Flawless//Broken (7 page)

I snarl and dislodge a dagger from my arm holster, flipping it into my hand and driving it deep into the woman’s forehead. Her scream is cut off as she explodes in a cloud of dust. I brush it off my suit and turn to the girl.

“They’re here for you,” I say.

Mia’s face is now completely white. Avalanche growls low in her throat and the sick heat under my skin rises - a sure sign more homunculi are advancing. I grab the girl’s soft hand, ignoring how small and fragile it feels in my own.

“Come. We have to get to my lab. I can defend us there. Avalanche, take point.”

Avalanche barks and races ahead of us. The weight of the four daggers in my arm holsters reassures me. I can take out four homunculi, but I can feel at least twenty outside. Perhaps more. I pull the girl along but she fights in the other direction. She breaks free and with great effort pulls the dagger that was meant for her from the wall, and comes back to me.

“I’m n-not going without a weapon,” She manages. My chest swells with a strange pride.

“Smart girl. Stay close to me, and do as I say.”

“Gladly. At least until the stabby-murder bits are over.”

We follow Avalanche, her white tail like a banner and her nose sharper than any radar. She leads us away from the main hall and into my library. The girl’s eyes go wide at the colossal shelves and Turkish carpet.

“This is -” She stands on her tiptoes to read the spines of a few books. “These are first edition Shakespeare! Shouldn’t these be in a museum or something? Oh god, that’s first-edition Emily Dickinson!”

“Imminent death is hardly the time to be ogling my book collection, don’t you think?” I make my way to the massive, copper-set globe by the window, though I’m secretly pleased she recognizes them. I rotate it so that Hawaii is forty degrees south and ten degrees east, then turn to her. “Come here. I need your Azoth.”

She tears herself away from the books only when Avalanche, who’s keeping guard at the door, barks hard and fast. The sounds of glass breaking downstairs is more ominous then anything. My skin crawls like there’s lava beneath it.

“Come to me,” I make my voice steely. “Now.”

The girl hurries over, offering her wrists. “Slice ‘em if you have to. But if people start pitying me because the scars look like I tried to kill myself, I’m blaming you.”

“Don’t ever try to kill yourself,” I snap. “You’re far too valuable as an Azoth.”

She rolls her eyes. “Gee, thanks for the concern.”

I take her hand and put it on the globe. I’d normally drip one of the many vials of Azoth I have in my jacket onto the globe, but this girl’s mere physical touch will do. The globe radiates light, reacting to her blood instantly. Behind us a bookshelf rumbles to the side, revealing a set of stairs retreating down into darkness.

“So,” The girl says slowly, eyeing the hidden staircase with hardly-disguised mirth. “I gather you’re a fan of Batman.”

I’m about to ask her if she ever stops being snarky when I hear a beastly chuckle from the hall, and Avalanche’s growl heightens to menacing levels. I whirl and detach a dagger from my forearm, flinging the silver blade across the room and into the forehead of a homunculus in a business suit. His eyes roll back into his head, so far the whites show, and he’s a cloud of cinder and ash before he hits the floor. Mia seems frozen at the sight, but grips her dagger harder and ducks into the hidden staircase before I can order her to. I walk in after her.

“Avalanche!” I call. The wolf inclines her head, but ignores me and keeps growling at the doorway. We’ve been together long enough for me to know what that means - she’ll stay behind and fight. She hasn’t seen any action for far too long, and her feral blood is singing for a kill. I close the bookshelf, the heavy thunk comforting.

“I can’t see anything,” Mia says. Though neither of us can see, I can smell her clearly - the heavenly scent alerting me to just how painfully aware my body is of her at all times. What would it be like, I think for a moment, to press her against the wall and taste her, in this silken darkness? How delightfully would she moan, how far would she let me go -

Fury pushes the tainted thoughts out of my head. The presence of my kind is getting to me - infecting me with the urge to feed. I have to move quickly, or I may do something to her I’ll regret for the rest of my pathetic life. I cut a piece of my hair off and wrap it around the handle of the dagger.

“
Ignis
,” My voice echoes and the dagger pommel leaps with flame, like a small torch. I hold it by the blade. The last drop of Azoth stored inside its hollow handle disappears, sacrificed for our light.

“Where’s your dog?” The girl looks around.

“She’s a wolf, not a dog, and she’s staying behind to buy us time. Let’s ensure her deed does not go to waste.”

“I didn’t get to thank her for saving me,” She murmurs. My harsh tone eases at her concern.

“You will. Ava will return unscathed. She always does.”

I lead the way down the stone steps, the dagger-torch flickering with light. My mind races with alchemical formulas to drive off our attackers. Which alchemist among the Mutus is strong enough to break my Thorngate? Brenneth? McCoy? Or is it Oliver himself? Now that they’re aware of this girl, they’ll never rest until they have her.

“Mia Redfield,” The girl breaks our silence.

“What?” I snap.

“Mia. That’s my name. We sort of skipped proper introductions.”

The tension in my shoulders softens. It’s a luxurious name, the kind that rolls off the tongue. Her curling midnight hair dances with the dagger’s firelight, her face carved in gentle shadow. The darkness flickers over her rosebud mouth, her delicate nose, her intriguing scar, and for a moment I’m hypnotized by her. Her Azoth is so near and so powerful, filling me in ways long forgotten in my centuries of self-inflicted hunger. She could satisfy me. She could fill my hunger, once and for all. I would never have to be in pain again.

‘Coward!’

I shake my head. Her presence is enough. Her presence is all I deserve. I can think clearly, move quickly, and more than that - I
want
to. No longer will I sit in this marble prison and wait for death. There is hope. There is Azoth. There is her.

“Darius,” I manage. “I’m Darius Montclaire.”

PART SIX

SIX

Chapter 6

SIX

Darius leads us down the stairs for what feels like forever. Stone and shadow are all we see, and then the stairs stop. At the bottom is a massive room carved straight out of the rock. But unlike the chilly, unlived-in elegance of the mansion upstairs, this room is cozy. Tapestries hang from the walls with beautiful geometric patterns. Huge hardwood desks hold warm gas lamps and piles of papers, books, binders, and old-looking scrolls. The air is permeated with the comforting smell of ancient paper and woodsmoke. Strange brass fittings with crystal globes hang from the ceiling - some of them filled with suspended lightning, others with flames, and a few with slowly rotating ice shards. Metal instruments with weird runes carved into them are nailed to the walls, ready to use. The centerpiece of the room is a huge stainless steel counter, where lab equipment of the highest caliber rests - glass beakers, distillers, burners, a mixing station; I’ve seen enough science labs back at the University to know all of it is painstakingly cared for and clean. A cabinet labeled CHEMICALS is crammed into one corner, and in a back cove is a small bed, nested with messy blankets and pillows. Darius might play house with Reeves upstairs, but he definitely
lives
down here.

“This is…incredible,” I marvel at a copper - no, what did he call it? Prima materia. It’s a pipe of coppery prima materia standing up in the floor, emitting some kind of thick smoke. I lean towards it and suck in a breath all at once - it isn’t smoke, it’s liquid fire. No,
plasma
. Dark, purple-red plasma. He’s somehow contained it around the pipe so it doesn’t escape. It seethes and undulates, but it doesn’t evaporate. The heat coming off it is incredible.

“Don’t touch that,” Darius snaps. He rummages in the chemical cabinet and pulls away with an armful of prima materia ingots and bottles of clear liquid. He piles them on the counter. “In fact, don’t even stand near it. I haven’t run any tests on your Azoth’s reactivity yet. It’s best if you refrain from blowing us all sky high.”

“Yeah, but it looks
awesome
. What is it?”

“A dark matter condenser, miss,” Reeves says as he walks in and hands me a kevlar vest with a smile. His own kevlar vest is bulky, and overlaid with two crisscrossing ammo belts. “May I interest you in a pistol? Perhaps an SMG?”

I eye the hunting rifle strapped to his back as I put on the vest. “Um. No thank you.”

“Don’t like guns?” Darius grunts.

“Guns are some of my favorite things in the world. Along with, you know, cockroaches and speeding tickets.”

Darius quirks a brow, and I swear his mouth quirks in a smile, too. I clear my throat.

“Anyway, I don’t want to shoot anybody, even if it’s a homunculus.”

Reeves’ smile gets bigger. “You’re mistaken, miss. The guns are for the Mutus alchemists. Bullets don’t harm homunculi. Only an Azoth-infused blade can.”

“Reeves, did you set up the perimeter?” Darius barks, pouring out two colorless solutions into beakers. He moves quickly and with masterful elegance, like he’s made whatever this is a hundred times before.

“Of course, sir. Avalanche informed me she would be joining us shortly.”

“Good. I won’t detonate until she’s here, then. Hold the stairwell.”

“As you wish, sir.” Reeves bows and pulls his hunting rifle out, checking the ammo and striding up the stairs, his cheery hum echoing all the while.

“You,” Darius says to me. “Come here. I need your Azoth.”

I walk over warily and sit on a counter. He instantly glowers.

“I just cleaned that.”

“And if we die, you’ll never have to clean it again,” I lilt. “You’re welcome.”

He sighs and pulls out a needle. “I’ll need to take your blood. Quite a bit of it.”

“What’re you gonna do with it?”

“There’s little time to explain. Your arm, if you would.”

He holds out his hand, and I slowly put my elbow in his palm. The instant his skin touches mine, I feel warm, safe - like nothing can ever hurt me while he’s around. The needle is huge, but his hands are strangely gentle as he swipes my arm with ammonia and draws my blood. My arm goes cold, and when the vial’s full I feel woozy. He puts a cotton ball to my arm and moves to put a band-aid on, but I snatch it from him.

“I can do it myself.”

Darius nods and takes the blood back to his lab table. I barely notice his shaking hand before he turns. His face is entirely white.

“Are you okay?” I ask. “You look sick.”

“I’m fine,” He says, his voice strained. But he’s not fine. As he unseals my blood vial, his golden eyes glow with an expression I can only call lust.

And it makes me shiver.

****

Her Azoth smells of sunlight and warm honey and clean mountain water, and it stirs my hunger. No - it’s more than that. Hunger is what I feel when I deny myself an infusion. This is so much more. It’s a fevered combination of longing, ache, and need all in one. My entire being wants to possess her, to be in her and have her. Many centuries ago I inhabited the opium dens with the best of them, throwing my money and life at the pipe in a desperate attempt to end it. But this high is stronger. I try to get myself under control - the hunger could easily scare her, and if I’m not careful, possess me and make me harm her with my own hands. I know that if I let it, it would take her limb from limb, devouring every inch of her soft skin. But I won’t let it. It’s strong, strong enough to scare me. At the same time I embrace it - my reaction is proof enough her Azoth is the strength we need to fight the Mutus.

The strength we need to correct my mistake.

And now I’m going to put it to the test.

She sits on a leather divan and watches me, kicking her feet like a petulant child, reminding me just how young she really is. Too young. Far too young to be in so much danger, to be so scarred and defensive. I mix white ether with sodium crystals and dissolve them, watching the liquid turn yellow. I break a chunk of prima materia and weigh it, chipping pieces off until it weighs exactly ten ounces. It too dissolves in the liquid, turning it a dark purple. It’s ready. If I apply Azoth to it and send it through an expander -

“If you’re an alchemist, why don’t you have an Azoth living with you?” Mia interrupts.

“I told you,” I grit my teeth. “I would hurt them.”

“Why? You told me the only ones who hurt Azoth are homunculi -”

Her steely eyes go wide, and the familiar ache begins in my chest. She sees me for who I really am, now. She sees the beast.

“You’re -” Her voice is fractured, disbelieving. “Are you a -”

Avalanche’s bark precedes her as she runs in, fur on end and her tail wagging. She trots over to me and Reeves follows closely behind, his jovial face smeared in blood.

“All expanders are armed. We’re ready when you are, sir.”

“How many causalities?” I ask.

“One Mutus body we may need to clean up ourselves, sir. But the others were homunculi.”

“Good.” I nod. “Close the blast doors.”

Reeves shuts the doors to the lab with a hand wheel, the heavy metal slamming over the entrance and sealing us off. The entire room is reinforced with mithril - alchemy-immune metal - so it’s the only place in the house capable of shielding us from the impending Azoth explosion. Avalanche seems to sense Mia’s worry, even if the girl hides it well. Too well. She is far more used to hiding her emotions than a girl her age should be. The white wolf pads over to her and nuzzles her hand. Mia smiles wanly and pets her head.