Twisted World Series Box Set | Books 1-3 & Novella

by Mary, Kate L.

  “Helen.” Angus stopped and turned to face the doctor. “I saw that nurse today, the one who raised our girl.” He winced like admitting that Dr. Helton had had any part in making the child hurt him. “She was raising some hell. She’ll help.”

  Yes, Helen would definitely be an ally, assuming Dr. Helton could get her to listen. That would be the hard part, though. Like Angus, Helen hated her right now. Blamed her for what had happened with the child, and rightfully so.

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “You do that.” Angus threw himself onto the couch and let out a sigh. “Don’t suppose you can bring her down here to see me?”

  “Not tonight. It’s too risky.” It was a lie and she felt bad about it. He deserved this, deserved to see his daughter, but she wanted time with him. Alone. “In a couple days. After things have died down.”

  Angus sighed, but he seemed to buy her explanation.

  Silence fell over them and eventually Dr. Helton dragged herself to her feet and went over to sit at his side. When she put her hand on his knee, he stiffened, but she didn’t let it stop her. She needed this, and she had a feeling he did as well.

  She leaned closer and pressed her lips against his. Angus pulled back, but she grabbed his face and tried again. This time, he barely resisted, and when she reached for the drawstring on his pants, he only shifted away a little.

  “It’s been seven years, Angus,” she said as she grasped the string between her fingers and pulled. “I know you want this.”

  “Not with you,” he said, but his body betrayed him when she slid her hand into his pants and found him already hard.

  She didn’t bother arguing, but instead went to work on him. She moved her hand as she kissed him, shifting so she could straddle him, never missing a beat. He groaned and his hands found the hem of her shirt, and then slid under to cup her breasts. He’d given in. She’d known he would.

  The first time was fast and over too quickly, and afterward Angus barely said a word. Dr. Helton didn’t leave, though, but instead curled up next to him on the couch, enjoying the warmth of his naked body next to hers. It didn’t take long before the gentle stroke of her hand up and down his chest moved lower, though, and then they were at it again.

  Angus gave more of himself to her the second time around. Kissing her more passionately, then carrying her to the bed so they had more room. The seven years that had passed since they’d last been together had changed them both, made them both softer. Rounder. Time did that, but it had also made the doctor appreciate it more. Made her understand more than ever what it meant to be close to another person.

  This time when they were finished, Angus put his arm around her and she rested her head on his chest. She closed her eyes and exhaled, suddenly feeling like she was home.

  “Don’t know what you did to me, doctor, but you did something.”

  “Jane,” she said, twisting so she could look him in the eye. “Please, call me Jane.”

  Angus gave her a small smile, and in that look, she knew that if they could get out of this, they would be okay. “Jane.”

  Helen

  That night Helen went to the entertainment district, a bar called Dragon’s Lair that featured fights between the owner and zombies. It had been years since she’d gone out, too busy raising Baby to drink or party, but now it was all she could think about. She stayed until they closed, and then went home with a man who reeked of body odor and lived in a shack that was little more than a mattress thrown on the ground. The next day she did the same thing with a different man, and day three found her having sex in an alley after shooting up some unnamed drug, and then dragging herself back to Dragon’s.

  The owner, Dragon himself, was behind the bar that night. He was shirtless and built like a tank with skin so dark it made Helen feel ghostly in comparison. His smooth head glistened under the bar lights and the tattoo of a dragon that took up most of his back made him look rough, but the smile he gave her was friendly and welcoming, as was the gleam in his eye.

  “Three days in a row,” he said as he filled her glass. “You trying to drink yourself to death?”

  “Doesn’t seem to be anything else to do these days.” Helen threw the shot back, and then slid the glass across the bar so he could refill it. “Plus, I’ve tried living and it hurts like hell.”

  Dragon narrowed his eyes on her as he refilled her glass. “We’re just starting over. Things will get better.”

  “Nothing—” She swallowed her second shot. “—will ever be better. Trust me.”

  Dragon chuckled as he walked away, like he thought she was being overly dramatic, and Helen had the sudden urge to stand on the bar and spill the beans. She could tell these people so much, not just about Star and his part in all this, but about what they were really doing in the CDC. She’d drop the bomb that Angus James was still alive, too. That would blow the whole thing apart. She could almost imagine the members of The Church storming the CDC and ripping it apart stone by stone in much the same way that the Bastille had been torn apart during the French Revolution.

  She didn’t, although she did get up and storm across the room after Dragon. The man was headed down a dark and stinking hall when she caught up with him. She grabbed his arm and forced him to spin around, so out of it from the drugs and alcohol that it never even occurred to her for a second that this man could rip her apart the same way he had the zombies in the ring only a half an hour earlier.

  “Don’t you laugh at me and walk away,” she’d screamed. “You have no idea what I’ve been through.”

  “I know what the whole world has been through,” he said, trying to pull out of her grasp.

  Either it was half-hearted or she was holding him harder than she realized, because she managed to maintain her grip on him. “You know nothing,” she said, leaning closer and allowing the words to hiss through her teeth. “But I know. I know everything that goes on in the CDC, all the dark secrets. Secrets that would make your head spin. The lies. The deceit. I know it all.”

  Dragon narrowed his dark eyes on her. “What are you on?”

  Helen’s hand fell away from his arm and she took a step back. “What?”

  “You’re on something. What?”

  “Nothing.”

  Something in his expression made her want to get out of there. He looked suddenly terrifyingly intense, and the longer she looked at him, the more his face morphed and changed, becoming distorted until he looked like something other than a man. He looked like a dragon.

  The dragon opened his mouth and Helen flinched away, expecting fire to come out and burn her alive.

  “No,” she said, stepping back. “No.”

  She turned to run but he had his arms around her waist before she’d made it two steps. She fought and screamed, but he didn’t relent. He carried her down the hall, deeper into the stinking darkness, stopping only long enough to open a door, and then they were going down. It was blacker than night and cold like winter, and she had the sudden fear that hell had frozen over and this man wasn’t a dragon after all, but the devil himself who had come to take her where she belonged.

  Helen screamed and fought the whole way across the room. Then another door opened and she was suddenly falling. It seemed to take forever, like it was an endless pit or her body had become suspended in air, but when she finally touched down her landing was soft, and even though it was still dark, she could almost imagine a puff of feathers rising up around her.

  “Sleep it off,” Dragon’s voice boomed through the dark room. “We’ll talk in the morning.”

  The door shut and Helen scrambled to her feet, feeling her way through the darkness. She hit a wall and ran her hand along it as she walked, searching for the exit. Instead she came to another wall, so she followed that, and then another. She finally found the door on the last wall, but it was locked and sturdy, and no matter how hard she slammed her shoulder against it she couldn’t get it to budge. She made her way back across the cell, once again l
ocating the pile of feathers so she could lie down. They were soft and warm, so she burrowed into them and allowed herself to sleep.

  It was no longer dark when she woke and her head was clear. She realized that the pile of feathers had actually been a bed and that what she’d thought was a cell was only a room. A cozy room, too. There was a big bed and plush chairs, one of which Dragon was currently lounging in, watching her with calculating eyes.

  “So what were you on?” he asked.

  “Don’t know.” She felt like a child when she shrugged, but she couldn’t muster any of the moxie she’d felt last night when she’d charged after Dragon.

  “You shouldn’t take something if you don’t know what it is. Hell, these days, you shouldn’t take anything you can get on the streets. Some of that stuff will knock you dead in seconds flat. Some of it will just drive you insane.”

  “I’m not hoping to prolong my life,” she said, sitting up so she could get a better look at him. “Why did you bring me here?”

  “You were pretty out of it. Running your mouth off about things that would get you killed pretty fast.”

  Helen’s blood turned to ice. What had she said? She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember much of anything except that she had felt like she was falling at one point, and there had been another moment when she had been sure that this man was an actual dragon who was dragging her down to hell.

  “I was high. Whatever I said, it isn’t true.”

  Dragon shrugged. “If you say so.”

  It was pretty obvious by his tone that he didn’t believe her, but Helen wasn’t about to ask questions. She’d spent most of her time in this settlement inside the CDC, so she had no idea what Star was doing with the rest of Atlanta, but she wouldn’t put it past him to have spies everywhere. For all she knew, Dragon was trying to trap her.

  He stood after a moment and nodded toward the door. “Come on. I’ll get you some breakfast.”

  She followed him out of the room on legs that were shaky and sore, only to discover that the rest of the place was as nice as the bedroom had been. It didn’t make any sense how she’d gotten here, though. As far as she could remember, Dragon hadn’t taken her out of the bar.

  “Where are we?” she asked, stopping in the middle of the kitchen.

  “My apartment.” Dragon opened the fridge and pulled out a basket of eggs. “It’s under the bar.”

  Helen had been pretty out of it ever since leaving the CDC, but she could remember the bar fairly well and this pristine apartment was the exact opposite of the grimy atmosphere of the upstairs.

  She sank into a chair while Dragon went to work, scrambling eggs and chopping up a couple bell peppers. He looked her way from time to time, but remained silent, giving her a chance to take him in.

  He was attractive, which was something she hadn’t noticed upstairs in the dimly lit bar. His skin was a color that reminded her of fertile soil, and his eyes just a shade lighter. Despite the scars on his arms and a couple on his neck, and the fact that he was missing his two front teeth, Dragon came across as soft and gentle, and the quiet concern in his gaze was impossible to miss.

  When the eggs were done he set a plate in front of her and took the other chair, nodding in an encouraging way. “Eat.”

  “What about you?” she asked when she picked up the fork.

  “I already ate. Had to be up early so I could get the zombies for tonight’s fight.”

  He watched her while she ate, his brown eyes taking every inch of her in. Under his gaze, Helen felt more like her old self. Like the person she’d been before Baby had come into her life and before she’d met Star, before the zombie virus had wiped everything out. Back then she’d been a woman who had enjoyed the company of a man, had loved to dress up and have fun, and savored the longing looks men would give her when she wore tight clothes.

  She didn’t look much like that woman anymore. It had been nine years but she had aged twenty, aided by the long hours of a single parent life and her increasing dependence on cigarettes. The unlimited supply she’d had at the CDC had done a number on her skin, and the stress hadn’t helped. She’d long ago given up trying to maintain her hair, cutting it off so it was only two inches long. She didn’t have makeup or nice clothes, and after three days of slumming it she felt like a homeless person.

  “What are you looking at?” she asked when Dragon wouldn’t stop staring.

  “You.” He sat forward. “You interest me.”

  Helen felt like she was the least interesting person in the world, but for some reason, knowing that Dragon thought that made her feel good.

  After she ate she showered and changed into clean clothes. The fact that Dragon just happened to have some in her size lying around didn’t escape her notice, but she was too grateful for them to question where they had come from. When she was dressed she went upstairs, once again shocked by how filthy the place was compared to the basement.

  Dragon was behind the bar, getting ready for the night ahead. At his side was a young woman with dark hair and a friendly smile, and Helen remembered her from the three previous nights before.

  “You feeling better today?” the woman asked.

  She was probably in her mid-twenties, and both her arms were covered in tattoos and she had several piercings in her face, including her nose and two in her eyebrow. Her pale skin contrasted nicely with her black hair and the red lipstick she wore was an added touch that Helen was sure made her stand out in a crowd. Something she needed if she wanted to get tips in a place like this.

  “Much better.” Helen slipped onto a stool. “I’m Helen.”

  “Eve,” the girl said, extending her hand. “Nice to meet you, Helen.”

  Eve seemed genuine, which meant she and Dragon probably weren’t an item, and she had no problem heading off to busy herself somewhere else when her boss cleared his throat.

  Once they were alone, Dragon said, “You’re welcome to stick around for a couple days until you get back on your feet, but I won’t have any drugs in my apartment. Understand?”

  “Why?” Helen asked, unused to people wanting to help her without asking for things in return—like Star.

  “Because it’s my place and I don’t like drugs.” Dragon’s eyes clouded over.

  “No.” Helen shook her head. “Not that. Why are you helping me?”

  “Because we all need help sometimes,” he said.

  The genuine light in his eyes when he looked her over said volumes about who this man was. He was kind and caring, and he looked out for people, something that Helen was suddenly grateful for. As painful as it was to think about going back to the CDC, she knew she would eventually do it. She couldn’t stand the thought of leaving Baby there, of never knowing what happened to her or if she was okay, of not being there to stand up for her. She was just a child, only seven years old, and if Helen were gone there would be no one left to look out for her.

  “That’s fine,” she said. “I won’t be doing any more drugs.”

  Dragon nodded in response, but she could tell by the flicker in his eyes that he was surprised by the change in her attitude.

  Helen stayed with Dragon. Days turned into a week and she began to feel at home. She worked with Eve, serving drinks at night while Dragon fought the zombies, and then retiring with him to his basement apartment. At first their relationship was platonic, but it didn’t take long before Helen found herself longing for something more. It had been seven years since she’d been with a man—other than the ones she barely remembered from her first few drunken nights outside the CDC—and she had never met anyone like the one she found herself with now. He was masculine and strong, yet so good that he didn’t seem real. He cared about people enough to drag her to this basement and save her from herself, and he’d shown her more consideration than anyone had since the zombies showed up.

  On her seventh night with him, after they had cleaned up and closed the bar for the night, Helen found it impossible to hold back. She went
to him when he was in the shower, slipping her clothes off and stepping in under the hot stream as if he’d invited her there. Dragon’s dark eyes studied her when he turned, taking her in and setting her body on fire with the intense look. He didn’t speak, didn’t try to talk her out of it. It was as if he’d expected it all along and had just been waiting for her to make up her mind.

  They had sex in the shower before moving to the bedroom where Dragon laid her out on the bed and explored every inch of her body. He was so thorough that she felt certain he had touched her soul, and later that night as she laid next to him, listening to his heavy breathing echo off the walls of his basement bedroom, she realized with certainty that she had found her place in this world.

  But she missed Baby, and she knew she would soon have to return to the CDC.

  “What is it?” Dragon asked, running his hand down the side of her face to wipe away the tears that had escaped from her eyes. “Tell me.”

  Helen hadn’t even known he’d awakened, and it was so dark that she had no idea how he knew she was crying, but in that moment she was glad he was there.

  She turned to him and pressed her face against his bare chest. Dragon’s strong arms encircled her like he was trying to hold her together, and she gave in to the ache inside her and allowed the tears to come.

  He held her until she stopped crying, and then in the darkness of the room she told him everything she’d done and seen and heard inside the CDC, how there was a child there that had been her daughter even if they hadn’t been biologically related. How the CDC was pulling all the strings, with Star at the top and everyone doing his bidding like they were puppets in a show. How Angus James was alive and being held prisoner while his family was being lied to.

  Dragon didn’t say a word until she had finished, and then he let out a deep breath. “She was right.”

  “Who?” Helen asked, looking up at his face even though it was dark and she couldn’t see him that well.

  “Amira.” He told her about the deaf girl who had worked for him and how she’d died, how it had been made to look like a random attack, but how there had been too many questions surrounding the whole thing for him to accept it. “I thought they were just stupid rumors. Even after she died, but now I know she was right.”