Made to Love (18 page)

“
You don’t know what it
entails,” Octavius said.  “You could end up… bearing my
young.”

“
I don’t care,” I said, “I
want to do it.”

“
No.  Not now. 
You don’t deserve to birth a siren.”  He gazed into the
distance.  “We’re monsters.”  Then he smiled down at
me.  “You might have forgotten, but it’s coming up in a few
weeks.  Will you go to prom with me?”

I gasped.  “Yes! 
Of course!”

We kissed, and I forgot
about Rich.  Life was okay again.  I had Octavius. 
I didn’t care about Rich or Byron.

Chapter
Forty-Seven

Unfortunately, both Rich
and Byron still cared about me.

I saw Rich's face when I
returned to school the next day, complete with Octavius's arm
around my shoulder.  Pain, hurt...and love.  He replaced
it all quickly with his most winning smile, but I could tell he was
miserable.

He came up to us, but he
spoke only to me.  “Calliope,” he said.  “Where'd you go
yesterday?”

I pat Octavius's
hand.  “He wanted to apologize for treating me the way he
did.  It was just so sweet, I couldn't say no.”

“
What if I said I was
sorry?” Rich asked.

“
For what?”

He shrugged.  “Did I
do something wrong?”

I pat his arm.  “Of
course not.  I just think me and Octavius were meant to
be.”

“
Uh-huh,” he said. 
He didn't believe me.  I wondered why.

He looked over my head at
Octavius.  “You haven't heard the end of this, siren,” he
muttered.

“
I'll take you any time,
horse
,” Octavius replied.  His voice sounded bright and
cheerful.

A huge grin spread on
Rich's face.  “Just name the time and place.”

To my surprise, Octavius
stepped in front of me and pushed me behind him.  “How about
the shore, after school's over?”

“
Sounds good,” Rich
cried.  “You want a crowd, or should I kick your ass in
private?”

“
I don't need an
audience,” Octavius replied.

“
Neither do I.”

“
Guys!” I yelled. 
“Stop it!  Don't fight over me, it's not worth it!”

They ignored me.

Rich stepped away. 
“Get ready to die, siren.”

“
My
name
,” he
replied, “is Octavius.  Horse.”

“
I'm a
unicorn
,”
Rich hissed, then flounced away.

I clutched Octavius's
arm.  “Don't fight him!  He'll kill you!”

“
Or I'll kill him,”
Octavius said brightly.

I sniffled.  “I may
not love him like I love you, but I couldn't stand it if you killed
him.”

“
You'd find a way,”
Octavius said.

“
Please,” I cried. 
“I can't lose you both!”

He kissed the top of my
head.  “You won't.  Now, let's go to class.”

My three classes and lunch
were agony that day.  I considered ditching, since all my
teachers said I was fine and my homework was done, but I needed the
distraction and the closeness of Octavius.  I could probably
convince Octavius to leave school with me that day, but it would be
all too easy for him to sneak to the beach.

I felt like I was going to
throw up by the end of the day, but I held my scant lunch
down.  Octavius couldn't leave me.

I thought I'd have more
time to convince him not to go, but as we started to leave the
school, Rich Coos reappeared.

“
Ready to die?” he
asked.

“
I was just about to ask
you the same thing,” Octavius shot back.

I clutched his leather
jacket.  “You have to take me to prom, remember?  I'd
just die if you got hurt!”

Rich's eyes flicked to me,
and I saw a crease over his forehead.  Apparently, someone did
care about what I thought.  Why wouldn't Octavius listen to
me?

“
I will fight to the death
to keep her safe,” Rich said, and I felt a tingle run across my
skin.  “She isn't safe with you.”

“
I have fought to keep her
safe,” Octavius yelled, and I remembered the feel of the tentacles
and suckers on my skin.  Ugh, what a memory.  “Both our
lives were on the line.  What have you done?”

“
I found her, when you
were too scared to even leave the town!”

“
I
can't
leave, and
you know it!”

“
Guys! 
Stop!”

Again, they ignored
me.

Octavius stepped so close
to Rich that their noses were almost touching.  “I will
end
you.”

“
No, I'll
end--”

I pushed between them and
pushed them apart, although I was now crying so hard that I could
barely see.  “I will
leave
,” I said.  “I will
leave, and damn the consequences!  Things are spiraling out of
control, and I need you two to help me!”

They looked completely and
utterly gobsmacked.

I fell to my knees and
wept.  I wept for all the days I was away and missed Octavius,
and Byron.  I wept for my destiny, and whatever it was. 
I wept for the possibility of prom slipping away from me when it
meant so much.

Lips kissed the top of my
head, and I smelled the musky, masculine scent of Rich.  He
stroked my hair, then broke contact.

“
Truce for now,” Rich
said.  “But we will finish this later.  Take her
home.”

I watched his feet move
away from me, and I hugged Octavius's leg.  I was so tired,
tired of life, tired of problems, and tired of everything around
me.

Octavius picked me up like
I was a baby and kissed me like I was a woman.  Which I
was.  I could feel it in every cell of my skin, my
femininity.

He broke off, and
sighed.  “I don't want to cause you pain.  I love
you.  But I will not lose you.”

I clutched at his shirt and
sobbed.  He carried me out.

Chapter
Forty-Eight

I took the opportunity that
night to make my first visit to Byron in over a month.

Waiting until my parents
were deeply asleep, I took the secret passage down from my room to
the back hallway.  My parents had found the extra key in my
bedroom and taken it back while I was gone, but I had also learned
how to pick locks while out riding through the country.  It
was a useful skill, and as it turned out, I was pretty good at
it.

Moments later, I was
heading into the familiar lab, winding my way through the shelves
of beakers and refrigerated samples.  Byron was sleeping on
his table, arms strapped down as usual.

I woke him up by flipping
the lever to open the straps, and he opened his eyes.  Byron
was relieved to see me, jumping off of the table and wrapping me in
his arms.  He still smelled a little like decay and
chemicals.

“
Calliope,” he
breathed.  “I heard you had returned, but… but I hadn’t let
myself hope.  I’m
so
happy to see you.”

I let him hug me, keeping
my arms wrapped tight around his neck.  “I’m sorry I left
without finishing you,” I said.  “Has Father returned
yet?”

“
No.  But he’s
supposed to soon—within the next couple of days,” Byron
said.

“
Darn.  I don’t know
if I can finish you before then.  There isn’t much left to do,
but we never did get the last parts…”

He grew excited. 
“Your parents went to Portland to obtain the remaining
pieces.”

Byron led me to a storage
area with several refrigerators and opened one, pulling out a
large, air-tight container.  Byron set it on a work table, and
I opened it.

I immediately shut it
again.

“
Yeah,” I said. 
“That’s definitely your missing… pelvis.”

“
So can you finish me
tonight?” he asked, his eyes glowing with excitement.

His mood was
infectious.  “I can definitely try.”

He carried the bin for me
back to his little living area and stripped off his Tidy Whities,
laying down on the table.  For the first time, I took a good
look at what he had going on in his pelvis area.

It was actually not that
bad.  It was like a hole in his body, connected only by spine
and metal joiners, with a few modular servos that were obviously
meant to be removed so the cadaver pelvis could be basically
snapped in.

I pulled on a lab coat,
closing the flaps around my body.

“
When I disconnect all
this, you’re going to temporarily lose the ability to move
everything below the waist,” I said, flipping through some of the
notes Father had left behind.  “It shouldn’t take me more than
a couple hours to put you back together, though.”

“
Wonderful,” Byron
said.  “Then you can power me, at long last, and I’ll be free
of my drugs and can live an independent life.”

I began disconnecting servo
motors and the hydraulics, then paused to snap on gloves and a pair
of goggles.  “This might be a little messy,” I warned
him.

“
I don’t care. 
Whatever it takes.”

“
Great.”

I pulled the cadaver pelvis
out of the bin and set it on the table next to him.  It was
already conveniently in two parts, which would allow me to assemble
it, and then sew him shut with as much ease as snapping a Ken doll
back together.

Despite my best efforts, I
had to eye the new equipment he was getting installed.  It put
even Rich to shame.  Obviously, the parts had been selected
with exactly that in mind.

I shifted his lower
intestine out of the way – it was in a protective sac that I would
have to remove to finish assembling him – and lifted Byron’s lower
body enough to slip the bottom hemisphere of his pelvis into place
before settling him back down.  His tailbone squished as it
settled between the buttocks, dark purple from being frozen and
over-saturated with blood.

Some work had to be done to
connect the vessels and nerves to the rest of the body, so I worked
slowly, meticulously, with an overhead light and magnifying
glass.  “You know, Byron,” I said hesitantly.  “I don’t
think I should be the one to power you.”

“
Why?” he
asked.

I didn’t want to explain to
him that I had already bequeathed my flower to Rich, so I just
said, “Octavius wouldn’t like it.”

“
It doesn’t matter. 
He’ll have to get past it.”

It was hard to adjust the
hip bones into the proper positions.  I had to really put some
elbow into it.  After a moment, the left
clicked
into
place, and a little fluid spurted out from behind it.  Things
fit into his pelvis pretty snugly.  I had to make sure to get
everything in just the right positions.

Then I resumed threading
his innards together, pulling the sac off of the intestines. 
They slipped between my fingers, and I had to be very gentle to
connect the colon.  “Does this hurt?” I asked Byron, and he
shook his head.

“
No.  It does tickle
a little.”

I sewed it together,
careful to make sure there were no leaks.  “What do you think
you’ll do when you’re free?”

“
I want to be with you,”
Byron said earnestly, sitting up a little to watch as I
worked.  “Wherever you go, I’m going to go with
you.”

“
I’m staying with my
parents,” I said.  I leaned far enough to watch the blood
vessels I was working on that my nose nearly brushed the meat of
his insides.  “The idea in finishing you before Father gets
back was to keep you from being subject to his plans.  You’ll
have to leave for at least awhile.”

“
I just wish I knew what I
was being made for.”

I glanced up at him. 
“I’m sorry, Byron.”

Working in silence for well
over an hour, I carefully assembled the internal portion of his
reproductive organs against the front half of his pelvis, still
laying on the table without connection to the rest of his
body.  Then I reached a point where I could settle the second
hemisphere in place.  I watched carefully to make sure it all
fit in properly, and then smushed it right on.  It made a
little bit of a squirting noise as I did.

“
I’m done!” Byron said,
and I smiled at him.

“
Not quite.  I still
have to sew you up.”  I pulled out the surgical thread and
needle and began to work.  I was a good seamstress, so it
wouldn’t take long.  “And you’ll have to continue on your
medication regimen until we find someone to initiate the powering
sequence.  Once we do, though, these stitches all over your
body should heal and the thread should come out naturally. 
You’ll be a real boy.”

“
I can’t wait.”

“
Your reproductive organs
and a lot of the vessels in there should finish connecting once
you’re powered, too,” I said.  “It looks like, based on the
diagrams, you’ll definitely be able to perform without it—as long
as I connected it all right.”