I smirked. “But I have everything I came here with.”
Leid didn’t smile. “Whatever would I do without your incessant comic relief?”
“Probably shrivel up and die.”
“You think I’m boring?”
“You actually care what I think?”
She looked away. “No.”
“Then yeah, you’re boring.”
Leid opened her mouth to reply, but we heard, “Al!”
Sigh.
I turned, spotting Brigan approaching us. “You two leavin’ already?” he asked, winded from the four steps he’d run.
“Yeah,” I said.
“I hate to ask since I know you two are in a hurry, but I was wonderin’ if either of you knew anything about generators?”
“What makes you think we’d know about that?”
“Don’t know; you guys talk all smart and stuff. Thought maybe you might know somethin’ about it.”
I grinned. “You’re right. I do.”
Leid glared at me. I ignored her.
“Well ours broke down about a month back and the mechanic that used to live here died. I was hopin’ maybe you could take a look and see if you can figure out what’s wrong. I hate to trouble you folks but without the generator we don’t have any heat in the evenings, and our young ones catch ill often ‘cuz of it.”
Wow, he played the child card. Nicely done.
I glanced at Leid, relaying my sympathy.
“Fine,” she muttered. “Make it quick.”
***
The generator was hidden in a roofless shack that looked like it was about to collapse at any second. The contraption itself was pretty rusted; and it wasn’t even a conventional generator.
It was a rudimentary direct current circuit, connected to a battery. I found the battery, but I couldn’t find the source of its power.
“Where’s your power source?”
“Where’s the what?” Brigan asked, confused.
“What do you use to power this thing?” I talked really slow this time, as if he was retarded.
“Uh, the generator?”
I clenched my jaw. “This isn’t even a generator, you know.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“…Nothing. How does the generator work? What powers it?”
“Oh!” Brigan exclaimed. I pictured his brain as a flickering light bulb. “The suns, of course. That’s the only way it can be done.”
Ah, so it was a solar powered battery. That actually didn’t help me at all, since now I needed to figure out why it wasn’t working. I dug through the wires, looking for the source of the short. I found it only a minute later. One of the wires was frayed. Holding it up to my face, I inspected it.
Not frayed. Cut. Someone had cut this and wanted it to look frayed.
“Do you have anything to bind these wires with?” I asked.
“Like tape?”
I was surprised that this world had any. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I need.”
“One second.”
Brigan scampered off. He returned several minutes later with a roll of black tape. I began binding the wires, deciding it was time to pry. “Lucrecia said there was no one else living around here.”
“Yep. No one’s been around here for a decade.”
Alright, so I’d already established that he was lying.
“Not a single person?”
“No one.”
“So no one might live north, toward the ruins?”
This time Brigan hesitated with a response. He was beginning to get the idea that I knew something. “As I said, no one lives around these parts anymore.” His tone had been a lot colder than before.
I nodded and rose to my feet, brushing the dirt from my pants. “Well, it’s done.”
As if on cue, the machine began to whir.
Brigan clapped. “I can’t thank you enough!”
Honestly I had no idea why he was thanking me. He was the one who had cut the wire. When he left to fetch the tape, I remembered seeing smoke and lights last night before we’d arrived in town. But that didn’t make sense. Why had he broken his own generator and then asked me to fix it?
Unless he was stalling for time.
I moved by him, muttering you’re welcome, and returned to the street.
“Hey, wait!” Brigan called after me. I didn’t stop. “Why don’t you stay for lunch at least? It wouldn’t be right if I sent you two off on empty stomachs.”
“No thanks,” I said.
Townsfolk began emerging from their homes; all of them were armed. I knew what was about to happen. I kept walking as the crowd formed a semi-circle at my back. Leid was in view, looking behind me. I didn’t need to glance over my shoulder to determine what was going on. It was written all over her face. I heard a click.
“Stop right there.”
I froze, still looking at Leid. She saw the darkness on my face and shook her head, like that would stop me from what I was planning to do.
Alezair, no.
Sorry, Leid. I wasn’t going to let this one go.
I turned around, my expression a façade of surprise, and held up my hands. “What’s going on?”
“I haven’t really been honest with you,” Brigan said, taking several steps closer. His gun stayed on me. “You two are good people, but I have to do this.”
My eyes drifted over the silent crowd. “And what exactly do you have to do?”
“Reavers are coming to pick you up in half an hour,” he explained. “Believe me, I never wanted this, but if it means another day that my daughter won’t be their lunch then so be it. Like I said, this town’s priority.”
Ah, so the Iyze were still around. I figured as much.
“Is that how you gather your supplies? Trading off your own people?”
Their silence was confirmation enough.
Alezair, Leid pleaded. Let’s just leave. They can’t hurt us.
I ignored her. She was right; they couldn’t hurt us. But I could hurt them, and I wanted to.
To their surprise, I began to laugh. It even surprised me, since I’d never laughed like that before. It sounded sinister.
Brigan stared at me while the townsfolk shared worried looks.
“Since you just claimed moral ambiguity to your crimes, I’m going to give you the chance to put down your guns,” I announced, feeling my lip curl. “You have twenty seconds.”
“Is that so?” Brigan challenged. “What happens after twenty seconds?”
“Why don’t you hold on to that gun and find out?”
The courage in Brigan’s eyes waned. “How are you expectin’ this to play out? You won’t have time to draw your gun before I pull my trigger.”
I smirked, walking toward him. “My gun could be fifty feet away and I’d still be able to pull its trigger before you could pull yours.”
There was no trace of confidence left on his face. I didn’t know if he thought I was insane for moving toward the barrel of his gun, or if he actually believed me, but the moron still didn’t lower the weapon. Hey, at least I tried.
“Stop right there!” he shouted, shaking the gun.
I kept walking.
“If you don’t stop, I’ll shoot! Don’t be stupid, boy!”
I shrugged. “Then shoot.”
And he did. There was a deafening crack as the bullet left the chamber. It hit me in the center of the chest, puncturing my heart, pushing blood up my trachea. I staggered, crimson fluid oozing from my lips. For a second I feigned mortal fear, but then stopped and smiled.
Brigan dropped the gun.
“Nice shot,” I commended.
“W-What…?” he cried, backing up. “H-How?!”
Alezair! Leid screamed in my head. Stand down now!
I spun to her, snarling. “WILL YOU PLEASE, PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP?!”
Leid said nothing else, abashed. The others watched on, horrified. They didn’t know she’d been squawking in my head this whole time. They proba
bly thought I was crazy.
I looked back at Brigan. “I should apologize.” My scythes unleashed, spraying fingers and gore across my boots. “I haven’t really been honest with you, either.”
He opened his mouth to scream, and I lunged at him in a blur. Before he could make a sound, his head was soaring through the air in a spray of blood.
XVII
FRAILTY
RED, RED, RED.
A dozen bodies lay at my feet. The screams of my prey gave me power.
Red, red, red
Doused in their blood, I slaughtered anything that moved. Their pain was like ambrosia.
Red, red, red
I laughed as their bullets sprayed my body. I felt like a god.
I felt like a god.
***
A wail pierced the air and I turned. Lucrecia was storming toward me, rifle in hand. “You killed my husband, you monster!”
The first bullet pierced my arm; the second grazed my cheek. I didn’t let her fire a third. I whirred in front of her, knocking the gun from her hands. She collapsed at my feet, sobbing violently. I raised my scythe over my head, preparing to strike.
“No!”
A little girl ran between us. Lucrecia’s daughter, Corinth.
She dove in front of her mother, eyes flooding with tears. “Please! Please don’t!”
The darkness lifted, the veil of red slid away from my sight. I looked over the mangled carcasses basking in the hot desert sun, displayed for all to see. I couldn’t believe I’d done that. The feeling of power had turned to disgust.
My scythe lowered.
I turned, walking toward the edge of town with a tired look. Leid hadn’t moved since the massacre began. Conviction burned in her eyes, and I evaded them, staring at my feet.
Behind me, Lucrecia scrambled to a stand, hands balling into fists. “What are you?!” she screamed.
“A monster, like you said.”
Leid and I began for the mountain pass, and Lucrecia’s sobs faded into the distance. I didn’t want to think about what would happen to the rest of that town when the Reavers showed up and found them empty handed. Wasn’t my problem. And it didn’t matter anyway; Collea was doomed. Their planet was dying.
***
Leid ignored me for hours. That was okay, because I didn’t feel like talking.
The mountain pass led to a narrow cave. The passage wound in circles and the walls were covered in shimmering diamonds, lighting our path. We walked for what seemed like an eternity in tense silence. I didn’t think these tunnels would ever end.
Leid stopped, and I stopped ten feet behind her.
She turned, and her expression was imperceptible. In the blink of an eye she was in front of me, and before I could react her hand struck the side of my face with a deafening clap. I staggered into the wall, bashing my head.
“You fucking bastard,” she said through her teeth, striking me again. Clearly she’d been stewing all this time. “How could you have done that?!”
All I did was stand there and take it. Leid exhausted herself and turned, burying her face in her hands. “How could you?” she whispered again.
My expression softened as I watched her battle tears. She’d split my lip and broken my nose, but they were only flesh wounds. Had she wanted, Leid could have done much worse. “I’m sorry.”
I shouldn’t have said anything. The sound of my voice rekindled her fury. She stared at me with blood tears streaming down her face. Vel’Haru cried blood whenever they were really sad or really angry. In Leid’s case, she was both.
“You’re sorry?! That’s all you can say after you slaughtered those people like they were nothing?!”
“They were going to kill us!”
“We could have escaped and you knew that! You knew that and you didn’t care! You’d rather kill them!”
“Don’t expect me to be sorry for killing people who trade off their own like cattle!”
“They’re scared, Alezair! They’ve been scared for decades! They’re prey!”
I couldn’t argue anymore; I didn’t have a counterargument because I knew she was right. All I did was look away.
Leid shook her head, wiping her eyes. “This was a mistake.”
“What was?”
“Everything. You. You were a mistake.”
That had actually stung. “You regret meeting me?”
She didn’t respond, turning her back.
I snarled, grabbing her arm and making her face me. “Answer my question. You can’t say something like that and walk off.”
Leid pulled away, hissing. “Don’t touch me. You’re disgusting.”
I grabbed her again. For some reason she wasn’t fighting me as hard as she could have. I pinned her against the wall, eyes burning into hers.
“Say it,” I whispered. “Come on. Say you wish you never met me.”
Leid only breathed, battling something inside.
“You think I’m a monster, don’t you?”
Her eyes widened. They searched my face.
“Well you’re right; I feel like one. I can’t explain what happened back there. I lost it. It’s been happening more and more lately, and I don’t know—”
Leid pulled my head down, pressing her lips against mine.
I froze as her tongue slid over my teeth, begging for entry. She dug her fingers into my hair, pulling me closer. We kissed violently, our hands all over each other. She pulled away and my lips grazed her neck, sucking hungrily as she hissed with pleasure, throwing back her head.
I lifted Leid off the ground, using the wall for leverage. She slid her legs around my hips while her fingers groped my chest beneath my shirt. Her nails raked across my skin, making me shudder.
But then she was fighting me.
“No!” she cried, struggling out of my grasp. “No, stop!”
I let go of her, confused.
She leaned against the wall, breathing heavy, face still flushed from arousal. “Alezair, I’m... I didn’t—”
“You didn’t what?”
“That…that wasn’t right. It was wrong.”
Anger. “Are you seriously going to do this to me? After all that?”
“I’m sorry; I know that was my fault. But it can’t be like this. It just can’t, okay?”
I laughed, hiding the hurt. “Yeah, that’s fine. Guess I’m not really your type anyway.”
Her expression hardened. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not a demon, right?”
Leid’s jaw clenched. She pushed past me, proceeding through the tunnel. “Hurry up. We’re already a day behind.”
Fucking cock-tease.
She wanted me; it was written all over her face, even when she told me to stop. Why had she even shoved her tongue down my throat to begin with? We’d been in the middle of a fight.
The cave ended half a mile later and Leid crouched on the ledge of the mouth, surveying the scenery. We stood on a cliff that overlooked an enormous city; a ziggurat palace lay at its heart.
I squinted, unable to believe my eyes. After seeing the rest of this world, I didn’t think we’d come across such a thriving place.
“Welcome to Alatonia,” Leid said, staring at the metropolis below. “The Iyze capital.”
“Iyze,” I repeated.
“Yes.”
“That’s the Iyze capital?”
“Yes.”
“So this whole time you knew where the Iyze were?”
“Yes.”
“And what are we going to do, just walk in?”
Leid smiled. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Without another word she leapt off the cliff, jumping from rock to rock across the ledge until she reached the ground.
And she had the nerve to call me reckless.
***
Alatonia was beautiful.
The sleek marble streets were decorated with signs etched from sparkling stones, domiciles covered in hanging vines, carriages pulled by
beasts that were bird-reptile combinations—no feathers yet bipedal with long, taloned feet—and merchant stands selling nuts and fruits and glass vases and meats and practically anything else you could think of.
But the city’s most astonishing feature was its inhabitants. They looked human. Leid wasn’t exaggerating when she’d said the Sheken were prey. It seemed the Iyze were the dominating form of intelligence on this planet. Each world only had one for whatever reason. There was always one species that prevailed over any other.
As human as they looked there was also a common phenotype: black hair, tan skin, eyes like coal. Needless to say we stuck out like sore thumbs.
The Sheken made the Iyze sound like barbaric killing machines, yet the truth appeared as anything but. They were people of culture and civilization, wearing tunics and hides and stone-crafted jewelry. But as primitive as this all sounded, guards stationed along the streets were holding rifles. Imagine Babylon with firearms. Pretty confusing.
And these aforementioned guards followed us with their eyes as we walked through street after street, marketplace after marketplace. They wore frowns of suspicion, knowing we were outsiders, but none stopped us. They just let us pass on by.
“Care to tell me what’s going?” I whispered, side-stepping a group of laughing children as they barreled down the street.
“Not really,” she muttered.
“What’s your problem now?”
“My problem is that we could have skipped over Collea and rested here. This has always been our destination.”
“Oh, and I was magically supposed to know that?”
“Perhaps if you’d stopped whining in the desert for a moment and asked me, I would have told you.”
“Why should I have to ask? We’re in this together. You should have told me.”
For once I won the argument. I knew I’d won because she didn’t say anything else.
Leid led me out of the market and into the center of the city. We were approaching the ziggurat palace, guarded by a tall marble wall. Its gated entrance was protected by guards. Unsurprisingly, Leid walked up to the guards.
Just as we made it to the gate, it opened. A man wearing a scarlet robe and black leather armor slipped through. He spoke to the guards and then his attention drifted toward us. His eyes settled on Leid. They widened.
“Yesam,” she said, nodding a greeting.
The Antithesis- The Complete Pentalogy Page 16
