Serum – Chapter 21

Chapter 21

“Kill them all. I want those responsible dead, Iason.”

Iason acknowledged Orphe with a stiff nod.

“You are not the only one, Orphe,” Marcus growled. Iason gave little notice to the destroyed area around the Blondie. “And I personally will see to it that those involved pay with their lives.”

Iason ignored the Blondies as he held his cell to his ear, and listened to Riki’s “I’m fucking busy, Iason. Leave me a message” voicemail recording a fourth time before crushing the phone in his fist.

Throwing the mangled mess of metal and plastic to the floor, Iason all but ripped the touch screen terminal mounted on the wall off as he activated Riki’s tracking system in his ring. However, Iason’s relief was short lived when his mongrel’s signal disappeared before his eyes. The bright dot vanished deep in the far corner of Ceres. Growling, Iason expressed his displeasure by planting his fist in the screen.

Staring at the hole, Iason exhaled and turned to the now silent Blondies watching him. “Riki, I am assuming, has found the location of the person who gift us of you missing mongrels and that of the prince’s pet rings,” Iason calmly informed Orphe, Marcus, and Jared.

Iason pinned Orphe’s enraged eyes with his. “Riki’s tracker has gone silent.” Iason took a breath, willing the rage building in him to settle before speaking again. “Contact Mikhale and Gideon, Orphe. Their pets were partnered with Riki and might still be broadcasting a signal capable of pinpointing their exact location so we may follow it.”

Marcus stepped forward and picked up his mongrel’s armband and the second armband on the glass table next to it. “I will touch base with Aisha and…” The muscle in the Blondie’s cheek ticked angrily.

“I will inform Mikhale and Gideon as you have asked, Iason,” Orphe coldly said. “However, I will not sit by waiting. I will be departing to claim what is mine.”

“You will wait until after I’ve notify Raoul and Gabriel of this new development,” Iason replied to Orphe. “You will have ten minutes to return to your apartments and ready yourselves after we have made our calls to the others.”

“And after that time?” Jared asked.

Iason ran his hand down the soft black leather draped across the chair he had vacated. “After that time, Jared, we shall congregate in the underground garage.” Iason looked at the angry expecting faces of the Elites in his living room. “Whereupon the Blondies of Tanagura will personally introduce ourselves to the Mongrels of Ceres.”

“I do not plan on waiting should anyone delay our departure,” Marcus warned.

“You will not leave Eos without us with you,” Iason informed the outraged Blondie.

Marcus glared at him. “You have no right—”

“Your anger will endanger your life as well as the life of your mongrel, as well as, my mongrel,” Iason coldly said. They had no knowledge of who sent the package to them, and Iason had harshly learned the penalty of underestimating a mongrel before. One that had almost cost him Riki’s life. He was not about to make the same mistake again, regardless of how much it ate at him to not immediately act and rip Ceres apart.

“Do I make myself clear?” Iason said looking each Blondie in the eye. “We go as one group. As Chief of Security, Orphe, you will individually choose the personal Bodyguards that will accompany us. You will also inform Gideon to assemble fifty soldiers and have them ready and waiting. Inform Gideon that they are discreetly to meet us in the south entrance of Area-7, Her Bay, before telling him of what may have befallen his pet.

“If we do not act with secret, the other Elites may become an obstacle we may be forced to eliminate.” Even to Iason, the thought of doing harm to one of his brethren did not sit well with him. Thus the reason why the Onxy, Jerico Evric, was still alive even though the Elite had hired an assassin to kill him and Riki.

“Fine,” Marcus all but growled before storming out.

“My prince better be alive, Sir Iason,” Jared said. “His life means more to me than my own. If he has come to harm in the hands of those filthy mongrels, their lives will be forfeited.”

Iason give the Blondie a curt nod. He expected no less. The death of the prince would also put them with war with the blonde’s home planets; it was a war Amoi would have no problem winning, but the cost of resources would make them vulnerable to other planets. However, considering Rio’s expertise, Iason hoped it was the kidnapping party that were dealt with considerable damage. Riki also was not the same man he had been when that obsessed fool, Guy, took him from his side. Riki was stronger, faster, and wiser than before. His mongrel was a survivor.

The knowledge hardly helped to relieve his crushing anxiety.

Jared left the moment he gave his warning. Iason and Orphe stared at one another for a long, tense, minute before the Blondie spoke, “Ten minutes, Iason.” Orphe looked away to glance down at the items in his hand. “I will wait no longer than that.”

The moment Orphe left, Iason immediately contacted Raoul and Gabriel. He curtly gave them enough information to get them to meet him in the garage, but nothing beyond that. His Blondies had never experienced this type of turbulent emotion before. If he did not keep calm and guide them, they would cause unforeseeable amount of damage.

“Master Iason?”

“Move, Cal,” Iason growled when he Furniture foolishly blocked his path to the front door.

The Furniture noticeably trembled, but firmly stood his ground. “Forgive me, master. However, I humbly suggest donning the leathers gifted to you,” Cal whispered holding the black leather out to him. “If you truly are gracing Ceres with your presence, the outfit may offer additional protection…”

Iason glanced at the leathers Cal held out to him. “You will accompany me to the garage and dress me,” Iason ordered, surprising the servant. Unlike other Elites, no Furniture had ever touched him. He found it ridiculous to have another cloth him when he was fully capable of doing so himself. However, Cal’s advice had merit and he did not have time to waste, so for this time only he would.

Iason side stepped Cal and made his way to the exit. “We are leaving now.”

Cal bowed deeply and rushed away to his bedroom for items he seemed important enough to invite his wrath. Iason did not wait for him. Striding out of his apartment he stepped into the elevator, the doors nearly closed when Cal shoved a hanger through the crack to keep them from shutting.

Iason coldly looked at the long black bag in the Furniture’s arms. Cal meekly peeked up at him and said, “I thought it best to hide your wardrobe in a garment bag so not to attract attention…”

Iason awarded the Furniture with an approving nod before focusing his attention on the metal doors. Impatiently watching the numbers count down one-by-one until they reached the basement carport. When the doors silently slid open, Iason met the outraged eyes of eight Blondies circled around another Blondie.

“Elliot,” Iason coldly greeted. “What an unexpected surprise.”

oOoOoOo

Wiping his brow, Riki hissed as he pressed his sweaty hand against his bleeding side. The salt from his perspiration burned the jagged flesh. His back also burned like a motherfucker from one of those freaks raking their nails down his shoulders. The lunatics—who had attacked him the second he had landed in the fucking ‘lake’ underground—had almost succeeded in taking a bite out of him.

Riki picked up the torch one of the maniacs had dropped. The wall of pressing darkness of the cavern was intimidating. When he had landed, his untrusting personality and him seeking a hiding place when he’d seen the bobbing flame. He had not been able to hide for very long though. The men he had just taken down, they had been searching for someone and it had not taken the party of six very long to spot him crouching behind some rocks. However, it hadn’t taken him long to turn the tables on them all. They fought like wild animals, but none more so than he did.

Now, however, came the real problem. Riki glared at the man that had come silently out of the shadows after the fight. The stranger had slit the throats each of the men he had taken down before Riki could utter a single word. They stood staring at one another. Sized each other up. Riki was impressed with what he saw, but made sure not to show it. Tall. Fine as fuck, and a body so physically fit, Riki, for a moment, had wondered if the guy was a pet. His body just seemed to perfect to not to have been engineered, even with all the scars marring his chest. However, Unlike the crazies that had attacked him, this dude was calm, collected, and skilled from the way he wielded the sharpened stone blades clenched in his fists.

“We gonna have a problem?” Riki asked trying not to appear unnerved at how unshaken the man seemed to be after cold-bloodedly killing six unconscious people.

“Not from me, you will not,” the man said wiping his stone blades across his thigh, cleaning the blood off them. Riki distastefully stared at the dark stains on the guy’s torn pants.

“I never expected to meet you, Riki, not here of all places.”

Riki frowned at how the man talked to him, as if they knew each other. “I know you?”

“No, but I know who you are,” the man said. “My name’s Julius. I’m in the waste management business.”

“Waste management?” Riki suspiciously asked.

“Yeah,” Julius smirked, his attractive copper-flecked eyes glowing oddly in the torch’s auburn light. “I help in removing unwanted trash from the streets.”

“I’m sure you do,” Riki muttered. “You didn’t need to kill them.”

“Yes,” Julius said firmly, “I did. I heard your splash down. You’ve been down here all of, what? Twenty-five minutes? I, on the other hand, have been trapped in this pit for Jupiter knows how long. The mongrels down here are beyond saving. I’ve knocked them down hundreds of times, and they keep coming back more vicious. Like rabid dogs, all of them.”

Julius grimly glanced down at the bodies. “Landon’s tampered into shit that he knows nothing about. Killing these poor souls is an act of kindness. They cannot be saved. The fact that he’s sent you down here probably means he’s expecting you to do what your kind was meant to when this type of thing happens.”

Riki stiffened. “What the hell are you talking about? Is Landon that punk-ass bitch Platinum Elite’s name? Who the fuck are you?” Moreover, what the hell did he mean by, “Do what your kind was meant to”?

Julius looked at him. “I told you. My name is Julius.”

Eyes narrowed, Riki said, “That’s not what I’m fuckin’ askin’. How do you know me?” Riki’s heart pounded in his chest. He didn’t know why, but the way Julius looked at him… He looked at him with respect—as if he was someone of worth. The only person who ever looked at him like that was Iason.

Julius kneeled and began searching through the pockets of the men he killed. His long dark hair hid his face from Riki’s view. “I know a great many things about you, Riki, son of Chikara and Akemi.”

Riki stood there frozen, his mind running a mile a minute. The hand holding the torch shook. “What did you say?” he gasped. He was whose son? Who the fuck was this person?

Screams pierced the dark. Riki spun around, holding the torch high.

Julius slapped a crudely shaped skive of sharpened metal in his hand. “Looks like Fidget found himself some monsters to extinguish.”

“Fidget?” Riki rushed toward the screams. His feet pounded across the rocky surface. Riki relied more on his instincts than the wildly flickering firelight. He could hear Julius running behind him, trying to keep up with his speed. He hated the fact that his back was exposed to the stranger, but his concern for his friend overruled his discomfort.

However, arriving to the site of the skirmish now over, Riki was completely unprepared for what he saw. In the middle of a circle of fire was Fidget, but he wasn’t the mongrel Riki knew and loved. The man he looked at was feral. The flames around them was nothing compared to the wild light shining from his friend’s eyes. All around the mongrel were dead and or dying men cut down by Fidget’s hand…and from the blood glistening on his mouth that dripped down his chin onto his naked chest, Riki feared what Fidget used as his weapon.

But, when Fidget crouched over the bodies of his victims and lifted his head, and roared in triumph… Riki shivered and his heart clenched painfully at the amount of anguish he heard in Fidget’s bellow.

“What did you do to him,” he angrily whispered as Julius stepped to stand next to him.

“I gave him faces to put on the demons dwelling inside him,” Julius said. “Someone has been coddling him, keeping him from facing his fears.”

He saw Julius turn his head and look at him out of the corner of his eye, but Riki couldn’t rip his gaze away from the savage creature that had once been his fun loving friend to return Julius’s stare.

“We are mongrels,” Julius said. “Our people were given the privilege of natural birth and the freedom to live how we saw fit, away from Jupiter’s controlling grip. However, to survive as mongrels, we have to embrace every blow that knocks us to the ground. Those of us who are unable to stand back up on their own after getting beat down… Well, you know the fate of those mongrels.”

Yeah, Riki did. When he was young and stupid—before he got involved with Iason—he use to laugh at the mongrels Julius talked about. The ones he, and everyone else in the Slums, called beaten dogs. Mongrels that came crawling back to Ceres with their tails between their legs. When he came crawling back they had called him a beaten dog too, not that he had cared at the time. Those poor fools either drank themselves to death, sulked by themselves in dark corners until they withered away, or knowingly did dumb shit to get themselves killed. But Fidget wasn’t like those mongrels. Whatever was eating at that kid’s soul went deeper than most men could comprehend.

But Riki wasn’t like most men.

“He’s broken,” Julius said. “Men like him can never be fixed.”

Riki slowly turned his head and glared at Julius. “Everyone’s broken, asshole. The difference is that some people can take seeing the shattered remains of their sanity and will fight to put the pieces back together, and some people can’t.” Riki turned to look back at his friend now staring blankly at them. “Fidget has always been a fighter. He was a sickly little runt as a kid—a brat that normally would have died in Guardian, but he fought for his right to live. So, don’t be sprouting shit you got no clear understanding about. He’s lost right now. He just needs someone to help him find his way back.”

“I can’t fault you for your logic,” Julius said. “I am not without scars from my past. However, how will you go about bringing him back?”

Riki frowned. He doubted he could guide Fidget back. Riki cared for the kid, he really did, but his relationship with Fidget wasn’t as close knitted as V and Sky’s were. However, if the fucker next to him was correct, then V and Sky were the ones at fault for “coddling” the mongrel. He’d seen the two of them lie to Fidget to keep him from freaking the fuck out many times. The only one who might be able to stabilize Fidget would be…

Riki’s frown deepened.

“Can’t think of anyone?” Julius asked.

“No,” Riki mumbled. “There’s someone.”

“Are you thinking about Fidget’s Blondie?”

Riki froze.

Julius stepped forward and turned fully around to look at him. “There is no need to be completely suspicious of me, Riki. I am not your enemy.”

“Yeah? How would I know that?” Riki asked.

Julius smirked. “If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you the great many times I had visited you when you were a child. Now, shall we round Fidget up? We will need to secure the entrance site of the pit. I am assuming Iason is not far behind you?”

Riki stared at Julius’s back as the mongrel walked away from him. Who the fuck was this guy? And, as much as he wished otherwise, they all had better pray Iason was not coming—not personally anyway. Entering Guardian was one thing, and sneaking into his apartment and fucking him was another, but the Slums? If Iason stepped one foot here, it would be because he had decided to take over and make Ceres part of his territory.

He seriously did not want to have a turf war with his lover. Riki didn’t have enough words to describe how much that would suck.

oOoOoOo

“I demand to know what’s going on! Why are all of you gathered here?”

Iason glared at the Blondie, Elliot, as he began to undress. His furniture made quick work of removing his Syndicate uniform and replacing it with the smooth leather black vest and tight fitting pants.

“Sir Iason!” Elliot growled, and would have stepped closer if Gideon had not blocked his path.

Iason ignored the Elite, gathered his long hair up, and tied the thin leather hair-straps until his locks were secure until it hung high up on his head in a long tail. Only after he was completely dressed and Cal had gathered the clothing he had discarded up in his arms did he respond. “My business does not require your presence, Elliot. I would wisely suggest you continue on your way. I would hate for you to be escorted to your back to your apartments, and held there should you anger me with your questions.”

Elliot glared at him. “And I would hate to expose whatever schemes you are involved with to the others. I am assuming, since Daylon, Ian, and Dominic are not in attendance, you have failed to invite them to this little…gathering of yours.”

“We do not have time for this, Iason,” Orphe impatiently said.

Iason didn’t need Orphe to state the obvious to him. He, just like the rest, wanted nothing more than to knock Elliot to the ground, step over his unconscious body, and be on his way. However, Elliot was not without power of his own.

Iason nodded curtly at four of the guards standing at Gideon’s side. “Confine him. When I return—”

“You will do nothing of the sort!” Elliot growled. “You will tell me what your plans are and I will decide for myself whether or not your order warrants my restraint. You also know your guards will not be able to keep me silent for long, because I have no qualms of taking their lives should you continue in your plans of putting me in solitary. ”

“We allowed our pets to roam freely in Midas,” Mikhale coldly informed Elliot, “and they met with unforeseeable circumstances that have led to their capture which took them into Cere. We are on our way to retrieve them.”

“The fact that you allowed your pets outside of Eos is preposterous,” Elliot replied. The Blondie stared at him and the other Blondies for a moment. “You say you are going into Ceres?”

“Yes,” Marcus said firmly.

Iason narrowed his eyes when Elliot eyes brightened and his body language lost its aggressive stance.

“You will take me with you,” Elliot said.

Aisha growled impatiently. “We do not have time—”

“Take me with you,” Elliot repeated again.

Iason looked at all the Blondies and said, “Make your way there and wait for me. I do not want one guard stepping foot on Ceres ground until I arrive, and make sure no one—not even the mongrels—see you. We do not want word spreading to our pets’ captor of our visit.”

All the Blondies and the small number of guards—minus the ones standing in wait for Iason—departed…all but one. Orphe stepped up to Elliot until he and the other Blondie were almost chest-to-chest. “I would graciously request, Sir Elliot Maress, that you do not keep Sir Iason long.”

“Enough, Orphe,” Iason said. “I will not be longer than a minute.”

“Be sure that you are not,” Orphe said. “For I will not wait a moment longer than necessary, Iason.”

Iason did not wish to wait either, but he could not allow Elliot to ruin their plans. He tampered down his growing anxiety and anger, and gave Elliot his full attention the moment Orphe stepped out of his way. “As I told Orphe, Elliot. You have one minute to convince me of your reasons before I leave.”

“I am an environmental scientist, Sir Iason, and my expertise is in field work. However, because of my rank I am forbidden—” Elliot spat—“from doing what I do best. I am force to send others to do what I most wish, and because of that, my research lacks certain data that I require. That aside, Ceres is an area we know nothing about. How have they been able to survive cutoff from us? Do they grow their own food? What are the compounds of their soil, and how does it differ from our own? These are questions we need to know.”

“Should you join me,” Iason said, “you run the risk of ‘tainting’ your Elite status.”

Elliot snorted. “I would be accompanying eight other Blondie Elites, as well as, you, Sir Iason. We set the rules, as you know, considering we have a mongrel living with us.”

More than just one. The corners of Iason’s mouth tilted slightly upward.

“Riki should have been your downfall,” Elliot continued, “but he was not. With the amount of Blondies by your side, we are beyond touchable.”

“Your minute is up, Elliot,” Iason said striding forward. “I will not wait for you to gather any sort of equipment.”

“I have containers to gather samples on me,” Elliot replied as he followed suit.

Iason did not comment on how strange that was or how excited the Blondie became as Iason motioned Elliot to enter the backseat of his limo, the guards crowding in behind them. All he cared about was making up the time he lost, and making it to Ceres. The drive was blissfully silent, Elliot wisely kept his thoughts to himself, and in less than ten minutes, they exited Tanagura and arrived at the south end of Her Bay.

Area-7. A gated and highly guarded triple fenced zone of warehouses containing imported goods from worlds all around the galaxy, theirs and many others. Iason had always found it humorous that Her Bay’s neighbor was Ceres. A city filled with thieves who knew nothing of the treasures that lay just a stone throw away from their boarders.

“Have you issued the soldiers orders?” Iason asked Gideon the moment the limo stopped and he stepped out.

“I have,” Gideon replied. “I made sure they knew the repercussions of firing lethal rounds on mongrels. They are, however, required by Jupiter’s law to eliminate any and all who threaten our wellbeing. I have expressed that should they open fire upon any citizen of Ceres, they would not only be stripped of their rank, but dishonorably discharged from the fleet.”

Dishonorably discharged. A pleasant way of informing them that they would be forfeiting their lives for their disobedience. Iason observed the fifty soldiers armed with assault rifles and tranquilizer guns. “I trust you will act accordingly, Gideon?”

The large Blondie glanced sideways at him for a moment before turning his attention back to the men standing in formation. “If you are asking if I will take my anger on the mongrels, Iason, I can assure you that I will not. While I am not pleased with the situation, Jade’s ring is still functional. Seeing his exact location gives me solace.”

“Lilly’s ring is still working as well,” Mikhale said walking up to them. “As is Raoul’s. The others, on the other hand…”

Iason glanced over his shoulder and looked at Marcus, Orphe, Gabriel, Jared, and Aisha speaking in hush tones together. The rage on their perfect faces. Iason knew that fury, could feel it twisting his insides. Raoul and Mikhale wore the same expressions as the others, but they had hope through the blinking dot signaling their pets exact locations. Gideon’s military training gave the Blondie that added discipline to think logically, and so did he. However, Iason did not think he could withhold lashing out in anger the moment he stepped foot in Ceres, which was why he left Gideon purely in charge of directing the soldiers accompanying them.

“Iason.” Orphe glared at him from the group.

“Let us depart,” Iason said, nodding his head to the guards standing at the towering gates. “We go together. No one is to go off on their own,” Iason ordered as the gates opened. “Raoul, Mikhale, and Gideon will direct us. Should we encounter mongrels,—which we will—we will let the soldiers handle them. Do I make myself clear?”

Iason did not wait for an agreement. He had restrained himself long enough. Moving forward, he made his way out the gates, the Blondies fanned out beside him. Soldiers created a wall behind, and to the sides, of them with their tranquiller guns in front of them, armed and ready.

Their long strides brought them to Ceres boarder quickly, and without hesitation, Iason crossed the painted redline that warned them there were entering forbidden territory—formerly forbidden territory. Jupiter had abandoned this city and it had taken Riki from him, not once, but twice now. Iason was not about that to happen again. He would bring this city to heel even if he had to kill everyone in it to do so.

Doorways of crumbling buildings were filled with mongrels who stared with wonder and fear at them. Some shouted obscenities, but Iason ignored them. As long as they made no move toward them, he cared not what they said. However, his body hummed with anticipation in hopes that someone did do something, so he could unleash some of his pent up aggression, but no one did.

“Iason,” Gideon warned, guards stepping slightly in front of him as they heard shouting and running footsteps.

Iason heard Raoul and Gabriel gasp, and saw Niko round the corner, slam into the side of the building and crashed into trashcans lined at the side of the sidewalk. He watched with growing horror as the boy scrambled on his hands and knees through filth. Niko’s long hair was startling, but it was the amount of blood staining Niko’s clothing shot tendrils of terror down Iason’s spine.

Gabriel rushed forward and grabbed Niko, the boy screamed and fought wildly. “Niko!” Gabriel shouted, and the boy jerked back and his bruised face looked up at the Blondie with shock and relief before crying out Gabriel’s name. He wrapped his arms around the Elite’s neck and sobbed uncontrollably against Gabriel’s chest. However, the horrific wounds that ran up and down Niko’s arms and gruesome glimpse of bleeding and torn flesh on Niko’s back when his clothing lifted, is what that Iason zoned in on. Moreover, up close, Iason saw that the garment Niko wore had more blood than dirt on it. The blood soaked into Gabriel’s clothing.

How could the boy still be standing…?

“Raoul.” He did not need to explain to his old friend what he wanted. Raoul withdrew a syringe from his medical bag a guard carried, and administered the sedative into Niko’s arm. As Gabriel lifted Niko in his arms and carefully hugged him close, Niko and his eyes met.

“No. Riki…They took…Riki…” Niko rasped before the drugs took effect and his eyes closed.

Iason’s heart stropped. Fear griped him in its viscous claws, tearing and ripping at him until the world around him was tainted red. Turning on his heel, Iason swiftly rounded the corner Niko had appeared. He faintly heard Raoul tell Gabriel to take Niko back to Eos through the roaring in his ears, and out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the other Blondies follow him, but he was beyond caring about any of them. All he could think about was Riki, his wild and beautiful mongrel lying hurt, bleeding…dying…

He could not lose him, not again.

He wouldn’t be able to survive without Riki by his side.

Riki was his life. His reason for continuing.

“What is going on?” Iason heard Elliot demand. “Who would dare do something like that? Do they not know who young Niko belonged to?”

“They know exactly who they are dealing with,” Marcus growled. “Which is why they thought to hide in Ceres.”

“Outrageous!”

Iason concentrated on the cracked pavement, following the gruesome bloody footprints on the cement from Niko’s desperate flight. He had been running from someone. Iason just hoped they were still chasing him, so he could…talk to them.

“Who the fuck are you bitches?” a mongrel bravely—stupidly—snarled, blocking Iason’s path. Without missing a beat, Iason took the tranquilizer gun from one of the soldiers and shot the mongrel in the chest, then his three friends that had jumped up to help him.

Iason continued on, shooting any mongrel foolish enough to get in his way. “Reload,” Iason ordered, handing the gun to the soldier he took it from without stopping.

“Continue straight Iason,” Gideon said. “In thirty yards, turn left and then straight for fifteen yards.”

Iason blinked. Behind him were bodies of mongrels lying in the street being hauled unconscious into buildings or bound and gagged by soldiers. The others had followed his lead and had taken tranq guns, and used them with as much diplomacy as he had. Iason said nothing, he did not acknowledge Gideon with indication he had heard him, he just took the gun the soldier reloaded and continued down the road.

Anything that moved was a target and Iason was merciless. They all were. They all saw their mongrel in Niko’s place, saw their loved one hurt and in pain, and any unknown was an enemy. Iason stepped over bodies that fell under their darts. Many fled in fear, but those who did not fought tooth and nail with their guards. Chaos reigned supreme in the streets, and soon gunfire rang down from windows. Not that bullets did Iason, or any of the Blondies, any harm. Their shields deflected their useless slugs, and those who came close enough to Iason with knifes were easily subdued with his fist or deflected by the leather he wore.

Iason did not stop moving. The mongrels’ attacks stopped the moment they entered the abandoned section of the city. The only difference between what could be considered abandoned buildings was the fact that there were no mongrels hanging out from windows staring, shooting, or cursing at them. The buildings all looked the same. Rundown and rat infested.

“There.” Mikhale pointed to the tunnel opening at the bottom of the levee behind the fence that halted their advance.

“Iason.”

Iason glanced at Elliot. The Blondie kneeled and touched the ground, then showed Iason his blood strained glove.

“I believe this is where young Niko escaped from,” Elliot whispered.

“It is,” Raoul said. “Katze’s signal has gotten stronger.”

“As has Jade’s.” Gideon did not wait for Iason to issue and order, and with a yank, ripped the fence from the ground and threw the diamond links fifty feet to the side.

“Are you sure they are in there?” Jared demanded as they made their way down.

“They have to be,” Marcus whispered.

Iason remained silent until they entered the mouth of the tunnel. “Raoul. Mikhale. Gideon. Lead us in. Should we come upon a room before we locate your pets, they will be searched by us or by the guards while you continue on.”

“We have no way of knowing how deep these tunnels go,” Marcus said. “The map Keita drew did not cover this area.”

“Would you care to wait until the passageways are properly channeled?” Gideon asked, signaling the soldiers to enter the dark tunnels and light the way, but mostly to look for hidden traps.

“If we take a wrong turn,” Aisha growled. “It could take us farther away from them, and with finding them.”

“That’s a chance we have to take,” Iason said and walking into the waiting darkness.

 

Serum – Chapter 20 ★ ～☆ Serum – Chapter 22
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