All That Remains

18. Elias

"Elias, wait."

Elias ignored Jae's pleas as he stalked toward the hospital entrance. His grief was overshadowed by an all-consuming rage that flowed through his entire body. It pulsed and thrummed through his veins, increasing with each step he took. He didn't care what she had to say now, all that mattered was that greasy-haired, slimy, murderous lizard was stopped. He would do whatever it took to take him down.

"Elias, wait. Please." There was a desperate edge to her voice as she tried to grab ahold of his arm, her fingers barely grazing his skin. "It's a trap!"

That finally caught his attention. Stopping in his tracks, he turned around to face her. "What do you mean?"

"Think about this for a second okay?" she begged, her eyes wide and round, her cheeks flushed. "This is a trap, it has to be. Lorenzo is drawing you in."

As always, Jae was a step ahead of him. Of course this was a trap; a ploy carefully orchestrated by Lorenzo. He had left Emmanuel out in the open for Elias to see, calling him in so that he could be next on the surgical table. Elias knew he should be terrified, that he would be the next to die. Lorenzo was a killer and Elias was just a naïve and sheltered teenager.

But, at the moment all he could feel was the intense anger that stemmed from his heart and filled his body. The only thing that mattered now, was revenge. "And I'm supposed to care, why?"

"Because he could kill you!" Jae insisted. Elias thought she had sounded desperate before, but now she seemed to be bordering on hysterical. Her voice cracked on the last word and she finally managed to grasp his upper arm, squeezing tightly.

Elias shrugged, truly nonchalant about his impending death for the first time in his life. "I don't give a shit."

"Well, I do," she admitted, her cheeks turning a darker shade of crimson. "I give a shit about you. Please, Eli. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Jaelynn." He sighed impatiently, as though her caring about him was an inconvenience. Which, in his current state of mind, it was. "Lorenzo killed my father. He has to die."

"Killing someone damages you, Eli," she tried to explain, though Elias could see she was close to giving up trying to convince him. "You won't come back from this."

"Well, you would know," he muttered nastily.

She flinched as though he had physically slapped her, taking a step back from him and releasing his arm. Elias could see the tears shining in her eyes and knew that he had, once again, hit a nerve. He wanted to apologize, but he couldn't find the words, too consumed by the burning rage that lit his whole body on fire.

"He has Eden," he said instead, as though it was an explanation for his cruelty. "I have to save her before he does this to her. We're wasting time."

With that he turned around and headed straight to the double glass doors of the hospital, not even bothering to look back and see if she was following him. A reception greeted him, with a large, curved desk in the far corner and a line of lime green plastic chairs along one white wall. Papers littered the tiled floor and hallways branched out from either side of the room, leading both ways.

Without pausing, Elias took the one on the left, hoping it would lead him to any one from the Pride. He strode through the empty white corridors, looking into every single room as he went past. Just behind him, he could hear the soft patter of footsteps and assumed it was Jae, but he didn't turn to look, too engrossed in his mission.

A couple of the rooms had clearly been ransacked, and others looked like someone was staying in them. He slipped into one, searching for anything he could use as a weapon. His eyes landed on a scalpel and he grabbed it, weighing the small object in his hands. He could probably find something better, but he was in too much of a rush to get there, so he took it, hoping it would be enough.