| |
Consciousness intruded upon Alex like a parade of angry elephants.
Everything hurt, especially her head and chest.
She groaned as she remembered being shot, and the subsequent blow she had taken to her cranium.
“How bad was my concussion?” she asked as she pried open her eyes and managed to make Gus sitting next to her in the hotel room.
When he had left the Enhanced to join her, he had brought as much technology as he could, including portable medical equipment.
They should be able to deal with any injury without having to deal with hospitals.
Alex had made the mistake of not taking tech like that with her when she had left, and even before she had defected, she had felt its absence.
She looked over to the faint scar on her arm, where Freya had stitched up a wound from a Demon for her.
She looked away as she began to feel her throat sting.
“Not as bad as it could have been,” Gus told her. “You shouldn’t have any permanent damage, though if you had been a normal Human...”
“That’s the point, isn’t it? That we’re not normal Humans. That we can go beyond their limits.”
Gus glared at her response. “Alex, do you not understand how badly we failed here? If I hadn’t gotten you out as quickly as I had, you could have died. Your armour stopped the bullet from doing any more than badly bruising you, but I don’t think it would have taken many more hits. Not to mention, that blow to the head could have been much worse.” His gaze softened as he added, “I could have lost you.”
The stinging in Alex’s throat worsened, and she felt tears behind her eyes.
“Why didn’t you?” she asked in an effort to change the subject. “How did you manage to get me out of there?”
He tensed up, causing Alex to frown.
What had happened?
Gus shook his head. “I gave as good as they did. I hurt Effie enough for them to flee. I guess they thought killing you would be sufficient. And I have no doubt they think you’re dead after that. I’m not exaggerating when I say I could have lost you...”
Alex looked away, turning to the monitors she was strapped to and tugging them off her skin.
“You’re right,” she spat. “I should have done better. I should have been better. You were right to say that I let myself become weak while I was on the run. I had Freya with me, and I relied too much on her, as well as indulging in my newfound freedom, instead of taking care of myself and making sure that I was in the best condition I could be. Literally, the first lesson we were ever taught was that our genes are only the beginning. They lay the ground work, but we have to do the rest ourselves. I let myself forget that. I was designed to be the perfect sword, and I have let myself grow dull.”
Gus stopped her hand still by putting his own over hers. “This wasn’t about you,” he assured her softly. “There is nothing you could have done to beat them. Even if you had been in peak physical condition, they simply have more experience than us. We won’t win in a fair fight against them. We need to outnumber them. We need help.”
Alex looked away. “I won’t bring on other Enhanced. We can’t trust them.”
Gus sighed. “Then who should we turn to? I’m not against other suggestions for allies, but we cannot ignore the fact that we need more than two of us to succeed.” He cocked his head in thought for a moment, before asking, “What about magical beings? Just because you can’t be near Freya anymore, doesn’t mean that we can’t use her contacts to our advantage. Surely they have to want the Enhanced dealt with as much as we do.”
Alex ran her hand through what remained of her ponytail before shaking her head. “Even when I was with Freya, the other magical beings weren’t exactly happy talking to me. You remember what those Slayers were like. The only reason they didn’t kill the two of us was that they were afraid that Freya was going to destroy their town and they figured we were the only ones who could stop her. Hell, the only reason why Freya lost it in the first place was that they threatened to kill me once they realised what I was. No, the only reason I was never killed by any of the magical beings we encountered together was that Angels are so revered by most magical beings that they can get away with anything. Even dating and protecting an Enhanced. Without Freya with us, trying to approach any of the magical beings would be suicide.”
“Then who else would you suggest? Regular Humans won’t be able to deal with Enhanced so that just leaves other Enhanced.”
Alex responded by glaring down at her hands in her lap.
“If you have another suggestion, I would gladly hear it out,” Gus told her gently.
Alex groaned, shaking her head. “Fine,” she agreed. “We’ll try to approach the other Enhanced. I assume you have a list of people out in the field right now that we would have a chance of convincing?”
Gus nodded. “I have five people we can approach. They should all be safe enough to talk to, and even if only one of them agrees to join us, that’s still one more than we currently have.”
“Okay, who do we talk to first?”