Fights broke out all around. Matthew shanked an Arum with a piece of obsidian, and it went bye-bye in an explosion somewhere along the ceiling. Kat had tapped into the Source, laying out another Arum. The asshole didn’t stay down long, and there was no way she could keep tapping into the source.
Turning back to the Arum I was facing, I simply ended it—quickly. Brutally. I wheeled around, just in time to see the Arum touch her. If I thought I was pissed before, I’d been wrong, because I could taste it on my tongue.
“Daemon!” she shouted.
I spun around, catching an Arum creeping right up on me and got out of its way. I didn’t have time for this shit. I heard the shout of the Arum Kat had faced off with, and then it was up on the ceiling, doing its imploding thing. I grabbed the Arum in front of me, tossing it to the side.
We need to get out of here. Dawson sent the message to me, and I tossed a no shit look back in his direction.
I spun toward Matthew, who was picking himself up. Our gazes collided. Unease built in his eyes, and that bad taste spread in my mouth. Remember the plan. Get Kat out of here.
That message was sent directly at Matthew. He pushed forward, lips pressing into a firm, thin line as he nodded.
“Go! We need to go!” Dawson had a hold of Bethany and was practically carrying her out of here.
I turned, starting back to Kat, and I saw my mistake in painful detail. I’d told her to stay behind me like I was some kind of alien Hercules. She’d listened; for once in her life, she’d listened to me, and now there were too many feet between us. She was limping forward, her gaze on mine. Then she was down, catching herself with her hands as she hit the cement floor. Panic punched into my gut as she twisted onto her side.
Picking up speed, I was a body length from her when I heard it, when the hairs all over my body rose and the panic spread in me like a damn virus.
Light drenched the tunnel. Locks slammed into place in an endless stream of we-are-so-screwed.
“No,” Matthew cried, turning to where we’d come from. “No.”
Those words were on an endless replay as I saw the movement behind Kat. Blue light flashed from the ceiling to the floor, every ten feet, over and over. One of the shields cut an Arum, slicing right into it, and then it was gone in a poof of dirty dust.
Holy shit.
My heart leaped into my throat right along with my stomach as I lurched, reaching for Kat as she scrambled forward. The tips of my fingers were inches—fucking inches—from her, and then a blue stream of light smacked down right in front of my face.
Right in front of Kat.
“Shit,” I gasped out as she jerked back, her hair blowing off her face from the impact of the lasers.
No. No. No.
I shook my head as I stared at her form through blue light. No. Hell no. Absolutely no.
Our eyes locked and horror poured into me, invading every cell, and the bitter twang of fear coated the inside of my mouth. I staggered to the side, searching for a way around, but there was none. She was on the other side, and she wasn’t alone. There were Arum and there were soldiers piling into the hall behind her. She was trapped.
She was trapped with them.
I couldn’t breathe. “Kat…”
Sirens blasted.
No.
I shot forward, but I wasn’t fast enough. It was too late. Emergency doors started to slide down from the top and the bottom. Pure panic fueled my actions. I stopped thinking as more and more of Kat disappeared behind the doors. I reached for her, determined to make it through the lasers in one piece out of sheer will.
She threw out her hand, and I felt the Source punch through the shield, smacking into my chest and pushing me back—away from the lasers. I fought the concentrated blast until arms clamped down on my waist, holding me back, pulling me away from her.
I lost my mind.
Twisting around, I slammed my fist into Matthew’s jaw, but he held on, and after another punch, I gave up on him. Dragging him forward, I reached for Kat. I had to get to her, one way or another, I had to get to her.
Kat dropped to her knees, and I was a second behind her, hitting mine as Matthew managed to bring me down. Her lower lip trembled as her chest rose sharply. Something cracked in my chest, fissured down my core. Terror I’d never known before exploded.
“No! Please! No!” My voice broke. “Kat!”
They were crowding in around her, but she never took her eyes off me. She held my gaze as I tried to shake off Matthew.
Then she smiled a little, and my chest imploded. It was weak and wobbly and frail, and a part of me died right there.
“It’ll be okay,” she said, her eyes welling with wetness. “It’ll be all right.”
The doors were almost closed as I reached out, my fingers spread. Matthew jerked me back, and I braced myself with my other hand. My heart pounded as she was seconds from disappearing behind the door, seconds from being cut off from me.
My chest ripped right open and I said what I should’ve said days ago, weeks and months ago. “I love you, Katy. Always have. Always will. I will come back for you. I will—”
The doors sealed shut.
She was gone.
I stared at the doors, shaking my head again. “Kat? Kat!” I shouted.
“Come on.” Matthew pulled me back, coming to his feet. “Daemon, we’ve got to go.”
I didn’t move. I was dead weight.
“Kat!” I screamed at the door, my voice breaking over the siren.
Dawson was suddenly there, grabbing my other arm, and I pulled free, swinging at him, but Matthew caught me from behind, wrapping his arms around mine, pinning them to my sides.
The look in Dawson’s eyes was wild. “I’m sorry, but we’ve got—”
“This wasn’t the plan!” I shouted in his face. “We were supposed to make sure she got out!” I twisted in Matthew’s grip. “Let me the hell go. I need to get her.”
“You can’t,” Matthew said. “We can’t get to her now. Daemon, we’ve got to go.”
The horror of reality soaked into me. “She’s gone,” I whispered, staring at my brother, and then I lost my shit all over again.
I broke free from Matthew and whirled toward the door. I pulled on the Source, intent on blowing a hole right through it. I would get to her, one way or another I would get to her.
Matthew cursed.
Sudden pain exploded along the back of my head, and I took one step before my legs went out from underneath me. I crumbled like a damn paper bag, down for the count, seeing blackness instead of stars. My brother’s face blurred into focus for a moment.
“She’s gone,” I repeated as my vision darkened. “Kat’s gone.”
And then there was nothing.
Please keep reading….
Somewhere off Spring Mills exit in Berkeley County, West Virginia
“I know you’re pissed at me.”
Paris closed the door behind him, eyeing the young man who was more than just his boss. Luc was his savior. The kid might only be fourteen, and had been much younger when they’d first met, but Luc had saved his life more than once.
“Pissed might be too strong of a word,” Paris said after a moment.
Luc had moved from the couch to the cash-covered desk, and he sat behind it once again. He slowly lifted his chin, piercing Paris with the odd purple-colored eyes. Eyes that were a sign of his kind, because Luc wasn’t human, and he wasn’t a hybrid like Blake and Katy.
Luc was something far, far different.
“I know what I’m doing.” Luc leaned back in the chair and kicked his feet up on the desk, knocking over a stack of hundreds. He was holding something in his hands, and it wasn’t that damn game system for once.
“Do you?” Paris’s silvery gaze filled with doubt and a small measure of disappointment.