The Sanctuary

by Sara Elizabeth Santana

  Copyright © SARA ELIZABETH SANTANA 2017

  This edition published in 2017 by

  O F T O M E S P U B L I S H I N G

  U N I T E D K I N G D O M

  The right of SARA ELIZABETH SANTANA to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real people, alive or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cover & Interior book design by Eight Little Pages

  To Daniel, Shelby, Nathan, Erik, Alyssa, Allison, Andrea, Jenna, Allison, Holly, Lauren and all the rest. Thank you for letting me into your family. Thank you for showing me what true friendship and love is.

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements:

  IT FELT GOOD to be back in the sunlight again. After months underground, it was like waking up. Everything about being out in the open air was perfect. I could smell the pine in the forest and my cheeks were cold from the breeze. I wished Zoey had been on duty with me this morning. It was hard to leave her, especially when she was in my bed. Even knowing I would see her at the end of the day didn’t make it any easier to get my ass out the door.

  The two guards with me were quiet. It wasn’t as if we needed to talk while patrolling, these two were just so serious. They definitely weren’t the type to joke with.

  I was completely bored.

  I knew I shouldn’t be. This job was to be taken seriously and I was lucky enough to get to do it. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have imagined that I would be allowed. People were constantly dying and I was given a chance to try and prevent it. I felt guilty for being bored.

  The sun was high in the sky and I could feel the sweat underneath the heavy black uniform I was wearing. I wasn’t sure how long I was on patrol today; that was up to the captain. Seeing as he hadn’t said a word in an hour or two, I wasn’t really feeling inclined to ask him.

  I was on my third pass of the east side of the front entrance when I heard it. A branch snapping clean in two. The three of us spun in the direction of the noise, guns out. My heart was beating a loud rhythm in my chest. We waited but there was nothing but quiet around us.

  “Maybe it was just an animal,” the other guard said. The barrel of his gun lowered a fraction as he stared in the direction that the noise had come from.

  Just as he said this, there was movement in the trees and we froze. There was something out there. There was a distinct sound of footsteps. Someone was coming our way but they were doing nothing to conceal their presence.

  Awakened. It had to be.

  Before any of us could make a move, shots rang out. I ducked, rolling to the ground, one of my hands coming up to cover my head. I waited and then my head rose. Panic went through me. My two companions were on the ground, both of them with a clean shot to the head. Their eyes were empty. They were dead.

  I scrambled up and immediately was yanked backward by a pair of powerful arms. My gun went flying out of my arms. I couldn’t see who had me but I fought, I kicked my legs backward and connected with something. There was a loud grunt but the kick did nothing to free me from the grip that I was trapped in. Arms snaked around me and I did the only thing that I could think of. My teeth sank into his arm.

  My captor howled and stepped backward as his hold on me loosened and I took advantage of it. I yanked hard and he went spinning away from me. I moved towards him but he was already recovering and his fist collided with my face, my world going blank for a moment. Blood was pouring from a wound in my forehead. I couldn’t see.

  A kick landed in my gut and I fell to the ground. I knew my gun was close by. I rolled onto my stomach and spotted it, just a few feet away. I crawled over to it, ignoring the pain that was shooting through my body. I was only inches away from it. I reached out and my breath caught in my throat as a heavy boot came crashing down on my hand, shattering the bones underneath.

  A hand yanked the fabric of my shirt, pulling me toward them, and a punch landed on my face. Then there was another and another. The world around me was a haze. I couldn’t even see who was attacking me.

  Another punch landed on my jaw. The world spun and right before I blacked out, right before the pain was too much for me to stay awake any longer, I saw it. The dark brown uniform and the woman etched on it.

  A woman with a lion’s head.

  I was in big trouble.

  RAZI CYLON’S HANDS clutched the firm wood of her son’s casket. She was unwilling to let go; her grip firm on the cold and unforgiving wood. There were so many people in attendance at his funeral. It was hard to believe that such a beautiful soul that was loved by so many people, could have been killed in such a hateful act. Just the thought of it made her angry. She was not a person known for letting her anger show. It was not how she was raised. From the time she was a little girl, she was taught to be still and silent. She was to be a stone, never showing anything more than calm. This was, simply, how things were done. This was how things were accomplished. Nothing came from flying off the handle.

  Razi had never felt like this before. Like she could rip into every person that dared look in her direction. They offered condolences, kind words, but they didn’t know. They had no idea. They had no idea the hurt that burned through her veins. She was a doctor. She prided herself on her wide variety of knowledge. Razi Cylon was anything but stupid. She was confident in her ability to have answers. But this…this, she didn’t have an answer for. She couldn’t bring herself to admit that she had no idea how to deal with this.

  So instead, she started to plan. She started to tell herself that she could do other things. She would make it better. She would fix it. She would take this and attack it logically. Taking action was the only thing she was ever good at.

  Something needed to change. She was tired of seeing this world crumble to pieces around her, life was a gift that too many people did not appreciate and Razi Cylon was ready. She was ready to teach them a lesson. If they wanted to take life for granted, she was ready to take that life from them.

  Something needed to change.

  Everything needed to change.

  SHE ESCAPED. SHE escaped. She escaped.

  I kept repeating the words in my head. It gave me a dash of hope as the nameless doctor stuck a needle into my vein, taking blood. I had no idea what they w
ere doing with all the blood they were extracting, but I had since gotten used to the slight poke in the skin and the way I always felt like sleeping after they were done. I had been trapped in Sekhmet for nearly four months and I was beginning to forget what the outside world looked like.

  But it was okay. It was going to be okay. Zoey escaped.

  The entire place was in an uproar. No one had ever left Sekhmet, not without permission, and not only had Zoey managed to escape, but she’d freed her boyfriend Ash as well. Security had been increased and I was kept in my room more often than I ever had been before.

  I was going insane. There were only so many hours a guy could stare at the wall.

  But Zoey had escaped and she’d done it with the one person I trusted more than even myself to keep her safe. She was going to be okay. She just needed to run, and never stop running. I knew she would. She was a survivor. She was feisty and stubborn and had the worst temper of anyone I had ever met, but she was the only friend I had left. She was keeping me alive, though she didn’t know it.

  I missed her so much. I hoped to god that she was safe.

  Razi Cylon walked into the room, interrupting my thoughts. This was the first time I’d seen her since Zoey escaped and I immediately noticed the difference in her demeanor. I had heard whispers that she had been shot, had hoped and prayed that she wouldn’t make it. Against all odds, she had survived.

  She had changed though, in the few short days since Zoey had escaped. It was obvious, and I didn’t only mean the white bandage that was wrapped tightly around her neck. Her calm and confident façade had slipped. Her skin had paled and her hands shook as she reached for me.

  I flinched away from her. Her fingers clutching the stethoscope as she leaned forward to listen to my heart were cold against my bare skin. Sometimes I wondered what she heard when she did that. Surely she could hear the way my heart sped up every time she came near me. I was man enough to admit that the woman terrified me. I wasn’t fond of admitting it, but it was true. Everything that happened was because of her. Everything was her fault.

  And there was nothing I could do about it.

  Dr. Cylon concluded her examination and spent a few minutes looking over the chart that the previous doctor had handed her. She made a few noises, eyes roving over the page like this was any other day in Sekhmet, but I was not stupid. I could see it in her eyes. Panic.

  Hope filled me again.

  “Did you know about Miss Valentine’s plan to escape?” She finally spoke. Her voice was low, so low I could barely hear her. The doctor at her side flapped his hands, worriedly, reminding her that she shouldn’t talk, but she waved him aside. She leaned forward so that our faces were mere inches apart. “Answer me, Mr. Garrity.”

  I cleared my throat, urging my voice to be steady as I spoke. “You must be referring to my father.”

  Her hand came out so fast that I barely had time to register the slap until it was over. My face stung but it felt gratifying. She was losing her cool. She was losing her confidence. This wasn’t as good as her lying dead on the side of the road like Zoey had probably intended, but I would take it.

  “Don’t test me, Liam.” The words dripped off her tongue like venom and I swallowed hard, my hands gripping the armrests of my chair tightly. I leaned backwards, away from her, but there was nowhere to go. “Did you know?”

  I shook my head. “No. I didn’t know,” I lied. Zoey’s tear stained face from the night we almost had sex flashed through my head and I closed my eyes tightly. “She never trusted me enough.”

  There was a long silence before she finally spoke again. “Lies,” she hissed. She backed away from me and I was surprised to see a smile stretch across her face. Her voice remained low, barely above a whisper, but every word spoken with directness. Confidence. “Losing Miss Valentine is not what I wanted. I will get her back. Keep that in mind, Mr. Garrity.”

  A wave of panic swept through my body but I schooled my features to show nothing. I would never show anything to this woman other than complete indifference. I refused to let her know that she had such an effect on me. That she scared me “I’ll do that,” I replied.

  Another smile stretched across her face. “Good. I have a surprise for you today, Liam.”

  “I’m not really interested,” I managed to say. Whatever she had for me…well, it couldn’t be good. And the abrupt change in subject threw me off. I hadn’t seen her in days and yet she still had me on my toes. It was hard to feel in control when it was so hard to keep up with her.

  “Put your shirt back on,” was her only response.

  I yanked the stiff brown scrub shirt over my head and ran a hand through my damp hair. It had grown so long since I had been there. It was the only indication that time had passed at all. My fingers clenched for a moment in the long strands. Razi was speaking to someone on the other side of the door. Her voice remained low so I couldn’t hear anything.

  She finally opened the door wider and stepped aside. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at right away.

  The girl was younger than Zoey, but not by much. Zoey had passed her nineteenth birthday while in Razi’s clutches and this girl looked to be about sixteen, maybe seventeen. She was tiny, with deep, dark black hair, falling in a messy, wavy curtain down her back. Her skin was a creamy brown, and her wide brown eyes were darting around in shock. They fell on me. She immediately skittered back, looking alarmed.

  I didn’t want to know what caused her to have such a fear of strange men.

  Razi, on the other hand, looked like Christmas had come early.

  “Liam, meet Astrid,” she said, sounding happy for the first time today.

  Astrid’s eyes met mine again and I knew she had no idea where she was or why she was here. She was completely terrified.

  I knew why she was here. I knew exactly why. Razi Cylon hadn’t wasted any time at all.

  And I knew we, Astrid and I, were royally screwed.

  “WELCOME TO SANCTUARY.”

  The first words that went through my head were we made it. Ash’s hand slipped against mine. I wasn’t entirely sure which of our hands were so sweaty but it didn’t matter. We were both excited. Nervous. Scared, though neither of us would actually have admitted that. We were finally here. This was real.

  And we had finally made it.

  The lady stared at us for a moment. I couldn’t quite figure out if she wanted us to say something else but before I could speak, she stepped forward, gesturing toward herself. “Follow me.”

  She turned around and started walking away, not pausing for a moment to see if we were following her. Ash’s hand squeezed mine and it sent a shock of confidence and certainty through me. If Ash was with me, I knew that everything would be okay.

  It had to be okay.

  The two of us followed the woman as she headed down the hallway. It reminded me of Sekhmet, the top-secret medical facility I had just escaped from days before, but I tried hard not to think of that. Thoughts like that were not going to keep me sane in this unfamiliar place.

  She led us through a few doors, but all it took was a few twists and turns for me to completely lose my sense of direction. There were so many doors and the hallways seemed endless. It made me nervous. Ever since the Awakened had hit, I always looked for the way out. You never knew when you needed to escape. I had lost track of our route almost the moment we had started following her. I didn’t like the feeling.

  I could tell Ash felt the same way. His eyes darted around, noting every detail as we took a sharp left and came face to face with a large concrete door. It was enormous and overwhelming, taking up the entire wall. The woman slid a card through a nearly invisible slot and it glided open soundlessly. Ash tugged me closer and together; we stepped through.

  It crossed my mind that I should stop, ask this lady who she was. This place was unfamiliar and despite what I’ve heard about it from both Liam and Bert, it was still unknown. It was still scary. I opened my mouth to say something but the
woman continued on and the two of us scurried to keep up with her. I exchanged looks with Ash, hoping that we weren’t being led into a trap.

  I gasped, when we left the short hallway leading away from the large door and entered an open corridor. It was raised high above a huge chasm. There were people everywhere, walking on different levels, moving quickly. We were in a cone, everything turning in a circle, everything made with thick, sturdy concrete. There were several levels below us stretching further and further down into darkness, and my head spun at the frightening drop. I never thought I’d had a fear of heights before this. I had grown up in the city of skyscrapers, but this was something else. There were small walls along the walkways to prevent anyone from falling over, but they were small, waist height. Not reassuring in the slightest.

  There was no time to dwell on this, however. The woman moved immediately to the right and we hurried to keep up with her. Several people stared curiously as we passed by, all of them in the same black uniforms. We stood out in our neutral blues and whites. However, no one said anything. They just nodded at the woman and repeatedly said “Director” in hushed voices as they did so. This woman was obviously someone to be respected.

  It was incredibly bright in the center of Sanctuary and it was a natural light too. I glanced up and saw that there was a large dome at the top, the only reminder that an outside world still existed. I knew we were underground but it felt good to see that the sun had not disappeared, not here.

  It felt like ages, walking in circles, down the corridors before she finally led us into an extremely large room.

  The lights in here were even brighter, so much that they were nearly painful, and came as a total shock. My hand rose to cover my eyes. When they had finally adjusted, I looked around and realized she had brought us to what looked like a hospital emergency room, an infirmary of sorts.

  She led us through the main room and opened the door to a much smaller room, gesturing for us to enter. She shut the door behind her and smiled thinly, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. “Thank you for your patience. Not many get to this point without a fight.”