Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
CASSIDY
As soon as I release Bellamy, I look around at the insanity going on around me for a moment before locking back in. I’m not trying to get stabbed or shot due to not paying attention.
I’ll take the chaos around me and use it to my advantage. There’s not one moment where I think to see if I recognize someone, I’m focused on getting us off this godforsaken stage and out of this fucking bunker.
Bellamy is able to walk, and he pulls out the gag in disgust, throwing it at the alpha I stabbed. The idiot fell back when I threw my knife at his throat, and only death stares back at me now.
Thank goodness for small mercies. Being crushed by a dead alpha fucking sucks.
“Can you help Winter?” I ask carefully, seeing the anger in Bellamy’s face.
“Yes,” he growls.
“Take the knife,” I say. He looks angry enough to think he can kill them with his bare hands, and he doesn’t have the strength to do that with how exhausted we all are.
Handing it to him after I pull the knife out of the alpha on the ground, I stop as a gun clatters onto the stage.
Looking in the direction it came from, my eyes widen as I see a brunette woman nod at me before shooting one of the men near her in the head.
Thankful for the assist, I pick up the gun, remove the safety, and shoot the alpha in front of Winter.
He’s pulling out of her mouth while she screams and wriggles to get free. She hears the noise around her and gunshots, and it’s putting her into a panic. If it was me, I’d feel the same way.
The alpha hurting Winter finally realizes how fucked he is a little too late, and he falls back onto the ground, dead as a door nail. Releasing Winter’s arms, I kiss her temple before I begin to kill everyone on the stage.
I trust Bellamy to do the rest.
“Cassidy!” Bellamy yells, shaking my arm to pull me out of my haze of anger. “They’re dead. Help me with Winter.”
She’s weaving on her legs, understandably in shock with everything that’s happened to us. The breaking of the bonds still hurts, but the only thing keeping me going is the fact that my omegas are alive. Killing everyone responsible for hurting us is also a motivating force.
I’m still floored that Jake helped me, even if that small bit of remorse won’t help him when I get my hands on him.
Bellamy and I wrap an arm around Winter’s waist while keeping our weapons in our free hands, and walk as quickly as possible to the stairs. I can’t see Madam Clara anywhere, yet that doesn’t mean she’s not around here somewhere.
Then again, she could have decided to cut and run like the snake she is.
People are fighting and yelling all around us, however, I’m not planning to stop for long enough to see why. We need to get the fuck out of here.
“Cassidy!”
“Did you hear that?” I rasp. The walk down the stairs was painful at best, and I can feel myself bleeding from very questionable places. My throat hurts, and I expect to be sore for longer than I’d like. Every ache is just another reminder of what we’ve been through.
None of us escaped unscathed.
“Ansel…” Winter breathes.
Just hearing his voice almost breaks me as I gasp in a breath. They came for us.
Craning my neck to find him despite how much everything hurts, I continue to move toward the side so we’re out of the way of the fighting.
“You stupid bitch! You ruined everything!”
Clara jumps at me, and her weight makes all of us fall to the ground.
I hit my hip hard as she lands on me, gasping as she shoves a knife into my side.
Using my gun in tight quarters is difficult because I don’t want to kill her yet, and I don’t want to hurt my omegas.
Death is too good for her, so I pistol whip her in the face instead.
Clara’s head whips to the side from the blow, and I feel my bloodlust rise inside of me as I hit her again. I’ve been pistol whipped before. It doesn’t fucking feel good.
“Get off her!” Bellamy snarls, scrambling up as he yanks her off me by the hair. Clara’s long dress tangles in her legs, helping to keep her uncoordinated as she complains.
“Careful,” I wheeze, my head falling onto the ground as I see that his blood slicked hand still has my knife. He holds it against her throat while she remains on her knees, and she inhales sharply. “If you alpha bark them, you will regret it, Clara.”
“Cassidy, what the fuck?” Ansel says, helping me up while he keeps his eyes on Clara.
He hasn’t noticed the knife in my side yet, and I’ll happily continue to distract him until I have to say something.
“Nevermind me,” I grunt, angling my body away from him. “She needs to be put on ice.”
“Greig!” Ansel roars to be heard over everyone, making me wince.
Winter stands, her eyes on her stepbrother as he holds tightly to Clara.
As I shift my weight, Bellamy and Winter glance at the knife in my side, their equally mismatched eyes wide, and I shake my head slightly. I’ll deal with it all soon. From Bellamy’s eye color to the trauma we’ve all gone through. I know from experience that it doesn’t just disappear.
The blood slides slowly down my skin since the blade was so slim and it’s pushed deep into my side.
As soon the knife is pulled out, I’ll bleed like a stuck pig.
“Sir,” Greig says, walking quickly over to us. “Oh shit.”
His eyes drop to the ground, and he pulls his shirt off quickly.
“Do you mind if I give this to Cassidy, sir? I’ll do whatever is needed. I just don’t want you to shoot me,” he mutters.
Ansel sighs as he puts his bag at his feet and pulls off his jacket before bundling Winter into it. The jacket is huge due to his height, but once it’s zipped, she’s fully covered.
I can see there’s something wrong with Ansel from the deepness of his voice to the twitchiness in his body. The reason I didn’t immediately recognize him when he yelled my name out was because of how different he sounded.
I’m not worried about clothes right now anyway. I’ve been naked for days, it hardly bothers me now.
Especially not with a knife wound. I have bigger fish to fry at the moment.
“I’m fine, but thank you,” I tell Greig, watching as he nods and puts his shirt back on.
Ansel is definitely capable of snapping his neck if my scent were to change due to wearing his shirt.
“Please remove the woman my omega is holding. She’s responsible for taking us. Don’t kill her. I have plans for her.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Greig says, doing his best to keep his eyes anywhere but on Bellamy and I before hauling Clara away.
Ansel yanks his shirt off next, and I hand it to Bellamy.
“Cass.”
“Nope. Put it on, Bellamy,” I sigh, feeling myself burning through the adrenaline in my body.
“Fuck. I’ll need help getting you all out anyway,” Ansel says, turning to look for someone. “Abbott! Get your ass over here.”
Abbott’s footsteps thunder down the steps of the stage, and I realize he was looking for me.
“Hey,” he rasps, rubbing his cheek with his free hand. His other one is holding a firearm that he quickly puts away. There’s deep lines in his face that weren’t there before and he pulls off his jacket so I can put it on.
It hits at the top of my thighs as I zip it up, but it’s better than before.
“You can play hero by getting us out of here, baby,” I say, feeling better now that the knife wound is covered.
“Cassidy,” Winter hisses at me.
“It’ll keep,” I tell her.
“What’s going on?” Abbot asks, looking around at us.
He moves closer to hug me, but I raise my hand to stop him. I don’t want to break yet, and there’s things that I need to say before I pass out.
My nerves feel raw, my body exhausted, and I can’t accept comfort yet. Bellamy wraps his arms around Winter tightly, and Ansel gives them both a hug together.
I just…can’t do it yet.
“Nothing much,” I lie. “Someone needs to tell Shiloh to watch out for an omega with black hair. She broke our bonds.”
“You’re lying about something, but I can’t tell what,” Abbott grumbles, his nostrils flaring as he scents the air. “Who’s bleeding? I really need to hug you all, but not if I’m going to hurt you.”
“I’m pretty sure we’re all bleeding somewhere,” I shrug.
I noticed earlier that Bellamy’s wounds had been plugged with some kind of spackle to keep him from bleeding everywhere. Can’t ruin the aesthetic of the prize omega, after all.
“Abbott, get Shiloh. Now,” I growl.
Climbing onto the stage, he finds Shiloh gets his attention before returning.
“What’s the plan?” I ask, ignoring the headache I feel. “Why do you have that bag?”
Ansel watches me for a long moment while Abbott answers me.
“Explosives,” he replies. “Now, what are you lying about?”
“Not yet.” The words serve as a warning for Bellamy and Winter not to tell on me, as well as to show that I want to see Shi first.
I didn’t think I was going to get out of here. I want to see my best friend, goddamnit.
Blinking hard, I realize that I’m crying. Shit. Bellamy and Winter begin to cry relief as well, because we’re safe with our pack now. The worst is over.
There’s a sense of relief in that.
Shiloh stalks around the corner, and almost trips over his feet as he sees us.
“Holy shit,” he whispers, his feet moving quickly to wrap me into his arms.
It’s like it releases Abbott as well from his awkwardness, and he pulls Winter and Bellamy away from Ansel to hug them. Crying harder, I bury my face in Shiloh’s neck as he lifts me. A pained cry escapes from my lips as it pulls at my wound, but I wrap my legs around him anywhere.
Everything hurts. God, will it ever fucking end.
“Shiloh!” Winter says sharply. “Don’t pick her up. She has a knife wound.”
“Goddamnit,” Abbott growls, turning to look at me.
“It’s…fine,” I whimper, still holding onto Shiloh.
“Precious, I’m hurting you,” he whispers. “What happened?”
“Clara stabbed me,” I sniffle. “I haven’t taken the knife out. I may need to be carried out of here, because I, ah, can’t feel my legs anymore. The good news is that I’m not bleeding much, so that’s good, right?”
“Sandwich statements,” Bellamy mutters.
“You’re going to give me gray hair,” Abbott sighs. “Ansel, can you handle it if someone else carries Cassidy?”
“Abbott…” Bellamy trails off as he passes out, and Abbott catches him with a curse.
“Make peace with it, Ansel, because we need to get the fuck out of here,” Abbott grunts.
“Is Henri here?” I whisper.
Shi carefully moves me so that I’m laying in his arms in a bridal carry, and I can tell he’s worried.
I let Ansel and Abbott figure it out as Ansel picks Winter up as she begins to go pale from shock, while I tell Shiloh that I need him to find Avery. I tell him what she’s wearing, why she needs to die, and that she’s so evil he may need to remove her head and heart immediately.
“You got it, Buffy,” he says with a small smile.
I guess I did accidentally describe how to kill a vampire. I may be going into shock too.
“Ha…ha,” I huff out. “Oh one more thing. Jake—”
“He helped take you,” Abbott says, now at my side. The three of them are huddled next to each other with their precious cargo.
“I only got out of my restraints because he loosened my wrist cuff and gave me a knife,” I admit. “I’m not asking for mercy for him.”
“Should I make it quick?” Shiloh asks. “We believe he did it because Clara took his mom.”
“That’s what happened. Still, his mother wouldn’t want him to become a traitor,” I say, breathing hard.
“Henri is on the way, baby,” Abbott says.
As if summoned by his name only, Henri walks up to us.
“They found you,” he says with a warm smile. I can tell there’s worry in his eyes, and I have to imagine that it’s been a long few days for everyone.
“Yes,” I say, feeling the darkness beginning to hit me. “Maybe we should also call Riley. We’re all full of holes over here.”
“You’re the only one with a knife wound,” Abbott growls.
“Bellamy has stab wounds all over his body, and if you saw anything that happened on that stage, you know that we all need tests run,” I reply.
“We came in as people were bidding,” Abbott says, with regret in his eyes. “The halls are long and twisted. We got lost a couple of times. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I say. “Henri, be my ride out of here, please?”
“Riley isn’t far,” Ansel reassures me. “He’s above ground waiting for us. Everyone is fighting, killing, and ensuring that we exterminate the rats in this place.”
“There’s a woman in the crowd,” I remember. “She threw me a gun. Maybe don’t kill her.”
“Got it. No friendly fire, Precious. I’ll play it by ear with Jake too,” Shi promises, kissing my temple before handing me to Henri as carefully as possible.
The shift still hurts, and I feel a wave of nausea hit me from the pain.
“Ow,” I whisper.
“My apologies," Henri whispers. “I’ve got you, Miss.”
He ignores Ansel’s growl, but honestly, Henri is probably the only person that Ansel won’t kill for holding me.
Laying my head on Henri’s shoulder, I close my eyes and let the darkness finally begin to take me away.
“You kept them safe, baby,” Abbott says softly as we walk together.
“She did everything she could,” Winter says.
“It’s not enough,” I force out before I pass out.
It never will be.