“I don-” I cut off Cinjin’s protest with a quick kiss.
“You might not, but your other half lives for this sort of thing and isn’t used to sitting in the background for this long. It might be better to let him get a few shots in now so he’s more willing to let you take point later when you need to, don’t you think? A little give and take?”
Slade sighs. “You can’t go in there alone.”
“You really think Bo would stay behind? Kaige is hanging back, too, so they can come with me while you guys blow off some steam. Sound good?”
Pulling me in for a quick kiss, Cinjin jogs off to back up his twin as some guy lands a hard kick to Reid’s side that makes me wince. “Sounds good, sweet girl.”
Seamlessly transitioning, Bo shakes out his hand and leaves his unconscious victim behind as he and Kaige appear at my side, the latter holding the door open for me as we enter the warehouse. It’s a massive, open space, but in chaotic disarray. On one end, the metal walls are coated in black char marks that reach nearly to the ceiling. By the acrid stench that makes my nose wrinkle, they clearly haven’t accepted yet that no amount of cleaner is strong enough to remove the chemical smell from the explosions the other day. Honestly, I think the couple of guys scrubbing at it are making it worse.
Boden brings the back of his hand to his nose with a grimace. “Fucking hell, what’s this drug made of? Ammonia and skunk ass?”
Kaige coughs before grimacing and covering his mouth. “Toss in a few hundred rotten eggs and a bottle of old-lady perfume, and you nailed it.”
There are several long lines of tables stretched out on the other side of the warehouse with various crates, one of which I catch a brief glimpse of being loaded with a final few syringes before a lid is placed on top. Meeting a set of narrowed eyes, the guy holds my gaze as he nails the lid shut. Surprised at the hostility being thrown my way instead of the guys’, I watch him for another few seconds, but he breaks our stare off first. Taking the crate, he walks away to add it to the small stack in the corner.
Taking it all in again, along with the various machines that I couldn’t identify to save my soul, I look at the dozens of men around me in a new light. For all intents and purposes, it appears that everything is lacking out here; resources, empathy, and education. The fact that they’re able to actually engineer and experiment with this drug is... strange, to put it kindly. Not that I’m calling anyone out here dumb, but it’s not like they have the freedom to take college courses to train them in this sort of thing, or even internet to study at home. It’s possible that it’s a benefit of having a better rapport with the evil dictator running this place, but something about it still feels... off.
As the nearest man demands, “What the hell is going on?” it sets off a chain reaction so anyone that hadn’t noticed our arrival yet certainly does so now.
Plastering a smile on my face, I hitch a thumb over my shoulder to indicate the bag on my back. “Came to drop off breakfast for my dads.” A pang of sadness lances through me, but a selfish part of me needed to say it one final time before I lost that, too.
The muffled sound of shouting outside as the brawl escalates draws their attention to the closed door, and a few men jog past us to investigate while another few start sizing up Kaige and Boden, completely dismissing me as a potential threat. Sure, a small part of me is worried about the guys outside; always will be. But after the sort of things we’ve been through, a fistfight with a handful of men might actually be what they need to take the edge off as we hurry up and wait for things to come to a head.
A necessary evil to keep the peace, ironically enough.
Because even if Ash isn’t lying and he has a way to exorcise our demons without killing us... they’re going to be sticking around. I claimed them as much as their human counterparts, and when we made our game plan before stepping foot outside of the cabin, they got a vote, too. No matter the outcome with Ash, so long as we’re still breathing in the end, we’ll need to figure out how to live with our demons one way or another.
It’s easier from the outside looking in, to help the guys come to terms with theirs, but this is one thing I really have to do on my own.When this is done, I want you to show me what happened. No twisting truths for sympathy, no secrets or games; give me this one thing, okay? You owe me that much, at least.
Beneath the surface of my skin, she stills, her voice taking on a lamenting edge as she whispers,“Deal, but I need you to understand something before I show you.”
And what’s that?
“I would do it again in a heartbeat, even knowing now how things went awry.”
Though her confession makes my nerves settle in my stomach uncomfortably, I’m grateful for it. Painful truthsareuncomfortable, so it adds validity to her claim.
“If you’d be so kind as to point me in the right direction,” I trail off questioningly.
He scowls. “They’re busy, and don’t want you here.”
By some miracle I manage not to flinch, but damn; that one stung.
Kaige’s voice is deadly calm. “Who the fuck do you-” but I set a hand on his arm to stop him.
With a bitter smile that fractures more with every passing second, I shrug it off. “To be fair, I don’t want to be here either. But-” My eye twitches and I give up the pretense of civility as it becomes abundantly clear that he isn’t listening to a damn word coming out of my mouth. After his curt dismissal, his gaze has turned to lobbying between the guys, the door, and my chest.
Before Bo can cave his face in, I consider it a perfect opportunity to test it out and pull the taser out of my back pocket, finding a complete lack of empathy as I fire. The barbs latch onto his stomach and he drops, convulsing from the shock, and I turn to Kaige with a massive fucking grin.
“Well, this is going to become alarmingly addictive.”
With a snort, he says, “Stop being so attractive in public.”
Pressing the trigger again to send another jolt of electricity into the guy, I hold his stare. His laughter mingles with Bo’s as the latter steals it from me and takes point on yanking the barbs out of the guy. Ignoring the various shouts and curses, I hone in on Merrick immediately as he storms out of a makeshift office on the non-exploded half of the warehouse.
“What the hell is all of the-” he cuts off mid-sentence at the sight of me, quickly taking in my bedraggled form and shooting condemning glares at Bo and Kaige, but it’s Tony that he addresses, zeroing in on his place instantly despite the way the poor guy is trying to fly under the radar. “Explain. Now.”
