Revealing Eden (35 page)

Mated to Jamal?
Eden’s blood ran cold. She could think of no worse fate. But she deserved none better.

“Look,” he added, pointing to the compound gate. “I brought you a peace offering.”

He whistled and a soldier entered with a muzzled dog, straining at its leash.

Her heart leapt. “Austin!”

At Jamal’s nod, the handler released the eager animal. It bounded forward and jumped up on her shoulders. Eden took off his muzzle, and short, sharp barks told her he had missed her. She snuggled into his ruff.

“Me, too, buddy.”

“Happy?” Jamal said. “He was well taken care of.”

Eden commanded Austin to sit by her side, gathering her wits about her.

“I’m grateful,” she said plainly, her emotions in check.

“Good. That’s how I want things between us, again, Little Bunny.”

She recoiled as he caressed her cheek. Austin growled low, the hair on his back rising. The handler snapped up the leash again.

“Now where were we?” Jamal said, leering at her. “Oh, yes, mates.”

“I’ll go with you under one condition,” Eden said.

“You’re in no position to bargain, pet.”

She pretended more confidence than she felt. “Let the boy go and I’ll do whatever you want.”

Jamal laughed. “Do you know how much I can get for an albino? Especially, the Cotton son of the Great Bramford?” He approached the netted cage. “Or maybe I’ll keep the boy a secret in exchange for the keys to Bramford Industries.”

Bramford raged against the ropes.

“Shut up,” Jamal said, giving him a swift kick.

“No!” Eden cried.

He wheeled on her. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen under his spell?”

“I love him,” she said, her eyes on Bramford.

Jamal slapped her face. “Pearl bitch!”

She reeled back with a scream. Austin strained against the leash, growling. Bramford also growled, which, however futile, offered Eden some comfort. She glared at the sickening man she once hoped to mate.

“At least I know how it feels to love,” Eden said. “Something you’ll never know. You’re the beast, Jamal.”

He ripped away Logan’s mask. “How can you love a man that produced a Cotton?”

The boy moved to cover his face, but Jamal pinned down his arms. Bramford tore at the ropes, which bled into him. A hush fell over the soldiers. The sight of the Cotton child had caught even these hardened men off guard, Eden realized. She eyed Squeaky’s machete.

Do something, Eden
.

She gave him a swift kick in the knees and he collapsed. But as she reached for his weapon, something whizzed by in the air. The soldier guarding Logan’s hut fell forward, a dart lodged in his neck.
Whoosh!
Another well-aimed dart felled the man who guarded the women and children. Then Austin’s handler slumped to the ground. In a panic, the young soldier retreated behind the roped tree.

Jamal pulled out his laser, swinging it in confusion.

“Get him, Austin!” Eden yelled, pointing at her ex.

The dog flew through the air and clamped his jaws on Jamal’s arm. He dropped the laser and cried out.

“Help!”

Squeaky stumbled to his feet, cutting the air with his machete, as if fighting a ghost. Eden didn’t even hear the
whistling dart that got him. Blood spurted from his mouth, as he keeled over and dropped the big knife.

But Jamal had the last laugh. With his free hand, he reached for the laser and pointed it at Austin’s head.

“Call him off, Eden, or I’ll kill him,” he said.

Austin’s life for those she loved? In the end it was an easy decision. Eden took one last look at Bramford, begging quiet forgiveness.

Then she yelled at Jamal. “Take me instead!”

She heard Bramford’s cry, as she jumped towards the laser. “No, Eden!”

A sickening whine followed the weapon’s blinding flash. She rolled to the ground, stunned to be alive. Something had gone wrong. She lifted her head to find Austin sprawled on top of Jamal’s face. Blessed Mother Earth, he had knocked her out of the weapon’s deadly path and taken the hit in her place. His eyes rolled towards her, a deep shudder running through him.

“Austin!” Eden cried, scrambling towards him.

Jamal struggled to lift the dog off of him. Just then Logan made a heartbreaking sound.

“No, son!” Bramford called.

The boy brought Squeaky’s machete down onto Jamal’s chest with a sickening thump. The woulded leader fell back, his death rattle filling the stunned silence. And brave, young Logan stood by, trembling.

A breeze rustled over the compound and, even before Eden saw the men who had aided them, she realized who they were. The Aztec warriors stepped into the light as silent as the trees from which they took their camouflage of bark and
leaves. In their hard-set expressions, Eden detected wisdom and, to her surprise, deep compassion.

A high-pitched scream came from behind Logan’s hut. The net loosened and Bramford tumbled to the ground. An unseen hand pushed the confused teenage soldier before them. A boy playing at a man’s game, Eden thought.

Two more of the Aztecs appeared with Giant between them. Although he towered over them, it was clear who was in charge. Then the warriors vanished without a trace, and the big man, too. Eden hadn’t even seen them move. But why had they left the young soldier behind?

She ran her hand down Austin’s heaving flank. Her tears spilled onto his bloodied fur. The women tried to lift him, but Eden refused to let go. She didn’t want him to meet
Coatlicue
. She desperately wanted to keep him.

Please, Mother Earth, don’t take him
.

Eden thought she heard her father’s voice, but he only stared in silence. Too weak to call out, she realized. Still, the meaning in his expression reached her.
Wait and see
.

With a painful cry, she released Austin and let the women carry him away. In a solemn line, Logan and the children followed them inside one of the huts.

Eden had never felt more alone. The steady hum of the jungle and its dazzling beauty seemed far away. Numb to the world, she hardly felt the brush of Bramford’s body against hers.

But there he was, folding her into his warm arms. She buried her face against his chest, sobbing.

“Austin…” Eden sputtered.

Bramford held her tight until the storm inside her passed.
She knuckled her eyes dry, wondering how he could be so annoying at times and then as irresistible as moonlight.

“I love you, Eden Newman,” Bramford whispered in her ear.

Then he drew her into a deep kiss.

E
DEN STOOD UP, rubbing the small of her back. She had been digging up vegetables for hours, though the time had passed easily. She enjoyed the rich, earthy smell of the dirt; even more, being part of Mother Earth’s nurturing cycle. It also felt good to be of use to the Huaorani who had given her so much. Now that their location had been discovered, they needed to relocate.

Eden wrapped the vegetables in hemp sacks and carried them to the center of the compound where the women made tidy piles of herbs and their few belongings. She tried to imagine saying goodbye to them, but the effort only produced a dull ache in her chest.

At least her father would remain with the tribe. The eponymous cure had worked its magic, and just might allow him to outlive the expected life span of a Pearl. It even had healed the cut on her hand and her broken ribs.

The next day Bramford and Logan would undergo the adaptation and leave forever. Eden would just die if her father continued to stand in the way of her happiness. He had been too consumed with work to talk to her—back to his old tricks.

But time was running out; frenetic birdcalls announced
the end of the day. Eden couldn’t wait another minute to settle her future.

She deposited the sacks and ran straight to the lab. Determined, she marched up to her father, who was hunched over his console.

“We have to talk,” Eden said.

“What? Yes, I’m coming,” he said, though he made no effort to move.

Bramford swept in, carrying ropes of vines. He gave Eden a warm, seductive smile that set her heart aflame. Weak at the knees, she watched him cross the lab.

She desperately wanted to spend her life with him. It might not be the life she had imagined, but in her heart, she felt it was her destiny.

The young soldier, whom the Aztecs had spared, waved to her with an infectious smile. “Hi, Eden!”

She smiled back. “Hello, Kevon.”

Beside him, Lorenzo and Charlie, who had returned soon after Jamal’s defeat, hammered together a makeshift operating bed. The Huaorani practically had adopted Kevon as an honorary tribe member. Already, he wore the distinctive bowl-shaped haircut and thin rope around his groin.

Eden could see that his playful spirit had not been tainted by the FFP. Perhaps that explained the Aztecs’ decision to spare him. She only hoped his dubious past would not threaten her friends’ future or her own.

“Please, come now, Father,” Eden said.

He looked at her and sighed. “Yes, of course.”

They walked outside into the gathering dusk, the quick tapping of his crutch on the ground like the rat-a-tat-tat of
a woodpecker. Eden marveled at how quickly his strength had returned. If only Mother had taken Newman’s Cure, she thought wistfully.

And yet, the sound of Austin’s hearty bark puncturing the air eased her regret. Thanks to the miraculous plant, he, too, was healed. As they rounded the bend, she saw him chasing the pet macaw. Back and forth, the bird followed a ball of twine that the sisters and Logan tossed between them.

Logan missed a high lob from Carmen and ran after it. He seemed eager to please his new friends, and the older sister clearly relished her role as teacher.

“He called me Mama this morning,” Eden said, recalling the warm feelings and laughter she and Logan had shared.

They had sat like royalty upon a hill strewn with a purple carpet of jacaranda petals. It had been his turn to be the teacher, as he’d patiently instructed Eden how to paint the rolling landscape below.

“I see,” her father said, uneasily.

Still, Eden sensed his resistance. “Please tell me you’ve changed your mind.”

“Just as I suspected, the pheromone signals between you and Bramford are now quite evident.”

“Then you should understand.”

“Indeed, I do. However, it is my responsibility to weigh the consequences since the increased flow of hormonal activity in your brain prevents you from having an objective view.”

In silence, they made their way up the stairs to the main hut. Her father fell into the hammock with a weary sigh. How could Eden get through to him?

“You know,” she said, pulling up a stool beside him. “I promised Mother I would take care of you.”

“What? Why did Lily worry?”

“Oh, in case you sacrificed your health for some crazy, scientific quest and ended up almost dying in a remote jungle. No Life-Band, only plants for food and medicine.” She laughed loudly. “Kind of funny, now, isn’t it?”

“Yes, well, your mother would have been pleased to see how you’ve grown, but I doubt she would have approved of your proposition.”

“You’re wrong. Don’t you remember?” Eden repeated the tender words her mother had loved. “‘That Love is all there is, / Is all we know of Love.’”

Her father fell silent, staring into space. “I’d forgotten,” he whispered. “I had to.”

He’d loved her mother deeply, Eden realized. Then how could he deny her this chance?

He looked at her, his face awash with emotion. “Is this really what you want?”

“Yes, it is.”

“The evolution of Eden?” He mused. Then his eyes brightened. “Now, do you understand—wait and see? Consider the unexpected trajectory that has brought us to this incredible possibility and the valuable research to be discovered. Eden Newman, mother of a newly adapted race. And others might join you one day. From one couple, a family, then perhaps a group or a colony, slowly taking back the land.”

Yes, Eden thought, a large group of adapted people would be wonderful. Perhaps, even, to save all of the remaining Pearls. But she couldn’t think about that right now. First, she needed to secure her own future.