Sacrificed (The Ignited Series) (24 page)

“We’ve been working on some things.”

“Then, maybe he should come back with us.” He paused and I saw how much he hated to say those words, so much so that he felt the need to add, “Only because he can help you.”

He looked at me and waited. For me to agree? For me to put up another argument? He looked as unsure as I felt.

“I’m scared, Nathan,” I eventually said. “What if this doesn’t work? What if we can’t find a way to stop this in time? What—”

“Hey,” he interrupted. “Don’t think like that, okay? I need you to be positive. I need you to fight this.”

“What if I can’t?”

“You
can
. And I’m going to help. I’m not giving up, and I’m not going to let you give up either.”

I dropped my head to hide the tears that sprung up in my eyes—from the hopelessness and fear that I felt, but mostly from Nathan’s words. He was so sure I could do it. He was counting on me, and I didn’t even know if I could count on myself.

“Kris,” he said, lifting my chin and forcing me to look at him. With his thumb, he brushed away a tear that had slipped free, and then pressed his lips to my forehead.

The sweet and soothing gesture only brought on a body-wracking sob that I couldn’t choke back. Nathan pulled me into his arms as a few more shook me, until I got them under control. Being in his arms again reminded me just how much I had missed him and just how much I had come to care about him…and love him. The more he did things like this, supported me as he was now, the more sure I felt.

The memories of what I had done with Alec, even if they had been done in a Skotadi state of mind, were eating me up inside. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have not controlled it, controlled myself?

Would Nathan understand? Would it even matter to him? It wasn’t like we were together. Not really. Technically, we were both free to do as we wished.

Then again, I was sure my act of discretion with Alec would bother him, solely because of who it had been with.

Then again, he had been the one to suggest I explore the feelings he knew I had for Alec. Maybe he already suspected something had happened between Alec and me. Something worse than what actually did.

“Nathan...”

“Hmm?”

“I need to tell you something.”

His expression was somber when he leaned back to look down at me. Surely, by my tone, he knew that I wasn’t about to share good news with him. His fingers dug into my waist in anticipation.

Like he already knew…

I just had to do it. Like a
band-aid. Quick and painful. “I made out with Alec,” I blurted, paused, then like it would matter, amended, “Well, I didn’t, not really. Skotadi-me did, but I remember it, so it’s like I did do it.”

His lips parted and I felt his heavy breath against my cheek, just before he shifted. Though fractional, I detected his grip loosening around my waist. I tried not to let the fact that he was pulling away bother me, and tried to get through saying what I had to say before I lost my chance. 

“Afterwards,” I continued quickly, “what I figured out only confirmed what I already knew, I just might not have realized that I knew.” I paused, and jabbed a finger into his chest once, hard. “And, you know what? I blame you for that, because you insisted that I didn’t know.”

“Kris—”

I shook my head rapidly, silencing him. “You can’t tell me anymore what I should feel, what I should do, because I know what I—”

My poorly prepared speech was cut off, in a good way, as Nathan’s lips crashed into mine, stifling whatever words were next. Not that they would have mattered with the way I had been rambling. And all thought was lost to me now anyway. All I registered at the moment was that he was kissing me.

And boy was he kissing me. But it didn’t last long. Apparently, he had things to say too, though I would have been just fine not talking. His mouth opened to say something.

A loud thud against the wall behind me shattered the moment, and his words slipped away.

“What was that?” I asked.

Nathan was already looking around the corner, toward the front of the house. “Sounded like it came from inside. They’re not out front anymore. They must be inside.”

“But what thumped?”

I hoped it hadn’t been Micah’s head, steered into the wall by Alec. Unfortunately, it was a real
possibility.

Micah shouting for us from the front porch a moment later eliminated that fear. But then a new fear twisted my gut when I heard the panic in his voice.

Nathan hurried around the side of the house, pulling me after him. “What is it?”

“Skotadi,” Micah answered, his eyes frightful. “I can sense them. A dozen or more, close, and coming fast!”

Nathan bounded up the steps two at a time. I ran after him, into the house, as Alec emerged from the hallway with several guns in his hands. He tossed one to Nathan, another to Micah. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows.

I held my hand out for the last gun.

Distantly, as if in another dimension, I heard the sounds of metal clanging and bullets dropping to the floor as the guys quickly loaded their weapons. I moved slower, on autopilot, as I tried to remember what I knew about guns. Not much, unfortunately, and what I did know was lost amongst all the panicky thoughts in my head.

This was it…

They were coming. A dozen of them.

The odds were against us. Again.  

“Here.” Nathan took the still unloaded gun from my hands and handed me his loaded one. I watched as he opened the chamber and smoothly glided the bullets into place. Finished, he turned to me, his unspoken question visible in his eyes.

“I’m okay,” I said.

He looked uncertain, but nodded. “Stay with me.” 

That was a guarantee. I wanted no one other than Nathan at my side. And Callie…

“Callie!” I spun in a circle, searching for her. She was gone. Turning to Alec and Micah, I asked, “Where’s Callie?”

“Snuck her out the back,” Alec answered. “They don’t know she’s here. At least she can get away.”

“The car’s just down the street. If she can get to it, she’ll be fine,” Micah added.

“
If
she can get to it!” I snarled, and nearly hurled across the room at him.

If they caught her…

I couldn’t fathom what might happen to her.

Nathan grabbed a hold of my arm. “She’ll be fine.”

Held back by Nathan, all I could do was glare at Micah. But he wasn’t paying attention to me anymore.

“They’re here,” he whispered.

The room was deathly quiet as we listened, and waited. From behind me, glass shattered, and I spun around. I expected to see a group of Skotadi climbing through the windows, but instead watched as two black metallic objects rolled across the floor and came to a stop at our feet.

My first thought was grenades, and from the guys’ reactions as they scattered, I suspected I might be right. Nathan grabbed my hand, pulled me after him. Just ahead of us, I saw Micah and Alec running for the rear of the house, toward the back door.

Nothing exploded. The devices hissed open, emitting a fine mist that filled the room within seconds.

Alec and Micah had nearly reached the door, but were moving slow, like they were stuck in an invisible pit of quick sand and sinking into the floor. My own legs had turned to jelly and my vision blurred as the room whirled around me. I felt Nathan’s hand holding onto mine and I tried to squeeze it, to signal to him that something was wrong, but my muscles wouldn’t work. 

What was this mist? And what was it doing to us?

I wondered if this was it, if we were going to die, together but alone
, on Tenner’s cold kitchen floor.

Just as I came to grudgingly accept my fate, the back door opened, and a familiar face stepped into my line of sight. Familiar, but unwelcome. Especially since she had her evil claws curled around Callie’s neck.

Why won’t this bitch leave us alone?

Using every ounce of
strength I had left, I lunged for Lillian, with every intention of inflicting serious pain, but my legs had other intentions. As they gave out from under me, a pair of strong arms caught me, and I was lowered gently to the floor instead of crashing to it. With a look over my shoulder, I saw Nathan’s eyes droop shut. 

I lifte
d my gaze, settled it on Callie and, as she faded from my sight, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be the last time I saw her.

C
HAPTER 22

I was pulled back to consciousness by the sound of Nathan’s voice. Disoriented and stiff, I lifted my head as my surroundings slowly came into focus around me.

I was in a room—a small, cold, poorly lit space that smelled like damp earth. I was reminded of the last time I’d been held hostage by the Skotadi. Everything, right down to the ropes binding me to the chair I was sitting on, was familiar.

As I looked around the room, I realized all of us were bound in the same manner—ankles tied to chair legs and hands pulled behind our backs. Four of us made a sort of square, all facing each other—Nathan to my right, Micah to my left, and Alec directly across from me.

Callie was missing.

“Kris?” I turned my head to the right, toward Nathan, and blinked. With disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes, he looked as rough as I felt. “Kris, can you loosen your restraints at all?” he asked me slowly, purposefully, as if he knew my brain wasn’t working properly yet.

I strained against the rope binding my arms to the chair. Immediately, I knew there was no getting out of them. Same went with the rope around my ankles. In fact, I was pretty sure my toes were going numb.

“They’re too tight,” I told Nathan.

“What if you go all Skotadi-
ish?” Micah asked quietly from his seat.

“I’ll be one extremely pissed off, but still tied up, girl,” I said, earning a snort from Alec.

“Her strength doesn’t increase, moron,” Alec piped in. “She’s not The Hulk.”

No one said anything for a long time after that. It seemed that I had been their last hope, and had left them all clueless as to what to do now.

“Wait!” I exclaimed when a brilliant idea came to me. I glanced back and forth between Micah and Alec with a smile. “Fire.”

I could conjure fire…and burn the ropes.

I closed my eyes, pictured a fire building in my palm, nothing too big, nothing that would burn us all alive. Just enough to get free. The tingle never came like it should have, and I tried harder, squeezing my eyes tighter.

I’d done it under pres
sure before, at the orphanage. So why wasn’t it working now?

I opened my eyes and glanced at Micah, hoping he had a suggestion.

He shook his head solemnly. “It’s the charm.” His head tilted forward, and I followed his gaze to the white stone dangling from my neck. “It’s blocking you.”

“I got one too,” Alec said.

“We all do,” Micah added. Nodding his head at Nathan, he said, “Except for him.”

“I’m the only one without super powers,” Nathan grumbled.

We fell silent after that. If we couldn’t use our specialties…

We were at their mercy.

I wondered what they had planned for us. For Callie. I wondered where she was, if she was somewhere better than us. Or worse?

“They’re coming,” Micah suddenly mumbled a warning.

Seconds later, the door opened, and Lillian entered with her entourage. Five of them filled the room, surrounding us from all sides. Lillian zeroed in on Nathan, and I tensed in my seat, fearful of her intentions. Nathan stared at her, appearing more angry than concerned, as she approached him.

“I told you I’d be the one to find you, baby,” she said to him, the term of endearment sounding more like a taunt. She produced a knife—a sparkly, diamond-coated one—and traced the tip up his neck to his chin, forcing his head back to avoid being cut. I held my breath, watching helplessly as the blade grazed dangerously over his skin.

Just one prick, one scrape…

I wanted to scream at her to stop, but bit my protests back, not wanting to cause her to flinch and pierce Nathan’s skin. Instead, I closed my eyes from the sight in front of me.

Considering how many people were crammed into the small room, it was chillingly quiet. The silence only reminded me of how powerless I was to stop Lillian.

We were all powerless. Even Micah, with his ability to heal diamond injury, wouldn’t be able to help. Not strapped to the chair as he was.

We
had
to get free. Before Lillian killed Nathan. And that sure seemed to be her intent.

“It’s a shame, really,” she said, and I finally opened my eyes, hoping to see that she was done toying with Nathan’s life. She wasn’t. “Such a shame, what I’m going to have to do to you.”

Her voice didn’t sound regretful at all. I wondered if she felt anything, or if turning evil did away with the ability to feel emotions. I knew I never wanted to find out.

Nathan stared at her wordlessly, and I wondered what he saw. The girl he used to love? Could he see any of her left in that shell of a body?

“You really screwed up when you didn’t kill me before,” Lillian said to him quietly. “You shouldn’t have hesitated, you know?”

“I won’t make that mistake again,” Nathan gritted between his teeth. Any more movement on his part and the knife would likely pierce his skin.

I silently willed him to keep quiet and still.

“You won’t have another chance,” Lillian responded ominously. I saw her cock her head to the side, but her face remained hidden from my view. “It really is too bad.”

With impressive speed, Lillian lurched forward to press her mouth to Nathan’s. As much of a surprise as it was to all of us, no one was more shocked than Nathan. He pulled back, but restrained to the chair as he was, there was only so far he could go. Her lips stayed planted firmly on his until she decided the dysfunctional kiss had lasted long enough. She gripped a handful of his hair as she pulled away, to hold him in place.

“Hmm…I’ve missed that,” she said without an ounce of emotion. Surely, the woman was incapable of it. To not have some response to kissing Nathan was unfathomable to me, even if the kiss had been rather disturbing.

Nathan stared through her as if it had never happened. 

Finally, Lillian stood and turned, as if noticing the rest of us for the first time. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she sneered. Her eyes bored into mine, the gold ring around her irises glowing. “I’m sure you didn’t want to see that.”

I hadn’t actually, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of admitting it. Besides, as disturbing as the whole thing had been to watch, I was glad the knife was no longer pressed to Nathan’s neck.

“You’re probably all wondering what you’re doing here.” She clasped her hands together, and the sound echoed around the room, chilling me to the bone. She pointed at Micah. “You,” she said to him. “You are going to die tonight. And you—” She pointed at me with the knife, “are going to kill him.”

I stared at the shiny blade in her hand, and felt the blood drain from my face when I realized I had seen it before. In my dreams. It was the very knife I killed Micah with in my dreams.

They hadn’t been simple dreams, but a prophecy. And it was coming true.

It was going to happen. I would become the monster I’d feared I would. Despite all we had done to fight it, I would eventually fulfill the destiny I had been running from. The others—except Micah—didn’t know what I knew. As Nathan and Alec voiced their disbelief, I shared a look with Micah. The despair in his eyes matched mine.

Even then, knowing what I knew from the prophecy and considering my dislike of Micah, I knew
I could never kill him. Not really.

“It’s not going to happen,” I spoke above the others, addressing Lillian coldly. “You’re wasting your time.”

“
Biding
my time,” she countered. “Because, you see, one of them will die tonight.” She waved her arm around, motioning to both Nathan and Micah. “The choice of who is yours. The longer you take to decide, the more this one will suffer.”

Her dark gaze fell on Nathan and, as if on cue, the giant standing by the door stepped forward. Before any of us knew what was coming, his fist shot out and connected with Nathan’s face, snapping his head violently to the side. Blood sprayed from his nose, or mouth, or both—it was hard to tell.

A scream rose in my throat as I rocked in my chair. Despite my desperate pleas, the giant continued a vicious one-sided assault on a defenseless Nathan. He paused long enough to glance at me—to make sure I was watching?—just before he raised his knee and propelled it into Nathan’s stomach.

Nathan crumbled forward, chin to his chest, held up only by the ropes binding him to the chair. From the way he was slumped, I suspected he might be unconscious, and I secretly hoped that was the case.

“Leave him alone,” I begged.

With a harsh laugh, the big Skotadi grabbed a handful of Nathan’s hair and lifted his head, forcing it back. My heart sank when I saw that his eyes were open.

“You want to see this?” Lillian asked. I knew she was talking to me, but I ignored her. All I could do was stare at Nathan.

I was forced to look away as the
Skotadi’s fist found its mark again, and again.

Lillian crouched in front of me, dangling the knife under my nose. “You can stop it.”

I wished I could be like The Hulk, break these ropes, snatch the knife from her hand, and plunge it into her cold, unfeeling heart.

“I’ll see to the end of you before this is over,” I whispered menacingly.

Lillian’s lips curled into something resembling a smile. “Stop,” she ordered the Skotadi beating Nathan, but never taking her eyes off of mine. She looked smug. Like she’d somehow won.

“Kris.”

I turned to the voice calling my name, to my right. Nathan—his nose bleeding, lip gashed, eye purple and swollen. Despite his physical injuries, and the pain he had to be in, his concern was for me. I couldn’t imagine why.

“Don’t,”
Alec muttered a warning. I wasn’t sure who he was addressing, until he added, “She’ll respond better to me.”

My eyes shot across the room, finding his. From the grim look on his face, I realized what everyone else saw. My eyes. They must have been surging. My hatred for Lillian, my desire to see her destroyed, was fueling the rage
, and the demon, inside of me.

Lillian shifted to block my view of Alec. “You want to kill me?” she taunted.

I refused to look at her, refused to let her urge me on. Yes, I wanted to kill her, but now was not the time. Now, I had to fight that desire with everything I had…before I turned my hatred for her on someone else in the room.

“Let it build,” she sang, “and turn it on him.” She swung her arm in Micah’s direction.

From behind her, I heard Alec’s voice, soft and calm. “Basketball, Kris. Basketball. You’ve done it before. You can do it again. You can fight it, and when you do, when the time is right, you’ll have your chance with her.”

At least Alec and I were thinking along the same line of thought. I would get my revenge, but at another time.

I squared my shoulders, and met Lillian’s glare with a cold stare of my own. I wasn’t about to let this bitch break me.

Her response was a frigid, knowing smile, like she thought she had me just where she wanted me. How gullible of her.

She stood and retreated, having given up this time. She called to the Skotadi and ushered them out the door ahead of her. Before shutting the door, she turned to me with a final message.

“We’ll give you some time to think about your decision. Next time, it’ll be worse.” Her gaze fell on Nathan with those last few words, and I knew she had something terrible in store for him.

As the door shut, leaving the four of us alone again, I agonized over how much more Nathan could take, and how much more I could witness before I was forced to act.

And what exactly I would do.

They were gone long enough for Nathan to stop bleeding and for some of the swelling around his eye to subside. He sat up straight in his chair, quiet, but there. Sort of.

He lacked his usual air of confidence and determination, and that worried me.

If he lost hope in our chances…

I didn’t want to think about that. Instead, I tried to come up with some sort of strategy while we were still together, conscious, and able.

One thing
about this whole situation wasn’t making sense to me, and I wondered if I had missed something important.

I understood that they had created me to kill Micah, but I’d always assumed that was only because they would need someone strong enough to kill a super-hybrid like him. Being helplessly strapped to the chair as he was now, anyone could take a coated knife to him. Why did it have to be me?

“I don’t understand,” I said, breaking the silence in the room. I turned my head toward Micah. “If they want you dead, why don’t they just kill you? Why are they making me do it?”

Micah shrugged. “To fulfill the curse?”

“What?”

“Like Hecate is cursed to kill Asclepius if she ever reunites with him,” he added, but he didn’t sound so sure.   

I shook my head. That made no sense. “Why would they create me to be your soul mate then? Who would kill their own soul mate?”

I hated that I was admitting to believing Micah’s claims that we were soul mates. Hated it. I still wasn’t completely convinced, but
if
he was right, why would they have done that?