“What the fuck?” Kellan whispers.
Bios is on the ground within a split second, writhing in pain thanks to Jonah.
“Obliterate it, Chloe.” His voice is cold and even. “Now.”
“Not yet,” Bios hisses as he curls my father’s body into a ball. “Not ... until ... you hear ... what I have ... to say.”
Why am I hesitating? I lurch a stop forward, but the look coming from my father’s eyes stops me cold in my tracks again.
“Gods almighty,” Zthane says, from behind Jonah. “Is that Noel Lilywhite?”
I haven’t cried for my father’s death yet. All the tears are still in a tight ball fighting their way up my throat.
“Jonah, take her out of here,” Kellan snaps. “I will keep it controlled until we figure out what to do with it.”
“She’s going to obliterate it,” Jonah says flatly, twisting his hand until Bios’ cries leave my ears ringing.
I lurch forward a step, but ...
My father is on the ground, crying. And I’m taken right back to the moment I watched the first Creator suck all of his life right out of him. My feet grow roots that dig into the tiled floor below me.
After a long moment, though, the wailing stops. My fiancé turns to his brother and says, “You better be right about this.”
Kellan simply stares at his brother, no doubt saying something in their minds.
“Twenty-four hours. No more.” To me, Jonah says, “Let’s go, Chloe.”
No. I need to obliterate it, I think. But I meet my father’s eyes, red and tired from pain, and something in me just crumples into bitter piles of remorse.
I allow my fiancé to lead me out of the room.
They’re keeping Bios in one of the locked rooms I never paid much attention to before, just off the conference room. Turns out, it’s a cell. Gray, concrete walls, a single metal bed with no mattress bolted to the floor, and a toilet. A one-way window, disguised as a wall in the cell, leads to the other locked room next door that resembles a panic room.
Destroying this monster has been put on temporary hold. Apparently what Jonah and Kellan were arguing about the night before was whether or not it was possible to interrogate it. Kellan thought this a good idea; opportunities such as these are few and far between for us. Jonah wanted to me to destroy it, no questions asked. In the end, Zthane took Jonah aside and argued for nearly an hour about the validity of Kellan’s point, with Karl chiming in with his agreement.
So far, it’s been fairly cooperative and has yet to attack anyone. I let it know I can take it out at any moment, though—one Elder in a Human body does not pose the same risk as an incorporeal one. Either Jonah or Kellan could easily subdue it for me.
So here Jonah and I are, sitting inside the panic room, watching the first round of interrogations. Zthane is in the cell with Bios alongside Kellan and Sjharn. I’m not pleased at all that Kellan is in there, but I was overruled. An Emotional needed to be present, they all argued; Emotionals control Elders the best. And as Kellan wasn’t having any part of Jonah being in the room for this first meet and greet, he’s the one in there, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed while Zthane talks with the monster.
“Isn’t this a droll party,” Bios is saying. He’s shackled to the wall by chains of my creation but acting as if it’s little to no inconvenience. He didn’t even fight with any of us when we told him he had no choice other than to be shackled. “Hello, child,” he says to Sjharn.
The Guard’s Shaman says nothing in return.
“No greeting for your father?” Amusement sparkles in my father’s rapidly darkening eyes. Then he shifts his attention to Kellan. “Here’s one of the abominable pets my father loathes. Hello pet,” he says to Kellan. “Aren’t you a tasty thing? Despite what Enlilkian says, I can see why she likes you so much.”
Kellan’s expression does not change one iota.
Zthane asks, “Your name is Bios?”
The thing in my father shrugs. “I am Bios.”
“Is there a distinction?”
Irritation briefly flashes across its face. “You are too simple-minded to understand.”
“Try me,” Zthane says.
“No. Your sort bores me.”
“My sort?”
Bios sighs patiently, waving a hand towards Zthane. “My mother was always tedious. You reek of her.” He pauses, then leans a little closer. “I’ll share a secret with you. I did no mourning when the little Creator smote her. That bitch thought too highly of herself. Our children disgusted me. I smothered them when they failed to live up to their potential.”
Zthane’s eyes widen. “You had children with your mother?”
Ew. Just ... ew.
Bios yawns. “I am sure you are not here to discuss my progeny.”
“Why are you here?”
Bios narrows his eyes, silent for a long moment. And then, more amiably, “I was sent to ensure the little Creator is prime health. Enlilkian is tired of waiting around.”