The sparks around Arthur danced faster. Arthur’s feet left the ground. He rose three feet into the air, his body tense, looking down at the prairie stretching before him.
Oh, God.
The beast reached the apex of the hill, crashed down in a sickening revolt of flesh, and rose again, as Lucas, bloody and shaking. He shuddered on his feet, careened, and Karina caught him. For a moment his entire weight rested on her. She looked into his eyes and saw pain. And then Daniel pulled him off her and dragged him forward to the rip.
In the distance the foghorn blared frantically. The daeodons closed in. Karina swept Emily into her arms.
Henry wrapped his arm around her. “We must go. You don’t want to see this.”
They hurried to the rent. She looked back over her shoulder, as if pulled by some invisible force. The sparks darting around Arthur’s shoulders paused. For a fraction of a breath they hung motionless, then blinked, then sparked into brilliant light. Red radiance burst from Arthur’s shoulders in twin streams, boiling with flashes of white and orange, unfurling into two enormous wings knitted of lightning.
“Come on.” Henry pulled her toward the rip. It loomed before them, lightless and frightening, a hole in reality itself.
The red lightning flashed. The front row of captives fell to their knees. Fire spilled from their eyes and mouths, as if they were being incinerated from the inside out. Their faces turned to ash. The second row followed and on and on and on . . . Jets of flames spurted from the ground. The whole hill quaked as if caught in the grip of a powerful earthquake.
Oh, dear God. So that’s what a Wither does . . .
“Now!” Henry barked.
Karina took a deep breath, cradled Emily, and stepped into the darkness.
It was like being underwater. As if she were walking through a flooded tunnel of crystal-clear liquid filled with sunlight. Her body was very light, almost weightless. It lasted a lifetime or a single moment—Karina couldn’t tell—and then she stepped onto beige carpet.
For a second she was afraid to move, afraid to do anything, and then she remembered to breathe. The air tasted sweet.
Emily looked at her, blinking.
“Are you okay?” Karina whispered, her voice strained.
Emily stirred. “I know!”
“Know what, Emily?”
“Mom, I know, I know! I am the Courageous Princess. Like in the comic book.”
Karina exhaled and hugged her. For some reason, she wanted to cry.
They stood in a foyer. There were people around her, both men and women. In front of her a glass wall guarded a conference room, a long black table with matching chairs; and beyond that a floor-to-ceiling window offered a view of an evening city from above, lit up with electric lights. They had to be on the twentieth floor.
They had gotten away.
In her mind the bodies still burned, vomiting fire and ashes. What the hell was Arthur? What were all of them?
“We shouldn’t be here,” Henry said next to her, his voice vibrating with alarm. “This is wrong.”
A woman behind her snarled. “The fucking Ripper dropped us into the wrong base.”
A soft thud made her turn. Lucas crashed onto the carpet and Daniel tried to pick him up. Lucas’s eyes were closed. He looked so pale, his skin had gained an almost greenish tint.
She set Emily down and knelt by him, sliding her hand on his forehead. His skin was cold, almost clammy. Blood clung to his rib cage and a big purple bruise stained the right side of his stomach. He looked like he was dying. The heavy metallic scent rolled off him, so thick she almost choked. He wasn’t just hungry for her blood. He was starving for it and he hurt.
“What’s wrong?”
“Too much venom,” Daniel spat out. “He shouldn’t have phased into the attack variant so soon after the last fight.”
Arthur stepped onto the carpet out of thin air. “He will be fine.”
A grimace skewed Daniel’s face, stretching his scar. He looked like a rabid dog. “We should’ve evacuated yesterday. You overwork him. You know he needs at least two weeks between phasings, but you counted on him to save your ass anyway, because you knew he would do it. Look at him. Look at him, Arthur. He’s dying from the venom.”
Arthur glanced at the skyline. “Not now, Daniel. Where is the Ripper?”
“You are a fucking asshole!”
Henry closed his eyes and opened them. “She isn’t in the building.”
“Daniel, stop your hysterics and search the building . . .”
“Fuck you!”
“Will the two of you shut up?” Lucas said. His eyes were still closed. A shudder gripped him. He arched his back, his heels digging into the carpet, his arms rigid, his massive body straining against the pain.
Idiots. Karina wrapped her arms around Lucas, trying to hold him down, but it was like trying to hold down a bull. “We need something for his mouth. He’s grinding his teeth.”
“Vault, now,” Arthur snapped. “Pick him up.”
People swarmed Lucas, brushing her away. He lashed out, convulsing, throwing a man aside like a rag doll. They pulled Lucas up and dragged him down the hall.
Arthur bent down, grasped her by the elbow, and pulled her to her feet. “Come with us.”
“My daughter . . .”
Arthur’s fingers clenched her arm like a vise. He pulled her down the hallway, after the clump of people trying to move the convulsing Lucas forward.
Emily ran after her. “Mommy!”
Karina jerked. “Let go of me! You’re scaring her!”
“Do you want your daughter to live?” Arthur asked.
“Yes!” Bastard.
“Then do as you’re told.”
They were almost to the end of the tunnel. Something swung open with a heavy metallic sound. Karina caught a glimpse of a huge vault door standing ajar. The people carrying Lucas ducked into the round opening and parted, and Karina saw a room beyond the door. It lay empty and the light of the white fluorescent lamps reflected off the metal floor and walls.
They would put her into the vault with him. Lucas hurt so badly, he was convulsing. He required her blood and he’d rip her to pieces to get it. If she crossed that threshold, she would die.
“Mommy!”
She dug her heels in. “Emily!”
Henry picked Emily up. “It’s okay, little one.”
“You agreed to the contract,” Arthur said. “Time to honor it. Get in there and do whatever you have to do to keep him alive.”
If she didn’t go in, they would throw her in. She heard it in Arthur’s voice.
Karina jerked her arm out of his hand. “Take care of my baby, Henry.”
“I will,” he promised.
Karina took a deep breath and walked inside.
“No sudden movements,” Henry called out.
The door behind her clanged shut.
Chapter 8
Lucas curled into a ball on the floor. The pain scoured the inside of his spine as if someone were scraping his vertebrae with steel wool. It stretched in tight strings through his ligaments; it pooled in his joints, in his fingertips, under his tongue. He felt it in his teeth. It ground him like a grain of wheat between two millstones.
His ears caught the sound of approaching steps.
He forced his eyes open.
Karina knelt by him. He inhaled her scent and felt it spark a deep, angry hunger inside him. She pulled him like a magnet. His body screamed for her blood and the end of the pain. Tearing into her would be bliss.
She was rolling up her sleeve. Her lips were pinched together.
He had to speak now. It hurt and he was tired, but he managed. “Don’t.”
“Arthur said you had to feed.”
“Arthur is a sick fuck. I told you that.”
“I can smell you,” she said. “You need to feed.”
“If I feed now, you’ll die.”
“If you don’t, you will, and then they’ll kill Emily.”
Ah. For a second he thought she had felt sorry for him, but no. “Nobody will touch Emily. And I’m not dying. Just hurting.”
“You look awful.” He heard a soft note in her voice. In spite of everything, she cared a little bit. He would take that. That was more than he usually got from anyone.
She hadn’t shied back when he phased. Her knees had trembled but she didn’t flinch. For that he was grateful.
Karina brushed the grime off his face, her eyes kind, her voice gentle. “Lucas, don’t be an idiot. Feed. It will make you feel better.”
“The pain isn’t fatal. It will pass. You’ll need all of your blood before long.”
She pulled back. “What does that mean?”
“Do you have a fever?”
“Yes.”
“Tired?”
“Yes. Lucas, what is happening to me?”
He almost told her the truth. “I told you before, you’re reacting to the venom.”
The ache had burrowed deep into the base of his spine. Lucas forced himself to turn, trying to shift his weight, and it exploded into a blinding white, mind-numbing haze, twisting his limbs. Like being punched in the mouth by a star. He passed out.
When he awoke, her scent was everywhere. The hunger stirred inside him, demanding. Lucas clenched his teeth and felt a light touch on his cheek. His eyes snapped open. She was sitting next to him, her back resting against the wall.
“How long was I out?”
“Maybe a minute or two.”
“Try to time the next one. I need to know if they’re getting shorter.”
“Is there anything else I can do?”
The ache rolled back at him. “Talk to me.”
“About what?”
“You never did tell me exactly why Emily hoards food.”
She sighed and brushed the brown lock of hair from her face. “It happened after Jonathan died.”
“Your husband?”
“Yes. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why?”
She met his gaze. “Because then you will know things about me.”