The Agrista (Between the Lines Book 1) (37 page)

  I can’t believe this is happening again!
She fought the hot prickle of tears, not wanting to give Marcel any more satisfaction than he was already getting from her.

  Desperate to save herself, she slid her now free hand down the declivity of her stomach, searching for the dagger sheathed near her groin. It was an odd placement for a weapon, but it was symbolic. She kept it pressed tight against the curved junction of her inner thigh. It served as a constant reminder that she was in control. Many had tried to force her to succumb to their will since Marcel, and all had failed. Laylia was determined never to fall victim again, often leaving a slew of her own as a preemptory strike.

  Marcel allowed the movement, thinking it an act of submission. All the tension melted from his shoulders with a quivering exhale as his full lips twisted up into a cruel smile. He was pleased to see that he’d broken her so easily, though it didn’t mean he’d take it any easier on her.

  Her breathing hitched as her fingers grazed the smooth edges of the hilt of her dagger. The blood began pumping to her heart again. It was beating so hard she had to force her eyes to focus through the current of shadow pulsing beneath her eyelids, shaking her awake.

  She pressed the hilt flush against his bowels, sliding her thumb along the length of the carved silver and erecting the blade. It pierced Marcel’s abdomen with a horrible ripping sound that made her judder, carving through his flesh as if it were tissue paper.

  He jerked himself free with a scream and staggered back, watching Laylia in utter disbelief. Not wanting to give him time to retaliate, she advanced with a singular graceful stride and plunged the knife into his chest. She savored the stunned look on his face as all the color drained from his lips and his body went slack.

  She yanked the blade free from his breastbone and raised her arm to strike again. Driven by morbid curiosity, she decided to let him speak; it would be his dying declaration, after all.

  “Foolish woman! You think you can get rid of me?” A haunting laugh gurgled up from his chest, drowning in a violent upsurge of blood. “Now that you’ve taken my life, I’ll
never
leave your side. I’ll always be inside of you, pumping through your veins and gripping your heart. You’ll never be rid of me now!” Laylia took his rambling as a bout of madness, and refused to look for meaning in his empty promise.

  Feeling slowly bled into Marie’s fingers with a flood of capillaries snapping awake, driving out the unpleasant prick of pins and needles as she forced herself upright. She blinked several times to relieve her dry eyes, burning beneath a fringe of wet lashes. She gingerly scaled the wall with trembling hands, pulling herself to her feet with tottering limbs.

  Laylia was seeing red. She absently mutilated Marcel’s corpse with an eruption of garbled expletives. Marie hobbled toward her frail sister’s crouched form, careful not to put herself in the blade’s path as Laylia wildly flailed her arms. She cooed and murmured, speaking to her sister as if she were a spooked mare in need of a firm hand and soothing voice. Nothing seemed to break through the maelstrom of violent thoughts.

  Marie impatiently nudged Alex with the tip of her boot as she shuffled her feet, refusing to take her eyes from her sister as she edged closer in a sinuous line. No response. Marie heaved a distressed sigh. Bria’s limp, prostrate form stretched languorously along the threshold, giving no indication of waking and therefore moving anytime soon. It was up to her to bring Laylia back to her senses.

  “Laylia!” Marie nearly jumped out of her skin when the dagger hit the floor with a thunderous clang. The ringing vibration slowly brought her sister back to herself. She craned her neck and peered up at Marie through a curtain of silver waves. “He’s dead.”

  Bria dazedly came to with a rumble of choking and snorting, rousing her from a painful slumber as she jerked to her feet with a low hiss of alarm.

  “Bria!” Marie’s shoulders slumped with relief. “It’s alright. Marcel, Xenos, Cailene...They’re all dead.” The words felt strange on her tongue, as if their deaths had been nothing more than a natural occurrence. She couldn’t bring herself to say Evangeline’s name just yet. She still hadn’t gotten past the shock of meeting her, only to lose her. “We did it,” she smiled ruefully.

  Bria’s irises devoured her pupils, reflecting a crazed bloodlust as she snarled and hissed, halfheartedly snapping at Marie’s shins. She ruthlessly advanced toward her with a low grumble of warning, causing Marie to clumsily back-step and trip over her feet amidst her growing confusion.

  She crumpled to the floor with a demoralizing shriek as Alex abruptly stirred beside her, regaining his consciousness. The hackles along his spine protruded like iron spikes, as unmovable and intimidating as Alex himself. He and Bria circled each other within the suffocating confines of the mausoleum, trapped in a sobering rhythm until one of them chose to take action or submit.

  “You’re siblings!” Marie nearly laughed at the words as they flew out of her mouth with surprising vigor. Everything that led her here had been a fallacy. Blood meant nothing, and she was beginning to wonder if
blood
was what had driven them all mad. Looking around the dusky mausoleum bathed in the blood of her ancestors, she was inclined to believe just that.

  Marie slunk along their dancing shadows, careful not to offset the balance of slow and steady movements and trigger a cataclysmic explosion of teeth and claws. She felt along the doorjamb, warm to the touch and caked with sludge.

  She did her best to ignore the nausea churning her bowels and worming its way up her throat as she frantically felt along the contours of the doorframe for the protrusion of the strike plate. She felt an instant release of mounted tension upon its discovery, and indelicately jammed the small wedge of silver into the keyhole.

  “Laylia,” she whispered, trying hard not to capture Bria’s attention. “Let’s go! There’s no reason to stay here,” she urged, slowly reaching for her sister’s hand.

  “No!” Laylia sharply recoiled, pressing herself tight to Bria. Her urgent touch was the only thing that kept the snarling Umbra in place. “I can’t!” she adamantly shook her head. “There’s...” She doubled over, burying her face in Bria’s side to stifle the dark feeling burning a hole in her tongue and burying her words. “Something’s wrong!”

  “Yes. Yes, I know,” Marie slowly nodded, feigning understanding. “It’s this place. It’s making you sick,” she edged a step closer, thrusting out her hand. “We have to-”

  “Stay back!”

  A matrix of knotted veins pressed through Laylia’s pale skin, beating hot against the surface as they branched out in a cluster of globular webbing. A thick, black tar traced the intricate network of veins. It furrowed beneath her skin like a hungry parasite, feeding off her blood as it burrowed toward her heart.

  “Alex!” Marie shot Alex a pleading look that melted his heart and amplified the guttural rumbling stagnant in the back of his throat. “We need to help Laylia!” she whimpered hopelessly. “There’s something wrong with her! She’s not right!”

  Alex knew what he had to do, and it broke his heart. Marie would never forgive him, but his first priority was to protect her. Loving her would always come last, a close second to his happiness and hers. Happiness didn’t matter;
life
mattered.

  He would have to be quick. He spared his sister a brief parting glance. He was afraid to linger on her face for fear that Marie might read the remorse written clearly on his, present in the deep crease of his brow as he looked on Bria for what was possibly the last time.

  He charged Marie, burying his face in her abdomen as he forced her out the door. He bucked his hind legs at the first sign of daylight, slamming the door closed with a crash of sound.

  “Alex! What-” Marie clutched her stomach as she struggled to find her next breath.

  Alex melted into his human form, positioning himself directly in front of the door with a wide stance and squared shoulders. The occasional compassion often present in his face had faded, replaced with a stern expression and cold eyes that made Marie quail in response.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped. Her lungs burned with relief from the sudden rush of air. “Let me pass!” Marie struggled to remain upright, tripping over her feet as she stumbled forward. Her steps were abruptly halted by the hollow abyss separating them. She clutched the key tightly in her white-knuckled fist, drawing beads of sweat from her shaky palm.

  “It’s my duty to protect you, even if it is from yourself.” Alex rocked back on the balls of his feet, digging his heels into the dirt to emphasize his point.

  “You think
Laylia
is a danger to me?” she scoffed. “That’s ridiculous!”

  “Mariella,” he closed his eyes. The protruding vein above his left temple was indicative of his rising temper, contrary to his cool composure. “You saw her transform, just as Marcel did. I don’t know exactly what’s happened or what’s causing this, but...” he trailed off with a sigh. “You said it yourself. She’s not right.”

  “So
what
, you mean to lock her in there?” she guffawed. The truth behind her words eviscerated any hint of amusement lingering in her tone. “Oh my god. You do!” Nothing could’ve prepared him for the look she gave him. Her shrewd gaze penetrated his stony facade, forcing a break in his demeanor that softened his features.

  “It’s only until we can figure out how to make her better,” he began weakly, meeting with a silence uncharacteristic of the girl he’d come to know and love. “It is the
only
way!”

  All the sunlight had gone out of the mausoleum. The cover of shadow had snuffed out the dying embers of Laylia’s sanity, reducing any hope that remained to burnt cinders. She awoke in the darkness, feeling as if she was a part of it. She could see clearly in the pitch black, seeing
herself
clearly for the very first time.

  She stared into the murky silver. Beneath the porcelain skin and hazel eyes was a face she’d recognized, but it was not her own. She reached a tentative hand toward the reflective surface, moved by an overwhelming need to touch the man she saw staring back at her. Bria jerked her away suddenly, shattering the image and tearing her from her thoughts.

  “Marie!” Laylia hissed, hoping desperately that her sister wasn’t among the mutilated bodies that littered the floor. If she hadn’t had Bria with her, she would’ve fallen into hysterics solely upon waking. “Marie! Where are you? What’s happened?” she pressed her face to the small sliver of light slicing through the seam of the door, hoping for a glimpse of clarity.

  “It’s okay!” Marie reassured her, all too fervently. “I’m going to get you out of there!”

  “You shouldn’t have promised that,” Alex turned away, but remained firmly in place as a barricade.

  Marie desperately looked to her remaining siblings and their Umbra for assistance. She couldn’t move Alex without their help, nor could she make her way over the crater that now served as a moat. They stood around her in a scattered semicircle, showing far too much interest in their surroundings in a blatant effort to ignore her.

  “Am I to understand that
all
of you agree with Alex?” Not one of them would meet her gaze, infuriating her far beyond tepid civility. “Cerin!” she firmly grasped him by the shoulders, shaking him until he was forced to look at her. “You’re willing to leave our
sister
in our mother’s tomb, trapped with the rotting stench of the man who raped her for
years
?” He cringed at her words, dropping his eyes to the ground. He opened his mouth to speak several times, but was only able to produce a soft hiss of indecision. He hated this just as much as her, but they didn’t have a choice. “You’re
all
willing to do that?” Their stunned silence only incensed her further, far beyond the point of forgiveness. “ANSWER ME!”

  “Marie?” panic crept into Laylia’s voice at the absence of her sister’s. She dug her fingernails into the subtle indentation of the doorframe, trying to claw her way through to the other side. The resulting screech brought about a universal shudder.

  “It’s alright!” Marie called out, sprinting along the expanse of the cracked land until she was able to leap across a small fissure in the ground. She rushed up to the side of the mausoleum and pressed her face to the silver. “I’m here!” she reassured her sister between breaths. “I’m here.”

  “I think I understand what’s going on,” Laylia said in a soft voice.

  “They’re fools, Laylia! I’m going to get you out of there.
I
have the key, remember? Me! Do you hear it?” Marie determinedly tapped the key against the mausoleum with a hysteric pattering.