Selena
My fingers were threaded together on the table as we waited for our friends to appear. Ned, Cass and Jameson joined us shortly and a darkness hung in everyone's eyes. The show tonight would see the end of one of the girls from the previous games. Which one? Did it matter? I didn't want to think like that. But my mind flashed through the possibilities of what I could be faced with tonight. None of it seemed bearable. Their deaths were already burned into my skull, did I really have to witness it all over again?
Ned, Jameson and I ate as much as we could, trying to disguise Cass and Varick's food on our plates. But none of us came close to finishing a meal. The waiter asked if there was something wrong with our food and Ned quickly lied, telling them we'd eaten at a restaurant on the strip. I was glad that some of us were still on the ball, because faking it seemed like an impossible task at that moment.
Varick's attention was on the guards around the room, the doors the waiters moved in and out of. I knew he was thinking about how to get into the V chambers beneath the resort. I tried to focus my attention on that too, desperately needing a distraction.
Varick leant close to me, pretending to adjust my hair as he murmured in my ear, “I could Charm a guard to tell me where to go. Even lead me down there.”
I nodded, my gut prickling with anticipation. He looked to the others as if picking who to take with him and I decided to shut his intentions down quickly. “It should be girls who do this,” I whispered. “If we're caught, we can play naive. Say we got lost. They seem to soak up that crap around here.”
Cass's eyes were on us, her sensitive hearing evidently picking up what I was saying.
“Not you,” Varick growled.
“Yes me,” I hissed. “And Cass.” My eyes slid to her and she raised a brow, curious.
“No,” Varick said through his teeth.
“What are you two arguing about?” Jameson deadpanned, looking glummer than the last time I'd seen him. I guessed we were all dealing with our own demons here.
“Nothing,” I said lightly. “I just fancy a walk.” I stood. “Cass? Join me?”
She stood and the others gazed at us with questions in their eyes.
I couldn't deny there was more to my bravery than I was putting on. I'd rather be surrounded by Vs in cells, risking my neck for the sake of our plan than watch another girl die.
Varick took hold of my wrist, not letting me go, begging me with his eyes.
“I won't be long, darling.” I bent to kiss his cheek and he growled profanities in my ear before I pulled away.
Reluctantly, he released me and Cass followed me through the ballroom, heading back to the foyer.
“What's going on?” she breathed as I guided her to the elevator.
I didn't explain until we were back in my room, finding the biggest handbag I could in the wardrobe and passing a similar one to Cass. I stuffed them with a couple of jumpers before slowing down enough to explain.
When I'd finished, her eyes glittered with excitement – not quite the reaction I'd expected.
“What?” she questioned my baffled expression.
“I just forgot what a good ally you make.” I broke a smile.
“Well I'm about to remind you, little killer.”
I grinned at the old nickname.
“I'm guessing Varick's super happy with this plan?” she teased as we headed back to the door.
“Thrilled.”
We returned to the foyer which had grown quiet. Music and flashing lights beckoned us into the ballroom. My stomach knotted with tension as we stepped back into it, gazing around to see if anyone was paying us attention. But even the guards were focused on the stage which was illuminated in a deep red glow. I forced myself to follow their gaze, taking in the huge pyre of wood that had been erected at the heart of it. The struggling form of a girl was tethered to it by silver chains, her long blonde hair cascading around her like a waterfall of gold.
Angelina.
The heavy beat of war drums filled the room, pounding through my skull, louder than her screams.
Oh god. Oh no.
Rockley appeared, his chest bare and painted in red stripes, his hand clamped around a burning torch. Three guards ringed the pyre, each equipped with a large crossbow, pointing directly at her. She had no way out. And there was no way to help her.
My feet were rooted to the spot as Cass nudged me forward. I stumbled as I forced myself to move.
The darkened room provided us cover as we crept around the edge of the hall toward one of the doors that led to a restricted area. Beyond it might only have been kitchens and staff rooms, but we had to try. Had to start searching for a way beneath this place. Anything not to be in this room anymore.
I slowed as we approached a guard manning one of the doors, a machine gun hanging limp around his body as he gazed eagerly at the stage.
Angelina's screams grew more intense, but they were lost to the sea of cheers that filled the room. Rockley's amplified voice boomed over all of it. “Let's send dis demon outta dis world forever!”
I reached for the guard's arm and he jerked, snatching his gun instinctively. I gave him a doe-eyed smile and he visibly relaxed.
“Everything alright, miss?” he shouted over the crescendo of noise.
No. Nothing. And I want to kill everyone in this room for it.
“Of course.” I smiled again, stepping aside to allow Cass to get closer.
When his eyes locked with hers, his expression melted into one of complete ease.
“You're going to take us through that door and show us where you keep the Vampires in this place,” Cass commanded in a fierce tone, using her Charm.
He nodded, giving her a dreamy smile before opening the door and gesturing for us to follow. I glanced back over my shoulder to check no one had seen us. All eyes were on the stage and the billowing smoke that was being sucked through a vent at the back of the room. Fire blazed, burning my retinas, so close to Angelina's legs that I wanted to be sick. Wanted to cry out and beg for it to stop.
But I couldn't, I just couldn't.
Her screams heightened from fear to pain and I knew the flames had reached her. She was lost. And I didn't know how I'd ever rid myself of the guilt.
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
Cass took my hand, dragging me through the door. It shut with a metallic thump that muffled the worst of the noise.
My breathing was growing wild and I was filled with flashes of the tower in the first game. Of my hand gripping onto Angelina as she was sucked under water, dragged from my grasp.
The lights around me were as bright as they were that day. The corridor white and stretching off either side of us.
The guard moved lazily around us as Cass gripped my hand, trying to get me to focus. I dug deep for my resolve and forced myself not to panic.
I thought of Varick and his calm, steady presence. His assurance that this would all work out so long as we stuck to the plan.
And words he'd spoken to me once all those days ago when I'd first won the V Games.
“Timing, sweetheart.”
Revenge could only be dealt when two things aligned; anger and timing.
The anger was here, growing stronger every day and the time to act was close. So damn close. But it wasn't here yet. So we had to keep moving forward, keep our eye on the prize. And doing this could help us win the fight that was to come.
“Let's go,” I said, swallowing the golf-ball sized lump in my throat.
My footsteps seemed loud in the confined space, following the guard along the corridor. He soon led us through another door, pressing his thumb to a security access panel before opening it. Ahead of us was a dark, metal stairwell leading down into the unknown.
A cool breeze met my cheeks as I stepped onto the first stair.
Cass turned to the guard. “Are there cameras down there?”
“No cameras,” he replied. “Top secret.”
“Good,” Cass said. “Now go back to the ballroom. You never saw us.”
“Never saw you,” he echoed as he walked away.
Cass gave me a nod before leading the way ahead.
The door shut behind us and I had the distinct feeling of dread that I'd always gotten just before a round in the V Games.
Cass descended in silence despite her five inch heels while my clanging footsteps chimed all the way down. At the bottom, we reached a silver door that I had to hold open for Cass before stepping through myself.
Snarling filled my ears, accompanied by the shifting and shuffling of a hundred bodies. We entered what looked like a warehouse, stacked with crates to both sides of us, beyond which were huge cages of silver mesh. A fan was whirring somewhere nearby, its persistent humming evidently the source of the freezing air being pumped into the room. I shivered as we crept along, passing the crates of hotel supplies and approaching the cages. Despite expecting it, I was still shocked to see the Vs crammed in together in groups, their emaciated bodies barely clothed. Their haggard faces probably wouldn't have been recognisable even to their own mothers.
As I drew closer, they swarmed toward the edges of the cages at my scent. Most of them stopped short of the metal wire, but some were too blinded by the possibility of blood to slow down, burning themselves against it before slumping to the floor.
I shuddered at the sight, the cold no longer the thing making goosebumps spread across my skin.
Cass shared a grim look with me as we moved through the maze of cages, heading in the vague direction of the shooting range.
A harsh buzzing sounded and a red light illuminated on the back wall of one of the cages.
Cass grabbed my hand and in a whirl of movement, she dragged me behind a huge crate, leaving my head spinning. But I was thankful that she had as the sound of heavy boots filled the air a second later.
“Rockley needs four Vs up on stage. De-fanged.” The man's voice was clipped, professional.
“I ain't de-fanging another V. Last time, one of the suckers bit me.”
“That's what you're paid to do, Wesley. Bring one here, I'll show you how it's done.”
Unable to fight my curiosity, I peered around the crate, spying two men just a few feet from us. I watched as Wesley opened a hatch in the cage door, sliding in an extendable silver pole with a sharp clamp on the end. A screech of rage sounded and a moment later a female Vampire was dragged forward, the silver clamp buried in her cheeks as they dragged her to the hatch. The clamp locked her into place so her mouth was forced open.
The man in charge took a pair of silver pliers from his pocket and held them firmly over one of the Vampire's fangs. “Like this, keep your fingers at the end of the pliers and pull down.” He yanked and I screwed up my eyes at the scream the Vampire let out.
Ten agonising seconds later, Wesley had removed the other fang.
“Good. Now get me three more. Rockley's waiting.” He marched away, leaving Wesley to finish the job.
Cass was snarling next to me, hungering for a kill. And I wished she could have had it.
Wesley released the first V from the clamp and her torn cheeks healed over as she reared away from the contraption. He grumbled his way through three more fang extractions before turning a sun lamp on in the cage. The Vampires screamed as the light scorched their exposed skin, destroying what little clothing they had left. A door slid open at the back of the cage, giving them access to a small lift. The Vs had nowhere to go but into it and a moment later they were gone, evidently having been transported upstairs for the show.
Wesley whistled as he walked away, leaving footprints of blood behind him.
I turned to Cass, sure my face was as pale as hers at that moment.
Her eyes were trained off into the distance as she listened to the men's movements, soon taking my hand and tugging me to my feet. We walked in silence, finding our way easily now. It was obvious this place ran the length of the entire strip. And on the walls beside the various cages were signs for each building up on the street.
The closer we grew to Al's Shooting Barn, the more I began to worry about our plan. How were we going to get into the range without entering one of these cages? I might have felt sorry for the Vs, but I wasn't about to walk into a pen full of them when they looked like they hadn't had a good meal in a month.
“Selena?!”
My heart nearly stopped at the voice. I wheeled around, coming eye to eye with Twyla-Rae, on tip-toes as she tried to get a good look at me from a cage we'd just passed.
I turned back, gasping as I took in the confined space she was sharing with the others. Girls I'd last seen dead, lifeless, gone. Sakura's bright purple hair swung about as she gazed at me, her body clad in a dress almost the same colour. Briony and Marie were huddled together in one corner. All of them were wearing the dresses I'd last seen them in. I reached through the wire mesh for Twyla and she jerked backwards, throwing a hand to her nose.
“Get back! I can't control myself!”
I pulled my arm back as the others drew closer. Briony hissed at me, seeming more animal than the rest of them, her eyes bloodshot and red.
“Sakura?” I looked to her and she rose from the floor like a statue brought to life, gliding toward me. Had she always been so beautiful? Her cheeks were as white as bone, her almond eyes two-toned and practically glowing. Of all of them, she must have fed the most recently.
My throat constricted at the sight of them, and what they must think of me. I couldn't stand to look at Marie for more than a second, her gaze as cold and lifeless as ice.
“What are you doing here?” Twyla pressed, looking desperate to come closer to me. For blood or otherwise, I couldn't tell. Her black dress was ripped around the hem, her dark skin glossy and bronzed where it was on show.
“We don't have much time,” Cass snapped, her fangs bared.
Sakura inhaled sharply. “You're one of us.”
“Yes,” Cass hissed. “Keep your voices down.”
“They don't know you're here?” Twyla asked, achingly hopeful.
I shook my head, stealing another glance at Marie who'd risen to her feet. A silky yellow dress clung to her tiny body.
“Is it really you?” she asked in her french tones.
“Yes,” I could hear the tears in my voice and fought them back so hard I almost choked. Marie's face was just as I remembered it; her features so small and delicate, her eyes wide and round.
“You came here to help us?” she asked and my stomach churned violently.
How could I tell them the truth? That we'd not meant to help them at all?
I clung to the mesh, despite knowing it wasn't safe. “I'm sorry,” I whispered.
“We need to go,” Cass insisted, turning her head toward the way we'd come.
“Go?” Sakura demanded. “Go where?”
“We're getting weapons,” I said quickly. “I promise we'll come back for you.”
“You can't leave us,” Briony spoke for the first time, a haunted look in her sunken eyes. “Not again,” she snarled, the dig hitting home.
Cass gripped my arm, drawing me away. “Don't tell anyone we're here,” she warned the girls, pulling me further away, her grip as strong as iron.
I shared a lingering look with Twyla who raised a hand in goodbye, setting her jaw as if she were hopeful that I'd truly pull through for her. How could I leave them now?
How could I ever have thought that I could?
“Promise me we'll get them out,” I whispered to Cass, trying to walk as quietly as possible at her side.
“I can't promise that,” she said darkly.
I dug my nails into the hand she was still holding on to me with. “Yes you can,” I said through my teeth. “We can think of something-”
“Of what?” She snapped around, halting me mid-stride, her eyes aflame. “We are in up to our necks here, Selena. If we break them out, what do you think's going to happen?” She glared at me as I tried to come up with an answer, furious.
“You said you wanted to help them,” I hissed.
“And I do. I want to. But I can't. We can't.” She flinched at some sound I couldn't hear then encouraged me onward until we were practically jogging. The shooting range couldn't be far. I gazed left and right, trying to find the sign and suddenly there it was; a red poster on the wall with a faded symbol of a rifle on it. Beside it was the largest cage of Vs yet. None of them seemed even remotely sentient, moving around the space like zombies. The moment I got close, though, they surged forward, burning themselves on the silver mesh again and again as they tried to reach me. The noises they made rang through the air. The commotion wouldn't go unnoticed for long.
At the far end of their enclosure were several lifts.
I pointed to them and Cass nodded, stepping back to assess the way forward. I skirted the edge of the cage, searching for the door. It was locked by a keypad and as I gazed at it, I knew what we had to do.
Marching over to Cass, I passed her the handbag I'd been carrying. “There's only one way we're pulling this off.”
“Which is?” she frowned, skeptical.
“We stage a breakout.”
She was silent in response, the craziness of my idea evidently settling in. Before she could object, I barreled on.
“You rip the keypad off that cage, then we'll open the hatch in the door to make it look like one of the guards left it open and a V broke the lock.”
“And let me guess? You want to be the little distraction that gives me a chance to take one of those fun-looking lifts up to the shooting range, shove these bags full of weapons then come back down here and save your arse in time to get back upstairs before the guards find us?”
“Yes.” I beamed. “Apart from the saving me part. Pretty sure I'll be saving your arse by the end of the evening.” Fear tangled inside me, but playing brave certainly helped.
“That sounds like a challenge.” She shouldered the bags.
“So do you want a head start?” Cass raised a brow and I backed up so I had a good twenty foot gap between me and the cage.
I took a deep breath, slipping my heels off and gripping them in my hands. “Okay,” I exhaled, adrenaline spiking through my veins. All I had to do was run. I'd done that plenty of times in the games. This was no different. And in a sense, it probably should have been easier than in the games.
But my heart still pounded out of rhythm as I tried to mentally prepare myself.
“If you can't get out, hide,” Cass warned. “The guards will be so busy rounding up these Vs that you should have time to slip out unnoticed.”
“Thanks.” I gave her a 'we might die' smile that said I love you and I'm sorry all at once. Something we'd shared way too often during our friendship.
“Good luck.” Cass took hold of the keypad and ripped it from its socket, sending sparks flying over her feet.
Without a moment's hesitation, I ran.