Mick (The A'rouk Brothers Book 1) (21 page)

“Brook,” she said softly. “Go to Ash, he needs you.”

She nodded and stood, hugging Jaz and then Mick before she descended the steps and ran up to reach Ash, drawing him into her arms.

“You may take your mate and leave,” Sloan said with the air of a king.

“I’ll take care of it from here, Ash. Have Damon look her over to make sure she’s ok,” Mick said, wanting him and Brook to leave without harm.

Ash gave him a hard stare once again making Jaz wonder if they could communicate without words. He gave a nod, picked Brook up and walked out.

“See how easy that was.”

“Kill her,” Roy said, not caring for the pleasantries. “I’ve been waiting to see her die.”

“Why do you hate me?” She turned to face him. “What have I ever done to you?”

“You’re an abomination, something that shouldn’t have been allowed to take root and grow on the Earth. There was a time when man thought they could control you, but that’s not what happened. You multiplied. Sure, we allowed this to happen, and now here you are thinking you have rights. You claim you have feelings. Given time you will even want to procreate like you’re human, but I know better. You’re a creature that shouldn’t exist.”

The hatred that poured out of him crawled over her skin. She rubbed her arms, scared it may find a way to infect her.

“Did a clone hurt you? Hurt your family?”

“As if you or your kind could do something to one of mine.” The contempt in his voice was meant to cut her at her core.

It might have done that very thing, but she saw it for what it was—fear. It ruled Roys mind and his action. It had grown so big that it took him over. He couldn’t look at her or anyone like her without the fear suffocating him, driving him to annihilate what he couldn’t understand or master.

She turned away from him. It didn’t matter what she would say; he was too far gone to ever hear the voice of reason. Instead, she focused on Sloan.

“I want to meet my original, or at least pull her up on a tablet. It’s my right to know whose DNA I came from.”

The two women looked at him and shook their heads. Jaz frowned; that didn’t make any sense. It was the right of the clone about to be killed to know this.

“You forfeited all rights when you chose not to answer our original summons. Jazlyn Summers, present yourself to be terminated.” Sloan’s voice had deepened, became commanding.

“No.”

“What!” the first women said in shock.

Jaz ignored them and turned to focus on Mick. He was quiet, allowing her to fight this battle as if he had complete faith in her. When she looked at his eyes, she knew. He did have faith in her. His relaxed stance was so deceptive. He was keeping tabs on everyone in the room. She felt sorry for whoever tried to touch her.

“Jaz,” Sloan said to her softly. “Don’t do this to yourself. If you don’t come willingly, I will have to overcome your programming and make you come like the mindless clone you are.”

She shook, she knew all about that override order, and she knew it worked because they tested it out on each clone when they had about ten years under their belts. It was one of the worse moments of her life. The utter helplessness, agreeing to do whatever she was told. The realization that she couldn’t think for herself had kept her scared and trembling when it first happened, and now he was threatening her with her worst nightmare.

How could she let Mick see her that way? How could she let him see her willingly walk to her death?

She squared her shoulders. “No.”

“You leave me no other choice,” Sloan said.

The women in the room smiled and prepared for a show. Roy came around so he was standing in front of her. He wanted the best place to watch her. Harold was behind Jaz, but a growl from Mick had him moving in front of them.

Now she simply waited.

“Jazlyn Summers,” Sloan’s voice rang out with authority. “Clone number 786542, I am enacting override code Gamma Delta 5432. You will now revert to your original programming Delta Tau 7245.”

She stiffened knowing what was going to happen. She took one last look around committing Mick’s face to her memories. This isn’t what she wanted to happen, how she planned to go out.

Any moment the override would wipe out her free will. She would revert to the nameless clone she was when she first woke up. She could feel it working its way through her body. Her limbs stiffened as it took over her mind. She would die clueless, but that’s all right; at least she wouldn’t realize what she was losing.

Roy laughed when her eyes went blank.

“Clone 786542, come to me,” Sloan commanded her.

Her feet tried to move.

She could hear Mick’s voice echoing through her mind telling her he loved her. Dante telling her how proud he was of her went through next. Mick being willing to die for her so she could live. How he loved her, because he did, even if he hadn’t said the words. He took her to face the Patron and showed her he trusted her in so many little ways. When she asked him if he could lie, he told the truth. She shut him out, but even then she knew he would never lie to her.

So many memories flashed across her mind, and she didn’t want to lose a single one of them. Dante visiting her every day when Mick couldn’t. Brook calling her sister while Ash called her little sister. The strength it took to save Brooks life when it was needed.

“Mick,” she reached out to him refusing to let him go.

“Stay with me, Jaz. Don’t leave me alone.”

It was that simple. Jaz was staying. Sloan could take his override and whatever else he had up his sleeve and dump it because she wasn’t going anywhere.

“No. I won’t present myself so that you can terminate my life, and I’m not your clone or anyone else’s.”

There wasn’t a sound in the room. For a moment it was surreal. The blank looks on the faces before her couldn’t believe she broke the programming, and she didn’t know how she did it although she suspected she had help. All she knew was that she was free, an individual free to make mistakes as well as do everything right. The freedom she dreamed of belonged to her.

“That’s impossible,” one of the women said in shock. “This can’t be allowed to happen. Kill her anyway!” she commanded in a superior voice.

Roy must have thought she was talking to him. He took a laser out and pointed it at her heart. Mick’s Symphor appeared in his hand, and he threw it. It cleaved through Roy’s chest and embedded in his heart. He died without a whimper.

She should feel sorrow, pain, remorse…except she felt none of those things. He died as he lived, violently.

“And then there were four,” Mick said quietly as his Symphor flew back to his hand.

“Do something, Sloan,” the second female demanded.

“What do you suggest I do? Jaz broke the clone override. I no longer have jurisdiction over her.”

“You know what happens if she lives,” Harold hissed.

“There are more. We will simply stop the others.” He spoke in a reasonable voice as he looked around at the three surrounding him. “We lost this one. It’s a blow, but we will simply win the next round.”

“No,” one of the females said. “We kill her and end this farce this very second.” Her hand stretched out, and she changed before Jaz’s eyes.

She was no longer a human female. She was something totally different. Still humanoid, but obviously not human. Her hair waved behind her like it was alive. It was gold but more gold than she ever saw before. Her eyes changed shape; they became totally oval. Her body grew taller, and there was a small tip on her ears.

A coil wrapped itself around Jaz making it impossible for her to move. Mick reached for his Symphor, but a coil wrapped around him too.

“They are but children. Should we lose to them?”

“Deanna, you must have forgotten that it’s not nice to hurt children,” Dante said as he appeared in the middle of them. He was sitting on a throne that was lazily floating over the floor.

Deanna paled as she stared at him.

When I get out of this, Jaz thought, he is going to be my second best friend forever with Mick always being my first.

Dante turned and winked at her before going serious again.

“No one invited you,” Harold said, moving closer to Deanna.

“You have my brother and my sister in here. That’s all the invitation I need. She resisted the reprogramming; I was surprised when they didn’t come home and thought I should check on them.”

“You’re the reason why she resisted.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I would appreciate it if you let them go.”

Sloan raised his hands and they were once again free.

“Mick, take care of your mate.” Dante waved his hand in their direction and Mick and Jaz disappeared.

“The Darkness will simply kill them and then what, Dante?” Sloan asked.

“Then they die, but at least they will have had a chance to fight for their lives, something you didn’t plan on giving them.”

“You cheated,” Harold said.

“How so? Did I take a daughter of the Earth and make her believe she was a clone, repressing her, retraining her so when the time came I could kill her ending the dream of humanity?”

“You won’t win,” Sloan said, dropping the reasonable act. “I will fight you for every female. I might not get them all but in the end, I will get at least one, and that’s all I need.”

There were six daughters of the Earth, children of the females that came together to make the planet they were standing on. If one were to die, the planet would begin to destroy itself, allowing its enemies to have a chance at overtaking the Earth.

“Good Luck with that.” Dante disappeared with Sloan’s snarl in his ear.

Mick was sitting on the couch with Jaz on his lap when Dante and Eli walked in.

“Ash took Brook back to my place. I think he just needed to be alone with her,” Damon said, catching them up.

The brothers were surrounding Mick and Jaz. Now that Dante was there, they stood up. “I think we’re going to wander through Sin City,” Damon said for all of them before they disappeared.

Eli groaned. “I hate when all of you descend on my poor city at once.”

“Then it’s good for you that you’ll only have four brothers tonight,” Dante told him. “Come have a drink with me.” Eli nodded, and they disappeared leaving Jaz alone with Mick.

“What does this mean, Mick? The Clone Council is no longer going to hunt me down? Since when did the Clone Council become aliens and why? Am I still in the database? Will facial recognition go off the minute I try to walk into a store?

“Let’s find out.”

“Maybe tomorrow. We should get some sleep.” She wanted to put the experiment off for another day.

He laughed and stood up holding her. “Brook’s hover is still at the Galleria. I just told Ash we would bring it back with us.”

“I need to change.” She looked at him with hopeful eyes.

“Hurry, this will be fun.”

Fun she muttered to herself, how did I fall in love with the brother who had a screw lose? She stopped in her tracks. She loved him. She couldn’t remember when that last layer, protecting her heart from feeling, shred apart but it did, and she loved him. A wide smile took her face as she ran to the room to change. Now all she needed to do was gather the courage to tell him.

“Mick, are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked him one more time.

He came into the room tired of waiting for her and caught her around the waist, swinging her around the room with a kiss before putting her down so she could finish dressing. Now he was ready to go, but she was still nervous.

“It’s a perfect plan, all except the part where Brook gets upset with you because she didn’t get to go.”

“She can go next time if I survive,” she whispered.

“What was that?”

She shoved him before straightening up. “I’m ready.”

“Let’s go.”

One minute she was in the bedroom with him. The next she was standing in a small area next to the Galleria under an overhang.

“This area is protected, so we come and go from here. It’s just easier.”

She nodded, took his hand, and followed him to the main entrance. Her picture and biorhythms were on file. The minute she stepped through the doorway, it would light up like a Christmas tree in the entrance. There would be arrows that pointed to her telling the world or at least the people around that she was a clone.

“Mick, I need to walk in by myself, and you can’t do anything to stop the system from recognizing me.”

“You have my word.” He walked away crossing the threshold of the store and going far enough in that she could see him, but he wasn’t close enough to the entrance to influence it.

Taking a deep breath, she walked toward the entrance of the Galleria. It didn’t matter anymore whether the alarm went off or not. Jaz knew who she was and felt confident in her skin.

She crossed the threshold and came to a stop waiting for the system to go off, but nothing happened. A woman plowed into her.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t looking.’

“No problem, it was my fault.” The lady gave her a polite smile and walked away.

“Mick?” The expression on her face was dazed and confused.

He stuck his arm out, and she placed her hand on it. “Come Ms. Summers, we have shopping to do.”

He wanted to tell her how much he loved her, but the Galleria just didn’t seem the place.

They went to one of the most prestigious stores. Jaz had come here once with Brook, and they had embarrassed her, made her feel lower than slime. When she walked in, she saw the male who had made her life miserable that day. He checked his database looking for her. He looked up and frowned and checked it again. With a final shrug of his shoulders, he went on to something else.

“Do you want something from here?” Mick asked her looking around.

“No, but there’s this cute shop downstairs called ‘Retro for the yesterday girl in you.’ I want to go there,” she said with excitement.

“Well, let’s go.”

She led him out the shop and down to the lower level, where she tried on an obscene number of clothes, most of which he insisted on buying for her. Then he took her to a shop that sold lingerie.