by Sarah Dalton
His mouth opened and closed. “I don’t… but the Resistance… I can’t work with them again. Not after I found out what they were really like. They are animals, Elena. Susannah is anyway, and there are hundreds of Susannah’s in different camps around London.”
“Find a good one.” She stroked his cheek.
They kissed and he pulled her closer to him.
“No,” he said after pulling away. “If I go back to the Resistance they’ll never let me see a GEM. They’ll never have someone back who feels...” He trailed off and stroked her cheek.
Elena grabbed hold of his shirt. “We can meet in secret. We can use the priest from the church. That can be our safe place, a place we can meet and––”
Elena stopped. A car sounded up the street, and one behind them. The doors opened and closed and out streamed Enforcers, each with their guns trained on them both.
“Put your weapons on the ground and get on your knees!” shouted an Enforcer.
Elena looked around her in desperation. They were surrounded. She didn’t know what to do. She took a step forward to explain who she was and that she would give herself up if they let Jake go, when Jake grabbed her and ran towards the garden wall of the nearest house. He threw her down in the flower beds and followed her. Elena heard the sounds of gun fire.
“Stay down,” Jake said. “Don’t put your head above the wall.” He fired a few shots towards the Enforcers. “We need to move.”
“Where are we going to go?” she shouted over the sound of the gunfire. “It’s over Jake.”
He shook his head, refusing to believe her. Holding Elena close he manoeuvred them through the garden towards the house and smashed the front window – it was a large bay window, big enough for them both to fit through. He lifted Elena in first and then climbed into the house. There was the sound of a scream upstairs and a light turned on but Jake just grabbed Elena and ran through to the back of the house, breaking another window to get out.
The Enforcers had second guessed their move and as they jumped out of the window they were running around the corner of the second street. More laser guns went off and Jake fired back. Elena tripped on a loose stone on the drive of the house and fell. Jake stopped to help her up, just as the Enforcers were jogging closer. He had his gun aimed on Jake but Elena tried to push him away, putting herself in the path of the gun. Jake saw she was now the target and threw himself in front of her. The gun went off. Jake fell to the floor. Elena stood by him, her arms and legs completely numb.
“Target disengaged,” the Enforcer said into his Plan-It.
“What? Target disengaged. What does that mean?” She fell to her knees next to Jake and her trembling fingers found his chest. It was wet and sticky and warm and when her hand came away it was covered in something that looked dark red in the moonlight. His eyes fluttered and he rolled slightly onto his back, over her knees. She gathered him up into her arms, her tears spilling into his wound.
“You’re going to be okay,” she said.
Jake smiled. “No. No I’m not. But it’s okay.”
Elena sobbed, a heart wrenching, pain-consumed sob, so loud in the quiet street. “No. Remember what you said about there always being a loop hole? We’ll find one.”
He touched her face. “Not this time.”
“We will. We will. We have to.”
“Shh,” he said. “It’s ok.”
Elena shook her head back and forth, back and forth. “No.”
“Yes, it is. Because I got to meet you.”
Elena leaned over him and kissed his lips, tears falling freely onto his cheeks. “Damn it, Jake Bloom – I love you,” she said for the first time – the first time to anyone. “I love you. You can’t leave, not now. I’ve just found you.”
“He shook his head. No, you found yourself.”
Jake closed his eyes.
Epilogue
The priest brought her a warm cup of tea, but Elena felt like she could use something stronger – even though she was too young to drink it. She placed it next to herself on the pew and pulled her knees up to below her chin. She wore standard Miss Area 14 pretty clothes, a cream cardigan and floral sun dress. She had her hair down, and the cuts and bruises from her escape from the Resistance had all healed. There was just one wound, a great, gaping one. She held back the tears as she thought of him again. There were moments when she didn’t think of him; fleeting seconds that made it so much more painful when the memory came back.
Since Jake died she’d been cleaned up, fussed over and spit out. She’d been wheeled onto every chat show and told how brave she was and how strong she was and what a role model she was. Even her parents had visited her for a day, although her father spent most of his time on his Plan-It, arranging business.
She didn’t care. Because the more they talked about what happened the more it distracted her from what really happened. What really happened was that she fell in love with Jake the first moment she saw him and he fell in love with her too. It didn’t matter that they’d been on different sides. It didn’t matter that he’d tried to kidnap her. She’d found the guy. The one. The guy who was just as rude as she was. The guy who stood up to the people who’d brainwashed him. They guy who threw himself in front of a bullet for her. That guy. And there would never be another of him. Never.
“You wanted to see me?”
Elena looked up. It was Dale. He was the only member of the Resistance that Elena could remember – apart from Susannah – and she had been very clear that if she was going to do what she said she was going to do, that she would not work with Susannah.
“Sit down, Dale.”
Dale sat.
“You know what I’m offering?”
He nodded. “Yes, I do.”
“Can you provide me with protection?”
“I believe so. If you give us enough information.”
Elena stared at an image of Jesus dying on the cross. It wasn’t the first time she’d looked into a dying man’s eyes. “I will.” She tore her eyes away. “Do you have what I asked for?
He passed her a brown envelope. Elena pulled a white piece of paper from the envelope and scanned the contents. “This is the address?”
Dale nodded. “That’s the address of Jake’s family. They are Resistance members and move constantly, but you should be able to find them.” Dale paused, wringing his hands, watching Elena. “So do we have a deal?”
“Yes,” she said. “We have a deal.”
*
“Are you sure this is what you want to do, Elena?” asked a pristine blonde woman in a pencil skirt and white blouse.
“I am absolutely, one hundred per cent sure that this is what I want to do.” Elena smiled at the audience. “I really feel that this would be the best way of using my influence and spending my time. After the ordeal I went through, I think it’s important to give back to the company that help keep us safe, the Genetic Enhancement Ministry. They saved my life and now I want to go and work for them.”
“Well, you heard it here first, folks,” said Amy, the chat show host of “Ask Amy”. Her face lit up as she smiled at the audience, showing glossy teeth. “Elena Darcey, winner of Miss Area 14 and kidnap survivor, will be starting her new role at the Ministry in just a few weeks’ time. Isn’t that right Elena?”
Elena turned and looked straight down the camera, using her pageant skills. She kept her expression level and serious. “It is. And you know what, Amy? I absolutely cannot wait. Because if his entire ordeal has taught me one thing – it’s to fight back. And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to fight back with my mind and my time. I’m going to dedicate myself to the cause, because there is nothing more important in the world right now than the cause.”
Elena smiled into the camera. Her palms itched in pleasant anticipation. She couldn’t wait to destroy the GEM from the inside out. She couldn’t wait to do things her way, on her own terms. She was in. She was in the cause. She was in the Resistance.
&
nbsp; A Note from the Author
A huge thank you for your support by buying this book..
If you would like to keep up to date with my new releases, and hear about awesome freebies first, then sign up for new release mail alerts.
It would be fantastic if you could leave a review on the site you bought the book. I loved writing this book, and love hearing what you thought.
Best,
Sarah Dalton
http://sarahdaltonbooks.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sarahdaltonbooks
About the Author:
Sarah grew up in the middle of nowhere in the countryside of Derbyshire and as a result has an over-active imagination. She has been an avid reader for most of her life, taking inspiration from the stories she read as a child, and the novels she devoured as an adult.
Sarah mainly writes speculative fiction for a Young Adult audience and has had pieces of short fiction published in the Medulla Literary Review, Apex Magazine, PANK magazine and the British Fantasy Society publication Dark Horizons. Her short story ‘Vampires Wear Chanel’ is featured in the Wyvern Publication Fangtales.
The Blemished is Sarah’s debut novel and is part of a planned trilogy.
www.sarahdaltonbooks.com
@sarahdalton
The Fractured Novellas are now available as a paperback!
In a fractured Britain, the Genetic Enhancement Ministry have taken control. Parents buy designer babies and those with genetic faults are labelled Blemished and shunned from society. Elena Darcey is just as perfect as the other clones, but there is something different about Elena, because she’s in trouble. After helping Area 14’s most famous criminals escape, Elena has to get out before her teacher-- the formidable Margaret Murgatroyd --finds out that she is a sympathiser for the Blemished. The perfect opportunity arises as a beauty pageant promises the winner a trip to London.
Will Elena cope with the cut-throat world of a beauty pageant filled with sabotage, violence and betrayal? If she makes it to London, will she find the safe haven she craves? Does she discover more than she'd expected after meeting the mysterious Jake Bloom?
Margaret Murgatroyd failed in her mission to capture three Blemished escapees. She fears the Ministry will demote her to full-time teacher and remove her Ministry rights. But Margaret is surprised as she’s given a new opportunity with new responsibilities, the only problem is old memories resurfacing from many years ago. Margaret remembers herself as a young girl, Maggie Powell, and the mistakes she made as a young lab technician working at the Genetic Enhancement Ministry as it first embarked on its take-over of Britain. She remembers the mistakes she made, the people who betrayed her and the way it shaped her as a woman.
The Fractured is a spin off series based on The Blemished, which will focus on some of the secondary characters and their stories.
Available here!
The Mary Hades Series – YA Gothic Horror
My Daylight Monsters – a kindle single. Amazon bestseller. Mary Hades Prequel.
I always thought my demons came out in the day, rather than at night. I’ve never been scared of the dark. I’ve only ever been scared of real things: getting ill, having injections, physical pain… death. Those are my monsters, not ghosts or vampires or whatever else can hide under your bed at night.
I was wrong.
The dark makes everything worse. Buy me here!
Mary Hades Book One.
The first in a series of dark YA novels, Mary Hades follows on from the bestselling Kindle Single My Daylight Monsters. A spine-tingling tale with romance, readers will be shocked and entertained in equal measure.
Available from Amazon!
The White Hart series – YA Fantasy
Join magical Mae Waylander as she rides her white stag through the dark, enchanted forest with a pampered prince at her heels. She's out for revenge and nothing, no one, will get in her way.
White Hart is part fairy tale part action adventure in this stunning novel for teenagers.
Available in Kindle Unlimited.
Red Palace – Book Two
I am here when you run from me,
You cannot touch me, but I make you cold.
I am there in the faint of heart,
But rarely with the daring, and bold.
In this thrilling follow up to White Hart, Mae faces her toughest challenge yet. With temptation, fear, and evil in her path, can she complete her task? And what will she lose in doing so?
Available in Kindle Unlimited.