Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3)

by V. E. S. Pullen

  “Sure, but we still should’ve had her back. We should’ve been loyal to her, she was our friend—”

  “Okay, stop,” Justice interrupted them. “This sounds like something you need to work out between yourselves, or with her I guess—”

  “It’s already done. Water under the bridge with her, but like everything else that happened, we’ve got some regrets even though she’s totally past everything.”

  “She’s a woman, she’ll never be past it,” Horse muttered, and most of them agreed. “It’ll come back, she’ll use it—”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “No. For her, when it’s done, it really is done. You have to understand where she’s coming from… she’s sick. Really fucking sick, and she was getting sicker. Her whole life has been dedicated to producing the vaccine, she does things that are physically difficult or painful on a regular basis because that’s what it takes to provide the vaccine. She had resigned herself to a short, lonely, painful life because her only priority is saving other people — after losing basically everyone she’s ever known or cared about — and she doesn’t invest time or energy into games or manipulation or anything like that. No drama. It stresses her out. That’s why us being there, the whole study, was so infuriating to her. They were fucking with her and thinking she couldn’t see through it, and it was taking energy to deal with all of us.”

  “Those girls,” Luka continued, “they started messing with her and she shut them down immediately. Told them to shut their pretty little cock-holsters — yeah, you should laugh at that — because she gives no fucks what garbage people say about her. And it wasn’t just posturing, she really gave no fucks, no matter what they did, no matter— no matter how easy we made it for them to fuck with her. She shut it all down, told us to man the fuck up in not so many words, and then turned around and saved all of our lives. And I mean all of us, the girls too, the ones that were tormenting her. And I’m pretty sure one of them is in love with her now. The other guys sure as fuck are.”

  “I see that look on your face, Justice,” Sasha said, shaking his head. “You think we’re exaggerating, and if anything, we’re underplaying it. She walked us right the fuck off that base through hidden tunnels that she and her friend had kept hidden from everyone for years. After starting a mass evacuation of the town using a plan they’d also set up and been working on for years — because she knew if she left, they’d kill everyone on base to protect the secret. They had this fucking bunker with an entire armory in it, had been training themselves— she fucking took out Rufus, didn’t she? She’s got fucking blood cancer and she—”

  “Not cancer,” Luka interrupted him, and Sasha jerked in shock. “Sev told me, she explained to him and Tai — it gets called cancer but she’s not going to get tumors or anything, she said it’s not fatal like that, it’s just hard on her body with how her blood gets thick and then all the blood draws—”

  “Not cancer?” Could’ve been him. Could’ve been me. Whoever asked that out loud, our voice broke.

  Luka shook his head, grinning. “She’s just sick like it’s cancer, but it’s not—”

  “So she just feels like she has cancer? Wow, that sounds— horrific…” Ishaq let out a low whistle, making a face. “That really sucks.”

  “She’s feeling better though,” I said, looking at my brothers and watching their faces light up. “I forgot to say anything — under the bridge she told me, she’s starting to feel better now that Rachel isn’t poisoning her anymore—”

  “I’m sorry, what?!” Justice looked seriously confused, and outraged. I thought— I thought maybe he was getting attached.

  Luka nodded at his dad like Right?! “Her foster mom— her doctor forced her foster mom to overdose her on iron to make her disease worse so that she’d need more blood draws and produce more vaccine. And Azzie was so fucking pissed about that since they weren’t even distributing it like they said. Two years of being poisoned and feeling like utter shit, thinking her disease was getting worse and she had maybe a couple years left to live — all that and it didn’t even help people, and that’s what really upset her. The part about being poisoned by someone she trusted, preparing to die before she was twenty, that was just… that’s just what she expects to happen. People either die or they betray her, every fucking time. Dad, you don’t understand how fucked up everything was — is — she fucking… we don’t fucking deserve her, okay? You treated her like she won some prize with us, that’s not true — we’re the ones who won here. The fact that she even trusts us, let alone loves us… we hit the fucking jackpot here, we’re the luckiest motherfuckers in the fucking world.”

  “You can’t think of her like some bitch— just pussy or something,” Sasha shook his head at his dad, looking between all the men. “Repeated trauma, pressure we can’t even imagine. She doesn’t relate to people how you think she should looking at the surface, seeing this teenage girl. She doesn’t waste time on the polite games people play. You gotta think of her like a soldier, a veteran who’s seen some shit, lost everyone…” he looked at me and I nodded. “When you look at her, you can’t see a young girl, a sick girl, or even the source of the vaccine. You gotta see her as a fucking warrior. Stuff she’s been through— you’ll never meet anyone stronger, more driven, but she’ll never ask you for a fucking thing. She’ll never demand respect, never expect anything, you just gotta give it. You gotta look past what seems like disrespect or sass, ignore her age, her sex. Because that girl is dying a thousand deaths, every fucking day, just to save people, and if all we have to do to help her is look past her motor mouth, then that’s what we’ll do. She’s the fucking exception to every rule, and the five of us are going to make sure no one forgets that. We’ll have her back every time, we’ll fight every battle we fucking have to—”

  “Enough, Sasha,” his dad said, slumping wearily. “I got it. I got your point when you said it the first fifty times. I fucking got it when she called you a dick and your only response was to say you wanted her respect, like it was something you needed to earn. I didn’t like it, but I saw shit was different with her. You all are different with her. You think I’m stupid? That I’m so caught up in protocol and appearance — fucking lip-service — that I can’t understand or appreciate when shit’s different? I was surprised, okay? And fucking pissed when I thought you knocked up some mouthy bitch and were indulging her attitude problem, but the second she said my name is Aesli, I fucking got it. Even if I thought you were using her for a hot second, I still got it. My sons left for a month, came back wifed-up — sharing their old lady with two other dudes no less — and she’s arguably the most important person in the world right now. Give an old man a few minutes to adjust, maybe cut me some slack here.”

  “She is…” Luka breathed out, eyes wide, like he’d just figured out the secret to eternal life or something, the wonder and sheer awe in his voice was startling. “She’s our old lady.”

  “Umm, duh,” Sasha made a face at him and Luka made a face back then reached out and punched him in the arm, causing him to grunt and hold his arm, leaning back away from his brother. I winced in sympathy, Luka basically punched him where my bullet wound was. “SORRY! But it’s fucking obvious—”

  “To you, maybe! I’ve barely had any time with her—”

  “You fuckin’ ate her out! You and him both!” Sasha yelled, gesturing between us. “Don’t tell me you haven’t gotten any time, I’ve gotten a couple kisses and dry-humping!”

  “She named your dick Optimus Prime so that dry-humping must’ve been effective—” I mumbled, not thinking they heard me but both of them turned on me.

  “Whatever, Prometheus! Yeah, your dick is like a gift from the gods, the bringer of fire—”

  “Poor Sev hasn’t even gotten kisses. And what kind of name is Zastem or whatever the fuck she called him?”

  “Szass Tam,” Lore corrected. “I didn’t believe it when I first heard it — that’s a pretty obscure D&D reference — but Sev confirmed
it. Szass Tam is a lich, an undead wizard — actually, the most powerful of the Red Wizards of Thay, and the leader of the Legion of Bone, an army of the undead. Kind of like the Night King in Game of Thrones but even more of a badass.”

  “Oh. So that’s pretty good…”

  Lore chuckled. “Umm, yeah. Some bitch — sorry, woman — calls my dick Szass Tam, I’d put a ring on it too. How she even knew the reference—”

  “According to Sev, she’s like the greatest Dungeon Master in the world. I believe he said she rolled a crit and captured his heart? Something fucking ridiculous like that. She nerd-flirted with him, then let him into her game and he was fucking lost—”

  “She smacked her hand on the hood of our truck and gave us the finger and you were in love with her so don’t fucking try it—”

  “Right, like you weren’t completely gone over her when she told you to make yourself useful and take notes while she slept in class.”

  “I wasn’t! Not then. Interested, sure, but not— fine. It was when she got up on that table and announced to the whole school that the rumors were wrong about her fucking just me when she slept in my bed because all three of us were involved. I’d been interested before but she was fucking fearless, gave no fucks about anyone’s opinions, she took them all on— fucking fearless,” he repeated, shaking his head, staring off into nothing as we all listened to him, rapt. This was Sasha talking about falling in love — Luka looked as shocked as the rest of us to hear him talk like that. “Wanted to put my patch on her right then, have her by my side, on my bike. Wanted to leave right then, leave her behind. She was dying, I thought she was dying… I needed to leave, didn’t want to know when it happened. Couldn’t think about it, needed to believe she was still somewhere in the world, alive. Fucked me up, knowing we needed to leave her behind, for her sake and mine… then we found out who she is like ten minutes before finding out she was infected with JANUS-27, dying in the hospital. Told myself if she survived, she was mine — well, ours. If she lived… I was fucking lying to myself about being able to leave without her. I borrowed a fucking pen from her in every class, from the very first day, just to have an excuse to talk to her. I’m as bad as the rest of you, she had me when she walked into the classroom on the very first day and checked me out, then made this face, fucking rolled her eyes, like I was just alright. Like I was cute but she’d seen better, I was just a pretty face and she had more important things to think about. Fuck. I fell in love with her when she treated me like I’d treated every bitch before her, ever. Jesus. I’m not only an asshole, I’ve been wrapped around her fucking finger since day one for making me feel like a club slut. Goddamn.”

  “If it helps,” I broke the silence that lingered after, as Sasha apparently reviewed all his poor life choices in front of us, and he focused on me almost gratefully. “If it helps, she had Tai when she told Mouse to slap his ass as a reward for doing something right at work, and didn’t care to ask his name either because she was calling him Soldier Boy in her head. Treated him like a piece of meat and he couldn’t stop talking about her. I was rolling my eyes, thinking he was an idiot, then I met her. She stepped up on me like she was going to throat-punch me — she’s literally half my size, but she was up in my grill like we were evenly matched — and called me a fuckwad. Told me to leave her the fuck alone, she had better things to do than waste time thinking about me. Then she sat down, fucking grinned, and slurped on her straw like it was my goddamn dick and I had to run away because my fucking pants were tenting. Watched her like a stalker after that. Didn’t care that she was my student. Didn’t care about you fucks trying to get her attention. Didn’t care about fuck-all, she was the only thing I saw after that. Been all over the world fucking shooting people for a living, and she had me at fuckwad.”

  “As much as I’d love to explore all the revelations I’ve just witnessed, and give you all a world of shit for being pussies and fucking pussy-whipped by a little girl, can we back up for a sec? Did you say she was infected with JANUS-27?!”

  “Yeah,” Sasha said, nodding at his dad. “She lived through JANUS twice. Second time, she infected herself with it — she wanted to have all the antibodies. She found out the vaccine wasn’t being distributed like they promised, started putting the plan in motion to leave, and she wanted to get the antibodies for… well, for you. She wanted our families to be as protected as you possibly could be. Watching her— we were there at the hospital, watching her through a glass barrier. It was terrifying.”

  “But… but JANUS-27 isn’t a threat here—” Trick looked around at his people, confused, and I felt something twist in my chest. It felt a lot like Azzie losing her fucking mind. He didn’t need to finish what he was saying for me to already know it was going to be bad, but I didn’t realize how bad.

  After Trick finished explaining, Justice looked to Horse and Rollins. “We need to roll, immediately. Get everyone moving, we have to be on the road before blockades start going up.” He turned to Trick. “I don’t think we have time to vaccinate the rest of the club and your families. I don’t know how it works—”

  “We’ve got some hypodermics loaded,” I interrupted. “It’s not registered, they’ll have to wait and get titer levels checked in a few months or so, act like survivors. And it’ll be odd, so many from the same families showing up in the system, it would be better not to register at all. It also takes longer for immunity — inject it in the muscle, not a vein, in three or more places. But it will work, Azzie says it will work. Or we can try to come back—”

  “Hypodermics are fine. More than fine,” Gamble assured us. “We never expected to be vaccinated ever, who can complain about it being unofficial? All that matters is the immunity. How many do you have?”

  “Maybe twenty? But we can also leave some of the vax gun capsules if you can supply your own hypodermics— and Azzie knows the correct dosage for kids, it’s a bit lower than adults. Ask her before we leave. She’ll be mad she went off with Sev and Tai instead of vaccinating your families, nothing is more important to her than that.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Azzie

  The bar was the club’s, as were a couple of the houses in the neighborhood just behind it — the three houses directly behind the alley and parking lot that ran parallel behind the bar, and another one across the street from them. The club had gone ahead and taken over that space, actually fencing in the half of the block’s worth of parking lot and alley and the adjacent houses, with fifteen foot chainlink topped with razor wire, and sheets of metal attached to the fence to block the view into club property.

  There was a gate on both ends of the alley, one that opened to the street and one that opened to the rest of the parking lot and alley for that block, but those were the only two ways in and out of the compound: the houses and their yards had been completely enclosed, and the shops that backed into the club parking lot-slash-courtyard had their back doors chained and padlocked shut, with any windows boarded from the outside. Probably good they were vacant.

  We crossed the stretch of broken concrete and asphalt out the rear entrance to the bar, weaving between the massive number of motorcycles parked within the fenced lot. There were a couple vehicles too, including a small utility van and a couple SUVs, one with Ohio plates and a flatbed trailer attached.

  The club member with us — I think his name was either Wright or Riot, I couldn’t tell for sure when he said it and it was too dark for me to read his cut — said they took over the majority of the neighborhood when houses got abandoned after the residents died out or fled the city. They only had the three houses fenced in, using those as the rooms and offices for the club and the bar for partying, but the surrounding houses were almost all Hellspawn and their families. They also had a mechanic’s shop across the main road and down the block that Ishaq’s family had owned for a couple decades.

  “Really big family, thoroughly Middle Eastern,” Wright or Riot said as we walked, pointing off into the distance. “Used to
own a bunch of restaurants and grocery stores too, built their own compound about thirty years ago or so, down the road, for all the families of Ishaq’s relatives — completely fenced in, even has its own traffic light in front of it. Pandemic hit, they just shut the gate and kept to themselves. Most of the restaurants have closed but they still run a couple food trucks and a big grocery store, plus the garage, though we’ve mostly taken that over. Since we’ve got ties to the family through Ishaq and his cousin — she’s Gamble’s old lady — they come to all our club get-togethers, whole family, and bring food. Best fucking food you’ll ever eat. Swear to God or Allah or whoever, that family knows how to cook. You all need to come back some time, for one of the summer holidays. Never thought I’d be eating kibbeh and kebabs on Fourth of July, but damn if it isn’t one of the best perks of patching in.”

  I looked over at Sev and Tai, to see if they were weirded out by any of that, but they were walking along like it was all perfectly normal so I guess having gatherings on holidays were still a thing? And now they really could be when the whole club was immunized, but it sounded like they’d been risking it all along.

  Adriana was right, they were all doing perfectly fine without my vaccine. Life went on, and the world kept turning.

  “About how many are in the club?” I asked, as he led us towards the farthest house, cutting across what used to be driveways and lawns but were now patches of gravel between strips of cement, with the occasional weed exerting itself. I tripped over a chunk of broken cement, but Tai dropped what he was carrying and caught me before I hit the ground; only my pride and my slightly twisted ankle were injured.

  “Oh, sorry… probably should’ve used the sidewalk,” Wriot said, looking sheepish as he picked up the bags that Tai had dropped and started walking again. Since Tai now had his arms free, he shrugged and hoisted me up like Luka does — wrapping me around his front like a koala so neither or our backpacks got in the way — and I might have protested except my ankle did hurt a little, and Tai was fucking hot so… yeah. I looped my arms around his neck and buried my face under his chin, sneaking a couple kisses — and maybe a lick or two — on his throat. He didn’t seem to mind.