Watcher in the Darkness, Book 3: Imprisoned

Chapter 46

Thick clumps of blood shot into my lungs. I crawled forward, blind and choking, as I listened to Karen run down the stairs.

An invisible force lifted me then set me back on my feet. I flinched away from the cool, slender fingers that touched my cheeks, but the pain vanished. My vision cleared, and I saw the look of determination on Gwen's face.

"I grow so tired of his games," she said as she pulled the veil out of her hair. She let it drop to the floor, her dress brightening from black to fiery red. "After him."

I didn't need to be told to go after Karen. We ran toward the spiral staircase as I said, "Are you telling me this was part of Khalid's plan?"

Close on my heels, Gwen fluttered like a flock of birds. "Perhaps not this exactly, but trust me. With Khalid, there is always a Plan B."

The dirt on the floor was so thick that Karen may as well have been walking in the snow. Her footprints turned away from the broken window, toward the maze of metal racks. Gwen and I followed her into the shadows, my senses opening as the desperate need to catch up to her faded. There was no way in hell this wasn't a trap.

As expected, Gwen and I reached a dead end, where the tracks stopped. I didn't see so much as a scuff in the dirt in any direction. The cardboard boxes crammed onto the shelves left no place to hide. Yet, I stood in a cloud of musky jasmine. Had Khalid turned Karen invisible, or...

A disturbing thought occurred to me. "If he's inside Karen, can he use her powers?" I said in a low voice.

Before Gwen could reply, my body locked. My jaw clamped shut, my joints and muscles seized, and I wondered to myself why I was such an idiot.

I heard laughter above, then a whoosh. Fire, bright and blinding in the darkness, swept across the boxes. Scorching heat raked down my throat as my skin bubbled. The vampire in me thrashed and screamed, but I couldn't even blink as I roasted alive.

Without a word, Gwen exploded into a column of thick mist, gushing outward like a tidal wave. Karen's influence faded as the wave sucked back in, solidifying into Gwen once again. I flexed my healed fingers, and the blackened cardboard wasn't even smoking.

Gwen scowled upward, her hands fisted at her sides. I followed the path of her gaze, to find Karen standing on a steel rafter above us. "Your magic is stronger than mine, but my magic will always be stronger than hers," Gwen said. "Enough of your theatrics, Khalid. Release the girl."

Khalid glared at us through Karen's eyes, then turned to sprint along the beam. She leapt onto one of the empty racks like a parkour master, then jumped again to the ground. In the blink of an eye, Karen vanished into the maze.

I shrugged off the last tugs of Karen's domination as I started after her. "You have to get him out of her," I said.

"If I could do that, I would've already."

"You know, I'm beginning to think having a fairy godmother is a fucking scam."

An unseen force yanked me into the air. The tips of my shoes scraped along the ground as the nothingness dragged me forward. Almost too late, I saw the pile of broken concrete and rebar. Pushed face-first toward the jagged spikes, I somehow managed to catch myself. I could sense Khalid's irritation as the force holding me doubled in strength. The muscles in my arms screamed as my elbows began to shake.

Gwen passed her hand in front of the steel bars, and they curled inward like burning hair. I dropped to the ground then heard, "Why do you protect him?" There was nothing more offensive to me than hearing Khalid speak with Karen's voice.