She returned his kiss, craving more of his touch. Unlike with Devlin, and the odd sensations he brought out in her, she couldn’t get enough of Mavel. In his arms, she was safe, shielded from the rest of the world and its corruption. Her yearning turned into more tears, making him stop.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, lifting her face and tenderly brushing away the wetness on her cheeks.
“I don’t want to leave without you,” she said in a quivering voice and hid her face in the crook of his neck. She inhaled his scent, trying to store it in her memory which she knew was pointless. Memories alone were not enough.
He rolled them over, so they lay on their sides. His arms brought her close to him. “Life in Green is not suited for you. The jobs are non-existent for purebloods here. The modded will pick on you out of bitterness, and you will not be able to see your friends or family again. You’ll lose your chance at having a career you want. I can’t let that happen,” he told her. “You will lose everything you have and more. After a while, you may grow to hate me, too, for being the cause of your unhappiness.”
“I won’t!”
“You will. Most of the purebloods who elope or are exiled do. I heard some commit suicide after a month of living in this district. Few survive.”
Annalise closed her eyes in shame. He knew her better than she knew herself. She loved her ability to go wherever she pleased without restriction. Being bound to the slums, jobless, and having to solely rely on Mavel and his income would drive her insane. Yet, what awaited her on the other side? Sure, she would keep her freedom of movement but be bound to a game of falsehoods. She would be another chess piece for Devlin, Mr X, and her father to use. In this situation, there was no better choice. There was only loneliness and separation.
She touched his cheek and looked into his eyes. “I thought you would demand I stay or tell me not to go.”
“Believe me, I would do anything for you to remain by my side. But your happiness is important to me. I don’t want to have you if it will ruin you.”
“I’m stronger than I appear. You shouldn’t look down on me.”
“I know, and I wouldn’t dare,” he replied with a laugh.
Annalise gave him another long kiss and reluctantly pulled away. If she wanted to make it to the meeting, she had to leave. Standing by the bed, she took in his beautiful body stretched out on the sheets and cursed. “I wish I could stay longer and have you all to myself.”
“Maybe at a later date.” He got up and walked her to the door, opening it for her. “Be careful on your way back.”
“And you be careful with Falcon. Whatever they’re up to, it can’t be good. Since they haven’t captured you, assume they’re plotting something worse.”
He nodded. “We are tied together. They may want to use me against you, Anna. Whatever happens, don’t let them control your life.”
She looked down at the ground. Falcon was already in the middle of doing that. “I’ll try.” She gave him a parting hug and headed to her car.
Once she climbed in, locking the doors behind her, she turned on her comms to check for messages. More voice mails from Devlin. She couldn’t deal with him, not today.
Arriving at the train station, she parked her car in the multi-storey car park and headed in through the main entrance to the central waiting room. She passed the scanners and strode towards the giant clock under the circular windows and the glass dome roof. Rows of red seats lined the length of the room, with enough space between them to freely move around on the black marble flooring that reflected the sunshine as it peeked in from above. The structure had a renaissance feel to it with arches and white stone columns supporting the balconies. She noticed a couple of VIs dotted around the place to answer questions of the customers.
Annalise checked the time on the clock. She was fifteen minutes early, giving her enough time to get a cup of coffee before the meeting with Graham. At the nearby café, she ordered a thermal cup with her drink in it and slowly sipped it as she progressed to her destination.
Under the archway leading to the train platforms, Annalise spotted him standing with his back pressed against a pillar. She headed over, putting a professional smile on her face. Stopping in front of him, she offered her hand. “Mr Green, how have you been?”
He took his hand out of his pocket and shook hers. His palm was damp and cold. There were dark circles under his silver eyes that seemed bloodshot from a lack of sleep. Whatever was going on with him, he had to be worried about something. Did it have to do with Gale’s murder?
“I’m fine, Detective. I—” He scanned the waiting room and motioned for her to follow. “It would be best if we speak somewhere with fewer people.”
She frowned but trailed behind him until they arrived in the locker room on the lower level. Taking a sip of her coffee, she waited for him to tell her what was bothering him so much.
Graham rubbed the back of his neck. He looked around one last time and said, “I need your help to get out of the city.”
“What? Why?”
“The—” He licked his lips and waved his hands around as he spoke, “I am being threatened by the people who killed my fiancé. I need to leave the city, but they’ll know something is up if I use my credits.”
“Who is threatening you? And you should go to the DPD. The detectives who have taken over your case will be able to help you if you testify.”
Graham’s eyes flared with annoyance. His voice rose. “I have to leave now!”
Annalise backed up a step. His agitation was beginning to unnerve her, especially since he was the one on anti-depressants. If he was close to losing it, things could turn out badly for her. No one had ever survived a hand-to-hand fight with a possessed modded beast and lived to tell the tale. She also didn’t have her gun on her. So, she couldn’t use that to calm him down if things went haywire.
Lifting her hands in the air, she said in a measured tone, “How about we take a breath and talk this out.”
Graham produced a deep growl from his throat. His eyes narrowed on her and darted to her wrist comms for a brief second. Was he planning on stealing her comms without permission? He wouldn’t be able to access her money without a hack or her authorisation code.
“Graham, please… If you feel threatened, the DPD will look into it and—”
He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the floor. His powerful grip on her neck silenced her as she gasped for air. Her feet dangled a foot off the ground. She kicked him in the knees, but he didn’t let go.
“I need you to pay for the ticket out of here, Detective. I don’t have time to play around!”
Annalise did the only thing she could think of. She fumbled with the lid of her thermal cup and splashed his face with hot coffee. It worked. He dropped her.
She scrambled into a standing position and made a run for it while he clawed at his face. Turning the corner with her heart in her throat, she scaled the stairs. Behind her, she heard his footsteps gaining on her. She could scream to gain attention, but the speakers started blaring with a train arrival announcement as the thought came in. Grumbling about bad luck, she arrived at the top of the stairs. Looking back down, she noticed that he was no longer following her.
Placing her hand on her heaving chest where her heart was seemingly going a million miles an hour, she quickly contemplated what to do. Why did he so desperately need to leave the city? And why did he need her to pay for the ticket? Not sticking around to wait for an answer, she jogged to the security office and informed the officers there of a beast at the station who was on the edge.
Her comms went off with a call, startling her. “I’m busy, Devlin.”
“Where are you? The Homicide detectives called me. They think Graham Green killed Judy Wilson. They found her DNA at his apartment.”
“You’re kidding me…” She rubbed her eyes and peered into the empty security office. The other officers went out searching for the beast. She found a spare tranquiliser gun in one o
f the drawers and checked it to see if it was unlocked. At least, the weapons available to the security teams weren’t genetically locked to a particular officer.
“Annalise, tell me where you are!” Devlin shouted.
She winced as she checked the number of darts in the gun. “I’m at the train station. Graham may be on the brink of being possessed.”
“Stay away from him until I get there. Do not engage him!”
She hung up. Letting the security officers look into this would endanger them too much. They didn’t have any training when it came to the possessed. Not like she had any more practical training than they did, but she had a chance to train at the Academy. And, as a member of the HPD, it was her job to stop Graham from causing trouble.
Closing the door to the office behind her, she ran back to the locker room. The security officers were checking the feeds on their comms. She marched up to the nearest guy. “Any clue as to where he went?”
“The beast who attacked you, according to the feed, went into the service tunnels,” the man replied and pointed to the metal “STAFF ONLY” door between the lockers.
By the jitter in his voice, she knew he was nervous. No one liked dealing with the possessed modded. The casualty reports were staggering every time they were announced on the news.
“Alright, go back to the security office and keep me updated if you see him from the video feeds elsewhere. Also, contact the Human Possession Department for backup. I’ll take two people with me into the service tunnels,” Annalise said, indicating to the other guys who were listening.
“Yes, ma’am,” the security officer barked and rushed back.
“You two, follow me. Be cautious and keep your distance. Don’t let him get close,” she warned.
They bobbed their heads and entered the service tunnel with her.
24
Possession
The security tunnels had dim, yellow emergency lights spaced out so sparsely, she saw more shadows than walls that had pipework running the length of them. One of the officers behind her stepped on the back of her shoe and apologised profusely.
She managed a smile. “It’s dark in here. Turn on the flashlight setting of your comms and stay close.” Although her voice sounded calm, her stomach was twisted in knots. With every step into the tunnels, she was getting further away from backup. But, if she let Graham get too far ahead, or away, he could kill someone else.
The heavy breathing of the officers was distracting. She stopped and looked at their bulging eyes and shaking limbs. “Guys, what are your names?”
The blonde man in his mid-twenties replied first, “I’m Paul.”
Next to him, an older guy with a thick moustache cleared his throat. “Jacob, I’m Jacob.”
“Good. I’m Annalise. If we’re going to do this, I need you guys focused. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for any sounds or movements.”
They nodded in unison, and Annalise felt like she was taking two kids with her into a lion’s den. She put on her poker face as it was the only thing keeping her from going back to the safety of the station.
A short while later, they came to a crossroad. Annalise looked at the signs above their heads. She didn’t want to split up, but they had to cover more ground if they wanted to catch the beast. “Which way leads to the outside?”
“They all do, eventually,” Jacob replied. “There are doors every two miles that lead to the surface. He could be out of here by now if he’s a fast runner.”
She blew out a breath and her shoulders relaxed a little. “I guess we can split up here. I’ll go left. Jacob, you go straight, and Paul can take the right. If you see him, shoot once. If he keeps coming towards you, you are allowed to shoot the fatal round. Don’t kill him unless you have to.”
The men left with more uncertainty than they came in with. Annalise rubbed her shaking hand that clung to the weapon and followed the path to an empty platform. She walked to the edge and peered into the dark tunnel the train tracks disappeared into. From the other side, she made out a subtle shifting of gravel. Someone was in there.
She jumped down onto the tracks and used her comms’ light to illuminate the tunnel ahead. Putting one foot in front of the other, she proceeded to follow the rails. After a while, she managed to move with more urgency. The sound of movement stopped up ahead, and she directed her light to the figure standing there, shrouded in darkness.
“Graham Green, I need you to come with me…please.” She readied her gun, in case he tried anything.
He didn’t move, only stood there, observing her and panting like a dog.
She took another step forwards, letting more light shine on his face. Her breath caught in her throat. His face was red from the burn of her coffee. But that wasn’t what had a chill crawling up her spine. His eyes—they were completely white. The veins on his forehead were protruding under his skin as his brows were drawn together in evident fury.
“Graham…?”
The beast lunged towards her. She fired off a round, lodging it in his side. It didn’t do much. He kept coming, shrinking the distance at an incredible speed. In that split-second, she had a choice between firing more tranquilisers and killing him or running the hell away. Her limbs chose for her. She turned on her heel and sprinted in the direction of the platform.
It didn’t take long for him to catch up to her. He jumped onto her back, knocking her down and making her face meet with the rough gravel. With snarls and growls, he curled his fingers around her neck, squeezing it hard enough that she thought her spinal cord would break at any second and her trachea would collapse from the force.
Her vision blurred. Twisting her arm, she tried to shoot him, but he knocked the gun out of her hand, landing it a few feet away. She inwardly cursed. She should have waited for Devlin and the others instead of going in alone. Or she should have killed this man before he had a chance to knock her down. Even in this perilous situation, she didn’t regret her decision. Killing someone was a choice, and she didn’t want to do it unless there was no other option.
At least, I’ll die with my morals intact. Good to know.
From the beginning of the tunnel, shots were fired. Someone started running towards her as the beast collapsed, his dead weight crushing her. Under his two-hundred pounds of muscle, she couldn’t move.
“Annalise? Damn it, why didn’t you wait for me?” Devlin’s voice soothed the panic in her heart as she gasped for air that was being squeezed out of her. He pushed Graham’s body aside and knelt beside her. “Don’t move. We don’t know if he has done any damage to you.”
She broke into a sarcastic smile. “You’re the last person I want to hear that from.”
“I know I wasn’t forthcoming with you in the past—”
Annalise gathered her remaining strength and touched her neck. It was sore and the skin around it burned, but she could move it. She propped her body up, glaring at her partner. “You lied to me, Devlin. I put my faith and trust in you, and all you could do was lie to me to get where you want in life. I hate people like you.”
He balled his free hand on his knee. “I do have feelings for you. That much was the truth.”
“Feelings alone can’t fix what is broken. Without trust and respect in a relationship, there is nothing left.” She tried to stand and swayed on the spot.
Devlin was quick to help her. She would have pushed him away if she didn’t need him. Her legs felt like they were stuffed with sawdust instead of bone and muscle. She glanced to her right, seeing Graham lying on the tracks with four tranquiliser darts in his chest. Devlin shot to kill.
Her thoughts escaped her. “You killed him.”
“He was possessed. There was no way to reverse it.”
“How would you know?”
He stopped at the platform and helped her get onto it. Once he climbed up, he seemed to struggle with his words as concern and revulsion fleeted across his typically blank face. “Falcon did studies on the possessed modded for years. The result
s indicate that once the possession occurs in them, they cannot reverse it, no matter how long it takes.”
She rolled her eyes. Of course, Falcon had their finger in that pie. “And how long did your experiments last? How many modded had to suffer because of them?”
Devlin glared at her. “This was for their sake, too, Annalise. They were willing subjects who signed an agreement.” He grasped her by the shoulders, his fingers digging into her arms. “Can you not see that? Not all of Falcon is bad. We are a large organisation, and we do what we can to keep this city stable. Without our control, the modded would level this place to the ground.”
She pushed him back with everything she had, making him stumble backwards. “They’re not savage dogs you need to keep in check. They are people, like you and me!”
“I didn’t mean it—”
Devlin was interrupted by Jamen and Calla bursting in with three DPD officers behind them. The detectives rushed to their side.
Jamen visibly tried to hide his disgust of Devlin as he said to Annalise, “Where is the possessed beast? Did he get away?”
She pointed to the tunnel. “He’s on the tracks. Devlin shot him.”
The two detectives nodded and indicated for the officers to follow them into the tunnel with their flashlights on.
Devlin offered Annalise his arm for support. Avoiding him, she managed to drag her feet to the wall and sat down on the ground. She rested her head against the cold concrete. Closing her eyes, she focused on the ongoing conversation in the tunnel. Graham was confirmed dead, and, for some reason, she didn’t feel good about it. Her life was in danger. He could have killed her with ease by snapping her neck or ripping her head off, but her heart just contained sadness. Another person was dead on her watch. If she hadn’t pushed him over the edge, would they be able to catch him? She buried her face in her hands to hide the tears that blurred her vision.
Case: 1: A Dystopian Mystery (Annalise Storm Chronicles Book 2) Page 18
