Chapter 19 #2
His chest rose and fell as he stood still, as if he weren’t quite sure what I was suggesting. But after a few moments, I could sense his presence flutter around me.
Fuck.
Still hopeful this wasn’t what I thought, I pushed out my thoughts to him. A glimmer of myself circled him while I stood feet away. Doing this with Scorpion felt much harder, as if I had to actively focus on doing it, where with the other asshole . . . it seemed to happen without even trying.
“Am I lying?” My vision whispered in his ear, though I hadn’t moved.
His head yanked to the side with a yelp, and he jumped backward. “Fuck,” he bellowed, his head snapping back to where I still stood a dozen feet away. “H-how?”
“Again, I don’t know.” I folded my arms, cutting off the connection, glancing at my boots. “Trying to figure it out. You aren’t the first. Hoping to find a way to break it.”
“You know about this? There’s another like me?”
“Hey. This is a two-way street, buddy.” I put my hands on my hips.
“I had no fuckin’ streets until you showed up . . . buddy,” he snapped back.
His tone made me want to kick the crap out of him, and not in the sexy way.
“Yes. There is another.” Yeah, lucky me—linked with a freaking myth. A terrifying, sadistic one. And now it appeared I had another violent asshole to add to the list. “I thought it was just him.”
“Kovacs!” As if I summoned the devil himself, Warwick was in the room, his gaze wild, voice demanding. “They’re coming! Run!”
“What?” Terror iced up my spine. Without trying, I was outside the rebel base next to Warwick, who appeared to be hiding in some overgrown bushes.
The streets were quiet and dark, but my gut screamed something was wrong.
In the distance, I saw hazy silhouettes.
Sounds of horse hooves and boots clipped the street.
Several hundred of them marched this way.
“They’re almost here.” Warwick barked, his hands gripping my shoulders. “Get the fuck out! Now!”
The link snapped, and I was back in the belly of the Resistance, Scorpion staring at me wearily and confused, his form taut.
“What?” His head darted around, sensing the utter panic coming off me, but he clearly couldn’t see, hear, or feel Warwick.
“They’re here . . .” I repeated.
“Who’s here?”
Again, I somehow knew. A gut response.
“HDF.” I looked into Scorpion’s eyes. “They found us.”
A shrill alarm rang through the bunker as figures darted every which way, the air stinking of panic.
Scorpion hadn’t questioned me, immediately darting for the night watch and sounding the alarm, probably feeling how deadly serious I was.
It wasn’t long until the outside camera picked up on the soldiers coming down the lane with an arsenal that could destroy the entire block.
They weren’t even trying to be secretive about it.
They were coming at this base with the full power of the guard, wanting to obliterate us.
These were soldiers I knew personally, a group I would have been a part of just a few months ago, invading the “thug” rebel base without a question.
Now I was among the hunted.
Scorpion had run off with Wesley and Maddox, taking point on the roof to give us all more time to escape.
“Brexley!” Andris trampled down the stairs, yelling my name, frantically searching for me.
“Nagybacsi!” I called after him, pushing through the handful of people packing up equipment in the lab, feeling his arms wrap around me tightly.
“You need to go, dragam.” He pulled away, his usually stoic face full of dread.
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. This is not a time for us to fight.
We cannot win here. It’s like shooting fish in a pond.
Our fight is the long game. Everyone knows how to get out, and when it’s safe, I will get in contact and reestablish headquarters.
Istvan has been itching to find me . . .
or rather Sarkis’s hideout and destroy it.
I will let him think he has this win. But you need to get to safety. ”
I nodded, watching how only the computer room was being cleaned out, taking vital information. Ling shoved laptops, files, and maps into a bag, tossing it to Andris as she filled another, pulling one over her shoulder.
Gunshots and yells boomed through the room upstairs, intensifying the rush of the thinning crowds.
“Birdie!” Andris pushed me toward her. “Get her out of here!”
“Come with me,” I yelled back at Andris, the chaos above and in the bunker growing louder. I had scarcely gotten him back; I didn’t want to lose him again.
He cupped my face. “I will make contact once we are all safe, dragam.” He hurriedly kissed my forehead, shoving me back into Birdie. “Stay safe. I love you. Now go! Get her away from here,” he commanded Birdie again and slipped away in the crowd with Ling.
“Come on!” Birdie grabbed my arm, tugging me the opposite way. As if they had rehearsed an outcome like this, people divided up around the bunker.
“There are multiple exits,” Birdie explained, jogging down the hall. “So as to not gridlock our own escape and get ourselves killed in the panic. We each have a certain exit. Smooth, efficient, and brings us up on all different sides of the block.”
This strategy was pretty genius. It must have taken a lot of planning and secret construction.
“How long has this been your base?”
“Since I joined. Which was about four years ago.” She skirted us around the corner and into a water heater closet. A path behind the heater had already been opened, and a few people were running down the dark tunnel. “Why, after all this time, did they find us today?”
Guilt twanged me like a guitar string being plucked. Seemed a little too coincidental. The day I arrive here, the location is found . . . ?
It was no fluke.
We ran several yards in the tunnel before we hit stairs, which clanged beneath us as a handful of us jogged up. It returned me to my escape at Halálház, constricting my lungs and spinning my head. The memories mixing with my present, making it hard for me to breathe.
Everything was a haze when I reached the top and plunged out into a dim alley, dawn only a hint on the horizon. Voices and gunshots rang through the dark streets. A mist of damp air shivered my bare arms. The smells of rotting garbage, wet stone, and urine burned my nose.
Bang! Bang!
Bullets zipped close by us, ricocheting off buildings.
“Shit.” Birdie hunkered close to the wall, pulling out a gun.
“You don’t happen to have an extra one?” I thought I was joking until she pulled out three more from her clothes.
“Take your pick.” All of them were top of the line, expensive, badass weapons.
“Damn.” My mouth fell open. We hadn’t been issued anything this nice as soldiers at HDF.
“Little hobby of mine.”
“What? Being the most badass gunslinger in the Savage Lands?”
“I love to collect pretty things.” She let the safety off with a wicked grin.
“No one suspects the cute, doe-eyed blonde girl to rob them blind while they are busy gambling.” She winked, handing me two while double-fisting the other.
Tucking one in my waistband and keeping the other in my hand, we scuttled closer to the end of the alley, peering out.
“Fuck,” she exhaled.
“Yeah . . .”
The six-lane avenue teemed with HDF soldiers, motorcycles, and horses. My gaze took in their configuration, assessing and recognizing battle formations. I was one of the only people here, besides Andris, who knew their style intimately, had insight into how they fought.
“Come on.” Birdie started to move, more people from below joining us in the alley.
“No.” I grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back.
“What?” She looked around, then glared at me.
“They will have soldiers in the back facing out, looking for threats from behind, ready to shoot anything that moves.” Fae were a lot harder to kill, but since the wall fell and magic- and iron-laced bullets were standard now, it wasn’t as hard if you were a really good shot.
“Please, I move faster than they could even blink.” A girl looking no more than sixteen came beside us. “I’m not hiding from some douchebag humans.” She rolled her eyes, inching forward.
“No!” I tried to grab for her, but she flew out of the alley.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Guns went off at her. She darted through them, her speed impressive, and my hopes soared as she got closer to the other side.
Pop!
Her body hit the ground with a slap.
“Gigi.” Birdie gasped as we watched blood pour onto the cobbled street, the entire side of her face gone. “Fuck!” Birdie growled, hitting the wall. “That stupid fucking bitch! Why didn’t she listen?”
Another thing Birdie and I had in common, turning heartache and fear into anger.
I rubbed my head.
“What now?” someone asked, a handful of Resistance fighters now gathered in the alleyway.
I searched around the dead-end passage and noticed a dumpster against the far wall.
“We go up.” I motioned to the dumpster. It was a climb, but if we got to the roof, we could cross over to the back and bleed into the night. “Go!” I ordered.
All of them reacted instantly, rushing to the dumpster and climbing up. The top was gone, so only two at a time could use the edge to jump up to the window and then climb to the roof.
I kept on guard, only turning to help Birdie get up, preparing to climb up myself.
“Stop!” A voice rang out, dropping lead in my stomach. Shit, shit, shit. Turning slowly around, three soldiers stood at the entrance. I hoped I could distract them enough to let them all reach the top.
“Brexley?” A man’s voice strained in surprise. Through the haze of my panic, I focused on the group. I knew all of them. They had been in Caden’s class. Elek, Joska, and Samu.
“Szar!” Shit! Elek spat, his hand going to a crude walkie-talkie soldiers were issued once they were put in the field.
“No!” I lurched forward.