Nate
Enrique’s men took me to Paine College and into a building where about fifteen injured men lay on the floor, moaning and clutching at their wounds.
Enrique shoved me forward, pointing at the first man, and shouted, “You fix injuries! Heal them!”
Was he serious? Did he really think I would heal these assholes?
Two of his thugs lifted their guns, pointing them at my head in warning.
Fuck.
Fine. I would fix the bad guys. Or try to, anyway. Some of them were too far gone to save.
“I’m not a god,” I muttered, glaring at Enrique. “I can’t heal all injuries.”
“Heal them!” Enrique repeated, again motioning to the first man lying near my feet. “Or die.”
I knelt in front of the first man, who, I discovered, had been shot in the shoulder. He would live, but shoulder injuries took a long time to recover from. I could remove the bullet, but the man would need extensive physical therapy to be able to get his arm back to full function again.
I glanced up at Enrique. “I don’t have my medical bag. I need supplies…”
Enrique waved someone forward. A young Hispanic woman approached and dropped a large duffle bag at my feet.
“Suministros médicos. Medical supplies.”
I opened the bag. Indeed, it was filled with medical supplies. Most of them probably obtained illegally.
Well, shit. I guess I didn’t really have any choice but to attend to the injured men. I didn’t, however, have to use my healing ability on them. I could just treat them like a regular EMT and save my healing energy for those who actually deserved to live.
I glanced back at Enrique. “I need an assistant. A nurse to help me.”
Enrique shoved the young woman forward. “Enfermera. Nurse.” She hesitated, then knelt beside me, clearly afraid.
“You speak English?” I asked her.
She nodded, keeping her gaze downcast.
“Good. You can hand me supplies as I need them, okay?”
Again, she nodded, still keeping her gaze downcast.
“Hey,” I said gently. “Just because your boss is an asshole, doesn’t mean I am. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
She hesitated, then lifted her head, her dark eyes meeting mine. She was young, probably early twenties, and obviously scared to death.
“What’s your name?”
Again, a slight hesitation, then softly, “Elena.”
“Nice to meet you, Elena. You ready?”
“Ready,” she whispered
While Elena assisted me with the injured men, I thought about what had happened back at Riverwalk. Alissa had thrown herself in front of the Taser gun. She’d saved my life. An electrical jolt as powerful as a Taser gun would likely have shorted out my pacemaker and killed me. Damn. She was amazing. Was she okay now? Unless she had some unknown medical condition or unless she’d fallen on her head or in some manner that caused a serious injury, then she had likely recovered from the Taser jolt with no complications.
My chest squeezed with emotion. Alissa was so brave. So selfless. She humbled me. I didn’t deserve her. But I was utterly, completely in love with her. She consumed me, heart, body, and soul. She was “it” for me and had been since the moment I’d met her. I had to get back to her and tell her that. She was amazing. Incredible. I had never believed I would ever fall in love. Hell, I’d never believed I deserved love. But Alissa made me believe. She made me want to be a better man. She made me want to have a future. She’d said she loved me, and God if that didn’t feel good. No one had ever said that to me before. She made me want. She made me crave something more than what I had now. So much more.
But what kind of life could I give Alissa? Living in an underground maze was not the life for a woman. She deserved better. She deserved more. But what more could I give her? It would be selfish to expect her to stay.
You can take her north with Tracker and Jacob, away from the violence. You can make a new life far away from here.
Though the idea was very appealing, I couldn’t leave Tony. Not right now.
Tony had been shot back at the military barricade. I felt his physical pain right now. An ache in my side down by my hip, and another pain in my chest above my heart. He’d been badly wounded, but I couldn’t know the extent of his injuries, as our connection only allowed me to feel his pain to some degree. Was Logan taking care of him? Was Alissa helping? Would Tony die?
I should be back at the underground maze, helping my dreg partner. Instead, I was forced to help criminals who didn’t deserve my help. And that didn’t sit well with me. Not in the least.
Tony needed me. I had to get out of here. Had to get back to him. Back to Alissa.
I went to the next patient, and Elena quietly assisted me with the man’s injuries. Enrique’s thugs remained close by with their guns pointed at me, making sure I didn’t try to escape. Assholes. As soon as I was able, I would escape. And I would take out as many of them as I could in the process.
Enrique returned, inspected the first man, then strode toward me with a scowl. “You fix him, no?”
What was he saying? “Yes, I fixed him.”
Enrique shook his head. “No. Not Healer! You not Healer!” He jerked a hand toward the man with the shoulder injury. “You not heal him! Heal!”
Shit. Was he complaining because I hadn’t used my supernatural healing ability? Fuck him. I wasn’t going to expend any more energy on these criminals. Enrique could fuck off if he thought I would.
I ignored him and continued cleaning the abdominal wound of the man in front of me. One of Enrique’s thugs stepped forward and slammed the butt of his rifle into the side of my head. Pain exploded in my skull.
I toppled sideways, my head spinning. Son-of-a-bitch!
Elena screamed and jerked back.
“You Healer!” Enrique shouted. “Fix them!”
Blood oozed down my temple. Dizziness swirled in my head. I slowly returned to my kneeling position and turned my head to glare at Enrique. I wasn’t going to waste my ability on these bastards.
“No,” I repeated, meeting Enrique’s black gaze.
Enrique lifted a handgun and pointed it at my head. “Fix. Them.”
Staring down the barrel of a gun was not a pleasant experience. I didn’t have a death wish. But if I was going to die, it was going to be while I was fighting for my freedom, not while I was on my knees before this bastard.
I’d had enough of this shit. I was a dreg. A powerful warrior. Fuck them.
I snatched the gun from Enrique’s hand before he could blink. Then I yanked him back against me, holding his arms tightly against his sides, and spun the gun around to press it against his temple.
“Stay back,” I warned the thugs, who all shouted and raised their weapons. “Or he dies.”
Elena whimpered in terror, cringing back against the wall. I waved her from the room. “Go, Elena! Get out of here!”
She hesitated, then bolted to her feet and fled. Enrique’s thugs slowly surrounded me, their weapons raised, but I simply kept the gun shoved into Enrique’s temple. I wasn’t backing down.
Enrique went completely still against me. “Apártate! Apártate!” He shouted to his men.
The thugs hesitated, exchanging glances, then slowly lowered their weapons. I dragged Enrique toward the exit, never lowering the gun. His thugs stared after us, obviously wanting to do something.
Knowing I would encounter more thugs outside, I turned when we reached the doorway, shoving Enrique in front of me. If they fired at us, Enrique would get shot first. He wasn’t a big guy, maybe five-foot-ten and one-hundred-sixty pounds, so he was easy to maneuver down the hallway toward the main exit. Other thugs watched warily as we passed, but no one tried to play hero in an attempt to save their boss.
I shoved open the door that led out into the yard.
And was surrounded by more thugs with guns.
“Apártate! Apártate!” Enrique shouted to the men outside. Gradually, they lowered their weapons and backed off.
Keeping my back against the wall, I maneuvered Enrique around the building, one step at a time. His men didn’t follow, just stayed where they were, staring after us. At some point, I would either have to release him and flee. Or kill him. If I released him and fled, his thugs would shoot me. If I killed him, his thugs would shoot me. So right now, I had to keep Enrique alive and close. Or I would die.
“Maldito idiota!” Enrique snarled. “I will kill you, gringo!”
Not if I killed him first, and right now, I had his gun pressed against his head. I was bigger than he was. Stronger than he was. Smarter than he was.
And I was a dreg.
We reached the edge of the building. In order to get to the next building, we would have to move across the open yard, which would leave me vulnerable from the back. I wasn’t willing to get shot in the back. So I leaned against the side of the building and contemplated what to do.
My dreg brothers would probably be showing up soon. I just had to stay alive long enough for them to get here.
Enrique spat something in Spanish that I didn’t understand, and made a foolish attempt to escape. I simply tightened my hold around him and pressed the gun tighter against his temple.
“Go ahead, asshole. Give me a reason to pull the trigger. I really want to kill you.”
He stilled, obviously understanding me. If I didn’t need him alive right now, I would probably already have killed him. But he was my escape from this place. As long as I held him hostage and his thugs didn’t try to sniper me out, then I might get away from here.
It was still dark out, and Enrique didn’t use lights around the grounds of the college campus—intentionally, I was certain. My heightened senses allowed me to see clearly in the dark, while Enrique and his men had only a human’s poor night vision. If I dropped him and ran, I might get away without anyone actually seeing me. But I would either have to kill Enrique, or knock him out before fleeing so he couldn’t announce my flight to his men. Though I desperately wanted to kill him, if I pulled the trigger, everyone would hear, and his thugs would be on me in seconds.
I glanced to the next building, which stood approximately thirty yards away. I could break his neck and drop him. Or I could just knock him out.
I was so tempted to kill him.
Alissa’s words came back to me then.
You don’t have to kill. You can find another way. There’s always another way.
She was right. I didn’t have to kill. Even though this bastard deserved to die.
I made my decision.
I slammed the gun into Enrique’s head as hard as I could. His body went limp in my arms. I could drop him and run, but then I would have nothing to hide behind. So I kept an arm tightly around his chest, and using him as a shield, I darted for the next building.
Hauling Enrique’s weight with me slowed my progress, but no bullets zipped past. I finally made it to the building and paused, leaning up against it to catch my breath.
Enrique started to stir. Shit. I should just kill this bastard.
You don’t have to kill.
If I wanted to be a better man for Alissa, then I needed to stop killing. Instead, I could just hand Enrique over to the military at the barricade. They would make sure he was taken into custody and properly punished for his crimes.
Enrique squirmed against me and began shouting in Spanish, “Mátalo! Mátalo!”
That was a phrase I’d heard before and actually knew.
Kill him. Kill him.
I shoved the gun against his head. “Shut up!”
A bullet whizzed past, slamming into the building by my head.
I ducked behind Enrique, using him as a shield.
Enrique’s men inched closer. Closer.
“Lanzar la granada!” Enrique shouted. “Lanzar la granada!”
What was he saying? I had a feeling it was something important.
There was a flash of movement as something flew through the air and landed at our feet.
Oh shit. Grenade!
I leapt away, taking Enrique with me. He was obviously more afraid of dying by my hand than he was of dying by a grenade.
We rolled across the grass, him fighting to get away, me struggling to keep him from escaping.
An explosion rocked the campus, jolting us backward. Shards of shrapnel sprayed everywhere. Enrique’s body cushioned my fall as we slammed into a huge tree trunk, but my head struck a branch as we went down.
I lost my grip on him and he rolled away.
Then pain. Fierce. Persistent.
I groaned. Blood oozed down the side of my head. My ear throbbed. Another stream of blood trickled down between my eyes. A chunk of shrapnel had lodged into my skull.
As if from far away, Enrique screamed. “Ayúdame, idiotas! Ayúdame, idiotas!”
How had that bastard not died in the explosion? We’d hit that tree hard. Shrapnel had flown everywhere.
I tried to lift my head.
Pain screamed through my skull.
Panting, I lay still, and concentrated on breathing. In. Out.
I was wounded. But I wasn’t sure how badly. Definitely a head wound. Possibly others.
My heart was thumping wildly. Too wildly.
Shit. My pacemaker. Had a wire been knocked loose from the collision with the tree?
Concentrate. Listen to your heart. Relax.
I tried to block everything else out as I concentrated on my heartbeat.
Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.
It wasn’t erratic. Just fast.
Adrenaline. Just adrenaline.
“Mátalo! Mátalo!” Enrique screamed again, his voice closer than before.
Kill him. Kill him.
Get up! My mind urged. They’re coming! Find a weapon!
I rolled sideways, searching for the gun I’d somehow lost in the explosion.
Another grenade sailed through the air, landing near my right foot.
It rolled toward me.
Oh fuck.
I kicked out at the grenade, sending it catapulting away.
But not far enough.
It bounced and rolled across the ground before coming to a stop about fifteen feet away.
I scrambled backward.
Get on the other side of the tree! Hurry!
The big old oak tree might offer some protection from the blast and flying shrapnel.
I clambered around the thick trunk.
Another grenade bounced up to the tree, rolling toward me.
My blood roared in my ears.
I snatched the grenade up and threw it as hard as I could. Then I hunkered down next to the trunk.
I was about to die.
Alissa.
I wasn’t sure why I thought of her first, but in that moment, I wished I’d told her I loved her, because now she would never know how I felt about her. She would never know how much she meant to me.
Tony. My partner. My best friend. We’d gone through so much together. He was my rock. The one I trusted above all others. He always had my back.
Visions flashed in front of my eyes of missions with my dreg brothers, battles we’d fought and won together, sometimes barely escaping with our lives. Would I ever see any of them again?
Sudden gunshots came from behind me. From the other side of the tree.
Not Enrique’s thugs.
My dreg brothers were here. They’d come for me.
Then multiple explosions rocked the ground as the grenades went off.
And my world turned black.