Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
“They think she killed one of us.” The male shook his head slowly and winced, like any movement hurt him everywhere. “I don’t believe… it. She… saved me. She saved… all of us. Don’t know… who you are… but don’t… hurt her.”
The glistening in the guard’s eyes reflected the light from overhead.
“—Kane?”
Someone was saying his name, but he couldn’t look away from the other guard.
“She saved me, too,” he said hoarsely.
“The Wall,” the male whispered. “That’s where they’ll take her. And they’re going to work fast. You need to go now.”
“Fuck,” Apex said.
Kane wheeled around. “Where is the Wall.”
* * *
Mounted like one of those Victorian bugs set on pins.
That was what she was, Nadya thought as she stared into the eyes of the head of the guards. They were unusual eyes, with flecks of yellow in the darker base, and the dilated pupils seemed like black holes to swim in. To die in.
When the female brought her dagger up higher, the blade winked as it caught the light.
“You will spare me the pain when you kill me,” Nadya said softly. “I was defending the male I love. You lost one of your guards, but I lost him. There is justification.”
“What makes you think I care about love.”
“You are alive, not dead. That is why.”
For a moment, the female seemed frozen where she stood, even though she was such a source of power in the world they lived in, god-like in her influence.
“I will spare you nothing,” she said grimly. Then she frowned. “Why don’t you have a restraint collar on?”
“Because I came here voluntarily.”
The head of the guards laughed. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“I wanted to be of service to the female who saved my life. She took care of the prisoners, and I learned everything I know about healing from her.”
“Aren’t you a saint—”
Footfalls sounded out. Coming fast. Closing in.
Nadya turned her head as a guard shambled in from around the corner, his distraction and gait nothing like the coordination that the males usually displayed, his uniform partially untucked. There was blood on him, and it was fresh, going by the scent.
His leader lowered her knife. “Shut up,” she told him. Then she pointed the tip of her weapon to the door that was centered among the sets of pegs. “In there. Both of you.”
As she walked over to the entrance to some kind of interior, she was confident that she would be followed by her two males, and that was precisely what occurred. The door was closed smartly. It was a surprise it was not slammed.
Releasing a ragged breath, Nadya sagged, the chains that kept her on the pegs biting into her wrists. Her bad leg was aching, and her heart was skipping beats, especially as she looked down the long corridor and saw how far away the stairs were. But as if she had a chance of getting free? Even if she could pull her hands out of the steel links, she couldn’t move fast enough to get to that stairwell, and where did she think she was going? The old prison camp had been a series of underground tunnels; there had been ways to get in and out if you knew how.
This new one had locks controlled with technology she didn’t understand and certainly couldn’t get past—
Down at that far end, the stairwell door swung open, and a guard appeared, no doubt coming to report further on whatever was happening. Some kind of threat… or an escape? For a moment, she entertained a fantasy that Apex somehow got Kane out, that true medical aid was being rendered to her most precious patient. But she knew that was not—
The guard froze as he focused on her. And then he broke out in a run, coming at her with a speed that didn’t make a lot of sense. Unless, of course, it was because he had been summoned urgently.
Except… the male slowed down. And then stopped.
Turning her head away, she braced for some kind of aggression.
“Nadya…”
As her name traveled the distance between them, she was confused, and not because he knew what she was called… it was that voice.
“Nadya.”
This isn’t possible, she thought as she shifted her eyes to the guard.
What she saw defied reason. Defied everything that she knew of the way the world functioned.
“Kane?” she whispered.
The male started toward her again, his feet stumbling, but his balance was caught readily by a body well equipped to respond to any demand. And the closer he got, the clearer the picture that didn’t make any sense became. Her brain could not reconcile his mobility, the clear skin of his jaw and throat, the regeneration of his hands, his hair… with everything she knew of him and his burns.
And then she realized what he was seeing.
Lowering her head as far as she could, she squeezed her eyes shut. “Don’t look at me.”