Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (18 page)

I’ve taken back some control again. I freed Val. Maybe there’s more I can do. It’s
my
blood. But we’re not ready for this fight. Even as Val and I kick the remains of the fiend aside and climb past, I’m torn in two. There’s no way Cas could have got past the fiend without fighting it. He
must
be hiding. But Jared and the Transcendents are that way, and they won’t be incapacitated for long. I can’t risk Val getting captured again.

One thing for it. I have to let her take me to the way out, and then go back for Cas. It’s the only way I can think of to get the others out unscathed without Jared getting his hands on anyone else.

Taking a deep breath, I walk alongside Val, swiftly, wondering why it’s taking Jared so long to catch up. Maybe the Transcendents really hurt him. He created them to be invincible, after all. But we can’t count on anything.

We pass by the training room and pick up the pace as the discordant noises of fighting come from up ahead. Screams and weapons crashing. The training hall is deserted, which means one thing: its occupants are busy fighting somewhere else.

The others really did come back.

I can’t help myself. I stop and peer behind the alcove in the wall near the fiend’s remains. No sign of Cas. Of course.
Trust me,
he said. Trust him to stay alive while I get the others out? Can I really do that?

“What are you doing?” she hisses.

“Cas and I hid behind here.” Not that I think he’d hide from a fight, but it’s beyond me to tell where he could have disappeared to. He could have wandered anywhere on this side of the base while I was forced to watch the Transcendents fight. God knows. Surely he guessed I’d be followed? Surely he didn’t think Murray would abandon both of us?

“Now what?” she asks, as I push open the door to the training room and scan the floor and walls.

“You can’t go out there unarmed,” I say. “Not if they’re blocking the exit. There’s nowhere safe to hide here.”

“I got in okay,” Val says. “Jared has some nasty booby traps. Three people lost their weapons trying to get in.”

“They did?” My heart sinks, and a new suspicion prickles at me.
Too easy,
I think, though I suppose Jared never could have anticipated what I did to the Transcendent. Though he was the one who told me I could use my blood to control it in the first place.

And what does that mean for the war?

Later.
I spot a dagger discarded on the floor. I toss it to Val, and we take off down the corridor again. Towards the noise.

Before we reach the end, a deafening boom shakes the walls. I glance at Val, whose eyes are wide. The floor trembles.
Not an energy blast?
But though my ears ring, and particles of dust rain from the ceiling, there’s no ripple of energy in the air. No widespread destruction. I shake my head, willing the noise to clear.

Val mouths at me, “It’s all right, Leah. Let’s move!”

I want to ask what in the world she means, but at that moment, a guard runs into view, pursued by two red-cloaked figures. Flames burst into life, and the guard cries out as his entire body catches fire.

“Enough!” Val shouts at the Pyros, one of whom turns to glare at her. “That’s enough. They’re brainwashed.”

“Thought you ran out on us,” says the Pyro, a shaven-headed guy I don’t recognise. “You’re not on his side, are you?”

“No,” says Val. “Long story. We need to move. Did you get the fiends?”

“Garry blew a hole in the wall,” says the other guy. “I hoped it’d do more damage.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask. “What was that blast?”

“Later,” says Val.

The guys have already run off, leaving the guard smoking on the floor. An expression of agony marks his face, and I force myself to look away as we follow.

It’s chaos. The corridors aren’t anywhere near wide enough to fight in even without the fiends. As it is, two giant monsters block the way, but through gaps between them, I can see red-cloaked figures fighting. And the noise is overpowering. The clang of metal re-ignites the fire in my bones, and I launch myself at the nearest fiend with a hoarse scream.

My dagger easily slices through the fiend’s arm in a frenzy of flames. Val kicks at the second giant, while I make easy work of my target, leaving a mess of fragmented rock all over the corridor. But I don’t stop. I have to stop Jared’s guards hurting the others. If a small group came to find us, they’re bound to be outnumbered. Val’s dispatched her opponent, and we follow the red-cloaked figures around the corner.

Shoving a guard aside, I run through the newly-cleared corridor. The other Pyros easily took care of the fiends, but if I’m anything to go by, the Transcendents won’t be far behind.

“You have to go,” I say to the others. “Jared’s held back, but he’ll come after us. He’s pretty pissed at me. I turned his puppets against him. One of them, anyway.” I’m rambling. I need them to see they have to get out of here before we’re trapped. But Cas…
he told you to leave him.

I turn to Val. “Can you make sure everyone gets out?”

“This again?” Her mouth turns down. “Look, Leah, I know you came back for Cas, but our priority’s getting as far away from this place as possible. He’s probably Jared’s minion by now.”

“Don’t say that. He isn’t.”

But can I risk everything for his sake, knowing it might do no good anyway?
Trust me.

“What happened to you?” asks a suspicious-looking guy I don’t know. “You and Cas actually worked with Jared? Val, too?”

“Not exactly,” says Val. “Well, I can’t speak for Cas.”

“He’s on our side,” I say quickly. “What was the plan, then? Because even if you kill the guards, Jared’s made himself unkillable now. And he’s planning to lure the fiends over here.”

“Seriously?” The Pyro curses, kicking pieces of dismembered fiend aside. “Murray never said anything about that. We were just supposed to get you out.”

Get me out. The truth clicks into place.
Hell.
Now I know what Jared’s plan was.
My blood is the key.
He planned to use me to lure the fiends over to this world. Except because he’s changed himself, he doesn’t have to use
me
to do that.

So why did he let me stay? Unless he had some other plan for me. I never did find any research on the Transcendent.

A roar behind us.
More fiends.
They can’t have escaped the cages, can they? Unless Jared set them on us.

Several Pyros run towards me. Then more—at least twenty, too many for the corridor to hold. “Get out!” one of them yells. “There’s a big-ass fiend coming this way.”

“Come
on,
Leah,” says Val. “Cas can take care of himself, remember?”

Before I can reply, the crowd surrounds us, and I’m pulled along with them. I can’t fight my way back without hurting anyone.

The corridor walls and floor tremble.
They’re not safe. You have to get them out.

I picture Cas looking at me with disdain in his expression as if to ask why I’d risk the others’ lives for his sake. Cursing him, I follow the others, leaving the noise of the rampaging fiend behind.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Guilt trails me as I join the others.
We’ll come back,
I think. But I feel like a coward all the same. Either way, Jared won’t take this lying down. He’ll strike the others.

I have to be there to protect them.

Screaming behind us prompts the leading Pyros to quicken their pace. The hairs stand up on my arms, though the screams don’t sound human.
Fiends. They must have escaped.
Surely not the one in the cage, though—that fiend ought to be pissed enough to tear Jared to pieces.

We reach a blank stretch of corridor past Jared’s rooms. I’m tempted to backtrack and check if he’s hidden anything in there, but if he had anything useful, it’d be in the labs. Hell, my
blood’s
probably the most dangerous, volatile thing in here, and thanks to my idiotic decision to go after Cas, twelve brainwashed mutants and Jared himself have it.

There’s no time for regret now. The Pyros leading the way take us into another corridor, and Val shoves at a wall panel, revealing a hidden staircase. It’s a narrow fit and we have to climb single-file, but I make everyone else go in front of me first. I don’t trust Jared not to have a last booby trap. I hang about until the last moment, and a warning shout from Val forces me to follow the others into the stairway.

The space is tight, too tight. My throat closes with each step. We’re running away. I’m running away. The thought of using my powers to bring the ceiling down and make sure Jared and the fiends can’t get out strikes me, but we’d be condemning Cas to death along with the others. Would Murray allow that? Last time he and his brother spoke, he said he didn’t want to kill Jared. But what about now, when Jared’s mutilated himself, made himself into one of the fiends?

The questions press on me like the tight walls, but soon, the smell of clean air fills my lungs. We climb fast, and the stairs become a sloping tunnel, then flat ground, then…

I roll out onto burned ground, breathing in sharp gasps. The other Pyros are recovering. Val grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet. “Everyone’s out.”

“Not everyone,” I whisper.

The world goes black, and I fade away.

My back throbs, sharp daggers behind my shoulder blades. I’m lying on a table, Jared bending over me, grinning a manic smile. This Jared has a clawed hand.

But he doesn’t see the Transcendent until it’s too late.

The figure leaps from the ceiling, wings spread wide, and slams into Jared. I catch a glimpse of the expression of total shock on his face before the scene blurs into agony again and I’m floating.

No, two people are carrying me, my legs draped over someone’s arm. I snap to my senses immediately. I’m outside, and we escaped the lab…

“She’s awake!” says one of the guys carrying me. Ryan, I think his name was.

“Yeah.” There’s no dignified way to jump to the ground, but it’s better than being carried. My feet slam down onto the cracked soil. “The Transcendents are going crazy back in the lab.”

I realise my mistake a second too late.

“Transcendents?”

Now they’re staring at me. Twenty or so red-uniformed Pyros in total, all bedraggled-looking but none visibly hurt.

None of whom have a clue what Jared’s really doing in there.

“I’ll tell you later,” I say, lamely.
Oh. God.
Murray didn’t tell them about Jared’s habit of experimenting on anything that moves.

The lying has to end.
Secrets got us into this mess in the first place. I have to tell them the truth. Even if it means they see me as non-human. As like Jared. Now he’s one of
them,
even Murray won’t be able to deny the others need to know.

We hurry, running uphill. This area’s all Burned Spots, not as much as a blade of grass under the red sky. The world didn’t change during my time underground, though it feels like I was gone much longer than a few days. Now, it hits me just how much I want to see the others. To know they’re all right.

And yet, I can’t stop thinking of that last vision. If I take it as true, the scene must have happened right now. One of the Transcendents attacked Jared. What the hell is happening down there?

And what’s happening to Cas?

Occasionally, a fiend cries out in the distance, but my ears have become accustomed to picking up which sounds are likely to be a threat, and the noise comes from beyond the divide. We’re moving away from that direction. Away from the labs.

Finally, we come to a rise, where a number of tents appear as if from nowhere. This seems too close to Jared’s place, but when I turn to look back the way we came, I can’t see anything but burned ground. I’d forgotten how quick Pyros move, even carrying me, unconscious.

I never found a way to shut off the visions, and instead of breaking the connection between Cas and me, what if I’m linked up to the Transcendents as well?

The image rises again, accompanied by the coppery taste of blood and the smell of burning. But I blink furiously. I can’t lose control again.

Talk to Murray first.

“Murray’s not here,” I say to Val, glancing around at the red-cloaked shapes walking amongst the tents. “Right?”

“No. He couldn’t leave Elle, especially when no one knows where Nolan went.”

Something twists inside me. “He’s dead,” I say, as we start to descend the rise into the camp.

“At least there’s some good news.”

I swallow hard. I don’t think Nolan was a villain, not like Jared, anyway. But that thought’s too complicated for now.

“How’d he die?” asks Ryan.

“Jared’s fiends,” I say. “They took him to pieces, I think. I blacked out then, so I wasn’t conscious when Jared took me into the labs. That’s why I didn’t know whereabouts Jared’s place actually was.”