Chapter Fifteen
Nicole had closed her eyes so hard that it hurt to open them. For a moment she thought maybe she’d damaged them in the fall. When she finally opened them, she gasped.
A haze of blue shrouded them. The grass beneath them was charred black.
She blinked several times, just trying to remember everything that had happened. It all seemed like just a dream with the blue dome and shadowy hand.
No. It wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare. Something she couldn’t seem to wake herself from until she’d seen Joran.
Her gaze wandered down to the man that lay on the ground next to her. Given the way he stared at her with wonderment on his face, she wondered just what he thought would happen. Her stomach tightened.
“We’re not dead,” Joran mumbled. “We should be dead, but we aren’t.”
He pulled her tightly against him and pressed his mouth to hers. She leaned into the kiss, forgetting everything else. When he pulled away, she could see the fear and anger that had settled into his eyes.
“We need to get out of here,” the hybrid said. Joran stood and pulled her to her feet as well.
“That… thing,” Nicole whispered. “I’ve seen it before. In my nightmares.”
Joran nodded. “Erebus.”
Nicole frowned. The name was one she’d heard before. It was strange that it would be familiar to her.
She looked up. “Wait, wasn’t Erebus a Greek god or something?”
The hybrid looked around them and peered into the blue-tinged darkness. It was clear he didn’t want to answer the question, and if she were being honest, it seemed like a crazy thing to ask, but it was the first thing to come to mind from her lessons in high school on Greek mythology. Maybe in a world with hybrids no question was ridiculous.
Joran pulled out his phone from his pocket and held it up. “No signal.”
Nicole pulled out her own phone. It hadn’t even occurred to her before. “Same.”
It didn’t escape her notice that he didn’t want to answer the question yet. That didn’t fill her with confidence, but just being around the man made her feel like they could survive whatever was going on.
She pulled out her walkie talkie and flipped it on.
“This is Deputy Monroe,” she called into it.
A harsh crackle was the only thing that came back. Nothing.
In the distance, something screamed from the darkness.
Nicole shivered at the sound. “Is that… him?”
Joran nodded. “We need to find a place to hide until we figure this out. I promise you that I’ll protect you.”
The statement filled her heart with warmth, but it was only then she noticed the dark blood that coated the side of his blue shirt. Nicole leaned in to pull up on the fabric. Joran hissed as she did so.
Nicole’s eyes widened. “You’re bleeding!”
Three gashes bled freely from his side.
Another scream came from the forest, and Joran tensed.
Joran pulled down his shirt and put his hand to her elbow. “Let’s move.”
They hadn’t moved far when she noticed the charred body. She gasped and turned her head away.
“What happened?”
Joran shook his head. “Not sure? Maybe the poor bastard wandered in. Maybe it was Erebus. Doesn’t change the fact he’s dead.”
Nicole glanced back to the figure on the ground. “It’s Ted, isn’t it?”
Joran gave a short nod before guiding them down the hill. “Likely,” he said quietly. “And that’s going to make things more complicated after this.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Somebody’s going to have to explain the charred body of a cop.” The hybrid shrugged.
Nicole let out a sigh. Joran was right.
They walked down the steep hill for a bit before she spoke again.
“Did Frank send you?”
Joran stopped at a tree just at the edge of what looked like a damaged barn with more than a few holes. “Frank stopped to see if Ted was at our place. Rem called to tell me where you were. They are on their way though.”
Panic raced through her. Frank couldn’t come to where they were. She had to warn him before he ended up just like Ted.
Joran shook his head. “He’s with my people.” His warm hands landed on her shoulders. “They won’t let anything happen to him.”
Nicole had never known someone so in tune with her emotions. It was like having someone read her mind.
She nodded and turned back to the barn. “Are we going in?”
Joran gritted his teeth. “This is where the Glycons sleep.”
Another scream echoed through the air.
“We don’t have much choice.”
“We can’t just stay here.” Joran nodded. “You have your gun?”
Nicole nodded. Joran stared at her for a moment, his face grim.
“Any of them find us, you run,” he said. “You shoot anything in your way, and you keep running. Those things are tough, but they can be killed.”
She shook her head. “What about you? I can’t just leave you.”
Joran pulled her hard against his chest. She could feel the blood from his shirt and knew he had to be in quite a bit of pain.
“I’ll get away,” he whispered. “And I promise I’ll come to you.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and Nicole quickly dashed them away. She wasn’t a crier. She was a doer. He could tell her to run all he wanted, but there was no way in hell she was going to leave him.
Nicole pulled back and stared up at him. It was strange that earlier things had been so different. Now she was seeing everything as if it were new. The blue glow had cleared her head, and it all just worked. They worked.
Is this what it meant to be a Vestal? It felt right. She finally understood. On a deep level, she knew that they were meant to be together.
Joran reached down and took her hand. “Keep low and quiet,” he said. “If we’re lucky, they won’t notice us.”
Surviving and making it over to the other side of the dome hadn’t made Joran relax. Not only that, he wasn’t sure if that’s where they actually were. The blue haze seemed more indistinct than it should be from just the light from the dome. It reminded him almost of what it was like to be in the nightmares where Erebus appeared.
Without more information, going into the barn was a terrible plan. In fact, he was half certain they should just take their chances in the forest with Erebus rather than go where Agatha and her Glycons slept. These new types were an unknown quantity, and in the end, it hadn’t been one of his people to take out Thrax, but the blue stone.
Winning against one super-Glycon was questionable enough, let alone several.
Erebus screamed again from the woods. This time the scream sounded closer. Joran didn’t know how long it took for a creature like that to heal, but he’d bet it was a lot less time than his people.
Joran’s gaze flicked down to the blood on his shirt. With the injury he had, it would be hard to do much of anything when it came to fighting.
He led Nicole silently into the barn and frowned. Entering it had proven far easier than he expected. Just like the last time they had been in there, the Glycons were in the stables, each of them connected to tubes flowing blue liquid into them. He tried not to think about what the liquid represented.
The essence of the very being of hybrids was being pumped into these creatures. Their lives. Probably their souls. There was no telling how many hybrids had to die to make the product.
Movement caught Joran’s eye, and he found himself staring at Agatha herself. The pale woman seemed slightly more disheveled than the last time he’d seen her. She also no longer tried to hide the burn scars on her face. Instead she seemed to wear them as some sort of badge of honor. Or maybe a reminder of her hatred for his people.
Agatha turned and looked directly at him. Joran stilled.
For a moment, he was certain it was all over, and she would call for her Glycons to rip them both to shreds, but she did nothing. Instead she just continued to stare with her blood red eyes. It took a full minute for her to glance away.
Had she not seen him? It seemed unlikely given her heightened hybrid-like senses and attention. Maybe being in the blue haze put them in a different interface with reality or a different space. It was hard to tell really.
Erebus was where they were, so maybe it was the space in between worlds. Or maybe it had something to do with the stone. In either event, they were both near her but somehow invisible.
Regardless, the blue stone was the cause of this all, and if the hybrids could get their hands on it, they could end the threat of Erebus and stop Agatha.
Pain throbbed in Joran’s side as he stepped toward where Agatha had been.
He was in no shape to go after the stone, and above all, he needed to find a hiding spot for Nicole. They could figure out the rest after she was safe.
Joran turned to where she stood unmoving behind him. The whole time he’d barely heard her even breathe.
He nodded to the back of the room. A ladder led up into the rafters. It was likely where they stored the hay when there were horses and not men being kept there.
The pair crept up the steps and made their way to the small loft. The space was enough they wouldn’t be noticed, and it would give him a moment to think. Joran sank down into a pile of old hay and sighed.
He’d lost more blood than he cared to consider. This could end badly for him. He needed to fight and protect Nicole, but it was so hard to concentrate.
“I’m just going to close my eyes for a moment,” Joran said.
His words were already starting to slur, and the space around them was fading away, but it couldn’t be helped. Maybe if he just slept for a bit while they were safe, he’d feel better.
The blue world faded to black.