As he started the commotion, I sidestepped the war zone and made it to Damien. His arm was torn up pretty bad but not bleeding crazily. If I could get this bitch off him, he would live. His eyes flicked up to me, and the breeder started to turn in my direction, following hisgaze.
Oh hell no.I wasn’t dealing with another one of these psycho bitches and their mindgames.
Holding my blades up high, I aimed right for her neck as Damien removed his hands from her throat and held her in place by her biceps. Coming down fast and hard, I took her head clean off. Damien yanked her body upward, trying to miss the spurt of black blood that flew from her. A little got in his hair, but he was otherwiseokay.
“Behind you!” he shouted, and I spun just as the sentry knocked into me. I flew backward, my body hitting the wall with such force that I felt a rib crack. I sank to the ground and then was suddenly face-to-face with thesentry.
Everything happened so fast then that my mind was trying to play catch-up. He was suddenly on the ground, leaning over mepredatorily.
“Kit Steele will die,” he said in that deep, creepy voice. My arms were pinned between us and I was totally dead. There was no way out of this. His mouth started opening, the foul stench of rotting meat hitting me, and I thought I might pass out. Suddenly over his head, I saw a streak of steel, and then a samurai sword plunged into his skull. The sentry’s big gray eyes bulged, and then he slumped overme.
I winced as his weight came down on my broken rib. With a grunt, Damien rolled the dead sentry off me, and I looked up to see Master Aki pulling his sword out of the sentry’s head and wiping it off on hispants.
“More coming. Let’s run” was all he said to me before he started joggingaway.
Damn, can’t a girl get a minute to catch herbreath?
Damien lent me a hand and helped meup.
“Thank you for saving my life,” I yelled to Master Aki’s retreatingback.
He just waved meoff.
I looked in the direction we’d come from and my eyes threatened to bug out of myhead.
There were at least a hundred ghouls making their way tous.
“Run!” I told the others. Nox dashed out of the building holding a bag of Doritos, and I could see more chips and water peeking out of the duffel bag where he kept hisexplosives.
“This puppy is about to blow,” he warnedme.
That was all I needed to know. I took off running, counting heads with my eyes. Maxine was limping but seemed okay. Then came Brisk, Santiago, his crew. We were banged up butalive.
When we’d run about a hundred yards, Nox stopped and turned back. The front line of the hundred-ghoul march had funneled around the building and was coming right forus.
“Bye-bye, flesh lovers,” Nox said, and pushed a redbutton.
Thekaboomthat echoed across the Dream Wars was epic. The sight of flying ghoul parts made it even more enjoyable. But it didn’t kill everyone; it had only bought ustime.
Glancing over, I saw Damien was holding his sliced-up arm to hischest.
“You okay?” I asked him. I was beyond freaking exhausted, and with no coffee or stims, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it muchlonger.
He nodded. “I’m fine. Open a portal and let’s get the hell out ofhere.”
Inodded.
Taking a few deep, calming breaths, I allowed myself to find my center; it was getting easier and easier each time. Reaching out with my mind, I felt for the other dimension, the one of my home.Earth.Searching for that heaviness, I thought of it thinning, becomingopen.Right before my eyes, I witnessed the air grow thin before a hole opened up. Our big beautiful moon was coming into view, and I nearly wept with relief. Opening the hole wider, my stomach sank as frigid seawater started to flood into the DreamWars.
I looked back at Damien, who, for the first time since I’d met him, lookedscared.
“Call Dawn. We can’t gohome.”
I wanted to have a nervous breakdown, but I didn’t havetime.
Seventeen
I’d closedthe portal after getting doused in seawater and realizing we were literally right over the Atlantic Ocean. Now we were running for our lives—limping for our lives, was more like it—until Dawn and some friends could come get us. My rib was pinching with every breath, Maxine had dislocated her hip, and Damien was dealing with a gnarly armwound.
