“It’s like he said, he can’t kill her,” Regar pointed out.

Ferro was nowhere in sight; he’d taken off the moment we arrived, but Sinister leaned against the bar next to the other two, his hands crossed on his chest.

He looked almost as if he wasn’t listening at all, tapping his fingers against his biceps. “There are worse things than death.”

“Thanks, man, just what I needed,” I spat at him. “To imagine that bastard raping her to get the sweetest taste of her fear.”

“Your imagination is messed up.” Sinister held his hands up in defence. “I meant the state of impassiveness. Still alive, but vacant.”

“Because that’s any better? Isay completely numb, robbed of her emotions?” That’s what was going to happen to her once Terwyl was done with her. He would leave nothing of her behind, and it would take years for her to recover, if she ever would.

Lord Terwyl was a high fae of Felroth court. A high fae that not only fed on passion, fear, grief, or love, but the whole lot of it. I’d felt Isay’s passion and knew it’d be hard to resist. It wouldn’t be hard to frighten her. And love? I… ah… hoped she might feel some for me.

I’d fucked up. Again. I shouldn’t have brought her here, just like I shouldn’t have taken her to the forest. Every step of the way I kept making mistakes that cost her dearly.

“Kar.” Regar pointed towards the VIP area Terwyl had taken Isay to, and I stopped my pacing. By the railing between two emotion-feeders stood Isay, struggling to get free.

“Get the car,” I ordered, not caring who’d be driving so long as it was outside the club when I got Isay away from the Felrothians.

I was halfway across the club before anyone could stop me. I’d walk in there, rip their throats out, and take Isay to where it was safe. Where was safe for her?

I didn’t quite reach the staircase before the scuffle upstairs stilled. Black threads spiked out of Isay’s chest and anyone in her path got sucked dry. I froze in my steps, staring up at the balcony in a daze. She looked absolutely magnificent and every bit terrifying. I’d seen white vines of ecos swirling around her and her inability to stop hadn’t scared me as much as those deadly tendrils reaching out from her chest. That… That was a trait of delthers.

I’d known there was more to what they’d done to her, but this… this was a lot to take in.

Not getting any time to come to terms with what I saw, I forced my feet to keep moving toward the stairs as Isay stumbled down them, taking the bouncer down with the darkness swirling around her like a shield. I prayed she wouldn’t turn me to ashes as I intercepted her escape.

“Isay! This way,” I called through the screams of the closest patrons as they turned to look at the deadly apparition that Isay had become.

“Karmuth,” she sobbed and thrashed her way over to me.

I braced myself for impact when she killed two more people on her path, but her tendrils retreated as she slammed to my chest and my arms came around to squeeze her closer to me before I shook myself out of it.

“We need to go,” I breathed into her hair and started pulling her towards the exit.

The crowd scattered in front of us, making it easier to get through—until shots were fired. Then the whole club turned into mayhem, not only running from us but from whomever was shooting. I knew it was Terwyl, and he was aiming at us.

I really fucking hated guns. They were loud, pulled all the attention to them, and the bullets drove through you like a visiting acting troupe. Painfully unentertaining.

I tripped and wheezed when one broke through my abdomen, and the burning that followed got me gritting my teeth.

Isay panicked. I knew she panicked, because she hadn’t attacked me before, but now one of the tendrils I’d seen latched onto me and sucked. Her eyes looked wild when ours connected and her flight instinct was switching to freeze, which was not good. Not good at all. We couldn’t stop, not here.

Despite the gun wound and her unintentionally trying to drain me, I kept on pulling her across the dance floor, every step a struggle.

“Just a little farther, beautiful.” I felt the powerful overload of ecos within me slip through the thread between us. The rush of it leaving my body left me lightheaded, or maybe it was the blood seeping through my shirt and making it stick to my skin. “Isay, we’re almost there.”

We soon pushed past the bouncer just as a group of fae broke through the frantic crowd, guns raised at us. Where did they even stash those things?

With the invention of guns, Vindica had tried to smuggle a batch of them through the portal, but what had reached the other side was a grate full of melted iron. Strange, since we had no such trouble with any other technological advancements, computers and phones excluded. I knew how to fire a gun, but we did not train to count on them in combat, and since swords were very conspicuous in modern-day Earth, we’d left all our weapons behind.

My only defence were my hands, and by the speed of which Isay was draining me, they’d be of no use soon.

I just needed to get her to the car, and she could have her way with me. She’d be safe with the others. Grounded for life most likely, but safe.

Our car was roaring in front of the club with Hiko behind the wheel and Regar riding shotgun. Sinister jumped off his motorcycle to pull a back door open for us, and I tucked Isay in before collapsing in a heap next to her. The party from inside rushed out with guns blazing before I could shut the doors and Hiko could take off.

“Shit!” Sinister cursed, forgetting his bike and squeezing in the back seat with us. “Drive!”

Bullets scratched into metal in a deafening fury. Hiko hit the gas and Sinister shut the door just as a lamppost almost took the thing off its hinges.

“You’ve got a bit of a control problem, Isay,” I rasped shakily, turning my attention back to her. “Just take deep breaths, and please don’t kill me.”

She stammered, “I can’t—”

“It’s okay, Isay. It’s okay.”

“No, Karmuth, I—”

I wrapped my arms around her, because if I was going to die then I’d rather die with her against me. She squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her head in the crook of my neck.

Her breath brought shivers down my spine. I loved it.

“Why me?” Isay whispered, her voice fragile and thin.

The rapid thumping of her heart slowed as the car sped up, soon reaching the highway. With it the darkness retreated, leaving behind a trembling and confused girl.

I squeezed her harder against me, not caring that she was pressing against the gunshot wound.

My breathing was raspy, coming out in harsh puffs. If I hadn’t been overfeeding these past few days, Isay would’ve killed me like she’d killed the fae on the balcony. Her muffled sobs broke me more than the thought of dying for her.

“Everything okay back there?” Regar’s head peeked out between the two front seats, brow scrunched in concern.

I gave him a curt nod. “Peachy.”

“You’re basically transparent, man. More white currant than peachy.” Regar’s eyes travelled over Isay nested in my arms, then to Sinister who I only then noticed was pressed tight against the side of the door as far away from us as physically possible.

I barked a laugh at his utterly focussed dedication. Tapping my knee against his to get him to look at me instead of Isay made him jump in his seat, and I laughed harder.

“It’s fine, man, she stopped,” I said, but he did not relax one bit. His choice.

“Just in a nick of time, too. Did I tell you that you look white as hell?” Regar lost his balance as the car sped over a pothole and he, bumped his head against the roof of the car. Rubbing his head absentmindedly, his eyes suddenly widened, stuck on the back windshield. “Oh shit, this is not good. Floor it, Hiko!”

“The fuck you think I’m doing, then? Sit back down and put your seatbelt on,” Hiko growled back, pulling at Regar’s shirt while I craned my neck to catch a glimpse of what he’d seen.

Behind us, three black sedans skidded through the traffic. Isay’s sharp breath alerted me to the fact that she’d seen them too.

I soothed, “You keep taking deep breaths, beautiful. In and out, don’t worry about the rest, yeah?”