Wings of Blood

by Miranda Martin

  Something I’d learned really fast while being king was to delegate, especially when I had people who knew more than I did.

  Hopefully, this oversight of his would come back to bite him on the ass right about now.

  We decided to jump across. The space between the roof we were on and the other warehouse was large enough that we needed some room to build up momentum.

  Jacob led the way, moving back far enough that he had plenty of room to sprint for his jump. I kept an eye on the door to the roof and on the roof across from us. When he landed safely on the other side, I followed.

  The buildings were pretty high up, but I’d never been afraid of heights. I landed on the other rooftop with soft knees, crouching to absorb the impact.

  As soon as I was there, we made out way over to the door set into a protruding part of the roof, a twin to the one we’d come out of on the other building.

  Jacob tried the knob before he took out a slim bag of tools. I kept an eye out while he picked the lock with light fingers. I would have had to break the door in, which would have ruined any element of surprise.

  We both froze as we heard the click of the lock giving way. It wasn’t loud, but it was a sharp sound.

  After a few seconds, when nobody burst out through the door, he opened it carefully. This revealed a short flight of stairs that ended in another door.

  All right, then.

  Jacob gestured me down and came in after me, gently closing the door behind us. The door at the bottom also didn’t have a convenient window to look in from to judge the risk of entering.

  We would just have to wing it. There were some things we just couldn’t really plan for. Once inside, we did have a rough plan we’d decided on, if things didn’t go to shit.

  Siro had said there was one, sometimes two guards on the catwalk. If there were two, we were going to take one each. If there was one, then he was going to be my responsibility while Jacob got into position with his bow.

  Our goal was to be as quiet as possible. Ideally, we’d be able to take out the guard or guards on the catwalk without anyone noticing. Once they were eliminated, we could use the catwalk to eliminate the other guards. At that point, we needed to move fast, not quietly. We likely wouldn’t get everyone in the first go around as we wouldn’t have a good view of the whole place, but it should be enough to at least to give us the chance to get down there to Adara before whoever was left rallied.

  I centered myself. I needed to be on my game here.

  Jacob tried the doorknob, his hand moving smoothly. No resistance. It wasn’t locked. Jacob held up his fingers to count down.

  Three. Two. One.

  He pushed the door open just enough to allow his body to slip through, and I did the same right after.

  The inside of the warehouse was a cavernous space. The catwalk was made of a metal grill that you could see through, right down to the bottom floor of the place itself. It was only a partial catwalk, running along one side of the space.

  There was one guard at the window looking out onto the street.

  I was up.

  I looked over at Jacob and he acknowledged me with a small nod, reaching back to grab his bow and knocking an arrow. I stepped silently over to the guard, keeping my weight balanced. If I moved too heavily, he’d feel the vibration through the metal.

  I took out one of the long the knives Jacob had given me, preparing to do what was necessary. When I was directly behind him, he was still focused on the window and what was happening outside.

  I moved lightning fast.

  I didn’t enjoy killing, but this man was involved in taking Adara, in hurting her. I felt no remorse at the thought of his death. Wrapping my hand around the bottom part of his face to stifle any sound he might try to make, I slit his throat with my other hand, holding him against me as he struggled.

  If I let go, he’d alert the others, so I stood there with him against me, waited until he stopped struggling.

  I waited another few beats after he went limp, then slowly laid him down onto the catwalk, making sure to keep quiet.

  The loss of life didn’t please me, but everyone in here brought this upon themselves.

  When I looked back over my shoulder, Jacob was in position, waiting for me to follow suit. Better to do maximum damage before people realized we were there.

  I looked down below. There were three people sitting and engaging in conversation in what looked like a hastily built rec area to keep them entertained. The television was on. It probably helped mask any sounds we’d made so far. Stupid. This entire operation was as shit show.

  The halls that Siro described were next to them. I felt the urge to rush down there and find Adara right away, but if I wanted to get her out of this alive, I needed to be smart, not impulsive.

  The other area that was walled off must be the lab. We couldn’t see into it, so I had no idea who was in there if anybody even was.

  There was only so much that we could control.

  There could also be people hiding in the boxes, and in the rooms we couldn’t see, even in the cars. It didn’t matter. There was only one way to go, and that way was forward. We’d neutralize who we could and then go down to clear the area.

  I gave Jacob the signal that I was ready.

  Then we made ourselves known.

  I let loose my arrow on the taller, bald guard. It sprouted from his chest in the next instant. He stumbled back, looking down in shock.

  Jacob got the other guard in the throat, his hands darting to the shaft and pulling it out, ensuring he’d bleed out even faster.

  The last one let out a shout of alarm and stood up to rush for cover without even checking on his wounded companions. It didn’t matter. He took two arrows to the back simultaneously, one from each of us. He fell over just as the door to the lab opened, spitting out another guard.

  This one ducked back into the lab before the arrow could hit him, and it embedded itself in the door instead.

  By mutual accord, Jacob and I both descended the stairs at this point. Stealth was no longer needed.

  We went to the lab first. The door was closed and locked. Leaning back, I hit it with a hard front kick, destroying the jamb.

  It blasted open.

  The guard was ready and waiting inside, leaping at me, snarling, a short sword in one hand. I ducked under him and came up with my own longer sword buried in the man’s gut.

  We didn’t waste time going around his fallen body and into the actual lab. It was empty. There was a curtain closed in the back. Striding across the room, I jerked the curtain open, standing to the side in case someone was ready with a weapon.

  Nobody was. I ducked inside after a quick scan.

  Whatever I was expecting… it wasn’t this.

  Cages upon cages of mice greeted me. The smell rodent dander and feces mixed with the stink of decay. Covering my nose with one hand, I swept the room.

  Nobody else was hiding here. I headed back out to find Jacob keeping a watch.

  “No one,” I said as I walked past him.

  He nodded. Then we headed to the next logical place: the hall that Siro had said Adara was being kept in.

  We didn’t get far. There were three people blocking it mid-way through our route.

  I took the scene in quickly: there was a tall guard with a dark ponytail, a smaller woman with glasses and a white lab coat, and Adara.

  She looked too pale, and the guard was holding her upright. The woman held a syringe up near her throat, her thumb ready to inject whatever was in it. I didn’t like how shaky that hand looked.

  “Sven,” Adara said in a low voice, her eyes sharpening a bit.

  “Just hold on, Adara,” I told her. “We’ll be out of here in no time.”

  “If you don’t put down your weapons and step back, I will inject her with this,” the woman threatened, her voice high pitched and strident with fear. “It’s insulin. Enough to kill her.”

  I wasn’t taking any chances with that need
le so close to Adara’s throat. I crouched to put my bow down, my eyes locked on the tableau in front of me.

  When Jacob didn’t do the same, I glanced over and realized he wasn’t actually next to me. Had he even come into the hall?

  I kept my face still as I turned back, trying not to give my surprise away. “Where are you going to go?” I asked. “I’ll find you anywhere.”

  The man smirked. “You’re not going to be around for much longer,” he said confidently. “Now, step back and let us through. Unless you want the doc here to follow through.”

  I took a step back just as I saw a flicker of movement at the other end of the hall. It was Jacob. There must have been a way around.

  He raised his bow.

  I needed to keep their attention on me.

  “Looks to me like Eli left you here to keep us busy while he got away. Like you’re disposable to him.”

  The way the man’s jaw clenched let me know I’d likely hit the nail on the head. Not surprising.

  Before he could offer me another retort, I heard the distinctive sound of an arrow slicing through the air.

  His eyes widened, and he fell over with an arrow in his back, deep enough and in the right location to have pierced his heart.

  Adara went down with him.

  The woman let out a harsh scream and grabbed at Adara to get her closer, pulling her hand back to inject the full syringe into her, but I was already there.

  I grabbed her wrist and twisted, the bone snapping under my hold. She shrieked again. Then she was done, another arrow embedded in the side of her throat. She toppled over.

  I grabbed Adara, lifting her up into my arms, holding her close.

  “I was going to kill… the bitch… myself,” Adara muttered.

  I shook my head, leaning my head down against her forehead.

  “I’ll go clear the rest of the building,” Jacob offered, slipping away without waiting for acknowledgment.

  Turning to the wall, I braced my back against it and slid down to sit with my precious cargo in my lap, burying my face against her hair and taking a deep breath. I shuddered in relief at having her safe again.

  She slid her hand into my hair, the other arm wrapping around my neck, holding me close. The warm weight of her body eased something tight in my chest that had been aching since I’d realized she’d been taken.

  “You need to stop scaring me like this,” I muttered.

  “I’ll try,” she agreed solemnly. “It’s just there are so many idiots in this world.”

  I smiled slightly, squeezing my eyes tight. My world was back on an even keel in that bloody hallway, with death and potential danger still lurking just around the corner.

  I had Adara back in my arms.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sven held me so tight it hurt, but I wasn’t going to tell him to loosen his hold, not when I was holding him back just as tightly. I couldn’t believe it was over. Yes, we were still in the warehouse, but I couldn’t help but feel safe now that Sven was here.

  “Siro?” I asked.

  “Safe,” Sven reassured me. “She did exactly what you told her to do.”

  I relaxed a little but then tensed again as I heard footsteps approaching.

  “Building’s clear,” the unfamiliar man who had come with Jacob said. “We should head out in case someone else shows up. Or someone decides to stick their nose inside to see what’s going on.”

  I pulled my head back to look at him. Who was he?

  Sven introduced us so it didn’t stay a mystery long. “Adara, this is Jacob. Mia recommended him. Jacob, this is Adara.”

  “Nice to meet you,” the man said, nodding at me politely, though he didn’t relax, his eyes constantly scanning both ends of the hallway. I got the feeling he never fully relaxed.

  He had a scar running down one side of his handsome face, a buzz cut leaving it mostly bare. He was dressed simply in a dark t-shirt, pants made of a tough canvas with pockets, and boots. His muscled body was covered in weapons just like Sven’s was. Dangerous. He looked dangerous.

  I nodded back at him. Dangerous was good in this scenario. I trusted Mia to steer Sven right.

  Sven stood up with me still held tight in his arms. “Let’s get out of here,” he muttered, following Jacob down the hallway. “I need to contact my people.”

  “Why isn’t Igna with you?” I asked, just then realizing the oddity of Sven only having Jacob as backup.

  “I was worried about information inadvertently getting in the wrong hands,” Sven explained. “I couldn’t take the chance. Not when your life was on the line.”

  “It isn’t safe for you to be unguarded,” I said. “You shouldn’t have taken the risk.”

  “Just like you shouldn’t have taken the risk to protect Siro?” he countered archly. “Both times?”

  Okay, he had a point.

  I decided to retreat on that front.

  Sometimes discretion was definitely the better part of valor. Besides, I was still too weak to even argue against being carried. Now wasn’t the time to have this discussion.

  As we walked into the open space beyond the hall, I was distracted by something else entirely. Not the bodies, though I wasn’t surprised to see them. Sven wouldn’t leave anyone involved alive. It would send the wrong message. Justice had to be swift and clean. And everyone here knew exactly the risk they’d been taking, though they probably hadn’t anticipated being ended by the Phoenix King himself.

  They should have. But that wasn’t what was poking at me.

  I felt a niggling feeling through the fog that surrounded my brain, something persistent, important. I needed to tell them something…

  “Wait,” I said, squeezing Sven’s shoulder as a thought swam out of the murky fog that was my brain.

  He frowned, immediately stopping to look down at me. “What is it?” he asked, glancing around to see what might have concerned me.

  “They took a lot of my blood,” I said, looking over at the lab as Sven stiffened against me. “We need to destroy it.”

  “Your blood?” Jacob asked, looking dubious. “Why did they take it?”

  “That’s on a need to know basis,” Sven said shortly. “And you don’t need to know as of yet, as much as I appreciate your help.”

  “Fair enough,” Jacob said easily, his eyes curious, though he shrugged off the lack of forthrightness without a problem. “Let’s go check it out.”

  Sven nodded, carting me along into the lab, but as soon as we were inside, I knew we were too late.

  Eli had obviously anticipated something like this happening. He’d prioritized the lab. They’d even taken most of the equipment with them.

  Maybe he thought there was time to get me and everyone else out afterwards.

  “Looks like they had warning you were coming. Or maybe they just assumed so when Siro got away,” I observed, frustrated. My eyes fell on the partially open curtain, my nose wrinkling at the scent coming from there. “What about the area behind the curtain? What’s back there?”

  I’d smelled some odd scents from back there, but the putrid thread of rot was new.

  “Mice,” Sven said shortly. “A lot of them. Some of them have been dead for a while, judging by the smell.”

  I wondered how I hadn’t smelled them before. Maybe they’d been kept in refrigerators they’d taken with them. I shuddered a little. I could guess what kind of experiments Fearson had been running. Those poor mice.

  “They were probably testing my blood on them,” I said, leaning harder against Sven’s hard chest. His arms tightened on me.

  While I’d been speaking, Jacob had done a quick and thorough search of the place. He shook his head as he walked back over. “I don’t know what kind of weird shit they were doing, but there isn’t any blood anywhere that I can find. Looks like they took anything important.”

  Sven nodded, his eyes narrowed in anger as he looked around the place. “We’ll deal with that later,” he agreed. “Let’s get out
of here.”

  I was so ready for that. Ready to leave all of this behind.

  We left through the same door Siro had used, coming out onto that eerily deserted street. It was uncomfortable and a little scary, though I still preferred it to the familiar prison of the warehouse. I was worried, but nobody bothered us as we strode down the street, likely because of how many visible weapons both Jacob and Sven had on their body. Victims they were not, even though I felt like I had a glaring sign pointing down at me that said “mark.”

  We didn’t have far to go, but I found myself drifting in and out. I needed sun. My body just wasn’t recovering right without it. Eli had pushed Fearson to take way more than they should have.

  I came back to as Sven slid into the back of a car with me still in his arms.

  “Adara,” he said, his face drawn with worry. “What’s wrong?”

  “They took too much blood,” I confessed, drawing in a difficult breath. “And refused to take me out in the sun after Siro escaped,” I added.

  His jaw clenched in anger. “Eli is a dead man,” he said fiercely, his face hard. I didn’t doubt that for a moment. “Jacob?”

  “My place is on the way out of the dome,” he said to the question as he started the car and drove it out onto the street at a fast clip. “We can grab Siro too. I’m assuming she’ll be happy to catch some rays too.”

  “Yes,” Sven and I both agreed at the same time.

  Jacob looked back at us, his eyes concerned. “Are you sure you don’t need a doctor?” he asked. “I know someone I could call.”

  “Can’t take her to a human doctor,” Sven said. “Not only for exposure sake, but I’d be worried he’ll do more harm than good.”

  “She knows how to keep things to herself,” Jacob reassured him. “The hospital she works at is actually the next block over.”

  I didn’t particularly want to see any doctor, but I faded out again watching Sven’s troubled face.