I managed to reach the bottom of the stairs, the sound of them creaking above me not really encouraging. Blowing out a breath, I forced myself to calm down. “Okay, arsehole, my turn.”
I closed my eyes, shutting off my surroundings, ignoring the intense heat, the sweat frying my skin when it evaporated leaving behind a salty residue.
“Where are you?” I followed the radio waves, the faint lines of my own unique green signal leading the way in my head. I allowed them to flow, to conjure and twist and form a path in my internal vision. I had always been crap at this stuff, Janice shouting at me every time I lost the trace but my brain was doing it, it was hunting for him, seeking out and burrowing through the dark for the unique blue pulse in the atmosphere.
I almost choked on my own nerves when I found his faint throb of blue. It was easy to climb inside him, sliding into his tired mind as my body moved fast up the stairs towards the indicator, my feet breaking through the warped wood as I went. I gave him everything I could, feeding him what little energy I had, surging heat through his mind, stimulating and encouraging him. “Come on, don’t be a stubborn bastard, Reid. Let me help you!”
I slammed to a halt at the top of the stairs. “No. NO!” Fire licked every wall and crept along the floor, its flames curling towards me, the heat melting everything in its reach.
And Reid was on the other side.
As soon as I saw the blazing wall I knew we would either both die tonight, or just one of us. And I chose one of us.
Sliding the phone from my pocket, I fired it up and hit the icon. She answered on the second ring.
“Elina? Elina? Oh my God, where are you?”
“Listen to me, I don’t have much time. I need you to do something for me.”
She knew by the sound of my voice what it was; her choked gasp confirmed it. “No, Elina, I won’t. I won’t do it!”
“You have to,” I whispered. “You owe me. You owe me, Mother. And you made a promise. Now it’s time to keep your only promise to me.”
A sob echoed in my ear and a smile touched my lips. “It appears you have empathy, Mother. I need you to do it, now.”
“No . . . Elina . . . I . . .”
“You promised! You have fed from my hell for twenty-three years. Please. Please, if I hold any part of your heart, you will do this.”
“I can’t . . . you’re my baby.”
“No. No, I’m not,” I said quietly. “I’m subject Alpha, the prototype for project Judgement. And for the first time in my life I need to do the right thing. Let me go. I gave you every single beat of my heart to do with as you pleased. Well now . . . now I want you to be the one that gives it the final beat.”
“El . . . you’ll . . . you’ll die. I . . .”
“Set me free!” I begged. “I am so tired. I am a charged corpse, Mum, nothing more than a puppet on so many people’s strings. A force that has been manipulated so many times my head is fried and my soul is dying embers.” I swiped at a tear. “It’s time to let me go. Flood my chip. Please.”
“El . . .” Her cries broke my heart. “Baby, I . . .” She snivelled and blew out a breath.
“You promised,” I whispered, my heart sinking as the flames grew taller. “Don’t destroy what little we ever had together.”
She paused and took a few gulps of air. I closed my eyes and prayed. “Please . . .”
“Initiate code 44,” she choked out to someone. A stifled cry of relief tore up my throat. “Initiate—code—44!” she repeated slowly and firmly to someone. Someone spluttered something in the background. “DO IT!” she screamed.
“Thank you,” I sobbed. “Thank you.”
“You really love him, huh?”
I stilled, my tears flowing more freely when my eyes widened. “What?”
“Reid McCallum. Subject Delta.”
“I . . .”
“Shush. I lost you a long time ago Elina, but now, now I know you leave this life with a full heart, something Rowan and I could never give you.”
“Mum . . .”
“I love you, El. And I’m so very sorry. Goodnight, baby.”
I blew out a breath and closed my eyes.
“Subject Alpha,” she said completely toneless but assertively to someone. “Access code 0–1-0–0. Authorisation code . . . 1–4-5–1.” She hesitated then a choked sob left her and she forced out the final words. “Termination . . . code, 1–9-9–1. Sleep well, Elina, sleep well, my baby.”
Agony tore through my brain, a lightning bolt of fire coursing through every single nerve ending in my body as energy flooded my mind. A scream tore from me as my body felt like it ripped in two with the amount of electricity that engulfed me.
My heart struggled to regulate as my veins fortified, my blood slowly grounding to a halt inside them as it turned to cement. My bones tempered to accommodate the fury, attempting to protect me against the battle my body was under. My organs galvanised inside me, building shields against the sheer force that rode me.
I didn’t have much time. Taking a deep breath, I walked through the fire, its intensity unable to touch me with the computer-generated vigour locking down my body; even the pores in my skin had closed as the fake armour assembled around and inside me.
Breaking through a door I found Reid on his stomach, his face buried into the shirt he’d peeled off his back in an attempt to cover his mouth.
“I’m here, Reid. I’m here.”
I cried out at the pain tearing through me, my body shutting down as my brain pulsated with the electrical torment.
I laughed when I picked him up, the tears devastating me at the same time. His body jolted in my hold, my own death kick starting his heart as I dragged him over to the window, smashing it with my elbow.
“Breathe!” I grunted as I hauled his huge body up to the window, “Breathe, damn it!”
He groaned and mumbled something that sounded like a threat to my arse, and it had never sounded so damn fucking perfect. My eyes were closing, my heart slowing as it gave up the struggle.
“Not yet,” I breathed out. “Not yet. Let me do this!”
I pushed his body out of the window onto a porch roof, lugging my failing body out behind him and landing with a thud as I tried to fill my shrinking lungs.
“Reid!” I coughed, my mouth filling with mucus as I pushed at him. “Time to live. I . . .” I struggled to speak as my tongue swelled inside my mouth. “I—will—not be the . . . one who . . . killed . . . you.” His body rolled off the porch as I fell onto my back and smiled as the stars faded.
MY THROAT FELT LIKE I’d swallowed a thousand knives and my lips were blistered and sore as I tried to lick them. My head throbbed and every single part of my body hurt.
“Reid?”
I opened my eyes, blinking at the harsh light when Jonah said my name.
“Fuck.” He blew out a breath. “We thought you were gone.”
“Where are we?” I pushed myself into a sitting position and Jonah and Heather watched me warily from the corner of the room. They remained quiet as I took in the clinical white room, the mass of wires and beeps telling me exactly where we were. “Shit! What the hell were you thinking?” I tore at the tube feeding my body with saline, not bothering to wait for the blood to pour down my arm, there wouldn’t be any.
“You were a mess, Reid,” Heather said. “You needed your lungs clearing, as well as oxygen.”
“We could have done that. We don’t use hospitals, you know that! They’ll track us here. The last thing we need is . . .”
I froze when my mind replayed something in my head.
“Breathe!” She grunted as she pulled me over to the window. “Breathe, damn it!”
I snapped my eyes to Jonah, not daring to breathe. “How did she get me out?” His eyes dropped to the floor and Heather shifted uncomfortably. “How? HOW?”
“She surged her chip,” Jonah whispered.
“No.” I struggled to breathe, my entire body over-stimulated and weak, the e
ffect making my organs react crazily. “No, she . . . No. NO!”
“She deserves to die for what she did, Reid!” Heather rushed over to me when I fell back on the bed.
“For what she did? She got Jonah out of the house. You can’t blame her for Ruben’s sick desire to follow orders!”
“What?” She shook her head, staring at me in confusion. “For setting fire to the safe house. For nearly killing us!”
The room was spinning, my heart tearing apart inside me. “Elina didn’t start the fire. I did!”
Heather’s mouth fell open and Jonah’s head snapped my way. “What?”
Gritting my teeth I turned away, unable to look at them. “I . . . I lost control.”
“You never lose control!” Heather said, her suspicious eyes narrowing
“Well, last night I did!”
It hit me and I drew my knees up, my fingers pulling at my hair. Fuck! I was losing control again, my heart racing as my blood started to tingle. I’d lost control and killed her. She’d saved me. She’d killed herself to save me.
My wet eyes found Jonah. “She’s gone. I killed her.”
He stalked the room, his huge body planting on the bed beside me. “She’s not dead,” he whispered. “Well, not yet.”
My wide eyes flashed to his, my mouth drying further. “What? She terminated . . . I saw her . . . her body was . . .”
He shrugged. “Don’t ask me, I have no idea. Heather and I dragged her off the porch roof and she was . . . she was . . . fuck! She was still breathing, Reid!”
“I don’t understand. She terminated. She should be dead. No one can withstand that amount of energy.”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know.” He licked his lips when I let out a relieved sigh and fell back against the headboard. “Reid.” Jonah’s eyes were dull when they lifted back to my face. “She’s . . . she’s not good. She’s in a coma.”
My head fell back and I laughed, loudly and hysterically, my heart surging with excitement. Jonah and Heather stared at me as if I was crazy. Fuck, maybe I was.
Snatching my clothes from the chair beside me, I slipped out of the gown someone had placed over me and changed quickly. I didn’t care that Heather was in the room, but fuck her, at least she got a glimpse of what she’d been after for so long.
“Reid, what are you doing?” Jonah barked.
“I’m going to get Elina.”
His whole face locked in shock, his skin blanching as he shook his head. “You can’t, she needs the medical . . .”
“She’s not in a coma, Jo.” I grinned at him when he continued to frown at me. “She’s shut down, gone into sleep mode. She just needs rebooting.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Heather asked.
“Probably.” I chuckled. “Definitely. Come on, we need to go get her.”
“Reid! You can’t just walk into her room and unplug her then carry her out of a fucking hospital in broad daylight!” Jonah said.
“That, my friend, is exactly what I’m going to do. It’s too quiet at night. Every fucker and their grandma would notice you carrying a woman through the dark corridors. Day time it’s heaving out there. Lots of people come in carrying people who are hurt. We’re just carrying one out.”
They both stood completely still, their eyes wide. I sighed. I didn’t have time for their shit. “Are you gonna help or not?”
Heather stepped forward, her face full of anguish. “Look, Reid, we both know she’s not my favourite person but I’m not saying this out of malice. We have no idea what we’re doing. This has never happened before. How the hell do we reboot her?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “We don’t. But we both know someone who can.”
“No!” Heather stepped back, her hand in front of her as her eyes widened in horror. “No, Reid. I am not going back there.”
“You don’t have to, either of you. But Elina deserves to live, and there’s only one person who can give her that.”
“You’re crazy,” she whispered, her head shaking with sadness as she stood in front of the doorway. “Reid, please.”
“This is my choice, Heather. You either accept it or get the hell out of my way.”
She closed her eyes, a tear tumbling from the corner, but she stepped aside.
“You’ll die in there,” she whispered as I stepped through the door into the corridor.
“I know,” I whispered back without turning to see the devastation on her face. “But Elina is the only hope we have of putting an end to Judgment. You need her. She’s your future, Heather.”
“Reid!” Jonah shouted. I turned back to see the utter heartache of my best friend. His face screwed up tight but he nodded. “I’ll find her, Reid. I promise. I’ll take care of her.”
He saw the gratitude on my face. He blurred through my vision. “Thank you. Tell her . . . tell her I will always love her.”
He smiled at me, the white of his teeth almost glaring with the huge grin. “She knows. She’s always known.” He gave me a simple firm nod.
Glancing one last time at them, I nodded in return then turned and left.
5 Months earlier
“DON’T CRY, LETTIE.” HER sobs broke my heart. Her little body jerked every few seconds, her skin hot to touch and her hair crispy under my attempt to soothe her.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a hiccup.
“Hey, don’t be sorry. It’s just the salt in your tears will make your skin sore. Your pores are sensitive until the current calms down.”
I wanted to kill Janice for this. What the fuck was she doing? I accepted my childhood, had come to terms with all the torture she put me through a long time ago, but Lettie didn’t deserve this.
An idea popped into my head and I shot up, scooping her tiny body into my arms as carefully as possible.
“Where are we going?” she asked as I stealthily worked my way down the dark corridor.
“I want to show you something, but we have to be quiet.”
She smiled at me through her tears, making my chest swell.
Slowing down when I came to the hallway that led past Janice’s personal quarters, I lifted onto my tiptoes and crept along slowly. As we passed her suite, the main door was ajar, loud voices coming from behind it.
“Jesus, Janice!” Ruben hissed. “You need to listen to me. They’re getting worse.”
“They’re doing their job, Ruben. Like you should be! Just because you climb into my bed at night does not give you the option of light duties!”
“Light duties?” He snorted. “Fuck! There’s nothing light about this job!”
“If you have a problem with this job then maybe you should apply for something less demanding, a janitor maybe. The way you’re behaving lately, maybe we should make you into a counsellor for the subjects, let them unload all their little problems to you!”
Ruben scoffed, the door opening more. “You really are a cold bitch!”
I raced around the corner, leaning against the wall as I tried to process what I’d just heard.
“I need to be cold!” she shouted after him before her door slammed shut.
Lettie whimpered when Ruben’s shadow drew along the floor, alerting us to his approach. I pressed my hand over Lettie’s mouth when she gasped, shaking my head sternly at her as her huge wet eyes fixed on me in panic.
Ruben’s silhouette paused, his long shadow reaching past us farther up the corridor. He was right around the corner. My heart beat fiercely and I’m sure he could hear it. If he’d been one of the eight we would be dead now. Suddenly it shrank back as he turned and walked the other way.
“Holy—shit!” Lettie puffed out when I moved my hand.
My mouth dropped and I glared at her. “Where did you learn that?”
She shrugged. “I dunno, around.”
“You never let me hear that from you again. You’re only six, there’ll be plenty of time for you to use that language when you’re older.”
She sighed and looked up a
t me, “I’m not six anymore, El. My mind and emotions are in adulthood now. It’s only my body that’s six.”
“You’re wrong,” I whispered as I swiped my thumb over a fresh tear falling down her cheek. “Whether your mind and your heart are older, you will one day enjoy childhood again. I promise.”
She gave me a ‘whatever you say’ look and nodded. “Of course I will.”
“Come on, grumpy knickers.”
She giggled as I ran down to the end of the corridor. “Where did you learn that?” She gasped when I punched in a code and a door swung open.
“A little bird told me,” I whispered as I carried us both up the metal stairway and through another door at the top.
“Holy—shit!” she repeated as her mouth popped open. Her eyes were so wide I could see the reflection of the stars in her pure grey orbs.
She stared upwards when I lowered her to her feet. She was mesmerised, her eyes taking it all in, her head turning left and right as her hair blew in the breeze. “It’s so beautiful.”
I nodded, turning my face to look up at the night sky. “How long since you’ve seen the stars, Lettie?”
She turned to me, her brow creased as huge fresh drops squeezed from her eyes. “I’ve never seen the sky, day or night.”
My heart plummeted through my stomach and I stumbled when my knees gave way. “What?”
She looked upwards again, the moon reflecting off her pale skin. “I was born in Judgement, El. This is my home.”
I COULDN’T KEEP MY eyes off her as I swiftly walked through the maze of corridors, my eyes scanning for a way out. Her face was pale, but the smoke residue remained around her nose and mouth. She hadn’t even murmured when I’d pulled out her tubes and lifted her from the bed, scooping the bed sheet around her to hide the revealing gown.
I couldn’t hide the ache in my chest. It was happening all over again. Déjà vu at its worst.
“Keep breathing, baby.”
I slowed down, dropping my walk to a normal pace when I passed a couple of guards in the main foyer, one of them talking into his radio, his eyes checking the area. A couple of people frowned at me when I slipped round them. Come on, I’d made it this far.
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