“Which is asking for war,” Bobby added.
“Fuck,” I cursed.
“Number one rule in the field?” Angel asked.
“No man left behind,” Ezra said with a growl, his gaze on me.
“I didn’t leave you behind,” I reminded him. “I broke you out of magic-dissolving goo. You and glitter boy over there.”
“Second rule is to sleep when you can,” Angel interrupted. “We’ll have rotating shifts between us and the NHV team.”
I stared at Remi, wondering for a minute why he was on our team and not theirs since he was fae, but then I saw a glowing mark on his right arm. He hadn’t had it on Friday. Holy fuck.
“Remi?”
He turned, his normally vibrant fae eyes dull and distant. Sweat beaded at his temples despite the van’s chill.
“Chip sickness,” Ezra said, turning his back to the sleeping area as he took a seat behind Bobby. “It will pass. Those who straddle the line between HV and NHV either accept the chip or reject it.”
“I’m not NH enough for them,” he muttered absently, tucking himself into the bunk. “Wake me when something interesting happens.”
My eyes locked with Angel’s, and I hated that he could see the revulsion twisting my features, the way my hands shook with barely contained horror at what they’d done to Remi. Marked him. Like livestock. Like prey. Which stirred my own internal wrath at the glowing red band wrapping my bicep. A brief memory of chills, nausea, and vertigo when I’d been handcuffed to an exam table in the morgue after getting my chip made me queasy. Memories of my power awakening or chip sickness? I shuddered just remembering it.
Angel hauled me against the solid warmth of his body as we braced on the bench. The van lurched forward, carrying us toward the tear between dimensions. All I could feel was the phantom ache of that brand on my arm and the eruption into chaos that my life had been since.
The only thing keeping me grounded in that moment, from turning into a puddle of insanity between panic attacks, was the man at my side. How had he existed in this world his entire life and not launched himself off a cliff or into the void? Was it too soon to tell him how much I cared about him? Was it love? Why did the idea of that scare me so much?
I breathed deep as we approached a familiar tear, and Bobby hit the overhead lights, which cast a swirling glow as we entered the rift. Angel held me tight, and I let my helmet rest on the seat to bury my face in his shoulder and breathe his scent as the world stretched for a half second around us, spitting us out across into a landscape that could have been from an alien invasion novel or the latest dystopian thriller, fascinating and terrifying all at once. Especially when the shadows knew my name.
10
We drove long enoughfor me to doze, the low hum of the radio vanishing not long after we crossed. Maybe they didn’t have radio waves this deep across the Veil, or maybe the air itself swallowed transmissions. I jolted awake to a strange, keening wail in the distance, high and thin like a dying animal. No one else reacted. Familiar, then. Or maybe I was the only one who heard it.
Bobby rolled up his window as we went deeper, the glass fogging with a strange temperature change, which wriggled on the road like heat for a moment but crackled over the windows as if ice were trying to form. Through the condensation, I watched the NHV vehicle’s taillights ahead of us flicker like will-o’-the-wisps in the thickening gloom.
Small crossings to Angel’s apartment or the community center had almost begun to feel benign, the differences subtle and manageable. Streets and buildings similar, creatures varied, but not terrifying. This was something else entirely. The world around us changing into something only previously possible in my imagination.
The necropolis clarified around us in stages. First came the smell, ozone and fire, like a lightning storm rising on thehorizon. Then the air changed, charging with a static that made my teeth ache. My magic snapped and crackled the deeper we traveled until I fought to keep it down, and Angel stripped off a glove to rest his warm palm on the back of my neck, lending me his strength.
Then the light shifted.
The vast, bruise-colored sky pulsed with veins of green, red, orange, and black. Not clouds, or even a sun or moon, but something alive and watching, like a giant nebulous heart beating overhead. Beneath it, the city rose in jagged tiers, its architecture an impossible mess of twisted buildings and warped roads weaving through structures, under them, and vanishing into darkness.
Shadows lingered everywhere, peeling themselves from walls to track our progress. Nearer to the road, hunched figures shuffled through the ruins, some humanoid, others... not. A woman with a mouth split ear-to-ear turned to watch us pass, her teeth gleaming like polished obsidian knives. The van drove by her, and I held my breath, hoping she’d ignore us.
Right as Bobby’s window aligned with her twisted features, she slashed at the glass. Her black talons scored deep grooves in the bulletproof glass, sending spiderweb cracks radiating outward. Bobby flinched, though thankfully the glass held. Her smile widened, insanely wide, until her face seemed nothing but teeth and hunger. Claws digging into his side of the van.
“Fucking Lamia,” Wade cursed as he stomped on the accelerator. The van lurched forward, but she clung to the side, digging in like Wolverine, clawing at the edge of the door.
Ezra slammed a blue button on the dashboard, and a high-pitched vibration echoed outward. I flinched, feeling like a chord had been struck at the base of my spine, and it vaguely hurt. But the reaction was instant; the woman recoiled with a screech,half-shifting into something with a snake tail and vanishing away from the road.
A roar shook the ground, and Angel’s grip on me tightened. “Keep driving,” Angel commanded. Whatever Cthulhu of nightmares awaited behind us to comfort the snake lady; I didn’t want to see. Wrapped in Angel’s arms, the rest didn’t matter, and I was grateful, as it was all a little overwhelming.
“Victor says the building is on the far east side,” Wade said, silencing the alarm. “We either have to cross the river or go through the demon district.”
“I vote river of blood,” Tiana said, her gaze focused on the scans. “Threat level is yellow, so pretty clear sailing.”
“Do I want to know?” I whispered to Angel.
