Page 66 of Marked for Extinction
I ran out and quickly made my way to the passed out body on the floor and grabbed his weapon. Pulling my goggles down, I looked over my shoulder to the guys. “Take me to her, now!”
The next bomb went off and debris from the cave ceiling dusted us. We coughed as we made our way through the tunnel and away from the main areas.
“Left!” Carson called out and we followed tightly behind him.
I wasn’t familiar with this side of the caverns but I trusted my men. At least for now.
“Take the southern route, I’ll take the left and distract anyone who might be following us. I’ll meet you guys back around topside from a different exit. Vik, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he smirked and I did the same behind my mask.
Flicking my head up in acknowledgement of what he truly meant, I tapped his shoulder and bade him farewell as I continued to follow Carson through tighter tunnels.
“When the fuck were these here?” I asked, crouching down.
“They made it when you guys went missing. They were planning on making a new escape route in case something found Black Hollow out. But once the new doctor came, so did his advice on having cells in case there were enemies behind our lines. He convinced Dean and Otis of necessary torture chambers, stating that bloodsuckers knew of nothing else.”
My fury boiled. He had to have been working with Katherine. There was no other possible explanation for the timing of all this.
“What the hell were you guys planning to do once you broke me out?” I had to know. I needed to know if I could still trust him after all this or find out if this was all a ploy for something nefarious.
“Fucker, what the hell do you think? I ain’t got time for this shit and you know it. I stashed Inés with Vanessa. We’re breaking out of this place. Black Hollow is a thing of the past. They’re stuck in their own ways and it will be their downfall. I’m not about to be part of that. I sure as hell not going to let Vanessa and our unborn child be a part of that.”
Fuck. He made himself a little family. While I was gone, life moved on in Black Hollow.
I wanted to be able to do that for Inés. I wanted to keep her safe and give her the hope she deserved in this God forsaken world of ours.
In order to do that, we needed to eliminate all threats… and that included Black Hollow and my bastard brother.
Soon, the tunnels forced us to crawl on our stomachs in order to make it through. After about ten minutes the tunnels opened up enough for Carson to turn himself around and shoot his foot out against the end, popping a wooden door open and bathing us in blinding light as dust coated our throats and faces once more.
Fanning his face, Carson turned and elbow crawled to the other side while I followed suit. When we got back to our feet, I could hear the cries.
“Where is he? Why are you keeping me here? I need to get to him. Let me go!” Inés cried out in distress. The sound of her voice felt like a serrated knife to my heart, worse than any of the tortures I had been put through.
“Inés!” I called out, running toward her voice.
It was a small disheveled shack hidden behind the cusps of trees. She screeched and I ran faster, holding onto the rifle tightly.
“Fuck, wait up. Let me warn—” Carson’s sentence was cut off when the door slammed open with a loud crash and a wet-faced Inés frantically looked around as if she was running for her life. The moment she saw me, she sprinted in my direction.
Quickly strapped the gun around my back, we collided in a tangle of limbs, each of us checking the other over to make sure we were okay.
“Vik! What did they do to you? Where the hell did they take you?” she sobbed.
“It doesn’t fucking matter anymore,” I whispered as I slammed my mouth on hers, needing her to give me a taste of the most important life I thought I had lost.
“Guys. It’s not over yet. We’re only about a mile out from Black Hollow on the southern side. They’ll be on our trails soon enough,” Carson warned, his arms wrapped around Vanessa.
I pulled back from Inés, caressing her delicate face, wiping her tears away with my thumb before turning to look at him. “Then we bring down a rain of fire. We get them before they can get us.”
A chill swept through us with a harsh breeze and I could have sworn I heard Ares’ voice whisper…
Kill them all.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Amir camein from the southwest after a few minutes, forehead sweating with intel about how teams were being rounded up to go on the defense down below.
“I’m going back in,” I told them.
