Watcher in the Darkness, Book 3: Imprisoned

Chapter 36

Nothing existed beyond Michael's office window except the suffocating wall of white fog. I felt like a bug trapped in a jar, running out of air and on high alert for any threat. I saw nothing; no flicker of movement or flash of black, but that just made me more nervous.

Mateo sat behind Michael's desk, his hand on his stomach and a pained look on his face. Between his feet, a wastebasket overflowed with empty cups of cold blood. Karen laid on the couch to my left, staring at the ceiling. Tears rolled into her hair whenever she blinked, and every breath caught in her throat. At least she'd stopped bawling.

"Dude, I'm about to throw up," Mateo said for the tenth time.

"Keep drinking," I said, also for the tenth time. It was impossible to feel sorry for him. No one had ever handed me fifteen servings of cold blood before.

Mateo took a deep breath then gulped down the rest of the cup in his hand. He crushed the Styrofoam in his fist, swallowed hard, then picked up the next cup in line. "Cold blood is freaking nasty," he said around the gorge in his throat.

I agreed, but said, "Yeah, but now you won't go into heart failure when the vamp wears off." I sensed him eyeing Karen and my hackles rose. The bumps and bruises she'd gotten made it that much easier to smell her blood. It was warm and inviting, free of the stale chemicals that kept cold blood 'fresh.' "Whatever you're thinking, don't do it. It won't be worth it. I promise."

Karen began to shake again as silent sobs wracked her body. I turned my attention back to the mist, because it was the only thing I could do. I've never been good at comforting people, never mind piecing the broken back together.

Khalid was right; there was nothing Karen could do against Justine. She couldn't even come close to her without getting overwhelmed.

Mateo's phone buzzed. It had been doing that pretty much nonstop since we'd escaped the school. "My family is blowing up my phone," he said. "What do I tell them?"

"Just tell them you're alive. That's all they really care about."

Mateo shook his head as he began to text. "That won't be enough for my mom. She's going to want to come to wherever I am."

"Then tell her the truth. Tell her you've been dosed with vamp, and she won't be safe until it wears off. She can meet up with you later, at the hospital."

"Sure, because that won't freak her out." Mateo looked at Karen out of the corner of his eye. "Is she going to be okay?"

I didn't want to say what I was really thinking, not in front of Karen. I had no idea how much of our conversation she could hear. The legend of the Mad Witch Serkani twirled through my brain as I said, "I don't know."

"You're not one to pull punches, are you? My dad would like you." Mateo took a deep breath through his nose, then let it out as a sigh. "So, that thing at school. You know, the thing that set the whole place on fire. What was that thing?"

Again, I went with the simplest answer. "That was a revenant."

"A revenant," Mateo said, as though testing the word out. "I've never heard of a revenant. So, just how many weird creatures are there running around with Karen's face?"

I knew his question hadn't been a deliberate slight against me, but I wished he'd shut the hell up. "Too many."

Mateo jerked his head toward the couch. "She's human, though, right?"

Karen's hair stuck to her damp forehead. She didn't seem to notice when I smoothed it out of her face. "Yeah, she's human."

Michael returned to the office, carrying four more cups of cold blood. He set them on the desk in front of Mateo as Dr. S followed behind him a few seconds later.