Karissa spun in a slow circle as the lights flickered again. Other people actually noticed this time, glancing up toward the ceiling curiously. As she’d tried to do many times before, she attempted toreach out with her instincts, hoping they would tell her which direction Bagley would be coming from. But it didn’t work. It never did.
She was a Paladin, not a Jedi.
She was trying to convince herself that the flickering had been nothing more than her imagination getting away from her when every light in the plant went out at once. The place was brightly lit one second and pitch-black the next.
For a moment, there was total silence. It was that all-consuming lack of sound that almost made her believe the darkness had stolen everyone else around her away and that she was alone in the nothingness.
The soft popping sound of the laughingly dim emergency lights coming on finally triggered the first murmurs of panic as people started looking around nervously. Karissa could almost sense their need to run, like they could feel the bad thing coming toward them, too.
“The connection to the lower power grid has been severed,” Deven said into her earpiece, his words barely audible through the commotion going on in the security room with him. “And the on-site backup generator must have been sabotaged because it’s not kicking in like it should.”
Her spidey sense started pinging before Karissa had a chance to respond. Someone screamed behind her, and she spun around in time to see aninky-black, billowing darkness beginning to form on the far side of the assembly line fifteen feet from where Dominic Patterson was standing. The billionaire, as well as the people in his small group, seemed immobilized at the sight. They simply stood there frozen solid as that familiar sense of dread she knew came with Bagley began to fill the space.
“Bagley is in assembly bay 3,” she shouted over the radio, immediately heading toward the shimmering curtain, intending to put herself between her client and the person who was going to be coming out of the portal any second. “Get Patterson and everyone else out of the building. Now!”
There was a second of stunned silence as the armored hit man stepped through the portal, his swords already beginning to move casually in his hands when he smiled in Karissa’s direction as he moved toward Patterson.
Despite the emergency lights, it was still incredibly dark in the assembly bay areas, and Karissa doubted more than a dozen people could even see Bagley. But then the wave of dread that had been riding that line between disconcerting and uncomfortable became far more powerful. It sent some people running away into the darkness, while others dropped to their knees right where they’d been standing and cowered into balls. The wailing and screaming quickly followed, building toa terrifying intensity. Then a group of Patterson’s security guards ran into the assembly bay and started blindly shooting. That’s when everything descended into total bedlam.
“Stop shooting!” she shouted, already knowing it wasn’t going to do any good. There was so much fear being pumped into the air right then that even the trained security guards were on the edge of losing it. One dropped to the floor with a moan of despair while the other two ran off into the dark in terror.
That was when Karissa realized Bagley’s sensation of dread wasn’t affecting her as severely as it had the previous time. The night of the gala and then again on the roof of Patterson’s hotel, it had felt like her stomach was being twisted into knots merely from being near Bagley. Now, it was nothing more than a few shivers running up and down her spine. It definitely wasn’t pleasant, but she could deal with it. She had no idea what had changed, but she wasn’t complaining.
Patterson and his son were standing alone in the middle of the assembly bay, rigid as statues, abandoned by all the people who’d been fawning over them moments earlier. They barely seemed to register Karissa’s arrival, their eyes locked on the man approaching them from the darkness.
Karissa got her sword out in time to block one of Bagley’s, then took a step back and twisted sidewaysto avoid the second. But that action brought her closer to the Patterson men, both of whom were still standing there watching like this was a frigging dinner show.
“Glenn, wake the hell up and get your father out of here!” she shouted, hoping to snap the man out of his paralysis.
It didn’t work. The younger Patterson barely reacted to her voice. And the distraction damn near got her head taken off.
Turning her attention back to the man trying to kill her didn’t take much effort. Karissa was fond of her head and would prefer if it remained attached.
Normally, Karissa would have been content to stay on the defensive, letting Bagley come to her. But with the two Patterson men only a few steps away, she didn’t have that option. She needed to put some space between them and the hit man, who would gladly take a swipe at one or both if he happened to get close enough—even if he was obviously more interested in killing her at the moment.
She charged with her sword, swinging fast at his head, catching Bagley completely by surprise and driving him back at least a half dozen strides. But he recovered quickly, flashing her a self-satisfied smirk as he started twirling his twin blades too fast to even see, forcing her back step after step. She deflected the strikes that got close, saving her skin, but damn, he was fast. After a few moments of theback-and-forth dance, Karissa had to admit she was surprised to still be holding him off.
Somehow, it seemed like she was a little faster than normal. Maybe even a little stronger. Not that she’d be able to keep Bagley at bay forever, but the longer the better.
“Without your soul mate here, you aren’t a match for me,” Bagley said. “It’s only a matter of time until I slip through your defenses, and then it’s over.”
Karissa knew that last part was probably true, but it was the first part that grabbed her attention. Was Bagley saying that having Hale as a soul mate made her stronger? Is that why she felt a little faster and stronger? Would it be even more noticeable if he were here?
That extraneous train of thought nearly got Karissa beheaded again, a quick jerk to the side the only thing preventing it. But even her Paladin reflexes couldn’t save her completely, as the tip of one of Bagley’s blades caught her left shoulder and dragged halfway across her back.
The stripe of white-hot pain across her body was enough to rip a gasp from her throat, and for a second, her vision went blurry as fire engulfed her back and arm. Bagley took advantage of the distraction, coming after her so fast that she stumbled backward, landing hard on her butt and then sliding a few more feet. She tried to breathe, desperate for oxygen, but her lungs simply refused to work.Between the lack of air and the pain, she couldn’t do anything but lie there on the floor even as Bagley strode toward her with his swords swinging high.
“That was almost disappointingly easy,” the man said, looming over her. “Having a soul mate can make you strong, but without him, you are incomplete.”
Karissa got her own sword up to try and defend herself, but on the floor like this, she knew she wouldn’t last long. And she was just as sure that Hale was going to blame himself for not being there to fight alongside her.
But just as Bagley started to swing one of his blades down toward her, a loud snarl of rage rippled through the room, the low, rumbling sound echoing off the walls around them. Glenn and Dominic Patterson—as well as the rest of the people still in the assembly bay—looked around in pure panic, their minds clearly pushed beyond the limits of comprehension.
A blur of movement in the darkness caught Karissa’s eye, drawing her attention to the side. She looked over in time to see something streaking toward them and slamming into Bagley so hard she could hear the sound of bones crunching. Bagley went flying across the assembly bay floor, sliding a good ten feet before coming to an abrupt stop against the base of one of the robots that was swinging a car bumper in its automated hands.
Karissa looked up, her heart hammering hard inher chest at the sight of Hale standing in front of her, his fangs and claws fully extended, fury on his face.
Bagley got to his feet with his own snarl of anger but stopped when another large blur slid to a stop beside Hale. Even in the dim glow from the emergency lights, it was easy to recognize Carter. His fangs and claws weren’t out, but his eyes were glowing a vivid yellow-gold, and he looked pissed.
