came easier. Tessa left her long enough to turn off the frigid water and sat back down. Tessa was shivering. Knowing that this beautiful woman had been sitting in the cold water for her benefit almost made the tears flow again. No one she cared about should suffer like that.
Stiffly, she rose and offered a hand to Tessa, who took it, but her brows came together, forming lines in the center. Risa helped her towel off and did the same for herself and followed her into the bedroom.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, sitting on the bed wrapped in her towel.
Risa pulled a fresh uniform from the closet. “Do you have boots I can wear?” she asked.
It was dangerous to get too close. The work she did got people killed. What if she had to hurt Tessa next? Or one of the guys? No one is that strong.
“Risa?”
“Later, Tessa,” she said, sharply. Smothering any remorse at the downturn of Tessa’s features, she searched in the closet again and found a pair of boots that would work. It was convenient that she and Tessa were the same size. Any evidence of her grief would have healed away, so she didn’t bother to go to the bathroom to check. No second glances or words of thanks. She left.
Risa presented herself in front of Mother Superior on one knee, head bowed, and waited. It was a job like any other. She would meet her objectives and life would continue. The guys would buy her a round, and they’d shoot the shit about absolutely nothing. Never speaking of what they’d experienced, or how it had changed them forever.
“I’m going to retire with this luscious woman for the evening, Willow. I do not wish to be disturbed.”
Risa heard the swish of her silk and then saw her slippers.
“Stand up, Risa.”
She did. Mother Superior was a few inches taller, but Risa stared straight ahead, not wanting to meet her eyes.
The woman either didn’t care o
r didn’t notice. She turned to retreat to the back of the room. Risa had no choice but to follow. The door behind the throne opened into a large single room that had an extension of the dome skylight over it. The entire room had the feeling of being open to the sky. There were no walls except the one adjoining the audience chamber. In another life, Risa would have found it beautiful.
A four-poster bed, large enough to sleep at least five adult people took up the center of the room. Mother Superior wasted no time getting to it. “Will you unzip me?”
Risa moved to her side and mechanically helped her undress until she stood naked. They hadn’t bothered with lights since there was a full moon out and everything shone with the silver light.
Naked, Jenna crawled up on the bed doing her best “sexy kitten” crawl. Risa wasn’t impressed. She lay on her back and spread her legs.
Not bothering to undress herself, Risa did everything in her repertoire to bring Jenna over the edge again and again, until she passed out from sheer exhaustion. When she was certain the woman wouldn’t wake up, she climbed off the bed. For far too long, she stood over the sleeping form. A simple twist of the neck, a pillow over the face. Any of those would end the life of the monster. None of that would solve their problems. Or make her forget.
Hating herself, she went in search of the journals. There wasn’t much to the room. Along the edge of the glass dome were several large potted plants, but there wasn’t anything special about them, and nothing she’d witnessed with Jenna so far screamed of creativity, so she needed to think simply. A large bureau sat against the wall by the door and she checked each drawer carefully. At the end of the wall opposite the egress was another door. On closer inspection, she found a bathroom. It was large and garish as she would have expected it to be. More white marble and gold. A shower that would have fit the entire White Guard, and Risa wouldn’t have put it past Jenna to have put them all in there. A lap pool-sized bathtub, and a couple of toilets. At the back of the bathroom was a massive walk-in closet. The stench of moth balls and dust made her sneeze. One wall had two stacked racks filled with colorful gowns. Enough that Jenna could wear something different every day for months and not run out. The other side overflowed with accessories. Jewelry, shoes, belts, and anything else a girl would want to doll herself up. A circular ottoman sat in the middle of the space and at the end was a large vanity table with a mirror. It was the last place to search, but she knew before she even began that it wasn’t there. She’d been wrong. What she’d done—her betrayal of her love for Tessa—was for nothing. She’d failed. The muffled footsteps of dozens of people shuffled outside of the bathroom. Risa could hear weapons hissing as they slipped from sheaths, and then a single set of footsteps strode calmly into the bathroom to stand behind her. Risa did nothing. There would be no point. From the sounds of it, the entire White Guard were waiting.