Page 108 of Greed
Damn it, he was gathering consciousness.
Quick. Escape. Now.
Before it was too late.
Survival orders snapped in her brain, urging her into action. Go. Go. Get out of there. Those trembling hands shifted to the clasp on her seatbelt. It took her three goes, and great big gulps of air before she got herself unbuckled, but then Donnie was sitting up. His eyes were glazed and adjusting focus. Blood streamed down to his face in dark rivulets.
“You bitch,” he rasped incredulously, blood spitting from his mouth. “I trusted you. I wanted you with me. You bitch!”
Lilo went for the handle on the van door and opened, but he shoved her back into her seat with a forearm to her neck, choking her. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Screw you, Donnie.” She locked onto the gun, fallen in the gap between the car seat and the center console. If she could just reach it. She’d—
A glimpse of something moving in the rearview mirror. It was the money from the van. Bags had indeed fallen from the back as they flipped. Cash went everywhere, flying, twirling and floating in the air like an expensive tornado. And like clockwork, the greedy citizens of Cardinal City came out of the woodwork to capitalize on the accident.
“They’re stealing your money, Donnie,” she rasped through his chokehold. “Money is power, right? If you don’t get it, you’ll be weak. You’re done for.”
It was all she needed to say and his eyes flashed wide, his pupils were tiny pinpoints of rage, and then he howled. “NO!”
He let go of her and fumbled in his jacket pockets to pull out a leather compendium which he unzipped. Three syringes filled with a substance similar to what he’d already injected himself. Wide-eyed and erratic, he darted a glance outside to where Griffin helped secure the train, to the approaching two dark figures—Griffin’s deadly back-up—and then back to the people thieving his money.
“I need more. I have to use it all,” he murmured to himself and began to inject himself with haste.
All she could think was to get the gun. It was protection. Get it. Get it. She reached in the gap, but the weapon was wedged hard, caught on the under wire of the seat. Her fingers couldn’t get a stronghold. The gun kept slipping, falling deeper under the seat.
The growl that ripped from him as he breathed through his pain wasn’t entirely human, and when he depressed the third and final syringe into his neck, Lilo watched, petrified, as an animalistic transformation came over him. That monster peeking out from behind his eyes became real.
Veins in his head, neck and hands bulged. His shoulder muscles expanded, stretching his coat, creaking and groaning until the seams split. He grunted and snorted like a bull at a red flag, and when he finally faced her, she saw nothing human left. His eyes were vacant.
“Mine,” he grunted and reached for her, but his new larger frame took some getting used to and he knocked his head on the rearview mirror. He shook it, dazed.
She abandoned her efforts with the gun, snapped open the car door, and tumbled into the street.
An almighty beastly roar reverberated in the cabin of the van, shaking its foundations.
Adrenaline scorched Lilo’s body. She crawled as fast as she could from the van, heedless of the asphalt scraping her knees and hands. When she looked over her shoulder, Doppenger tore the roof off the van from the inside, and burst out to land adeptly. He spied the thieves stealing his money, and he spied Lilo on the floor escaping him. He roared and it thundered through the air.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Griffin strained, his power at the brink. The amount he’d expended on holding the van at the same time as the train had seriously taxed him. Now he took too long pushing the train car back on the rail. Parker was inside the train, helping passengers move to the rear of the cabin in case Griffin’s power collapsed and he lost his hold. Once evacuated, they could disconnect the front car from the rest of the train and let it fall. Then Griffin could help Lilo. God, he needed her. Every ache in his bones cried out for her soothing touch.Just a few more minutes. Just a few more.Until everyone was out of the train.Hold. Hold.
Dressed as Envy, Evan jogged up, arriving at the scene. “What the fuck is that?”
Dragging with lethargy, Griffin turned around and wished he hadn’t. The scene behind him was chaos. The twisted and deformed features of a man too big for his clothes—too beastly to be human—swatted bystanders as they tried to collect the fallen cash bags. It was Doppenger turned monster. He had the same horrific aura of greed, but now had a face to match his sin. That was the darkness inside made real.
Could that have been Griffin once?
Was that a future without Lilo?
Bodies went flying through the air as though they were soccer balls, and then the beast turned—caught sight of Lilo crawling away—and bellowed in outrage.
Griffin’s throat closed up. He stepped toward her, but the train came with him. Passengers screamed.
“Hold steady, Griffin.” A voice through his ear comms.
Lilo.
The beast made a grab for her ankle, snarling and growling. He missed, but then swiped again, this time catching and dragging her toward him. She screamed.
