“Remember. Everyone is going to be okay. I know we haven’t finished our training, but if all goes according to plan, then we catch the bad guy, save the world, and continue our pursuit of the Hero Society.” His hands went to my cheeks, making me look into his eyes. Willing me to truly believe him.
“We’ll be okay,” I agreed. I had to, any other thoughts were unbearable.
The forty-five-minute break we had before my cell phone rang signaling Phillip’s arrival with the SUV came too quickly.
“Ready?” Draco asked while holding his empty hand out for mine.
“Ready,” I confirmed and pressed confidence into him so he could see I was that. We had to do this, for all humans. Both gifted and not.
The drive through the area of Seahill where the warehouse was located did not help my nerves. We were heading into a section that for some reason kept resisting change. Crime, drugs, and other malicious acts happened here. Most cops didn’t even take calls in this area.
Malware town.
It was a nickname given simply because the habitants always tried to spoil the good in the city. Like a computer system, malware disabled and damaged the software.
Of course our bad guy would have his operation happening here. No one would think differently if he was up to suspicious experiments.
We came to a stop beside a gas station, where Phillip ran over the plan one more time. AJ sat in his seat with his laptop and a few other gadgets ready to do his bidding.
This all felt so methodical, and if life had taught me anything it is that surprises wouldn’t be surprises if you expected them. Which only made me feel more nervous than I was letting everyone know.
“I’ll see you soon.” Draco turned toward me and pressed his lips to mine. He kissed me with an edge that was not normally between us. I wanted to keep him here, exchanging breaths with me, and not let him go. I just couldn’t get that damn feeling to go away no matter how hard I tried.
“For the longest time I’d felt my immortality was a curse, but now I feel it as the blessing it was always meant to be. Had I died years ago I would have never met you. I love you, Rose, I won’t let anything stop me from living out any time I have with you,” he told me with his forehead against mine. I felt like crying, and I wished so hard that I could keep myself together for him.
“I’ll see you soon, Draco. Go finish this so we can go back to my apartment and celebrate,” I told him with as much bravado as I could muster. I knew he saw through it, but ultimately he couldn’t die so he would make it back to me one way or another. He gripped his bag and opened the door to get out.
As he walked the path he was told to go, I wished I was there with him. As a team instead of his one-man job right now. When his form was no longer in sight I confessed my thoughts to Phillip.
“I hate just sitting here while he goes and does all this by himself.”
“It’s just the scouting and putting the weapons into place. You and I will be going in as soon as he says we are good,” he told me with confidence. So I watched for Draco to come back into view for thirty minutes and still there was no sight of him.
Once an hour had passed I started becoming antsy.
“He should have been back by now,” I commented and AJ had his headphones on, listening for something. I hadn’t been paying attention to him as he typed away on his laptop.
“It’s all gonna be okay, Rose. Draco knows what he’s doing.” Phillip was staring off into the city to his left. If I had been anyone but his sister, I would have missed his subtle change in tone. Something was not right. He was playing a game and his words were meant for me and himself. He was trying to believe in his choice for a particular future.
“Phillip,” I said his name with force. When he didn’t turn his head to look at me I knew my suspicions were right.
“Where is he?” I bit out, furious that I had been played by not only my brother, but by Draco as well.
“He’s going after Emanuel.” He paused and my breath stilled. I knew his next word before he said it, and I felt a piece of me break.
“Alone.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Draco
I was three miles away from where I’d left them sitting in the SUV, and that distance felt like an ocean in my head. I was too far from where I wanted to be, which was with Rose by my side, but this was the only way she’d be safe.
The whole entire time I had walked toward the true warehouse where I’d find Emanuel, I’d thought over everything Phillip had told me in the halls of her apartment building.
Rose with her powers stolen, lying there in my arms, lifeless. Too high a chance of multiple futures like that in his head. Both of us agreed that we had to protect her. She needed to be as far away from any action as she could be. AJ had been watching me with every security system I passed by and once I made it to the building, he would get me in.
Phillip had given me the information I needed and the rest was up to me. It was time to face what my absence had created.
The warehouse was quiet as I crept around the building’s walls. Strapping the bag to my back, I found my way up the side of the building, and climbed toward the windows in the roof. I needed to get a good look at my soon-to-be war zone before going in.
“Subject J was a failure, and you can’t give me an explanation as to how my best and most powerful recruit couldn’t sustain the gene.” Emanuel was standing by a man in a white coat who was looking into a microscope.
“There seems to be the same link that is missing in all the others. Without that link between the gene and the host each subject with burn up. I’ve been trying to create a synthetic link but nothing has worked yet.” The man in the coat sounded exhausted.
“Well, keep trying.”
Emanuel didn’t say anything else. His frustration was obvious. He walked into a room in the left corner of the building and slammed the door behind him.
I looked around the rest of the room and saw six men and one woman were laying on their own personal gurney, strapped up to all sorts of tubes, with a dripper feeding them god-knows-what.
The room held a few guards, and despite looking fairly easy to get in, I knew that most likely wouldn’t be the case.
Scaling back down to the ground was the easy part after that. Now was the fun part, and I prayed I was not as out of practice as I thought I was. I placed a small explosive that had a remote trigger on the opposite side where I would enter. Then walked back to my entrance.
As I neared a door to the right of the truck garage doors, I heard a camera behind me move. I knew it was AJ and when the click of the door locks gave me my entrance I sent him a thank you hand gesture before entering the building.
No one was inside this particular area, but I heard someone talking nearby. I’d try to get by without any casualties but Phillip had already warned me that no one in here would hesitate to shoot me where I stood. I knew that anyway. Men that wanted power never thought twice about their actions, which was usually their downfall.
I set my bag inside what appeared to be an old janitor’s closet and crouched low to look around the opened hallway that would lead to the main space that held the science experiments.
Two men stood to my right, one was across the way, and four more were walking around in a casual manner but I knew better. They were ready to shoot in a second. All trained men it seemed.
I knew my best route, and now all I needed was my distraction to work. I pressed the little button remote in my pocket and not even thirty seconds later a small explosion sounded throughout the building coming from the side I placed it on.
All the men ran towards the explosion, which was perfect for me. The man in the white coat looked frantic and went about putting items into a thick medical transporting case. He was preparing to run.
The people on the gurneys didn’t flinch, which surprised me.
Emanuel’s door opened and he started calling out for the men to figure it out then get back to their posts.
“This doesn’t change anything. Keep looking through the samples I gave you.” He pointed at the doctor and left no room for discussion. Knowing I wasn’t going to get a better shot than this, I grabbed my rifle and aimed for Emanuel. He was not a man that could be reasoned with, and after all the deaths that lay on his hands, I had no feeling of remorse when I pulled the trigger.
His head turned toward the sound of the bullet firing, looking me in the eye right before he leapt into the air and bright butterfly wings slipped out from his back. Now he was completely airborne.
Josie’s wings.
I started shooting at him with everything I had until there were no more bullets.
“You just won’t die,” he complained, more like I was a nuisance to him than anything.
“Old habit of mine,” I said as I grasped one of the handguns from my back. The guards started funneling back into the room. I had to move otherwise I would be a sitting duck, so I fired off as I ran, giving myself cover and gaining distance to my target who was watching me with absolute focus.
“Cease fire,” Emanuel called out and instantly the shots stopped. I hid behind an old desk, and caught my breath.
“I’m curious enough to hear how it is you figured it out. Enlighten me, oh man of eternal swords.”
My whole body froze hearing his last words. That was a name that followed me throughout the dark ages, and even now was only a story of old. Told in fairytales.
He was guessing at my identity, and he was right, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Sounds like a name for a man who’s compensating for something,” I called out and earned a chuckle from him.
“It was that little flower, wasn’t it?”
Even the mention of Rose from his mouth made my blood boil.
“I could tell she was reading me, but it must have been deeper than I had expected. She is a powerful woman for sure,” he pondered and I wanted nothing more than to shoot him in the head right now. Why wait? I twisted around and fired a shot off toward where his voice was coming from. I heard it ricochet off the metal behind him, letting me know it missed its target.
“Touchy. I see she has something else that’s very powerful as well. I could smell that particular gift on her while you were in the booth next to me. So pure.” He purred his words and I took a few breaths to calm myself. He was trying to rile me up. I wouldn’t let him succeed again.
“Give up, Emanuel. Time to bury your power society. Surrender now.” It was the best I could do.
“Seems like I’m not the only one who has been listening to fairytales. Raven is the name. Emanuel is gone.” His wings spread wide before flapping him into the air higher then he dove toward me. Just as he reached the desk he closed them off and his arms stretched to reach around the desk, ensnaring me in his grasp like a boa constrictor.
I had no clue as to what all powers he had stored in there but I’d come face to face with them all in my time and knew how to fight each.
I gripped the knife that was stored inside my boot and stabbed his arms together. He tried to pull them back but they were both connected via the blade. He struggled, and finally I drew the knife out. His arms withdrew immediately and I jumped over the desk, moving close to him.
“Fire now, your imbeciles!” Emanuel screamed and the shots began. He saw me closing in and took off into the air.
Out of my reach. I looked around briefly to figure out what I should do next but ran out of time when a guard caught up to me. Spearing me to the ground. He tried getting me with his own knife but was too slow. A head-butt to his skull and a kick to the stomach had him off me in seconds. As I got up to move away from him, that knife of his sliced into my calf. I groaned in pain but grabbed the handgun from my back holster and shot him twice in the chest. One down.
The knife was painful to pull out of my leg, but the silver lining was now I had another weapon. I held it in my left hand and my gun in my right. Emanuel had retreated, and was throwing directions to the doctor who had stared at me with wide eyes to get the subjects active. He was jolted into doing as he was told, and I was running out of time. Once those seven subjects were up, I would be outnumbered. Nothing like I hadn’t dealt with before but there were too many variables I didn’t know. Like what their stolen powers were.
I needed to get to Emanuel now. Time for play was over. One after another I shot the guards as they came into my view.
“Get them active now!” Emanuel shouted and the doctor hit a final button, then each of the gurneys started beeping. Shit.
This was a moment I wished I had a team behind my back, but the thought of Rose being here was too much. Once this was over, we really needed to get on track of getting more people into our society.
I saw the sweat running down Emanuel’s face as he struggled to stay in the air. The power was fighting him. I just needed him to exert more energy and he would lose everything inside his body.
“Wonder what your father would have said if he could see you now,” I called out and his eyes narrowed.
“My father was a coward who abandoned his family. I could care less what he’d think of me.” He ground his teeth in anger. Good, it was working. I started moving closer, hiding behind a wall from the shots that were coming my way.
“Your father was a hero. He left to protect you from his powers, and went on saving lives for years until it finally overtook him.” I took his silence as a chance to move. I sprinted out from behind the wall and jumped onto a desk as my stepping block to leap into the air. Wrapping my arms around his wings, so we both fell to the ground in a loud thump.
“So the stories are true then. You are the immortal one,” he said as a statement and I didn’t say anything. His eyes began to glow red and then his whole body erupted in flames. The whole front of my body was burned and my clothes were barely hanging on.
He pushed me back and watched as I slowly started to heal.
“You will not win this one.” His voice changed, sounding more menacing. My skin was tight, and I knew I had to keep moving to help everything feel loose. I stood and shook my limbs out like one would before a fight.
His flaming arm stretched out, and I dodged its grasp, but missed the other that once again wrapped around me like a snake.
“Let him go.”
Please let me be hallucinating that voice.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Rose
Once we got out of this, I was going to try my hardest to influence him to sit right in Seahill square with all the people walking around for hours. Draco would hate it and I would only feel slightly better.
Phillip told me everything in the car, and against his wishes I left to help Draco. We were a team.
Of course Phillip had followed me; big brother was not letting me go into a fray without him.
AJ was around too, doing his computer thing.
It hadn’t been easy getting into this big room where everything was happening, AJ had to bypass some security measures, and Phillip shot a few men. My gun had been raised the whole time, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to shoot anyone. I got the feeling from Phillip that he was protecting me from the pain of killing someone. It wasn’t one I wanted, ultimately. But I would if I had to.
Draco had been wrapped up inside Emanuel’s stretchy arm that was on fire when we entered the room. I felt like my insides had dropped to the floor seeing his burned skin, and pain filled face. He couldn’t die, but he could still suffer.
“Let him go!” I bellowed. Phillip had given me some insight on how to get to Draco, and this was all part of the plan.
“Well, well, little flower has a strong stem.” Emanuel chuckled. His flame intensified, engulfing Draco’s entire midsection. Making me sprint for my next move. Phillip was moving around the edges of the room unseen while I distracted the rest. The few guards that remained watched me like they didn’t know whether to shoot me or let me go.
The doctor was staring at me with his hands on a case protecti
vely. I only had about thirty seconds to do what I needed and I prayed it worked.
The final beeping on the gurneys screeched then, all at once, seven people sat up like the undead. I made it to the man in the middle of them and reached his arm.
“Shoot her!” Emanuel screamed, but his mistake was already made. He and his guards had underestimated me.
I pushed my power into the man who, according to Phillip, had the power of telekinesis. He could control objects with his mind. Including the bullets that were coming my way. I willed him to want to protect me. His hand that was covered in tattoos lifted and the bullets went back the direction they came. All the guards fell to the ground.
“Rapture t24,” Emanuel growled and the other subjects looked right at me.
“Time to move, big guy,” I told my new best friend and he stood while holding my hand. I didn’t know how long this would last. Even Phillip couldn’t give me an answer but I hoped it would be long enough to get Draco.
The man that had been sitting next to my tattooed one was tall and lean. His blue hair spiked up and I swore I could see electricity moving along the points.
His eyes began to glow yellow and then he shot lightening out of his fingers. Reflexively my man moved an old desk in the path of the current. It worked but then another one of them took action, coming at us with a chair in her hands. Maybe her powers hadn’t kicked in yet. They were test subjects after all. With a quick flick of his wrist my man knocked her back with his invisible force.
“Enough of this.” I heard Emanuel curse, and before I knew what he was doing he’d dropped Draco to the ground and tossed my bodyguard out of the way. His flames were gone, and he’d had a normal-sized hand wrapped around my throat. It hurt, and burned at the same time.
“You’re more of a problem than I gave you credit for. But since you’ve graced us with your presence, you can help me with something.” He smiled mischievously, and I tried to push my power into him but it wasn’t working. I gasped out from the lack of air, my limbs started to move frantically. Desperate to hit him anywhere I could.
Dawn (Hero Society Book 1) Page 14