Page 132 of Ravage
A guard appears in the doorway. “Hey, what’re you doing here?”
“I have a meeting with the congressman. Can you—” The man falls dead on the ground. “Or not.”
“He’ll come out,” Jack reassures me as he plucks his knife from the man’s eye. “I’m sure of it.”
Kellan sticks close to my side. When I give him a look for it, he raises an eyebrow with a cocky grin. “What is it, beautiful? Is my nearness distracting you?”
“I said you could watch my back. What I don’t need is you up my ass the entire time.” It comes out harsher than I intended, but I’m antsy for this to be over with. I need to know that Portia is safe and okay. I need to make sure we all get out of this in one piece. And the congressman must die.
Jackson slips his hand around mine and squeezes, then lets go. He knows exactly what’s running through my mind. I take the small comfort and wrap it around my heart. She will make it out of this.
Kellan’s grin remains stuck on his face, and he leans in close, his large hand rubbing down my back. “I can’t wait to see you use that fire on them. Let me know if I should just stand back to enjoy the show if these ungifted goons are all we’re going to be up against.”
“Don’t jinx it,” I mutter back at him.
We move into the next room and the sight lining the wall terrifies me.
Row upon stacked row of cages.
There must be a hundred of them.
Cages.
For humans.
Gifted people like us. Being treated like feral animals.
“They’re here,” Jackson murmurs under his breath. He nods at Kellan and then slips away between one of the rows of floor-to-ceiling cages.
Clapping echoes further down the dark aisle. Kellan and I stop.
“I’m impressed. You found me faster than I thought.” Joe appears around the corner at the end of the aisle. Three others follow after him.
He tsks as they continue to close the distance between us, stopping a few feet away. “But you didn’t bring the girl. And you brought others with you.” He shakes his head sadly. “I know you can do better than that.”
I ignore him and study the people with him. The guy and girl on his left look around my age and bored to be here. The man on his right is giving me a sinister smile and a serious case of the creeps.
He can die first.
I grab my gun and fire at him to do exactly that. The faster I take these guys down, the sooner I can make sure Portia is safe. I don’t have time for idle chit-chat.
The bullets slow before they reach him and then turn and shoot back at me.
Fuck.
Kellan dives in front of me and takes them both in the chest.
“Kell!”
He doesn’t budge from his spot planted before me and digs them each out to drop them on the concrete floor.
“Not a fucking chance,” he growls, flicking the second bullet away.
Jackson appears out of the shadows behind the guy. Knives are vibrating in the air ready for the attack.
Only…they don’t.
The guy on Joe’s right laughs and steps back and to the side so he has us all in front of him. “Good try, but I control all things metal. Your knives and bullets won’t work on me.”
