Judgement 8 (Subject Alpha #1) (20 page)

Petra gave me a sorrowful smile. “I’m sorry, Elina.” She stood and picked something up from a table and handed it me. My eyes snapped up to hers. “She fitted you with a fresh tracker.” I winced when she ran a long nail gently across the wound in my arm. So that’s why it felt sore; Janice had opened the fucker back up.

I couldn’t help but recoil when tears filled my eyes. The hope that had settled in my heart disintegrated, my spirit crumbling with it. She’d used me again. This time it hurt so much more. At least when I knew what she was, I’d accepted it. But this time, she’d broke me with her deceit because I had allowed her to own a piece of my heart. It was agonising as that section tore away and died a death inside me.

I turned my head, trying to hide my devastation when Petra sat down beside me and slipped her arm around my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Elina. I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head and shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not,” she whispered. “How could you be?”

“I’m used to it. And Reid?” She flinched. This time I laughed, full on laughed at my own foolishness. Had I been that desperate? “Ruben was right, wasn’t he? Reid just used me to get what he wants. And tell me, Petra, what is it that Reid wants? You?”

She gave me a puzzled look, her eyes narrowing as she shook her head. “No, Judgement wants me. Reid thinks I’m dead.” I stared, waiting her out. Eventually she sighed and lowered her eyes. “Look,” she started, taking my hand in hers as if that would stop my heart from fragmenting any more. “Do you have any idea how . . . how important to people you are, Elina?”

It was my turn to give her a look of bewilderment, her words confusing me. “What do you mean?”

“You were created to be very special. A beacon, if you like, in the darkness. You can provide night with daylight, the sun on the dullest of days. You’re unique, almost . . . Godly.”

I laughed loudly, staring at her with incredulity.

She smiled at me. “I’m not saying you’re celestial or the Holy Divine. But when you were created, something happened that not even Janice can understand. You were supposed to be like the rest of us, just able to manipulate the energy in the air around us. Use it to fight when we were needed in wars and battles. But you, you master it, you own it. It doesn’t fight with you, it begs to be your slave. You are virtually unstoppable. However, they can’t control you and that is the worst thing for them, especially because you’re moral and ethical. They wanted monsters who would relish in destruction and crave the need to fight. You think they’ve been testing you to encourage your abilities and enhance your skill but you already have all your power. They’ve been trying to manipulate your mind, encouraging you to become the bloodthirsty warrior that will join them in destroying any country that won’t follow their lead. But when they realised we weren’t like them, that whatever they did it didn’t change what was in our hearts, we were of no use. They can’t create killers out of people who don’t want to kill.”

I couldn’t even blink as I listened to what I knew was the truth.

“So, they have no other choice. They can’t just kill you, it’s impossible, you’re too strong for them to simply take you out. And even then, they haven’t got a clue how to kill you,” Logan explained. “So when Janice pretended to help you, she messed with yours and Reid’s minds and programmed you to kill each other.

“That’s a lie. Of course they can kill us. They can just flood our chips.”

Petra laughed, shaking her head. “If that were true, wouldn’t all who escaped be dead? Would I be here now? Would Reid be alive?”

She was right. Why hadn’t I realised before? They could have just fried all the escapees. I knew Janice had tried with me but it had just caused a surge. Yet all this time I thought they had the capability of terminating us all.

“Oh my God.” My mouth was too dry. “And Reid? He knows all this?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I know at first, when you stormed into his life, he knew you were the ultimate weapon. The nuclear bomb in the war he was fighting.”

“He used me to win a battle?”

Wow! How special did I feel? My mother’s betrayal was nowhere near as heart crippling as what Reid had done. He used me. Fucked me and used me. Wooed me into being something he would eventually send out to blow them all up, knowing that when it happened I would go down with them. A suicide bomber, so to speak.

“So Ruben was right.” My voice was a choked whisper and I was surprised they even heard me.

“Not necessarily,” Logan cut in. “We don’t know what’s going on in Reid’s head. We only know he was trying to get what was left of The Eight to fight Judgement with.”

“And there was nothing better than when I came running in.” Ruben was right. I was stupid. Reid knew how powerful I was. He knew what I could do and that I was the only one capable of taking Judgement down. I groaned when something else finally made sense. “My escape wasn’t an accident, was it?”

Petra shook her head. “No. Janice surged your chip on purpose, knowing it would flood you with energy. She had already programmed you to go straight to Reid, hoping you would kill each other. But when you grew close, she changed tactics. What better opportunity than when you rang her asking her for the flood. She knew if she upped the voltage it would knock you out. She was then the only hope of fixing you. She knew they would take you back to her, giving her the opportunity to reprogram both of you. Somehow you mostly managed to block them but Reid . . .” She finished with a shrug and a shake of her head.

I looked at them both. “And you? You and Ruben? What the fuck is going on?”

“We want what Reid wants; to end Judgement. I won’t lie to you, Elina. Ruben is with us. He was like a brother to me in there. He and Logan helped me to escape, fake my own death so I could get out and plan.”

“Did Reid know you faked your death?”

She shook her head, sadness covering her face. “I couldn’t risk it. His mind is too open. He’s easy to penetrate. I tried to teach him not to be so open but he wouldn’t listen. Besides, I needed to leave him to look after Lettie.”

I shot upright, my body trembling with fear. “Shit, Lettie. They have her!” I whimpered with guilt, sobbing as I looked at Petra. “I’m so sorry, if I’d known I wouldn’t have allowed them to take her back.”

“Calm down.” Petra grabbed hold of my hand. “Relax, Elina. It’s okay,”

“But . . .”

“She’s here, Elina. It’s okay. Lettie is here, with me.”

“What?” I blinked at her, freezing with the shock of her words.

“Ruben got her out of there. Don’t panic. Although, they know he’s with us now so he can’t go back.”

“Are you sure she’s okay?”

Petra smiled and nodded slowly. “She’s fine. You can see her in a moment. But I just . . .” She took both of my hands in hers and squeezed them as a tear rolled from her eye. “I don’t have nearly enough gratitude for what you did for her. Your love for her guarantees any help you need now. My home is yours. My heart is yours, Elina.”

“Don’t be silly. I love Lettie. She’s my guardian angel.”

Sadness covered Petra’s face and I frowned when her knees buckled and Logan shot up to catch her. Directing her gently to the chair, he kneeled before her, his own face full of grief as he cupped her face in his hands. “Don’t, Petra. You promised you wouldn’t do this.”

“What’s going on?”

Petra lifted her red-rimmed eyes to mine. Reaching out to me, I hesitated but took her hand, allowing her to guide me to sit next to her. She brought her hand to my face, embracing me much like Logan embraced her.

“I’m sorry, Elina. I’m so sorry.”

“What?” I shook my head, covering her hand with mine at the sight of her devastation.

“Lettie’s dying, Elina. Her body hasn’t coped with what they’ve done to her. Her heart is burnt, her lungs resemble those of someone who has been smoking for ninety years. Her kidneys are disintegrating inside her.”

I shook my head, grief causing my heart to stall and bringing forth my wrath as I struggled to control my emotions. “No, she’s . . . she’s perfect. You’re mistaken. I mean look at her, she’s full of life.” I knew though. I knew when I looked in her beautiful wide eyes that they had recently lost their spark. “No!”

Every piece of glass in the room exploded as I tipped my head back and screamed. Darkness slipped through the windows as the sky blackened to allow the raging storm I called for, lightning becoming host for my fury. But for once I controlled it, making it swirl and spit angrily outside, feeding it my rage to abuse the air instead of those around me.

“You did it.” Petra grinned at me proudly when the storm passed and I slumped into the chair. “You controlled it. You mastered it. Holy shit!”

Logan swivelled around, gawping at Petra. “Did you just swear, Little Miss Perfect?”

She giggled, slapping him playfully but shrugged. “I may have.” She grabbed my hands, excitement coursing through her. “You did it, Elina. And what a show. You’re simply magnificent. Unbelievable.”

I stared at her. “What? Can’t you . . . ?”

She shook her head, cutting me off. “None of us can control the atmosphere, Elina. We can use it if it’s there, or if there’s an oncoming storm and there’s a spark in the atmosphere. But none of us can actually initiate a storm to use like you just did.”

My eyes drooped but I blinked, shifting myself into an upright position.

“You’re exhausted,” Logan murmured. He lifted my body in his arms as I yawned and drifted, my rage eating my energy.

ELINA HAD KILLED ME, and although I knew I deserved it, I wasn’t sure why I had been sent to the Gods above and not down below.

She stood, softly staring at me, the pure blue depths of her eyes that I remembered feasting on me, her full, soft lips parted as she fought hard to breathe.

I blinked when her hand slowly lifted and her palm touched my cheek. She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, as though touching me sucked away all her strength. After a moment, she stepped back, lowering her hand, and smiled. “Hello, Reid.”

Nothing seemed to work. I couldn’t talk, my heart had frozen in my chest. My lungs refused to let me breathe and my bones appeared to evaporate in my legs, threatening to send me to the floor.

“I don’t . . .” I shook my head again, squeezing my eyes closed.

“I know,” she whispered. “I owe you a huge apology but I was limited with what I could tell you.”

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? She was real? She wasn’t someone who had been sent to greet me at the gates to Heaven—or Hell?

“You’d better sit down.”

I obliged, falling backwards onto the bed I had shot up from when she walked through the door. She settled beside me and I couldn’t stop staring at her.

“I know you hate me, Reid, and you have every right to.” She moved her eyes to mine, her gaze full of guilt and shame. “But it was the only thing I could do.”

Suddenly it hit me. “You left your daughter. You saved your own fucking life, and left her behind!”

Her brow pinched, my words hitting her full on but she shook her head. “I knew you would take care of her.”

I laughed. “Really, Petra? Really? You stupid fucking . . .” I pulled at my own hair, stopping myself from strangling her with my bare hands. “You didn’t think they would play me? They told me she died with you! How could I have looked after her when they took her from me? They punished me for your escape!”

“I didn’t know, Reid. You have to believe me!” Her hands grabbed at mine but I pulled away. “I didn’t know they would do that. I just thought they would tell you I’d died. I honestly thought they believed I
had
died. I wasn’t to know they knew I’d got out. They were supposed to think I was dead!”

“You repulse me, Petra. How could you?
Why
would you?”

“You think it was easy for me, Reid? Leaving my daughter behind. I sacrificed my own future with her to give us all the freedom we prayed for. You think I didn’t want to end it all when I turned my back on her? I have never felt so much pain in my life! Even after all the things Judgement did to me, the pain of losing Lettie was tenfold!”

We were silent for a few moments as we just stared at each other. “Is he here?”