by Cynthia Eden
Maddox was already lunging down the hallway, racing for the stairs that would take him to Lab Four. And to Luna.
***
Luna fell. The gas filled her lungs—a sickly sweet taste and smell that engulfed her world—and she collapsed on the floor, falling far too close to the blond guard’s body. Tears leaked down her cheeks because the gas burned her eyes. She coughed, contorting, hating that she was trapped. She’d tried to force open the door.
But the gas had made her so weak.
Footsteps shuffled toward her. She squinted and saw two people in white uniforms with big, heavy masks over their faces. They grabbed her. Hoisted her up. Put her on the exam table. Straps slid over her body, locking her in place.
The hiss of the gas faded, but the heavy lethargy didn’t leave her body.
“She took enough to kill an elephant.” That voice—Henry?
And she could see his face behind the clear mask he wore.
“The guards are dead,” a woman responded. She stood just beside Henry, and she was reaching for the exam tray with her gloved hand. Like Henry, a mask covered her face. A gas mask of some sort? Had to be.
“Occupational hazard.” He didn’t seem concerned. “Their families will be compensated.” He leaned toward Luna. “You should have just gotten on the table. It would have made this so much easier. Everything was going to be painless for you.”
She tried to shake her head.
“Thought if I told you that story about Maddox’s obsession, you’d cooperate more. Didn’t work out so well, did it?”
Luna couldn’t speak.
Henry sighed. The sound carried through the mask. “So much for that plan. But at least we won’t be disturbed any longer. I’ve shut off the security feed while I complete this procedure. Don’t want any record of what’s happening here.”
He didn’t want a record of killing her?
“Here’s the scalpel, Dr.—” The woman’s words ended in a gurgle.
Luna didn’t understand what had happened, but she heard the soft thud as the woman’s body hit the floor.
Henry whirled around. “What in the hell? You’re dead!”
“No,” a low voice told him. “But you are…”
And then Luna saw Henry’s body jerk. Once, twice. He slammed back into the exam table, hitting her, and blood bloomed on his chest. He stared at her a moment, his eyes wide and shocked, before his head slowly turned to the left. He stared at his attacker. “Y-you…”
Another shot. The bullet never made a sound as it fired, but she saw the hole that appeared right in the middle of Henry’s mask. A shot had been fired straight to his head.
Henry fell and crashed onto the floor.
Luna’s head was clearing now that the gas had stopped filling the room. She realized Henry and the woman were dead. And…
“I can’t believe you shot me.”
It was the guard. The blond guard she’d shot with the tranq. He edged toward her. Stared down at her with a glittering gaze. “I’m the fucking one who saved you the first time…and you shot me.”
“Tranq. It was a tranq.” She twisted against the metal straps that held her in place, but there was no give to them.
Sighing, he lifted his hand. He put the gun to her forehead. The gun was equipped with a silencer. “There isn’t a tranq in here.”
She stopped twisting.
“My cover just got blown to hell and back. You realize that, don’t you? I can’t stay here any longer. I’m going to vanish, and you—well, not like I can leave you behind.”
Her breath came faster.
“It was easier getting you out the first time,” he muttered. “You trusted me then. I’d spent weeks building that trust. Getting you to think that I sympathized with the subjects. Now, though, we can’t exactly work on trust, can we?”
He had a gun to her head. Trust wasn’t an option, no.
“It will be easier for me to transport you if you aren’t fighting me.”
Transport her? “Why?”
He blinked. Leaned in closer. “Oh, right. You don’t remember any of that, do you? Must really suck to be you. Never knowing who you can trust. Never knowing if you’re with a good guy or the freaking villain.” He put his index finger to his lips. His blue eyes were ice cold. “Here’s a tip. I’m one of the villains.”
She strained against the straps.
“Not that you’ll remember that later.”
“You’re…Lazarus.” He had to be, right? He’d survived the gas. He’d recovered so fast from the tranq—
“Yeah, I am. Escaped a facility in Arizona after that bitch burned to the ground and my team left me for dead.” His face hardened. “Then I realized just what a pot of gold I was. The US military thought they were so smart, making us. But why should they be the only ones with super soldiers? I knew I could sell these secrets to the highest bidder.”
Her temples throbbed. There was something…familiar about him.
About what he was saying.
“You’re the weak link. I can get you to believe any freaking story I feed you.” He smiled at her, still with the gun pressed to her head. “And that’s why you and I will be walking away with all of the intel I managed to hack. The rest of the bastards here can burn.”
What?
“Something I learned from the place in Arizona. If the fire is big enough, hot enough, then no one looks for survivors.” His Adam’s apple clicked as he swallowed. “My team sure as shit didn’t look for me. The others left me and never glanced back.”
Maddox had told her there were other Lazarus soldiers out there…
“But you know what my team didn’t understand? I can feel others—the other Lazarus subjects. I can home in on them. I can find them, anywhere. Just like I found you. Just like I found my partner, Sam. I found this whole freaking facility, and now I’m going to tear it down.” He laughed. “Everyone was so focused on you. They didn’t even notice what I was doing in here. Didn’t notice what I stole. Didn’t notice when I planted explosives.” He leaned closer and whispered to her, “But they’ll notice when they’re blown to hell and back.”
“Let me go!”
He moved the gun to her chest. “When you wake up, we’ll be best friends. Hell, maybe we’ll even be lovers.”
She couldn’t get away. “No!” Luna screamed.
“Adam,” he said softly.
Luna felt her heart squeeze.
“That’s my name. But don’t worry, I’ll tell it to you again…when you wake up.”
“Don’t do this,” she cried. “Don’t!”
He pulled a phone out of his pocket. Swiped his fingers over the screen. “Boom, baby, boom.”
What?
“We’ve got only minutes to leave here, and since I don’t want to be fighting you the whole time, you’re going out.” His fingers tightened around the gun.
“Adam, don’t!” Luna cried.
A furrow appeared between his brows. “It’ll only hurt until you die.”
“Get the hell away from her!”
Her breath heaved at that enraged bellow. Maddox?
Adam stiffened. “Who let you out of your cage?”
Her head jerked to the side. Maddox was there, standing just inside the doorway, with Andreas at his back. Maddox gripped a tranq gun in his right hand.
Adam immediately yanked his gun up—and put it next to Luna’s temple once more.
“Who let me out?” Maddox took a slow, stalking step into the lab. “That would be the dead asshole at your feet. Henry wanted me to find the traitor in his group, and I guess I just found him.”
“This isn’t your fight!” Adam screamed. “Get out of here, and I won’t put the bullet in her head.”
“Don’t leave me, Maddox!”
“I…know you.” Maddox’s voice had gone flat and cold.
Adam gave a rough laugh. “Yeah, yeah, you freaking do. I’m the guard who has been at your side for weeks, I’m the—”
�
��He’s Lazarus,” Luna yelled.
The gun shoved harder into her temple.
“Don’t hurt her,” Maddox snarled.
Andreas was right at his side.
“He set the place to blow,” Luna gasped out. “We only have minutes!”
“That’s right.” Adam didn’t look particularly worried. “Time’s running out for us all. So how about you two just walk the hell away? Save your own asses. The humans are all going to die here, so no one will ever know you even exist. You can be free. Consider that my gift to you.”
Maddox didn’t move. “I’m not going without Luna.”
Adam shook his head. “See, I’m afraid that’s a deal breaker. ‘Cause Luna is staying with me. She’s far too valuable to lose.”
Maddox took another step closer. “I know you.”
“Yeah, asshole, we covered that, I’m—”
“Adam Brock. I know you,” Maddox said again. “You’re the sonofabitch who killed me before. You shot me in a seedy motel room. You killed me.”
Adam wasn’t laughing any longer. He also wasn’t making deals. For an instant, Luna could have sworn she smelled his fear.
“Only fair, though,” Maddox added, “because I also killed you. You were fucking bleeding out even as you fired at me.”
“How about I kill you again?” Adam demanded, and he yanked the gun away from Luna’s temple as he focused on Maddox. “Good-bye, you—
Before he could fire, a tranq blasted into Adam. One, two, three. Maddox fired the tranq gun over and over until it just clicked.
Adam swayed, but didn’t go down.
“The tranqs don’t work the same on him!” Luna yelled. “He got right up after I hit him with one. I thought I’d knocked him out, but I think he was just faking, he was—”
Maddox bounded forward. He grabbed Adam’s neck. Snapped it.
Adam fell. Dropped like a stone.
The sound of his breaking bones absolutely chilled Luna. Maddox turned toward her. His face was twisted with rage and something inside of her—
Splintered.
The lab vanished. The table vanished. The dead bodies vanished.
She was outside of a motel room door. Fear beat within her. She had to stop Maddox. Adam was wrong, Adam was so freaking evil and twisted, and she hadn’t seen it. She’d been blind, but the blinders were off. She and Maddox could turn Adam over to the authorities. That was what they would do.
She shoved open the motel room door.
Maddox whirled toward her. He had a bloody knife in his hand. His face was twisted with rage. So much dark rage. And behind him, she could see Adam on the floor. Adam was bleeding, struggling to sit up. Adam was whispering her name, begging for help.
Adam. She knew him. He was her fiancé. And Maddox—
Maddox reached for her just as Luna felt pain burn through her side. She tried to speak, but she couldn’t manage any words. The pain twisted and grew, and her blood pumped out as she fell forward. Maddox grabbed her, holding her tight.
His frantic gaze was the last thing she saw.
“Luna!” His hands were around her shoulders, shaking her.
Luna blinked. The motel room was gone, fading like mist, and the lab was around her once again.
“Baby, shit, what happened to you?”
She pointed to the vents. Her mind was still a little foggy. “Gas…”
Maddox scooped her into his arms. The metal straps had been ripped away. Had he done that? “We’re getting the hell out of here,” Maddox told her. “Right now.” But when he turned for the door, Andreas was blocking it.
Andreas held a tranq gun in his hand.
“I don’t have time for this shit,” Maddox bit off. “I don’t want to kill you.”
Andreas lowered the gun. “What happens when we leave?”
“I don’t know, but I’m fucking ready to find out.”
They all had to leave. Luna coughed and said, “He set explosives…that’s what…what Adam said. I saw him activate them with his phone. We don’t have much time left!” They needed to haul ass. “I can walk,” she told Maddox shoving at his arms. “We need to run, now!”
“We need to evacuate the place.” Maddox lowered her to the floor. “The humans—hell, we can’t let them burn.”
“Jett’s in detention level two.” Andreas whirled for the door. “I’ll get him.”
They had to get out.
They rushed into the hallway. Maddox ran to the right, and he pulled hard on a red fire alarm. A loud blaring filled the facility.
Luna glanced back. What about Adam? Maddox had broken his neck, but that wouldn’t stop a Lazarus soldier. “Maddox—”
And then she felt the explosion. A distant roar that seemed to come from beneath them. The walls trembled.
Screams reached her. Screams that came from the floor below her.
“Jett’s down there!” Andreas yelled.
Maddox grabbed her shoulders. Spun her to face him. “Go upstairs, baby.” His eyes glittered. “Haul ass. Get to safety.”
She grabbed his arm when he would have barrelled away. “Not without you!”
“Jett is on my team. Whatever else he did, he’s mine.” He yanked her close and pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “Get to safety. I’ll be right behind you, I swear.”
“Maddox—”
But he was already gone. He’d raced away with Andreas.
Another explosion rocked the building. This one—this one came from above her. She heard voices rising, falling. Guards rushed by her in the hallway and she tensed, thinking they were going to attack her, but they didn’t even look at her. They were all too intent on living.
She could hear fire crackling.
Bombs had exploded above her, below her. Maddox had headed down below. He’d gone into the fire to get Jett.
And she…she was just supposed to run away?
She heard the faint gasp from far too close by. She spun around, staring back at the lab she’d left behind only moments before.
The gasp came again.
She hurried inside. Stepped over the body of Henry Danwith.
The gasp had come from Adam. As she watched, his body started to jerk and twitch.
He was coming back.
Her gaze flew around, and she saw the weapon he’d had before—the gun with the silencer on the end. It was about five feet away. She lunged for it. Her fingers curled around the weapon just as she felt hard hands grab her shoulders. Luna was yanked back around.
She came face-to-face with Adam. She pointed the weapon right between his eyes.
“I know where all the bombs are.” He licked his lower lip. His pupils were huge. “I can get us out. I’m your only hope.”
“Maddox is downstairs. He’s getting Jett—”
“They’re dead. Both dead.” A rough laugh. “I set the most explosives down there. You need to start at the bottom. Destabilizes everything. Maddox is dead. Fucking dead, he’s gone and he’s—”
Another explosion rocked the building.
And the gun fired.
Chapter Twelve
Maddox had thrown Jett over his shoulder. The flames were all around him, the heat lancing him. He didn’t take a breath because when he did, he just tasted fire. Maddox rushed forward, searching for an exit. The smoke was thick, smothering him. He’d lost sight of Andreas. Didn’t know if any guards were still down there.
Jett was unconscious. Maddox knew that if he didn’t get them the hell out of there, soon, they’d both be dead. The flames would get them, and there would be no rising after that. You couldn’t come back when your body was just ash.
Luna. You need to get out for Luna. If he could survive, then he could see Luna again.
What if she didn’t get out? The fear slid through him as the flames flared higher. He’d told her to go, but what if she hadn’t made it? He’d left her, he’d—
A hand grabbed him, seeming to burst right through the smoke. He looked up and stared into Luna’
s dark eyes. She didn’t speak, probably couldn’t with all of the smoke, but she turned, and, keeping her grip on his arm, she led him through the flames. They barreled into the stairwell, and the heat followed them, the flames crackling and blazing. The smoke rose fast in that stairwell, but Maddox climbed determinedly.
“Fire on the next level.” Luna’s voice. In his head. That meant whatever block Andreas had put in place before was gone. Was Andreas gone, too? The Greek had been right at his side until they’d gotten Jett out of his prison. As soon as they’d broken down the door, and Maddox had grabbed Jett, Andreas had seemed to vanish. Since the guy could cloak himself so well, Maddox had no idea where the bastard had gone.
“Have to go this way,” Luna continued. “Follow me.”
And he did. She took him through a maze of rooms, past fires and smoke. Then they were bursting outside, leaping into the night, as they flew through a broken window. They plummeted down, and he landed easily, with Jett still tossed over his shoulder.
Maddox sucked in a deep breath. He tasted clear air and coughed, shoving the smoke from his lungs.
Chaos reigned around him. Guards in ash-covered uniforms and staff in green scrubs were running and desperately trying to escape the flames.
“There’s an SUV waiting—let’s go,” Luna said, her voice sounding hoarse.
Once more, he followed her. She went straight to a vehicle that had been hidden far away from the flames. They jumped inside, and she grabbed keys from under the seat. Luna slid into the driver’s seat, while Maddox pushed Jett down in the back seat. Then he hurried into the front with her right before Luna sped away from the flames.
“Not that…I’m not grateful…” Maddox coughed again. “But how did you find this ride? How’d you know how to get us out of there?” He’d been lost in the smoke and flames. The scents had been overwhelming, and he hadn’t been able to escape.
Luna’s delicate jaw hardened. “I did what had to be done.”
He wasn’t sure what that meant. “Luna…”
A big, wrought-iron gate waited up ahead. Luna sped up, and the SUV crashed right through it. The guards fired shots at them, but Luna didn’t stop. The SUV’s engine growled as they burst through the gate and raced into the night.