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The remainder of the car ride occurred in mostly silence. I watched out the window as we drove through the city of Amaryllis. The drab greys and the foggy atmosphere was only offset by the various colors of dresses that women on the street wore. Most of them lived entire lives having almost no connection to men at all. If they ever met a man, it’d likely be a one-night stand. This was doubly true now that men were being managed like cattle or locked in pens.
We finally pulled up to a larger complex than most of the buildings in the city. Although nothing ever got more than four to five stories high. You’d never see a skyscraper in Amaryllis. The buildings here made up for it by being interconnected and sprawling. It was, of course, the Amaryllis hospital. I had heard that Mako was working as a nurse again, but I also heard she worked directly for the MPA. In truth, I wasn’t certain she’d be at the hospital until Cornelia brought me to the place.
Of course, we had a contract that connected us. She knew I was alive and not hurt, and I knew that she was alive and not hurt. I could even tell her state to an extent. This was why I said that she was the one person who couldn’t tell me no. I could coerce her using the bond to make her do anything, but I’d also be able to tell if she tried to lie or hide something from me. I needed to find out what everyone was planning, and she was the person it’d be easiest to extract the truth from.
She couldn’t even run from me, since I always knew where she was. However, at a distance, I could only point in her general direction. This was also how I knew she was in fact in the hospital after we stopped there because she was much closer now and I could sense her within the building. Likely, she knew that I was coming as well. I could feel her approaching. Maybe, she didn’t want me storming into her workplace and causing her fellow women to ask all kinds of questions. Our relationship wasn’t exactly known to the MPA, and might even cause problems if it was found out. I was willing to respect her desires, so I wouldn’t make a scene.
I got out of the car, but then I stood at the door, not moving toward the entrance at all. This caught Cornelia off guard. She had said that she’d be taking my lead. I wanted to come here, so she took me here. She did run on ahead toward the hospital because I had stopped outside the door. Charlene didn’t care one way or another. Her job was to protect me, so she asked Brianna and Syph to make a perimeter. Now that it was just the three of them, Charlene would be putting much more pressure on the other two to become skilled and experienced bodyguards.
“What should I do?” Grace walked up to Charlene, a chipper expression on her face.
Charlene glanced at her and then pointed across the street. “How about you set up a perimeter. Keep others from pulling up to us and getting close to Clyburn.”
Grace looked where she pointed in the distance. Her smile flickered slightly, but then she nodded and walked away. In my mind, she seemed to move a bit stiffly. Charlene, on the other hand, looked on coldly and didn’t say anything until Grace was out of earshot.
“You don’t like the police?” I asked, a bit surprised at Charlene’s cold actions.
“I don’t like her,” Charlene responded, making a face.
“Did anything happen?”
Charlene continued to watch Grace walk away and then slowly shook her head. “I don’t know. She’s just too happy and carefree for someone who is an officer of the law. She’s an insult to the badge.”
“Too happy?” I blinked, not sure whether I should laugh.
“Didn’t Charlene fail to pass the exam for the police academy?” Brianna asked Syph.
“Shut up! You’re going to get us in trouble!” Syph hissed back, but it was already too late.
Charlene’s cold look turned to ice as she shot the other two girls a look. “Get in position. Aren’t you supposed to be protecting Clyburn? Your formation is miserable! You have ten seconds to secure the location or I’ll be adding corporal punishment to your nightly training!”
The two girls made noises of distress and then desperately started to check the area and lock it down like panicked chickens. I let out a sigh, calming down. By that point, Grace was in the distance in the street, redirecting traffic so no one else tried to park in front of the hospital. I wasn’t sure if that was legal, but she was a cop. In some small cases, it was nice being a man, I guess.
The guards had only just managed to create a position around me when the door flew open and an olive-skinned beauty with long legs in a nurse’s outfit took a step out of the hospital. She didn’t wear the typical scrubs of a nurse in my world, but something much more alluring. It was one of those white dresses with a white skirt that one only saw on Halloween. It covered her upper body, but her large chest strained the material just a bit. Her short skirt just covered her upper thighs, but her long legs were only covered by white transparent stockings.
That was the way of this world. Most outfits were a bit more revealing. Although the MPA act had invalidated the need, it was hard to undo years of women trying to look as competitively provocative as possible in the hopes of winning the eyes of men. This mentality had infected everything, down to assigned uniforms. If a man got an owie and had to go to the hospital, that might be some women’s only chance to catch his eye, so naturally, their outfits would be sexy. That didn’t even mention the sometimes competitive nature of women. It was often said that women didn’t dress up for men, but to keep up with other women. In a world where everyone was a woman, it was no wonder that fashion here often took over even against practicality.
Mako was older now. Her hips were a bit wider, her breasts were a bit bigger. She had settled into the body of a mother, sort of like my mom. Her hair she had started dying blonde after her rape had long since returned to a silk black. She had the same sleepy eyes and a half smile that she always had. She walked straight toward me without hesitation. She knew I had come to see her. There was no need to mince words.
“Hold it.” Charlene had never really known Mako, and even if they were close friends, she would have done the same.
She stepped forward to keep the other woman from approaching me.
“It’s okay,” I responded simply.
The two guards I previously had might have looked at each other and then sought Cornelia’s instruction before finally acknowledging my order. Charlene, on the other hand, was used to working for me, and immediately stepped back. Her face still wore a bit of concern and worry. I found my eyes wandering up and down Mako’s body as she got close enough that I could smell her sweet scent. I could feel her emotions. They were turbulent. She was excited, but also a bit scared to talk to me. It was the fear that gave me the most worry. There was something she was hiding.
As if to put off this conversation, her eyes went to Cornelia instead. “Anne, it has been some time since I last saw you. I never expected to see you here.”
Her voice was friendly and disarming, but Cornelia tensed at being recognized. She went to the Amaryllis Academy, but she had a strangely cautious and uncomfortable relationship with a lot of the other girls there. One of these days, it’d be nice to find out why she was so stand-offish when it came to other women she went to school with. It made sense with Roxanne, since they had a history, but did she also have a history with Dia and Mako?
“I am now Clyburn’s agent. You may call me Cornelia,” she responded; her voice tight.
Mako looked her up and down only briefly before nodding. “Alright, I won’t mention it anymore.”
With that, she looked over at me, and despite the cool demeanor on her face, I could feel her heart tremble. I reached out to touch her, and to my surprise, she took a step back, like a timid horse avoiding touch. I gave a wry look, and her cheeks turned pink. She knew there was no hiding her emotions from me. Hannah may have been able to play that game, but Mako couldn’t hide her feelings. So, I took a step forward and grabbed her wrists, pulling her toward me.
“Y-you…” She protested verbally, but her body didn’t resist as I brought her into my arms. “If I knew you would just bully me, I never would have signed that contract.”
“Yes, you would have,” I responded.
In the last two years, I had one last growth spurt, and while when we first met we were roughly the same height, I was now taller than her. I wrapped one arm around her thin waist while holding her wrist with the other. I looked down at her now. Once, she had felt like a plaything. She was a prize I had won. A beautiful adult woman who was now my slave I could play with however I wanted.
However, she had my baby, and she was my woman, and as I looked at her then, she was only my woman who I was responsible for and I cared for. I owed her my life, and I would protect and keep her safe. That was the reason I was so determined to find out what Hannah, Brooke, and potentially the others were up to. As a kid, they had all scrambled to keep me safe. Now that I was an adult, it was time that I started to keep them safe.
Of course, I had a retinue of bodyguards and an agent too, but some things couldn’t be helped. I was just going to focus on what I could focus on. Particularly, Mako’s doughy brown eyes that looked up at me wetly with unshed tears. Her heart that had been trembling before was now beating so hard that I could feel it through her large chest against mine.
“I’ve missed you, and you weren’t around when I got home,” I responded, keeping myself from sounding obstinate or angry.
“You… couldn’t have expected me to wait in the mansion forever. Your mother and sister might be recluses, but the rest of us have lives we want to live.” As she said this, she distinctly wasn’t looking at me, her eyes drifting down even though she couldn’t turn her head away.
“You, of all people, are mine the most. What I expect of you is everything.”
Her body shuddered in my grip, and a tear fell down her cheek. “Clyburn, I owe you everything. You took broken goods and picked me up. You even gave me the ability to cast magic so I could finally truly work in healthcare. That’s why… I gave you everything.”
When I first met Mako, she was a teacher, but that wasn’t her life goal. She had wanted to work in healthcare. However, most healthcare in the world required someone to be able to use magic. It was only a few years ago where there were two kinds of people, seeded and aseeded. Those that were aseeded were fundamentally not able to use magic. If they attempted to do it, it would explode in their face. I was one such person who was aseeded.
I had discovered a way around this. If you combined your magic with someone else’s, whether they were aseeded or seeded, it allowed them to work. I had performed a slave bond with Mako, with the hope that it would restore our abilities to cast magic. It wasn’t until I touched the Demon King’s legacy and had all of his information about magical theory downloaded into my head that I realized there was no such thing as being unable to use magic.
Instead, magic was like being left- or right-handed. If you gave a left-handed person a tool designed for a right-handed person, it would ultimately end up blowing up in their face. Instead, you had to make tools, ie runes, developed to run left-handed or right-handed magic. I should add that since I revealed this method to the people of Amaryllis, someone who wasn’t me developed a converter rune that allowed a left-handed person to safely use a right-handed rune. It worked on the same concept as linking chakra that I had already devised, and I could have come up with such a tool on my own, but once the misconception had been fixed, the people of Amaryllis seemed to be able to figure it out on their own.
Thus, the once aseeded Mako was able to finally become a real nurse, and no longer would she just be satisfied with picking up nursing duties as a teacher at Amaryllis Academy.
“If I have everything of yours, then how about giving me the truth.” I finally asked her after holding her sobbing form for a few minutes.
She lifted her free hand and wiped her cheek. “We want to keep you safe.”
With those words, I felt my heart drop. Up until that point, I had only been guessing that they had some conspiracy that they were doing behind my back. It was only now that she said those words that I realized how much I had been going from the edge of my seat. Her confirmation had finally validated that I was on the right track. Brooke didn’t want to kill me, and Hannah didn’t hate me. The other girls weren’t trying to avoid me. In my mind, this confirmed that.
I glanced at Mako more determined now. “Who is involved? Hannah and Brooke?”
She paused for a second, and then slowly nodded. “They are.”
“Rose and Madison? Kemala?”
She shook her head. “No, not them. Kemala is too young. Rose would never accept such a dangerous plan… as for Madison, she’s…”
Her voice drifted off, but I understood what she meant. Madison had been through enough. I let out a staggered breath, feeling even more relieved. They were the ones waiting for me at the mansion, so I didn’t want to think that they had betrayed me. I had spent time with them, so if they had been looking me in the eyes while hiding things they knew, I wasn’t sure how I would feel.
As for Brooke and Hannah, I couldn’t even say I was surprised. Hannah was a free spirit who was wild and hard to tame. Brooke was stubborn and difficult, and would easily be the type to do what she thought was best regardless of what I told her. Mako was the most surprising one. Why would she get involved in this?
“Lyra?” I asked.
She shook her head again. “No, it’s just the three of us.”
“Okay…” I took a breath. “What are you trying to do?”
Mako hesitated once again, and so I squeezed my hand on her wrist. She bit her lip and then nodded to herself. Then, her eyes turned to the bodyguards around me.
“We should discuss this in private. What about them?”
“I trust them with my life.”
Her eyes went to Cornelia, who had her arms crossed and seemed to be doing her best to ignore us cuddling in the middle of the street. I’m sure if this was seen, it would get her in trouble. These kinds of public displays of affection probably violated some MPA rule.
“Her?”
“I trust all of them with my life,” I repeated.
Cornelia stiffened, her arms dropping. She looked at me with a complicated expression and then dropped her eyes. I ignored her and kept my focus on Mako.
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Start with what happened,” I responded, trying to keep the impatience from my eyes and loosen my grip on her wrist.
She let out a sigh and dropped her head in my chest. However, she talked, even though her voice sounded slightly mumbled against my chest.
“It started when Hannah left. No one knew where she went or what she was doing. Madison didn’t seem all that worried though. She said it was just Hannah’s way, and didn’t make a deal of it. I think she was afraid that if she chased after Hannah, she may learn that Hannah doesn’t see her as a sister.”
I nodded slowly. It was true that the relationship between all of them was tense. Madison had always fretted over Hannah and seemed to care about her a great deal. Unfortunately, the relationship was one way. Hannah only saw Madison as another one of my women. She kept up appearances as a sister, but only to appease me. I admit that it saddened me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Hannah felt the way she did. She loved me, her brother, she hated Morgan, her mother, and she nothing’d her half-sister.
“Okay, then what?”
“About three months later, she came home one day and declared that you were in extreme danger. She said that there was a splinter cell of WRA that was still working underground, and they had both the plan and the desire to hunt you down and kill you. That’s why I left the mansion. I work for the MPA now, because I needed to find out what they know. I also wanted to have access to who was coming in and out, particularly men.”
“You think it is related to the murders?”
“Of course, there are so many deaths already…”
“Two deaths is pretty bad.”
“What do you mean two?” She blinked. “There are already a dozen men dead.”
“What?” This caught Cornelia’s attention. “What do you mean, a dozen? If a dozen men were dead, there would be a frenzy.”
“Two men have died in the city, yes… but there are other men who have been dying out in the country. Some of them had been hiding from the MPA, a few were foreigners. They’ve been keeping it all quiet.”
“How can they keep that quiet?” She demanded incredulously.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “It’s been three deaths in three days… shouldn’t the city be in lockdown already like Roxanne said it would be? Someone is suppressing the news.”
Cornelia closed her mouth with a click. She had a worried expression on her face.
“Hannah figured out who the next victim was. That’s why she went to the scene. However, when she was caught; they arrested her,” Mako continued.
“How? Do you know who is next?”
She shook her head. “Hannah didn’t explain it. She didn’t even tell us she was going.”
“So, you don’t know for certain that she wasn’t the murderer,” Cornelia cut in.
“She wasn’t!” I ended saying this at the same time as Mako.
Cornelia snorted but didn’t say anything else. She didn’t look convinced though.
“In that case, why Dia? Was that… to get her into the hospital? Is she here?”
“That was her plan. You see the WRA corruption. It runs deep. It’s difficult to learn who we can trust. I-“
Thup! There was a noise and Mako suddenly jerked in my arms. Her eyes widened as she looked up at me, shock filling her eyes. Her mouth fell open. Just as I tried to push her back to see what was wrong, blood began to spill out her mouth.
“Mako? Mako… Mako!”
Her body fell like her strings had been cut. I could see red forming in a circle around her white dress.
“Shit, we have a shooter!” Charlene cursed. “Cover him.”
Mako was falling to the ground like a dead weight, but as I tried to hold her up, Brianna and Syph jumped on top of me, using their bodies to block anyone from shooting me. They were trying to shove me back into the car. However, I fought them, my eyes locked on Mako. Her eyes were still open, but she was convulsing on the ground. The pool of blood was starting to spread out from her body. Cornelia had kneeled down and was trying to tend to her. Charlene was low, looking around for whoever shot.
“Mako! Doctor! Someone!” I screamed as I was shoved into the car. “Maaaakoo!”
She couldn’t answer.