Page 5 of Deceptively Dead

“Oh, Lacey! How good of you to finally join us!” a lightly accented male voice booms out. I know that voice and that accent. Freaking Adrian. Guess he didn’t die from his and Ben’s fight after all.Shame. “You know, Lacey, I didn’t much like Ben. He was always an overachiever, forever sucking up. But you know whodidlike him? Our very own King Jacob.” I can hear others coming out of the cottage behind him as he speaks and a cold sweat breaks out on my brow, I silently unsling my bow and arrows and set them next to me, then check my handgun is loaded with shaking hands. “And you know what else the boss likes, Lacey? He likes to make examples of people who think they can get away with treason. I like that too. I have a very graphic idea of what I’m going to do to that murderous little body of yours and I guarantee you won’t look so pretty when I’ve peeled the skin from your face.”

“Naw, Adrian, you think I’m pretty?” I call back to him sweetly, starting to get a little pissed off under all my fear and adrenalin “I never knew. Ben thought I was pretty too, but I think he looks much better now. Death really suits him. I’m beginning to think it might suit you too.” I’m surprised by the strength of my voice as I let my anger push away my fear.These assholes! I was so close! Why won’t they just leave me alone.“It must be hard, always being second place, even for death threats. I mean that’s the only reason you’re here, isn’t it? Because I killed Ben? Otherwise, I don’t think Jacob would have chosenyou.You’re second rate, my friend.” That seems to strike a nerve for old Adrian as he makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a snarl. I pop my head up and look out the car’s window at where they have spread out on the little side walk. There’s only five ofthem that I can see. I think about making a run for it back to the trees just as Adrian looks up into the tree line behind me and screams “Kill her!”

Fuck, there must be people in the trees.I tense up as I prepare for the bullets to shred through my skin, but they never come. I look back at Adrian and he seems just as confused as I am.

“I said FUCKING KILL HER!” He screams again. He doesn’t quite seem to know what to do with himself while he pauses to see if the tree shooters will obey this time

I, on the other hand, am going to take this unexpected opportunity. I shuffle to the bonnet of the car then kneel and take aim at the Knight that’s edging his way slowly closer to me. I shoot him through the chest and manage to hit the guy next to him, too, before they all realize it’smeshooting, not their buddies in the trees. Pandemonium starts shortly after as they scramble for cover, shooting at me the whole time, I keep crouched behind the car, letting it take the shots and occasionally pop up to take a shot or two of my own when they try to move. It quickly becomes a stand-off between me and the three left standing.

“Well, well, well. Aren’t we suddenly the little fighter?” calls Adrian from across the road “I remember a time when you were such asubmissivelittle thing. So willing topleaseus, you never put up a fight then, did you? I think you liked it, Lacey. You liked it when we would hold you down and -”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP” I screech at him, popping up to take another, admittedly poorly aimed, shot in his general direction, trying to shut him the hell up. I can’t seem to stop the images that his words force into my head.The touches, the looks on their faces as they…

I’m so focused on the flashbacks that have taken hold of me that I nearly don’t see the carcass of the first man I shot lumber around the side of the car. My mind goes blank for a second,bloody hell, he was quick!I think as I desperately try to get my gun up in time. I scramble backwards away from the fresh zombie. I fire but hit him in the shoulder in my panic, he lets out that chilling scream and I hear a gun go off from the forest, shortly before the zombies' head is blown clean off its shoulders.

What the actual fuck?! Did someone just help me?!I stare towards the forest in confusion. Momentarily lost, I stand from my crouched position to get a better look. The assholes across the road must take advantage of my distraction because suddenly pain like I’ve never experienced burns down my left arm. I think I let out a scream that sounds eerily similar to that of the dead man, carrying all my pain and rage. I drop to the ground clutching my bloodied shoulder,Fuuucckk, being shot hurts!My head starts to swim and adrenalin dumps into my system, I slump next to the body of the zombie who’s now laying over my bow and arrows. I try to look at my wound, but I can’t seem to move my neck that way. When I pull my hand from my shoulder, its slick with blood. I stare numbly at my hand as black dots swim in my vision.Shit, I think I’m going to pass out. That would be such a terrible idea right now.I hear the crunch of boots behind the car and scramble to pick my gun back up, I can’t even remember dropping it. My vision starts to drop in and out and my arm is waving around wildly, I’m not going to hit shit like this, but maybe I’ll force them to kill me quickly.

I watch them step around the bonnet of the car and I fire a shot that goes wildly off course. They duck back out of the way anyway. I hear their snickers, and they say something to me but I suddenly can’t make out their words, it’s like they’re talking under water. I stare as they come for me again, struggling to even lift my gun this time. I refuse to close my eyes as they creep toward me and lock stares with a grinning Adrian. His mouth moves but I hear no sound from him, just a strange buzzing noise that’s making my head feel heavy. He’s movingslowly towards me, reaching for me. Then, for some reason, he just slumps into the door of the car. The others look at him as he slides bonelessly down the metal, as perplexed as I am for a second, while his body comes to rest over the corpse of his teammate. The moment of quiet confusion seems to last an eternity in my pain hazed state, then they swing their guns around towards the trees and fire haphazardly, clearly in a panic. I watch as one, then the other are shot down in slow motion, perfect head shots for the both of them. I must be dreaming, I think. Or maybe I already died and this was my afterlife.That’d be pretty shit,I think,because everything still hurts so gods damn much.

I think I pass out for a bit, because, when I open my eyes again a shadow looms over me. I moan a little and try to get away, that just causes me to pass out again from the pain. When I come to again the shadow is talking to someone,

“We need to take her… looks pretty hurt…. Dead coming… Die like that” I can only catch bits and pieces because my mind is floating in a haze of pain, but the voice is deep and rumbling, definitely American and definitely belonging to a man. It seems like he wants to take me with him.

“Alpha won’t like it, she’ll be a liability… okay, okay we’ll take her.” The second voice is rich and smooth as honey with a hint of a Texas drawl. Another man.

The first voice seems to have convinced the second that I should be taken with them and my brain struggles hard to tell me why that’s a bad idea. But, when strong arms slide under my legs and behind my back, it’s all too much and unconsciousness slams into me again, blissfully dragging me under, away from the pain.

Chapter Seven

When I next regain consciousness, I’m in a strange room, laying on a mattress on the floor, with a light, clean sheet draped over me. Sunlight streams through a high set window in the wall to my right. I automatically try to sit up, but nausea quickly overwhelms me, and I abort the attempt without really getting anywhere, closing my eyes as I sink back onto the soft mattress. The gun fight comes rushing back to me and my eyes fly open again, I wildly look around, but there’s no one in the room with me and exhaustion is pulling me back under already,I guess if I’m not dead yet, it can’t hurt to catch a bit more sleep…

***

The next time I wake it’s to the sound of masculine voices. I keep my breathing even and my eyes closed as I try to pretend I’m still asleep while I listen in.

“Are you sure she’s doing ok, Nate? She looks way too pale.” I recognize the deep rumbling as the voice from the tiny town shoot out, the one who argued to take me with them.

“Well, she lost a lot of blood, man, and honestly, she wasn’t in the best conditionbeforeshe got shot. It’s going to take some time. She’s just skin and bone, wounds like hers take a lot of energy that I doubt she has.” That was the other voice from before, the honeyed, Texas drawl guy.

“Bloody hell, I wonder what happened to her? Those guys were itching to rip her apart. I think I heard them say she killed a guy?” That’s the first guy rumbling again, he sounds kind of angry about the whole thing. His voice is coming from above me to the right, while the honey voiced guy was located above me to my left, near my wounded shoulder.

“Why don’t we let her tell us what happened?” a new voice speaks up, this one is a gravelly, dark voice, his words silky smooth, “seeing as she’s been awake and listening to you two for some time now…”Sprung!My eyes fly open and I grab automatically for my blades strapped to my thighs, instead I meet only skin and my left arm flares with pain so bad I end up rolling to the right and dry retching.

“Damn, girl settle down! You’re gunna ruin my stitches!” honey voice is telling me, using a tone I haven’t heard since my mother last scolded me for not putting away the dishes.

I draw a couple of steadying breaths and look up at the body that belongs to the rumbling voice on my right.Hells bells, the man is built.He towers over me, he has to be well over six foot with a broad chest and shoulders that make him look like he wrestles bears for a living, or maybe throws thunderbolts from the heavens for fun. Or both. His face is ruggedly handsome and with his dirty blond hair, beard and stormy grey eyes he looks like he just stepped out of a Mills and Boon wild, mountain man romance novel. Except that his hair is cut army style short,and his beard is closely trimmed to his strong jaw. He shoots me a small, uncomfortable smile and a little hand wave, like maybe I’m the first girl he’s kidnapped and brought to a strange place and he doesn’t know quite how to feel about it. I can’t comprehend why my brain tells me that’s cute.The main part in that sentence is kidnapped, brain. Keep it together please.I chide myself as I pick my jaw up off the floor and roll onto my back to get a glimpse of the other guys in the room, only to find my space immediately invaded by a rough cut, shaggy, blond head as it bends over my wound.

“You didn’t damage them, thank God. These are some of my best work, you know” says the honey voiced man,Nate, the other guy said his name was Nate,as he looks up at me with eyes as blue as the Caribbean seas.Dear god, I’m waxing lyrical about my kidnappers eyes! I’ve lost it. It’s official.I snap my gaze away from his apparently brain melting eyes and study the rest of his features quickly. His face is slightly more rounded than the thunderbolt gods and for some ridiculous reason he reminds me of a slightly nerdy Viking warrior. When he stands, he’s just as tall as his friend, with a slightly thinner build (emphasize the slightly). Where the first guy has muscles on muscles and is near bursting out of his shirt, this guy has a leaner build. He looks athletic and chiseled at the same time. He looks like a damn Norse god of literature or something.

Ookaay, you need to get yourself together girl, just because they haven’t hurt you yet doesn’t mean they won’t, time to stop drooling and start pretending you are not desperately checking them out!With my brilliant pep talk ringing in my head I rip my eyes from the Viking, Nate, and search out the final voice of the trio.Well, dang.My mind goes utterly blank after that, as I study the man standing at the foot of my makeshift bed. The shortest of the three, he’s still going to be able to tower over me, his dark hair is cut roughly, close to his head, just like the first guys. Hisface is all hard planes and sharp angles that give him an unreal type of beauty. It’s the type of beauty you see in sculptures of old gods; you know the really, cruelly beautiful ones. The ones that like to smite people just for daring to look at their perfect faces. His eyes are a deep chocolate brown that nearly looks black, even this close, and his frame is built like he was made solely for the purpose of female worship. Broad shoulders and narrow hips, every part of him is certainly packed with an unholy amount if muscle.Lordy, where did these guys come from?

I realize they are all staring at me expectantly and I figure I should probably thank them for stitching me up, but instead what comes out is “Where are my weapons? Who the fuck are you people?”okay, cool, guess we need to work on our manners.

“I think a simple ‘thank you’ might be a more appropriate response.” Growls the guy standing at the foot of my bed, I think I hear a touch of Southern in his voice as his lifts one imperious eyebrow.

I flinch a little, expecting more of a reprimand for my harshly spoken first words. I quickly roll my good shoulder in as far as I can and turn so he can’t get easy access to my ruined arm. I watch dark and gloomy’s eyes narrow at me and I decide to be nice for a bit, at least until I can figure out if I’m a prisoner or worse. I cast my eyes to the ground and mumble a quick explanation for my outburst. “I’m sorry, it’s not that I’m not grateful, I am, really… I think. I just don’t know who you guys are. People don’t help other people for no reason. And I think you saved my life. So why? Why would you help me?” I hold my breath and wait to see how they all react to my small stand in sticking to my original question.

“Ididn’t help you, those two did” snaps the dark-haired brooder, gesturing, I suppose, at the two guys behind me, but I can’t take my eyes off him, my instincts are telling me he’s thebiggest threat, not them “they brought you back here because you were in need of help that we could provide.” The last part is said somewhat softer, probably due to the fact that Imayhave flinched slightly at his starting tone. But who knows, I’m too busy trying to figure out what he just said and if he means his offer of help. And if I can accept it.Do I have much of a choice? My arm is ruined and I have no way to defend myself while I heal.

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