Aiden’s gaze swept around the room, pausing on the unconscious mound of Rhett Owens before settling on his sister and the petite woman next to her, frantically typing on her holopad.Blair rocked back and forth, her legs pressed against her chest, her face twisted by screams.
Elodie threw the handcuffs behind her.“They’ll kill us.Your mother wouldn’t wantthat.”
Then he saw her, Cath, his mother, in a pool of unending red.“Momma...”The word spilled from his lips with a sob so deep and raw he felt inside out.Enough love, enough mothers, for two lifetimes.And he’d lost themboth.
Tears carved clean paths down Elodie’sblood-smearedcheeks.
He could save Elodie.Keep her safe, protected.Pour into her his everything.He wouldn’t make the same mistakesagain.
Something within him clicked, and the well of pain that streamed into his heart ceased overflowing.It ceased to fill at all.He scrubbed away the red and blocked out the cries and the stench and stored those sensations in the farthest corner of his mind.Being a protector didn’t require sadness or grief.He stored those away too.Maybe he’d wrangle all of his emotions and stuff them into the dark as well.After all, hadn’t his emotions gotten himhere?
The room was a blur as Aiden followed Elodie toward theexit.
“Brother!”Blair wailed, bloody arms outstretched.
Aiden flicked his eyes to the floor and the heap of shattered pieces disguised as his sister.“You did this.”His voice was even,firm.
The door opened in front of them and Elodie took Aiden’s cold, trembling hand and pulled him from the wreckage of his broken family.Aiden didn’t look back as the door hissed closed behind him.
XLIII
Cath’s blood ran dark red against Blair’s wall of windows, as if the sprinklers had rained rusty water.It was a good thing Blair had replaced her skin with the gloves Maxine had provided.She didn’t have time to waste finding cleaning supplies.She had always been inventive, one of her best qualities, especially when she was under pressure.And look at how much pressure she was under now, bots buzzing around, a Key Corp soldier watching from her door.This was just another chance to shine.
“Just another chance to shine!”Blair bellowed as she balled up another clean corner of her plush throw rug and scrubbed at more rivulets of blood.She would return her office to itsspick-and-span glory if it killed her.
“Blair?”
Blair’s breathy pants fogged the section of window she’d just polished as she stilled and closed her eyes.Was that Cath’s voice?Is that who was calling her?Had this all been a dream?Would Cath stand in front of her when Blair opened her eyes?Would she lean over Blair’s bed, her fingers plucking the air that way they did while her halo of golden hair framed her kind and loving features?
“Blair?”
That was it.This had been a dream, a nightmare.It had to be.Blair would wake up and these false visions would fade into smoke and slip from her memory before she could even say what had happened.This wasn’t real.She dropped the rug and pressed her hands against the glass.None of this wasreal.
“Blair!” Maxine slapped the window, and Blair’s eyes flew open.“The bots will dothat.”
Blair went cold and hot all at once.This wasn’t a dream, wasn’t a nightmare.This was all too real.Goosebumps rose on her flesh, stopping when they reached her gloved forearms.“Cath...”she whimpered and turned to face her dutiful assistant.
Maxine shook her head.“She’s gone, Blair.”She said the words somatter-of-factly Blair had to lean against the window to steady herself.“And you need to snap out of it.There are Key Corp higher ups here—investigators.You don’t want to embarrass yourself or appear weak, or—” she waved her hand in front of Blair’s face.“Or frantic.”Maxine tugged on the untucked end of her blouse.Pink spots stained the whitesilk.
Black fabric or not, Blair couldn’t make herself look at her own outfit.“You cleaned off the blood.”
Maxine’s throat bobbed with a tight swallow.“I did what I had to do.That’s something you taught me.”A bot buzzed past the vague shape of Cath Scott on thefloor.
Right now, Blair couldn’t remember teaching anyone anything.
“So,” Maxine said, with another pull at her blouse.“Snap out of it and do what needs to bedone.”
Maxine had said that twice now,Snap out of it.As if it was so easy.As if she’d ever had tosnap out ofanything in her privileged little blip of a life.Oh, Blair wouldsnap out ofitall right.She’d snapped out of worse thanthis.
“This.”The window squeaked as Blair dragged her gloved fingers down the glass.“Ismyoffice.Mine!”
Maxine’s eyelids fluttered as she steadied herself against Blair’s unstable storm of emotions.“Yes, and, as I said, I don’t want you to embarrass yourself.”
Blair’s cheeks puffed, ready to release another destabilizing blast, when a red blur caught the corner of her eye.Key Corp investigators.A swarm of them.All gathered outside the door around Major Rhett Owens.Blair stiffened and narrowed her eyes at Maxine.“Walk.Away.”The words left her mouth as daggers.Maxine took a wobbly step back before she turned and walked past the Key Corp soldier standing in the doorway.
Blair brushed back her mane of soft curls, pausing when she reached a section crunchy with drying blood.It was everywhere.Cathwas everywhere.Blair pressed the back of her hand against her mouth as she took in her office.Red chunks clung to the ceiling, the walls, rested in thick, gooey puddles on the floor.One of the soldiers had covered Cath’s body with a sheet that radiated violet light.New tech.Blair dropped her hand and smoothed her fingers over her gloved forearms.The Key was always coming up with newtech.
To health.To life.To the future.
