Marked (26 page)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

B
efore Eli could make it across the room, Rylan fired two more shots. Eli staggered back, slipping in his own blood, which was now dripping down his legs and pooling around his bare feet. He steadied himself and took a few more heavy steps toward Rylan, who was having trouble holding Galena still. She was struggling fiercely, her eyes wild, clawing at Rylan’s face and arms, dropping her legs out from under her so he had to fight to hold her up, making it impossible for him to aim his weapon steadily.

Rylan put his gun to Galena’s head. “Stop. Both of you.”

“You can’t kill her unless she’s Marked,” Eli rasped. “You can’t kill me, either.”

Rylan gave him a hard smile. “I’m a merciful man, Eli. I wanted to make death instantaneous and quick for her. But if you force me to, I can just ravage her brain. Is that what you want?”

“You won’t do it.” Eli braced his hands on his thighs, determined to stay upright. Behind him, he could hear the sharp bursts of Cacy’s breath as she struggled with Mandy. He forced himself to stay focused on Rylan.

“You’re up against a wall, Rylan,” Eli said. “I know you don’t want a war with Moros. You understand the politics better than I do, but I know he’s committed to keeping my sister safe, and he doesn’t mess around. If you let Galena go, we can end it right here.” Eli put everything he had into making those words sound convincing. He prayed Rylan would listen—and do as he asked—before Eli collapsed. His body was at war with itself, getting torn apart as quickly as it could knit itself back together. He wouldn’t die like this, but he might lose his ability to fight.

Rylan’s lips were pressed into a tight line. “I have every intention of ending it right here.” He shoved the muzzle of the gun harder against Galena’s temple.

Then a glossy portal opened behind him. A hand shot out of it, knocking the gun away from Galena and punching Rylan in the side of the head. Eli staggered forward to catch his sister as Dec climbed from the portal, trying to wrench the weapon from his brother’s hand.

Nearly blacking out from the rending pain in his chest, Eli dragged his sister away from the fight, down the hall toward her room. As they staggered together, Eli noticed Galena’s wide, glazed eyes. He knew that look. She wasn’t really seeing him. She was reliving the worst night of her life. “No no no no no,” she whispered, sounding a million miles away.

As he opened the door of Galena’s room, Eli heard an agonized scream.

Cacy.

He lowered Galena gently to the floor. “Stay here, G. Don’t move.” Eli stumbled back down the hall, his heart erratically pounding, valiantly circulating what was left of his blood. He had to get to Cacy. He couldn’t lose her now—

The first thing he saw was her wound, traversing from shoulder to belly, revealing muscle and bone beneath. And then he saw Cacy’s mouth, open in a silent cry of pain, blood trickling from the corners of her lips. Mandy held her by the throat, smiling evilly as blood gushed from her nose. She ripped Cacy’s Scope from her hands and hurled it across the room. Eli lunged for Cacy and Mandy, but they disappeared.

Before he could focus and get himself into the Veil, a bullet whizzed past his head. He ducked instinctively and turned to see a completely bizarre sight. Declan Ferry was behind his brother—who appeared not to have a head. Dec had gotten his Scope over Rylan’s head and cinched it tight around Rylan’s neck, so part of the Charon was in the real world and part of him was trapped in the Veil, blinding him. Despite that, Rylan lashed out with strong kicks and punches, and he still held the gun in his hands. Eli’s cry of warning came too late, as Rylan swung the weapon around and fired right at Dec.

The Chief smashed into the counter and hit the floor with a nauseatingly heavy thump, blood already haloing around him as he clutched at his neck. Eli barreled forward and hit Rylan with his shoulder, sending him crashing against the wall. Eli ripped the gun from Rylan’s hands and shot the Charon in the chest.

Rylan sank to the floor, clutching at his wound, his head still invisible and the Scope still clamped around his neck. Eli knelt clumsily next to Dec, ripping his shirt and pressing it hard against the Chief’s neck. Dec tried to hold the cloth with shaking hands. “Galena,” he gasped, desperation in his pain-filled voice.

“She’s okay.” He pressed his hand over the Chief’s cold fingers. “Will you heal?”

Dec’s gaze darted to his brother, who was stirring weakly. “Not if . . . he . . . doesn’t . . . want . . .”

“
Rylan
has control over that?”

“He’s the Charon,” Dec whispered.

Eli wanted to roar in frustration as he watched Dec’s blood drip from between his fingers. “I have to get to Cacy. That Ker dragged her back into the Veil. She’s ripped open.”

“Go, Eli,” Dec gurgled.

Eli squeezed the Chief’s shoulder and stood up, silently vowing to return as soon as he could to help the Chief—assuming he was still alive.

“Where is Cacy?” a high, taut voice asked. Eli turned his head to see Aislin step through her Scope and into the room, her pale-blue eyes sweeping across the apartment.

“You didn’t see her in the Veil?” Eli asked, his heart sinking. Mandy could have dragged her anywhere in the entire world.

Cacy didn’t have her Scope, and she was badly wounded. She wouldn’t be able to get back without help.

Aislin shook her head, already striding across the room to kneel next to Dec. She stroked his hair, her face taking on a soft, tortured look. Her pale-pink lips brushed his cheek, and she whispered something in his ear. He nodded, a weak, barely perceptible movement.

Aislin got to her feet, walked over to Rylan’s writhing—but already healing—body, and unsnapped the heavy Charon’s Scope from the chain around his neck. She stood up straight, staring at Dec as she unsnapped her own, more delicate Scope, tucked it into her pocket, and replaced it with the ornate Charon’s Scope. “You’re not going to die, Declan,” she said.

Dec drew a shuddering, gasping breath, like he was surfacing from too long underwater.

“I’ll be back for you,” she said quietly. Her eyes met Eli’s, cold and calculating. “Where is Galena?”

Eli hesitated. Everyone wanted Galena, and he had no idea who to trust. “I’m not your enemy, Eli,” said Aislin. “I never have been. Your sister needs to be protected until this is over, and I’m going to make that happen.”

Something in Eli’s chest loosened. Cacy might be suspicious of her sister, but given everything
he’d
just witnessed, she seemed like his best ally at the moment. “She’s in the bedroom.”

“Go after Cacy. You’re the only one who can find her.”

Eli shook his head, his helplessness strangling him. “I don’t know how.”

She pointed to her Scope. “We can only use this. But you can use this.” She touched her heart. “You have instincts now. You have enough power to find her. Please hurry. My sister needs you.”

Eli turned away and closed his eyes. He thought of Cacy, her beautiful face, her full lips, her mischievous smile, that dusting of freckles over her nose. In his mind, he reached for her, stretching across the distance between them to feel her, touch her, run his fingers over her skin. He recalled her scent, that spice, her voice, sweet and tart.

Nothing happened.

He grimaced and forced himself to picture her as she had appeared to him just now, pale and bleeding and torn. Her chest laid open, her arms splayed. Her eyes wide, blood dripping from her mouth. The pressure rose within him like lava, shooting through his veins and singeing every cell, dragging his strength up from a well deep inside him, from the place where he kept it hidden and caged. It snapped and crackled like electricity, painting his world red, leaving him with only one need. One thought.

Take me to Cacy.

A blast of cold hit him, but the heat rolling off him burned it away instantly. He opened his eyes. Cacy was feebly trying to crawl away from Mandy, but her arms and legs were too weak and un-coordinated to get any traction. Eli didn’t know where they were, but he knew it wasn’t in Boston or Pittsburgh. It seemed like they were in some barren desert plain, with no buildings or people for miles.

“Enjoy your stay in Kansas,” Mandy taunted as she raised her arm, claws flashing under the white sun.

Eli’s crimson world narrowed to a point, focused completely on Mandy. His fangs cut at his lips; his claws drew his fingers wide. And he attacked.

Mandy spun, her eyes widening until Eli could see his own horrifying reflection in them. He landed heavily, crushing her to the ground, slashing her neck and chest, piercing and tearing her flesh. Eli’s head buzzed with the savage need to destroy the Ker who’d hurt Cacy.

Mandy slashed and bit at him, but it didn’t slow him down. With one brutal twist, he wrenched Mandy’s head from her neck. He dropped it to the squishy dirt and turned to Cacy, who was facedown and unmoving.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered as he turned her over, tears burning his eyes as he saw her ravaged chest, ribs exposed and raw. Her skin was gray. Her eyes were closed. Eli folded her limp body against his chest. Her head lolled in the crook of his neck. “We’re going home now. I’m going to take you home.”

Cacy moaned softly, swamping Eli with the sweetest relief. He kissed the top of her head then pictured his apartment and focused on getting back to Galena. The warm air of his bedroom greeted them a second later. He laid Cacy on his bed, brushing off the sheet that still hung over the side, and reached for his med kit. If this was anything like the last time
she’d
been injured, she would heal. But even if her skin knit back together, she had lost so much blood. Her lips were tinged blue, and her breaths were shallow and fast. Brain damage might be a possibility if he didn’t act quickly.

Her uniform peeled away easily, shredded as it was. Eli grabbed his last vials of self-perpetuating saline and plasma and injected them into her arm. He brushed his fingers along her temple and gently kissed her. Then he ran his lips along the light-blue vein pulsing beneath the skin of her neck.

“Come back, Cacy. I miss you already,” he whispered in her ear.

She drew a shivery breath. Eli closed his eyes and bowed his head, touching his forehead to hers. He reached down and took her hand, and she squeezed his fingers. For all her weak grasp, the power of his relief nearly carried him away again.

Galena’s scream pierced the quiet. Eli bolted from the bed, crashing through his bedroom door so hard it came off its hinges. Aislin lay sprawled on the floor at the threshold of Galena’s bedroom, clutching at her head. And Rylan was opening Dec’s Scope to step into the Veil—with Galena.

Eli caught the edge of the Scope just as Rylan lifted it over his head. Rylan’s eyes sparked with madness as he tried to keep his grip on the Scope and on Galena. As Eli reached for his sister, Mandy appeared at his elbow, her head oddly tilted, the bones of her neck poking through skin just barely knitted together, the whites of her eyes stained red. Her hand shot out to touch Galena, but Eli kicked her away. He and Rylan fell over a chair and hit the floor, each scrambling for the Scope.

“Galena?” Eli shouted. He had to focus all his strength on fighting Rylan, whose determination had made him strong, but he needed to know where his sister was.

Out of the corner of his eye, Eli saw Mandy get up and lurch toward Galena, who was backing down the hall. “Keep away from her, G! Don’t let her touch you!”

Eli tried to get up, but Rylan slipped the open Scope over Eli’s forearm and snapped it shut, using it like a pair of handcuffs. “It’s better this way, Eli,” said Rylan, eerily calm. “She would have cost us too much.”

Eli punched Rylan in the face with his free hand, cutting his knuckles on Rylan’s teeth. Rylan grimaced and held on tight. Mandy was steps away from Galena, reaching out with lacquered nails extended.

“Stop.”

The voice thundered through the room, shaking Eli to the bone and stopping his heart. His body obeyed the voice with complete submission. Mandy seemed affected in the same way. She sank to one knee inches from Galena, clutching at her chest. “No,” she gasped, her eyes bulging. “This shouldn’t be happening.”

As Eli faltered, Rylan delivered a punishing kick to his ribs, knocking him to the floor. Rylan wrenched the Scope from his hand as Eli tried to breathe, paralyzed by that voice and its sweeping command.

Moros stepped out of the void right next to Galena, who barely seemed to notice his arrival. His eyes lit on Aislin, who was shaking her head and sitting up unsteadily. Then he bent down to scoop Mandy from the ground, cradling her in his arms. “My poor darling.”

Eli nearly choked on his dread as every cell in his body screamed. Moros was on Mandy’s side? He was standing right next to Galena, who could be Marked in an instant. And Eli couldn’t do anything about it—with one word, the Lord of the Kere had immobilized him.

Moros raised his head, as if
he’d
heard Eli’s thoughts. “Carry on,” he said.

Eli’s head buzzed as oxygen rushed to his brain and muscles, and his heart began to beat once more. Mandy also sucked in a desperate breath, her broken bones creaking.

“Who is responsible for this chaos?” Moros asked. “Who did this to Mandy?”

“I did,” said Eli, struggling to push himself up, his limbs tingling painfully.

“He attacked the Charon,” rasped Mandy, her voice distorted and thick. “He should be put down.”

“Is this true?” Moros asked, his eyes now glowing bright red.

Eli nodded as if his head were under the control of a puppeteer.

Moros opened his mouth to say something, but his attention was drawn to Rylan, who had suddenly pulled his Scope wide—seeking his escape hatch into the Veil.

“I can follow wherever you go, my friend,” the Lord of the Kere said softly. “So I suggest you stay and help us figure out what’s happened here.”

Rylan hesitated, but he didn’t close the Scope.

Moros let Mandy’s feet slide to the floor, still holding her against his chest. She snuggled in, shooting Eli a smug look. Moros used his teeth to tug the glove off his left hand. “Eli, come here.”