CHAPTER 25

I lurched to the side as my stomach heaved, scrambling to gain my bearings. There wasn’t a damn thing in me to throw up but fuck, my body sure as hell tried. I coughed and wheezed, hating every inch of me in that goddamn moment. Everything was sluggish and achy. I felt off-center.

A hand touched my back, and I flew to my feet. One fast dip of my power had the air in the room collecting around me. Rapid swirls of air weaved between my fingers as I readied myself to attack.

“Hold up!” a man shouted. Blond-haired and disheveled with wide eyes, he waved frantically. “We won’t hurt you!”

The man next to him frowned.

“Gray?” Fuck, it was like looking at a carbon copy of Ryder—except less sexy. That nerd shirt thing didn’t do a thing for me, but it wasn’t hard to recognize Mal Hartford.

“Guilty as fuckin’ charged,” I muttered. “Nice to meet you. Fuck, you look like your brother. ”

“I don’t see it,” Mal retorted.

“Jake,” the first guy interjected. “We need to get out of here.”

Understatement of the fucking century. I glanced around the room. Bed. IV. No windows. Dark walls. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

How long had I been here?

Was Ryder looking for me?

Fuck, he was probably losing his goddamn mind.

“Where’s Ryder?” I demanded, storming right past them for the door.

“I don’t know—”

Anything else he said was fucking lost when I pulled open the door and the wave of wailing shrieks hit us. I cringed, doubling over with the blinding intensity. Behind me, Jake and Mal were in the same position.

“We need to get the fuck out of here,” I told them through grit teeth. The fucking pain . It cut through my very core and threatened to take me out where I stood.

Shit. Whatever this was… it wasn’t good.

Steeling myself, I stepped into the hallway. An unimaginable power brushed against my skin, making me nauseous. I’d never felt anything like this. The narrow hallway was void of light, and I could barely see my own damn feet. The door at the end of the hall pulsed with power. I knew well enough to leave it the fuck alone. We had enough shit to deal with. Didn’t need to open that can of fucking worms.

Opening the door down to the club was horrifying. The screaming only increased. Black smoke rose and fell everywhere, twisting and turning as it latched onto sirens throughout the club. I’d never seen anything like it, and I sure as hell didn’t want to know what was causing it.

The mass confusion on the main floor could only be described as chaos. Humans with no understanding of demons lost their shit as they tried to figure out what was happening. The only good fucking thing was the black smoke seemed to avoid them—at least, I thought so. It was a little hard to figure out what was what.

“We need to get them the fuck out of here,” I said, but Jake was on it before me. He hurried down the first flight of stairs and went straight for the fire alarm. Not a bad idea.

The initial blare of the alarm only added to the mess, but humans were easily organized. While they hurried out of the building, the sirens didn’t move.

Or couldn’t…

My head cocked to the side as I rushed down the stairs with them. The sirens seemed frozen in their space—glowing eyes wide in panic, skin taut and ashy. It was a fucking sight.

“What do we do?” Jake asked in awe.

“Get the fuck out now,” Mal snapped. The guy wasn’t fucking around. He grabbed Jake’s arm as he ushered both of us out an available side door.

The blast of cool wind was a godsend. It bled across my skin, easing the ache and suffocation from the air in the club. Hands on my knees, I gulped down deep breaths while my head spun a little with the rush of relief.

“Fuck me,” Mal muttered, sagging against the brick wall. “I’m so goddamn tired.”

A-fucking-men. I felt like I could sleep for a week.

“We have to do something about this,” Jake replied. He took long steps back as his neck craned to better study the building. “We have to—”

“Oh!” Tessa exclaimed, her loud gasp cutting him off. The distressed woman caught sight of us from her spot near the front of the building. She barreled straight into Jake’s arms, damn near taking the man out. As he hugged her back, I glanced around. The parking lot was a mess of cars stuck, people yelling, and no one having a fucking clue about what was happening.

But nowhere in the middle of it all did I see Ryder.

“Where’s Ryder?” I demanded breathlessly.

“He was inside,” Tessa said carefully. I didn’t need their damn power to know their fear—I saw it on her and Mal’s faces.

This was Ryder’s power.

I faced the building, watching the darkness gather. It spilled through the open doors and crept along the parking lot.

This was Ryder losing control.

“You can’t go back for him.” Mal grabbed my arm as if reading my mind. “You’ll kill yourself going in.”

“Dad’s spell will already be working to pull him back to the greenhouse,” she whispered. “We got him out once…”

I wasn’t banking shit on trying to free him again.

“Yeah, well, I don’t do real damn well with people tellin’ me what to do,” I said and yanked free my arm. Before any of them could stop me, I ran straight back into the building.