“Help!” Nola screamed.
The man laughed. No one could hear her over the chaos.
He leaned down, pinning Nola’s arms to the ground. She screamed as his fangs pierced her skin.
“Get off of her,” a woman shouted, and the man was torn from Nola and tossed aside like a ragdoll.
Nola grabbed the place on her neck where the man’s fangs had been ripped from her flesh. Hot blood streamed down her collar bone.
Raina stood over her in the dark.
“That one is to be left alone!” Raina shouted at the man. “It’s his orders.”
But the man had already reached for his knife. Holding it high in the air, he threw the blade at Nola, bloodlust glinting in his eyes.
Nola saw the knife. Watched it flying end over end toward her heart. There was nowhere to run, nothing to do.
Raina leapt to the side, and the sharp point of the knife disappeared into her chest.
“No!” Nola shouted as Raina collapsed to the ground.
The man looked down at Raina’s body and ran, cutting through the fight and out into the night.
“Raina.” Nola crawled over to her.
The knife stuck out of Raina’s chest, moving as she fumbled for the hilt. Raina coughed, and blood trickled out of her mouth.
“You’re okay.” Nola lifted Raina’s head into her lap, pushing the scarlet and purple hair away from her face.
A trail of blood dripped from Raina’s lips to her chin. She coughed again, and a horrible gurgling sound came from the wound.
“You can heal from this.” Nola pushed her hands down around the blade, trying to stop the bleeding. “Should I leave the knife in or take it out?”
A shrill whistle came from outside the domes.
“It’s too late for me, kid,” Raina said, her voice crackling as she spoke. She coughed a laugh and smiled. “Funny that a knife stopped me.”
“I’ll get help,” Nola said, laying Raina’s head gently down. She stood, searching for a vampire who would know what to do. But all the vampires were running out through the glass. The guards who were left standing were still trying to fight, but there were too many vampires.
“Stop please!” Nola shouted. “She needs help! Raina needs help.”
Only one of the fleeing pack turned to face her. He wore a dark hood, but as the red light hit his face, she saw him.
Kieran.
His eyes were coal black, no hint of green or gold left at all. He carried a heavy box in his arms and was surrounded by vampires holding weapons.
“Go!” a voice shouted. Bryant lifted his pipe and charged at the guards.
Kieran looked at her for only a moment longer before racing after him.
“Kieran,” Nola whispered, sinking to the ground. There were more shouts of pain and a visceral scream.
“Jeremy!” Nola shouted.
He was in the center of the fight, trying to stop the vampires.
Nola turned back to Raina. Her eyes were closed, but she would heal. She had to. Nola wrenched the knife from Raina’s chest and ran into the fight.
Jeremy’s left arm hung limp and bloody at his side. In his right hand, he held a guard’s club, which he swung at a boy with brilliant red hair.
Nola had seen the red haired boy in Nightland. He had looked so young and helpless in the tunnels beneath the city. Now he bared his teeth, violent hatred twisting his face. He swung his broken sword at Jeremy’s neck. Jeremy jumped backwards, dodging the jagged strip of metal, and swayed sideways. He had stepped on a guard who lay face up on the ground, her eyes wide open and blank.
The red-haired boy lunged again, taking advantage of Jeremy’s stumble. Jeremy tried to duck, but his wounds slowed his reflexes.
Jeremy!
Nola couldn’t make her mouth form the word. She raised Raina’s knife high in the air and sank the blade into the boy’s back. The sword fell from his hand as he screamed in rage and pain before dropping to the ground.
He lay still next to the fallen guard, his eyes as blank as hers.
“Nola.” Jeremy scrambled toward her.
“I know where the heart is,” Nola said.
“Nola,” Jeremy said, “are you hurt?”
“I know where the heart is.” Nola turned away from the red-haired boy. He wouldn’t wake up.
“We have to go,” Jeremy said, pushing Nola to move with his good hand that still clutched the club.
They ran back out of the Grassland Dome. Blood slicked the corridor floor.
“We need to get you to the bunker.” Jeremy turned toward the corridor that led to seed storage and safety.
Nola ran to the atrium instead, grateful that Jeremy’s heavy footfalls followed her.
Most of the glass on the city side of the atrium had been shattered. Shards of it covered the ground. The vampires had fled into the night. Guards stood at the break in the glass, trying to secure their ruined wall, shooting at the vampires that fell behind the rest of Nightland’s retreat. Bodies lay twisted and broken on the ground. A blond girl lay by the door.
“Nikki.” Nola knelt next to her, not caring as the glass sliced her knees.
She placed a hand on Nikki’s chest. Blood coated her pale pink shirt. Her throat had been torn out, and terror filled her unmoving face.
Nola kept her hand pressed to Nikki’s chest, waiting for a heartbeat she knew wouldn’t come.
“She must have tried to come to the atrium bunker.” Jeremy lifted Nola’s hand away.
The sounds of the fighting had ended, replaced by cries of fear and pain mixing with shouted orders.
“Guards on the break, keep watch!” a voice bellowed in the darkness.
“Dad.” Relief flooded Jeremy’s face.
“All others to the armory.” Captain Ridgeway stood in the middle of the rubble. Blood covered half of his face, a gash still dripping on his brow. The stoic man who defended the domes had disappeared; a raging warrior now commanded the Outer Guard. “We’re going after the Vamper scum.”
Jeremy nodded and stood.
“What are you doing?” Nola grabbed his good arm as he moved to follow the others.
“Going with the guards.”
“But you can’t.” Nola held tight to his hand. “You’re hurt.”
“I have to, Nola.” Jeremy’s voice was low, filled with an anger she had never seen in him before.
Nola wrapped her arms around him as he tried again to walk away. “You said we had to get to the bunker, so let’s go. We’ll go together.”
“Gentry and my dad will both be out there,” Jeremy said.
“They’re both Outer Guard.”
“So am I. I was sworn in the day they took you,” Jeremy said. “It was the only way I could help find you. Nola, I have to go.”
“What if you’re hurt? What if—”
Jeremy leaned down, silencing her protests with a kiss. Nola wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer to him, desperate to keep him there with her.
“I can’t lose you,” Nola whispered as he pulled away.
“Never.” Jeremy smiled. “I love you, Nola. I’ll be home soon.” He was gone before Nola could stop him.
Chapter Thirty
Nola stood frozen in the sea of chaos, unsure of what to do. The guards would be going to Nightland soon. She knew more about the tunnels than any of them.
I can’t let anything happen to Jeremy.
Nola ran to the front of the atrium. The shattered glass crunched beneath her feet with every step. Blood pooled on the floor in places. Boot prints smeared the red, leaving designs of death in the battle’s wake.
Had the blood spilled from Domer or vampire veins? Was there even a way to tell?
The engines of the guard trucks had already rumbled to life.
“Wait!” Nola shouted as the guards loaded into the back. “I have to go with you!”
“Not a chance,” one of the guards said, blocking her at the break in the glass.
&nbs
p; “But I’ve been in Nightland. I can help.” Nola watched the stream of uniforms filing out of the domes, wishing she could catch a glimpse of Jeremy.
“Miss, you’re injured. You need medical attention.”
Nola’s hand flew to her neck, sticking to the blood that covered her skin.
“The guards,” Nola said. “Some of them are hurt, and they’re going.”
Gentry ran past, jamming on her helmet.
“Gentry!” Nola sprinted after her, catching Gentry’s arm as she climbed into the truck. “I have to go with you.”
“No citizens are to leave the domes, no exceptions,” Gentry said. “Get to the bunker. Your mother will be there.”
Nola took a breath, trying not to scream. Her mother waited below, guarding the seeds. But Jeremy would be in the tunnels.
Jeremy fighting Kieran.
“I can help. I know about Nightland!” Nola shouted desperately as Gentry turned away.
“If you think you have important information,” Gentry said, “go to the Com Room. The operation is going to be controlled from there. Maybe they’ll talk to you.”
“Thank you,” Nola shouted, already running for the far end of the atrium.
In the back of the atrium stood the tower, the only concrete structure to rise above the domes. Two guards flanked the doors to the staircase.
“I have to get up there,” Nola panted, trying the push past the guards, who easily shoved her away.
“I’m afraid not, miss,” the guard said. “Go to the medical unit. They can help you there.”
“I’m Magnolia Kent. I was held in Nightland, and I have information that can help them. Please, you have to let me help.”
One guard nodded to the other before raising his wrist to his mouth. “Magnolia Kent is here. She says she has information that can help.”
There was a pause before a voice crackled out of the man’s wrist. “Send her up.”
“Thank you.” Nola slid through the door before it had fully opened. She sprinted up the staircase.
This area hadn’t been touched by the attack. The vampires hadn’t bothered to break into the Communications Center.
Nola pounded up the flights of stairs, adrenaline pushing her to run faster.
How long until Jeremy reaches Nightland?
A guard waited at the top of the stairs, punching the code in to open the door only when Nola stopped, gasping for air, on the top landing.
“In here.” The guard ushered Nola into the wide room.
She had been in the Com Room only once before. Years ago. Her entire class had been brought up here to see how communication with the other domes and the rest of the outside world worked. That day, the room had been a place filled with wonder, where she could see the face of a person on the other side of the world as they spoke. That day the world had seemed infinite and wonderful.
Today, chaos filled the tower.
Happy faces weren’t smiling back from the screen. Instead, a live feed of the guards on their way to Nightland took up the whole wall. The Outer Guard poured out of their trucks onto the street at 5th and Nightland.
“Magnolia.” Captain Stokes limped toward her. “They said you have information.”
Nola’s mind flickered back to her lessons with Julian. Sitting at the table, learning the things she was allowed to say.
The lie doesn’t matter anymore. Nightland destroyed my home.
“I know where in Nightland Emanuel lives,” Nola said. “I can tell your men how to get there.”
Stokes stared at her for a moment. “Do it.”
“But there’s a little girl,” Nola said as a man strapped a headset on her. “You have to promise me you won’t hurt the little girl.”
“We aren’t the monsters here,” Stokes said. “We don’t hurt children.”
The Outer Guard were in Nightland now.
“Tell them which way.” Stokes fixed his gaze on the screen.
Nola squinted at the picture, trying to make sense of the shadows. “The second tunnel on the left, the one with the door blown off. Go that way.”
The guards all moved in formation, slowly and methodically sweeping their lights in the tunnel. As the beams flashed over the rubble, Nola remembered the last time the guards had been in Nightland. Kieran had protected her, and now she was sending the guards after him.
“How far down?” Stokes asked.
Nola swallowed and looked out over the atrium. Smoke still billowed from the fire below. Through it she could barely see the dome helicopters taking flight. The helicopters had no sides. No defense against attack. But the brave pilots would fly over the city to try and aid their compatriots. They were going to help Jeremy.
“They’ll hit a bigger tunnel. Follow that left until they find the wooden door,” Nola said, her voice a harsh whisper. “It’s old, and the wood has carvings in it. Go through there to the gallery. It’s like an old library.” Nola waited, watching the screen.
Screams carried through the feed.
“Behind you!” a man’s voice shouted.
“I’ve got him!” a woman answered.
A pop and a scream of rage flooded Nola’s ears as the screen flashed and went black.
“There are more behind him!” a voice shouted. “Keep going. We’ll cover you.”
The sounds of labored breathing and more shouting pounded into Nola’s ears.
“I think I found it,” the voice said after a moment. “Yep, this is it.”
“We’re clear,” a different voice said.
“Where now?”
“Go through the door at the end,” Nola said. “There’s a kitchen on the right. In the back, there’s another door. Through there is a heavy metal door. It’s the safe room. That’s where Emanuel will be.”
“How do you know?” Stokes turned to Nola, his eyes sharp even though blood dripped from his leg.
“That’s where his daughter will be,” Nola said. “He wants to keep her safe.”
“We’re in the kitchen,” the voice came through the headset. “The room is empty. The room with the metal door is open.”
“Emanuel left.” The words felt hollow in Nola’s mouth.
“What?” Stokes said.
“Emanuel left,” Nola said. “If Eden is gone, he will be too.”
“How do you know?” Stokes asked, his forehead so furrowed his eyebrows had become one angry strip of black.
“The garden.” Nola pointed out the window to the skyline of the city. “On the roof above Nightland, the second tallest building in the city, there should be a garden on the roof.” Just because Emanuel left didn’t mean all of Nightland was gone. Maybe Kieran had stayed behind in the city, saving the poor and the hungry.
The guard barked orders for a helicopter to circle the building.
Nola watched the light of the helicopter circling in the air. It looked like a fairy, far away over the city. Barely even a speck in the distance.
“There’s a bunch of trash on the roof, sir,” the pilot’s voiced crackled in her ears. “It looks like there was something here, but whatever it was, it’s gone now.”
Nola’s heart crumpled. The static of the screen swayed in front of her. “They’re gone.”
The garden, Dr. Wynne, Kieran.
“He’s gone.”
Nola’s knees buckled. Arms steadied her and lifted her to a chair. But she couldn’t think, couldn’t move beyond Kieran.
Gone.
Chapter Thirty-One
They sat her in a chair in the back of the Com Room. A doctor came up and cleaned and wrapped the wound on her neck.
“You’re a lucky girl,” the doctor said. “If you’d torn your jugular, there’s nothing we could have done.”
“Raina saved me.” Nola stared at the dried blood that still covered her hands.
Mine, Raina’s, the red-haired boy I killed, Nikki’s. Who else’s?
She couldn’t even remember.
“Magnolia.” Stokes came over from t
he giant screen. He had been shouting into the com a few minutes ago. Vampires had been hiding in the tunnels, waiting to ambush the guards. The guards kept talking about Emanuel leaving traps. But Emanuel would be out of the city by now, finding cover before dawn.
“Magnolia,” Stokes said. “I need to ask you some questions.”
“She needs to rest,” the doctor said, planting himself in front of Nola.
She wanted to thank him, but Stokes had already pushed the doctor out of the way.
“I have guards risking their lives in the city,” Stokes said. “She can rest when they do.”
The doctor looked as though he might argue for a moment before shaking his head and walking through the metal door to the stairs.
Nola wanted to follow him. But where would she go? Had her mother made it home yet? Was her house even still standing? Had Bright Dome been destroyed?
“How did you know the path through the tunnels?” Stokes asked.
“He walked me from 5th and Nightland, from the Club to the gallery,” Nola said. “He wanted me to see where he lived.”
“And the garden on the roof?”
“He took me up.” Tears burned in the corners of Nola’s eyes. “He wanted to show me what they had built. He said they were finding a way to feed the city.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“He said not to,” Nola said. The burning had moved to her throat. “He said you would destroy the food, and people would starve. I thought they only wanted the ransom. I thought it was over and I would never see him again. He said they wanted to be left alone. I didn’t want more fighting.” Tears streamed down Nola’s face.
“Sir,” a man shouted from the front of the room. “We have a problem. The convoy’s been attacked at 10th and Main.”
Stokes cursed and ran back to the screen.
“We have wounded!” a voice echoed over the com. “We need emergency medical assistance.”
Guards tore around the room, calling everyone they could for help. Nola pushed herself to her feet and stumbled to the door, running from the room before anyone tried to call her back.
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