Twisting around, I slammed my fist into Matthew’s jaw, but he held on, and after another punch, I gave up on him. Dragging him forward, I reached for Kat. I had to get to her, one way or another, I had to get to her.
Kat dropped to her knees, and I was a second behind her, hitting mine as Matthew managed to bring me down. Her lower lip trembled as her chest rose sharply. Something cracked in my chest, fissured down my core. Terror I’d never known before exploded.
“No! Please! No!” My voice broke. “Kat!”
They were crowding in around her, but she never took her eyes off me. She held my gaze as I tried to shake off Matthew.
Then she smiled a little, and my chest imploded. It was weak and wobbly and frail, and a part of me died right there.
“It’ll be okay,” she said, her eyes welling with wetness. “It’ll be all right.”
The doors were almost closed as I reached out, my fingers spread. Matthew jerked me back, and I braced myself with my other hand. My heart pounded as she was seconds from disappearing behind the door, seconds from being cut off from me.
My chest ripped right open and I said what I should’ve said days ago, weeks and months ago. “I love you, Katy. Always have. Always will. I will come back for you. I will—”
The doors sealed shut.
She was gone.
I stared at the doors, shaking my head again. “Kat? Kat!” I shouted.
“Come on.” Matthew pulled me back, coming to his feet. “Daemon, we’ve got to go.”
I didn’t move. I was dead weight.
“Kat!” I screamed at the door, my voice breaking over the siren.
Dawson was suddenly there, grabbing my other arm, and I pulled free, swinging at him, but Matthew caught me from behind, wrapping his arms around mine, pinning them to my sides.
The look in Dawson’s eyes was wild. “I’m sorry, but we’ve got—”
“This wasn’t the plan!” I shouted in his face. “We were supposed to make sure she got out!” I twisted in Matthew’s grip. “Let me the hell go. I need to get her.”
“You can’t,” Matthew said. “We can’t get to her now. Daemon, we’ve got to go.”
The horror of reality soaked into me. “She’s gone,” I whispered, staring at my brother, and then I lost my shit all over again.
I broke free from Matthew and whirled toward the door. I pulled on the Source, intent on blowing a hole right through it. I would get to her, one way or another I would get to her.
Matthew cursed.
Sudden pain exploded along the back of my head, and I took one step before my legs went out from underneath me. I crumbled like a damn paper bag, down for the count, seeing blackness instead of stars. My brother’s face blurred into focus for a moment.
“She’s gone,” I repeated as my vision darkened. “Kat’s gone.”
And then there was nothing.
Please keep reading….
Somewhere off Spring Mills exit in Berkeley County, West Virginia
“I know you’re pissed at me.”
Paris closed the door behind him, eyeing the young man who was more than just his boss. Luc was his savior. The kid might only be fourteen, and had been much younger when they’d first met, but Luc had saved his life more than once.
“Pissed might be too strong of a word,” Paris said after a moment.
Luc had moved from the couch to the cash-covered desk, and he sat behind it once again. He slowly lifted his chin, piercing Paris with the odd purple-colored eyes. Eyes that were a sign of his kind, because Luc wasn’t human, and he wasn’t a hybrid like Blake and Katy.
Luc was something far, far different.
“I know what I’m doing.” Luc leaned back in the chair and kicked his feet up on the desk, knocking over a stack of hundreds. He was holding something in his hands, and it wasn’t that damn game system for once.
“Do you?” Paris’s silvery gaze filled with doubt and a small measure of disappointment.
“You know what’s going to happen to them.”
“Who?” he asked innocently.
His lips thinned as he neared the desk. The money flew off the floor and he caught the stack. Dropping it on the desk, he then folded his arms. “You know who I’m talking about. There is no way that girl and Daemon are going to make it out of Mount Weather.”
Luc knocked a strand of brown hair out of his face. “I know.”
The disappointment increased as he stared at Luc. “You have to stop this. You have—”
“I don’t have to do anything.” Those amethyst eyes sharpened.
Paris unfolded his arms and raised his hands. “You know what I mean.”
“And you know why I have to do this. Why I need them to get inside Daedalus.”
Struggling to not let his frustration show, Paris motioned a chair toward the desk. He sat in it once it settled on all four legs. “You have the serum, Luc. You tried it. It didn’t work.”
A muscle spasmed along Luc’s jaw. “The old serum didn’t work. I want the serum they gave to that girl that was just in here. That serum could work.”
“Luc—”
“Don’t,” he warned, his eyes flashing. “Don’t tell me this is a lost cause. Nothing is a lost cause.”