Page 145 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

The guard spotted the triangle-shaped golden patch on the right shoulder of my uniform and instantly straightened at the identification mark stating I was a crew leader. A section orsquadron leader would have been a little over the top. Had to go smaller.

He gulped. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to interfere.”

Cowardice had such a sour scent, cloying and nauseating. “It’s okay.” My lips curled in what you could call a soothing-with-a-hint-of-menace smile. “First infringements are not punished. You will not undermine authority again, will you?”

“No, sir,” the guard assured and searched for support in his three comrades. Giving him up, they raised their hands up in surrender and retreated away from the gates.

“That’s better.” I clapped the brave man’s shoulder and chuckled at how his throat bobbed. “Such a good boy you are. Or am I mistaken?”

Before he could respond, my knife pierced his throat. Hot blood spurted onto my shirt and dribbled down his own uniform as he clutched his neck, gurgling and sputtering nonsense. Eli, Ava, and Zion swiftly handled his friends, if you could consider them as such.

The city should have determined what had occurred at the auction by now and necessity required certain measures, mostly deadly, to be taken to lower the number of the forces who could possibly chase us.

“Good boy?” Zion snorted as we arranged the guards’ bodies along the wall outside the city.

“Would you rather I used Kali’s nickname for you?” I waved my hand near the gate’s scanner. Sadira and Ryder had made sure our chips would command the gates, but no records would appear on Ilasall’s security system tracking each opening and closing.

“I still can’t believe she calls Zion that.” Ava surveyed the guards at the top of the wall. If they noticed us leaving the city but then never returning, it could indicate the direction we hadcome from—a clue to our whereabouts we could not afford to reveal.

“Why don’t you tell them how Jayla callsyou?” Amari tugged her rolled-up sleeves down her forearms as a gust of wind whirled around us, disheveling the low bun she had her long hair in per their military regulation. “Now that was a surprise. But kind of makes sense, seeing as to how you both celebrated on the night of Kali’s tattoo.”

“No need.” I joined Ava in searching for a gap in the guards’ ranks while Amari and Zion pressed Ryder against the wall and covered him with their bodies, rendering him as invisible to the patrols as possible. “It’s not news.”

Ava’s mouth fell open. “You know?”

The guards disappeared from our view, likely marching down their designated route, and we sprinted across the field leading to the forest.

Ryder grinned at Ava running beside him. “We do,mistress.”

“Great. Just great.” A string of profanities sprung out of her mouth.

Using the shadows the city’s wall and sunset provided to our advantage, we headed to our meeting spot on a desolate dirt road deep in the forest surrounding Ilasall.

I counted our people efficiently filling the rumbling vehicles with small groups of puzzled women and men, some barely of age, some older, but all from the Matching. No way to determine for sure by now, but we had not avoided casualties from the looks of it.

Ava popped out from behind one of the cars waiting to be loaded with passengers to carry them back to the compound. “Ezra and Eli agreed to stay and wait for anyone who hasn’t returned from Ilasall yet. But we better move. If they decide to try to catch us, we’re too easy a target staying here.”

I hopped into the front passenger seat with Zion behind the wheel and Ava and Amari in the back, with Ryder crushed between them. We were not risking him even on the drive back.

“Let’s go home,” I said.

Where Kali was going to murder us for leaving her tied up in my bedroom.

47

KALI

Icrushed Eislyn in a hug. “Are you sure you can’t come with us?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I have to stay with our med team for their return from Ilasall. We have no idea what state everyone will be in.” She handed me her leather backpack we’d packed for our journey. “But go have fun. I swear I won’t tell them anything.”

I threw the load over my shoulders. “Thank you.”

“See you later!” Jayla waved, walking backward from me and Malaya exchanging goodbyes with Eislyn.

Eislyn released Malaya from their embrace, and we rushed to catch up with Jayla. Minutes turned into a full hour as she navigated us through the maze of the compound to its barren edge.

Finally, Jayla spread her long arms wide before a desolate road. “A bright new world awaits you both.” She grinned at mine and Malaya’s puzzlement. “Learned it from Ryder. Now let’s go. We have to reach our meeting point in one hour, or he’s going to give me an earful for making him wait.”