Beyond These Walls (24 page)

“Come on, Indeara.” He shook his head. “When you came to Resden you left me without a choice. I couldn’t let you run around the city unprotected. I had to watch your lovely back.” Quinn grinned, which sent a shiver of heat through my stomach.

This only served to remind me, once again, of the dangers of our attraction. Recognizing the desire in my eyes, he pulled me into his arms. I stood rigid in the embrace, willing my libido to gain some control.

In my head I understood his reasoning even if I didn’t agree with it. But my heart, raw from betrayal and grief, refused to listen. I’d lost too much already.

“Do you think, even for a second, I enjoyed lying to you?” Quinn whispered against my neck. “That it didn’t drive me insane when McClain’s hands touched your body? Do you know how it feels to be jealous of yourself?”

Not really, but I sure as hell knew how it felt to lose the man I loved. Twice. Well, three times if you counted Jake. I wouldn’t go through that pain again. I couldn’t. I’d get a kitty-rat first. “So what now, Quinn?” I pulled away, my eyes steady on his. “I forgive you, and we pick up where we left off three years ago? Is that your plan?”

He shrugged. “Why not?”

It was official. I hated Quinn Daniels.

“I love you, and you,” he paused, “if I’m not completely crazy, love me. What’s the problem?”

“You shot me!”

“You shot me back.” He frowned. “We’re even.”

I shook my head, trying to keep my voice even and reasonable. “You lied to me. You tricked me. And you made love to me as another man. We are far from even.”

“I also love you, am sorry for everything, and promise to spend the rest of my days making love to you, in my own body.” He grinned. “Just give me a chance.”

“No.”

“Please.”

The plea in his voice sent shivers down my spine. Every mutated cell in my body screamed for my heart to forgive the lying bastard. One last time.

“What about the HOA? They know you’re the head of the Resistance. Do you honestly think they’ll just forget about you? Forget about us?” I shook my head. “We blew up a city block, for God’s sake.”

Quinn grinned. “You.”

“What?”

“You blew up a city block.” He pulled me into his arms. “I had everything under control. But you’re right.” Kissing the top of my head, he whispered, “The HOA won’t stop hunting me.”

I nodded, well aware of the fact. Since our adventure at Resden the HOA had started a door to mutant door search for Quinn, or any other member of the Resistance. They foolishly believed if they crushed the Resistance, the mutant uprising started after Resden’s destruction, would vanish as well.

But nothing could stop it.

Not until the wall finally fell.

“There’s one way they’ll stop looking for you,” I said, pausing to weigh my words with care. “But you’re not going to like it.”

“Forget it.” Quinn shook his head. “You’re not shooting me.” In a resigned voice, he added, “Again.”

Chapter 55

A few weeks later, I sipped a chilled glass of Grey-Goose Dog vodka and watched two fairies beat each other with tiny batons. The smaller and much angrier fairy dressed in a leather push-up bra and Crocs swung his baton with surprising speed, knocking his opponent to the ground after a brutal onslaught.

“Looks like I owe you ten bucks,” Ivan said from the bar stool next to me. Without taking my eyes from the cage fight, I pocketed the ten dollars on top the bar, and smiled.

Ivan slipped another ten-dollar bill from the folds of his freshly borrowed skin. A skin that fit him like an eighty-year old man left in the sun. Wrinkles lined every surface of his flesh and the color resembled the purplish hue found only in a mutant box of crayons. “Wanna go double or nothing?” he asked.

“Haven’t you lost enough?” I rolled my eyes and motioned to another body dweller sitting on the other side of the room dressed in Ivan’s skin.

“What, are you chicken, girl?” Ivan grinned, flashing yellowed teeth through the fleshy lips of someone else’s skin. I tried not to shudder and instead focused on adding to my winnings. After all, a girl needed to keep herself in fresh ammunition.

“Okay, old man, you’re on.” I slammed his ten bucks on the bar and waited for the details of our wager. Ivan grinned, but before he offered up a bet, the front door of the lounge opened.

Two agents, both dressed in matching black suits and sunglasses, walked in. I slipped off my barstool, my hand rested on the butt of my nine-millimeter tucked in the waistband of my cargo pants. I’d known it was only a matter of time.

The shorter of the two agents limped forward favoring his right knee. He looked familiar, then I saw the thick brace wrapped around his leg and it snapped in place. “Ouch, that looks painful.” I nodded to the brace and smiled, fondly remembering our encounter at Resden and the sound of his snapping cartilage under the pressure of my combat boot.

Ignoring me, he addressed Ivan. “We’re looking for your son.”

“Aren’t we all,” I said, pushing between Ivan and the agent. “Nobody’s seen Quinn Daniels in weeks.”

This was sad, and true. Since Quinn’s refusal to consider my plan, and his subsequent ‘I won’t put you at risk’ departure, the only person who’d laid eyes on the body dweller was my oldest and dearest friend.

Of course, Nobody, still bitter about my no dating my test-tube grown sister rule, refused to tell me where Quinn was, or who he was with. Not that I cared. I was done with Quinn. I’d moved on. Or so I told myself almost every night when loneliness threatened and the nightmares came.

The agent pushed passed me, knocking me off balance. I stumbled, but remained on my feet. Agent Gimpy stabbed his finger into Ivan’s abundance of skin, his finger sinking in like a knife through liposuctioned fat. “Where is he? Tell us and live.”

“That’s original.” My finger caressed the handle of my gun. “And if we don’t tell you, you’ll what?”

“This ain’t none of your concern, mutant.” He sneered the last word. “We’re here for Daniels. Not you.” Spittle flew from his pudgy lips. “Not yet.”

“Oh, but it is my concern, human. By the way, I prefer you use my name.” I winked at him. “It’s Indeara.”

Once they knew your name, your time was limited. I smiled at the thought. I wanted the HOA to know my name. I wasn’t afraid of them. Not anymore. Their time was limited now. With London’s vaccine, the mutant population would survive the plague, prosper, and grow. Soon we’d outnumber the humans and it would be only a matter of time until the wall fell.

That was the hope at least.

Agent Gimpy swung to face me, his fists clenched at his side. Redness turned his pale skin tomato red, but the other agent stopped him with a single word. “Later,” he said before raising his thick unibrow in my direction. A shiver slid down my spine. This agent was a carbon copy of Agent Umber. It was as if the HOA cloned agents at will.

“Forget it,” I said, pointing toward the front door. “We’re not gonna help you. So get out of here before this turns ugly, and one of you wears my bullet.” I tapped the handle of my gun and grinned.

Agent Umber-alike laughed. “I see the rumors are true.” He lifted his sunglasses from his eyes and gave my body a slow perusal. “Or most of them anyway,” he added.

I wanted to smack the lecherous look from his face, but resisted. After all, what was the point of starting the next mutant human conflict over a leer?

Holding my gaze, he continued in an oddly hypnotic tone, “Tell me where to find Daniels.”

“I wish I knew.” I shrugged. “Quinn’s a ghost.”

“No, but he will be.” The agent shook his head. “Shortly.”

As soon as Agent Umber-alike finished his sentence, the back door of the Lair opened to reveal the mutant in question.

Quinn stood outlined in the smoke filtered bar light like a warrior sent to snatch his rightful place among the Gods. I drank in the sight of him like a love-starved mutant. Damn, but I’d missed him. And for a fleeting moment I admitted the inevitability of our lives together. Genetics had sealed our fate and I’d damn well make him pay for it for the rest of his days.

In the now dead silent room, the agents swung to face Quinn drawing their weapons. I reached for my own, leveling it at the deadlier of the two agents. In a mutant standoff, we stood frozen in time, each waiting for the other to make a move.

“Quinn Daniels,” Umber-alike said. “You are under arrest.”

“What?” A confused crease crossed Quinn’s forehead. “I—”

Before he could finish his thought, Agent Gimpy rushed forward, knocking Quinn to the floor and pressing his knee brace on the back of Quinn’s neck. Quinn cried out, his eyes burning black in the dim light.

My fingers itched to blow a large hole in the agent, but Ivan’s hand on my shoulder gave me pause. “Don’t be stupid, girl,” he whispered in my ear. I nodded, grudgingly, and lowered my gun.

Gimpy yanked Quinn to his feet and dragged him across the room to the other agent. Agent Umber-alike smiled, showing off sharp teeth. “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Daniels.” He followed up his comment by smacking Quinn in the jaw with the barrel of his weapon. Blood spurted from Quinn’s face, throbbing with every rapid pulse of his heart. He tried to speak, but the shattered bones under his skin twisted his words into incomprehensible moans.

I lunged forward but Ivan pulled me back. “Now’s not the time,” he said. Again, I nodded, but my heart, fueled by violence, slammed in my chest. My reckless desire to kill worried me more than the twisted gleam in the agent’s eye. Control yourself, my mutated cells warned. Emotion is the enemy. I took a deep breath and uncoiled my finger from the trigger.

“We have plans for you, Mr. Daniels.” Agent Umber-alike grabbed Quinn’s shoulders and pushed him toward the door. “And once we’re done, the mutant uprising will be crushed as well.”

“Never,” I whispered.

“Don’t you worry, Indeara.” The agent licked his lips. “I haven’t forgotten about you. Before this is over, you and I will spend some quality time together.”

Ew.

“Let’s go,” he said to Agent Gimpy.

Ivan grabbed the gun from my hand and pointed in the agents direction. “Let my son go,” he ordered. “Or…”

The agent smiled, pushing Quinn’s body in front of his like a shield. “Or what, Mr. Daniels?”

Ivan shook his head and took aim. “I’m sorry, son. I won’t let them take you.”

“No,” I screamed as Ivan fired a single shot. The bullet struck Quinn in the dead center of his chest, jerking his body backward against the agent. Both tumbled to the ground. Agent Gimpy raised his own gun, but Ivan had already dropped his weapon. It lay at his feet like a snake in the Garden of Eden, an unavoidable evil.

I ran to Quinn pulling his limp body into my arms. “Hold on,” I whispered, rocking him gently against my breast. Tears filled my eyes, spilling down my cheeks, and onto Quinn’s dying face.

Bubbles of blood foamed from his lips, and then he was gone. Over his corpse, my eyes met Ivan’s grey ones. He swallowed and turned away. Agent Umber-alike struggled from the floor, his black eyes wearily watching Ivan. He glanced down at Quinn’s lifeless body and started to laugh. “A fitting end for a mutant.”

Grabbing my arm, he yanked me to my feet and addressed the silent room. “The leader of the Resistance is dead. Unless you, mutants,” he shook me, “want to end up like him you’ll quash this uprising.”

His finger dug into my chin. “Do you understand?”

I closed my eyes and nodded.

“Good.” He threw me to the floor, stepped over Quinn’s body, and disappeared into the night. I watched the agents leave, the tears in my eyes drying to salty streaks against my cheeks.

Chapter 56

“Who’s gonna clean up that mess?” Ivan said, motioning to the floor of the lounge, and his son’s corpse. I rolled my eyes and rose from the ground. Grabbing a handful of napkins from the bar, I wiped at the blood staining my hands.

Quinn’s blood.

My stomach rolled but I swallowed back my revulsion.

“I’ll do it, Dad.” Mikey rose from behind the bar, a roll of paper towels in his thick hand. “It will only take a second.” I glanced down at the growing mess of blood and body fluids and shook my head. For all Mikey’s good qualities, his eternal optimism annoyed me most.

Ivan must’ve shared my feelings. “You’re gonna need a bigger roll. Maybe two,” he said. “Some bleach too.”

“Don’t forget a garbage bag.” I motioned to the corpse itself. Probably a double bagger. “Tell your brother to get his ass back in here, and help us clean up this mess.”

As I said those words, the front door opened, and Agent Gimpy strolled inside. “Sorry,” he said with an unapologetic shrug. “I wanted to make sure the news of my death reached the HOA before Agent Gold’s accident.” His finger’s curled into quotes around the last word, and for a second, I actually felt a little sorry for the fearless Agent Umber-alike.

Grey eyes fell to the body on the floor and winced. “The chest, Ivan?” Gimpy shook his head. “Any idea how much that’s going to cost to be fixed?”

“There goes our kids’ college fund,” I said to the grey-eyed body dweller trapped inside the body of Agent Gimpy. His eyes widened and in the next instant, his meaty arms swept me into a cell-crushing hug. “Do you mean it? Am I done paying for past crimes?”

“Not yet.” I winked, locking my hands around the back of Quinn’s borrowed neck and kissed him with three weeks worth of apologies, and three years worth of loneliness. “I love you,” I whispered against the folds of extra skin around his neck.

“Don’t forget it, either,” he whispered back.

“Enough mushy stuff,” a voice called from the body on the floor. “And get me the hell out of here.”

Quinn glanced down at his dead body and grinned. I rolled my eyes but broke away from Quinn’s embrace long enough to kneel down next to the bloodied corpse. My fingers slid into the extra folds of muscle and flesh, and tugged. A skinless twelve-inch garden Gnome popped free from the confines of Quinn’s corpse. To me he looked sort of like a plucked chicken-fish, all veins and scales, but to a female gnome dweller, Larry the half-gnome, half body dweller had it all.