Dead Sea

by Debbie Cassidy

  “Harker ordered us to go straight to the control room,” Deacon reminded him.

  “That was before the power went down for a whole minute. We’re lucky that the emergency generator keeps essential systems operational.”

  “The wards aren’t affected because they run on pure arcana,” Deacon explained to me.

  I gave him a wry look. “I worked there, remember? I know this shit. I can help fix things.”

  Emory nodded. “Thank you. That glitch shouldn’t have happened. We’ll need to run diagnostics.”

  But first, we needed to get into the Hive proper. A flight of steps led to another access door which opened to Emory’s thumbprint, and then we were in the main Hive. The lights were dimmer than usual, and there was a definite flicker to them.

  “Shit.” Emory picked up the pace. “This is not good.”

  Our baby, the heart, was faltering. This hadn’t happened in forever.

  We turned a corner, and Emory froze. His arm shot out to halt me because there was something standing in the middle of the tunnel up ahead. It stood on two legs, pale and hunched and naked, nails so long they were practically talons, and its face was smeared with crimson. What the heck? What the heck was that thing? My gaze dropped to the ground to see a figure lying pale and broken. A human.

  “No,” Deacon said softly. “It can’t be.”

  “Deeeaaacon,” the monster hissed. “Traaaitor.”

  And then it lunged at us.

  I shot it with arcana on instinct, but all that did was give it pause and piss it off before it continued its sprint at us.

  Deacon stepped forward and lashed out just as it got close enough, knocking it onto its ass. It tried to stand but fell again. Deacon climbed over it, grabbed its neck, twisted and pulled. The skin at its neck elongated like elastic, but its head fell at an angle, eyes dead.

  Dead.

  It was dead, and shit, my pulse was still going at it like a jackhammer.

  “Deacon, what was that thing?” Emory asked calmly.

  I glanced up at him. “That’s it? How the fuck can you be so calm?” I looked to Deacon and asked the question with the appropriate amount of horror. “What the fuck was that?”

  He wiped his hands on his trousers. “That was a Sanguinata.”

  A what? No. “That thing is like you?”

  Deacon sneered. “He was nothing like me.”

  Boots clattered down the tunnel, and then Micha and Lyrian rounded the corner. The guys were carrying a mini arsenal of weapons, and at the sight of me, both guys slowed their pace, and their faces visibly relaxed. The knot in my chest that I hadn’t even realized was there eased. But there was no time for hugs and kisses because there was a dead, manky-looking Sanguinata on the ground.

  “We have to move now,” Micha said. He chucked arcletic batons to Emory and Deacon. “They’ll be headed to Chamber H. The remote shutdown has been disabled. Bane and Ryker have gone to manually shut down the chamber, but we need to provide backup.”

  “Wait, what is this? What’s happening?” Emory asked.

  “I’ll explain on the way,” Deacon said.

  And then we were jogging through the tunnels toward the human chamber, and my heart was in my throat because my family was there, and even though no one had expressly said, it was obvious they were in danger. I broke into a sprint.

  We encountered two more naked, emaciated Sanguinata. Confused and weak, they were easy to kill. Deacon and Micha filled us in on the Protectorate’s little secret. So that’s where the missing humans had gone, that’s what Bane had been whispering about in the kitchen that night.

  “There’ll be others,” Micha said. “Stronger ones, ones that have fed from the vein.” He shot me a sideways glance that was almost guilty, and my stomach squirmed.

  “The ones we’ve encountered are probably tag-alongs,” Deacon added. “The ones who haven’t fed properly in a while, but once they get to the human chamber, they’ll have a feast, and then …”

  “They’ll be strong enough to take on the Protectorate,” Emory finished. “To finish what they started all those decades ago.”

  “You had them below us all this time?” My stomach was suddenly queasy. “Fucksake, how could the council be so stupid?”

  “They were meant to die of starvation,” Deacon said simply. “I guess my kind are more resilient than I gave them credit for. Blood, even in tiny quantities, can keep us alive—weak but alive, as you’ve seen.”

  “He knew you. The first one you killed. He said your name and called you a traitor.”

  “Yes,” Deacon said. “I was House Night’s second-in-command. I was the one who betrayed them. Tricked them. Trust me, this is not good for anyone, especially not me.”

  Fuck.

  We came into the grilled walkway that led to Chamber H and pulled up short because it was already occupied by several naked bodies. Hunched and feral-looking, they stood between us and Chamber H.

  Bane, Ryker, Orin, and several Protectorate officers stood on the other side, guarding the now locked-down chamber.

  Several Sanguinata turned to look our way, their eyes burning with intelligence in their emaciated, feral faces. Their lips were peeled back to reveal their fangs set in receding gums. They’d come for a feast, and they weren’t leaving without one. But only human blood could sustain them.

  “We can take them,” Micha said. “There are twelve of them and twenty of us, and more Protectorate on the way no doubt.”

  And the other neph that were on our side. They’d come and help. But why weren’t the Sanguinata standing on the walkway attacking? What were they waiting for?

  Micha locked gazes with me, the same question in his eyes.

  “Back off, back off now.” A voice I recognized, one I’d heard too many times in the past few weeks, bounced off the walls, and then Finn’s father came into view.

  He wasn’t alone, he was trailed by a group of determined-looking hairy faces. Orville, the Crescent pack leader, was among them. But all that was secondary to the woman Carmach had clasped to his torso. Councilwoman Harker didn’t fight the arm hooked around her neck because there was a dagger pressed to her side.

  “Open the damn doors, Bane,” Finn’s father said.

  “Carmach.” Bane’s face was a mask of horror. “You don’t want to do this.”

  “Yes, I do. I want it very much, and I will kill her if you don’t do as I ask. Let them in, let them take what they need, and no one will get hurt.”

  “Are you listening to yourself? Of course people are going to get hurt. The humans in there are going to get hurt.”

  “They’ll heal. House Night have promised to be careful. But they need to feed if they’re to join the Hive again.”

  “Carmach, this is wrong. This is all wrong. You agreed to this, you agreed to lock them away.”

  “And I was wrong. Wrong to believe that what we’d planned was enough. That living underground would be enough, but it isn’t. You’ve become all about the humans, all about their needs, their wants, their survival, and we, the neph, have been left the crumbs. Well, the Sanguinata in the Hive may be happy with the bagged blood, but the Lupinata are done being locked away each month, being forced to wear clothes and hide our true forms. I tried to make the council see, to coerce them to make the changes, but I realized it would never work. The system is the reason Lupinata are dying out, it’s why our infant birth rate has dropped and why fewer males are being born. Males were required to hunt and protect the pack, but there is no longer a hunt, no longer a real threat, and evolution is doing its work and adjusting the ratio of males to females. The only way to fight our extinction is to be free. Free to roam, to hunt, to change at will.”

  “Hunt? You want to go topside and hunt?” Bane asked incredulously.

  “We can hunt just as well here. A small cattle of humans will do us fine,” Carmach said without blinking.

  “Lupinata don’t eat humans,” Harker said stiffly.

  The Lu
pinata grinned. “I’ve learned it’s a taste that can be acquired. Where do you think the Breed came from? They’re a subspecies of Lupinata, always have been—they just chose their beast over the human part of themselves, and the Lupinata chose to disassociate themselves.”

  Ice trickled through my veins. This was Finn’s father. Was Finn in on this too? My heart ached. No, please not him too.

  “We’re done being caged,” Carmach said. “It’s time to shake things up. Now. Open. The. Door.”

  “Bane, don’t,” Harker said.

  Carmach tutted and then pushed the tip of the dagger into her side. Harker cried out then clamped her mouth shut to cut off the sound. But her eyes gleamed with pain.

  “Open the door, or I push it in all the way. Do you want to watch her die? Do you?”

  “Don’t!” Bane stepped forward. “Dammit, Carmach, don’t hurt her.”

  He was a man torn. This was the woman he’d loved for over a century, and her life was in the hands of a lunatic.

  “Then give me what I want,” Carmach said. “Stop stalling, because no one is coming. Your Protectorate are locked in their chamber, and the nephilim not on board with my plan are locked in theirs. It’s just us.”

  “Do you all feel this way?” Bane asked, his gaze slipping over Carmach’s shoulder to question the other Lupinata faces. “Orville,” he addressed the Crescent pack alpha. “Is this what you truly want?”

  Orville lifted his chin. “It’s what we need.”

  “And the other packs?”

  Something dark crossed Orville’s face. “There are enough of us to count.”

  “And your son?” Bane asked Carmach. His gaze slid my way, but it was so quick I wasn’t sure I’d seen right.

  “Finn will come around,” Carmach said. “He will lead the new order, and all the packs will unite as one. Sanguinata and Lupinata will be allies, and we will return to our rightful place at the top of the food chain.”

  Never mind the fact Lupinata had never been at the top of the food chain. The guy was nuts, and Bane was shooting me glances again. He wanted me to slip away, to get help.

  I opened my mind to Lyrian.

  Step in front of me. I need to go open the neph chamber.

  There was a beat of silence. There could be more of these things on the loose.

  I can handle myself.

  Another hesitation, then, Do not die.

  Chapter 23

  Harker

  “Bane, this is your last warning. Open the door,” Carmach says.

  And even though he is speaking close to my face, his voice seems so far away because all I can see is Bane. All I can see is the breaking point in his eyes. He is strong-willed and powerful. He is my rock, and no tide can turn him except this.

  He’ll break for me, and I can’t have that. I can’t let him do it. My heart breaks at what I am about to do, but there is no other option. There’s no other way to save the humans. I need to take myself out of the equation. As Bane reaches for the door release, I lock gazes with him, pouring my love into that one look.

  Sorry.

  So sorry.

  I close my eyes and push my body into Carmach’s blade.

  Chapter 24

  Bane reached for the lock release. He was going to cave. He was going to give up the humans.

  “No!” Harker jerked her body to the side, not away from the blade but into it, impaling herself on the dagger. Her body convulsed, and Carmach released both her and the blade in shock. He stepped back sharply, and she fell to her knees.

  Bane’s roar echoed off the walls.

  “Don’t,” she said. “Don’t let them …” She slumped forward onto the ground.

  Lyrian turned to me. “Run.”

  And then all hell broke loose.

  The eruption of aggression behind me faded as I ran deeper into the network of tunnels in the Hive. Staff pinned to my back but hands at the ready to blast any sucker, I took each corner at a slightly slower pace, ready for anything. But the coast was clear. I had to get Finn and the rest of the neph out of the neph chamber. They could help turn the tide, help stop the wild suckers from getting into the human chamber. My brother and sister were in there. Verona was in there.

  The arch leading to the neph chamber came into view, and the ground took up an incline, and then two figures blocked my path.

  Suckers.

  They loped toward me, and I ground to a halt and blasted each one with arcana. It knocked them back but didn’t stop them from advancing. Oh, crap. The staff was in my hand, and then they were on me. One took a blow to the head, and the other’s talons scraped at my arm, tearing through the material of my shirt with a sharp sting.

  Fucker.

  He got the butt of the staff in his face, and then I was dodging and sprinting for the nephilim chamber. The manual lock was about halfway up the wall, and the suckers were behind me. They’d probably been left here to guard the damned door. But they were weak, and I wasn’t. I made a grab for the lever just as one of them slammed into me. My fingers slipped off the metal as he clawed at me, pulling me away. An elbow in his face had him loosening his grip, but the other one was on me. His breath was hot on the back of my neck as he wound his arms around my waist and lifted me off my feet and away from the door. I brought my head forward and then jerked it back hard, smashing my skull into his face. He dropped me with a howl. My fingers closed around the lever, and I yanked down with all my might. Fangs sank into my shoulder, and my scream was accompanied by the grinding whirr as the doors began to open.

  The sucker took me down, smashing my face into the floor so fireworks exploded in my vision. Nope. Not happening. Not dying today. I bucked hard and flipped onto my back before bringing my arms up to block the sucker’s attack. But the attack never came. The sucker was hauled off me by an enraged Finn.

  He buried his fist in the Sanguinata’s face over and over until there was nothing but a bloody mess, and then he dropped the bloody mess on the floor and hauled me up into his arms. He held me tight, squeezing and making the bite sites throb like they were filled with liquid fire. My eyes watered, but not because of the pain, but because of him. Because he was holding me, and damn, I’d missed him so much. But now wasn’t the time for reunions.

  I pulled away. “We have to go. We have to go now.”

  Nephilim spilled out of the chamber, wild-eyed and confused.

  “What is going on?” Danika asked. “Why the lockdown?”

  I faced the crowd. “There’s no time to explain everything. All you need to know is that Carmach and Orville have let loose a bunch of hungry, naked Sanguinata who were, up until a few hours ago, sealed up beneath the Hive. They’re attacking the human chamber now. We have to stop them.”

  Finn’s jaw clenched in anger, his eyes flashing dangerously. He squeezed my uninjured shoulder and turned to the nephilim.

  “This isn’t who we are. This isn’t what we signed up for. We’re not animals, and we won’t stand for this behavior. We vowed to protect humanity, and that’s exactly what we need to do now. Who’s with me?”

  There was a chorus of support, and then we were charging back the way I’d come, back to Chamber H.

  The sounds of a fight hit us first, and then we were surging onto the walkway where Protectorate, Lupinata, and wild suckers were going toe to toe. We now outnumbered Carmach and his posse, but his supporters were relentless, fighting as if this was the last stand, which for them, it was, because once they lost, they were out of here. There was no way they’d be forgiven for this uprising.

  My staff acted as a club, knocking heads and clearing a path for Finn and his pack as they surged across the walkway, ripping into the wild Sanguinata as they went. Danika was all fang mode as she went up against a naked sucker. We would win this. But we’d win it quicker if Carmach was disabled. He was the head of this snake, and I needed to go cut it off.

  There he was on the other side of the platform, under the lever. Where was Bane? Where was Harker
’s body? Shit. Orin and Ryker were busy fending off Lupinata. No one was watching Carmach.

  I had to get to him. I had to stop him. There were still enough suckers standing to do damage, so ducking and stabbing with my staff, I made it through the throng to the other side just as Carmach began to yank down on the lever to open the doors.

  The crystal on my staff made contact with the back of his head, and he lost his grip. He turned on me with a ferocious snarl, and I shot him with arcana, knocking him away from the controls.

  “Give it up, Carmach. It’s over. You’re outnumbered.”

  “They just need to see. They need to understand.” His eyes were crazy.

  “You’re unhinged; you know that?”

  “My people are dying.”

  “Yeah, they are. They’re dying right now, and it’s your fault.”

  His gaze slid to the fight and then back to me.

  “Order them to stand down.” I held up the staff. “Do it now.”

  “Your arcana can’t kill me,” he sneered.

  “No, but I can.” Bane stood behind the alpha.

  His eyes were bloodshot, his face pale, and then his blood-encrusted hands came up, grabbed Carmach’s head, and twisted hard. There was a sharp snap. Carmach’s eyes rolled back in his head. Bane released him, and the Lupinata fell to the ground.

  Dead.

  I stared at Bane, at the blood smeared on his face and his hands. At the darkness in his eyes, and my throat pinched.

  Harker … “She didn’t make it?”

  “No. She didn’t make it.” He stepped over the alpha’s body and began barking orders to the Protectorate.

  He was broken. It was in his eyes, but he was carrying on? How could he? How could he be so strong?

  Harker was gone, and so was Carmach, and his supporters must have realized this because the resistance began to ebb. The walkway and the platform around the chamber cleared as the Lupinata that had come with Carmach backed off. Bloody and torn they looked about as if seeing the carnage for the first time. There were still some wild Sanguinata standing, but they were wounded and too weak now to put up a fight.