None of them realized they all signed their death warrants when they touched me—when they touched Inés.
One of the guards backed up, fell and ran down the hall. The other one leaned against the opposite wall and stared at me with wide eyes. They were green, too green. That was the problem with this place. They were more than willing to train the men at fourteen, fifteen, sixteen but none of them were willing to create more groups for us to go on the offense in this world in order to get a better leg up on the war against the bloodsuckers.
It limits humans to these simple pockets, making us living targets if any one of them discovered our location.
Fuck this. This was no longer my home. Not after the way they treated me and Inés, not after they took in someone likeOtisand believed him over me.
“Can’t trust ‘em,” Ares spat out.
“I fucking know that!” I snarled, imagining all the ways I would peel their skin from their muscles and snapped their tendons. They were all going to die. They were all dead already.
Just then, the sound of footsteps became louder and louder as I continued to stare out the little window.
It was the glint of the goggles I saw first before the figure. Kicking the door, I stepped away, unwilling to look at the bastard while I was caged.
I turned my back to the door the moment his voice floated through.
“We find ourselves in quite a predicament, Brother. It tickled my curiosity as to how it came to be this way. You, a pet, and me, a Master.”
“You are no one’s master,” I growled, refusing to look at him.
“Well, dearie. I’m not the one in there, you see.” He laughed maniacally until he suddenly didn’t. The air shifted.
I looked over my shoulder, past Ares, and keened in on the window of the door.
That was when the explosion shook the ground, knocking me onto the floor. Both my brother and Ares were gone by the time I shook my head to clear it from the ringing in my ears.
Muffled screams could be heard in the distance as I brought myself back to my feet, making my way toward the door to see if I could get a glimpse at what was happening.
Slowly the ringing faded enough for me to start focusing on everything around me. Were we being attacked? They should have listened to me!
“Death comes to all of us,” Ares whispered as his voice dissipated into the background.
“Death is going to come to everyone in this fucking place if they don’t get me out of here!” I yelled.
“Shut up, would you!” came Amir’s voice. “Carson, get the fucking keys!”
“Fuck, I’m getting ‘em! How long do we have until the next one goes off?”
“Dammit, I think about ten minutes.”
“Shit.”
The jingle of keys gets louder as Carson leaps over a passed out body on the ground and makes his way to the door.
“These fuckers have a million keys to nowhere,” he grumbled as the tried one after the other on the door.
Amir pointing his rifle behind Carson, watching his back as he finally found the right key after inserting at least seven.
“Where’s Inés? Have you seen Inés?” I frantically asked, heart pounding out of my chest. She was all that mattered! They better not have thrown her in another cell. I marked them all with individualized tortures for separating us. I was going to start with Dean, and then Ozzy. Beau was going to hang out for the bloodsuckers with his throat slit.
I would save my bastard brother for last.
“She’s fine. She’s fine. We stashed her away. They tried to take her but we were able to convince them that we were the changing of the guard.”
“Stop fucking lying to him, man. He’s frothing at the mouth. Look at him.” Amir looked me directly in the eye. “She’s not fine, man. Yeah, they tried to take her, but she was calling out your name like she was calling for a savior man. She’s mentally breaking, screaming. We had to stash her away from them so they couldn’t hear her sobs. She needs you. I don’t know what the fuck happened between you two when you were captured, but that woman is tied to you.”
When the door clicked, I shoved my shoulder into it, inadvertently hitting Carson with the metal but there wasn’t any time. I needed to get to her.
