by Milana Jacks
“Nope. I work alone. I joined them because their work aligned with mine.”
“What’s your work?”
“Sienna. That’s my girl, and I want her back.” Sienna was one of the pairs here. He continued, “Beast by the name Torrent took her one day, then came back into the community looking for her, so I knew she must’ve run away. I went looking for her.”
“I found her looting from a jewelry store. I brought her here. If you want her back, why didn’t you just take her instead of Patty?”
“Until the pickup, nobody knew the location of this place. Sienna didn’t come out, and Patty didn’t name any girls in here. By the time I got here, they’d taken her. This one”—he pointed to the floor—“forced her into the truck and shipped her off. Not every girl wants to serve those men. Sienna would never agree to it unless forced. So where’s the key to the storage place? Men of Earth want those supplies, and I need to know how to follow them now that I broke my cover.”
“I’ll tell you outside.”
“You’ll tell me now. Drop the knife too. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.”
I gripped the knife and said, “It’s in the House of Mayhem the Barbarian.” His eyebrows gathered. He looked confused. I continued, “Street G, Zone Two of New City, House of Mayhem the Barbarian. Your turn. Where are the pairs?” I wanted him to hurry along and tell me. Smoke burned my eyes, and I’d suffocate if I stayed here.
“They’re shipped to Texas.”
“Where in Texas?”
“I don’t know, but I know there’re more girls already up there.”
“What girls?”
He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his thumb. “Girls like you. Young and willing to bed men. They’re rounding them up.”
He wasn’t gonna give up any more information. I saw the resolve in his eyes. I recognized a man who wouldn’t mind dealing his own hand. I recognized his desperation. Sienna meant the world to him, and she’d been taken away first by the beast, then by Men of Earth.
Vice had rescued me out of the tub, and now he set me free. I’d make my own choices. I was free to do whatever I wanted, and I chose to live. I wanted to tell Vice where in Texas that damn safe house was so they could raid that shit too, but then again, if the women wanted to go there, so be it. Men of Earth was some sort of a fanatic group, and even though I didn’t know about Hitler, I knew fanaticism had ruined our planet.
I wanted to go home and think on what I’d learned from him and Patty. This guy was in my way. “Well, that’s fine, bro, you do what you want, but I’m leaving.”
I showed him the knife in my hand. “If you try to stop me, I’ll gut you.”
He stayed in the kitchen.
I left it all behind me and took to the sky. I balanced my skater in the air, high winds whipping through my hair. Below me, Cake and Deco exploded. Farther down, on the side of the road, Paulina sat and cried. An older woman hugged her and patted her back while the sirens blared in the distance. The firefighters approached, and it seemed as if the entire city gathered around the wide perimeter to watch. Fire didn’t catch in this city often. Beast City was considered the safest place on Earth. I didn’t linger to see if the man had come out.
My shelter burned away.
The girls, apart from Sienna—and even that was hearsay—didn’t want my help. If what Patty had told me was true, they’d happily end up in another community, perhaps even one worse than mine. I didn’t know if I was crazy to want to return to Vice or if they were to want Men of Earth. In the end, everyone had their own path.
I slid left, tapped the fuel sensor on my skater, and propelled it home, where I’d wait for Vice and tell him everything. Maybe they’d go out on a mission and retrieve the pairs even if they’d rather be with those men. I didn’t know, but I’d tell him what I knew. I didn’t know what would happen with them.
Chapter Eleven
Vice
I twisted Jamie’s right leg and winced at the arrow sticking out of his thigh. He cleared his throat. “Get on with it, bro, I can’t stand the stench.”
Down here, underneath the sanctuary, the air stank of Dewlyn’s parents’ decomposing bodies. About two feet away, worms swarmed over them, and with our sensitive noses, our stomachs were rising. I wrinkled my nose and pressed around Jamie’s wound, ready to break off the arrow. “Don’t cry,” I said.
“Blow me.”
I gripped the long arrow and broke it at the entrance into his flesh. Jamie’s eyes widened, then blinked. A shiver ran through his body, and he shook out his shoulders.
“Hurts, hm?” I asked.
“I’m good. You done?”
I looked up at the opening. The night had fallen, and our eyes adjusted. If a human got stuck down here, they wouldn’t see squat. I heard nothing from above. All our people must be dead. Men of Earth must’ve left as soon as we fell in the hole. They probably didn’t even peek down here, thinking if we didn’t die of broken bones, we’d die trapped some…hm. “How far up you think we gotta climb?”
“Two, three hundred feet.” Jamie leaned back against the dirt wall, his wounded leg stretched out. “How long you think it took these fuckers to dig this up? Look at this thing.”
I looked around, gritting my teeth at the sight of my mate’s parents. Not that they didn’t deserve this. Too bad they’d probably died on impact, I would have served them on a platter. Yes, yes, I would’ve. But, life had other plans. When we came down here, I didn’t expect to end up in a round hole while Men of Earth cleared out.
Jamie and I got knocked out on impact but awoke with minor injuries. Or so I thought. Jamie’s wound bugged him, and for some reason, he couldn’t use his leg. He’d sustained worse and rode just fine, so I waited for his ass, let him rest a bit longer. “You know where we are?” I asked.
“You do, smartass.”
“In a water well,” I said.
Jamie clapped his hands. “Bravo. I’ll die smarter.”
Turning, I swiped a claw over the wet ground. I threaded it though my fingers. Mud, not even fresh ground. “It’s still wet. A recently drained well.” Jamie gave me a bored look, telling me to get on with my point. “What I’m saying is they took the water, took the people, and moved everything somewhere else. Community Three is empty.”
“Why?” he asked.
“To escape the raid.”
“They didn’t know we were coming.”
True. “Let’s get out of here, hm?”
Jamie tilted his head and looked up. He rolled to the side and pushed up to stand on one leg.
I frowned as he swayed on his feet. “What’s wrong with you?”
He fell back.
I leapt up, alarmed. “What the fuck is wrong with you? We gotta climb out. No other way.”
“No can do.”
“Why not?”
“My legs. Like they’re not mine.”
I crouched by him and squeezed his wound. He didn’t flinch. When I’d broken off the arrow, I thought he was faking it didn’t hurt. It must’ve hurt, but now I realized he didn’t feel anything in his leg. Fuck! “How are you not… The arrow. Dewlyn used darts on Medrix. They slowed him down. We gotta dig the tip out.”
“You think it’s poisoned?”
I didn’t answer but got to work. My claws extended; my sharp teeth dropped. I jabbed a claw into his soft flesh and dug as far as it would go. I felt the end of the arrow and pushed it up, then bent and ripped it out with my teeth. I spat on his lap, then removed my shirt and pressed it on the gushing wound. “Hold that,” I ordered him, ’cause my brother was checking out on me. I wrapped a belt above the wound while Jamie inspected the arrow with his nose. “Too much blood. Can’t smell anything.” He put the arrow in my pocket. “Take it to the bio team.”
No way. Still crouched, I turned around. “Hop on.”
“On what?”
“My back.”
When nothing happened, I twisted back around. Jamie would rather eat shit than depend on som
eone, and to be rescued and told he couldn’t do something? Disaster. Our father used to tell him a real Alpha never showed weakness. The day an Alpha showed weakness was the day he died by another more worthy of an Alpha title. Father never lectured me about such things, thinking I wasn’t worthy, seeing as I was more interested in learning than building strength. Too much brains, no brawl, he used to tell me.
Jamie hated him. I hated him. But Jamie believed him because Father had ruled longer than any other Tineyan Alpha. With an iron fist.
“You can’t walk,” I told my brother. His eyes turned silver, and I didn’t care. “Hop on my back. I can get us out of here.”
“No.”
I sat down next to him, leaned on the wall. Dewlyn and Jamie? Same peas from different pods. So I had to work with these tough peas. “It’s fine by me if you wanna stay here. You know, Rey could deliver any minute. Let’s say I climb out and you stay. Maybe I’ll forget you. Maybe I’ll take the City. Odds of Dewlyn and me are pretty slim, so the only other person I’ll have around is Rey.”
“Careful.”
“I’m never gonna have kids,” I said. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of yours.”
Jamie rolled over me.
I pushed him off, and his body hit the ground. Before he got up, I flipped him and pressed a forearm over the back of his neck. I bent to whisper at his ear. “I let her down. I left her here. I’m not leaving you. You can either get up on my back and help me out, or I will beat your ass, knock you out, and carry you like a fucking baby. What say you, Jamie? We gonna get out of here, or we gonna measure dicks?”
Silence, and then he said, “You didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
“Just because I didn’t know what they’d do to her doesn’t take it away. It is what it is, and we gotta man up. So what’s it gonna be?”
Jamie grunted. That was a yes. He rolled over and on top of me. Damn, he outweighed me by about fifty pounds, so I crawled back, crouched, and rushed the mud wall. A bellow ripped from my chest as I sprang up and buried my claws into the wet dirt. I paused. My hands dug but got no purchase, and we slid back down.
Again, but this time, I aimed at the part of the wall that looked less muddied. I sprang as high as I could and jabbed my claws into the dirt, thinking we’d fall again. We slid down a few inches. Jamie transferred his weight, one hand jabbing into the dirt. “Ain’t dead yet. Let’s move.” I huffed out a breath.
We moved.
I sweated my balls off, thought we’d crash back down more than once, so when I felt marble under my palm, I pushed, straining to get him up with me. Dirt in my eyes, dirt in my nose, mouth, claws, clothes, dirt everywhere. So when I made it to the clean floor, I sprawled on it and rested there. I rested until Jamie pecked my cheek. “My hero,” he said.
“Get off me, perv.” Although we had phones, there was no reception out here.
He rolled over. “Vice?”
Five more minutes of rest, and then I’d move us to the bikes where I’d activate my com unit and call my ship crew to come get us. Put Jamie in the med bay. Check on Dewlyn. “Hm?”
“They took the bikes.”
Fuck. Me. “When we get back, you’re going on a diet.”
Dewlyn
It was midnight. Vice hadn’t returned. Not that I expected him to come home, but I’d hoped he’d come back to pack some of his stuff. I got antsy at home and walked over next door, surprised to find Rey awake.
She was folding baby clothes in the living room. I lent her a hand. That only lasted for another half hour. I flung my hair over the back of the couch. I tapped my foot. “How far is Texas?”
Rey chuckled. “You can’t go there. Wait for Vice.”
“Okay. Still, how long do you think it’ll take me to get there?”
She folded a tiny pink shirt and looked up at me. “You can’t travel there on your skater.”
“Why not?”
“It’s like days’ worth of travel.”
I sighed. “I can’t just sit around.”
Rey stretched and grabbed a huge blue bag, then kicked it to me. “Three loads of laundry need ironing.”
“Great. I love ironing.”
She winked at me.
Another hour later, I’d ironed and folded the last piece and leaned back on the couch again. I bit my lip. “Rey, how long does a raid take?”
“Not sure,” she said. “A few hours. Why? Still bored?”
“No, nope. How long did it take them to raid your community?”
“Jamie left early in the afternoon and returned early next morning. Why?”
“No reason.” Somehow, I felt Vice should have returned already. Somehow, I felt this strange weight in my chest.
“I don’t have a reason to wonder either, and yet I’ve done every chore in the house twice. I’m worried,” she said. “It’s a raid.”
“Nah, they’ll be fine.” I couldn’t say the same of my parents. I couldn’t even summon sympathy for them.
Dark pawed at the glass back door.
“I got him,” Rey said when she heard the leather protest as I got up from the couch. She walked to the back door and let Dark outside. A splash sounded from the pool as she closed the door.
“Well, I’m heading out.” I picked up Kickster. Rey found the handrail as if to climb up the stairs. She paused on the first step. “Hey, they’ll be back.”
“Sitting around drives me crazy.” I swung open the door. A shiver ran down my arms. Winter approached, and soon I’d wear that one pair of boots Vice got me. Those were nice. I looked down the street, then up, checking for smoke from the burning in the city. I couldn’t see from here.
Nothing happening around this well-lit neighborhood, I thought. No wonder Vice gave me our home. Nothing to do around here.
A man strolled up the sidewalk.
I could go for a ride.
The man advanced, now walking faster. He locked eyes with me and started jogging. His head was shaved bald, his clothes were plain, and he looked a bit out of place around here. Two houses down, I tapped my foot, eyes still on the guy.
Right there, I decided I didn’t like him. I slammed the door closed and said, “House, lock down.”
The House didn’t respond.
Knock. Knock.
“Lock it down, Rey!” I shouted and manually twisted the lock.
“Dark is outside.” She walked back down the stairs. “What’s going on?”
A man appeared at the door leading to the back yard, a sneer making his face look like the devil’s. There were two of them. One in the back and one up front.
“Don’t open the door, Rey. There’s someone out there.”
Behind the man, Dark crept on the grass, and when he closed in on the guy, he lunged.
The man fell, and Dark bit his shoulder, danced around him, then bit him again.
Rey stood there, unmoving. I ran to her and turned her shoulders. Her blind eyes stared into space, and she kept blinking. I figured Rey’d checked out, paralyzed with fear. I shook her by the shoulders, glancing at the front door, which would hold for another ten seconds. When the house locked, the metal over the door would slide into place. Now it was just decorative wood between us and the man with murder in his eyes. “Rey, listen to me. Command the lockdown.”
“My hound.”
Crap. I swung open the back door. Dark kept biting the man’s leg, while the guy stood jabbing something on the black box next to the back door.
“Get in here, boy!” I shouted.
Dark hopped inside, and I closed then slipped the door locked.
“House, lock down,” Rey said.
The doors clicked. The metal on the windows slid down. The metal reinforcing the doors didn’t. The guy in the back opened the box and stuck his head inside. From his pocket, he got a rigger. Oh man, the rigger. I’d even robbed one from Men of Earth. The drunk guy in the back alley? I remembered scouting the City and catching him pissing on the wall, then toppling over. The rigge
r fell out of his pants, and I took it, curious about it. The rigger would take over the house tech.
The front door cracked.
I whipped around.
A fist punched through.
“Run upstairs, Rey. Find a gun or something, anything. Go.”
Beside her, the hound whined.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
I looked around the house, my gaze stopping at the kitchen with a display of the best cutlery money could buy. I rushed across the living room and into the kitchen, where I grabbed an ax designed to chop bone, then rushed back and took up position by the front door.
“Dewlyn, talk to me,” Rey said.
I snapped my head to her. Rey’s face was pale, her hand covering her belly. She’d faint on me. “Rey, go upstairs and look for something to kill with.”
“Don’t dismiss me, damn you! Who’s here and what do they want?”
“Men of Earth. They want pairs. Mates. They want mates!”
“Fine! House, dial Jamie.”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
“Redial.”
The man knocked.
I didn’t tell Rey the metal on the front door had never slid into place. The guy in the back worked fast, already jamming the House system. These things were the highest tech on Earth, and these guys had access to high tech too. Something to ponder if I made it out of here.
A hairy hand reached through the punched hole, then disappeared back out again. I gripped the ax’s handle, swung up, and bent at the knees, waiting. My knees shook so bad, I sure hoped they didn’t give out.
A hand appeared again. He held a wire between his fingers and searched for the doorknob.
I swung down.
It cut at the wrist. His hand dropped on the floor, fingers still moving.
The man yelped but muffled his scream. Oh shit. They were quiet. Nobody would hear us. “Motherfucker, I will chop yo ass into tiny pieces.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught Rey climbing the stairs, and something else. That guy in the back. Blood soaked his pants, but he didn’t care. He stood on top of the patio’s table and put a rigger closer to his lips.
