Chapter 6 Rune
rune
. . .
It only took one day to build full resistance to Tourmalyke Type II. Perhaps because I’d already become immune to tourmalyke.
I felt a flicker of my matebond to Koa but not to the others. It had to be because he was somewhere close, but biding my time was becoming irritating. I woke up a few hours ago, and they had an IV of both tourmalyke and Tourmalyke Type II being pumped into me.
“We took two vials of your blood when you were passed out,” Aura—no, Allison—told me as she strode into the room with a needle. Her white lab coat suited her much more than the academy-issued suit did. “I’m here to take more. Isn’t this fun?”
“Fun?” I let out a sarcastic laugh as she came closer and took my arm with a firm grip. “So fun, Allison.”
“I think so,” she giggled. “You’re contributing to something big here.”
“Stop,” I hissed.
She paused, her blue eyes lifting to meet mine. “Are you still surprised I managed to deceive you?”
“I am,” I admitted, rage unfurling in my chest. “I thought we were friends. You talked boys with me, and we did our nails together with Eleanor. How…how did you become like this?”
“Become?” She let out another giggle. “I’ve always been like this.
I’m obviously a better spy than you are.
It’s clear to me you’re a selfish basilisk caught up in your own sob story, Rune.
Same with the deer shifter. At first, I thought maybe you weren’t so bad, but after you poured your heart out to Eleanor and I, I figured it out. ”
“Selfish?” I gave a bitter chuckle. “Maybe I am, but I protect my own.”
“What good that’s doing for you.” She rolled her eyes and went to put the needle in my vein.
Before she could, magic simmered through me as I leaked a paralytic through my skin where she was touching me.
“You’re such a two-faced bitch.” I smiled, showing off the venom dripping down my fangs.
“You…how?” The needle clattered against the floor as she collapsed face-first beside the bed.
“I guess you’re not all bad. You did give me the chance to build immunity to tourmalyke.” I sat up, tugged the IV out of my arm, and flexed my fingers.
Magic surged through my muscles as I broke the tourmalyke cuffs on each wrist that had me chained to the cold bed. I rubbed my wrists before swinging my legs to the ground and standing up.
“Now let’s go have some fun.” I bent down and grabbed her by the back of her neck, lifted her effortlessly, and pressed her badge to the scanner by the door.
The door hissed open.
I walked out, keeping Allison’s unmovable body in front of me.
“Get Jeff!” one guard called out. “Code red!”
Hard footsteps rushed toward us, and I kept Allison up to cover myself. It was obvious to me she was someone important, so using her as a shield would buy me time.
“I can kill her any time I want,” I said matter-of-factly, flashing my venom-coated fangs at them. “Don’t test me. Now, you’re going to take me to the phoenix you took from me yesterday and give me my dagger and pendant back.”
“How is the tourmalyke not affecting her?” one of the guards whispered.
Allison managed a whimper.
“I’ll take you,” another spoke up. “Don’t hurt her. Greg, get the dagger and necklace from the personal items in the office. It’s labeled ‘basilisk top priority.’”
Greg nodded and left.
They led us through sterile hallways lined with steel doors and mirrored glass. Each fluorescent light was too-bright overhead.
Greg jogged back, my dagger and necklace in his hand. “Here.” He offered them both to me.
I grabbed them with a hiss, keeping hold of Allison. “Good. Where is Koa?”
“Down here,” the other guard answered, taking us deeper into the facility.
When we made it to the last door of the hall, a guard opened the door.
Cold air poured out, revealing Koa.
He was stripped to his boxers, chained to the floor, skin blistered with tourmalyke burns, and breathing ragged, but he was alive.
“Release him,” I snapped.
“No,” someone barked. “Jeff will kill us.”
“Then you don’t mind me killing her?” I let my venom drip onto Allison’s shoulder. My venom ripped through her lab coat and sizzled over her skin.
I was sure her expression was twisted in agony.
“I’ll let him go. Please, stop hurting her.” He held his hands up. “Jeff cares more about her than the damned traitor,” the other guard snapped at the rest. “You two, let him go. Gentle with him.”
Two guards went in, unlocked the chains, and helped him to his feet.
“What makes you so special, Allison?” I wondered, watching them help my mate walk toward me. “You really had us fooled. I don’t like that.”
“What’re you saying to her?” the guard who walked Koa toward me asked.
“None of your business. Step away from him,” I ordered.
“Don’t!” A man walked through the group of guards, blue eyes burning with rage behind wiry glasses.
“Boss.” A few guards bowed their heads to him.
Koa stumbled but kept upright, even though the guard’s hold was digging into the tourmalyke burns. “Rune, you didn’t have to do this.”
“Loosen your grip on him, or I will burn her again,” I hissed.
The guard’s grip loosened.
“Let my daughter go.” The man in charge stopped next to my mate and the guard holding him.
I grinned, my fangs dripping with fatal venom that barely missed Allison. “Sure. Give me my mate.”
“Anything to get Allison safe.” The man nodded to the guard.
The guard shoved Koa forward, and I tossed Allison at her father. I threw her a bit short, so she hit the floor hard, gasping, just as I caught Koa.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, brushing his long brown hair from his face.
The spark of magic between us was faint, but it was there.
“We need to reboot you,” I told him. “Tourmalyke is swimming in your veins, babe.”
His eyes fluttered open, dazed. “Do it.”
I leaned in and kissed him, letting my painless, instant death venom seep into him from my lips.
His body stilled before turning to ash at my feet.
“She killed him,” one guard whispered, but none had tried to attack—yet.
“Kill her!” Jeff shouted as he grabbed Allison and hauled her over his shoulder. The coward moved back through the group of guards and started running away.
“Yes, boss!” the guards shouted in unison.
Phoenix fire forced the guards back with the heat. When the flames cleared, Koa stood tall, breathing steadily, and with a lot more clarity in his gaze.
“Thanks, little vixen,” he breathed.
“Much better,” I sighed in relief before frowning. His dick was out. “Keep yourself covered as much as you can and help me burn this place down.”
“Capture the phoenix, kill the basilisk!” a guard from the back ordered.
The rest of the guards swarmed us from the only way out of this dead-end corridor.
Koa’s flames flickered, but they were pretty much useless since this building was apparently made of tourmalyke. “Fates, Rune. I’m so sorry I’m not much help.”
“Just stay behind me.” I stood in front of him, my venom leaking down my blade that cut through every human that dared step forward.
Just as I was beginning to think that they had endless guards, the wall broke open behind us.
Metal and tourmalyke shrieked with an ear-piercing sound.
A crane arm crashed through the structure, showering debris across the room and taking down a few slow humans.
My matebonds flared to life in my chest. Desperation, anxiety, and fear from my mates stole my breath, but I forced myself to focus on what was happening in front of me.
A woman with just-above-shoulder-length white-blonde hair that faded into vibrant aqua dropped from the wreckage.
She wore black leather pants and a black tank top.
She landed in a crouch, a smirk already in place as her ice-blue eyes, surrounded by a white ring and flecks of frost within her irises, met mine.
She was stunning, but there was a darkness in her gaze that made my instincts hackle.
“I’m Aspen Drakonus. Rune Bloodwyne, I presume? I rarely take on rescue missions, but I owe your mother a job.” She held her hands up, and two ice spikes appeared in them. “I tore open a hole in the tourmalyke prison, so you should be able to use your powers here.”
“Thanks,” Koa muttered, his phoenix flames blazing around him.
“I could already use my venom, but thanks.” I spun my blade and lunged for the human guards that kept coming. “Koa, use your fire to cover yourself!”
“Impressive basilisk,” Aspen purred as the guards ran at us.
“On it, little vixen,” Koa assured me. He recognized my instinct to defend my mate through the bond.
We tore through them easily. Fire and frost devoured the walls around us, the tourmalyke embedded in the walls shattering to the ground as we moved deeper into the facility.
The scents of blood, venom, and smoke thickened the air.
Koa moved behind us, and Aspen and I met each other kill for kill.
Aspen laughed in a wild, manic, but contagious way. “This is fun! Maybe we should become assassins!”
I grinned back, blood streaking my face as I shoved my dagger into a human’s artery. “Nah. I’m more of a spy. But this?” I gestured to the carnage of dead humans around us. “This is therapy.”
“Oh, what wonderful therapy it is!” she cackled, blood streaking her face
Koa stayed silent, but I could feel his hesitation through our bond.
We cleared the last room in the facility, but Allison and her father were nowhere to be found.
“Damn,” I hissed. “Slippery bastards.”
“If you ever need help with a slaughter, let me know.” She ran a hand through her blood-soaked hair. “You’re deadly.”
“Likewise.” I giggled.
The air rippled between us.
Drecken shimmered into existence, magic wrapping around him. Zuko, Jesper, Slater, and Dimitri followed through the breach, faces pale with worry and relief.
“Rune!” Drecken’s voice cracked, and his arms were around me in a second, pulling me tight, his magic curling around us like a cloud. “I couldn’t feel you,” he muttered into my hair. “Not for days. Then I felt our bond…assumingly when the building broke.”
I clung to him, my knees finally giving way. I inhaled his old tomes and magic scent. “Fates, Drecken…I missed you all so much.”
Mom appeared behind them, flanked by agents. “The Supernatural Council just launched a rescue mission,” she said dryly. “But Aspen beat them to it. We contracted her instead.”
Aspen smirked, wiping blood from her cheek. “Best job I’ve had in months. Might make a career out of this.”
Mom glanced around with shock. “Um, yes, well…you would do well with that.”
“Your daughter did half.” She shrugged. “She’s a lot like you are. Anyway, send my pay over later.” Her blue eyes cut to me. “Bye, Rune! Good luck with all those men. If anyone can handle six of them, you can!”
“Thanks.” I cackled as Zuko pulled me away from Drecken, eyes blazing. “You scared the fuck out of us,” he rasped, sinking his fangs into the mark on my neck.
His venom flooded me, and I grabbed his arms to stop from falling as he pulled his fangs out and kissed the mark.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, kissing his lips softly.
“Fates, Rune.” Dimitri pulled me into a hug next, his tongue licking over Zuko’s mark as he cleaned the blood from me. “I just marked you, and you were gone. My venom…were you okay?”
“I was fine,” I promised, pulling back and leaning in for a kiss. “The tourmalyke made me pass out. I slept through the venom’s effects.”
“Good.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “I was worried.”
Jesper moved behind me and lifted me off the ground. “Never do that again,” he breathed into my hair. “You can’t be alone anymore.”
Slater moved in front of me, his arm reaching out but pausing before his fingers brushed my cheek. His hand dropped. Tears burned down his cheeks as he reached out with both arms and crushed me into his chest.
“Rune,” he sobbed. “You scared me so bad.”
The matebond roared to life between us, striking us like lightning.
I gasped as the warmth of completion in my soul flooded through me, filling every inch of me I ever felt alone in.
“Oh, Fates,” I whispered, trembling. “I feel…whole.”
“I told you that you were my mate, venom baby.” Slater cupped my face and kissed me deeply before resting his forehead against mine. “When we are alone, I plan to mark you.”
I smiled and nodded.
Mom’s eyes softened as she moved forward. “Rune…”
“Mom.” I moved back from Slater, who begrudgingly let me go, and into my mom’s arms.
She hugged me tightly. “Let your mates take you back to HQ. I will handle things here.”
“Be careful,” I murmured.
Mom smiled and pulled back. “I will. See your dads and brother, but then, go rest with your mates.”
Drecken’s arm wound around me. “Thank you, Sabine.”
She nodded with a small smile on her lips. “Perhaps get Koa dressed?”
I glanced at him, and his fire still covered his dick, but clothes would be better.
Drecken snapped, and Koa was dressed.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
In the blink of an eye, Drecken teleported us to the Supernatural Headquarters, where my dads and brother were waiting.
“Roo!” Tibby cried, flinging himself at me. “We were all so worried!”
Pops moved him out of the way and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. “Oh, Rune. Thank the Fates you’re unharmed.”
Dad tugged me away from Pops and into him. “You need to rest, Rune. You look like you haven’t slept.”
The weight of everything I’d been through finally hit me—the tourmalyke, the blood taken from me, Koa being taken from me, and the matebonds that had all fallen into place.
Exhaustion settled into my bones at the realization, but even if Allison and her father escaped, I knew Mom would destroy what was left of that damned facility.