CHAPTER 23
Artemis
‘What the fuck is going on?’ I muttered to myself as Bromm recounted Tormik’s sudden collapse.
My mind whirled with the new information, yet my heart beat at a rapid pace as terror tried to take over.
I couldn’t let it.
Not now, when everything was falling apart.
‘I don’t think I’m qualified for this,’ Adara said on a choked sob.
I pulled myself together in record time so I could continue being the pillar these people – my people - leaned on.
I took her face in my hands and forced her to look at me.
‘Breathe, Addy.
All you need to focus on is the implants in the prisoners.’
‘But…’
‘No.
I’ve got this.
You and Reece stay here.
I’m going up to see what the fuck is happening.’
A dark, evil chuckle trickled out of the intercom I’d already muted, and I spun around to see Demari grinning maniacally behind the little window.
‘It’s too late.
I told you, Subject A-173.
You’re outnumbered. You’re outsmarted. You’re just an experiment gone rogue. You cannot defeat us. We are everywhere.’
My breath hitched as his words processed.
‘Addy, new plan.’
‘What?’
‘Leave the bitch.
Put her back in her cage.
We no longer have the luxury of time.’
While Addy sat there, stunned and confused, Reece hauled the unconscious scientist back into her cell, slamming the door closed with a little too much force.
He stared at it long after the locks clicked into place.
It was only when my hand landed on his arm that he snapped out of his stupor.
‘Sorry.’
‘You good?’
‘Yeah.
Just… memories.’
‘They tend to stick around, but we don’t have time to dwell on that right now.
I’m sorry.’
He took a steadying breath, tangled our fingers together, and dragged me away from the door.
‘All right.
What’s the plan?’
‘Addy, do you have the equipment needed to create a bio-dome?’
She blinked, my words slowly penetrating the fog of her confusion before she finally registered my question.
‘Uh, I should do.
If not, I should be able to scrounge something up from one or both ships.
This one likely has more tools, though.’
‘Take what you need.
We have to do this fast.
I don’t know how long until we’ve got company, but we’re going to be surrounded pretty damn soon.’
She jumped up, her mind clearing as she mentally ran through what needed to be done.
I noted how giving her a task helped her when she was spiralling, filing that information away for future use.
‘I’ll need an assistant if you want this done ASAP,’ she said.
‘Who?’
She frowned.
‘I don’t know.
Most of these people are strangers to me.
I can’t think of anyone with the skillset I need.’
Reece let out a resigned huff, running a hand down his face as he looked at Addy with a grimace.
‘I know someone.’
She perked up. ‘Who?’
‘The stars better give me a fucking medal for this…’ he mumbled. ‘Tarren.’
‘Tarren, as in Tarren Christianson? The same Tarren who framed you for a crime you didn’t commit? The same Tarren who said you raped his sister? That Tarren?’ she rambled.
He pursed his lips.
‘That’s the one.’
‘I hate to break this up, but Tormik is still unconscious and Foryk won’t be able to hold Morgrid forever,’ Bromm cut in, his tone urgent and tight with impatience.
‘Okay.
I’ll get Tarren, you help Tormik.’ And then she was bounding off back to the elevators, leaving us scrambling to hurry after her.
Fuck, she was so much faster now, and I wasn’t so sure that was a good thing.
She was already a bundle of energy, combined with her clumsiness, I was sure she was a walking hazard.
She made my point exactly one click later when she didn’t pick up her foot properly, scraped her toe against the floor, tumbled right out of the elevator and landed on an unconscious body.
A familiar unconscious body.
‘Help him,’ Foryk pleaded nearby as he wrangled Morgrid into a chokehold.
She was fighting back, but without her arms and unable to reach him with her legs, she was slowly losing consciousness.
‘What the…?’ Reece stammered.
Bromm lifted Addy off of Tormik’s prone form, but when there was zero response from her weight, slight though she may be, that familiar cool prick of terror stabbed at my heart again.
‘T,’ I whispered the nickname I had used for him for so many solars as I knelt down, pressing my fingers to the pulse point on his neck.
It took a few beats, but I caught a flutter, and that was enough to give me hope.
Without thinking too much into it and why I was so scared for his life, I scooped him up, tossing him over my shoulder because he was too large for me to carry in front.
‘We need to get him to Henrik,’ I said, shutting down my emotions so they wouldn’t overwhelm me.
‘Maybe Ma can help.
She’s renowned for her knowledge of poisons and venoms,’ Reece offered.
‘Is she still in the infirmary?’
‘Cadmus was the one to clear them out.
They should be outside,’ Bromm informed us, and we ran towards the open ramp without further delay.
‘Henrik!’ I shouted as we reached the hangar bay, even before the small crowd of people and patients came into view at the base of the ramp.
‘Here!’ he shouted back, running up the ramp to intercept us.
‘Help him,’ I demanded.
‘What happened?’ he asked, leading us off the ship.
‘Get him on a stretcher. Quick.’
Bromm took over the explanation, and I listened attentively as I gently lowered Tormik onto the closest stretcher.
In the next moment, Foryk came outside carrying an unconscious Morgrid, straining under her weight.
Cadmus, seeing that we needed help juggling all of the unconscious Tornus, stepped forward to assist.
His strength was increasing every day, and I still worried over when he would fall into a web-induced coma like Bromm had. It hadn’t happened yet, but we were all on standby, watching and waiting.
Knowing our luck, it would happen now just because everyone else was dropping like flies as well.
I glanced around the makeshift infirmary they had hastily set up outdoors, and I knew why Cadmus hadn’t returned with Bromm.
He’d been helping them move all the medical equipment outside, along with the patients themselves.
Amarantha was still unconscious despite the news we’d received that she’d woken up earlier in the day.
Xander was awake, though he looked pale and run-down as he sat beside his sister, clutching her like his life depended on maintaining that connection.
And then there was Tormik and Morgrid joining the fray.
Reece’s mother, Ariadne, rushed over to fuss over Tormik, and she pushed him out of the way towards Morgrid, taking over.
‘I’ve got this,’ she said.
‘Poisons and venoms are my speciality.’
‘He got nicked by a hidden doorway during the rescue,’ I told her.
‘I know.
I already looked at it.
I thought it was infected at first, but this isn’t a normal reaction to an infection.’ She pulled back his sleeve to reveal black veins spiderwebbing out from beneath the bandages, spanning all the way up his arm.
‘This is worse than I thought,’ she said grimly. ‘I’ll need to know what substance he came in contact with, and I can’t do that without my lab equipment. Even then, it could take days to get an answer.’
She looked up at me, compassion filling her eyes that had me denying her words before they even left her mouth.
‘I’m sorry.
There’s nothing I can do.
The substance has spread too far and too fast. He doesn’t have much time left.’
‘No.
You’re wrong.
He’s not dying, and you’re not going to let him.
Fix. Him.’
But she was already shaking her head.
‘I’m sorry.
It’s too late.
I can’t help him.’
Reece reached out to touch me, but I flinched away.
‘No.
I don’t accept that.
I can’t accept that. I’m the only one allowed to kill the bastard. Do you hear me, T? You’re not allowed to die unless it’s by my hand. We’ve already discussed this, you fucking asshole.’
‘Arty…’
‘No.’ I snapped at Reece, regretting it when he dropped his hand and backed away, a defeated slump to his shoulders, but I couldn’t stop myself from lashing out.
Tormik couldn’t die.
He just couldn’t.’
‘What if you kiss him?’ Xander’s weak voice drifted to me above the din of noise.
‘What?’
‘That’s how you passed on your nanites to Bromm and Cadmus, right?’
‘Would he want that?’ Bromm asked, grabbing my hand to stop me from digging my nails into my palms.
I was pretty sure I was bleeding, but I didn’t bother to check.
When I didn’t pull away, I caught the hint of sadness crossing Reece’s expression and had to work even harder to push away the guilt.
Everything was going wrong. I was failing. No one was safe. Tormik was dying.
But Xander was right.
I had his only chance running through my veins.
And, apparently, my saliva.
I didn’t know why it worked, but the evidence was standing before me. All I needed to do was kiss him.
So I did just that.
I didn’t overthink it.
I cast aside any promises I had made myself about staying away from T.
I brought up all the times he made me feel safe, wanted, beautiful. Like I meant something. Like we meant something. This wasn’t how our first kiss was supposed to go, but the prospect of losing him stripped me bare of all my hard-won armour, and I couldn’t deny the inevitable any longer. Tormik and I were always meant to clash, but that didn’t have to mean we were enemies. In the end, he had picked me. He continued to choose me. He’d risked his life for me. For all of us.
The least I could do was give him this.
I just hoped he could forgive me for taking away his choice.
I bent over him, my lips hovering over his in such a familiar way, a way I never once believed I would experience again.
And he wasn’t even conscious for it.
Perhaps that was for the best, but even thinking it felt wrong.
He should have been awake for this.
‘Or maybe we just call us even,’ I whispered so only he could hear.
If he could even hear me at all.
‘You took my choice, now I’m taking yours.
Both of us doing what we believed was best for the other…’ I sighed, scrunching my eyes shut as my fears momentarily got the best of me.
‘I think I get it now, T.
Please forgive me.’
I’d already taken long enough.
My lips pressed against his, plump and pillowy and completely, utterly absent.
The lack of response felt wrong in so many ways, and they were cool rather than warm, his heart struggling to continue pumping his blood.
But I was going to change that. Knowing that our lips making contact wasn’t enough, I ran my tongue along the seam of his mouth, his lips splitting open without any resistance to allow my entry. I plunged my tongue into his mouth, mentally begging him to forgive the intrusion, and tasted him for the very first time. He tasted of sweetness and musk, with a hint of decay as his body gave out.
Not if I could help it.
I wanted to gag.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted him to wake up so he could kiss me back, to claim me like he should have done so many solars ago.
When I finally pulled away, tears tracking down my cheeks unbidden, I found most of our audience had redirected their attention to give us some privacy.
All but Bromm, Cadmus, Reece, and Xander.
Each of them showed various degrees of concern, compassion, and pity, and I fucking hated it.
I turned to address Ariadne.
‘Give him some of my blood, too.
I want to cover our bases,’ I told her, ignoring the curious way her gaze bounced between me and the man that I had once considered my happy ever after.
She didn’t waste any time, however. Nor did she comment. I appreciate that more than anything.
The needle pricked my arm, but I didn’t feel it.
I was numb to such small intrusions after everything my body had endured.
What was a needle compared to that?
When she had filled the syringe with my blood and withdrew the needle from my arm, she didn’t bother cleaning it before plunging it directly into Tormik’s heart.
I winced, knowing exactly how painful it was, only I’d been wide awake, paralysed, and without any anaesthesia.
He was unconscious, unresponsive, and if he made it out of this alive, the only remnants he would experience were bruising and a pinching sensation.
Both were better than death, however.
Unless he decided to choose anger over bringing him onto this side of The Program.
I’d just turned him into another one of their subjects, whether he liked it or not.
‘What now?’ Cadmus asked, but it wasn’t Ariadne who answered.
Henrik placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly, his offer of friendship welcome and received.
‘We wait.
Either the nanites acclimate to his body and fight off whatever caused this, or they don’t.’
‘In other words, he either wakes up or he dies,’ Xander said unapologetically, but he continued before anyone could berate him for his tactless comment.
‘You’ve done all you can for him, now it’s just a waiting game.
You’ve given him his best shot, Artemis.
Whether he lives or dies, it would have meant everything to him.’
‘Xander’s right, Arty,’ Bromm said softly.
‘The man may have had his faults, but his love for you never wavered.’
‘Yeah, well, he had a funny way of showing it.’
‘But he did show it,’ Cadmus pointed out.
‘He never gave up on you,’ Reece chimed in.
‘He fucked up and hurt you as a result, but his heart was always in the right place.
All I’ve ever seen him do is fight for you, even when he didn’t think he’d get anything in return.’
The sob tore from my chest without my permission, and I suddenly found myself surrounded by all of my men.
Even Reece, whom I made an effort to hold onto to prove that his comfort was welcome.
That he was welcome. Always.
‘Sorry to break up this party, but I was told there was an emergency and my assistance was needed,’ Tarren’s voice cut through the moment, and I couldn’t have been more grateful.
I pulled away from the group hug, wiping away the evidence of my tears, but then Addy was suddenly before me, wrapping her small, thin arms around my waist.
‘That was a very brave thing to do, Arty.
He would have wanted this.
I’m proud of you.’
I returned her hug briefly before pulling away, giving her a tender look.
‘Thanks, Addy, but Tarren’s right.
We have an emergency on our hands that has all of our lives and freedoms at stake.
We have work to do.’
‘What’s going on, Artemis?’ Ariadne asked, her husband falling into step with her, offering her moral support with his presence.
It was a sight to behold, the love they held for one another.
Their connection didn’t need words.
They revolved around one another with complete synchronicity.
‘Demari and another one of the scientists, a woman who has been seen with Demari before, implanted themselves with one of their devices.
We don’t know what they do or how to safely remove them, and we suspect doing so could trip some sort of coded booby trap.
Unfortunately, they used those implants to send out a distress call.
The enemy is about to pay us a visit.’
‘How didn’t you catch this before now?’ Tarren asked, though I could tell his concern stemmed from fear rather than anything else.
Reece, however, didn’t catch the subtle signs of body language and micro-expressions like I had, assuming Tarren’s question was accusatory, spurring him to wind back his fist and let it fly right into the other man’s face.
Luckily for Tarren, I saw it coming and caught Reece’s fist before it could make contact.
Reece shot me a look of utter betrayal, but I quickly pressed a kiss to his knuckles, taking him off guard.
‘He didn’t mean it like that, Reece.
It wasn’t an attack, and it’s a valid question.’ I tangled my fingers with Reece’s, both to soothe him and keep him from launching himself at his childhood bully again.
I also tried to ignore how aware I was of his parents watching us, or the look they shared, small twin smiles that spoke of a secret only the two of them were in on.
‘To answer your question, Tarren, we scanned the holding cells for any sign of devices, but it didn’t occur to us until recently that they may be utilising their experiments on themselves.
They hadn’t so far, but it made sense that they had some sort of failsafe in place.
We all know how tricky The Program can be.
We caught them today, but it’s too late to do anything about it now except prepare for their arrival.’
‘And how are we going to do that?’
‘By creating a bio-dome,’ Addy said, but Tarren frowned in confusion.
‘How’s that going to keep them out?’
‘Because we’re not creating just any bio-dome.
You and Addy are going to build one that will amplify our shields.’
Comprehension lit up his eyes, the challenge sparking something inside him that was at complete odds with the man he presented himself to be.
Who would have guessed he was passionate about engineering? Tarren Christianson was a closet nerd.
‘You need something powerful enough to shield the entire village,’ he concluded.
‘Exactly.’
An eager grin split his cheeks.
‘Then that’s what you’ll get.’