Made to Love (19 page)

“
I’m sure you did,” Byron
said.

When I finished sewing him
up, I stepped back, taking my gloves off carefully to avoid getting
his blood on my skin.  I tossed them in a trash can.  “I
think that’s it.  How do you feel?”

 
Byron sat up again,
turning on the table to let his legs dangle off the side. 
Everything stayed together the way it was supposed to.  “I
feel great!” he said.  “All these new sensations!”

I grabbed a damp cloth and
mopped at his hip where blood had oozed out of his new
stitches.  After working so long close to his new equipment, I
had completely forgotten it was supposed to bother me.

“
It’ll get even better
once you’re powered,” I said.  I frowned thoughtfully. 
“Maybe I should go find someone for you tonight.  A prostitute
or something.”

He caught my hands, hopping
off the table.  Byron looked deep into my eyes with his own,
one of which I had attached myself.  “Calliope,” he
said.  “You helped make me.  I can’t imagine anyone but
you finishing the job.”

Byron bent to kiss me, and
I tried to pull back, but he held my head in place.  After a
moment, I relaxed, and he pressed his hips against mine. 
There was
definitely
something new there.

“
Byron,” I
gasped.

“
I’m your responsibility,”
he murmured against my lips.

Well, he did have a
point.

Chapter
Forty-Nine

Afterward, I felt like
falling asleep.  I'd been working all night, and all the
concentration had been tiring enough without adding activating
Byron to it.  Not to say that it wasn't the best task of the
night...or one of the best of my life, even.  Byron was tender
and enthusiastic, and I'd responded in kind.

But I was about ready to
pass out, and he was so wired he couldn't keep still.

“
How do you do it?” he
asked.  “It's just...so
much
.”

I laughed.  I couldn't
help it; he looked so happy, and crazy at the same time. 
“There's a bit of an adjustment,” I said.  “You're not fully
powered yet.  Once you are, you'll probably feel a lot more
normal.”

“
I hope so!” he said,
laughing a little as well.  “I don't think I could keep up
with this is if I was like it all the time!”

“
Try some Red Bulls and
get back to me,” I said.

He kissed me, and even
though my body was tired, heat flooded me once more.  “I want
to be with you,” he murmured.

I thought of what he was
concealing under the pants I'd found for him, and wondered just how
everything fit under there.  Then I shook my head.  “No,
you need to go.  You need to hide.”

“
But what if something
breaks?”

I bit my lip.  I
hadn't thought about that.  “I'm sure you'll be fine.  Do
you think you could stitch yourself if something broke?”

He nodded.  After all,
he was the one who'd helped me put the motor together.  I had
no reason to question his ability to fix things, but it made me
worry.  Which I supposed was the point; he wanted an excuse
not to leave.

I crossed the lab and went
for the supplies I'd grouped together.  I grabbed the needle
and thread that was left after all the work we'd done –
surprisingly, there was still quite a bit, probably because my dad
had overstocked – and handed it to him.  He caressed my hands
like they were the most delicate things that had ever graced the
face of the planet. 

“
Ask me to stay,” he
whispered.  “Please.”

“
I can't,” I said. 
“We don't know what Father wants you for.  I'd rather not find
out; I can't think about losing you.”

“
Don't you want me?” he
asked.  “Don't you love me?”

“
Of course I do,” I
said.  “But my destiny isn't with you.”

“
It could be.”

I shook my head. 
“Don't make this any harder than it has to be.”

“
How will I know when I'm
supposed to come back?”

“
You'll know,” I
said.  I put my hand over his chest.  “We're
connected.”

He pat my hand.  “I
don't want to lose you.”

I didn't want to lose him
either.

I'd almost lost Octavius
and Rich earlier through their own machismo.  This particular
situation probably wasn't one I could talk my way out of, simply
because I didn't know everything about it.  I didn't know who
this Father was, and I didn't know what he wanted with
Byron.

It hurt.

My heart pounded, and my
breath grew shallow.  I put both hands on either side of my
head and made myself small on the floor.  I started rocking;
it was comforting, in its own way.

Byron came up to me and put
a palm on my back.  “Calliope,” he whispered.  His voice
was like a breeze flying through the still air.

“
Go!” I yelled.  “Go
now!”

“
Please--”

I squeezed my eyes shut and
let the tears roll down.  It felt like my heart was tearing
out of my chest.  I couldn't bear it, so I shut the world
outside.  If there was no world, it could hurt me, couldn't
keep crushing my heart like it had a bullseye on it.   It
felt like my heart's blood was coating every inch of my
interior.

In a moment, I opened my
eyes and lowered my hands.  The room was quiet, and I knew he
was gone.

I couldn't help it.  I
ran out of the room and out of the house, crying as I did so. 
I ran out into the apple orchard and saw Byron's hulking form
lumbering away.  I held out a hand and resisted the urge to
cry out.

But I should
have.

There was the flapping of
wings, and Byron was snatched from the ground.  His arms and
legs flailed as he went up into the sky.  

I screamed and ran
forward.  As soon as I reached the spot where Byron was, I
looked up.

The sky was
empty.

Chapter Fifty

“
Octavius! No!” I
screamed.

A hand touched my shoulder,
and I spun, half-expecting to see him behind me.  But it
wasn’t Octavius.  Or Byron.  Or Rich.  Or even my
dad.

It was… an old
guy.

Well, not
old
,
really.  Only probably about as old as my dad.  He had
salt-and-pepper hair and a grizzled face with goggles perched atop
his head and a lab coat.  “You’re Calliope,” he said, and it
was distracting enough that, momentarily, I forgot entirely about
my other problem.

“
What?  Yeah… I guess
so,” I said.  “Who are you?”

He smiled a gentle,
paternal smile.  He reached out and touched my hair, cupped my
cheek in his hand.  “I knew you could do it,” he said. 
“My creation.  He is complete.”

“
Your creation…?” 
Realization dawned, and I took a step back.  “No.  You’re
Father, aren’t you?”

When he only kept smiling,
I got a horrible feeling of dread.

So I ran.

Well, tried to,
anyway.  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, grabbing
me by the arm.  Father’s grip was painfully tight, and I cried
out.

“
Let go of me!”

“
The Queen-to-be,” he
murmured, jerking on my arm hard enough that I thought it might rip
from my socket.  “What can we do about that?”

I managed to tear free,
then bolted across the orchard.

For a minute, it looked
like he wouldn’t chase me.  I felt a surge of hope.

Then  he yelled, “Get
her!”  Seconds later, I felt claws bite into my shoulders, and
then I was airborne.

I struggled, twisting
around to look up at what had grabbed me.  It definitely
wasn’t Octavius.  It was a half-woman, half-bird monster with
wide, flapping wings the color of a hawk’s.

The trees receded
underneath me and the wind whipped around my body, frigid and
damp.  I kicked and writhed, trying to get out of the
monster’s grip, but she held me tight with her talons wrapped all
the way around my shoulders.

She swooped and redirected,
wheeling toward the ocean.

I stopped struggling. 
I didn’t want to get dropped.

“
Where are you taking me?”
I shouted, and my voice disappeared into the wind.

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t
answer.  With every flap of her massive wings, I felt myself
slipping little by little from her grasp.  I tried to grab a
hold of her legs, but the skin was spiny and sharp, so all I could
do was helplessly begin to slip.

Out of the fog in the
ocean, a large, dark form began to develop.  An
island?

“
What in the world…?” I
muttered.

Then the talons released,
and I plummeted to the earth.

Chapter
Fifty-One

I hit something soft and
green, bouncing several feet into the air before landing again on
my face.

“
Oof!”

My ribs hurt, and my head
ached, but I was alive.

As soon as I was certain I
was done moving, I lifted my head to stare around at my new
surroundings.  I was ringed by massive trees, ancient and
dripping green with moss and leaves.  There was almost no sun,
casting everything in gray half-light, and it smelled like rotten
leaves.

I squinted up at the sky to
see the dark silhouette of the half-bird that had caught me
wheeling around, flapping hard, and disappearing into the
clouds.

Groaning, I sat up and took
inventory of my wounds.  It really wasn’t all that bad. 
The distance from the bird to the ground must have been closer than
I thought.

But where was I?

I stood and peered through
the trees, trying to make out paths, or any other sign of human
life.  Or civilization.  I couldn’t help but think of
Father and wonder if I really did want to come upon civilization,
though.

On the other hand, sitting
still wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I picked a direction and
started to walk.  I was immediately immersed in thick green
foliage, having to step carefully around muddy places and pick my
way through bushes.

After a time, I came across
a path of flattened soil.  Frequently trafficked.  Surely
it would lead me somewhere.

On impulse, I changed
directions, heading down the path opposite to the way I had been
walking before.  Maybe if I was unpredictable, I’d find my way
out before someone else found me.

It didn’t take long for me
to feel very thoroughly lost, and more than a little bit
scared.  I wished so badly to have Octavius, or Byron, or even
Rich.  Maybe all of them.  I just wanted to be held and
comforted and told it was all okay by a reassuring, manly
presence.

The path abruptly ended in
a building.  More of a tower, really.  It was huge and
tall, not unlike Byron, and at the top – suspended between two
spires – was a crackling ring of molten blue energy.

A portal.

How I knew that, I wasn’t
sure, but I did and it was weird.

“
Where the hell am I?” I
whispered to no one in particular.

I was so scared.

Chapter
Fifty-Two

“
Go inside.”

I whirled around. 
Standing behind me was Father...or whatever his name was.  I
didn't think this was the time to ask.

“
Why should I?” I dared to
say.  “What would make me want to go in?”

“
Because it's your
destiny,” he replied.  “And Byron's waiting inside for
you.”

I felt my soul grow
cold.  “What are you doing to him?”

“
Me?” he asked, putting a
hand to his chest.  “Nothing.  Yet.”

“
You jerk!” I
shrieked.

He waggled a finger at
me.  “Now, now.  That's no way to behave.”

“
I'm not going in the
portal, and you can't make me,” I said firmly.  Somehow, I
knew I was right.

Father did, too. 
“Maybe not by simple force, but there are other ways.  Ways
I'd rather avoid, and ways you'd probably rather avoid,
too.”

“
Talk sense,” I
demanded.

“
No need to,” he
said.  He snapped his fingers.

Two of the half-bird,
half-women creatures appeared in the sky above the water. 
Between them, Octavius dangled, unconscious...or worse.  He
looked as pale as a corpse, and I couldn't tell if that was the
moonlight or his own skin.

“
Octavius,” I
whispered.  I raised shaking hands to my mouth to keep from
screaming.

“
Yes,” Father said
distractedly.  “Your siren.  If you do not go in the
portal, we'll kill him.  And Byron will be in dire straits as
well, let's put it that way.”

I set my jaw grimly, and I
knew, in that instant, I would go.  But I walked up to Father
and stared him straight in the face.

“
You promise that you
won't harm them if I go in?”