Nervously Alexa glanced at the door. The middle cracked like something large was being thrust against it.Thud. Snap!
Her hand squeezed the gun still in her grip. “What do we do?”
“There’s a hidden passage.” He stumbled toward a table off to the side where a crystal decanter and glasses rested untouched. “There’s only three more shots in that gun,” he bit out.
She glanced at the weapon and nodded. “I’ll make them count.”
“Yes.”
Hysterian picked up one of the glasses and handed it to her. “Push the top into the groove,” he pointed to a textured bit under the table.
Quickly, she took the glass from his hand and pressed it in. A staircase appeared behind the table.
It was empty.
“Go,” he ordered, spitting.
Alexa dashed past him and entered the small space. The wall snapped back into place as the shouting from beyond broke through the outer barrier.
For the next few minutes, she ran. Hysterian shouted directions, telling her where to go and what to do as he brought up the rear. The strength in his voice returned with each turn. The thumping bass of the club music pounded the walls.
“Alexa, drop!” he ordered, springing past her fast enough she only caught a blur. Landing a few yards ahead, Hysterian shielded her as men appeared in the hallway ahead, guns swinging. “Shoot them!”
Using Hysterian as cover made her sick, but she aimed anyway. Hysterian took the guards’ bullets like the metal wall he was as Alexa took them out. Something splashed her skin, and she yelped, wiping it off.
The guards hadn’t even fully fallen before Hysterian twisted and saw what she was doing.
“I got some of you on me!” she cried.
“Calm down,” he growled. “Let me see.”
Sucking in a breath, she stilled as he leaned forward and scanned her arm.
“Hysterian,” she whispered as he studied her skin, liquids still pooling out of flickering, rent joints. It hurt her soul to see him in such a way.
Fear threatened to take over. If she was poisoned, that was it. It filled her with terror knowing Hysterian would never leave her behind. Not if he’d come all this way for her.
He would stay by her side as Raphael’s army swarmed them, fighting to the bitter end.
His eyes flicked to hers just as the lights overhead went red, and the music stopped somewhere far off.
“Fight it,” he said, amplifying her emotions. “Fight it, Alexa. For me. Go!”
He threw his body against the wall for her to pass.
She bit down and sprinted, counting the seconds in her head, already sensing her world teetering.
Once they were through a door, they were finally back within the main part of the building. Hysterian surged into the air as more guards met them. He dropped atop them one by one, crushing their bodies. Below them lay the main floor of the dance room as people charged to the exits. Fleeing.
They blurred as she stared at them.
It wasn’t until Hysterian landed in front of her that her eyes cleared to focus on him.
“Fight it! Go,” he yelled, pointing to the right.
Alexa ran, blinking, finding her world growing fuzzy. Her fear, her worry for Hysterian vanished. When they broke through a large, metal door and the night sky—Elyria’s cloying heat—met her, she fell to her hands and knees.
Screams filled the night. So many bright neon lights filled her eyes that she smiled.
