Chapter 12 #2
It was only fair that if a choice had to be made, it should be her who paid the ultimate price.
Maybe Voodoo would miss her, but that was all.
Even his team hadn't spent more than a handful of minutes in her presence, so while they might be sad to have lost another person who had been tainted by Dr. Gardner’s drugs, they wouldn't miss her.
Indigo was prepared to fight harder than she ever had in her life. She would give it everything she had in the hope that they all might make it out alive, and she had a chance to explore this thing between her and Voodoo. But if the worst happened, she’d sacrifice herself to save him.
Now she watched as people buzzed about her room. Since she’d only been in this one room, unconscious when she was brought in, she didn't know how big this place was, if it was a new lab or just a hiding place, or how many people were in it.
So far, she’d personally seen only four men, but she had to believe there were more.
Dr. Gardner rarely travelled anywhere without an entire entourage of guards.
Voodoo and his team might have spent the last decade with a target on their backs, but the scientist knew he had, too.
He knew that those men had a reason to hate him and could come after him at any time.
He also knew better than anyone else just how dangerous they were, after all, he was the one who had created them.
“Let’s go,” the man who had taken such pleasure in burning her earlier, leaving behind a trail of small, round marks on her skin as he burned her over and over again, said as he strode into the room, three more men with him.
They were the same ones she’d already seen several times, but no others. Maybe there really were only the four of them there with Dr. Gardner.
“Go where?” she asked. While her skin felt a little uncomfortably tight where she knew it was burned it didn't hurt, and while she still wasn't back to one hundred percent strength, lucky to be anywhere near fifty, her head was clear enough to plan.
Before, when she’d been held, she’d never stood up for herself, never caused trouble, never done anything other than be their perfect little test subject. But now she wasn't just fighting for herself, she was fighting for Voodoo as well, so she had to be assertive, strong, and determined.
“None of your business, bait,” the man taunted as he unhooked her cuffs from the table and hauled her upright.
Even though she wanted to run, after all, she was prey not predator, Indigo didn't waste the effort. There was no way she was getting away right now, and if she wanted a chance, then she had to be patient, wait for the perfect opportunity.
She wasn't going to let Voodoo down.
So to that end, she didn't try to run or fight as her arms were yanked behind her back, her wrists cuffed together.
With the burning man on one side of her and another man on the other, she was marched out of the room.
Carried more than marched, but she allowed them to think she was weaker than she was and take more of her weight while she looked around.
It seemed like they weren't in another lab. This building was tiny, just three rooms, one of them the one she’d been in, the one she was walked into, and a third where she could hear Dr. Gardner ranting about something.
It didn’t matter what, she was glad he was still around. It meant if she could meet up with Voodoo somehow and let him know, they could find his team—if he hadn't already—and then end this once and for all.
“Is that really all we have?” the burning man asked as she was led outside.
“Yeah. Guess they got all the others,” someone else said with a shiver, not one of the men she recognized so there were at least a couple of others there. Still, obviously not enough to go up against Voodoo and the others if their tones were anything to go by.
Beneath her bare feet, the ground was freezing, and since they’d stripped her naked when they brought her there, that cold curled around her body, seeping inside it, attempting to muddy her thoughts by dropping her temperature too low.
Not going to happen.
It couldn’t.
While it would help if she knew what the exact plan was, and how they were going to use her as bait, Indigo decided she could at least gather intel that would help, and maybe something she found out could be useful.
“We need more,” a third voice piped up.
“Boss doesn’t want to wait. Said he’s waited long enough, and he wants back what's his,” burning man replied as he dragged her over to a waiting vehicle, opened the back door, and all but tossed her inside.
“It’s going to get us all killed. More men will be here tomorrow, enough to take them down,” protested the man who had shivered and seemed the most afraid of Voodoo and his teammates.
“Boss wants what he wants,” burning man said with a shrug, then slammed the car door closed and climbed in the front.
“Easy for him to say,” scaredy cat complained as he climbed into the passenger’s seat. “He’s not the one out there actually putting his life on the line. He wants them back for his purposes, because he wants to continue his studies, but we’re the ones those freaks of his are going to kill.”
Anger ignited inside her at the insult to Voodoo.
It was one thing to treat her like she was nothing, she was used to it.
She’d always been nothing. But Voodoo was the opposite.
Voodoo was everything. He’d fought for her harder than she’d fought for herself.
He’d treated her with kindness, gentleness, and respect, he’d never made her feel less than, and more than that, he’d made her feel beautiful and wanted.
Fighting for herself might be hard, but fighting for him was easy.
“Careful there,” burning man said, his tone mocking, “we got one of those freaks in the back there.”
The other man turned to look at her, a sneer overriding the fear that had been there previously. “This one is a little kitten compared to the lions that are out there, aren't you, kitty?”
It was a little unnerving that her instincts told her to hiss and snap at him, bring out her claws, and show him that just because she wasn't big and strong like Voodoo and his teammates didn't mean she was weak and pathetic. Maybe she couldn’t fight, but she could endure a whole hell of a lot more pain than this pathetic man could.
Which gave her the beginnings of an idea.
Voodoo had told her a bit about how Dr. Gardner’s sister had come into their lives, and while she couldn’t say she agreed with what they had planned to do to Rose, having been on the same side of the scientist’s experiments as they were, she got the why behind it.
He’d told her about Rose joining their side, about the trap they’d laid, about how it went wrong when the car crashed, and Dr. Gardner got away.
What if she could do something similar this time?
Only with the outcome they all wanted.
She was bait, and from the way the men were talking, Voodoo and or his team were still out there somewhere killing Dr. Gardner’s men.
If she could crash the car, she might kill or at least injure these men enough that they couldn’t come after her, but injured or not, her body would tolerate the pain much better, giving her a chance to get away.
Two more cars pulled in behind them as they started driving, but the man in the passenger seat kept watching her, that sneer on his face.
“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” he crooned. “Maybe you can come up here and put that pretty little mouth of yours to good use.”
While she felt the same anger and suicidal thoughts as the rest of the experiments, given her past, it was the suicidal thoughts she experienced more often, because being degraded and abused was her normal.
Now though, unadulterated rage took hold inside her, although she did her best to keep her expression defeated, or at least neutral.
First, he insulted Voodoo, and now he wanted to assault her. Would he still feel the same way if he knew what she’d done to the last man who stuck his penis where it wasn't wanted?
Laughing amongst themselves, it was clear neither man viewed her as a threat, but as they drove, talking about what they’d like to do to her if given a chance, she watched the side of the road like a hawk.
It was dark, but she knew there were declines everywhere like the one she’d fallen down earlier.
When she noticed that the trees were falling away, indicating a drop, Indigo let the anger fuel her. With her hands behind her back, she couldn’t use them, but she had her mouth, and she’d much rather use it to help her escape than pleasure one of her captors.
Surging forward, she sank her teeth into burning man’s neck, making him shriek. Since she refused to let go, he had no choice but to remove his hands from the steering wheel to try to get her off, causing the car to swerve wildly.
Then they were zooming down an embankment.
Only then did Indigo release her grip and drop down between her seat and the driver’s one as she braced for impact.