Given: Project Xol

by Amabel Daniels

  GIVEN

  PROJECT XOL

  BOOK SIX

  AMABEL DANIELS

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 Amabel Daniels

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions

  Dedication

  For Dr. Stacy Philpott, the woman who introduced me to the world of scientific research.

  Chapter One

  Cassidy

  Fight or flight.

  I’d done both, dammit. And I was still screwed.

  When the Xol monster had rushed at me, all demonic scowl and too many muscles, I’d resisted. I’d feigned surrender and let him tackle me sideways, and as I’d rolled away, I’d kicked as hard as I could at his jaw. That was all the physical violence I could think of that quickly.

  Then I ran. Away was my only goal, but even with that reaction, I hadn’t improved my odds. He’d caught me again and stuck me with that damn gun.

  I didn’t know how long I’d been out or where I was, but I fumed. Fight and flight, and I was still the prey. If my body’s instincts hadn’t helped save me, I didn’t know what would. That I needed help of some kind was given. Because alone and handcuffed in the cargo space of some kind of moving vehicle, I was out of tricks. And rescuers.

  Luke. I swallowed around a lump in my throat. Luke. He wasn’t here with me. While I missed him, and needed to borrow his strength and let his anger and confidence rub off on me, I was thankful he wasn’t cuffed at my side. I didn’t want to bring the man I loved into this uncertain danger. Whatever I was heading to…

  I squinted my eyes shut tight. Tears weren’t going to do a single thing for me now. It wasn’t easy to ward off the sting and heat behind my lids, though. Just knowing Tami had me and planned something bad spelled disaster. Taking shaky but steady breaths, I fought the rising need to throw up. My arms began to tremble a little as the anxiety blanketed me. Confrontations always wrecked me into a nervous mess, but I just couldn’t afford it.

  Be strong. Just…don’t give in to it.

  Instead of wishing for Luke’s help, I focused on me. On here. A slight gas smell floated in the air, like I was near an engine. My back and butt were stiff from being slouched against the metal floor and wall for who knew how long. On my arm, I felt the residual sting of the needle where that Xol freak had tranqed me. He hadn’t been gentle about it. The unrelenting drone of humming dominated my senses. I was being transported in something. More than anything, I could ride out the dips and bumps of motion.

  I opened my eyes and sucked in another deep breath. The panic attack faded even more as I scanned my surroundings once more. Viewing the cargo space gave me a better sense of…doing. Freaking out wouldn’t get me anywhere. Scoping out the place and maybe finding an escape or weapon would.

  Metal floor and white-painted metal walls caged in to make a narrow room. I wasn’t captive in too big of a space, and coupled with the motion I felt, I couldn’t gauge if I was in a van, boat, or plane.

  It has to be a plane. We dipped low again. No rut in a road or a smack against a wake. I was on a damn plane. I could be taken anywhere and no one would be able to find me. Fear spiked again but I swallowed hard and concentrated on where I was now.

  I couldn’t spot a door. Or much of anything. At least there was some light to show me my scant options of a plan.

  The more I tried to resist a full-out panic, the more I considered the idea I was lucky to stall here like this, to remember what had happened and guess what might come next. Michael had taunted me, wanting the last beta subspecies vial in exchange for letting me see Rosa. They had her—Tami and those Project Xol scientists had taken my mother.

  How long had they had her?

  Were they hurting her? More torture?

  Where did they find her?

  I was eager to see Rosa after all of her enigmatic messages for help. Of course, I wanted to see her, just not like this.

  Freaking Michael. He just had to come back and get me. When I’d faced off the huge man who’d tried to capture me from the beginning, I knew not to give in to his plans. Rosa wouldn’t want me to surrender. Doing so would be the ultimate failure. She’d trusted me to retrieve Scott’s data and seek out the vial—to prevent Tami from obtaining the resources she needed—and I’d be damned if I let her down.

  Only…I had failed. I couldn’t run fast enough, couldn’t outpower a man who’d been pumped with regenerative DNA and amped up with a hormone frenzy.

  Luke had been holding Michael back from getting the vial. Elena—

  Why didn’t she just smash it? I ground my teeth, my annoyance at that woman rising higher. As soon as she saw the Xol guys show up, why hadn’t she opened that casing and broken that vial? It was what they’d been after all along.

  Well, that vial and me, apparently.

  I felt for her, despite her antagonist attitude, when the other Xol mutant had attacked her. I’d only witnessed it in a blur of action, fleeing myself, but I wasn’t so coldhearted to wish her any pain. Maybe she couldn’t free herself from the attack long enough to destroy the vial in her hand. I’d been at the mercy of Xol freaks attacking me to know they were very formidable fighters.

  Do they have it now? I surveyed the space again, wondering if they’d succeeded and had taken the vial from her in the end. If I could find it and finally do the deed of breaking it, that’d be one point for Team No Regenerative Killer Freaks. And if they didn’t have it on this plane, less than forty-eight hours were left before the vial would be useless.

  Maybe Luke and Tramer can stall them? Until the vial is kaput? No. I shook my head. Stalling Xols would be too dangerous for mere mortals like my man and for Tramer as well.

  Tramer. What had happened to him? He was so logical about all of this, surviving and beating whatever came his way. If only we’d heeded his advice, to prioritize destroying the vial. Shame seeped in, my cheeks burning a bit as I remembered how and why we’d stalled dealing with the last vial.

  Perhaps it was juvenile of me to waste time and argue with Elena so stubbornly. Or not. Following my instincts, I’d stood my ground when Elena was difficult. She’d wanted to take charge and kill all the subspecies. I was all for stopping Tami, but until I knew more, and that such deaths were the last option, I wasn’t going to bend to her will. I only wished I’d been firmer, and flat-out told her no. It all happened so fast, hearing what the vial and Scott’s code stood for. It was too big to wrap my head around to make such lasting decisions. I’d needed more time to make sense of it, but regardless of the confusion, I knew I’d do whatever was necessary to stop Tami.

  I snorted a laugh at myself, almost irritated at my weak, nagging hope. That if we destroyed the subspecies, there would be no chance at what Rosa, Scott, and Hendrick had researched long ago. While I was more than aware of the dangers of Project Xol, the fledging optimist in me still hung on to a feeble what-if, clinging to an idea that a real cure for cancer might still be in our grasp.

  I huffed again, shoving that farfetched dream aside.

  At the noise, another came, almost in response to mine.

  Tensing, alarmed at the idea I might not be alone back here after all, I jerked to face the direction from where the sound came.

  A cough. Weak, but there.

  Inhaling as calmly as I could, I craned to see past a stack of duffel bags lining the floor. Large black canvas shapes. Some were fat and stocky and others were long. The linear ones suggested they carried long g
uns, and I bet I was spying the Xols’ ammo and gun stock.

  At the end of the line of bags, something else stood up. Beyond the slight wall of bags was something sticking upright. Covered in white, it almost looked like…

  I narrowed my eyes, straining my eyesight after the grogginess of the sedative and the beating of the panic attack.

  Feet?

  I blinked and nearly toppled to my side, trying to get closer to see. Only, I’d craned too far over and I fell. Instead of something holding me back like I expected of the cuffs at my wrists, there was slack.

  Huh?

  God. How much of an idiot could I be? Trapped in a cargo space on a plane and I hadn’t even tested my cuffs yet? Sure, I couldn’t just waltz out of here, but I loathed that I was so quick to mentally forfeit myself to the fact I was restrained in here.

  Rolling to my knees and hands, I pushed up. A chain was locked to me all right. One end of the links ended at a hook on the wall. I could stand, thankful now at the realization my legs weren’t shackled. I took a few steps from where I’d been sitting and followed the length of the chain. There was enough to allow me quite some distance. I bet this chain was usually used for strapping large objects to the ground.

  Holding the bulk of chain—surprisingly lightweight in my hands—I slowly approached whatever lay beyond the line of bags. I panted, getting more worked up by the second as I came closer.

  They were feet. I followed the lines of legs, thick, muscular calves and thighs outlined under the sheet. A beast of a man. I continued coming closer. A calmly rising and falling wide chest. Even his pecs were visible through the contours of the fabric. Broad shoulders…

  I crept the last few inches toward him and couldn’t hold in a gasp.

  He opened his eyes and glowered at me. Nothing else. Lying there still as a statue, he seemed to be made of stone, only able to open his eyes. The furious intensity of hatred there chilled me.

  “Are you kidding me?” I muttered it to myself as I stepped back.

  There was no way… I swallowed hard and reared back again. No way? Hardly. Tami had defied the rules of reality by creating regenerative mutants. Normally, there would be absolutely no way a human body could be alive after falling out of an airplane.

  “No.” I didn’t want to believe it. Even after witnessing Michael surviving head trauma, gunshots, knife wounds and still leaving, it was just that hard to accept.

  Looking at Ryan on a makeshift gurney had to be a hallucination.

  “Planning to shove me out the door again?” he jeered.

  I flinched at his rough voice. I assumed he was paralyzed here, so still. I began to shake, too many ugly visuals blasting through my mind. How a body would be after impacting the earth. Blood, broken bones, the gore and destruction of a human body.

  He crinkled his eyes in a sneer at my shuddering. “You better be scared. Because I always get my revenge.”

  I stepped back again. This…monster that couldn’t be stopped. It was like diving into cold water, the fact of how scary Tami’s science could be. The longer mutants like Ryan lived on earth, no one would be safe.

  “You and that fucker. Luke?” He let out a grunt of a laugh. “Both of you. You won’t get away with this.”

  I gritted my teeth. Him mentioning Luke’s name was all it took to chase away some of my all-encompassing fear. Luke? No, Ryan wasn’t going to finish things off with my man. Not if I had anything to do with it.

  He coughed again then said, “Once she’s done with you, I’ll have my fun and make him watch.”

  Luke’s not here. Luke is safe. Luke is— I swallowed hard, refusing to let Ryan see how much he was getting to me. Because even if Luke was still in Mexico, I didn’t doubt Project Xol could find him again. Even worse, if I knew Luke as well as I did, there was every chance he was chasing after me.

  “I’ll make him watch as I kill you. Before I finally end him.”

  I couldn’t speak. He seemed to take my silence as surrender because he continued goading me. “As soon as she’s done using you—”

  “What does she want with me?” I cut off his boisterous goals.

  Truly a wicked soul, he let me keep on wondering and worrying as the plane began to descend. He chuckled a weak and ugly sound and said no more.

  Chapter Two

  Luke

  I slammed the van’s gear stick into park.

  It wasn’t enough. I punched the steering wheel. A crack sounded in the dash.

  Heaving out a breath, I hung my head. Defeat. So this was what it felt like.

  I lost her.

  The van engine idled low and I feared the vehicle would stall.

  If it did, what did would it matter? I’d lost Cassidy.

  As soon as I saw that Xol mutant taking her onto the ATV, I gave chase. He’d been too elusive, weaving that ATV through the woodline, easily wedging between trees. Running would have gotten me nowhere, so I’d jumped in the van. This fat, clunky, outdated van that couldn’t keep up with the slimmer vehicle designed for off-roading.

  Once I’d heard the thumping of helicopter blades, I knew it was over. I’d driven as hard and fast as I could in the direction that asshole had taken her, but I was too slow, too late. A chopper rose above the tree canopy and that sealed it.

  Project Xol had taken her.

  I failed her. That gorgeous, gold-hearted, sassy spitfire who’d chosen me, who’d wanted me. I’d only just come to respect and accept that she had my heart, that I loved her. And now she was gone. Just like that, taken.

  “Dammit!” I roared at the still forest surrounding me.

  Birds flittered off their perches on trees and I closed my eyes tight. The depth of my agony threatened tunnel vision, replaying the image of her being carried away like a limp burden. I couldn’t. I couldn’t accept this. I—

  No whining. No wallowing. I gritted my teeth and fisted a tight grip on the steering wheel. All right. It was useless to complain. I’d been in shitty conditions before and I was still standing. My life had never mattered, lacking meaning until I met Cassidy. But now that she was my reason to fight, I would.

  Tramer’s advice from the cartel’s compound sounded again.

  Don’t think. Don’t dwell. Just go.

  I had to move. Even if they had a head start, flying through the air to God knew where, I wasn’t giving up.

  Move it.

  I unclenched my hands and retightened a looser hold on the wheel. Move where, though? How?

  Tramer. I was too used to going through life solo or looking out for others. It was hard to remember I had an ally in this. The Special Forces retiree had taken off through the woods, after the Xol who’d been holding that vial case.

  It killed me to turn away from the direction where Cassidy had been taken, but unless I could sprout wings and fly, staring after the woods would make me nothing but a lovesick moron. If I loved Cassidy as much as I thought I did, then I’d help her. And backtracking to seek Tramer’s aid was the only productive thing I could do.

  I reversed and headed back toward the nature refuge Elena had brought us to. It looked just the same, even though so much violence had just occurred out back. I drove past the structure, heading the way Tramer had gone on foot.

  On foot. I shook my head, admiring the tenacity that man had. He’d been stabbed in the damn foot but he’d been confident enough to pursue a regenerative mutant. It had to be confidence, and not stupidity, that drove Tramer to action. He was too wise to react irrationally.

  I couldn’t get far in the woods. There was hardly a path to begin with. After the vehicle slammed down following a rut—or maybe it was a fallen tree—a loud cranking noise accompanied me.

  “I’m getting nowhere.” Just like my pursuit after the Xol who’d taken Cassidy on the ATV, my mode of transportation was holding me back. This van wasn’t cut for curving journeys through the woods. It didn’t seem like it was cut for holding out much longer, period. If I killed this van, I’d be stuck to my own t
wo feet. Preserving my resources out here was crucial.

  Even if I was alone in finding Cassidy—

  Alone at finding someone? When had I ever been alone since I met Cassidy? We’d had constant help at searching people.

  Zero.

  He’d been helping us from the beginning. Looking for Rosa, Hendrick, and intel on people in my and Cassidy’s past. He sure as hell better have a location for Tami by now. I could call him. Cassidy’s backpack had been lost in the scuffle behind Elena’s refuge.

  Elena. She had to be dead by now. I’d left Michael back there as well. I hated the vulnerability of turning my back on my enemy, but going after Cassidy had been first.

  After what felt like fifty turns, I finally backed out of the tight spot I’d trapped the van in. I returned to the refuge. Gun at the ready, I ran back toward the water.

  No one. Nothing. Not a soul was in sight.

  I rubbed at my face, scoping the area for anyone who might be hiding.

  I was alone. Elena had been lying just over there, gasping and bleeding from a knife to the chest. She’d implored me to get the vial. As if I’d ever put Cassidy as a lower priority,

  The Xol that had attacked Tramer—he’d been down and seemingly dead. His body no longer lay on the grass.

  Michael… I stared at the spot where he’d fallen. I’d tranqed him and he’d gone down immediately. I hadn’t expected that reaction, but he must have been toting something uniquely potent that it could bring his regenerative ass down. He wasn’t there.

  Most importantly, Cassidy’s backpack was absent too.

  “Now what?” I returned to the van. Lingering out here wouldn’t do anything.

  As I shoved into the driver’s seat, hope soared. My heart raced faster at the sight of a phone plugged into the charger. I wasn’t out of luck just yet.

  Rubbing at a sore spot on my ribs where Michael had beat me, I sighed and dialed. It was Tramer’s phone. No matter. It was a burner that could lead me to Zero.