Page 7 of Lower World
Panic gripped me in an iron fist.
Alice.
In all of this, she was the only innocent one, her only sin that I singled her out and used her to do my bidding in my fruitless attempt to screw with the Syndicate. And now she would lose her life just like Veronica did because I couldn’t accept my fate. For my idiotic dreams of vengeance and that life didn’t have to be all about power and killing. I wanted to rid the world of monsters, and instead I’d become one, as well. Only others paid for my insubordination.
Another life would stain my soul.
Blood coated the floors and made it difficult to move gracefully, so I slashed around wildly, desperation guiding my every kick and punch. Rage cast a red haze over my vision, bathing the unfamiliar faces in a fire hue that burned my retinas. I kept swirling, tearing whoever I could reach limb from limb, using claws and fangs after the dagger slipped from my hand. Hot liquid dripped from my mouth down my chin and drenched my shirt. Every rational thought left my mind and, listening to Dominic’s roars and snarls along with the Atua’s screams, I simply killed.
I had to end their lives.
I had to kill them all before they took another life they wouldn’t have known existed if it wasn’t for me. Everything was moving on autopilot until a familiar voice penetrated my numbness. At first, I thought I’d imagined it, but it came closer and I spun around to see if I was hearing things. It cost me a broken rib and a dagger embedded to the hilt in my kidney, but I stood there gaping like a fish.
Alice was spinning around like a dervish, a large, long knife clutched in a white-knuckled grip with both hands, and she was hacking her way toward me. Hands and fingers were dropping around her like confetti but the human didn’t falter and she didn’t stop. She was using the knife like a machete with a determined look pinching her face. A warrior cry full of fury and fear ripped from her throat, and she pirouetted to me, pressing her back to my back, gasping for a breath. Nothing stunned me more than her weapon of choice in a fight against killers.
My human friend was brandishing a bread knife of all things.
5
“Alice, what in the worlds are you doing?”
Taking hold of her upper arm, I moved her around so I was facing the broken front door. There was a low wall I had made with decapitated bodies, the heads rolled away to the sides. It forced the two guardians who were trying to enter to crawl over their dead brethren with faces twisted in rage. Their eyes were locked on me, dismissing Alice as the lesser threat. From what I’d seen, I wasn’t sure they were correct in their assessment.
“I have no idea.” Alice panted, waving the bread knife left and right like a stick she’d normally use to ward off dogs.
I had no time to try and talk sense into her, so darting closer to where the guardians were attempting to slip in so they could attack, I snatched my dagger from the puddle of blood on the floor. I stabbed the guardian on the left through his eye, the hilt of my weapon making a dull thud when it hit his cheekbone. His scream burst my ear drums, throwing me off balance as I listed to the side, reaching for the second guardian. My arms wrapped around his shoulders in a lover’s embrace, and his confusion cost him his life. Striking like a snake, my fangs ripped his Adam’s apple, spraying hot liquid over both of us.
“Brooklyn?” Alice hissed in alarm, and I spun around, blinking fast to clear out the blood dripping in my eyes.
The one Atua, whose left hand and three fingers from the right were sprinkled in the hallway thanks to Alice, was glaring at her. Shoulders hunched, he was ready to pounce, so I jumped from near the door to stand as a shield in front of her. My fast movement startled Alice, and she stabbed the breadknife at me, catching my upper arm and splitting skin and muscle as if she was using a freaking sword. My pained snarl made her jump to the side, gaping at me owlishly.
“Oh my God,” Alice whimpered, lowering the damn thing. “I’m sorry. I have no idea what’s wrong with it.” Her knuckles were still white from how hard she was clutching the knife. “Watch out!”
Her warning saved my head since it made me instinctively step to the side. Unfortunately, I stepped to the wrong one, and the guardian barreled into me, taking us both down. His weight pressed on top of me, mushing my nose and face in the already congealed blood on the floor. My cheekbone was screaming as he pushed his hand hard on the back of my head, pinning me with a knee wedged next to the spot I was previously stabbed at. I was coated in blood from head to toe, and not all of it was from the guardians.
My skin was shredded in many places, so the blood loss made dark spots dance in my vision while I struggled to get him off me. The longer I kept flopping like a salmon out of the water, the more panic I felt. If he went for my neck or heart, there would be no one in this hallway to protect my human friend. When the weight was gone from me, it took me a moment to realize it. Only when a foot nudged me in the shoulder did I flinch away and roll to my knees.
“You are alive … good.” Alice was looming over me, but I wasn’t paying her attention anymore.
The breadknife she was using as a weapon had a faint yellow glow as if the sun was reflecting off the blade. The problem was, it was still the middle of the night, and the only visibility in the narrow space was the light coming from the living room and kitchen. No more guardians were left alive around us, so I rubbed at my eyes thinking the pain and blood loss made me see things. Even after I cleaned my face as best as I could, the knife glowed until it faded and the shimmer disappeared. The screams and snarls were gone from the living room too, giving us a moment of reprieve.
“Dominic,” I called just loud enough for the shifter to hear, and his low growl made my shoulders drop a notch.
He was alive.
“Give me the knife.” Reaching for it, I paused with my fingers an inch from Alice’s hands. She was frowning at it, her eyes glued to the blade with the glasses barely staying on her face on the tip of her nose. “Alice? I need you to give me the knife. There are no more Atua here to hurt you. Can you do that for me?”
“No.” Her answer was absentminded and just a breath under her nose.
“I’m going to take it now …”
“No, Brooklyn,” she huffed, finally raising her gaze to my face with a glare. I cocked an eyebrow at her annoyance. “It’s not that I don’t want to give you the stupid thing. I can’t.”
“Of course you can. I’m still able to protect you if I need to—” Tensing, I leaned back when she swung the blade and wiggled it in front of my nose.
“See?” She kept jerking the knife in front of me, her knuckles tight around it. “ I can’t let go of it.” What little color had returned to her face drained as she locked her fear-filled stare on me. “Get it off, Brooklyn. Get it off.”
“Stop moving it, Alice.” I had to stop myself from reaching for it, remembering the slice she gave me with it accidentally. “Let me try and take it.” My ears were trained on any sound around us in case another attack was coming, and as soon as she pointed the long knife at the floor, I jumped to my feet.
