“You’re all good. You didn’t throw up anything, which means your body doesn’t have anything to spare. Let’s keep going. I’ve got your hand now, and we’re heading over to the vent. Saya, hang tight until I come for you.”
My arms lock, and I remain still as I listen to their presence ahead. Jax talks Cole through it, then congratulates him once he is across. In the next moment, his breath brushes against my hair.
A bloody, sticky hand wraps around mine. Warm lips press against my forehead, uncomfortable against my skin. “Alright, baby. I’ve got you. Just follow my voice.”
He tells me to keep moving forward and guides my hand to the other side of the vent. I wince as my hands press into still more fleshy pieces of what used to be Manni.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.The words thump through my mind with the gut-wrenching guilt.
I manage the rest of the way myself. When I reach the other side, Jax says we can open our eyes, but not to look back. A tingling pricks the back of my scalp, and I urge myself to keep going, not wanting to see Manni in a way I’d rather not remember. It takes every bit of willpower to push on and stay focused on Jax.
“What makes you sure there will be a keycard in the mess?” Cole asks.
Jax crawls along the airshaft. “Do you remember the screams we heard? The doors to the mess must’ve been opened, and the creature went berserk.”
Cole shuffles down after Jax, and I realise we have reached the ground floor.
“Don’t freak out when we get to the mess. I suspect everyone is dead,” Jax says. “Once I’ve got a keycard, we’ll head to the kitchen and out the back door to the food delivery area.”
We climb over the vent near the praised room. I look down, then quickly look away after seeing the gore streaking the stairs. Dan’s torn body is crumpled nearby, his guts strewn everywhere.
We reach the vent in the praised room, and Jax easily breaks it. “Stay here,” he whispers as he slides down with the wooden stake in his hand. “What the fuck? Emily?”
A sharp breath slices through my lungs as I lean over Cole to catch sight of Emily creeping out from under the bed, with a few others following her lead. Jax helps me down, Cole follows, and we retreat further into the praised room. While we quickly wipe off the worst of the blood in the private bathroom, Emily tells us that eight of them came here when Dan instructed them to, then he went to find us.
“I know that thing killed him,” Emily says, a faint smile quivering on her lips. “I’d recognise his voice anywhere. And Manni?—”
I hug Emily. We need this. A moment to fucking breathe.
Jax brushes his hand against mine as I pull away from Emily. “We’ve gotta go. Before the nightwalker returns.”
“It’s a nightwalker?” Emily asks.
He shrugs. “When I shoved this stake through its heart, the thing aged rapidly before turning to dust. I’d say that’s enough to call it a nightwalker.”
Emily gives him a strange look. With my lips pressed tight, I stay quiet. I can fill her in when we get out of here.
I grab both Emily and Cole’s hands while giving Jax a pointed look, daring him to fight me on it. His frown deepens, but he says nothing. I’m not leaving my brother or my friend behind, and if that means holding hands the entire time, I will. Jax won’t be able to stop me this time.
Instead, he walks to the entrance of the praised room and peeks outside. “I think the creature is on the third floor, but we need to move cautiously and keep quiet. No more talking once you step out of this room. Just follow my lead, alright?”
Laura retreats into the bathroom. “Fuck you all!” she hisses, closing and locking the door.
With an eye roll, Jax turns away and steps out of the room, and I trail close behind him. I fix my gaze on the back of Jax’s head rather than on Dan splattered across the staircase.
Ahead, bodies are piled high at the broken doors to the mess. Intestines and chunks of flesh squelch beneath my bare feet as I make my way over the corpses. We bypass the communal toilets. The doors open, and more Feeders join our silent group.
Ahead of us, Jax points to the body of a Bleeder in the centre of the mess.
Cole grips my hand tighter, staring back the way we came. I follow his gaze down the corridor and into thepraised room, as darkness spills from the vent we entered through and settles on the ground. Wings emerge with a shudder, the sound of familiar insect noises intensifying.
More Feeders turn around to quietly gape in horror, then a woman lets out a high-pitched scream.
Fuck you, Jane!
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
PERFIDY
