Moving as quickly as she could through the darkness across the snow and ice, Sage made her way to the base of the volcano. The heat reached her first, incredible heat, as intense as the cold had been. Where the wind ripped the breath from her until it felt like she had inhaled needles, the heat singed her lungs, cooking her from the inside out. The ground under her feat was uneven, bumpy with large rock formations jutting up all around her.
She didn’t slow, just moved around the base, searching for a decent hiding spot, even as her inner voice murmured that she couldn’t hide from Berrick. His beastly side would help him move faster than she ever could, his telepathy would lead him to her. Tears gathered behind her burning eyes, from the acrid stench of the volcano and from her own hopelessness.
Footsteps on the rock behind her. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes shut. He wouldn’t be happy having to chase her here, especially when he picked her thoughts from her head. Would he hate her now? Somehow the idea that he would made it all worse.
All her worries vanished when an unfamiliar voice muttered, “Well, well, what do we have here?”
Sage whirled around, eyes going wide as she took in the big man standing beside a creature that appeared identical to the one that had attacked them yesterday. It’s lips pulled up, giving her a look at its enormous conical teeth. Tucked inside her thermal suit, Lily whimpered.
“Which faction are you?” The stranger demanded.
“Born,” Sage whispered, afraid to take her gaze of the best. “What is that?”
A scarred palm rested on top of the animal’s massive head. “My wife. She used to be Born, too. I improved her.”
“What?” She jerked her eyes up and met with his. Saw the madness there.
“I’ll answer all your questions soon enough. For now, we need to get moving before it finds us.” He gripped her arm and pulled her toward one of the huge outcroppings of rock.
Afraid to fight less she be torn to shreds by the crazy man’s “wife,” Sage let herself be towed to the rock, pushed down into a pitch black hole and shoved along some sort of walkway. She couldn’t see a thing and stumbled several times, only his hold on her arm kept her upright.
She lost track of how long they walked in the darkness, couldn’t measure the passage of time in anything other than her heartbeats and even those seemed way too fast. One of her father’s favorite sayings resounded in her mind, echoing like a shout in to an empty cavern. Be careful what you wish for—you might get it.
Had she really wished to die? The reek of death surrounded her abductor and the creature he claimed had once been a Born woman. Suddenly, being mated to Dayen didn’t seem quite so horrible as whatever fate awaited her at the end of the tunnel.
The darkness bled into a chamber lit with multiple torches, long with high ceilings. It was uncomfortably warm, even more so than aboveground and sweat gathered against her skin. Lily struggled, but Sage patted her, encouraging her to keep still.
The man released her, though the mutant wolf thing stood guard beside her. There was no humanity behind those yellow eyes, nothing but deadly intent.
“My name is Yates.” The man said, jerking Sage’s attention back to him. He wore an almost abashed smile, as though pardoning his rudeness for not introducing himself sooner. “What’s yours?”
“Sage,” she whispered.
His face lit up. “Is it really? Would you happen to be Rand’s niece?”
This madman knew her uncle? She nodded cautiously.
He leaned back against a long low rock that held various glass and stone jars. “So, you’re the one he sold to the cyborgs. Has the leader mounted you yet?”
“I haven’t even met Dayen.”
He moved suddenly and gripped her by the arms. His eyes were alight with madness. “Don’t you lie to me! I know he killed our son!”
“Your son?”
He shoved her down to the floor and stalked away. She caught herself before Lily struck against the hard stone. Afraid to do more than breathe, Sage waited, every muscle in her body frozen with terror.
“Rand sent me here, to run the experiments.” He muttered as though to himself. One scarred hand went through his tufty dark hair and snagged. He yanked it free and whirled on her, expression murderous. “But he didn’t send enough. He promised me more test subjects. The Bred filth. No one would miss a few of them. But he never delivered.”
The Bred had been emancipated more than two decades ago. How long had Yates been holed up in this wretched place?
His gaze fell to his wife. “It took years to perfect, the formula. Burned through my initial test subjects with success so close I could taste it. I did her first, my brave Mina. She volunteered. And look at her, almost perfect. She can sustain for days on next to no food and run for miles in freezing temperatures. She’s made to survive, to thrive without the cyborg scum. But she can’t regain human form. It’s put something of a strain on our marriage.” He laughed, a horrible creepy cackle that made her shiver.
“Sylvan though, he could transition. But his mind snapped like a dry twig. Unstable. I woke too much of his brain and he couldn’t handle it.”
“But why?” The words slipped out before Sage thought better of it. “Why are you doing this?”
“To mimic your intended, of course. He is the next step in evolution, the step we need to take. Are you sure he didn’t mate with you? Even a sample of his seed would advance my research by leaps and bounds.”
“I’ve never met Dayen.” She said again, not because she thought it would get through to this madman, but because she had nothing else to say.
But he was shaking his head. “I found his body. No one else could have killed Sylvan that way. No other being is strong enough, fast enough.”
Her gaze fell to Mina and she recalled the images of Berrick’s transformation, his battle with the creature. He power his big body fought to control.
Could Berrick actually be Dayen? Though Sage didn’t trust anything Yates told her, his claim about the transformation made a sick sort of sense. Her mind whirled as she recalled all the things Berrick had said to her, like how Dayen would understand.
“You know a lot about Dayen then. How else is he…. different?”
Yates stared at her and she forced herself not to cringe reflexively. “He’s advanced in almost every way. The transformation is just one physical ability, he has others, like extrasensory perception, as well as highly developed senses. His mind has been unlocked. What wouldn’t I give to study it?” He whirled around, clearly overcome at the thought.
“Extrasensory perception,”
He stopped mid-whirl. “ESP or as some call it, mental telepathy. He’s a mind reader.”
Her eyes slid shut. Dayen. She’d been with Dayen all along. Why hadn’t he told her?
The sound of shuffling feet brought her awareness back to Yates. Her blood flash froze as he studied her anew. “I don’t know what brought you here, Sage of the Born, but since your uncle failed to deliver me more test subjects, I must make do.”
He pulled her up in a rough jerk. She stumbled and went down on hands and knees. Lily bolted out the top of her thermals and sprinted back don the darkened corridor.
“Mina, get her!”
The creature raced after Lily. Up ahead there was a thunderous roar. And sounds of a vicious battle.
Yates face lit. “He’s here.”
Sage wasn’t nearly so sanguine. She yanked with all her strength, trying to free her arm. He held it in a firm grip and picked up a wicked looking hypodermic filled with a grayish liquid and jabbed it into her arm. Sage screamed as liquid fire ripped through her veins.
Yates released her and she dropped to the floor, writhing in agony. Distantly, she watched him as though from a land vehicle speeding away, the madman growing farther and farther from her. The last thing she heard him mutter was, “You’ll be his equal now. If you survive.”
Chapter Nine
Sage’s scream echoed across the undergrou
nd tunnel. Dayen bellowed as he took another swipe at the thing that blocked his path. It snarled and snapped, fighting with a single-minded intensity, but in the end it stood between him and his mate.
It never stood a chance.
Dayen ripped its head from its shoulders and leapt over the still twitching corpse. Sage’s scream cut off abruptly and he charged down the hallway to where the male he’d scented earlier stood over her unconscious form.
“My lord,” the man said. He stank of madness.
“What did you do to her?” he grated. Dayen wanted nothing more than to put the bastard out of his misery, had actually drawn is hand back to disembowel him, but he needed to know how to help Sage.
Killing could wait.
“She’s transcending,” the madman said. “Soon she’ll be like you. Open.”
Horror filled him. “Make it stop,”
But the bastard shook his head. “Evolution cannot be stopped.”
Enough. Dayen sliced the man from nuts to nose and had Sage secured in his arms all in one motion. He was down the hall before the body hit the floor.
He paused only long enough to retrieve Lily from her hiding place and then ran as fast as he could back up to the surface, away from the volcano, back toward the tunneler his mind awhirl.
Transcending, becoming like him. He wouldn’t wish that fate on his worst enemy, never mind the woman he loved. She was deathly pale and so still in his arms. He pushed himself to the limit to reach the tunneler.
He laid her still form down on the seat and started the massive engines. There was only one person he knew who might be able to save her, to reverse what had been done to her.
He pushed the tunneler as hard as it would go, half afraid the engine would overheat. Sage didn’t so much as twitch and he couldn’t pick up any of her thoughts. Either she was trapped in a dreamless sleep or…
But no, he could hear her heart beat.
The tunneler dug through Rothguard’s entry hall and stopped. A swarm of thoughts tried to bombard him, but ignored them as he scooped Sage up once more and carried her into the cyborg’s lab.
“Told you he’d be here.” Cassandra chirped.
“You never tire of saying that, do you?” That from Allora.
“What have you done to your mate?” Cormack asked as he stared down at Sage.
Rothguard said nothing, simply indicated the place he wanted Dayen to set Sage down. It took all his efforts to back away from her, but he did it. “Mel, scan her for toxins.”
Mel’s small hands closed over a portable scanning device. “There’s something there but I don’t know what.”
Rothguard took the scanner and scowled at it. “Let me take a blood sample.” He inserted a needle into the vein at the crook of Sage’s elbow, then plugged the slide into his armband. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“He said it would transcend her, that she would be like me.” Dayen relayed the information in a hollow voice.
Rothguard’s eyes—one human, one biomechanical—remained on his patient. “We don’t even know what you are, never mind how to make anyone else like you.”
“The Born have been trying to.” Cassandra said. “Ask her uncle.”
“Can you reverse it?” Dayen’s gaze was glued to Sage, wiling her to awaken.
Rothguard hooked up an IV to her arm. She didn’t so much as twitch as he inserted the needle. “Not unless I know more. Right now we’ll have to fight for her life. Now stand aside and let me do what I can.”
Dayen moved to a corner where he could keep his eyes on his unconscious mate but not obstruct her medical care. Cassandra moved to stand beside him.
“So, now you know what it’s like to feel helpless.”
Her words startled him from his vigil. “How can you say that? I’ve always known.”
She shook her head. “No, Dayen. You didn’t have anything at risk, anything to lose. Look to your mate there and then look me in the eye and tell me you understood true fear before you met her.”
Dayen looked back to Sage, to where she fought for her life. She’d been so afraid and so brave in spite of it but until this moment, he hadn’t fully understood how much she’d had to overcome just to survive.
Through his parched throat he pushed out the word. “No.”
“Does she remind you of anyone?” Cassandra put a hand on his arm.
“Isaac,” he breathed in immediate response. The bred had fought and struggled, suffered and bled and ultimately died, leaving behind his cherished Only One.
“Do you understand why he struggled and fought to survive?”
Dayen’s gaze shifted to Mel.
But Cass shook her head. “Not just for her or even for what they shared. He survived because it was instinctive to him, just as it is to your beast. Love is not necessary to life, but it is what makes it worth living. You’ve been surviving on instinct, but that’s not who you need to be. Not who we all need you to become.”
Dayen’s jaw clenched. “Now is not the time for this—”
Cassandra stood before him, blocking his way. “Now is the only time, damn you! This world will end if you don’t find a way to fix it. Your mate might die today, but our planet is dying, too. Our entire species will be eradicated if we don’t act. Evolution can’t keep up with the current rate of destruction.”
“Cass, don’t push him.” Allora began, his hot tempered mother playing peacemaker.
Cassandra didn’t relent. “He needs to be pushed, not coddled. Is he a boy to keep wrapped in illusions or a man worthy of the mate that lies there?” She pointed to the table.
Dayen looked, really looked and for the first time saw beyond the labels he’d marked her with. Sage was more than just his mate, she was a brave and frightened woman, a caretaker who loved her dog and tended her plants and overcame sacrificed herself to save her faction. The same people who had hurt and mocked her. Who had abused and terrorized her.
He wasn’t worthy of her.
“You can be, though.” Cass said. “You have it in you to become the mate she deserves.”
His throat was tight with emotion. “How can I leave her? Can you at least assure me that she’ll recover?” though he’d never asked Cassandra to see into the future on his behalf, he assumed she could.
Cassandra’s eyes glazed over. “That is up to her.”
****
Their voices were the first thing that penetrated the fog. Sage had lost all track of time and awareness of self as she floated in the mist, unfeeling, uncaring, simply existing. Names and faces would assert themselves every so often in the front of her mind, but they melted away without making a dent.
The voices though, they stuck with her. A male, gruff and tinged with frustration and a woman, soft-spoken and soothing. At first it was their tone that she focused on but soon their words stuck.
“It’s been weeks, Mel. Weeks of no change. All the tests say she should have woken up. I don’t know what else I can do for her.”
“Sssh, my love, have patience.”
A pause, and then the gruff voice, the male voice, said “You know patience isn’t my strong suit.”
“I have every faith in you.” A soft sound, and then there were no more words, just a hastening of breathing. “Come to bed,” the female urged.
“Just one more scan—” The male cut off in a groan.
Embarrassment crept over Sage. Though she didn’t want to invade their private moment, she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak to warn them that she was awake. Luckily footsteps echoed from a distance and the lovers sprang apart.
“Dayen,” the gruff voice said. “Did you deal with her uncle?”
“He’s in custody for crimes against humanity. I wanted to execute him, but my father convinced me it’d be better to make an example of him, to let him rot.”
Anger, hurt and frustration welled but she could do no more than listen as Dayen, the man she’d known as Berrick, asked, “how is she?”
“S
table,” the other male answered.
“Will she wake?”
I am awake. Sage thought sourly. I just can’t show or tell anybody.
A sharp indrawn breath and a set of footsteps moved closer. She could feel his heat first, not burning with the intensity she remembered, but suppressed, almost restrained.
“Dayen?” The female voice.
“I heard her.” Dayen said from a few inches away. “I heard her thoughts. Sage?”
I’m here. I’m awake. She thought at him furiously.
Something clattered as Dayen stumbled back. “She’s in there, I can hear her thoughts.”
“Stimulant.” The gruff male voice barked an instant before something stuck into the side of her neck.
“Ow,” she said, her voice hoarse from disuse.
Warm hands cupped her face. “Can you open your eyes?”
It took some effort on her part but she eventually managed to crack her lids. The room was brightly lit and almost painful after the dull sameness of the fog. “Where am I?” She croaked.
“Rothguard’s medic center.” Dayen’s thumbs roved along her cheekbones. He anticipated her next question when he said, “You’ve been here about two months.”
Months? I’ve been unconscious for months?
“How do you feel?” The other male—Rothguard apparently, grabbed her arm.
She tensed. Without thinking about it, she grabbed his hand and shoved it away. There was a loud clatter and Sage braved the light to open her eyes and see what made that sound. Rothguard lay flat on his back several meters away, an overturned table of instruments strewn about him.
The woman rushed to his side. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.” His gaze didn’t waver from Sage as he reclaimed his feet.
Dayen too, was looking at her oddly. She squirmed, discomfited by their attention. “What?”
“You threw him,” Dayen said.
Not possible. “I barely touched him.”
Rothguard approached again. “I’d like to do a brain scan, if that’s all right with you. Strictly hands off.”
Sage sat patiently, letting her eyes adjust to the light. They’d done so faster than she expected.
B Cubed #3 Borg Page 8
