Insidious(117)

“If she leaves with you, she’ll be as good as dead.” Adam cocked the revolver. “Last chance.”

Blaine didn’t move.

And neither did I.

I didn’t even have time to gasp as an unmistakable, earsplitting blast detonated in front of me. Blaine’s hold on me tightened, whirling me around in one fluid motion. He rasped, his body shuddering as he stumbled forward. Blaine caught himself on the wall beside us, inadvertently pivoting us back around so that we faced Adam again. A low hiss seeped from Blaine’s shoulder, intensifying to a sickening sizzle. The bullet hadn’t passed through the front of his shoulder. I saw what exposure to silver did to Brittany’s skin for merely touching it. I nearly wrenched at the thought of what it must have been doing to Blaine’s insides.

Adam prepared to take aim again as Blaine’s breath warmed my ear.

“This is going to hurt,” he whispered.

“NO!”

He was holding me too tightly. I couldn’t move.

Two slender spears simultaneously sliced into the side of my neck. I choked on the strangled scream lodged in my chest, deliriously yanking up my hand to hit Blaine, to push him away, to get his own hands off whatever he had just stabbed me with. Every muscle in me fell slackened, my fingers only getting so far as to brush the side of his cheek. His cheek.

My hand limply slipped down to my side. I couldn’t move. I really couldn’t move. My muscles weren’t even tensing, struggling against his hold. I was paralyzed in place, my body only held up by the grace of Blaine’s arm snaked around me.

His mouth was on my neck. His…his…his fangs. He’d bitten me.





Chapter 33

Animal I Have Become





Blaine was still biting me.

The next gunshot barely registered over the blood pounding inside my ears. Blaine’s weight staggered and we both fell back. Adam kept yelling something, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear him over my own screams. Every nerve ending fired as the acidic poison propelled its way down my neck, down deeper, down lower. I was burning from the inside out. My veins pumped molten gold. My lungs breathed fire. My skin was melting off. Every muscle contracted so tightly around my bones, I could swear my entire body was about to shatter from within.

And it only worsened. Another wave of unspeakable pain ripped through me. The raw agony tearing through me, and I couldn’t even verbalize my anguish. I convulsed, gasping on silent screams. Screams that had no home outside of my chest.

“Accept it,” Blaine coughed from behind me. He wasn’t dead. “The harder you fight it, the more it’ll hurt.”

“SHUT UP!” Adam’s frantic eyes scanned over my body as he pulled me up into his arms. “I can fix this…I can fix—”

A raw laugh. “You can’t stop it.”

“SHUT UP!”

Footsteps echoed from the adjoining corridor. Adam quickly set me back down, yanking off his bloodied flannel shirt. He jammed the crumpled fabric into my neck and over my shoulder.

Russell suddenly appeared behind Adam. He took one look at me and his fingers instinctively clenched around the sword in his hands. “What the hell happened?”

“That piece of shit over there tried using Kat to escape, so I shot her,” Adam panted, still unable to look at Blaine. “The bullet passed through her and hit him, but I planted in another for good measure.”

Russell nodded, his lips tipping up in satisfaction as he slammed a hand onto Adam’s shoulder. “Well done.”

Mr. Reynolds came into view next. He bent down to get a better look at Blaine, his brows knitting in confusion. “Where have I seen him before?”

“You stopped by his funeral service,” sneered Adam. “His name’s Blaine Ryder. He’s a Mage.”

Russell brushed past us with a scoff. It took not five whole seconds before he leapt back into view. “Holy shit. He’s not kiddin’, boss.”

Boss.

The title reverberated in my head, making my veins burn more avidly. Was that what Blaine was going to be to me now? My boss?

Yes, because you’re one of them now.

I gasped, pinching my eyes shut. I couldn’t mask the pain rippling through me, and Adam knew it. He immediately swept me up, my legs dangling over his left arm as he secured my upper half in his right.

“Where do you think you’re going with her?” barked Russell. “The wound will heal on its own. We need to ask her more questions.”

Adam only stopped to look at his father. “It’ll take hours for the wound to fully heal. I’m not gonna let her suffer like this. She needs something for the pain.”

Mr. Reynolds nodded. “Take her to the compound.”