by Erin Hayes
This is similar, but amplified beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before.
There are more children here.
I take a left, running headlong down the hallway. Doors open as I pass them, but I’m too quick for anyone to catch, and Kaleb takes care of them as he passes, capturing seconds of their lives in such a way that they pass out.
I turn another corner and hit a dead end. I curse with my fox-lips as I face the wall, my fur bristling on end. A low growl comes from my throat, and I nearly hiss in anger. Where could the children be? Surely this doesn’t lead to a literal dead end.
I tilt my head to the right, picking up a stronger scent through one of the janitorial closets. I reach up and pull down the lever with one of my paws. The door opens inward, and beyond the frame, I see a set of stairs that lead into a dark abyss.
Holy shit, there’s a whole level beneath the office! And I hear the whisper of a panicked sob on the wind. Somewhere, far below us, there’s a child crying. It’s not Ken, but if anything, it strengthens my resolve to rescue these children.
I turn back to tell Kaleb what I’ve found. He nearly reaches me in time, when a blue bolt of lightning hits him. A blast from a segif. Thankfully, unlike the ones the Humans in the tunnels were shooting, this is a regulation segif, so the shtrigu collapses a few feet from me. Unconscious, but not dying like I was.
I look up to meet the furious eyes of Sergeant Lewis. “You little bitch,” she snarls as she aims the segif again.
I can’t dodge the blast, and I catch the brunt of it. I fall next to Kaleb as I shift back into my Human form. I don’t even have the energy to form clothes before darkness descends upon me and my eyelids crash closed.
A child’s sobbing draws me out of the depths of unconsciousness, but I really, really don’t want to face what’s waiting for me on the other side.
I grimace and groan, rolling my head to the side. I’m in some sort of darkened cell with one plexiglass wall. I recognize these cells as containment prisons for Metas. The plexiglass is reinforced, and the metal walls are four feet thick. They told us that on Arrival Day to make us too afraid to break the law.
I chuckle at these Humans thinking that they need to restrain a kitsune like this, as if we have some superhuman abilities—other than conjuring up clothes and transforming into a fox. Some of the older, nine-tailed kitsunes are more powerful than I am, but there’s no hope of me being one of those any time soon.
Speaking of, I’m dressed in the gray uniform of a Complex resident. At least I hadn’t been laying here naked all the time. I’ve had a lot of embarrassment in my life, but at least I don’t have to suffer through that.
I get to my bare feet and pad to the plexiglass wall, giving it a light tap. Electricity thrums through my knuckles. High tech security here.
I guess that’s what Climintra North would have. The highest technology available to keep the most powerful Metas behind glass.
There’s another cell across from me, lit with sterile white light. I see an empty stretcher, an IV, and some machines. Like it’s a temporary hospital ward.
What in galaxies is going on?
“Hello?” I call out. My voice sounds hollow and bounces off the inside of my cell. I grimace. Nothing beats feeling like a caged animal.
Where’s Kaleb? Did they put him in a cell like this? Or…worse? A shiver runs down my spine at the thought of anyone hurting him. Galaxies, if they did, I’d…
“Ah, you’re awake.”
I blink as Sergeant Lewis steps into view of my cell, her arms crossed as she assesses me with a smug smirk. Her voice sounds tinny to me, like it’s being electronically relayed to my cell.
“Where am I?” I bare my teeth at her. “What did you do to Kaleb?”
“You’re locked up because you went berserk. As is prone to happen whenever you’re dealing with Metas. And the shtrigu?” She shrugs. “The shtrigu is a menace to all of the Complex, a veritable reason as to why Humans and Metas can’t live together.”
“He’s not a menace.”
“One Human is still missing and we know for certain that the shtrigu took the best years of a young man’s life. I hadn’t realized that it was you talking to Jerry,” she murmurs appreciatively. “I thought he had defected and was leading another branch of the Intra to our facility. Imagine my surprise when you showed up at the office.”
“You know about Humans First?” I narrow my eyes. “You’re in Humans First, aren’t you?”
Her eyebrow cocks up curiously. “Are you accusing me of terroristic acts?”
“I’m accusing you of being a bitch.”
She titters with laughter, setting my teeth on edge. “Oh, you think you’re clever, kitsune. But cleverness only gets you so far.”
I bang on the plexiglass startling her for a mere moment. Electricity sizzles on my tongue, but I don’t care. I’m only driven by one thought. “Where’s Ken?” I shriek. “What did you do with him?”
“He’s been here, rehabilitating.”
I freeze. “Rehabilitating?”
The word is strange, foreign to me. I know what it means in a broader sense, but what does it have to do with Ken?
Lewis flashes me a brilliant smile. “Experimentation. You see, Miss Fuchs, as an adult specimen, you’re fully set in your ways. But children can be molded. They can lose touch with their more Meta side and function solely as Humans. And then we can find peace among our kinds.”
I stare at her, aghast. “You’re insane.”
“No,” Lewis says vehemently. “Not at all. Desperate, maybe. But then again, a twelve-year war against an invading race, followed by some shaky negotiations can make a Human desperate to make herself relevant in the future ahead. With your Meta powers, even if this whole experiment works out, we Humans will find ourselves vastly outmatched in a generation or two.”
“Exactly,” I growl. “Insane.”
She waves off my comment. “You’re just angry because it involves your kind. If you were in my shoes, Miss Fuchs, you’d feel the exact same way. Many Humans do.”
“Good thing I’m barefoot, then.” I start pacing my cage like some sort of predator, glaring at her through the plexiglass. I know I’m cutting an intimidating figure, even though I can’t really follow through on it—not like Kaleb, and my heart aches at the thought of my lover.
“Where’s Kaleb?” I ask through clenched teeth.
Lewis shrugs. “He has his uses.”
“Where. Is. Kaleb?”
She smirks. “You’ll see, little fox-girl. You’ll see both him and your little brother soon. And you were right to be afraid of the shtrigu.” She clicks her tongue. “Everyone is going to see what he can do.”
I shriek and pound the plexiglass, harder this time, although it does little to deter her.
“Soon, Miss Fuchs,” Lewis says as she turns to leave. “Soon. Oh, and Jerry?” My fists stop at the name of the Human. “Jerry’s never going to make it to your little rendezvous. You didn’t think we’d believe him, did you?”
She’s the reason why he was late. My blood runs cold at the realization.
“The shtrigu may have drained much of his life force and killed Randall,” Lewis says, “but it won’t be any help coming up.”
And she leaves. I pound on the glass long after she’s gone and even ram my shoulder into it. It’s no use.
Something bad is going to happen to both Kaleb and Ken. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
Chapter 10
I sit huddled in the corner of my dark cell for hours. My equilibrium is off, so I could have been stuck here for hours, or for days and weeks—I have no idea because I can’t stop fretting about Kaleb or Ken. If I try closing my eyes, I have nightmares about them being tortured and then killed, their heads later being mounted to Lewis’s office wall.
Why the fuck am I only a kitsune? If I were a giant, I’d be able to burst through this door and save everyone. Or one of the djinn and save myself. Or any number
of Metas who could really make Humans like Lewis pay for what she’s doing.
And maybe that’s her point. We’re violent by nature, and my first inclination is to rip her head from her shoulders. I’m sure that would create panic from the rest of the Complex.
I’m stuck in my cell for so long, my stomach twists with hunger and growls. Loudly. Like a roar that reverberates off the walls around me, which takes me out of a fitful sleep. When was the late time I ate?
Too long, that’s when. I feel weak at the thought of it.
“H—hello?”
I blink at the new voice and push myself to my feet. It came from the wall to my left, as if my neighbor finally noticed that he wasn’t alone on this side. I make my way to the opposite corner, towards him, rubbing the pads of my fingers along the wall to find him.
“Who’s there?” I ask to the darkness, sniffing the fear in the air. There’s a vent that’s open. I haven’t heard anything up to this point, but maybe they dropped the prisoner off in the cell while I had my eyes closed. Maybe I slept more than I thought I had.
“Me? I’m Jack,” the voice whimpers back. The voice is young, perhaps even younger than my siblings.
“Hi, Jack,” I say, trying to not let my voice break. “I’m Serena. I’m a kitsune.”
“What’s a kid-soon-nay?”
I chuckle despite myself. “I’m a fox shifter.” Well, that’s oversimplifying it, but I don’t want to go into too much detail in case there are Human ears listening. “Are you a Meta like me?”
“Uh-huh,” comes the answer.
I lean against the wall. “So what are you, buddy? It’s okay, you can tell me.”
He hesitates though. Smart kid. I wish we’d met under different circumstances.
“A—a vampire,” he finally says.
I smile, remembering that my little sister Mitsy had been afraid of Kaleb initially because she thought he was a vampire. Now there’s a vampire child in the cell next to mine. And certainly not scary.
“Vampires are one of the coolest Metas,” I say. “I wish I were one.”
“Really?” I hear the tremor in his voice.
“Oh yeah. You get to teleport yourself around, and you can drink blood, so you get some great respect from other Metas and Humans. You’re super cool.”
A loud sob breaks through the vent, and that big-sister instinct of mine makes me want to break through the wall to comfort the little guy. He sounds genuinely terrified, and I wonder if his parents are sick with worry trying to find him. Much like my own mother with Ken.
“I’m not sure I can be a real vampire again, though,” he says.
“What do you mean, Jack?”
“They…did…something to me…” His voice trails off as he hiccups.
“What did they do?” I ask gently, not wanting to bring up bad memories. But I have to know what I’m dealing with. And what Humans First has in mind for Metas like me.
“They…put me on a table,” he says softly. “And put a needle in my arm…”
I glance at the empty cell across from me, the one with the cot and the medical equipment. “You were very brave,” I say. I’m not sure how I would have handled this.
“I went to sleep,” Jack continues, and I hear the bewilderment in his voice. “And when I woke up, I was here. And I can’t teleport out. And…I’m not hungry. I’m not hungry for anything.”
My eyes widen at his words. I remember Lewis saying that they’re rehabilitating these children, but I didn’t know it was like this. That they’re stripping them of their powers and rendering them no different than Humans.
I lick my lips. “Hey, Jack,” I say, putting a palm against the wall. “It’ll be all right.”
I’m not sure if it’s true. Maybe I’m lying to the child. But I know that a little white lie can help a crying child find some peace in the darkness. How many other children are down here in a similar situation? With their powers gone, they probably feel as if the entire Complex abandoned them.
I glare at the entrance to my cell. Where are Kaleb and Ken? Are Humans First doing something similar to them? I clench my fist. I need to stay calm or else I won’t ever help these kids.
“It’ll be all right,” I say again.
I wonder if I’m trying to calm Jack. Or if I’m trying to convince myself that everything will turn out all right.
They come for me sometime later. I’m awake to see them come, and I get to my feet when I see Lewis through the plexiglass barrier. I narrow my eyes as she gestures for more Intra—no, Humans First—officers to come help subdue me.
“Miss Fuchs, it’s time,” she says.
I grin, baring my teeth and making sure she sees it. “Time for what?”
“You’ll see.” She presses a button on the wall. I hear the soft shick of the air vents closing, and my pulse races as wisps of smoke fill up my chamber. Of course—they’re not stupid enough to face a Meta head-on, so they’re going to drug me.
Too bad I’m not a mer. Or any number of Metas that don’t require air. As it is, I hold my breath, trying to keep myself conscious as long as possible.
I hope Jack isn’t awake enough for this. While I wasn’t much of a comfort, he and I chatted for a long time, talking about what they did to him, his family, what he remembers of life during the war and before.
He reminds me a lot of Ken. Too much, actually, and I couldn’t sleep because I kept having nightmares of my little brother being experimented upon to make him into something that’s not a Meta. Whatever they did to Jack, I hope it’s reversible.
I hope he’ll be all right.
My knees weaken and I crumple to the floor. Damn legs couldn’t hold out against the gas. I’m still conscious as Lewis and the other Humans with her put on gas masks and enter my cell. They put their hands underneath my armpits and roughly pull me to my feet.
“This scum can’t walk,” one of those Humans complains when I stumble forward. His voice is muffled by the mask. “Pathetic.”
I respond by spitting in his face. Teach him to call me pathetic. It hits him on the glass of his eye mask and I watch as my phlegm slides down. It didn’t get on him necessarily, but it pisses him off further.
He snarls and drags me along.
“She’s just a kitsune,” one of the other Humans says. He’s more diminutive than the others, with spectacles underneath his mask. He flips through his mini-tab, reading. “One of the weaker Metas, they have as many as nine tails. The more tails, the more powerful they are.”
“So with three tails, we have a bit of a shrimp on our hands,” the Human I spat on says. I shriek raggedly when he pulls on one of my tails. My feet don’t seem to work and I slump forward. The Human snickers. “Not so tough now, are you?”
“Relax, Janak,” Lewis sighs. “She’ll get what’s coming to her in a little bit.”
Janak chuckles darkly, and ice fills my veins as I wonder what exactly is coming and where they are dragging me to. I don’t have the control over my body to fight them as they haul me down the hallway.
We pass by more cells, and I look to my right to finally get a glimpse of Jack. He’s awake and standing just a few feet from the plexiglass of his own cell. Seeing him for the first time, I realize that the boy is younger than my siblings, and I feel a certain amount of protectiveness towards him. His face is gaunt, his eyes hollow, and he looks like he hasn’t slept or fed in weeks.
For all I know, these assholes could have kept him from both.
Jack, I’ll be back for you, I silently tell him. Once I figure out how to get my feet working again.
We pass by more cells, most of them occupied by other Meta children. Some of them look like they’ve been here for a long time, while others have that freshly terrified expression on their face. I count the number of chambers and I barely believe how many there are.
Two dozen. Two dozen children ripped from their parents. For what? Experimentation? To make a point? I pass by another cell where I see Jerry. The Human J
erry. His face is desolate as I pass by. Hopeless. Like he’s given up.
I manage to clench my fists as they continue to pull me along.
“Aw, the little fox is getting feisty,” Janak chides. “Look, she’s made a fist.”
“Shut it,” the other Human holding me says. There’s a hint of disdain in his voice—maybe these two don’t get along. Or maybe Janak is a prick to everyone.
“Aww, does Stade feel bad for the little fox?” Janak teases.
Stade doesn’t answer as we come up to a door. I force my head to look up as they open it, showing what looks to be a sound stage. There are three more Humans here, two females and one male, every one of them turning their head as we come in. I notice that they give me a wide berth, like they don’t trust me.
Good.
And on the floor between them…
“K—Ken?”
My little brother lays unconscious on the floor, his long-lashed eyes closed. I forgot how angelic he looks, even when he’s asleep. He’s still wearing his pajamas from the night he was kidnapped from us, and there are stains on it, including tears at the knees. Like he was dragged even more forcefully than I was.
And beyond him, I see…
Kaleb!
My lover is chained to the wall, his head slumped to his chest. Unmoving, and I see why. Stuck in his arm is a needle, and dark liquid blood flows down the tube into a bag. I spot at least four large bags of blood.
All from Kaleb. They’re draining him of all his blood.
“He’s not—” I say slowly, trying to form words around the gauzy feeling in my mouth.
“Not a vampire?” Lewis asks beside me. “Yes, we know what a shtrigu is, and that they suck life force instead of blood. But, there’s a reason why they call it ‘life blood.’” She nods at the shtrigu. “We’re draining his life.”
