“Who are you?” I demanded.
She raised a brow as if I were stupid for asking, as if I should have recognized her the moment I saw her. And the truth of it was, I did know who she was; I’d known as soon as I set eyes on her.
“I am Nairn,” she said simply, but the very weight of her name caused the room to go silent, and I could feel my heart rate quickening. When she moved her mouth to speak, I could see tiny fangs, like little, pointed Chiclets.
“If you lay a hand on him—” I started, my eyes burning with rage.
She threw back her head and laughed. But there was nothing happy in it—it was meant to disparage and belittle me. It was as if she were shocked that I would dare speak back to her, much less threaten her.
“If I lay a hand on him, then what?” she demanded finally, her eyes piercing. I noticed that Bryn was silent, though I could feel something coming from her. It seemed she was warning me not to excite Nairn, but the strange part was that it was purely a feeling I was receiving. When I looked at her, I got no indication of it at all, which made me half wonder whether I’d imagined it.
“If I am to be one of you,” I said to Nairn, refusing to be intimidated—I wouldn’t back down, not with Sinjin’s life on the line, “then I want him freed.”
She laughed again, but this time didn’t make as big a deal out of it. “You are too late.”
My entire being deflated and my stomach roiled as I tried to process her words. My mouth dropped open as tears again blurred my vision. I squeezed my eyes shut but it did no good; tears were flowing from my eyes before I realized I was standing there, sobbing. “Is he … is he dead?” I asked.
Nairn faced Bryn, her expression was unreadable. “Take her to him so she can see for herself,” she said snidely. Bryn nodded and approached me, and if I hadn’t known better, I would have said there was pity in her eyes.
“Where is he?” Bryn asked Nairn.
The Daywalker’s jaw was tight. “Room B4.”
Bryn said nothing more. She just walked out of the room and started down a corridor. I followed her, my heart hammering in my ears, keeping time with the sound of our footfalls against the shiny, tiled floors. We passed rooms on our left and right, and though there were windows at the top of each door, I kept my gaze fixed on the tiles below me. I didn’t know why, but I was incapable of looking anywhere else. It was almost as if there was just too much to absorb.
God, is Sinjin dead? Could it be possible that my vampire is dead? I squeezed my eyes shut against the possibility and focused instead on the shiny floor, counting the tiles as I stepped on them.
They’re killing vampires, they’re killing my people.
I now wondered about all the vampires who had gone missing over the years. We had located bodies for some of them, which were reduced to piles of ash, while others simply vanished without a clue. I had to imagine the answer was now facing me—the Lurkers had been using them to heal their sick and dying. But they obviously hadn’t been successful, because Luce had said they were still trying to find the proper gene. So what was the point?
Bryn stopped suddenly outside a door and I nearly walked into her. Feeling my heart in my throat, I finally looked up and saw B4 staring down at me in bold type. It was the moment of reckoning. Was Sinjin alive?
God, please let him be alive!
“If it’s any consolation,” Bryn said as I faced her with red-rimmed, hollow eyes, “this wasn’t my doing.”
I took a deep breath, hating her words even as she mumbled them. She was one of them, even if another Lurker had slain Sinjin, she was just as responsible too. “It’s no consolation,” I said truthfully.
She was silent as she scanned her palm against a black box that appeared to be the door’s locking mechanism. It beeped twice, and she reached down to open the door. I felt like we were moving in slow motion as we entered the room. Again my eyes scanned the tile floor, moving up to the cot in the center of the room, half hidden by a light blue hospital curtain. My eyes shot to the still form lying on the cot. All I could see was an outstretched arm on which the skin had been burned to a dark crispness—charred black. Lodged in his wrist were two tubes, blood flowing through both. The first led into a machine just beside the bed, and the other terminated in a translucent rubber bag hanging beside the machine. The bag was maybe two feet long and a foot wide. It was three-quarters full.
They’re draining him! I said to myself, catching a scream in my throat.
I tore forward and yanked the blue curtain back, gasping out in pain when I saw Sinjin. He was black all over, owing to the sun-strobe lights they’d turned on him when we attempted to escape. It almost looked like he was covered in a layer of soot, but looking closer, I realized it was scorched skin.
“Sinjin,” I whispered.
He immediately opened his eyes, the ice blue of his irises shining against his blackened skin.
He was alive!
I had no idea how or why, but he was still alive. I stifled the urge to throw my arms around him. Instead, I bent over and forced a smile, lightly running my fingers down the sides of his face. My tears splashed on his crispy skin and he blinked against them.
He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice was gravelly and barely a whisper. I leaned down farther, unable to understand him at first. He barely whispered in my ear, “I am sorry.”
I pulled away and shook my head, tears falling abundantly now. “No, Sinjin,” I said, hating that this was his own way of saying goodbye to me. “You can’t leave me now. You have to hold on. I need you.”
He swallowed with great difficulty and his agony was visible; every second was causing him more pain. Anger surged through me as I eyed the tubes penetrating his flesh, and then I lashed out, yanking them from his wrists. Blood spurted all over the cot, onto Sinjin, the curtain, and me, but it mattered little.
“Enough!” Bryn yelled from behind me as she stepped closer. “You’ve seen what you asked to see, now let’s go.”
I bit my lip. “I’m not leaving,” I said, trying to rein in my emotions.
“Don’t make me do this the hard way,” Bryn responded, gritting her teeth. Her warrior determination and discipline were evident in her eyes.
I laughed. It was a cynical, ugly sound, but I was tired of playing the Lurkers’ game. They’d hit me too close to home now. It was time to fight back. I didn’t give a damn that I would be fighting my biological sister.
Family hour was over.
I stepped in front of Sinjin to protect him with my body. I placed my feet shoulder-width apart and closed my eyes. I imagined a protective white screen of healing light around the two of us, though I had no idea if it would work since he was vampire and witch magic didn’t ordinarily work on vampires. But I was more than just a witch, so I had to believe that it would. Seeing the white sheen of the protective bubble around us, I closed my eyes again and took a deep breath, calling on my power, my magic.
“Don’t do this, Jolie,” Bryn said in a low voice. “I don’t want it to come to this.”
I opened my eyes and saw that she’d taken the same stance I had. The white sheen of her protective orb glowed exactly the way mine did. I guessed our powers were equally matched.
“Are you going to allow us to leave?” I asked.
She shook her head, which spoke volumes. “He is done, Jolie. You have to think of us now, and your new life.”
I shook my head and laughed acidly. “You mean nothing to me. You are my enemy first and foremost, not my sister; and I will not let you threaten the people I love.”
Then something happened that neither of us was expecting. An alarm went off, sounding throughout the hospital. It reminded me of an air raid in a World War II movie. I could see flashing red lights in the hallway accompanying the siren’s wail. Bryn now wore an expression of panic, her eyes wide.
“We have to go!” she yelled, dropping her arms in a gesture of surrender.
“What is it?” I demanded. “What the hell’
s going on?”
She shook her head and I could see fear in her eyes. “The camp has been breached.”
A warm sensation arose from deep within me. I knew what it had to mean—Rand. It was Rand who had breached the camp. He was coming for me.
“It’s not safe to stay here!” she persisted as she approached me, reaching out to take my hand.
I pulled it away and didn’t make any motion to leave. “I won’t go without him,” I said, glancing back at Sinjin as I tried not to think about the fact that he just looked so … dead.
Bryn glared at me, but I held up my hands and threatened her with my energy orb, which was seconds from exploding between my palms.
“Jolie, don’t be stupid. He’s too far gone.”
I stood my ground. As long as there was the smallest sign of life in Sinjin’s body—and there still was—I would never leave him.
“If you won’t come with me for your own sake, then do it for your baby,” Bryn said in a harsh voice. I felt my stomach drop.
She knew? But how? How did she know?
“I’m a sensitive,” she said impatiently as she eyed the hallway again. Her eyes settled on the throbbing red light that pulsed spasmodically, then she faced me again. “I knew as soon as we met.”
The alarm continued to blare and the red lights of the hallway seemed to flash with more urgency and frequency, but maybe it was just my imagination.
“You have to come with me now, Jolie,” she said again. “Everything in here will self-destruct, and if we don’t get the hell out, so will we.”
I knew I couldn’t move Sinjin and he wasn’t strong enough to save himself. “I won’t go,” I said again. “I won’t leave without him.”
She shook her head. “Damn you to hell!” she swore as she started for the cot, taking a deep breath and glaring down at Sinjin. “I can’t fucking believe I’m doing this.”
She reached for a scalpel on the counter and held it up just as I grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?” I demanded.
She stared at me. “What I never thought I’d be doing in a million years,” she answered, and extricated herself from my grip, holding the scalpel to her wrist. She jabbed the blade into her skin and pulled back, making a clean slice. Blood spurted from the wound, and Bryn held her wrist to Sinjin’s seared lips. She took a deep breath and told him, “Drink, you bastard.”
I was shocked that Bryn would do such a thing—risk her own life, if what she said was true about this place self-destructing, in order to ensure my survival. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as I’d originally thought.
But now was not the time to think about that. Instead, I watched while Sinjin latched onto her arm and started sucking her blood feverishly. He appeared to be getting stronger with each swallow, his drinking more determined. She pulled away from him, but he held her in a viselike grip. “You’re going to have to pull him off me when I say so,” she announced with fear in her eyes. “He’s going to try to drain me. He won’t be able to resist the bloodlust.”
Something seemed to occur to her then, as she narrowed her eyes at me. “And don’t think you’ll be able to get out of here without me. There’s only one escape route, and you don’t know it.”
She thought I might let Sinjin drain her on purpose! “I wouldn’t let him kill you,” I said softly, surprised the thought would even cross her mind.
Bryn said nothing. She was studying Sinjin carefully to determine if he’d had enough of her blood. “He’s almost there,” she said softly, her mouth tight, and I could see that he was hurting her. “Now!” she said as she pulled her arm away from him. Just as she’d expected, he reacted violently and lurched for her. She fell, and I threw myself on top of Sinjin, but it was like trying to hold back a train. The blackness of his skin chafed off on my hands. In horror, I realized that the blackness was coming off of him like a crust, replaced with the Mediterranean tone of his beautiful skin.
“Get off me, you fuck!” Bryn yelled as she kicked against him. But Sinjin had her between his legs, his eyes glowing red with bloodlust. She was right. He couldn’t control himself and would certainly kill her. I threw myself against him again, but he brushed me aside and dove for Bryn’s neck. She went into autopilot and karate-chopped him in the side of the neck. He just chuckled and held her on the ground by the throat.
“Sinjin!” I screamed, pounding my ineffectual fists against his back.
“Grab the syringe!” Bryn yelled, eyeing the counter. Just as she did, Sinjin gripped her head and yanked it to the side, burying his face in her neck. She screamed out as I reached for the syringe. I smashed it into his back, pushing down before he could reach around and shove me out of the way. I bumped into the cot, but immediately found my balance again as I faced my sister.
In a second Sinjin’s body went slack and he fell on top of her. I pushed him away from her and watched as he rolled to the side, now sleeping like a baby. Then I saw the gaping red gash on her neck. “Oh my God,” I said as I reached for her.
Bryn shook her head and took a deep breath, closing her eyes as her lips twitched. She held her hands above the wound, and I could see white light glowing beneath her fingers as she instantly healed herself. In a few more seconds she sat up and the bite vanished. She shook her head and glared at Sinjin before getting to her feet.
“Help me,” she ordered as she leaned over, grabbing one of his arms. I took the other arm and together we dragged him to the door.
“How long will he be like this?” I asked, struggling with his weight.
“A few more minutes,” she answered. “But we don’t have a few more minutes.”
She turned the doorknob and pushed the door open with her foot as we wrestled with our heavy load. We pulled him through the hallway until we came to a T. Rather than going left or right, Bryn paused in front of the wall and scanned her wrist across it. Immediately, a section of the wall recessed back and opened like an invisible door. Inside there was a small room. She propped Sinjin against me and stepped in. There was a clock on the wall, which she studied momentarily, the seconds disappearing as the clock counted our remaining time.
“Dammit!” she yelled. She turned toward a large square structure that dominated the inside of the small room. On the other side was what looked like another hallway, leading God only knew where.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded, buckling under Sinjin’s weight; he seemed to be growing heavier by the second.
“It’s the countdown mechanism,” she said. “It’s further along than I thought.” She grabbed Sinjin’s arm then, hoisting him back onto her shoulder, and we started toward the steel box. “We’re going to have to get in it,” she told me, and huffed and puffed as she hefted Sinjin’s weight. I was doing my own huffing and puffing because the vampire wasn’t light.
“What’s happening?” I inquired when I found my breath.
“This place is about to blow, and we’re going to go with it unless we can get in the shed. So stop talking and start hauling this oaf!” She paused outside of the steel box and leaned forward, running her wrist across the locking device of the steel tank. The tank itself was probably nine feet tall by ten feet wide. It beeped and the door slid open.
“On the count of three,” she said.
I nodded and on “three” we heaved Sinjin forward. We managed to push him into the steel box, where he landed on the floor. Bryn jumped over his legs and I was quick to follow. Then she grabbed the inside handle of the door and pulled it tightly shut. She ran her wrist across the locking mechanism on the inside and it beeped closed, sealing us safely inside.
I opened my mouth, about to ask her what the hell was going on, when I felt the box begin to quake back and forth. I lost my balance and nearly toppled into Bryn. She grabbed my shoulder and righted me.
“Get on the floor!” she screamed, and threw herself down at the same moment I did. I covered my ears with my hands as explosions rang through the air. The box felt as if it were being tossed this way and that, like
we were riding a cork through a turbulent ocean. On the floor, I noticed two enormous bolts in the steel, which must have been holding the box in place, otherwise we would have been launched to Kingdom Come.
I wasn’t sure how long the box rocked back and forth or how long the explosions continued to echo through the air, but as soon as it was finally silent, I turned to face Bryn.
She calmly smiled, shaking her head as she said, “Don’t say I never did you any favors.”
After another few long moments of silence, I figured the destruction was over. Bryn was staring at me with the same pensive expression, as if both of us were waiting for the other to make the next move.
“What do you think?” I asked as I felt my heart rate slow down.
She shrugged but her eyes were still wide. “I think it’s over, whatever ‘it’ was.”
I nodded and started to stand up, leaning against the steel wall to get my balance. Then I glanced at Sinjin’s still form lying on the floor. He looked like he was sleeping, but as I eyed him, I noticed that his fingers were beginning to twitch. I watched his lips tremble in sync with his twitching fingertips. “I think he’s waking up,” I said, looking up at Bryn. “What was in the syringe?”
“Charmed blood,” she answered as she studied Sinjin in a detached way. She looked up at me again and, noticing my expression of wonder, explained, “It’s a way to freeze them for a few minutes.” She looked down at him and exhaled, shaking her head, no doubt still shocked that she’d just saved one of her enemies. “Yep, he’s coming out of it.”
Sinjin opened his eyes and blinked a few times, apparently surprised to find himself encased in a steel box. He was on his feet in the flash of a second and his startled eyes rested on me and then Bryn. Before I could say boo he had Bryn by the throat, her legs suspended in the air as he held her against the wall.
“No, Sinjin!” I screamed, hurling myself against him.
I could see the confusion in his eyes as he studied her. Even though his fangs were fully deployed and ready to sink themselves into her carotid, he hesitated and appeared to be restraining himself.
Something Witchy This Way Comes: A Jolie Wilkins Novel Page 21
