Scarlet Rain (The Escaped #2) (24 page)

“The honor is yours, mortal.”
Lori’s eyes rolled back, and with a grotesque, full-body contortion, she flopped back against the cushions.

“Stop! Let her go!” Eva pressed her weight against her mother and cradled her head between her hands. “Please.” She let the tears spill from her eyes as she pleaded. “Use me instead.”

Lori’s mouth opened wide and the swarm erupted from her throat. They charged at Eva, and she didn’t resist as they forced themselves between her lips.

Oracle!
Their word bit at the insides of her ears.
You are with him. The immortal.

Alek’s strong hand squeezed hers. “I’m here, Eva!” His words were a faint echo above the screeching within her head.

His kind trapped our queen. Not again. Never again!

Eva’s body spasmed horribly. Heat tore through her chest as the Nosoi clawed their way back to freedom and tore out of the open door. Sobbing and gasping for air, Eva collapsed against her mom.

“Shh, shh. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Momma’s back. It’s quiet. They’re gone now,” Lori murmured. She raised her arms weakly, trying to hold Eva.

Still crying, Eva rested her head against her mother’s damp shoulder. Like a wounded bird, Lori’s hand fluttered across her daughter’s face. “Shh,” she repeated, her voice beginning to fade. “Momma’s here…. Momma’s here. You’ll be fine, honey. Everything will be fine.”

Scarlet spray painted Lori’s face and chest. Eva couldn’t stop the tide of sadness coursing through her as she watched the light begin to dim in her mother’s familiar, loving gaze.

“Momma, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Eva sobbed.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. You’re here now. You saved me, Eva. You made them leave. We got through it. Just us. Like always.” Pink foam flecked Lori’s lips as she smiled at her daughter. “If I could have chosen from all the little girls in the world, I would have picked you and only you as my daughter.”

Eva choked back more tears and made herself smile. “You’re the best mom ever, Lori. I’m glad it was just us.”

“Remember that you’re stronger than you think you are, Eva. Believe in yourself as much as I’ve always believed in you.” Lori’s eyelids started to close.

“Momma, please don’t leave me!”

For a moment Lori’s eyes opened, and her gaze was clear and calm. “I’ll never leave you, Eva. I’ll always be right here.” Lori’s hand trembled as she touched Eva’s chest, just over her heart. “I love you, Eva. Always.”

Then, with a gentle sigh, Eva’s mom breathed her last breath, and her head tilted to rest against her daughter’s.

Alek lingered next to Eva while her body trembled. She noiselessly sobbed against her mother’s still form. He hadn’t lost anyone before, not anyone he cared about, and, unless he and the Oracle failed, he wouldn’t lose any of his mothers anytime soon. Even then, he knew he would see them again. After all, if they possessed magic, spirits were free to travel to and from Elysium. Stiffly and awkwardly, he placed his hand between Eva’s heaving shoulders and patted the back of her wrinkled shirt.

A hushed yet familiar buzzing drifted into the living room from the open front door, and Alek strained to see out the windows into the front yard.

“Alek!” Wide-eyed, Bridget stood in the open doorway motioning for him to come over. “You have to see this.”

Guilt tugged at his stomach as he rubbed Eva’s back a few more times before stepping onto the porch.

“Is she okay?” Bridget asked.

“No.” He jumped off the edge of the porch and gazed up at the buzzing swarm hovering above the yard.

“Can’t say that’s not what I expected.” She took a deep, shaky sigh and continued. “I want to be in there with her, but we have to fix this first, right?”

“You are correct.”

“We have called our brethren to us for the arrival of the queen. She is near!”
the scarlet cloud shrieked.

“What will become of your queen with no vessel?” Alek shouted at the undulating cloud.

“We will take a mortal as we have done for centuries. You will not stop Her. You will not stop the Nosoi.”

“That’s it!” Bridget said, charging to Alek’s side. “Hey! Hey, Nosoi!”

Alek grabbed her wildly flailing arms and pinned them to her sides. “I will hurt you if it means keeping you from them,” he snarled.

“Direct your bad attitude at them. I have an idea. A way to end this without someone else’s mom turning up dead.”

“Do not trouble yourself with these humans. Their species is a scourge upon this realm.”

Alek loosened his grip, and Bridget leaned in and whispered her strategy.

“Do you think it’ll work?” she asked.

“Yes, but it may also end your life.”

“Totally worth it. Just don’t tell Eva.” She charged into the middle of the yard. “You need a vessel for your skeevy queen?” she bellowed at the scarlet swarm. “Use me!”

• • •

Bridget’s shouts reached Eva’s ears, and she looked around the still living room for her friend. The candles’ flames cast pulsating shadows, playing tricks on her vision. Her swollen eyes burned. Time was paralyzed as she stared down at her mother. Worlds of unsaid words and unrealized memories tumbled within her. “Momma.” She gingerly extended her hand and smoothed back Lori’s hair. “I’m sorry.”

Electricity crackled outside, stealing Eva’s attention. Bridget’s blurry form bounced up and down in the front yard as she shouted, “Hey! I’m right here! I’ll be the vessel! Take me! End this!”

“No, Bridget! Not you too!” Eva sprinted out the door, but froze as she came to the edge of the patio.

The threatening cloud of buzzing scarlet specks churned in the air above Bridget while crimson sparks of electricity crackled around them.
“An ally of the Oracle. She will do nicely,”
they hissed through the growing winds.

“Eva, you mustn’t interfere.” Alek grabbed her hand and pulled her into the shadows.

“I have to!”

“Oracle, wait. There is something you don’t know.”

“I’m not interested in explanations! This plague ripped my mother away from me. I won’t let it do the same to Bridget. Don’t you understand, Alek? She’s the only family I have left.” Eva tore her arm away from Alek and bounded off the porch.

“Bridget!” Eva’s arms blanketed her best friend. Exhaustion swept over her and she gave in, letting her body sag and her tears leak into Bridget’s blonde curls. “Don’t do this. Don’t offer yourself to them. Please. I can’t—I can’t lose you too.”

Bridget wrapped her arms around Eva and spoke against her ear. “It’ll take a lot more than some nasty bug creatures to get rid of me. We’re stuck together for the long haul, and I’ve got a pretty solid plan to destroy these fuckers, so trust me.”

Eva pushed away and glared up at the Nosoi. “You hear that? You’re not taking her!”

Alek snagged her wrist, forcing her to face him. “Think, Eva! Their numbers have grown. The death of your mom and the others they’ve killed have made them stronger.”

Numbness coated Eva’s body as she looked up to see tendrils of scarlet snaking through the sky, all converging above Bridget. “Oh, God, no. They can’t be winning.”

“They can, and they
will
if you stop Bridget.”

“Told you!” Bridget shouted. “And you know how much I love being right.”

“I’m ignoring you.” Eva held up her hand. “Alek, you have to help me. Bridget doesn’t know what she’s up against. They’ll kill her, Alek. And I’ll die too.”

“Eva.” He lowered his voice, pulling her away from Bridget. “She’s your best friend, but she is also the last chance your realm and Tartarus have. You’re the Oracle. You must choose.”

“But I didn’t choose this, and my mom is…” Her voice cracked as she struggled to utter the word. “Dead.” Even after she said it, it didn’t feel real. Nothing felt real.

“And I am sorry. The Underworld is a powerful realm. You will see her again. I give you my word. Until then, you must face what is happening now, and Bridget does indeed have a plan.”

“Will it work?”

“It must. It’s our only option.”

“But will it work, and will she be safe?”

Alek hesitated.

“Your silence tells me everything. I’m stopping this. And this time, don’t pull me away.”

Thunder crashed, and the cool fall breeze turned thick and hot as she turned back to Bridget, whose wide-eyed stare was fixed on the converging cloud.

“The queen is coming! The queen is coming! The queen is coming!”
the Nosoi’s shrill, whistling voices chanted emphatically.

“Bridget, I’m not letting you do this!” Eva shouted, but slivers of crackling scarlet lightning engulfed her words.

She rushed to Bridget and grabbed her. Her ivory skin glowed pale pink in the red rays cast down from the sparks of electricity igniting the sky. Eva tugged on Bridget’s arm, but the petite blonde remained cemented in place. “What have you done to her?”

“It is not us. It is the queen. She grows strong. She is coming.”

Bridget turned her head and rested her gaze on Eva. The glimmer in her eyes had vanished, replaced by thin veins of red. “The queen is here.” Bridget’s chin pointed to the sky and her arms spread wide, knocking Eva to the ground.

Thunder roared in the heavens and caused the soil under Eva’s feet to vibrate. “Alek, do something!”

“This is how it must be,” he boomed over the storm.

Eva’s hand quivered as she grabbed Alek’s and squeezed. “It’s going to be okay. There may be a one-in-a-million chance this will work, but I choose to believe in that chance.” Hope flared within her. “The good guys will win, and we’re the good guys!” Droplets splattered against her shoulders, and Eva cast her glance to the night sky as it bled scarlet rain.

A beacon of red lit the sky as James sped away from Veronica’s, rushing to get as far from the stench of regurgitated seafood as possible. The tip of his sock was wet from where he’d rinsed off his shoe, after Veronica thought her heaving was over and came to sit with him on the couch. Chunks had gone flying, a bit of which landed squarely on the toe of his boot. “First blood and now puke. I have to get rid of these shoes.”

James stopped behind the line of cars waiting at the flashing red stoplight. The electricity was out, and even though it was late, which usually meant little traffic, the streets were congested with drivers angry at having to stop at every block to pause at a red light. “Well, shit. At least I made it out of Pierce’s office before the power went out.” In his experience, companies seemed to always have security glitches when things like this happened, and he hated to think of what would have occurred if he’d still been in that lab when his fellow officers arrived. “Bridget and Eva owe me for that one. Hell, humankind owes me.”

He glanced down at his vibrating phone. “Damn.” He’d forgotten to text Bridget the good news. Finally there was something they could relax about. There was no reason to worry about the bodies or any samples getting to the CDC. That problem had taken care of itself. Sure, it was disgusting, but it was also no longer a concern.

He plucked his cell out of the cup holder. Bridget had sent him six texts, called him four times, and left one message. “What the fuck?” He pressed the voicemail icon and Bridget’s frantic sobs blared through his speakers.

“James, you have to come now. She’s dead. Lori’s dead. The Nosoi killed her. It’s bad. It’s so bad. But I’m going to make them pay. They need a vessel, and when their queen comes, I’m going to be that vessel. I’m going to kill them.”
The message ended as burgundy lightning crashed overhead.

His tires screeched as he flipped a U-turn, then sped toward Eva’s and the churning scarlet sky.

• • •

A beam of crimson bathed Bridget as she stood frozen in place under the control of an ancient, infectious evil. Alek replayed the events in his mind and searched for anything he’d missed, anything that could change this scene and destroy the Nosoi without the possible loss of the Oracle’s companion.
I have done all I can. This is how it must end.

A familiar hum tickled Alek’s ears, and he cast his gaze to the sky. An onslaught of buzzing red specks poured from the low-hanging clouds and merged with the swarm thrumming over Bridget. United, they pulsed with a deafening purr. Eva’s nails dug into the back of his hand, and the drips of scarlet rain streaming down his skin made it impossible to tell whether or not he was bleeding. He studied the Oracle’s profile. Wet hair matted the side of her face, and her lip quivered slightly as she repeated, “It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t think of any words to soothe her. He squeezed her hand and, powerless, watched the swarm converge on Bridget like a flock of deranged swifts. Anger warmed Alek’s chest as he watched them disappear into her open mouth. He was supposed to be a warrior, aggressive and courageous. Instead he stood by, watching and waiting for someone else to make a move to save them. This was what had to happen. He knew that, but it didn’t stop shame from pooling in his gut.

Thunder roared overhead, and the rose-colored rain ceased as the crimson sky dimmed, replaced by the muted black of night.

Bridget’s arms slapped down at her sides, and her head sagged against her chest, but she remained firmly upright.

“Bridge?” Eva called out timidly.

“Wait here. I’ll see to her.” He reveled in the opportunity to take charge and prove his title of warrior.

The air around Bridget was sweltering. Ripples of heat radiated off of her, drying the beads of red rain streaming down her skin.

“Bridget, do you hear me?” Alek asked. Bridget’s only response was the robotic twitching of her fingers. “Eva, I need—”

Tires squealed against the pavement, interrupting him. Alek glanced up as James sprang from his car and rushed to Bridget’s side. “Whoa, it’s hot over here. What happened? You didn’t let her go through with it, did you?”

“We had no choice,” Alek said flatly, annoyed by the sudden appearance of the detective.

“So it’s done?” James asked. “You let her offer herself up to those things?”

“As I said, we had no choice,” Alek repeated.