“Don’t move or I’ll kill her,” she said.
“Ria! Get out of here! Don’t worry about me! Just go.” I’d never seen my mom look so desperate. Her brown eyes were begging me to turn around and run.
“Let my mom go,” I said. “Just let her go and we’ll let you leave.” At this point, I wasn’t even sure whether I meant the last part or not.
“Open the safe for me, little girl,” Margaret said. “And maybe I’ll let you live.”
“I’ll open it, just don’t hurt my daughter.” Tears were streaming down my mom’s cheeks.
“Ah, now you’d open it?” Margaret chuckled. “Why? Are you afraid I’m going to shoot your precious little daughter?”
“Why are you doing this, Margaret?” I lowered my gun because I knew any movement could distract her.
“Why would I tell you anything?” she spat. The gun shook in her hand and in the blink of an eye, ice started to spread all over it. She dropped it to the ground, but my mom’s eyes widened.
“Wrong move, ice boy,” Margaret said. My mother wheezed and coughed, unable to take a breath.
“Stop! Please!” I stepped forward, my hands raised in the air. “If you kill her, there won’t be anyone who will be able to open the safe.”
Margaret frowned at me, some sort of a thin, airy bubble forming around her. Adrian’s ice bounced off of it. Shit. He could no longer use his element on her.
“Something tells me that you need the money now,” I said. I didn’t know why I felt this way, but if Margaret was desperate enough to do all this and dishonor the terms of the deal her family had respected for years, then she had to have reasons for what she was doing. “The only person in this room who can open the safe is my mom.”
“And what about you, princess?” Margaret’s face twisted into a scowl. “You must have inherited your mom’s element.”
“Oh, I did, but I lost it. Don’t you find it weird that you can’t feel my element?” I forced myself to smile. “Have you seen me using fire against you?”
She swore. My mom gasped, her face pale. The protective bubble of air didn’t seem like it was going anywhere.
“That lying son a bitch,” Margaret muttered, and I had no idea what she meant. Her dark eyes, clouded with anger, turned to me. “That means you’re disposable. Both of you.” She nodded at Adrian, who created a thin icy barrier between us and her. The ice started to crack as Margaret sent a gust of air against it.
I looked up at Adrian, hoping he had a good plan because we were getting nowhere. “What do we do? If my mom opens the safe...” Margaret would definitely kill her. Hell, all she had to do was force my mother to use her element. I didn’t know how close the right safe was, but I bet it would open if my mother tried to put Margaret on fire. Of course, Margaret was standing too close for my mother to do anything without hurting herself.
An explosion rocked the room, sending me flying. My head hit something solid and pain spread through my skull. Smoke rose around me as the alarms shrieked, piercing my ears. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn’t hold me. A shadow danced in my vision until it became clearer.
“You lied to me! You said...” Margaret was yelling at someone. Dark hair, blue eyes. Sebastian stood in the middle of the room.
“Shut up. I didn’t tell you the truth because you’d kill her and I don’t want her dead.” His blue eyes scorched me with their intensity. “I want her to pay for what she did to my cousin. I want her to suffer. Not to die a nice quick death.” How did Sebastian know I had the disease and wasn’t wearing an element-blocking bracelet? Oh, right, he thought I’d killed his cousin. They must have checked Ethan’s body with special liquids and realized his element had been taken by force.
My gun was nowhere to be seen, but I still tried to push myself up. My knees buckled and I fell back to the ground. A small syringe protruded from my leg and I wrapped my fingers around it, yanking it out. What the fuck was that?
My vision blurred, my body getting heavy. Before my eyes closed, I saw Adrian lying under a pile of debris. He didn’t even twitch.
Chapter 15
I cracked my eyes open and immediately had to close them because the light was too bright. My head pounded and buzzed as if I’d been banging it against the wall for hours. Pain shot up through my whole body. Even my throat was so dry that it hurt to swallow.
Turning my head, I tried opening my eyes again. The light was bearable this time, but all I could see were white walls. Where the hell was I? As I tried to move my hand, I realized there were padded cuffs around my wrists. My attempt to move my legs was unsuccessful, which meant my ankles were bound too.
No matter where I looked, all I could see were white walls and white tiles. What was this place? How did I get here? The last thing I remembered was Sebastian’s face. He must have drugged me, but I had no idea where he could have taken me or what he intended to do with me. Fighting against my restraints didn’t help at all. I was tied to some kind of a metal table and my restraints were a part of it, so I couldn’t simply roll off and get to the floor.
The wall to my left parted and I realized someone had opened a hidden door. A woman in white slacks came through it, her dark brown hair tied into a ponytail. She held some sort of a small device in her hand.
“Who are you?” I rasped. “What do you want from me?”
The woman placed her cool hand on my face and looked into my eyes. She tipped the device in my direction until it touched my head. I tried to get away from it, but I couldn’t.
“What are you doing?” I said. “Hey!”
The woman completely ignored me, her dark eyes devoid of all emotion, which made me think she’d done this before, probably multiple times. Her device beeped and her lips spread into a satisfied smile. As she started for the door, I tugged at my restraints.
“Hey! Don’t go! Please!” But no matter how much I yelled or cried, she didn’t look back. The door slid into place and I wanted to scream from frustration. The only thing worse than being restrained to a table in an unknown place was that I didn’t know whether my mother and Adrian were fine. If Sebastian was the one who had me brought here, then he had no interest in taking my mother or Adrian with me. At least I hoped it was so.
I didn’t dare to imagine that Adrian was here somewhere, in a room like this one. He had enough nightmares about creepy white labs and didn’t need more bad memories. My mom would never survive in a place like this, so I hoped she was somewhere safe. The only problem was that Margaret and Sebastian knew each other and I didn’t think he’d killed her or brought her here with me, which meant she could still be a threat to my mom. I had to get out of here, but I knew that wouldn’t be easy.
I was dozing off when the door opened again. Black boots and dark jeans came into view and I didn’t even have to look up to know that Sebastian had decided to visit me. His blue eyes were cold and unforgiving, the smile on his lips chilling me to the bone.
“What do you want?” I bit out. He simply stood above me, annoying me with his smugness.
“Many things,” he said, tracing his finger across my cheek. I cringed, turning my head away from him.
“Where’s my mother?” I asked, not daring to mention Adrian. I hoped Sebastian had left him for dead in the bank.
“Dead.” Sebastian didn’t even blink. My throat constricted and I tried to breathe past the tears. No, he was lying to me. He had to be.
“I don’t believe you.”
He shrugged. “Then why are you asking?”
“What do you want from me? Where am I?” If he wasn’t willing to talk about my mother, then he might have enough decency in him to tell me where he held me.
“Ria, Ria, Ria,” he said, pacing back and forth. “What could I possibly want? I mean, you only killed my cousin in cold blood. What else is there?”
“Your cousin was a monster.”
Sebastian’s hands curled into fists. “Funny you say that. You barely even knew him.”
Oh, I knew Ethan. He’d only tortured and raped Paula, and tried to kill hundreds of carriers, their supporters and me. Sebastian was the one who didn’t know his cousin if he thought Ethan was anything other than a monster. But how do you reason with a madman? Sebastian obviously wasn’t right in the head. “I knew him well enough.”
Sebastian snorted. “You might be brave now, Ria Milanez, but you won’t be in a couple of hours or days.”
“Killing me won’t bring your cousin back.” I met Sebastian’s blue eyes.
“I’m perfectly aware of that.” His smile turned into a sneer. “You see, my uncle wants you dead. He’d love to put a bullet in your head so he can sleep better at night.”
Wow, Ethan’s whole family consisted of a bunch of psychopaths. How cute.
“That’s why I couldn’t let him kill you. I wanted to take care of you myself. The result will be more or less the same, but the process will be much more fun.”
“Then why did you send an assassin after me? She could have killed me.” If Sebastian had come a couple of minutes later, he might not have found any of us in the bank. He clearly planned to torture me and then kill me. If I was never going to leave this place, I at least wanted to know what Sebastian’s deal with Margaret was about.
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do that. My uncle did. As I said, he only wants you dead. He did a little bit of digging on your family and found out some pretty interesting things. It turned out Margaret needed money, a lot of money.” He grinned. “She pissed off some really dangerous people.”
I tried to blow a stray strand of my hair out of my face because it was tickling me, but all I achieved was making my whole face itchy.
“So my uncle contacted her and offered her some extra money along with your element and all the money from the safes. After Margaret explained to him there was someone monitoring the deal, he took care of her little problem.”
“Sounds complicated,” I said. Why would Ethan’s uncle go through all the trouble to contact Margaret and get rid of the people who were overseeing the deal when he could simply pay someone to kill me? It didn’t make sense.
“It is. But it was the only way to make sure no one would ever connect your death to my family. If the investigation ever went that far, the deal your great-grandpa made would be a perfect explanation for everything. No one would assume my uncle was involved. Not when the assassin already left you a note with a symbol.” He scratched the back of his head. “Leaving you the symbol was a pretty dumb move on Margaret’s part, but she insisted. Apparently, your family has a tendency not to go to the police when they see the symbol because they’re afraid the terrible secret would come out that Jonathan made a deal with an assassin who was also his lover. Not to mention any other secret he might have been hiding even from them. Your reputation would be ruined forever.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him. “As if you uncle couldn’t bribe the police.”
“You know nothing about my family, Ria, and what we can and can’t do.”
True enough. Maybe Ethan’s father feared there would be a decent person involved in the case or maybe someone would out him as a carrier. All secrets usually came out sooner or later. “My friends will find me. And then everyone will know you kidnapped me.”
He laughed. “They won’t find you. No one will. Not here.”
I had no idea how much Sebastian knew about me, but Lily and Paula would be looking for me with all the resources they had, especially since they hadn’t heard from me. Adrian would search for me too, provided that he wasn’t trapped in here with me. “Don’t be so sure.”
“The world thinks you’re dead, Ria.” Sebastian reached for a strand of my hair. “You died in the explosion in the bank. Your friends found your remains. I’m so sorry. It looks like an assassin killed you and your boyfriend to honor some crazy deal your ancestor made. Oops.”
Dread spread through me. I knew I shouldn’t trust anything that came out of Sebastian’s mouth, but my stomach twisted in fear. If everyone thought I was dead, they wouldn’t be looking for me, but Lily and Paula wouldn’t fall for fake remains.
“I can see the wheels in your pretty little head turning. That’s right, Ria.” A satisfied, lazy smile crossed his lips. “People who work here know a lot about faking someone’s death. I assure you no one will find anything suspicious. You’re dead to the world, just like any other person who ends up here.”
“What is this place?” I thrashed against the restraints. “Where am I?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He grinned, going for the door. “The place of your nightmares. The kind that leaves you screaming and tears you apart. Piece by piece.”
Chapter 16
I woke up in a room I’d never seen before. Granted, all the rooms they’d taken me to in the last couple of days were nearly identical, but this one lacked any furniture. Even the table was nowhere to be seen.
As I pushed myself off the cold, tiled floor, pain shot up my arm. Both of my wrists were shackled to the ground. I sat up, leaning my back on the wall, and inspected the shackles. Nope, no way to get free.
The heavy door opened, and a bald man walked in, followed by two bulky men in black shirts. Judging by the bald man’s white coat, he was a scientist, a doctor or whatever. The people in white usually checked up on me and refused to speak to me, while the men in black took me to bathroom breaks. This time it seemed like they had something else in mind.
The doctor crouched not far away from me, but still out of the reach. “I hope you are feeling well, carrier. We’re going to have some fun.”
I didn’t move and didn’t say anything. They could do whatever the hell they wanted. I still believed someone was coming to rescue me. Adrian would find me. I knew it. I’d blocked every bad thought out of my mind because I couldn’t let Sebastian have what he wanted. If something had happened to Adrian, Sebastian would have used that against me days ago.
“Not feeling chatty, eh?” The doctor smiled and got up, nodding at the two men, who stepped forward. A boot connected with my ribs, making me cry out. Another kick followed, and I doubled over. One of the men grabbed me by the hair, forcing my head up. His fist collided with my jaw and my head hit the wall. I focused on my breathing, trying to block out the vicious pain.
“Enough,” the doctor said, and the men stepped back. “Still no sign of an element.”
I gave him a bewildered look. “I don’t have any elements. Do you really think beating me up is going to change that?”
“Perhaps not.” He pulled out a small package out of his pocket.
My eyes widened as he unwrapped a syringe and a tiny bottle of purple liquid. “What is that? What are you going to do?”
“You’ll see.” He pierced the top of the bottle with the syringe. “Hold her down.”
“No!” I yelled as the men pinned me to the wall, making it impossible for me to move. “You can’t do this!”
The doctor crouched in front of me and took hold of my arm, tugging at the long white dress they’d given me to wear. Exposing my shoulder, he pierced my skin with the syringe. I cried out as I watched the unknown liquid drain into me.
A burning sensation spread through my veins and I screamed. My body thrashed in a futile attempt to get the liquid out. My stomach convulsed, my muscles protesting in pain as if someone was stretching them out. It was more than I could bear, and when the fire in my blood was exchanged by the sudden coldness, I shivered and let the darkness take me.
I found myself sitting in the middle of a frozen lake and nearly laughed out loud. My mind had a strange way of dealing with traumas. Only this time I couldn’t see Adrian anywhere. The snow crunched under my feet as I got up, glad that I couldn’t feel the cold or the pain. But when I looked down at my arms, I saw snowflakes all over them, paired with a bunch of nasty looking black veins. This better not be happening to me in the real life because that would seriously piss me off. Who’d ever find a dress that fits or covers that?
My brain kept telling me I should just relax and forget about everything. It wasn’t like I would survive whatever the scientists and Sebastian had planned for me. I eyed the glassy, frozen surface of the lake. If I jumped into the cold water, would I die or feel nothing?
“Who are you?” a tiny voice reached my ears, and I turned around, surprised to find a ghostly figure of a little girl in front of me.
“I could be asking you the same question.” The girl was blond, her long curly hair wet and plastered to her face. If I’d seen her before, I didn’t remember it.
“I’m Sara,” she said, shivering in her white dress.
“I’m Ria,” I said. “What are you doing here? I thought this was my dream.”
Sara gasped. “You’re real?”
I pressed my lips together and shrugged. “I don’t know anymore. The bad doctor gave me something and now I’m here.”
“Oh my God! I did it. I can’t believe it.” The girl’s face was flustered with excitement and panic. For a moment, she looked delighted, but then a shadow crossed her face and wiped away her smile.
“What did you do?” I asked cautiously. How smart was it to talk to the figments of my imagination?
“The doctor said I could reach out with my element and get into the consciousness of anyone whose mind was in a weak state. I didn’t believe him, but you’re here and you look real.”
“Wait, what?” I gaped at the girl. “What do you mean you got into my mind? How is that even possible?”
The girl looked down at her bare feet. “I don’t know.”
My mind was sluggish, so I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to concentrate. I was definitely in some kind of a lab or a research facility. Just because I hadn’t seen any other subjects or normal people didn’t mean that they weren’t somewhere in the building. Besides, the doctors usually kept me sedated while they transferred me from place to place. “Sara, what is your element?”
Indestructible Page 9
