The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  On quiet toes, I moved through the empty hallways. Andon couldn’t be locked up with the Genesis prisoners. He’d be a risk to them and Icahn needed him in the labs. He would, however, be under armed guard. They’d be ready to subdue him if he went all werewolfy on them.

  My best guess? He’d be under lock and key, pretty much living in the labs. A good floor below the prisoners upstairs. I needed to cross the building and go down one flight.

  “All right, Rachel.” Hearing my own voice steadied me. I just had to hope when Andon heard me coming, he didn’t summon the guards. His Werewolf on full alert, he’d know I had arrived well before anyone else.

  I had a job to do. I intended to do it.

  “Easier said than done.”

  Enough talking to myself. Hadn’t I heard that at some point, it indicated a mental illness? I could have laughed at the thought if it wouldn’t have gotten me killed. A psychiatrist would have a field day with me…if there were any left alive.

  My Vampire senses went on high alert. Interesting. Icahn must have some locked up in the building to keep the prisoners under control. Nothing like threatening non-Warriors with death or un-deadness to keep them doing what he liked.

  If I had to, I’d take them out on my way. Assuming I could manage to do it quietly. Sometimes my stealth skills just sucked.

  ***

  It took me a full hour to get to the lab. Darting behind doors, hiding in corners, and avoiding guards doubled my time. But my Werewolf sensors were going full blast. My skin ached from the sensation. Jason might not have set off my alarm bells, but his father sure did.

  I scratched at my skin, trying to make the aching goose bumps go away. I knew there was a Werewolf there. I’d come specifically to look for him.

  Icahn still spoke over the loudspeaker. He could really go on and on forever, if given the chance. On this side of the building, I could hear him. That was good because it meant I’d reached my target, and bad because it indicated just how close to danger I’d arrived.

  “I want Rachel Clancy,” Icahn bellowed. “I want her up next.”

  “You’ll get her when I’m good and ready to send her.” Patrick’s reply.

  I had to hurry up. If our numbers diminished too much, the second part of my plan would not work.

  Poking my head around to check one more time, I opened the lab door. Andon sat at a desk; he looked up at my arrival, no surprise in his gaze. He’d smelled me. The two guards, however, they both jumped up.

  I pulled the machete from my back and slashed through one of them. The move made me sick. I wanted to cry or to throw up. But this was war and I’d known what I was going to have to do when I’d set out to do it.

  The second stain on my soul collapsed, dead on the floor. I pointed my machete at the other guard. “Rush me and you’ll join him.”

  It wasn’t lost on me I’d just all but copied Icahn’s threat. He’d ended Keith and claimed he’d kill our other people. I’d taken out one guard…the second now knew he might meet the same fate.

  He froze. “My name is Rachel Clancy. I’m sure you’ve heard of me since your boss is out there calling my name. I’m crazy, okay?” The guard nodded. “Don’t move and we’ll see if I have to hurt you.”

  Nodding, the guard backed up a foot. I turned my attention to the man I’d come to see. “Andon.”

  “Rachel.” He leaned back in his chair. “Everything about you has changed. Even your scent. Jason’s death did not make you better. You smell…cold now.”

  “Life did that. Jason’s death included.” I wouldn’t tell my ex’s dad I’d all but written Jason off before he’d been killed. Maybe I was cold. Only Jason’s sacrifice for me had redeemed him in my eyes.

  I was what I was and, if I’d turned out this way, then it was because they’d made me this way.

  At sixteen, in my little house in New Jersey, I’d been quiet, smart, studious, content, and romantic. I don’t know if anyone would use those terms to describe me now.

  The guard twitched and I pointed my machete at him again. “Please don’t make me use this on you. Not yet, anyway. I’m not going to sugarcoat this. You’re probably dead. But right now, there remains the smallest possibility you’ll walk out of here and see tomorrow.”

  I lied to him. No way could I let him live through the encounter. Right now, however, I needed him in order to negotiate with Andon Kenwood, the man who had done everything in his power to keep Jason and me from finding love in this After-time. Before the world ended, he’d liked me okay. Why or when his feelings for me had changed still remained a mystery to me. We had business to discuss.

  “I don’t believe you broke in here to rescue me.”

  “I’d be foolish to, wouldn’t I?” I hated him. He hated me. And we both acknowledged it just fine. “You’re going to kill me as soon as you get out of here.”

  “So you’ve come to beat me to the chase?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’ve come to make you a deal.”

  “A deal.” Andon stood up. “I can’t imagine how I could possibly help you at this point. My son is dead. I place the responsibility for that fully on your shoulders, and I’m locked in here day and night with no chance of escape.”

  “That could stop. Right now. I’ll kill him.” I pointed my machete at guard number two. I really couldn’t let myself see more than that about him. Brown hair, brown eyes, killable. Anything else would make him human. I had two—almost three, now—human deaths on my soul. Jason’s demise I refused to hold as my fault, even though I could see why his father would.

  Jason had intervened on his own. No one had asked him to rescue me from Deacon.

  I had enormous gratitude to him for doing so. Hell, I’d even dreamed about him earlier in the day. But Jason’s death fell on Deacon. My former friend could bear it all on his own.

  The guard shook. “You don’t have to kill me. I won’t let anyone know you’re here.”

  “Bullshit.” I hated having to do this. There really were few choices for me. I always ended up having to compromise some part of myself to save others. At least lately.

  I continued speaking. “I’ll kill him. Let you escape. Then you’ll come back with your Wolves, immediately, and take out this place. Help us to end this man and this life forever.”

  “And?” Andon raised an eyebrow. He would know from my scent I’d held something back. Something I’d told Patrick—but no one else—I intended to offer Andon. Patrick hated the idea but hadn’t forbidden me from doing it. How could he? I’d turned eighteen and he knew as well as anyone my offering Andon something he wouldn’t, or, more realistically, couldn’t refuse, would seal the deal.

  No one had told Chad. No one had told my parents. If Andon took this, and I was sure he would, then they would find out soon enough from Patrick.

  “You can kill me.”

  Andon’s whole demeanor changed. His face lightened up. Still, I knew he wouldn’t simply take what I offered. “I could do it anyway.”

  “No.” I held up my machete. “You couldn’t. I’d cut off your head. I’m offering you a machete-free chase. I’ll be weaponless. You and your pack can have at me. Tear me to bits. Find vengeance for Jason.”

  “How do you know we won’t come back here and just kill you?”

  I walked toward him. “How do you know I won’t just take your goddamned head off with my machete right now? It would be fun. As you can see and, apparently, as you can smell, I’m not the same girl I used to be. I don’t have love for your son keeping me from ending your worthless life. Only his sacrifice and the memory of the times we were happy are letting me speak to you with any kind of civility at all.”

  Andon smiled. “I knew you could be brutal. It’s why I didn’t want you mating Jason. You would have eaten him alive.”

  “I had nothing to do with him deciding I was his mate. I was fifteen years old and living in suburbia when he chose me. I didn’t even know any of this existed. My parents wouldn’t even allow me
to watch horror movies. You don’t get to blame me for his feelings.”

  “None of us can control whom fate picks for our destiny.” Andon’s own wife had become a Vampire.

  “All right.” I shook my head. “Do we or do we not have a deal?”

  “You let me go, right now, and I bring the pack here to fight. Immediately? Then you come with me and we get to slaughter you.”

  I took a deep breath. My focus had to remain on doing the right thing. Keith was dead. These people needed us. Patrick’s speech about being Warriors and fulfilling our destinies wedged in my soul. “I’m your prey.”

  Chad would never forgive me for this. I just hoped someday he’d come to understand. I hadn’t hidden it. His father knew. These were our people. If he had the same opportunity, Chad would sacrifice himself in a second.

  I’d lied to him. He thought I’d come to negotiate for help. Freedom for assistance. For most people, a deal would have worked. But I knew Andon and I knew Werewolves. They wouldn’t agree to help me under any terms, not since Jason’s death, unless I sweetened the deal.

  I guess I could have tried to get him to see how the fault really fell on Deacon. Most likely he wouldn’t have believed me and, even if he had, I’d never be able to trade someone else’s life for my own. Even if Deacon had once held a machete at my throat and threatened to kill me.

  I’d never really know if my ex-best friend could have gone through with it. Ultimately, it had been Deacon’s interference and Icahn’s bullet ending Jason’s life.

  I’d escaped death, gained six months with Chad I wouldn’t trade for the world. And now I’d come to pay the piper in the form of Andon.

  I bent forward. “Come on, now, Dr. Kenwood. These people have kept you locked here for six months. Away from your pack. No proper mourning period for your son, who would have been Alpha after you. They’re lost out there, waiting for your return, or we both know they would have assaulted this place to get you out. Don’t you think it will feel good to end the people who did this? Then you get to take me anyway.”

  Andon smirked. “I don’t know if we can get back immediately. They might be days away.”

  “They’re nearby.” If he didn’t deliver, I didn’t give him what he wanted. “I hear them at night. Howling.”

  “Could be anyone. Could be regular wolves.”

  I wasn’t playing games. “It’s your pack. I can always tell. I got really good at differentiating the sounds monsters make from animals when I tried to figure out how to date your son. Every night. At sunset, they let loose. I think they’re only still alive because they seem a little bit too pathetic to kill right now.”

  “You drive a hard bargain.” Andon stretched his arms over his head.

  “I just offered you my life. It’s a little bit harder on this end. You’ll have to trust me.”

  “You have a deal.”

  I nodded as I waited for the feeling of doom to slide over me. Nothing happened. Maybe there were just so many factors that still had to happen before I died that I couldn’t go there emotionally yet. Maybe.

  “Then go. I assume you can manage to find your way out without getting caught.”

  “Icahn’s people are distracted. It won’t be a problem.” Dr. Kenwood sauntered out of the room like a man with nothing to worry about.

  I shook my head. The second guard crouched on the ground, shaking. “Are you going to kill me now?”

  “No.” I should. I needed to. “Come with me. You’ll be my prisoner or something. Make a sound and I’ll slit your throat like your boss did Keith’s. You know I can do it.” I’d just done it. He’d seen it. “I’ve reached my quota for the day.”

  I just hoped I didn’t live to regret my decision. “Move.”

  Chapter Six

  “I’m back.” I rushed up behind a group of Warriors much smaller than the one I’d left. I gave guard number two, who turned out to be named Adam, which was more information than I wished to have, to two Warriors to be contained. My arrival had made everyone smile. Apparently, the vote had been split as to whether or not I’d make it out alive. The fact they’d voted should have bothered me but at that point I’d moved past caring what anyone else thought about my abilities. None of them had managed to sneak inside anything.

  Patrick raised his eyebrows and I nodded before turning back to Chad and my parents. “Everything okay here?”

  “Yes.” My mom stroked my hair. “Now that you’re back.”

  Chad pulled me close and I breathed him in. “I was going to come looking in a minute.”

  “No, you weren’t.” Patrick turned to us. “I need to speak to Rachel for one minute. Can you guys give me one minute with her? Harold, why don’t you head in as the next Warrior?”

  I walked toward Patrick, everything in me screaming not to leave Chad’s safe embrace. But if I’d thought he was going to stand there quietly while I went with his dad, I’d been sadly mistaken.

  He followed right along. “What’s going on?”

  “I need to speak to Rachel. Alone. For just a second.” He handed Chad the megaphone. “Here.”

  Chad stared at the megaphone for a second, like he’d never seen one before. “I’m not taking this.” He handed it back to his father. “And I want to know what the two of you have to discuss alone. I’m not fooled. I know there is something going on here. You’re plotting, and you’re going to include me in it. If I’m being left out, it’s because you don’t think I’ll like whatever it is. And if that happens to be the case, then it’s the wrong decision. End of story.”

  “Because you don’t like it, automatically it’s the wrong decision?” His father put his hands on his hips. “I run this habitat. Not you. In five years, if you want to challenge me, you can go right ahead. For now, you’ll do what I say because I tell you to.”

  “Not when it comes to Rachel. She’s mine. She’s going to be my wife.”

  Patrick grabbed his forehead. “Hell. Were you planning on telling me, Rachel?”

  “No.” I crossed my arms across my chest. “And for the record, this has all been set in motion. It’s a done deal. There’s no backing out now, so maybe we should just tell him.”

  “Tell. Me. What?” Tension radiated so strongly off Chad, I could feel it permeate into my skin.

  “Rachel came to me with an idea and I was sick out of my mind with worry. I’d take my agreement back. I wanted to the second she left. Your mother, your sister, they’re both in there still. Keith is dead. But the second Micah handed me Nero, I knew it had been a mistake.”

  “Rachel.” Chad grabbed my shoulders. “Tell me, sweetheart. What lame-brained thing did you decide to do to be noble? I’m sure we can still fix it? What did you give Andon besides his freedom?”

  If I’d been feeling nothing about my decision earlier, it all hit me now like a truck had plowed through my body. I’d never wanted to tell Chad, to see his realization of what I’d promised. He should not have had to know before it was over. That made me cowardly. Sometimes I could be wrong, or even stupid, but I’d never been so ashamed of myself before.

  I looked down. “It’s done, Chad.”

  “Tell me. I can fix it.”

  “You can’t.” It was hard to breathe, let alone speak. “I gave him me.”

  “Why would he want you? Jason’s dead. Unless….”

  I saw it the second realization hit him. He staggered backward a step. “How could you?”

  “Because we put our lives on the line to save people. We need him. He’d never agree to help otherwise. They hate me. I’m responsible for Jason.”

  Chad shook his head. “Icahn shot him. I stood there when it happened. I saw it.”

  “I know.” How could I make this clear to him? He’d never understand. The last thing Chad and I did before the battle couldn’t be to fight. “But they think of me as his mate. In their minds, I betrayed him. And they hated me before this, anyway. Who knows why all of this happened? I’m human, and I’m in love with you.
I brought you back from the dead. I let their brother perish because I destroyed the cloning machines.”

  “Whatever the reason, that makes them the last people you should be dealing with.”

  “I’m letting them kill me. What more could they possibly want?”

  “What?” Apparently he hadn’t grasped the horror of the whole thing. His hand came up to his throat before he pointed it at me. “You’re doing what?”

  “I’m coming to them machete-less.”

  “Oh hell. You are not.”

  “I’ve agreed—”

  “I don’t give a shit what you’ve agreed. Your life isn’t your own to bargain with. You belong to me. To all of us. And you.” He turned on his father. “How dare you make bargains with my girlfriend, when you know she has a martyr complex, without at least running it by me?”

  “I don’t think I have a martyr complex.” Did I? I’d never considered the possibility before. Was that a thing a person could have?

  “We can’t win this without the Wolves.” Patrick spoke very slowly.

  “Then we die.” Chad’s hands shook. I wanted to go to him, to throw my arms around him. How could I do that? Not when I was the reason he was so upset. “We don’t sacrifice each other.”

  “Sometimes we do.” Tears fell freely from my eyes. “Keith is dead.” Keith is dead. “Sacrificed. And those people deserve our protection. This is how I give it to them. You and I both know if anyone else could have pulled this off, you’d be applauding. You’d do it in a second. Don’t act like it’s insane just because you don’t like it’s me doing it.”

  “You’re damn right I don’t like you doing it, Rachel.” He threw his hands in the air. “I love you and screw this. You’re not dying. End of story.”

  “Chad….”

  “You’re not dying because the second we get done saving everyone, I’m taking that Wolf’s head right off. Him and all of his pack. One by one. You can all watch.”

  ***

  It was my turn to go in as the Warrior. Patrick had sent Chad in ahead of me, maybe thinking his son would lose his mind if he had to see Andon. Personally, I would love to see that Wolf before I went in, just to make sure he was actually going to show up.