“Don’t dwell on it, Cole,” I say, following his gaze tomy puncture marks and mottled flesh from giving blood. “I’m your older sister, and I’ll always be here for you.”
“And as family, we should be there for each other,” he counters. “Look out for each other so it’s not always so one-sided.”
I lean back against one of the metal poles connecting the top bunk to the bottom bunk. “Okay, then. Can you tell me what Jax spoke to you about?”
“He started rambling about slayers, so I stopped listening,” he admits. “There’s no such thing as slayers. If there were, they would have saved us a long time ago.”
He is right. I’ve never seen a slayer, only heard about them from people who haven’t seen one either. But I don’t want to have this conversation again and fuel the fire in Cole when all I want is for him to trust Jax enough to get us out of here.
I smile and hope it’s convincing. “Sleep, Cole. You will feel better tomorrow.”
With a soft groan of pain, he murmurs, “Thanks, Saya. I don’t remember Mum, but you remind me of her.”
My throat tightens at the memory of how she used to look at me with disdain. “I’m certain she misses you.”
He grunts his response.
I scramble back onto my bunk. Grabbing my pillow and rolling onto my side, I look over at Manni. She’s asleep.
With a deep breath, I curl my body up, pressing my knees up to my chest to get as comfortable as I can as I wait for Emily to return.
I’m not sure how much time has passed when a sudden weight lands on my bed. With a groan, I kick my leg back and mutter, “Softer next time, Em.”
The pressure near my feet creeps up towards my head.
Now that Emily is back, I curl fully into a ball, my hands resting against my chest and fingers bundled in the blanket covering me. My thoughts sleepily drift to moonflowers. I’m lying among them with my white hair twisted in the blades of grass.
I look at the stars above the valley and reach up to them when a cold chill shudders down my neck, pulling me from my dreamlike state. I bury myself completely under the blanket to ward off the chill when fingers of pure burning ice brush against the side of my neck. Ripping the blanket down, I roll onto my back and stare up at the vent.
It’s open.
A shallow breath escapes me, and my attention slowly moves towards where Emily should be sleeping.
She isn’t there.
My focus snaps to movement near the toilet. A darkness too deep to be normal looms in the corner, dripping over the open toilet seat.
The same darkness from the delivery room.
My throat constricts, leaving it parched, and cloudy wisps curl from my mouth as I breathe through parted lips into the suddenly frosty air. I grip the sheets, contemplating hiding underneath them, irrationally hoping it might stop the darkness from advancing.
From hurting me.
Cole!
With a shaky breath, I lean over the edge of my bed and peer down. Cole is sleeping soundly, flat on his stomach with the damp pillowcase still resting over his shoulders.
I sit up and look back to the darkness. It’s gone.
Am I losing my mind?
A wave of frustration washes over me, and I slap my hand over my face and rub, groaning at today’s talk of nightmares clearly playing tricks on my mind.So stupid.
As I lower my hand, a delicate touch—like a fingernail—glides down my neck to my collarbone. My eyes fly open, but the rest of my body is frozen in place.
Paralysed by fear.
The touch at my collarbone slides up my throat and beneath my chin, lifting my head. Cold spreads across my jaw as my head is tilted to the side, fully exposing my neck.
