by C Cato
“And if you can’t be fixed?” asked Talic.
“I go back to the dark.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Sonya
The weather took a turn for the worse as the train-like, segmented car made its way further north. They were still on their way to the Vault, where Elise and Ditre were hiding. Mud and ice slowed down their progress, but the A’amoth assured her it kept the Valkyrie from coming after them.
She spent most of her time in the medical car, keeping an eye on the two patients. Dallas had a steady stream of visitors. Sonya met Tessa, his wife, and Morgan the other husband. She wept along with them as they, and Risa mourned the deaths of Nor and Riley.
The second man, Ray, did not have as many visitors, and they were all A’amoth. Any conversations they had remained between them.
She slept in the car with them, and Keet and Talic alternated nights in bed with her while the other slept in the bunk above. Cole was in a coma-state, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to go see him yet. She also couldn’t reach him like she had before.
Although the cars had electricity, they didn’t have a heating system. On the morning of their second week of travel, she found herself wrapped in layers of blankets and leaching heat from Talic who sat at her back on the bunk next to Ray’s. Dallas was able to sit up and talk for longer periods of time, and she Tessa and the guys took turns with him. He lay on his back snoring softly and Risa was on her side, picking at the sheets.
Sonya studied her friend. She’d been quiet for most of the trip. Choosing only to speak when she was sharing information or giving orders. A duty she appeared to be splitting with Lirra.
“Risa?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She frowned and nodded, lowering her head until it rested on her arm. “While I was pretending to be a Valkyrie I worked with Tessa and her husbands. They accepted me as one of their own, and I fell in love with Tessa.”
Sonya was confused. “But aren’t you a lesbian?”
A weak chuckle made her shake. “Yep, still totally gay. I mean they accepted me like one of the family. I really liked them all. Nor was the rock of the group. He had this way of always making you want to listen. Like what he was saying was super reasonable.” Tears soaked into the sheets beneath her. “Riley was just so eager to please. Such a sweetheart and funny. Losing them has been so hard on the others.”
Sonya voiced the unsaid words. “And you?”
Risa sniffed. “Yeah. Me, too. I just don’t know what to do to help them.”
“They will want to know you love them,” rumbled Talic.
Sonya loved the vibrations against her back.
“Be with them.”
“Yeah. Good advice. This is new territory for me.”
“Really?” asked Sonya. “You’re pretty hot. Especially for someone your age.”
Risa raised her free arm up and flipped her the bird.
Sonya laughed quietly, and Talic shook with silent laughter behind her.
“That is a gesture that has survived the ages,” teased Talic.
“I bet it has,” said Sonya when she could control herself. “You’re a good-looking woman, Risa. I would have thought you’d have your pick.”
“Not that I didn’t have my share of offers. I just never took them up on it.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a killer. I do it easily and with no remorse. In the military, I was a sniper, and when we moved to government and then private contracts, I did all the wet work. Just didn’t think a woman would want to get involved with someone like that.”
“What’s changed?”
“Tessa’s a soldier. Killing isn’t frowned upon in the same way. I guess I’m better suited for this time.”
“Sonya, Risa, we have arrived,” called Lirra.
Sonya straightened without breaking Talic’s hold. “Soren?”
“Present. I’ll go and get the others. We’re going to stay here and pull all the supplies out of the storeroom, too, so it’s a good time to stretch your legs. Do you mind if the munchkin comes and spend some time with you? Maybe Connie and Malik, too? They’ve been asking about you.”
Sonya pressed her hand to her chest. How could she have forgotten about them? “Please. I don’t want to disturb Ray or Dallas, so bring them to the car I had before.”
“Will do.”
Sonya kissed Risa and let Talic and Keet take her back to the car she’d woken up in. Where Cole laid. When she stepped inside and saw him her knees shook violently, and if not for Talic she would have crashed.
He could have been sleeping. She stood over him with Talic and Keet lending support on either side of her. Face serene and relaxed. Soren had arranged his arms to rest against his chest, and his body breathed on its own. Whatever was wrong with the Halo, without the reboot, his consciousness remained locked away from his body. But it was temporary. She needed that password.
“Sonya!” screeched a high-pitched voice, followed by a dark-haired blur that ran into the car.
Sonya dropped to her knees and opened her arms to wrap Elise in a tight hug.
“Oh sweetheart, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too. Uncle Lin and Uncle Ditre took care of me.” Then she noticed Cole. “Is Daddy sleeping? Who are they?” she said pointing to Keet and Talic.
She sighed and set the girl away to gaze her in the eyes. “While we were away, Cole was injured. He’s sleeping, but he can’t wake up.”
Tears instantly rained down her face. “But he promised!”
“What did he promise?”
“He promised, he wouldn’t leave me,” she wailed.
Sonya sat fully and pulled Elise into her lap. Talic took up the spot behind her, his legs outside her own, and Keet in front. Sonya nestled back into his welcome heat.
“I’m going to do everything I can to fix him. You can help me. We’ll get him to wake up together.”
Elise hiccupped, and Sonya held in a laugh.
“Really?”
“Really. Now as for these two, they are my mates. This is Talic,” she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. “And that one is Keet.”
Elise swiveled her head from one to the other, an infectious grin splitting her adorable face. “You’re my daddies, too?”
“If you would like that, yes,” said Keet.
The door opened again, and a gust of cold air made her shiver. Talic draped himself across her back. Malik and Connie came inside but were much more subdued than Elise.
“Don’t be shy. Do you remember Keet?”
Connie bobbed her head enthusiastically and ran to him to wrap her arms around his neck.
“Hello, little one.”
“You can talk!” she said excitedly.
“I can indeed.”
Malik was slower to join them. He dragged his feet until he had reached Sonya and Elise, his head bowed. “Hi.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Elise, sitting up.
“I don’t have a mommy or daddies now,” he said, making circles with his toe.
“That’s okay. Sonya can be Mommy, and Keet, Talic, and Cole can be daddies. Well Cole has to wake up, but he will.”
Malik raised his chin, and the smile that bloomed made Sonya think her heart would explode. Elise jumped from her lap and wrapped her arms around him. They were the same age and similar heights, so her arms hooked around his shoulders. He tensed, his eyes growing wide.
“I’ll be your sister!”
He relaxed and lifted his arms to return the hug.
“I think it’s safe to say, our family has just expanded,” said Sonya, her grin stretching to the extreme.
They were joined by Lirra, Lafa, and Tessa.
“Winter is coming sooner than expected,” said Lirra. “We need to keep moving or we could be trapped in the pass.”
Malik and Elise snuggled with Sonya, and Connie sat with Keet and played with his tail.
>
“We may have a bigger issue. My Halo needs a reboot, and Cole’s will as well. We need a code for it. That’s probably in one of those damn journals. We need to get them back.”
“Yes, that had been part of the operation,” said Lirra, she pulled something from her thick robes. Journals. Two of them, anyway. “Ray was able to recover these. We found them not far from him. Do you think the answer will be there?”
Sonya examined the books. One was from her stolen batch, but the other she’d never seen before. Where had it come from? “I can only hope one of these have the answer. He and I are on borrowed time. I don’t know if Ian fixed the degradation issue or not, but if he didn’t the cells maintained by the nanobots will deteriorate. It was the second flaw of the genesis.”
“How long do you have?” asked Talic. His tail slipped around her waist.
“A month? Maybe two. We’ll probably just get weaker and die.”
“We probably have the means to repair you and hack the system. Do you think you can make it that far?” said Lirra.
“Do we have a choice?”
“No,” said Soren, knocking his boots against the side of the door to get rid of excess mud. “We can’t stay in the Vault through winter. The tributary will lose power when the water source freezes. The regular humans would freeze to death down there. And there’s not enough room for everyone.”
“Then I guess we’re all going with you. I’ll check the journals to see if they are going to be any help at all.”
“If not, we will find a solution. All of us,” said Keet. “We didn’t find you and fight for you only to lose you again.”
“Besides, we still have real bonding to do,” said Talic.
Sonya chuckled. “Not in front of the children.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Epilogue
The chains were loud as they rattled next to her ear. Each movement wrung a hiss from her lips as the hard metal chafed the fine skin away.
“So sorry to have kept you waiting, Willow. Had to arrange to have riders sent out after those awful monsters. Need to retrieve my property after all.” Mother Superior glided into her field of vision.
They were in Jenna’s chambers, and the sun was beating down on the domed windows, heating up the space to an uncomfortable degree. Sweat rolled steadily off Willow’s chin and down her back. Chained to the wall, there was a clear view of the room. The furniture was rearranged to account for her position as “display”. Bile washed across her tongue, and she swallowed.
She’d made a mistake. A lot of them. In hindsight, it was easy to see how her decision to betray her brother wasn’t well-thought-out. Now, he was dead. Because of her.
Of course, she hadn’t planned on getting skewered either. For years, she’d hidden her mixed parentage from the Valkyrie, rising in the ranks to become General. The position suited her. She had come to care about these women. In the end, all they wanted was to keep humans from becoming extinct. It was a cause she could get behind. A way to forget her past and find some purpose to move forward. Although it was true, she found their methods odd and had a hard time adjusting at first, it became easier as time went on. Came to see the wisdom of keeping known breeding women under sedation and collecting women that had run away. It was all to protect them. Without women, they would cease to exist.
Ray coming back into her life had set her world spinning. She’d thought he was dead. Another casualty of the Hounds sent out to find Sentinel One. To learn the Valkyrie – Jenna—had lied to her had been a serious blow. Then to learn he was involved with the very people she was supposed to find… how was she supposed to cope with that?
Seeing her father for the first time had been like a nail in her coffin. More lies and betrayal. For twelve years, she believed her father and his people hated her and her brother. That they were both so lucky to have been born appearing mostly human. She and Ray had kept it secret when they learned they had Thought like the other A’amoth, afraid of what their grandfather would do if he found out. He was a hard man, but there was no reason not to believe him. Their mother was dead, and Ray had been old enough to remember poor treatment for being a half-breed.
Meeting Kofa made her question her entire existence.
There was no doubting the sincerity behind his Thought, the tears he shed at seeing her. The warmth of his embrace when he held her while she cried. No denying the love he had for her. Even after twenty-three years of being away from him.
But if everything was a lie, then everything she had done in the name of saving her species made her a monster. Every male she slaughtered. Each screaming woman she dragged back to Haven. Standing over the bodies of those that didn’t. The tortured screams of Sentinel One and Lafa.
She tugged on the thick chains that kept her bolted to the wall. Everyone makes mistakes.
“Before we get started, I need to make a call.” Jenna put on a pair of gloves with flashing lights and dark glasses. She tacked a clear film across the posts of her bed. There was a low whining sound like something powering up and suddenly the languid, almost vapid demeanor of Jenna was gone. Willow stood straighter and squared her shoulders.
Behind her, Willow could only imagine, the empty smile was gone too. Using her hands, Jenna made strange gestures in the air.
“Agent Ten, reporting,” she said, to the screen.
Willow couldn’t see anything on the film, but she heard a male voice responding.
“Excellent, Ten. We were starting to think we needed to send a replacement.”
Jenna sniffed and her neck twitched. “That is not necessary, Chancellor. I have had some interesting developments in the past month that have kept me busy.”
“Developments?”
“We not only located Sentinel One, but we were able to lay hands on live mutant specimens. Due to circumstances beyond my control they have escaped.”
The silence stretched on and Jenna shifted on her feet. “Escaped. That is truly unfortunate. We need the specimens back Agent.”
Jenna nodded. “Understood, sir. I have sent Valkyrie to recapture them—”
“No!”
The woman took a step back as though something terrible was about to step through the film.
“I am sending a team to work with you. We will no longer be relying on your pet humans.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is there anything else I need to know?”
“Sir, during the attack to free Sentinel One, all power was disabled to the city. The livestock was all lost.”
Willow heard an audible swallow from Jenna.
“Then it’s safe to say your little experiment is nearly over. Once the specimen are retrieved, you will return here with your team.”
“And the people of Haven?” she asked with no inflection to give away how she felt.
“Termination.”
Jenna visibly stiffened, but the strain didn’t translate to her voice. “Understood. Orders?”
“Await the new team. Do not try and retrieve Sentinel One on your own. Your incompetence has been noted on your permanent record.”
“Of course, sir.”
“You’re dismissed.”
Her shoulders drooped, and a heavy sigh blew from her lips. She removed her gloves, pulling daintily at each finger until she held them both in one hand.
“Fuck!” she screamed, throwing them on the bed. With jerky motions, she removed the screen and then pivoted to face Willow.
If there was a way to back away, she would have. Gone was the woman she’d known and admired. Dark eyes narrowed, a sneer lifting her lip. She advanced with slinky, stalking steps.
“Years of work gone down the drain,” she growled.
Willow pulled hard against her restraints and whimpered. “Jenna, why am I here like this? I don’t understand.”
Mother Superior’s sinister sneer morphed into a wide grin. Blood in her veins turned instantly to ice.
“My dear General. Oh,” she said with a pout, running
the blade of a finger on Willow’s chin. “I mean ex-General. You have been keeping secrets from me. We can’t have that.”
A sharp fingernail trailed down her neck and flicked her nipple. Willow stifled a groan. Of course, she’d slept with Mother Superior, most of the White Guard had, but this was not the woman she knew. The scratching tip continued its journey down her naked flesh to stop on the tender area under her left breast. The same place the sword had exited her chest. Like the other A’amoth, she had accelerated healing, and Cole had removed the sword he had used to try and kill her, but it had to have taken days to heal. The only clue as to how long she’d been on the wall.
“You healed from something that should have killed you almost instantly. That makes you my new test subject.”
“The Valkyrie will not accept you torturing one of their own.”
She gave a graceful shrug. “Probably not. They won’t know, though. They are mourning your death after all. Now then. Let’s get reacquainted. I have so many questions for you.”
Willow knew terror like never before, caught in Jenna’s dark gaze. A gaze that pulsed with an inner red glow.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christina is a frivolous, single, kid-at-heart, that spends her time jumping between a full-time shoemaking job, trying to convince others to build things, and writing. She lives in Oregon with her best friend, two cats and a crazy dog.
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