Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
Raegan
The door latch cranks and echoes through my tiny room. I jump up from the cot, keeping to the back wall to wait and see what’s in store for me next.
I’ve hardly slept in the hours I’ve been here.
Even with the lights staying on, nightmares crept easily into my dreams without the others around.
There are too many similarities with this room and solitary that it’s impossible not to be reminded of the memories I’d tried to lock away.
I gave up after the second one and paced the room instead.
My stomach growls angrily. It has to be past morning. They haven’t opened the door since Charles left, which means I’ve had no food or water.
I hope they’ve at least taken care of the guys with a healer. Or some sort of medical attention. Did their gifts come back? If they escaped, I’m sure the agent wouldn’t be as calm as he is standing there. I try to tell myself it’s not because of their injuries. They’re okay. They have to be.
“You’ve been requested,” the agent announces at the door. His arm rests casually over the gun hanging in front of his chest—a warning.
I’m all out of knives anyway, and the thin silver bracelet around my wrist continues to block my gift. Every once in a while, I feel an odd pulse. Or something I can sense but not physically feel, because the hair on my arm rises, and I feel the urge to itch and rub the area beneath the bracelet.
If only I could break it somehow. It’s too small for me to remove, even if I dislocated my thumb. My best chance is to find something hard to hit it with.
“Let’s go,” he grunts when I don’t move right away.
Another rumble echoes from my stomach. Loud enough that I know he can hear it.
“Are we going to breakfast?” I ask, my tone teasing and breathless. I try not to let him see how nervous I am at being “requested”.
“I could hand pick some agents...”
He wouldn’t go through with that plan already, would he?
My blood chills.
Of course, he would.
The agent doesn’t react at all to my words or apparent hunger. He strides into the room and grips my arm.
I jerk away from him on instinct, and he slaps me hard across the face. My head whips to the side, and my ear rings. He pulls me with him while I’m distracted by the pulsing heat in my cheek. Pressing my cooler fingers to it, I scowl at him. “You can let go of me. I’ll walk.”
Thankfully, he does, though he keeps pace beside me with little space between us.
The door we stop in front of has a small square window offering a glimpse inside. When I see multiple lab coats, relief rushes through me, making my limbs weak.
Thank fuck.
The agent knocks twice.
“Come in.”
Hatred bubbles in my chest at Charles’s voice. What new threat has he thought up this time?
We walk into the room, and I freeze.
“Kellan!” I shout, lurching toward him and being tugged back as he roars and yanks on the chains that are keeping his arms stretched out.
He’s kneeling shirtless in the middle of the room, shackled and chained to the walls on either side of him so there’s no give for him to relax his arms. Scientists stand around him, poking him with knives to trigger his gift, while others try to peel the scales from his skin.
Another scientist is trying to hammer a nail into his protected skin where there are no scales.
Kell bellows as a knife is pushed into his back, and I realize he has a slew of them sticking out of him like a pincushion. His arms bulge and shake as he tries to rip free of the chains.
I shout his name again, but he doesn’t hear me. He doesn’t see me. He’s lost in a haze of pain and anger.
There’s a sharp crack from the wall by one of his chains, and the scientists startle back.
Kellan falls back on his calves, leaning forward as his chest heaves.
His dark hair is no longer tied, running free to his shoulders and covering his face in a curtain.
I twist out of the agent’s grip and run to him, wrapping his head in my arms and glaring over my shoulder at the man responsible.
“Stop! Just because he heals doesn’t mean that he feels no pain!”
Charles hums. “Does he? He’s handled more than anyone I’ve ever seen. I need to understand where his limit lies, and therefore, my own.”
While he’s talking, I let one hand slide down Kell’s back, carefully plucking the knives free so he can heal. “You’re a monster.”
The GE president smiles. “To you, perhaps.”
“Beautiful? That you?” His voice is rough. He sounds exhausted.
Anger sparks through my nerves like a live wire. If I had my gift...
I fish another blade free, and he grunts.
“It’s me. I’m here,” I whisper soothingly.
His head leans more heavily against me.
“She’s removing the knives!” someone yells.
I’m ripped away from Kellan before I can finish, but I swing around and slash at the agent with the knife still in my hand.
He blocks it with his arm, taking the cut before grabbing me by the front of my shirt, spinning, and trapping my back to his chest. He knocks the knife from my hand and pins my arms to my sides with a painful one-armed bear hug.
I throw my head back to break his nose, but he dodges and pinches my jaw to hold me still.
Charles looks over my shoulder to the agent and nods.
His gaze drops to mine. “You’re only here to watch.
So, watch quietly, or I’ll have you bound and gagged for these visits in the future.
” He turns to Kellan, who’s now staring down the agent touching me with a look of pure malice.
“You promised cooperation if I kept her alive. And here she is. Alive. If you can’t keep your promise to do as we ask, then our deal is over.
Fight your chains again, and I’ll personally deliver the bullet to her brain. Do you understand?”
Kellan’s pupils have consumed the blue-green color of his eyes when he slowly drags his gaze from the agent to Charles. His jaw rolls from clenching his teeth so hard I’m waiting to hear a tooth snap. “Yes,” he growls.
“Sir, he’s—his gift,” a scientist speaks up. “It’s fully active again.”
Charles sighs. “Give him another microdose.” One of them hurries to do exactly that.
Charles smiles pleasantly at me, even though I know that’s the furthest thing he’s feeling for me right now.
“There’s a bottle of water and a sandwich on the table.
” He indicates a metal table on the other side of him.
“You can eat it yourself or give it to him. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which of you will have the advantage. ”
The advantage?
He leaves the room, and everyone, including the agent, follows him. Leaving me alone with Kellan.
As soon as the door clicks shut, I run to him. “Kell!” He drops his face on my shoulder, his body still trembling from the strain on his arms. Or is it residual pain from what they were doing earlier? His scales are fading, which means his extra strength is leaving with them.
He may be healed from the earlier injuries, but his body must be exhausted.
“How long have they been doing this?” I ask, stroking my hands through his hair and along the back of his neck.
“Not long after he took you,” he admits.
Fuck.
Hours and hours of this. Of torturing him until his gift takes over fully, then muting it so they can start over again.
I cradle his face and rest my forehead against his. The unrelenting quiver of his muscles breaks my heart. His eyes remain closed. He hasn’t slept then, either.
“I’m getting you out of this.” I press my lips to his, trying to draw him back to me. He barely reciprocates, but his lips part ever so slightly to invite me in. “You have to keep fighting.”
“Not with your life on the line, beautiful. I’ll face this a thousand times if it means you’ll be safe.”
“Well, I can’t.” I stand, leaving to grab the sandwich and water and then kneel before him. “Here.” I offer the water to his lips first, using my other hand to guide his chin up.
“Wait.” When he says that, I pause. “Have you had any?”
“Of course,” I lie. “I’ve got my own room and everything. Now, drink it.”
He guzzles half of it down, his throat working as some of it trickles to his beard and down his neck. His lips press together to block the remaining water, and I pull it away.
He refuses the sandwich.
I huff. “I already told you, I’m fine. Eat it.”
“Your stomach hasn’t stopped growling. There’s no fucking way I’m taking a bite until I see you eat some of it.”
Damn it. “I’m still in better shape than you,” I mutter, taking a single bite of the sandwich to make him happy, then hold it out for him again.
“More.”
“I ate some.”
“Eat. More.”
“Stubborn prick.” I take two more bites, then show him.
Kellan finally takes a piece the size of my three, and I could hug him. “Your turn,” he rumbles with his mouth full.
Sighing, I eat more until he’s satisfied, and we go back and forth until it’s gone. He makes me drink some water, too, before he finishes it off.
It wasn’t a lot, but it was something, and I’m already feeling a bit better than before. I gently stroke his beard. “How do you feel?”
“Never better,” he teases, finally shooting me a smile. It’s not his playful grin, but I still take it as a good sign.
“I mean it, Kell. We’re getting out of here. I need to know if I have to find a way to carry or drag your ass out, or if you can walk.”
His smile vanishes. “Unless it's a sure bet, I’m not risking your life. Leaving this room isn’t it.”
I give him my own soft smile. “We’re together, Kell.
Of course, it’s a sure bet. And I thought you were always up for a challenge.
” His eyes widen, and some of the spark returns to them.
Before he can reply, I walk to the door and peek through the window.
“I don’t see any guards...” Gripping the handle for shits and giggles, I pull it down, waiting for the inevitable click as it hits the lock.
It doesn’t.
It turns without resistance, and when I tug gently on the door, it cracks open.
Holy shit.
“Kell...” I murmur, checking the crack and spotting a single guard. I carefully close the door.
It’s a trap, right? There’s no way that Charles just left the door unlocked with only one agent to guard us. That’s too careless.
But he wasn’t the last one in the room. It was one of the scientists. Did they forget?
“...which of you will have the advantage.”
No.
He was being cryptic about something again. There’s a nagging in my head that I should know what he’s talking about. He’d mentioned I could either watch or participate in something depending if I fought back. It’s safe to assume that trying to escape counts as fighting back.
This is probably a test.
I look over at Kellan. At his hunched over frame. His spread and chained arms.
I can’t let this continue. I don’t care if it is a test and I fail. If I can break him free and we can find the others, then we’ll fight our way out.
The only problem is getting him out of those chains. But I’d heard the crack when he’d been pulling on them. I just need to find it and chip away at it.
I start searching the room for anything hard or heavy, pushing things aside and checking drawers. Kellan doesn’t say a word through any of it, and I’m convinced he’s fallen asleep. It makes me try not to make too much noise so he can get some rest now.
Maybe it’s selfish and reckless of me to force us into this situation while he’s so worn out, but I can’t wait for the perfect opportunity. I don’t think things will get better with time. They’ll only get worse.
I pick up some of the knives on the floor around Kell and hide one in each boot and one at my back under my bra. The hammer that one of the scientists had been using is also still on the floor.
Perfect.
Kellan stirs when he hears the hammer striking the concrete where the metal loop for the chain is mounted. “What are you doing?”
“The door’s unlocked with only one agent out there. We’re getting out of here.”
He doesn’t say anything for a few swings. “You go. They could come back before you can get me free.”
“I’m not leaving without you.”
Clink. Clink. Clink.
The metal loop doesn’t budge.
“Pull on this side,” I tell him without stopping.
“Raegan...”
When I look up, he isn’t trying at all. I storm over to him, getting in his face.
“If we stay here, I’ll become a breeding mare for Charles to build a mini army of destruction.
Are you going to stay on your knees and let that happen?
Or are you going to help me break you free so we can rescue the others and get the fuck out of here? ”
That lights a fire in his eyes and he snaps his teeth together. He starts jerking the chain on the side where I was working, and I rush back to hammer at it at the same time. The loop starts to angle down, and I throw my strength behind every swing to keep it up.
Come on.
Come on.
It flies free, ripping from the already-damaged concrete. I jump back to avoid it and then grin at Kell. “One to go.”