Page 34 of Resurrection
“If I let go, I can’t move towards Sebastian. Remember the oath?”
“Oh, shit.” I totally forgot about that.
“Yeah.” Andrei chirps from behind me.
None of us see Irina getting closer. We are within reach of the casket, and I can almost feel the crystal vibrating from the thuds and screams. One second, Marcus is in front of me, the next, a cry is wrenched from my throat when he flies to the side, almost ripping my arm out of the socket. A cold hand with thin fingers and long sharp nails wraps around my throat.
“Stop!”
Khan’s voice sounds like a boom inside the closed space. My ears are ringing for long moments after that sound. Everyone stops at once. The silence that follows is louder than anything I’ve heard before.
“Well, what do you know.” Coming down from his throne, he glides towards me. “The runner is not lost, after all.”
Irina’s hand tightens around my throat. She rips the mask off that somehow stayed on my face until now with the other. Twisting her mouth as if not impressed, she glances at Andrei over my head. “I see nothing special,” she tells him like they are talking about livestock.
“Neither do I.” Scowling at her, I lift on my tippy toes when she pulls me up.
“And why do you suppose they go to great lengths to protect her?” Khan finally stops next to Irina. Prepared for shit to hit the fan, I put my own plan in action.
“They were bringing me as a gift to you.” Rasping through my crushed windpipe, I glare at the blonde. “They were not protecting me.” She tightens her grip so much I can feel my head going numb.
“Let her speak.” Grabbing Irina by the shoulder, Khan flings her away from me. Lucky for me, she releases my throat. “And why is that, human? Why would they bring you now after sacrificing their Sire for you?”
“How should I know why you monsters do the things you do?” Rubbing my neck, I gulp much-needed air. “I would rather be anywhere else but here.”
“That, I believe.” Turning to Andrei who hasn’t left my side, Khan looks expectantly.
“It’s true.” Clenching his fists at his side, Andrei watches the Council member without an expression on his face. “We saw the error of our ways, so we found her and brought her here. You took a liking to her.”
“That I did.” Smoothing his goatee with one hand, Khan looks me over. My skin crawls from having his eyes on me. At least Andrei is playing along. “That will still not save your Sire.”
“We brought her to you. There must be a way to let him live.”
After Andrei’s words, I’m holding my breath. I don’t even know why I want to hear that they won’t kill Sebastian, but I do. I want to hear it with every part of my being, even though it doesn’t matter because I just signed my own death sentence.At least the others will live,my mind reminds me. There is that.
“For hiding a runner, he would’ve lived,” Khan tells him nonchalantly. “For starting a revolution, he dies.”
“Or you die.”
Startled at my own words, I watch like I’m standing outside of my body when my hand lifts and slams the heel of my sandal between Khan’s eyes. You can hear a pin drop. He locks his eyes on me, an incredulous expression on his face. Very slowly, he lifts his hand and pulls the dangling shoe off his face. The hole trickling blood down his nose closes in front of my eyes.
“Oh, shit.” My whispered words make Khan smile.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Everyone starts moving at the same time. Marcus comes out of nowhere, throwing himself at Khan, tackling him to the blood covered floor. Andrei follows his example, jumping on Irina and taking her down with him. The Guardians, still around us, go after whoever is closest to them. Not wasting time, I run to Sebastian. Yanking my dress up, I lift myself on the frame holding the casket. Fumbling around, looking for the latch keeping it closed, I pay no attention to anything around me. Awareness slams in my chest, and I duck to the side. A fist cracks knuckles on the crystal where my head was supposed to be.
Wide-eyed, I stare up at Sebastian. He told me to move. Not in so many words, but I felt him inside me, felt his anxiety, and followed his lead. The vampire controlled my body from inside a crystal coffin. Blinking like a fool, I swing my gaze at the one trying to turn my head into a pancake. He has blonde, spiky hair, and eyes so light blue they look like glass where he glares at me.Niklas,my mind supplies, and I swear I hear Sebastian’s voice.
The blonde vampire moves. Everything around me slows down, and I see him in slow motion reaching for my throat with his fangs bared. My hand shoots out, my fist connecting with hisface. Everything returns to normal, and I watch him stupefied when he flies all the way to the other side of the room, taking everyone in his way down with him. “Oh, my God…”
Sebastian projects—or whatever it is that he does to communicate with me—his urgency. Snapping out of my astonishment, I return to my search for the latch. There is none. I can see where the two pieces of crystal connect to each other, but there is nothing that I can take hold of to pull them apart. Marcus bellows from somewhere, making my heart jump in my throat when I hear his pain.
“Come on, come on, come on…” chanting under my breath, I scramble around the crystal, my frustration building. Another warning sounds through my head, and I immediately relinquish control of my body to Sebastian.
Like a passenger, I watch myself twist, bend, and turn in ways I never thought I would be capable of. If I end up broken after this, I’m going to be really pissed.You are going to die, being broken is better,my mind reminds me, but I ignore it. My adrenaline is pumping through my veins, and I’ve never felt more alive.
Maybe I am crazy.
