Anarchy Found (35 page)

Two brothers. Two sides to every story.

“Kill her, Lincoln,” Thomas says.

“No,” Atticus says. “Get her out of here. I’ll do your part, Lincoln. I’ll help Thomas and Case and then I’ll go home and no one will ever know I was here.”

“I’ll go with her,” Will says from behind Case. He’s the smallest of us Alphas. A couple years younger than me. “I don’t want to kill anyone, you guys. I’ll take care of the Omega. I know a place.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Thomas snarls at Will. “I should kill you myself, you sniveling piece of shit. You’re gonna do your part, just like—”

“No,” I say, cutting Thomas off. “I like this idea. I’m not shoving her out a window and telling her to run without help. That’s a death sentence. She’ll die tonight. She has no bond to Will, he can help her better than anyone.” I walk over to Will and grab him by the shirt. “You better take care of her, Will. Because if I find out you fucked up and she got hurt, I’ll chop your goddamned head off.”

“I will,” he says, swallowing down his fear. “I promise.”

I look at my brothers one by one and then say, “I’ll meet you downstairs in ten minutes.”

Thump-
thump
.

Thump-
thump
.

“Lincoln,” Thomas says. “Don’t die on me, brother. I really do need you.”

“Change him,” Case says. I try to open my eyes, but it’s hopeless. “Change him, Sheila.”

“Do it,” Thomas says.

“I can’t,” Sheila says. “It’s irreversible. He’s been ready for the change for more than a year and he never initiated it. It’s not my decision.”

“He has no say now, Sheila.” Thomas sounds angry, but Sheila won’t respond to that. “He is going to die. I’ve got my fucking hand on his heart, pumping it myself. He’s going to die. So get that jellyfish shit out, put it in the vector, and shoot him up right fucking now!”

“Do it,” I whisper.

“Shhh,” Case says. “Lincoln?”

“Do it,” I croak again.

I want to say more. I want to tell Thomas to stop squeezing my heart because he’s creepy as hell and I don’t want him touching me. I want to tell Case to calm down, I’m fine. I’m gonna be fine. He’s gonna be fine. I’m gonna make sure he’s not left standing empty-handed when all this is over. I want to tell Sheila—

I’m here, Lincoln
, she says inside my head.

Sheila.

Are you sure about this? You can’t go back once I start phase two.

I’m sure. I’ve never been more sure. Make me mean, Sheila. Make me the meanest motherfucker that Old Man never imagined. I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna end him in a way this town will never forget.

I have a lot more to say, but a warm infusion rushes into my veins and the only thing left on my mind is Molly.

I will get her back. I will make that old man pay.

I will be Alpha in every way.

Just not the way he imagined.

Chapter Forty-Seven - Molly

His guards grab me by my bound wrists and throw me face first into the glass-walled cell. I’m in the top of the spire, possibly very close to where I first met the Old Man at breakfast. And I have an expansive view of the stars above and the city beyond.

Well, Atticus, I’m pretty sure this was not what you meant when you said I really need to see the top of the spire at night.

I have no frame of reference for this. I have no experience. I mean, yeah, I was that Omega kid and they did terrible things to me that I dealt with, recovered from, and stood back up to live another day. But that was fifteen years ago.

My life since then has been relatively tame. No one has been trying to kill me. Not even in the military. I was recruited with a specific career path in mind, I was never trained for a war zone. And yes, I’m good at protecting myself. I’ve got moves thanks to my brother and my training. But what good are they when I’m not allowed to fight back?

Just the anger I have when I think about killing Alastair Montgomery makes me sick. I swallow down the bile that churns in my stomach.

The glass wall opens and the Old Man walks in. “Are you ready, Molly?”

I’m not. Whatever it is, I’m not. But I have to ask. “Ready for what?”

“To reach your full potential, of course.”

“What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t just kidnap people. You can’t just steal me away. The department will come looking, you know.”

He grunts. “I own that department, Molly. You’re actually quite stupid for being one of my Prodigies. I would have killed you years ago if Alpha Three hadn’t stolen you from me.”

“You’re sick.”

“No.” He laughs one of those diabolical laughs. “I’m insightful. I predicted your downfall the minute you were introduced to Alpha Three. Oh, he took to you right away, as was the plan. But everything about you said weak. Still,” he says, his tone thoughtful, “if the Alpha thought you had potential, well, he was one of my creations after all. I needed to heed his opinion. Which is why I was so pleased when Will, Alpha Four, was instructed by Lincoln to watch over you.”

“W-w-what?”

“Oh, you poor baby. You don’t know that Will was mine? You didn’t ever suspect that we’d been changing you all along? A shot here, a broken ankle needing medical attention there. That appendicitis when you were twelve?” He snickers.

“What?” I instantly feel sicker.

“You’ve been mine since the beginning, Omega Three. And I’m sorry your adopted father caught on to the fact that Martha was your real mother. That was an unfortunate accident he had.”

“You killed him?”

“What do you think, darling?”

“And Will too?”

“No.” Montgomery smiles, revealing enough teeth to make my stomach roll with a wave of disgust. “Lincoln took care of him.”

“No.” I shake my head. No. I can’t take any more of this. I seriously cannot.

“Oh, I’m sure he has lots of reasons, Molly. And I’m sure he’ll come soon, so you can ask him. But we don’t have much time. They are changing him now. Just like I will change you. And then we’ll see what happens.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“The project, Molly. He’s still my Alpha. I own him. And you’re going to make him submit to me. But just in case he can overpower you, I’m going to stack the deck in your favor. Put her on the table.”

The guards come at me, and even though I kick out and even strike one or two, they are too strong and throw me down on the stainless steel table. My feet are clamped into some metal restraints, and then the bindings on my hands are cut and each wrist is slammed down into similar cuffs near my hips.

“Good night, Molly.” The Blue Boar cackles over me as I am pushed out of the room and down a long hallway. “When you wake you will finally be what I made you.” His laugh floats down the hallway with me, piercing my head with his final word. “Mine.”

Chapter Forty-Eight - Lincoln

Thump-
thump
, goes my heartbeat.

Thump-
thump
.

“Lincoln?”

A wave of pain floods through my body.

“Lincoln? Can you hear me?”

Heat builds in my core. It feels like the flames of a furnace, reaching up to lick their way down my arms and into my hands. But then the heat disappears, leaving the vents in my palms feeling like charred paper.

“Lincoln? Open your eyes.”

The relief is temporary. Because as soon as one wave dissipates, another is already building. “Fire,” I croak out. But I’m fooling myself. My lips don’t move and no sound escapes.

“He needs to wake up,” Case says from somewhere off to my left. I want to tell him I’m awake, but the inferno is back. “He needs to control it, or he’s gonna burn up.”

Too late. I feel like my whole body is building towards an explosion.

I’m dying.

“I’m injecting the antagonist. He can’t go back under,” Sheila says. “He’s too weak.”

And then in my mind,
You’re OK, Lincoln. But you need to wake up and take control of it. It can’t run your body, only you can do that. You must take control
.

I have that moment of relief as the heat bursts forth from my palms and I relish it. I make that moment last. I concentrate on every part of my body that is free from pain before it washes over me again.
Help me
, I beg Sheila.
Help me
.

I can’t
, she says in my head.
I can’t do any more. You have to wake up and learn to deal with it.

“He’s semi-conscious, but unable to focus through the pain,” Sheila tells the others.

“Well, he needs to get past that,” Thomas says. “Attach the weapons. Maybe that will bring him up. And pump him with coolant, his temperature is lethal. I don’t know why he’s still alive.”

But I know why I’m still alive. They injected my DNA with the jellyfish neurons. As fast as the heat burns me up, I am healed and regenerated.

Drills start on my outer thighs as holes are bored into the plates that have been sitting dormant for years. The robot arms clamp down on my lower leg to keep me still.

I hear screaming and realize, to my horror, that it’s coming from me.

They work on me for eternity. I am in hell. I am caught in the deepest depths of hell, burning from the inside out. Wave after wave of intense energy flows through me, and one by one my hands and legs are clamped by the robotic arms as they work on me.

They add to me.

They change me.

Eventually I pass out from exhaustion and the darkness comes. I never want to leave the darkness.