Blaire
BLAIRE
“Jesus fuck, Johnson, you took your time, my shift finished half an hour ago, and I’m busting for a shit! Don’t know why they even bother having a guard down here, none of these fuckers are …”
The agent finally turned, the rant dying on his lips.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” he asked, his voice trembling, his eyes darting around past where and Roman stood, still cloaked.
“Well, Johnson certainly isn’t here,” Roman rumbled. The agent’s eyes widened, focusing on the deadly immortal suddenly standing right in front of him.
“I … don’t come any closer, I’ve got a …” he fumbled at his belt for the gun holstered there.
clicked the safety off her gun, pressing it to his temple with shaking fingers.
“Maybe just don’t move,” she warned, impressed that her voice wasn’t shaking as much as her hand. “You’re kind of fucked right now if you do.”
The man let out a terrified whimper.
“Oh, holy shit, what is that … God, that stinks!” gagged.
“I just said I was busting,” the man moaned. “And then you held a gun to my head!”
took an involuntary step back, away from the man who had just shat himself.
“Please … I have a wife and kids at home!” the man whined.
“Should have thought about that before you decided to throw your lot in with a psychopath,” Roman snarled.
“Well … you should’ve just killed me on sight, the way you fucking freaks normally do!” the man raged. Electricity crackled through the air. Pain shot through ’s hip. Roman went flying backward along the corridor, landing several feet away with a thump that panged through ’s side.
“Bet you wish you didn’t underestimate me now, you piece of—”
pulled the trigger.
Bone and brain and blood sprayed across the wall.
She didn’t even have a second to process that she’d just shot a man because she was staggering to Roman, heart hammering, breath a ragged sob. Her hip burned, and the same side of her body that he had landed on felt like one giant bruise.
A distant boom echoed somewhere above them, and dust rained from the ceiling. But didn’t give a shit. She was hurt, which meant so was he. And he wasn’t moving.
“Roman!” she screamed, falling to her knees beside him, her eyes burning, her throat closing over.
He sat up with a groan, and her body went limp with relief.
“Fuck, that hurt!” he grunted, grabbing her to him, patting her down.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he asked frantically.
“Only the mirror wound … but it wasn’t a bad one, was it? Just a little cattle prod to the hip. We’ve had worse.” It was a terrible attempt at a joke, and the look on Roman’s face told her just how well he had taken it.
“I put you in fucking danger, Sweetest,” he growled. “I hesitated … and I should have just—”
“Kill first, talk later, I think needs to be our motto from now on,” interrupted.
“You shot him?” Roman asked, peering past her back down the dimly lit corridor.
“He hurt what’s Mine!” seethed. “Plus, he was a total sack of—”
Her words were cut off when Roman’s lips crashed into hers, his tongue delving as soon as her lips popped open under his. She melted against him, allowing herself just this quick moment to feel the relief that he was alright, to use the adrenaline racing through her veins for something other than violence.
“You’re okay … we’re okay,” he mumbled against her mouth before licking into it again.
She pressed closer to him, wishing, as his tongue lashed hers, as he palmed her ass and pulled her onto his lap, that they could just fuck, right here, right now, just a quick release, a reaffirmation that they were both okay, unharmed, before they continued with this fucking crazy mission.
“It would be so easy to just peel your jeans away, settle you on my cock, and take the edge off both of us,” Roman mumbled against her mouth, his hand finding her breast, pinching her nipple through her clothing. She gasped, throwing her head back.
“Please!” she groaned. “I love it when you read my mind!”
“?” a tremulous voice called from down the never-ending corridor. “!”
fell off Roman’s lap, her arousal completely forgotten.
“Mom?” she cried, and then she was on her feet, sprinting down the corridor. “Mom, where are you?”
Door after door lined one side of the corridor. They all had barred windows. glanced in each as she hurried past. Empty. Empty. Empty.
“Mom?” she cried out again.
“, what are you doing here?” her mother asked, fear and fury tingeing her tone. But her voice was closer.
“What the hell do you think I’m doing here?” retorted. Another empty cell. And another.
“If you came here for us … what a stupid thing to do, !”
“Not stupid!” snapped. Another empty cell. “Necessary!”
And then, inside the next cell was her mother. skidded to a stop. Her mom’s face was gaunt. She looked like she’d aged a decade in the last several weeks. But her eyes were bright, and she reached her fingers through the bars. Bony fingers.
grasped them tight, eyes prickling. “Mom …” she breathed, her throat choking up.
“I’m super mad at you for coming here.” Her mother cleared her throat. “But it’s so good to see you, honey.”
A sob ripped out of , and she wiped hurriedly at her streaming eyes. There was no time for emotions.
“How do I get you out of here?”
Roman appeared behind her, holding up a severed hand. “With this.”
He pressed a finger to the panel near the door, and with a buzz and a click, it swung inwards. rushed inside.
And froze. Because it wasn’t just her mother in the room.
“Bumblebee,” Harvey slurred through split lips. Both eyes were purple, and his arm looked like it was broken, hanging at an odd angle.
“What happened to him?” gasped, forgetting in her shock that she was still really fucking mad at the man who had pretended to be her father for eighteen years. The same man who had been happy to sell her out to Baxter, even after her mom had gotten cold feet.
“He wasn’t prepared to toe the line anymore,” her mom explained. “He can walk, though. What’s going on? How are you planning to get us out of here?”
Another rumble from above. This one made the floor shiver.
“We need to move fast,” Roman said, heading straight for Harvey and helping him to stand. ’s chest tightened at how Harvey’s face went gray when Roman grazed his torso.
“Broken ribs?” murmured. Roman gave a single nod.
Shit. They needed to hurry, and Harvey looked like anything more than a shuffle was utterly beyond him. And they still hadn’t found …
“Jude!” blurted.
Her mother’s eyes snapped to her. “Who?”
But Harvey’s lips trembled as he sucked in a breath.
“He’s next door. But he’s—”
But didn’t wait to find out what he was. She snatched up the severed hand that Roman had discarded on the floor and raced out.
The door buzzed open, and stormed into the room.
“Oh, shit!”
She fell to the ground beside a chained, emaciated Jude. His eyes were closed.
“They’ve been starving him,” Roman said, kneeling beside her. “He needs blood.”
started to roll up her sleeve, but Roman stilled her with a hand on her arm. “Immortal.” He pointed to himself, then to her. “Not immortal. Let me do this for him.”
gave a nod, and Roman bit into his wrist. Blood welled, and he pressed it to Jude’s partly open mouth.
Nothing.
“Get the hand, see if the print works on these shackles,” Roman commanded, cupping the back of Jude’s neck, supporting him.
, eyes blurring, frantically searched for where she’d dropped the stupid dead guy’s hand. Her fingers wrapped around it.
Jude’s eyes cracked open, widening when he saw Roman, and then darting about the room, landing on .
And he started to drink. Roman gritted his teeth. wondered, with a pang of mania, if being fed from by Jude was turning him on.
It’s not … pleasant, the way it is with you, Roman informed her. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?
More than happy to not know if my dad drinking from you gets you off, Roman.
She crawled back over to Jude. She pressed the thumb from the meaty hand to the panel on his cuffs.
Nothing.
Another muffled boom and the room shook again. eyed the ceiling dubiously. They were deep in the bowels of this place, and if it started to crumble around them …
“Are those … explosions?”
“Yes,” Roman answered tightly.
“What’s happening up there?” demanded, trying another finger. The cuffs clicked off. “Oh, thank fuck!”
Jude broke free of Roman’s wrist, his lips coated in blood, but his color back. He massaged his chafed wrists as reached for the ankle cuffs, unlocking them too.
“Farida,” Jude answered.
’s eyes narrowed. “So, her ‘distraction’ is to blow the place up while we’re still inside?”
Roman helped Jude to his feet. “Just trust that she knows how far she can push to keep the agents preoccupied while still giving us time to evacuate.”
“You put so much trust in her,” muttered as they made their way to the door.
“She’s never done wrong by me in over a century,” Roman answered.
pressed her lips so tight together that her jaw ached.
’s mom and Harvey were waiting outside. Harvey slumped against the wall. Roman propped Harvey’s arm over his shoulder and started off down the corridor. ’s mom followed, and then Jude, limping slightly.
“Wait!” called. Roman turned, quirking an eyebrow.
“Are there others locked down here?” she asked. “We can’t just leave them … if Farida really plans to tear this place down, we can’t let them die in the rubble.”
Roman started to prop Harvey back against the wall, his eyes filled with worry as another explosion shivered through the place. Maybe he wasn’t as trusting of Farida as he claimed.
“Don’t waste your time looking. We’re alone down here,” Harvey replied, his voice thin. “It’s mostly been used for insubordinate agents, but they cleared them out of here a couple of weeks back. Baxter said he had better uses for them.”
and Roman shared a dark look. The building shook again.
“Right. We’re leaving,” Roman said, all but lifting Harvey over his shoulders as they all hurried towards the door that led to the stairs. The feeling that time was running out was like a beast that chased, snarling, at their heels.