by Jus Accardo
Cora sighed. She waved her hand in the air and said, “Get this over with. I have better things to do.
A second later, the six men were moving forward.
Chapter Thirty
Ash
I backed away as Cora’s security started forward. I would die. I would die before letting her drag me back there. They came forward, then split, two coming toward me and two heading toward Ava.
“Whoa.” Dylan held up the weapon. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Cora sighed. “Taking back my property as per our agreement. Have you forgotten already?”
“Wrong girl.” He jabbed the metal thing in my direction and I couldn’t help cringing. I’d seen what it’d done to Phil and Cora. My stomach turned over just thinking about it. Now he was waving it around like it was a piece of candy? “If you want anyone, it’s her.”
“They both belong to me. Property of the Infinity Division.” She hitched her thumb toward G. “As does he.”
G and Kori had joined us. He’d taken his place beside Cade and looked completely rabid while she looked fierce and ready to die defending us. “You’re never going to touch her again.”
“Look at you.” Cora laughed again, but unless I was crazy, there was the smallest hint of fear in her eyes. “The feral dog is foaming at the mouth for his little bitch. I must say, grabbing a copy of the two of you was a test in and of itself. I was curious to see what happened. This little scenario—you six—it never ends well.”
He twitched like he was going to lunge for her throat, but Cade grabbed his arm to keep him still.
She pointed to Cade and Kori and snickered. “You two are always in a state of flux. I’ve seen it a hundred times. Never together, yet never apart. And you two—” She jabbed a blood red tipped finger at Dylan and Ava. “You two are just tragic in every way imaginable.” When she turned to me, her grin was truly wicked. Filled with satisfaction and greed. “And you, dear Ash? Do you really think you can skip out of here with him and have a good life?”
My fingers flexed, tightening into fists. “I think any life away from you will be a good life.”
“I’ve seen you with him. You destroy each other. Every single time. You’re like a tornado and he’s like a volcano. You’re two forces of a destructive nature that always—without fail—wipe each other out in the end.” She snorted. Such an un-Cora like thing to do. “If I didn’t need you I would let you go. That alone would be punishment enough.” Turning, she jabbed a finger at the group. “Now give me my property and I will leave the rest of you in peace.”
“She doesn’t belong to you,” Dylan said with a growl. He dragged Ava behind him. “She belongs to me.”
“I don’t belong to either of you,” Ava screamed. She jerked her arm from Dylan’s grip and took a single step away from the whole group.
Cora laughed. She laughed like it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen. “Running wouldn’t do you any good, Ava.” She tapped the side of her head twice, then winked. “You have a chip in your head. One that helps the serum work. Without me—without Infinity—you’ll die.”
Dylan tensed. He stole a glance over his shoulder at Sera, whose face was pale. “You’re lying.”
I watched as her face contorted, going from horrified to fearful, then landing on anger. Rage I could relate to. She let out a horrible wail then launched herself at Cora. Cora’s security responded immediately. One of the guards closest sprang to her side and latched on, while the other kicked out, knocking the weapon from Dylan’s hands. Ava had no intention of going quietly. She let out another howl and began to thrash. The action was like a match to tinder and sent everyone surging into the fray.
Cora stepped away to watch from the sidelines as Dylan and G each went for the one trying to restrain Sera. It was surreal to watch. Two versions of the same person, one twisted and sick, and the other, well, the jury was still out on G. Cora had messed him up, but we really didn’t know the extent of it.
Cade launched himself at one of the men making his way toward me, swinging hard right out of the gate. I’d watched both him and Noah fight and they were amazing. Cade graceful and refined, every blow he struck was taken in honor. I couldn’t imagine him throwing a dirty punch. Noah on the other hand, he played to win. Nothing was out of bounds. No blow too dirty. He was a street fighter, feral and raw.
I caught sight of him, facing off against the fourth of Cora’s elite. They were well trained. The best of her best, known for hand-to-hand combat rather than weaponry.
I watched as the guard grabbed a handful of Noah’s jacket, hauling back as hard as he could. He teetered, and while he was off balance, the guard went for a chunk of hair that had slipped free from the rubber band, making for an easy target. Or, it would have if he hadn’t been faster.
Noah grabbed his wrist as he came, jerking forward enough to reach just below his elbow with his other hand. Like slinging a garbage bag over your shoulder, I couldn’t help thinking. He then pivoted and gave a good, hard twist. The guard howled in pain and Noah followed the move, pulling him close as he brought his right knee up hard. It was poetry to watch—so much so that I didn’t see the newcomer stalk up behind me.
“I told Cora to lock you up years ago to prevent exactly this,” a voice said as a steel grip encased me, locking both arms at my sides. That voice. I knew that voice. Yancy, the leader of Cora’s guards. “Since you were kind enough to simply stand here waiting…”
Oh my God he was right. What an idiot.
I couldn’t fight like Cade or Noah, or even like Kori. That girl was pretty damn badass and I was jealous. Dylan could hold his own, and G…he was a monster in his own right, tearing through the guards with fury. Yancy was unstoppable. I’d seen him in action just once. Brutal and seemingly without any speck of human compassion. He would take me in no matter what he had to do. But I had no intention of making this easy.
I threw my head back as hard as I could. It smashed into his face, his nose specifically, I thought, and he cursed. But, his grip didn’t loosen. Taking a deep breath, I leaned into him and lifted my feet from the ground. He wobbled, slightly off balance, but still he didn’t let go. But help was on the way. It was charging across the field like a prizefighting bull.
Noah launched himself at Yancy, the sheer force behind the tackle taking them both to the ground. I went with them and managed to scoot away as the guy took a swing at his head. The blow landed—he was too busy making sure I’d gotten to a safe place—and his eyes kind of rolled back. Unfortunately, before he could get his bearings and retaliate, Yancy repositioned and locked his arms around Noah’s neck. He clawed and dug, fingers gouging at the arm restraining him, but it was no use. This man had the mother of all grips and I knew he wouldn’t stop until Noah was dead.
I had to do something.
I stumbled inelegantly to my feet and kicked out as hard as I could. I was aiming for the general area close to his head, so if you considered the intent, I basically scored a home run. The corner of my shoe connected and Yancy let go—which, despite the action, surprised me. Noah gasped and coughed.
“Hurry!” I got behind and helped him off the ground. Sera had joined me. She was limping and had a split lip, but was otherwise in one piece.
Noah recovered and motioned for us to follow, then started for the trees. “We know why Cora wants Ash—what about you and G?”
Sera’s face paled. “They did things to us.”
“Things is a little vague,” he snapped.
“Noah!” I tugged her into the trees and around a large pine. God only knew what Cora had put them through, and now she and G were in the middle of some twisted game of tug of war? Sera had to be close to losing it. I knew I was. “Be less of an asshole, okay?”
“It would help to know why Cora is obsessed,” he shouted. “If we know what she wants, then we know how far she’ll go to get—”
Sera screamed a half second before another blur, this one dark blue, flew by
. It crashed into Noah and took them both to the ground.
“Why?” Dylan roared as his fist slammed into Noah’s gut. “Why the hell do you insist on trying to keep us apart?”
Noah wasn’t a pushover. He fired back with everything he had. “I’m trying to—” Noah assaulted Dylan’s shoulder and mid-section in a lightning fast one-two jab “—reunite you two right now. Hold still—” his next blow landed at the jaw line “—while I kill you!”
Dylan rocked back but didn’t go down. “Maybe I’ll change my MO,” he huffed. His next swing caught Noah in the stomach. When he doubled over, Dylan brought his knee up and smashed it into his forehead. “Maybe I’ll go after Ash from now on, too.”
Noah let out an enraged howl and flew at him like a demon. Shoulder in Dylan’s stomach, his feet left the ground from the force of impact and sent him sprawling backward. Noah followed him down and started swinging without mercy. “Go.” It came out more like a grunt than a word.
“Go?” I glanced around. “Where am I—”
“He can’t follow you. GO! I will find you.”
He can’t follow you.
Oh my God.
Now I understood. Skip.
He wanted me to take Sera and skip out.
Chapter Thirty-One
Noah
I didn’t see her go. I was a little preoccupied with mincing Dylan’s head into pudding. But when he finally stilled and I looked up, she and Ava were gone. Someplace safe, I hoped. The fight was winding down. Cade had gotten hold of the weapon and had used it to take out the guard who’d grabbed Kori, and G was repeatedly kicking another. Cora and the big guy who’d tried to take Ash, the one from Brewster’s place—Yancy—were notably missing.
Kori came jogging up and held out her hand. “You okay?”
I let her help me up, then tried to swipe some of the mud from my jeans. “Banged up but breathing. You?”
She grinned. “Pretty much the same. Everyone seems to be in one piece.” She glanced down at Dylan, unconscious at my feet. “Except him.”
I couldn’t help myself. I kicked him. “He’s still in one piece. It’s a messy piece, but it’s one piece. For now.” He was out cold, but I didn’t trust it. We’d come too far to leave anything to chance. Dropping to the ground, I untied my left boot and pulled the lace from the eyelets. Wrapping the thick black string around Dylan’s wrists, I knotted it so tightly that his skin turned white.
Her grin widened—then faded all together. She turned in a slow circle. “Wait a sec. Ash? Ava? Where are—”
“I had Ash skip Ava out. Just in case Dylan got in a lucky throw.”
Cade came up behind and wrapped his arms around her shoulder. “Good thinking. Rabbit didn’t program our frequencies into his chip. We can follow him but he can’t get to us. She’s completely safe now.”
“Cora is gone,” G announced, rounding out our new little posse. God. Were we all going to skip together? It was going to get crowded.
No. It wouldn’t. Ash wouldn’t be skipping with us…
But did it matter? We had Dylan. This was over. We could skip to where Ash had Ava, return to evil Cora’s world to deliver the proof Rabbit had stashed away, and then we could.... “Holy shit!”
Cade was instantly alert. “What? What is it?”
“We’re done, man. We can go home!” The realization was like lifting a ten-thousand-pound weight off my shoulders. My parents, my home—my future. Everything I thought I’d never get back. We had these damn chips imbedded in our skin. I didn’t have to lose Ash. I could see her anytime I wanted. She was only a skip away.
Cade’s eyes lit—then darkened. “Wow. Yeah. We did what we said we’d do…”
When I saw Kori’s expression, I understood. She’d told her father that she’d return home once we made sure Dylan couldn’t hurt anyone anymore. As far as I knew, they hadn’t discussed the possibilities of what that might mean for the two of them. They hadn’t even really decided what their relationship status was.
But really, they didn’t have to, did they? He was in the same boat I was in—and that damn boat floated across dimensions.
“We’re not using the cuffs anymore, guys.” There was no reason she couldn’t go home to her world and him to his. I didn’t intend to lose either one of them—or Ash. “We can come and go as we please, remember?”
“Could we hash this crap out later?” G snapped his fingers in my face and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from ripping them off. “You said that girl took Sera somewhere. Let’s go.”
Kori looked over her shoulder. The field was empty now, the remaining guards presumably having skipped back home. “What about Cora?”
“What about her?” Cade lifted his arm and woke the chip.
Kori sighed and did the same. “Seems like she really wanted them. She gave up? Just like that?”
From what I’d seen of this Cora she wouldn’t just give up. An icy sense of dread washed through me. G was still with us, but Ash and Ava had skipped out. Cora and Yancy were gone. Here we were celebrating our future when Ash might be in danger.
“This is your call, man,” Cade said. “We can detour and take Dylan home and lock his ass up, then go look for Ash. Or we can go for Ash first and chance losing him.”
I knew what he would do. Despite wanting—needing—to go home, he would go after them. Regardless of the fact that the end of our mission was within reach, that we could grab Dylan right this very moment and skip him back to our world to pay for his crimes, Cade would go after Ash and Ava first because it was the right thing to do. That wasn’t me and he knew it—hence the choice. The old me would have put our world—our family—first. He would have skipped home and left the rest of the multiverse to deal with itself. After things were settled, then maybe he would have gone looking for Ash.
If she hadn’t been involved, the choice would have been easy. Cut and dry and never thought about again. I would have grabbed Dylan around the throat, locked arms with Kori and Cade, and skipped my ass home where I belonged. Or maybe I wouldn’t have. Ash might not have changed me. Like I’d said to her, I was who I was and that was it. But she’d had an effect on me. And that effect included feelings I couldn’t walk away from.
“Everybody grab hands.” I grabbed Cade’s arm, woke his chip and jabbed a finger against Ash’s PATH line.
A moment later, the clearing was gone, replaced by a different grassy field that sat close to the edge of a cliff. Aside from the addition to the cliff, the scenery was mostly the same. Some of the foliage was different and there were rocks and bushes in other places. There was one major difference from the last world, though. Two, actually.
Ash—and Cora.
“Don’t!” she screamed as the others began to appear. Cora’s eyes were wild as she stood beside Yancy who had Ash by the throat. On the ground a few feet from them, Ava lay still. She was alive, though. I could see the steady rise and fall of her chest. “I’ll have him toss the little bitch right over the side.”
“No one’s moving,” I said in as even a tone as I could muster. Every impulse in my body was screaming at me to jump forward and rip them apart. But it was too risky. They were too close to the edge. I might manage to knock one of them over—but the action could take Ash right along. She needed Ash alive, but never underestimate the actions of a desperate person.
“Let’s work something out, Cora.” Cade was beside me, the others on his other side. He let go of Dylan’s arm and stepped over his still unconscious form. “Tell us what you want.”
She laughed and nodded toward Ava, then pointed to Ash. “I have everything I need at the moment. I’ll take them and be on my merry way. I’ll even let you go.” She glanced at G. “As for him, I can find him any time I want. All my lab rats have trackers. I designed them with a unique frequency—so no matter where they go, I can follow. When I have need of him, I’ll simply drop in and take him.”
“What the hell makes you think we’re going to let you g
o?” G dared to step even closer than Cade and me, fists balled so tight that his entire hand was white.
“Hey.” I growled. All it would take was the wrong flinch and Ash could end up over the edge of the cliff. This idiot had tunnel vision and was only concerned about Ava. “Back the fuck up.”
But G ignored me. He took another step and Cora smiled. “Testing me, are we, puppy?” She laughed even louder and nodded to Yancy who jerked Ash closer to the edge. “Please be my guest. You’re welcome to stay with the other one. Come back willingly and I’ll even let you have a cell all to yourselves. If not, do as Cade says and back away. Remember I have ways to assure your compliance…”
G let out a growl but didn’t come any closer. Whatever methods of coercion Cora had, they must be powerful.
“Just let them go. You have me. You have your damn proof that Omega can work.” Ash had been quiet until now. She’d kept her eyes on mine, scared, but brave despite her situation. Now she stared at her foster mother, gaze defiant. “What is so important that you can’t just let them go? You’ve already taken their memories. What more do they have left to give you?”
“The girl is one of a kind. She had anomalous reactions to Brewster’s serum, forcing us to take additional measures to make it work. Without me she will die. That makes her my property. As for the boy, let’s just say he’s going to be a new frontier for Infinity. I own their lives.”
We were all so engrossed in her ranting speech, that we never saw Dylan move. He’d come to and managed to crawl to where Ava lay. His chip was awake and he had his bound, bloodied hands resting across her face.
Cora must have seen it the same moment we did. She screamed for Yancy and started forward. In her haste—and probably likely due to the wicked size of her heels—her foot caught. Except instead of falling toward Dylan, she fell sideways. Toward the cliff. Toward Ash and Yancy. The momentum had her teetering, and she hovered for an insanely drawn out moment, before slipping over. Yancy dropped Ash and lunged for Cora.