Page 57 of Marked for Extinction
When my feet landed on solid ground, a pang of homesickness hit me. The familiar smell, the familiar tunnels. Tears sprung forth but I blinked it away before Inés made it to my side.
“It feels surreal, doesn’t it?” she said beside me.
I nodded as Carson maneuvered around us and led us down the western tunnel.
“I’ll go find Dean and let them know your back. They’ll move some people around and we’ll get you another residency. Do you need anything in the meantime?”
I didn’t like all this change while I was still coming to terms with my fucking brother being here… being their medic at that.
“Some fabrics to dry ourselves, please? And a change of clothes if you can. For me and Vik,” Inés answered.
“Yeah, you got it. You guys headed to the community baths? Maybe give me a few so I can… move some people around. Reduce the stress. And don’t worry about washing that,” he said, tipping his head to indicate the clothes we scavenged from the corpses back at the dungeons. “We’ll burn em for you. Glad to have you back Vik. It’s been… different since you were gone.”
“Wait,” I blurted out.
Amir stopped and turned to look at me.
“Take this to them. Tell them the time has come and there’s no stopping it. They can’t have ‘em. I want the skulls back.” I shoved the bag into his chest and he quickly made room, holding the bloody back away from his body.
“This shit stinks like the fucking dead.”
I chuckled. “Tell them the Reaper isn’t done. Not by a long shot.”
With that, Amir broke off in a different direction with a disgusted look on his face as he held the bag as far as possible.
“I wonder what he meant by that? Give him a few…” Inés mumbled to herself.
“It doesn’t fucking matter,” I told her.
We calmly made our way across the caverns that held the living quarters. Children ran about, screaming and playing with each other as adults cleaned their homes or put their wet laundry out to dry. Many of them gave us skeptical looks but none of them approached us.
Good.
Some of the young men patrolled the area with side arms, casting furtive glances our way. Until the kid from topside walked by and glared in my direction.
I didn’t trust him. He was up to something. He couldn't take his eyes off our combined hands and the hairs on the back of my neck stood.
“Hey, man,” he said as he came over to us. I pushed Inny behind me. He didn’t need to look at her. He had no reason to. “Hey, sorry about what happened out there. We have to be careful, you understand. Where were you guys taken again?”
This question was fed to him. I bet Otis was behind it.
“It doesn’t matter,” I answered, cutting off any further communication.
He took a step up to me, standing toe to toe. The fucker was about the same height as he sneered at me.
“I’m gonna find out if you kidnapped Inés and set this shit up. And when I get proof that you did, I’m gonna kill you myself and burn you into ashes like the rest of the bloodsuckers.”
“Not if I kill you first,” I deadpanned.
“Vik, come on, let’s go,” Inny pulled me away from the asshole and he was lucky she did. This entire place made me see red.
“You’re going to pay for taking what was mine,” he finished before turning back around with a smile. “Nothing to see here, guys, just welcoming them back and making sure they settle in okay.”
The other guards nodded their heads and patted his back as he looked over his shoulder one last time before exiting the living caverns.
I pulled Inny away from the area. I couldn’t deal with the people here. Not yet. Everyone was on my suspicion list, especially Otis.
Did he have anything to do with our capture? Why would he know the same tune? Was it a signal of some sort? If it was, does that mean there are spies hidden in Black Hollow we didn’t know about?
