Kat Falls - Inhuman

Flashlight beams crisscrossed the servant quarters. Hay snapped underfoot and gates were thrown open as the handlers searched the pens, breathing heavily under the weight of their leather aprons. I pulled my head scarf low over my eyes. The handlers kicked manimals awake, questioned them, and raked through their possessions.

A glaring flashlight sought me out and I lifted my face the way I thought they’d want. Someone gave a satisfied grunt. “Anything?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Only people who belong here,” said a husky voice. A familiar voice. I peeked over the top of my pen and saw Everson in a leather apron. He had bandages on both cheeks from where the feral had scratched him.

“People,” snorted the guard nearest to my pen. “That’s funny. I’m done with this pigsty. I’m going back to the barracks.”

The third handler followed him down the aisle, but before Everson could fall in line, I launched to my feet and blocked his path. “Stay,” I whispered.

He blinked. “What?”

I moved closer, lifting my gaze to his. “Please stay here with me.” If he’d just look at me … but no. He fixed his attention on the aisle beyond me as color crept into his cheeks.

“No offense, Miss,” he said stiffly, “but I can’t.”

One of the handlers behind me broke into raucous laughter. “Sure, you can. The queen is dead and so is her little project. No one’s gonna care if you get yourself a girlfriend.”

The other handler groaned. “Don’t listen to him, kid. And don’t get fooled just ’cause she’s not showing any animal now. If she’s down here, she ain’t human.”

Everson tried to sidestep me, but I couldn’t let him get away. Throwing my arms around his neck, I pressed him to the pen wall and put my mouth to his ear. “Ev, it’s me.”

He froze, then his bandaged cheek brushed my lips as he turned to look into my eyes and, finally, saw me. The me under the dirt and maid’s dress. He pressed a hand to the small of my back and fisted the fabric, pulling my dress tight, holding on to me as if I might suddenly vanish.

A tremor ran through him. “Actually” — he cleared his throat and shot the handlers a wry look — “I think I will stay.”

The first handler chortled. The other sighed. “Suit yourself,” he said.

Everson waited for them to disappear up the stairs before pushing back my headscarf. My hair tumbled down and he stared. I understood his doubt. I barely recognized myself. “What happened?” His voice was heavy with dread. “Are you …” He couldn’t finish the thought.

“No,” I assured him. “I’m fine. I —”

My words ended up muffled against his chest. He’d pulled me to him so fast, my brain hadn’t kept up. And now his breath stirred my hair. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” His relief was so intense that something inside of me, which had been knotted tight, loosened a little.

There was so much I needed to tell him, and I would, but not yet. For just a moment, I wanted to be happy that we’d found each other and to feel sheltered against his chest. His hands lifted to cradle my face and suddenly, his lips were on mine. He kissed me softly at first, then turned ardent, and for the first time ever, I wanted more. My fingers curled against him as the warmth of his mouth sent electricity arcing through my body. When he leaned away to look at me, I was tempted to pull him back. To get lost in his kiss again, so that everything around us went away — the basement and the handlers and the things I had to tell him…. Sad things, I remembered with a start. Devastating things.

I stepped out of his arms and felt instantly cold. “What was that?” I asked in a breathless voice.

His expression turned rueful. “Back at the park, Rafe was right. I should’ve gone for the kiss.”

“You just thought about that now?”

“No, from the second you walked away. And after the handlers grabbed me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. How I’d missed the moment. Missed it forever if I didn’t pass their test or if I never found you … I —” He glanced away with a half shrug. “I wanted to make up for it.”

“You did,” I assured him with a shaky laugh. “And then some.”

We stood awkwardly for a split second and then I reached for his hand. “Come on.” I tugged him into my pen, where we settled down in the hay. I traced a finger over the bandage on his right cheek. “I saw the fight. I was on the roof.”

He looked surprised. “And now you’re down here…. A lot’s happened, huh?” he asked gently.

I swallowed the ache in my throat and nodded. I wanted one more minute before I spilled it all and relived the horror. “Did you need stitches?” I asked, taking my hand from his face.

“Probably. The cuts feel deep.” He touched the other bandage with a grimace. “A handler closed them with surgical tape. I wanted to do it but they said there are no mirrors in this insane place.”

My minute was up. No more stalling. “Yes, by the king’s order,” I said, forcing out each word. “He doesn’t want to see that he’s turning into a tiger.”

Everson’s eyes flew to mine. “Chorda?” At my nod he sat back heavily against the pen wall. “That’s why they’re all scared of him. All except Omar.”

“Omar is dead,” I said and then softened my voice. “So is Cosmo.”

“What? No. I just saw him. He …” Everson’s words trailed off and for a moment we just stared at each other. “He’s dead?”

My eyes felt dry and hot as I nodded. Everson seemed as if he was about to say something but then he bowed his head and laced his fingers behind his neck. “How?”

I told him all that had happened since we’d separated outside the compound fence — what the queen did to Cosmo’s mother and how the handlers beat the little boy to death. I had to pause, breathe deep, and swallow. The memory of him clutching the queen’s cape, crying and moaning “Mom,” cracked my heart all over again. I took satisfaction in describing how Rafe had knifed Omar — vicious satisfaction — which was lessened only by the wish that it had been me.

Everson glanced up as if surprised by my tone. “Where’s Rafe now?”

“Chorda had him taken to the zoo. We have to get him out.”

“The handlers’ barracks are there in the zoo. And the hyboars have free run of the place.” He met my gaze. “We’ll get Rafe, but we don’t have a lot of time. I used a ham radio in the barracks to call Arsenal. The captain agreed to send a ’copter to pick us up from the Cultural Center roof at nine. They’ll drop a ladder, but they can’t land.”

I nodded, knowing the law.

He paused. “Did Chorda bite him?”

“No.”

“Okay.” He inhaled deeply. “We need to get the key from one of the handlers.” Grasping the pen wall, he hauled himself up.

I rose as well and the ache in my calf surged, threatening to swallow me whole. We weren’t exactly in great shape to run three miles to the zoo and back. “I already did.” I lifted the key from my neckline to show him. “Cosmo said that Omar had the master key, so I took it off the body in the —” I clapped a hand to my mouth. How could I have forgotten? “Follow me!”

I led Everson through the sewing room and into the walk-in freezer. Ignoring Omar’s frozen corpse, I crossed to the back shelf and flipped open the metal box.

Everson grew very still. “Are those what I think?”

“I don’t know how many different strains are in here or which ones, but there’s more than eighteen. There should be some that you don’t have.”

“You’re amazing.” He swept me up in a hug and again brought his mouth to mine. His lips were as warm and as sweetly demanding as before, but the kiss wasn’t nearly long enough. When he set me back on my feet, I suppressed a sigh.