Guards sprinted up and down the stairs. What had happened on the street? Sour rose into Nola’s throat.
Wolves. There are still werewolves on the streets.
Back in the atrium, guard trucks drove in and out of the break in the glass, ignoring the place where the ruined door had been. Doctors rushed to the injured.
Nola watched as uniforms ran past, searching for Jeremy in the throng.
She shoved her shaking hands into her coat pockets. Her fingers closed around the tiny tree.
A truck rolled in, and gurneys were pulled from the back, but the doctors walked straight past. Those guards had been covered in white sheets. The doctors couldn’t do anything for the dead.
Nola stood still as the chaos moved around her, her eyes constantly searching for Jeremy in the crowd. Every time a gurney passed, her heart stopped.
Not Jeremy. Please, not Jeremy.
Her nails dug into her palm as she gripped the tree. The wood cracked in her grasp. She pulled her hand from her pocket to stare at the broken and blood-covered charm. Tipping her palm, she let the tree tumble to the floor. The wood disappeared in the sea of shattered glass and blood.
The sky had turned from gray to pale orange as the sun began to rise, then back to gray as dark clouds coated the horizon. Trucks scrambled back out to the city. They had to get the rest of the guards inside before the rains began.
Lighting split the sky in the distance. The rumble of thunder shook the broken glass.
Another truck pulled into the dome. There were no gurneys this time. Only guards carrying their injured fellows.
“That’s the last one!” the driver called just as the rain began to patter against the dome.
Nola ran toward the truck. Jeremy had to be in there. He had to be in the back of the truck. Nola scrambled into the truck bed. Blood stained the empty seats. “Jeremy.”
She jumped down from the truck, stumbling before running through the crowd. “Jeremy! Jeremy!”
The bodies draped in white had been lined up against the wall, waiting for the families to be notified and the grieving to begin.
“Miss, you can’t be over here,” a guard said as Nola swayed staring at the bodies.
“Jeremy Ridgeway.” Her mouth was dry. She could barely form the words. “Is he—”
“Nola,” a voice called from behind her.
Nola turned to see Jeremy running toward her.
“Jeremy.” Before she could remember how to move she was in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck so her toes barely touched the ground, pressing her cheek to his, feeling his warmth pass into her.
Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed, the exhaustion and pain of the horrible night finally flooding through her.
“Shh,” Jeremy whispered. “I’m here.”
“I thought,” Nola coughed, “I thought I’d lost you. I waited, and I looked for you, but you didn’t come back in the trucks. I thought you were gone.”
Jeremy pulled away, looking down into Nola’s eyes. “I would never leave you, Nola.”
She leaned in, pressing herself to him as she kissed him. The world spun, but he held her close, keeping all she had been from slipping away.
Thunder shook the air again.
The rain pounded down on the dome, pouring through the break in the glass in solid sheets.
“What are we going to do?” Nola asked.
The guards backed away from the break, watching helplessly as contamination violated their home. But there was no way to fight the rain.
“We salvage what we can,” Jeremy said, still holding Nola close. “Then we rebuild, we move on.”
“We move on.”
Jeremy took Nola’s hand, and she didn’t argue as he led her away from the atrium. Through the broken dome and past the broken bodies. Down the corridor to Bright Dome. Back home. There was nowhere else to go now.
* * *
Nola’s journey continues in Boy of Blood.
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Escape Into Adventure
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Megan O’Russell
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Nola’s Journey Continues in Boy of Blood
Now available.
Continue reading for a sneak peek of Boy of Blood.
Chapter One
Drops of bright red streaming and swirling into nothingness. Deep red from someone.
Someone’s veins had been split open. Were they dead or still clinging to life?
The blood didn’t care as it was washed away. Swept down the drain by the pure water of the domes.
Nola’s sobs echoed off the shower walls, blocking out the sounds of the outside world. She knelt on the floor, watching the blood turn from crimson to pink as the burning water removed all traces of the battle. Someone knelt beside her, washing her, murmuring comforting things she couldn’t hear. They combed their fingers through her tangled curls, removing bits of glass and dirt.
She should look. See who was taking care of her. But what did it matter? As soon as they knew what she had done, they would disappear. Or she would. They would learn the truth. Then Nola Kent would vanish.
Strong arms wrapped her in a towel and carried her to her bed. Outside the window she caught a glimpse of the rain pounding down on the dome. But the storm wouldn’t taint Bright Dome. Nola’s home hadn’t been harmed. They had destroyed her world but left her home. A poor attempt at pity.
Something sharp pierced her arm.
“Hush,” Jeremy whispered. “It’ll help you sleep.”
Before Nola could say she didn’t deserve sleep, darkness took her.
Her mouth tasted of cotton and blood when she woke. Her arms and legs were heavy, like someone had buried her alive. But they hadn’t. She lay in her bed as though nothing had happened. A beautiful orchid sat on her desk. Jeremy had brought it for her.
A flower for his girl.
It might have been a century ago.
Nola bit the inside of her mouth, willing herself not to scream. Footsteps on the stairs finally made her sit up in bed. Someone had dressed her in her mother’s robe. It smelled like Lenora Kent. Fresh flowers, earth, and strong cleaner.
She rubbed her hands over her face. Her fingers found the bandage on her neck as her bedroom door swung open.
Jeremy walked in, balancing a tray of food. A smile lit his tired face when he saw Nola.
“You’re awake.” Jeremy set the tray down and sat next to her on the bed. “I wasn’t sure you would be yet.”
“You gave me something to sleep?”
“The doctor did.” Jeremy brushed a dark brown curl from her cheek.
“Doctor?” Nola thought back, trying to find where in the blood and tears a doctor had come near her. “I don’t remember a doctor being here.”
“Two days ago,” Jeremy said. “He put the patch on your neck, too. He said you should be okay now. No permanent damage.”
She kicked free of the covers and stood, tipping sideways and knocking into her desk.
Jeremy grabbed her around the waist before she could take another step toward the mirror. “Careful.”
“I want to see it.” Her fingers trembled as she pulled off the pale-pink patch on her neck. Two thin, white marks showed on her skin. Shaped like teardrops and barely raised at all, they were the only trace that a Vamper had bitten her, tried to kill her only two days ago.
“The doctor can work on it some more,” Jeremy said, his deep brown eyes meeting Nola’s in the mirror. “He’ll get rid of the scars.”
Nola studied her reflection. The dark curls belonged to her, but the face had changed. Pa
ler and harder. She looked more like someone from the outside than a girl who’d spent her life in the safety of the domes.
“I don’t want him to fix the scars.” Nola turned away from her reflection and didn’t fight as Jeremy drew her into his chest. He was so tall, and his well-muscled shoulders so broad, it felt as though he could fold her into his body and protect her from the sun itself.
Safety is just another myth.
“It happened,” Nola said. “The domes were attacked, I got bit, and people died. We can’t make it not true, and I don’t want to pretend we can.”
“Okay.” Jeremy kissed the top of her head. “If that’s what you want, we’ll make the doctor leave the marks alone.”
She stood in Jeremy’s arms, waiting for something to happen. For a siren to sound or fire to rip through the Kents’ tiny house. But no crashing danger came. No screams, no flames. Just Jeremy. His smell of fresh earth that matched the domes mixed with the starch in his new guard’s uniform. Jeremy, warm and steady, holding her up even when she couldn’t find the strength to hold him.
“What’s happened?” Nola asked, when the silence grew too loud to bear. “Since…since I fell asleep.”
“Not much.” Jeremy guided her back to the bed. “The rain stopped for an hour that first night, and we scrambled to get the places where the domes were shattered fitted with temporary covers. But that’s about all. The wounded are all out of the medical wing and back home except for the worst few. And the dead—”
“They can’t be burned until the rain stops.” Nola’s empty stomach churned at the thought of the line of dome dead waiting their turn.
“With this much acid rain, we haven’t been able to go into the city to see if any of the Vamper scum who did this to us are still there, but on the plus side—”
“They’ll be stuck wherever they are, too.” She tried not to picture Kieran hiding underground with the others from Nightland, packed into dark holes, desperate not to get burned. But Kieran had betrayed her, had betrayed the domes. He had led the Vampers into her home and stolen from the domes. Innocent people died because of him.
Because I trusted him.
Her hands shook, and her breath came in ragged gasps.
“Nola, we’re safe here.” Jeremy kissed her palm. “No one is going to get back in here to hurt you. I won’t let them.”
“Jeremy,” Nola said, fighting to keep her voice steady enough for her words to be understood. The time had come to tell the truth, to rip open the terrible wounds before they had more time to heal. “When I was with the Vampers from Nightland—”
“Jeremy,” a voice called from downstairs. “Is Sleeping Beauty still out?”
Jeremy smiled at the sound of his sister’s voice. “Nope, but you would’ve just woken her up anyway.”
Footsteps sped up the stairs, and Gentry Ridgeway stepped into Nola’s bedroom. Her eyes lingered on the robe Nola wore for a moment before she spoke. “All people able to move and not on guard duty are to report to the Aquaponics Dome in twenty minutes. There’s a meeting about the plan for moving forward with…” Gentry gestured to the walls around her as though to say our existence.
“I’ll be there soon,” Jeremy said.
“Nope.” Gentry shook her head. Her dark blonde hair she wore barely longer than Jeremy’s ruffled around her face, making her, for a moment at least, appear softer than the fierce Outer Guard she was. “You and Nola will come now.” Gentry held up a hand when Jeremy began to argue. “She’s awake and can move, she has to come to the meeting.”
“It’s fine,” Nola cut Jeremy off when he opened his mouth to argue again. “I’m fine. I’ll come to the meeting.”
“Good,” Gentry said. “We need everyone who’s left to work their asses off to get this place put back together. Every single one of us will have to give our all for the domes to survive.” Gentry said the last words to her brother, giving him a hard look before walking out of the room.
Nola waited for the sound of the kitchen door closing before looking back to Jeremy. “Does Gentry not think you’re doing your part? I mean, you’re not even eighteen yet, and you’re already an Outer Guard. Why would she—”
“That’s not what she said.” Jeremy took her hand, carefully helping Nola to her feet. “And that’s not what she thinks. We lost a lot of people and a lot of supplies. The domes have to be repaired, and now there are a bunch of rogue Vampers who’ve declared an all-out war on us. The domes were built to help us survive in this broken world, and now the world is trying to break us. But there is no way in hell I’m going to let them.” Jeremy leaned down, brushing his lips against Nola’s. “I promise.”
It took Nola longer than normal to pull on clothes. Every muscle ached as she dragged her shirt over her head. Her fingers burned as she tied the laces on her work boots. She didn’t have the will to force her curls into a tight braid, so she let her hair hang wildly around her shoulders. Just another thing knocked out of place in the strict order that preserved the domes.
She let Jeremy lead her down the stone paths that cut through the grass and wildflowers, weaving past the willow trees and tall maples that made up the green spaces of Bright Dome. Even the roofs of the houses had been planted with thick moss. Every detail had been planned to make the most of the precious space within the glass.
Dome perfect.
But not anymore. Bright Dome had changed since she stumbled through it after the attack. Sleeping bags and boxes of food hid beneath the dangling tendrils of the largest willows. Neat piles of clothes nestled next to the bubbling fountain.
“Some glass in Low Dome and Canal Dome got cracked.” Jeremy followed Nola’s gaze. “The rain isn’t getting in, but the Council doesn’t want people sleeping in there. We moved most of the singles into the Guard barracks, but the families had to find other places.”
“So, they’re sleeping on the ground?” A knot formed in Nola’s throat. “They’re sleeping in the dirt like the homeless in the city.”
“Not like in the city.” Jeremy led her away from the makeshift camp, down the stairs and into the tunnels that were the paths between domes. “In the city, the people who sleep outside aren’t safe. Here, they are. They’re fed and guarded, and it’s only for a few days. As soon as the rain stops, we can get Low Dome and Canal Dome fixed, and everyone can go home.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
The cleaning crews had been busy in the tunnels. There was no glass from shattered lights left to crunch beneath their feet. All traces of blood had been scrubbed from the floor. The normality of it, the cleanness, was worse than the blood had been. Horrible things had happened. Mopping the floor wouldn’t make it go away. It would have been easier to see the horror. To point to it and scream this is why I am broken! But the halls were scoured to perfection.
People packed the Aquaponics Dome by the time Nola and Jeremy arrived. Half-buried with the fish tanks sitting below ground-level, the dome was dark at the best of times. With the storm raging outside, it was impossible to tell if it was night or day down by the meeting, where the department heads stood in a line in front of the fish.
Hundreds of people crowded together. Some in work uniforms, others in normal clothes. The sight of them all jammed together like animals set Nola’s nerves on edge. But worse was the fact that they all fit. There should have been more of them. Enough people to spill up onto the stairs. There should have been chatter and laughter bouncing off the glass. But the only sound was the dull hum of the fish tank pumps. The people stood silently as if the funerals had already begun.
“People of the domes,” Captain Ridgeway, Jeremy’s father and the head of the Outer Guard, addressed the crowd, “we have come upon a dark and terrible time. Our mission has always been, will always be, to protect the people, plants, and animals that are in these domes. We do not do this for our own survival but for the survival of the human race. To protect our children’s children. Since the domes were founded, those who li
ve on the outside have coveted the resources we hold, right down to the clean air we breathe. But never before has a group maliciously tried to destroy mankind’s best chance for survival.” Captain Ridgeway paused, surveying the crowd. “They tried to destroy us, but what they don’t understand is that we learn. We have learned where we were weak, we have learned the depths to which they will sink to annihilate us, and we will never allow them the opportunity to attack the domes or its people again.”
The crowd clapped and cheered. Shouts of “For the domes!” and “Destroy the Vampers!” carried over the din.
Captain Ridgeway held up a hand, and the moment of celebration faded. “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. Sacrifices must be made to push forward for a better, stronger future than the domes have ever dreamed of before. Together we will stand strong. Together we will push forward. Together we will become the future the world needs us to be!”
The shouts of the crowd echoed off the glass, drowning out the sound of the thunder beyond.
Chapter Two
“I just want to help,” Nola said for the hundredth time as she followed her mother through the seed cold-storage room.
“Magnolia, I don’t have time for this,” Lenora snapped, moving to the next row to check the temperature of the seed trays.
“You would have more time if you let me help you!” Nola let her voice ring off the walls.
Lenora stopped moving and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I know you want to help. You are a wonderful girl who wants to help the domes, and I appreciate that more than you will ever know. But right now, the most important thing is to protect these seeds. Without these seeds, the people in the domes could starve, and even if we managed to survive on corn, we would leave nothing for future generations to bring back out into the world. The Vamper scum stole three boxes of my seeds, and now with the dome repair, I can’t trust the air system to be reliable. I’m sorry, Nola, but the most helpful thing you can do is leave me to my work.”
Girl of Glass, #1 Page 20
