Evernight (The Night Watchmen Series Book 2) (18 page)

His skin is drained of color. There’s a tightness in his breathing, like he’s scared to take in the stench of death. His bright brown eyes are large and clearly taking in every inch of the catastrophe around him.

Footsteps outlined in blood.

Walls once silver, now coated in red.

I think I see the veins pounding in his neck, pulsing to the cadence of uncertainty, confusion.

“Mr. Coccia?” I whisper, my voice and body shaking so hard it’s making me dizzy. My ears still ring from the sound of the gunshot. Eyes still blinking rapidly, praying that with every new open, all of this will disappear and become some sort of nightmare I can wake up from. But the stench of vomit, blood, and gunpowder permeate the air, twisting the knot in my stomach tighter, enforcing that this is all too real.

Jonathon turns back to me, and his eyes widen the moment he realizes who I am. His hands, which clutch his gun to his chest, begin to shake. “Faye?”

I want to look away. I can’t bear to see the fear in his eyes. I’m scared I’m going to break right here in front of him, just collapse into a puddle of tears. The sound of his voice, the sound of home, puts a crack through my resolve and I know this is it. This is the moment I’ll never return from.

This is where I stop being Faye, and become whoever it is Clara has imagined up for me.

My face is on fire, and I wish it would burn all of this away. Cleanse this moment right out of my life. I bite my trembling lip. “I’m so sorry,” I rush out, trying to keep my voice as even as possible. “I didn’t mean for this… for any of this.”

He points to the blood on the floor, his eyes still pressed in disbelief. “You? You di-did this?”

My voice is too choked to say no, so I shake my head, using every bit of strength just to move. I try to push the hair from my face, but my hands are trembling too badly. There’s so much blood. Too much.

“I don’t understand,” he says, his head shaking, his eyes still grazing over the room. “You-you were at the Academy.” His mouth falls open a second later as his own fears enter the back of his mind. “Katie! Is she… is she here? Is she okay?”

My head shakes so fast, almost in time with the rapid pounding of my heart. I don’t know if he knows about her accident. If he knows anything for that matter. “She-she’s fine. She’s back at the Academy,” I say quickly, praying he doesn’t read through my words the way Katie does. Praying I can keep it together just a little longer.

He exhales in relief, and his grip on the gun loosens. “Thank the Goddess.” He looks everywhere, and then back at me. “What’s going on here? Why am I here?”

My mouth opens to explain, but the words never surface.

“To die,” Clara’s voice says pointedly through the speakers.

The anvil of truth she drops on me splits me clean in two.

“Now, enough with the chatting,” Clara continues, unfeeling. “Faye, you’ll drain this Elite of all power. Memorize what it feels like, so that you’ll always be sure. Control it.”

I look toward the camera. “Wha-what?”

Her voice slices through the speaker. “Do not play games with me, girl. Do as I say.”

This is all happening so fast, and I feel like my mind can’t process it quickly enough. As if my brain is stuck on a train my legs can’t run fast enough to catch up with. I can’t bring myself to look up at Jonathon. He looks too much like Katie. Too much like home. I can’t kill him. I can’t use my powers on him.

If I do, he’ll die.

If I don’t, he’ll die.

Either way, she’s going to take away a piece of my best friend who I can’t bear to lose. I have to do something, get us out of this mess. I have to take her down and find my friends. Leave this city. Run away like Jaxen suggested we do so long ago.

Why didn’t I listen?

“I want to talk to my Elder,” Jonathon says uneasily. He’s staring at me with a crippling amount of alarm, and I think I might throw up. He turns to the camera and backs up toward me, holding his hands out as if he’s trying to protect me.

I want to tell him that I’m the one he should be running from, but my tongue is too twisted in fear, in heartbreak.

“I was only sent here to escort a Darkyn to the Correctional Facility.” Jonathon extends a hand to me. Moves enough to tell me he wants me to take it. His feet inch forward as if they want to make a run for it. I pray he does.

“And I have overridden your orders,” Clara says calmly. “Now, if you’ll just stand still, Faye here can do her job. Let her drain your power, and this will all be over with. This is your final warning.”

He looks back over his shoulder at me, and I hate the fear I see in his eyes, as if he already knows I’m a monster hiding inside of a beautifully innocent girl. “Faye?”

He says my name like it’s his last plea.

I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.

“Faye, what does she mean by drain my power?” he asks, turning all the way around to face me.

I’m shaking violently now.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Mr. Coccia,” I say, barely able to get the words past the knot in my throat. I’m so sick, so achingly sick, and I just want to be a million miles away from here where bad decisions and death don’t exist.

“What are you…?” He swallows deeply, like he’s having trouble understanding. “What are you going to do to me?”

His words stab me worse than any knife could.

I inhale, exhale, and then say, “I’m going to pull from your energy. That’s all. If I can do it, then she’ll let me go and you’ll walk away unharmed.” I’m surprised by how confident the words sound. By how open and honest they sound, almost as if I know what I’m doing. Like this is a routine I’ve done a thousand times.

Almost like that is what’s really going to happen.

The words do their job. They settle into his shoulders, relaxing his stance. Easing his mind.

“That’s it?” he asks hesitantly, so trustingly.

I nod because I can’t bear to speak another lie.

“Okay,” he says, pulling himself back together, and then he closes his eyes and opens himself up to me.

Biting my lip to keep the cry from spilling past, I have to look up to keep the tears from pouring free. I steady my hands by my sides, inhale and exhale, knowing she’s watching me, testing my fear. Testing my defiance.

“The clock’s ticking, Faye,” Clara says through the speakers.

Think of something,
I tell myself. I can’t let her win.

“Now, Faye!” she says louder, harsher, and I know I’m running out of time. There’s no time to think. No time to plan.

I count to three and force my eyes open. He’s staring straight ahead, straight past me. Minutes pass, and I’m too frozen in my own fear to do anything. His eyes finally flick to mine, and they lift just enough to tell me to start, to do something other than just stand still like a statue.

I close my eyes.
Focus,
I tell myself. Energy and life are all around me. A low hum sings in a compelling cadence. A soft warmth that I want to cradle in the palm of my hand. I try to tug on just his energy, but I’m so mixed up that I end up pulling on everything in the room. The lights flicker on and off as raw electricity and power enter my body.

Jonathon falls to a knee. His gun crashes to the ground, and the clanking sound slaps me awake.

I release what little energy I pulled. “I can’t do this!” I shout as fear and embarrassment strain through my voice. Push behind my eyes, seeking release.

“Can’t or won’t?” Clara says simply.

I try not to notice Jonathon as he gasps for air and attempts to stand. As he looks at me in a new light. My hands are in my hair, pulling and tugging, searching for a way to get us out of this, but my mind’s moving in so many different directions and none of them are making any sense.

All I know is that Clara’s a monster. A horrible monster I have to get away from.

“I asked you a question!” she shouts. “You either try again, or you’ll have a repeat of the last Elite’s untimely exit.”

I find the camera across the room. If I could just get her in here. If I could just get her close enough so I could do this to her. Make her feel what she’s asking me to do to everyone else, then…

“Both,” I say surely.

I hold my breath as silence rolls in like a fog, blurring what’s to come. I can’t let her kill him, but I can’t do it myself either. I stand firm. I stand scared… waiting for whatever will happen next.

The door kicks open. A relieved breath rushes out of me as she walks in, but it’s choked off by what she has clutched in her hand.

A pistol.

In four strides, she has the barrel of the gun pressed hard against the side of Jonathon’s head, cocked and ready.

No!

“Why are you doing this, Clara?” I struggle to say as gravity presses in on me, pushing me down. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I have to kill her. I have to.

“Because you’re damaged. Broken. A product of abandonment. And yet, you’re still standing. Still scrambling along, never giving in.” She looks me up and down, and then presses the gun harder against Jonathon’s head.

He doesn’t move. Doesn’t even blink as he stares at me in pure horror, begging me to do something. Anything.

“You know you can endure. Rebuild yourself. You have no limits, and that is not something this Coven can afford at the moment. You’re a weapon of mass destruction placed in the body of an irresponsible child. It’s for the Coven’s benefit that you obey me, Faye Middleton. You must submit.”

Her finger begins to pull back on the trigger, and I think my heart has leapt up my throat and out my mouth. “Okay!” I shout out, “I’ll submit! Just-just let him go!”

Her finger halts. Her gaze digs into mine. I wipe angrily at the dampness staining my cheeks with terror.

Shut it off. Don’t let her win.
I hear Jaxen’s voice in my mind. His words spark me back to life.

“I’m going to count to three,” Clara says. “You drain him, or I shoot. One.”

I close my eyes, flipping off my emotions.

“Two.”

I suck in a deep breath.

“Three.”

I’ve never been so present, so aware, than in this moment. Fear has a way of doing that. Of making you understand just how mortal you really are.

And it’s in this clarity that I find my alternative.

“Enough,” I say flatly. Magic and volation build within me, swirling and mixing, filling my veins with impenetrable strength. As I slam my fists into the floor, a ripple of electric power lifts from off the ground, throwing Clara and Jonathon off balance. I slowly rise as the rippling magic surrounds me in a cocoon, protecting me.

As much as I don’t want to, I know my only chance at saving Jonathon is to drain Clara enough to keep her from hurting anyone else. I open my senses, and then pull on her energy. It enters my system like a shock of ice. Like a burst of fire. Something wakes inside me… longing, greed, power, hunger… it channels the life entering my system, fueling me to pull more. I feel… I feel so incredibly strong, so marvelously untouchable. I feel like a predator on its first hunt, finally catching its prey.

Clara’s eyes scour mine, rage surrounding the black pit that is her soul, as she scrambles back away from me. “Do you think you can go against me?” She tries to stand, but there’s no strength left in her legs.

This makes me smile.

“You have no magic, Clara. You gave that up, remember?” I point out, following her every movement across the room with slow precision.

Her back slams against the wall. There’s nowhere left for her to go. No corner for her to hide in, and in her wide-eyed gaze, I know she’s finally realizing it.

“I’ll kill you, and everyone you love for this,” she squeezes out against my choking magic.

“I’d like to see you try.”

Her eyes widen, and then the room blackens as I tug hard on all the energy around me. Rage has taken over my senses. I want to murder her. Seeking her life force out, I tug harder, sucking the very soul from her body. I hear the gun in her hand go off.

Jonathon yells out as I remain in place, pulling, pulling, and pulling.

Emergency lighting flicks on. Elites storm the hallway outside the door. I force it shut and weave a spell strong enough to keep everyone out. The power inside of me is so full, so strong, that I don’t want to let it go. I don’t think I could stop now even if I tried.

I lift Clara off the ground with my magic. Pin her against the wall with my hand on her neck. “Is this what you wanted? For me to be a monster? For me to
murder
my own?”

Her lips tremble as she struggles to smile. “I g-got yo-your precious Gr-gramm to do it,” she forces out between small breaths. “I can g-get you t-to do it too.”

Her words trickle past me in a blur, and I squeeze as hard as I can.

“Faye!” It’s Jonathon. His voice is a terrified rasp. “You’re killing us.”

Clara’s screams claw at my ears as I tug on the last of her energy, watching her face slowly turn blue, shriveling in on itself.