From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) (33 page)

“Are we all set? Everyone feel they know what
they are doing?” Ryker stabbed his finger into the paper. We all
nodded, an edgy tension in the air. “All right. Let’s get ready. We
leave in twenty.”

Sprig’s head bolted up from Ryker’s arm.
“Damn you, pixies! Stop grabbing my berries…they’re attached!”
Sprig blinked, glancing around at all of us. “Huh? What?” Then his
forehead crashed back down. He was sound asleep, mouth open like a
drunkard.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. That’s my best
friend.

“Look.” Amara pointed to the building with
the hole in the roof. We took point on the building across from it
to assess what was happening at Vadik’s torture camp before we put
our plan into action. “They’re all there.”

More than two dozen girls mulled around the
space, either sparring, stretching, or working the bags draped
around the room. Even if not all the girls were there, this was a
bit of good news; we didn’t have to break into each individual cell
to get them out.

“There are seven guards. All with automatic
weapons.” Ryker narrowed his lids, inspecting the space.

“Seven down there, a dozen guarding the
building, and who knows how many inside.” I touched the gun on my
hip. Arlo’s. He didn’t need it anymore.

“We need to get in there…
undetected
,
knock out seven guards…
undetected
…and get out with a bunch
of girls…
undetected
.” Amara snorted, bumping Ryker’s
shoulder. “Kind of reminds me of Sarajevo.”

“
Slightly
different.” Ryker
chuckled.

They had a past. A long one, but I clenched
my jaw a little too hard. His hand slid against mine, entwining our
fingers, as if he sensed my mood. I couldn’t seem to hide anything
from him anymore.

“I miss my axe, especially on nights like
this,” he muttered under his breath.

“You miss your axe every night.” I squeezed
his hand.

“And day.”

“We’ll get it back.”

He nodded, keeping his gaze on the girls
below. He stood in full warrior mode—his braids tight against his
scalp, the top pulled back, wrapped up in a bun. He wore all black
clothing and boots, with a new holster, which held several knives,
but none of them bigger than a butcher knife. You’d be surprised
how fast the weapons were taken after the storm, so I was pleased
he found those in Target’s kitchen section.

Amara had three knives, while I had the gun
and one knife. Ryker hated fighting with guns, so he gave Arlo’s to
me. I was still more comfortable with a gun in my hands than a
sword or tiny knife. Too many years of training and hunting didn’t
go away overnight. Vadik didn’t seem to play by fae rules. All his
men had guns. Most likely filled with fae bullets.

“Do you see her down there?” Amara zipped up
her jacket to her chin.

“No.” I moved my head from side to side. “But
she isn’t a fighter. They might still have her in the cell.”

“We start with them. Get them running before
we go for the cell,” Ryker stated. “It will cause a distraction,
pulling any guards from the warehouse so we can slip in.”

We had been waiting for Lars and his men to
show up, but the clock was ticking. The opportunity of these girls
being out of their cells was limited. We needed to act now. The
knot of fear doubled in my throat. “You ready, buddy?” I opened my
jacket where Sprig lay tucked safely inside.

“Yeah, I’m ready. I guess.” He pouted.
“Though a lot less super.” We forced him to take off his cape and
put it in his backpack with Pam. He would be too easy to grab and
possibly strangle with the cloth around his throat. He was not
happy.

“That’s the spirit.” He crawled onto my
shoulder.

The four of us stared down, taking in these
last quiet, non-life-threatening moments.

“Okay, let’s do this.” I unlaced my fingers
from Ryker’s and turned for the ladder down to the ground level.
There was no turning back now.

We moved silently to the building. The girls’
grunts and jeers arose from the practice ring. We skated along the
wall, playing hide-and-seek with the guards patrolling the grounds.
Five of the guards in the workout room were near the exit. The
other two milled around the edges of the ring.

“Try not to use the gun. That will bring
attention to us far too quickly,” Ryker said into my ear. “Amara
will take the two on the right, I’ll take the three on the left.
The other two guys will come for me. I’m physically the bigger
threat. Zoey, you get the girls out.”

“What do you want me to do?” Sprig grabbed my
ponytail.

“Not die,” Ryker grumbled.

“Sprig, we’re going to need you in the cells.
I want you to sit this one out.”

“What?”

“You are too important to the mission. You
need to stay safe.”

“Wow, that was a bunch of banana mush,” Sprig
quipped. “But fine. I will stay back, but if anything happens, I’m
coming to save you.”

“My hero.”

“Ugh.” He rolled his eyes and hopped down
from my arm, his backpack strapped tight to his body, and vanished
into the shadows.

Ryker twisted the door handle and, like a
ghost, slipped into the room, Amara and me trailing behind.

The guards were all facing the girls. Most of
the men leered at them in their tiny shorts and sports bras
wrestling on the ground.

As big as Ryker was, you’d think people could
sense him coming, but he was so swift and precise in his movements,
he twisted the neck of the biggest guard before anyone noticed. But
the moment the guard dropped, everything changed.

Shouts, groans, and the sound of bones
crunching echoed around the area as Amara and Ryker descended on
the guards. Like Ryker predicted, the two roaming men ran directly
for him.

I sprinted past them and straight for the
girls. “Come on!” I bellowed. They all turned around and stared at
me. “What are you waiting for? Run!”

“What the shit? Is that the Avenging Angel?”
A blonde girl on the mat tilted her head.

“Seriously?” My mouth fell open. That was
what concerned them at this moment? I was trying to save them, and
they all stood there like sheep. “Do you want to get out of here or
not?”

“Yes.” A girl pushed her way through the
crowd. Her round face looked sunken and pinched, her stringy hair
tied up in a loose bun.

“Maria.”

“You always come back, don’t you, Angel?
Can’t get away from it, can you?”

“No,” I said, staring straight into her eyes.
“It’s who I am.”

“Finally you realize it.” Maria nodded, a
smirk twitching her lips. She glanced at the girls, who stared at
her like she was the Messiah. “Come on, girls.”

A gunshot snapped through the air behind me,
and I whirled around to see a guard drop to the floor, his gun
bouncing off the cement, Ryker standing over him. Every guard lay
crumpled below Amara and Ryker.

“Time to go.” Ryker wiped the blood off his
face. The sound of that gunshot would have every guard heading our
way in seconds.

Alarm burst up my spine. “Go. Now!”
Twenty-plus girls turned into a screaming, babbling mess as fear
set in. Voices boomed from outside, heading for us.
Shit
.
This could go bad fast.

“Amara and I will take the guards, you get
the girls out of here,” Ryker barked and whirled around, running
out the door. Amara swiped up another gun and hurried after
Ryker.

“Maria, get them away from here. I need to go
inside and get Annabeth.”

“She’s not there.” Maria grabbed my
wrist.

“What? Where is she?” Acid bubbled into my
lungs.

“I don’t know. She disappeared a couple of
days ago.” As Maria talked, her eyes wandered around the room,
watching her girls. She was still their leader, even when locked up
with them.

“You have no idea where?”

“No. She was too sick to work our last fight.
When I got back, she had gone.”

No. No-no-no-no-no.
It’s can’t be true. Was I too
late?

“Sorry to say she’s probably dead.” Her voice
turned cold. “They killed my brother without a thought. If you
aren’t good for anything, then you are discarded.”

Marcello was dead. I felt neutral about his
demise. He had become a drooling shell of the man he once was
because of Ryker and me, but that could never overshadow what he
had done to me, his cruelty.

“What does it say about me that I am
relieved?” Her lips hooked up in disgust at herself.

“Maria!” a man shouted from the door.

Her grimace broke open into a huge smile.
“Carlos!”

It was like watching a romantic movie as the
pair ran for each other. She jumped into his arms. The relief on
his face at seeing her filled my heart and then broke it. I knew
they had been through a lot together. He willingly became a
controlled soldier to stay near her. But once I had helped him
break through the glamour, he was back to himself. He was still
here and alive, which probably meant he was smart enough to fake
being under fae control.

I wanted their love to have a chance.
Reaching their side, I ripped a knife from my bootleg. They let
each other go, and I handed her one of my knives. “Take this. Help
the girls and run as fast and far as you can.”

She stared down at the weapon then back at me
in wonder.

“You’re helping me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” Her expression appeared confounded. “I
locked you up. I
tortured
you.”

“Because you are a survivor like me. And no
one should die here. Not like this. Now run. Go!” I waved my hands
forward. Maria gave me one last look but nodded. Fate wove our
lives together with threads of death, hate, and violence. But
somehow we had saved each other. She could have killed me many
times, and I could let her die now, but there existed a similarity
in each other we recognized. Possibly an exceptionally thin line of
respect.

“Come on,” she bellowed to the cluster of
frightened girls, taking the lead. Maria and Carlos led her troops
into the dead of the night. I heard more shouts and shots fired
into the night.

I bit my lip, hoping with all my heart she
could get them away from here. If anyone could, it would be
Maria.

I whirled back around, moving toward the
other building. I wouldn’t believe Annabeth was dead. Maybe they
put her in another cell. I couldn’t leave without checking. Hope
was a powerful force.

####

I eased out of the building, my gun aimed and
ready. “Sprig?” I stepped out, my gaze roaming over the space.
“Sprig?”

I could hear only yells and gunfire in the
distance. Ryker had done a great job getting the men away from
here.

Where was Lars? Would he come? Did he
betray us?
I didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“Sprig, where are you?” No response. Shit. I
didn’t have time to look for him. My opportunity to find Annabeth
narrowed with every tick of the clock. I started to dart for the
main building.

“Zoey!” Amara’s voice from the alley broke my
course.

“Amara?”

“This way!” She waved me toward the back of
the building. “I remember in the plans a backdoor to the stairs
here.”

I changed my direction toward her. “Where’s
Ryker?” I hated not being the one who had his back.

“We got separated.” Worry creased her
forehead. “I was coming back to look for him when I saw you.
There’s an easier way into the building. It takes you to the
stairs, leading to the cells.” She turned, heading for the
door.

“Have you seen Sprig?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m sure he’s
fine. Probably passed out in the bushes.”

Sadly that was a real possibility. I hoped it
was true. He’d at least be safe.

I trailed after Amara, following her through
the door, into a hallway.

“Wait.” Alarm beeped in the back of my mind.
“The door wasn’t locked?”

When the door shut behind us, it took my eyes
a moment to adjust to the pitch darkness enveloping me. Amara’s
dark eyes glinted in the dark, and gradually my advanced sight
identified her outline in the blackness.

“Yeah…” She tapered off. “They probably just
forgot to lock it.”

His men wouldn’t forget anything, least of
all a door where people could sneak in and out. My desire to find
Annabeth pushed me forward, deeper into the building, but logic
kept jumping in my face, screaming at me. My skin itched, my gut
twisted. Something felt wrong.

“Amara…” I had just called her name when I
felt more prickles at the back of my neck. The sound of feet moving
for us.

Shit.
Fae.

“Amara!” I yelped. Right then the light
blasted overhead, the bulbs crackling awake. Men came from all
directions, so fast my eyes couldn’t track them. One grabbed me
from behind. I could sense my body wanting to jump, but nothing
happened.