Chapter 6 #3
I bit my tongue to keep from crying out.
I wasn’t going to give her the pleasure of seeing my pain.
She had intentionally tightened them to the point it was digging into my skin.
She stood up so we were facing each other, her nose nearly touching mine.
She lifted her mask so I could see pure joy and satisfaction in her gaze.
She was an attractive looking female in her late twenties, with startling blue eyes. She would have been beautiful if she wasn’t filled with so much ugly. “I can’t wait to deliver you… Blake Bell.”
One of the men turned, finishing restraining Micah. “She does bear a striking resemblance to her but Blake Bell—”
“She could have been in hiding this whole time!” a muffled younger man’s voice excitedly exclaimed behind his protective mask.
Blake Bell? Wait, what? And what was the guy getting ready to say? There was a reason I didn’t have a price on my head. Had something happened to me?
I looked at my guys and Gavin. It was obvious that they had picked up on something as well.
The leader cut him off before he could finish his statement. “Enough! Let’s roll. Put your protective gear back on, Snyder!”
The woman rolled her eyes and pushed me forward. “I’m fine, Rowe, and we’re the same rank. I don’t need to listen to you. We’re also safe. The rebels ran out of tear gas months ago. But we should get back. I have a hot date tonight!”
She pulled me roughly toward the opened cage door. As we moved passed Perry’s cage he rushed forward and grasped the bars. “If you can go back, you need to!” He earnestly advocated. “Rumor has it that Horatio caused the death of his second daughter and her unborn children.”
I stumbled on my feet at his pronouncement. I was Horatio’s second born daughter and pregnant with twins. Had he put a hit out on me? I knew he was capable of it, and I understood then that he must have, but when or how?
“What? How?” Drake inquired.
“Shut up! All of you!” The leader barked out. “Or I’ll make you shut up!”
Perry desperately called out, clearly not caring about any consequences.
“He made sure she was separated from her healer connection and had some of his people attack them. The person who attacked them was supposed to forcefully remove her children but—” his voice ended in a yelp as three men converged on him and began to attack him.
“No! Perry!” I screamed.
I desperately tried to get to him, wondering what he was going to say next when Snyder yanked me back with my hair. “Move now or I’ll shock you,” she placed the cattle prod against my stomach.
I froze and knew I had to comply. There was no telling what that thing could do to my children. I felt one of them move and knew they were feeling my distress. I looked at my guys and gave them a nod. We had to comply.
We were all drug or carried through the maze of cages. After my third stumble I realized I had to let go of what I just learned and focus on the present. I would have to dissect and reflect on my past dire circumstances later.
I tried to get my heavy limbs to work. Once the heavy steel door was opened, I squinted as the bright light assaulted my gaze. I had to blink several times before my gaze could focus on the three vans situated along the building.
Rowe moved forward and pointed toward the head van. “Put the girls in the first van, the men in the second, and the boys in the last.”
“You can’t separate us,” Noah snarled as he attempted to come toward me.
There was no warning this time as Snyder took out her prod and struck him.
As Noah cried out in pain, his back arching I turned to glare at her.
She grinned at me, knowing he meant something to me.
I was immediately filled with righteous anger for hurting my man.
I quickly took stock in the situation and figured out the best way to seek my retribution.
I impulsively acted as I head butted her with my whole might.
I winced slightly at the pain in my forehead but the sound of the sickening crunch of her nose made it well worth it.
I couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction when she wailed out, clutching her nose.
When her black gloves pulled away from her unprotected face they were coated in blood.
“Guess you should have put back on your mask,” I recklessly goaded.
I had little time to bask in my enjoyment and didn’t see one of the thugs strike out with their baton. I felt the pain in my upper hamstring right below my butt. My knees wanted to buckle as chaos broke out. My men, Neville, Micah, Gavin, and Kade began to fight back.
Noah managed to pull up his knee and strike against one of the captors in his family jewels.
He awkwardly fell forward before falling to his knees and clutching his twigs and berries.
Drake slammed back into his antagonist, causing them to fall against the metal wall behind them.
He threw elbows and donkey kicks behind him.
I even saw Ella biting down on one of the men’s hands.
“The thicker helmets!” I hissed out. “They shield them against the halos.”
Yelps of pain and cursing rang out around me, and I tried to push past my own agony to help when I felt the ground shake beneath me. I let out a startled yelp realizing that one of the gifted must have a gift similar to Terrance’s.
The earth’s movement worked in their favor, and I nearly cried out in frustration when I realized that they had the upper hand on us again. Kade seemed to catch his bearings first and yelled out to Micah.
“Micah, drop!”
Without hesitation I watched Micah drop down onto all fours.
Kade and Jaxson lowered their shoulders simultaneously and struck out with them in one of the larger men’s chests.
His lower legs caught on Micah’s hunched form.
His arms began to flail, attempting to prevent his fall at the same time Kade popped back up and knocked his forehead onto the brim of the man’s helmet.
I nearly whooped with joy when I realized he hadn’t properly latched his helmet, and it came flying off.
Jaxson quickly hunched down and threw it my way with a quickness I would have missed had I not been watching. I realized his intentions and recognized I was the only one capable of grasping it with ease. I dropped down on my knees, the pain in my hamstrings forgotten as I swiped up the helmet.
I had it poised over my head when I felt an electrical current strike my shoulder blades. I stumbled forward screaming out in agony, and peered over my shoulders to see Snyder triumphantly grinning, blood covering her mouth and teeth from the broken nose I had given her.
“I’m going to make you pay for what you did to my nose,” she nasally informed me with a malicious smirk.
With a sense of dread, I realized she was coming back at me with her prod, aiming it toward my belly. I could hear the electricity zap, but before she could connect with my belly the weapon was snatched from her grip.
I nearly cried with relief when I saw a younger looking man had zapped in behind her and now held the weapon.
I blinked and blinked again trying to comprehend what I was looking at.
It was Micah, but it wasn’t. The startled exclamations behind me filtered into my consciousness.
Micah, Kade, and Ella’s words filtered in.
“Holy shit, that’s me.”
“Holy shit, that’s you.”
“Pops’ gonna be mad at you for saying shit.”
It was then I realized it was Micah, Kade, Victoria, Ben, and Shiloh subduing our captors, but they were the future versions of themselves. Victoria stumbled forward, tears coursing down her face.
She was gorgeous and no longer resembled the goth teen I was accustomed to.
I know it was only two years into the future, but they had matured her.
She had grown in height and had curves. She had a confidence in her she hadn’t before.
My gaze raked over the others, cataloguing the differences.
I realized Micah had lost all his baby features and resembled more man than teen.
He was nearly as tall and broad as Remy now.
Kade was still shorter than Micah but taller than he had been, and he now sported a five o’clock shadow and was more muscular.
“Blake it really is you!” Victoria went to reach for me before Ben snaked an arm around her waist.
“We talked about this,” Ben gently reminded her. He gave us an apologetic smile. “We can’t mess with the timeline too much. As much—” his voice caught before he cleared his throat. “As much as we would love to hug you, we shouldn’t.”
Shiloh was systematically removing helmets from some of the now frozen captor’s heads and handing them to us.
“What is going on? Am I really not in this future,” I whispered hoarsely as I took the helmet Shiloh handed me.
“We have to be careful what we say and do.” Older Kade grimaced. “We had less than a two-minute window to do this. Their back up would be here shortly.”
He reached out and seemed to struggle with himself before resolutely grabbing my hands, his eyes bright with tears.
“I lost one sister before, and I refuse to lose you too. I can’t tell you much or it might not work but I need you to know I love you and if we have any hope of succeeding you need to make sure Noah is with you at all times. ”
“What—”Noah began to question before Ben cut him off.
“We shouldn’t say anything more, man. As it is if the others found out we were here, they would have our heads. We’re already messing too much into the timeline. Time to go back Kade.”
A meaningful look passed between my Kade, older Kade, and older Ben.
Again, I was suspicious if Ben, Kade, and Victoria were capable of speaking silently to one another.
If the situation wasn’t so simultaneously mind blowing and shattering, I would be questioning their discovery.
I knew I should be more worried about my past demise, but I was more fascinated by the staggering realization that all three of them were having a silent conversation spanning the timeline.
Things that never occurred to me were flooding my mind.
My Kade nodded before placing his hands on my shoulder. “I’ll try to do my best.” He said aloud.
The other’s crowded in close to us and touched Kade.
I knew we were getting ready to jump back in time.
A huge part of me was ready to return to our timeline, but on the other hand now that I knew I had an expiration date of less than four months I wasn’t too keen on the idea.
How did terminally people continue living life knowing death was imminent?
“Good luck,” Older Micah finally spoke for the first time. “I didn’t say it enough or ever, Blake, but I love you.”
Up until that moment I was trying to keep everything internalized.
I was attempting to put on a brave face so I didn’t overly stress the babies and in the hopes that I could keep my men calm.
For once my hormones hadn’t put me on a roller coast of emotions.
That was until Micah admitted his love for me.
I knew he did but for him to admit it aloud in front of others hit me in the feels.
The sounds of gravel crunching and many vehicles pulling into the parking lot drew our attention and I knew time was up. I wasn’t going to get any more answers or have the ability to say my peace.
“I love you too! We’re going to fix it this time,” I earnestly told Micah.
All my siblings had enough trauma incurred on them and if there was any way to fix any of their suffering I’ll do anything within my power do so.
“If you can, please help Perry. He’s inside!
” I yelled seconds before the future dissipated.