Betrayed ✔️

Chapter 37: "I'm so sorry"

JAY

I LOST SIGHT of Ada quite quickly when the battle started.

That worried me a lot more than I cared to admit.

I mean, her face looked like shit and she seemed to be very concussed. Who knows what trouble that idiot will get into?

I was also very confused as to why she was with Ezra. Well, initially I was happy- yay! The mission has been completed and now we can be proved innocent!- but that quickly faded when I saw Keen's reaction. I needed to find Ez quickly and see if I needed to add another name to my 'Best friends turned traitors' list.

I managed to take down a few Sanguis, but quickly ran out of ammunition. We were being steadily outnumbered and outgunned, but the old-timers were fighting with every ounce of their strength. I saw Herbert and Julia fighting back-to-back, as if they had done it a thousand times before.

I grabbed a gun and knife from nearby dead bodies and charged through the carnage, slashing my way through. I slipped on the blood, my legs got tangled with the corpses of my allies and enemies. I didn't dare look down to see who was lost.

A Sanguis leapt from the crowd onto my back, wrapping their arms around my neck. I stumbled and choked, desperately trying to throw them off. My eyes watered and I gasped, but the assassin held on fast.

I dropped to my knees, but that only allowed the Sanguis to have a tighter hold.

Everyone was too preoccupied with their own fight to notice mine. I shouldn't have let my guard down.

My eyes rolled to the back of my head and I shuddered, my lungs pushing out the final breaths of oxygen. Ada... I'm so sorry–

The Sanguis's grip slackened. I shoved them off with all my strength, gasping for the sweet air and staggering to my feet. I spun around. The Sanguis was curled up on the ground, a knife sticking out from the side of their throat and a bullet hole in their skull.

"You're welcome idiot." Nate grinned, his lips were dry and cracked and his right eye was almost swollen shut.

I frowned and took the gun he handed me. "What's wrong with your face?"

"You're supposed to say thank you." He scowled and gestured his gun towards the Sanguis. "Help me clean up?"

"I'll cover you. Just run in there and shoot."

"That I can do."

"Jay!" I turned and saw my sister, slowly being overwhelmed by the Sanguis. Her eyes were wide with fear and she slashed her knife down in a wide arc, but it wouldn't last for long.

I didn't think. I just ran over, screaming and firing bullets in random directions. If I can't kill my sister, no one can. Most of my bullets missed the fatal points, but a few hit their mark.

Nate was a bit calmer than me. He strode through the mass confidently, his trigger finger never wavering. Soon, there were a pile of bodies at Ada's feet.

She glared at us. "You took your time."

"Can you walk?" I asked, trying not to linger my gaze too much on her wounds. I swallowed the lump in my throat, a cold rage sweeping over me like an icy winter wind.

She shook her head and made grabby hands towards me. "Help me up?"

Nate attempted to pull her up, but Ada flinched from his grasp, eyeing him suspiciously. Hurt washed over his features, but he tried to cover it up as I helped Ada to her feet.

"Why did you come out of your hiding place?" I scolded, pulling her into my side.

"I wasn't going to lie there and do nothing!"

"You are injured! Right now, you're a liability!"

"I saved your life Special Agent Big-Shot," she snapped, "Your brains would've decorated the walls of this godforsaken tunnel if it weren't for me!"

"Yeah, well- duck!" I pulled us both down as a bullet flew over us. Ada fired one back, hitting the assailant between the eyes.

"We need to find Ezra! And Aliana!" Ada shouted, scanning the crowd.

"I saw Chief Wright not too long ago- she seemed to be safe." We hobbled round a corner and I pushed her back, "Where's Keen?"

Ada's expression was as smooth as the surface of a deep pond. "She's dead."

"What?" I didn't expect to feel this. I didn't want to- to feel this grief. This sadness and loss for a woman who betrayed me- betrayed my family. "H-how?"

"I don't want to talk about it," She turned her head and pulled my sleeve. "We need to find Ezra. He was working with Keen!"

My head snapped over to hers. "What?" Is anyone not a traitor here?

She waved me off. "Yes, but it's cool! He's a- a triple agent? Oh I see him! Ezra!" She hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth.

Ezra was finishing off a Sanguis, but at her cry he looked up. Panic spread across his features and he began screaming, but the noise of the battle drowned his voice out. I squinted and read his lips. Run.

I don't know how he did it.

For a long time after, I would wonder why I stopped. Why the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight to attention. Why goosebumps erupted across my flesh. Why the battle dimmed down to nothing more than heavy breathing.

No matter how many times I turned the situation over, I couldn't find the answer. It was like my muscles had frozen over, refusing to listen to anything my instincts screamed.

He had this presence, you see. A way to make you sit up and take notice. He wouldn't speak a word, his expression hidden behind that mask.

Besides me, Ada gasped, the blood drained from her face. "Keres."

The man smiled. A cold, deadly smile that would make anyone weep.

He raised the gun straight at Ada. 

***********

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