Page 70 of Elas (Mate’s Mark #2)

Elas

A sharp inhale jolts me awake, and my skin tingles with awareness as I take a moment to assess my surroundings. Sweat beads on my forehead from August clinging to me, and my heart thuds double time in my chest as my senses come alive.

My eyes move through the darkness. The moon is barely a sliver outside and doesn’t offer any light, but I don’t need it. Predators never do. An unnerving silence fills the space as I scan the room and find nothing out of place, but my instincts scream a silent alarm.

Something is wrong.

August shifts in my lap, and a quiet, sleep-riddled grunt leaves his throat as he settles again. The rise and fall of his chest is calm, but the growing foreboding prickles my skin.

“August,” I whisper, and he whines, still asleep.

The muscles in my eyes constrict as my pupils expand further, and the pitch black world forms in high definition.

My heart pounds an insistent, heavy rhythm against my ribs as my body prepares for action.

Time crawls, nearly coming to a stop. My breath roars in my ears as my hearing amplifies, and the drop of water from the kitchen sink slams against my eardrums.

Fight or flight.

Something is wrong.

Distant footprints thud, different from the solo guards that make their rounds every few hours. Heavier, more determined, and in far greater numbers. They’re headed in this direction.

They’re coming.

“August,” I say louder, jostling his shoulders, and he startles awake with a gasp. “August, baby, put your shoes on.”

“Wha—why?”

“Shoes, now ,” I command as I stand and place him on his feet. He blinks himself into awareness and his eyes grow wider, and his heart rate ratchets up as he slips into his shoes. His shaking hands and stuttering breath fill me with a nauseating dread, and I hate his fear.

I hate everyone who’s ever given him a reason to be afraid.

My nostrils flare and my ears twitch as I dig into my senses.

The usual clinical smell of this place has an undercurrent of one I recognize but can’t identify.

Leather, of course, but it’s mixed with something almost sweet.

There’s no question they’re headed in our direction, and the clomp of boots on asphalt tells me they march on the road outside.

I wedge a chair under the door handle, then drag the couch against it.

“Elas? What’s happening?”

His voice is so fucking small. I stop and focus on him, cupping his cheek and getting closer so he doesn’t miss a word. There’s no time to sugarcoat the situation, and my heart breaks as I watch the fear in his eyes grow.

“I’m afraid we’ve overstayed our welcome, baby, and right now I need you to listen to me. You can do that, can’t you, doc?” He nods, nostrils flared. “Stay behind me at all times. Everything I say, everything I tell you to do, you do it. Do you understand?”

“B-but—”

“Tell me you understand!” I hiss, grabbing him by his biceps as his eyes go even wider. “Keep close behind me, and if something happens to me, you run.”

“El, no,” he whispers, but I give him a small shake to snap him out of it.

“You run ! Just like we talked about. You get to the SUV, and you drive through that long stretch of fence as fast as you can. The impact will hurt, but you can push through it. You have to keep going.”

“Don’t make me leave you,” he begs, and I pull him in for a rough kiss, knowing we don’t have the time to spare. “I can’t leave you. This is my fault… all of this is my fault. I’m sorry, El. I love you, I’m sorry, I—”

“We don’t have time for blame, baby. We have to go now.

” A choked sob works from his throat, but he nods.

Bars cover the window from the outside, but it’s our only exit.

Making as little noise as possible, I slip the pane from the frame and glance at August over my shoulder. “Are you ready? We have to move fast. ”

He nods again, chin trembling, as I wrap my hands around the bars and listen.

The exterior door to the barracks opens, and I wait for it to close before mustering all my strength into one mighty shove.

Metal creaks and groans as the bars separate from the wall outside, and I throw them to the ground as I force August towards the window.

Startled voices rise from the hallway as he climbs through, and the door jostles as someone shouts my name.

I don’t even glance back, barely squeezing my bulk through the window and landing beside him in a cloud of dust. I take his hand and run, sprinting to the next building and pulling him behind it.

We move as silently as possible along the wall, but it blocks my view and forces my ears to take over.

Footsteps change from the heavy thud against concrete to the padded thump against the dry soil, moving in multiple directions.

They’re trying to flank us.

We make it to the largest outbuilding, closest to where we parked. I stare at the SUV, easily three hundred feet away, and curse myself for not moving it closer. Being found out was always a possibility.

This was always a risk.

A stampede of footsteps fans out, and I close my eyes as I try to think. We could make it to the fence on foot, but the open fields that surround this place would be our downfall. There’s nowhere we could hide that they wouldn’t find us. The barren wasteland would be our grave.

The SUV is our only option. I turn to August, his chest heaving but eyes focused. “We have to run, baby,” I whisper as quietly as possible, reaching up to drag my fingers along his cheek. “Remember what I said. You run, sweetheart, and you don’t look back. No matter what, you don’t look back.”

Fat tears well in his eyes, but I don’t give him a chance to respond.

I take his hand, relishing the perfect way we’ve always fit together, then wait for the optimal opening.

I take a breath, then another, and we dash off into the night.

A deathly silence stretches with only the thud of our feet on the ground before a furious yell breaks the stillness, and they’re on us in a stampede of sound and motion.

Two hundred feet.

Dirt explodes from under my feet, each impact ricocheting through my body as my screaming muscles push me beyond my limits.

Sweat stings my eyes and my lungs feel like they’re full of thorns, but we don’t slow down.

We can’t. I shove August ahead of me, forcing him to keep my grueling pace and making myself a barrier between him and the threat.

Metallic clicks of a gun’s mechanism warn me a split second before a deafening gunshot explodes into the night, the bullet so close it whistles past my ear.

A hair to the left, just a few inches, and I would’ve been down.

August would’ve been theirs. Adrenaline scorches through my veins as we move even faster.

One hundred feet.

White hot fire lances through my shoulder, a scream trapped in my throat as the bullet tears through my flesh. The world tilts, and August falters, but we can’t stop.

“Go!” I shout, my teeth clenched against the searing pain as the rising surge of their anger crashes around us. Barked orders and furious shouts command them to shoot, and gunfire rains down on us like hail.

Fifty feet.

Another shot misses.

Thirty feet.

Agony rips through my thigh as a bullet shreds muscle and shatters bone, the impact sending shockwaves through my body.

A deafening roar of pure, unadulterated terror and rage bellows from me as my knees slam into the ground.

Fear like I’ve never felt incinerates me from the inside, my eyes never leaving his body.

August is there.

He’s right fucking there, reaching for the door of the SUV when he turns and sees me.

“Elas!” he cries, and the world freezes as he runs back.

He runs towards me, towards the bullets that pierce the air in determined death wishes that seek us both.

“ No !” I scream, the word ripping through my vocal cords and shredding my throat on its way out.

“August, go! You have to go !” Blood rushes down my thigh and my body quakes as I claw my way off the ground, fighting to run to him, to make him leave.

But my ruined leg crumples beneath me, and my broken body falls.

My palms slam into the dirt, and I bellow into the dry earth as he gets closer. “Leave me! You have to leave me!” I beg as I find his eyes. Moonlight dances off his golden hair as he lands on his knees in front of me.

A sad smile crosses his face, blind to the chaos as he cups my cheek. “Where you go, I go. Always.”

His lips press to mine as a sob tears from my throat, splitting the night in half with its sorrow.

A foot connects with my spine and kicks me to the ground as August grunts and lands beside me.

It takes three of them to pin me in place, but I don’t stop fighting even as my cheek is shoved into the dirt.

Zip ties whir as they bind our wrists behind our backs, and I watch in horror as a soldier fists August’s hair and jerks his head up.

A thick metallic ring snaps around his neck.

“No!” I roar, but more hands are on me, fisting my braids and forcing me into a collar so tight it chokes me. “Fuck you!” Another shattered scream leaves me as I spin, slamming my foot into the guard’s shoulder. “ Fuck you ! Let him go!” I bellow, willing my body to move.

Drenched in sweat and shaking, I fight my way off the ground when a lightning bolt of electricity blasts through my body, and I collapse.

Dry earth and dust fill my nose as my limbs quake and seize, and my teeth clamp on my tongue hard enough to bleed as my vision goes fuzzy.

By the time they release the button, my heart feels like it might burst out of my chest.