Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
brEXLEY
My mouth opened as her empty gaze took us in, my shock locking me in place. They had seen her decline; I had not. The girl who stood before me was gaunt, lifeless, and only a shell of the girl I had grown up with.
“Hanna,” Scorpion muttered her name, snapping her attention to him. There was a moment when she spotted Scorpion, a flutter of something, air catching in her throat, her blue eyes widening.
“Hit the button!” The officer Warwick held prisoner shouted at her. Like that was the switch, anything familiar about Hanna was shut off, her expression becoming stone.
Hanna swung her gun to us as she leaned back, reaching for a black button next to the door. I knew whatever that did, the moment she hit it, we were done. Everyone would know we were here.
“No!” Scorpion leaped for her. With one hand, he grabbed the barrel of the gun, twisting it out of her grip as his body collided with hers, the gun tumbling to the ground. She twisted, hissing like a wild cat, her fist cracking across his cheek, snapping his head back.
A jolt of fear punched at my lungs, seeing my friend turning feral. I had not seen this side of her before, and it terrified me.
Scorpion shook his head, blood leaking from his lip.
He dove for her with a hungry growl as she kicked out, her boot hitting his side.
He grunted, continuing for her, though I could tell he was trying not to hurt her.
She swung out for him, mimicking how a leopard or tiger would fight in nature.
He twisted around her, his hands grappling at her wrists, pinning them to her sides.
A yowl rose from her throat, causing a chill to sweep up my neck.
Scorpion wrapped his arms around her, yanking her back into his chest, pressing him firmly into her, his mouth grazing her ear. “Stop, little viper.”
She stopped. Her lungs heaved, her body curving back into his like he was her only anchor to the world.
His breath fluttered her hair, her lids closing briefly.
It was at that moment I saw it. It wasn’t just a bond between them, two people growing closer because of circumstances.
My link to Scorpion highlighted what he felt.
What she was.
Holy fuck . . .
He exhaled in her ear. “That’s my wildcat.”
Her eyes popped open instantly at his words, the moment gone. Her nose wrinkled with fury, her body thrashing, slamming her head back into his with a crunch.
Pain and anger ignited Scorpion’s eyes, clamping his jaw together. His grip on her tightened like a cobra while blood leaked out of his nose. “Hanna.”
The Hanna he was trying to reach had slipped away, her lip curling, her teeth snapping.
Scorpion yanked her away as Warwick took his prisoner to the keypad, a deep rattling threat humming from his chest, which struck fear into everyone—everyone but me, it seemed.
I had no doubt something was wrong with me because when he did that, I wanted to strip him bare and fuck him until we both passed out.
The officer hesitated, but when Caden pressed his pistol into the back of his head, his fingers swept over the pad, a scanner accepting his thumbprint.
Click.
The door unlocked, rolling open, revealing what was behind.
Horror. Shock. Repulsion. It cascaded over me, locking my breath in my lungs. I had been expecting something similar to the lab Istvan had in Budapest.
Not this.
The scale of the room turned my blood cold—at least sixty feet wide and going up at least seventy feet.
Four levels of individual water tanks took up the entire wall, all filled with men; some had several in one tank.
Machines pumped fae essence into them straight from the fae source down below.
Rows and rows of tables lined up were filled with various fae, strapped down, their bodies being forced to shift, their essence filling the tubes connecting them to the men in the tanks.
These were Istvan’s super soldiers. The top tier of his army.
His private army. Similar to what Hitler or Stalin had.
Istvan was following the fascist formula, wanting to succeed where they had eventually failed.
In another half of the room, the fae were dumping their essence into vials, which would probably be taken out and used to make the pills. That was for the mass of men and women who would be used as disposable foot soldiers.
The fae’s faint moans of agony hummed with the machines, showing they were closer to death than life.
The room was a buzz of equipment, magic, and suffering.
At least ten figures in lab coats moved throughout the room, checking on the experiments, their attention so focused they had yet to notice us.
And Dr. Karl was the head of all of them. His back to us, he scribbled numbers from a monitor on the wall next to the water tanks.
Caden stood next to me, his muscles clenching so hard he started to shake.
Fury, disgust, disbelief, and trauma billowed off him.
The pain of a son who used to look up to his father, only to find his idol was a true monster.
Everything he was raised to believe was nothing but lies, whispered from the black tongue of a devil.
The extent of Istvan’s project had at least tripled in size.
This was far more than any of us expected—better equipment, more streamlined.
I knew Markos would only keep expanding.
He’d litter countries with labs, producing these mindless drones throughout the world until he took over cities, then countries, one by one.
“Intruders! Attack!” Hanna’s emotionless voice belted out through the room, her mouth wiggling free of Scorpion’s hand, bouncing off the tanks as every head twisted toward us. It took them only a blink before realizing their walls had been invaded and pulling out guns hidden under their lab coats.
Istvan wanted to make sure his assets were protected at all times now.
“Wait! Stop!” Dr. Karl leaped out, his arms over the tanks as if he could protect his experiments from the bullets about to be sprayed. “Don’t shoot! The tanks will shatter!”
There was a moment no one moved, unsure how to proceed, before Hanna let out a wail, her foot stomping on Scorpion’s.
She kicked back, nailing him in the groin.
He bent over in agony, his arms releasing her enough for her to reach out and flip down a plastic shield, slamming her palm down on another black button on the wall.
Fuck.
EEEEEEEEEEE! The air shrilled with an earsplitting siren, pounding down on us like a hammer, lights flashing through the room.
Chaos exploded in the space.
Bang! Bang!
Gunfire cut across the lab, the armed technicians firing back at us. Caden snarled with rage, his gaze locked on Dr. Karl as the man went scampering off, crouched low, heading for a door closest to him.
An escape.
“No,” Caden sneered, running after him. His frame expanded as he descended on the cowering man, reminding me so much of Warwick.
The same fury bubbled through my veins, keeping me right on Caden’s heels. We grew up our whole lives with Dr. Karl. He was there for every growth spurt and broken bone. He was the man we trusted and believed in to take care of us.
This was personal.
Caden kicked Dr. Karl in the leg, his round body stumbling to the ground. Karl curled up against the wall, holding up his hands. “Don’t kill me.”
“Where is he?” Caden reached down, clutching his throat. His power, even if it was a slice of Warwick’s, was daunting, making Karl snivel and squirm in fear. “Tell me, kovér disznó.” Fat pig. “Or I will gut you right here.”
“No, please,” Karl begged, his eyes watering, his nose dripping with snot. Anything left of the man I thought he was had disappeared. “Don’t hurt me.”
“Tell me where my father is,” Caden clamped down harder, pressing his gun into his temple.
“He just left!” Dr. Karl motioned for the door at the opposite end of the room. “Through there . . . only a few minutes ago.”
“If you are lying to me . . .” Caden’s threat even vibrated through me.
“I’m not! I’m not!” The old man wheezed, his eyes pleading for reprieve.
Caden glanced back at the door Karl motioned to.
“I swear to you. He was just here checking on the latest results. He left only a few moments before you came in.”
Caden let out a growl, and without a word, he whirled around, sprinting for the very door his father had gone through, our entrance probably missing him by mere seconds.
The distraction on Caden was enough time for Karl to start to crawl to the door.
“Stop!” My boot slammed him back down again, a cry spewing from him, his hands up by his face as if they could protect him from the gun I had pointed at his head.
“No! No! Please don’t kill me!” His round frame tried to curl up like a roly-poly, huffing and puffing. “I watched you grow up. I patched you up and was there for you when you were sick. I was there after your father died. Do you not remember how much I loved you? Cared for you?”
“Loved and cared for me?” My lip lifted as I shoved the barrel into his forehead. He tried to scramble back farther, burrowing himself into the wall, his whimpers growing louder and louder. “Menj a halál farkára.” Go onto death’s dick. My finger pressed firmer on the trigger.
“No . . . please!” he begged, snot running from his nose. “You don’t understand. I had to. Istvan . . . He made me.”
“He didn’t make you do anything. You did that all yourself.
And you loved it.” I reached down, knotting my fingers into his collar, pulling his sweaty red face to me.
“You enjoyed testing on us, draining me of blood, standing there while children, fae and human, were tortured and killed in front of you. You are a sick fuck, and I hope you rot.”