The Decaying Empire (The Vanishing Girl Series Book 2) (20 page)

Caden turned those devastating eyes on me; he looked like I’d betrayed him.
“Angel.”

Eric smiled triumphantly. “Good.”

Anger flashed across Caden’s face when he looked at the other teleporter.

“Caden,” I said, “Eric’s right.” Already after last night’s bonfire, this place had gotten to me. A month from now, Caden and I might not have the desire to escape. “We need to do this before we get cold feet.” And before they caught us. That was another possibility no one had voiced. “I’ll be okay.”

Caden’s anger morphed into agony. “I can’t lose you again, angel.”

I smiled at him. “You won’t.”

If anything, my words only caused him more pain. “The last time you made me that promise, you got spliced.”

Eric walked us back to our cabin. The sun had barely risen over the treetops, painting the sky in pinks and golds. Somewhere in the distance a baby cried.

“Serena will be okay with all of this?” I asked, stopping outside our cabin.

Eric nodded. “She’s already on board.”

Caden squinted at the rising sun. “If we’re going to do this Sunday—and I’m really fucking not okay with that, but it seems I’m the minority—”

I didn’t miss the pointed look he shot me.

“—then we need to have an airtight plan before then.”

“Done,” Eric said.

Caden ran a hand over his jaw. “Then let’s meet at the campfire at eight to go over plans.”

“We’ll be there,” Eric said, backing away.

We watched him retreat toward his own cabin. Several yards away from us, he paused. “Oh, and Ember?” Eric said glancing over his shoulder at me.

“What?”

Eric’s gaze dropped meaningfully to my upper arm, right where the implanted chip was. We both already knew what he wasn’t saying: as long as the GPS device was inside me, I’d be tracked.

He smiled. “Have fun with that.”

“I don’t trust him,” Caden said as we approached the dining hall.

“Neither do I.” Unfortunately, the list of people we didn’t trust was getting longer.

Caden held the door open for me, and we caught our first real glimpse of the facility.

I’d seen the layout once before I’d gotten spliced, and after we’d parted ways with Eric this morning, I’d spent the past hour poring over the map the facility gave us. I now had the loose blueprint of this place memorized. The cabins—which lay in a horseshoe arrangement beyond the facility’s communal buildings—the communal buildings themselves, and the guard towers and main entrance, which lay just beyond the buildings at the base of the facility.

The door to the dining hall closed behind us, and we were suddenly, savagely thrown into this world. All thoughts of escape fled as we took in our surroundings.

“They’re like
. . .
little gremlins,” Caden said as children ran through the room. He looked vaguely horrified. “I mean, they’re somewhat cute”—a kid sitting at one of the tables began shrieking about wanting chocolate milk—“but gremlins nonetheless.”

I knew my eyes were wide. “I think my ovaries might’ve just shriveled up and died.”

We made our way through the breakfast buffet and found an empty table. The dining hall was fairly full, but I had no idea what portion of the facility this represented. Because each cabin had a kitchen, some families surely ate in the privacy of their own homes. They were the smart ones.

I poked at my fruit and yogurt, not much hungry at the moment. Next to me Caden winced at the sight of a kid sneezing all over his parents’ food.

Someone squeezed my shoulder. I glanced up to see a smiling Marissa. “Morning, hon.” She turned her attention to Caden. “Mind if I steal your girl away for a little while?”

“Steal me away?” I echoed before Caden could respond.

“Your doctor’s appointment, silly. It’s all on the schedule.”

The schedule? Crap, here we go again. “You didn’t, uh, happen to e-mail me the schedule, did you?”

“Of course,” she said. “Things here work much the same way they did at your last facility.”

I bit my lip. “I, uh, haven’t unpacked my laptop yet.”

“Ah,” she said, understanding dawning on her face. “Well, lucky for you, this is your only appointment for the day.” Marissa glanced over at Caden. “You might want to check your in-box as well. You don’t have an appointment today, but there are orientation e-mails you’ll want to read.”

Caden flashed her his most charming smile. “Stealing my girlfriend and giving me orders?” He shook his head. “I don’t know about this arrangement, Marissa.”

Marissa grinned back at him, clearly enjoying his teasing. “Get used to it. This is me on a good day,” she said, her tone flirty.

I raised my eyebrows at Caden. His eyes met mine and his smile deepened. He was obviously enjoying the attention. This was the facade he’d worn like a second skin when I met him. It seemed as though he was breaking it out once more.

“All right, all right,” he said. “You can take my girlfriend, but only for a little while. Then she’s all mine.” He gave me a look that plainly stated what he had in mind.

“Deal.” Marissa squeezed my shoulder, and I scooted out of my chair.

I was really doing this, faking it yet again. I breathed out.

One week. That was all. And then I’d be free.

“What kind of doctor’s appointment is this?” I asked, following Marissa into the hospital wing.

She cleared her throat. “A woman’s appointment.”

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
It was one of
those
appointments. I’d assumed it was because I’d recently woken up from a coma. Go figure that they’d be more interested in my reproductive abilities than my general health.

“I can go in with you if you’d prefer. I’m here to help you get acclimated.”

The only thing worse than spreading my legs for some stranger was having a new acquaintance witness the whole ordeal.

“That’s really sweet”—and a little creepy—“but I’ll be okay.”

I could tell immediately when we entered the pediatric section of the hospital. It had that gummy smell that only came in rooms that housed lots of kids. I knew that if I touched the walls here, they’d be sticky.

We stopped in front of a waiting room. “Then this is where I leave you. Will you be able to find your way back?”

Knowing what I did about the facility’s layout, it would be impossible to get lost. “I think I’ll manage.”

Marissa took my hands and squeezed them. “I’ll be at the arts and crafts center for the rest of the day if you want some company or have any questions.”

“Thanks, Marissa.” I watched her walk off before I entered the waiting room.

I checked in with the lone nurse on duty and took a seat. My foot began to jiggle almost immediately. Absently I ran my hand over my upper arm, feeling the small, hard bump there. So long as it remained beneath my skin, the Project would know where I was.

My lips pressed together at what I had to do. A doctor’s appointment wouldn’t be the worst thing that happened to me today. Not by a long shot.

When I got back to the cabin carrying a large paper bag, Caden was hanging from the porch railing, doing curls. Judging by his drenched shirt, he must’ve been at it for a while.

“Angel,” he said, swinging to his feet, “how did the appointment go?”

He took one look at me. I must’ve worn a harried look, because suddenly his brow crinkled in concern. “That bad?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Honestly, at the moment all I wanted was a milkshake, especially considering what I was about to do.

“Could you do me a favor?” I asked. Those were always loaded words, especially when I couldn’t mention what I had in mind. Not here, where surely someone had planted recording devices.

Caden searched my eyes, then gave a firm nod. “Anything.”

I smiled at him and inclined my head toward the cabin. He walked past me and held the door open.

I slipped inside, dropping the paper bag I carried on the counter. While Caden sauntered in behind me, I ran upstairs and grabbed my backpack and a pair of tweezers. I changed out of my long-sleeved shirt and into a tank. By the time I made it to the kitchen, a now shirtless Caden had begun laying out my finds. Gloves, cotton balls, a roll of gauze, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

“My sweet little klepto, you do me proud,” Caden said, scrutinizing the items.

“The staff gave me the items,” I said, dumping my bag and tweezers onto the counter. I opened and closed several drawers until I found what I was looking for—a lighter.

“Well, that takes all the fun out of it,” Caden said. He leaned back against a nearby counter and folded his arms over his considerable chest. “Next time you need something, you only have to ask. These fingers can work magic.”

“Oh, trust me, I know,” I said, tossing the lighter into my backpack.

That earned me a grin. He wiped it away when I reached for the wooden block of knives. “Angel, what—”

I handed a knife to him, then went to the fridge and opened it. I grabbed the chilled bottle of champagne, removed the foil, popped the cork, and began to chug it.

Behind me Caden went quiet. Crazy behavior was usually code for unauthorized actions. So instead of questioning me further, he began repacking the items he’d laid out. I knew that when his eyes moved over them again, each item took on a new meaning.

I paused, pulling the champagne bottle away from my lips. “You might want to put on something warm.”

His expression turned grim, but he nodded and left the room.

I finished the champagne off a couple of minutes later, feeling faintly ill from ingesting that much alcohol at once. I tossed the empty bottle into the trash while Caden returned to the kitchen. He placed a towel in the backpack, then made a beeline for the sink. Turning on the faucets, he scrubbed his hands and arms up to his elbows.

Once he’d finished, he snagged my bag of goodies and slung it over his shoulder. “Got everything you need in here?” he asked, sauntering to the doorway.

“God no, but it’s the best I could pull together at the moment.” This was going to be a hack job at best.

Caden frowned, but he kept quiet as I checked the freezer for ice. We had ice trays, but all of them were empty. Oh well.

I jogged over to Caden, who held the door open. Champagne sloshed around in my stomach. Perhaps chugging the entire bottle had been a bad idea.