Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Alexis

Finding Blair in the vast acreage that spanned many buildings was not going to be an easy task. I did not have all night. In the back of my mind, I worried about Will and how he would have taken the news that I’d gone to seek out Blair.

There came harrowing sounds from outside of the facility, sounds that told a very familiar story. The story of violence, bloodshed, and wanton death. It could only mean that Will had finally tracked me down and would shortly make his way inside.

With the number of soldiers that were patrolling the buildings, I could use Will’s alternative to diplomacy right now.

The vents. That was my only other recourse. A facility such as this had to have very extensive ventilation. Blair might not have maintained these buildings to camouflage them better, but from what I’d seen so far, I knew that he had kept several aspects of them purposeful. He may be a madman, but there was a method to his madness.

Those chutes at the top of the roofs had ribbons attached to the railings. The ribbons were moving against the wind, signaling the functionality of those vents.

More screams erupted from outside the facility, turning my suspicion into surety. Will was out there. I had to make my way into the facility before he’d find me. If he were to see me here, he would try to convince me to go back with him. And to have come all this way without confronting Blair? I could not let that happen.

I snuck out from behind the thicket of trees and hopped up on one of the smaller buildings nearby, all the while avoiding the soldiers’ lines of sight. I wondered how it was possible that I’d gained access to the facility too easily. Could it be that Blair was secretly observing from hidden cameras, making a game out of it, wondering how long it’d take me to get to him? I knew how sociopathic he was, and I wouldn’t put it past him to do something exactly like this.

Once I’d made my way to the nearest vent, I took off its metal railing. It wasn’t going to be possible to just slip into it with the fan still spinning at its top speed. Jamming the fan would create such a loud noise that it’d attract every soldier’s attention.

If I were to do this, I’d have just a few seconds during which I’d jam the fan, slip into the vent, and then escape everyone’s notice.

I took a deep breath, picked up a thick branch of a tree from the roof, looked around me one more time to see where each soldier was, and then jammed the branch into the fan, stopping it while the branch held. It created a loud bang, just as I had suspected. Before anyone could come to the top of the roof, I dove into the vent and slipped from out of sight. Just as I had made my way in, I pulled at the tree branch inside. The fan resumed spinning, covering my tracks, hopefully.

Now, inside these old vents, I utilized my sense of direction and began crawling toward the main building. Every now and then, I peeked from the open ducts to see what kind of operation Blair was running here.

The evidence of Blair’s illicit activities was on display in every room that I looked into. The fuming beakers with neon-colored fluids and the scientists hunched over, tinkering with these dangerous chemicals, were proof enough that he was cooking up mutagens that the soldiers were being injected with.

Speaking of the soldiers, several of the rooms of this facility were converted into a makeshift mess, where, from the looks of it, they slept, ate, and spent their downtime.

I lost count of the rooms that I could see from the vents. My speed had considerably picked up as I was descending a steep slope. I did not know where I was being led, just that it was somewhere deep and underground.

I came to a sudden stop with a lot of inertia, crashing into a dead-end.

Before I had a moment to get my bearings, the vent gave way from below me, and I fell through, crashing on my back in a room full of soldiers. Here, there were plenty of screens on the walls, all of them showing the camera feeds from several dozen cameras around the facility. Some of the cameras were even showing footage from inside the vents.

“Fuck,” I muttered, getting up to my feet as tens of rifles were aimed at me.

“Fuck sums it up so perfectly, doesn’t it?”

There it was, that familiar voice that made gooseflesh appear on my skin. A chill ran down my spine as the soldiers stood aside, letting Blair, all donned up in heavy armor, pass through and come stand in front of me.

“Blair,” I said, nodding.

“Alexis,” he nodded back, smiling maliciously at me. “I don’t think that this is a coincidence, is it?”

“No. It isn’t.”

“Because it would be sloppy, to say the least, if this was your and your mate’s attempt at an ambush.”

“Will’s not here,” I said defiantly. “I just came here alone. To talk to you.”

“Oh really?” Blair scoffed, pointing at one of the monitors that showed Will sneaking around on the roofs of the facility.

“In my defense, I had no idea he’d follow me,” I said, rubbing dirt off my hands and my face.

“Since you’re defenseless and you haven’t attacked any of my men so far, I am assuming that you have really come here to talk and nothing else? Not even a round of fisticuffs, for old times’ sake? We both know how much you like to shift into your wolf form and go berserk.”

I was more concerned about Will and what trap Blair had sprung for him.

“No fight. Just talk,” I said, keeping my eye on the screen that showed Will leaping from roof to roof.

“Don’t you worry about him,” Blair said. “He already killed an entire squadron on his way here. I am sure he can hold his own.”

“Please, keep him out of it. I just want to talk to you about all of this craziness,” I said, trying to make him see reason. I needed to make sure that I’d exhausted the route of rationality before Will, the werewolves, and I retaliated.

“Craziness? What craziness are you talking about? I have tried time and again to kill Will. You very well know the reason why I’m so motivated for that to happen,” Blair said, sneering at me.

All his soldiers had surrounded him, their rifles cocked at me, the red lasers from their guns aimed at my torso. My hands were raised to show that I meant to harm, but inside my head, I was trying to figure out what tactic would serve best to take down all of those guards in a single move while also incapacitating Blair. If I could do that, I could solve the Blair dilemma forever. It would be akin to cutting the head of a dragon.

“I know that look, that way your eyes wander. I remember it from that fateful night we threw you off the roof after killing your mate,” Blair said, making a motion with his arm that caused all his soldiers to lower their weapons. “And I know you, Alexis. I know that if you really put your head to it, you will do something that might jeopardize my mission here.”

“As I said, Blair, I’m not here to fight. I am here to avert one. If you do not back off, the werewolves won’t back off, either. We’re talking about all-out war. Are you really so reckless that you’d raze an entire city to the ground just to kill one man?”

I did not know how it happened, but at the exact moment when I’d stopped speaking, a giant pane from the roof tore off, and Will fell through, landing on his feet.

“Alexis!” Will said, noticing that I was surrounded by soldiers. “What on earth are you doing here?”

I could not respond right away, not after seeing all the injuries that were slowly healing on Will’s body. He was in no shape to fight.

“Isn’t this a sweet reunion?” Blair laughed maniacally. “Makes me reminisce about old times. How it used to be when my friends, Maurice and Ralph, were still alive. You killed them, Will. You think of me as the villain in this story. From where I stand, I see you as the person who deprived me of my father. You’re the man who brought down my friends’ business, killing them while you were at it. And if you had your way just now, you’d kill me.”

“As I should, you madman!” Will screamed.

The rifles once again went up, their aim fixed on Will’s head.

“You see that?” Blair snapped. “This is power. The power that money can buy. You best believe it that my father did not leave me empty-handed. His wealth is mine to use as I wish. And I have decided to use it for the singular purpose of wiping out the fucking Grimms. You are a scourge on this land. You, Will Grimm, most of all! Before this ends, I will avenge my father’s death.”

“Your reservations are with him alone. Why are you subjecting so many innocent people to your volatile serums? All your soldiers die, unable to stand the poisoning. Do you have no sympathy for them?” I asked, my hands raised, one towards Will to stop him from advancing and the other towards the soldiers to stop them from firing. I was standing in the middle, trying my best to defuse this situation.

“My soldiers know the price when they sign up. They’re just pawns in a larger game,” Blair said. “You may have discovered my secret lair, but that won’t hinder my plan. You see, these soldiers that keep dying, they’re iterations of an experiment that I’ve been conducting for many months now. And I will succeed eventually. It does not matter how many more iterations I have to make. With my substantial resources, I have bought the very lives of these men. Look.”

Blair grabbed one of the soldiers by the collar and pushed him ahead. The soldier stood there, just looking at all of us.

“Shoot yourself,” Blair said.

The soldier took his pistol out, aimed it at his head, and pulled the trigger, splattering blood on the wall.

“That’s the power that I command,” Blair said. “I will unleash all of these soldiers like the biblical plague. And then, when every last one of you is dead, I will rest easy, knowing my work is finished.”

“You’re crazy!” I screamed.

“Are you just now getting that?” Blair laughed again, turning his back to us and heading out the door. “Till we meet again, you star-crossed lovers. Oh, consider this your first and last warning. The next time you trespass will be the last.”

I looked at Will, who was in no position to fight, then at the soldiers. For a moment, it seemed that all hell would break loose. But then, the soldiers lowered their guns and receded out of the room in a formation, leaving us both standing there, the air heavy with silence and tension.

“What were you thinking?” Will glared at me, his eyes fierce and aglow.

“Not right now. Not here. Let’s get out of here. You shouldn’t have come after me. Look at yourself; you’re injured!” I said, putting his arm around my shoulders. I helped him out of the room, trying to keep out of sight of the soldiers.

“This was completely reckless, Alexis!” Will snapped.

I had no energy to argue with him, not while I was holding his weight on my shoulders. As much as I knew he was angry at me, and as much as he was injured, I was secretly glad that he had come.

It went to show how much he cared.