He closed his eyes, ready to see Mom and Dad.
He had barely pictured them—when the ground slammed against his body. Nothing had ever hurt like this. Surely it had to end soon. It had to.
It didn’t.
Bullets sparked the asphalt around him. The soldiers shot through the broken window. Bullets tore electric trails of pain into his chest, his thigh, his hand.
Sirens sounded. Searchlights went up.
The boy landed lightly next to him, gray suede boots barely making a sound against the ground. Had he jumped? From that height?
The boy grabbed his arm. Tommy’s bones ground against one another as the kid dragged him out of the spotlights and into the desert, running as quickly as a gazelle. He clearly did not care how the rocks cut Tommy’s back, how the jouncing grated his broken bones.
All the while uncaring stars shone down on them both.
Winking as coldly as the boy.
Tommy wanted it to end. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to die.
He counted down to his death.
Through the haze of pain, he had the worst thought of his life.
27
Erin kept several feet behind Rhun as he swept out of the chapel, up the stairs, and through a maze of tunnels. Even as swiftly as he moved, she knew he kept his pace slow so that she could keep up, but it scared her to be close to him. In the flickering red glow of the chapel, his rage had been unmistakable. It looked like he had barely restrained himself from attacking her.
If not for the dark maze of winding tunnels, she would have run away. But she had lost her own candle, and she needed the light of the chapel’s votive candle, held in Rhun’s hand, to return to safety.
Then at last, she heard voices arguing, echoing from ahead, from an open doorway glowing with light. She recognized them all: the timbre of Jordan’s anger, Father Ambrose’s prissy officiousness, and the sighing resignation of Cardinal Bernard.
“
Steps away, Rhun’s dark form disappeared through the doorway.
She hurried behind to discover a modern room with whitewashed walls, a polished stone floor, and a long table covered with weapons and ammunition.
All eyes turned to her when she entered.
Jordan’s face relaxed. “Thank God,” he said—though God had nothing to do with it.
The others remained inscrutable, except Rhun.
He rushed forward, seized Father Ambrose by the neck, and slammed him against the wall. The short priest’s feet dangled in the air.
“Cardinal!” Father Ambrose gasped, choking.
Rhun tightened his hand on the priest’s throat. “There will come a reckoning between us, Ambrose. Remember that.”
Jordan took a step toward them, his hands raised as if to intervene.
The Cardinal’s face was impassive. “Let him go, Rhun. I will make sure he is properly admonished.”
Rhun leaned closer.
Only Erin, standing to the side, saw the sharper points on Rhun’s teeth as he snarled and threatened. “Leave my sight. Lest that reckoning come now.”
Rhun dropped the priest, who had gone dead-white. So
Jordan stepped closer. “Erin, are you okay? Where were you? What happened?”
“I’m fine.”
She didn’t want to talk about it, especially not until she’d adjusted to the change in the marital status of her new teammate. Still, she was more grateful than ever that he was accompanying them on the expedition. She pictured the dark rage in Rhun’s face when he looked at her in the chapel, how his teeth had sharpened when he threatened Father Ambrose.
She leaned closer to Jordan’s reassuring warmth. “Thanks.”
Cardinal Bernard cleared his throat. “Since you are returned to us, Dr. Granger … perhaps now we should finish our discussion of the
He gestured to the loaded table of weaponry. Erin kept to the far side of Rhun, despite the fact that he seemed calm again.
Jordan picked up a pair of goggles from the table and studied them. “These are night-vision scopes, but they look odd.”
“They are of special design, made to toggle between low-light vision and infrared,” Bernard explained. “A useful tool. The low-light feature allows you to discern opponents at night, but since the
Curious, needing to try this out for herself, Erin picked up the other pair of goggles and looked at Jordan. His hair and the tip of his nose were now yellow; the rest of his face looked warm and red. He waved an orange hand.
She remembered the heat of his kiss—and shoved that thought back down.
She hurriedly turned the goggles on Rhun. Even though the Cardinal had just told her that his body would be at room temperature, it still startled her when she saw his face in the same cold purples and deep blues as the wall behind him. When she switched to low-light vision, everyone looked the same.
“How’d it work?” Jordan asked.
“Fine.”
Yet another scientific tool that showed how
“Here are silver rounds for your weapons.” The Cardinal handed wooden boxes to Jordan. “It is difficult to stop a charging
Jordan shook a bullet into his palm and held it up to the light. The bullet and casing glinted white silver. “How does that help?”
“Our unique blood resists mortal diseases. We can live forever unless felled by violence. Our immune system is superior to yours in every way, except when it comes to
“But you carry silver crosses.” Erin pointed to the cross atop the Cardinal’s red cassock.
He kissed his gloved fingertips and touched his pectoral cross. “Each Sanguinist bears that burden, yes, to remind us of our cursed state. If we touch the silver—” He took off his leather glove and pressed a pale finger against the bullet in Jordan’s hand. The smell of burning flesh drifted to Erin. The Cardinal held up his finger to show where the silver had seared his flesh. “It burns even us.”
“But not as bad as it does the
