A Dome of Blood Read online

  Two yards farther back was my gun. I locked on to it and made it my mission to get back there and retrieve it. I’d failed to kill Jakkhiel before, and I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

  I exhaled and relieved myself of any fear or doubt, then jumped higher on the tree, one branch at a time, until I reached the top. The dusky sky was red, with thin patches of orange clouds that seemingly stretched forever, above a turquoise ocean sprinkled with hundreds of islands in this one atoll. This place was a paradise, a work of art. My home. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let the likes of Jakkhiel take it from me.

  My torso hurt, pain flashing red hot through me whenever I moved, but I couldn’t stop.

  “Come on, Araquiel,” I whispered. “Get a move on, already…”

  The moment we’d get Araquiel’s signal, we were all due to retreat and lose the hostiles, as the colosseum would finally explode and, hopefully, come crashing down. That was going to be enough to stop additional guards from coming to Jakkhiel’s aid, for sure.

  A roar shot through the woods. One of mine. My stomach churned. I didn’t know whether it signified victory or a bloody loss. I’d led these people here. In many ways, I was responsible for them. Their deaths were going to be embedded in my conscience, but the more of them I could bring to victory and freedom, the better I’d feel and the more chances for our species to survive and thrive in the future.

  I made a risky jump from one treetop to another. I coughed from the searing pain as I wrapped my arms around the slim trunk. Two seconds later, I reached another top. Then another. By the seventh jump, I looked down and breathed a sigh of relief. Jakkhiel wasn’t close. Concern then wiggled its tail into my thoughts. I couldn’t see him.

  “That can’t be good,” I mumbled.

  The wood exploded next to my face. Splinters jumped out. Some pierced my skin.

  I instinctively shut my eyes and jumped back. A split second later, I was freefalling from an alarming height. Jakkhiel came down after me. The bastard had almost blown my head off!

  I grabbed on to the nearest branch, the bark scratching my palms. The branch gave out with a heartbreaking snap. This just wasn’t my lucky day.

  “Now, you die!” Jakkhiel snarled as he hopped from branch to branch, descending after me.

  My landing was slightly softened by my multiple attempts to hold on to something on my way down, but blood had gotten into my eyes, and my arms were a tad weak from all the climbing. I was probably bleeding internally, too—or I’d bruised an organ or two, at the very best. It was getting increasingly difficult for me to physically function at a level that would allow me to survive this fight.

  I hit the ground hard enough to get the air knocked out of my lungs. Ashes burst out from beneath me in grayish clouds. I groaned from the pain, but the adrenaline and my will to live didn’t let me succumb.

  Glancing up, I saw that Jakkhiel was approaching, his claws out and a hungry sneer slitting his face.

  He was eager to tear me apart and splatter me across the jungle.

  I couldn’t let him win. I’d endured enough from him during the first days of Ta’Zan’s so-called ideal society. He’d kicked me, he’d humiliated me, and he’d murdered one of my best friends. Of course, he’d claimed it was an accident, but Jakkhiel was as vicious and as evil as Abaddon and many other Perfects who’d gotten drunk on their own power.

  No, I couldn’t let him end this here. Not now. Not like this.

  Fate smiled upon me. My pulverizer weapon was just a couple of feet away. I cried out in agony as I managed to extend a hand to reach it. My fingers caught the nozzle just as Jakkhiel jumped on the last branch—a mere second away from finishing me off.

  One second. That’s all I get.

  Jakkhiel came down, his claws long and sharp and craving my flesh. The look of impending victory on his face quickly morphed into one of dread. I’d never seen the color drain from someone’s face so fast.

  I fired the pulverizer pellet.

  Poof.

  Jakkhiel was a puff of ashes, momentarily suspended in the air.

  One breath. Another. The third was equally painful, but at least I was still alive. The ocean breeze blew through the jungle and sent Jakkhiel away.

  I lay there for a few seconds, listening to the sounds around me. Shots fired. Bones broken. Perfects dying. Faulties and Draenir getting torn apart. Their screams would never leave my memory. I’d brought them here.

  Then again, we hadn’t known that the Perfects had their own version of the pulverizer weapon. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to begin with, though. Ta’Zan had stolen most, if not all, of his knowledge and technology from the Draenir. He hadn’t seen the need for such weapons until Ben and Rose’s crew started using them back on Merinos.

  “Come on, Araquiel, how much long—” I muttered, but was promptly interrupted by his voice in my ear.

  “The explosives are set. I repeat, the explosives are set,” Araquiel said.

  I pressed the main button on my earpiece, feeling my lips stretch into a broad smile. “Finally. It took you a while,” I replied.

  “On it!” Amal’s voice came through.

  “We’re almost out of the diamond dome!” Elonora said on the same channel. “About a dozen left to come down, along with the witches and warlock.”

  “Five minutes,” Rose added. “Give them five minutes, then blow this place up.”

  “Got it,” Araquiel replied.

  As if rejuvenated, I managed to pull myself up into a sitting position. My people were scattered, as were the Draenir, dashing between trees as the Perfects tried to catch them. I saw pellets flying, their targets obliterated.

  Most of the shots were fired while running, often over the shoulder, so the trees incurred most of the damage. But I couldn’t let this go on for another second.

  I belted out the retreat signal, a cackle imitating a specific wild bird my people and I had encountered during our travels in the eastern archipelagos. It echoed through the jungle, its distinctive sound reaching everyone.

  We’d planned for this. From taunting and engaging the Perfects, we quickly switched to running away from them. I got up, determined to ignore the stiffness and crippling pain coursing through my bones, and climbed the first tree in front of me.

  The higher I got, the better I could see.

  Below, my people were running. The Draenir were nowhere to be seen, already. The Perfects were falling behind. The more persistent ones got themselves pulverized.

  I wasn’t as close to the colosseum as I’d thought. About a hundred and fifty yards had grown between us during my fight with Jakkhiel. I couldn’t help but smile, settling on one of the treetop branches to watch what came next, once the explosives were detonated.

  Despite my aching body and wounds that would require treatment soon, I was satisfied. I’d managed to kill Jakkhiel, the one Perfect I’d known I would never let see the light of day, ever again, if I got the chance.

  Lo and behold, the universe had appeased me.

  Whatever else came next, I could take it, head on.

  Douma

  Ta’Zan came to see us again. This time, however, he seemed angrier than before. I could tell from the way his eyes darted from Raphael to me, then back to Raphael. It was one of the few signs I’d identified as stress markers for Ta’Zan—his inability to focus his gaze on a single person.

  “Did you know?” Ta’Zan asked us both.

  Raphael didn’t miss an opportunity to further annoy his creator. “About what? The fact that everything is slipping through your fingers?”

  I didn’t have his sharp tongue, unfortunately; otherwise, I would’ve gladly chimed in. I was more focused on getting Ta’Zan out of the room before Isda or the twins came in to release us. I’d just heard Araquiel through my earpiece. This place was going to explode in five minutes.

  “About my surrogate mother!” Ta’Zan snapped.

  “Oh, he’s fuming,” I murmured, mostly t
o Raphael, who gave me a quick wink, then grinned at Ta’Zan.

  “He found out about Bogdana,” he said.

  Ta’Zan narrowed his eyes at him. “So you knew.”

  “She’s quite a firecracker, I’ll give her that,” Raphael replied. “Though, she’s not exactly proud of her choice to help you come into this world. You haven’t really given her any reason for that.”

  “All she did was carry me in her womb,” Ta’Zan shot back. “I don’t need her approval.”

  “Then why are you so hung up on her?” Raphael asked, grinning. “You could’ve brushed her off. Why are you so angry about her? Or about the fact that we knew? Does it even matter anymore? You stuffed her in the diamond dome with the others.”

  “It irks me. Well, I suppose I am disappointed in you two,” Ta’Zan replied. “You should’ve been the first to tell me about her, the moment she showed up at the gate. Had you been loyal to me, your maker, that is.”

  Movement behind Ta’Zan caught my eye. Isda. She stayed out of the room, but she crouched for a moment, before she got up and disappeared somewhere to the right. Something was happening. Our escape was imminent, but how could it unfold with Ta’Zan still here?

  My pulse quickened, and my chest tightened.

  “Where is she now?” I asked.

  “In my private quarters. She and I have some catching up to do,” Ta’Zan replied.

  Raphael chuckled. “And you said you don’t have mommy issues.”

  “Bogdana is not my mother!” Ta’Zan shouted.

  Both Raphael and I stilled. That was one tender nerve we’d struck.

  I mouthed the word “wow,” then looked at Raphael. “You were right,” I said. “He’s completely irrational where any form of true family is concerned. He says she’s not his mother, but he clearly feels a bond, given that she carried him in her womb. You were absolutely right.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ta’Zan cut in, frowning and becoming increasingly aggravated.

  “I was just telling Douma before you came in that you lose your mind whenever your parents, your lineage, or even your surrogate mother are brought up,” Raphael replied. “You play this cool and reserved leader, empirical and determined by nature, detached and resilient, but, in the end, you’re as weak as the rest of us. As dependent on family as anyone else.”

  “You raised us to be soldiers, but you didn’t think for one second that you couldn’t erase our social need to be with family, with friends, no matter what circumstances you put us in,” I added. “You completely erased the concept of family to begin with, but you are hung up on it. You’re suffering. You’ve been suffering for years. You probably cried when Mudak died.”

  Ta’Zan moved toward me. “You will regret—Argh!”

  He jumped to the side and looked down. His eyes nearly popped from their orbits. Raphael and I followed his gaze.

  “Oh, damn,” Raphael muttered, struggling not to laugh. “That can’t be good.”

  A devil-viper had been let loose in this room. This had to be why I’d seen Isda by the doorway. Judging by the blood trickling from Ta’Zan’s ankle, the serpent had emptied its venom reserve through its wide fangs. The bite was painful and messy, since the fangs were long, arched, and sharp enough to reach the larger veins.

  “What… What… Where did it…”

  Ta’Zan’s voice trailed off as his eyes rolled into his head. He fell forward, flat on his face. His blood turned black, myriads of capillaries and veins visible on his face, his neck, and his hands.

  “It’s not going to kill him,” Isda said as she came in with a rectangular piece of glass in her hands. The circuits inside it glistened silver and gold. “But it will keep him down for a bit. Devil-viper venom is deadly in a full bite like that, but Ta’Zan—”

  “Has acquired Perfect regeneration abilities,” Raphael completed her sentence. “Yeah, we know. How long will the venom keep him down, though?”

  Isda pressed the rectangular glass against Raphael’s box. It was a key. As soon as it touched the glass surface, its circuits revealed the box’s own wiring, in an active connection. Two seconds later, the glass wall to his right dissolved and withdrew, allowing Raphael to step out.

  “An hour, for sure,” Amal replied as she came in, accompanied by Amane, who was carrying a strange device in her lap. “Maybe more, if we’re lucky.”

  “Is that the—” I asked, but Amane beat me to it.

  “The mass memory wiper, yes,” she said, smiling.

  Isda moved to unlock my box next, while Amane pressed the deactivation code on Raphael’s collar. It snapped off and dropped on the floor.

  “We’ve got two minutes left before this whole place blows up,” Amal said.

  I stepped out of my glass box, thankful to be so close to freedom again. Amal removed my collar next and dumped it on the floor by Raphael’s.

  “We should take him with us, then,” I said, looking at Ta’Zan. “His presence here was unexpected, but if he’s going to be out like this, he’s vulnerable. We could end it all sooner.”

  “Let’s cut his head off now, before he comes to. As soon as we reach the others, we can just grab a pulverizer weapon and finish him off,” Raphael suggested.

  Amal and Amane looked at each other, while Isda carefully placed the mass memory wiper in a backpack. She handed it back to Amane, who put it on her back.

  “They’re right,” Amane said, a tinge of excitement in her voice. “We could—”

  The swish of a blade cut her off. Amal cried out in pain, then dropped to the floor.

  Ta’Zan was awake!

  He snaked an arm around Amal’s neck and started choking her, gritting his teeth in pure rage. “You traitorous bitch! I raised you! I taught you everything! I gave you everything!”

  Amane was quick to react, before either of us could move. She kicked him in the ribcage, while Isda struggled to get Amal out of his suffocating grip. She was already pale, unable to breathe properly.

  Raphael and I helped get Amal and Amane away from him. Ta’Zan got up, wiping the foam from his mouth with the back of his hand. His veins were gradually returning to their original color, but he wobbled slightly on his feet.

  “Did you think I’d let any creature live here without immunizing myself to its venom or toxins?” he hissed, then quickly pushed a button on his silvery bracelet and drew two long knives from his belt, pointing them at us. “Just because I’m not a Perfect doesn’t mean I’m not capable of chopping you all up into little pieces.”

  Raphael moved to attack him, but my hand shot out to the side, blocking him. “Don’t. He’s already called for backup. If we fight him now, we’ll get stuck when it—”

  I stopped myself before I revealed the existence of the explosive charges. It was bad enough that Ta’Zan had made himself immune to devil-viper venom. We couldn’t have him warn anyone about the bombs.

  “Then we’re not taking him with us.” Raphael sighed.

  He was obviously disappointed, and so was I, but we’d already lost our edge here, and there was less than a minute before it all went off. Ta’Zan was too alert for us to take him on, now. I glanced to my left, where Isda, Amane, and Amal were standing and shaking before Ta’Zan. They’d never be safe unless we ended him. There were three Faulties and only two of us Perfects to get them out of here fast enough.

  But Ta’Zan still stood in our way. Every second was crucial now.

  “No. We have to leave. Now,” I said.

  Ta’Zan was too furious to follow our conversation at this point. He roared and charged Raphael—a foolish decision, in my opinion, but Ta’Zan was already off his rocker, destabilized by Amal’s betrayal on top of everything else. He wasn’t thinking rationally anymore. He was reacting solely based on his emotions.

  It worked in our favor. Raphael dodged his knife hit and rammed a fist into his stomach. He then sucker-punched Ta’Zan right in the face and tossed him to the side. Ta’Zan landed on his back and slid on the di
amond floor, until he hit the wall.

  Raphael was quick to do the math between us, next.

  “This place will be crawling with guards any minute now,” he said.

  “North exit. We need to take the north exit,” Amal replied.

  He nodded, then grabbed Amal and Amane by their waists and held them close. I took Isda’s hand, and we all ran out, leaving Ta’Zan behind. We heard him roaring as we dashed through the hallway.

  It was a damn shame we couldn’t take him—but a conscious Ta’Zan couldn’t be abducted like this, not with seconds left on the clock.

  As expected, Perfect guards poured into the hallway and came after us. Raphael and I increased our speed. The air crackled at our heels. Our wings snapped out, wide and white and flapping. Dozens of other Perfects and Faulties got out of the way.

  The corridors were tall and wide enough for us both to fly through, but not with so many creatures around. The more Perfects were alerted by the incoming guards behind us, the more of them started coming after us.

  “Get out of here,” Isda screamed at the Faulties we shot past along the way. “Get out! It’ll blow up!”

  It was too late for the Perfects to do anything about the explosives anymore. They were too rattled and confused, not only by Isda’s screams, but also by our presence and Ta’Zan’s roars—still echoing through that part of the colosseum.

  When the first boom ripped through the building, my heart stopped.

  A moment later, it resumed beating, harder and faster than ever before.

  The second and third booms rocked this level. The diamond pillars and bricks began to shake. Murmurs and screams erupted behind us as we continued our flight toward the northern exit. I briefly glanced behind us and saw the sea of Perfect guards coming to a halt, their eyes wide with horror.

  The fourth explosion tore through them and that section of the hallway.

  “Move! Move! Move!” I shouted.