by L J C Fynn
Chapter Two
Wait out here, they said.
We will come get you when the building is secure, they said.
Despite everything the three of us have been through, they still box me up in a pretty box—pink ribbon and all. If they really tough about it, I was the most skilled fighter between us. Rafe was good. He scared me to this day. But he relied on his addiction to pain and weapons than his own body. Hell, I have seen him let people get hits in so he would feel pleasure. If it were just the two of us, hand-to-hand, I had no doubt I would beat him down.
Snap.
The sound of a stick being stepped on broke my thoughts. I backed up until my back hit the base of a tree, bent my knees in a fighting stance, and brought my fists up to face. Rafe’s intel said there shouldn’t be anyone here.
He walked out from around a tree with his palms in the air, showing me he didn’t have a weapon on him.
I gasped and dropped my fists. I remember him.
He was taller than I remember. Probably because the last time I saw him, he was laying horizontal on the hospital bed back in Captain’s compound. He hair was completely shaved off, and he has a scar stretching across his neck that he didn’t have before.
“You’re alive?” I couldn’t keep the sound of shock out of my voice.
He only stopped walking when he was few feet from me. “We have been looking for you.”
I shook my head ‘no’, I didn’t understand any of this. “Me? Why?”
I barely saw the clear plastic in his ear when he tilted his head to the side like he was listening to something. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was listening a conversation in his own head, rather an actual voice on the other end.
He straightened himself up and held out his hand to me. “You know when you are unconscious, you can still hear fragments of things going around you?”
I stuck my hand in his and gave him a firm handshake. I think his question was rhetorical because he didn’t give me chance to answer. The moment we began to shake hands he pulled me against him, wrapping his arms around me.
He was hugging me.
“Your voice, stories, and confidence kept me strong. It didn’t matter to me you were much younger. Captain would come to the room when you weren’t there. It was in one of those moments, I heard what Captain was going to do to you.”
He was long gone when I was betrayed by him and Rhea, so I didn’t know what he was talking about.
He was still hugging me tight, when I responded with “I don’t understand,” my voice didn’t carry far because it was muffled against his shirt.
He pulled back a little with his hands on my shoulders. “Oh God, you still don’t know?”
I tried to step away from him, but once again he brought me closer to him.
“Of course, you don’t know,” he continued. “Alexia made us strong. You probably more so than me and Audric. Captain knew that and he wanted to use you. Somehow, despite this world, you were innocent. He needed you to feel hatred for his cause. That day you found your father? He set it all up. He killed your father and made it look like an infected did it. He set the fire, and he made Rhea take you there. She didn’t want a part in it, but he held someone named Rex over her head. He made her do this to you. Alexia heard the whole conversation. The minute Captain left to kill your father, she and a few of the nurses loyal to her, snuck us all out of the camp. We have been looking for you ever since.”
I couldn’t talk even if I wanted to. My whole life has been a lie. I knew there was a possibility that the vampires I destroyed were innocent. To have it confirmed? The realization was taking my will to speak. I have killed so many innocent people at Captain’s behest. I was just as guilty as Captain. I didn’t need to look to know his shirt was just as wet from my tears as my own cheeks.
“Come back with me. We will be safe.” The man’s tone was urging as he was walking us away from the building.
I finally back away. “I can’t leave them.”
I jumped when I heard a gunshot fire from inside the building. “I have to go.”
He grabbed my arm. “Damn it. I screwed this up. Wait a second.” He stared into my eyes before continuing. “I set it up for this building to explode in fifteen minutes. You need to have your ass out of there by then or you will die inside.”
“Cancel the explosion.”
He smiled and let go of my arm. “This has been in the works for a long time, I couldn’t stop it if I tried. I didn’t think I would see you here. If you go in, be out in fifteen minutes.”
I turned to run toward the building. “And Teeka?”
I stopped and looked at the man one last time. “If you need a place to hide, find the old National Guard Armory at Glassy Mountain. Ask for Matteos.”
I ran towards the building again, and didn’t look back.
Saving Damien and Rafe were all that mattered.
Chapter Three
The building itself wasn’t very big. It reminded of what buildings looked like pre-infection. Cement block walls and drop ceiling tiles—mold stains and all. I could hear yelling at the end of the hallway so it was easy to find them.
“There was no need to shoot.” Rafe’s voice was the loudest. Judging by how calm his voice was, it was safe to assume he was the one that got shot with his addiction to pain and all.
“You were my Death Bringer. I heard rumors of you betraying me, but I didn’t believe. Yet here you are, going through my personal records.” Blythe’s voice made me gasp a little louder than I thought, because all the voices stopped when the sound left my body.
“Go ahead Rex.” Blythe once again spoke, but a little quieter this time.
A blur of a figure ran out of the office and down the hallway toward me. I was fast, but I couldn’t keep up with their movements. I barely had time to register the figure was on me before I was slammed against the floor. It was only then I saw the once timid Rex from New York, pinning me to the ground—new fangs and all.
I clawed at the arm on my throat. Lack of air shouldn’t kill right now because I was still a temporary vampire, but it didn’t mean my lungs didn’t hurt.
Rex leaned down, putting more of his weight on his forearms and less air down my throat. “You should have killed me when you had the chance.”
I force myself to relax my arms, even though my lungs were burning. I reached down into one of my side pocked an pulled out a silver blade. I still forget the silver burns me if I touch it directly. It took everything in me not to hiss in pain as my skin made contact. It took me more than a few seconds to flip the blade, separating me from the silver. It took a few seconds more to jam the blade into the side of Rex’s neck. I didn’t hit any arteries. He would live if I allowed.
I flipped him under me and pulled the knife out as he held his hands up to stop the bleeding. I was going to do it. I was going to kill this man under my own free will. I wasn’t fighting for pills or Captain. I was going to do this because I wanted to. Even though he was a pawn just like me, at this moment in time, he was the only thing I could put all my blame into.
“Teeka! Stop!” I looked up as Rhea and Captain were running down the hallway.
“Why should I?” I held the blade to Rex’s neck, preparing to sever his head from his shoulders. This knife was sharp, it would only take one push for it slip through the skin.
“Even if it wasn’t for you, the friendship was real to me.”
I press a little harder on his neck, blood pooling around the blade. “Which part? Helping kill my father or letting me die in that club?”
She dropped to her knees right in front of me. “I had no choice,” she whispered.
Her face recoiled and body stiffened when Captain’s hand dropped on her shoulder. “What my daughter is saying, is she made a choice. Family or, well, you. Naturally, she chose family.”
I stood up, thinking the implications of when he just said.
If he was their father, and Blythe was their mother
…
“You and Blythe were married before the infection? She was the wife you talked about?”
Blythe walked down the hallway, with Rafe and Damien walking behind her. She only stopped when she reached his side, wrapping her arms around Captain’s waist. “It is fucking brilliant, ain’t it?”
I moved further down the hall away from all of them. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“We set it all up. We waged a fake war on each other to weaken the city. But we were never at war. We had you and Rafe eliminate all our opponents. We figured out Alexia’s secret. Your blood, Vel-negative, is the cure to the infection. You see, my dear, you blood cures itself without any other medical help. You were sick when your father brought you to us, but you would have eventually cured yourself. If you fought through the cramps, you wouldn’t need the pills. Alexia was on the cusp of finding the antidote for the infection. All because of you. What good is a cure? If everyone was saved, the world would go back to the way it was before the infection. That isn’t an option. Captain and I set it up for Rafe to kill you. My Death Bringer disappoints me, and, now, he will have to be destroyed too. The only thing standing between us and the city is the two of you.”
I was the cure?
“Wait. If the infection is so important to the two of you, why is he still human?”
Captain threw his head back in laughter, while showing me his two fangs. “I have always been infected, I am just good at hiding it.”
I felt the ground rumble a little in warning for the explosion about to happened. I didn’t have time to think about what she was saying, all I knew was I needed to get me, Rafe, and Damien out of here.
I still had the blade I used on Rex’s neck in my hand. They weren’t expecting me to throw it. Captain should know better than anyone, I never missed my target. I threw the blade and watched it rotate as it hit Blythe in the chest. I didn’t look to see if it hit its mark.
“Rafe… Damien… We need to leave now!”
I ran back down the hallway and out the doors. I didn’t look behind me until I hit the grass. I wasn’t far enough away, the explosion knocked me off me feet. But at least I wasn’t inside.
I rolled over to my back, and to the side of me was both Rafe and Damien. There was no one else with us.
The three of us made it out alive.
Epilogue
I had no idea there were several Glassy Mountains. It took us three months to find the right location. When we asked for Matteos, it still took another three days for a meeting.
Rafe, Damien and I were sitting in an old pancake shop. It has been closed for years. Any smell of food was long gone. The only thing left were the building and beat up chairs.
Here we sat, in the dark, waiting for Matteos.
“This was a mistake.” I apologized to them in the dark.
Damien grabbed my hand, stroking his thumb back and forth, calming me down.
“There is never a mistake.” I stood up, when Alexia entered the old building.
“Alexia?” Shocked she would leave the safety of the base.
She held her hand out to me. “Come. We have been waiting for you…”
About the Author
International bestseller and award-winning author LJC Fynn, who also co-writes with her sister under the name A.L. Marchant, passion is paranormal/fantasy but lately has branched out different genres. So far, nothing is off the table. She is the author of Hair Trigger, and Don’t Hate Me Tomorrow, both published through Crazy Ink, LLC. She also has many short stories in various anthologies; such as, Mercy from the Dark in Absolution, Et Finalem Regni in Royal Scoundrels book two, Living By Faith in the Seven Virtues duet, and many more. Under the co-write, A.L. Marchant, she has the Young Adult Thirteen Gates Series: Soul Search – book one, Bloodied Soul – book two, and Soul Rider – book three.
During the day, LJC Fynn is a Licensed Optician. When she isn’t making eyewear or understanding prescription issues, she is unfolding the next plot to her story.
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