Seraphina's Revenge: A Rebirth In The Apocalypse Novel

Chapter 424: Out The Front Door

Alexei’s mind ticked through the almost casual way Aerenyx had told them what they had missed while they were locked away.

Elias was gone. That much was clear. Whatever had replaced him had not just survived—it had taken over so completely that nothing that looked like Elias was still standing.

Sure, Aerenyx still wore his lab coat, boots, and pants, but none of Elias’s stench of restraint.

The creature inside Elias had finally won.

Alexei had expected something like that could happen. The difference was he hadn’t expected it to happen this fast, this cleanly...

And this close to Sera.

His creature snarled again. He is hers now because he thinks he can be. He will not be. Let me out. We will show him what ice does to plague.

Sera stepped closer to Alexei’s cage.

Her eyes stayed on Aerenyx when she spoke, but Alexei heard every word directed at them too. "Open them."

Aerenyx didn’t waste time.

With a shrug, he laid a palm on the Plexi glass surrounding Alexei’s cage.

The barrier didn’t crack from force so much as it seemed to soften.

The embedded lattice glowed, then dulled, then went dark like wet wires choking on rot.

Corrosion ran in black-green veins across the surface, eating through the composite layers as if they were damp paper.

Alexei watched, fascinated despite himself. He had never seen a bioweapon behave like a living extension of a will.

The glass sagged, then peeled away from its frame with a low wet scrape. It slumped to the floor in a steaming heap.

Alexei stepped out.

The moment his feet hit the corridor, his creature tried to surge forward through muscle and bone. It wanted to hit Aerenyx first, not because Aerenyx had attacked Alexei, but because Aerenyx was standing within reach of Sera’s space.

But Alexei forced Psycho back down.

He placed himself between Aerenyx and the direction of Sera as he stepped clear of the cell. The movement was smooth, almost casual, but there was a message in it all the same.

Aerenyx watched him do it with a faint smile.

"Careful," he murmured. "You’ll freeze the air around her if you stand that close."

Alexei’s reply came out flat. "Don’t test me."

Aerenyx’s smile widened. "You’re already testing yourself, ice."

Alexei didn’t move. He stood still enough to be a wall.

Psycho hissed at him, more than done with Alexei not listening to him. Coward. You let him stand there. You let him look at her. He belongs on the floor.

Alexei ignored it.

Violence was easy. Timing was smarter.

After all... at this moment, Alexei had no idea who would win the fight, and that wasn’t something he was going to leave to chance.

Aerenyx stepped away from Alexei’s line without backing down, gliding toward Lachlan’s cage. He set his palm on the glass there too. The barrier softened and sagged, then slid down in a rotten slump.

Lachlan stepped out like a storm leaving a bottle, shoulders wide, jaw clenched.

He went straight for Aerenyx.

Alexei shifted half a step, ready to catch him if he launched, because Lachlan’s creature was not interested in restraint.

But Lachlan stopped a foot away.

Not because he wanted to. Because Sera was watching.

His entire body vibrated with contained lightning. "You don’t get to call her anything," he growled.

Aerenyx’s gaze slid to Sera, amused. "But she likes it so much."

Lachlan’s nostrils flared. He looked at Sera, searching her expression for a crack. He found none.

Sera studied Aerenyx like he was a new kind of weather. She wasn’t annoyed. She wasn’t shy. She wasn’t threatened. She was curious in a way that made Lachlan’s rage sharpen because curiosity meant openness.

Zubair’s cage was the last to open.

Aerenyx touched it, and it died the same way the others had—soft, melting, giving up without a fight. Zubair stepped out more controlled than Lachlan, more aware of hierarchy than any of them.

He didn’t bow to Aerenyx, but he didn’t challenge him either. He simply took his place near Sera’s side and watched to see what she was going to do next.

Zubair’s creature made a low noise Alexei could sense through the air. It wasn’t approval. It was assessment.

"What happened to Elias?" Zubair asked.

Aerenyx blinked, then shrugged. "He tried to cut her open," he replied, nodding toward Sera like the reason was obvious. "He kept talking about saving humanity while sharpening knives. That kind of stupidity has an expiration date. Even if he didn’t believe me when I warned him."

Zubair’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t look surprised. He looked angry at the confirmation.

"He was one of us," Zubair said.

Aerenyx gave him a look that was almost pity. "He was a human wearing a leash around his own throat and handing it over to anyone who claimed that they were a scientist. That was never going to last."

Alexei watched Sera through all of it.

She didn’t react to Elias’s death with grief. She also didn’t react with satisfaction.

She simply stood there like she didn’t care one way or the other... And that told Alexei more than anything the other man could have.

Even if Elias had managed to survive, Sera was done with him for what he did.

And that was more than enough for him.

The almost blank look on her face as she returned his gaze caused him to let out a sign. That kind of calm wasn’t indifference.

It was danger.

Whatever the three of them decided to do next, it would determine their life or death as far as she was concerned.

Aerenyx drifted back to her side without asking permission.

Not close enough to touch. Close enough to claim air. He looked at her like this was already a shared hunt.

"We should move," he murmured. "The rest of the facility is still breathing. That means there are still humans alive who think they’re in charge."

Sera’s smile was faint. "Let them think it."

Aerenyx leaned closer, voice dropping so only she could hear it. "You’re enjoying this."

She didn’t deny it. "It’s interesting."

"Good." His black eyes slid over her face, slow and hungry, and there was no attempt to hide the intent. "Stay with me, Trouble. I want to see what you do when you’re not in a cage."

Alexei felt Psycho bare its phantom teeth. He is marking her... and you are letting him.

Alexei kept his face neutral.

His body was a blade held in a sheath. He didn’t need to swing it to remind anyone it existed.

Lachlan stepped closer to Sera on her other side, crowding the space without touching her. "We’re leaving," he said to her, not to Aerenyx. He made the words a statement of fact, the way he always did when he was afraid his creature might take over and say something worse.

Sera looked at him, then at Zubair, then at Alexei.

"We are," she agreed. "But we’re not running."

"No," Aerenyx said softly, clearly pleased. "We’re walking out the front door." There was a brief pause. "If this place still has a front door."