Arachna

Chapter 25: The Migraine Returns

Lance couldn't sleep. Everyone around him was breathing long and slow, curled up in the back corner of the bar. The room was nearly pitch black, and the door was closed and locked. The windows on each side of the door allowed him to look out at the street and the police cars patrolling. Lance had deemed it necessary for one of them to stay awake in case they were found. Anyone looking into the window wouldn't be able to spot them in the darkness, but if Caleb had found out about the Rose and about Lance's store, it was only a matter of time before Derek's bar was targeted.

Eric had told Kaela and Derek of their fight in the sewer while Derek disinfected and bandaged his hand. Derek recounted what happened in the Rose, but only after Kaela left the room in tears.

Hearing what they'd had to do to survive sent a chill down Lance's spine. He tried not to stare at their bandaged arms.

Lance was curled into a ball in the corner, watching the silhouettes of all the sleeping bodies.

Even the beast slumbered, certainly more comfortable than anyone else in this bar. Lance was wide awake. Fear was his blanket, and his heart could only settle for a handful of seconds before the memory of those purple veins flashed in his mind.

His head was spinning. Somehow, he'd been injected with nanobots. Yet the beast inside of him... What was it? A figment of his imagination? A side effect of the nanobots? The question he'd been replaying in his mind ever since was no less terrifying as it popped into his head again. Can Caleb track me?

However it worked didn't matter. It was the only logical explanation for how Caleb kept finding them. It also meant that Caleb already knew about Lance's nanobots. It meant that he couldn't control him. If he could, he would've tried already.

But that was how he kept finding them.

It was Lance.

Caleb could sense Lance's nanobots.

He had to put a stop to this, had to get away from the others. He couldn't afford to put them in danger. Had he been faced with that question days ago, he wouldn't have cared. But now Kaela, Derek, and even Eric were his family. The closest thing to one he'd had his entire life. He couldn't let them die because of him.

With a quiet groan, Lance sat up and surveyed the three sleeping bodies scattered across the room. Their chests rose and fell. They were all sound asleep. If he left now, he could get out before they knew what happened. He would go to Caleb. He needed answers—about how he'd been infected, for starters. Then he would fight him. Or he would try, at the very least. He could try to leave the city, but if Rob had been right days ago, plenty of soldiers were guarding the perimeter of the city. More than Lance could afford to fight or sneak through.

Lance stood and padded to the kitchen. He paused at the back door for a breath before stepping out. The night air was cold, and it dug its fingers around his body. A chill went up his spine as he walked, but it wasn't from the cold. This would likely be his last night breathing in such air.

He made it to the entrance of the alley, where he stopped and waited. He listened for any sign of movement, for any cars patrolling, before he took a step toward the street.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Lance nearly fell over, and when he looked back, Eric's head was peeking out from the back door. His eyebrow was raised, and a smirk played on his lips.

"I couldn't sleep," Lance said. It wasn't a lie. "I thought if I went out for a walk, it would help."

Eric closed his eyes and shook his head. "You're a terrible liar."