Chapter Twenty-eight
“Land usss in the hidden passageway of the Command Complex,” the AllFather directed as their ship approached the dark gray-green world that was the Scourge home planet.
“As you wish,” Xairn said tightly. He was struggling to keep his emotions in check—at least until he could get away from his father. After Sanja’s death, he had felt hollow inside—empty…emotionless. And he had assumed he would never feel anything ever again. But after his last exchange with Lauren, something was stirring within him—something dark and sinister. Something too frightening to face.
Then don’t face it. Push it down. Ignore it!
Trying to follow his own advice, Xairn piloted the ship through the layers of atmosphere until they were just skimming over the surface of the black, oily sea. Once, so he’d been told, this immense ocean had been teeming with life—from tiny, delicate fire fish no bigger than a fingernail to the huge purple-green leviathans, larger than the Fathership. But they were all gone—extinct for hundreds of years. Nothing lived in the vast oily waste now but a few hearty strains of algae that had adapted to the chemicals and pollutants which had poisoned the rest of the marine life.
Finally the brown shore of the beach came into view and shortly after that, the old battlefield and the towering edifice of the Command Complex. Xairn knew the dirty gray towers soaring into the soot-smudged sky were mostly for show. The majority of the Complex was located underground, in a sprawling warren of tunnels.
Xairn had been to the home world—called Zlicth in the Scourge tongue—only once before in his life. But he remembered the visit vividly and had no problem finding the hidden passageway around the back of the Complex. It was so well camouflaged that a person walking on the ground would have fallen into it before they saw it. Xairn guided the ship in smoothly and flew through the tunnel until he came to the back entrance of the large building.
“Very good.” The AllFather nodded. “When we disssembark, lock the girl in a holding cell in the medical wing.”
“What of you, father? What of your peak?” Xairn hoped his voice didn’t come out sounding strained. He didn’t want the AllFather to have any idea of the newfound emotions churning inside him.
“It isss not yet upon me. I must ssspend time in my Sssouda. A few hoursss or perhapsss a little longer and I ssshall be ready to breed her.”
Xairn’s hands clenched into fists but he only nodded his head. “As you wish. I will see to the girl but what of your guard?”
“They ssshall come with me.” The AllFather nodded to the four massive soldiers who were crammed into the back of the ship. They had been crouching there, unmoving for hours in what looked like extremely uncomfortable positions, but none of them had complained. In fact, none of them said anything at all. They just sat there, staring straight ahead with dead black eyes.
Soulless, Xairn thought. That’s what Lauren thinks of them. Maybe they are. Maybe the vat grown are devoid of real consciousness. Or else they hide their emotions even better than I do.
Of course, up until a few hours before, he hadn’t had any emotions to hide. Now he was full of them—some old, hatred for his father, despair for his joyless life—but some new as well. When he remembered how Lauren had looked, naked and defiant as she offered herself to him, feelings stirred inside him which didn’t bear thinking about.
If Father finds out I have feelings again, that he can feed on me… Have to get away from him. Get away and stay away as much as possible.
It was his only thought as he watched the AllFather descend from the ship, aided by his Alpha guard. He still seemed stiff and weak but the moment he stepped foot on the ground, he lifted his hooded face and took a deep breath of the dank, fetid air. “Home at lassst.” The words hissed from his lipless mouth and he turned glowing red-on-black eyes to Xairn. “Sssee to the girl. Do not bother me unlesss I sssend for you.”
“Yes, Father.” Xairn nodded briefly and was relieved when the AllFather turned to go.
“Xairn.”
He jerked as his father hissed his name. “Yes?”
“The control wand. Give it to me.” One skeletal hand emerged from the shadowy depths of the AllFather’s robe, palm up. “Just in case you get any ideasss.”
Struggling to maintain a blank expression, Xairn did as he was told. Pulling the tiny silver control wand from the instrument panel, he dropped it into his father’s hand. Without it the ship could not be started or steered—without it, he was stuck on this planet with no choice but to do his father’s will. Of course I’m going to do his will. What else would I do? Take Lauren and fly away with her? Xairn shook his head. Just the fact that he’d even had such a thought proved that he was becoming more and more unstable.
The Allfather’s burning crimson eyes narrowed. “Are you well, my ssson?”
“Perfectly, Father.” Xairn stared straight ahead. “Hadn’t you better get to your Souda?”
“I ssshall indeed. And I will keep thisss with me at all timesss.” The silver control wand disappeared into the folds of the AllFather’s shadowy robes. Then, surrounded by his four huge guards, he glided away.
Xairn gave them plenty of time to enter the Complex, watching as the massive plasti-steel doors rolled inward silently and then shut behind them. When he was sure they were gone, he sighed in relief. At least now that his father was out of the immediate vicinity, he could stop worrying about the AllFather sensing the new emotions churning in his gut.
Emotions he could neither defend nor deny—and all of them centered on Lauren.