Chapter Eleven
Remy led us to a private balcony suite that had a great view of the main stage. Tall panels on either side gave the illusion of privacy, although we weren’t alone in the suite.
“Mandal,” I said in surprise when the lean, dark-haired man turned around. He had a glass of champagne in each gloved hand, and he extended one of the glasses to me.
“Raine,” Mandal said. “You look lovely tonight.”
That was worlds nicer than how he’d kept calling me “it” the last time I’d seen him. I smiled and accepted the glass.
“Thanks. You look great, too.”
Remy watched our exchange with that same inscrutable half smile. “You were never properly introduced. Raine, allow me to present Nikesh Mandal, my closest friend and chief advisor.”
I paused mid-sip. Then my swallow was harder than the bubbly liquid accounted for. “You had Mandal fake being your driver. That’s why the other guy was so confused when I asked if Mandal had the night off tonight.”
“Yes,” Remy said while Mandal lifted a shoulder in acknowledgment.
“Why?” I asked in a sharper tone.
The smile wiped from Remy’s face. “To take your measure. The quickest route to knowing someone’s real character is to see how they treat the people assigned to serve them.”
I was still annoyed by the deception, but Remy wasn’t wrong. One of the brightest auras I’d seen belonged to Jeremy, a janitor at the hospital. He was kind to everyone, yet too often people were rude to him because they thought his mop and bucket meant that he was “beneath” them.
“Hope I passed the test” was all I said.
“You did,” Remy replied while something lurked in his gaze.
Spotlights danced over the curtain in front of the stage, giving me an excuse to look away. The concert was about to start.
Mandal leaned forward. “You’ll love this band, Raine.”
“I already do,” I said.
Mandal looked surprised. Remy didn’t. So, going to this particular concert hadn’t been a coincidence, even if Remy had also arranged to have his threatening meeting with Bachen here. Remy must be a multitasker.
The curtains rose and the crowd let out a roar. Spotlights danced over the stage as the band began to play. The vibrations from the music shook me, reminding me of the effects from Remy’s voice. I pushed that out of my mind and focused on the band.
Music had carried me away from my problems before, if only for a little while. Now I’d let it do that again.
Halfway through the concert, my hands were almost numb from clapping and I’d barely sat in my seat.
The show was amazing. The entire stage lifted at one point, putting the band almost eye level with us, and the light show was synchronized to the music and pyrotechnics.
Mandal loved it, too. Only Remy sat, more engrossed by whoever he kept texting.
The next song had just started when my vision changed, haloing the audience in bluish, gray, or reddish auras. It looked like fog around the closely grouped people. At the same time, I smelled something so foul, I nearly gagged.
“Something’s wrong,” I gasped out.
Remy was instantly on his feet. “What?”
“You don’t smell that?” Another gasp as pain scalded me. The Beast was straining against me, trying to break free.
Not here. There’s too many people!
“Smell what?” Remy asked in a harsh tone.
“Death.” Gritted out between clenched teeth. “Like we’re in a packed morgue and the refrigeration system broke. Worse, now the Beast is trying to get loose.”
“Find the danger,” Remy said to Mandal. “Sounds like a necro spell.”
Mandal swore as he left.
“Listen to me, Raine.” Remy’s voice deepened. “Whatever this is, I will fight it. You don’t have to. You’re safe.”
If I wasn’t writhing in pain, I would have laughed. I hadn’t been safe since before that fateful day in the woods. I didn’t even remember what “safe” felt like—
The Beast’s claws ripped into me. I muffled a scream while blood soaked the front of my dress. Then I was in Remy’s arms, his body cool against my newly burning skin.
“Raine.” Remy’s voice rolled like thunder through me. “You no longer need the Beast. I am the monster that protects you now. Look at me. See my power.”
I opened eyes I hadn’t realized I’d clenched shut.
Remy’s crimson aura vanished beneath an eruption of darkness that spilled out of him.
It blanketed the entire theater in a stygian wave that hit with the force of a tsunami.
The band seemed to vanish beneath it while all the stage, ceiling, and wall lights suddenly exploded, raining sparks that were eaten up by that relentless darkness.
I could no longer see the thousands of patrons below us.
All I could see were their auras, staining the darkness like colored foam on an endless sea.
I couldn’t even see the nearby walls on our balcony suite with the liquid obsidian still pouring from Remy, and then I only saw him as he yanked me to him.
Fire raced through me as Remy’s mouth covered mine.
My whole body jerked with passion that overrode even the pain.
He tasted like the decadent scent of magic now emanating from him, and lust blasted me with the same force with which his power had exploded out of him.
I opened my mouth, and his tongue dueled with mine until I burned for a new reason this time.
I needed the savage way he kissed me, and if he stopped touching me with those strong, knowing hands, I might actually scream.
“Vengers!” I vaguely heard Mandal say.
Remy tore his mouth away. Cold air hit my lips, taunting me with the absence of his kiss.
“How many?” Remy asked.
“Seven, maybe eight,” Mandal said, sounding like he was only a few feet away.
Screams came from everywhere. Being plunged into absolute darkness had panicked the concertgoers.
I didn’t blame them. Being suddenly blinded was terrifying—wait, I was blind now, too!
I couldn’t see anything. No auras, and no more pain, either.
The Beast was no longer trying to claw its way out of me.
It didn’t even feel near my surface anymore.
I am the monster that protects you now.
Apparently, the Beast believed Remy.
“You can let go. I’m okay,” I said. “What are Vengers?”
Remy set me back from him. “Magically raised spirits, and only the dead can fight the dead.”
That sounded more than a little problematic. “Then I hope you have dead allies somewhere close by?”
“Not yet,” Remy replied. “But I will.”
His arms dropped, leaving me disoriented in the darkness until he sat me back down in my chair. Then I felt him stand.
“Where are you going?”
“To get those allies.” Now Remy’s tone was all business. “Remember, nothing will hurt you, Raine. I won’t allow it.”
Remy walked to the edge of the balcony. I heard a whoosh that had me surging forward in disbelief. Did Remy just jump?
I strained my eyes, but all I saw was darkness. Not only had all the lights exploded, no one’s cell phones appeared to be working, either, so nothing pierced the endless gloom.
“It’s okay, Raine!”
Mandal’s voice. I forced myself to sit back down. I couldn’t see where the balcony ended. I didn’t want to fall three stories below, which is possibly what Remy had just done.
“Where’d he go?” I asked Mandal.
I heard him say, “You’ll see,” right before a strange whistling sound permeated the theater.
“Here they come,” Mandal said softly.
Green flashes broke the darkness, flitting over the other side of the theater. They were so fluid and formless they almost looked like long, glowing scarves. Were these the Vengers? If so, they didn’t seem that scary.
Those flashes straightened out and zoomed toward our theater box. The Beast rose, filling my throat with a snarl—
The Vengers bounced off a barrier I couldn’t see. Their shrieks felt like needles driving into my ears. I clutched my head, trying to block out the sound.
Hands settled onto my shoulders. I jumped, then I heard Mandal’s voice.
“Don’t worry! That darkness is made of Remy’s power. He shouldn’t have shown how vast it is, but in any event, the Vengers won’t be able to get past it.”
The Vengers charged again. That stygian barrier held. Another series of whistle-shrieks had me clutching my head again. How could things without throats be so loud?
The Vengers abruptly stopped. I let out a breath that caught when they began folding into each other. Soon they were one glowing, vertical line. I didn’t have time to wonder why before they plunged, swordlike, into the audience below.
I surged to the edge of my theater box to look down. The glowing, now-compounded Vengers stabbed at the barrier protecting the people below. True to Mandal’s word, it held.
The Vengers’ color brightened and their strange shrieks grew. They stabbed at the barrier again. This time, I felt a shock wave and saw light as that inky blockade cracked.
“Not possible,” Mandal whispered.
The Vengers bashed against that crack, widening it. Another shock wave hit me. Now I could see people inside. The Vengers split back into eight distinct shapes and dove into them.
“No!” I shouted.
The Vengers hit with the force of lightning bolts.
An eerie green glow suffused the people struck by them.
Their instant screams choked off as dark liquid shot from their mouths.
They collapsed, still spewing that bile.
The Vengers rose out of them, leaving their victims below like broken dolls.
It all happened so fast, my throat still burned from my initial scream.
Other patrons rushed around, trying and failing to find the exits in the dark. Even if they hadn’t seen what had happened, some primal instinct warned them to run for their lives.
The Vengers zoomed upward, all eight of them now charging at our theater box again.
The Beast flung itself forward, ripping at my skin—
Remy shot up from the darkness. Sparks flew off him, haloing him in white fire while his aura seethed with vermilion. With a spin of his hand, he formed those sparks into a shield. The Vengers crashed into it, their screams deafening as they stuck to it like wasps caught in a mosquito zapper.
The Beast stopped tearing at me.
Remy spoke. The unfamiliar words reverberated like a thousand gongs inside my head. I instinctively backed away from the sound, almost knocking over Mandal in my haste.
Remy opened his shirt, digging his fingers impossibly deep into his chest. Then he ripped his hands outward.
I screamed.
Silvery forms shot out of the gaping wound in Remy’s chest. My scream choked off. Ghostly-looking figures could not gush from a person’s body. This couldn’t be real!
Those ghostlike forms started chewing on the Vengers. The Vengers shrieked until I felt blood trickle from my ears. The silvery apparitions didn’t seem to notice the horrific sounds. They kept gnawing until nothing remained of the Vengers except the lingering echoes from their horrifying shrieks.
The Beast sank down as if to say, Clearly I’m not needed.
“Return,” Remy ordered, holding his chest wound open.
The deadly apparitions whooshed back into Remy.
He dropped his hands. His chest wound healed almost at once.
Remy said another reverberating word. The darkness blanketing the theater disappeared back into him like a fog machine in reverse.
At once, emergency lights turned on and cell phones blinked to life.
In the sudden brightness, I saw Mandal scratch his hands through his salt-and-pepper hair.
“That could have been worse,” Mandal muttered.
Several people were dead, countless more were injured, the Beast had nearly helped itself to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and Remy had pulled carnivorous ghosts from his chest. What would “worse” have looked like?
“Raine.” Remy flew over to me. “Are you all right?”
“Sure,” I managed to croak out. “Best date night ever.”
A smile flitted across his lips.
“How did they break through your barrier?” Mandal asked.
Remy’s smile died. “I have no idea.”
He held out his hand. His fingers were still bloodstained from tearing into his own chest. Other than that, you’d never know that anything had happened. Even his hair wasn’t mussed.
I stared at Remy’s hand but didn’t move to take it. For the first time since we’d met, I was afraid of him.
“Guess I’m not the only one infested,” I said softly.
A sardonic smile curled his mouth. “No. My body acts as a gateway when I summon the dead, but it’s not their home.”
I was relieved. I had a hard enough time dealing with a monster that could burst out of me any moment. I couldn’t handle the thought of deadly creatures bursting out of Remy, too.
I finally took his hand, letting him pull me to my feet.
“I didn’t know you could call forth the Ravenous,” Mandal said. “Let alone be conscious after wielding them. Word of this ability will travel, and questions will be asked.”
I had questions, too, but I was too shocked by what I’d seen to ask them. “Thank God no one’s phones worked, so no one can prove what happened.”
“There weren’t only humans here.” Now Mandal’s tone was sharp. “And they won’t need video proof to tell the tale.”
Remy waved that off. “People find new abilities in desperate circumstances all the time. Even humans can do that. This might make the rounds, but better it than the wrong people finding out about her powers.”
I shuddered at the reminder of how close the Beast had come to breaking out. Then groans yanked my focus away from that. There were injured everywhere. I felt the Beast feed from their pain, and from the deaths of the people the Vengers killed.
I started toward the sounds. “I need to help these people.”
Remy’s hand on my arm stopped me. “You can’t. Whoever sent the Vengers could try again, and we were their targets.”
“If they wanted to kill us, they could’ve done that before you reappeared.” I sounded angry, and I was. I’d seen a lot of death, but the Vengers had pureed those poor people from the inside out. Now many more were injured. I had to do something.
Remy’s gaze was blue ice. “I reinforced our theater box more than any of the other areas. That’s why they had to power up on those victims before they attacked this box again.
Still, those Vengers shouldn’t have been able to break through any of my shielding.
They did, which means their summoner is very powerful. That’s why all of us need to leave.”
My fists clenched. “Do no harm” was the first rule of medicine. If we were the real targets, we had to leave before more innocent people got caught in the crossfire.
“Fine,” I said, and tried not to look at the people I couldn’t allow myself to help.