Bonus Scene #2
“Huh, I wasn’t expecting that,” I admit and wave a hand to make sure the elevator is locked and he can’t leave the floor.
Caspian rubs his hands together with glee and chuckles. “I do enjoy hunting my prey. It’s no fun if they don’t at least make it a little challenging. Thank you, my friend, for the wonderful gift,” he says manically as he starts hunting the cyborg.
“It isn’t really much of a challenge,” I call as I follow him. I do enjoy a good rendering of limbs, and I’m quite keen to see what the kraken can do. “It’s not like he has anywhere to go.”
“Hmph, that’s true.” Caspian sounds a little disappointed.
“You know, I could help you out and make it a little more exciting if you want,” I offer, and he stops and raises an eyebrow in interest.
“Oh?” he asks, and I smirk.
“Yes. I have a delightful little maze set up in a pocket of reality. I like to send my enemies into it when they’ve vexed me. There is no escape, and they can run around forever. Would you like to chase Josa through it for a little while?”
Caspian’s eyes widen with excitement, and his enthusiasm is delicious. “That would be… agreeable.”
I make a circle with my hand, opening the little pocket reality just as Josa darts out from one of the other cells toward the elevator while we are distracted. He succeeds in running straight into it.
“What do I owe you for this?” Caspian asks, knowing that warlocks never do anything for free.
I tap a finger against my lips as if I’m thinking about it. “Let’s say you’ll owe me a favor for now.”
His excitement turns to suspicion, and I’m practically giddy with glee, but I manage to contain it behind a blank expression.
“Nothing that would put Lila in harm’s way,” he growls, and I quickly shake my head.
“Of course not,” I reassure him. “In fact, Lila may be the one who benefits from any of this,” I tell him playfully, and his suspicion drains away.
“Fine, I’ll owe you a favor, but now I hunt.” He turns toward the pocket of reality and undulates toward it, his anticipation prickling my senses and making me feel excited as well. I follow after him, wanting to see the outcome of our fun.
My little pocket of reality is cooler than the ship’s atmosphere at the moment, but it’s designed to change weather on a whim just to make it a bit more challenging.
It can go from sweltering hot to freezing cold in the space of a step.
The hedge maze constantly shifts, and there are all sorts of delightful surprises waiting for the inhabitants inside, but none that will kill, unfortunately.
I wanted to save that right for myself, but they can do some damage.
There are also fun plants that can cause you to hallucinate both your wildest dreams and your worst nightmares or make you itch uncontrollably.
I send some magic into Cas so he is immune to any of these things.
I wouldn’t want him distracted from his task.
Caspian chases Josa through the maze for a good period of time, his worry about Lila well and truly distracted for now.
I conjure up a sofa and a pipe and smoke while I wait, the sounds of Josa’s screams and Caspian’s mad cackles a symphony to my ears.
Finally, I decide it’s time to wrap this up.
Lila will need us, and she should almost be finished with her mating to Saxon by now. It’s been hours.
I send a message through the air to Caspian.
“Wrap this up. We need to get back to the circus pod and see our girl.” I manipulate the maze to bring them both back toward me.
The vegetation parts, and I find Caspian with Josa hanging in the air above his head, one tentacle wrapped around Josa’s leg, and one around his arm, as he pulls them in opposite directions.
My mouth drops open in surprise as Caspian tears his body apart.
Josa’s screech is spine chilling, and silver blood splashes all over the kraken as he rends the cyborg in half.
Josa is still screaming despite the destruction and blood loss, and Caspian frowns in disappointment.
“He’s still alive,” he grumbles as he drops him to the ground. We watch with surprise as Josa’s body tries to slide back together, his pieces reaching for each other.
“Hmm. That’s disappointing,” I mutter. “Maybe if you remove his head,” I suggest, and Caspian swiftly uses a tentacle to do just that, but Josa just keeps screaming. Tears and snot stream down his head, which is hanging by his green hair from Cas’s tentacle.
“What now?” Cas asks, sounding bewildered.
“I had no idea cyborgs were quite so resilient,” I mutter and wave a hand, setting the body parts on fire. Cas yelps and flings the burning head toward the other body parts. Josa still continues to scream and curse us as his body melts, but he’s still alive.
“Try zapping him with lightning. I mean, they are part technology. Maybe we need to fry him,” Cas offers, staring with fascination at the burning creature.
“Good thinking.” I wave a hand and send three bolts of lightning to each body part. This seems to do the trick. The bits convulse, and Josa’s screams finally cut off, his eyes going blank as everything stops moving.
“Thank goodness. His screams were becoming annoying,” Cas says, rubbing his ears with his fingers. Just to be safe, I use the same spell I used on Elyan and turn him to dust, finally disposing of the cyborg once and for all.
“Shall we?” I gesture out of my pocket reality, and Cas slaps me on the back.
“Best present ever. Thank you, brother mate.”
We leave the space and move toward the elevator to return to the ship so we can teleport down to earth, both of us eager to see Lila again.
“I look forward to claiming my favor.” I wink at him as I unfreeze the elevator, and it starts to move.
“What did you learn from his head?” Cas asks, leaning against the wall, the cyborg’s silver blood covering his torso. It looks quite pretty shimmering in the light.
“Hmm. I mainly searched for the deal he had with Deianira, but I also wanted to know about that puddle of goo he turned into. Apparently not all cyborgs can do that. Link’s mother has been experimenting, and it’s something she added to his source programming.”
“I didn’t know they could do that. I thought once they were born, their source program was locked away to stop such things from occurring.” Cas sounds as surprised as I was.
“Yes, that’s supposed to be the case. Apparently, she has a work-around, but Josa didn’t know what,” I inform him, though I really would like to know.
Hopefully I get a chance to dig around in her head for the information.
It’s definitely a breach in cyborg security and could be a disaster in the wrong people’s hands.
“What about their deal?” Cas asks as the elevator comes to a stop. We step out, and his eyes widen in surprise when he sees we are on the level with the Aquilian pool. “What are we doing here?”
“I thought you could clean up before we go Earthside.” I point to his chest, and he looks down and grimaces when he sees the blood.
“Good idea.”
“Deianira wanted Josa to find something on the ship. It’s why she made it so he could slip through small cracks.
They were searching for something, but she hadn’t told Josa exactly what yet.
She just wanted to know if the Adams were hiding anything or had some secret safes or storage areas.
Josa searched a lot of the ship but hadn’t been able to get close to their quarters yet without arousing suspicion.
Marrying Link was apparently a way to get them to trust him better and give him access to everything like the doctor has. ”
“So they hadn’t found what they were looking for?” Cas asks, moving to the edge of the platform.
“No, it didn’t seem so, but I don’t see how any of that information helps us.”
“No, probably not,” Cas agrees. “I’ll just clean up. I won’t be long,” he tells me before sliding into the water.
I lean against the elevator doors and ponder what I know.
There is no point in telling the Adams brothers what I discovered.
They have enough things to worry about at the moment, and Josa was unsuccessful.
If Deianira becomes a problem later, then I will share what I know, but for now, they will just be satisfied that he is dead and gone and that our mate is protected once more.
We just have the Vilaxians and the twins left to deal with, but I’ll leave Saxon and the Adams brothers to decide on their punishments.
I got my satisfaction, and I want to share the joy of revenge.
No one can ever accuse Xavier Colest of being a selfish brother mate or grandson-in-law.