by C. R. Pugh
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41
Thorne
The smoke was beginning to lift. I could see the sky and the tops of the sequoias, but my body wouldn’t respond to my mind’s commands. How long would it take for the sedative to leave my system?
Though I was almost fully paralyzed, I could still detect some movement nearby. The sickening sounds of men and women screaming filled my ears. Was it my Warriors being slaughtered as they lay immobile? I pinched my eyes shut and gritted my teeth as I willed my body to move. My index finger twitched a bit and then my hand lifted unsteadily off the ground. The sedative was wearing off.
It won’t wear off soon enough. Where were Pierce and Tallon? What about Archer and Brock? Were the other Warriors safe?
A dark form came into view, blocking out the light from overhead. I could see it was a man by his size and broad shoulders. He was masked and carried a rifle in his hands.
That’s how they’re resisting the drugs, I thought.
I groaned and willed my heavy body to move. Using all of my strength, I was able to lift my shoulder an inch off the dirt, but the rest of my body was useless. The man drew his rifle up to his shoulder pocket and took aim at my forehead. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even close my eyes.
A gust of air blew down into my face. My eyes watered, temporarily blurring my vision, and a high-pitched screech echoed in my ears. The soldier’s head jerked up as a Night Howler sunk its claws into his shoulders. Blood splattered my face and chest as the soldier was snatched away from me, out of my line of sight.
I let out the breath I’d been holding. Never, in all my days, had I been grateful for those terrible beasts. A Night Howler had saved my life. I needed to move soon. The beast might come back. The only reason it took the soldier and not me was because he’d been standing up - a more visible target.
Moaning through my unmoving lips, I found myself able to blink my eyelids. Every muscle in my body felt as if sharp needles were stabbing into them. My senses were slowly returning. I strained against the sedative, turning my head to the right. My rifle was lying a foot away. So close and yet so far. I dug my barely-moving fingers into the dirt and dragged my hand and arm toward my weapon. Soon my fingers were able to close around the barrel.
The ground trembled beneath me, a low rumble like an earthquake. It almost sounded like … but that was impossible.
No time to wonder who or what it could be. I pulled my rifle to my body and somehow managed to roll over onto my belly with it. I had to get up. My Warriors needed me. What was happening to them?
I lifted my head to survey the carnage.
The smoke had drifted more toward Pierce and me, to the south of the compound, leaving Brock’s contingent of Warriors free to take action. To my right, Brock was hunkered behind a stone, targeting soldiers with his rifle. Owen and Edra fought back to back. Owen’s shoulder and thigh both bled from wounds as he slashed and stabbed with his daggers. Edra wielded her sword with precision, though she suffered from a gunshot wound to her upper arm. Other Warriors were shooting from behind the trees.
The Night Howlers were attacking soldiers and Warriors at random, though more of my fighters were managing to avoid their claws. When the cries of the beasts sounded, my army did their best to take cover in the brush or trees. Wolfe’s men just stood stunned, easy prey for the harpies.
Max had led his contingent of Warriors into the fray when he realized we were incapacitated. None of them had been affected by the smoke, so they’d spread themselves out around the eastern side of the compound, protecting the Warriors I’d left behind.
“Thorne!” Tallon screamed.
My sister was exactly where I’d left her, a hundred feet to my right. She grabbed her bow and jumped up to come after me, but Archer gripped her arms and held her back. Tallon and Archer had snapped out of their daze faster than I had. Archer had tried to warn me. He’d seen the smoke was drifting west, away from us. If I’d only stayed with them, I wouldn’t be thrashing around here in the dirt.
Archer began throwing his explosive devices into the mix of soldiers and Howlers. The screaming I’d heard earlier was not my Warriors, as I had feared. Wolfe’s army was being torn to shreds by the claws and beaks of the beasts. Once Archer’s bombs began to detonate, Wolfe’s men and the flying harpies were all screaming.
There were only three Howlers circling the clearing by the compound, but they were everywhere all at once, keeping the soldiers in a state of panic. Another harpy screeched and dove, plowing through the throng of soldiers with its wings spread wide. Gunshots blasted into the air and through the trees, very few of them actually hitting their winged target. The beast eventually made a grab for one of the soldiers, ripping him up from the ground and sending him crashing into the forest. At least ten soldiers lay on the ground, their bodies contorted into unnatural positions.
I turned to my left to see what had happened to Pierce. The smoke had hit his group hardest. None of them were moving yet.
“Pierce.” My voice came out strangled and weak – my vocal cords coming back to life.
My legs trembled as I dragged myself to my feet and stumbled through the brush toward my brother. The rifle I carried hung precariously in my grip, my fingers still somewhat numb and tingling.
“Pierce!” I tried to shout again. This time my voice carried a bit farther. Pierce didn’t show he’d heard it, but a few soldiers did. A taller soldier with dark hair and a mask over his bearded face began giving orders to his unit. Once he’d finished his quick gestures, six of them turned their rifles toward me and seven or eight turned to sprint toward my brother.
My stomach clenched in fear and I pushed my unsteady legs faster. Bullets sprayed through the trees as I ran, one of them grazing my shoulder blade and another the back of my thigh. Only my adrenaline and the lack of feeling in my limbs kept me on my feet. Veering through the trees, I stopped every few steps to return fire on the soldiers converging on me. A masked female with short blonde hair took a bullet in the shoulder. Her body spun on impact and hit the ground with a thud. Blood streaked across a blonde man’s scalp when one of my bullets grazed his temple. Once the other soldiers pulled back to hide behind the trees, I started running again. I tripped over brambles and I staggered hard into tree trunks as I passed them.
I was fifty feet from Pierce, but the soldiers advancing on him were getting closer. None of them had been weakened by the smoke.
Pierce, Tameron, Dustine, Kort, Ilsa, and Farren sat slumped against the trees, their weapons lying idle at their sides. Pierce and Tameron were starting to move their fingers. Dustine’s shoulder jerked forward in an attempt to move her upper body, but she merely toppled over into the grass.
Coming to a stop, I leaned against a pine tree for support and shot a few rounds at the soldiers. Only one of them went down with a gunshot wound to the thigh. The rest had ducked or hid behind the trees.
And I was running again. Three more shots were fired at me from behind, one tearing straight through the skin of my hip. I covered the bloody gash with my hand and roared. It felt like a hot poker had been shoved into my leg.
Slamming my back into the nearest tree, I turned and honed in on the soldiers chasing me. I squeezed out round after round until I heard the click of an empty magazine. I tossed the rifle down and drew my pistols. Gritting my teeth together, I spun away and kept pushing through the trees toward my brother and friends.
The rumbling of the ground was growing louder. I knew that sound well. It was horses – a lot of them – galloping hard in this direction.
My knee finally buckled thirty feet from my brother and his Warriors. Pierce’s head lolled to the side and found me struggling to get to him on my hands and knees.
“Pierce!”
My brother slowly reached for the pistol at his waist, but he was too drugged. The eight masked soldiers swaggered toward my brother and his group of fighters, knowing they were all too unsteady to put up a fight.
Clenching my jaw, I grabbed the tree next to me and hauled myself up to my feet. My shoulder and leg burned from my wounds. I leaned against the trunk, taking my weight off my injured hip, and shot at the soldiers standing over my brother. A smaller man with red hair took a hit to the chest and fell to the ground.
“Thorne!” Archer shouted behind me. “Watch your back!”
I turned in time to see ten more soldiers targeting me. I fired back.
Where are all these soldiers coming from? Once one went down, three more seemed to spring up in his place.
Archer darted out from behind a sequoia and lobbed one of his devices toward my assailants. I took down two more of the soldiers and took cover. The soldiers were blown backward by the force of the blast. Smoke filled the immediate area, and rocks, dirt, and other bits of debris showered the ground around me. I turned to give Archer a quick nod of thanks when his back bowed and he cried out in anguish.
“Archer!” I shouted. The blood drained from my face as three more bullets tore through my friend’s torso. Archer’s body went slack and dropped to the ground beneath the brush. Knowing there was nothing I could do for him, I choked back a strangled sob and turned away.
The eight soldiers had surrounded Pierce and his Warriors. The soldier with the dark beard drew his pistol and shot Kort between the eyes, execution style.
He turned his aim to his next victim – Aaron’s younger brother, Tameron.
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42
Ravyn
“Turn around,” Wolfe snarled from behind me. “Slowly.”
I stared at the fridge full of pink serum – rows and rows of the glistening test tubes. My fingers tightened on my pistols.
I have to destroy them.
“I would reconsider that course,” Wolfe said, arrogance dripping from his words. “If you want your sister to live.”
Camellia?
Every muscle in my body tightened and my stomach clenched. I’d gotten her away from Wolfe’s soldiers. She wasn’t here. I glanced over my shoulder at Wolfe. He wore his uniform, one similar to that of the soldiers, except it was black. Wolfe’s gray eyes pierced me with a confident look and his hands were clasped behind his back. His shoulders were pulled back, his chest puffed out.
“You’re lying,” I hissed.
The corner of Wolfe’s mouth lifted into a patronizing smirk. “It didn’t happen the way I’d planned. She was supposed to lure you here.” He chuckled. Never taking his eyes off me, he raised his voice and ordered, “Bring her in.”
Wolfe sidestepped to allow two soldiers into the room. They gripped Camellia’s arms, dragging her into the room. The soldiers had their own pistols aimed at Camellia’s temples – one on each side. Her blonde hair was coming undone from her long braid and tears streamed down her face. My sister whimpered as they came to a halt inside the door and she made eye-contact with me. Wolfe hadn’t been bluffing, but how was this possible? How did she get here?
“Camellia,” I said, my words thick with despair.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Now place those guns on the table in front of you,” Wolfe commanded.
I swallowed and glanced back and forth between Wolfe and the soldiers, calculating my odds.
“I can see you trying to come up with some heroic act, but these men have been ordered to shoot her if you so much as raise your gun to me.” Wolfe’s lip curled. “And you and I both know they will take my orders until their last breath.”
Clenching my jaw, I lowered my pistols. There was nothing else I could do. I would never sacrifice her and Wolfe knew it.
But did he know of the gift Camellia possessed? He mustn’t or he would have had her hands bound to keep her from touching him or his soldiers. And why had Camellia allowed these two minions to drag her down here without using her power? If she was as powerful as I imagined then she could bring those two men down in seconds with a touch.
I recalled Kaelem once telling me, Your sister is clever, just as you are, and probably more like you than she’s been allowed to show.
No. Surely she hadn’t let herself be captured to try and help me? Had she mustered those tears to make herself appear weak? I narrowed my eyes at my sister and nearly swore when I saw her wink at me through the tendrils of hair partially covering her face.
“Set your pistols down on the table,” Wolfe sneered, a vicious gleam in his eyes.
Keeping my eyes on my sister, I slowly stepped toward the table and placed the guns on the slick surface.
“Good girl. Now step away.”
My eyes still on Camellia, I took a tentative step back. Four more soldiers, all strapping young men, filed into laboratory and marched directly toward me. My fingers twitched, aching to reach for my pistols, but the two soldiers holding Camellia pressed the barrels of their guns against her skin. Camellia gasped and closed her eyes. That fear was real.
The four soldiers converged on me and grasped my arms in a painful hold. Their guns were holstered at their waists. Wolfe didn’t want me shot. He needed me. He needed my blood. He would have these four men pick me up and carry me back down to my holding cell, threatening Camellia along the way if he needed to. I knew it wasn’t a bluff. He would torture her to keep me in line.
Wolfe began to chuckle. “Do you finally understand? You will never escape me.” Wolfe began to pace back and forth in front of the doorway. “The fighters from Peton you sent are being slaughtered outside. After today, everything will be as it should be.”
I clenched my teeth to keep from crying out. What have I done?
My chin dropped to my chest and my shoulders slumped in defeat. I pinched my eyes shut, but my nightmare was waiting for me behind my eyelids. A vision of Thorne and his Warriors lying dead on the ground around me was all I could see.
I should have let the Sabers kill me when I was a child. Then none of this would be happening.
“The clans will be under my control. It’s inevitable.”
I’m so sorry, Thorne. I did this.
Wolfe stopped his pacing and turned to gaze at me with a covetous gleam in his eyes. “You belong to me, Test Subject One.”
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43
Thorne
The sound of horses thundering through the trees grew louder and louder. They were almost upon us.
The soldier standing twenty feet from me slowly raised his pistol, aiming right for Tameron’s face. The Warriors were beginning to get movement back in their limbs. I could see Tameron struggling to reach for his pistol or dagger. Anything. Pierce and the others were straining to doing the same to stop the man from executing our friend. Our brother.
Time seemed to slow down and my rage gave me a deadly focus. A pistol in each hand, I was running and shooting. The first bullets hit the executioner as he pulled the trigger. The soldier’s body jerked as hot lead tore through his torso and Tameron cried out from a hit to his arm. The soldier’s weapon slipped from his fingers and he crumpled to the ground beside Tameron.
The soldiers were momentarily blindsided by my attack. Another soldier went down with two bullets to the back. They quickly retaliated. I kept prowling forward, like a Saber, with my eyes honed in on my targets and my lips drawn back in a snarl.
I spun, ducking behind a tree for cover, and then darted out again, continuing to fire. Two more of the masked soldiers went down in a hail of bullets. The four soldiers still standing had hidden themselves behind trees to escape. The top of my shoulder burned as a bullet ripped through my flesh. More soldiers surged from the compound, at least thirty, and half were heading toward me. I was going to be overrun.
Just as the thought crossed my mind, twenty riders with crossbows broke through the trees from the east, with Kaelem leading the charge. I leaned against a pine tree and gaped at them. Kaelem had come to our rescue.
The fifteen soldiers charging toward me fired on our allies
from Ahern. Those not killed in the first volley of bolts were trampled beneath the horses’ hooves. Kaelem and his fighters didn’t stop for pleasantries. They galloped on and joined the battle.
My ears were filled with screeches of the Howlers, cracking gunfire, and the screams of men and women dying. It only took about five or six seconds to reload both pistols, and by that time I was standing over Pierce and the other Warriors. I guarded them as they clambered for their weapons, as I had done earlier while the sedative wore off. Thirty minutes may have passed, or maybe a few hours – it was difficult to judge. All I knew was we needed to rejoin the fight closer to the compound.
Across the way, Tallon was using her small size in her favor by sneaking up on soldiers who were distracted by the Howlers. She’d thrust a dagger upward under the ribs or in the back of the neck, then she’d disappear again. Brock was shouting orders to the other Warriors, urging them to regroup and push forward. A Night Howler shrieked and dove into the battle. Its claws clamped down on one of my Warrior’s arms and jerked him away into the woods.
The rifle fire had slowed down significantly. Out of the forty Warriors fighting, maybe twenty-five remained.
Pierce groaned and stood beside me, his legs still a bit shaky as we surveyed the battle taking place around the compound. “You took your time getting here,” Pierce grumbled.
I snorted, still scanning my surroundings for immediate danger. “I got here as quick as I could.”
Over my shoulder, Dustine was crouching over Kort’s body, hand over her mouth.
“There’s nothing we can do for him now,” I stated sadly. Once the fight was over, we would collect the dead and carry them back to Peton for a burial. But not yet.
At least fifty soldiers were still fighting, and even fewer of my Warriors, but Kaelem and his men were depleting their numbers with every draw of a crossbow. I was stunned by how rapidly they loaded each bolt. Most of them dismounted and exchanged their crossbows for blades. The horses whinnied and snorted, galloping away from the skirmish and the Howlers’ threatening presence.