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Ashleigh hesitated but hurried the children out the door as it closed behind them with a heavy thud.

Alice and Holden were all alone now.

“Do you feel better about yourself?” Holden asked. “That you saved them?”

“It has nothing to do with me or how I feel. It’s just the right thing to do.”

Holden laughed and then sighed.

“We need to leave,” he said. “I don’t just mean the lab; we need to leave this part of the world. Start over in one of the European packs.”

Alice laughed.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said.

Holden growled.

“This isn’t the time for games, Alice. You have caused a lot of trouble. Now, people want you dead, dangerous people.”

“People have always wanted me dead,” Alice replied. “You made me do a lot of horrible things.”

Holden growled and moved toward Alice.

“I have been given orders, Alice,” he said. “I’m supposed to kill you or give you to Roman.”

Alice clenched her jaw.

“I figured the first, the second… well… he’s not my type.”

Holden scoffed.

“You intend to make me kill you?” he said.

“No,” Alice replied. “I don’t know that you can, or that I can kill you for that matter. I just need to keep you here while they get out.”

“I’ve already let them go,” he said.

“But you won’t let me go.”

Holden grinned and shook his head.

“Then we’ll wait together until the walls come down around us,” Alice smiled.

Holden clenched his jaw angrily.

“I have no interest in dying today,” he said, letting the knife he had hidden in his sleeve slide down into his hand.

“Then I’ll have to get you interested,” Alice smiled, reaching back and releasing the two daggers she wore on her back.

***

Ashleigh hurried the children up the stairs. Some of them were smaller and weaker than the rest. She carried two of them in her arms and tried her best to encourage the others. They finally made it to the floor that held the exit, but smoke came into the stairwell from under the door.

Ashleigh put down the children she carried, telling them all to huddle close and stay back as she approached the door. Lightly touching it, she could feel that it wasn’t hot, and the fire wasn’t in the halls.

She pushed the door open and made the children hold hands and help each other as she guided them through the hall to the security office. Although the halls were filled with dark smoke, she was able to find the way with ease.

Just before they reached the office, she heard an explosion. She hurried the children inside. This room was clear of smoke.

Ashleigh got to the door and hurriedly opened it, taking the children out into the light of day and the fresh air around them. She moved them quickly to the tree line, but then she stopped.

She knew that she should take them all the way to the van right now, but she couldn’t.

Ashleigh looked back at the entrance and then up into the sky. Black plumes were already rising. The upper levels must have been set to explode at the security breach.

Holden had mentioned something happening in ten minutes. It must have been this. Alice had sent her and the children to escape, knowing she would be trapped inside the lab.

She felt the voices stirring, the whispers trying to crawl their way into her thoughts.

‘It’s better this way.’

‘She is a threat.’

‘They will kill each other, and everyone will be safer for it.’

But just below the whispers, she heard something else. A soft, low growl.

Clearing her mind of all but her own thoughts, she focused on the situation.

After instructing the children to hide in the trees together, Ashleigh ran back inside the burning building.

Ashleigh wasn’t sure if she could make it down to the lab in time to save Alice, but she was sure that she would not be able to face her brother again if she didn’t at least try.

The smoke had quickly filled the stairwell, making it much more difficult for Ashleigh to see where she was going as she made her way down to the lab.

When she reached the door, it wouldn’t move. Ashleigh had to force her shoulder against it, sending a fiery pain through her arm.

The door burst open, and Ashleigh was pushed back by the heat from the room. She raised her arms to protect her eyes as the fire rolled out against the ceiling before receding back into the room.

Pushing the smoke away from her eyes, Ashleigh could barely see through the haze, but she could hear the sounds of battle.

***

Alice dove out of the way as another of the beakers on the table exploded from the heat. She barely got away, but shards of glass landed in the back of her arm.

Holden lunged forward and took advantage of her distraction. He punched her squarely in the jaw.

Alice stumbled back and caught her balance. She turned and spat out the blood that had pooled in her mouth. She was bloodied and bruised, and pretty sure she had a rib or two that were broken.

The room around them was filled with fire and smoke, she was surprised the ceiling had collapsed. But, then again, this room was meant to hold the prize of this facility. They must have reinforced the walls and ceiling in order to protect their investment.

Too bad Alice had removed the safety restrictions in the lab when she let loose her virus. Otherwise, the sprinkler system would have already put out the pesky fires. And that suited her needs just fine. All she needed was to keep Holden long enough for Ashleigh and the children to get away.

“It’s not too late, Alice. We can leave here and find a new home!” Holden shouted.

Alice laughed.

“My only home is with Axel!” she growled.

Alice and Holden snarled and jumped at each other, their knives clashing and clanging. He jabbed her kidney, and she unintentionally opened herself up to another jab. He pushed her back, as she struggled to regain her balance, he leaped at her.

Holden held his hand behind him and drove it forward against the soft flesh of her belly.

“So be it!” he snarled as he pressed harder into the knife before pulling it back out.

Alice cried out and fell to her knees, dropping her knife and clutching her hands to the wound.

Holden huffed angrily. He raised his hand above his head, gripping tightly to the knife.

“Somehow, you strayed and lost your way, and now there’ll be no time to play,” he growled. “No time for joy, no time for friends – not even time to make amends!”

“Shut up with your Wonderland bullshit!” Alice growled as her teeth became red with her blood. “Just get it over with!”

“You’re even more of a disappointment than your mother was.” He snarled.

Holden lowered the knife with all his might, but suddenly, he was pushed back by a flood of power like an ocean wave in a hurricane. His back slammed against the far wall, knocking the wind out of him as he crumpled to the floor.

He looked up through the smoke and saw a pair of moonlit eyes staring back at him.