Page 34 of The Dawning
Lightning shattered the sky, throwing me out of my reverie, and I jumped a mile when the clap of thunder boomed. I was afraid to think of what would come next. If my dream was playing out right before me, then I was in for one death-defying ride.
I scanned the grounds below. The fortress was exactly like Gary Hutchins had warned me it was—high cement walls that seemed impossible to penetrate, although C4 would do the trick.
As much as I knew Sam would do the impossible to rescue me, I had to start thinking of my own way out. I was confident Sam wouldn’t fail—but I couldn’t shake the thought of the chip in his head.
Screaming wasn’t an option. On the way up to this room, I noticed that the guards wore earplugs. The security panels posed a problem. Unlocking a door required a pair of eyes, not fingerprints. It was easier to cut off a thumb than gouge out an eyeball.
The door to my room opened. “Ma’am,” Barnes said.
I could see the blond giant’s reflection in the window. The man was tall and burly, and the black uniform golf shirt he wore was entirely too small for his chest. He was the guard who Noah had handed me off to. The same one who’d bitten off Noah’s head for manhandling me like I was some sort of river rat. I wondered if Barnes could be a friend or if he was a die-hard foe.
He set a tray of food down on a metal table near the bed. “You should eat.”
I should but couldn’t. My stomach felt queasy, and I was craving blood more than food at the moment.
“Take it away,” I said, not turning around. “It’s making me want to gag.” Whatever was on the plate smelled rotten.
His boots scuffed the tiled floor as he approached, looking at me through the reflection in the window. “You should also change out of those damp clothes. You’ve been in them for hours.” He sounded like he cared.
I pivoted on my heel and swayed.
He reached out and steadied me. “Please, you need to rest.” He guided me over to the cot that had a thin mattress and a flat pillow.
I didn’t protest, yet I was afraid that if I sat down, I wouldn’t be able to get up. Or that if I fell asleep, I would wake up on a table in a lab.
Once I was seated, he picked up the clothes from a chair by the door and set them on the bed. “You’ll need to change into these before I take you to Carly. She doesn’t want any dirt in the lab.”
I full-on laughed. “Fuck her. If she wants me to clean up, then she can tell me herself. And I want to talk to my sister Rianne.”Or murder her.
Not that she could help me, but my curiosity was boring a hole into me, and I wanted answers. I had to know if she wasn’t human anymore. Not that I could reverse the process or do anything to help her. As many times as I’d tried to reason with my stubborn sister, she never listened. I was smoking dope if I thought she would now. I’d asked Noah several questions on the way here, and my asshole cousin only laughed and followed up by saying, “All will be revealed soon enough.”
I rubbed that pesky knot on my lower back. “How long have I been here?” With no phone, watch, or clock in the minimalistic room, I had no idea.
“About ten hours. Give or take,” he said.
Sam had to be close to arriving at the ranger’s station. Unless the fucking storm delayed flights. I didn’t think Sam would drive. Flying was faster. If I knew Sam, he would take the fastest route.
“Do you know if a lady by the name of Rebekah was brought in after me?” I’d heard her yelp right before I’d run into Rianne and Noah. “What about my grandmother, Harriet Aberdeen? Is she here?” Noah had said Granny was in charge, but that didn’t mean she was on-site. She could be in a hospital close by if what Sam had said was true and she’d collapsed for some reason. Heart attack, hopefully.
Barnes studied me, seemingly debating whether he should tell me all the secrets inside these walls.
I gave him a sad smile, hoping he was the type to feel sorry for me.
He had opened his mouth to speak when footsteps clamored in the hall.
Rianne marched in like a soldier ready for war.
Let the games begin.
No matter how tired, angry, depressed, and worried I was, it was time to do battle with words rather than fists. Or maybe fists would come later.
Regardless, my jaw hit the floor as the air left my lungs.
She had a dagger in her hand and was pointing it at me. “If you scream, I’ll gut that baby right out of your stomach.”
Barnes slid between Rianne and me, his large frame blocking me from the woman who was no longer my sister. “Ma’am, I would put that weapon away.”
“Barnes, get the fuck out,” Rianne barked.
