Emanare (Destined, #1) (25 page)
Read Emanare (Destined, #1) Online
Authors: Taryn Browning
“But why?” Sam asked.
“We don’t know,” Alea said. “We are pretty sure Cale’s involved somehow.”
“We may have been wrong all along,” Malachi admitted. “I don’t think Cale was trying to kill you last night or any of the times before. He could have killed you that first night in Baltimore, but he didn’t. I think he felt your blood to assess whether you had started the change.” Malachi marked the page with a pen and shuffled forward to the
sanguis
demon’s excerpt. “
The
sanguis
demon has been used to kill those who will reach immortal status. His blood can seek the predestined immortal,”
he read.
“You’re right, Malachi.” Sam realized. After finding out Vicky was her protector, Sam learned she was vulnerable the night Cale lured her away from Canton. Why wouldn’t he have just killed her that night, when he had the opportunity, before Sam realized she had the power to defeat him? “Cale could have killed me that night. I was alone with him and under his influence, but he didn’t.”
“If Nieander is directly involved, it has to be something much bigger,” Malachi said.
Suddenly a tingle crawled through Sam’s body. Malachi was right, she could feel it. There was a larger plan at work. Cale had abducted Lauren, and Ann had been possessed by the
porcus
demon, all after Sam had reversed Cale’s ability. What if Malachi was right? What if Cale didn’t want to kill her, but wanted something else from her before her transformation? How were Nieander, Cale and the
porcus
demon connected, and where did she fit into the equation?
“Alea, will you be able to create an elixir to exorcise the demon?” Sam asked.
“I already have. We can go back to your dorm and do it right now.” Alea circled the chaise and headed for the foyer. “I’ll grab it. The sooner we do it, the better. The longer she is possessed, the harder it will be to remove the demon.”
Evrik met Alea at the steps. “I need you to get the elixir, but we can’t use it yet. We think we know how to find the entrance to the tunnel. You were right. The closest entrance could be on Tolbert’s campus.”
“How do you know this?” Malachi asked, joining them in the foyer, along with Sam.
“Ann had a map of the campus. Vicky said Ann kept obsessing over finding a sewer,” Evrik answered.
Alea turned to face the guys. “Are you saying Ann can lead us to the entrance?”
“That’s what we’re hoping,” Chase said. Everyone had convened in the foyer, except for Draylan, who had turned on ESPN.
“Dray,” Alea barked.
Draylan appeared next to her within a split-second. He stared at the ceiling and inhaled impatiently, letting everyone know he was bored with the conversation. “Can you just let me know when we’re going to fight?”
“There’s nothing else we can do right now. We have to wait until it gets dark. That’s when Cale will have Lauren in the tunnel.” Alea took Sam’s hand. “Why don’t you and Chase go back to campus and check on Ann. We’ll meet you at your dorm when it gets dark. Then we’ll let Ann lead us to the entrance.”
“Do you really think this is going to work?” Sam asked, walking toward the front door with Evrik and Chase in tow.
“We’ll get her back,” Malachi assured Sam. His eyes were a comforting liquid platinum. Sam knew Malachi would do his best to keep his word.
Draylan mumbled in half-hearted agreement, already climbing the steps to his room.
Evrik brushed his fingers through Sam’s hair. “Go get something to eat. I doubt you’ve had anything all day. You’re going to need your strength tonight.”
She smiled awkwardly. Chase breathed down her neck, making “uncomfortable” an understatement.
CHAPTER 29
Sam and Chase stopped to pick up three extra-large Papa John’s pizzas on the way back to the dorms. Two for Sam, Vicky, and Chase, and the other for Ann. Chase still hadn’t said much other than, “I’ll have pepperoni,” and “I’ll go in and get the pizza.”
“Are you going to talk to me?” Sam asked, walking briskly next to Chase. She had forgotten her coat again. With the sun setting, the cool air made her shiver.“About what?” Chase said, balancing three pizzas on his palm.
“Something other than what you want on your pizza. You’ve hardly said a word to me.” Sam took two fast steps to keep up with Chase’s one long stride.
They arrived at the dorm. Sam tapped her foot on the elevator floor, anxious about what they might find when they returned to the room. She ignored Chase’s cold shoulder and prayed Vicky had still kept an eye on Ann. At least Sam hadn’t noticed any police cars, fire trucks, or vans from the psychiatric facility, located so close to the university it practically resided on campus. The authorities wouldn’t have to go far to commit Ann.
Chase lay the pizzas down on Lauren’s desk.
Sam peered out the window—ropes of blotchy pink clouds lined the sky against a backdrop of bright orange. It wouldn’t be long before the sun finally went to bed. In a way, Sam hoped Cale had put Lauren under his hypnotic trance so she wouldn’t be so terrified.
Sam entered the bathroom. She raised her hand to knock and the door flung open. “Finally, you’re back,” Vicky groaned, beckoning Sam in.
“Why is she handcuffed to the bed?” Sam asked. Ann snapped at her. She jumped out of Ann’s reach. “And where did you get handcuffs?” Sam rethought her question. “You know, never mind that last question.”
“That’s why.” Vicky extended her arm across Sam’s line of vision. “She bit me, twice.” Sam noticed two distinct bite marks on Vicky’s forearm.
“Maybe she’s hungry.” Sam shrugged.
“Hungry my ass, the girl’s eaten everything in both our rooms and then some. I hope you didn’t want your little stuffed frog.”
“She ate Frogger?” Sam said.
“Frogger. Dear Lord…you named the stuffed croaker. Uh—you’re all nuts.” Vicky held up a pair of pink polka-dot underwear. “She got these out of your drawer. Be happy I saved your underwear—seriously, polka-dots?”
“Give me those.” Sam wrenched them from Vicky’s hand.
“Where’s your boy toy?” Vicky sneered.
Sam ignored her.
“You know who I’m talking about, the puppy you drag around on a leash,” Vicky continued, throwing Sam a towel to wipe the blood from Ann’s arm.
“The puppy can hear you,” Chase growled from Sam’s room.
“What happened to her arm?” Sam asked.
“She tried to gnaw it off when I cuffed her. She’s seriously more animal than human now—Chase would know about that.” Vicky pushed by Sam. “So you brought pizza, yum.” She disappeared through the bathroom, leaving Sam alone with a drooling, growling Ann.
“Do you want some pizza?” Sam asked.
Ann snarled, biting into her down comforter and shaking it violently like a dog with a stuffed toy. A puff of feathers filled the air, floating slowly to the floor around her. Sam wondered how they were going to get her out of the dorm. They definitely needed Evrik.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Sam said.
Sam found Vicky pressed up against Chase. She had him cornered against the wall. Sam cleared her throat—twice. “How do you suppose we feed Ann with her wrist cuffed to the bed?”
“She’s got a free hand, and anyway, she’ll probably just use her mouth,” Vicky said, finally stepping away from Chase.
“I’ll take the pizza to her,” Chase volunteered, dodging Vicky.
Sam grabbed a handful of paper plates from her shelf, offering one to Vicky. “She drank all of my Coke,” Sam said, slamming the door to her very-empty micro-fridge.
Vicky plopped down on Lauren’s bed. “So you’ve gotten your friends all wrapped up in the Infernus. Not only has one been taken by a
sanguis
demon, the other’s been possessed by a
porcus
demon with the help of Nieander, one of the
Angeli Casi
, groomed by Lucifer himself. Could you have chosen any bigger evil to unleash on your friends?” Vicky took a dainty bite of pizza.
“Get out of my head, Vicky,” Sam said through tight lips.
“So what’s the plan? How are you going to get our roommates back? Until Ann’s potty-trained, you’re keeping her in here. She stinks.” Vicky grabbed Lauren’s
US
magazine off the night stand and flipped through it. “I’m not going out looking for a sewer, and I’m
certainly
not going into a nasty, rat-infested tunnel.”
“Vicky!” Sam warned with an irritated glance.
“Okay, I’ll block your thoughts,” she said. “But I’m still not following animal-girl into a tunnel. You and puppy-boy can go.”
Chase slammed the bathroom door behind him. “Vicky!”
She shot him an innocent look. “What—you follow her around like a lost puppy. And the funny thing is, you can actually turn into a puppy.” She saw Chase’s hostile expression and huffed.
“We are
all
going tonight. Who knows how many demons we’re going to encounter in the tunnel. We need as many humans, or half-humans, or whatever we are—” Sam flailed her arms in frustration. “—as we can get.”
“Whatever gets me back to a normal college life of bars and frat guys faster,” Vicky said, shaking her head at the Fashion Police page. “So, why aren’t you two talking?”
“Vicky!” they shouted.
“I don’t have to read your minds to see that you’re not speaking, looking or sitting even remotely close to each other. You two are usually like two annoying peas in a pod, at least when Sam’s not having sex with demons.” Vicky flipped another page, ignoring the mental daggers Sam and Chase bore into her.
Sam moved her shoulders back and forth, trying to scratch her itchy back with the inside of her shirt. She reached over her shoulders to get to the itch underhanded, but she still couldn’t reach her now fast-growing wing bumps.
“I’m not touching you,” Vicky commented. Her eyes fixed on a picture of a celebrity heartthrob at a bar. After a moment of gawking, she flipped the page.
“Here, turn around,” Chase said, making his way over to Sam’s bed from Lauren’s side of the room.
“It’s right there.” Sam stretched her arm over her head to point to the spot. “A little to the left, more right, up, up more, yes right there, ahh!” She exhaled. Chase’s fingers were delicate on her back. She reached behind her, sweeping across Chase’s hand.
He put his lips next to her ear. “Are you okay?” he whispered. Goosebumps formed along her body.
Vicky’s head sprang up from the magazine, “Sam Campbell, you’re in quite the predicament.”
CHAPTER 30
Evrik arrived at Sam’s room after dark, while the others waited outside. They decided to take the stairs—less chance of being bitten by Ann in a confined area. There was an exit at the back of the dorm, at the base of the stairwell. It was also a sparsely traveled area, where they wouldn’t likely run into other students. The cloud-blanketed sky hid Evrik’s lavender-hued skin.
They met Alea, Draylan and Malachi on the pathway to campus. Vicky immediately took a liking to Draylan until she read his mind.
Evrik used his mind to control Ann and erase the memories of any students they passed on the way. Ann sniffed her way through campus, nose raised, stopping periodically at the trash cans systematically stationed along the pathway. They followed.
