THE WORLD COMES INTO FOCUS.
They're standing in the same position, fingers held tightly around the hilt of the blade at his back, Kiernan's hand gripping his arm, and Lucas flanking his right. But they're no longer in the club, however, and his stomach churns with dread.
He blinks away the lingering blear over his gaze and takes in the jarringly white room with a breathy curse. There are blinking red lights placed at intervals along the domed ceiling. There's a pair of glass doors that show another pair of metal, high-security doors on the other side.
Kiernan steps away, looking over their new predicament with a wary gaze. "Is this magic?"
"Yes," Kane replies through gritted teeth. Was any of this real? Was the club ever there? They're in this bitch's thrall and might as well have walked up naked and offered themselves to her mercy. "Don't...touch anything. And don't believe anything you see or hear. It's not real."
At Kiernan's wary nod, Kane's attention shifts to Lucas, who's become worryingly quiet. The man's sweeping gaze is distant, and he looks shaken.
Kane whispers, "Any ideas, man?"
"I know this place," Lucas says, staring intensely at the stark white surrounding them from all sides.
Kane's heart sinks. "You're sure?"
"Yeah, mate." Lucas looks at him then, and the man's dark eyes are close to wild, figuring out what Kane's adrenaline-coursed blood has already begun to accept. Because if that's true and this is Lucas's memory, it means she's got in their heads. And they're majorly fucked.
"This is the Calloway," Lucas explains. "It's where the Bureau keeps its seers. It's where I met Asha..." He looks around again, and his shoes tap the white tiling softly as he makes a full-body turn to take in everything with haunted eyes. "What are we supposed to do? She said, If we escape. There's no getting out once you're in here."
Kane glances at Kiernan warily, and the vampire's frowning deeply. He asks tiredly, "Any chance you've been to Calloway before?"
"No," Kiernan answers coolly. So this is Lucas, then. It looks like Kiernan's about to leave the conversation with his usual apathy, but then he whispers with haste, his voice cracking slightly, "This is Lucas's memory? Does that mean Carla can make us relive anything she wishes?"
"Probably," Kane answers.
"I can feel the chill."
Kane grunts, "Yeah."
"It feels so real, Rainer."
There's fear in Kiernan's eyes that Kane wants to tell him to fuck off with because showing weakness right now will only mean they'll be devoured by the snake quicker, but his stupid heart takes over instead, and he whispers gently, "I know, but it's in your head. It's not real. You have to remember that."
The sudden crackling of a speaker from somewhere near the ceiling quiets whatever Kiernan was about to reply on quick breaths. Carla's silken voice seems to permeate the room in a way that makes it impossible to not hang on to her every word: "I have to admit, Moreno's memories are delicious, but yours, Lucas, are poetically tragic. I thought we'd start here. Where it began and where it ends."
"Stop playing games," Kane growls, feeling a surge of protectiveness that has his hand back on the hilt of his blade when he sees how shaken Carla's words have made Kiernan, who looks like he just saw the apocalypse, pale with near panic.
He's trying not to think about the fact that there's a good chance they're still in that club, lying on the floor, vulnerable.
"A game?" Carla returns with a soft laugh. "Yes, a game. Let's call it that, lovely. My daughter adores games. Who will win, I wonder?"
"Nah, hard pass." Lucas scoffs. "Not interested in this rigged shit."
The speaker crackles again, and then Carla purrs, "I have not rigged anything. You have all the means to escape. Oh, and I'd advise you to act quickly. Reid Kimberk is stunning, but he will not survive much longer."
As if on cue, the room filled with agonized screams.
Reid's screams.
There's a moment when he's hearing the horror apart from his body, as if he's floating up high. But at the sight of Kiernan in his peripheral covering his ears and hearing Lucas's shaky curse, Kane's shoved back into cruel reality with ragged breaths.
Kane snarls, "You should have killed me." He's shaking with a rage he's never kept for this long because someone ends up dead when he reaches this point. The screams have stopped, but they echo in his mind on repeat. "When I get out of here, you're fucking dead!"
Carla doesn't reply. She's gone.
Lucas's expression is pure despair that Kane wishes he never saw because now he knows what Lucas on the edge of breaking looks like.
"You heard..." Lucas chokes out. "We're not going to reach him in time, are we?"
Kane's breath catches. "Shut up." He refuses to believe it. "Look at me, Lucas. He's tough. Tougher than any of us. He's holding on."
"Rainer," Kiernan growls, pulling attention to him. The vampire is looking down at the crystal-blue water suddenly collecting at their feet.
The water is freezing, and it's rising.
Kane's eyes widen, and he looks at Lucas.
Lucas is wavering where he stands with the expression of a broken man moments before he steps off a building to find solace in the unforgiving pavement below.
"Lucas..." Kane sloshes closer, the water grazing his shins, and grasps Lucas's arms. "This is you. You... feel..." He tries to think, clawing at his mind for answers. Emotions aren't his forte. "You're drowning. Right? In your head. Something is suffocating you. What?"
"I don't know," Lucas chokes with wild eyes. "I don't... I guess...yeah. Fuckin' maybe."
Kiernan snaps, "Rainer." He moves closer, upsetting the water, and lays a hand on Kane's upper back. He whispers harshly, "What happens if we die here?"
Good fucking question.
"Lucas, fucking..." Kane lays his palms on Lucas's neck to keep the man's darting eyes focused on him.
They can't afford to play these games, not when their bodies are unprotected and Reid is screaming somewhere in agony. He can't do this. He's so close to losing his mind. He needs Lucas to stay strong, for Kiernan to stay strong, and not to make him shoulder this burden.
He can't do it alone anymore.
"I..." Lucas whispers as if he's only realizing his own thoughts while his mouth forms the shaky words. "I should have died here. In Calloway. They want me back, Kane. Maybe I should give myself over."
If Kane wasn't hyperaware of the freezing water biting at his thighs, he might have gentled his tone. He growls, "Then you wouldn't have saved Asha. You'd be a prisoner. Don't be fucking stupid."
Lucas's face twists with misery. "She doesn't need me anymore. She'd be better off without me. I'll never give her what she deserves." He takes in a trembling breath and finds resolve somewhere in his racing thoughts because his watering gaze suddenly hardens. "You don't know the shit I've done."
"I don't care," Kane groans. They're going to drown, the freezing water lapping at his waist.
Lucas grasps his wrists, pulling Kane's hands away from his neck, and keeps a firm hold. If it were any other time, Kane would punch him in the face for daring, but there's something desperate in Lucas's eyes that quiets any resistance. "No. You don't know the shit I've done to him. I had it all planned."
Kane snaps, "Fuck. All planned? That's creepy, asshole." He can feel Kiernan grip his jacket tightly, and he doesn't think it's from the water that's threatening their waists. It's slowed for a reason he doesn't know, but he's fucking grateful.
The hold on Kane's wrists tightens, and he's suddenly closer to Lucas than he's ever wanted to be. He bares his teeth in warning.
Lucas says with a crazed glint in his gaze, "I'm a killer, Kane. I was good at it. I did it because I wanted to do it. I chose that life." He exhales shakily. "I saw Reid in a vision a long time ago. The first time I touched Asha, I saw a glimpse of my future."
The chill that settles in the marrow of Kane's bones isn't from the freezing water that's begun to rise slowly once again. "What was in the vision?"
Lucas scoffs. "My death. I die. Fighting Azrael, I think. Reid was there. I've been doing everything I can to make that future happen."
Kane tries to rear back in denial, but Lucas keeps his hold on his wrists firm. "That's fucked! You know that. Futures change! We changed fate, remember? And you've been trying to do everything you can to make this fantasy happen." He whispers shakily, "You never cared about stopping that beast...did you?"
"Fuck!" Lucas gasps miserably. He lets go of Kane's wrists. "I know it's fucked. I know...I told him whatever it was we had was over. But I don't think I can stay away."
"Why?"
"I'm in love with him, mate. That's why."
There's a deep ache the admission causes in Kane's heart that he doesn't know how to wade. For a moment, he doesn't feel the frigid water rising past his waist. He sees the inner turmoil Lucas is struggling with. The guy's an asshole, but he means what he claims; that much is obvious.
Pulling him back to the present, Kiernan growls, "Rainer."
Kane's ears have an echoing ring, then his hearing comes back into focus, and he says, "Then don't stay away."
Lucas laughs bitterly. "You're just saying that because you don't want to die here."
"Fuck, of course, I don't," Kane growls. "Just don't go beating him and take him on a date or something. What's wrong with you?"
The water has stopped rising. "If you love him, then love him. What you've been doing isn't love. That's why you're here, because you know that and hate yourself for it."
Lucas's throat bobs, swallowing. "You'll never let that happen, me and him."
Kane scoffs. "If I was going to kill you, I'd have done it when you admitted that shit at the Pancake Express."
"You tried."
"I wouldn't have," Kane admits. He'd have hurt Lucas badly, but he wouldn't have killed him. "If I were going to come for you, I'd have killed you when I found out you whipped him bloody. I fucking should have."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because..." Kane says tiredly. "You're my friend, but you're fucked. Deal with that first, then, if you want to try, and if he does, go for it." His throat constricts. "But if I catch a whiff of this bullshit again, I will kill you this time, understand?"
"Yeah."
"But Lucas..." Kane hates himself for what he's about to say, but it has to be spoken aloud. "Don't waste your time hoping Reid is going to get better. He's not." His eyes burn. "He's never going to be where you need him to be. Maybe you won't ever love Asha like you want to, but fuck, man, she's beautiful, and she loves you. You deserve that, Lucas. Happiness."
The water begins to lower, and Kane knows he's hit the mark. He hears Kiernan exhale in obvious relief. The vampire's touch slips away from Kane's jacket.
Lucas whispers, "I can't give up on him."
Kane's stomach flips. He'd had a similar conversation with Hannah not long ago. "If you love him," he whispers dejectedly. "You'll let him go."
Lucas rubs at his mouth. "Yeah." His face twists, blinking rapidly, and then he exhales shakily. "You're right. Shit. You're right. Fuckin' hell."
Kane feels airy and nearly drunk. He'd rather fight hoards of monsters than fucking deal with this emotional shit. "We need you. Stopping evil and shit—that's bigger than any of us. We wouldn't have survived this long if you weren't at my back, so fucking stay focused." The water laps at the soles of his boots. "You don't deserve to rot in a place like this, man. If we survive, go to Asha. Make up for lost time. Let her love you."
Lucas smiles sadly.
The speaker crackles, and one purred word comes through clearly: "Boring." Then Carla says darkly, "One out of three. Let's make this more interesting, shall we?"
Blackness overtakes his vision.
This time he's ready for the blear over his gaze and wipes at his eyes to take in the new nightmare that's awaiting him. Aromatic lavender incense hangs in the air. He's no longer sopping wet.
He's glad for his haste to regain his senses because he's able to grasp the gun and shove the barrel away from Kiernan's forehead a split second before the vampire pulls the trigger, which would have blown his brains all over the carpeted floor.
The gun firing echoes and the bullet embeds in the roof of the room they've found themselves in, walls of dark purple, dim candlelight that keep back the clinging shadows.
Lucas curses loudly behind him.
Staring into Kiernan's wide eyes, they take ragged breaths in tandem. The realization of what just almost happened hits Kane like a truck, stealing his breath.
Kane snarls, "What the fuck are you doing!?"
Kiernan doesn't make wrestling the smoking gun out of his hand easy. He fights dirty, and Kane takes a punch to his jaw that staggers him, then a knee to his inner thigh that hurts like hell. He lets his stumbling momentum work in his favor, using his weight to tip Kiernan onto a nearby bed.
The mattress is plush with slippery silken sheets, and it makes getting his knees under him a fucking endeavor. The fact he's being scratched to shit by a feral vampire doesn't make it any easier.
Then Lucas is at his side with a gruff curse, and together, they wrench the gun from Kiernan's shaking grasp. With his fingers shackling Kiernan's wrists to stop his wild attacks, Kane pins them beside the vampire's head.
He's using all his strength to keep the lunatic down, but then suddenly, none, because Kiernan falls limp under his grasp.
"You done?" Kane growls, his heart beating erratically in his chest.
Kiernan rasps, "Kill me, then yourself, Rainer. It'll be a mercy." His eyes are flickering up, down, around, wild, and it sets Kane's every instinct on edge. Kiernan makes a wet, gasping noise. "I'm begging you."
"No," Kane says hoarsely, rising from the bed.
He tries to conceal how shaken he is when Kiernan doesn't rise and continues to lie limp on the bed. Expansive with dark wood that glints in the candlelight, and crimson fabric draped between its four pillars.
Kane forces his expression to harden. "Listen to me, dumbass. This isn't real. We're in your head. It's going to be fucked. We get it. Let's deal with it together and get out of here."
When Kiernan's deadened eyes flicker to him and Kane sees the despair swirling within, he nears the bed and says gently, "I don't know what happens in the real world if you blow your head off here."
Kiernan doesn't move.
"We need to get to Reid," Lucas says. Then, he adds softly, "He needs you."
Silence, and then Kiernan sits up slowly. He looks utterly miserable, but he's not trying to kill himself anymore, so that's a fucking win in Kane's book.
Looking around the room with a sweep of his gaze. The sparse floor space and nice furnishings make it confining. Every time he catches a whiff of incense in the air, his instincts pique, making his stomach churn.
"Alright," Kane says, forcing himself into a semblance of calmness. "We're going to figure out whatever needs to be done for us to get out of here, but you—you fucking lunatic—you have to keep your shit together because this is you. Not us."
Kiernan blinks at him, and his expression is apathetic, but not the familiar kind. This is doll-like and disturbing.
Lucas clears his throat. "I know my shit back there was vague, but any idea what we're going to find out there?" He's referring to the door where muffled noises and softly spoken voices emanate.
Kiernan smiles coldly. "Hell."