Taz is at my side, and I hear a high-pitched noise moving around me. It starts at my head, and I can tell it’s a wand or gun—something like airport security would use. It’s a steady humming around my shoulders, over my arms. He pushes me back and runs it down the front of my body, over my waist, at my ankles. Shoving me forward again, he comes up the back of my legs to my thighs, and when he reaches my waist, it lets out a shrill squeal.
“What’s that?” Blix’s voice snaps.
Taz moves it around my lower back to the right, nothing. To the left, another shrill squeal. He drops the gun on the desk in front of me and feels all around my side. I have no pockets, and he grips my waistband, ripping it down.
“Oh!” My stomach tightens. “What are you doing?”
Now Blix is with us. I catch the halo of a light being shined on my body. “Fuckers,” he mutters. “Have you got your knife?”
“Wait!” I’m breathing fast. My entire body is shaking. “What’s going on? What are you doing?”
Blix is back up at my face, speaking close. “Don’t act stupid with me.”
My entire body is shaking, and I scream when Taz touches my skin. “I’m not acting! What is it?”
“You didn’t know you were bugged?”
I don’t know what that means. Bugged? Flying through my thoughts, one thing stands out in my mind. “The vaccination!” I say, just as the pain rips through my skin.
“NO!” I scream trying to pull away.
“What are you doing to her?” Cameron demands.
Blix shoves my upper body down on the desk so hard my cheek bounces off the wood. He lays across my back so I can’t move as Taz cuts through my skin roughly, not caring if he hurts me.
I scream again.
“STOP!” I hear my brother shout.
“Shut up,” Blix presses his forearm against my cheek, grinding my face into the wood.
Tears flood my eyes. Warm blood runs down my leg, and the pain causes my knees to buckle. “Please stop,” I beg. My face is hot. Snot is on my nose and in my mouth.
“Got it.” Finally Taz stops.
More pain rips through my side as he jerks my pants up, over my injury without even covering it. My body goes instantly lighter as Blix rises off me. He takes the thing Taz dug out of me and slams a piece of paper in front of my face. I slide off the surface, collapsing all the way to my knees then my butt, leaning against the front of the desk on the opposite side of my injury.
I can’t stop crying.
“Kass? You okay?” Cam’s voice breaks with worry, but after that manhandling, I can’t seem to pull it together.
With a sharp bang of the knife, Blix steps away from where I’m leaning. “That will give him something to think about.” He moves around the small area. “It seems I have too many hostages. Get rid of that one.”
He goes to the door and leaves us alone. I hear the shuffle of leather, and I know Taz has taken out his gun.
“ME!” My voice is sandpaper, but I manage to push myself up. I’m leaning forward in the darkness in the direction I know he’s standing. “Let it be me!”
I hear him cock his weapon, and I brace myself for the impact. I wonder if he’ll kill me all at once, or if it’ll take some time for me to die. The loud POP! makes me scream and fall back.
I wait… nothing happens. No impact. It’s silent. He didn’t shoot me.
My world crumbles all around me, and I fall forward onto the wet floor screaming at the top of my lungs. “NO! NO NO NO!” I scream until my throat is raw. I scream to fight back the spiraling agony shredding my insides. I scream because all of the mistakes I’ve made have led to this.
I scream because if he didn’t shoot me…
Cameron is dead.
Discovery