Chapter 21

KELLAN

I've never felt so free and trapped in all my life. Simone makes it easy to breathe again, and for the first time in so long, I don't feel the least bit alone. Hell, I'm actually a little fucking pathetic, considering I couldn't even manage to pry myself away from her long enough for her to finish her autopsies. Well, considering these sons of bitches were more like animals, I suppose I should refer to them as necropsies.

"Nothing on the specks," I say, pushing aside the machine that has failed me every time. I spent years under the tutelage of Clay Jude, the most brilliant scientist to ever live, and yet I can't figure out a damn thing.

"We'll find something," she says absently, and I watch with unguarded fascination as she slowly and cautiously wields the blood in the air, transforming it into simpler threads as the cells separate. It's beautiful.

"You're staring and smiling," she says, biting back a grin of her own.

There's no doubt fate really did fuck up, and thank God for Aria. I could have never accepted Simone with the ties I had to my ex-counter. But now… It's amazing how easy it has been to fall for her. And I don't feel a damn thing for Aria. Everything has turned friendly, and I would still die to protect her, but there's no sense of romantics behind my feelings toward her anymore.

"You're amazing to watch." As soon as the words leave my mouth, the smile she's been restraining slips free against her will, even though she keeps her focus on the blood and not me.

"Captain Fricks may give us Alice's location now," she says, moving the blood in spirals as she separates it again and simplifies it even more.

His name sours my good mood, and reality crashes down with the force of an avalanche. "You can't go anywhere near him. Especially since you've learned Aria's blood can't cure his wife. He'll never believe it."

Her beautiful lips turn down in a frown, and she looks away from the blood to catch my eyes. "I have to tell him. And I have to go around him to collect more blood for the emergent children. I was making a lot of progress with that."

"You weren't even supposed to messing with his wife's treatment. You were only supposed to be focused on the emergent children. If you go tell him the procedure failed, he'll do something. And I'll have to rip his throat out, making him useless in tracking down Alice."

She sighs as she turns back around to the blood, but I see the faintest of smiles playing on her lips.

"You really do care about me, don't you?"

She has to ask?

"Um… I thought I'd made that rather obvious. Don't tell me I'm already fucking up."

Her lips twitch, and her eyes come back to meet mine. She leaves the blood suspended in the air as she comes over to wrap her small arms around my neck and pull me to her a little too forcefully. When our lips collide, I grab her hips and bring her as close as possible, wishing there wasn't so much shit on the table we needed. I'd love to rake it off and fuck her senseless right now.

"You haven't fucked up. I think it's impossible for you to fuck up where I'm concerned," she whispers against my lips, smiling when her fingers start threading through the strands of my hair.

This is all I've ever wanted—to be accepted, wanted, and to feel important. It should have been Simone all the time.

"What's your span?" I ask softly, even though the question fills me with more dread than anything I've ever felt before. But I have to know.

The small smile on her lips is weighted by a touch of pain in her eyes. "I'm a little… unique. The things Ty did to my mother… Even though he didn't alter her genetic code as much as he wanted to, the things still in her body changed my genetic code naturally. It's a good thing he isn't here to find that out. To answer your question, I'm immortal. No span. Just like you."

My kiss becomes hungrier as I pull her to me, and she moans into my mouth while holding me in a way no one ever has before. In the few short weeks we've been together, she's become the center of everything.

"I love you," I blurt out, cursing myself as my eyes go wide and her body goes still.

I'm the biggest fucking idiot there's ever been.

Before she can run away, the door to the lab bursts open and she turns away like she's prepared to unleash hell on whoever just broke into her lab again. I don't know whether to thank them or curse them for the interruption.

When five men I don't know suddenly join us in the section we're in, Simone's body grows too tense.

"Who the hell are you?" she barks. "And how the hell did you get access to this lab?"

I stand up from the stool, making sure to stand as tall as I possibly can, and the electricity buzzes in my fingertips.

"You don't want to fight us right now," the guy with long, raven's hair says, stepping out to meet our gaze while ignoring Simone's question. "If you cause a scene, this facility will be blown to hell before the first person can make it to aid you."

Simone eases closer to me, putting her body against mine, and I weigh my options. If I attack, she could be hurt. I don't know if they're bluffing about blowing the facility to hell, but it's definitely risky to ignore the threat. Surely we can alert people once we go to leave the compound. I don't know how they got in undetected, but they won't get out as easily.

"Fine," I say through clenched teeth, barely keeping myself in check. "We'll go, but if anyone touches her, I won't be so compliant."

If Simone wasn't here, I'd probably risk it all. But I can't let anything happen to her.

They shuffle around us, forming a circle as we filter through the door, and Simone threads her fingers through mine. I glance over my shoulder to see the blood that was in the air moving toward the white board. Words start forming as she discreetly uses her gift to write, using the blood as ink. She's fucking brilliant.

The halls are empty, considering how late it has gotten, and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Just when I think we're about to go outside, one of the guys stops us, and he bends to peel back a hatch that was camouflaged to blend in with the floor. How the hell—

"Get in," he orders, motioning below to the escape tunnels.

Motherfucker. They planned this. The whole fucking battle was one hell of a chess move. They gathered Araya's blood under the guise of an attack, as well as they used our protocols against us. They probably had a scout planted here, so that when the alarms sounded, that scout would have been led through the escape tunnels with the civilians.

I used to be so much better at spotting traps. Fucking smart sons of sick bitches.

I refuse to leave Simone close to them without me, so I hold her to me and we drop into the hole together as they fall in behind us, gracefully thudding to the ground. When their eyes glow violet and burn through their contacts, I realize how fucked we really are. I can't take them. These fuckers are stronger than Araya's savage.

After spending centuries alone, I finally have someone who wants me, and I can't even protect her. Attacking them will only make them go on the offensive, and I'd get us both killed. I've never felt more helpless in all my life.

"What do you want from us?" Simone hisses.

They guide us down the tunnel to the back exit. They even know the fucking code to the sealed door that opens without pause.

One guy finally turns to us with a grin that could sicken a sadist. "We need bait."

To hell with this.

I push Simone back, but before I can even attempt to strike, something inside me almost feels like it's rupturing, and I drop to my knees as black specks mar my vision, dimming it into nothing.