by Lizzy Ford
“Dad will know.”
Declan nodded. His phone buzzed. He checked it automatically.
Olivia has Z at Ethan’s location. It was from Liam’s phone, which he suspected Vikki had lifted before she left.
“I might have a lead,” he said to Wes.
“Great. I’ll tell Aiden and L-”
“No.” Declan lowered the phone. “If something goes wrong, I don’t want to jeopardize what you are doing here. I’ll check it out then contact you.”
“Declan, I don’t like this. We all stick together, the way Dad taught us.”
“I need to do this alone.”
Wes studied him.
“Cover for me in the command center.” Declan offered a smile. “I’ll check in hourly with my location.”
“I take it you know to avoid the Cambions Paul assigned to you.”
“Piece of cake.” He typed a response to Vikki. Where?
“Don’t miss a check in, little brother.”
Declan nodded and strode towards the door.
Adrenaline raced through his system, warming him from the inside out. The predator in him sparked to life.
What he planned to do was reckless, brash, an act of pure disobedience he’d never considered in his disciplined life. Groomed from a young age to take over the position of Enforcer Chief, he had never had a reason to second guess his world and path before Zoey, never needed to convince himself that sacrificing a few lives for the sake of the bigger picture was necessary.
When the lives were those of people he cared about, he could no longer stomach turning a blind eye. Against his better judgment and everything he had trained for, Declan left the compound through a secret exit, hell bent on finding his father and his soul-mate before either of them suffered at Olivia’s hands.
This time, he wasn’t going to be content to watch. He’d do what he had to in order to help them escape Olivia.
Chapter Fifteen: Confronted
After the general roughing up she expected, Zoey was placed in a cell beside Ethan’s, complete with a tiny toilet and metal bunk. She lay on her side, gazing through the glass walls at the unconscious incubus. Every hour, a nurse or lab technician – someone in a white coat – came in to inject him with green goo she guessed was modified sex energy. It kept him in the zombie state, immobilized. The nurses then drew vials of his blood. Guessing by how many nurses had come in, she’d been there four hours.
Unable to sleep in the lair of her enemy, she spent far too long thinking about what Vikki had said about Declan and why Ethan was taken.
The nurse came a fifth time. Seconds later, a pair of armed succubae escorts appeared at Zoey’s door. She stood obediently and slid her hands through the opening in the door so they could cuff her. Her gaze went to Ethan once more. Unconcerned about what they intended to do with her since she was going to be dead or a permanent zombie in three weeks, she stepped readily into the hall with the escorts.
They said nothing to her as they walked her to the office labeled Administrator at the near end of the hallway. One of them opened the door to reveal a simply decorated office with a wooden desk, two chairs before it, and a filing cabinet in one corner.
Olivia perched on the desk, her blue eyes mirror images of Zoey, one of the only physical indications of their true relationship. The beautiful, willowy succubus wore her hair in an elaborate bun. She as dressed in a long black skirt and fuchsia top, and a black silk scarf around her neck.
Zoey entered, testing her senses cautiously. There was a time when being so close to a succubus made her almost ill from their power. Her connection to Declan all but banished Olivia’s influence, and the sex energy she’d amassed from killing Cambions offered a secondary buffer.
The door closed behind her, and she waited, balancing the fury that wanted to be free with the reminder of her purpose there: to find out what the fuck Olivia had done to her and the others.
“You look well, daughter,” Olivia started in a low, sexy purr.
“Hello, Olivia,” Zoey replied.
“You’ve changed since we spoke last in person.”
Zoey didn’t take the bait. Her last private interaction with Olivia had destroyed her life, for the IAB chief had revealed Declan’s dalliances and the fact she was the mother to all five members of Team Rogue. The dangerous, manipulative woman before her knew how to drag her emotions over hot coals.
“I’m assuming you allowed yourself to be captured,” Olivia added. “You don’t usually go down without a fight.”
“Yeah. Had a few questions for you.”
“A phone call wouldn’t suffice?”
“I also figured I can’t kill or kidnap anyone else if I’m here, and the Incubatti will stop hunting down my team.”
“Once you’re under, you’ll do whatever I tell you, no matter where you are.” Olivia offered a lazy smile. “Hope that doesn’t bother you.”
Zoey clenched her teeth together.
“Oh, it does. You know what bothers me?” Olivia stood, anger burning in her eyes. “A Halfling setting off an EMP and breaking into what should’ve been my most secure facility.”
“If you weren’t fucking everyone over, you wouldn’t have to worry about me breaking in,” Zoey retorted. “Why did you take Ethan and dump Heidi’s body? I took that as an invitation.”
“It was a warning.”
“About what? The fact you’re a fucking lunatic? Because I already knew that!”
Annoyance flickered across Olivia’s perfect features. “Because you don’t yet understand what’s at risk, or what I’m trying to do.”
“I don’t give a shit, Olivia!” Zoey bit back the rest of her response, struggling for control of her emotions. “I know you need me and the other members of Team Rogue. I want to know why and why you don’t just order me to come here if you can control me during my blackouts.”
Olivia studied her, unconcerned, too entrenched in her cause to understand or care about toying with the lives of others. Zoey expected this reaction but not the flicker of sadness it caused.
“I can’t control you,” Olivia replied. She shrugged. “I consider it bonus training time. You seem attracted to Cambions’ nests, and I have no problem letting them die by your hand. You were never meant to go on so many missions without someone activating you.”
Zoey stared at her. Walking in, she swore she wouldn’t let Olivia shock or manipulate her. But with words like these, how did she keep her emotions level enough to gauge if she told the truth?
“I never know when you’re going to activate. I lost control of that when you left the society,” Olivia added.
“That’s not possible. I can’t just black out.”
“What’s wrong? Didn’t know how defective you were? If I had a use for you, it’s almost completely gone, or I wouldn’t have gone to this extent to make you disappear quickly and violently.”
“I don’t believe you,” Zoey replied. “You said you’d spent your lifetime creating me. Now I’m a mistake?”
“It’s not a perfect process. Your half-sisters aren’t having blackouts that I know about, which is how it should be. Either I fucked up with you or I did something gloriously right. I’ve been trying to figure out which. It might be easier just to put you down and take you apart.”
“No.” Zoey absorbed the information. “I’m still alive, which means I’m of value to you. It’s not so you can gloat.”
Satisfaction flickered through Olivia’s eyes. She didn’t reply.
“I want to know what you’ve done us Halflings and how to undo it.”
“There’s no undoing it. It’s genetic.”
“I can’t accept that. The Halflings were fine before they left the Sucubatti. You’re doing something to them.”
“What do you want me to say, Zoey? That the Sucubatti didn’t install kill switches on its Halflings? That Team Rogue wasn’t designed to be the ultimate weapon to win a war no one knew we were fighting twenty five years ago when the first
of you was born?”
“I want you to say that just because there’s a kill switch doesn’t mean it has to be used and that there’s an alternative to putting us down like dogs!”
“It’s not in my interest.”
Zoey drew a calming breath. “Is the same thing wrong with me that’s wrong with the non Team Rogue Halflings?”
There was a pause, then, “No. You and your sisters were created in an attempt to emulate a unique genetic model.”
“Sienna.”
“Yes. She held an immunity to the neurotoxin that a full-blooded incubus uses to immobilize resistance in any woman he targets.”
Zoey listened. The information was important on a level she didn’t known enough about to understand, but Chrissy would. “How is that possible?”
Olivia smiled.
I really hate this woman. “So Team Rogue has this immunity. The Halflings don’t.”
“They do not. They have an addiction to the neurotoxin.”
“Then they’re having issues because they’re going through withdrawal. But how were you producing the incubus neurotoxin, if …” Zoey trailed off, understanding blooming within her. “That’s why you allied with the Cambions. They give you the drug the Halflings need.”
“And I give them the Halflings slated to be put down. It’s a self-sustaining cycle.”
Zoey shivered, knowing how the Cambions tortured women to obtain the sex energy they needed. “You don’t want a Cambion-free world. You want a world where you’re in charge. Use Team Rogue to lure in the Enforcers then turn us into weapons to destroy them. I don’t understand what your end goal is, Olivia. What good is it to wipe out the incubuses if you keep the Cambions? And why grab Ethan?”
“Take the job as my ops officer, and I’ll tell you everything. I have an opening now that Heidi is gone.”
“Um, no. Even if I had an ounce of an inkling to maybe even consider something so stupid, you said you can’t make my blackouts stop, so why would I bother?” Zoey shook her head. “I’d rather live out my short life on Team Rogue than work for you.”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t stop them. I said I can’t control when you go under,” Olivia replied. “I need to uncover the trigger that’s sending you into the trances. If you refuse my offer this last time, I’m not opposed to draining all your blood for research and taking you apart piece by piece until I understand how to build a better model.”
“Like you did to Sienna.” A pang of heartache penetrated Zoey’s anger, the knowledge of how Declan’s mother died hurting her on his behalf.
I won’t be here long enough for you to hurt Ethan or me. Zoey knew Vikki was too impatient to wait twelve hours. She doubted she’d be there more than two more.
“Yay or nay on my offer?” Olivia asked. “I’ve only started to show you how miserable I can make things for you. You can end it right here. This is your last chance, Zoey.”
Zoey shifted feet. Cold fear spiraled through her at the thought of how far Olivia was willing to go. The sense she’d gotten earlier, that she’d have no peace to fight Cambions as long as Olivia was hunting her, returned. Olivia considered murder and kidnapping warning shots. What would she do if she ever caught members of Team Rogue? Declan?
“I won’t work for you,” Zoey responded.
“You understand what this means.”
“It means I need to take you out so I can hunt Cambions.”
Olivia smiled tightly. “So be it.” She withdrew a syringe from the desk that resembled the one the nurses injected Ethan with. “Let me make sure you don’t escape on the way back to your cell.”
Zoey laughed. “How ‘bout no?” She turned and started towards the door. “You know not even you can stand in my way.”
“Dolores, kill our incubus,” Olivia said calmly.
Zoey froze at the door. She looked over her shoulder. Olivia leaned towards the speakerphone on her desk.
“Will do,” came the response.
Olivia raised the syringe. “Or … you do what you’re told.”
Cursing herself silently, Zoey hesitated. “What do you want from him?”
“Not your concern.”
Fuck. Being at Olivia’s mercy was never a good thing. How much damage could she do before Vikki returned with the team to rescue her? “Fine.” Zoey entered the office once more. “Call off your idiots.”
Olivia clicked the button once more. “Delay that order, Dolores. I’m sending a new lab rat to you for diagnostic.”
“Roger, Chief,” came the response.
Zoey held out her arm with a grimace. She didn’t fear the blade of a knife but a needle was something else. Olivia approached and straightened her arm, sliding the thick needle into the crook of her elbow.
Zoey flinched. “How long before …” The moment she opened her mouth, the magic hit her system. Her muscles seized, and she dropped, immobilized, to the floor. Darkness edged her vision without taking her under. She was paralyzed and aware as the drug worked its way through her system.
“Dolores,” Olivia said.
Zoey’s eyes slid in her direction, but she was unable to move her head.
“Go ahead and kill him.”
No. With her body frozen in place, she could neither speak nor act. Zoey strained without success.
The room fell dark.
She sucked in a breath, uncertain how she was unconscious and aware of her senses simultaneously. Backup lights clicked on, and she realized she was still awake. The electricity had flashed out.
“What the hell is going on?” Olivia demanded.
Zoey followed her with her eyes as the succubus walked with her cell phone across the desk to the door. The sounds of boots scuffing the flooring in the hall told her the guards were moving into defensive positions.
“Lock down the lab!” Olivia belted into the hallway. She left the door halfway open. Zoey could only listen. Guards moving, backup lights clicking on, Olivia’s heels clicking, fading, gone.
Bodies hit the hard floor. She listened hard, struggling to stretch her senses. If Vikki, Ginny and Tiff had returned for her, she wasn’t able to call out.
More knives clashed and bodies dropped at a distance that told her the attacker or attackers were two doors down, heading for Ethan. Zoey listened and waited, willing Vikki to find her on the floor. Shouts came from farther down the corridor, in the direction of the massive lab Zoey had searched. Unable to gauge how many Halflings Vikki had brought, she hoped it was enough to carry two bodies instead of one.
Come on, Vikki! Zoey waited for what felt like forever, listening to every step, every blow, every other sound drifting through the open doorway.
A dark figure blocked the light from the hallway.
She strained to see who had found her, heart quickening but body refusing to move. Her senses were jumbled, the drugs blocking her ability to read the traces of sex energy to identify who it was.
Is Vikki wearing a mask? If she’d been able to move, she’d laugh. Maybe the Professor had mentioned being a superhero to Vikki. Zoey had joked about wearing a cape, but Vikki had taken it a step further.
The blurry form disappeared from the doorway.
Seconds later, it was replaced by two more, and this time, she recognized the dimly lit features of Vikki and Ginny.
“Zoey!” Vikki knelt beside her. “What’s wrong?”
I can’t move.
Ginny checked her pulse and shined her flashlight into her face. “She’s alive. Something’s wrong with her, though.”
“Pretty sure she’s gonna weigh as much as Ethan. Grab her arms.” Vikki wrapped her arms around Zoey’s legs.
Ginny leaned out the doorway and pulled an odd shaped grenade from her cargo pants. Zoey guessed it was one of Chrissy’s inventions; it was triangular shaped, which she’d never seen before.
Ginny tossed it and returned to her, looping her arms beneath Zoey’s shoulders. A flash of light came from the corridor, followed by the sound of more bodies dro
pping. Together, the two Team Rogue members moved her into the hallway.
A prisoner of her body, Zoey stared at the dark ceiling and counted the emergency lights as they passed them.
“Gin, behind you!” Vikki grunted the warning.
Ginny released her, and Zoey’s head smacked into the hard flooring.
“Oops. Sorry, Z.” Vikki said, eyes on Ginny.
Can’t feel shit. Zoey replied silently. She waited for Ginny to return. Seconds later, a panting Ginny grabbed her again.
This time, they moved faster towards the elevator, all but dumping her in the corner of the platform. The elevator doors closed, and the motor purred to life as it compelled them upward.
“You see that guy?” Vikki asked, bewildered.
“I want a mask,” Ginny replied. “Why don’t we have masks?”
“I don’t know, but I agree. Zoey, can you hear me?” Vikki hissed.
Zoey would’ve rolled her eyes if she could.
“We want masks, too!”
And capes? She retorted.
The platform reached the top of the lift, and the two members of Team Rogue hefted her up again, this time taking her to a gurney already occupied by Ethan.
“Will that hold?” Tiff asked, eyeing it.
“Don’t have a choice. Lift!” Vikki whispered to Ginny.
Zoey sprawled on top of the unconscious incubus. Vikki yanked one of her legs to balance her better. She stared at the cement floor, unable to see anything beyond Tiff’s feet and the metal supports of the gurney.
“Lydia, you got the van running?” Ginny asked. “Let’s go!”
They raced towards the entrance and slung it open.
Zoey smelled the morning dew and saw the smooth cement floor turn into dirt and grass. The members of Team Rogue dragged the gurney through the dirt to the van. Seconds later, she was thrown into the back like a sack of potatoes. Seconds later, Ethan followed her.
“Medic!” Ginny called, clambering into the van. The door slammed shut
“I’m not a doctor!” Chrissy replied.
Zoey wanted to sigh in relief. She didn’t care for the idea of being cut into pieces for whatever experiment Olivia had in mind.