37. Dane
Chapter thirty-seven
Dane
I’m not gonna lie.
I’m distracted when we walk through the portal.
Hearing that my sister did read my notebook, that she’s coming around…
hope burrows involuntarily into my chest. What if she broke through the brainwashing?
Is there a way to save her still?
She gave me something to protect me from Royce, but what about herself?
Did she figure out a way to separate herself so his death doesn’t affect her, if it even would?
What if she plans to join us after we deal with Royce?
A rush of exhilaration floods through me as my thoughts spiral.
If she’s switching sides now, why did she leave?
Why did she tell Raegan and not me?
Does she still have to play her part for Royce until we stop him?
Shouts and screams break my train of thought in time for me to realize a table is flying straight for us as we’re exiting the portal.
Raegan rips her hand from mine, jumping forward with her hand outstretched.
It disintegrates at her touch, and its ashes float toward us instead .
Fuck me, this woman.
She crouches to the hardwood floor, aiming her gift beneath the swarm of zombies.
Our members are fighting back, hacking away at them with their gifts or weapons, but the dead don’t stop.
Raegan curses when something flies across her view.
“What’s wrong?” Pulling the gun from my holster, I flank her to guard her back and side.
Aiden, Jackson, Reid, and Tinsley have joined the members in their fight, taking on the GE agents in the room while Raegan, Kellan, and I handle the puppets.
“There’s too much movement. I’m trying to tag just the zombies, but I can’t tell who’s who with my gift. I have to see them.”
“Cast a smaller net,” Kellan suggests, and she nods, reeling her gift back to the area nearest us where she can clearly identify the ones to attack.
The zombies collapse to the ground while the Guild members look around with surprise.
“Go!” I bark, snapping them out of their stupor to get back to the fight.
Once Rae’s incapacitated the current group enough that they won’t be able to hurt anyone else, we move further in for her to repeat her steps with the next batch.
As she’s working, fog creeps over the floor from the other side of the hall.
“Kell…” I warn.
“I see it,” he growls, searching over the chaos for its source.
“One of us has to take them out so she can see.”
“We’re not leaving her. We’ll have to count on Aiden or Jackson handling it. ”
Fuck.
What if they can’t get away to do it?
The fog builds faster than any natural occurrence, thickening and expanding to our knees in seconds.
Rae finishes the batch of zombies and stares worriedly at the fog that’s now reached our hips.
“We’ll go find the fog user together, then. I can’t use my gift anymore without risking Guild members.”
Kellan nods, and we head in that direction.
Only problem is, there’s a mass of zombies and fights happening between us and the other side.
Kellan shoves the zombies away, and Rae uses her gift on any that are in her way one at a time.
I shoot the ones that get close to me or her, then switch to trying to knock them down with my fist instead.
My bullets are wasted on them when they don’t feel pain, but knocking them away to give us time to keep moving is the best I can do right now.
Before we know it, the fog’s everywhere, coating the main hall in a thick blanket of shit visibility.
We’re sitting ducks now.
Shoving my gun away—I’m more at risk of shooting a friend by accident in this fog—I realize that I’m suddenly alone.
“Kellan? Rae?”
Fuck.
Where did they go?
A shadow grows in the fog.
“Kell?”
There’s a low groan as my only warning before a zombie slams into me, knocking me off my feet.
“Fuck!” It gnashes wildly at my face, and I smash the heel of my hand into its chin.
I push my other hand behind it for added strength when its crazed movements threaten my hold.
One slip and those teeth are going to bite my face off.
Its bony, unwashed fingers scratch and claw at my skin and clothes, but I’m too fucked by his teeth to do anything about it.
The smell curdles in my gut, acid crawling up my throat as I choke on the smell of death and brine.
And then it’s gone.
Kellan tears the zombie’s head off, dropping the disgusting thing at his feet and right-the-fuck next to me.
I simultaneously roll away from it and to my feet, swallowing the bile back down.
“You couldn’t have thrown that thing anywhere else?” I demand as Raegan runs to us.
I made it out with mostly mild scratches and a deeper one that I pray won’t wind up with an infection based on what caused it.
Kell eyes the fog like he’s waiting for the next zombie to launch itself at us.
“And possibly throw it at an ally?”
“Do you guys smell that?” Raegan asks, her face scrunching with distaste.
“You mean the dead guys?” I question, but she shakes her head.
“No, it’s…something sweet.”
Kellan slaps a hand over her mouth and nose.
“Don’t breathe it in, beautiful. Dane, use your shirt.”
A breeze sweeps around us in a tight circle, clearing the fog momentarily as Aiden and Jackson join us.
“Sleeping gas,” Jack murmurs.
“Is it the fog?” Rae’s muffled voice sounds from behind Kell’s hand.
“No. It’s coming from the air vents and hanging around our ankles.”
“I haven’t found the fog user. Jack’s going to clear it from above while I block the vents. You three need to find and stop whoever’s controlling it,” Aiden commands, and I bite my tongue from adding the small detail where we’re also dodging zombies and fighting other GE agents.
He hands Jackson a thick piece of metal with a stubbed point.
Jack whips another vortex of wind around us before he leaves, and the wider dispersal of fog exposes GE agents lining the walls of the main hall.
To avoid the fog and gas?
I’m about to tell the others when my gaze catches.
Vera.
She, like the other agents, is shooting what looks like darts at Guild members.
We’re fucking fish in a barrel as they drop one member after another.
“Dane, let’s go!” Raegan grabs my arm, pulling me back into the thick fog.
I yank my shirt over my nose and mouth for whatever fucking good it’ll do and jog with her and Kellan as they push through the zombies in our path.
“I didn’t see any fog by the walls!” I shout, dodging a flying body part and then kicking a zombie.
“We’ve gotta watch out for tranq darts, too. They’re picking us off one by one.”
Kellan curses.
“Get between me and Raegan! Those won’t affect us.”
Shit.
He has a point. With their gifts, I’m the weakest link.
Fuck .
Why couldn’t I have a cool gift?
Why’d I get stuck with something that I can’t really use to help my friends, help her , and has only put us more in danger than anything?
Somehow, we make it to the bar on the other side of the hall just before the kitchens.
The fog is thicker here.
So thick it clogs my lungs, making me choke out of fear that the gas is in it.
Where are those fucking vents in this room anyway?
“I think I see someone!” Rae whispers as we creep around the bar, using our hands as our guides.
“Make sure it’s an agent before using your gift,” Kell reminds her, and she nods.
We get closer, but it’s too difficult to make anyone out unless we’re as close together as the three of us are.
She reaches her arm into the mist, half of it disappearing until all we can see is the dim red glow of her gift.
Raegan drags it closer, then shrieks when the zombie she’s holding snaps his teeth and pounces.
Her gift activates instantly, but Kellan doesn’t wait for her to finish before he dismembers it.
He grunts when a zombie flies at him, its mouth wide over his arm as it tries to bite down but skates over hard scales instead.
And then another hits him.
And another. They fly at Raegan too, like we’ve run into a fucking nest of them as they climb over them both and start reaching for me.
“Aaaangh!” Raegan yells, the weight of them pushing her down while her gift doesn’t work fast enough to drop them.
Kellan’s equally buried as they cling to him like spiders.
One of them grabs my hair, and another, my elbow.
“Ahh, fuckers!” I shove and try to knock them down, but they keep coming .
“Dammit! Dane, run! Find and kill that fucking fog person so we can see.” Kellan is brought to the floor, and he takes a final gasp on his way down.
The zombies might not get him, but the gas could.
Raegan throws herself over the zombies on Kellan, her gift eating away at the ones between them and on her back.
“Go! We’ve got this. And don’t you fucking dare let them get you, Dane,” she adds.
I dash through the fog, grabbing my gun and running blindly.
I know the bar where we’d been, so I can picture the room in my mind, guessing where I am and where I can reach the perimeter of the room where I’m hoping the fog isn’t.
I think the zombies are just as blind as we are.
As long as I don’t make a loud noise or run into them, I’m able to pass right by.
The ones I do knock into, I spin and dodge out of the way, then keep going.
The fog thins, and I gasp when I can see the job boards and hallway.
Someone is crouched there, their hand on the ground and fog pumping steadily from it.
Found you.
Staying within the edge of the fog, I aim and fire.
The agent falls.
The fog doesn’t immediately dissipate as I’d hoped.
Glass shattering draws my attention to the ceiling, where Jackson’s just broken one of the hexagonal windows overhead on the far side of the hall.
His arm beckons the fog to him, pulling it out the opening when he’s suddenly knocked down, disappearing into the fog.
Thorne dives in after him.
Fuck. Zombies, Vera, sleeping gas, and Thorne?
Can it get much worse ?
The fog continues to filter out of the hole Jack created, and it spreads more evenly across the room now that its user isn’t controlling it, making it thin enough that I can see the others again.
Raegan and Kellan are almost done taking care of the mass of zombies we’d had, and Aiden’s applying metal on one side of the room to a vent.
Thorne is throwing his attacks at Jack as if there’s no one else in the room, furniture flying and sharp winds hitting others in their path.
Jackson tries to deflect them where there are no Guild members or at agents and zombies instead.
Tinsley is speeding around the perimeter, knocking agents off their feet, while Reid appears behind them to take them out.
Evie and Silas are still fighting, but Fabian, Gabe, and Zedd are lying on the ground.
“Everyone… stop ,” a droll voice declares, and cold fingers trail down my spine.
I’ve been listening to that voice through the computer, but hearing it in person is a different experience that makes my skin crawl.
The terrifying thing is…
everyone in the room goes still except for agents, who continue firing darts at Guild members who don’t even try to dodge or counterattack.
The darts hit them while they do nothing, and then they drop…
breathing in the gas-filled air along the floor.
Jackson crashes to the ground, his body frozen mid-motion in whatever attack he’d been about to create.
Aiden’s stiff by the vent he thankfully finished covering.
And Raegan and Kellan…
the zombies around them are down, but more are heading their way.
But me…I ca n move.
Royce.
My eyes find Vera’s.
She mouths something to me that I can’t make out.
This is it, isn’t it?
Whatever she’d stuck me with, it worked.
I can take down Royce.
The necromancer surveys the room, and my muscles lock on instinct.
I barely breathe, too scared he’ll somehow notice I’m not under his control and take me out before I can do anything.
But he passes right by me without noticing me at all, then pauses near Jackson.
“Ah, I remember you. You’ll do well.” He raises a hand, and Jackson stands, his movements stilted.
Fuck. I need to get to Royce without being seen.
The fog is still around, still obscuring the view through the room slightly, but is it enough?
Sliding my foot to the side, I creep toward the bar while Royce is focused on Jack, and the agents are busy going after the members in the middle of the room.
Once I’m close enough, I dive behind it, my heart jackhammering so loud I’m waiting for a zombie or agent to hear it and give me up.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
The others don’t have time for me to sit here and get my shit together.
It looked like Royce turned everyone’s gifts off, including Rae and Kell who are now vulnerable to the zombies or darts.
And Aiden’s closer to the ground.
Has the gas risen at all, or is he close enough that it might get in his lungs?
Peeking around the bar, I quickly calculate my route.
There are plenty of overturned tables, benches, and chairs I can use for cover with the help of the remaining fog.
I just have to get close enough to take the shot where I know I won’t miss.
Deep breath.
Go!
Keeping myself hunched and low, I race to the first table.
Then the next. Another one.
Fuck, this room never felt so big before as it does now.
I make it to the next one, then freeze when a zombie catches me, moaning and stumbling in my direction.
A quick glance around the table tells me I’m not close enough yet.
At least the thing moves slowly, but how long until someone notices it’s following someone?
Gritting my teeth, I push on to the next two.
The first zombie picks up a following of others staggering toward me.
When I check on Royce, he’s frowning at them.
I can’t sit here and wait for him to discover me, but if I move, I’m sure he’ll notice me.
My palms are sweaty, even as cold as I fucking feel, and I take turns wiping them on my jeans as I catch my breath, chest tight.
After several gasping breaths, I dart to the next table then stumble when Royce looks directly at me.
His brows pinch with confusion.
Fuck, it’s now or never.
I’m not as close as I’d hoped to be, but I can already see Thorne and Jackson flying toward me in my periphery.
It strikes me as I raise my gun that I might kill my sister with this, and I hesitate.
Fuck. I knew we were going to take down Royce.
I’ve known all this time, but now that the moment is here and it’s up to me, I don’t know if I can pull the trigger .
Get it together. They’re all counting on you.
Rae is counting on you.
The zombies were getting closer to her and Kellan.
I would never forgive myself if she got hurt again because of me.
I swore to protect her from now on.
I’m sorry, Vera.
I take a deep breath.
Then fire twice on my exhale, the gun clicking empty on the third trigger.
Royce somehow dodges my headshot, but the second bullet catches his shoulder.
He grabs at it with a scream and drops to his knees.
Jackson immediately attacks Thorne, interrupting his strike on me.
Thank fuck. The zombies all trip and falter, and the Guild members start fighting the GE agents.
Vera lowers her gun, her expression pleading as she looks at me.
No… past me.
I follow her gaze to Raegan, whose hand is already planted on the floor.
Red cracks split the hardwood.
But it’s not the zombies around her that she’s aiming for.
She sends it past them across the length of the main hall.
I track it to Royce, and realize I have seconds to make it to Vera.
I race to her. Vera smiles, and this time, I’m close enough to read her lips.
“Goodbye.”
“Wait!” I shout, my heart pounding in my chest.
Royce screams.
Vera shudders, her eyes closing and face tight as if she’s in pain.
Her knees bend, and I dive to catch her.
“Vera! I’ve got you. I’m here.” I pull her onto my lap, fear shaking my hands and voice .
“Dane.” Her eyes slowly open.
She reaches for my cheek, and I grab her hand, pressing it to my face.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better sister to you.”
“It’s not your fault,” I rush out, squeezing her hand.
“I should’ve protected you on the island. I should have noticed—should have been there for you more—” My throat clogs, all the words I want to say choking me until I can hardly breathe.
Vera shudders again, her face pinching, and I whip my gaze to Royce.
He’s still screaming on his knees, his skin split and bleeding as he clutches his body.
The zombies are all twitching on the floor.
And Thorne…Jackson’s taking care of Thorne no matter how this ends.
“Don’t cry,” Vera whispers, and I realize my face is soaked.
“You’re always so emotional,” she chastises, her voice weakening.
“This is what I want. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
I hold her to my chest as thick tears fall uninhibited.
This is my sister. The one I’d been fighting to find.
Did she break through only for us to kill her?
She grips my shirt as I hold her.
As I sob over her. My body shakes as I gasp for air, my lungs squeezed in an angry fist. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to save you. I’m so fucking sorry.” Her hand slumps between us.
“ No! ” I choke, rocking her in my arms. “Vera!”
I bury my face into her and let the tears fall as all the memories of the first time she’d died come rushing back in a flood.
That same hole in my chest aches and burns.
It knocks the air from my lungs as the world spins around me.
I couldn’t save her .
I failed.
“What have we here?” Charles casually inquires, and what breath was left in me expires.
I force myself to look up, to lift my heavy head to confirm what I don’t want to believe is true.
That Charles Whitmore, the president of GE, is here.
He smiles at Royce’s defeated form on the ground.
“Good things never last, do they?”
Remembering the last time when he’d snatched me out of nowhere, I activate my gift, keeping myself carefully still and hoping he doesn’t notice where I am.
I’m a fucking wreck right now, my body still trembling and weak, and my heart crushed in a vise.
I can’t win against him if he tries to take me, but I’ll still fight as hard as I fucking can.
Kellan steps in front of Rae, and Jackson drops to her other side.
Aiden shifts between them and Charles protectively.
“What do you want, Charles? Your men were no match for the Guild. I think it’s clear we won this one.”
Charles cants his head, eyebrow raised.
“Did you, now?” He disappears.
And reappears behind me.
Fuck.
He reaches for me, but I grab his arm first, smothering his gifts with mine before he snatches my hair.
He wrenches my head back, and I grunt at the shooting pain in my scalp.
Charles laughs when he sees my face.
“I’d call this a win for me, if I do say so myself. ”
“Dane!”
I can’t look at Rae or the others with his death grip, and I refuse to release my hold on him to let him take me away.
I can hear them running, hear them getting closer.
I just have to not let go.
He yanks on my wrist, then knocks his fist at the crook of my arm to break my grip.
“Kill him! Now!” I yell at the others.
I’ve got his gifts contained.
Kellan’s gift. He can die right now.
Charles tuts, jerking me between him and the others as a shield.
He drags me away, and Vera’s body thuds to the floor.
I inhale sharply, anger surging in my chest. I dig my heels in, fighting his grip, his movements, but he’s inhumanely strong.
Even as Jackson throws knives at him, finding their marks in his face, his arms, Charles keeps moving to the nearest portal while he can’t teleport.
And then we’re gone.