Page 132 of Sin

I fought against Lewis’s hold, but I couldn’t break free. My head swum as the blood loss really started to get to me, and I furrowed my brow as I tried to focus on what to do. The bunker was around thirty feet square feet and had been stocked with pails of dried food items and other random necessities. A single bed sat in the back corner, like it had been pushed out of the way. There were several large water jugs and even a few soda cans. The walls had all been padded with some white material, reminding me of the rooms in isolation where they’d send prisoners who tried to hurt themselves.

“Like it?” Keith asked when he noticed my attention. “Did you know that Mr. Radley was a doomsday prepper?” Keith asked conversationally. “Had this secretly built in case of World War ?. The old man hired me to place wards around it to keep people from breaking in. Thought that if war broke out and people found out about it, everyone would be lining up on his doorstep, asking to be let in.”

“So what? When you knew Lucas was looking for you, you came here and killed the old man?”

Keith peered at me out of the corner of his eye as he circled the room. “The man was in his late nineties. He was going to pass away soon anyway.”

“Che, that doesn’t make it okay. It still makes you a murderer.”

“It’s not like I wanted to do this!” Keith snapped, returning to Lucas’s side. “I didn’t plan for things to end this way. He was supposed to stay with me, we were supposed to find justice and answers together.” Keith shook his head. “I just wanted him to stay with me.”

“If you have to manipulate someone into sticking around, then you should probably let them go.”

He scowled over Lucas’s head at me. “I didn’t try to manipulate him.”

“Yeah,” I said, scoffing, but my eyes drifted to the timer. Thirty seconds.

Keith’s smile contained a manic edge as he caressed Lucas’s unconscious face. “I think, deep down, he knows I only do this because I care about him.”

“I think, deep down,” I panted, “that you know that’s not true.”

The hands pinning me down tightened their hold. Keith shook with barely controlled rage, and he stood, sauntering toward me. The blow was expected, but the absolute power behind the punch wasn’t.

I cursed as blood trickled from the cut in my lip he’d left me with. “What would you know about it?” he sneered at me, pulling something out of his pocket that I couldn’t see. “I know Lucas. You don’t! I helped him, saved him.”

“You’re not his savior, Keith,” I scoffed, even as panic raced through me. Because the timers were counting down from ten. “You just ended up being another person who hurt him.”

Keith screamed, coming up behind me to grip a handful of my hair in his hand.

Lewis’s form fell limp to the ground without Keith controlling him. His unseeing eyes stared up at the ceiling, mouth slightly parted as blood trickled from the corner.

My heart pounded harder, and I swallowed a painful lump in my throat.

A roar resounded through the house, almost deafening as several of his bombs exploded, and the images on the monitor cut off. Tears streamed from my eyes, and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

He couldn’t be dead. He would be okay. He had to be okay.

Then my head was yanked backward, baring my throat for Keith’s observation. I couldn’t do anything to stop him as he pressed something sharp against my skin. “Did you know, I studied lots of anatomy while figuring out how my power affects the body?” He leaned closer to my ear. “I think you’ll come to regret how you spoke to me.”

A loud boom shook the air, and the door to the bomb shelter slammed against the wall. It had been completely blown off its hinges.

Fire illuminated the open doorway, and smoke seeped into the shelter like fog.

A figure appeared in the doorway, his face a mask of icy fury and determination. His lip was busted, and a steady trickle of blood dripped off his chin. Dark eyes scanned the room, taking in everything, like Lucas’s unconscious body and Lewis’s corpse by my side. He seethed and shook with more rage than I’d ever seen, and Keith, still towering over me, grinned against my ear as he slashed my upper throat.

At first, I didn’t realize what had happened. I opened my mouth to say London’s name, but the pain overwhelmed me and all I managed was a wet wisp of sound. More blood dripped down my throat and over my suit like a bloody necklace from my effort. My suit, which hadn’t been designed to cover my neck.

My sluggish brain finally put two and two together. He’d chosen his cut carefully. He’d slashed my vocal chords.

Panic seized me when I realized I couldn’t use my powers. Not without my voice. Something Keith knew well.

Keith’s hands flexed at his sides, like he was attempting to use his power. Lewis’s body jerked on the floor, but when nothing more happened, I guessed that Keith was tapped out. It made sense considering all that he’d done tonight, like reanimating all those dead animals in this house to fight us.

London’s grin could only be described as inhuman. His lips stretched too wide. Too many teeth flashed. And his eyes… They offered as much mercy as the Grim Reaper’s scythe.

He lunged.

Keith screamed, trying to jump out his way, but London’s reflexes were too quick. He snatched the necromancer and swung a fist right at his face, making him drop a bloody scalpel on the floor.

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