“And you’re an expert suddenly on Guardian awakening?” Beyhard asked, her voice hard.
Dunkel put her hands up, palms up. “I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s common knowledge. What’s got you all riled up?”
“You and Grimm, always bossing me and Dredd around. Just let me do this so we can get home.”
Dunkel gave her companion a half grin. “Trouble in paradise? Where is old Dredd anyway? The Crown Prince give him another ‘special mission’?”
Gemma was lost in their conversation, but if she had to venture a guess from the stiffening of Beyhard’s expression, Dunkel had hit a sore point.
“Fuck you, Midnight,” Beyhard growled.
“Whoa, whoa,” the dark-haired Seeker replied. “Dial it back, princess. Why are you getting all bent out of shape over nothing?”
“It’s not nothing! You guys never trust me to do anything right.”
Dunkel rolled her dark eyes. “Because you never do anything right. Face it, you’re a perennial screw-up. You and your on-again, off-again boyfriend. If we didn’t keep a tight rein on you both, you’d travel the galaxy, making endless messes for us to clean up. I thought you’d accepted it by now after all these centuries.”
Gemma turned away and started pacing, afraid that her face would betray her interest in their conversation. It looked like Team Dark Side had inner divisions that could be exploited. She stored every word, every expression, for analysis.
“I’m done,” Beyhard said, turning and shoving past Dunkel and heading out the door. “Awaken the Guardian your damn self.” Gemma heard her parting shot, delivered as she was heading down the hallway. “But I wouldn’t recommend fucking her, since we all know your lady parts are frozen over.”
Gemma watched Dunkel’s reaction out of the corner of her eye. The woman’s face hardened, her eyes blazing with heat. She certainly wasn’t giving off a frozen vibe at the moment. And Gemma had already sensed something going on between her and Juston. So what exactly did Beyhard mean?
“Bitch,” Dunkel muttered, then turned her attention to Gemma. “Stop your pacing and tell me what you know.” When Gemma didn’t stop, Dunkel grabbed her with more force than expected. Her fingers were like ice when they wrapped around Gemma’s arm. “What do you know about the Guardians?”
Gemma stared past her shoulder with empty eyes, calling back on the way things had been before Cal had unlocked her mind. She began to murmur, to share one of the many tidbits of data she’d stored on the topic of guardians. “His appearance was lightning, his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and stilled like dead men.”
She knew the lines were from some old religious text, but in that moment, she imagined Cal coming to save her like an avenging angel and drew strength from that image. But wherewasher rescuing angel? She had to find him before time ran out.
Having the Seekers here was like waiting for a bomb to explode. As Gemma began to piece the puzzle together, she realized that she was surrounded by a dangerous group, one that could easily destroy the sanitarium, and perhaps her own sanity, if anything happened to Cal. The only hope she had was to use her brain to stay ahead of them.
Dunkel sighed and ran shaking fingers through her hair, disturbing the carefully coifed locks. “This is ridiculous. Maybe Shadow is right. We should just take you to Dazimin and let the Crown Prince handle you.”
Gemma held back her fear at Dunkel’s words, instead dropping her chin to her chest and staring at the floor. The woman finally released her hold, dropping her arm stiffly to her side. “This entire mess is hopeless. Grimm’s been sidetracked by a human female, Beyhard’s lost her damn mind for absolutely no reason at all, and I’m… I’m too distracted by the Vartik male. We need to get out of here.”
A scream echoed down the hallway and Dunkel shook her head. “Fucking Sanri. This is all a game to that crazy bitch. Good thing you’re too locked into your own mind to see the nightmare funhouse she’s turned this booby hatch into. I don’t envy the rest of this lot right now.”
The tall female stared down at her, and a chill pervaded her that was so withering, it caused her to shake uncontrollably. “If you can understand me, realize that you won’t win. The odds are stacked against you, and the Vartiks can’t protect you. The Crown Prince of Hell will possess the twin children of light.”
Gemma couldn’t stop herself from glancing up to meet the woman’s gaze. Her words were hard, confident, but underneath, they were tinged with a melancholy that was almost heartbreaking. Or it would be if it wasn’t coming out of the mouth of a demon. Could it be that the creature regretted her role in these events?
If so, that was one more opportunity for Gemma to exploit.
“I almost hope you can’t understand me,” Dunkel murmured. “It’s much easier not to acknowledge the lives you’re ruining. Sometimes, consciousness is overrated.”
The woman turned and strode from the room without a backward glance. Gemma hugged herself, trying to dispel the cold that lingered after her departure. She had to come up with a plan, and fast.
Cal had disappeared, and clearly, the Seekers were no longer content to bide their time. Things were falling apart at RPS, and it wouldn’t be long before they were so out of control, she’d be swept along in the tide. Now was the time for action, before she lost her chance.
Peering into the hallway, Gemma was taken aback by what she saw. Illusions swirled all around her, things that appeared to be happening, but at the same time, not. Like a photograph superimposed atop another, reality around her was draped with a layer of something out of a dream.
Or a nightmare.
She saw one of the residents, an older man who never changed out of his ratty bathrobe, down on all fours, trying to make his way down the hallway as quickly as he could. The man had never been very active before, lost in a dementia not unlike Charlie’s but further progressed. Behind him, Gemma could see three creatures scuttling after him. The man kept glancing over his shoulder and then scrambling harder, obviously in fear of the things that were chasing him.
The creatures had gray-green skin that was scaly and sharp white teeth. They kept exposing their fangs, drool dropping from their lips. She was surprised the man didn’t keel over in fright.
He wasn’t the only one being pursued by their hallucinations. Gemma’s eyes widened when she saw a figure made of fire turn the corner of the hall, striding slowly toward an old woman who held her hands in front of her to ward off the heat. As she scanned the corridor, Gemma realized that all around her, the residents were falling victim to the illusions surrounding them.
It was Sanri’s handiwork. Just like she’d tried to overwhelm Gemma. But Sanri’s powers didn’t work on Gemma. There was something about her mind, about her perceptual system, that allowed her to see past the hallucinations. It must be the essence of the Guardian inside her. That was the only explanation.
The residents of RPS were thoroughly engulfed in Sanri’s world. When Gemma made her way up the hall and turned the corner, she realized the staff were similarly seized by illusions. The nurses’ station was empty, or so it seemed, until Gemma got close enough to peer over the counter. On the floor writhed Nurse Simmons and Michael Eldritch, the administrator, locked in a sexual embrace that was disturbing, to say the least. Gemma scurried past them as quickly as she could.
Where’s Cal? I’ve got to get him out of here before something terrible happens.Gemma could feel dread creeping up inside her, like a drop of cold sweat rolling down her back. Things were coming to a head. With the residents and staff distracted, it was only the Seekers against Team Light, and right now, she was missing two members.
What sorts of horrible things is Sanri beaming into Cal’s head right now? Her expression grim, Gemma snuck through the wards, determined to find her beloved and rescue him if he couldn’t rescue her.
