by S. E. Smith
“God, I hate the Waxians. They aren’t as easy to kill as the Armatrux,” Andy groaned.
“Yeah, I think we all do,” Gail replied.
Lina nodded and continued. “The chute leads to an empty section on the top floor of the building. I’ve been crossing over and moving through the building using their ventilation and drainage accesses. Anyway, the chute comes out on this side alley. One end is a dead end, and the other leads to a larger alley that leads to the main market area. It is a dark and seedy section. Place the cart under the chute and stay in the shadows. Andy and I will get him out of the building, up to the top floor here, and shove his ass down the chute. He falls in the cart, we come down next, you cover him up, and move at a normal pace through the market while we take up positions on each side to cover you. We’ll do it during rush hour when the market is chaos, which is in six hours,” Lina instructed.
“What do you want me to do?” Gail asked.
Lina smiled and nodded to the blaster strapped to Gail’s side. “You’ll be undercover. I need you to cover our backs. Fall back and keep an eye out. If those Waxian bastards discover we’ve taken their golden egg, they are going to be pissed. You are the best shot out of all of us, especially from a distance. I’ll need you to take them out if we are discovered,” Lina said with a grim expression.
“I won’t miss,” Gail promised.
“I have one question,” Mechelle said, frowning at her.
“What’s that?” Lina asked.
Mechelle rubbed her chin. “If he can’t walk, how are you going to get him across a metal plank nearly five stories up?” she asked.
Lina had hoped no one would notice that tiny detail. She glanced at Andy, who shrugged. Somehow they would get him across. Lina’s eyes strayed to the bag in the corner.
“Bailey, what kind of drugs do you have that might help us?” Lina quietly asked.
Pain radiated through Edge’s arms. His guards had left them shackled behind his back. The discomfort had finally pulled him from his restless doze. His head still ached, but it was back to the steady throb that he had been living with for months now.
His body was stiff from lying on the cold floor. Somewhere in his mind, he knew he should sit up, but he didn’t have the strength. He kept his eyes closed. In the darkness, it didn’t matter. He could see, but there was nothing to look at except the shadowy creatures that danced in his mind and along the walls.
Behind his back, he moved his fingers and tried to focus on counting. He could feel the claws of whatever beast they had poured into his blood this time tugging at him. Sweat beaded on his brow despite the cold.
The fire was heating up inside him, and he began to shake again. His reaction to the drugs was getting worse. He jerked his arms against the restraints in an effort to reduce the discomfort. As the fire grew to a fevered inferno, he twisted around and struggled up until he was on his knees.
Edge started shaking and his sweat poured out until a light film coated his entire body. His skin crawled with the imaginary insects. An agonized groan escaped him as the feeling of being eaten alive grew. The fireworks in his brain began to explode again, flashing colors at a sickening speed.
Gasping for air, he bent forward and rested his forehead against the cold floor. He squeezed his eyes closed to prevent the burning tears from escaping. He was dying. He could feel it, but he wasn’t allowed to. The voice… The voice had told him he wasn’t allowed to die. She needed him. She had found him, and she needed him.
Who had found him? another part of his brain demanded.
My Amate, the other part answered.
Edge knew his grasp on reality had finally snapped. There had been no voice answering his plea to the Goddess for death. It was a cruel hoax. The voice had been another trick to test his strength.
Straightening up, he parted his lips to shout his denial. He would never give the Waxians what they wanted. He was a Trivator warrior. Death before dishonor.
“Back up,” a soft, feminine voice ordered.
The sound broke through the confusion, calming the chaos. A shudder ran through Edge and he opened his eyes. Along the far wall, he saw the insects that had been crawling over his body disappear.
“Goddess, I swear I will resist,” he whispered. “I will die a warrior.”
A barely audible sigh from behind made him frown. “Yeah, well, tell your Goddess to put your death on hold, sweetheart. There won’t be any dying today if I have any say in the matter. Now, back your ass up to the wall behind you so I can see if I can get those damn wrist cuffs off you. It’s going to be a bitch doing it from this angle,” the voice demanded.
Edge tilted his head to the side. His frown deepened as his confusion grew. Shaking his head, he was rewarded with a wave of dizziness. Falling backwards, he grunted and stretched his legs out in front of him while he rested his head against the wall behind him.
“Why are you testing me like this?” he asked, closing his eyes again.
A soft snort answered him. “Welcome to our world, sweetheart. Life is all about the tests - seeing who passes and who crashes and burns,” the voice replied. “Can you walk?”
Edge was about to reply when he felt a movement against his skin. A shudder ran through him, and he started to shift to the side when he felt slender fingers wrap around his left wrist. Warmth poured through him. This wasn’t the heat of a few minutes ago, but a soothing warmth that chased away the insects.
“Goddess?” Edge whispered in awe.
This time a chuckle answered him. “Darling, you can call me anything you want as long as I don’t have to carry your ass out of here. That would make my life a lot easier. It might even give this harebrained plan a slim chance of success. As it is, we’ll all probably be meeting up with this Goddess of yours for drinks by dinner time,” the voice replied.
“I do not know if the Goddess drinks, or eats,” Edge replied, feeling several tugs on his wrists.
“Yeah, well, I’ll have to make sure I bring a few cases of beer along then,” the voice muttered before uttering a long string of curses that had Edge opening his eyes again in surprise.
“You have very colorful language,” he stated.
Another soft chuckle echoed behind him. “So I’ve been told,” she replied.
The sudden release of pressure on his arms took him by surprise. He slowly pulled his arms around, wincing at his protesting muscles. Bending his elbows, he rotated his arms until the feeling began to come back. Flexing his fingers, he suddenly twisted until he was lying on the floor, facing the wall.
A tiny red light shone from the hole where the grill had been. His top lip curled and he snarled. If the Waxian thought giving him hope would break him, he would show the man he had made a serious mistake.
“Well, you’re still fast, but that doesn’t answer my earlier question,” the voice hissed.
Edge tried to get a look at the face in the depths of the hole, but the red light was shining in his eyes. A low growl shook his frame. He wanted to reach into the hole and drag out whoever was within by their neck.
“What question is that?” Edge demanded, curling his fingers into a fist.
The red light wavered for a brief second, and Edge could make out the delicate lines of a very feminine face. The woman stared back at him, as if she, too, was assessing his features. Her dark brown eyes locked with his in a silent battle.
“Can you walk?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, hoping it was true.
A small grin curved her lips. “Good, though if you can run, it will be even better. Expect company in ten minutes,” she replied, turning off the light.
Edge heard a soft scraping sound on the other side of the wall. Unsure if he had imagined what had just happened, he shot his hand out and he stuck it through the opening. He reached as far as he could and felt around the other side.
Then he pulled his hand back, and slowly pushed up until he was in a sitting position again. His gaze ran over his arms wh
ile he used his fingers to trace the raw circles around his wrist where the restraints had been. Reaching down, he picked up the metal cuffs in his left hand. His grip tightened around them.
Can you walk? Can you walk? Can you walk?
Her words kept repeating over and over in his head. Unsure, he braced his free hand against the wall and pushed up off the floor. His legs trembled, and he fell against the smooth wall of his cell. Gritting his teeth, he forced his legs to straighten until he was standing.
Chapter Three
A wave of dizziness washed over Edge, threatening to send him back to the floor. Once again, sweat coated his skin, and he could feel the legs of insects crawling across his body. Nausea churned in his stomach.
He kept his head up and focused on the other side of the narrow cell. It was three steps. He could make three steps. His lips parted and he licked them.
Step, he commanded his body. Move your leg.
His body refused to follow his mental command. The sweat began to form rivulets trickling down from his temple and between his shoulders. The metal from the wrist cuffs cut into the palm of his clenched left fist.
Step, he commanded again.
This time, his leg moved with a jerky, uncoordinated movement. He kept one hand braced against the wall. Swallowing, he sent the command again. His steps were jerky and unsure, as if he were an infant learning to walk. He made it two steps before he started to tilt. He quickly stretched out his arms and braced his hands on the wall across from him.
His jaw ached from clamping his teeth together. He desperately wanted to pull his hands away from the wall. The insects were coming back out of the metal. A small part of his brain knew that they weren’t really there, but his eyes saw them, and his skin felt their touch. The sweat was pouring off his body now as he began to shake.
Expect company…
Someone was coming. The thought sent another wave of panic and rage through him. Had the woman been real? Was she part of the Waxian’s plan to get information from him?
“Walk,” he desperately mumbled. “I have to be able to walk. She doesn’t want to carry my ass out of here.”
Turning, he continued to force his body to listen to him even as the number of insects doubled and then doubled again. Soon, he felt like he was wading through a sea of them. They were crawling up his legs. Their numbers continued to increase until they were up to his knees. His breathing became more erratic. He could feel his heart pounding until he was sure it would explode.
He turned his head when he heard a muffled sound outside the door, followed by a thump. Shaking, he continued to grip the metal handcuff in his hand as he fell back against the wall away from the door. Blinking his eyes to clear them, he gritted his teeth and waited.
The rattle of metal on metal and the turn of a key reverberated through his brain. Even the sound of his own breathing brought him a large amount of discomfort.
Edge braced himself for what was about to enter. He refused to fall without a fight. Nothing would stop him this time—not the insects, not the explosions going off in his mind, not the trembling and weakness of his body, not even the sudden presence of his imaginary Goddess giving him false hope. The time had come to end this nightmare once and for all.
The door slowly opened, and a shaft of light from the corridor cast a shadow on the figure pushing against it. Edge waited, sweat rolling down his trembling body, gripping his only weapon so tightly that he could feel the warmth of his blood sliding down from his cut palm to his wrist.
“Bloody hell! Can they make these damn doors any heavier?” a woman’s voice muttered.
“Just hurry, Lina. I know you said they don’t have any cameras, but I’d sure feel a lot better if we were already out of here,” another feminine voice replied.
“Almost… there,” Lina grunted.
Edge watched in disbelief as the door opened enough that the shadow could step inside. His pupils tried to contract because of the light. He pushed off the wall, his arm rising toward the person silhouetted in the doorway.
“Watch out!” the woman behind his goddess warned.
“Son-of-a-bitch! Don’t make me have to knock out your ass,” his goddess threatened, stepping forward and wrapping her hand around his uplifted wrist. “Drop it or I will.”
Edge’s breath caught in his throat. He swallowed several times before he could speak. His gaze remained locked in disbelief on the defiant face looking up at him.
“You… You are real,” he finally said in a hoarse voice.
The woman grinned at him with a wry expression on her face. “It’s good to see you standing. Now, let’s see if we can get out of here alive,” she replied, standing to the side. “Andy, take the lead.”
Edge watched as the other woman nodded and started to turn away. He took a step toward the door. His vision blurred and he shook his head to clear it. In the distance, he could hear a voice utter a low string of very colorful curses. Warm hands wrapped around his waist to steady him.
He caught snippets of words. It took a moment for his brain to translate them.
“Hold him,” one voice said.
“Shit! This isn’t going to be good,” another responded.
“We’ll have to drag him,” the first said.
Edge shook his head again. “No, I… can walk,” he muttered.
The arms around him tightened. The voice of his goddess sounded harsh but determined. Her refusal to allow him to give up was like a living thing in his mind.
“Prove it, warrior. Move your feet. We’ve got to get out of here now or we’re all going to die,” she stated. “Walk.”
“I can walk,” Edge muttered, lifting his foot and stepping forward.
“Andy, you lead. Shoot anything that gets in our way,” his goddess ordered before she turned her attention back to him. “Move your damn feet faster, soldier.”
“You are a very… bossy Goddess… with colorful language,” he informed her, his voice breaking as he tried to focus on not falling.
The other woman ahead of them snorted. The periphery of Edge’s vision grew dark and he blinked to clear it. The arm around his waist squeezed his side. His arm was draped over her shoulder.
“I’m too heavy,” he said, unable to do anything about it.
His goddess made a very unladylike noise. “No kidding. What did they do to you?” she asked.
Edge felt their pace slow, and the woman ahead of them murmured it was clear. Turning the corner, he braced his free hand on the wall to keep himself upright and steady. His hand slid across the smooth surface.
“Next left,” his goddess said.
“Drugs. My brain… skin… hurt,” he finally admitted.
“Damn!” the woman in front muttered.
Edge gripped the frame of the door when it opened. This room was darker than the corridor. He breathed a sigh of relief. The light hurt his eyes. The woman tugged him forward into the room.
“There’s a service lift in the back of the room, thank God. I forgot how big you aliens are,” his goddess groaned.
The other woman hurried forward and pressed the control button. The doors parted to show a lift. Edge stumbled forward into the small box. He closed his eyes and leaned against the lift wall. When the lift suddenly moved, he breathed deeply through his nose, trying to keep his stomach from expelling the churning acid inside.
“How in the hell are we going to get him across to the other building?” the other woman asked.
His goddess had guided him to the corner and was pressed up against him in an effort to keep him upright. He wanted to answer, but the effort to keep the nausea under control kept his mouth firmly closed.
“He’ll make it,” his goddess replied. “He has to.”
“He doesn’t look so good, Lina,” the woman remarked as the lift began to slow.
His goddess didn’t answer. Edge cracked his eyelids open when the lift drew to a stop. The woman with them stood to the side with a laser pistol leveled at the d
oor. His goddess had stepped in front of him. She was standing protectively with her back pressed against his chest and her hands gripping another gun. The doors silently slid open to another dark room.
The woman by the door peered through the opening before she cautiously stepped out of the lift. A second later, she motioned for them to follow her. Edge automatically lifted his arm when his goddess turned and wrapped her arm around his waist again. Leaning heavily on her shoulder, he stumbled forward.
They were halfway across the room before he spoke. His throat was dry from dehydration and his voice rough from lack of use. Still, he could feel the danger surrounding them and knew he was a liability. His mind and body were shutting down.
“You… need to… leave me,” he croaked in a raspy voice.
“Shut up,” his goddess hissed in response.
A frown creased Edge’s brow. Anger began to build inside him. No one told him to shut up.
Licking his lips, he tried again. “I said… you need… to leave me… here. It is…. It is too dangerous… for you,” he insisted.
The woman glanced up at him with a scowl. “And I said shut the fuck up,” she replied, scanning the empty room.
Edge could feel the muscle in his jaw twitch at her response. A low growl of disapproval rumbled in his chest. Goddess or not, she needed to understand that he would not risk her life for his own.
Focusing inward, he commanded his body to listen to him. He felt the woman’s body stiffen in surprise when he straightened and tried to pull away from her. Her arm tightened around his waist while her fingers curled into the vest he was wearing.
“I will not endanger you,” he growled.
Her fingers curled against his side. “Don’t go getting all huffy and noble on me now. You can do that after we save your ass. Trust me, Trivator, we aren’t doing this for any other reason than that we need you, otherwise I would have left your ass to the Waxians,” she snapped.
