Determination washing over me like a suit of armor, I pushed off the ground and lunged toward Karen.
Chapter Six
Quickly, I shot into the air, spurring my wings to fly as fast as possible. The sound and air movement drew their attention to my location, but by then I’d flown past them and toward the open doors.
“Get her,” Karen shouted, but Bael was already turning, his massive bat wings scraping against the walls as he pivoted. His face was a mask of determination and murder, like an animal following prey with nothing on its mind but blood.
I shivered at the thought. He was at least twice my size and would have no mercy.
Glancing over my shoulder to keep tabs on them, I soared through the doors and took off down the hallway, flying as fast as my wings would take me. Bael, despite his size, moved swiftly. Already, I heard him thundering down the hall, choosing to run instead of fly since his massive wings were no use in these enclosed spaces. That gave me some hope of eluding him long enough to make it out of the building. However, after several turns, I quickly realized I was lost. At this speed, each hallway blurred past, seeming exactly the same.
I turned left and right, blindly attempting to sort out the maze by pure speed, but after a series of turns, I took another left and found myself face to face with Bael.
His massive body blocked the hallway as his head turned in my direction. Those nostrils flared as he caught my scent.
Feine!
I whirled, and Karen stepped into view, blocking my only exit.
Double feine!
I fluttered to a stop, weighing my options as my heart threatened to pound out of my chest.
No way out. No escape. What now, Tally?
Karen put her hands on her hips and smiled. “I know you’re there, fae bitch. I’m going to enjoy it when your friend rips you to pieces. I’d love it more if I could see the look on your face as he does, but I’ll settle for what I can get.”
Bael stomped forward, his nostrils flaring and his new claws ready to tear me to pieces and Karen wanted to see it?!
See it? See me. Maybe if he could see me…
I dropped my glamour and turned to Bael as my body materialized. His eyelids fluttered as he took in my face. Something in his expression twitched. It gave me hope.
I hovered over the ground with my hands up in a symbol of peace. I didn’t want to fight him, and I wanted him to remember me as I’d been, an ally, someone just like him.
“Bael, it’s me, Tally. You remember me, right? I’m your friend.”
He blinked twice, still scenting the air, but he didn’t charge.
It was working as it had with Sinasre!
“Clever trick,” Karen said slyly. “But it isn’t going to help this time.”
I glanced over my shoulder in time to see her adjusting something on her helmet. A whining sound came from the device, and Bael winced, gripping his head as if the noise was reverberating around in his skull. Then, he dropped his hands as his gaze shot back to me.
With murder in his eyes, he charged.
While his big, lumbering body raced toward me, I ran through scenarios in my brain in the split seconds before he crossed the space between us.
He launched into the air, claws extended.
I squeezed my eyes shut as he crashed into me.
It was like being hit by a Jeep.
The collision of his body into mine jarred my every sense and sent me flying backward. I soared back and crashed into something solid. A mangled scream echoed close to my ear.
Karen. It was her body I’d hit. She and I crashed to the floor, then tumbled in a pile of arms and legs and wings.
Pain blared from many parts of my body, but my instincts remained intact. I lay on top of Karen, her prone form beneath me. I knew instantly I needed to get away. Bael would kill me if Karen didn’t get to me first.
As I pushed up, trying to untangle myself from the groaning human, I expected claws down my back, but no attack came. Turning, I found Bael standing in the hallway. His expression was blank and his body lifeless. He looked as if someone had turned him off like a child’s toy. But how?
When I glanced back at Karen, I had my answer.
The crash had knocked off her helmet. The device now lay on the floor beside her, a metal circle of wires and dials that seemed harmless now that it had been dislodged from her vile head.
She couldn’t get it back. I had to have it.
But she was stirring. Even now, she sat up and felt around her skull.
I darted forward on unsteady legs, tripping and stumbling, but my hand reached out, and I felt it close over the cool metal ring.
It was mine.
“Stop her!” Karen yelled as I took to the air again.
But her creature did nothing. Without the helmet, he was as harmless as a Tupi rabbit.
My hope soaring, I spurred my wings on as I jammed the helmet down my collar and into my suit to keep it safe. The cool metal against my hot skin reminded me what we’d come here for, and I thought that, with this new item, I’d found at least one of the two things we needed. I only had to hope Charlie had found the other.
Relief surged through me as I spotted an exit sign.
Then I heard the gun go off.
Something slammed into my back, throwing me sideways. I bumped into the wall and corrected course, realizing, slowly, that I’d been hit. Warm wetness slid down my spine. Still, flying toward the exit, I reached around to my back. When I brought my hand forward, blood covered it.
My blood.
I’d been shot.
Shock washed over me like a wave, but I kept flying, pushing through the exit doors and across a large gymnasium with a high ceiling and polished floors. I sped across it, hoping this might lead me out of this massive building. How far could I fly? How much blood would I lose before my wings wouldn’t work? I didn’t know, but I knew if I stopped, I would certainly die here. I was leaving a trail of blood in my wake, that was clear from the splatter behind me.
I had to get out. I had to get to Vinya.
I waited for pain, but none came, just a burning sensation in my back and a terrible wooziness in my mind that made it difficult to fly straight. Worse, my wings didn’t seem to be working right. They sputtered to a stop, making me stumble and hit the far wall even as shouts and footsteps headed in my direction.
I had to keep going. I had to…
With the world dimming, I looked up and saw the large, red emergency exit sign above two doors to my right. Without another thought, I rushed forward and pushed through.
Cool night air greeted me as I stumbled out of the building and onto a small exterior patio, some sort of staff recreation area with a picnic table and one of those tall nets on a pole. The moonlight revealed a fence around the perimeter, but I could fly over that.
Or could I? I was spilling blood everywhere. Each step I took left a bloody footprint in my wake. The wooziness had not subsided but instead grew steadily worse. I was close to passing out, the world going dim and taking me with it.
No. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to fight!
I staggered to the fence. Gripping it with bloody fingers, I half climbed, half flew myself over.
Then I fell to the ground on the other side, unable to get up.
My senses blunted, I could barely form thoughts, but a wave of despair washed over me. I’d be found by guards, by Karen, and dragged back inside where I’d die from this wound or something much worse. I hadn’t saved Bael or Sinasre. It was all for nothing.