Arcanum Hominem (#1)

Chapter 78

"Why? Are you spying on me or something?" I asked, pushing him out of my way. I cursed in my head that he saw me talking to him. There would be no reason for me to speak to him in secret like that, so it would make sense that he would be a little suspicious. But still. I heard his footsteps as he followed me up the stairs. I went to my room, dropping my bag on the floor.

"I'm not spying on you. I just saw him pull you to the side, so I was just wondering," he spoke, and I turned around facing him. 

"Then why are you basically interrogating me if you're just wondering." I mocked his voice, and he pressed his lips together. 

"Why are you taking so long to answer my question?" He tilted his head, and I sat down on the bed.

"Because I needed some answers myself before giving you yours. He was just asking me questions about the operation since he couldn't get to you since you stormed inside like a child." The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them, and he huffed in annoyance. 

"Scar,"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. It just slipped out. We're good, right?" I apologized and got off the bed, walking up to him. His arms were crossed, eyes still narrowed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, jutting out my bottom lip. At first, he didn't move, but when I pressed my lip that was still poked out against his, he chuckled. 

"Such a goof, I can't even stay fake mad at you." He wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing kisses against my cheek. I laughed and pressed a kiss to his cheek before leaving his embrace. 

"Mission accomplished. So, are we going to go after the target who escaped or go after the next one on the list?" I asked, walking to my closet to pack new clothes in my bag.

"The next one, though this may be a little harder. The next target may already be warned, so we would have to be extra careful." Killian explained. We continued talking about what we were doing next, and I asked him about the other target we had in the basement. He made a face and informed me that Khaos accidentally killed her, rendering her useless. He found out last night but forgot to relay the message. That was a bummer, but she wasn't cooperating much anyway, and we hadn't gotten any information out of her anyway. Cleo interrupted our conversation to let us know that Levi found the exact location of the next target. We went to the warehouse, and Levi handed us a tablet each.

"Right here, that dot is the target. He's moving a lot, but it's all within the same location, so you should be fine. He's right in our area. I'm not sure how I didn't find him before since he's right here, but anyway. I got him now. Be careful with this one in case he was warned ahead of time." 

"Got it, thanks." I handed the tablet back to him. I went to the car, tossing my backpack in the back, and got into the car.

"Okay, it looks like there isn't much around this area that he's in, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Good because not many people around, but bad because it could be him setting us up. Either way, we'll need to be careful." I told Killian as he drove, and I looked at more of the details of the target's location on the tablet in the car. 

"Yeah, that doesn't seem good. We'll stay together and not split off so that it'll be easier to leave if it is a trap." 

I agreed with him, and soon we were at the location. It was a large, thirty-story building. Killian parked in a parking lot that was a good distance away from the building, and we got out of the car, walking toward the building. It was a decaying gray, and the paint was stripping, the material flapping in the wind. It looked abandoned, and the closer we got, the more goosebumps crawled up my skin. 

"This doesn't look legit at all," I whispered, staying close to Killian.

"It doesn't." Killian agreed, but we continued to walk. We entered the parking lot of the building and saw that there were no cars. We walked closer to the building and still didn't see anyone. Once we reached what looked like the front door, we stopped walking. 

"So. Are we going inside, orrrr," I let my words trail off, craning my neck to look up at the building. It didn't look safe at all, and I was skeptical to even touch the handle on the door. 

"We have to. What if it's only supposed to look like a trap to deter us, and he's really in here, hiding away?" Killian asked, and I groaned internally. I mean, he wasn't wrong. 

"You're right. Let's go in then." I held my hand out to the door, not moving from my spot. Killian chuckled at me before using a lone finger to yank at the door. The door opened easily, and a cloud of dust erupted in front of us. I coughed, waving my hand in my face to get rid of the dust. Killian was coughing as well, waving his hand in his face. Once the dust cleared a little, Killian walked through the door. I followed him, eyes darting everywhere. The light from outside helped us see a little in the dark building, but it wasn't enough. I pulled out my phone, turning on the flashlight, and got a better look at the inside of the abandoned building. There was dust everywhere in the place, most of the chairs I saw covered in it and even the walls. This looked like a waiting area, and I saw a receptionist desk to my left. We were standing in a lobby of some sort. Killian continued walking around the corner, and I followed him again, looking around as I went. I didn't want to touch anything in this place. It smelled like a geriatric unit, and the dust gave the place eerie vibes that didn't sit well with me. I hated the dark. 

The place we entered was another sitting area, except the chairs were in a circle, like it was set up for a meeting. This room was spacious, and I passed my flashlight over the walls. Killian walked to the opposite side of the room, his flashlight held up to the walls as well. There were black and red wires in front of me, and I squinted, moving closer to the wall. These wires looked pretty new, not collected with dust like everything else in this building. I continued to pass my flashlight over the wall, walking slowly, trying to get a better view of the whole thing. More wires joined the black and white ones later on the wall, a yellow one and then a red one. They all twisted together the more I walked, and a chill went down my spine when I turned my phone to the wall next to the one I just looked at, and even more wires were on that one. I followed the wires down the new wall to see where it led and walked faster as more joined together. My mouth dropped when the wires stopped, entering a black box that was taped messily to the wall. There was no sound coming from it, but there was a red light blinking that was so faint, I almost missed it.

"Killian, what is that?" I whispered, the chill that went down my spine spreading through my entire body. Maybe this was a trap. Killian didn't answer me, but he walked forward, closer to the black box, and reached a hand out, carefully removing the tape that was covering the red blinking light. He jerked back quickly when he completely removed it, and my mouth dropped when I saw what the blinking light was. It was a countdown, and it was on number twenty. 

Killian cursed and grabbed my arm, running out of the room. We ran, and I tried my best to see where I was going, my flashlight on my phone moving out of sight as I pumped my arms to run faster. The front door was visible, and we made it through, the wind whipping at my face as I tried to keep up with Killian's long legs. We were almost to the car. Killian made it there first, starting the car, and I pumped my arms harder, and soon I was there too. I slapped my hands against the car as I tried to open the door while trying to get air back into my lungs. I finally got the door open, and I slammed it shut, quickly buckling. Killian wasted no time and mashed the gas. We were barely out of the parking lot when an explosion rocked the air, moving the car as a shudder passed through the ground. I gasped and turned around in my seat, covering my mouth as more parts of the building exploded, fire blazing in the sky. 

"A fucking trap," Killian growled in a low voice, punching the steering wheel as I turned around. The explosion continued as we left the area, and I faced forward, placing a hand over my heart to still the rapid beating.