I nodded my understanding, and Dillard went to arrange my vigil companions. It was only as he climbed the stairs to leave that I realized Siren and Garrett were nowhere to be seen.
“Son of a…”
I dialed my cloak out, sweeping my senses all around. Nothing. It was only when I clicked the cloak completely off that I felt them somewhere on the opposite bank of the river, nestled under the cover of the trees.
“Going somewhere?” I sent.
“You all seemed busy,” came Siren’s voice.
“And considering the circumstances,” Garrett added, “I got the feeling you might get your unders in a twist about the whole thing.”
“Considering you might go red-eyes and start eating people, you mean?” I sent, striding over to the larger of the two gaping holes in the duraglass wall and peering into the woods across the river. I couldn’t see them, but I felt them out there.
“I’m not planning on causing any trouble,” Garrett sent.
“None?” Siren asked playfully, obviously for my benefit as well, seeing as she could’ve just said it to him in private.
I ignored her.
“I doubt any of the hybrids were planning on causing trouble either.”
“I’m not a gropping hybrid,” Garrett growled.
I thought about his pale red eyes and the uncanny strength and wasn’t sure what else he could be. Yet he still seemed to be his usual smirky self, and his mind didn’t have that strange touch of otherness I’d come to associate with the raknoth.
“What did they do to you, then?”
I wasn’t sure he’d answer at all, and I also wasn’t even remotely eager to try to chase them down out in the forest, so I was relieved, and then quickly confused when his reply came.
“Crazy bastard made me drink his spit.”
“Spit?”
“Spit,” he confirmed. “Saliva. Sometimes he’d make me drink it. Sometimes he’d inject it. He also put me under a few times, when that bitch Nan’Reylor wasn’t busy flaying my mind into submission, but I’m pretty sure all the stuff that made me… whatever I am, came from his saliva.”
“Okay,” I sent, trying to process that. “And who is he?”
“That salt-and-pepper beardsplitter, Alton Parker.”
My stomach fell. “I think you should come back with me. You can’t trust you’re just gonna be okay now after he’s had his… spit in you.”
“Eh, I think I’ll be fine.”
“You tried to kill us all less than an hour ago.”
“You say that like you think it took convincing.”
“I’m serious, Garrett.”
“And I’m serious, Raish. I didn’t go through eight years of slavery and all this alien abduction bullscud just to turn around and volunteer to be some lab rodent for the Legion and the Sanctum to poke and prod until they decide it’s time to execute me. I’m done.”
Alpha be damned, I didn’t know what to say to that.
“He’ll be safe with me,” Siren added.
“So what?” I sent, feeling a bite of irritation creeping in. “You want me to come chase you down? Is that it? Why stick around at all?”
“Because I wanted to say thank you,” Siren sent, catching me off guard once again. “And because I wanted to apologize one last time.”
“From a safe distance?”
“This is as sentimental as it gets. Take it or leave it.”
I took a steadying breath, weighing my options, painfully aware that every minute I didn’t call Therese was another minute I left Annabelle floating helplessly in that Alpha-damned tank.
“Okay. Look, I… I don’t know how this is all gonna play out, but I’d rather you two not get yourselves caught by the raknoth after today. Let me at least give you cloaks before you go.”
I turned to look for the disks I’d scattered around the room during our showdown, and frowned when I only spotted one.
“I think we’re all set,” came Siren’s voice.
I looked back out over the Red River, understanding dawning like a brisk slap in the face, and there they were.
They stood together on the opposite bank, Garrett’s arm looped around Siren’s waist, and I could just make out Siren’s guilty smile as she held out her hands to reveal the silver disks she held in each palm.
It was kind of embarrassing that I was even capable of being surprised by her sneakiness at this point.
“Goodbye, Demon,” she sent.
Garrett just raised a middle finger.
Then they vanished both from sight and from my extended senses.
“Assholes,” I muttered. But for some reason, I actually found a little grin pulling at my lips.
Whatever else happened out there, I was pretty sure those two were going to do just fine.
43
Arrival
“Much as I appreciate you bringing my daughter back alive, I’m fairly certain she’d sleep better without all the tactile stimulation.”
I finished tucking the errant strand of dark hair behind Elise’s ear and leaned back from her medica bed, smiling guiltily at Franco in the chair beside me.
“Guess I’m starting to understand how she felt all those times I put her through this. Not so fun from this side of the bed.”
He arched a thick brow. “Are you implying it was fun from the other side?”
I looked at the cuts and bruises on Elise’s face, quickly healing thanks to the nanites, but still plainly visible. “This is definitely worse.”
For a while, an easy silence passed between us. Then he took my shoulder and gave it a long squeeze.
“Thank you, Haldin.”
When I met his gaze, I was taken aback by the warmth in his eyes.
“She never would’ve been involved in any of this if it weren’t for me, you know.”
He cocked his head. “Maybe not. Impossible to say, really. But what we can say with certainty is that you did everything in your power to bring her back. And here she is.”
He pursed his lips, hesitating with his next thought. “When I lost Liandra…” He shook his head, his face pinched with pain. “Sometimes everything in our power simply isn’t enough. I pray neither of you ever has to learn that as harshly as I did.”
I searched for something to say to that but eventually surrendered to the silence. I couldn’t recall having ever heard Franco talk about his wife. What little I knew about Elise’s mother had come from Carlisle and from Elise herself.
“I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost her,” I said after a while.
He studied me with a sideward glance, and I half-expected him to feed me some line about how we were young and we’d be wise to keep our minds open and remember that life would go on. Instead, though he said only one word.
“Don’t.”
I looked at him. “I don’t intend to.”
A low groan from Elise broke our gaze.
“Well this is awkward,” she said, her voice hoarse. “You gonna throw in a swine with the dowry, Dad?”
We were both too busy rushing—or in Franco’s case, hurriedly crutching—to her side and showering her in affections to produce any worthy comebacks.
“Okay, okay,” she said raising her hands for space. “Sweet Alpha, who knew this was all it took to get your attention. I should get abducted more often.”
“Please don’t,” I said.
“I should’ve implanted that tracking chip in you years ago,” Franco said, shaking his head with a smile.
“I was so worried about you,” I said quietly, cupping her cheek in my hand.
“How’s that for a change?” she asked, laying her hand over mine.
“I’m not a fan,” I admitted. “But it did give me the kick I needed to finish Mindsafe.”
Understanding lit her eyes. “I thought I might’ve been hallucinating those new little toys of yours. You cracked the cloaking runes?”
“You were my inspiration.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Well if that doesn’t ooze romance…” She lifted her head to look over at Franco, who’d backed away to give us a moment. “You see what you’re handing me off to, here?”
Franco just smiled, looking perfectly content.
“Wait,” Elise said, “so if you figured out the cloaks…”
“I made enough to share. The Legion retook Oasis yesterday.”
“Oh… Oh, well that’s…” She frowned. “How many days have I been out?”
“Just one,” Franco said.
She looked at me. “You must’ve had a busy night after I left.”
“I think it’s safe to say we’ve both had better nights.” Half-wincing at how insensitive I was pretty sure that sounded, I added, “Are you…?”
“I’ll be okay.” She considered her own words. “Psychologically scarred for life, maybe, but…”
I just held her hand, waiting to see if she’d say more.
“So, Oasis?” she asked, clearly not eager to delve into the memories right then.
Franco and I sat back down and willingly filled her in on the highlights. From what we’d heard, with the cloaking packs on hand and Four and Eight discreetly in tow, the Legion had actually rolled the raknoth forces at Oasis quite handily. So handily, in fact, that Legion command was speculating the raknoth might’ve been in the middle of some power struggle—possibly even civil war—when the assault had begun.
It had only been towards the end of the operation that things had gotten unexpectedly out of hand, when what sounded a lot like two Seeker-powered raknoth had blown through the invading force and escaped.
“Two more Frostys running around?” Elise asked, looking a bit ill. “Wonderful.”
I said nothing, ruminating on my own dark memories of just how much it had taken to bring that monster down. I needed to talk to Four and Eight about what had actually happened at Oasis. Even with the hybrid army broken and the breeding facilities set to follow, I didn’t want to think about how much damage two more Frostys could do out there.
“Were there any confirmed raknoth kills?” Elise asked.
“Maybe,” I said. “One suspected kill, but it sounds like some of the hybrids were mature enough that they weren’t sure.”
“Therese’s crew is dissecting to confirm as we speak,” Franco said.
“Which will hopefully just leave Alton Parker,” I said. “Wherever he is.”
Elise’s face darkened. “He was at the facility.”
“What?”
“He came to talk to me once they’d chained me up.”
I hesitated, not wanting to press too hard too soon. “What did he want?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. He wasn’t making a whole lot of sense, but… well, for one thing, he told me he was going to send you word about where Frosty was keeping me.”
“Why?”
She frowned at the memory. “I… don’t know. Like I said, he wasn’t making much sense. Speaking in riddles, that kind of thing.”
“Well he didn’t send any word, for whatever that’s worth.”
“Maybe Siren just beat him to it.” She shook her head in disbelief. “She was the last person I expected to show up and start cutting my chains.”
“I wouldn’t give her too much credit, seeing as it was at least partly her fault you were taken at all.”
“Duly noted,” she said, frowning down at the IV line in her hand. “Speaking of which, what happened after I—”
A knock drew our collective attention to the door.
“And to think,” came Johnny’s voice as he hobbled into the room, escorted by Melanie, who had her arm around his waist and his arm wrapped over her shoulders. “I woke up without anyone even holding my hand.” He shook his head, heaving a heavy sigh. “Where’s the love, broto?”
Alpha help me, I tried to dish the banter right back, but he’d caught me by surprise, and looking at him, all I could think about was Annabelle, lying sedated in a reinforced cell, and the sound of Johnny sobbing into my shoulder.
“It’s only because she’s cuter, buddy,” I forced out.
He smiled, but I knew it was equally forced.
Thankfully, Franco broke the tension by pulling himself up on his crutch and offering Johnny his seat. “Please,” he said. “I need to get back to the lab and finish our report on potential breeding facility locations anyway.”
Even the mention of breeding facilities felt like another emotional pit trap waiting to swallow us all whole, but Johnny simply thanked Franco and moved to take the seat.
I rose to help him, but Melanie shooed me away, and Johnny just shrugged.
“She’s cuter too, fly-boy.”
“Well aren’t you two just a pair of charmers,” Elise said
“Aren’t they?” Melanie said, stepping back
“Alpha only knows how we could ever resist.”
“Astonishes the mind,” Melanie agreed.
“Befuddling, through and through,” Elise added.
“Perplexing, even.”
Elise smiled at her. “I think I like you, Melanie.”
Johnny gave me a wide-eyed look. “If I’d known I was walking into this, I might’ve just stayed in bed. Or dying on the floor.”
I scrunched my face at him. “I’m not sure you were actually dying.”
“Yeah, tell that to my internal bleeding and all eight of my concussions, broto. I didn’t see you getting pummeled by a superpowered asshole.”
“You mean you didn’t see me get stomped through the floor by a superpowered asshole?”
“Okay, boys,” Elise said. “I think we can all agree you both got your asses kicked really good and hard.”
“Thank you, Lise,” Johnny said, before shooting me a look. “At least she gets me.”
Melanie, watching this all unfold with a warm smile, shook her head in wonder. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see the three of you pull through all this madness safe and sound.”
“Well, pull up a seat, goodlady,” Johnny said, thumping the empty corner table beside him. “Stay a while and let us regale you with tales of our spectacular manliness.”
Whether it was just to humor Johnny or out of genuine desire, Melanie did sit and stay for a while. And for that little while, we pretended like there weren’t still Seeker-powered raknoth on the loose, and like the Sanctum wasn’t still out there watching me with noose in hand. For that little while, we pretended like Johnny’s sister wasn’t lying comatose in some unknown stasis between human and raknoth, and like Elise hadn’t just been through the worst trauma of her life.
And for that little while, it almost felt like everything was okay again.
One day. That was about all we managed before reality caught up and we received undeniable proof that Johnny’s miraculous prediction wasn’t going to pan out. For what it was worth—and it felt like it was worth quite a bit—it was a damn good day. I spent the night cuddled up next to Elise in her medica bed, sleeping the sleep of the dead and waking to the wonderful revelation of her warmth in my arms.
In the morning, once Elise had been cleared to leave the medica, we stopped by our quarters long enough to bathe and change, then we went out for a walk and decided we might simply never go back. Not when we could simply keep walking, hand in hand, on such a perfect sunny day. It was so nice I almost forgot we were stuck on a Legion base. But at least Glenbark had seen fit to leave me that much, and under only two fireteams of guard detail now, instead of a full squad.
Perks of saving the day.
Or so I thought, until Four found us in one of the Haven gardens early that afternoon and informed us exactly how the Sanctum felt about our demonic heroics.
“Can you repeat that?” I asked, staring up at the dark-eyed Seeker who’d just decidedly ruined what had been shaping up to be a lovely day.
>
“The High Cleric tried to kill us all this morning.”
It was only then that I noticed the pale tan line where his collar no longer rested.
“The detonation signal was triggered,” Four confirmed, noticing my gaze.
“But…” I said, scrambling to remember if Siren had still been wearing hers when I’d last seen her. Or if Garrett had. Or Eight. “The others?”
“They’re okay,” Four said.
“Uh, detonation signal?” Elise asked.
“The Sanctum fitted them all with explosive collars to keep them in line,” I explained.
“Oh.” Elise considered that. “Oh. Holy scud, that’s messed up.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Four grumbled.
“But how did you know he was going to do it?”
“We didn’t. We didn’t risk abandoning our posts at all until we were sure the system had been disarmed. Even then, we left the collars on until we knew all our people were clear, just to be sure.”
“So this exodus has been a long time in the making?” I asked.
“Two years, give or take,” Four said. “It started with Garrett, actually. He and One were some of the first to be made aware of the previous High Cleric’s impending revolution. Of course, they didn’t realize what the High Cleric actually was. They thought they were fighting for the freedom of people like us, not for a gropping alien invasion. Thankfully, it got Garrett started on disabling the collar system anyway. The rest of us only came into his plan recently, right before he was taken.”
I traded a look with Elise.
“He’s still kind of a beardsplitter.”
Four smiled. “I won’t argue with that.”
“So why did the High Cleric pull the trigger today?” Elise asked.
Four shrugged. “I’m assuming they’ve caught on that we’re up to something by now. Scud, they might have even caught wind that Eight and I were there for the Oasis invasion.”
“Do you think they realize you’re all still alive?” I asked.
“I sure as scud hope not,” he said. “But I kind of doubt we’re going to make it out here without them finding out. Especially with Eight in the medica.”
Demons of Divinity Page 44
