Authors: Amber Hughey
He threw Aleks against a fridge, denting the heavy metal as he put his weight behind the movement. He stared at Aleks as the solan hit the wall with a sickening thud before sliding down and landing in an unmoving heap.
Aleks shifted his weight, slowly standing. “You have no idea who you’re messing with, umbren. No idea at all.”
With a cry, Aleks dropped to his knees, holding his thigh. He gave Gabriel a startled look before holding up his hand, now covered in liquid crimson.
Gabriel turned around and stared at Amalia, who was still aiming her gun at Aleks.
“That’s for Sam,” she spat.
“Sam can handle this herself,” Sam said, usually pretty face a mask of enraged anger. She strode up to Aleks, then kicked him in the jaw, sending him into a bench behind him.
“Why?” Amalia spat, still aiming the gun at him.
“Had to,” Aleks said tightly, holding a hand firmly against the bleeding wound.
“’Had to’ my ass,” Amalia said hoarsely. “Of course. You just ‘had to’ kill my brother. Just ‘had to’ kidnap Sam. Kidnap everyone. Just ‘had to’ be a double crosser. Right,” a look of resentment crossed her face before the anger quickly replaced it. “I get it. You just ‘had to’.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” Aleks whispered, starting to stand.
“Stay down,” Amalia growled, finger twitching to pull the trigger again.
“Try me,” Gabriel snarled, clenching hands into fists.
“Nikita,” Aleks said, clutching the wound that was already healing.
“Your sister? What about her?”
“She’s dying,” Aleks said.
“And?” Amalia said, cutting off Gabriel before he could start.
“I’m trying to save her,
human
,” Aleks snarled at her, as he stood.
“By killing everyone here?”
He gave her a baleful glare. “No. By developing a vaccine that would change her into a human.”
“And what the hell would that accomplish?” Now Amalia was confused, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to take aim somewhere else. Somehow, Aleks had brought down Gabriel, and she didn’t think that was an easy feat.
“It’s a cancer. The cure will kill her as an angelus. Not as a human. Change her to human, treat her. Turn her back,” Aleks recited, still glaring, tan slacks streaked with blood.
“So everyone here is expendable?”
“Yes,” Aleks snarled. “Nikita is worth a hundred humans, a thousand. And if that’s what it takes to save her, that’s what I’ll do.”
Amalia lowered the gun before raising it. She stepped towards Gabriel, not realizing it brought her nearer to Aleks.
In a silent grace, Aleks lunged at Amalia, grabbing her. He tossed her like a piece of cordwood into the table next to them. She hit the metal with a sickening crack, feeling ribs break as she landed. Lying on the cold tiled flood, pain racked her body. Breathing hurt, sending streaks of fire through her chest. Metal instruments rained down on her, a scalpel grazing her calf. Her arm hurt as she lay there. She could see Gabriel reaching for Aleks, but the solan out maneuvered him, pushing a heavy gurney between them.
With a practiced motion, Aleks threw another tray of instruments at them, and more deadly
shrapnel rained down upon Amalia. She grabbed the gurney that stood next to her and hoisted herself up, groaning as her ribs filled her body with a painful heat. Each breath burned, but she stood. Aleks stared at Gabriel, mirroring each other’s movement as they circled Amalia. Ignoring her, Aleks lunged at Gabriel, dark wings a blur behind him. He shoved her to the side, into a broken microscope that lay in pieces on the floor.
She felt a white hot pain fill her abdomen as the pointed eyepiece plunged into her stomach. Her head jolted back and cracked into the wall, filling her vision with bright white fireworks. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, curling around the pain. She felt something wet running down the side of her face, and red soon clouded her vision. She clenched her eyes shut, hearing only her heartbeat, trying to escape into herself away from the pain ful failing miserably.
While Aleks lunged for the door that would take him down the dark corridor, Paul lunged at Aleks. Uninjured, he’d reached Aleks before Gabriel. Grabbing him by the lapels of his coat, Paul flung him into the far bank microscopes. The resounding crash made the rest of them scatter. Paul stood over Aleks, foot on throat. He pressed down, vicious glee at the way Aleks’s eyes bugged out.
“You killed my wife, my daughter so you could save your sister? You killed them, you bastard,” Paul snarled, eyes filled with rage.
“Let him go,” Sam said softly, sending a worried glance at Amalia. Gabriel was crouched over her, worried tones reaching her ears.
Paul looked back at her briefly before putting more pressure on Aleks’s throat, his face turning a dusky purple. “No,” was his terse reply.
“Paul, let him go. You’re no better than him if you kill him,” Sam persuaded softly, laying a hand on his arm. “We need to get out of here. If you take the time to deal him what you’ve been dealt, you won’t leave. Don’t tarnish your memories with their deaths,” she continued.
With an ugly frown, he pulled his foot off of Aleks throat. He aimed his Glock at Aleks. He briefly looked at Gabriel, who ignored him as he crouched next to Amalia’s moaning form, painfilled cries escaping.
A small hole blossomed in Aleks’s neck, a small circle of red spreading, running down to cover his shirt. With a gasp, he collapsed, holding an already blood covered hand to the new wound.
Paul crouched by Amalia, reaching out hesitantly until a growl from Gabriel made him draw his hand back.
“She’s hurt,” Gabriel said tersely. “Badly.”
“Let me see,” Paul said in a low voice, “I was an Air Force medic.”
Giving him a worried look, Gabriel relented. When Paul’s motions brought out another painfilled moan, Gabriel sucked in a breath. Paul had barely touched her stomach, but it was hard, hot and painful.
“Something’s ruptured,” Paul said softly, “If you don’t get her medical help – surgery – in a few minutes, she’s going to bleed to death internerally.”
“That’s not an option,” Sam said, standing over Amalia, dark eyes narrowed.
Gabriel shook his head. “Only one thing is.” He turned to the group that surrounded them. “Go away,” he snarled before looking up at Sam. “Take them to the hallway.”
“What are you going – Oh,” Sam said weakly.
“It’s the only way to save her,” Gabriel said, harshness turning into a soft whisper.
“She might hate you,” Sam warned as she corralled the group.
“I can live with that. As long as she’s alive,” he said.
“She might not make it,” Sam said as she turned back to stare at Paul, who was checking the other door.
“But she’ll have a chance,” he said even softer, making her strain to hear the faint words.
When he was sure that they were gone, he looked at Amalia, saw her white face, eyes clenched shut, shutting out the world.
“Amalia,” he said in a low voice, “Amalia, listen to me.”
She opened her eyes, but the blur of tears made it hard for her to see him.
“You are going to die,” he said bluntly, “you are going to die unless you make the transition.”
“I could die if I don’t make it,” she whispered through the haze of pain.
“But you could make it,” he said, almost begging her to try.
She couldn’t think. The pain clouded her vision, clouded her thoughts. Made it hard to do anything. “Do it,” she groaned, the words coming out in pants, the pain lancing through her body in white hot streaks.
He gently pulled her close, tipping her head away to bare her pulsing, bruised neck. He grazed his fangs over the pulse before pushing them through the thin skin, into the blood below. It flowed into his mouth, a taste he hadn’t had for almost a hundred years. The rich liquid ran down his throat
“He’s infected her. Hurry, if she feel it that bad now, we don’t have much time.” Kasey’s voice was even and patient as she held the Beretta pointed at Aleks’s slumped body.
“Where?” Paul asked as he gave Aleks another kick.
Gabriel pointed towards the door, “hallway. Stairs. We’ve got to get her out before she changes.”
He picked her up, barely feeling the weight. He led the small group to the stairway. Before opening the door, he looked at Sam. “Can you shoot?”
“Yeah,” she replied, standing up straighter. She gently took the gun from Amalia, gripping it forcefully.
“Then let’s go,” he replied. Glancing back at Paul, he said, “take the rear.”
“Got it.”
Sam was the first in the stairwell. Footsteps sounded above them. Looking up, she could see legs. She carefully aimed before firing. The bullet pinged off of the cement, sending some of them racing the door like a herd of frightened cattle. When she saw a face, the blonde face of the doctor who’d infected her, instinct took over. Her finger tightened on the trigger, sending a bullet neatly into the woman’s head.
When she dropped to the floor, lifeless, the others raced out of the room.
Sam turned back to Gabriel. A cold smile covered her face. “I told her I’d kill her for what she did.”
Gabriel returned the smile. It was technically his job to met out punishments, he wouldn’t take that from Sam. Together, the small band stormed up the stairs, stopping only briefly to stare at the body of the doctor.
“What’s her name?” Gabriel asked Sam as they slowly made their way out of the office.
“Doctor J,” Sam replied, crouching against a wall. She looked at Amalia’s white, sweat-beaded face. “She’s not going to make it out of here.”
Gabriel shifted Amalia’s weight, unsure of exactly how long it would take her to change. She
curled into herself, gripped his shirt with hands cramped by unrelenting pain into claws.
“We can’t wait for her to change all the way. That could take hours. And we don’t have hours,” Sam said, brushing a hand over her stubble, frustrated.
“I know,” Gabriel said. He looked a head, then back at Paul. “I’ll get her out. You two get the others out.”
“I’m not-“
“Sam,” he said, cutting off her protests, “Amalia’d never forgive me if she made it out and you didn’t. Just go.”
“I’m
not
leaving her, Gabriel,” Sam snarled in frustration, drawing her cream wings close. Turning to Paul, she said, “you get them out. I’m staying with Amalia.”
With a terse nod, Paul gestured towards the small group surrounding the trio. Making sure he had a firm grip on his Glock, he stared at Gabriel, then at Sam. “Make sure she makes it.”
“Of course,” Sam said, giving him a hard smile.
“Is there a room around here? An office? Somewhere to hide?” Gabriel asked, holding Amalia tighter as a wave of pain rolled over her, her undulated tones low and painfilled.
Sam shook her head. “I don’t know. We can’t afford to let her change here.”
“Kasey said it was going to be fast,” Gabriel argued.
Sam gave him a measured stare. “By that, she means it’ll take her a few hours instead of a few weeks. That’s it.”
“Shit,” Gabriel said with a grimace, following it up with a liquid curse of the angelus. He gave a halting breath as he stood. “Then let’s follow. I hope they cleared the path.”
“They did,” Sam said, peering around the corner. There were bodies littered around the room, some moaning and writhing. Waving a raised hand at Kasey, Sam glanced back at Gabriel. “We need to go. Now.”
“I hear,” Gabriel said, recognizing the low hum of helicopters.
Sam laid a cool hand on Amalia’s forehead, feeling the burning heat beneath her palm. “We need to get her out of here. She needs somewhere quiet, where her body can shut down and change soon. We need out of here now.”
“All right. Let’s go,” Gabriel said, following Sam through the labyrinth of cubicles.
Carefully sliding around the few bodies that they came across, they found the door, held open with a clipboard.
Gabriel looked at Sam, who just stared at him. “Do you know where she parked?”
Sam gave him a disgusted look before going out the door. “Let’s go,” she said harshly, waving him and Amalia past her.
“Sam,” Gabriel said as he followed her out into the dark night air. Pausing, he could hear footsteps, running away from the building.
“What?” she snapped.
“How far did they get with you?” he asked, recalling the conversation he’d had with Aleks on the ride here. Even though Amalia had warned him about Aleks, he hadn’t believed her. Hadn’t even believed when Aleks had theorizing about the reason behind the kidnappings and murders. Aleks had theorized that someone was figuring out how to change angelus with humans in their ancestry to humans. To do that, they’d started with a human that could be angelus. Turn them back into what they started as.
It would be easier, Aleks had said, to do it that way, than to figure it out in the middle. The dead ones? They were the lucky ones, Gabriel figured, remembering Lindsay Hemly and Jeremy. Vince. The lost ones that he’d never find, like Kent and Patricia. At least Sam was safe. For now.