Atrocity

by C F Rabbiosi

  “I wish you had.” He’s so strong my lungs fight to expand, and I wish he would squeeze harder.

  “The red mist returns,” he says with a whisper of madness. “You make me want to kill everyone here and drag you across the world where we can live forever in hiding.”

  “Ohh,” I utter softly, scared yet exhilarated at the same time. I’ve seen this unharnessed side of him, and he’s frightening. My adrenaline skyrockets as the request drips from my consciousness, so close to leaving my lips: Yes. Please yes. Take me away…

  Voices drift on the breeze, snapping me back to a place where sanity reigns. Vaerynn and Finn appear by the bridge, distressed words passing between them. Kassien breaks from his trance, alarm rising as he takes them in. Vaerynn tips her face up to meet his, so close, and I marvel at their moment, the fiery atmosphere in their background saying everything they can’t.

  “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Kassien peers into the sky where a bird flies overhead. “Pushing the reassemble button on the obliterator.”

  “Why did you?”

  “Because I’ve killed for you, and there will be consequences one day. To take the lives of more Koridons will see me killed in return by the sovereigns. Then how can I watch over my only love, Calypso?”

  “You love me?”

  “Since the moment I carried you broken in my arms.” The tension in my being releases. “You are mine. Even if another has rights to you.”

  “Rights to me,” I repeat. “This is a broken world, where my abuser is allowed to own me.”

  “And we are fighting to create a new one.”

  I roll my lips together and a hint of salt touches my tongue. The tide kicks up and I startle as it makes a powerful crack against the shore.

  “I want to protect you,” he says, “but I cannot always be there. Under your bed, the floor boards have been loosened, and beneath you will find a most feared weapon.”

  My brows pop up. “You don’t mean?” He got the flesh obliterator back?

  He nods wickedly. “In case you or Alice find yourselves in danger. It was the best place I could think to hide it.”

  “I can’t believe you got it back! How?”

  “Let us walk,” he says, shooting one last glance toward Finn and Vaerynn. “I contacted Eladia and told her of what happened that night of the ceremony.”

  “And just like that, she granted you access?”

  “She is my aunt, after all.”

  What news! I breathe easier knowing we have such fire power on our side, and right there in my room! When I hid behind Kassien the night he returned, I saw exactly how he used it on Brekter.

  “How has the pregnancy been for you?” Kassien puts his arm around me as we walk, the sand scratching the soles of my feet, and my legs grow heavy as I sink into the ground.

  “Gerakon says this is new for him, but according to the imaging, it may be safe to come out in as early as a week.” The cold sea foam reaches our feet, and the tiny bubbles crackle as it recedes again. “He’s going to pull him straight out of my stomach to avoid complications of trying to deliver a fourteen pound baby naturally. You guys are bloody huge.” I hold the bottom of my massive belly and step away from the creeping water. “And I’m quite ready to have my child now.”

  “I never thought about how you felt carrying your enemy’s child. How can you care for such a thing?”

  “This baby comes from my enemy, yes, but he’s still a part of me. And my mother.” He’s also a part of my father by default, but I choose not to dwell on it. “Children are scarce in our villages too, by choice. There aren’t enough resources, and the cloak we used to disguise ourselves kept us trapped, really.”

  As we walk back, I think about the kiss I gave Kassien by the lake when we so nearly stripped each other bare and mated before proper ceremony. He had never felt another’s lips before, and I knew it was dangerous to tempt him. But I trusted him. Even when he changes, becoming the threatening beast that seems to live in all of them, I still can’t fear him.

  “Kass, consider what I’ve asked of you, please. You can’t let Scarlet die. Your baby will be strong enough to survive with all your advanced medical equipment because they’re part human and belong here now.”

  “Yes, half-human. That is cause for worry in itself.”

  I nod my head, understanding. While a Koridon child may be strong enough to survive coming out this early, the human in him may not.

  * * *

  Days go by, and every new sunrise amazes me as my body holds out against the onslaught of the Koridon male growing inside me. My lower abdomen aches, and I throw the covers off to use the bathroom for the fourth time tonight. The child’s head bears down against my pelvic floor and I sometimes worry that it’s trying to push it way out, ready to come into the world, but my body stays closed, oblivious.

  As I sit and relieve my bladder, I think of the little heartbeat thrumming away in its six chambers, the lub-dub-thud sounds the strange hybrid organ makes. I remember how Gerakon’s hands shook, holding the stethoscope as he explained that Koridon anatomy consists of two hearts among other striking differences.

  I asked him to save Scarlet, but his words to me were purely logical, the life of the child is all that matters…although his avoiding eyes spoke of things he could never take back. I have to believe that when the time comes, he won’t let her die.

  A soft murmur snaps my head up as I step down the hallway. I crack the door open an inch and realize it’s going to be awkward getting back to my bed with Arek visiting Alice. And I really want my bed. She puts her arms around his shoulders, his bare back stretched out, his massive body hanging off her bed. I sit down in the hall on the ornately carpeted floor and run my fingers over the paisleys. Maybe I’ll just wait another minute. My morning fog dissipates and I remember—Arek’s on a hunting trip.

  A choking sound brings me to my feet, too quickly, and my abdomen lights up with pain. I hit the door open, ignoring it, my senses on high alert. Before I can make out the figure in the dark, I’m yanked inside and hit the wall. I crawl to my feet and try to scream but choke on the plea.

  A sharp elbow shatters my chest and the cry dies in my throat. I watch helplessly as Kjartonn ties Alice’s mouth shut. Cracking pain alerts me to true damage of my sternum when I move, but all I can focus on are the whites of blond Alice’s watering eyes and the sound of desperation slipping past her gag.

  Kjartonn, covered in a layer of dirt and hair wild, takes her down to her knees. He rips the underwear off her backside and jerks them from her ankles. Where’s Vaerynn? Oh god, Finn. What has happened to them that Kjartonn has gotten through? He turns his cruel gaze on me and a wicked smile curls his lips. His hand lands hard into the fleshy globe of her ass, and tears squeeze down her face.

  I crawl toward my bed. Pain seizes my reach as I feel along the floor for the loose boards, and I grunt as my large belly pulls me down. I toss myself to the side, feeling the baby squirm from the pressure. I croak out a cry for help and force myself to my hands and knees through the stabbing pain in my chest, but it’s too late. He grips his cock and plays the tip against her backside. Her face suddenly twists into my own, and I see my silvery hair pulled until the scalp is raised, my lips praying for it to end. His large hands hold her hips firm, and when he turns to me, it’s Brekter that has taken his face.

  He grips the top of her head and jerks her up to his mouth. “The very closeness of you,” he says, “…the feel of your kiss when you thought I was him, it stunned me and enraged me. You want to be his?”

  She whimpers in reply.

  “Never,” he growls. “I would rather you were dead. And I know just how you will die.”

  I frantically search for the opening in the floor, but I’m shaking so badly. I take a deep breath and force my nerves back. Kassien gave me the weapon to prevent this. I can’t fail her. Slowly I search again, and a floor board moves against my pinky.

  Kjartonn turns toward me with
a curious squint. “However,” he caresses her hair back as she cries, “I’d like to do this slowly. And perhaps for many days after you have gone cold. So I will take you away from here, somewhere where no one will ever find us.”

  I reach in and grasp the object securely in my hand. I envision the weapon by the feel of it in my mind’s eye. Still trembling, I accidently hit something and it powers on, casting a blue light underneath the bed. Kjartonn drops her, and I aim the light straight into his fucking head. My excitement overrides the pain.

  I press a button along the right side of the handle, exactly where I remember Kassien activating it, and nothing happens. “Leave now,” I say hoarsely but with enough strength in my spirit to make up for it. “Get out of here and I won’t shred you to pieces.” I press another button, and it still doesn’t fire.

  He tips his head, his grip on Alice tightening, and I wonder if he can tell that I’m bluffing. Even if I can get this thing to fire, what if it takes her out too?

  “Stupid girl, you have no idea how to use that.” He grins with the tiniest tremble, but blond Alice comes to life. Do it, she dares me silently.

  I press into the side once more and hold it down as hard as I can. A ray of light shoots from the device and Kjartonn lunges forward, tearing it away from my grip in an instant.

  He swipes it from the ground, and in my attempt to save Alice, I have given him the ultimate power to take over everything. Icy dread pulses through me as I realize that everyone here is going to die.

  27

  Kjartonn chuckles darkly. “Goodbye to you first, Kassien’s most treasured possession.” He aims the obliterator at me, and I back up against the wall. “I guess there is no need for us to run any longer,” he muses toward Alice. The gun activates, and the sensation of hot needles flushes down my neck.

  I can’t die now. I want to hold my baby, I want to live, even if Brekter’s always at my back. It’s worth it. Everything is just to be here—

  Alice smashes her weight into Kjartonn, and though he hardly moves, it’s enough. He misses, and I force myself forward with that strange urge to grasp him, skin to skin. My hand wraps around his ankle as he fights with Alice. Everything suddenly snaps into focus and I tap into that place that holds something…some power I’ve never understood. I squeeze into him and summon every horror I’ve ever felt, every sadness that’s crushed my spirit, and it all takes form, swirling in my core. My fingers tingle, and the swirling ball of power moves toward them. My palm lights up and a rush transfers through. I send pain to him. I send despair. And above all, I send fear. He buckles, his face a twisted mask of horror.

  Alice captures the obliterator easily, and as Kjartonn twitches, his body a squiggling mass of angst, she aims—

  Fires.

  And doesn’t fucking miss. He disseminates, his flesh ripping apart, and sparkling rubies drip from his suspended pieces all around us. With the taste of blood on her smile, Alice lays the weapon on her soft pillow and we watch him bleed to death.

  Exhilaration gives way to blackness and I hit the floor. Alice rushes to my side and wipes my face. “I’ll get help. We’ll get you fixed.”

  I grab her wrist as she gets up, and she flinches in my grip. “No.” I struggle to say against the constriction of my chest and let her go, afraid I might zap her with my strange gift. “The nano-healing device, it’s hidden in the floor.” I felt it in my panic as I pulled the obliterator out.

  She kneels over the hole in the floor and takes it from its hiding spot. She stares at it a moment. “Do you know how to use this? We should go get Vaerynn. Or Gerakon!”

  “No,” I say and rip my nightshirt up. We’ve seen this done many times. I take the tool and hold it over my aching sternum. Most the pain I transferred to Kjartonn, so I’m able to move easier. “We must do this ourselves.” The child moves and kicks softly, exacerbating the painful area. But he’s all right.

  The red scanning light streams over my chest and sparkles in Alice’s eyes. “What did you do to him?”

  I shake my head, the strange tingling resurfacing in my hands. “It’s happened before, a couple times, but I could never fully harness it. I felt this overwhelming urge to touch him, then it’s as if I somehow transferred all my suffering to him. Maybe because he lacks most emotion anyway, as most Koridons do, all that human feeling flooded his system and paralyzed him. Can you imagine being numb, and then being struck with all that?”

  She blinks hard. “Is this some kind of gift because of the splicing of our two species?”

  The thought excites me and I touch my belly, just to get zapped by the scanners, and pull it away. “It has to be! Something about the Koridons’ heightened senses mixed with human’s intuition and empathy, maybe.” One ability heightens the other, and I can send pain in the form of energy into someone. I read once that emotional pain cuts deeper than physical pain, and Koridons don’t stop when inflicted with pain. They welcome it. “When I was young this happened, do you remember that? I was being beaten by the older boys because of my appearance.” I never understood that day until now.

  “No, but look, I don’t see why we can’t get help. They need to know what’s happened here.”

  Tiny healing particles float out and attach to my skin. The aching dulls, becoming pressure, and I take a large breath like ecstasy for the first time since Kjartonn hit me. Relief floods and I sit up despite Alice’s fussing for me to stay still. I take the nasty weapon and study it, a haunting fascination alive in my thoughts. “Because this day’s going a whole other direction. We’re going to write our own story from now on.”

  Alice helps me up, a vein in her forehead bulging, and we head down. We walk down the stairs, arm in arm, my free hand filled with a weapon of instant death—or very painful life, if reassembled—and Alice holds the healing tool.

  Vaerynn moves into our path, completely unaware that Kjartonn attacked us. But she and Finn are untouched, and right now, we aren’t going to tell her a thing. She notices my fire power and steps aside, her arms raised in bemusement.

  “Let’s walk away,” Finn says, his hand lightly touching the small of her back. Her forehead wrinkles with worry, and Finn’s fingers dig in.

  Twigs snap under foot, the sound amplified in my paranoia as I constantly look over my shoulder on our way to the ship. The entrance shimmers before us and I take Alice by the shoulder. “Stay behind me, I’m gonna blast any bastard that shows himself.”

  “Let’s hope they all do,” she snickers, and I appreciate that the one time she jokes is when we’re about to get ourselves killed.

  “Move fast!” I put my hand through the barrier and it falls away, letting us pass.

  We move swiftly through the control room and down the hall to the prisoner hold. Drakon lies on the floor, his hands folded on his chest.

  “Knock knock,” I say, and he flies to his feet. The obliterator hides behind my back.

  “What are you doing here?” His eyes dart around, trying to make sense of our unaccompanied presence.

  “I’m tired of you,” I say simply. “Many of our problems will be solved once you’re dead.”

  “You cannot kill me.” He stamps his foot, making the ship shudder, and he truly believes he is still in charge.

  “Really? What’s stopping me?” I ask.

  “I am the reason for your existence.” He avoids the word father, and his airy tone gets under my skin. I think of how he planned to chain us all up and let his huge Koridon horde have their pleasure between our legs whenever they liked. “And also, it is a physical impossibility,” he nearly laughs. “If you even think to—”

  I draw the weapon and his arrogant chuckle shatters.

  “Put that down,” he sputters and backs up into his waste receptacle. “You don’t even know how to use that, I demand you—”

  I put my hand through the glimmering barrier and it recognizes my DNA, letting me slide right through. I hit the trigger sensor, and with a flash of light, Drakon flies into pieces,
obliterates before my spreading smile. Juices pour from the floating flesh in slow motion, and I move my finger to the trigger that will reassemble him. What fate am I securing for myself by killing one of the most powerful Koridon leaders? There are clans all over the world, and several more on distant planets. What will they do to me once they realize what I’ve done?

  Guess I’ll find out.

  A laugh rolls off Alice’s tongue, a sound I’ve never heard before, and I lower the weapon. It’s almost over. With Drakon and both his sons dead, we’re safe. No more enslaved women forced against their will. “Sorry Dad,” I say, trying to fight blond Alice’s contagious glee that threatens to bend into hysterical laughter. “I’m in charge now and everything’s going to be—”

  A horrible choking sound splits my joyful moment, and I spin around to find Andromeda against blond Alice’s back. A steel tip protrudes through her side, crimson bleeding into her ivory nightdress. I turn the blaster on the servant and she grabs the healing device from Alice’s failing grip as she stumbles.

  “Put him back together!” Andromeda screams and stalks forward. “I saw it done at your wedding, now fix him!”

  “Never.” I point the obliterator at her head and play with the trigger sensor. “If he gets out of here, he could imprison us again! As long as he lives, we are all in danger.” The smell of exsanguinated flesh surrounds us, and I wonder how long he can stay this way before it’s too late. “Don’t make me kill you.”

  She stomps on Alice laying at her feet, inciting a terrible cry. “I’ll let you heal her once Master Drakon is saved. Otherwise…” She snatches the blade out of Alice’s stomach and sits her up to use as a shield. Andromeda stabs her violently through the shoulder. “Or she dies too.”

  “Fine! Trade.” I slide the weapon across the floor, and she snatches it up.