Chosen (Slayer 2)

Gods. What happened to us? What happened to me? I could have killed her. If I don’t know her anymore, I know myself even less.

I limp out of the tower section, broken more than physically. I don’t know how much time has passed. I could run out and see if I can catch them before they escape with Leo, but—

I miss a step, nearly falling. Nope. I could not run out. Not right now, at least. The kitchen is empty, but the Great Hall isn’t. My mother’s still unconscious, but she’s been dragged in front of the door to the gym. Jade is standing guard over both my mother and the door, bedraggled and bruised and armed to the teeth. She lifts a sword, watching behind me for enemies.

“No one gets Doug!” she shouts.

“No one was trying to.” I kneel heavily next to my mother and check her pulse. It’s steady. No telling how long it will take her to wake up, but she will, at least. I remember the tranquilized hellhound, but a wicked knife at Jade’s side is thick with black blood. She made sure it wasn’t a threat anymore. Good for her.

“Call Tsip.” I lean against the wall next to my mother. “It’s over. We lost.”

“But Doug—”

“Leo.” His name coats my tongue like the dust of the tower; I almost choke on it. “It was Leo they wanted all along. And they got him.”

“Oh.” Jade has the grace to sound sorry. She knocks twice on the door before pulling out the walkie-talkie and announcing the all clear. Cillian and Rhys will have a walkie-talkie, as will Ruth Zabuto and Imogen in the library and Jessi in the Littles suite.

Tsip pops up in the middle of the hall. She looks around eagerly, but there are no enemies with available eyeballs. Her shoulders deflate, and she scowls. “Is it over?”

“Yeah.” It’s over. It’s all over. Everything. Sanctuary. Me. Because if I couldn’t protect Leo, and I couldn’t stop myself from almost killing my own sister, how can I claim to protect anyone? I’m not a Watcher. I’m not a Slayer.

I’m a failure.

I’m a monster.

All that extra demon in me has nothing to say now. It won. There’s no reason for it to gloat or try to take over. It already has me.

“What should we do?” Jade asks. The sound of boards being pried free from the door behind us is the only noise in the cavernous Great Hall. It’ll take Doug forever to get out. Not that it matters. There’s no rush. We have no plan. No way of making one. And I’m certainly not going to try.

Leo is gone. Artemis is lost to me. Sean and Honora and their zealots won.

“Nina?” Imoge

n rushes into the Great Hall. I stand so fast I almost fall over. She’s covered in blood and shaking.

“Where are you hurt?” I look for a wound, but I can’t find one.

“It’s not—it’s not my …” She takes a deep breath. “Ruth is dead. It was Artemis.”

“No.” No. I run past Imogen, careening off walls, my balance not quite back yet and my speed too much for my battered body. I get to the library to find the door ajar. That crack of light spilling from inside slices me open. I push the door, not wanting to see. Needing to see.

Ruth is splayed on the floor. Her plaid skirt has ridden up, revealing baggy nylon panty hose, and I want to sob at how much I know she’d hate that I saw that. Instead of her favorite pair of fake pearls, her throat wears a jagged red line, the dark pool beneath her rippling.

Rippling. Which means there’s still blood flowing into it. Which means Ruth’s heart is still beating. “Pelly!” I scream. “Pelly!”

Pelly races in behind me. It doesn’t even pause. It crouches next to Ruth and pulls off a strip of skin from its forearm, the skin thin and translucent. It puts it over the slit in Ruth’s throat, stopping the blood.

I kneel in the pool, feeling it soak into my pants. I put my fingers against Ruth’s repaired throat, hoping, praying. Her own skin is papery thin, Pelly’s replacement smooth. But there’s no pulse. No pulse. The darkness inside me wells, threatening to swallow everything, but then, there! A flutter. The tiniest brush of life. Ruth isn’t dead.

“Rhys is O-negative!” I shout, not knowing who I’m shouting to.

Jade answers. She followed me. “I’m on it. I’ll get him and a stretcher.” I hear her sprinting away down the corridor. There’s nothing I can do for Ruth until I have Rhys and some supplies.

“Tsip!” I scream.

She pops up next to me. “Yes?”

“Go check on Jessi and the Littles and the other Slayers. Come back immediately and tell me they’re okay.” They have to be okay.