As annoying as it was to admit, Austin was right. We only waited a few minutes before I spotted a uniformed guard sauntering down the hallway on the other side of the door, his cap pulled low on his face. I signaled to my unlikely companion, and he gave me a tight nod of acknowledgement. The guard looked bored, which hopefully would play well into his lack of awareness until it was too late.

At the door, he scanned his swipe card, and the door lock whirred then beeped green before sliding smoothly open. He stepped through, and Austin launched a swift fist to his head. Pulling his punch right at the last second, his knuckles glanced off the side of the guard’s face instead.

“Shit, sorry bro.” He winced as Caleb, dressed as a guard, clutched his face. Despite the situation, I laughed. It was ridiculously good to see Caleb again. He grabbed me into a huge hug, lifting me off the ground.

“Kitty Kat!” he exclaimed, twirling me around and burying his face in my neck. “Holy crap, you had us so worried! If you ever pull a stunt like this again, I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” Austin interrupted, as though amused at fun-loving Caleb’s attempt to threaten me.

“I don’t know yet,” he murmured in response, pulling back to stare into my eyes. “But you won’t like it.” I ducked my gaze. I already hated what had happened here. I didn’t need the threat.

“If you’re done with this Hallmark moment,” Austin commented dryly, “you might want to put Christina down. I have seen quite enough of her naked ass for one day.”

Caleb frowned and slid his hands down my back until he reached naked skin where Austin’s shirt had risen up, then he froze, a murderous look transforming his face.

“Kit... why are you naked under Austin’s T-shirt...?” His voice was deathly quiet, and tension thrummed through his arms where they were still wrapped around me.

“Uhhhhh...” I stalled, not really ready to recount the whole ordeal yet.

“Why don’t we get the fuck out of the funhouse and save the story time, bro?” Austin’s save surprised me, but I’d take it.

Caleb took another long, scary look at me, his face like thunder, but he didn’t push the subject. Instead, he gently set me on my feet and tugged my borrowed T-shirt back down.

“Right.” He nodded, turning back to his twin. “We should get out of here. River called in backup, but we have no way of knowing how soon they will be here and I’d rather not wait around. It looks like they already showed you a bit of love, brother?” He indicated the myriad of bruises decorating Austin’s exposed skin. Austin just grunted in response, leading the way back down the hall.

We barely made it past the first corner when the heavy thump of security boots echoed down the hall ahead of us. Caleb ushered us all into a supply closet to avoid confrontation. It was a tight squeeze, and I was trapped between the twins in the dark, my front pressed against Caleb with Austin at my back. We waited in silence, listening to the sound of boots clomp closer, and then as they faded again, Caleb chuckled quietly in my ear.

“You make such attractive sandwich meat.”

Austin growled a warning, and an entirely inappropriate flush rushed through me at Caleb’s dirty insinuation. Thankfully the hall sounded clear of guards, so we cracked the door and checked.

“Clear,” I whispered and hurried out of the suddenly tense closet.

I was in such a rush to get out of the fucked-up place, I didn’t check the next corner before plowing around it and right into the first group of guards that had handcuffed me earlier.

A pathetic squeak of fright escaped. Shit, they recognized me.

“Well, well, well. We were just discussing paying you a little visit, and here you are, like magic.” One of them, with a piggish upturned nose, leered.

“Excuse us for a second, sweet thing, while we take care of your friends here. Then we can take care of you.” This from a second guard, and I shuddered in revulsion.

Strangely enough, they completely ignored me in their rush to tackle Caleb and Austin.

I was all too happy to stand back and watch the twins efficiently dispatch the idiotic guards. As I admired their flowing, elegant technique, a sharp pain smacked into my side, followed by the loud crack of a whip.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as I grasped my burning side and pulled my hand away to find it slick with blood. Well, that was a first; I couldn’t remember ever having been shot before.

“What the…” I spun around a little unsteadily to find a woman not much older than myself advancing down the hall with a gun trained on me. She fired again, but this time I had my wits about me and dodged using my superior speed. The act pulled my existing injury painfully.

It was already trying to heal closed—with the bullet in there—as I lunged for my attacker. I slapped the weapon from her hand, then thrust a fist at her head. Yet she moved almost as fast as me, and my fist met thin air. Off-balance, I stumbled. She regained her footing and lashed out, slicing four deep gashes in my other side with… claws?

Using the wall for leverage, I shoved away to create some distance. Her hands were indeed morphing back and forth between normal human fingers and crazy, vicious looking half-animal claws. Another product of the insane experiments here? Other than the unnatural situation happening with her hands, she looked normal.

I didn’t know what was happening to her or why she was here, but she’d attacked me and I had a fight on my hands. My side was healing, but I was hurting. She easily had my strength, if not more, and her speed was nothing to scoff at either. She was the toughest opponent I’d ever faced.

I managed to land a lucky hit to her face, breaking her nose. The distraction gave me time to get away from the wall and more room to maneuver.

My assailant growled like an enraged animal and charged me, striking wildly. Her nose wasn’t healing though, and blood continued to spray from the injury. Maybe Simon hadn’t been lying.

Thankfully, rage made her sloppy, and I avoided the flurry of her blows. Using the same move I’d trained so hard with Cole, I flipped her off her feet and onto her stomach. Without hesitation, I was on her, snaking an arm around her neck and applying just enough pressure to render her unconscious without killing her. I wasn’t a natural born killer.

Once her body went limp, I relaxed my hold but remained still for a moment, feeling every damaged inch of my body. I’d lost a lot of blood, but I was barely able to catch my breath before two sets of strong hands hauled me up and began frantically checking me over.

“I’m fine.” I groaned as one of the twins pressed just a little too hard on what must be a fractured rib. “Just give me a few minutes to heal. It seems to be working a whole lot faster these days.” As I said it, the bullet from my side slid free from my flesh, as though of its own accord, and clinked lightly against the hard floor.

Flashes of concern washed over Caleb’s chiseled face and, surprisingly enough, Austin’s as well. Yet when he caught me looking, he went stony. Why the hell did I care what the dickhead thought?

“Let’s get out of here before anything else goes wrong.” He scowled. “Christina seems to be a magnet for disaster.”

I snorted. “Well that is just...” Actually pretty accurate; I did seem to attract disasters. “...rude.” I finished lamely, and he gave me a smug look. Bastard.

I flipped him my middle finger, showing my maturity, but like them, I was eager as hell to get out of here.