The Change: Episode one (24 page)

“
Land!”

I hid my grin, knowing he could see every
detail of my expression with those shined eyes. I moved unerringly
to the table and lit the lantern to break the sparks. I took stock
quickly. There wouldn’t be much to work. It had been a long time
since I’d been here. It was really a storeroom in a very old
warehouse that included a bomb shelter. The warehouse had collapsed
decades ago, but the rock room behind it had stood, buried, until
I’d found it. Now it was stocked with a cot, a chair and table, and
a number of other basics for when I needed space. It was the first
time Baker had been here, and it would be the last.

Minutes later, I had him standing, gripping
the chair as I knelt behind him to dig out the slugs. He stayed
silent the entire time. He was so different from the males I knew,
so tempting. It was no wonder I had given him first honors, but
things had changed. I still felt something for him, we had a bond
that wouldn’t be easily broken, but all I wanted was Daniel.

“
You gonna turn me in or
what?”

I recognized the pain distraction, I was no
one’s gentle anything with a knife, and shrugged. “I’ll vote we go
after the others.”

I felt him tense as my blade went deeper,
and I flipped the metal out with a brutal jerk that sent blood
streaming down his leg.

I got him settled on the cot a bit later, an
indifferent nurse to keep him alive, and the sparks flew every time
our eyes met. This would be our last night alone together, ever,
and Baker knew it. His wounds weren’t as serious as I’d feared. He
had taken a number of hits, but only the leg wound and Daniel’s
shot were serious. After rest and food, he would be able to
travel.

“
You should take the bounty
and settle down with him.”

I ignored that, and the convict tried
again.

“
You could join
us.”

That snapped my head up. “Us?”

Baker twisted to watch as I flipped a slug
from my arm and quickly wrapped it.

“
The rebels.”

I paused. That was why the Network had sent
the Hounds when we’d radioed our sighting. He was high priority
now. “That’s why they crossed us. They really want you dead.”

Baker’s eyes lightened at my quick
calculations. “They knew you’d find me, but they also knew I’d be
alive when you turned me in. They don’t want that.”

I didn’t look at him, only let my hands go
back to work on my wounds. What was it with me and this
convict?

“
Your showing up right then
was bad timing. Their Trackers had been onto me for a
week.”

My mouth gaped open. I couldn’t help it.
“Then why come out?”

“
I knew you would be the
one they sent…” Baker’s silver eyes flashed dangerously. “And I
wanted to see the new man.”

He didn’t say
“
The one who replaced me.”
but I felt it just the same. Despite our casual
arrangement, the feelings had happened for both of us.

I grunted, not looking forward to Baker
knowing the truth, but willing enough to give it now. Before, when
it was only a cool dream in the darkness, I had been afraid to
share my plan. Only those closest to me had known why I’d signed up
for the Games.

“
I knew Daniel before he
was sold to the Network.”

“
But they put males into a
ten-year training program before they’re ever mates. You would have
been…”

“
Eight.”

It was the same year we’d met, and the
convict understood right then what I’d done.

“
So that was why! To learn
from me so you could go to him. I was nothing to you!”

Unable to take his pain, I shoved myself
over him, voice a harsh whisper. “You were my saving grace, my only
light in the darkness. So much more than nothing!”

Baker kissed me then, and I allowed it, but
the violent flare that had always come had been replaced with a
vague flicker.

He shoved me back abruptly, understanding we
were through. “You smell like shit!”

I laughed.
That
was the Baker I
knew. I met his pain-rimmed silver eyes. “Will you try not to kill
him?”

Baker grinned, almost a mirror of mine from
the Games. “Does he know about us?”

“
No.”

“
You’ll tell
him?”

“
Of course.”

Baker blew out a sigh, pulled his goggles
over his eyes so I couldn’t read them. “Better make the same deal
with him, I think. He’s got a fuse like yours.”

Now, I grinned. I was fiercely proud of
Daniel, and later, when there was time, I would reward him for
it.

“
I meant it, my offer. Not
just anyone can get you in.”

That told me Baker was more than just a
member of the rebels - he was important to them. I nodded, no
longer smiling. “I’ll pass it along.”

The convict snorted.
“
You
make the
choices for the Pruetts.”

“
Not this one.”

My cold tone said I was seriously
considering it, and Baker studied me with heat that even those
thick goggles couldn’t hide. He wanted me. One last time to say
goodbye… and I was tempted. It would give me an outlet for all the
tension I had built up being gentle, and increase my control. …but
it would hurt Daniel.

I moved onto the pallet I had made up and
tried to sleep. I wasn’t used to being confused or hesitant. I
liked to react to attain my goal, and knowing I wasn’t free to do
as I wanted was displeasing. Women had multiple lovers, it was
accepted, but it was still wrong by my standards, and I accepted
that my control would hold a bit longer. From across the room, I
felt Baker’s pain, but didn’t go to him. We were over.

2

The temperature dropped over the next hours
- fast. The wind howled through the cracks in our nook, pushing
frigid air into a damp room and over two wet bodies. I didn’t have
any other clothes stored here, and I ended up revising my choice
not to share a bed with him.

We huddled in the cot, enjoying our body
heat and a silent goodbye. Baker understood without being told,
when all I did was let him wrap me up tightly. We rested, drowsing,
but sleep didn’t come for either of us until the dim rays of sun
said the new day had come. Night was a lethal time in New Network
Land.

Network

“
That’s it. He’ll have them
now. Turn on the locator device and send the bomb.”

“
Not yet. Give them time to
get to the others. He won’t have their base so close.”

The screens behind the Network Council
members showed a variety of locations - The Swamps of lower Georgia
and Alabama, the Arkansas Borderlands hub, a crumbling bridge over
the crystal clear Ohio River in the Recovery Zones. Some of these
places had small Network outposts, but most of the screens showed
things the Network were monitoring for possible or known
trouble.

Like Atlanta, where nature had taken over
completely. The Kudzu plants grew a foot per day, and on the
screen, there was little to see but twisting vines and insects the
same size of the purple flowers they nested in. The Network didn’t
control that area. No one did.

The next small screen showed the Deserts of
Nebraska. Once an area of lush growing crops, it had been covered
in ash in the 2013 eruption and still hadn’t recovered. The ash,
which was actually tiny bits of crushed glass, was slowly spreading
east with the winds.

One monitor showed a dilapidated nuclear
power plant in the Missouri Quake zone. They were still watching it
for high levels of radiation from the minor meltdown of 2099, when
the temperatures had stayed below freezing and stopped the flow of
water to cool the reactor. Another square screen revealed part of
the wall that divided New America from Canada. On the other side of
the heavily armed wall, was a mob of protestors that grew in number
daily.

One of the council members waved a hand. “We
don’t have much longer before it all blows open.”

The head of the Eastern Network gave a
pacifying grunt. “The meeting is two months away. Our orders for
the vaccine are being shipped to the other countries very slowly.
It’ll hold them that long, and then it won’t matter. But let the
Hounds out. Clear the hiding places we know of. It won’t help us to
be caught unaware.”

“
Do we capture the Pruetts
if we find them at one of the Dens?”

“
No, and don’t hurt any of
them either, if you can help it. Their duty to the Network isn’t
over yet…”

C

“
Candy.”

There was that hated name, and a painful
flash of the one who had been too weak to stop Daniel from being
taken. “What!”

“
Remember the deal we
talked about?”

I didn’t come awake all-at-once at the
concern in Baker’s tone, but I registered it. “What deal?” I was
very comfortable against his heat. I wanted to sleep.

“
The one where you tell
your new man I’m off limits.”

I struggled to think, groggy in his arms.
“What about it?”

“
Now would probably be a
good time.”

Baker’s tone finally sank
in.
Daniel
.

My eyes snapped open to see his glaring
face, to feel his fury and reason warring for control as he pressed
his new knife to Baker’s throat.

I sighed, flipping into alertness now. “It’s
gonna be one of those days, I guess.”

I could see what Daniel was thinking and why
not? I was wrapped in the convict’s arms, and we’d clearly passed a
long night. “So do it.”

“
What?”

“
What?”

I yawned sleepily at their
reactions and closed my eyes. “I’ll tell you once, Daniel. I do as
I please. It’s not
his
choice either.”

Everyone was stunned, even my parents
watching from across the room, and I snuggled deeper into Baker’s
tense embrace, needing to prove the point. “Get a medical transport
cover ready. We leave in half an hour.”

I wasn’t totally sure Daniel wouldn’t do it
anyway, and I was ready to take another wound for the rebel convict
to make my mate understand his place with me. I was the lead,
always.

D

I couldn’t help the jealousy that drew my
blade to my hand. Finding out I would have to share her was a blow
I hadn’t expected. My hand trembled, wanting to push, but then
she’d be done with me… and even sharing was better than not being
at her side.

I lowered the knife in misery, heartbroken.
I had thought she would be mine! I moved to a far corner and waited
for instructions, as I’d been taught.

C

“
Damn. Remind me of that
the next time I invite you over.”

Baker’s tone was condemning, but his body
said he was mine if I wanted him, and should that level of
servitude be required, he would pay the price.

“
You fit for a trip to
Atlanta?”

Baker nodded, not surprised to learn I would
escort him home. “I’ll be good as new in a day or two. We rollin’
or glidin’ in?”

I grinned widely against his big chest.
“Neither.”

He rumbled under me. “More water.
Great.”

I reluctantly pushed myself
up and out of his arms, sure I’d be sore. And I was, but not so
much that it would get in the way. I nodded in thanks when Angelica
held out a small pouch of supplies.
All of
the Pruetts were fast healers. Within a day or two, only a sore
place and a scar would remain. It was one of the few benefits of
this agony.
It was also another way we
differed from the average New Network citizen, but not from the
other Changelings. They also healed fast, and it made learning to
kill on the first shot a necessity.

I dug through the pouch quickly and tossed a
small jar onto Baker’s lap. “After you’ve used it on the places you
can reach, Daniel will do your back.”

“
Like hell he
will!”

Daniel’s gasp echoed through the room at
Baker’s blatant refusal of an order.

“
Fine. Angel?” I triggered
her heat intentionally. It would be a test of her new control and
she nodded tensely.

“
I’ll do it
myself.”

“
You’ll do as you’re told!”
My Father’s commanding tone had Baker backing down.

“
Whatever.”

It was a childish response that sent a tiny
smile to the female standing guard in the back of the room. I moved
to the small table and waved Daniel to the chair beside me. My
Father joined us as Angelica went to Baker.

“
I’m taking him to Stone
Mountain.”

Silence met my words, but it was easy to see
they were all expecting it.

“
We’ve already sent notice
of an assignment withdrawal due to injury.”

I watched Angelica get close enough to
extend the jar while Baker dipped his fingers into it. She was
holding her breath and so was he. We had met along those lines. Now
that I was taken, maybe Baker could help her for a while.

I turned back to find Daniel’s eyes watching
me, and I grinned harshly. “So how was your first night without
me?”

His mouth opened, and I willed him to fight
back with me like he would have Baker.

Daniel’s head dropped. “Long.”

Instead of giving into the urge to comfort
him, I fell into making the plans with my parents.

C