by Marie Dry
“I will book a call to home world,” he said and it sounded like a threat.
“You have to book a call to your home world? I thought you all could just dial home on your superior TCs.”
“There is limited capacity this far away. Even for our superior technology. Junior warriors have to book calls.”
“I see,” she said.
“Do you wish to confront your former father?” he asked.
“I have to face my family.” She had to tell him everything, but she was ashamed of what they’d done. She just hoped her brother was innocent.
“Why do you sound afraid?”
She sighed. “Not afraid, ashamed. Have you heard about the superman drug?”
“Yes.”
“I think it comes from my family’s labs.” From what she’d researched, it originated there. There were just too many coincidences.
“That is what you have been working on?”
She looked down, hunched her shoulders. “Yes. I tracked their communications about deliveries to my family’s business.” And some very interesting memos exchanged between scientists. All filed very neatly on Morgan’s TC.
“Your former blood is guilty?”
“I think my father is.” She clasped her neck. “I don’t know what to call him. I’m not sure about my brother. I’ll know when I can confront them.”
“We will go tomorrow and face the man who is not your father.” How apt a description for the man who didn’t raise her.
That night, while they sat on the couch in their dwelling, she asked him, “So what is bothering you?”
He sat quietly for a long while, and she thought he wouldn’t answer, but then he said, “I will kill another eduki for you and I will invite Larz and my fellow warriors to consume the meat of the eduki I hunted for you.”
Why would that prospect make him so gloomy? From what she could tell, killing things made them happy. “I’m sure you will enjoy that. So why do you look so unhappy?”
“Warriors would not feast with someone who has no blood.” He took her hands in his and stared down at their clasped hands. “They do not know yet that I am now blood of the Parenadorz.”
And he was afraid they’d refuse his invitation. That’s why he didn’t invite them when he’d killed the first eduki. Her heart broke a little for him.
Rose leaned over and cupped his cheek. “You are brave and honorable and a good card player and the best warrior any woman can hope for. Your friend Larz will feast with you, and if no other warrior wants to, it is their loss.” And she’d find a way to make them sorry.
His eyes blazed redder than she’d ever seen them. “You honor me, my breeder.”
“My pleasure, my Komodo.”
Something told her the other warriors would come and feast with him. Zanr did not see himself the way she saw him: a strong warrior, with honor and humor, and a capacity for love much bigger than his massive body.
Chapter Twenty
A week later, Rose stood staring at the house she’d called home for such a short time in her life.
“They won’t let me in,” she told Zanr and felt her cheeks warm. He was invisible again. They’d decided that for the time being he would stay in camouflage. They’d parked a way up the street, lined with big, elegant two- and three-story houses, but she could see the guard station of her father’s house from where she stood—a guard station that had been built after she’d forced her way inside the grounds one school holiday.
Rose squared her shoulders and faced the large gate that kept unwelcome visitors out. How many people had to get past security to be able to speak to their own father? How could he blame her for acting like a frightened child that horrible night? How could he throw her out when she needed his support so much? Then she remembered. He wasn’t her father and he must know that.
A soft grunt came from the invisible alien next to her.
“I knew you’d come here,” a nasty voice said behind her.
Rose sighed and turned; nothing would save him now. She looked at Morgan and shook her head at him. “You should’ve disappeared. I won’t be able to keep you alive now.” He’d always been well dressed and handsome. Now his clothes were rumpled and dirty, his hair looked as if it hadn’t been washed in a year, and his black, leather shoes looked the worse for wear.
He sneered at her, looming over her, and she’d never been so grateful to have Zanr’s large body by her side. “I don’t need you to help me stay alive. Still creeping around your father’s house?”
A week ago, that question would’ve hurt her. Now she barely felt a twinge.
His lip curled back and he looked her up and down. “I thought I’d killed you with those two shots, but you seem to be indestructible.”
“How could you do that? We’re on the same side.”
“We have never been on the same side, bitch. And if your pet alien didn’t get in a lucky shot, I would’ve finished you off with a head shot.” He tried to give an unconcerned shrug but he looked like a rabid dog to her. “My bad for wanting to make you suffer first.”
“You hate me that much?” It was unsettling to be hated that much by someone she’d never done any harm to.
“I hate you and your family more than you can imagine. By the time I’m finished with you, you will wish I’d killed you with those shots.”
Rose debated keeping him talking about why he hated her and her family this much, but they needed to know what he was doing on that submarine. “What were you doing inside the submarine? How did you know I would go there?”
He shrugged. “I delivered a message to—”
“What message?” she asked and could’ve kicked herself. She should’ve kept quiet and let him ramble on. He’d keep the information to himself out of sheer spite and even though he’d shot her, she really didn’t want to see Zanr cut off his fingers.
He smirked at her. “You think I won’t tell you, but who are you going to tell when you’re dead?”
Rose lifted her chin. Zanr stood beside her; Morgan might not see him, but Zanr would react long before Morgan could kill or hurt her. But what if he’d been following her a while and seen her with Zanr? Could he have prepared for that somehow? “Have you been following me?”
His laugh was mean and crazy. “I tried, you bitch, but I couldn’t find where you holed up. I have to give it to you. Didn’t think you had it in you to disappear like that.”
She smirked in his face. “Told you I had skills.”
His mouth turned down in an ugly sneer. “I also knew you’d be stupid enough to come back here. Desperate for Daddy’s attention.”
It hurt, knowing he was right. Especially knowing that the man she’d thought was her father all these years didn’t care about her. That he wouldn’t want to see her. “So, what was the message you took to the submarine? Who was it from?”
Morgan shrugged. “No idea who it’s from, but it said to unwrap the gifts as they were received, and that the Ace is off to talk to travellers.”
The gifts could be the bombs they were assembling. But who was the ace and what was a traveller? “What does it mean?”
Morgan shrugged. “Who knows? Probably about the little bombs they’re tinkering with all the time.” He took out a laser pistol. Pointed it at her. “I was going to kill you, but then I changed my mind. I will shoot you, but I won’t kill you. That way I get to hurt you every year.”
She resisted the urge to step back. She needed to stay still so that Zanr could move without having her underfoot if it became necessary. “You’re mad.”
“No, I’m angry. I’m going to enjoy knowing you dread the second of September, every day of your life, for however long you live—not knowing where I am, whether I’ve found you.”
“Why the second of September?”
“That is when your stinking family put her on drugs and killed her.”
“Her?” She could almost hear Zanr tell her not to feel sympathy, to be careful. But it was hard not to feel a little sympathy.
She could see the grief in Morgan’s eyes.
Morgan scrubbed a hand over his face. “My fiancée, the only woman I will ever love.”
Rose stared at Morgan. “You joined Parnell to get at me because of her death? But why did you wait so long? It’s been years?”
He sneered at her. “Your family took the only woman I have ever loved from me. I had nothing left and all the time in the world to make you pay.” He smirked at her. “I enjoyed seeing you go into that hole week after week. I couldn’t believe you were stupid enough to think you were proving yourself. Parnell promised I could have you once he’d broken you.”
She still couldn’t think about Parnell’s betrayal without feeling a deep ache in her heart for the man she’d thought was like a father to her. Maybe she just wasn’t meant to have a father or even father figure in her life. “You believe she got some of the superman crack from my family; even if that’s true, I had nothing to do with it. Why come after me?”
“My plan was to hurt you and through you to hurt them. But imagine my surprise when I realized that your family don’t care if you live or die. In fact, I’d be doing them a favor. And I won’t do your family any kind of favor,” he spat, spittle shooting from his mouth.
Rose searched for the words that would reach him. His grief had obviously driven him crazy. She couldn’t help wondering if he’d had stalker tendencies before his fiancée died. “How did she die?” she asked quietly.
He spat at her feet and she forced herself not to step back. The alien boots would clean off anything that hit her. “Your stinking family advertised for people to join the final testing stage of a drug.”
A chill went down her spine. From what she’d seen on his TC, she’d suspected. But she knew she was going to hear something she’d never wanted to acknowledge—something she’d refused to see while she did her research in the hope of getting the superman crack case. “That isn’t unusual. Many companies do that.”
“Most companies ask for volunteers. Your family offered the kind of money Mary desperately needed.” He stared at the pistol in his hand.
“Did she die from the drugs?” Some people died almost immediately. They and their families were the lucky ones.
He looked briefly at her and then away. “She killed herself when she came off the high of the superman drugs,” he said.
Superman drugs. So it was true, her family had sunk that low. How could her father want to profit from something so heinous? The man who wasn’t her father.
She narrowed her eyes at Morgan who still wasn’t looking her in the eye. Something more was going on here. And suddenly she knew. “You wanted the money—that’s why you made her do the trial. Because you were too much of a coward to do it yourself.” He liked the things money could buy. She remembered him showing off expensive watches and bragging about the car he was going to buy.
She could see she’d hit a nerve. “Shut up, you bitch.” He lifted the laser pistol and aimed it at her head.
“I’m going to do what Parnell always planned to do. Put you out of your misery.”
“That’s not true, Parnell would never kill me,” she protested, but it was more out of habit. It had been a hard thing to do, but she’d accepted that Parnell had never meant to help her. She looked at Morgan, his hatred and bitterness slowly being replaced by pure evil. She was done with this discussion.
“Yes, it is true. Why do you think you have nanites swimming around in your blood?” He aimed for her forehead.
She felt the touch on her shoulder and stepped back, and Zanr stepped forward. It was comforting seeing his broad back in front of her, obscuring Morgan’s crazy face. She’d felt sorry for him, until she’d realized he was the one who’d killed his fiancée with his greed.
“I don’t know where the fuck you came from, alien, but I will shoot you and then kill her slowly.” He suddenly laughed. “On second thought, I won’t shoot her. Let the nanos kill her a little, day by day.”
“Wrong.” Zanr shot him.
Rose stepped around him and stared down at Morgan. “I feel sorry for him. His own greed caused him to go mad when he lost her.” How much pressure did he put on his fiancée to undergo that trial? Why didn’t he do it himself?
“Your heart is too soft. Do you want to see your blood that is not blood?”
Rose turned and stared at the gate with narrowed eyes. “Can you get us past that gate?”
“Of course, inferior human gates cannot keep out a Zyrgin warrior.”
Rose smiled and rolled her eyes, but her heart wasn’t in it. “What if the police come?”
“I have warriors standing by. The police will not interfere.”
Rose didn’t like the sound of that much, but she wanted to get this confrontation over with. She could debate the rights of aliens in her country later.
Zanr took her arm, and they walked up to the guard house where the guards stood outside in the road, watching them. The gate closed behind them.
The three guards drew their pistols when they realized Zanr was determined to go through the gate. Zanr pushed her back. “Stay behind me.”
Zanr stepped forward and slapped the first guard aside before he could even pull the trigger. He flew back and stayed down. The second guard shot Zanr, and Rose screamed. Zanr spun and jumped in one smooth move and kicked the remaining guards in the head. They both crumpled to the floor.
Zanr turned to her and smiled. Swaggering, he walked up to her and took her arm and led her to the gates.
She glared at the gates. “They locked it after themselves when they came out.” What was her father involved in that his guards would be this careful?”
Zanr did that scary-teeth grin and kicked open the gates. He made it look easy, but Rose knew how strong those gates were. This wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get in to see her family.
Chapter Twenty-One
The guard who’d remained on the inside had been watching, and one of them was talking on a TC, probably reporting Morgan’s murder. Or informing her father she had managed to get through the gates. She swallowed.
“Put down your weapons and I will not kill you,” Zanr grated. He was a warrior now, not the man who’d made love to her last night—the man who was so afraid of the nanos in her body.
“Fuck, you freak,” the guard said and managed to release a shot with his laser pistol, but the laser beam bounced harmlessly off Zanr’s uniform. He stepped up to the guard.
“Zanr, no,” she screamed.
He paused and looked at her. “You wish him to remain alive so that he can shoot us in the back?”
“Don’t act as if that’s a problem for you. You’re bulletproof. And you don’t have to kill him. Just make him unconscious.”
He crossed his arms over his chest while the guard sidled closer to the open gate. “What will you give me if I let him live?” He glared at the shaking guard. “If I only make him unconscious.”
Rose stared at him. “I don’t believe you. This is not the time to bargain for—”
Her eyes narrowed. “I really don’t believe this. You’re bargaining for sex with that poor man’s life.”
“Two hours of morning sex,” he said, unrepentant.
Rose shook her head but when he went after the guard, quickly said, “All right, all right. Two hours morning sex.”
“Go away and don’t come back,” Zanr snarled at the man who ran for his life. Rose breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been afraid he’d kill the guard in cold blood.
“Stay behind me,” Zanr said and walked up to the house.
Rose didn’t argue. Before, there had only been two guards outside. Today they’d encountered four. Who knew how many more guards were on the grounds? It was a long walk, and she mostly had to run to keep up with Zanr. At the big, wooden double doors, he raised a fist and hammered on it, and the doors swung back. Broken. The sight of those broken doors upset Rose. It looked too much like her relationship with her family.
“He’d be in hi
s study.” It was Wednesday, and ever since she could remember, her father worked from his home office on that day. “The first door on the left.” She’d never been allowed to go in there when she was a child.
“What the hell is going on here?”
Rose peaked out behind Zanr and saw her father in the doorway of his study.
A smile bloomed inside her at the way Zanr moved to shield her body with his. Never before had she felt the urge to smile when she saw her father. It was like having a warm blanket to guard you against the cold.
“I should’ve known it was you,” her father said, disgust clear in his deep voice.
She fought the urge to cringe away, to apologise for coming to her family home. No, not her father, she reminded herself. That knowledge hurt, but at the same time it was balm on the raw wound in her heart.
“This is the last time I want to see you. I need some answers and then we will part ways,” she told him.
He seemed taken aback, but he bounced back fast. “It wasn’t necessary to bring an alien with you and even less necessary to destroy my home.”
She shrugged and pointed at Zanr. “I thought I’d bring some muscle this time to ensure you listen to me, and he’s bulletproof.” She took a step forward and stumbled, the world tilting around her.
“Are you drunk?” her father said with distaste. “Get out.”
Zanr had her secure before she could fall. She looked up at him, saw the knowledge in his eyes. The nanos just took a little bit more of her. She kept one hand on Zanr to keep her balance and looked at the man in front of her. “No, I need to talk to you.”
The man who wasn’t her father studiously avoided looking at Zanr. As if he knew she was the weak link, he sneered at her. “Your need for my attention is becoming cumbersome. No father wants a daughter who―”
“You are not my father.”
He paled. “Why do you say that?”
Rose pointed a thumb at Zanr again. “He has the technology to do DNA tests with his super-duper alien DNA scanner. It confirmed we’re not related.”
