Embers & Ice

Chapter Sixteen

She took her time, scrubbing herself and rinsing out her hair, pausing every now and then to glance at her withered reflection in the grimy tiles. After a while, she couldn’t handle the cold any longer. She switched off the tap and patted herself down. The bathroom felt eerie and in the back corner, a tube light twitched like a scene from a horror movie. Hunter, however, had seen too many horrors there to be afraid of anything.

She was just dipping her toes into her jumpsuit when the bathroom door creaked open and shut tightly.

Hunter was used to other girls seeing her naked in the showers by then, and so she didn’t even bother to shy away when she heard someone enter. But a moment later, there came a sense of heated male testosterone in the air and Hunter looked up to see not a female striding towards her but a guard, fierce determination and a crazy gleam in his roaming blue eyes.

Jamison.

Hunter’s heart dropped. She started backing away as he came closer. His shoes splashed in the fresh puddles. He didn’t say a word, but his eyes screamed desperately at her. She knew that look. She’d seen it in the hungry and wanting stares of two men in an alleyway.

“What are you-”

Jamison lunged for her. She stumbled backwards and slipped on the wet floor, nothing but her cotton underwear to cushion her fall. Her bones cracked painfully against the tiles. She was just about to usher out a scream when he fell down upon her and pressed his hand over her mouth. It smelled of sweat and metal.

“Don’t speak,” he growled. His blue eyes were glittering with a desire she’d seen countless times in many of the guards. He pinned her down hard on the cold floor, keeping one hand over her mouth as the other reached down for the zipper on his pants.

Hunter’s heart was pounding in her chest, desperate to be free. She was lost in a spiral of memories of that snowy night in New York, the night she found out about her past and her powers, the night she was so out of control that she killed a man. Back then it felt like she deserved to die, that her powers were demonic and she was out of control. But they had saved her. And there, beneath the strong and vicious man, she was weaker than she’d ever been.

What’s worse; she didn’t have her powers to protect her.

For the first time in forever, Hunter felt truly helpless. She had absolutely no strength to pry him off. Punching bags did nothing when it came to having a two hundred and twenty pound muscled man pressed down upon her. She wriggled furiously, but it did no good. She screamed as loud as she could, but no one came. And even if they were stumbled upon, would anyone care? She knew Dr. Wolfe certainly wouldn’t.

“Ever since I saw you Fire Girl,” he hissed, his face buried into her chest, “I wanted to get my hands on-”

Hunter bit down on his palm and he cried out, releasing her mouth from his grasp. Hunter let out a shriek before he threw his hand across her face. The slap was so hard that her jaw rattled and tears blurred her eyes.

“You little bitch,” he growled. His grip was so tight that it bruised her skin instantly. “Oh you’ll pay for that.”

Hunter struggled to keep his hands from pinning her down again. Jamison only laughed and forced her down harder.

And then a miracle occurred. Two large hands wrapped around Jamison’s throat and yanked him backwards with so much force, his neck nearly snapped. Hunter choked on a gasp and pushed herself up in time to see Will standing over the man, his entire body rippling with rage, hunched but still huge and menacing. He thrust his foot into the guard’s chest, causing him to cough harshly and double over on the floor.