by Elise Jae
“No, you can’t. But I’m starting to think the rest of it is something broken in me.” Twisting his head to the side with a loud crack, he turns for his bike. He doesn’t look at me. “And you can’t fix that either.”
Arc stops beside me, his jaw twitching, and hands me a metal card. “You can’t say I’m not trying.”
I look at the address. I don’t recognize the name, but I don’t need to. There’s only one person it could be.
“I’m not going to see him.”
Again, Arc’s jaw twitched and he drew in a long breath. “You should.”
“No. If he doesn’t want you, then I don't want him.”
When he looks at me—and this time, he does—his brow is wrinkled in confusion. “I—I have to go.”
And he does.
TWENTY-ONE
JESSICA
“Before I forget,” I say, going to the table by the door. “I have something for you.”
“A present?” Laurel asks, excited.
“Not quite.” I pluck a bottle from the small box I’ve collected them in and hand them around.
While working on the monsters, I found this acid compound. It eats away their tissues.”
“Gross.” Andrea said, suspiciously eyeing the bottle in her hand.
“Yes, but effective. It’s the same acid that eats away the part of their brain when they die.”
“Is it dangerous?” Kimba asks, she’s already put the bottle in her bag.
“To us, no. To the monsters, yes. But, be careful where you spray this. It also burns sian skin.”
“How’d you figure it out.”
“Don’t ask that!” Laurel shoots a panicked glance at Kimba. “We don’t have time for a lecture!”
Andrea winces at me. “Are you really studying a corpse.”
“Do you want to see?”
Only Andrea declines. “I believe you. And I don’t think I have the stomach for that.”
Handing her baby over, Cindy is the last to join me at the door, and I find myself holding my breath as we cross the garage.
“I’ve always wondered what the butcher shop looked like.”
It reminds me a little too much of how Arc thinks of this place. But I ignore it.
“Please view specimen number four hundred and ninety-five, piece F.”
“Is that a leg?”
“Yes.”
“Who wants to do the honors?”
Laurel quickly says, “Dibs!”
When we look at her she shrugs. “As the only one in the room who’s had to face one of these things one on one…. I feel like I’m owed.”
“Okay, remember, they’re like mace cans. For this test, you only need to do a quick burst. Think… perfume.”
“I can do that.”
She presses the plunger in a quick burst, and steps back as though the limb is going to jump off the tray.
There’s a sizzling sound, and it starts to eat away the flesh immediately.
“That is so gross,” Kimba says, not taking her eyes off of it.
“Yes, it is. But it’s something we didn’t have before.” Laurel caps her spray and sticks it in her pocket.
“Maybe we should go back inside.” Cindy says, shivering, eyes locked on the creature.
I imagine she’s more anxious about her baby than she is about getting away from the monsters. And as soon as we get back inside, she scoops the child out of Andrea’s arms.
“Was it as gross as I think it was?”
Nodding, Cindy says, “Definitely.”
She scrunches her nose. “Then I’m glad I stayed in here.”
“You are, however, going to have to see this picture.” I grab the small tablet from the counter and flip the TV on, mirroring it to the pad so I can bring up the picture I snapped of Trench’s arm.
“This, is why you don’t want it anywhere near your bondmates, the brotherhood, or your children.”
Shivering, Andrea grimaces. “No offense, but I think I’m ready to leave.”
“Laurel?” Cindy asks, bouncing the baby and making big-smiling faces. “Do you want a ride?”
“That’d be great. It’ll give me a chance to surprise Richter again…. It’s remarkably hard to do.”
“Try it with a guy who can see everything.” Kimba’s low laugh echoes from her glass as she takes a sip.
But she packs up her things as well. And as much fun as the past three hours have been, I am looking forward to having Trench back.
I help them with their coats and—even though I’m just stepping outside to come back in—I grab a bottle of the acid.
Lucky thing too.
Kimba is one step down, the others are half in the doorway when I hear it.
“Back inside!”
The monster lunges.
I don’t think, I just spray.
With a painful screech, the thing bucked back on its hind legs, screeching and thrashing.
And then, it stops.
It fell to the snow streaked cobbles with a sickening thud, and Kimba, gun drawn—I don’t ask where she had it—walks slowly toward it.
I follow at as close of a distance as possible, searching everywhere for a second one, waiting to pounce. But it was alone.
And then it was her turn to watch out for a second creature as I squatted down and looked at the damage my serum had wrought.
“This many of us all together…” Kimba shivered, “I shouldn’t be surprised it attacked.”
“None of us should be.”
I know I should drag it inside. Know I shouldn’t expose either of us like this, but….
As with every other one, the head was a mess… but it was a mess of my making. The thing that usually killed them when they were about to be captured or when they died… that was still there.
“It looks like it was waiting over there for us.” Kimba is glaring at the side of the house. “Just out of camera range.”
I look up at her. From her expression I know she likes it less than I do.
Pulling out the gloves I crumpled into my pocket hours ago, I pick through the brain matter, and pull the small, dark device out and turn it onto my palm.
Shaped like a sort of diamond, it’s not natural. I’m certain of that.
“It’s like a computer chip.” Kimba squints at it as I hold it up. “Bioorganic circuitry.”
“I didn’t realize they had that on this planet. Not to this extent anyway.”
“They don’t… or at least, they don’t have anything that’s common knowledge. I’ll have to ask D if there’s something he’s seen that would explain all of this.”
“Let’s get the others in their car and headed home. They’ve got enough to stress over.” I don’t include her in that, solely because she’s in charge.
And we do.
All three are freaked out, and rightly so. Before I know it, they’re gone, and Kimba and I have gotten back inside.
We both breathe a little easier when the door is closed behind us and the cameras show the car heading out onto the highway.
“That was an intense way to end the night.”
“I agree.” I’m still looking at the chip. “But I don’t think my night’s over yet.”
“No, it isn’t. I’ll set up a meeting for tomorrow morning. We have to talk about this. And that.” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “I’m going to contact the guys now. Make sure they’re home… or are as close to being on their way home as possible.”
I watch her walk to the wall screen, and then, all of my attention goes back to the chip in my hand.
Something very strange—very wrong—is going on here.
TRENCH
There’s a dead monster in my driveway when I get home, and the only reason I don’t tear the door off the hinges to get to her is that I can feel her calm. Whatever happened. It’s over. The spike of adrenaline I’d felt on the drive home had passed before I’d even turned off the highway.
When I get inside, she’s at the
table, studying something under one of her machines, and Kimba is disconnecting a call.
“Good. You’re back. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”
“Wait,” Jess said, turning sharply away from her work. “That’s why you’re still here?”
Kimba shrugs and shoots her a smile. “I could have made those calls from the car.”
Jess glares at her and then shakes her head, coming to wrap her arms around my waist and squeeze me tight. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
Kimba has started toward the front door and Jess sharply says, “No you don’t.” Before letting go of me. “Make sure she gets to her car okay. And then, make sure you get back inside without being eaten.”
I hesitate but do as Jess tells me to. Watching the surrounds as Kimba makes her way to her car.
“This is the second one that’s gotten through without tripping the sensors.”
“We need to figure that out.” Kimba throws her bag in across the seats and turns to me with a scowl, but she doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t get in after it.
“Should I wait to ask her what happened?”
Grimacing, Kimba fills me in.
I’m oddly calm as she heads down the drive and I close the front door behind me.
Jess looks up from her machine and winces, a flicker of… trepidation flutters through me.
Clasping her hands in front of her, she looks like a child about to be chastened. “Now that she’s gone are you going to yell at me for not calling you right away?”
“No. You did exactly what I expected. Exactly what we talked about. There would have been nothing more for me to do that I can’t do now.”
She doesn’t look convinced. “I—and the others—learned a long time ago that you can’t avoid danger indefinitely. And as long as you make it through….”
I shrug and she glances back over her shoulder. “Did Kimba tell you what we found?”
“Sort of.”
“Well, I know she didn’t tell you this.” She takes my hand and tugs me over to the table. “This chip is like a remote-control module.”
“Why didn’t it blow up.”
“I think the serum stopped it.” She holds the thing up, disconnecting it from the device. “But the more important thing about it, is that the information and encoding? That’s all sian.”
“Meaning….” I don’t like where this is going.”
“Someone. Somewhere, is controlling the monsters.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” Her eyes widen, and she shoves to her feet. “But we need to go look at something.”
I follow her downstairs, wondering what’s popped into that beautiful brain of hers.
When she looks at the scanner’s data screen, swiping through menu options, her face pinches in concentration until she finds what she needs to know.
When she does, she looks up at me, eyes brightly reflecting the screen. “We have a problem….”
I read over the data, stomach twisting with each word. This is big… and it’s something we need to let the others know.
I don’t say anything else before I use the same screen she used to call me earlier.
When Drift answers, he doesn’t look happy.
I’m not happy either.
“You need to call an emergency meeting. Now. Not tomorrow. Jess figured something out that concerns us all.”
TWENTY-TWO
JESSICA
We get to Drift and Kimba’s before most of the others, but Cindy and Core are already there, and Cindy comes straight to me.
The ordeal of leaving my home hasn’t affected her, if her bright smile is any clue.
“Hey, cutie pie.” Cindy says, giving me an awkward side hug. “How goes the baby making?”
“We put that on hold.” I nod toward the garage. “Trench stopped by the chemist. I am not ready to join the rest of you.”
“Good. It’s better that you know that now.” She walks past me and sets her bag on the couch “Is Laurel not here yet?”
“Nope. She said something about Richter having surprised her and needing a couple more minutes to get out the door.
Cindy snorts. “Then they’re fucking.”
I hold up my hands. “I don’t want to know.”
“Sorry, only child. I don’t really understand the dynamics of sibling stuff.” Cindy moves away as Andrea and her bondmate… whose name I will someday remember… come in.
Core—holding their child like it’s going to break if he breathes too hard—has distracted Trench. Whatever they’re talking about, Trench is quiet, I can feel him thinking.
“You’ve got the others in a frenzy.” Kimba’s smiling, but her tone is just as stressed as I expect. “Pretty sure the only thing keeping them from rushing to ask what’s going on is that Drift would throw them out in the snow, and they’d have to wait to hear it second hand.”
I glance back to the door as it opens again, and Laurel comes in—face pleasantly flushed—followed closely by Ric. A quick glance around and I count… the gang’s all here.
Kimba hands me a glass of wine, but before I can thank her, Shock’s confused scowl catches my attention.
“How is it possible you’re not pregnant yet?”
They’d known we’d bonded for less than a full day and they were already on this? “Because I don’t want to be.”
He doesn’t look happy about that answer, but he says something to Kimba and draws her away from me…. So that Arc can move in.
If I wasn’t still annoyed with him, I might have applauded their efforts.
“I don’t think we’ll have much time to speak, and I doubt I’ll have this chance again.” Arc looks toward the other side of the room as though he expects Trench to charge across and rend him limb from limb. “I need to apologize to you. Even if it doesn’t fix what’s broken between me and my brother… I let my fear and past issues cloud my judgement when it came to you. It was unfair, and I am sorry. I’m trying to get past what happened to us, but… it’s not easy.”
I consider letting him twist. Consider the way it felt the first time his name was mentioned after our bonding.
But I can’t do that.
“Having me around isn’t going to be painless. But I hope it gets easier. And soon.” For all of our sakes.
I feel Trench’s tension, and I look at him across the room.
I don’t say goodbye to Arc as I go to him, and he doesn’t ask me what we talked about.
But we’re all here, and I know we don’t have time for that anyway.
Kimba is the one who calls everyone to silence, and turns to me.
“Right.” I don’t look at them as I move to the front. “I’m not going to waste our time…. We have a serious problem.” I pull up the scans and look at them instead of the people assembled behind me. “The modifications made to your DNA… are what created these.”
Just saying it out loud makes my skin crawl. Trench and I both read the data, twice. But it’s the first time it’s been spoken aloud.
“Your Maker… made the monsters as well.”
I’m met with silence, and I finally look at them. Most are confused. Three, Arc included, look genuinely scared.
“The changes to their eyes are near to indistinguishable from the data I have on Drift’s. They run hot, like you three.” I point at Arc and the two men who are always nearby at these meetings. “The reason they’re so hard to kill is that they heal on a similar level to Richter.”
“And they’re just as strong as Trench.”
“Stronger,” He says from his seat near me. He’s watching me, not looking at the others.
“So, our Maker made them…” Drift glares at the images. “How does that help us?”
“I think you’ve misjudged their cognition.” I almost glance at Trench, but I don’t need to look at him to feel his support anymore. “From what little I can tell from their brains… they might not have the ability to make the judgement calls and reasoning that th
ey’d require to specifically hunt only women and children.”
“I trapped one.” Arc isn’t exactly looking at me when he says it. “It knew it was going to die… and it did not want to.”
“They’re being controlled.” I don’t have to hedge that statement. I know it’s true.
“But the Maker is dead.” Arc says it so forcefully, it occurs to me he might have preferred to not have gotten an answer to this particular question.
“Maybe,” Richter says with a shrug—though he looks anything but ambivalent. “We assumed the body burned when his lab blew up, but there wasn’t any definitive proof.”
Arc, Shock, and Risk share a look. They know more than they’re saying, but bringing it up now, here, won’t get us anywhere.
“So, what are you actually saying?”
“I’m saying you have to find another plan. You have to go on the offensive. Reacting to these monsters isn’t enough. You’re not fighting them… you’re fighting the person who’s sending them after you…. And if you can deal with him, you can stop killing these poor creatures that have been weaponized.”
I pull the chip out of my pocket and hold it out for them to see. “This is your first clue.”
Handing it over to Kimba, I move to Trench’s side, snugging up against him, desperately wanting to go home.
“Soon,” he says, his voice so soft I could believe I’d imagined it.
We have a lot more to figure out… but we’ll figure it out together.
The Shadow Zone Brotherhood series concludes with: Alien Captive.
A crashed ship, an abducted woman, and the three sian men who will do anything to save her… even if they cannot save themselves.
The secret of the caldera’s monsters comes to light with gnashing teeth and decades old chains.
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for reading my book! I hope you loved it as much as I loved writing it. To help me continue writing books like this one, please recommend this book to your friends, or leave a review to help perfect strangers find it. Every little bit helps keep me in a position to add more interstellar romance to our little blue planet.
