Pieces Read online

  PIECES

  EXPERIMENTAL HEART | BOOK TWO

  SHANNON PEMRICK

  First Edition

  Pieces copyright © 2016 by Shannon Pemrick

  Cover Illustration by Jackson Tjota

  Editing by Sandra Nguyen

  ISBN 978-0-9912213-8-7 (e-book)

  ISBN 978-0-9912213-7-0 (paperback)

  ISBN 978-0-9912213-6-3 (hardcover)

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the author constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

  www.shannonpemrick.com

  To Sammie

  For your unwaivering support, inspiration and dedication to seeing this story come to life.

  And

  To my friends, Joe, Frank, Kathryn, and Taryn

  Your support, help, and silly ideas, shaped the path of this series more than you’ll ever know.

  Other Books in this Series

  Book 1 | Destiny

  Book 2 | Pieces

  Book 3 | Secrets

  Book 4 | Exposed

  Book 5 | Surrendered (coming soon)

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Series List

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Glossary: Characters

  Glossary: Language

  Preview of Secrets

  Other Titles by Shannon

  About the Author

  My gaze remained on the wall as I stared hopelessly. Rylan had been dragged away some time ago and I refused to sleep until he came back. He would be the last for the night, the soldiers were that predictable, but that wasn’t my reason for remaining awake. I was responsible for the torture he was enduring, I would remain awake until he came back.

  I glanced at the cell door when boots stomped down the hall. Moments later, two soldiers showed up with a white-haired, tan-skinned man in their arms. He hung limply, and I worried Rylan hadn’t done so well this time around.

  The soldiers threw him into the cell carelessly and slammed the door. The moment they left, Rylan got to his feet and sat down next to Ryoko—his state a ruse to throw off his torturers. I wouldn’t have doubted he had used his ice abilities to keep himself safer. Knowing he was fine, I closed my eyes, allowing unconsciousness to follow—and the memories.

  Chapter 1

  He’s my son.”

  Dalatrend bustled with life, even at this late hour. Streetlamps lit up every street of the four quadrants, and spotlights illuminated the fortress at the far end of the city belonging to our ruler, Zarda. Cats fought in the alleys, people shouted, and cars roared and honked in the sleepless night. My violet hair moved with the slight breeze, and the full moon’s light bathed my light skin in a silver sheen as I stared out from my perch on top of our house. The battle from earlier, while seemingly unknown by the rest of the city’s occupants, weighed heavy on my mind.

  Even though we had won, the battle took a toll on our supplies and numbers. Two things we couldn’t afford to be so careless with.

  I turned away from the city when a door leading back into the house opened. A young man, appearing not much older than I, maybe his early thirties, with tan skin, short black and red hair, and black facial hair, walked out onto the roof and looked around. His sapphire eyes rested on me and then he shook his head. “Of all the places you could be, Eira, you chose to be up here again?”

  I crossed my arms. “Yes, Raikidan, I am up here. Getting away allows me to think. Today has been a bit stressful.”

  He held up his hands. “No need to get testy.”

  “Whatever. Do you need something from me, or are you a lost puppy looking for home?”

  “I’m not a lost puppy…” he muttered. “I came up here to see if we could talk.”

  My brow rose. “About?”

  “Ryder.”

  I resisted sighing. Ever since I had dropped the bombshell about Ryder’s connection to me after the battle, I had avoided Raikidan because of the questions I’d receive. He’d make it out to be a bigger issue than it really was.

  I shrugged. “I guess. I don’t see what needs to be talked about. He’s my son. Nothing crazy there.”

  Raikidan crossed his arms. “You claim you don’t want to be close to anyone, especially males, and then you say you have a son, but it’s no big deal?”

  “What part of ‘we’re tank-born’ don’t you get?” I asked. “I didn’t choose to have him, but that doesn’t deny who he is.”

  He held up his hands. “All right, all right. I guess I can go with that. So who’s his father, then?” I looked away from him. “Eira?”

  “It’s…” I sighed. “It’s Rylan…”

  “Wait, what?”

  I looked him in the eye. “Rylan is his father.”

  “Yeah, I got that part, but I don’t know. I’m just really confused. I thought you said Rylan and you are only friends. You said you had no, and still don’t have any, attraction to him in the least.”

  “And you would be correct. There isn’t anything between me and Rylan. We are only friends.” Raikidan’s brow rose in question and I exhaled slowly in irritation. “Ryder wasn’t Rylan’s or my choice. He was Zarda’s. Zarda figured using my DNA and Rylan’s DNA was a good idea, so he made it so. That’s how it goes with us. What Zarda wants, damn everyone to hell if he doesn’t get it.”

  “So why you two?”

  “Because of the bond. Even though Zarda scrapped the project, he still had great interest in its potential. He believed the bond has special DNA properties even though none of it could be proven. So he ordered the geneticists to combine Rylan’s and my DNA, with the demand the only alteration made was life longevity attempts. Zarda assumed with the types of DNA he was combining, Ryder wouldn’t need much more alteration.”

  “All right. I think I get, it but why is he so young? I thought you said you guys don’t come out of your tanks unless you’re around seventeen.”

  I sat down and nodded. “That’s
true, but there was a problem.”

  Raikidan walked over and sat down next to me. “What kind of problem?”

  “Ryder stopped developing, and the longer they kept him in there in hopes it would resume, the faster his life force faded. Not wanting to lose him, they took him out. He didn’t grow past the age of ten.”

  “So was it the alteration that messed things up or the accelerated growth?”

  I shook my head. “They didn’t accelerate his growth. They didn’t want to risk it since Rylan and I hadn’t had that kind of treatment. They feared the acceleration might kill him.”

  “I see.” There was something off about the tone in his voice. Like he was piecing something together that wasn’t a part of this conversation. “So when you found out about Ryder, how did that affect you guys?”

  “Well…” I thought for a moment to figure out how to word myself. It wasn’t something I wanted to say, but he would keep pestering me until I did. “Rylan… Rylan thought he could use Ryder as a tool to get me to care for him. He figured if we had something to connect with, together, then I might change my mind.”

  Raikidan snorted. “Even I know that wouldn’t work.”

  I laughed. “Well, you’re a little smarter than him, because he tried it and it pissed me off enough where I wouldn’t even look at him for five months.”

  “Ouch. A little harsh, don’t you think?”

  I snorted. “Hardly. I had been fed up with him not listening to me in the first place. And the fact that he thought he could use a child as a tool disgusted me. I couldn’t stomach looking at him. But harsh or not, the treatment got Rylan to understand I didn’t see him that way. My refusal to acknowledge him at all showed him the depth of my rejection. I didn’t want to crush him as bad as I did, but it was the only way he’d give up. It was the only way I knew I could get him to stop.”

  “So what is Ryder’s opinion on the matter?”

  “He… he doesn’t know.”

  Raikidan’s brow rose. “What do you mean, he doesn’t know?”

  “I mean, he doesn’t know Rylan is his father. Or, as far as I know he doesn’t. I decided it would be best not to tell him.”

  “How does Rylan feel about this?”

  “He hates it. He fought with me for a long time over it. He still thinks I made the wrong choice. He thinks I’m being selfish.”

  “But you don’t think you are?”

  I shook my head. “I thought it would only make the situation worse. With Ryder’s developmental issues, he’s got a mind that’s stuck between a child and a grown man. If Ryder knew the truth about his lineage, it would only confuse him. He would struggle to understand why Rylan and I weren’t together. I wouldn’t do that to him because it wouldn’t be fair. No matter how much Rylan wanted Ryder to know, at that time, I knew it wouldn’t be right. Now that time has passed I just wait for him to ask. I figure that’s the best way to tell him because by then he’ll be ready to know.”

  Raikidan went quiet. Feeling uncomfortable due to our conversation, and now the sudden silence, I went to leave. Since our conversation was over, I didn’t see a reason to stay, but Raikidan grabbed my hand and pulled me back down.

  “You want to talk about something else?” I asked. “Because there’s nothing more to say about this current topic.”

  Raikidan looked at me, but still didn’t speak. His expression wasn’t readable, making it hard for me to figure out what was up. Then suddenly, he reached up and stroked my cheek with the back of his finger. My eyes grew wide and my breath caught with his sudden, bold behavior. He leaned closer to me.

  I pulled away. “What are you doing?”

  He attempted to move closer again and lightly touched my chin. “I still want that kiss.”

  I pushed him back by his face. “I just get done telling you I have a kid and you want a kiss from me? What is with you? Most would want nothing to do with me after that, regardless of the fact my son is tank-born.”

  He pulled my hand off his face. “I just want to know what it feels like. It doesn’t matter that you told me you have a son or that you rejected Rylan, his father. It’s not like this is supposed to mean anything. It’s just a kiss. I want to know what it feels like.”

  I scoffed and stood up. “I told you, find a hooker to kiss. I won’t do it.”

  “Why do you have such a problem with this? It’s just a kiss.”

  “You don’t get it, Raikidan, A kiss is never just a kiss. It’s supposed to mean something. That’s the point of a kiss. Depending on the emotion placed into it makes it different every time.”

  “I don’t understand. You’re just pressing your lips against someone else’s.”

  “Obviously you don’t get it! There are different types of kisses. There’s one for each emotion you place into it.” I looked out the window with my arms crossed.

  “Eira, what are you not telling me?”

  I sighed. “A kiss can also be false. It can be a lie, even though it’s still a kiss, but a lie uses a negative emotion.” I walked over to the door. “Stop trying to get a kiss out of me, Raikidan. It’s not going to feel the way you think it will, and I don’t want to be a part of it. Keep your mouth away from mine.”

  I shut the door behind me and headed for a different place to be alone. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to stay calm, and I didn’t want to lose it over such a topic.

  It was dark—more than dark. It was black. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t hear anything. I looked around frantically, but I was alone. There was no doubt about it. The empty feeling that loneliness brought, crept all over my body. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like being alone. Then I heard it. It was quiet at first, but it became louder.

  “Eira.” Someone was calling me. I looked around. “Eira.”

  The voice was masculine. I knew this voice, but I couldn’t remember whom it belonged to. I didn’t like that. I wanted to put a name, a face even, to the voice.

  “Eira.” I ran for it. I needed to find the source. I needed to feel like I wasn’t alone. “Eira.”

  I spun around. The voice came from behind me now. Or maybe I had gone the wrong way.

  “Laz.” I liked how the voice said this name. I liked how it rolled off his tongue. I wanted him to say my name like that all the time. “Laz.”

  I stopped dead and looked around. The voice’s direction changed, confusing me. Where was it coming from?

  “Laz. Laz. Laz.” I held my head. It was coming from all directions. “Laz!”

  I fell to my knees and screamed. “Someone help me! Please, help me. I don’t want to be alone anymore…”

  “Laz…”

  The grip on my head tightened and the feeling of loneliness gripped tighter. Then a new feminine voice spoke—one I recognized. She had no face—no name. She was the darkness inside me.

  “You cannot find it. Loneliness is your only destiny.”

  I punched the black ground. I wanted it all to go away. I wanted to be free of this place.

  “Please… someone… anyone… save me…”

  Chapter 2

  The clouds gathered at a rapid pace. Dark and sinister, they signified a bad storm was heading our way. It would put a damper on our assignment, but I wouldn’t think of that now. Right now I had to focus on the task at hand, and that was pretending to hold a conversation with a comrade of mine at this large café while trying to overhear any important information.

  The information seeking wasn’t great, and my conversation skills were even worse. I didn’t know this comrade well, which was a common problem for me with most of the team since I rarely ever saw them, but he was patient. I remembered his name was Kent and he had a cat. I blinked slowly in realization that in the hour we had been talking, that was all I could remember about him. Had I not been paying attent
ion, or did I really not find this information interesting enough to remember?

  Kent continued to smile at me as I thought of something to tell him. I hadn’t come up with much in the past hour, and I felt sorry for him. I had forced him to talk so much, but as I looked at him, I could tell he didn’t mind.

  He glanced over to a corner of the café. “Tell me about your friend.”

  I glanced over to see whom he was talking about and suppressed a sigh. Raikidan sat, arms crossed, at a corner table. He glared at me, although to most people he would have looked emotionless. I realized I was getting really good at reading him.

  He’s still pissed at me. He didn’t want to wear the black hair dye. I figured he would have liked it more since it was closer to one of his natural hair colors.

  “The hell I’m okay with this, Eira!” he said. “This stuff stinks and I can still smell it long after it’s washed out.”

  “Well, you’re just going to have to deal with it, Rai. This is how we do things. You offered to help, and now you’re stuck doing it our way. I warned you, but you still insisted on helping. Now quit being a baby and finish getting ready. I laid clothes out for you on your bed.”

  I didn’t care, though. I was still angry with him, so he could be pissy all he wanted.

  “This is stupid. You should be shedding blood, not hiding in plain sight and failing at getting information that isn’t there.”

  I rounded on him. “Shedding blood solves nothing! Nothing good comes of it. I learned that long ago. It just creates more problems!”

  I had stormed out of the bathroom and slammed the door after that the argument, and we hadn’t spoken to each other since. I had driven us to this café in silence, and we had parted the same way.

  I shrugged. “Nothing really to say. He’s quiet mostly.”

  “No wonder the simulator paired you two up,” he teased.