Chapter Six

Vega heard people moving in the hall, and the cannula in her nose itched. She tried to lift her hand to paw at the tube, but someone held her down. She opened her eyes and tensed as a gold gaze stared into her soul.

Vega looked around wildly for Eon, but she was gone.

“She is going to get something to eat. She has been with you for hours. Someone poisoned you.”

Vega closed her eyes and remembered ordering two shooters, being distracted by a man who was asking her about the dancer on stage. When Arkus had been occupying her, she hadn’t gotten any attention, so she thought the question was genuine. Now, she felt like an idiot.

“Yes. I remember the shots, and then everything went black.” She wiggled her fingers slowly, but he didn’t let go. She met his gaze again. “Why are you here?”

“You ran, and I found you. I understand your upset, but this form was chosen with you in mind. I recall that you found it pleasing.” He smiled.

Her stomach flipped. That night, she had been playing with AI and the ladies had been choosing their perfect guys. He was currently wearing the skin of the fantasy figure. Her body’s reaction had been violent and unmistakable. She hadn’t gotten aroused since Arkus took possession of her, so her reaction had been noticed.

She swallowed. “It is a very nice form.” There was no denying it. Her blood was still on fire from what she had been dosed with. She could smell her own heat.

“Thank you. You have had a rough night.”

“Yeah. Any idea when I can get out of here?”

“After Eon returns, they will tell you. Your body did not like the substance in your drinks.”

“Serves me right for trying for five minutes of freedom.” Vega tried to get her fingers free again, but he was holding the hand with the IV.

“I understood the impulse.” He smiled, and it was a stunning smile. “You did not know what picking up that charm would do.”

“Having it absorb into my skin was a bit of a surprise.”

He kissed her hand. “I know. I felt it when I rushed into you.”

She swallowed and whispered, “You have a great new body. He can handle your energy. Women will be falling over themselves to be with you. Why not just go and do that?”

“I have lived a life and sought pleasure, sought adoration, and sought companionship. It gets boring. I am seeking a partner, and I am seeing you.”

Vega felt a wave of sadness flow over her. “I can’t.”

He was undeterred. “Why not?”

“I am supposed to fulfill a family duty very soon. I am not going to be around very long.” She blinked away tears. “No sense in starting a future when you don’t have one.”

He kissed her hand. “I don’t understand.”

“My appearance is an anomaly. When the first child of my family is ready to be born, the anomaly must sacrifice itself hopefully to purge our line of the situation.” She used her free hand and found the bed control. She slowly sat up.

“There will be no sacrifice.” He continued to hold her hand, but the frown on his face was intense.

“Sure, there will. If I don’t, I will miss being included in the life-song of my new niece or nephew.”

He blinked. “Life-song? You are a dwarf?” He looked her up and down.

“You were in my head. I thought you knew.”

“Your people here are average-sized.”

“My family is either pleased to have me or not at all. Since you were inside me, they began reacting strangely to me. You never noticed?”

“No. I allowed you privacy with your family.”

“How generous of you. Well, yes. I am the only average-sized person in my family and my community, so I live in town and just send funds home.” She looked at him. “The shower was the first time I had actually been home in four years.”

“I didn’t realize.”

“Yeah, well, because things were going the way they were, I have been setting up my businesses and investments to continue on after my death.”

“Why death?”

“My continued health is an affront to the community. I can’t continue to have health and wealth away from the community. It takes away from them somehow.”

He nodded. “Or the average community members brought attention to them, which made them vulnerable.”

“Yes, well, this is a tradition that my family has asked me to uphold, and I said yes.”

“Why?” His stroking fingers moved up the inside of her arm, caressing her between elbow and wrist.

Vega looked at him. “You know why.”

He looked at her seriously and continued to stroke her skin. “Because of me.”

She nodded. “Yeah. You were driving me crazy. Literally. When they offered me the chance to die, I agreed to take it.”

He looked at her in shock. “You didn’t give any indication of being despondent.”

“I couldn’t. You immediately took over, and we went out to do something fun.” She shrugged. “Anytime I went quiet, you took over. I was exhausted.”

“I looked for a new body.”

“I know. But five years of my life were gone. Five years where I could have found someone or even just figured out dating. The only thing that made it bearable was that my friends were with me. Now that Livia is free and Hari is with the governor, it is just me and Eon, and she can have a guy whenever she wants. You got a new body, and now I am on my own.” She smiled sadly. “Don’t get a swelled head, but I feel hollow.”

He held her hand tightly. “Anything I can say will sound lewd.”

She chuckled. “I know. Anyway, the sacrifice is soon, and I have everything arranged. You even have a starter fund set up on the off chance we could find you a body. Don’t worry. I wasn’t counting on you getting the form of a forest god.”

He blinked. “You put aside provisions for me?”

“Sure. My family has enough. My friends are taken care of. I may as well make sure you are set up for whatever you are doing next.” She smiled. “Eon has luck; I have money.”

“When are you doing the ritual?”

“What day is today?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She blinked. “Get a nurse?”

He reached out and pushed a button next to her shoulder. A nurse came in with a flush to her cheeks, and she said, “Yes?”

Vega smiled slightly. “What day is today, please?”

“Wednesday the sixth. How are you feeling?”

“Like I have been paved, and my bones have been replaced with ribbons. I am also rather thirsty.”

The nurse smirked. “Didn’t you get enough to drink last night?”

Vega blinked and tried not to tear up. “I had two drugged shots. Two drinks in five fucking years.”

The nurse grabbed the chart off the bed, blinked, and said, “I’ll get you something to drink.”

Vega blinked and thumbed away her tears with her unencumbered hand. “So, everybody thinks that I just got alcohol poisoning last night?”

Arkus shook his head. “No. She must have just come on shift.”

He stood up, walked around, and joined her on the bed, cuddling around her. Vega started crying when she felt how good it was to be held. Wednesday. It was Wednesday. Tomorrow, she was going to do what her community demanded. Tomorrow, she was going to jump into the earth.

They were curled together when a different person came in with a jug and a cup with a straw. “Here you go, miss. I don’t know why it wasn’t here to start with.”

Vega sniffled. “Thank you.”

Arkus smoothed her hair from her forehead and kissed the top of her ear.

She whispered, “Why did you pick that form, and where the hell is Eon?”

“You know why I chose it. You reacted very strongly, and after I came to understand that it wasn’t an actual being that I could take over, I made plans to remake someone.”

“Why?”

“You know why.” He exhaled softly near her ear, and there was a rumble like a diesel engine that ran through every place they touched.

“What is that?” Her eyes were wide as she tried to ease away from him.

“You like cats, so I am purring.” He chuckled.

“I... that was one story, and he wasn’t really a cat.”

“I am not really a human. It is all fine. I never dreamed of insight into my mate.”

“Not your mate,” she mumbled. She was exhausted after the emotional outburst, and he was so warm that he wasn’t helping her ability to stay awake.

He leaned over her, picked up the cup with the straw, and held it to her lips.

She sipped the cool water, and when he put it on the table, she said, “You didn’t know any of this stuff when I picked up that stupid shiny thing.”

“I know, but I learned. I watched every book, movie, and meeting that I could. I was with you for five years, and aside from leaving you to your family and friends, I watched everything.”

Vega sighed. “I figured it out and stopped a few things.”

“It was disappointing, but I noticed that as well.” He hugged her. “You must be frustrated.”

“No, that was the first thing I did when you weren’t behind my eyes. The shots were the second.”

He chuckled. “I am sorry that I missed it. So, when do you head home to your family?”

“Tomorrow.”

He froze. “What? What kind of ritual is this?”

“I hike up a hill and jump off a cliff. The landing area guarantees a lack of survival options. Spikey rocks and flowing water.”

“What is the purpose of it?”

“Well, if I am to survive, our god will catch me and save me from myself. He has yet to show up.”

He held her close. “What is his name?”

“The priests don’t tell us.”

“Of course not.” He was tense. “So, you are going to die for a nameless god?”

“I am going to die for my family so that my sister’s child has a better position in their society.”

“Does it have to be tomorrow?”

“Yes. Why?”

He pressed his lips to her temple, and she felt a wave of power go through her, and then everything faded to black.

Vega pressed a hand to her forehead, and she felt tabs and wires connected to her scalp with more on her chest. Eon was sitting next to her with a worried expression.

“What happened?”

“You started seizing. They said it was a reaction to the drugs.” Eon looked like she wasn’t convinced. “You seem to be stable, but you were out for quite a while.”

“What day is it?”

“Friday. Why?”

“Where is my phone?”

“I just finished charging it. I kept it off. It was going crazy yesterday.” Eon got up and delivered it.

Vega held the phone, and tears hit the screen. “Oh.”

“Arkus said he had things to do today, but the staff said that if you remained stable and the last bloodwork came out clean, I could take you home today.” Eon smiled. “It’s been a few hours, so the results should be here shortly. I will see if I can get someone to remove the leads.”

Eon left, and Vega watched her phone cycle on, and the messages were in alarming, and her voice mail was full. She set her phone to speaker and listened to her sister sobbing at the curse that had been put on the unborn. Her mother cursed at her. The village head called her a disgrace. Friends from childhood called her a coward.

She sat and let the tears fall as everyone in her hometown took turns calling her a pathetic and useless coward.

Eon came in and stared at her as the screaming and invectives were playing out through the phone.

It continued until the final message. “Uh, Vega. We are all very sorry for the messages we have left. Please accept our apologies for the phone calls.” The village leader’s voice was strangled.

Vega stared at the phone, and then she started scrolling through the vile and vitriolic emails that also came to a sudden halt at seven in the morning on Friday.

Eon asked, “Vega, what happened?”

“I was supposed to participate in a religious event yesterday, and instead, I was twitching and foaming in here. My family and their friends were... upset.” She set her phone down and started clawing at her leads to get them off.

The door burst open, and Vega’s wrists ended up cuffed to the rails on the bed. She was screaming and fighting against the restraints.

Hands held her arm, and an injection sent cold-hot through her veins, and she slumped, still sobbing. Eon came up to her and wiped her eyes and cheeks with a wet cloth.

“Is this because you no longer have him in your head?”

Vega sobbed. “No. I was supposed to die yesterday for the betterment of the community.”

Eon paused. “What?”

“I am the abnormal one in the community, so when the next baby is getting ready to be born, I have to die so that the child can be brought into a homogenous community without knowing that the world is different until much later.” Vega dragged in a calming breath. The drug was rolling through her system, and she felt dazed and sluggish. “What did they give me?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“There are things that dwarfs are allergic to, and my skin feels hot, cold, and prickly all at once. Looks like I might end here after all.” Her vision was blurry, and she saw Eon slam the button as she started yelling as Vega’s throat started closing, and lights sparked behind her lids as her instincts fought to get air into her lungs.

There was more shouting, more injections, and then a period of stillness when she finally was able to take a whole breath.

Panting came next, and her skin was covered in hives when she was able to see her arms again. There was an oxygen mask on her face, and the cuffs had been removed.

Vega was soaked in sweat, and she looked at her friend. “So, I am thinking that keeping him in might have been the safer option.”

Eon stroked her hair in concern. “He’s on his way back.”

“Fucking hell. I wonder what’s going to happen next. I think I am just going to burst into fucking flames.”

The doctor next to her bed said, “Why didn’t you mention that you were born a dwarf?”

“No one has spoken to me. It’s in my insurance file, my medical histories, and I am pretty sure it is on the bracelet on my fucking wrist.”

The medical staff looked stunned, and in her swollen skin on her wrist, there was the icon of the dwarf nation, even clear to Vega’s blurry eyes.

Vega pointed at her neck with sausage fingers. “Oh, and the mark on my neck.”

One of the nurses muttered, “I thought it was a partner tattoo.”

The doctor growled. “Not on the right side. Partners go on the left for every registered species.”

Vega muttered, “Student?”

The doctor shook his head. “No, just an idiot who doesn’t realize that three percent of the dwarf community is of average size.”

Eon asked, “What happens to that three percent?”

A new voice spoke from the doorway. “Adoptive parents are found in the average human community where the children thrive. When they are teens, they are put back in touch with their community. Vega was one of the few we could not find a placement for.”

Vega’s blurry eyes made out the distinctive shape of the village elder. She looked at her, and through her raw voice, she said, “Get out, Elder.”

There was a harumph, and the elder ignored her and walked into the room to stand next to her. “So, they tried a hypnotic.”

Vega kept her mouth shut, and the doctor chipped in, “Yes, ma’am. We had no idea that she was dwarf-born.”

Vega turned her head and said to the medical staff, “You do not have my permission to speak about any medical issues to anyone here but me. Fuck it, I am getting out of here.”

The doctor said, “That will be against medical advice.”

“What? You haven’t given me the plague yet? Is that next on the dance card?” She pulled off her mask and fought for air again. She put the mask back on and said, “Have the paperwork for me in an hour.”

The doctor stared at her. “You really need to have more tests run.”

“Listen, the entire building is full of things that are poison to me. I don’t want to be here. I also don’t want visitors that aren’t Eon.”

A low rumble from the door said, “Not even me?”

“Fuck off, Arkus. Don’t think that I don’t know that it is you who shorted me out for a day and a half.”

He walked in and gripped her hand. She yelped and flinched. He asked, “What did they do to you?”

The elder said, “They gave her a hypnotic. We don’t do well with them.”

She looked to the side, and everyone was busy staring at Arkus.

That was it. She wrenched her arm away, climbed over the railing, and as a last act, she pulled off her mask and removed the IV. Everyone watched her as she staggered for the door.

There was a roaring in her ears as she pulled the door open, and when it closed behind her and she was looking for the elevator, her absence seemed to have spurred them to action.

Arkus picked her up and carried her back to the bed. He continued to hold her, and to her surprise, the elder was stripping the bed.

Eon brought bedding in from somewhere, and the elder moved rapidly around the bed. When it was made, Arkus settled her and kissed her softly. “What happened to your everborn skills?”

She spoke in a strangled tone. “They attached to you and left when you did.”

The elder asked, “So, you knew you were a dwarf-born human, and you were going to jump?”

“Sure. I mean. If you hand me my phone, you can see how much my community wanted me to.”

“A few of our more zealous members mention contacting you.”

“Nearly a dozen voicemails and over a hundred and twenty emails. I haven’t checked the texts.”

The elder stared at the phone. “Open it for me, Vega. I am sorry for my earlier message, but I was under stress.”

Vega sighed and used her thumb. The elder began to flick through the emails.

Arkus put the oxygen mask on her again. “Why did you give it to me?”

“I thought you could use it.” She sighed. “I thought I could just be normal now.”

“I am more than capable of keeping myself alive, and you have never been normal.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, and look at me now.” She waved at her body while the elder’s features got darker and darker as she went through the emails.

Her hives were settling into a surface mottling that looked gross. Being everborn had kept her from being affected by that kind of thing until now. It was a sudden thud to the ground for her ego now that she lacked protection. She was going to have to adapt to her new life quickly. She now had a normal life and death ahead of her.

Arkus looked her over, nodded, and slid a hand behind her neck, removing the oxygen mask.

Vega was shocked when he lifted her for a kiss, and she saw light flare between them. Her birthright returned to her with a soft stroke of his tongue, and he slowly let her settle back against the pillow.

She felt her own energy settling inside her again, and her skin began to feel normal almost instantly. She blinked. “You didn’t have to do that. I had a plan.”

Arkus’s hand remained on her neck. “I didn’t like your plan, Vega. I prefer mine.”

The elder murmured, “Agree to him, Vega. It’s for the best.”

Vega turned to her grandmother. “You have no pull with me. Not after what you said. As you stated when I was growing up, you have to watch your words because they will burrow in memory.”

Arkus sighed. “It will take time for the wounds to heal.”

“Knowing your entire community of family, friends, and people you grew up with want you dead is humbling, and having many expose how much they hate you is infuriating.”

Her grandmother looked at her and sighed. “They were scared. Scared for your sister, scared for our future children. The power in your body was supposed to be returned to the village.”

“You would have all been blown open if this happened five days ago.”

Her grandmother nodded. “I know, Vega.”

Vega flinched. Not once had she gotten the title her sister had. Granddaughter. “Why are you here, Elder?”

“Because words were said, and Arkusarian explained who you are to him. I wanted to make amends, Vega.”

“Great. Consider the message delivered.” Vega rubbed her forehead. “Will this make it easier?”

She focused, and the mark of the village burned and then disappeared from her neck. “Now it is no longer a concern.”

Arkus murmured, “Vega.”

“What? They were concerned because I was part of the village and I was making them look bad in your eyes, and now that is no longer an issue.” She stroked her neck. “All gone.”

Her grandmother paled. “Vega, you didn’t need to do that.”

“I think I did. When you blame my mother and console your other granddaughter, remember that I have no family titles, allegiances, or friends among your family and people.”

Her grandmother reached out for her hand. “Vega. We need you.”

“The trusts for education and development are in place and will continue for a few generations. By then, another one of my kind will probably have appeared. If I am still around, I will adopt them to keep them free of you. Your society may remain pure. Miners and craftsmen to the end.”

The elder stepped back. “Vega.”

“Have I ever been your granddaughter? I just need to know before you leave.”

Arkus looked at her and then at the elder. “Ah. This explains so much.”

“Vega.”

“Elder. I believe your work here is done. Please hand me my phone.”

Arkus nodded. “We will speak later, Iony.”

The elder left, and Vega sighed, rubbing her forehead and looking at her phone. All the vicious messages had been deleted, and her trash had been emptied. It was a good thing she had forwarded them to her other account then. It was handy to keep track of those who wished you dead, raped, and tortured.

Arkus exhaled. “I am sorry I brought her. Can you rest?”

“Yeah.”

“When you wake, we will leave and have a much-needed conversation. Zerul has connected me with a car service.”

She looked at him. “I don’t want to stay here. Bad things happen here. I want to go home.”

Eon opened the door. “I’ve got the paperwork.”

Arkus asked, “Did you get any clothing for her?”

“The bag by the door.”

Vega nodded. “Thanks, Eon.”

Arkus handed her the bag, and she stripped down and then pulled on the sweatsuit and sneakers. Vega was dressed when the nurse came in, and she signed off on her medical care.

She took the purse she had come in with that Eon had kept close. She hugged her friend and then headed for the door. She was done with this place. She wanted to be home. Her home. Her place. Her sanctuary.

Arkus offered her his arm, and she held it as their trio left the hospital and went their separate ways. A car pulled up, and Arkus put her inside before climbing in next to her. They were soon on their way to the apartment. She wanted to sleep in her own bed and wake up without anything weird happening. She felt it was a small ask.