(REWRITING) The Skylar Experiment : Coveting

Chapter Fifty-Four - Ethan The Savior

RILEY

ONE OFFICER told the other to check the front of the warehouse. Luc should be arriving soon after sending him the address.

I curled in a corner, squeezing my lids shut. The gunshot replayed in my head endlessly, and everytime it eviscerated me. My body shivered, slumped against the wall. When I finally allowed myself to stare at the room, I noticed movement among the shelves, but the agent hadn't. His back was turned.

Maybe I was going crazy and I was seeing things.

I prepared to close my eyes again when a face flashed between two consoles. Juvenile hazel eyes and tan skin. There was someone else in the room, and he wasn't supposed to be here. My head bobbed over my shoulders in an effort to look at the officer. My limbs felt drained. Dead like the boy across from me. 

"You killed a good person with..." my voice thickened, "with all his life to live."

They used Adam to trap me, and then they managed to lure Luc. Of course he'd hurtle over to tear the men's spine out. I lowered my head from the lump in my throat. Hunters had to be waiting out there and he was alone. This was all my fault. 

"You should have thought of that before transgressing our rules, Miss Addison."

It was difficult to breathe. My lungs could be on fire and there'd be no difference. I grabbed my own arms and curled tighter around myself, straining to swallow. 

"What are you going to do with us?"

He received a message on his earpiece but didn't pay attention. He was feeling oddly talktative after murdering a teenager. "Thanks to one of your classmates, we were able to confirm all the information needed. Your friend will be taken in. The rest is beyond my clearance level."

My lower lip trembled. Luc was in danger because of me, and if something happened to him tonight, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Pain clamped down on my chest as I imagined him being dragged off to NIO... and God knows what they'd do to him there. I couldn't bear the image and chased it away, but guilty whispers buzzed in my ears. 

What I didn't understand was who would have spoken to those guys from school? 

"Who... who told you things?"

I was sure he wasn't allowed to give me a name, but if I wouldn't make it out of this, then why bother? He was able to kill someone on command. Everything else was easy.

"Chuck Danefield, know about him?"

Just hearing the name brought me back to the changing room with the clicking sounds that were actually his camera, made me think of the fresh bruises on his chest he'd shown me and the resentment in his voice. I stuck my palms to my forehead, ready to bawl my eyes out again.

Two hands enveloped the agent's head on either side. In the space of a second, a discharge coursed over his face. His body contorted before giving out. Ethan straddled over it and broke my cuffs, but he was unable to take off the wristlet.

"What are you doing here?" I said. "How did you get in?"

I bet his mother didn't know he snuck out of the house and stalked me.

"I saw something was wrong. I melted a part of the wall in the back of the warehouse and crawled inside."

He seemed rather proud of his resourcefulness until he saw Adam, and his expression darkened.

"I'm really sorry for what happened to him."

"You shouldn't be here," I reproached. "Your parents will freak out."