32. Dregs and Disgust
THIRTY-TWO
DREGS AND DISGUST
Syasku
Muffin and Kyle keep me sedated until the worst of my wounds have healed and they could be certain my sight has returned, their drugs more effective against my regenerating body. If I had been awake, I would have killed them. After keeping me in a garbage pit of a room for two months, moldering in soiled blankets, it is the least they deserve.
It is also why they kept me asleep.
With the lights dim and the pain gone, I wake properly, having weakened further during my time unconscious, dreaming fitfully of Vivian and what might be happening to her. Thoughts of her and my inability to do something for her have plagued me.
Awake now, I no longer have to wait.
Led from the room by Kyle shortly after the night shift begins, I have a blanket over my shoulders that reaches the floor. While I keep as much of my tail under me as possible, Muffin wheels a cart covered in trash behind me to hide the rest of it.
Everything around me is dark, barely illuminated by the few lights that work, and those that do flicker endlessly.
The way forward is clear enough, despite the piles of garbage collecting up the walls. Straining with disgust and adrenaline, I am relieved to finally leave. They could not keep me contained another day if they tried. The smell here has been suffocating, even plaguing my dreams.
Kyle told me before exiting the room that Volp’s soldiers have been searching for me nonstop. The only reason I have not been found is because of my proximity to the core. No soldier is willing to come down this far without a battalion to back them up.
It was his room I had been in. An abandoned unit he found after fleeing imprisonment.
Volp has kept my presence aboard the ship mostly a secret—if Muffin and Kyle’s plan works, that will soon change.
I am only willing to join them because I know Asera is right: I will never reach Vivian, let alone escape with her with the maze that lies before me. My tracking skills do not work here, not with so much metal and so many smells.
Clenching my hands, I focus on Vivian. If we are not united by the end of this, it is because I am dead.
We travel in silence, tense and alert.
We pass by several humans lounging against a wall, and I can’t help peering at them and the amount of dirt covering them.
I thought the room was foul. It does not compare to the wet, greasy things my tail slides through. My throat tightens, sickened as things stick to me.
The few humans we come upon are as much a part of the trash as anything else is, blending in among the rotting muck. Pale and frail, and covered in rags, some of them look at me with glazed eyes and long faces. Males, females, and even a small child whom I resist coiling my tail around and taking with me.
“We need to keep moving,” Muffin scolds.
Frowning down at the small human, I turn away before continuing.
Is this how humans live? Satisfied with being among decay and rot? They need trees, water, and the light of the sun. They need grass, flowers, and animals. No wonder they are desperate to leave. Anyone would be.
We reach a set of broken doors that take us to a stairwell, and Muffin leaves the cart behind. Following Kyle, we descend, only stopping when someone approaches. Kyle hands over items he pulls from his pockets, and then we keep going. The farther down we get, the more people there are, and the more of them carrying weapons.
They watch us with suspicion as we pass. And with my tail having lost some of its coverage, they eye the winding limb with confusion. Muffin steps closer, braving tripping over it.
But no one stops us once Kyle pays them off.
Eventually, we reach the end of the stairs, coming upon a metal gate that is lined with barbed wire and mounted guns. Several males stand before it holding weapons, either letting people through or denying them. Kyle has us wait until we get to the front of the line.
One of the armed males moves forward. “What’s dis? Are you in costume?” he asks, his gaze going straight to my tail. “This isn’t a place for entertain. Fuck off.” The male is big, his bulging arms exposed and marked with dark designs.
I bite back a hiss.
“We’re here to speak to your leaders—” Kyle starts.
The male ignores him and approaches me. When he tries circling, I turn with him, baring my fangs. Several of his comrades follow suit. “Look at his guy,” the first one calls to the others, chuckling like my appearance is funny to him. “And I thought I’d seen everything.”
Muffin is stiff at my side.
Kyle tries to get the guards’ attention back. “Look, we don’t mean any harm?—”
One of them kicks the side of my tail.
Pivoting, I grab the male by the neck and lift him off the ground.
The rest break away, their voices and threats filling my ears. Ignoring them, I squeeze the neck of the one I have caught, scowling at him. The blanket falls from my shoulders.
“Don’t shoot!” Kyle yells. “Syasku, let him go!”
“What the fuck is that thing?”
“Let him go, motherfucker!” one of the males shouts to my left.
Kyle and Muffin close in, drawing their weapons. “Don’t shoot, we don’t mean trouble! We’re here to speak to your leaders. We have important information relating to Volp!” Kyle continues shouting, “Fucking hell, Syasku, release him before we’re gunned down!”
I dig my claws into the male’s skin, feeling his blood well under them.
All around me, the shouting intensifies. I watch the male’s face turn white as he tears at my hand, his struggles weakening.
“Shoot it! Shoot them all before they kill us!” Weapons click, aiming.
Peeling my fingers off one by one, I release his neck. He lands on the floor with a thud, clutching his throat and choking out coughs. He may be large for a human, but he is still no match for me.
I lower to the floor and meet his gaze. “Challenge me again and your life is mine,” I warn.
“What the fuck?—”
The shouting only worsens. Looking up at the others, I slowly rise, coiling my tail to strike at the next one who nears.
“Everybody stop!” a voice booms out.
The males freeze, going silent. They remain tense, ready to fire despite pulling back.
I hiss at them, baring my fangs.
“Enough!”
Growling, I face the gate where the commanding voice comes from. A woman is standing in the middle, wearing a snug black leather uniform, flanked by two others who are dressed similarly to her, their guns pointing straight at my head.
She scans me over, her face blank. Her eyes shift to Kyle and Muffin. “Lower your weapons or die here,” she orders them.
Muffin lowers his gun first, then Kyle.
Everyone watching her, the female walks past Kyle and right up to me, her two guards hanging back. I scowl down at her.
“So it is true,” she says, coming to a stop in front of me, her eyes trailing over my tail. “You do exist.”
I straighten, knowing an alpha when I see one. Extraordinarily tall, her skin darker than all the rest, she is unlike any human I have seen.
“My name’s Omari.” She cocks her brow at me then turns on her heel. “Follow me,” she calls over her shoulder, and without looking back vanishes through the gate’s entrance, her guards turning to follow.
The pathway clears, and with Kyle taking the first step, Muffin and I trail behind, entering the inner core together.