Chapter 17 Mercy #4
Rin heard a shifting sound as the guard turned. Her back was to his where she sat, but she still hid her face away, tone low. "I’ve just been tired."
He laughed. "Not surprising. They sure as fuck run you lot ragged, don’t they? Especially with all of this Project Phoenix bullshit. I heard the Blackfalls are back in town. Everyone’s on their best behavior. Keep your head down, Peraz. Something’s got the bigwigs all riled up."
Rin couldn’t help her curiosity. "Project Phoenix?"
"Damn, you really are tired, huh? Project Phoenix. The experimental super soldier project?" When she was silent, he prodded, "Not ringing any bells?"
She hummed noncommittally.
Just then, red warning sirens pierced the halls, so loud that they rang in her skull.
"Ah, fuck it!" The cart sped up, and they zoomed past the halls until finally it opened up into a wide space filled with a buzz of activity. The red flashing lights were more prominent here.
"A Rogue attack?" The guard questioned sharply as the cart came to a stop. They both got off, and Rin turned to leave, but a heavy hand fell on her shoulder, stopping her. "Where are you going?"
She never had time to answer. A passing guard rushed by, calling, "A guard’s been found above ground. Dead. Rogue attack."
The guard with the hand on her shoulder stilled. "Do they know who yet?" His voice was deadly.
"Peraz," answered the guard, before she swept away with a crew of armed soldiers.
Which left Rin alone with him.
He gripped her chin, yanking her face up to the light. "You’re not Peraz." His hands tightened on her. "Who are you?"
Rin jammed her elbow into his side, her knee slamming into his crotch. He doubled over, and she turned to run.
Her arms pumped as she dodged stacked crates and parked vehicles, heart thundering.
"Hey!" he called. "Stop!"
She kept running.
Something stuck to her back, digging into her flesh through her clothes. A sharp popping sound filled the air, and she dropped, deadweight, slamming into the ground, as electricity zinged through her flesh. Rin seized, muscles locking up as the pulses wracked her body.
Her vision went black, mouth dry. She groaned and stared up, willing her body to move, but it wouldn’t. The guard’s face came into view. His eyes were dark with anger, and he held the taser in his hand, pointed at her.
"Let’s try this again. Who are you?"
Rin spat by his feet. "Fuck… you," she wheezed.
The electricity consumed her until she saw nothing but darkness.
Head pounding, limbs weak, Rin blearily opened her eyes. Her neck ached from its awkward positioning. Her chin brushed her chest, and she felt the warm chain of Kit’s dog tag where it was tangled around her neck—it was barely a comfort here. A groan fell from her dry lips. She coughed weakly.
It all came rushing back to her.
Rin was a fool. What had she been thinking?
She lifted her pounding head, feeling like cinder blocks were tethered to the base of her skull.
She was in a dark room. A tinted window before her. Her forearms were strapped to the armrests at her sides, cuffs around her ankles keeping her legs immobilized. A bright white light burned down over her head, and she squinted, eyes watering.
"Hello!" Rin called, voice breaking as she struggled. She stared right at the mirror before her, and her skin crawled as she imagined someone staring right back at her. "Don’t hide like a coward. Come out and speak to me." She tried to force strength into her voice, but it trembled nevertheless.
A door at her side hissed open, and she struggled to make out much through the light shining down over her, obscuring her vision.
Boots clicked over the dark tile floor, and a scent wrapped around her, teasing her. She breathed it in, wondering where she’d smelled it before.
Through the blinding white light, a form came into view.
A dark bodysuit, gleaming in the light as if it were a second skin.
It reached the very tips of his fingers, covering him up to his neck.
His shoulders were broad, blocking out the sight of the mirror behind him.
Her narrowed eyes trailed up, temples throbbing from the ache of the light and lingering electricity from the taser. Bile burned the back of her throat.
What?
No.
No, no, no.
This was a dream. It had to be.
Rin was still unconscious, writhing from the stun of the taser. They’d injected her with something. She was asleep in bed with Rhyden, having a terrible, godawful nightmare.
Her mind grasped for scenarios, unable to focus on the truth before her.
"Hello, Vesperin," the man said.
And Rin broke. "Kit?"
Rin’s chest heaved as Kit stepped closer.
"Kit," she gasped. "You’re—you’re here. You’re alive!"
He stared and stared—but never met her eyes—his soft brown gaze harder than she’d ever recalled. His once familiar expression, always filled with affection… Rin saw none of that now. No kindness, no life. It was like staring at a ghost.
Kit looked at her like he wanted to kill her.
She strained against her bindings, feeling the unforgiving cuffs cut into her arms and legs.
"Kit? Kit, please—talk to me," Rin begged. "Look at me!" Because Kit did not truly meet her eyes.
Those cold eyes fell to her face. Finally, Rin had his full attention—she realized she didn’t want it.
Dangerous. He was dangerous. Deadly violence simmered, honed strength in every movement. It was in the way he held himself. Each movement was etched with precision. Like he was constantly being tested.
She’d never seen this kind of single-minded focus from him before.
He was a stranger with a familiar face.
"You should not be here," Kit said, and his voice was so hard.
Rin flinched, feeling it cut her deep to the bone.
"What do you mean? Why are you here, Kit?
What happened to you? I thought you were dead.
We had a funeral—" Jumbled-up words spewed from her trembling lips, stilled only when he loomed closer.
So close, she breathed him in, finding his once-airy scent undercut with a tang of metal, and something else. Like—like grease?
"I do not know what you are talking about."
Rin stared at his throat as he spoke, watching the line of it bob beneath the tight neckline of his black bodysuit, which cuffed up to his Adam’s apple.
Kit reached for something by her side. His forearm brushed her cheek. Hard. Unforgiving. The warmth she remembered wasn’t there—only steel beneath the skin. Her stomach twisted.
His skin was paler than she remembered, too, like he hadn’t been in the light.
"Where have you been?" she cried.
He pulled away slightly, dark tangles in his gloved hands. "Stop talking."
Rin lowered her voice. "Are you in trouble? Is that what this is? I know," she stressed, "about your parents. Have they done this to you? Have they hurt you?"
Something in her words made his cold, dead eyes spark with unfathomable violence. In a flash, Kit reached out, dropping the tangles of wires on the floor as he gripped her neck, squeezing. She wheezed, fingers curling on the armrests, unable to move with the cuffs.
Her lips parted, dragging in any air she could. He squeezed tighter. Darkness speckled her vision the longer he choked her. She wheezed a moan, and he slammed her harder against the chair. She felt the metal of the chair dig into her skull and spine.
Kit got right in her face, brows drawn low, pale skin gleaming under the white light burning down on them both. The strength in his arms was indescribable.
"Please," she mouthed, unable to speak.
Kit’s eyes narrowed, and he released her—just enough for her to suck in precious air. He cupped her neck, fingers flexing in warning as he said without inflection, "Nothing was done to me. I was nowhere…" He tilted his head, released her, then stepped back.
As Kit stared down at her, she let her eyes slip shut as she drank in air, wishing that when she opened them back up, she would find herself curled up with Lucien.
Even Rhyden’s revenge would be better than here.
When her lungs were full enough for her to speak, she rasped, "I grieved you. We all did. I thought—" She bit her tongue so hard blood filled her mouth—she kept her thoughts to herself, afraid he’d snap again.
But the words were just there, lingering:
I thought your parents killed you.
Kit bent to pick up the wires. He untangled them, holding up an electrode.
When he faced her again, his tone was cool.
"You should not have grieved me, Vesperin.
I am ungrievable." He reached forward with a free hand, sweeping her tangled, messy white hair that had fallen from her bun away from her face. "I am your nightmare."
The words sent a shiver down her aching spine, but his tone was utterly cold. Robotic.
It made her want to hit him and rage—anything for a reaction.
Rin’s neck strained as she jerked forward, restrained by her cuffs. "No, you’re not. You are Kit. Kiton Blackfall. My best friend, my—my brother. My protector."
His hand shifted, ghosting over the side of her face until his pointer finger pressed right between her brows, forcing her back against the chair. Rin jolted, forehead throbbing from that singular touch.
"Kit, you’re too strong…"
He pulled away from her, then began to attach the electrodes to her temples methodically. When his hands gripped the neckline of her stolen shirt, he didn’t even look at her as he tore it roughly down the middle, exposing her bare chest to the cold air. Her breasts were revealed to him entirely.
"What are y-you doing?" Rin stuttered.
Kit didn’t answer as he placed the electrodes on her chest. His knuckles brushed her nipples, and she jolted as if he’d shocked her. He moved lower, to the waistband of her cargo pants.
"No—stop."
He didn’t stop.