Across The Divide

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “He might need a moment. How do you think he feels after seeing that?”

  “Awful. It must have brought back the most horrendous memories.”

  “Come on.” Croygen cut around me. I slipped into the hallway after him, pressing my back against the wall. Keeping low, we both slunk along the corridor. At the end of the hall was a thick metal door. A key card slot and thumbprint security tablet hung next to it.

  “Hell.”

  “You think this Kate would give you a piece of her thumb?”

  “Eww,” I uttered over my shoulder.

  “What?” He tapped at the pad of his thumb. “Just a little shave off the top.”

  I turned away from him.

  “What’s your great plan then?”

  As I rolled ideas around in my head, I felt Sprig’s nails in my pants as he climbed my leg. I grabbed him and settled him back on my shoulder, my hand reaching for him, petting his fur. He let out a sigh, his trembling subsided, and his body became more relaxed. Soon he would be asleep.

  “Shit. I don’t know.” I was coming up with nothing. And I knew what I needed to stop or destroy Rapava was most likely behind the door. The truth was so close it was hard to walk away. But morning was coming, and we needed to devise a new plan.

  My lips parted to tell Croygen, when a ding chimed down the corridor. The elevator hummed as it settled on the bottom floor, priming to open its doors. Panic shot down my spine into my feet.

  The doors began to divide. I froze, watching in slow motion the moment of our discovery.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. Croygen barreled into me, his arms wrapping around my waist as he picked me up. He dove into the monkey room, Sprig and me falling to the floor with bruising force.

  A chirp erupted from Sprig, and I snatched him up, curling him to my chest to keep him quiet.

  “What was that?” A man’s voice trailed down the hallway.

  “I don’t know,” another man spoke, his voice more nasal and cross sounding. “It’s like we’re working at a fucking zoo now.”

  “Someone’s grumpy.”

  “Screw you,” the nasal guy replied. “I’m getting the coffee started.”

  “Blacker the better. This is going to be a long day.” A buzz came from above. Lights blazed in the hallway. Then, one by one, each fluorescent light flickered along the long corridor.

  Croygen motioned me from behind the table. I crawled over, sliding next to him.

  “We might be fucked.” His dark eyes still sparked with amusement. “What I would give for either one of us to have our powers.”

  Yeah. That would be really helpful right now.

  I peered at Sprig, his wide eyes were on me, but he tapped at his mouth, telling me he’d stay quiet.

  “It’s not only me, right? He’s making us come in earlier and earlier, right?” the nasal man grumbled.

  “Just get your coffee. And get some for me too. I’m gonna get started on EP-Five.”

  Experiment Primate Five.

  Croygen stiffened next to me. “It’s not ‘might’ anymore. We truly are screwed.” He stared straight ahead. Following his gaze I saw the letters EP-FIVE on the tank in front of us.

  “Of course.”

  Shoes squeaked across the tile, venturing closer to us.

  I clamped my teeth together. This was not how it was supposed to end. And I knew there was no way to explain this. It was done. I was done. And I brought two other victims with me. Anger and fear filled my gut like lead.

  A hand clasped mine. I looked at Croygen’s hand on mine, then to his face. His black eyes were fixed on me. “I’m not letting anything happen to you. We will fight. If we have to battle our way out of here, we will.”

  I blinked, shocked by his sentiment.

  “Don’t get all sappy on me. I’m only saving your ass because it’s really bad for my outcome if I don’t. And there are still far too many bar wenches out there to bed.”

  I grinned, squeezing his hand back.

  Steps pattered closer and closer. The presence of someone entering the room prickled at my senses.

  Croygen gave me a pointed stare, his head bobbing slightly.

  One.

  Another bob.

  Two.

  I sucked in a breath.

  A third nod.

  Three.

  My legs coiled, ready to jump up.

  “WHAT. THE. FUCK?” The nasal man’s voice shot down the hallway. “Jim, get in here.”

  The man we were about to attack, Jim, took off at a jog, racing the length of the hallway. “What, Jeff? What happened?”

  “All the animals have escaped,” Jeff hollered back. “I mean all of them.”

  “What do you mean escaped? Someone had to let them out.”

  Both Croygen and I looked at Sprig. A coy smile tugged at the edges of his mouth and he shrugged.

  “Right now, monkey, I want to kiss you.” Croygen grabbed my arm, pulling me to my feet.

  “Don’t cause me to have to get vaccinated again,” Sprig replied.

  Croygen and I darted for the hallway. We snuck down the passage, stopping at the intersecting hallway. The elevator stood only a few yards away.

  Croygen craned his neck, trying to spot the location of the men.

  “Let me get a broom.” Croygen jerked back as Jim stepped back out into the hall. “Round them up first before Rapava gets here, then we can divide them. Jesus, this was not how I wanted to start the day.”

  Once again Jim was about to discover us. Adrenaline pumped in my ears as I glanced around wildly looking for any escape.

  My eyes landed on a closet door and without a thought yanked Croygen toward it. I wrenched the door open, hauling both of us in it. It was small and stuffed with lab coats, mops, and cleaners.

  “Zoey,” Croygen hissed as I shut the door. I whirled around in the dark, cramped space. He stood there, a broom in his hand.

  “Oh. Crap.”

  Croygen shoved the broom next to the door and plunged the two of us behind the mass of hanging lab coats. Sprig squirmed in my arms as Croygen drew me against his body.

  The door creaked open, light spilling into the space. Between the white coats I could distinguish a man about my height, a little overweight, with dark brown hair, and a round baby face.

  “Broom, where are you, broom?” He muttered to himself, his hand going for the chain to turn the light on in the closet.

  Croygen stiffened, crunching me harder into his chest, trying to condense our forms as much as possible. I could feel his heart against my ear, thumping as violently as mine. Sprig’s pulse felt like a hummingbird, pulsating so fast I wasn’t surprised when I felt him go limp, passing out under the stress.

  Please don’t snore. I sent him psychic pleas.

  Jim stepped farther into the space, missing the broom leaning on the same side as the door. His finger reached out about to divide the wall of fabric.

  Fear slipped through my clenched teeth.

  “Jim!” Jeff bellowed from the hall, causing Jim to jump. “What the hell are you doing? Get the fucking broom. They’re getting out of the room.”

  “I’m getting it.” Jim looked over his shoulder to yell back at his friend. “Ah. There you are.” He reached out, clasping the handle in his hand. With a yank of the cord, the light went out as he retreated out of the room, swinging the door closed.

  Croygen exhaled, his head tipping back against the wall.

  “Little too close.” My shoulders fell with relief.

  Croygen’s head popped up, his eyebrows curving up, his eyes centering on me with a no-shit expression.

  A grin wiggled on my mouth. “Like you don’t do this kind of thing simply for the hell of it.”

  He smirked, his eyes glinting in the dark. “Haven’t needed to since meeting you.”

  It was in that moment I became aware of our aligned bodies, the proximity of our mouths, his arms wrapped around me, the dark intimate space we were in, and the int
ensity of the situation happening around us. I stepped back at the same time his arms dropped away from me. We turned away from each other.

  “We still aren’t out of here yet,” I said, securing Sprig’s sleeping form in my arms. He was tiny, and I would have felt better if I had my bag or even a pocket to put him in.

  Croygen pushed out from behind the lab coats, sneaking to the exit and peering around the door. “Clear,” he said back to me, all trace of his earlier playful mood vanished.

  I took a step through the coats to trail him when something caught my eye on a bottom shelf. A cheap, red, shiny fabric. I leaned over and pulled it out. It was a cape.

  “Zoey? This is not time for a wardrobe change, unless you really will turn into a superhero and get us out of here.” Croygen waved me forward.

  Superhero. Costume.

  A nagging sensation rattled me. It looked a lot like the costume worn by the girl Duc had me fight in Seattle last time. The girl who begged for me to end it and who, like Annabeth, wanted nothing more than to leave that life far behind.

  It was a coincidence. It had to be. Probably left over from an employee’s Halloween costume. The chintzy polyester fabric hung from my fingers like an emblematic red flag, a reminder to not forget the girls forced to work for Duc.

  “Zoey!” Croygen hissed.

  I wanted to hold on to it, to keep the cape with me, but I shoved it back on the shelf, pushed away the tickling in my gut, and turned back to Croygen, letting it go as I focused on our getaway.

  Once again my heart stuck in my throat as we crept out of the closet, heading for the elevator. The later it became, the greater the chance of other employees coming to work, or even worse, Rapava.

  I followed Croygen out and across the intersection of hallways. I could hear the men yelling and clapping in the room where Sprig had freed the animals. Croygen punched the bell for the elevator, and the doors immediately opened. We slipped in, urging them to close, grateful the men were too distracted by the escapees to acknowledge the elevator.

  “Tell me we are not going to do that again.” Croygen placed his hands on his knees, leaning over.

  I didn’t respond.

  “Zoey?

  “I have to.” No matter how far I had to dig or how unsafe it became, I would uncover all of Rapava’s secrets.

  Croygen snorted, shaking his head. “You really are hard on a man’s health, aren’t you? Death to all who know you.”

  Truer words were never spoken.

  With no more close calls or incidences, we returned to our rooms, Croygen mumbling a complaint as he crawled down the vent.

  “For a pirate, you really are a pussy.” I scooted across on my elbows, feeling the fur of a rat brushing against my arm.

  “Please, I’ve crawled through sewers, outhouses, and garbage bins to escape.”

  “And you’re bitching about this?”

  “I didn’t say I enjoyed those either.”

  Sprig stayed silent the entire way back, even though he was awake. I knew the sight of the monkeys really upset him.

  “I’m figuring you want to do this tomorrow night as well?” Croygen asked when we got to my room.

  I dangled my legs down the hole over the table. “What do you think?” I smiled before dropping down.

  “Just once I’d like you to respond with, ‘Why no, Croygen, let’s do what you want.’”

  “We are being sneaky, breaking and entering, and trying to steal priceless artifacts. I thought this was right up your alley,” I whispered.

  Croygen’s head peered over me. “Yeah, that’s a normal night for me. I was hoping to throw in some kinky sex in the middle of that. Spice it up.” He winked. “See you tomorrow.” The slab of ceiling slid over, blocking the opening.

  “Keep your blade sheathed, pirate,” Sprig grumbled, hopping out of my arms and onto the table. He crawled into his cage.

  “Hey.” I sat on the counter next to the crate. “You want to sleep with me tonight?”

  Sprig huddled in the corner. “No.”

  The pain I felt for him sliced my heart. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No.”

  I pinched my lips together, not knowing if I wanted to cry or scream. The physical and mental agony Rapava put him through created a fire in my chest, igniting even more hatred for the doctor. Sprig had never discussed what happened to him, not in detail. And tonight would be no different, but someday I hoped he’d be able to talk to me.

  I reached down, my fingers twirling softly through his fur, stroking behind his ear and down his back. Eventually his body relaxed under my touch. He sighed, shifting to look over his shoulder at me.

  “I miss Pam,” he uttered quietly.

  I rubbed at his head. “I know, buddy. I know.”

  All of our things were taken from us and were back in Peru, among them: Daniel’s The Art of War book, the picture of us, the video recorder, and Pam, Sprig’s stuffed goat/friend. Probably thrown out or hocked. The items I had on me the night of the abduction, my clothes and bag, had probably been burned by DMG. Getting my boots back defied my few expectations. But DMG had issued them to me in the first place. Returning them to me was probably their way of saving money.

  I couldn’t tell Sprig we’d get another Pam because I knew she wasn’t merely a stuffed animal, something you could replace. She was his security, his comfort when he felt scared or lonely. There was only one Pam.

  There was only one of him, also—not a monkey, but no longer a sprite.

  I could relate to this as I was not exactly a fae, but not solely human either.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The lights assaulted my eyes not long after I closed them. It felt like grains of salt were stuck to them every time I tried to blink.

  Right on schedule, the door opened and Delaney entered. Like when I was in the hole, each day an interchangeable nurse brought in shots to keep their patient’s abilities subdued and controlled. Delaney stepped in the room, her gaze drifting over my face as I sat up. “You look tired. Didn’t you get enough sleep last night?” Paranoia swarmed over. Was she making a jab about my activities last night? Did they know what I did?

  “No,” I said warily, rubbing my face.

  “Why is that?” She cocked her head, appearing concerned. She wasn’t acting like they knew I broke into the top-secret floor. Rapava was too arrogant to think I could get away with anything locked in my room. This was his flaw. His overconfidence in thinking he was the smartest one here would be his downfall. My gain.

  I dropped my hands in my lap. “Maybe because I’m still treated like a criminal.”

  “You know how to fix that; simply continue to do what Rapava wants. He will eventually give you additional freedoms the more you prove yourself.” Delaney regarded me through her lashes. She set the tray down and picked up the syringe. “Until then, I can give you a sleeping pill to help you relax at night.”

  “A pill?” I inhaled sharply as the needle dug into my neck vein, liquid burning icily into my bloodstream. “Because I don’t want more of this.”

  “Yeah.” She took the out the syringe. “I can leave a couple of pills for you.”

  “Thank you,” I replied gratefully. I had no intention of ever taking them.

  The door opened again, and Rapava stepped through. I forcefully swallowed the bile which rose at the sight of him, last night’s images roaring through my mind.

  “Good morning, Zoey.” He nodded at me, his blue eyes taking me in. “It looks like you did not sleep well.”

  “No.”

  He stared into my eyes. It felt he was looking into my conscience. “Night filled with activity?”

  My muscles locked up, dread coating me like pancake batter. “W-What?” Hell. He knows.

  “Your dreams.” He stepped to the bed, reaching for his pocket light. “The training must be overstimulating your mind and keeping you up. I presume you still have the active dreams like you used to?”

  I always had v
iolent dreams, but when I first started at DMG they got so bad Rapava ran some tests on me. It was a couple of months before I slept a full night. The headaches and nosebleeds began right after. Now I could see they were probably connected.

  “Yes.” Air rushed down my trachea. “Yes. I keep waking myself fighting with my sheets.”

  Delaney smiled, but Rapava watched me blankly before clicking on the mini flashlight, which looked similar to the one Croygen stole from him. “Look up.” He tugged at my bottom eyelid, peering into my pupils.

  I tried to keep my breath even as he examined me. His detached manner always left me feeling as if I were in quicksand. I never knew what he was thinking, which was probably how he liked me to be.

  He frowned, clicking off the light.

  “What?”

  Rapava picked up a clipboard. “Delaney, will you go prepare the examining room? I need to run more tests.”

  “Yes, Doctor.” She nodded, her gaze meeting mine with soft, concerned eyes. She touched my shoulder before heading out of the room. She was sympathetic to me. I needed to act on and use that more. She might be a beneficial acquaintance to have, even if she was unaware of my true motive.

  Rapava waited for her to exit before he addressed my question. “I really hoped for you to do more training today, but the tests I ran on your blood came back almost all negative for fae blood.”

  “What does that mean?” I knew exactly what it meant. I didn’t have Ryker’s blood. But I played dumb.

  “I am not certain. Most likely the blood was contaminated in the lab somehow.” He scribbled a few notes on the clipboard and set it down. “I don’t think it’s anything we need to be concerned about, but I want to run a few more tests today.”

  I swallowed over the disgust caught in my throat. “Of course, anything you need, sir.”

  His expression grew smug, a glimmer in his eyes. “I am happy you feel this way, Zoey. Your contribution is already making a huge difference.”

  Severed primate parts floated behind my eyes and I nearly gagged.

  “Glad to help.” The words slid off my tongue. “I was actually hoping I could do more.”

  Rapava tilted hid head, his curious eyes never leaving me.