Holocaust (The Deadwood Hunter Series Book 3) (11 page)

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Lifting it out, she glanced at the screen seeing Derrick’s name. Ignoring it, she let the phone slide back, but he only called back, again and again until she answered.

“What?” She hissed.

“L– I’ve been informed your meeting finished. Why are you not here training your unit?”

“I’m busy, Derrick. You’ll have to be me today,” she replied in a hushed tone.

“Lexia,” Derrick whispered into the phone annoyed, “what are you up to?”

“Revenge,” she replied, the word rolling off her tongue with a smile. Lexia ended the call. Sarah had just walked past her door.

Sweet revenge.

Opening the door, careful not to make a sound, Lexia stalked Sarah through the compound pouncing on her when she’d entered a part of the compound that very rarely had traffic.

Sarah’s breath blew out of her in a startled gasp. Her eyes went huge as she stared at Lexia.

“Tell me, Sarah, was it you who lead them to my father?” Lexia asked in a quiet, menacing tone, her hand gripping around Sarah’s neck.

Sarah trembled, her head shaking in answer.

“What were you doing in my kitchen then?”

“I c-came to warn him,” she rasped, trying to suck in a breath.

“I’m going to take a step back. Do not run or shout. You’d be dead before the first syllable left your mouth.”

“Okay,” Sarah whispered hoarsely.

Lexia let go of Sarah and took a deliberately slow step back, her eyes ever watching. Studying Sarah, Lexia made a decision and allowed the power inside of her to slip away. She let go of her anger and need for revenge, the emotions keeping her together, and allowed Sarah to see what was beneath. Broken, fractured Lexia.

“My God,” Sarah whispered stunned, looking a little horrified. “You’re really still the girl he raised.”

Her words cut more than she could have expected. She saw the image of herself from just a year ago and longed to be that girl again. “No, Sarah, I’m not. Too much blood coats my hands to ever be her again, but I’m not like my mother. I wish to stop her, to stop everything around you. Can you help?” Lexia waited nervously, wondering if she’d just made a vital mistake. Would her hands be coated with more blood by tonight?

Sarah contemplated her words, the look in her eyes saying she wanted to help but was choked by fear.

Lexia added, “If you’ve a family to protect, I understand. After all, I’m here right now because going with Lucy was the only option I had to keep my mate safe.”

Sarah frowned at the word ‘mate’ but shook it off. “I have family but I fear I will never save them. Ross and Zac, they are here.”

“Here?” Lexia asked shocked,
Zac, Zac…Why is that name so familiar?
Then she pictured him. He was quiet, kept under the radar, but inside he was full of sadness. “You turned your own sons into hunters?”

“You must remember when I joined this program, we set out to save the men and women who fight for this country. My first son, I lost him on his first tour. I wanted no one to ever feel how I felt, how my family felt.” Sarah was full of a sadness, a desperate hope to save the sons she had left.

“How did this program become so lost?” Lexia murmured, more to herself then Sarah. It was difficult to imagine a time when her mother worked for a good cause, side by side with her father and countless others who wanted to save people, not destroy.

“The experiment went ahead too quickly, and the side-effects of the hunter gene were not discovered until it was too late. By then, your mother had already under gone the change. When problems started to arise, she didn’t care. It escalated to the point that the government had no choice but to shut it down.”

“Yet, it wasn’t. Here we stand, more hunters, my mother on a rampage.” Lexia shook her head. “The government didn’t care. They just wanted to wash their hands of this mess. They must know of this place, of the men and women being sent here.” Lexia glared at Sarah, wanting answers; finally she’d found someone who’d been there from the beginning. Someone who could tell her how this mess, this hell, was being cleaned up by a twenty-year-old woman.

“Some are aware,” Sarah said quietly. “Some are supporters, and some are just scared.”

Lexia laughed bitterly. “Scared?” She turned away, pulling her hands through her hair roughly, frustrated at the cowards of this world. “Do you not think the people here are scared? God, I’m scared. Scared of what my mother has planned. Scared I’ll never free those who follow me.”

“The world is full of cowards I’m afraid,” Sarah told her.

“That’s it?” Lexia snapped, spinning to face her. “That’s all you’ve got for me?” She looked at her in disgust. “You’re a coward like the rest of them.”

Sarah looked shocked by Lexia’s anger. Standing wide-eyed she didn’t speak for a moment. “I’m maybe not as brave as you, but I’m no coward. For years I have worked against this place.”

“You are here doing my mother’s bidding,” Lexia scoffed. “Sorting out
the degrade
whatever that is.”

“The degrade is when a hunter begins to crack under the weight of all they’ve been ordered to do. Most hunters show small signs in the first year. Most go mad in the third. Lucy believes the more humanity a hunter has, the quicker they degrade. When the recruits go through their final tests, they are tested on the level of humanity they possess.”

“And then what?” Lexia asked, not sure she had it in her to know the answer.

“Some are terminated, others put through an extensive re-programing. Others had little comprehension of right and wrong to begin with.”

“Every one of the recruits made it through this year,” Lexia said quietly. Knowing she’d put them in danger, helping them to conceal what they feel. She’d helped them avoid one danger, only to walk right into another. “What does Lucy suspect?”

“I believe she thinks her little adjustments to the formula have solved the problem, though I cannot be certain. Lucy is very good at hiding her true intent.”

“You said you were working against this place. How?” Lexia waited for an answer, for Sarah to tell her all so this soon would be over.

“I’m working on a cure,” she answered quietly.

“Cure? How close are you?”

The pause before she answered told Lexia all she needed to know; not close.

“I’m missing something. I’m so close I can feel it. Yet…something is missing.”

“You’re of no use to me,” Lexia muttered angrily, walking away.

“Wait,” Sarah hissed, catching up to her.

Lexia paused, aware time was slipping away and soon the humans would be moving around. “Be quick.”

“I know people, people who are afraid but want this program to end, for good.”

“What use are they to me if they are cowards?”

“Get rid of Lucy and the board and they have nothing to fear.”

“Board?” Lexia said, turning to face Sarah. Staring at her intently, she watched the emotions behind her eyes as she spoke.

“A group of six who help run this place. Each has an agenda, some input.”

“Who are they?” Lexia asked, grabbing at the first piece of information she’d had that could help. She felt sick waiting for Sarah’s answer. Was she about to give her the names of those she needed to kill?

“I do not know.” Lexia’s face fell. “Wait, Lexia, they’re human. I know that. Connected to this place from the beginning, your mother is the leader. Find the other five and I can convince my friends to help. Just five names, Lexia.”

A door opened in the distance, voices flooded the corridors.

“The humans, they’ve finished for the day. I’ll be in touch.” Lexia rushed away, her mind a jumble.
Just five names, Lexia.
Yet it wasn’t just a list of names she needed. Once she had the list, she had to put a face to the name and then wipe that face from existence.

I’m one step closer, one more piece to the puzzle. I will do this. I will free my people.

Lexia woke with a start, her eyes frantically looking for the danger that had woken her, before realizing it was another nightmare. Slumping against her pillow with a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. It was barely morning, 3 am. She’d stayed awake as long as possible, too afraid to sleep, too afraid to endure another night of dreams, dreams full of the horrible, unforgiving things she’d done.

This is my punishment.

Swinging her legs out of bed, Lexia padded to her little bathroom and splashed some water on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked tired; her eyes red and drained with dark shadows beneath them. Keeping up this façade was taking its toll. She wondered what would become of her when this was finally over.

There was no point in trying to sleep again. She could feel the horror just below the surface, waiting for the moment she slept and then the nightmare would drag her back again.

Might as well go run.

Dressing quickly, she was walking through the corridors minutes later. When she did her usual scan to make sure no one else walked the corridors with her, she felt an aura. Her mother’s aura.

What are you doing, Mother?

Turning back, Lexia’s feet carried her swift and silent. She slipped inside an empty room and waited for her to pass. Lexia followed Lucy, keeping her in her mind’s eye and staying far enough back so Lucy wouldn’t hear.

Lucy went out the same door as Lexia used and rolled under the piece of fencing that was loose.

So that’s why it’s not been fixed.

Following Lucy through the forest wasn’t difficult. She’d have been able to follow her even without the light from her flashlight. Lucy didn’t have the same skills as Lexia. A shifter hadn’t trained her. Lexia was at home within the forest, silent as the panther she’d run with. Lucy was an intruder. She didn’t belong. She crashed her way through the trees, snapping twigs, brushing leaves and vines, the beam from her flashlight alerting her to all who called the forest home.

Why are you coming back here? There is nothing out here but trees.

The further Lucy went, the harder the terrain became but she seemed to know where she was going. Around twenty-five minutes later, Lexia heard her talk.

“What are you doing out here? It’s safer inside.” Lexia was surprised at the tone of her voice. It wasn’t sharp…but concerned.

“I’m in the middle of nowhere. Plus I need a smoke.” Lexia didn’t recognize the woman’s voice.

Climbing high into a nearby tree, Lexia crept along a sturdy branch until she could see her mother in the dim light of the flashlight. Lexia couldn’t see the woman Lucy was with, just the glow of her cigarette.

“Well if you’re finished, shall we go in?” Lucy asked.

“Lead the way,” the woman replied.

The beam of light briefly shone over the woman. She wore a white lab coat like the humans at the compound. The dim light highlighted scars running down one side of her face. Lucy focused the light on the handle of the door she pushed through and then they were gone.

As Lexia sat in the tree waiting for Lucy to return, she noticed she wasn’t the only one to have noticed her little trips. Hearing the softest of rustles to her left, Lexia reached out with her senses picking up the energies of wolves. They crept slowly toward the building and then waited just as Lexia did.