“Holy shit,” she breathed.
Sydney examined her hands. Did I touch something toxic? In the dark, it was hard to see her fingernails, but there was something wet under them. At first, she thought it was blood, but, looking closer, it seemed too thin to be blood.
“Move away from him,” Gary’s voice caused her to jump hard enough that she fell back on her butt.
The jogger stopped struggling and made small mewling sounds as he passed out. Gary edged closer with a gun drawn. “Put that away.”
Sydney realized he meant the knife he had given her. She slid it back into the sheath attached to her pants, only fumbling a little. “Is he dead?”
“You’d better hope not. What did you do to him?”
“I don’t know.”
Gary looked at her suspiciously but didn’t speak since Moreno was hurrying toward them followed by Big and Bigger.
“Where the hell were you guys?” Syd snapped.
“We didn’t want to scare anyone off,” Moreno clapped his hands, clearly excited.
“We gotta get out of here,” Jason hurried to their side.
“Why?”
“Two guys just came running past me saying something about another berserker.”
“A what?” Gary stood and moved closer.
“That’s what they are calling the nutsos attacking people.”
“Shit,” Gary put his gun away. He nodded to Big and Bigger. “Get this guy in our trunk. I’ll get Moreno and Sydney back in the SUV.
Sydney was still too stunned to argue or protest when Gary grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. “Get up!”
He pulled her along with Moreno following and Jason bringing up the end. Moreno couldn’t contain his enthusiasm. “You did marvelous my dear.”
Sydney wanted to give him a sarcastic response, but she didn’t trust herself to speak. What the hell just happened? Gary kept glancing at her from the corner of his eye and she tried to ignore him.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her.
“Not really. My head hurts. But I’ll live. I think.”
They crossed the street and Gary opened the SUV door for her and shoved her in. He didn’t help Moreno, in fact, he barely acknowledged him. “Stay in there.”
By the time he returned to the sedan, Big was there with the unconscious jogger. Sydney watched as they dumped the man into the trunk and slammed the lid. Gary and Jason didn’t wait for them before peeling away from the curb. Sydney could tell from the headlights blazing through the window the others were right behind them.
Sydney’s heartrate was slowly returning to a pace that didn’t feel like it was about to explode. She took a deep breath and turned to Moreno. He was staring at her with a sick grin and she flinched.
“You did it!” He reached for her hands and she wasn’t able to pull away fast enough. Her skin crawled at his touch. Worried that he would notice the stuff under her nails, she curled her fingers against her palm. As her nails scraped his skin she wondered what would happen if she dug into his flesh. Would he freak out too?
She wet her lips and took a chance on talking. “I don’t really know what I did.”
“You did what you were supposed to do! Your instincts guided you!”
Sydney could feel the knife at her back and every part of her wanted to pull it out and jam it into Moreno’s eye. But what will happen if I do? Would Gary still kill her friends? He was the one who had given her the damn knife. She needed to tread carefully. If she attacked Moreno, Gary could very possibly keep his promise of killing her and her friends.
She pulled her hands from Moreno slowly as not to offend him. She pulled the back of her shirt down farther and pressed herself against the seat. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Who?” Moreno tilted his head.
“The jogger. The Host.”
“I don’t know,” Moreno shrugged, completely nonplussed at the state of the man who hosted the Dyian. “His Dyian is probably about to be reborn.”
Sydney shuddered involuntarily. “What if he…hatches in the trunk?”
“Not likely. It usually takes an hour or so to fully emerge.”
“What did I…do to him?”
Moreno smiled. “You mesmerized him my dear.”
Sydney remembered the woman in the parking lot. She had been violent and aggressive up to the point when the Dyian burst out. “Do they all go unconscious like that? Just before?”
“No actually. Usually they are in so much pain they are fighting anything and everything.”
Syd’s stomach turned at the utter lack of regard for human suffering. No wonder he and Doc got along so well. “What are you going to do with him?”
“Keep him safe until the Dyian is out.”
“Then?”
“Well, then the host—the cocoon—is useless. Once the butterfly sheds its cocoon it has no more need for it,” his accent made the words sound more beautiful than their meaning.
Her stomach turned. She knew that the jogger would die, but he didn’t deserve any of this and her anger at the unfairness of it sickened her. “Isn’t there anything that can be done to make it less painful for him?”
“I do not know,” Moreno actually did her the courtesy of considering her questions. “Anything that we do could affect or hurt the Dyian.”
And that is unacceptable. Sydney filled in what Moreno left unsaid.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Back at the office building, Bigger lead Sydney to her closet. She didn’t bother arguing or fighting. He opened the door and pushed her inside. The first thing she did was retrieve her phone and flop onto her cot while it started up. In the harsh florescent light, she could see a mixture of blood and something else under her fingernails. A sour taste rose in her throat. What the hell is this? She tried wiping the drying crud out from under her nails without much success.
She sniffed her fingers and would have laughed at herself if the situation hadn’t been so bizarre and terrifying. She could smell the jogger’s blood and something else. It was vaguely musty and earthy smelling. Almost like mildew, or mushrooms. Her stomach gurgled and she had to lay back on the cot and concentrate on not throwing up. She took a few deep breaths then checked her phone. She had a little over half a charge. She unlocked the phone and found Xander and Shay’s number, but she hesitated before dialing. She needed to tell someone about this—but how the hell would she explain it? Some kind of fluid leaked out of my fingernails? It didn’t even begin to make sense.
Before Sydney could work up the courage to call her friends, the sounds of footsteps outside her door stopped her. Gary opened and door and glared at her. She struggled to a sitting position and waited for him to speak first.
“Are you OK?” he finally asked, sounding like he couldn’t care less.
Sydney swallowed thickly. “Mostly.”
“What happened?”
“The guy jumped me. I…I scratched his face and before I could stab him, you guys showed up.”
“Why did he pass out like that?”
Sydney shrugged. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to come up with a convincing lie so she decided to play dumb. “Is he alive?”
“For now,” Gary clearly didn’t care one way or the other.
“I guess the Dyian is hatching?”
Gary was silent for a moment. “I don’t know what the hell is happening to him.”
“You haven’t seen a Dyian have you?”
He stared at her for a long minute. “Not that I know of.”
“You would know,” Sydney added as much weight to her voice as she could.
“The knife,” Gary ignored her. “Keep that hidden and for emergencies only. Avoid using it at all costs. And if Moreno finds out about it, and if he even suspects I gave it to you—I’ll kill one of your friends.”
Sydney’s throat tightened and she fought to not argue with him. Too late she tried to hide the phone under her leg.
“And I don’t give a shit about the p
hone. But if any of your friends show up here, or if the cops show up here, I’ll kill your friends. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Do you need anything?”
Sydney wanted to rail at him. She wanted to start throwing cleaning supplies at him. She wanted to, at the very least, give him some kind of sarcastic answer. But she realized Gary was the closest thing she had to an ally here. As terrible as he was at it, he was at least trying to help her. But what about when he finally sees a Dyian? If he finally believes in them, and believes I have one in me, what will he do then? Sydney knew what she would do. She would kill all the ones she could get her hands on. “I would love to clean up a little.” She held up her dirty hands for emphasis.
Gary nodded and stepped back from the door. “Jason.”
“Yeah,” Jason stepped closer.
“Take her to the bathroom.”
If Jason minded being Gary’s errand boy, he did a really good job of hiding it. “Let’s go.”
He pulled her from the room by her arm and Sydney glared at him. She was getting really tired of being dragged around. Gary had gone ahead of them and didn’t look back, even as he rounded the corner towards the elevators. In the bathroom, she used the toilet before looking at herself in the mirror. She was pale and had some bruises forming on her face but she was otherwise normal. She turned on the sink and let the water get so hot steam rose up to fog the glass. Risking second degree burns she scrubbed her hands, arms, and face with soap from the wall dispenser.
Sydney wished she had a nail brush, but she made do with some paper towels. Once she had removed as much gunk from under her nails as possible, she examined them closely. The only thing that stood out was what looked like small cuts under each nail where it connected to her finger. There was one under each fingernail. Furthermore, pulling and poking at the slits didn’t hurt. But as she prodded under her left thumb with her right, the anomaly opened and a milky white fluid seeped out causing the same “release” feeling that had happened when she dug her fingernails into the jogger.
Sydney froze in shock for a moment. OK, she thought way more rationally than she would have expected. That is clearly not normal. I should be freaking the fuck out right now. Her thoughts raced, but she wasn’t able to move. She thought maybe she should run. Scream. Puke. All of the above? But Sydney didn’t move. No matter the weird substance was, it had saved her life. Scratching the jogger (and maybe even the random host at the coffee shop in Millville?) had gotten this stuff in his system and it had shut him down.
What the fuck does that mean? Of all the things that could have happened to her when she had been abducted, this wasn’t one she expected. She would have assumed prodding, probing, and the like. But a new, built in defense mechanism? That would have been really far down on the list had she tried to make one. She sniffed at the slippery fluid beginning to congeal on the pad of her thumb. Yep. That’s what was mixed with the blood. She washed her hands again wanting to get the stuff off her skin in case it was some kind of poison. Are animals immune to their own poison?
As she was drying her hands, careful to not “milk” anything else out of her fingernails the door flew open. “Are you done?” Jason snapped at her.
“Shit!” she jumped. She had almost forgotten he was outside. “What if I had been naked in here or something?’
Besides looking slightly embarrassed, Jason didn’t react other than to say, a little softer, “You’ve had enough time. Let’s go.”
“Fine,” Sydney tossed the paper towel and reflexively wiped her hands on her pants without intending to.
Back in the closet, she picked up the phone but still hesitated to call Xander and Shay. Instead, she opened the browser and began googling Santeria and gods. Luckily, the office building she was in had Wi-Fi and she didn't have any problems accessing it. She needed to learn as much as she could about the entity that Moreno believed possessed her. Some of the worry that had wrapped itself around her heart, chest, and stomach eased a bit. Finally, she was feeling less helpless and hopeless.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sydney must have fallen asleep during her research because the next thing she knew, she was woken up by the sound of the closet door opening. She blinked in the glare of the lights and raised a hand, trying to shield her eyes. “What?” she croaked.
“Wake up,” Gary waited in the door way for her to get her bearings.
“What time is it?”
“Eight.”
“Shit.” She struggled off the cot and groaned as her back cracked. “What’s going on?”
“I’m taking you to the bathroom. Then Moreno wants to see you.”
Sydney finally noticed the agitation in his voice. He was standing straight with his arms crossed. Taking a closer look, she suspected that Gary had not slept much. “Are you OK?”
“Just hurry up,” he snapped, scratching at the new growth of brown and grey beard. “And bring your knife.”
“Fine.” She turned off her phone, dismayed to see she only had about a quarter of a charge now, and tucked the knife into the back of her pants.
In the bathroom, Sydney found a small plastic case that held a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and a brush. She was so relieved she would have considered hugging Gary if he wasn’t so grumpy. When done, she stored the kit under the sink. Feeling significantly cleaner and less smelly, she left the bathroom. Her relief was short lived however, when she found Moreno waiting for her.
“Good morning,” he wasn’t as grumpy as Gary, but he was still less animated than he normally was.
“Good morning,” she mumbled
“We shall see,” he smiled without showing his teeth for once.
“What’s going on? Why are you two so cranky? I’m the one being held captive and I’m still in a better mood than either of you.”
“Something is wrong with the host. I don't know if something has happened to the Dyian.”
Sydney said nothing, just raised a brow. Gary caught her eye over Moreno’s shoulder. The look her gave her was wary and worried. It caused the acid in her stomach to boil. “OK,” she said cautiously.
Sydney followed as Moreno turned and headed toward the lobby. Gary fell in behind her and she wished she could ask him what was going on. She tried to remember what she had read about Santeria before falling asleep. The best she could tell, gods were arrogant and bold. As a result, she didn’t worry about asking questions. She needed to be snarky and confident if she was going to reinforce Moreno's beliefs.
“Do I get breakfast?” she asked. She heard Gary grunt almost imperceptibly behind her.
Moreno glanced over his shoulder. “When we are done.”
“Really? You expect me to be able to perform on an empty stomach?”
Moreno sighed. “What do you want?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. She tried to play her cards without being too obvious. “For some reason, I’m craving popcorn.” Apparently, gods loved offerings. Many seemed to like corn—including popcorn. Syd remembered it well from her reading because it had caused her to crave popcorn, so she wasn’t actually lying.
Moreno gave her an intrigued look before pulling out a phone. He dialed a number and spoke Spanish to whoever answered. Sydney assumed it was Big or Bigger. “Oscar will bring you something.”
“Which one is Oscar?”
“Does it matter?” Gary snapped and poked her in the back to prod her forward.
“Ow!”
“Just move it.”
Moreno looked at them both before shaking his head dismissively and hurrying forward. Sydney jogged to catch up. On the elevator, both men were silent but Sydney struggled for something else to say. “Can I get some new clothes? I’m feeling a little ripe, if you know what I mean.”
If looks could kill, the one Gary was giving her would cause her to melt like the wicked witch of the west. “What? I’m just saying, I’ve been wearing the same thing for a while now.”
Moreno distracted waved a hand at them. “We’ll take care of it later.”
They rode the elevator to the same floor as the conference room where she had first met the Colombian. But this time they turned down a hallway leading into a new direction. Moreno stopped outside a large picture window. It was probably at one time a space for a receptionist, or training. There were closed blinds on the outside of the room and Moreno pulled a string raising them. Sydney held her breath, afraid of what she would see.
But she was surprised to find the jogger, alive, his head intact, sitting quietly on the floor. If his eyes weren’t open, she would have thought he was asleep. The scratches on his face were already scabbing over and the blisters were already deflated to shiny, wet-looking spots. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked
“I don’t know,” Moreno huffed.
“He looks OK to me…” she shrugged.
Moreno stared at her with exasperation and annoyance. “The Dyian should have emerged by now!”
“How do you know?”
“He seemed like he was ready last night…” he trailed off.
“Maybe he wasn’t.”
“Even so,” Moreno gestured toward the window. “Something is wrong. He won’t talk. He won’t eat. He just sits there.”
“OK,” Sydney kept her voice light.
They all turned at the sound of the elevator doors opening. Bigger, apparently Oscar, rounded the corner carrying a bag of cheesy popcorn and soda—most likely from a vending machine. Wordlessly, he handed her the food and drink and stepped back close to Gary.
“Breakfast of champions,” she held the drink up in a mock salute. Everyone waited while she ate. She nearly cringed at the mix of Coke and toothpaste, but she was grateful for the food. The whole time she ate, the jogger remained motionless. Once she was done, she dusted her hands off and handed her trash to Oscar who glared at her. “Thanks,” she ignored the look and turned back to Moreno.
Show No Fear (The Dyian Series Book 2) Page 15