Will’s impressed.
I whip up a multi-view screen on one of Cameron’s office walls that shows us the activity outside the door. These things have once more molded themselves into humanoid shapes, and in the dark, their nebulous forms, floating a good couple of inches off the ground, are the creepiest things I’ve ever seen. Plus, there’s the whole bit where, like Cailleache, they’ve all extended their limbs with weapons.
Frankly, I want to shriek in terror like some chick in a horror film. Turn and run and hide. One was bad enough. Four? Four is flat-out petrifying. What was I thinking, luring them here?
Courage, I tell myself. Think of everybody who’s counting on what you’re about to do. I force myself to take a deep breath and count to ten. Then twenty, as Karl begins to detail our plan of attack.
When he’s done, he asks me once more if I’m ready.
I nod and place my palms down against the stained concrete. Within a second, I’m kneeling in dirt. Cameron and Erik both gasp quietly in the background, but I can’t let myself be distracted by them.
“Lee?”
He’s somewhere right behind me. “Yeah?”
“Remember what you promised. Any signs of trouble, and you get these two out of here.”
He lightly touches my shoulder before backing away. I count to ten once more and then reach out and grab an arm of the two men insane enough to willingly fight with me. “You don’t have to do this—”
“Not this fucking speech again,” Will mutters.
“Chloe.” Karl’s eyes bore into my own. “If you think I’m going to ever send you out in a situation without my protection, then you don’t know me at all. I made that mistake once; I won’t fail you again.”
What is he talking about? “You’ve never failed me!”
“I did. Last year, when I left you alone in a house and one of these bastards came and used you as target practice. I should have been in there with you.”
My insides go a bit gooey. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. Nothing.”
“Funny. Kellan and Jonah both felt quite differently.” He pulls me in for a brief hug, before shoving me away. “Behind me at all times. Got it?”
I nod.
Will positions himself at the rear of our line. I’m sandwiched in between the two men that have become more family to me over the years than my own biological one. I don’t care what anybody says. These two are my brothers. And like good big brothers, they think they’re protecting me from the boogeymen outside.
The truth is, I’m the one who’ll be protecting them. Because I’ll lay down my life today to make sure they get out of here alive.
The door and surrounding walls disintegrate when Karl kicks it, shards exploding out into the warehouse. It’s enough to both alert the Elders and stun them, because for some dumbass reason, they don’t charge us immediately in the bottleneck.
I cock an arrow in my bow as I reconstruct the door behind me, reinforcing it until I know nothing can get in there that I don’t want to be there.
Whispered words echo through the room until it surrounds us, filling the air from ceiling to floor: Earthmover. Creator. Half-breed who reeks of metal.
It’s Karl’s first time hearing them talk, let alone see those gaping maws that serve as mouths, but he only falters a single step. “Well, well,” he says, voice loud and clear, knuckles cracking as he flexes his fingers, “there’s a party going on and I didn’t get an invite. That makes me sad.”
The whispering transitions to hissing.
“Perhaps it’s a party of stray cats,” Will says. He taps the blade against an open palm. “It’s one’s duty to neuter such creatures, lest there be hordes roaming the streets.”
I choke back my laughter even as the Elders approach us from four sides. But we’re now standing in the close triangle Karl wanted us in.
“You killed Mother.” The one closing in on me says this, black smoke trailing from its mouth. It’s male, that much is clear. And pissed.
Will’s blade swishes in the air until he’s standing in position, blade out. “Let’s not give our friend here all the glory. I made sure your mum was stuck like a pig on a spit before Chloe killed her. It was a team effort.”
Karl wants us to get them mad. Anger allows confusion and poor judgment. So I add as nonchalantly as I can sound, even though my knees are knocking and my palms sweating, “She bled. It was nasty looking, though, all dark and steamy in the snow. Sort of like . . .” I’d snap my fingers if I weren’t holding the bow so tight. “Acid. Will? Would you say that it looked like she had acid dripping out of her? It would make sense, as she was a monster and all.”
I’m pretty sure the hissing and screaming just burst at least one of my eardrums, not to mention every window in the warehouse.