Page 356 of Immune

He chose me in all the places instinct couldn’t reach.

My chest aches so badly I almost forget the gun under my jaw. Almost.

The leader shifts his footing badly. His first mistake is assuming the drugs made me harmless. His second mistake is assuming leverage works best when held close. It doesn’t.

I let my body sag just a little and his arm tightens automatically, trying to keep me upright. So I drop my weight fully, my throat dragging painfully against his forearm. But the angle changes and the pistol slips half an inch from beneath my jaw, screwing with his little human blackmail attempt. After all, half an inch is a whole world apart when you’re desperate.

My hand snaps up without speed or grace, but it’s fast and accurate enough to do the job. I grab his wrist with both hands and shove the gun away as it fires. The bullet cracks into the ceiling with a bone-rattling explosion, my ears ringing with the sound of it just as Fletcher fires.

His bullet hits the leader’s shoulder, spinning him away from me.

I drop and Kaito moves.

The leader tries to recover.

Xeon’s stolen gun fires once from the doorway, taking out the guard behind him before the man can interfere. Ewan slams the panel again, and every alarm outside shrieks higher, louder, and uglier.

Maine storms forward with a sound I have never heard from him before. Not a shout or a sob, but a promise lined with rage. He drives the butt of the shotgun into the leader’s knee and the joint breaks sideways. The leader screams as he drops to the floor.

I land on one hand and one knee, pain bursting so bright I nearly vomit. The knife is still in my grip, though. Somehow, wonderfully and horrifyingly and beautifully, it’s still in my hand.

The leader reaches for the fallen pistol so I slam the knife through his hand. He screams again, a shrill sound that rivals a Runner’s shriek. I lean over him, breathing hard, hair falling around my face, drugs making the edges of him blur.Then I rasp, “A bit of advice for you? You should think about not touching things that don’t belong to you.”

His face twists. “You stupid girl. You think killing me changes what you are?”

“Nope,” I say, my voice shaking with the effort it’s taking me to stay upright. I hate that, but I keep going anyway. “But you know what it does change? You. It changes you.”

He laughs, breathless and haggard and ruined. “I’m necessary for the survival of humanity.”

“You are a wrinkled old man with clean gloves standing in a warehouse full of cages,” I counter.

A Zed slams against the hallway barrier beyond the open door and the metal bows. Another alarm dies, then another. Looks like the building has started chewing on itself now.

Vector’s weapon.

Vector’s walls.

Vector’s dead.

All turning inward.

The leader sees it and, for the first time, real and honest fear finally crosses his face. Then he mutters harshly, “You’re nothing without what’s in your blood.”

I smile. It hurts but seriously, what doesn’t hurt right now? My knee hurts, my arm hurts, my face hurts. Hell, even my hair follicles are hurting. Literally everything hurts, but I try not to show it on my face as I grin down at the bag of bones who thinks he’s so much more than what he is. An old man in a world that doesn’t need him.

“You know, that’s actually really funny,” I whisper, voice laced with a danger I’m sure is showing in my eyes as I stare down at the man. “I was always something before anyone cared about my blood.”

Kaito appears at my side, blade in hand. Not taking over. Not moving me aside. Just beside me. Fletcher covers the halland Ewan works the radio, voice low and vicious as he sends guards in circles straight toward their own released Runners. Maine stands behind me, breathing like he is holding himself together by sheer force alone.

Xeon watches the leader, then me. Waiting. All of them are waiting. Not for NOVAC or the bonds, simply waiting for me.

The cold at the edge of my mind offers a clean ending.

Distance.

Pulse.

Threat.