Page 63 of Guarded By the Nightmare

“Let them,” I said, grabbing her hand.

I surrounded her and pulled her through a portal into her own apartment immediately. “Pack what you want—and then we’ll leave this place.”

“And go where?” she asked, but didn’t fight me—she ran to get a bag from her closet at once.

“Someplace safe. I’d rather not guard your whole building, and I suspect you’d feel bad if you got your neighbors harmed.”

“But we’re not going to stop, are we?”

“Never,” I growled. I’d snaked a portion of myself outside, where I could see the van opening its door. “You don’t care if I kill and feed from the men attacking you, right?”

I wasn’t sure what Mina’s next plan was, things might take time, and I would lose the ability to harvest the fear we’d caused from Nolan’s display when we left the vicinity. She didn’t answer, she justlaughed, and I was full of some strange and uncomfortable emotion for her.

“Good,” I said, and pulled out the heart of the first man on the stair.

The men outside were surprised, and more so when I started pulling their limbs off like the wings of so many flies, while cauterizing the wounds enough to stop them from dying, as I reassembled them incorrectly, giving them legs for arms, or putting someone else’s arms on them in reverse.

I made the mistake of leaving them their throats though, and Mina heard them screaming. “What was that?” she asked, emerging from her closet. She had her purse, a backpack, and a bag.

“Nothing, my queen.”

“You’re a bad liar,” she said, putting out her hand for mine—then yanking it back. “Wait!” she said, and ran for the bathroom.

But I noticed she’d left everything in her nightstand behind, and I was pleased.

“Okay,” she announced, returning, hand out.

I paused a moment to finish ripping the hearts out of the men we left behind, then took it.

46

MINA

We reappeared someplace else togetherin a claustrophobically small cave, and I had a feeling we weren’t on Earth.

“Is this...hell?” I’d been meaning to ask Sylas ever since I’d seen where he had Nolan holed up, but hadn’t gotten the chance.

“Of course not,” Sylas answered easily, still holding my hand in his own and leading me down a small path between two walls of stone. He cast up a light up with his free hand—it made crazy shadows bounce from rock to rock. “Hell depends on who you’re with. And as you are here with me right now, it cannot be.”

“That might be the sweetest thing anyone’s ever told me.”

“Humanity has a lot to answer for, then,” he said, pulling me into a much bigger chamber at last, which had a large open mouth to a sky that was lit up by a moon I recognized.

“Where are we?” I whispered.

“Threadstone Mountains. This cave doesn’t have any other entrances or exits, however, so regrouping here seemed apt.” Sylas walked us both up to the edge of the cave, wherethe stone met sheer air. “I do not think they are in control of their magic enough to follow, but just in case, I did not want to make things easy on them.”

I kept hold of his hand, but hung back. “This may be a bad time to mention it, but I’m afraid of heights.”

Sylas chuckled at that. “Afraid of heights, but not afraid of me?”

“That’s different and you know it,” I said with a smile.

“I cannot claim to understand your affection, but I will admit to its allure.”

“I’m not hellandI’m alluring. I’m scoring so many points right now,” I said as I carefully walked as close to the cave opening’s edge as I dared. We were thousands of feet up, with only jungle below.

“If this is a game, I want to know all the rules immediately, so I can win.”

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