by T. J. Quinn
***
I kept an eye on Sylan during the following weeks, just in case. I didn’t think him much of a threat, but I knew he used scavengers when it suited his interests. The Septian was untrustworthy and capable of enough harm.
Things between Maya and me had fallen into a passionate routine. I would spend days working while she tried all the recipes she laid her hands on, and we would spend the nights making love.
Life was almost perfect.
Putting up with the Septians daily and the Asseptians occasionally was enough to ruin any man’s life. I did my best to do my job without raising any suspicion, but it was particularly hard to ignore the cries of those taken to the slaughter – the quarters where those meant to be infected by the parasites were kept.
I wish I could help them. I spent hours trying to find a way to wake up my men and get rid of the parasites, but it only took one look at the dragons to know I was way over my head. The beasts were practically invincible, and it would take a whole army to put one down. There were six of them in the city, and one of them was a black one, the most dangerous of them all.
It frustrated me feeling helpless and unable to do a thing to change things.
I guess I could pick Maya and leave the city, but the world outside the city walls was unknown to me, and I was the enemy. Even if the Asseptians didn’t send the dragons after me, we would be hunted down by humans.
Staying was my best shot, but I still felt crappy about it.
Being with Maya was the only thing that made me feel better. Her arms had the power to make me forget all of the things I hated but couldn’t change.
I still hadn’t claimed her. Though I knew her feelings for me had grown, I didn’t think she was ready for the claiming ritual, nor was I sure how it would affect her. As far as I knew, no Slyth had ever claimed a human female, so I had no idea how that would go. I wouldn’t risk what I had… not yet.
However, I should have known things were never that easy.
One afternoon, a couple of months after I took Maya home, I bumped into a furious Kayla. The Septian female was almost fuming.
“Have you seen Sylan?” she asked in a harsh tone. “He was supposed to give me the list of the new breeders, and I haven’t seen him in hours,” she complained.
“I haven’t seen him,” I answered in a plain tone, though my heart had stopped for a moment.
She scoffed. “Of course, you haven’t. I don’t even know why I bothered asking…” she ranted, walking past me. “Damn puppets!”
Clenching my hands into fists, I ignored her insults and focused on what she had told me.
Sylan was missing. The slimy piece of shit had been acting strange lately, but I ignored it. After all this time, I had convinced myself he had forgotten Maya and moved on.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
I needed to get home as soon as possible, but I couldn’t simply leave. If I was wrong and Sylan’s disappearance had nothing to do with Maya, I would be exposing us by quitting ahead of time. I needed to be patient and wait one more hour before I could go home.
If Maya followed the rules, the alarm would warn her of their presence, and she would have enough time to hide in the safe room. But lately, my guts had been telling me she was spending time outside. I hadn’t confronted her about it, but now I knew it had been a mistake. One that could cost both our lives.
Chapter Eleven
Maya
Life was good.
I could finally say those words, and it warmed my heart like nothing else. There was a sense of normality in my life I hadn’t felt in years, and it felt better than I expected. Happily, Ryoko and I had fallen into a cozy routine that pleased us both, and passion between us seemed to know no limit. What else could I ask for, right?
However, with routine came a false sense of security. After several weeks of living in this part of the city without seeing anything – not even animals – I started to feel it would be safe to go out.
Dauntlessly, I left the house one afternoon and strolled towards the thick walls that protected the city. I explored it thoroughly, looking for a place to cross over to the other side without triggering any alarms or being caught on the surveillance cameras the Asseptians had installed all over the area.
On day two, I finally found a tunnel dug on the ground, big enough for me to crawl through and get to the other side. The wall was thick, but I could see the light on the other side, so I didn’t doubt crawling through it.
Ryoko had gotten me some clothes from a scavenger, so I didn’t have to worry about what I would wear if I tore these clothes into shreds.
Once on the other side, I got up and looked around, marveled with all the trees and wildflowers scattered around the place. It felt as if I had stepped into a secret world.
That first day, I had spent most of the time looking for mushrooms and edible vegetables to add to my recipes. For once, the day had gone by so fast I almost got home after Ryoko. I hadn’t told him about my little excursions, and I didn’t plan to.
He failed to understand my need to wander off. After so many years imprisoned between four walls, wandering through the woods was priceless. It reminded me of when I played with Fallon, my best friend in the woods behind our houses.
We would spend the whole day playing in it, especially after my father built us a small treehouse. We used to watch the sun go down from our tree on the long summer days. I had missed those days so much while I watched my life going by behind bars in the children’s quarters’ windows.
This morning was no different. I got up, made Ryoko breakfast, and told him goodbye by the door before I rushed to the bedroom to change into more comfortable clothes. I had found a small creek not far from the walls a couple of days ago, and I wanted to explore it a bit more.
I had read about a plant called watercress that was supposed to be rich in vitamins and minerals and still tasted delicious. It was used in many salad recipes in my books, and I wanted to try it. I didn’t remember eating it when I was a child, so it only made me more curious.
It was way past noon when I heard the noise. It startled the small birds and squirrels on the trees, sending chills of dread down my spine.
I wasn’t alone in the woods.
The creek I was in coursed down on a small ravine, and I was partially hidden from anyone wandering the woods, but it was only a matter of time for whoever it was to find me.
Cursing my luck, I ducked and tried to figure out where the sound came from. I needed to get the hell out of there, fast, but the last thing I wanted was to run into the intruders.
Paying attention to all the sounds around me, I finally heard it again, a male’s voice. He was too far for me to understand what he was saying, but I could determine it came from where I used to cross over.
“Shit! Shit!” I cursed in silence, trying to remember a place where I could hide. The woods were crowded with trees and small animal lairs, but no hills or caves where I could hide. At least, not in the area I had been exploring.
Looking around, I decided to go up the creek. I wouldn’t be able to go as fast as I should, but it would keep me out of sight, and I would be able to come back down when it was safe. It would also be harder to track me down if I stayed in the water.
Making as little noise as possible, I rushed up the stream, stopping from time to time to make sure I wasn’t being followed, but despite my efforts, the males’ voices sounded closer and closer.
It was as if they had a tracking device on me, which was impossible. Ryoko had told me he had long disabled the one the Asseptians had inserted on my forearm. They had no way to find me that way. They had to be using something else.
Desperate, I hastened my pace as I looked for a better place to leave the creek and start running. I needed to lose whoever was after me. Ryoko’s warnings rang in my ears, and I regretted having gone so far from the house. If I had been near the passage, I might have made it to the house and the safe room he had built for me.
&n
bsp; Now, I was running for my life deep in the woods, not even knowing who was after me or how dangerous they were.
The ravine I was in grew smaller, and I quickly climbed out of the water, leaving as few footprints as I could, before I started to run as fast as I could from the creek.
“She’s out of the water,” I distinctively heard someone saying, and my heart jumped in my chest.
“Don’t let her get away,” a louder voice echoed, and I almost passed out.
It was Sylan. I would recognize his voice anywhere.
“Damn it!” I cursed, running faster, oblivious of the bushes scratching my skin in my need to put some distance between me and my pursuers.
How the hell was he tracking me? I knew I had no tracking device in me. He would have found me a lot sooner if that was the case, so it had to be something else. A tracking device on the clothes I was wearing? An infrared scanner? They would have to be a lot closer than they were. So, what?
Knowing I would be dooming Ryoko if I got caught, I started taking my clothes off while running through the woods, leaving them scattered all over the place.
I took them all off, even my shoes. It was still too cold to wander naked through the woods, but that would be actually helpful if they were using infrareds, right?
Running as fast as I could, I followed the creek. Not long after I got rid of my clothes, I heard someone shouting, furious.
“We lost the signal,” someone said.
“She got rid of her clothes; of course, you lost the signal,” Sylan ranted. “She can’t be far. Spread out and find her, or I’ll make sure the dragons have you for breakfast,” the weasel threatened the men, and I let out a silent cry of sheer frustration.
Why was he after me? What was wrong with the bastard?
The sun was coming down, and I got even more scared. I needed to find a safe place to hide from the men, or soon I would have other things to worry about, like all the wild animals that wandered these woods.
Breathless, I stopped for a moment and looked around, trying to see anything amongst the trees surrounding me, but the vegetation was too thick for me to see anything.
“Ryoko, where are you when I need you?” I called out, knowing he was too far away to hear her but wishing my thoughts could travel all the way to where he was.
I got going as fast as I could, trembling with cold and fear, but determined not to be caught by the Septian male. With the last beams of daylight, I ran further up the stream, trying not to leave footprints behind me.
Unexpectedly, I missed my foot and slid down the small ravine into the creek, the cold water making me tremble even more. Cursing my luck, I got up and saw a small cave not far from where I was. It disappeared deep into the ravine, and it was probably some animal’s lair, but right then, all I could think of was that I still had men after me.
Taking a deep breath, I rushed into the cave, going as far as possible from the entrance, until the cave became too small for me to walk in it.
Exhausted and still trembling, I let myself fall to the dirty ground, too tired to stand.
I stayed there, as silently as I could, attentive to the sounds echoing inside the cave, to make sure I hadn’t been followed. I was so cold I shuddered visibly, and no matter what I did, I didn’t seem to be able to warm myself.
How the hell had Sylan been able to insert a tracking device on my clothes? Ryoko had brought them to me a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn’t put them on. So, he could have found her a while ago, but he waited until she was out of the house.
The whole situation worried me so much, I couldn’t stop thinking about the consequences. Had Sylan told the Asseptians about Ryoko? What would happen if he had? Would they kill Ryoko? What would happen to me then?
The questions swirled my mind relentlessly, and I was about to lose my mind with it all.
“Ryoko, please… please, come home. I need your help,” I started mumbling, repeatedly, trying to invoke him, to let him know we were in danger.
Mostly, I wanted him to get the hell out of the Asseptians’ quarters, just in case, Sylan had told everyone he was no longer under the effect of the toxin.
However, I had little hope my callings would get to him. I had no idea how the telepathy thing worked, but he had never tried to contact me while he was away at work.
With nothing better to do, I kept calling him, murmuring the words as if prayer was, over and over again.
I lost track of time, too cold and too tired for anything other than staying there. When there was barely any light in the cave, a muffled sound took me out of my daze.
Someone had just slipped in one of the rocks at the entrance of the cave.
Still shuddering, I tried to get up, supporting myself against the cave’s rocky wall. I knew it wasn’t Ryoko. I could feel it in my bones, and that scared me even more.
“Ryoko!” I called out his name in my mind once more, feeling desperate.
Chapter Twelve
Ryoko
Who was I fooling?
Though I pretended not to know, I knew Maya had been spending time outside. Her cheeks were pink, and she had this special look in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.
If she had wandered off to the woods near the house, chances were she had been spotted by the scavengers Sylan used to hire to do his dirty work.
I need to get the hell out of there soon before she was captured by the Septian ruining our lives.
I looked up to the skies and saw one of the golden dragons preparing to land at the control center, and I had an idea. It was a crazy one, one that might end up with me killed, but right now, it was my best shot at getting to Maya before she was captured.
I ordered the dragon to land at once and informed the Septian working with me I needed to go for a ride with the dragon.
“Have you lost your mind?” the man asked with a deep frown.
“The dragon needs help. He won’t let me help him here, so I’ll go wherever he needs me to,” I explained as succinctly as possible.
“It’s your neck on the line,” the Septian said, shrugging. “Just make sure he returns to his nest when the time comes. Sergei hates seeing them on the buildings’ rooftops.”
I nodded and turned to see the imposing dragon not far from me. “I need you to take me somewhere. Can you do it?”
The dragon stared at me, eyes blanked, emotionless, and I sighed to myself, once more, at the enormity of what the Asseptians had done to such amazing creatures. They were nothing but brainless lethal weapons, used by one of the most dangerous species in the universe – the damned Asseptians.
“Just grabbed me with your claw and fly us west,” I ordered, and the dragon finally obeyed.
Relieved but also a bit scared, I watched his gigantic claw wrap itself around me just seconds before the dragon took off.
It only took him a few minutes to get to where our house was. I tried to reach Maya, but all I got back was stark silence. She wasn’t around.
I directed the dragon to the woods nearby, making him fly along the thick wall surrounding the city. I was trying to find the place Maya had been using to cross over to the woods, and fortunately, it only took me a few minutes to find the hole.
“Look for a human female,” I ordered the dragon.
He roared but did as told. Flying low, he searched for a while until he seemed to have picked her scent. Once he had it, he flew deeper into the woods, on a senseless path until he found a creek.
Maya had gotten into the water.
I looked around, getting more and more worried, trying to see any sign of her, but it was no use.
“Drop me off here. I’ll go alone from here,” I ordered the dragon. “Return to your nest.”
The dragon went as low as possible before releasing me, but it was still a considerable fall. Good thing my people had strong bones.
Once on the water, I followed the creek up, considering it would be Maya’s best chance at escaping whoever was hunting her down.
/> With my heart drumming in my chest, I went up as fast as I could, paying attention to any disturbance on the creek’s shores, looking for any sign of Maya.
I heard a piercing scream cutting through the thick silence of the woods, and my heart stopped for a moment. It was a woman’s scream.
Not sure if I was hearing Maya, I rushed towards the sound, praying she was safe and sound, and a few minutes later, I found a small camping area. Three men were sitting around a small campfire, and a fourth was teasing and groping a human female tied to a tree.
The woman was squirming and crying, trying to avoid the man’s touch, but she was tightly tied to the tree and could barely move the upper part of her body.
The men sitting by the fire were cheering the one standing and making lewd comments.
My claws tripled their size, becoming lethal weapons as I watched the men’s behavior furiously. I wanted to confront them and free the female, but Maya was my priority, and I couldn’t waste a second.
Despite my urgency, when the woman’s cry ripped through the night sky, I couldn’t walk away. Maya would probably hate me if I didn’t do anything to save her. Getting rid of the men would be pretty easy for me, and the world would be a better place without those scumbags.
Taking a deep breath, I covered my face as much as possible with my cloak’s hood and walked into the small clearing.
“I believe the woman is not happy with your attention. Why don’t you let her go?” I asked the man molesting the poor girl.
Startled, the man turned around to look at me. His friends jumped to their feet and grabbed their improvised weapons. Free humans had long used their arsenal of guns, and all they had left were arrows, swords, and knives, nothing for me to worry about.
“Who are you, and what the hell are you doing here?” the man spurted, picking a dagger from his waistband.
“That’s not important. What’s important is for you to do what I’m telling you so that I can go my way,” I said in a cold threatening tone.
