“Yes. No question. You?”
“Nah. Going back to high school tops the list for me. Those first few days, I was convinced someone was going to realize I wasn’t who I said I was and I didn’t belong there.”
Approaching him, I traced a fingertip over the tabletop. “But no one did.”
“Sometimes people only see what they want to see.” He paused a moment to look over at me.
“I certainly did.” Grinning, I closed the rest of the distance until I stood beside him. “Since you’re stuffing them in your pockets, I’m going to assume the vials are sealed properly.”
“They are, but I still don’t want you to handle them.” He closed the cabinet with a soft click, then turned toward me. “Ready?”
Clearly he still wanted to carry the bulk of the responsibility on his own shoulders. I, however, was having none of that.
“Nope,” I said. “Not quite yet.” Rising on my tiptoes, I planted a kiss on Erik’s welcoming lips, just as he’d done to me several times. But I didn’t embrace him. I jabbed a hand into his pocket and withdrew a fistful of the vials. I shoved them in my pockets, peering up at him and silently daring him to say something. “Now I’m ready. You’re not doing this alone.”
He shook his head, but admiration glowed in his eyes. “You constantly amaze me,” he said, not trying to take them away.
“Thank you,” I said primly.
“You’re very welcome,” he said, mimicking my tone.
We shared a laugh.
We left the lab then and descended the staircase. I could hear the vials clanging together every time Erik moved. My dress was so tight the vials had no wiggle room and remained in place.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I said when we reached the front entrance. “Where are the Outers staying anyway? The ones who need the Onadyn?”
“Southern District on Main. The Offworlder Apartments, which should have collapsed years ago. I’m sorry, but we’ve got a long hike ahead of us.”
“I’ll live.”
He pried the double doors apart, rather than mess with the ID box and code again. “You’re—”
“Caught,” a woman said just in front of us. It was Phoenix. Wisps of brown hair whipped around her smug features. She aimed a pyre-gun at Erik’s chest. “You’re caught.”
13
In the ensuing seconds that seemed to take an eternity to tick by, chaos erupted. Erik had his gun aimed at Phoenix before I could draw in a panicked breath. Other A.I.R. agents surrounded us, a thousand it seemed, weapons poised and ready to fire.
Death had never seemed closer.
“We can’t thank you enough for showing us the lab’s location,” Cara said, stepping forward until she stood beside Phoenix. She appeared just as smug as her coworker.
I grit my teeth.
“You didn’t follow us here,” Erik said stiffly. He held the gun steady, seemingly unimpressed by the agents and the weapons they’d trained on him. “How did you find us?”
There was a man standing on Phoenix’s other side and he laughed, drawing attention to himself. “I just got into town, haven’t been briefed because I’ve been too busy fighting Morevvs, but even I can tell you the answer to that.”
“Ryan,” Erik said, shoulders tensing. The name was spat out, as if it was the darkest curse. He inched forward, scooting me behind him as best he could so that I was out of the line of fire.
Ryan was obviously a few years older than Erik. He had dark hair and eyes so blue they sparkled. He was handsome and muscled and wore all black. And he was grinning like it was Christmas and he’d gotten exactly what he wanted from Santa. “If I know my girl, she pegged you with a GPS chip.”
Erik growled low in his throat.
“Yep. That’s exactly what I did.” As unconcerned as Erik had first seemed, Phoenix unsheathed a blade and reached around him. She stabbed the silver tip into one of the welts on his upper back.
He didn’t move, didn’t show any reaction, though it had to have hurt.
When she pulled away, there was blood on her hand and on the knife and a tiny black dot on the tip of her index finger. “That’s why we whipped you. That, and you deserve a little punishment for what you’ve put us through. There was a sedative on the whip. You passed out and we were then able to inject the chip without your knowledge. And you never suspected, because you simply assumed your back hurt from the whipping.”
“You—you—”
“Outsmarted you,” Phoenix interjected.
My hands tightened into fists, but I forced myself to relax, to touch his back in comfort. He, too, relaxed.
“There’ll be no escaping this time,” Phoenix said, scowling. I guess she hadn’t gotten the reaction she wanted. “And guess what? There’ll be no help from your Morevv buddies, either. We’ve got them surrounded, too. And they’re going to pay. They injured Bradley.”
Shanel, I thought. Silver. No, no, no. Were they okay?
“Now, why don’t you drop the gun,” Ryan said, losing his smile. “I don’t want to kill you, but we both know I’ll do it in a heartbeat. You do not hold a gun on Phoenix. Ever.”
Erik didn’t drop his gun, but he did raise his free hand as if he meant to give up. I knew he had a knife strapped to his wrist, so the action would arm him further, not leave him vulnerable. Still. Defeat pressed heavily on my shoulders.
Defeat? That’s the old Camille. The new-and-improved Camille did not give up, did not back down. I’d come too far to be captured now. You have weapons, too. Remember? You aren’t helpless.
“You, too, Camille,” Phoenix said, perhaps sensing what I meant to do next. “Hands up.”
I didn’t move. Not yet, not yet…Oh God. Oh God. Can’t believe you’re doing this, can’t believe you’re even thinking it.
Start believing, I thought, eyes narrowing as determination rushed through me, strengthening me.
“Dragging innocent girls down with you.” Ryan tsked under his tongue. “Sinking lower every day. Troy, is it? That the new last name you gave yourself? Funny. Troy was defeated, too.”
“Like you have room to talk about dragging innocent girls into the gutter,” Erik snarled. His finger twitched on the trigger. “You started dating Phoenix when she was your student. How depraved is that?”
Anger darkened Ryan’s features, not hot enough to be classified as rage, but hot all the same. “Don’t bring Phoenix into this.”