Page 57 of Repossess My Heart

My forehead creases. “What’s a reactor?”

“It is the energy source that powers this world. The bottom and middle levels have them and they operate using nuclear energy.” His drone answers for him with its monotone voice clear above the sound its attachment makes as it presses staples into Nine’s upper thigh. His body is dirty, smeared with blood, but he’s all sex. Even now. I press my thighs tightly together, trying to put my thoughts elsewhere.

Being horny while talking about the senseless slaughter of thousands is low, even for me.

“So that’s why we were in the down. You blew up the reactors there?”

Nine blinks rapidly, clearing his vision, “Not quite sweetling. I blew up the machines that operated the cooling rods for the reactors. In time, it will cause a meltdown in the core.”

I frown, forcing my eyes not to stray below his chiseled face, unwilling to be caught up in his sculpted scarred chest, “Why not just blow the whole thing? It seems pretty simple.”

He smirks and fuck his full lips for looking like that. Everything inside me feels wrong… raw and needy. Desperate and yearning for something only he can offer. I swallow hard. My pulse jumps because it does that a lot now. I want something from Nine-

Nathan.

I want something from him, but it’s got nothing to do with death. Nothing at all.

“It’s anything but simple. I want a big boom, sure, that’s the end goal, but if I had started out with the main event, the Down would’ve only done what it’s designed to do. See, the creators of our world were smart, that’s why there are no reactors topside. We live in a cylinder,” My eyes widen as he lifts his wrist displaying a layout of all three levels, “Going big in the beginning would’ve had little effect on the Below and no effect Above, aside from a pesky power crisis. Each layer is designed to better the next. Each layer was designed to keep the topside in a perpetual state of butt fucking bliss. No matter what happens below, they come out on top.” He shakes his head before he continues, “We’re below the water. They are all stuck in their pretty castles up top, on land.”

The holo changes, showing me the reactors. I frown, annoyed by my own lack of understanding, “So we get into the Officials’ headquarters make the next reactors hot and then… wait?”

“No sweetling, we blow those up. The people that built this place were smart, but they’d never factored in a chained meltdown. By the time the reactors in the Down are ready to pop, I’ll be taking care of the reactors in the middle. Instead of blowing up, they’ll blow Down. That pretty little island above, the one that controls their world, will have nothing to rest on.”

“Everyone there will drown…”

“Everyone there will be lucky to drown. Some will flee to other land masses, but those aren’t as hospitable as they were in the old days. Those down here will be blasted to bits. Nobody left to run their machines. If anyone makes it up from the Down, it’ll be radiation poisoning that gets them. I don’t plan on making it out of the blast, but if I do, that’s what’ll take me as well.”

“And me… how do I fit into all this?”

He swipes away his drone as he heaves up from the bed, the holo projection from his wrist fizzling out as he stalks towards me. My back straightens as he approaches, wrenching my legs apart to settle between them. “You Reverie need only to stay by my side until I’m finished. Dead or otherwise.”

I shake my head, trying and failing to keep free of his hands as they capture my face, “I want nothing to do with the needless deaths of thousands of people. It’s not their fault, none of it.”

“Do you really have a part in it if your only contribution is keeping my cock wet?”

“Nine, I’m serious… I don’t want that.”

His jaw clenches as his grip on my face tightens, although not painfully, angling my chin up towards him. “You can’t stop me.”

“You don’t have to do this. There’s other ways-“

“We both know that’s idealistic bullshit. There’s no fixing this world.”

“What about all the kids-“

“A mercy killing.”

“You disgust me.” I breathe out, my breath fanning his face as he leans in, brushing his nose against mine. It’s such an intimate gesture it forces my skin to break out in goosebumps. “You broke every promise. I just wanted to-“

“Feel something.”

“Die.” I spit back, trying and failing again to get away from him.

“Do you, Reverie… do you feel something?”

My breath hitches in my throat as he jerks my top down, exposing my breasts to the cool, damp air. “What does it matter?”

“What if I told you it did matter? What if I told you, it could save the world…” he whispers against my skin, dragging his lips down the column of my neck until he reaches my peaked nipples.

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