Chapter Twenty-Nine
Elle's POV
'Who is it?'
We could hear horrific sounds from the hallways, cries and war calls that caffeinated our hearts. The lights flickered, the generators whirling, and then they died, plunging the room into darkness.
We'd moved Lachlan over to the corner of the room, out of the way, where he cowered, bent over and trembling. His eyes were wide as he muttered nonsensical things to the shadows in the room. His breakdown had scared Kendra enough that she helped me move items across the room, the furniture scraping and squealing as we crafted a blockade against the door.
'Lachlan!' Kendra snapped, 'Don't just sit there. God, you're useless.'
I pushed her aside, crouching beside him so our faces were level. 'Lachlan,' I placed a feather-light touch on his arm. 'I need you to listen for a moment. Kendra and I need to know who is coming. We need to be prepared.'
'I can smell them.' He whimpered, staring at the ground, rocking on his heels. 'They smell of hatred and death.'
'Who is it, Lachlan?'
He looked up, his eyes drowning with fear. 'Hunters.'
A bang on the door ricocheted through the room.
I gasped, looking sharply towards the sound, my heart matching the thundering echo of the door.
The assault kept sounding. The clang of metal was like thunder across the room. Lachlan turned his eyes away, humming a haunting tune to drown out the noise.
'There's a back door!' Kendra cried, ducking as the door rattled with a bang. 'One of the hinges has broken off. I couldn't get through alone, but maybe if we try together.'
Lachlan groaned, his face paling. Kendra and I, without words, hooked him over our shoulders and dragged him into the backroom, ignoring his pain. 'I don't want to go.'
I pressed my mouth into a flat line, sharing a look with Kendra, 'You'll die if you don't.'
His body was limp, and his feet trailed along the ground. 'I'll die either way.' He croaked.
'God,' Kendra sighed, 'I'll just shoot you now if that's what you believe.'
The noise sounded louder in this room, each bang sending tremors through my bones. The silence was worse, anxiety flooding my veins, sweat slickening my body. I held my breath, listening for signs they had gotten in.
I removed the pipe from the sink in the bathroom, and Kendra tore a loose plank from the floor. Together we huddled by the door, trying to break free so we could escape into the corridor.
'Hang on,' I snapped, staring at the hinge. 'This isn't a security hinge, Kendra!'
'A what?'
'We had them installed in the hotel staff rooms last year. They're designed with special pins that make it impossible to break them.' I snagged Kendra's wood piece, studying the edge, 'These are standard hinges. They haven't been replaced in decades.'
'So what?'
'You can break them, pop them loose.' I snarled, pushing her out of the way. 'I was curious when they were being replaced, I asked the handyman what the difference between them was, and he showed me how to break a standard hinge. I just need to get in between the pin and the hinge so I can force it up.'
'Elliot?'
I looked back at Lachlan. His eyes were focused on the other room, his mouth opening and closing without sound, like a fish out of water. I heard it then, the scrapping of furniture across the wooden floorboards.
The room went cold, and suddenly Kendra and I moved quicker than we'd ever done before.
I fumbled with the wooden plank, struggling to catch the pin.
Once.
Twice.
Three times I failed to unhinge the pin.
The fourth time, I was successful.
I held it steady while Kendra hammered the end with the metal pole.
We lost it twice in the process, but it eventually popped loose.
We threw our bodies against the metal door until it buckled under our weight, and we tumbled into the unlit corridor.
'Wait.' I caught the back of Kendra's shirt. 'We need to get Lachlan.'
We turned back. Lachlan stood in the doorway between our rooms, clutching the frame for strength. His back was to us, and a silver chain dangled between his fingers. It was Priya's.
'Elle!'
Kendra tore at my shirt, pulling me away from him.
'No!'
I fought back, clawing at the door, grappling for some purchase.
'Lachlan!'
He didn't look back. He stepped into the room, closing the door to the hallway, and I heard the lock slide into place.
Suddenly Kendra was no longer pulling me away, her hands replaced by gloved ones, which twisted my wrists together behind my back and forced me to turn away. A click like a nerf gun firing a styrofoam bullet sounded, and the dead weight of a body thudded to the ground.
I couldn't breathe. 'This isn't happening.'
My arms felt weak, and my legs buckled. My chest ached for his pain, and I inhaled shakily.
One tear spilled down my cheek.
Followed by another.
And then a third.
A torrent of tears for the boy who had broken my heart. Tears for a boy who had only been searching for a love that was great enough to fill the void. A boy who hadn't been vicious in his lie, only desperate, searching, needing.
Needing something that we all searched for, something that we all craved. Something that had been snatched from him too early, leaving only pain behind.
But now the pain was gone, stolen away from the sweet relief of death.
***
They marched us down the hallway. Six of them, all in armoured clothes with weapons strapped to their waists.
Two of them walked in front of us, a girl who couldn't have been much older than us and a man who could have been in his sixties. One held my wrists in bondage, twisting them painfully as he propelled us forward, and another held onto Kendra. Following at the flank were the last two, a stout man with an impish grin and a boy in his twenties who looked familiar, like I had seen him before.
Like a summoning from the gods, Tim appeared at the end of the hallway under the harsh light of their torches. Blood was smeared across his body like a Jackson Pollock painting, and his eyes flashed with an animalistic urgency.
His arms were tightened around the writhing body of a hunter, a hardened scowl on his face.
'Let them go.'
The hunter who held me pushed us forward, and we jostled between the others until we were at the front. 'Your prisoners are no longer yours to torment.' He declared steadily, his voice booming through the passageway.
'I said, LET THEM GO!'
Tim's hands slithered up the hunter's neck, and he held them there, squeezing as the hunter gasped for air.
They refused.
Tim sneered, huffing with indignation as he twisted his grip, and the hunter fell away, limp. 'The rest of your group is dead. Let them go, and I will make sure your deaths are quick.'
I'd been bounded and dragged across the compound, so much so that I no longer feared what would come. I rolled my eyes, realising Tim's threat would not affect them. Their options were of two deaths, but at least the option left unsaid alluded to some chance of escape.
My parents were hunters, or so everyone said. Perhaps they were waiting for me, and I would survive, or maybe they weren't, and I would die at the expense of Kaden's sanity. Either way, the hunters brought an end to this suffering.
Tim had made a mistake because now that he was unprotected by the life of one of their own, they did not hesitate.
She had snuck off, like an owl in the night, and Tim was the mouse, her prey. She leapt out from a corridor. She was close enough to kill him, but his hand shot out towards her just as she got within firing range, and he hung her in the air by her throat.
She hung limply, his fingers biting the soft flesh under her jaw. She convulsed, kicking weakly with her feet, but she didn't have the strength to make contact.
As he turned to look at her, his grip loosened, and he stumbled backwards. He stared at her, his mouth gaping wordlessly.
She took her chance, rushing towards him with her pinching claw-like metal attachment. As Tim recognised his soulmate, she plunged the hand into his chest and pried open the claw, ripping a cavity where his heart was, pulling the organ from his chest as it beat silently.
'No!'
Kendra's cry echoed through the passageway as her legs buckled. She didn't cry, clenching her jaw as she watched the girl push Tim onto the ground, her body quivering with unspoken resentment.
Lachlan's words rang in my head 'soulmates must meet at least once in their lifetime, even if that time is only short,' and I wondered if that was why I had met Kaden.
They seemed happy with the death, but their victory was short-lived. As soon as Tim's body fell upon the stone, it was as though his last breath had summoned eight wolves. They barrelled down the tunnel, snapping and snarling ferociously. The markings on their bodies showed that they were warriors of the Umbra pack.
It was over as quickly as it had started. Five of the hunters went down, death taking their souls, while the sixth was only injured; he was hauled up onto the back of a wolf and carted down the passageway guarded by four wolves.
The remaining three surrounded Kendra and me, making an escape impossible. The biggest wolf shifted back, draping a robe over his shoulders.
'You've cost us our alphas, you brought upon this pack the sins of the hunters, and for this, you will be put on trial.'
'We didn't ask for this!'
'For your crimes, the punishment is death. For your crimes, you will be punished.'
'Tim took us. Tim held us here! He caused this.'
'Your relation to the hunters has brought pain and suffering into the Umbra pack. This day will not be forgotten as a time of mourning.'