With pounding hearts, Cassie and I braced ourselves for what was about to come. There was no time to discuss the plan further because the door already cracked opened, but really, ‘plan’ was the wrong term. The chances of this working equaled zero. Damn, so much could go wrong...
I quickly propped down on the floor in front of my cot, trying to hide the chunks of concrete with my legs so Gordon wouldn’t notice the destruction I’d made. Gabby trailed in holding a tray of food and water. I threw Cassie a knowing glance, indicating she should keep Gabby out of harm’s way. She took the hint.
“Evening, ladies,” Gordon greeted us in his rough voice, immediately sending a wave of anger through me. A good thing my body responded to it quickly—it would make relinquishing control a lot easier.
I had no idea if it was even possible to willingly lure out the Bluster, but I figured if rage was the main trigger, it shouldn’t be hard to accomplish. The real problem was putting a stop to it, but I would have to worry about it later.
I briefly concentrated on every horrible moment in my life—Shawna’s murder, the day a policeman told me about my parents being dead, the smoking hole in Ricky’s chest as Dorian’s weapon hit him, Dylan’s eyes filled with hatred when we first met, the experiments they’d put me under down here…
A flood of rage hit me like a bus knocking me over. The hairs on my arms raised, and my fingers started to tremble from the fury brewing inside me—a silent forewarning for what was about to come.
With renewed energy, I jumped to my feet—the particles in my system already in the right place—wrapped the chain around my forearm and yanked with all the power I had. The air became dense as my ability came forth in its full glory, stronger than I’d ever experienced before. A battle cry escaped me, and my joints protested against the strain, but it was enough to force the metal ring out of its hinges, chunks of concrete clinging to it. I used the momentum to swing it sideways like a mace aiming for Gordon.
Just as he was about to turn around at hearing my sudden outcry, the heavy weight smashed his face. I took it all in in slow motion—the sharp pieces of concrete drilling into his skin, the heavy metal crushing his face as the bones burst apart and sinews snapped underneath, teeth flying and blood spraying everywhere. With a vicious grin on my face, I watched his form glide through the air from the impact before hitting the wall, painting it red where he slid down.
Distinct voices sounded around me, but I was too far gone, relishing too much in the moment of taking a life, watching it drain until nothing was left. Something slapped my cheek, something hit my chin, but I didn’t feel it. Appion eyes appeared in front of me, but I didn’t recognize them.
Enemy. My whole body screamed ‘enemy.’
“… for Dylan.”
The words somehow fought their way into my brain, triggering something.
Dylan. A name I knew, right? Stormy, appion eyes, a body like a god, a smile like the devil, a heart like an angel. The man I fell for. The man who caught me so many times.
“… the hell out of it!”
My back hit the wall hard, and stars clouded my vision. A strangled cry bubbled up my throat as the power, the rage, and the strength left me all at once. My knees buckled, and I sagged against the wall, but Cassie caught me and shoved me onto the cot.
“Sane again?” Cassie asked with a sarcastic undertone, clicking a finger in front of my eyes.
“Fuck…”
Cassie raised an eyebrow. “You could say that.”
Still delirious, my eyes trailed over the gaping hole in the ground where a two-hundred-pound heavy chunk of metal had been built-in before, following the red smears over the wall and floor to the mangled body in the corner. My hand flew to my mouth as my brain caught up to what I’d done.
Gordon’s face was mutilated beyond recognition. A hole oozed blood where his nose had been, and most of his teeth lay scattered on his clothes. A nail that had been used to secure the ring to the ground stuck in his left eye, the juices flowing down his cheek. And then there was a part of his brain dripping out where I’d hit his temple. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, but I’d rather it hadn’t been me who caused a human face to look like this.
A low sob to my right made me remember that there was a third person in the room. Gabby pressed flat against the opposite wall with her hands spread as if she was short of bolting out the door. She trembled with fear, and as her bleary eyes fell on me, I knew she was also afraid of me. I couldn’t blame her. I was afraid of myself, too.
“Can you stand?” Cassie asked, letting me refocus on her. I pushed myself up but groaned at the aching in my neck.
“Damn, remind me to do a warm-up in advance next time,” I muttered, rubbing the sore spot next to my spine. I needed to think of including some weight training into my training schedule before I dislocated my shoulder for the second time this year.
Cassie made sure I sat upright before hurrying to Gordon’s body searching for the keys. She opened my ankle shackle first before handing me them so I could unlock her wrist manacles.
“Thanks for bringing me back,” I told her in a serious tone.
Cassie’s features hardened. I could tell it didn’t sit well with her that we needed to come to a truce for the time being. “Remind me never to get you angry again.”
Despite the guilt I felt, I gave her a weak smile. I hated the Bluster. Every time it hit me, something bad happened, putting other lives in danger.
“Gabby?” I tested softly. “I’m sorry you had to see me like this. Believe me, I wouldn’t want to see myself like this, either.”
She took a second to contemplate my words before giving a short nod. “I know. He deserved it, anyway. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to do it myself. So, what now?”
“Heal Cassie as best as you can, and then I need information about how we’re going to get out of here.”
~~~
As it turned out, we were in the middle of nowhere in Philadelphia surrounded by a vast, endless area of rocky ground, cliffs, and wilderness. The bunker was four floors deep. We were on the third-floor basement—that much I already knew from my occasional tours.
There were two exits. The one on the lowest floor where the only drivable road led to the underground was used for the bunker’s logistics, and the one leading to the surface, which wasn’t more than a ladder under a trap door on the top floor.
The exit underneath us swarmed with guards and employees, and without a vehicle, it would take us hours to get out of the tunnels. The exit above us was originally built as an emergency exit and barely used. One or two guys would guard it, but they wouldn’t be a problem.
One thing was, though—once outside, there was nowhere to go.
Gabby explained the bunker was built into a steep precipice next to a deep cliff. The residual area on top was hard terrain. There was nothing for miles, no civilization, not even a river. I asked Gabby if she could give me any online access, but she negated as she didn’t have any authority to log into the system. Phones didn’t work down here. No chance of calling for help, then. We would be on our own.
I couldn’t trust that Dylan would find us so soon, either. Even if he turned entire Baltimore upside down to find me, he wouldn’t know where to start. He had no idea we were in Philadelphia.
“Up it is, then,” I decided, choosing the lesser of two evils. Every cell in my body bridled at going down deeper and be lost in the tunnels. Up there, I could at least tap into my ability without the risk of getting stoned to death.
Cassie nodded in agreement. “Leaves the question of how we’re getting there.”
Gabby shook her head. “I can only help you so far. If Dorian finds out about my involvement, he’ll kill me.”
My head jerked in her direction. “You’re not coming with us?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Gabby didn’t say anything for a while, concentrating on pouring her healing power into Cassie. I watched in fascination as Cassie’s bruises paled, and the cuts sealed themselves.
“Dorian is my brother,” Gabby revealed, and Cassie and I exchanged a surprised look. “I know he’s… not always doing the right thing.” I snorted, repressing the urge to disagree. This was the understatement of the year. “But he’s the only family I’ve left. I can’t leave him like this.”
I didn’t like the thought of leaving Gabby here with Dorian. She was afraid of him, I could tell by the way her eyes flashed with fear every time she said his name. He wasn’t good to her. “Are you sure about this, Gabby? This might be the only chance you’ll get.”
Her face contorted as if she was close to crying, but she took a deep breath and composed herself. “Yes, I’m sure.” Lifting Cassie’s hand, Gabby gently unwrapped the dirty bandage. Cassie hissed as the fabric stuck to crusted blood. “I can’t grow them back, but I can heal the torn tissue,” Gabby said softly.
I didn’t look as I munched on the stale bread and cheese that would be my last meal for a long time. I tended to forget how long Cassie had been here already. We never got along, but this was a fate I’d never wish for her, and I knew deep down she had a good heart.
“Great,” Cassie exclaimed with fake enthusiasm, spreading out her fingers in front of her when Gabby was finished. “From now on, I’ll need to polish only eight nails.”
“It doesn’t look that bad,” Gabby whispered in an attempt to cheer her up. Now that the dried blood was removed and the surrounding skin was healed, you wouldn’t notice from afar that two nails were missing.
“Maybe you could shift them back?” I suggested. “You can grow your hair, so why not your nails?”
Cassie continued to examine her hand, comparing it to her intact one. “Yeah, maybe…”
Suddenly, footsteps approached our cell, and I nearly choked on my bread. Gabby threw me a panicked look. I jerked up, grabbed the blanket from my cot, and tossed it over Gordon’s lifeless form in an attempt to cover him.
“Yeah. No one will notice what happened here,” Cassie mumbled sarcastically. She had a point. The red smears from where Gordon had slid down were a stark contrast to the sterile white walls, and the piece of brain sticking on the floor wasn’t helping, either.
“It doesn’t matter. Gordon’s not at his post anymore. They will get suspicious,” Gabby whimpered, already backing away from Cassie. It was too late, anyway.
A guard stopped outside our cell, peeking through the window and taking in the three of us until his eyes fell on the bloodstained wall. Shock spread over his face, and he lowered his head to see the open locks on the door. I dashed forward before he could come in.
Just as his arm came into view, I threw my whole weight against the door causing the heavy steel to clamp on his upper arm. The guard gave a strangled cry, but he kept pushing. He was damn strong, probably a Fighter, and I knew I would need to face him head-on.
“Move!” Cassie yelled from behind me, and I spun around to see her raising the staff she’d snatched off Gordon, swinging it like a baseball bat.
I jumped away from the door, and the guard stumbled inside. He saw the staff aiming for his face and ducked at the last second, Cassie only hitting air. I quickly came to her help, wiping my legs under his before he could ram her. His legs gave way, and Cassie drove the staff into his ribs with deadly accuracy.
Bones cracked, and the guard uttered a choked cry, some ribs probably poking his lungs. Cassie didn’t hesitate before dropping her weapon, driving her foot upward and smacking his chin back. She pivoted behind him, grabbed his head, and broke his neck with a swift yank. He fell like a sack.
I sighed in relief, my heart pumping loudly in my ears.
“Ah, it feels so good to have my strength back.” Cassie flung back her hair and lifted her chin with self-confidence. Good. The old Cassie was returning. I needed her. “What’s the plan? How do we get out of here?” She threw me an expectant look, which I directed at Gabby, as I was just as clueless.
“I can give you the access code for the elevator, but it will only take you to the first-floor basement. You’ll need to walk the rest of the way.”
“How far?”
“To the other end of the bunker.”
Of course. Why should it have been easy? The bunker was built in a U-shape. The elevator was located at one end, so we needed to cross the entire floor to reach the other side. Piece of cake. Not.
“What will await us up there?” I asked suspiciously, already seeing us surrounded by more Hunters than the two of us could handle.
“Lots of employees and guards. This is the floor where the security, IT, and sales departments are located. I don’t know how you intend to get there undetected,” she added as if this was a lost cause.
I shook my head. Damn, we were Roes for God’s sake. It couldn’t be so hard to find a way out of this shithole. Dylan once said to me,
“Every problem has a solution. Think about what you’ve got, what you’re surrounded with, and make use of it. Even a sheet of paper or a bottle of water can be turned into a weapon.”
Well, weapons wouldn’t help us—not the staffs, anyway. The only weapon doing damage was me, but I was useless down here. Using it to kill Gordon had been too great a risk already. I wouldn’t want to push my luck.
I cast a glance at Cassie. Cassie. A Shifter. She was the master of camouflage. I didn’t know if this was going to work, but it was the best we had. “You could shift to Gabby.”
Cassie threw a confused look at the girl next to her, eyeing her from head to toe. They didn’t look exactly alike, but they had the same height and same hair. On closer observation, you could see the similarities between Gabby and her brother.
“I’m not Dorian who can clone other people,” Cassie remarked.
“You don’t need to. You have similar features.”
“I’ve never tried it before.”
“Then try now.”
Cassie huffed. “I need time to analyze her first.”
“How long?”
“Don’t know. Fifteen minutes, maybe? I just don’t see how that’s going to help us.”
“Dorian’s office is up there,” Gabby threw in. “Pretend that you’re escorting Haylie to him.”
“What are the odds we’ll bump into him?” Cassie wanted to know with a fearful undertone. If we encountered Dorian, we were screwed. He’d ask what Gabby was doing with me up there, and then Cassie needed to talk. It wouldn’t take him long to recognize the foreign voice, and then hell would break loose.
“He’ll be in the lab for the next few hours,” Gabby assured us.
So, this was our brilliant plan.
While Cassie analyzed Gabby—inspecting every inch of her face, skin, hair, eyes, lips, nose, and ears—I searched the second guard for any useful items, deliberately not looking at his bloody face and the awkward angle with which his head hung to the side. Unfortunately, he didn’t have more than a staff either.
“And?” Cassie asked, and I turned around to see two identical Gabby’s standing in front of me. Cassie was maybe two inches taller, but no one would notice.
“Wow, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. How long can you hold it up?”
“Long enough.”
“Okay. Gabby, give Cassie your coat so that she can blend in. I’ll put you in shackles and chain you to the bed. This way, no one knows you’ve been helping us. You can tell them we attacked you.”
While Gabby peeled out of her coat, I retrieved a pair of shackles from the guard. Waiting for Gabby to lie down on the cot, I chained her to the bars, making sure not to tighten them too much.
“We should make this more realistic,” Cassie threw in and went over to the bloodstained wall, wiping her hands over it.
“What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer but just smeared the blood on Gabby’s neck and top, making it look as if we fought her. Gabby jerked away in disgust. “We hit her, then chained her to the bed.”
“She has no injuries,” I pointed out, but Cassie threw me a how-stupid-are-you look.
“She’s a Regenerator.”
Oh, yeah, right. “You’re okay?” I asked Gabby softly. She was so innocent, so shy, and yet she was helping us, risking so much. I could only pray to God that no horrible fate awaited her down here.
“Yeah, go now. The code for the elevator is 470093.”
“Thank you, Gabby. Should you ever need help… well, you know where our compound is,” I added in a humorous tone, then dropped my voice. “One last question. Why… Why did Dorian have my sister killed all those years ago if he wants Naturals alive?”
Her eyes grew soft, and she said in a gentle tone, “He didn’t know back then that he could make money with them. He knew they were powerful. More powerful than he was, and it frightened him. Later, he found out that she would have been of great use to him.”
I clenched my teeth. Shawna could have lived, but then she would have ended just like me—as a test subject in a goddamn bunker at the mercy of psychopaths. Maybe she’d been graced with the better fate.
I squeezed Gabby’s hand one last time before turning to Cassie. “Ready?”
Cassie exhaled audibly. “As ready as I can be. Wait.” Retrieving her ruined shackles, she clamped them over my hands. “If you are my prisoner, you need to be in shackles.”
I groaned. “You love this, don’t you?” She just gave me a mischievous smile.
We walked to the door, and Cassie bent down to the unknown guard, taking his staff and hiding it under her coat. She turned around once again, looking at Gabby who was eyeing the ceiling above her.
“Gabby… Don’t let him have any power over you. He may be your only family left, but sometimes you can find better family—people who love and care about you. You’re welcome to join us anytime.”
Gabby shed a tear at Cassie’s beautiful words and nodded in acknowledgment. “Get the hell out of here now, for God’s sake.”