Elysia: Ignite [Elysia Trilogy Book 1] (EDITING) ✔

CH14: The Renegade

Jessica

I wasn't aware of how bloody our clothes must be until we reached the road where all the vehicles were parked. The three of us stopped in a line and evened our breaths, while I was processing every piece of information we were yet to spill out before them all. Heck, there was a lot to explain. Pink (I vaguely remembered Jerome King calling the raider by a name but couldn't recall what it was so I settled with Pink in my head) pulled her silver freq out from her pocket and lightly clicked the button on the top after pressing a certain series of numbers and letters on it. She was probably contacting her mates who were waiting outside the Canyon territory.

"Boss, it's confirmed," she said.

"What? No fib?" Click.

"Yeah." Click.

"Let me talk to King." Click.

I scoffed and lowered my head, putting my mouth against the silver freq to blurt: "He's a goner. You be gone, too," pretty scornfully. My eyes flickered up to Pink's. She met the gaze and then clicked the button for me. This was the first time I got to study her golden eyes, which, according to my intuition, was pumping the fuel into the enigmatic and deadly air that hung tightly about her.

"What the fuck does 'gone' mean?" Click. Sharde's voice was near hysterical.

"Dead." Click. The raider really provided no other information. Here I was thinking I would never find someone less talkative than Mikhailov.

"Dead? Murdered? The bitch murdered him?" Click. Her voice was becoming annoyingly squeaky beyond the channel, just like the brassy noise of metal scratching against another block of metal. I rolled my eyes impatiently and snatched the freq from Pink's hand and turning around, paced back and forth. I could sense all eyes fixed on me-even the ones staying inside the cars were pressing against the windows, possibly wondering where the hell all the blood had come from and why we were luckily short of one detestable individual.

"Oh, I wish I had, but the bastard was slaughtered by a mutated mountain lion with three eyes feasting on the intestines of our dear Elysian Patrol Leader. Listen, Sharde. We have the documents, we have the evidence, and your marvelous dragon-slayer of a friend here has testified that everything I said is true. Now. Why don't you pack it up and go find someone else to bother? I'm sure there's plenty of other souls out there in the Wasteworld for you to plunder. Thank you, and goodbye. P.S. Sorry for killing your guys." Click.

I tossed it back to Pink, and she tilted her head at me with raised eyebrows. She wasn't smiling (I wasn't sure if that was a function she was compatible with) but I could bet on Erik's mom that she was at least a tad bit amused by my sarcastic speech.

"Damn you!" The woman screeched. The freq let out a pathetic sound from the volume overload. "I swear I'll tear out your spine from your filthy flesh one day." I looked at Erik. He shrugged with a solemn face. "But I've this boy with me, girl. My boys are very interested in skinning 'im. You want me gone, come and see me first. Or else you'll reunite with what's left of him." Click.

Huh? What the hell was she talking about?

Erik and I met eyes but his expression was not as flummoxed as mine. This was a piece of information new to me alone. Just in time, my freq let out a static noise and Josiah's voice cracked out of it.

"Sica, if you're done, let's go. They have Soeun." Click.

"Who has who?" I wondered out loud.

"Our gang took your team member for insurance," Pink stated matter-of-factly. This was not a light matter like she was making it sound like. I blinked several times.