Sixth - Prequel to Oleander: One of Us Series

by Faulks, Kim

  There was just him in that moment.

  His hate and his rage.

  His betrayal and his lies.

  Car doors opened and then slammed shut before the black beasts slipped away, leaving me kneeling on the asphalt with my pulse roaring in my ears.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Tex stared after the Explorers, and then turned to me.

  “We just met the enemy, that’s what just happened.”

  The scuff of boots echoed behind me. The smack of something heavy hitting the asphalt followed. I turned my head to the overloaded bag of illegal firearms and lifted my gaze.

  Shadow stared at the empty street. “Jesus, Sixth. That dude hates you. He really fucking hates you.”

  I shoved up from the ground and inhaled hard. “Yeah, he does.”

  And with the words came a scream.

  Savage and tortured.

  The sound burned like a laser.

  I slammed my palms over my ears, the world around me swayed.

  “Sixth?” Tex called as the silver light spilled from my eye.

  He wrenched his hand high, shielding his eyes.

  But there was no stopping the images that filled my head...a towering iron fence…a white building…the smell of pain and alcohol…and the tick…tick…tick…inside my head.

  My knees locked and then buckled as a scream tore free.

  I knew where she was now—I knew where they kept her prisoner.

  And as the rush of her agony left me…I saw the white pickup turn a darkened corner and finally stop.

  Chapter Twenty

  Silver light exploded from my eye, flooding the car.

  “Jesus Christ, Sixth. I can't see a damn thing!” Tex roared.

  But I wasn’t here anymore…

  I was there…in that cold place…with her.

  “Turn left. Left now.” Muted words slipped from my lips sounding so far away. “Then next right. And then right again…”

  “Is that where she is?” Tex punched the accelerator smashing me into the seat. “What the fuck is this place?

  I tried to answer…tried to give him what I could…but heavy boots rang out in the hallway outside her door getting closer…closer…closer…

  It was an abandoned hospital, boarded up, parts of the building already torn down. But not here, not where they kept her.

  She swallowed a whimper and yanked on the straps around her wrists.

  Can’t hold on…can’t stop the beast…her words were my own binding, holding me prisoner.

  A darkness waited inside her…cold…angry…

  Claws like a bear. Teeth like a wolf.

  It never slept.

  Hungry all the time.

  The cluck of a tongue sent her pulse racing. She swallowed a whimper and turned her head, still the light in her room was swallowed by the darkness as he stood at her door. Her pulse raced.

  You didn’t tell me about them Purple…you didn’t tell me at all. Maddox’s voice slipped through the room.

  She thrashed, slamming bare feet against the kick board of the hospital bed.

  Flashlights splashed through her window from outside, and a heartbeat later the thunder of their footsteps filled the air.

  “They know we're coming,” I murmured.

  Tex swung the Mustang once more. “Then let's not keep them fucking waiting.”

  Shadow chambered a round in the shot-gun behind me.

  You think they’ll want you when they know the truth? You think they’ll want you now?

  My heart lunged, jaw clenched until my teeth cracked.

  I dropped my hand to my side. Fingers caressed the steel of the rifle.

  One shot, that’s all I needed.

  One fucking shot.

  The last five years came down to this…this moment…this one round.

  I’ll cut him, is that what you want? Maddox snarled and stepped closer. I’ll cut out soldier boy’s heart and sit it next to you.

  A whimper from her lips and his chuckle slipped into the air.

  You like him, is that it?

  Maddox, a growl came from the hallway as Tex slammed on the brakes.

  Headlights splashed through her window.

  Our headlights.

  I pulled away from her, fumbling for the car door. Tex and Shadow were at my side as we shoved outside and lunged for the building.

  Silver light bathed the ground as that sense of other led the way. I gripped the rifle with one hand and pointed to a break in the eight foot fence. “There.”

  They never wavered. In this moment we were one and the same tearing open the night to get to her.

  Darkness rushed toward us before the crack of a gunshot split the air. I bought up my rifle, the sight finding center mass and squeezed the trigger.

  Silence was the answer.

  Silence and stillness.

  The roar of a truck came from our right. I scanned the building as the blur of white mounted the curb.

  “Get down!” Shadow screamed and slipped away in a faint tendril of darkness.

  Flames tore from Tex’s fingers swallowing the metal missile as it crashed through the fence and landed on the grass. I punched my boots into the ground and leapt over the brush. The dead stared up at me as I passed, just as they’d done so many times before.

  The truck bounced as it hit the ground and kept coming like a blazing inferno until it slammed into the trunk of a tree.

  The crack of a shot cut through the air in front of my face. Two gunmen came around the corner. Shadow was a blur, emerging from behind them to level the pistol at their head.

  Two shots barely a second apart before he was gone once more…matching my stride as we charged for the open door.

  As much as this moment was my purpose, it was their purpose too.

  It wasn’t fate that bought us here…

  It was her…Oleander…

  A boom rocked the night. The white pickup behind us exploded as we pushed through the doorway.

  My gaze slipped right to the darkened doorway as the hallway was filled with gunfire. I could feel her in there…feel her power calling…drawing me closer.

  Flames followed, billowing out as Tex surged ahead. Shots hit the wall but that sixth sense was roaring through my mind. Silver light swallowed the white fluorescence as I stepped forward.

  Steps timed perfectly.

  I saw it all.

  Every shot.

  Every miss.

  Screams erupted in the hallway as Maddox came around the corner.

  He lifted his hand, the pistol aimed at my heart.

  There was nothing between us now.

  Not distance.

  Not her.

  There was only him and me.

  His lips curled as hate raged in those blue eyes.

  The pistol kicked as I strode forward.

  The shot went wide, hitting the wall.

  There was a second…a second where fear shone through.

  I lifted my rifle, one perfect round, took aim and squeezed.

  Center mass. The round lifted his feet from the floor and he flew like he’d never flown before…and never would again.

  Blood spilled across his chest as he hit the ground.

  Screams erupted as wildfire hit the mark, bathing the hallway in orange and red.

  Maddox stared up at me as I stepped close. Flecks of blood shot from his mouth as he coughed. But the doorway was all I cared about…the doorway was what I was here for.

  I stepped into the darkness and breathed in that vile scent.

  A bed sat in the middle.

  A tiny form strapped like an animal.

  Gunfire filled the hallway behind me, flooding the room with bursts of yellow. But I didn’t care…I didn’t care about anything else as I stepped close to that figure.

  She turned her head…purple strands of hair spilled over the white cotton sheets. She was just like I imagined…perfect. “Hello Purple Hair. I’m finally here.”

  Continue t
he story with Oleander here!