Collateral Damage Book นิยาย & เรื่องราว

- he said and at the same moment a fireball hits his back. I stubbornly wanted to help him get up to run away with me, but seeing my mother getting closer and closer to the half-open door, I jumped up and run, feeling a new surge of energy, run to the car, got in from the driver's side, turned the ignition key, then I hit the gas and drove away with a screech of tires, my face flooded in tears. As Oliver had asked me to do, I didn't look back not even once, but just stared straight at the road ahead of me, and that continued until I passed the sign telling me I was leaving the city of Rome.

Ambling towards the door, I took one final look back before reach for the doorknob, "I will get you back, I promise." Twisting the handle, I stepped through the door, finding myself back in the factory right next to Al, who was still unconscious. Amber was still not back and I am glad, I didn't need to hear that this is my fault and I should let Al be. But— What should I do? How will I— his spine. He did say the sediment was traveling up his spine and to his brain. Rolling him over to his side, I flickered my hand, slicing a horizontal opening on his neckline, "Hey!" Amber stumbled in, "What do you think you're doing?"

He asked in a whisper. “There’s someone in the bed with this one,” Cameron whispered back. “I think the Van Helsing is the guy. What if the girl is just a girl and not also a Van Helsing?” “What if the Van Helsing is the girl, and he’s just a boy?” Heath replied as he eased past Rhett and crossed to the bed. He grabbed the man by the jaw, and there was a crack as he snapped his neck. “If either is a civilian, then the civilian is a collaborator. You collaborate with the enemy, you become collateral damage in an attack. It just how things go.” He gripped Cameron’s shoulder. “Are you hungry? If so, drink from the girl before you kill her.”

He is not leverage and most importantly, he is not collateral damage in a war between two broken adults. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Collateral damage?" Chalida’s voice was a razor-thin whisper, devoid of the warmth that had once characterized their childhood. She tilted her head, her eyes reflecting the erratic, flickering glow of the terminal. "You speak as if I haven’t seen the projections, Pim. As if I haven't watched the Algorithm predict the exact moment of our own obsolescence. Maybe I am collateral damage. But at least I’m going out as the architect of the chaos, not the victim of it."

... I waited for death, but the expected pain and fire didn't come. Instead, a deafening boom plunged the base into darkness. The ground quaked, and a shockwave threw me down, my ruined wrist slamming against the wall. The pain blinded me. Seconds later, emergency lights flickered on. Thick smoke poured from the server room. Rita lay motionless, charred. Faint arcs of electricity danced across her body. She was unconscious, and the core server—decades of national effort—was a smoldering heap of scrap.

Nothing in this world matters. I scavenge. I attack. I kill. Day in. Day out. --- Most of the pages were missing. Destroyed by the weather… or by something else. I closed the book, my hands trembling. Then, suddenly, I threw it across the room. Damien barely ducked in time. "Iris, I didn’t know you went through so much." His voice was quiet, careful. "It seems like blacking out was a survival instinct for you. But now… we know what happens when you black out."

Heavier than truth. I leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling, the memory of Regina’s words circling like vultures. Collateral damage. That’s what I had been to her. And yet here I was, staring at proof that the people she loved most might have been part of the wreckage all along.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you. But killing innocent people won't bring them back." "Innocent?" I laughed. "There are no innocent Lorenzos." "What about the children?" Diana asked. "What about the wiveswho married into the family without knowing what they were getting into? What about the people who work for us who are just trying to feed their families?" I felt something twist in my stomach, but I pushed it away. "Collateral damage." "Collateral damage," Diana repeated slowly. "Is that what I am to you? Is that what my unborn children will be?"

Greta's attack infuriated Noah. When Gwen heard the bone crack, she jerked her body in response. Noah let go of Greta and took a step back as she battled to get to her feet. He flashed a wolfish grin of victory across his lips as he did so. Her leg had been damaged, and she was bleeding profusely.