by Eve Langlais
Drugged and defenseless against the man in the black slacks and tunic standing over her. He held no weapon other than the cruelty in his expression.
Laura stared at Axel and whispered. “You came for me.”
“I’ll always come for you.”
Nineteen
It couldn’t be real. Axel, here in this place. Alive. Not dead.
She closed her eyes. This was even more cruel than the reminder of the pain.
“Stop it. He’s dead. You can’t make me believe,” she murmured.
“This is just priceless. She thinks you’re not real.” The Earl spoke, but not to her, leading her to glance again and see Axel, his body rigid, his expression taut.
Was he really here?
I’m here.
She heard his voice and yet didn’t. She stared at him, and he finally showed some emotion, his lips twitching. It’s really me.
And he’d come for her.
“If you’re done making eyes at each other.” The Earl clapped his hands, the sharp sound startling and a further reminder that the situation had changed.
Axel had come for her.
The pain had stopped. She could have wept with relief. “I thought you were dead.”
“I’m not that easy to kill.”
“And those who returned with Laura obviously lied in their report.” The Earl scowled.
Axel eyed him. “Who are you?”
“Surely you can guess.” The Incubaii Dome leader didn’t seem bothered at all by Axel’s appearance.
“I think you’re a coward who uses drugs so he can beat up on people.”
“I’ve never laid a hand on her.”
“There’s more than one way to hurt someone.” Axel smiled at the Earl. “Which reminds me, thanks for the trucks. We can always use some new vehicles.”
“Consider them payment. After all, you did keep your end of the deal and bring the woman.”
“You double-crossed me.”
“Says the man who planned to do the same. It just so happens I was better at it.” Spoken so smugly.
The dig must have hurt, but Axel didn’t show it. “I’m here to even the score.”
“Took you long enough,” the Earl said. “I was getting tired of listening to her scream.”
It was Laura who blurted out, “You knew he was coming.”
The Earl rolled his shoulders. “Hoped. I couldn’t tell if the memories I read correctly showed me the situation.” The Earl glanced at Axel. “She sees you as this rugged specimen of manhood who is afraid of nothing.”
The statement drew Axel’s gaze to her, and she wanted to hide. She knew how she must appear. Broken and afraid. Shame filled her, heated her cheeks, and she dropped her gaze.
“Laura?” Axel said her name on a questioning note. “Did this man touch you?”
Not a man, she wanted to say. She tilted her head slowly, wondering what he thought of her shorn scalp. “He never used his hands. He has other ways of hurting people.”
“Don’t be shy, Laura. Tell him everything.” The Earl straightened and offered a cocky smile. “Or if you want, I can relate what happened. When Madre Laura arrived, we scoured her until she was quite pink all over. Can’t have her bringing back any Wasteland diseases. After, I rustled through her mind a little. It’s how I found out about her crush on you. Then because she was mouthy, I had her whipped—five times for each day she was gone. It took them forever to clean up the blood.” The Earl’s malicious pleasure in detailing her torture was clear. The words were meant to gouge, and they did.
She saw Axel flinch. “Is that the only way you get hard? Beating defenseless women?” he growled.
“We both know she’s hardly defenseless.”
She could only listen, her head bobbing with fatigue, the drug pulling her down.
Axel took a step closer, and the door swung mostly shut behind him. “You’ve got her blitzed out of her mind. She couldn’t protect herself against an ant.”
Nasty buggers. About a finger length long. They liked to take chomps out of living flesh and carry it back to the hive. One was easy to squish, ten or more… Best have thick boots, according to Vera.
“What we do with Laura is none of your concern, Rat.” The Earl tilted his head. “Although you’re a more interesting rat than expected. Who taught you to block your mind?”
“The same person who warned me pricks like you would try and poke around people’s heads without permission.”
“You are in my dome; that gives me permission.” Haughtily spoken.
“Except you can’t read me.” Axel looked quite pleased about this.
The Earl’s nonchalance vanished, the rage in his eyes a dark thing. “You are nothing but Wasteland trash. Why would I care what’s in your mind?”
He lied. She blinked as she realized it. The Earl desperately wanted inside Axel’s head, and yet Axel spoke truly. He couldn’t.
But he’d expected Axel. Ensured he’d be with her when Axel came. Showed no fear at all, which could only mean… “Axel, it’s a trap.”
“He already knows,” said the Earl slyly. “He’s known since he got in through that unmanned sewer system.”
If he’d known it was a trap, why had he come? Why didn’t he do anything?
Axel didn’t move. Not a single muscle as he stared coolly at the Earl. He didn’t even look around as the door opened.
The barrel of a weapon appeared through the gap by the door, then a person.
A person Laura knew!
The Earl’s triumph melted into disbelief.
Casey swaggered farther inside and eyed Laura as she said, “All the other rooms have been liberated. Turns out they didn’t have Madres in them but soldiers.”
“What did you do?” spat the Earl.
She smiled. “Did you know these special rooms for the woman with the most volatile powers have a built-in gassing system in case they get out of control? Nikki told me.”
And Nikki knew because Nikki had been here. She’d been right, and Laura had been so very, very wrong.
The Earl didn’t lose his cockiness. “If it isn’t the infamous Casey. Did you know there is still a bounty on finding you alive? You and your brother.”
“We’ve been wagering on how high it will go. Or did you think the sightings of me and Cam were accidental?” Casey smirked. “Oh, and you can stop poking at my head. Your mind games won’t work on me.”
Laura blinked as she realized Casey could fight the Earl. As could Axel, apparently. Only she with her sluggish mind couldn’t keep him out.
There must be a way to fight the drugs in her system.
The Earl’s lips flattened. “You won’t run free for much longer.”
“That’s cute that you think so.” Casey pushed things to the max by patting the Earl’s cheek as she sauntered past and crouched in front of Laura.
“Do I need to dick punch him?” she asked. “Hold him down while you carve something out of him? I can tenderize him if you’d like while you find some sharp poky objects to jab him with.”
“Your attempt to intimidate won’t work on me. Rather than fight and be enemies, we should negotiate,” the Earl said.
Axel snorted. “Negotiate what? We’re not leaving here without Laura. Whether or not you’re still alive when we do is in question.”
“I say we leave him dead as an example to the others.” Casey’s grin had a terrifying somberness to it.
“I tend to agree.” Axel appeared just as cold.
“You are both missing the larger picture.” The Earl didn’t show his panic yet, but Laura could feel an edge of desperation as he sought to sell them on a plan Axel would never agree to. “There is wealth to be made with the women’s genetics. Perhaps even yours. Although I’ve yet to see what skill you have that makes you special.”
Rather than be insulted, Axel grinned wide. “Not all of us are show-ers. And there will be no selling of anyone’s genetics.”
“It won’t harm them,
and you’ll walk away richer.”
The remark drew Axel’s fiery gaze. “I don’t need money that badly. Mixing and matching stolen genes for wealth and power is wrong. And yet you call us the Deviant ones.”
“Actually, if you don’t have a tail, you’re Aunimaa.” Laura pushed against the drug moving sluggishly through her veins.
Casey smirked. “A Deviant by another name is still Deviant.”
“The Aunimaa are different. They wield psions, or what you ill-bred louts call magic,” the Earl declared.
“What you do ain’t magical,” Axel drawled. “And is it me, or is he drawing out this conversation on purpose?”
“Fucker is waiting for backup. On it.” Casey left, fearless and determined.
If only she had half that courage and energy. Laura still felt half asleep.
“You won’t get out of here,” the Earl stated, regaining his confidence. “I had a contingency in place should you prevail on this level.”
“I don’t like you,” Axel murmured, and she noticed he appeared a little different. Something untamed about his expression. Something powerful in the gaze that shone more gold tonight than yellow. He lifted his gun and aimed it.
She was surprised it took him this long.
“Kill me and you’ll start a war you can’t hope to win, rat,” the Earl blustered.
“But killing you might go a long way to making me feel better.”
“Do it, but I promise you won’t get away with this. You’ll be hunted down, you and your slut. They’ll drag you back and use you as they see fit. Which won’t be nicely or gently.”
“Oh no, what will I do? I’m soooooo scared,” Axel drawled with great exaggeration.
But the Earl didn’t appear to hear or care. “Surrender to me now and you won’t be harmed. Those soldiers you drugged in the other cells were but a small portion of those at my command.”
“That’s a lie.” Laura pushed herself to her feet, using the wall to hold herself up. She canted her head at the Earl. “He’s got some more, but not as many as he used to have because the city conscripted most of his guards.”
“You wouldn’t know,” spat the Earl.
She smiled. “It’s called listening to the people around me.”
“I have many soldiers still around to defend me.”
“Better hope it’s enough, because I’m leaving, with Laura.” Axel held out his hand to her.
She pushed herself from the wall and skirted the Earl.
He did nothing to stop her and was back to wearing an annoying smile.
She reached Axel and clung to him. “I’m so happy to see you,” she murmured, even as she feared he’d made a grave mistake.
“You can show me how happy later.” He managed a cocky grin for Laura, but it slipped into a cold one as he turned his attention back to the Earl. “What you’re doing here is wrong.”
“You have no right to judge. I do what must be done for the human race to survive.”
“It will survive just fine without your raping methods.”
“It’s only rape if she says no. And there are a great many who are happy to say yes.”
“Because you beat them until they do,” Laura exclaimed. Her back throbbed in phantom pain.
“Actually, we don’t. Good Madres are cherished. Those that behave and are eager to please are sometimes even allowed to move to the city. Those with the greatest honor become consorts to Enclave members. I myself am without one currently, hence why I was grooming you.”
“Never,” she spat.
Axel chuckled. “You’re got some serious balls for an Earl. Especially because you think I won’t kill you.” He lifted his gun. “You would be very wrong.”
“Pull that trigger and she dies.” The Earl tucked his hands behind his back, making a mockery of the ones that suddenly dug into her head.
She dropped to her knees moaning.
“Leave her alone.” Axel’s rage pulsed from him, bathed her with its impossibly beautiful power.
“Make me, rat,” snapped the Earl.
Axel fired. The Earl moved impossibly fast. The bullet missed. A soldier stepped out of the shower enclosure and fired his gun. Axel was unable to move out of the way.
He reeled as the bullet hit him in the shoulder, sending him stumbling even as he took aim and fired. Down went the soldier.
The Earl charged past and slammed into Axel who hissed as the Earl made contact with the hole in his shoulder. Then the bastard escaped out the door.
As if he read her mind, Axel reached out and brushed the hair from her temple. “He won’t escape. I didn’t come alone.” He grabbed her hands. “Can you walk?”
She nodded even as her legs wobbled with every step. Between the drugs and the exhaustion from the pain, she had no strength left.
Axel swept her into his arms, and she protested. “Your shoulder.”
“Has a scratch. I’ll get over it.”
As he exited the room, Casey appeared, holding her side with a grimace.
“Are you hit?” Axel barked.
“Dented,” she muttered, lifting her shirt to show the pockmark in her body armor.
“Why aren’t you wearing any?” she asked Axel.
“I prefer to avoid getting shot.”
“Didn’t work so well today,” she remarked.
“He got lucky.”
“We’re going to need to get out,” Casey remarked. “There are soldiers all over. Some were hiding in the Madre rooms. I took care of those I found and a pair on the stairs, but there’s more of them coming.”
Entering the stairwell, they heard the distant clatter of booted feet. They wouldn’t be alone for long. Not to mention, the Earl was out there somewhere.
“I thought he didn’t have more soldiers,” Axel grumbled.
“That’s what he wanted everyone to think,” Casey said. “Seems like he got a hold of some city Centurions.” The tougher version of Enclave soldiers.
“So we’re going to be fighting our way out,” he grumbled. “Fair enough. Lead the way.”
As they approached the landing for the next floor down, Casey sauntered through the door instead of going down. Rather than a large quadrangle, they appeared in a tight hall with only two exits. The lift, which was closed, and the door into the dormitory. There was a big red button with no label on the wall.
Casey pushed it.
“What is she doing?” Laura asked.
“Creating a diversion,” Axel explained. Casey went into the dormitory, but Axel held Laura, meaning she could only watch. “She’s also being a hero, but if you tell her she’s trying to save those women, she will deny it.”
Women in white gowns exited the dormitory, faces frightened. A few headed for the lift. Others aimed for the stairs.
When Casey emerged, she fluttered a pair of white robes. The baggy kind for sleeping in. “Look what I found to help us blend in.”
Casey’s fit loosely on her. Axel took one look and snorted. “That’s not going to fit.” But they did their best to wedge him into it to allow for some camouflage, though it wouldn’t withstand scrutiny.
Dressed, they joined the last straggling women waiting for the lift. They stared at Axel. Only one in fear. The others appraised him in a way Laura didn’t appreciate.
The elevator stopped at the next floor, and only Casey got off.
“More diversion,” Axel said simply as they went down another level.
This time when the door opened, a pair of soldiers waited.
Axel fired. Bang. Bang. Two quick shots before shoving her forward into a room lined with windows. Behind those windows, she saw medical beds high off the ground, with rails and the ability to be partially inclined. Machines surrounded them. She didn’t want to know what they did.
There was no one on this floor, and yet Axel crossed to the other side.
“Where are we going?”
“Second set of stairs.”
She didn’t ask how he even knew th
ey were there. He slid into the stairwell, an older one than the previous, and listened.
She wiggled. “Put me down so I can walk.”
“Stay behind me.”
He set Laura on her feet, and she wavered but pushed past the weakness. She wouldn’t stay here. Not if there was a chance of escape.
She placed her fingers on the wall, the cool and rough texture of the concrete a thing to focus on. “Let’s go,” she muttered. Before she fell over.
He moved quickly, swinging down the stairs and checking for danger. She did her best to follow and not fall.
The more she moved, the more awake she felt.
“I still can’t believe you came.” Words she didn’t realize she muttered out loud until he replied.
“I’ll always come for you.” He paused a moment and gazed intently at her. “I just wish I’d not lost you in the first place. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” she genuinely wondered.
“Later. We have company.” She paused as he leaped ahead, thuds and thumps preceding his stated, “You can come down now. Although, if blood makes you queasy, look to the wall as you get closer.”
She instead pressed her lips tight and didn’t flinch from the violence. Too long had she been fearing it. And in the end, all fear did was victimize her over and over.
The bodies lay piled on each other. She couldn’t tell if they lived. Actually didn’t care.
She stumbled before the next landing and found herself swept into his arms again. Emerging at the bottom, he set her down once more, tucked behind him as he entered the building’s main lobby. It proved a tad chaotic with women milling around, some sobbing, others demanding to know what had happened. Casey tried to shoo some of them out.
“About time,” she barked. “Let’s move.”
“What about the Madres?”
“The smart ones will follow. Either they want freedom or they don’t.”
Axel wrapped his fingers around Laura’s. “Ready to get out of here?”
She nodded.
Her slippered feet managed to keep up as he tugged her out of the building. Exiting, there was more blood. More bodies.
A rather large man came around the curved edge of the building. Casey’s twin, Cam. “We need to get to the front gate. Gunner’s prepping a truck and disabling the others to avoid pursuit.”