Entangled (Beauty Never Dies Chronicles Book 2)

by J. L. Weil

  “I’ve tried, believe me. Nothing works.”

  “You’re wearing yourself thin. You need to release the shield, save your energy for what is to come.” He moved closer, his eyes dropping to my lips. “How about that kiss?”

  I leaned forward, framing his face with my hands. “Don’t leave me,” I whispered right before my lips touched his in a desperate kiss.

  “Never,” he vowed as we broke away and prepared to face the Institute.

  Uncertainty and a good dose of fear burned through me as I let the protective barrier disappear. I kept my eyes locked on Dash, for I knew they were a dead giveaway. They might be shining blue now, but once the power left, the rainbow would return.

  “Stay behind me,” Dash said.

  Things went from bad to crap-tastic the second I dropped the shield.

  “I don’t like this,” I grumbled.

  “Neither do I, but what choice do we have?”

  A guard barreled through the woods, moving so fast I couldn’t follow his movements. One second he stood at the edge of the trees and the next he was in Dash’s face… or I should say that an arrow was in the guard’s face.

  I don’t know how, but Dash had his bow drawn, ready to strike. “I would think twice about what you plan to do, or this arrow will be sticking out of the back of your head, friend.”

  Ember flicked out her wrists, letting flames encompass her hands. “You can’t be thinking of fighting us all.”

  “There is only one way to find out.” Electricity burst from me in tumultuous waves, striking two guards and tossing them into the air. I went the extra mile and unleashed my inner tigress. Arrows hissed past me on my right, a second before Dash grabbed my hand.

  “We need to move,” Dash said, scooting to the tree line and releasing arrows as we went.

  A guard jumped in front of Dash, blocking our path. Not a smart move. Dash raised his arm, smacking him in the face with his elbow. Blood gushed from the guard’s nose.

  Another line of defense bordered the forest, and once again, Dash and I found ourselves up shit creek.

  “I tried to warn you,” Ryker grumbled.

  “Right now, I don’t want to hear anything you have to say,” I shot back.

  “I’m going with Freckles here. Unless you’re going to help us, shut your piehole,” Dash roared.

  A movement stirred down the left side of the tree line, and my father strolled into the clearing, holding up one hand. “Stand down!” he ordered before the guards could tase us.

  Son of a …

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I shouldn’t have been surprised to see my father, and yet I was. Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I tried to collect myself and prevent my mouth from saying something I’d regret. I took a deep breath. “If you’re here to order me back to the Institute, it’s a waste of your resources. I’m not going back there.”

  “Charlotte,” he said.

  I actually recoiled at the sound of my name.

  Squinting, he began an apology I didn’t want to hear. “I’m sorry. I had to find you, but I don’t want you to get hurt. Please don’t make this difficult.”

  “Difficult?” I squeaked. “You’re the one who put a price on my head. You’re the one who has me surrounded. You’re the one who is making this difficult.”

  He kept his eyes on me. “I can’t lose you again. I’ve worked too long and too hard to protect you.”

  “You aren’t the only one capable of protecting me,” I retorted.

  My father’s bright green eyes slid toward Dash, and a vast amount of loathing and distrust centered on the guy beside me. It was so potent, I swore it slapped me in the face like a sheet of ice. “The Slayer may be capable of striking down any target he desires, but we’re family. And no matter what kind of feelings you have for him, he is dangerous. He might not mean to hurt you, but he could.”

  “You’ve hurt me. How is that any different?”

  Dash widened his stance, crossing his arms over his chest. “This feels like déjà vu. Haven’t we been here before?”

  “Dash Darhk.” My father tsked. “I knew that if I found you, I would find my daughter. Can’t say that I’m thrilled to see you together.”

  “Trust me, I’m equally thrilled to see you, Dr. Winston.” Dash’s fingers flexed. “You here to lock me up again?”

  “I’ve come to learn that no cell will hold you. Part of your gift, possibly?” My father raised a brow, pondering the thought.

  “Then why all the hoopla? You must know that I’m not going back to the Institute. I won’t be a part of your plan, and as you can see, neither will your daughter.”

  “You might change your mind after you hear what I have to say.”

  “No!” I stepped in. “There is nothing you can tell us that would justify what you’re doing to people. You’re murdering them, and for what? The sake of science? That’s crap.”

  My father’s brows knitted together. “You wouldn’t understand. I know you think that what we’re doing is heartless and cruel, but a few sacrifices to save the lives of thousands, isn’t that worth it?”

  I was going to be sick. What I had seen in the vision, what the mutated cells had done to Star, was something I could never erase from my memory. “Maybe if you had given them a choice,” I hurled at him. “I saw what you were doing, injecting the DNA of the Gifted into those who are normal. You’re mutating them instead of preserving their lives.”

  “I don’t deny it,” he said, no regret or guilt in his voice.

  A cold sensation moved through my veins, and I rubbed my hands over my arms, feeling neither victorious nor defeated, just numb. “Are you insane?”

  “The world has evolved, and we must evolve with it. There are so many things we have yet to understand about living in this world. Take the mist for instance. Over the last two years we’ve had a team measuring its boundaries, and for years, it has been receding, up until a few months ago. And it is putting us all at risk. We have to do something.”

  “So your solution is to build an army of Gifted? How does that even make sense? We aren’t completely immune to it.”

  “But if we found someone who was, imagine what their DNA could do. It would allow us to survive.”

  That was one way of looking at it.

  “If you were smart, you would listen to him,” Ember interjected.

  “I have been listening! And I still don’t see how this is best for me or for the Heights.”

  Ember walked toward me, and she pursed her lips as she noticed Dash joining our hands.

  You’re not going to separate us this time.

  “My big sister thinks she is in love. People do stupid things when they make decisions with their heart instead of their head.”

  Dash’s hand tightened in mine. “I guess I’m included as one of those stupid decisions?”

  “That’s what we’re all thinking, so what’s the point of pretending otherwise?” Ember sneered.

  “I’d forgotten what a bitch you can be,” Dash scoffed.

  Ember’s fingers flexed. “Name calling. Oh yeah, you were always good at that.”

  “Enough!” I roared.

  Ember was sporting a major rage face, and I expected at any second for her to come barreling at us swathed in flames, but her gaze shifted over my shoulder. Whatever caught her attention, it wasn’t good. Her eyes widened.

  Curious, I turned around as Dash kept his focus zeroed in on my father. It must have been a full moon, because the night seemed brighter and eerier than normal. There were no stars in the sky, and just over a small hill, I could see the mist dancing.

  But that wasn’t all I could see.

  The green glowing light was back, sending a ribbon of unease and fear into my gut. “Do you see that?” I asked.

  Dash and I stood almost back-to-back now, and he tilted his head just slightly over his shoulder. “See what, Freckles?”

  My heart raced as I took a step forward, squinting my eyes. “I
n the mist.” Through the darkness, it moved, weaving around the trees and leaving behind a trail of neon green light. I stepped closer, Dash walking beside me.

  “What are you doing?” he hissed.

  “There is something out there,” I muttered.

  “And you just decided it would be a good idea to go inspect it now? You do remember that the Night’s Guards still outnumber us?”

  The guards no longer seemed important. I needed to know what was out there.

  Ryker popped up on the other side of me so I was sandwiched between him and Dash as I continued to stride toward the mist. The guards let us pass, too stunned by the shape that materialized through the green-tinted haze.

  “Charlotte, what do you see?” my father called.

  I angled my head to the side and reached out with my hand into the mist. “I’m not sure. It looks human, but also doesn’t.” It wasn’t the best description, but I couldn’t find the right words to portray what I saw.

  “Don’t touch it!” Ember warned me.

  Dash stiffened beside me, fully turning around. “What the—?”

  My sentiments exactly.

  “It won’t cross the boundary,” my father informed us, sounding confident that we were safe.

  “How can you be sure?” I asked, taking a step back.

  Tension sizzled from Dash. Evidently I wasn’t the only one who distrusted my father’s knowledge about the glowing being.

  I stood poised on the threshold of the boundary, waiting to see what would happen next. I was afraid I already knew.

  The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach told me to run, that the glowing being was more dangerous than the Institute.

  It sucked to be right sometimes.

  The glowing being stopped at the line right before the air cleared, hovering at the threshold. Its soulless eyes collided with mine, and I swore it whispered my name. And then the glowing being lunged directly at me.

  I screamed.

  Dash tackled me to the ground before it had a chance to get me, whatever it was … human? Maybe at one time, but not anymore.

  “Forsaken,” my father hissed, pointing to the creature.

  Pop. Whiz. Pop. An array of weapons went off, sending arrows and daggers flying, but it did little to stop the thing from advancing. A strong scent of rotten meat and death overtook the space, making me gag. It was putrid.

  I could make out a feminine quality to the being, whereas before I couldn’t quite tell. Her skin glistened under the moonlight, utterly hypnotic, her eyes appearing black in the dark. Her straggly blonde hair flew wild and in disarray, but there was no mistaking her intent as she hissed, extending her hand to reveal a row of razor sharp nails.

  Dash leapt off the ground, slamming into the creature with its glowing jade skin. The two collided, a mixture of light and dark rolling on the ground.

  “Dash!” I screamed.

  A hand landed on my shoulder just as I was about to pick myself up out of the dirt I had to help Dash. He needed me. I spun my head toward the culprit who had intervened.

  It was Ryker. “If you go charging out there now, you’ll only distract Dash. Is that what you want? Whatever that thing is, it’s nothing like what we’ve ever fought.”

  My heart stumbled as I stared at Dash. “So you expect me to sit here and do nothing?”

  “If anyone can kill that, it’s Dash. I’ve never seen him fail.”

  Dash grabbed the glowing female by the throat and slammed her up against a tree. There was something eerily beautiful about her and the glow of her perfectly smooth skin. And then a slow, unnerving smile twisted her lips as she bared sharp teeth.

  Goose bumps ran down my arms, making the hairs stand straight up.

  Dash didn’t speak as he unleashed the blade sheathed on his belt and rammed it into the side of the Forsaken’s neck. A sharp, shrilling scream pierced my ears before the alien-like creature’s black eyes went blank. Her body crumbled to the ground, soaking it with a neon green substance similar to blood.

  Disgusting.

  Dash whipped around, glaring at Dr. Winston. “What the hell is a Forsaken?” he demanded.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Forsaken—the word that would change my life for a second time. Forsaken. It played through my head over and over again as I stood in the moonlight. If I hadn’t seen it with a dozen other people as witnesses, I would have thought I was going crazy. I told myself not to panic. Not yet.

  There might be a logical explanation for what had just happened.

  Or not.

  Dash was determined to find out. He waited impatiently for my father to explain himself, and judging by the pulsing vein in Dash’s jaw, my father was running out of time.

  “They’re the sole reason we’ve been trying to duplicate your cells,” he finally said.

  “That doesn’t answer my question. What are they?” Dash demanded.

  My father stared into the mist as if expecting another one of those things to come bursting out of the fog and attack him. “They were once humans.”

  I gasped, and I wasn’t alone.

  All around me, the mouths of the Night’s Guards who knew nothing of the Forsaken dropped open. Only a few weren’t shocked by this news. Ember was one of them.

  No surprise.

  My little sis seemed to be included in the Institute’s inner circle of trust and secrets.

  “The mist has morphed them into something else entirely, something not human. For over a hundred years they’ve lived and breathed the toxicity of the air beyond the Heights.”

  “You knew about them!” Dash railed. “And not once did you share the information that there was danger out there possibly deadlier than the mist. You’ve put us all at risk.”

  “I’m trying to protect this land! If everyone knew that the Forsaken existed, it would cause chaos,” my father reasoned.

  One thing was certain, I was never going anywhere without a weapon again.

  “How long have you known? Why did you think it wouldn’t cross the boundary? Who else knows about them?” Dash rattled off questions like gunfire.

  “Now you know why it is so important we study your DNA. We need to learn how to kill them and protect ourselves.”

  “I don’t know anything. We’ve already established your word means nothing.”

  “Let me make something clear. Neither one of you are to tell a single soul what you saw here.”

  “Why would we agree to that?” Dash challenged him.

  “Because I know you care about the Heights and the people in it. That’s why the Night’s Guard was established: to keep it safe. Until the time is right and we’ve learned more about what we’re dealing with, spreading the word will only create panic. Scared people get hurt.”

  I feared my father was right, and I could see Dash did as well.

  Could this be real—toxic beings? Nuclear zombies? No freaking way.

  I didn’t think the world was ready for this. I wasn’t, that was for sure.

  Dash palmed his blade, his expression unsettled. “How is it that we haven’t seen the Forsaken before?” The Heights was filled with people, and yet only a select group knew about the Forsaken’s existence.

  “My best guess is they are dependent on the environment of the mist to survive. They particularly dislike the sun and stick to the shadows.”

  “Are they evil?” I asked, my brain immediately recalling every vampire and zombie movie I’d ever seen.

  “I don’t think that thing wanted to be your BFF. It looked like it was going to eat your face off,” Ember said dryly.

  I shot her the stink eye.

  “They’ve been here longer than we have, and like us, they want to protect what is theirs. Our being here threatens them. I don’t know that they are evil, but they are dangerous.”

  Every time we got an answer, a new question popped up. Dash shook his head. “If they’ve been living in that kind of environment for a hundred years, they must have some wicked ab
ilities. I don’t even want to think about it.”

  “Which is why it is important that we can defend ourselves if the time ever came,” my father replied.

  “You think they might invade?” Dash asked.

  My father’s gaze flicked to the otherworldly body of the Forsaken. “I hadn’t, until today. Now I’m not certain of anything… except that you and Charlotte might be the key to our salvation.”

  Dash’s jaw popped. “I find it hard to believe our DNA is going to save the world.”

  “Possibly, but Charlotte might have the answer we’ve been searching for.”

  All eyes turned to me, and I got a sick feeling in my stomach.

  Dash immediately planted himself in front of me. “I don’t care what you think you’ve uncovered. The answer is no! I won’t allow you to use her, exploit her abilities. What you’re suggesting is preposterous. It could kill her. Are you willing to risk your own daughter?”

  Silence.

  “Well, I’m not,” Dash ground out, his muscles locking up.

  “She wouldn’t be in danger. She would have a team of the best guards with her around the clock and that would include you. No one can protect my daughter better than you, Dash. We both know it, no matter how much I might not like it.”

  Dash snorted. “You know nothing. I wasn’t talking about those kinds of dangers. Believe it or not, your daughter is capable of handling the hazards of the Heights, but her abilities have limitations. What you are asking of her is too much.”

  This had to end, the back and forth. Neither of them could make the decision for me. In the end, it rested on my shoulders. Something they both needed a reminder of. “What are you talking about? What else could I possibly do?”

  My father was all too happy to oblige me with an answer. He risked moving nearer. “See, I have a theory, and I’m willing to put it to the test.”

  The guards closed in around us, and I got an inkling that crap was about to hit the fan. “What kind of test?”

  “I won’t let you touch her,” Dash growled.

  “Oh, Charlotte won’t be the guinea pig, but for your sake, Slayer, you better hope I am right in my theory or this might be the last moon you see for a while.”