Fallen Darkness (The Trihune Series Book 2) (28 page)

Chapter 59

A phone rang in the distance. Lucas lay on the floor. Hands covered with blood. Clothes stained. He felt nothing.

Nothing from Kate.

Nothing from the Fallen. Though all of them had passed out hours ago.

His head was swimming.

Another ring. He pried open one lid, spied his phone on the floor an arm’s reach away.

Ring
.

After two tries to hold the slippery electronic device, he wiped his hands on his pants, picked it up.

Lids closed, he laid back, phone at his ear. “Yeah?”

Ring
.

Fuck.
He hit the answer button and brought it back to his ear. “What?”

“Lucas? Where are you?”

“Is Kate back yet?”

Gabe was silent on the other end for a second. “Where are you? I’ll pick you up. We got a call.”

Lucas lurched to a seated position. The room spun. He braced a hand on the floor. “Is it Kate? Where is she?”

“It’s not Kate. There’s a Follower tied up in the woods. Cade wants us to track it down. He and Sarid are working on something else right now.”

He frowned.

“Luc, can you hear me? Where are you? I’m coming to get you.” Pause. A door opened. “Andrew, give me a bead on Lucas’s location.”

Lucas rose to his feet, thankful the dizziness had passed. His gaze ran over the Fallen around him. Gabe couldn’t come here. “What’s the address? I’ll meet you.” He headed for his car.

His
ach
was talking, voice muffled.

“Gabe! Where is it?”

More silence then Gabe spouted the directions.

“I’m less than twenty minutes away.”

“What are you doing all the way out there?”

“I was looking for Kate,” he snapped. “What do you think? I’ll meet you there.” He ended the call, throwing his cell on the passenger seat. He synced the car’s GPS with the coordinates and headed down the driveway.

It took two tries to find the entrance into the woods, not believing the GPS when it told him to turn left into a set of trees. He parked his car on the side of the road, sent Gabe a text of his whereabouts, then silenced the phone. At the rear of the truck, he strapped his spare knife to his ankle and his Berretta to his waist.

He jogged swiftly down the trail, inhaling deep. His Fallen were working inside him. He felt no pain.

Only anger.

At being interrupted.

At the Fallen he was on his way to kill.

Precious minutes were wasting away. His mind was now clear. As soon as he killed this Fallen, he’d find Kate. He was sure of it.

When the cluster of trees began to thin, Lucas slowed and stepped off the path. His phone vibrated.

Found entranc
e. On foot. WAIT.

Sorry, Gabe. Not gonna happen.

Lucas could handle whatever he saw. One Fallen, five Fallen. No one was a match for him today.

He shut his phone off completely, switching it for his knife and gun. There was no noise coming from the modest cabin, other than the annoying Fallen beacon in his ear.

Blood was in the air. Along with an unrecognizable chemical smell.

Normally he’d wrap around the house to search for a back entrance. The place was small, though. Probably didn’t have two doors. Besides he just wanted this over with.

Lucas tore out of the woods, ears tuned for any movement. He swung between the door and window, pressing his back against the wood. His grip tight on the gun and knife, he stepped away from the side of the house, raised his boot and kicked the door open.

Bam.

It slammed against the wall. Lucas stepped inside. Surveyed the room in one sweep.

The Fallen stood over a stretcher in the middle of the room. The floor was covered in plastic from baseboard to baseboard. An IV pole was attached to the head of the bed, a line running from a bag of saline to—was that a dead animal? Two surgical trays were on either side of the bed filled with various sized knives. It could’ve been a makeshift surgical room except for the roaring fire in the fireplace and the video camera on a tripod at the end of the stretcher.

Lucas raised his arm. Berretta aimed at the monster.

The Fallen’s face registered shock then fear. Lucas felt none of it. Only anger that this thing had screwed up his plans. And for what? Because he liked to cut up animals? Why had Gabe sent him to this place?

A small moan, a sound no animal could make, had his head whipping back to the stretcher. Lucas jerked.

It was a Follower.

Not an animal.

He staggered forward.

A
nheqeba
lay on the table. What he’d thought was a deer was a Follower. Her right leg removed from the hip down. Her left from the knee. Both of her hands were missing. Head shaved. Left ear cut away. Every amputation had been completed with the precision of a surgeon.

And she was still alive. She stared at Lucas, her eyes glazed, but aware. Filled with fear. Lucas’s gaze trailed from the needle in the Follower’s arms to the bag hanging on the pole attached to the bed.

The chemical smell.

The Fallen was feeding her drugs. Was keeping her alive during this whole process.

“You sick fuck,” Lucas gasped. He didn’t know where to start. His gaze ran over the Follower. Any movement could put her in shock and kill her.

Something whistled in the air. He raised his head just as a knife plunged deep into his gut. With a roar his eyes flared blue, fangs descended. He raised his hand, pressed the trigger. The shot embedded into the wall a few feet from the Fallen’s head. Lucas moved away from the stretcher, took one step toward the Fallen and fell to his knees.

What was happening? Why was he so dizzy? He glanced down. The knife’s handle stuck out from his mid-section.

He wrapped his hand around it, pulled it out with a shout. The scent of his own blood hit him. Along with another recognizable smell. Gaze wide, he glanced up.

“What did you do to me?”

The Fallen stared, shock skipping across his face. He grabbed his jacket off of a hook on the wall and ran outside. Lucas pushed himself up, took two steps and fell. His head banged against the floor.

A car zoomed to life. Seconds later Lucas was bathed in its headlights. Then the vehicle spun and sped down the trail.

Lucas rolled away from the door, hands braced on the floor to get up, or at least reach his phone. Warn Gabe. His gaze ran over something metal. He squinted.

Chains.

Two metal chains hung to the floor. He raised his eyes. They were attached to the stretcher’s side rails.

An image flashed in his head.

Chains wrapping five Fallen.

These chains had at one time wrapped the woman’s wrists. When she had hands.

The fear in all five Fallens’ eyes when he approached.

Fear in the
nheqeba’s
eyes.

Same.

It was all the same.

He began to convulse on the floor.

Chapter 60

“Lucas. Lucas!”

He opened his eyes. When had he shut them?

Gabe kneeled next to him.

“It’s me. I’m the same,” he said, but the words came out garbled. Was that blood in his mouth?

“Sshh. Don’t speak. Help’s coming.”

Chapter 61

“Has he regained consciousness yet?”

Cade? What was he doing here? Lucas turned his head. Tried to open his eyes.

The Follower. They had to save the Follower.

Chains.

Fear.

The same. He was the same.

“Hold him down!”

“The stitches are opening!”

“He’s going into another seizure!”

Chapter 62

Kate sat at a bench across the street from the station. Her resting spot for the past three days. When it grew dark or too cold, she moved to Martha’s car parked a street away.

I’m such a coward.

What was she waiting for? She scrubbed at the two tears that escaped. Stupid relentless leaking. Ever since she left the HQ the crying hadn’t stop. It was completely humiliating. How could a man reduce her to this? And Lucas had called her strong?

She straightened, pushed her shoulders back.

Today would be the day.

It was all worked out in her mind, what she was going to say. She certainly couldn’t tell the truth. As for her gloves, she prayed they believed it was a necessary requirement of her medical condition. If not, she’d have to deal with the consequences. Kate had made her choice a long time ago.

Her new life with Stacy would be clean. Whenever she got out. Maybe she’d look up Lucas before heading to Chicago. She’d be worthy of him then, too.

Dammit. There went another tear.

Her gaze bounced to the station doors. Time to take the plunge.

She’d stashed the bag with the money she’d earned in a bus stop locker the next town over. The key was hidden at the park a block away. Kate had buried it one night underneath a tree. Digging the cold ground took a while. The hole wasn’t as deep as she’d like. It’d be sheer luck if the key was still there when she got out. If she knew where Stacy was she’d mail it to her.

Maybe it was better not to disrupt her life. Kate just assumed Stacy needed her. Things could’ve turned out really great for her after Kate left.

Prickles danced along the back of her neck. She frowned, glanced around. The last day and a half it felt like someone was watching her. Dealing with that attacker last night hadn’t helped her heebie jeebies either.

She’d been walking back to Martha’s car parked a few blocks over when she’d heard a woman scream.

Kate stilled when a high-pitched yell pierced the night air.

In the past, she’d run away from shouts like that. Screams, fights, gunshots—they all ended the same. Red and blue flashing lights. Lots and lots of police.

The guilt for running would stay with her for days. She’d been a victim once. Had screamed for help. Would her life be different if someone had answered?

This time she wasn’t going to flee.

The scream started again. Was suddenly cut off.

Astoria needed to boost their streetlights. Too many shadows. Too many dark alleys. Like the one up ahead.

Not allowing herself to slow—or to think this was completely stupid and she wasn’t a fighter like Lucas and his brothers—she ran into the alley.

A man held a woman, her back to his chest, his hand over her mouth, his mouth over her neck. The woman was struggling, for sure not interested in his kiss or whatever the hell he was doing.

“Hey!” Kate shouted, heading straight for them.

Gloves on or off? Gloves on or off?

Her hands were her only weapon if the guy decided to attack.

This was a stupid idea.

The man raised his head. Something dribbled out of his mouth and fell on the woman’s shoulder. It was blood. Kate’s gaze clashed with his and held. A strange vibe ran through her. This guy wasn’t normal. Was he a Fallen? She stepped back.

He threw the woman to the ground and came toward her. Out of her peripheral, she saw the woman struggle to her feet and take off toward the other alley entrance.

Awesome. Thanks for the help.

Well, it was nothing more than she deserved.

She pulled on the ends of her gloves.
Fuck. Shit
. Running sounded better and better. The man froze. He stood a few feet away. Lifted his head and sniffed the air. Kate held her breath. Waited to see what he was going—

His eyes widened. Fear ran across his features. He scrambled back, stumbled on an empty pop can, fell, jumped to his feet and took off running down the alley, the same way the woman had run, glancing back every few feet.

Kate whirled, checking behind her. She was alone. What was the Fallen afraid of? Her?

What the?

“That’s right,” Kate shouted, took a few steps forward, stumbling herself, adrenaline running high. “Don’t let me see you around here again!”

The man glanced back one more time before he disappeared around the corner.

Hopefully the woman was long gone. Kate thought about going to see, but the idea of finding that guy again—even if he did run away like she was the Big Bad—wasn’t appealing.

It’d been hard to fall asleep that night. Kate snorted, shifting on the bench. Who was she kidding? Sleep had been hard to come by ever since she left the HQ.

A heavy sigh left her. Stop stalling. Just get on with it.

She pulled on the edges of her coat sleeves, rubbed her hands down her legs, inhaled deeply, stood, and took one step off of the curb.