Page 69 of Rebel Fae
Arryn let took Vaughn’s offered hand. Courtney took the other.
Vaughn’s eyes locked with mine. “Can you run?”
I nodded. The pain across my back and wing was unbearable, but my legs still functioned.
“We’ll take the stairs to the garage.”
I followed him, fighting the fog that filled my head. “And then what?” I asked, unable to think of how we might get out of this godsforsaken dome. There had to be guards and spells and alarms.
He didn’t answer. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t think of a way out, who believed this was a doomed pursuit.
But we had to try. What other choice was there?
The blaring alarm was louder in the stairwell. We raced down two flights of stairs to a doorway marked “L”. We were about to go through when Vaughn paused. Muffled sounds came through the heavy metal door. Shouts, gunshots, and an acrid smell. What was happening?
We paused there for a long moment, exchanging terrified glances. Then Vaughn’s face hardened, and I could see he’d reached a decision.
I’d rather die fighting than spend another day in this place, his expression seemed to say. I heartily agreed. Setting my jaw and pulling Arryn close, I readied myself as Vaughn threw the door open, and we stepped out into the garage.
Chaos welcomed us.
A battle was raging in the large space. Several Jeeps were on fire. Bodies lay strewn on the cement floor. Shots rang from hidden corners.
How or why I didn’t know, but war was raging under the dome.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I didn’t understandwhat I was seeing. How was there a war happening inside the dome?
Yet, here it was, two sides, many shooters, bullets volleying back and forth as people took turns shooting at one and other. Concrete dust flew in the air as a bullet blasted the far inside wall. The outer wall was also poked with more dents than I could count. In it, the huge garage door I’d entered through with Karen was wide open.
People were on either side, shooting at those hunkered against the Jeeps.
But why?
As far as I knew, the only people that the dome guards should shoot at were us, but they seemed to have found other targets: a host of gunmen dressed in street clothes. A group of them hunkered down behind a flipped-over Jeep near the garage’s entrance, while others shot from the outside, taking cover on the sides of the open garage door. The dome guards themselves had barricaded themselves behind the few remaining vehicles, using their hulking frames as protection against the bullets that attempted to tear them apart.
“What is this?” Vaughn said, his eyes sweeping around.
He was asking me? I’d hoped he’d have an idea of who might be fighting against the Habermanns’ men. I scanned the battle, searching for clues and spotted a familiar face as he popped up and took a few shots before dropping behind the vehicle again.
Alonzo? He’d been a guard, the one paired with Karen when I’d been abducted. He’d also served as dome protection during our first run through New Starts, but I hadn’t seen him since. I’d assumed he’d left because he’d never seemed to enjoy his job like Karen or some of the others. But had he? If so, how was he now firing against the same guards he’d worked alongside? Surprising.
I put together other clues as members of his party darted out and took shots. Some fighters looked like vampires, and others like werewolves in human form, judging by how fast they moved. I even spied a witch casting spells from where she hunkered under a Jeep’s burnt-out carcass.
What was going on here? Had Alonzo freed some prisoners?
A bullet pinging on the wall beside us made me realize we couldn’t sit here watching everything unfold. We were in danger. At any point, one of the groups could decide we were against them and start targeting us. The little wall we crouched against no protection. Arryn was already cowering against me, and Courtney hid behind Vaughn’s expansive back. This was too much for them, and there was no way I’d drag them through that gun battle. We needed to get out of here and find another way out.
But when I turned and pulled on the door, we’d just come through, it wouldn’t budge. It had locked behind us.
I glanced at Vaughn.
“What do we do?” I shouted over the gunshots.
He shook his head, his eyes rapidly darting from one gunman to the other. But the concern and fear on his face morphed into something like recognition as he spotted someone running from one side of the garage opening to the other.
“Neil.”
