by Maira Dawn
Sonora gasped, raising a hand to her mouth.
Desperation hastened Devon’s explanation. “I know what you’re thinking, you are—you have some DNA like them. Don’t worry, I’ve forgiven you that long ago. You couldn’t help how you were born.”
Sonora shook her head, unable to reconcile her uncle with the man who had done this to Ian. Her mind spun with shock and disgust. “But—but, I love you,” Sonora whispered. “How could you do this?”
“Because they are evil! One of them murdered my parents when I was a young child. I cowered under the bed and watched him viciously murder them. Grieving, my uncle raised a group to hunt them. But it became more than that. The things we have learned—”
Outraged, Ian practically spat at him, “Taken from us. From our very flesh and blood!”
Devon eyed the Atlantian but found little threat from a man who was still unsteady on his feet. Instead, he continued to work on Sonora. “The results have been amazing. Vaccines for smallpox, polio, and even the flu have been developed with their help. And now we are so close with cancer and heart disease. Think of the number of people who are alive today because of what we’ve done. A few men have been… used, so that thousands could live. It’s the way it has always been, Sunny!”
A tear worked its way over the rim of Sonora’s eye and trailed down her cheek.
“Stop,” Ian said to Devon.
But Devon couldn’t stop. He needed to explain. “I’ve protected your family from the beginning. I wanted your Aunt Claire before I knew what she was. When I found out, I couldn’t turn her over to them. So I struck a deal. I would be part of your family and report how the Atlantian’s decendents interacted with each other and humans as well as many other things.”
“No! Please say you didn’t to that,” Sonora cried.
“Honey, it kept you alive, protected you. Do you know how many times they wanted all of you in a lab? How many times I came up with some reason that couldn’t happen? I kept you safe. Me.”
Ian’s eyes narrowed. “Name these others you speak of?”
Devon glared at Ian for his interruption. “We don’t have formal names. It’s easier to stay hidden that way. They are just the History Museum group. They call the shots.”
Devon dismissed him, turning back to his niece. “I understand that you may have some—affection for him.” He tipped his head to Ian. “For you, I’ll let him go, back to the vile place he comes from. Just step aside.”
Sonora’s sick stomach threatened her throat. “It’s not a vile place! It is beautiful and amazing. They knew who—what I was, and they treated me well. Amazing, if you consider how humans treat them.”
“You have been there. I suspected as much.” Devon’s gaze moved to the floor, and Sonora hoped he was ashamed. “In return for their good treatment of you, this one will go home. Everyone gets something they want.” He waved her to himself.
“No. Uncle Devon. I’m going with Ian.”
“I cannot allow that, Sonora,” Devon said, with the firm voice he’d used when she misbehaved as a child. “That is not going to happen. I will make sure every cell of him is destroyed before I allow that.”
Ian raised himself from Sonora’s support, doing his best to stand tall.
Devon took the only opportunity he would get. Rushing to Sonora, he wrapped his hand around her upper arm, dragging her down the corridor. Ian cursed, and lumbered behind them, still unsteady on his feet.
“Stop it!” Sonora shrieked, struggling. “Please.”
“I need to get you away from him for you to understand. I’m the good guy here. I’ve held it all together when it could have come crumbling apart.”
Something hard shoved Devon to the ground, and his grip on Sonora tightened. It wrenched her arm and slammed her to the hard floor. Bones and muscles screamed in protest. Ian pushed her away from Devon. She laid stunned as Ian’s massive fist swung above her, landing on her uncle’s face.
Ian grabbed the taser from the floor beside Sunny and shoved it at Devon, allowing it to do its job. He watched Devon twitch. It wasn’t satisfying enough.
His gaze traveled to Sonora. She was stunned from the fall, but okay. Ian gave her another small shove to provide himself with some room and flipped Devon over. Standing over his enemy, one foot on each side of him, Ian raised his fist and let it fly.
Devon’s eyes widened, and he turned his head away. It didn’t matter. The blow would still rattle his brain.
Ian grabbed Devon’s shirt and hauled him up, giving himself a better angle to beat the man. Devon pushed at the hand holding him and worked his legs against the floor, frantic to get away before the next blow hit.
But he wouldn’t. Once again, Devon tried to shield himself. His cry echoed down the hall and back.
“Stop,” Devon tried to order.
“Like you stopped when I asked the same of you? You treated me as no more than a mollusk on the seabed. Now you will see how it feels.”
Devon’s gaze flicked to Sunny and back. “She will never stay with you, you know. Not unless you chain her to you. Then she will despise you.”
Ian’s gaze went to Sunny as she slowly pushed herself up from the floor. “You do not know what you are saying.” He raised his fist higher.
“I do. My wife is half-Atlantian. You know that. We have forever tried to be more than we were able, and we hate each other for it. Sonora can’t be what you want her to be. Ever. She will disappoint you at every turn, until you hate the sight of her, hate the day you met her. And she, you.”
Ian felt sick. This man knew how to twist his mind. He tried to ignore Devon, push his words away, but they kept coming. “Still, you will stay together, because what else will you be able to do? You will have taken her away from everything she loved up here long ago. You and she will go on like that until she dies an old crone while you are still as young as you are now. And you will still mourn her as your mate because that is what your DNA tell you to do.”
Devon fired his last few words. “I’m right. You already know I’m right.”
“No!” Ian drew back his fist and threw a mighty blow. The impact push Devon across the floor, near Sonora.
Devon slid to a stop. “Something feels wrong,” he murmured, unable to move his jaw.
“It’s okay,” Sonora said, her eyes rounded in disbelief as she bent toward him. “We’ll get you—”
She looked up at Ian as he stalked over. “No, Ian! No! He’s had enough. Look at him! And he’ll go to jail for all he’s done.”
Devon scrambled up as fast as he could, his feet sliding on the shiny tile. Sonora reached to steady him.
Ian advanced, his fiery rage not nearly quenched, though he was slower with each step as his body began to fail him again.
Devon tried to say something to Sunny but winced. Something was wrong with his face. With his whole head, actually. His brain continued to swirl from the battering he’d received. All he knew is that he had to save Sunny.
“No,” she said. “No, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to go with you.”
Devon glanced behind him. The abomination was breathing fire and death. A giant of a man coming at him and Sunny. With trembling hands, he pushed Sunny behind him.
Sunny struggled forward, but he shoved her back again. He wouldn’t let that thing have her. Not his beloved niece.
He prepared himself to battle the giant Atlantian for her.
When Sunny tried to come around Devon again, the big man was almost upon him. He needed to keep her behind him. He gave her a mighty heave backward.
Sunny flew back, her head smacking the wall.
Devon heard the crack of Sonora’s skull. It reverberated through him the same way his mother’s had on the day she died. His stomach twisted, and he gagged.
The Atlantian stopped, his eyes wide.
Devon was afraid to look but needed to help her. He swung around. The images of his mother and Sonora overlaid each other in his mind until he couldn’t breathe.
What had he done?
Sunny’s body slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood behind.
Thirty-Five
The Best Thing
Chapter Thirty-Five
Devon reached out to his niece. Ian shoved him aside. There was no way that mad scientist was going to touch his Jata Ara.
With a far gentler hand than many would consider him capable, Ian crouched and gathered Sunny up. He wrapped himself around her, his gaze roving her limp body. He turned and roared at Devon. "You've killed her! Wasn't the horror you inflicted on me and my kind enough? You had to take her too?"
Devon shook his head back and forth. Tears flooded his eyes as Sonora's head lolled against Ian's arm, and he uttered a loud, expressive groan. If the man had been anyone else, Ian would've felt for him. But this man had earned no pity from him. Devon turned and fled down the hallway.
Ian laid his head close to Sunny's, waiting for the grief to overtake him. At least, he had a few moments with her in quietness before the black overtook him. When some time passed, he frowned. This seemed too long. Could she be?
Carefully, Ian reached for her. It wouldn't do to overwhelm her already damaged body. She groaned.
A blazing light warmed Ian. She was alive!
Ian pulled Sonora higher so he could feel her breath on his neck. He stood, trying to ignore the blood covering the hand he had beneath her head. At a crossroads in the hallways, he wasn't sure where they'd come from. Should he follow Devon, or would that lead further into this dungeon? Desperation colored his voice. “Edinara, I do not know which way to go."
With no response from Sunny, he peered from one hallway to another. Rage had seemed to burn the drugs away. He just needed a direction.
Sonora's eyes blinked open. She gasped and narrowed them against the brightness. Then pointed and whispered, "There. Across from a room full of cases, there is a hidden door. I left it open a little."
Sunny closed her eyes and let her head fall against him, and Ian rushed down the hallway.
There it was! He could see the door, only a small bump in the wall. He pulled it open with his foot and bullied through the cleaning closet with thumps and clatters.
Bursting into the hallway, Ian's stomach relaxed when he saw a mother and two small children walking toward a restroom. The woman pulled the little one tight to her side, and the children looked at him with big eyes. The scars on him would be enough to scare them, let alone his size or the fact he held an injured woman. The mother's gaze went to Ian's chest. He was barely dressed according to human standards.
But he had no time to worry about what they thought. "Woman! How do I leave this building?"
She paled.
"Please, woman! She is injured."
At last, she seemed to realize what he needed and tipped her head in the direction. "That way and to the left. Do you want an ambulance?"
Ian was already moving past her.
Once in the lobby, he could see the outer doors. There was a trail of gasps and whispers as he rushed past.
"Sir! Sir! Do you need help?" A young security guard rushed over, eager to perform his duties.
Ian ignored him.
"Sir! If that happened here, we need to take care of it. You can't just leave."
Ian barely gave the guard a thought. He would do what he wanted. He continued his race for the front doors.
"Sir! You must stop! I can't let you go until this is straightened out.”
Ian couldn't let anyone stop him. When the guard fumbled with a taser, Ian's rage flared. A fist to the young man's face, and he dropped without a sound. But there were two more behind him.
Ian ran for the door, Sonora cried out as her head bounced against his arm. Her hand dug into him like small claws.
The others gained on him, tasers at the ready.
Ian could hear more pounding steps and glanced over his shoulder. He growled when he saw tasers in the guard's hands. Did everyone in this air-addled world have the desire to hurt others?
"Caspian!" Ian jerked his gaze forward as the men behind him slowed. His father stood at the doors along with a line of people. His people and Blake. He sagged with relief at the sight of their armor and ready weapons. He was safe now!
Ian rushed to a beckoning Blake. The old man yelled out, "Call 911 now! Sonora needs an ambulance!"
Most of the crowd stayed locked on the odd sight of the Atlantians, but Blake's call shook a few into action.
"No!" Ian said. "I want to take her to Atlantis."
"You can't take her to Atlantis, Ian," Blake said. “She won't make it."
Ian wanted away from here. He wasn't sure his under the sea home was even far enough. "Father, did you bring a healer?"
"Son," Jorah said, his expression falling. "We do not know if humans can use it. I do not think your beloved should be the first."
A worker rushed over. "I know some first aid. I have some bandages to press against the bleeding."
Ian allowed the man to put a cloth over Sonora's wound. She winced and groaned as he did so, and her hands tightened on Ian. But when he was done, she settled back into Ian's arms. "You are a brave woman, Edinara. So very brave."
She gave him a small smile.
There were a few flashes, and when no one objected, light exploded from the other side of the room. The crowd was awestruck. In their strong, yet flexible dark-blue armor, the Atlantians would be unlike anything the humans had seen. The armed warriors stood side by side, unwilling to let anyone pass. Their weapons were now holstered, but their scowls kept most everyone at bay.
One security guard taking his job too seriously caused two Atlantians to draw their weapons. Sonora reached up and wrapped her hand in Ian's hair, using it to pull his face closer. "Don't hurt them," she whispered.
"Do not worry, Sunny," Ian assured her. "The weapons will stun them, with far less fury and pain than your tasers. They will merely fall to the ground, asleep and out of our way."
Jorah turned to the crowd. "Do not be afraid. We are your neighbors from the sea, and we have come for my son. My people have been abused by yours for decades. We now know who is accountable, and it will end today." He pointed at the security guards. "If you object, you will feel the bite of our weapons." Both guards put their hands up in surrender and backed away.
The wail of an ambulance reached them, and Ian closed his eyes. Please, let them help his beloved.
A few hours later, Sonora's eyes fluttered open to clean white walls, crisp white sheets. The hospital. There was a stir beside her, and carefully, she turned her head. Ian sat on the bed on the other side of the curtain, the divider partially pulled between them. His gaze immediately turned to her.
Without regard for the nurse, or the work she was trying to do, he leaped from the bed. The woman followed him as he made his way to Sonora.
Heedless of the nurse's adamant cries calling for him to stop, Ian came straight for her, grinning. "Sunny!"
"I'm fine now, you silly man." Sonora smiled as he hovered over her, lightly kissing each cheek, her forehead, then her lips. "You're in the middle of getting fixed up, let the nurse do her work."
"She can do it here."
The nurse rolled her eyes. "You’ve got a mule of a man here. I don't envy you." Her eyes roved Ian's still half-naked body. "Well, most of the time, anyway."
"I know," Sonora said with a long-suffering sigh. "Most days, I don't know what to do with him either."
"Stop, woman." Ian lovingly ran a finger down Sonora's cheek. "I am the best thing that has happened to you."
Sonora giggled. That may be true, but she wasn't going to let him know that.
When the nurse finished and left, Sonora asked, "The disease, the one you said we were infected with?"
Ian took Sonora's hand. "They have examined your blood many times, but they say they find no infection in it. But I would be happier if our own people worked on this." At Sonora's worried expression, Ian kissed her hand. "However, my lovely lady, I saw what it did
to the human, Vincent. Within minutes of exposure to such a concentrated source, he was coughing blood. A lot of it. There is no sign of that with you."
"And you?"
"I will not let a needle near me. Not after what happened in that lab. The massive needles shoved through my body…” He looked away, clearing his throat, and Sonora took his hand. "I could not even stomach the tiny ones they used on you. But I show no signs. And Father says we have nothing to worry about. He knows much more about this than I do."
The corners of Sonora's mouth curled upward in a wide grin of joy. Ian bent to kiss her. After, her gaze traveled Ian's face. Now they could live, and she would help him heal. It was clear Ian suffered emotionally from what happened. Because of her uncle. She was determined to help Ian get rid of every memory, no matter how long it took. She ran a hand down his arm to entwine their hands.
"Does he?" she asked.
"He is on the council. I was merely tasked with finding the box. The council knows things about the disease and the cure the rest of us do not. I was not sure this was the disease. Father says it is. And that they will give it a name, AgFlu."
Thirty-Six
Reeling
Chapter Thirty-Six
A lump of ice grew in the pit of Sonora's stomach. Was this really happening? Her grasp on Ian's hand tightened. "I can't believe humans are really going to destroy themselves."
"I can," Ian replied. "It is what humans do best. Look at their history."
She shot him a sour look. "You need to cut us some slack. Most especially, because I don't want to continually hear that we are second-class citizens."
Ian frowned. "You are not human. You are Atlantian."
Sonora crossed her arms. "Who is three-quarters human."