Page 17 of The Union
I had to get out of here more than ever. I couldn’t allow Carly to perform any tests on me, although maybe she already had when I’d been out.
Suddenly, my eyes burned.
Carly squinted as she glanced up at the vents, choking.
I gagged too.Motherfucker.
Carly slid down the wall as her body went limp.
My limbs became weak as the small space spun on its axis. Then everything went black.
6
LAYLA
Iran under a canopy of trees as the rain pelted down. Sticks, rocks, and dead leaves embedded in my feet, the adrenaline keeping me from feeling any pain.
I tossed a look over my shoulder, but I still couldn’t see who was chasing me. The area was as black as the inside of a closed coffin.
Keep running, my inner voice supplied.Whatever you do, don’t stop.
I gulped in the cold, crisp night air as I struggled to regulate my breathing. A wolf howled in the distance, heightening my senses and frying my nerves. I swallowed the sandpapery feeling in my throat as I ducked under a branch, but not low enough. My forehead took the brunt of the impact, and I fell backward, my hands disappearing beneath the packed, wet vegetation covering the ground.
I scrambled to my feet, but the panic coursing through me made me stumble, only to fall on my ass again. Fuck! I sat in the sea of leaves, the rain soaking my hair and running down my face, competing with the tears leaking out of my eyes.
A ray of light shone up ahead, causing my heart to sputter and relief to stir. I pushed to my feet, and this time I managed to skirt under the branch without any problems.
I wiped my dirty hands on my wet clothes as the light pulled me forward. The minute I walked into a clearing, my jaw came unhinged. I blinked several times.
A man stood in the distance—tall, muscled, with shoulder-length black hair and green eyes lighting up the darkened sky. Butterflies took flight in my stomach.
“Sam?” I whispered, running through the squishy earth, ready to jump in his arms.
Suddenly, the terrain changed, and I was in a room with bright lights and windows all around me. The rain outside pinged off a metal railing rimming the perimeter. I inched over to one side and scanned the area. Lush green treetops spanned the landscape for miles. For a beat, I struggled to figure out where I was. When I spun on my heel, my surroundings changed once again.
The expansive room was sterile, the air cold, and I hugged myself, shivering. The lights were bright, almost blinding, but something in the distance caught my eye. I slowly walked in that direction, squinting to read the three letters within the red circle stamped on the wall. The first letter was a capitalEfollowed by a capitalM, but the third one vanished when a shiny object to my right caught my eye. My pulse went haywire when my gaze landed on a stainless-steel table. But it wasn’t the table that had me sprinting over to it.
No. No. No. My bare feet slapped against the tile floor that felt like a slab of ice. I pumped my legs hard, my arms in sync like I was running the 100-meter dash in the Olympics.
Hurry, Layla. You need to save Sam, that small voice in my head whispered.
I pushed myself harder, but it was futile. I wasn’t gaining any ground. The table seemed to be moving farther and farther away.
“Go back, Layla,” a familiar husky voice said overhead. “It’s not safe for you here.”
I came to an abrupt halt. “Sam?” My eyebrows pinched together as I glanced at the ceiling. “Where are you?” I swore it was him on that table.
“Baby doll, please, run. Run now!”
Confusion snaked through me, and when I returned my attention to the table, the body was gone.
A wave of heat whooshed over me, and I was standing in the middle of a road. Fire danced along the edges, the flames licking their way up the trunks of trees. The snap of a branch made me whip my head forward.
His black hair fell around his strong jaw. His green eyes were luminescent. His bare, brawny chest was slick with sweat. Sam held out his hand, beckoning me to him.
But my gut kept me rooted to the warm pavement. I tossed a look behind me. Fire encircled us.
“Come to me, Layla.” Sam’s husky tone made my belly flutter despite the evil grin etched on his handsome face.
