Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
If I had to guess, I’d say we’re still somewhere in rural Virginia. The flight to get here was half an hour at most, all of it filled with dread. I can still sense worry, like an undercurrent of dark, cold water. Is it mine or Valen’s?
The engine noise dies, the rotor turning slowly until it stops.
Silence.
“What is this?” I yank off my headset and ask the soldier who’d helped me into the helicopter.
He doesn’t answer. Then I notice the halo emblem on his fatigues. The Saints. I instinctively press a hand to my stomach. Right where one of the Saints tried to gut me. Did gut me.
God, this was a mistake. I have to get out of here. I should’ve listened to Valen, to my own instincts.
The ground shakes, and I grip my safety belt.
“Our base of operations is necessarily underground.” Gage pulls off his headset and stands between me and the open helicopter door. “The remaining military, such as it is, operates from here. We also have a smattering of government officials embedded with us, though most of it is Pentagon brass.”
As we sink, a metal roof slides overhead, closing us in.
Underground again.
I stare around into the dark as unseen machinery whines, sinking us deeper and deeper into the earth. The bright sun fades, the final rays of it erased once the ceiling is fully closed. Only the scant lights of the helicopter offer any illumination, the air scented with dankness and the thick smell of machinery grease.
“We were prepared for doomsday, just not this specific vampire one.” Gage reaches for my safety belt.
I flinch back.
“Sorry.” He drops a knee in front of me. “I know you’ve been through a lot.” He holds his hands toward me, palms out. “I’ll go slow. You can trust me, Georgia. You know that, right?”
“You’re with the Saints.”
His face is in shadow now. “Yes.”
I run my hands along the straps, desperately looking to release them. To get the hell away.
“Georgia.” He covers my hands with his. “Calm down.”
“Let go. You’re with them. In DC, the Saints tried to—” I choke on the memory of it.
“That wasn’t us. We had splinter groups. You have to know I’d never approve anything like that. Anything that put you in danger.”
My ears are ringing, my face hot, hands cold. “Let me go.”
His grip only tightens. “You’re hyperventilating.”
“Let go!” I yank against him, panic screaming through my mind.
“Georgia, you have to calm down. You’re having a panic attack. I get it. But I need you to relax. You’re safe with me. I would never hurt you like that monster did. You understand that, right? You’re with the good guys now.”
It’s even darker now, pitch black. I can’t get free. I can’t breathe.
A deep, metal thump sounds from overhead.
A hangar door ahead of us begins to open, light pouring in from the other side.
Gage is still in front of me, concern in his eyes as he releases my safety straps.
“Breathe, Georgia.” He backs away. “You’re safe here. I swear to you. I’ll give my life to keep you safe.”
I bend over, head between my knees, and try to take deep breaths.
Voices, several of them, erupt outside the helicopter.
“Secured.”
“Is that her?”
“It’s her!”
“Holy fucking hell, boys. We got her.”
“Give us some room!” Gage barks.
“Sorry, sir,” a man close by says. “Everyone, out!”
Eyes clenched shut, I keep breathing in slowly until my ears stop ringing and I’m relatively certain I’m not going to pass out. I sit up and wipe the cold sweat off my brow with the sleeve of my sweater.
“Sorry about that. They know all about you.” Gage holds out his hand to me. “They didn’t want to hope too much that you’d come, that I could get you out, but this—you—are a big deal. There’s no other way to say it.”
“Great,” I groan.
“We aren’t leaving!” A woman’s voice. “This is still America, asshole! You can’t stop us!” I know that voice.
“Evie?” I get up, my legs wobbling.
“Ma’am, Colonel Howard instructed us to clear the—”
“I’ll give you something to clear, my dude. You’re about to meet my Krav Maga. Say a prayer to your preferred deity.”
“Wyatt?” My voice cracks. “Is that Wyatt?”
Gage takes my arm and helps me out of the helicopter.
“Evie?” I yell. “Wyatt!”
Two figures, both backlit from beyond the hangar door, are arguing with a third.
“Let them through!” Gage calls beside me.
“Yes, sir!” the soldier barks.
Wyatt head fakes at him. “You got lucky, my man. Bigtime lucky.” Then he jogs toward me, his face becoming visible the closer he gets. Then it goes murky again as my eyes water. “Georgia!” He meets me, an arm going around me and squeezing tight.
“It’s really you?”
“In the flesh.” He chuckles.
Then we’re both almost bowled over by Evie.
“You’re here!” she cries, wrapping both of us in a hug. “I can’t believe it.”