Dark Summoner (Relic Keeper Series Book 1) (5 page)

Screams.

Bloodcurdling screams tore through the air.

“What the fuck is going on?” A blonde in a tight leather dress walked to the door again and held it open wide. From what I could see, people ran in every direction up and down the hallway outside the restrooms. She frowned at the ten of us standing just inside the doorway “Is it a fire?”

She stepped forward, blocking our visibility and then screamed in horror as a person tumbled into her. The blonde woman and the figure toppled into each other, her legs going over her head as they twisted and crashed down on the floor just below my feet. She shoved him off, and he landed on his back, revealing vacant eyes. The last remnants of blood poured from his mouth as it hung open. Bruises, more blood, and another substance covered his entire body. His shirt and pants were torn from head to toe by what looked like claw marks scratched across his neck, chest, and arms.

Then everything went to hell.

I
t took all of the women two seconds to process everything before they screamed and ran like wild animals. I was the last person to leave the bathroom. Earlier, I had been too shocked to breathe, let alone run, but now fear had me moving at full speed. I grabbed the door and pushed my way through the crowds of people toppling over one another as they tried to escape. The high-pitched screams came from every direction as I shoved my way toward the dance floor. The music boomed through the club, still going in its hypnotic beat while people were being torn apart. Blue lights flashed around the black room. In the VIP area, people scrambled to get down the staircase, practically trampling over one another. I couldn’t see what everyone was running from. I wasn’t even sure they knew. I caught glimpses of Dorian as he stood at the edge of the balcony, searching for something or someone. My heart dropped as I thought of Reagan. Where was she? Was she all right?

A nightmarish sound caused the ground to quake. It sounded like thunder. A second later, a screeching roar tore through the club and everyone halted. I looked up again to see Dorian staring down at me from overhead. His entire demeanor had changed. There was a dangerous, lethal look about him. He was no longer searching as his eyes landed on me.

A woman screamed and toppled into me. Her blood-drenched hands grabbed onto my shoulders as she shook me. “Abby! Oh my god, Abby.” It took me a second to realize it was Julia, covered in blood and cuts and unnaturally pale. Hysterical with vacant eyes, she rambled. “They’re eating people. David . . . David is gone. Oh my god.”

Eating people? What the hell was happening?

“Where’s Reagan?” I asked her, my voice shaky from fear. But she didn’t answer. She stared at something invisible in the distance. I didn’t want to be cruel. She was obviously in shock, but she was alive and the last person to see Reagan. I grabbed her by the shoulders. I enunciated every word slowly. “Where . . . is . . . Reagan . . . Julia?”

“I . . . I don’t know. The last time I saw her . . . I . . . I don’t know. Oh god, Abby! David is gone.” She almost collapsed to the ground, but I caught her. She slumped forward into my arms, her hot tears soaking my shoulder as she cried at the loss of her brother.

Out of nowhere, she was torn from my arms and flung across the dance floor. She choked as her body flew like a rag doll and smacked into a far wall. She landed on her stomach, her eyes open and lifeless.

I had barely a second to see Dorian coming as he slammed into me, taking us both down to the floor. Glass and candles flew into the air. He rolled to his feet as he shoved me behind him. He brandished two large blades, his movements fluid and controlled as he swung them in the air, preparing himself for an impending attack. None of this seemed real.

“Abby, we have to get out of here. Now.” His head snapped left to right as he assessed an unseen threat.

I looked at Julia’s lifeless body. Even though I knew she was dead, I needed to do something—anything—for her. “What about Julia?”

“She’s gone. We must leave. Now.”

Tears streaked down my cheeks as the horror and reality of what happened settled in. “I need to find Reagan.”

“We can’t wait for Reagan.”

“Wait for her?” I said in disbelief. “She could be fighting for her life right now. I have to find her.”

“You are far more important.”

I couldn’t believe how insensitive he was being. Far more important? Bullshit. I wiped at the moist tears that hung from my chin and straightened my shoulders. “If you won’t help me, then I’ll do it myself.”

Before I could rise to my feet, another man, one I had barely noticed earlier, jumped over a table and broke chairs and pushed through the last stragglers left in the club as he rushed to Dorian’s side. Then, just as quickly, three more men came from different directions. Four in all, aside from Dorian. They readied their stances, forming a circle around me as if they had anticipated this attack and planned for it. All of them were muscular and over six feet but with different hair colors and cuts. Each man carried a different set of weapons, but not one of them held a gun. That was the most unsettling.

Dorian kept his body poised toward the entrance with his back to me as he quickly issued orders to the other men.

“Miles, set up the perimeter. We’re going to need to make a quick exit.”

“Jude, I need you to pull in any guardians who are nearby. If he’s coming, and I think he is, we’ll need everyone we can get.”

The two men took off in opposite directions. I didn’t have a chance to question what was happening. I was dumbstruck by their conversation. Who the hell were all these men?

“Stefan, what’s the estimate?”

The man with thick blond hair stepped forward. “Necros. At least twenty, maybe more.”

In the next second, the entire club went pitch-black. I recognized the sharp chill as it began tingling in my chest and worked its way through my entire body. Oh shit. We were about to deal with something very, very bad.

“Dammit.” Dorian swore less than a foot away. “There’s not enough time.”

A loud crash interrupted their conversation.

“There’s more trying to break through on the other side,” a deep male voice said. “Rev and Sylus are trying to hold them out. But it won’t be long.”

Another crashing sound around the back of the club sent the men running.

Dorian spoke briefly. “Stay here, Abby, I’ll come back for you.”

Alone, I tumbled backward and huddled against the nearest corner, guided by my hands. The room was unnaturally dark, almost as if a black cloud had come through and filled every space. My instincts screamed for me to get the hell out of there, but I didn’t have a clue which way was out and I wasn’t leaving without Reagan.

Question after question bombarded me in the shadows. Who was Dorian? What the hell was attacking everyone? Where was Reagan? Was she alive? How long before these things found me?

A new set of screams tore through the club followed by maniacal laughter, the sound more horrifying than anything I’d heard that night. In the fog, a set of ruby-colored lights suddenly appeared, floating several feet away. They changed direction quickly, swinging back and forth from the movement as they headed toward me. I swallowed down my crippling fear. I crawled farther back until there was nowhere else to go, caught between what I could only assume was a wall and a shelf. When the lights were less than a foot from me, Dorian’s face revealed itself out of the darkness, his figure lit by the sanguine glow of the sabers in his hands.

“What’s happening?”

“Abby, please. I don’t have time to explain. I need you to come with me.”

I peered at the blades in his hands as they hung only inches from me.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

He holstered one of the sabers and reached a hand out for me to take. When I didn’t make any attempt to return the gesture, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “This is not how I wanted this to happen. I hoped I’d have more time to take this slowly, to reveal things one at a time. But that chance has passed. We don’t have time for hesitation. There are things here—others who will seek to do you harm. They won’t hesitate to kill you.”

I think he had added the last part to ensure I understood my circumstances. Or perhaps he was trying to force me into action. Whatever his motives may have been, they worked.

I placed my hand in his. “What about Reagan?”

“If she’s alive and still here, I promise you that we will find her and get her out safely.”

If she’s alive. My heart stilled at those three words. But what if Reagan had already gotten out? I couldn’t see her leaving without me. It wasn’t something that either of us would do, but it was possible. Before the blackout, the club had almost emptied out. If she had been inside, wouldn’t I have seen her? But if she had gotten out, I was putting her in danger by staying inside.

I nodded my head only once as he pulled me to my feet. We sprinted as he held my hand tightly, directing us out. I couldn’t see, but I didn’t need to. Dorian acted as my eyes. Whoever or whatever he was, he appeared to be able to see clearly through the black fog. Never once hesitating in his movements, he confidently guided us. I ran as fast as I could to keep up, but even then I could tell he held back for me.

Before I knew what happened, Dorian shoved me onto the ground below him and swung his blade in the air, just in time to block a sword coming down over us. He ducked and spun, flinging our assailant’s blade into the air and landed a blow. Over my shoulder, I saw mangled fingers with unnaturally long claws sprouted from them. It wasn’t a sword our attacker wielded, it was his hands. A creature with translucent gray skin that glowed and contrasted with its solid black eyes. The stench of putrid flesh filled the air.

It was the monster—my monster. I didn’t need my
sight
to see them now. They weren’t hiding from me anymore.

A second, then third creature, joined him, each with their claws ready. Dorian moved fast, his two sabers flinging through the air with amazing speed and accuracy. He cut through the first two and faced the third before he was attacked from behind. He lost his stance and stumbled backward, falling several feet away from me. Two more came out of nowhere and six surrounded him. He attempted to lead them away from me, but one came in my direction. I crab-walked backward, my legs stumbling over one another as I tried to escape. The creature leapt through the air and landed on top of me, his blade inches from my neck.

He gripped my arm and held my wrist tight as he raised his blade above my heart. But instead of stabbing me, he stopped. He shifted his head in several directions and scanned my face, searching for something. When he reached up and touched my hair, I freaked out and smacked him away. Suddenly his mouth perched open in an empty cry. I saw the tip of a blade sticking out of his chest. His body was flung backward and tossed onto the ground across from us.

Dorian knelt next to me “Are you okay?”

“I think so.” My voice was barely audible.

He pulled me back to my feet, keeping me close. I wiped at the glass stuck in my palms, trying my best to pull the pieces from my broken skin. Dorian gave me a once over and then huffed out one word.

“Fuck.”

It fell from his lips harsh and quick. Whatever he saw, he didn’t like. In the space where six of the creatures had been, ten more stood, just like the first one I saw several weeks ago. Wrinkled inhuman faces with borrowed, hairless, gray skin. Noses crushed and bent and mouths with no lips. Their creepy soulless eyes watched us with half humor, half disgust. Only one of them had the same large scar spread across his mouth through his right eye.

Fuck was absolutely right.

Dorian pulled me behind him as he backed us up until we hit a wall. “Abby, stay behind me and keep your feet on the ground. No matter what happens next.”

Keep my feet on the ground?

A violent, sharp screeching sound drowned out the music of the club, the noise so intense, my head throbbed as though it was going to explode from the pressure. I covered my hands with my ears and braced the wall, trying my hardest not to fall to the ground.

I lasted fifteen seconds before I collapsed, landing on my knees. The moment I hit the ground, they swarmed us. Dorian grabbed my arm, trying to drag me back up, but I couldn’t stand. The sound was too strong, too powerful. My vision wavered but I could see Dorian as he battled with the monsters. His movements were quick and precise, but there were too many and they dragged him farther and farther away from me.

Suddenly I was lifted off the ground, a hand tight on my neck, sucking the air out of me. One of the two scarless creatures choked me. My throat burned and my chest tightened as my lungs begged for air. When death was close, he dropped me to the ground. They were playing with me, bringing me to the edge before pulling me back. Just like before.

Scarface hummed a tune to himself as two others took my arms and dragged me across the tile. I took the last bit of strength I had left within and shoved myself off the ground, running as quickly as possible. In the next instant, they surrounded me again. The closest of them punched me hard in the nose and blood smeared his hand. I hunched forward from the pain and felll down onto my palms. He licked my blood off and laughed, his tone twisted and sharp. I heard Dorian as he called out to me, but I was too weak to answer.

I crawled on my hands and knees, blood pooling in my mouth. Slowly, they walked around me, laughing at my attempt to escape them. When I raised my head, I saw a long claw, probably two feet long, growing out of Scarface’s hand. He gazed upon me and used his leg to kick me over onto my back. He glided the sharp edge along my chin, savoring every minute of my pain and fear.

He came closer and gripped my hair with his fist, causing me to arch my upper back. He angled my face upward toward him, before he spit on me. The vile fluid from his mouth hit my bottom lip and a small amount slipped into my mouth. Bile immediately rose into my throat, and I tried to heave out food that wasn’t there.

I was going to die. It was no longer a matter of when because I knew. Right here, right now, smeared in my own blood and vomit. With his hand still knotted in my hair, I couldn’t stop him. I could only close my eyes and pray for a swift death.