Chapter 34 Raegan
Chapter thirty-four
Raegan
For a moment, I have the disorienting feeling that we’ve jumped into one of the photos.
Everything sways around me as my brain acclimates to our new location in limited lighting.
Jackson steadies me while I help Dane on my other side.
Kellan, Reid, and Aiden are in front of us, blocking our view of the board member where we’d seen him sitting at a table in the picture.
“Finally. I was beginning to think you’d never show up,” the doctor’s voice echoes in what sounds like a reprimand. “Charles requested that I join him and run away like a coward, but I told him I’d like to meet you myself.”
We’re standing among rows of tables with scientific equipment and computers on them. It looks like the lab of a mad scientist as liquid flows through tubes and drips into beakers. Another one is giving off an odd smell that makes me scrunch my nose when I first get a whiff of it.
A swift breeze brushes past my arm. Glass shatters, and one of the table’s setups crashes to pieces, spilling its contents across the table and onto the floor. The awful smell dissipates.
The doctor sighs. “That was harmless.”
Aiden flexes his wrist. The diamond blades of his sword separate to form the whip-like structure at his side. “What have you done to the people here?”
Beyond the tables on either side are rows and rows of cages stacked on each other until they disappear into darkness. It reminds me of the warehouse where we’d found Congressman Joe. The cages there had been empty, but these are full.
The prisoners on our right are hunched over or curled up. Silent.
On the left, they’re banging the cages like wild animals.
I shift around the others to get a better look at Dr. James Richer.
There’s a single fluorescent light above him and his table, like a spotlight.
He’s wearing some sort of goggles on top of his thick white hair.
If I didn’t already know he’s in his sixties, I would have guessed he was only in his early to mid-forties based on his appearance.
The white lab coat is open to his buttoned and collared dress shirt and slacks.
“That would be a long list that neither of us has time for.”
Kellan roars, lunging at him with his claws.
Something sharp rakes through my mind like talons. I scream and grab my head, dropping to my knees. Then it’s gone, the feeling disappearing just as quickly as it came.
When I come back to my senses, I’m out of breath on the floor. The others are lying around me, and even Kellan is down on one knee.
The doctor is gone.
The light goes out, plunging us into darkness.
Fuck.
How much do I want to bet those goggles were for night vision?
Dane and I both activate our gifts, providing a small amount of light for our group.
The combination of the deep red and soft white light casts an eerie glow on the immediate area.
We may as well put a flashing arrow over our heads to tell him where we are, but I’d rather we have some light to see him if he sneaks up on us than be completely blind.
“Ah, pet. How I’ve missed you,” Gordon infiltrates my thoughts, rising from memories I thought I’d locked away for good.
I try to ignore him, even though my body starts to remember anyway. The cool water tank that took away my troubles. His voice, the only thing keeping me company in the dark. My lungs constrict, forcing me to breathe faster.
James’s and Gordon’s voices start to blend into one, calling to me through the dark, and just like that I’m right back in the water tank where I can’t move.
I’m restrained so tightly that I can’t do anything but listen.
“I know how much you crave the dark, Raegan. You miss him. You miss the freedom he gave you. All you’ve had since they stole you away is trouble and worry.
But Gordon gave you peace. Don’t you miss that?
Wouldn’t you like to return to that peaceful state you’d been in where you don’t have to feel so much? ”
It feels like I’m spinning. I can’t see or hear anything outside of his voice. I don’t feel my body anymore. I’m floating. Trapped in the water tank as the words echo and repeat in my head. “Did you have a nice dream?” Gordon continues, and my stomach hollows.
A dream?
“You didn't actually think you'd escaped me, did you? You merely fell asleep in the tank again.”
No. You’re dead.
“Do I sound dead to you? Let me show you.”
Something shakes me, and nausea burns up my throat.
Don’t touch me!
My gift flares on reflex, and someone yelps.
I hear laughter. “My pet is finally turning into the monster she was meant to be. Why don’t you let it out? Prove to me you’re not worthless.”
“—gan!” a faraway voice interrupts Gordon.
The restraints tighten like chains wrapping my entire body, suffocating me.
No! Let me go!
“I swore I’d never do that, beautiful,” a rough, deep voice says above me. A whiff of musk and amber catches me off guard.
There’s nothing to smell in the water tank.
Something strokes my palm in a soothing circle. “It’s Dane. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere. You’re safe. Gordon’s dead. Come back to us,” another voice pleads.
“Don’t listen to him. Listen to me, Raegan,” a third voice commands. “Look at me. Now.”
I know these voices. They’re… safe. I blink, struggling to focus in the dark, until I realize it’s not pitch-black. The dark red and pale white light blinds me for a second.
“Useless,” Gordon mocks, but it’s not just his voice. It’s someone else’s, too.
“Good girl,” the third voice croons. “Look at me.”
A clash of metal in the distance startles me free of whatever trance I’d been in, and Aiden’s face comes into view. Kellan’s bear-hugging me from behind, and Dane’s squeezing my hand at my side. He looks both relieved and… in pain?
“She’s back,” he breathes, exhaling sharply.
“What happened?” I ask, worry rising in my chest like acid.
Kellan releases me, and Aiden answers. “His gift, most likely. Jackson went after him, and Reid’s trying to turn on the lights. Dane—”
“I’m fine. Let’s go kill this fucker.”
I squeeze his hand, and he flinches, pulling his hand away. “Dane?”
“It’s nothing.”
I’m still piecing myself back together, so I don’t chase his hand.
I hold mine out for it instead and wait for him to show me.
He makes a face—like he’d really prefer not showing me—which only makes me want to see it more.
Finally, he turns his hand over and reveals the bloody, tattered state of his hand.
I gasp, reaching for his wrist. “Dane!”
He pulls it out of reach and takes my hand with his other one. “You can look at it after this bastard’s dead.”
Aiden nods his agreement. “Kell—”
“I’ll take point. You cover the back,” Kellan growls, moving in front. Aiden shifts his whip sword into a shield as tall as him and three times as wide. It curves a bit overhead for added protection until I think he’s out of metal.
We move down one aisle of cages. The people inside are crashing and slamming their bodies into the metal. Even through the noise, I can hear James’s voice as clearly as if he’s speaking directly in my head.
“You think you’ve fooled anyone, Dane? You should know better than anyone here. Grief is wearing a mask and telling the world you’re fine when inside you’re rotting. The more you tell yourself and those around you that everything is okay, the worse it gets. The more the rot festers.”
Dane scowls.
“Don’t let him get to you,” Aiden orders. “He’ll say anything to keep us distracted.”
“We wouldn't want that, Aiden,” James’s voice echoes in our minds, giving us no clear direction for where he is.
“You’ve already lost so many Guild members in this fight against GE.
I’m not sure you could handle one more. It’s a wonder anyone still follows you when you’ve failed at protecting your people over and over again. ”
A gunshot fires. Kellan widens his stance to block us. The bullet clinks to the ground.
“Good save, Kellan. You think you’ve become stronger now, but it’s still not enough to defeat Charles. As long as he has your gift, strength will never be enough. You won’t be able to protect them all. You’re cursed to watch the others fall while only you survive.”
“Oh yeah? Try saying that to my face, you coward,” he snarls. “We’ll see what words you have when I’m ripping your throat out.”
There’s another gunshot that strikes Aiden’s shield with a hard tink.
Each fire of the gun catapults my heart into my throat as I wait to hear where the bullet lands. If I’ll feel it or hear someone I love cry out in pain.
I won’t let that happen.
Stopping, I send my gift through my feet to the floor, burying it beneath the surface to not give myself away.
Dane and Aiden pause with me. It takes them only a second to realize what I’m doing as I seek out James.
He can hide all he likes in the dark, but my gift will find and destroy him nonetheless.
James laughs. “You can try, Raegan, but you forget that I can hear your fears. What if you accidentally get Reid or Jack instead?” Metal rattles. “What if you kill all these innocent people?”
Fuck. He’s hanging onto the cages.
“You really are becoming too dangerous to live... like Charles said. How long until you get so strong that you lose control? Until your gift becomes so hungry to devour everything in its path that you can’t stop it?
Until it kills the friends you’ve made. The men you love.
You think you’re a good person, but you’re a villain in the making.
All I have to do is kill one of the people in this room, and it’ll be enough to set you off.
You’ll lose control of your gift, and all the people trapped in cages will die.
All the innocent lives in the hospital above us will die.
There will be no more redemption. Only feeding the world to your gift until it’s satisfied. ”