Winter Halo (Outcast 2)

Silence was my only reply, and my heart just about stopped. Please, Rhea, don’t let her be dead.

Cat zoomed up from the back room. The vampires and the men are fighting near Nuri’s. I’m not sure the men will hold them.

How many vampires?

Only four. But the lane is too narrow to allow much fighting room.

Because these lanes had never been designed for fighting. No one had ever expected the vampires to reach this far into Chaos.

And certainly no one had expected them to find immunity to ordinary lights.

Branna?

Got hit again.

Good. But it was absently said. My attention was on the container opposite, on the hole that revealed the brightness of the UVs that lit the room beyond. The scent of blood was thick and rich in the air, but its source was both the blood pouring from my hand and the gore of the vampire I’d blown apart. “Penny?”

“I’m here.” Her voice was faint but didn’t seem to be distressed in any way.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

Again, her tone was distant. I frowned and glanced toward the stairs at the faintest whisper of sound. No vampires appeared, but they couldn’t be far away.

Should I run? Or make a stand? Adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping me upright at the moment, but I knew it couldn’t last. Not given the bloody state of my hand and the rips down my side. In many ways, getting Penny out of here had been a forlorn hope to begin with, but given the number of vampires and their sudden immunity to light, it had become nigh on impossible.

Realistically, the only chance I really had of keeping her out of their hands was by joining her in that room. The UVs would at least crisp any vampire that took one step into the room, and I could shoot any that managed two.

“Penny, I need you to open the door.”

“Can’t,” she said. “Nuri has the keys.”

Of course she did. I took a deep breath to calm the urgency beating through my brain. “Cat, Bear, can you combine forces and get that thing open?”

Energy surged, and a heartbeat later the door banged back against the hinges. A tide of weariness washed through our link. They were both nearing the end of their strength and needed to rest. Come in with me, I said. The lights will keep us all safe.

It would be better—

Bear, I interrupted gently, if the vampires find a way to cut the power to this room, then we’re all in a world of trouble. We need to conserve our strength.

He didn’t argue. He just followed me in. I glanced around quickly and saw Penny in the corner. There was a smashed chair beside her and she was holding one of its legs in front of her like a baton.

“It’ll be okay, Penny. Nuri and Jonas are on the way, and the mercenaries are winning the battle against the vampires.”

“I know.”

Her voice was even more distant, and despite the odd trembling in her bottom lip, there was no emotion in her face and little life in her eyes. I frowned but swung around and studied the door. When the ghosts had forced it open, they also busted the lock. I could close it but that was about it. Not that it really mattered. Vampires were rail thin, and the hole I’d blasted in the middle of the door was large enough for one of them to squeeze through.

“Right,” I said as I turned toward Penny again, “if we just hunker down in—”

The rest of the words were cut off as the ghosts screamed a warning. I reacted, but far too slowly. Something smashed into the side of my head and sent me spinning to the floor. I hit hard and the air left my lungs in a huge whoosh. For too many seconds, I hovered on the brink of unconsciousness, battling a stomach that threatened to jump up my throat even as tears of pain—and maybe even blood—coursed down my face.

Voices echoed. One calm, remote, the other two filled with confusion and fear. Then footsteps. Not coming closer, but moving away. Out of the room, down the walkway.

“Cat? Bear?” I somehow croaked. “What happened?”

Penny attacked you, Cat said, even as Bear added, She said she’d order the vampires to kill you if we didn’t let her go.