“They’re just a bunch of sick men,” I said. “I don’t know what they were talking about, why they said what they said, but I do know they’re not good. That’s why we helped you.”
She seemed to accept my explanation eagerly, like she wanted to believe anything other than what she had started to suspect. After a few more minutes of talking to her, it became frustratingly clear that she knew nothing else.
With a promise to have her driven home soon, I left Jennifer sitting in the back of the van, and went in search of the others. Perhaps they had uncovered something more useful.
I found Callie leaning against a tree, distancing herself from the rest of them. I could hear their voices, all loud and angry and menacing. Mostly, I heard Richie, which was surprising.
“You stay with her?” I asked Callie, nodding toward the back of the van.
“Sure thing. I’ll do anything but go over there.” Callie jutted her chin forward. I followed her gaze and saw exactly where they were, hidden behind some brush.
As I approached, I saw that all but one of the Skotadi were now dead. I knew that they had been injured in the rollover, but I wondered if their injuries had ultimately done them in…or if someone had killed them. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that one of them had definitely been killed by someone’s hands. More precisely, a bullet.
Nathan was knelt on the ground, his face only inches away from the last remaining Skotadi. He didn’t notice my approach, until the Skotadi looked past him and saw me.
“You,” the man rasped.
Nathan stood and swung around in frustration. I hoped it wasn’t because of me. From the set scowl on his face as he glared down at the Skotadi, I suspected he had been frustrated long before I came along.
“You need to join us,” the Skotadi was saying to me.
“Not going to happen,” I returned, earning an evil grin from him.
“Then you will die,” he continued, “and so will they.” His eyes swept over everyone slowly, finally coming to a rest on Micah. “Especially him.”
And with that one statement, I got to witness firsthand the extent of Richie’s temper. With something that sounded like a growl coming out of his mouth, he rushed the Skotadi. Before he got within killing range, Nathan intercepted him.
“Not yet,” Nathan murmured to him before turning back to the Skotadi. “One last time before I let him have you. What are you doing in the warehouse?”
The Skotadi stared at Nathan without blinking.
Nathan tried another question. This time, his hand shot forward, squeezing the Skotadi around the throat. “What are you doing with humans?”
The Skotadi gasped unsuccessfully for air, and was looking a little pale, even by Skotadi standards, but managed to gasp, “They are our pawns.”
“You don’t even know, do you?” Nathan spat. “You’re a nobody. You just run errands like you’re told.”
The Skotadi rolled his head to the side, to rest his cold gaze on me. “I know enough. I know that she’ll be the end of you. All of you.”
Nathan’s gun was pulled and pressed to the Skotadi’s temple before I had time to blink. Nathan was going to kill him. I could see it in his eyes, in the rigidness of his jaw, in the way he fingered the trigger. For a second, the Skotadi knew he was about to die, and he was afraid. It was exactly the reaction Nathan had been looking for.
“You address her, mention her, or so much as look at her one more time, I’ll pull the trigger,” he said levelly. Once assured he had the Skotadi’s complete attention, he asked another question. “Who’s in charge?”
With a gun to his temple now, the Skotadi was a little more willing to talk. “I don’t know. I have my superiors, and they have theirs.”
Micah spoke up from the back of the group. “How long are you planning to be here?”
“However long it takes.”
“What? However long what takes?” Nathan shouted.
The Skotadi looked up at him with pure fear in his eyes. “I don’t know, I told you. You were right. I just do what I’m told. I don’t know anything.”
Micah asked, “How many of you are there in the warehouse?”
“Fifty. Maybe sixty.”
Sixty? Versus the seven of us. The odds were worse than I had hoped for.
Nathan leaned back so that the gun was no longer pressed to the Skotadi’s head. His eyes remained on the man as he addressed the rest of us. “Anyone have any more questions?”
Murmurs of no were passed around me.
“Time’s up,” Nathan said as he stood. With a nod at Richie, he turned to walk away.
“No, please,” the Skotadi pleaded, his voice shaking in desperation before he started to sob.
A Skotadi crying? Never thought I’d ever see that. As much as I despised their race, I knew that they had once been normal people, and I didn’t want to see one of them die. Not like this. While I knew it needed to be done, I didn’t want to witness it.
I scurried to catch up with Nathan as he approached the back of the van, where Callie stood with Jennifer.
He glanced down at me and some of the harshness in his eyes evaporated. “Did you get anything out of her?”
I gave him a Cliffs Notes version of my conversation with Jennifer.
He raked a hand down his face. “So we got nothing?”
“We know they’re doing something with humans,” I returned.
They are our pawns, the Skotadi had said. It was a start. We just had to figure out what they were doing…and how it was related to Kala to Skotadi conversions. If it was at all.
Maybe they were doing other types of conversions in the warehouse, too. I didn’t even want to think about what kind of things they were putting humans through in there. Not now.
As the rest of them took care of the bodies and started clearing up the wreckage, Callie and I volunteered to drive Jennifer home.
“The two of you shouldn’t go by yourselves,” Nathan argued.
“I’ll go with them.” Out of nowhere, Micah stepped beside me.
Nathan’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
Gabby and Richie were reluctant, but Micah gave them a look that signaled his determination to do what he wanted to do, like a boy seeking independence from overbearing parents. It worked.
As Callie slid into the driver’s seat of the Tahoe, Micah hopped into the back with Jennifer. I heard him introduce himself to her as I secured my seatbelt, and part of me was glad it was him going with us. Out of all of them, he was probably the least intimidating.
Callie started the engine, but before she pulled away, there was a tap at my window. I rolled it down and Nathan leaned in. While my eyes were on him, his were on Micah in the back seat.
“Still got the phone?” he asked.
“Got it,” Micah replied crisply.
Nathan reached past me to hold his hand out to Micah. A second later, he handed the phone to me. “I want you to have it,” Nathan said to me quietly. “Call me if there’s any trouble.”
I took it with a nod, unable to do much else. Not under the heaviness of his gaze as he backed up to let us go. That look he gave me—full of so many possible meanings—was the last thing I saw. In the side mirror, I watched as he joined the others, and wondered what meaning he had intended.
CHAPTER 7
We hit them two more times after that. Though we improved on our methods of attack, and prevented them from taking any more human victims, we didn’t learn anything new about the Skotadi’s plans. Each time we ended up empty handed, I felt the grip of time tightening. Over and over, the Skotadi’s words echoed in my head.
She will be the end of you.
I tried not to think about it, to dwell on it, but it was hard not to. Though I’d already known what I was, hearing it come from one of them sort of sealed the deal for me. I wondered if I was only fooling myself in thinking I had some sort of a chance.
She will be the end of you.
I was determined not to let
that happen. Even if I couldn’t find a way to save myself, I would protect the ones I cared about. I wouldn’t let myself hurt them. Even if that meant doing something I couldn’t wrap my head around just yet.
Instead of thinking about it, I threw myself wholeheartedly into the missions. It made me feel better to rid the world of a few Skotadi, even if I wasn’t the one pulling the trigger. A few more successful missions, and we just might be able to make a run at the warehouse, and get rid of the whole lot of them with a well-planned strike.
For now, we were in the middle of another ambush. This time, Micah, Callie, and I watched from the ridge. Aided by the use of a pair of night-vision goggles, we were able to watch the warehouse for signs of activity. When Micah spotted a van full of Skotadi—five this time—prepared to leave, I phoned Nathan. I could hear his grin through the line when I told him that the Skotadi were upping their numbers.
He wasn’t concerned about the extra man, and neither was I. Richie and Gabby had proven to be worthy allies. They both knew how to fight. I knew from experience what Nathan and Alec were capable of. I had all the confidence in the world in those four.
We took our time leaving. By the time we would get to the others, the Skotadi would be dead or restrained, and the living ones would already be undergoing interrogation.
Just as we finished packing up, I heard voices floating up from the valley. From the warehouse. I crawled to the edge with the goggles and peered down. Another van had been pulled up to the door, and I counted seven Skotadi climbing into it, each heavily armed.
They were setting a trap.
Micah’s hand came down on my shoulder. “Let’s go!”
As we dashed to the car, I called the other phone. This time, Gabby answered. I quickly told her what we had seen and she disconnected the call with a string of curses.
My mind spun with worry. They would be severely outnumbered. Four to twelve. The road we had to take wound down and around the mountain. It would take us about fifteen minutes to reach them, to help them.
I was tempted to call back and tell them to abandon the mission, to run, but I feared it was already too late. The first van was probably already there.
We reached the car and Callie climbed into the driver’s seat. She drove while Micah and I prepared our weapons. I did the best I could despite the tremor in my hands.
If anyone got hurt…
This was exactly what I had been afraid of. Someone I cared about getting hurt, because of me. We wouldn’t be here—they wouldn’t be here—if not for me.
I couldn’t let anything happen to them.
With Callie driving, the trip took less time than usual. Still, it was the longest ten minutes of my life, and when the ambush location appeared ahead in the headlights, my stomach clenched at the sight.
Both vans were pulled off the side of the road, forming a sort of V, which the Skotadi were using as a shield. Three bodies lay motionless on the ground between the vans and the Tahoe, where I hoped all four of our crew were hovered. At least one of them was still alive, since the Skotadi were shooting at someone.
“What do I do?” Callie shrieked as we sped closer.
“Aim for the first van,” Micah answered calmly.
“What?”
“Try to take a few of them out,” he continued.
“Oh, man. I don’t know about this,” Callie squealed as she punched the accelerator.
Two of the Skotadi turned their attention to the car speeding their way. I knew it was a bad idea, but didn’t fully grasp how bad until they pointed their weapons at us.
“Get down!” Micah pushed Callie’s head between the seats, and threw his body over top of hers. Her foot must have been still on the gas because the car didn’t lose any speed as it rocketed toward the vans.
Dropping to my knees behind the passenger seat, I dodged the spray of bullets as I braced for impact.
We hit hard. My head crashed into the dashboard and I lay sprawled across the center console, where Callie and Micah had been a moment ago. Both of them were now curled on the floorboard. Shattered glass littered us. Something warm and wet dripped down my nose, landed on my lip. Blood.
Callie groaned and I reached for her hand. “Callie, you—”
The driver’s side door burst open. I was yanked across the seat by a large Skotadi, and dropped to the ground with an unforgiving thud. Gun shots were going off all around me. At least, from what I could see with a quick scan, the car had taken out two of the Skotadi. Seven were left, including the one that had me.
He pulled me up by my hair and I cried out as he tossed me onto the twisted hood of the car. With one hand on me, his other hand moved to his waist. For a weapon. A shiny diamond-coated knife.
My foot connected with his groin before he could grab it. As he bent over in agony, I pulled the knife Nathan had given me from its sheath. I’d prefer my gun, but it was somewhere in the car.
It was life or death now. In a knife fight.
The Skotadi recovered too quickly for me to strike and plowed into me. We rolled off the hood, landing hard on the ground. I ended up on the bottom, the burly Skotadi straddling me, nearly cutting off my air supply.
Though the knife was in my hand, I had a poor angle to work with. But then, with a diamond-coated knife, that didn’t matter. I didn’t need a kill-shot. All I needed was a scratch.
I bent my wrist and sliced the knife smoothly across his forearm, drawing a steady stream of blood. Nothing that would kill him…yet.
He looked down at me with fireball eyes. Then he saw the knife. I practically saw its sparkle reflected in his eyes.
“You…” he said in a strangled voice. “You—you’re supposed to be one of us.”
“Not in a million years,” I returned haughtily.
I’d never seen diamond injury do its thing, and I wondered if it was immediate, or if it took a while. Minutes? Hours? I hoped it was sooner rather than later, considering he was still sitting on top of me, and technically could still kill me before the diamond claimed him.
And from the look of hatred in his eyes, I figured that was exactly what he planned to do. He raised his hand, and though it wasn’t holding a weapon, a few well-placed strikes with a closed fist would get the job done.
Before the first blow landed, Nathan was there, ripping the Skotadi off of me and tossing him to the ground several yards away. As I scampered to my feet, I looked around and saw that most of the Skotadi were dead. Only three remained, two of which were being tied up by Gabby and Richie. The third one, that I had injured, was being tossed around by Nathan.
My knees went out from under me. Alec was there to help ease me down to the ground. As he guided me up against the front of the car, I shot him a wobbly, but grateful, smile.
He frowned as he lifted a hand to my forehead. “Got a pretty bad cut there.”
I shrugged. “What else is new?” It was the second time that shattered glass had sliced my forehead. The first time I’d been left with a nasty scar that had healed shortly after I’d started development. I wasn’t concerned about it this time. At least not at the moment.
Micah dropped to the ground on my other side, opposite Alec. “You didn’t get cut with diamond, did you?” I saw the anxiety on his face, mixed with determination to heal me if I said yes.
“No diamond injury here.” I nodded my head toward the Skotadi I had scrapped with. “He wasn’t as lucky.”
Alec’s eyes widened. “You got him with diamond?”
A small sideways grin was my answer.
Alec shook his head in disbelief as he got to his knees in front of me. “We might make a fighter out of you yet.” He held a hand out to me. “Want to get up? Come see the effects of your hard work?”
I wasn’t so sure I was ready to get up just yet, but I was curious about how diamond injury progressed.
“Just let her sit here,” Micah argued. “She hit her head hard.”
“I’m fine.” I held a hand out to Alec. Anything
was better than sitting there with Micah.
Besides, Gabby had finished helping Richie restrain the other Skotadi, and was on her way over. From the looks of the scowl on her face, I didn’t want to be anywhere near when she reached Micah. As Alec led me away from the car, one arm around my waist—perhaps unnecessarily, but I wasn’t going to complain—I heard Gabby berate Micah for being ‘so stupid’ for pulling that ‘stupid stunt.’
Callie was sitting propped up against the side of the car. She looked up as we angled closer, a timid smile ready. “Not my finest moment.”
“You did great,” Alec returned. “You guys saved us. We just…” He trailed off as he looked over the mangled and bullet-ridden car. “Well, we’ll need another car now.”
Though he was hidden from my sight behind a large tree several yards away, I could hear Nathan talking to the Skotadi in a low voice. I couldn’t make out what was being said, and I desperately wanted to.
“You okay, Callie?” I asked her.
She waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah. Go. I just want to sit here for a little bit.”
I turned out of Alec’s grasp and made my own way to Nathan. The Skotadi was slumped against the tree; Nathan knelt on one knee in front of him. The Skotadi looked up as I approached, with Alec right behind me.
“Getting anything out of him?” Alec asked Nathan.
“Nothing that makes sense.” Nathan glanced at me. “You alright?”
His voice was clipped, reminiscent of the days he hadn’t been so nice to me. When I’d been a pain in his ass, as he’d once told me. And I’d thought things had changed.
“I’m fine.” I sounded like a broken record, but it was all I could manage under Nathan’s hard glare.
What was his problem?
The Skotadi laughed, a sadistic, blood-curdling laugh. “Fine? Far from it. Dead. That’s what you’ll all be. Soon.”
“I think you’re the one that’s dead,” Alec retorted. To me, he whispered, “Diamond deliria.”
So diamond turned its victims into lunatics before it kills. Good to know.
“I sacrifice for the good of better,” the Skotadi mumbled, earning a snort out of Alec.
Sacrificed (The Ignited Series) Page 7
