Ablaze (Indestructible Trilogy Book 2) (9 page)

My heart flips, and I have to force my expression to remain neutral.
It must be a trick. He wouldn’t…
but I can’t help thinking of Cas in my last vision.
He’s alive. He’s really alive.

“Nothing to say?”

He’s searching for weakness again. I meet his stare evenly, though my mind’s racing. What has he done to Cas? What state is he in after being stuck here for days, with a madman who can torture him on a whim?

“Cas is in training with the others at the moment, I believe, but if you like, I can show you to the room you’ll be staying in, as my guest. You can shower and change, and I’ll send someone to call you when the others come back, okay?”

Yeah, like he’s offering me a choice. But I can’t turn down the offer of a shower and change of clothes, as much as it makes my skin crawl to be dependent on him in any way. Perhaps if I go along with it, I’ll have the chance to talk to Cas alone. Tell him I know how to remove the tattoo. Then we can get out of here.

I just nod, and he directs me out of the room and into the corridor again. Two guards have appeared outside the door as if he somehow called them without making a noise.
Probably did,
I think, remembering how the tattoos can affect people from a distance.

I half-expect Jared’s assigned me the crappiest room, but it turns out to be pretty nice, as far as underground bunkers go. Small, but cosy. A single bed and table are the only furniture, but there’s an en-suite bathroom at the back with a real working shower.

Jared leaves me in peace, but the guards remain outside the door, probably to stop me running off. I might as well make the most of this. A clean, plain black outfit lies across the bed, along with a couple of towels. I take my time showering, but never quite relax, knowing the guards are waiting outside—and, of course, I’m in enemy territory. Still, I feel slightly clearer-headed, and warm, clean clothes are a blessing I’m not quite used to after two years living on the road.

Strange how time passes. Two years after civilisation ended and it’s like it’s always been this way. Seeing that video… I can’t wrap my head around it. Murray
told
me the Pyros had been fighting the fiends for longer than most people knew, but I never really thought about it before. The first fifteen years of my life were about as ordinary as you can get. School. Friends. Dating—well, okay, I didn’t have too much luck with that. But I had a life. I had a future which didn’t revolve around survival, or fighting monsters. I sure as hell didn’t believe in aliens or anything like that. They walked among us. I laugh, shaking my head at the absurdity of all this. Then I stop, peering through the gap in the door. Guards outside. They haven’t responded. Probably programmed by Jared. Like robots.

My flesh creeps at the thought. I see a black coat like Jared’s hanging on a hook behind the door. I think I’d rather freeze than wear the same uniform as his minions.

After a couple of minutes, the door opens. One of the guards beckons to me, and I know he’s going to take me to Cas. My heart starts beating faster.
I have to see him. I have to know he’s all right.

The two guards flank me, walking slightly ahead to lead the way. I wish I had a better memory. I’ve already forgotten the way back to Jared’s room, which might have come in handy if I decided to murder him during the night. I haven’t seen any sign of a way out, either. Worrying. Still, Cas’s been here longer. Maybe he can tell me. No way would he take Jared’s dominance lying down, even under threat.

Finally, we round the corner and come to another corridor with two doors at the end, flung open wide. A training hall, filled with… Pyros.

I stare, open-mouthed. I hadn’t imagined there would be so many of them. Possibly even as many as Murray’s group. The guards lead me right up to the door, standing either side like bodyguards. I turn from one Pyro to the next. None are familiar, except…

There he is. At the back of the room, facing a row of dummies. Though he’s facing the other way, no one else moves quite like that, decapitating the dummies as though they mortally offended him. His dark hair gleams like a polished black stone under the bright lights, and he’s dressed in the same black outfit as everyone here.

Suddenly, I’m mute. It’s stupid. I have the chance to go and talk to him and yet I can’t even call out his name. It’d sound idiotic, anyway, and I’m sure Jared’s watching from somewhere. The guards are bad enough.

I step forward, pushing my embarrassment aside.
Pull yourself together.
A few of the other Pyros glance up curiously as I walk between them, keeping at enough distance to not get in the way of their sparring matches. When I’m a metre away from Cas, he turns around. Like he can sense I’m there.

And he gives me his most unfriendly, antisocial look. “You,” he says, without emotion.

What?
My jaw drops as my heart plunges in my chest. He’s looking at me like I’m a stranger.

“Excuse me?”

“What do you want?” he says, swapping his weapon hand. There’s a flash of black on his wrist. The new mark Jared put on him.

A horrible suspicion rears its head. Is Jared controlling him? Is that why he let me come and talk to Cas, knowing it wouldn’t do any good anyway?

But he seemed in his own mind in my visions…

I swallow. “I came to find you,” I say, conscious of the others listening in. “Guess I’m a new recruit.”

“Good for you.”

A pause. “Not got anything to say?”

“Guess not,” says Cas, turning back to the dummies.

I expect to hear someone laugh, but there’s silence. The others continue to practise fighting. Cold fear washes over me. They could be spies. We can’t talk here. Cas doesn’t look at me, giving no clues about whether he’s thinking the same.
He’s not Jared’s. He can’t be.

“Have fun, then,” I say, and turn my back, leaving the hall with as much dignity as I can muster.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I spend the rest of the day in my room, thinking hard. Every time to leave, my path’s blocked by a guard, and I honestly can’t find the energy to fight. I came here to find Cas. I never should have walked right up to him in front of everyone. I need to get him alone.
Idiot.
I was so relieved to find him alive, but with Jared’s spies on every corner, we’ll be lucky to have a conversation without being caught.

Guilt over Nolan stabs at me, and I can’t help thinking of the rest of the group, vulnerable to Jared’s manipulations. Even if Jared leaves them alone, the regular fiends apparently aren’t scared to go near headquarters anymore. It’s not like I have a way to contact them from here. Murray never had a phone, even if Jared does.

I let everyone down.

Moping won’t do any good, so I start running through training exercises, always keeping an eye on the door. A guard brings me food at one point, a sloppy kind of stew which has nothing on the food at headquarters. It’s probably all I’m getting. I’m good at imagining I’m eating delicious home cooking instead of road kill, anyway.

Time passes.

It’s starting to drive me mad not knowing what time of day it is. Obviously, there’s no sunlight, and no clocks, either. I’m not tired, but I rarely have been recently, certainly not since finding out I was Transcendent. Sleep is an option. And I want to be on my guard.

I miss my dagger. Not just because it’d offer me some kind of defence, but the weapon was bonded to me. I feel its absence in a way I never expected. I pretend it’s in my hand, mime fighting a fiend. An engineered one, with wings. I can’t believe I let those get the best of me like that.

If I’m to take down Jared, I’ll have to learn to fight them.

But is it what I want? To fight him
and
the fiends? It’s too much for one person to cope with. Especially as I didn’t know I was anything special until a few weeks ago. Fighting for humanity is one thing, but fighting another human isn’t something I ever expected to do. The other Pyros are essentially human compared to me. People who chose his side.

He didn’t even mention that I stabbed him before
. Like I could ever not be suspicious of this situation.

But Cas is here. He’s the reason I left headquarters, and the reason Nolan died. There’s no way he’s under Jared’s spell. He must have been putting on an act.

I have to get him alone.

***

Another day passes before Jared comes to see me again. The guards bring me food at intervals and occasionally swap places with others. Guess they can’t stand out there indefinitely. The real question is, what
are
they? Human, or fiend, or lab-grown monstrosities? Is there no depth to which Jared won’t sink?

Stupid question.

I nearly jump out my skin when I glance up from contemplating a crack in the wall and see Jared standing beside the door. He gives me his usual insincere smile, and walks in, handing me something. My dagger. He’s giving me my weapon back?

“Don’t give me that look,” he says. “I’m not tricking you, Leah. You’re a Pyro. You and your weapon are bonded. You’re only half a person without it.”

What’s he saying? I turn the dagger over, somewhat comforted by its familiar weight, but the memory of sticking it in Jared’s chest rushes back without warning. I meet his eyes then turn away, convinced he’s thinking the same.

“Well? Are you ready to come to the training hall?”

“You’re going to train me?”

Jared laughs. “You won’t be much use sitting in your room, will you? Come and meet the other novices. You might even make a friend.”

I don’t want to make friends with Jared’s minions. Where’d he even recruit them from? Are they all traitors, or has he been seeking out new Pyros, like Murray was, and brainwashing them?

Cas isn’t in the training hall. Undaunted, I take my dagger and practise a few moves on the dummies. I sever imaginary heads and deal fatal blows, the dagger whistling through the air, and it’s some minutes before I notice several people are watching me.

A rush of deja-vu laced with unexpected homesickness hits me. I hadn’t realised I was quite so attached to the Pyros, but I guess living with them was the closest thing to stability I had in two years.

I leave the training hall without talking to anyone, ignoring their stares. This is a waste of time. I could be fighting the fiends for real
.
I haven’t thought this through at all. Why did I let myself fall onto Jared’s mercy? I almost want to attack him again, just to get a reaction. He’s been entirely too calm and rational lately for an evil psychopath.

Preoccupied with my own thoughts, I walk through the corridor, deliberately getting myself lost. Maybe I’ll run into something interesting. A clue. I absently spin the dagger in my hand, admiring the way it gleams bronze-red under the lights.

“You could take someone’s eye out with that, you know.”

I stop. “Cas.”

He’s hovering outside a door, in the kind of semi-casual way that suggests he’s not supposed to be here.

“What’s in there?” I ask, indicating the door.

“Memories,” he says, cryptically. “What are you doing down here? Does Jared know you gave him the slip?”

“He left me in the training hall,” I say, with a shrug. “I figured that gave me licence to go wherever I wanted to.”

“He left you,” Cas repeats, frowning.

“Yes,” I say, slowly, glancing at the other doors to make sure we’re definitely alone. “Apparently he’s not concerned I might make a run for it. Any reason that might be? I mean, does he have fiends guarding the way out?”

“You’ve not seen?” Cas lifts an eyebrow. “Damn. You really don’t know what you’ve wandered into, do you?”

A time warp,
I want to say.
Or an alternative dimension.
Something. Cas is acting like he did when we first met, and I’m not exactly keen on being alone down here with him. Especially when I catch sight of the red-black mark peeking from his left sleeve. But he’s not under Jared’s control. He can’t be.

“Come on,” I say. “We don’t need to put on this stupid act. He’s not here.”

“Act?”

‘Oh, don’t be an idiot, Cas,” I snap at him. “What, you expect me to believe you’re Jared’s lapdog now?” Catch me letting on that I almost did believe it for a minute back there.

“I could say the same to you,” he says. “I can’t believe you’d wander in here of your own accord. No one would be that stupid.”

My jaw drops. “What the hell? I came to get you out, you ungrateful asshat.”

There—I said it.

Cas blinks at me. No longer sardonic, no longer casual. Stunned? Confused? Angry?

“You came to get me out,” he repeats.

“Yes, and I know how to stop that tattoo of yours from working.” I press on. “Murray figured it out while we were gone. My blood counters it. If I use it on yours…”

“It won’t work,” he says.

“Not on the new one?”

Something flashes in his eyes. “Who said something about a new one?”