Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (15 page)

“I couldn’t say. Normal. Why?”

“Because he hand-picked those people to give your blood to. There has to have been a reason for it. Jared doesn’t do anything at random.”

“Yeah, that’s what worries me,” I mutter. “So I’m guessing they can heal, like us. But they don’t look like the fiends.”

“You’re forgetting the Fiordans can shapeshift,” he said.

“And those Transcendents? Can they?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well, how d’you know so much?” I challenge him.

I expect him to give me a sarcastic response belittling me for asking stupid questions, but instead he says, simply, “I grew up around scientists.”

“Yeah. But I thought my blood’s basically like the fiends’. Jared said I had… Fiordan blood.” The part I’ve still not accepted. How can I? Being a Pyro, being Transcendent is one thing, but a monster—no.

You are part of the monsters you so despise, Leah.

Cas’s eyes narrow.
He has it, too.
“You said yourself you don’t understand what you can do.”

“No, but I’d guess it’s linked to the Fiordans. Right? That energy blast thing.”

“You regenerate in the same way the fiends’ leaders do. As Transcendent, you have that power. But even Jared doesn’t know everything about them. He was attempting to create something he doesn’t understand himself. There’s no way he
can
understand. He has twelve new invincible soldiers at his disposal. Like we don’t have enough Fiordans to deal with.”

“But I killed one of them,” I point out. “The Fiordans can die. So does that mean…one of them could do the same to me? Use the energy blast, I mean?”

“I don’t know. I’m not the one who fought one.”

“Maybe that’s how they… opened the breach.” Hell. The end of the world started with an energy blast. And I’m right next to the divide, with twelve mind-controlled Transcendents. Even if I can control my own powers, can the Transcendents?

We
have
to take Jared down somehow, before he does something else that dooms what’s left of humanity.

“Look,” says Cas. “I don’t know all that much about them, really. They didn’t exactly parade their secrets about, which is more than I can say for Jared. But they did experiments themselves, that’s where Jared got the idea. They engineered themselves. Jared decided he didn’t want to leave them to have all the fun.” He spits the words out, and his eyes flash. I can see the fury waiting beneath the surface, and I feel a kind of savage pleasure at the idea of Jared at the mercy of that anger. Not that I don’t want to finish Jared off myself, after what he did to me. I’m not about to let him make me feel that helpless again.

I can’t. I won’t.

“Right,” I say. “I’m just wondering how Jared expects me to win this war. Is it literally a matter of pitting me against the fiends’ leaders head-on and seeing who comes out in one piece?” And does it matter, now there are twelve other sacrifices lined up?

Cas’s face twists. “I don’t know.”

So that’s it. No one knows. And we’re on a time limit. No way out for either of us.

“Cas,” I say. “Please—let me try removing the tattoo. If it doesn’t work, at least we’ve tried everything.”

“I don’t…” But he holds out his hand, palm up, the ugly red mark gleaming. Fury at Jared rises once again. He did this. Drove us to this. And yet part of me feels a flicker of triumph: I’m taking back control of my own blood. I might be expendable, but I’m still alive. And Jared will regret letting me walk around free.

And then I realise. “Crap, I don’t have my dagger.”

“He took your weapon away? He’ll have put it somewhere—dammit, I don’t know. He might have it with him. You don’t mind…?” He goes for his own blade.

I nod. “Sure. It’s hardly going to be as painful as what I just went through, right?”

I think I see Cas’s hands shake slightly as he pulls the blade out, but I might have imagined it. Quickly, he runs the sword’s point over my outstretched hand. Blood blossoms to the surface, but it barely stings. Then he does the same to his own marked hand.

I turn my palm over, and our hands touch as the blood runs onto his mark. I draw back, heart pounding in my ears.

“It didn’t work,” he says, dully. “I still feel it. It’s like a slow poison or something.”

“You can’t know that yet,” I say. “Wait a minute.”

A cry rings out, an ear-splitting screech. Fiends?

Cas’s head jerks up. “What the hell?”

“Are we being attacked from outside?” I ask stupidly—of course, he has no more idea than I do.

“I don’t know.” But he keeps his blade at the ready. “Crap. I wonder if one of his Transcendents turned on him.”

The possibility never crossed my mind. “But I thought they couldn’t.”

“Never assume anything when it comes to Transcendents. Or Jared. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s messing with.”

Another cry rings out from somewhere up ahead. Louder.

“Someone’s coming.” He pulls me into an alcove off the corridor. I can’t see anything, but this is the way that leads to the labs where I cut off Jared’s hand. What else could be hiding down here? Does he even have defences up against the fiends outside? Of course, he has guards…

Someone runs around the corner. We both freeze, watching out.

The figure pauses in front of the wall. They’re wearing red uniform.

It’s not an enemy. It’s Val.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Stop.” Cas’s hand catches my arm before I can move out into the corridor. “It might be a trap.”

“It’s definitely her,” I hiss back. “I’ll bet Murray sent her after us.” But I quieten, all the same, when she scans the corridor again. Where’s Jared? If this really is a rescue, I’d expect to hear fighting. I haven’t seen all Jared’s people yet, but our two groups are probably evenly matched… except for the Transcendents.

And Cas. I look at him. The corners of his mouth are turned down, and he appears to be thinking hard.

Before I can make up my mind, Val continues down the corridor and out of sight.

I make to follow her, but Cas grabs my arm again.

“What?” I hiss. “If there’s any chance of getting out of here, I’m taking it.” I’ll figure out how to take Jared down later. Stopping him using me to create more monsters is more important.

“She has his mark,” Cas whispers, stopping me in my tracks.

“What?” I stare at him. But he, of all people, would know. I’d forgotten to look for the sign.
Stupid, Leah.

“Like Nolan.”

My fists clench. Then I shake my head. “Murray knew how to stop them.” No way would he have left the others to suffer if there was any way he could have helped them. And he could. My blood samples were in the lab.

I turn back to face the direction Val walked in.

“You trust him?”

Cas’s words cut through me, like he read my thoughts, saw my doubts. I glare at him. “If you mean I trust him not to let his own team die, then yes, I do.”

“You don’t know his reasons,” he says. “He’d sacrifice us if it meant saving the others from Jared.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Of all the times to start attacking my faith in Murray, why now? “I’m going to figure out what’s happening. You can stay down here if you like.”

And I take off before he can reply.

Val’s not in the next corridor, but a door lies open on the left. A lab, of course. I hesitate a moment, then step inside.

And freeze. Val stands beside a desk, holding Jared’s tattoo gun.

It’s too late to move. She’s spotted me, though there’s no gleam of recognition in her eyes. A chill breaks out across my back. Now I can see one of her sleeves is shredded, and blood streaks the skin between the gaps. Though I can’t see it clearly, the sharp lines of the new tattoo peek out.
Did he ambush and mark her on the way here?

“Val.” My voice is a croak. “What are you doing with that?”

For a heartbeat, I think she won’t respond. Either she’s not capable of speaking under her own power… or like Nolan, she’s chosen this.

Val was one of the first people to welcome me to the base. To make me feel included amongst the group. She trained me. It’s thanks to her I understood how to use my weapon. I last saw her less than two days ago. How can Jared have done this in such a short time?

“Val,” I say again.

She steps towards me. Her eyes are glassy and unfocused, her steps hesitant, unsteady. Her sleeve is soaked in blood. What did he do, make her re-cut the tattoo?

“What are you doing?” I ask, again, not taking my gaze away from that tattoo gun. “Did Murray send you here?”

No answer, confirming my guess. She’s Jared’s. Which means I have to run. Now.

I about-turn, head out the room, and almost walk smack into a guy I don’t recognise. The glassy expression in his eyes gives it away. He’s one of the other Transcendents. But how the hell did he move so fast? And where’s Cas?

“Move,” I say. I’m out of patience. Anger stirs beneath the surface. I’ve been trapped in this cave long enough.

The Transcendent catches my arm, and I recoil. His grip is inhumanly strong. If I wasn’t Transcendent, he’d have snapped my arm. As it is, my wrist protests at the strain, and I can’t pull myself free.

“What the hell do you want?” I gasp. “I get that Jared has his stupid spell over you, but I refuse to believe he’s totally obliterated all your free will. You have to
know
what you’re doing. You have to be able to see and hear me.”

The Transcendent says nothing. His hand squeezes my wrist, and I notice his sleeve’s rolled up, showing the livid red-black mark of his own tattoo running down to his palm.

In one swift motion, he drags me away from the door as Val steps out, holding the gun.

“No you don’t,” I snarl. “I’m not turning into one of you creepy puppets.”

I pull away, gritting my teeth. I’m Transcendent, and no matter how much it’ll hurt, I can get away.

I yank my arm out of his grip, hard. Pain shoots up my arm, but I’m already running.

My vision blurs, but I press on.
Dammit. You’ll heal in a minute.
But the pain’s making it hard to think clearly.

Wait. That’s not my pain.

As the thought crosses my mind, a spasm shoots across my back, and my knees give out. Agony shoots up my arms and legs, like I’ve fallen into a furnace. I groan, and my head cracks against the corridor floor.

Oh. Hell. He’s torturing Cas.

Or is it a memory?

It’s not mine. I’m not in pain.
Except my wrist. I try to focus on the splintering pain from my arm, and that miraculously keeps me anchored in the present long enough to drag myself a few metres down the corridor. I’m near the training room, I remember belatedly. I’ve no idea where Cas went. But if Val’s here, Murray must know. She wouldn’t have left without clearing it with him, would she?

Unless Jared used the tattoo to bring her here?

I don’t know the way out. And this way will doubtless lead me right into…

A fiend. I stop dead. The creature’s hunched up, its muscled form wedged into the corridor. It’s completely blocking the path, its batlike wings curled inwards.

Crap.

Cas’s hand grabs my jacket sleeve and pulls me back into the alcove. I almost yelp in pain as the movement jars my wrist.

“What the hell?” I hiss. “You were hiding here the whole time?”

“Not a whole lot of options,” he says in a low voice. “In case you haven’t noticed, someone breached security.”

“What’s that, a security fiend?”

“You finally get it?”

I breathe out, my wrist throbbing painfully. “A fiend on one side, creepy Val and a Transcendent on the other. Just brilliant.”

“Transcendent?”

“If you hadn’t been hiding back here, you’d have seen it,” I say.

Cas shakes his head. “I didn’t hear anyone. Apart from that fiend, and it’s making enough of a racket to drown out anything else.”

“Great,” I say. “So we’re stuck behind the wall, or else get our heads bashed in or double-tattooed by…”

I trail off at the sound of footsteps. Human ones. Two sets.

“See?” I mouth. Not that it’s easy to see anything from behind the wall. And it’s beyond me to figure out why there’s a fiend blocking the corridor. Unless Jared knows we’re here.

A stinging discomfort in my wrist tells me it’s healed, for all the good that does. I grip my weapon. I don’t want to attack Val if I can help it, but that Transcendent and the fiend have us boxed in, and I’ve no intention of being Jared’s plaything again.

Screeches echo, close enough for me to know the fiend’s speaking. Who to, I have no idea. It doesn’t sound like English. But a quieter voice replies in the same shrieking language. The hairs rise on my arms, because I almost… understand. Almost, but not quite.

I peer around the wall and gasp aloud. The Transcendent’s talking to the fiend. The man’s mouth moves, and those inhuman shrieking noises answer the fiend’s own.