Chapter 24
Peter
Arya stops, her eyes locked on James, my enhanced hearing picking up her heart as it races a million knots a second. I turn and float down the hall where Nerissa fled, wanting to tear after her, but knowing I can’t.
She’s getting away.
“Dad … Dad?” James pulls himself from Smeid’s support and rushes to Thacher, kneeling beside his father and lifting his head into his lap.
Blood seeps over Thacher’s shirt, soaking most of his mid-section. James clutches at the wound, trying to contain the flow, but Thacher’s vanished. No way anyone could survive that wound. James’s eyes narrow as he looks up at Arya, horror and disbelief overtaking his face.
“James, I’m so sorry,” Arya says, slowly approaching him. “We didn’t know it was him.”
“Was it you?” James grits out, fire burning in his glare.
Arya stops in her tracks, jaw squared.
“It was me,” I say, raising my hands in the air and drifting closer to Arya. “He was going to kill us.”
James’s head drops. He’s silent as he holds his father in his arms. Smeid stands behind James, shaking his head at me. I land and take a few steps closer to James, but he springs to his feet, completely catching me off guard. The effects of the injection are apparently gone now.
“The one thing I begged for you to avoid,” James snarls. “We’re here for twenty minutes and he’s dead … by your hands!”
“Please, James,” Arya begs. “I never wanted this.”
“Don’t blame her,” I insist. “She didn’t see it was him. Neither of us did.”
James stares at me, jaw locked, teeth gritted.
“Don't do this, man,” I say. “It won’t end well for you.”
Arya grabs my forearm. “Peter.”
Her words don’t calm James, though. He lunges at me with a balled fist. I catch his punch in my palm, but the force of it carries me back into the corridor wall, my back stinging from the impact. Something’s different. James leans in and pins me back with both hands.
“Well, this is new,” I grunt.
James leans in close. “It’s about time we had an even playing field.”
“What are you doing?” Arya yells, panic lacing her voice.
Using all my strength, I clutch James’s shirt and spin him around, pinning him against the wall. His face burns with rage.
“I’m giving you one last chance to stop this,” I warn.
“James, this isn’t you,” Arya pleads “Whatever Nerissa injected you with … it’s messing with your mind.”
“Maybe not,” I say through gritted teeth. “He’s been with the Syndicate too long. Who knows what they’ve been doing to him all these years.”
James lets out a low growl, igniting his anger. He snaps his head forward, smashing me in my nose. The blow forces me to release my grip on him and sends me to the floor, eyes welling up at the intense stinging. The tang of metal runs down the back of my throat as blood trickles over my lip.
“This is pointless,” I say, wiping at the blood with the back of my hand. “We let Nerissa escape, and I have to find Lily before Nerissa takes her.”
“So my father was pointless?”
Arya steps in between us, extending her arms. This is becoming her job with James and I.
“I won’t allow this to happen,” Arya says. “I need you both. No more of this.”
She backs up hesitantly, lowering her arms. James’s chest rises and falls, same as one of Nerissa’s experimental monster freaks, but I don’t think Nerissa will put James down like she did those failed mutants back in the day.
Just as I rise, James hurdles my way, tackling me at the waist. We fall back as he pins me on the ground. My breathing is shallow; his knee is pressed on my abdomen. His newly enhanced strength is greater than I can handle.
“Enough!” Arya screams as she latches onto his shoulder, attempting to pull him back, but there’s no way it’ll work.
James’s pupils are dilated, adrenaline-filled anger locking his attention on me. I’ve seen that look; like a great white before it chomps down. Without even glancing at her, he swipes his elbow back, forearm connecting with the side of Arya’s head. A heavy thud cuts the chaos as she flies back and slides limply to the shiny floor.
My blood boils at the sight, and my own adrenaline pours through my veins, turning the tables in my favor. With only one of James’s hands on me now, I free my elbow and clock him across the jaw, flipping him off me. He rolls three times and stops just shy of Arya. Spinning to her, his mouth falls open, apparently just now realizing what he did.
“Arya?” he calls to her.
I don’t allow him an opportunity to regain his composure and send my boot into his back. He smacks into the floor, face first. Smeid rushes to him, but stops short as he catches the fury in my eyes.
“I suggest you step back, Smeid.”
He raises his hands and slowly retreats backward into the dark corner I’m sure he was hiding in before. I turn to Arya, her body lifeless. As if on autopilot, I lift from the floor and drift over to her and drop quickly. Kneeling beside her, I check her pulse. She’s alive, but out cold.
A loud snap catches my attention. Turning, I get blindsided by something cold and sturdy. My jaw goes numb as my head snaps back. Wobbly, I steady myself and return to James, holding a long metal pipe he must’ve ripped from the wall.
“You made me do that,” James says, pointing the pipe at Arya.
“You’re out of control,” I say, grabbing my throbbing jaw.
“You’ve pitted her against me,” he says, spitting blood on the floor.
“This is all you, man. I’m never letting you near her again.”
His eyes narrow and his nostrils flare. He didn’t enjoy that statement. His newfound intensity returns, but before he has a chance to strike, I look back and notice a strip of sharp metal plating peeling away from the wall. Without thinking, I pry it free and point it at him. “Don’t even think about it, James.”
He ignores my warning and yells, charging me with the pipe hoisted over his head. He swings at me, but I draw back, allowing the pipe to smash on the floor. Instincts kick in and I rip the plating down at his arm. I connect and cut through his wrist. His severed hand, still tightly gripping the pipe, falls, pipe clanking on the solid flooring.
Shock fills his face. He clutches at the severed limb, blood spurting from the stump of his wrist. My heart sinks into my stomach as the horror of what I did floods my body.
I release the plating and cover my mouth. “I’m sorry, James. I … I didn’t want this. None of this.” I signal to Smeid, who’s cowering up alongside a bulkhead opposite the corridor. All I can do is point to James. He hesitates, but runs over, pulling a handkerchief from his jacket and wrapping James’s wrist.
“Get him to a med bay,” I tell Smeid hollowly. “Please, just get him some help. And drop that nav device. I’m not done here, but I can’t do this without your Syndicate intel.”
Smeid’s breathing quickens; I can hear his pulse racing. He won’t take his eyes from me. His entire body is shaking, but he manages to slide the small tablet across the floor toward me. I pick it up and stash it in my pocket before rounding back to James. He’s hunched over and quiet, his face nearly gray. He’s in shock. Smeid slips his arms under James’s and struggles to lift him up. James is barely able to move as Smeid tugs him through the hall and out of sight.
My head spins at what just occurred. I close my lids and exhale deeply, calming my nerves, and turn back to Arya. She’s out cold. I scoop her up. She’ll be crushed.
Her head falls back, revealing her full neck as her arm slips and falls to her side. Her gills open and vent slowly. I need her to be OK. She’s the closest thing to family I’ve got, yet I’ve betrayed her all over.
Not sure what to do next, I start walking slowly, but stop in my tracks at a pool of blood and a fresh red trail where Thacher’s body once was.
/> He was dead, right?
Did someone take him during the fight?
There's no time to think about this. I must stop Nerissa and find Lily. I can’t do this alone.
I need Arya.
Chapter 25
Arya
Buzzing racks my brain and a dull, pulsing ache thrums on the side of my skull just above my ear. I wrench open my eyelids to a fuzzy, gray world. The urge to sleep washes over my body, and I can’t remember why, but I’m positive sleeping is a bad idea.
“Arya?”
A muffled voice calls my name from a long distance. I waffle between giving into the need for sleep and the need to find out what the voice wants. Maybe I’m dreaming.
“Arya,” the voice calls again. This time it’s louder, more urgent.
Pushed into reality, I gasp for breath, and my vision mostly clears. Peter’s face is inches from mine. His pupils are large, dilated, and the strain in his expression gives away his panic.
“Arya, you’re awake.”
“I’m awake,” I groan, grabbing for my head. I scan the room, but my brain seems to be running in slow motion, and nothing feels familiar. It’s just a dull lit space with a handful tables and chairs. “Where are we?”
“Neverland, remember?” He frowns, but not in anger. Concern radiates off him. “You’re not OK, are you?” He mumbles a string of curses. “Can you sit?”
He places his hands under my back and I slowly lever myself up from the cold floor onto my elbows. The room spins slightly, then settles. I push up the rest of the way up and sit on my own. When I do, the memories flood back like a tidal wave.
James.
Thacher.
All that blood.
The wild look in James’s eyes.
It’s as if the wind is sucked out of me. I launch to my feet, but then the walls seem to rotate and my knees buckle. Unable to steady myself, I fall forward, but Peter catches me.
“Whoa, there,” he says, keeping me upright.
“Where’s James?” I mumble, trying to catch my breath.
“James?”
“Yes, Peter. James. Where is he?”
Peter stares at me. “Uh … Smeid has James. Whatever Nerissa injected him with drove him crazy. He’s not thinking straight.”
Fear wells in my chest. Him not thinking straight is an understatement. “And he just went with Smeid? And left Thacher?”
A guilty expression flashes over Peter’s face. “Not exactly…”
My fear twists into anger. “Not exactly?”
“I... I had to knock him out.”
“You knocked him out?” I try to recall what happened, but I can’t. It’s all a blur.
“After that, Smeid said he’d take him to safety. He knows people here.” Peter catches my shoulders, gripping them hard. “Arya, he knocked you out. I know he didn’t mean it, but he did. I didn’t have a lot of choices.” He pauses, as though he was about to spill something else, but decided against it. “We have to catch Nerissa. This madness must stop.”
My head still pounds, and it’s hard to think clearly, but I know he’s right. This does need to stop. We need peace.
“And Smeid is taking James somewhere safe?”
Peter stares at me for a long moment before answering. “Yes. Now, are you OK to continue?”
I close my lids and inhale, centering myself. When this is over, I’ll find James, and we can fix this together. Everything that happened is Nerissa’s fault, not his. “I think so. If you’re certain James is OK.”
Peter nods.
“What should we do next?”
Peter smiles, relief filling his expression. He squeezes my shoulder, then releases it. “Good. OK.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tablet. Without hesitation, he taps the screen, lighting it up. “Smeid gave me his device.”
“But can you get in?”
He studies the data, blue irises darting back and forth, studying the display. “Smeid had the information unlocked, but I have to figure out what it all means. If Elijah were here, he’d already be in.” Peter scrolls through the data. “Recent organizational assignments …” he mumbles, “operational details … here … all the goods on the Syndicate are right here. Why didn’t Smeid tell us he had all this intel before?”
“I’m sure he wanted to keep some form of power. It’s not like he’s your biggest fan.”
“There.” Peter points to the screen and shows it to me. “That’s where we’re going to find Nerissa.”
I squint at the blurry words. My vision is still a tad off. “Neverland Emergency Shelter? But that’s for all of Neverland. It’s way more than she needs. She might be hiding anywhere.”
“No, look.” He points again. “It’s perfect. She can lock the whole settlement down, and it hooks up to several escape pods. The best way to get to those is through the shelter.”
I study the map. “You can access them from the outside in the water. I could—”
“No, you can’t. You have no way of knowing how you’ll do in the water after getting hurt … and I can’t help you that way. We have to stick together.”
A wave of agony ripples through my head, reminding me that he’s probably right. I may get out in the sea and black out. That wouldn’t do any of us good.
I suck in a breath and will the torment away. “Fine, let’s go.”
Peter tosses me a pistol and we rush from the room and back into the hallway. For some reason, there aren’t other people. Nerissa must have cleared this area when she had us in custody; to keep our arrival under wraps. That is why she called in Thacher to help her escape instead of the guards.
Or it could all be too easy.
“Peter?”
He turns back to me for a second as we run. “Yeah?”
“You know this is likely a trap?”
“Yep, but it’s not going to stop me.” He returns his focus to the tablet and leads me to the right.
I let out a sonar click to assess our surroundings, a wave of pain resonating in my skull, but despite that, the image is clear. There’s only one human.
“A human's ahead on the left. Three doors up,” I say.
Peter skids to a halt, aiming his blaster forward. I brake myself, skidding on the floor, but my reflexes are slow and I all but slam into his back.
His shoulders tense as he trains the weapon the way of the unseen person. “What can you tell about them?”
He’s not planning to make the same kind of mistake we made with Thacher. I click the sonar again and the pain flares again. I clench my teeth, then release them once it passes.
“It’s not an adult. Too small.”
He relaxes and twists to me. “Could be a shorty like you.”
I scoff and roll my eyes. “It’s not. The size indicates a child. I’m pretty confident a male.”
He lowers his rifle and we continue to the door. It has a tiny window set into it. Peter peers through it and his eyes light up. “It’s Tug!” he says, turning to me.
My heart lightens slightly with hope. After everything that’s happened, I’d nearly forgotten about him, even though he’s half the reason we’re even here.
“What do you want to do abo—”
Peter raises his foot and kicks the door in with a tremendous boom. The door slams into the wall behind it, and a girlish scream echoes from inside the room. Tug’s scream.
I wince and Peter dashes inside.
“Peter!” Tug yells in a shaky voice as Peter rushes over to him and picks up his stocky body, swinging him around.
“I can’t believe we found you,” Peter says, placing him down and tousling the kid’s short hair. “Did they hurt you?”
Tug looks dumbfounded, but a goofy, nervous smile pulls at the corners of his lips. “After they took me, they brought me here.” The smile fades and his gaze falls to the floor. “They tortured me. Using shock stuff and other scary stuff. Not fun, not fun at all!”
“And you told them stuff about us?” Peter as
ks gently.
Tug’s eyes well up and his voice quivers. “I … I didn’t mean to.”
Peter grasps his shoulder. “It’s OK. I know.”
Tug falls into Peter and grabs him at the waist, hugging him. Peter squeezes back.
“Okay, I’m loving this reunion, but Arya and I have a few things to do.” Peter glances around. “This wing is totally deserted, and as much as I hate to say this, I think you should sit tight here until we come back to get you.”
“I don’t want to stay here,” Tug pleads, his voice thick with panic.
“I know you don’t,” Peter says, a bit of defeat peppering his voice. “But you can’t come with us, and it’ll take me too long to show you on the map how to get out. You could get lost.”
I step forward toward the scared kid. “We’ll come back for you. I promise.” I look to Peter. “I never leave people behind if I can help it.”
“She doesn’t,” Peter agrees, pulling from Tug. “Now you’ll be fine. We’ll be back in an hour.”
Tug flops on the cot in the room, arms crossed. “How will I know when it’s an hour?”
Peter thinks for a second. “Um… count to six hundred. Six times. That will be about an hour.”
I give him a scowl. Who counts to six hundred six times?
Peter shrugs at me. “What? I had a lot of free time before you got me off that ship.”
“One, two, three—” Tug dutifully says, pressing his lids shut.
“Not too fast,” Peter reminds him, patting the end of the cot. “We’ll be back soon.”
He snags my arm and we dash out the door.
“Nine, ten, eleven …” Tug’s voice floats out after us, sending guilt into my center at leaving him behind.
We’ll come back.
Peter leads me down a stairwell toward our destination, according to the tablet. At the bottom, we duck into a metal doorway. Peter slows.
“It’s just up there,” he says, pointing straight.
I release my sonar and the image returns. Thankfully, there’s no sting in my head this time, but there are several bulky humans not far from here.
“There are two guys up there on the right. Pretty big, I think. I have no idea if they’re altered.”
NeverSea: Echoes of the Lost (Book One) Page 17