I wrapped the blanket tighter around me. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Well, what’s yer heart tellin’ ya?”
Wisps of gray hair had fallen from his low ponytail, and the light of the fire made him look like a native medicine man or some sort of warrior spirit.
“It’s telling me to save my husband. To do whatever it takes to get him back.”
“If you had the strength and the will, how would ya do it?”
“I don’t know,” I said louder than was necessary. Our eyes met across the fire. “Even if I could find Antec, I couldn’t kill him, and the only other way I can think to get them back is to get to Lilia. Get her away from The Council so all their abilities are stripped. If Antec lost his ability William and the rest would be set free. But I don’t know where Lilia is or how to get to her. I’ve got nothing to go on.”
He nodded his head and stirred the beans. So much for not telling him anything.
“What about yer head?” he asked. “What?”
“What is yer head tellin’ ya? Lotsa times it’s different than yer heart.”
At first I didn’t have an answer. My head was confused. I tried to think outside of myself. If I weren’t me, what would be best for my people?
“Try and find the rest of my team with Dr. Nickel and continue the fight against Christoph.”
“And yer gut?”
I knew immediately what my gut was telling me. The warehouse vision had been lingering in my mind unfinished, unresolved. Everything in me said to go there. It was like a beacon drawing me in, but that would mean giving up on my friends, on William.
“I can’t . . . I mean, how do I know what’s right? What if
I make the wrong decisions?”
He poked the fire with a stick, sending sparks into the air, like fireflies dancing in the night.
“Just make a choice and trust it’s right. Follow it ’til the end and maybe it’ll put ya exactly where ya need to be.”
Knots formed in my chest at the thought. Choosing meant losing someone or failing one way or the other. “I can’t do that. I can’t risk everything for a maybe.”
“There ain’t no wrong way. There’s only the way ya choose. It’ll happen the way it’s suppose to. Even if it’s not what you expect. Even if it turns out bad, there’s always a reason.”
“It’s different for me,” I confessed. “I see things, the future. I should know which way to go, what to do.”
“I’m not talkin’ about oracles and visions.” My brow pulled together in surprise. I didn’t realize he knew so much about who I was. “I’m talkin’ about there’s something bigger guidin’ us where we’re suppose to go.”
My eyes lifted. “You mean God?”
“Somethin’ like that.”
His face glowed orange from behind the flames.
“Do you really think you were meant to kill all the people you have? That killing innocent humans was for a reason?”
He spooned the warm beans back into the cut open can, stuck a spoon in, and handed it to me. “I’m not sayin’ I done right. I know I haven’t, but the things I done put me here, made me the perfect man to help ya do what ya need to do.”
I held the warm meal between my palms. “You act like you know what that is. Even if my head is telling me to find Dr. Nickel or my gut is telling me to get to the humans your men have been collecting. I have no idea where any of them are . . .”
“I do,” he said, “and lucky for you, I think it’s the same place.”
I didn’t sleep well that night. Partly from the cold, but mostly because I was afraid to make a choice that felt wrong, even though I knew it was right. William and the others were gone, forced to sleep in the prison of the Underworld. I had no way of knowing what that was like. There was probably a reason it was known in myths as a place for dead souls. I couldn’t imagine anyone had come back. The thought made my heart twist until I thought I’d be sick. How could I leave them?
I woke up with Luther’s blanket draped over me. Though it felt like I hadn’t slept at all, I knew I had. I’d dreamt of the warehouse again. It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up. Only it wasn’t my thought, it was hers. She was pointing me in the right direction. I remembered the oracle’s words, Listen to her. I rested my hands on my warm belly. It had been growing. Just enough that I could tell.
When I peeked my head outside the tent, I saw Luther. There was a fire, and roasting on the end of two long sticks were some sort of skinned animals. Rabbits, maybe.
“Hungry?” he asked, pulling one back from the flames.
“Yeah.”
I sat on a log and reached my hands toward the heat. It was still cold enough to see my breath. He ripped the leg off one of the cooked animals and handed it to me. I took it without hesitating and bit into the warm meat.
“Been collectin’ wood this mornin’. Yer gonna need more darts than what ya got.”
I nodded as I chewed, letting him know I’d made my choice to follow him. Maybe it was never a choice. It seemed like the only thing I could do.
“Thanks,” I said, eyeing the small pile of twigs, each one straight and smooth to make for easy carving. “How’d you know I could make the darts?”
“I know Mac taught ya right,” he answered. “I taught him.” He grabbed the other stick off of the fire and reached into his back pocket. “Here.” He handed me a fold-up blade. “Better get goin’.”
As I carved, he talked.
“There’ll be a lot of ’em. Best to go slow. Take out one at a time and hide the bodies. The longer ya stay invisible the better.”
“I can’t do this alone,” I said to him. “There are others who can help. Maybe if we—”
“Where ya were before, the ones there, none of it’s o’ use to ya. Best assume the place has been found. Christoph has ways o’ gettin’ information from people. We’re on our own.” The ache I’d been carrying around in my chest sank into my stomach. Anna, Chloe, Helen, Rachel, Edith, Sofia, so many were left unprotected.
“We need to go—”
“No. Too risky.”
I was starting to wonder if Luther wasn’t just using me to right the wrongs of his past.
I opened the knife with weak, fearful fingers and took a deep breath, hoping he was wrong. Luther stayed quiet for a while, watching me as I slid the blade across the wood.
“It’s better this way,” he said. “They’ll be expectin’ more than just you, watchin’ for numbers. Alone is yer best chance to slip in unnoticed.”
I nodded and continued carving.
“Hunters’ll need double the blood at least. Don’t be afraid to kill ’em. Better them than you. If it’s them in yer shoes they’d kill without thought. Ya need to be the same.”
“You want me to kill your men?”
He nodded. “If it comes to that. Like I said. Sometimes doin’ what ya want and doin’ what’s right ain’t always the same thing.”
I thought of Kara, of putting on that hard mask and becoming the person I needed to be. Forgetting the person I was. Forgetting the hopelessness. Forgetting my weaknesses. I had to be a killer.
“The place has a couple levels, rooms for experiments and such—”
“Experiments?” I looked up from the blade.
He nodded, watching me, as if waiting for me to crack or give up because it was all too much. But I couldn’t.
“Been goin’ on for years that way. Not sure what he’s lookin’ for.”
“When do we leave?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Whenever yer ready.”
“Tonight,” I said, carving a little faster.
26.
THE IDEA OF TAKING ACTION made my heart chug. I wanted to leave sooner, before I changed my mind. I rode on the back of the bike this time. It was easier, and we could ride at higher speeds without Luther having to restrain me. I wrapped my arms tightly around his thick body as we drove, clinging to a man who could have easily decided to k
ill me. Maybe that was still his plan, but I had to trust him. He was my only option.
Jets of cold air rushed past us making my ears numb, and my hair whipped around in an angry fury, like wildfire. I buried my face into his back, hiding my eyes, pulling myself out of a reality I didn’t want to confront. My breath kept my nose warm and parts of my cheeks from feeling the biting air. When I looked up, I couldn’t see anything but the blackness that surrounded me. Even the moon was hiding tonight. The bike’s engine tore through the quiet, filling my ears with enough noise to keep my mind still.
When he exited the freeway I bit at my dry lips until I tasted the salty tang of blood. I lifted my head from his jacket, surprised to see buildings. They seemed out of place along the country roads. Smart, I thought, not secluded enough to be suspicious, but far enough out that screams wouldn’t be heard. He passed them all and drove into the rising hills that sat behind the industrial garden.
“What are we doing?” I asked when he shut the bike off in the middle of nowhere.
“We’ll need to go in through the back. They’ll be watching the roads. Prob’ly be watchin’ the hills too, but it’s our best shot.”
We hiked through trees and brush with no paths. Up hills, clawing at dirt and roots. Then I saw it, the building from my vision. It shone a dull gray under the stars. It looked deserted, but I knew better. The sight of it made my blood hot.
We stayed low, hands and knees against the ground. “I count ten,” he said. “How ’bout you?”
“Ten?” I asked. “I see six.”
“Look harder. Not just the obvious places. Them are decoys.”
I scanned the hillside to our left and right. There was a man on either side. Snipers. I saw another body flash quickly around the backside of the building. “Okay, nine.”
“Right below us,” he whispered.
Sure enough, down the sloping hill, a small girl in black hid crouched against the dark earth.
“Can you get her from here?”
I looked at him, still shocked that this was actually happening. “Yeah,” I said with a nod. I pulled a medium sized dart out of my satchel, but Luther stopped me.
“You’ll be needin’ a hollow.”
It seemed harder to breathe all of a sudden. “You want me to kill her?”
“That’s the idea. It’s her or you.”
I pulled out the thick hollow dart and filled it with my blood. Something felt wrong about killing someone I wasn’t defending myself against, like it was murder, but I’d seen things that had readied me for this. I’d had to heal the wounded, grieve the dead. I’d lost those closest to me. I’d lost William. I was here to end this, and if that meant killing those who were in my way, so be it.
I took off toward her, willing myself to muster the courage I needed. All I could hear was my breath as I crept up behind the girl. Her raven hair fell over her back and glistened with a blue sheen under the moon. She lay silently on her belly in the dry grass, and I didn’t wait to find out what her ability was. I didn’t think. I didn’t question. I just shot.
The hollow buried itself into her right shoulder, and she arched her back, flinching from the pain. I froze as I watched, keeping low and quiet until she was still. I’d killed Christoph’s people before, when they attacked us at my parents’, but I never felt guilt like this. This time it was my choice to kill her, and there was a price to pay for that.
“It’s done,” I said, over the soft crunch of my footsteps as I returned.
“Good.” Luther’s eyes drifted to my shaking fingers, and I clenched my fist to make it stop. “I’ll take out the man to the left, you get the one on the right. Meet back here. Can you do that?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” I needed to be stronger, to force that softer side of me out.
I crept with careful feet, stepping quietly over pine needles and dirt. Breathe, I told myself. In and out. The rhythm kept me at a steady pace, kept my heart from racing ahead of me. I went around to come up from behind the man. He wasn’t a Hunter. Nothing about him seemed overly-threatening, aside from the gun tucked under his arm. When I saw him, I lost focus and a twig snapped beneath my boot. He lifted his head from the scope, and my shoulders tensed. I made myself fit behind a tree before he looked back. I waited. I didn’t hear anything.
When I peered around the trunk, he was gone. My stomach sank. I couldn’t think. Where was he? Focus, I thought with clenched teeth. My eyes were sharp, my ears open. I punched the buttons on my bracelet and soaked another dart. A hollow. I would aim to kill. It was him or me.
He wasn’t as quiet as I was. I heard him to my left, saw him prowling. Hunting me. I slid around the trunk so I was hidden. Loaded the dart. Breathe. I stepped. Toe, heel. Toe, heel. Backward and to the left so I always had eyes on him. His back was to me. I pressed the gun to my lips. Wind check. Adjustment. Aim. I punched the air with my breath, and the dart hit him in the back of the neck. He reached for it, but fell. Dead. Eight more. Seven if Luther had killed his man.
As I crept back through the trees, I thought of what Luther said. Maybe it’ll put you right where you need to be. Maybe Lilia was here, or Adrianna. Maybe this was the way I got them all back, even if it meant saving the humans and the others, but being captured myself. Maybe that would get me close enough to the ones who had the answers. It was a slim chance, but I had no other plan to get to William, and if I couldn’t get William back, I wanted to be dead anyway. I tried to push that thought from my head. Tried to pretend I didn’t think it, not with a baby on the way. I was supposed to love her. I did love her, didn’t I? Somewhere in me, I knew I did. But right now I couldn’t feel it, and I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough when she was here.
Back at the meeting spot, Luther was nowhere to be seen. I stayed guarded. Loaded a dart. Looked around carefully for any sign of a threat.
I felt a gun to my back, a hand to my mouth, and I stiffened.
“Yer dead,” but the voice belonged to Luther. I swung around with a scowl.
“Keep them eyes and ears open,” he said as he tucked the gun into his pants. “You got to be smart ’round here.”
I nodded as he walked past me and crouched down to get another look at the building.
“Did ya kill ’im?”
“Yes.”
He nodded, but his eyes stayed locked ahead of him. “The two on the right is next. You get the one closest to us an’ I’ll do the one combin’ the outside.”
Again, I crept up from behind. I got close enough that I knew I’d make the shot. My target, a short muscular woman, paced back and forth. She was spinning a knife in the air over her open palm as she walked from one end of the building to the other. My eyes were the only part of me that moved. They followed her as I planned the shot. How far in front of her I’d have to aim, the slope of the hill I was on, what part of the body to target. I’d aim for her back. She’d be out before she had time to turn and throw her knife.
I filled the hollow, loaded the gun, and inhaled, waiting for the man watching the opposite side of the building to be out of sight. The dart flew through the air soundlessly and hit her in the left shoulder. I moved right, slinking low and hiding amidst the sagebrush. After she fell, I knew I had to get her body out of there. My heart raced as I ran toward her on impulse. I pulled her by her hands, straining every muscle I had to drag her into the brush. I knew I shouldn’t, but I looked down into her still open eyes. Dull brown, dead, gone. My shoulders started to shake, and my throat ached with regret. But a man walked around the corner, and I didn’t have time to fall apart.
I recognized him as he leaned against the warehouse wall. I thought he was dead, but apparently William hadn’t killed him that day. He was smoking a cigarette, looking bored, but I knew it was a ruse. He threw fire, and the burning ember was all the spark he needed to burn me like he had before.
Even on this cold night I was sweating. I wiped my damp forehead with my palm. This guy should be easy. I had a reason to kill him, but the sight
of him had me flustered. The memory of my scorched back was still fresh. I was shaky and couldn’t hold the dart gun steady. If I missed, it would give me away.
He pushed off from the building and gave me his back. The perfect shot, but I couldn’t do it. Fear held me in my place. Be someone else, I thought. Be Kara. I didn’t know what made me act, but I crept toward him, leaving the woman in the bushes. My steps were silent, and I didn’t stop until I was close enough to touch him. I gripped a blood-soaked hammer dart and stabbed it into his back, through the heart. My hands still shook, but I had made the kill. My stomach lurched as he fell forward to his knees, but when he looked back into my eyes as he died, I remembered how many people he’d murdered. Innocent Descendants and who knows how many humans. I wasn’t sorry.
“Nice one,” Luther said from behind me. He grabbed the man by the arm and pulled us both into a dark corner, shadowed by an adjoining wall of the building.
“They’re gonna start noticing’ things ain’t right. We gotta make our move.”
I nodded in agreement, even though everything in me knew we’d get caught. There were too many of them. If we went in, there wouldn’t be any getting out.
“I’m gonna go in the main entrance. I’ll take out as many as I can, cause a diversion.” As he talked he went through the pockets of the dead man, pulling out a set of keys. “You sneak in here.” He nodded to the door behind me on my right.
He handed me the keys and started to turn away, as if I’d see him in a few minutes. I knew I wouldn’t. This was it.
“Wait,” I said, catching his arm. “How am I supposed to get the humans out without you?”
“Prob’ly won’t save most, but at least you’ll save some.”
“What if you get caught? They’ll let you go, right? You’re one of them.”
His eyes looked out at nothing in the distance. “Don’t worry ’bout me.”
“Thank you,” I said when he looked back.
He nodded and disappeared into the tall brush without a word.
Uprising (Children of the Gods) Page 24