Souljacker (20 page)

He looks at her, surprised. “You remember
me?”

“I remember any wounded soul who walks into
Polaris,” she says around a smile. “I welcome your aid and I’ll do
whatever I can to help you out in return. My children are always
welcome to sanctuary.”

She sticks out a hand to me and I cautiously
take it, wondering what would happen if she knew I could suck soul.
Wondering if, like Caddie, she’d be okay with it, accept it. And
wondering if there are others with my power here. “I’m Diesel. What
exactly do you need?”

I shake her hand. “Lucifer Swift, and this is
Caddie.” I point to her with my chin and she gives me a sidelong
glance before winking at Lake. They exchange a few words back and
forth, Caddie’s tone lightly flirting. Lake’s eating it up.

“I was actually wondering if you did
robot-to-android swaps. Like, this android shell?” I scuff it with
the toe of my boot and Sync appears out of the woodwork, buzzing
around my head. “I need my friend’s memory transferred. Can you do
that?”

Diesel touches her chin and kneels down to
inspect the android. Two little taps and a press on the chest and a
plate slides up, revealing circuitry and robot-y innards. She
fiddles for a few minutes and then looks up at me. “Where’d you
find this?”

“In a scrapyard,” I admit.

She nods. “I’ll have to run a scan, make sure
there are no viruses. That would kill your friend. Be sure that the
operations are working right. Fix it if I have to. It might take
awhile, but I’m sure I can get it swapped over in a matter of days.
If you’re willing to stay that long.”

I look to Caddie, who nods fervently, and
then to Iofiel. He seems hesitant, as if he’s not sure if he wants
to trust Diesel and her makeshift family, but he shrugs. So I nod.
“Sure, we can stick around for awhile.”

Caddie steps up. “Lake and Fallon’re gonna
show me around town. Come get me if you need me, okay, Luce?”
Fallon darts out the door, graceful and slight, and Lake waves his
arm for Caddie to follow. Chip, who’s perked up since the gun was
put away, looks up at Caddie and wags his tail. “C’mon, boy. Maybe
we can get you some eats,” she says. He trots out after her. The
bells on the door chime as it swings shut behind them.

We talk for a few minutes about the extent of
Sync’s new “lifestyle change”, as Diesel calls it. Sync, never one
to be shy, surprises me when she doesn’t add her two-cents worth.
Maybe she’s nervous. I would be, so I can’t blame her.

Then Iofiel speaks up, looking a little
bashful. “I, um…also need a repair. If you can spare it.” He points
to his useless cyborg arm hanging in the sling.

Diesel smiles. “Sure thing, that shouldn’t be
too hard. I can take care of you now, if you want, but I’ll have to
strip you down to the wiring.”

Sounds naughty. I feel heat tickle my cheeks
and I glance up at Iofiel, taking a step back. “Go ahead. I’ll go
scout out our home-for-now. I’ll be back.” He looks relieved and I
wave my hand at Sync to follow.

As I walk through the little town square, I
see kids all around. Some of them are young—ten, eleven, twelve
years old. And some of them are older than me. And they’re all
Mithos.

My heart stumbles, but my stride is even.

I have a title. I’m not just a freak
anymore.

I’m Mithos.

Chapter 24:

Iofiel

The door swings shut and latches, leaving me
alone with Diesel. She really hasn’t changed all that much,
physically. And she still looks as sharp as ever, though she’s wary
around the edges. Rightfully so. How did she work with Lylan for so
long, without him knowing what she was?

Instead I ask, “So do Mithos not age past a
certain point?” I watch for a reaction and relax a notch when she
smiles. I didn’t even realize I was so tense.

“In all honesty, I’ve never met an elderly
Mithos. We grow normally until maturity; once our powers hit their
prime, our bodies slow down the aging process. We’re just naturally
gifted that way. I’m actually sixty-three, but you couldn’t tell
that by looking at me.” Her eyebrow lifts up in amusement. “Come
with me, Iofiel. We’ll get you fixed up in no time.”

I follow her through the store. Behind the
counter is a closed door that says “Employees Only”. She twists the
knob and it swings open. She flicks on a light and the room is
bathed in bright fluorescents—revealing a little room with a metal
examination table in the center of it.

My breath catches in my chest. Instruments of
torture dance through my mind, the sight of blood smeared across
metal and dripping into the grating below as the Unseelie queen’s
victims were tossed to the hounds.

Gooseflesh prickles my arms and I rub them,
taking a hesitant step back. My gaze meets Diesel’s to find it
quizzical. “You alright?”

“Y-Yeah.” I wince at the tremor of my voice.
“Just…reminds me of a place I wish I never knew about.” But I stare
at the exam table. It’s cluttered with boxes of android parts, a
metal foot sticking up out of the top. She clears off the table,
then wipes it down with a rag she then stuffs in her back pocket.
Not very sterile, but we’re not exactly dealing with an open
wound.

She pats the table. “Relax, Iofiel, I won’t
bite you. I swear.”

I stare my fear in the eye, take two deep
breaths, and move towards it. It’s cold to the touch and I hop up.
My legs dangle off the end and she instructs me to take off my
shirt. I shrug out of it, a little self-conscious of the scars
laced across my chest and back; marks from scuffles and fights,
mostly, but some are marks from disobeying.

She grabs a pillow off the work bench, dusts
it off, and places it behind my head. I lay down, the metal like
ice against my back and I force my trembling to stop by focusing on
my breathing. She places a warm hand against my shoulder, right
where the skin is fused with metal. “I’m gonna take a look, but it
doesn’t mean we can’t continue our earlier conversation. I assume
you have questions. They linger in your eyes.”

Diesel begins to fiddle with my arm and I
stare across the room, at a crack in the plaster wall. “How could
you work with Lylan for so long without him realizing what you
were?”

“It was strictly a business relationship; I
was just a crazy hermit to him. He came to me when he had an
emergency—not frequently, just every now and then. We didn’t make
small talk. I asked no questions and he returned the favor.” She
shrugs one shoulder. “That was back when I only had a few of the
kids around. He probably just thought I was a single mom with no
money, living in a dump.”

Made sense. Lylan was very secretive himself;
he wouldn’t have pried. “What made you remember me, after all these
years?”

The edge of her lip quirks. “You were just a
kid, but so haunted. An old soul with fire in your eyes, but fear
in your heart. Not the typical, ruthless cyberhound type. I
wondered if you’d last…and I’m glad to see you have. You and Lucy
are…”

“Yeah.” I smile. “I know it’s forbidden. Pack
law says love isn’t something we should ever feel…but I can’t help
it. When I first met her, it was like we connected, even though I
had four legs at the time. I knew I had to be with her. It just
worked out. When I got the transmission that a couple of mutants
were spotted and to be taken back to the dark queen, I couldn’t
just let them take her. So we ran.”

My arm vibrates slightly and suddenly I can
feel it again. I stretch it out in front of me, wiggling each
finger. I go through the motions that Diesel commands, to make sure
she got it working correctly. Then she replaces the panel and
screws. “Looks good. Now for your face.”

I startle. “Wait. I’m not sure if you should
fix that. When Lylan zapped me, it shorted out my systems,
completely shut them down. It’s strange, not having my scanner, but
it disabled the GPS and I think that’s the only thing keeping them
from tracking me. If you turn it back on…” I hate to think of the
Pack finding me. They’d take Lucy and Caddie and I didn’t even
want
to know what my punishment would be. Torture, then
death?

“It’s safer this way. Besides, I kind of like
the silence in my head. I can think clearer now.”

“I trust your judgment,” she says. “Would you
like me to make you a face plate? I could take a mold and recreate
the other side of your face. It would let you appear human. I’ve
done a pretty stellar job in the past.” She winks.

“That sounds…wonderful,” I admit, feeling
sheepish. Normal would be nice.

She takes the mold, chatting as she goes. I
sit on the edge of the table, itching to slide off, itching for
freedom. I can’t shake the nerves biting like fleas. After a bit,
she stretches and pats me on the cyborg shoulder. “All done. You
can get up now. Do you want a lollypop?” She motions to the dusty
jar—I remember being ten, backwards and antsy, and she’d offered me
one. I’d picked grape.

I laugh and shake my head. “No. I’m good, but
there is one more thing.” I reach up, touching the spot where the
Shockchip is implanted, just beneath the surface of my skin. If
Lylan and the Pack ever do catch up with us, they could shock me
again, disable me from protecting Lucy. I quickly tell Diesel my
predicament.

“Can you remove it?”

“I can, but—”

“I can handle it. I’m not ten anymore.”

This time she is sterile. She takes an
alcohol wipe and cleans off the area, pulls on a pair of surgical
gloves, and touches the place where the chip is. She hums softly to
herself as she runs a sharp blade under fire to purify it, and then
looks me in the eye.

“Take a deep breath and hold it.” I do what
she says. With a steady hand, she cuts into my skin. I feel the
sharp sting and the pain ricochets around the area as she digs out
the chip. After a moment, with blood-slick hands, she places a tiny
clear bug on the table. “It was deeper than I thought. I’m gonna
have to stitch you up.”

“Do what you have to do.” I can feel the warm
wetness trickling down my neck, soaking into my shirt.

Fifteen minutes later, with a functional arm
and a patched up neck, I stand in the doorway of the Chopshop and
thank Diesel, who waves it off with a smile. “Bring your little
robot friend around in the morning. I’m gonna spend the night
checking over the shell to make sure it’s safe. I want a clean
transition.”

“Thanks.” I duck out the door and it chimes
behind me. I set out, in search of Lucy, but she finds me first.
She nudges up against me. Sync’s gripped in her arms like a beloved
pet and her brows are pinched together with worry. She meets my
gaze. “You okay?”

“Perfect.” I flash her a grin and give her a
thumbs up with my cyborg arm.

She smiles, but she’s a thousand miles
away.

Chapter 25:

Lucy

We sleep way past noon. Caddie’s hit it off
with the other Mithos and she seems at home, almost happy here.
She’s flirting it up with Mr. Invisible as if her current boyfriend
doesn’t exist in this crazy, fucked up world we’re a part of and,
for some reason, this bothers me. A lot more than it should. Who am
I to control who she loves or not?

But as we eat lunch, I ask her about Jale
Halvers.

She looks at me with surprised eyes, but her
voice is solemn. “I’ll probably never see him again. Do you
actually think we’ll ever get to go back home?”

Her words shock me. I never expected to go
back, but I don’t have anything to go back
to
. Caddie, on
the other hand, left behind a family, friends, and pretty-boy Jale.
Wouldn’t she go back if she had the chance? If some crazy Faerie
queen wasn’t stalking us? If our lives could ever go back to a
semblance of normality?

I don’t know what to say, so I just shake my
head a little and squeeze Sync tight to my chest. The little robot
doesn’t complain. We’re both nervous about her transition to
android life, even if we don’t talk about it openly.

I drop my head and Caddie touches my
shoulder. Her touch is gentle, reassuring. “It’s okay, Luce. I’m
alright. I’m a fighter, remember? Maybe I just need to…forget about
the past for awhile. I can do that here.” This time, her eyes are
sad. Lake and a boy called Josh, who can create a veil of fog, call
to Caddie and she turns to them. She shoots me a smile that’s
shades of her usual, ornery self, then hurries off.

I try to eat the rest of my soup, even if the
contents make my stomach churn. My spoon clinks against the ceramic
dish with each bite I take and with each bite, I lapse farther and
farther down through my memories. Of Mom. Of Sophia. Of the pain,
the regret, everything. Would things be different if we’d have
known about me? About Mithos? Or would they’ve just been that much
more complicated?

I nearly jump out of my skin as someone taps
my shoulder. I look to see Iofiel, who plants a gentle kiss at the
nape of my neck. His breath tickles the little hairs there and I go
to scold him for scaring me, but the words die on my lips. He looks
sad, too. “You doing okay, love?” He settles into the spot beside
me, his fingers drumming out a beat on my jean-clad thigh.

I nod slowly. Sync is still trapped in my
arms, her cool metal warmed by my body temperature. “Is Diesel
finished with Sync’s new body?”

“Yep. She says to come to the shop whenever
you guys are ready.”

I let my gaze trail down to Sync and wonder
if she’s worried about the same things I am. What if the transition
fails? What if her memory chip is erased and I lose her. What if we
have to do a factory reboot? She wouldn’t be the same. She wouldn’t
be Sync.

“I’m ready, Luce,” Sync says, breaking me out
of dreamland once again.

I stand on stiff legs. Iofiel takes off at a
quick clip, leading us back to the Chopshop. The bells chime as we
walk inside, but Diesel’s nowhere to be found. Iofiel motions for
me to follow him as he heads through an “Employees Only” door. It
opens into a small room where Sync’s android body is laying on an
exam table, eyes closed, hair fanned out around her head. Diesel’s
bent over the shell, fiddling with wires and innards.