“Still, it was like double-0-eight.”
“Don’t you mean double-0-seven?”
“If you want to go down a score.”
“This is going to be like aye-matey thing, huh?” I stood, rubbing where the gun bruised my bone.
“I still don’t know who this Matty is with the one eye, but I really need to meet him someday.”
“Sure,” I responded, but my mind was already back with Ryker. I tipped my head forward, hitting the metal doors, squeezing my lids closed. Please let him be okay. Please… The elevator dinged, jolting my eyes open again. Eighth floor. Okay, focus, Zoey. This is it.
I pushed thoughts of Ryker out of my head and set my shoulders back. I could feel it in my bones—the time was here. Either I succeeded and fulfilled my promises…or I failed, which meant I wouldn’t be walking out of here. None of us would.
Gripping the Glock firmer, I hid in the corner of the elevator, the buttons digging into my back. Sprig jumped on my shoulder. The doors released, sliding open to a level that held an abundance of horrors, nightmares, and secrets. From my time down here, I knew the lay of the land well. But that locked door at the end of the hallway remained a mystery to me. If this floor was exactly like all the floors above, that meant half of it was still undiscovered.
Rapava was here. I could feel it in my gut, as if there were some Jedi force pulling me to him. I gulped, setting a foot outside the elevator. No one was at their desks, but I didn’t think anyone would be with the building under attack. Did any of his faithful followers realize he wasn’t fighting next to them but hid in the depths below, with the things he loved the most—the creatures and experiments from his twisted mind?
Sprig’s claws dug into my neck as I inched us farther away from safety. The fluorescent lights reflected brightly off the tile, my boots lightly squeaking. Instinct made me want to crouch and become as invisible as possible. But there were no shadows to hide in.
And I was done hiding…from love, life, fears…and certainly from Boris Rapava. We both knew this had been coming for a long time. He waited for me.
I kept my weapon raised, cautiously stepping down the corridor. Without thinking, my body drew me toward the room where I had been forced to torture Ryker. As I got close to the room, I noticed the door stood ajar.
“Crapple,” Sprig whispered hoarsely in my ear.
“Crapple?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“It’s crap and apple together.”
“Do I dare ask?”
“Apples make you crap…so crapple.”
“Yeah,” I breathed, reaching for the door. “Double crapple.”
I pulled out the door with one hand, my other on the trigger. Darkness encased the outer room, but the glow from the inner one pulled my attention. The blinds were drawn, but I could sense life behind it. It was like the day Rapava brought me here, showing me Ryker, bound and helpless, like some sick peep show.
Why did I feel as if it were happening all over again? My teeth ground together, my gut rolling and bucking, but my steps continued into the room. Sprig dug in tighter to my neck as fear played with us like props in a haunted house.
“Zoey.” My name rang through the intercom, halting me. “Or should I call you by your real name? Project B-06.”
Pricks of warning ran down my arms. He stayed behind the curtain, but I knew the glass was bulletproof. He really couldn’t have set this up better. Sweat coated my palms, and I tightened my grip on the gun. “Project B? What happened to A?”
“Project A’s specimens all died. You were the second batch.” As though creating babies in a dish was no more than making cookies.
“Why are you hiding behind the curtain? Come out and actually face me.” I licked my lips, stepping a foot closer to the glass. At least I knew he couldn’t shoot me from there either. “Come on, dear old Dad. Don’t you want to see how well your offspring has turned out? How much we love you?” I taunted. If he wanted to claim he gave me life, and that he was my sire, then I would let him see firsthand how I felt about my architect.
“Oh, Zoey. You could have been great. We could have been magnificent together. But like Daniel, your true weakness is your righteous need to be good. To be loved. Sentimentality causes you to be soft. Family and friends only hold you back. Limit you. I learned that lesson a long time ago. Soon you will too.”
A buzz filled the air as the curtains rose and flooded the outer room with light. Rapava stood on the other side of the glass, almost exactly where Ryker had stood. He wore his white lab coat, his silver hair and blue eyes reflecting the lights from above, his arms loosely hooked behind his back.
“Do you want to see how friends and those you care about only hinder you?” His mouth curved into a smug grin.
I lowered my gun, my lids narrowing on him. Sprig stirred under my loose ponytail, keeping out of sight.
Rapava took my lack of response as a yes and stepped to the side, nodding down toward the back wall.
I gasped but quickly swallowed back my true emotions.
Against the wall sat Kate and Delaney. Their hands were bound in front of them as they sat on the floor, fear deep in their eyes.
The two people who had secretly been on my side and helped me escape were now his hostages. Bait. And he had me reeled in.
####
“Let them go,” I ground out, straining my neck muscles.
Rapava smirked and turned for the table beside him, reaching for something. “I caught them trying to steal these.” Rapava picked up a yellow-and-green folder stuffed full of documents, notes, and information. My gut dropped to my knees. Daniel’s files. The ones I lost the day we jumped to Peru when Ryker and I were being attacked by my own people.
“I always knew one day Kathryn would step out of line. Her sympathy for fae…” He trailed off, looking back at her. “Even having a fae lover.”
Kate’s eyes widened as Rapava revealed he knew about her and Dunn.
“There is nothing I don’t know,” Rapava spat. “I, too, have spies out there. You were never one up on me.”
Kate’s throat bobbed as she swallowed nervously, keeping her eyes on Rapava and her mouth shut.
Through the glass, his cool blue eyes darted back to mine. “I will always be smarter and one step ahead of everyone here.” He pulled out a gun from his coat pocket.
“No. Don’t.” My feet rushed to the glass, fear taking over my limbs. Seeing Rapava with a gun felt wrong. It didn’t fit the image of the studious scientist I had seen him as for so many years.
Almost as if he were reading my thoughts, he glanced down at the pistol in his hand. “I always preferred science over violence. Brains over mindless weapons. It takes no intelligence or wit to kill a person.” He licked his bottom lip and stared back at me. “But I’ll bet you didn’t know that I trained as a soldier? To get away from my father I joined the army. The government swiftly realized they were wasting my talents as a mindless fighter. I worked my way quickly into intelligence, working as a spy. It was where I discovered the classified files on fae. It was also how I escaped to the United States, using one of my missions to defect. I knew so much about Russia’s plans and secrets about fae that even the Americans were unaware of, they couldn’t disregard me. The US government brought me in. I became invaluable to them, and from there they allowed me to continue my studies and start my own work.”
He reached over and touched the top green folder. “The government knows only what they want to know. They don’t understand the true threat of fae. But I have enough supporters that these files would have been useless to you. They like being in the dark. As long as I keep protecting them, allowing them to think they are safe, tucked in their beds each night with their milk and cookies, they don’t care how far I have to go. Ignorance is bliss to the stupid.”
Every time Rapava let me see inside his head, the more frightened I became. His god complex ran deep. He thought himself above everyone, even the highest tiers of the government.
“So, Kathryn.” Boris turned toward his work colleague. “If you thought you were hiding the truth about your daughter’s parentage from me, you sorely underestimated me. Like I told you, there isn’t anything I don’t know, or that I am at least steps ahead on.”
Kate’s body jerked as she slumped back harder into the wall, fear and horror contorting her features. Her eyes watered as she pushed herself to her feet. At her movement Rapava gripped the gun, pulling it up slightly.
“Please, Boris. I beg you. Please don’t hurt her.” Kate’s bottom lip shook, but she kept her gaze locked on him.
“Your daughter is more human than fae and holds very little magic. She is of no use or threat to me,” Rapava replied, making it clear he had already tested her. “But oddly enough, your granddaughter has strong fae magic in her.”
It was in that moment everything changed. The shift in Kate’s expression went from scared to fierce. It was like watching a movie, an outsider to what was about to happen. Everything went so fast, but so slow at the same time.
Words burned in my throat, but before I could get them out, Kate with her arms still tied, bulldozed toward the doctor, a screech tore from her lips. Rage converted her face into a feral animal.
Rapava’s eyes widened, his arm with the gun lifting, his finger pushing back on the trigger.
“Nooooo!” A cry broke through the room. Delaney stood up and hurtled toward the doctor.
Boom. The room shook with the rebounding sound.
I flinched back with a cry. Sprig shrieked as blood sprayed the window in front of us, coating it with dripping, red liquid. Delaney’s eyes went wide, blinked, then she fell to the ground. My hand went to my mouth, bile burning my esophagus.
“No,” Kate screamed, her knees hitting the ground as she wiggled closer to Delaney. Delaney gulped, her eyes wide with terror, her body twitching and moving. The hole in her stomach painted her scrubs a deep maroon color, the floor puddling with blood. “You’re going to be all right. Stay with me.” Kate leaned over, getting closer to the girl, and set her tied hands over the wound. “You hear me? You’re going to be all right.” Kate’s voice broke, sobs fizzing up.
Delaney nodded at Kate, lifting her tied hands to Kate’s face and wiped tears away from her eyes. A wordless exchange passed between them, a closeness, a bond only they shared. Kate leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. Then Delaney closed her eyes, her body going limp. Dead. Another casualty of Dr. Boris Rapava.
Kate took another moment, then sat back on her heels, her head slowly twisting to Rapava. “You are a murderer,” she seethed.
“Don’t be naïve, Kathryn. So are you. You are no different.”
Her lips went up as she got to her feet. “I am nothing like you.”
“You admit fae lives don’t count then? The murders you committed aren’t the same?” Rapava’s eyebrow lifted.
Kate’s shoulders rose, taking in a deep breath.
“How many have you tested and let die while you tried to build evidence against me?” Anger darted from the doctor’s gaze. “We are the same. Even if we wanted different things, you let fae die for your cause as well. A few sacrificed for the masses because you also had the bigger picture in sight.”
Kate’s breath came out shaky. I could see ire building behind her eyes. It was like watching two fighters provoking each other until one couldn’t take it anymore and reacted.
I had to stop her. Otherwise she would be the one lying on the floor next to Delaney. I moved slowly to the door.
“What are you doing, Bhean?” Sprig whimpered softly in my ear. It wasn’t really a question, but more a hope he was wrong in what he thought I was doing.
“Go. Now.” I kept my eyes locked on the two people in the room. “I’m in this all the way, but get out of here. Please.”
“No way, Bhean. If you’re here, I’m here. I will never leave you.”
His words made my heart swell with love but also pump with fear. Everyone I loved got hurt. I couldn’t take it if anything happened to him.
“Sprig…”
“Don’t bother. I’m sticking to you like a monkey on your back.” He snickered softly. “Get it?”
This wasn’t the time for jokes, but a smile still fluttered over my mouth. “Just so you know,” I whispered. “You’re my best friend. I love you, buddy.”
“Same, Bhean. And I love you…almost as much as honey.” He nuzzled my ear. “Okay, maybe you’re equal, but only because you have an enchanted bra with magically delicious tits.”
“It’s always about boobs with you boys.”
“Only when they pop out honey like a toaster.”
I got to the door and reached up to the code box. I was going to have to be fast. Really fast. I took a deep breath, gripping the gun with my left hand as I typed with my right. The eleven-digit code pinged as I hit every number. The release echoed in my ears along with my breath. I just needed to get Kate out safely. That was the only goal I had in that moment. I flung the door open, my gun pointed up, ready to shoot. Hope fell around my boots, sticking them to the floor.
Kate leaped for Rapava, using my entrance to attack, her eyes set on the gun.
“No!” I shrieked.
“You monster!” Kate wailed.
Rapava twisted back around to Kate just as she plowed into him. He stumbled back, his arm rose in the air and came down with a crack, the handle of the gun striking the crown of her head like a drum.
I felt a scream bubble up in me as Kate fell to the floor with a thud. There was a stunned moment before I shuffled to her. “Kate!”
“Stop right there, Ms. Daniels.” Rapava whirled around, the gun pointed between my brows.
I skidded to a stop, adrenaline pumping in my ears. I kept my head facing the doctor, but my gaze drifted to the newest body on the floor. Blood trailed from the wound down her forehead, slipping over her nose and dripping to the ground like raindrops. Her chest still rose in shallow movements. She’s alive. Relief exhaled from my lungs. She was knocked out and had one hell of a lump on her head, but she was alive.
I lifted my weapon back to Rapava, both of us staring at each other in a standoff.
“You’re not going to shoot me.” He smiled.
“Don’t underestimate my hatred for you,” I growled, edging closer.
“Oh, I don’t doubt you hate me, but your drive for knowledge, where you came from, what I’m doing behind those doors is much more powerful than hate.”
My throat closed around the wrath I held in, filling the gaps with disgust and revulsion at myself because he was right. The burning need to see the truth behind the curtain, to know more about my origins, my parents, the sperm donors, overwhelmed me. But I didn’t want him to know that.
“I’ve lived this long without knowing.” I took a step closer, the barrel pinpointed at his chest.
“You mean you’re not curious about the little blonde girl who has been screaming your name, hoping you will come rescue her?”
Annabeth. Emotions I couldn’t even name wove inside my throat, choking me. “What have you done to her?”
“You keep putting me in the role of the bad guy. Why can’t any of you see I am doing all this for you, for humans?”
“I don’t even think you believe that lie anymore.”
Rapava tilted his head, watching me carefully. “Put the gun down. It’s up to you if you want to see your friend again or not.”
“You’re going to take me to her?”
“I am going to do better. I am going to show you what I’ve accomplished.” A strange glint hinted in his eyes like an excited boy about to reveal his favorite toy at show-and-tell. “You have been a big part of it. Both you and Sera.” The way he said it caused an icy sensation to tingle the back of my neck. My finger twitched on the trigger. “I know Daniel trained you well, but I promise you, with my background, I could shoot that thing off your shoulder and drive a bullet through your brain before you could even blink.”
/> I had never seen the ruthless soldier in Boris Rapava. He had always been the scientist, the doctor. Now I caught a glimpse of his military training, the cold disregard for human life. He only kept me alive before because he needed me. Something had changed, and I could feel it in my soul. He no longer needed me. I had understood when we were planning this I had little chance of walking out alive. But I needed to try for Annabeth.
I set my gun on top of the files. I could still hear Daniel’s words in my head: Don’t let DMG get hold of these. But I failed. I failed him in so many ways. I am so sorry, Daniel.
Rapava grabbed the extra weapon and pushed me back out of the room. I gave one last glance to the bodies on the floor. One would never get up again. Delaney had known the risks, the danger of working here, but she stayed, willing to fight for her beliefs. This should not have been her end. It wasn’t fair. But life was anything but fair, and I knew that too well. Kate would have a hell of a headache, but at least she would wake up. I hoped it would be soon after we left. Run, Kate. Run fast.
Sprig held tight to my shoulder as we moved awkwardly out the main door into the hallway. My gut screamed to run as we stopped in front of the large doors. I wasn’t sure I was ready to see what lay on the other side. Truth doesn’t always set you free. Sometimes it’s the precise thing that drags you down into the darkness to the place from where you can never return.
I was terrified because I felt certain of one thing—I was not coming back. I needed to make sure Annabeth, Sprig, and Kate escaped. But for me and the stone in my pocket, this was our last stop. The Unseelie King could dig it out of the rubble, next to my dead body. And Rapava’s.
Ryker was unaware I took it back. When he stayed behind in the room at Vadik’s warehouse, I took the opportunity to pinch it out of Sprig’s bag, giving him a honey packet to distract him. It might have started out as Ryker’s burden, but it was mine now. The stone and I had a connection he never had. Maybe I seemed weaker, but for some reason the stone picked me. Whatever the purpose, it remained my obligation. I could feel it in my soul. The stone had dug deep into me and would not let me go so easily, a realization almost scarier than the demons behind the wall. I wasn’t sure I wanted it to let me go.
From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) Page 31
