Chapter 10
Cyrus sat up in bed as he jerked awake, his eyes wide while the scenes that had been playing in his dreams continued to flicker through his mind. Not many of them made sense, but…it was the future…
At least, he thought it may be. There was screaming, and some of the sounds playing didn’t belong with the scenes, or they were possibly just out of sync. The rest aside, he clearly heard gunfire, explosions, and fighting.
Cyrus frowned as he forced the threads to appear. And they did, but trying to look deeper seemed to make the visions in his head scramble further, to the point of being nauseating. Even so, Cyrus kept trying. He kept looking as he didn’t know what else to do.
“Fuck!” he growled in frustration minutes later, when all he’d got for his efforts was a splitting headache and an upset stomach.
But what he had learned was still useful—possibly. The flashes of the outfits he’d seen… The ship… Cyrus was sure now that someone, another group, would attack Riker’s ship, Bone Turner, before they got there. Possibly not that long before…maybe even right before.
Either way, someone else was there that wasn’t, or didn’t appear to be, their enemy, at least. The question was who? And was this the current fucking timeline they were on, or the previous one he’d tossed away? And why was this even important for him to fucking know?!
Yeah, so far, the three days in space had yet to lead to any sort of answers to the many questions he had. Just more stress as his panic grew, while they neared where they’d eventually run into the hopefully soon-to-be-dead Skinwalker, and his band of merry fucking traffickers.
Killian and Skya…they had to be okay…
Taking a deep breath and letting it slowly out, Cyrus got out of bed and quickly showered away the sweat that had built due to his efforts. Once clean and dressed for the day, he was about to leave the room when the door opened, and Severo came within an inch of bowling right into him.
His brow rose at the hopeful expression on the Shadow Dweller’s face. “What?! What is it?”
Severo’s smile spread wider as he announced, “My parents got a call.”
Cyrus laughed in relief. “Thank fuck!” He rubbed his face with a groan while he stepped back and let Severo inside.
Dropping down onto the couch, he rasped, “Killian…of course… He would have told them exactly who they had taken with him… I don’t know why I didn’t realize that sooner.
” He rubbed his face again, his hands actually shaking with how relieved he felt.
“Stress and guilt, likely. As for why my ass didn’t realize it?” The Shadow Dweller sat down next to him. “Well, all I could think about is what could go wrong.”
Cyrus smiled and asked, “Did they say what Riker asked for?”
Severo pursed his lips. “To be honest, the amount is so low that my parents would have likely found it laughable, if, you know, they weren’t already enraged at the time they heard it.”
“Trafficker or not, Riker is smart enough to know that your parents are not people one should fuck with. He was probably terrified to ask for more.”
The Dweller chuckled. “He didn’t even ask for the low amount, really.
It was more of a suggestion, and it came with an apology, apparently.
I, of course, got my body threatened for running off without informing them of what had happened, while leaving Seri and his mother, Avery, alone to deal with their emotions. ”
“Alone, my ass. You have literally been on the phone with them for the last three days, for almost every hour you have been awake.”
“I did argue that point. Guess how it went?”
Cyrus smirked. “They try to ground you?”
“They very much did, and they succeeded, since they’d already captured Seri and Avery by the time they called me. My mother browbeat Seri into agreeing to my punishment of camping outdoors alone for the same number of days I’m absent.”
He chuckled. “Of course, she did. What did they tell Riker?”
“I think the best way to sum it up is ‘return our granddaughter to us or die.’” Severo’s smile dropped then. “They didn’t know about Killian. Riker didn’t mention him to them, but they told me to tell you that they promised, they would demand his return the moment Riker called back.”
Cyrus’ smirk waned at that. “So, what you are saying is that my parents likely know now too.”
“Most definitely. They’ll probably call you.”
They wouldn’t. They knew it was better to wait until the crisis was over, because there was nothing more he could tell them right now.
Though, he supposed, the real truth was that they wouldn’t call because they were not as close to him as most in his life thought they were. Killian knew, but everyone else…
It wasn’t like his mother and father wouldn’t be worried about Killian. They likely were, but they wouldn’t get involved, and would wait for him to tell them, or they'd just learn what they could through Severo’s parents and never bring it up.
Cyrus did wonder what they’d think if they found out what he’d done. They’d likely laugh, possibly mock him now that he’d proven them right on just how bendable those rules he loved really were, when it came down to it…
Killian aside, the news was something to be relieved about, in Skya’s case. Yet, at the same time…he still felt wound up, like he was waiting for the many shoes to drop, due to the many unanswered questions he had.
“I’m relieved that my parents know about something for once, and that the bastard that has Skya knows…but…” Severo sighed. “Cyrus…what’s going to happen after all this ends?”
That would definitely be one of his many unanswered questions.
“I don’t know,” Cyrus answered honestly. “As far as what I do know, no one has broken this rule yet in my lifetime, at least not to my knowledge. If what I did is discovered… A warning? Punishment? Death? I just don’t know.”
“You have to be fucking kidding me. Your family elders have set up all these damn rules that you have to follow, but they couldn’t even be bothered to tell you what the consequences of breaking them would be?!”
Despite everything, he smiled at the bewildered look on his friend’s face, and shrugged. “Pretty much.”
Severo let out a baffled laugh. “They sure hang a lot on you all holding back based on vague consequences.”
“I think it’s more that they know we are aware of how easily things can get messed up, just by changing one thing. I mean, we see it every day. How a single thing, even just one wrong turn, can change someone’s entire future, leading to an uncountable number of people being impacted.
“And when it comes to what is going to happen to me, or to Killian, after this is over…again, I don’t know. I don’t know how far-reaching my choice will be, and what consequences it will lead me to, even without my family coming after me.”
Severo’s mouth opened, but the man quickly barked, “Fuck,” as the ship violently rocked. The lights went out for a split second, before the ship shook even more, until finally, they were left with sirens and system alarms blaring.
One particularly high-pitched bird-like alarm had him growling, “Ah, fuck me. We lost comms!”
“Solar flare?” Severo asked, his face pinched.
“Based on the alarm, my guess would be fucking yes.”
Killian held tightly to Skya, as people around him screamed with each violent rock of the ship. “IT’S JUST A SOLAR FLARE!” he yelled! “We’re fine!”
Well…based on the screaming system, fine was an overstatement.
They’d lost comms, for sure, which…was both in their favor, and not.
As while it did mean it was harder for the traffickers to communicate drop offs and sales, it also meant their revolt and escape plan just became more of a pain in the ass.
Because not being able to call out for help was sucky.
Though he had tinkered around with computer parts, and deconstructed that old ship in one of Severo’s parents’ garages many years ago. So after some time, Killian likely would be able to fix it. He just wasn’t sure if it was worth fixing, or if it would be faster to just fly to the help.
While the alarms continued, the ship eventually stopped shaking.
Skya, who had remained calm during the whole thing, huffed, “Loud!” The baby was clearly irritated, as the alarms continued, even when the ship stopped shaking.
He smiled and ruffled her curls. She was possibly the most taken care of person on the whole ship at the moment. The day after waking up, Riker and some men had arrived with changing supplies, a bed, clothes, and more for the toddler.
He could only assume the Skinwalker thought treating her well would be best for his own survival.
It had been too much food, and just stuff, for one little girl though.
Not to mention the clothes. While he’d found things Skya could wear, they were oddly of all different sizes.
Their laziness was to the other children’s benefit, at least, and the last two days, the little ones had been semi well-fed, cleaned, and clothed.
Thankfully, the adults had not been aggressive, or even dared to ask for any of it. He was, however, now surrounded, and was basically taking care of all thirty-seven children in the cell, including Skya.
Killian sighed. He’d become a full-time babysitter in no time.
Not that the children were much trouble.
They were all pretty quiet, not talking much at all.
Which…while he didn’t want them being loud, the fact was, they were scared, and he’d rather them be loud and annoying than frightened and teary-eyed.
Killian glanced over when someone cleared their throat, and found one of the children standing there, shifting shyly on his feet. To be honest, while he didn’t know the kid, he recognized him, mainly as he’d noticed the little boy tended to stare at him more and just longer than the others.
Though, Killian supposed, what really drew him to the boy was the look in the kid’s eyes.
The little boy seemed to accept what was happening, as if he was used to dealing with horrible shit.
The kid wasn’t the only one who had that look, but he was the only one who didn’t seem scared, on top of his apparently odd obsession with staring at Killian.
Possibly a little taller than three feet, the boy was skinny as hell, with light-pink curly hair, big brown eyes, a button nose, pointed chin, and freckles on his rounded pale cheeks.
He was a cute little shit, that was for sure, and based on hair color alone, Killian was sure the child was a Cryptid…
he just didn’t know what exactly he was.
“Need something, Kiddo?” Killian asked, after likely a moment too long of staring.
The kid licked his lips, before slowly plopping down in front of him. Curling up, his arms wrapping around his bent knees as he rested his head on them, the Cryptid asked, “Why are you here?”
He smiled. “A greedy parent. You?”
“Greedy guardian. Names Zentry, but you can call me Zenny.”
“Ah,” he hummed carefully, making sure to keep his smile in place. Though it was hard to hold back the surge of anger at the kid being sold by people he should be able to trust. “Well, Zenny, I’m Killian, and this—” He nodded down to Skya in his lap. “—is Skya.”
His brow rose slightly as the kid, who was still smiling, just nodded and remained where he was, with his eyes on him, or rather…
possibly on something Killian couldn’t see.
Because as those big brown eyes stared, they started to change color, until they were a deep blood-red color, bringing even more questions up in his head as to what the boy was.
Zenny Vullen stared up at the very pretty older Cryptid, struggling to look away. He knew he should. Despite the even smile on Killian’s face, he knew his staring was making the other Cryptid uncomfortable…he just… It was just hard…
His gaze traced the bright glowing red line that ran between him and the man, hoping with everything in him that he wasn’t imagining it. Yet, he was also afraid that if he looked away for too long, it would disappear.
Seeing lines wasn’t new to him, he saw them all the time between other people, but it was different this time. Because for the first time—the very first time—a line was connecting him to someone else.
He had a connection with this man. Maybe not yet, but in the future he would. And the clear, bright-red line was proof of that.
Zenny saw lines of all different colors, as all Cupids did, he assumed. Some of them he didn’t understand what they meant, and maybe he never would, but he knew what red meant. Red meant family.
Killian would be his family one day…