Page 84 of Catastrophe

You killed her. You killed her.

But maybe I didn’t. Maybe she’s asleep. Maybe if someone finds her, they will be able to save her.

I couldn’t get my mind to stop spinning and my breathing seemed to get faster and faster without my permission until they were shallow and I felt like I couldn’t keep up, like my breaths couldn’t penetrate deep enough in my chest, like I was turning to stone from the inside out and the air just moved around it.

I was barely aware that Baelen was calling my name. I could feel him stroking my body, but it was like it was happening to someone else. Tears blinded me and my body felt tingly, like I had pins and needles stabbing me all over. I couldn’t breathe and my hands clawed at Baelen’s shirt, asking for the help that I couldn’t voice.

Suddenly, his fangs were in my neck and although I couldn’t feel any less happy, the sharp shock of pleasure jolted me back into my body. I could hear him when he pulled back, blood dripping from his lips and he said, “You’re all right. You’re safe. You did what you had to.”

My breathing settled as he held me, stroked me and whispered reassurances. I didn’t look at the witch.

“Baelen. I think she’s dead.” I shook my head when he opened his mouth to confirm or deny. “I don’t want to know. I can’t know right now. If I know, I won’t be able to save Zaide, and all of this will be for nothing.”

His red eyes swirled with emotion as he stared at me, assessing, before saying, “All right. Let’s go.”

I didn’t ask him how he was here, I just held tightly to his hand like I was daring the world to part us right now, and thanked God he was here. We stood just as the door slammed open and Jack charged in.

I opened my mouth to talk to him, but Baelen pulled me against his chest, backed us against the wall and covered my mouth. In my mind, he whispered, “stay silent.”

“He can see us.”

“We are invisible.”

“But I know him. He’s on my side. He can help.”

“He might not be on your side knowing you killed Mary.”

I didn’t think of that. So I did as he said and watched as Jack exclaimed and cursed as he checked Mary for a pulse. Then he scanned the floors and saw the phone I left behind the cabinet. He stopped the recording and then skimmed through it. “Fuck,” he yelled, clutching the phone in his hands as the leaders he trusted repeated all I told him. He checked his watch, cursed again and then ran out of the room.

He dropped his hand from my mouth and nodded. “We need to go. I know where Zaide is.”

“You do? How?” I asked, gripping him again as he pulled us toward the door and out to the corridor.

“I have Charlie’s voice in my ear and he is giving me directions,” he whispered.

I could barely see where we were going. My eyes were still blurry with tears and my body shook with the restrained emotions, but I trusted Baelen to guide us. We stayed completely silent as hunters milled around the corridor. There seemed to be less than earlier and I wondered what the time was, if some were already in the courtyard waiting for the meeting.

When we opened a black door into a dark room with stairs descending toward a thick metal door at the bottom, I wiped my eyes with one hand, gripped Baelen with the other, and prepared myself to hold back more emotion when I saw Zaide. I didn’t know the state he would be in, but Mary suggested it was bad. As we pushed through the door to a room with a large cell, I gasped.

He wasn’t there. Zaide was gone.

“Where is he?” My voice was hysterical as I looked around the cell, as though Zaide was simply hiding behind the rustic-looking hospital bed. But no, the large metal cuffs, which were attached to the thick bars of the cell, were open and blood sprinkled across the concrete and metal. I held back a whimper and turned to Baelen accusingly. “I thought you knew where he was?”

It wasn’t fair for me to blame him, but I would apologize later. I just need to find Zaide, leave and forget this ever happened.

“He should be here. He was. I can smell him. It’s his blood.” He looked just as bewildered and upset as I felt, which eased my anger slightly.

But if he was supposed to be here, why isn’t he? Where is he now? Worry stirred in my gut as I considered the possibility that Zaide had been moved for the meeting.

Baelen pressed a button on the earpiece and said, “Charlie, he’s not here.”

He was silent for too long, and I bounced impatiently at his side before asking, “What’s he saying?”

“He’s telling us to go into the corridor and stay hidden until he’s found him again.” Baelen grimaced. He wasn’t used to taking orders and Charlie’s demands were clearly not what he would have done himself. But as he’d said before, we are a team, we work together.

There wasn’t a clock in the room, but I knew it had to be about midday. “The meeting is about to start,” I said. “I really should find Michael before Fafnir eats him. Maybe he knows where Zaide has gone.”

“I’m sorry, but saving the hunter is not important. We need to concentrate on Zaide,” Baelen replied, and his thumb brushed my hand in calming gentle strokes.

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