The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  That had never made sense to me until now.

  My feet pounded the ground as I sprinted. My breath came out in short gasps. My pulse punched all the way down to my fingertips. I knew I wouldn’t be able to run much longer. Whatever they’d given me to knock me out was playing havoc with my endurance. My body begged me to stop, to find somewhere to go and lie down for a while, even as my mind pushed me to run faster.

  Turning my head to watch where I was going, I was two seconds too late as I body slammed into a hard, solid person in front of me. Looking up, I shivered as my monster-finding genes chose that moment to turn back on. Strong hands dug into my arms and the carnal, hungry-for-food-and-blood look in his eyes told me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the person who held me was not a person at all. No, it was a Werewolf.

  I gulped as I tried to remember how to breathe slowly.

  “Seriously, you guys can’t handle one little girl?” His voice, this wolf who was so unlike Jason and his pack that he actually triggered my monster alert, sounded gravely. In Genesis, we would have worried he had some kind of throat sickness, that somehow the filtration system in his house wasn’t keeping out enough of the underground contaminants and that he was getting sick. I had no idea if wolves could have this happen to them and, frankly, if the one holding me had dropped dead where he stood, that would have been fine by me.

  He was dark-haired, with eyes so blue they were almost silver. I shivered and not in a good way, not the way I did when Chad or Jason stared at me.

  “Well, Rachel Clancy. Everyone is so excited to have you here. You’re going to be a great worker before it’s time to end your life.”

  I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling as if my vocal chords were thick. I’d never spent time with a Werewolf, other than Jason and his pack, who weren’t trying to kill me when in its wolf form. I didn’t like it, not one bit. He made my skin crawl like it wanted to pull itself off my body and run for cover.

  Finally, when I could speak, I made my mouth work. “It wasn’t enough to treat me like prey? To send Vampires and Werewolves after me every night just for fun?”

  He shook his head, baring his teeth in what could only be called a wolfish manner. It made me want to gag. “No, you proved to be more trouble than you were worth. We have a system for dealing with people like you. From this moment on, you’re going to have a whole new fate. None of it is going to include kissing the slew of young men who chase after you.”

  He shoved me forward through the hall I’d tried to run down. I didn’t try to get out of his grip. It would be fruitless. Unlike my Undead captors, this wolf wasn’t going to be easily tricked. I tried to swallow my fear away and only managed to make myself want to cry. For all my gumption, I was still just sixteen years old. Wasn’t it possible I could live a life where that could occasionally mean I didn’t have to go through times like this?

  “You’re being very brave, but I can smell your fear. I have to tell you it’s the biggest turn on I can imagine.”

  I didn’t want to think about ‘turning him on’.

  “Do you have a name or should I just refer to you as ‘hey you’?”

  He snickered as he shoved me forward into a room. “You can call me Payne.” The door slammed in front of me as I stared in shock. So much had happened in such a small amount of time. I could go months where all I did was get up and go through my daily routine and then—boom—I was stuck in a room somewhere captured by monsters who wanted me to work?

  I took a deep breath.

  “Hello, Rachel.”

  I jumped an inch in the air before I turned around. I hadn’t heard that voice in six months, not since he’d tried to kill me by sending me out on my own into the wilderness. When I could finally make myself turn around to face him, it was with fury pulsating through my veins.

  Isaac Icahn, the man who we were pretty sure had masterminded Armageddon and then had held himself up to be some kind of savior, stood before me flanked on either side by huge human guards. I knew they were human, because they didn’t set off any triggers. It was a brilliant move actually, because I couldn’t fight humans who were bigger than me. I would lose every time. It was only my ‘lucky’ genetics that let me defeat monsters. I still couldn’t take down a well trained human male, and I assumed the two goons who looked like they’d stepped out of some casting call for ‘evil henchmen’ were well trained.

  Dr. Icahn was quite old. Almost no one lived past sixty years old. And Isaac Icahn, with his piercing green eyes, was well into his eighties. My father had been responsible for the death of his daughter, Tate, and that’s why he hated me. Or, at least that’s what we’d thought. I had no real clue anymore what was real and what was fiction with that man.

  “Aren’t you going to answer me?”

  I hadn’t planned on it, but I supposed I probably needed to, if for no other reason than to find out what the hell he wanted and maybe to unravel more of his bizarre and destructive master plan.

  “Feeling fine, Dr. Icahn?”

  Okay, so maybe it wasn’t my most articulate attempt at communication. But, really, what was I supposed to say to the man who had apparently helped mastermind the end of nearly all human life on Earth forty-six years earlier.

  He shrugged like we were really having a conversation instead of going through some strange posturing in a game.

  “I’ve been better. The facilities here are not as luxurious as the ones I had in Genesis, but we are adapting them, so shortly I should have all that I need.”

  I narrowed my gaze at his tone. “Seriously? You’re going to act like we somehow inconvenienced you by ousting you from Genesis after what you did?”

  The truth was I had zero tolerance for whatever this was. Maybe if Keith or Patrick, or heck, even my father, had been here they could have made sense of the subtext Dr. Icahn hoped I would get from this. Personally, I just wanted to smash in his face but then again, lately, my violent tendencies seemed to be getting worse.

  “Young lady, you have no idea what I did or did not do, so don’t suppose to understand what, as you put it, ‘ousting me’ actually did. I kept Genesis safe.”

  I grimaced at his use of the word ‘young lady.’ He had to be kidding. Where did he get the gumption to drag me in here like I was enemy number one and then talk to me as if I was no more than a small child acting up in his presence?

  “You kept us safe? Really, is that why so many people died defending it every night?”

  He rolled his eyes. “If not for me, more than you could imagine would have perished.”

  I stomped my foot, giving into the fury, which was rapidly becoming a living, breathing entity inside of me. “That’s funny, because I have a pretty good imagination. I can daydream up all sorts of scenarios and I can’t think of one that is worse than what you let happen on Armageddon day.”

  “Considering that you are here, living and breathing, I would think you would be thanking me for letting your grandfather and father live to see another day.”

  I raised an eyebrow, hoping I looked skeptical and not stupid. “You want me to thank you?”

  “No.” He smiled a cold grin that didn’t meet his eyes. “I expect you to be horrendously tortured until you drop dead or the Vampires drain you of your blood, whichever comes first.”

  I hated both of the images his words pushed into my mind. But I couldn’t deal with them right now. Instead, I had to use this opportunity to gather information I could take with me when I escaped from wherever this was. I dug my fingers into my hand. I had to believe I could get out of here. I had to.

  “Tell me what you want from us. Why are you doing this?”

  He waved his hand and goon number one approached me, grabbing me tightly by the arm.

  “If you think I’m going to tell you my grand plan so easily, you really are a silly little girl.”

  “Funny,” I spit out. “You seemed anxious to do nothing but talk about yourself minutes ago. What’s changed now?”

  Dr.
Icahn stood, and he was an impressive sight to behold. Age had not diminished his broad shoulders and threatening posture. I might be able to hurt him because he was elderly, but he would be able to wound me right back.

  “This is all you need to know. As of this moment, you will be confined to the workman’s camp where you will work under the guidance of Werewolf Payne and the others running that facility. When you have worn out your welcome there, which I suspect won’t take very long, you’ll be brought to the cages where you get to spend your final moments knowing the creatures you so charmingly think of as bloodsuckers will drain you dry”

  Throughout his speech, I managed to keep quiet. I had several advantages the man knew nothing about. First, Deacon had spoken to me endlessly about his time living as a slave to the monsters. I already had a pretty good idea about what was going to happen to me and what to expect. Second, I had fought the Vampires that patrolled the cages before. They were lazy and used to having no problem getting their food. I was a fully trained Warrior. I wouldn’t be so easily handled.

  Also, it gave me a smug sense of satisfaction to know that I almost never thought of the Vampires as bloodsuckers. No, I preferred to think of them as the Undead. I don’t know why this mattered to me, except to remind me the man wasn’t omnipotent, he was flawed. He didn’t know everything.

  “Dr. Icahn,” my voice sounded tight as I was hauled from the room, “I just wanted to let you know that someday you will get what is coming to you, if not from me, then from someone else.”

  He laughed, and it didn’t bother me at all. I hadn’t threatened the man. I had simply told him the cold, hard truth. Someday someone was going to harm him. I simply hoped I got to be around to see it.

  But then there was no time for that kind of thought. Icahn’s human guard was a brute of a man who spared no expense causing me pain. His hand dug in my skin, even through the thickness of my shirt. I knew by the gleam in his gaze that he took pleasure in his efforts. A quick glance down to the bulge in his pants made it even clearer exactly how much he enjoyed the experience. I wanted to throw up in my mouth.

  I didn’t suppose telling him I didn’t want sex yet would do any good if he decided he wanted it. I closed my eyes for a moment as I tried to push away those horrendous thoughts. That was one thing I’d never had to worry about before. All the men I knew, even the young ones who were hyped up and always interested, had always been tremendously respectful of women. Plus, the Werewolves and Vampires who fought us wanted us to die; they didn’t want to have intimate relations. No, the fact that this man, whoever he was—and I didn’t care to know his name, was turned on by hurting me was a purely human problem. I could go my whole life without having to witness it again.

  I had to say something. “Why do you work for him? Don’t you know what he did?”

  “Isaac Icahn is a great man. The fact that you don’t know that is because you are a small person.”

  Okay, I wasn’t sure what drug they put in the water around here but I wasn’t going to start taking it.

  “Do you do this often? Manhandle teenagers?”

  He snorted. “Do you burn down Vampire temples often?”

  “No, that was the first time, but I’d love to repeat the experience.”

  “You, like everyone else, will bow before him.”

  I doubted that greatly. My musings were cut short as I was shoved through a doorway and into the waiting arms of Payne, the Werewolf. I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing him again. He was madness personified—for me. In his presence, I seemed to lose focus, as if the world tilted on an evil angle and might never right itself again.

  Even with all of that, he seemed like the lesser of two evils when he took me from the arms of Icahn’s guard. I was ninety-nine percent sure he wasn’t going to rape me, and in this strenuous situation where I didn’t know what was going to happen next, that knowledge alone made me feel slightly more secure. I knew that was pathetic. Really, Payne would probably kill me rather than treat me with kindness, but I needed desperately to find a silver lining somewhere before I went nuts.

  Maybe I was grasping at things that really didn’t matter.

  Pushing me in front of him, Payne swore before he shoved the guard out the door. Finally, he looked down at me.

  “Come on, Rachel, let’s go meet your new friends, shall we?”

  I stood my ground. There was something I had to say to him, something I needed to tell the first evil Werewolf I’d ever met who wasn’t in his wolf form. I might never get another chance.

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  He shook his head. “I do. And I want to do this.”

  “The truth is, you can wake up. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but it’s like waking up from a trance. You can be the man you were before the world ended. You can be him again.”

  He bent down until his face was so close to mine I could feel his hot breath on my skin. I wanted to gag, and only the terror in my stomach kept me from doing so.

  “Why would I want to do that, Rachel? I like my life just as it is. I like knowing that, for the little time you have left on this Earth, you belong to me.”

  Chapter Ten

  Payne pushed me face down into a cage. Well, a cage is perhaps not the best description. It was more like a dirt floor with metal bars that extended from the floor to the ceiling of the cave. I raised my head to look around. In all the years I lived in Genesis, it never felt claustrophobic or like a cavern. This was the first time I had ever consciously been aware of being below ground, and I wasn’t overly fond of the sensation.

  Still, I made myself control my anxiety as I heard movement around me. Two sets of dirty sneakers appeared before me. I raised my head to look at who they belonged to.

  Two young guys and a girl stared back at me. The third person startled me. I had only noticed two sets of sneakers. One of them extended his hand to help me stand up. I took the offer and let one of the guys pull me to my feet.

  “Hi.” The one whose hand I held spoke. He was taller than me, but not by much. Dark-haired, he looked to be about twenty years old in all ways except in his eyes. They told a different story. In his gaze was a lifetime of experience that made him seem old. I turned to look at the other guy who stood next to him.

  He was shorter than me and his blond hair fell past his shoulders. I blinked as I realized he was a mess. Dirt covered his clothes, his face, and the parts of his arms that were exposed. His eyes were half-closed even as he stood looking at me. The term I’d sometimes heard Keith use, ‘dead on his feet,’ filled my mind.

  The girl who stood behind them stepped forward. The men had blocked her from me, but now perhaps they’d determined I wasn’t a threat. She was tiny, maybe five foot tall at best. She had dark, almost black hair and tan skin that I knew would never burn like mine did in the sun. Instantly, I felt insanely jealous toward the other woman for that reason alone. Her eyes were a dark shade of chocolate brown and held a piercing intensity that made me feel like she could tell all my secrets just by looking at me.

  I cleared my throat as I decided I should answer the earlier greeting the first man had given me.

  “Hi, I’m Rachel.”

  I extended my hand and was glad when they each took turns shaking it.

  The man who’d pulled me up smiled. “I’m Dave; this is Ken, and Rosa.”

  I smiled and nodded to each of them. I scanned our surroundings, taking in the dark cavern walls, dirt floor, and strange, echoed sounds of people screaming. I think it was the last part, the noise, that most disturbed me. I couldn’t see anyone else around, besides Dave, Ken, and Rosa, but I could hear them. I shivered as I tried to push down my anxiety, into my favorite place—my stomach.

  “What is this place?”

  Rosa spoke, her voice gruff like she’d spent too much time in unfiltered places underground. I blinked at the thought. Most likely, I was now in an unfiltered place underground. Gone were the fail-safes of Genesis. This
was like being in one giant mine. The air was probably toxic, and I didn’t want to contemplate exactly how much I had to breathe before I sounded like Rosa.

  “This is the holding cell, the rest area. Soon, they’ll come and take you out there.” She motioned with her head toward the waiting darkness, the place where the sounds of human suffering resonated. “You must be a Warrior.”

  “How can you tell?”

  Patrick Lyons always knew when someone was a Warrior by being around them a few minutes. I never knew at all. Maybe it was some kind of weird talent I hadn’t gotten. Frankly, not possessing strange and unusual abilities was a downright relief for me these days.

  “Because this is where they shove all the Warriors they catch.”

  I rubbed at my eyes; I could feel a headache coming on. “So you guys are Warriors, too.” It felt like an asinine thing to say but I was running on no sleep, no food, and more pressure than I knew what to do with. “Where are you guys from?”

  Rosa sighed, stepping in between the two guys. “We’re all that’s left of Liberty.”

  My heart stuttered. “What did you say?”

  “The three of us are the only ones who survived the fall of Liberty.” I couldn’t imagine it could be possible, but her voice had gotten even gruffer as she spoke the sentence that altered how I perceived reality completely.

  Chad and I had been sent to Liberty for help. It looked like we wouldn’t be completing our mission. Goose bumps appeared on my skin as the magnitude of what she said threatened to bring me back down to my knees.

  “Liberty is gone?” My mouth had gone dry but I got the words out.

  Rosa nodded. “You didn’t know? Where are you from?”

  I couldn’t answer questions about myself. Not yet. I needed to know more about what she’d told me.

  “When?”

  Ken answered. “We have no idea how much time has passed. There is no way to track time down here. No sunlight, no moonlight, but we guess it was six months ago. There were more of us then, but it’s hard to live down here and some of our friends didn’t make it.”