Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (17 page)

“So, what is it?”

“Leah, I wish you wouldn’t make things so difficult.” He makes a flicking motion, and I gasp as the rippling air momentarily presses in on me from both sides. Heat rushes up my arms, but no fire comes to my call.

“That’s no answer.” My heart races. He’s actively trying
not
to kill me. Am I really that valuable an experiment, or… what? “You know what my powers can do. You know I could wipe out everyone in this cave. You think I wouldn’t, right?” I take a deep breath. “But I’m not your brother. I’m not Murray. And if you’re planning to engage the fiends and lure them to attack Earth again, it would be a small loss. That is, if I even have a choice in the matter. I’ve lost control of the energy wave before.”

My heart’s beating fast. The last time I tried to put on an act, it didn’t fool him. But this time… I’m voicing my own fears. I can’t afford to get beaten down again. I won’t acknowledge the fear that choked me when I was locked in with that fiend. Fear stopped my power.

It won’t happen again. My power is mine, as is my blood.

Jared lifts an eyebrow. “You’d sacrifice your friends? Even him?”

Cas.
No. I’d never sacrifice him, but right now, I need to save Val. Cas can look after himself. He said so himself—he has a plan. And Val’s entirely at Jared’s mercy. But my blood can save her.

“It’s like I said. If I had to choose between saving everyone here and saving the humans left on Earth, I’d choose to wipe you and your Transcendent scum from the face of the planet.” My voice gets louder; the words, stronger. I have to convince him.

“Really?” Jared’s expression turns to disappointment. Not fear. But he can’t deny we’re at a stalemate.

He drops his hand, and the energy wave pinning me to the wall abruptly dissipates. I stumble forward.

“Come with me.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I follow. It’s not like I have a choice. I’m no closer to finding a way out with Cas which won’t leave the world to the mercy of Jared’s Transcendent slaves. The real question is, why now? If Jared will do anything to win against the fiends, then leaving it this long to turn himself suggests he wasn’t sure of his plan working. After the Transcendents, I guess he figured it was worth the risk. That, or the fiends really are on the brink of invading.

I just wish there was a way to get a message to Murray. To warn the others.

Jared leads the way down the corridor towards the fiends’ prison. The hairs rise on my arms, and it’s all I can do not to run. But the other Transcendents walk behind and to either side of me, blocking all escape.

“Wonderful, aren’t they?” he asks. “Total obedience.”

“What do you want, a round of applause?” I glare at the Transcendent on my right. His face is as impassive as the others. “Brainwashing isn’t exactly a new concept, you know.”

“Oh, I know that. It’s taken me so long to fine-tune the process. The problem with the tattoos is that they’re dependent on resistance to pain. Cas gave me a lot of trouble, I confess, but that’ll all change soon.”

My heart sinks, but I’ve no idea what he means by that. “What, is he resistant to your control? Are you pissed off because you can’t mind-control him?”

No answer.
So it’s true.
Which means he must have more torture in mind.

My fist clenches. “Where are we going?” I ask, instead of striking him, like I want to.

“A show,” says Jared. “I think you’ll find it instructive, though you did a great job of disabling one of my Transcendents already.”

When I stabbed the tattoo. It caused pain, but didn’t release him from Jared’s control. If I did that to Val, though… would it work?

And Cas?

“Did you use my blood in the tattoos as well?” I ask. “Seems a bit pointless, if they obey you anyway.”

“That’s the beauty of it,” says Jared. “You’ve never seen the fiends in action, have you? Their coordination is perfect. I believe the Fiordans use some kind of blood control, though I may be mistaken. When I send my Transcendents further afield, I’ll be interested in exploring other options. The Fiordans don’t give up their secrets easily, but with their blood, anything is possible.”

I gape at him. He can’t seriously be implying that he intends to copy the Fiordans? Or—use them in some way?
He’s mad.
Worse, could he be right? The Fiordans dominate the fiends through blood control?

Like the tattoos.
Oh, God. He got the idea from them.
How could he have found out something like that? Did the fiends tell him somehow, or…?

“I thought you planned to kill them,” I say.

“Certainly, if they pose a threat,” says Jared. “But that need not be the case. There is much to learn from the Fiordans, especially with our world in such a sorry state.”

He can’t mean that.
Sure, it’s
Jared,
and his lack of respect for the Transcendents’ lives comes as no surprise. But the Fiordans? He seriously thinks we can learn from them?

My heart beats fast. “Yeah, and they destroyed their own world and most of ours, too. If you take their technology, or whatever it is you’re planning, you’ll do even more damage.”

But that won’t happen. I’ll kill him first. No matter what the cost.
The Fiordans are the ones who destroyed our world.

And we share blood. But so does Jared now.

“I think we’re all a little wiser this time around, Leah,” says Jared.

I tense as we pass by the fiend’s cage to the sound of shuffles and growls, but Jared doesn’t stop. Another turn later, and we come to a deserted corridor with one set of double doors at the far end. Jared pushes them open with his clawed hand, the other beckoning us to follow.

Seats form rows at the front of the room but the majority of the space is covered by a cage with rust-red bars, right up to the high ceiling.

It comes as no surprise to me when Jared orders two of the Transcendents to enter the cage, then locks the door and orders them to fight until neither can continue.

So this is my latest punishment: to watch him assess the Transcendents and judge their skills. Sick anger gives way to resignation when it becomes clear neither of them will give ground. He must have ordered them not to use their Transcendent powers. Even those bars won’t stand up to an energy blast.

The Transcendents are evenly matched. All are quick, lethal, and emotionless. The perfect soldiers. But I stopped one of them before. If Jared wants me to fight them, he’s going to get a show, all right. His words ring in my ears.
Blood control.
But if it’s blood that’s the key, and they have
my
blood… maybe there’s something I
can
do.

It can’t be that easy. No way. He wouldn’t have told me if he thought I could use the information to my advantage. No way.

The fight’s over. Blood streaks the arena floor, and one Transcendent kneels over the other, his face also streaked in blood. Neither makes a sound, but their pained expressions force me to look away. Jared applauds, while the others look on blankly.

At his orders, the other Transcendents drag their fallen comrades out of the arena. Then he points to another pair. So this is how it’s going to be. I glare at him, but he’s watching the show with rapt attention. I’ll bet he doesn’t care who the superior fighters are. He just enjoys the violence.

The sick bastard.

Finally, I’m pitted against the remaining Transcendent, as I predicted. Val isn’t invited in, presumably because the Transcendents will take her to pieces, and Jared intends to hold her fate over me. Like everyone else’s.

“Are you sure?” I ask him. “I’m having doubts about obeying you, Jared. I’m not bound by the same orders as your servants. My powers might escape by accident and destroy this place. What if this fight pushes me over the edge?”

“It won’t,” he says. “I know what you’re capable of, Leah. If the power didn’t activate in defence of your life against that fiend, it won’t here.” He points me towards the cage. “I’ll let you keep your weapon.”

Not like even he could pry it out of my hand anyway. But it’s given me an idea.

The Transcendent attacks the instant the cage door closes. His fist swings, and I duck the blow with the reflexes of a Pyro. I don’t know how much fighting training these guys had before Jared took them under his wing, but I’m not about to give ground easily.

I block and dodge a few more blows, trying to get an opening. I’ve no intention of giving Jared the horror show he’s expecting, and even now, the idea of crippling another human being is repellent. But if Jared’s putting me under watch, this may be the one chance I’ll get to try out my theory.

I catch the Transcendent’s fist in my hands with a blast of fire, taking my chance to throw myself at him. The momentum sends him crashing to the ground, where I pin him down and swipe at his tattoo with the dagger. The Transcendent stops mid-strike, making a low noise of pain. I dig the knife in deeper, then yank it free and slash my own palm. Still pinning him with my entire body weight, I press the flat of my palm against his tattoo.

Jared’s yelling something, but I concentrate on the rush of adrenaline in my veins, and the beat of blood as it rises to the surface.

“You obey me now,” I whisper to the Transcendent. “Get us out of this cage. Attack Jared. He’s your enemy.”

Nothing happens for a long moment. My heart thuds like a trapped bird against the walls of a cage. If my guess is wrong, there’ll be hell to pay.

The Transcendent’s head snaps up and locks on Jared.

I quickly jump back before I’m thrown off him, and the Transcendent lunges for the door, hands outstretched.

Everything blurs in confusion. Jared barks orders at the first Transcendents to fight, but they’re having difficulty walking after they beat each other up a few minutes ago. The Transcendent I gave the order to easily knocks them down and makes for Jared. He looks more angry than frightened, but the red-tinged knife gleams in his hands. I shove my way out the cage as the Transcendent leaps at Jared.

My target is Val.

Jared hasn’t given her an order. She stands as blank-faced as the rest were. As the other Transcendents are caught up in confusion, no one even looks at her. She doesn’t react when I grab her tattooed hand and swipe the side of my blade across it.

Unlike the Transcendent, Val doesn’t scream. But when I cut the rest of the way around the flame on her wrist, trying my best not to press too hard, she gasps in pain. Whimpers behind me suggest Jared’s got the better of the Transcendent, but I can’t stop now.

“Sorry,” I whisper to Val, and drag her after me out of the room.

Jared’s shouts follow me, and there’s the sound of a scuffle. The Transcendent’s still fighting.
It can’t stop obeying your orders.
I’ll deal with that thought later. I pull Val alongside me, wishing I’d thought of a plan rather than acting on the spur of the moment.

“Are the others safe?” I ask.

Val’s eyes are wide, and confusion crosses her face as her gaze drops to the cut on her arm, but she nods. “How did you do that?”

“Long story,” I say. “The others?”

“There’s a camp not far from here. We weren’t sure of the location. But when I felt the tattoo… he did something to me.”

“I know,” I say. “But I stopped it.”

It worked. It actually worked.
And… I can use blood control like Jared. But right now, I can’t think about that. We need to run.

“You don’t remember the way out, do you?” I ask. “Are the others close by?”

When she nods, my heart can’t help but lift. “We have to move fast.” I let Val lead the way, and my heart sinks again when I remember the security fiend.

And Cas. He can’t still be hiding behind the wall, can he? To think he didn’t even try to intervene. But however much of a coward he’s acting now, I came here to rescue him. I can’t leave him behind.

We round the corner and I’m forced to shove those thoughts to the back of my head. The fiend’s there, all right, blocking the whole corridor with its lava-like form.

I nod to Val, and we sneak up behind it, one of us on each side of the corridor.
Finally
a fight where I have the upper hand.

I take a swing at the fiend’s hunched, ugly back. My dagger is melded to my other hand, and ready to intercept as the fiend awkwardly twists its body in an attempt to strike back. Val doesn’t have a weapon, I realise belatedly. But we can take the fiend down with our fists, even an engineered one like this.

The beast snarls and lashes out with clawed hands, but the corridor boxes it in. I hit all its vulnerable spots, and the fire finally answers my call. Like it’s always been there. A rush of heat flares down my arm to my fist, and my punch blasts the beast into pieces. Val watches, wide-eyed, as rock-like fragments crumble to the ground.

“Wow,” she says. I forgot just how much I haven’t told the others about what I can do. I’m not even sure how much I
can
tell them, especially about the messed-up connection with Cas. But the others need to know Jared has created more Transcendents. And that he’s changed himself, too. With my blood.