Winds of Fire (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #5)

by Malone Wright, Jennifer

  “No,” Chloe moaned from beside me. “We won’t leave you.”

  Zander nodded. “You have to, get the others and come back for us. Sarah and her guys are here too. We need more man power. Now go!”

  “No,” both Chloe and I said together.

  “Dammit Drew.” Gavin pounded the glass wall. “Get her out of here, who knows what they are going to do to her. Hurry.”

  Man, they were right. She was who they wanted, she was the one that was going to be subjected to whatever it was they had in mind for her. “All right.” I nodded at them, hating every single word that came out of my mouth. “I’ll get her out, but we are coming back.”

  “Don’t you dare bring her back here!” Gavin shouted.

  “I’m not an idiot!”

  “Go!” All three of them yelled.

  With the most remorse I’d ever felt in my entire life, I turned away from my fellow Hunters and hurried over to Chloe. “Come on,” I whispered.

  Tears, mixed with blood, spilled from the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “I don’t want to leave them.”

  I shook my head, “We have to, and it’s the only way that we can save them. You are the one in the most danger here, so we have to get you out.”

  “I’ll never put myself before them!” she screamed at me.

  I moved closer to her, wishing I could hold her. “I know that, we all know that. This time, you have to do this for them, all right?”

  She tilted her head up and looked into my eyes. I stared down into those pools of molten darkness and saw the flames that dwelt within her. “If they die in here because of me, I will never forgive myself … or you.” Her voice was a whisper as she added the last part.

  I nodded, acknowledging that I understood and she nodded back. With one last longing look at our friends … our family, we headed for the door at the end of the hallway.

  I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before, but as we approached I saw that door needed the key card as well. Shit. I was going to have to try and get one of those cards anyway.

  “We need help down here,” one of the soldiers was saying into a radio.

  I left Chloe by the door and ran, kicking the radio from his hand. It sailed through the air and landed inside the cell with the missing glass that I’d been held in. “Mother fuc…” He couldn’t finish his sentence because I kicked his head again, and again, I kicked until he didn’t move anymore.

  Now, my adrenaline was pumping even harder than before, if that was possible. I had to eliminate the threats. “Chloe, get the card. I’ll take care of these guys.” I turned to the other soldier who was on his hands and knees attempting to pick himself up off the floor. Swiftly, without hesitation, I kicked him in the stomach. He fell, his body flattened onto the cold tile beneath him.

  I couldn’t help it, I aimed for the face and kept kicking. I had to eliminate these threats, but more were on the way. That much I knew for sure. We just had to get out before they got here.

  “I’ve got it,” Chloe hollered from behind me. That was the only thing that kept me from continuing my assault on the soldier. When I turned, I saw that she was gripping the card tightly in her fingers, which were still tightly bound behind her back.

  Her eyes shifted between the door, which was our escape, and the cell where our friends were held.

  Neither I, nor the others, had time to call out or stop her before she was bolting over the shards of glass toward the cell.

  “Chloe, don’t,” Christina slammed her fist into the glass. “You don’t have much time. You have to go. Now!”

  “It will only take a minute.” She fumbled with the card and turned around so that she could try to swipe it through the reader.

  I hurried toward her, realizing she wasn’t going to leave if she had any chance of saving them. “It’s the wrong way,” I told her. “Turn it, no, the other way.”

  As she was turning the card in the right direction, it slipped and fluttered to the ground. “Dammit!” she cursed and then fell to her knees in attempt to recover the card.

  Just then, the hallway door, our exit, burst open and several soldiers entered, they were led by General Ahlman and all had their weapons raised.

  “On the floor, face down,” Ahlman ordered.

  We had no choice but to comply. They would shoot us, of that I had no doubt. So, I lowered myself to the floor as he had ordered. Chloe did the same, but I am pretty sure she only did because I did. “Well, well,” Ahlman started in. “I should have known better than to think you wouldn’t put up a fight.”

  Neither of us said anything. I was racking my brain, trying to think of a way out of this hell hole. The only way was for at least one of us to get out. Or Sarah, maybe Sarah could call the other Hunters, but I doubted that she even knew we were being held.

  Then another familiar voice joined us. “What in the hell is going on down here? Son of a…”

  It was Daniels, from the surprise in his tone, it sounded like he had no idea that we had been detained. “Why are they being held?” he questioned Ahlman.

  “If you were supposed to know, then you would know,” Ahlman snapped at Daniels, “It isn’t your place to question me.”

  “It is if it’s wrong.” Daniels straightened his spine and flicked his gaze from me to Chloe, to the cell and then back to Ahlman. “What have they been charged with?”

  Ahlman visibly blanched at being called out. “The girl there comes from the seed of one of those demons. She is half vampire.”

  Daniels nodded. “But the others, what have they done?”

  “I told you not to question me. I give the orders here, you just follow them.” Ahlman hissed.

  Daniels lifted his weapon only slightly and I realized that we may have an ally in this particular soldier.

  “I am a soldier of the United States Army, I am here to protect and defend our nation, not to hurt innocent people because of your personal opinions.”

  “You still have to follow orders.” Ahlman took two steps toward Daniels.

  As the two of them were facing off, I realized that Daniels had left the door open when he entered. Chances of getting through that door alive were slim, but it was still a chance.

  Daniels snorted. “This government barely exists now and half of what does exist is corrupt now. We had an apocalypse, but I refuse to become what you are turning our men into.”

  “Shut up and back out of the room, Daniels.”

  The threat in the order was clear, but Daniels didn’t move. “When you open that cell and set them free I will go.”

  Ahlman sighed. “You are really going to make me shoot you, aren’t you?” He raised his weapon and took aim.

  Daniels smiled, an almost sinister grin, and then without any warning he pulled the sidearm at his hip and fired. The shot hit Ahlman in the leg. He fired as well, but the shot misdirected as he fell to his knees and peppered a few of his own soldiers with the spray of rounds.

  Rushing forward, Daniels kicked the gun out of Ahlman’s reach. Two of the soldiers hadn’t been hit by the gunfire and they took off through the exit door, probably to get more help. I almost smiled at the thought of them having to go for help again.

  Without hesitation, Daniels ripped his keycard from his chest and swiped it though the reader on Zanders cell. The lock slid free with a hiss and Zander’s hand was immediately around the edge of the door, sliding it aside.

  Instantly, Zander went for Ahlman and none of us stopped him. The other soldiers had recovered and were raising their weapons at us. Quickly, I rolled over the sharp pieces of glass, right into one of the soldier’s legs. He fell, right about the time that Daniels had opened the cell for Christina and Gavin. Both of them hurried forward and began pummeling soldiers.

  Christina bent down and picked up Ahlman’s gun. “Let’s just go,” she called out. I rose to a standing position, as Chloe had already done. The group was free, the door was open, better we just go now rather than try to incapaci
tate them.

  “Come on,” Daniels waved us on. “If you want out of here, we have to go now.”

  “The radios!” I told him, “We have to take the radios! And those other two already left for help.”

  “Doesn’t matter now,” Daniels responded, pulling a key ring from his pocket. He sifted through it until he came up with a handcuff key. “Turn around,” he ordered. I did as he asked and suddenly my wrists were finally free from their metal captors. He quickly did the same for Chloe and then we all crunched over the broken glass at a full out run.

  Daniels had his keycard ready as we poured into the hallway. I silently prayed that we would make it out of this place alive. So far, it had been tough, but we were all still here.

  As we neared the elevators Daniels waved us on. “No, we have to use the stairs.”

  Damn, he was right. Why didn’t I think of that. Something was seriously off with me. Normally when it came to strategy I had it all planned out before it even happened. I pulled Chloe up next to me and we all thundered down the hallway to the stairwell.

  Surprisingly, we didn’t run into anyone on the stairs, and that rubbed me wrong. They knew we were on the run and we were somewhere on this floor, they were going to have people waiting for us somewhere.

  That thought proved right when we slammed open the door and we all spilled out onto the ground floor level.

  Oh man, we were so freaking close to getting out of here. One thing we hadn’t thought about was what we were going to do when we did get out. We had no car, no ride, no nothing. We were probably going to have to resort to Zander hot wiring a car for us to steal. Normally I wasn’t up for that sort of thing, but if it meant my life and theirs, then hell yeah I would.

  “Stop right where you are and drop your weapons.”

  I didn’t know the man who led the pack of soldiers aiming their weapons at us. Not for the first time since we’d got here, I wished Alice was with us. Her shield of magic had saved our asses on numerous occasions.

  Daniels stepped a few paces in front of our entire group. “You drop your weapons, these people have done nothing but try to help us, you dumbass.”

  The other guy jerked his weapon. “Orders are still orders.”

  “Stand down,” Daniels growled.

  It was clear that the other guy had no intention of standing down. He didn’t move an inch and neither did any of the lackeys behind him. Then, bless her soul, Sarah’s southern accent echoed through the halls. “What, in the fresh hell is going on in here?”

  She knew damn well what was going on. Sarah was a smart, far too smart to just waltz into an impending gunfight.

  “You need to leave the floor, ma’am,” the soldier ordered, shifting his eyes from us to her.

  In that moment, the floor slightly shook and the two water fountains on the walls behind the soldiers exploded. The water shot high into the air, much like when a fire hydrant was unleashed.

  A few of the soldiers hit the floor and covered their heads, the remaining ones turned toward the explosion on instinct.

  That was our cue.

  Every single one of us, even Sarah, began firing our weapons. The rounds echoed throughout the hallways, deafening me. Voices yelled and screamed, but I couldn’t make out what anyone was saying because it all sounded muffled and a loud continuous ringing overpowered anything else I might have heard.

  Then, it was over. The massacre of a bunch of human lives. I was about two seconds away from hyperventilating. We didn’t do this, this wasn’t our job. It wasn’t what I had trained for my entire life. From the moment I could walk, I was taught how to kill vampires … to kill those who threatened human life, but now, humans were the enemy.

  I exhaled slowly and turned to check on Chloe, but she wasn’t there. “Chloe.” I visually swept the area, hoping she had just moved positions, but I didn’t like what I found instead.

  There, standing beside the elevator was another soldier, he had Chloe’s body encircled with one arm and the other hand held a large hunting knife to her throat.

  He realized we spotted them and shook his head slightly. “Don’t even think about it. One wrong move and this blade slices her open so that she can bleed out right in front of you.”

  The metal blade of the knife glinted off the bright lights of the hallway, taunting me, telling me that they had won. This was why she didn’t fire up on him, if he jerked his arm in pain, it would still cut her.

  Dammit, dammit, dammit. So freaking close.

  “Let her go,” I hissed, my finger hovering over the trigger of the gun in my hand.

  The soldier frowned and slowly backed up a step so that they moved through the elevator door that had just opened behind them. “You all go, right now, and never come back. That is how this works.”

  “I will never leave her here for you to torture.” My words were choked because I knew that may not be the case this time.

  “That isn’t how this works. She stays, one way or the other. Now go, there has been enough blood and death today.” The elevator doors slid closed, shutting out Chloe’s terror filled eyes.

  “No!” I rushed toward the elevator, hoping to catch it before the door closed completely.

  “Drew, don’t!” Zander and Gavin shouted together.

  “Chloe …” I cried out, pounding the metal. “Dammit!”

  I got it, they were afraid that if I had caught up to them that the dude would actually cut her throat.

  “Drew.” Sarah appeared next to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “We have to go, man.”

  I didn’t move. I couldn’t move.

  How could I go when they took her? We had been so close to getting out of this hell hole.

  Christina also showed up on the other side of me. “Like now, Drew. We will come back and get her.”

  “I don’t want to leave her here at all,” I whispered.

  Sarah shifted her weapon and pinched my cheek between her fingers. “Snap out of it. They want her alive, that much we know. That’s good, it means we can plan and come back to get her. I’m with you all the way, my guys are still in here somewhere too. Hopefully, they are just off making ammo in some isolated room somewhere and were able to avoid all this.” She gestured to the dead bodies around us.

  “We have to move,” Daniels ordered softly.

  I nodded. They were right, but this was one of the worst things I’d ever had to do in my life and I hated myself for it. If I didn’t get her back, safe and sound, I knew that I would never, ever forgive myself.

  Before I knew it, we were outside, charging through the balmy night, away from the Department of Defense. After about twenty minutes of running through the city at breakneck speed, we stopped to catch our breath.

  “We need a car,” I panted, swinging my gaze to Zander.

  He nodded that he understood. “No problem.”

  I turned to Daniels, “Thank you … for what you did.” I knew it couldn’t be easy for him to leave his people back there. Soldiers, real soldiers, those who were truly good people who wanted to defend our country, were a pretty loyal bunch … not unlike the Hunters.

  Also bent over and panting to catch his breath, Daniels lifted his eyes to meet mine. “I don’t condone holding innocent people captive.”

  “What will they do to Chloe?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I do know that it can’t be good. Ahlman has a lab on the bottom floor where they have been running tests on vampires.”

  Oh God. I cringed at the thought. “Torturing them?”

  “Basically, yeah.” His eyes didn’t reflect any emotion, but I saw a flicker of something.

  My breathing had finally gone back to normal so I stood up straight and stared him down. “Chloe is not one of those monsters.”

  “Do you think I’m an idiot?”

  Shocked at his blunt question, I shook my head. “No.”

  “Well, then don’t assume that I think she is. She wouldn’t be hanging out with you guys if s
he was one of them.” He paused, “But that doesn’t mean that they won’t put her through what they are doing to the ones they have detained.”

  Gavin straightened, “We have to get ahold of Luke. We need a team out here.”

  “A big team,” Christina added and then glanced down at her body. “Those bastards took all my knives.”

  “We’ll get you new ones.” Zander took her into his arms and she rested her head against his chest.

  Christina turned to me and stared for a second before asking, “Can we talk about what happened back there?”

  Even though I knew what she was talking about, it wasn’t something we had time to dwell on at the moment. “I don’t know what it was and we’re going to have to worry about it later.” I told her.

  “But, Drew … air?”

  “I don’t want to think about it right now. It just happened and I don’t know why or how. I just want to get Chloe back.”

  Her expression was both excited and sad, if that was possible. When a Hunter comes into their gifts, they are usually around the age of sixteen, I never did, and once I turned twenty, I stopped hoping it would happen.

  Not all Hunters developed gifts, but we all wanted them, even if we didn’t broadcast it for the entire world to know. Christina had never developed her gifts either, so she was both excited for me since she was a close friend, practically family, but she was also jealous because that would make her the only one of our group without some kind of supernatural power.

  It really didn’t matter at this point anyway because I wasn’t sure that was actually what it was, and even if I did suddenly come into the elemental power of air, I sure as hell didn’t know how to use it. It took Hunters years to learn how to use and control their power.

  So, like I said, I couldn’t worry about it right now.

  Christina let the subject go and straightened. “Let’s get moving.”

  An hour later we had found a Suburban that would fit all of us, plus Chloe and Sarah’s guys. I hated stealing, but at this point we really had no other options. After picking up the Suburban, we stopped at a gas station. I strode in and asked to use the phone.