The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (130 page)

             
“They killed ten of our people, so yes, I am.” Don replied quickly and curtly. “N
ow, shut up and get out of the way.”

             
I zoomed forward in a blur, appearing in front of him before he could even process that I had moved at all. His hands were wrapped around Violet’s wrist and he had been in the motion of pushing her away from him forcef
ully. Upon seeing that my fangs had emerged, he immediately let her go.

             
“You and I do not see eye to eye. That has never yielded favorable outcomes, has it, Don? If you ever touch her again…”

             
“Brynna, I’m not a spy. I don’t care about this war. I just wa
nt it to be over.” Maura was telling me quickly as two of the men cuffed her hands behind her back. “Brynna, please don’t let them do this!”

             
“What is it that you are planning?” I demanded. “What is it that you think she can tell you?”

             
“It’s not a matter
of her telling me anything. It’s a matter of what she’ll tell them. Weren’t you listening?” Don snapped at me. I chose to ignore his condescension.

             
“Walk.” One of the men who had cuffed her hands was steering Maura forward.

             
“There are three others from t
heir camp in the trees. That’s what her thoughts are saying!” The woman speaking pointed at Alice, who gasped and covered her ears. I rolled my eyes again.

             
“I’m sorry! Brynn, I’m sorry!” Alice covered her mouth now.

             
Savannah and Oliver’s mother had regai
ned consciousness. Because she was an adult, they cuffed her hands as well.

             
“Mommy!” Her son screamed and my heart panged in painful sympathy.

             
“Please do something!” Ellie was imploring James and I, as though we had extensive control over Don and his l
apdogs. I so desperately wished that was the case but alas, it was not.

             
“I will do what I can for all of you when we arrive where we are headed.” I managed to tell her quickly as two other men pulled her away from me. “Don’t worry, Ellie!”

             
With one hand,
I latched my fingers around James’s. With the other, I ran my fingers through my hair and drew in one deep, trembling breath. There would be blood shed that night and pain experienced by these poor woman that I was inadvertently responsible for. I had sev
eral miles to prepare for that grim reality. My plan would have to be formulated before we reached the city.

             
Throughout the entire duration of the walk, Violet never stopped screaming at Don. Every couple of minutes, Elijah would threaten him with some pa
inful and degrading consequence, should harm befall any of the prisoners he had taken. Adam sauntered along at the front, looking pleased with himself. Why wouldn’t he be? He had his bloody show.

             
“Do you think I owe her something now?” I asked after sever
al minutes of silence. When James did not answer, I turned my fiery gaze onto him.

             
“Yes. But you and I both owe that woman and her children far more.” James told me softly. His grip tightened comfortingly on my hand. Since we were close to the back of the
group, I allowed myself a small showing of weakness: I rubbed my head against his shoulder and left it rested there until we had broken through the trees.

             
I dreaded what might happen in the city for good reason. The end of a time was upon us. A seismic s
hift in climate was brewing. I watched the last of daylight disappear completely; we were suddenly plunged into darkness so thick, it could only have been symbolic.

             
By the time the Pangean sun rose, our world would be in ruins.

XXX

             
I was sitting on the
other side of a two-way mirror. Apparently, mirror-craft is a universal occupation. I’m afraid that torturous interrogation techniques are also.

             
Another backhand across Maura’s face left her silent. She had been crying, begging to see Violet, who, as she
claimed, would explain everything.

             
“You’re his wife! You can’t convince me that you don’t know anything, Maura!” Don bellowed at her. Even from outside, the volume of his voice rattled my eardrums. My hands were on my face, my fingers massaging the center
of my forehead. I noted briefly that I was trembling.

             
“There’s nothing you could have done. If they exiled us, we would have nowhere to go. We tried to live on our own when we first got here. Every day, there was something else. We can’t do it, Brynn.” J
ames tried to reassure me softly. In his voice, I heard no true dedication to the words he was speaking. His excuses did not register, even to him.

             
“I can’t sit by and allow this.” I told him. “There is never a reason for a man to raise his hand to a woma
n. I’m sure I have told you my feelings on the matter many times.” I stood and turned away from the sight. “And right now, what they’re doing is just the tip of the iceberg. Who knows where it will end? Well, of course, I do. I do not see a course out of t
his where she lives, James.”

             
I hadn’t spoken the words out loud. I hadn’t told the grim truth to Elijah, whom I could hear shouting enraged promises of violence out in the hallway or Violet, who was sobbing openly. I hadn’t told Alice and Quinn, who were
upstairs, trying to rally together a makeshift protest.

             
“She doesn’t deserve to die.” I told James.

             
In those terrible moments of the purest, most desperate terror and the most disgusting degradation all those years ago that Maura had allowed to happen b
y promoting her own interest over mine that I would ever say later that she deserved her life. As I stood, watching her succumb to such heinous torment, I knew that I could not allow it to continue.

             
“I have to go to Adam. He can stop this. He pulls the st
rings, James.”

             
“No.” James told me firmly. “I don’t know what he wants exactly, but by the way he looks at you, it’s not in your best interest.”

             
“I don’t care! He’s helped me before without giving me a debt to pay.”

             
“You only
think
that he didn’t give you a debt to pay. What are you talking about? When did he help you? Was it when he blithely informed you that you needed that plant to save Quinn? Was it when he showed up on the mountain when you were freezing to death? He’ll call yo
ur debt any day now, Bryna. He is sick. He’s meticulous, too. He will play any angle he has to, as long as he gets what he wants from you. The more you ask of him, the higher the price.”

             
“James, I believe you are over-reaching just a tad.”

             
“I'm not!” Jam
es exclaimed before rubbing his eyes as he gathered his thoughts. “It's the way he looks at you, Brynna. I can't stand it. It makes me sick!”
             
“Is that what this is about?” I pulled his hand away from his face gently. “James, I love you. You know that my f
eelings towards him border very closely on absolute loathing...”

             
“I don’t know what he wants from you, Brynna, but I know that you’re in his debt. He’s saved your life before. He saved you…” He trailed off, remembering the terrible instance involving the
Peace Fruit.

             
“We cannot have this conversation now, James. Later, we can discuss it for hours, if you feel so inclined. Adam is the only person that can stop Don. I am going to make him do just that.”

             
“Then you’ll owe him again! Brynna, you cannot play g
ames with him. We have seen what he can do. We know what he wants from all of us. You think he’ll cut you loose from your obligations to him just because you can talk quickly and negotiate well? He doesn’t negotiate! And you can’t outsmart him. Look at how
long he’s been around.”

             
“What do you recommend, James? Short of killing Don, the only course of action that will result in a favorable outcome would be going to Adam for help. He saved Violet and asked for nothing in return. That was the most crucial ins
tance of him helping me. Surely, that instance would designate the highest payment, given how deeply I love her. If he was going to ask for his payment, I believe he would have done it by now.”

             
James sighed and put both hands on his face. After a long mom
ent, he exclaimed in frustration.

             
“You’re smarter than this, Brynna!” He accused me furiously. “You know it’s only a matter of
time. Are you afraid of what he might ask you for? Is that why you refuse to admit that you owe him?”

             
“What purpose does it
serve to you or anyone else if I admit that I owe him something? This conversation is redundant and I’m exiting it now.” I strode but he caught up to me. He wrapped me in his arms and held me tightly against him. I frowned when I felt him kiss the back of
my head. His sudden show of affection confused me. I could not understand the sudden change in his mood.

             
“What are you doing? Am I meant to succumb to your embrace and forget what I have resolved to do?” I asked condescendingly, though my hand did reach b
ack over my shoulder to touch his face. “Is that your plan?”

             
“I lied to you, Brynna.”

             
His voice was quiet but his tone was resolute. I prayed that I had not heard him correctly but his tone cruelly assured me that I had. Dread seemed to take him as he pr
epared to say out loud whatever it was that he had kept from me. In his heart, I sensed the excruciating realization that in mere moments, I would no longer wish to be with him. I would be the one that walked away when I had so tormented myself over pictur
ing that scenario reversed.

             
“Excuse me?”

             
“I’ve lied to you about something very serious. I should have told you from the moment I met you. When you asked me about it, I should have been honest. I just want to apologize for that now.”

             
“Well, I am certain
ly not going to accept your apology without knowing exactly what the nature of the lie is!” I shook my way out of his embrace. “You know that I do not tolerate liars, James! What have you not told me?”

             
“I had a wife.”

             
Somehow, that was disappointing. Jus
t as I had geared my adrenal system into overdrive, preparing for his bombshell and the outburst of rage that would follow such a stunning betrayal of truth and honesty, he had revealed something that I could have easily guessed.

             
“Honey, that’s,” I shook
my head as I tried to mentally gather how he could believe that such a revelation was angering. “I know that I asked whether you had been married before…”

             
“No, listen,” He grasped both of my hands and looked into my eyes. “I had a wife. She and I, given o
ur careers, knew about Adam. We knew about his people. We had met him long before he ever came to camp that night. Brynna, he was on Earth.”

             
“For what?” I asked quickly. A grimace was working to emerge on my face as the slow bloom of that festering secret
spread bitter, metallic ooze over my tongue and rendered me nearly unable to speak. Something earth-shattering was going to be revealed to me now by him. Violet’s secret…

             
“He was looking for people like us. He was looking for people who saw the end. He w
as looking for people that were starting to show signs of the evolution.”

             
“For what?” I asked again.

             
“I don’t like the way you’re saying that.” He told me softly as he ran his hand over his head. “It’s a little unnerving.”

             
“I could not care less about t
hat. Continue talking now.”

             
“At first, he wanted to take us himself. He and his people wanted to study us because they didn’t know how it was possible that we could have powers when some others here, meaning Tyre’s group, had lost theirs. Obviously, those
of us that knew about this were completely against that. So, we found our own way.”