Venom in the Skin

by Jessica Gunn

  Even more unsettling: Would Veynix have stopped that from happening just to kill me himself?

  “They’ve known about you the entire time,” Kian said.

  I nodded. “Riker, my handler, confessed to knowing right before he died. So maybe a Talon hideout is beneath Midnight.”

  “Or Veynix’s,” Kian said. “I doubt the apartment we raided was an official operation.”

  “No way,” I said. “You’re right. Shit.”

  All these months fighting in Midnight, waiting for Talon to show their faces, and all along I’d never known that I was right where they wanted me.

  “Come on, Ava,” Kian said. “Before either of us thinks too much about this.”

  “The less I think, the more I realize we should have found another way out,” I muttered.

  “How?” he asked. “This is the only spot not blocked by the shield.”

  I shrugged. “Does requirem work on shields?” Normally, it blocked access to any demon or other magik-user’s magik, leveling the battlefield. But on magik itself?

  “No idea,” he said.

  Too late now, anyway. If we tried to escape, Veynix would probably attack just as hard as if we were facing him head-on. Besides, if requirem did end up working, Krystin and the rest of the cavalry would be here soon.

  “Lead the way, then,” I said.

  Kian pointed his light down the hallway and started walking. I followed close behind, unable to get a good look over Kian’s shoulder in the cramped space. I was too afraid of what could show up behind me, though, to stray too far from his back.

  After a few yards, the floor dipped downward.

  “How much farther down does this go?” I asked.

  “The subway systems can run pretty deep,” Kian said. “Maybe this Talon operation is huge.”

  “Fantastic,” I said. “And we’re running into it headfirst.”

  “Your idea.”

  “You backed it up.”

  Silence overcame us again as we continued. The floor dipped more, then twisted around corners and turns. Fifty yards, a hundred. All of it swamped in darkness lit only by the light of Kian’s phone.

  Finally, a literal light at the end of the tunnel broke through the dark haze. A room was at the end of this tunnel!

  “There,” Kian said. “Get ready.”

  I nodded, although he couldn’t see it. It was time.

  Kian stumbled, swearing loudly. “Fuck!”

  I caught him as he teetered backward. “What? What is it?”

  A vent hissed open and a cloud of luminescent powder poured into the darkness, catching in the fine light from the end of the tunnel.

  “Oh shit!” Kian said. “Cover your mouth and nose and run!” He twisted me around and before I could ask what the hell his problem was, he shoved me forward.

  I tucked my shirt up over my nose. My feet made quick work of the remaining yards to the end of the tunnel, not hitting any more hidden traps.

  I skidded over the lip of exit point leading to a room on the other side, then turned to search for Kian. His phone light danced as he swung his phone around. In the next second, the phone was face-up on the ground, lighting the ceiling above and Kian’s bent-over form, shining on his face like a horror-movie monster.

  And his face… his face was a mask of agony.

  “Kian?” I asked. “Kian!”

  “G-Go,” he grunted, wincing. “Get out of here—now.”

  “What was that?” I asked, stepping into the tunnel again.

  “No!” he screamed. “Go! Get the hell out of here. I don’t know—I—”

  It was poison. Of course it was; this was Talon’s hideout! But… “What was it? Demon’s Blood?”

  Another aerosol version, but it wasn’t the same color as what we’d encountered at Veynix’s apartment. But Kian must have thought it was Demon’s Blood again, and so he’d stepped into it in place of me.

  Kian shook his head. The light from his phone barely touched his hands, though they were balled into fists against the cement. “Feels similar, but—” He roared in anger and turned to punch the tunnel walls.

  I gasped, stepping away from the entrance. After what had happened in that apartment… Oh, god.

  He screamed again, his body convulsing.

  “Kian!” I wanted to run to him, to help him, but if this was anything like Demon’s Blood, if it was worse, there was nothing I could do besides be an exceptional punching bag.

  Was that Veynix’s plan? To take away the one ally I had left and turn Kian against me right before my fight with him?

  “Go,” Kian roared. “Before this shit makes me do something I can’t control.”

  “You can fight it, Kian,” I said, my chest heaving with quick breaths. Sweat slicked my brow as I watched Kian from the room outside the tunnel. “You fought it last time.”

  His eyes appeared—like they’d been shut before now and he’d just opened them—and they glowed a bright red-orange. “Get out of here now!”

  I glanced behind me to the brightly-lit room and noticed for the first time that it was filled with more of that chemical and poison-making equipment that Veynix had had stored in that apartment. A lot of it.

  Shit.

  Heavy footfalls sounded from the tunnel, as if—

  Kian charged out of the darkness, his eyes glowing orbs and his arms now bare, his jacket discarded. The veins across his neck and twitching limbs were bulging—and black. Black like the dark magik that twisted the veins of a magik user. Only Kian didn’t have magik.

  The Ember witch poison.

  “Oh, fuck!” I said as I scrambled backward, catching myself only barely on the edge of a desk in the cluttered room.

  Kian’s crazed form charged me once more. I dodged out of the way, grabbing a nearby empty beaker and breaking it on his head.

  “Snap out of this!” I screamed. “You’re stronger than this poison.”

  Not if it’s the same thing turning Ember witches into demons. Except Kian wasn’t an Ember witch. Even if he had magik he didn’t know about or own up to, it wasn’t Ember ether. That stuff was so volatile that even I could recognize it if it wasn’t being blocked by an aura-hiding potion or spell.

  What was this new poison, then?

  Unfazed by the beaker shattering against his skull, Kian roared again and reached for my neck. His hands closed around my throat.

  “Die, you traitor,” he spat at me. “Traitors don’t deserve to live.”

  “I’m not a traitor,” I ground out as I slammed my hands against his shoulders, bracing him away from me. “And you know that.”

  God, he was strong. Already, black spots danced on the edges of my vision. The glowing orbs of his eyes blurred into static fireworks. But he hadn’t had this strength before, and the magik swirling in his eyes suggested it was another side effect of the poison.

  Magik.

  “Liar!” he shouted. “You ran that night. You could have saved them!”

  “No,” I said. “But I’ll save you.”

  I closed my eyes, succumbing to the blackness swirling around me as my oxygen was cut off. With my last remaining energy, I laid my palms flat against his shoulders and whispered, “Requirem.”

  I dropped, slamming against the ground as a rush of new oxygen flooded my system. I gagged and looked up, one hand against my throat. Kian knelt on the ground, his other hand against the floor for balance.

  It had worked. It had worked.

  He turned to me, his eyes ferocious, although no longer glowing. “Traitor!”

  I winced. “I’m sorry.”

  Then I punched him on the side of the face, knocking him out. He collapsed against the floor, all but lifeless.

  I frowned down at him. He would have just been a burden, a danger. Kian would understand when he woke up, assuming he woke up as Kian and not this monstrous, poisoned stranger.

  Standing, I pushed on toward an exit on the far wall. Above it was a camera.

  Veynix. />
  “Hope you’re enjoying the show,” I screamed at the camera. “How many more traps do you have for me?”

  And was Will going to be used as bait for one of those traps?

  Chapter 24

  I passed room after room, counting down the seconds until help would arrive to tear down the ether-shield surrounding Midnight’s ring. Did it encase the ring itself or the entire building? But even then, would it matter? If it kept Kian and me from teleporting out, it’d keep anyone else from teleporting in. My only hope was to kill Veynix before he killed me, and hopefully it would drop the shield, or that Krystin would be bringing a powerful ether-shaper who could tear the shield down.

  Each room I weaved through or passed held more poison and drug-making equipment. Beakers galore, vials, syringes. Burners and fridges holding God-only-knew what types of ingredients. This wasn’t just a Talon operation, it was one for the Trade in general that had been around for a good long while. Possibly as long as Midnight’s ring itself.

  I hurried around another corner, ever-watchful for Veynix. Each step in solitude had my heart thundering harder in my chest, so much so that I worried it’d jump out completely. I pushed through a set of fire doors and into a new section of hallway made of concrete, with air vents and piping hanging around. It wasn’t the prettiest of hideouts, but it would do. And the more I explored it, the more I was starting to think this maze might have been the Trade’s main headquarters in New York City.

  Why, then, would Veynix empty it just for tonight?

  An open door stood to my right. I backed up against the wall and peeked in, dagger at the ready. A humming emanated from the brightly-lit room. Not like a human voice but… machines. I turned into the room and looked around.

  Storage. Lots of it. Clear refrigerated cases six feet high and four feet wide lined each of the four walls. Rows of smaller shelves ran along the center of the room. On each of them were jars of powder that looked a whole lot like dharksa, a demon drug that made you feel like a superhero until the hallucinations drove you insane—and, ultimately, to your death.

  “Ho-ly shit,” I breathed, looking at it all. There was just so much of it all stocked in one place.

  I ran my fingers across the glass-front refrigerated cases, looking for any more of the drugs I could identify. Dharksa was the main drug you ran into as a Hunter in the Fire Circle. A few vials of the beige-hued oil elin were here too. That crap blocked access to magik, but if you made it through the block, your magik would hit you back tenfold when you tried to use it. Not a drug I had to worry about as a Hunter without magik, but still one the Fire Circle made you aware of.

  None of the other drugs and poisons looked familiar. I hadn’t even known Darkness had this many different drugs in its empire.

  One set of fridges caught my eye, filled to the brim with something I recognized.

  “Oh god.”

  I paused in front of the set of three full cases of Veynix’s mutated platypus venom. There was enough of the tan venom in here to poison the entire Fire Circle and knock people out of commission for weeks.

  Enough to start a war.

  My heart leapt into my throat. They couldn’t be starting a war, right? Good and Evil, Darkness and the Powers… they talked about war all the time. How they’d been fighting one for thousands of years. And even last year when the Fire Circle had gotten caught up with Lady Azar and nearly sacrificed the world to end her, everyone had freaked out thinking it was the end of times.

  But that was just one person and her organization that had wanted to pick a fight with us. Not all of Talon. Not all of Landshaft.

  I swallowed hard and pulled myself away from the glass. There wasn’t anything I could do to get rid of this now, not without wasting time Will didn’t have.

  If he was still alive.

  I turned from the cases and walked back into the hallway. There’d be time to get rid of that stock of Veynix’s venom, but not right now.

  Actually… I made my way back to the case of Veynix’s venom and looked for any trip wires or anything else that would sound an alarm. Finding nothing, I opened the case and snagged a vial of Veynix’s own venom. Quickly, I coated the end of my knife with the venom, holding it and the vial out from me so none of it touched my skin by accident.

  After that was done, I retreated again to the corridor and continued exploring. The hallway seemed dimmer after spending time in the lab lit with fluorescents. I blinked, readjusting my eyes as I moved farther into the compound, turning another corner.

  A bloodcurdling scream split the air. A male one.

  Will.

  My feet moved of their own accord, carrying me down the cement and concrete hallway faster and faster.

  “Will!” I shouted back.

  Thick double-doors greeted me at the end of the corridor. They were metal and painted green. I touched my fingers to the door handle, half-expecting the doors to explode at my touch. They didn’t, even when I depressed the lever and pushed them open.

  I gulped and walked through. That was where I found Will.

  He had been strapped to an upright gurney against a wall. Veynix’s chamber stood fifteen feet tall and at least triple that across. He was in front of Will, a syringe in hand, administering something straight into Will’s neck. I eyed the vial on the table beside Veynix. The green liquid inside was unfamiliar.

  “I see you finally made it, Christine,” Veynix said as he leaned away from Will.

  Will’s eyes bugged when he turned to me. “Chris! Get out of here—run! He’s going to kill me. And you.” Tears flooded his eyes as his face twisted into a mask of agony, his mouth drawn open with pain. “Please, Chris! Go!”

  I froze in place. I hadn’t heard Will use my real nickname in months. Not since the accident that had killed my team. Not since the night I’d tried to end myself.

  “Now, now, my venom,” Veynix purred. He set down the syringe and pulled gloves off his hands. “You didn’t disobey direct orders and then fight past Talon’s wanted criminal just to freeze here in front of me, did you?”

  I blinked, snapping out of my stupor. I brought the dagger up in front of me and glared at Veynix. “This ends tonight, asshole. Your reign of terror is over.”

  “Oh,” Veynix said, licking his lips. His eyes trained on the venom gleaming from the blade. “It’s only begun. Your friend here was just given a heavy dose of the same poison your friend Kian Farley received a few minutes ago. They both will be dead within the hour. Unless, of course, the poison works.”

  The poison worked? What the hell did he give them?

  He took a step toward me, his pupils almost as round as his eyes. “And then Talon will have its revenge… and we will revel in the Fire Circle’s destruction for all it has brought down upon us.”

  No. Whatever Talon had been up to, Veynix must have been spearheading it. And because of me, because I couldn’t just kill him six months ago instead of running away, the entire Fire Circle was now at risk.

  This has to end.

  Rage bubbled inside my chest, building toward a geyser that erupted as I launched myself at Veynix, closing the distance between us. I faked him out with an incoming uppercut and instead got him with my other fist directly into his sternum. The blade still in my hand came within millimeters of his throat. Veynix wheezed, falling back while he laughed.

  Will screamed again as he fought against his restraints, his muscles and eyes bulging. Like Kian’s had.

  “You will have nothing left,” Veynix said, laughing. “No one left but yourself. You will have killed everyone you cared about. And at the very end, you alone will watch the Fire Circle burn!”

  I gnashed my teeth together and readied my blade for more attacks, focusing on the scar I’d given Veynix six months ago. I had already hurt him once. He was not invincible, however much that telekinetic power of his wanted to paint him out to be.

  “I didn’t kill my team,” I spat at him. “You did.”

  He lifted an eyeb
row, an invitation to attack again. But he didn’t move to act on it. “Maybe so. But you will kill this friend.”

  “What?”

  My answer came as Veynix lifted his hands. His fingers danced and the restraints holding a bugged-out Will unclasped themselves, following Veynix’s telekinetic orders.

  Will dropped the few inches to the ground, standing free from the gurney. He cracked his neck and his knuckles, staring at me. His eyes glowed the same red-orange Kian’s had, though Will’s eyes weren’t as bright. Had the dose Will had just gotten not been as bad?

  I could only hope.

  Will turned to me and I backed up a step.

  “Don’t do this, Will,” I said.

  A dark, terrifying look of murder fell over my best friend’s face. It chilled my blood. “You got them all killed.”

  I shook my head. “No, Will. Listen, you’re under the power of a drug. That’s it. You can fight this. It’s me.”

  “You were going to get me killed,” he shouted. “Leading me around as bait. Living with me while they still hunted you. No more.”

  My body froze, my chest heaving. I could count with three fingers the only times I had ever seen Will this enraged in our entire lives. And only two of those times were because of me—and none of them for this reason.

  “Will, don’t do this,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt you.” I carefully tucked my venom-tipped blade into the sheath on my back.

  He cocked his head to the side. “Like you’ve already hurt me?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked him.

  Will charged. I sidestepped him. I was not going to fight my best friend in the entire world, no matter what Veynix wanted.

  The demon crossed his arms and leaned back against another glass-front refrigerated case. This one held more of the green liquid that he’d injected into Will.

  Will turned on me, his face bright red in anger. The veins on his neck and arms were huge. His fists clenched so tight that I could see the whites of his knuckles from here.

  Whatever this drug was, it was like Demon’s Blood but ten times the strength. It was strong enough to turn Hunters against each other. Strong enough to create demons from Ember witches in a matter of minutes.