Darker Shade of Pale - HER FREEDOM (11 page)

Chapter Twenty

Tyb
peered into the darkness with his night vision goggles, scanning the hills around us. "I don't see him, Aisha. How do you know he's close?"

"I can smell his cologne. No. 4711 is a very singular scent." Aisha pointed across the meadow and up the hill. "He's on the other side of that ridge."

Incredulous, I asked, "How can you smell him from here?"

Aisha turned her glowing eyes onto me. "Same reason I can see in the dark and jump really high. Because I'm special and you are not." She punctuated with a grin. "The serum didn't do anything for hearing, though."

"You can keep your special. I've got enough problems for now." I'd tell her she could keep Christos, too, but even she doesn't want him anymore.

"Fine, I will. And I won't even share.
So there. Ha ha."

I found it hard to believe
Zamara and Aisha were siblings, let alone twins. Day and night. Tyb spoke. "I want to know why you tried cutting Haytham, Little Sister."

She put her arms on hips and cocked an attitude. "Why is it any of your business,
 
Big Brother
?"

"Because I'm your favorite brother and I can't protect you if I don't have the whole story."

"You're my only brother, so that doesn't count. Don't protect me, Tybas Malcolm Dougherty. I am waaaay beyond your help. Was long ago, but just didn't know it."

"A- Do not call me by my full name, you are not Mom or Dad. B- If you are beyond help, why are you here?"

"To finish what Christ started seventeen years ago."

I jerked my rifle up and leveled at her.
Didn't give Tyb a chance to respond. "Haytham tried killing Tyb back then. You here to finish that?" My finger moved the gun's safety to OFF. Tyb protected me. I'll protect him, even if it means shooting his glow-in-the-dark sister.

Aisha threw her head back and laughed.
"No, silly mortal. You know how in chess, one player moves, then the other? Consider the clock broken for Tyb's move. Once upon a time, I loved Christos Haytham with every fiber of my being. I'd jump off a bridge if he said it'd make him happy… but then things change. He refused to marry me when I asked him a couple years back. Said at first he wanted to focus on his career. Ok, cool. Then he said I'm good enough to fuck, but not marry. Didn't want to ruin our relationship, didn't want that pressure. Didn't want to shackle himself to me because I can't have kids. And if I could, they'd be like me… a bloodthirsty freak because of that fucking serum. So he wooed some kid fresh out of college. Enchanted her enough to allow him to slip a ring on her finger, poor kid. She was the first chick who told him she didn't want to sign up for his BDSM fetish club … and so he married her. Bet she didn't know what lay ahead. That ring was a legal contract, he said. She signed the marriage license and that was just the same as signing his contract for sexy times. She didn't stand a chance."

I spoke, "I heard she and her bodyguard went over a cliff. It was all over the radio."

"Yeah. Christos was really upset. There went his reproduction plan. He's worse than a fucking Nazi with purity and shit. But I think it's a lie. I know if I were her, the first thing I'd want to do when I found out about the real him would to get the hell away. Maybe that's what she did. Anyhow, some crazy bitch sent Christos a text for a porn website. He freaked the fuck out because it's a private number. He said it was Ana, taking revenge and how he couldn't allow her, or people pretending to be her make a fool of him."

Tyb
spoke low, I guess to gauge her reaction. "Zamara was her bodyguard."

By the predawn light, I saw Aisha's face crumble at the realization her sister reportedly went over the cliff. "Have…have they found her?"

"Zamara is alive and well. She's been up here a couple times in the past month. Did Mara see you at the jail? She said she was heading your way to see you. In fact, she was the one who let me know you were arrested."

Aisha shook her head. "No, didn't see her. Maybe she'll come up here again. God, I missed her. She still married to Harry?"

"Hell no, they divorced years ago. She's happy flying single."

"I could learn a few things from her." Aisha spoke quietly.

Tyb nodded. "Yeah, we all can."

I took my eyes off the siblings and focused on the area Aisha gestured to earlier. "I think I can see him." Glowing green eyes were in the distance.

"If you can see him, he can see you, Izzy." Aisha's tone was that of a patient teacher explaining calculus to kindergarteners.

Tyb
turned his head and watched Christos walk down the hill toward the meadow. "Aisha, you said you wanted to help take him out? Got any ideas?"

"Yeah I do. You won't like it, though. I'll channel my inner non-pedophilic
Aunt MaryAnne."

"That means
jackshit to me."

"
MaryAnne seduced and abused him when he was 15. I had a very enlightening conversation with her the other week and I think I found the key to getting my way with him. I want to do this, Tyb."

"You haven't told me anything, Aisha."

"Fine, you want to know? Here." She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a golfball sized hunk of something wrapped in plastic and handed it over to Tyb. "There you go. That's my idea."

He held it up and asked, "What's this?
Putty? Going to sculpt him?"

"That's C-4, smartass. I'm gonna make him a
buttplug. It'll be plug and play and boom. I even snatched a detonator, too."

Tyb
almost dropped the explosive. "You're going to shove high explosives in his ass?"

With a wicked gleam, Aisha smiled. "That's the idea. Fucker will be fucked.
Comeuppance. I…I should have walked away from him when he got married. Instead, I waited on the sideline, hoping he'd tell me it was a mistake; that it was me he should have married. But that never happened. Then she disappeared. And no matter what, he'd still never marry me. He'd still take his anger out on me as the price of him making the serum for me. I signed a lifetime long contract, that I was his. I'm ready to end that contract and keep him from being 
him
. When he found out Selesta died, he told me all sorts of stuff he'd do to her. It wasn't sexy, it wasn't fun—at least not to her. He 
tortured
 that poor woman and called it
getting kinky
. I didn't do anything. I knew I could take the pain, but she didn't sign up for that. She wanted to just be married to that mask he wore. Mask fell off and she was left with a monster."

I spoke up, touched by what she said. "If he's that way, I doubt there was anything you could do to change him."

Her intense green eyes peered into my soul and said, "If you were me, what would you do? Let him rampage and inflict himself on others? He's already fucked Cali up enough that he ran to fucking Siberia to be safe while the high-intensity fallout settled elsewhere. Someone will have to kill him to stop him. I'm a fucking scientific vampire-zombie hybrid. Let's face it, I gotta die too before my implant completely fails. I'm as much a danger to people as he is."

Her words, true, and made me wonder just how much of a danger is she to
Tyb?

Chapter T
wenty-Two

Aisha didn't continue the conversation. Christos had now reached the far edge of the meadow. She turned and leapt from the tree house's top to the middle of the field in a silent, single bound.

"Holy shit.
Your sister has moves."

"Yeah, I know. And it scares the shit out of me."

Aisha now approached Christos. For a bit, quiet. Their words didn't carry to our ears until Christos demanded in a loud voice, "I want to know who 
those
 people are."

She responded just as loud. "That's my cousin, Brian, and his wife,
Misha. I've imposed on them and so I'm going to see my parents."

Christos
bellowed, "Don't you dare yell at me!"

"Don't
you
dare yell at
me
!" Aisha echoed his tone in perfect pitch.

Christos
started stalking toward Tyb—er,
Brian
, and me, with Aisha following behind. I tried swallowing the knot growing in my throat. Tyb reached over and grasped my hand, interlocking his fingers between mine. "He cannot hurt you, 
Misha
."

I grumbled under my breath, "You tell him that." Shifted my weight and watched
Christos plowing through the meadow filled with waist-high spelt. Dawn started breaking, filling the forest with a soft light. "I so totally do not want to be here right now."

"If he needs reminding, I will do so. Repeatedly, until he understands no one lays a hand on you in anger. Take a deep breath. Remember, you are empowered. You are strong, you are armed. Remember what I said about guns and incapacitation?"

His words spoken months ago filled my mind. Gut shot, head shot. "Yeah. But it won't apply to them… they don't feel pain."

"Exactly.
Aim for the head, especially in close quarters."

"If the saliva is infectious, could mean his blood is too. If we get sprayed by splatter…" my words drifted into silence. Oh shit, I wish I had asked Zamara about that possibility.

Tyb
drew a deep breath. "Shit. I'm not comfortable trusting Aisha, especially with her history with him, but I don't see any other option. Fuckin' A, I hope we're not screwed."

"Fuck a B, it has two holes." I quieted as two sets of glowing green eyes looked up at
Tyb and I from a dozen yards away.

Aisha did another great leap and landed near
Tyb. Christos tried leaping, but couldn't get nearly the distance Aisha could. It was interesting to see him fail at something like that. Took four jumps for him to join us, and only one moment before I thought I was going to have a heart attack from being near Christos. But he gave no indication of noticing me. He appraised Tyb only, and noticed the guns we held with barrels to the sky, leaning against our shoulders; guns that look like they fell off the back of a military surplus truck.

Aisha spoke, "Christ, this is my cousin, Brian O'Mara, and his wife,
Misha."

She kept calling him Christ and it made me think of when I asked him why I couldn't call him Chris. Because he was twice as Christ-like as anyone, he said.
 
Shudder.

"You already told me that, Aisha." He addressed
Tyb in a very rude manner, "Why you have guns? Always greet your cousin this way?"

"Regular twenty-one gun salute, for long-lost cousin Aisha. Actually, we're waiting for dawn to hit. Deer will be out to graze. Venison is about as close I can get to heaven up in the mountains.
Backstrap is a truly splendid thing. Ever had it? Want to try it?"

It blew me away how congenial
Tyb seemed to be toward Christos. Aisha's and my own eyes met in a silent look that conveyed both our expectation that the other boot would drop soon.

"Never ate deer.
Seems barbaric."

Tyb
cleared his throat and asked, "Vegan?"

"No.
Just not a savage who must kill woodland creatures." Christos looked around, very 
not 
impressed with the cement behemoth he stood upon.

And since when did
Christos give a fuck about animals?

"Kinder to hunt than let starvation and disease kill them during winter."

"True, I suppose…"

"Well,
Christos. Let's get going. Got a long hike back down to the road." Aisha put her arm through his and tried leading him away.

"You know, Aisha my sweet," It curdled my blood to hear him call her that.
Just creepy with his tone which seemed to hint toward dark intentions. "I 
am rather
 hungry, but we're on that 
special
 diet..."

She put a hand on his forearm. "Then let's go somewhere
 
else
 to eat. It'll be too much of a hassle to bother Brian, especially since we interrupted their hunting."

"We will stay, Aisha." His voice became that domineering tone which used to cow me. Now I was just getting pissed.

Evidently his tone pissed Aisha off. A look crossed her face and settled into a stern case of cold bitch. "
We will not. 
Let's go 
now
."

He shook her arm off and I stepped closer to
Tyb. Christos spat, "Do not talk to me, bitch."

Clear as the dawn sky, Aisha spoke, "
Mulier est hominis crudelius.
"

Woman is crueler than man.

Christos fell to his knees, a look of wonder on his face, a look that bespoke an apostle looking upon his savior. Then he remembered himself. Downcast his eyes, and prostrated himself before Aisha. "My queen, what is your pleasure?"

She kicked him in the side. "You will apologize for imposing on my beloved family. That was not well done,
 
peon
."

I looked at Aisha and when I had her gaze, I mouthed,
 
How? 
How can four words have my ex abuser on the ground, accepting a woman's domination? Blew my mind.

Aisha mouthed,
 
MaryAnne. 
That talk… must have been about Christos's training.

Still on his knees,
Christos turned around, head down, and said, "Forgive me, I was rude."

"Aisha, you can let him up now." I could tell by the amused look trying to hide on
Tyb's face that he was as blown away as I.

"Do you hear that, peon? You have pleased the master of this land. You may arise. I will reward you for behaving."

Christos arose and kept his head down. "Thank you, my queen."

"Brian, can I take
Christos up to the house and scrounge around? It's been a long hike."

Tyb
hesitated a minute. "Sure."

Aisha took a mighty leap, covering at least 100 feet. She yelled,
 
"Mulier
….
.!"

In a heartbeat,
Christos scrambled to clear the faux-tree battlements and join his mistress. She waited while he bounded about 15 leaps to catch up to Aisha's position. He cocked an arm, which she took, and they ambled at a sedate pace toward the house.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked to no one in particular.

"I…fuck, I got not idea."

"
Christos was groomed as a kid by his pedophile next door neighbor. She abused him for years. I think Aisha got some lessons from MaryAnne on how to bring him to heel."

Tyb
nodded, and I noticed how the golden light highlighted his dark hair. "My sister scares me."

Well, yeah. She scares me too. "If they are going to the house, think the passports and stuff should be moved here from the panic room? Especially if there's going to be an explosive sex toy involved?"

"That's a good idea. Let's go inside, lock up. You'll stay here while I run and get some stuff. I won't be long, maybe 15 minutes, especially at the pace their going."

With that, we rushed inside, no telling how long we really have before things get all adventurous and stuff. We walked back to the room with the table and sink. I sat down at the table and
Tyb opened the door to the tunnel and began jogging.

I waited in the most painful silence when his footfalls quieted.
If Aisha was going to do as she said, then… what? Tyb's house will be gone. His sister. She's willing to sacrifice herself to keep Christos from doing further harm. Isolated up on the mountain, we're far away from the reality of the terror in the bay area. Tyb told me that the Round Valley area we were in was actually a naturally-formed fallout shelter secreted by the government. Fuck, and being so close to Christos and him not realizing it was me... was on the verge of freaking out. Lost in thought, Tyb was setting stuff on the table when I got jerked back to reality. I looked up and noticed he'd already shut the door.

"I locked the gun safe, got the passports and other stuff here, and this,"
Tyb began removing a belt I didn't notice. I looked around him and noted the belt was attached to a large, misshapen sack by a stout length of rope.

"What's that?" Curiosity soaked through me.

He grinned. "My pirate's booty."

"You have a big booty."

"Thanks for noticing."

He bent down and unzipped the sack. My jaw dropped when I saw a fortune in gold nuggets.
"Holy fucking cow. Gold panning?"

"Yep.
Kept two pounds for every year I went. So that's twenty pounds and something like over half a mil. Some of it is yours. I didn't get to take you panning, and I want to make sure you're not lacking once you get back to civilization.

Tyb
stood up and joined me at the table. "I, uh, just want you to know, Izzy, that I wish you could stay up here. I've enjoyed your company very much." His warm amber eyes looked into mine and I was about to speak when he continued. "You're a very special lady. Never forget it."

With the tone he used, oh, I won't forget it. "You're an incredibly awesome guy,
Tyb. I envy the woman who finally tames you."

My statement was punctuated by a huge boom which rocked the earth and shattered our world.