A Hidden Element (22 page)

"How do you stand it?"

"That pain is fleeting. It does not fester and live on like other kinds of pain."

And then it was clear. Caleb had children.

"Your children?"

He nodded. "Twin sons."

His two reasons. Twins. Like she had once been. "Where are they?"

"Being raised by a community of women in another part of the compound."

"Do you ever see them?"

"Just in passing in the courtyard and at meals. When they become older I may be allowed to train them. Someday I imagine being with them, in another place but…"

She couldn't fathom his pain. She kissed Benny's head, not bearing to say goodbye. She would come back for him.

Help me, Caleb. Help me, escape. Get me to Ben.

He didn't answer, just looked at the women nursing. They stared at her.

"It's time to return to your room, Laura."

She placed Benny back in his crib, so small and helpless. It took every effort to turn and leave him behind.

She followed Caleb back to her room. His wide frame covered the hallway. Charlie would grow as big as him soon.

Caleb opened her door and stood in the doorway. She reached up to hug him.
Help us escape.
She squeezed him harder.
I know you're good inside. Help me get Benny and Charlie and Ben.

I used your belt, Laura.

She drew in a sharp breath.
Did you travel to Elyon?

Yes.

What did you see?

Nothing and no one.

No building? No ship maybe?
I saw…something.

Only an empty land.

She let out a defeated breath
. Perhaps they really are all dead.

Or perhaps they're on their way here—now.

Her heart jumped with the thought.

Caleb took her hands then, so big and warm. He slipped a square folded piece of paper into her palm. He squeezed his hand over hers. "I must lock you in now."

I'll set you free tonight, Laura.
Work on your powers. Be ready.

His words filled her mind.

Then screams shattered the quiet.

Caleb took a step back and slammed her door. The lock clicked in place.

She pounded on it. "Caleb!"

But all she heard was his footsteps running away and the wrenching screams of someone being tortured.

Adrian was in a foul mood.

He knelt and looked at the perfect bottom that faced him waiting for his mount. He still couldn't make himself rise to the occasion. This was the third attempt at relieving himself. His frustration boiled inside. He needed release and the female was prime for fertilization. He moved into her. She pushed back into him eagerly. He squeezed her hips, she moaned, and he grew to full length. He pushed between her thighs. Her entrance waited, glistening like a pearl to be treasured. He pushed in and instantly shrunk. He yelled and pushed her away.

Her head twisted around, eyes wide with fear.

"You can't arouse me, wench. What good are you for breeding?"

She put her head down. "I'm sorry. This can happen with the elder males. I've birthed many children. I'll do better."

Adrian straddled her. "You think
I
am a weak, old male?"

"No—no. I didn't mean that. Let me help you."

A dark film descended over his vision. "Help
me
?"

The body beneath him swam in a blur of water. He was in the well again of his father's making and this female made him weak with her lush body taunting him—as the moon above had once taunted him, as Manta had taunted him with her leaving and infidelity.

There was no escape then for his being weak, and there was no escape now from his body's failings. The female had to suffer, as he had suffered, to become strong.

"Your body disobeys me, female," he whispered in her ear. "I pour out my vengeance upon those who refuse to obey me. Now it is yours."

His hands closed around her throat. A wild need for release overtook him.

"Writhe and groan in your terrible pain! You are exiled from my land."

The female bucked beneath him, her screams garbled. He plummeted into pure bliss and ravished the dark depths he coveted. He bit with primeval hunger as he had been bitten long ago in that cold well. The water flowed around him as it once had, and he tore into what was his to now devour. Howling in ecstasy, he slid in glory amongst the crimson waves.

Panting, he pulled his head up. The water he held the female under cleared. He stared in horror at what he had done. She sprawled unmoving before him. Her skin shredded from his raging feast. He fell back, his chest slick with blood. He licked his lips, tasted her, then leaned over and threw up. He had killed them in a rage before but never this. His crime would be found out. How could he cover this up?

Manta's trembling bloody body flashed before his eyes.

Thunder crashed at his door. "Father, let me in. I heard screams. Who's in there?"

"Go away," Adrian mumbled, weak from his outburst. He looked away from the female, sure he would be sick again.

The door burst open. He squinted in the harsh hallway light. Caleb's face appeared. "Father, what have you done?" He knelt to the female, felt her body, and listened to her chest. He pulled away, his robe smeared with red. "You killed her."

"She challenged me!"

"Killed her," Caleb repeated. "Like a wild animal."

"You would have done the same. We are the same. Admit it."

Caleb shook his head. "Never." He closed his eyes and placed his hands on her.

Feet slammed along the hallway. Shocked faces stood in the doorway.

"We heard screams. Brother Adrian, are you all right?"

Tollen and the brothers stood over him, realization dawning on their shocked faces. They dragged him and Caleb up and held them, staring at the murder scene.

"No, let me help her!" Caleb tried to twist away from his captors.

"It's too late to save her," Tollen said coldly. "You and your father killed her."

Adrian wiped his mouth and his legs shook. His rage had depleted his energy. "She made me do this."

One of the elders bent down to the female. "Yes, she's dead."

Tollen crossed his arms and smirked at Adrian. "Even you cannot escape such a crime, Brother Adrian. You are a savage beast and must pay. And Caleb. I didn't expect this from you."

"I just got here. I found this," Caleb said. "Let me heal her!"

"Her blood soaking you speaks otherwise. You can't save the dead." Tollen tipped his head to the others. "Take both Madrocs here to a cell."

Caleb struggled against the elders as they held him back. "No. It wasn't me. I can save her!"

"Traitor," Adrian screamed. "You'll be the downfall of us all." He lunged at Caleb, but his son jerked away and the elders' grip tightened. "The well awaits, Son. It will serve you well—as it served me, as it served your mother."

"No one serves you," Tollen said and shoved him back.

"Put my son in the well, Brothers. Kill his weakness. His mother was weak, like him. I made sure death came for her. Let it come for him."

Caleb grabbed his arm. "You murdered my mother."

"She deserved it. A traitor, like you."

"You led the search party. You let me find her." Caleb's voice rose.

"Not pretty in death was she?"

Caleb's fingers pressed hard into his arm. The elders pried them apart.

"And your death won't be pretty either, Son."

"You can't kill me, Father."

"Enough of this family spat," Tollen said. "You'll both be silenced soon."

"Brother Tollen, ask him about the bodies in the bog," Caleb said in a deep shaken voice.

"The females taunted me," his father screamed. "Don't you see? They needed to be punished. They are weak. All of them. I am not. I am the strong one. You'll see."

"No,
you'll see
, Adrian. You took matters into your own hands,
Brother
," Tollen said. "What you've done was not a sanctioned punishment. Nor other crimes you may have committed."

"Like killing Manta—and your unborn son?" It felt so good to say it out loud. Vengeance flowed through him like wine to a drunkard.

Tollen took a step back, steadied himself with one hand on the corridor wall. "My son?"

"She told me. It was yours."

"No."

Adrian laughed. "Yes. She wasn't supposed to be at the lab when it exploded. We were together. But when she told me she was pregnant with your child, I punished her. Plundered her body of betrayal. Tore into her like a feast!" He laughed and laughed as Tollen's face became cracked armor. "I left and so did she, to go to work and erase her punishment. But her punishment wasn't over. Death came for her that day. I made it so!"

Tollen's fist came fast and hard. No mind probe for him, only a rock to his face with the full force of hate behind it. Pain flashed and blood flew from his nose as he fell on the concrete floor. Again and again his enemy's fist battered him, until the others pulled him away.

"Take him to a cell and guard him," Tollen said, his usual calm voice quaking with rage. "Tomorrow he will answer to the flock. Caleb, we'll deal with you now."

Adrian swayed as his people yanked him up. "I'll bend down the heavens and rescue you all! I'll deliver you from the power of our enemies."

"There are no enemies, Father, but yourself," Caleb said. "And we will rescue ourselves from you."

No!
His son was wrong. "The mountains will smoke beneath my touch. I shall let loose my lightning bolts like arrows and scatter humans to the ends of the Earth." He raged against the arms that held him, but the elders held him tight.

"Deliver me from evil men," Caleb shouted at him as they led him away. "Preserve me from the violent, which plot and stir up trouble. Their words and actions sting like poisonous snakes. Keep me out of their power. Throw them into deep pits from which they cannot escape!" Caleb's words followed him as they dragged him away like a dog to be punished. "And then you will be destroyed, Father, by the very evil you planned for me!"

He could not be destroyed. Yet Adrian looked into the future now and saw himself as a mere ghost and the shadows of his people behind him. He had used hate to squelch his weakness, but had he doomed himself to lose Laura? She and her sons were his destiny. They would take his pain away. But he still had to face his people. Would they turn against him or stand with him?

If he were to be with Laura he had to win them over.

The screams stopped.

Laura unfolded the note Caleb gave her. It was a hand drawn map of the compound laid out in detail. There was her room, Charlie's room, Adrian's room, and the nursery. Caleb had put a key with the number of steps between the major gathering places. There were several sleeping quarters with hundreds of barrack-style beds as well as single rooms, three eating areas, a kitchen, a storage area, a courtyard, a garage, a training arena, and the sanctuary.

Caleb's sorrow struck her then as she gripped the map. His memories were etched into the paper he had passed on to her. His pain and emptiness. And love. He had so much love inside him to give away. His heart overflowed with it. He saved it for his sons. His face appeared before her. He grimaced in pain with each strike of a whip. His torso jerked with the fiery lashes.

She flinched trying to shut out the vision. The whip disappeared and his naked body bent in beauty. His back rippled with the grace of a swimmer pushing toward a distant shore. He moved between the legs of a woman who moaned with desire. He loved her like the gentle giant Laura had witnessed. Then his pleasure melted away and he knelt by his bed sending a prayer up to be with his sons.

She shook away the visions to study the map again. There at the bottom of it, marked in red near the kitchen, was a tunnel. Adrian's secret underground tunnel. Caleb wrote that he had found it years ago. Adrian must have planned for an escape at some point if he needed it. According to the map, it traveled under the compound to a place called the whipping shack and then far out into the woods. The key estimated it to end a half a mile away from the compound. It must have taken a lot of time and effort for Adrian to create such a long escape route with his powers, unseen and unheard from the community. And now, with a sense of justice, it would be her family's road to survival.

Shouts and yells distracted her from the map and she shoved it in her robe pocket, waiting for her door to burst open. It never did and the sounds faded away. She wondered where Caleb had run off to and what horrible things had been done to that person to cause them to scream in such pain.

She pulled out the note again and flipped it over. In neat, block handwriting Caleb's note read:

Lovely Laura, I will persuade Charlie to leave with us tonight. I'll unlock your door with my powers, lead you to the escape tunnel, and show you where to get Ben. At the end of the tunnel Adrian has a vehicle in hiding you can escape with. Keep hope alive. You'll see Ben soon. If anything happens and I do not appear, do whatever you can to escape. Yours in service, Caleb.

His words
Lovely Laura
and
Yours in service
resonated in her mind. He was a kind soul who did not belong in this place.

Her pulse raced thinking about what lay ahead. Silence hung over the compound. She breathed deep. She needed to practice her powers. New energy pulsed through her. And joy over Ben being alive and being with him soon.

She stood tall and ran her hands over her body, trim and strong again. She held her hands out and moved her mind to the few objects in her spartan room—a chair, a jug of water, and a glass. At first they quivered and then hovered in the air. She closed her eyes, confidence growing. Sweat gathered in the arch of her back.

She worked into the night. She needed to undo the lock herself.

She set herself a goal to do it before the bell tolled two.

Ben woke up again. The dark encased him like a safe refuge. If he wanted to live he had to leave. Caleb wasn't coming back. Something was wrong. He shivered. It had grown colder. He had no idea how long he had been dozing. His legs throbbed. He bent his knees and flexed his feet. He had to find help. Save his family. Urgency screamed inside him.

Laura, speak to me.
But none of her words came to him.

He would die for her now as he had sworn long ago. She had all the human elements that mattered.

I was lost before you, Laura. You and Charlie keep me found. I don't want to be lost again.

He saw her clear in his mind stretched out by the firelight as he had their first night together. He watched her then as shadows leapt over her curves in a wild dance, her chestnut hair flowing like burnished gold before him. They connected in pain and need, and he didn't want to leave her that night—or ever. But she had set him free with one word.
Stay.
And he had.

He knelt now and reached his hand out to steady himself. Wet earth crumbled in his fingers. He pulled himself up on the rungs. His head hit the wooden door above. In disorientation, his legs trembled and he fell. He pulled himself up again and braced his hands on the wood. He waited, listening for movement. No light shone down. Wind howled above him.