“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.” Quinen sprinted away, his movement almost a blur. He was running faster than a hybrid.
“Quinen’s on the run,” Maximus transmitted, his breathing heavy. He growled. “He’s got Selena. Be careful. He’s… something different now, tougher, faster. Enhanced. If you get a chance, shoot to kill.”
Maximus put one foot in front of him and then another, ignoring the pain. Quinen wouldn’t escape again. There was no way in hell he’d escape with a Vestal.
Chapter Twenty-four
Doctor Quinen burst through a door, shoulder-first, knocking it off his hinges. It crashed against the hard pavement, cracking. Two hybrids, including Zephyrus, stood close by. They pointed their guns at the doctor, concern on her faces.
“Put the woman down,” Zephyrus ordered, his deep base voice even lower than usual.
Doctor Quinen tossed Selena roughly to the ground. Pain shot through her elbow. She screamed when she realized she was next to a dead guard. She tried to crawl away from him, but her muscles barely responded. Her pace made a snail look fast.
“On your knees, Quinen,” Zephyrus shouted, gesturing with his rifle. “Or we shoot.”
“No.” Doctor Quinen laughed. “You don’t understand that I hold your life in my hands, do you?”
“You think just because you’re glowing we’re scared?” Zephyrus grunted. “Please.”
“You should be scared. If you’re not, it shows you’re foolish.”
“Take him down!” Zephyrus opened fire, his muzzle flash killing the nearby shadows.
The other hybrid fired too with careful controlled bursts. Two men firing assault rifles at close-range in bursts tossed a lot of angry lead toward Doctor Quinen. Like inside the warehouse, the bullets bounced off. The hybrids continued firing, no fear on their faces despite the fantastical scenario they were facing.
Selena couldn’t believe it. A man started glowing and showing what could only be described as superpowers, and they didn’t blink. Being fast, strong, and having good senses doesn’t prepare someone to face off against an enemy who was bulletproof.
She now understood something important. The hybrids’ courage didn’t come from their superiority. It was easy to be brave when a man was facing off against enemies he knew were weaker than him. True courage came when he wasn’t sure he could win.
Doctor Quinen flung out another energy wave that knocked the hybrids to the ground. When Zephyrus stirred, the doctor thrust his palm forward, this time launching a bolt of purple energy. His hybrid target grunted again before falling unconscious.
Selena gasped, worried Zephyrus had been killed. His chest still rose and fell, and she let out a sigh of relief.
Her gaze flicked over to Doctor Quinen. Sweat ran down his forehead, and his breathing had become ragged. His eyes continued glowing, but the purple field around him was dim and insubstantial compared to before. His power wasn’t as infinite as his ego.
Rifle fire continued in the distance. It sounded like it’d come from the other side of the warehouse. Any hybrid reinforcements wouldn’t make it in time to take advantage of the doctor’s weakened state. He continued standing there, a hand to his chest, taking deep breaths.
Selena managed to roll toward the dead guard and grabbed his rifle. She didn’t know much about guns, but she assumed the man had been fighting with it when he’d died. Point and shoot. Should be easy, even with her muscles barely working. She pulled the trigger, startled by how loud it was. A bullet ripped through Doctor Quinen’s thigh.
He swung his head toward her, his eyes narrowed. “Don’t get stupid ideas, girl, but I’m surprised you can still move at all. I obviously needed to use a higher dose on you.”
Selena fired again, her adrenaline working against the drug. This time she sent a round through his shoulder. For a man who had just been shot twice, he didn’t look that bothered. She kept firing, pulling the trigger until the gun clicked empty. It left a chest full of holes in Quinen before. She tossed the gun to the side and eyeing the next closest weapon. It belonged to one of the unconscious hybrids, Decimus. It wasn’t that far, but in her current condition, it might as well have been in Nebraska.
Doctor Quinen blasted a purple bolt into the ground right in front of her, leaving a scorch mark. “Stop. You should be aware that I don’t need your limbs to be working for my research. Continue this pointless resistance, and you’ll suffer. Don’t overestimate your importance.”
Selena’s hand froze. The man was insane. He’d experimented on living people and even himself to gain weird powers. He’d defeated six hybrids like nothing, men who’d carved through the armed guards outside like they were children.
“Y-you won’t get away with this,” she sputtered, dropping the gun, and feeling her muscles tightening.
Doctor Quinen smiled. Bright purple light filled his wounds and faded revealing undamaged skin.
“No way…”
He nodded. “I’m beyond anything the hybrids have dealt with before. I won’t make the presumption of claiming to be a god, but they are half-molded clay who failed to live up to their potential whereas I’m something greater. Now, girl, you will come with me, and you will stop any further resistance, or, at minimum, I will show you such pain you’ll wish you were dead.”
“Don’t have another dart?”
“I shouldn’t need it.”
A bestial roar sounded from behind her followed by Maximus’s familiar voice. “You won’t touch her. You’re dead!”
Doctor Quinen stared past her, looking perplexed. “Now this is interesting. I didn’t think you would die from such a minor display of my power, Maximus, but I assumed you would be disabled for far longer.”
“Get away from my Vestal, your son of a bitch. I see you don’t have your shield anymore.”
“Look at his chest,” Selena shouted. “I tried shooting him, but it just closed up.”
“Neat trick, but not enough to save him. If necessary, I’ll tear his heart out.”
Doctor Quinen’s gaze dipped to Selena, and he laughed. “Ah, I see now. Hmm. Interesting. Perhaps bonding with your Vestal has granted you some partial resistance to my abilities and her a temporarily heightened metabolism. I do remember seeing some Group reports suggesting as such.” He cupped his chin. “This might necessitate additional research with hybrids to better understand the mechanism. Fascinating.”
Maximus stalked forward, his gait uneven, his face a mask of hatred and anger. His hands shook, but Selena didn’t think it was from fear. He must have been in incredible pain.
“You can’t win,” Selena called out. “Just leave. He’s too powerful. Look at what happened to the others.”
Maximus stopped for a moment, his angry eyes taking in the downed hybrids. “That’s all the more reason to kill him.”
Doctor Quinen lowered his hand. “I miscalculated.”
“You can say that again. You’re dead, Quinen.”
“No, no, not that.” Doctor Quinen let out a quiet chuckle, looking beyond amused. “You can’t win.” The purple field around him brightened. “Especially now that I’ve… caught my breath, you could say.”
Maximus continued forward, growling and raising his fists. “Shut up. Just shut up. No one cares. You’re out of chances, Quinen.”
“Please calm yourself.” Doctor Quinen flicked his wrist, sending a small pulse of purple energy toward Maximus. It struck the hybrid, but he clenched his jaw but continued his slow walk forward. “Impressive. The amount of pain you must be in right now is incredible. I’m still uncertain if that is simple sample variation or linked to the Vestal, but you must realize by now you’re only looking toward an unpleasant and painful death if you continue.”
Maximus swayed unevenly as he stomped toward the doctor. “It sounds to me like you’re afraid.”
“Of you? What can you do? You’re not even holding a gun. It’s as if you know you’re beaten, and you’ve given up in your heart.” Doctor Quinen spread out
his arms. “Go ahead, take your punch, and then collapse with despair, knowing that I’m taking your Vestal from you.” He laughed. “And she will help me unlock even greater potential in my research.”
Maximus lifted a fist and stopped swaying. “You don’t live for anyone else, do you?”
“I live to perfect myself.” Doctor Quinen offered a placid smile. “That’s enough. You’re a sad, sentimental creature, a product of my experiments. You’re nothing, really. That woman is nothing, too. You’re both a means to an end, my improvement. And you’ll both be discarded when you’re no longer useful.”
A fiery nimbus surrounded Maximus’s fist and burned away the nearby sleeve. “What did you say?”
Doctor Quinen’s eyes widened. A euphoric smile appeared. “It worked! It worked!”
Maximus slammed his fist through Doctor Quinen’s chest like he was punching through paper. The doctor’s purple field and glow vanished, but he didn’t look surprised. A serene smile took over his face as Maximus pulled out his burning fist.
“Guess I missed tearing out your heart after all,” Maximus muttered.
Doctor Quinen fell to his knees, no longer looking like a dangerous threat and more like the old frail man Selena had first took him for.
Maximus took slow, even breaths and licked his lips. “It still hurts, but not as much.”
“He’s going to heal!” Selena shouted, her mind reeling from Maximus’s stunt. “Could you… always do that?”
“No.” Maximus shook his head, looking down at his now extinguished and undamaged fist. “That’s new. I don’t know of any hybrid who can do something like that.”
Doctor Quinen fell backward, still smiling, no evidence of his wound closing. “It worked,” he rasped. “The experiment worked even better than I hoped. I’ve made you stronger.”
Maximus stood over the man. “You were wrong. You said you’d make me stronger without a Vestal, but she’s why I’m strong. I only got that power because I knew I needed something more to protect her from you.”
“Y-you should be grateful.” Doctor Quinen’s eyes closed. “I’ve made you better than the other hybrids.”
“You tried to take our Vestals away from us!” Maximus shouted. “But fate brought us together.”
“Fate isn’t real. You finding the girl is nothing more than mere coincidence. And without smelling them, you’ll never find the others. If you rely on them to seek your power, it’ll be too late. Ouroboros… will… destroy… you.” With that, Doctor Quinen let out a death rattle.
Maximus stared down at the dead scientist, shaking his head. “All that knowledge, and he never understood.” He headed toward Selena. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Selena winced and rubbed her elbow. “Nothing bad.”
Zephyrus and the other hybrid groaned and stirred. They didn’t look steady, happy, or not in pain, but they also didn’t look dead.
Maximus frowned, tilting his head, and holding his finger to his earpiece. “Roger. Finish your sweep and come on the other side. Let’s see if we can grab any files or computers, Other than that, let’s grab our wounded, get them in one of those vans, and get the hell out of here before somebody local shows up asking questions.”
Selena stood, strangely calm despite everything that had happened. “Maximus, we need to talk.”
He shook his head. “We’ll concentrate on getting out of here safely, then we’ll talk.”
“But—”
“We both need time to digest everything that just happened.” Maximus walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. “Right now, it’s enough that you’re safe.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Selena stared at her hotel room door, Maximus right behind. He had swung by his room across town to grab her purse before driving her back to her place. A lot had happened in a short period of time. They’d not spoken much, especially since he’d busy with the post-battle coordination and delivering final orders. They’d found some encrypted laptops and grabbed those before calling Titus and asking him to pull whatever strings he could manage to keep things quiet.
It was strange knowing that the Phoenix Corps was effectively dead, but there was another organization out there, one that might be an even greater threat. That didn’t change much in Maximus’s mind. Alpha Squad were trained soldiers, and they would continue to do what they needed to protect themselves and others regardless of the nature of the threat.
Maximus welcomed the distraction, needing more time to process everything with Selena and Quinen’s revelations. She put her key card against the lock and opened the door, stepping inside.
“It feels like I’ve been involved with you for weeks, but it wasn’t that long at all,” Selena said. She looked around.
Maximus followed her in and closed the door gently behind her. “No, it wasn’t. That’s how life works. When everything’s the same, it blends together, but when it’s new, it lasts forever.”
“Is this just another week in the life of Maximus?” Selena asked.
He let out a short laugh. “Hell, no. Finding my Vestal, dealing with whatever Quinen had become, and finding out I can do that flaming fist thing makes for a pretty memorable few days.”
Selena placed a hand on his cheek, concern in her eyes. “What about you? Are you okay? He shot you with that… whatever that was. I was so worried he might have killed you. Whatever he gave me has long since worn off.”
Maximus managed a decent smile. Every muscle in his body ached, but she didn’t need to know that. He wondered if the blast would have killed other hybrids, and if they’d only survived because of their prior modifications by Quinen. “I’m fine. I’m not going to be running any marathons anytime soon, but I’ve been hurt way worse than that on missions before.”
Selena stepped away and sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing at her neck. “When I came to Hawaii, it was supposed to be a new start, but I never imagined it would involve hybrids, a dangerous secret organization, and superpowers. It’s like a movie, but a good one, not one Chris Silvers would star in.”
“The man does sound like a dick from what you’ve told me.” Maximus laughed. “But what we’re not talking about superpowers.”
“Aren’t we?” Selena arched a slender red brow. “What do you call what you fought? What do you call what you did? Not to mention you already have superpowers if you count your strength, speed, and senses.”
He raised a hand and curled it into his fist. With a grunt, he concentrated trying to summon the flames that helped him defeat Quinen, but nothing happened. As far as we he knew, he was the only hybrid with that ability, so it wasn’t like he could ask anyone for advice.
“Whatever it was, I can’t do it on command,” Maximus said. “I might only be able to do it when under big stress or when my Vestal… when you’re the one being threatened. Not that I’m complaining about having another tool to help protect you.”
They looked into each other’s eyes neither speaking for a long while. Both had overheard everything Quinen had said and both knew the truth. It all seemed obvious in retrospect, but Maximus had let himself ignore the possibilities, convinced that he would never find his Vestal.
He wasn’t sure if he bought into fate or chalked up the Vestal connection to nothing more than genetically compatibility, but he couldn’t deny that the last thing he wanted to do was walk away and leave this woman behind. But what he wanted, and what she wanted might not be the same thing, and they needed to iron that out right then and there. He didn’t want to leave Hawaii without closure.
Selena offered a playful grin. “It’s nice to know that you’ll take down a mad scientist with powers you didn’t even know you had when I’m in trouble. Maybe next time you’ll grow wings or get laser eyes.”
“I doubt that.” Maximus shook his fist. “I’m guessing this is my power. But I don’t want to talk about that anymore.”
“Fine with me. What did you want to talk about?”
Maximus walked ov
er to her, looking down at her. He took a deep breath. The next few minutes would decide the course of the rest of his life.
“I want you to stay with me. It’s not going to be easy, and you’ll have to get used to some things, a lot of things, including things you might not like that much.”
“Oh?” Selena cocked her head. “Like what? Because I like you.”
“Like secrecy. Everyone’s playing nice in public about the hybrids, but my group, Alpha Squad, we’re keeping things even more secretive, like you’ve already seen. I thought Quinen and this island would be the end, but now we have this Ouroboros to worry about, which means the fight isn’t over. It might just be beginning.”
“In other words, you’re going to continue to do crazy investigations and raids like you have here? And you’ll probably run into murderous guards and crazy guys with powers who like to rant?”
Maximus nodded. “We can’t rest until we know it’s truly safe. From what Quinen said, this Ouroboros might not have much interest in hybrids directly, but they do have an interest in Vestals. That might have just been Quinen, but we can’t be sure.” He sat down beside her and took her small hand in his. He never wanted to let go. “Things are different between us than they normally are with hybrids and their Vestals. What we share is somewhere between what happens for humans and the bonding of normal hybrids. I’m not going to sit here and lie. I love you, but I also understand that if this is all too much for you, and that you might not feel as connected to me the same way I feel connected to you.” He let go of her hand and sighed. “And I understand the danger might be too much. Now I can promise you won’t normally be on missions with me, so you won’t be targeted like you were here, and we have our own island base for Alpha Squad separate from Isla Luna, but…”
“Island base?” Selena smirked. “Do you have a secret jet at your secret island base?”
“We’ve got a helicopter.” He shrugged. “Trajan’s our pilot.”
Maximus: #1 (Luna Lodge: Alpha Squad) Page 18