by C F Rabbiosi
“How do I work it?” She dashes over to the force field and takes aim toward her Koridon lover. I dive for the healing device she left behind and activate the scanning rays over Alice’s abdomen.
“Press the two sensors that look like a triangle at the same time!” I say. She examines it then aims. If she pulls this off, and he lives, I am so dead. Maybe during his long recovery I can try killing him again—
Light bursts from the gun and I pray it’s too late to save him…
28
The light ray hits the shimmery barrier of the cage and ricochets back toward Andromeda. Her face twists in terror before her body rips apart.
Alice squeezes my hand and sheds a relieved tear. I drag her down the hall, away from the dripping servant girl, and slam into something.
“What have you done, you psychotic women?” Gerakon steps over us and puts his hands to his head. “You killed Drakon.” He picks up the obliterator from Andromeda’s seeping fluids and deactivates the barrier. “You better hope this works, though I doubt it will save you.” The nanos flow into Alice and I get up slowly, keeping the healer firmly behind my back. Gerakon sends the ray of light into his leader, and the tiny pieces slam together with a horrible squelching. He runs at me and rips the healer away.
“No!” I lunge for it so he can’t retrieve the microscopic machines from Alice’s body, but he shoves me down. “Gerakon, she’ll die!”
He types in a code that instructs the nanos to retreat from Alice’s damaged tissue, and she shakes her head desperately, begging him to save her.
“Isn’t there another nanohealer? Why can’t you just go grab—”
“It is in use!” he yells, and I immediately recognize the pain in his voice. It’s being used on Scarlet. He side steps Andromeda’s floating flesh. “Who’s this other one?”
“His bitch lover.” I spot the dagger in the corner that Andromeda stabbed Alice with and edge toward it. I’m not going to let her die. I’d rather kill another of these bastards than lose another of my friends.
Drakon’s body reforms; bones snap into place, raising his sunken spine into position, and Gerakon lays him down.
I take the blade from a puddle of blood.
Wiping his forehead, Gerakon begins the scan and red light floods over Drakon’s body.
I creep up behind him and lift the dagger high, aiming in between his shoulder blades. I don’t want to hurt him, but I need that healer back, now. Alice’s tortured whimpers as she fights to breathe strengthen my resolve. Heart pounding, I summon all my strength before I strike…
The red light over Drakon’s body pulses wildly and I drop my arm.
Gerakon sighs heavily and sits back. “You killed a very important leader, Calypso.”
“Guess I’m your leader now.” I snatch the healing tool and reactivate it for Alice. The scan already completed, the machine gets right back to work on her.
His head snaps up, mouth gaping.
“Isn’t that the rule of war?” I ask, slipping Andromeda’s dagger into my boot. “Of course, Kassien stands undisputed prince. I’ll let him rule beside me.”
“We didn’t want a war!” He jumps to his feet and towers over me. “We wanted to survive, and the bigger, better species always does.”
“We’ll see.” I nod toward Drakon’s cyanotic corpse.
Kassien appears at the end of the hall and fear rushes through me. He entrusted me with his weapon, and I’ve used it to put myself and probably many others in grave danger. But this new world they’re trying to create isn’t good enough. I stand tall as he runs toward us.
“She’s killed Drakon and his mistress.” Gerakon hands the obliterator to Kassien.
“I had to,” I say. “As long as Drakon lived, the humans I love were in danger. I won’t apologize.”
He raises an amused brow.
“You must give her over to the Sovereign Eladia for her crime. If not, you will pay as well.”
“Of course I would never,” Kassien says. “Do you understand what you have done?” He drops to his knees to hold me by my shoulders.
“Yes,” His people forbid him from killing any of these blighters, not me. “Now I would have you return that weapon to me so I can continue my rampage. Please.”
He runs fingers down the length of his tied beard, and in his face I see the realization that there’s no going back now.
Gerakon tips his head in disbelief as Kassien hands me the obliterator. “I am behind you, Calypso,” he says, tightening the strap around his bare chest and tapping the hilt of his knife. “Whatever you have done, I will protect you.”
“And for whatever I’m about to do?” I ask, licking the blood of Koridons from my lips.
He leans his head against mine. “Always.”
I look in the direction of Brekter’s room as Gerakon protests, but Kassien sends him back to Scarlet. “I believe you have very important work to attend to,” he says to the doctor. Gerakon does as he’s told, his hands shaking as he returns to my best friend’s side.
“You truly, truly please me, my prince,” I say, putting my arms around his waist.
He snaps me against him. “Let me do it.” He touches the weapon and I recoil.
“No. It has to be me.” Covered in blood, I feel wild and warrior, and I need Brekter to see me like this. As I was truly meant to be. And I need to see his face as he dies.
“You will be in danger. I cannot allow it.” Kassien’s fingers dig into my arm. My lips part, but he shuts them when he puts a hand to my belly. “For your child’s sake, go rest now, and let me finish what you have started.”
As if on cue, little knees nudge my side and the deep pressure sitting on my pelvic floor resurfaces. “I want to be alone with him one last time, Kassien. Look what I’ve done already. I’ve killed the commander and also his dangerous son. You must learn to trust me now.”
“Kjartonn is dead?”
“He snuck into our room this morning and…” I’ll explain the strange phenomenon brewing inside that hurt him enough for Alice to shoot him some other day, but it’s another reason I feel confident confronting my tormentor alone. Brekter and I share something very dark and very private, and Kassien cannot be a part of it.
He drops to his knees and lays his head upon my stomach. Somehow, with everything a mess and Alice still struggling to survive, everything is perfect. Love radiates from his touch and my spirit pulses against his warmth. “Let me finish this,” I say softly. “I need you to deal with Gerakon and anyone else that tries to stop me. Surely more will come.”
“Only if I can remain near. Right outside the entrance near.”
“Deal.” I pull away before he changes his mind and head toward Brekter.
He stands at the barrier, fear splashing his features as I approach, his form trembling from weakness. He’s not the same alpha that could easily hold me down and bend me to his will. “Hello, my love,” he says, a heady excitement in his voice.
I step directly in front of him and tap the metallic surface of the flesh obliterator. He knows exactly what that sound is. “You know why I’ve come.”
A dark laugh rumbles from his throat. “I always expected to die for you.”
I put the barrel into his cheek, a single finger allowed through the barrier. “Not for me. Because of me.”
“The very darkest part of me connects to the very darkest part of you. We have something more powerful than love.” A low growl of pure predator makes a strange thrill dance through my veins, a familiar and unwanted effect.
“I’ll never love you,” I say shakily, “and you couldn’t force me to as much as you tried.”
“Yes,” he lulls. “Sweet human, explain to me what love is before I die.”
Kassien, just around the corner, looks unamused, but I feel compelled to answer him. “Well, you would say it’s nothing but biology. That chemicals make us fall in love and create a bond that in turn leads to reproduction.”
“Facts.”
“Yes. But the interpretation is wrong. There’s an intangible element that can’t be seen. It’s the piece of the puzzle that causes that burst of chemicals. It’s an element of fate and an entwining of the soul, that’s why it doesn’t happen with just anyone.”
His eyes close and he droops as though at any moment he will give out under his own weight. “But why then may someone love another, yet that love is not returned?”
“Maybe you don’t really love me.”
Gerakon rounds the corner and whispers something to Kassien. His gaze shoots to me and his skin pales. “Finish this now,” he demands as Gerakon pulls him away. “Blast him and come quick!”
Something’s happened to Scarlet. “Let me send you to her,” I say, and my forefinger and thumb brush the triggers. “The one you’re supposed to be with is waiting for you.”
Swift hands tear the blaster from my grip, and I’m ripped inside the room. I swallow my scream as Brekter’s palm slaps over my mouth and he presses me against the wall. Fighting his hold, my nails scratch off skin and my knees thrust into him, but it’s no use.
“I believe you, you know.” He secures my wrists above my head and his tongue flicks against the pulse on my neck. “If there was no fate, then I never would have felt you in my arms again. Yet here you are.”
My muffled, let me go, sounds from underneath his hand. “You know, we could have had a life together, you, me and…” He touches the roundness of my belly. “And our child. What a life was promised.” He frees my mouth and slams my head back, sending pain through the back of my skull. “Scream and I’ll snap your neck. Then we both die. Well, we all die, and trust me when I tell you,” his bottom lip caresses my cheek, “I want that very much.” I twist my head to find the obliterator lying on the ground behind him. He seemed so weak that Kassien and I both misjudged him.
“What do you want then?” I struggle to keep my voice just above a whisper. “Kassien will be back any second.”
“We’ll make this quick.” He spins me around and yanks the dress up my back. “One. Last. Time.” His knuckles hit my backside as he fumbles with himself. He bends his knees and crams his oversized crown against me.
“We don’t do this to each other.” Desperation clings to my whisper. “We don’t hurt the ones we love.”
“I love you beyond my control, Calypso. Threat of death bears down on me, and all I want is to die inside you.” His mouth searches my shoulder then brushes up the side of my neck. “Please come with me.”
I jolt down and a hand breaks free, my fingertips just touching the hilt of the blade I hid in my boot. He slams me back against the wall. “Ask me again why I could never love you!” I cry. My chest burns as a ball of energy sparks to life, and I know the more he hurts me the more I’ll make him suffer with the secret power that wells up inside.
“Oh, you have loved me, harder than anyone.” He touches against my lips, a hungry plea, and his kiss starves against the corpse he’s created. He holds the back of my head and utters a frustrated cry that shakes me to the core. “Please. Love me once more, and I will lay down my life without a fight.” He holds me against him, and the agony within bleeds onto my skin. “Please. Fight me no more. Just once, pretend I am him.”
“I can’t,” I say.
He slams his head into the wall and roars in my face. I squeeze my eyes shut and mentally prepare myself for when he rips my clothes off and takes what he wants. I’ll use it—every sickening thrust, every horrifying pain, and I’ll blast it all into him.
He takes a shuddering breath, his mouth stretched in anguish as he fights back tears. He growls with exasperation and rips himself away.
I pull the dagger and rush him. He grabs my wrist, sending the knife tip up. My bones crack in his grip and he stifles my cry. His face twists into a demonic sneer, and it’s now or never. I will the energy to grow, and my heart dances in anticipation.
He releases me and drops to his knees. I freeze, opening and shutting my fists in confusion. I didn’t have time to shock him.
“Quickly.” He rips his shirt open and exposes his chest. “Take me from this world and far away from you.”
I touch the gruffness of his cheek, and he leans into it. “Maybe we were destined, Brekter. But you hurt me. You abused me. And no soul bond could ever be created in such darkness.”
“Teach me,” he pleads tearfully. “Maybe I could—” His expression twists with realization. “I will change for you, and we can start again. The Koridon reign of force and violence over your people is no more. I can now forsake our previous ways and be the man you deserve. Choose me,” he takes my hand desperately, “and I’ll spend the rest of my life making you glad you did.”
My heart quivers upon seeing such a beast transform into something so gentle, so broken. “Brekter, it’s too late.”
“Calypso.” His voice rumbles through me, caressing my nerves and my eyes close. “Just give me a chance.” His lips press into my wrist. “I love you and I’ll prove it. Please, Calypso, please? I want you. I want our baby.”
I remember Scarlet’s twisted face as Brekter stabbed the burning brand into her skin, and the coldness of his eyes, the glee in his smile. I feel the ache in the back of my head from when he slammed me to the ground during the mating ritual. He then still prepared to take me sexually, even as I so despairingly asked him to stop. I touch my stomach and mourn for our child, one that will never know his father.
I thrust the blade through his heart, and his spine straightens unnaturally as the pain bites in. Black blood streams down his chin, and he wrenches the blade out. He opens his arms toward me as though asking for me to join him once more, and I jump backward. But as tears fill his eyes, he slides the steel through the other side of his ribcage.
Two hearts. Both broken and bleeding, a body killed, a love destroyed.
“Calypso!” Kassien storms inside and cracks Brekter’s neck. As he falls, the blackness holding me captive dies with him. Somewhere through the mist, Kassien’s voice becomes clear. “Scarlet is declining. Come!”
29
Scarlet lies twitching on the table. A rhythmic beat sounds from her heart monitor, weak and irregular.
Gerakon scans her body, and the red light flashes over her heart. “This is dire.” He quickly works over her, strange machines moving like fluid along with him as they manipulate her with tubes and other devices.
It’s happened. They had less time than they thought, and now she’s going to die as the giant, strong Koridon within compromises her circulatory system.
I feel Kassien’s eyes upon my torn dress and know he will have questions for me later. He didn’t expect me to end up inside the barrier, alone with Brekter. I told him I could handle it and to trust me, and I almost got myself killed.
I take Scarlet’s hand and her eyes pop open. “Hold on,” I say. “The nano-healers are already inside.”
“You have to pull the child,” says Kassien, his color draining.
My mother, along with Efaelty and Vaerynn, bursts in the room. Vaerynn says, “What has happened out there? A massacre has occurred.” She stops when she sees Scarlet’s graying skin and struggling breath. My mother moves to her side. “How can we help?” Vaerynn asks.
“Check the settings on the fluid,” Gerakon tells her. “And you two lift her up so her lungs can expand.” My mother and I each support a shoulder, and Efaelty stabilizes her huge belly. The monitor plays a stronger, more monotonous heartbeat.
“They’re taking him out, Scarlet! You hold on to life, don’t give up.” She nods vigorously, and for some reason I’m struck with the memory of us lying by the fire during a full moon celebration back at the village. Her laughter, her beautiful light. Please, I beg silently. Let me see her like that again.
Gerakon turns to Kassien. “I cannot imagine the infant living if removed. However, they both stand to die as it is now.”
“I know. Do everything you can,” says Kassien, the saddest I’ve ever heard him sound.<
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An alarm rings out and all of us turn back to Scarlet. The scanner reveals red pulsing in her lower region. “What’s happening?” asks Mama.
Gerakon reads the images that appear from the healing device. “The heart has been healed, but its initial failing has caused a mass organ decline. The liver and kidneys are losing function.” He keys something in and an image of her womb appears above her, the child tucked inside. His arms move and he rolls, his back and bottom making her skin ripple. “The nanos are working quickly, but it is not enough.”
The precious little person moves about happily in the hologram, and we all grow silent. Seeing his small body and frailness bursting with such life brings tears spilling down my cheeks. Kassien steps backward, a hand to his chest. I have an overwhelming desire for his baby to live and have to turn away from the image. I can’t bear to think how Kassien must hurt as that beautiful life is about to be torn away from him.
“Prepare the incubator and power up the machines.” Gerakon brushes through the air, keying in symbols, and from the ceiling a liquid metal arm descends. The metal transforms into a sharp tool and Scarlet trembles in fear. “The incubator has already been programmed, but I will add the final details when we have the child in hand.” He keys another code into the air, and a sparkling blue substance travels down the tube into the three-pronged access system to Scarlet’s veins.
She screams out, her arm filling up with fluid, and my mother rips out the tubes. “That chemical ate through her veins!” she cries and ties material around the swollen tissues.
“Why would it do that?” I ask.
“I cannot say!” Gerakon keys in another code but a buzzer sounds in response. “The anesthesia must not be compatible with her.” He squints, reading the glowing orange that appears on his mid-air screen. “I did not anticipate this! The chemicals broke down the proteins in her veins. They are destroyed and she is bleeding out! We need—”
Blond Alice. The thought of her rips through me. “The other healing tool!” I burst from the room toward the hall where we left her. How could I have forgotten about her? A sharp pain stabs through my belly, but I don’t stop until I see Arek cradling blond Alice in his arms.
