From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) (42 page)

Ryker grabbed my arm, pulling me back the way
we came. The building had been designed with an elevator on either
end. Our feet quietly treaded over the tile. Ryker fell behind,
guarding our backs, while I weaved through the maze. Sprig held
tight, deep in my hair. I paused at a corner, peering down the
corridor for trouble, and spotted the elevator at the far end.

“Do you know where he’d be?” Ryker whispered
behind me. I craned my neck to see him.

“My gut tells me to go down.”

Ryker’s eyebrows lifted.

“Seriously?” I couldn’t fight a small
chuckle.

“I’m completely for the idea. But maybe now
is not a great time.”

“Might be your last chance.” I meant it as a
joke, but his face darkened, his eyes flashing.

“Don’t say that,” he rumbled. “You are going
to live through this, human. I want many years ahead of fucking you
senseless.”

I almost choked on air. “Well, if anything
will keep me fighting, it’ll be that.”

“And honey,” Sprig squeaked in my ear, his
backpack hitting my cheek.

Ryker’s heat bounced off my body, and it took
everything I had to turn around and focus. I examined the bare
hallway and slipped around the corner, Ryker right behind me.

My attention was trained so intently on our
destination, I missed the flare of warning teasing the back of my
neck. I stepped past an open door, when a click of a gun ticked in
my ear. Ryker instantly pointed his firearm at the assailant.

“Drop your weapon or she dies.” Liam jammed
the barrel of his gun into my temple. “I’m not kidding. Whatever
you think you can do, I will be quicker.” He spoke to Ryker,
nodding at his gun.

Ryker’s tattoo and eyes flashed. It would be
so easy for him to take down Liam, if it wasn’t for the fact Liam
held a fae gun to my head. There was no question I would die. Ryker
growled as he placed the weapon on the ground. He stared at Liam,
his expression so determined and full of hate. I felt Liam’s hand
tremble against my head. Liam walked around, turning my back to the
elevator.

“Now you.” He dug the weapon into my skin. I
bent over, wiggling my shoulder, hoping Sprig would understand my
meaning. We had done this last time.

He did.

Sprig dropped down my back, his soft fur
brushing a slip of exposed skin, and the elevator key slipped from
my back pocket. He inched down and hid behind my boot. I set down
the knife and gun I carried.

“Step back,” Liam ordered.

Ryker and I stepped away from our weapons.
Sprig took the opportunity to slip away.

Please don’t see him. Please don’t see
him.

My glamour wasn’t really working, and it
certainly wouldn’t work down here, but I still sent out the thought
with everything I had.

Thankfully Liam was too focused on me to
notice. He moved with me, keeping the gun glued to my head, kicking
the other weapons a little farther away from us.

He reached for a walkie-talkie on his belt,
putting it near his mouth. “I have the targets. Send down a team to
the fifth floor,” Liam spoke into the device, keeping us in his
sight the entire time. Someone responded on the other end. Liam
hooked the walkie-talkie back on his belt, licking his lips
nervously as Ryker growled again.

“All fluff and no bite. Not sure if I want to
laugh or throw up. A fae in love with a human. But I guess you’re
not really human anymore, are you? You two are perfect for each
other. I hated Daniel, but at least he was human. This is just
foul.”

“Shut up, Liam,” I snarled. I didn’t care to
explain to him I was now full fae. It would probably disgust him
more.

“Poor little Zoey.” A smug smile twitched at
his mouth. “Did you know most of us were on the inside the whole
time? Only you and Daniel weren’t. What does that say? Rapava knew
even then not to trust you. Looks like he was right. Both you and
Holt became traitors.”

Many confusing moments of my past made sense
now. Like the night of the storm when Rapava had me locked up down
in a level I didn’t know. The rest of them knew about it. There
were so many other things to think about then, so my brain didn’t
fix on it. But now I realized all the Collectors had been down in
the lower levels when I had been a prisoner. Only Daniel and I had
never been brought in. Daniel knew more than he let on. Even
keeping it from me. It also explained why Sera and Liam always had
that smug
I’m better and smarter than you
vibe. They were in
the cool kids club while Daniel and I were blackballed.

“Rapava has been secretly planning this.
Training an army to fight. You and your little group are going to
die. All this is for nothing. We’ve been waiting for this day for a
very long time.”

I wanted to tell him our so-called “little
group” included the Unseelie King’s private guards. But of course,
I couldn’t.

“You don’t think we weren’t prepared for an
attack from fae?” Liam snarled, keeping his weapon directed at my
head. “I just never imagined
you
would be the one leading
it.” His gaze rolled over me, his lips hitched up in repulsion.
“I’m not sure why I’m surprised. I always sensed there was
something
wrong
about you.”

Fury pushed my shoulders back, and my nails
sliced into my closed fists. I would not give him the satisfaction
of retaliating. That was what Liam lived for. To get a rise out of
me. Or Daniel when he had been alive.

“My eyes have been opened and now I see the
truth.” I turned to face him, letting the barrel of the gun hit the
middle of my forehead. “You want to hide, little boy, in your
closed, sad mind?” I pushed against the gun, letting it dig into my
skin. “Even Sera saw the truth at the end. If you really loved her,
you would not be able to handle what Rapava did to her.”

“Shut up,” Liam said, his jaw straining. Oh
yeah, I picked at a nerve.

“Zoey…” Ryker mumbled my name, but I ignored
him.

“You sat there while he tested her and let
her die a slow, painful death. Alone. All for research. What kind
of man does that make you?”

“Shut. Up!” Liam bellowed, waving his gun
around. It was a fine line between him shooting me and him breaking
down.

I glanced at Ryker. Without a word spoken, I
sensed he picked up on my meaning.

“I held her in my arms when she died, as
blood leaked from her eyes and mouth…” I sensed in my gut this
would be the last words he’d let me say. “You let her die. And
weren’t even man enough to be there for her in the end.”

I watched his finger twitch, pulling the
trigger back. In that split second I dropped down.

Bang!

The bullet raced over the top of my head.
Ryker drove into Liam, both men colliding hard into the wall. Ryker
immediately went for the weapon in Liam’s hand, but Liam was not a
small man or untrained. He wouldn’t go down easy.

I went for my own firearm and knife when the
sound of feet and shouting thundered down the hall.

Shit!

The elevator door behind me dinged. Sprig sat
on the railing next to it, stabbing at the button repeatedly, and
the doors rolled open. “Come on,
Bhean
!”

“Zoey, go!” Ryker screamed back at me as he
struggled with Liam.

A handful of men dressed in fatigues and
holding rifles came around the corner, running toward us.

“Go! Now!” Ryker bellowed.

I bobbed on my feet. Hesitating. How could I
leave him? Pain sliced my heart. I didn’t want to part from him,
leave him here by himself. But I made a promise to a little girl.
And a promise to Daniel.

And promises in my world now were not
something you could break.

I could feel the seconds between me getting
away and being taken by the throng of men coming at us whittling
away. I bit down on my lip. With a strangled cry I pivoted away
from the man I loved and ran for the elevator.

“
Bhean
, hurry!” Sprig’s face appeared
around the elevator door. As they started to shut, someone yelled
behind me. Then gunshots began to ring out. The sound of swishing
near my head told me they were shooting at me. Moving targets were
not as easy to hit, but with so many coming my way, one of them
would find their target.

“
Bhean
, come on!” Sprig chattered as
my exit narrowed. I kicked my legs faster and fell onto the floor.
It was a trick Daniel had taught me. Like a baseball player sliding
into base, I twisted to my side, using the meatier part of my thigh
and butt and skidded across the slick tile. The gun and knife dug
into my skin as this final burst of speed slid me over the elevator
entrance. I felt the pressure of the doors closing in. I whipped my
head to the side, the doors nearly snapping shut on my
ponytail.

Holy shit.

“Turtle droppings!” Sprig looked down at me
from his perch on the railing around the small space. “That was
like from a movie.” The elevator jerked, heading down again.

“Doesn’t feel like it looks in the movies.” I
groaned and sat up. No doubt a massive bruise would form along my
hip and back. “Damn, that hurt.”

“Still, it was like double-0-eight.”

“Don’t you mean double-0-seven?”

“If you want to go down a score.”

“This is going to be like aye-matey thing,
huh?” I stood, rubbing where the gun bruised my bone.

“I still don’t know who this Matty is with
the one eye, but I really need to meet him someday.”

“Sure,” I responded, but my mind was already
back with Ryker. I tipped my head forward, hitting the metal doors,
squeezing my lids closed.
Please let him be okay. Please…
The elevator dinged, jolting my eyes open again. Eighth floor.
Okay, focus, Zoey. This is it.

I pushed thoughts of Ryker out of my head and
set my shoulders back. I could feel it in my bones—the time was
here. Either I succeeded and fulfilled my promises…or I failed,
which meant I wouldn’t be walking out of here. None of us
would.

Gripping the Glock firmer, I hid in the
corner of the elevator, the buttons digging into my back. Sprig
jumped on my shoulder. The doors released, sliding open to a level
that held an abundance of horrors, nightmares, and secrets. From my
time down here, I knew the lay of the land well. But that locked
door at the end of the hallway remained a mystery to me. If this
floor was exactly like all the floors above, that meant half of it
was still undiscovered.

Rapava was here. I could feel it in my gut,
as if there were some Jedi force pulling me to him. I gulped,
setting a foot outside the elevator. No one was at their desks, but
I didn’t think anyone would be with the building under attack. Did
any of his faithful followers realize he wasn’t fighting next to
them but hid in the depths below, with the things he loved the
most—the creatures and experiments from his twisted mind?

Sprig’s claws dug into my neck as I inched us
farther away from safety. The fluorescent lights reflected brightly
off the tile, my boots lightly squeaking. Instinct made me want to
crouch and become as invisible as possible. But there were no
shadows to hide in.

And I was done hiding…from love, life,
fears…and certainly from Boris Rapava. We both knew this had been
coming for a long time. He waited for me.

I kept my weapon raised, cautiously stepping
down the corridor. Without thinking, my body drew me toward the
room where I had been forced to torture Ryker. As I got close to
the room, I noticed the door stood ajar.

“Crapple,” Sprig whispered hoarsely in my
ear.

“Crapple?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s crap and apple together.”

“Do I dare ask?”

“Apples make you crap…so crapple.”

“Yeah,” I breathed, reaching for the door.
“Double crapple.”

I pulled out the door with one hand, my other
on the trigger. Darkness encased the outer room, but the glow from
the inner one pulled my attention. The blinds were drawn, but I
could sense life behind it. It was like the day Rapava brought me
here, showing me Ryker, bound and helpless, like some sick peep
show.

Why did I feel as if it were happening all
over again? My teeth ground together, my gut rolling and bucking,
but my steps continued into the room. Sprig dug in tighter to my
neck as fear played with us like props in a haunted house.

“Zoey.” My name rang through the intercom,
halting me. “Or should I call you by your real name? Project
B-06.”

Pricks of warning ran down my arms. He stayed
behind the curtain, but I knew the glass was bulletproof. He really
couldn’t have set this up better. Sweat coated my palms, and I
tightened my grip on the gun. “Project B? What happened to A?”

“Project A’s specimens all died. You were the
second batch.” As though creating babies in a dish was no more than
making cookies.

“Why are you hiding behind the curtain? Come
out and actually face me.” I licked my lips, stepping a foot closer
to the glass. At least I knew he couldn’t shoot me from there
either. “Come on, dear old Dad. Don’t you want to see how well your
offspring has turned out? How much we love you?” I taunted. If he
wanted to claim he gave me life, and that he was my sire, then I
would let him see firsthand how I felt about my architect.

“Oh, Zoey. You could have been great. We
could have been magnificent together. But like Daniel, your true
weakness is your righteous need to be good. To be loved.
Sentimentality causes you to be soft. Family and friends only hold
you back. Limit you. I learned that lesson a long time ago. Soon
you will too.”

A buzz filled the air as the curtains rose
and flooded the outer room with light. Rapava stood on the other
side of the glass, almost exactly where Ryker had stood. He wore
his white lab coat, his silver hair and blue eyes reflecting the
lights from above, his arms loosely hooked behind his back.