by Jus Accardo
“Well, well, well. Looks like someone has joined the party.” Yancy laughed. “How’s it feel?”
“Feels like I’m gonna kick your ass.”
His brow quirked, and he waggled his index finger at me. Just once. It was all I needed. With a howl, I launched myself at him, swinging. The first blow landed hard and connected with the side of his face. The momentum knocked him back—but he didn’t topple. Not really.
Thrusting his arm back, Yancy caught himself just before hitting the ground. With a single, massive heave, he was back on his feet and throwing a punch of his own. “My turn.”
The blow struck my shoulder, the force of it spinning my entire body. Like Yancy, I was able to catch myself before going down. I didn’t think it was possible, with the damage he’d done, but he’d held back during our sessions at Infinity.
…
“Good morning, G.” Cora’s obnoxiously chipper voice was like a foghorn in my ear. She rounded my chair and positioned herself in front of me. “How did you sleep? Well?”
They’d injected me with something every morning for the last ten days. Since then, I’d been restless all the time. Fidgety and raw. “Oh, yeah. Those five-star, roach-infested accommodations you’ve given us are sweet.”
She smiled and took a step back. “I have something very exciting in store for you today.” She motioned to someone standing by the door. “Someone I’ve been waiting to introduce you to.”
A man entered the room. Broad shoulders and a neck like a tree trunk, he towered over Cora like she was toddler. “This is Yancy Haven.”
I snorted. “Why am I not surprised to see you here, Haven.”
Cora seemed confused. “Did you have a Yancy on your world?”
“Sure did. And he was a dick.” I looked the guy up and down, then snorted again. “Also a damn pansy-ass.”
She clapped her hand down on Yancy’s shoulder. “Not my Yancy. Like I said, he’s got that little something extra… He’s going to be overseeing your training.”
“I’ve told you a million times, lady. I’m not training for shit.”
She just kept right on smiling. “He’s very special. He’s skilled in Krav Maga, Silat, and an assortment of torture methods.” She jabbed a finger in his direction. “I’m just going to leave you two alone to get acquainted.”
Cora breezed out the door, and Yancy took her place. He hadn’t spoken, which for some reason was unnerving. “So, you’re the resident badass, eh?” Sure, he was a big guy. One who supposedly knew how to fight. But so what? “I gotta say, she talks you up a big game, but you don’t look like much to me.”
He grabbed a handful of my shirt and hefted upward. The solid ground beneath the chair I was shackled to disappeared. My heart thumped inside my chest, but I gave nothing away. For the longest moment, he just stayed like that, suspending me in the air as though I weighed no more than a feather. Then, without a word, he threw me across the room. I crashed into the wall. It felt like hyperspeed. The chair shattered on impact—I was sure some of my bones did, too…
…
The pain in my shoulder was unlike anything I’d felt; it was like getting slammed by a truck. My mind and body registered the pain, but unlike our previous times together, I was able to ignore it. To stand my ground and push forward. No. “Able” wasn’t the right word. Motivated. Needed to. In that moment there was nothing I wanted more than to inflict pain. The target didn’t matter. Thankfully, Yancy was standing by to accommodate my heightened craving for violence.
My reflexes were sharper now that the serum had activated. More honed. Hearing a disturbance in the air, I was able to duck and pivot as his next blow came. It sailed harmlessly by. For a moment we stopped and stared at each other.
“You’re not the first, you know,” he said with a wicked grin. “There were others before. Multiple versions of you—and her.”
I didn’t respond. Couldn’t. I knew what he was doing, and it wasn’t necessary. I was over the line already and about as amped as I could get.
“We met once, you and me.”
“We met more than once,” I said with a growl. Though this version of Yancy Haven was ten times worse than the one on my world, I would never forget him. Our rivalry probably would have gotten us both killed if Cora hadn’t stolen me away. “You were a dick on my world, too.”
He laughed. “No, I mean me. This me. I met you before Cora brought you back to our world.”
“Bullshit.” There was no way I wouldn’t remember.
He held up both hands in mock surrender. “Hand to God. You were fifteen at the time, just out of basic and on your first raid.”
He was insane. Of all the memories I had, the first raid they’d sent me on was the most vivid. It would stay with me until the moment I died. We’d gotten wind of a safe house and were instructed to kill all the male occupants. We were to bring all the women back to our camp. I’d seen violence at a young age, my parents having given me over to the army program when I was just four. But I hadn’t been prepared for the brutality that went down that day.
“Don’t remember? I’ll give you a hint. I was there to make my first pickup.”
Pickup? “You took someone?”
His grin widened. “From that very house. You almost walked in on me—remember?”
It took a moment, but suddenly I knew exactly what he was talking about. I’d managed to avoid most of the chaos, then during the last sweep of the house, I tried to enter a room as Yancy was coming out—only it hadn’t been my world’s version of him, had it? “You didn’t take me, though.”
“Never intended to.”
A sick feeling bubbled in my gut and the spark in my chest burned a little hotter.
“Got my hands on our first version of Ava that day.”
“Ava—she was there?” A voice in the back of my mind roared for me to finish this. We were supposed to be in the middle of a battle to the death, after all. But I was rooted in place. Stunned into silence. She had been there. The universe had given me my own version.
Yancy snickered. He held up his hand and pinched his fingers together until they were almost touching. “Just think about it. You were this close to meeting her.” He threw his head back and laughed even louder. “I did you a favor, though. That version of her? Whiney as fuck. She lasted about a week before Cora had me take her out back and drown the little bitch just to shut her up.”
The spark in my chest ignited into an inferno. Whether it was the poison making one final push, or the serum kicking in, everything turned red. I let out an unholy howl and flew at him. We crashed to the ground, both swinging. He growled and took aim for the spot my pod was, but I shifted. The blow grazed my side. In turn, I took aim at his. The punch collided with his chest, the force behind it sending him to his back, but it missed its mark. Still, it hurt him.
He coughed and tried to roll onto his side, but I was faster. I brought my foot back and let loose, brutally kicking his torso. He curled, spitting a mouthful of blood and coughing even harder.
Part of me wanted to drag this out. To make him suffer for all he’d done to me. For taking away my chance to meet Ava… I’d missed my world’s version of Ava—but I’d found the one who was meant for me. And right now, she was in trouble.
I positioned my foot just beneath his neck, and he froze. Our gazes met. “You can’t do it,” he croaked. “How many times did you insist that you weren’t a murderer anymore?”
I had said that. Every time he’d tried to get me to fight back, to rage hard enough to activate the serum, I’d told him my bloody days were over. “I was wrong.” I lifted my foot high, holding it above him for a second, just long enough for him to register what I intended to do, before slamming it down on his chest. That time my aim was perfect. My boot crushed the pod. I imagined the sound it might make. Not a booming explosion, but a barely-there pop. Small and insignificant, yet deadly enough to fell a beast like Yancy.
His face contorted, and his hands went for
his neck, clawing and scratching at something I couldn’t see. His body stiffened and twitched, and in seconds went completely still. A thin trickle of blood trailed from his nose and right ear.
In that moment, the damage rushed back to me. The pain from physical injuries—and the reality of the fact that the serum was now active—all crushing me. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground beside Yancy’s body, struggling to push the air in and out of my lungs.
“Can you stand?” Cade’s voice floated from somewhere behind me. At least I thought it was him. I could hardly hear it through the thundering of my pulse and the raging of my breath. A set of hands clamped on to my shoulders. Deep down I knew it was to help me up, to see if anything was ruptured or broken or hemorrhaging, but Cora’s monster didn’t care about things like that. I bucked off whoever it was and leaped to my feet.
“Whoa there, son.” Anderson. That’d been him.
“G, take a deep breath. We’re here to help you.” Kori… She came around to stand in front of me. Her gaze flickered to something on my right, then back to me. “We’re your friends.”
Someone beyond my field of vision snorted. Had to be Noah. “Friends? Not sure I’d go that far,” he said. “But we won’t set you on fire or anything.”
There was an echoing thwap—probably from Ash smacking the shit out of him—and a hiss.
“G, come back down, man.” Cade again. He moved to stand beside Kori. “We need you here. Sera—”
“Sera.” I breathed the name as though it was the air and I was suffocating. Sera was the reason for all this. The reason I fought to keep my head above water. The reason I rebelled against the serum. She was the one good thing in my life. “Where—”
“Cora,” he said. “She slipped away during the chaos of the fight. Dylan’s gone, too. We think he went after her.”
Noah snorted again. “Bullshit. That bastard cut out. I say zap his ass with the cuff you put on, and we’ll go pick up his corpse.”
Violent images of what I intended to do to Cora flashed through my mind, so fast, it made my head spin and my gut roil. Every instinct told me to lash out. Even though she wasn’t here. Even though these people were my…friends.
Sera…
I squeezed my eyes closed. No.
This was what I’d been fighting so hard against. I’d dug my heels in and fought like the devil himself was breathing down my neck, all to be the person she deserved.
Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out. I opened my eyes, surprised by my continued restraint. I’d done it. Pulled myself back from the edge. For her. In that moment, I knew I could do this, could be the person she deserved. The one she needed. I could be the man I wanted to be for her.
“Where?” I exhaled the word while my hands shook with a residual tremor. “Where would she take Sera?”
“We’re going to find out.” Anderson’s large hand clamped down against my shoulder. This time when I went to shrug it off, he was ready for me. His grip tightened, and he turned me so that we were eye to eye. “We’re going to get her back.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sera
I forced my eyes open, but the room didn’t quite take shape. There was a bright light and watery outlines, but there was no detail. I closed my eyes again and inhaled. The air smelled sweet, like overripe fruit or strong flowers. There was something else, too. A subtler aroma beneath the sweet. An almost metallic smell. My stomach turned over, and I swallowed back the rising bile in my throat. The acidic taste was almost enough to make me gag. There was a sound… Like water dripping from a pipe, falling into a bucket or pot or something. Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.
“Hello?” I managed weakly. I felt like I hadn’t slept in weeks, and it was an effort to hold my head up. “Anyone here?” I tried again.
There was no answer, and a part of me was thankful. I might not know where I was—but I knew who I was with. Cora. Cora Anderson had dragged me out of the park. While G fought an onslaught of her amped-up guards, while he’d taken on Yancy, I’d been carted away like luggage.
Again.
God. Was he okay? Had he pushed himself too far? Crossed a line he wouldn’t be able to come back from? No. I refused to believe that was even possible. She’d done something horrible to him—to all of them—but there was no part of me that believed G to be weak. Whatever he’d done, wherever he’d gone, he would find his way back…to me.
When I opened my eyes again, things were less hazy. I surveyed the room. Satiny curtains did little to block the harsh sunlight streaming through two large glass doors directly in front of me. When my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I saw they led out to a balcony that overlooked water of some kind. I was strapped to a chair, my arms pulled tight behind my back and my legs…each ankle was secured to one of the front legs.
I should have panicked. I should have been terrified. But I wasn’t. I was calm, and I was determined. I would not die in this room. I would not leave this world before I had the chance to make G see what kind of person he really was. He’d done this for me. Made me strong. Made me a fighter. So, for him, I would fight.
Every inch of me was stiff. I wiggled my fingers. They were numb but felt oddly slick, like they were coated in something slimy. I twisted to try and see what was behind me, but the bindings were too tight, and I couldn’t move. Instead, I flicked my fingers. When I caught sight of the bright red splash against the stark white carpet, my heart stuttered. “Oh my God…”
“Wonderful,” a hauntingly familiar voice said, followed by a very unladylike snort. “Now I’m going to lose my damn deposit.” Cora was in front of me, razor sharp nails digging into my chin as she forced my face forward. “Stop flailing around.”
“I’m bleeding.” It was all I could think of to say.
Her lip twitched, bending upward with a grin. “I should hope so. I cut one of your wrists.”
The air in the room turned arctic. “You—”
“Oh, relax. Should be old hat to you. Besides, I didn’t go deep enough to hit any major arteries. I couldn’t have you bleeding out too fast.” She bent down and picked up what looked like a coffee pot. “I’m working with less than ideal tools here, and space is limited. I can’t risk losing any of that liquid gold you have in those veins.”
“That’s your plan? Bleed me dry and what?—you’ve got nothing to work with, Cora. The drive is destroyed.”
Irritation flashed in her eyes. “So you found out what was on the drive, eh? Betting my husband was the one who spilled the beans.” She sighed and picked at a small bit of lint on the front of her shirt. “That man is a royal pain in my ass.”
“Was,” I said. “He’s dead.”
Another flash of emotion—the quickest spike of remorse—and she had my face in her hands again. “You know what they say, it’s all about sacrifice…”
“You’re sick—and insane.” I jerked from her grasp and spit at her. “Go ahead. Bleed me dry. You’ve still got nothing.”
“Is that what you think? That just because I’ve lost the recipe on the flash drive that I’m dead in the water?” She straightened and spread her arms. “There are infinite worlds out there. Infinite possibilities. Just because I don’t have it anymore doesn’t mean someone else will be impeded by the same problem.”
“Bullshit,” I said. “The poison needs my blood. I’m a rarity, remember? Since the other versions of me haven’t been tampered with, their blood is different from mine.”
She shrugged. “This is true. That’s why I’m going to keep you on ice.” She leaned in close, fingers digging into my forearms. Her nails were sharp, and they pierced my skin in several places, causing small trickles of blood to leak. “I am going to go home—I simply need to find someone to recreate that recipe for me. Since I have no place to store you while I search, I’m going to freeze your blood. Before I came to this little slice of heaven, I was on a world where they freeze biological material. I’ll simply tuck what I need away and come back at a later date.”
I opened my mouth then closed it, at a loss. I knew G and the others would try to find me, but I doubted they’d make it in time. By then, Cora would have me dry, the entirety of my blood stashed away in everything from paper cups to the ice cube bucket. I was about to resort to begging, when I remembered something.
Something that made me laugh uncontrollably.
Cora didn’t understand. She either thought I’d lost too much blood—or my mind. “What could you possibly find amusing about all this?”
“Your—your—” I coughed and caught my breath. G might not find me in time, but Cora still wouldn’t get her way. “Your plan is seriously flawed, Cora. In fact, it’s flat-out broken.”
She gave me an offhanded wave and shrugged. “I assure you that I’ve thought it all out. Don’t you worry your—”
“You’re stuck here, you stupid bitch!” I couldn’t help it. I started laughing again, this time so hard that the chair wobbled a little. Maybe I had lost too much blood. There was a very real possibility that I had lost my mind, too. I’d been through more hell than most people ever saw in a lifetime. I’d been sold to pay off my parents’ debt, then abducted by a madwoman obsessed with teenagers. I’d been locked in her basement, becoming just shy of a science class dissection frog, and met G. I fell for him, was torn away from him, and now she planned to suck me dry like some freaky vampire. If that wasn’t enough to make someone lose their marbles, then I had no idea what would do it.
I watched her lose her grin, then drop her attention to the inside of her forearm. With jerky motions, she poked at it—and nothing happened. Over and over she did this, expecting a different result each time. But the chip remained dormant, fried by Rabbit’s beautiful device.