CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

-•PRESLEY•-

They were behind everything. The car crash that Nathan and I were in when we visited my mother at the cemetery, Ally and Alvin's kidnapping, even the-

"Healer," a sharp pinch under my arm brought me out my thoughts. I winced in pain.

I was in the K Blades' infirmary, it was significantly less up-kept then the Creed's. I even saw a roach skitter across the floor at one point.

"Are you listening?," Raymond growled. "I said get up, before I make you."

It had only been a few hours since I had woken up in this nightmare of a situation. I had made the pregnancy prevention elixir as they had demanded. I assured them it was one hundred percent effective. As I had told them, vomit rose up in my throat. It was so wrong. I felt awful.

What kinds of hellish things were they going to put that little girl through?

I shuddered and rose from my seat in the infirmary. Raymond grabbed me harshly by my arm and led me out the door. Fear surfaced within me.

"Where-where are we going?," I whispered.

He tightened his grip on my arm. It went numb.

"Talk again and see what happens," he threatened.

I took a deep breath. It was the only thing I could do to keep my tears at bay.

Raymond opened a steel door and roughly shoved me onto the floor. There was only a single light, and it was at its dimmest setting. I stared up at him, petrified.

All at once, gang members of the K Blades started filing into the room. Ross, Kevin, and ten other intimidating men. It suddenly became hard to breathe.

That's it. I was going to die. I was dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.

"Who do you belong to?," Raymond demanded, nodding his head at Kevin.

"K Blades," Kevin answered loudly, without hesitation. He fixed a cold gaze on me.

Traitor.

Raymond grinned, revealing yellow. He pointed to a dark-skinned member beside Ross.

"And who do you belong to?," he asked.

The dark-skinned boy looked hungrily at me.

"K Blades, where first blood is always drawn."

Raymond turned around, he crouched in front of me.

I inched away from him slightly.

"And you, healer? Who do you belong to now?," he taunted.

I shouldn't have said it. I shouldn't have. But I did, because Nathan taught me what loyalty meant. And a Creeds was always loyal, even beyond the end.

"Creeds," my voice shook, tears were already running down my face.

Raymond had a look of utter rage on his face. He landed his fist into my cheek, I felt the copper taste of blood fill my mouth. He rose as I hunched over, coughing relentlessly.

"You know, healer," he said, pacing the room. The K Blades eyed me with ice. "Pierce called. He wanted to negotiate a trade. He said we could have you for two million dollars," he laughed.

I shook my head. No. My Nathan wouldn't do that. He wouldn't put a price on me. He wouldn't sell me to these evil souls.

He crouched in front of me again, with a look of mock pity in his expression. "No one cares about you, Presley Flint. Not the Creeds. You're alone."

When I sobbed, Raymond burst into laughter. He stood up and outstretched his hands. "We're all you have!"

"You're wrong," I whimpered. "He-he wouldn't do that to me."

Kevin grunted. "Looks like we're going to have to beat that Creeds mindset out of him."

Ross looked towards his brother, an urgent look in his eyes.

Raymond ignored his brother and stared at me with a marveled expression. "My favorite part."

I felt like I was back in my house, with Robert and his drunken friends. I felt powerless again.

"Who wants to get this party started?," Raymond asked, grinning. "Shall I?"

With godly force, he landed a kick to my stomach. I coughed pathetically as I struggled to find a breath. I instantly knew I had broken a rib.

I screamed as I felt a forceful kick from behind me, I was certain another rib was broken.

Get up, Presley, the strong part of me said. Accept it, you're going to die here, the weaker, more powerful part of me said.

I saw Kevin approach me slowly, cracking his knuckles as a taunting grin creeped its way onto his face. "You're going to wish you weren't such a snitch, healer," he said. Then he hauled me up by my collar and landed a fist into my cheek.

I fell out of his grasp in a limp-like motion. I saw sparks start to form in my vision. My whole body was screaming. All I wanted to do was sleep. Sleep for a long time. Sleep forever. I wanted the chained children in the previous room to sleep too. Just so they could escape their hell for a while, or forever if they wanted to.

"Where's Nathan now?," Kevin growled. He pulled his foot back and lodged it into my aching abdomen. "He's not here to protect you. He abandoned you. You're nothing."

The K Blades took turns landing several blows to my body. I took careful measure to cover my face. As a healer, I knew that's where the most blood was extracted.

Then, when it seemed like I could cry myself into the next life, loud gun shots rang out. I looked up and saw the room tense. The K Blades pulled out their pistols. I wheezed, trying to catch my breath.

Raymond spoke harshly to the dark-skinned member he spoke to earlier. "Stop standing there like an idiot and go see what's going on."

The dark-skinned man saluted and walked through the steel door. My eyes followed him, wishing I could go with him. I coughed helplessly on the cold floor.

In a split second, a loud gunshot sounded, the dark-skinned gang member dropped to the floor, dead. Three figures dashed through the door in a blur of black clothing, each with black masks on. They had guns drawn in front of them.

One of them landed five shots into five gang members. Killing them instantly. The other, the tallest one shot at four of the gang members, disarming them. Only Raymond, Ross and Kevin stood without harm.

I tried my best to scuttle away from the three new figures. But that's when I realized, with a dizzying wave of relief that I knew those calculated movements from the tallest figure in black. I knew the way he held his gun. The way he walked. It was Nathan. The one who landed five bullets was definitely Kyle, but the other, I didn't quite recognize.

If my body didn't feel like it was falling apart, I'd probably rejoice. I didn't even have enough energy to call out to them.

Raymond raised his gun to shoot at Nathan and I felt the need to haul myself in front of him.

Nathan lowered his mask. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," his voice was dark.

Raymond reared back in shock, still pointing his pistol at Nathan. "How the fuck did you get in here?"

The third figure that I didn't recognize lowered his mask. I couldn't exactly put a name to him, but I had certainly seen his face before. He looked young, as young as me, maybe a few years older.

Raymond growled. "Greg?," he asked incredulously. "You're not supposed to be on their side. What happened to the deal we made?"

Greg laughed. "Deal?," his face turned bitter. "You're a cheater. I know what you and your twisted father did to our car at the gang race," he held his gun up more firmly. "I'm with them now. At least Pierce knows how to be loyal."

Ross, who'd been silent the whole interaction, moved towards his brother, but Nathan directed his gun at him. I saw Kevin discreetly inch to the corner of the wall.

Raymond unlocked his trigger.

"If you do that, your precious father is going to have bullet in his head. Red and Alvin are there right now, waiting," Nathan explained. "If anything happens to me, your whole family is dead.

"Don't believe him?," Kyle spoke, he nodded towards the pair of brothers. "Call him."

Raymond hesitantly pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He dialed a number and put the phone to his ear.

That was the last thing he did.

Nathan shot one clean bullet into Raymond's forehead. He instantly dropped to the ground, bits of brain sputtering from his skull. I put my hand up to my mouth to stifle a startled noise.

Ross looked like his heart had been ripped out. I would never know what it would be like to lose a sibling. He grabbed the gun on the floor in swift rage but Greg shot him first. There on the floor, lay the two brothers who had died in the same way. Two brothers so cruel, so evil, it seemed like a little more light had been restored to the planet when their souls left their bodies.

Kevin unlocked his gun, aiming it at Nathan but Kyle kicked it out of his hands. A gunshot went off, hitting the wall and making a hole. Nathan slowly stalked towards Kevin, then he swung at him, there was a crack sound and Kevin fell to his knees.

"Look at me, you fucking liar!," Nathan snarled. "Look at me in the eye and die like a man."

His tone made me jump, I had never seen him like this.

Kevin slowly upturned his gaze towards Nathan, his mouth was bleeding heavily.

"Should've stayed loyal, my friend," Nathan said, his tone was even. Then he fired two shots into Kevin's head.

The scene was so horrific, I had to focus only on the back of Nathan's head. I couldn't look anywhere else.

There were four more living K Blades but they surrendered their weapons, in fear of the wrath of the Creeds.

Nathan locked eyes with me and dropped his weapon to the floor hastily, he half-ran to my spot on the floor and gathered me up in his arms. I didn't care if my ribs were bruised or broken, all I wanted to do was absorb Nathan's warmth. I realized I was sobbing, which made my chest hurt ten fold.

Nathan pulled my face from his chest to place such a powerful kiss to my lips. It was like he was kissing me for the first time. He was gentle with me, the kiss was tender but it was full of emotion. It made me cry even more.

"Nathan," I managed to choke out.

"Was is it, my love?," he cooed softly. "What do you need? Is it your injuries?" He kissed my hair gently.

I need about ten stitches and five doses of my elixirs.

"Well...No," I said shakily. "There's ch-children in the next room. They-they were hurting them," I sobbed. "We need to help them. We need to set them free."

Nathan looked back to Kyle. Kyle lowered his mask to reveal a strained expression. "We have ten minutes till the cops come. We have to make it quick."

Nathan grabbed my hand gently. "Can you stand?"

He wiped a few tears from my cheeks. I took a wheezy breath and nodded. "I-I think so."

Nathan helped me up, pulling me close to him. He saw me wince, and loosened his grip, offering me more room for my damaged ribs. We stealthily made our way to the room with the chained children. Kyle and Greg pointed their weapons at them, scanning for a threat, but they found none. Only wide-eyed innocence.

One by one, Nathan, Kyle and Greg picked each of the locks, freeing the children. Some sobbed, some shook, one of them—the little girl, Ellie— clung onto Nathan after he undid her chains. I saw him freeze, but he looked back to me with a debate in his expression. I nodded with as much of a smile I could muster in my broken state, and he turned back to hug the shaking little girl. He spoke softly to her, promising her life and beyond.

When sirens were audible, we were forced to usher all the remaining children out of the room in a fast manner. Red and Alvin met us at the entrance of the K Blades facility. It was my first time seeing it and I sobbed, realizing I was going to live, that I wasn't going to be tied to an evil fate. Nathan kissed me again, in front of everyone who was paying attention, then he pulled back abruptly and started barking orders. Everyone followed them obediently.

Nathan placed me and six other children into the White Jeep. Kyle took the others into the Black van behind us. Among the children that I was placed with, I recognized the little blonde boy, the one that was at my mercy just a day ago.

He was staring at me, at how I coughed, wincing in pain. "What's your name?," I asked quietly, coughing again.

"Thank you," the little blonde boy said hurriedly, looking at his hands.

I managed a giggle. "That's your name?"

The little boy looked shyly up at me, a little smile on his face. "My name is Freddy."

"That's a lovely name," I smiled sweetly, aiming to make him comfortable.

"What is- what's your name?," he stammered shyly.

"Presley," I said, then added, "Healer, to most people though."

He scrunched up his face. "Why? Do you have healing powers, Presley?" His expression turned awed.

The surrounding children turned their attention towards me, eagerly awaiting my answer.

"Let me tell you a story of a little boy who learned the power of magic, and how he met the most bravest knight in all the land," I said. Some smiled. And some kept to themselves.

Not once did I falter while telling the tale, even as my ribs hitched dangerously.