Page 72 of Captured Immune

When we finally arrive at the elevators, Ruby presses theupbutton as Arella’s head droops backward. My heart collapses into my stomach. I can’t tell if she’s breathing.Oh, baby, please be breathing!

Pixie must read my mind, because she places two fingers against Arella’s neck. “She’s alive. Just knocked out.”

I let out a breath of relief.

Ding!

As we step into the elevator, I expand my empathy up and out. “There’s a group of people in the security room. I can’t fight them off with my arms full.”

“It’s the other ZIRDA agents,” Ruby says as the elevator closes then rises. “After the battle down here, we told the ones who were still alive to guard the entrance. Don’t let anyone in or out, and detain Victor on sight—those were their orders.”

The elevator reopens, and we’re greeted by three men armed with lightning balls. They close their hands the moment they see Pixie and Ruby.

“Is this the guy?” one of them asks.

“Yeah,” Pixie says, “and we’ve gotta help him protect this Ordinary at all costs.”

At an instant, the men surround me like they’re the Secret Service and I’m the president—or, more specifically, Arella is.

The women lead me into the security room, where a group of bloodied-up men and women are gathered around the monitors. Sadly, there’s no more than twenty of them.Is this really all who’s left?

Lifelessly leaning against the corner is that security guard with the eyebrow scar. He’s bleeding out from a deep wound in his chest.

Pixie hooks a thumb toward the guy. “Did y’all make sure he was a Royal before ya offed him?”

“He was definitely a Royal,” a familiar voice says from behind me. “He was one of the men who kidnapped the Ordinary and brought her here.”

I spin around to face Katie. She’s got a bright red mark on her cheek where I punched her. I still feel bad about that.

“What if the dude only kidnapped the Ordinary under Victor’s orders?” Pixie asks. “Victor could have fed him some bullshit to get him to do it.”

Katie arches a brow at her. “If anyone from ZIRDA gave you orders to drug and kidnap an innocent Ordinary to bring here, would you have done it?”

“Hmm. Point made. Now what about this guy?” Pixie points at the other security guard duct-taped to a chair. It’s Carlos—with some duct tape around his mouth too.

“We weren’t sure about him,” Katie says. “That’s why we detained him instead.”

The gray-haired man shakes his head and mumbles something under the tape. His emotions tell me he’s scared shitless. Is he scared because we suspect he’s a Royal and might kill him, or is he scared because heisa Royal and we’ll kill him? Hard to tell.

“Listen up, guys!” Pixie shouts. “We’ve gotta help Trey get this Ordinary outta here. Ruby and I will leave with him to help keep her safe. We could use at least two more while the rest of you stay here and guard the base. Who’s got the best gifts to come with us?”

A slender Black man in the back raises his hand. “I have enhanced speed.”

Pixie flashes him a thumbs-up. “Thanks, Dash. Anyone else?”

“I want to come,” Katie says. “I have the power to?—”

Errr! Errr! Errr!A high-pitched alarm goes off.

“Incoming!” a blonde woman shouts with her attention on the monitors. “Looks like ten. Maybe fifteen. They’re being ported in next to the waterfall.”

The group shouts over each other at the same time.

“They’re running through the cavern!”

“What do we do?”

“What if they’re on our side?”

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