Chance: An Action & Adventure Romance Novel (Sacrifice) (2 page)

Liza tilts her head staring down the road after the SUV. She opens her door and walks several feet down the dirt road towards the slow moving vehicle.

Unsure of what she is doing, Aiden jumps out of the car and runs up to her.
 
All at once, the SUV comes to a screeching halt, and Aiden watches as Liza’s’ body visibly locks. There is a trickle of blood dripping from her right nostril, so Aiden does the only thing he can think of and lifts the front of his t-shirt and dabs at her nose. Liza blinks once and shoos Aiden away with her hand.

“It’s just a nosebleed.  I’m quite alright.”

It was obviously a nosebleed, but Aiden can’t let it go. He has to know what the hell just happened.
  “
Liza... What the fuck is going on?”

She motions to the SUV and turns back towards the car, speaking over her shoulder. “You should go check on our friend, I’m certain he’s in need of some medical attention.”

Uh, okay?
Racing towards the SUV, I can see that there is smoke billowing out from under the hood of the vehicle. The man inside is hunched over the steering wheel, clearly unconscious. He may not have led them to the exact location of the facility but they at least know where to look now.

Aiden swings open the door of the SUV and taking one of the man’s arms.  He hoists him onto his shoulders and carries him the short distance back to the Mustang. From the inside of the car, Liza pops the trunk in time for Aiden to toss the Sapient in and slam it closed. He folds himself into the driver’s seat and glances over at Liza. “We need to chat.”

Liza smiles as she dabs at her nose with a tissue she must have had in purse. “Perhaps you are right, but later.  For now, we must get back to the compound.” Once again, she was right. Pulling back onto the main road, they drive in silence until they pull into the garage. They both slide out of the car, and walk toward the trunk.

Aiden looks up at Liza and jerks his chin towards the communication unit on the wall. “Call Takeo, get him down here, please.”

Liza nods and walks over towards the unit as Aiden pops the trunk and takes a good look at the still unconscious Sapient.

Minutes later Takeo walks into the garage.  He has an eyebrow raised in question but it quickly drops once he sees what is in the trunk. “Well, well, Brother.  We send you out for coffee and you come back with a surprise. This almost makes up for you pissing off my woman this morning.”

Aiden chuckles at the memory of Chasca's feather covered form. “Oh come on, you know that was hilarious.”

Takeo grins but that doesn’t stop him from playfully punching Aiden in the shoulder. “Funny or not, she spent so much time cleaning up that mess that she didn’t have any time left for me, if you know what I’m saying.” Of course he knew what he was saying; those two had zero problems with public displays of affection.

Aiden nods his head towards the Sapient and then looks back up at Takeo. “Ran into him in the store.  He was buying a bunch of first aid supplies. Liza says it was for an injured female.”

Takeo cracks his knuckles and stretches his neck from side to side in mock seriousness. “Well, then I guess we better get him talking then.”

Aiden chuckles softly and shakes his head at his brother. Takeo always was the first to jump at the opportunity of violence, especially when he was corrupted.

Takeo easily lifts the man out of the trunk and lays him face down on the concrete floor. He binds the Sapient's hands behind his back while Aiden binds his feet and disarms him. Takeo lifts the unconscious man over his shoulder and carries him into the compound. Aiden knows he’s taking him into the interrogation room but all he can think is that now he
really
needs a cup of coffee.

Just as he is about to pass the kitchen, Liza opens the door and hands him what he desires most at the moment. Unwilling to ask any more questions, Aiden simply takes the cup from her and smiles. Liza smiles back at him and disappears once more into the kitchen. Once he enters the interrogation room, which is just off the training facility, Aiden see’s that Takeo has taped the man to a chair...with duct tape.
And he calls himself a professional.

Takeo dumps the contents of a water bucket over the Sapient's head, successfully shocking him awake. He sputters several times and franticly looks around the room, until his eyes fall on Takeo’s’ smiling face.

“You! I know you! You’re the pathetic Neph Silas spoke of!”

Takeo doesn’t move, he crosses his arms over his massive chest and stares incredulously down at the man. “Who’s taped to a chair? It certainly isn’t me. Now, I’d mind my manners if I was you or things could get a little warm. Get me?”

Aiden shakes his head as he watches Takeo’s form of interrogation (humor and violence). Always an entertaining show to say the least. It’s not a surprise that this is effective.  Even if Takeo didn’t have any abilities, he’s still huge. If he wanted to he could probably break someone’s neck with one hand. Still sipping his coffee, Aiden watches as the Sapient stares up at Takeo in anger, but wisely chooses to keep his mouth shut.

Just then the door bursts open and Chasca strolls in, IPod in hand.  She is completely unaware to what’s going on in front of her. Not bothering to look up from the device she calls out to Takeo. “Baby, do you know where my red…” She trails off as if suddenly realizing they’re not alone.

Chasca's eyes grow wide and she jumps back when she sees the bound man taped to the chair. “Holy fucking shit!” she screeches, dropping her IPod to the floor.  The IPod smashes and the screen shatters instantly. She doesn’t even seem to notice as her eyes are completely focused on the man in the chair.

“
What the hell is he doing here?” Her eyes move from me to Takeo and then back again.  She was impatiently waiting for one of us to answer her.

Takeo beats me to it. “You know this man?”

Chasca actually looks annoyed as she responds. “Do I know him?! That dude tried to shoot me at that church place. He was the hall guard. I’ll
never
forget him!”

A low growl rises out of Takeo’s’ throat and Aiden steps forward, knowing it’s time for him to take over.

“
I’ve got it from here brother. Take care of your woman.”

Takeo hesitates for a moment, but after taking one look at Chasca’s face he is crossing the room and lifting her into his arms, and strolling out of the door.

Aiden places his palms on the surface of the table and locks eyes with the man. A gust of wind begins to circulate around the room randomly picking up things as it passes. Most importantly, the wind raises several razor blades strategically placed around the room for situations such as this. Aiden gives the man a sinister smile and says in all seriousness, “Let’s play a game.”

Chapter Two

Now its hours later and the Sapient has been moved to another facility to be held. Aiden didn't kill the Sapient, that's just not his style. He might wish he was dead, but that's beside the point. Aiden heads down into the kitchen but before he even enters the room he starts to hear several voices.  Even Liza seems to be in on whatever they’re talking about. Ever since it happened this morning he has been going over the situation with Liza in his head and he still can’t seem to make sense of it.

Aiden has been part of the Order since he was fifteen years old and he has worked in this compound with all the same people for the last five years. He’d go as far as to say that they’re like a family, though now it’s becoming very obvious that certain family members have secrets they’ve been keeping.

He walks into the kitchen and the conversation stops, all eyes turning to him. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out they all want a briefing. He takes a deep soothing breath and lets his eyes come to rest on Chasca. What are the odds that the man he apprehends was the very same man that guarded her in the church? Not very good, that’s for sure. The Sapient have thousands of followers and in his experience he can say that they switch them out often.

“
I’ve got a few questions for you Chas, you up for it?” Aiden asks the question even though he knows how stubborn she is. Even if she wasn’t up for it, she’d still do it just to help them out.

“Yeah, I’m fine”. She says sounding very enthused.

He nods and scans the eyes of the others and just as he thought, they’re all on him. “How many prisoners were in there with you?”

Chasca sits silently for a moment gnawing on the inside of her bottom lip, clearly in deep thought before locking eyes with him once more. “Just one, there was a girl. I never got to talk to her or anything but I did see her once. The main thing I remember is her eyes. She had these incredible blue eyes. I think her hair was black and she looked really sad. No, more than
sad defeated.”

Aiden sits back in his seat and crosses his arms over his chest. He nods his head in acknowledgment and offers up what he knows. “The Sapient's name was John Matthews and he is in fact one of the guards as Chas has told us. He was getting medical supplies because a female, I believe the one Chas spoke of, has wounds that need to be treated and
Welps is apparently MIA. Liza and I followed him to a dirt road about thirty minutes from here. We don’t know the exact location but this will give us somewhere to start.”

Angelo leans forward in his seat and rests his forearms on the table top. “So that’s
all
you got from him?” Aiden chuckles completely expecting something like that to come out of Angelo's mouth. He’s always a wise ass, but a damn good brother nevertheless. “Well, he did confess that his favorite color is blue and he likes long walks on the beach but I figured I’d save that to share with you privately.” Angelo throws his head back and laughs, moments later quieting down after muttering something about Aiden’s’ mother under his breath.

“
So let’s break it down. We need to find the exact location of their facility, we need to infiltrate it and we need to do this fast because we have no way of knowing how severe this girls injuries are. We could easily assume from the things the Sapient was buying that they do not seem to be mortal wounds, but I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m not willing to take that chance.”

When Aiden finishes speaking he looks around at all of the faces in the room and the only person who isn’t nodding their head in agreement is Liza. Her face is blank but her lips are pressed firmly together as if she wants to say something. Aiden makes eye contact with her for only a moment before she turns away from him and begins making a new pot of coffee.

Takeo places his palms on the table top and slides out of the booth. “I’ll go brief the men. Text me the coordinates when you get a second and I’ll start mapping out the area we’ll be searching.”

Before he can even take a step Chasca is in front of him. “What do you mean
we’ll
? You’re going too?”

Takeo smiles down at her and shakes his head, clearly thinking she’s adorable. “Little one I’ll be leading the way.” With that Takeo walks out of the kitchen leaving Chasca to run after him looking both worried and seriously annoyed.

Angelo gets up from his seat next but Aiden doesn’t even have to ask where he’s going. Angelo is going to get his weapons. He doesn’t go anywhere without them. When Angelo knows there is a possibility of action, he always the first one ready to head out. Aiden slides out of his seat and walks up behind Liza, who is still at the coffee maker and taps her on the shoulder.

Liza turns, her eyes meeting his, and leans back against the counter. “Yes dear?”

Aiden smiles at her and crosses his arms over his chest. He isn’t sure why she is being purposefully evasive, but he intends on finding out. “So our little chat?”

Liza takes a deep breath and to his surprise, rolls her eyes. “What would you like to know?”

Aiden’s eyebrows snap together and his expression clearly reads ‘Is she serious?’ “Well, the first thing I want to know is what happened earlier?”

Liza reaches a hand up and into her hair, retrieving a bobby pin. She holds the pin in her palm and a fraction of a second later the pin is suspended in the air between them. Aiden stares at the floating object for a moment before he snatches it out of the air. Liza raises her eyes to meet his and clasps her hands together as if suddenly nervous.

“
Alright, so apparently you can control things with your mind. Are you a Nephilim?” Liza shakes her head and that’s when all hell breaks loose. The lights start to flicker on and off in a strobe light effect, pots and pans are lifted into the air and circle Aiden before returning to their original places. Aiden finds himself having the most unusual desire to look down at himself. When he does he’s wearing a dress.

Aiden jumps back and looks down at himself again and not only is he in his normal clothes but Liza is laughing so hard tears are streaking down her cheeks.  Aiden's not sure but he may have heard her snort.