Zane’s face went white, but he sprinted across the room, coming to a dead stop next to Cole, staring down. He choked, covering his mouth. “Oh, God.”
The silence extended on our group, enough that I heard Grigori muttering from behind the couch, “No...No…No...No…” It had to hurt like hell, but he kept saying it over and over, his voice absolutely pain filled, evidently getting the gist of the conversation from just listening.
I kept blinking, keeping the tears at bay.
And suddenly, a soft feminine moan filled the room along with Grigori’s mantra.
Zane and Cole stilled, their jaws dropping, staring down.
Grigori instantly stopped, shouting—as much as he could, “Ember?” I was surprised he didn’t pass out from that.
A groan. “Fuck, that hurt.” Ember’s sweet, soft voice filled the room.
“Help…her…” Grigori wheezed a shout.
Zane and Cole started, looking like they jolted awake as they stumbled forward, racing toward her. They dipped behind the desk, and suddenly, Ember was cursing, “Get the fuck away from me. Goddamn it, that hurts!”
There was a grunt, and first Zane’s body flew back, reappearing past the desk, and then Cole’s right next to him, both of them, rolling to their feet, glaring down at her. Cole muttered, “That was fucking cheap.”
“Fuck you. Stay away,” Ember growled, a bloody hand slamming down on the desk. A dark black head of hair lifted from behind the desk as grunts ensued. “Cole, go make sure the house is clear. Zane, go check that woman’s cleavage for a vial. I saw one there. I bet it’s the antidote. Those names are hard to pronounce and easily mistaken for another, so call Stash and spell it out for him, and ask him what will counteract it. Everyone over there’s been drugged.” They didn’t move, still staring down at her with wide eyes, and she shouted, “Fucking do it!”
“Are you going to live?” Cole asked calmly.
“I’m not going to die right now, dammit.”
He nodded and left the room, taking her at her word.
Zane stared a moment more before jutting into action, kneeling next to the dead woman, but my gaze was stuck on Ember’s head. I couldn’t figure out why her hair was black. Her bloody fingers gripped the table, digging in as she pulled herself up more…and I almost puked. I had to swallow hard to keep it down.
The black made sense now.
She stood up, and wobbled, grabbing the desk with one hand, the same hand, while the other dangled next to her side. I guessed she was shot in the arm or shoulder, but I couldn’t tell where. There was no way of telling as she was.
She looked like she had been dunked in a vat of blood. From head to toe, she was covered, and I was pretty sure there were bits of flesh clinging to her once neon green shirt, now with holes and a red-brown color from the men she had knifed. Her eyes shown like stars out of a bloody night sky as she blinked, the stars twinkling as she wavered on her feet again.
Zane was on the phone, putting it on speaker. Stash’s voice was frantic as he explained what they had walked into and everyone being drugged.
“I’m on my way home. I’ll be there in an hour.” He stopped. “Ember was coherent. She wasn’t drugged.” Stash paused over the line, before shouting, “Well? Is she all right?” He wasn’t giving him much time to speak.
Zane paused, staring up at Ember. “She’s alive.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
He cleared his throat. “She wants me to explain about the drug…” He overrode Stash’s digging questions, explaining the drug.
Ember began moving, walking like a drunken woman, her blinking eyes almost hypnotizing on her monstrous face. She stopped, leaning against the wall as Zane turned the phone off, hanging up on Stash mid-rant about Ember, and jumping to his feet.
He watched Ember warily. “I’ll be back in a second.”
The phone started ringing, and Zane ignored it, racing out of the room. I couldn’t track where he went because there were too many other employees moving around the house.
Ember blinked at the phone that kept ringing.
Then it stopped. Only to start ringing again.
She sighed, and lifted off the wall, a little grunt of pain making its way past her clenched teeth before she steadied herself, and walked over to where the phone was. She bent over to pick it up, but collapsed on her knees, her head on the ground as she groaned, blindly grabbing for the phone.
It rang again, and she stopped groping wildly, and uncannily grabbed it, pressed the button. “Yes, Mommy Stash. I’m fine.”
