Chapter 43
CAMERON
I was going to die. Romi was about to kill me.
“NO!” Derek materialized in front of me, power radiating off his frame, blasting into Romi and knocking him back.
The ground shook as several more ginormous graynites landed around us. Derek stood over me, his hands up against the air, which shimmered with the power of a protective dome. But how long would this shield last against four uber graynites? Against Romi?
I was too late.
They’d turned him.
They’d taken his soul, and now he was here to kill me.
He was back on his feet now, ambling forward to join his comrades as they circled us.
An unearthly roar split the night as Sharniza appeared to our left, running at the nearest graynite.
“NO!” Derek boomed.
A graynite backhanded her, sending her spinning through the air toward the building where the shadowy forms of the others were barely visible through the window.
Derek turned and wrapped his arms around me. The world fractured and materialized again a moment later, but we were now a few yards away from the building, next to Sharniza’s prone form.
With the graynites rushing toward us, there was no time to ask how he’d teleported us. Derek threw the dome back up, while I crouched to check Shar’s pulse. “It’s steady. She’s alive.”
“Get inside!” Curi beckoned from the building. “Move!”
The soft blue shimmer around the building told me that they had a shield up. “Derek. Can you teleport us again?”
He shook his head. “Not both of you.”
The graynites surrounded us, slamming fists into the shield to test it. Derek roared, holding firm as they battered his defenses.
I scrambled up and wrapped my arms around him, as if that would help, as if I could loan him more power somehow.
The hammering stopped, and the ground ceased shaking.
I slowly raised my head, searching for Romi, and our gazes locked—his cold, alien, and unfeeling, as if he didn’t see me or know me.
“Romi. Please. If you’re in there, please.” But even as I said it, I knew it was pointless. Knew how it worked. If he was a graynite, then it meant they’d taken his soul. It meant he was gone.
He canted his head and slow-blinked. “Romi? Yes, this body belonged to a Romi once. But Romi is dead, and now this body is mine.”
My heart fractured all over again.
“Come out and die gracefully, Basque,” he said. “Do so, and the others can live. Resist and when your shields fail, then you shall all die.”
My gaze flicked between him and the other three, then beyond, where two more regular-sized graynites stood awaiting instructions, before returning to Romi again.
No. This wasn’t Romi. Not any longer.
Romi was gone, and there was nothing left that I could do for him now.
I had to focus on what was left. On Serath and my friends.
Being the last Basque meant nothing if it meant risking their lives. “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
“You don’t,” the thing in Romi’s skin growled.
I’d give my life in a heartbeat to protect my friends, but then what? They’d be defenseless against the graynites. I was the last Basque. The last hope to take down the bastard who’d killed my brother. Like fuck was I going to roll over and die.
If I was going down, it wouldn’t be without a fight.
I looked back at the building, at the blue shimmer that kept my friends safe. The portal would open in a few minutes. I just needed to buy them some time, but I knew in my gut that Derek’s shield wouldn’t last that long.
I had a plan.
“I need…I need a moment…” I ducked my head, feigning defeat, feigning the form of someone grappling with their upcoming demise.
“Take your moment, then,” the graynite growled.
I grasped for the connection that Derek and I had cultivated over the past few weeks and spoke into his mind.
I have a plan. We’re gonna use the element of surprise and make a run for it.
I’ll start talking and agree to their terms, and when I say “drop the shield,” I need you to scoop up Sharniza and teleport her.
I’ll be right behind you. There’s a break in their defenses to the left.
You can drop her and then come back for me.
I don’t like this.
It’s the only way. We have to try.
Then I teleport you first, my Cameron.
My heart swelled with love for him. If you do that, they’ll kill Sharniza. She won’t be able to run to get away from them. I can. Derek, please, I need you to do this for me.
He was silent for several beats, wrestling with the decision. Turning it over no doubt to find a flaw, another way, but there was none. Finally, he spoke, his tone tight, demanding. You run fast, my Cameron. You run like the wind, and I will come for you.
I promise.
I raised my head and looked up at the graynite who now owned my brother’s skin. “I agree to your terms. My life for theirs.”
The air vibrated with the purrs of approval, and my insides twisted in terror. I let it wash over me. Let the adrenaline flood me, because I was going to flee, and I needed it.
I fixed my gaze on the break between the two graynites farthest to my right. “Derek, drop the shields.”
The air crackled, the shields dropped, and I spun on my heel and launched myself at the breach between the graynites, breaking into a sprint.
The building rushed toward me, and I spotted the others inside, jumping up and down, their voices screaming at me to hurry a moment before Derek appeared, running toward me.
If he was running, it meant he was out of juice. It meant…My stride slowed, weakness infusing my limbs, the beat of wings behind me growing louder.
“My Cameron, NO!” Derek burst out of his skin, morphing into chimera form with a terrifying roar before misting into nothing.
He was out of power. Completely, utterly depleted.
“Cameron, come on!” Curi stood at the window, his hand reaching for me.
A fresh wave of adrenaline gave me a second wind, pushing me forward. I was almost there. Just a few more yards and?—
The moon winked out and the ground shook as a graynite landed in my path, his body folded into a crouch. It rose slowly, unfurling its stony, scaled frame as if it had all the time in the world to make its entrance.
Shimmering gray bony spikes jutted off its shoulders and ran down its arms. Its wings splayed then snapped tight as it deliberately raised its head to reveal its grotesque face, lips pulled back against ivory fangs.
Something inside my chest tugged, and my gaze whipped up to meet its pale blue irises ringed in indigo. The tug inside me bloomed to a familiar heat.
No…
It couldn’t be.
“Serath?” His name was a whisper sitting on my lips because it couldn’t be so. This creature couldn’t be my mate.
But it stared at me with Serath’s eyes. Eyes that had flared with passion for me and softened with tender love. They studied me clinically now, as if I was a specimen on a petri dish.
The other graynites landed around us, but I couldn’t tear my attention from my mate.
“Serath, it’s me. It’s Cameron.” I blinked against the sting of tears.
“Please…please tell me you’re in there.” His eyes twitched, gaze flicking over my shoulder then down to his hand. “You promised…You promised to hold on.”
He was in there. He had to be, because I could feel him, feel our connection, low-grade but present. He slow-blinked, and his pupils dilated a fraction.
My heart leapt. “I know you can hear me. Dammit, Serath, fight it. You fight whatever they’ve done to you.”
For a moment, it felt like I was reaching him. For a moment, I could almost believe that there was life behind his dead eyes, but then the graynite who owned Romi’s body spoke, his grating grumble breaking the spell.
“There is no Serath,” Romi said. “Not anymore.” He jerked his chin up. “Finish her, Ubron.”
Serath inclined his head. “Yes, General.”
He grabbed me by the throat and hauled me off my feet so I was eye to eye with him. But he didn’t squeeze. Didn’t crush. He just held me, staring at me with darkening and dilating pupils that threatened to consume me.
He was in there. I fucking knew it. He was in there, but he wasn’t in control, and he was about to watch me die. I couldn’t let him bear that guilt.
I reached up to grip his wrist, running my thumb back and forth over his skin. “I love you, Serath. It’s okay. This is not your fault. It’s okay.” I let my love shine out of my eyes. Let it rise and seep from my skin. Giving it all to him, one last time.
A low growl vibrated his chest.
“Ubron. End her now!” the general ordered.
Serath’s grip on me tightened, and then his teeth rushed at my face.