by Milana Jacks
Outside, the alarms blared. I crawled over to the heated door and pressed my ear against it. The Cy didn’t wear shoes, but I heard their soft footsteps and lots of frantic chatter.
My belly rose.
We were descending at an alarming speed. I felt a pang in my chest, and my dragon stirred, his energy brimming with untapped power. I felt…felt closer to Earth. Excellent.
The walls groaned.
Fear and adrenaline pumped through my body, my dragon no longer in slumber and now pressuring my mind. We were ready. The walls groaned again, bent outward, then sprang back. It reminded me of the day the Yellowstone caldera had erupted and lava reached the prison. Knight had shouted for me, and I had shouted for him. We’d exchanged a lot of sappy love words, because, fuck, we thought we’d die. But no. Before fleeing the facility, Officer Smith had taken mercy on us and unlocked the prison cells. But the Cy might let me die. If they crashed, all their equipment would break, and they couldn’t survive the cold on Earth. They knew they’d die, so they had no use for me. I banged on the door. “Let me out!”
Nothing.
I pushed with my shoulder.
It dented.
I doubted I could penetrate the walls even if they appeared flexible.
I rushed the door, and it bounced back upon impact, slamming me into the opposite wall. I slid down, a hand on the small of my back. “Fuck.” I rubbed the sore spot.
The ship tilted, and I slid again, hitting my head on the door. Jesus! The room spun again, and the fucking centrifugal force was nature’s traitor. Nothing stayed in place, including my body. I slid around the floor and the walls, managing to grab the bed and ride with it. It was like figure skating, but not that pretty.
Suddenly, we settled.
I was a pretzel, my legs intertwined with the bed’s legs. Groaning. I sat on the bed and threw my hands up. “At Disneyland, I never cared for teacups. I was there for the turkey leg. Just so y’all know.”
The alarms were driving me crazy. I gotta get the fuck out of here. I glanced at the door and saw it had opened an inch. Good enough. I cursed my fat fingers as they barely fit through the tiny gap. Once I got a grip, I pulled and squeezed through the tight space. I stumbled down the hallway of flickering red lights, not a single Cy in my way. Where the hell were they?
I kept strolling, finally seeing some of them. The Cy mastermind. They waited for me at the other end of a dark tunnel. Nothing good ever came from dark tunnels, but I didn’t have anywhere else to go. The light behind them looked natural, and I presumed it was sunlight. The Earth felt closer to me. I approached them, but they didn’t let me pass. I crossed my arms over my chest. “We landed. I feel it. Move, or I’ll sink the entire ship.”
He-Cy opened his mouth. Alleluia. I finally caught a glimpse of their teeth, four small blunt teeth, barely visible beneath the gums. The guy’s mouth opened and closed as if gasping for air. His body shook slightly. He was scared.
He spoke from his throat. “Your kind has cost us many lives and has now damaged our home. The Earth’s core is shaken, and we predict another apocalypse. If we depart our home and live inside the habitat, we will not survive.”
“I told you so.”
“We have determined the human race is doomed and have decided to depart. We seek permission to stay on the ground and repair our ship.”
“Okay. How long will that take?”
“Thirty-one hours.”
“Damn. That’s precise. Sure, yeah, go ahead and repair it.” I would walk outside and bury the fucker.
Their eyes widened. “Peace be with you, dragon man.”
“Are you serious about departing?”
“We do not joke.”
“You’re leaving Earth and its orbit?”
The other two Cy nodded.
“But what about the cyborgs?” What about Rose? The Cy tilted their heads, clearly not understanding my question. “The cyborgs carry your implants.”
“Yes.”
“How can they survive without you?”
“Their human bodies will survive the Ice Age. This was our purpose. The rest of the advancements was requested by the cyborg military. We simply shared knowledge. They have acquired enough knowledge to continue without us.”
I stepped back and took a good hard look at these aliens I’d hated most of my life. Sure, they had their horrible ways of acquiring knowledge, but I found…I kind of liked them. I felt sorry for them. They’d spent decades investing in humankind, believing that with some technological advances, we could change our ways, but in the end, humans remained humans. Destructive. “How many of you are left?” I asked.
“We are an endangered species.”
“How many?”
“Thirty-seven thousand two hundred and nine.”
“And you can’t reproduce?”
“We seek knowledge on how to reproduce.”
“But how did you come to be?”
“We do not know.”
Oh man. Sucked to be the Cy. Still… “I expect your departure in thirty…some hours.”
They moved out of my way. The ship’s bridge lowered and hit the ice. The sun blinded me as I stepped outside and my bare feet connected with frozen ground. I wiggled my toes, my dragon at ease in my chest. A pod approached. Ah, fuck me. Under my feet, dirt shuffled, rocks moved, my element coursing through my body. I prepared to sink into the ground, and under my soles, the ground softened.
I blocked the sun from my eyes and watched the pod. It landed on the ship’s bridge, and several Cy exited. Frostbite started forming on their bodies as they rushed across the bridge and inside the ship. The three Cy masterminds stayed at the ship’s exit and watched me. Just in case they changed their minds, I decided to show them I wasn’t bluffing.
I directed my element from where I touched ground and outward. Rocks and dirt broke through the ice and hovered in the air at my command while the ice around the ship melted.
The bridge closed, and the ship’s noise died out. They would hurry along, repair the damage, and depart. I would know if they didn’t. Knight would sense it in the air. Speaking of the devil, Knight appeared as if from thin air. One minute, he was a huge white menace in the sky, the next, he landed a few feet away from me in his human form. Clementine landed behind him. Knight walked to me and enveloped me in a hug. I patted his back.
He squeezed me for longer than was necessary. Such a mother hen, this one.
“I take it you caused the crash,” I said.
He took me by my shoulders and put me at arm’s length. “What happened inside there?”
“A whole lot.”
Knight grunted. “I’ll set up a perimeter around the ship.”
“I got the Cy covered.” How is your sister? I told Knight about the Cy leaving.
“I don’t believe them,” he said.
“I can’t snuff out an entire race of people. They’re all packed inside that thing.” I pointed. “I can’t kill them all. If they don’t leave, we’ll deal with them again. We have bigger problems with the cyborgs anyway. They’re out for blood.” Come on, Knight. Give me something on Rose.
Knight frowned and spun around. A single black pod came into view and flew quickly toward us. Midflight, the door slid opened, long legs dangled out, and Rose jumped and crouched on the ground. And then she was running, her eyes locked with mine. I stepped away from Knight and opened my arms, catching her when she jumped. Rose kissed my cheek, my nose, my forehead, and then my mouth. I opened it, and her tongue found mine. I fisted her hair and growled. She felt so right for me. She was mine in all the ways that mattered.
We made out for what felt like seconds, though it could’ve been an hour for all I cared. I wanted to lay her down and claim her right there on the dirt.
A throat cleared.
Rose kissed my cheek, then opened her pretty brown eyes. They stared into my soul, and in the moment, I swore my dragon stared back at her. I put Rose down. Now, with erect dicks ready to fuck
her, I faced her big brother, my best friend and my dragon brother. Which made all this totally wrong.
Clementine’s eyes widened, but she smiled and nudged her mate. Knight stood there, his feet shoulder-width apart, his eyes sharp. I almost saw the wheels turning in this head. “So my little sister is your spirit?” I noted he chose his words carefully, emphasizing my little sister. Just in case I’d forgotten.
“Not exactly.”
Knight blinked. It took a second for him to process my reply. I saw the moment his fist flew toward my face, and I let it. I deserved it. I should’ve told him about Rose. I just didn’t want anyone complicating things any further. Besides, Rose was a grown woman and could make her own choices. If she’d betrayed me, she wouldn’t be here, and that was all that mattered.
Knight and Clementine walked away. He wouldn’t forgive me for this. I’d broken our secret vow, the one that said we’d take care of each other. The consequences could be disastrous. I knew all this, and yet, I couldn’t give her up.
“My brother is pissed,” Rose said.
“Beyond pissed,” I said and touched my eye. A shiner for sure. I shivered. Fuck, it was freezing out here.
Rose lifted her hand, and the pod landed. We loaded up inside, and she passed me a blanket and a bottle of water from the back.
“I don’t care,” Rose said as she fired up the pod. I glanced back at the ship, hoping the Cy held up their end of the deal. I didn’t want to kill them all, but I would. They couldn’t stay, not because they were vicious, but because they worked with cyborgs. “You don’t care about what?”
“Any of it. My dad is also pissed. They can all suck my dick.”
I smiled because my girl Rose never lost her girl balls. “Where are we headed?”
“I’m driving around.” She flipped some switches.
“I thought these things flew on autopilot.”
“They do. I disconnected from the base.” She glanced at me.
“So they can’t track you?”
“Well, that and also because I don’t have my permit yet, so I only know how to think it and ride. Kind of.” She looked sheepishly at me. “I’ll try not to crash us.”
Rose just told me she’d given up her cyborg life. We needed to lie low, let the Cy depart, then fly into Knight’s territory to make amends. “Can I see the map?” I asked.
Rose commanded the ground view, and I squinted. My eyes watered, and one swelled. I could barely see. Knight had a great right hook. “There.” I pointed.
“That’s the National Guard base.”
“Mm-hm. Go there and park this thing.”
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as anything.”
“I was thinking we should lie low, you know? Settle down for a bit.”
“We’re on the same frequency, babe. There are caves under the base, which was the reason I couldn’t allow demolition and habitat on top of them.”
“Caves?”
“Mm-hm. My beast made those the last time he went batshit crazy and caused an apocalypse.”
16
Rose
The pod hovered over Lake St. Clair, and I directed the pod’s command center. It initiated a thermal scan of the area, namely for human bodies, something Jordan hadn’t done the first time we came out here. My dad was right when he said I hadn’t had the right training, but I lived and learned out in the field.
“Rose?”
“Mm-hm.” I was soaking up all the information, the building’s layouts and the area displayed in my mind as a rolling movie. I was sorting through it all.
“Can you communicate with this pod?” Arthur asked.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“My implant is designed for maximum efficiency, so I don’t have to waste words.”
“What’s that mean exactly?”
Done with the scan, I disengaged and turned toward Arthur. His shoulders were slouched, his eye was swollen, and he looked exhausted. I better get him down and inside his cave fast. “I don’t detect caves on the layout. But I can see there are unusual readings underground. The others won’t be able to tell where we are if we go under. Are the caves under the airstrip?”
“You’re evading.”
I didn’t wanna talk about my implant and the fact I was a cyborg. I didn’t really want anything standing between us now. “You should rest.” I moved to descend, but Arthur put a hand over my implant. I felt his featherlight touch and placed my human hand over his. “I’m still mostly human.”
“I want to know everything about you.”
I traced a finger over the top of his warm hand. “The implant is connected to the chip in my head.”
“What the hell?”
“Oh, don’t panic. It’s just so I can communicate with the tech.”
“Nobody mentioned a fucking chip to me. I’m gonna kill the surgeons.” He groaned. “Tomorrow.”
I chuckled. “It’s patient-and-Cy-privileged information. Besides, they’re not sure how it’s gonna work. It’s a test chip and a test implant.”
“So this would be the future, then. Chips in heads and no need to speak at all. Cyborgs walking around like zombies, smiling and nodding at each other.” I should have sunk the damn ship.
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “I have to accept the cards I got dealt.”
“I’m not blaming you, Rose.”
“I know. Still, I don’t want to talk about it.”
Arthur pointed somewhere in the direction of the former post office. “The entrance is there.”
The pod couldn’t fit through the cave’s entrance, so I hid it inside one of the hangars we hadn’t destroyed in the earlier demolition mission. Arthur dug through the dirt, then grabbed my hip and pulled me to him. I was hyperaware of his hard chest and his growing dicks. “We’re going inside. The back way.” He winked.
A joke? I didn’t get it. Arthur palmed the back of my head, and the Earth opened.
We dropped and landed on hard ground.
I couldn’t form words. “Did we just…sink?”
“Yes.”
I slapped his shoulder. “You could’ve warned me.” I looked around, willing my eyes to adjust to the darkness. It smelled stuffy in here, and it was freezing cold. Goose bumps rose over Arthur’s skin, and I rubbed his arm. My implant would compensate for the temperature. Still, I shivered. A dim light came on, and I turned to see Arthur’s eyes shining like yellow globes, his pupils shrunk into vertical slits. Arthur grabbed my hand and moved us through an underground tunnel with cold uneven walls. I spotted a flickering light ahead of us. Fear made my heart pump faster, and my implant beeped. “We’re not alone,” I whispered.
“That’s some of my pack.”
Oh. His wolf pack was here? Arthur pulled my hand, and even though I didn’t want to deal with people, I braved the way. We arrived at a cave with a high ceiling, an underground river, and old lamps near the numerous cots set up on various flat surfaces. Wolves stood before us, their fur bristling, their lips peeled back, their eyes bright. Arthur pulled me forward. I dug in my heels.
“Rose is mine,” he said, his voice inhuman, echoing through the cave. He cleared his throat and spoke in his normal voice. “This is Rose, if you recall. Quit the shit.”
A large gray wolf approached, his claws clicking on the ground. His lip wasn’t peeled back, but I could tell he was stalking. The wolf sniffed my implant. I glanced at the animal man and extended my fingers, wanting to pat him. He backed off, and in a flash of white light, became a short stocky man. He extended his hand. “Dodger. The pack’s alpha. Good to see you feeling better.”
Shaking hands should be unconscious, a reflex almost, something nobody really gives a second thought. But my right hand was an implant, and I hesitated. But only briefly, because, dammit, I couldn’t look weak. We shook hands, and since the male seemed to know me, I wondered how much Arthur had talked about me.
Dodger spread his arms. “Come here, you dirty bastard. Scar
ed the bejesus out of us.”
Arthur and the wolf did a man hug, one where dudes bang on backs, but it was still sweet and good to know Arthur’s pack had followed him out to Detroit.
“When did you get here?” Arthur asked.
“Just three nights ago.”
“Outlaws?”
“Some. The others we cleared out.”
Arthur tsked. “I told you to behave.”
Dodger lifted his hands. “I didn’t do nothing.”
“Of course not.”
He slapped Arthur on the shoulder. “You look beat.” He joked, but there was genuine concern in his eyes.
“Nah, took a nap in the pod on the way here.”
“A pod?”
“Yeah, Rose drove. Anyway, where do I get to sleep now that y’all took up residence by the water?”
Dodger chuckled. “Wherever. Man, this cave is huge. We haven’t even marked a quarter of it.”
Arthur growled, and I startled, having never heard this noise come from his chest. “You’ve been pissing on my territory?” he asked.
“Easy, now,” the wolf said. “I gotta know where I’m going. These are naturally made tunnels, a maze of them, and we gotta mark to get around.”
“Don’t piss anymore.”
Dodger sighed. “No more marking!” he announced to the pack.
The pack whined.
Arthur shouted, “Use a fucking pen or draw on the walls like the cavemen did.”
White lights like a sparkling of stars disrupted the dimly lit space, and everyone turned into their human shapes. I noted only one woman and no children. My brother’s pack included women and children. This must not be the entire pack. I took note of knives, daggers, swords, and other types of cold weapons lying near their cots. These people were Arthur’s ground defense. His trained pack members. If the Cy hadn’t released Arthur, the pack would have attacked the habitat, including the cyborgs. I am a cyborg.
