Hope (Book 2, Harvester of Light Trilogy; Young Adult Science Fiction) (21 page)

The humans around
me gasped but the harvesters nodded in agreement with my decision.

“There is no
choice,” the woman said, handing her daughter’s hand to a man standing beside. 
“Take me.”

“No!, Take me,”
the man holding Lucy begged, presumably her father.

“Let me go,
Gavin,” the woman said.  “You know it won’t be long before they come for me
anyway.  I’m almost too old to have any more babies.  You need to stay and
raise Lucy.  Prepare her for her life as a breeder.”

The man sobbed as
he hugged his wife.  The tears he shed seemed pointless to me.  Only the woman
was thinking logically.  Her time was up.  At least she had the nerve to face
it with some sort of dignity.

The guards seized
the woman dragging her away from her family and towards the hospital entrance.

Lucy began
screaming again for her mother but her father picked her up and walked away as
quickly as he could knowing I could have both their lives in a second if I so
chose.

“I hate you!” the
little girl yelled at me, tears of anguish streaming down her face.  “I hate
you!”

I felt Walsh come
to stand beside me.

“Seemed like a
fair trade to me,” he said nonchalantly.  “Though I think your mother would
have just harvested them all.”

“We have to
prepare for the future,” I told him.  “She’ll make a good breeder one day.  She
has the strength to make it.”

“Would you still
like a tour of the facility?”

“No,” I said.  “I
think I would rather go see my mother now.  Do you know where she is?”

“Yes, she’s still
at her residence.  She’s been keeping a close eye on Zoe’s progress.  The
babies are almost ready to be birthed.”

“Take me there.”

Chapter
21

After we pulled up
to my mother’s mansion, I told Walsh he could leave.  He seemed relieved by the
order.  I got the feeling most harvesters feared my mother more than they
adored her.  In the grand scheme of things, it really didn’t matter which way
they felt as long as obeyed her every command and never asked questions.

When I walked into
the house, I heard someone singing.  I followed the sound to the same room I
first saw Ash and Zoe in the night before.  Ash was sitting on the chaise
lounge with Zoe’s head lying in his lap with her eyes closed.  Tenderly, Ash
combed his fingers through her long curly locks and sang a lullaby I often
heard his mother sing to him, but the words were slightly changed:

Hush, little
baby, don't say a word,

Papa's going to
buy you a mockingbird.

If that
mockingbird won't sing

Papa's going to
buy you a
diamond ring
…

 “Do you think
she’ll let us keep the babies if they don’t have powers like ours?” Zoe asked
while Ash hummed the rest of the tune.

“I don’t know,” he
said, although I knew him well enough to know he was lying.  He just didn’t
want to upset Zoe.  “I’m not sure what she’ll do.”

“Maybe we can get
Skye to help us.”

“I don’t think
Skye will.  Not unless we can find a way to make her human again.”

“What about the
Cain virus?  Do you think that would change her back?”

“I don’t think
that will work on her, Zo.  She’s the cure, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” Zoe
sighed.  “I seem to be forgetting a lot of things lately.”

“Your hormones are
all out of whack,” Ash said.  “But don’t worry, you’re just temporarily
senile.”

Zoe’s eyes flew
open and she hit Ash on the arm.  Ash just laughed.

“He’s right,” I
said, purposely interrupting their small, intimate moment by making my presence
known as I stepped into the room.  “Your elevated hormones are affecting your
memory.  Read about it in a book once.”

“Skye!” Zoe tried
to lift herself up but Ash made her stay still.

“You know what
Lucena said,” Ash scolded her gently.  “You need to be still or the babies will
come before they’re ready.”

Zoe held out her
hand to me beckoning me to come closer.

I stayed as still
as a statue.

“I came to see my
mother,” I said, directing my question to Ash while I tried to ignore the hurt look
on Zoe’s face.  “Do you know where she is?”

“Haven’t seen
her,” Ash answered, his voice distant as he looked at me.

I turned to leave
but heard Zoe say, “Skye, please don’t go.”

I was just about
to step away when Ash said, “Don’t bother, Zoe.  She’s not our Skye anymore. 
All she cares about is herself.”

I made an about
face and walked a little further into the room.

Ash smirked seeing
that his ploy worked.  I ignored him and finally let my eyes take in the full
extent of Zoe’s condition.

“You’re huge,” I
said, finding myself unable to pull my eyes away from Zoe’s distended belly.  “You’re
even larger than you were last night.  You look like you’re about ready to
pop.”

“That’s about how
I feel,” Zoe smiled at me uncertainly.  “Skye, would you help me sit up.  I
need to go to the bathroom.”

“Again?” Ash
said.  “You just went thirty minutes ago.”

“When you have
three babies pushing on your bladder you can complain,” Zoe replied irritably. 
“Until that miracle day happens just help me.”

Ash pushed Zoe up
while I pulled her arms.

“Oww, Skye!” Zoe
said.  “Don’t pull so hard.”

“Harvester
strength,” I replied, feeling like I needed to apologize for some odd reason. 
I was the one helping her out, not the other way around.  I did, however, make
an effort to not pull on her arms quite so hard.

“Ring the bell,
Ash,” Zoe said as I helped her sit in a wheelchair parked at the end of the
lounge.

“I can take you,”
Ash replied, making to get up.

“I am not about to
let you help me go to the bathroom,” Zoe said with a roll of her eyes.  “Just
ring the damn bell and get the maids in here to help me.”

“Such language,” I
admonished.  “You know I read babies can hear everything you say while they’re
inside the womb.”

Zoe looked alarmed
for a second then rubbed her belly soothingly.

“I’m sorry little
ones,” she crooned.  “But Daddy makes Mommy very mad when he doesn’t do what
she wants.”

Ash chuckled. 
“Why do you always believe what Skye tells you?”

“Because she
always tells me the truth.”  Zoe looked at me with complete trust.  “Right,
Skye?”

I felt the ice
encapsulating my heart crack ever so slightly with Zoe’s desire to be able to
trust me like she always had.  I was more than just a friend to her.  I was her
sister and mother all rolled up into one person.  When two maids came to wheel
her away to the bathroom, I felt relieved I didn’t have to give an answer to her
question.

“Wait until I come
back before you leave,” Zoe called over her shoulder to me as she was wheeled
out of the room.

She was out of
sight before I could make a reply.

“She loves you,”
Ash said behind me, bringing my attention back to him.

His tousled hair
and rumpled clothing told me Ash hadn’t slept much in the past few days.  A
fine growth of hair covered his lower jaw giving him a wild, manly look
awakening the only primal need I hadn’t been able to satisfy since becoming a
harvester. 

“And what about
you?” I asked, slowly unbuttoning my coat while walking towards him.  “Do you
still love me?”

“I’ll always love
you,” Ash said, looking me up and down warily as I approached him.  “You know
that,” he replied with just enough hoarseness to his voice for me to know I was
provoking the right response.

I let my coat slip
from my shoulders and fall to the floor behind me.  I crouched down between
Ash’s legs and let my hands slowly glide up his thighs. 

“What are you
doing, Skye?” Ash asked, his breathing faster than before.

“What you’ve
always wanted me to do,” I said, rubbing the inside of his thighs in a slow
rhythmic motion.

“Why?”

My hands stopped
moving.  I looked up at him.

“Why not?  I know
you want me,” I said cupping one hand over the proof of his arousal.

“No,” he said,
pushing my hands away from him.  “I don’t want you.  Not like this.  Not here. 
The Skye I love would never do this.”

“What is it with
you and Jace?” I said angrily, standing to my full height.  “Neither of you
seem to be man enough to take what you want even when it’s offered to you.”

“That’s because we
both love you and you’re not yourself right now.”

“No, I’m better.”

“No.  You’re not. 
You just think you are.”

“Whatever, Ash. 
Maybe you’re just a coward.  You had me alone for five years and never in all
that time did you tell me how you really felt about me.  Even when I asked you
to kiss me on my sixteenth birthday, you couldn’t find the balls to kiss me
like a man.”

“It wasn’t the
right time,” Ash said, the excuse sounding lame.

“Just like now
isn’t the right time?  Aren’t you tired of using that as a cop-out?  Maybe I
should just tear your heart out with my bare hands and end your cowardly life.”

“Then do it Skye
because you’re tearing my heart to pieces anyway.  It’s killing me to see what
she’s made you into.”

“She’s made me
into a god,” I hissed.  “I’ll live forever while you’ll just rot away into
nothingness.”

Ash shook his
head.  “You know what’s sad, Skye?  You were more when you were human than you
are now.  You had people who truly cared about you then.  Who really loved you
and would risk their lives to protect you.”

“I have an army of
harvesters to protect me now.  I don’t need you.  I don’t need any of you
anymore.”

“Skye,” I heard
Zoe’s small voice say behind me, “you can’t mean that...”

I turned to face
Zoe sitting in the wheelchair near the entrance of the room looking like the
goddess of innocence.  I snatched my coat off the floor and stormed up to her. 
Bracing my hands on each armrest of her chair, I leaned down until my face was
just inches from hers.  Tears fell from Zoe’s eyes as if on cue.

“Listen to me
carefully,” I told her.  “I’ll even say it slow so your little human mind can
comprehend what I’m about to tell you.  I – do- not – need - you.  I – do - not
– love - you.  The sooner you
die
the happier I’ll be.”

I shoved Zoe’s
chair away from me causing it fly into the corner a few feet behind her and
stormed out of the room. 

I rolled my eyes
as I heard Zoe begin to cry like there was no tomorrow.  How someone could weep
so much I had no idea.  Tears were a waste of energy over empty sentiment.

“Skye…”

I looked up to the
second floor landing and saw my mother standing there having obviously
witnessed the altercation.  A hint of a smile played across her lips.

“Could you come up
here for a moment?” She asked.

In less than 10 seconds
I was by her side.

“Come with me,”
she said, looping an arm around one of mine.  “I have something I would like to
show you.”

We walked to one
end of the hallway and entered what appeared to be my mother’s study.

“How was your
night?” She asked me, motioning for me to take a seat in a brown leather chair in
front of her desk.

“It was fine,” I
told her, not mentioning the time tripping events with my future self.  I
wasn’t sure why I was holding back such vital information but didn’t see how
telling her would do anything but upset her.

“How did you like
my gift?  I heard you picked Grant.”

“Thank you for
thinking of me.  He was fine.”

“Did Grace and
Mary Anne serve you well?”

“Yes,” I said
hesitantly, something my mother picked right up on.

“What’s wrong? 
You can tell me if they did something you didn’t like.”

“It’s not that
they did anything wrong,” I admitted.  “It’s just that I don’t understand why you
keep Grace around.”

“Oh,” my mother
smiled in understanding, “you mean the smell?”

“Yes.  How can you
stand it?”

“Grace has been
with me since I was a little girl.  She was one of the few people I could fully
depend on.  I guess I’ve just gotten used to her company.”

“Do you love her?”

My mother seemed
caught off guard by the question but quickly reclaimed her composure.

“Of course not. 
She’s just a human.”

A silence hung in
the air between us.  I wasn’t sure where to take the conversation from there. 
Thankfully I didn’t have to.

My mother stood
from behind her desk and walked to a wall with a framed painting of a group of
ballet dancers.

“Come here, I
would like to share something with you.”

As I walked over,
my mother touched the picture and it was instantly transformed into a map, the
painting had simply been a hologram.  It was similar to the old map Ash and I
used during our travels but this one didn’t include the west side of the United
States.  It only showed a small circular section of what was once called America
encompassing the east central part of the country.

“Is this what’s
left of the world?” I asked.

“Yes.  It’s all I was
able to save with the shield.”

“Where is the
machine that runs the shield?”

My mother looked
at me and smiled.  “Good question.  It’s right here,” she said pointing to a
town in Kentucky.  “You and I are the only ones who know its location now.”

“What about the
people who helped you build it?”

“I killed them.  I
couldn’t risk anyone else knowing its whereabouts.”

“Who maintains
it?”

“I left the two
mechanical engineers who designed it there.  They make sure things stay working.”

“Do you have a
back up plan?” I asked.  “Machines usually break beyond repair at some point. 
It won’t last forever.”