Page 59 of The Devil You Know
“Go!” Jesse ordered. “I’ll keep anything from stopping you. Run!” Jesse slammed a fresh clip into Seth’s gun, then he grinned and saluted.
That was the image of Jesse that Seth took with him into the maelstrom of light and magic that burned like a furnace at the end of the passageway. Still gripping Evan’s hand hard enough to bruise, Seth felt a chill of primal fear as he stared into the glowing portal.
“We run at it, like we expect it to yield, and it does,” Evan told him. “Ready when you are.”
Seth mustered his courage, grieving because he was leaving Jesse and ecstatic that Evan had not forgotten him.
“Let’s do this,” Seth said, meeting Evan’s eyes. “To Infinity—” he yelled as they jumped hand in hand into the blinding brilliance.
“—and beyond!” Evan echoed.
Cold light overwhelmed Seth, and when he came to his senses, he woke in the rundown clinic from his nightmares, cuffed to the dented railing of a hospital bed.
“Evan?” he whispered tentatively in the gloom.
No answer came.
Beeping monitors replaced the snarl ofgrims, and their screens provided faint light in an otherwise darkened room. Seth pulled the IV needle out of his arm and winced as he removed a catheter, which made it clear that his kidnapper expected him to be left unattended for long periods.
Seth had no difficulty slipping his cuffs. He sat up and took in his surroundings.
Where the fuck am I? And where’s Evan?
The building obviously hadn’t been maintained in a long time. Paint peeled from the ceiling, and mold blossomed on crumbling plaster. The smell of dust and mildew filled the air.
Shit. I’m lucky I didn’t wake up in a bathtub full of ice, missing a kidney. But this is a close second.
Seth could make out half a dozen occupied beds in the gloom, each surrounded by monitors and IV poles.
I bet I’ve found the missing descendants.He remembered the strange moments in his dreams when the odd “accountant” showed up, looking down on him with condescension.
Osborn. The man in my dreams matches his pictures. I remember getting walloped back at the library—and then I woke up with my folks, and Jesse was still alive.A wave of grief hit him, and he took a deep breath and pushed it back.
Fuck—did Osborn send us all to our happy places so we couldn’t fight whatever he’s doing to our bodies?
Seth’s head swam. A glance confirmed that he wore the same clothes as when he got jumped, and he felt a surge of relief that he wasn’t in a bare-assed hospital gown. He zipped up his fly. According to the date on the monitor screen, he’d been out for four days.
Shit. Evan’s probably panicked. And tonight is the full moon. I’ve got to get these people out of here before Osborn works his ritual to power up.
He got rid of the monitors that were stuck to his skin and silenced the alarms, then walked on shaky legs toward the next bedridden victim.
Seth knew he had to hurry.Monitors are…monitored. The countdown to getting caught started the moment I broke the feed.
Seth recognized the man in the nearest bed as James Butler, who had vanished four months ago. He had been healthy and vibrant in the pictures circulated online, but the pallid, gaunt figure barely resembled his photographs. Desperate to assure that Evan was not one of the kidnap victims, Seth checked the other beds, but to his relief, his partner wasn’t there.
Is Osborn a vampire?Seth didn’t see puncture wounds or any evidence of bloodletting.Some sort of psi-vamp, maybe? Or can he use his magic to siphon energy?
He’d have to figure that out later.
Seth found his shoes tossed into a corner, another indicator to his mind that his captor never intended for him to leave alive. He vaguely remembered leaving his messenger bag in the reserved room at the library. He’d taken his phone, knife, and hex bags, only to be drugged by regular goons who removed his protections so a witch could whammy him. Seth swore under his breath at how easily he’d fallen for the trap.
A bin on a nearby table held cellphones and wallets from his fellow victims. Seth tried all the phones. Three were dead. He couldn’t guess the password on two, but the third opened to “1-2-3-4” and still had enough battery for a 911 call—as soon as he had a signal.
Seth glanced around for a weapon and settled for a broken wooden chair leg. The locked corridor door yielded to his “unlock” spell, and its tumblers clicked open. He checked the hallway, relieved to find it empty.
He needed to save the others, but after four days of whatever Osborn had dosed him with, he was going to be lucky to get down the stairs by himself. Carrying anyone or making multiple trips wasn’t going to happen.
Seth spotted a fire alarm pull on the wall of the darkened corridor. The building still had electricity to run the monitors, even though most of the overhead lights appeared to be burned out. That meant the odds were good the alarm still had power—and would go straight to the fire department.
