Skin Deep (31 page)

"Don't turn your back," Logan muttered. But even if Anjelo could have heard it, it was too late. He was in no position to see the oversized thug who crept up behind him. All Logan could do was watch as the guy hit Anjelo square on the back of his head with the butt of his pistol.

Logan examined the darkened building for what seemed the hundredth time, hoping the boy would manage to wake up and get the hell out of there. He sighed and let the scope fall onto his chest with a small thud.

"You have got to keep the volume down on those sighs, Logan. The bad-guys will certainly hear us with the racket you are making." Logan glanced at Jess who'd broken through his silent moment of self-recrimination. Anjelo had refused to listen and had paid the price by getting himself caught. There was nothing he could do about him right now.

Logan muffled a groan. "The stupid boy. He just got himself caught.

Jess stared off at the house, her face washing over with concentration. "I can barely sense him now," she spoke quietly, still trying to get a psychic bead on the kid. "He is unconscious, but alive."

"Stupid, impatient, idiotic-"

"No point in cursing at the child. He meant well." Jess and her wisdom again. "Backup has arrived – about a dozen operatives. Everyone is ready to move on your order."

"I just want to get the whole thing over with." Logan wasn't afraid to admit it. He glanced at his watch. "I'm only waiting until Kailin's brother gets here."

Hard to believe only a few hours had passed since he'd watched Kailin being abducted. Anjelo had run all the way to the house, not far behind Logan's bike. Logan's first instinct was to tell Anjelo to stay back. But his search for Lily had drawn a blank. And Logan had seen the condition of Kailin's loft.

Logan was seriously pissed off at himself. How could he have left her alone when he knew she was in some sort of danger?

"That girl's been a walking bulls-eye for the last couple of weeks. I'm amazed she stayed breathing this long." Logan shook his head. "I should’ve been more careful. More observant."

Being a Walker certainly seemed to have helped her stay alive. No Human could’ve withstood the amount of injury Kailin had been subjected to without needing some serious therapy.

The distant throb of a motorcycle announced Iain's arrival. A few minutes later he loped into the bushes and sank down beside Logan. Calling Iain hadn't been easy. He'd made the call only when he'd arrived at the house and hidden himself in the bushes. Kai's brother had taken the news that his sister had been abducted with a dangerous calm. And all he'd said was he wouldn't be long.

"Which one of you is Logan?"

Logan turned to Iain; it was high time they were introduced. "That would be me." He nodded and offered his hand.

What he faced was a bristling, highly charged Walker, and for the first time in a long while he felt his life may very well be in danger.

And, he looked straight into the face of a man whose image dragged memories out from his past and brought to his nose the scents of smoke and blood and death and anger. The anger his own.

Iain in turn watched him with unadulterated suspicion mapping his craggy features. The Walker's shoulders tightened as he scanned Logan's face.

Logan, on the other hand was thrown back into his past. Into memories of one horrible day in his life which would forever be a day of mourning. Because it was the day his power had gotten free. When he had lost control completely
. Irrevocably. He could never bring back the people he killed.

Again he smelled the burning, the acrid smoke. Heard the screams of terror and pain and of grief.

He remembered the man who now stood before him. Younger, less lined. Happy.

Logan remembered the day he killed Iain's wife.

***

Now, Kailin's brother sat next to him, waiting for an explanation he had no intention of giving. None of this situation was his fault so why the hell was he feeling so guilty?

"What's happening?" Iain's voice was low, strained.

"Anjelo's done a runner - straight into the lion's den. Idiot kid." Logan shook his head and passed the scope to Kailin's brother. "There was some movement earlier, but nothing in the last thirty minutes."

Iain waved the scope away. "Thanks, I'll pass. My eyes are good for the dark. Unless this thing can see through walls?" Logan eyed him, but all he could see was a faint yellow glow. Nothing distinct to highlight Iain's now feline eyes.

Jess's recon had revealed a large basement beneath the building. The house had been built on a slope, and the basement had one brick wall facing the back-yard. This was the teams way in. Logan flicked the strap of the night-scope, officially concerned for Anjelo's safety. They needed to move now
; it may mean saving the stupid kid's life, not to mention Kailin’s.

Niko's guards shoved and pushed us from the room. Niko followed in silence. The trip down the rickety wooden stairs to the basement, with its dark stairwell, had proved more hazardous to Lily than I.

Her feet worked against each other and she'd fallen halfway down. The guards cared nothing for her well-being and dragged her the rest of the way, her feet bumping each riser as they went. I, on the other hand, had let through my Panther sight.

Greer had followed the horde to the basement lab, lagging behind the troupe of captors and captives, as if unwilling to get too close. She seemed more interested, than concerned, for my welfare. I refused to allow myself to cry - changed the course of my thoughts and concentrated on examining every nook and cranny of the lab, in case I was able to identify an escape route.

Four glassed in cells lined the left hand wall. The guards threw us into separate cells, slamming the glass doors shut behind us. Niko walked to us, the dull tap of his heels echoing in the clinical room. He stopped a hands-breadth in front of Lily's cubicle and smiled.

I watched his self-congratulatory smirk while locked behind a fat layer of glass
.... Helpless. Fuming.

Lily lay on the floor, right where she had been thrown. Her cell was so tiny her outstretched feet brushed the door, while her right arm flung before her, was bent at the elbow and crammed against the rear stone wall. It was little more than the size of a coffin and just as terrifying.

The lab, a sterile, clinical floor-to-ceiling white gave me the creeps. One usually associated white with cleanliness and professional care. But in this particular instance, white represented calculated cruelty.

Niko called over one of the guards, he of the fetid jerky-chewing breath. The guard disappeared, soon re-appearing with a dead-weight bundle slung over his meaty shoulder. Anjelo.

The guard bent forward and Anjelo flopped onto the ground, and was dragged and tossed into the cell, where he landed on top of Lily. Niko was one manipulative bastard. He knew Lily and Anjelo were in a relationship, knew she cared deeply for Anjelo. It seemed he intended to toy with their emotions, like a cruel puppet master forcing them to play a scene against their will. Just for kicks.

I recalled how truly sorry Lily had been, begging me to forgive her, for giving him vital information; information leading him directly to me. So many reasons why I should truly hate her. But the ball of tears swimming in my throat was all for her, because I knew how it felt to be alone, how it felt to ache for something I would never get. I knew Niko was about to rip her heart to shreds.

I remained in the corner of my cell, feigning unconsciousness, and getting mighty fed-up of lying low to protect myself. I felt naked without my bow, but thankfully the bracelet was still on my arm. Niko and his goons had been unable to pry it off.

Its weight was solid and warm along my arm, and I wondered again what reason Grams had for giving me the talisman. Its runic carvings and heavy gold-like metal both strange and comforting at the same time. The look on Tara's face, when she ran the tips of her fingers along its smooth glowing surface, had been enough to satisfy me. I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. It was protection. But what was it supposed to protect me from? It could hardly free me from a cell.

A grunt of pain. Anjelo was regaining his faculties next door. Cracking an eye open, I watched as he dropped his weight onto an arm, while massaging his skull with the other. The next second his body stiffened. He recognized Lily's prone form beneath his legs.

Anjelo looked around. His eyes paused briefly over me and the slow deliberate blink he performed confirmed to me at least one person in the room knew I was fully conscious and faking it. He turned Lily over in his arms, as gently as if he were handling a newborn. Brushing hair from her face he placed his next to hers and whispered into her ear.

Sniggers and low laughter drifted to me and I could only assume Niko and his team found the tender sight amusing.

"Anjelo?" I heard the whisper she returned. She uttered his name again, her voice was so filled with remorse and regret that I found it supremely difficult to maintain my charade. Her eyes filled with tears as she gazed into his eyes, droplets spilling as fast as they gathered.

I felt guilty, to be able to hear this private exchange. But since Niko and Greer and all their awful henchmen were also privy to the lover’s conversation, it somehow felt right for me to be their positive support.

"I'm so s-sorry." She stumbled on the words, so hasty was she to voice them. "I shouldn't have fought with you. I was being so selfish."

"Shhhh. You don't have to say anything right now, Lil." Anjelo, wanting to spare her from baring her soul in full view of their evil captor, tried to silence her.

"All I wanted was a score. I couldn't think about anything else until I got my next fix." Tears fell from her eyes and ran down the side of her face, disappearing into the hair above her ears, as she lay in his arms. "I lied to you, Anjelo. And I'm so sorry."

Anjelo shook his head, and was about to speak when she cut him off. Now she had the chance she was going to say her peace. "I hid my addiction from you. Because I was ashamed. Of needing the drugs. Of being what I am."

Lily had been forced to keep the deepest nastiness of her life bottled up inside for so long, that now the opportunity was here, the words began to tumble out in a torrent, an avalanche of confessions and apologies which stunned her audience.

I could tell from the way Anjelo's jaw moved - up and down - like a jackhammer, only slowed down to one-tenth speed. The news hit him hard, and I knew he was deeply hurt by all the lies.

"Anjelo, I'm
...I'm Pariah."

He looked at her, confusion clouding the thousand emotions warring in his eyes.

"I can't change. Never been able to."

"I thought you didn't change because you disliked your creature?"

"I lied to you. I'm a freak, and I was so afraid you would turn me away." Lily met his eyes, fearless in the face of a final rejection. She must have felt like she had nothing to lose.

The silence that followed was pain filled, gut-wrenching. Had I not still been feigning unconsciousness I would certainly have been biting my fingernails like a chipmunk with a peanut.

But Anjelo always had his heart in the right place. It was the reason he had followed my trail right out of our colony, the reason he'd banded with Storm to form a protective group for people like him needing a home away from home. The reason he trailed both Lily and myself through the school halls making sure we were safe and unharmed.

"You don't need to say any more. I understand. You did what you had to do to protect yourself." He began to rock the crying girl, which only seemed to wring greater sobs from her. I knew she hadn't expected understanding and consideration from him. And I wondered then, about her family and how they had dealt with her defect. Did they hide it like my father had hidden Greer's and Niko’s condition, even from family? Did they manipulate her, use her, abuse her?

Whatever they'd done had made her leave her home and everything she knew. Probably, in her case, she was better off with the Devil she didn't know.

Finally she quieted. Lily looked up at Anjelo and smiled through a curtain of sleek tears. At least they were together.

Niko sneered as he watched the young couple. The muscles in his arms tensed, and he gripped them in a macabre hug. He seemed unable to control his aggravation as he stormed to the cell, keying in the code to open the door. Lily and Anjelo, startled by the sudden interruption, stared at him. Lily began to quiver again, and grabbed for Anjelo, sensing as I did, that she would be parted from him again. All I could do was watch from my glass prison, helpless. Useless.

Niko stepped into the cell and hit Anjelo at the back of his head, knocking him out. Niko caught him by the arm before he slid to the ground, lifting him with a superhuman strength. He ripped the young Walker from Lily, who tried to grab at Anjelo's arm, before stepping out of the cell. Niko sneered as he locked the glass door.

"No. No." Lily slammed her palm on the glass over and over again. "What are you doing with him?" She screamed at him so loud that she began to cough.

I rose and followed suit, shouting at my uncle, needing to know he wouldn't harm my friend. Niko spared me a glance. For the briefest moment I saw regret in those dark eyes. Then they iced over, cold and remote again. He tossed Anjelo's battered body at the halitosis-plagued guard, who stepped back to allow the unconscious boy to fall at his feet. The guard lifted Anjelo and dumped him onto the nearest gurney.