Our footsteps were silent as we trekked in a single line formation along the narrow corridor. Yellow, fluorescent lights flickered above us. I wasn’t sure if they had electricity here, or if the hum in the air was from a massive generator. Blood droplets trailed the ground, and an eerie silence engulfed everything.
I really hoped Earth wasn’t messing with my tethering ability, because I needed to find my half and get out of this place like yesterday. This scene was straight out of a horror film. Weird flicking lights. Old abandoned building. Blood trails on the ground. Massacre in the previous room.
Something told me that my sense of apprehension was not misplaced.
Although, it didn’t hurt that I had my very own live-action GI Joe pressed close to my back. Brace’s warmth kept me from losing my mind, and it definitely kept some of the fear at bay.
I was distracted by my tethered cord. The gold suddenly flared to life, and the last of the transparency disappeared. Crap. She was close.
The hallway was ending, a door at the end signaling that we would have to move to another area. As we closed in on it, I could hear voices. Lots of them.
“Looks like someone is having a party and didn’t invite us.” Lucy’s voice was hard, not her usual trilling song. “You all know I hate to be a party crasher, but hey, you want to kill a dozen women in cold blood, seems you might need a little crashing in your life.”
None of us would be able to move past that scene until there was some form of punishment inflicted. Sure, two wrongs don’t make a right, but sometimes crimes need to be punished. That’s how the great cycle works. And I was a bit of a believer in ‘an eye for an eye’. I was going to be taking some eyes today, for sure.
Brace and Colton hesitated about three feet from the door which blocked the end of the hall. Lucy and I exchanged glances before turning back to our boys. What were they doing? After a few moments of them exchanging glares and furrowing brows, I finally tapped into the bond.
… last battle I killed eight more than you. It’s my turn to take point.
Gods … I’m your damn princeps.
Great, the morons were wasting time arguing over which one of them got to go first.
Men!
We so did not have time for this. I reached for more of the energy in my filing cabinet. It was fairly depleted now after I had traced all of us here, but there was enough left.
Forming an energy ball – mine were so pretty, all laced in gold – I flung it free and blasted the door out into the darkness beyond. Cold rushes of air slapped at my face, and I was happy to know we were finally venturing out of the warehouse of death. Lucy and I wasted no time. We were out of there in an instant.
Brace and Colton swung their heads around to see our backs as we strode out the door and into the unknown. I heard sighs, but there were also some chuckles. No surprises there. We often irritated and amused them at the same time. Score one for female awesomeness.
They caught up with us immediately. Once we were clear of the warehouse, a briny scent slapped me in the face. Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew we were close to water. My eyes adjusted to the darkness in seconds and, as we continued moving, the concrete below shifted into wooden slatted decking. We were on docks.
I scanned the expanse of timber-clad jetty around us, finally noticing that about a hundred yards in the distance a group of humans huddled. I wasn’t sure if they had noticed us, but they most probably had, since I’d been kind of noisy making my point with the door.
I didn’t hesitate. I stalked closer before breaking into a run. These asshats were going down.
“Red!” Brace’s exasperation followed me.
I heard Colton chuckle. “Now you know how I feel. Being mated to these females is like trying to keep a sacred animal in a cage. They look beautiful and innocent, so you forget they’re wild creatures, and you want to protect them. Right until the moment you get too close and they rip your arm off.”
I heard a thump; Lucy had totally whacked him in the side. She would refrain from ripping his arms off, though; she liked them too much. Even if he could grow them back.
I was still out in front of the others, and was closing the distance quickly. I knew Brace was right behind me, but I was going to get there first. I focused my furious attention on the scum scattered around the dock. There were gangers everywhere. At least twenty or thirty of them. And – what the heck? They were all from different gangs, tattoos of all kinds semi-visible in the half-light. I’d never seen them work together before. What had we stumbled into?
I started to slow then, even though my anger was still tinting my sight in shades of red. I couldn’t just attack, not until I was sure if there were innocents with them. Since the golden cord was leading me straight into the center of the scumbuckets, I had to assume that either my female was a ganger, which was highly unlikely, or they held her captive.