“You don’t.”
“Just as I couldn’t break through the drugs.” Sadie stepped toward the girl.
She was small and wore black clothes that matched her lips, nails, and hair. What a cliché.
“Show me how to get out.”
“I can’t. Not even I can leave this room.” She glanced around, and her pierced bottom lip quivered.
Sadie turned a circle. Dark walls. One door, propped open, revealed a bathroom. No other doors or windows. Literally, no way to get out.
“He comes and goes through splices.”
“So, he can create them any time, any place.”
“The Thata.” The girl edged away toward the bedside table that housed the needles.
“Stop.”
She did.
Sadie rubbed her neck and checked her arms. A fading red mark at the crook of her elbow. A sense of dread froze her heart. “How long have I been here?”
The demon audibly gulped but said nothing. She shifted her eyes to the floor.
“Answer me.” Sadie charged, ready to test out her fangs and how lethal they really were.
“Three months.”
Chapter Fifty-six
A hand planted in Theo’s back, thrusting him to the ground. “Damn it, Theo.” Metal clanked, and Halena yelled the vanquish.
Her words were like hollow whispers in his mind. His body was slow to react, even slower to heal. Ever since Sadie was taken.
Ripped away from him on their wedding night.
Three long months ago.
“
Merde
.” A warm hand curled around his biceps. “You’re done accompanying me on these quests to find Sadie.” Halena hoisted him to his feet.
Justin hurried to his other side. “She’s right, brother.”
They were both right. But he didn’t care. He would search for his Mate until he could no longer move. Somehow he knew she wasn’t dead. She whispered to him while he slept, yet he didn’t feel her presence anywhere. He couldn’t splice to her. That alone should indicate to him that she was dead, but he refused to believe it.
Justin and Halena had been helping him. Despite Justin’s own weakening, he assisted out of brotherly obligation, but Halena… Theo wasn’t sure about her reasoning.
It didn’t matter.
Nothing did.
“Come on. Where’s the car?” Halena asked Justin.
“Across campus.” Justin coughed, then tugged at Theo. “Walk, man. You can do it.”
Theo twisted out of their holds and stood on shaking legs. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, sure.” Halena smacked his shoulder.
Each step felt as if he moved upstream. The darkness of night cooled the August heat, yet it was still sweltering. Sweat poured down his face, chest, and back. “Did we learn anything from this attack?”
“Minions.” Halena scanned the area. “I get no thoughts off them. It’s like they’re protected, shielded somehow.”
“And they don’t readily attack.” Justin pointed to the side. “I’m in that lot there.”
The campus was still fairly dead. Classes would start up soon. Poor Dasha had begun packing the room she’d claimed at the compound, hesitant to leave.
She’d taken it upon herself to care for Theo in Sadie’s absence.
But nothing worked. Nothing soothed the pain. Theo’s power drained daily. Sometimes extraordinarily fast. Yet some mornings he woke refreshed. Mostly after having dreamed of Sadie. As if she fueled him during that connection.
But it’d been nearly three weeks since he’d dreamed of her. His body ached. Both with desire to unite with her again and with the pain of dying.
His death. Something he never contemplated much in his nine centuries as a Shomrei. He almost wished a demon would behead him. Maybe then he’d find rest.
Or find Sadie in Heaven.
Justin’s red sports car came into view.
“I think some are observing,” Halena said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You know how we’re alerted to what is entering earth’s realm, and we can judge the level of threat. These past few months, when we’ve arrived to the splice or gate, there have always been more demons around.” She looked at Justin. “Some of them are demons who have not yet been vanquished by Hunters, so they can move freely, undetected. And I think they’re observing us.”
“I agree,” Justin said. “Something’s up. And, as far as we can tell, Aggie hasn’t been at the root of any of these splices or gate disturbances. We haven’t seen him since Sadie’s disappearance.”
Theo sat on the hood of the car. “We must find her,” he whispered as he slid his hand across his damp forehead. “I’m fading quickly.”
“I know. You almost lost your head back there. Are you trying to die?” Halena crossed her arms over her chest. “Because if you are, I’m going to kill you myself.”
Justin nudged her toward the car. “Give me a minute with my brother.”
She huffed and sauntered away.
“She’ll hear what you say anyway.” Theo shook his head.
“Nosy little priss.” Justin grinned. “Sexy though, huh?”
“Focus, Justin. What?”
“You’re fading fast, brother. I can’t allow you to fight any longer. We must preserve what energy you have left.”
“And you? You fade as well.”
“Not as quickly as you. I am still strong, but I can’t fight as well with you here. I’m too worried. I’ll get more done if I know you’re back at the compound resting. Preserving energy.”
Theo slid his focus over his brother. Pale skin, but there was still a light in his blue eyes. Yes. He deteriorated slower than Theo, but still, he would cease to exist shortly after Theo’s death. His heart cramped at the thought of his brother dying.
But a Companion needed a Gatekeeper or they, too, ceased to exist.
Theo stood tall and drew in a deep breath. “I’m the Gatekeeper of this nation. I have a duty.”
“I understand that. Halena is here to help. We have Beckett offering assistance as well. I know Halena doesn’t understand the Mate thing, but Beckett is mated. He knows the devastation you’re going through. Let them cover your area for a while.”
“And let theirs dwindle? No.” Theo shook his head. “We must find Sadie.”
“Theo. It’s been three months.” Justin let out a long sigh. “You’ve not sensed her in weeks. We must entertain the chance that she’s met her end and is with The Great One.”
Theo lurched forward and grabbed Justin by the throat. “She is not dead.”
“Brother. Please.” Justin’s eyes went wide. “Don’t expend your energy on me. The strength that flooded you after your mating has long gone. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Nothing could hurt Theo now. He felt nothing without Sadie. Everything was a void. Even The Great One felt distant. How cruel to lose his Mate on their wedding night.
“Just get me home.” Theo edged toward the car. “I want to plot this last appearance on the map, see if we notice anything. Any patterns.”
Justin nodded to Halena. She came to Theo’s side and helped him into the backseat of the Camaro. The engine revved to life, but Theo drifted into the darkness during the ride home.
What felt like two minutes later, Justin tugged Theo out of the backseat and guided him into the compound. Quiet whispers of fear and foreboding sifted through Theo’s consciousness. Halena and Justin truly feared this was his end.
They may very well be correct.
“Kitchen. Food,” Theo said.
They plopped him down and went to work making sandwiches.
“Have either of you heard of a Shomrei dying without his Mate?” Theo asked.
Halena stopped buttering some bread and looked at him. He knew then that she knew something about it. He’d heard of it, but always passed it by, knowing he’d never be separated from his Mate once he’d found her. He’d never allow it. The joining would make him so strong he’d protect her and keep her by his side so it was a moot point.
Such an arrogant idiot he’d been. He failed so vividly in the role of protecting his Mate, shame slammed into him from all angles. If she was alive she might be suffering. Tortured. Did she feel the agony he felt in every breath he took?
At least she would go on. It was only he who would die without contact with her. That was most important, that she live.
“Speak, Halena.” He leaned forward, elbows on the table, and held his head up.
“There was a Gatekeeper in Yugoslavia, about seven hundred years ago, who lost his Mate.”
“Lost?” Justin said, continuing to prepare food.
“She was killed in battle within five years of their mating.”
“And what became of him?”
She glanced at Justin, then turned her focus to her sandwich. “He died. Plain and simple. A new Gatekeeper was created.”
“Yugoslavia. Seven centuries. Yes. I remember.” Theo’s heart hammered. “Much chaos for decades.” That often happened when new Gatekeepers were created. They were young, not quite up to par—it took time to get in the groove, so evil spilled a bit more deeply.
“He’s cleaned it up nicely now, though. The balance has been regained.” Halena set a plate before him. “Eat.”
“How did he die?” Justin asked. Fear cracked his voice.
“Just faded away. Justin, sit. You need rest as well.” Halena’s eyes darkened as she gathered the sandwich supplies and shoved them into the refrigerator. If Theo had to guess, Halena had come to care for this wild brother of his.
“What do you mean faded?” Theo asked.
“Energy waned. Slowed to the point of death and simply stopped existing.”
“Dust to dust,” he whispered.
Halena nodded.
“Without the energy the Gatekeeper gets from his Mate, once mated, it doesn’t take long, does it?” Justin shoved his fingers through his dark hair and bit into his sandwich.
“Three months. Tops. But Theo’s stronger. Older. And his Mate isn’t like all the other Mates. She’s an angel. That has to mean something.”
“Just that I’ll last longer, maybe.” Theo swallowed the last of his food.
If only he could have spliced to Sadie. Directly after they’d mated he could open a splice to wherever, whenever, but for some reason, never to her.
Maybe because she’d been killed right away.
Deep in his heart he knew he didn’t have much longer.
And if Sadie was dead, he’d soon meet her in Heaven.
Chapter Fifty-seven
“Damn it.” Sadie threw the desk against the wall.
The wood splintered and clanked to the concrete floor. Every wall was concrete in this godforsaken room. She turned a circle, taking in the chaos she’d created, searching for any clue to the words that would end Aggie.
As if he’d keep them here, but still. She needed an outlet for the rage billowing inside. Three months. Three. Whole. Months. Was Theo still alive? Gatekeepers died without contact with their Mate.
Theo. Hear me. Please be okay. I love you. Stay strong. I’m coming.
The female demon cowered in the corner of the room, watching with her onyx eyes.
“Why are you trapped here with me?”
“I’m charged with guarding you.”
Sadie huffed and groped the hard wall where a door would logically go. At least in her mind. Masterpieces covered the walls, but the space to the left of the Eiffel Tower painting was open. Nothing hung. A door could have easily existed there.
“Wait a minute.” Sadie turned to the demon girl. “He didn’t always have that Thata wand thingy. So there had to be a way in and out of here before.”
Her pale face went blank. Her eyes widened.
“This was where the door was.” Sadie pounded. It sure felt solid, though. Probably bricked it over. But if she could somehow get through…
She stomped over to the shattered desk and found a letter opener among the rubble. A leather-bound notebook affixed to the bottom of one of the drawers caught her attention. She dropped to her knees and plucked the book from the debris.
Demon girl still sat perched in the corner farthest from Sadie. She must look like a crazed maniac, judging by the wary look the demon gave her.
Her focus back on the book, Sadie flipped it open.
July 15
Theophilus weakens. A Minor demon nearly bested him. It’s been nearly sixty days of separation; still he pushes on, searching for her. Ruthless when encountering my kin. It is very true how vicious a Gatekeeper becomes in relation to his Mate.
August 10
Theophilus continues to weaken. He didn’t appear at the latest splice. Only the other Gatekeeper he calls Halena. I followed, cloaked by the Thata, only to overhear that the great Theophilus hadn’t even sensed the splice. Weak indeed.
“What the hell is this?” Sadie flipped through the book.
Days and days of notes on Theo, monitoring his condition. His deterioration. The last page was an entry about Sadie. No date.
Hidden beneath the magical cloak, unconscious to the point of no dreaming, the beautiful Sadie Nowland lay in my bed. Her glowing skin calls to me. Though the seal of her mating prevents my uniting with her, it does not deter my imagination. Dyre is a poor substitute, but cloaked in Sadie’s image, she will have to suffice.
The bile rose in Sadie’s throat, and she eyed the demon in the corner. “Dyre? Is that your name?”
The girl straightened, eyeing the book.
“You know anything about this?” Sadie shook it at her.
“The name Dyre is in there?”
“Is that you?”
“Sort of.” She bit her bottom lip. “What is it you search for?”
“Words. Phrases. A vanquish to end Aggie.” Sadie tossed the book to Dyre. “Oh, and read that last page. You might think twice about your alliance with that bastard.”
She bent down and grabbed the letter opener.
Let’s see if this strength of mine will help me make a door of my own.
“Son of a bitch.” The demon shot to her feet.
“Figured you’d like that last one. You didn’t know he was altering your appearance?”
She growled.
What really disgusted Sadie was the thought of them doing the deed right there in that room while Sadie was out of it.
Gross
.
“Kinda makes you rethink things, doesn’t it?” She jabbed the letter opener into the wall. Only a spark ignited. This might take a while.