It was a test, she realized. He had to know if he could rely on her. Well, he could. She’d kill every one of them to get to Emily.
“What happened to letting go on three?”
“There were four of them,” she said. Movies and books told her she should be throwing up now, but she didn’t feel queasy. Her mouth was dry. It would probably hit her later, but now only Emily mattered. “I decided to take two extra seconds.”
* * *
Karina followed Lucas through the dark passageways as fast as she could. She was squeezing everything she had out of her exhausted body. Now that the first flush of adrenaline had worn off, fatigue set in. She didn’t walk, she dragged herself forward, shot when Lucas shot, stopped when he stopped. Only the next step mattered and she gritted her teeth and managed it again and again.
They made it to a small door. Lucas punched a code into the lock, the door snapped open, and they went through onto a concrete landing. Lucas punched the lock and the small square light in its corner turned red.
“We rest,” he said. “Two minutes.”
Karina sank down to the concrete and he sprawled next to her. The grimy floor was like heaven.
“Why are you helping me?”
His voice was a quiet growl. “Because I like you. And your little girl.”
She closed her eyes, feeling the cold concrete under her cheek. That wasn’t it. Lucas was making up for his past sins, but that wasn’t all of it, either. She knew the true answer. She could read it in his worn-out face. He wanted to save her, because he wanted her to stop flinching when she looked at him.
“Thank you,” she told him. “Thank you for helping me.”
“Time to get up.” He rose.
She cried out as he pulled her off the floor and followed him down the stairs. An odd sensation clenched her, almost like some internal spring had compressed inside her and now begged to be released. She stumbled, and it vanished.
One floor. The landing. They were midway down the next flight of stairs when the door below swung open.
An icy presence clenched her mind in a hard grip. It shut her off, trapping her. She couldn’t move; she couldn’t speak. Time slowed to a crawl.
The door kept opening, wider and wider. She saw inside it; she saw armed people pour out onto the landing. She knew she had to fire. Instead she just stood there, disconnected from her body.
And then Lucas shoved her down and sprayed the landing with bullets.
The presence gripped her mind and squeezed. She couldn’t even scream.
Orange sparks flared on Lucas’s gun. It died.
More people spilled into the landing over the bodies. Lucas leaped into the attackers. He smashed one out of the way, cracking the man’s skull against concrete like a walnut. The man slid down, leaving a bright red stain on the wall. Lucas ripped a woman’s throat out with his hand, backhanded another man down the stairs, and shuddered as a handgun barked. Red spray shot out of Lucas’s side. He lunged forward and broke the gunman like a twig and dived into the doorway.
The sound faded. She was completely disconnected from her body now. Only her vision worked.
Lucas emerged from the door, bloody, his eyes furious. He must’ve jerked her up, because her view changed and suddenly he was directly above her. He barked something, angry. The world shook. He dived down. His lips closed on hers. She felt nothing. He jerked back up and rocked back and forth, screaming again.
Henry, she read his lips calling. Henry.
He kissed her again and rocked, his face jerking up and down. His hands pushed on her chest. She saw the muscles on his arms flex, but felt nothing. The red stain on his sweatshirt spread wider. Was he doing CPR? Was she dying?
Henry.
The ice cracked. She heard a distant female scream somewhere impossibly far. Warmth flooded into her. Something popped inside her mind and she saw a radiant light, bright and glorious.
She’s gone now, Henry’s voice said in her mind. She won’t bother you again. You’re free. Breathe, Karina. Breathe.
The world snapped back to its normal speed, jerking her back into her body. She felt everything at once: pain, the hardness of the stair under her back, and the rhythmic push of Lucas’s hands on her chest. She gasped. He pulled her up, into his arms.
“Mind Bender attack,” he told her. “Up. Keep moving.”
The scent of heated metal rising from Lucas was so thick, she almost choked. He wasn’t just hurt. He had to be close to dying. If he died, she would be free, but in this moment she didn’t care. She just wanted him to survive. “You’ve been shot.”
“We must move,” he told her and pulled her up to her feet. “Faster!”
He drove her down the stairs, through the door, and along the narrow hallway. They dashed past a row of offices. Lucas rammed a door head-on and they burst into a small conference room. Henry lay slumped in the corner, his back pressed against a wall that was mirrored floor to ceiling. His cracked glasses sat slightly askew on his blood-smeared face. Emily was curled in the crook of his arm.
Karina cleared the room in a desperate sprint and dropped to her knees. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Henry said softly. “She woke up a little when I had to help you, but now she’s sleeping again.”
Karina hugged her, cradling Emily’s small body. Finally.
Lucas shoved the table against the door and landed next to them.
“I see you’re bleeding, too, cousin.” Henry smiled. “Nice of you to join me.”
“Where are the others?” Lucas growled.
“I don’t know. We were hit two minutes after you went into the vault. It was a concentrated assault. They came prepared. The seventeenth floor fell within ten minutes. We were retreating, when I got cut off. I went into cloak almost immediately. Our people may have evacuated.”
“Without us?” Karina stared at them.
“Arthur probably thought I fed,” Lucas said. “Your blood would give me enough of a boost to either get Henry and me clear or to hide.”
“They are surrounding us,” Henry said. “What’s the plan?”
“You and I go. They stay,” Lucas said.
“Ah.” Henry nodded. “I thought it might be something like that.”
“What are you talking about?” Karina gathered Emily closer.
“We’re going to open that door,” Lucas said. “Henry and I will take off. Henry will make sure they concentrate on us and I will make sure to keep them busy. They will follow us. You will wait here for three minutes, then you will take Emily, go out into the hallway, and turn right. You will come to an intersection. Turn right again. That will get you to the stairs. Shoot anyone you see. Then you get the hell out. If you make it out of the building, Arthur won’t look for you right away, since I’ll be dead and he won’t need a donor immediately. Don’t use credit cards, don’t stay twice in the same—”
“They will kill you!” No, that was not how this would go. The spring of tension inside her shivered, compressing.
“It was never about me surviving,” Lucas said. “I died when we opened the vault.”
“He’s right,” Henry said.
God, he pissed her off. “No.” She shook her head, trying to keep a lid on her anger. “We go to the stairs together and fight our way down. Together.”
Lucas grabbed her, jerking her close. “You will do as you’re told.”
“No,” she said into his snarl. “I won’t. We go together.”
The pressure inside her built.
“This isn’t a democracy!”
“Lucas, I can’t carry Emily and shoot at the same time. I can barely hold this stupid gun with two hands. Do you think I’m Rambo? It’s suicide for me, Emily, and you.”
“She has a point,” Henry said.
“See? They will kill me and your grand sacrifice will be wasted. I don’t want you to die for nothing. I don’t want you to die at all.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Becau
se I care if you live or die! My God, you are a moron! We fight our way to the stairs together. We have a better chance that way.”
He shook her. “I’m trying to save your daughter, you idiot! I’ve been doing this a long time and I am telling you, if we go out there, we’ll all die.”
“He also has a point,” Henry said.
Karina exhaled. Emily’s life was all that mattered. “Then drink my blood and get her out of here.”
“I would have to drain you dry. I’m barely conscious!”
“Do it.” Karina told him, furious. “You have the best chance of getting out of here with Emily alive. Drain me.”
“No!” he snarled.
“Do it, Lucas!”
“That’s nice,” Henry said. “But the Ordinators are coming.”
“Drain me or we go to the stairs,” Karina said.
“No, we’ll do this my way.”
“Your way, I die, you die, Emily dies!”
“There is no time,” Henry said calmly. “You missed your opportunity. We are all about to die. Don’t let them take you alive. You will regret it.”
The back wall of the conference room shuddered. Cracks crisscrossed the wood. It shattered and rained down in a waterfall of tiny splinters. People stood behind it, people with automatic weapons and dark helmets shielding their faces. In front of them a tall man with pale hair down to his waist slowly lowered his hand, smiling. She looked into his face and saw her own death there.
It hit her like a punch. Emily, she, Lucas, and Henry—the four of them really were about to die.
For nothing. They would die for nothing.
Lucas surged to his feet, trying to shield her.
No. No, this was not happening. She was tired and scared and pissed off and she was done with this shit.
Fuck them all.
The coiled spring inside her snapped free. Fiery power surged through her in a glorious cascade. It was time to set things right.
The smile slid off the blond Ordinator’s face. He opened his mouth.
The power surged from her, up and over her shoulders in twin streams.
She looked right into his eyes and said, “Die!”
His face turned green, as if dusted with emerald powder. He crumpled and fell to the floor. She stared at the men behind him and they collapsed like rag dolls.
Two others burst into her view from the left. She turned and looked at them and watched them die in midstep.
“Anybody else?” she called out. Her voice rang through the building. “Does anybody else want some? Because I’ve got plenty!”
Nobody answered. She marched out into the hallway, turned the corner, and saw a hallway full of people.
Die.
They collapsed as one.
They wanted to exterminate humanity. They had declared a war. Fine. If the Ordinators wanted a war, she would introduce them to one.
Karina turned. Lucas was staring at her, his mouth hanging open. Next to him Henry stood, blinking as if he hoped that one of the times when he reopened his eyes he would see something different.
Karina looked above them and saw her own reflection in the mirror wall. Twin streams of green lightning spread out from her shoulders in two radiant green wings. Like Arthur’s red ones.
“A Wither,” Henry said in a small voice, still blinking. “She’s a Wither.”
The memory of burning faces flashed before her and she brushed it aside. Fine. She was a Wither and nobody would ever push her around again.
Lucas closed his mouth. His gaze met hers and she saw pride and defiance in his eyes. “Do it quick,” he said.
He expected her to kill him.
After everything she’d said to him, he expected her to kill him.
Karina stepped to him. Her lightning wings burned around them. “Don’t worry,” she told him. “I’m the biggest and the strongest and I’ll protect you. We are walking out of here.”
Henry stopped blinking.
* * *
It took them forty-five minutes to get down the stairs. Karina inhaled the night air. It smelled of acrid smoke and rotting garbage, but she didn’t care.
Behind her the building rose like a grim tower. It now belonged to the dead. She had walked through every hallway and checked every room, while Henry and Lucas sat waiting and bleeding on the stairs. She had no idea how many people she killed, but it had to be dozens. She checked their faces to make sure they were dead. They all looked the same: features sunken in, emerald green tint painting their skin.
And now, finally, she was done.
Her lightning wings had vanished, her power exhausted. Reality returned slowly, in bits and pieces.
Next to her Lucas stirred. “If you want to disappear, now is the time. You killed them because they were caught unaware. The House of Daryon won’t be. I don’t know what your plan is but I know that once Arthur realizes what you are, he’ll do everything he can to keep you within the House. You are too powerful to cut loose. He’ll kill you if you refuse, and I don’t know if I can stop him.”
“He’s right,” Henry said. “It’s alarming how often I keep repeating that. Withers, Subspecies 21, have several types. You’re type 4. Arthur is type 7. He is more powerful and he has a lot more experience. At your best you can’t take him, and it will take you a long time to build your reserves back up to do anything on a massive scale again. Sometimes it takes years. Not to mention that we will have to fight you if you try to kill Arthur.”
Karina looked at Lucas. “If I leave, how will you feed?”
“Synthetics,” he said. “They take the edge off.”
His entire body was tense, like a string pulled too tight. He didn’t want her to go. “Why?” she asked.
“That’s what you want,” he said. “Freedom. One more day or maybe many. It’s yours. Take it.”
Henry cleared his throat. “The Ordinators . . .”
Lucas looked at him. Henry closed his mouth with a click.
Karina peered at Lucas’s face. “Didn’t you promise me you would find me if I escaped?”
“I did. I promise you it will take me a really long time to find you. Go now.”
She hesitated. Emily stirred in Lucas’s arms, waking up.
Lucas could find her—she saw the certainty of it in his eyes. If he could find her, the Ordinators could find her as well, and they would be much more motivated. And even if she did escape, she would always be living on the run, hiding from everyone and afraid of every shadow. She had no doubt that Emily was a donor. She had a responsibility to her child—she had to teach Emily how to protect herself or when they would be found, Emily would be caught unaware, just like she was.
Karina looked out into the city. That way lay freedom. Even twelve hours before, Karina Tucker would’ve taken it in a blink. But she was no longer that Karina Tucker. Nothing would ever be the same. There was a chasm between her old self and her new self, and it was filled with Ordinator bodies. Too much had happened. It changed her and there was no going back.
The woman who only days before had driven four children on a school trip was dead. She had been a nice girl, kind and a little naive, because she thought she knew what tragedy was. That woman had a small, secure, cozy life. Karina missed her and she took a moment to mourn her. It hurt to let go of that life. She shed it anyway, but not like a butterfly breaking free of the cocoon. More like a snake leaving its old skin. And this new Karina took risks. She was stronger, harder, and more powerful. There was a war going on and she would take part in it.
And even if she chickened out and tried to walk away, the memory of Lucas would keep her from going too far. She had more in common with a man who turned into a monster than she did with Jill and her endless worry over seat belts. She couldn’t leave him behind now, back in the place where everyone was scared of him, where Arthur used him with no regard for Lucas’s life, where his brother continuously bickered and fought with him. She had Emily. Lucas had no one and he wanted her so badly. And she
wanted him. Right or wrong, she no longer cared. It was her decision and she made it.
“Decide,” Lucas told her. “We can’t stay out in the open.”
Only one question remained. Karina took a deep breath and closed the distance between her and Lucas. She lifted her face and looked into his green eyes and kissed him.
For a moment he stood still and then he kissed her back, his mouth eager and hungry for her. When they broke apart, Henry was staring at them.
“I am confused,” Henry said.
“Well, I can’t let you go back on your own,” Karina said. “All beat up and sad. Arthur might kill you somehow, or Daniel will bring the house down, or Henry, you might poison everyone with your cooking.”
Emily opened her eyes. “Mommy!”
“Hi, baby.”
“Where are we?”
“In Detroit. We had to make a stop here for a little while, but Lucas and Henry are taking us home with them now.”
There had to be words to describe the look on Lucas’s face, but she didn’t know them. He probably didn’t know them, either. He looked like he wasn’t sure if he were surprised, relieved, happy, or mad.
“I believe there is a fast-food place three blocks north,” Henry said. “We could go there, use their phone, and drink coffee while we wait to get picked up. I could use some coffee.”
“Can you make it?” Lucas asked.
“If I faint, just leave me in the street.”
Lucas slid his shoulder under Henry’s arm.
“Thank you.”
They started down the street.
“You don’t own me anymore,” Karina said quietly.
“Fine,” Lucas said.
“And I will have my own room.”
“Fine.”
“And if you need to feed, you will ask me. Nicely.”
He stopped and glared at her.
“Nicely,” she told him.
“Fine.”
“But all kidding aside, you will still cook, right?” Henry asked. “You said—”
“Yes, I will definitely cook.”
“Oh, good,” Henry said. “I was afraid you would quit and we would have to eat Lucas’s cooking.”
“My cooking is fine,” Lucas said.
Ahead, the familiar yellow-on-red sign rose on the corner.
Alphas - Origins Page 12