The Vault (A Farm Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

just go through his heart, it went deep into the ground. How much force must I have used when I did that? How much hatred had fueled that single action? How much anger?
    I have many reasons to free Sebastian now. He’s the only one who can get us into the underground storage where the cure is stockpiled. He is the only living expert on the Tick virus. He may have been the one to engineer humanity’s downfall, but he is also the one who could save it. He has it in his power to save Lily. To keep her from turning into a monster even more horrible than I.
    Yet despite all those very good reasons, I fear the real reason I want to save him is more personal. In the end, it doesn’t matter why I save him. All that matters is that I do. That I succeed.
    But first, we have to get out of here. Fast. I’ll worry about his wound later. For now, I need to get him off the ground. I can’t bandage him here, not when there are Ticks sleeping nearby.
    I crouch back down beside him. “I’m going to try to move you.”
    He meets my gaze, but his eyes are foggy. “You know, it would be much easier, my dear, if you would just finish the job you started and kill me. I understand Roberto had quite the weapons collection. I’m sure he won’t mind now if you borrow a nice katana.”
    “Shut up,” I mutter, trying to think of options.
    “Do it quickly,” he murmurs, his voice almost seductive. “This can all be over soon.”
    “Too bad. I need you alive. To help me get the cure for the Tick virus.”
    He almost smiles. “Ah, it’s good to be wanted.”
    I lean over him again and wrap my hands around the head of the stake. I hadn’t looked at it before, but I do now. It has a rounded top and intricate carvings on the sides that bite sharply into my hand when I grasp it. I remember the anger. The blunt-edged fury that drove me to it. More importantly, I remember the reasons.
    Sebastian carefully molded me into the perfect assassin. He trained me to kill. He fed my need to seek revenge. He convinced me that I was the only one—the only person in the world—who could kill Roberto.
    And I had bought it all. I had believed completely that killing Roberto was my destiny. That it was my gift.
    However, when I’d arrived at El Corazon, nothing had been as I’d expected. By the time Sebastian had showed up to stage his own assassination, I’d realized the depths of his betrayal.
    I know the truth now. I had only been a decoy. A distraction. There’s nothing unique about me. I have no special destiny.
    There’s another truth I know. Sebastian will do anything to get what he wants. He will tell any lie. He will trick any fool.
    I have no interest in being his fool again and I don’t know which of his lies to believe. I can’t trust him, but I need him. Alive and conscious.
    I grab the stake and give a sharp tug, wrenching it free from his chest and from the blood-soaked ground beneath him.
    He lets out a sound that starts as a gasp and ends as a scream. A sound that makes the hairs on the back of my neck spike with fear and makes Chuy whimper in distress. It’s the sound of death and agony. It’s the sound of torture. His whole body bucks off the ground.
    His scream fades into echoes, yet there I stand, leaning over him, watching him draw in shuddering painful breaths. Watching what’s left of his blood pulse out of his body.
    I reach out a hand and he takes it in his own. His hand barely has the strength to grasp mine. His skin is so cold he might as well be a corpse. He’s visibly shaking as he struggles to stand and I feel a burst of regret. He’s wounded and now that I’ve pulled out the stake, he’s dying more quickly. And I’m about to stab him in the back. Literally.
    “I’m sorry,” I say.
    Still holding his hand in mine, I plunge the stake back into the hole I’d pulled it out of.

CHAPTER FIVE
    CARTER
    “Is Josie okay?” I asked as Dawn led me across campus to the Dean’s office.
    “She’s fine.” Dawn’s