A new figure ran at me from the tunnel. She wore a dress over her furry body that tented her thin frame like a muumuu. The floral catastrophe screamed Goodwill donation box.
I raised the Glock, only then realizing I’d lost count of my bullets. The woman ran at me so fast I didn’t have the luxury of a tactical reload, so I just pointed the gun and prayed I had enough juice to bring her down.
The woman fell to her knees like a two-dollar whore. A dark-red splotch spread across the chest of the dress. Her hands clawed at the stain, as if she could scratch it away. When that didn’t work, she pacified herself by sucking the blood from her fingertips. She looked so happy that I could only watch in horror, mesmerized by the unsettling image.
“Kate!” Morales shouted. My head jerked up. “Behind you!”
I swiveled, bringing up my gun as I went. A flash of pale skin and lips red with blood.
Click. Click. Click.
It was on the last click of the empty magazine that I recognized the face.
I dropped the gun as if it had burned me. My mind reeled. The sharp claws of fear scratched down my spine.
The potion had begun its work transforming the face into the twisted mask of rage. But there was no denying that I knew my attacker.
“Danny?” I whispered.
A flurry of questions and panicked thoughts scrambled through my brain. How had this happened? Had Bane gotten him before he reached school? Or did he lure him away? Oh God! Did Pen know Danny was missing?
What the fuck was I going to do?
Danny growled. Spittle bubbled from his lips. His eyes flashed hot red with bloodlust. Bloodlust forced upon him by a psychopath.
Bane. I was going to tear that motherfucker limb from limb for this horror.
The sounds of fighting rushed into my shocked mind, pushing out all the questions and replacing them with a shot of adrenaline. It was fight-or-flight time. But I knew if I ran, he’d only chase and we’d both end up dead.
The kid who had happily eaten breakfast with me that morning snarled and lunged.
Out of instinct, my arm came up to block the blow. “Morales!”
Danny’s hands went for my neck.
“What?” Morales yelled.
“Fuck!” I ducked a punch and delivered a jab of my own to Danny’s ribs. He groaned and retaliated with a swipe to my neck with his claws. The skin there stung like acid and went cold as blood welled.
“Mez, go help Kate!” Morales called between grunts that indicated he had his hands full, too.
But the scent of blood was like lighting a match too close to gasoline. No longer content to try just to maim me, Danny went after my jugular like a shark attacking chum. He moved so fast I could barely keep up with defensive blows, much less cause any damage of my own.
“I’m coming, Prospero!” Mez called.
“Hurry!” I kicked at his shins and clawed at his face with my fingernails. Some horrified voice in my head whispered that I shouldn’t be hitting back. That I should figure out how to defend myself against Danny without hurting him. But the practical side—the one that liked being alive—reminded me that if I didn’t manage to fight him off I’d be dead and then the team would kill Danny.
The sound of running footsteps echoed from somewhere behind me. “Back off, asshole!” Mez shouted. I raised my head enough to glance at him. When I saw the Mundane gun in his hand, terror gripped my heart with a cold fist.
“No!” I screamed and swiveled to put myself between Danny and the gun.
“Prospero, get out of the way!”
Behind me, my brother realized I wasn’t fighting him anymore. As I opened my mouth to explain to Mez, the attack came. Canines slammed into my neck like a serpent’s strike.
I gasped and lurched forward.
“Goddamn it, Kate. I can’t get a clear shot.”
“No!” I yelled. “No bullets!”
The pain in my neck was indescribable—hot and sharp. Danny’s weight on my back. The terrible sucking noises. Tracers dancing in the edges of my vision. Ice coating my skin.
“Danny—it’s Danny.” I swallowed against the taste of copper on my tongue. “Knock … out,” I rasped. “Potion him.”
Mez either didn’t understand what I said or was too jacked up on adrenaline for it to register. “Drop to your knees.”
“Potion, potion,” I begged, my voice losing strength, “potion.”
Little sparks danced in the periphery of my vision. My knees were weakening. If I didn’t convince Mez to shoot Danny with the potion quickly, I was going to pass out and Lord help us all. “Morales!” I forced through my tight throat. “It’s Danny!” I screamed the name with every last ounce of energy and air left in my body. “Danny!”
Just before I passed out, I saw grim-faced Morales grab something from Mez. The last thing I heard before I slipped into the black was the sound of a gun firing.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Red and blue pulsed everywhere. A high-pitched drone whirred through my head, but I couldn’t tell if it was real or the result of the vacuum between my ears. For several minutes, the neon signs and buildings of the Cauldron blurred by, creating a dizzying kaleidoscope. After that, the scent of disinfectant and a wall of cold whiteness surrounded me.
The world passed in a blur of color and noise. Occasionally a familiar face would cross my field of vision, but my eyes couldn’t focus long enough to establish context. Electricity must have zapped between my neurons, but none of those little packets of information registered anywhere on my motherboard.
Stinging pain on my neck. Promises it would pass. Needles and thread, trying to sew my jagged edges back together. But all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t make me feel whole again.
Warm hand on my arm. A quiet voice whispering in my ear. My eyes burned. My ribs crushed my too-tight lungs. My heart a pulsing bruise inside my chest.
“Kate?” That voice again. I recognized it but didn’t. Some part of my fractured mind realized I’d heard it before, but the tone sounded … off. Too careful. Worried.
“She’s in shock.” A woman’s voice this time. “Anyone would be.”
“He was going to kill her.” A male voice, deep, shaken.
“Thank God you stepped in,” another shaky male voice said. “I almost—”
“Hush now, you didn’t.”
The words washed over me as if I didn’t exist at all.
The white void gave way to the shape of a man. He had dark hair and brown eyes. A leather jacket creaked as he knelt in front of me.