by L. S. O'Dea
“Thank you.”
They traveled in silence. The only sound their footsteps and soft breathing, his and hers. With his every exhale a strand of her hair waved against her neck, tickling. He was too close. She lengthened her stride, letting her arm stretch out between them, but he picked up his pace to match hers. His scent surrounded her and his warmth penetrated her clothes. She had to force herself not to expose her claws and flee from him.
“I can see now.” He let go of her, dropping behind a little and putting space between them.
She clenched her hand. It seemed cold and empty now. What was wrong with her? She didn’t want to be wandering around in the dark clinging to Hugh. He ran his hands through his over long hair. She was amazed at the sound it made, heavy and thick like a slow crawl through warm blankets. Where had that come from? Maybe Mom was right and she did need to pair with someone, but she wasn’t ready to have young. Not until the world was safer for her kind. She sighed. That was probably never going to happen which meant that she’d never mate because it was the only way to ensure that she didn’t get pregnant.
“What’s the matter,” he asked.
“Nothing.” There was no way she was going to explain those thoughts to him.
CHAPTER 10: TRINITY
Trinity climbed out of the cavern, Hugh close behind her. The night was perfect—dark and covered with clouds. It’d be impossible for them to be hunted by sight. She took a deep breath of fresh air. Glad to be above ground even if they were still in the water.
“It’s as dark out here as in the tunnel.” He stayed close behind her as they splashed the remaining few yards to shore.
Well, it was perfect for her and he was going to have to make do because she wasn’t holding his hand again. “Follow me and be quick and quiet.” She darted into the woods.
He stumbled after her, crashing through the brush.
She spun around. “Do you understand the meaning of quiet?”
“Sorry. I’m not used to this.”
“Okay. We’ll take it slower.” This was not his fault. She repeated in her head. “Watch where I walk and put your feet exactly where I put mine.” She started forward.
“I can’t see,” he whispered, his tone disgusted. “I told you that.”
Her muscles tensed and her claws peeked from her fingertips. This wasn’t fair. He was supposed to be her father’s problem. She retracted her claws. Whining about the situation wasn’t going to fix anything. She surveyed the area to get her bearings. The most direct route to the city was through the woods, but with “Sir Stompy”, they’d never make it. “We’ll travel along the lake.”
She headed out of the brush and ran along the shore, staying close to the tree line. He followed, having no trouble keeping up. She moved faster and so did he. He was quicker than she’d have guessed.
They continued to follow the river. By his breathing he was beat, but he never complained. She slowed her pace a little and began stopping more than necessary to scan the area. She’d signal for him to remain still while she climbed a tree to get a better view and to give him a few more minutes of rest. Their path was still and quiet, no predators and no Guards. Hopefully, Dad and Jackson were having the same luck. After several hours, they arrived at the outskirts of the city.
“What are we doing here?” He eyed her suspiciously.
“Don’t look at me like that.” He didn’t trust her. Unbelievable. “I didn’t risk my neck to break you out of jail in order to turn you in.”
“Sorry. It’s just that...” Pain flashed in his blue eyes. “After the fiasco of the trial, I have a hard time trusting anyone, but you’re right and I’m sorry.” He flashed a quick grin. “Forgive me.”
He was so attractive when he smiled like that, all boyish and cocky. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling back. “It’s okay. I understand.”
“No, you don’t and I hope you never do.” His smile turned reflective and sad.
She started to argue but stopped. Troy had betrayed her and Jethro had hurt her feelings, but her other friends were loyal. Hugh’s entire world had turned against him. According to what she’d read in the underground newspapers, he’d delivered the results of his tests to the Supreme Almighty, his friend, and the man had testified that he’d never seen the reports. All that was left was Hugh’s word that the classes were genetically similar which led to his conviction for treason. Then, they’d uncovered Scar’s body buried on his mother’s property and Conguise’s lab had been searched but nothing was found. The other evidence of the unsanctioned, genetic experimentation had been discovered at his cabin. He was right. She didn’t understand betrayal like that.
“Why are we going to the city?” He held up his hand. “I trust you, but I’m curious.”
“A lot has changed since you went away.” She headed out of the forest and over to a sewer tunnel that would lead them into the inner city. It was one of the larger tunnels which was good because crawling through the sewer was a lot worse than walking through it.
“Not again.” He trudged after her.
A soft puff of laughter burst from her lips. “I heard about your last trip through the sewers.” She glanced at him. “Over and over again.”
His chuckle was hoarse and rusty but the humor was real. “I’m sure Tim talked about that a lot and I’m sure he made it sound worse than it actually was.” He stayed close behind her. “Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t pleasant, but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve gone through.” He paused. “Not by a long shot.”
She glanced at him, her heart twisting. He seemed so alone and broken. She started walking again, before she did something stupid like hug him. “Don’t worry. There’s nothing down here but waste.”
“That’s not as comforting as it should be.”
“You’ll survive.” These passages were actually pretty clean, but he’d figure that out for himself.
“You never answered my question.”
“Which question was that?” She shifted her ears to catch any sound. The sewers were usually safe but sometimes groups of House Servants or Guards camped out here and they could be dangerous. She exposed her claws just in case.
“Several, now that you mention it.”
She should’ve kept her big mouth shut. “So, pick one.” She braced herself for the coming argument. She wasn’t going to answer questions about why they’d freed him.
“Let’s start with something simple like why you’re taking me into the city. You know, the place filled with Almightys who want to see me swinging by my neck from a rope.”
“Not this part of the city. It no longer belongs to the Almightys.”
“What do you mean by that?” He quickened his pace so he was walking alongside her.
“The Almightys don’t admit it in their news reports, but none of them will enter certain sections of the city, not during the day or the night.”
“Really? That’s hard to believe.”
She shrugged. “A lot has changed since you’ve been away.”
“So, who does it belong to?”
“House Servants run some neighborhoods and Guards run others. The few free Producers and Grunts stay with us and the Stockers stay mostly in the woods.”
“Feral?” he asked.
“If by feral you mean that they don’t follow the Almightys’ rules, then yes. If you mean, dangerous and crazy,”—she glanced at him, a half-smile curving her lips—“only if you’re an Almighty.”
“You do recall that I am an Almighty?”
“Trust me, I never forget that.” Besides Kim, she hated Almightys. They all wanted her dead and in their oven, except for Jethro who didn’t remember she existed.
“I find it hard to believe that the Almightys let this happen.”
“You don’t get it. They didn’t let it happen. They had no choice. They lost control. Many followed your trial and your claims.”
“How? I read the papers. My trial was closed and my claims weren’t publicized. They
only reported the genetic experimentation and my responsibility over the Trackers.”
“In the Almighty papers, yes, but there are underground papers and they also ran your story, especially your findings about our genetic similarities.”
“How is that possible?”
“House Servants have been reading and running the Almightys’ businesses and household for years. Is it that hard to believe that they’d have their own papers and entertainment?”
“Not when you put it that way.” He shook his head, his pace slowing. “We should’ve seen this coming.”
“Yes, you should’ve, but your kind is too arrogant. They—”
“Never pay any attention to the low...other classes.”
She focused on the path ahead. She couldn’t look at him right now. The word, even uncompleted, hurt. They’d risked their lives and they were still the lower classes to him. This war was a waste of time. Things would never change.
“I’m sorry.” He touched her shoulder. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“What way did you mean it?” She spun around. “The word is pretty self-explanatory or am I too stupid to understand the many meanings of the word low or as you were going to say lower?”
“It was a slip of the tongue, an expression.” He held up his hand to stop her from speaking. “And I am sorry. I truly don’t feel that the other classes are less. If anything, it’s us, the Almightys, who are the lesser beings.”
“Save it for someone who might believe you.” She turned and continued walking. “We need to keep moving.” She wasn’t being swayed by his smooth words. He’d built his career on his charm and good looks. He could probably talk his way out of a fight with the Cold Creepers, but not with her.
He tagged along in silence for several moments and then asked, “What happened after my trial or during? The real story. I only know what I heard in jail and I doubt that any of that was the truth.”
She could say that they needed to stay quiet, but the tunnels were empty tonight and he did need to know what was going on. Plus, it stopped him from asking about why they’d freed him. “After your trial was over, there were a lot of angry House Servants and Guards. You got a raw deal and a lot of us understood that. The Servants were the first to leave their masters. The Guards are by nature more loyal but eventually packs of them started roaming the city.” She glanced at him. “It was the Almightys’ fault. They had to have seen the discontent, but they ignored it. They continued with the killing of unwanted Servants and Guards, the elderly, the injured, the young. Eventually, their actions pushed many past the breaking point.”
“How many...rogue...stray...feral...”
“Free.” She glared at him. He didn’t understand. He was an Almighty. He’d never understand.
“You’re right. Sorry again. It’s like being dropped into a different world, but I’m trying.”
“Try harder. There are others less forgiving than I am.”
“Thanks for the advice.” He quickened his pace to catch up with her. “Let’s try this again. How many free House Servants and Guards are you talking about? It can’t be that many or the Almightys would’ve done something, stopped it somehow.”
“You’d be surprised.” She couldn’t wait to see his face when they arrived at Ray’s.
“How many?” He grabbed her shoulder, stopping her.
“Enough to take over and run several sections of the city.” She pulled free and continued walking.
“Don’t the different groups fight?” He followed her. “House Servants and Guards hate each other.”
“Yeah. At first, there was a lot of fighting, but now the lines have been drawn, so-to-speak. Each class has its own section of the city. There’s some overlap and some...neutral territories, but mostly the classes stay to themselves.” She shot him a grin. He was going to hate this part. “We’ve been speaking with the leaders of both groups. We’ve been explaining that they have a common enemy.”
“Us.”
“Yep. We hope that their hatred of the Almightys is greater than their dislike for each other.”
He snorted. “Good luck with that. I’ve been around Guards and Servants my entire life. They’re not going to give up past hatreds so easily.”
“We have a plan.” She averted her eyes. She’d gone too far. She really needed to learn to shut up.
He grabbed her arm, his grip tight. “And I’m part of that plan.” It wasn’t a question.
He was smart, Dad had been right about that. She should shut up, but now that she’d started she couldn’t stop. It was so important that he join them. “Yes. We believe that the leaders of both the Guards and the Servants will listen to you.”
“Me? Why would they listen to me? I don’t have anything to do with this?”
She was almost speechless. He wasn’t kidding. He truly didn’t understand. “You’re the face of the movement. This all started because of you.”
“I’m no one.” He shook his head, moving backward. “I have no power anymore.”
“You testified on record in front of the Supreme Almighty and the Council that we’re all genetically related. You publicly accepted Dad and me as part of your family.”
“That...that didn’t do any good. You were both hunted, probably more than if I’d kept my mouth shut. You’ve had to hide in the forest.” He kept shaking his head. “I won’t be able to help your movement.”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” She stepped closer to him, lowering her voice as if approaching an injured animal. “Dad and I aren’t the only ones.”
“What are you saying?”
“Others were tired of hiding too. Other mixes. Half-breeds. There are more Almightys like your mother. They’re afraid to come forward but they help us in other ways, and their children, the mixed ones are no longer accepting their fate and neither are the purebloods. They realize that they are...genetically superior to the Almightys.”
“I bet it only took moments for the House Servants to jump on that carriage.”
“You’re right about that.” She threw him a grin and started walking again. “They were the first but many Guards followed. The unhappy ones.”
“What happened to my Guards? I know Reese is with Little Sarah but what about Sue and Laddie? Curtis mentioned that Laddie is sick. How bad is he?”
“They’re both at camp. They escaped your cabin when the Guards and Almightys arrived with Conguise’s experiments. Sue feels bad about not staying to protect your belongings but Laddie forced her to flee.”
“Thank Araldo for that. They would’ve killed her. Reese is only safe because Mom had a lot of powerful friends, but even they wouldn’t have been able to do anything if Reese had been at my cabin.” He sighed. “Sue must’ve been so scared. She has a love-hate relationship with the forest.”
“She’s doing okay. Jackson found them right away and brought them to our camp. She wanted to come with us to free you but Laddie...” She clamped her mouth shut. She still talked too much once she got going.
“What’s wrong with Laddie?” He paused, clearing his throat. “He’s not...changing or anything is he?”
“No. Nothing like that.” She hesitated. He truly cared for his Guards and although Laddie wasn’t turning into a monster he was dying. “I’m sorry. Mom’s tried everything. He’s old and his life...It hasn’t been easy. Sue stays by his side.”
He turned and stared at the blank wall of the tunnel, his back stiff and his body tense. It seemed that at any moment he’d snap and break into tiny pieces. She touched his arm to let him know that he wasn’t alone in his sorrow.
“I need to see him.” His hands were clenched at his sides.
“The city first.” This wouldn’t be pleasant if he put up a fight.
“Why?” He turned toward her. “So I can persuade the Servants and Guards to join your fight against the Almightys?”
All her delays about telling him why they’d freed him had been for nothing. With a few misplaced words
from her, he’d figured it out. She could lie, but she wouldn’t. She didn’t like lies and he wouldn’t believe her anyway. “Yes.”
“I won’t do it.” He started walking the way that they’d been headed. “I won’t persuade others to fight and die.”
She followed after him. “You have to—”
He spun around, his eyes sparkling with anger. “I do not.”
“You’re the only one who can.” She was pleading now and hated it, but she couldn’t stop herself. She had to make him understand. “You’re the only Almighty who has risked everything to stand up for the other classes.”
“I won’t be responsible for anyone else’s death.” He turned and continued walking.
“You think it’s that easy.” She raced around him, blocking his path. “Do you think that they won’t die if they don’t fight?” He shoved past her and she grasped his arm, letting her claws sink in a little. “You may not want to hear it, but they die every day. The young. The old. The unwanted. Every day, they’re murdered in your shelters because your kind decided that they can’t care for themselves.”
His blue eyes were still hard with anger, but shadows lurked in their depths. She was getting to him.
“We need you. They need you. If they’re going to die, let them die fighting for their freedom.”
“I can’t.” He stepped around her and she dropped her hold.
The sorrow on his face made her breath catch in her throat. He wasn’t going to do it. She should be angry with him, but she wasn’t. He was too hurt, too broken and she’d never been able to turn her back on the injured. She trotted to catch up with him. “Why are you still heading in this direction if you’re going to refuse to help us?” She wanted to pull the words back. She’d have to force him to the rendezvous point if he didn’t come willingly.
“I want to see Laddie. You said the city first.” He looked at her. “I’m tired of fighting with you. Take me to the city. I’ll tell Tim and Jackson and whomever else you need me to tell, that I won’t do it. I won’t be the face of this war, this mass of death waiting to happen. After that, you’ll take me to Laddie.” He raised a brow, a question in his eyes.
