Range (29 page)

I smile up at him. "I won't if you won't."

He leans down and kisses me again. On the cheek this time. "Deal," he whispers. "That's a deal. Now go back to sleep. I gotta get to my room before they come back."

"Where is everyone?"

"Some sort of emergency in another building." He stands up and grabs his IV bag and squeezes my arm with his free hand. "I'll come see you tomorrow."

I manage a nod and then lose the battle with my heavy eyelids.

The next time I wake I feel spectacular. A nurse stands over me and smiles. "Thought that might bring you back."

"Who the fuck are you?"

She sucks in some air between her teeth and looks behind her shoulder. "Please, don't swear in here, Junco. Your father is not in a good mood. I saw that last smack, and right now you don't need any more smacks."

"I've never seen you before in my life. How long have you worked here?"

This time the smile is indulgent. Like she feels sorry for me. "A very long time. You just never got to see me when you were awake before. I've been taking care of your treatments since you were a baby."

I nod at her. "Well, then you know that man who hit me is not my father, right?"

She stands up this time and starts smoothing out her scrubs. "Don't say that, OK? Just don't."

Father status confirmed. Not. Mine.

"What treatments?" I pick up that admission to ease her back down. She's the one who mentioned them, so it must be safe for me to talk about it.

Her hands swiftly go to my IV line and she pushes more drugs in.

Apparently not.

The bitch brought me up and then she sent me down again. All because I started asking questions.

The next time I wake it comes slowly, like the drugs are still working, but wearing off naturally. All I can hear is the incessant beeping of an alarm outside my open door.

I try to call out, but my voice doesn't work.

I have no idea how long I've been lying here when I decide I cannot take that alarm for one more second. I swing my legs over, stop and let the dizziness subside, then push myself up.

I feel surprisingly strong as I stand there, weaving a little, but steady. There is no IV in my arm anymore, so I pad my way over to the door and look out.

Stillness.

No one is there.

The alarm comes with a blinking light on a wall screen. A map of the outer perimeter buildings. Whatever's triggered it, this building is not where the emergency is located.

I look around a little, recognize the stations that looked like lab benches when that father guy was dragging me to see Gideon, and make my way over to them.

They are organized with neatly stacked datacubes inside clear plexiglass containers. Each column is labeled with numbers and letters.

While I don't recognize the number sequences, I do recognize the pattern they make.

They're genetic crossings.

This is a genetics lab.

The first stack says 1397P X 1447P.

It's the sevens that give me pause.

I'm Seven. Or Gid. We're the only Sevens left, at least that's what we've been told. And I know enough from school that P stands for parental generation.

I look around and take it in again, but this time I see it. I see it all.

This is a hub, not a room or a station. There are four wings that appear to branch off from here, all with double stainless steel doors. Each door has a biometric lock and each door is closed.

Except one. The one right in front of me.

It's almost closed, except for the bent piece of rubber flashing that sticks in the bottom corner where the doors should meet. Another breath and I'm standing in front of them, my fingernails gingerly prying them apart. The door slips, but I grab it again just before the weight of it and the air pressure difference on the other side can suck it closed.

If I get caught there is no telling what they will do to me.

But those labels have sevens on them.

I pull the door open, step through and let it swish closed behind me.

A high-pitched grunt in a room down the hallway stops me, my heart beating so fast it takes whole seconds for me to get it under control.

Another grunt, then a squeal.

I swallow.

Turn back, Junco. You don't want to know. You don't want to know.

I don't want to know. I really don't, but try telling that to my feet, because they're already at the open door when I finally snap back to my senses. I reach out and push the door so it can open fully. The hinges squeak a little as it swings.

The thing making the noises is small, not much bigger than a child of two or three. Her long blonde hair is wild and ratted up, her face an ugly distortion of features that make no sense, and her red coveralls remind me of the demented doll that starred in a horror screen Gideon made me watch when we were left in New York hotel alone on New Years when we were kids.

Her head swings like she can't control it well, and her eyes are crossing as she looks up at me from the bed, desperately trying to focus on me.

She's strapped down.

Finally, after several long seconds, her head is still and I can watch her gather me up in her mind.

"Who are you?" I ask.

She screams. It's not a human scream, not at all. It's the scream of a demon, of some ancient bird. The wailing pierces my ears and I fall to the ground clutching my head. "Stop!" And then I scream as well. My pain mixes with her pain and we scream.

Hands lift me to my feet and I am ushered towards the door, I look back one final time and read the chart on a table as I pass.

1397P X 1447P—Molly.

The nurse from before is frantic, she half drags, half pushes me back through the doors and into my room. She doesn't waste time with an IV, that ionspray is squirted up my nose before I even realize I'm still screaming.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Oh, God. Just make it stop. Please, I'll never ask for anything again, just make the memories go away.

No blue lights show up to deliver me from myself this time.

I pretty much burned that bridge.

"Junco?"

I bolt upright and see Lucan standing at the end of the bed.

What the fuck? "What're you doing here?"

His face is flushed and he's sweating, it reminds me of the heat in my memory. His wings are upright, in a position I'll call attack ready. I raise my eyebrows at him. "I said, what are you doing here, Lucan?"

When he speaks I understand his complexion. It's anger. He seethes at me. "I'm going to say this once, Junco. And only once. You will follow directions from this point on, you will forget this revenge scheme you're cooking up with Irin, and the two of you will do as you're told. Or else."

I jump up out of the bed and cut off his words. "Or else what? I am not your warrior, Lucan. I do not respond to threats."

His eyes change. The beautiful aquamarine is long gone and the red that appears now says I've crossed his line. His razors come out of his hands with a sickening crack and his teeth elongate into fangs.

I tuck down the fear and hold my position.

And smile.

"You think I'm afraid of you?" I run at him and spin. My kick misses and I am about to land hard on the ground when he snatches me up, only to throw me back down, making me scream out as my head slams hard and bounces back up.

He sits on top of me and forces my arms to the ground as he leans into my face. "You don't want to know what I might do, Junco. Do not challenge me. You have no idea."

The door bursts open and the girls stand there shocked.

"Out!" Lucan roars.

Lili and Irin slink away but Selia stays, waiting for me to give her an order. "I've got this, Sel. Just go."

She grunts out a laugh but still holds her position. "He's got ya pinned to the floor, Junco. I'm pretty sure you don't have this."

Lucan has me upright again before I can even process an answer. He steps away and fans out his arms. "Happy?" he asks Selia.

She takes a moment to think and then backs out, closing the door behind her.

"She's a keeper, that one," he mutters.

Selia seems awfully popular among the various higher beings involved in this whole affair. This is weird, but it's not really a great time to ponder shit like that.

I take my attention back to Lucan's face. His sweat is wafting off his body as steam now, he has literally boiled over. "Yesterday I was told Isten lives in another… place or universe or somewhere besides here. A place where I can go if I die, so do you really think I care if you kill me?"

He throws his head back and laughs. It's a giant outburst, actually.

I'm not sure what's funny.

"You had a visitor?" His eyes brighten as the laughter lingers on his face.

I just nod.

"Oh, and he told you about this place, did he? This
Heaven
?"

"No, not exactly. But I know it exists and I know I can't go there until I'm dead."

He watches me for a few moments, then runs his hands through his hair. "You can never go there, Junco. You're marked. The marked cannot move on. Ever."

I stand still and silent.

"Why do you think Tier refuses the Archer morph? Why would he refuse to be changed? He wants to die, Junco. He
wants to die
. And Archers have a very hard time doing that. You are one of us now. It cannot be undone."

I can't even speak, I just shake my head.

"I need your co-operation, Junco. We can all sit down and discuss the future once we know we have one. Understand?"

"That makes no sense, Lucan. Either we can die or we can't. If the High Order is coming to kill you, then how is it that you can't die?"

He turns a little but his eyes catch mine from the side. "There are far worse things than death, Junco." And then he laughs. "And don't even try blaming me for this situation you find yourself in, I would have preferred you die your natural death back in the Rural Republic, but Tier insisted you come back with
him
. I would've preferred that you died in Deliverance, but Sera insisted that you come back with
her
."

The words! Oh, holy motherfucking fuck. His words!

"And I would
never
have morphed you. Ever. Not the first time and most certainly not the second time. Tier would never have let me, but even without his disapproval, I would not want you to be an Archer, Junco." The last of his words are softer but somehow that makes it so much worse. Like he feels sorry for me.

I bite my lip and my brows furrows together so tightly I can feel the stress expand down to my neck. "No."

"Yes. This is what Inanna did when she made you an Archer. Immortality. You are a Goddess in every sense of the word. You will live forever, you will watch everything and everyone you ever loved die and disappear, you will find new mates, make new families, and then watch them die as well. And in the end you will be so jaded and bitter you'll look back on your life, your real human life and think all this hell you're going through right now
is
Heaven. You'll look back on that childhood you think was so awful and desperately wish to be that girl again. Being shot by your trainers, smacked in the mouth by your father, or losing that child who would never have survived in the first place."

"You fucking asshole! How dare you say that shit to me! You said you'd love me forever, but this! You are such a total piece of shit! You broke me! All of you! You
broke me!"

He stops, maybe to let those words in, maybe to wonder what he'll eat for dinner tonight, who the fuck knows. "No, Junco. You are not broken. This," he waves his hand at me, at my insanity, "is but a crack. The actual breaking has yet to commence."

The chill travels up my stomach and bursts out through my mouth. "
What
?"

"I wish you'd left Amelia that day." He turns away. "Left with that commander, what was his name?"

"Slag," I whisper.

"Right. Slag. You should have left me standing there alone against the darkness of the universe outside. But you didn't. You chose to stay, and I even warned you what it would come to. And now that we're here, you want to feign innocence? Blame this on
me
?"

His words come back, through all the murky ramblings in my mind, through the insane voices of dead people, and AI's, and mind readers. They are still there, ready to haunt me again.

Just remember, when we are at the end, when I am standing over you as you break in half, and I am forced to leave you with nothing, Junco – don't say I never tried to help. Don't tell me I made your life a living hell, because you will have done that all on your own.

"You're going to use me, aren't you? Use me all up and then leave me there, sprawled out and spent."