Alpha Rising

by Quinn Loftis

  She had complained quite a bit when he’d started teaching her because, c’mon, when would she fricking need to know morse code? Apparently, when her enemy captured her and threw her into a room next to her comrades.

  “Do I need to remind you of the doghouse or the mailman?” Jen asked, bringing out her two aces. Decebel was still growly about the mailman giving Jen his number, and the fact that she’d kept it.

  “You can remind me all day long, as long as it means I can still communicate with you through our bond.”

  Jen sighed. And then he went and said stuff like that. “I love you, B.”

  “Always, baby,” he said, and she felt his hand run down her hair.

  The tapping on the wall started again, and she listened to what Costin was saying.

  “How’s Thia?”

  “She pulled herself together pretty quick once they gave her back to me. She gave the fae, who wasn’t Alston because he must have known I would have maimed him, a glare as soon as she was in my arms. Now, she's sleeping through this nightmare because she’s got nerves of steel,” Jen replied. “Which of course we all expected because I’m her mom.”

  “Naturally,” Costin tapped back.

  Jen felt Decebel like a shadow in her mind as she and Costin continued their morse code conversation. At one point, Thia woke up. Jen held her and used the girl’s tiny fist to tap on the wall. Thia must have thought this was fantastic because she giggled like she was high on something other than life. “Whatever you’re smoking, kid, you need to share,” Jen said to her daughter as Thia threw her head back and laughed.

  Titus had joined in on the other side, and Costin was teaching him to communicate as well. Jen didn’t care how long she had to do it. She’d stay up twenty-four hours a day if that was what it took to keep Costin from going feral. When she began to get tired, she could feel Decebel sharing his energy with her through their bond.

  Food was brought to her and Thia, and Costin said they’d also been brought something to eat. There were no windows so they had no sense of time. She couldn’t guess how much time had passed since Sally had been taken. The minutes and hours seemed to run together. Thia toddled around entertaining herself with the rattle a fae had brought when they’d brought the food. A rattle? Did they think her kid was an idiot? She needed something more stimulating than a rattle.

  “Dada,” Thia said as she shook the rattle in the air and laughed. Okay so maybe the trauma of the events had stunted her genius and a rattle was suddenly stimulating.

  “Dude,” Jen huffed, “how about you say momma once in a while?”

  Thia glanced at her and pointed. “Not dada.”

  “I love you too, kid,” she sighed as she smiled.

  “Hold on,” she told Costin at one point. “I’m going to knock on the other wall and see if Jacque’s over there.” She’d been so focused on keeping Costin sane that she hadn’t even thought to see if Jacque was next to her. She might be on the other side of

  She utilized the same code Sally had used with her, the one they’d used when they’d snuck out as teenagers. That felt like decades ago now. After a minute, there was a response. It was Jacque. Jen smiled but then cursed. “Why the hell don’t you know morse code?” she spat at the wall as if Jacque could hear her.

  “Hell, hell, hell,” Thia chattered as she knocked on the wall next to where Jen stood.

  Jen looked down at her. “Really? Out of that whole sentence you couldn’t have chosen literally any other word?” The kid was too much like her.

  There was no point in just knocking nonsense on the wall. Jen went back over to the wall where Costin was with mini-me following behind her all the while alternating between ‘dada’ and ‘hell’. Dec was going to be so thrilled. She knocked on the wall and told him that Jacque was next to her and at least healthy enough to knock back. She changed Thia’s diaper, fed her, and then rocked her to sleep, all the while responding to Costin or asking her own questions.

  Thia seemed to know when to sleep, thanks to her schedule, despite the fact that there were no windows and no way to tell what time of day it was. Jen only knew because Decebel told her. She and Costin occasionally fell asleep, but inevitably one of them would wake up and start the tapping again, waking the other up.

  “How long can we do this?” Costin asked her at some point.

  “We do it for as long as we have to. We do it until we have calluses on our knuckles and we’re tapping out morse code in our freaking sleep. We do it until our kids know morse code better than they know English. We do it until our hands are so bloody that we have to use our elbows. We don’t stop. We don’t give up. We don’t back down.”

  Costin tapped back, his knocks a little firmer. “Okay, Jen. Okay.”

  Myanin had figured out that the city where Thadrick’s house was located was called Indianapolis, which she’d immediately decided was a ridiculous name for a city, or anything for that matter. And the city was located in the state of Indiana. The states appeared to be similar to territories in her realm, and the cities were like tribes. Once she’d figured out where she was on the map, and then determined where Arizona was located, it was a breeze to make her way in that direction.

  For the most part, she simply walked. Granted, her walking speed was more like running for the humans. And if she ran, well, the humans couldn’t even see her. They’d just feel a breeze as she passed them by. Once she began to see all the colorful, interesting things in the human realm, she decided Ludcarab could wait. She was free. She’d rescued herself, and she wasn’t about to become someone else's slave, especially after discovering this wonderous food called cotton candy. How in holy djinn babies did they not have something as brilliant as cotton candy in their realm? They could keep the entire history of the universe, but they couldn’t make this delicious treat? “That just ain’t right,” she muttered and then grinned at her words. She’d also been picking up on the human dialect, listening to humans talk and sometimes asking them what they meant.

  Humans always seemed—she had to search her brain for the right word—freaked out. They always seemed freaked out when she popped up to them and asked what they were saying and what it meant. “They all need to be cold,” she said and then shook her head. That wasn’t right. “They all need to freeze. Dammit,” she huffed because that wasn’t what she’d heard one of them say to her. “Chill,” she practically yelled and ignored the stares. “They all need to chill out,” she said with a grin. She was totally dying it as a human. People probably couldn’t even tell she wasn’t human—that’s how bitchin she was at it.

  Several days had passed since she’d arrived in the human realm. She imagined the elders were up in arms because they would have discovered Lyra’s body a couple days ago. The thought made her smile. She smiled as she skipped, walked, and ran across the human realm called the United States. Perhaps Thadrick had done her a favor in some way. She had been ignorant of how amazing the human realm was, but now she was free. She could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.

  At one point, she’d been running and crossed what she’d learned was a state line, which meant she was going from one territory to another. The sign had read “Welcome to Iowa.” She had no clue who was naming their stuff, but they needed to remove them from their position and appoint someone who understood that some words were just dumb. She looked around and thought, instead of Iowa, this land should be called Land of the Golden Corn. That had a much better ring to it.

  Later, Myanin had come to a mountain that was carved with the giant faces of four men. “Why are those faces in the mountain?” she asked a woman who had been taking a picture with what Myanin thought was called a cell phone.

  “It’s Mount Rushmore,” the woman said, as if that should mean something to the djinn.

  “Okay,” Myanin drew out. “But why did they mount their heads up there? Did they do something great? Did they slay many enemies? Did they build civilizations that ruled over all?”

  The wom
an look confused and then shrugged. “I guess. They’re founding fathers.”

  Myanin nodded. “Ah, so they’re the creators of your race. Your fathers. I understand.”

  The woman’s eyes grew wide, and she practically ran away from Myanin mumbling to herself.

  Myanin watched the female’s back as she skittered away and hopped into one of the large steel transportation devices. “It’s official,” she said. “Humans are the dumbest beings ever.” She paused and then corrected. “Except for the one who made cotton candy. That human has some level of intelligence that is acceptable.”

  She continued her walk/run across the states, stopping occasionally when she found something interesting. It was on day four that she ended up in a city lit up with so many lights that she wondered how anyone knew when to go to sleep. The sign read “Welcome to Las Vegas.” “Why are they always welcoming everyone?” she asked out loud. Myanin found that since she had no one to speak to, she did a lot of talking to herself. “Don’t they realize they could be inviting an enemy into their territory?” There was a person standing in front of the sign, taking a picture on their phone. Myanin walked over to the human male and tapped him on the back. She’d found through trial and error that it was better to make herself known instead of just appearing in front of them. They seemed less frightened that way.

  He turned to look at her, and his eyes widened a bit. Though they didn’t know she wasn’t human, the prey in them knew that she was a predator. “Can I help you?” he asked.

  “Probably not. Your kind never seems very helpful, though I don’t think that’s totally your fault. You’re just inferior to other species. But I’m going to ask you anyway because I enjoy disappointment.” She pointed to the sign. “You humans welcome everyone into your states and cities.”

  “H-h-humans?”

  “Yes, humans. That’s not what’s important. You welcome everyone into your territories. Don’t you realize how foolish that is?”

  “Foolish?” the man said, his words once again coming out wobbly.

  “You should have sentries placed at all of your points of entries. Anyone seeking entrance into your territory should be questioned and searched.”

  “Sentries?”

  Myanin’s head tilted as she narrowed her eyes on the male. “Are you monosyllabic?”

  “I… I’m not sure what that means.”

  “So, now I need to give you a lesson on your own language as well as on how to protect your territory?” Myanin sighed. One minute the humans seemed ingenious, and the next they were like flies that ate dung. “Can you at least tell me where I can get some cotton candy?”

  He frowned and looked even more confused. “Cotton candy?”

  “Damn the hell of shit,” Myanin cursed. “Be gone.” She pushed him away from her. “I’m afraid your lack of sense might be contagious.”

  She glanced up at the bright sign that was screaming at everyone, whether their intentions be ill or not, to come and do something with squares that had dots on them. “Why can’t all of their inventions be as awesome as cotton candy?” She shook her head and then started walking toward the bright lights of a street lined with tall buildings. The lights seemed to draw people in like moths to a flame. The humans almost appeared mindless as they walked with open mouths and bright eyes, hypnotized by whatever it was that the city offered. Perhaps the square with the dots was some kind of drug? They had drugs in the djinn realm that were coveted because of the effect they had on the mind. Some of their kind were known to go a little crazy from all the information they kept in their minds, and they gave into the draw of the mindless drug.

  When she reached the first illuminated building, she saw lights moving in a running motion, up and down the height of the structure. Loud laughter and carousing spilled out from within. Okay, now she just had to see what had the humans in such spirits. She walked through the open doors, and her senses were assaulted with more lights, a cacophony of sounds, and a smell that shouldn’t exist. It was musty with a burnt undertone. She saw a burning white stick hanging out of a woman’s mouth. The end of it emitted a trail of white smoke that rose and hovered in the air. Myanin rushed over and grabbed it from the woman’s mouth, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it with her boot.

  The woman gasped and then shouted, “What the hell, bitch?”

  Myanin looked up from the burning stick. “I just saved your life, female. You would be wise not to refer to me as a female dog.”

  “I can smoke if I want to. They’re my lungs,” the woman bit out.

  “I care not for your lungs. That stick was on fire and would have lit up your face as bright as the lights in this place once it reached your skin,” Myanin said. Did she really have to explain this to this woman? “Human flesh is flammable. That means you burn up,” she added, because the woman probably didn’t know what the word flammable meant.

  “It wasn’t on fire, you tall-ass freak,” the woman screeched. “Don’t you know what a cigarette is?”

  Myanin frowned. “This word cigarette is unfamiliar. Are you saying you were holding the burning stick in your mouth on purpose?”

  The woman raised her brow and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “It didn’t just jump into my mouth all by itself.”

  “My apologies.” Myanin realized she’d just stomped on the woman’s property. “Regardless of the fact that I’ve never seen something so utterly dim-witted in my existence as putting a burning object in one's mouth, I should not have damaged your property.”

  The woman looked taken aback and dropped her arms. “Uh, um, okay, well, whatever. It’s fine.”

  Myanin watched as the female stomped off in shoes with a heel on them so thin and high that she wondered how on earth the woman was able to walk. She definitely wouldn’t be able to fight in them, unless she took them off and used the long part as a dagger of sorts. Perhaps that is why she wore them.

  Myanin shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Burning sticks,” she huffed. “Stupid.”

  She continued walking deeper into the raucous swarm of humanity. People were laughing, drinking odd-colored drinks, and more of them had the burning sticks, the cigarettes, in their mouths. They obviously weren’t concerned about burning to ash. Strange, these humans and their complete lack of concern for self-preservation.

  As she got deeper in, she saw people clustered around colorful high tables. There were stacks of flat, circular disks, and a woman was tossing square cubes decorated with small dots. It appeared the humans were using the disks to wager on the results of the cubes. Curiosity piqued, she walked over and watched as the cubes were tossed. The woman must have thrown the dice well, as everyone standing at the table erupted in cheers.

  At another table, small, rectangular pieces of paper with pictures on them were passed out to several of the players. One male pushed his stack of circular objects in and said, “All in.”

  The other people around the table shot him glances and then looked at the rectangles in their hands. Myanin could feel the tension around the table increase. She watched as one by one they said, “Fold,” and then laid down their rectangles until there was only one person left, a female. She sat tall, her shoulders pulled back and her chin raised, as she looked at the man and then down at the cards in her hands.

  The man narrowed his eyes, waiting. He had a smug grin on his face, and Myanin immediately wanted to slap it off. Apparently, that was going to be her new reaction to men. Slapping them. Maybe if she’d started out that way in the first place, she never would have fallen for Thadrick and gotten herself in the mess she was in.

  The woman shook her head and clucked her tongue. “You celebrate too soon, cowboy. I call.” Her voice had an odd, slow drawl to it that Myanin hadn’t yet heard in the human realm. Then the woman laid her rectangles with the pictures up, just like the man had done. They showed numbers in order, and all of the accompanying symbols—hearts—were the same.

  The man gaped for a second, then swore. She
winked at him and gathered up all the circular objects. The man cursed under his breath and then lumbered off.

  Well, that was interesting. She stepped closer to the table and looked at the woman. “What is this game called?”

  The woman looked up from where she was gathering her winnings, which looked useless to Myanin. The disks were nothing like the human money she’d seen at Walmart.

  “It’s poker,” the woman said. “You’re in a casino and you’ve never heard of poker? Darlin’, you’d best just turn on around and march right back out of here. These people will chew you up and spit you out.”

  Myanin couldn’t help but smile. “None of these people could take me on. Not even all of them at one time. I am superior in every way.”

  The woman froze and then laughed. Myanin didn’t know what was funny. She simply spoke the truth.

  “I’m just gonna take a gander and say you aren’t from around here,” the woman said after she’d stopped laughing.

  Myanin shook her head. “I would never choose to be from a place like this.” She motioned to the chaos around her.

  “Well, most of us don’t get a choice in where we come from. But we can choose where we go.”

  “And you came here?” Myanin didn’t disguise her disgust.

  The woman finished gathering the disks and placed them into a plastic tray. She looked back at Myanin. “Can I buy you a drink, and then I’ll tell you why I chose to come here?”

  Myanin swallowed and nodded. “I am parched. I have traveled far on foot. A drink would be good.”

  The woman laughed again. Either something was messed up in her human brain, or she just thought everything was funny.

  “You’re a riot. Come on then.” She motioned for Myanin to follow.

  Twenty minutes later, they were sitting in a much quieter room. Hanging lamps cast a muted, blue glow throughout the room. They sat at a round table across from one another. Myanin was much taller than the woman, even sitting she looked down at her.

  “My name is Wendy Rhodes,” the woman said as she held her hand out across the table.