Steel Lily ARC (13 page)

Sari snorted. “If he wasn’t half dead, I’d say he was a pig.”

“He’s not a pig,” I argued in his honor as Sari shut the door. “He’s bleeding out.”

“Yeah, well, he won’t be winning any gentleman quarterly awards today either,” Jaxon said in the distance.

“Ain’t got to, buddy,” Legs said weakly. “Just gotta get Avery home.”

His comment made me go cold. How did he get here? Why was he here? There were so many questions and I had no clue where to begin. “How did you…where did you…what is this place? This tunnel?”

“I wanted a way out of the Academy if there was an emergency and Sari helped,” whispered Jaxon. “That’s all you need to know.”

“I think I’ll stay in the Academy if the outside is as dangerous as it was today, thanks.”

“It’s not the outside that have to be worried about,” Jaxon said darkly, “It’s what’s inside the Academy that you should be afraid of.
Exegi monumentum aere perennius
, remember?”

“You mean…”

“Welcome to Chromelius Academy, Avery. You may have come here with what you thought was free will, but you won’t be leaving unless you’re in a body bag.”

CHAPTER

TWELVE

“Be careful with him,” I called as Sari and Jaxon carried Legs. The stairs were so narrow that they took them sideways, adding to the already dangerous trek down the slippery, mossy mess.

“Oh yeah, because we planned on chucking him to see if he’d bounce down the last six steps before you said that,” Jaxon said.

Legs groaned. “Might be better if you did.”

His voice was so defeated that it scared me. I couldn’t lose him again. Everything that had happened to him was my fault. “Don’t say that! Jaxon told me they have a great medical wing here.”

Legs laughed weakly. “Yeah, because I’ll be welcomed with open arms. Oops, arm. Get it?”

He was delusional from blood loss. In the dim light, I saw Jaxon’s outline readjust him, then keep going. Sari said nothing, but kept pace with Jaxon.

Guilt settled in the pit of my stomach. Legs was going to die in this hellhole, and it was because of me. Urgency washed over me. We needed to get him medical attention
now
. As we reached the foot of the stairs a thought struck me.

“We can’t go parading into the atrium with a bloody guy, can we? That’s not conspicuous at all.”

Jaxon grunted out a laugh. “No kidding, Sherlock. There’s another door down here.”

Crowded at the bottom of the stairwell, Sari’s free hand found a doorknob to the left. The entryway blew cold air into our faces, and Sari took off her mask. I took it as an indication that I could do the same.

This hallway was dank, and lights snaked along the upper corners of the walls from naked wires. They buzzed and the lights blinked as electricity surged. A few feet ahead, a shower of sparks flew from the cord where copper wiring showed through. I wondered how anyone hadn’t been electrocuted.

There were niches along the walls like in the dormitory hallway, but nothing was inside them except spider webs that sagged under the weight of the damp air. Rusted bolts, screws, and old piping ran along the corners of the floor. Our footsteps echoed off the cement walls and a chill that had nothing to do with the cold ran up my spine. “Are there cameras around?”

“No,” said Sari. “This is one of the only places they aren’t.”

“And that’s only because Riggs doesn’t know anyone uses it,” added Jaxon bitterly. “He leaves this disgusting underbelly alone because no one comes down here. He doesn’t think anyone sees the ugly in this place, just like Alice said to me last night. She’s a wise one, even if she does have a weak stomach for rule-breaking.”

We ran in silence for a few minutes. The
tick, tick, tick,
of the gears grinding and the hum of the power surging through the pipes put me on edge. Every step we took, I grew more worried about Legs’s chance of surviving. “How is he going to heal from this?”

“We’re taking him to Xander. He’s the best medic we have,” Sari explained.

“And thankfully he’s on our side.” Jaxon finished.

Jaxon stopped abruptly and held a finger to his lips. Sari and I took a collective breath as Jaxon pressed his ear to the door. Satisfied with whatever he did or didn’t hear, he nodded and twisted the bronze handle.

The room on the other side was impeccably clean; brilliant fluorescent lights bounced off the tile floor. A man no older than twenty strode across the room to where Jaxon and Sari gently laid Legs on a stretcher. His voice was hushed as he examined Legs, who had gone sickly pale. “How long has he been bleeding?”

“Twenty minutes or so? I’m not one hundred percent positive, Xander,” Jaxon said. “We found him as quick as we could. We thought he was the only one, but —”

Xander’s sharp eyes looked up. “There was a whole team, wasn’t there?”

“How’d you know?”

“Too many shots were fired,” he said, untying the tourniquet. “You’re getting better at these, you know.”

“Thanks. Look, can you fix him?”

Xander lifted the mangled stump. “He needs a transfusion. I don’t know what type of blood he has.”

I stepped forward. “I have O-Negative. He can have mine.”

Xander’s eyes narrowed curiously. “Is this the girl Riggs sent you to get?”

Jaxon nodded and leaned against a metal tray filled with various surgical utensils. So much for sterilization. “Yep.”

Xander’s eyes returned to me. “Have you had any tattoos in the past year?”

“No, what does that have to do with—”

“Have you been sick at all?”

“No, look—”

“Did the dome you came from have any viral illnesses?”

“No, can I—”

“Is there any chance you’re pregnant?”

“NO!” I shouted as I stomped across the room. Pain shot up the side of my hand as it connected with the metal tray beside Xander. Everyone went silent as I fumed. “I have a blood type that could save his life. Are you going to let me do it or not? I’m not sick, don’t have some wonky virus, and I’m not pregnant.”

“Well, that means you need some spice in your life,” teased Jaxon as he did a little two-step and winked at me.

“Shut up, Jax,” Sari and I said at the same time. Sari punched him in the shoulder, which made me feel a little better.

Xander nodded. “Very well. Nothing you could have would make his situation more dire anyway, I suppose.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said as I shrugged out my jacket.

“Well this has been a fun morning,” Jaxon piped. “I’m going to take my leave, clean up, and make sure Riggs doesn’t suspect any shenanigans.”

“I’ll go clear our images off the cameras if we were caught anywhere, then check on Alice,” Sari agreed. They both took off through the clear glass door on the other side of the room, leaving me speechless with this man I had barely met.

Xander answered my unvoiced question as he dug in a nearby drawer, his back to me. “Jax is squeamish with blood. Sari tries to make sure he doesn’t feel emasculated because of it.”

“I see.”

“He has a good heart, even though he seems to have a penchant for alienating anyone around him until they believe he’s rock, stone and sarcasm. Ah, here we go.”

“What’s all that?”

Xander lifted his armful of medical supplies; their sterile packaging crinkled with the movement. “Eighteen gauge needle, blood tubing, and a line of normal saline. Usually we’d get blood from our stores, but as you’ve pointed out, you’re the universal donor and this is a rushed job.” He laid the packages on the bed and returned to the cabinets. “I’m going to give him antihistamines to control a possible spike in his temperature. You may want to pull up a chair. This could take a while.”

I nodded and pulled a chair to Legs’s bedside, where he was passed out. His remaining hand looked so lifeless and limp. I took it in my own so he wouldn’t feel alone. If he could feel anything at all.

“We’re going to fix you up,” I whispered to him and wiped dirt from his cheek, “Everything is going to be all right.”

“Search his pockets for identification,” advised Xander. “Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“I already know who he is.”

“You do? Who is he?”

I flushed. “Well, I don’t know his real name, but I call him Legs. He’s a vendor at the market in Dome Four. We…we helped each other out. Looked out for each other.”

“And I’m assuming, by the looks of it, that he looked out for you more than you looked out for him?”

Another pang of guilt. I felt the heat in my face. “That’s not true,” I said defensively, “I made sure he was taken care of. I don’t know how he ended up here.”

Xander pointed to the remains of his clothing. “I wouldn’t have imagined you a fan of the Polatzi.”

“I’m not.”

“Then why is he wearing their uniform?”

I examined Legs’s attire closer. Xander was right; his pants were military issue, and what remained of his bloody top looked very similar to the tan undershirt of the Polatzi’s uniform. I swallowed hard.

“He wasn’t a Polatzi the last time I saw him. They…they took him against his will.”

Xander looked at me pointedly. “That you know of.”

His comment left me with a whole new wave of questions. What if Legs
was
a Polatzi soldier before he was taken away? Could he have been an informant all along? No. He couldn’t be. Right?

Xander walked over and stuck Legs with a clear fluid, which caused Legs to stir. He sucked in a choked breath.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Xander said, a hand on Legs’s chest. “You’ll be fine.”

Xander tossed the needle on a metal tray next to him. He worked quickly but explained as he went. “Morphine. But like I said, you may have made friends with an undercover Polatzi and never even known it. You can never trust anyone but yourself.”

“Then why would he have encouraged me to break into a government building to steal rations when he gave his away to those who needed them more?”

Xander’s left eyebrow rose. “You’re a bit of a rebel, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Well maybe,” I said, flustered. “I just don’t want people to be hungry, and I don’t have a problem taking rations from people who have more food than they know what to do with.”

He smiled as he swabbed the crook of my arm with alcohol. The smell of it burned my nose. “You might have a little bit of a modern day Robin Hood in you,” he said, then wrapped my arm with a blue rubber tourniquet. “Look away if you want.”

I turned my head away as there was a pinch and a sting. I breathed out of my nose and reminded myself it was better not to look. “I don’t make a habit of being delinquent; it was a one-time occurrence for a friend who’d helped me. It seems unfair that some live extremely wealthy while others live day to day if they’re lucky.”

“And how did your Governor respond to the break in?”

“I think he suspected me, but he didn’t do anything. He needed me for my ability too much. Wanted me to openly support his cause to get others to fall in line.”

“And you didn’t because…?” Xander trailed off. The rubber tourniquet loosened and I felt the blood pulsing from the vein in the crook of my arm.

I looked down and my vision blurred for a second before I pulled myself together. “Because I thought it was a bunch of political bull crap. I was one of the few Elementalists keeping our Dome afloat, and Elementalists are highly regarded in our Dome. The governor wanted us on his side. I don’t like being used as a government tool, so I ignored his letters.”

Xander laughed. “I like your spirit.”

I watched the once frosty clear tubing turn red as my blood raced through. “Yeah, well, that’s a first.”

“How do you mean?”

I shrugged, then remembered the needle in my arm and stilled. “I didn’t win any favors for my so-called spirit at home.”

“You were by far the youngest in your class. Makes for a difficult situation in even the best cases.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How’d you know that?”

“Riggs does his homework before he commits to a new student. He and I are close.” Xander replied. “Although I do have one question that bothers me.”

“What’s that?”

“If you were one of a few Elementalists keeping your dome afloat, why would you leave? Are you so selfish that you’d condemn your entire dome to death to avoid helping them, or did you not think that through?”

The accusation sent chills down my body and my heart pounded in my chest. My mouth went dry and it hurt to swallow. How could I respond to that? I honestly hadn’t even thought of it when it all happened—things flew at me so fast—but he was right. Had I condemned my entire dome? What would Mom and Dad think of that? I ached inside, worried now that I had caused more harm than I could ever fix.

Xander was crouched over the bloody stump, his hand rubbing the side of his face like an artist examining a blank canvas. Xander’s expression made me think he wasn’t overly confident in the condition of his patient. The heart rate monitor continued to show a steady heartbeat and while not a doctor, I knew that was a good thing. “I can cauterize and stitch the limb as best possible. Beyond that, there’s nothing more I can do except wait and hope your generous donation pulls him through.”

He’d moved on without an answer to his question, and I was grateful, even though his accusation seeped through my veins like a poison.
I was a deserter
. “And while we wait, will Legs be ok?”

“Most of the time we run more of a catch and release program. Jax brings them in banged up and I fix whatever I can. Sari gives them food she sneaks out of the kitchen, and we send them back wherever they came from. Mr. Legs here is a bit more of a demanding case. I’m not sure how we’re going to conceal him.”

I puckered my lips as I thought through the situation. There were so many things I didn’t know about this place. How could I help? I started throwing ideas out, hoping something would stick. “Sari mentioned cameras. She even broke one when we were trying to get back here. Are they everywhere?”

Xander frowned. “More places than we probably know. Men work hard to attain power, but work even harder to retain it. It’s an exhausting process that only ends in paranoia. I believe Riggs is getting there.”