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But Caleb can no longer move.
Maddy’s face scrunches, tears roll down her cheeks, but she doesn’t move either.
Orion shakes his head. “You imagine the bunker is to keep people out.” He points to Maddy, and the edge of her shirt lifts. The stake slips out of her waistband and floats toward Orion. “Hmm. So nondescript. What a simple weapon for such a much-storied purpose.” He extends his hand, and the weapon lands in his palm. “I will destroy it, and with it, every hope you had.”
He closes his hand, but nothing happens to the stake.
Orion frowns and tilts his head to the side. The latches unlatch from around the supernatural test subject, and Orion pushes the body from the cot. He hooks probes to it and throws a switch. The lights in the bunker dim.
Yet nothing happens to the stake. It remains intact.
Again, Orion attempts to destroy the weapon. Finally, he turns to Maddy. “Perhaps I cannot.” Finally, he looks to Maddy. “But you can.”
“I. Would. Never,” she grunts. “I. Won’t. Help. You.”
He points to her, and a scream breaks from her mouth like a raging river through a canyon.
Caleb winces as the sound nearly shatters his bones. His resolve to ruin Orion strengthens as his heart begins to break. It’s his fault. This is all his fault.
Caleb roars, pulling magic into him. Yet none of them can do anything.
They’re still frozen in place, and Maddy’s tortured screams echo through the bunker and over the mountain.
Orion has the upper hand.
And Caleb’s responsible.
None of them can use any of their powers.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
He’d led them right into a trap.
Their failure is all his fault.
Chapter27
Madeleine
Maddy takes a deep breath as she recalls her training.
Pain is a flame, burning as a candle beside her, and she pours every sensation into the wax of the candle before closing it into a box. Pain is a feeling to be felt but should not be handed control over her.
Her screams lessen, as she distances herself from the feelings. Pain is something to be endured, it’s a means to an end. Within three breaths, she’s centered within a peace she never remembers having achieved before. She wills Caleb to understand.
None of them can speak, they’re all still trapped by the dampeners and bound by Orion’s magic. Even so, with Maddy’s new vampire constitution, it’s made it easier to distance herself from the suck.
Orion’s magic rushes over her in waves, spreading through her, working to find a chink in her resolve. But the mental benefit of vampirism must not be something Orion’s considered.
She takes another deep breath. She will not scream again. She will not give Orion the satisfaction of seeing her lose control once more. Better to endure than give the fiend what he wants.
Maddy knows she must get the weapon back, and once more, she considers how having vampire strength may yet work in her final favor. It may be the only way she’ll have the strength to drive the stake through Orion.
So, she waits, patiently.
Now silently.
Caleb stands beside her, frozen in place, but his face wears a worry over a torture she no longer feels, and she wishes she could tell him: better her than him. Resolve would be so much harder if it washistorture she had to endure rather than her own. She turns her head ever so slightly.
