The Other World_A Reverse Harem Series

by Jessica Sorensen

  “All right, we’re at the end,” Steel whispers as he halts. “When I open this door, we’ll be outside. We’re going to run straight to the car. Under no circumstances are you to try to take off on your own unless I tell you to run. If I do, you obey. Got it?”

  A thousand protests burn in my throat, but I manage a, “Fine.”

  “Don’t worry; you can go back to arguing with me when this is all over,” he says in a low voice.

  Then grey abruptly seeps into the darkness.

  I blink as the wall in front of us finishes opening up and moonlight seeps in. “There are no words,” I whisper in awe, “to what I’ve seen over the last forty-eight hours.”

  “You haven’t seen anything yet.” Steel laces his fingers through mine then pulls me outside. The door glides shut behind us.

  The night sky stretches above us, and just in front of us is the side entrance to the apartment complex, a few cars parked here and there.

  Steel makes an immediate turn to the right, striding toward the back of the apartment. My bare feet scruff against the grass as I jog to keep up with him. When we reach the corner of the building, he moves to step out into the parking lot, but then he quickly shuffles back, nearly stepping on my toe.

  “Did you check the back area yet?” I hear a voice from over a radio.

  “I’m on it,” someone else replies. “Have you entered the apartment yet?”

  “Six men just barged in,” someone replies. “We’re just waiting for an update.”

  “Good.” A pause. “Back seems secure … No, wait a minute.”

  “Stay here,” Steel hisses. He doesn’t reach for a weapon, just curls his fingers into fists.

  “What are you going to—” I start, but he jumps out from behind the corner and slams into a figure dressed head to toe in black.

  As their bodies collide, they grunt as they tumble to the ground. Steel lands on top and instantly starts pounding his fists into the person’s face, over and over again. The person quickly goes limp, and then Steel jumps off him and reaches for me.

  “Let’s go—”

  A person at least twice the size of Steel slams into him.

  Steel tumbles to the ground, landing hard, but quickly recovers, springing to his feet.

  “You snuck up on me, Jay.” Steel wipes the blood from his lips as he circles the person—Jay. “You should be proud of yourself.”

  The moonlight trickles down on Jay’s face, highlighting his curled lips and the gnarly scar running down his face. “You’re not the toughest one in the program, Steel. Not anymore.” Jay straightens to his full height, towering over Steel.

  Steel smirks. “Yeah, but it makes me question how. Because, only a couple of months ago, you were just a scrawny, little runt.” He pops his knuckles against the sides of his legs. “Is the agency using drugs now? Have they stooped that low?”

  “It’s not stooping low,” Jay sneers, drawing down the hood of his hoodie. “It’s doing what they have to, to control the drug problem.”

  “You can’t fight drugs with drugs.” Steel moves lightning quick, sidestepping as Jay takes a swing at him.

  “See, this is why the superiors keep you out of the loop. Because you’re incapable of being able to see the bigger picture.” He lunges at Steel, his knee colliding with Steel’s hip. But Steel manages to recover, swinging to the side.

  “You may think there’s a bigger purpose to what you’re doing, but I know firsthand about the consequences you’ll eventually face. The drugs will change you, seep into your bones, eat your soul, and leave a darkness in its place.”

  I wrap my arms around myself as his words pierce through my skin. If I was a test subject, does that mean I have darkness inside me?

  I think back to when I almost killed the assassin, how numb I felt as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “You don’t think I already know that?” Jay stops moving, jabbing his fist at Steel and colliding with his cheek.

  Steel curses as he stumbles back, clutching his face.

  Jay rushes at him, punching him in the chin, the face, the stomach, over and over again. When Steel finally collapses to the ground, Jay starts kicking him in the ribs.

  He’s killing him …

  I need to do something.

  While I can throw a decent punch when I need to, there’s no way I’m going to be able to take on steroid freak over there. I need some sort of weapon.

  I turn around, preparing to run back inside, when I spot a set of golf clubs leaning against the porch railing of the bottom floor apartment. Rushing over, I grab the one with the biggest end then stride back to where Jay is kicking the shit out of Steel. I don’t give myself time to process what I’m about to do or what it says about me. I just lift the golf club and swing it at Jay’s back as hard as I can. As the end collides with his shoulder blades, he growls out and whirls around. His eyes widen in surprise, but he swiftly erases his shock.

  “Alexis Baker. Just the person I’m looking for.” He steps toward me.

  I inch back, raising the golf club. “Stay back, or this time I’m swinging at your head.”

  “You can try, but you won’t succeed.” His lips curl into a grin, and then he lunges at me.

  I start to swing the golf club at him, but he grabs the handle and tosses the club aside. Then he smacks me across the face so hard my ears ring.

  “I told you that you wouldn’t succeed. I was created to stop people like you and Steel. You may be strong, but I’m stronger.”

  People like me and Steel?

  Oh, my God, maybe it really is true.

  I clench my teeth, gritting through the pain. “You forgot one small problem.”

  Amusement dances in his eyes. “And what’s that?”

  I lower my hand from my face and flash him a smirk. “It doesn’t always necessarily take strength to bring a man down. Just a bit of wits and a really good aimed kick.” I lift my foot, slamming it as hard as I can right between his legs.

  His face contorts in pain as he clutches his manly goodies. I move to the side to dodge around him, but he snaps his hand out and pushes me roughly to the ground. My head bangs against the grass hard, my teeth knocking together as my ears ring again. Gritting through the pain, I scramble to get up, but he climbs on top of me and pins my arms above my head.

  “Get off me!” I growl, writhing in a pathetic attempt to get him off me.

  When he barely budges, pain grips at my throat.

  “Now, what was that you were saying about having wits?” he taunts as he holds my arms in one hand, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a syringe.

  “No! No more drugs!” I shout, wondering how on earth none of the people living around here haven’t wandered outside to see the commotion.

  “Don’t worry; it’ll only hurt for a second.” He bites off the cap, spits it out onto the grass, and then aims the needle at my forearm. “And then you won’t remember a thing—”

  A golf club slams against the side of his head, and then he slumps to the grass beside me.

  Steel moves up beside him, gripping the golf club, blood dripping down his face. “Now, what was that you were saying?” His calm voice is beyond eerie.

  “You’re going to pay for that,” Jay groans, rolling onto his back.

  “No, I won’t.” Steel drops the golf club, snatches the syringe from Jay, then crouches down beside him. “I would tell you to count backward from ten—that’s what the scientists told me to do when they were trying to get me not to focus on the pain—but it never really worked. I always felt it, and I’m sure you’re going to, too.” That said, he plunges the needle into Jay’s arm.

  Jay howls out in pain, his body writhing across the grass.

  Steel hastily straightens then sticks his hand out to me. “We need to go.”

  I waste no time grabbing his hand and letting him pull me to my feet. Then we run across the parking lot, exiting the apartment complex and crossing the street. We keep running until
we reach a nearby field that’s surrounded by trees. I think we’re going to hide in the trees, but instead, Steel starts across the field.

  We keep running and running, saying nothing, with me gripping Steel’s hand until we reach a few tipped over trees and bushes. Then he climbs up onto the trunk of a fallen tree, and then dives into the center of the mess of limbs and leaves.

  “What are you doing?” I hiss, giving a panicked glance around the night-kissed field.

  My response is an engine revving.

  A few seconds later, the branches begin to shift, and then a truck backs up from the fallen trees. My jaw drops as the truck is pulled around me and the driver’s side window is rolled down.

  “Get in,” Steel commands, wiping his arm across the blood trickling down the side of his head.

  I jog around the front and hop into the passenger seat. “Whose truck is this? And why the hell was it hidden in those bushes and trees?”

  “It’s our emergency truck. No one except Ellis, West, and I know about it, which means it can’t be tracked to us.” He shifts into gear and presses down on the accelerator, the truck lurching forward. “Now put on your seatbelt and hang on.”

  I hurry and buckle up then hold onto the handle as he speeds across the field toward the road without the headlights on. It’s pushing five o’clock in the morning, and the sun is starting to peak above the mountains, the faint light trickling into the cab.

  “You’re bleeding,” I state as I eye Steel over.

  He grips the steering wheel. “So are you.”

  My brows dip as I reach for the visor, flip it down, and look in the mirror. Sure enough, blood covers my lip. “I must’ve bit my lip or something when that Jay guy smacked me to the ground. Man, so much for being a badass—”

  Steel slams on the brakes and makes a sharp right turn into the trees near the front of the field. I grip the handle tighter as the truck hits a bump before slowing to a stop.

  “What are you doing?” I ask. “And why are we hiding in the trees?”

  “It’s our meeting place,” he says, shoving the truck into park.

  I daze off, trying to process what happened while tracing my tongue over the cut on my lip.

  “Did he hit you across the face?” Steel asks, bringing me out of my daze.

  “Yeah.” I let my fingers float toward my cheek. “But it’s not a big deal.”

  He shakes his head. “He never should’ve gotten a chance to even touch you. I fucked up.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” I say. “He seemed really strong and looked like he was on steroids.”

  “It wasn’t steroids.”

  “Then, what was it?”

  He shrugs. “I’m not sure. All I know is that a couple of months ago, Jay was smaller than you. Steroids couldn’t have made him grow that fast.”

  “Was he …? Was he a test subject, too?”

  “No.”

  “Then, how …?” I press my lips together. “I thought you guys said that the agency you worked for were the good guys?”

  His eyes turn emotionless. “No one is completely good, sweetheart. There’s only less bad.”

  Man, he might have more trust issues than even I do.

  “I don’t believe that.” I turn in the seat, facing him. “I know good people.”

  He considers something carefully. “You did good back there.”

  His abrupt subject change throws me off for a moment.

  “You mean, back with Jay?” I ask, and he nods. “Yeah right. I got my ass kicked and would’ve probably gotten doped up if you hadn’t gotten a second wind.”

  “You didn’t run, though.”

  “I couldn’t just leave you there to get your ass beat.”

  “Most people would’ve.”

  “That’s not true.”

  Before I can protest, he glances at the back window then shoves open the door and gets out.

  “Took you fucking long enough to get here,” Steel calls out.

  I track his gaze and relief washes through me as I spot West, Blaine, and Ellis jogging through the trees toward us. I hadn’t even realized how worried I was until now.

  “We hurried as quickly as we could,” West tells him as he strides toward the truck. “But it took a while to ditch them, and then we had to backtrack here.”

  “You’re sure they didn’t follow you?” Steel questions, dragging his arm across his head.

  “We’re positive,” Ellis assures him as he winds around the last tree. “But we need to hit the road ASAP before they send out more teams to track us.”

  “We need to take the back roads, too. It’ll be safer.” West he rushes to my side of the truck and throws open the door, his eyes scanning every inch of me. “You okay?”

  I nod, my heart fluttering at the sight of him. I hadn’t even realized until now just how worried about him I was.

  But I play off my worry, cracking a joke. “You know me. I’m one-hundred percent badass.”

  He doesn’t even so much as crack a smile, his gaze zeroing in on my face.

  “Okay, I might have gotten clocked in the face one time,” I admit. “But only because—”

  I squeak as he wraps his arms around me, scoops me up, and holds me against his chest.

  “I’m so fucking glad you’re okay,” he breathes into my hair as he buries his face into my neck.

  “I know,” I whisper, clutching on to him. “I can feel it.”

  His breath falters against my neck as he releases a shaky exhale. “I promise nothing like that is ever going to happen again. I promise I’ll protect you better.”

  As a flurry of emotions sweep through him, I wrap my arms around him. “West, you need to calm down. I’m fine.”

  “No, you’re not,” Steel intervenes. “None of us are until we figure out what the heck is going on.”

  “We need to get out of here first.” Ellis sticks out his hand toward Steel. “Let me drive. I’m much more stable in these types of situations.”

  “The keys are in the ignition.” Steel nudges West in the side as Ellis starts for the driver’s side. “Get in the truck. You can hug her while we drive.”

  West hops into the truck, still holding me despite my protests.

  Steel slides into the passenger seat while Blaine gets into the back with West and me.

  “I want a hug too,” Blaine tells West, reaching for me as Ellis drives forward through the trees.

  West glances from him to me, question marks flooding his eyes.

  I blow out a sigh then reach over and hug Blaine. “You guys are being weirdly needy,” I say as he folds his arms around me.

  What’s weird is that I’m hugging him. After everything that happened, I thought I never would again. Even weirder is that my heart fluttered more when I hugged West.

  “We’ve always been needy,” West remarks, sweeping my hair off my shoulder to get a better look at my cheek. “Who hit you?”

  “Some jacked-up big guy,” I say at the same time Steel tells him, “Jay.”

  “Jay did this to her?” Sunlight reflects in West’s wide eyes as we drive out of the shade of the trees.

  Steel glances over his shoulder at West. “Not the same Jay we knew.”

  A crinkle creases between West’s brows. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, he was jacked-up on some sort of drug.” Steel looks forward, shaking his head. “He even tried to inject Alexis with something. I’m not sure what, but when I injected it into him, it made him thrash around like a wounded animal.”

  “He said it’d make me forget.” I shift my weight on West’s lap so I’m sitting sideways, and he loops an arm around my waist.

  West and Steel exchange yet another silent look as Ellis pulls out onto the quiet streets of Honeyton.

  “You think they’re using some of the drug facilities’ drugs?” West asks with his brows elevated.

  “I’m not sure.” Steel rubs some dried blood off his cheek. “What I’d really like to know
is why they went through all that trouble to get Alexis.”

  “I’m not sure.” West sneaks a cautious glance toward me before focusing back on Steel. “But I highly doubt it was all a freakish coincidence that they swooped in like that on the same day she started getting abilities.”

  “But, if that’s so, then that means the agency wants her abilities for something,” Blaine mutters. “It doesn’t make any sense. We’re supposed to be the good guys.”

  “We are the good guys,” Steel stresses, thrumming his fingers against the console. “I need to find Mel and find out more about The Afterlife experiment.”

  West scoots forward in the seat. “We can do that, but we have to do it cautiously since Mel has worked for the agency. We have to be careful about who we trust.”

  “What about my sister?” Worry grasps my chest. “You said Zhara was with another team … What if the same thing happens to her?” And what if the team she’s with doesn’t try to protect her like West, Blaine, Ellis, and Steel just did for me.

  I can’t even wrap my head around why they did it. Sure, West and Blaine know me, but Steel just met me yesterday, and yet he took a killer beating to protect me.

  A drop of panic rises in West. “We’ll find a payphone, and then I’ll call the team she’s with. We can’t make calls from our phones anymore. We need to get some burner phones.”

  “But, what if something like what happens to me happens to her?” I chew on my thumbnail. “Maybe we should just drive to wherever she is and warn them.”

  “No,” Steel says firmly.

  Opening my mouth, I glare at the back of his head. But my jaw clamps shut when West slips his fingers through mine.

  “There’s a payphone at the gas station about twenty miles up the highway. We’ll call her from there,” he promises. “The guys she’s with used to be part of mine, Steel, and Ellis’s team. They’re good guys. If someone tries to do anything to hurt her, they’ll protect her.”

  “Are you positive they will?” I need more reassurance.

  Sure Zhara and I haven’t gotten along for a while, but she’s my twin sister and means the world to me.

  I should’ve been nicer to her.

  “Can you still feel what I’m feeling?” West asks, and I nod. “Then you tell me if I’m positive.” He holds my gaze steadily.