“I do not wish to challenge you. I only wish to secure what I came for, what is rightfully mine, and go in peace. I was prepared to pay her full purchase price, and more.”
“And where is your money now, soldier?” When Draven didn’t answer, Byron only laughed. His laughter reached high up the vaulted ceiling and echoed back at them. “I see that you have none, so you’re a liar and a thief,” he said when he’d regained composure. “You haven’t lived long enough to know the world, my friend. You didn’t live through the War. You haven’t known anything but a simple, civilized life, so you’re a simple, civilized man. You didn’t know the world of chaos and murder and brutal savagery. You don’t want to make an enemy of me, I promise you that. I lived through those hundred years of war, and I know what man is capable of. I know what I am capable of.”
“I believe you, sir. But this human is mine. You have possession of her because you deceived me, not because she rightfully belongs to you.”
Byron’s laughter echoed again, filling the room and drowning the sobs, pressing in on Draven until he thought he’d go mad listening to it.
“She isn’t yours,” Byron said. “She never has been, and because of your greed, now she never will be.”
“You speak as if you know the future, sir. Neither you nor I can know what may come.”
“You know nothing, soldier, of past or future. She is mine because the Law says she is mine, and that’s enough. We have laws and we obey them, because unlike humans, we have evolved beyond mere savages. Just because you mistakenly believe something belongs to you doesn’t make it so. The Law makes it so. You cannot simply take something because you entertain some false notion that it is owed you.”
“I can’t?” Draven said. “That is yet to be seen.”
Draven moved forward to claim Cali but paused when Byron aimed the gun at his face. “You don’t want to test my loyalty,” Byron said. “If you cross me, I will cross you out.”
In one move, he stooped to retrieve Cali, tossed her over his shoulder, trained the gun on Draven, and backed away. When he reached Angel, he stopped and pushed the muzzle of the gun against the boy’s head. Angel didn’t move, only kept his face in his hands. Draven leapt at Byron. Byron swung the gun at him so that Draven came down on it, but it did not fire.
The four of them sprawled on the floor, scrambling, grasping for what they all wanted. Draven came up holding Cali, and Angel came up holding onto Draven. Byron had the gun. This time he put it to Draven’s temple and smiled. “Let go of my sapien, unless you mean for me to wrestle her from your arms.”
“I will not.”
“Very well, but if we are both pulling on her, she will come apart in pieces. Then I will have just cause to kill you for destroying my property.”
“You would kill me for a sap?”
“You would betray me for one.”
“I thought they meant nothing to you.”
“They are nothing. Your betrayal is something. Now let her go.”
“And you will leave me and Angel? We have broken no laws.”
“You defend the very creature that would kill your human, and yet I have been nothing but kind to her, and you despise me for it.”
“Angel does not intend to kill her. He wants peace, as I do. You can take the girl, and leave us.” Draven held Cali against him and breathed in her scent one last time before he let her go. She stumbled forward. When Byron pushed her behind him, she fell to the floor beside the bleeding body of Larry’s mother.
“I’ll take my sapien, whether you give her willingly or not. But your Angel, I can’t let him live. He’s killed Superiors, and at least six humans that we have proof of, and probably many more. That’s a waste of food that is scarce enough already. He’s strong enough to kill us all, and crazy enough.”
“He is only a child,” Draven said, stepping in front of Angel when Byron pointed the gun at him.
“He tried to kill me and my partner.”
“If he is as dangerous as you imagine, and if that is his intent, he would have killed you already.”
“Then I’ll take you instead,” Byron said. He thrust the cold muzzle of the gun against Draven’s head. The steel tip ground against his skull. He remembered Byron explaining the gun to him once, how it would shoot a steel rod into the brain of a Superior in the exact position to paralyze his motor functions. It wouldn’t kill him, Byron had said, but the body couldn’t heal or push out a steel pin. Enforcers used it to paralyze criminals who attempted to escape arrest. Once they had secured the criminal, they could remove the steel rod and the brain would heal.
So Draven wouldn’t die, but he would lie frozen until rats came, drawn by the scent of the dead humans and their blood. His worst fear would be realized—waiting for animals to eat him while he lay conscious but unable to move.
Just as Draven was thinking of the horror of the gun, Byron squeezed the trigger. Draven crumpled to the floor. Though unable to move, he could see Cali in front of him, staring at the dead woman beside her as if transfixed. And he could hear the baby still screaming, on and on. He wondered if the animals would eat the baby alive, too, or if it would have mercifully died beforehand.
Another gunshot sounded, and Angel’s body fell behind Draven.
Byron dragged Cali up by her arm and slung her over his shoulder, then picked his way across the room to retrieve the baby, laughing all the while. The door swung closed behind them, and darkness swallowed the room once more. Byron’s laughter echoed around and around Draven’s head long after silence fell over the room of the dead.
The End
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About the Author
Hey, y’all! I’m a lifelong reader and writer, southerner, and serious chocoholic. I write fiction of many flavors, including urban fantasy, romance, horror, and fairy tales. You can usually find me wasting time online, perusing a library, chatting with other readers, or holed up in my house, drinking one too many cups of coffee and pounding away at my keyboard. You can also find me on most social media. Drop in and say hi!
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