by Emma Castle
They were still wearing the same clothes from the night they’d been captured, and they were both sporting scruff, which meant they hadn’t been allowed to shave.
“How badly are they treating you?” she asked them.
Liam said, “I wish I could say the aliens are grade A assholes, but we haven’t been mistreated at all.”
“What? But your clothes—you haven’t changed.”
“We have. They used some fancy device called a fabricator to replicate the exact clothes we were wearing.” Mason pointed to a wall and spoke. “Shirts, please.”
A drawer opened up from a previously blank wall, and she saw several folded shirts in the same color he currently wore resting inside.
“These little Roombas are stealing our dirty clothes when we drop them on the ground. Damn thing scared the shit out of me the first time it came out of the wall.” Mason and Liam chuckled a bit. You had to find humor where you could at times like this.
“Where have they been keeping you?” Liam asked. “Another cell down the hall?”
“No, I’ve been staying elsewhere. I’m not a prisoner. Not really.”
Liam crossed his arms, frowning. “What does that mean?”
“I’m staying with Sef. That’s his real name, by the way—Sef with an f, not Seth with a th.”
“You’re staying with him? Harper, please tell me you didn’t do something stupid,” Mason hissed, and Liam punched him hard in the arm.
“I didn’t do anything stupid. What I did do was save both your asses. Rebels deemed a threat to humans and Krinar are rehabilitated. You know what that means around here? They erase most of your recent memories.”
“What?” Liam’s face was as white as alabaster, and Mason cursed violently.
“I bought you both time. If you listen to me, Sef and I could stop that from happening.”
“How?” Liam sat back down on his bed, his face gravely serious. Mason paced the length of their cell.
“You have to trust me. Trust me when I tell you that the situation between us and the Ks isn’t so black-and-white, good and evil. The Krinar are not the villains we thought they were. They do view us as equals in more ways than we realize. They want to share our planet. I know they can seem brutal at times, but they are also compassionate. Yes, they are stronger and faster, but they have never attacked first, only in defense. They want to trust us. But we have to trust them first.” She knew she wasn’t explaining this right. She had so little time to get through to them.
“They took over our planet, Harper,” Liam reminded her.
“They didn’t kill us. They didn’t enslave us. They let life go on. They built these Centers because they’re afraid. They fear we will attack them when they protect us from our own destructive tendencies. It took me a while to understand, but I do now. I get it. They are trying to save this planet, because they need it as a home as much as we do. But sometimes their changes aren’t painless, and people have wanted to blame them for taking charge. It’s like when you see someone stuck on a railroad track and the train’s coming. The Ks are pushing us forcibly but necessarily out of the path of danger. I trust them.”
“How can you?” Mason snapped. “How can you side with them? Mom and Dad are dead because of them.”
“Mom and Dad died because some human idiot wanted to blow up that bridge. A human killed them. And that attack was completely unnecessary, because the Ks arrived in flying ships. Why would they care about a human bridge when they wouldn’t use it? It’s time for us to look in the mirror as a race and see this. We are half of the problem.”
Neither of her brothers spoke for a long moment. Then Liam stood, his shoulders drooping as he released a weary sigh.
“What’s it going to take to get us out of here and back to working at our bar?”
“Does this mean you trust me?” She was too afraid to hope. Her brothers could both be so stubborn.
“I dunno. But I think you’re right about one thing—we don’t have all the information. Not the way we believed we did. Mom always said that the most important things in life often require you to take a leap of faith. So, I’ll leap.” Liam looked toward Mason, whose mouth was curved in a heavy scowl.
“Mason?” Liam prompted.
“Seriously?” He cursed. “Fine, whatever. I’ll do what I have to, even if it means playing nice with E.T. over there.” He jerked his head in the direction Sef had gone.
Liam hugged Harper. “Just tell us what we have to do.”
“I will. When Sef returns, we’ll—”
Whatever she’d been about to say was forgotten as an explosion rocked the walls around them. The lights died, and the force of the blast sent her, Liam, and Mason flying into the wall. Pain was the only thing she registered as she blacked out.
Sef stopped in front of a cell containing a different prisoner from the King’s Bar raid. Mitch Davis stared at him as he approached. Sef turned on the communication system.
“Mr. Davis,” he said.
Davis just flipped him the middle finger. Though he knew what the hand gesture meant, it made no impact whatsoever.
“Prior to your detainment, you were recorded saying that you had a contact in the Center. One of my people was working with you. I want a name.”
Mitch laughed. “I’m not telling you anything. Not even if you torture me.”
“I have no desire to torture you. Even if you give humans as a whole a bad name.” Sef crossed his arms over his chest. “You know what happens when we deal with a threat?”
“Yeah, I do. The ones you don’t kill just disappear. Doesn’t take a genius to know you kill them too,” Mitch sneered.
Sef smiled this time. “I’m sure that’s what you want, to be seen as a martyr for your cause. No. We erase your memories, all the ones that make you, well, you. You become a blank slate, and we teach you what you should have known from the start. We don’t want to hurt you, but if you’re endangering innocent lives, human and Krinar, we won’t stand for it. So ask yourself, Mr. Davis, is it worth it?”
Mitch stared at him in dawning horror. “So I would be some Krinar puppet?”
Sef wouldn’t call it that. Some former rebels had now become influential and positive people in society. They worked with the Krinar rather than against them, but he sensed this man’s fear now and needed answers, so if he had to lie to get them, then so be it.
“Yes. You would be our puppet, and we would pull the strings. Your fellow rebels would consider you a traitor.”
Mitch swallowed hard, his bravado fading. “And if I talk?”
“Then we won’t wipe your mind.” That was also a lie.
This man wasn’t like the other rebels. They had been interviewed and psychologically assessed, and they had been deemed able to return to their lives in Lawrence without rehabilitation. Their houses would be watched for a year or so to make sure they didn’t continue with rebel activities, but he doubted they would. Mitch, on the other hand, was a clear and present danger to humans and the Krinar.
“Fine, the K who contacted me was—”
A deafening explosion directly behind Mitch’s bed hit Sef so hard he was thrown back against the opposite wall. Fire blossomed in the cell as the lights in the prison section winked out. He groaned and picked himself up off the ground. His ears rang as he struggled to make sense of what had just happened.
Mitch’s body had been blown in half and lay about a dozen feet away. The fire licking the crumbled wall of the cell illuminated his smoldering corpse. Someone had wanted Mitch dead before he could talk. And given the timing, someone had hacked into the system to listen to see if Mitch would spill his secrets.
Screams came from all around him. He tried to access the systems, and he started opening cell doors as per evacuation protocol. Humans stumbled out of the hall.
“Harper!” He rushed past them toward the cell she was in.
“What’s going on?” a human demanded as he followed Sef.
“Someone just
killed Mitch Davis,” Sef told him. “One of my people has betrayed us. It’s not safe for you to evacuate just yet. There may be another attack. Follow me and you will be safe.”
“Trust a K?” the man snarled. “No way in hell.”
“Trust him,” a human woman said. “Harper King was with him. She wouldn’t be if she didn’t trust him.”
The remaining humans followed him as he reached the cell. The glass front of their cell was shattered like all the rest. Liam and Mason were getting to their feet. Harper was down, blood trickling from her lips. Sef rushed over and lifted her into his arms.
“Liam, Mason, and the rest of you, come with me.” He got to the elevator, which thankfully still worked. The bomb in Mitch’s cell had been the only one in the building, but it had caused damage to all the other cells. It wasn’t safe for the other detainees to stay there amid the damage. Everyone climbed inside the elevator, cramming against each other, but Sef had only one care. His charl. The moment the elevator doors opened on the main floor, a fleet of guardians were there, weapons raised. One male stepped forward.
“Sef? What happened? The feed went dark, and there was an explosion.”
“Davis was assassinated, Trevlin,” Sef announced. “Someone planted an explosive device down there.”
“Not just here—several places along the Center’s border walls were destroyed,” Trevlin added grimly as he and the other guardians lowered their weapons. “The timing can’t be a coincidence.”
“We need medical aid,” Liam said. “My sister’s hurt.”
Trevlin turned to his desk nearby and tossed Sef a jansha, a Krinar healing device.
“See to the other humans, Trevlin, and see to it they remain under observation. The King brothers will remain in my custody.” Sef placed Harper on the ground and began scanning the jansha over her head and then the rest of her, getting a reading of her injuries. Then the device began to heal her, first the small cuts, then knitting together a fractured set of ribs and a broken nose, but it was the internal bleeding that concerned him most. He called for Trevlin to bring in a nanocytes injector. Trevlin brought it to him and Sef raised it to Harper’s chest, but Mason grabbed his arm.
“What is that?”
Sef shook the arm off like it was that of a child. “It will save her life, that’s what it is.” There wasn’t time to have a philosophical discussion of the ramifications of giving Harper what humans would equate to immortality.
“Fine—do what you have to.”
Sef injected the nanocytes, and then he cradled her in his arms as the nanocytes went to work on repairing her damaged organs.
Liam and Mason stayed on either side of him, neither one daring to look away.
When Harper’s breathing became steady, Sef finally let out his own breath.
“Is she going to make it?” Liam asked.
“Yes.” He lowered his head to hers, touching his forehead to Harper’s. “You are safe now, Queenie. Now and always,” he whispered. Sef would find out who had betrayed his people and put a stop to it. Forever. No one would ever hurt his mate again.
The next morning, Sef held Harper’s hand where she lay in a bed in their healing facilities. She was still unconscious as the nanocytes worked through her system.
“So what exactly was that?” Liam asked. Both he and Mason had stayed by her side the entire night.
“The nanocytes will work on her injuries and return her to peak health.” He explained how Harper would never age now. Mason and Liam took the news better than he’d expected. For a long moment, he had expected them to be furious. But instead, Liam nodded slowly in acceptance.
“She won’t be able to die, like Mom and Dad. I guess I’m okay with that.”
“Me too,” Mason agreed. “It will suck that we’ll get old, but I’d do anything to keep her alive and healthy.”
Sef let go of Harper’s hand and faced them both. All three of them had been in this room too damn long.
“If you really want to do what’s best for your sister, I have an idea.”
“We’re listening,” Liam said, and he crossed his arms and waited for Sef to continue.
“Those who were part of your rebel cell are not going to be reeducated, but you, as their leaders, are another matter. However, I told Harper that I can keep you from being reeducated if I could convince you about my people’s true intentions and why we have done what we have. I want you to understand us, our technology, our history, our lives. Will you give me a few days to show you life here in the Center?”
“Not unless you listen to our grievances as well,” Liam said. “And not just listen, actually have a plan about what to do about them. You lived in Lawrence long enough to see that the town was dying. And you know why. It was your rules that killed our city’s lifeblood, without any regard for the fallout. If I’m going to give understanding your people a shot, then I want you to at least think about how you can help towns like Lawrence survive.”
“That’s fair,” Sef agreed. “And I promise I’ll answer as many questions as I can.”
“You mean you won’t tell us everything.” Mason’s shrewd observation wasn’t unexpected.
“No. Because some information could be used to hurt my people and other humans. Like the nanocytes. If knowledge of them got out to the wrong people, you’d have dictators doing just about anything to obtain them and then living forever. That’s just one example of the sort of nightmare you’d face. It’s our intention to have your people learn over time, as you learn to trust us and learn to use what we give you with good judgment. My people were violent and hungry for power long ago, but we’ve finally outgrown that, for the most part. You are developing much faster than we expected. In some ways that is good, but it also comes with its own share of risks.”
Mason and Liam shared a look, and then Liam spoke. “Okay, I guess we can agree to that.”
“Good. If you still can’t trust me when we are done…well, I’ll do my best to protect you, but the Krinar Council will insist that you be dealt with.”
“Jeez, no pressure,” Mason said, though there was a hint of humor to it.
Sef looked down at Harper’s sleeping form, wishing he could tell her that he was sticking to his promise and fighting for her family as if they were his own.
Maybe this would work.
17
Everything was white. That was why Harper thought she was dead. That and the fact that her brothers and Sef were all peering down at her in common concern rather than fighting each other.
“She’s still pale, but she looks better,” Liam said.
Sef nodded in agreement. “There was much to repair internally.” Sef leaned over her and brushed the back of his hand over her cheek.
“I’m not dead?” she asked. Her throat ached, and her limbs were weak.
“No, you’re not,” Mason laughed. “Why would you think that?”
“Because…because you aren’t fighting…” A horrible thought occurred to her. Had their memories been wiped after all? Sef had promised her he would find a way to save them. Her chest tightened, and her hands balled into fists. She didn’t want to believe it.
“We aren’t fighting because we listened to you,” Liam said. “You’ve been in a ‘special low-cognitive state to facilitate physical repairs,’ as the Ks put it.”
“Or to put it more simply,” Mason added, “a medically induced coma.”
She tried to sit up, but Mason urged her back down on the bed. “How long was I out?”
“Four days,” Sef murmured, his eyes searching hers.
“Oh God…”
“It’s okay,” Liam assured her. “Sef had the other Ks show us around the Center, and we got a chance to see what they are like up close. It’s not what I thought. You were right about them, and about us,” he admitted, his eyes downcast.
“Yeah, I think it’s pretty cool after all,” Mason added. “Driana is this super-smoking-hot K, and she’s been helping to heal you. She had a lo
ok at your brain and said she could fix you.”
Harper’s head was still a little fuzzy. “Fix me…you mean, my dyslexia?”
“Yeah. If you want to fix it, that is.” Mason chewed his lip, clearly realizing he had made a mistake in suggesting it.
“I’m not broken,” she insisted, her body tightening with shame.
Sef eased down on the bed beside her. “It’s not about being broken. There is a way to correct your neural pathways so that you don’t have those headaches when you try to read. Humans who need glasses don’t feel broken. The choice is entirely up to you, of course. You are mine no matter what, and I love you just the way you are.”
His words brought on fresh tears. “Can I have some time to think about it? I’d need to know more about what’s involved.” She wanted to be sure it wouldn’t affect anything else about her in the process.
“You have all the time in the world.” Sef’s face was so open, so unshuttered. She could read a dozen emotions now in his features, all of them full of hope and affection.
Had she really done the right thing? Had she saved her brothers from their quest for vengeance? Had her heart finally found its other half? She was afraid to believe it, but one thing was certain—there was no going back, only forward from now on.
Two hours later, Sef escorted her home from the medical center. When she stepped inside, she gasped. Pictures of her family and other items from her apartment were all there, neatly placed on shelves and walls as if she had decorated the house herself.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Sef said. “My mother was a bit overexcited to settle you in, and she convinced me to decorate it for you. She said my home was barren and unwelcoming for my mate. So I put everything up last night, and I may have covered many surfaces with vases of wild blooms from the flowers of my home world. I wanted you to come home to color and life. It was the only time I could bear to leave your side.”
“You stayed with me?” She couldn’t believe it. “You weren’t out hunting for whoever blew up the detention center?” Back in Lawrence, he had put his work first, to the point of betraying her and breaking her heart. Had he changed?
