A Hidden Element (21 page)

Ben opened his eyes. Again.

He was on his back. He licked his lips and tasted dirt. How long had he been here, under the ground? He twisted his body on the cold, mud floor. His chest throbbed and he couldn't move his legs. He pushed himself up on his elbows. Light slanted down from above him somewhere.

He remembered where he was. Underneath the whipping shack. It's what Caleb has called it. The screams that came later pierced his head. He covered his ears to shut it out, but they went on and on. He watched the shadows of a poor victim through the cracks in the floor and could do nothing. Not if he wanted to live.

He remembered the pain—and seeing Laura's face for the last time. Then being pulled from the earth and Caleb bending over him as he coughed dirt out from his burning lungs. He had flashed in and out of consciousness as moonlight danced overhead and Caleb carried him through the woods. Then he was placed in this dark hole. He thought he had arrived in hell, only to find he was alive but still in hell.

He felt around for the water Caleb had left and drank greedily. He touched his hair caked with dirt. Adrian's son had pulled him from his grave and brought him back to life. Why? Ben tried to pull himself up on the few rungs on the side of the earth cellar leading up to the ground. He managed to raise himself up and push up on his wooden ceiling, but it wouldn't budge. Too weak. He had to get to Laura. And Charlie. He fell back and slammed his fist in the dirt. If he couldn't move his legs, how could he to save his family? And where was Caleb?

Then Laura's words came back to him.

Love remembers, Ben. Hold on to that.

And he did. He warmed himself with her vision of their first night together when she had told him that. She had given herself to him then, moving beneath him like unspoken poetry. He had never been so inside someone. They had moved into one another, creating something good from so much bad.

After their heartbeats slowed, he withdrew from her and fell back into bed.

"Laura, my Laura," Ben whispered into her hair, holding onto her warmth. He didn't want to ever be cold again. "I've never made love before."

"What do you mean?"

"I never made love, only hate. Hate for myself."

She placed a hand on his chest. "Why do you think that?"

"No one ever showed me love before. I haven't known love since my parents died. I guess I forgot what it was."

"Love remembers."

"Does it?" He shook his head. "I don't know if I believe it."

"You have to believe it."

"Nothing is certain in life," he said. "And you can't count on people or love. You can only count on yourself."

"I don't believe that. I can help you remember how to love. I want to try."

He closed his eyes. He had no answers, but he wanted to try again.

"Love does remember," he whispered now, but she didn't reply.

Cold swept across him stealing her warmth.

"Laura?"

She was gone.

The door to the shack creaked open. Ben lay still. His heart thumped unevenly. Light poured down on him. Caleb appeared. He climbed down the rungs and knelt next to Ben.

A cool, wet cloth moved across his face.

"You are safe here. For now. I created this cellar when I was ordered to build this shack. No one else knows it exists."

"Laura. Charlie. Are they okay?"

"Yes."

Ben closed his eyes. He had never been a praying man, but he prayed now.
God, take care of my family. Let me see them again. Let me see my new son. Let me find my son who's lost to evil and bring him back.

"Can you move your legs?"

"No. What's wrong with me?"

"You were dead. For quite some time. I couldn't heal you fully. I don't know how long it will take for your body to recover."

"How did you find me?"

"I buried you with the help of the men who killed you. I went back for you later. Alone."

"You buried me…" The awfulness of being pressed deep in the earth sickened him. "Why save me?"

"I'm not my father."

"My cell phone," Ben said.

"My father smashed it to pieces."

Ben's hopes sunk.

"But I used something Laura had before I had to hand it over to my father."

"The belt."

"Yes."

"Laura said they were coming," Ben said.

"I snuck in my father's room a few times over the years to use his belt. I wanted to communicate with Elyon and see if our people still survived there. I saw them once, through the mist, but never again. My father never used his belt to contact Elyon. He did not want them tracking him. But he did use it to contact your son here on Earth, for years."

"To turn him away from me—and into the likeness of himself," Ben said as devastating awareness sunk in. His son had already been lost to him long ago because of this monster. Was it too late to get him back?

"Yes."

"Could there be more of your people on the way? Good people who can stop your father's madness?"

Caleb shook his head. "I used Laura's belt to seek them out. I saw no one."

Ben clutched Caleb's robe. "Please. You've got to save my family."

"I'll do what I can. I wanted to move you tonight. Release you into the woods, but you can't even walk."

Caleb pulled out some food from a bag and placed it on the floor. "Here. Eat. It may help you regain your strength."

Caleb got up to go but Ben pulled him back down. "Does Laura think I'm dead?"

"Yes."

"What about the baby?"

Caleb paused for a moment, his green eyes shone in the light that filtered down from above. "The baby is a healthy boy."

Ben grabbed his arm. "He was born? In this place?"

"Yes."

Grief tore through Ben and then sweet hope. "But he's alive. Laura's alive."

"Yes. Now rest. And be quiet. I'll be back later when I can to check on you. Things are not safe for me now either."

"Why?"

"My father hates me. I am not the Destroyer he wanted for a son."

"But Charlie is."

"Yes. He's been preparing him for years for his role."

Ben let go of Caleb's arms and sank back into the cold mud. It permeated deep into his soul.

"Let Laura know I'm alive. Please. She needs hope."

"How do I tell her? My father's eyes and mind are on her now."

"Just tell her…tell her that I'm her match. She'll know."

Caleb nodded then climbed the rungs and closed the wooden door over his world.

Ben needed hope, too, but he had no idea how to find it.

Leah walked Charlie back to his room after she had changed out of her bloody clothes. She held his hand tight knowing he had been disturbed by what he had seen. More so than the stoning. No one could know which stone killed those people. They all did but none did. And those traitors deserved it, right? Adrian said traitors couldn't be tolerated. As leader, Charlie needed to make the hard choices. But could he order someone to be stoned to death?

And Leah. He had held her hand as Caleb stabbed her. And yet here she was next to him. Pretty, smiling, and so alive.

They went down a hallway, passing a room with a woman crying in it.

"No, no," the woman yelled. "I don't want more babies!"

Charlie peeked in. A man bent over her, his finger tip glowed green. A woman held her arms down on the bed while another held her legs. She thrashed her head about. The man touched his finger to hers. She screamed once and then sobbing took over. Leah pulled him away and led him toward his room.

"What was that?" Charlie looked at Leah, but she would not turn to him she just walked faster.

"Transference." She said no more and he didn't ask, but she gripped his hand and slowed down. A pretty girl, his age, passed by and gave him a flirty smile. It didn't make him feel good as it once would have. He only felt dread.

They stopped at his door and Leah reached up, her soft lips grazed his.

"Come in?" He looked down into her green eyes. He had never seen eyes so bright, like an emerald sea. She nodded and stepped inside, sitting down on his bed. But he stood over her. He wanted answers.

"You nearly died today. I let it happen."

"It happens a lot, Charlie. Don't let it bother you. It's what we do. It's power."

"I'm not like that."

"You are. You know it."

He shook his head at her.

Leah's eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips. "Don't you want to lead? Rule our people on our new planet?"

"I—I don't know. It's all happening so fast. I don't think I can do this."

She stood up and grabbed his arms. "You can do this, Charlie. I'm taking a chance on you. I offered myself up for you."

He stepped back. "What do you mean?"

Her face softened and she took his hand. "Caleb had the possibility once to lead. And Adrian's leadership is in jeopardy. But you, Charlie, are meant to be a great leader. You are the one. And with me, together we can rule a new world. Don't you want to?"

He pulled his hand from hers. "You did what you did today just to prove to me how powerful you are?"

"It's what we do," she repeated. "If you can't do it, you're targeted as weak. I know you're not weak."

He looked at the floor. "What happens to the weak ones?"

"They're lobotomized."

He sucked his stomach in so tight it hurt. "They cut out part of their brain?"

"Yes. But they're still bred."

"What do you mean?"

She laughed and moved into him. He didn't move away this time. She was so warm and soft. He felt the special feelings stir inside him for her. He wanted this feeling, not the feelings of chaos and helplessness and doubt.

"They make babies together, Charlie."

He froze. "Because they want to?"

"Everyone here breeds to grow our numbers. The weak ones do, too. Some by physical contact. Some by transference of their spirit, like you just saw."

A memory flickered in him.
Just like how his mom's mother got pregnant. She claimed to be a virgin. No one believed her.

"Is this what we're supposed to do on our final day?"

She stroked his hand and nodded.

"By transference or—"

"No."

His brain couldn't wrap around what that meant for him. He was just fourteen. Make a baby? On purpose? A girl in his school had gotten pregnant. She had been fourteen, too. He had seen a porn movie once at a friend's house. The people in it had been moaning and doing it in weird positions. The men's penises were huge. His wasn't that big. Would Leah expect it to be?

He had jacked off enough but to think about being with a girl made him feel powerful and terrified at the same time. To see Leah naked. To be inside her. He had no idea how to do it right. His anxiety deepened.

"Do we have to do…that?"

"Don't you like me?"

Sweat broke out on his upper lip. God, did he like her. But fear mixed with the sweet feelings of desire. He couldn't answer so he nodded.
Mom, Dad, what should I do?
Inadequacy rushed through him.

"Where are my parents?"

"Why?" She frowned and stepped back.

"I need to know."

"They await our final ritual tomorrow in the sanctuary where we are to be bonded."

"I want to see them now."

"You can't. Adrian forbids it."

"Tell me where I can find them."

"It's not my place to tell you." She reached for him again but he moved away.

"You say 'they' so that means my dad is okay, right?"

She didn't answer but moved toward the door. "I'll see you in the morning. All will be answered then. You'll see. Things will be fine. You'll be our leader. And I'll be your girl, Charlie Madroc."

"My name is Charlie Fieldstone." And saying it out loud drove his confusion over where he truly belonged.

She just smiled at him, but it didn't warm his heart.

It froze it. As if the old Charlie had already died.

Laura waited in the rocking chair for her lover.

She ate little of the dinner left for her. Her stomach hurt from clenching it over and over. Bits of her old life swirled through her head. Her powers still had not fully returned. She kept trying the lock on the door without success. Would the government know what this place was and come for them before it was too late? But they hadn't known about this hidden society for years. Why would they come now? But she had to hope. There had been government agents watching for these Elyon beings before. Someone had to be watching now. Waiting for them to return. Waiting for a sign.

She pulled her white robe closer wanting to keep her nakedness contained beneath it which would soon to be offered to a stranger. Her one hope was to appeal to someone for help. If she could find Benny she might have a chance at escaping this place with him and coming back for Charlie. Her heart hurt to think it, but Charlie had tried to murder his father. He was her son, but she couldn't trust him. And that hurt worst of all.

She closed her eyes and rocked. The door creaked and then shut. A click sounded on the other side. Someone outside had locked them in. She opened her eyes.

It was Caleb.

She stood and faced him. He stared at her, a pensive look on his face as if he too had been ordered to do this. She forced herself to put her life in a box and lock it in her heart. Her body was a mere vessel to be used to save her family. She was just a woman here with a man. Nothing more.

"You," she said.

He nodded. "My father has ordered it."

"And his orders are always followed," she said sarcastically.

He nodded. "Or we die."

"You, too?" Her heart felt for him even being the enemy. She couldn't read his mind but she could read his heart. His heart hurt too.

"Yes. I follow orders, too. If I don't I will be punished. My father is a master mind prober. Keep your thoughts to yourself. More importantly, my father follows the Destroyer law to control breeding to build up our numbers before we enter the human world."

"And this makes it right?"

He stared at her. "It's what my father has been chosen to do. Lead us. And now he has chosen Charlie as leader."

Laura's legs shook. She sat back in the chair. Charlie was lost to her then. Caleb knelt at her feet. She leaned back in the chair and stared at him. His rugged face was appealing, his soul naked on it. He looked nothing like his father. He reminded her of Felix who had been a good man forced to commit awful acts for the government, but he had kindness in his heart. Just like Caleb. Felix was long gone but Caleb was here now. His bright green eyes bore into hers like lost jewels floating at sea, adrift here in this place. She sensed he had other plans. She wanted to know them.

She forced her tears away and smiled at him. "I will do what you want. I only ask one thing."

He pulled her up and stared down at her. His hands covered hers. They were larger than Ben's. She bit her lip. Her thumb grazed the inside of his wrist. His pulse was quick. He was nervous, too.

"What is it?"

"I want to see Charlie and my baby."

He looked at her as if weighing his decision. "If you submit tonight I will take you to see your baby but not Charlie."

Laura swallowed a sob and pressed Caleb's hands to her face.

"It's time, Laura. I will be gentle," he said softly.

"What if I get pregnant?"

"That is the intention here. However, Adrian plans to impregnate you. He senses your fertile time of month in a few days. Then it will be his turn. He likes to share and he wants me to prepare you for him so you are a willing partner.

A fist closed around her heart.
Not if I have something to do with it.
Hate drove away the heartache.

"And what of Charlie. Is he to breed as well?" She closed her eyes at that ugly word. Breed.

Caleb hesitated then nodded. "Tomorrow he will be initiated."

I won't let that happen.

Neither will I.

Her eyes flew open. His words punctured her brain like a searing bright ray of sunshine. Her powers were returning.

"Did you hear me, Laura?"

She nodded.

"Are you ready now to do your duty?"

"I'm ready."

He held her, infusing her with his smell of burnt pine and hay. Musky and male. She closed her eyes and wished it was Ben. She would make his every touch Ben's. Caleb untied her belt and pushed aside her robe's collar. The cool air tickled her breasts, but she kept her eyes closed. Her robe slid off. She shivered and heard his robe fall. Then his hard body was pressed into hers.

"Adrian is watching," he whispered in her ear. She stiffened and opened her eyes. She didn't know where to look. His muscles bulged everywhere. So she looked into his kind eyes. He stroked her back and his thick staff rose up against her stomach. Her nipples hardened despite herself. She tensed and moved away, but there was nowhere to go.

"What do I have to do?"

"Offer yourself to me."

He led her to the bed. She lay down on it. He stood over her, a mammoth young man of strength and power. "I don't think I can do this." She closed her eyes and squeezed her legs together.

"Laura, look at me."

She opened her eyes. He eased his bulk down next to her on his side and took her hand. His fingers were smooth and nail-less like Charlie's. Like Adrian's. Caleb's pale skin glowed in the dim light of her room. His muscles flexed as his body pressed into the length of her. She had never felt so vulnerable in her life. She thought of the first time giving herself to Ben as a shy young girl and tears rose up again. This time she let them go. She turned into Caleb's chest and cried. He held her in silence until her tears stopped. He wiped them from her cheeks like a gentle giant. She was painfully aware of their nakedness crushed together.

He moved closer to her.
Laura, we'll pretend.
His words came to her like a whisper in her mind.
Can you pretend?

She nodded, relief flooding through her. "How can you be so good in this place?"

Then he whispered in her ear so she barely heard him. "I could choose to give in to my Destroyer genes, but it doesn't mean I desire it. It's why my father hates me. And Charlie can choose, too. His destiny is not set in stone." His words touched her. Maybe Charlie had a chance.

"How can you do these things your father orders?"

"I have my reasons. Two of them," he said cryptically.

And she knew he understood her heart.

He raised himself up and knelt over her. "It's time," he said in a loud voice. She hesitated then parted her legs. He smiled. She forced her fear and sorrow away and clung to the new hope inside her. She smiled back. He lay on top of her but kept his weight off, except for the male part of him that pulsed on her thigh straining for release. He stroked her neck and hair and gazed in her eyes. "Beautiful Laura."

She hesitated then wrapped her arms around him and felt ridges. "What's this?"

"From whippings. It's nothing."

She traced the raised skin, as she had traced Ben's scars. Caleb winced. "Some are fresh."

"Yes."

Hatred flowed through her with vengeance. Adrian whipped his own son. What would he do to Charlie?

She raised herself up on her elbows. "Let me see."

He twisted to the side.
Dear God
. So much pain he had suffered. Like Ben. Both of these men tortured and scarred. She sensed Caleb's deep empathy for the weak and innocent. This is why he suffered in this place.

I prayed to God, Laura. For years.

Our god?

Yes. He's supposed to be a loving god. He gave up his only son to be sacrificed for the greater good.

You sacrifice, too.

Not enough…never enough.

She reached up and for the first time since meeting Ben, she kissed another man. Her lips moved over his marked flesh tenderly, wanting to erase his scars. He turned back to her and covered her soft body again with his hard one. His lips moved down her neck. He hesitated when he reached her breasts.

Close your eyes and pretend I'm Ben
. His words flowed across her brain. She did as he said. His warm breath caressed her breasts but he did not touch them, as Ben once had and never would again. Adrian appeared before her. Watching. Smiling. Waiting for his turn. He left but watched from afar.

Caleb's scent enveloped her. "Let me be your Ben."

She sighed and Ben came to her. Loved her. Encouraged her. Wanted her. He was with her now in her private world. A world with no sorrow or pain or loss—only love.

Caleb pushed open her legs and raised her hips with his hands. And he was Ben taking her for the first time long ago. She had moved with him then in the firelight. Caleb blended with Ben and he bent toward her, his hair fell soft on her cheek.
I'm going to pretend to penetrate you, Laura. I need to make it look real. I'm sorry.

She nodded quickly and kept her eyes closed, praying he would honor his word. She couldn't suffer being violated. One night ago her husband had taken her in love and her child had burst from it in love.

Caleb's body moved over her, pulsing so close to her heat. He wrapped his arms under her back and pulled her closer, kissing her trembling stomach. He slid then—not into her but falsely over her skin, between her buttocks. His groin pushed into hers slowly then rocked with hers, pounding her soft mound and stroking her bottom. Thrust, after rhythmic thrust they were connected by pliant skin. She moved into him as he rode her, his hard body everywhere. He was inside her—but he wasn't—stroking her longer and deeper.

Like Ben had their first night together at the cabin. The wind had rattled the windows over and over with a screeching wail, rising with intensity as her heart beat did. She flowed beneath him now once again, meeting him half way in the firelight as its shadows leapt and bounded over them. The fire roared up hissing flames. Laura cried out with each fervid thrust that filled her body—and her heart.

His warm lips pulsed on her neck between ragged breaths as her breath matched his, linked by a fiery need to lose themselves in the sliding of skin. He rose and fell over her as their heat fanned their desire. He pressed her to him, his chest flattening her breasts as he strained against her. His hardness rubbed faster and faster beneath her. The bed shook. "Laura." He held her tighter. Wet warmth covered her bottom as he shuddered against her.

Ben was gone.

Caleb fell on her chest.
I'm sorry. I couldn't contain myself. You're so lovely.

She put her arms around him.
It's okay, Caleb.

His heart raced against hers and his sweat covered her chest. Adrian's face appeared once more. One eyebrow raised, mocking her.
Then he disappeared.

Caleb pressed his head to hers.
Ben is your match.

Laura's heart skipped.
He told you that.

"Yes," he said aloud.

"You said
is
." She clung tight to him, wanting to believe.

"Yes."

He raised his head and looked at her with tenderness. "Time to go see your son."

Laura stood in the nursery next to Caleb. Two women rocked in corners nursing other women's babies. They glanced at her then dismissed her. They had their own jobs to do, and their own worries. She scanned dozens of tiny heads. There he was. Sleeping, content in his crib. She had memorized the path from her room to this place, as she memorized the details of this room.

"Hold him, Laura," Caleb said. "He is yours, no matter who fathered him."

So he had seen the likeness, too. She went to her child and stood over him, afraid to touch him, afraid to love him. Hate shot through her as she saw his name plate.
Madroc
. No first name. Just the last name of the devil.

Ben, will you accept him?

Benny murmured in his sleep. He was just a baby, not a monster. And then love washed over her with a mighty maternal force. She picked him up and his sweet, baby smell poured into her. Her breasts ached but she had no milk to give her son. He snuggled into her neck and she smiled at Caleb.

"Thank you." It seemed surreal she had been so intimate with Caleb and now she was here with her child.

"It's the least I could do."

"Can I see him again?"

"No. Bonds are not allowed between mothers and fathers and their children. A baby is taken away at birth and placed in the nursery. Most do not even know who their children are."

"But you do."

"They are my likeness. It wasn't hard."

Hatred flashed through her for Adrian, for these Elyons—her people. What kind of world did she come from where such evil reigned? And yet, they had good, too. Good and bad, like on Earth. And good in Caleb. In Charlie. In her. And even in her dead twin, X-10. He never had a chance to be good. His goodness was crushed—hidden—as these Destroyers hid their evil from the world. X-10 was like Adrian but not. He'd never wanted power like Adrian, he'd just wanted to live free and in peace. Perhaps Charlie would choose the same.