A Citadel of Captives

  “Yeah, you don’t want to do that,” I muttered.

  He ignored my advice, then tried to grip the needle with two fingers and pull it back, but he got zapped.

  Varga watched him with slight amusement and arms crossed. “We all tried that. Nearly fried myself to death,” he said.

  “There’s not much I know about these creatures,” Jax replied, “but what I do know isn’t good at all.”

  We all turned our heads toward the only door, just in time to see Ta’Zan walk out, with Amal and Monos right behind him. The door closed automatically, and we were left on our own inside that giant diamond dome. Only then did Jovi spot the figures moving beyond the crystal wall, tall and muscular. They moved slowly, patrolling the outside of our “enclosure.” There was a faint glow covering their bodies, much like an aura, but not as intense as mine when I experienced powerful emotions, for example. I’d already gotten used to their presence, since Jax and I had been brought here a few hours before Jovi and Anjani.

  “Those are Perfects,” Jax explained, nodding at the figures. “You see, Derek and his group definitely stirred something up here. They accidentally awakened Ta’Zan and his first five hundred specimens.”

  “Specimens?” Anjani asked, her brow furrowed.

  “He calls them Faulties,” Varga interjected. “The hybrids with feathers or fur or scales or whatever. They’re not perfect, aesthetically speaking. They carry the traits of the animals whose genes Ta’Zan used to make them.”

  “Their genetic base is the Draenir, a species that once lived here,” Jax added. “They created Ta’Zan first, then went extinct after a plague spread. That’s why Ta’Zan put himself and his own creations, the Faulties, in those cave pods. To wait the plague out.”

  “Holy crap,” Jovi exclaimed. “But what about this building? What about the thousands who attacked us? What the hell were they?”

  “Perfects,” Jax replied, then pointed at one of the figures beyond the dome. “Just like that guy. You see, after Ta’Zan and his Faulty hybrids woke up and got out of the cave, they found Derek and the others in the resort. They abducted them and used their genes to create the Perfects. They’re much faster, much stronger, and much more intelligent than any other creature we’ve ever met.”

  “The perfect lifeforms,” Jovi breathed. As it all sank in, I could tell from the look on his face that he was taken aback. This was way worse than what he’d probably imagined. I’d been in his place, just hours earlier, hoping I’d only had my ass handed to me due to poor preparation, and not because the Perfects were pretty much… perfect fighters.

  Jax nodded. “Ta’Zan is mass-producing them now,” he said. “In less than a day, they’re out of their artificial wombs and fully developed. It takes a few hours to educate and train them. Ta’Zan indoctrinates them with this notion of genetic superiority. By next week, there will be millions of them. And now that he has more genetic resources, namely us, he can make them even stronger.”

  “They built structures like this overnight. He plans to develop space-travel technology, build an army, and conquer the entire friggin’ universe,” Varga said. “He thinks his creations are the only ones deserving of life. He wants to wipe the rest of us out.”

  “They’re perfectly capable of doing that, too,” I chimed in. “They obliterated two of our ships within minutes. Where and how did he get the infrastructure to do all this, though?”

  “We don’t know for sure,” Jax said. “We assume there was one in place prior to the plague that put them to sleep, which they simply had to… dust off. They didn’t exactly start from scratch, but the Faulties alone are definitely fast and strong enough to extract and process materials in record time. I suppose that, once the Perfects joined in, this whole project burst wide open. What’s clear is these Perfects are not kidding around.”

  Heath groaned, shaking his head. “They most certainly aren’t. My dragons didn’t stand a chance either. Most made it, but they’re still being treated in those infirmary chambers.”

  “Oh, crap, he’s got dragon genes, now, too,” Jovi managed. “The Perfects are only going to get better. Indestructible.”

  He couldn’t stand any more. He sat down in the grass, breathing heavily as the walls of his reality came crashing down in painful chunks. Anjani joined him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and holding him close, as he tried to take it all in. I felt truly sorry for him, as he was going through the same emotions we’d tangled with earlier. Hopelessness was difficult to push back.

  “An all-out war won’t work,” Jax said, his voice low. Despite his restraint, I could still sense his frayed nerves—the muscle ticking in his jaw, the heavy breaths, and his balled fists helped paint a pretty clear picture of how he was feeling. It was as bad as the rest of us, but he just did a better job at bottling it all up and focusing on the facts. “We’ll have to figure out another way to stop them, maybe from the inside. After what just happened, I’m positive the people in GASP who are back home are thinking of other ways to come to Strava.”

  “I’m guessing an infiltration mission,” Heath replied. “That’s what I’d do, anyway.”

  “What about my grandparents? Derek and his crew?” Jovi asked, tearing up and practically breaking my heart.

  “They’re here, somewhere,” Jax said. “Ta’Zan said so. He’s keeping them alive and separate, though I don’t yet understand why. He might bring them over here soon, though. If they’re wearing these collars, too, they can’t do anything.”

  “Tell me about it,” Varga muttered. “The worst part is that I don’t know anything about Lenny and her crew,” he added, then stilled, his eyes nearly popping out of their orbits. “Oh, dear. She thinks I’m still on Neraka.”

  “That might actually be a good thing,” Heath replied. “Last thing she needs right now is to worry about you, too.”

  “She’s going to be worried about everyone, either way.” Jax sighed. “With what Ta’Zan and the Perfects are planning, no one is safe. Not Eritopia. Not Neraka. Not anyone in the In-Between. If they keep this up, if they spread like the destructive plague that they seem to be, I’m afraid one dimension won’t be enough. Ta’Zan will be looking to assert his supremacy in the Supernatural and the Earthly Dimensions, too.”

  Jax was right. Based on what we’d seen, learned, and experienced so far, there was no positive outcome ahead. Only death and destruction awaited, simply because one obviously super-intelligent hybrid had decided to tinker with life itself and create the perfect soldiers.

  No way I’m letting that happen.

  There wasn’t much we could do in our current circumstances, though. The collars alone were a massive deterrent, and we had to figure out a way of disabling them. The more shocks they delivered, the better “trained” we became. I had no intention of turning my brain into mush to get out of here.

  The one thing I’d noticed was the tension between the Faulties and the Perfects. The Faulties were servants and nurses, helping Ta’Zan with some of the basic chores. The Perfects were warriors and exquisite builders, technicians, and scientists—almost as brilliant as Ta’Zan. They clearly suffered from some kind of superiority complex. From the snippets of conversation I’d caught on the way in, I knew the Faulties worshipped Ta’Zan but weren’t too fond of the Perfects. The Perfects felt the same way.

  If we could find a way to tap into that friction and pull the Faulties closer to our side, we could maybe sabotage Ta’Zan’s plans from the inside. It was only a matter of time before they recovered the wrecks from our fleet and figured out how to put them back together. Once Ta’Zan took his Perfects out into space, it would be done and over for all of us.

  Sofia

  Claustrophobia was starting to mess with my senses. Even with the ventilation system, I felt hot, finding it more and more difficult to breathe. As a vampire, I didn’t have much trouble with the artificial lighting, but I would’ve definitely killed for some fresh air.

  “I wonder who survived,”
my father said, lying in his bed. Kailyn sat on the other side of the glass, in an attempt to stay as close to him as possible.

  “Those who made it into the shuttles. The Perfects were still grabbing them from the sky when I came to,” Derek replied, running a hand through his thick black hair, then looked at me. The pain in his eyes tore me apart on the inside. “I really hope Hazel and the others weren’t there.”

  Xavier sighed. “Knowing our kids? I doubt it. They would keep the next generation in charge of operations, along with Caleb and River, while we’re away. At least, that’s what protocol dictates.”

  “That puts Harper’s group in the line of fire,” I murmured, pinching the bridge of my nose. I lay back in my bed and pulled my hair up in a loose bun, resting my head on the pillow. My mind was crowded with thousands of scenarios, from bad to worse, as I tried to navigate the possibilities. In the end, I had no choice but to hope for the best, if I wanted to keep my sanity and get us out of this place.

  “Our kids are strong,” Corrine replied. “They’re fighters, dammit. They’ll take some Perfects down with them, if they have to. They’ve survived Eritopia and Neraka.”

  “This isn’t Eritopia or Neraka,” Lucas said. “It’s way worse.”

  Ibrahim shot to his feet. “We’re looking at this the wrong way,” he said. “Ta’Zan probably would’ve instructed his Perfects to scout the stronger ones out during the melee. He would want them alive, for their genetic material. He’s still improving the blueprint, isn’t he?”

  “If I were him? Yes, that’s exactly what I would do,” Corrine replied.

  “Think about it. The Perfects are faster than anything we’d ever seen. Derek, you saw them, didn’t you?” Ibrahim asked. Derek gave him a single nod in response. “They’re physically superior, which means heightened senses, maybe even above those of a vampire or a werewolf, for example. Same goes for the eyesight. They’d be looking for similar traits in our fleet members, too.”

  Derek frowned. “So, what are you saying? That the fleet’s destruction was targeted?”

  “I would consider it a possibility, yes,” Ibrahim replied. “Most of our allies are strong and fearsome. Maybe the Perfects were instructed to not spare the weaker ones, so to speak. Or at least the ones who didn’t match his needs. Given how fast the Perfects move, along with the technology they’re using, they probably scanned the fleet before they even engaged them.”

  “We won’t know for sure until we meet with the survivors,” I said, rubbing my face with my palms. “And I don’t know when that will happen, since we’re still here, cooped up in these damn boxes—”

  The door opened with its obnoxious clang.

  We all got up. Ta’Zan came in, accompanied by Amal. He seemed calm, with a peculiar glimmer in his blue-green eyes. That was the look of contentment, and, knowing what had just happened, I felt my hatred for him bubble up to the surface. He was pleased with whatever he’d accomplished. That either meant a more advanced Perfect specimen, a large number of survivors, or both.

  “How are you all feeling?” Ta’Zan asked as he reached Derek’s glass box.

  Amal stayed behind him, quiet but observant. She held a bunch of metal collars in her arms, similar to what Derek had worn during his tour of the facility. My heart skipped a beat. Seeing so many at once meant that Ta’Zan wanted to take us somewhere. Hopefully to see the survivors.

  “Freakin’ peachy,” Lucas said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Then you’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve decided to trust Amal’s advice,” Ta’Zan replied. “Provided you’re all on your best behavior, I am willing to let you join your fleet survivors in a larger enclosure—”

  “Enclosure? What are we? Animals at a zoo?” Claudia demanded, her arms crossed.

  Ta’Zan shook his head. “You’re my most prized animals.”

  Amal stepped forward, placing a hand on Derek’s glass box. The surface rippled, then opened a hole, through which she slipped a collar. Derek took it, then stared at it for a while. Ta’Zan seemed amused as he observed his reaction.

  “I’m not a fool, Derek. I wouldn’t let any of you out if I couldn’t control you,” he said. “This is my one condition. Put the collar on, and you can be with your friends.”

  Derek looked at me, just as Amal reached my glass box and slipped another collar through for me. I took it, then frowned at her.

  “Do the smart thing,” she whispered.

  I gave Derek a brief sideways glance. He nodded, then smiled reassuringly. I put the collar on. As soon as it clicked into place, I felt the sting of a needle in the back of my neck. Derek didn’t show surprise when he fit his around his neck. He’d been through the motions, and he’d even tested its electro-shock capabilities.

  Amal gave a collar to each of the members of our crew. Once we all had them on, she took out a small remote from a hidden pocket in her white silk tunic and pressed several buttons. The front glass walls of our boxes dissolved and disappeared simultaneously.

  I held my breath, then took my first step out of my cage, for the first time since our capture.

  Looking around, I could see the others were equally surprised, their eyes wide as they stared at each other, then at Derek and me. I turned to face my husband just as he rushed over and took me in his arms. I practically melted in his embrace, bursting into tears as I breathed him in. We held each other tight for a moment, forgetting about everything else as we reveled in physical contact.

  We hadn’t been apart like this. Not in a very long time.

  Xavier and Vivienne were locked in a hug, too, as were my father and Kailyn, Lucas and Marion, Claudia and Yuri, Cameron and Liana, and Corrine and Ibrahim. We completely ignored Ta’Zan and Amal, thrilled to be able to feel one another again. We switched places and hugged in turns. Once I found myself wrapped up in my father’s arms, I took a deep breath and relaxed for what felt like an eternity. It was only a second.

  He kissed the top of my head, then cupped my face, looking at me in a most loving fashion.

  “If I have to wear this stupid thing around my neck so I can hold my daughter, I’m okay with that,” he murmured.

  I gave him a warm smile, then hugged him again, before Ta’Zan cleared his throat, demanding our attention. I would’ve loved nothing more than to close the distance between me and him and rip the spine clean from his body. But I didn’t want to spoil this upgrade in our captivity. We had work to do.

  “It’s time to go,” Ta’Zan said flatly.

  He walked over to the exit. Amal followed, motioning for us to come along. We paired up and huddled behind them as they guided us out of the cave, up the stairs, and into the white-walled part of the underground—it was all lush and pristine, just like Derek had described it.

  We saw other Faulties buzzing around like busy bees, pushing food and linen carts around, while others cleaned the open operating rooms that we passed by. I got queasy and gripped Derek’s hand at the sight of blood.

  “We’ve managed to rescue about six-hundred of your people,” Ta’Zan said, glancing at me over his shoulder. He’d noticed my expression, for sure. “Just in case you thought I am some kind of monster.”

  “You still killed two-hundred of our people,” Claudia retorted. “You think you’re better than all of us, and you’re willing to murder millions to prove that point. No matter how you spruce yourself up, Ta’Zan, you are a monster.”

  “We have different perceptions of the world, Claudia,” Ta’Zan replied.

  “Yeah, we don’t kill innocent creatures. That certainly makes us different,” Derek said.

  A moment passed in awkward silence as we followed Ta’Zan and Amal through the long hallway. We were all furious, but we couldn’t do anything against him—not just because of the collars, but also because we didn’t know how to dismantle this rapidly growing empire of indestructible creatures that he was building. We were in over our heads, and we had to find the weaknesses first.

  Amal opened a side do
or for us. As soon as we set foot inside, we all stilled.

  I felt the grass tickling my feet. The soft and cool ground.

  Sunshine warmed me up, but it didn’t burn me. For the first second, however, I thought that was it. I expected to watch my skin sizzle as sunlight swallowed me whole and destroyed me. But that never came to pass.

  We were inside a circular, domed structure made entirely from diamond. It was big, spanning about half a mile in diameter, with hundreds of sleeping spaces lining the opposite side of where we stood. There were about six-hundred creatures inside, all dressed in white robes. I exhaled, realizing that I was looking at our people.

  “The diamond structure filters the sunlight. You can now enjoy the daylight without burning up,” Ta’Zan said. “Consider this a perk of your new accommodations.”

  The survivors of our GASP fleet spotted us and rushed over. Ta’Zan calmly stayed back by the door with Amal. I quickly recognized a few familiar faces in the mixed crowd of supernatural species. Jax, Hansa, Varga, Heath, Jovi, Anjani, Ori, and Thadeus were the first to reach us, joined by dozens of young vampires from The Shade, several witches and warlocks from the Supernatural Dimension, as well as werewolves and Adlets, Manticores, Maras, Dhaxanians, Bajangs, fae, and daemons… Ibrahim’s assessment was beginning to sound more and more probable, given that the majority of the survivors were, in fact, some of the strongest warriors we usually sent ahead on missions.

  Relief washed over me when I didn’t see any of my immediate family in here. But that was quickly gone when I thought of those who had died in the attack. Jax was the first to give me a smile and a nod, to then fill me with relief. “None of yours died up there, Sofia,” he said.

  Hansa threw her arms around me and held me tight, hiding her face in my loosened hair and taking a deep breath. “Dammit, you have no idea how good it is to see you!”