Page 22 of Heart of Dawn
“Set yourself free,” Dawn continued. “Embrace death. The fae will follow.” The dickhead moved with a sudden burst of speed, the fence rattling violently. “Show your face! Show your face! I’ll bite it off! I’ll bite it off!”
A chorus of hissing nearby responded to the shouting.
The horde was awake.
Dawn laughed again, sounding like it was jogging. “Here come my babies. Here come my…” It didn’t finish, no longer moving.
Goosebumps prickled across my skin, every hair standing to attention as the noises of the horde increased. It wouldn’t be long before they arrived, and speedies were capable of climbing ladders.
This roof wasn’t safe.
Right. Time to plan and investigate the environment. A metal box with a door over to my right was clearly the roof access. Another ladder on my left connected to a lower section of roof.
Which way, which way…
Dawn’s footsteps returned, moving back and forth directly below the ladder.
What, no wings to fly up and terrorize us with?
“You cannot stop me, wolf.” It spoke again. “I am new. I am greater than anything you can comprehend. Your world has already known my strength, and I still grow. I still feed and change and…” It didn’t finish another sentence but continued to pace.
This was bollocks. Between the three of us, we’d take the dickhead out then get the hell out of here before the horde showed up. In fact, we could lure the horde into the woods, put them on some fake trail, and let them fall into stasis somewhere else when they couldn’t find a crumb of us.
Pink smoke appeared around my feet, curling like ribbons. A familiar sight every morning ever since Dawn infected our world, hence the name. But here it was, growing thicker, spreading across the roof, coiling up my legs as well as the vampires’.
A nasty thought hit me. What if it infected us? It only ever affected humans, supernatural creatures like me immune to it. But the damn stuff was changing.
A pink tendril twirled up toward my face. It hovered close, swaying back and forth like a charmed cobra. Paralyzing fear ensnared my body, every part of me rigid, unable to do anything but stare the wispy thing down.
Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
Daria and Joe were as still as me, Dawn smothering their entire lower halves.
A chuckle hummed through the smoke.
“There you are,” Dawn said, its voice everywhere. “My little puppets. At last, the time has come to make you mine.”
CHAPTER NINE
ORION
“Well, I’m back,” Erna declared during a break from her humming.
“Miko! Answer me!”
No response.
“I think you’re healed enough.”
Erna’s booming tone cut through my pleading.
Healed?
She sang some unrecognizable words interspaced with some familiar ones such as flowers, snowy owls hooting in the night, love.
Unlike before, the melody didn’t act as lullaby.
Phew.
