Page 47 of Her Eternal Mate

All his soldiers had surrounded him, their rifles cocked at me, the red lasers from their guns aimed at my torso. My hands were raised to show that I meant to harm, but inside my head, I was trying to figure out what tactic would serve best to take down all of those guards in a single move while also incapacitating Blair. If I could do that, I could solve the Blair dilemma forever. It would be akin to cutting the head of a dragon.

“I know that look, that way your eyes wander. I remember it from that fateful night we threw you off the roof after killing your mate,” Blair said, making a motion with his arm that caused all his soldiers to lower their weapons. “And I know you, Alexis. I know that if you really put your head to it, you will do something that might jeopardize my mission here.”

“As I said, Blair, I’m not here to fight. I am here to avert one. If you do not back off, the werewolves won’t back off, either. We’re talking about all-out war. Are you really so reckless that you’d raze an entire city to the ground just to kill one man?”

I did not know how it happened, but at the exact moment when I’d stopped speaking, a giant pane from the roof tore off, and Will fell through, landing on his feet.

“Alexis!” Will said, noticing that I was surrounded by soldiers. “What on earth are you doing here?”

I could not respond right away, not after seeing all the injuries that were slowly healing on Will’s body. He was in no shape to fight.

“Isn’t this a sweet reunion?” Blair laughed maniacally. “Makes me reminisce about old times. How it used to be when my friends, Maurice and Ralph, were still alive. You killed them, Will. You think of me as the villain in this story. From where I stand, I see you as the person who deprived me of my father. You’re the man who brought down my friends’ business, killing them while you were at it. And if you had your way just now, you’d kill me.”

“As I should, you madman!” Will screamed.

The rifles once again went up, their aim fixed on Will’s head.

“You see that?” Blair snapped. “This is power. The power that money can buy. You best believe it that my father did not leave me empty-handed. His wealth is mine to use as I wish. And I have decided to use it for the singular purpose of wiping out the fucking Grimms. You are a scourge on this land. You, Will Grimm, most of all! Before this ends, I will avenge my father’s death.”

“Your reservations are with him alone. Why are you subjecting so many innocent people to your volatile serums? All your soldiers die, unable to stand the poisoning. Do you have no sympathy for them?” I asked, my hands raised, one towards Will to stop him from advancing and the other towards the soldiers to stop them from firing. I was standing in the middle, trying my best to defuse this situation.

“My soldiers know the price when they sign up. They’re just pawns in a larger game,” Blair said. “You may have discovered my secret lair, but that won’t hinder my plan. You see, these soldiers that keep dying, they’re iterations of an experiment that I’ve been conducting for many months now. And I will succeed eventually. It does not matter how many more iterations I have to make. With my substantial resources, I have bought the very lives of these men. Look.”

Blair grabbed one of the soldiers by the collar and pushed him ahead. The soldier stood there, just looking at all of us.

“Shoot yourself,” Blair said.

The soldier took his pistol out, aimed it at his head, and pulled the trigger, splattering blood on the wall.

“That’s the power that I command,” Blair said. “I will unleash all of these soldiers like the biblical plague. And then, when every last one of you is dead, I will rest easy, knowing my work is finished.”

“You’re crazy!” I screamed.

“Are you just now getting that?” Blair laughed again, turning his back to us and heading out the door. “Till we meet again, you star-crossed lovers. Oh, consider this your first and last warning. The next time you trespass will be the last.”

I looked at Will, who was in no position to fight, then at the soldiers. For a moment, it seemed that all hell would break loose. But then, the soldiers lowered their guns and receded out of the room in a formation, leaving us both standing there, the air heavy with silence and tension.

“What were you thinking?” Will glared at me, his eyes fierce and aglow.

“Not right now. Not here. Let’s get out of here. You shouldn’t have come after me. Look at yourself; you’re injured!” I said, putting his arm around my shoulders. I helped him out of the room, trying to keep out of sight of the soldiers.

“This was completely reckless, Alexis!” Will snapped.

I had no energy to argue with him, not while I was holding his weight on my shoulders. As much as I knew he was angry at me, and as much as he was injured, I was secretly glad that he had come.

It went to show how much he cared.

Chapter 22

Will

Blair had let us go. Against all odds, Alexis and I made it out of the facility without any trouble. That got me thinking. Why would someone like Blair, someone who had every reason to kill the two people who had been making his life a living hell, let them go when they had walked into his headquarters like lambs to the slaughter?

I knew the answer in an instant, but I was far too enraged at Alexis’s stupid decision to go and confront Blair to think more about it. However, with it in my mind, it kept me from unleashing my anger on her.

Blair was weak. That was all there was to it. He might have put up a brave front in front of us earlier, but he was trapped in a place he didn’t want to be in. There was no other way he would have let us go. With his experiments failing, his soldiers dying, and his resources depleting, Blair was preparing for something big, adhering to the “go big or go home” credo.

All those soldiers patrolling his headquarters, and all that display of secrecy and firearms, it was just a façade. The real Blair underneath all that was grasping at straws.

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