Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)(68)

“People are coming. They must’ve heard something.” He tries yet again to pull me to my feet.

At first I resist. I won’t leave Macie. She needs me. Then I hear the banging on the door.

“Evie, come on. Please. We have to go.”

“We can’t just leave her!”

“There’s no time! I’m sorry. I really am. Please! Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder and drag you out the door.”

The door to the apartment crashes in and my instincts, my Enforcer instincts, kick back in. I jump to my feet and pull a surprised Gavin toward the servant’s tunnels. Unfortunately, people are already coming through that way, effectively cutting off any escape. Now we’re stuck in the middle of the hallway, surrounded.

Again I hear the clicking sound in my head and my whole body calms. My heart rate settles. My breathing evens. Even the pain is gone. I smile at the Guards as they jam into the small hallway. I take a quick head count. Six to my front. At least twice that to the rear.

“It’s them,” one says. “The Surface Dweller and the Daughter of the People.”

“She’s covered in blood,” another says.

“Where did it come from?”

“Why is she protecting the Surface Dweller?”

Their voices swim in and around one another, making it impossible to differentiate who’s talking.

Gavin is tensed, ready to spring, but I think he’s waiting for me to make the first move. I’m torn. Fighting the urge to side with the Guards and take Gavin down, and calculating what it’ll take to escape with Gavin, without killing anyone else. There’s only one way to go, and that’s back out the way we came in: the front door. There seems to be fewer Guards that way, which will make it easier for us. Chances are they sent the majority through the maintenance tunnels.

When someone gasps and a whisper rises up about the two forms lying broken in the living room, one lying in a pool of blood, I realize that’s my chance. I smile, but it’s more like baring my teeth.

Still, they don’t seem scared. I can change that, I think.

“Move,” I growl, startling them with the hate in my husky voice. I know what they’re thinking and I have every intention of playing on it. I don’t care what they think of me. I have nothing keeping me here anymore.

I growl again. And watch them jump. “Leave us.”

Even when I step forward, they don’t budge. They aren’t afraid of me. They’re watching Gavin. The manipulative Surface Dweller.

I shake my head, clearing the hateful thoughts from it. I’ll have to find some way to force them to move. I pull out the Reising from the bag, slam a magazine into it, and hold it to my shoulder.

The Guards tense, but still don’t move. One even snickers at me. “Hand over the gun, sweetheart,” he says, “before you hurt yourself.”

With narrowed eyes, I squeeze the trigger, releasing a spray of bullets into the ceiling.

Bits of concrete rain down on our heads and the Guards take a step away from me, pulling out their side arms and aiming them at me.

“Do you really think you worry me? Now get out of the way.”

They don’t move.

“I’d listen to her, if I were you,” Gavin says.

The Guard directly in front of us sneers. “Shut your mouth, Surface Dweller. Hiding behind a girl. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Gavin steps forward, but I don’t give him the chance. I aim the gun right at the Guard’s heart and squeeze the trigger.

The gun slams into my bad shoulder, but I don’t even feel it as I watch the bullet tear through the chest of the first Guard, then the one directly behind him.

There’s a look of shock on the first Guard’s face as he topples to the floor.

“Anyone else care to argue with me?” I ask, stepping forward.

The rest take a step back. With each step I take, they take another until finally our backs are toward the broken door. Gavin watches our exit over his shoulder as we back toward it. Just as we get to the opening, I reach into my bag and pull a grenade out of my pack.

I yank the pin out with my teeth and toss it directly at the remaining Guards. There’s no choice, we have to get away and we won’t be able to if they’re at our heels.

As soon as we clear the threshold, I spin around, then run through the hallways. The blast from the grenade blows out the doorway and slams us against the wall, knocking our breath from our bodies.

Before we even land, Gavin’s yanking me back up and pulling me down the hall. I have no idea where we’re going because I’ve let Gavin lead the way. I don’t even know where we could go. I’m hoping he’s thought of something, because my mind is suddenly blank. I don’t even realize I’m crying until the tears welling in my eyes blind me.

Voices follow us, and every once in a while someone stops us to ask if we need help. My heart trips each time, but Gavin keeps his head down and says, “Got caught in the turret malfunction by the Tube. I’m just taking her to the Medical Sector.”

Unfortunately a trio realizes we’re heading in the wrong direction, and tries to stop us from going farther. One of the women says, “That’s Miss Evelyn!”

Like before, the click sounds in my head, and everything but the people in front of me disappears.

I straighten and kick out with a leg, knocking the woman into the two men behind her. Before any of them can regain their footing, I’m on top of them. I yank the woman up by her arm as she tries to cower from me.