For the Power (For the Blood Book 2) Page 7

  Her eyes grew wide and a low whimper fell from her lips. “Benji, you have to run. Please.”

  The vines to the left of her rippled and surged and then a face burst forth from them, pale green and shiny with all-too-human eyes. Some of the vines detached themselves from the mass to morph into arms and hands, and then the humanoid thing was crawling toward the woman.

  This isn’t your problem. Get the hell out of here. Dad’s voice was clear as a bell in my head.

  You have to help them, Eva. Do something. Tobias? My heart surged. He was with me. Still with me.

  I turned to Ash. “Ash, can you get it with your crossbow?”

  He was already taking aim.

  “Benji. Let go. Let go now!” It was a final command, delivered in an angry bark, and this time the boy acted on instinct.

  The fall was at least eight feet, and it was as if the boy was falling in slow motion, but Logan was a blur, bridging the distance between us and the ship in a blink. The boy landed safely in his arms with a whoomph and the woman above us let out a cry of surprise as an arrow thunked into the pale green monster. Its scream was a horrific screech. Its body writhed, pinned to the ship, and then the arrow was ejected, leaving the creature unharmed.

  “What the hell,” Jace said.

  The creature was almost on the woman, but I was in motion, running toward the ship, Talwar in hand, no plan, just the need to stop the thing from getting to the woman. The vines … Maybe the vines were somehow connected to the thing. Maybe if I hurt them, I’d hurt it. My sword sliced through the thick green ropes, releasing a pungent stench of rotten things. But the monster didn’t even flinch.

  “Eva, watch out!” Sage’s voice was a boom.

  Something whizzed toward me from the left. I ducked on instinct as the creeper rocketed over my head.

  “Get back!” Jace called out.

  I staggered away from the ship, the little boy’s screams ringing in my ears.

  “Protect him!” the mother cried. “Please …”

  I locked eyes with her, seeing sorrow and acceptance in her red-rimmed gaze, and then the pale green humanoid creature was on her. Its mouth opened to reveal thousands of razor teeth, farther and farther until it was impossibly wide, until it was all mouth and nothing else. Oh, God … Oh, shit. The woman clenched her jaw and closed her eyes. She knew what was coming. I knew what was coming. Look away, fucking hell, Eva, look away. The creature lunged, biting off the woman’s head. Her arms jerked as her body convulsed and then she fell limp.

  Silence, interrupted only by the rush of blood in my ears and the sickly chomp and slurp of the creature as it ate the woman, surrounded us. Blood dripped and splattered on the ground.

  Logan held the boy tight, pressing his head to his huge shoulder to prevent the child from seeing his mother be devoured.

  “What the fuck?” Jace’s voice shook with emotion.

  The vines pulsed around the creature as if benefiting from the feeding. “What is it? What in the world is it?”

  “Human,” Sage said softly. “Or at least it was once. Now it’s just infected.” The djinn’s tone was laced with sorrow.

  “How do you know this?” Logan asked.

  “Djinn see things others don’t, and at its core, that thing is human … was human. Higher brain function has shut down. Now it operates only to feed and survive, and right now, we’re prey.”

  “No, that can’t be,” Jace said. “Infection kills humans.”

  “Obviously not in the Wilds,” Sage said. “The rules are different here due to the heavy saturation of magic. It seems that infection in the Wilds turns the humans into carnivorous plants.”

  The plant creature looked up from its meal. Its eyes were clear, lucid, and very human. The mouth had shrunk to a normal size, smeared with crimson and brain matter.

  “Fooood,” it said.

  Low moans drifted up around us, mournful and desperate. Movement to the right caught my eye, and a face burst from the vines wrapped around a huge post with a brass bell on the top. Green eyes gleamed at me, and a scarlet mouth opened wide. The thing on the ship was waking up the others. It was alerting them to our presence, and the last thing we needed was more infected humans.

  A sickly shudder ran through me. “Guys, I think we should get out of here. Now.”

  “Agreed,” Jace said. “This way.”

  He led us away from the ship and back around the carousel at a jog. The little boy’s sobs came with us. Logan made soothing sounds, but the child was inconsolable, and his cries were increasing in volume. Nature was everywhere, the infected could be hiding anywhere, and we needed to get the hell out of this fairground before they descended on us.

  “Hush,” Logan said, struggling to keep hold of the boy.

  Dammit. I fell back so I was abreast of Logan and cupped the boy’s face firmly in my hands. “Enough. You want to live, then you need to shut up. You cry, they hear you and they will eat you. You got that?”

  The boy stared at me in horror.

  “That’s right. Your mum wanted you to live. So shut up, and you might make it. Cry one more time and we’ll leave you behind, you got that?”

  It was mean and cruel and harsh, and when his bottom lip trembled I almost lost my stern face. But we had a cure to get, and dying here because we’d tried to save a kid wasn’t an option. I’d meant my words. If he compromised the mission, I’d leave him behind.

  Eva … no. He’s just a kid.

  Shut up, Tobias. You idiot. You always do this. You did this with Danny and you did this with Emily. You’d be okay, we’d be together, if you’d just left them behind.

  The kid pressed his lips together and nodded.

  “Good boy. Your mum would be proud of you.”

  We were jogging past the Ferris wheel now. Over the soft earth headed north, hopefully out of this hellhole, when the ground around us began to shift and move.

  “Shit!” Jace swerved to avoid a whipping vine. It slammed into the earth where he’d been just a moment before, tearing at the soil with the many thorns that decorated it. That could have been Jace, the welt in the earth could have been a welt torn through his flesh.

  “Move!” Sage broke into a run.

  Ash slowed down as Logan and I came abreast of him, and then he grabbed my hand and we broke into a sprint. The infected rose from the ground, reaching for us with pale green appendages and howling, crimson, razor-lined mouths. They lunged at us from the fairground rides, awakening from a sun-drenched slumber to burst free of the greenery that cocooned them.

  The gates out of the fairground were up ahead, too far away, and with the path blocked by infected plant humans, there was no way we’d make it without casualties. A week ago, I’d have accepted this as fact and forged on regardless, caring only for my own survival, but everything was different now. The part of me that I’d subdued for too long, the part that loved and cared and formed bonds, was awake, and she wasn’t leaving anyone behind.

  The gate was a no-go. “We’re not going to make it.”

  My brain was already working on the problem, scanning our surroundings for a viable alternative to making the gate run, and there it was, sticking out like a sore thumb—a concrete structure marked mirror maze. A structure clear of all greenery as if nature itself had shunned it.

  I swerved toward it. “This way. Take cover.”

  The concrete structure loomed closer and then we were bursting through the doors. Ash slammed them closed and bolted them.

  “Do a sweep for plant life,” Logan said.

  “There’s none,” Sage said. “This place is untouched.” He walked past the reception desk and hovered in the doorway to the maze of mirrors. “Empty. Good call, Eva.”

  The lack of greenery around it had been the tip-off. “But why? Why haven’t they grown all over this place?”

  “Something in the foundations.” Sage ran a large hand over the wall and closed his eyes. “Lead. There are lead rods in the walls, and it’s contam
inated the soil.”

  “Lead is toxic to plants,” Jace said. He leaned against a wall and slumped to the ground. “We’re safe in here.”

  My mind was whirring. “The humans are infected, and the infected are usually unable to bear the sun, but maybe because they’re plants they need to be alert in the daytime. Maybe come nighttime …”

  “They’ll sleep,” Jace finished for me, his blue eyes lighting up.

  “We wait it out till sunset,” Logan said.

  It was the last thing we wanted to do, because even though the plant creatures might become inactive, everything else out there that wanted to chow down on us would be awake and very much on the prowl. But what other choice was there?

  “Ash?” I looked to the big guy.

  He nodded in agreement before heading over to the window that leaked sunlight into the gloom.

  Logan carefully set the boy on his feet and walked over to the light switches, flipping them with no result.

  The child took a step closer to me. “Mum’s dead, isn’t she?”

  I looked down at him, so tiny and vulnerable, and the urge to shield him was a sharp throb in my temple. But that would be doing him a disservice. If he was going to survive, he needed to toughen up, and the sooner the better.

  “Yeah, kid. She’s gone. But you’re with us now. We’re going to take care of you. Okay? But you need to be brave and you need to do as I say.”

  He nodded, blinking back tears. “Mum was taking me to find others like us.”

  “Like you? Human?”

  He shook his head.

  “Claw,” Sage said, studying the boy through narrowed glowing eyes. “The boy is Claw, but the gene in him is recessive. It means he can’t shift. His mother may have been a full-blooded Claw.”

  “She would have had to be if her son is a half-blood,” Jace said.

  We moved away from the boy and dropped our voices.

  “I don’t understand.” I glanced at Jace. “There are no such things as half-blood Claws. Dad would have told me about them.”

  “Maybe he didn’t know about them,” Jace said. “It wasn’t something that the Claws advertised. Before the infection, Claws were having relationships with humans. The government didn’t crack down on it because they believed that a human and Claw couldn’t produce offspring. They were wrong. Although nothing ever came of a full-blooded male Claw having relations with a human female, if a full-blooded female Claw had relations with a human male, then the resulting offspring was always a half-blood Claw—more human with a recessive Claw gene, unable to shift. Pure Claws could only be created from Claw to Claw procreation.”

  “What? Were the Claws trying to swell their numbers?”

  “No,” Jace said. “Claws sometimes fell in love with humans or were attracted to them, that was all.”

  The boy was standing by the reception desk. I went over and crouched so that we were eye to eye. “Were you headed to Forest Noir?”

  He nodded. “Mum thought it would be quicker this way. Dad … Dad was taken by Fangs a few days ago.” He glanced warily up at Logan.

  “Logan isn’t like the Fangs that took your dad.”

  “He’s still a Fang. He needs blood to survive.”

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t want yours.”

  The boy looked up at Logan for confirmation. The Fang nodded curtly.

  Ash was still at the lone window, staring out into the fairground.

  “They still there?” Jace asked him.

  Ash signed.

  Jace puffed out his cheeks. “Okay, we best get comfortable then. We have five hours to kill till sunset.”

  He laid down his barbed balls and chains. Sage slid his machete from the strap at his waist and placed it on the reception desk. Ash unhooked his crossbow and leaned it against the wall, and Logan unbuckled the sheath holding his spiked bat to his back and dropped it onto the floor before sliding to the ground beside it, back against the wall.

  Five hours and then we’d be facing every Claw, Fang, and Feral out there.

  Chapter Ten

  Elias

  The tech lab was silent and empty. Almost dawn and many of the Vladul would be retiring for the day. It was an old habit born from our need to hide during the day, not because the sunlight caused us any harm, but because our pale skin and silver hair used to stand out conspicuously, alerting humans to our otherworldness. Hunting at night had simply been easier, but now none of that mattered; it would take time for us to become diurnal.

  When we’d first taken over Genesis, Malcolm had ordered the lab to be sealed off, accessible only to essential personnel. It had taken years and the coercion of human scientists to learn what all this meant. But the Vladul were quick studies, and now our own scientists ran the labs. We’d surpassed the humans at their own game but still stumbled against the same blocks they had.

  This lab wasn’t high security any longer. Most of the discoveries were now old news, and the focus had shifted to bioweaponry, Deanna’s expertise, and one which Malcolm had poured all resources into. So, tech sat unused and abandoned, ripe for the picking. Not that anyone would dare. Not until now.

  Now where was the thing I needed? Ah, there it was. An inch-by-inch square of black material sat in a glass box with several of its mates—Camoskin, Genesis Foundation’s last invention before we’d stepped in and taken over. Humans had been on the verge of creating a new world, one that would have melded supernatural with high-technology. The virus may have decimated the world, but it had created an opportunity for humanity to climb up the ladder and become the apex predator once more. Using the DNA of various animals and supernatural creatures, they’d gone on to create nanotech that could carry runes and enchantments directly into someone’s bloodstream in either gaseous or liquid form. They’d created Camoskin, which could mold to any inanimate object and hide it in plain sight, and they’d been on the verge of isolating the element that made creatures like the Claws, Vladul, djinn, and fey so different from humans. An element found only in supernatural beings … an element called magicka.

  They’d been so close to isolating it, and if they had … It didn’t bear thinking about. Vladul scientists had worked around the clock to attempt to complete the work, and thus far, failed.

  Thank the ancients.

  I plucked a square of Camoskin from the glass box and slipped it into my pocket.

  “Elias? What are you doing in this part of the facility?”

  I turned to face Gerald with a smile. “Looking for you, actually, and reminiscing.”

  Gerald was a white coat assigned to this lab with minimal manpower. Malcolm didn’t like to be seen as giving up on anything, so a skeleton staff was in operation during the night hours. What they actually did down here was anybody’s guess.

  Gerald grinned. “Yes. It was fun decoding this work, wasn’t it?”

  Four months spent assigned to the lab had been far from fun. “Yes. Good times. How is Neela?”

  Gerald nodded, enthusiastic now that we were discussing his life-partner. “She’s good. And you? Have you met anyone?”

  I let out a bark of laughter. “You mean since we crawled out of the earth to take over the human world? No.”

  He winced. “I suppose it must be hard for you.”

  He was referring to my royal blood, to the fact that my lineage meant I was predestined for a single soul. He was referring to the fact that Malcolm had killed my bloodline and many of my people, sparing me only to prove that he could be merciful. In doing so, he’d forced the Vladul, who’d once bowed to my family, to follow him. The coup had come a handful of years before we’d been forced underground, and now … Now he was eager to establish a new rule above ground. My predestined mate was probably dead.

  I shrugged. “I could still fall in love.”

  His smile was close-lipped, polite, because he knew that it was highly unlikely I’d ever fall in love. Maybe lust, but love … no.

  “Not much happening here now,” Gerald said with
a frown. “Shame. There’s so much potential.”

  Nice change of subject. “Have you made any progress on the magicka isolation?”

  Something passed across his face—wariness or fear, it was hard to decipher. He shook his head. “We’ve been focusing on the Camoskin, actually, trying to make it compatible with mammals.”

  “Really? Progress?”

  “A little. We’re about to move to testing phase next week.”

  My heart rate picked up. “And how does Malcolm feel about that?”

  Gerald’s throat bobbed. “Oh. I haven’t told him yet. I thought we should have some results first … you know …”

  He was afraid just like so many others, but he wasn’t on the roster. He wasn’t one of us and there was no time to vet him.

  “Yes, best to have results before you go to Malcolm.” I patted his shoulder, and he tensed.

  “What did you really come here for, Elias? Did he send you to check up on me?”

  Fear. He reeked of it. “No. I just wanted to reminisce, that was all. How’s Brenton? I haven’t seen him around lately.”

  Gerald blinked at me in surprise. “You don’t know?”

  “Know?”

  “Malcolm had Brenton executed three months ago.”

  The breath whooshed out of my lungs. “I … I must have missed the memo.”

  Gerald’s lips tightened. “There was no memo. It was all sudden and hushed. Juniper and Frederick were taken too.”

  “The crime?”

  Gerald picked at his coat. “Suspected sedition.” He cleared his throat. “Malcolm believed they had begun a movement against him.”

  My pulse sped up, but my tone remained light and unaffected. “Really? That’s interesting. I wonder what caused him to think that?”

  Gerald kept his head down. “I wouldn’t know.”

  It was obvious he was scared to death of Malcolm. He believed I was Malcolm’s man and was terrified of what Malcolm could do to him if he said something he shouldn’t. But he’d already said enough. Enough for me to know that Malcolm was on to us. He’d killed the wrong Vladul three months ago. How had I missed that? Did he believe he’d prevented the movement?