Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

MIKO

T he biter pounded on the metal door, every blow rattling the hinges.

"Come out, wolf!" Dawn roared with the dead man's voice.

"This way," Daria said, directing me to the bigger doors.

"Come out and die! Come out and die!" the biter screamed, dragging claws across the metal. The high-pitched squeal ricocheted around the room, setting my teeth on edge.

Within the left section of the bigger doors was a smaller one. Daria opened it and Joe slipped through the gap into the night.

"Go," Daria ordered.

I followed Joe onto a large, sheltered slope—the kind of area to accommodate lorries delivering goods.

Daria closed the door behind us. "We head for the roof to hide. Let Dawn pass us by."

Was that a viable plan?

Dawn's screaming and pounding continued behind us.

I went with the plan.

This Dawn stuff left me lightheaded. A living entity? Damn. And it wanted to be free. Was it trapped in Dunstable, not living up to its full potential? Shit. Ending humanity was bad enough, so what extra damage would it do when set free?

Joe stayed in point, leading us up the slope to a road lined with a verge and a fence, woodland behind in the grip of autumnal change. Moonlight painted the red and golden leaves, giving the colors a strange, silvery hue.

The vamp turned right on the road, glancing over his shoulder to check we were following. Other than the fading sounds of Dawn, the only other noises came from the rustling trees and the dead leaves crunching under our feet.

And my heart pounding at triple speed.

A scattering of stars twinkled in the cloud-free sky, the air carrying a late September chill.

Thump, thump.

Thump, thump.

God, this separation from Orion burned like a fucking branding iron to the soul. My emotions were a stretch of tripwire ready to mess me up.

Damn.

Before Ori, keeping a lid on my feelings was a specialty of mine. But the fae punched holes in that lid, making the fight to stop myself screaming his name and kicking down the Faery gates a struggle.

I would. My God, I would if I could. I wanted to vault over that fence, shift into wolf form, and tear through the fields and streets to get to London and demand my mate back.

At least I got to speak to him. I searched for him with each passing second, digging around in my mind to find the connection again.

It wasn't there, but Ori's essence was. A distant star in another galaxy, the miles between us not diminishing our love.

Out there waiting for me.

Out there loving me.

"Can I talk to you again, even for ten seconds?"

No answer came.

The sound of his voice always poured happiness over me—him the custard to my apple pie. Something told me he'd enjoy that comparison. I could hear his laughter, see his fair, sun-kissed cheeks flushing a little bit crimson to match the vibrant scarlet of his hair.

I can live.

I can live.

I can live.

The honey. Wendy. My dreams. Every detail aligned, Orion my destiny. My God, I never expected this.

"Stay strong," I told him, hearing nothing back. "We've got this. We've really got this."

Where did this ability to speak in each other's minds come from? Our bond? Werewolves in wolf form could communicate mentally. This might be some sort of offshoot for bonded mates. I'd ask Cate and James if they'd ever experienced it, also being bonded. They'd never mentioned it before. Maybe they kept it between themselves.

Hopefully this wasn't a one-off.

A gust of wind whistled down the road, striking my face with a bitter, sobering slap. I rolled my shoulders as I jogged after Joe, sharpening my focus on my surroundings.

The leaf-choked road ran alongside the huge building, curving away at both ends. There were no holes in the fences, no signs of biters or dead bodies or any debris.

It's too quiet…

The factory was covered in moss and vines, its structure beginning to rust after two years of neglect. Many of the windows were broken, giving way to weeds. It was a seriously dilapidated place, stinking of mold and damp and grime. But no sounds drifted out of it. Yeah, the horde might be in stasis right now, but I'd rather hear something to eliminate any potential surprises.

I really hated surprises of the bullshit kind.

Halfway down the road, Joe stopped beside a metal ladder. Some of its rungs were rusted or missing.

"Up here," he whispered, scrambling up the ladder.

"It is safe," Daria said behind me.

I cracked my knuckles, swallowing any fear of the ladder collapsing, and began to climb.

A crash to my right, followed by the screams of Dawn, sped up the rest my climb to the flat roof. I crouched beside Joe, taking cover against the low wall along the roof's edge, Daria joining us seconds later.

She put a finger to her lips.

Yeah, no worries about shutting the fuck up here.

Heavy footsteps came from below, the crunch of the leaves like popping candy.

"Where are you, wolf?" Dawn howled.

The painful scraping of metal followed again. I grimaced, stopping short of covering my ears.

"You are the wolf of foolish hope. Chosen. I hear the chatter, I smell your hope. But you will die as the cherry fae and the bee queen."

I choked on a swallow, a sickening roil in the pit of my stomach. Die like Ori and Wendy? Had Dawn killed them?

No. Impossible. I'd know if Ori were dead; his star still blinked in that other galaxy.

That didn't reassure me, my chest a tangle of snakes. Deadly fucking snakes, fangs dripping venom. They slithered across my reason, biting, biting, biting. My veins filling with white-hot agony, my anxiety an unbearable ache.

Not my Ori.

My Ori doesn't die.

My Ori lives so we can both live and love and ? —

Dawn's booming laugh freed me from a spiral.

I rolled my shoulders, digging my metaphysical heels into solid ground. If I held onto my composure, I held onto my determination. The two worked hand in hand.

Spiraling didn't serve my mate or my pack.

"Cowards do not prosper," Dawn called, sounding like it was directly below us. "Foolishness in the face of great power does not serve you well. A clean, easy death does. I can give you that, Miko Reyes. I can set you free."

I kept my cool, as still as a mega-patient sniper.

"Set yourself free," Dawn continued. "Embrace death. The fae will follow." The dickhead moved with a sudden burst of speed, the fence rattling violently. "Show your face! Show your face! I'll bite it off! I'll bite it off!"

A chorus of hissing nearby responded to the shouting.

The horde was awake.

Dawn laughed again, sounding like it was jogging. "Here come my babies. Here come my…" It didn't finish, no longer moving.

Goosebumps prickled across my skin, every hair standing to attention as the noises of the horde increased. It wouldn't be long before they arrived, and speedies were capable of climbing ladders.

This roof wasn't safe.

Right. Time to plan and investigate the environment. A metal box with a door over to my right was clearly the roof access. Another ladder on my left connected to a lower section of roof.

Which way, which way…

Dawn's footsteps returned, moving back and forth directly below the ladder.

What, no wings to fly up and terrorize us with?

"You cannot stop me, wolf." It spoke again. "I am new. I am greater than anything you can comprehend. Your world has already known my strength, and I still grow. I still feed and change and…" It didn't finish another sentence but continued to pace.

This was bollocks. Between the three of us, we'd take the dickhead out then get the hell out of here before the horde showed up. In fact, we could lure the horde into the woods, put them on some fake trail, and let them fall into stasis somewhere else when they couldn't find a crumb of us.

Pink smoke appeared around my feet, curling like ribbons. A familiar sight every morning ever since Dawn infected our world, hence the name. But here it was, growing thicker, spreading across the roof, coiling up my legs as well as the vampires'.

A nasty thought hit me. What if it infected us? It only ever affected humans, supernatural creatures like me immune to it. But the damn stuff was changing.

A pink tendril twirled up toward my face. It hovered close, swaying back and forth like a charmed cobra. Paralyzing fear ensnared my body, every part of me rigid, unable to do anything but stare the wispy thing down.

Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

Daria and Joe were as still as me, Dawn smothering their entire lower halves.

A chuckle hummed through the smoke.

"There you are," Dawn said, its voice everywhere. "My little puppets. At last, the time has come to make you mine."