Lucas jerked. His head snapped up. He saw them and bounded up the hill.
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 f**king 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 f**king ass**le!”
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.”