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As the creatures shift on their feet, awaiting my fall, I dangle in Cadmus’s grasp, halfway out of the shaft. One of them jumps to grab my feet.
Hysterical, I kick at it. “Pull me up! Oh, God, Cadmus, pull me up! Don’t let me fall!”
My body is lifted away from them, and the second I’m close enough to reach the rung just below Cadmus, I grip tight.
“Climb over me!” he commands, hand outstretched, but my body is paralyzed with fear. I can’t move. I can’t even will myself to look down. “Cali! They’ve got the rope! Go!”
Through shuddering breaths, I reach out, and I dare a glance down. Below us, they jump at the rope, but slide down before they’re able to climb. Stealing the opportunity, I climb over Cadmus, and with panic tightening my muscles, I keep my eyes on the wall of the shaft and scramble up the rungs to get away.
“Fuck! They’re climbing!” Cadmus yells below me, and I grit my teeth, determined to reach that vent. “Titus! Cut the fucking rope!”
The vent cover swings open, and Titus peers down, only a few rungs above me now. With a knife, he saws at the rope.
“It’s too fucking thick! C’mon!” He reaches out for me, and the sharp metallic edge of the vent scrapes across my belly as he pulls me inside.
“Hurry, Cali!” Cadmus’s shouts echo from within the shaft, as I tumble through the vent in the wall to the floor, rolling onto my back.
There’s a hard thump and grunting. Titus throws back the hinged vent, where the top of Cadmus’s head comes into view, before he slides back down into the shaft, disappearing again. “Fuck!”
Nerves rattled, I scramble forward as if to catch him.
Titus nearly dives head first after him, and judging by the tremble of his muscles, he must have grabbed hold of him.
“Cadmus!” I slap a hand over my mouth.
Titus pulls his brother Alpha through the vent, which slams shut on the Ragers, and Cadmus tumbles to the floor beside me. His leg is bleeding, pants ripped to shreds below his knees. The three of us scramble back as a claw slips beneath the vent door.
Titus hammers his boot against it, and an awful shriek echoes from the shaft. The creature’s claw disappears. After a few seconds, it almost seems like they’ve abandoned their pursuit, until the claw appears again.
A quick glance around shows we’re in a small room filled with large structures, which I’m guessing are the specimen storage chambers, with big steel doors and clasps. Tapping Titus’s leg beside me, I point to the storage chamber, and as if he understands my intent, he nods, helping me to my feet. He opens the doors to both chambers, while I tear off a piece of Cadmus’s bloody pants and lay it across the chamber’s threshold. Then all five of us hide behind a large metal table arranged in the center of the room that appears to have housed a sink at one time.
The creature climbs through the vent, followed by a second, and a third. They lift their faceless heads into the air, and I see small slits wriggling where a nose might be, as if sniffing. They scamper on all fours toward the chamber, finding the bait I laid out. Two of them venture inside the structure.
C’mon. Go! The third seems to have picked up on the scent of Cadmus from where he stands, sniffing the air in our direction. My heart thrums inside my chest, as my gaze bounces from the mutation, to the chamber room, where the other two investigate.
I glance back to Cadmus, finding him crouched, poised to run in the opposite direction, undoubtedly offering himself up as a distraction. Before I can stop him, he pushes to his feet and runs toward the other end of the room.
The mutation snaps its head in his direction, and nails scraping against the tiles, it scrambles after him. Titus and I race toward the chamber door.
The mutations inside swing around, and I’m practically swallowing my heart as we shove the door shut just before they breach it. A hard thump knocks it open a crack, but we press into it, and once it’s lined flush, I slam the locking mechanism over.
The other mutation screeches from the far end of the room, and I turn to see Cadmus tearing its head from its body. Red spatters of what I presume is blood covers his arms, as he stands breathing hard, clearly worn down by the fight.
Pounding against the steel chamber door is followed by a screech. A reminder that we can’t linger here too long. These are not the same mutations we’ve come to know. They’re heartier. Stronger. Even faceless, they seem to have developed keen senses and can apparently pick up the slightest scent of blood.
Cadmus strides toward us, breathing through his nose. “See?” His gaze is all for me. “Told you I’d be here for you. High or not.”
On an exasperated sigh, I give his arm a squeeze. “Nice catch down there, by the way. Thought I was about to be their next meal.”
“You think I’d let anything happen to you, Sunshine?”
More thumping against the door startles my muscles, and I look up through a small square window in the panel, to see those faceless creatures tipping their heads back, as if trying to smell us through the steel.
Having pulled up the rope, Titus tosses the wound-up pile of it onto the floor beside the vent. “Just so none of the others get smart.”
Chapter 22
Wren
