They were back at the house. It had taken them no time at all. Diamond locked her in his room. Nadya would have tried to leave if not for the deadly vines clinging to the walls outside the window. He’d put her in a room she couldn’t escape. Emerald and another male she hadn’t met yet named Phyr, had shown not twenty minutes after she, Lip, Lindy, and Diamond arrived. They’d come in vehicles. Actual working vehicles. If they’d used those or even a drifter earlier, they would have reached Inwood in a matter of hours. Anna and her daughter would still be where she’d left them. Her plan was fucked. Things weren’t going the way she’d hoped. What the hell do I do now? Nadya thought about attacking the first person to walk through the door, but that would be no good. She was still healing from her gunshot wound.
Yeah, the bitch at the bakery had hit her despite what she’d said to Diamond afterwards. The bullet had grazed her shoulder. The scar already smooth. She healed fast. Unnaturally so. To others, she knew her scar would look more like a bruise.
The pain she’d experienced earlier had been replaced by determination. When they’d gotten back to the house, Diamond had tried to interrogate her, and although his methods had resulted in a split lip and cracked rib, she had allowed it. It was all about conserving her strength. Diamond was not a gentle man; he more than lived up to his monstrous reputation.
The door opened, and Emerald walked in with Phyr. The male eyed her from head to toe. Recognition swept across his gaze for a moment before his eyes went blank. Phyr’s irises were a fathomless blue. His eyes bored into her, peeling away layer upon layer of her emotions. The stare was too intense, and she was the first to break eye contact.
“Hey there, pretty lady. I’m here to check you for any wounds needing attention, and Phyr here is going to give you some items to keep you safe as we make our way back to the Quarry.”
“I’m Sapphyrus, but everyone calls me Phyr.”
Interesting.
It wasn’t lost on her that his chosen name was ‘fear.’
“I’m just going to see what kind of steel will fit your hand. We need to get back to the Quarry fast, and because we drove in, well, the entire city is now wide-awake. I don’t have to tell you Diamond is a target. It’s one of the reasons he doesn’t go out much. People want him dead. He says you know how to handle a weapon, and although I like the knuckle knives, don’t need the merch getting too close to danger.”
“Merch?”
Phyr shrugged.
“Sorry, it’s a bad habit. I don’t think before I speak.”
“Come over here, let me take a look at your back and stomach,” Emerald rumbled. She liked him. Didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him. Emerald could easily become collateral damage when the walls finally came tumbling down. He and all the others that were under Diamond’s hand didn’t see things the way others did. They had it good; better than most. If anything, he’d die trying to protect his Sovereign; she couldn’t see him stepping aside.
Reluctant to walk over, Nadya stared at the giant male. Emerald was larger than life with eyes so unreal she thought they were implants. She moved when his eyes warmed and his lips tilted into a calming smile.
“I won’t hurt you, aroha,” Emerald held out his large hand, beckoning her to come closer.
He checked her cuts from the leeches that were already scabbing over. He didn’t say anything about her lack of fresh wounds. He simply left, leaving her behind with Phyr.
Phyr was tall, almost as tall as Diamond. It put him well over six feet. His black hair was long and wavy. Full, sensual lips and a pierced, aquiline nose rounded out a handsome and manly face with a touch of softness. He didn’t say much at first, only stared. He walked a full circle around her, his eyes roaming over her body from head to toe. She was mostly covered in dry mud, but she felt he was sizing her up.
“Is there a reason you’re staring at me so hard?”
“You really untouched?”
“If you mean have I ever slept with a man, the answer is no, I haven’t.”
“Asking price?”
“Excuse me?”
“What’s the asking price?”
Who even cared?
“Diamond hasn’t discussed pricing with me.”
Phyr shook his head before clicking his tongue.
“He won’t either. The bastard is probably asking for pure Wave if I know him.” She heard him curse under his breath.
“Possibly.” Nadya turned with him, or she tried to, but he placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Getting your measurements just now, hun. Try not to move so much.” As he circled her, he whispered words in a foreign language. Words that sounded familiar but she couldn’t place.
Phyr got close, too close for her comfort. His body heat penetrating her skin. He didn’t care that he was making her uncomfortable. His hands reached out, grabbing her wrists. He dropped her arm then bent and felt her thigh.
“There a reason you’re touching my thigh?”
“As I said, measurements. If I was trying to feel you up, you’d know it.”
Phyr eyed her one last time and walked out, locking the door behind him.
Bastard.
There was something different about Phyr. Off. His vibe was all wrong to her, not like the others at all.
Lindy burst through the door, food tray in hand.
“Eat this. We’re moving out in five. You’re not going to have much time to eat when we get to the Quarry. Things are moving fast now. Try and keep up.”
“Keep up with what?”
“Were you not listening? Attia is coming. When she gets an idea in her head, she follows through. All the way. I doubt Lavarious has enough time to muster everyone together. If I know Attia, she’ll strike fast and hard. She won’t give us the chance to think about what’s coming, she’ll just show up.”
Lindy got in her face then.
“Boom. Whole city goes to shit. Attia is the second coming.”
There was some bread on the tray and something to drink. Nadya took both and digested as much as she could as fast as possible. She needed the energy.
“Slow down.”
“You said we’re moving out fast. Let’s move.”
Lindy motioned for Nadya to follow her out. They descended the stairs to where the others were waiting. Phyr, Emerald, and Lip were suited up and fully outfitted with all manner of weapons. Phyr held out a dagger longer than most. It curved, and the handle was made out of wood that was fashioned with a strap so she could hold on to it. He handed her a sawed-off shotgun and bullets to go with it, as well. He also gave her a stick with two different circular saw blades. Lastly, he handed her a hammer that was modified with a claw at the end.
“These should suit you. Put the blade flat against your thigh and connect the handle to your belt. The gun can rest against your back, and the hammer hangs off the belt loop. All quick and easy to get to. Wrap the ammunition belt around your waist, or you can strap it to your chest. The saw, keep it in your hand and use the strap to wrap it around your wrist, at least twice. It can’t be pulled from you, but if you’re not careful, you can cut yourself. You need to be comfortable, and at the same time have your weapons at the ready. We’re pulling out in the motorcade. It means noise.” Phyr stepped closer to her and grabbed her hair lightly. “It means everyone and anyone that wants a piece of us, Attia included, will hear us coming. Shouldn’t take us but ten, twenty minutes’ tops to get to the Quarry from here, but anything can happen. Stay close.”
“Stay close to me,” Diamond interrupted.
Nadya turned his direction and tried not to spit fire. He wouldn’t even consider going to Attia, meet her halfway to try and negotiate for her family. He’d been very clear about his intentions. His only concern was the Quarry.
Emerald had a huge spray gun that shot fire as well as bullets. Lip held weapons similar to hers. Lindy was sporting a crossbow and a machete. Diamond was weaponless as far as she could see, but she didn’t want to focus on anything the man had. If they left her alone for even a second with him, she would take him down. She wouldn’t kill him, but she’d cripple him for sure. He was her main source of information on the Towers, and although it pissed her off to digest all the shit he’d given her, she had no other choice. Not right now, but later, when she had what she needed, well, her heart to heart would be in the literal sense, not in the metaphorical one.
“Everybody move out. Stay sharp. If you see a Rager or one of Attia’s people, take them out. Take them all out. Top priority is to get back to the Quarry in one piece. Let’s move,” Diamond growled.
They all filed out of the house. There were two vehicles, each outfitted with plates of armor. The windows were also reinforced, and there was barbed wire on the roof of one of the vehicles where a man stood behind some sort of large cannon gun. Diamond made her get into the back with him and Lip. Phyr took the front seat and Emerald and Lindy were in the other vehicle. The engines roared to life and the vehicles began to move.
“Lip, you get ahold of Thys? I want her girls safe. If you can’t get her on the line, tell Zira I want her to gather all the girls and move them over to the Towers. Any of them. I want a handful of the ladies with us at the Quarry, though. As for the rest, alert the Towers to expect company.”
“Thys is dark. As is Onyx. I can’t get either of them on the comm.”
“Shit.”
“What does that mean?” Nadya asked.
“It could mean nothing.”
Lip looked her way and shook his head. “Or, it could mean everything. What if Attia got ahold of them, or worse, Martinez and Maddox.”
“The Ibanez brothers?”
“Yeah. Genysis has been dark for a while now, and we were all wondering what it meant. But Thys reported all was quiet there. We thought maybe Ragers, but Marius and Diamond have an understanding.”
There it was. Confirmation. He knew about the Ragers organizing and hadn’t done anything about it.
“Lip, your mouth is going to get you in a lot of fucking trouble.”
“Seriously. You have Phyr outfit her but you’re going to keep her in the dark?”
“She’s only armed until we get to the Quarry. When we get there, she’s going into Yolanda’s care and will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.”
“Asking price?” Phyr popped in.
“Asking price?”
“Yeah, how much are you going to sell her for?”
“Nadya is not for sale.”
“No, just my pussy, apparently.”
That got everyone in the vehicle’s attention. Diamond didn’t say a word. Lip grunted, and Phyr turned in his seat to eye her.
“I’m right here you know. I, of course, haven’t signed shit, so who’s to say I can’t go back on our deal.”
“Try it and see what happens?”
A cruel laugh escaped Nadya’s mouth. She was going to do more than try.
“Try it and what? You gonna hurt me? You promised me my family, you did not fucking deliver!”
“Bitch, understand me when I say you are not going back on our deal. Furthermore, if your fake family is with Attia, they’re either dead or somewhere in her camp. I’m going to assume they are in her camp. At least, your sister is. Your mother, I can’t guarantee. You withheld information from me. In the end, all of this is your fault. Had you told me Attia was after you, things would be different.”
“How?”
“Too late to find out now. Your ass is up for auction the moment Yole says you’re ready. I didn’t go out into the city to risk my life and get nothing in return. I’m one hundred percent invested, and now, so are you.”
The inside of the car was too small. She ground her teeth to keep from screaming. It was irrational behavior, and she wasn’t going to let things get out of control. She was furious. Her left eye had begun to tick. Her heart started to pound inside her chest, making her breaths falter. Nadya gripped the handle of her saw blade, her fingers cramping. This was not going to go down the way he planned. If Diamond thought for one moment she’d go gently, he was wrong.
“You never said how much,” Phyr interjected into the silence.
“You can’t afford her, my friend. Trust me, she’s not worth it anyway.”
Phyr looked at her again but said nothing else.
No one did, and even if there were more words to be had on the subject, they weren’t going to get the chance to have them. There was a roadblock. Complete with fifty Ragers and overgrown dogs the size of their trucks. They were animal Splices.
“Well, so much for getting to the Quarry in a handful of minutes,” Lip said, drawing his blade.
“I live for this shit,” Phyr laughed before opening his door and jumping out of the vehicle. He didn’t even wait for direction from Diamond.
V
“Lavarious Diamond!”
Fucking hell. Marius.
Marius. Code name Silver Fox when he’d been with Diamond. They’d all taken to using call signs instead of their given names. It was Marius who’d convinced Diamond to go into the city to fight off the Ragers. There was a time when he thought he could trust Marius above all others. He’d taken Marius at his word when he’d promised they’d all return in one piece.
Bullshit.
From the start, Marius was maneuvering his plan into position. Only, it backfired, and Diamond had ended up Sovereign of the city. Marius couldn’t lead, he’d become infected. His once silver eyes were now outlined in red.
Their relationship once he became infected was strained. Marius was already considered crazy by most of the team prior to becoming infected, but after, he’d become even more so. He suffered at the hands of his infliction and could only be reasoned with on a good day. When did he ever have good days?
Diamond and Marius had come to an understanding. He ruled the city, and Marius controlled the Ragers. Yesterday, when he’d witnessed the Ragers and their death procession, it was the first time he realized just how bad things were outside of the Quarry walls. Now, Marius was blocking his path back to the Quarry. Buy why?
“I know you’re in the first car. I can smell your stench from a mile away. Come out and talk to me. We’re still friends, right?”
“Is the guy serious?” Lip questioned.
Even Lip was clueless when it came to the precarious relationship between Diamond and Marius. It was rumored that Ragers couldn’t be reasoned with. It wasn’t entirely true. There were two kinds of Ragers. Both preferred flesh, but only one could control their hunger. The ones truly mad with their desire for human flesh were put down. It was clear to both Marius and Diamond that they needed to be dealt with. It was one of the main reasons for their truce. If Marius took care of the Descended, Diamond would look away when people went missing. The Descended were mindless Ragers with no rationale, judgment, or reasoning. They only had one thing on their minds, and that was food. You could tell a Rager from a Descended because they looked desiccated and starved. Their skin tight against their bones and muscles, their faces sunken in, and their gums almost non-existent. Marius would let them loose when things got out of hand, then round them up and put them back in their cages. It was a way to control the population without an all-out war. Marius mostly took the old, but, at times, would take rebels from the inner-city gangs who were becoming a bit of a problem. But he also handled the Descended population with monthly cullings.
Marius never attacked, and he sure as hell shouldn’t be making an appearance in the middle of the street, blocking Diamond’s motorcade from reaching the Quarry. Something was up.
“Stay in the car, I can handle this.”
Diamond stepped out, motioning for the guy manning the gun on top of the second car to back down. He approached the group of Ragers slowly, carefully. Not wanting to set anyone off into a feeding frenzy. Sadly, that wasn’t uncommon. Even Marius was unpredictable that way. Phyr jumping from the car hadn’t helped the tension, and he hoped wherever the man was perched, he saw the sign to not engage.
“Marius.”
“Diamond.”
Marius stepped from behind two giant dogs. The beast’s shoulders were hunched and poised for attack.
“Why are you blocking my path back to the Quarry?”
Marius was just as big as he was, if not bigger. He was dressed in a long, black duster with holes in the shoulder where he kept two long hatchets. A ripped tank and leather pants rounded out his outfit. The male didn’t wear face gear. He kept his face uncovered. But he had a fascination with war paint. It covered the top of his face—a blood-red layer brought down to points just below his cheeks. His hair was pulled back into a severe bun on the top of his head. His face, clean-shaven, showed evidence of his condition. His pupils were dilated, taking everything in—the whites of his eyes almost completely consumed by red veins. There was something new Diamond hadn’t noticed before, though. Black veins scaled the side of Marius’s neck and the underside of his jaw.
“Good question. I could ask why you’re traveling, but I already know the answer. Attia.”
It seemed everyone knew of Attia’s plans.
“What about Attia?” Diamond played dumb.
“She’s coming to lay waste to the Quarry, hoping you’re in it. I even hear she’s coming for something very specific. Very rare.”
There was nothing rare about Nadya, except her virgin status.
“I don’t know who she’s looking for, but I don’t have them.”
Marius smiled, showing sharp teeth. When he’d first succumbed to the Rage, he made sure to have his teeth sharpened. It made tearing into the flesh of his victims easier. He took a deep breath, as if sniffing the air.
“I can smell her on you.” Marius turned and whistled, and a young male stepped forward—a body topped by sandy-brown hair caked with dried blood. “Rory, is this who you saw earlier by the slaughterhouse? Was it him?”
The young Rager looked at Diamond and answered, “It is. He has her.”
Marius turned back to Diamond. “See, you have her.”
Shit.
Marius wanted what was his.
“You can’t have her. You can’t afford her.”
Marius contemplated Diamond’s response before answering, “I can afford her. We are better able to handle her than you are. She’s to be one of us.”
“She doesn’t want that.”
“You can’t know that. She’ll do anything for me!” the male with the sandy-brown hair yelled.
The car door opened and Nadya stepped out.
“I tried to get her to stay in the car, but she wouldn’t,” Lip explained.
Whatever. Lip was nosy. He wanted to see Marius.
“Rory?” Nadya stepped closer. Her eyes taking in the Rager.
“Marius, you look like shit,” Lip tossed out.
Two simultaneous reunions.
Marius laughed. “Thanks, little brother, it’s good to see you, too.” They weren’t really brothers, but they may as well have been. Marius had taken Lip in when he was still wet behind the ears. Trained him, and gave him purpose. Lip didn’t like to be reminded of his connection to the other male, but he knew when to be polite, if not civil.
“Nadya, you need to come with us.”
Diamond watched as her body went rigid. Her eyes looked over at the large group of flesh-eating Ragers. He thought she might have even been counting, the way her eyes took in the crowd.
“Nadya, Rory has been worried sick about you. I’ve been worried.”
Marius, worried sick?
“Worried, huh?” she asked. “You eat flesh, Rory. I think you should be more concerned with who you keep company with.”
“Don’t say that,” Rory pleaded. His eyes were still clear but slowly changing.
“She stays.”
Nadya looked at Diamond and smiled. She was up to something.
She turned her attention to Rory, who was eating her up with his eyes. Not like he missed her, but like she was next up on the fucker’s menu of good eats.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she told Rory.
“D’ya, be serious.”
She flinched at his nickname. Nadya took a step toward Rory. Her entire frame tight.
“Adya, you don’t have to go anywhere with them. You’re under contract with me now,” Diamond countered.
“That may be true, but I’m not sure I want to go anywhere with you either.”
The male Rager took a step toward them then, and Lip drew his weapon. Nadya stayed him with her hand.
“I’m fine, Lip. I got this.” She looked at Marius as she stepped closer to Rory; five steps and she was in front of him. She leaned forward to whisper something in his ear. The male gripped her waist, and Nadya seemed to relax, her eyes on Marius the entire time. Rory’s body jerked violently before he fell lifelessly to the ground. His heart in the palm of Nadya’s hand. Her eyes a molten mercury, she glared at Marius as she tossed Rory’s heart at his feet.
“I will end you before I let you take me. You hear me?” she yelled, her voice harsh. There was no fear, only determination.
Too stunned to speak, Diamond swallowed. He was trying to find the words. Trying to form a reasonable explanation for what his eyes had witnessed.
“D’ya, you can’t run from me. I’ll find you,” Marius growled.
She had a better chance with Diamond at the Quarry than she did with Marius and his man-eating clan. Her fearless display of defiance towards Marius was awe-inspiring. She’d looked the Rager in the eye and not only offered her verbal defiance, but also asserted her will using brute force.
“She comes with me,” Diamond repeated.
Nadya looked up at him, hatred and fury pouring from her eyes. He wasn’t concerned with her feelings. She was still under contract. You should be concerned, his mind supplied.
“Nadya, come.”
Diamond turned and made his way back to the car. Marius wasn’t going to attack.
“Don’t be a stranger, little brother. There’s always a spot right here on the winning side.”
“No thanks. I don’t dine on my people. Messes with my complexion. But you have fun with that,” Lip said.
“Nadya. Come. Now.” Diamond rasped.
Her body jolted at his words. She didn’t move. Not for long seconds. She stood there, between the vehicles and the Ragers, the blood on her hands dripping on the asphalt. Marius held out his hand as if she might walk to him. In a last ditch effort Diamond should have seen coming, she bolted. Ran right down a side street and into the darkness.
“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” he heard Marius say, before the male turned and led his men in a different direction.