by Gray Holborn
Steeling myself, I turned away from Wade, eyes locking on Atlas again. “He will be okay, Atlas.”
I hoped so, anyway. Desperately.
I breathed in and out, steadying myself. “I know he will.”
I didn’t.
Atlas met my gaze and his shoulders dropped, like I’d taken a huge weight off of him, just by choosing to be positive. It was a strange sensation, and I didn’t know what to make of the sudden shift between us—a new understanding, maybe?
After a few seconds, lingering in the brief relief, Atlas shook his head. “You should go, Bentley. I won’t tell anyone you were down here, but you need to go now. And from now on, you need to follow the rules. No more butting into things that don’t concern you. Insubordination is how people get hurt,” he glanced towards his brother again, almost unconsciously, “not following protocol gets people killed.”
I nodded and, without another word, opened the door and left Atlas alone in the room with his brother.
As soon as I closed the door, I saw through the window that he was moving back to Wade’s side. He gripped his brother’s hand gently before sliding back into his chair, head ducking low, elbows digging into his thighs. The two of them were so different. I knew that they were only half brothers, but they seemed so opposite, both in appearance and personality. How did that happen?
I found myself desperate to know more about them, curiosity tugging behind my navel like an angry fishhook. What was it about these brothers that drew me in so much? Wade—Wade made sense. He was warm and open, intelligent and kind. But Atlas was all hard edges and cruel lines; the type of guy I should want to distance myself from at all costs.
My curiosity was irrelevant. Atlas had made himself clear, butting into Six matters would get me in a world of trouble and I had enough things to worry about right now.
Slowly, I turned. I would go, yes, but I wasn’t going back to bed. Following rules was not going to be one of my strong suits while living in this world. Especially not when I was already down here and had another friend I needed to visit.
Chapter Four
Atlas
I closed the door after Max left and fell into the metal frame with all of my weight, relying on it to keep me standing. Watching Wade breathe, his chest rising and falling in erratic patterns felt like torture. We’d lost so much already. I couldn’t do this without him here. What was the fucking point?
And I hated the way that she made me forget, for just one second, what I was and what had happened. Her scent lingered in the room, and I breathed through my mouth to keep from sinking into it. There was a lull there, a peaceful promise of what could be, if things weren’t how they were. That way lay danger, so I didn’t let myself float in the possibilities for long. There were far more important things to consider.
I sat down next to Wade’s bed and grabbed his hand. He’d be okay. And when he woke up, we’d get back to the hunt—we’d get our revenge. This was the second time now that this particular pack of wolves had taken something important from us. It had to be stopped.
And, Max, well—we needed to keep her as far from us as possible. She was pure and good and naive. She didn’t belong in The Guild Academy. Hell, she didn’t belong in The Guild period. This place would ruin her like it had ruined all of us.
All it did was take.
She needed to go back to that miserable small town she’d come from, whether she wanted to or not. I knew that Cyrus and Seamus had charged us with looking after her, but maybe it was time to convince her to leave, to go back. She wasn’t safe here and we weren’t able to protect her in the way that they wanted us to. I didn’t like the way that my crew responded to her, watching every breath she took. We were all curious about her, and it was going to cost us. We couldn’t afford to split our focus, the stakes were just far too high right now.
As soon as I settled my heartrate back down to an acceptable pace, the door flung open with a resounding crash. Cyrus barged in, dark eyes blazing, followed by an equally irate Seamus. Generally Seamus was the more easygoing of the two, but there was an aggressiveness clouding him today that made the brothers look more alike than they generally did.
Cyrus scanned the room, his feral, intelligent eyes taking everything in before they finally settled on Wade. His brows bent down slightly in concern as he took a few steps closer, studying Wade’s steady heartbeat along with all of the numbers the machines hooked to him were spitting out. “Max was just here, wasn’t she?” He didn’t even bother looking at me as he asked the question, though he made it sound more like an observation. “That infernal girl follows rules about as well as an acorn reads.”
I sat up, back straight as a rod as I looked towards the door. Had she made it back to her room yet? If she moved quickly, she was probably back, tucked away in her bedroom, lulled into sleep. For some reason, I didn’t want to rat her out, didn’t want to admit that there was some misguided part of her that was just as drawn to my team members as they were to her. Admitting it would make it real, make it so much more difficult to ignore or brush aside.
“Don’t look so shellshocked, boy,” Cyrus said, his voice a low grumble that practically sent vibrations through the room. He pressed two lean fingers against Wade’s pulse as if he didn’t trust the electronic readouts. Curiosity flashed across his features. What did he see that I couldn’t? “I know the girl well enough to know she’s going around sticking her nose into things. I saw her follow us out to the clearing earlier. I’ve learned over the years that sometimes it’s better to ignore her actions rather than encourage her by straight up telling her no. Insufferably stubborn, that girl.”
I frowned, glancing at Seamus. He was studying Cyrus, face dark in thought. For some reason I had a feeling that he was having trouble looking me in the eye. Seamus had been like a father to me, in more ways than my own had. Part of me was shocked that he wasn’t offering words of comfort right now. Maybe he was just relieved that Eli wasn’t the one sitting here in the bed, unconscious and hooked up to machines. I couldn’t blame him. Familial bonds did weird things to you sometimes. Grief was a bitch.
“I sent her back to her room, sir,” I mumbled, staring at the steady rise and fall of Wade’s chest. I’d never been so focused on someone’s breathing before, like I was terrified that at any moment, it would stop. How long would he be out like this?
Cyrus bit back a grin, his eyes lighting up briefly with fondness, or something like it. “I doubt it.” He leaned up against the wall, no doubt resting some of the weight off his leg. “If I know her half as well as I think I do, she’ll be sneaking down into that damn research lab again, to check on that damn hound. Stubborn, stubborn girl.”
Right. In all of the chaos of the past week, I almost forgot about the hellhound. And about the fact that Max seemed hellbent on breaking that thing out of here. The rooms were secure enough that I didn’t think her infrequent visits were that big of a concern. It wasn’t like she was at risk of being attacked down there, so long as protocol was observed, and the creatures were locked away properly. But still, something about her being down there by herself didn’t sit right with me. Maybe Declan’s paranoia about the labs was starting to settle over me these days. Shit like that was annoyingly contagious and Declan and I always seemed to be on similar wavelengths.
The hellhound was another thing I needed more information about. Why was it here and why was it so drawn to Max? I could feel curiosity battling with my desire to keep her at arm's length. I cleared my throat, glancing between the two men. “If it would help, my team—we can doctor the footage. That way we can monitor her visits and make sure she doesn’t get into trouble.” Or at least slightly less trouble than she would be in otherwise.
I wasn’t sure why I offered it. Maybe if someone took her stolen key card back and chastised her a few times, she’d learn. The girl needed to fall in line. I wasn’t sure that I shared Cyrus’s desire to turn the other cheek and pretend to ignore her bad habits.
Cyr
us glanced briefly in my direction, an unreadable expression on his face. Truthfully, most of his expressions were unreadable. The guy was a damn vault ninety percent of the time. It was kind of infuriating, if I was being honest.
“That would be ideal. If,” he paused, nodding to his brother, “we are all agreed that it’s okay to ignore this one minor insurrection?”
Seamus opened his mouth as if to dissent, his hands perched sharply on his hips. It was strange, watching the brothers together. For so much of my life here at Headquarters, Seamus had been top dog. He didn’t have to answer to anyone, and he was intimidating in his own right. But Cyrus seemed to have an edge when it came to their decisions.
“I have a feeling that she’ll be more likely to follow most of our rules if we let her think she’s getting away with just this one thing,” Cyrus added, effectively stopping his brother’s protest before it even started.
“Fine,” Seamus bit out. “But it’s on you two to handle. I’m on thin ice as it is, so I can’t be bothered taking risks on something so superficial.” He turned to me, arching a single brow. “I’m sorry son, I know you’re probably exhausted, but we need to go over what happened out there.”
Right. We had discussed the basics over the phone on the flight back, and even more briefly upon our arrival. But the time between finding Wade and running into Max had felt almost like a daze, like I was there, experiencing the events, but also like I wasn’t. What had I already reported on? What more was there?
I was silent for a long, stretched moment, thinking back over the night. “Like I mentioned before, we saw a group of vampires and werewolves working together. There were at least ten. We think Wade took on four solo, as impossible as that sounds, and Dec and I had the other six. It’s possible there were more but—” I choked back anxiety, remembering that room bathed in blood and corpses, Wade impossibly still. I needed to call our father, but I wanted desperately to wait until Wade woke up, until I had positive news to share. Calling him would signal a shift, a shift I was desperate to avoid as long as possible. Breathing deeply, I focused back on the two men before me. “When we found Wade, we couldn’t stay to explore. His situation was dire,” I cleared my throat and shook the haziness from my thoughts, “obviously.”
Generally, we were supposed to bring back any of our conquests, dead or alive—although ideally alive. The beasts in the labs were brought here by different team missions, it was how we learned about the creatures in the hell realm, how we found their weaknesses. And this batch of monsters would have been particularly useful. Especially since, if my research was correct, I was quite certain it was the pack of wolves that had taken down Sarah.
And now that they were working with other species, they were even more valuable for study. If it had been anyone else, anyone but Wade, I probably would have followed protocol. Stuck around for those extra few minutes, to try and collect at least a specimen or two. But in that moment, all I could see was red, my every thought clouded by fear that he wouldn’t make it. Every moment counted. And his life would take precedence. Every single time.
“I’m sorry,” I added, and I meant it. I would have liked to be the sort of protector capable of turning off, of being capable of that sort of emotional numbing. It was invaluable in this line of work. But I wasn’t that protector, not anymore. I’d been watching over Wade for as long as I could remember. It was the one consistency in my life. He was my weakness in a world where it was important to have none.
Seamus reached over to me, softly squeezing my shoulder. I blinked, choking back any emotion whirling in my gut. It was such a paternal gesture, filled with a sort of understanding and forgiveness that I wasn’t used to from my own father.
“It’s okay, son. I would have done the same thing if it were Eli. If it were any of you.” He exhaled sharply, glancing towards Cyrus, the room momentarily filled with nothing but the soft beeps and whirls of the machines. They were comforting in their own way. “But we need to know any information you have. This is the first we’ve heard of different species working together like this. Vamps and wolves especially, they’re generally so territorial. There have been so many shifts recently that it feels like we’re constantly behind the curve, trying to figure out each situation as it changes. And then there’s Wade.”
I looked back at my brother, his smooth, brown skin clear now that the staff had washed away most of the stray streaks of blood. If I allowed myself, momentarily I could pretend that he was just asleep.
“They’re not sure what’s wrong with him,” Cyrus said as he ran a large hand through his unruly mop of hair. “He’s just...unconscious. Vitals are mostly normal, considering the blood loss. We just have to hope that he wakes up and, if he does, we go from there. It’s highly unusual and we’re at a bit of an impasse.”
I bristled at the way he said ‘if,’ as if he was convinced it wouldn’t happen, that Wade would be in a coma forever or else slowly slip away, halfway to ghosthood. Supernatural bites were unpredictable a lot of the time, but I’d never heard of them doing this, pushing the protector into an odd, sleep-like daze, as if frozen or suspended in time.
“Either way,” Seamus said, letting out an exasperated, hollow sigh, “what happened today changes everything.”
Chapter Five
Max
I grabbed the keycard I’d swiped during my first visit to the infirmary from the pocket in the waistband of my legging—seriously, whoever came up with legging with pockets and zippered compartments was a freaking genius—and made my way down the familiar path, determined to see Ralph before I let myself fall asleep for the night. Luckily, the two protectors on night duty were nowhere in sight, having already completed their rounds, so I made my way to the supernatural menagerie with little trouble.
When I crept up to Ralph’s cage in the far corner of the dark room, he whimpered softly—a sad, empty sort of sound—and I watched as his tail lifted an inch before falling again. He seemed so much smaller, so much more defeated since the last time I’d been here. Even his lustrous black hair seemed duller somehow. I felt my eyes blur with moisture.
“Ralph,” I said, racing to press my palm against the glass, as if I could pet him or comfort him through it, “what happened to you?”
He whined again and managed a soft lick where my hand was pressed, a gesture that shattered my heart into pieces.
A harsh laugh echoed behind me and I turned abruptly, coming face-to-face with the vampire from before. He was sitting in a cross-legged position, his unusual eyes—one gold, one dark brown—studying me. I shivered under his scrutiny, drawn to him and repulsed for being so. We hadn’t learned much about vampire compulsion, but I’d bet money this one was a master of it. Vampires were predators, built to be beautiful and lethal. Everything about them was designed to draw their victims in. And this one, well, I had a feeling he was more lethal than most.
“What do you think happened to him, little protector? Protectors happened to him. The Guild happened to him. This place is designed for misery and pain for creatures like us.” The playful, almost teasing tone the vampire had last time I was down here now felt harsh and angry, his words jagged and dripping with fury.
I bristled when he said the word ‘us,’ as if Ralph was anything like him. Ralph, who was giant and gentle? Granted, I didn’t know the hellhound well at all, but I could feel it in my bones that he was safe, warm. And this vampire seemed as far from safe as you could get.
“But I was told they were simply running tests.” I looked back at Ralph. He was sitting up now, and I could tell that he was using all of his energy to try and greet me. In my mind, that had meant a few blood draws, maybe some scans. Nothing quite so debilitating. “Tests shouldn’t leave him this—exhausted.”
The vampire laughed again, the strangely musical sound filtered through a hollow growl. “Do you trust everything the protectors tell you?”
“Seamus wouldn’t lie,” I answered, my chin lifting slightly. I wanted desperately to beli
eve that. “He assured me and Cyrus that Ralph would be safe, that he would be unharmed.” And Cyrus had promised the same. I couldn’t stomach the thought of him lying to me. He’d kept his fair share of secrets, sure, but he never lied unless it was to protect us. I wouldn’t allow myself to consider that he knew what was going on down here, that he knew how completely drained Ralph was.
“Believe what you want, little protector. But they don’t care about the hound. They’ve been running him ragged, hooking him up to all sorts of machines, and keeping him under heavy sedation.” The vampire ran a hand lazily through his wavy, platinum hair, swiping it out of his eyes. I wondered how long he’d been locked up in here, how he was captured and who captured him. There was a stillness about him that unsettled me, like even though he was the one inside a cage, I was the one being closely studied. I shook my head, bringing my focus back to the current issue. The only issue.
What were they testing Ralph for? I didn’t want to believe a word the vamp was saying, but that explained the slow movements and the glazed look in Ralph’s dark eyes. He’d seemed so aware, so intelligent when I was down here last. Now he appeared tranquil and like he was living in a haze.
I opened my mouth, glancing between Ralph and the vampire, and then closed it again. I wanted to stand up for the protectors, to stand up for The Guild and my people, but the words wouldn’t leave my lips, no matter how much I tried to mold them. I was a protector, but I was also like a spectator, observing from the outside without really understanding.
