Fire's Touch (The Enlightened Species Book Three) (38 page)

The tears broke free as her hands fluttered to her mouth. Conlon nudged her middle back, gently snapping her out of the surreal feeling locking her feet in place. Alto reached into the blanket and opened a wide gap.

Little light-blue eyes peeked out, blinked up at Alto, and looked around with so much intelligence. Stacey took the few steps separating them. Those light-blue eyes looked right into her soul. Alto carefully transferred the baby into Stacey arms. She looked exactly like Kelly’s sketch.

“Hello, Kayla,” Stacey blubbered. Kayla’s chin quivered, her cheeks turned bright red, and she let out a cry. No sound had ever been more beautiful to Stacey.

Stacey unwrapped the blanket around her and clutched her to her chest, bouncing and soothing her. Kayla calmed as her tiny arms wrapped around Stacey’s neck. She felt Conlon’s warm hand at her lower back and turned to see him holding a curious Johnny. Kayla lifted her beautiful face from Stacey’s shoulder and looked from Conlon to Johnny, her lips lifted into a baby smile.

“Johnny, this is your new baby sister,” Stacey introduced them, sending Johnny images of Umbrae’s children so he’d understand what siblings were. She felt her son’s excitement to be a big brother.

“Thank you for bringing home our daughter.”
She looked up into Conlon’s dark hazel, “drown in them” eyes.

“Did you finish it?”
he asked, his gaze full of love.

She’d tattooed the final scales and added the tail to her memorial last night. Within the tail design where the letters C-O-N-L-O-N, she smiled and nodded in answer. That was her past. This was her future … their future together.

Epilogue

Oney sat staring at page after page. All he had to do was read the headers, and the details of each division swarmed through his mind like stinging bees. “No,” he answered Frank’s last question—the same answer he’d given for the first zillion of Frank’s questions.

“I don’t understand.”

Oney was so fucking sick of hearing that sentence from Frank, it took every ounce of control not to crush the guy’s throat and render him mute. “You don’t need to understand.”

“Bu—” Frank started up again.

Oney gritted his teeth against his annoyance and the pounding in his head. “I doubt my father explained a fucking thing to you, Frank. Why do you think I will? Until the ceiling of this organization is stabilized, I’m not open to new ventures. Period. Now fuck off.”

Frank narrowed his eyes with suspicion before stalking away. One could feel the tide turning against him within the ranks of Osiris’s base loyalist. It wouldn’t be much longer before the entire group of them declared a mutiny.

Not that Oney could blame them. Everything was going to shit … of course that was by Oney’s design. And it was obvious the narcissistic freaks his father had trusted were figuring it out. This was way more of an undertaking than he’d ever anticipated. He needed help, but who the hell would he ask it from? His brothers? Fuck no. Rumor was Twelve and Nine had joined Ten in defecting to the SOSC. Last thing Oney wanted to do was drag either of them back into this hell.

He didn’t trust the SOSC any more than his father had. With his father’s memories swimming around his melon, that distrust was more pronounced. Of course, weeding through what was real and what was one of Osiris’s paranoid delusions was difficult. One thing was sure, if the SOSC ever turned against society, they would succeed where his father had failed and rule the planet. Osiris had way too many informants inside the SOSC for it to be the “great hope” of symbiosis.

As much as Oney would love to melt away and disappear like his brothers, there was no way he could. Osiris’s minions would snatch and grab parts of Osiris’s empire, scatter to the wind, and wreak evil havoc unrestrained. He needed a firm handle on things before systematically destroying it and those who posed a threat of taking over. First on his growing list was fucking Frank. Plus there was the Human League. Did the SOSC even know or care about that growing threat?

Oney leaned back in his chair and roughly rubbed his head. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered.

“C-can I help?” Cherry’s quiet voice snapped his head on his neck with the impact of a physical blow to the jaw.

She stood in the hallway with her beautiful face peeking through the door. Her full upper lip was sucked in and she was gnawing on it with her small, white teeth, which only made her thick, luscious lower lip pout adorably. He found himself trapped in the pear-green color of her eyes until she glanced at the floor and blushed.

“How ’bout you read all this shit for me?” He waved his hand over the pile of documents scattered over the desk and tried to give her a smile.

Her brows drew together and she sighed. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to read. I learned to write my name, though. But … I guess that probably wouldn’t help much. Would you—” she shrugged and stepped fully into the room, her hands clasped together demurely “—like me to help with your headache?”

She couldn’t read? Fuck. Though Oney could tell she was uncomfortable, it was obvious she wanted to be helpful. Hell, maybe she was bored. He’d caught glimpses of her mulling about since they’d arrived at Osiris’s private headquarters in Siberia more than two weeks ago. It wasn’t like he avoided her, but he didn’t seek her out either, check how she was settling in. Jesus, he was a bastard.

“Are you a healer, Chéri?”

She gave a small shake of her head and took small steps toward him. The closer she came, the more intense her scent became and the harder his erection grew. She still wore the same ratty dress. With a spattering of freckles along the bridge of her slightly upturned nose and her hair again in pigtailed braids brushing her shoulders… she was by far the most uniquely attractive female he’d ever seen.

He took a swift intake of breath as she walked behind his chair, struggling to not react to having someone at his back. Her delicate hands touched lightly to the curve of his neck and shoulders, and she began to knead his stiff muscles. Softly at first, she grew firmer in her massaging of his neck when he was unable to stifle his moan of pleasure. Oney surrendered and let his eyes fall closed, enjoying her attention more than he wanted to evaluate right now.

“Ahem.”

Cherry squeaked and ducked so her face peered up at him near his elbow. Okay, that was cute. Oney wiped the grin from his face and met Frank’s curious expression. “What do you want, Frank?”

“The healer is here,” Frank stated

“And?” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Cherry cower lower.

Frank’s gaze shifted between Oney and the spot Cherry would rise from if she dared to stand up. “He’s here to perform a prenatal exam on the breeder.” The sneer of disgust in Frank’s expression pissed Oney off. But the barely discernible sob from Cherry was more pressing.

“Get the fuck out,” he barked at Frank

Frank folded his arms defiantly. “She’s pregnant and anemic. She needs medical care.”

Just fucking great. Frank suddenly wanted to pretend he gave a shit about “the breeder”? And how dare the fucker take a stand against Oney. Frank was become way too bold. Oney stood and slipped past where Cherry huddled. Gripping Frank by the neck, Oney slid him up the wall until his feet dangled and his eyes threatened to pop out of his head.

“I said get the fuck out. She’ll meet with the healer when she’s goddamned good and ready. Feel me, shit-head?” Oney hissed into Franks face. Osiris had chosen him to be “One,” not because he was first born. It was because he had abilities Frank couldn’t possibly fathom. No one did. Osiris had only had a small clue. Part of that ability was what kept Osiris from learning the full truth.

Oney tossed Frank into the hallway like a discarded feather and slammed the door closed. Cherry, wide-eyed, peeked over the top of his desk. “When was the last time you had blood?”

Anemic and pregnant made the term “high-risk” seem like no big deal. Most anemic females bled to death either in miscarriage or during delivery. According to the memories rushing into his mind, Osiris had banned the rare anemic Hulven females from breeding centuries ago, electing to use them as support staff, daycare providers, or—Oney swallowed the lump that rose in his throat—target practice for the soldiers in training. Cherry should have never been put into the breeding program. Osiris really had gotten desperate since the SOSC had begun tearing the breeding labs apart one by one.

The hard blink of her thick brown eyelashes and the slight paling of her skin, making her freckles stand out on her nose, was the only response she gave him. Oney pulled out his dagger, sliced across his wrist, and held the wound over a brandy goblet while Cherry visually tracked his every move.

With her hand braced on the pile of papers covering his desk, she stood. Her pink tongue moistened those full lips Oney had been dreaming of every night, the tips of her dentes visible. She was panting.

“Why didn’t you tell me you needed to feed, Chéri?” Oney felt like a piece of shit.

Her stare was glued to the goblet filling with his blood as her dentes elongated fully. Oney sealed his wrist and handed her the glass, noting the tremors in her hands as she reached for it. Fuck … she was starving.

Had anyone even fed her food? Given her clothes? Anything? The realization of just how big a piece of shit he was rolled through him. He’d promised no one would harm her, yet he’d harmed her with his neglect. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her eyes fluttered closed when she tipped the glass to her lips and drank. Oney’s chest clenched at the innocent look of ecstasy on her face.

Shit … she needed a healer and he sure as shit wasn’t going to trust her care to any of the butchers under Osiris’s employ. He withdrew the satellite phone he’d turned off when all this shit started and dialed.

“Yo, punk, where the hell have you been?” Eric answered on the second ring.

Oney took a deep breath. He hated to use his friendship, and the idea of putting Eric in danger made him ill, but he didn’t know what else to do. “That ‘snowball in Arizona’ offer you made … is it still on the table?”

Eric tone turned serious. “Of course, man. What’s up?”

Cherry was wiping the film of blood out of the empty glass with her finger to get every last drop. “You think you could hook me up with your sister’s phone number?”

The line was silent for several seconds. “You finally going to admit to me you’re Volaticus, Oney? ’Bout damn time.”

“You knew?” Hell, Oney thought he’d played the human card pretty well.

“Hell yeah I knew. I could tell you were holding back when we sparred, and you were way too protective of your ears, dude.” Eric chuckled and gave him Jess Einar’s phone number without pushing for detail. Oney thanked the Fates he had one friend in the world. “When shit calms down for you, you owe me a beer, true?”

Oney grinned. “When shit calms, Eric, I’ll buy your ass a brewery.”

He hung up as Cherry set the licked-clean glass carefully back on the bar. “Thank you, Anthony.” Her softly voiced gratitude reaffirmed his determination to do right by her. Eric trusted his sister. Oney had to trust someone. Would this Jess keep his Chéri safe? What if one of Osiris’s enemies got a hold of her? Or worse, one of Osiris’s allies inside the SOSC?

“Are you all right, Anthony?” Anthony. Fates, he wished that was who he really was. She’d just watched him toss a male out of the room effortlessly, yet she didn’t seem to fear him. How was that possible? He gripped the back of her head and kissed her ever so tenderly. A single soft touch of his lips to hers. One small taste of her to remember her by. He expected her to pull back, slap his face, react like a rape victim. Instead she sighed against his lips and leaned into his chest.

Mine.
Fates, what was he going to do. Giving her up would destroy him. An unfamiliar primal instinct roared to life within him.
Mine.

The door burst open. Oney tore from Cherry’s lips as the sting of a dart hit his thigh. Frank’s sneer at the other end of the gun pointing at him filled him with fury. Even as the drug ebbed into his system, Oney pulled his dagger and tossed it, using the strength and speed he usually kept hidden. It flew end over end, sinking to its hilt in the center of Frank’s forehead. The ground rushed up at him. He could feel Cherry trying to ease his fall.

“Port! Now … get out of here.” He was fading fast. What he thought was a simple tranq burned in his bloodstream. Mercury cyanide. He reached for his phone lying just out of reach. Cherry picked it up and placed it in his palm. He punched the last number called button. The horrified look in her big eyes blurred.
Please baby,
he tried to plead, but his voice no longer worked. Darkness washed over him.

****

Port? Where? Where would she go? She had promised Anthony she wouldn’t escape. She couldn’t leave him like this. Cherry felt helpless. Anthony was dying … he couldn’t die. She had to do something.

“Yo’” A male voice came out of the device Oney had been reaching for. “Oney?” Cherry lifted it to her ear. “You butt-dialing, my man?” It was like a handheld version of the intercom system at the compound, Cherry realized.

“Hello.” She had never spoke back to the intercom before. It just told them where to go and when.

“Who is this?” The male’s voice changed to suspicion.

“Um, I’m Cherry. Please. Anthony—” Her voice gave out as her heart broke in her chest. He was barely breathing.

“Fuck. Cherry, where are you?”

She looked around the room. “I heard someone say Siberia, but I don’t know for sure.”

The voice on the line started talking in muted rapid words Cherry couldn’t fully hear. Then it returned loud and clear. “Thank God, the GPS on the phone is active. Help is on the way, Cherry. My name is Eric, and I’m Oney’s, err, Anthony’s friend. Stay on the line with me and tell me exactly what the hell is going on.” He said “God” not “Fates”? Was Eric human?

She could hear Anthony’s heart sputter.
Please Fates, don’t die
. Since the moment Cherry laid eyes on Anthony she’d felt a connection. His fearsome presence gave her a feel of safety. He was awe-inspiring and as beautiful as a sunrise. Cherry felt a quiver in her belly just thinking of him.