Yet she couldn’t hold the tears in when Nick reached out his bloodied hand to his boy. Nick was hesitant but determined. The tips of his ruined fingers grazed the baby’s cheek and then his hand.
It was then she had to look away. If only she hadn’t been so impulsive, this might never have happened. Maybe it was that the baby finally stopped crying, Talia didn’t know, but something told her to look back. When she did, her breath caught in her throat. Nick had risen to his feet, holding his son, silver eyes looking down at him. Though the blood still remained on his skin and clothes, his wounds were gone.
Nicole had recovered from her shock and wrapped her arms around him tightly just over their son who was now peacefully asleep. That’s when Talia realised what had happened. The baby wanted its father. The pack was united. She wiped at her face as the family broke off their embrace.
“How? I don’t understand.” Nicole sniffed, pawing over his face. “It’s really you.”
Nick stared at her the way Talia knew she did looking at a white gold necklace the first time. He touched her face for a moment before lightly gripping her chin and turning her face to the side. Looking over her injuries.
“Nothing happened,” she said softly. “It was close.”
“Something happened…” Nick took a breath, reached his hand back a few inches and his fingernails extended and then sank back in. “Let me help you.”
“No,” she said, placing a hand on his chest. “I don’t want to hide this. I want to heal naturally. Help me by getting us out of here.”
“I second that,” Talia said, walking up to the couple and holding out her hand. “Hi. Talia, nice to meet you.”
He took her hand and held on for a few seconds. Talia felt it too. The connection. Whether it was the blood they shared, or their generation, she wasn’t sure. Two tenth gens in the same place was unheard of, not to mention brother and sister. Did Nick even know? Oh man, this could get real tense, real quick.
“I’m sorry, that was rude.” Nick said, referring to the conversation he shared with Nicole while Talia was in the room.
Talia waved a dismissal. “Nah, you got a baby, reunions and the coming back from the dead thing going on. It’s heavy stuff, I get it. But you could apologise better by us all fucking this place off already.”
Nick secured the baby and held Nicole’s hand. “Lead the way.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
A Long Way Down
Talia marched out and looked down at where the stairs should be, but thanks to Tynan’s booby trap they were gone, replaced by a smooth cement chute. She noticed a small censor in the wall at ankle height. She could still hear the drills whirring all the way down at the bottom. So this was a trap from both ends. The one Talia fell for, and if Nicole had escaped she would have tripped it as well. The stairs at the base would be destroyed either way, but from the top Nicole would have had to slide down with no idea what lay in wait for her at the bottom.
“We have a problem. At the end of this chute, there are spikes and believe me they fuckin’ hurt. We can’t climb down as the army is on that side.”
“Where do the spikes cover?” Nicole asked.
“From the bottom base, about ten feet up.”
“Are they in line with where the steps were?” Nicole asked.
“Yes. Why?”
Nicole twisted and went into the room. Moments later she came out with the bed mattress. “We can shape this to curve into the wall. The speed we pick up from up here should be enough to cover ten feet.”
“Are you sure?” Talia asked.
“No. But it’s the best chance we’ve got.”
“Good enough for me.” Talia replied.
They got on and pushed off. Nick with the baby in front, then Nicole and last Talia. They were gathering tremendous speed already with Nick being the heaviest. Round and round, down and down.
“Get ready…” Talia said. “Almost.”
They came around a corner where the light shone brighter and brighter.
“Now!” she yelled.
Nick kicked off and wrapped the baby in his arms as Talia tucked her arms around Nicole. They sailed over the spikes easily with the extra push off from Nick’s legs. Nick rolled along the floor, making sure he slid on his back, as did Talia. Just as they finished checking on each other and determined they were all ok, a slow clap echoed around the room.
Talia looked up from the floor. Tynan stood in the room, but he wasn’t alone. Beside him was a guy she didn’t recognise and her mother on Tynan’s other side.
“Well done,” Tynan said. “You’ve come far, but the adventure stops here.”
Tynan pulled out a long, sinister looking machete from his belt and addressed Nick. “Recognise this? You should. It removed your father’s head. Quite poetic do you not agree? Father and son about to meet the same fate.”
“Talia…” Radha said. “Stand down…beg for mercy. Please.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“It’s over…” she replied, barely hiding her rage. “Your little stunt only got so far because of Rykard’s forces conveniently attacking at the same time. Did you really think you would win? That this would work? Let me guess…it was all Alicia’s idea?”
“If you spent half as much time worrying about me and the person I would become instead of your hatred for a woman that did nothing to you, you might not have fucked our relationship.”
Radha looked crushed at her words, and truthfully, Talia was glad. “Where is she?”
“Several hundred men are between her, that…thing and here,” Tynan answered which made Talia smile.
“So,
