Kane sighed. "Yes. It's come after me. Of course it has."
"The Ghost's come after him," I repeated aloud, tapping my foot anxiously as I studied the beast. Could I really use this thing to take me to him? I needed it to rescue Lyra and the others, too. "What about Lyra's team?"
“You can still use the Ghost,” Jordan said.
"Keep up the dialogue with him," Jessie urged. "If we’re right, the beast wants to bring together connections. It means you won't lose the monster… and if you do, you know how to get it back." She was right. I still had one of Reshi's comms in my hand, but this felt dangerous. And stupid.
"I'm fine," Kane wheezed.
You idiot, you are not fine. I'm going to find you. He was making me more certain of this plan with every assurance that he was fine. I refused to let him die like this.
"Fine," I told them. "Look, Hellraisers, I owe you an apology. A better captain would've told you sooner. You're right. I'm going to go after Kane. I can't wait for anybody else to rescue him, because it sounds like he hasn’t run into Lyra. I will take full responsibility for these actions with Hindley."
Colin elbowed me gently. "You can't go alone."
I raised an eyebrow. "You're offering?" He nodded. "Fine. Colin will join me, because he's either confident or insane enough to volunteer. We have the most experience with weird immortal happenings, but in the meantime, I'm leaving Holt in charge while I'm gone."
Purposefully, I glanced at Jones. He looked calmer, or at least less doubtful of my sanity.
"Jones, if I fail and don't come back from this mission, please act on what we discussed before we left for the mission. It'll be fair." I spoke without anger. We’d made an agreement, after all. He might make a good captain if I failed, but Holt was my choice for the moment as far as group cohesion went. Jones hadn’t demonstrated leadership skills to me yet, perhaps because he was so focused on undermining me. He needed to be calmer and cooler, like Holt. Holt could handle the twins, while Jones and Evans couldn’t question his age or expertise like they did with me.
Jones lifted his chin in a gesture of genuine respect for me. "Of course, Captain. Thank you. I wish you luck."
“Jordan, I need you to go back to the barracks and get supplies to cobble together a saddle, reins, and a bit,” I said briskly. He took off at a run.
"Roxy’s off to save her secret vampire friend," Jessie cooed and then stopped. "Wait, I mean, Captain Taylor is off to save her secret vampire friend.”
It was now or never. Colin nodded at me. “Let’s do it.”
Kane, I'm coming for you. Hold on.
31
Lyra
All I needed to see were Dorian's fangs to understand the mess Dan was in. He was surrounded by people with darkness inside them. My stomach clenched with dread as I heard him give another low cry. Dan was scared to death. What had these people done to him? And who the hell were they, anyway?
"I don’t like this," the cold voice said. It was hard to tell which voices were coming from which figures in the shadowy distance. It was like they were in their own little smoke screen. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, or a clever ruse to hide their identities.
Something really isn't right. The vampires' senses were messed up; they would've sensed true darkness much earlier in normal circumstances. I had seen how powerful Dorian's senses were before this. We waited in tense silence as the group discussed their circumstances among themselves. They made no attempt to lower their voices, so I assumed they didn't know we were here.
"Stay low," Arlonne muttered. So, she was worried that they could sense us. I hid with the others, taking a few steps back to get better coverage from the shrubs. Above our heads, the dome sloped downward. It was narrower and shallower here. I could see the top of it, although the atmosphere up there was hazy.
Sike was right when he’d explained how he’d first felt—unnatural and unsettled— during our initial discovery of this place. The Pocket Space was wrong. I had a feeling the people surrounding Dan were part of the problem.
"I'm hungry," Dorian whispered next to me. I nodded, knowing full well what his extended fangs meant, but Cam's face went stony. Chandry placed her hand over her mouth, as if trying to contain her own urge to feed. None of our vampire teammates had fed in a few days, and while I'd seen them go longer than that, they preferred to eat more frequently.
"Over here," Bryce whispered. We followed him several yards to the left, behind the dense plants, and when I peeked out through one of the openings, the smoky shadows had faded around the group and revealed the gathered figures.
There were ten of them, all different shapes and sizes, in the same uniform. It would make them hard to tell apart. I noted hooded black cloaks over bodysuits; the latter I could only see thanks to one feminine figure having thrown her cloak back. Her hand rested on her hip as she stared down at Dan. I couldn't see her expression, but Dan's cowering posture said everything we needed to know.
"Not even good for information," said the figure next to the woman. This guy, an older male from his tone, had his hood pulled up, like some of the others. For the first time, I realized that there was a gold edge to the hem of their uniforms, in neat stitches. It glinted beautifully in the light.
"We could take him back," said the woman purposefully. Back where? A figure across the huddle let out a dark laugh.
"And what purpose will the boss have for him?" the other person asked scathingly. Dan squirmed further into the ground, as
