Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

Resignation

Hadley had never felt this deflated.

Never felt this defeated.

Uriko gleefully frog-matched her to another unfinished section of The Caves, similar to the Council Room. The cavern walls here were roughly hewn as well and there was little in terms of décor or amenities. Hadley figured that these rough rooms were additions to The Caves by the Wildlings. Areas that weren't included in the original architecture, hence the lack of finesse.

It made her wonder about the people who actually built The Caves.

Unlike the Council room, however, this space had electric lighting. A deep yellow and extremely dim, the bulbs were connected to each other by a thin cable held up against the ceiling by metal tacks. Hadley counted seven small rooms in the space. Seven rooms with steel bars at the front. Uriko threw Hadley into one of the rooms and slid the bars shut.

"If it was up to me, I would have had you killed! You may somehow still be human, but only vampires heal like you! You're nothing but an abomination and you'll kill us all!" Uriko spat.

At that moment, Jamila was brought into the room. Unlike Hadley, she was giving her captors hell! It was taking three of them to bring her in and she wasn't making it easy. The Physical Arts program at the Compound was all about slow, docile movements that kept you healthy and fit, but like Hadley, Jamila had clearly figured out that some of those movements could cause quite an amount of pain with the right force added. Hadley smiled at the fact that every one of the men was sporting black eyes. Even now, with her hands bound, Jamila was still fighting, despite how futile it was.

"Quit playing and throw her in her cell!" Uriko ordered.

That's when Jamila saw Hadley and froze, giving the three Wildings the chance to finally subdue her and pin her to the ground.

"Hadley!" Jamila called out from the ground, speaking like this was something that happened to them every day. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Jay," Hadley said, pressing against the bars of her cell. "Are you?"

"Nothing I can't handle," she said with a smile before suddenly slipping out of their hold and giving the three Wildlings one hell of a fight.

She headbutted the one of them, breaking his nose, then stomped on his shin, breaking it at the ankle before kicking one of the other guys in the groin, then smashing his face with the bottom of her foot when he buckled, taking him down. And when the third guy rushed towards her, he received a heel kick to the sternum that sent him flying into the bars of one of the cells.

Hadley smiled, admiring her girl's perfect form and grace as she took down her captors. There was a reason Jamila had been made head trainer of Physical Arts after Hadley had gotten into trouble one too many times. What Hadley had never realised was that Jamila was as capable as Hadley was at modifying the benign Physical Arts exercise movements into truly violent moves. To be honest, it was a little strange watching the usually kind and gentle Jamila smash a man's face hard enough to draw out snotty blood. Hadley didn't know whether to be alarmed or proud.

There was a metallic swish as Uriko withdrew her sword and put the point up against Jamila's throat, drawing a pinprick of blood. Jamila froze again, but this time her eyes went wide with fear.

"Is this how you treat members of your tribe, Uriko?" Jamila asked. She narrowed her gaze at the woman and her voice didn't even shake.

"I'm not Kade," Uriko replied, her voice a menacing growl. "I won't fall for you and your lover's trickery. Now, get into the cell! Or don't. I don't mind slicing you up into little chunks for insubordination. The Council would understand. They might even reward me."