Across The Divide

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “I understand.” I rolled my fingers around them and shoved them into my sports bra.

  She curved back for the door. “Be careful.”

  “I will,” I replied. “And thank you, Delaney.”

  She looked back at me, gave me a nod, and walked out. Her footsteps moved away from my room. She never relocked the door.

  “Are there more?” Sprig licked at his fingers, the empty packages strewn around him.

  “No. Sorry.” I went over to him, rubbing his head. The dose of sugar didn’t drive him into a tailspin sugar rush, which worried me. He still didn’t look well. His eyes lacked spark, and his skin was still warm under my touch. But it was better than before; I would take it.

  “I’d feel loads better if I had about ten more of those and Izel’s pancakes.” He blinked, staring at me with hope.

  “Sure, I’ll be right back.”

  “You’re intercoursing with me again, aren’t you?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  When the lights went out for the night, I put Sprig on my shoulder and went for the panel in the ceiling. Croygen’s room was closer to where we needed to go.

  The eerie dark coated us, tensing my muscles as I slipped silently through the vents, Sprig holding tight to my neck. He was still not himself, staying quiet and holding on to his tail for security. I needed to get him away from the testing and injections. His little body couldn’t handle the constant examination and doses of goblin metal.

  If anything happens to him. I shook my head, not letting myself think past that.

  “Feels strange tonight,” he mumbled next to my ear.

  I bit my lip. He was right, the space held a density, a peculiar vibration in the air, like it knew something was going to happen tonight. My nerves rubbed against my skin, feeling raw and exposed.

  We both stayed silent after that, scooting in and out of vents, making our way to Croygen’s room. I opened the last vent, letting my legs shimmy down from the opening, touching a ceiling rafter.

  The moment I dropped from the flue, I sensed a figure behind me. A gasp burst from my lungs as a large hand went over my mouth, clogging the cry in my throat. A body pressed into mine, an arm slipped around my stomach, pulling me in. My heart slammed in my chest as hot breath went down my neck.

  “Rendezvous in the rafters. Kinky. I like it.”

  My elbow went back into Croygen’s stomach. He stepped back with a heavy exhale, his arms dropping from me. “Figures you like it violent.”

  I whirred around, whispering hoarsely. “You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Now that is a level of kinky I never got into.”

  “Croygen,” I sighed.

  “Guess we should have set which room we were going to meet in.” Croygen straightened, still rubbing the spot where I hit him. “Need to work on our organization skills.”

  “So, we probably shouldn’t open a party planning service together yet.”

  Croygen snorted. “There are a lot of things we should never open together.”

  I could feel the underlying meaning soak his words.

  “How did getting the card key go for you?” I lifted my eyebrows. “How fast did you seduce the nurse? Minutes? Seconds?”

  Croygen folded his arms, his chin dipping to the side. “Uh, let’s say her hatred of fae made it a tiny bit harder than I thought.”

  “You didn’t get it?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “It’s a yes or no.”

  “Then…no.”

  “I know.” I smirked, digging into my waistband.

  “You know?” A shocked look of fear flickered over his face. He was probably worried I had found out he wasn’t the stud he praised himself to be.

  I tugged out the two cards from my pants, holding them up. “It seems I did better getting them from her than you.”

  “Oh, I get it. She likes you.” He nodded as if it confirmed why he lost.

  “No.” I shook my head and smiled smugly. “I’m simply better.”

  His lids narrowed, snatching the card I held out to him. “I had a lot going against me.”

  “Sure.” I winked.

  Croygen huffed, irritation shifting his feet on the beam. “Where’s the hamster? You leave his ass behind?”

  “Screw you, ass bandit,” Sprig mumbled from under my hair.

  I automatically reached up, stroking his fur soothingly.

  “He’s not doing well. Unusually quiet. It’s another reason I have to get all of us out of here.”

  “You mean there’s a volume switch on him?”

  I almost wanted to laugh. Croygen sounded so much like Ryker then. Of course, the thought of the man downstairs only inflicted sadness that weighed my limbs down.

  “What happened there?” Croygen’s voice was low, pointing at my face.

  “Nothing. Let’s get our plan set and go. We have no time to waste.”

  “Okay, boss, what’s the plan?”

  “First we go get my sister.” I placed my hands on my hips. “She’s near where Sera was.” Croygen didn’t know where that was, but I was saying the plan out loud more for me than anyone. “There are a couple of fae security scanning machines to watch for.”

  “When they were bringing me down here, we went through a huge one at the top level.” Croygen nodded. “To stop it from going off, they punched in a number before I went through and after. Turning it back on.”

  Frustration gurgled from my throat. “We have no way around it. Our only exit is up the elevators and out the main doors.”

  Croygen rubbed his face.

  “We go out together. Let it go off.” I shrugged.

  “I’ll go with you to get your sister,” Croygen said. “You guys go up and hide. I will go get Ryker and bring him back. Then we run.”

  “Sounds so easy.”

  “Not even close.”

  “I feel I should go with you to get Ryker. I know the code to get into the room.”

  “Then tell me, because you aren’t getting anywhere near him. He wants to kill you.”

  “There are times Ryker, my Ryker, was present.”

  “I am not taking the chance.”

  Finally I consented. “Fine, but Sprig will go with you.”

  “What?” Both boys responded.

  “Sprig, Croygen needs eyes and ears getting Ryker out.” I grabbed at his tail, petting it. “Don’t you want to help Ryker?”

  Sprig sighed, laying his head on my neck. “Okay, only so I can annoy the Viking again. I miss that.”

  “If you help Croygen, and we get out of here, I am sure he will let you annoy him anytime you want.”

  “But he can’t like it.” Sprig sat back on his heels. “That will take all the fun out of it.”

  “I have confidence you will be sure he doesn’t,” Croygen said snidely.

  “The buttaneer will be leaving us soon, right?”

  “Why?” A grin hinted on Croygen’s mouth. “When I bring you so much happiness.”

  “Happiness?” Sprig sputtered.

  “Oh right, that’s mine.” Croygen winked. “Your irritation is my joy.”

  “All right.” I twisted on the flashlight beam, heading for the venting system, which would lead us to Lexie. “Let’s go.”

  Croygen followed, lifting me to climb into the duct.

  “Whatever’s ahead of us? Thank you.” I looked back at him. “For being here. For saving my life.”

  “I haven’t saved it.”

  “Yes, you did.” I glanced between him and Sprig. “Both of you did.”

  The unknown before us was staggering, as was the amount of danger we were stepping blindly into. The peril gripped me, almost forcing me immobile. But the strength of the two next to me and the love for the others kept me moving and led me down this road of jeopardy.

  I now understood what it felt like to have family. To truly love. People you would fight and die for no matter the outcome.

  Croygen let go and I dropped to the ground,
Sprig’s tail wrapped around my neck. The nightlight in the corner flushed the room with distinct silhouettes.

  “Lexie?” I whispered her name as I walked to the bed. A sick feeling formed in my stomach as I replayed how I had walked to Sera’s bed in the same fashion. Lexie’s thin frame was lost under the covers in the same way. She lay on her back, stone still. The only indication she was still alive was the slight rise and fall of her chest under the blankets.

  Croygen’s weight landed in the spot I just vacated.

  “Lexie?” I called softly again, my hand urging her awake. She didn’t move. The dread in my gut only amplified. I shook her a little harder. “Wake up.”

  Lexie had never been a heavy sleeper. I learned that from the many times I snuck back into our room late. She was a pain to get out of bed, but she usually woke easily, then would grumble and turn away from me.

  I jiggled her more forcefully. “Lexie, get up.” Her lids didn’t even flutter.

  My gaze shot nervously over my shoulder to Croygen. He stepped to the bed, taking over trying to stir her.

  Nothing.

  “What is wrong? Why won’t she wake up?” My heart thumped loudly in my ears.

  Sprig leaped down beside her, poking at her cheek. His nose tipped up and wiggled, like he smelled something.

  “Calm down.” Croygen moved me out of the way, inspecting Lexie closer. He prodded her lid open, looking at her eyes. Sprig leaned over waving his arms in front of her eyeball. “She’s severely drugged.” Croygen clicked his tongue. “I mean elephant tranquilizer drugged. The kind you find yourself naked and tied to an anchor.”

  I didn’t want to know.

  “Why?” I asked out loud, but it was more my brain trying to understand. Was this something they did only tonight or something they did every night?

  “What do you want to do?” Croygen turned to me.

  “What do you mean? We’re not leaving her.” My voice rose an octave.

  “I wasn’t saying that.” He placed his hand on my arm. “I was thinking you can’t carry her, unconscious.”

  Lexie’s comatose body hindered our plan. She was thin but taller than me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get her out on my own and if anything happened, we’d be doomed.

  “You take her. I will get Ryker.”

  Croygen moved his head back and forth. “No way.”

  “It’s the only way.”

  “The man wants to kill you, Zoey.”

  “I’ll simply have to make sure he doesn’t.” I touched Lexie’s hand, her skin clammy. “The real Ryker is in there. I’ve seen it, and I know the setup.”

  “Zoey, you’re being stupid.”

  “What do you suggest?” I hissed. “We don’t have another choice. You get Lexie out of here, no matter what. She is my priority. I will deal with Ryker.” Croygen opened his mouth, but my expression clamped it shut.

  “Wow, he can be trained not to speak.” Sprig crawled back up my arm, sitting on my shoulder.

  “Like you should talk. You’re like the Energizer Bunny with a mouth.”

  I shot daggers at both, silencing them. “The plan is still the same, except it’s me getting Ryker.” I tapped Sprig’s tail. “Sprig will be my lookout. You use the key card and get Lexie as far as you can. Get her to the upmost level next to the security alarm. But if you hear anything, or sense anything, you take her and run.”

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “You. Take. Her. And. Run. You got that?” I practically growled.

  He exhaled through his nose with irritation but nodded.

  I turned back to Lexie and pulled the blankets off her body, preparing to let Croygen pick her up.

  I ceased breathing.

  “Holy shit.” Croygen jerked back, and Sprig emitted a high squeak.

  Horror curdled in my stomach, screams stacked on my tongue. My eyes did not want to believe what they were seeing.

  From the knees up, she was the girl I loved and raised. Wild curly thick hair, dark creamy skin. She always looked like an angel. When she slept. Awake was a whole other story. The girl had a mouth and personality on her that was vibrant and unfiltered.

  Now everything below was not the same girl. Where her crippled, twisted legs used to be were now someone else’s. The legs were pasty white and more muscular than Lexie’s twelve-year-old frame. They started just below her kneecaps. The deep caramel tint of her skin opposed the pale color of the foreign legs.

  “That’s fucked up.” Croygen stretched out, touching Lexie’s new toes.

  I wanted to throw up. I always thought when Rapava wanted to cure diseases and disabilities it was with shots of magic or medication extracted from fae. Sprig was my first notion this was not the case. Rapava did not care about healing. He was making, with bits and pieces, his new human race.

  “They’re not fae.” Croygen touched the attached legs.

  “What?”

  “They’re human.”

  “Are you sure?” My seer gift was picking up a very dim glow from Lexie.

  “Yes.”

  “He’s right. I can smell human.” Sprig leaned over, sniffing again. “But there is magic in her blood system.” That was why I was getting a faint glow.

  I stared at the legs. He was using human parts? Not fae? In his mission to save the human race, he was now sacrificing them. He would say it was for the greater good.

  Sacrifice a few for the many…

  My eyes caught on a tiny mark on the snowy-white ankle. I leaned in, my fingers sweeping over a small SG tattoo by the heel in blue, yellow, and red. Super Girl. My memory flashed to the cape in the closet I found, when Croygen and I were hiding. I swallowed back bile creeping up. A thought blistered in my mind. No. I looked back to Lexie’s face. I didn’t have time to think about anything but our escape. All of this would take some time to sort out. Time we didn’t have.

  “We’ll deal with this later.” I nudged Croygen and wrapped Lexie with a blanket. He stepped up, sliding his arms under her body. She draped limply over his arms.

  “She looks like a soggy burrito.” Sprig snorted, then covered his mouth when I glared at him.

  Croygen tucked her into his chest, and I ran ahead of him to open the door. I peeked out. The silent hallway felt like it was strung with watching eyes and traps.

  “Okay. I’m heading down. Please, don’t come for me…get her out. If the pledge means anything to you, save her life. Not mine.

  “Doesn’t work like that.”

  “Please, Croygen.”

  He stared at me. Then suddenly he leaned over and kissed me. Surprise whisked the air from my lungs. His lips were tender but ardent against mine, capturing the intensity of the moment. He pulled back a breath, his dark eyes sternly looking into mine. “Get out. Whatever it takes. Even if you have to leave him.”

  “Doesn’t work like that.”

  “Now you understand.” He smiled and whirled around, jogging for the elevator. Lexie’s limp form bobbed up and down.

  I watched him round the corner and sucked in my breath. “Hell.” I turned the opposite way, heading for the other elevator. Croygen and I had been through a lot together. We had built a friendship, a bond no one could break. And this was probably more than he had ever let himself feel for a woman in a long time. If ever.

  “The scally-wanker better keep his mouth and other body parts to himself from now on,” Sprig griped in my ear.

  I ignored him, reaching the elevator doors. I took in a shaky breath.

  “You ready?” Sprig asked.

  “Are you?”

  “For hell?” His tail circled my neck. “Eye, Matty.”

  This could end badly in so many ways. More ways than it could end well.

  “Let’s go get our Viking asshole.” He lifted his arm in a battle cry.

  “Shhhh,” I hushed.

  “Let’s go get our Viking asshole,” he repeated in a whisper this time, raising his arm with less gusto.

  Every step I took I
tried to ignore the growing anticipation a net was about to come down on me, that I was walking into a trap.

  As a human or fae, I was a fighter.

  And this fight I had to win.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The elevator doors opened. Through the darkness the lights of the lab equipment and monitors sparkled like alien stars. I slipped against the wall and walked as quietly in my boots as possible down the hallway. My neck was damp with nervous sweat, while the code numbers continuously looped in my head.

  A panel next to the elevator lit up, sensing motion. Hell. This was probably another trap. A way to monitor people coming and going. I filled my lungs and held my breath. It was too late to turn back now.

  “When I go in, I need you to stay out here and keep guard, okay?” I whispered to Sprig.

  He held up his thumb and hopped off my shoulder onto the ground, keeping to the shadows.

  Okay, this was it.

  I punched in the eleven-digit number. The panel blinked in response.

  I cringed when the door beeped. The lock releasing sounded like a ton of bricks falling into a metal dumpster in the silent corridor. Giving Sprig one last nod, I opened the door and slipped into the room.

  The outer room blushed an eerie yellow from the emergency lights along the floor base. The code to Ryker’s cell was the same code backward. No sooner had I hit the last number than the green panel beeped, releasing its hold.

  Nerves in my stomach twisted. I hadn’t let myself think about actually being alone with him. Croygen warned me, but circumstances and my stubbornness won out. Again, I was far too deep to turn back now.

  I crept into the inner room, shutting the door behind me. If someone came, I’d hear the door beep, giving me a little warning to hide.

  It took me a moment for my eyes to adjust to the solid blackness of the inner the room. Eventually the glow from the emergency lights from the other room bled, giving an outline to the objects in the room. There wasn’t much here, only a bed and some medical equipment. The darker mass of Ryker on the gurney loomed in the middle of the room. His labored breath, like someone in pain, reached my ears.