by Stone, Layla
Outside the double doors, she saw the stairs that led to the warehouse. Karr didn’t leave that way. He opened another door and led her through a series of tunnels before he stopped and walked through another set of double doors.
It looked like a theater. Karr walked up another set of stairs, and they stopped as they reached a balcony that overlooked a large stage with a huge Minky screen that spanned the entire width of the platform.
That’s when Karr put both hands on each side of his mouth and yelled, “Let him down.”
To her horror, she watched as a barely conscious Shine was lowered from behind a black curtain to in front of the screen. His arms and wrists were tied down to a plank. The same with his legs and ankles. Straps bound his chest, stomach, and neck.
Nara’s stomach sank, and her knees actually gave out. She had to grab the banister to stay upright. “Don’t do this. Whatever you’re going to do, don’t do this.” Pleading. Begging. She had not done that in so many years that she didn’t think she knew how anymore.
“Ssssssh ssh ssh. I said, it’s time to listen. Now, listen and don’t say another word until I tell you to speak.”
Pulling her lips into her mouth, Nara wanted to beg. All she could do was imagine the worst.
Above her, Karr whistled, and she watched as the ropes around the planks moved. Shine’s arms were being twisted back.
Shine asked what was going on when his arms kept moving back. At that level, they would be close to popping out of their sockets.
Shine cursed, his eyes finding hers. “Look away. Don’t watch this.”
“Look away, and I’ll kill him,” Karr warned.
Her insides shook. Shine tried to grind his teeth, but she watched as his face pinched. His arms stilled, then a loud pop sounded when they broke out of their sockets. His arms hung, unnaturally facing the wrong direction. Shine bellowed in pain. She held the banister, digging her nails in. The wood splintered and pierced her skin, but she didn’t care.
Her lower lip trembled. Her chest felt like someone was squeezing it, cutting off her air.
Shine’s screaming changed pitch. It was a nightmare, and she felt like she was dying. Inside, she begged for it to stop. Praying to Seth to save the male she was obsessed with. The one she probably loved.
“Now, for the legs,” Karr called out.
Shine screamed as the planks attached to his legs began to move out. Her body was shaking, and she was ready to leap over the balcony. As she rose, Karr touched her shoulder. His grip was painful, and his voice was venomous. “Here’s my deal. Remove all the microscopic homner string in every Flourg in the next twenty-four hours, and I won’t break him and leave him to be eaten away by our acidic ocean.”
“Deal. Deal!!”
Karr held up his hand just as Shine’s legs were almost too far apart. She welcomed air back into her lungs. Shine had nearly died because of her. Her mind was frantic for a new solution. Karr’s grip pulled her away from the banister.
She tried to hold on, needing to see to Shine. “What about him?”
“He’s not dead. He’s just hurt,” Karr said apathetically. Then he continued to pull her out of the balcony area and down the stairs. At first, she struggled, but she soon realized there wasn’t anything she could do. Not with Karr holding Shine.
Head low, she thought about what she was going to do. It wasn’t until he pushed her into the lab that she had a new idea.
Karr told her, “Denny is going to bring in your first fifty. You have a little under two hours to finish them before your next batch. Oh, and one more thing…” Karr reached into his pocket and pulled out a medscope. “I had Denny grab the one you stole. So, if you think what I did to Shine was just to motivate you, you’re wrong. It was also to show you what if feels like when someone takes something you value.” Karr reached up and flicked her forehead. This time, she didn’t react. “You are by far the biggest pain in the ass I’ve ever hired and not killed. I don’t think I have to explain how much I want to throw you into the ocean right this minute.”
Karr left. Nara didn’t wait by the door or cry like she wanted to. Shine was hurt, and he needed her to do her job. Right now, her job was to extract the illumination. That’s what Karr had wanted all along. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t care at the moment. Time was of the essence.
Moving back to her supplies, she picked up her device and held it against the skin of the female, retracting the polymer. Handfuls of skin-colored flakes fell to the floor. It was unsanitary for her to continue, but she mentally pushed past that.
Taking a scalpel, she cut into the Flourg’s skin. Then she grabbed the tweezers and pulled out one long string and set it in the bowl. Taking the bowl, she moved to the telescope and inspected what the hell it was so she could program her polymer to be attracted by and attach to it.
Focusing to three times magnification, she let out a long breath. “Homner.”
It bothered Nara that she had to give credit where credit was due. But using homner was brilliant because it wasn’t radioactive and it wouldn’t kill the skin or the person. It was smart. “It may be unoriginal art, Veeda, but your concept was brilliant.”
Moving back to her device, Nara realized she would have to reprogram everything. And recharge it without upsetting the energy source. The doors opened, and she looked up, only to see the first few faces.
She re-focused on her objective and continued programming the flakes. While she was doing that, she heard Denny telling everyone to line up. Thankfully, she was finished before he left and was able to hail him with a single nod.
“What do you need, sweetheart?” he asked.
“Fat-black-night tabs. For everyone.”
“Done,” he said and walked out.
The group was staring at her, and a few tried to sneak out the door. Denny held up a phaser and said calmly, “Stay in the lab. The sooner the glow is removed, the sooner you get to leave the planet.”
Nara held the next container above the female and let it go. The skin reacted just as she expected, except she should have predicted the amount of blood splatter. Immediately, her gag reflex reared its ugly head, and she ran to the sink to throw up. When she finished emptying the contents of her stomach and washing the basin, she grabbed the tummy-temper pills and ate four. Over the limit, but hopefully, they would last.
The floors, equipment, and her clothes were covered with blood. She grabbed a mask and put it on before walking back and using her device to recall the polymer. When she did, the polymer and string of homner fell to the ground.
The lab doors slid back, and Denny stopped. “Nara?”
Pulling the medscope from the tools plate, she set the healing device on the female’s head—the only place where her skin had not been torn to ribbons. Assuming it would heal the female, she walked towards Denny with her hand out. “You got the tabs?”
Denny dropped the box into her hand. “Great. Now, be a good Demon and pick up the string that’s on the floor. Your boss wants that.”
He didn’t argue, just did as she said.
The large group moved back as a swarm. The widened eyes and terrified expressions didn’t affect her in the least. This wasn’t about them. It was about Shine. Shaking the box at the mass, she said, “You won’t feel a thing. I promise.”
27
I’ll Make You A Deal
Shine was on the stage floor, writhing in agonizing pain. It was so excruciating that he wished someone would hit him with a brick and end it all right there. He didn’t know how long it had been, but all of a sudden, he noticed Karr’s face above him, holding a small, round, metal device. “This is called a medscope. It works like the big red container you and Z used to have.”
Shine instantly felt a rush of hope that the agony would be over. Karr lowered the device, but right before it touched his skin, the Silk pulled it back.
Shine almost choked on his own breath.
“Before I do this, I want you to know I harbor no hard f
eelings towards you.”
Shine shook his head, trying to deal with the striking pain. His eyes closed, and he ground his molars. Then screamed when he felt his arms being moved. “STOP!”
His eyes opened, and Karr ignored him as he sat him forward and rotated his arms back around. “You want them healed right or not, ya nip?”
Shine growled through the next arm being rotated and then felt the cold metal against his chest. The pain didn’t subside quickly. In fact, it felt worse before it got better. But the entire thing didn’t take long.
His arms were numb, but at least he was able to think. Opening his eyes, he looked up to the betraying, backstabbing male. He wanted to tell Karr that he hated him and wished he had never met him. But what came out was, “Don’t kill Nara when her contract is over.”
Karr shook his head. “You can’t stop that. She’s pushed every one of my buttons. As soon as she’s done, I’m throwing her into the ocean.”
Shine felt his arms start to tingle, a sign of new blood flow. As soon as his arms responded to his order, Shine pulled the device from his chest and held it out to Karr. “I’ll make you a deal.”
Before he could finish, Karr leaned forward with a surprised laugh. “You? You’re going to make me a deal? Of all the people on the island, there is nothing you can offer that I want.”
Shine ignored that. “If you let Nara live, I’ll return the thing I stole from you when we were twenty-five.”
Karr rolled his eyes. “You put that in a safety deposit tube. I had it back within the hour because a certain banker didn’t want to see what it looked like if I pulled out his throat.”
Shine sat up first to make sure he didn’t get a head rush. Then he pushed himself off his knees and stood. Karr followed him up. He was a few inches shorter.
“Let Nara live, and…” Shine had to think of something good. Something that Karr would want and need. Karr could get anything he wanted, but there must be something difficult to procure, even for him.
Karr rubbed his palms. “I like the way your eyes squint when you’re thinking. I hope you’re coming up with something good.”
Shine thought about what Karr had said. The male was excited about an unknown offer. If Shine removed it from all the implied rules, he was left with one powerful option. “Here’s my deal. You will not force, kill, hurt, or threaten my family which includes Nara and Zane – and his family. Not by you or anyone you control, or they control, and I’ll owe you a favor. Anything, anytime. You need me to do something, make something, I’ll do it. No argument.”
Karr no longer looked excited, he looked contemplative. His hands fell to his sides and then were tucked into his sweater. The male didn’t speak for half a second and then started nodding. “All right. You’ve got yourself a deal, Shine. No matter what it is, you’ll do it.”
“I’ll do it.”
Karr slapped him on the arm. “Not bad for a Demon who barely ever makes deals. I honestly didn’t think you’d come up with anything. That head of yours still impresses the hell out of me.”
The compliment felt contaminated, but Shine didn’t say so. The male pulled him to the side and said, “Come on, I’ll take you to the Numan.”
Shine was glad that he’d get to see Nara. He couldn’t imagine what he would have done if he’d had to watch Nara suffer the way she had with him. He hoped that the ordeal didn’t traumatize her or cause her to have a vomiting spell.
“By the way,” Karr said, walking him down a series of stairs towards a path that led between two large sections of chairs. “I’m impressed that you got a Numan to fall for you. They don’t bond emotionally. Or at least I didn’t think they did. But the way she lost her footing, and given how her whole body shook when she watched you break…that was not fake.”
Shine didn’t think that Karr was trying to give him a compliment. And even if he were, Shine didn’t want to discuss his private life with the psychopath.
Karr didn’t let it go. “I mean, I thought Zane moved fast. A few months, and he had a mate. You…it’s been a mere two weeks.”
Shine didn’t know why Karr was talking like they were friends. As if they were jabbering about nonsensical topics and following up on the most recent life events. Even when they were friends, Karr had never been chatty. Maybe he’d changed in the past hundred years, but Shine didn’t think so.
Karr continued to talk about nonsense as they walked down several hallways. Finally, Shine saw a pair of doors. Inside, bodies were sprawled out on the floor. Their skin was flayed open, and several of them were bleeding out. Nara stood over a body with its skin knitting back together. When she turned her head, he didn’t see the woman he cared for, he saw an empty shell of a female. Her eyes were dull, completely devoid of emotion.
Shine’s heart dropped to the floor.
28
Tunnel Vision
Shine looked at her like she was a monster. And in that moment, she felt like one. Fifty-one bodies had been ripped apart, and she had hundreds more to go.
Standing over one of the Flourgs, she waited until all the flesh was knitted back together before moving to the next skin tone. Karr, on the other hand, looked as if he were walking into a supply store. His eyes were wide with wonder.
“This is better than I expected. Look at you go.” Karr pointed back to Shine. “I’m glad I made that deal with you. Because it would be a waste to kill her, but I would have done it out of principle. You know how it is.”
Shine wasn’t looking at Karr, he was looking at her. Refusing to poke the pregnant silence, she looked back down at the body and waited.
Denny said, “Where do I put all the glowing string?”
“Oh, I’ll take that,” Karr said, stepping over the bodies to get to the homner.
There were several instances in her life that Nara regretted. None of those came close to the level of shame that she felt at that moment.
Shine stood there looking at her, seeing what she had done. She wondered if he thought this was normal. That this is what she did behind his back. Or worse, what if he resented her for what had been done to him. Especially since it was a thousand percent her fault. She’d never thought she would lower herself to becoming a typical mindless, soul-crushing Numan. But here she was, making up new science and practically killing to do it.
The body on the floor at her feet thankfully healed quickly. She ignored the stir of the room so much that she didn’t realize that Shine had moved to her side. His hand covered her shoulder.
She didn’t acknowledge it with words, but she did try to pull away.
“What can I do to help?” Shine asked, his voice soft.
“Get out while you can,” she told him. Karr was a psycho, and Shine would be safer somewhere else.
“I’m not leaving. So, give me something to do.”
The person beneath her healed, and Nara leaned down to pick up the medscope so she could move to the next one.
Shine followed. “I’m going to organize the ones that are healed and clean the floor. Okay?”
As soon as he’d said those words, she realized she really needed that done. She hated seeing the blood and the bodies. Her stomach was like a rock, and not in a good way. More as if she’d swallowed a bag of boulders.
It made her feel dense and gross.
Karr called out, “All right, nips, I’m out of here. Denny, you’re with me. Shine can take over now. I will send in the next fifty soon.”
Nara heard him but didn’t respond. Nothing mattered but keeping moving to the next body. When the doors shut, silence descended on the room. Shine’s quiet and efficient working was all Nara heard. Before she was done healing all the bodies, Shine had thoroughly cleaned the floor. He’d also taken the unconscious and set them on towels. Then, he started moving things around. If she weren’t in such a fog, she would have asked him what the hell he was doing but…nothing mattered.
Denny brought in another fifty Flourgs. Nara’s stomach remained rock-hard.
Shine’s voice called out, “Follow the wall and head this way.”
Nara and Denny both looked past the group to the rear of the lab. Shine had set up partitions that sectioned off the back part of the room.
“What happened to them?” one male said.
Shine looked at the bodies, and then the people coming in. His eyebrows fused together, and she knew he was trying to figure it out. Her brilliant prodigy. “As you can see, we’re removing the illumination from your skin. You’re welcome.”
The masses started to hum with voices and whispers. Nara watched Shine and thought she must be burning inside. Because honest to Seth, she was in love with the male.
The room was clean, the lab was in perfect order, and he had done that. For her. He’d made some crazy deal with a soulless bastard. For her.
No, it wasn’t even a theory anymore. It was a mathematical certainty. Nara loved Shine, and if he didn’t love her back, she was going to kidnap him and find a scientific solution that would make him love her.
29
Once a Numan, Always a Numan
Nara was different, and Shine didn’t think anyone could completely turn off like that. He didn’t understand what she was thinking when her eyes all of a sudden zoomed in on him as if he were going to be her next victim.
In all their time together, he didn’t remember a moment when he’d feared her. But after walking in on a room full of ripped-up bodies and her empty eyes, he wondered if there was a side to Nara that he didn’t know about.
If this were his Nara, she would have vomited a thousand times.
The line of glowing people moved along the wall until the first male stood in front of the partition Shine had created. He didn’t know how Nara had gotten rid of the glow, but blood was splattered everywhere.
