Hope (Book 2, Harvester of Light Trilogy; Young Adult Science Fiction) (14 page)

“Get out there and
find out what’s happened!” The Queen ordered.

The doctor and
nurses rushed from the room to do as their Queen asked instantly transforming them
from medical personnel into her own personal strike force team.

Guttural cries of
pain and the staccato drum of gun fire could be heard coming from the direction
of the corridor outside the laboratory.

I tried to move my
legs but they felt as limp as noodles.

The Queen put her
arms underneath my back and knees, easily picking me up.  I felt too light
headed to ask where we were going and to be honest I simply lacked the will to
care. 

The Queen walked
out of the surgery room towards the main glass double doors except there wasn’t
any glass in the doors now, only empty steel casings.  Somewhere in the back of
my mind I wondered why the Queen wasn’t trying to find an alternate route of
escape instead of diving head first into the mayhem.  The only logical
explanation was there
was
no other way out.

The sounds of
fighting and the strong stench of blood mixed with gun powder enticed my
curiosity enough to force me to lift my head off the Queen’s shoulder and
discover for myself what was happening in the hallway.

Smoke and dust
floated in the air around us visually blocking off what was happening further
down the hallway.  Shots were still being fired and a ringing sound like metal
hitting stone echoed against the walls.  Suddenly, through the chaos of the
battle, the figure of a man emerged.

His silhouette was
tall, almost six feet.  He was slim but his upper torso seemed well built from
the swagger of his gait.  As he came closer, I saw a sword in one of his hands
and a pistol in the other one, both glistened with blood which didn’t seem to be
his.

He stopped ten
feet away from us staring straight at the Queen with a gaze only someone who
truly knows you and hates what you are can give.

“Michael,” the Queen
said knowingly. “I guess I should have expected this treachery from you but
quite frankly I didn’t think you had the balls.”

“Put the girl
down,” the man ordered.

“Or what?  You’ll
kill me?” the Queen taunted.  “We both know you won’t do that.”

“Put the girl down
and I’ll let you go unscathed.”

“Get out of my
way, Michael.”

Michael stood his
ground, daring the Queen to try and walk past him.

Another figure raced
out of the smoke.  This one I recognized, Jace.  I knew I should feel happy,
even relieved to see him, but I felt nothing but mild curiosity on what part he
had played in the chaos surrounding us.

Blood splattered
the white shirt he wore, but I had a feeling none of it belonged to him.

“Grab the girl,”
Michael told Jace.

Without any other
warning, Michael held out his pistol and shot straight at us three times.  The Queen
whirled around shielding me from the spray of bullets with her own body.  Her
grip on me loosened as she slowly crumpled to the ground onto her knees.  I
felt a pair of strong arms lift me out of the Queen’s protective hold.

“I’ve got you,”
Jace said to me like the words should be a relief to me.

I looked down at
my Queen and saw her kneeling on the cold white tiled floor trying to catch her
breath as though she had merely had the wind knocked out of her not been shot
three times in the back.

“Take the girl and
do what my men tell you to do.  They’ll lead you out of here safely.  You have
my word,” Michael said to Jace as he grabbed a handful of the Queen’s hair,
yanking her head back forcing her to look at him.

“Why should I
trust you?” Jace asked.

Michael looked
from the Queen to Jace.  “Because I owe your mother a debt.  Now go!”

The Queen began to
laugh.  “Aren’t you going to tell him the whole truth Michael?”

“Shut your mouth.”
Michael shoved the barrel of his gun between the Queen’s lips which only seemed
to amuse her.

“What is she
talking about?  What truth?”

“Get the girl out
first and then we can talk,” Michael said to Jace.  “Her safety is your first
priority.”

Jace tightened his
arms around me and ran back down the hallway.  I strained to look over Jace’s
shoulder to see what Michael was doing  to the Queen but the smoke and dust in
the hallway soon enveloped us making it impossible to see anything but what lay
immediately around us.  I wanted to scream and tell Jace to take me back to my Queen
but knew it would be useless and a waste of energy.  I would have to bide my
time until I was stronger.  Then I would make Michael pay for the humiliation
the Queen was suffering through by his hands.  If he killed her, I would make
sure his death wasn’t an easy one.

As we walked down
the hallway, I saw headless corpses of my surgical team lying haphazardly
across the floor.  The only reason I knew who they were was because of the
white surgical robes their bodies still wore.  Other corpses were scattered at
our feet forcing Jace to walk over them, some were dressed in harvester
uniforms and some wore regular human clothes.  We passed a couple of people in
the hallway who seemed to be planted there in order to instruct Jace how to
escape the sub-basement.  Each one told him to keep going.  Finally, we reached
a short burly man standing by a large hole in the wall of the hallway.

“Go through the
tunnel, boy,” the man said gruffly, handing me a flashlight with one pudgy
hand.

“Where is this
going to take us?” Jace asked as I lit the interior of the tunnel to find a
hole large enough for us to walk through.

“Does it matter?”

Jace seemed to
consider the question for a second before answering, “No, I guess it doesn’t.”

The floor of the
tunnel was uneven and the dirt loose making it hard for Jace to walk down it
smoothly.  I tried to keep the beam of the flashlight pointed straight ahead a
few paces in front of us. 

“Were you able to
heal yourself before the chip was activated?”

“I tried.”

Jace stopped walking. 
“Skye, look at me.”

I did what he
asked and saw the worry on his face but I didn’t see how it was my problem.

“We’ll find a way
to fix you,” Jace promised.  Even in the dim light given off by the flashlight,
I could see unshed tears in his eyes and knew he was upset by my
transformation.  The old me would have wrapped my arms around him and tried to comfort
him but now I felt no need to do such a thing.  He was simply showing weakness
caused by his human emotions.

I looked away,
pointing the flashlight further down the tunnel.

“We should go,” I
said, not wanting to have to deal with his over exaggerated sense of loss.

I heard Jace sniff
and knew the tears he shed for me were born from love, but I honestly just
wanted him to get over it and find the end of the tunnel so I could prepare for
what lay ahead.

After Jace began
to walk again I asked, “Who were those people?

“I don’t know. 
I’ve never seen them before.”

“The man said he
knew your mother.  I didn’t realize she was still alive.”

“She isn’t. 
Lucena said she died giving birth to me.”

I looked at Jace. 
“Do you believe that?  Do you think she’s really dead?  I thought Emma
Blackwell was dead too but I was wrong.”

“I suppose she
could still be alive but something in my heart tells me Lucena didn’t lie about
that.  I can’t explain it, but I’m certain she’s dead.”

A faint natural
light marked the end of the tunnel ahead of us.  When we stepped into the outside
world, a handful of people were waiting for us with their guns drawn and swords
hanging by their sides. 

A woman with short
raven black hair stepped forward holstering her weapon.

“Put your guns away
boys.  These are the people we were sent to fetch.”

The woman turned
to us and said, “Follow me.”

We walked through
a thick thatch of woods until we came to a clearing.  The woman signaled us
with a clinched fist indicating we should come to a halt.

“Why are we
stopping?” Jace asked.

The woman held up
her index finger like she was telling Jace to wait for something.  In the
distance, I could hear the distinctive sound of a helicopter’s blades chopping
the air.  In a matter of seconds, a black hawk helicopter landed in the
clearing.

The door in the
middle of the helicopter slid open and Michael stepped out frantically waving
us forward.

The raven haired
woman silently disappeared back into the woods without a word of parting.

Before I knew it,
Jace and I were sitting side by side in the helicopter with Michael sitting directly
across from us.

After we lifted
off the ground, Jace asked, “Where are you taking us?”

“To our base of
operations,” Michael said.

“Which is where
exactly?”

Michael shook his
head.  “The less you know about where it is the better.”

“You don’t trust
me?”

“No, I don’t trust
Lucena.  If she ever got her hands on you, she would know where we are hiding
out and after what I’ve just done, her finding me isn’t something I want to
happen just yet.”

“Why did you come
for us?” Jace asked.

Michael looked at
Jace as he contemplated the question.

“Like I said
before, I knew your mother.  She wouldn’t have wanted you working for Lucena. 
It would have broken her heart.”

“So was it me you
came for?”  Jace asked.

“Mostly,” Michael
turned his attention to me.  “You, little lady, were just icing on the cake. 
We didn’t know you would be there when we first started digging the tunnel.”
Michael looked back at Jace.  “Plus, I knew you wouldn’t leave without the
girl.  I’ve heard the rumors about the two of you.”

“And what do the
rumors say?” I asked out of curiosity.

Michael grinned.  “Just
a little something about shirts being left behind in a hallway.”

The old me would
have blushed at the reminder of my reunion with Jace but the new me didn’t feel
anything but a want to finish what Jace and I had started in that hallway.  I
looked over at Jace and noticed the heightened color of his cheeks.  I let my
eyes travel down the length of him wondering what it would feel like to have
sex with him.  A burning need suddenly ignited in the pit of my stomach.       

“After we get to
the base, I’ll tell you anything you want to know but right now I’m so tired
I’m not sure how coherent I would be.  Rest might not be a bad idea for the two
or you either,” Michael said, leaning back in his seat and crossing his legs at
the ankles before closing his eyes.  “It’ll be a while before we land.”

With Michael
giving himself an excuse to not provide anymore information, Jace turned his
attention to me.

“Are you feeling
any better?” He asked me.

“I have feeling in
my legs now.”

“Are you feeling
anything else?”

“Yes,” I said
looking at him without trying to disguise the fact I physically wanted him.

Jace looked
confused.     

“Maybe we should
take Michael’s advice and get some rest before we get to where we’re going,” he
said.  “You just had your brain cut into.  You’re body needs some time to
recover.”

“Sleep isn’t what
I want,” I said, laying a possessive hand against the top of his thigh and
slowly inching my way down between his legs.

Jace looked at my
hand and back up to me.  “What are you doing?”

“What do you think
I’m doing?” I asked leaning towards him.  “I know you want me too.”

Jace shook his
head.  “Not like this.  After we figure out how to deactivate the chip, we can
talk about what we both want but having you while your still a harvester isn’t
really having you, not the real you.”

“A bit prudish of
you isn’t it?  Considering what almost happened back at the Queen’s castle.  Or
have you forgotten how close we came to having sex then?”    

“No,” Jace said
patiently.  “I haven’t.  But you were you then, not a harvester.  As a
harvester, all you’re capable of feeling is lust and anger because they’re the
most primal human emotions.  That’s the only reason you’re acting this way.”

“I bet Ash
wouldn’t be so holier than though about it.  He’d take me to bed without asking
any questions.”

“I think you’re
wrong,” Jace said confidently.  “If he truly does love you, he wouldn’t let you
give yourself to him the way you are now either.”

I sat back in my
seat feeling angry at Jace.  “You’re not the only two men I have to choose
from.  I’m sure I can find a real man to do the job if I have to.”

“No, you won’t,”
Jace’s statement was absolute.  “I’ll kill anyone who tries to lay a hand on
you.”

“You can’t kill
every man I invite into my bed.  Just because you’ve taken the moral high
ground doesn’t mean everyone will.  I’m offering myself to you first.  It’s not
my fault you won’t accept.”

Jace leaned
forward.  “I won’t do it because I love you, Skye.  And this,” he said raking
his eyes over me, “is not you.  I told you I won’t share your heart with Ash,
but I also won’t share your body with that chip in your head.”

“What if this is
all I’ll ever be?  If you love me so much, why not bed me?”

“Because I want
the real you and trust me this isn’t it.”

“Because you’ve
seen my future?” I scoffed.  “Just how do you plan to undo what the Queen has
made me into?”

“I’m not sure
yet,” Jace admitted.  “But I know you’ll be human again and that person is
worth waiting for.”  Jace leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.  I
watched him and knew he wasn’t sleeping.  I suppose it was easier for him to
shut me out by not having to look at me.

One thing he said
was right, lust and anger were primal emotions.  Ones I didn’t want to stop
feeling because not feeling anything was worse.  I knew what I wanted now.  It
was just a matter of finding the right time and using a little persuasion to
get it.