Chapter 9 Rainer
RAINER
First lesson my mama taught me—if someone is hoarding basic necessities, they’re not good people.
There aren’t any monster compounds by Nyc City, and I’ve been tracking south since my parents were killed. When I lost the trail of blood and belongings, I continued south since that’s the primary direction the trail had led.
In retrospect, I should have known they wouldn’t have dragged their victims to the south of the continent. That seems illogical. There are definitely human settlements all over the continent much closer to home if they originated from the south.
Maybe I continued south for a different reason, one I hadn’t thought about. My home had been destroyed, and there was nothing left there for me anymore.
So I continued to walk. With Kaida at my side, I’m not alone, and I’m not immediate beast food, either. I won’t go so far as to say beasts thought twice about targeting me for an easy meal, but she gave me a fighting chance at survival.
Now, as we walk toward the towering walls of Base 6 that look as if they extend for miles and miles in every direction, I’m questioning whether I truly saw one of these compounds before.
In my mind, I have some strange memories, as if I have.
Maybe from a distance? Considering we’re now traveling north again, there’s a chance that I saw this exact one.
But I feel like I’d have remembered something this immense in detail, and I definitely don’t remember it.
The walls seem to get taller as we get closer. I can’t even see the top. The hole in the front is wide open, but the massive doors are the size of a damn house, spread wide and… welcoming? Can they be considered welcoming?
“Welcome home, Eriva,” the monster at the gate says. His eyes are on me.
The hairs on my body stand on end as I wait for hostility. Disgust. Anything at all. But all he does is watch me as he hands Keary a piece of fabric.
Keary grabs my wrist and pulls me along. Now that I’m out from under the watchful eye of the monster at the gate, I can look around, and… I’m startled by what I see. This must be a snapshot of what the world looked like before monsters destroyed it.
There are streets and parks and people everywhere. Houses are standing intact, with life teeming inside them. There are gardens and pastures and what are obviously business buildings with people coming and going.
There’s electricity! There are moving vehicles! There are people who look like people and those who look unmistakably like monsters. With the two walking side-by-side, it’s far more obvious that even when a monster looks human, they’re far from it.
I’m not even sure where to look.
“Never been on a base before, have you?” Drystan asks.
I shake my head.
“Pretty cool, right?”
“I…” I’m not sure what to say. I can barely register what I’m seeing. It’s overwhelming. All this safety, this technology, this obviously more peaceful way of life is hidden behind city walls!
Should I be angry? I feel angry.
“Come on. Time to heal that ankle for real,” Keary says.
I don’t speak. I’m not sure if I’m going to like the words that come out of my mouth. I’m irrationally angry, I think.
I mean, if what they told me is true and these are the monsters who fought against the ones who destroyed everything, why are they keeping all this to themselves? Regardless of the fact that they tried to stop it, it was still their species that killed the humans. Don’t they owe humans this safety?
We walk down a road, and I try hard not to dwell on these feelings. My fingers dig into Kaida’s back. She can feel my anger. She keeps looking back at me, maybe waiting for me to tell her I’m alright. Or explain why I’m angry.
I know when we start getting into House territories. The general feeling of an all-inclusive city falls away, and we’re left with gated areas. They’re not walled off, keeping those on the outside out. They’re actual gates, though not at all manned by anyone.
We take a sharp right and step through the golden gates, probably heading into the homes of the Eriva. Gold is a symbol for divinity, isn’t it?
Except that I’m wrong. A few feet away, I see a sign that reads “House of Malak.”
“Malak is another divine family,” Keary tells me. “What we refer to as the god breeds, like the Ra and the Ioa, tend to keep themselves separated from the angelics, like nephilim, seraphim, angels—for whatever reason.” He waves his hand in the air.
“Why? Are there the opposite of gods, like demons and devils? Do the two get along?” So many damn questions!
Drystan grins.
“Why? I don’t know,” Keary answers, shrugging.
“You’ll find that while it’s not unheard of for families to have a broad mix of species within their walls, it’s not often that the classes mix.
Something we don’t really give much thought to is that within the classes, there are subclasses, which is why you see the angelic species often separate from the god-like species. ”
“Yes, there are demons and devils,” Notto answers when Keary doesn’t continue with my questions. “Yes, angels and demons get along. There are three prominent demonic Houses residing inside Base 6, and there are two divine Houses—Eriva and Malak.”
“We’re stopping at Malak because nephilim are a type of angel, and they are the ones that heal,” Keary says as we approach a house.
There are people everywhere, and some feel blinding, like they have inner suns. Looking at them makes my eyes hurt.
Keary knocks, and a boy opens the door. He’s super young, probably not more than eight or nine.
“Keary!” he says with a beamingly bright grin.
“Hello, mini glow stick. Feel like lending us your healing touch?”
The kid beams, his eyes shimmering like stars. “Yeah!” He steps backward, opening the door further to let us in. He definitely recognizes Notto and Drystan, so his attention is pointedly on me and Kaida.
Keary gestures for me to sit in a chair. Drystan brings a stool over and puts my heel on it.
“This is Rainer,” Keary introduces, “and his friend, Kaida.”
The kid looks at Kaida with glee-filled eyes. “I love the luts. They’re so enchanting. Such a cool mix of creatures.”
I don’t imagine Kaida looking smug at his comment as she sits by my side. I roll my eyes as I dig my fingers into the feathers at the base of her neck.
“This is Slade,” Keary tells me. “My favorite nephilim.”
Slade grins. “Hiya.” His eyes drop to my foot on the stool. “What’s wrong with you?”
“A poison quill,” Keary says. “Into his ankle. The fer-de-lance jacked-up anti-venom took care of the poison, but he’s still in pain. I think the quill itself might have done some physical damage.”
Slade nods. He kneels on the floor next to the stool, but his hands halt over my ankle. “Can I touch you?” he asks, his eyes briefly meeting mine.
I nod, somewhat amused.
His fingers are warm as he pushes my pant leg up to view my ankle. The scar is barely visible, so I’m guessing the damage is on the inside. I find it a little strange that whatever was in the anti-venom has nearly made the evidence of my injury disappear without fixing the internal damage.
His hand wraps around my ankle, and I’m practically blinded when it turns into a beam of light. I can see and feel it through my squeezed-shut eyes. Heat sears through my ankle and travels up my leg, following the path that tends to ache by the end of a day of walking.
It doesn’t take long, and the heat fades in time with the light. I’m surprised when I immediately feel the difference in my leg, too. It feels… perfect. I’m probably going to limp the other way now since this one is ten years younger and stronger.
“Thanks,” I say, staring at my leg as if it’s going to do tricks all on its own. Will it glow now?
“You’re welcome,” Slade says as he gets to his feet. “Thanks for stopping in.”
Notto chuckles as he heads for the door, so I think we were just dismissed. I get to my feet and follow, but not before I’m left with another wave of anger when I get a look at the house that we’re leaving. It’s furnished with comfort and warmth, and… I smell hot food.
The monsters have underground doomsday shelters and massive compounds with houses. Meanwhile, humans are living in shells of buildings and constantly fighting for a damn meal. What the fuck?
“You’re angry,” Notto notes as we pass back through the Malak neighborhood.
“I can’t get over the fact that monsters were responsible for killing the human race, yet they’re living like…” Words fail me as I gesture around. “Meanwhile, humans are barely clinging to life.”
“Ah,” Notto says. He grabs my arm, and we head down a side street.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“I’m going to introduce you to someone.”
Drystan and Keary tag along without comment. Kaida, thankfully, remains glued to my side. I don’t ask another question as we continue down a long street and take a right onto a smaller one. The next gate we go through welcomes us to the House of Water.
I raise a brow, staring at the sign as we pass it. “Water?” I ask as we cross a bridge over a rapidly moving stream. There are ponds and pools and streams everywhere I look.
“It should say salt water,” Keary muses, “since these are ocean monsters. They couldn’t agree whose name should be on the sign, so they just use the element they have in common.”
“Water monsters are fucking stubborn and excessively proud,” Notto says.
Eyes look out at me from a pond as we pass, causing me to pause so I can stare into the water.
That’s a trick of my mind, right? When a head breaches the surface with gills on its neck and a beaming smile on its face, I decide that I’m either in some weird parallel universe or maybe hell.
Being surrounded by monsters is going to give me nightmares.
“Keary?”
We all turn to face the voice. The speaker is a man with white-blond hair that contains a streak of aqua. His eyes are the bluest I’ve ever seen. Keary breaks off and jogs to him. I’m surprised when he literally leaps into the man’s arms, hugging him fiercely.
I’m even more surprised when my stomach flips. Is that… jealousy? Wow. What is wrong with me? A man saves my life and kisses me, and suddenly, I’m jealous when he shows someone else affection? Bullshit. Fuck no. That’s not happening.
“That’s Iska,” Drystan says. “He’s a cute little sea nymph and Keary’s bestie. They’ve been friends for more than a century.”
Keary brings Iska toward us and introduces me. I listen to them talk as we continue winding through the streams and ponds until we’re sitting beside a stunning pool. I’m confused about why we’re here, though.
My confusion melts away when a monster emerges from the water, pulling themselves onto the rocks directly in front of us.
“Hey, Leema. How you doing?” Notto asks.
Leema stares at me for a minute, and I get the distinct impression that they don’t like me. Kaida feels it too. She lies across my lap, facing Leema with her hackles raised.
“Fine,” Leema says. “You?”
“I’m okay. This is our… friend, Rainer. He thinks that monsters are the only ones capable of cruelty since they’re the ones who brought the human race to near-extinction.”
Leema snorts. “Really?” they say, and before my eyes, their scales, fins, and tail sink into their body until I’m left staring at a woman covered in scars.
“He’s angry that humans are fighting for survival in a nasty world while monsters are living the dream,” Notto continues.
Leema’s eyes bore into mine, and yep, I can feel hostility radiating from her. Kaida lets out a low warning growl.
“Do you see my scars, human?” she asks, getting to her feet and making a slow revolution in front of me. “Can you count how many I have?”
I swallow, shaking my head.
“A monster didn’t do this to me. Humans did.
” My entire body turns cold. “I was a child, only ten years old, when three men accosted me on my way home from school. They put me in a bag and flung me into the back of a van. I was taken to a prison where they kept other monsters they’d captured in cages.
Cells. Rooms where they performed unspeakable experiments on them.
I didn’t end up in a cage, which would have been the preferable outcome.
Instead, I ended up in a room where, daily, they tortured me to see how I’m put together. ”
Chills race over my body.
“This isn’t an isolated situation. At ORKA’s peak, these humans had over 4,000 agents hunting monsters.
They used magic they’d stolen from the monster community against monsters.
There were more than a thousand facilities like this around the world with more than 100,000 monsters kept within their walls.
Monsters were tortured, experimented on, abused, and raped.
All because humans thought that they had the right to treat us like animals because we’re not human. ”
I can feel the disgust in her voice, but I don’t blame her. I’m disgusted too.
“Do you think that I should want to live with humans?”
I shake my head. “No,” I whisper.
She turns and walks off the side of the rock, disappearing under the surface of the water with barely a splash.
“I can’t believe you brought him here to meet Leema,” Iska says, laughing.
“He thinks that monsters are the only monsters to exist. I needed to prove him wrong,” Notto says, shrugging.
“It’s important that he knows his race aren’t the only victims of disgusting crimes.
Even now, there are still humans who do unspeakable things to monsters when they get the chance. After all, you’re hunting monsters.”
“They killed my parents,” I hiss.
“I’m not saying your reason isn’t just. This time.
But don’t pretend that if you ran into us under different circumstances that your first reaction wouldn’t have been to kill us as cruelly as your parents were murdered.
Meanwhile, we aren’t associated in any way with the monsters who killed your parents.
We’re the group of monsters who stopped your species from being completely annihilated.
We’re the monsters hunting the pods who continue to hurt humans and monsters alike, yet, like Leema, you would lump us in with those of the pod. ”
The fight, the anger that I harbored, rushes out of me on my next inhale.
“Don’t be so quick to judge what you don’t understand,” Notto says.
“For the record, humans are welcome here,” Iska says. “They’re welcome on all the bases. That’s why the doors are always left wide open.”
I… I don’t know what to think right now.