D E L P H I N I U M

My heart was pounding hard in my chest as the seven of us stood in the now not-abandoned Russian building. Groups of soldiers from all corners of the world were arriving in military trucks and being stationed in the place, waiting until our numbers were all here.

The seven of us were alone in a very small room, readying ourselves for what was coming next. Kane, Riley, Jake and I wore the black uniforms of the Imperium soldiers. I remembered everything I'd done while wearing these suits. I remembered escaping, thinking I'd never have to wear them again. But here I was wearing their colors again, against all odds.

Jake was drilling everyone on the specific parts they'd play in his plan. I'd listened in for a while, but I already knew the plan perfectly; I had it memorized since the first time he'd said it. This was finally happening. Imperium would finally hurt.

I ran my eyes over my crew, knowing that this could be the last time we were all together like this. I tried not to think like that, but...I'd never forget how Imperium delighted in taking the things I loved from me.

Everyone was getting their weapons ready—Kane sharpening the ends of his spears, Riley slipping a knife into each of her boots, Finn loading a gun. The air between us was somber; we had no idea what laid before our team now. When Jake finally stopped testing everyone about the plan, the room went quiet for a moment and we all looked around at each other. I was very aware that we were all thinking the same thing: we hoped that everything would go according to the plan and that nothing unexpected would take place. But of course, it always seemed to end up that way.

My eyes flicked from face to face, my heart beating faster with each passing second. They didn't know what laid before us. But I had one last secret that might give us a clue as to what could happen. They needed to know, even if it killed me to tell them, they needed to know.

"I have something to say." Somehow, my voice was stronger than I'd thought.

No, no, I couldn't tell them. They were all staring at me now—two sets of brown eyes, two pairs of blue, one set of gray, one pair of green. I'd been stupid to think I could tell them about this—the thing that perhaps haunted me most about my time as Imperium's prized soldier. In the beginning, I'd vowed that they'd never find out. Why had I even debated saying it now?

"What is it, Delphinium?" Finn asked, worry shining in his eyes. It was then that I realized how long I'd taken to speak.

"I...There's something else. Something that I didn't tell you." My eyes snapped to Jake's for a moment. He'd guessed correctly last night.

"Orion...did something to me. Something that...I didn't quite understand at the time, but its results were, well, catastrophic. I know that very well now."

They were all staring at me and it was too much. This was my most closely guarded secret and I was about to tell them? My heart was still hammering. I half-wondered if Arlo could hear it.

I took a breath in. "This...thing that happened—I didn't want it. I didn't want any of it. I may have done many things that he wanted me to do, but this..." My voice stopped working. Memories came rushing back and I struggled to keep myself pulled together.

"It's okay," Finn said softly. "You can tell us."

I knew. As I looked into all their faces, I knew. No matter how broken we were, I knew I could tell them. This was greater than a simple fight, than a team of people in a civil war. I knew that I loved them despite a few of them being angry with me for what I'd done. In a strange way, they were my family. We were broken, monstrous criminals, but we'd found family in each other.

So I told them, even though everything in me was screaming at me to stop. "After Imperium—after Orion—murdered my parents in our own home, he dragged me back to Romania. He didn't need to blackmail me to work for him anymore, so they were disposable. At first, I wasn't sure why he didn't need leverage over me anymore, but I now know that what he was building was finally finished.

"He pulled me, kicking and screaming, into a room. A perfectly white room. The doctors wore white. The walls were white...Even the machine in the center of the room was white. So they...they held me down and waited until the machine began to work, watching as needles pierced my skin and went into my head. I was injected by some sort of drug—what kind, I don't know. But it didn't matter then. I was scared, more scared than I'd ever been in my entire life. And rightly so."

No one made a sound as I paused, looking for the right words. "The process was...horrible. Death would have been preferable to that...torture. But they kept me inside it, no matter how hard I fought or screamed. The scientists wouldn't let me black out. No one moved a muscle to save me. They all stood there watching, like I was some sort of sick science project. Like they were just doing their jobs instead of killing a sixteen year old child in the most inhuman way possible." My eyes flicked to Arlo, who wore a strange expression. He understood perhaps better than anyone did.

"I don't know how long I was inside that machine. It could have been minutes or hours, I couldn't tell you; that kind of pain messes with the mind. Sometime into it, I blacked out and they let me lose consciousness. When I awoke...I don't remember much." I wouldn't tell them about the Tribunal, couldn't make my mouth say their name. "But I do know that when I did awake...I wasn't the same person. I wasn't...myself anymore."

"Who were you?" A wide-eyed Riley asked, her voice barely there.

"I was...finally the perfect killing machine Orion trained me to be. I couldn't fight them. I wouldn't disobey them. And I didn't want to. All I wanted to do was serve my master, Orion. I'd do anything that he asked. And I did. My kill count...nobody had seen anything like it before." My voice was barely a whisper when I said, "My conscience and all the things that made me Delphinium Tesla—everything that made me good—was gone. They turned me into one of them. And I liked it."

Jaxon found the words to speak first, though it took him a few moments. "How long were you in that state for?"

"A year. It was a year before I was in the middle of a fight and got shoved off the top of a three story building. When I woke, I was half-dead, but I was me again. Somehow. It was miraculous, a second chance. So I took that second chance and made something of it, planting bombs into the engine room of the fortress while still pretending to be that emotionless shell of myself. Bringing that damn place to the ground was the best thing I ever did."

Everyone was quiet; I doubted they knew what to say now. I desperately wished someone would say something, even if it was to call me disgusting or evil like Imperium itself. Why were they taking so long to say something? I shouldn't have said it. Now they'd finally see me as everyone else did.

Then Riley said slowly, "Oh, Delphinium..." Jaxon slung his remaining arm over my shoulders and for once, I didn't flinch. A relieved breath escaped my lips.

"And all that was for nothing," Kane said, his voice carrying a sliver of softness. "That's why you were so panicked when we found that they'd rebuilt it."

"Yes." The words came slow. "I thought I'd finally ended them. I was stupid to think they wouldn't rise from the ashes."

"So did you," said Jake. "That's why we're here now."

"I think...I thought I knew the Romanian fortress from top to bottom. But if there was a secret entrance like the one here, they must have escaped through it and lived. That can't happen again."

"Got it. We kill everyone." Arlo's smile was sharp.

"Exactly. We don't know exactly who—or what—is in there, so it would be best if they were all gone. That way, it's easier for us to wipe them out, once and for all."

They nodded in agreement. "Everything does have to be completely destroyed," Riley murmured as if she'd just come to a realization. "I saw one of those machines being built inside. If it makes it through this battle..."

"Someone else could be turned into a murdering shell of a soldier," Kane finished. Though it wasn't finished being built, I held back a shudder at the thought of being back inside that machine. It had to die with the rest of them.

"Never again," I said, finishing the conversation. Everyone went back to readying themselves and I was left wondering what they actually thought about what I revealed. About me being another version of Orion.

The Russian general—a gruff, stout man with an impressive mustache—stood in the entrance of the room. "I need..." He glanced down at his clipboard. "Williams, Damari, and Peterson. You come with me to the ranks. Shires and Traversa, there is a Czech specialist waiting upstairs to describe exactly what to do regarding the keypad and computer chip." Earlier, Jake met with that same specialist. He would be going down inside the fortress with the Czech man to plant Riley's fake information inside.

"See you on the other side," Arlo said, the devilish grin still in place. "Hopefully."

Jaxon left with them, clapping me on the shoulder before he went. "We'll meet you upstairs," Riley said to Jake and I, dark eyes glittering. As she and Kane left, the door slammed behind them, leaving Jake and I alone again.

"I can't believe this is happening," I said, hiding my knives away in the folds of my uniform. "Everything we've done has led up to this night." I took a deep breath in. "I really hope nothing goes wrong."

"It's my plan. Nothing will go wrong. We will get in without a problem."

"It's not so much the entering I'm afraid of. It's getting out in time."

He rolled his eyes. "How little faith you have in me. We will get in—and out—without a problem."

"You're right." I shot to my feet. "You're right. We're going to make them pay in blood for all of ours that they've shed." I wasn't entirely convinced nothing would go wrong, but if it did, I'd take as many of them down as I could before I was taken down myself. "I'll kill every single one of them if I have to. I will tear them apart."

"There's that famous bloodthirstiness." There was a click as he loaded his gun.

An eyebrow raised, I said, "You must be joking. You're far more bloodthirsty then I am."

"Yes." He gestured to me with his gun. "You'll never be as bloodthirsty as me."

"Or as arrogant. You always think you're better than everyone else."

"I don't think that, I know it."

"Please," I waved a joking hand, "It will be so much easier for you if you admit it: I'm better than you."

He was quiet for a moment and I wondered if he wouldn't respond. I then pushed away the realization of how close we were in the small room. Then, he said in a low voice, "You are." All traces of amusement were gone from his tone.

That did it. As I looked up into his gold-flecked eyes, I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted more than just looks and hidden feelings and the endless wondering of what he felt—or if he even felt anything at all.

For ages, I'd skirted around the obvious feelings I'd had for him. I hated that I'd let myself feel something for the cruel crime lord and tried to ignore it, hoping that my heart would stop pounding whenever he was near, praying that I would cease to think of him. But it never happened. And the more time I spent around him, the more I realized that I didn't hate it at all. He'd been good to me in that strangely apathetic, cold way he often exhibited. Better than anyone else. And he understood.

Despite knowing that I had an embarrassing amount of feelings for him for all this time, I never acted on them. But now, as we were faced with war and my affections had only grown...

I finally, finally, closed the gap between us and gently grasped his sharp-featured face, bringing his cruel lips down to meet mine.

For a split second, he was as still as a statue and I wondered if he didn't want me because of what I had been turned into. Because of what I'd just revealed. Maybe even he had his limits as to how low he'd stoop.

But then my back hit the wall behind me as he pushed me backward, moving with my body. Oh, God. I grinned against his mouth.

At once, the kiss turned hard, hungry, searing. One of his hands was on the small of my back, tangled in the ends of my hair, the other around my waist. He had never touched me before, but now that he was, I never wanted him to stop. I wanted his hands everywhere.

And I hadn't known happiness in so long of a time that I'd forgotten what it had felt like, but I thought this might be it. There might be more to life than fighting for my life every day. One of the reasons to want more from life could very well be standing before me.

He pulled back for a moment, long enough to say in a rough voice, "This is a terrible idea."

"The worst." It was sort of true, he wasn't really mine and I wasn't really his. Even so, I couldn't tear my eyes away from his cold face. The raging internal battle was inside his darkening eyes. The light above us made his eyelashes leave long shadows down his cheekbones. He was beautiful in that striking, sharp way.

I only had to say his name once through tingling lips before one side of his battle won out and he gave in again. His fingers slid up my body to touch my face.

Though his hands—his whole body, really—were cold, a fire was spreading within me. He was going to burn me alive. And for now, I'd let him.

As his top teeth grazed my bottom lip, my mouth parted, my body arching into his. I'd give him anything if he asked now. My knees nearly buckled when his tongue slid against mine. I knotted my hands in his hair, needing him closer, needing him to know how much I wanted him. I knew he mirrored my thoughts then from the way he returned the favor.

I half-whispered, half-moaned his name once, twice. I didn't even care. After all, I needed him to know the emotions he gave me. Well, if he couldn't already tell by the fact that I was kissing him like he was the only thing I ever needed this badly.

My brain was so liquid and hot that I could barely think. It was only him and I now. There was no one else. A bomb could have hit the bunker and I didn't think I'd even care. I didn't care that we were both broken, so broken and horrible and monstrous. Jake Evans was it for me and I'd never want anything else.

After an amount of time I couldn't even determine, he pulled back a bit, though didn't step away or take his hands off me. With his head angled down, he let out a few shaky, panting breaths. I did the same as we shared the same air for a quiet moment. His lips were only inches above my own. Black hair hung down from the front of his bowed head and tickled my brow.

My heart was an earthquake. He was still, so very still. If I wanted, I could easily kiss him again, but I figured I should exercise some self restraint. For if I started again, I didn't know if I'd ever stop.

Then he did pull away, taking his cool aura with him. For a moment, the only sound to be heard was my frantically beating heart. I was half-surprised it hadn't burst. I lifted my gaze to see that he was still staring at me; his eyes now darkened to the color of the deep, deep sea. Molten with desire.

After dragging the back of his hand over his mouth, he said in that same rough, cold voice, "As I expected, Tesla. A bit...lackluster."

I only returned his cool look, knowing now that he was masking whatever it was that he truly felt. I felt the need in his body against mine. He could say whatever he wanted, but I could recognize the yearning for me in his body language.

If he knew what I was thinking, he didn't say anything about it. He also said nothing about what I'd finally revealed to them. To him. Did he truly not care that I'd been such a monstrous creature? Perhaps his silence was my answer.

Turning to leave out the door, he left me to follow him upstairs, my lips still burning.