The next morning she sat with him for breakfast and said nothing about his swollen battered face. She locked the anger away inside of her and made a promise that one day Lucy would suffer. She wouldn’t just die; first Lexia would ruin her carefully laid plans and watch as the life left her eyes.
Chapter 37
Lexia woke screaming, her sheets twisted, damp and clinging to her skin. Kicking them off franticly Lexia dragged herself upright, hugging her knees to her chest whilst the last whispers of her nightmare left her mind. She’d been having this nightmare for the last few days; it was Christmas morning and she sat at the kitchen table in her family home, the faces of the people she loved and the people she wished she could save, smiling back at her. But then came the moment when the dream turned into a nightmare, when her mother walked in and slowly murdered everyone and all she could do was sit there and scream, no matter what she did, Lexia couldn’t save them.
Jumping from her bed she glanced at the time, 2 am. “Well Merry Christmas, Lex,” she whispered to herself. The dead empty feeling she’d been trying so hard to keep at bay, started to churn and expand. She looked down at her shaking hands and stuck them quickly under her armpits.
I need to get out of here!
She stood there slowing crumbling, coming apart at the seams. She had a desperate clawing need to escape, to just feel air on her face, to run and feel the pounding earth beneath her feet. She opened her wardrobe and started to sling on clothes not even noticing what she picked up. As she slid on her leather boots, she noticed she’d put on the tight black trousers Derrick had given her. Slinging her jacket over the tank top she’d put on she paused for a second and slipped her ruby knife down the edge of her boot. With the cool silver against her calf she felt oddly calm. The little things that Derrick had saved - her necklace, boots, and knives, these things kept her going, gave her a reminder of what she fought for.
Testing the lock she was pleased to find it still open. Had Derrick left it open on purpose? Or had he simply forgot? No, she thought, Derrick had disobeyed Lucy again, he’d left it open for her so she felt less like a prisoner.
Walking silently through the dark corridors Lexia planned to go find Derrick. She needed to talk, she just needed a distraction from the things in her mind. Maybe he could convince Lucy to let her go running, not that the weather was any good for running, but at least she could breathe fresh air.
Lexia paused, intending to search for Derrick’s unique aura, but found herself in an unknown part of the compound. Taking a few steps she looked around realizing she had been here before. She’d been here in her first few weeks, weeks she’d like to block from her mind. ‘Medical and Science’ Derrick had called it, her feet kept moving as if they knew the direction they wanted to go and the further Lexia went, the quieter she became. Like the time she’d caught her father talking to a strange woman, she became a shadow, barely breathing as she crept closer to a door. The door was ajar, warm light spilling out into the dark corridor and muffled angry voices drifted to Lexia’s ears.
“What do you mean they lost them?” Lucy said, her voice quivering in anger.
“They just radioed in ma’am, the team are heading in,” responded a quiet man’s voice.
“Absolutely not! They will not return until they’ve found them!”
“I’m sorry but I am struggling to reach them, the weather is messing up the signal.”
“What exactly did they say? Every word Alex, or I may lose my temper.”
“Tanner said that the shifter pair took to the forests a few weeks ago. They are searching for the girl but the team cannot keep up with them, they are travelling as panther and leopard.”
Lexia’s heart was hammering so hard she thought it was a miracle they couldn’t hear it from inside the room.
“And the rest of the family? How about the shifters family? That girl, Lexia’s friend, Amy was it?”
“The family has gone underground, ma’am and we lost track of her friend months ago.”
Lucy’s next words shook with the effort to stay in control, “So let me get this straight; the team lost track of the shifters weeks ago and decided it wasn’t prudent to inform me, they have been unsuccessfully tracking them through the forests because they are incapable of outsmarting animals, and not only that, anyone else I had left to threaten my daughter with has disappeared. I have no means at all to keep her in line and to top it off we have two cats out in the forests somewhere capable of surviving the winter and quite possibly finding the compound?”
“Ye-yes ma’am,” Alex stammered.
Lexia’s hand slammed the door open before she’d even realized what she was doing. Lucy startled and spun to face her, visibly shrinking back when she saw Lexia, eyes shining bright gold, rage barely contained.
“I told you to leave them! I told you if you touched them I’d kill you! Is it not enough that I’m here? That you had my father killed, that you destroyed my friend’s life, my life! You’ve taken everything from me and still it’s not enough! YOU WILL NEVER STOP WILL YOU? YOU WILL NEVER BE HAPPY!” Lexia screamed at her mother, her chest heaving and her hands clenched into tights fists, fists that wanted to connect with Lucy’s face.
Lexia turned to leave she’d had enough, she needed to get out, she needed to breathe. It was as if the concrete walls were pressing down on her, closing in, slowly crushing the life from her. She needed trees, she needed fresh air, she needed home.
“Maura, don’t you dare walk away from me!” Lucy snapped, following her.
“Or what, Mother? What will you possibly do?”
“I’ll, I’ll torture Derrick! You have an unhealthy relationship with him!”
Lexia turned, her blade pulling from her boot with a swipe, she walked slowly back towards her mother, her boots clicking and echoing off the walls. “How will you torture anyone Mother when I cut out your tongue? Or maybe I should take off your fingers, and then maybe your arms, maybe I’ll hang you from the wall and slowly break you like you did to me. Do you think you will last as long as me, Mother? Will you beg for me to stop? Or will you contain your pain as I have learned to do?”
The sharp point was inches from Lucy’s neck, steady and strong, just a simple flick of her wrist and she’d be dead, she wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. But feet were pounding nearer, her time was running out, and would killing Lucy really benefit her?
“Called reinforcements, Mother? What’s the matter, are you frightened of your own daughter? Maybe if you had actually acted like a mother we wouldn’t be here... How weak you become when stripped of your threats and bodyguards.”
Lucy pulled a gun from her belt and aimed it at her but Lexia just laughed. Her laugh was high pitched and mad. I’ve finally gone insane, she thought.
“Do it, Mother, shoot me, but make sure it’s through my head, because a simple bullet doesn’t slow me down. That’s how you made me, remember? How does it feel having a plan back fire on you?”
“Lexia!” Derrick’s voice echoed behind her.
“Derrick, how nice of you to join us... Your pet’s here, Mother, do you feel better now?”
Lucy said nothing; she stood frozen, staring at her daughter with hatred and outrage like fire in her eyes.
“Lexia, there are soldiers coming, stop this before you get hurt,” Derrick said.
“Oh I’m sure I could get past them, Derrick and as my mother knows, she’s run out of people to use against me.”
For a split second Lexia let the darkness to the surface, she imagined driving the knife into her neck and watching her mother’s blood coat the blade in ruby red; just a simple thrust and she’d be gone...
But what would be left of me?
With a flick of her wrist, the sharp point of her blade sliced into the soft delicate skin on Lucy’s neck; Lucy’s eyes widened, her hand going to her throat.
“Don’t look so surprised, Mother, it’s just a scratch.”
Turning she ran before she gave into her dark desires.
Lucy’s ice cold words shouted behind her, “Get her!”
Her feet pounded against concrete, Derrick’s becoming closer with each passing second. Lexia easily passed through the soldiers, most simply stood aside as she past, others received a slice across the knees making them drop to the floor.
She reached the area Derrick always brought her to before blindfolding her. She started to count the steps she’d take with him, soon she pushed through a door and into a large hanger full of Jeeps and dark SUV’s, crates of boxes, and Hunters manning the exits.
“Maura!” Lucy screamed.
“Lexia, please” Derrick begged.
Freedom.
Freedom was within her grasp, trees and wildlife, fresh air; she leaped over the barrier, knocking out the Hunter who rushed at her. Racing up a steep road, Lexia finally made it outside. It was dark out, the sound of an owl hooted in the distance. As her feet moved her further, sinking into the now rapidly thickening snow, she saw a large fence with barbed wire curled over and over sitting on top, reminding her she was a prisoner.
A man came walking up to her, the light from his little hut casting onto his confused face.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Lexia brought up her knife, pressing the point into his throat. “Let me out, please just let me out. I can’t breathe in here anymore.”
He slowly walked sideways, his finger hovering over a button. “Okay, okay, don’t hurt me.”
“Do not open that gate!” Lucy snapped from behind her.
The man’s eyes widened and he gulped, looking at the sharp knife. “B-but but…” he stammered.
“But nothing, you will give up your life to keep her in here.”
Lexia burst out laughing, “Oh, Mother, you really have no boundaries, do you?”
“Just let her go,” Derrick said.
Lexia smiled and nodded to the man. He pressed the button and Lexia raced to freedom.
“No!” Lucy screamed.
Lexia’s steps faltered, she turned as Lucy started to shout at Derrick. “She’ll come back,” he was saying.
Lucy’s hand slapped his face and Lexia took a step back towards the compound but Derrick met her eyes and with the slightest shakes told her to go.
Their final words whispered towards her and she raced into the dark night, her feet sinking into snow up to her knees.
“Lucy trust me, she will be back. She isn’t like the rest of us, just let her deal with her emotions.”
“Those emotions are the very things I want stamped out of that girl. You best be right Derrick or it will be you and your family that die next... Oh and Derrick, my pet, it will not be a quick death.”
Lexia ran. The earth sloped upwards covered in a foot of snow. She sank to her knees, her hands digging into the snow as she scrambled up and away from the compound. Her hands froze until her fingers burned and her legs ached as she forced them to keep moving; scrambling in the dark, she barely avoided the trees around her but still she didn’t stop. She ran until her body literally passed out, her face in the snow, her aching exhausted body slowly going numb. She welcomed the feeling, welcomed the fog that started to cover her brain. If I lay here long enough maybe I’ll freeze to death.
A rustle to Lexia’s left made her lift her head. Sitting upright Lexia shook off her morbid thoughts. Her eyes closed as power washed over her, opening her eyes now Lexia saw a more detailed world; right in front of her stood large old tree, its trunk stood straight and proud. Her body moved, hands gripping into bark, feet scaling the tree as if they were the paws of her panther. She reached the large branch that spilt off, crawling along it Lexia stretched her legs out along the branch and leaned back against the trunk.
Closing her eyes she finally allowed herself to breathe and with her breath came the emotions she’d been keeping locked away for too long. Hot tears thawed her cheeks as they tumbled uncontrollably from her eyes.
Lexia wanted to hit herself, she should have never lost her temper with Lucy. She knew her mother well enough now to know that no one crossed Lucy Hunter without feeling her wrath tenfold. Lucy may have lost track of Lincoln and Caden, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hurt Lexia in another way and Lexia knew after what she’d said to her this morning she would pay. Lucy hadn’t stayed in power for over a decade because she was a pushover. Lexia almost jumped down from her tree and ran. She almost took off for freedom and left the people inside to their fate. She owed Derrick nothing, it wasn’t her responsibility to save everyone, but even as the thought flitted across her mind Lexia knew it was a lie. She owed Derrick, she owed him a lot. He’d saved Caden from the burning car, from the moment she met him surrounded by Hunters in the hallway her father had been murdered in, he’d helped her. He let Alice escape, he let her jump from her window; time and time again he’d let her walk away without any hesitation. She couldn’t leave him, she couldn’t condemn his family to death because she wanted to be free.
More faces appeared in her mind’s eye: the recruits she trained; Belinda, the young girl who looked so lost and frightened; Marcus, whose face lit up whenever she was near. Lexia could pretend all she wanted that she wasn’t like them, that she was biding her time until she could escape. But the reality was there were people inside that compound as trapped as her and the longer she stayed with them, the longer she trained them, the longer she knew them, the harder it became to leave. Lexia wouldn’t be free until she could free the Hunters and bring down the force that trapped them.
The problem is I have no idea what to do...
Lexia suddenly had the feeling she was being watched, the forest around her had grown silent, even the wind seemed to have quietened. She thought maybe Lucy had sent someone to get her but it was very unlikely they’d spot her up here. Even if they managed to see her tracks, the Hunters weren’t adapted to the forest. They hadn’t been trained like she had, they couldn’t move through trees like a cat but she could. Deciding to move on Lexia used the light from the moon to slowly move from tree to tree. When no one followed, when she heard no movement below her other than the scurry of small animals, Lexia stopped. She sat in a tree and watched as the sun began to rise.
As the sun peaked slowly above the horizon Lexia saw for the first time what the Hunter compound looked like from the outside. From her position she could see the slope she’d run up and then beyond that another hill covered in snow and scattered with trees. But under that earth lived hundreds of Hunters, hundreds of killers. The boundary fence was hard to see from her spot. The fence ran around the lowest point, dense trees scattered around hiding it from view, but really, why would anyone be out here? The compound must have been here for years and no one had found it and if they had; they’d not live to tell another soul.
As the sun started to filter through the trees lifting the darkness of night, Lexia felt that presence again.
“Who’s out there?” she called, her head leant back, eyes closed.
No one answered.
“Not talking to me? Well, I could just see who you are.”
Lexia closed her eyes and opened up her mind. “Hmm well, little wolf, are you going to come talk to me?”
A small grey wolf moved into her view, its misty blue eyes locking with hers in the tree. Lexia let her legs dangle either side of the trunk she sat on and leaned forward, resting her head on her folded arms.
“Hello wolf, what are you doing all the way out here?” Lexia sat up and pulled off her jacket shivering as her bare arms met cold air. “Here stick this on and we can talk... I don’t speak wolf.”
The wolf looked at the jacket she’d dropped down but didn’t move.
“Come on little wolf, one way conversations are so... Well, one sided... I know what you are, now shift and tell me what you’re doing out in the middle of nowhere on Christmas day.”
The wolf looked at her and then the jacket, with one last glance around it shifted into a young man, his messy blonde hair fell into his misty blue eyes as
he looked up.
“It’s Christmas day?” he asked in a croaky voice as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. He picked up the coat and slipped easily into it.
“How old are you?” Lexia asked, thinking he was just a boy.
“Seventeen, why?”
“No reason.”
“How’d you know I was a shifter?” he asked.
“Just did... So what’s your name?”
“Sammy. You?”
Lexia nearly slipped from her tongue. “L- Laura.”
“Laura, ay... So what are you doing out in the middle of nowhere on Christmas day?”
“Just am,” Lexia smiled.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty.” Lexia’s head whipped around; in the distance she heard the sound of a commotion, pushing her mind out Lexia picked up four people at the entrance to the Hunter compound. One of them was Derrick.
Lexia dropped from the tree, landing in a crouch. She looked up at Sammy, “Come on, time to leave.”
“Who is that?”
“You don’t want to know... Come on, you might wanna shift before your toes drop off.”
“No wait... I’m out here for a reason... My Alpha, he went missing. I tracked him to here.”
Lexia turned around and looked at Sammy with his ruffled blond hair and sad misty blue eyes, he was tall but had not filled out yet, right now he looked more like fourteen than seventeen.
“Sammy listen, if your Alpha’s trail ends here, then it’s too late. I’m sorry but we need to move unless you want to join him.”
“This way I have a backpack stashed with clothes in it.”
Lexia followed Sammy a little ways up. When he paused he pulled a black bag down from a tree, Lexia turned her back as he dressed. “How’d you get that out here? I’m guessing you travelled as wolf.”
“I carried it in my mouth... So you know why I’m here, now tell me what a girl’s doing out in the wild.”
“They’re coming... Come on and I’ll tell you.” Lexia dragged him off until they’d circled over the tracks a few times and when she found the perfect tree she covered their tracks as they went and prepared to climb.
Whispers of Darkness (The Deadwood Hunter Series) Page 26