Dead and Damaged (The Endangered Series Book 2)

by S. L. Eaves

“Oh good, we’re not too late,” a voice behind me chimes in.

  I look over my shoulder. “About damn time you two.”

  “Hey, we were across the bay; give us some credit.”

  “Bring any furry friends?”

  “Let’s just say they weren’t too receptive of our proposal,” Quinn sneers.

  Dade readies an impressive-looking assault rifle and freezes when he sees Crina.

  “I’m not firing on Crina,” he states, a perplexed panic in his eyes.

  “I will.” Quinn is only half joking as she opens fire in her general direction.

  Dade looks confused. “Is she with us or against us, Lori?”

  “With us, Dade. At least she will be. I just need to bring her around.”

  “Oh.” Dade is no less confused. He prepares to fire when the last man falls.

  “Way to let the girls do the heavy lifting.” Quinn flashes a playful grin at Dade.

  “You looked like you were having fun,” he responds, returning her smile as he slings the rifle over his shoulder.

  The lobby is quiet except for some groaning coming from a couple down mercenaries. Crina snaps their necks and then heads to where we are congregated by the building’s entrance. It is the second reunion in under a month, but this one carries an ominous tone.

  Quinn and Dade stand defensively, clearly ready for battle. I slide the empty clip from my gun and set both on the desk. Crina maintains her grip on her gun, but keeps it at her side as she approaches.

  “This got problematic. I don’t want it to get messier. But with this suit I can and will take out all of you if I have to,” Crina says, finally acknowledging the steampunk nightmare of an exoskeleton affixed to her arm. If it took any damage it doesn’t show it.

  “We don’t kill our own,” Dade states firmly.

  “We do when they’re traitors. The world is changing, Dade, we have to evolve to survive.”

  “That sounds like Marcus talking, not you,” Quinn spits out the words.

  “Lori leaves with me and we part peacefully. I’ll pretend I never saw you here. That’s my best and final offer.”

  “Sorry, but you gotta go through us.” Dade steps in front of Crina. Quinn moves to join him.

  I can tell for a second Crina considers engaging.

  “It’s fine,” I sigh. “Crina, I’ll go with you. You chose to believe Marcus and not me; that’s your call and I’ll concede. But I will not surrender willingly to Brixton.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Lori!” Quinn protests angrily.

  I hand her the flash drive and computer parts, which mostly look intact.

  “See that Rex gets these.”

  Crina motions to take them from Quinn.

  Dade grabs her arm. “Which do you want? Because you are not leaving here with both.”

  Crina steps back, palms raised. “Fine.”

  “You want us to join them?” Quinn asks me.

  I nod. “Yeah; I mean, I think we accomplished everything we’re going to here. You take care of the wolves?”

  “Wolves?” That gets Crina’s attention.

  “Yep. Surprised the hell outta them,” Quinn says, ignoring Crina.

  “Just as we expected, like shooting fish in a barrel.” Dade pats his rifle.

  “Too easy.” Quinn shakes her head in disappointment. “Too bad they weren’t game for having a little powwow. I would have enjoyed seeing a few tear apart Trion’s labs.”

  Sirens can be heard in the distance. I think about all the crime scenes we’ve left for cops to clean up. I feel a pang of guilt and pity as I regard the pile of dead bodies. Then I remember how the cops always took my guardian’s side as a kid; it was easier to believe the adults and throw the kid into some juvenile detention center or reform program and close the file. Less paperwork. I had bounced in and out of so many foster homes the only common denominator was me. In Copland I was always the delinquent problem child, and so I became the problem. I grew into my label, gave cops plenty of paperwork in my adolescence. Moreover, one could safely assume I’d continued the trend of leaving police with loads of paperwork after my death. The files were a lot harder to close this time around. I smile inwardly. Karma works in mysterious ways.

  “Let’s go.” Crina motions toward the door and my attention snaps from the corpses.

  “It’ll be fine, guys,” I reassure them as I hobble after.

  Chapter 24

  Crina’s bike is parked on the sidewalk out front. She gets on and nods her head behind her.

  “Like old times.” My voice is laced in sarcasm.

  “We just need to get clear of the cops.”

  She is right about that. I oblige and we ride a couple miles before turning into an alley. She coasts onto a loading dock behind a store and parks. I dismount and follow her into an abandoned office space, still limping. A few chairs and desks remain in the otherwise dusty and dilapidated interior. For someone who never held an office job, I’d certainly been spending a lot of time in them lately.

  I sit on a desk and examine my ankle.

  “You got a knife I can borrow? A switchblade maybe?” I ask, hinting for her to return the one she took from me.

  Crina walks over. “Let me see it.”

  I remove the boot to reveal the bullet wound.

  “Landed right in the bone.” I turn the boot upside down and watch blood trickle out.

  She pinches her fingers together and a stiletto appears from one of the knuckles. I recoil.

  “Relax; if I’m going to kill you, it won’t be with this.”

  She has a point. I tilt my head and watch as she digs it out, trying not to grimace.

  A minute later the bullet is out and the wound is healing.

  “Now you’re going to answer my questions or I’ll replace that bullet with a dozen fresh ones.”

  I nod, eager to get everything out in the open.

  “Why did you leave us? Why did you stay behind in the States?” Crina sits atop the other desk, facing me.

  “Before all this happened, you mean?”

  She nods. “Was it really because of Catch?”

  “He was part of it, yes. That mansion, I mean—he’s all I see when I’m inside. And it felt like the timing was right for me to spend some time out on my own. Figure things out for myself. But primarily I left because Marcus doesn’t trust me. That I could live with. The fact that his distrust has turned to contempt and a desire to see me turned into a pile of dust…well, would you stick around?”

  “Why doesn’t he trust you?”

  “Because I told him what I saw. I did not threaten him or blackmail him. I want to make that clear. Initially I came to him for an explanation. Gave him a chance to give context to a vision. And he did. But in doing so he implicated himself. Still, I wanted to believe him better than his past mistakes. I gave him an opportunity to clear the air with all of you, for a fresh start.

  “Sadly, that’s not what he wanted. He wanted you, he wanted to remain in power, and admitting his sins would force you and the others to make some tough decisions about his fate. He didn’t want to take the chance of losing you, of having his clan turn on him.

  “I didn’t know that then. Not at first. But things were tense and I took the opportunity to go my own way for a while. It doesn’t mean I don’t still consider you guys family. It’s why I came back, why I keep coming back. My loyalty hasn’t wavered. I never wanted to stop being your ally and I certainly never wanted it to come to this.”

  Crina slides off the desk and paces the room. She’s preparing herself for an answer she doesn’t want to hear to the question she knows she has to ask.

  Finally, she turns to me. “And what did you see?”

  “I saw him working with Striden…You think it’s a coincidence he wasn’t home the night of the fire? That you weren’t? Marcus made sure you were spared. He orchestrated the fire when you were out of the country and did so in order to eliminate Dominique from the equation.
>
  “The fire that you all refer to as the firestorm; the fire that burned the Covenant to the ground and effectively wiped out our kind…All Marcus wanted to come from that was Dominique’s death. The war was a result, not a reason. I didn’t see that, mind you, I just saw him plotting with Striden years later…I mean, Striden had to be sixteen or seventeen at the time of the fire? You really think he could have pulled that off by himself?”

  Crina thinks it over, then shrugs. “He ran with a pack of young wolves; when Dominique and I went up against him, age wasn’t really a factor. He was already the clear Alpha, but I saw Dominique kill him. At the time, I thought the wolves responsible for the fire wanted revenge for his death. I didn’t know he was involved in the firestorm until we encountered him at that hotel’s basement.

  “And you’re telling me Marcus knew the whole time. He knew he was alive. And not only that, he was involved in the single greatest catastrophe in the history of our kind?”

  “I am. And think about it now, knowing what we know, you really believe Teen Wolf huffed and puffed and blew down the Covenant? Pack or not, it is suspicious he wiped out nearly the entire vampire population without inside help.”

  Crina’s eyes glow with rage as she struggles to collect herself.

  “I always wondered how they found us. The Covenant’s address wasn’t exactly in the phone book. We were a well-kept secret.”

  “Until you weren’t. Now granted, I didn’t see much, really. I just drew a lot of conclusions. Then read it in his eyes. I accused Marcus of everything, laid out all my suspicions, and he didn’t deny it. In fact I’d go so far as to say he was relieved to get it off his chest.

  “He seemed pretty pleased with himself, Crina. He was sad about Catch, he was sad about events he lost control over…but his first question, the very first thing he asked me, was if I told you. You were what he cared about.”

  “Jesus.” Crina stammers to find the right words. “The fire was decades ago. To start this war and go through all this…if I was part of his endgame, he certainly bided his time.”

  “Marcus is a patient man.”

  “Yeah, he is…so much could have happened…”

  “And you weren’t his sole motivation. Much was to be gained by working with Striden, at least in his eyes. The man likes calculated risks. He was communicating with Striden the whole time. Then when Striden and his brother started doing their own thing, breaking their original agreement, he was livid. That led Striden to form a new alliance with Florien and his clan, the Saviors. Remember them storming the mansion? He sent them to threaten Marcus into submission and, when that didn’t work, to eliminate us altogether.

  “Marcus isn’t a team player. When he is done with Brixton he’ll turn on her the way he turned on Striden, coming out looking like the hero once again. He knows how to pick the winning side, I’ll give him that much.”

  Crina sits in silence, digesting everything.

  “You knew about Dominique and you didn’t tell me.”

  “I did not, no.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I thought Marcus would. Despite everything, I thought he was still one of the good guys; that he’d just been led astray and was looking for an opportunity to clear his conscious. Clearly, I was wrong. I also knew it would only bring you more pain. It is in the past. I could not see what could be gained from telling you something I saw. I don’t know if it’s true. It’s not like I was there. It was just a vision.”

  “And Marcus confessed?”

  “He didn’t deny it. In fact, he attempted to explain his version of events. That’s how I’ve pieced this together. He thought I saw more than I did, so he confessed to things I didn’t even know about…He referenced a power struggle between Dominique and him. Do you remember them being at odds?”

  Crina nods, “I do. But I don’t remember why or it being very tumultuous. I didn’t know Marcus very well back then.”

  “Well, whatever it was, he felt it warranted breaking these sanctimonious Pureblood laws we adhere to. He was concerned—is concerned—with what I’d do with this information.”

  “Nothing is what you did. Don’t mock the Purebloods, they can destroy us all. Respect those that made you.”

  I sigh. “I underestimated Marcus’s thirst for power. I never in a million years thought he’d join up with Brixton.”

  “Brixton wants to help our kind, make us stronger.”

  “She is only out for herself. She doesn’t give a damn about you. She is probably using you to test that freaky bionic arm or whatever that is.”

  Crina examines it, then hits a button on her shoulder, slips it off and sets it on the desk. We both stare at it for a minute.

  “Why didn’t you confide in me? So much would have been different…” Crina shakes her head.

  “Like I said, I wanted to believe Marcus was a good guy. We all make mistakes. I left it up to him to tell you the truth. Deep down I really thought he’d learned, that he’d set things right. It wasn’t my truth to tell.”

  “Fuck, Lori, I’m so confused.”

  “Welcome to my world.”

  “How long did you know about Marcus? Did Catch know?”

  I shake my head. “No, I saw the vision when we were blown off the roof of Beyond Bio in LA. Being near Striden, I think I picked it up from him; I read his mind before the explosion. I dunno. I can’t control what I see. It’s as if Striden wanted me to know.”

  “How long have you known you could see?”

  “Not as long as you.”

  At that, Crina looks down. I am not the only one keeping secrets in this room.

  “Yeah…Catch wanted to talk to you about it. He didn’t want us pressuring you to see how the war would play out. He didn’t want you feeling used. So we respected that…I guess he told you, though?”

  “He never said a word. I overheard you guys talking about me one day in the training facility at the mansion. I get visions sometimes, and I did have a brain tumor…it’s whatever. It’s a fairly useless ability. Adrian never should have had me turned for it.”

  “You said you saw me die that night in the sewer. That Catch showed you in a dream or premonition.”

  “I did.”

  “And I’ve had a funny way of showing my appreciation.”

  “Eh, well, I didn’t do it to save you. I was tired of Catch haunting me, pushing me to go back home.” I flash her a smile.

  She laughs, “Good, so I don’t owe you anything then. It never occurred to me that you’ve been having visions the whole time.” Her tone becomes serious again: “Even with Brixton calling you clairvoyant, we were joking about how she believes the myths about our kind. You know she thinks it can be transferred. That’s why she wants you to turn her.”

  My turn to laugh.

  “You still see him? Catch?”

  I think about the graveyard. His face twisted in pain.

  “Rarely…I prefer to think of him as resting in peace rather than haunting me in some alternate plane of existence.”

  “Yeah, I get it. Though I’d kill for a glimpse of Dominique.”

  I pull my boot back on.

  “So what now?”

  Crina sighs, “I want to make this right. And I want Marcus’s head on a stick. But not before he tells me himself what went down the night of the fire.”

  “You deserve to hear the truth from him.”

  “I’m still pissed at you for not telling me all this sooner.”

  “I get that, but I did what I thought was best at the time. Had I exposed Marcus it would have ripped our little clan apart. Over a vision I can’t trust.”

  “And yet we fell apart anyways. Funny how some things are inevitable, no matter what road we take to get there.”

  “Yeah…well, we all make mistakes. I genuinely believed Marcus was going to right his wrongs himself. I did not think him this sinister.”

  “And I’ve been sharing a bed with him for the past year, blind to it all…I was willing
to kill you, Dade, Quinn, and anyone who stood in my way for that son of a bitch. I don’t like what he’s made me,” she shudders. “He’s a master manipulator. Full of narcissistic delusions.”

  “Not unlike his new business partner. You really support what Brixton and her team are doing?” I point at the robotic arm.

  Crina nods, “Yes, I do. I did. I don’t know. She wants to make us stronger and more powerful. Her technology will protect us and she’s also developing a blood alternative that could make our existence a lot easier. We wouldn’t be dependent on humans at all. That I can get behind.”

  “I think I stumbled upon that at EVO tonight. That flash drive I gave Quinn might have the formula on it.”

  “Good.”

  “Did Xan examine the supposed footage of me staking a vampire? Because it is one hundred percent fake.”

  “Not before I left to come down here, no. And I haven’t heard from him. Which is kind of suspicious.” Crina takes her phone from her pocket. “No word.”

  “So Marcus hasn’t turned Brixton? She wants me to because she believes I can pass along my seer abilities?” I eye her quizzically.

  Crina laughs, “Yep. We didn’t correct her. Marcus doesn’t want to pass on his bloodline to her, especially without permission from a Pureblood.”

  “So you’re charged with bringing me back?”

  “Yep.”

  “And all those men? I thought they were there for the scientist.”

  “They were. Well, not all of them. One was going to return to Alaska with the scientist. The others were going to hang back with me to search for you. We didn’t know for sure you’d surface right away.” She shrugs, “Two birds, one stone. Humans just get in the way, though. I’m going to have to give you credit for all those kills, by the way.”

  “That so…wait, what are you planning?” I see the wheels turning. “She’ll kill us all before she hands over her technology. She just knows she doesn’t stand a chance as a human; she’s biding her time.”

  Crina picks up the arm and examines it.

  “I can take care of Brixton. I’m not concerned about her. It’s Marcus I’m concerned about. And Xan up there with them. We have to go back together. I bring you in, and that will be our front. You can distract Brixton while I confront Marcus.”