“Why?” I inched backward. “To hurt Sam?” That had been one of her reasons.
“That, and I want you and me to be sisters again, Layla,” Rianne’s voice was deep and didn’t sound like her as she stomped in my direction with a predatory ferocity.
“Not Jordyn?” I asked, dodging a table like a drunken sailor.
She shrugged. “She’ll be next.”
My head throbbed, my pulse pounded, and my lungs were on fire but not as much as they had been. As I kept my sights on Rianne, I inched around furniture, trying to look for the dart gun on the floor, and I stepped on something before losing my balance. I fell on top of Rebekah, who was still passed out. I was about to try to wake her when I spotted the gun.
Someone banged on the door and kept pounding. Was it Conrad?
I had crawled on all fours under a table when Rianne lifted it and tossed the wooden piece of furniture to the side as if it weighed nothing.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of Rianne, because the terror was real. But even more terrifying was the long fucking needle filled with the serum. I wanted to spend eternity with Sam and our kids but not as a beast.
Try your mind control, woman, or scream.
Unfortunately my banshee scream didn’t work on immortals. But was Rianne truly immortal?
The gun was within arm's reach, so I scampered like an animal running from a predator, and just when my hand landed on the gun, Rianne literally kicked my ass. I fell on the dart gun.
Her maniacal laugh cut through me like shards of glass.
I rolled over to face her, lifting my upper torso while I felt for the dart gun behind me.
She loomed over me and crouched down. “It’s quite freeing to be like this. You’ll suffer for about twelve hours, but when the serum begins to work its magic, the pain will subside.”
I laughed nervously. “You’re sick.” Barbs and retorts wouldn’t hurt her, but I had nothing left in my arsenal.
Or maybe I did. I studied her as I envisioned her using the needle on herself. If I had mind control, now would be a good time for it to surface. But the more I glared and imagined her injecting herself, nothing happened other than her cocking her head.
“You’re trying to use mind control,” she said, snorting. “It’s not working. Is it?”
Then two things happened at once. She stuck the needle in my leg at the exact moment that I grabbed the gun, and just as she was about to push the plunger, I pulled the trigger, once, twice, three times in rapid succession.
Darts embedded in her neck as she rocked from one side to the other.
My heart banged against my sternum as I scooted away from her as fast as I could, praying I didn’t have any serum in me as I yanked the needle from my leg.
Rianne finally fell to the floor before her eyes rolled back in her head.
Using the booth’s bench, I pushed myself up and set the needle on the table, then rushed over to Jordyn. “Sis, wake up.” I tapped her face. “Hey.” I checked for a pulse and sighed when I found one.
Then I lost my breath. I hadn’t seen Rianne use the syringe on Jordyn, but maybe she had.
Jordyn’s eyes fluttered open. “You’re alive.” She touched the back of her head. “It feels like someone whacked me with a sledgehammer.”
“Did Rianne inject the serum in you?”
“She was about to when you interrupted, then she threw me.” She clutched her chest. “I don’t ever want that shit in me either.”
Relief steadied my nerves. “We have to stop Adam.”
My mom’s message blared like a bullhorn in my head.
“The world needs you. You and Sam are instrumental in making sure humanity survives.”
It was time to regroup and start training. Daggers weren’t going to cut it, and I had just the weapon in mind.
