A Torment of Savages (The Reanimation Files Book 4) (13 page)

The woman had moved on, but now a man advanced on me. He was young and I think had only been on the task force a few months. His face looked inhuman, and I shuddered when I looked into his red eyes. Like the woman and the other officers, there appeared to be nothing human behind those eyes. Without a doubt, I knew that this terrifying transformation was due to the open necromancer circle and whatever had come through it.

The man swung at me and I ducked and threw myself forward, wrapping my arms around his waist, and body-slamming him to the ground. We landed on top of someone’s motionless, blood-covered body. Both their arms and legs were twisted at grotesque angles. My stomach roiled, and I looked away, especially since I had to concentrate on the thrashing man under me. He was way stronger then he should be, as was evidenced by the way he threw me off him once he got a good hold on me. I slid across the floor until I hit another body. I tried to get up without slipping in the pool of blood under this poor soul.

Deafening shots rang out. For a moment it was as though a vacuum had sucked all the sound out. Another one came. At first I was afraid the attacking officers had procured guns, which they certainly didn’t seem to need, then I saw the horde of PTF officers in full riot gear armed with their rifles coming down the hallways. I almost collapsed in relief but remembered that I was standing in front of a dead body. The attackers didn’t seem fazed by the arrival of twenty PTF officers. In fact, they became more frenzied.

The number of people had dwindled as those who hadn’t fallen had run off. Some of the crazed PTF officers had run after them, so there were only three attackers left in this area. The gunshots hadn’t been random. I saw two bullet holes in the chest of the woman who had first attacked me. Blood poured freely from the wounds, but to my complete shock, she was still on her feet and pounced to attack the nearest officers. Two bullet holes in her chest did not affect her in the least.

The arriving officers were on the defensive immediately. There were more gunshots. I dropped to the ground and tried to crawl into one of the patient rooms to keep myself from accidentally biting a bullet. I never made it. One of the attackers grabbed me with a tight hand around my throat and squeezed so hard I thought my eyes would pop out of my head. My struggles did nothing to lessen his grip.

A PTF officer slammed him from the side and they went toppling down. I was released, but the damage had already been done. I fell to the floor as though I was boneless; there was no strength left in my body. Noise pounded in my head, amplifying the pain that pounded through my skull: snarls, screams, growls, gunshots.

Then suddenly it all went quiet. My body jolted, and I wondered if I was dead and my ghost had been sucked away from the chaos. I was in pain, so I didn’t think I had died, so something else must have stopped the ruckus. I felt relieved. Finally, sufficient help had arrived. And yet, an uncomfortable feeling wove through me.

I struggled to sit up, trying to take even breaths to calm down. Pushing aside my pain, I looked around. And gasped. Everything was frozen, like something out of a sci-fi movie. It was like I was looking at a freeze frame of all the fighting that had been going on. The red-eyed PTF officers were motionless in positions of attack, and everyone else had looks of terror or pain on their faces as they tried to fend them off. Those who’d already been on the floor…were still there. What the hell had happened? And why was I the only one who could move?

A cold wind suddenly blew over me, and I looked over to the right where I saw something that made the blood in my veins feel as though it had frozen solid. Not something,
someone
. She was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. The first thing she reminded me of were those ghost animals I had seen in the In Between and with Magda. Her body was almost formless; there were glimpses of a slender, female figure, but it was surrounded by roiling, moving shadows that billowed out all around her. The ends of those waves of darkness were slender points that seemed to be tasting the air around it. She was a tall figure, and the skin I could see on her face, chest, and arms, was ash gray. Around her neck was a huge rune stone on a black cord. It was a kaleidoscope of dark, shifting colors, and surprise, surprise, I had never seen a rune like it before. Her hair was also made of roving shadows and blended in to the rest of the darkness surrounding her so I couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. Her eyes, like those of the PTF officers, were red, and her lips were black enough to make some emo-goth teenager jealous. She smiled, and her teeth were all razor sharp points. The feeling of dark energy coming from her was more intense than any I had ever felt. My dead magic was in a frenzy, and it was all I could do to keep it clamped down with this…creature…standing a few feet away looking at me like I was the most precious thing to her in the world.

“Hello, Selene.”

Her voice, oh God, it was at the same time the most beautiful thing I had ever heard and the worst. I had no idea how one voice could encompass both of those things at once.

I had managed to get to my feet, but had to support myself on the nurse’s station. Not only because of my injuries and the effort it took to hold down my dead magic, but because this woman’s presence was making me feel sick and weak.

“How do you know my name?” My voice was shaky.

She moved forward several feet, and I was mesmerized by the way the shadows danced around her. And terrified. Those ghost animals had never affected me this way.

“I always know what belongs to me,” she said with a smile.

I frowned. “What the hell does that mean?” I looked around. “You caused this, didn’t you? You’re the thing that came through the necromancer circle. You’re…you’re the darkness that’s risen.”

She laughed. A sound that made me want to peel my skin off.

“How lovely,” she said. “That makes me sound very important.”

“Who the fuck are you?” And how the hell did I stop her? I could feel how powerful she was and knew I’d need more than rune bullets to bring her down.

“How rude, let me introduce myself. My name is Revath.”

“Revath,” I repeated. I had never heard that name before. “Why are you here?” I spread my sore arm. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because the rules must be followed, my dear one. Rules that you broke.”

“Me? What rules? I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.”

She laughed again and it was all I could do not to look for a couple scalpels to jam into my ears. “You bring death and darkness to your world and you don’t even know that you are the one responsible. How amazing. I love it!” She shot forward until she was only inches away from my face. No matter how much I strained away from her, I could only go so far since I was backed up against the nurses’ station.

“I have some work to do, little one,” she said. Her breath was like ice blowing across my face. “And when I am done reaping, I will be back for you.” She smiled a sick, wicked smile, then between one blink and the next she was gone.

I stood there with my eyes wide, breathing heavily, my brain a scramble of confusion that I could not begin to figure out. Eventually I realized that there was movement around me again, and panic shot through me when I remembered the rabid PTF officers. I quickly looked around, but was surprised when I saw that they had all disappeared. Had Revath taken them with her? I couldn’t say that was a bad thing. Even if she was. I gave another careful look around, but it was clear that all that remained now were the confused, scared, injured people. And the corpses.

Whatever remaining strength I had gave out and I slid to the ground, feeling like I was being pushed down by a burden that would crush me because I wasn’t strong enough to carry it. All I kept seeing was Revath’s horribly beautiful face telling me I belonged to her and I had caused whatever had just happened here. I didn’t understand it, but right now I was too battered to think about it anymore. Darkness came to take me and I had no choice but to yield to its embrace.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I awoke to a familiar sensation touching my face. As I struggled to open my eyes, I tried to figure out what was touching me in quick, repetitive succession. Whatever it was, it was soft, warm, and wet. Then I felt a brush of fur against my cheek and caught the undeniable scent of a dog. The warm wetness against my cheek was Luna’s tongue.

I got my eyes open and looked around. I was in my bedroom. The lamp on the nightstand was on, and I could see through the partly drawn curtains that it was nighttime. Luna stood just to the side of my head, peering into my face as though ascertaining that I was okay. Was I okay? I took a moment to assess myself. My head hurt. A lot. As did the middle of my back. Heck my entire body hurt. But why? What had happened?

Before I could wrack my memory, the door opened and Micah looked in. When he saw I was awake, he hurried over while calling for Ethan, who showed up a half second later and also hustled over.

“Hey.” I struggled to sit up and the boys helped me. Luna made herself comfortable in my lap and I lay my hand on her back.

“How are you feeling?” Ethan asked.

“Crappy.”

“Here.” Micah picked up a glass of water and some painkillers that had been sitting on the nightstand. “Had to wait until you woke up before we could give you meds.”

“How long have I been out?”

“A few hours,” Ethan replied. He looked anxious and worried. Micah did as well. He was holding my hand tightly.

“Do you remember what happened?” Micah asked.

I thought for a moment, then sucked in a gasp when it came to me. “The hospital,” I said. “The PTF officers who were laid up suddenly went berserk and…” I had to stop and take a few calming breaths as images of blood and broken bodies rose in my mind’s eye. I shook my head as though that would shake those horrible images out. “Revath,” I whispered.

“What?” Micah said, frowning.

“There was a…a thing. A woman. Though I use that description lightly. I have never seen anything like her in my life. She just showed up and froze everything. Literally froze everyone in place, except for me. She said I belonged to her, and that I was the reason any of it was happening. Then she disappeared and took the PTF officers with her.”

Micah and Ethan were frowning deeply, and the looks they gave me made me feel as though they were trying to figure out if I had suffered a brain injury.

“Who was she?” Ethan asked. “A ghost?”

“Ghost doesn’t feel like the right word.” I recalled my conversation with Kyo when we’d found my backyard full of dead animals. “Demon seems like a more appropriate word. A demon from the In Between. She is the darkness that’s risen. She put the PTF officers in the hospital and…changed them into monsters.” I shuddered, wishing I could wipe away my memories of the destruction at the hospital.

“Do you know where she went?” Micah asked. “The PTF officers who arrived to help reported that one minute there was chaos and the next minute it was all over. There’s a lot of confusion as to what happened. There has been no sign of those PTF officers since.”

“I was the only one who saw Revath and knows about her freeze frame,” I said. “That’s why they’re confused. I have no idea where she went, but she said she had some things to take care of and then she would be back for me…”

“What?” Micah said sharply. “What does she want with you?”

“I don’t have a clue, Micah. I’ve never seen her before. All I know is that she is terrifying, and powerful, and I’m sure we have not seen the last of her.” I blew out a breath. Anxiety was starting to grip me as I relived my encounter with Revath. Not to mention the blood bath that preceded her appearance.

“What’s Tielle saying about it?” I asked.

“She isn’t sure what to make of it yet,” Micah said. “PTF officers said they had never encountered anything like the officers who were attacking. They were pretty much impossible to stop. They tried to take them down but…”

“They couldn’t,” I finished. “One of them was unfazed by two shots to the chest. It wasn’t even like a delayed reaction to getting shot. These were two shots in close range from a rune-bulleted rifle and it did nothing to stop her.”

Micah nodded. “Yeah, they’re saying that the attackers seemed impervious to injuries. Apparently one of them even took a bullet to the head and went on to kill two people.”

“So none of them were captured?”

“One, actually,” Micah said. “The only thing that worked was the immobilizing powder. The one they captured was found outside, a few blocks away, which must be why he didn’t disappear with the rest. He’s being held under maximum security at the PCC and Tielle has a team trying to figure out what made him like that and how to undo it.”

“Something tells me it’s going to take a lot more than rune work to stop this,” I said.

“I wonder where the others are,” Ethan said nervously. “And this Revath creature.”

“We will have to wait and see when they resurface,” Micah said. “Which isn’t ideal, but unless they can be tracked down it’s all we can do.”

“I don’t relish the thought of what happened in that hospital happening on a larger scale,” I said.

“Neither do I,” Micah said. “Tielle is doing her best to find the other six officers.”

“Magnificent Seven,” I muttered. “Well, more like Murderous Seven.”

“Monstrous Seven,” Ethan supplied.

“That works.” I turned to Micah. “Leena, is she okay?”

“She’s fine; they didn’t get to her room.”

“Good.” I fought against my guilt at what I had done to her, telling myself that it had been a necessity. Not that it made me feel any better.

I settled back against my pillows and sighed. “I have a very bad feeling,” I said softly. Just then, my stomach growled. “And a very strong hunger.”

Ethan’s lips quirked in a smile. “I made beef stew; I’ll fix you a bowl.”

“A big one,” I called after him as he left the room.

“Was that your stomach? I heard it from outside.”

The words came from the other side of the room. I turned my head to see Kyo floating through the wall from the backyard. He stopped abruptly when he saw Micah though, and looked at me with a deer-in-headlights look. I felt Micah tense.