"Try it, s.h.i.t-for-brains," Tiff said in her droll way and Bry groaned in the background.
I knew Tiff would finally have a consequence for her actions. None of us guys could help her.
Gary narrowed his eyes on her. "Men, get her and string her up with the other females."
John began to move toward Tiff and I shook my head.
I had an idea and Terran frowned. I gave him a subtle look to let him know I had something up my sleeve and he nodded.
Bry railed at them, fighting Alex. "Don"t you f.u.c.kin" touch her!" he bellowed, spit flying from his mouth. The males came forward, Tiff crouched in readiness. The first one that got close got a foot right in the b.a.l.l.s for his trouble.
Can anyone say Do Over?
I would"ve given my left nut to see that again.
Gramps gave a grunt of satisfaction as the guy went down like the sack of s.h.i.t he was. Then the other three moved in. Tiff was wily, twisting her wrist viciously as one grabbed her, snapping the flat of her palm into his nose with her free hand.
"Argh!" he cried, staggering back as blood sprayed like a fire hydrant, coating the two that had grabbed the back of her hoodie in a strangle hold.
Tiff let herself drop, the sudden dead weight of her caused the two of the fragment to momentarily loosen their hold and she snapped her leg up and out, into the gut of the nearest one and the breath whooshed out of his belly as he stumbled back.
Huh, she was totally workin" it.
"Kick their a.s.s, Tiff!" Jonesy screamed as he moved toward her for back up.
"No Jones!" I screamed and looked in horror as Howie came from behind her and the Zondorae brother closest to him said in a low and controlled voice, "Subdue her."
"With pleasure," Howie said and Tiff"s eyes grew big in her face as she began to lose her breath, the fourth fragment strangling her with her hood. Even I felt something shift when he commanded, "Sleep," sliding a finger down her cheek as he did.
Her eyes grew hazy and her mouth slackened, the gum falling out to the ground before she did, only to be caught in his waiting arms as she fell.
Howie Frazier shrugged. "That was too easy boys, next time, give me a challenge," he said, looking once at Jade. Brett gave me an uneasy stare back.
Joe strode over to where I stood, two fragment holding each one of my arms. Rearing back, he sank a sucker-punch into my gut. I was ready and clenched my abs but it still stole most of my breath.
He hadn"t held back a thing, giving me all that he had.
The p.r.i.c.k.
"Ah man! That was a cheap shot ya doofus!" Jonesy said.
He gave Jonesy a look and smiled. "I"ve been wanting to do that for a year," Joe Zondorae said.
"A year?" John said as I stood, bent and gasping, Gramps fuming but unable to help beside me.
Joe looked at John. "I said, my good Null, that time moves faster here than in our world." Then he looked at me as I stood, holding onto my stomach. "That"s right, it"s been a year since you dumped us here to live off the fat of the land. But we didn"t waste time, we"ve been extremely ambitious. Right, Gary?"
Gary Zondorae nodded. "Oh yes. We have all the paranormals we need. And none with a bit of integrity to get in the way of our wants."
Howie interrupted, "Where do ya want her?"
"Tie her against the stand," he answered and that"s when I noticed five posts sunk into the wood of the platform.
One for each girl.
The girls ran to our guys, screaming as they did and the brothers just smiled.
I was seething, looking at Joe and Gary. "I"ll kill you," I said in a low voice that shook with resolution, promise.
And I knew I would. Somehow, they would die, had to die.
Gary smirked at my threat, dismissing it. "No you won"t. You"re going to be too busy watching your little female get sold to the highest bidder. The dead aren"t at your command anymore."
"You"re just a regular guy here, Hart." His stare stayed on me, smiling.
"Candy a.s.s," Gramps said and Gary frowned at him.
Joe added, "This is better than we could have hoped for. Sophia Morris has been a problem ever since it came to our attention that she witnessed Parker"s little raising of the French Prime minister. And Jade LeClerc... well, she"s another matter entirely. If we could get rid of her, and we almost did," his eyes met mine, "then we could have destabilized you completely."
"Wait a second," I said, regaining my breath as Howie began tying Tiff against a two meter tall wood post, her unconscious head lolling from side to side as he wrapped her against it. I swung my gaze from the disturbing image of Tiff being contained, hearing the soft crying of Mia, Sophie and Randi behind me.
"How in the blue h.e.l.l did you do anything... from here?" I asked, trying to make sense of the madness.
They smiled, but it was Joe that responded, "We always had a plan B if there was anything that was happening to us. It always included you, Caleb Hart."
"Why?" I bellowed. Why was I so effing important?
"Without you, we will continue, our agency will move forward with our collective vision."
I looked at them, then I swung my face to Parker. "I didn"t sign on for this. I wouldn"t have ever endangered Jade," I looked at the others, "my friends."
"It"s all part of it, Caleb," Parker said, his eyes telling me something. But I wasn"t psychic.
"What?"
Joe smiled. "A race of people that we control. Through their paranormal abilities. People like Howie will make that possible." Howie heard his name and tipped an imaginary hat.
"Wait a second?" I looked at Howie then the Zondorae brothers.
"Howie"s yours? What... your experiment?"
"I told you he was Kyle"s son," Gary said with reproach that was directed at Joe. He tapped his head, "Smart."
Joe frowned, not answering. "Yes. We"ve made the Manipulatives. They follow our directives only."
"Well, doesn"t that put all your eggs in one basket, fellas?" Gramps said, out of a mouth that was missing a tooth.
And suddenly I knew what the answer was. Kill the brothers, save the world. We couldn"t have their Manipulative puppets loosed on our world. They"d force the paranormals to do their bidding. And with those two, it wouldn"t be anything good.
It would be for gain.
Graysheets to the core.
I looked at Jabez, the hybrid Null, a guy that, thanks to the Zondoraes, now had a special ability to shut down two five-point AFTDs. I looked at where Brett was getting his a.s.s handed to him as they tore a non-lucid Jade from his arms. She was ranting, "Caleb, make them stop... I know I"m here because of you!" she accused, lashing her head from side to side, not making sense, not even trying.
I had never wanted to protect her more than I did in that moment. But instead I watched as they took the girl I loved, really a woman now, to the auction block to be sold to a bunch of guys so she could be systematically raped and bred in this horrible world of degradation. My palms began to sweat and my heart slammed into my ribcage with the effort it took not to go to her and beat them until they stopped breathing. My hands were slick and tight with it.
The want. Death Intent surely formed in my very being. Born in that moment.
I didn"t realize I had moved forward until Elise touched my forearm and gave a gentle shake of her head, the arms that bound me had dropped. What threat was I now? With a hundred fragment, no dead to use, more fragment on the way for their disgusting flesh market.
The odds were as bad as I"d ever seen them.
"Hart," Brett croaked from the ground.
It broke my attention from them dragging Jade off as she screamed for help. Not mine, but anyone.
It broke my heart, shattering it as I stood there, rage and hopelessness twining with perfect synchronicity.
I looked at Brett, bleeding and broken on the ground. "Yeah," I responded.
"Don"t let "em."
I stared down at him. "Do you know what they"re gonna do?"
"I"ll bid on her myself," Howie broke in.
"Shut up!" Brett screamed at him and Howie leaped off the stage made for the express purpose of flesh trade. He stalked over to where Brett lay and kicked him in the ribs.
"Hey!" I yelled.
Howie gave me a cursory glance then pinned his attention on Brett, where he lay gasping like a fish. Broken ribs will do that to a guy. "Do you think those were my parents? My real family?" He laughed. "h.e.l.l no, this is my home. I always knew I"d come back. But I"m a soldier for both worlds and I will have Jade. In fact," his eyes met mine, "I might make it a public affair. Yeah, that would be mighty fine. A team effort, eh?"
I broke free then, startling the two that had been beside me, they reached for me too late. I ran at Howie full speed, my heels kicking my own a.s.s as I launched myself toward him. He opened his mouth to give one of his special commands, but it was lost as he ate my knuckles. I reared back and got four stabbing punches in before the fragment pulled me off him.
He lay there, out cold and as I was dragged away I found Sophie"s eyes and gave her a look I hoped she interpreted. My plan had started. Now, to see if she got what I was trying to say. If she was lucid enough for execution.
She did, running to me, so frightened she slipped twice. The fragment completely dismissed her. Their gravest mistake so far.
Sophie grabbed my arm and ducked as the fragment tried to sweep her off of me. "Get me to the Null on my signal," I said with quiet urgency. Too quiet for those around us to hear. Her eyes widened and she nodded as they grabbed her around the waist and hauled her to the platform.
The first of the foreign fragment came, their low murmurings of excitement all for the display of new females on the platform.
Four of the fragment held me as I watched helplessly like the other guys, as our girls were hogtied to the posts. Their hands bound above their bodies, feet at shoulder width apart, tied to bra.s.s loops in the flooring.
Tiff began to waken and was greeted by over fifty filthy faces. All of them looking at her. She began to buck but it didn"t matter, she was tightly secured. She looked at me and said, "Caleb..."
"I know," I said in a low voice.
Joe narrowed his eyes on me. "What did you say to the girl?"
"What can I do, Zondorae?" I asked, spreading my hands wide, palms up like I was harmless.
We both knew I wasn"t. Maybe at one time I"d been, but no more. Life had taught me that.
And death.
"Yes, Caleb... what can you do?" he chuckled, his arrogance forcing his agreement. Turning away I hid a smile that Gramps caught.
He lifted the side of his swollen lip. "That"s my boy," he whispered.
I grinned suddenly and Parker nodded. He knew more than he was letting on. But, I knew that somehow, this whole thing had been predestined. That I had to just do whatever seemed right.
Pretty easy, that"s just the way I rolled.
My eyes fixed on the Null, Jabez. He"d be the first to go. Without the dead, I didn"t have any chance. None.
The auctioneer came to stand by the girls. He gripped the sides of a makeshift podium and slammed a gavel against the surface. The girls jumped. Tiff cringed. Randi had started to become more awake, the sedative wearing off. That was gonna be critical. We weren"t escaping this mess without her.
"Do I have the first bid?" a man from the ma.s.s of fragment asked, standing head and shoulders above the others. As I studied him, I noted he looked vaguely like the guys of the Band.
I looked at Jade again, clenching my eyes shut then opening them, little more than a long blink of agony. I could feel the hands of the fragment hanging on to my arms. I was stuck. But not for long.
A chorus of voices rose from the crowd and then the question I"d been dreading was asked.
"How much for the untried?" Their eyes roamed our girls hungrily. But one girl had caught his eye and he approached the platform. He was big and tall, my height, his chin coming to the platform"s edge.
I tensed and Sophie gazed at me with naked fear in her face. Hang on, my face said, hang on.
"Stay back," a fragment guard growled from the corner of the platform. The male"s eyes flicked over the bare wood then back to the girl he had his eyes on.
I clenched my eyes again so I could expunge the image of him looking at her.
At Jade.
I couldn"t wait another second. Who I was rebelled against everything that I could see, hear, touch... feel.
It was like food poisoning but worse.
Circ.u.mstance poisoning. And I had the cure.
When I opened my eyes they locked onto Sophie and I screamed in a focused yell, "Now!"
Joe Zondorae jerked his head in my direction and Parker threw the vial with the partial antidote in it. It spun toward me in a lazy arc, catching the sun as it did, the amber-colored liquid sloshing as it approached.
I could hear the brothers screaming as my peripheral vision caught Parker jerking his fist in accomplishment, a look of fierce joy on his face.
It wasn"t going to make it in time! I flung myself outward, startling the fragment guards that had loosened their clasp on my shoulders. I grabbed it in midair and was gone before I fell.