Jekyll, an Urban Fantasy (38 page)

“Eden, are you alright?” He knew he’d just growled. Not a human sound at all. Both Landon and Eden looked at him, their expressions telling him they’d heard it as well.

“Turner, don’t screw this up,” Landon warned. “Not now, man. Not now.”

What could he say—
‘I’ll try not to’
? He still felt the stare of Hyde01, his presence, calling out to Mitch’s Hyde like the serpent calling out to Adam and Eve. Seductive. But instead of an apple, he was offering peace. The peace Mitch knew he’d feel if he gave in to his evil, gave up the fight, and gave away his humanity.

There was nothing he could do about it, nothing he could do with that creature in the room. The need was primal, even more potent than poison. The venom tore through his veins, incapacitating him, rooting him to where he stood, even as he heard Eden calling for him. Begging him to help her.

He couldn’t. Once again she needed him, and once again he was unable to be who she needed.

“I can’t…fight.”

“Yes, you can, Mitch. You can fight. You can win.”

He saw the look on her face. The terror in her eyes as her gaze darted between the monster in the cage and…and…at Hyde. Numero sixteen.
Him
.

The facts crushed him, suffocated him. She’d
finally
seen what he really was, everything he’d ever tried to hide from her. It was all laid out to bare. He knew that she’d met Hyde—seen him, fought him—but it was something he tried not to think about too much. Because the pain was something he couldn’t live with. Knowing that she was looking at him and seeing Hyde instead sickened him. He prayed death was listening to his pleas. To end him. So he never again had to see that look on her face.

“I’m so sorry, Eden.” He knew he was repeating the words over and over, hearing her tell him she understood, that it would be okay, and a thousand other things. But he didn’t listen. He
couldn’t
listen. Because she was lying to him. How could she possibly understand? He wouldn’t be okay. Not ever.

Humiliation felt like a thousand swords piercing his gut. Like some sick bastard was dissecting him, prying apart his skin and then his ribcage. Exposing the ugliness that was inside. There was no way to stop, no way to take it back, no way to turn around and head in a different direction. Like hitting a brick wall at light-speed. This is now. Here. The end of all of him.

§ § §

Eden
did
understand. And she wept for him. She saw the shame and desperation in his face. Heard it in his voice. How many times had she told him that she understood? Ten? Had he even heard her? She saw what being in the room was doing to him, seeing another Hyde, feeling the same pulse of something unnatural that she did. But it looked like it was magnified in Mitch. Like every tendon, every muscle, every joint was frozen, his face filled with terror at something in himself he couldn’t control.

Oh no
. She hoped it was a trick of the light. That his eyes weren’t actually lightening, changing, transforming into Hyde’s. “Landon, you need to get him out of here! Now! He can’t do it alone, and without a key,
I
can’t help him.”

He turned towards Mitch. “Oh, shit.”

Though she couldn’t see his face, she heard the shock in his voice. “Get him out of here! Now. I’ll be fine for a little while longer. Right now,
he
needs your help more than I do.”

Mitch swallowed. “I can’t make my feet work.”

Landon seemed confused but, as always, the guy was on it. “Where’s the key?”

“I saw one of the guards put it around his neck.” Before they took Fields out. “But they all look so similar, I don’t know which is which.”

“There are multiple keys?”

“No, I was talking about the guards. I’m pretty sure the key works in both cages, and I doubt they’d all share one key.” Not when Alex thought it was so much fun to torture Hyde01. “Find Alex. She probably has a duplicate.” After a quick explanation of where Alex’s office was, she shooed him away. “Hurry. Mitch is…”

They both looked at him. Shock and fatigue from his muscles being contracted so tightly for so long were making his entire body shake. Landon ran over to him, prying his arm away from his side and looping it around his neck.

“I can’t move my feet, man. I can’t…fight it.” Mitch’s voice brought tears to her eyes—it sounded hopeless, as if he’d already given up.

“Hurry!” she yelled. “Knock him out if you have to!”

Landon stopped trying to walk next to him, wrapped both arms around his waist, and yanked backwards, practically dragging him to the door. Mitch’s legs moved stiffly, erratically, content to stay stuck to the poisonous ground, even as it killed him.

“It’ll be okay, Mitch,” she called. “You just need to get away from him. It’s his
pull
. He’s not you. He’s nothing like you. You’re better than he is, Mitch. Don’t forget that.” She kept talking until the door closed behind them. Then she glared at the monster one cell away from hers and wished for freedom that might never be.

§ § §

Each step gave Mitch control, little by little, as more distance was put between him and Hyde01. He could think more clearly, evaluate and reassess the situation. But each step was also painful—taking him away from someone he loved and who needed his help. And right now, he was useless to her.

By the time they got out of the room, he was crying. Not bawling like a baby, but close. Inside. On the
outside
, it was just a single tear. He didn’t bother to wipe it away—it was a sign of who he was, who he’d always be. A useless pile of shit. But free of the confines of the room, at least he could move on his own again.

“Next time we fight each other,” Landon said, a tight-lipped smile on his face, “we’re doing it in there.”

“You’re a good man, Landon. You’re a fucking good man.”

Landon brushed off the compliment with a shake of his head. “So make sure I get out of this alive. Got it?”

“Got it.”
Alright, bastard. What the hell you gonna do now?
If this was his last stand, he needed to be standing. “I can walk now…I think.” Freed from Hyde01’s force, he shifted onto his own feet, hearing Landon’s sigh of relief.

“Was it Hyde?”

Mitch nodded, but said nothing. Words couldn’t even
begin
to explain what had happened, how lost he’d been. But he was back now, shaking out limbs that were
finally
listening to his brain. A brain that was
finally
doing what it was supposed to. A moment ago, he prayed for death, but he couldn’t just go out without doing
something
right.

“Okay,” Mitch said. “Time to reevaluate. Just in case you missed it, I can’t be in that room. You’re going to need to get her out of there
without
my help. I can play gatekeeper and kick anyone’s ass who gets close, but if they get past me, I’m no good to you at all.”

Landon smirked. “So then, nothing’s new. You’ve never been any good for me.”

“I could fucking kiss you right now, you know that?”

“You even try, and the only way you’ll be able to stop anyone from going through that door is as an unconscious lump on the floor that they have to hurdle over.”

“No kissing, got it. Shall we go find the key to Emerald City and get her the hell out of here?”

“No skipping either.”

Alex’s office was just down the hall, exactly where Eden had said it would be. But Carter’s keycard didn’t unlock the door.

Mitch kept his eyes on the hallway, playing look-out while Landon grumbled. “If it’s not working, no amount of swiping will change that.”

“Damn it.” Landon waved the card, yet again, in front of the lockbox.

“Use your gun.”

“They’ll hear it.”

“Don’t
shoot
the lock, beat the shit out of it.”

Landon checked that the safety was on, and smacked the knob hard. “This isn’t going to work.”

“Then come up with another option.” Then he heard an odd thunk, and the door swung open. “See? Told you it would work.”

They went inside—Mitch to the desk and Landon to the file cabinet. Papers flew everywhere as Mitch ran his hand over the mess, hoping to find a key, hear the sound of metal hit the floor. No luck. He started rummaging through the drawers.

“Oh man,” Landon said, a few manila folders in his arms.

“We don’t have time for paperwork, Landon. We need to find the fucking key.”

“You don’t understand. These files are about all of you. Psych stuff.”

“Great. I’d be happy to lie down on a couch sometime and tell you all my feelings, but can we focus on the key right now?”

When Landon reached down and picked up a planner from the floor, Mitch had to stop himself from yanking the cop backwards by the neck.

“Landon! We have no time and no key!”

“This is information that we need.” The bastard didn’t even look up, just set the planner down on the desk and started flipping through pages. It must be in his blood—once a detective, always a prick who cared about asinine things like justice and evidence.

No. The only thing Mitch cared about was currently in a cage they didn’t have a key for. In a room he couldn’t go into. And the only person he could rely on was more interested in tree-pulp than a mostly-human being.

“Eleven-oh-five.” Landon stopped. But then he looked down again, mumbling some more numbers. He glanced up to the ceiling, repeating them. The lock wasn’t the combination kind, so what the hell was Landon trying to memorize?

Mitch was tired. Tired of worrying. Tired of feeling so fucking dependent on other people. Tired of being so goddamn useless. He went to a bookcase next to the door, not really expecting to find the key there. But, then again, his expectations
always
fell flat, so maybe the reverse was
also
true.

And then someone outside said, “What the hell?”

Mitch pressed himself against the wall as the door opened. Before she could scream for help, Mitch threw one hand over her mouth and dragged her inside the room with the other. Eyes wide, pulse pounding in her neck, she careened into the desk. He pressed her backwards until she was practically sitting on it, using his body to keep her from moving.

“Where’s the key to her cage?” Mitch whispered.

She squirmed and made some muffled noises into his hand while Landon shut the door.

“I’m going to uncover your mouth so you can tell me,” Mitch said. “But I’m fast. And I’m mean. So if you yell, very bad things might happen to you. Do you understand?”

She nodded, tears forming in her eyes.

“On the count of three,” he said as if playing peek-a-boo with a child. “Are you ready?”

Her answer was muffled, but understandable. He lifted his hand from her mouth by a half an inch. She swallowed but didn’t say anything, slinking back further onto the desk.

“You’re going to have to do better than that, Alex.”

“If you hurt me, you won’t get out of here alive.” Her words were shaky. Probably because she knew what he was capable of.

“You know about me, right?” he asked. “What I am?”

“I know all about your kind.”

“Sure. You probably learned a
lot
from the bastard you have hung up on the wall in that other room, right?” He was shocked that her eyes could get any wider. “Yeah, we met. Nice guy. Not a big talker though. And, frankly, he needs to eat more.” He leaned towards her. “Did you run out of puppies and orphans?”

“Even if you kill me, I’m not telling you anything.”

“Huh.” Mitch looked at Landon and shrugged. “Okay with you if I kill her then?”

“Where are all of your records?” Landon asked. “This can’t possibly be all of them.”

“
Again
with the paperwork,” Mitch said, rolling his eyes. “She already said she’s not going to tell us anything, Landon. So I vote we kill her now and figure it out later.”

“He really
will
kill you,” Landon said, not a trace of humor on his face. “And he won’t care. Do you know how we got inside? Carter got us in. And now Carter’s dead body is stuffed into one of the rooms down the hall. Do you want to protect this place so badly, you’d
die
to do it?”

“It’s not ‘this place’,” Alex blurted. “Do you actually think that
this
is it? This is a facility. One of many.”

“How many?” Landon asked.

She didn’t speak until Mitch reached up and smoothed out the collar of her shirt, pulling it taut against her neck, casually wrapping his fingers around her windpipe. “Five, I think.”

“See how good it feels to be honest,” Mitch whispered, enjoying the terror in her eyes.

She swallowed and took a deep breath. “But even if you find them
all
, it won’t matter.” Her voice grew more confident, perhaps because she knew nothing she said would change the outcome of the situation. “Because the bastard who is in charge doesn’t work in shitty offices like this.”

Mitch smiled at her. “Where’s the key?”

She scooted even further onto the desk, her legs no longer touching the ground. But with Landon blocking the door, unless she had a trap door somewhere, she would never get far enough away.

“Hurting me or this facility won’t do you any good,” she said. “Even if you cut off an arm, the beast still lives.”

“Hmm…” Mitch said, stroking his chin like he cared. “What if I pull off every motherfucking appendage like I was plucking a chicken? And then rip off its head with my teeth? Will
that
be enough to kill the bastard?”

“Let me go.”

“Give me the key.”

She stared at him, blinking occasionally, sweating profusely.

“You don’t have a lot of options here, lady.” He flicked his head towards Landon. “It’s two against one. And we are mean sons-of-bitches who aren’t afraid of hurting a girl.” He glanced at Landon. “Am I wrong here? Even
you’d
hit a girl if you had to, wouldn’t you?”

He shook his head. “Not normally, no. But I’m not sure she qualifies as a girl. And I’m not sure
anything
about this qualifies as normal.”

“That’s fair.” Mitch turned back to Alex. “So what’s it going to be?”

“I don’t have the key. The guards do.”