Gemi eyed him. Sann didn’t offer an apology with nothing to gain. At least not the Sann she had grown accustomed to.
“Stay away from my mouth and we’ll be fine. And keep it to yourself. No need to drag Jaxton into this.”
His face brightened and somehow she knew she walked right into whatever trap he set up.
“While we’re on that subject,” he replied, taking a confident step toward her. “I think it’s best just to get it out in the open. Secrets have a habit of bubbling to the surface. One morning we’re just eating breakfast and the next I’m screaming about kissing you because someone is eating the exact meal you had that day.”
“We eat the same meal every day Sann.”
His smug smile broadened, as he closed the distance between them, grabbing the hand that was reaching for her gun. “All I’m asking is for a small, insignificant favor.”
Gemi jerked free from his grip, but left the gun holstered. “What favor?”
“Ah, a few questions first.”
Gemi turned and watched the people below, already wishing she had shot him and gotten it over with. She could probably get away with blaming one of the affected below.
“If you’re going to be a spoilsport about this, then just forget about it.”
“Good.”
“We can just go wake up Jaxton and confess the whole thing.”
Gemi spun on him prepared to fight. “Sann, I will literally kill you. Throw you off this building and let the people below take care of you.”
“Okay, okay. Jesus. You know, you’re really not as fun —”
“As I used to be,” Gemi cut him off with a wave of her hand and hurried toward the door. “Yeah, you’ve mentioned that.”
“Oh come on,” Sann ducked in front of her and used his hands on her shoulders to slow her progress. He was grinning and she was struggling to restrain her anger. “I really do have a question.”
“Then ask it and get the hell out of here. Go do rounds or anything else that would be useful.”
“Fine. After you’ve answered my questions I’ll go do an extra set of rounds. How does that sound?”
“Peachy if it means you’ll be nowhere near me.” Gemi smiled and shoved his hands off of her.
Sann ran his fingers through his disheveled hair and straightened his shirt. He delighted in the opportunity to torture her and drag the conversation out. She retained composure for longer than she expected, but when he stooped to fix his laces, she couldn’t take it anymore.
“For the love of God.”
“Well it’s actually Sann, but you can call me whatever you wan—”
Gemi brought her foot down on his boot, pinning his pinky to the ground in the process and giving it a slight twist for good measure.
“Ow! Jesus. What the hell?” He yanked his hand free and shook it in the air.
“Well it’s actually Gemi, but you can call me whatever you want.”
“Oh, ha ha.” He brought his injured pinky to his mouth and pressed it to his lips before letting it drop to his side. “You’re so mean.”
“Will you please just ask me the damn question?”
“I will, but only because now I need ice. And I won’t be able to do those rounds now. The doc is gonna have to look at it. Might take all day.”
“Sann!”
He bit his lips together to suppress a laugh, but the force of his own amusement popped them free. “So, we were friends, right?”
“Were being the operative word.”
“Close friends?”
Gemi groaned and rolled her neck to release tension. “So it seems.”
“And that’s all you can remember?”
“That’s what I remember.”
“So, if that’s all you remember, is it possible something else was going on with us?”
“No.”
“No you don’t want there to have been, or no there wasn’t. Because I sure as hell remember things a little differently.”
“Well I also remember bashing your head in with a hammer. But that didn’t happen. Yet…”
Gemi stared at him and searched her brain. Even through the fogginess of memory gaps, she knew there was no way they were anything other than friends. Every memory she had about them felt nothing more than platonic. The fear that bubbled in the pit of her stomach came from the sureness in his eyes.
“Is there any part of you that thinks that what I remember is true?”
Gemi took a deep breath and held it. There had been no part of her that thought it before, but now she sure as hell did. If she was being honest with herself, there was a slight possibility that the feelings of hostility that developed clouded the feelings that she once had. They were all different people before the tests. But she still didn’t believe she was the girl who would string two men along. And marry one of them at that. With a sigh she released her breath and shook her head.
Sann’s face fell for a fraction of a second then pulled back into a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Okay then. Glad we cleared that up.” He brushed past her on the way to the door.
“Sann?”
He froze in the doorway. “Yeah?”
“You’re not going to tell Jaxton right, about earlier?”
“And crush my best mate? Of course not. I just wanted an honest answer out of you.” He propped open the door and turned around. “And I got that, right?”
Before she answered a scream echoed up from the halls. They gaped at each other, their faces reflecting the same fear before rushing down the stairs. Gemi had to take two at a time to keep up with Sann’s pace.
Her mind raced along with her feet. Someone could have fallen. Someone could have hurt themselves. Someone could have done any number of things to bring about that eerie scream. It didn’t have to be Allon. It didn’t have to mean that another one of their group was too far gone.
Gemi all but slammed into the lookouts as she jumped from the final two steps and ran around the corner. They regained their composure and regarded her with wide eyes, darting from her face to the hall where the screaming emanated from.
“Hey, it’s okay. Just a drill.” She pulled the idea out of nowhere. It would help calm the situation, and considering they had done drills in the past, it was believable. “Do you remember where to go?”
Both men nodded their heads, but remained rooted in place.
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
The sharpness in her tone broke them out of their trance. With their rifles now dangling from their shoulders, they turned and headed back from where they came. Toward the stripped cafeteria appointed as the meeting point if anything else ever went to hell.
She watched them go and prayed she hadn’t sentenced everyone to death. Especially since the screaming had stopped, and she had no idea where Sann disappeared to.
Gemi waited until she could no longer hear their footsteps before she made her way down the dark corridor. After all this time she had no problem navigating the halls without light, but considering a madman might be roaming them, she stopped at a nearby kitchenette to grab a lantern.
The sound of her boots echoed in the deserted room making her unease grow. She crossed her fingers and hoped that the lookouts did their job and rounded everyone up. Her biggest fear was that they wouldn’t take it seriously and go meandering around.
She grabbed the lantern off of the table and slid her gun out of the holster before stepping out into the hall.
Gemi clutched the pistol in one hand and the small lantern in the other. It had been quiet for a few minutes, which meant only two things. One, someone got to him first and took him out. Or two, he got to the others and was having a field day. She hoped for scenario one.
Something crashed to the ground in the darkness in front of her. Gemi paused, holding the light out so its beams stretched as far as possible. A few feet from her lay a bag of trash. Its contents spewed out from a tear down the center. Gemi fell against the wall.
“Oh,
Goddamn it. Not now.” She screwed her eyes shut and took a deep steadying breath. When she opened them the bag was gone.
“Pull it together.” She shook her head and continued down the hall.
While walking she thought she heard faint footfalls behind her. When they abruptly stopped and no other noise followed she chalked it up to her imagination playing tricks on her once again.
Then there was a bang.
The sound of bare feet on the stone floor.
Malignant laughter from somewhere behind her.
Gemi turned just in time to catch a flash of a bloodstained mouth and twisted fingers before her feet were ripped out from underneath her. She flailed as the ground came at her fast, both the lantern and the gun flying from her hands down the hall as she braced for the impact and protected herself from the deranged man on top of her.
Allon.
There was no other person it could have been. Her worse fears came true in the blink of an eye.
The darkness swallowed them up as the light continued to slide farther down the corridor before stopping, its rocking creating weird shapes on the walls and making the situation that much more terrifying. Gemi landed at an unnatural angle, her back aching as the lower half of her body hit first and pressed flat against the ground with the full weight of him on top of her.
He was surprisingly heavy for how bony his body was.
Gemi twisted her upper body, throwing her forearm in front of her face seconds before teeth clamped down. Toughness aside, being bitten by a person hurt more than she ever imagined. A cry tore through her and filled the halls around them as she balled her hand into a fist and wrenched her arm free. She didn’t need to see to know how badly her arm was bleeding. The warm wetness that coated her skin and trickled down onto her face was enough.
Gemi thrust her arm back, aiming her elbow toward the growling and felt it connect followed by the sickening sound of bone cracking. The weight bearing down on her lessened enough for her to pull her legs free and land another blow to Allon’s face with the heel of her boot. With her sight adjusting to the darkness, she saw him fly backward and, with more than a little satisfaction, watched him smack into the ground. She had only a few moments to revel in the sight before he climbed to his feet, his teeth gnashing at her.
Being completely weaponless and cursing herself for carrying only the one gun, Gemi spun on her heel and ran toward the now-still light. If the lantern flew that direction her gun must have as well. It wasn’t long before Allon was trailing her, snapping and growling like a rabid animal after its prey.
Gemi’s eyes swept the ground, looking for something, anything that resembled a weapon. When he was mere feet from her and she still hadn’t found what she was looking for, Gemi scooped up the lantern. It was a decent weight and at the very least could be used to bludgeon him.
Allon slid to a stop as well, regarding her with an expression that would have been friendly had it not been for all the blood. His head tilted to the side and his haunting smile dropped, leaving his lips pulled taut over his teeth. “You can’t possibly think you can win,” he hissed.
Gemi staggered back, iciness creeping up from her toes. His tone, everything about his demeanor had changed in a split second. He had gone from wild animal to reasonable in a flash. In fact, he hardly seemed to notice the way his fingers twisted at all the wrong angles from an injury that must have happened prior to their run-in. Or how his nose still flowed with fresh blood.
“Allon?”
A raspy laughed escaped his cracked lips, and he took a step toward her. “You know this is all your fault. If you hadn’t been such a nosy little bitch none of this would have happened. Hell, you might still have that darling baby.”
Gemi stopped breathing. Something was wrong with the whole situation, extending way beyond insanity. Allon laughed again and waved something in front of his face, the light from the lantern caught the metal and caused it to glint. Her heart sank.
“This what you were searching for?” he asked before drawing back the hammer.
There was no time to run. No time to react at all. The gun went off, Gemi closed her eyes and waited for the pain to come. Another explosion erupted and she opened her eyes. Allon slumped on the ground in a pool of blood with Sann standing over him, the barrel of his gun still smoking.
Gemi swayed as her legs turned into jelly. She sank to the floor, but before she found herself lying flat on her back and gasping for air, firm hands were on her, holding her up.
“Hey, you okay?” Sann asked.
Gemi just shook her head. What sort of person just lets themselves become vulnerable in a fight? It was something in the way he spoke. It reminded her of someone, but in the moment she couldn’t figure out who.
“Hey.” Sann tilted her face up so she was staring at him. “You don’t look so good. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
At those words the fuzziness in her brain lessened, and she remembered her wound. And it still hurt like hell. Gemi pointed the light at her forearm to examine more closely and immediately wished she hadn’t. She had heard about people having their throat bitten out by other humans, but never expected that it could do that much damage to flesh. A piece of her skin just hung there. It was shredded and jagged and there was no way it could ever be stitched up cleanly.
Sann gasped and his grip tightened on her shoulders. Good timing too because the more she stared at it the weaker her legs got. Chalk it up to blood loss or her almost demise, but she felt less like a leader and more like the girl she was in the test.
Gemi dropped the light to the ground so she wasn’t tempted to look at it anymore, even though the image would be permanently burned into her memory. She pressed her forehead into Sann’s chest as a wave of nausea washed over her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him. Although his touch still made her recoil, she couldn’t be mad at him all things considered. The fight had drained out of her along with her blood.
“Did he hurt anyone?” she mumbled, becoming steadily aware of how heavy her eyelids were.
“I don’t think so.”
“He had blood all over him…”
“I can give you one guess who it belonged to. Let’s get you to the doc.”
“No…before he attacked me.” Her eyelids were definitely heavier than she remembered. As they sank closed, her tongue joined in on the unresponsiveness. “Why doc? ‘Snot like he can fix me…”
“Yeah well, he’ll figure something out.” Sann’s hands slipped under her knees and lifted her into his arms.
“I can walk.”
“You can’t even open your eyes. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
The room spun as Sann jogged toward the doctor’s office. She wanted to fight with him, to tell him that she was fine on her own, but she knew it was a lie. Worse, she knew he would know it was a lie. So in a time of desperation, she let him take care of her. In her delirious state, she made a mental note to be extra mean to him somewhere down the line so that he didn’t get the notion they were suddenly okay.
“What happened?”
She recognized the concerned tone anywhere. She smiled into Sann’s chest and gave Jaxton a small wave with her uninjured arm.
“He attacked her. I killed him.”
“Here, give her to me.”
Jaxton’s hands tried to slide under to lift her up but Sann pulled away.
“Just get the door. Or better yet, go get Allon before anybody finds him. You know how fast everyone will turn on us if they find out.”
Jaxton breathed heavily, his go-to expression of irritation before jogging past them toward Allon’s body.
“Oh yeah, I’ll get the door. No worries.” Sann grumbled to himself, but it made her laugh. They were two peas in a pod even if they didn’t want to admit it.
Sann adjusted her weight and pushed open the door. An overwhelming smell of iron hit her and even in her state Gemi recognized it as blood. A lot of it.
“Jesus. What’s this no
w?” Dr. Askel asked.
“Allon’s work, as is the body on the ground I’m assuming.”
“The kid let him free when I stepped out. Thought we were torturing him. No idea why he was down here. Here, put her on the table.”
Gemi’s back pressed down into something firm but comfortable. She opened her eyes and squinted into the bright light. She got one glimpse of the doctor before snapping them closed. The room moved around her in waves causing her stomach to flop and threatening to expel her last meal. With them closed the movement wasn’t as bad.
“She doesn’t look so good, Doc. Her lips are all blue and she’s almost transparent.”
“She’s going into shock. Take off your jacket.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You’re her blood type. She will need it after I patch her. Prep your arm so all I have to do is shove the needle in.”
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that.”
“Okay.”
“How do you expect to fix that? It looks like a squirrel I ran over one time.”
“Sew what I can. Use what little medicine we have on the other parts.”
The doctor lifted her eyelids and flashed a light in them. Gemi attempted to push him off, but her arms were as heavy as lead. He let her go and pressed something cold into her chest. The room filled with the sound of her erratic heartbeat. Until that point she hadn’t realized it was beating that fast or that unevenly.
Dr. Askel pinned her arm down on the table and wrapped a piece of rope around her bicep, fastening it tightly.
She caught a glimpse of the doctor as he moved to Sann, making quick work of inserting the needle and setting up the bag to collect his blood. He then turned his attention back to Gemi.
“Sweetheart. Are you with me?”
Gemi let out a soft giggle. Anytime anyone was using a pet name it usually wasn’t a good sign.
“Gemi, do you know what happened?”
“Attacked.”
“Do you know by who?”
“Umm.” Gemi’s eyebrows pinched together as she tried to search her brain. She swore a few seconds ago she could tell him. Now all she could focus on was the pressure in her head and the feeling of the room spinning in circles.
Paroxysm (Book 2): Paroxysm Aftermath Page 4