by C. R. Pugh
One of the flying beasts lay dead on the ground between the trees along with countless other bodies of soldiers and Warriors. The scent of blood and gun-smoke hung heavy in the air. The frigid air burned my lungs as I breathed it in, even as sweat dripped from my forehead and down my back.
Dustine, Tameron, Ilsa, and Farren gained their footing, shaking off the remaining weakness they’d felt under the spell of the smoke.
While Pierce quickly tied a strip of cloth around Tameron’s wound, I gave them orders. “Tameron, Ilsa, and Farren, use your remaining ammunition to bring down those last two Howlers. Dustine, Pierce, and I will keep the soldiers off you.”
“Yes, sir,” they replied.
Pierce argued my plan. “We need to get inside to help Camellia and Ravyn.”
My chest tightened. I longed to do what Pierce suggested. “Not yet. We must be sure we’ve won the battle outside before we take the fight inside.” I placed a hand on my brother’s shoulder and he reluctantly nodded. “Trust me. You don’t know how badly I want to storm the doors right now. We must trust in Ravyn for a little longer, then we will go.”
The six of us ran toward the remaining soldiers still fighting. They still wore their black masks for some reason. Ravyn had always said they only took orders. Perhaps they’d been ordered not to remove them.
It’s easier to kill them when we can’t see their faces. It sickened me to think it, but it was true. These men and women were human beings like us – someone’s daughter or son, sister or brother. Some of them might even be Peton captives that had been taken from us and brainwashed. They were victims of General Wolfe’s greed, cruelty, and his pursuit of power. They didn’t deserve to die, but we had no other way to end this conflict. It was us or them. Every clan would be in danger if we didn’t stop them here and now.
Kaelem’s men fought hard and had a knack for staying out of the Howlers’ reach. Owen and Edra were both covered in dirt and blood, but were still standing – slashing and stabbing soldier after soldier with their blades. From a distance, I saw Brock smash the hilt of his dagger into a soldier’s temple to stun him before thrusting the blade into the man’s belly. Brock spotted us charging into the fray and flashed us a smile, relief shining in his brown eyes. An arrow whizzed by us, sinking into the chest of another soldier. Over my shoulder I saw Tallon dashing through the trees to catch up with us, her face filthy from hiding in the brush.
With a furious battle cry, I threw myself into the melee. Soldiers swarmed us. Pierce drew his blades instead of his pistols, knowing that the risk of hitting one of our own Warriors or an ally was too great to continue shooting. Together, he and I fought back to back, as we should have been doing all our lives.
Ravyn had been right about these soldiers and their lack of skill. They had been relying heavily on the smoke to render us helpless. They hadn’t expected the Warriors we had held back in reserve, and they certainly hadn’t anticipated help from another clan. Most of the remaining soldiers were out of ammunition and either didn’t have extra magazines or they’d been kept so busy fighting they didn’t have a chance to reload.
Two soldiers rushed me at once. One swung his rifle like a club. I dodged low and slashed the back of his thighs with my blade. The second soldier threw a punch. I blocked him with my left arm and finished him with cold steel across his jugular.
Pierce roared behind me. He was grappling with a tall, wiry soldier. A small knife had been plunged into Pierce’s left shoulder.
“Pierce!” I screamed.
In his fury, Pierce ripped the man’s mask off his face and headbutted him. While the soldier stumbled backward, dizzy from the blow, Pierce jerked the knife out of his own shoulder. He kicked the soldier in the chest and pounced on him, plunging the blade into the soldier’s torso.
I breathed a sigh of relief that his wound seemed to be minor. He stood up, the blade still in his hand, and wiped the blood from his face with the back of his wrist. When Pierce turned toward me, I nodded at him, grateful that he was still here with me. But he wasn’t looking at me.
Pierce’s eyes widened, staring at something over my shoulder. I spun to find a soldier throwing a black device in my direction. It looked like one of their smoke bombs, but that didn’t make sense? Why a smoke bomb? Unless it wasn’t.
Everything seemed to slow down. Pierce started running toward me, his teeth gritted in fear and determination.
“Thorne! Run!” He screamed.
My brother was still headed toward me. “No, Pierce!”
I sprinted toward my brother, hoping to shield him from the blast. Pierce slammed into me, wrapping his muscled arms around me as the bomb detonated.
My world spun as we both were sent hurtling through the air. Pierce lost his grip on me as I came crashing to the ground. The wind was knocked from my lungs as I skidded to a stop beneath some brush.
I groaned and struggled back up to my hands and knees. “Pierce?”
I looked around. The clearing had transformed into flame and smoke. My ears were ringing from the explosion and the right side of my body was on fire. The flesh on the back of my hand was covered in bright red welts. Beneath the soot on my right arm, the top layers of my skin had been scorched away.
The fighting continued in front of me. Bodies of Wolfe’s soldiers and my Warriors littered the ground. A muted scream sounded to my right. Tallon looked like she was in one piece, but she was kneeling beside Brock and scrambling to tie a tourniquet around one of his arms. Tameron, Isa, and Farren had avoided the blast and continued firing on the Howler and Wolfe’s soldiers when they were near. Shrapnel from the explosion had grazed Dustine’s torso and thigh, but she suffered through it, hacking at the remaining soldiers with her battle axes. In the distance, Kaelem was bleeding from his temple, but he was still standing, along with ten or twelve of his men. They slashed one soldier after another with their blades and stabbed them with leftover arrows.
How were there still soldiers still alive? My Warriors were the superior fighters in this battle. Had Wolfe sent more soldiers out from the compound?
I swore under my breath. Some of them are healing and getting up to fight again.
“Pierce?” I called out again. He had also been thrown from the clearing by the force of the explosion. He should be around here somewhere.
I crawled forward on shaky arms. A pistol lay in the charred grass a few feet away. I checked the magazine to find five bullets remaining. I holstered it quickly as I spotted one of my daggers to my right. As I reached out to grab it, I noticed a man with dark, shaggy hair lying in the grass ten feet in front of me.
“No,” I whispered as I scrambled toward him on my hands and knees. My stomach churned in dread as I approached him. “No. No! Please!”
The man was lying on his left side facing away from me. I knew it was Pierce. He didn’t look injured and I couldn’t see any blood.
When I reached his side, I carefully rolled him to his back. I bit back a scream of horror at the sight of his mangled body. Shrapnel from the bomb had torn through the entire left side of his body and his left leg was missing below the knee.
A guttural cry filled the air around me. “Pierce!”
My throat thickened as I stared down at my younger brother. He’d thrown himself between me and that explosion.
Pierce opened his eyes and looked at me. “Thorne,” he wheezed.
“Don’t move,” I ordered, trying to remain calm. I started to slip off my belt. I needed to tie it around his thigh and stop the bleeding. He could live. He had to live.
Pierce reached out to stop me. “It’s too late, Thorne.”
I shook my head. “No. I can save you! No more dying. Remember?”
He grabbed my hand and clutched it tight. “Brother, there’s … nothing you can do.”
My shoulders sagged in defeat. I pulled his head and shoulders into my lap, my wounds and the fight behind me forgotten. Blood continued to pour from his body at a rapid pace and his breathing was r
agged and weak.
For years, Pierce and I had been at odds. We’d battled and kept each other at a distance. But he’d been watching my back – protecting me all along. I didn’t even know he was my brother until a month ago. He shouldn’t be dying. He’d fought bravely by my side, even before I knew we were brothers.
“Don’t go, Pierce,” I choked out. “We’re not finished yet. I need you, Brother.”
He gazed up at me, his blue eyes bright against his pale face. “Take care … of your family.”
“But you’re my family too,” I said, tears slipping down my cheeks.
“My part in this … is done,” he whispered, his voice harsh and labored. “You … must finish it. For me … and Hawke. Promise me, Thorne.”
“I promise,” I whispered.
A corner of his mouth lifted in a slight grin. “It’s been … quite an adventure.”
My shoulders shook with the force of my sobs. “Yes, it has.”
“I’d do it all again.” Pierce squeezed my fingers with the last of his strength. “I’m proud … to call you …” Pierce’s eyelashes fluttered and then his lids closed. “… Brother.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks while I held him, and my heart shattered as I watched him take his last breath.
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44
Ravyn
“I’m sorry, Ravyn,” Camellia said. Though she looked bedraggled and weak, her voice was steady. The two soldiers holding her stood frozen, their eyes glazed, waiting for orders from Wolfe.
Four of Wolfe’s men surrounded me, two on each side. I jerked against them, testing their hold on me, wincing as they tightened their grip on my arms.
Maybe General Wolfe was right. Was I delusional enough to think I could ever escape him? I was a seventeen year-old girl. I was a mutation – a freak of nature. There was no escape. I couldn’t fight them all on my own, and I was going to kill everyone I loved if I kept waging a war I couldn’t win.
So many people had died during my mission to defeat the General and his soldiers. Raimond, Haldar, and Laelynn had died because I’d found their village, leading the soldiers right to them. Some of the fault lay with Nash, but the burden still rested heavy on my shoulders. My parents had been killed after I’d convinced them that escaping from Terran was their only option. Elder Dagan was murdered at the fence. Kieron and countless other soldiers had lost their lives as well. I had killed them all. And that number didn’t include those who had been severely wounded from the hunt a month ago: Brock, Max, and Thorne. What about the fight going on right outside? How many Warriors had already been damaged or destroyed fighting today?
If I was doomed to be a prisoner, I might as well try to bargain for the others’ lives. There was no need for Wolfe to inflict pain on others if I surrendered. I could stop the slaughter outside and possibly spare Thorne’s life … even if I never saw him again.
“Let Camellia go,” I said, my voice trembling with emotion.
Wolfe narrowed his eyes at me. “Excuse me?”
Straightening my shoulders, I looked him dead in the eye. “You have what you want. There’s no need for anyone else to die. Let Camellia and the rest of the Warriors go free.”
“Ravyn, don’t!” Camellia cried out.
I ignored her pleas. No matter what happened to me, I had to make sure she was safe. Wolfe’s lip curled in disdain. “Do you think you’re in any position to bargain with me?”
“Let them all go. Escort Camellia out of the compound without hurting her, let the Warriors return to Peton …” I swallowed and blinked back the tears forming in my eyes. “… and I’ll never fight you again,” I promised him.
A sinister grin formed on Wolfe’s face. “My dear girl, I know you won’t fight me.” He steepled his fingertips together and lifted his eyes thoughtfully to the ceiling. “I’m going to keep sweet Camellia around.”
My hands started trembling as I turned my eyes to my sister. Her turquoise eyes were wide, but not with fear. Why didn’t she look terrified? I certainly was. Wolfe smirked at me and gestured to the soldiers. They immediately holstered their pistols. “Take Test Subject One’s sister down to the holding cells. The sisters will have rooms side-by-side.” He turned his cool gray eyes back to me and the four soldiers surrounding me. “That way they can hear each other scream if either one of them lifts a finger against me, my scientists, or my soldiers.” He nodded to the two soldiers holding Camellia. “Take her away.”
The four soldiers’ grip on my arms and shoulders tightened. They were preparing for a struggle, but I wouldn’t be giving them one. Not with Camellia in Wolfe’s grasp.
The hope inside me began to dwindle away. Wolfe would never pass up using my sister against me. Despair curled around my heart and squeezed it like a vice as the two men began to tug Camellia toward the entrance, away from me.
I had to let them go. If I didn’t fight and pretended that I was defeated, Wolfe would grow arrogant. There wasn’t anywhere in the compound they could hide Camellia where I couldn’t find her. But I needed her to be gone so I could deal with Wolfe on my own.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers clutching Camellia began to scream and writhe. His eyes rolled up inside his head and his mouth opened wide in agony. Camellia’s teeth were clenched as she grasped his forearm, focusing all her energy on her powerful gift. The soldier fell to his knees as electricity coursed through him.
Wolfe scowled and turned to me. “Hold her!” he shouted.
I wasn’t sure who he was talking to. The four soldiers around me already had a painful hold on me. Wolfe snatched up one of my pistols and aimed it at me. I swore under my breath.
“No!” Camellia cried out. “No, I stopped! I stopped!”
Wolfe shot me through the muscle of my thigh. Camellia and I both screamed. My knees buckled from the pain that exploded in my leg. The only reason I didn’t crumple to the floor was because of the soldiers holding me upright. I gritted my teeth to hold back my tears, though I knew if he continued, they would come. It had all happened so quickly I didn’t have a chance to react.
Wolfe snorted. “Don’t worry. Just a through and through. You’ll heal soon enough. But I would advise you both not to fight back. Didn’t I warn you?” He pivoted to face Camellia and gave her a cruel smile. “That’s what will happen every time you use your power against us.”
Camellia’s hands covered her mouth. Tears dripped down her cheeks onto her fingers as she stared at me, now understanding what kind of man General Wolfe truly was.
Wolfe set my pistol back on the counter, strolled around the room to stand in front of my sister, and chuckled. “I can’t wait to see what I can do with your gift.” He backhanded Camellia, sending her tumbling backward. A sickening thud echoed through the room as her head hit the edge of the counter behind her. Her eyes closed and she crumpled onto the tile flooring.
“Camellia!”
The two soldiers picked Camellia up off the floor and dragged her out of the room. I took a deep breath to control my emotions. Everything in me longed to go after her, but first I had to take care of the threat in front of me. The throbbing in my thigh was diminishing. My body was working its magic – the skin closing over. But would I have enough strength to fight them off?
Wolfe meandered back around the table. “You’ve always known that I don’t make idle threats, Test Subject One.”
I nearly rolled my eyes. He’d been giving me this same speech for years. I pinched my lips together and let him keep bragging. I needed more time to heal.
“Soon enough, my scientists will be able to take as much blood as they need from you.” He sneered. “Things will be just like they were. Like they’re supposed to be.”
I smirked up at him. “There might be a problem with your plan.”
“And what’s that?”
“You don’t have any scientists anymore.”
Wolfe froze and then chuckled. “You expect me to believe –”
“Take a look back there.” I nodded to the back of the lab where the chemicals had spilled onto the floor.
Wolfe’s head snapped to the left and he narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “If she moves, shoot her,” he ordered his four soldiers.
Just as I hoped he would, Wolfe stepped over the glass, microscopes and tools littering the floor, and rounded the table in the middle of the lab. My heart beat faster as I watched him, putting more and more distance between himself and my pistols. I’d been a fool all these years, thinking he was too powerful to be hurt. He was clever and resourceful … and he knew it. Wolfe never let me forget it, either.
Helping those weaker than myself might have been my weakness, but arrogance was his.
Wolfe’s shoulders stiffened and his fingers curled into fists. I knew he’d seen his favorite scientist corroding on the floor in a pool of chemicals, a bullet between his eyes.
“I killed him,” I said. “I killed them all.”
He pivoted around to glare at me. “That’s not possible.”
“One found me in the corridor on my way here,” I confessed. “I couldn’t have him blabbing to you that I was here, could I? And I found another near the elevator. That poor scientist that helped me escape … I found him down in the holding cell. You killed him. He was dead when I got there.” Those last two were lies, but I needed him to believe I’d found them all. “None of them survived. There’s no one to make the serum. ”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my guns on the counter. My fingers twitched in anticipation again. I put some weight on my injured leg. The throbbing was gone and, although I still felt where the muscle continued to heal, it was good enough.
“That refrigerator is all you have left,” I said. “And I’m about to destroy that.”
In the blink of an eye, I kicked the soldier to my left. His knee popped and he collapsed to the floor, wailing and grabbing at his leg. I twisted my right arm out of the second soldier’s grip and levelled a kick into his chest. He flew backward into the open refrigerator. The force of his body shattered most of the test tubes within. I spun, grabbed both my pistols off the counter, and turned toward the two remaining soldiers. They’d drawn their guns. I dropped to one knee and fired. One, two, three shots fired into each of them. Their bodies convulsed with the force of the bullets and they drew their last breaths.
