Free Bound to Ashes (The Altered Sequence Book 1) by Maranda Cromwell

unarmed?”
    “I don’t care, man, it just seems like a bad idea!”
    That’s enough.
    “You remember that man you took back to your base coming back from the city? Might’ve been a month ago. Broken ribs, maybe an arm.”
    They peek their heads around the corner slowly, surprised I could hear their whole conversation. They emerge resignedly.
    “Yeah,” Vinder says. “His ribs were like gravel.” He swallows. “He died.”
    Alessandra side-eyes him in a quick glare.
    “That was Ashton. Self-defense, and that was a weak kick, for him.” That human had rounded the corner behind us and was half a second away from shooting us— Ashton had spun around and the force of his heel against the man’s rib cage threw the human to the ground.
    The silence in the hallway is heavy until Alessandra cuts through it. “Look, I understand what you’re getting at, but if you want this plan of ours to work, you have got to trust me. I have way too much on the line to not see things through myself.”
    I narrow my eyes at her. “If you get killed, it is not my fault.” Hell, I’m only just now getting over the random impulses to injure her.
    Vinder stretches his mouth into a grimace and half-throws his arms up in resignation. He probably can’t believe Alessandra’s got herself into such a predicament. But it also seems like she does this kind of stuff a lot by how quickly he’s giving in.
    “I’m going to pack my things,” Alessandra says. “Yours are sitting on that counter over there.”
    She gestures with jerky movements to my pack, sitting lonely on the counter near the one-way mirror by the white room. I snatch it up and put it on. Feels the same weight. They didn’t take any of the food out of it.
    I may have bought myself some time with this ‘deal’ I have worked out with Alessandra. But there’s something lurking under those mismatched eyes and reckless temper. I don’t know if I’m planning on ditching her as soon as we get out of this place, or if I’m actually going along with her scheme. Both seem likely. I can’t think about it without that hot, angry feeling rising in me. I don’t know myself at all. And what are the others going to think...? Hi, here’s one of our sworn enemies, want to trek halfway across the state to an uncertain goal where it’s very likely we’ll get backstabbed? I sigh.
    “You doin’ okay?” Alessandra asks, probably in an effort to sound more sympathetic.
    “Of course he isn’t, he’s still recovering from all those downers,” Vinder says, smiling.
    Yeah, that’s it alright. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
    “Well, you can just.... hang out here for a second, and I’ll be right back,” Alessandra says distractedly, sliding past piles of things and on her way to... wherever.
    She leaves me and Vinder standing in the dark hallway.
    Vinder has his arms crossed and is drumming his fingers anxiously on his arms. “So,” he says.
    Why does he feel the need to talk...? “What?”
    “How long have you....” he wiggles a finger at my chest. “Been able to... you know.”
    My breath falls out of me in an angry sigh. “Birth.”
    He avoids my gaze and fidgets with his hands.
    He’s probably wondering about the word ‘birth’. If I was actually born, or spewed out of some amniotic test tube.
    No, no. Stop that. You can’t afford to get mad at these humans. Don’t make them change their minds about you. They still outnumber you. They’re still capable of killing you at a moment’s notice if you prove to be too dangerous. To them, you’re unpredictable. You’re dangerous.
    Feeling’s mutual.
    Alessandra comes back with a fat backpack and says to Vinder, “Tell everyone that I’ll be gone for a few days tops. If I don’t come back before then, leave without me, the plan is still the same. You know where to find everything. And,” she smiles, “tell Peregrine I’m in good hands.”
    Vinder salutes and squeezes past to rush down the hallway and