Daria panted in panic as she tried her best to get her bearings in an ever-shifting darkness.
Finally, she stopped falling and landed on her feet in a strange room where old fashioned monitors were mounted on steel walls. Industrial and dark, the room reminded her of some underground pit, the likes of which she’d only seen in horror scenes or games.
Hissing, she pushed herself away from the woman who’d grabbed her, then shrieked as the other two literally appeared out of thin air beside them.
What the .. ?
How did they do that?
Stunned and terrified, she turned around, looking for a door. Window.
Anything.
There wasn’t one.
Breathless, she turned on her rescuers who seemed more and more like captors. “Where am I? Where are my parents?”
The woman who’d grabbed her and brought her here, looked toward the man. “Who wants to explain this to her?”
“I vote Lobo. He’s on the Suicide Squad for a reason.”
Lobo snorted. “Not funny, Ky.”
Daria frowned at them and especially at his dire tone. “Who are you Matens?”
The male hesitated before he pulled his hood off to reveal a mass of messy golden blond hair and pale skin and eyes. “Not Materians. We’re humans. And your parents are most likely taken or dead.”
Chapter 4
Daria’s world spun out of control so fast that she would have fallen had two arms not caught her from behind and held her steady. Better still, they kept her on her feet.
“Breathe, little sister. Just breathe.”
That deep, resonant voice stirred her hair and reverberated through her entire being. Somehow it grounded her despite the panic that threatened to tear her to shreds. In spite of the tears that blinded her as she faced her worst fear and wanted to scream in terror of it all.
They were human ...
Her heartbeat picked up speed as the women removed their hoods to show her their foreign faces. One who held dark skin and hair that was a warm shade of brown that matched her eyes. While the other had skin the color of caramel and eyes of hazel and hair as black as Daria’s.
She swallowed hard as she realized that she was in the hands of her enemies.
Humans.
And if they were human, it could only mean the one holding her was one of their dreaded breed, too.
Tilting her head back as dread filled her, she looked up over her shoulder. She’d expected him to be around the height of the others. Somewhere around her own size.
But not this one.
He was exceptionally tall. Muscular, and built to exquisite steely proportions. His masculine features had been carved to perfection, and had his deep tawny skin been silver or gray, he would have been as highly sought after as Frayne. If not more so. Indeed, he possessed that rare male sexuality that women dreamed about, but seldom, if ever, saw in reality.
“There, now,” he said in that same even tone. “Deep breaths.”
Daria stumbled away from him. “Where’s the door?”
“There’s not one.”
Her eyes widened.
The human glanced to the other three who’d kidnapped her. “You’re excused.”
Ky hesitated. “Crow—”
“Your mother’s waiting, Kyisha. Allay her fears that you weren’t eaten by the Remnants or Drabs. Besides, our friend here will do better with only one of us in her face. She needs a moment to adjust to what I’m about to tell her.”
The other two vanished while Ky passed an empathetic grimace toward Daria. “I’ll be nearby if you need me.” Her frown deepened. “Sorry about your parents, Drab. We tried.” And with that, she vanished into thin air.
“How do they do that?” Daria was barely holding her hysteria in check as she tried to understand this. “Is it some sort of tech you have?”
Crow laughed bitterly. “Not exactly.” He stepped closer.
She retreated, making sure to put more space between them until she knew what he intended.
“I know you’re scared, but I’m not your enemy.”
Yeah, right. “Of course, you are. You’re here to retaliate for Xared. You’re planning to kill me. It’s what humans do!”
He snorted disdainfully. “Had we not gotten to Xed in time, yeah, I’d have ripped out your throat in a way to make a Remnant proud. You’re right about that. No power under heaven would have kept you alive had any harm befallen him. But Xed’s fine. And you have him to thank for your rescue. He’s the only reason I would have ever risked a strike team by sending them out in broad open daylight to try and save your parents.”
“What do you mean?”
“You heard me.” He tapped his ear. “Hey Master X? Can you come here and sweet talk your girl? She’s not listening to me.”
Xared appeared instantly at Crow’s side.
Daria staggered back against the wall as she tried to make sense of everything that was happening, and the speed at which it was assaulting her. Her mind whirled and rebelled against it. It was too much, too fast.
How could Xed be here? Alive and unharmed? It didn’t make sense.
They’d taken him. No one survived Dawner interrogation.
No one.
“It’s all right, Daria. You’re safe.”
She didn’t feel that way. Confused? Most definitely. But safe?
This was most assuredly not safe.
“What is this? How can you be here?”
Xared glanced to the human next to him. “They’re not our enemies.”
Well, they certainly weren’t their families or friends. Her friends didn’t dress that way.
She scoffed at him. “Are you insane?”
Yet no sooner were those words out of her mouth than she noticed something.
Something that couldn’t be true ...
Could it?
Her last thought rang in a mocking tone through her head as she stared at the two males, side-by-side. Like that, she couldn’t miss seeing a truth that horrified her. One that couldn’t be denied.
Crow and Xed were virtually the same height. Same build.
Same sculpted jaw. Their lips were almost identical in shape and form. Only where Xared’s were dark gray, almost black, Crow’s were rosy pink. And Xared had a divet in his chin that Crow lacked.
Likewise, their eyes were of identical shape and size, only opposite in color. Xared’s midnight black to Crow’s silver. But their hair was a matching shade of black and the exact mass of thick, chaotic curls...
While she might not be family to these humans, Xared most certainly was.
“You’re related?”
Was that even possible? Could humans and Materians do that?
Surely it would be the same as trying to procreate with a donkey.
Xared raked his hand through his hair before he answered quietly. “Josiah’s my uncle. But you can’t tell anyone, Daria. No one knows that outside of my immediate family.”
“Josiah?”
He gestured at the human. “Josiah Crow. He’s the leader and commander of this colony.”
This was unreal. Sliding down the wall, she crouched on the floor as the truth struck her harder than any blow. Xared really was partially human. “Which parent?”
“My mother’s the daughter of his older brother.”
Yet they appeared to be the same age ... or at least close to it. “Do humans age differently?”
Xared scratched at his ear—his nervous habit, and made an uncomfortable face. “You want to take this one, Cochise?”
Josiah grimaced. “Only Jake was ever allowed to use that particular middle name for me, giimoozaabi. But to answer the question, as a rule ... no, not really. We age about the same. Or at least we did. I, however, am a bit different than the rest, thanks to the little illness you Drabs were so kind enough to drop on us.” He smirked at Daria. “Suppose I should thank you for my extended years on this earth. Too bad, I was born an ungrateful bastard. Something my fa
ther was gracious enough to point out to me of every day of his blissfully short life.”
Wow, his sarcasm was thick enough to use as a road block. Too bad they couldn’t bottle it and sell it for its toxicity. That alone would have finished off his people.
“So how did you escape?” She glanced to Xed.
Xared inclined his head to Josiah. “My uncle.”
“No one touches my boy.” He narrowed his eyes on Xared. “Who should have listened to me and stayed home today like he was supposed to. But no. You just how to go on to school, didn’t you, Lord Hard Head?”
“Not what got me into trouble. I still don’t know how she found my ankh. There’s no way I dropped it. I would never be that stupid.”
They both turned to stare at her with an unsettling intensity.
Daria gulped. Well, there was no need to keep the secret. Especially not now. “Frayne gave it to me. He said he saw it fall out of your bag.”
Josiah spoke in a language she didn’t recognize. Whatever he said, it caused Xared to roll his eyes in response. Wow, he either was the most fearless creature alive to be so flippant with a man this deadly.
Or he was the dumbest one ever born.
Something confirmed when Xared scoffed. “I can’t cut the throat of everyone who makes me angry, Joey.”
“That’s the effing Drab in you, boy. Throw it aside, reach down deep, and embrace your inner demon. You just need to find the beast, shake hands and make friends. I know you have it in you. I’ve seen a glimpse before.”
He clapped Josiah on the back. “That would have been your reflection in a mirror. It’s why I have you. You’re my own personal trunk monkey.”
“I should shove you in a trunk, monkey.”
They had completely lost her with this entire conversation. And none of it pertained to what concerned her most. “Is there any way to help my parents?”
Josiah winced. “Tag, champ. You’re up.”
“I really hate you.” Sighing heavily, Xared moved to crouch on the floor by her side. He reached out and took her hand like he used to do when they were kids and she was forced to stay at home because of her endless rounds of mysterious illnesses that had kept her bedridden.
The warmth of his touch soothed her in spite of her panic and uncertainty. “I need you to breathe with me, Darus.”
He only said things like that whenever he had profoundly bad news to share. Her heart stopped as fear choked her with dread and remorse. “Are they dead?”
“I hope not. I pray not.” His grip tightened on her hand to give her pressure and to help keep her calm. “But there’s something I have to tell you.”
What now? Honestly? She couldn’t take any more hits before they shattered her. She was already staggering from the blows. “What? What could possibly be worse?”
He hesitated.
Her gut twisted even tighter.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Xed. Look at her face. You have her terrified. Just spit it out already.” Josiah glared at them. “You’re half human, too, Drab. It’s why your mother and his were so close, and why they watched after each other the way they did.”
Xared growled at him as more tears filled her eyes. “Sheez, Joey! Could you please learn some tact? I know you believe in ripping the Band Aid off, brother, but seriously? Not the time. You didn’t just take some skin. Pretty sure, you claimed the whole limb.”
“Like there’s an easier way to tell her the truth? Grandma’s on the roof won’t exactly work in this scenario, and we don’t have the time for you to waste, searching for the perfect a Hallmark card. Besides, we’re at war. Why should I show them any mercy when they’ve never shown any to us?”
“Daria’s not the enemy. She’s half human and one of us.”
“And she’s half Drab. Not to mention, a leader of HELL. While we’re at it, let’s not forget that she’s also the one who handed your ass over to their Dawners for torture, and in the process, would have handed in your parents, to boot. So in my book, that eliminates any humanity in her, whatsoever. She might as well be a Remnant. If you have any brains in your head, you’ll let me kill her now and save us all the misery of dying by her betrayal later.”
He shot to his feet. “Don’t you dare!”
Josiah raked him with an expression of disgust. “You’re as blind and trusting as Jet. And you’re going to be just as dead because of it.”
“You speak through hatred and prejudice, not reason.”
“I speak through a hundred years of experience.”
Daria gasped at that. Could it be possible? “You were here at the beginning?”
Josiah stepped past Xared to glare down at her. “Yeah, I was here. I bore witness to the truth and not the lies the Drabs have fed you from birth. So spare me the propaganda.” A tic started in his jaw. “She’s not you, Xed. There’s too much black blood in her veins. It’s infected her head and her heart. Cut your losses while you can. I’ve buried enough family. I don’t want to bury any more.”
And with that, he vanished.
Xared shook his head and sighed. “Sorry about that, Daria. You have to understand, my uncle’s a very bitter man.”
“Oh, I got that. Not like he hides it.” He might as well have bought ad space. “What’d they do? Eat his young?”
The expression on his face made her stomach shrink.
“Oh dear Sorus! They ate his young!”
“You don’t want to know. Suffice it to say, I’m amazed he doesn’t hate me, too, for the black blood in my veins. It says a lot for him that he’s able to even look at me and my maja. Never mind protect us the way he does, given what he’s been through because of the Matens.”
Maybe. But it still didn’t excuse his behavior. “Is what he said true?”
“That you’re part human?”
Her throat tightened to the point she couldn’t speak past the lump, so she nodded.
“Yeah,” Xed whispered. “You’re one of us.”
A single tear slid down her cheek at the thought of the horrendous reality they’d just dumped all over her without any warning, whatsoever. The fact that her entire life had been a complete and utter lie. That everything she’d thought she’d known about herself and her family had been fabricated. That she knew nothing of her true origins.
Her true species. Or half species, in this case.
They had hidden everything from her.
I’m human.
This was worse than her worst nightmare. No wonder she’d been so weak and sickly as a child. The human in her hadn’t been able to thrive in their world.
It’d probably been trying to kill her. Just like them.
Why didn’t you tell me, maja!
But then, she knew. It was a death sentence in their culture.
Daria pressed her hands to her forehead. “How could they hide such a thing from everyone?”
Especially her doctors? Surely the human in her would have shown up on tests?
Wouldn’t it?
“It’s not as hard as you think it is. There are more of us than you’d believe. And we have a network in the cities to protect and shield us. Help us blend in and hide.”
They are among us. No wonder the government was so paranoid that they ran those commercials all the time. It made sense now. The secret ran deeper than she’d ever guessed. “How long have you known about your parents?”
“Always. Because both my parents are cinereals—” their term for half-bloods—“and have been working to save other humans from the Matens, the truth was never hidden from me. I can’t count how many families, like yours, we’ve helped and sheltered.”
Daria sniffed. “I’m so sorry I turned you in. I didn’t want to. Did they hurt you?”
He shook his head. “They barely had me in custody before Joey blew their convoy apart. He’s a little temperamental that way.”
That shocked her almost as much as being told she was human. She couldn’t believe she’d missed hearing about a human assault on one o
f their facilities. “Why wasn’t that on the newsfeed?”
He smirked at her. “Why do you think?”
Because it wouldn’t have fit in with Maten propaganda that the humans were weak and beat down. More than that, the government couldn’t afford to let it out that the humans had kicked their butts so easily. It might start the rioting again and win sympathy to the human cause. They’d already fought one war over the humans. The last thing her race wanted was to fight another.
Yeah, it was a stupid question in retrospect.
“What am I going to do, Xed?”
“Same as the rest of us ... survive.”
Easier said than done. She didn’t know how to without her parents. “I’ve never been on my own.”
“Joey always says that we come into this world alone and alone we leave it. That it’s why so many doorways are narrow. Because some thresholds are meant to be crossed solo, on our own two feet. If we’re lucky, we might have someone at our back. But don’t count on it. Just hold your head high. Take a deep breath and walk through it with confidence and determination, and be ready to face whatever’s on the other side, waiting for you.”
“And if it’s a bomb?”
“Duck and cover.”
She snorted at his facetiousness.
Xared took her hand and held it tight—just like he’d done on that day so long ago when they’d started school together. “I’m right here, Daria. You’re not by yourself.”
“Why would you? I crapped all over you today.”
He wiped the tears from her eyes. “You acted out of fear, to protect your parents and yourself. I can forgive that. Had you been Frayne and turned me in because you’re an asshole who thrives on cruelty, then I’d be coming for you and all you hold sacred. Trust me. I’m not through with him. I plan to rain down a hell on him that he will long remember.”
She frowned at his words. “Hell? As in the Human Extermination Licensing Leaders?”
He made a pain-filled noise at her question. “No. That’s a sick Maten play on an old human concept. Hell’s our version of your dudaella.”
She sucked her breath in sharply at his words. “You’re not a Zsivasist?”
His features grim, he shook his head. “No. I’m Catholic.”
“Cawotholic?”
Insurrection [Nevermore] Page 3
