Night Whispers: ShadowLands, Book 1

by Alisha Rai

  Don’t bind my hands. Don’t bind my hands.

  She had a second of panic that her plan to appear helpless and sick hadn’t worked when the guy carrying her slowed. She peeked under her eyelashes. The other man’s light flashed over the cage to her left. She caught a glimpse of brown skin before the bulk skittered back in a move belying its size. Erik. A low growl came from him, and the man with the flashlight banged on the bars as they passed by. “Quiet down, freak.”

  “They ought to have let us beat the fucker more.”

  “You won’t hear a complaint from me. Poor Tucker and Schmidt. The bastards didn’t have a chance.”

  “Animals need a firm hand. They thought the collar and the little they feed him would be enough to keep him under control. Guess they were wrong.”

  A flash of rage ran through her. No human deserved to be put in a cage, starved and humiliated. How could she be surprised that Erik was a changed man, listening to what he’d had to deal with?

  Focus, Jules. She lay limp, calming her heart and breathing down further as the guards left the room, shutting the door firmly behind them. The one who wasn’t holding her stayed to lock the door. “Come get me after you dump her with the docs. I’ll be in the lounge.”

  “You wanna be humiliated at poker again?”

  “You’re the one who’s gonna be humiliated.”

  The chest of the man holding her rumbled. “Dream on.”

  She made a slight choking noise and started her faux seizures up again in the hopes that these yahoos would continue on getting her where she needed to go. Sure enough, the man started walking away from his buddy. He shifted her weight in his arms and held her tighter. She counted his steps as he walked down the hallway, the better to find her way back. Right, left, right. She quieted her act down, but not enough that the man would be lulled out of his false sense of security.

  There was a cool rush of air over her skin as another set of doors banged open. She was taken through them and unceremoniously dumped on a cold metal table.

  “I told you to bring the girl, Fletcher,” came a woman’s cold voice. Bug eyes, Jules thought with a flash of distaste. “We need to terminate her. She’s riling up the male.”

  “This one was seizing. You said to bring her to you if we noticed anything weird,” Fletcher said. “I can go get the girl too, if you want.”

  “Only one out of a cage at a time. These creatures are unpredictable.”

  These creatures can hear, jackass. But she supposed no one cared about that.

  “Leave her,” the woman spoke. “And get Robbins in here.” The sound of retreating footsteps came to Jules as the man left the room. She slit her eyes open a bit to find the woman washing her hands in the industrial-sized sink. No one else was in the room. Perfect.

  She shut her eyes at the same moment the woman twisted the water off. Waited, laying deathly still as the shuffle of her footsteps came closer.

  With each step, her heartbeat pounded. This was it. Could she do it?

  She’d talked a good game to Erik, but the truth of the matter was she’d never in her life killed another human. Her gang had been more about drugs and thefts, not homicides. She knew some of her girls had killed in the process, and she was still haunted by her indirect participation in those deaths.

  The Shadows were different. She slaughtered them when and where it was necessary, because otherwise they would eat her. Eat or be eaten.

  But there was no way out of this, especially when she had to take advantage of this opportunity. This is self-defense too, she thought. Eat or be eaten.

  You’re not just killing another woman. You’re killing a woman who’s purposefully hurting, turning and killing other people. Who cut you off from James. Who put you in a cage. Who put your mentor in a cage. Who put a kid in a cage.

  When she could feel the puff of air against her cheek, she knew the woman had leaned down to examine her. Estimating from that single puff where her head, and therefore her neck, must be, Jules breathed in deep.

  Inhale. Self.

  Exhale. Defense.

  Her hands were moving before her eyes even opened, rushing up with her blade. The metal extended to a deadly point as it arched through the air. As she opened her eyes, she watched the thin metal pierce the female’s jugular.

  Stunned amazement lit up the woman’s pale gray eyes. They blinked at her, once, twice, and she collapsed to the ground in a heap.

  Jules sat up and swung her legs over the gurney, hopping off and steadying herself against its side. She knelt next to the woman crumpled on the ground. The doctor was panting, her stare wide-eyed and fixed on Jules. Her chest was working as she attempted to gather the energy to scream, but her face was almost paralyzed in its stillness as her muscles reacted to the poison that covered the blade. Overkill, once again.

  “There is a deadly poison pouring into your system right now. I have the antidote,” she lied quietly. “But for me to give it to you, I want you to answer a question for me. I don’t know what you all are doing here, but I want to know if you have done anything to me.”

  It took some effort, but the woman mouthed a no.

  “Did you do any testing or anything on me when you had me strapped to the table earlier?”

  Her no was more frantic this time, and she shook her head as well, adamant.

  Jules didn’t know if she could believe her, but she had already threatened her with death. If that didn’t get a person to tell the truth, she didn’t know what did. “Is there anyone else here other than the four of you?”

  Another negative.

  She got to her feet and strode to the gleaming stainless-steel counter. No wonder the group had taken over this building in the university. She was no expert, but it looked to her like the science department had gotten a big chunk of the budget of the school, with row after row of shiny equipment. The lights were brilliant, which meant they’d either jury-rigged the electricity in this building alone, or it was on expensive solar-powered energy.

  The fluorescent light gleamed on her poor broken collar laying on a metal tray. She touched it fleetingly, unwilling to mourn. Her clear plastic earpiece had been discarded next to it. Shrugging, she picked it up and put it on. As long as the battery lasted, if James spoke to her, she would be able to hear him.

  Weapons, she needed weapons. She had her blade, but suddenly that no longer seemed like enough. She’d arm herself with an arsenal if she could.

  Surveying the room, she came up at a loss. Syringes were the obvious choice, but she had no idea what the vials upon vials in the cupboards were filled with. The cable tie restraints she was more familiar with—those went into her pockets.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the doctor go into a convulsion before laying still. Bad guy. No different from a Shadow.

  Swallowing her distaste for the task, she bent and patted down the deceased scientist, almost crowing with relief when she found a gun tucked into a holster beneath the woman’s coat. The thing was loaded too. Switching the safety off, she made her wobbly way to the door and listened. Her breath caught.

  The woman had told the guard to grab Robbins. So it made sense that someone would be…

  Ah-ha. There. The footsteps were approaching briskly. Holding her gun at the ready, she moved behind the thick door and waited. The knob twisted and it swung inward, concealing her. A man’s irritated voice called out, “Gayle?”

  A tall, thin, balding man came into view, wearing the same white lab coat as the female. She couldn’t see his face, but she knew instinctively this was the same guy who had stripped her collar away.

  He walked in so he stood in front of the open door. From this position, he wouldn’t see his colleague on the floor. When he took a few steps forward and no guard followed him in, Jules eased the door shut, praising God that the hinges were well-oiled. Silent as a cat, she crept up behind him as he rounded the table.

  “Gayle? Fletcher said you—”

  His voice cut off, an
d she knew he had seen the body on the ground. She moved quickly, pressing the barrel of the gun against the back of his neck. “Keep quiet and put your hands in the air. You give me any trouble, and I will put you down as quickly as I did your friend.”

  He wasted no time raising his hands. “What did you do to her?”

  “Don’t you worry about that.”

  “I hope she’s not dead. Have you any idea of what kind of brain that woman had? Why, we could have used her for a while longer.”

  Robbins sounded about as put out as if Jules had taken his favorite toy at the playground and hammered it against the concrete. She refused to feel sympathy for the dead woman, but holy crap, good taste demanded a little pasted-on sorrow for the death of a coworker. “Get up against the wall.”

  Once again, he didn’t try to resist her. The sense of self-preservation was strong in this one. “I saved you when they brought you in. Gayle would have terminated you,” he said grimly.

  She shoved his coat aside. “You should have listened to her, then, huh?”

  “I saved you because I’m certain I could make something great out of you. The guards told me about your fighting ability. Join us, and I can turn you into a god.”

  She found a gun in a holster identical to the downed scientist and a high quality switchblade strapped to his ankle. She happily appropriated them both, though it would have been nicer to have her own weapons back. “What are you, some kind of comic book villain? I kinda like being a human, pendejo. Looks like you treat your gods rough.”

  “Who, the male? He is merely temperamental. He cannot grasp our vision, our plan.”

  Jules slipped the cable ties from her pocket. “Why don’t you tell me what your plan is.”

  He let out a huffy breath. “Why bother. You won’t appreciate it either.”

  “You’re probably right. I find it hard to understand psychos.” Swiftly, so he wouldn’t get it in his head to overpower her, Jules pulled his hands back and tied them.

  “Is this really necessary?”

  She tightened the cable. “Sure is.”

  The doctor sighed. “Okay, fine. You know what, I’ll let you leave.”

  The nerve of this guy. Did he not get that she’d tied him up, taken his weapons, killed his partner and had a gun trained on him? “Big of you.”

  “I can give the guards the go-ahead to let you go free. You can be gone in a few minutes.”

  She turned him around to face her. “What’s the catch?”

  “You leave the male here.”

  No mention of the girl, which wasn’t surprising, since the doctors seemed to consider her expendable. “You’re more than ready to give me the red carpet out of here, why not him?”

  “Because we’ve only had you for a day. The others are test subjects, and we’ve invested far too much time and resources into them.”

  “They’re fellow humans, jackass. Not test subjects.”

  “You and I are human. Not them. Now, I won’t let you—”

  “You have no choice.” She pressed the gun to his chin and hoped he wouldn’t call her bluff. Her stomach was still churning from slicing into the woman. She didn’t know if she was up to racking up two kills today.

  The threat didn’t seem to faze the good doctor. “The clock is ticking on my offer. We’ll have reinforcements here soon, and then you won’t have this chance.”

  She eyed him. “Reinforcements, huh?”

  “Yes. A veritable army of soldiers.”

  “I think you’re bluffing.”

  A thin eyebrow arched. “And how, pray tell, do you know that?”

  “Because you’ve had a day to get reinforcements here. And Cheyenne Mountain isn’t so far that it would take long for them to arrive. I don’t think you’ve sent for any reinforcements.”

  “The male has been talking, I see.” The doctor shrugged awkwardly. “No matter. If you are taking him for intelligence, you will be disappointed. He came into contact with no one at the Mountain but us doctors.”

  She leaned in close. “Tell me, were you one of the ones who went underground, vowing to emerge when it was safe and lead our demolished country? Or did they recruit you later?” She cocked her head. “Or are you a part of some other group, completely unrelated? Did you stage a coup at the Mountain, Doctor?”

  The owlish eyes shuttered. “Kill me or leave,” he said. “I have nothing more to say.”

  Which meant there was plenty he could say but didn’t want to. And sadly, she didn’t have time to probe. Common sense told her if reinforcements were really coming, they would already be here, but she wasn’t about to bank on that. “Fine, then. Let’s get going, hmm?”

  “I won’t go anywhere until I have your word you won’t take the male with you.”

  Huh. Erik was really precious, if the doc was willing to sacrifice everyone else just to negotiate his stay. “Sure, I’ll give you my word,” she lied. “Come on now, Doctor. You make one cry for help and I pull the trigger, got it? Don’t test me. I have enough bullets for everyone.” She waited for his grudging nod. “Now, let’s go find those guards.”

  They walked through the hallway, the dim emergency lights a strain after the bright fluorescents of the lab. They paused in front of the room in which the first guard had slipped into earlier. Behind the doors, she heard the sound of a pair of men laughing and joking. Excellent.

  “Shouldn’t one of them be guarding the prisoners?” she whispered. “So hard to get good help today.”

  The doctor growled.

  “Hush, now.” She made sure he was adequately covering her smaller body and shoved the door open in a rush.

  The guards were meatheads, but they were also slow and untrained. The younger one glanced up from the cards in his hands, his eyes widening. That tipped off the larger man, Fletcher, the one who’d carried her. He was faster at reaching for the gun in his holster, but she made sure her gun was visible and nicely pointed at the head of the doctor.

  “Uh-uh. Hands where I can see them,” she said quietly but firmly. “You fuck with me, I kill the good doctor.”

  “I told you, we’ll let you walk out, didn’t I? Leave now, and no one will give you any trouble. Boys, we’re letting her go,” the doctor blustered.

  Both of the goons nodded, though the larger one looked like he wanted to protest.

  “Both of you, toss your guns over here.” Jules motioned with her head. The younger guy complied immediately, but she could see the larger one was wavering. She jammed the gun tighter against the doctor’s neck. “I don’t think this guy’s your boss. I think you have a head honcho higher up than him who would love to ream you guys out for letting some prisoner kill not one, but both of your doctors here.”

  Ah, the right thing to say, apparently. Fear flickered in his eyes, and he pulled his weapon out. He dropped it on the ground and shoved it over.

  “You.” She motioned to the little one. “Those handcuffs over there. Snap them on your buddy.”

  Fletcher swore under his breath, but he allowed the little one to pull his hands behind his back and snap his hands together. The smaller guy then stood with his hands against the wall, in classic frisking position, as she indicated.

  She had the doctor sit in the chair where she could see him while she frisked both of the guards and then restrained the little one’s hands too.

  More weapons were added to her arsenal, as well as a flashlight, but she found what she was really looking for in the back pocket of the little guard’s trousers—a large keychain.

  The B.O. coming off the guards was ramping up her nausea. A particularly malodorous whiff came off them as she herded them into the small bathroom and tied them to the fixtures there. She nearly gagged into their faces even as she wrapped towels around their mouths to muffle their shouts.

  Jules held back the vomit, all the while eyeing the sink in the corner. Sweat had broken out on her upper lip. Man, what she wouldn’t give to splash some cold water on her face.

&n
bsp; Instead, she returned to where the doctor was frantically jerking on his wrists to free himself. She tsked as she hoisted him back to his feet. “Come on, Doctor.”

  “Wait, why do you need me now? You have the keys. Leave.”

  She grabbed a dirty handkerchief from the table and used it to gag the doctor. “I’m going to need an insurance policy.” In case, say, he was telling the truth about those reinforcements.

  His eyes widened above the gag, and muffled protests left his lips. Getting him moving was a challenge. Finally, impatient, she pressed her gun into his neck in an effort to hurry him along. He came, but with a whole lot of dragging of his feet.

  Ignoring him, Jules kept her eyes peeled for any more muscle, but they encountered no one.

  She switched on the small flashlight she’d liberated from the guards as she shoved the doctor in, the circle of light it emitted feeble but welcome. The room she’d been housed in not long ago was little more than a glorified closet, with three cramped cages arranged side by side. She didn’t let the light linger too much on the center cage. No need to see how filthy of a floor she’d been laying on.

  “Jules?”

  The high voice broke her heart, more so when she turned the light on the cage on the right. It bounced off the girl sitting there, the bars propping her back up. Carrie winced away from the light, and Jules dropped it away from her face.

  “It’s me. We’re almost out of here.”

  “Thank God.”

  Carrie’s top hadn’t been replaced. A white bandage spotted with blood was visible under where she had ripped the fabric. Jules itched to take a closer look at the wound.

  The doctor chose that moment to collapse to the floor. Jules looked down at him and arched a brow. In the glow of the light, she caught something wild and fearful in his eyes. Sighing over the delay, she leaned over and stripped the gag off his mouth.

  “I’m begging you,” said the doctor, and for the first time, he sounded seriously worried, if not afraid. “Go. Take the girl and go. We won’t come after you.”