Rebecca's POV
I stared daggers in Philip the entire time. Not that he paid much attention to me. He played with Elizabeth, listening as she chatted away about this and that, childish nonsense that would have made me smile at any other point in time but I was too high strung to even force a smile. Kalin hovered at my side like a faithful hawk, attune to everything I was feeling and the growing sickening feeling in my stomach.
"I have never seen Elizabeth before," I murmured, biting my lip as I watched them.
"I thought you saw her in your sister's class all the time." He asked with confusion, but I was already shaking my head.
"No, I mean I never saw her around Philip. Heck, I didn't even know if the man went home, let alone that he was taking care of a kid. It seemed every time I called him, he was at the hospital."
"Are you sure?"
"Well, no, I guess I'm not, he could have just been around some equipment, I suppose. But still, you think that I would have seen her."
"She doesn't always stay with him," Kalin said, as if that explained everything. "We actually try to keep her here at the village as much as possible so we can keep track of her health and what not. She stays with a lot of the families here, but she mostly stays with Fortis whenever she is around."
"Fortis?" that wasn't a name I had been expecting to come up, but the curtain of sadness that fell over Kalin's face made my heart pang.
"Elizabeth shares my sisters DNA, so technically she is her mother, so to speak, though it wasn't her egg that she used. She feels worse than anyone, watching this little girl die, and I know she was pouring over ways to heal her since she found out." He sighed, a sound dragged deep from his chest. "I wish my sister wouldn't take on so much of the blame."
"Well, maybe now that you and I are around we can help her out." I suggested, wondering how the cheerful, beautiful woman I saw in my mind could hide so much anguish and pain inside. It was obvious she was lonely, no matter what Kalin wanted to believe. She had gone through the years watching over these people, seeing them become paired or wander endlessly, only to wonder if she will ever find that as well.
"Maybe, no doubt she is here at the moment, locked away in the lab."
"The lab?" I asked in confusion, turning my face towards him with a confused look.
"My sister is studying the flowers, trying to find a way to make the same immortal concoction our goddess's husband received. Millions of generations of flowers, along with some cross breeding, have made the flowers less potent. But she did discover how to extend the life of our woman for several hundred years."
"She sounds like a genius."
"She is," he said with pride, a smile on his lips. "But don't say that to her, she refuses to take any credit. The truth is, a lot of the women here hate her, but she still tries to help them all she can anyways."
"Why do they hate her?"
"Because she has immortality."
"But she has no one to share it with," I pointed out with confusion, and Kalin nodded, his expression suddenly closed off, making my stomach clench. Seems this was a touchy subject, and I guess I could understand why. But my mind was whirling now, thinking of Fortis and how strong she forced herself to be for her brother and her people.
"Hey, isn't Fortis older?"
"Yeah, a lot older," he said dryly.
"Then how come she isn't the one to take the crown?"
There were several minutes of a long, heavy silence in which I wish I hadn't even bothered to ask.
"You will have to ask her." We stared at each other for several minutes until I got the hint. He wouldn't be saying any more on the subject, I would have to get it from the source.
I let out a sigh, looking around me, still in a kind of awe. The house was lovely, this whole village was lovely, I couldn't deny that one bit. But all of this was overwhelming.
"Why don't you take a walk?" Kalin suggested, and I knew he must think this place was awfully safe if he was willing to let me go wander off by myself. "I need to speak with Philip about a few things anyway." He said tightly when it looked like I was going to refuse.
Wow, males speaking, I knew I was going to choke on the testosterone. So I nodded, heaving a sigh, and then walked out the door, blinking to get used to the bright sunlight. People milled about, but all of them gave me curious looks as they passed by, men and women alike. I noticed there were a lot more women here than men, and while that confused me, I couldn't be bothered pondering on it too much.
At least not until I noticed one girl, who was frozen in place, just staring at me in shock.
Then she bolted.
"Hey!" I yelled, bolting after her, trying to keep sight as she zigged through ally's and in between buildings. Until she finally ran through a door of a building that stood on the outskirts of the village, and was larger than the others. It didn't look like a house, so I pushed my way through the doors without knocking, to find it looked more like a lab inside. Hallways stretched in different directions, and various rooms showed different equipment and experiments in progress.
Everyone in those rooms just stared when they saw me, and it made me nervous enough to move on quickly, wondering what this place was.
"Rebecca!"
I breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar voice, and turned to find Fortis coming towards me, a large smile on her face. We hugged, and she then ruffled my hair like I was her little sister before asking, "how in the world did you get here?"
"Someone ran from me, I thought it was weird enough to chase her down." I looked around. "What in the world is this place?"
"This place is my pride and joy. And it is also the reason why our females have gotten longer life spans now. Come on, I will show you." And she looped her arm with mine and began pulling me through the halls, until we were in the middle of the building, and put a code in the side panel and the door slid open.
To be honest, I wasn't sure what I was going to see. So when the door opened up to reveal a room lit with artificial moonlit and springing from the ground were thousands of flowers . . . . . well, yeah, didn't really know what to say.
She gave me a gentle nudge in and the door swished closed behind us.
"Are those . . . ?"
"Yeah. Those are the flowers born from the tears of our goddesses mother. Well, the later generation of them anyway. They originally grew on the land where the house you were staying in stands, but I needed to move them to a more controlled environment so I could work with them."
"But, if you have the flowers, why can't you just give the moon dew on them to the women, like your goddesses' mother did?"
"Inbreeding." She said simply.
"Uh, what?"
"The flowers. They were mixed with other flowers over the years and the impact was dimished. It has taken me several hundred years to single out the correct DNA and begin breed them while singling it out. I had to mutate the DNA slightly as well, and it helped a little. But I still can only increase the life span, I can't extend it to immortality." She gave a frustrated sigh and I could understand her pain. This was just one of the road blocks for their . . . our race, and she felt like she was on top of it.
"Who are all the women?" I asked instead, hoping to distract her. She began moving among the flowers, touching this one, checking that one.
"They are potential Brides. Whenever we find them we bring them here in hopes of pairing out males. Even though we do this though it is still rare for us to find a mate for a male before the madness hits him. It doesn't help we still have a lot of unfound males out there."
"You have missing people?"
"Yes, about a hundred of them, in fact. We aren't sure if the Grits have them, or if they are simply wandering with their madness, like Kalin did before he was caught. Now, mind you, we normally lock them up when they show signs, but sometimes they get away from us before we can do that, and then it is virtually impossible to find them. It is no burden though, the women being here. They help me with the research."
"What about Elizabeth?"
"Ah," a wave of sadness fell over her features. "I should never have tried to break through that wall."
"You made her?" I was surprised, though I guess since she was obviously in charge of the whole thing, I shouldn't have been.
"Yes, as a matter of face, in some ways, I am her mother. We took the egg of an unbound female, used my DNA, and the DNA of a bound male. Some genetic tweaking allowed us to ensure she was born as a female. At first, we thought it was a success, but then she began showing signs of cellular degeneration, and no matter what we did, we couldn't save her." She sniffled, wiping at the tears in her eyes. "It just proved there are some things even I cannot do without the blessing of our goddess."
"Don't blame yourself," I said, kneeling beside her and gently taking her hand. "You were trying to do something great for your people, and no one can blame you for that, not even your goddess."
"Thank you," she murmured, but I couldn't tell if she believed me or not. That was frustrating, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Just when I was about to speak again, the door behind us opened, and in stepped the chick who had run from me.
"Hey!" I yelled, leaping to my feet. She froze when she saw me, horror on her face, and then she tried to bolt again. But the doors had already closed behind her, and I was able to catch her arm before she could make them open again.
"WATCH THE FLOWERS!" Fortis yelled, panic in her voice, and I jumped just in time to avoid a flower I was going to run over and managed to push the girl to avoid her stomping on one as well. We both gave a sigh of relief, and then she tried to pull from my grip.
"Why did you run from me?" I demanded, tightening my grip.
"She ran from you?" Fortis asked as she delicately made her way to stand at my side. "Did you?" Fortis asked her, but it was out of curiosity, nothing else.
Trembling slightly, the girl nodded, swallowing heavily, and I rolled my eyes.
"Will you please stop acting like I am going to take a chunk out of you or something?" I snapped, letting go of her arm to cross mine over my chest. It was then I picked up on the girls vibe. "Wait, you're a Grit?"
She winced, but it was Fortis that answered.
"Yes, she is. This is Marie, and she was a experiment for her people, just like you. Cept she didn't come out the way they wanted her too, unlike you." Fortis shrugged.
"They were going to kill me." Maria said very quietly, and I was surprised to hear her talk at all, she seemed to meek.
"Why did you run?"
"Because I didn't know how you would handle me, your people's enemy being here in village."
"They aren't my enemies. I mean, yeah, I did just have a run in with them, and they did control most of my life from what I gather, but as of right now they have not struck out at me."
"But . . . they took your husband." Maria sputtered.
"And if they hadn't, then we would probably never have met." I shrugged. "I am willing to see the positive out of all of this."
"Good for you, Rebecca," Fortis nodded as she opened the door and began to usher us out, obviously still worried we would kill a flower or two.
"I agree," the voice made all three of us jump, and I turned to see Kalin standing there, smiling at me.
"How do you keep doing that?"
"Doing what?" he asked, coming to me to draw me into his arms, rubbing my arms. I soaked it up, glowing under the attention.
"Keep finding me."
"Ah, that's my secret." I hit his chest softly, but I couldn't help but grin.
"You just love keeping your secrets."
"Of course I do," he said, a laugh in his voice, "It gives me power over you, of course."
"Oh, I see, power hungry."
"Well, we are related," Fortis said in a joking tone, and all of us laughed, even the shy Maria.
But a clearing of a throat behind us made us all tense, the laughter cut short. When Kalin turned to look, I caught a glance of Philip, standing there in an awkward pose. I sighed in frustration, even as Maria took this opportunity to flee down another hall. Why did Philip have to ruin all of these happy moments for me?
"Can I help you, Philip?" Fortis asked, because me and Kalin were still tense, though me more so than him.
"Yes, I would like to show Rebecca Rose." He answered, and the tone of his voice peaked my interest. He sounded pained and torn, and the look that crossed Fortis's face made my heart skip a beat. She looked like she had just been punched in the gut, both stunned and like she was going to be ill. Who was Rose? I wanted to ask, but the tension in the air made me keep my mouth shut, figuring that I would find out soon enough.
"Of course," she said her voice tense. She then glanced at Kalin, who gave a short hard nod, and she began down another hall, all of us following her at a steady pace.
"Don't worry," Kalin's voice at my ear made me jump, my feet briefly coming off the ground, him easily taking my weight. I glance up at him, knowing he must have sensed my anxiety, and I smiled softly at him, returning the soft kiss he gave me.
"Here we are," Fortis's voice made us break apart, both of us looking just a little sheepish. Fortis was standing at a large glass window that stretched a good thirty feet across, looking thick enough to take a bullet and shrug it off. To my left there was a metal door, with a keypad to the side and what looked to be a fingerprint scanner as well.
"What is this?" I asked, just as I looked through the glass to see a woman lying in a hospital bed hooked up to several machines. She was pretty, and looked to be sleeping, her blond hair shiny and long, resting over her shoulders and down to her waist. She was pale though, even paler than I was, and I wondered if she was anemic and that was why she was being treated.
"Is that Rose?" I asked, glancing at Philip, who was now standing beside Fortis at the window, leaning his forehead on it, his posture tense.
"Yes."
"Who is she?" for a moment no one answered me, and I looked between all of them, sighing in irritation when I felt sure I was never going to get an answer.
"She is my wife." He answered softly, and I felt it jolt through me like a shock of electricity.
"She is your what? You are married? How come I have never met her?" I shook my head hard. "You never even mentioned her!"
"I met her when Kalin met Fortis's mother. We were raiding a Grits base, a base where they were mixing Grit and Thorian DNA, trying to make one of you, Rebecca. They were experiments there, both of them having never even left the lab in their entire lives. They were considered failed experiments for one reason or another, and were due to be put to death." He paused, putting his hand on the glass. "We recognized each other for what we were, meant for each other, and she happily came into my life, and we quickly fell for each other."
"Then how come she is here, not living with you? And how come you think I am your daughter, since I have a different mother?"
"Her life was extended, not immortal, but she did age slower. We finally decided to have a child, but the problem was the gene that caused Thorian females to stop having children after one misfired with her. She became pregnant and then she fell into a coma state. I didn't want to move her here, even though she would have been better protected, and when the Grits got wind they broke into my house and stole the child from her womb." He took a deep breath, stepping back and rubbing his face.
"And then, several hundred years later, I met your mother. She had come into the hospital for a check up, saying she had just recently become pregnant and she was feeling odd. After checking her out I found out that the baby was already overproducing blood."
"She was what?" Fortis gasped, taking a step away from him. "She was showing signs at conception and you never even bothered to tell me when I asked? No female has ever done something like that, not even me!"
"I know, and when I tested a bit of her blood I found out her DNA profile, I knew she wasn't human. And I couldn't let them know I knew she wasn't normal, or they would whisk her and her mother away and I would lose my chance. When she was born, I was stunned to find out she was a girl, because my wife had said she knew our baby would be a girl, and I believed her. How else would they have an embryo that was just what they wanted? She was more compatible with Thorians, but she had the genes they could manipulate."
He looked at me to fiercely that I actually tried to take a step away, and Kalin moved more in front of me, gently petting my hair for comfort.
"I think you are my daughter, Rebecca. Do you know how hard it has been to sit by and what your parents and brother abuse you? I knew your parents knew you were going to be abnormal, no woman takes that news that her baby needs constant blood draws while still in the womb well, but your mother just brushed it off. Granted, she ate healthily, she did her best for a good pregnancy, but I think that was part of the deal. I had to keep my mouth shut all this time. And all this time I hoped you would not be drawn into the Thorian world, but once Kalin showed up, I knew they were done with waiting."
He held out his hand, and I titled my head at him.
"Testing your DNA is hard, because of all the genetic mutations and the genes that are Grit instead of Thorian, but let me try? I know I can prove I am your father."
"Well, except for the fact that your wrong."
All of us reacted violently to that voice, and Kalin snarled as he spun, shoving me behind him, towards Fortis, who leapt in front of me for protection.
But not before I saw Crystal standing in the hall way, looking casual with a cocky smile.
"And Rebecca, I'm wounded, as your mother I thought I would have gotten an invitation to your wedding."
NOTE!
Sorry for the long time updating, but my wedding is only a month and a half away. BTW im starting a website for my books, both free and not. Oh, and Fatal Attraction is almost over. Then Across The Sands, Fortis's story, will begin. Hope to see you there!