by Lucy Rains
My ears were on high alert, trying to detect any sound or movement before moving.
Tobias trotted forward to the first door and gripped the handle but the door didn’t move. He kept moving on. Lettie walked slowly behind him, watching.
Alex tried to pull me forward but I jerked my hand back, forcing him to stop.
My eyes closed and several emotions filled my mind. Bitter and resentment. A mountain of confidence and an undertone of pleasure.
“Jade,” Alex whispered, trying to urge me forward.
I shook my head, “I don’t think-”
My voice was drowned out by multiple noises and actions happening at once. A hulk of a man stepped out of the doorway and threw a swift punch into Tobias’s jaw. I screamed, pulling back farther.
I was calling out to Lettie when she turned and faced me and Alex, holding a black tranquilizer gun.
Too stunned to react at first, my eyes growing wide as Lettie walked towards us, holding up the gun. Just like the one I had seen in her kitchen last week.
“You…” I mumbled.
Her eyes turned cold as she aimed the gun towards Alex.
“No…” I whispered.
My arms were raising to throw a blast of energy into her when the tranq gun clicked.
But nothing happened.
Alex laughed as Lettie pulled the gun away and frowned at it. She tried pulling the trigger again, and again nothing happened.
“Well, well, well…” Alex , “If it isn’t the consequences of my actions.”
I brought my hands up and threw Lettie backwards down the hallway, into a door frame of an open room. She cried out in pain as her spine connected with metal.
Alex grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the stairway. We turned and began running backwards. But only managed to take three steps before a whisper of a noise behind Alex told me we were trapped.
“No!” I screamed, tripping as he suddenly stopped.
Alex, unable to fight off the drug, fell to the floor at my feet. His hand slipped from mine as he lost control of his muscles.
“No!” I cried. My hands came up and before I could release a smidge of energy my arms were suddenly forced to hug around my torso and were enclosed, restricting any movement. I jerked around, trying to free a hand but it was impossible.
Whoever had trapped me, suddenly pulled my body backwards by my restraints and forced me to move or else crash to the floor.
I spun around, tripping and catching myself. My arms pushed against my restraints again with no luck. A large barrel of a man ushered me forward, down the hall and towards an open door. Tobias laid motionless on the floor in front of the door, unmoving, blood coming from his ear and mouth. I reached out to his mind and knew he was not dead.
The room I was being forced into was full of emotions. The ones that I knew had been dangerous.
Everything was happening so fast my mind was struggling to process it. My breathing was ragged, tears filling my eyes. My body was skyrocketing into fight or flight response, wanting to do something, anything.
When the gruff figure pushed me past Tobias and through the open door my mouth fell open in dismay.
Kyson.
Gavin.
Pierce.
All unconscious on the floor.
With Nara standing in front of them.
Chapter 40
My eyes scanned the room frantically, looking for my other victri.
Roman sat in a dingy metal chair across the large storage room, his arms folded, hunched over in his seat, staring at the guys on the floor. Merrick sat beside him, his wrists bound but conscious.
There were three other large men in the room, their statures similar to the man still shoving me forward. They each wore grey pants, black shirts, and held a gun in their right hands.
Nara stood casually, leaning one hip out, her hands tucked into the pockets of her grey trench coat.
My upper lip curled as my canines lengthened and a feral snarl ripped out of my throat.
“Sanaleen,” She crooned.
“Jade,” I corrected her.
“Jade,” she spat, her voice quickly turning hostile. “Sounds like the name for a useless pet.”
My lip curled again but I held back a retort.
“I would think you would be eager to embrace your new name. Especially since ‘Jade’ was the name given to you by the woman who neglected you, controlled you, and eventually wanted to use you.”
I held my tongue, not trusting myself to speak.
“Don’t do this, Nara,” Merrick pleaded from behind her.
Her false smile fell from her face in an instant, “Drantin, search her.”
My body flinched as foregin hands began moving over my body, feeling through my clothes, with unwanted searching. My shoulders tensed, knowing he would find my knife.
I glanced at Roman for a second. His eyes were still on the guys, his arms folded. His emotions were worried and nervous as expected. But there was not a bit of defensive anger, or vexed heat going through him. He did not feel wronged, only worried. Merrick met my eyes with a regretful look.
I glanced at Roman again, as he shifted in his seat. Why was he left alone while the others were sprawled out on the floor?
Nara looked over her shoulder to also glance at Roman. “He is not as you expected, is he? Weak, distracted ...uncommitted?” She laughed softly. “He is no threat to me, especially when he has not bonded with you.”
When the man’s fingers found the hilt of my knife tucked in the side of my pants I almost lunged forward to sink my teeth into his fleshy arm.
Nobody touched my knife.
I heard it clang against the cement floor behind me, its metal scraping noise filling the room. I couldn’t keep the growl from escaping my throat. The action instinctual, a small sign of the rage running through my veins.
When I looked back to Nara my anger burned even hotter when I saw Lettie standing stiffly beside her, rubbing her hip. I could imagine my energy twisting her blonde head around her shoulders with a satisfying crack. My tongue touched at the tips of my canines, relishing the idea.
I glared at both of them, my mind sprinting through options of how to deal with the situation. But being face to face with the woman who had lied to me and was responsible for my mother’s death, was distracting in a most emotional way.
“You should thank me,” Nara said, breaking the silence between us.
“I should kill you,” I corrected her.
She raised a thin eyebrow and pursed her lips. “Everything good in your life, is all because of me.”
The only thing good in my life was the guys. They were everything to me. “Liar,” I breathed.
She waved a hand towards the guys on the floor. “Your victri? You would not be together if it was not for me. They would still be locked up in that lab.”
I shook my head. “Zraa is the one that got them out. Zraa found them and organized their release.”
Her smile spread across her face again, “I am Zraa.”
My face twisted in confusion.
“I created Zraa as a way to get to the guys. To free them, to keep an eye on them, to maintain control of them. I made sure they were distracted until it was time for Vera to die and for you to go to Russia.”
I shook my head. “You hired Matteo to find them…” I trailed off. It made sense, I realized. Once Matteo found them, Zraa stepped into the picture to get them out of the facility.
“And he did. He helped me to stay out of the picture, and made sure you got to where you needed to be.”
We were all pawns in her game. She watched my face as I put it together. She had been waiting all this time to bring us together, made it possible for us to reunite and then free Roman.
“Everything I have done is to bring us to this moment.”
“Why?” I finally asked. The question burning through my mind. “Why would you kill my mother? Why kill us?”
Nara glared openly at me, her desire to hurt me evident
on her face. “There is too much you don’t understand. A whole world you will never know. You don’t deserve the power that runs through your veins.”
“You speak against the krin?” Merrick asked, his voice low with accusation.
Nara looked down at her hand, a thin silver ring wrapped around her small finger.
“How could the krin chose a murderer as the empress?” Nara wondered out loud, as she turned her hand around.
“The krin always chooses who is worthy to wield its power,” Merrick growled. “Tilan was killed in battle, it was not her fault.”
Nara spun around to look at Merrick. He glared right back at her. “A battle she enforced!”
“He was on the wrong side!” Merrick growled. “What did you expect?”
“I loved him!” Nara screamed in a voice full of painful torment. Her emotions shifted from victorious to anger in a matter of seconds.
“You loved a traitor,” Merrick said simply. “This is not Sanaleen’s doing. She had no part, let her and her victri be.”
Nara shook her head, “She doesn’t deserve the krin. Once she is dead, the krin will have no one else to pass on to.”
Lettie stood straighter, her shoulders pulling back.
Lettie wanted the krin? But the krin passed to those related to the empress, stayed within the bloodline.
“You mean…” I stared intently at Lettie.
“Kateria always had everything,” Nara pouted, turning towards me and glaring at me as if I was my mother she was looking at. “Our father always favored her! Spoiled, pampered,” she spat. “When Lettie was born, I was sure she would be next in line.” Nara’s head moved side to side, “But the krin didn’t choose her.”
“Your father loved you equally,” Merrick pushed on.
“Enough!” Nara screeched, her eyes became unfocused while she was lost in her memories. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Merrick tried to stand, but was quickly shoved down by the guy closest to him.
“Then what?” I asked, looking at my cousin. “You have no world to rule. No people to lead over. You will have no victri for the krin to bound you to.”
“There are others,” Nara said softly, her eyes still unfocused. They cleared and she looked at me. “We will create our own world here.”
Lettie looked back at me, and I noticed the tremor in her chin.
I shook my head, “The krin will never choose you.”
My words sparked a fire in Lettie’s eyes. Her hand flew up as she struck me across the face. My head flew to the side and my cheeked burned from her hit.
“I will be stronger than you ever could be,” she said confidently.
My hands flexed under the rubber wrap that bound me. I tried moving my arms and looked down at what was holding me. A thick black rubber material, almost like material from a tire, was wrapped around me, its length as long as my arms, the ends sealed together down the front of me.
“Not something you would find here on this world,” Nara said. “Ruiln is a material from Lothreeland. Indestructible. Only placed around those sentenced to death. Because it is impossible to remove.”
My face tensed as I tried again to move my arms again. This brought a smile to Lettie’s face as she stepped back from me.
I looked desperately around the room, my eyes meeting Merricks, then Roman’s. Roman looked away quickly, his hands trembling in his lap.
Revenge, Jealousy, Bitterness. All things that can drive a person to do unspeakable things.
An emotional presence pricked my mind. I stiffened, as I felt Tobias come back to life.
My attention left Tobias as the tallest of Nara’s men walked forward, stopping next to Nara. She jerked her head towards the guys on the ground.
“No,” I pleaded breathlessly.
Nara looked at me, her eyes empty, her face cold.
The man lifted his gun and fired.
Pierce’s body jerked from the impact of the bullet going through his chest.
A scream ripped through my body and mouth. My entire body seized up in horror as tears filled my eyes. The energy went wild through my veins and my skin began to burn. I bent over at the waist as I wailed at the top of my lungs, my chest burning with an inferno of pain.
When the man stepped around Pierce to Kyson and raised his gun again, I began jerking violently against my restraints. My skin burned hotter every second as the inferno grew hotter.
When he fired his weapon into Kyson’s chest the volume of my screams grew to a whole new intensity. A red tinge filled my vision. The ground trembled beneath my feet and pieces of paint fell from the ceiling. I focused my rage harder into my energy. Let the fire in my veins help me. The smell of burnt rubber filled the air. I pinched my eyes closed, pushing with all of my emotional and physical strength into my bindings.
The gunman stepped towards Gavin and the next second my arms ripped free and as my energy melted through my restraints and they fell to the floor.
Nara screamed in anger. A gun went off and a bullet burned through my collar bone. Hands went around my neck, gripping my throat. My air was immediately cut off and another bullet hit my shoulder. My teeth grit in vengeful concentration and I closed off my mind to the pain.
My elbow flew up and jerked backwards full force into the man’s spleen, and then again lower into his gut. His hands disappeared at the same moment I spun around. I released a bolt of pent up energy out of my left hand hard enough to throw his head against the cement floor and end his life.
“Jade!” Tobias shouted. I looked up to see my knife flying towards me. I grabbed it out of the air and spun around to fling it into the chest of the Lothree aiming his gun at Gavin. Acting on instinct, I used my energy to rip the knife out of his chest and bring it back into my hand and then flung it again at the man next to Merrick. Merrick stood up quickly backing away from the man, calling out to Roman.
The last Lothree soldier raised his gun and shot at me, his bullet grazing my ear. He fired again and hit my other shoulder. I used my energy to pull the dead man’s gun into my hand and then fired off a shot, bringing down the last threat.
I rasped in pain, bending over slightly to catch my breath as my body healed. Blood dripped down my shirt, over my pants. Various crimson specks had scattered over the floor.
“Run Lettie!” Nara shouted.
Lettie backed away, her eyes wide. She tripped over the man that had been trying to choke me and fell to her knees. I dropped the gun I was holding and shot out a burst of energy to throw her into the wall.
“No!” Nara shouted, her eyes wild with rage.
I snarled in response, throwing my hands up and wrapping my energy around Nara’s throat. My lips curled back to show the full length of my teeth in a sign of pure hostile aggression.
Nara gasped, struggled, her hands going to her throat. I forced her back from the guys, pushing her up against the mold stained wall.
My mind spun with thoughts. Knowing what I was about to do. This was my aunt. My mother’s sister that I was about to kill. My relative. My own blood.
Her eyes opened wider as she struggled to breathe and I gripped tighter. Her lips moved in a silent plea.
With a final holler of rage, my hands thrust forward, throwing Nara against the wall. I felt no remorse as she fell to the ground, blood trailing down the wall from her cracked skull. Her hands still at her throat and her mouth still open, as if she was gasping for air even in death.
Not giving her another second I turned and fell to the ground. Blood still flowed from the bullet wounds in Kyson and Pierce’s chest, telling me that they were still alive. Their skin was white, their pulse too faint for me to hear.
I didn’t have to be like Kyson to know they were dying.
“No,” I croaked, my hands moving around their bodies, patting gently at their chests, desperate to do something.The moment filled me with a sick deja vu, creating an even heavier clench on my heart. This was worse.
So much worse.
&n
bsp; “Pierce!” I screamed, shaking his shoulders. I knew he couldn’t hear me. That my screaming was in vain.
Every second was bringing them closer to death. Their bodies, unable to heal the damage to their hearts, were fading.
Tears poured freely, mucus dripped from my nose. My wails filled the room as I pressed my hands to their chests, searching for the vibrating energy that had always comforted me. But there was nothing.
Kyson, I needed Kyson, I thought desperately. I needed the energy that ran through him. I needed his ability to heal him and Pierce. How?! How could I make this happen? I needed to somehow bring his energy to life inside of him. But when my palm rested against his chest I felt nothing.
Their heartbeats were barely felt under the weight of my hands. I gasped, took a deep breath, dug deeper, placing a hand on both Kyson and Pierce’s chest. I didn’t know what I was doing. I could only hope the krin would help me revive them somehow. That our energies could work together to fix what was broken.
My hands warmed as I slowly channeled my energy into their bodies. Knowing that if I released too much I could cause their organs more damage. My arms trembled, my hands became soaked with their blood. Their heartbeats remained slow.
I cried out in fury and despair. I pushed more energy into their bodies, and felt their heart rates rise as I did so. When I backed off on my energy, their hearts slowed again.
I needed Kyson’s energy, his ability would be the only thing to save both of them. I channeled my energy into Pierce’s chest again, but instead of pushing energy into Kyson, I focused my krin differently. I moved my energy around through his body, pushing it through his limbs and deeper into his blood.
His body jerked suddenly, a sharp spasm that stopped as soon as it started. I sucked in a breath, closing my eyes and began pushing again. Kyson’s heart was beating faster. The more I pushed energy through him, the more I could feel a hum beginning to grow in his chest.
Just when I was beginning to feel results, a heavy wave of exhaustion rolled over me. I could barely hold myself up. I choked on a sob, gasping for air. My krin was being used in so many different and new ways, my body was utterly drained.
“No,” I whimpered, pulling my shoulders up and straining my focus on their bodies. But the more I worked my energy, the harder it became to breath. My arms shook harder, my mind became fuzzy.