Jacob felt Phaedra step back slightly and shook his head.
“I don’t think that she’s ready to talk about anything right now. We just got her out. Give her some time.”
He felt intensely protective of Phaedra as emotions that he had struggled to keep hidden within him made themselves strongly and undeniably present again.
“We need to tell the others,” Pyra said, standing. “These women were slaves. Ryan didn’t just start creating new beings. He stole other people and forced them to become his incubators. He’s no better than the Covra.”
“He’s worse,” Eden said. “They were only forced to hold eggs inside them. These women were impregnated so that they would carry hybrid children that were likely taken from them soon after birth to be experimented on and trained as weapons, or used for further breeding.”
“He held them like he has Aegeus. They aren’t a part of this willingly. They don’t even know what’s happening. We have to protect them.”
Chapter Nine
Jacob watched as Rilex, Eden, and Pyra gathered the files off the floor and stormed out of the room back toward the emergency chambers before turning toward Phaedra. Her face had relaxed into an expression that was more peaceful than he had seen her since finding her. She looked more like the woman he had loved so deeply and lost so painfully years before now that the edge of pain and fear had eased from her expression.
“They’ll help them,” Jacob reassured her. “He’ll make sure that they get away from this place.”
“What will they do?” Phaedra asked. “They don’t have homes or families any longer.”
“I don’t know,” Jacob admitted, “but there will be a way. This is over now.”
Some of the fear came back and she held his hands more tightly.
“No, it’s not Jacob,” she said. “It’s not over. It’s just beginning.”
Phaedra’s eyes stared into Jacob’s and he could finally see the emotions there that he had been seeking. He couldn’t deny what was happening within him any longer. Jacob pulled her forward gently and released her hands so that he could touch his to her hips. Still wearing nothing but the thin sheath that she had been in the tank, Phaedra’s body felt warm and soft against his.
“What happened to us, Phaedra?” he asked.
“We were on different paths. We wanted different things,” Phaedra said. “You wanted to focus on your career.”
“I wanted you,” Jacob said.
“I wanted you, too,” Phaedra admitted softly. “It broke my heart when you left.”
“I didn’t think that you were ever that committed to us,” Jacob said.
“Because we never slept together?” Phaedra asked. “That didn’t mean that I wasn’t in love with you. I was just…” she looked down at her hands rested on his chest.
“Waiting for the right moment,” Jacob said softly. “I know.”
They met each other’s eyes again and Jacob leaned in to tenderly brush his lips across hers. Phaedra returned the kiss softly, but then suddenly pulled away. She looked at him with tears sparkling on her cheeks and ran out of the room back toward the emergency chamber. Jacob followed and found her standing near the steps, her back turned to him. He could see her shoulders trembling with the force of her crying. The glow from one of the lightsticks sitting on the steps sent up just enough illumination that he could see the scars in her skin.
Jacob stepped up behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist. He felt Phaedra tighten beneath his touch and turned her gently to look at her.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I can’t do this, Jacob,” she said.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “I thought that you came to look for me because…”
“I did,” she said, cutting him off, “but things have changed. It’s not the same anymore, and I can’t pretend that it ever will be.”
“Of course it won’t be,” Jacob said, trying to pull her closer. “It will be better.”
Phaedra shook her head and stepped back from him.
“You don’t understand,” she said weakly.
“Then make me understand. Tell me.”
“You saw my scars,” she said.
Jacob nodded.
“Yes. I didn’t want to ask you about them.”
“Ryan made them,” she said. “Before he put me in the breeding program I was part of his early experimentation with DNA splicing.”
“DNA splicing?” Jacob asked.
“He learned to isolate the DNA of different species and splice it onto the DNA of adult creatures. Though the bred hybrids are stronger and allow for training from a young age, but splicing lets him transform adults so that they are ready for warfare faster. That way he could have a force of disposable soldiers available that could tire out the enemies or handle smaller operations while his hybrid special forces handle the more challenging missions.”
“How did you find out?” Jacob asked. “I thought that you said you didn’t know anything about the program.”
“I didn’t when he first imprisoned me. All I knew was that he was keeping me captive and that I saw others come and some I never saw again. When he chose me for the splicing project I decided I was going to try to figure out what was happening. I was going to escape and help the others.” She lowered her eyes again. “He made sure that didn’t happen.”
“What did he do to you?” Jacob asked, already feeling disgust crawling up his throat.
“In the early stages of his experiments he was working on a particularly rare form of DNA. He didn’t have much of it available to him, and what he did have had been preserved a long time ago. He injected several of the people he was holding captive and then just waited for the effect to set in.”
“What happened?”
Phaedra sighed heavily, looking away as if she didn’t really want to confront the memories that she was reluctantly bringing forward so that she could tell Jacob.
“Two of the men died within a few days. One changed only slightly. I am the only one who changed as much as I did.”
“What changed?” Jacob asked hesitantly.
“I grew wings,” she said.
“Wings?”
“It took a few weeks, but they grew in right over my shoulder blades. Soon they were almost as long as the rest of my body. He kept me chained by the ankle so that I couldn’t try to fly. I don’t even know if I could. If I had been able to…”
Her voice trailed off and Jacob drew close to her, kissing her on the forehead and then holding her close to his chest.
“Where are they now?” Jacob asked.
He didn’t really want to know. He knew deep within him that he didn’t want to know any more of what she suffered, but somehow, he knew that he must know everything to truly do what he was meant to do for Phaedra and the others. He braced himself against what he was going to hear next.
“Ryan didn’t want me to have them,” she said. “He didn’t want a woman to have such powerful features.”
“But there are female hybrids,” Jacob said. “At least one.”
Phaedra shook her head.
“It was a punishment,” she said. “He said that it was because he only wanted the male soldiers that he created to have the most powerful features, but I never believed it. He didn’t want me to have them. He wanted to punish me for finding out about the project and wanting to escape, so he cut them off. Part of the experiment was to see if the splicing experiment made any impact on my ability to withstand pain.”
She didn’t have to explain what she meant. Jacob knew and he didn’t want to hear the words come from her lips.
“You’re safe now,” Jacob murmured to her. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere again.”
Phaedra shook her head again and pushed away from him.
“It’s not that easy,” she said. “I can’t just go back to my life.”
“You’re not just going back to your life,” Jacob told her. “I’m here now. We can have th
e life that we talked about.”
“That I talked about,” Phaedra said. “You never wanted to.”
“I’m talking about it now,” Jacob said softly.
“You shouldn’t,” Phaedra said. “We can’t have that life.”
“Of course we can. This will be over soon. We’ll leave and start again. I can give you that life.”
“No, you can’t, Jacob.” She sounded aggressive and almost angry now, and Jacob took a slight step back. “I wasn’t in that tank for no reason. After the splicing experiment, he moved me into the breeding program. I’m pregnant, Jacob.”
The words burned through Jacob and he felt them settle into his heart. He tried to respond. He tried to say anything he could to her, but nothing would come. He felt his lips part and stuttering sounds emerge, but he couldn’t bring himself to express anything that was happening within him.
“I don’t know what type of hybrid this baby will be. I only know that part of its DNA was taken from my wings. I haven’t let myself think about it very much. I’ve always known that as soon as it is born, it will be taken from me and brought to the nursery unit to be raised and trained. There was no reason for me to think…” her words choked off and she took a few seconds to compose herself. “It’s my child,” she said. “My egg manipulated with hybrid DNA.” She paused and stared at Jacob. “Please say something.”
He still couldn’t speak and after a few silent moments Phaedra gave an exasperated sigh and pushed past him, disappearing back into the emergency chamber. Jacob felt like he couldn’t move or breathe. For a moment, it had seemed like his life was falling back into place for the first time since his disappearance. It had been horrible and tragic the way that he had found himself back under the hypnotically lovely and comforting gaze of Phaedra’s emerald eyes, but Jacob felt that he could take that horror into himself and transform it into something beautiful for her, a life that would be worthy of her. It was the only thing that was getting him through what he had seen and experienced, and what he feared might lie ahead, but now everything had dissolved around him, falling to his feet like the shattered glass.
The wall of the corridor slammed against his back before he realized that he had turned and slid down to sit on the floor. He pulled his knees up toward his chest and rested his head forward onto one of them, trying to let the frenetic thoughts swirling through his mind process and organize themselves. The pain within him was palpable and he didn’t know how he was supposed to move forward. For so many years his heart had been devoted to Phaedra, even when he was stubborn and wouldn’t allow himself to admit how much he truly loved her. When he was on the frozen planet it was often thoughts of her that would keep him pushing through the snow and biting wind, and yet in other moments it was the thought of losing her that would make him nearly give up and surrender himself to the elements. He had finally found his way back to her but now she was scarred from years of unimaginable torture and carrying a child crafted purely out of hatred and desire for power and vengeance. Could he withstand watching her through her pregnancy knowing that it wasn’t his child that she was carrying? Could he handle seeing the hybrid creature that she would bear and raise it alongside her? Would he be able to love her like he would have before he knew, or was she right and they would never be able to have the life that they had envisioned?
Chapter Ten
“When we get outside, everyone needs to move as quickly as possible,” Pyra instructed. “Warriors, carry what women you can. Those of you who are traveling in Jonah’s vehicle, go with Oro and Azrael. Everyone else, come with me. We need to get to the transportation bay before anyone finds us. If you encounter anyone who puts up a threat, be ready to fight. We’ll come back together on Penthos.”
Jacob watched Pyra turn back to Jonah who stood at the door to the closet. There were still several people inside that and one other of the chambers and Jonah’s posture spoke to the protectiveness that he felt for them.
“Are you sure that you won’t come with us?” Pyra asked.
Jonah shook his head.
“I need to stay here,” he said. “There’s too much I need to know. Besides, someone needs to be here for these people. They can’t be alone.”
“They should be coming with us,” Pyra argued.
“They’ve experienced so much suffering, Pyra,” Jonah said. “Their minds and bodies are broken. The last thing that they need is to be in the middle of a war.”
“We’ll come back for you when it’s over,” Pyra said.
Jonah extended his hand and Pyra grasped it, pulling him in for a brief embrace.
Jacob was tucking a final pack of rations into his bag when he noticed Phaedra sitting in the far corner of the room. She hadn’t spoken to him again in the nearly two days since she revealed her pregnancy to him, and the silence had been brutal. He closed his bag and crossed the room to her.
“Phaedra,” he said, but she wouldn’t look up at him. “Phaedra, please. Talk to me.”
“Is there anything for us to talk about?” she asked quietly.
“Yes,” he said.
“Then talk.”
“It’s time to leave,” Jacob said. “We’re going to the shuttle.”
“I’m not going,” she said.
“You can’t stay here,” Jacob told her.
“Of course I can. I’ve been here for years.”
“You aren’t a prisoner anymore, Phaedra.”
Her hands touched her belly through the shirt that had replaced the light dress she had worn when he found her.
“Yes, I am.”
“You aren’t and I won’t let you be. You can’t stay here.”
“All of these people are,” she said, gesturing to the others still sitting around the room who had either chosen to say behind with Jonah or were still recovering from injuries and couldn’t travel but were well enough that they didn’t need Ciyrs with them any longer. “Why shouldn’t I?”
“You’re safer with me.”
“It’s better this way, Jacob. I’ll leave here and just start over.”
“You don’t think that Ryan will come after you? That he’ll find a way to bring you back?”
“I’ll handle that if it happens.”
Jacob felt panic rising within him. For the last two days he had been thinking about her, struggling with the thoughts that kept him from getting more than a few hours of sleep and that distracted him from anything else. Jem and Angela were his friends and he would be there alongside them to protect Uoria and everyone who had been threatened, but Phaedra was his reason and he wouldn’t let her slip away again.
He walked to the door of the chamber.
“Gyyx, could you give me a hand?” The warrior nodded and came to him. “Will you carry Phaedra? She’s traveling with me.”
“No,” Phaedra protested. “I’m staying here.”
“You can’t,” Jacob said. “You’ll be safer with us. Gyyx, please.”
He knew that Phaedra would resist him if he tried to carry her and that the warrior was powerful enough that even if she struggled against him, Gyyx would be able to control her until they got to the shuttle. Gyyx hesitated for a moment, but Jacob looked back at him with pleading in his eyes and the Denynso seemed to understand the importance of his request. He leaned down and scooped Phaedra off the ground, carrying her across his shoulders as they left the chamber and began up the stairs toward the hallway above and the dangerous path to the transportation bay.
****
Phaedra slammed her hands against the window as she watched Earth get smaller and smaller into the blanket of darkness around the shuttle. Tears stung on her cheeks and she felt her hands shaking. Behind her the door to the pod opened and she whipped around to see Jacob standing just inside. The door closed behind him and he took a step toward her.
“How could you do this to me?” she asked.
“I had to protect you,” Jacob said. “You should be with me.”
“Jacob, I don’t want to
be protected. Ryan destroyed everything that I ever could be and I will never be able to escape it. I will always be his prisoner.”
Jacob swept her into his arms and pulled her close to his body. She felt herself melt into his touch, wanting desperately to believe that the emotion she heard in his voice was real, that there was an escape from the torture and the darkness that had defined her existence since the day that she walked into the University and encountered Ryan. Jacob leaned close to her, sliding his hands down her arms until they grasped hers.
"You are mine," he whispered, "You always have been."
Jacob’s lips brushed against her ear and the sensation rippled through Phaedra. Those words carried far deeper meaning than she could have ever fathomed, but before she could say any more to him, Jacob released her hands and she felt his fingers peeling the shirt away from her shoulders. She didn't resist the insistent, dominant touch and a moment later she heard it drop to the floor beneath them. He slowly pulled aside the thinner shirt she wore beneath to reveal the curve of her neck.
Phaedra felt her body trembling as Jacob finally touched her again. Her skin was hot and tingling with the anticipation of more. She could hear her breath escaping her lungs in slow, tremulous waves as she tried to control the nearly overwhelming desire that was coursing through her. Jacob's teeth nipped at her skin but the gesture that had once felt playful now seemed primal and possessive, as if he were overcome by need that had built up within him for the years that they had been apart. She couldn’t resist it. She didn’t want to. Phaedra tilted her head to offer her neck and felt him bite down more aggressively. Though slightly painful, the bite was followed by the soothing touch of his tongue and Phaedra gave a little cry at the intoxicating blend of sensations.
That sound seemed to touch something deep within Jacob, breaking him from any control that he had managed to maintain. He turned her quickly in his hands, forcing her backwards until she pressed against the wall. Now that he had gotten her into this position, primed and ready for the attention that he promised to lavish on her with the smoldering look in his eyes, his movements slowed again. Phaedra ached for him to touch her, to kiss her, to give her everything that he had left her longing for when he had disappeared from her life so long ago. Jacob stood against her, the pressure of his hips on her lower belly confessing his desire without the need for him to say a single word. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be concentrating on his breath as if to bring himself back under control.
Jacob & Phaedra's Story (Uoria Mates IV Book 2) Page 6
