[Makebelieve] FIC: Brothers Of The Blood: Mark Of Cain 10

[makebelieve archive]

Title: Brothers Of The Blood: Mark Of Cain 10
Author: PEJA
Email: makebelievearchive at gmail.com
Author's websites: http://peja1956.livejournal.com and
http://www.squidge.org/~peja/cgi-bin/search.php?action=recent
Fandom: n/a
Pairing: n/a
Portrayed by: n/a
Category: General
Rating: FRC
Status: chapter complete
Spoilers: n/a
Series/Sequel: Brothers Of Blood
Brief Summary: Adric watches
Warnings: violence
Notes/acknowledgments: This s a completed story, undergoing a final polish
General thanks to all of you folks who are requesting short fics and improvs
in the various fandoms. You're keeping the words flowing.
Disclaimers: mine...all mine
Archive: Yes, but ask first, include the complete story and provide a URL to
the archive
Forwarding to other lists: Okay, but keep my name and headers attached. A
heads up would be nice as well.
Previous chapters:
http://www.squidge.org/peja/cgi-bin/viewstory.php?sid=37198&warning=FRM



Watching with distracted interest, Adric crossed his arms over his chest as
Nykita poked a tiny, nudging hand at the whirling ball of fur in a metal
cage, herding it toward several other, similar creatures. The contrary beast
displayed its outrage with a piercing screech. Resisting her determined
guidance, it rolled in the opposite direction.

"Well damn," she muttered, frowning. "I thought I had the correct dosage
that time."

"Your experiment isn't going the way you want?"

"No, dammit. My experiment isn't going the way I want," she snapped, "But
alien pheromones don't always conform to the rules of the humansex drive. I
should have taken that into account."

"Maybe next time." He chuckled sympathetically. "Now it's time to put away
your fuzzy little pets, Nicki. Our main test subject should be along soon."

Frowning, she slammed the cage shut and moved away from the table. "Are you
sure you want to go through with this test, Adric? These people aren't the
type we've had dealings with in the past. I can smell the danger on them,
and the death."

Adric grimaced. "Don't romanticize them."

"They are dangerous, Adric," she protested, stamping her foot. "Too
dangerous."

"Yeah? Well, that just makes the tests all the more important," Adric said,
speaking slowly, as if to a child. "I've got to know which way they'll jump
when the chips are down. I need to know if they are independents or team
players in a crunch."

He straightened, suddenly alert, as the shadowy figure of a man slinked into
range of the hall monitors. "There he is."

"There's still time to cancel this experiment, Adric."

Adric waved an dismissive hand in her direction. "All right, kid. Just a
little closer. Come to papa."

He straightened suddenly and pointed to Nykita, mouthing a silent, "Now."

She sighed, tucking her feet under her on a comfortable, wicker sofa. "How
do you want to handle the situation, Adric? I have the two of them sedated,
but we can't keep them drugged forever. His people are already beginning to
suspect that St Moritz' sleep isn't altogether normal."

"I don't intend this to take forever," Adric sighed, pacing like some great
caged animal around the tracking room. "It will end. It has to end, and it
has to end soon. I've got too damn much to do. I can't stay hidden for
long."

"So inform the patrols that we have them, Adric. Collect the bounty on this
rebel group and be done with them."

"I'm not sure that's how I want to handle this one."

"And why ever not? God knows we could use the credits they carry. With that
single bounty we could finish our work here. And you're going to have to
hand them over in the end anyway. Why put it off?"

He whirled on her. "I have my reasons. Reasons I don't intend to go into
with you."

"Adric, there can't be any reason important enough to withhold these
particular fugitives. Even the grafts you're paying out won't protect us if
we're found hiding them."

"I know that, dammit. But it's complicated. I just can't decide the best
course of action."

"Then uncomplicate it. Call in the patrols and finish it. They can be here
by late morning. We can get back to normal once these fugitives have been
taken. And besides, in the end, what choice do you have?"

"What choice, indeed?" Adric sighed, pressing a red button on the tracking
console, signalling the guard in the hall. "All right. See it's done
quietly. I don't want them knowing what we're about until it's too late to
stop it."

Over the seaker system, the guard's voice came back to them. "You there.
Hold it where you stand."

The trap had been sprung. Their subject had the information he needed to
pass or fail the test. Or he would, after a bit of reinforcement.

Arranging his features into a harsh expression, Adric strode to the door and
threw it open.

Ian stood in the doorway with his hands held over his head, wearing a smile
that was charmingly innocent. "I be thinking you have a rule against
indulging in a wee little stroll," he said in that mincing, feminine voice.
"Sure and you should have told me, friend. I be excessively fond of me
walkabouts in the dead of night." He grinned, tapping his temple. "Clears
out the cobwebs."

Adric stared at the simpering man, amazed. The young scamp had nerve, no
question. And he lied with a brazen ease that would have shocked the devil.
Both of which were valuable commodities in the life and death game the
played.

Gathering his wits, Adric twisted his hands in Ian's crisp, new shirt and
slammed him roughly against the stone-block wall. "What did you hear?"

"Hey. Watch it. That hurts already."

"How much did you hear?" Adric repeated. "Tell me, damn you." He slammed Ian
into the wall again. "Tell me what you heard."

Drawing a ragged, groaning breath, Ian shook his head. "Nothing. I be
hearing nothing." His brilliant, jade gaze rose to meet Adric's eyes, and
rubbing the back of his neck, he grinned. "There be something you have to
hide, I be thinking."

Adric blinked.

The pilot had a stubborn tenacity that held him through adversity. If Adric
read the man correctly, and he had a secret dread he had, Ian could charm
the wind to blow.

No doubt about it. This man made for a damn interesting test subject.
Interesting and valuable.

Adric shook the man violently. "Cut the games." He cuffed Ian across the
face, splitting his lip. "Give yourself a chance to survive."

Blood flooded Ian's tongue, staining his mouth and dribbling down his chin.
He shook his head, as if to quiet the discordant ringing in his ears, and
then smiled. "I tell a lie. I heard, once upon a time, you be an attractive
man to the ladies, Adric."

"What did you say?"

Ian spat a bloodied stream from between his teeth. "What happened? Get
marred in the war."

"That's none of your damn business, is it?"

"Ah, but it do indeed be my business." He spit again, clearing the blood
from his mouth, then ran his forefinger down the other man's scarred cheek.
"Your pretty face scares my own sweet lassie."

Nykita's light, seductive laughter washed over both men. "Well now, that
sounds like he heard more than enough, my love." She tilted her head
slightly. "And it doesn't sound like he likes you very much. I told you,
Adric. He's dangerous."

"Shut up, Nicki."

"Do you want me to arrange a little accident? I can think of something
suitable."

"I said shut up, Nykita."

"We can't let him go back to the others. He knows who you really are. More
than it is safe to know."

"Enough," Adric shouted, his anger reaching its apex. "I'll take care of the
kid. You report to the control room."

"I don't want to go...."

"But you will."

"Adric, you may need...."

"Drop it, woman. If his people are running around loose, things are going to
get hot out here. I don't want you caught in the middle of a battlezone."

Nykita straightened, bracing her hands on her hips. "I can help."

"Not this time." Adric shook Ian viciously, venting his frustrations on the
hapless pilot. "When are you going to realize this is not a game, woman.
People's lives are at stake."

"I am not stupid, Adric."

"Nykita. The control room. Now."

She held her hands in front of her, warding off his anger. "I'm halfway
there," she assured him, then spinning on her heel, she vanished down the
corridor.

Adric's cold, harsh gaze slithered toward Ian, crawling in a contemptuous
glare over his defenseless prisoner. "Why didn't you stay put? It would have
all been so easy if you had only trusted me."

"'Tis trust ye be wanting from us?" Ian jeered, his lips curling back in a
dark growl. "Aye. We might have been willing to trust you. But na' now. Now
I be thinking you betrayed us. I be thinking you sold us out. Hell and
damnation, I be knowing you sold your own honor. And I be absolutely certain
you be Adric Falcone."

"You think so?"

"Ah, Judes, man. Dal believed in you. He thought you our guiding light. Our
best bet for a new chance." He snorted crudely. "Aye, ye be some guiding
light, for sure. I can na' believe Dalton was taken in by your blarney
enough to believe you were a man of honor."

"Men of honor are dead men, my friend," Adric said coldly. "Dalton taught me
that in the first month we were together. You would do well to remember that
same lesson."

He grabbed Ian by the collar and shoved him into the tracking room, causing
the battered man to stumble. "Do you honestly think there is any honor in
what we are doing?" Adric demanded, watching him slowly straighten up. "In
me? Or Dalton?" His laughter was harsh. "Or even in you, for that matter?
Don't be a fool, kid."

Ian smiled broadly, staring past Adric toward the open doorway. "Doesna'
matter what I be thinking." He back- peddled away from his captor, flicking
another quick glance over Adric and then back to the door. "No and to be
sure, my opinion has no bearing on the facts." His fingers fidgeted in a
manner reminiscent of Dalton did when he was agitated.

"Keep still," Adric snarled, annoyed by the continuous, fluttering hand
movements.

"Your service." Ian's smile went arctic as he crossed the first two fingers
of both hands, sweeping them in front of his body. "You'll be telling me
what game you be playing at, Falcone?" His frozen smile died on his lips.
"That do be the question you want answered, boss? Be it na'"

"Close enough," Dalton said in the soft dragon's purr that raised hackles
along even a stupid man's spine.

Adric turned slowly, facing his past. "It has been a long time, Dal."

"But has it been long enough, I wonder?" Dalton sauntered into the room,
motioning the small group of rebels who followed hot on his heels into a
position that effectively cut Adric and the guard off from any escape.

Adric, sizing up the situation through narrowed eyes, was fully aware of the
guns that each of the fighters carried loosely in their grasps. And the
unsuppressed anger radiating like radioactive heat off them.

These people were ready, were hungry, in fact, to kill. And his blood looked
a likely tidbit.

Without warning, the young guard broke and dashed toward the alarm.

Sabre swung her gun around, firing a silenced warning shot high. It was
enough to freeze the man to the floor instantly. She smiled, clicking her
tongue in disapproval. "We don't want to be bothering anyone, now do we?"

The man gave a quick shake of his head.

Her black eyes glided dispassionately over him. "Good. I would hate the
necessity of your blood on my hands. It's so damn untidy, don't you think?"

He sent her a nod this time.

Her warning glance touched on the guard's gun for a second, then returned to
hold his wide, apprehensive gaze. "Lose the weapon, friend. It's making me
nervous."

The guard flicked a questioning glance at Adric.

"Do as she says, Jojo," Adric ordered. "Let's keep this easy. No one has to
get hurt here today, do they, Dal? We're all friends, right?"

Dalton smiled, but there was no humor in his crystalline gaze. His blue eyes
remained frozen and dangerous. "Well now, I don't exactly know how to answer
that question. See, my people are a breed onto themselves. An interesting
breed, mind you, but one with a certain unpredictability. A certain danger
bred into them. I find it most often revealed in an almost psychopathic
tendency toward destroying anything even remotely deceitful.

"And this young woman has a distinctively passionate dislike of men."

"Not all men, Dal," she corrected with a wickedly seductive smile. "Just
most of them."

"Quite." Dalton chuckled dryly. "She developed this unique quality under the
tedious tutorage from her male slaver. So, I expect she may very well kill
your man."

Sabre nodded once. "It only takes the smallest movement."

"I'm a pussycat," Jojo said and bent slowly to lay his gun at his feet. He
stepped back with his arms held well away from his sides.

Sabre frowned, her black eyes glittering dangerously. "I don't like cats any
more than I do men."

"Call her off, Dal," Adric said, licking his dry lips. "As a show of good
faith."

"And why should he be doing that?" Ian demanded. "You be the one that opened
this up for bloodshed. You made the mistakes."

"I did at that," Adric agreed. That much was terrifyingly obvious. And if he
were to salvage anything, he would have to move with caution. One more
mistake would bring this shaky confrontation to a violent and bloody end.

"Answer the man, Adric," Dalton said, his rasping voice just above a
whisper. "Why should I call her off?"

"I'm not looking for trouble. Not the way you play." He met Dalton's frozen
eyes. "We need some time to talk. Now. Before this gets any worse."

"'Tis he Falcone, then?" Ian interrupted. "'Tis he the man we be here tae
find?"

Paris nodded, a black scowl pinching his brows. "Yeah. That's him all
right."

Ian wiped blood from his lips. "That being the case, he sold us, boss. All
of us. Even you."

Dalton's eyes flashed fire. "You'd better be sure of your facts, Ian."

"Aye, that I am. Sure as I be bleeding. I overheard them discussing it afore
I was nabbed. Falcone 'twas planning ta give us over ta the patrols."

"Is it true?" Dalton ground out, taking a step forward, then he drew back,
unable to hide his bewildered indecision. "Adric, is it true?"

"Hear me out, Dalton."

Dalton's head tilted back and his heavy lids drooped over smoldering eyes.
"Would I be hearing the truth. Or lies?" He shook his head. "No. There's
only one thing I want to hear from you. Did you betray us?"

"Dal, you've gotta listen...."

"Don't stall me, Adric. Just tell me if it is true? Yes or no? Did
you...betray...me?"

Desperation embraced Adric, squeezing his explanations right out of his
head, and at the worst of all possible times, too. Now, when he had to make
Dalton listen to reason. Had to find a bridge past the distrust blazing in
those crystalline, pale eyes before it was too damn late.

He spread his arms, opening himself to the fury pouring over him. "Your man
doesn't understand."

"Neither do I."

"Dalton, you're not hearing me. It's not how it looks. I swear it," Adric
said quickly, moving forward.

"Stand still." Dalton's gun came up and Adric froze in his tracks.

"Dal..."

"God's mercy, Adric," Dalton's voice was strained. "Don't move. Don't make
me kill you." He pointed a trembling hand at Adric. "Just answer the
question. Have you betrayed me? Have you, Adric?"

"I did set this all up. That's all true." Adric rushed his words, trying to
cool the man's rising temper before it was too late. "But I did it for you.
I was waiting for you, Haurride. Surely you see that. I was waiting for
you."

He took a step toward Dalton. A fatal step.

"Yes," Dalton groaned, choking on the word. "Yes."

"No," Adric rasped, seeing his death in the chill eyes of his friend.
"Don't."

The gun spat blue fire.

Adric stumbled, taking the shot full in the chest. Shell-shocked, he
clutched at the seeping wound, felt the sticky ooze of his own blood. "My
sweet God...." He lifted his bloody hands, shielding himself from the second
shot he knew from experience was coming. "God, no. Don't...."

The gun blazed again.

Fresh blood flowed, mingling with that already staining the front of his
shirt, turning it bright crimson.

"I didn't betray you, Haurride," Adric whispered, gasping for breath. "I
didn't...."

"Adric...."

His strength drained away with his blood and he stumbled, falling into
Dalton's open arms. Blood filled his throat, choking him, dribbling scarlet
down his chin.

"I...forgive you....Hauri...."

* * * * * * *

Dalton wrapped his arms tightly around Adric's lifeless body. His dark
clothes quickly absorbed the sticky blood. The accusing stain saturated
through the cloth, branding his very skin.

"Ah Judes, Adric," the growl of pure anguish erupted low in Dalton's throat.
He gently eased the limp body to the floor and dropped heavily to his knees.
"Why? Adric, why?"

Behind him, Sabre touched his shoulder, offering comfort, and for once,
Dalton did not flinch away.

"It's over, haurride," Dalton whispered, swallowing past his tightening
throat. "The blasted battle is finally over for you. You can rest now."

"Sweet Jesus," Jojo cried, making a rolling grab for his gun.

Paris spun. His weapon spat fire. The threat of the guard was cancelled
forever, and so was the rest of his life.

Paris sighed, shaking his head. "Adric warned you not to move against us,
friend. You really should have taken his advice."

Lost in his own personal grief, Dalton barely registered the second death.
Scarcely noticed the discordant screech that suddenly filled the air. Hardly
heard the woman's voice warning, "Attention. All personnel. We are under
attack. Report to stations. Repeat. Go to battlestations. This is not a
drill. We are under attack."

"Dalton," Paris shook his arm. "They're onto us. We've got to get the hell
out of here. Now."

"No, actually," A man entered the tracking room, his gun pointed rigidly at
them. "They are onto us." He swept a deadly glare over them. "Drop your
guns. You are prisoners of..."

"Move," Ian shouted, diving for cover.

A blast cut him out of the air before he could reach protection. Ruby red
blood spurted from the killing wound, saturating his shoulder. He went down
hard, crying a useless protest against the death that was reaching out to
claim him.

"Ian," Yessenia screamed, her green eyes burning with the fires of hell.
Angry primordial instinct flared in her gaze and she fired.

Once.

The man who had killed Ian dropped soundlessly to the floor, a third eye in
the center of his forehead weeping bright red tears.

A second soldier appeared in the room behind her. Another shot rang out.

Yessenia crumpled, her outstretched arms reaching out for Ian. And then she
was gone, with only a finger's breath separating them.

Domani stumbled under the next volley of shots and fell, motionless.

"Dalton. Snap out of it, man," Paris shouted. "Their annihilating us."

His plea came too late. A searing blast hit him in the back, hard, sending
him reeling into oblivion.

Again the shots sounded.

Sabre collapsed to her knees. Her black gaze sought out and found Dalton.
She whispered his name in a sighing breath before joining her companions in
nirvana.

Her slow collapse brought reality rushing back for Dalton.

Reality, and a second grief too harsh to bear.

He tipped his head toward the heavens, roaring like a wounded animal.

His wild bellow sent a shiver of terror through the ranks of his enemy,
stilling their hands.


end part 10

Anyone interested in chapter 11???

-- 
PEJA
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