Peter returned with a gun in his hand. I saw Lena’s eyes widen at the sight. “Only blanks inside it,” Peter whispered as he handed me the gun.
I stood a short distance away from Lena and raised the gun up.
“No!” Lena screamed as she scrambled to get out of her chair. Peter grabbed her arm before she escaped too far, whispering to her that everything was okay before he directed her back to her seat. He went to his place behind the thick, bulletproof glass wall just in case.
I dropped the gun to my side, “It’s okay, baby girl. You trust me, right?”
Lena’s eyes were unsure, and I saw she wanted to run away. But she still trusted me so she sat back down. She gave a small nod and closed her eyes.
“I need your eyes open, Lena,” I said gently, and she blinked them open. I noted the rim of tears along the bottom and swallowed back the apology. This was for her, for us. She’d understand in the end that everything I did was all for her.
So I raised the gun to her head. She gripped the side of the chair, and a tear rolled down her cheek. My throat bobbed as I tightened my grip around the trigger.
With a deep breath in, I let it out and squeezed the trigger.
Time must have stopped. I saw it all happening in slow-motion before my eyes. And even though I comprehended that something was happening, I didn’t have the time or understanding to know what to do about it.
Before the blank had even been released from the gun, Lena’s energy had exploded from her in a dome like a current straight for me. I felt it within me. The energy that she possessed triggered something within my body as if they sensed each other.
The energy blasted out and shattered everything in sight. The computer exploded into a million pieces, and metal tables and chairs became crumpled messes in the corner of the room. Shards of glass and metal came at me from all directions as her body sought to protect her from whatever was trying to attack…and at this time, that was me.
I barely felt the sharp blades of glass and metal as they sliced into my body. I hardly noticed the bright red blood soaking through my shirt and jacket. My mind told me something had happened, but the energy inside of me whispered that it was fine.
The thick glass Peter had been hiding behind was splintered and cracked throughout but was one of the only things still standing. He rushed to my side as the chaos ended, and I glanced down to the multiple puncture wounds and the glass sticking out from all over my body.
There was a gasp from Lena as she covered her eyes and began to sob her apology, but I couldn’t feel anything, and I wasn’t scared or worried.
Peter stopped a few feet away, unsure what to do. “Sir? Are you…okay?” The word “okay” seemed wrong in a moment like this, but in truth, I was okay.
I nodded and pulled out the shards of foreign objects still sticking out. As soon as they were removed, the wounds began to heal and disappear.
There was far more glass than I could see, and I needed assistance getting them all out, but I wasn’t worried.
I walked over to Lena and pulled her hands away from her face. She gasped at the sight. I was still covered in blood and had glass and metal sticking out from all over me, but I was fine and I knew it. “It’s okay. Daddy’s okay.” Her bottom lip trembled as she surveyed my body before she met my eyes.
“What did I do to you?” she asked with a shaky voice.
“Nothing, nothing, my girl.” I wiped away the tears from her eyes with blood-stained fingers. “You showed me that you and I are the same. We both have a protective field around us, or within us, I’m not sure. But I know that you and I are special, we’re different. And that’s okay.”
Lena’s brow scrunched as she thought about what I had said, “We’re different?”
“Yes, we are,” I replied.
And we were, I knew it. Something within us had protected us today. Lena’s gift came in the form of a shield, and my gift was in the form of an internal layer of protection. It felt as strong as the Alatonion I was made of and as powerful as any god or warrior you could dream of. I didn’t know what this all meant. Or how I could create more of it. But there was a burning inside of me calling to be let out. And so I would let it out. I’d unleash it to the ends of the earth if I had to, just so I could fill it back up with more power and more of this.
Out of the corner of my eye, something flashed by the door leading to my office. I paced to the door and pulled it open just in time to see the back of a head and a white lab coat streaking from the room and into the elevator.
Peter was behind me, looking over my shoulder, “Did somebody…was someone watching?”
I nodded, grim. “Find them.”
Chapter Nine
I didn’t take long to find the spy. And not much more than a threatening look to find out who had commissioned him to watch us. Governor Castello had always been a suspicious, untrusting man, and it seemed no matter how much I tried to convince him, he’d never fully trusted me. Not that I blamed him.
“What did you tell him?” I asked a dark-haired scientist, who sat quivering in the chair in front of me. He clearly wasn’t a natural spy, just someone Castello managed to coerce into helping him.
“I...he…he just asked what you were up to,” the man fumbled with his words.
“And what did you tell him?” I crossed my hands over the table, waiting.
His eyes shifted again between me and Peter to my right, “I just said…that I didn’t know really. Just that you were working with your daughter and she had…powers or something.”
My heart stopped, “So he knows Lena is still alive?”
“I…yes…” The man shifted in his seat. “Mr. Coleman, sir. I am very sorry, I did not know…” His hands reached across the table to mine, but I pulled my hands away. Sweat dripped down his brow. “He threatened my family…what was I supposed to do?”
I stood from my desk, glancing out the window to the dark, dreary morning upon us before I stepped around and placed my hands on the man’s back.
“It’s okay.” I patted his shoulder, and he let out a sigh of relief. “You were only doing what you thought would save your family. What you thought would save you…” My hand rested at the base of his neck, and I gave it a squeeze. “And that’s exactly what I am doing too.”
In one quick motion, I took his head in my hand and twisted it hard to the side until I heard the sharp crack of his neck breaking. His body went limp.
Peter gasped before he clamped his mouth shut.
“Dispose of him, quietly,” I ordered and sat back down at my desk. I turned to gaze outside just as the rain began to fall.
Castello knew Lena was alive, and I had to figure out his next step before it was too late.
The sudden crack of gunfire erupted through the night, waking me from my already restless sleep. My pulse raced.
I hardly managed to throw on my housecoat before I heard the shriek of a young girl. Lena.
My feet couldn’t move fast enough as I ran down the hallway toward her room. Panic spread through me with every step closer I took.
Silence filled the air. It was eerily quiet—not the good kind.
The gunfire that had woken me ceased just as quickly as it came. And I couldn’t hear anything from where Lena’s room was down the next hallway.
I rounded the last corner and nearly tripped over a body sprawled across the floor.
My mouth was dry as I rolled him over. He was dead. Written across his vest read “Special Forces.”
One of Commander Murray’s men.
My eyes fell upon the next man lying awkwardly against the wall. Blood splattered the white walls behind him, and he also wasn’t moving. Another of Murray’s men.
Three more were at the end of the hall, just before Lena’s room, which was cracked open. Light flooded to the hallways from inside.
My throat caught as I peeked into the room. Lena sat on the bed, Sarah had her wrapped up in her arms, and I saw Lena was weeping.
&nbs
p; In the corner stood one of my Carbons, and at his feet were two more of Murray’s men, both dead.
I tried to step through the open door, but something strong and invisible stopped me. My hands pressed against the invisible sheet covering the entire entrance, and my own energy pulsed back in response.
“Lena? Darling, it’s me,” I called to her. She startled before her tear-filled gaze fell upon me and the invisible shield disappeared.
I nearly fell into the room. I reached her side, and she wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her face into my chest. “What happened?” I asked Sarah.
She shrugged, glancing over her shoulder to the Carbon still watching us. “I came in here and found this…just before she put up that shield.”
My attention moved to the Carbon, and he stepped forward to speak. “These men were a threat to your daughter, so I ended them.” His monotone voice had no remorse for the blood he had spilled. And neither did I.
“You’ve done well,” I told the Carbon. I had stationed a Carbon outside of Lena’s room every night since I found out Castello knew Lena was still alive, but I hadn’t imagined he would go this far. “Clean up this mess, please.”
I tucked Lena under my arm and led her out of the room, careful to keep her eyes covered so she didn’t have to see any more than she already had. “Thank you, Sarah,” I said over my shoulder before I guided Lena down the hallway and into my room where she eventually settled down and slept, but I did not.
These men had entered my home and terrified my daughter with the intention of what? Scaring her? Taking her?
No, I knew the answer. They were sent here to end what I hadn’t yet ended—her life.
I sat alone at the small breakfast table in the surprisingly large kitchen. It was hardly even morning yet, and the room was still bathed in darkness, so I sat quietly and waited.
Nothing was familiar to me as it wasn’t my own home. But they had made it so easy to break into, so easy to sneak in unnoticed. I was almost disappointed.
The door swung open, and the occupant of the home, Andre Castello, didn’t see me for a moment. He took three steps in before he paused and whirled around to the table where I sat.
“Surprised to see me?” I asked.
“What are you doing here?” He moved toward the door.
“I wouldn’t go calling for backup just yet,” I mused, and wisely he stopped. “We wouldn’t want any more bloodshed now, would we?”
“What is the meaning of this?” Castello spit.
I stood, letting my hand slide across the smooth surface of the table as I took my time walking over to Castello. I stopped only a few inches away. “Oh, I think you know.”
His eyes shifted, but he swallowed back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The corner of my mouth lifted into a smirk. “No?” I snapped my fingers, and the Carbon hiding just out of view down the hallway stepped into the kitchen. The head of one of Murray’s men in his hand. He tossed it onto the table. “He doesn’t ring a bell?”
Castello’s mouth quivered as he glanced between the severed head—eyes still wide with shock–and the Carbon who stood stoically beside me. “I didn’t…it wasn’t my idea,” he stumbled.
“Oh, it wasn’t?” My brow rose with feigned shock. “See, I thought you might say that, so before I came here, I had a little chat with the only other man who could’ve orchestrated this, and he seemed to be under the impression it was your idea.”
Castello’s mouth opened and shut. “Murray is a liar! You know I would never hurt a child.”
My lips pursed as I nodded along with him. “See, I also said that. But then he mentioned something that had me second-guessing that—had me realizing there could only be one person possible to make this all happen.”
Sweat beaded on Castello’s brow, and he shifted on his feet. But wisely once again, he kept his mouth shut.
“You mentioned before that you were the one who gave me everything I had. There was a time even when I would have called you a friend,” I sneered. “I even welcomed you into my home. Selena welcomed you into our home.”
Castello shook his head again, knowing there was no way out of this, but he was grasping for any hope.
“No, it couldn’t have been Murray, not on his own anyway,” I said. “Someone had to give him details that so few knew. Which elevator to take? Which hallway to go down? And exactly where my daughter would be sleeping?” I rested my arm over Andre’s shoulder and pulled him in closer. “I think you would hurt a child…you would do anything to make sure I didn’t succeed and that you got your way. But not this time. This time you have gone too far.”
Castello shook, trembling from head to toe. My grip tightened on his shoulder, and he winced. “Don’t worry. I won’t be killing you, not today. Too many questions, and too many things I still need you for. But know…one day I will come for you. One day I will make you pay for what you did. But you won’t know when, and you won’t see it coming.”
I slapped his back, and Castello’s knees nearly gave out. Then I stepped around him and toward the door leading out, the Carbon close behind.
Over my shoulder, I said, “I want you to know the fear and terror my daughter was put through. I want you to wake up at night wondering if today is the day. And just when you think I’ve forgotten, just when you think you’re in the clear…I’ll be there.”
The door closed behind me before I heard the table being tossed across the room.
Chapter Ten
I gave them so many warnings, so many chances to make things right before I resorted to this end. All I asked for was their full and complete support, but they were holding back. Four years after I had become a Carbon, and still the governor trembled every time I walked in the room. Castello knew his days were numbered, and there was no forgetting what he had done.
I would use him for everything I needed, make him shake just a little, but he was running out of usefulness.
The citizens of Cytos had caught wind of what we were doing, what we were trying to achieve. And instead of praising us for what we were so close to accomplishing, they rallied against us. A petition was circulating for the closure of Sub 9. As if they truly believed a piece of paper would have any power over me.
The rebel groups had bombed Sub 9 more than once, but I had built a nearly impenetrable building, and there was no getting past my bots and Carbons who guarded the only entrance day and night.
They could strip my name from every building I had built. Every person in this entire city could be against me, but they still would not win. And I would not give in.
The day was as ordinary as any other day when I decided it was time.
“Sir, are you sure? Couldn’t we just give it a little more time, maybe I could talk to them?” Peter asked. He had grown soft while I had grown harder.
“What more can they do for us? What more do these people need? They have spit on everything we’ve done, everything we’ve built and we just sit here and take it?” I sneered.
Peter was silent as he looked for a solution, but there was none. “But my family…so many people…”
I turned on him with a coldness that had set in over the past few years. “Bring them here. I have told you many times they would be safe here.”
Peter wrung his hands with nervousness. “My wife, she isn’t so trusting. She doesn’t understand it all and worries about our daughter, Sawyer.”
Peter had changed over the past few years, and I was sure his wretched wife was to blame. She was a thorn in my side, telling Peter I was evil or corrupt. I’d put an end to that soon. I needed Peter to continue our work and had already planted the seeds to ensure his loyalty. Even if he was unaware and mostly unwilling.
“Bring them here or don’t—I don’t care either way. It is happening with or without your support, Peter.” I stormed away from him, not looking back to the broken man I once called my friend.
This need for vengeance had consumed me and
threatened to take over if I didn’t feed it something worthy of its cause.
I was stopped short as I rounded the corner to find Lena standing in the hallway with her arms crossed. My sixteen-year-old daughter had grown into a beautiful young lady, and though our relationship had become a bit strained, she was still my everything. My world.
“Daddy, you cannot do this,” she said.
I don’t even know how she came to know my plans, but it made no difference as my mind was set. “It has to be done. There is no way around it. I have warned them many times, baby girl, and they do not listen.”
She stamped her foot down in protest. “I will not let you do this!”
I placed my hands on both of her shoulders and looked her square in the eyes. She was almost as tall as me, and her cold glare was equal to the one I wore. “You do not get a say in what I do.”
And though her eyes narrowed on me, her shoulders slumped, and she let me pass.
It was time, everything was in place, and I was ready to take what was rightfully mine.
I was woken up in the middle of the night by a blaring alarm sounding from my private lab next door. Throwing on my housecoat, I rushed into the room where I found Lena crumbled on the floor in tears.
My brow scrunched as I walked closer. She was leaning against the pod that had become quite familiar to me. I stepped closer, looked through the clear, glass lid where I found Lena’s human host body, pale and lifeless. The lights of the pod had been turned off, and it was only then I noticed the frayed and broken cables severed from the machine that was keeping her human body alive.
“What did you do?” I gasped, stepping away from the pod.
Lena buried her face into her hands and sobbed even harder.
I gripped her shoulders and pulled her up to her feet. “What did you do?” I screamed.
She startled and let out a hitched sound. “I can’t do it anymore, Daddy. I can’t be a part of this. I thought…I thought if she was dead…then I’d be dead.”
My eyes widened as I looked from Lena to her host body and back again. She had been so desperate to get away from me that she killed her human body in hopes that she’d died alongside of it.
Untold: The Complete Watcher Series Mini Novellas (Watcher #4) Page 8
