A hand snaked out of the crowd and wrappedaround my bicep. Hawk dragged me through the horde and hauled me upagainst his chest as the rest of the people by the stairs turned toflee.
“Erin? Vargas?” I choked out.
“By the bar, waiting for us. We have to getout of here.”
The fire had spread over the doors and wasflaring toward the ceiling. I had the insane notion the skelleinswere going to be pissed as the first flames rolled over the top ofthe piano. Heat blasted against my face, blowing my hair back andcausing sweat to bead on my forehead. Hawk stiff-armed people outof his way as he shoved through the fleeing crowd toward thebar.
Erin pulled me forward as a man fell to theground before us. Vargas seized his arm and yanked the man back tohis feet. “Where do we go?” Erin shouted.
“Just go!” Hawk bellowed over the increasingsnap of the flames and wood.
Something fell against the backs of myheels, dragging me down beneath the weight of it. Screams echoed inmy head. Hawk jerked on my arm, trying to pull me to my feet again.My eyes landed on a young woman lying on the ground. I grabbed forher arm as a set of blue-gray hands clamped on the sides of herface. The woman’s mouth parted on a breath when the lanavour leanedover the top of her.
“Ahhh.” It had no mouth, but I knew thelanavour had spoken the raspy murmur as a strange, clicking-suckingnoise came from it. “What did your father do to you?” It didn’tspeak the words, but I somehow managed to hear them clearly.
Tears streamed down the woman’s face. Hereyes glazed over as she became enthralled by something I couldn’tsee or comprehend.
“River!” Hawk shouted and tugged at my arm.Suffused with rage, I leapt to my feet and tore my arm free ofHawk’s grasp. “River!”
I lowered my shoulder and charged at themonster torturing the woman. Slamming into it, I knocked its graspfree of her as the first rivulet of blood trickled from her eyes.The lanavour and I tumbled on top of one another, rolling in a balluntil we crashed against the wall.
“Just what I was hoping for.”
Are they telepathic?I wondered asits words echoed in my head. It didn’t matter; all that matteredwas I wanted it dead.
Its clammy hands clasped my cheeks. Throwingmy arms up, I tried to break its grip on me, but it felt as if itspalms suction cupped to the sides of my head. An icy sensationcrept over my face and spread rapidly through my body. I sought outmy ability for fire, but my hands were frozen as the chill encasedmy wrists before flowing over my arms and out through my chest. Itried to struggle against it, tried to lift my hands, but they feltas if they were frozen in blocks of ice now, too heavy to lift andimpossible to move.
The lanavour pushed me backward until itsweight settled on my chest and my katana dug into my back. Thoughit was completely smooth, its palms felt like sandpaper against mycheeks as it leaned closer to me.
“He wants you alive,” it murmured near myear, or was it into my head? “But that doesn’t mean I can’t take asmall piece. There’s so much power in you. Ahh, just a littletaste.”
My skin crawled as it sighed in pleasure andmade that strange clicking sound again.
“You’re right,” it continued. “You are theone, but you will fail and everyone you love will die because ofit. So many deaths. Millions more will be lost because you willfail. The varcolac will turn against you, World Walker.”
Everything within me wanted to rage againsthis words as icy tears slid down my cheeks.
“When you become a failure, the warrior willturn against you and leave you.” Images of Kobal turning his backon me flooded my mind. “Your brothers will die. All of yourfriends.”
How does it know such things about me?
It leaned closer while in my mind I cradledmy two-year-old brother, Bailey’s, lifeless body against my chest.I could smell his blood, feel the warmth of it as it oozed betweenmy fingers and dripped onto the ground. My other brother, Gage, laybeside us, nothing but a bloody mess, and all because I’d failed todo what so many needed me to do. All because I could not do whatI’d been brought here to do, close the gateway.
Beside Gage lay one of the hounds, its eyesopen and unseeing, its tongue lolling from its mouth. I couldn’tlook beyond it, but IknewKobal was there too, unmoving andas dead as my brothers were. The tears streaking my face were warmnow instead of frozen.
“That’s right, World Walker, they’re deadbecause of you. Weak, you are too weak to do what must be done.When you fail and all those you love are dead, you will become likehim.”
Lucifer, as I’d seen him in my dream,appeared before me. His lethal bat-like wings enfolded me, drawingme against his chest and holding me there.“You’ve comehome,”he whispered in my mind.
“Home,”I agreed.
“He is your father after all. He is whereyou belong,” the lanavour whispered into my mind.
He is my ancestor, not my father!Iwanted to protest the lanavours words, but my lips felt as sewnshut as the monster’s above me were.
A fist shot out to crash against thelanavour’s cheek. Pain briefly flared around my neck as somethingtore away from me when the lanavour was flung to the side. Hawk’sface appeared above me; he flexed his fingers as he gazed worriedlydown at me.
Even with the lanavours weight gone from mychest, I remained lying on the ground, unable to move. Images ofdeath and failure continued to batter against me and that hideoussensation of being encased in ice kept me immobile. Hands graspedmy arms, dragging me to my feet and hauling me away from where thelanavour’s body lay bleeding on the floor.
