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“Sera. Sera, wake up!”
I came awake to Erik shaking me hard enough to make my teeth clack together. Instead of blood, fire now streamed through my veins, and the agony made me scream.
“I’m going to get Dwivedi. You’re going to be okay.”
“No,” I rasped, my throat full of burning coals. “Don’t leave me.”
“I’ll be back. Fast as I can. I want you to hang on.”
I gritted my teeth, panting against the agony. “Hurts bad.”
“Good. It means you’re not dead yet.” He stepped away and picked up a bag stuffed with guns and ammunition. “I’ll go as fast as I can, but you’ve got to hold on until I get back.”
My head felt like a perpetual explosion, as if one of Shep’s shock bombs had detonated inside my skull then had frozen in time. It even hurt to think. “Be dead by then.”
“Don’t say that.” Erik squeezed my arm, and his touch was that of a demon made of flame. I writhed and screamed. The sheets on his bed felt like puddles of acid against my skin. “Shit.” He jerked away. “Shit, shit shit. I don’t know how long it will take.” Leaning over, he looked at me with a desperate face. “You have to still be here when I get back.”
I shook my head. Don’t leave. Don’t let me die alone. Not like this.
“Wait for me, Sera.”
“No good.” My voice felt and sounded as though it had crawled across a bed of nails. “Won’t work. Dwivedi’s vaccine... no good.”
Erik shook his head. “Look what it’s done for Amity. It’ll work better for you. You aren’t going to die.”
Jaw locked, I ground out a reply. “Won’t die. Won’t live either.”
“Yes, you will. You never let anything beat you.” Anger flushed through him, making his cheeks livid when I shook my head. “I don’t have time to argue with you. I’ll be back.” He brushed his lips over my cheek, and I held back the scream his touch elicited. He must have seen it in my eyes, though, because he winced. “You hold on. Don’t give up. Promise me you won’t give up. Sera...”
***
“HOLD HER DOWN, CY.”
“Look at how she’s writhing. It obviously hurts her when I touch her.”
“It will hurt very much more if she dies.”
“Get your hands off me!” Shadows swirled above me, dark figures with infernal faces and hands of broken glass.
“Cy, please ignore her. Do as I say.”
“Leave me alone!” Tongues of flame licked my brain, burrowing into the gray matter, burning everything to cinder and ash.
“Hold her arm. I will inject her now.”
“No. Arghhhh!” Fangs of ice pierced my bones, sucking out my marrow.
“Quit fighting, Sera.”
“What are you doing to me, Erik?” His fingers were razors, shredding my skin to ribbons.
“Dwivedi and I are trying to help you.”
“Then put a bullet in my head.” Death was preferable to this agony.
“Don’t say that.”
Death would have been a release. Why wouldn’t he give me that peace? “Don’t let me turn.”
“That is exactly what we are trying to prevent, Miss Blite.”
The devil himself stood over me, hoof planted on my chest, pitchfork buried in my throat. “Erik, don’t let me turn.”
“I won’t, I swear.”
His breath was hellfire and brimstone. “Kill me first.”
“I—”
“Kill me for real.”
“Sera, don’t ask me to—”
“I will not let you turn, Miss Blite.”
I stood on the shore of a lake of fire, waves of flame lapping at my toes. “Erik, please.”
“What is it, Sera? What do you want?”
“Don’t let me fall in.”
***
WHAT IS THAT SOUND? So much misery. Such pain, hurting my ears.
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
What is that smell? Blood, meat, raw, hot. Flesh and bones.
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit...”
Hunger. So much hunger. Hear it—life—so vital, with every beat, tha-thump, tha-thump.
“Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven...”
Blood. Smell it. Full of it. Coursing with it. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Want it. Need it.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb...”
Can’t reach it. Come closer. Can smell you. Want to taste you.
“Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
It’s going away, leaving. No, come back. Dontgoaway.
So, so hungry.