When Doss enters the room, Katarina runs to him and holds her arms around his waist. "Doss, he's gone."
He gently grabs her arm and leads her to a bench against the wall. "Sit down and tell me what's wrong. Who's gone?"
She can't bring herself to say it out loud. She breaks down as she cries into Doss's t-shirt.
Doss strokes her hair. "Hey now, just talk to me. Did you and Byron have a fight?"
Katarina shakes her head and cries more.
Velex joins them followed by Byron, Blice, Zach, Kazimir, and Zerachiel. He gathers everyone around the table in the middle of the room and runs his fingers through his sweat-slicked hair. "I have some important news that needs to be relayed to everyone here. A few of you already know, but I'll say it anyway. Forty-five minutes ago, we were able to confirm that Isidore Williams was killed by friendly fire in sector one. No one is facing any charges or accusations of intentionally doing this. I have ruled this tragic incident as an accident of miscommunication and equipment malfunction. This is a grave loss for all of Paradise as well as his friends and family. I offer my sincerest condolences to everyone who knew Isidore and regarded him as a friend."
Kazimir storms up to Velex and pushes his shoulder. "What do you mean? I want evidence. There's no way Isidore could have died to some bullets. Where is he? We've restarted him before and we'll do it again. Don't just stand there. Take me to him!"
"You want to see what's left of him?" Velex picks up the half-melted microchip and thrusts it into Kazimir's hand. "There. That's it."
"Dear God. What happened?"
"He was shot in the chest with a shot gun then set on fire. His regeneration magic couldn't help him against flames that hot."
Kazimir looks around the room at everyone as he holds Isidore's microchip to his chest. "Who did it? Who took my most precious invention away from me? Tell me!"
Byron throws down his shot gun to the floor. "I did."
"How dare you?" Kazimir forces Byron up against the wall and grabs his shirt. "Don't you know how much your flames can damage electronics? If it was just bullets or shot, he could be repaired. What possessed you to use your fire?"
"I had no idea it was him. He was in an IGR uniform following behind another soldier. I never received word that Isidore was in disguise and I was given the clearance to engage. Don't blame me for this."
"Then who do I blame? Someone is at fault here. Who told you to engage?"
"Isidore's own daughter."
Katarina can feel their eyes on her as she tries to hide behind Doss's wings. The tears stream down her face as he holds her tightly and rubs her back comfortingly.
"You little bitch!"
"Kazimir, calm down. It was an accident." Doss says.
Blice scoffs. "One that could have been avoided if she would have just followed my instructions. It was a senseless waste of a wonderful life."
"I didn't mean to! Please believe me. Byron, I'm sorry."
"I never want to see your face again. Expect divorce papers once we get back to Himmel." Byron glares one last time at Katarina and leaves the room. They all listen as things crash in the other room and he cries out and curses the world. He's taking this harder than anyone else. And rightly so. He was misled to kill his friend by the one person he should have been able to trust the most in his life. Katarina knows that their marriage is probably over at this point. Nothing can repair this kind of damage.
No one says a word as they process the news. The room is still and silent while minutes go by in the emptiness. Katarina clings to Doss and cries into his chest. This is all her fault. If she had only done what she was supposed to do, she would have noticed her map being turned around and she could have saved her father's life. Blice warned her to never go by just the hologram map alone. Yet she didn't listen and now she's killed her father. What happens now? Apparently no one else knows either. Isidore has always been the glue holding everything together, no matter how torn up the scraps became. He was there to put them back together again with love and wisdom. Now they're alone with nothing to drive them forward.
When Blice flutters by, she reaches out to him through her tears. "Blice, I'm sorry."
"You're dead to me."
"Please!"
"You killed your father." Blice says coldly. "His blood is on your hands and your hands alone. I told you one thing and you couldn't do it. All you had to do was double check your map, but you didn't and now the one person I cared the most about in this universe is gone. I have nothing to live for now. He was the one reason I am still here. What you've done is unforgivable."
Doss stands up at this and points at him. "Don't you even try to pin this all on her. You were stationed here with her. Where were you when this happened? She was a novice who hadn't operated this equipment before and you left her here alone. If anything, this falls on your shoulders."
"Go to hell, Doss."
"Either take responsibility for your part in this or leave her alone. Do you really think that she would intentionally kill her own father?"
"I don't take orders from archons." Blice says before flying out of the room.
Doss holds Katarina in his arms again and surrounds her with his white wings. "Don't worry. I won't let any of them hurt you. You're sleeping in my cabin on the way back to Himmel so I can protect you. They're just trying to place blame so they can feel better about this. Don't listen to anything they say to you."
"Byron is going to leave me."
"But I'm here for you. I'm not leaving. You lost your father. You don't need to be yelled at and hated like this. I'll take care of you."
Velex claps his hands to get everyone's attention. "We're leaving now. Everyone get on the ship or we will leave without you."
"What about Jarred and Jayce?" Doss asks.
"They're already on the ship. Don't worry about them. They just got shot a couple of times and will be in the hospital for a while once we get back to Himmel."
* * *
Doss walks up to the control center of his ship and his heart is racing as he finds the man he's been needing to speak to. He grabs Velex's arm and pulls him into the corner away from everyone before whispering to him. "Jarred and Jayce aren't on the ship."
Velex continues to issue orders to start the ship. "I know. They went missing and all we could figure out is that they were taken. There's nothing we can do. They knew what they were getting into. They're strong enough to fend for themselves. I didn't have the heart to break that news to Katarina after losing her father. We'll deal with this issue later. We can't stay here and risk losing more than we already have."
"We're just going to leave them down here? If their captors find out that we've left, they'll kill them both."
Velex gives him a warning look. "Don't do this, Doss. Go tend to Katarina. I'll handle flying today."
"Yes, sir." He goes into his cabin where Katarina has showered and is wearing one of Doss's shirts and nothing else. He closes the door behind him and leans against it as he crosses his arms. "What are you doing?"
Katarina jumps, obviously surprised at his presence. She pulls down the shirt to cover herself more. "Sorry. I don't have any other clothes. I hope this is okay."
He goes to his dresser and searches through it. "Sure. Let me find you some pants."
"They won't fit me, Doss."
"Then take these." He tosses her a pair of his boxers. "They'll work as long as you're in here with me. Then we'll buy you some clothes when we get to Himmel." As much as he knows he shouldn't, he watches her get dressed and studies her every movement, every inch of her bare legs, and every curve of her hips. And now he feels his morals slipping and it's terrifying.
She then ties back her damp hair in a ponytail. "Thank you."
"No problem."
Katarina's small smile quickly fades and she falls into the chair by the window as she cries into her arms. For a long few minutes, she stays there weeping while the darkness of space passes by. Eventually, as if she feels the
need to make conversation, she looks up and places her hand on the window. "So how does this work, exactly?"
"What? The ship?" Doss asks.
"How do we travel so fast? In order to get from Earth to Himmel in this amount of time, we would have to be going faster than the speed of light."
"Well, it's all thanks to our little hungry friends called nanobots. They condense the space between locations by devouring it just like they would eat through a wall or any other object. Every time we fly through the nanobot gates, we are thrust through condensed space. It was a logistical nightmare to initially set up and build, but we eventually got it going."
When she speaks again, Doss knows her mind is far from here and the workings of space travel. "What am I going to do? My father is dead and my husband is going to divorce me."
"In Himmel, he can't divorce you unless you agree as well." Doss says.
"Who wants to be in a marriage with someone who hates them?"
"I wouldn't know." Doss lies down on his bed and watches her sitting at the window. "You know . . . maybe getting away from Byron wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. You're beautiful and intelligent. I'm sure you could find another man to love you."
"I know why he's so upset with me. I shouldn't have kissed you again."
"It's not that. Byron loves you very much and he feels like you've only been with him because you feel you have to be in order to make him feel better."
"That's not true at all." Katarina says. "Everyone thinks I'm a whore, but I'm not. I lost my virginity to Byron and I've only been with one other man. That's Zach. I now know that was an entirely different mistake."
"Did Zach hurt you?"
"He kept pressuring me to do things I didn't want to do and it got to the point that he scared me."
"Want me to beat him up?" Doss asks with a grin.
"No." She tucks her bangs behind her ears and wipes away fresh tears. "I'm tired of all this violence. All my father ever wanted was to be loved and to promote peace in Paradise. He did all he could for everyone around him, so much so that he sacrificed his happiness for us. He deserved a much better death than this."
Doss sighs and goes over to her. "Katarina, I just want to let you know that if you and Byron do decide to go your separate ways, I will be right here waiting for you."
"What are you saying?"
What is he saying? How can he tell her this? "I . . . I want you to leave Byron."
"Why?"
He takes her hand and kisses it. "I want you to marry me."
She pulls her hand away. "What? No. I can't. You're pure and innocent. What about your vows?"
"I can get married, Kat. We just can't have sex beyond consummating the marriage."
"Doss, I'm honored that you would ask me, but I can't accept." Katarina says. "I'm not going to hurt you like I've hurt everyone else. I would remain faithful to you and you alone, but I can't adhere to your vows. They would only hurt both of us in the end. That is a very special and important part of marriage."
Doss slips his rosary over his head and tosses it on the bed. He takes a deep breath and prepares himself for whatever kind of holy retribution or damnation that could be coming his way. "Then I'll break my vows for you."
13
Jarred lies on his back in the middle of the small cave, staring up at the rough rocks where stalactites have begun to form. A couple drops of water drip down by his feet and tap on the toes of his boots. From what he's been able to figure out with Samuel's help, it's been six days since Jarred and Jayce were brought here. Half of that time, Jayce didn't stop screaming and loudly crying on the other side of the wall. Now, he's silent. That's what scares Jarred more than anything. When things are going well or if Jarred is able to calm him down, Jayce is one of the strongest people in existence. That's one reason why it hurts so much to hear him suffering like that.
For these six agonizingly long days that seem to drag on forever, no one has come to the door again. Jarred and Samuels have been sharing that same bucket of stale, larva-infested water. Now it's empty. Maybe the larvae provided them with some sort of protein. Either way, Jarred is starving. For the first couple of days, he tried to keep his mind clear and his body fit by doing pushups and some of his normal workout routine, but now he can only lie here. Sleep is even out of reach for him now. This is much worse than when they were taken hostage by that street gang in the under city. At least they gave them food. This is just inhumane. Jarred didn't think that even Clark's men were this evil. If he doesn't get food soon, he swears that he is going to eat some of this sand on the floor of the cave. He has to have something.
Footsteps approach the door and it is unbolted as a soldier in red opens it just wide enough to toss in two tan pouches and set down another bucket of water.
Jarred immediately crawls over to the large heavy envelopes and his heart leaps in his chest. He knows exactly what these are. "Oh. Thank you, God." Jarred tears one open and spills the contents out onto the floor. He quickly pulls open a pouch of mashed potatoes and eats it with his hands.
Samuels sits up and watches him. "What's that?"
Jarred tosses the other to Samuels who is looking worse and worse every day. "MREs. Food. It's food."
"Thank you." He begins to eat voraciously.
Jarred knows he can't eat everything right now, even though he desperately needs to. Instead, he finishes off the potatoes and piles everything else in the corner of the cave he has claimed as he own personal space. He'll have to ration this.
"Why aren't you eating?" Samuels asks with a mouthful of food.
"If they're only gonna feed us once a week, then I need to make sure this lasts as long as possible."
"I've been in here for twice as long as you and this is the first thing I've had to eat."
"You go ahead and eat all you want. Here." Jarred tosses him a package of crackers. "Take this."
"No. Why are you giving your food?"
"We had a deal, remember? You help me and I'll help you. If we're gonna make it through this and find a way out of here, then we both need to be alive. I'll be okay. I feel like hell, but I'll survive."
"You might as well enjoy your last meal, Jarred." Samuels says.
"Come on, now. Surely you received better training than that in the Inquisition. Remember that the most important part is staying positive."
"You're young and naive. Think about this for a minute. It's been a week. If Isidore was going to pay the ransom or do whatever these bastards want in exchange for our freedom, don't you think he would have done it by now? I have my own fears about that, though."
"Well, go ahead and say it." Jarred says as he dips his hands into the bucket of water and takes a drink.
"Every time there has been a hostage situation in Paradise, Isidore has done everything the captors asked just so he could save the lives of the hostages. Where is he now? Something must have happened to our president. He wouldn't just leave us in here."
He wipes his mouth on the dusty sleeve of his shirt. "He's probably just negotiating."
"For a week? That's not the way Isidore Williams does things. He would have at least sent a rescue party. There's been nothing."
"Isidore wouldn't just abandon us."
"That's my point." Samuel says. "What if something happened to him?"
"I can't think about that right now, okay?" He stops talking when a loud tapping sound fills the cavern that hasn't happened before in the days that have gone by. Jarred listens to it more until he recognizes a pattern. No way. It can't be. He crawls over to the wall and taps on it a couple of times. When a response comes back, he can't contain his joy.
"What's going on?" Samuels asks.
"It's tap code that we learned when we were imprisoned years ago in the under city. It's Jayce."
"If he can hear your knocking, maybe he can hear your voice if you get close enough to that crack in the wall."
Jarred places his face up against the tiny crack. "Jayce? Can you hear me?
"
A muffled voice comes from the other side. "Oui."
"Oh my God. Are you okay?"
"No. Je meurs." Jayce says.
"You're not dying. You're hungry, tired, and if you're like me, you have a headache from hell. But you're not dying."
"I'm bleeding."
"Bleeding?" Jarred asks. "Did they hurt you? Where are you bleeding?"
"My wings."
Did he hear him correctly? "Wings?"
"I'm an archon now. My new name is Jophiel."
What the hell? "No no. What are they doing to you?"
"They call me the Protector of Paradise. I'm connected to the security network through my microchip."
"Who's they? Who has been in there with you?" Jarred asks.
"Clark and Gabriel. There were also some scientists."
"How bad are you bleeding?"
"They've changed my bandages four times in the past hour." Jayce groans. "Ça fait mal."
"I know it hurts. It's gonna be okay. I'm right here, mon amour."
"Merci. Je n'ai pas peur."
"Have they given you any food?" Jarred asks.
"No."
"Water?"
Jayce sounds like he's crying. "No. I have an IV in my arm."
"Besides all of that, how are you holding up?"
"Better than I was. I need you, Jarred. Ne me quitte pas."
Jarred places his hand against the cold wall and tries to imagine feeling Jayce's hand there instead. "I'm not going anywhere. Okay, here's what I want you to do. Go lie back down and save your strength. If you need me, you hit on this wall as hard as you can, okay? I'll hear it. I'll always be listening."
"Don't leave yet. They left us."
"Who left?"
"Everyone." Jayce says. "They went back to Himmel without us. Clark told me."
"So Isidore just abandoned us?"
"Es-tu prêt à entendre la mauvaise nouvelle? Isidore est mort. Byron a tué accidentellement."
He barely understood that. Why is he not speaking in English? "What about Kat? Is she okay?"
"Je ne sais pas. Qu'est-ce que nous allons faire?"
And now he's lost. "Stop speaking so much French, please. I can't think enough right now to keep up. I know you're freaking out when you start speaking in French."
Paradise Awakened Trilogy Page 31
