CHAPTER NINE
Mr. Baker turned his head to stare at the redhead, speaking in a reassuring tone. “Calm down, Poppy. They apparently aren’t powered up.”
Her fearful eyes glanced around the room, and she shuddered in revulsion. “I hate these things.”
Mr. Baker lifted a white brow. “Where is the hardass soldier I know?”
“Out the fucking door is where she is,” Poppy griped. She spun on her combat boots and took a step to the door. “You can get them out of that glass room, no problem.”
“But…what if it’s a trap?” He tempted, his lips trembling when she perked up. “Like a puzzle?”
With her back to us still, her shoulders stiffened. “A puzzle?”
“Maybe.”
She tapped her hands on her thighs, thinking.
Megan sighed and waved a hand. “Hello! If you’re not here to kill us, can you please quit jabbering on like idiots?” She knocked on the glass door with her knuckles. “We can get out of here, but it would be a lot faster if you would simply unlock the damn door!”
Poppy jerked her body around and crossed her arms. “Hello, Megan.”
“Hey, Poppy,” she grumbled.
Poppy’s eyebrows rose. “I thought you were in jail.”
“Long story.” Megan’s nose crinkled. “Actually, it’s short. My dad is a sick bastard with a twisted sense of humor.”
Poppy sniffed. “I still would have kicked your ass had you remained for the rest of the CA tests.”
“I guess we’ll never know.” Megan smirked. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“Likewise.” Poppy’s smile was radiant. “So, how about Finn and I get you out of there?”
“It’s about damn time,” I complained. “If anyone else wants to chat, please save it for later. There’s a bad guy coming soon.”
Mr. Baker and Poppy maneuvered between the freakish figures, walking toward us. Mr. Baker eyed each mannequin he passed, and asked, “Do you know the name of the bad guy?”
Megan snorted. “Master.”
“What?”
I answered, “The guy who kidnapped us called him ‘master.’ No real name was given.”
Smooth and calm, Mr. Baker murmured, “Poppy, I may stay behind to finally find out who this guy is.”
“Don’t even think about it. A powerful enemy, we actually know nothing about, that’s bent on chaos? We need to get those two out of here and regroup. We’ll need reinforcements, people watching our backs, if we want to take the mystery man on.”
He grinned. “There’s the hardass soldier.”
“I better stay too, in case you decide to do something stupid.”
Mr. Baker snickered as they stopped in front of us, only the glass door with the tiny holes separating our bodies.
I would take the monster I knew over the monster I didn’t. One man cut off women’s heads and decorated the room with them. This man saved women from falling down stairs and held them with care afterward.
It seemed pretty straight forward which was better.
“Hurry, please,” I whispered.
Mr. Baker licked his lower lip, his eyes on my mouth.
Unbidden, warmth unfurled deep in my belly.
His nostrils flared and his eyes heated.
Poppy glanced back and forth between us before elbowing him in the side. “Finn, quit that. This really isn’t the time. There are dead bodies butchered in the other room.”
He still stared at me. “It’s probably those missing women.”
Poppy sighed, her eyes lowering in sadness. Her words were hardly above a whisper. “It’s them. I recognize their faces from the reports.”
Megan grunted. “I agree with Poppy. Quit making ‘fuck me’ eyes at Mina and turn that lock.”
A blush stained my cheeks, heating my skin.
Mr. Baker grunted. The lock turned with the flick of his fingers, and he opened the door with his eyes remaining on me. With an even tone, no hint of the carnal emotion reflecting in his eyes, he stated, “Mina first.”
Except, unintended incidents tend to happen when you don’t pay attention to your surroundings. For example, Mr. Baker’s back brushing against one of the mannequins as he opened the door wider.
I learned just why our kidnapper had said not to touch them, and my mouth opened in a scream, “Mr. Baker, get down!”
He actually listened to me, his body lowering into a crouch. The figure behind him, which had suddenly come to animated life, barely missed the white tiger with its sharp black nails, scraping thin air where his neck had been. Mr. Baker’s knives were instantly back in his hands, and he jumped, spinning and slicing the creature’s head right off—just as its gaping mouth began to glow a neon green.
“Thank you, Mina.” He glanced at me over his shoulder, sensual heat still simmering in his gaze. “And for the love of all that’s holy, I want to fuck you, so don’t call me Mr. Baker again. My name is Finn.”
“Maybe?” Brilliant response to the handsome beast.
But that one killing blow started a ripple effect.
One by one, each mannequin came to life, like on a circuit of power. And their wide mouths, which once held nothing, glowed with a neon green energy. A hypnotizing power that I wanted to reach out and touch with rough caresses, its radiance calling to a primal part of my being.
Cassander’s weird warning…
“When you see the green light, don’t stare at it.”
I jerked my head to Megan, who gazed at them with the most wondrous expression on her face. “Megan! Don’t look at the light.”
She blinked and shook her entire body past the lingering effects. “What the hell?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea what it is, but that green shit is not friendly.”
“No, no, no, no, no,” Poppy whispered, her eyes wide in dread. “Why are they turning on?”
“Finn touched them,” I answered. “Our kidnapper said if I touched them, I wouldn’t like the result.”
He purred quietly. “Thank you for calling me that.”
“Jesus, is he still flirting with you?” Megan whipped her glare to the side of his head as he watched the mannequins gradually converging on us, surrounded as we were. “Quit trying to get laid and pay attention. Cut off their heads.”
“I can’t do this,” Poppy whispered. Her chest was heaving, her face turning a startling shade of white. “They want my soul. I only have one. I want to keep it! I can’t… I can’t do this!”
Finn twirled one of his knives in front of her face. “Snap out of it, soldier! There are hundreds here. I can’t take them alone. I need you.”
She didn’t hear him. Poppy’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she started to fall in a dead faint.
“Shit!” Finn hollered in frustration. He swooped his arms around her and caught her dead weight before she hit the ground—though one of his knives nicked her arm.
As Finn placed her on the ground, a tiny drop of blood dripped onto the gray concrete from his steel blade.
The first blood had fallen.