Living Nightmare (43 page)

Nika couldn’t let that happen. Not again. Never again.

Fear was all around her, weighing her down. Desperate, she resorted back to the one thing that had worked to drive the sgath away: cold.

Nika took the cold in her body and shoved it into Zillah. She let the stones beneath her suck the heat out of her until she was shivering. She forced herself to remember every aching, frigid moment she’d ever felt, and used Madoc’s power to amplify those memories.

Zillah’s mind rebelled, and despite his intentions to keep her locked away, she managed to pull free. He screamed in pain and outrage.

Nika opened her eyes, curling in on herself in case he attacked. She felt like she’d been swimming through sewer sludge. Every part of her mind felt infected by Zillah’s filth. She could almost taste it on her tongue. She was never going to be clean again.

Not that it mattered. From the fear and despair leaking out of Madoc, they were at the end of the line.

Nika pushed herself up to her feet and looked around. Madoc and Tynan were locked in cages. Madoc was bleeding, battered, and pissed. Tynan looked like he’d been hit in the mouth with a hot iron. Both of them gripped the bars of their cages, trying to break free and get to Tori.

Zillah shoved Tori to the ground and kicked her ankles apart.

“No!” screamed Nika. “Get away from her.” She hurled herself at Zillah, but thick Synestryn arms caught her before she could reach him.

“Hold her,” ordered Zillah. “Make her watch.”

One of the demon guards put a sword to her throat, keeping her in check while two more held her arms.

Pain and anger boiled inside her, making her shake. The cold was gone now, and left in its place was a fiery rage. This was not going to happen. She was not going to let nearly nine long years of staying by Tori’s side come to this. She was not going to let her sister suffer another moment of pain or fear. She was not going to allow her to be raped. She was going to get them all out of this, even if it cost her her life.

Madoc’s voice was raspy from yelling, but she felt a wave of sympathy sliding into her. “Close your eyes, Nika.”

She tried worming her way back into Zillah’s mind to stop him, but he was too strong. She couldn’t get in. She pounded at his mental barriers, but all she managed to do was give herself a headache. He hadn’t consumed her blood. She couldn’t control him.

But maybe there was another way. None of these Synestryn had taken her blood, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t convince them to. They were always hungry. All she had to do was bleed. Surely one of them would take the bait and enough blood to allow her to control it. She’d use it to kill Zillah before enough of them got her blood and tore her mind apart.

“No,” said Madoc, clearly having heard her thoughts. “You can’t do that.” His jaw was tight with anger, but the look of fear in his green eyes gave Nika pause.

She didn’t want to do it—she didn’t want to go back to that living nightmare where the Synestryn held her mind captive and blood and hunger and death were her whole world. But there was no other way. She couldn’t let Tori suffer. She’d already suffered so much. They were so close to saving her. She deserved a chance to live free of this evil and find some speck of happiness for herself.

Nika had so many things she wanted to tell Tori, but there wasn’t time. She settled for, “I love you,” saying it loud enough to be heard across the chamber. She sent that same love to Madoc, letting him feel how much he meant to her, how glad she was to have been with him, even for the short time they’d had together. She loved him more than she’d ever thought possible.

Madoc was screaming at her to stop, but she ignored him. She didn’t think the Synestryn would kill her. They liked having her in their heads too much. She’d live through this. Maybe she’d be splintered and crazy, but she’d live, which meant Madoc would live, too. He’d get Tori out alive. Then maybe he’d find a way to save her again.

“No!” roared Madoc, pounding at the bars.

Nika looked away from him, unable to bear the sight of his pain.

All it took was a slight shift of Nika’s weight. The blade at her neck sliced through her skin and blood flowed down her chest. It hadn’t even hurt.

The Synestryn on her right realized what had happened and dropped its sword. A growl of hunger rumbled out of the thing and it bent to lick at her neck, unable to resist food offered so easily.

The first swipe of its vile tongue made Nika gag. She steeled herself against the next one, watching as the demon on her left realized what had happened and joined the first.

Zillah had lowered himself over Tori.

Nika closed her eyes and searched for the connection she now had to the demons holding her. She found it vibrating between them and shoved her will upon them, forcing them to let her go and attack their master.

Her body fell back. A sea of twisted faces stared down at her, baring their teeth in hunger. One of them leaned forward to feed on her blood and another one ripped it away.

Nika tried to focus on fighting for control of the first two. She saw one of them go down under the attack of another. It ripped its fellow demon apart, tearing its throat out with its teeth.

The smell of food drove them into a feeding frenzy and they began to attack one another.

Nika forced the first Synestryn who’d fed from her to pick up its sword and attack Zillah, but Zillah was too fast. He rolled to the side, narrowly missing the blow.

“Halt,” he bellowed, but it was too late. His troops were ravenous, mindless beasts. He’d lost control.

She opened her mouth to shout at Tori to run while there was at least a partial distraction, but before the word came out of her mouth she felt the first tug on her mind. Then the next and the next, until her thoughts began to crack and her mind began to splinter.

Nika pulled on Madoc’s power, trying to shield herself from the mental attack, but she was too late. These things were too strong, too fast. They devoured her mind, ripping away little parts of it to hold for their own.

She saw through dozens of eyes, felt through dozens of bodies. Hatred pounded at her, making her snarl with the force of her need to kill. She wanted blood. Gallons of it. She was starved for raw flesh and the warmth of a fresh kill.

Some of the eyes turned to Madoc and all Nika saw was food. They were going to kill him and she was going to enjoy letting them.

M
adoc knew the moment Nika was lost. Her mind was gone—splintered into too many pieces to count.

Fight
, he ordered her as he tried to feed her the power she needed to do so.
Don’t you dare give up on me.

But there was no Nika left, only the hollow echoing where her essence had once been.

Grief swelled up in him so thick, he couldn’t breathe. She was gone. His sweet Nika was alive, but torn to pieces.

Zillah had fled down a dark corridor, two of his guards on his heels. Madoc was going to find him and kill him slowly, stripping his flesh from his body one inch at a time before he staked him out in the sun to fry.

But first he had to get out of this fucking cage.

He pounded at the bars again, feeling them vibrate, but not give an inch. They were solid. It was going to take him weeks to bust out of here, assuming he lived that long.

Nika wouldn’t. He could still feel that she was alive, but how long would that last? How long would it be before she bled out or one of the demons decided blood wasn’t enough and went for her flesh, too?

Then, like a dirty, timid angel, Tori appeared in front of him, a ring of keys jingling in her trembling fingers. She was naked and shaking with cold, shock, or both, but she hadn’t given up.

Madoc stripped out of his shirt, ripping open wounds that had begun to close, passing it to her. “Here, put this on. Give me the keys.”

She did as he said, then stood there, watching the demons feeding from Nika.

“Can you find me a sword?” he asked, more to distract her than anything else. He’d kill with his bare hands if he had to, but he didn’t want this memory adding to the other horrible ones he knew Tori had gathered.

One of the Synestryn grabbed Nika’s limp body and scurried out with her. All the others followed, growling in hunger, racing after it.

He couldn’t let them get away with her. He couldn’t lose track of her.

He cursed the fucking keys, shoving another one into the lock. Tynan had reached through the bars and pressed a hand against Madoc’s back.

Pain flared under his skin, sinking into his wounds as Tynan used his magic to knit them shut. “It’s not much, but it’s all I can do.”

Madoc almost thanked him, but a key finally turned and he blasted out of his cell. He tossed the keys through the bars to Tynan, took a battered sword from Tori’s hands, and rushed after the pile of Synestryn that had Nika.

He found them in the chamber they’d first entered, and came to a dead stop. There were more of them. He had no idea where they’d all come from, but he knew for a fact that he’d never seen this many Synestryn together in one place at the same time ever before.

They were so dead.

Still, there was no way he was giving up on her. He’d free her or die trying.

Tynan appeared at his side, sword in hand. He was breathing hard and the tip of the sword vibrated in his hand. He was either really weak or really scared. Either way, he wasn’t going to be of much use.

“Get Tori out if you can,” bellowed Madoc as he hacked off the head of another demon. “I’m going after Nika.”

“There’s too many of them. You’ll kill yourself.”

“I’m dead without her, anyway. Now go.”

Madoc didn’t wait to see whether Tynan did as he’d asked. He waded into the group that had descended into a feeding frenzy. They were turning on themselves, ripping one another apart for a drop of Nika’s blood.

He cut his way through, slashing at them like wheat, not bothering to see whether they got back up or not. Bodies littered the ground, and hunched over each of them were several more, ripping flesh away with their bare hands.

One of the demons lifted a sword as if preparing to cut off Nika’s hand. Madoc wasn’t going to let that happen.

He lunged for the thing, slipping on blood. He missed lopping off its head and instead sliced a deep cut along its chest. More blood splattered to the floor.

Madoc made a grab for Nika, caught her ankle, and pulled hard, ripping her from the demons’ hold. He was sure he’d hurt her being so rough, but it was a hell of a lot better than what they were going to do to her.

He stood over her body, fending off as many of the things as he could, but there were too many. He couldn’t defend his own back.

Something sliced across his ribs, making him grit his teeth in pain. He lifted his sword awkwardly, realizing something vital to movement had been severed. His right arm was useless.

He switched the sword to his left, going completely defensive. This whole clusterfuck wasn’t going to last much longer. He knew a lost cause when he saw one.

They were both going to die in here, and the only solace he could find was that he’d been able to love Nika. She had made sure that he’d die with his soul intact, and without his soul, he couldn’t have loved her. Loving her was one of the greatest gifts he’d ever been given.

Madoc did his best to fend off the blows of the few beasts that weren’t too busy feeding to fight him. None of the demons managed to hit Nika, but he’d taken more than a few cuts. He felt his strength draining as his bleeding increased.

More blows landed on his arms, slicing his skin open. The hilt of his sword became slick and hard to hold. His heart started beating faster, fluttering in his chest as it tried in vain to pump blood to his extremities.

 

Madoc’s love flowed into the tiny sliver of Nika that was left huddled in her mind, hiding from the things that wanted her blood.

Until now, all she’d felt coming from him was determination, pain, despair. The love spilling out of him glowed bright, searing her with its intensity. It filled her up, made her strong. Even with all the other parts of her missing, he somehow managed to make her feel whole.

Nika slid inside his mind, needing to bask in that love. Everything was so wrong and confusing right now, and the only good thing she could find was him. She needed that goodness to reassure her.

The link between them had grown, or maybe she’d shrunk. Either way, the little bit of her that was left felt tiny as she moved into him, needing to be as close to him as she could get.

Once she was there, Nika realized what was happening. He was under attack. Synestryn were hurting him, killing him. She could feel his pain and the seep of blood from his body. He struggled to find enough breath to keep moving, but he managed somehow.

Through his eyes, she saw the horde of demons. They already had her blood and now they wanted his.

Rage rose up inside her, so strong she felt her very soul shake with the force of it. Her connection with these things shimmered in the air, humming, taunting her. They pulled at her, urging her to come into them and kill. Feed on Madoc’s blood.

She was going to kill every last one of them.

Nika searched out the source of Madoc’s power and sped toward it. Like a huge, shimmering lake of glowing liquid, she saw it looming ahead of her. Without thinking about what might happen, she dove in, immersing herself in that power, soaking as much of it in as she could.

It writhed inside her, needing to be set free. Nika wasn’t going to disappoint it.

She reached out for one of the demons tugging at her and slammed a chunk of energy straight into its head. The thing didn’t even have time to scream before she felt it die. The slice of her that it had stolen came back to her, but she barely noticed such a small piece. She was too busy searching for her next target.