Page 29

29

Olivia

My mind is a raw nerve of pain, the sensations overloading me, but not letting me shut down either. I know there are people around me. Hands on me, holding me down. I start screaming out my rage, mind going back to that terrible cell. To pinchers and needles.

“Only I will fucking remain,” I choke out, wriggling, trying to gain the upper hand.

Suddenly, I do, but the sounds of bugs that I expect are instead a very human cry of pain and suddenly my mind is clear.

I shoot upright, shaking off the anger and pain, frantically looking around, panicked that I did something terrible.

Kira is groaning and rubbing at the back of her head at the far side of the cave. Ree is hovered over me, eyes wide.

“What did I do?” I wail.

“Fuck,” Kira grits out. “That was fucking awesome, Livie. You picked the perfect angle to find my soft spot with a fucking cave wall. Ouch.”

“I’m so sorry. I…” my voice trails off as I look at the hands I’m holding up. The ones with some sort of thick, purple hide, and long, curving claws coming out of the wrists. They look like Kroaicho’s claws, except his… zha’s… come from the tips of zha’s fingers.

My hands…

I’m shaken out of my horror by the feel of something fluttering along my sides, right under my armpits. I look down, and there is something moving there and I shriek out in fear, purple hide lighting up red.

Kira gets painfully to her feet. “Take a deep breath and just go ahead and pull the suit back. Do you want us to go outside?”

I shake my head, not wanting to be alone, then will the suit to recede. My mind stutters when I see what it was… a small, stunted, second set of limbs. I gag.

“What the fuck,” I hiss out. “How is that useful, Kira?”

“Just calm your fucking tits,” she replies. “When Ree and I grew tails, it took time. I bet those will be long and strong and kicking ass in no time.”

Ree clears her throat. “Speaking of tails…”

It takes me a moment to catch on and I scramble up, then crash back down to the ground when something heavy attached to my butt swings around and pulls me off balance. I lay there panting for three long breaths as both women stand there with arms outstretched, clearly wanting to touch me, but being respectful.

It helps put things into perspective, somehow, and I close my eyes and calm myself down. If I keep this up, my brain will start burning.

When I open my eyes, I calmly and slowly sit up, then reach behind me and pull my… tail around.

It looks odd, but the bright yellow color gives away where it came from. “Is that a tentacle… or?”

“If I had to guess,” Ree responds, “I would say that’s a mix of Eli’s tentacle, Drasuk’s hide, and Kroaicho’s shoulder spikes on the bottom of it instead of suckers.”

“It’s too bad there isn’t a manticorid tip,” Kira says.

“Give it time,” Ree responds. “Yours took a bit, remember?”

I’m staring at my… first… set of arms, not really understanding what they are talking about because I’ve just now noticed that they are longer than they should be and not just because there is a second smaller set under them. They grew… not just in length, but also in thickness. Purple hide stretches down the top and outside side of each one, with black scales on the inner. Then of course there are the thick, sharp claws that extend out of my wrists.

I experimentally pull my fist back and down and swipe out with them, instantly seeing the appeal.

“Purple hide?” Kira murmurs. “A combo of my red and blue? That seems a bit… kindergarten paint time, doesn’t it?”

“It’s anger,” I murmur. “The color is perfect.”

Kira clears her throat. “Well, can’t argue with that.”

I look down my front, noting that the hide extends all the way down my body, even my breasts. I look like some sort of purple Mystique. The hide transitions to black scales at my ankles, and when I think about it, black claws extend from where my toes… used to be.

“Damn,” Kira mutters. “None of us have changed this much, this fast.”

“I agree,” Ree whispers back. “We should figure out why.”

I push the observation and the apparent need to figure out why I’m a freak aside, still needing to know what I look like. “What can’t I see?”

“You have bone spikes,” Ree shares. “Sort of like Kira’s, but in Drasuk’s shape and Kroaicho’s pattern.”

“On the left part of my skull down to the right part of my spine?” I ask.

“Yes, exactly,” Ree responds. “There is purple hide covering everything except where the spikes extend and your uh… tail comes out.”

I take a deep breath, absorbing my new changes, trying to adjust as fast as possible with my head screaming out in protest. “Could I have a moment alone, please?”

“Of course,” Ree says softly, then pads out.

Kira stays a moment longer. “You look fucking amazing, Livie,” she growls out, voice raw. “There aren’t many people who would take on something like this on purpose. We are a special breed,” she finishes, voice rough with pride and affection.

I smile, her acceptance helping me make the disorienting transition to new changes. “Thanks, Kira. That means a lot,” I tell her, feeling every word.

She pads out, leaving me to my rumination. It takes me a while to finish working through my mental process. There is a soft murmur of multiple voices outside, but I know they won’t rush me, so I just take my time.

This would have been some seriously scary shit to wake up to alone and even Kroaicho’s presence wouldn’t have been enough to help calm me down. Zha wouldn’t know what was or wasn’t natural for a human.

It is nice having them here.

It makes me think about how things were before being snatched. I’ve gone my whole life with people around me, most of them people I didn’t want surrounding me. I never understood how much it could mean to not be alone or to be around people who aren’t looking to use me for their personal gain. Or fix me so I will stop making them look bad.

I’m used to spending time with ridiculously wealthy people. The sort that never seem to have enough, even though they have everything. They were always out to get more things… More notoriety. More fame.

But here? These people only have each other. I can already tell that they place their value in each other and it seems so… right.

The realization makes me want to go out to them, which is the opposite of my usual impulse: to be alone. To retreat. I’m ready to face the world and it feels good. I get up, tell the suit to cover me again, and make my way out of the cave.

It’s quite a process. I stumble around, new extra small limbs flailing along with my suddenly longer arms, trying to figure out my balance and overcorrecting where I’m holding the new… tentacle? Tail?

Then I extend my toe claws and it helps. I find my balance in time to get out of the cave without face planting and to start paying attention to what everyone is talking about.

“We’ve left Rannek alone long enough and we should check on Silver and see if Szhe’ka has returned, but we need to check out this facility. I mean, it shouldn’t even be here, should it?” Ree asks.

“Maybe Kroaicho was confused,” Kira responds.

“I was not. I never mistell a story,” Kroaicho says decisively, then makes an excited chitter. “Olivia! You look… well.”

“Uh, thanks? What are we planning?” I ask.

Ree gives me a wave and a smile. “Kroaicho woke up in a facility, which is odd, because technology isn’t supposed to work on this planet.”

“It was working,” Kroaicho grinds out between zha’s tusks. “There were braceaaer and screens. I regrettably… broke the braceaaer I planned to get information from and was not with zha long enough to find a story in the blood.”

Kira lets out a bray of laughter. “Not sure I understood all of that, but I can certainly approve of broken braceaaer and blood. Let’s just go take a look. We have plenty of muscle and weapons.”

“I want to fight,” I hiss out, claws twitching on my wrists.

“That is no way to protect a hoard, Olivia,” Kroaicho starts to protest.

“I’m going, and so are you it sounds like,” I retort.

Zha’s skin lights up purple and the tusk grinding starts up again, but zha offers no further argument.

***

While everyone else prepared, my body decided to make more painful changes as Kroaicho held me tight in zha’s arms to help calm me as I screamed… not that I’m complaining now. The useless arms grew longer and while I’m still trying to figure out how the fuck my mind even knows how to send signals to four different arms, I now have an identical, although somewhat smaller lower pair. Complete with wrist claws, purple hide, and black scales.

Kira was disappointed when my tail developed another hooked claw instead of a manticorid tip, which apparently has the deadliest venom in the known universe. That sounds nice and all, but as we walk through the dark tunnel toward the facility and my tentacle tail dances along behind me, it’s hard to feel like I’ve been ripped off. I practiced using it on some of the long purple grass and left behind a carnage of innocent blades.

I’m more than ready to see if there are any genali to cut with it.

“It is close,” Kroaicho chitters quietly from up ahead.

Zha is in front, Kira and Drasuk right behind, then Kuret in the middle to provide light with his green markings, then Ree and Thivoll, then me.

Rin was content to stay behind with the argila and Eli was still fussing at Wroahk. Kira whispered to me before we left that Wroahk loved it when she did that, so apparently everyone back in the valley is content.

“I smell braceaaer,” Drasuk rumbles.

“It’s on, motherfuckers,” Kira responds with glee.

There is an answering grin on my face and my tail dances more wildly behind me, pulling me off balance for a moment before I get my excitement under control.

“Get behind me, Kroaicho,” Drasuk orders and then there is a long moment of shifting as they squeeze by each other in the tunnel.

“Go already, Lizard Brain,” Kira hisses out… and then it is pandemonium.