The Awakening, page 70
part #1 of Eve Series
He lunged toward her, pointing his blade at her throat. “You do not tell me
what I am supposed to do.”
“You’re supposed to tell me your plan.”
Fairon leaned in closer, pressing the blade deeper into her skin. “My plan?”
“Yeah,” she continued. “Your ingenious method. You’re supposed to tell me
all the bullshit you did to get me to this point. The bad guys do it in all the movies.” Her eyes darted down to the blade and then back up at Fairon. “So, spill.”
Fairon’s eyes shrank into thin, black slits, but Eve didn’t waver. She could feel
the air puffing from his nostrils and taste the mugginess of his skin, but she lifted her chin and feigned control. She had no other options.
Fairon lowered his blade. “You stall for time.” He nodded at the doorway
behind them. “You hope your male will come for you. It is irrelevant. If he
does come, I will kill him.” He placed the blade atop a nearby shelf. “Time is
unimportant. If stalling brings you comfort, I will grant you an explanation. I am merciful, Evelyn. You need not fear me. I know that you do, but I am merciful.”
Eve wanted to breathe a sigh of relief or possibly spit at his feet, but she resisted both urges. She kept her chin high, trying to disregard the aching of her body and the incessant ringing in her ears. Fairon was now pacing the room, his movements graceful, almost regal. He kept his eyes on the silver blade.
“We have been here, on this planet, much longer than you realize.”
“I know,” Eve interjected. “I saw the ashes.”
Fairon turned to her and smiled. “Those ashes—they are young. However
long you are thinking, we have been here longer.”
Again he approached the blade, lovingly stroking it with a single talon.
“The Meltdown—it was not enough. We needed more. You understand, yes?
Your species is consumed by avarice. No kind should understand more than
yours.
“Billington was an obvious choice. And the list—we located it quickly.” He
looked back at Eve, his eyes large and filled with awe. “Thus we discovered you—you and your glory. Your power. We were destined to find you. This moment, it is bigger than us. It is fate.”
“I don’t believe in fate,” Eve muttered.
“You assume I care about your lack of conviction. I do not.” He took a step
toward her. “I would study you myself. Hayden was an ideal host: she was
aligned with the yellow female, your roommate. An unorthodox decision, to
associate with a chimera, but the yellow one did not belong on my table. Her gift is weak—hardly a worthwhile pursuit. Her only value to me was her link to
you.”
Eve pursed her lips with revulsion, though the movement only amplified the
ringing in her skull. Fairon continued, his nostrils wiggling as he spoke.
“The day we met—I could smell your power before you entered the room. It
is potent, your gift—much stronger than I had imagined. And so I delayed my
advances. I could not have you, not yet. I would fail. You had to be diminished
first.”
“Diminished? ”
“The goal was alienation,” he explained. “I worked to expose you—to make
you a target among your own people. It was easier than I had anticipated. Your
humans were very instrumental.” He leaned in closer, and Eve realized that he
was smelling her. “Chimera Bitch—such crude, simple wording. Your
language is primitive, but effective.”
“You made those flyers?” she spat.
“No. I did not.” He pulled back. “I was a shadow. I coaxed your exposure to
fruition. It was your people who spread the revelation. Your human race—they shamed you.” He crouched down again, until they were at eye level. “These
Earth people: they hate one another, attack one another, kill one another. They are blinded by their biases. They do not see our infiltration. It is to our benefit,
your kind’s preoccupation with one another. It is a flaw in your culture that works in our favor.”
Eve smirked. “You’re pretty long-winded once you get going, aren’t you?”
“Your words—they carry rancor.”
“Well, you did follow me for months,” she muttered, her voice exhausted and bitter. “You strapped me down to this table. Pretty sure you broke my wrist
—”
“It is none of those things. You have a high tolerance for physical pain. I caused you emotional torment. I made you suffer.”
Eve clenched her jaw. “What the hell was the point of all that?”
“To prey on your resolve. To ensure you would be alone—that you would
be vulnerable to our attack.” He stepped away from her, pacing the room yet again. “And still, you found a male. It was a disturbance I did not predict. Your
kind is so quick to feed off the weak. It was not to be expected.”
“Maybe you’re just not as smart as you think you are.”
Fairon backhanded her across the face, sending her head smacking against
the table. She groaned, her eyes clenched shut, her head consumed by a
combination of throbbing, aching, and ringing. Fairon resumed his pacing,
unconcerned with her suffering.
“I tried to kill your male. I sent my people—several times. They never
returned.” He looked back at her, though she was still reeling from the pain.
“You aligned with more than one, yes? A logical choice. Your kind is a social
race.”
Eve opened her eyes. She could vaguely see Fairon, though her vision was peppered with darkness. She felt something trickling down her forehead, past
her nose, and then it settled in the corner of her mouth. The taste was
unfamiliar—was it salt water? Then she realized what it was.
She was sweating.
Oh God, she thought to herself.
Fairon continued. “Your mind had to be weakened, if not through isolation,
then through pollution. And so I implemented a distraction: DIE CHIME.”
“The death threat… it was you,” Eve replied, her voice barely a whisper.
“And yet you believed it was Madison for some time. I told you she was missing. You found the ashes. It was enough.”
She grimaced. “Why even bother?”
“Did she contaminate your thoughts? Were there days when you saw nothing
but her—but her supposed longing for your death? Did she distract you when
you could have been thinking of me? When you should have been seeing me?”
He came in close to her, his eyes fiery with passion. “Your episode in the washroom—it was magnificent, the validation. The knowledge that your mind
was polluted.”
Again he pulled away from her, looking back at the entrance of the room.
“You infiltrated one of our nests. It was courageous. It was stupid.” He lowered his head, his back rigid. “The beacon—that is what your people call it.
You stole it . So that very day, I went to your room.”
“Jesus, that’s why you were there?” Eve hissed. “You piece of shit, you stole Madison’s key.”
He spun toward her. “I NEEDED MY EQUIPMENT!” he roared, his voice
echoing off of the walls.
Eve’s heart raced. She straightened her back, pressing herself deeper into the
table, away from Fairon. Again, he paced the floor.
“Your attack by the music building confirmed my suspicions. You were
listening to us. And so I came for my equipment—and for you.” He looked
back at Eve, his stare alive with pleasure. “That night in your dormitory, when I
threw your male into the sky… It broke your spirit. It was beautiful to see.”
Eve thought of Jason falling from the balcony and felt a pang deep in her chest.
Again her vision grew hazy, as if covered in a blanket of smoke.
“When Madison relocated, she was no longer useful to me,” Fairon
continued. “I aligned with the orange female. An appropriate choice—she was
watching you as closely as I was. The key was constant visibility. To keep you
in my sight. Always.
“I then realized the flaw in my method: I was working to destroy the very facet
that drew me to you. To exhaust your unparalleled power. It was a
mistake.” Finally he stopped his pacing and stood in front of her. “All attempts
against you were futile. The only way you would end up on my table was
through your own free will. I would make your power my weapon.”
“You knew I had Cooper ’s torq,” Eve mumbled. “You wanted me to follow
him here.”
Fairon’s eyes narrowed. “You operated the beacon. You would operate the
torq.” He rested his hands behind his back. “The prisoners—an added incentive.
A chance to use your morality against you.”
“You knew I’d save them. And you knew I’d save Hayden.”
Fairon tilted his head. “You are so… ethical.”
Eve was overwhelmed with feeling: with pain, with self-loathing, and that
god-awful ringing. She looked back at Fairon, her eyes filled with hate.
“But I destroyed your mainframe. I destroyed the list.”
“An unfortunate fact, yet you are on my table. The mainframe, the list:
replaceable. Worthy sacrifices for your blood.”
The ringing intensified until it was all Eve could hear, and soon her
blackened vision began to pulse with the noise.
“I killed your men,” she hissed. “You’re their leader, and you let me slaughter them. Do you even care?” Her voice was laced with abhorrence.
“You’re their leader.”
Fairon looked back at her, his face blank, almost confused. Then his lips
parted, and a rich, sonorous chuckle escaped his mouth.
Eve grimaced. “You’re laughing?”
“You think I am their leader?” he cackled. He thrust his face in front of hers.
“I am their OWNER,” he snarled. “They are slaves. Your strongest men struggle to defeat our most inferior species.” He pointed at the gashes across
her stomach. “Those marks on your body? The marks of worthless creatures.”
Eve’s mouth gaped. Slaves. The word repeated in her mind, while Fairon laughed at her ignorance. After a brief disorientation, she finally mustered the
strength to speak.
“If they’re just slaves, then who the hell are you?”
Fairon brought his lips closer to hers and bared his teeth. “I am Fae,” he growled. “A soldier. One of many. And if you had defeated me, you would have won but one small battle in a long and treacherous war.” He backed away
slowly. “But you did not defeat me.”
Eve’s body slumped, hanging loosely from the metal cuffs. She had been
wrong. Everything she had learned from the Shelter, everything she had
believed to be true, had been reduced to fiction. She thought of Fairon’s words:
you know nothing. He was right.
“Why are you doing this?”
Fairon looked back at Eve. She was staring at the floor, her head dipped as if
in defeat.
“You still stall for time?”
Eve shrugged. “Maybe I’m enjoying our talk. You’re a great
conversationalist.”
“Your questions—they are futile. But I will answer you—”
“Because you’re so goddamn merciful,” she sneered.
“Perhaps it is good if your male comes. I will take pleasure in killing him in
front of you. You will have nothing left to live for. You will submit yourself to
me with ease.”
“Answer. My. Question.”
Fairon stopped in front of her, looking into her eyes. “It is what we do.”
“It’s what you do? That’s your answer?”
“We visit worlds. We procure resources. It is in the blood. We absorb what
we need from the blood of a living specimen. Always living. Life—it is key.”
His eyes panned from her face to the gashes below her ribs. “The blood of the
Earth people—it is the most beautiful we have ever seen. The color is different.
Vibrant.” He dragged his talons along her stomach, creating three long, thin lacerations. “And you—your blood will taste delicious. Like sweet ambrosia.”
Eve winced from the pain, biting her lip to prevent herself from crying out.
She watched Fairon, who was staring at the blood dripping from his talons.
“So, what are you trying to procure here? The gift?”
“Everything,” he answered, still gazing at his claws. “The gift—it is useful.
But we’ve come for the strength. The health. The immunity.”
“But you have strength. You have health. Jesus Christ, I saw you regenerating. I saw it.”
Eve stopped herself. Her eyes went wide.
“Oh God.”
Fairon gazed back at her curiously. “You are coming to a realization.”
Eve hesitated. “You melted,” she finally said. “In my room, the day you took
Madison’s key—you melted.” She looked back at Fairon, shocked. “The
melting, the regenerating… you’ve already figured it out, haven’t you?”
Fairon grinned, pleased by her discovery. He brought his hand to his lips, and a
long, forked tongue slid between his teeth and licked at the blood along
his talons. He turned toward the distant shelf, his eyes locking onto the sharp blade, and it levitated into the air, gliding through the room until it stopped in front of him. He looked at Eve and laughed.
“The melting—it was no accident. You would think me of your kind. You
would pity me. Then, when I deemed it so, you would save me.” The blade
hovered above the ground, and Fairon stared into Eve’s horrified eyes. “Never
underestimate your enemy—you said that once. Did you underestimate me, Evelyn?”
Fairon abruptly grabbed the blade and sliced it across his own arm, severing
his hand at the wrist. Immediately, his yellowed stump began to bubble and expand, quickly reshaping until a new hand appeared in its place.
“Pairing the chimera strength and immunities with our own renders us all-
powerful. Indestructible.” He stared down at his new, perfectly formed hand, and released his grip on the blade, letting it float in the air for a while longer until it abruptly fell to the ground. With a glower, he plucked the blade off of
the floor.
“Alas, it is temporary,” he explained. “The gift, the restoration. That is why
you are here: permanence.” He looked back at Eve. “You are the strongest of your kind. There is something inside of you—something in your blood—that
will grant us permanence. That will make us immortal—make us gifted, like
you. Forever.”
“And what if there isn’t?” Eve snapped. “What if my blood is just as useless and impermanent as the rest of them?”
“YOU WILL GIVE US WHAT WE WANT!” Fairon pushed his blade against
her neck. “I will open you, I will study you, and I will drain you until I have what I want. It will take time. It will take research. But I will find it in your blood. Only then will you die. And all the others—they will die too.” He
dragged his lips toward her ear. “Your annihilation will be our salvation. We will be GODS.”
He pulled away from her, admiring his weapon once more. Eve took in a
shallow breath; her eyes were pointed at the ground, her gaze distant and
foggy. She could still hear the ringing in her ears, the sound so acute now that
she felt its resonance down the nape of her neck, and as it intensified, her vision grew hazy, spotted with patches of black.
Fairon looked down at his blade and again at Eve. “I have told you what you
want to know. It is time to begin.”
Still Eve gazed at the ground, too weary to look him in the eye. Fairon took
a step toward her and cocked his chin.
“You are not going to beg? You are not going to plead for me to spare
you?”
“Would it work?” she muttered.
“No. It would not.”
“Then why bother?”
He chuckled. “You remind me of your male. I was told he did not beg. But
when we carved into his chest, his scream could have woken the dead.” He ran the side of his blade along her stomach, sending a chill through her body.
“They all scream eventually. You will too, Evelyn . I promise you this.”
Eve ignored him, still concentrating on the torturous ringing, on her blurred
vision that faded from light to darkness. Fairon gestured toward the entrance of
the room.
“Your male did not come. You waited for nothing.”
He took a step back and raised his blade, pointing its tip at the center of her stomach. He paused, savoring the moment, soaking in the sight of his victim—
she was drained, her body torn and broken, her eyes hardly open. Then, with a
triumphant smile, he thrust his blade forward.
The blade stopped, halting inches from her stomach, as if blocked by an
invisible wall. Fairon looked down at the tool and then at Eve, who was
suddenly staring back at him, her eyes fierce and no longer weary.
“I wasn’t waiting for my male, dumbass,” she hissed. “I was trying to melt.”
Fairon’s eyes darted across Eve’s body. He could see that she was shaking,
