Chapter 49
(Max's P.O.V.)
Robyn gave a whimper and fell to the floor in what seemed like a bow. Robyn. Where had I heard that name before?
"Do you need to be taught another lesson, Robyn?" Jakob asked casually, "Because I could teach it to you VERY, VERY soon." Robyn gave a tear-choked sob and shook her head 'no'. My face hardened. What had he done to her?!
"Max, you should be taught a lesson too," Ari grinned, canines clicking together, "It would teach you a lot."
Oh my God. I got it.
I concentrated on not massacring Jakob and Ari, breathing deeply. How dare Jakob do that to her! And then Ari have the cheek to suggest it to me! Fang squared it for me. He held up a bottle marked 'Highly fatal. Contagious through respiratory system. DO NOT OPEN.'
"I'll drop it," he threatened, "Don't think I won't." Ari and Jakob froze in their tracks.
I pulled up Robyn by the elbow, "You promised not to kill us until we gave you the nanobytes. Still keeping that promise?"
"On my . . . my honor," she stuttered, tears streaking down her face.
Jakob gave a barking laugh, "What honor?" Robyn looked down at her sneakers with her face crumpling.
"You know what, shut up, you f****** jerk! I don't need to listen to your s***** comments about her! She's bad too, but I respect her more than I respect you, b******!" I screeched. I'm not going to bother omitting swear words for your benefit now, because this guy was REALLY pissing me off. "It's your f****** fault she's like this! Afraid of you! So go dig a ditch and die in it, you d***h***!"
Everyone stared at me until Fang recovered his wits and hurled the fatal test tube towards the two Erasers. Robyn, Fang, and I held our hands over our mouths and noses as the glass exploded, sending the deadly substance into the air.
I immediately cut through the plastic medical waste chute door with the laser, and shoved Robyn through. Fang was next. They sped down the chute as I hopped in. I hoped this wouldn't go bad.
As the edge of the metal chute cut off my vision, I saw Ari and Jakob fall to the ground, their lungs bleeding from the inside. My hand was still over my mouth.
Okay, you remember the claustrophobia thing? This was bad. It was dark. And small. And I didn't know what the end had. Over and over, down slides, over bumps, around in circles. There was finally a light at the end. I could see used needle tips and gauze, along with other unmentionables, in a dumpster bin. Right where I was going to land.
I snapped open my wings at the right time, and soared out over the field of needles, toes barely clearing the waste dump. Fang and Robyn were hovering over the desert outside the complex.
"Robyn," I said, crushing the tube of nanobytes, "I want you to get out of here. Get far away."
She twitched, "But, but they will track me. I have nowhere to go!"
"We turned the tracker in your locket off," I explained as she looked down, to see if, indeed, her locket was gone, "And there are plenty of places to go." I turned to swoop away but she laid a hand on my shoulder. I flinched as I expected a knife point to enter my ribs, or a kick to my head.
"Wait," she said, "Please take this one to Kari. To remind her. And tell her, oh, I remember now, that it was not her fault." She ripped off a single picture from a photo-booth roll and placed it gently in my hand, curling my fingers over it. "Please," she pleaded, "Tell her, I'm sorry. For Iggy. And I only wish I could be with her. But I am bad for everyone. I am already dead, so my feelings do not matter. No matter how much my heart wants to go with you, I swear, you'll never see me again, because I will kill myself with the injector when you are gone." She swooped off gracefully over the desert, heading west. I put the picture in my pocket. It wasn't mine to look at.
"Nice, morbid kind of girl," Fang commented, "Time to go?"
"Home, Jeeves," I said, following him as we went to, well, home.
