She turns and eyes me, head to toe. “You lit a spark in him, Alexandra. And that means only one of two things can happen. We have to kill one of you, but like I said, I have a plan for you. You’re still useful to me. Cole? He’s a liability. I can’t get a return on that investment.”
I stare at him, looking lost and battered, and try to conjure to mind the young, vibrant man that my father tasked with making sure I survived the journey south to find my sister. Along the way we became partners and then friends. Eventually we evolved into something more than that. Sadly, he and I have never been more than pawns in a bigger battle.
Finally I gather the courage to say, “I won’t kill him.”
“You will, or things will get drastically worse for him and you.”
I turn to face the woman that was once my friend. “How does it get worse than this Chloe? I’m a prisoner. You’re planning on injecting me with Jane’s next crazy potion to turn me into one of those zombie soldiers. I’d rather be an Eater. At least they aren’t a hostage to anything but their minds before they decay and die. I agree and disagree about Cole. Yes, he’s a lost cause—as a human. He didn’t save me because he wanted to help me. He saved me to help himself, like all Hybrids and Mutts he’s about self-preservation above all else. He’s fully aware of your plot to drive him mad. I’m the only thing keeping him alive right now. If I was dead he knows you’d have little to no use for him at all.” It’s a lie. The fact he saved me, no matter how painful and violent, means he may actually have his soul is in there somewhere. I’m not willing to give up on him just yet.
Chloe studies me closely, like she’s trying to suss out the lie. I keep my face blank but her reply knocks me back a couple feet, at least emotionally. “You want to know what else I can do to you if you don’t follow orders, Alexandra?” I want to reply, give her back some snark and sass but for once don’t. The bloody welts on Cole’s body are enough proof to keep me quiet. She glances at the guard behind her. “Take her to her room and await my orders.”
I’m yanked from behind, hard enough to make my ribs feel like they’re being stretched and torn. The guards drag me up the stairs and back down the hall until I see the plain white door of my cell. It’s unchanged from when I left it days before. Chloe doesn’t come with us. I don’t know where she’s gone, and even though I put on a brave face I’m terrified of the results I will cause. The binds are cut from my wrists and door slams and locks. I sink to the bed, biting my lip to keep from crying.
Someone has to stand up to her and right now that someone seems to be me.
*
If I think I’m going to get a break, I’m a fool. A familiar guard appears soon after I returned to the cell with my workout clothes.
“Put those on. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
I stare at the workout shirt and pants for at least half of that time before coming to my senses and just get dressed. The elastic on my ribs is painfully tight and pulling the stretchy top over my head nearly wipes out my energy. The guard returns as I’m tying the lace on my left sneaker.
We travel back down the hall and I brace myself. I’m not going to fight him. Chloe already tipped her hand that she doesn’t wan
t me dead. And I’ve already told her I’m not killing him. We’re at a standoff until something gives. I just hope she leaves Jane and the others alone until I figure out some way out of here. That, or until Erwin and his double-juiced army finds us. Ever since Jane revealed that information to me I’ve had a renewed spark of hope.
The guard unlocks the door and I step inside, recoiling at the stench. Cole has been brought from his cell in the basement and left in the corner, chains attached to his wrists and the floor. He’s covered in his own filth. He barely looks up to acknowledge me in the room.
“So I’m supposed to fight him today?” I jerk my thumb toward Cole.
“Actually, no,” The Hybrid says and looks across the room at the opposite door Cole usually comes through. One that I know leads to his underground cell. I notice the guard’s knuckles are scraped and raw. He’s been beating on someone recently. I assume it’s Cole. “You’ve got a new partner.”
Fear rolls down my spine. It could be Jane or Avi. God, it could be one of the Mennonite kids. A deeper fear washes over me when I realize Jane could send an Eater in here and leave me weaponless and Cole defenseless. Two birds—one cannibalistic, bloodthirsty stone. I told her I would rather go that way. Maybe she was bluffing about not wanting me dead. Maybe this is all just more mind games.
Shit, I realize a second too late. It is all just more mind games and I’ve probably just walked into her biggest one yet.
The door opens and a figure is shoved into the room back first. My first instinct is relief. He’s too tall and broad to be Jane or the Mennonites. Confusion takes over quickly as I notice the green and gray camouflaged pants and muddy boots. A sick feeling rolls in my stomach. He bangs on the door, swearing and kicking with the toe of his boot. Familiar inflamed red marks circle his wrists. The sound of his voice resonates deep in my soul and my heart drops to the pit of my belly. He runs both hands through his shaggy hair and spins, taking in the room and then me. We face one another, mirrored images of confusion and shock. I’m not the only ghost walking the halls of this building. This one actually came back from the dead.
“Wyatt?”
Part Two
Wyatt
(6 Months Ago)
Chapter Six
I wake face down with the smell of dirt in my nose. Birds chirp, along with the low familiar moan I’ve come to loathe, making a disjointed ringing in my ears. The sound doesn’t scare me—not anymore—not like those early days where I felt like I was about to jump out of my skin at the slightest sound or movement. No, now it’s more of a nuisance than anything else. The problem at the moment is I can’t get my eyes to open or my arms and legs to cooperate. I’m not dead but nothing is working.
A howl rips through my thoughts and a glob of something sticky and wet lands on my cheek. I bat it away and my hand hits against something hard and sharp.
I force my eyes open, blink away the images in my face. The teeth and the retched stench.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I mumble, kicking the dirt with my heels, trying to get the hell away from the Eater standing over me.
His black, spider-veined eyes widen when I speak, like he wasn’t sure if I was dead or alive either. If it weren’t for the all-consuming pain racking through my body I wouldn’t be sure myself. He shrieks, the painful sound turning wrathful. I barely breathe before his jaw opens wide and he lunges at me.