The call cut off, leaving only silencebehind.
Jamie wasn’t a precog, but his instincts had been honed by war for over a decade. Every single one of them was screaming athimto—
“Brake!” he barked out, the word tearing at histhroat.
Larson slammed on the brakes without questioning him, everyone lurching forward against their seatbelts. The strap locked tight and dug in hard against Jamie’s shoulder as he braced himself against the dash. They’d been about to cross through an intersection, traffic minimal because of detours and police presence, when a van sped through from the opposite direction, running the redlight.
The vehicle drove past at high speed, nearly clipping their front bumper. The world slowed down in a surreal way, mind sharpening in the way only a battlefield could enable, as the van careened down a narrow street toward a line of riot police and the protesters shouting to beheard.
Jamie watched, a shout of warning dying on his lips, as the riot police and protesters reacted too late to the threat barreling toward them. Even if they had a warning, it still wouldn’t be enough to outrun the devastation that followed when the van exploded with a deafening roar. Fire, smoke, and shrapnel burst intothesky.
Amidst the explosion, Splice rained down on the unsuspecting crowd, altering the trajectory of their livesforever.
12
DangerClose
Sean was in that strange,floaty headspace where everything happened at a distance. The agony that stabbed through his jaw every time his tongue touched the exposed nerves in his mouth or air blew over the raw holes where teeth used to be felt muted. The dress shirt he wore was ripped open down the middle, exposing his heavily bruised torso streaked with dried blood. Moving even just to shift position slightly made bile crawl up his throat that he struggled to force back. He’d vomited enough already, the smell of it mixed with urine almost normal at thispoint.
Worse was the numb feeling throughout his body, filling his skin, that stemmed from trying to break through the Faraday cage. Sean didn’t know how long he’d spent struggling to reach for his power through the synaptic-disrupting barrier erected around his brain. For all the hours he’d fought against it through watching Alexei get tortured and being tortured himself, Sean hadn’t been able to succeed in circumventing theFaradaycage.
He needed to. God, how he fuckingneededto.
The sound of something heavy being dropped on the floor made Sean flinch. He worked to blink open his one good eye, his eyelashes stuck together by dried blood from the deep cut above his left eye courtesy of Cillian’s handgun. The light in the basement room made him wince, aggravating the migraine that had taken up residence in his brain over the last however manyhours.
“Cillian said to water you while he oversees the test run upstairs. Figured we could have some funwiththat.”
Just the thought of water had Sean licking at his swollen, cracked lips, gagging against the pain that streaked through his jaw. They’d been given water only once before, but nowhere near enough to quench his thirst. Staring at the large, sealed canister of water sitting beside Alexei’s bruised feet and the towel draped over the man’s shoulder, Sean’s stomach immediately tried to crawl up his throat. He gagged, eyes watering as air cut over the holes inhisgums.
A test run only meant one thing for Cillian, and that was seeing how a new type of bomb worked in thefield.
But Sean couldn’t worry about that, not right now. He wasn’t in any position to stop whatever Cillian had planned. All his attention was on the way the man carrying out Cillian’s orders punched Alexei in his bruised-black stomach in an effort to wake him up. Both of Alexei’s eyes were mostly swollen shut, but the broken-sounding moan he let out was enough to satisfy the man as to his level ofconsciousness.
Sean wanted to scream at them to stop, had been wanting to beg Cillian to leave Alexei alone for hours now, but the words never came, even now. Cillian’s order to stay silent or add to Alexei’s suffering was like a vise of sorts gripping his vocal cords and chaining his thoughts. Sean clung to silence with the will of the desperate after he’d lost some of his teeth and couldn’t hold back his screams, resulting in him choosing Alexei’storture.
Sean didn’t know if he’d ever get over being responsible for the pain Alexei had suffered through. He didn’t know what Alexei would think of him after this was over—if he’d even want Sean around at all—but Sean knew the guilt would nevergoaway.
“You watching?” the man asked as he shoved Alexei’s head back and wrapped the towel around his face. Alexei barely fought him, a testament to how worn down he’d become in their time down here. That, more than anything,worriedSean.
The man smirked when Sean didn’t respond, the hardness in his eyes unchanged. He’d been one of the few Cillian had allowed to work over Alexei and Sean when the mood struck. Alexei had taken the brunt of the beatings and the torture, insulting and mocking and pissing Cillian off enough that the Irishman focused his rage on Alexei ratherthanSean.
All so Sean wouldn’t be hurt as badly, so he could try to get them out ofthismess.
Real good job there,Sean thought disgustedly, hating himself for his personalfailure.
Looking at Alexei now was difficult, but Sean knew he couldn’t look away without making things worse. Though how much worse things could get, he didn’t know. He watched, numb and tired and aching in a way that left him feeling hollow, as the man bent over to pick up the watercanister.
Sean knew what was coming. He knew how thisprocesswent.
“Come hold his head steady,” the guy said, waving a hand at the guard in thecorner.
“One of us needs to stand watch,” was the lazyresponse.
“For what? These fuckers aren’t going anywhere. Get over here and helpmeout.”
The man in the corner came forward to assist, no hesitation beyond his initial, meager protest. Cillian had set the tone from the beginning with a careless, casual cruelty that had left Alexei maimed in ways Sean could only hope a regen regimewouldfix.
Cillian had left only the two guards down here, a downgrade from the initial four or five he’d had in the beginning. The Irishman had pulled more and more people from guard duty to work whatever job consisted of the test run, while the last two helped continue what Cillian hadstarted.
