Ignited (26 page)

Chances were good that one or both of us wouldn’t make it out of here alive. I didn’t know what Nathan knew of the Skotadi’s history and motives, but I knew they were up to something bad and I had a feeling I was about to find out what that was.

We crashed through a door and into a small, cold, and brutally bright room. I was set down on the lone chair in the center. Knowing it was a futile attempt, I jumped up and didn’t make it two steps before I was caught and set back down.

This time, the big brute held me down while Lillian strapped me to the chair with rope. She pulled it tighter than necessary and the harsh material bit into my skin, but I refused to show how much it hurt.

“That’ll teach you to run,” the ugly Skotadi mocked, sticking his nose too close to mine.

“How’s your face?” I returned. If they were going to kill me, I wanted to go out in style. With attitude.

He slinked away with a yellow teeth stained jeer and Lillian stepped in his place, leaning down to put her face in mine. Seeing her up that close, I was able to place her exotic features as that of South American decent, maybe Brazilian. 

“You care about Nathan, honey?” she asked with fake sweetness. I kept my mouth clamped shut and she laughed wickedly. “Of course you do,” she continued. “If you don’t want us to hurt him, you’re going to have to tell me what I want.”

I nearly stopped breathing. I had expected threats against myself and had been prepared to defy the bitch with every ounce of strength I had. I wouldn’t have helped her even if I did know what she wanted. But if she was going to hurt Nathan...well, that changed things. A lot. 

“You’re going to tell me what I want?” she asked.

I nodded. For Nathan, I would, though I was afraid it wouldn’t matter. They would kill both of us once they realized I didn’t know anything.

Lillian gripped my chin, digging her nails into my cheek, and I gritted my teeth, trying to block out the pain. “Where’s the boy?” she asked.

I stared blankly at her, desperately searching for a clue as to what she was talking about. Finally, at a loss, I gave up. “What boy?”

From the annoyance on her face, I gathered she wasn’t buying my ignorance, legitimate as it was. “You can’t protect him forever. We will find him, with your help,” she said with barely controlled rage shaking under the surface. “If I have to kill Nathan to get you to talk, I will.”

No, no, no!

“I don’t know who you’re talking about. If I did-”

She backhanded me across the face. My teeth came down on my tongue from the impact. A metallic taste flooded my mouth as I blinked back the instant surge of tears.

Lillian bent at the waist to peer evenly into my eyes. She must have seen what she was looking for, because she wore a smug smile. “You’ve started developing, which means you’ve formed the link. You know where to find him.”

I held back another argument, expecting it would only bring on another beating. Why didn’t she believe I didn’t have the information she thought I did? I didn’t know of a boy. Except...

Alec? He had tried to warn me. Were they looking for him?

Lillian was watching me closely. “Well?” she probed.

“If you’re talking about Alec, I don’t know where he is.”

Lillian eyed me for a few agonizing seconds before turning her head with a disgusted grunt. She nodded her head at the big guy by the door, and a twisted smile spread across his face.

“It will be my pleasure,” he said, cracking his knuckles. When he turned for the door, I realized Lillian had given him the go ahead to harm Nathan.

I jumped in my seat, but the ropes didn’t give. “No, please,” I pleaded. “I don’t know what you want from me. I don’t know who you’re talking about, I swear. Leave Nathan alone.”

“Yes you do,” Lillian hissed, turning to me with the reflexes of a cat. “
Think
.”

I moved my eyes from Lillian to the guy in the doorway. He had paused with his head turned over his shoulder, waiting for my response. I looked back and forth between the two of them, frantically seeking the answer they wanted.

Not Alec. Not Nathan. My human friends wouldn’t matter to them. Who else was there?

Surely they couldn’t mean...

“Yes?” Lillian tilted her head, seeing the thought register on my face.

“The boy in my dreams?” I whispered and braced for another blow for giving the wrong answer.

Instead, Lillian’s face lit with intrigue. The man in the doorway turned, forgetting his desire to pummel Nathan. 

“That’s how you communicate with him?” Lillian asked, her voice feigning friendliness. Seeing as how she was an evil bitch who had likely given me a black eye, it wasn’t convincing.

But from her reaction, I gathered that, whoever he was, the boy in white was who they wanted. Up until then, a big part of me had thought that he wasn’t real, that he was only a dream, or a result of my waning sanity. Now I knew he was real. That didn’t mean I knew who he was—or where to find him.

“Where is he?” Lillian asked, her body rigid as she harnessed what was likely the urge to beat the answer out of me.

“I don’t know his location,” I responded carefully.

She didn’t like the answer. “When did you last...see him?”

I had not dreamt during the brief time I slept on Nathan’s lap. The altered view of the car accident had filled my dreams the night before. “Two nights ago,” I said.

“You were sleeping when we came to get you,” Lillian pointed out.

“Not very long. I didn’t dream. I didn’t see him.”

Lillian studied me like she was trying to determine if I was telling the truth. “You say two nights ago?” She stood and paced the room, deep in thought. Finally, she turned back to me. She believed me. “Do you both have to be asleep to access him?
Do not lie to me.
”

“I’m not sure, but I’ve been asleep every time I’ve seen him.” Should I tell them that I’ve yet to find a way to communicate with him? Or see his face? Until I knew what they wanted, I decided to keep those tidbits to myself.

She tapped a red painted finger against her chin as she studied me and spoke to herself. “If he’s on the run, he may not sleep for a while, and even then, it may be at irregular times.” Her eyes shifted to the big guy in the doorway, who was alert and ready for his orders.

“Find Doc,” she told him and, with a curt nod, he left us. Lillian returned her cold gaze to me. “We’ll make sure you’re ready for him the next time he falls asleep. You find out where he is, give me his location, and I’ll consider letting Nathan live.”

I didn’t know if I should believe her. I certainly didn’t trust her. I also had no other options. I supposed I could pretend to get the information and give them a made up location, though it would only backfire when they returned empty-handed and killed Nathan anyway for my deception.

At least I had bought myself some time to think. Maybe something would come to me. Maybe I could learn how to communicate with the boy and we could figure something out together. Assuming I could convince him that I wasn’t just a dream, and then convince him to help me.

Yeah. Piece of cake.

At least Lillian was going to help me find him, though I was a little concerned about how she planned to make that happen. I found out a few minutes later, when the big guy returned with another Skotadi man, this one ganglier and older with salt and pepper hair and a white lab coat. He must have been Doc.

And Doc had a bottle of oval yellow pills, two of which he held out for me.

Lillian appeared over his shoulder. “We can make this easy or hard,” she threatened.

I plucked the pills out of his hand. “What are they?”

“Something to make you sleep, so that when the boy sleeps, you’ll be waiting,” Lillian answered.

“If I get what you want, you’ll leave Nathan alone?”

She shrugged noncommittally. “Sure.”

She was lying. But if I didn’t do what she asked, they would kill him now. If I did what she asked, I could buy us some time. Maybe, if I was lucky, I could see him once more before they killed us both.  

Hoping for nothing short of a miracle, I popped the pills into my mouth.

I didn’t see the boy in white. Really, I didn’t see much of anything. I drifted in and out of a drunken state. For how long, I had no idea. Time stopped. My thought process shut down. The few times I started to come around, the room I was in started to take shape and the memory found its way back to me.

When that happened, I got more pills shoved in my mouth. It was like when I had started development and Nathan had forced medicine on me—except it was nothing like that. I wanted—no, I needed—Nathan. But I had to do this for him, to save him. I had some recollection of that.

The dark haired girl knocked me around, demanded answers I didn’t have. I was so doped up I doubted I would have been able to communicate with her even if I had the answer she wanted. She scared me even more than the big ugly guy. 

I preferred it when I woke up and no one was there. Then I could slip back into a semi-unconscious state before anyone had a chance to force more pills on me. That was when some of the fog would lift and I would start to remember where I was.

This time, I was startled awake by the sound of the door clicking open. I groaned as I came to. They were back to drug me again. Or worse.

How much longer before they grew tired of this game?

With my chin dropped to my chest, my eyes came into focus as a familiar pair of Sketchers stepped into view. I tried to raise my head to see their owner, but the ropes holding me to the chair gave way and I fell forward, nearly toppling off it. A strong pair of arms saved me from an inevitable face plant and guided me up in my seat. My head rolled back and I shifted my gaze to focus on the jade green eyes in front of me.

“What did they do to you?” Alec murmured in my ear as he pulled me to a stand. He held onto me as I swayed and tried to balance on my own two feet. “Can you walk? Preferably run?”

I nodded and nearly hurled from the motion. The room was spinning. Not good.

Alec frowned and slipped his arm around my waist to steady me. “Hold onto me. I’ll help you, but we need to hurry.”

His grip was tight around me, my arm draped limply around his neck, as he guided me into the hall. My steps were clumsy and forced faster than I was capable of on my own. It still wasn’t as fast as Alec wanted to go, I realized, and tried harder, concentrating exclusively on putting one foot in front of the other.

“You’re doing good, Kris,” Alec whispered. “We’re almost there.”

I was about to ask where we were going when the cell bars came into view and I saw Nathan—alive, gripping the bars, face pressed against them, eyes searching, and finally resting on me. His expression shifted from relief to elation to alarm as he took in the whole picture: me, beaten up, barely walking, and holding onto none other than Alec for support.

Alec let go of me and I grabbed the cell bars for support. Nathan was within reach on the other side, but it felt like an insurmountable distance between us. Our eyes locked briefly before Alec demanded his attention.

“Just so we’re clear,” Alec addressed Nathan coolly, “the only reason I’m breaking you out is because I know she’s going to need you.” I hadn’t realized until then that Alec had the key in his hand, poised over the lock. “I don’t like you, you don’t like me, but we both care about her, and that’s why I’m doing this.”

Alec slipped the key in the lock and clicked it open. Nathan brushed by Alec with a barely discernible nod and came to my side. He surveyed my face and my wobbly stance with visible concern.

He glanced at Alec. “What did they do to her?”

“I don’t know,” Alec answered solemnly. “Whatever they gave her, it’s wearing off fast enough. She’s better than she was.”

Say what?
I glanced at Alec peculiarly. I was awake, at least, and standing, sort of. I supposed I was a little better than unconscious. Had he seen me at my worst, newly intoxicated, to know that this—knees knocking, eyes glazed, clinically dumb—was better? I intended to question him about that, but he had already turned to scope out the tunnel.

He looked at Nathan. “Stay behind me and help her. Don’t let anybody see either of you.”

Nathan hooked an arm around me and, together, we followed Alec through the dark corridor. Under any other circumstance, I doubted Nathan would have listened to a word Alec had to say. Stuck as we were now, he must have realized Alec was our best chance at escape. I figured there was probably a good deal of pride swallowing going on beside me. 

“Hi buddy,” I whispered to him.

He looked down at me, the corners of his lips slanted into a small smile. I might have misinterpreted it, but I thought he squeezed me tighter, bringing me closer to him. I didn’t recall stumbling, so I allowed myself to think it had been done out of affection rather than necessity.

Alec led us through one tunnel after another. I was officially lost after about the third turn. Keeping a sense of direction would have been difficult enough sober. My bad hangover made it impossible.