by S. J. West
One of the traits of a Harvester I retained was my need for sexual gratification on a regular basis. Jace didn’t seem to mind this side effect. He was more than happy to satisfy my urges when I needed a physical release. Since Jace inherited some Harvester traits from his father, like super strength and stamina, we were a perfect match for one another in bed. I didn’t have to worry about hurting him if I desired to be more aggressive. Though, Jace seemed to prefer being gentle with me. I knew he wanted to make sure I understood what we were doing meant something more to him than just physical satisfaction because he told me so.
“When we’re together, I’m making love to you,” Jace told me once. “It’s not just sex for me, Skye. Remember that.”
And I did. I understood his feelings and tried to keep the fact in the back of my mind, even though my body felt like a volcano on the verge of erupting whenever he touched me.
Jace easily picked me up in his arms, never breaking the contact of our lips and took me back to bed. He gently laid me down and slid in beside me, holding me in his arms. Not wanting gentle this time, I wrapped my legs around his hips and easily rolled him over onto his back, intent on satisfying the hunger I felt deep within me.
“Skye?” a shocked, familiar voice said at the side of the bed.
I broke the kiss I was sharing with Jace and looked over at Ash. He stood right next to us staring down at the scene in front of him in disbelief.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ash asked me, not even trying to hide his disgust at finding me in such a compromising position.
I sat up, still straddling Jace’s hips and sighed in disappointment.
“Nothing now,” I replied, irritated more than embarrassed by the unexpected intrusion. “Of all the times to reappear, you would have to pick now, Ash.”
“What’s going on?” Ash asked, his eyes darting around the room. “When am I? Where am I?”
It didn’t take me long to realize this was the first time this particular version of Ash had ever been inside the home I shared with Jace on the old abandoned Air Force base where we lived.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked him.
“We were in the Durango and the engine died,” he answered, trying to keep his eyes on my face since I was still sitting on top of Jace. “We were trying to see if we could repair it when Zoe yelled that something was wrong with Hope. I remember running to the back of the vehicle, but I guess I must have gotten too close to the kids because I time jumped.”
I got off of Jace and sat on the side of the bed.
“What happened after that?” Ash asked me, desperately wanting me to fill in the missing span of time for him.
I stood from the bed and tilted my head toward the entrance of the room.
“Let’s go into the living room, and I’ll tell you what’s happened since then,” I said to him. I turned back to Jace and leaned down to give him a tender kiss as a promise that I was simply taking a rain check on the moment.
“Do you want me to come and help explain things?” Jace asked me, eyeing Ash warily.
“No, I can handle it,” I reassured him. “But since we’re up, why don’t you go ahead and make some coffee after you get dressed. It’s almost morning anyway.”
I led Ash to the living room while Jace got out of bed to get dressed for the day. After Ash sat down beside me on the couch, I told him about the fate of his family. He took it better than I thought he would, at least he didn’t break down into tears and embarrass us both. But I guess he didn’t have much choice. Hope was dead. Zoe and future Rose and Simon were encased in a mountainous tomb until the day came when it was safe for them to lower their shield, a shield which would replace the Queen’s protective dome as soon as we were presented with an opportunity to kill her.
“The babies are here then?” Ash asked me.
“Yes,” I told him. “Zoe and one of your future selves asked us to be their parents.”
“Why would I do that?” Ash asked scathingly, not attempting to hide contempt from his voice or his eyes as he looked at me. “I don’t even know Jace, and I’m beginning to wonder if I still know you at all.”
“I’m not even sure I know myself anymore,” I freely admitted. “I’m still learning who I am day by day. I won’t sit here and lie to you, Ash. I’m not the same girl you’ve known for the past five years. But I do know that girl isn’t completely gone. I can still feel bits and pieces of her surface every once in a while. What I can tell you with certainty is that I’m not the person the Queen tried to make me into either. I’m trapped somewhere in between those two girls, not one but certainly not the other.”
Ash fell silent, just staring down at his hands folded in front of him. I knew him well enough to tell he wanted to ask me something but wasn’t sure if he truly wanted to know the answer or not.
Finally he blurted out, “Do you love him?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation. I saw no reason to beat around the bush about my feelings for Jace. I seriously doubted it would save Ash any heartache if I did. An honest answer was better than giving him false hope.
“I guess you’ve had sex with him considering the way I found you,” he said, bitterness in his voice.
“Yes,” I admitted. “We’re lovers.”
Ash shook his head, a look of disbelief on his face.
“I think that chip changed you more than you might want to admit,” Ash said, anger simmering in his voice, like water in a pot about to boil over. “The Skye I knew wasn’t the whoring type.”
I felt my hand rise to slap Ash for his harsh words, but I lowered it. I should have expected this reaction from him. His future self had warned me his young counterpart would be a complete ass to me when I saw him again. Apparently, his warning was dead on.
“It’s not whoring when you’re doing it with someone you love,” I replied, keeping my temper in check. “I understand that your feelings are hurt, but you need to accept the fact that I’ve chosen Jace to be with. And I still love you, Ash. You’re one of my best friends. You always will be.”
“You wouldn’t have chosen him if that woman hadn’t screwed your brain up,” Ash said with certainty.
“It’s a moot point. I’m different. There is no going back.”
I didn’t feel like arguing with Ash. In my heart, I knew my mind had been made up even before I stepped foot inside the Southern Kingdom. When I told Jace I loved him before we went through the barrier, I think I knew then he was the one who truly held my heart. It was something I didn’t feel like Ash needed to know though. He was already hurting enough. I didn’t want to add salt to an open wound.
“Where are my children?” Ash asked abruptly, standing from the couch. “I want to see them.”
I stood and walked to the room we were using as the nursery.
“Jace just got through feeding them before you showed up,” I told Ash in a whisper as we approached the crib.
Ash stood a foot away from the edge of the crib and looked down at his son and daughter.
“How long has it been since that night on the road?” Ash asked me.
“Almost four months.”
“They don’t look very big,” Ash noted with genuine concern. “Are you feeding them enough?”
“They eat plenty,” I reassured him. “Jace and I take turns during the night feeding them. And trust me when I say they are not shy about letting us know when they’re hungry.”
The forlorn look on Ash’s face as he watched his children slumber made me feel sorry for him. I could only imagine the pain of a father not being able to even touch his own flesh and blood.
“Do you think I’ll ever be able to hold them?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered with certainty, “but not until you’re older. At some point you learn how to control your time jumping, but I don’t know when that will be exactly. From what the older version of you told us, you never got to hold them at the age you are now.”
Ash took in a d
eep, shuddering breath and sighed heavily.
“I hate that bitch,” he muttered. “I hate what she did to you. I hate what she did to Zoe and me. And I hate her for bringing them into this godforsaken world.”
“I plan to kill her.”
Ash looked at me, worry creasing his brow. It was the same look of worry I had seen appear on Jace’s face when I made such blunt statements.
“Can you do that?” Ash asked skeptically. “Can you kill your own mother?”
I looked him dead in the eyes.
“I don’t have a choice. It’s either her or us, and I choose us. We have to take away her control over people or we’ll never have a future.” I looked back down at the babies. “And they deserve a future with a real sun shining on their faces not the gray we’ve had to live in most of our lives. They deserve a chance to live in a world that isn’t filled with fear.”
“Why do you have to do it?” Ash questioned. “Why not let Jace or someone else kill her?”
“Because she would never let any of them get close enough to her. I can.”
“How do you know that?”
I looked back over at Ash. “Because she loves me.”
The quiet early morning was disrupted by the blare of a warning siren.
Ash jumped at the unexpected sound, but I welcomed it.
“What’s happening?” he asked in alarm.
I smiled at Ash. “The Queen’s attacking.”
CHAPTER TWO
“Why the hell are you smiling about that?” Ash questioned, like I’d lost my mind and might be mad as a hatter.
“We’ve been waiting for it to happen,” I told him.
“Why?”
“We can’t find the Queen. She’s always known the location of this camp but never attacked it. We figured it was just a matter of time before she got tired of us destroying her facilities. We were hoping our attacks would draw her out, and it looks like they finally have.”
“You mean she’s here?” Ash asked. “Right now?”
I shook my head. “No, she wouldn’t come here herself, but hopefully we can capture the person she sent to lead this attack. We might be able to persuade them into telling us where she’s hiding out.”
Jace walked into the room already dressed in his combat clothes: black jeans, black long sleeve shirt, and laced knee high boots. He was adjusting the side straps of his Kevlar vest when he walked up between Ash and me.
“You should probably go get dressed,” Jace said to me, sweeping his eyes over my flannel pajamas as he stepped up to the crib.
Ash put a forceful hand on Jace’s chest, preventing him from coming any closer to his children.
“What are you going to do with them?” Ash asked rudely, not attempting to hide his dislike of Jace.
“Protect them,” Jace answered, like it should be obvious.
Ash looked straight into Jace’s eyes. “You’re not their father.”
Jace stood stock-still for a while, just looking at Ash before he said, “I know you don’t like me right now, and I understand why. But you need to realize that to Rose and Simon, I will be their father. You’ll play a role in their lives but just as someone who visits them when he can. Zoe asked us to be their parents, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“That doesn’t make any sense to me. Why wouldn’t she want them to know the truth?” Ash asked.
“Because,” I said drawing both Ash’s and Jace’s attention, “she knew how important it would be for Rose and Simon to have parents they could count on in their lives. She wanted to give her babies one last gift: a happy, secure home with a mother and father who would take care of them. I know you love your children, Ash, but you know you can’t be here for them all the time. You can’t even hold them.”
Ash slowly removed his hand from Jace’s chest as my words hit home. His gaze fell to his feet.
“Just protect my children,” Ash said, not able to meet Jace’s eyes or mine for that matter.
Jace reached into the crib and picked Simon up first, cradling him in one arm before scooping Rose up into his other. I walked into our bedroom and changed into my own combat-ready clothing. Just as I was tightening the strap on the side of my Kevlar vest, I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Long time no see, Skye.”
I turned around to meet Lawrence’s deadly gaze.
“I knew I should have just killed you when I had the chance instead of floating you down that river,” I told him.
“Yes, you really should have,” he replied back sharply. “Do you know how many times I had to break my own bones just so they could regenerate at the right angle?”
“Do I look like someone who cares?” I asked, crossing my arms in front of me. “If it hadn’t been for Zoe, I would have just ripped your head off and been done with you. Count yourself lucky all you had to do was reset a few bones. It’s better than what I had planned for you.”
“I would kill you right now if I could,” he replied through clenched teeth, his hands fisted by his sides.
“What’s stopping you?”
“Your mother. For some unfathomable reason, she wants you to return to her. I’m just here to deliver the message.”
“And why would she think I would ever willingly go back to her?”
“To save your father’s life.”
I felt my breath leave my lungs as my arms dropped to my sides.
“My father is in the Southern Kingdom,” I told him, making it sound like he was untouchable in Shangri-La.
“And your mother was on her way there to get him when I left her side.”
“Just to capture him so she can hold his safety over my head?”
“Not just that,” Lawrence admitted, looking reluctant to say the rest. “She also needs their food supply.”
“What’s wrong? The mighty Queen Lucena can’t feed her own subjects?”
“Not when her daughter keeps blowing up her food stores! You should feel ashamed of yourself for what you’ve done. How could you treat her with so much disrespect?”
“Are you seriously asking me that question?” I asked, feeling my temper get the better of me. “Open your eyes Lawrence and look around you! Haven’t you seen what she‘s made the world into? Or are you so brainwashed you can’t even think for yourself anymore and see what’s going on right in front of your eyes?”
“The Queen simply put a lesser species in their place,” Lawrence replied, his posture filled with his own self-importance. “We are the rulers of what’s left.”
“What’s left is a wasteland, you idiot! Don’t you want to see the sun again? Don’t you want to end all this fighting and just try to build things back to the way they used to be?”
“Why would I want to go back to that world when I’m a god in this one?” Lawrence practically screamed before I saw his head loll forward, his neck broken. He crumpled to the carpeted floor like a marionette doll whose strings had just been cut.
Some god, I thought to myself.
Jace stood behind Lawrence’s prone body.
“Even when I first captured him, I never liked him very much,” Jace told me.
“Where are the kids?”
“In their crib. Ash is watching over them,” Jace replied, bending down to pick Lawrence up and toss him onto his left shoulder. “Do you want me to take him to that cage thing you built in case he showed up?”
“Yes. Jackson will know what to do,” I told Jace. “I’ll get the babies and meet you in Michael’s office when you’re done.”
“I know you can take care of yourself but be careful,” Jace said to me before leaning over to kiss me on the lips.
As Jace walked out of the room, I grabbed my belt which had been outfitted with a sheathed sword on one side and a holster for my semi-automatic weapon on the other. I opened a drawer in the nightstand on my side of the bed and pulled out the one thing I never left home without: the pink heart-shaped stone Jace had given me. It had become not only a talisman of
Jace’s love for me, but a symbol of my hope for the future we would one day have together.
When I walked back into the nursery, I found it empty and cursed under my breath. Ash had apparently time jumped again, leaving the babies defenseless and by themselves. The word “useless” came to mind, but I tried my best to squash that thought. It wasn’t Ash’s fault he couldn’t be counted on for even such a simple task as baby sitting. If the Queen hadn’t awakened his power, his life would be his own again. But if she hadn’t manipulated his genes, we wouldn’t have Rose and Simon, and we wouldn’t have the shield. The Queen had unintentionally doomed herself with her own experimentation. Rather ironic when you thought about it.
I picked up the double sling baby carrier Jace had made when for one of us needed to carry both the babies at the same time. Each baby could be cocooned in their own mesh-paneled sling connected to adjustable shoulder straps. I pulled out my gun before placing Rose in her sling, so I would at least have access to one weapon as I made my way over to Michael’s office in the building we used as headquarters.
Although the bulk of Michael’s forces had been moved shortly after I arrived four months ago, we still had enough of a skeleton crew here to fend off an attack by the Queen and make a hasty escape if we had to.
As I walked out the door, I could hear the distant sounds of gunfire. The building which we were using as our headquarters was only a couple of blocks over from the house Jace and I called home, at least our temporary one. We often talked about where we would live after the war was over and we were able to live a normal life. Not that there were a lot of places to choose from. The living world basically consisted of what was left of the eastern part of the United States. But the dream of a real home where we could raise Rose and Simon kept us going most days.
I was walking along the sidewalk in front of the five story building where Michael’s office was located when I saw them. Five Harvesters with guns drawn and pointed straight at me came running from the opposite direction.
“Drop the gun and get down on your knees!” the tall male in the center shouted.
One or two Harvesters I could take out before they knew what hit them, but five was pushing it. If I had been alone, I wouldn’t have had a problem being shot a few times. I could heal the wounds with my power easily enough. But with Rose and Simon hanging on either side of me, I couldn’t risk a bullet hitting either one of them.
