Hotbloods 6: Allies

I struggled to force them all away, knowing not everything I saw could be true, but the searing pain in my skull had rendered me blind. I reached out my hands to feel out the air in front of me, but my body no longer felt like it belonged to me. I remembered the sensation from the last time, when Kaido had experimented on me with his botanical concoctions. I should’ve known there’d be side effects.

The images hurtled back to the fiery king, his impossibly black eyes watching me. I tried to scream as he moved toward me, his face flickering for a moment, shifting to that of Ezra. His entire body seemed to be made of smoke and fire, shot through with frozen veins of ice, and from within his chest he pulled two flaming blades. I screamed again, but no sound came out.

I was frozen to the spot as the shadowy creature with Ezra’s face stepped closer, resting the scorching edge of a blade against my neck. I didn’t know whether it was reality blending with the nightmarish visions, whether I was really in imminent danger. All I could do was stare as his shoulders heaved, moving to slice my head clean off. That was the last thing I remembered as the fog cleared from my eyes.

Ezra had fled, no doubt figuring it’d be easier to make a run for it, instead of waiting to see what other superhuman powers I had in store. I was alone in the clearing outside the Salty Siren, my eyesight speckled with black spots.

“Help!” I called out, feeling a rush of weakness surge through my body, the last of the serum leaving me vulnerable.

All around me, I thought I could hear shouting voices getting nearer, but whether it was just a last fragment of my horrifying hallucinations, I didn’t know. I didn’t get to find out, either, as I fell to the dirt, faced with silent oblivion. The serum had proven too powerful, and the world went dark around me.





Chapter Twenty-One





I stirred at the sound of Lauren’s voice, uncertain how long I’d been out. My head was pounding, my body aching, and I was feeling worse than I had after the night at the casino. I could feel a soft mattress underneath me and a silken blanket across my skin, but my eyes were still too sensitive to the light to fully open.

“You can’t keep him locked up like an animal in a cage!” Lauren’s unmistakable voice drifted into the room, though I wasn’t sure where I was.

“My apologies, Miss Lauren, but until we’re able to trust him with your level of enthusiasm, we must keep him incarcerated,” Xiphio replied. “I understand that it’s causing you distress, and I’d be delighted to do whatever I can to alleviate your concerns.”

“I’ve already told you what you can do—you can let him out of that broom cupboard!” Lauren insisted.

“Lauren, he froze us all and snatched you away. He’s staying locked up,” Angie chimed in defiantly. “I don’t know what he’s done to you, to brainwash you like this, but we’ll find a way to reverse it. I’m sure we can find some medicine on this cruiser to take away any drugs he’s put in your system.”

I heard Lauren sigh. “He hasn’t drugged me. I’m absolutely fine.”

“How can you be fine if you want to set that thug free? He must have put you into a trance or something, because he is a criminal, and he took you away from us. Are you forgetting that? Has he erased that memory from your mind? Did he force you to drink Elysium?” Angie pressed. “I mean, you wouldn’t even look at us on the battlefield! It was like we didn’t exist! You expect me to believe Stone had nothing to do with that?”

“I’ve already explained that to you,” Lauren muttered. “I was keeping up appearances. I didn’t want you guys getting into any more trouble than you were already in. Stone would never have actually hurt you. He was playing up to his role, too. You think he could allow himself to look weak in front of someone like Ezra?”

“But what was he doing selling weapons to someone like Ezra?” Angie countered. “And what about the notebook? He was going to hand it over to Ezra—complete with all of its immortality elixir-making goodness!”

“Everyone has to make a living. I’m not saying I agree with what he does, but he isn’t a bad guy. I tried to persuade him not to sell those weapons to Ezra, but… Well, he did compromise by tampering with a few. It’s why he wouldn’t let Ezra test out the merchandise first,” Lauren replied. “And as for the notebook getting into Ezra’s hands—that was my fault. I was supposed to switch it out at the last moment, but then the pirate horde swarmed us and I didn’t get the chance.”

Angie made a disapproving noise. “See, it’s when you say things like that—he has to have altered your brain in some way. You’re one of the smartest people I know. You’d never trust a guy like that! You’d never accept a compromise!” she argued. “Besides, we haven’t exactly put him in a prison. That room is bigger than most apartments back home.”

“Indeed, that fellow is the worst kind of villain!” Xiphio added. “He must have slipped you some sort of serum when you weren’t looking. I would imagine that is just the kind of thing that Stone would do to a lovely lady such as yourself, to try to placate you.”

“Stone hasn’t done anything to me, I swear!” Lauren replied, her tone exasperated. “Yes, he’s a criminal, and he’s done some bad things, as I’ve already said, but he also saved Navan, at my request. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. He hates unnecessary violence, especially when it leads to death. You forget, he’s from a planet where his entire species was wiped out. He escaped the genocide of Candensa because he was on a trade voyage. Imagine arriving home to find everyone murdered. He had to live through that.”

“A little coincidental, no?” Xiphio remarked, getting himself a tut from Lauren.

“No, it’s not coincidental. He didn’t brainwash me, and you need to let him out!”

I wondered why, with such a history, a guy like that would sell weapons to someone like Ezra, knowing the coldblood rebel was only going to use them against other planets. There had to be a reason, beyond pure business; I just couldn’t figure it out.

Blinking away the pain behind my eyes, I sat up to hear the conversation better. I recognized the surroundings as my room on the merevin cruiser, though I had no memory of getting back here. The last thing I recalled was frantically scanning the ground for any sign of Yorrek’s notebook. Even now, I wasn’t sure what had really happened and what had been in my head. Unlike the last time, I still had some vague memories of the images that had thundered into my brain, but they didn’t make any sense to me.

“Riley!” Lauren gasped, rushing toward me.

“You’re awake!” Angie smiled, hurrying to my side. Both of them peered down at me with worried expressions.

“Just about,” I croaked.

Lauren grinned. “It’s so good to see you’re okay! When we found you passed out on the ground, we feared the worst.”

Angie nodded. “Bashrik had come back to get you. He said you were barely breathing.”

“Can we hug you?” Lauren asked nervously, evidently worrying I would break if she tried.

“Of course you can,” I murmured. They needed no further invitation, and they lunged toward me, enveloping me in a warm hug. Tears pricked my eyes as I gripped them with every ounce of strength I had left. I was overjoyed to see Lauren safe and sound, though she was different than the girl she’d been when she was taken. There was a sharpness to her eyes now and a hardness to her demeanor, as if she were perpetually hiding a secret she needed to defend.

“How’re you feeling?” Angie wondered, pulling away.

“Worse than a hangover.”

Lauren chuckled. “I’ve been hearing about your adventures on the Junkyard.”

“Hey, where are your glasses?” I asked, realizing they were notably missing from her face. They were such an ingrained feature of hers that it was bizarre not to see her wearing them.