Page 37 of Rebel
He loomed over me, his breath rancid, his face twisted in pained desire. He wanted me. Still wanted me, but he hated me too. Wanted to hurt me. He was fucked up, and I was at his mercy.
His hand crawled up my side, sliding up to cup my breast while the other tugged at my shirt, pulling it up.
Don’t beg, don’t plead. He wants you to break.
And then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he slid off me, hitting the ground with athump.
Lore stood, cuffs dangling from one wrist, hair mussed, clutching a syringe. A bruise decorated his forehead where the guard had hit him.
A sob broke from my throat.
His expression hardened. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
* * *
The ties on my hands were loose, and Lore was back in his chair faking that he had the cuffs on.
“Hey!” he called out. “Hey, your boss is down.”
Two guards came running into the room, and both headed straight to Marick’s prone body on the ground. It was only a split second of knee-jerk reaction on their part, but enough to give Lore and me an advantage. I kicked out, catching the crouching guard in the head, and Lore attacked the other one, wrapping an arm around his throat. I leapt off the gurney and punched the recovering guard in the face hard enough to cause a crunching sound. He went down and didn’t get back up.
The guard in Lore’s grasp clawed at Lore’s arm, but then his eyes rolled back in his head as he passed out.
I stood by the gurney, chest heaving. “What now?”
Lore headed to the door. “Coast is clear. We find the others, and we get off this planet.”
“How?”
“We steal the shuttle.” He gathered a couple more capped syringes and shoved them in his pocket. “At least Marick arriving scared off the creatures. They even killed a couple with their guns, or so he claimed. They got the generator going again. He has a mechanic with him.”
“But he caught the guys?”
“Rounded them up and shoved them under guard in the kitchens but brought me here. His medic didn’t have a clue what to do with you.”
I grabbed a scalpel. “Thank God you were here.”
Lore slipped his hand into mine. “I won’t let him hurt you, Rogue. I’ll kill him if I have to.”
He could have killed him. Injected him with a lethal dose of something, but he was a medic.Do no harmwas the human motto; Athion was probably something similar. He’d incapacitated the guard rather than kill him too.
“You won’t need to kill him. I will.” I hovered over Marick with the scalpel. This was my chance. I could end him. But killing someone who was helpless wasn’t the same as self-defense.
I wasn’t a murderer.
“Fuck this. Let’s just go.”
The corridor was deserted, but then the sound of gunfire echoed up the staircase to the left.
“The guys!” I broke into a sprint.
I clambered down the stairs to the first floor and then backed up as bullets whizzed past my head.
“Rogue, stay back!” Xavier called.
“Come out, and you won’t be harmed,” another voice said.
“Fuck you!” Vex called out.
