Rebecca Zanetti: Fated

“What are we going to do?”

Emma didn’t have a chance to answer before the lock clicked and the door shifted open. “Now we run,” Emma said with determination as she rose to her feet and pulled Cara through.

Cara followed as Emma took a sharp turn down the damp, empty tunnel before starting to jog through the barely lit area.

“Come on,” Emma whispered. “We can’t go back the way you came in—the Kurjans are setting up the main control room by the entrance, and I’m pretty sure I saw a back way out.”

Cara shrugged and increased her pace to keep up, her feet pounding on dirt that swiftly turned to mud as they ventured farther into the dimness lit by faint industrial lights strung every ten feet. It seemed like she’d spent most of her life underground at this point.

She tried again to reach Talen with her mind and only ended up with a dull throb in her temples—damn it, what had he done? A guilty little voice in the back of her aching head whispered he had reacted to her running off to meet his mortal enemy, and his anger was probably justified. Maybe. But that was no reason to short-circuit her brain.

A voice in the darkness ahead froze them in place.

“Matre here, south tunnel is secure,” a deep Kurjan voice wove through the space.

Cara pressed against the stone wall until water dripped down the back of her shirt. “Do you still have the lock pick?”

“Yes.” Emma looked around furtively. “We’ll have to take him out. There isn’t time to get back to the room.”

“I know. He’s probably armed, if we could get him down, I could get the gun.”

“You and your baby stay out of the way,” Emma snapped back. “Duck down.”

They both slipped into a crouch as muffled footsteps echoed through the underground space.

“Go for his neck with the pick.” Cara leaned in close to her sister’s ear. “You have to go for the jugular and decapitate him.”

“I do not want to know how you know that,” Emma replied just as softly.

Water dripping down stone to pool in dirt beat in time with the footsteps coming closer as the sisters crouched in the darkness like angry prey ready to spring. Determination flowed strong and sure between them as they both tensed—Cara saw his feet before Emma and kicked out her leg to trip the soldier who fell with a startled grunt into the mud. Emma leaped forward and plunged the slim metal into his neck just as Cara reached for his glowing green gun. Hissing, the soldier swept out a clawed hand to throw Emma into the nearest wall before bounding to his feet and yanking the bloody weapon out of his flesh.

His teeth glimmered sharp and deadly in the soft light as he moved toward Cara, and with an answering glare, she raised the gun and pulled the trigger, only to have the gun sputter in her hand. With a growl, she focused as hard as she could on an image of the Kurjan’s heart and tried to seize the organ mentally, drawing on any power Talen may have passed to her. The soldier gasped and stumbled, his purple eyes widening on her as she stopped him in his tracks. Then, with a fierce shriek, he shook off her control and started forward again.

Crying out, Cara squeezed the trigger, and this time the weapon fired. The soldier gave a harsh screech as he was thrown back into the stone wall, and Cara kept firing straight at his neck, moving closer, her hands clenching the gun so hard her fingers fought numbness until the Kurjan dropped to the ground. Emma leapt across the tunnel in a blur of motion and grabbed the knife stuck in his belt, while Cara shifted her aim to his head and kept firing.

His flesh split and blood sprayed.

“Plunge the blade into his neck,” she hissed as green fire continued to erupt from the gun.

With a harsh sob, Emma reached forward and stabbed the knife into the Kurjan’s neck and then twisted her head to the side as blood sprayed toward her face. She looked back and tried to yank the knife but to no avail. Cara put the gun in the back of her pants and leaned down with both hands to help her sister, but the blade didn’t move. “Talen made this look easy,” she grunted as she pulled with all of her might. The knife sat immobile in the hard tissue of the soldier’s neck.

“Yet another reason it’d be nice if he were here.” Emma fell back onto her butt. She nodded to the fallen soldier. “Well, he’s unconscious at least—let’s get the hell out of here.” She scrambled to her feet.

Cara nodded, yanked the soldier’s earpiece out, and jumped up to follow her sister at a dead run—who knew how long it would take for the soldier to regain consciousness and pull the knife out of his throat? She tried to reach Talen in her mind as she ran through the now thick mud and dripping ceilings, but soft static crackled where his voice should be. Damn it, he probably couldn’t track her, either.

She and Emma were truly on their own.

The light became even dimmer as they ran, and after a while her calves started to burn as the tunnel shot upward, the slushy mud camouflaging their footsteps until they came to a large stone door. They both reached forward to tug, and it opened with a harsh groan. Light made Cara blink against the pain. She hurried after Emma through the doorway, both of them pushing the door shut with their bodies before looking around a large cave with smooth walls.

Cara’s heart dropped to her knees as she realized the distance to a hole in the roof that was letting in abundant light. “How in the hell …” she asked wearily as nausea sped through her. Gasping, she turned to the stone wall and lost the meager contents of her stomach. Emma rushed forward and held her hair out of her face. “I’m okay,” Cara muttered as she wiped one dirty arm across her mouth.

“No, you’re not,” her sister retorted while looking anxiously about the small cavern. “There’s a type of ladder carved into the rock,” she mused while pointing across the small space.

“God Emma”—Cara breathed out while looking up into the now fading light—”that’s at least fifty feet up.”

“I know,” Emma said as she hurried across the room and put her foot into the divot in the otherwise smooth rock. Cara’s heart sped up as her sister reached with a soft grunt and pulled herself up before starting to climb awkwardly hand over foot. She paused about halfway up.

“Are you okay?” Cara called.

“Yeah, just taking a moment,” Emma replied before starting to climb again.

Cara breathed a sigh of relief as Emma made it to the top and pulled herself outside the large hole. Dark hair flew around her bruised face as she peered down at Cara. “We’re in the middle of a forested area—I don’t see any rope or anything. You need to climb up, sis.”

Cara nodded and took a deep breath before placing her foot in the lowest cut. Her hands trembled as she reached into other crevices to balance herself before starting to climb hand over foot up the wall. She ignored her lurching stomach and possible danger to her baby if she fell and concentrated on climbing steadily, calmly up. Before she knew it, Emma helped her into a small clearing surrounded by large pine trees. Thank God. Nature and oxygen. She lay on her back gasping air for a few precious moments until she noticed the thickening black clouds forming right above them, then she rolled to her feet.

Damn it. The Kurjans could venture outside with cloud cover like that. They needed to run.

“Which way do you think?” Emma asked anxiously.

“That way.” Cara pointed to the opposite direction from the underground tunnels. Emma nodded and quickly led the way through two monstrous pines as thunder clapped with fury above them. Cara followed her sister through trees, over deep brush, and alongside rocky hills as lightning flashed bright around them and rain pelted their light shirts and jeans. She gasped and stumbled in the sudden darkness more than once. Finally, her foot caught on a low-lying branch and with a cry, she went sprawling onto her hands and knees on the pebbled earth.