Mr. Mason whispered, “God, it’s time.”
Why he whispered, I didn’t know.
I gently extracted myself from Finn’s arms and carefully moved to peer down through the sunroof. My mouth snapped shut in confusion, not expecting what I saw. I waved my hand at Finn, beckoning him over in a rush. No one had been looking down into the building, all too worried about the threat outside.
Finn stepped next to me, and I pointed.
Golems were inside too.
But Godric and the fake Mr. Valentine were not.
They were gone.
“Shit,” Finn shouted. “We have a problem.”
The other four shifters ran to look down into the window. Their expressions varied, but confusion won in the end.
“What the fuck? I can still hear him talking,” Mr. Mason growled. “Is that…”
Mr. Cooper tilted his head, his brows furrowing. “I wondered why God was deviating from the questions we wanted answers for. I think that’s a pre-recorded device, patching things together that’ve been said before in broadcasts.”
“So where the hell are they now?” Finn asked.
“Were there any other exits other than what was on the blueprint?”
Mr. Mason bellowed, “Goddammit! It has a basement. Some owners add emergency exits after the construction is finished. They use private contractors, so it wouldn’t be on the original blueprint.”
Mr. Cooper lifted his right booted foot and kicked downward, the glass spraying down into the room—and on the frozen golems. “I’m going in. If there’s a way out of here, we need to know. Otherwise, we’re going to have to blow this place and ourselves up to live through this.”
I grabbed the white tiger’s hand, holding on tight, as we watched Mr. Cooper jump down into the room.
He landed with ease. Then he was climbing through the statue-still golems to the basement entrance. He shoved golems aside and tossed a few away when he found the door amongst the mess of evil creatures.
Mr. Cooper disappeared down the stairs.
I cleared my throat. “That was very brave.”
No one spoke, all eyes on that door. Waiting.
“Are we too far away for trains to pick us up?”
Finn muttered, “He cut the lines to our trains. And our bracelets.”
I blinked. “I thought you couldn’t hack them?”
“He figured out a way.”
“Fuck,” I muttered.
Now I knew why they were so intent on another exit strategy. It wasn’t ‘another’ one. It was the only one.
Mr. Cooper reappeared in the doorway. “Get down here now.”
Finn grabbed me in his arms and didn’t hesitate. He jumped through the window with me held protectively in his arms.
Then we hit the ground.
Crack.
“Shit!” I screamed, holding my left leg up. “It’s broken. It’s broken. It’s broken.”
“Give it a second.”
My eyes popped wide, and I squealed with my mouth shut. Bones were shifting back into place all on their own, knitting and forming where they had broken. I shook my head like a maniac to keep from fainting.
Then… the pain just ended.
I blinked.
“Good now?” Finn asked. “We need to move.”
“I’m good.” I wiped the sweat off my brow and started climbing on top of the golems plastered side-to-side and back-to-back with one another. “I need to learn how to land without breaking things. That was not a pleasant feeling I would like to reencounter.”
Finn grunted beside me, climbing along with me. “Shifters are made differently. Humans will break more easily.”
“That’s not very kind of the magic,” I mumbled. “Let’s have all of one sex have sweet cake and leave only the crumbs for the other sex.”
He choked on a laugh. “I never said it was fair. It’s just how it is.”
Another one of his friends jumped down when we had given them enough room to do so carefully. Climbing over golems wasn’t as easy as it looked from the roof.
But then, Mr. Mason passed me by.
“Oh…” I was just slow.
Finn was holding himself back to stay with me.
He snorted. “Do you want to climb on my back?”
“No,” I stated. “I’m perfectly fine, thank you.”
“Thought I would offer.”
Another one of his friends passed us.
I blinked. “Is this as humiliating for you as it is for me?”
“Hell no. I have my mate by my side.”
“Thought I would ask.”
Finn glanced in my direction. “That was well done.”
“If only I could climb as fast as I’m learning when you lie.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“Everyone accounted for?” Mr. Cooper asked. He was bent at the waist and standing sideways inside a small, dark tunnel. “Did Finn and his mate finally get here?”
I groaned. “We’re here. And my name is Mina Kramer. You can call me Mina, though.”
“I’m Wolfe. I prefer that over Mr. Cooper,” he stated, then turned to the tunnelway. “Everyone, follow me.”
Finn and I were last since I was the slowest out of everyone. At least, Finn brought up the rear. There would be no golems sneaking up on me.
I asked, “Anyone know why all the golems were duds?”
“If I had to guess,” Cassander hummed, “it was because something, or someone, didn’t trigger them.”
I swallowed on a dry throat. “All right.”
Poppy had been the activation key.
The group tumbled into silence.
But we eventually saw a light ahead.
“Hell, yeah,” I mumbled. “I wonder where it leads.”
“Nowhere good,” Finn responded.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because God never came back for us.”
“He may have come after we left. We weren’t on the roof that long. Heck, he may even still be traveling back to the side.”
Finn muttered, “I guess that’s a possibility.”
“It is a possibility.” I grinned back at him.
* * *
Raising a blonde brow at my white tiger, I said, “Anything you would care to say?”
“Hush,” he mumbled, sitting next to me on the train.
I turned my attention back to the window, to the train station we had landed in. The shop owner had been smart enough to have a great escape route if he had ever been charged in his building.
“We’re going back to the site, right?” I probed.
“Yes. We need to make sure that’s where God is and that he’s not in trouble somewhere.”
I nodded and closed my eyes. “I lost my mother’s hat somewhere out there.”
“I was wondering what you were doing. You seemed pretty aggravated as you pocketed all of the owner’s goods.”
“They were stolen from my mother. I was going to give them back to her.”
He rested the side of his head on top of mine. “Don’t fall asleep. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“And yet it took so long to get there.”
“Well, one was by foot, the other by train.”
“True.” I yawned. “It’s getting late. What time is it?”
Finn cleared his throat. “Just after midnight.”
I opened my eyes. “Uh oh.”
“I would agree.”
The train stopped, and we climbed down the stairs.
Godric was there. Standing by himself in the field with his hands in his pockets. He stared at the building far away, his back to us.
Cassander moved up next to him, the only one doing so. They both stood and looked at the building with the golems standing as sentinels. Cassander finally asked, “Why didn’t you yell for us when the golems showed up in there?”
“I thought you had your own to deal with. And I was trying to catch that motherfucker. But he was closer to th
e basement door than I was.”
Cassander nodded. “Let’s blow it up.”
“Love to.”
I cleared my throat.
Godric snorted, not even turning around. “Mina gets to press the button. Her mate already promised her.”
In silent demand, I lifted my hand, palm up, and wiggled my fingers.
Finn pulled the detonator out of one of his cargo pockets on his right leg. He placed it gently in my palm. My white tiger winked at me. “This may be your only time to do this, so make sure you memorize it. It will be spectacular.”
I nodded, but I didn’t think I would ever forget this night. With my eyes on the building, I lifted the detonator up with my thumb hovering over the push button. I murmured, “Here comes the boom-boom.”
Finn snickered.
However, he suddenly grabbed my wrist, stopping me from detonating. “Oh, shit.”
“They’re moving,” Wolfe hissed. “They’re all heading toward the building.”
Godric tensed and leaned forward, his voice filling with rage, “Is that Poppy?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
I stood perfectly still, my hand still up in the air with the detonator and Finn’s hand wrapped around my wrist. I whispered, “What do I do?”
Godric spun around and roared, “You don’t fucking touch that button.”
My lips thinned into a straight line. I nodded.
Finn carefully lowered my hand to my side and released me. “We need to get her out of there.”
Godric turned his head to his brother. “Will your magic work on so many—”
“No,” Cassander rumbled. He glared at the building. “And you can’t go in there.”
“Hell, yes, I can.”
“No, you can’t. I saw you die tonight if you do.”
Silence poured down over our group.
“I’ll go,” Cassander stated. “I’m the best chance she has of getting out of there. Even if you weren’t slated to die, God, I can hold them off better than all of you.”
Godric’s nostrils flared. “Then get in there.”
“Don’t come after us, God.”
“Just bring my mate back.”
“I will.”
Cassander sprinted across the field, then leapt through the air and landed amongst the golems. His form filled the night sky again as he jumped into the air, his swords gleaming in his hands from the moon above. We watched him do this until he disappeared down into the building from the roof.
My breaths puffed in shallow inhales, my hands shaking. He had to get the little princess. She wasn’t going to die like this. Her will and lust for life were too strong.
We waited.
We waited.
We waited.
Waited…
My finger hovered over the detonator button once more. If it meant saving them, I would go against God’s wishes. One painful death was not worth a final death.
Then he moved. Jumped…soared.
“No!” Finn shouted in anguish, his right arm extending as if to catch him and pull him back. “God, no!”
Mr. Mason was sprinting after him.
But Godric had already disappeared.
Wolfe was holding his head with both hands.
And Mr. Alaric Wood fell to his knees.
Tears welled in my eyes. I lifted the detonator.
The man with silver hair was in the night sky.
A woman was over his shoulder.
They landed in front of us as I pressed the button.
Crackle, crackle, crackle, BOOM.
Crackle, crackle, crackle, BOOM.
The sky lit up with a mesmerizing glow of orange, yellows, and reds. Black filtered in around it and throughout it, streaking with damaging beauty. And it all looked so much more deadly through the tears in my eyes.
Everyone stared at the morbid blaze.
Theron sprinted out of the night, stumbling a little, his eyes blurry and watering. His narrowed eyes trained on Cassander, but he didn’t speak yet. Instead, he peered at the blaze.
Cassander bent and helped Poppy slide off his shoulder to her feet. Then he turned to me, muttering, “I told you I could save her. Or were you that trigger happy?”
My chin trembled.
I was certain it was at that point he realized someone was missing.
He turned in a slow circle, his eyes searching and only finding friends with tormented expressions. And no God in sight. His brows snapped together in disbelief, and he started running far to the right, and then far to the left. Still searching, still hopeful.
Cassander bellowed, “God?”
He won’t answer you.
“God? This isn’t funny, man!”
No, it’s not.
His steel gray eyes narrowed in on me. He hissed, “Why did you push that button?”
I opened my mouth, but I only choked.
“Why, Mina?”
In a hoarse voice, Finn murmured, “God went in.”
Poppy’s head spun to us, her blinking confused…then not. Her eyes flashed with an eternal break—something truly breaking inside of her—then suddenly, it was all gone. Just gone. Nothing showed. As in—nothing.
All emotion drained from Cassander’s face—as if it were his life force, his shoulders drooping forward and his legs not strong enough to keep him from swaying unsteadily.
“Son, what’s going on?” Theron asked, shaking and rubbing his head. The drugs hadn’t worn off completely yet.
Cassander’s jaw fell open like he was gasping for air, and his chest hiccupped a bouncing pulse. His nostrils flared, and he tipped his head back as he battled for control. Then he turned toward Poppy.
Tears fell down his cheeks in a steady flow, but his eyes were livid and furious. He charged toward her, his finger raised in the air like a bullet pointed at her head. With his teeth bared, he bent and placed his face directly in front of hers, and shouted, “You fucking bitch!”
Spittle and tears flew over her frozen features from his face. She stood completely still, her hands in fists down by her sides. But she didn’t look away from his gaze, taking his words deep inside herself—wherever she had crawled to because she wasn’t present right now, not in her mind.
Cassander moved a step forward, their legs aligned now as he pressed his face even closer to hers. His forehead jammed against hers, the tip of his nose touching hers. He bellowed in utter devastation, “I told you what would happen. I begged, Poppy.”
Finn’s chest heaved, but he stepped forward and raised a hand. “Cass, you need to back up.”
His head did tilt up, and his eyes were white. I hadn’t been able to see at this angle. No one else had either with the way they stiffened. Those eyes didn’t leave her, and he hissed, “Do you know what I get to do, Poppy? I get to kill my own brother because you…couldn’t…fucking…listen.”
Cassander’s hands jerked, the smallest bit, his palms toward her.
Poppy’s body bowed in on itself as she suddenly flew backward, her arms and legs flying out. And she didn’t even try to fall right. She had taught me today about doing that.
The woman didn’t care.
Wolfe sprinted in front of us and caught her just before she landed. He laid her gently on the soft grass.
Cassander’s chest heaved, the tears still flowing down his cheeks. He jerked his gaze away from her and started walking away, shouting over his shoulder, “No one contacts me. I’ll contact you.”
Mr. Mason’s black hair was askew atop his head and shook it out of his eyes. “Is there a chance he’s fine?”
“There’s always a chance,” Wolfe claimed.
Theron walked toward the fire.
He stared.
Stared.
CHAPTER FORTY
We rested on the train until the sun rose. Though, resting may be too kind of a word. We sat, and we stared. Some closed their eyes. Many cried silent tears. But we waited for final judgment when we would find his body in the rubble…aler
t or a living corpse. The truth would be known soon.
I stepped out into the light that burned my eyes and made my way down the train stairs. I didn’t look in the direction of Theron and Poppy.
Both sat sidebyside on the grass near where the blast had died down. One side was green where they sat, on the other was black. Like if they passed over that line of healthy grass, they would become ash as the building now was.
The group moved forward together, our shoulders brushing one another’s. No one moved for more space or slowed their walk. We needed that touch to remember we were alive.
Theron and Poppy stood before we reached them, and they led our group onto the charred earth.
Here, we split apart in silent agreement.
We would cover more ground.
Theron cleared his throat, and called, “Godric! Can you hear me?”
My lips pinched, and I kept silent. I knelt and peeled back furniture from the ground and tossed it to a flat area. I repeated this process until I reached the black ground.
I swallowed down the sob and moved on.
I didn’t want to be the one to find him.
Another heart could handle it.
“Big man, I need you. Answer me!” Poppy shouted.
Finn called, “God!”
I shook my head and tuned them all out.
My focus was on moving charred boards and rocks to another location. Then I dug and shoved. My nails broke and regrew, dried blood painted the tips of my fingers. The muscles in my back burned, and my lack of sleep kept my vision blurred.
The shifters worked much faster, as is to be expected.
Dust shadowed Theron into a wild thing.
Poppy held a miniature lion stuffed animal that had somehow survived the fire.
Finn swayed back and forth on his legs and landed hard on his butt. He placed his head in his hands and sobbed. He stated loudly, “I found him.”
The mad dash began, everyone scrambling over rubble or tripping on broken goods.
I stopped behind my white tiger and placed my hands on his shoulders. I leaned into his back and peered down to see if Godric was grinning up at everyone or if his eyes were closed in permanent slumber.
Transcend (Origin Book 2) Page 15
