by Nikki Dean
Of all the times for Damon and Alec to be late, it just has to be now! Did this asshole do something to them?!
She was too distracted to recall that she’d just left Alec downstairs, and Damon could hold his own against the amaroq, of all things, so he definitely wouldn’t be taken down by one guy in a dorm room.
At least, not without a fight.
Just like Mallory.
The mystery man grabbed her arm and twirled it behind her, wrenching her wrist up between her shoulder blades. Mallory braced one foot on the corner of her desk and shoved them both backwards, trusting that he would trip over something in the tiny room and let her go.
He did, but he didn’t. She screamed in agony as he fell, grasping her wrist even tighter as though she, somehow, would save him. Her shoulder popped out of socket when he hit the other bed, bouncing off of the mattress before taking them both to the floor.
Footsteps sounded outside her door and someone pounded on it, calling her name.
“Help! Someone help me!” she managed to cry out.
The door blew inward, destroying the handle and wrenching the hinges off the wall.
“Dammit, Alec, you can’t do that until you know where she is on the other side!” Nico yelled as he raced by to pull Mallory up and out of harm’s way. She screamed again as he jostled her dislocated shoulder and he froze, holding her out gently.
“What’s wrong with her? And who the fuck is that?” Alec demanded from the doorway. Damon appeared at his side.
“Fucking Pohler. Want to tell us what you’re doing here?” Damon demanded.
“We were talking and she got animated and slipped on the rug. She landed wrong on her shoulder and started crying,” Pohler began.
“Bullshit!” Mallory screamed. “That’s fucking bullshit! I just got up here and this crazy asshole was waiting for me inside my room, all alone! He grabbed me and put me in an arm lock and dislocated my shoulder! How the fuck did you even get in here?!”
“You’re overreacting.” Pohler’s face was still, a blank canvas waiting for him to try emotions on with.
Mallory roared with rage and pulled away from Nico to land one solid punch on Pohler’s jaw with her left hand. Shock was the only genuine thing that registered before he crumpled in front of her, his eyes rolling back into his head for a second.
“Damn, Bunny, you got him good,” Alec said, jealous approval in his voice. “Remind me not to piss you off.”
“What the fuck, you guys? How did he get into my room, and what’s he doing here?” she demanded. “And can someone please do something about my shoulder?”
“I can call Janae,” a new voice volunteered from the doorway. They all turned to see a group of guys there, peering inside her room. Conner raised his phone and dialed a number. “She’s on her way up.”
“Thanks,” Mal murmured as she sank onto her bed. “What are you guys all doing here?”
She only recognized a few of the faces, Conner and Bryan from strategy, someone she had sat beside once or twice in history, Chris from technical charms in the back. A few girls were sprinkled into the mix, but not many. It was the first male floor, after all. Aside from her.
“We heard you screaming and came to help,” Bryan replied. Mallory looked at him in surprise. “We all know you’re in here alone because the girls’ floors are full, and screams are generally a bad sign.”
“Oh. Thanks. I thought you hated me.” Dammit, filter. Get your shit together.
“Nah. I was just pissed that you saw through my magic that first sim. We’re all good,” Bryan replied.
Nico, Alec and Damon exchanged looks.
“All right, the situation has been handled and we’re taking the intruder into custody. Please go back to your rooms, except for whoever lives right across the hall from Miss Serra. We might need you for questioning, but other than that, have a good night, people. Show’s over,” Damon ordered loudly, going into full TA mode.
They dispersed among a sea of whispers, already speculating on who Pohler was and why he was in her room. Not to mention how, if he really did break in like she was accusing him.
Janae cut through the crowd as she made her way to Mallory’s room, then sat down on the bed beside her. “Where are you hurt?” she asked gently.
Pohler groaned on the floor beside them, rolling his head to the side as he began to open his eyes. His head dropped back down with a dull thud as his eyes closed again. Alec grinned.
Nico just hit him again, Mallory realized. Good for him. I kind of wanted to do it, though. “My shoulder. This asshole jerked it out of socket.”
Janae ran her hands over Mallory’s arm, pressing against the front and back of the injured side. Mallory couldn’t keep from wincing with every touch and tilted her head back, blinking furiously.
It didn’t work.
Two tears slid down her cheeks, followed by several more. Nico growled beside her and wiped them off.
“Sorry. Sorry. I haven’t had this done since I was in gymnastics forever ago, and I forgot how much it hurts,” Mal said with a rueful laugh. “I must have bounced better when I was a kid.”
“I’m going to pop it back in, okay? It’ll hurt again for a second, but then it’ll stop and I can heal you,” Janae warned. “On the count of three.”
Mallory nodded. Nico held her hand and she squeezed it.
“One.”
“Two.”
Janae pressed quickly, popping the shoulder back into place.
“Three.”
Mallory buried her head into Nico’s shoulder, biting his t-shirt to stifle her cry of pain. Janae reached for the exposed skin of her throat and hand with each of hers and the pain vanished, leaving nothing but pleasant numbness in its wake.
The numbness faded, leaving Mallory starting to feel downright refreshed as Janae continued. That is, until she looked up from Nico’s shoulder to see her friend’s pinched, tired face as she worked on her.
“Stop, I’m fine. You’re going to wear yourself out like that,” Mallory told her, pushing her hands away. “Really, it’s great now.”
She rotated her arm to prove it, despite Janae’s frown. It pulled a little, and was definitely sore, but it was usable.
“Don’t lie to me. You know I can sense your discomfort, right?” Janae barked. “Get back over here and be still. You might need this later.” Something in the hard edge of her tone made Mal think Janae wasn’t talking about getting laid, or any other fun activities.
Need my arm? But it’s Friday night. What’s she talking about? “Why don’t we go into the bathroom and make a cold compress to put on it? You look tired, too,” Mallory said slowly.
Nico looked from one girl to the other, then stood. “I’ll go get you some ice in a bag from the dining hall. Sound good?”
Janae nodded, barely looking at him as he stepped over Pohler’s still form on the floor.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with him?” Mallory muttered. “I can’t just leave him there. I need to know what he was doing in here, though. Captain Fitzam is going to be pissed.”
“You know him?” Janae asked.
“Yeah. He’s my new handler. Matt, my other one, got reassigned to some top-secret thing last week,” Mallory replied with a roll of her eyes. “I hate it. I thought this guy was a douche even before he broke into my room, but now I don’t know what to do. Do I call the captain, or the police? Who handles military disturbances, anyway?”
“That’s your new handler?” Janae hissed as she hauled Mallory into the bathroom. It was becoming something of a trend. “Charles Pohler from Fitzam’s office?” The urgency in her voice lifted the baby hairs on the back of Mallory’s neck.
“Yeah. Why?”
“I have to go. Now. Before he sees me. I guess it doesn’t matter much since a bunch of other people saw me come in here, though, so they’ll know I spoke to you. Fuck.”
“What’s wrong, Janae?” Mallory grabbed the other girl’s arm when she would have
rushed by. “Tell me. Now. Why does he scare you?”
“It’s not just him, it’s the whole thing! I was gonna tell you tonight anyway, but now...” she trailed off, regret in her voice. “I can’t, Mallory. I’m sorry.”
“Tell me what?!”
“I really can’t. You don’t understand. They have my whole family in this academy. If I fuck up, even a little bit, they could pay the price for it.”
Alarm bells blared in Mallory’s mind. Janae was telling the truth, but she was also hiding something. Something big.
It has to do with Pohler. I have no idea why Pohler is in here, but she’s afraid of him, even though she didn’t recognize him, and she needs to tell me something. My only connections with this guy are the captain and Matt. Oh, god, she knows something about Matt.
“Janae, please. Just tell me whatever you know, you’re worrying me and now I’m not going to be able to let it go.”
Mallory pulled Janae’s mind into focus on her web and tried to look into it, but it wasn’t very effective. The other girl was either too scared, or too undecided to reveal much.
Until an image of Matt came up, passed out on a white metal table with needles and tubes going into his arm.
Chapter 27
Mallory gripped Janae’s arm so hard her fingertips turned white, and she had no doubt that the healer would have bruises later. It didn’t matter though, Mallory had to know.
“What happened to Matt? Where is he?”
Janae’s face paled, looking strangely ashen beneath her dark coloring. “How’d you know?”
“I don’t know anything yet, but Pohler and Matt hate each other. There’s no reason that he would be in my room unless it had something to do with Matt, but he’s not talking right now, so I need you to. Matt was supposed to be back yesterday, or at least call me to let me know he’s okay. He and Nico are best friends, so I know he wouldn’t leave Nico hanging either, if he could help it.”
Janae took a deep breath. Alec’s and Damon’s voices rang in the hall as they wrapped up questioning the occupants of the room across from hers, who Mallory had honestly never even seen.
“Meet me in the basement in fifteen minutes. Don’t tell anyone else. If they find out I was involved in any way, I’ll never be able to help you again, and my family will pay the price,” Janae whispered. “Can I trust you?”
Mallory nodded. “Of course.”
“Okay, so you just need to hold the ice on your shoulder for thirty minutes, then take it off for thirty and do that three or four times tonight. Take some ibuprofen and let me know how you’re doing in the morning. Nurse Cavell should probably check you out tomorrow, but you need to get some sleep now,” Janae said, louder this time as she opened the bathroom door. “Remember, fifteen minutes. Alone,” she whispered harshly before she left. Mal nodded before she walked out of the bathroom.
Nico sat in Mallory’s chair, his face creased with worry.
“What’s wrong?” Mallory asked as he brought her the ice pack. “Where’s Pohler?”
“The others took him down already,” Nico replied. “Campus security should have him soon. How are you doing?”
Janae made a noise of agreement and left, hurrying down the hallway to the elevators. Mallory turned back to Nico, her eyebrows raised.
“Why are you lying to me?” she asked as she tossed the ice pack into the freezer and rotated her arm, testing it out.
“I didn’t want to say it in front of her, but Pohler was gone when I got back. I took the stairs to give you a few minutes with your friend, since you guys were talking about something in there for a while, and Alec and Damon were close enough to be there if Pohler woke up and tried to hurt you again. But he disappeared. How are you doing?”
“What? Did you tell anyone else?”
Nico nodded. “I called the captain’s office, but they said he took the week off. So they have no idea what he was doing here, or where he’s been the last few days.”
“He doesn’t strike me as the vacation type. I’m fine, by the way. Well, worried, but my shoulder is fine. Janae fixed it.”
“Glad you feel better now. Don’t worry, we’ll find him,” Nico scoffed. “He couldn’t ever let go long enough to relax five years ago, and from everything I’ve heard, he’s even worse now. So if he was ‘off work’ it’s because he was working on something else he didn’t want them to know about.”
“Or they don’t want us to know about,” Mallory replied uneasily. What do I tell him about Matt, if Janae’s family is in danger? I don’t have any details yet, but I’ll definitely need his help to rescue him. And the others’ too. Maybe even Everett’s, if it’s that bad. Although what do I know, getting strapped to a table and pumped full of shit like an animal might be common on their little army adventure quests, who knows? “Can I trust you, Nico? Like really, really trust you?”
His hurt was instantaneous. “Do you even have to ask? You mean the world to me. I’m here for whatever you need.”
“I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about trusting you with other people’s lives.”
He cocked his head, waiting for her to go on.
Fuck it. This is for Matt. I’ll burn the whole place down to get him out of there if that’s what it takes. Janae included, if she’s part of this. “I have reason to believe that Matt is in trouble.” She held up one hand to stop the flow of his reassurances. “No, for real. But I need you to give me a minute first, to see if I can find him.”
Nico nodded and held his arms out to her. Mal lay back in them, then cleared her mind and thought about Matt.
Matt. His sparkling brown eyes that got so squinty when he laughed, or crinkled up around the edges when he smiled. The way his lips quirked when she said something insulting that amused him, for whatever reason. His soft little snores and the way he’d groaned and buried his face in her back the first time they had all fallen asleep together. The careful way he rolled over the next time, even though he didn’t want to, when he was afraid he’d encroached upon her personal space while they were sleeping.
The kiss.
How good his lips had felt against hers, plundering and invading, devouring her while Nico kissed her throat. The way his arms had felt around her, holding her against his thigh to make certain she enjoyed herself as much as possible. Then a few seconds later, how he’d covered her eyes to protect them from the light when Damon and Alec turned them on before the amaroq attacked.
Matt... Matt, where are you? She dove deep on her web, searching for any hint of him even at the farthest reaches of her range. But it wasn’t until she pulled back that she felt it.
Felt him.
A glimmer of his essence, a hint of his consciousness buried beneath a veritable shitstorm of medications.
“He’s being sedated,” Mallory murmured. Nico tensed behind her. “I can barely feel him, but he’s here. Matt’s already home, if he ever left at all.”
“Where?”
She opened her eyes and sat up, turning to face him. “How do we get to the basement?”
“The basement? You’re sure?” Damon demanded. “What else is down there?”
“I don’t know, but I know who might. Janae told me to meet her down there in fifteen minutes, well, five now, and to come alone. Whatever she knows, she’s scared,” Mallory replied as she pulled on her hoodie. The ski mask that Alec mysteriously tossed her went into her pocket. “You guys coming? You’ll have to stay out of sight, at least at first.”
“Is it even a question?” Damon asked.
“I meant more like are you ready now?” she clarified with a roll of her eyes. “It’s too bad we can’t take the amaroq, and maybe create a distraction. Matt told me a story about it destroying a basement system in some little town a few years ago. A lab of some sort.”
“It had a reason to be there, though,” Alec replied. He held the door open and snapped his fingers for them all to hurry up. He had a mask as well, as did the other guys.
“Oh, y
eah? Why’s that?” Mal asked. If it gets pissed off about experiments, then it might have a good reason to come here, too. But I’d hate for anyone to get hurt, and that thing is completely uncontrollable.
“It doesn’t like anyone researching it, from what I can tell. And whoever was running that lab had a lot of information compiled in there.”
“About the amaroq?” Mallory asked.
They all three nodded.
“But why?”
Alec shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess. We never found out exactly what they were doing down there, but there were enough hard drives in the wreckage to indicate that it had something to do with the amaroq, and others of its kind.”
“There are more?” She was just full of questions tonight. Anything to keep her mind off of the faint little pulse that was Matt, and what that meant for his well-being. He’s still alive, so there’s hope, she kept telling herself.
“So what’s the plan here?” Damon interrupted. “You’re going to meet up with your friend and hope she tells you something about Matt? She might not have a clue where he is, or what’s going on.”
“She knows. She’s seen him,” Mallory whispered. The elevator doors slid open and she got out, then turned to see that they weren’t following her.
“We’ll take the stairs from the second floor,” Nico said quickly. “Go all the way down the hall to the left, and there’s an unmarked door. It’s a maintenance stairwell that leads down to the basement. Call me on your phone before you walk in, and we’ll listen in to make sure she’s not setting you up.”
Mallory nodded, suddenly grateful that they seemed to be used to this sort of thing.
“Be careful, Bunny,” Nico said as the doors began to slide shut.
“See you in a minute,” Alec agreed. Damon just nodded, his face the last one she saw. Something flew out from between the doors just before they closed, silver flashing as it clattered against the tile floor.
She knelt and picked up a small throwing knife. One of the set that Damon kept on him at all times.
