Page 146 of Villainous Intent

“Get. Off. Her!” The voice didn’t sound like him. It sounded like a demon clawing its way out of hell.

Ash bucked, his size advantage finally coming into play. He caught Cipher’s wrist and threw him off.

Cipher landed on his feet, skidding backward.

“You’re late!” Ash laughed, scrambling up. He wiped a smear of blood from his cracked faceplate. “I already had my hands on her, Cipher! She’s soft! She’s trembling for it!”

Cipher charged.

They met in the center of the tunnel. Ash summoned his fire, wreathing his fists in it. He swung, a haymaker that would have taken a normal man’s head off. Cipher took the hit on his shoulder, armor smoking, just to get inside Ash’s guard. He drove a knee into Ash’s gut, then an elbow to the throat.

Ash staggered, coughing, but grabbed Cipher by the throat, slamming him into the wall. The concrete cracked and dust choked the air.

“I’m going to kill her, Cipher!” Ash yelled, pinning him. “I’m going to burn her alive right in front of you!”

Ash raised a hand, a ball of fire growing. He aimed it at the ceiling above me.

“No!” Cipher snarled.

He broke Ash’s grip, blasting a concussive wave point-blank into Ash’s chest.

Ash flew back, crashing into a support pillar. The pillar groaned and the ceiling above us rumbled ominously. Dust poured down.

A chunk of concrete fell, shattering inches from my head.

Cipher made a frustrated, gutted noise. He turned his back on Ash and ran, scooping me up.

“Run away!” Ash taunted. “Save the whore! I’ll be waiting!”

My head was pounding and the world kept tilting dangerously as Cipher moved.

“Drugged me,” I managed to mumble. “He drugged me.”

I waited for Cipher to say something as he carried me through the tunnel, to make some inappropriate comment or tease me about needing to be rescued, but he remained silent.

“Cipher,” I tried to say, but my voice came out as a raspy whisper, my throat raw from Baron Ash’s grip. I wanted to ask why he wasn’t saying anything, but darkness kept creeping into the edges of my vision.

“Stay awake,” I heard him say, his voice distant and distorted.

I tried. I really did. But the darkness won.

When I came to again, we were outside. Fresh air hit my face, and I blinked against the sudden brightness that sent daggers of pain through my skull. Cipher was ascending the ramp to his aircraft, still carrying me in his arms.

I blinked, and suddenly we were inside. The interior of his airship came into focus for a moment before darkness claimed me again.

The next time I opened my eyes, Cipher was gently laying me on a medical exam table. Number Twelve appeared immediately, his face tight as he began checking my vitals. The cool touch of a scanner moved across my forehead, down to my neck.

“Significant traces of Somnolax in her system,” Twelve murmured, looking at his readings. “Combined with the head trauma...”

Through it all, Cipher stood silently at the foot of the table. Twelve said something to him that I didn’t catch, and he nodded once, sharply. Then, without a word, without even acknowledging me, Cipher turned and walked out of the medical bay, the door sliding shut behind him with a soft hiss.

I blinked as Twelve’s penlight flashed across my vision, tracking the movement of my pupils.

“You’re going to be okay, Ms. Bishop,” he said. “Mild concussion, contusions to the throat, some abrasions, but nothing life-threatening. The Somnolax will metabolize out of your system within a few hours. I’d recommend rest and⁠—“

His words faded into background noise as my mind fixated on a single, poisonous thought: He couldn’t even look at me.

I kept replaying those moments in the tunnel. Cipher finding me. Cipher seeing Baron Ash on top of me. The way my dress was shoved up and my underwear torn. The way my skin was exposed.