Pippa
My boy is alive. The words scream through my mind like the lure of a siren, drawing me toward my ruin. My boy is alive. And I’ll do anything to keep him that way. Even if it costs me my life. I don’t know what they have planned for me, but it doesn’t matter as long as he’s okay.
Dr. Reter turns to face me, still holding Tobias over his head, and I gasp when I see the flash of fangs in my little boy's mouth. What did they do to him?
“Mama!” Dr. Reter sets Toby down, and before my next breath, he’s in my arms, knocking me out of my captor’s grip.
I stumble and fall onto the hard, damp stone of the altar. Toby came at me so fast I didn’t even see him move. Fear battles relief as I squeeze my boy in my arms. “I’m here, baby. I’m here.”
“As some of you know, it has come to our attention, through the dedicated research of Mrs. Darning, here,” Dr. Reter takes Darning’s hand, “that the reason the Mavarri transformation has failed for so long is that the Mavarri did not love those they tried to change. The impure beasts slaughtered countless humans, blind to this law of the goddess. We will be different. The new Mavarri will be built on the love of a mother and her child. The New Mavarri will be made tonight!”
Cold fear follows his declaration as I realize what he intends. He wants Tobias to bite me! No. No no no no. It might work, but if it doesn’t, my boy will have to live with my death on his hands for the rest of his life.
He’s not really Mavarri, so what are the chances he’ll actually be able to transform me? And into what? I don’t know what Toby is, what they’ve made him. It doesn’t matter because he’s still my boy. He’ll always be my boy. But I can’t let him risk this without knowing what will happen.
Think, Pippa. Think!
My mind is still slow from the drugs, and rather than ideas, all I have are questions. Tears fill my eyes as I hold my boy. My gaze darts around looking for a way out, but we’re surrounded.
“It’s alright, dear,” the masked figure on my left says, patting my shoulder in a gesture that’s almost fatherly. “This will all be over soon.”
“Dr. Witten?”
He doesn’t answer, his attention instead on some disturbance off to the side of the cavern.
Two acolytes break off from the group to check what it is.
While everyone’s momentarily distracted, I fling myself off the altar, hoping to dart between the two masked figures and run for the stairs while clutching my boy to my chest. I lose my footing and trip the moment my feet hit the ground, barely managing to protect Toby from the fall.
My shoulder stings from the impact, but my boy is safe.
“Mama? What’s wrong?”
Before I can answer, Dr. Reter rips him from my arms. Mrs. Darning and the man I assume is Dr. Witten haul me to my feet.
“Stop. Fighting.” Darning tugs my hair, ripping back my head.
“Don’t worry,” Dr. Witten coos. “This will heal you. You’ll never have to hurt again. Just stop fighting and let us help you.”
“I’ll never stop fighting.” Not for Tobias.
Not for my life. Not for Shemaiah. I wrestle my hand free from Witten, curl it into a fist and throw it at Darning.
It connects with her face, and pain rips up my limb into my elbow and shoulder.
Darning stumbles, and I hiss, grabbing my hand as I lurch forward and throw myself at the woman.
But I’m too slow. Dr. Witten catches me and drags me back to the altar with help from another acolyte.
“Stop!” Shemaiah’s voice is surreal in this nightmare.
Am I hearing things now, too?
But then, he’s standing in front of the altar.
I don’t know which direction he came from or how he got here, but relief isn’t the first thing I feel.
My head is clear enough now to recognize the gravity of this situation.
He’s Mavarri, but he can still be killed.
He’s alone and outnumbered. In my half-drugged state, I won’t be much help if this turns into a fight.
“He’s fast like me.” Tobias’s toddler voice echoes in the cavern, a look of awe on his innocent face.
Shemaiah’s stern expression breaks momentarily to look at the boy and smile. “Faster.”
I blink, and he’s behind me. Dr. Witten jumps back. The acolyte holding me curses before letting go and falling to his knees as if he’s worshiping a god. Tobias grins. Dr. Reter scowls.
“You have no place here,” Reter says. “Leave, and we won’t tell the entire colony what you are. There’s no reason all children of the goddess can’t co-exist.”
Shemaiah bands an arm around my middle and pulls me against his chest. “What are you proposing, doctor?”
“Let the child bite his mother so we can see if the transformation will take, then you can have them both. Leave us to go about our worship and research, and we’ll leave you to do as you please.”
“Which is what? Injecting women with poison? Experimenting on them? Taking away their lives?” I say this loud enough for the women to hear, hoping they’ll snap out of their fog enough to understand the danger we’re all in. “What will you do next? Rape them to get the New Mavarri children you want?”
A few women gasp. There’s a shuffling off to the side that Dr. Reter and Mrs. Darning don’t notice because their attention is fixed on me and Shemaiah.
“I’ll never let my son bite me.” My resolve is firm as I find my footing, balling my fists at my side. “I’d rather you do anything else to me than risk my son being the one to kill me.”
Shemaiah’s hold on me tightens. I twist to look back at him. “Bite me, Maiah. Please.”
A sense of calm floods me the moment the words are out.
I know it’s a lot to ask. Shemaiah’s already told me he wouldn’t bite me, that this wasn’t an option for us.
But right now, it feels like the only solution.
It feels like fate. I want him to bite me more than I’ve ever wanted anything else. I want a life with him. A family.
“I love you,” I whisper, meeting his gaze.
“I was really hoping you’d say that.” Shemaiah’s smile is gentle as he brushes my hair out of my face. Something fearful flashes in his eyes but vanishes just as quickly. “I love you, too.”
I tilt my head to expose my neck.
“No!” Darning yells as Dr. Witten gasps.
“Stop him!” Dr. Reter commands.
But they’re all too far away, too slow, too powerless. Before they can do anything, Shemaiah’s teeth are in my neck.
“Mama!” Tobias cries.
Pain flares through my body. Every nerve and cell stings.
I want to scream, but Tobias is watching, so I press my teeth together and groan, panting, sweating, burning.
Suddenly the torture eases. I gasp as my body strengthens.
My muscles swell, the bones reinforcing, the weakness abating.
My mind sharpens. Scents, sounds, sights—everything is stronger, brighter, more colorful.
A rush of overwhelming sensations. As quickly as it came, the pain vanishes.
In its place, nothing but strength and raw rage.
I lunge for Dr. Reter first, but just before I reach him, I see Tobias, huddling in fear, clinging to the man’s legs. I stop and look over my shoulder at Shemaiah.
“Go,” he says. “Get him out of here.”
“I can’t leave y—” My words are cut off by sharp pain as Mrs. Darning drives a knife into my side.
“It wasn’t supposed to go like this!” she screams. “He was supposed to bite you, and if it worked, bite me. He loves me! I’m like a mother to—”
Before she can say another word, Shemaiah lunges at Darning with a growl, and she jerks backward.
In her rush, she trips off the platform, her arms flailing as she falls backward with a scream.
A horrible thud punctuates her movement with finality as her head hits a rock.
I shudder at the sight of her still body.
In the commotion, Dr. Reter picks up Tobias and runs. Dr. Witten hot on his heels.
“Stop them!” I yell. “Fight!”
But the women are already fighting. The sea of a white tide surges, overtaking the masked acolytes.
Individually they’re weak, but together, they’re beating their guards.
Noah, Ruby, and Zarah are there too. Though Zarah is mostly just holding Kay like a bride and snarling at anyone who gets too close.
Remembering I have speed I didn’t have before, I dash after Dr. Reter and rip Tobias from his grasp. My side twinges with pain, but the wound Darning inflicted doesn’t feel deep. I curl my shaking boy into my chest to cover Toby’s eyes. “I’m here. Momma’s here.”
When I look up, Shemaiah towers over a dead and bloody Dr. Reter.
He’s got his clawed hand around Dr. Witten’s throat.
Our eyes meet. All I feel for the man I thought was my doctor and my friend is rage.
He kept my boy from me. He lied to me. And he covered it all with soft pats on my head and gentle reassurances.
With my hand locking Toby’s head to my chest so he can’t see anything, I nod at Shemaiah and mouth, Do it.
In one smooth movement, he snaps Dr. Witten’s neck.
I breathe a sigh of relief as I rock Tobias in my arms. “It’s okay, baby. It’s all gonna be okay now.”
He turns in my arms and hides his face, his cries slowly changing to whimpers.
With my heightened senses, I hear feet pounding down the corridor and shouts of, “Police!”
“Come on.” Shemaiah grabs my hand and tugs me toward the opening of the cave, away from the narrow corridor the women and I took to get here. “I don’t want you having to debrief with the police after everything you’ve already been through.”
He leads us to the next alcove over, where a little boat is anchored on the waves. Tobias cries into my neck, and I try to soothe him. He must be so confused right now. Silently, I pray that he’s young enough to forget most of what occurred tonight.
Shemaiah scoops both of us into his arms and wades out to the boat. Dripping wet and shivering from the cold, Tobias and I huddle together as Shemaiah starts up the engine and steers us toward Roan Island. Toward home.