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Can’t see her eyes clearly underneath the foggy goggles, but her lips form a thin white line. I’m still searchin’ for signs a’ deceit as she says, “It’s not a favor for you. It’s for Echo. She’s in trouble.”
Rage pummels through every inch a’ me. I open my mouth and my jaw distends, the bones rearranging themselves. My hand follows my jaw’s lead and starts to grow fur, becoming more beast than man. Merlin swallows hard, drawing my attention to her throat. I snatch it and lift until her feet hover off of the ground, kickin’ uselessly, and her face turns beet red.
I hiss, “She’s at home in bed where she needs to be. If you think for a second that I believe anythin’ comin’ outta your lyin’ mouth, you’re a fuckin’ fool.”
One of the Trash City fucks who hasn’t had his weapons confiscated yet comes at me with the barrel of his gun lifted. I lunge out and grab it, rip it out of his hand and toss Merlin to the ground. She’s coughin’ and chokin’ but still aware enough to know what’s comin’ next.
“No! Don’t!” In the exact same spot she shot Echo, I fire. Her scream rips through the day and brings the night. Seems darker when I next blink and I recognize that I’ve shrunk back down into my Alpha skin, leavin’ my Berserker behind. Rain slaps at my cheeks. The world feels unsteady beneath my feet.
“You believe these scavengers a liability?” Yaron asks, voice flat but not bored.
“Thousand percent. And this fucker right here can’t be trusted for shit.”
Merlin writhes on the ground, the scavengers behind her lookin’ less worried than they should. I recognize a couple of ‘em and, when I look up and make eyes with the doc, I snarl. The coward that he is, he ducks behind the taller woman standin’ to his left.
“We should kill all of ‘em.”
“Then you’ll never get to her in time,” Merlin pants. “Lou! Get your ass over here.” The coward does as he’s ordered and starts patchin’ up her shoulder only this time he’s usin’ clean packets of gauze and sterile tools all marked with Dark City’s logo — shitIfuckin’ traded her.
“She’s not lying, you know.” I look left. Angel. The medic girl. I never got a good read on her… I still don’t. “Echo was lied to. The witch in the woods is leading her to her death.”
“Fuck you. The Dark City Omega is in her bed where she’s supposed to be.”
“We’re just telling you what we know. What we heard, anyway.” She shrugs, like she doesn’t have a care under the goddamn sun. “The rest is up to you.”
Yaron’s boots crunch over the ground as he steps up behind me. “This one speaks with an honest timbre,” he says, speaking so low only I can hear him. “If she is lying, she does not know it.”
I’m troubled by the same thought. My chest is heavin’, like my skin is stretched too thin across it. “Whiskey!” I roar, callin’ for the rest of my Six along with ‘er. Needin’ ‘em. I turn and see her already on the satellite phone a few paces away. Vi holds up both hands as if to ask for me to settle, maybe ask for more time. I can’t figure out which and I can’t manage either.
My heels are tappin’ out a frantic beat in the mud and my heart. My heart…
Whiskey turns to me, eyes round in her face like the two oversized button eyes of a doll. They’re chilling. “Ward… I got Ward on the line. She says Echo’s gone.”
My blood slows and I collapse into my open grave then let the dirt shower over me. I blink and realize my body hasn’t moved — just my spirit. Yaron at my side asks the question I don’t want him to.Failure.“Why would an Omega traverse Paradise Hole without a guard?”Unworthy.
“She’s lookin’ for somebody,” I whisper.
“Beta family?”
“No. A man in a cave…”
“Did you say cave?” Merlin blurts, voice loud and oddly stilted.
I nod, the urge to run her through strong, though not as strong as the urge to tear out my own heart. Echo is too far away from me.
“Then we know where she’s gonna be. If she meant a cave, and not just some hole in the dirt — a proper cave — then there’s only one outside of the southern cave systems near Ruby City. Only one over by Trash City.” She speaks between labored breaths, her gaze hot on mine and filled with anger that contradicts every helpful thing she’s sayin’ as Lou finishes stitchin’ her whole. The blood on her shoulder is incriminatin’ and so is the violence in her eyes. She’s lyin’. Know she is. Maybe not about what she’s sayin’ but about somethin’.
But I don’t have any other leads.
I narrow my gaze and approach her, and the Beta insults me by not backin’ down. She holds my eyeline until I grab her by the neck, bruises already formin’ where I grabbed her moments ago. “You hurt her in any way, or take any part in whatever the man in the cave is plannin’ — or the witch — I will take you back to Dark City, hold you in a cell, take you apart piece by piece and leave you to choose between starvation and eating your own flesh.”
Her eyes flash with heat and her hands twitch. Her lips pull into her mouth and she finally looks away. There’s fear there. Lies. Deception. Hate. I don’t know what piece Merlin’s got on the board, but I don’t want her to fuckin’ play. She cheats.
“You want to reroute and go for your Omega,” Yaron says.
“Yes.”
Yaron waits a long beat. His voice is even when he speaks and his words surprise me. “It would be best not to separate our forces as my reinforcements have not yet arrived. We will join you in this but only with the guarantee that, immediately afterward, we root out Berserker Maengor…”
