Chapter 31
The last time I’d cried this hard was when the hospice worker forced me away from my dad’s bed during his final moments. They weren’t pretty as he struggled to take his last breath.
“She’s not dead,” Blake said, sounding relieved. “She’s still alive.”
Blood and tears mixed on my face. Sobs clogged my throat, rendering me speechless. Dee was alive. Barely. Her light continued to flicker softly, but Adam… Oh, God. Adam’s light had dulled, no stronger than a weak and faded lightbulb. I could see the shape of his hands and legs. His face wasn’t shapeless, and neither was the rest of his body. It was like a pale, translucent shell of a human. A network of silvery veins existed under the semi-transparent shell. It reminded me of a jellyfish.
Adam was dead.
Quiet sobs raked my throat until it was so hoarse and raw I could hardly breathe. This was my fault. I’d trusted Blake when Daemon practically begged me not to. I’d befriended Dee, and she’d known something was wrong because she knew me. I hadn’t killed Adam, but I’d led him right into this. He’d died trying to protect me.
“Shh,” Blake crooned, lifting me off the floor, turning me over. “You’ve got to calm down.” He wiped a hand along my cheek. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”
“Don’t touch me,” I croaked, scrambling away from him. “Don’t…come. Near. Me.”
He crouched, watching as I crawled to Dee’s side. I wanted to help her, but I didn’t know how. My gaze flickered over to Adam, and I choked on my breath. Not knowing what else to do, I blocked Adam from her view. It was all I could do.
No more than five minutes later, a car door shut outside. Blake stood fluidly, stalking toward me. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and then his phone beeped. I shuddered, knowing what waited beyond the door.
But what I wasn’t expecting was the flare of heat that radiated off my obsidian. I lifted my head. “Arum…”
His fingers dug in. “Just sit still.”
Oh, God… I glanced down at Dee. She was vulnerable, easy pickings. My front door opened. Heavy feet filled the hallway, and the obsidian scalded my skin. I reached up, hands trembling, and dug the rock out.
Vaughn was the first to enter. His eyebrows rose as his gaze landed beside me. “Blake, what happened here?”
I felt Blake stiffen, but I kept my eyes on the two Arum behind Brian. One was Residon and the other male looked a lot like him. Their greedy eyes were bare and went straight to Dee. I turned, feeling the hair on the back of my neck raise.
“They surprised me. I had to fight back or they would’ve taken me out. I didn’t have a choice.” Blake cleared his throat, sounding confused when he spoke again. “Where’s Nancy?”
“This has nothing to do with Nancy.” Vaughn rubbed a long finger over his brow. “And you say that a lot, Blake. There are always choices. However, you’re not really good at making them.” He turned to the Arum. “Take the dead one. See if you can get anything off him.”
“The dead one?” Residon scuffed. “We want the one who is still alive.”
“No.” My voice came out harsh and ragged. “No! They can’t have either of them. They can’t touch them.”
Residon laughed.
Vaughn knelt down in front of me, and as close as we were, I could see the resemblance now. “This can go one of two ways. You come with us of your own free will or I will hand over both of them to these guys. Do you understand?”
My eyes darted to the Arum. “I want them gone first.”
“You’re negotiating?” Vaughn laughed as he glanced up at his nephew. “See, that’s what you do when you’re presented with the unexpected.”
Blake looked away, jaw clenching. “What do you mean this isn’t about Nancy?”
“Just what it sounds like.”
A shudder racked Blake’s taut body. “If we don’t turn her over, they’ll kill—”
“Do I look like I care? Really?” Vaughn laughed, standing as he turned his attention to me. He pushed back his jacket, flashing his gun. “Residon, take the dead one. Dispose of him.”
Take his body, so Ash and Andrew would face what Dee and Daemon had? No body. No closure. My brain clicked off. What rose in me, replacing the sorrow and helplessness, was primal and ancient. Not just alien in origin, but a combination of both foreign and organic. I sucked in air, but there was something…more. Particles all around us—tiny atoms, but powerful, too small to see with the naked eye—lit up as they danced in the air and then froze. Like a thousand twinkling stars, they gleamed a dazzling white.
I sucked in and they came toward me, rushing, falling like shooting stars. They built and swirled, surrounding my body and those on the floor. I stood as they pieced together, settling on my skin, soaking through until they bonded with my cells. My entire body warmed, mixing with the roaring tide of emotions gathering in me.
I was no longer just Katy. Something—someone else—moved inside me. Another part of me that had been split months ago, on Halloween, had returned.
The Arum sensed it first. They shifted into their true forms, tall, imposing shadows thick and muddled like midnight oil. They would die.
“Don’t kill her,” Vaughn yelled, pulling out his gun, leveling it at me. “Now, little girl, you don’t want to do anything rash. Think this through.”
He would die, too.
Backing up, Blake glanced between his uncle and me. “Christ…”
In the back of my mind, I knew there was something else fueling this power—someone else from the outside. It was like the night in the clearing. What was in me was fully joining with my other half. I lifted into the air, no longer seeing them in color, but only in white, tinged with red.
“Shit,” Vaughn muttered. His finger twitched. “Don’t make me do this, Katy. You’re worth a lot of money.”
Money? What did this have to do with money? But I was beyond caring. I welcomed the feeling encroaching upon me. My vision shifted, blurred, and tingled. My head cocked to the side. Static filled the air, devouring oxygen. Blake gagged, dropping to his knees.
The Arum rose up, spinning around and rushing the door. Their black tendrils reached out, knocking off furniture and sending picture frames to the floor. They drew up short.
“Leaving so soon?” a deep, furious voice said from the doorway. “I’m offended.”
Daemon shifted into his true form and took out the first Arum with one blast followed by another…and then another. Pieces of it broke away and floated up and up, disappearing into thin wisps before they reached the ceiling.
I drew Residon, the one who’d wanted Dee, back to me. He was caught between Daemon and me, like a ping-pong ball. My light pulsed. Daemon’s flared.
Residon roared.
Tell me what has happened, Daemon’s voice whispered among my thoughts.
I told him everything about Blake and Vaughn while we worked on Residon, tearing him down. But movement caught my attention. Vaughn was trying to work the window open. When he got nowhere with that, he grabbed the floor lamp and swung it toward the glass.
I froze the lamp and then whipped it out of his hands. Vaughn spun around, dashing behind Daemon. In the chaos, Blake had made it outside somehow. So had Daemon and Residon. Three forms streaked into my house. I heard a wailing sound, and it drove deep inside me, darkening a part of me. There was a crack and one of the large oaks came down, landing near the driveway.