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Sherrod

“ Z ephyr!”

My eyes snapped open and I tried to sit up only to have fiery pain send me curling into my side.

“Fuck…what in the…?”

There was a soft bed under me, but there should have been cold, hard steel. The room was small, partially dark and it had an antiseptic smell that reminded me of the hospital after I’d been burned.

“Finally, you’re awake,” drawled a deep feminine voice in the shadows.

I squinted and this time I sat up more carefully.

My chest ached and pulled with the movement.

I looked down at myself and saw the scars, pink and puckered on my chest as if it had been weeks instead of hours since Zephyr had stabbed me.

I was stripped down to my boxers, the burn scars on my leg shone bright and vicious under the lights.

“Where’s Zelena and Zephyr?” I asked.

“Zelena is recovering, though slower than you.” The woman stepped from the shadows and I could’ve been knocked over with a feather. “Zephyr is another matter entirely.”

“Fucking hell, Prina Krynn.”

“Hello, Sherrod, it’s good to see you.”

The little girl I’d been sent to kill all those years ago had grown into the spitting image of her aunt, except for the scar on her cheek and the red eye patch.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I spat.

“Trying to make sure my aunt doesn’t succeed in wiping out the syndicate. But it seems that I need your help.”

“You got us out of the cell?”

“Some of my spies did, you’re on my ship.

Reynolds, Bryson and I have been working on a plan to get my aunt out of the way for a year now.

They agreed to send their families here to mollify my aunt and make it easier for me to sneak in as a maid servant to Lady Reynolds.

We had a plan to eliminate my aunt at the end of the Blood Celebration.

But things have gone a bit pear shaped, haven’t they, old friend? ”

“You could say that.” I rubbed the places where Zephyr had stabbed me.

No matter how long I lived, I would never be able to forget the pain in her eyes, the way she pleaded with me to fight back.

I knew the drive was a big risk, but I also knew there was no running, that I couldn’t fight her and win.

It would’ve just made it worse for her. So even if the Lazarus Drive failed, I would make the sacrifice so she wouldn’t hurt any more than she already had.

But now that I was alive, I had to save her.

“You know their plan?” I asked, jumping down from the table with a wince.

“Yes, and your girlfriend is their weapon.”

My body froze as what she meant coalesced in my mind. A sick, cold sensation poured through me and I leaned on a nearby table.

“They’re going to use her to release the bio weapon. Fucking hell.”

“Yes,” Prina’s voice was compassionate as she approached me. “Help me save her and all those innocent people.”

I snorted.

“The syndicate leaders are far from innocent.”

“But their children? Their spouses? They have nothing to do with the syndicate businesses and you know it.”

“I do, and I know what it would do to Zephyr to be used in this way. That’s the only reason I’m going to stop it. What’s the plan?”

“Your part of the plan is simple: short circuit Zephyr’s CPU and knock her out before she can spread the virus.”

“No, I won’t do that, too many things could go wrong. I could fry her cerebral cortex, or erase her memory. At the very least, it will paralyze her for weeks while someone tries to fix it, but chances are no one will be able to completely. There has to be another way.”

Prina pursed her lips in frustration.

“Fine. Plan ‘B’ though it’s not a sure thing. Cypher is controlling her with an implant. If you disable that, it should short out the nanites in the Befflein. Then we can all hope to god that my scientists can reverse engineer a cure for the virus she’s carrying.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t particularly care,” Prina said, crossing her arms.

She’s hiding something. I’m not sure what but I’m betting it has to do with Norris. Fucking hell, everyone wants that man. Which means I need to do whatever it takes to make sure he disappears. But first, I need to save Zephyr.

“Alright,” I agreed. “Is this a without pants kind of operation or can I have my clothes back?”

She chuckled and handed me a small case.

“Your disguise. You’ll go in as an indentured servant, no one will look twice at you. I’ll tell you where to find her as you dress.”

The indentured wore hoods over their faces and were covered completely, hiding any trace of skin so that the syndicate leaders and their families could just pretend they were things to be exploited.

It was a terrible system that served me well as I made my way through the servants’ corridors of the station.

Prina made it clear that I had no back up and that I would get one shot at this before all hell broke loose when Reynolds and Bryson made their move.

“This should incapacitate Cypher,” she’d said, handing me a large hypo. “But not for long. He’s got a lot of sophisticated tech inside of him. Inject him, then give Zephyr this hypo, it will neutralize the Befflein in her system.”

Both devices were in the pockets of my oversized robes, as was a garrote and a blade made of obsidian that wouldn’t show up on scans.

The hood I wore over my face was a bit disorienting as I walked swiftly through the dim corridors within the Krynn wing.

I was close to the guest quarters, which is where Prina and I figured they’d hold Zephyr.

The Krynn party was already underway; the ballroom on the upper floor of the station was bursting with people wanting to see the now famous Krynn champion.

“You’ve got five minutes before we make our move,” Prina said in my inner ear com.

I sent back a ping to indicate I’d heard her and sped up my steps. The corridor I was in stopped at a servants’ entrance to the main living area. I opened the door, palm sweating, and hoped that everyone ignored me like they should.

The first person I saw was Lady Seraph and I stopped, my back to the wall, head bowed as she swept past me, complaining about her dress.

I waited for her to be out of the room before I continued toward the guest quarters.

I was a few feet from the door when it opened and out stepped Cypher and Zephyr.

I did the same thing as before, my jaw aching from how tightly I was clenching it. He had his hand on the small of her back, which was bare. The dress they had her in was once again a halter style, the silk swishing around her body as she walked.

“You’re being such a good little pet,” Cypher crooned. “Perhaps I’ll try to keep you. I could always use another pair of hands in my line of work. And goodness knows, King Sylthor has a weakness for humanoids.”

That fucking piece of shit…

My hands shook as I curled them into tight fists within my long sleeves. All I had to do was wait for them to walk past me and then I could step out behind him, inject him and whisk Zephyr away.

But Cypher halted in front of me and it took every ounce of self-control not to strike out then and there. I had one shot at this, and I needed to be sure I’d succeed.

“Why are you here?” he demanded. “All the servants were told to vacate this area.”

“My Lady requested I find out what is taking so long,” I replied in a heavy Valtoshan accent.

I held my breath as the seconds stretched on, waiting for his reply.

“That woman…Tell her we’re on our way, there was an issue with the dress.”

I bobbed my head and waited; no indentured was allowed to precede a member of the household.

Cypher and Zephyr moved past me, so I counted to five and stepped out, as he would expect.

The hypo was in my hand, primed as I closed the distance.

Just as I was about to stab it into his neck, Cypher turned to say something to Zephyr and saw me.

He struck out with his hand and I ducked under it, kicking his legs out from under him. He fell to one knee and I wrapped the garrote around his throat and spun around to his back. The entire time, Zephyr stayed where she was, a perfect statue, staring straight ahead, hands limp at her side.

I dug my foot into his lower back and used the leverage to pull back on the garrote even harder.

The scars on my chest burned, indicating that the healing hadn’t been completed yet.

I hoped I wouldn’t do any internal damage, and kept the pressure on, looking around frantically for the hypo meant for him.

I spotted it on the floor and growled out my frustration.

I couldn’t get it without dropping the garrote, which would allow him to speak and control Zephyr.

Cypher clawed at the garrote, his pale skin going red and then purple, thick dark red blood began to trickle from where the garrote was digging into his throat. Whatever mods he had, they made his skin incredibly tough.

I reared back harder, my hands burning from the effort of holding on.

Finally, his hands fell from his throat and his eyes rolled back, but I kept the pressure on for another few seconds just to be sure.

When I let up, I dove straight for the hypo and plunged it into his neck.

For good measure, I then pried the chip interface off his temple, broke it in half and then did the same to the headset.

Zephyr slouched and put a hand on her stomach, the other on the wall, like she was about to be sick.

“Tha-Thank you,” she gasped.

I tore the hood off and grinned at her.

“No problem, sweetheart.”

Her head jerked up, eyes bugging out of her head. She stared at me like I was a ghost, tears shining in her beautiful eyes.

“Don’t you have a kiss for your zombie boyfriend?” I asked.

Another second of complete shock and then she was marching up to me. Instead of kissing me, Zephyr slapped me across the face and then she kissed me.

“You son of a bitch,” she sobbed, clinging to me.

“I love you too.”

“How?”