Marie's Journey (Ginecean Chronicles) (25 page)

“I want to kill that woman—”

“Get in line.”

Marie was too tired to keep listening and so she went to sleep again.

“Marie? You’re scaring me. You should be awake by now.”

That voice she liked so much.

“Marie? Please, wake up.”

She heard the pleading and tried to open her eyes, but they were so heavy and she wanted to rest some more. She hadn’t rested in years.

“You must do something! This isn’t normal.”

“You saw the extent of the damage on her back.”

“Yes, but—”

“Give her time.”

She had already heard that, but her head felt full of cotton and sleeping was easier than trying to understand what those voices wanted from her.

“Marie?”

Someone interlaced their fingers with hers. Her name was repeated several times. Her hand was raised to someone’s lips and a soft kiss was laid on it.

“Look at me.”

Soft lips brushed hers.

“Look at me.”

The kiss deepened.

“Look at me.”

Grant’s voice was as soft the caresses on her face. Happiness radiated from the inside of her chest and soon filled all of her. She felt the blood pumping through her veins and her heart beat loud. Her eyes opened and he was there. No awakening had ever been so sweet.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” she tried to say but wasn’t sure she had.

His bright green eyes widened, joy suffused his face, and that told her everything she needed to know. “You scared me to death.”

“I’m here.” She had succeeded. The pain and humiliation hadn’t been for nothing. Then, the realization that she would have done it again hit her. And it was like being hit by a freight train.

He squeezed her hand and then turned to face someone. Marie saw his head had been shaved. His dark-blond mane was gone; his tan skin was marred by bruises in various stages of healing. She heard the approaching steps a moment later.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave her alone?” A curtain was drawn to the side and Luna walked into her line of sight, and as she progressed toward her, Marie saw she was in a small room, no bigger than a cubicle. Everything was white. There was only space for the bed she was lying on and the chair Grant must have used until a moment ago.

“I couldn’t.” Grant smiled at the woman.

Marie couldn’t help but notice he hadn’t broken contact. Her hand was still firmly in his. She needed that. She wanted him by her side.

Luna smiled back at him and laid a hand on his shoulder in a familiar gesture. Her eyes went on their united hands lying on the coverlet, then up to Marie’s face. “Hi, there.” She bent over her to take her free wrist in her hand. “Welcome back. How do you feel?”

She wasn’t sure.

“We made you sleep for a while. You weren’t in good shape and your body needed time to heal.” Luna sat on the bed and briefly checked her eyes. “You’re coming out of it just fine.” She stood up and patted Marie’s legs. “You should go to bed,” she said to Grant.

He shook his head. “Not now.” The hold on Marie’s hand tightened a bit.

She wasn’t ready to let him go yet either and was glad for his answer.

“Okay, but promise you’ll go to sleep soon.”

“I will.” The smile on his face dimpled and his eyes brightened.

“You’re terrible at lying.” Luna left with a chuckle.

Marie waited for them to be alone and then looked at the curtain. Grant understood her request and closed it. “Grant—” She didn’t know what was going to say. Her mind was a chaos of questions that were soon forgotten when his eyes locked with hers and he smiled.

She waited for him to sit on the chair and take her hand again. Silently, she looked at him, her eyes lingering on his scalp. In her dreams, she always passed her fingers through his hair. Still, he was handsome. Lips chapped and a long cut running from his left eyebrow down to his cheekbone, he was breathtaking.

He saw her looking at his mouth and his green eyes darkened. Then he left the chair and went to lie on the bed with her. Silence and shallow breaths. The length of his body along hers. Arms touching arms, legs touching legs. But only for a moment, as if he were deciding what to do. Then he turned to the side, propping his head on his bent arm.

His gaze on her was hypnotic. “Grant…” She couldn’t stop looking at how red his lips had become.

Something stirred behind those green eyes and he leaned over her, only to stop a few inches from her mouth. He didn’t touch her, but she felt all the oxygen contained in her lungs rushing out. Dizziness came and she welcomed it. She liked that feeling when he was close. When his lips lowered over hers one more time, she stopped breathing altogether, her heart frantically trying to escape her ribcage. He finally kissed her and tears escaped her eyes. His mouth looked for hers, at first tentatively, but her hands reached around his neck and she lowered the rest of him over her. She didn’t care that he was pushing her back against the bed. The pain was nothing compared to the ecstasy she felt at having him so close.

“You kept sleeping and I—”

She heard the words whispered in her mouth and felt the tremor in his body. He had straightened his arms and was now separated from her by a few inches. She didn’t like it and tried to pull him down, but he resisted her effort and the seriousness in his face made her desist.

“You weren’t waking, and at first, Luna didn’t let me stay, but I couldn’t stay away. I had to see you. I had to talk to you.” He took her hand still circling his neck and kissed it.

Marie tilted her head to better look at him. “I thought of you. Always. Since the first time I saw you at Redfarm.” Her thoughts had taken several forms, but she could now admit he had been in her mind from the beginning. She wasn’t sure when he had taken possession of her heart. She had tried to resist, but it had happened over time.

Grant’s mouth relaxed into a smile. “It was night and I was outside in the backyard. I saw you looking down from your window, and I hoped I could get a closer glimpse of you. I was hauling a beam to build that blasted gazebo when you walked down the stairs…”

Marie couldn’t believe he remembered. She wasn’t even sure he had seen her. Her mouth opened and then closed, unable to say anything but happy beyond reason. He had seen
her
.

“I thought of you, even then.”

The way he said it, she understood he felt guilty for that. Joy spread through her.

She must have been easy to read, because he smiled at her and then nudged her nose with his. “I looked for you when I shouldn’t have.”

“But you were angry at me all the time!” She saw him back then, defending Carnia and looking at her with disdain.

Grant hid his face between her neck and shoulders, his lips brushing the spot under her ear. “I was angry at me.”

She shivered at his kiss, half of her mind gone. “Why?” Talking didn’t come easy when her body seemed to have ideas of its own of what she should be doing instead.

“Because I wanted to see you, and Carnia needed me.” He was still whispering to her throat, which eased the pain she felt when he mentioned her name. But, even dulled, it was more than enough.

It was irrational, but her heart ached when he said it, and only the kiss that followed stopped her spirited retort from ruining the moment.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the first time I saw you.” He gently pushed against her mouth until she parted her lips for him.

Marie knew what was coming but wasn’t ready to feel so lightheaded. He explored her slowly, and after a moment, she found herself breathing through him, glad he had moved and was now over her. Her hands roamed over his back and then up to his scalp, where she passed her fingers through his stubble. The sound of people walking by startled both of them. Grant was on the chair before the curtain opened to show Corinthia’s amused face, followed soon after by Luna’s.

“I see you’re awake and feeling much better.” Corinthia winked at her and walked the two steps to the bed.

“She does have a dedicated nurse.” Luna carried a tray on her hand. “Are you hungry yet?” She looked around for a place to put the tray.

Grant reached out, offering his arms for the task.

“Thank you.” Luna gave him the tray and then turned to face Marie. “Have some breakfast, and then, if you want, we can talk.”

“We imagine you have a few questions about this place, about us.” Corinthia stood by the curtain, her back outside the actual perimeter of the small room.

Marie nodded. She had just remembered she did have questions. Under the two women’s gentle scrutiny, Grant helped her eat the sweetened porridge and drink some of the tea. There was easiness in the way his fingers brushed hers that made her blush. It felt intimate and they weren’t alone. Then, and it came as a surprise, she realized she hadn’t felt ashamed a man was touching her, only conscious they were exchanging affections before other people. But neither Corinthia nor Luna seemed offended by the display.

He must have felt her embarrassment though. “You’ve some porridge on your chin… there.” His finger stopped before touching her face to clean the spot and simply hovered to indicate where it was. “Yes, there.”

Marie was mesmerized by his voice, his eyes, his lips he tended to bite a lot when he talked. Questions could wait, couldn’t they?

Luna waited until the last spoonful of porridge disappeared in her mouth. “Do you want to know anything in particular?”

Marie inwardly sighed. Maybe she could speed up the process. He squeezed the hand she had let trail by his side and she faced him, since the first question was about him. “What happened to you? Nora told me you’d been sentenced to the inner chamber to…” She couldn’t say it. She had stabbed a pure breed for the chance of being sent here to see him one more time. In her thoughts, she had seen him dying, emaciated, and wasted by the toxins. The mere thought still caused her pain.

Grant held her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “I was. I still am.”

“I don’t understand.” She looked at the women who nodded.

“It’s true. Per the major’s orders, he’s working in the inner chamber right now.” Corinthia walked a step closer to the bed. “We had to keep him there while the pure breeds were around. They’ve never actually stayed longer than a few hours to check on the recycling facility. Usually, we send people inside the chamber only to get them out as soon as the coast is clear. This time, we had to leave him inside longer than was safe.”

Marie wasn’t following. There were so many things she didn’t know, but Luna continued before she could ask anything. “Ginecea doesn’t care about the conditions fathered women have to work in here—do you think the pure breeds mind if men die operating the machines in the inner chamber? Vasura is no different than one of their maximum-security facilities. People sent here aren’t expected to live long.”

“Men aren’t expected to live at all.” Grant’s eyes became colder, but a moment later, he looked down at their intertwined hands and made a visible effort to relax his features. “Here, we’re useless. They don’t need us to father women, since the workforce is constantly replenished, and our arms can be easily replaced by women labor.”

“So why send you here at all?” Marie had wondered about that.

Luna gave her an enigmatic smile and answered, “Believe it or not, pure breeds believe themselves to be highly civilized. They would never dispose of the slaves—”She made an apologetic face meant for Grant. “Sorry, that’s how Ginecea still thinks of you.”

Grant raised his free hand to accept the apology. “No offense taken. I don’t care what they call me. I’ve never thought of myself as a worker. I’m a man.”

“Anyway, even among pure breeds, there are good souls—” This time, Luna had to stop for Marie, who had snorted out loud.

“Pure breeds are a selfish, useless race.” She couldn’t help the acid coating her words.

“Well, there’re also pure breeds who cared for you when you were brought here,” Corinthia timidly added.

“Yes, after leaving me like this!” The wounds on her back must have awoken as she said the words because stabbing pain shot through her and she gasped. She was mad at Corinthia to even suggest that giving her drugged water would be enough to excuse the soldiers who had escorted her there. “They watched as I was whipped and did nothing.” With her teeth clenched, the last sentence was no more than a rattle.

Without saying a word, Luna reached inside one of the pockets in her gray scrubs and procured a syringe. “Something to ease the pain?”

Marie nodded and Luna swiftly held her forearm and injected the medicine. A sudden sensation of cold was followed by warmth and numbness. She relaxed on the bed once again.

A long moment of silence ensued, then Corinthia cleared her voice and said, “
They
didn’t do anything, but there are others risking their lives to give you medical assistance.” Her eyes went to Luna and she smiled at her. One of those smiles that has inner meanings.

Luna lowered her eyes and Marie thought she saw her blush. “You’re a pure breed?” She gave the woman a better look and she found the telltale signs of refined ancestry. “Of course you are.” No fathered woman would have that bearing. Now that she knew, every single feature in her face gave her away. “I truly was out of it if I didn’t realize it earlier.”

“You’re looking at me differently.” Luna moved away from the bed.

Marie appreciated the gesture. “I can’t help it.” She regretted having said that immediately. As far as she knew, the woman had only been kind to her. “Thank you for what you’re doing for me.”

“I understand your rage. I do.” Luna was now by Corinthia’s side. They weren’t touching, but the way they stood close to each other betrayed their familiarity.

“Do you?” Marie could see Luna was different, but how could a pure breed know what was passing through her head?

“I was the last supervisor before Callista—”

Marie interrupted the woman. “You were the one who accepted the bribe and was out of Vasura after a few hours?”

Luna and Corinthia both smiled a similar smile and then Corinthia said, “I did try to give you money to get rid of you, didn’t I?”

An amused light shone in Luna’s eyes. “You did.”