Infected (Releasing the Magic Book 1)

by Maya Riley

  I was thrown down to the floor as every bit of gentleness Dr. crazy once had disappeared. “Yes, see, now that I have vials of your blood, you’re not as useful to me as you were before. Sure, there is only one you at the moment. But before long, I’ll have many you’s. I’ll have an army of you’s. I’ll have succeeded in turning this world into what it was meant to be.”

  I glanced around at the glass cages to meet several pairs of frightened, confused, and angry eyes. None of them could hear what was being said out here. They were used as incentive to make me do what this crazy doctor wanted. And now that he got what he wanted from me, he could easily discard me without a moment’s hesitation.

  “Yes, I can see the fear and worry in your eyes, and rightfully so. I knew you wouldn’t do what needs to be done. The best chance I have is to start over. A new beginning. I no longer have a need for you. I’ll keep you around for a bit longer, but you’re no longer necessary.”

  Another searing headache tore through my skull once again, and I clenched my teeth together and clamped my hands to my head, squeezing the scalp, trying to stop the pain. Maura’s mouth opened as if she were screaming, but the sound went unheard. My vision went in and out while I fought to keep conscious. Every one of my nerve endings were on fire, but I wasn’t giving in. This fucker has taken so much already, and he wasn’t going to get any more. He wasn’t going to get the satisfaction of standing on a throne made from the blood of the innocent.

  “The higher I make the frequency, the worse your head hurts. I wonder what would happen if I were to turn it up to the maximum setting…” He trailed off as he got closer. The vast increase in pain told me the device was very near.

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I tried to fight, but this was too much, everyone had their limits. My head felt like it was splitting in two, the agonizing pressure building against my skull, threatening to break free. Every nerve within my body was crying out for relief. Right when I was ready to beg for the end, it stopped. The ringing in my ears continued and I opened my eyes, barely enough to peek out, to see Dr. Crazy laying on the floor with a knife sticking out of his shoulder.

  The floor underneath me thundered as though a dozen drummers were marching. Hands grabbed me and pulled me up until I was leaning against a hard chest. A hand brushed my hair back, soothing me.

  Blackness began to ebb away from my vision and I tried to peer up through my lashes to see what was going on, but the light was still too sharp on my corneas. A peppery scent reached my nose and I instantly calmed, feeling safe. I pushed my nose farther into the chest of the one holding me, wanting to be surrounded in the familiar scent. Each new breath I took helped calm me and kept the pain at bay.

  Deep pounding noises from farther away caught my attention. Now able to open my eyes again, I braced my head with my hand and looked out from my safe cocooned space to see Mateo throwing a chair at the glass cage containing Lincoln. The chair bounced off and landed on the floor with a thud, so Mateo began kicking at the wall next, to no avail.

  Groaning had me turning my attention to the floor. Dr. Crazy was coming to, and he began reaching a hand across his chest for the knife. With a grunt, he pulled it out in a quick motion with a plop. My squeak of surprise alerted Adam, who let me go with a quick kiss to the top of my head, and greeted the doctor with a boot to the face, and the knife clattered back to the floor. He picked up the knife in one swift motion and returned to me, resting my head on his chest once again.

  “Hey Mat.” I could feel the rumble of his chest as he called out for his friend. “Try this.” The knife sailed through the air and Mateo plucked it out of the air effortlessly, wrapping his hand around the hilt with impressive coordination.

  Mateo proceeded to use the knife to jimmy the lock, but it wouldn’t budge, so he slammed the pointed end into the glass repeatedly. “Looks like…” Grunt. “It needs…” Grunt. “A key card…”

  I looked around and pointed at the unconscious doctor on the floor. “His badge,” I squeaked out, my voice growing even raspier. Adam produced a small bottle and I reached for it, grateful to have some liquid.

  Mateo hurried over and snatched the badge up before jogging back over to Lincoln and scanning it. With a beep, a green light lit up the access panel and Lincoln ran out, straight for me, while Mateo worked on the others.

  “B, are you okay? Are you hurt?” He reached out a hand and hesitated by my cheek. The throbbing pain in my head had subsided. I lifted my head and closed the short distance, letting him touch me to know I was okay.

  “Device,” I squeaked out.

  “What?”

  “The little device. Dr. Crazy.” My face scrunched up as my brain tried to form sentences.

  “This thing?” Mateo held up the little black headache device and I nodded in affirmation. “How are you?” Concern laced his voice as he looked over my face.

  “I’m good.” I smiled. “I promise. Doing better now that you’re all here.” Mateo gave the badge to Lincoln so he could finish getting the others out, and then joined Adam and me. My world had been turned upside down and busted through with a chainsaw, but the part of my world that mattered was here with me, with everyone within my grasp.

  “What the fuck has been going on here? What’d we miss?” Mateo was fuming, but I sensed that his anger wasn’t aimed toward any of us in particular.

  A small laugh began to bubble up inside of me and grew bigger until Adam was the only reason I was still standing upright, holding me tightly in his arms. “Oh so, so much.” I continued to laugh until I was out of breath, then proceeded to laugh some more. Once I calmed down enough to stand unassisted, I looked around at the solemn, patient, and impatient faces around me. With a shrug, I provided the most complicatedly simple answer I could think of. “Well, for starters, I’m not human.” And with that, I turned away and began walking toward the door I had disappeared into before, needing a moment to myself to process.

  “Go help Lincoln, I’ve got her. Come follow us when they’re all free,” Mateo told Adam, and his shoes pounded on the concrete as he hurried to catch up.

  While we should get out of here as soon as possible, I couldn’t pass up the chance for some extra supplies. It was the least Dr. Crazy could do after the shit bomb he dropped. May as well do that after destroying those vials of blood.

  “What do you mean you’re not human?” Mateo grumbled alongside me.

  “Exactly what I said, I’m not human.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “Not really.”

  He grabbed my upper arm and pulled me to a stop. “I just spent the last day worried sick about you. When you didn’t return, we split up and searched. Coming after you was something I should have done the moment you walked out that door.” His breath hitched and he continued, “Lincoln and Jonah left red scraps of fabric behind on bushes and tree branches so you could find your way back. Adam and I followed those scraps of fabric to the door of some fucking building filled with cages of dead people and crazed rotters. No red fabric was left anywhere inside. We feared the worst and ran our asses ragged searching for you guys. Hall after hall, cage after cage. We spent hours running around here searching. Then we finally find you and they’re all locked up in cages while you’re on the floor and some crazy guy is—” His throat clenched up and he seemed unable to finish that train of thought.

  Guilt began to eat away at me. He’d saved my life, yet again, and I was still being an ass to him. Not that he didn’t deserve to be treated like an ass, it was kind of our thing, but I could at least thank him. Fuck, why was it every time I turned around, one of these guys were saving me? I was done being the damsel in fucking distress.

  “I’m sorry.” I gulped out the apology and was surprised I wasn’t choking on the words. I could be fucking stubborn sometimes and it was good that this wasn’t one of those times. “It’s been a really stressful time and there’s way too much to explain right now. Basically, I was created in this lab here. He even took my b
lood, it’s in some vials in another room down that hall.” I tilted my head in the direction I was referencing.

  He looked at me like I was insane. Which, I probably was, if I came from Dr. Crazy. “Seriously?”

  I nodded. He returned the nod and placed his hand on my lower back, guiding me down the halls. “Alright Trouble, let’s get moving. We’ll fix this.”

  “You got it, Mr. Grumpy Pants.” I didn’t miss the twitch at the corner of his mouth. He was trying not to smirk, and it made me smile.

  He opened the first door on the left and peered in, pulling me along behind him.

  “What about the others?” I asked, not wanting to be separated after everything we’d been through.

  “They know we’re over here. They’ll follow soon. They always do.”

  He followed me to the room I was recently in and I grabbed all the blood vials I could see. Turning on the water, I opened each one and washed them down the sink. Satisfied with my mission, I gave one last sad look at Dr. Hannity before turning around and heading back into the hallway in search of a supplies room. We found what we were looking for only a couple doors down.

  This room looked to be some sort of storage. There were shelves and boxes full of all sorts of things. There were gloves, needles, medications, wraps, and so much more than I could even begin to describe. A chill settled across my arms, the adrenaline leaving my body and reminding me how cold it was going to be outside. I rubbed my hands across my arms, trying to keep the blood circulating.

  Mateo slid the pack off his back and began stuffing gauzes and ointments and the like into it. He paused, pulled something out, and tossed the article of clothing at me. “Here. You’re going to want an extra layer.”

  “Aww, you brought me a hoodie?” I grinned and hurriedly stuffed myself into it, enjoying the warmth. I wrapped my arms around my chest and brought my sleeve-covered hands up to warm up my nose, breathing in the earthy scent in the process.

  “Adam has one for you too.” He returned to the shelf he left off at and continued grabbing and tossing items. Looking around, I grabbed a few useful ointments and stuffed them into my pockets.

  Once his pack was full, he turned around to see me still looking at him. He pulled out a dagger and started fiddling with it between the fingers of one hand.

  “Why don’t you like me?”

  The question took him by surprise and his knife fiddling faltered, nicking a knuckle. “What do you mean, why don’t I like you?”

  “Well, you’re always grumpy. Which, granted, I’ve decided that’s your natural emotion. But what I don’t understand, is you saved me and then kissed me, and still brought me back inside without making a million percent sure that I wasn’t bitten or scratched. Which seemed to be more than just carelessness on your part. You seemed to care about me, but then you went right back to hating me.”

  “I don’t hate you.”

  “Then what is it? Am I repulsive?”

  “No, y—”

  “Is it because I’m always a fucking damsel in distress? Because I’m working on that.”

  “Y—”

  “Because I’m not a normal human?”

  “N—”

  “Becau—”

  “Would you shut the fuck up for a moment and let me talk?”

  I snapped my mouth shut and looked at him, waiting to see what he had to say. Riling him up was fun sometimes, but my own worries kind of took over for a moment.

  “I’ve seen the way the others look at you. How you look back at them. Even if no one had a problem sharing, I still don’t have a chance with you. I’m the last thing you need in your life. I’m too broken, and I don’t mean just my eye.” He continued to fiddle with his knife, pressing a finger to the tip with a little extra force, not bothering to acknowledge the drop of blood now running down the knife.

  Well shit. It would take more time than we had at the moment to convince him that he was wrong. “It’s okay to be broken. All the best people are.”

  He looked up at me, his knife stalling in between his fingers. Shadows moved across his face as he studied me, trying to figure me out.

  I smiled at him, the biggest, most reassuring smile I could muster.

  “Now, I don’t know exactly what went on with you and those scavers, but you’re better than you think you are. I heard what that lady said to you at the fire station, and I’m sorry that happened to you. But don’t push me away because of it. Let me help you.”

  “I have some pretty big trust issues. She came to our camp one day and I immediately started to fall for her. That night she stabbed us in the back. Or should I say, in the eye.” He sighed. “That group, they call themselves The Roaches. They’re not a good group to get tangled up with, being one of the worst groups of scavers I’ve come across.”

  I walked up to him and placed a hand on the side of his face, less than an inch away from his eye patch. Rubbing my thumb along his cheekbone, I looked at him with reassurance, not pity. We’d get past this. All of us, with all of this.

  “I can’t give you anything normal.”

  A laugh bubbled up my throat at that. “We’re not normal people with normal people problems. We’re crazy. We’re unknown. We’re chaotic. And I love every fucking minute of it.” I closed the distance between us and planted my lips on his in one quick, searing kiss. Enough to let him know we weren’t done. This conversation wasn’t going to end here.

  I pulled back after a moment and looked at him, and his face was full of relief. The spark of joy in his eye warmed my chest.

  With a nod of understanding that we’d come back to this subject later, he pocketed his knife and walked out the door, toward the others who had begun to follow us. Puppy ran over with her tongue lolling out of her mouth and jumped up on me with her front paws on my shoulders. I laughed as she greeted me with her best slobbery kiss.

  “Bad news, guys,” Adam began as he walked toward us and his next words made my blood run cold. “The scientist guy is gone.”

  Blyss

  “What do you mean he’s gone?” I began to panic. If he’d been telling the truth about having a backup device, then I was in trouble.

  “How could you let him escape?” Mateo roared, and I could almost see the fire in his eye. I was really glad I wasn’t on his bad side right now. The anger rolling off of him was so thick, I could almost taste it.

  “We were busy trying to get everyone out. The smaller cage with Puppy in it didn’t work with the badge so we needed to find another way,” Adam rushed to explain. “We didn’t even think he could sneak away like that with the wound you gave him. He was practically dead on the floor, last I saw.”

  Plaster crumbled to the ground as Mateo slammed his fist through the wall.

  Maura jumped back, but the other guys showed no sign of surprise. After all the time I’ve spent with them, it didn’t surprise me either. I laid a hand on his arm, letting him know it was okay and we would fix this.

  “Is it really that bad that he escaped, I mean, what were we going to do with him anyway? Were we going to kill him, take him hostage? Skittle is safe and that should be our priority right now.” Adam’s innocent question was met with glares from the others. He wasn’t here for the worst of it, for any of the crazed scientist’s monologues, so he didn’t know the extent of the danger he posed. None of them did.

  “I would’ve fucking killed him. Hell, that knife should’ve gone through his heart. He deserved so much worse than what he got, and now he’s going to get off scot-free.”

  He has this small device, Jonah began to explain. When he presses the button on it, Blyss feels agonizing pain. At first it started out as a headache. Then when he turned up the dial, the pain increased and she blacked out. The higher the frequency, the more agonizing pain she’s in. While you guys have the one that he used, he said he has a backup device. Him running loose out there with this device is a danger to her.

  Adam’s face fell at Jonah’s explanation, and understanding dawn
ed on him. “Shit.”

  “Precisely.” Lincoln crossed his arms.

  Bringing them up to speed, I quickly rattled off what had happened.

  “Unlocking the magic within DNA…” Lincoln trailed off, lost in thought. I looked at him, understanding what he was thinking because I was wondering it too. Perhaps, without realizing it or understanding how, I was already accomplishing what I was created to do. I’d healed Lincoln back at the fire station before the scavers showed, and now he has fire hands. Puppy’s nose nuzzled into the palm of my hand, seeking attention.

  A heavy silence fell over the group as the others slowly came to the same realization. There was no point wasting time to ponder it right now, we had a mad scientist to find.

  “Did you look for him? Did you check all the doors, all the glass cages, any place that he could use for a quick hideaway?” I pushed past my tough guy and entered the giant room once again. My eyes skimmed around, looking for any sign of the doctor, but found nothing. I walked over to the small pool of blood still on the floor from where he’d lain, but saw no droplets that would lead me anywhere. Wherever he went, he made sure not to leave a trail. Smart man. Having brains made you dangerous.

  The screens high along the walls lit up and crackling filled the air as the speakers began to turn on. Every one of us spun around, all on high alert. Puppy growled behind me, sensing the shift in the atmosphere. A kaleidoscope of colors flashed across the screens, as though they hadn’t been used in so long, they forgot how to function.

  “Did you miss me?”

  The drawling voice, laced with a hint of evil, boomed through the speakers as a face popped up on all the screens, fading in and out. Dr. Crazy grinned a malicious smile down on us as we all faced different directions, waiting to confront a threat we could fight. Static covered the screen as the picture went in and out.

  “You’re fucking crazy,” I yelled, and felt the guys close in on me in a protective circle. Puppy growled at my side, sensing a threat but nothing to bite.