Chapter 112 112
Annabeth's POV:
They came for me before dawn.
I was half-asleep on the cot when the door banged open, two guards grabbing my arms before I even had time to sit up. My body felt like it was filled with sand, heavy and slow, the drugs they'd been putting in my food still weighing me down.
"Time to go, 47-R," one of them said.
I didn't fight. Couldn't, really, my limbs weren't cooperating. I just let them drag me down the corridor, my bare feet scraping against the cold concrete floor. Kalessi's voice came through the wall as we passed her cell, muffled but urgent.
"Stay strong," she said. "Remember what I told you."
I didn't answer. The guards were already pulling me around the corner, through the double doors, up the ramp to the extraction level.
The room was exactly as horrible as I'd glimpsed yesterday when they walked me past. White walls, bright lights, and that machine in the center with all its tubes and containers. The chair was waiting for me, metal and cold, with straps for my wrists and ankles.
"Sit," the tech said. Different woman than the one who'd done my tests yesterday. Older, with gray hair, and she didn't look at my face.
The guards shoved me into the chair and started fastening the straps. I was too weak to resist, the drug making my muscles feel like jelly. My wrists got locked down first, then my ankles, then a wider strap across my chest that made it hard to breathe.
"She's secured," one guard said.
"Good. You can wait outside."
They left. Just me and the tech now, and another guy in scrubs who was preparing something on a tray. Needles. Tubes. Bags that would fill up with my blood.
"This will pinch," the tech said, and jabbed a needle into the crook of my elbow without waiting for a response.
It didn't pinch. It HURT. The needle was thick, industrial-looking, and I could feel it sliding into my vein like a piece of cold metal burrowing under my skin. She attached a tube to it, clear plastic that led to the machine, and then did the same thing to my other arm.
Two needles. Two tubes. Blood started flowing almost immediately, dark red against the clear plastic, traveling away from my body and into the machine.
The machine hummed, made this rhythmic clicking sound that matched my heartbeat.
I watched my blood leave me and tried not to think about how this was going to kill me eventually. Not today, maybe. Not tomorrow. But if they kept doing this, kept draining me every few days, at some point there wouldn't be enough left.
The tech typed something on her tablet. The guy in scrubs checked a monitor.
Five minutes passed. Ten. I could feel myself getting weaker, colder, my vision starting to blur at the edges.
And then the alarms went off.
Red lights, sirens, a computerized voice saying "CODE RED. CODE RED. ALL PERSONNEL TO DEFENSIVE POSITIONS."
The tech's head snapped up. "What the hell?"
The guy in scrubs ran to the door, opened it, and I heard shouting in the hallway. Footsteps running past. Someone yelling something about the north entrance, about intruders, about—
"A dragon," someone screamed. "There's a fucking DRAGON at the front gate!"
My heart stopped. Then started again, pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat.
Someone came for me.
The tech was on her radio now, talking fast, with her face pale. "I have a subject mid-extraction, what's the protocol? Do I abort or..." She listened. "No, I can't just leave her, she's still hooked up to the..." More listening. Her jaw clenched. "Understood. I'll secure the room."
She turned to me. The guy in scrubs was already gone, probably running for his life.
"Don't move," she said, like I had a choice.
She went to the door and locked it. Checked the window. Then came back to the machine and started pressing buttons, speeding up the extraction rate. The machine hummed louder and I felt the pull in my veins intensify.
"What are... you doing?" My voice came out weak, slurred.
"Getting as much as I can before they evacuate us." She didn't look at me. "Red dragon blood is valuable. I'm not wasting this opportunity."
Bitch. Absolute fucking bitch.
The alarms kept wailing. I could hear explosions now, distant but getting closer, and the building shook once, twice. Dust fell from the ceiling.
The tech's hands were shaking as she adjusted something on the machine. She was scared. Distracted. Looking at the door every few seconds like she expected it to burst open.
I couldn't do anything. Couldn't move, couldn't fight, couldn't even think straight with the blood leaving my body and the drugs still clouding everything. All I could do was lie there and wait and hope that whoever was attacking would get here before this woman drained me dry.
Another explosion. Closer. The lights flickered.
And then something changed.
It started in my chest. This heat that had nothing to do with fear or adrenaline. It spread outward, into my arms, my legs, my fingers. Slow at first, then faster, like a fire catching. My fire. MY FIRE. It was waking up, it was coming back, and I didn't understand why until—
The bond.
It slammed back into place like a door thrown open after days of being locked. And suddenly he was THERE. Kaelen. Not his thoughts, not words, but his PRESENCE flooding into that empty space in my chest that had been silent for so long. He was alive. He was HERE. Somewhere in this building, close enough that I could feel his heartbeat layered over mine.
Relief and love and fierce determination poured through from his end. I sent back everything I had: I'm alive, I'm here, all of it wrapped in emotion, in sensation. The bond carried it even without words.
It had to be him. He'd done it: he'd killed the suppression system. That's why my fire was back. That's why I could feel him again.
The tech was staring at her tablet, frowning. "What the... the suppression readings are—"
I didn't let her finish.
My hands burst into flames.
Not a lot, not the roaring inferno I could feel building inside me, but enough. Enough to burn through the leather straps around my wrists in seconds, the smell of charred material filling the room. The tech screamed and stumbled backward, dropping her tablet.
I sat up, ripped the needles out of my arms, and burned through the chest strap and then my ankles. Blood was running down my forearms but I didn't care. I was FREE.
The tech was backing toward the door, her hand fumbling for something on her belt. A radio. A weapon. It didn't matter.
I got off the chair, legs shaky but working, and crossed the room in three steps. She tried to say something, maybe beg, maybe call for help, but I grabbed her head and slammed it into the wall before she could get the words out.
She crumpled. I didn't check if she was breathing.
Through the bond I felt Kaelen's surge of emotion: worry, relief, pride. He could feel what I was doing. I sent back reassurance and then pushed it aside. I had things to do.
The storage room. I needed the antidote. My fire was back but my body was still weak from the drugs, still slow, and I couldn't afford that right now.
I went to the door marked "Storage" and tried the handle. Locked. Keypad.
Fuck it.
I put my palm against the lock and pushed fire into it until the metal glowed red and the mechanism melted. The door swung open.
Inside there were shelves lined with bottles and vials. I scanned them quickly, looking for what Kalessi had described. Blue vials. Third shelf from the top.
There: a row of small glass containers with blue liquid inside. I grabbed one, found a syringe in a box on the bottom shelf, filled it, and jabbed it into my thigh without hesitating.
The effect was almost immediate this time. Maybe because my fire was already burning through my system, helping. The fog in my head cleared. My muscles stopped feeling like wet noodles. Strength flooded back into my limbs, real strength, not just adrenaline.
I grabbed as many vials and syringes as I could. Looked around for something to carry them in and spotted a small plastic container on one of the shelves, the kind they used for transporting samples. I shoved the vials inside, closed it, and held it tight in my left hand. For Kalessi. And maybe Erik too, if I could find him. And for every dragon I could find on my way.
Another explosion rocked the building, bigger than before, strong enough to shake the walls. Through the bond I felt Kaelen moving, running, his determination burning hot. He was coming for me, but he wasn't close yet. And I wasn't going to wait.
I had people to save.
The hallway outside was chaos. Red lights flashing, alarms wailing, people running in every direction. Smoke hung in the air and I could hear distant roars that sounded like dragon fire. Like Marcus, maybe, like my dad tearing through the building now that the suppression was down. They had both come for me.
I headed for the stairs, fire building in my palms.
Kalessi first. Then Erik. Then we'd find Kaelen and burn this whole place to the ground.