CHAPTER 45

It was late afternoon when Mia was guided to the large building that would serve as the learning center, the one she had such big dreams for.

Everything in the compound had continued, undisturbed by her life changing overnight, or the revelations of the morning. She'd cleaned, repaired, and charged a set of Oltec – not Draven's since he was currently using it - and then spent the morning in the kitchen helping Chef. She was as surprised as he was when she found herself volunteering to teach him how to make an Earth meal, though he did look at her funny when she described a cheeseburger. The Livarian's did not farm mammals for their milk, so explaining cheese was difficult. Eventually, she had given up and settled for a basic hamburger. The meat, she was assured, came from an ungulate and the Livarians already had bread. The other regular toppings were somewhat harder to replace and, by the time she had chosen the approximates as well as she could, the entire kitchen was littered with different preserves and sauces that the men had created over the years. It was all worth it when chef took the first bite of her creation. He had paused, as if contemplating the new flavor, and then his eyes had rolled up and he had quickly devoured the entire thing. When she left him, he was frantically preparing enough 'hamburgers' for the entire compound.

The learning center loomed before her. Her duties had taken her mind off of the discussion with Kenahi, and the worry she felt for Draven, out in the city with whatever beast was tearing into Livarian bodies. It was all too easy to imagine him on one of the pikes, his eyes hollow and dead.

Stop it.

There was a gaping hole in the wall where the door should be, someone had left it open. Four guards stood stoically on the street; their ears swiveled backward listening intently. Inside, the sound of raised echoes.

Uh oh. She hadn't really thought about it, whether her friends would get along, but Ashley had been firmly in Leanne's camp until a few days ago and Phoebe...

“Listen, cheesecake, I don't care who you're breeding, you cannot put those up, this space is going to be bright and cheerful.”

Mia rushed past the guards and in the door. Ashley stood against the far wall of the main room, her arms splayed as if she could cover the entire thing. Behind her, windows let in a ridiculous, nearly blinding amount of sunlight.

“Cheesecake?”

Phoebe stood before the blond, an armful of dark fabric draping to the very clean floor. They must have spent the morning cleaning.

“She's trying to be nicer,” Becky commented from the side of the room. A table was set up there, covered in what looked like more fabrics. Some large containers sat at the end, and beneath several plants, their fronts waving as a soft breeze flowed through the doors.

“Yeah, but cheesecake isn't even an insult really, it's like...oh, hey Mia,” Phoebe had turned to address Becky and caught sight of Mia wandering through the door.

“Mia! Finally,” Ashley proclaimed. “Tell this cheesecake we need light in here. No gloomy drapes, this isn't some nerdy gamer's dungeon.”

Phoebe rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who wants to put a sitting area here. People need to be able to see their screens, this amount of light will make it impossible. I just want to have the option of curtains.”

“Screens?” Mia couldn't help herself.

“Yeah, the Livarians are considering giving us our phones back, programmed into the database they have managed to save. It will make accessing their books and information a lot easier.”

“We discussed it last night, but you never came back to the dorms,” Becky interrupted. “Where were you?”

Don't blush, Mia commanded her body. It didn't work.

Phoebe grinned. “You slept with him didn't you? Did he do the thing with his teeth?”

She could feel her cheeks getting redder.

Phoebe chuckled. “He did. I've decided that they never really had to kidnap anyone. They could have just advertised their muwi and opened the door. Women would have lined up to throw themselves at them.”

“What's this now?” Ashley demanded.

Mia cleared her throat. “Maybe we should focus on these walls? What are we doing over here?”

“No way, you can't just drop information like that and leave us hanging. I want to know what they do with their teeth. Sounds kinky.”

“Oh my god, you guys are missing out,” Phoebe told her, and began explaining what she knew about the pleasure hormone.

Was this what friendship was like? Mia had never really been close enough to anyone to feel comfortable talking about sex. She looked at the women. Phoebe was still chatting, her face animated and happy. Ashley trailed her to the windows and distractedly helped secure a curtain. There was a contemplative look on her face. Becky had turned away, pretending to ignore them, but Mia could tell that she was listening.

“You really chose him?” she asked softly when Mia approached the table.

“Yeah.”

“Do you love him?”

“I don't know yet,” she admitted. “I feel something for him, more than I have with anyone else. He cares about people...about his people,” Mia frowned.

“What is it?”

“Remember what I told you about Jhudur, the Kirich I went to see?” Mia lowered her voice. She didn't know exactly how good Livarian hearing was, but the way Kenahi had talked this morning led her to believe that the information might be confidential.

Becky grimaced. “Vaguely.”

“Kenahi and I had an interesting conversation this morning. He thinks that the Kirich are somehow drugging the Livarians and luring them from the compound to their death.”

“Shit,” Becky paled. “How is that even possible? I thought Phoebe said that the energy field's detection is DNA based.”

“It is,” Phoebe confirmed. She was walking toward them, the first curtain already hung above the rightmost window. Ashley followed her. “What are we talking about?”

Mia sighed. She probably wasn't supposed to talk to the women about this, either, but something about the entire situation bothered her. She told them what she had learned.

“I suppose something like the drone might have followed the team in while the field was lowered,” Phoebe pondered. “At the time, the Livarians were unaware that the Kirich had a population left, they wouldn't have expected something like that. And we know another has been in the compound for sure.”

“It still makes no sense. If they got a drone into the compound, then they must have figured out by now that the Livarians can't produce their drug. Why bother luring men out? Wouldn't it be safer to just leave? Even addicts have a sense of self preservation.”

“I just find it hard to believe that there is a population of Kirich at all. How did they survive the Attaphus virus?” Ashley asked.

“Maybe they hid. All they would have to do is cut contact with civilization. I'm worried about what Draven will do when he finds them; he's honor bound to kill them all,” Mia admitted.

Phoebe shook her head. “But he hasn't even killed Jhudur, and he had more than enough reason to,” she comforted. “He is a fair man, Mia, he's not going to murder an entire people.”

Mia sighed. Phoebe hadn't seen the fury in his eyes when he had found her with Jhudur, though.

“Trust him, Mia,” Phoebe said. “Whatever this is, he'll figure it out.”

One of the guards walked into the building; his lips curved downward, announcing that they had been whispering too long.

“Come on, let's go to the storage unit and find more of those curtains,” Phoebe smiled a little too brightly, grabbing Mia's arm and pulling her out the door.

Mia followed dutifully, but the thoughts kept nagging at her, running circles in her mind. She wished that she could pick them out and lay them down, side by side.

The sun had broken through the thick layer of clouds and tendrils of daylight floated across their path. The buildings shone in the late afternoon, the grass a brilliant green. When had it begun to feel like home? Instead of bringing peace, the thought stabbed worry into her like a sharp knife. Of course, if she found this happiness, it would be ripped away from her.

The guards trailing them made their progress silent as they walked toward the group of storage units. Mia couldn't help the long glance she gave to the apartments. Was Jhudur still crouched in his own filth, waiting for her to bring him the key?

Phoebe approached the small shed first, someone had already unlocked it apparently. She palmed the keypad and the door slid open.

The stench of rotted flesh rolled from the building, a terrible, god awful smell.

Phoebe screamed. She screamed and screamed, her voice shrill and breaking. Mia blinked into the building and knew why.

A body hung from a rafter, innards spilled to the floor in a sour pile. Chunks of muscle were ripped from the thighs and arms, ragged strips of flesh hanging from the tears. But the worst was the face; long dark strands of hair nearly hid the perfect features, nothing touched except there were no eyes within the sockets. Mia recognized the woman immediately. It was one of the sisters that had made the trip with them.

This was not done by a drone. This was something far worse, and it was inside the compound.