Chapter 25
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
Cade paced the mess hall, where the Blackguard had gathered, bloodstained and battle-worn, to discuss next steps.
His expression was stony and a little wild in a way that unnerved Asha.
He’d looked like that since Asha showed him the mask nailed to Angel’s door, similar to the way it’d been pinned to the door of that house in Applegate.
A message. A threat. A warning.
“Is there anything else you can tell us about them?” Leo pressed Asha again, not for the first time.
“No,” Asha replied, frustrated. “I wasn’t exactly taking down their names, okay? I was busy running for my fucking life. I don’t know what they could’ve wanted from Angel.”
Cade wouldn’t stop pacing like an angry tiger. It was driving her crazy.
The Blackguard had sustained few injuries in the coup and no deaths, thanks to the element of surprise. Months of planning had made the operation a complete success; Angel’s reign was over. It should’ve been a moment of celebration. Instead, it felt like they’d suffered a brutal defeat.
“It’s nothing good,” Cade said, clipped. “If they have control of the compound, they have access to advanced weapons and tech. Vehicles. Guns. Explosives. You name it.”
Even though she already knew, Asha’s heart sunk at his words.
“So, what do we do, Captain?” Davy asked, his deep skin marred by dried blood.
Cade pinched the bridge of his nose and took a moment before answering.
“Nothing we can do except be ready,” he said at last. “First light, everyone here should go out into our territory and tell people to prepare for an assault. Send messengers to the Settlements with the same warning. We don’t know where they might hit.
In the meantime, if anyone sees anything like this—” he held up the mask with the gold eye, “you report to me immediately.”
There was a general murmur of assent for this plan.
“For now,” Cade continued, tossing the mask back on the table, “those of you on guard duty, report to your posts. The rest of you, go to bed. You were all incredible tonight, and you deserve rest. Goodnight.”
With that, Cade took Asha by the hand and led her back to their house, where he fucked her against the wall, hard and fast and silent except for their animalistic grunts. Both of them were still sweaty, bloody, and mostly clothed, but it felt like a necessity.
Like it might be their last time.
Two days later, at the crack of dawn, a military truck drove into Guardian territory and stopped at the Nest gate. A guard ran to get Cade, who was still at home with Asha.
The last couple of days had been a blur.
They’d established Cade’s new authority as leader, and though not everyone had been happy about it, they had enough support for the naysayers to accept it.
But Asha had seen Lana crying, and she refused to talk to her.
Being the gang leader’s favourite and then having that leader dethroned introduced instability that Lana was struggling with.
Asha’s guilt was never going to go away; she was sure of that now.
“They say they just wanna talk,” the guard said, with no small amount of confusion. “I told them you’d meet them in Angel’s Wing.”
Cade nodded, and Asha hovered nervously as they got ready to leave.
“It’ll be okay,” he whispered to her, then kissed her forehead. “Whatever they want, we’ll figure it out. This is our show now. We make the rules.”
Asha nodded, though she didn’t for a second believe him. These were the people who murdered everyone she’d ever known, and left Applegate as a ruined husk. They didn’t seem like the sort who’d be open to negotiations.
Fearing they may recognize her, Cade made Asha wear his clothes, including his jacket with the hood up.
He arranged her hair so it hid most of her face.
Wearing Cade’s oversized clothes, she didn’t look much like she had when she’d lived at the Cave, and to complete the picture, she smeared dirt on her face.
When they entered Angel’s old rooms, they were met by Leo and Dom, along with three men in black tactical uniforms, not unlike the ones that the three Delta soldiers had.
The key difference was that all three of them wore the black masks painted over with gold eyes.
Their own eyes weren’t visible, which made the effect that much stranger.
They also wore utility belts with portable electronic devices—probably the PIDs that Cade had told her about.
She hoped to God that they hadn’t tracked her with them.
The man in the middle of the three also wore a black chest plate with gold painted designs that looked vaguely religious in nature. All three masked men were heavily armed with rifles and shotguns.
The air was tense. A shiver went down Asha’s spine.
“Clyde Owens,” the man with the chest plate said, holding out his hand to Cade, who frowned and didn’t take it. “Chief General of the Order of Odessa. We’d been dealing with Angel, but your men tell me that he met a rather unfortunate end. Is that true, Captain?”
The Order of Odessa. Asha had never heard of them in the Cave before the attack. Whoever organized the insurgency, they’d clearly been able to keep it secret.
Cade bristled at the use of his rank, and Clyde laughed.
“Unclench, Captain, it’s just what they called you at the gate,” he said. “Congratulations on your success. Like Angel was, we hope you’ll be…accommodating of the needs of the Prince of Pain.”
Cade cocked an eyebrow. “The Prince of Pain? Never heard of him.”
There was a hush, almost as though the three men were offended.
“What is it that this ‘Prince’ needs?” Cade asked, crossing his arms.
Clyde huffed, and Asha braced herself. She couldn’t see his face, but she sensed that whatever was coming, it would be bad.
“Bodies,” he answered simply. “We know that the Guardians, and all the other worthless gangs in these parts, have a robust slave trade. Angel agreed just days ago to supply us with as many able-bodied slaves as we could handle.”
Asha made a sound of horror. This was a nightmare. Cade glanced at her, his eyes hard, silently ordering her to contain herself.
“In exchange for what?” he demanded, pinning Clyde with a look.
Clyde gave another harsh laugh. “For being allowed to exist. Obviously.”
Asha’s heart pounded hideously in her chest, and she covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from speaking. Meanwhile, Dom’s jaw had clenched and Leo’s face had gone white.
“Surely, you know our capabilities, Captain,” Clyde continued mockingly. “Yes, I know who you are, though I don’t know what compound you’re from. Can’t be from ours—everyone who failed to bow to the Order is dead.”
Cade’s eyes flicked to Asha for the briefest of seconds before he deliberately looked elsewhere, and Asha had to resist the urge to run. It seemed as though they didn’t know she’d survived, and she wanted to keep it that way.
“Since you’re a compound military commander, you know the kind of weapons we can employ,” Clyde said.
“Weapons beyond anything these pitiful Wastelander gangs could dream of. Weapons of mass destruction, suffering, and death. If you choose not to assist the Prince of Pain in his goals, you will be signing your own death warrant, along with everyone else’s.
Angel—stupid but prudent man that he was—saw the wisdom in complying. ”
Cade was silent, his teeth gritted, and Asha’s fear almost overcame her when she realized that he had no adequate response.
How could he? He held the lives of every person here in his hands…
yet surrendering so many slaves to Clyde and this strange Order was unthinkable.
Everything they’d done up to this point to overthrow Angel’s horrific rule would be for nothing.
All their best laid plans for liberty and justice would be forfeit.
“Perhaps you need some persuasion,” Clyde said, a nasty timbre to his voice, and turned to one of the other masked men. “Malcolm.”
Before anyone could react, Malcolm raised a small gun, akin to a taser, and Asha gasped as her chest was pierced by a long needle.
She had just enough time to look down and see small dart sticking out of her chest before she fell forward.
The skin around the entry wound had already started to feel unnaturally numb, and the sensation was spreading outward.
Leo, to his credit, reacted faster than anyone else. He was at Asha’s side in half a second, ripping her jacket open and surveying the damage. She cried out as he slowly worked on extricating the needle from her chest. Cade made a noise that sounded like something between rage and anguish.
“What. Did. You. Do. To. Her?” Cade demanded. She’d never heard him sound so murderous and out of control. “I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you.”
He made a move toward Clyde, but the masked man held up a hand.
“Careful, Captain,” he crooned. “It’s a fast-acting poison.
” He withdrew a small, loaded syringe from a pocket on his utility belt.
“This is the antidote. I’d be happy to give it to her, if you keep your gang’s agreement with us.
If you don’t, however, I’ll be forced to crush this syringe, and she’ll die a painful death. ”
The numbness had spread to Asha’s whole body, and her teeth kept clenching involuntarily.
Saliva pooled in her mouth and leaked out, and a second later, her body began seizing uncontrollably.
Her sense of reality blurred, but she distantly felt Leo turning her onto her side, her mouth facing the floor.
More shouting broke out between the two parties.
A moment later, she felt another stab in her left buttock, and heard Cade cursing profusely.
She must’ve blacked out, because the next thing she knew, she was propped up against the wall, and Leo was carefully lifting her eyelids and shining his flashlight into them. Clyde and his friends were gone.
She drew back instinctively, coughing.
“Is she okay?” Cade asked, barely above a whisper. He sounded beside himself.
“She’s conscious, which is a good sign,” Leo replied, rummaging in his medical bag. “I have no idea what they gave her, but I’ll monitor her overnight to determine if there’s any lasting neurological damage from the seizure.”
“Seemed like a chemical weapon,” Dom commented, sounding detached as ever. “Designed to kill quick.”
Asha still felt spacey and distant, even when Cade scooped her up into his arms and they headed for Leo’s clinic. He held her close to his body, and she realized he was shaking. When they reached the cot in the clinic, he laid her down so gently, tucking her under the blankets with such care.
“Cade,” Asha breathed, her vision still a little blurry. “I’m…I think I’m okay. I feel better.”
It was true: the numbness in her limbs was slowly fading, and the drooling had stopped. She felt exhausted in the aftermath of the seizure, however.
“That’s good,” he murmured, low and tender, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “You scared me back there, my sweet angel.”
There was a long pause while Leo listened to her heart and lungs and performed some other tests to ensure she was recovering. By the time he finished, Asha was falling asleep. Still, she remembered she had something important to tell Cade, something that couldn’t wait.
“Cade?” she whispered, her eyes shut.
“What, darling?”
“Don’t give them the slaves. Whatever…happens, don’t.”
Another pause, and when he didn’t reply, she repeated it for emphasis. She was too sleepy for dread to grip her, and yet she felt certain, underneath her drowsiness, that something was terribly wrong. She felt a couple of wet drops hit her cheek, followed by more silence.
Finally, Cade kissed her, and she heard him get up and leave.