Yes, Segue and the government were lying to the public. An elaborate hoax and cover-up were definitely in play. But, as Khan had said on their first meeting, sometimes a little deception was called for. Should she broadcast the truth, knowing everything possible was being done? Or should she trust Adam, and let him spin the facts as he saw fit?
It was a problem.
Further, it was a problem both Adam and Talia trusted her with.
Should she take this picture, or let the camera hang around her neck? This was the story she came for, and she had data to prove her claims, but she was stumped.
Adam was watching her carefully. She knew that he knew she was deciding something.
She let the camera hang. For now. “How long has he been here?”
And Adam seemed to completely relax. “We've had this one in custody about two weeks. He's hungry, which makes it more difficult for him to maintain the appearance of normalcy. He'll become hungrier still because The Order comes to destroy them only when all the cells are full. Used to be Khan took care of them, but since he found
other projects
”âan eyebrow went upâ“we asked The Order to take over.”
“Talia can't . . . ?”
“Not alone, no.”
They walked on. The cells formed a neat semicircle, at the end of which was a large space with padded chairs lined up to view an operating room of sorts, which was located behind a transparent wall.
“We started by trying to find a cure. These days the research has shifted to rates of regeneration, identifying variables and any relationship to . . .”
Adam's voice muted as an earsplitting scream shredded Layla's mind. It staggered her, then brought her to her knees as she gripped her head. A woman's scream, sharp enough to cut glass. The sound scored like jagged lightning. Burned in her mind with horror and fear, a soul cry for help. The scream went on and on, and Layla had to work to remember how to breathe, how to speak, how to tell Adam . . .
A grasp and yank on her shoulders had her standing again, Adam shouting soundlessly into her face. Though she couldn't hear him, his mouth moved, saying,
What's wrong? What's happening?
“Talia,” Layla said, or hoped she said. She forced her voice louder, just in case. “Talia!”
Â
Â
An unearthly shriek of terror filled Khan's mind. He dropped his work at the forge, the hammer sparking with impact on the cavern floor. He crossed through Twilight in a rage, baleful darkness riding his wake. If Talia called, she was in danger. If Talia screamed, she needed Death.
No one touched his banshee daughter.
Â
Â
Layla saw Adam's head jerk around as the lights in the facility changed from clean white to a deep yellow. She guessed the alarm had gone off, too late, though, to alert screaming Talia to danger.
Layla lurched into a run toward the cells, in the direction of the exit, but Adam grabbed her and held her back. He shook his head no. Half dragged her through the double row of seats to the examination room. The facing wall seemed to be made of glass or plastic, but knowing Adam, she was sure it was made of much stronger stuff.
The scream broke off suddenly.
“If she screamed, they're inside,” Adam was saying, his voice distant as her hearing slowly returned.
“Then go.
Now!
” Urgency ruined her voice. Layla could take care of herself. She'd seen wraith action before. It was Talia and the children who needed Adam immediately.
“Khan will go to her. He'll already be there. Even now.” But Adam's face was lined with pain. “We can't risk you, not with the threat of the gate over our heads. If you die before Khan can dismantle it, the gate will stand forever. It's too dangerous.”
“But . . .” How would Khan know he was needed? How could he get to Talia so quickly?
Adam coded open the door to the examination room and pushed her inside. “You'll be safe here. It's wraithtight, but not a cell. Security goes both ways in this room. Audio only.” He rattled off a code. “You can get out if you need to, but don't unless your life is at risk. Wait for one of us to come for you. The soldiers are still up front, just in case. I'm taking the back way.”
“Okay.” Layla backed away from the door to show her compliance. “Go!”
But he was already pelting around the corner.
Please let him get to Talia.
The door hissed closed, and a deep metallic clang signaled it was secure. Only the voice code, which she had cycling in her mind, would release her now. Drawing a huge breath, she turned to look around.
The wraith examination room smelled brightly foul, like decay covered with bleach. The transparent wall looked out to an observation theater, and considering the thick metal slab and restraints in the room, she shuddered at the thought of what had been restrained and for what purpose. She pitied the wraiths. Was there any coming back for them? Segue research said no. The mutation was permanent.
Layla rubbed her hands on her arms to fight a sudden chill. The silence this deep underground was eerie, almost as bad as Talia's scream. What was happening? Layla couldn't begin to imagine. At least here she wouldn't be a liability.
In each upper corner of the room, cameras looked down on her. And Layla caught the gleam of lenses on the other side of the partition. For once, she was the one being captured on film. She almost signaled her awareness but glanced away instead.
Wait it out.
Someone, eventually, would come for her.
The metal cupboards and drawers were all locked, so to pass the time she decided to pick them to discover the contents. The first drawer contained scalpels of all sizes and varieties, what must have been a bone saw, flat metal thingsâretractors?âa pointy tong that looked like a corkscrew. None of it good. All made her nauseous.
Adam Thorne, what goes on in here?
She decided to keep the rest of the drawers shut.
And that's when she noticed the woman leaning on the transparent wall. One-half of her was girl next door, though blood splattered her clothes, and the other half was reptilian, a lizard claw tapping lightly on the glass.
Â
Â
Khan found Talia backed up into a corner of the nursery, her children crying in her arms. The room was dark with her own Shadows as she attempted to cloak the babies, but there was nowhere for her to run. And she was too clumsy with the children in her arms to attempt a concealed dash. A wight hung in the air, its limbs ravaged, face hollow. Whether male or female, it long ago ceased to matter. Its smell polluted the air. The wight swatted a rocking chair out of the way as it lunged toward Talia's position.
Khan sent a jut of Shadow its way and its maw hung slack, its body gasping into decay, dead, a stain and stink in the pretty room. Adam would take care of that.
The door shuddered. Behind it a wraith, probably the wight's master, attempted entry.
“A moment,” Khan said to Talia. Adam's stalwart doors didn't stop him. Couldn't stop darkness. A wind rush of black anger, and the wraith's flesh went slack as well.
Down the hallway, wraiths were a thick press of teeth and menace intent on reaching Khan's daughter and her children. They crawled the ceiling and walls, blocking human escape.
Khan seethed. Where were Adam and the security he promised? Where was Layla?
He briefly sought her light among the souls in the building. She was not present. Not here. Whether that was for good or ill, he did not know, which frenzied him like a sudden madness.
But he couldn't leave Talia and the children to this danger.
Fast. Hurry. Now.
Khan cast dark magic down the hallway to batter the wraiths from their perches. A wraith leaped at him. Khan grabbed his head out of the air, twisted to a double snap, and threw the rot out of the way. He flipped the wraith that dared to land on Death's shoulder to the floor and stamped his skull while reaching for two more of the vermin. He took them each in course, the soulless living husks of once-mortals, wishing for steel to make his progress faster. He ranged through the building, casting them into oblivion.
When all that was left was the reek of corpses, he sent fingers of Shadow throughout Segue to sense for other threats. He found the cold shift of a ghost, and another, and the blazing purpose of Custo, just passing through Twilight, too late to kill the wraiths.
But nothing that could hurt his daughter.
He returned to find Talia sitting on the floor cradling her children against her chest. She rocked them rhythmically. “Shhhh. Shhhh. Shhhh.” But her face was fae pale, her eyes large and hot with her own strong feeling.
“Where's Layla?” he demanded.
“With Adam in the holding facility.”
For the wraiths to come so far, there had to be another at work. The devil. And here he'd thought she was simple.
Custo burst into the room. His gaze darted about, settled on the dead wraiths. “Holy fuck, what happened here?”
Talia looked up at Khan. “We'll be okay now.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Custo added. “Go get your girl.”
Â
Â
Rose Anne Petty. Devil.
Layla had a hard time pulling her attention from Rose's lizard arm up to the devil's sweet twinkling smile. The flecks of blood on the woman's chin were distracting, too.
How did she get down here? How did she get past Segue's front gate?
Those poor soldiers.
“Can you please open the door?” Rose had a slight Southern accent.
“Sure,” Layla said, blinking against a sudden dizzy spell. “Hold on a sec.” She looked up at the ceiling to address the security system. “Override code three, eight . . .”
Wait.
What the hell was she doing?
“That's right,” Rose prompted. “Just open the door. I've so looked forward to meeting you.”
Layla wasn't as enthusiastic, but in a dizzy swim, the next number in the code, two, slipped out regardless. She bit her lips. She'd been warned that Rose would have extraordinary abilities. Angels could read minds; obviously devils could manipulate them. How . . . devilish.
Okay. Steady . . . Think.
Layla took a deep breath and shouted, “One, two, three!” Any numbers would do, as long as they were incorrect. One incorrect entry and the system would default to locked. Thank you, Adam.
“Open the door, honey.”
“I can't. I just tripped the lock.” Layla grabbed the counter to stop the room from spinning.
I'm in a wraith examination cell. It's designed to hold an impossibly strong and supernatural creature captive. It can hold out a devil. Maybe.
“Well, that's inconvenient. Mr. Thorne's security has been difficult before,” Rose said. “And here I just painted my nails.”
Layla focused on the claw. The nails were in fact a saccharine pink. “Sorry.”
Rose's voice turned cold. “You don't sound sincere.”
The room hazed. “I'm not.”
Rose's eyes glittered and her lizard arm drew back and smacked the transparent wall. Hard.
Layla stumbled back against the counter in surprise, but the wall held. Didn't even shudder with the impact. Thorne security was the best.
The monster claw hit the wall again.
Heart in her throat, Layla fumbled through the drawer for a weapon. She had to be ready. She pulled out some kind of surgical cleaver. That would do.
Rose sweetly tilted her head, as if to acknowledge the necessity of the knife, but hit the wall still harder. Nothing.
She turned, wrenched a seat from the theater, and threw it at the wall.
Nothing.
The transparent partition seemed impenetrable. Layla loved the room. She could even get used to the smell.
“I have a suggestion,” Rose drawled, all sugar. “You obviously want to stay in there alone, with the door locked. I understand completely and would love to compromise. How about I stay out here, like you want, and you draw that there blade across your throat.”
Again the dizziness, but Layla knew that the wall would hold. She was safe. And Rose's solution sounded so reasonable. Everyone got what they wanted. Layla in, Rose out. Layla dead.
Wait a second. . . .
“Don't worry, honey,” Rose said. “You won't even feel it.”
Layla threw the knife on the counter. Flexed her hand to get rid of the cold of the handle.