I open the door onto Noel, who’s glaring at me.
“You took long enough,” he spits out.
I ignore him. “Why am I here? Are you going to kill me?”
He shrugs and pushes me toward the main part of the cabin.
“Where are you taking me?”
He’s standing behind me, still nudging me to my seat,resolutely ignoring my question.
I whirl around. “And what do you mean, Gabriel doesn’t know?”
Finally, he lets out an exasperated sigh.
“Guess it’ll be easier this way,” he grunts, half to himself.
He takes the gun that’s been hooked under his belt, and points it at me.
I barely have time to register the threat before he lifts it up and brings it crashing down on my head.
5
Damien
“What the hell?”
I spit the words out before I’m fully awake. Someone’s got a metal knife pressed to my wrists, and I fully expect him to plunge it into me, snapping the veins that could make me bleed out in a second. Instead, he tugs at the ropes that chafe at my skin, and I realize in that moment that my ankles are already free.
I scramble up, ignoring my limbs protesting in pain, and the cracking noise that tells me I have more than a few broken bones.
Logan.
I breathe a sigh of relief to see him sitting on the ground, his eyes gazing straight in front of him in shock, before the dull pain of his recent betrayal awakens once more in my heart. I tear my eyes away from him and note that Vincent is also still alive, though lying on the ground, whimpering in pain. All around us, the guards are either groaning, struggling to remain conscious in spite of their injuries, or dead. Then I notice that several of them have been fully spared. Yet instead of trying to stop me from getting up, they’re merely watching me calmly.
Aaron is knocked out, but I’m pretty sure he’s still alive.
In one corner of the room, Gabriel lies on the ground, his left arm blown off. I can tell he’s still breathing, but for the moment he’s stunned.
Good.
He’ll die a terrible death, maimed and bleeding. I could have made him suffer more, but I’m fully aware that I’m not currentlymaster of my own fate.
I turn back around, suddenly wondering who just freed me, and why the surviving guards aren’t trying to subdue us. My heart nearly stops when I see Elias standing in front of me, holding the remnants of the rope in one hand and a knife in the other.
“What thehell,” I say again.
He gestures at us to follow him. I hesitate, though I’m conscious that whatever awaits me with him can’t be worse than our fate if we stay here. Logan is standing now, and he goes over to Vincent, helping him up. Then they follow Elias out before I’ve even made up my own mind.
I go after them, cursing the three of them under my breath.
Elias leads us out through a number of deserted hallways, all made of stone, our steps resounding on the floor in a way that chills me to the bone, in spite of the sticky warmth of the jungle that pervades the place. It’s like a mausoleum, and I wonder if I’m going to die here, like my pet died in her hole.
But Elias leads us down a flight of stairs to a garage, where a Jeep is parked in wait. He slips in the driver’s seat, and the three of us crowd into the back. I can’t help but sink into the leather seat, my body giving out despite my determination.
“You made this easy for me,” he comments as the engine roars.
He pushes a button on a remote control and a metal wall slides up, letting us out. Elias drives through a bramble of weeds, and I’m uncomfortably aware that even the thick stone walls that encase this place can’t keep out the jungle. It’s all around us, looming darkly, suffocating.
