Heart of Tartarus

by Lucy Smoke

  "Aw, fuck," Levi curses.

  My sentiments exactly. Levi doesn't waste time. He bends down, albeit slowly because of his injury, and withdraws his pocket knife again. I don't have time to turn my head before he sinks it into the man's chest. I continue to tremble against Aaron as my nerves send shooting pains through my back, legs, and arms. Luckily for us, we're not quite in full view of the rest of the street and still in a somewhat secluded section of an empty side street.

  When Levi grunts, dragging the body further away from the more populated area of Tartarus, I flinch at the way he grimaces and struggles. I'm also a little disturbed by my lack of remorse for the now dead enforcer that he shoves into an alleyway. He rummages through the man's pockets and comes back with a communicator. I breathe heavily against Aaron's massive chest as Levi pants and turns the communicator on. He dials and puts the thing to his ear.

  "Hey, it's Levi. Aaron, Cass, and I need a pick up." There's a moment of silence as the person on the other end of the line says something. Aaron's hand strokes soothingly up my back even as the remaining quivers from the stun slowly work their way through my body.

  "It's a long goddamn story," Levi says. "I'll debrief you when we get back, but you need to hurry. Cass got hit with a stun gun and might need medical." The other person says something again before Levi replies with a sharp tone. "We also need a body disposal team, out."

  There's a shout on the other end. Levi shakes his head, though the other person can't see, and I would almost find it amusing if I weren't still clutching onto Aaron every few seconds. They need to hurry up. I lay my head down on his chest and close my eyes.

  The last thing I hear as more rain begins to fall, hitting me in the face and across my shoulders, is another curse from Levi and him saying, "Goddamn Tanks are in Enforcement."

  The ceiling above me is the curved shape I've come to know so well, but I know immediately that I'm not home in my own bed. It's partially because the ceiling is beautifully decorated in a mural of lush greenery and flowers. The image of the meadow spreads into a thick, overgrown, forest complete with the tiniest of details. Like the swarm of bees surrounding a hive embedded into a tree further back behind the rest of them, or the patches of mushrooms, and the green fairy peeking out from underneath the fluffy head of the largest one.

  The second reason is the blonde, colorfully dressed, pregnant woman, flitting around the room despite her obvious size. Penelope Diamond pops around the bedroom door and waddles over as fast as she is able to place a steaming tray of food on the nightstand.

  "So glad you're awake, Hon," she says with a smirk when she catches me watching her. "Perhaps now the boys won't be driving Vincent insane with updates on you."

  "How long have I been out?" I ask.

  She chuckles before smoothing her dress over the large bump of her stomach with one hand and her backside with the other before propping herself on the edge of the bed. "Oh, not too long. Aaron only brought you in last night."

  I blink at her as she reaches for the porcelain teacup on the silver tray and hands it to me. I stare down at the dark sludge inside and frown before lifting it slowly to my lips. The bitterness of the liquid and the heat scorch my tongue. Shaking my head violently, I quickly hand it back to her.

  "Not a fan of coffee, I take it?" she asks with a smile. I grimace, and she laughs outright.

  "I think coffee isn't a fan of me," I say.

  "And how does that not surprise me?" a voice says from the doorway. Both Penelope and I look up to see Noaz walk in. My eyes nearly pop out of my skull at the sight.

  He's shirtless, wearing only low riding black sweatpants with deep anchors of lines arrowing down to his crotch. A distinct line divides his abdomen in two while two others parallel each other across, creating a mouth-watering, beautiful body.

  "What doesn't surprise you?" Penelope asks as he strides into the room rubbing the top of his wet head with a towel. The smell of lemons and wind strike me as odd on a man.

  He heads directly for the closet. "That Cassandra doesn't like coffee," he says matter-of-factly. He opens the door and pulls out a simple white t-shirt before covering all of that beautiful, caramel skin and shooting me a faint smile. "No offense," he says to me directly. "You just strike me as the type to get her energy elsewhere."

  "You're right," I hear myself saying.

  Is my tongue rolled out? Am I drooling? I quickly rub the back of my hand against my chin and mouth. Nope. No drool, thank God.

  Noaz disappears into an adjoined bathroom and the sink turns on a moment later. Penelope turns back to me, catches me staring at the bathroom door, and chuckles. I blush and turn my head to the tray.

  "So, what else did you bring me?" I ask.

  Still chuckling, she gestures to the plate of what looks like eggs over-easy. I stare in surprise before reaching for it. "You have eggs?" I manage to say though I can clearly see them sitting in front of me. "How'd you get eggs?"

  I cut off a piece of the edge with the fork Penelope hands me and stuff it between my lips. With a mouthwatering groan of pleasure, I begin to shovel them into my mouth.

  "Ever since I started craving them, Vincent makes sure we're stocked," Penelope answers, running a hand lovingly over her enlarged baby bump.

  I swallow the bite and pause before shoveling the next morsel in. "What are you going to do when the baby's born?" I ask.

  I can't imagine what she and Vincent must be thinking. Vincent still scares me, but from what Kida always told me, he wasn't a bad parental figure after her parents died. Still, Tartarus isn't a place to raise a child.

  Penelope's hand stays on her stomach. "Hopefully, one day, Tartarus won't be so bad," she says as though she had just read my mind. "But until then, we'll have to make do."

  "Is it a boy or a girl?" I ask.

  "It's a boy," Noaz answers from the bathroom door. I jump when I see him leaning against the frame, a toothbrush in his mouth and something dawns on me.

  "Am I in your bed?" I ask, face flushing red again.

  He nods distractedly before turning back into the bathroom to rinse out his mouth. Penelope smiles at him affectionately, her bright, blue eyes turning back to me.

  "Noaz is the godfather," she confides. "Though, he's not comfortable about vocalizing it."

  I blink in astonishment. "Isn't he too young?" I whisper.

  She covers her laugh with one hand, shoulders shaking as she tries to rein herself in. "He's twenty-five," she says quietly. "And he's like a son to me, a brother to Vincent." Her head turns towards the bathroom doorway. Her affection for him is obvious, I don't know why I didn't see it before. It's the affection of a maternal figure and a big sister all wrapped in one, because she can't be more than five years older than him.

  "Our son's name is going to be Brian Noaz Diamond," she says. "We're so proud to have Noaz in our family and it seems only right that our Brian carries the name of his savior."

  "His savior?"

  Her smile, when she turns to me, is somewhat sad, but also filled with love and warmth. It's the true smile of a mother to be, and I'm struck with the image of what my mom must have looked like when she had been pregnant with me. I imagine she must have looked a lot like me since I look nothing like my father. My brother, of course, was very much his son in every way—physical and nonphysical. I was the anomaly since I hadn’t known my mother long enough to decipher where my features stemmed from.

  I picture big, blue eyes like my own, small stature, and a slender nose. For some reason, I see her hair as being shorter, the exact same copper-red with brown and blonde streaks lit like fire when the sunlight hit it as it hung to her shoulders. Despite the differences between them, and even without the obvious sign of pending motherhood, Penelope has mother figure written all over her.

  "Oh yes," she says, answering my question. "Noaz and I knew each other from his time on Arawn and then later. We weren't exactly friends, but we..." Her eyes squint and her lips pinch down as she attempts to
formulate the words to explain. "Well, you could say we ran in similar circles. We did similar work."

  "What did you do?" Before I'm even done asking, Penelope is shaking her head and waving her hand.

  "Oh, no, that part doesn't matter. What does matter is that not long after Vincent and I met, I got caught doing something that could get me banned from even Tartarus." My eyes widen. Whatever it was, it must have been serious. I found it hard to picture Penelope Diamond, a bright, cheery woman that so obviously loved sundresses and cooking doing something dangerous or bad enough to warrant that kind of punishment.

  She catches my expression and nods in understanding. "I know. It is surprising considering how I look." I decide not to repeat the thoughts in my head. "But I did commit a crime, and I got caught. Vincent hadn't known that I was pregnant then, but he still stuck by me. When he tried to work out a plea deal, the council in charge of my sentence absolutely refused.

  Had I been sentenced to a nomadic lifestyle, I wouldn't have survived. There are no health clinics on airships—only emergency ones. Not only would it have been a difficult pregnancy had I been forced into that, but jobs are already scarce for the nomadic. Even more so for women. And despite all the equity laws, no one would have wanted to take on a pregnant woman even knowing I had no other option."

  I listen, enraptured by her story. I hardly notice when Noaz re-enters the bedroom and leans against the wall with his arms folded.

  "Noaz hardly knew me at the time. I can't imagine why he would do it, but he bargained a deal for me to lessen my sentence to being confined on Tartarus," Penelope continues.

  "And now he's here with you," I say.

  Her blue eyes stare down at her lap. "Yes, though I wish there had been another way to change his fate, he's here with us. Without him, I might have never been able to get this far."

  "I wouldn't change a damn thing, Penny love," Noaz chooses that moment to interrupt and Penelope stands from the bed, turning her watery gaze on him. She pauses by his side and he uncrosses his arms and enfolds her in them.

  I feel as though I'm intruding on a personal moment for the both of them, so I busy myself with setting my now empty plate back on the tray. I lift the covers away from my legs to slide to the side of the bed. When I finally do turn my gaze back, Penelope is discreetly wiping under her eyes and kissing Noaz on his cheek before shooting me a small smile and hurrying to the door as fast as her body will let her.

  There's a strange silence between us as he strides towards me, stopping directly in front of me. Slowly, he leans down, and I look up. His dark, serious gaze holds mine trapped.

  "I would appreciate it if you didn't spread that story around," he says. "Penelope is sentimental and I'm–"

  "A private person," I interrupt. I nod my head in understanding. "I won't tell anyone about your heroics," I say, standing up so that he has to take a step back. He watches me as I lift the tray, still full coffee cup and all, and head towards the doorway. "Not that I was given much information, but don't worry. I know how to keep my mouth shut."

  I turn out into the hallway and start walking. I'm almost to the end where I see more lush carpet turn into black and white diamond shaped tile when a loud crash startles me so violently that I nearly drop everything in my arms. Noaz must have followed me on silent feet, because without a second to spare, a tanned arm shoots past me and steadies the tray. I let out a startled yelp and he comes around, lifting the heavy silver from my hands. I let him, because as I enter the kitchen, there is glass everywhere and my feet are bare. Noaz, on the other hand, has managed to change his pants and pull on some boots. I thought that he had been in the bathroom for too long. He must have had a change of clothes waiting for him.

  Thayer stands there, his usual ring of dark-brown curls encircling his head in a wild disarray, with an owlish look on his face and his t-shirt soaked with what is obviously coffee. I stare at him in shock and just as I wonder why he's not jumping around, howling in pain over having spilled hot coffee all over himself, he rips off his shirt and throws it across the room before it can stick to his skin. "Shit," he hisses, scrambling away from the puddle on the floor.

  I almost hiss for a completely different reason. Is literally every man in this group ripped to shreds? Because goddamn... I stare openly at Thayer's bulging chest. His thick biceps are corded with muscle and his pecs are so damn near perfect, I almost want to cry.

  I shake myself, wondering what the hell is wrong with me. Maybe my vagina and I need to have a talk or maybe it’s because it has been a while since I've seen such prime, male flesh—or any male flesh for that matter.

  Levi sits on the counter laughing his ass off. "Man, I told you to be careful!"

  "Why wasn't the damn mug insulated!" Thayer cries back. "What the fuck is this, the dark ages?!"

  "It's an antique, you dipshit!" Levi's eyes begin to water as he rocks back and forth on the counter, one hand clutching his stomach, spanning across to his side.

  Noaz breezes past the both of them and sets the tray on the counter next to an honest to goodness marble sink. I stare across the room at it and then take in the rest. The stainless-steel refrigerator that almost touches the ceiling. The obsidian, glass breakfast table where Aaron and Haze both sit and watch the spectacle that Thayer and Levi are putting on.

  Haze catches my eye and nods to the seat next to him, quickly moving his chair a few inches to the side so that I have enough room to pull it out and sit down. Noaz says something quietly to Thayer, whose eyes snap up and meet mine. He nods once to Noaz before proceeding out of the room.

  "Hey, aren't you going to clean up your mess?!" Levi calls after him, still laughing.

  "No, you are," Noaz says.

  Surprisingly, Levi groans, but doesn't argue. He hops down from the counter without effort and proceeds to a full-sized kitchen pantry where he produces a broom.

  "Hey," I say. "What happened to your leg?"

  Levi moves with ease as he flicks a grin in my direction. "All healed up, Troublemaker," he says. "Got back from the hospital clinic early this morning."

  As he comes around the counter, he lifts his pants leg while holding the broom and full dustpan in one hand. In a neat little row on the back of his leg, are tiny sutures. He lets me look for a moment before dropping the pants leg and heading to a stainless-steel door that pulls out of the wall. I watch, enthralled as he pulls the top down and deposits the broken porcelain mug into the dark cavern of what must be a waste reception shoot.

  Across the table, Aaron pushes a plate of toasted bread towards me. I shake my head and nudge it back towards him. "I'm not hungry," I say. "I already ate."

  He frowns at me and pushes it in front of me once more. "You don't eat enough," he says. "Take one."

  "I'm not hungry," I repeat, frowning back at him.

  "Rocket," Aaron snaps at me. We glare at each other for a moment before his gaze softens and he lightly touches the rim of the plate with his inked fingers. "Please, take one. For my peace of mind?"

  So not fair! "Fine," I snap, grabbing one of the toasted slices of bread and shoving a corner in my mouth. When I turn my attention back to the group, everyone is silent. And staring at Aaron.

  "What?" I ask in the damning silence.

  "Since when..." Haze starts before shaking his head. "Since when did you start calling her 'Rocket'?" he asks.

  Aaron shrugs and lifts a piece of toast to his mouth before taking a bite. He wipes the crumbs from his lips and chin before devouring the rest of it while mine sits like a lump in my stomach along with my eggs from earlier. Why do they all seem so shocked over a stupid nickname?

  "Um..." I begin, trying to cut through the awkwardness. "Can I have a glass of water?"

  Noaz nods his head before scavenging through the kitchen and producing an actual crystal glass rather than the durable plastic ones I've always used. He fills it with water before bringing it over and setting it on the table.

  "Thank you," I say quietly.
r />   "When are we talking to Vincent?" Levi asks, breaking up the weird quietness.

  "That's where I sent Thayer. He'll come back when he knows if Vincent is ready for–"

  "He's ready," Thayer interrupts from the hallway entrance. He's redressed this time in a new pair of pants and a fresh t-shirt. I notice that the old one that he threw across the room has disappeared. Likely, he grabbed it before he left and dispensed with it elsewhere.

  We stand as a group and herd ourselves out of the expensive and antique looking kitchen, with its black and white tiles, marble counters, and stainless-steel appliances. I'm almost sorry to see it go. In any other situation, I'd be drooling over it. I love antique things made back when Earth was still livable, or even things that resembled antiques and appliances from the older eras.

  We pass back through the hallway, passing Noaz's now closed bedroom door and into a posh sitting room with a fluffy, cloud rug under my feet. I pause and sink my toes into it, groaning a little bit. Haze passes by me and gives me a strange look over his shoulder, as Aaron stops next to me.

  "We need to hurry, Rocket," he says quietly.

  I nod and start walking. He's right. There's no time to luxuriate. I'm sure this meeting with Vincent isn't going to be a pleasant one and I need to prepare myself for that. I suck in a breath as we approach Vincent's familiar office doors with the iron bars over the lavish windows on either one. Aaron fits a large, warm palm over the small of my back.

  Haze is the first there and he opens and holds the door as the rest of us file in. His gaze lingers a bit on Aaron's palm against my back and I shift a bit to remove it.

  Vincent sits at his desk talking quietly to Penelope. She shakes her head once and his eyes hold a dark, angry tint to them. The way she leans towards him as she perches slightly against the side of his desk tells me that he's not angry with her. She murmurs something in a soothing voice before Noaz clears his throat. "We're ready for debriefing," he states.

  Vincent nods his head once before turning back to his wife. "We'll talk about it later," he promises her. "I just have to make sure it's her."