Nothing Without You | Eric Coulter [2]

thirty

    Lynn and I stayed close to each other as we ran down the hallways, trying to keep our footsteps light and as silent as humanly possible.

I grabbed her arm, pulled her into a small opening and plastered my back against the wall just as two guards came charging down from the opposite end.

Thankfully, the guards didn't notice us in their haste to get wherever it was they were headed. I just hoped that it wasn't towards one of our people.

Worry plagued my mind even though I knew it would be dangerous to let myself get distracted.

As if to prove my point, I stiffen at the hand that falls over my lips from behind me and quickly spin around to attack whoever's there...that was until a familiar voice speaks lowly in my ear.

"It's just me." My shoulders slump in relief at the reassuring sound and throw my arms around Eric's neck the moment I turn around to face him.

His arms immediately wrap around my waist in return and he asks, "Are you hurt?"

I shook my head, "Are you?"

"I'm fine," He tells me, pressing a kiss to the crown of my head before he pulls back to address Lynn as well. "The hallways are clear," He informs, "I managed to set the alarms off, but we better move quickly and find the others before they realise we're gone."

Hearing chatter from further down the hall, Lynn presses her back against the wall and cautiously takes a peek to see who is approaching.

"There are two guards approaching," She says, to which Eric nods in response.

"We can take them."

I can see the silent agreement in her gaze as she turns her attention back to the guards.

"On one," She whispers, holding up three fingers and ticking each off until the count of one.

The guards step into view the moment her countdown ends and Eric shoots out, taking the two guards down by himself before I could even bat an eye.

"So much for 'we', huh?" Lynn deadpans as she assesses the damages in the form of the passed-out guards lying on the floor.

I snatch up their weapons, stuffing one into my holster that had been emptied out by Spencer and holding onto the other.

When I straightened up, I saw that Eric was frowning at Lynn like it was an automatic response for him to any sort of human interaction.

I elbow him in the side and my heart squeezes in my chest at the way his eyes soften when he looks at me.

"You're doing that weird frowny thing again," I tease and his lip quirks up into a barely-there smile.

"Let's find the others and then we can get the fuck out of here," He says as he reaches down to intertwine our fingers which makes me smile back in return.

However, I find it slipping when I remember what my mother had said to me while she had me in captivity. But just as I'm about to tell Eric about it, I'm quickly interrupted.

"Guys." Lynn's hushed whisper has both of us on high alert again, "More people are approaching."

Eric quickly releases my hand and jumps right into action. "Quick, pull the bodies in before they give away our location."

Lynn and I scramble to do as he told us to, with both of us working together to pull one guard in and Eric the other.

The footsteps that Lynn alerted us to were growing louder and louder by the second, and I could feel my heart start to pound in my chest.

"Sounds like two sets of footsteps," Eric says, "We'll deal with them. Just like the last time."

As I listened to the footsteps draw closer, I steeled myself for the impending attack, and the moment Lynn finished her countdown like before, I darted out from behind the wall and quickly disarmed the guard.

"Woah, woah! Don't shoot!" Uriah's familiar voice makes me pause, "Fucking hell, Nessie. That was close." He slumps over dramatically with a palm on his knees and the other over his heart.

Zeke rolls his eyes at his brother's dramatics and Lynn quips, "What else were we supposed to do? You snuck up on us like a suspicious little fuck."

"Tris and Christina are here," Zeke tells us before the two could start bickering again, "They broke Four out. We saw them on the security cameras when we snuck into the control room trying to look for you guys."

"Okay, then." Eric nods, "So, we work together to find the three of them, then we can get out of here."

"No, wait!" I stopped them before anyone could make a move, "There's something else."

Zeke lets out a heavy sigh, "Fuck this damn people, they're always up to something stupid." With a shake of his head, he turns his attention to me. "Lay it on us, Ness."

"Edgar said something about my mum planning to release the memory serum on the City." My stomach plummets at the mere thought of it, "My guess is that she thinks this would be some kind of new beginning; a fresh start, if you will."

"Oh my god," Lynn throws her hands up in a sense of exasperation I understood all too well. "They just can't help themselves, can they?"

"What do we do now?" Uriah asks, his face is solemn like he's considering the outcome if Evelyn succeeds in her plans.

"There's only one thing to do," Zeke says, "We stop them."

"Right," Eric agrees, "But first we need to find Four and the others, and get them up to speed with what's going on. There's strength in numbers, and right now we need all that we can get."

Just like that, Eric commands the room like the leader he is made to be.

"Yeah, how do we even stop this?" Uriah asks, fear bleeding into his voice.

Zeke claps a hand on his brother's shoulder, "We'll figure it out together. Just like we always do."