Sinful Surrender

by Houston Havens

  Logan paused. “You’ve restrained him?”

  “For his own safety, I assure you. When he stands, which he kept trying to do, he’d fall down. We didn’t want him to bust his head open or break a limb. He wants something, but we’re not sure what.”

  “Any other signs of injury? Anything to indicate a serious problem?”

  “None. Don’t expect great wonders of medicine here. This is just an outpost, and there are no healers here. Anyone who recognizes the problem becomes the doctor for the moment.”

  Logan smiled. “Ah ha, I can trade health info and techniques with you as well.”

  “Good, because we’re not sure your brother has a problem.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How do I ask this without affront?”

  “Just ask. I won’t be offended.”

  “Fair enough. Is your brother…well, has your brother always suffered with a speech impediment?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, then he has a problem, and it’s not good.”

  Logan’s heart pounded. “What happened to him? He was fine when he left me. He and Fay were chased by a photon craft. It shot red and green laser beams. Could he have been hit by one of those and you’re just now seeing the effects of the hit?”

  “He wouldn’t be here if he’d taken a hit by either of those. I’m hoping it isn’t brain damage. He can’t talk very well. He has nausea, and he’s suffering with dizziness. It’s either due to the fall he took from his horse, or a hit he took to the head from the idiot who was with us.” Gansu took them down a hall and into a room where Arlo was strapped to a chair by his wrists and chest. “We couldn’t lay him flat, or he’d choke on his own vomit.”

  “Untie him.” Logan knelt beside his brother and undid the rope holding Arlo’s left hand to the arm of the chair.

  “Lo…an?” Arlo moaned. His jaw was slack and didn’t seem to close. “I go…t…di…slo…cated jarrr.”

  He patted his brother’s shoulder. “You’ve dislocated your jaw, huh?” He looked at Fay. “Glad to hear…it’ll be an easy fix.”

  “F…ay?” Arlo’s eyes landed on her.

  “We’re both here for you.” She stepped in and touched his face. “Where’s the SNS devise?”

  Chandra blanched. “Why are you asking him? He’s an Airborne. They don’t have SNS implants. Fay, you deactivated your SNS, right?”

  Fay held out her bandaged arm. “Yeah, I cut it out. How else can you deactivate an SNS?”

  “Please, tell me you then deactivated it with a laser swipe.”

  “I wanted to crush it, but the guys decided to use it to force the Dirt Dwellers to follow the signal to another location, other than to their home.”

  “Oh shit.” Gansu groaned. “That’s what he’s been trying to tell us. He was looking for it.” He scooped up Arlo’s clothes and frantically searched all the pockets. When he found nothing, he sighed. “It must have dropped out of his pocket in the fall from his horse. Thank the Gods.”

  Logan stood to the side of Arlo’s chair and cupped his fingers around his brother’s mandible. He twisted Arlo’s head to the side and gave it a slight jerk. Arlo’s jaw clicked, moving the condyle bone into place with a loud crunching sound. When Logan forced his brother’s neck back into alignment, everyone in the room cringed at the popping sounds.

  Arlo rubbed his jaw. Logan switched to the other side and snapped Arlo’s neck. More bone grinding sounds echoed through the room. Logan finished adjusting Arlo’s bones and looked down at him. “You feel better now? Can you get up without getting dizzy?”

  Jumping up, Arlo grabbed Logan’s shoulders. “I’ve been trying to tell these people, the guy they called Talpidae took the SNS. He was in my pockets stealing what he could, the vulture!”

  Chandra looked at Gansu. “Where is Talpidae?”

  “That kleptomaniac bastard. Follow me.” Gansu’s hawk took flight, skimming the high ceiling as Gansu led them out of the room and raced down the cavern-like hall to the stairs. “Are we in danger of invasion because of the SNS transmission?”

  “I don’t think they can’t pick up on the signal this far beneath the earth.” Chandra gave Fay a despairing glance. “We should be all right.”

  Fay shook her head. “I disagree.”

  “I agree with Fay.” Arlo growled, “The bastard took it from me while we were on our way here and rode in with it in his pocket. The Dirt Dwellers can follow it right to your entry. It won’t take them long to figure out the sudden disappearance of the signal means we had to have gone underground.”

  Fay frowned. “I was being tracked by the UG’s underground tracking system while aboveground. Don’t you get it? The depth of the earth between us doesn’t interfere with the tracking system, or they wouldn’t have found me.”

  The hawk landed on Gansu’s shoulder as he rushed toward the stairs. “He’s down six flights in the artillery room. I have to warn our peo—”

  Loud zipping and popping sounds came from the first level above them. “What the hell?” Gansu grabbed the hawk from his shoulder and tucked it into his shirt.

  A loud explosion ripped their world apart. People and metal flew through the air.

  “Logan!” Fay screamed, throwing herself in front of him. He took her down with him to the floor. They landed with her on top of him.

  “Uh!”

  “Fay?” Logan grabbed her limp body. A warm liquid squished between his fingers. “Fay!” Adrenaline coursed through his body as seeds of panic took root and made his heart pound hard.

  “You…o…kay?” she uttered in broken breaths against his ear.

  Logan swept his arms around her in an attempt to lift her off him, but she was dead weight. “No!” He shouted when he noticed her blood splattered all over his hands. “She’s been hit!” He cradled her head on each side, hooking his thumbs beneath her chin to lift it. He examined her face. She showed no signs of pain.

  Fay gurgled. “Need…you…b…o…k.” Her eyes rolled back before her head dropped forward against his chest.

  “Don’t die on me, Fay!” His voice trembled as he fought to keep control over his runaway emotions.

  “Fuck! My God—Fay!” Arlo lifted her off Logan. “There’s a piece of steel embedded into the left side of her back.” The lights went out. More explosions followed. “Damn it! I can’t see!”

  A dim blue cast of lights lit the floor every three feet or so.

  Logan took Fay’s lifeless body from his brother. Arlo then positioned himself, using his body like a protective shield around her and Logan.

  “Where can I take her?” Logan yelled out to anyone listening.

  “Don’t remove the shrapnel!” Chandra screamed.

  A young man raced toward them, shouting orders in the microphone of his headgear. His right arm was loaded with several old carbines Logan had some experience with and three rifles. Over his left shoulder hung three weapons he’d never seen, and a submachine gun was in his hand.

  “Sir!” He addressed Gansu as he passed a weapon to each of them. “We’re under attack by the Dirt Dwellers’ cyborgs.”

  “Sori! I’ve got wounded!” Chandra hollered at the gun-toting young man. “We’ve got to get out of this silo. Can we make an escape through one of the air vents?” She grabbed two of the weapons from him.

  “Yes. I’ll show you where.”

  Gansu cussed as he slung one of Sori’s rifles over his shoulder and loaded a magazine into his own assault weapon then shouted at Sori. “Talpidae took the stranger’s SNS device.”

  “Sir?” he shouted above the smaller explosion hitting one hundred yards to their left.

  Gansu repeated what he’d said as they ran down the hall away from the blasts.

  “I know,” Sori yelled above the zapping artillery of the cyborgs on the upper level. “I found him trying to sell it to that low-life bastard, Faerydae.”

  Logan bellowed at Chandra, “Get us the fuck out of here!”

  Chapter
10

  Fay drifted in and out of a dreamlike state. A cloudy image of a woman with large sage-violet eyes kept staring at her. The phrase Remember Avalon kept repeating in her mind.

  Each time Fay reached out to touch the woman, she’d snap back to consciousness, to find herself in horrendous pain. This time was different. She discovered heat wrapped around her, pulsating with the rhythmic beat of a ticking clock. She’d been cold for so long, it was comforting to feel warmth. She snuggled deeper into it, enjoying the relief it brought to her sore body. Memories of extreme pain haunted her. As did a horrid odor, and Chandra’s screams about anthrax. Chaotic images flitted in and out of her brain like a slide show of nightmares. Arlo taking a hit to his leg, finding an air vent not contaminated with tularemia, better known as rabbit fever.

  Fuzzy images filtered into her memories. They’d run for miles. She saw dead horses and men, pieces of metal strewn everywhere. Images of the strange woman with the large eyes looking down at her kept reoccurring. At some point, she remembered Logan’s concerned gaze, but it was like a cloud in her mind now. She went from terrible dreams to everything merging into darkness.

  The scraping sound of drapes being pulled jolted her from her sleep. The discomfort of a bright light burning through her eyelids forced her to full consciousness. When she pried her eyes open, she realized the noisy drape was a substitute door, and the glaring light was a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. At first glance, it looked like she was sleeping on the floor in a large pantry or storage room. Her second sweep of the room confirmed it.

  “It’s time to wake up and get one of you in to see the doctor.” Chandra’s voice jerked Fay to a sitting position. She groaned at the pain in her left side and fell back onto her warm pillow only to discover the pillow was Logan.

  “Careful. You’ve been seriously wounded.” He stirred, stretching his arms above his head. Fay couldn’t help but admire his rock-hard biceps as he whispered in a sleepy voice, “How do you feel?”

  “I—I—” She wasn’t at all sure how she felt about him showing her a more human side of himself. But the memory of his being a hero was too hard to overlook or forget. Logan had carried her for hours, and he’d seen her through the air vent to safety. That couldn’t be denied. She vaguely remembered his whispered words of encouragement to “stay with him” when her pain was unbearable. The worried sound in Logan’s voice, each time he brought her back to consciousness, still clung to her memory. She remembered waking during their long journey and seeing an exhausted Logan keeping watch while everyone else slept. She remembered feeling grateful, feeling something even deeper than admiration, but she wouldn’t put a name on it then, nor would she now.

  “She should feel awesome.” Chandra’s tone was one of teasing envy. “How many women are lucky enough to have two men in her bed to keep her warm? I haven’t even found one man to do that.”

  “T-two?” Fay looked to her left. “Arlo!” He was still asleep. With a painful groan, she leaned over him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He rolled over, and she wrapped her arms around him in a loving embrace. His arms came up and closed the gap between them as her soft words filled the small room. “Oh thank God, you’re alive.” She winced at the intense pain in her side, but tried to cover just how bad it hurt by putting a worried expression on her face. “I dreamed you’d been hurt. Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”

  Arlo held her away from him just enough to give her a kiss and say, “Me? You had all of us terrified for over a week. Don’t you remember taking shrapnel in your back?”

  Chandra circled the mattress and stooped down beside them. She touched Arlo’s shoulder. “Okay, cowboy, if you want out of here today like you were ranting about last night then you best get your butt up, so I can get you down to the medic to check your leg.”

  Fay gasped. “So he is hurt.”

  Chandra nodded then turned to Logan. “I’ll have breakfast sent up. The doc will visit her after you both eat.”

  “Fine,” Logan said, tossing the covers back.

  Arlo sat up, giving Fay a quick peck on the cheek. “How’s your back?”

  “Okay, I guess. A little pain when I move, but that’s it.”

  “Good. The magic cure…flesh glue in a skilled doctor’s hand.” He kissed her again, and Chandra helped him get up. He hobbled over to get his clothes on and looked back over his shoulder. “Save some bacon for me, bro.”

  “Good luck with that wish, cowboy.” Chandra helped him into his shirt. “So far all you’ve gotten is dried veggies, fruits, and fish. And that’s all you’re going to get here. But you can keep dreaming, maybe one day the menu will change.” Chandra gave a sympathetic smile as she helped him with his pants, and then they were gone.

  To minimize her pain, Fay took a slow turn back toward Logan and found he was already half-dressed. “Where’s Drakker?”

  “Last I heard he was vacating the Airbornes and his men from the mountain valley. The cyborgs struck just as you said they would at midnight one week ago.”

  “Oh my God, we’ve been here a week?”

  “Yes.”

  “And where exactly is here?”

  He shrugged. “You’d have to ask Chandra. I think it’s a Moles’ hideout. In this business, I’ve learned not to ask too many questions. Someone might think you’re a spy.”

  “Funny. Is Drakker safe where they went?”

  “We’ll know later today.” His brow lined with worry. He spoke as though he was protecting himself from some heartbreaking forgone conclusion. “We’ll be meeting at a prearranged site. If he and the others are there then they’re safe. If not…we move on.”

  “Why wait to find out? Give me the longitude and latitude of the meeting place. I’ll MT it and let you know if I see him there.” The look of distrust in his eyes shocked her. “Logan?”

  He shook his head while slipping his shirt on but didn’t button it. Chandra must have seen they all had clean clothes, because the last time she saw that shirt, it was covered in blood, her blood. “I don’t know the L&L. I just know how to get there.”

  “Logan, you’re full of shit.” She eased to the edge of the mattress.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Didn’t I prove myself and my honesty when I told you about the UG’s attack plans? Didn’t I show my allegiance to you when I got Chandra to help us with Arlo? Had she not helped, he would be dead. So if my intentions were to kill you all off, to be honest, you’d already be dead. I’m the best at what I do. Let me help!”

  “Damn it, Fay. I want to trust you, but your people and their cyborgs outnumber my army. I can’t afford to lose any more men. I lost too many last week and last night, and who knows how many Drakker’s lost.”

  “So how better to save them than to be sure you’ve got the advantage. Only I can give you that. You have to start trusting me.”

  “I don’t have to do anything.” His shoulders tightened before he tilted his head back as if cursing the heavens. Releasing a deep sigh, he said, “I’m sorry. I know you can help me, but I also know you can be the annihilation of my people if I misplace my trust.”

  “I risked my life to save yours!” She shot off the bed but fell back onto it when a sharp jolt of pain took her breath away. Once the stabbing sensation stopped, she caught her breath and finished. “You didn’t see the strip of metal coming at you, I did.”

  Logan spun around to look at her. She pounded her thumb into her breastbone for emphasis. “I used my body to block it from hitting you. How much more proof do I have to give you? Doesn’t a person risking her life for yours count in your world? Or will I only prove it with my death?”

  “So, you stepped in front of me on purpose.” He cussed and looked away. “I thought you did. Why, Fay? You don’t know me. Why would you do that for your enemy?”

  “There’s no point in my saying you’re not my enemy. You won’t believe me anyway. And I’ll admit, at this point, if I hadn’t met your brothers and th
e situation was reversed, I wouldn’t believe you either.” She studied the floor. “Life is amazing. Just when you think you have it all figured out, fate changes the rules. I never would have believed anyone could find and fall in love within hours or days of meeting someone…but you can. And to top off that amazing realization, I turn around and not only find love with one, but with…two men.” Fay wanted to say with three men, but she didn’t feel brave enough to expose her heart to the brutal rejection Logan was sure to cast her way should she open herself up. He still saw her as a threat and an enemy.

  “I love your brothers, Logan. Each of them has taught me more about myself in this short time than everyone else has taught me in a lifetime. I’ll always be grateful to them.”

  “And me?” His Adam’s apple jumped with a hard swallow. “What do you feel for me?”

  What in the hell does that mean? He’d just confessed to thinking of her as an enemy, and now he wanted her to reveal her feelings about him. If Logan weren’t the most confounding man she’d ever met, she’d be hard-pressed to find another. She’d be damned if she’d tell him the truth, so he could strip her flesh from her and leave her standing there with nothing but her raw feelings exposed. Fay stiffened, throwing up her emotional defenses. “As you said, I don’t know you at all. I have no feelings for you one way or the other. I’m indifferent to you.”

  Logan’s jaw flexed. Had her statement hurt him? It took every ounce of energy she had to keep her mouth from falling open in surprise. Did his reaction mean he actually did care for her? It was too late to confess her real feelings for him now. She’d look like a liar. Until she was sure she knew how he felt about her, she wasn’t saying anything.

  “Really.” He spoke in a near whisper. “So then why did you put your life on the line for me?”