Page 127 of Vervain

The door to my right flies open. Magik stirs in my bones, and I raise my hands, saying, “Fink, hon.” A ball of light swirls in my hands, and as it pulses out, everyone in the room turns to dust. Every slayer, every white coat, even the furniture in the room becomes nothing.

Wiped out of existence.

I stare at my hands, magik tingling my fingertips. It’s dormant again, but with one surge of power I cleared out an entire room without batting an eyelash.

This can’t be my vegodian powers, can it?

To erase.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

STRIDULATION

Saya Claymore

“Through here?”

Away from the empty room, the bloodstained boots sound like bonding tape as I head down the white hallway towards Serun. A steel door sits on the right, with a pin code and a card reader. He dissolves into smoke, and the door opens.

Chains from the ceiling clink, drawing down on a naked man in the middle of the room. There’s a muzzle over his face, fastened with a dozen straps. His arm strains, his shoulders tense, and his head slumps as he rests on his knees. Reyes’ other arm is at his side, torn off, with tubes connected to the fleshy part wrapped in bandages.

What the fuck…

Serun growls, a deep tear rumbling through the walls. He leans down, grabs Reyes by the waist, and as he pulls him up over his shoulder, shadows shatter the chains and rip the tubes from his arm.

Reyes grunts, “Brother, fancy seeing you here.”

“Imbecile,” Serun drawls. “Your wife is worried sick.”

“She is?” Reyes slurs, foamy laughter bubbling from his mouth. “That’s a first…”

I lean close to Reyes and into the half-glazed look in his eyes. “Do you know where they took my brother?”

He nods, the only movement as the rest of his body goes limp, tossed over Serun’s shoulder. “I can smell him. Go right.”

“Thank you,” I whisper.

“And the creature?” Serun says as we step out of the room into a hallway painted red as Penumbra slaughters everything in sight. Only seven children remain unscathed, huddled in the corner, holding each other. “Do you know what happened to the creature you fought?”

“Left, down the hallway,” Reyes says.

The creature! The monster that tried to kill my brother! It’s here!

Serun looks back at Reyes, his shadows agitated, then follows Reyes’ direction.

The next hallway we move down, clean and untouched, has no doors. On the other side of the hallway, there are stainless-steel double doors, sealed tight, with a camera tucked in the corner, watching us.

Shadows tear it apart, and as Serun’s shadows creep back towards me, Reyes says, “Through their…His scent is strong through there.”

Cole?

My heart spasms, erratic and untamed, at the thought of my brother on the other side of the room. I bypass Serun to reach the doors first. There’s a scanner beside the doors, and after Serun swipes the card, green lines appear. I jump and reach for the sword, eyes darting left and right as the green light burns bright red.

“That can’t be good,” Serun mutters. “Why do I bother doing it the human way?”

Reyes lets out a gurgled laugh.

Serun drops Reyes, grabs my wrist, and drags me behind him as a churning, chugging noise clanks in the ceiling, followed by a low rumble. From above, one of the square tiles slides open, and a black blob drops to the ground, silent and lethal. Its tail flicks from side to side, and as it lifts its head and rises, piercing red eyes watch me.