Arachna

Chapter 33: To Family

She wouldn't be happy with him, Lance thought as he drove through the city in the police car he'd taken from Landreau Corp. Derek and Rob said they would return to the bar to check on George.

Lance had tried to think of a way to apologize for the officers he'd killed, but Rotoya only blamed herself, and Rachel had glared at her from across the room.

"They all hate me," Rotoya had said. "I don't blame them, either."

Lance let out a nervous breath. The beast made an unrecognizable sound, but it was comforting, all the same.

At least he didn't have to spend all night in that horrid building, with those bright lights bearing down on him and the dozens of confused men and women freshly released from Caleb's control. All that confusion, all those people... He shuddered at the thought.

He shuddered once more at what Eric had told him. He'd worn that wicked smile when he told Lance he was staying.

"I want to explore. There's no telling what information I can get from this place."

"In the basement," Lance said. "On the first level of cells, at the end of the hall, there's a journal. Caleb gave it to me. If it's still there, you'll want to read it."

Eric winked and sauntered off.

Lance didn't bother to follow him, especially with the call of those dark cells below the floor. And after Kaela walked off with Amari in her arms, something had told him to follow her. Not the beast but something else. Something more than a voice in the back of his head.

He'd waited for as long as he could stand it, sitting on a bench in the lobby as Rotoya gathered her officers to explain what had happened. She didn't have to explain much. They all knew what they'd done. They'd all felt Caleb was doing the right thing until the nanobots left them. Their faces were haunted with guilt—Rachel's too.

Once the sun began to rise, Lance deemed that he had given Kaela enough time and stole a police car to follow her.

He could think of only one place to find her. When she started down the street with Amari, he'd run down the stairs to call to her, to at least offer to drive her there. But Eric had been out there with him just as quickly, shaking his head.

Now here he was, driving down the empty, sun-painted streets of Arachna. They would be full again, Lance thought, once everything was back to normal, once it was announced that the threat was over and their innocence was explained. Lance groaned. How would they even be able to do that? He shook the thought from his head. Rotoya said she would handle it. He chose to trust her. After all the help she'd already offered, he allowed himself to leave it in her hands.

Right now, he focused on Kaela. On the nanobots flooding through her veins. She couldn't have had them for long, yet she'd fixed everyone under Caleb's control by... doing whatever the hell she'd done.

Derek had said something about her taking out the beta strain but not all of it?

Caleb, Malcolm, and Daniel had all lost their minds because of the drug; how would Kaela be any different? Would she become crazed by the nanobots and turn into another Caleb? Will I follow behind her?

The beast whimpered, as if offended at the thought.

Lance reached the hilltop, where the sun was casting a peaceful orange glow over the clearing.

Kaela sat patiently on the bench, under the shade of the tree. A wooden cross was stuck in the ground, near a freshly packed mound of dirt. A makeshift grave, right near the tree.

Kaela's hands were folded in front of her, and she watched as he parked the car next to hers. She'd been waiting for him, Lance thought, and the beast purred in agreement.