Theo
I was nauseous, dehydrated, and very… very groggy.
My head rocked back and forth, smacking against the cold metal wall behind me.
I was aware enough to realize my body felt different and slowly shift back into my normal form.
Being feral felt unnatural. A sharp peeling sensation pained my wrists and ankles, morphing into a miserable burn once my limbs had shrunken to their normal size.
I blinked towards the sting of my wrists.
Red seeped around the cuffs, spilling onto the reflective metal bench I sat on.
They’d shackled each hand to the seat, separating my arms so they couldn’t free one another.
I wasn’t holding my own body weight upright; something was strapped across my chest to keep me vertical.
The room was one rectangular metal box with benches lining three sides and a set of doors on the fourth.
The rear compartment of a van? G.P.O. had one like this for transporting people.
Why was I in it? Had shit gone down with Arne? My recent memories were fuzzy, at best.
Tears filled my vision. I felt devastated but didn’t know why. My chest heaved, I started to sob. When was the last time I cried at all, much less wept?
I thought back to the last memory I had of tasting my own salty tears. Cool light peeking through blue branches. The smell of wet dirt. A growl between sniffles, directed to something watching from nearby. I’d been walking down the mountain after leaving Vivian.
I jolted against the restraints, my heart racing. Vivian was in danger! I couldn’t remember the details yet, but they didn’t matter. I had to get fucking moving. Act. Do something to free myself and go help her!
I struggled against the shackles, tossing my restrained body as much as I could. The van rocked with my efforts, but it wasn’t enough. Barely reaching my fangs to my wrist, I tried biting through the damn cuffs. They didn’t budge. My blood dribbled down my chin.
Muffled voices sounded through the wall to my right. Their tones annoyed. Good.
I roared out, rocking the van as much as I could manage. I’d make myself a problem they couldn’t ignore.
The vehicle slowed to a stop. It was likely I was about to be tranquilized again.
Not much I could do about that. But at least they weren’t driving me further away from my mate.
South. I needed to go south to help her.
The beastly noises of untamed wildlife bled through the van’s walls.
We weren’t near civilization. My journey across the continent to Vivian would be long. There was no time to waste.
If I was lucky, they’d get cocky and within distance of my feral form’s leg. It was a good deal longer with its added joint. If I could shift fast enough and trip them in my direction…
The sound of the passenger-side door opening. I’d need to be fast to make this work.
“Load him up with enough to keep him knocked out until we get there.” The words were hushed, urgent. They didn’t want to be heard by what howled hungrily nearby.
Then… nothing.
Several minutes passed. What the fuck were they doing? The driver door clicked open.
More prolonged silence. I’d expected to hear the two guards talking. Something. I shook off the anxiety that crept up the back of my neck. Focus. Just get them close enough. One of them had to show up soon. They were probably just fumbling with the tranq.
I watched the silver handle of the back door turn with a metallic squeak. Finally.
Get them close. Shift. Trip. Get them close. Shift. Trip. Extend your reach when they don’t expect it. If they stumble it’ll give you the change of tide you need. The door started to crack open. Go time. Focus. Turn everything else off and get the job done.
It was dark outside, but the fluorescent lights of my holding room illuminated a crown of curly golden hair framed between the two open doors.
A… goddess?
She pulled herself up and closed the doors behind her, confusion creasing her brows.
Her posture straightened, the curls on top of her head pressed flat by the low ceiling.
Her arms crossed over her chest, speckles of red dotting her deep skin.
Her clothing was all black, but some areas were darker and appeared wet. Was she covered in blood?
“You aren’t who I was expecting,” she stated flatly. There was an edge of disappointment to the words, supported by her lips tilting down at the side.
I could think about what that meant later.
“You aren’t who I was expecting either,” I admitted cautiously.
Convincing her to free me may be challenging, especially with blood covering my face from biting at the cuffs.
Not exactly an approachable visage. “But I’m glad to see you.
Can you please get me out of these?” I raised my cuffed wrists the couple of inches the shackles allowed.
“Why are you back here?” Her eyes scanned me slowly, assessing.
How much did she know? Where would I even begin? I didn’t want to waste any more time sitting here. Viv needed me. “I don’t have time to tell you. My mate is one of your sisters and I need to help her.” Hopefully she knew she had sisters.
“I’m not driving this van to the facility. You’d have to walk the rest of the way,” her warm golden-brown eyes were sharp, neutral.
“Tesilvis?” I guessed. “No. I need to go South. She’s in Cyciciah.” Would she know where that was? I had no basis for how much she did or didn’t understand about this world. Something in her leer told me she was far from na?ve.
She didn’t seem sold. Her lips twisted thoughtfully.
“Look, I’m on your side. I’m friends with one of your other sisters, Faeryn—”
“You know Faeryn?” Her tone softened just enough to tell me I’d found an in.
“Yes!” I couldn’t mask the relief in my voice that we had a common interest. “Her mate is like a brother to me. I know they were here last summer, and my other friend Mykie helped break her out. Please. I don’t have the time for all of this.
” I’d never felt so small, and I allowed that desperation to show on my face.
I needed help. The best way I could love Vivian properly, was to admit it. Show my belly.
“Alright, fine,” she said, stepping up on the bench next to me and crouching to undo my chest restraint.
With a “click” my upper body was freed. I shifted forward to get up, but the cuffs on my wrists pulled me back. She looked down at my hands, thought for a moment, then looked back up at me.
“I’ll find the key. Stay put and stay quiet if you don’t want to attract attention.” She pushed the door open and slipped silently into the night.
The wait was excruciating. I was helpless. Pathetic. I could tolerate it, I told myself. The moment I had all six limbs back, I’d be a force of nature. I would destroy anything standing between me and my female.
The goddess returned, tried some different key combinations, and finally, I was freed.
She wiped her reddened palms on her muscular thighs and stated “I’m driving” before hopping out of the back.
I would expect the average person to be much more distressed over the state I was in, but she didn’t seem bothered by the gore.
She reminded me of the more hardened hitmen I’d worked with at G.P.O.
I jumped out and rounded the corner of the van.
In the darkness, I could faintly make out the heap of a Pyran-Quadmos Hybrid sprawled out on the ground.
I stepped over their legs quickly. Their dead body was actively being feasted on by a small, frail, unfamiliar bipedal beast. I was surprised it wasn’t retreating from me.
I’d grown so used to the crystal tied around my neck scaring things away.
That effect on wildlife must be regional.
I reached for my necklace, happy to feel it there. A piece of home.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued towards the passenger side door. There would be larger scavengers soon. Time to get moving.
The goddess must’ve had the same urgency. The moment I closed the door behind me, she shot the vehicle into reverse and cranked us around, heading in the opposite direction.
I’d never been to Tesilvis. I had only snippets from a textbook in my head.
Uninhabitable forest with dangerous predatory life wandering its densely packed trees.
That didn’t do the creepiness justice. The windshield wipers swiped endlessly at the humidity forming droplets on the glass.
The gnarled tree branches reached toward the road like they were trying to strangle anyone who dared to carve into their territory.
Moss hung from their bark, looking like the tattered remains of animal hides, unmoving in the non-existent breeze.
I could only imagine the grisly food chain hidden by the dark cover of the trees.
I felt pity for the goddess that was ported out here.
Someone must’ve been, if there was a factory running.
I craved the ethereal peace of Vivian’s field.
Even with the strange creatures that surrounded it, Cyciciah was heaven to me.
A world of blues, waterfalls, rich smells, and enchanting groves that glowed in the dark.
Nothing bad could touch it. Her magic could not be tainted.
What was happening at this very moment while I wasn’t there to protect her? Why couldn’t this van go any faster?
“I’m Theo,” I said with as much pleasantness as I could muster, given I wanted nothing more than to scream.
“Dia,” she replied, not shielding the aggravation in her tone, unlike me.
“Thanks for helping me, Dia.”
She didn’t reply.
Fine. I could deal with gruff. She’d still have to talk to me. “So, who were you expecting back there?”
“Patton Gable.” The words were coated in venom.
“You wanted to kill him?” The fury in her eyes told me it was a fair enough guess. Her earlier tone of disappointment made sense now.
“He was supposed to be passing through right now,” she growled. “Yeah. I wanted to kill him.”
“That makes two of us.” I’d meant it as a joke to lighten the mood, but instead it was a calloused fact.
I watched as Dia roughly chewed on the inside of her cheek, her fingers repeatedly flexing around the wheel. She looked like she was trying not to rip it from the car. Faeryn and Vivian had so much vitality to them, but that spark of liveliness seemed to be long dead in this female.
“The van is all yours once we’re at the edge of the forest,” she informed me.
“That would help.” It would at least get me back to my car. This thing’s speedometer was maxed out, and it still wasn’t fast enough.
“So,” she exhaled, “First time getting kidnapped by the E.A.R.T.H. folk?”
“First time,” I admitted. “First time rescuing someone from them?”
She allowed a short, humorless cackle. An interesting response.
I turned to face her. Tesilvis… where Faeryn had been kept all those years until… the power grid was blown, and she escaped to be found by Graysen. Is Dia the culprit? “Do you know anything about the breach?”
Her furrowed brow supported my suspicions.
I’d heard the rumors that a goddess shut down the grid and freed all her sisters from the facility. Dia didn’t look happy to be reminded of it. As if she—assuming it was her—hadn’t done what an entire organization of trained specialists had been failing to do for longer than I’d been alive.
“They all died or got re-captured,” she sighed. “Saying I rescued anyone isn’t exactly accurate. This is probably the first time I’ve actually helped somebody captured by E.A.R.T.H., and you aren’t even a goddess.”
“Faeryn is free,” I remarked softly. “And living out her days in safety with her mate.”
Her mouth warped. Not to a smile. But less of a frown. “That’s a start.”
“This is where I jump off,” Dia said as she guided the van to a steady stop at the edge of the forest.
I fought the urge to warn her to be careful. The sounds of the beasts were loud and clear, dangerous and very close. Then again, who was I to question her survival skills? She’d been the one to save me.
“Thanks, Dia. I hope you get the chance to kill Gable one day,” I offered.
The corner of her lip suggested a smile as she lowered herself out of the vehicle. “Me too, as long as you don’t get to him first.”
I slipped into the driver’s seat, adjusted all the fixtures, and set off. I had a long journey ahead, somewhere between five and ten days. I couldn’t be sure how long I was unconscious in the van.
I would get to Vivian if it killed me. And anybody who stood between us was as good as dead.