Subterra Heart

Chapter 48: Connor Rocha

Connor's little chat with his cousin was not going well. They had swapped places. Lenny had the upper hand now and was using Connor's injured shoulder as leverage to press him hard against the wall.

It hurt, and Lenny's eyes gleamed with a mad light. Connor hissed as he sucked air in between his teeth.

"She's not dead!" screamed Lenny. Connor's ears rung with the force of his voice. "Nelda's not dead – I'd made sure of it first. I did my research. Talked with so many of Fenrir's Blessed. They all said that they were fine, that it was what they had wanted. And then, when I had Nelda join them, she said that Fenrir would reward me if I just kept ridding Heart of Rochagorosis."

Spittle flew from Lenny's lips, and he was breathing heavily. He was raving. Connor's accusation about Nelda Crane must have touched on something that had pushed his normally cool and conniving cousin over an unseen edge. He twisted under Lenny's weight, biting back a grunt as pain flared through his shoulder. It was enough to set Lenny off-balance though. Connor punched him in the teeth with his good arm.

Lenny staggered back and sat down, stunned.

"You moron!" shouted Connor. And then, he was on top of Lenny in a flurry of fists, oblivious to the pain in his shoulder and the passageway that remained opened to the tunnels and the faint hiss of the study's door as it slid open.

The only thing that caught Connor's attention was Marina's voice.

"Tess, wait –" she called, followed by another hiss and muffled banging. Connor's head snapped up. Marina shouldn't be here. The study remained wide open to the tunnels. A Dweller's spores or an infected person could stumble in at any moment, and Marina would have nothing to protect her.

Connor blinked, finally seeing the scene before him. An odd-looking girl stood just a few steps away from him. He blinked again. It was Tess. She wore an oversized green jacket that reached nearly to her knees, and the silver Anai shirt he'd given her glinted underneath, flashing in the firelight. Dark peach fuzz covered her scalp. Her bandages were gone, leaving behind skin that was unmarred by burns...and covered instead in cat-like claw marks. Her eyes though, were still the same as when he'd last seen her.

"Tess?" Connor sputtered. Tess shifted her weight, as if she were unsure of herself. She looked tense. The study door behind her was shut once more. It was currently suffering from a series of loud thumps and muffled curses. Marina appeared to have been left firmly on the other side. In a moment, the noise quieted. Connor returned his attention to back to Tess. There was something going on in her head, something that he couldn't understand. She was fiddling with her fingernails and glancing around the room. Her gaze dropped down to him. Then, she looked at Lenny.

Something shifted in Tess's expression and body language. Her tension dissolved. She rolled her shoulders and looked cooly down at the two men sprawled on the ground, with narrowed eyes and thinned lips. A chill ran up Connor's back. Suddenly, it felt as if he were looking upon the face of a predator.

"Am I interrupting something?" she asked. The raspiness that Connor remembered from their last encounter was gone, replaced by a quiet, icy voice. He eyed her warily. What had happened during the two days that he and Marina had spent searching for her?

Lenny gasped, and Connor glanced back down at his cousin. He was gazing at Tess with rapt attention, seemingly awestruck by her sudden appearance. A moment passed, and then another. Slowly, a hysterical giggle gurgled up from Lenny's throat.

"You!" he cried, "It's one of you!" He was staring straight into Tess's black eyes, not in recognition of her as a person, but in recognition of what had happened to her. He grabbed Connor's collar. "See?" he hissed. His respirator dangled loosely around his neck, and blood dribbled from his nose. "A subject, clearly blessed by Fenrir. Perfectly healthy and articulate. Just like all the others – well, some of them at least. Nelda is fine."

Tess's mouth twisted into a mirthless smile.

"Debatable," she said, curtly. "I'm well aware of the stories that Fenrir had been feeding you." She crouched over Lenny's head and tilted her own. "It seems to me like you've lost your marbles since Nelda stopped talking. Funny, how guilt works, isn't it?"

Lenny continued staring up at Tess, blinking rapidly. She considered him for a moment, a very long moment. Then, she reached for the respirator hanging about his neck and fit it back over his face.

"You were never going to get what you wanted, Lenny," she murmured. "Fenrir teased you with promises of having you take Rourke's place as his host. I know that he was speaking to you through Nelda's body. Did she ever explain that once a host is chosen, a Dweller is locked in there forever unless the host chooses to release them? No?" She showed Lenny a small, bitter smile and shook her head. "You would have made a terrible host. Fenrir would have had free rein to do as he pleased, just as he'd always wanted. Lucky for us, Rourke was never going to release Fenrir, no matter how much Fenrir wanted him to. He chose for them to both die by my hand instead. Unluckily for us, we now have a much larger problem, with plenty of other Dwellers – mindless from being trapped in rats and bugs – set to invade Heart."

When Lenny's eyes widened, Tess scoffed and patted his cheek.

"I know you, Lenny. I know what you've done. Your fixation on living forever as a Dweller's host really wasn't worth it," she said, quietly.

Then, she stood back up and turned to face the hearth. A new commotion was starting back up in the hall outside the study again, but that wasn't where Tess's attention was focused. Nor did she seem to be focused on Lenny anymore. She swung her arms and cocked her head towards the dark opening that led down into the tunnels. She frowned.

Connor sat back on his haunches and then slowly returned to his feet as well. His jaw was throbbing, and his shoulder hurt like the devil again. "What is it?" he asked. Tess raised her eyebrows at him.

"You two must have some kind of death wish for Heart, leaving an access point wide open like that," she said. Connor bristled, but he said nothing. 

He watched Tess as she strode towards the hearth, where flames flickered brightly over crackling logs. A set of tools hung from brackets alongside it. She grabbed a tongs and bent to fish out a piece of wood. Then, she straightened, turned towards the opening to the tunnels, and flung the flaming wood into the darkness. Within moments, a hissing scream filled the air. Connor grimaced. Point taken. Heart's safety from the Dwellers was tenuous at best.

Tess darted towards the opening, knelt to grab something from the stairs that led down, and slammed a set of papers on the floor next to her. The next moment, she was behind Lenny's desk, yanking the closest bottom desk drawer open. She rifled through it. There was a click as she removed a false bottom. Then, she reappeared from behind the desk and tossed a datacard to Connor. He caught it and stared at her.

"Your grandfather's notes on bloodrot," Tess explained, quickly. "Make sure that Marina gets them and that she has access to a lab. She's got a job to do now. And as for you," she said, glaring at Lenny, "Nelda is dead." The words came out in a flat voice. She crouched down and tapped the papers lying on the ground next to her. "She's been dead for a long time. I'm the only one of Fenrir's little puppets remaining, and I'm not even entirely sure if she ever did forgive you in the end. Her thoughts were all a confused mess by then. I hope she didn't though. This is proof of what you did, Lenny. The last bits of her journal, right here." She looked back up at Connor. There was a hard glint in her eyes. "Deal with him."

The commotion from the hall had gotten louder, and Tess tensed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some access points to deal with, seeing as I'm the only one left who knows where they're all located."

There was a sudden hiss of the study door sliding back open. Connor whipped his head around to see two strange new men in charcoal suits. Marina stood behind them, straining to see into the study. Connor's back stiffened, and he glanced back to where Tess had knelt. There was no one there. The opening to the tunnels was once more blocked by the bookcase. And Tess, again, was gone.