Chapter 18
Grim
I squint against the sudden brightness when the door to the file room is opened.
“Get up!” one of the anti-vaxxers snarls from the doorway.
“Get out here!” another growls. “Now!”
I glance at Wren. The phone is gone. Either she’s stashed it somewhere or shoved it back in her pocket. It doesn’t really matter anymore. Our window of opportunity has pretty much closed. Our time is up.
“Move!” the male in the doorway shouts. “I won’t ask again.” There is fear in his eyes.
Sally struggles to her feet, and Wren helps her up. I rise as well. It’s a little awkward with the chains still binding my wrists. At least my arms are bound in front of me and not behind my back.
We file out of the room into the hallway. The emergency lighting casts everything in an eerie red glow.
Kaine is waiting for us, along with a couple of his males. His face is drawn, sweat beading on his forehead.
“Secure them properly. Draig Security could raid this building at any time. We need to be ready,” he orders. “Now. They’re our way out of here.”
Two of his males move forward. One grabs Sally, yanking her head back. The other does the same to Wren. Blades against their throats, just as two males flank me.
My dragon roars inside me, wanting out. Wanting to hunt and kill.
“If you so much as blink, the females will get sliced and diced,” Kaine warns, his eyes narrowing on me. “I never wanted bloodshed. I just want the truth to be told. They won’t harm you as long as—”
“Listen to me,” I cut him off, my voice urgent. “You need to—”
“Shut up!” he yells, taking a step toward me. His eyes are wild. “Not a word out of any of you.”
They’re panicking, and so they should be.
“They’re—” I try again, but one of the males at my side drives his elbow into my solar plexus.
The air rushes out of my lungs in a whoosh. Pain explodes through my abdomen. My first instinct is to fight back, to rip his fucking arm off and beat him to death with it.
But I resist.
Because they have Sally and Wren, and the females look terrified.
We’re marched toward the reception area. Each step feels like walking to the gallows.
This is bad.
This is so fucking bad.
Kaine barks orders at his males. “Use them as human shields. Position them at the front.”
They’ve barricaded the glass front entrance with furniture. They’ve used desks, chairs, and file cabinets, all stacked haphazardly. I can still see movement outside through the gaps. Shadows shifting rather than the whole picture.
“Stay back!” Kaine shouts toward the entrance. “Or I’ll kill them! I swear to God, I’ll slit their throats right here!”
He’s giving away our exact position, the idiot. He has no fucking idea what he’s dealing with.
One of his males slams the reception desk phone down hard, the sound echoing through the space.
“Still no dial tone?” Kaine asks; his facial expression shows that he already knows the answer.
The male shakes his head.
Kaine makes a noise of frustration and pulls a cellphone from his pocket, looking at the screen for a second.
“Fuck!” He looks around at his males, confusion and fear warring on his face. “What are they up to? What is this all about? Do they want us to start killing you off one by one?”
Sally whimpers.
“In less than a minute, they’re going to raid this building,” I tell him, my voice urgent. “You have to—”
Another fist catches me in the jaw. My head snaps back, and I taste copper. I spit blood onto the floor.
“You were told to shut up,” the male snarls.
“If they raid this building, you three will die,” Kaine says, looking between us. “My males will kill you. It’s that simple.”
“Don’t you see, they don’t care if we live or die,” I push out.
He frowns. “What are you talking about? Of course they care. You’re hostages. Employees of the Mainland. They have to care.”
“They don’t,” I insist, forcing him to meet my eyes.
“They have no plans of ever bringing the media. They’re pinning this all on me.
There’s been no mention of anti-vaxxers at all in the media coverage.
None whatsoever. They’re going to kill us all and blame me for everything.
They want your propaganda buried with us. ”
Kaine’s eyes narrow. “How do you know all of this?”
I see the moment realization hits. His expression shifts from confusion to rage.
“One of you has a cellphone,” he growls. “You’ve been in contact with someone out there.” He looks at each of us in turn. “This is all your fault! You told them—”
The sound of breaking glass cuts him off.
It comes from everywhere at once. All sides of the building. Windows shattering, glass splintering as it hits tiles.
This is it.
I half expect the males holding Sally and Wren to slice their throats. Instead, they throw the females aside, making it clear that they never intended to harm any of us.
I almost feel sorry for them.
Wren lands hard on the reception desk. She slides across it, tumbling off the other side just as rapid gunfire erupts.
The sound is deafening. Bullets tear through the air, punching through walls, shattering what’s left of the windows.
Kaine is yelling orders to his males, but I can barely hear him over the gunfire. We’re sitting ducks.
We don’t stand a chance against human guns. Since when did Draig Security start using them? We’re shifters. We use claws and fists. Maybe a sword or a knife. That’s it.
One of Kaine’s males takes a bullet to the chest. He goes down hard, blood spreading across his shirt.
Another catches one in the leg and drops, screaming.
The others scramble behind overturned furniture.
It’s chaos.
Figures in combat gear pour through the shattered entrance. They’re not big enough to be shifters. These are humans. Armed humans in tactical gear, carrying automatic weapons, and they’re intent on killing every last one of us.
Another of the anti-vaxxers is shot in the head. His body crumples like a puppet with its strings cut. His eyes are wide and staring.
We don’t stand a chance.
“Help me,” Sally’s voice cuts through the gunfire. She’s on her feet, hands raised. “Please! Save me!”
“No!” I shout, but it’s too late.
“I’m a hostage!” she screams, stumbling toward the armed figures. “Please.”
The bastard shoots her in the chest.
Sally’s eyes go wide. She looks down at the blood blooming across her shirt, then back up at me.
She drops.
We were right. They’re going to kill us all. Bury this whole thing and pin the blame on me. Frame me as the crazy dragon who went feral and took hostages. They’ll say I killed them all. That I’m a monster.
A bullet grazes my right arm as I dive behind the remains of a file cabinet. More rounds fly over my head, punching through drywall, shattering what’s left of the windows.
I press myself flat against the floor, my chains scraping against tile.
There’s only one thing I can do now.
Only one option left.
And unfortunately, it plays right into their cover-up story. Pity I don’t have any choice in the matter. It’s do or die at this point.