Queen of Quarantine

by Caroline Peckham

  We sped up a steep incline and gravel crunched beneath the tires as Bait screamed something unintelligible and suddenly my gut swooped, and we were flying through the air.

  "Fuck!" I roared as the trees broke apart before us and I was gifted a view of the cloudy sky for several achingly long seconds before the nose of the car tipped down and I was looking straight into a ravine below.

  My organs flipped over inside my stomach as the car plummeted over the cliff edge, the wheels just touching down on the steep decline as Bait screamed and Deepthroat yelled while the rocks far below beckoned us into their solid embrace with a promise of death.

  We bounced and jolted and we suddenly crashed to a halt as the car smashed into a tree that protruded from the bank.

  I slammed into my seatbelt, pain spearing through me where it held me in place as the sound of metal grinding and glass shattering surrounded me. For a moment it seemed like I was caught in the centre of an explosion as Bait’s screams disappeared and a beat of silence fell in the wake of the carnage.

  I sucked in a painful breath as I lifted my head, my eyes widening at the huge hole in the windscreen right before the driver's seat and my gaze fell on Bait's body crushed and broken at the foot of the ravine far below.

  “Shit,” I groaned, straining my arms against the restraints holding them behind my back and getting nowhere again.

  A pained cry drew my attention to Deepthroat in the footwell as she stirred, seeming to be caught somewhere between consciousness and out of it. She moved a little as she seemed close to waking up and the car whined loudly, shifting against the precarious position it was held in by the tree. My heart leapt as the entire thing slid a few inches to the right.

  "Don't move!" I barked, my pulse racing as my gaze moved from Deepthroat's slumped position to the fatal fall that awaited us if this thing overbalanced. And it seemed like we were pretty damn close to it doing that if we weren’t careful.

  She didn’t reply and it looked like she’d passed out. Thank fuck for that. Not that it helped me. I was still stuck here, tied up and unable to escape this death trap.

  I looked around cautiously, trying to figure out if I had the slightest chance in hell of getting out of this alive, but even that small movement had the metal grinding against the rocks as the car shifted again.

  My stomach lurched and I swallowed thickly, useless adrenaline coursing through my veins. I was trapped, tied up and well and truly fucked. And for the first time in my eighteen years on this planet, I had every reason not to want my life to end.

  "Fuck," I breathed because I could see my death staring me in the face and this time, it didn't seem like the Grim Reaper was inclined to spare me.

  “K yan!” I screamed, throwing the car door open and running for the edge of the cliff with panic flashing through my skin like lightning. Tears burned my eyes as terror clawed up the inside of my chest. I can’t lose him. He can’t be dead.

  “Don’t give up on me yet, wife!” His voice came sailing up from beyond the ledge as I skidded to a halt before the steep drop and rocks went tumbling down over it.

  Oh thank fuck.

  I braced my hands on my knees, drawing in a ragged, desperate breath as I saw the Land Rover nose down, the hood crushed against the trunk of a tree growing out from the side of the cliff. But even as I watched, the whole thing slipped a few inches to the right and panic made my thoughts scatter.

  “I’m coming! Just hang on!” I promised, turning back and sprinting to Blake’s car, forcing my mind to go to that calm place inside me where I could think clearly. Where I could handle any situation. My father had trained me to manage stress in times like this. I could keep a clear head. I had to. Because I was the only one who could get him to safety.

  I tugged the tactical knife from my pocket, crawling into the car and drawing the seatbelt toward me, gathering it up in my hands as I pulled it carefully to tug the entire length out. I couldn’t move too fast or it would lock but I was so anxious to get to Kyan, it took everything I had to move slower than I wanted to. As I got the last of it out, I used the blade to cut it at both ends and tossed it out of the car behind me.

  I dove into the passenger seat, working to pull the other belt free before cutting that one too then moving to the driver’s seat and starting the engine. I drove the car right up to the edge of the cliff, turning on the parking brake and rushing outside.

  A metallic groan made my stomach knot and I threw a look over the edge in a panic as the Land Rover shifted further to the right, leaning precariously.

  “Tatum!” Kyan shouted. “Did I ever tell you I fucking love you?”

  My heart rioted at his words, hating why he was saying them. “You’re gonna tell me again when I get you out of there!” I called as I tied the two belts together with a fisherman’s knot and tethered one end tight around my waist before tying the other to the towing hitch beneath Blake’s car.

  Then I gazed down the cliff below as I moved to the very edge of it, the Land Rover slipping once more as the tree trunk started to crack and snap. There was a very real, very desperate fear trying to take control of me, but I wouldn’t let it shatter my concentration. Because the moment I panicked, this was over. And if I couldn’t get Kyan out, then he was going to die. There was no two ways about it. So I either kept my head or lost one of the most important people to me in the whole world.

  Breathe, keep moving and remember everything Dad taught you.

  Kyan looked back at me through the rear window and his jaw ticked anxiously, looking like he was fighting against something holding him in place.

  “I’m coming,” I promised, dropping over the edge and letting the belt slip through my hands as I abseiled down to the side of the car.

  The damn seatbelts were only just long enough to reach the vehicle and I thanked any and every god in the sky and devil in the underworld as I fell still, hanging beside it.

  Kyan looked at me through the window and shook his head. “If you open the door, the car will tip.”

  “Then the car will tip,” I growled. “But I won’t let you go with it.”

  He nodded, his eyes filled with trust as I opened the door, lowering it gently so it didn’t rock the whole vehicle. My gut clenched as a groaning, whining noise sounded, but by some miracle, the car didn’t slip again.

  I released a slow breath as I dug my feet into the steep hill for purchase and spotted a girl laying in the footwell unconscious. It took me a moment to recognise Deepthroat, her hair now a cheap bottle blonde and my heart stuttered. She was the other Justice Ninja? I guess she fit the bill in ways. She was always hanging around Kyan and had a vendetta against the Night Keepers, but I never imagined she’d be capable of this.

  “Never thought I’d have to be rescued like a princess in a tower. Are we going to ride off into the sunset on your horse while fingering me under my dress, baby?” Kyan joked even though his eyes gave away his desperation not to die and I gripped his shirt in my fist as I carefully leaned inside to free him from the car.

  “That’s the plan, princess, just hold still.” I sliced the knife through the seatbelt keeping him in place then cut the zip-tie around his ankles. “Brace yourself on the seat with your feet,” I instructed, needing to get his hands free. I wasn’t strong enough to carry him out of here if the car fell so he was going to need to use his arms. But we seriously needed to hurry up.

  “If I move, the car will slip,” he said, his voice rough, his brows pulled tightly together.

  I glanced towards the front of the car and the terrifying drop beyond the windshield then shook my head and turned away from it, refusing to fall prey to fear.

  “Just go slow,” I said determinedly.

  He nodded, inching forward and pressing his feet to the seat beneath him as I gripped his shirt so hard my knuckles turned white, praying to any deity who was listening to give me the strength to lift him if the car fell.

  A loud snap sounded as the trunk started to give way and I sc
reamed as the whole car lurched away from us to the right and Kyan was thrown that way too. I held onto him, falling into the back seat too which was now almost vertical, my hand going to the zip tie on his wrists and slicing through it. Keep moving, don’t stop. If you freeze, it’s over.

  The car continued to slide and jolt and the loud snapping in my ears made me certain we only had seconds to get out.

  “Hold onto me,” I commanded and Kyan twisted around, wrapping one arm around me while using his other to heave us back up toward the open door above.

  The whole vehicle shuddered and we gave up on trying to move slow, scrambling faster to get out. We had seconds to make it, I was sure of it. And any we wasted could equal our deaths.

  Sharp nails suddenly gripped onto my leg and I looked down with a gasp of fury, finding Deepthroat holding onto both of us, her eyes wild.

  “You can’t leave me!” she shrieked. “If I fall, he falls with me.” She lunged up, hooking onto Kyan’s waist with both arms and he snarled, unable to strike at her without letting go of the edge of the door or me.

  The vehicle started falling and Kyan lost his grip on the door as she clambered up his body, sinking her teeth into my arm to try and make me let go. I cried out, the belt around my waist going taut as we fell, the bitch trying to take us to the grave. Deepthroat’s gaze locked with mine as she tried to hold onto my man and I saw red, anger scolding my veins.

  I threw my fist out with a yell of rage for everything she’d done to him, for what she’d tried to take from him, for the scars she’d left on him. My fist connected with her nose which shattered under the impact and she squealed in horror as Kyan’s hand came down on her shoulder, the two of us knocking her off into the car just as it plummeted. The shell of the car dropped around us, the whole world seeming to fall as we were forced to place our faith in the rope I’d made.

  Kyan held me tight and we clutched each other with all our strength as the Land Rover tumbled away into the canyon. We were left hanging on the side of the cliff, spinning on the belts, miraculously unharmed.

  My back hit the dirt and Kyan’s weight crushed me to it, driving the breath from my lungs, but I didn’t care. I was half laughing, half crying my relief as he held onto me, one hand moving to grip the belt above my head to support his weight.

  Deepthroat’s screams were cut off as the car hit the bottom of the ravine with a deafening boom that echoed on for miles into the forest. Birds took flight from the trees, arcing across the sky then silence fell and only our breaths and the wind could be heard in the wake of the carnage.

  “Good fucking riddance,” Kyan muttered and I had to agree.

  “Just don’t let go,” I warned him, painfully aware that if his grip faltered, there was nothing to stop him from tumbling down there after her.

  My heart was thrashing wildly with more adrenaline than I knew what to do with and my muscles shook as I started heaving myself back up the steep incline.

  Kyan stayed right with me, his grip tight and his jaw set with determination that promised he wasn’t going to die today and I tried to take comfort in that as we climbed.

  My foot slipped once and I almost lost my grip on the belt, but as Kyan reached back to grab my wrist, I quickly regained my footing and the two of us hauled our way to the peak together.

  We were soon rolling over the ledge at the top of the cliff and I fell on top of Kyan, kissing him as he clutched my face in his hands and growled his gratitude into my mouth. I breathed in his scent of leather and sin, bathing in everything that he was.

  “You’re my hero, wife.” He squeezed my ass to hold me close and I laughed breathlessly as he pushed my hair away from my face, desire rushing out to take the place of the fear in my body. Danger was the hottest kind of aphrodisiac and this boy got me high on it way too often. But damn did I fucking love it.

  My cheeks were stained with tears of relief and his face fell serious as he leaned up to kiss them away before his mouth met mine once more, his hand locking around the back of my neck. When my head was spinning from the mixture of his touch and the adrenaline flooding my body, he drew away, his heavenly dark eyes holding me prisoner. “I’m never gonna waste a single day on this earth I have with you, baby,” he swore, the oath glittering in the depths of his eyes.

  “If death comes knocking on any of our doors again, we’ll fight it head on together,” I vowed in return.

  He smirked, clutching me closer still so I felt his heart drumming powerfully against mine. “With you at my side, I have a feeling the five of us just might live forever.”

  M y head was pounding as we made it back to The Temple and I staggered forward, bracing myself against the wall as I started retching uncontrollably from the effects of the gas that had been used to knock us out. If fate had been a bit kinder, I would have taken half an hour to let my head stop spinning and waited until I could feel all of my limbs properly before attempting to do anything, let alone run across campus, but of course, we were once again headed up shit creek without a paddle and I was going to have to just power through.

  "If you're going to vomit, do it quickly," Saint growled as he fumbled the key in the lock for the third time, his motor skills clearly not back to functioning properly yet either.

  Monroe grew impatient and tried the handle, finding it unlocked anyway after Tatum had clearly left in a rush. He pushed the door open and the two of them disappeared inside while I was forced to take another moment to try and stop myself from puking. My fingers curled tightly around Kyan’s baseball bat which I’d brought back with us from the gym and cursed the people responsible for this beneath my breath.

  I was going to fucking end whoever the hell had done this. Their life wouldn't be worth living anymore. They'd rue the motherfucking day.

  Just as I managed to force myself upright again, movement at the top of the path which led back towards campus drew my attention and I stilled as a sense of danger prickled along my spine. The trees were blocking my view, but I leaned back until I managed to catch sight of shifting shadows through a gap in the foliage.

  There were four men moving down the path, dressed in black and grouped closely together. I could only just see them through the trees, my own position here still hidden, but the strangeness of the way they moved had drawn my focus to them. It was almost like...they were walking in formation.

  A breath snagged in my lungs and I darted inside quickly, locking the door, throwing the deadbolt over then securing the two additional bolts that Saint had added when the Justice Ninja had made it clear we needed additional security on this place.

  "There's men coming this way," I hissed in answer to the questioning looks both Monroe and Saint were shooting me as I caught them clearly on their way back towards the door.

  "What men?" Monroe asked as Saint's gaze sharpened and he nudged past me to lift the blind and look out of the window beside the door.

  "How many did you see?" Saint asked in a hushed growl.

  "Four," I supplied. And if the way they were moving hadn’t been enough of a clue that they didn’t belong here, the fact that they were within the locked down perimeter of the school clued me in simply enough.

  "I doubt that's even the start of them." Saint dropped the corner of the blind and hurried across the room to close the open one where we'd spotted the word mine scrawled across the glass earlier.

  "What's going on?" Monroe demanded.

  "My father has figured out who rescued his meal ticket. We need to go. Now,” Saint replied succinctly.

  I didn’t bother to waste time asking how he could be sure of that. Saint’s dad was a mega asshole of mass proportions and only his son knew the full extent of his psychotic reach. If Saint said it was him then I believed him, no question.

  Saint was already at the safe hidden beneath the flagstone, opening it up and pulling out a black bag which I knew was full of cash, two handguns and the last few smoke grenades which Niall had given us.

  He looked up to find me an
d Monroe standing there, unsure what to do with ourselves and snarled like a damn beast.

  "Blake, grab the box of vaccinations from the fridge. Nash, put a fucking coat on. We're leaving via the crypt and we won't be coming back, so if there's anything else you need-"

  "What about clothes and shit?" Monroe asked as he grabbed a coat from the hook by the door and quickly threw it on.

  I already had the silver box which held the stolen vaccines out of the fridge and I grabbed a bottle of water too, pausing for half a second to chug almost the entire thing in hopes of banishing the last effects of that gas from my body.

  "My car is already packed with clothes and supplies for all of us," Saint snapped like that was obvious just as I made it back to him. "I also took the liberty of securing Tatum's father's ashes and the letters from her sister down in the crypt."

  "What about the necklace she asked me to look after?" Monroe asked, taking a step back, like he was willing to go hunting for it even as we heard a knock at the front door.

  Saint pressed a finger to his lips before opening a pocket on the side of the bag of cash he held, revealing the necklace alongside the plaque my mom had given me, Nash's little collection of mementos from his previous life and Kyan's sketchbook. Monroe gaped at him in clear confusion as to how Saint had managed to steal his most prized possessions, but considering our situation he couldn’t really fault his methods. I caught a glimpse of the pen and lighter Saint had stolen from me and Kyan oh so long ago too before he zipped the pocket shut again and threw the bag over his shoulder.

  My heart surged with love for my brother as we hounded him towards the crypt on silent feet. For someone who claimed not to understand love or sentiments, he'd instantly figured out the few things that meant the most to the people he cared about and had secured them in preparation of this happening. Deep down, Saint Memphis was as soft as butter and he was starting to let it show.