Kings of Anarchy

by Caroline Peckham

  "Yes!" Saint cried and I stepped out from behind the tree, laughing excitedly and jumping up and down as I saw the Ninja pinned beneath Blake as he beat the hell out of him.

  Kyan and Monroe were shouting something to each other and clearly weren’t getting the message.

  "I got him," Blake growled triumphantly, punching the guy in the kidney as he sat back on his legs, dragging the bow off his body with the quiver before tossing them out of reach.

  “Who is it?” I demanded.

  My heart beat wildly as Blake shifted, forcing the Ninja to roll between his legs, the guy shaking as he gazed up at Blake through his white mask. Saint strode forward like the grim reaper and I swear I could hear bells tolling as he reached down and tore the mask from his face.

  I gasped as I recognised the culprit. “Bait,” I hissed, striding forward with anger raging through my core. I kicked him in the ribs, unleashing my fury on him and he screamed like an infant, trying to curl in on himself, but Blake grabbed his arms and pinned them down in the mud.

  "Looks like we caught ourselves a dirty little rat," Blake spat in his face.

  "Get off me!” Bait cried.

  "You took those pictures," I hissed. "Didn't you?"

  “Fuck you!” Bait spat and my upper lip peeled back as he started laughing like he’d won something.

  Saint unbuttoned his shirt cuffs, slowly rolling up his sleeves with a deadly look in his eyes that said Bait was about to be in a world of pain.

  Bait looked from me to Blake, to Saint and fury flared through his expression. "You think you're the real power in this school, but who's the one who's been making your girl afraid lately? Who's had her frightened and shaking and-"

  Blake punched him hard in the jaw and Saint fell on him too, both of them going full savage as they laid into him like wolves tearing into a carcass.

  A sick satisfaction washed through me as I watched, soaking in our combined vengeance as Saint threw a rib-cracking punch into Bait's gut before laughing like a beast.

  "What's going on?" Monroe asked in my ear, sounding out of breath.

  "We caught him. It’s Bait. And he’s right here getting what he deserves," I hissed.

  "Can't be, baby, we're hot on his heels," Kyan said, clearly still running and I frowned.

  “That can’t be right…” A vision from the night I’d been drugged snagged in my mind and I gasped as I realised the truth. "Oh shit. There's two of them," I told Blake and Saint, but they weren't listening, too busy making Bait scream as they punched and punched.

  "Fuck - look! He’s circled back around us onto the main path," Monroe panted, clearly talking to Kyan, but that meant I was ahead of them.

  "I'll cut him off!" I told them, tearing away from the others and leaving them pulverising Bait, teaching him a lesson for all the wrongs he'd dealt us.

  I raced down the hill through the trees as fast as I could, needing to get to the path.

  "Shit," Kyan snarled, but didn't give any more explanation than that so I continued on, the hill dropping away steeply beneath my feet.

  I broke through the trees at last, stumbling to a halt on the main path under the light of a lamp and gazing in the direction of the beach.

  "Where are you?" I asked, pressing my finger into my ear to try and hear them better as they grunted and cursed.

  "They've gone back into the trees, but I think they’re heading for Willow Boathouse," Kyan growled.

  I listened for them, hearing cracking twigs and heavy footfalls as the chase headed deeper into the forest.

  "For fuck's sake!" Monroe barked and I opened my mouth to respond just as hands grabbed me from behind and an ice cold needle jammed into my neck, making fear spike through me like a lightning bolt.

  The drug acted so fast that I was already falling towards the ground, darkness swooping in on me as swiftly as death and a scream faded away on my lips.

  "I' m going to rip you apart piece by piece, you spineless motherfucker!" I roared, my voice echoing out over the lake as I charged through the trees, following the fucking Justice Ninja as they sped towards the water.

  The only thing back in that direction was the boathouse and I knew we'd catch them before they made it that far.

  "You still on your way, baby?" I called, glancing over my shoulder to see if I might spot her as she ran to meet us. Not that I was seriously turned on by the idea of hunting down this prey with my girl by my side or anything, but what could I say? I was an animal and I wanted my mate by my side when I went in for the kill.

  Tatum didn't reply but I couldn't waste any more time looking back for her as the prey in question ducked to the right, charging straight for the water instead of the boathouse.

  "Where the fuck is he going?" Monroe shouted as he darted across my path, his brow furrowed as he sprinted after them.

  We were so fucking close to catching them, but we'd lost a few precious seconds when he'd first doubled back into the trees and it had given him the chance to pull ahead again. Couple that with the fact that the fucking clouds had deepened and we could hardly see for shit down here in the woods.

  "No!" Monroe yelled, bursting forward and my heart leapt at the pure rage in his voice a moment before I spotted the cause for it.

  The cloaked figure ahead of us had just vaulted over the rocks lining the edge of the water and was already half way out to a speedboat moored a few meters from the shore.

  "Get him!" I roared as I raced down the last few feet of the bank, before leaping over the rocks and landing knee deep in the water just behind Nash.

  The Justice Ninja looked up at us just as the roar of the speedboat's engine ripped through the night and he hastily hoisted the anchor up out of the water.

  I ran forward with my heart pounding to the beat of my fury as he lurched for the controls and our hopes of catching him were ripped away from us.

  "Stop!" I bellowed, charging further into the lake even as the boat wheeled about and he pulled the throttle back.

  A wave of water crashed over us as the powerful engine picked up speed and within moments, our quarry was lost.

  "For the love of fuck!" I yelled, swinging my baseball bat down into the water as hard as I could and sending another huge spray of water up over myself.

  "I don't fucking believe it," Monroe groaned, bracing his hands on his knees as he leaned forward to catch his breath, watching the boat speed away and leaving us to rot on the water's edge.

  "That's one lucky son of a bitch," I snarled, glancing to my left where the Willow Boathouse stood further along the water, but it was no use.

  The speedboat was already halfway across the water and by the time we managed to get into another vessel, they'd be moored up somewhere on the opposite side of the lake and long gone.

  "Fuck," I cursed again, kicking the water angrily as I turned away from the sickening sight of that boat retreating and started wading back to the shore with Monroe at my side. "I'm sorry, baby, they got away in a fucking boat. We'll just have to make Bait squeal to find out who his little friend is."

  Tatum didn't reply but Saint's curses reached me clearly enough.

  "You don't need to lay into us, we fucking get it," Monroe snapped. "How were we supposed to know they had a speedboat moored up? Just get Bait talking and we can go round them up anyway."

  "Bait isn't in much shape to talk right now," Blake said, sounding half amused and a flash of jealousy poured through me at the knowledge that he'd been able to beat the shit out of someone tonight when I hadn't.

  "Fuck my life," I muttered. "Where are you at, baby? I need some consoling between your thighs."

  "Shut the fuck up, asshole," Saint growled. "Come on, siren, tell us where you’ve got to."

  Silence followed as we all waited for her response and I clambered back out of the water with Nash at my side.

  "Princess?" he asked when the silence seemed to stretch too long.

  "Maybe her earpiece is broken?" Blake suggested.

  "Those
are military grade bits of tech," Saint snarled. "They're the best money can buy and practically indestructible. Civilians shouldn’t even have them. So no, I don't think it's broken."

  "Then maybe it fell out?" I suggested as we began to walk up the hill towards the path.

  I could practically hear Saint grinding his teeth at that insinuation and I chuckled darkly, but a shiver of unease ran down my spine all the same.

  "Tatum Roscoe!" I yelled at the top of my voice, cupping my hands around my mouth to make sure the sound carried far and wide. "Get your fine ass down here so I can get my hands on it."

  "Real classy, asshole," Monroe muttered and I wanted to wink at him and make some remark about the two of us tag teaming her to make ourselves feel better, but the fact that there was still no reply from her had me on edge.

  "You don't think there could have been three of those Ninja assholes, do you?" Blake asked cautiously, but before I could answer that, Saint hissed at all of us to shut up and listen.

  I didn't know what I was supposed to be listening for until I realised that I could hear footsteps crunching on gravel over the earpiece.

  "Are either of you walking on a gravel path?" Saint hissed and Monroe and I grunted a no as we stood silently beneath the trees.

  A shiver of dread shifted beneath my flesh as we stood there and the footsteps continued before the sound of a soft, male curse came next.

  "What the fuck?" Blake breathed but Saint shushed him aggressively.

  "Tatum?" I demanded forcefully, not giving a shit if Saint wanted to listen in on whatever the fuck was happening on that earpiece because I had all the information I needed. There was only one place on campus with that much gravel and that was up by the main gates.

  When she still didn't respond, I took off running and Monroe was right beside me as we ran for the pathway and then raced up it towards Aspen Halls.

  As something metallic clanged over the earpiece, I yelled Tatum's name again but she still didn’t answer me.

  My heart thundered with panic so fiercely that it felt like it might crack my ribs with its ferocity. I didn’t know what the hell was happening, only that it didn’t feel right one fucking bit.

  Monroe was yelling for her too and as we charged up the path, Saint and Blake appeared from the trees, the four of us sprinting for Aspen Halls and the only small clue we had as to where our girl was.

  The moon slipped out from beyond the clouds just as we reached the enormous, gothic building and I yelled for her again as we ran towards it in desperation, no sign of anyone near it on the gravel drive. Could we have got it wrong? Maybe the footsteps hadn’t been on gravel after all. Maybe they’d been down by the shore or somewhere else, but I just couldn’t fucking think where.

  I yelled and yelled, the others echoing my cries for our girl as we all sensed the utter wrongness of this situation. But it didn't matter. By the time we made it to the open space outside the building, there was no sign of anyone anywhere in sight and no matter how much we shouted Tatum's name, the only thing we could hear from her earpiece was silence.

  The four of us fell still as hopelessness consumed us and I swung my baseball bat at the wall of the building, bellowing my rage and fear from my lungs as my heart disappeared into the night.

  I woke up like I was resurfacing from a deep, dark pool of water, my mind twisting with memories of the trees, the dark, my enemies, my men. I was disorientated as my eyes flickered open and glaringly bright lights shone down at me from a stark white ceiling.

  I was in a single bed, the cushion thin beneath my head and metal rails lining either side of the mattress.

  "-don't know, maybe there's more of them, maybe they have her somewhere," Monroe spoke urgently in my ear and I tried to move my lips to answer but couldn't manage it right away. “Fuck, what use are your cameras, Saint, if they don’t show us where our girl is?”

  “Perhaps our enemy knew how to avoid them,” he gritted out. “Or perhaps they got lucky.”

  “Bait must know who has her,” Kyan snarled.

  "Bait swears no one has her and as he's missing a few teeth and is gonna be pissing blood for the next few weeks, I'm inclined to believe him," Saint hissed.

  "You believe that assfuck?!" Kyan roared. "I say I keep pulling out teeth until he tells us where she is!”

  "Getting angry will not resolve this situation any faster, if you can't keep your head, I'll have you locked in the crypt," Saint snapped.

  "I don't think putting Kyan in a time out is gonna work right now," Blake said in a furious tone. "We need to keep searching."

  "We've been all over campus, where the hell else could she be? We know every part of this place," Monroe snarled.

  “Why isn’t the fucking tracker on her phone showing up? Bait or any accomplice he might have couldn’t have known about that,” Saint hissed.

  My throat eased up a little and I could finally speak as the haze of the drug I’d been given started to lift, my hand moving as if to reach for them in the room.

  "I'm right here," I murmured, turning my head as I searched for them, but I wasn't anywhere I knew and I certainly wasn't with my Night Keepers. I realised with a jolt that it was the fucking earpiece I was hearing them through. Of course.

  "Tatum?!" all of them cried.

  "Where are you?" Saint took over as the rest of them fell into frantic demands and I blinked to try and clear my mind enough to hear them. "Shut the fuck up and let me speak," he barked at them and silence fell, letting my mind sharpen another inch. "Where are you Tatum? Describe it to me."

  I pressed my hands into the starchy sheets I was lying on and found my strength coming back a bit more as I sat up. My gut wrenched as I took in the space and I forced myself to describe it. "'I'm in what looks like a room in a hospital. There's no windows. Everything's white. So fucking white. Hang on, there's a door." I pushed myself out of bed, but something metal clinked and my leg was tugged back. I shoved the covers off of me, finding one of my ankles chained to the bed.

  "No," I gasped, horror winding its way through me and taking me hostage.

  "What is it?" Saint demanded anxiously and the other guys made noises of anguish in the background.

  "I'm chained to the bed. Shit, Saint - I think – I think-" the door opened and I shut my mouth instantly, my instincts kicking in. This earpiece was vital to me getting back to my Night Keepers and I could not let it be known that I had it in. Shit how many hours of battery life does this thing have??

  "Hello Miss Rivers," a man said as he stepped into the room. He was tall, well-built with dark skin and a fine navy suit hugging his body. His face was chiselled and familiar and my gut clenched tightly as I tried to understand what the hell Saint's father was doing here. The Governor of fucking State. "I have some good news and some bad news."

  The guys had fallen deathly silent in my ear, but I felt them listening in like they were right beside me. What the fuck is happening right now??

  "The good news is, your antibody test just proved that you're immune to the Hades Virus," he said, a smile pulling at his mouth that made my blood chill. "The bad news is that that officially makes your blood the most valuable blood in the world. Even those who have been infected with the virus do not produce the level of antibodies yours does and it seems they can become re-infected after a time. Though I am not a medical man, I have it on good authority that your blood holds the key to a vaccine that could save us all."

  “Fuck fuck fuck,” I heard Saint cursing, losing it entirely and one of the other guys hushed him.

  "Why is that the bad news?" I asked Troy, my mouth parched as fear snaked through every inch of my flesh.

  He moved to the end of my bed, examining me like I was a lamb about to be led to slaughter. "Because the country is in dire need of a vaccine as fast as one can possibly be produced."

  I stared into his eyes, fighting not to cower. "So you want to make a vaccine from my blood? Fine. I can accept that. I'll give blood for that. Obviously I wa
nt this virus gone. But just unchain me." I tried not to sound pleading, but it was hard when I was literally at this man’s mercy, about to be used for whatever fucking tests needed to be conducted to make this happen. All without my say so. With a chemical scent filling the room and the bright white, horror movie walls glaring at me, I was barely keeping it together.

  He shook his head, brushing a speck of invisible lint off of his sleeve before he tugged it up and checked the time on his glitzy watch. "How noble of you, Miss Rivers, but I believe you're misunderstanding me. So let me explain to the best of my abilities in the few more moments I have to spare. You will be exposed to the Hades Virus on a daily basis to the highest possible level your immune system can handle. Your body will respond by creating antibodies at an accelerated rate which will then be harvested to build a vaccine. I will of course make sure you are kept well as long as possible, but I am afraid there is a chance that your body will succumb to the virus eventually. Especially with how hard we are going to need to push your immune system to get what we need from it. It is a sad but honest truth. And it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make for my country." He nodded curtly to me, heading for the door and I realised I was trembling with fear, rage, hate.

  This man was stealing my life from me. I was sure I was going to die here if I didn’t get out. The Night Keepers were shouting again, but I couldn’t make out the words, though I felt their pain and desperation through the sound alone.

  "Don't lie to me," I spat as rage won out amongst all the toxic emotions bubbling inside me. “I know what you’re doing it for and it’s not your people. It’s for money.”

  Troy glanced over his shoulder at me, raising his eyebrows then slowly nodded. “Alright, you caught me. But perhaps I like the sound of being the man responsible for saving the world as a happy side effect. It does have quite the ring to it. And of course, you will be credited as a hero as well. So your sacrifice will not go unrecognised.” He stepped aside as a nurse walked into the room with a Serenity Pharmaceuticals lanyard swinging around her neck and Troy nodded to her. “Proceed.”