Page 106 of Wrongfully Magicked
The instant both of my palms touch the glass, the screen lights up, and code streams across the surface.
“Interesting. The infamous Corsair.” A rich male voice emerges from the speakers, his tone almost contemplative. “You are not who I was expecting.”
It takes only seconds to connect the dots. “And you must be Jackal.”
A beat of silence follows, then a deep chuckle crackles over the system. “I see we have a mutual acquaintance. I thought for sure the lovely Anita would come for Charlotte, but I guess you will do just as well.”
I allow myself to sink into the servers around my sister, but the glass immediately frosts over before I can penetrate the firewall.
“Nuh-uh, you naughty boy.” A tsk sound echoes in the room, and the humor in the voice turns grim. “Do you think you’ll be able to get to your sister before I can shut off her life support?”
Anger threatens to steal the last of my control, and I force myself to lift my hands away from the screen. The frost immediately clears so I can see her once again, and I’m able to squeeze a little bit of oxygen back into my lungs. “What do you want?”
“Oh, not much.” There is a click, then a hatch in the pod slides open, and a tray containing a syringe pops out. “If you inject this into Anita, I’ll disconnect your sister from the pod.”
“Fuck you, asshole,” I snarl at the bastard, dragging my hands through my hair as I pace the small confines of the room. My stomach churns at the thought of injecting Anita with anything from this freak.
“Aw, a moral conundrum,” he says, his snide voice holding a touch of amusement. “Do you let your sister die or inject your girlfriend with a serum that is completely harmless?”
“What do you want with Anita?” Stryker stalks toward the pod, aggression in his every step. Panic flares in my chest atthe thought of him touching the pod and accidentally killing my sister.
I hold up my hand in warning, and Stryker pauses then nods, careful not to touch anything.
“Anita was mine long before she was yours!” Jackal roars, his voice amplified so much that it threatens to shatter my eardrums.
Stryker drops to his knees, covering his sensitive ears, but he doesn’t relent. He grits his teeth and demands, “What do you want with Anita?”
“The Kerringtons break us down until we’re nothing but their minions. Anita is different.” He sounds angry, envious, and admiring at the same time. “No matter what torture she endured, she refused to relent, refused to break. I watched the footage over and over and can’t figure out how she managed it. She was even able to hide from me for over a year before I found her again. I helped her stay hidden from her family, but the foolish girl got complacent.”
He snorts at her idiocy. “Though she took precautions as a bike messenger, using special glasses so she couldn’t be seen by the cameras, she was bound to be spotted eventually.”
“They set a bomb off to capture her,” I murmur, rubbing my fingertips against my lips. Anita had been right all along. Unable to stay away, I find myself standing next to the pod once again, and my head snaps up as a new revelation hits. “You thought Anita would come for Charlotte?”
A snarl rumbles through the speakers, and Jackal is furious when he speaks. “And she would have if your sister hadn’t interfered. She thwarted every attempt Anita made to get her back, then finally faked her own death, sacrificing herself so Anita would stop.”
Jackal releases a manic laugh. “But I made her pay. She’s now trapped in the servers until I let her out.”
Silence rings through the speakers for a second. When his voice comes back, it’s almost cheerful. “You can have your sister back. I’ll even unhook her from the servers as a good faith gesture. Just take the syringe and give Anita the option. But a word of caution,” he says in a sing-song voice. “Take your sister more than a mile outside the estate without injecting Anita with the serum, and I’ll fry her brain. You’ll lose your sister forever.”
He doesn’t wait for a response. The servers around my sister power down, the pod lights up, code flashing across the surface. It only takes five minutes before the dome over the pod splits down the middle and opens.
I reach down with shaking hands and lightly trace my fingers down her cheek. When her warm breath touches my skin, tears blur my vision, and I almost miss when her eyes pop open. I still as she blinks her gorgeous blue eyes at me, then unconsciousness takes her again…and I’m trapped.
I can’t leave my sister behind.
I can’t lose her again.
Stryker doesn’t say a word as I gently lift my sister into my arms, her weight so light, she barely weighs more than a breeze. He grabs the syringe, and my breath catches. I’m not sure if I’m hoping he’ll smash it and take my choice away or not.
My sister’s life is in his hands.
My gaze meets his troubled blue eyes, then his mouth firms. “Anita will decide. As much as I want to smash the vial, it’s not our choice.”
“Excellent,” Jackal responds with a throaty purr. “I’ll clear the way for you to escape. We’re going to have such fun adventures! One big, happy family. You’ll see! But you better hurry. Stuart is at the end of his patience, and it’s usually Anita who takes the brunt of his anger.”
Any debate about what to do is gone, and we both hurry out the door.
We have no choice but to trust Jackal.
