Page 71 of Vicious
It seemed as though whoever was pulling the marionette strings of those with Mind-Is had been busy. Had areas already been infected with the consumectalon parasites to drive the hybrids into a killingspree?
“That’s good that you removed yours,” Isaid.
Moon leaned forward and placed her hand on my knee, her dark gaze imploring. “Tellus.”
And so I did. I told them about the hauntedViciousship, about being kidnapped to the Black by the Saelis, and my ghost magnet ability that helped me learn the truth behind the Black War’s cause. My abilities were especially hard to explain since I should’ve told Moon the truth a long time ago. But she and Franco listened without judgement, barely breathing, and riveted to every word. I only told them what they needed to know right then, but left out the parts about Randolph and the baby growing inside me. Neither seemed appropriate right then with the coming war. Or maybe I was just a coward and couldn’t face those truths quiteyet.
“Holy shit,” Franco said when I’d finished. His face had drained his natural tan about fifteen minutes ago. “I mean… Holyshit.”
“The Iron Maiden,” Moon breathed. “I—I knew there was an explanation behind it, but… Ghosts have attacked you your wholelife?”
Inodded.
Franco dragged his hand through his chestnut hair that brushed his shoulders and exhaled. “The Saelis are here. As hybrids. And more are coming? As in, the realSaelis?”
“Yes, if they’re not already here,” Isaid.
Moon blinked at me, her mouth working on her next words for several seconds, and then, “We saw the video ofyou.”
I frowned. “Well, then you knew all of thisalready.”
“Hardly.” She shook her head hard, trying to rattle something loose. “I still don’t think it wasyou.”
“Oh, it was definitely me.” In fact, my video had starred two ofme.
Her eyes widened as if I’d said the wrong thing. “Then why would anyone believe you,Absidy?”
“Okay, sure, I’m wanted for murder and don’t exactly come across as sane on my best days, but…” Wait. The doppelganger had said it’d made a video of me and had sent it to the Ring Guild. “Which video are you talkingabout?”
“How many videos are there of you?” Moon asked, her voice shrilling. “The one with you and the crates, but it didn’t look like you. Itwasn’tyou.”
Maybe it wasn’t. I dug in my pocket for Nesbit’s Mind-I and flicked the button so it projected on blank space on the wall above the television. I’d brought it with me in case they hadn’t seen the one video IknewI wasin.
“Show me,” Isaid.
Once Moon found it, we sat back to watch. The video showed the cargo room on theVicious. It had been filmed from high above, likely from the air vent near the ceiling where the doppelganger had climbed out. The Mind-I camera bobbed—I assumed that was what it used to film—but it clearly showed me creeping into the room and facing the stacks of crates. Then I smashed my boot into one of the boxes, took a consumectalon cylinder, and whirled around to face the camera. I gripped the cylinder tight in an arm marked by gray scales, my lips peeled back in a moment of pure panic. At least, that was how I remembered it as an image of my Pop had climbed out of the wall. But here, it looked different. Murderous. The most unnerving thing about the video, though, was how the overhead light reflected back in my eyes, making them appear a luminous green. Just like theSaelis’s.
The video cut to my wanted picture, the very same one Mase had taped to the window screen above his bed. I recognized the angle. It cut again to a policeman standing behind apodium.
“It is unknown what the substance this fugitive is carrying, but the ship she’s on is said to be heading to Mayvel by her last known coordinates. Our Mayvel team has analyzed this video and confirmed it hasn’t been tampered with, but it’s unclear as to what this woman’s skin and eye condition is. We can only assume that this is the result of the contents of that cylinder, but as of now, we’re treating this as a real bioterrorist threat. The suspect is already wanted for questioning for two murders. She should be considered armed and extremelydangerous.”
All the air left my body as if I’d been punched in the gut. Ghost magnet. Murderer. Fugitive. Bioterrorist. I’d never wanted to be any of these things. The video had been twisted to cast me as the villain, but I’d come here to save us from the Saelis, not help them. And yet the ship with the cylinders was here on Mayvel, proof that I was also here should anyone find it. So how was I supposed to convince humanity of the threat they should be concerned about whenIwas the badguy?
“It’s not real,” Moon whispered, her dark eyes shining with tears. “Isit?”
“The message isn’t real. But that was really me.” With a sigh, I laid Jezebel’s sleeping form beside me and took off my coat, watching Moon’s reaction as I revealed my scaled arm and hands. “This is realtoo.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks as she shook her head, the ends of her black hair swaying across herchin.
Franco rubbed both hands down his face. “What does itmean?”
“It means the hundreds of Saelis female ghosts I invited into me didn’t cross over. I guess. I’m kind of new at this whole inhaling ghosts thing.” I took in both their expressions, thankfully not seeing signs of revulsion, but like they might level up to that point soon if I didn’t plead my case more. Maybe I was projecting my fears and my own disgust with myself onto them, but I needed them firmly planted on my side. I couldn’t do this without them. “Let me show you anothervideo.”
Soon, another image of me in the cargo room projected onto the wall. This time, I forced myself to watch, to see it as if I hadn’t experienced it. Me, monologuing about the Saelises’ plans, then a cut scene of the teralinguas crowded my path as I waded through them. My hair had been much shorter then, but it was still me, throwing terrified glances over my shoulder. Doctor Daryl filmed my hurried, yet still impossibly slow, progress with his Mind-I as he circled the room, tapping the walls because of his OCD tendencies, before fully intending to murder me. Blood matted his hair, and his crazy eyes glowedgreen.
“I smelled it. Iwantit. I’ll cut you open and slurp it from your insides,” heshouted.
He was almost upon a door I’d been headed away from when it crashed open, and a snarl floated out of the darkness. Black smoke boiled into three finger-like tendrils on either side of the titanium doorway. Its sides bowed outward violently as if shovedapart.
