Death Weeps Part 34

"Right," he said, scrubbing his head. "Don't hurt her, man, she stopped the bleeding."

What bleeding?

John looked at my expression and answered the question there, "You were bleeding out your nose. Pretty sure that fragment caused your brain to swell."

Alex, who was shackled soundly said, "But, no worries, that dude won't be bludgeoning anyone else."

I looked at him and he continued, "Your grandpa beat him to death with the weapon he used on you, man."

I sat up too quickly and the room spun. The young woman put both her hands on the sides of my face and the room settled.

"Is he okay... Gramps?" The faces in the room looked around anxiously. Archer finally said, "Don't know, they beat him pretty bad. And he's not getting the organic treatment."

"What?" I asked, my eyes moving back to the girl.

"Yes, that's what she is," Mia began.

"She's this world's version of an Organic," Sophie added.

I stood, leaning against the inside wall, made of rough-cut wood, the splinters biting into my palm.

I took in my surroundings, all the while the girl's hands remained on me. I looked down at her, her smallness striking me. She reminded me vaguely of Jade.

Jade.

My eyes scanned the inside of the dimly lit building, light filtering through the stout boards and found her within the circle of Brett's arms. She gazed back at me like the last two years had never been.

"Jade..." I moved forward.

John grasped my arm, the Organic's hands falling away, and with them, that sense of healing dissipated and the pain of my head injury slammed back into me. I bent over, groaning and she was just suddenly there.

"Do not, young sir. You have been grievously wounded. If you would but stay still a mite longer, I would see you restored." Her eyes, which I had mistaken for brown, were actually the deepest midnight blue, almost black, dark sapphires.

"I have to get to Jade," I said but Jade shook her head, her dark hair falling like black water around her sides, some of it getting stuck in the crevices of Brett's jacket.

My pulse began to pound and my old friend Rage made an appearance.

I was going to put a hurt on someone.

John fell into my line of sight between Jade and I. "Listen, Caleb... she's gone. The enhancer has an accelerated response in some. And in this world, worse."

My eyes flicked up to his. "What about you, pal?"

He shook his head and showed me the welt. It had begun to heal, the swelling and redness-gone. I felt my face frown. "I don't think they were really certain about the reactiveness of it all." He shrugged. "Me being a Null must metabolize it differently. I feel nothing."

"What about everyone else?"

He shrugged. "It's different with everyone. I think the girls are getting hit hardest."

I moved John aside and the Organic moved with me. I turned and looked at her. "What's your name?"

She looked up at me for a second, translating maybe, and responded, "Elise."

I paused, then said, "Thank you."

She smiled and it utterly changed her face, making her look younger, more vulnerable. Maybe she was. Living with these creepers would make anyone old before their time.

I came to stand in front of Mason.

He looked at me with sullenness. "Yeah, Hart?"

"Listen to me." I met his eyes and tried for reasonable. While I still could, that is. "My friends, family... everyone but you and me have gotten nailed with this government drug that's an enhancer."

I swallowed my anger when he wrapped Jade closer against him and she cuddled into him like her favorite teddy bear.

I just wanted to spray barf again, but not because of the head wound.

I went on, pressing through my desire to rip his head off and s.h.i.+t down his throat. "Jade doesn't know what she's doing, man. She can't choose, she's not thinking rationally. The drug makes people's thought processes effed up, their insecurities that they would normally rationalize, becomes magnified on this stuff."

I saw something flicker in his eyes, some kind of connection with what I was saying, then it was gone.

Dammit, I just knew he knew something was up. Jade wasn't acting like herself and he'd clued in. But since it was going oh, so his way he wasn't going to become introspective or anything.

The d.i.c.k.

I clenched my fists and Jade moved out of the circle of his arms and touched my forearm.

I ached to take her into my arms, looking at her like a guy starving for the perfect sandwich. For me, she was it.

Jade gazed up into my face, while Elise's hands were pressed against the base of my neck from behind and said, "This is why we can't be together Caleb. I need someone that's not so violent. That cares about me first... not all the dead things," she flicked her hair back behind her shoulder, the hollow of her throat bare, the necklace I gave her gone forever.

Maybe she was too.

My eyes met Brett's and he stared back, reeling her back in against his body, like a prize trout.

"I just want him to go away, he makes me nervous Brett," Jade whispered in a voice that was slightly slurred. We could all tell she was going downhill. Why didn't this a.s.shole see it?

He didn't want to, that's why.

Brett stroked her hair. "I know, he's going... right Hart?"

I leaned forward and hissed close to his face, "You know what I told you is right. Don't do this, Mason. Don't use your connection to manipulate the situation!"

"I'm not man, you handed her over before any of this bulls.h.i.+t started happening, remember?" His eyes pegged me with accusation. "You're the one that got into it at school, again. Then," he kept his penetrating stare on me, "you asked me, no begged me to protect her from Howie." He grunted his annoyance over her head, his chin almost resting on it. "Then when he made his psycho move, who came to her rescue? I did, ya moron. You came late, as usual. We're meant to be together. I'm the one with all the family violence and drama, but you act like it comes natural. Maybe you're the one with the problem. I should be the one that doesn't have any self-control. Where the f.u.c.k is yours?" He leaned his head back and laughed. "Nowhere." He pointed his finger at me. "I'll take care of Jade, Hart. 'Cuz you obviously can't."

I didn't need the enhancer for all the self-doubt in the world to come cras.h.i.+ng in on top of my head. I saw our past flash before my mind's eye. All the fights, the violence, the dead always a casualty of everything. How it would seem to Jade, the enhancer warping it all out of proportion. Then I saw all the things that balanced that... mainly, our love. I saw the countless times with her body under mine, my hands everywhere, protecting her... loving her. My heart squeezed inside my chest. Stupid Mason thought I was giving him some kind of reprieve.

He was wrong. He was effectively on notice.

Starting now.

I knew that Jade was messed up mentally. I looked around the room, trying to gauge my other friends. The girls gave me different expressions but it was Jonesy that grinned.

"I'm still sane, I'm already half-crazy anyway. I'm not gonna go more nuts overnight."

Elise kept her hands on my skin as I took stock of everything. I told myself that at least Jade was safe. Brett was a proven guard dog. Too bad he'd latched on to my girl as mistress. I blamed myself. But sometimes choices had to be made that were the best out of a bunch of lame ones.

I needed to get us out of here and fast. But first, I had to collect the blood, find out if Gramps was okay and then....

I snapped my eyes to John's. "We need to get outta here, like yesterday."

"You don't think I'm aware of that?" he snorted, then looked at Elise.

She lifted her hands off of my neck and drew back, I went to grab the hand that had left me and she cringed, throwing up her other hand to defend herself.

"Hey," I said softly, "I won't hurt ya." I gently pushed the arm down but her eyes were full of fear.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked John.

"Figure it out, Caleb, look at her."

I did. The parts of her body I could see carried the marks of pinches, hits and lashes. Some fresh, many were old. My anger came rus.h.i.+ng back like the tide to sh.o.r.e.

"Who did this to you?" I asked in a harsh whisper.

She shrugged her shoulders. "They all do. If I displease them, it is the consequence for my clumsiness."

"I am really hating these guys," Bry spoke for the first time.

Elise flashed her eyes to his and he raised his brows in question. "I am treated well. They do not... do not," she cast her eyes down and all us guys circled around what she didn't say. But then she bravely raised moist eyes to us, the tears wrung out of her, "use me," she finished.

Sophie walked the short distance to the young Organic and wrapped her arms around Elise. Then Randi staggered over to her, the side of her face swollen from the hit she'd taken from one of the fragment. Tiff grabbed Randi's arm and helped her get to Elise, the sedative still working its magic.

"I won't leave you behind," Randi slurred like a drunk and Elise gave her sad eyes.

"I am sorry, what you say will not be possible," Elise responded.

Tiff stared at the new girl, then asked real slow, "What do ya mean?"

Elise's face turned a dull brick color.

h.e.l.l, even I knew how bad that was.

"It is trading day. The females will be auctioned first. You will command the highest price." She looked at each young woman in turn. "If you be untried, more."

Holy s.h.i.+t. They were talking about whether the girls were virgins or not! They were talking about... selling our girls.

Not on my watch.

The Js and I watched this new reality sink in. Sophie covered her mouth with a hand, whipping her head from side to side. "Oh my G.o.d, no!"

Tiff, from the recesses of her pocket, dredged out a stick of gum and began chomping on it with relish. "Let 'em try to check and figure it out. I'm thinking they'd lose some fingers," she paused contemplatively, "or some other... stuff."

h.e.l.l.

Elise wasn't finished with the revelations either. "The young females who are..." she looked at Jade, Sophie and Randi, "exotic in their physicality will fetch even more still."

Okay, this was beyond creepy.

From the side of the structure Jade piped in with her slurred speech, "Brett can keep me safe."

Yeah right. I rolled my eyes, giving her a look, her face flushed, her eyes glazed. My eyes swept to Mason's. "Any doubt that she doesn't hardly know who she is?" Guilt swept across his face then was gone.

"Chump," I muttered.

I needed the dead. And not a few.

Many.

I pulled Elise into my body, sucking the energy off of her, a full healing just out of reach as I held my hand out for Tiff. She came, snapping her gum. "I'm on board, Hart. Besides, it saves me from severing body parts."

I gave a grim smile at that, I liked the idea of lopping off some parts. h.e.l.l, the way I was feeling now, I was ready to do the Mary Queen of Scots routine. Creepy little nursery rhyme that made a h.e.l.luva lot of sense at the moment.

My power rushed up and swirled around the surface of my skin, wanting to burst through.

But a ceiling of unknown origin kept it locked in a room of death, active within me.

Someone had thrown away the key.

I was shut down. How, I didn't know.

My eyes met John's as Tiff dropped my hand.

"d.a.m.n," she seethed.

Archer came forward. "I've got great news."

"Terrific, I could use some," I said, my eyes flicking over to Brett holding Jade.

"Focus, Caleb," he said.

My eyes s.h.i.+fted back to him, willing him to make his point. My patience... well, I didn't have any.

"I can get us out of here."

Right, Lock-Manipulator.

Lewis calmly walked over to a huge, barn-like door and grasped the handle. I could hear a large chain and latch fall from the other side and he rolled the door away from the entrance as bright midday light slanted like a laser beam into the confines of the structure. Dust motes swirled lazily in the band of sunlight.