Acid pain shot up from where the teeth dug into his flesh and light flashed across his vision. He must have cried out because when he blinked his vision clear there were three people staring down at him with varying degrees of smirks on their faces.
“I’ll be dammed. It really worked,” the wolf man said. He grinned at Kai, then glanced up at the woman beside him. The pain was stunning, and all Kai could do was try to sort out the voices and make sense of the words they were saying. Maybe he’d have a chance to dig out his cell phone and…
And he’d left it in his car, plugged into the charger.
“I admit I’m surprised he fell for it quite so easily. Coyotes are known to be excellent at spotting these traps. And you? Are you satisfied?” She glanced over at the wolf man. Kai struggled to think through the pain, but it was so hard to follow what they were saying.
“Oh, I will be when he’s turned. I’ll start my new army with him.” The wolf man— warlock, dammit! — kicked Kai in the ribs, which made a new source of pain bloom there, and made the trap’s teeth tug on his leg and dig in deeper.
“You should have seen him when he got hauled in this morning, dead drunk. Between the wound he’s let fester and the doubts I’ve been poking, and the hangover, he’s so off balance right now he’d probably have fallen for anything. What can I say, I do good work.”
Kai froze.
“It was your plan, Eric. Shouldn’t you be more pleased? I really didn’t think he’d fall for it.” the woman asked.
No. No!
Eric stepped through from the front room and frowned down at Kai for a minute before shrugging and Kai felt the betrayal like another claw ripping through his body. This pain in his heart was so much worse than either the wight’s blow or the jagged teeth clamped around his calf.
“He did a lot of the work for us, really. I guess he hasn’t been thinking very clearly for weeks now, all I did was pick away at him a bit. We should toss him in the dark. Aren’t wights allergic to daylight?” Eric looked up at the warlock now while the woman scowled.
“I don’t like making a new monster to replace the one we’re hunting,” she growled. A hunter. Kai swallowed. Eric was working with the warlock and the hunters. Which meant that Cassie was here, being used as bait for Marcus. And he had failed her. He had failed everyone. And he was going to die here.
22
Look at you. Some demi-god you are.” Eric’s sneer rang in his ears as a heavy boot landed another blow to his side. Kai thought he felt something crack, not that it mattered. Someone stepped in front of Kai’s face and he saw Eric squat down. A hand grabbed his hair and hauled his head up so Eric could peer into it.
“You think you’re so damn special just cause you’re a freak. How’s it feel to be special now?” Eric sneered. “Why not use your fancy powers to get free? Huh? Oh, wait, you’re afraid you’ll hurt us mere mortals, aren’t you? Then again, excruciating pain is pretty distracting. Maybe I should make sure you don’t get a chance to catch your breath, hmm?” Eric threw Kai’s head down so hard it bounced off the floor and stood up to shove the steel trap, digging the teeth deeper into Kai’s leg. It skidded easily though the blood pooling underneath.
“Why?” Kai wheezed the word. Breathing was difficult, but forcing the words out burned in his throat. Any warmth at this point was good. “Why would you…”
“Because you’re getting rich off of being a monster and humans like me are left in the damn dirt like bugs. That is so backwards I can’t even begin to explain it. When you and Seb are out of the picture, I’ll step in and take over the apartment. Then it’ll be my turn to get rich. Do you have any idea how much you could charge for those units?”
“I’m not… rich. It’s just work. Why…”
Spirits above, did that even make sense?
“Oh, fuck the work. I’m going to renovate the hell out of the place, jack the rents, and let someone else manage the day to day garbage. I’ll just enjoy the money I rake in. Silicon Valley execs and their plastic families will flock down here for the chance to live so damn close to what passes for nature. I’ll just call the place ‘luxury apartments’ and it’ll sell itself. Pity your poor freak community will have to move out when they can’t afford the rent anymore. Mostly I’m just excited that I can finally take it all away from you.” Eric let go of Kai’s hair, and Kai knew his head bounced off the filthy linoleum floor, but he could barely feel anything anymore.
“Man, you’re already ice cold,” Eric said. “You’ll be done in an hour, tops. Just knowing how totally screwed your friends are’ll be enough push you over the edge. We’ve arranged a first meal for you, too. I hear wights like to snack on innocent young things once in a while, and it’ll wrap up a loose end for my partners here. Tidy, I think.” He laughed as he left the room. Hands grabbed him and dragged him across the floor, the teeth of the trap digging into his bone now. He felt himself shoved into a wall, then tipped over into space. He landed heavily in a pile of limbs and blood and couldn’t find the strength to even roll onto his back.
Eric was right, Kai could tell that the numbness was settling into his limbs and could feel the cold fingers of the despair edging into his mind. He couldn’t concentrate on anything for very long, the pain and exhaustion were too much. At least it really wouldn’t be much longer and he would lose this fight as well. Perhaps it was for the best. Someone from the Village would find him and destroy him with fire or with sunlight somehow. They would all be better off after that. Sebastian and Jennifer would figure out a way to keep everything running without him.
Because that was the one thing that Kai held on to. The knowledge that Eric’s grand scheme was entirely futile. Jennifer had set it all up weeks ago, once they had realized out that Kai specifically was the target, and by extension Sebastian as well, they had discussed how to prevent exactly this situation— a greedy human coming in and tearing apart the community. So, they had found a way to protect it. Kai and Sebastian between them were the primary owners, and managed the Village at Rancho San Califia, but the residents had ownership as well, and if both Kai and Sebastian died without heirs— not that Jennifer had let them forget to make wills, just in case— their share of the property would be spread between all the remaining residents. Eric wouldn’t be able to get anything at all.
Kai knew, abstractly, that his body was curled on the dirt floor of… wherever this was. His leg was numb now, the smell of blood clogging his nose so that even musty staleness that must fill the air was blocked out. He was vaguely aware that was bad. His whole body throbbed as the bruises bloomed like the desert after a damn rainstorm, but the physical damage wasn’t what hurt. His body was cold— cold past shivering— and a small voice in his head wondered if it was true that he’d die if he fell asleep when he was this cold. That’s what all the TV shows seemed to say when the plucky heroes got trapped in the snow.
But there was no snow here. Just betrayal and failure.
Kai felt himself cough. It was almost like he was hanging out in someone else’s body now, observing what happened to it, but mostly just waiting. It wouldn’t be much longer, he thought, and that chilled him even further. He didn’t want to turn like this. If he was going to die, why couldn’t Eric just let him die? Kai understood that he’d failed his step-brother long ago, he got that now. Somehow when they were children he’d failed to see that Eric felt lesser somehow, that he thought Sebastian and Kai were treated differently and he had resented that, and Kai had never even noticed. But did that really warrant this level of cruelty? Cassie must be nearby as well, frightened and alone, and intended to feed him.
He had to dig into himself and find enough energy, enough willpower and focus to call a fire before he turned. The thought of being used as weapon by that warlock was almost as chilling as being betrayed by his own brother. He needed to prevent that at least.
There was no way to know how long he lay there in the cold. There were no windows here in this basement cell. No clocks, nothing t
hat would indicate time’s passage. It was just Kai and the cold, and the despair of knowing that he’d gotten people hurt or worse, and that nobody was coming to help him. Even if they knew where he was, they wouldn’t come. He’d made sure of that by his behavior yesterday and then running out this afternoon. Kai couldn’t even list all the ways he had failed everyone around him.
Something landed hard half on top of him, skidding down his back and grunting.
“There you go, Kai. Enjoy your meal!” The warlock’s laugh echoed through the room until a door shut behind him and returned the room to the dark. Quiet returned as well, the sound of his own raspy breathing had been his only company for who knew how long, but now someone else was with him in the dark, making soft grunts and whispers of cloth over cement.
“Kai?” Cassie’s voice was hesitant and Kai could hear the fear in it. It seemed to leap out at him like an oasis for a thirsty man. This was cruel, even for hunters.
“You need to run, Cassie. Try to escape. Please,” Kai put all his strength into the plea. He coughed again, a wet sound and he wondered if there was blood in it. Probably.
“Kai!” Cassie’s hand landed on his shoulder, groping blindly in the dark. “Oh my god, you’re bleeding!”
“Cass,” Kai groaned when she felt up his shoulder to his face, her fingers soft, trying to see his injuries without using her eyes. “Cassie, please. The poison… I can’t last long.”
“Oh whatever. You think you’re going to turn into a wight now? After all this? Bullshit.” Cassie’s voice had lost the sharp edge of fear now, but it was still there beneath the bravado and the worry. A thin light stabbed towards the ceiling and slashed around the room. Cassie moved again, and the flashlight in her watch sliced against the dark with the motion. “Oh my god,” she gasped.
Kai wondered what she saw. He must look awful. Not much of a surprise, considering he’d been beaten and was turning into a creature made of pure malice and void.
“Cassie, there’s nothing you can do.” The effort of forcing the words out was making his ribs burn now too. He almost preferred the numbing cold. At least that didn’t hurt. “I couldn’t save you, I’m sorry. But you need to get away from me. Before I become a wight. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“You won’t hurt me,” Cassie said. She crouched by his leg, glaring at the trap.
“You don’t know—”
“I don’t know much about wights, that’s true. Just the little bit that Doc told me. But I know you,” she said. Cassie stood up, her head just brushing the roof of the small room and ran her thin light around the space. It looked like it had begun as a root cellar, then got expanded a bit to be used as storage instead. There were the remains of moldy cardboard boxes and some broken chunks of what had probably once been furniture, though it was hard to tell at this point. She grunted and scurried over to the pile of debris and started sifting through it.
“Cassie—” Kai tried again. This kid’s stubbornness was going to get her killed in the most horrifying way he could imagine, and he would be the one doing it. Just the idea of it made him retch and she looked up with concern to watch his convulsions. When he opened his eyes again she was back by his leg with a short length of wood.
“Hold still. Believe it or not I don’t have a lot of experience with bear traps or whatever this is. I swear, it’s like your jerk brother bought his plan from Acme. And I’m pretty sure I heard that coyotes don’t fall for these things very often. Guess you have been a bit distracted lately, though. I’m going to need you to help me a bit.” She kept up a running commentary while she peered at the mechanism, carefully levered the jaws of the trap open, and pulled it off his leg. Kai just lay there, following her directions and shivering, too exhausted to object anymore. It took both of them some time to force open the jaws of the trap, some odd modifications someone had made to it causing Cassie a lot of trouble.
She shrugged out of her sweatshirt and wrapped it around the bloody mess of his leg.
“Not super effective, but I hope it will do till we can get you to Doc. Or a hospital. Or both, maybe.”
He shivered again as she started wiping blood off his face with her fingers. “Cassie, this is my fault. He’s just using you and the Village to get at me. He—”
“Are you stupid?” Cassie frowned at Kai for a moment before gently trying to roll him to his back. “You’re blaming yourself for everything that jerk Eric did, just like my Dad blames himself for the club shooting and Mom’s murder. Is this a guy thing or something? You didn’t do any of it, Kai. He did. You were just there for it, it’s not your fault.”
Kai blinked up at her. It was hard to focus. The swelling over his face and the poison working to make him a creature of the dark combined to blur Cassie’s face in the thin light from her watch.
“If it weren’t for me…” Kai started.
“You know, I am too young to start complaining about men being stupid and stubborn, but you’re making it tough for me to hold back.” Cassie leaned on his leg where her makeshift bandage was wrapped tightly. “Sorry if this hurts, Kai, but you are bleeding really bad. If TV cop shows have taught me nothing else, it’s to apply pressure.”
“Why…” God it hurt like hell. “Why won’t you try to escape?”
“I’ve already told you. I know that you won’t hurt me.” She was so matter of fact that she almost sounded like Doc.
“How do you know?” Kai asked. Cassie huffed a little laugh, then sighed. It was a sound far too old for her years. She had seen too much suffering already. And it was all because she’d been dragged into their world, full of vampires and wights and all the other monsters.
“Because you’re you, Kai. You care about people way too much to hurt anyone on purpose. I mean, you let Dad move in three hours after meeting him. He’s a freaking vampire. I know what people’s reaction is to that even if he is a fancy Hungarian variety. But you listened to him and let us move in anyway,” Cassie frowned at him when he tried to speak again. “And because you didn’t really fight back in the kitchen.”
Kai knew his surprise managed to show on his face. Cassie shifted and he couldn’t stop the hiss of pain.
“Sorry,” she said. “Yes, I was there. You were pretty distracted or you’d have seen me.”
“Cassie. You’re very brave,” Kai managed to say after a minute. He had to work to get the words out. “But you need to try to get out. Go find help, someone that can destroy me when…”
“You’re not going to turn into a wight, Kai, and I’m pretty sure that help is on the way already. The whole Village is probably on the way, I bet. They’ve been really worried about you. Honestly, I’m surprised that help isn’t here already. It’s been forty-five minutes, and it’s cold down here. I’m ready to get out of this dump.”
“Oh god, it’s happening,” Kai shivered. “I’m so sorry Cassie.”
“What?” there was confusion in her glance. “Oh, you think the cold is from you? Hate to burst your bubble there. The cold is from being in a freaking root cellar. It can’t be more than sixty degrees down here. I hope there’s an ambulance coming with the cops, because you really need it, you’re burning up.”
“I… I feel so cold.” Kai whispered.
“I know. That’s what happens when you have a fever and massive blood loss and get your leg caught in a bear trap and probably broken ribs and god knows what else at this point. Probably infections and gangrene and the bubonic plague or something,” Cassie grinned down at him. “You’re not turning into a wight, Kai. You’re just all beat up and thrown in a basement.”
23
Kai blinked at Cassie’s face. The needle of light from her watch was already starting to dim, but he could see clearly enough. She just looked back at him and leaned on his wounds to slow the bleeding. He could feel the heat from her body seep through the bloody rags that wrapped around his leg, but more, he thought he could feel the warmth of her spirit. Almost as if she had some magic of her own.
/> Her watch flickered and went out.
“Well, damn,” she said. “I have to admit that I’m not a bit fan of pitch blackness, but I guess there’s not much we can do about it.” She shivered slightly but kept her voice strong. Cassandra had watched her mother get murdered by one of the people upstairs. She’d been on the run for almost a year, then kidnapped— probably by Eric he realized with a shock— and thrown into a cold basement to be eaten by a monster and consumed by the darkness, and she was still trying to reassure him. Kai dug deep and a ball of light flickered to life over her head.
“Woah!” The awe in that one whispered word seemed to shift something. His whole world was pain, but he could still somehow bring some comfort to Cassie. He swallowed and forced more of his magic to obey him. It wasn’t a difficult spell. Before today he could have popped a dozen lights into existence and then juggled them while still carrying on a conversation. It was a party trick. But the pain and the exhaustion— and he had to admit that the hangover was not helping him here— were blurring everything.
Still, another light bloomed behind her. Then, slowly, a third before he was gasping for breath and Cassie turned back to watch him roll over and cough more blood onto the dirt floor.
“Okay, that’s enough. Kai! Enough! I don’t need the light that bad!” She leaned over him, fear in her voice for the first time. Why should she be afraid now?
“Kai, stop, you’re going to hurt yourself. Please,” Cassie was afraid for him? He lay quietly on the floor and controlled his breathing.
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