Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,14

grace of a drunk zombie, but had somehow made it here silently.

I pulled open the bottom drawer, rifling inside it for something I could use as a weapon, but there was nothing aside from a stapler and some equally useless stationary. Oh come on, gimme a break.

Static crackled over the guards’ radios and a female voice sounded through it. “Security footage shows her heading down the main stairwell. She’s – ah! She’s behind the reception desk.”

Fuck a fucking duck on a truck.

Heavy footfalls sounded, coming my way and I pushed myself to my feet, figuring I had no alternative as I threw the stapler as hard as I could. It bounced off of one of the guard’s heads and he grunted angrily.

“Stay back, I’m contagious,” I snapped and they slowed their approach.

The one I hadn’t struck glared at me as he pulled up a black face mask from his chin to cover his mouth and nose. “On your knees.”

“I’m the most valuable person in the world,” I blurted, pressing my shoulders back even though all I felt like doing was curling up on the floor and trying to drown the pain in my body. “You can’t shoot me.”

The guards shared a look that confirmed it and I ran for the door with my heart in my throat. Sure enough, no shots were fired and they clearly didn’t want to get too close to me and the Hades Virus either. That dirty cluster of death in my body was suddenly my only friend and I clung onto its hand as it offered me my only chance for freedom.

I wasn’t fast or graceful, but I was fucking desperate and the daylight pouring in from outside called to me like a song. I was most likely going to be caught, but maybe someone out there would hear my screams first.

I made it into the rotating door, pushing it around, almost tasting the fresh air. Then it slammed to a halt and I turned back with a snarl on my lips, finding the guards stopping it from moving any further. They started turning it the other way, one of them walking around with it to return me to them. I tried to force it back again with all I had, but my weakened body just couldn’t do what I needed it to and I almost heard the Hades Virus laughing maniacally in the back of my head.

I screamed as much as my lungs would allow, making as much noise as I possibly could, banging my hands on the window and hoping someone out there would see or hear, would call the police. It was no hope at all really, but doing nothing wasn’t in my nature. I couldn’t lie down and take this. And I may not have been able to fight right now, but I still had one weapon at my disposal.

I ripped the visor and mask off of my face as the door rotated back into the foyer and the guard grabbed my arm. I coughed as I tore at his face mask and he cursed, slapping a hand over my mouth and nose as he immobilised me against his chest.

My heart catapulted into my throat as I suddenly couldn’t breathe, his meaty palm clasped down too hard as my lungs laboured for air. I jerked in his hold, stamping on his foot and using my elbows to try and escape, but I was too weak.

Darkness curtained my eyes as a bunch of nurses in full biohazard suits ran toward us across the foyer and it was only a few more seconds before a needle was driven into my thigh. Everything went black as the strength of the drug overwhelmed me and I thought of my Night Keepers as the last of my hope faded with my strength.

They weren’t going to find me.

I couldn’t get free.

I had days left at the very most. My fate was paved, walled in on all sides as it led me to my final destination. And only a grave awaited me at the end.

"H ow fucking long is this going to take, man?" I asked, the impatience in my voice clear as I paced back and forth in front of the dining table in The Temple.

Saint sat there before his laptop, totally still, staring at the screen with his fingers steepled as he waited like a freaking statue and the rest of us tried not to lose our shit.

Well, me and Monroe were trying not to lose