Chapter 16:
"Final Betrayal"

August 4, 1915
Red Star Chemicals
Research Laboratory Headquarters

Alek had nearly recoiled in disgust when Dr. Barlow held out her revolver and told him to take it. He utterly despised guns. But he knew better than to waste time pointlessly arguing. Not now, when Deryn's life was at stake and two dangerous men were in the next room.

So, Alek did what he was told without protest. He took the gun in his hand- he had been expecting it to feel cold, like ice against his skin, but the grip was still slightly warm from Dr. Barlow's palm. He thought it didn't feel as heavy as it should. He figured that anything capable of doing so much damage should weigh more.

Damian Vost- the man who Alek had pummeled minutes ago- sneered as soon as Alek reentered the laboratory. The man's face was a mess. Though it hadn't been particularly handsome at first, with a chunk of ear missing and a long, thin scar decorating his cheek, now it looked monstrous. The blood smeared on his face, his crooked nose and swelled left eye, combined with the hateful scowl he was making, made him look strangely primal. Primitive, but also ferocious and incapable of restraint.

The way that man was looking at him, Alek thought Damian would lunge for his throat at any second, whether he was armed or not.

"I'd take a few steps back from that one," Sullivan remarked. "That man's no stranger to violence, and if the look on his face is any indication of his bloodthirst I'd say he was rearing to murder you."

Damian spat a gob of bloody saliva at Alek's shoes.

Eliot Vost was the total opposite of his villainous counterpart. He stood, arms crossed, with impeccable posture, as if he couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge the situation at hand. His face was utterly blank and uncaring.

"By the way, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Hohenberg." Sullivan added cordially, as if they were meeting for tea instead of holding men at gunpoint. "I've heard quite a bit about you. Honestly, I'm a bit curious as to what the ex-prince of Austria and Dr. Nora Barlow, my scientific rival, have to do with this tangle of a situation, but I don't suppose we have the luxury of chatting about such matters at the moment."

Alek sighed. "It's a bit of a long story anyway." He longed to peek out the door to catch a glimpse of Deryn and see if she was all right, but decided it would be best not to take his eyes off Damian. "Besides, I'm a bit more curious as to why this man-" he gestured towards Damian- "is working with your business partner. And why do they share a last name?"

"We're brothers." Damian sneered spitefully. "At least, we were before he insisted that I change my last name. As if my sharing his last name dirtied it somehow."

For the first time since Dr. Barlow had drawn her weapon on him, Eliot Vost spoke.

"I have no idea who this man is!" He hissed. "Do not speak such ridiculous lies."

"Lies? LIES? You are the one who is lying!" Damian shot back. "You promised me riches. You promised me support. You promised me that the Brigade would rise victorious, that our ideals would grow to be respected and that those revolting fabrications, those disgusting freaks of nature, would be put out of their misery! We made a deal. I get your idiotic business partner and some bloody princess out of your way so you can develop that weapon of yours and sell it to the highest bidder. Then we split the money and I can finally rebuild the Brigade that I spent my entire life creating."

Eliot grew visibly more agitated as his brother continued, his lips curling downward and his body tensing. "I don't know what he's going on about," he jeered. "This man is obviously spouting nonsense."

Damian's hands curled in his fury, like bony claws. "I'm not the one who's spouting nonsense! You have done everything wrong! You abduct the wrong girl, bring these fools here, the very place you were supposed to keep them away from, and turn your back on me the second your plan begins to unravel."

Damian Vost's face was a mask of wrath. Looking at the man's bared teeth, Alek was unable to imagine anything but a savage wolf's jaws- fiercely strong and unforgiving. In contrast, his brother's face was stone-cold. Only his eyes, glaring sharply like chips of steel, revealed any emotion.

Dr. Barlow's voice pierced through the tense silence from the hall. "One of you, fetch me alcohol and clean fabric. Bandages, if you can find them in that room. Be fast about it!"

Sullivan turned his head towards the door, where her voice had come from. Too late Alek he realized it had been a mistake for the doctor to take his eyes off Eliot. Before Alek could shout a warning to Sullivan, Eliot Vost had already sprung into action, lunging for the gun in Sullivan's grasp.

Dr. Chester Sullivan might have been a certified scientific genius, but he was physically no match for a giant of a man like Vost. In a matter of seconds, Sullivan was beaten. Eliot took hold of the gun with ease and shoved the portly man to the floor.

Alek's heart lurched- he didn't have time to consider his options. Right now, the important thing was to stop Eliot. Without hesitation, he pointed the gun squarely in the center of Eliot's chest and squeezed the trigger.

The bullet missed by a mile, but the gunshot certainly caught Vost's attention. His eyes narrowed on Alek, but he made a spectacle of pointing his weapon at Sullivan, who was still lying flat on the floor.

"I certainly didn't expect that, Mr. Hohenberg," he said snidely. "I thought you were something of a pacifist."

"I could say the same to you," Alek replied, and in turn aimed his gun at Damian Vost. "Don't move an inch, or I won't hesitate to shoot your brother. And this time, I won't miss."

Damian snarled. "You think I would allow a child like you to stop me?" He leveled his gaze with Eliot's. "And you. You betrayed me. That is something that I cannot forgive."

"Enough!" Eliot Vost erupted, his voice shockingly loud. "Damian, you half-wit! Yes, I took advantage of your ridiculous bloodthirsty desire to rebuild your pathetic cult. I offered you my brotherly love, which you so desired after our family estranged you all those years ago. Best of all, I promised you a sum of money so large that you couldn't resist. But do you really think I intended to share my wealth? Do you honestly think I would allow the name Vost to be tarnished by this ridiculous Brigade that you so foolishly wasted your life creating? No. All I needed was to keep you under my thumb until I could collect my fortune."

This turn of events did not particularly surprise Alek, but they certainly had an impact on Damian, who viciously bared his teeth. "How dare you-"

Eliot shot him in the face. Twice.

Damian Vost never finished his sentence, and nor would he ever speak again. His body collapsed gracelessly, and Alek was certain that the man was dead before he hit the ground.

"Vermin." Eliot Vost spat. His saliva landed on his dead brother's face.

This single act of unkindness, to disrespect the body of his own brother so spitefully, appalled Alek. Eliot Vost must have noticed his horrified expression.

"You pity a man whom you so mercilessly beat a mere few minutes ago? How feeble of you, Mr. Hohenberg."

…..

Deryn came to, yanked out of her stupor by the sound of a gunshot. She lurched forward only to be pressed firmly back against the floor by Dr. Barlow.

"It appears this situation has gone a bit out of hand," the lady boffin said mildly, indifferent to the cacophony.

"Barking spiders! What the devil is going on in there?" Deryn demanded.

"That is none of your concern at the moment." Dr. Barlow replied. "Honestly, miss Sharp, I am going to be furious with you if you allow yourself to lose consciousness again. How impolite that was!"

"Er, sorry about that," Deryn mumbled with irritation. Of course the lady boffin would be offended by Deryn's near-death experience.

"Just do not let it happen again," Dr. Barlow ordered sternly. "I've just managed to stop the bleeding, but it won't do a thing if you keep on wriggling around like that."

"Aye." Deryn agreed. She had begun to grow used to the pain in her shoulder by now- it was by no means pleasant, but it had become somewhat familiar. At least she didn't feel as if she were on the verge of tears anymore. How embarrassing would that be- to cry in front of the lady boffin, and Alek, to boot!

Dr. Barlow abruptly stood, wiping her bloodied hands on her skirt. "I'm off to see what that ridiculous noise was about. You-" she narrowed her eyes at Deryn accusingly- "are to stay put. Do not move an inch." She spun on her heel and was off.

Deryn remained obediently still for about a minute and then propped her head up to take a peek at the doorway to the laboratory. Unfortunately, she couldn't hear a thing going on inside. She strained her ears, hoping to catch even a measly snippet of conversation.

She was listening so hard that she did not notice the figure approaching her until he loomed directly behind her.

"You filthy liar."

She recognized Edward's voice in an instant and jerked her head back to get a look at him. Still clad in only his undergarments and shivering slightly, he was not particularly imposing. Deryn smothered a snort.

"I am sorry that I broke my promise to you." She apologized. And it was the truth- she did feel guilty about promising to free him in exchange for Damain's name. "But your father shot me, so I'd like to think that we're even now."

Edward looked at her reproachfully, then squatted next to her. "You left a blood trail all the way up here, you know. You weren't exactly hard to find."

Deryn smirked. "I do apologize if I've stained the carpet," she scoffed in her posh princess accent. A thought occurred to her, though, so she didn't go on with her jest. "Wait- how did you get out of that room?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "My father must have found me and left me there in disgust, but he left the door open at least. Once I woke up- that was a mean punch, by the way- all I had to do was work my way through the knots in the shoelace and leave."

"And you couldn't find a shred of clothing on the way here?" Deryn grinned. "My, that long walk must have been traumatic in your skivvies."

He grimaced. "You know, I don't think now is a good time for you to be taunting me, you fake princess. Yes, I know you're a fake. No princess could punch like that. Besides, I could easily kill you right now if I wanted to."

Deryn sighed. dropping her fake British accent. "You'd kill a wounded, unarmed girl for teasing you about your underwear? That's pure dead awful."

"What was awful was you taking all my clothes and nearly breaking my nose. Again." Edward retorted. "And I'm not going to kill you. It wouldn't do me any good. I hated this whole thing. I never wanted to hurt you. Father told me that this would be an easy affair. We'd kidnap you, have you for maybe a day, and someone would pay your ransom and it would be over. If I'd have known things would go this far…there's no way I would have let this happen."

Deryn narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll take that as your apology, then." She sighed. "Were you and your father the only members of that Brigade of his, then? There's nobody else who's going to come up here and kill us?"

Edward ran his hand through his dark hair thoughtfully. "The Brigade was enormous a few decades ago," he explained. "My father said he led nearly a hundred men. But after the Society disbanded them, he was alone. My mother left because he couldn't let go of his obsession with destroying fabrications, and I was the only one he had. It was only the two of us, this whole time."

Deryn couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for Edward. To grow up with a man like Damian as a father, with no mother to speak of, could not have been a good childhood.

"And who might this young man be?" Dr. Barlow's voice startled both of them. "And why is he so tastelessly dressed?"

Deryn was not entirely sure how to respond to this question. "This is Edward." She answered slowly. "He, ah, a was a member of the Brigade, but he helped Sullivan and I escape. He's on our side."

Edward shot Deryn a surprised glance, but didn't correct her.

"Well then I hope he isn't too upset to hear that his leader has met a rather untimely death." Dr. Barlow remarked casually.

The blood drained from Edward's face. "Say that again." He said slowly.

Dr. Barlow huffed impatiently, oblivious to Edward's shock. "I said, the leader of your little Brigade is dead." She waved her hand at the laboratory. "He was killed by his own brother. Despicable."

Edward didn't waste a moment listening to Dr. Barlow's explanation. He simply pushed past her and burst into the laboratory.

Deryn closed her eyes, her heart filled with sorrow. From inside the other room, she heard Edward's cry of anguish, and she wished she hadn't.

"My," Dr. Barlow commented. "What a loud reaction."

Deryn couldn't help it. "That was his father." She snapped.

Dr. Barlow's eyes widened, revealing her surprise for only a moment. Then, as nonchalantly as ever, her expression returned to normal. "I thought I told you not to move, miss Sharp."

Deryn closed her eyes as Dr. Barlow re-examined her wounds again.

"That man may be his father, but the boy is better for his death." Dr. Barlow said softly. "No child should grow up with a father so cruel."

Deryn didn't say anything, but she couldn't help from thinking something differently. Yes, but even a cruel father is better than none at all.