Flawed (43 page)

She really just didn’t care anymore.

“Ellyssa,” said Mathew, coming toward her. He felt her forehead, then took her wrist between his fingers to feel her pulse. After a few seconds, he slid his hand down and wrapped his fingers around hers. His palm felt so warm compared to hers. “You have to stop this.”

Mustering up the best incredulous look she could produce, Ellyssa shot it toward Mathew.

Shaking his head, Mathew smiled. “I love you, my dear friend. You have lots of people who love you. What you are doing hurts us as much as it hurts you.”

Ellyssa didn’t want to hear that. She just wanted to be left alone.

Woody knelt at Ellyssa’s knees. Looking at her, sadness swimming in the grey of his eyes, he cupped her cheek, his warmth sinking into her cold flesh. Once again, Woody was there to try and pick up her fragmented pieces. But once in a while, the pieces were too broken and jagged to adhere. Closing her eyes, willing away the tears that threatened to spill out, Ellyssa swallowed the sob that was stuck in her throat.

“Mathew’s right. Rein was my best friend, my brother. He wouldn’t want this.” Woody’s voice hitched, and he had to wait a moment before he could continue. “You can’t give up. It’s not over, Ellyssa.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I just don’t know how.”

“With our help,” Mathew said, pushing a straggly strand of hair behind her ear.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” said the older male, who still stood by the door. He stepped into the room as he spoke. “I’m Comm…” He paused. “My name is Hans Baer. I was the Commandant of Amarufoss before your sister stripped me of my command.”

Ellyssa figured he was military, but she hadn’t expected this. That’s what she got for not using her gift, but since Rein, she couldn’t. The dead emptiness she’d felt when she lost him was just too new, too raw. Part of her still wanted to tear Hans apart, though, just for being what he was. She ignored that part.

“We don’t like him,” Woody said, referencing Hans.

“I actually despise him,” Mathew added.

Woody slowly loosened his grip. “He has something to tell you.”

“You compromised The Pit by bringing him here.”

“He has no idea where we are. We bagged him,” Woody said.

“He isn’t leaving, either,” Mathew continued. “Before the thing with… Rein.” He paused as if expecting her to break down. When she didn’t, he patted her hand. “You said someone was in the room with the incinerator. I knew it was him. When it was all over, I saved him.” Mathew faced the former commander.

Hans nodded. “It’s true.”

“Anyway, when you came into the barracks to save us, I tried to tell you something. I’ve tried since we’ve come back, too, but the state you were in…you just weren’t listening. Besides, the Commandant—I mean Hans—knows more.”

Mathew gave Hans a
go ahead
nod to start his story.

With a hesitant step, Hans approached Ellyssa, and stopped at a respectable distance. “Your sister wasn’t alone,” he stated.

Ellyssa narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Your brother, Xaver, is with her.”

“Wh—Wh—” The easy word stuck on Ellyssa’s tongue. She glanced at Mathew, and he nodded.

“I’ve seen him myself.”

If her brother was still alive, that explained everything. Maybe shuffling through the soldiers had nothing to do with why she didn’t at least get a glimpse of the plan. Xaver had to have had those in the know shielded. And maybe he had shielded Rein from her, too.

Which meant Rein might not be dead.

He couldn’t be dead.

Closing her eyes, Ellyssa took in a cleansing breath and grabbed hold of the dangling, frayed thread of hope. Her despair lightened a little, giving her a reason to continue.

“Rein might be alive!” She popped up onto her feet, the elation smothering out the weakness. “We have to go save him.”

As she whirled around the room, snatching the pearl and shoving it in the pocket of her backpack, grabbing clean clothes and cramming them inside too, she began to notice that no one else was moving. “Don’t just stand there. Either help me or get out.”

Lifting from his knees, Woody caught Ellyssa’s hand. Doubt about Rein’s survival covered his expression. “Ellyssa, I saw him fall.”

“I did, too,” Mathew uttered. He couldn’t even look at her. “The blood. There was so much.”

Hans just stood silent. He didn’t know Rein.

Silence spread across the room, threatening Ellyssa’s refreshed optimism. Rein had to be alive. If she failed to keep hold of that hope, the despondency would crash down again like a ton of bricks, squashing whatever remained of her. Ellyssa couldn’t let that happen, not if Rein still lived. Not if there was still a chance. “I don’t care what any of you think.”

Sharing a worried look with Mathew, Woody said in a low, calming voice, “First, listen to what Hans has to say, then we will discuss…other possibilities.”

Woody led her back over to the bed. Ellyssa let him, but all the while her brain whirled with plans. Obediently, she sat next to Mathew. He placed his hand on her knee.

“Go ahead,” Ellyssa said as she leveled her eyes on Hans.

The former commander broke into a tale of his first meeting with Aalexis and Xaver, to somebody named Colonel Fielder and some general and the greed for power the two males shared, to his removal from command, to his theories of what Aalexis had planned, and working with Mathew.

Ellyssa heard the words of Hans’ story, but she wasn’t really listening. She was too wrapped up in the resentment toward her siblings, the fury, the loathing, all the things she’d always had been allowed to feel freely. The sensations fueled her as they unfurled, feeding her revenge, her will to live.

Ellyssa would either find Rein alive or find Aalexis and kill her.

If she was lucky, she would do both.

Rein woke in a white room, his head hammering, his arm aching where the bullet had hit him. White walls and ceiling, white table, white sink and toilet. Even the cast covering his arm was white.

Everything clean and pure.

As the door swung open, more white in the form of a bright light stung Rein’s eyes, making the throbbing in his head pick up a different tempo. Shielding his eyes from the glare with his good arm, he blinked several times until his vision adjusted and the stinging stopped. Unfortunately the
thump, thump, thump
in his skull kept a constant beat, the remnants of being constantly drugged.

“What do you want?” Rein asked the platinum-haired, blue-eyed demon standing in the doorway. His speech was a little slurred.

Aalexis stepped over the threshold, wearing a white lab coat. She looked much different than the little girl Rein had first met when he was introduced to her by Dr. Hirch. She was taller, her childhood roundness slimmed away, but what had really changed was her subtle display of emotion, which had become more and more frequent as time passed.

“Time for breakfast.” Alexis moved aside. “Lukas.”

Like an obedient dog, the military thug dressed in, surprisingly, a white tank and stretch pants that rode low on his waist stepped inside, carrying a covered tray. Lukas’ face was all lines and angles joined together in anger. He wasn’t happy playing Rein’s nursemaid.

“That’s a good boy,” Rein said. If he was smart, he would have kept his mouth shut. Being facetious to the military ass was like poking a lion with a stick. No one had ever accused Rein of being smart, though. For added measure, Rein smirked. “You may set it on the table over there.”

Lukas’ jaw clenched as he dropped the tray onto the counter. The cover bounced and tipped to the side. He turned and faced Rein, dark-blue eyes like lasers, fists clenching and unclenching, veins pulsing in his forehead. If it wasn’t for Aalexis putting what was apparently a calming hand on his bulging bicep, Rein knew the man would’ve torn him apart, limb by limb.

The size of the lackey’s arm bothered Rein. Bulging was an understatement. It was more like a quivering, mountainous muscular mass. All of him, not just the arms. Rein’s eyebrows dipped as he studied the man. Lukas’ neck was thicker than the width of his head, and powerful tendons stretched under the skin. His tank was pulled tightly over a chest that could crack coconuts and a sculpted stomach that would put most men to shame. Rein was damn sure that Lukas hadn’t been that size just a few days ago.

“You have noticed,” Aalexis said, pulling Rein’s attention away. “He
is
bigger.”

Lukas folded his flexed arms over his puffed-out chest. Smugness poured off him.

Rein shrugged, then winced as the muscles pulled around his wound. “So? He’s been working out?”

“Yes. But there is more. He has help from a little cocktail Xaver and I have concocted, and a bit of DNA manipulation of stem cells injected into specific muscle groups. Simply put, it floods testosterone into the system, better than the body produces naturally. As you can see.” With her finger, she traced one of the many indentations carving his upper arm. “Also, his fighting techniques have improved drastically. The new training Xaver and I have designed is producing the most splendid results.”

Judging by the way Lukas watched Aalexis as she talked and touched him, Rein figured there was much more than just hero worship going on, which was more than a little sickening. Although her mature body said differently, Ellyssa’s sister was too young for the twenty-somethingyear-old man. Gross on so many levels.

Pulling her hand away, much to Lukas’ visible disappointment, Aalexis continued, “Imagine what a whole army could do.”

Much to his growing horror, Rein imagined it.

THE END

There are so many people to thank for helping me through Flawed.

First, I’d like to send a truckload of gratitude and virtual chocolate to all the readers and bloggers and my beta-readers for being absolutely wonderful. If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t be writing an acknowledgement.

I have to extend a special thank you to all the people at Spencer Hill Press. To the awesome Kate Kaynak, for seeing what I could see in the Perfection trilogy. To Vikki Ciaffone, editor extraordinaire, who is always there to hold my hand. Both of you just absolutely rock. A jumbo-jet plane full of thanks to Richard Shealy, Owen Dean, Rich Storrs, and Marie Romero, all of whom are so full of awesomeness that words cannot even begin to describe. I hope to make each and every one of you proud.

To my mom for showing me that nothing is impossible.

To my wonderful children and granddaughter. You all make me prouder each and every day.

Judy lives in Texas, where she wanders out in the middle of the night to look at the big and bright stars. Besides knocking imaginary bad guys in the head with a keyboard, she enjoys being swept away between the pages of a book, running amuck inside in her own head, pretending she is into running, and hanging out with her kids, who are way too cool for her.