Chapter 23 Teddy #2
“So that means we’re property of Nexus? Stamped and cataloged for them to index?”
Teddy continued to frown. “It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it? Did they ever ask you what you wanted? If you wanted to be number Twelve? If you wanted to be taken from your family?”
Teddy was disquieted by the questions, uncomfortable with the probing. “This is our family.”
It sounded slightly hollow, like he’d learned it by rote. Did he actually believe that? Or was that just what he had been told?
They sat in silence for a while.
“I like being up here because I can see over the gates,” the boy said, hugging his knees to his chest.
Teddy followed his gaze and saw a beautiful woodland spread out just beyond the walls of Nexus.
Sprawling and full of mystery. Something stirred in Teddy’s chest. A rising sense of longing and adventure that might have been there all along, lying dormant.
It was as if this boy had yanked back a curtain he hadn’t even been aware was there, and now the world had opened up in a way he couldn’t go back from.
“It’s magnificent.” The boy began to laugh, and Teddy whipped his head back around, brow creasing and face flushing. “Why are you laughing?”
“Who says magnificent with a straight face and actually means it?” the boy teased.
“Having a decent vocabulary isn’t a bad thing,” Teddy said defensively. “Maybe you don’t read books, but I do.”
The boy laughed off the insult, laying his cheek on his knee, staring up at him through his lashes and making Teddy breathless. “No books. I talk to animals instead. They’re much more interesting.”
“Can you understand them?” Teddy asked curiously.
“Of course,” he said proudly, like that was a known fact and not incredibly rare.
“That’s…cool.” Teddy said awkwardly, catching himself before saying “fascinating.” The boy smiled like he’d noticed. “I think you’re definitely part bird instead of part cursebreaker.”
The elated smile the boy gave him would be ingrained in Teddy’s mind for the rest of his life.
“Really?” he said hopefully, with a touch of insecurity that he had been masking until now. And Teddy understood in that moment that this boy was desperate to create his own identity outside of the confines of his birthright. He wanted to be him, not the mark on his eye.
Teddy boldly took his arm and turned it over, pretending to inspect it and not freak out over the fact that his skin was warm and soft. There was a small scar along the underside of his wrist that was slightly pink, and Teddy wondered where he’d got it.
“Definitely a little bird,” Teddy murmured, face burning but keeping his cool. “The feathers will come through any day now.”
“As soon as they do I’ll fly away from here,” the boy said with excitement.
Teddy couldn’t help but smile at it, even as his heart hurt a little at the idea of this little bird being gone.
“Maybe I’ll come with you,” he said, spontaneously and feeling like an idiot, but his heart was thumping like it didn’t want anything else.
“Bears don’t fly,” the boy teased.
Teddy felt a rush of disappointment and looked away. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“But teddy bears are easy to carry.”
Teddy snapped his head around. “Even for little birds?”
He nodded, eyes sparkling. “When my feathers grow in I’ll fly us both out of here, Teddy Bear.”
“Promise, Little Bird?”
A small finger looped around his pinkie. “Promise.”
The sky cracked with thunder in the next second, as if it had heard them, and Teddy glanced up. He watched as the world split open with a bright, jagged flash of anger, bringing wind and rain in an instant and wrecking the calm, cool night.
“He’s coming,” Teddy said, feeling that looming shadow closing in.
“Who?” his little bird asked, confused.
The tree rocked and water lashed at their skin. He clutched his little bird tighter. “You need to fly away, now!”
“Teddy, what are you talking about? Who’s coming?”
“Damir,” a sinister voice called, the word echoing all around them.
He began to shake, terrified.
“Teddy? Talk to me. Who’s chasing you?” the boy asked, heedless of the rain drenching his clothes and hair.
“I can’t hide from him. I thought I could, but he always finds me,” Teddy said, defeated.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
“Stay with me,” his little bird said. “We can hide together.”
“He’ll take me away. It’s no use.”
“Then I’ll find you,” his little bird said, stubbornly determined. “Just hold out and I’ll come.”
Teddy was chilled to the bone, feeling clawed hands pull at him, but the boy in front of him felt like a light in the dark.
“DAMIR!”
Teddy held on to that warmth and light as he felt himself being dragged backward through the locked door that had been broken, back to the pain that awaited him.
He just needed to hold out.
He woke up screaming in agony.
“There you are,” Kellan said, pleased. “Much as I love your magic pulsing with contentment, I’d like you awake for this.”
Teddy watched him through slitted eyes, hatred growing with each moment he was hooked to the torture device. He could feel it pulling from every cell, trying to drain him into a husk.
“Contentment?” he spat at the lunatic. “What about any of this is supposed to make me content?”
Kellan chuckled with a shake of his head. “Oh, nothing in here.” He approached Teddy and held up one bony finger, tapping his head. “But in here.”
Teddy jerked back, refusing to let Kellan touch even the space close to where his memories of Wren were. He’d desecrate them. Infect them with his evil. He tugged at the restraints again.
There had to be a way to get out. Wren would have figured it out. He would have found a way to ruin the whole operation.
He wished Wren were here.
He hoped Wren was safe.
He closed his eyes and thought of those stunning eyes. That soft lock of white hair he loved touching. Those lips on his own and that small, strong body glued to his. If he were to go, he’d be going with nothing but Wren on his mind. It was the best way.
“The magic levels are climbing again,” he heard someone else speaking to Kellan, sitting at the computer and monitoring the changes.
Kellan walked to the computer and leaned over the man to inspect the information.
“Quite curious. Somehow you managed to control the venom’s effects momentarily. I suppose you’re not going to tell me how you did that?” Kellan said conversationally to Teddy as he prepped another dose. He walked back to Teddy’s side and held the needle up.
“Screw you,” Teddy said, the room spinning around him, his body on fire. “I’m not telling you a single thing anymore.”
“Oh, how brave we got,” Kellan taunted. “How courageous that little tick made you.”
“He is the best thing on this planet,” Teddy said. “Nothing you do will taint that.”
“Oh, I don’t plan on tainting it. You misunderstand. I plan on destroying it and everything tied to it. I don’t need the pathetic love you feel for him, Damir. I don’t need to love. I need to BE loved. Everything else can go.”
“I hope this kills you!” Teddy screamed, spitting in his face. “I hope you burn from the inside out trying to use magic that was never meant for you!”
Kellan reared back in shock before drawing out a handkerchief and wiping his face. “If I die, you’re going with me, my dear boy.”
“Worth it,” Teddy said, completely exhausted. “At least he’ll be safe.”
“Hush now,” Kellan said, reaching for Teddy’s arm. “Time to get this over with.”
The door behind Kellan opened just before the needle touched skin, and a harried-looking woman entered, short hair frazzled, green eyes full of fear. “Sir, the perimeter alarms and curses have all been disabled. I think someone’s entered the bunker.”
Wren.
His little bird was here, just like he’d promised.
Kellan met Teddy’s eyes and sneered. “I suppose the ruse is up, then. That lover of yours really is annoyingly persistent. I should have killed him years ago.”
Teddy bucked in the restraints.
“Sir? W-what should we do?” the woman asked.
He spun on her, suddenly losing his supposed calm. “HOW ABOUT YOUR JOB! WHAT DID I GIVE YOU MAGIC FOR? GET RID OF THEM!”
She scrambled away and Teddy laughed. “You should have thought twice about hiring a bunch of low-level, untrained casters as your army. You may have thought you were unlocking the next step in evolution, but they have no real idea how to use what you’ve given them.
You’re trapped down here with no way out and no options. ”
“I won’t need them after this is done.” Kellan turned to the assistant in the room. “Accelerate the process.”
The man fumbled the controls. “But we’ve never done it this fast—”
“NOW!”
The man started pressing buttons with shaking hands. He was reaching for a dial when screams rang out from outside their door. Bloodcurdling and terrified, they echoed through the cramped, musty space before cutting off abruptly.
The man at the computer froze, pushing his chair back slightly as if to step away from the insanity.
“GET BACK TO WORK!” Kellan screamed, turning to Teddy again just as the door to the room burst open.
Teddy watched as Wren ran inside looking like a god of vengeance, a gigantic creature at his side, some mixture of big cat that was fearsome and deadly and could barely fit through the doorway.
Behind him were his brothers, Sable and Blu, and Teddy’s team.
The creature’s mouth dripped with fresh blood and Wren was covered in scratches and bites. They had fought to get here.
Kellan growled in frustration and stepped behind Teddy, using him as a shield as he positioned the prepped needle against the crook of his bound arm.
“You’re too late,” Kellan hissed. “The process is almost done. Nothing you do now will save him.”
Teddy locked eyes with Wren.
I love you, he mouthed at him, heart breaking at the tight pinch of Wren’s lips and the tremble in the hand he hid in the animal’s nape.
“I’m rarely late,” Wren said.
“Rarely isn’t never,” Kellan said, letting out a maniacal laugh before Teddy felt the needle pierce his skin.