"Wolfe," I say slowly, "you can't keep me here. I have to leave with my team. I have to move on to the next Sanctuary, and then the next one after that. You understand that, don't you?"
He shakes his head. "No, you're needed here. You stay."
Horror begins to rise up, making me feel dizzy. If Wolfe has a strong hold on the city and he wants to keep me here, then I’m not going to be able to fight him. My team is too small to face Wolfe and his army. They won’t be able to help.
This isn’t the first time a Sanctuary has attempted to separate me from my team and keep me. Other cities had thought to leverage me for control of the vaccination. I learned quickly not to tell them about the origins of the vaccine. Not to tell them it was created using my blood. Warlords can’t be trusted with that kind of information.
Of course, Wolfe already knows about my blood.
"You plan to use me to control the vaccine?" I ask him, wanting to be completely clear on what's happening.
"No, I don't care about the vaccine. It's a Band-Aid solution. It'll stop the rapid growth of Primitives, but it won't fix the world we now live in."
"There's more to it than that," I say angrily, pacing away from him, my arms wrapped protectively around my waist. "The vaccine doesn't just stop people from turning into Primitives. It’s showing promising signs of turning Primitives back into people."
I can tell right away that Wolfe didn’t know this piece of information. He seems to be turning it over in his mind.
"Does it work?" he asks skeptically. "Is it capable of turning zombies into humans again?"
I give my head a slight shake. "Not so far, but I'm confident that it will."
"Who’s doing the research?"
"Dr. Bishop, from the Tucson sanctuary." There's no point in keeping the information from him. The more I talk, the more likely it is he'll let me go if I say the right thing. "After Emery was bitten, Taran’s blood was able to turn Emery back. She died three months later from massive organ shutdown, but the possibilities inherent in this vaccine are massive. If we can just get it to work on the Primitives, we could eradicate the virus entirely.”
A pang rushes through me as I remember Emery, my sister’s caretaker for many years, a kind woman who’d treated me with the love she’d shown my sister. Her death was extremely hard on Taran and surprisingly difficult on myself as well, considering we hadn’t had time to forge a close bond.
"The vaccine and a cure are two very different things. Vaccines can be created and distributed quickly. A cure can take years to create, if it’s possible at all, and often has undesirable side effects. As your friend no doubt learned." His words are hard, but not untrue.
Emery had suffered right to the end, her organs failing one at a time a time. We did everything we could to keep her alive, but her body was just too severely injured from the Turn to recover.
After Emery’s death, Dr. Bishop began experimenting with different versions of the vaccine in the hopes of finding a way to turn Primitives back into humans without damaging them too badly. They’d managed to test the vaccine on a few live Primitives. The younger the Primitive, the better its chances of surviving for longer. None of them actually survived though.
"Maybe so, but there's hope, and I'm part of that hope. You can't keep me here, Wolfe. This isn't where I belong anymore." I plead with him, hoping I'll get through.
He shakes his head. "This is exactly where you belong."
I throw my hands up in frustration. "What about the rest of the world? Do you not give a fuck about them? They'll die without the vaccine."
Wolfe takes a step closer to me until I'm forced to back away. He stares down at me, his single golden eye piercing. "I don't care about the rest of the world. Only you." He takes another step forward, gripping my arm as I try to step away from him. "You will stay."
I shake my head. "No, I won't. I have to leave. Why do you want to keep me here anyway? You left me, not the other way around. You don’t need me."
He doesn't answer my question. He doesn't tell me why he wants me here so badly. He turns on his heel and strides through the open door, closing it behind him. It's a great big thick steel door that closes into a concrete wall. The entire harem is built to withstand anything from fire to a bomb blast. I hear the echo of the bolt slamming into place as Wolfe locks me inside.
Ten
At first, I just pace back and forth in front of the door, determined to wait Wolfe and the guards out until someone opens it. Once they do, I’m going to disable them with the weapons they were stupid enough to leave on me, find my team and escape Sanctuary.
When no one enters the harem within the first half hour, curiosity drives me to explore my old home. It's been more than a year since I've been here. Since I've lived, loved and laughed here. Silas was my husband, but the women of the harem were my roommates, sisters and confidants.
Everything is the same, yet different somehow. All of our stuff is spotless and unmoved. Each room, belonging to one of Silas's wives, is exactly how I remember it. We had become a family, a group of women from all different backgrounds who befriended each other and lived together in this insulated dormitory.
Over the years, I became Silas's favourite, and as such was allowed to roam more freely through the palace. Silas trusted me and used me as his advisor. Wolfe and I had formed a wary partnership to protect the Warlord’s dignity as his health deteriorated. No one knew how sick Silas was except for me, Wolfe, Hannah and a few of his personal guards. As far as the city was concerned, Silas was strong and healthy, running the Sanctuary smoothly until the day the Primitives came. Then he’d gone down with his ship.
Even back then, I'd wondered about Wolfe’s motives. He was definitely the strong silent type, but there was something calculating about him. Though he served Silas, I never got the feeling that he actually cared about the Warlord as a person. He did his job and he did it well, but he had been cold, professional and detached. Perhaps the perfect ingredients for our security master, but he was no friend to any of us.
I had become everything to Silas. His best friend, his confidant, and his head wife. In a way, I shared the role with Hannah. While I worked at Silas's side, helping him run the city, Hannah had ensured harmony in the harem and in the palace. We worked together like a well-oiled machine and forged a close bond. Which is why I don't understand her distance now. The old Hannah would have been thrilled to see me, not distant and standoffish. It makes no sense.
I get an opportunity to talk to her several hours later, when she enters the harem with a tray filled with food and drink. She sets it down on the table, but instead of moving away and leaving she remains, her shuttered gaze on me, her face set in weary lines.
I don't bother to beat around the bush, I ask her the topmost question in my mind. "How did you survive the attack?"
Hannah had stood with Silas during the fall of the city, taking the position I'd wanted. I’m a natural fighter, I should have been by his side defending him until the last. Instead, Wolfe had saved my life and left Hannah behind with our husband. She should be dead.