by Cece Rose
“I’m sorry,” I mumble as I step closer, but he steps away from me, shaking his head and looking down at the ground.
“I need to know,” he asks so quietly, but it’s still a demand.
“Look at me,” I ask, stepping closer once more. He looks up from the ground, finally meeting my eyes. I almost want to look away when I see the hurt in them, the pain, but I don’t. He deserves for me to look at him, to be strong for him when he can’t be.
“I didn’t kill her, I tried to save her because my father told me he was going to. And he did anyway, despite how much I did try to save her and I hate myself for that,” I say, taking a deep breath. “I gave her every chance to escape, but in the end, she chose to side with my father. He killed her right in front of me,” I say, and he still doesn’t move or make a sound. I watch as a tear drops onto the floor; he wipes his hands over his face. Something clearly snaps, as he walks over to me, picking me up and slamming me into the wall. He holds his body close to mine, as he grabs my chin so I have to look at him.
“Why the fuck didn’t you call me? Let me know what was going on? I could have lost you both because you’re so stubborn,” he nearly shouts, the emotion in his eyes is hard to look away from and he won’t let me anyway. He wants me to feel this, his pain, his worry and most of all, his love. Even if he doesn’t say the words, because he can’t, I can see it. I can feel it. “You’re not alone anymore, we are here for you, and you need to be in this with us or we will lose everything. Don’t push me out, don’t rely on anyone else that doesn’t love you, because they will never protect you like I can. You can never trust them like you can trust me. I’m with you one hundred percent, Mackenzie Crowe,” he says and then he crushes his lips onto mine. Mr Daniels uses one hand to lift my ass, pulling me against him as his other hand slides into my hair, controlling the kiss. I reach down, pulling his shirt up and he breaks the kiss to let me pull it off him and my eyes widen at his sculpted chest, the little scars that I can see trailed across it, and the v shape that dips into his pants. That’s the only pause we have as we kiss again, our lips harshly battling against each other, as all the frustration we have built up pours out. Mr Daniels pulls my shirt off, pushing down my jeans and underwear in one go. He unclips my bra seconds later, breaking away from my lips as he kisses down my neck and towards my breasts. I moan when he teases me, kissing around the nub before sucking it into his mouth and moving to the next one as he puts his knee between my legs, rubbing against me. He doesn’t spend long with my breasts as I slide my hand into his trousers and pull him out, feeling how hard he is.
“Mackenzie, tell me to stop and—” he gasps, placing his forehead on my shoulder as I stroke him.
“Don’t you dare fucking stop, Daniels,” I say, making him chuckle as he carries me over to the bed. He undoes his trousers, climbing over me and I pull him closer as I kiss him. He slides into me in one harsh, long, and amazing stroke, making my back arch in pleasure.
“You’re mine now, Mackenzie,” he whispers in an almost growl against my lips, as he keeps thrusting in and out of me. His hand slides down my stomach towards my core, rubbing my clit in perfect circles—driving me insane with the pleasure.
“Daniels,” I moan as he bites down on my neck, and sucking on a spot that I love. I lose control as he makes me come. He quickly follows me, slamming into me so hard that the bed slams against the wall with every thrust, before I feel him finish inside me, and he presses his lips agianst mine as he groans my name.
“This is us now, together. All of us, no more secrets,” he says a little breathless.
“All of us?” I ask, needing him to understand.
“I know you love them, and I like them...okay some of them in smaller doses than others, but I like that they love you. They will protect you when I can’t,” he says, sliding out of me, but keeping his body on top of mine as I trace the pain mark on his ribs.
“You never told me your first name, it feels weird to even ask now,” I say, making him laugh. He goes to answer me just as the door is opened. I quickly grab the blanket, covering myself, when I see Logan walk into the room, holding keys and smoke trailing in after him. His eyes widen as he looks between us, before grinning and leaning against the wall.
“Time to leave, naughty student-teacher time will have to continue later,” he says, making me laugh a little, while Mr Daniels glares at him as he pulls his trousers up.
“One, not a real teacher. Two, what the fuck are you talking about?” he asks, getting off the bed.
“The council is attacking the base, and Kenzie’s father is distracted. It’s time to leave,” he explains and then a loud alarm rings throughout the place.
“What the hell is that?”
“Oh, I blew up the science labs,” Locke answers as he comes into the room and stares at me, and then Mr Daniels for a second before grinning.
“Sexy teacher time?” Locke comments.
“That’s what I said,” Logan says and then high fives Locke.
“Small doses, very small fucking doses,” Mr Daniels mutters, making me laugh as I slide out from the bed and quickly grab my clothes.
Chapter 20
Mackenzie
The alarms are still blaring as we run across the compound, rushing to the outer wall. We figure with all the guards fighting and distracted, it should be easy enough for us to escape over the edge of the wall. Once outside of the building I was locked in, it is utter chaos. I can't tell who is on whose side, with all the unfamiliar faces and everything moving so fast, so I just try to dodge and stay out of the way of all the fighting marked. Finally, I see three familiar faces, Enzo and Kelly are practically carrying Ryan as they make their way towards us. I stop running, the twins and Mr Daniels notice instantly that I've stopped, and come to a halt too.
“Kenzie, this isn't the time to pause and stretch,” Locke shouts.
“We have to wait for the others!” I shout back, pointing at Enzo, Kelly, and Ryan. His eyes lock on them and he jogs towards them, nudging Kelly out of the way to help Enzo and speed them up. Kelly reaches for me as soon as she's close enough, giving me a tight hug.
“Are you okay?” she whispers, and I snort. “Yeah, stupid question,” she mumbles sheepishly as she pulls back. She casts a worried glance at Ryan, before moving forward and tugging my hand to pull me along too, not giving me a chance to check on my brother myself. I caught a glance though, and that was enough to see the blood and bruises covering him. No wonder they're practically carrying him.
We finally reach the edge of the compound, and I'm about to use my air mark to float up, when a firm hand grips my arm.
“What?” I ask, turning to face Enzo, who's left my brother's side to reach me.
“Look closely,” he says, pointing up at the top of the wall. I focus and see the familiar glimmer of a protection shield being held over the edges of the compound.
“We can take it, there's enough of us,” I say, about to call on my air mark to float up to it, but he shakes his head.
“We have no idea how many people are holding that up. It may take us too long to bring it down, maybe we won't be able to even bring it down at all. We need to find another way,” he says. I cast a worried glance at my brother, who seems barely conscious. We need to get out of here now, but how…? It’s chaos, there’s no way we are getting—the tunnels. The answer hits me like a ton of bricks. Ryan's plan for Verity and East's escape. Verity didn't know about us using the tunnels, so I doubt that they figured out our plan to use them either.
“Come on, I know a way out!” I shout at them, as I take off running towards the direction of the entrance to the tunnels. They trail closely behind me, not even questioning how I know a way out.
We reach the building next to the wall that the entrance is meant to be tucked behind. Just as I'm about to lead them around, a fire ball flies right by my head. I turn around finding a group of rebels standing around us and slowly getting closer. The twins put Ryan down, resting
him against the building as they get ready to fight.
“Kenzie, leave!” Enzo shouts as he runs forward to join the twins. I'm not leaving any of them behind, I go to follow him when hands grab my waist and pick me up with ease. He turns with me in his grip and sets me down facing the direction I was previously headed in. I turn around and glare at Mr Daniels.
“I'm not leaving them,” I say, already trying to edge past him.
“Don't be stupid. Either you leave now, or I will throw you over my fucking shoulder and make you. Go, I will make sure the others follow.” I bite my lip, looking between him and the others. “Go! It's you they need, it's you we need to get away from them, so listen for once in your life and fucking go!” he snaps. I look into his green eyes, feeling hurt at how he spoke to me, but I can see the determination in them. The determination is to keep me safe, and I can't be mad at him for that. I sigh and nod, turning and heading for the tunnel entrance.
I reach the metal cellar doors that lean against the back of the building. I try to pull them open, but they're locked. Shit. I can hear so much shouting from around the building as I call on my fire mark, melting the lock. As I pull open the metal doors, I pause, debating whether to go or not, but I know that if I don't, all of this has been for nothing.
I walk down the steep, stone steps, and call on my fire mark again, picturing a fireball hovering harmlessly in the air to light the dark space. The fireball appears and I look around, looking for the trap door Ryan told me about, the one that leads to the tunnels. The musty smell of the cellar makes me want to sneeze as I look for something that stands out on the floor. Spotting a brown rug on the far side of the room, I sprint across and pull the dusty rug out of the way. Clearly this wasn't a way used often, considering all the dust. Sure enough, under the rug is the trap door. Pulling it open, this time I don't hesitate, gripping onto the cold metal bars as I make my way down. I call my fireball to follow me, as I don't like the idea of heading down here in the dark alone.
I hear footsteps above me, people are coming into the basement. I go to step down onto the next bar, but my foot hits the ground instead. I step back and look up, watching to see if it's friend or foe that has followed me. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Locke's face grinning down at me. I lean back against the wall waiting for him to climb down. As soon as he reaches the ground he pulls me to him, pressing his lips to mine. I kiss him back, but it's over all too quickly as he pulls away.
“I'm so glad you're okay,” he says, and then Logan drops down next. He's quickly followed by Enzo, and then I stare up, looking for the others, but there's no sign of Kelly, Ryan, or Mr Daniels.
“Come on, which way is it?” Logan asks, sliding his hand into mine.
“South, but where are the—”
“There's no time, come on. Ryan said we had to make you leave,” Enzo says, heading left. Logan follows him, pulling me along after him. Locke brings up the rear, keeping close to me.
We run at first, but to a fast walk after a while. We must nearly be at the exit when I hear another set of footsteps following us. I wait until we turn the next corner before slowing.
“Guys,” I whisper, tugging Logan's hand to get his attention. He comes to a halt, and so do I. Locke stumbles right into me.
“Why are we stopping?” he groans, clearly unhappy.
“What are you idiots doing?” Enzo says, walking back to us. I pull a face at how loudly he is speaking, hoping that whoever is behind us didn't hear him. He'd been ahead of us the whole time, but he never let us fall too far behind.
“Listen,” I say quietly, and they all seem to tense up as they hear the footsteps. Only one set.
Locke moves to stand in front of me, and Enzo moves closer as we wait for whoever it is to turn the corner. I can feel the tension coming from all of them, and silently pray it’s the others coming, and not rebels. The twins’ shoulders relax, and they step out of the way so I can see who it is.
“You made it,” I say, stepping past the twins to fall into Mr Daniels’ arms. He presses a kiss to my forehead, and I step back and peer around him, looking for sign of Ryan and Kelly. “Where are they?” I ask him, feeling worried.
“They... I couldn't get back to Ryan. They'd pushed me and Kelly right back. She wouldn't leave without him. She told me to go, to make sure you got out,” Mr Daniels says.
“You left my brother and my best friend there?” I ask incredulously, as I try to step past him. I need to go back.
“Don't be stupid, we've had this conversation. We need to get you out of here,” he replies, grabbing my shoulders and not letting me get past. I try and wriggle out of his grip, but it's no use. The others all close in too, none of them are chancing me making a break for it to go back.
“Please, guys,” I plead, but they all stand firm.
“Come on, we need to keep moving,” Enzo says in a cold voice. The twins at least have the decency to look guilty about leaving Kelly and Ryan, but even they don't say anything as I'm practically herded the rest of the way through the tunnels.
Chapter 21
Mackenzie
Staring out the car window, I shrug off Locke's arm when he tries to throw it over my shoulders for the second time. He sighs and moves over to the other side of the backseat. Daniels is driving and Logan called shotgun, and I've been sitting back here ignoring all of them since we left, after meeting one of Mr Daniels' council contacts.
They hooked us up with this car, and now we're driving back up to mainland Scotland. From there we will need to get on the ferry to the island, and then we’re returning to the academy. I said I wanted to go home, but my idea was quickly vetoed. Apparently, the school has better security than my home. They also conveniently ignored me when I pointed out the fact the security wasn't so stellar at the academy, considering that I had been taken from there last time.
Enzo had gone with his sister, Stacey, who as well as being the spirit teacher at the academy, is also apparently contracted by the council for something. He didn’t explain what she was doing there, just that he would meet us at the ferry and then drive up to the school with us.
"Kenzie, you can't ignore us all the entire way back," Locke says quietly. I notice that Logan turned up the music now blaring from the car stereo, just a second before Locke spoke. I turn and glare at the back of Logan's head. They must have twin telepathy or something, that was way too convenient for them. I don't answer Locke, as that would defeat the purpose of the silent treatment, if I broke it to tell him that he was getting the silent treatment. They all are.
"Kenzie, please don't be like this," he pleads in a low voice. I try to take a look at him in the car's rear-view mirror, but it's not angled right for me to be able to catch him in the reflection from back here. I try to sneak a glance at him, but he's staring at me. I'm not able to look away, caught in his eyes' intense gaze like a deer trapped in headlights. "Talk to me," he whispers, breaking me from my trance.
"You all just left them," I blurt out, and a hurt look crosses his face. He swallows thickly, his eyes darting away from mine as if he can't look into them.
"We didn't just leave them, we had no choice. Getting you out and safe was the priority, both Kelly and Ryan knew that. They'll be happy you're safe, and you know we will rescue them as soon as we can," he answers.
"But what if that isn't soon enough, what if he hurts them?" I snap, feeling my fingernails digging into my palms. I relax my hands and look down, spotting the little crescent-shaped indents from my nails, a couple of them even broke the skin. I wipe my hands off on my jeans, the tiny bit of blood not even leaving a mark on them. Locke grabs my hands and pulls them to his lips; he kisses one and then the other gently.
"He won't kill either of them, I won't lie and say they won't be harmed, but they won't be killed, and we will get them back. We will get them as soon as we can. We care about them too, Ryan is our friend."
"But he's my brother, and Kelly is my best friend. We spent so much time together gr
owing up. She basically lived at our house, because her parents were always too busy for her. She'd sometimes sleep over for weeks at a time, and her parents wouldn't even notice," I explain quietly. When he doesn't say anything back, I continue. "She spent most holidays with us, nearly every Christmas and New Years since we became friends. Whenever we went abroad, her and East would come with us. East would obviously be there with Ryan, but me and Kelly would follow them around. Ryan hated it back then, I'm not sure when he started liking Kelly, he never seemed to like her when we were younger. She was like a bonus annoying sister back then," I ramble on, I barely notice as he scoots closer. This time I don't stop him as he wraps his arm around me.
"What was the last holiday you went on?" he asks.
"We went skiing in France," I say, pulling a face at the memory. "I hate the cold, and I was so terrible at skiing. East was naturally amazing at it, I swear he's always annoyingly good at things. Ryan could keep up, and Kelly could ski just fine, but instead she chose to keep me company. On the last day of the trip, we basically raided the booze, and got drunk in the lodge while my mum and dads went skiing with East and Ry. We ended up drinking so much, and then we fell asleep before we could clean up."
"I can guess your parents weren't thrilled when they got back?" he asks in a humorous tone. I smile wryly.
"Instead of telling us off, they quietly opened the door again, and then they used the air mark to move some of the snow from outside into the cabin, and they dumped it all over the two of us. We were completely covered and still slightly drunk when we were shocked awake like that. I was shivering for ages after, and I was so mortified at East laughing at me," I say, fully grinning now as I picture it.
