For the Reign

by Debbie Cassidy

  “No. I get it. She did what she did to survive. I can’t argue with that.” I met Elias’s gaze. “I won’t hurt her if she agrees to help us.”

  He nodded. “That’s all I can ask for.”

  He pushed open the door and led the way into the lab. A woman stood with her back to us, her silver hair pulled up in a topknot. Monitors beeped and data scrolled across screens. The lab was huge, and Jace’s mouth dropped open.

  She stiffened and turned to face us. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Elias, and then her gaze slid to me and a slight frown marred her smooth forehead.

  “Deana, I need your help,” Elias said. He strode toward her, blocking me from view, forcing her to return her focus to him. “I have a way to bring Malcolm to his knees, to take over the Foundation and free the Vladul, but I need you to help me.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “Deana, there’s a cure to the virus, and we have it. We just need you to replicate it. We need a batch load.”

  She stepped away from him. “A cure for the Fangs and the Claws?” She shook her head. “But they’re our competition.”

  Elias made a sound of exasperation. “No, Deana. They’re living, breathing beings, just like you and me, just like the humans. Do you remember the old days? Don’t you remember the old ways? The way of the Vladul? We were protectors of humanity once. We had treaties with other preternatural creatures and the Fangs. The Fangs are an evolved version of us. Don’t you want to save lives? To have peace?”

  She was silent for a long beat. “You have a way to get rid of Malcolm?”

  “Yes. Malcolm will die today.”

  She smiled. “Malcolm has pretty much annihilated all the uninfected Fangs and Claws. We’ll be unchallenged. The humans will be ours for the taking.” She gripped the lapels of his jacket. “Elias, once you get Malcolm out of the picture then we can rule the old way, but without having to share, without having any competition for dominance of this world.”

  Elias tensed, his hands coming up to cover hers and push her away.

  I stepped in. “Sure, that sounds like a top plan. Only problem is that the humans you want to rule over are also turning Feral now.”

  She released Elias, her mouth turning down. “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, didn’t you know? The virus has mutated, and the mutated version turns humans Feral.”

  Her gaze flicked from side to side, as if she was making rapid calculations. “No. You’re lying.”

  But there was no conviction in her tone, because she knew, knew that it was entirely possible for a virus to mutate.

  I retrieved the two vials from the pouch at my waist. “I have two cures here, one for the original virus and one for the mutated. We need them both replicated in bulk, and we need them now.”

  She stared at the vials and then at my face. “Who are you? You’re not one of us.”

  “No, Deana, I’m not one of you. I’m something terrifying, and trust me, you don’t want to get on my bad side. Synthesize the cure and save your own life as well as the lives of everyone on this island.”

  Deana locked gazes with me for a long beat and then she stepped around Elias and veered off toward the left. “Follow me.”

  Jace leaned in. “You can put the scary smile away now.”

  Thing was, I hadn’t even known I’d been smiling.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  SAGE

  The clothes do chafe, Logan was right, but hopefully I won’t have to be in them for too long. The schematic takes me to a lift that leads to a sublevel. One of the many sublevels to this fucking prison.

  Eva is above me somewhere, her focus on the cure. She has Elias and Jace and the damn Hunt to keep her safe, so why the fuck do I feel like turning around and heading back up to find her.

  A Vladul wearing a gray tunic and black trousers approaches from the opposite direction. I duck my head, and his gaze slips over me. Thank goodness for the hat. Thank God the guards here keep their hair shorn. His gaze flicks my way briefly, but it’s an absent glance. It seems the guards here are truly invisible—just a part of the furniture.

  I step into the large lift, the kind used to transport pallets, or large items, or maybe just a large number of prisoners. My teeth ache from clenching. What horrors will I find on sublevel two?

  My stomach drops with the lift and agitation grips me. Eva … This has to do with Eva. I need to free the djinn and go to her. Ever since she’d returned, there’s been a darkness around her, a shadow, almost like grief, and my instincts scream to not let her out of my sight.

  Still I step out of the lift and onto a dimly lit floor. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. I’m on a balcony high above another level. There is silence, a heavy silence punctuated by a rhythmic whirring noise.

  My senses tell me that I’m not alone. But there is no danger, no threat, only thick and cloying despair. I step up to the balcony and look down to see row upon row of containment units, all with tiny windows showing wide, glassy eyes. Monitors blink and life signs scroll on tiny screens attached to each unit. They look up at me, unseeing, but there is pain, eternal pain, and silent screams that batter at my mind. I slam down my defenses, sagging against the railing.

  Shit. Supernaturals held in stasis by the Vladul, but they’re not intact. They’re limbless, organless, pieces of people, but their souls … Their souls are trapped inside these jigsaw bodies. I must free them. The metal stairs clang softly beneath my boots as I head down. One by one, I turn off the units, watch the bodies die and see the souls escape. One by one, they are freed until the room is truly silent.

  There are no djinn among the captured. Maybe there never were. Maybe the Vladul found a way to end the djinn they captured so long ago. I turn to leave, but then I hear it—the melody, the symphony of my realm, deep and thrumming like a heartbeat. It emanates from the wall to my right. Where? Where is it coming from? I press my palm to the stone and feel it beneath my fingers.

  Dammit. A room, another fucking room. Once I open my eyes, the door is in plain view, the same color as the wall and so easily missed. There is no handle, no access panel, nothing to gain access. Heat burns bright in my chest, the heat ignited by Eva, and my fingers begin to glow so hot they turn blue. The door melts and buckles beneath my hands and the lock pops. With a shove, I’m in, and my heart swells and soars at the sight.

  A huge transparent cube sits in the center of the room, and inside, swirling and writhing and humming, are my people. My djinn. They surge to the glass, incorporeal palms and faces beseeching me. This material … A material to hold a djinn? I have to get them out.

  Mouths move but there is no sound. Strange bolts of slender lightning crackle inside the cube. Some kind of energy disruption. And then it clicks. The disruption is what’s keeping them captive, not the cube. A quick scan to find the controls that operate this thing, and there it is, bulky and primate, but then this one lever controls a fuck load of energy. The whirr I heard from the other room makes sense as my gaze falls on the massive generator that powers the cube.

  Grabbing the lever, I heave with all my might. It sticks at first, used to the position, almost rusted, but then, with a clank and a scrape, it shifts down. I slam it home and the whirr cuts off. For a moment, there is nothing but silence.

  “Brother, you have liberated us.”

  I turn to face the djinn, to face them all. “Yes, and now how would you like to get the fuck out of here?”

  NOAH

  The guards’ sightless eyes stare up at me. Minutes, that’s all it has taken. Minutes to get down to the cattle floor, less than a second to get past the doors, and less than a minute to kill the guards.

  Kira’s claws retract, and she wipes her hands on her slacks. Logan drags two bodies out of the way of the exit to allow us room to get back out once we free the humans.

  The schematic is clear on what lies beyond; Elias has drawn it out in detail. There are holding pens built for family groups, an
d a leisure room, gym, and a yard for outdoor time. There is even a fire exit route that leads out of the Foundation and into the courtyard that the guards can usher the humans into in case of emergency. That is our exit. The Vladul have created a resort for the humans, one they will never be permitted to leave.

  I head through a bottleneck chamber and onto the cattle floor proper. A breeze drifts in from a set of double doors pushed wide. A yard for humans to roam in like free range chickens.

  It makes me sick.

  Makes my stomach churn with it because this is the work of a man whose genes I share. A man who looks just like me, a man maybe I could have become if not for the boys to keep me grounded.

  The radio at my hip crackles. “Noah, you there? Over,” Jace says.

  I hit the button to speak. “We’re in. Guards are down. We should be out in fifteen minutes.”

  “We have the cure in batch form, headed to control room now. Over.”

  “Be safe. Over.”

  “You too. Over and Out.”

  I tuck the radio into my belt. “Logan, get ready to hit the release button on the wall.” I head to a panel by the main doors marked “intercom” and press down on the button which will deliver my voice to all the humans.

  “Hello, humans, my name is Noah, and I’m here to get you out. Do not be alarmed by my appearance. I hold a striking resemblance to your captor, which is why I have been able to infiltrate this building. Fair warning. I’m a Fang, and I have Claws with me, but we’re not infected, and we mean you no harm. On the count of three, I’ll release the locks on your doors, and I need you to file out in an orderly fashion. If we’re going to make it out of here, you’ll need to stay calm, listen, and follow instructions. If you understand. If you’re willing, then please bang on your doors now.”

  There is a moment of utter silence and then the corridor erupts in a cacophony of clangs.

  I look to Logan, noting the smile of satisfaction on his face. “Let them out.”

  A movement in my periphery has my head whipping round. A Vladul guard stands there, hands still on his zipper. My attention flicks over his shoulder to the door to a restroom.

  Shit.

  He takes in the carnage and measures the odds and slowly raises his hands. My shoulders begin to relax just as he leaps past me and hits the wall on the opposite side.

  Kira moves like a blur and then the guard is on the floor, his throat a gaping wound, but my gaze is drawn to the wall, to the shattered glass around a blue button marked “alarm.”

  Oh, shit.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Alpha X

  Malcolm looks up as shrill alarms go off in his office.

  Words scroll across my eyes in block red capitals.

  PROTOCOL OBLIVION.

  A click in my mind and my vision turns red. Beta 1 and Beta 2 establish a link, awaiting instruction.

  Get to the cattle floor. Seal the coop. I’m on my way.

  The facility has been breached, the facility is under attack, and the humans are the priority.

  The humans must not escape.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jace and Deana carried the two trays with plastic lids containing tiny pressurized cans of the cure. Enough to be loaded into fifty drones, ready to be sprayed into the atmosphere. With Deana and Elias leading us, once again we were invisible.

  Maybe we wouldn’t need the Hunt. Maybe we could do this on our own steam. And then Elias led us into a large silver lift.

  “Elias? Elias, wait.” Deana stalked into the lift behind him. “What are you planning? You can’t just walk in and demand to access the full schematics of this place.”

  The doors closed, and Elias turned to me, ignoring Deana and her questions. “The Command Center is the hub of the Foundation. All essential personnel, all Malcolm’s minions, work and play on this floor. We won’t be invisible here. We will be challenged. Are you ready?”

  “Ready for what?” Deana looked from Elias to me, annoyance tightening her features.

  I slid the horn from its spot at my waist. It hummed and glowed, the energy, the will, the hunger seeping into my mind.

  “I’m ready.” My voice sounded different, deeper with a strange resonance.

  Jace’s throat bobbed, and Deana took a step away from me, but Elias merely nodded and hit the button to take us up.

  The lift didn’t jolt or rumble and the only indication that we were moving at all was the slight lurch in my stomach and the clamor of the Hunt in my head.

  Is it time?

  Now. Do we feed now?

  Wait. Hush. Almost.

  The doors slid open directly onto a huge open-plan office level. Vladul dressed in slate gray and white milled about, some sat at desks, others studied monitors. Activity was rife. Elias stepped out of the lift first and several Vladul looked to him with a frown.

  “Elias, what are you doing here?” a tall, broad male asked.

  Elias scanned the room and then shrugged. “I thought I’d pop in and, I don’t know, annihilate you all?”

  The man balked. “What the hell are you talking about? And who is this?” His gaze went from me to Deana. “Miss Faust?”

  Deana’s eyes were wide and fixed on me. “What are you going to do?”

  I lifted my horn to my lips. “I’m going to blow my horn.”

  My exhale brought the clap of thunder and the crack of lightning, and then green mist filled the floor.

  The Hunt had arrived.

  Deana screamed and stumbled back.

  “Keep it together,” Jace snapped, but his face was pale, his eyes dark as he studied the spectacle, the neighing of the huge horses and the crack of the whips as they claimed the souls. Caister and Dia were easy to pick out amongst the riders now. Maybe it was my connection to the Hunt, maybe it was the fact that they seemed to be wreathed in an eerie crimson glow that stood out against the green.

  It didn’t matter.

  They had this.

  I lowered the horn, my chest expanding in what could only be described as pride. Deana shuddered by my side, frightened now that she was seeing the full force of my power, now that she knew what her instincts had been telling her. That I was not to be trifled with.

  Elias had asked me not to hurt Deana, claimed that she had acted on Malcolm’s orders, and she was helping us now, but only because she knew their source of food was threatened. Their cattle farm wasn’t nearly enough to feed them indefinitely. And then there was the issue of what she’d done to Tobias. I had questions that needed answers.

  “You turned my friend into a machine.” My tone was even, so as not to spook her.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Tobias. He has dark skin and emerald eyes. He cares about people too much. Puts his own life at risk for strangers. He’s just that kind of guy and you turned him into a monster.”

  “I—I had no choice.”

  “Yeah. I get that. It’s the only reason you’re still alive now. What I need to know is can you fix him. Can you make him … him again.”

  She blinked rapidly. “Oh, I … Physically, no. The genetic modifications and changes are on a deep cellular level, but I could give him back his memories.”

  I grit my teeth. “You took his memories?”

  She pressed her lips together. “I did what I had to. I did what any scientist in my position would have.”

  Deep breaths, Eva. “When this is over, you’ll fix him. You’ll give him back his mind, and I won’t rip out your throat.”

  She nodded mutely, and her terror brushed across my skin like sweet perfume. Maybe I’d kill her anyway? I blew out a breath. Oh, God, this was so not me.

  “Eva?” Jace lightly touched my cheek. “Come back to us.”

  I blinked and focused on his concerned face, on the lips that I’d only kissed in a dream, the grip of the Hunt fading to the peripheral under the warmth in his touch.

  I leaned in, ignoring the screams of the dying Vladul, and kissed him, parting his lips with
my tongue and tasting him for real. He moaned into my mouth and kissed me back, hands spanning my waist to keep me tethered. He tasted of peaches, sweet and ripe and mine. An ache bloomed in my chest, an ache for what we wouldn’t have, for the time that was lost.

  I broke the kiss and cupped his face, blinking back the tears. “Thank you.” I turned away, hands slipping from his skin. “Elias, get into the system and find me that hangar.”

  Elias pulled out a seat and began tapping away at the computer. Jace propped his tray onto the floor by another workstation and accessed the system from there.

  The room had fallen silent. The Vladul, Malcolm’s elite, lay on the ground, soulless and dead.

  A hound padded over to me, its glowing eyes fixed on my face, its head so high off the ground it was almost level with mine. It ducked that large head now, prompting me to pet it.

  Its fur was silken-soft beneath my fingertips.

  Deana made a strangled sound and the hound growled low in its throat.

  No. Not her.

  The hound lowered its head and backed up.

  Caister and Dia turned their horses round to face me.

  “Got it!” Jace said.

  My radio crackled to life. “Eva … Eva. We’re locked down. We can’t—”

  Logan? “Logan!”

  Static followed.

  “Logan, come in, dammit!”

  Caister raised his head. “Death is here.” He smiled. “Not long now. May we have their souls?”

  Rage flooded me. “Fuck you. Stay with Elias and Jace. Keep them alive. Get them to the hangar.” I ran for the lifts.

  “Quicker to shift through space,” Dia called out.

  “What?”

  Her smile was smug. “Imagine yourself where you need to be. You are a god now, after all.”

  A god. I was a fucking god. I grabbed the schematic from my pocket and stared at the cattle floor. This was where I wanted to be.