Hunting Julian

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “You could go back to the colony…”

  “And leave her down there all that time? Bleeding and God knows what else?”

  “I’ll watch her,” Lucien agreed.

  Julian left his friend to keep watch and ran away from the trail and into the tree line. The trees grew thick ivy vines as fat around as his wrist and notorious for being incredibly strong. In fact, it was a species similar to the one that they used to make all of their homes and walkways. The only difference was, the kind they used had natural fluorescent properties that provided for ambient lighting.

  Julian was searching for a suitable vine, scrambling up into the trees to reach one that was long enough. They had to do this quickly. The longer they stayed in one spot, the more dangerous it became. There could be okriti in the area, or other abraxi.

  Julian used his blade to saw through the thick vine and then hurried out of the tree to gather it up in great heavy loops. He was out of breath and drenched in sweat from fear and exertion by the time he made it back to the edge of the cliff.

  “Did you see her move?” he demanded.

  “Not yet.”

  “Stand back away from the edge and loop this around your back and make sure you anchor your feet well.”

  “Julian, you can’t go and get her. I can’t hold both of you.”

  “Well then, what the hell do you think I should do, Lucien, because she clearly can’t get up here on her own, and the longer we leave her down there, the more blood she’s going to lose! And it’s not as if we have a huge supply of human blood around to replace it!”

  “Just…just give her a minute! Just a minute, Julian. Call down to her and see if you can get her to wake up. If not, then I’ll be your anchor and you can go get her. I’ll find a way to do it.”

  Julian nodded and crawled back up to the edge of the drop-off to look down on Asia. She hadn’t moved so much as an inch.

  “Asia! Asia, wake up! Come on!” He continued to shout down to her while Lucien watched his back for wildlife and other dangers. “Asia! Damn it, Asia, you wake up!” he yelled in frustration.

  It did the trick. He saw her twitch and then suddenly she bolted into consciousness, sending his heart into his throat when she nearly sent herself over the end of the shelf in the process. But she caught herself and threw her back up against the solid side of the cliff.

  “My God!” he heard her cry out at the close call. Then she seemed to realize he was above her and she turned eyes of blue fire up to him. “These cliffs are a deathtrap, and you people are fucking insane for living this way!”

  “Yeah, because the land is so much safer,” he returned to her, so damned relieved to hear her voice he was on the verge of laughing at her.

  “Okay…You kind of have a point there,” she gasped as she leaned over to inspect the damage to her leg. She was convinced she was going to find herself cut straight to the bone, but to her relief the diffused spiral and Lucien’s quick thinking had spared her from losing a leg. Now she was left with the quandary of whether it was a better idea to take the razor wire out of her leg or leave it be for the time being.

  “I could sure use a rope or something,” she remarked, temporarily opting to leave the wire alone until its owner could tell her the wisest way to remove it.

  “Do you think you can climb?” Lucien asked from over Julian’s shoulder. “The vine we have is too thick to tie off around you with any decency.”

  “Great. A vine,” she muttered loudly. “I’m on freakin’ Gilligan’s Island.” She carefully got to her feet, gritting her teeth against the pain in her leg. “Maybe we can make me a bra out of coconuts next.”

  Julian exchanged a puzzled look with Lucien. Lucien shrugged. If anyone would know what she was talking about, it would be Julian. Since he was clearly clueless, they had no choice but to take her literally.

  “We don’t have coconuts Beneath,” he informed her gravely. “And I’m sorry, but our women don’t wear bras.” But neither did she, as far as he knew. He wondered why she suddenly wanted one.

  “Never mind!” she shouted up at him, clearly sounding angry. Well, he could hardly blame her. She’d yet again fallen into danger from his world. And it was his fault. He should have been paying better attention. “I can climb up some, but you guys gotta pull me up real fast, too. I’m getting a little dizzy down here.” Whether it was from blood loss or vertigo, she couldn’t say. She wouldn’t know until she reached the top of the cliff.

  Julian hurried to drop the vine down to her, watching its progress toward her. She inspected it for strength once she had a hold of it, but he worried she wouldn’t be strong enough to hold on, so the minute she climbed on and shouted “Ready!” he and Lucien hauled her up with all the speed they could muster. When she finally popped up over the side of the cliff, he rushed to grab her, dragging her onto the stable and relatively safe ground.

  “Thank God,” he breathed roughly into her hair as he hugged her tightly to him while still on his knees. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said, kissing her lips with fervent fear still on his tongue.

  “I’m not out of the woods yet,” she remarked as gently as she could. She pushed away from him to show him her torn and bloody leg. “You couldn’t think of anything else?” she asked Lucien with a small laugh.

  “Sorry, it was the only thing I had.” Lucien knelt down beside her leg and inspected the wire. “You may want to wait until we get to the colony. They have something to numb the pain there.”

  “It would be faster to go back to the holding colony,” Julian pointed out.

  “I’d rather wrap wire around my other leg,” she said dryly.

  “Here…I can remove the axe head and the ball so the weight doesn’t pull on you. Then Julian and I can support your weight between us.” He reached to do exactly that.

  “I can carry her,” Julian insisted gruffly.

  “Not with that arm you can’t,” she argued, pointing out the gaping injury that had been all but forgotten. “Besides, I can walk.” She stood up to prove it, but ended up mostly hopping on one leg when the wire tightened under the flex of her foot and the shift of her weight. The men quickly hooked her between themselves, Julian moving so she wasn’t resting on his shredded arm.

  That was the way they walked for hours, like a wicked three-legged race, moving as fast as they dared while keeping an eye out for more danger.

  Asia never thought she’d be so happy to see Julian’s colony. They took her through the gate and had to relinquish Lucien’s help because the walkways weren’t wide enough for three to walk side by side. So Lucien followed as Julian took her into the clinic.

  The empty clinic.

  Nothing impacted her about the events of the previous night like walking into a clinic full of empty beds. All the children, all the elderly patients—every last one of them had been sent home.

  Save one.

  Ariel.

  The Companion was asleep when they first came in, and because the place was empty, they had the whole staff of clinicians all to themselves. They lifted Asia up onto the surgery table.

  “Come, Gatherer,” one of the medics said, “let me tend that arm.”

  “I am no longer a Gatherer,” he said sternly. “I am only Magistrate. And the arm will wait. I will see Asia tended to first.”

  “Magistrate, it’s already been several hours. I need to disinfect and stitch the wound or you will draw illness and sepsis.”

  “I said it will wait!” he barked at the hapless medic.

  “Julian, please. I’m fine. They’ll treat me just fine,” Asia assured him, reaching out to touch a warm hand to his wrist. She gave him a squeeze, with just the message in her eyes insisting he listen to her. “You can sit right beside me and let them fix your arm and be able to see me the entire time.”

  Taking her cue, the medic pulled up a chair for him. Reluctantly, Julian took a seat and held his arm out for care. Then he affixed all of his attention on the doctors who were tending to
her leg.

  Chapter 16

  Asia felt someone rubbing her cheek in gentle strokes and she slowly stirred herself awake, forcing her eyes open a tiny sliver so she could see Julian. After all, he was the only one who touched her in that soft, almost reverent manner.

  It took her a moment longer to finally pry her eyes open.

  “Hey, stranger.”

  “Kenya!”

  Asia was wide awake in an instant, sitting up to grab her sister and hug her tight. The moment she felt Kenya’s arms wrap tightly around her, the impetus of the last few months rushed up on her. She felt her throat close up as she felt her sister’s warmth bleeding into her, smelled the wonderfully familiar nutmeg fragrance her hair always seemed to have. Kenya was strong, for all she was a petite thing, and she all but squeezed the breath out of Asia. She always hugged as tight as she could. She’d always been the most enthusiastically affectionate person Asia had ever come across, and this time it brought tears to her eyes.

  She had believed Julian all of this time that she was alive and well, but it hadn’t been truly real for her until this very instant. Before she could get control of herself, tears of pure relief chased each other down her cheeks.

  “Oh my God,” she said hoarsely, hugging Kenya with brutal power. “How could you do this to me?” She wanted to know. “Didn’t you know I’d be out of my mind? I’m so mad at you!” And yet she clutched her like a drowning woman would cling to driftwood.

  “I know,” Kenya whispered, her soft South African accent so wonderfully familiar. Their mother had been something of a free spirit, traveling the globe where the will and the wind took her. A matter-of-fact kind of woman, she’d named her children for the country or continent they’d been conceived in. After Kenya was born, their little family had lived in South Africa for five years, and Kenya had never shaken the accent from her speech. “I’m so sorry, darling,” Kenya soothed her sister, running her long fingers warmly over her head and hair again and again in order to comfort her.

  When Asia could bear to do so, she let up on her sister, allowing her to sit back so she could inspect her for hardship or damage. There had been so much danger since she’d arrived Beneath that she couldn’t believe Kenya had survived here unscathed.

  But in truth, Kenya had never looked so beautiful and healthy. She was wearing a very elegant, delicately embroidered shawl draped gently over her head and hair, the deep maroon color of it positively breathtaking against the smooth mocha warmth of her mulatto coloring. Her eyes were lined with what looked like liquid gold, her lashes touched at the tips with it as well, making her beautiful russet eyes stand out in stunning relief. Her black hair was braided with handpainted beads of maroon and gold. In the lee of her throat was an exotic hennalike tattoo with sweeps and curlicues and a finishing point that led provocatively down her breastbone and tickled the top of her cleavage.

  The way she was put together reminded Asia of the haremlike feel of Jewel and the women of the holding colony. The only difference was that she could see and feel the power of Kenya’s happiness.

  “Can you forgive me?” she asked, touching Asia’s face gently. “I never wanted to hurt you. But I hope that now you have been here a while you can understand why I couldn’t turn my back on them. It’s such a simple thing, a thing that I can create so easily and have in such surplus. For once I could make a difference. A child that would die would become a child that could live…and all because of me. People live and survive, because of me.”

  She spoke with such heartfelt passion, and Asia knew this was important to a soul like Kenya’s. In their travels with their mother before she had died, they had seen the very worst the world had to offer. Starvation, violence, prejudice, and hatred. Death for no reason other than being born to the wrong family name. But what had jaded Asia had made Kenya determined to make a difference. Wherever there had been a need for manpower, where the efforts of volunteers meant the difference between saving homes or animals or lives, Kenya had traveled there and done her best. She’d done everything from sandbagging swelling rivers to rescuing pets evacuees had been forced to leave behind.

  That was why Asia had believed Julian when he’d said she’d volunteered to come to this place. Kenya could never have the heart to say no to so much need. No matter the danger to herself. No matter the broken heart of a sister left behind. And Asia was not truly hurt by that. On some level she’d always known that Kenya’s driven heart would take her away from her one day. But when Asia had thought a killer had stolen her sister from the world that needed her—that she could never have accepted. But Kenya had no idea Asia would make such an assumption. She’d never have guessed that the tenacious Asia would one day come so far to find her.

  “Of course I forgive you,” Asia whispered reassuringly to her, reaching to clasp her hands, unable to stop reassuring herself that she was real, vital and alive. “And I do understand. But you had me so worried. So very worried.” She swallowed back more tears, the relief still toying with her emotions.

  “I know, sweetie. I’m so sorry. I can’t say it enough. But look at you! Here not even two days and you look like something kicked the ever-loving shit out of you!” Kenya lifted the edge of the woven blanket to peek at Asia’s leg. She was bandaged from hip to ankle, the light fabric bandages stained with her blood. “For a while there they were afraid they’d need to give you a transfusion. Their medical care is competent enough, but there’s not exactly state-of-the-art equipment around here. The doctor said you needed a lot of stitching. How do you feel?”

  “Sore,” Asia confessed. “Worn out. You picked a hell of a place to take a permanent vacation.”

  Kenya snickered. “It has its challenges, but I’ve been worse places. Your problem is you’ve been a metro girl for far too long. You’ve forgotten what it was like living in the bush.”

  “I remember it well enough,” Asia corrected. “Enough to know I hated it.”

  “Spoiled.”

  “Me? Look at you. You look like a sultana. You’re hardly roughing it!”

  “True,” Kenya said, smiling very slyly. “They treat women here like precious treasures. We want for nothing and, it’s true, we are well and truly spoiled. On the downside, you should see how much they freak out when I insist on working in the clinic of whatever colony I am in. But I think I should be there. They can take energy from me and it heals them.”

  “I’ve been told you can burn out if you aren’t careful,” Asia warned.

  “If you try to feed the world every night, I imagine you would,” Kenya said pointedly. “But feeding little bits of happy energy to some hungry babies? I’m not worried about that.”

  “No, you wouldn’t be.” Asia sighed.

  “Never mind giving me that disdainful big sister routine. You’re the one who fed out so much energy you made the Ampliphi solid. Do you have any idea when the last time that happened was? I think it was before the last plague. That’s quite a feat.”

  “Solid, hmm? I’d like to see that.”

  “I’m told it won’t last. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw one or two of them around here shortly. You’ve caused quite a stir in this plane, sis. Beating an attempted murder rap, mouthing off to Ampliphi, proving you’re kind, and feeding the masses? What are you planning to do next? Single-handedly repopulate the world?”

  “As if,” Asia snorted. “I’m not the mothering type.”

  “Liar. You raised me well enough after Mom died.”

  “I meant giving birth and diapers and all that stuff,” she grumbled.

  “Well, you have time to decide about all of that. Right now you need to focus on healing. Do you need me to get you anything?”

  “Do you know where—?”

  Asia didn’t finish. She saw a flash of movement over her sister’s shoulder and reacted before she could even think. She shoved Kenya off her bed, sending her to the floor with a crash just as Ariel would have struck her in the back. Instead, Asia caught Ariel’s wri
st, controlling the scalpel-like instrument she held, twisting her and forcing her down onto the bed. Still controlling Ariel’s hand and her weapon, she brought the blade up to her throat, ready to kill the bitch once and for all for daring to attempt to hurt her sister.

  But years of restraining her own anger in all the worst of situations served her well, and instead of doing what she had every right to do, she disarmed the troublesome twit and threw the blade away so hard it thunked fast and deep into a wall.

  “You know, I’m getting sick and tired of you and your goddamn knives,” she growled into the face of the other woman. “You come near me or my sister again and I’m going to beat the fucking Christ out of you! You got me?”

  At this point the feeble girl was crying, whimpering in pain from the way Asia was holding her down against her injured shoulder. She’d probably ripped open a few of Ariel’s stitches…she was fairly certain she’d done so to her leg.

  “Lucien, I think it’s time Ariel was escorted to the holding colony.” The deep, familiar voice brought her attention up to the open door of the clinic. “Since she seems hearty enough to cause trouble, I think she’s well enough for the trek.”

  “I agree,” Lucien said grimly as he moved to Asia’s bedside beside his friend. Julian was seething with repressed anger as he reached for Ariel and yanked her out from under Asia and onto her feet. The redhead cried out in pain, curling into herself in a combination of pain and fear.

  “But Julian! I’m doing this for us!” she cried. “Things could go back to the way they’ve always been! We’ve been perfectly happy all of this time! Then she comes and tries to kill me!”

  “Enough! Everyone, including the Ampliphi, knows that you did this to yourself!” Julian gave her a shake, unable to help himself before he threw her back into her own bed. “You’ll be nightfly before this day draws to a close. You’re the holding colony’s problem now.”