STAR FALL PEOPLE Chapter 41

Nadia: San Francisco

(Previous chapter, or start at the beginning.)

“Shit, this is the wrong way,” Handlebar said.

“Great job, idiot,” Nadia snapped.

Mang, clinging to their shoulders, said nothing.

“No bitch talks to a white man that way,” Handlebar said.

If she weren’t so scared, she would have killed him on the spot. But she was scared. No, terrified. Of the solution in a thin vial in her black jacket’s pocket, a drop of which could kill her. Of the little creep Mike, maybe alive, maybe burned to a crisp, but either way with that injection gun. Of losing Mang and the certainty that he encompassed, the only way of life she had known.

Of that undead girl back there—the Mang-slayer.

Sofia was xīng yŭn rén?

Sley had told her the truth.

Somehow, Nadia could give birth.

She was real.

“Wait,” Gideon gasped, “wait for me!”

“Helijet...hurry,” Mang said before bending over to cough blood. His skin bloomed with rashes. But her mind wasn’t on him. She was recalling a different kind of affection, one so long buried that the act of memory shocked her.

Sofia was Sley’s daughter. The way he had beheld her corpse, held her dead hand.

Like a father in mourning.

He hadn’t known everything, though. He hadn’t realized what he had passed on. Parent to child.

Nor would he. Nadia and Handlebar got their bearings and carried Mang to the complex’s main atrium. She saw Sley’s body sagging down a sofa. She heard the weeping of the prisoners and saw the whisp of smoke climbing from the mouth of Fat Beard’s rifle.

Sley was dead. Fat Beard’s point-black shot had practically ripped the duke’s head off.

Only Nadia knew that the line of Duke Kong was not yet ended.

This should have filled her with hope. But seeing his corpse only reminded her of her babies, the poisoned seed of Kong Lai-king, one after another, each new monstrosity drawing no more than a few seconds of breath…

She felt rage. Why him? Why did he deserve a child, a living, breathing, real daughter? Why not Nadia? She wasn’t even aware of the cry of frustration that escaped her lips.