Jennifer Armentrout - Onyx

“This has nothing to do with Nancy.” Vaughn rubbed a long finger over his brow. “And you say that a lot, Blake. There are always choices. However, you’re not really good at making them.” He turned to the Arum. “Take the dead one. See if you can get anything off him.”

“The dead one?” Residon scuffed. “We want the one who is still alive.”

“No.” My voice came out harsh and ragged. “No! They can’t have either of them. They can’t touch them.”

Residon laughed.

Vaughn knelt down in front of me, and as close as we were, I could see the resemblance now. “This can go one of two ways. You come with us of your own free will or I will hand over both of them to these guys. Do you understand?”

My eyes darted to the Arum. “I want them gone first.”

“You’re negotiating?” Vaughn laughed as he glanced up at his nephew. “See, that’s what you do when you’re presented with the unexpected.”

Blake looked away, jaw clenching. “What do you mean this isn’t about Nancy?”

“Just what it sounds like.”

A shudder racked Blake’s taut body. “If we don’t turn her over, they’ll kill—”

“Do I look like I care? Really?” Vaughn laughed, standing as he turned his attention to me. He pushed back his jacket, flashing his gun. “Residon, take the dead one. Dispose of him.”

Take his body, so Ash and Andrew would face what Dee and Daemon had? No body. No closure. My brain clicked off. What rose in me, replacing the sorrow and helplessness, was primal and ancient. Not just alien in origin, but a combination of both foreign and organic. I sucked in air, but there was something… more . Particles all around us—tiny atoms, but powerful, too small to see with the naked eye—lit up as they danced in the air and then froze. Like a thousand twinkling stars, they gleamed a dazzling white.

I sucked in and they came toward me, rushing, falling like shooting stars. They built and swirled, surrounding my body and those on the floor. I stood as they pieced together, settling on my skin, soaking through until they bonded with my cells. My entire body warmed, mixing with the roaring tide of emotions gathering in me.

I was no longer just Katy. Something—someone else—moved inside me. Another part of me that had been split months ago, on Halloween, had returned.

The Arum sensed it first. They shifted into their true forms, tall, imposing shadows thick and muddled like midnight oil. They would die.

“Don’t kill her,” Vaughn yelled, pulling out his gun, leveling it at me. “Now, little girl, you don’t want to do anything rash. Think this through.”

He would die, too.

Backing up, Blake glanced between his uncle and me. “Christ…”

In the back of my mind, I knew there was something else fueling this power—s omeone else from the outside. It was like the night in the clearing. What was in me was fully joining with my other half. I lifted into the air, no longer seeing them in color, but only in white, tinged with red.

“Shit,” Vaughn muttered. His finger twitched. “Don’t make me do this, Katy. You’re worth a lot of money.”

Money? What did this have to do with money? But I was beyond caring. I welcomed the feeling encroaching upon me. My vision shifted, blurred, and tingled. My head cocked to the side. Static filled the air, devouring oxygen. Blake gagged, dropping to his knees.

The Arum rose up, spinning around and rushing the door. Their black tendrils reached out, knocking off furniture and sending picture frames to the floor. They drew up short.

“Leaving so soon?” a deep, furious voice said from the doorway. “I’m offended.”

Daemon shifted into his true form and took out the first Arum with one blast followed by another…and then another. Pieces of it broke away and floated up and up, disappearing into thin wisps before they reached the ceiling.

I drew Residon, the one who’d wanted Dee, back to me. He was caught between Daemon and me, like a ping-pong ball. My light pulsed. Daemon’s flared.

Residon roared.

Tell me what has happened , Daemon’s voice whispered among my thoughts.

I told him everything about Blake and Vaughn while we worked on Residon, tearing him down. But movement caught my attention. Vaughn was trying to work the window open. When he got nowhere with that, he grabbed the floor lamp and swung it toward the glass.

I froze the lamp and then whipped it out of his hands. Vaughn spun around, dashing behind Daemon. In the chaos, Blake had made it outside somehow. So had Daemon and Residon. Three forms streaked into my house. I heard a wailing sound, and it drove deep inside me, darkening a part of me. There was a crack and one of the large oaks came down, landing near the driveway.

Ash was in her human form, tugging on her brother’s lifeless body, pulling him into her lap. Her head was tipped back, her mouth open as she keened and wept. Dee was moving beside her, growing stronger and stronger. And I knew her wail would soon join Ash’s.

Vaughn? Blake? They wouldn’t escape this. I glided out of the living room, my feet on the ground, but I didn’t feel the steps. I passed Matthew as he rushed into the living room; the startled cry he let out splintered my heart.

Daemon burned brighter than I’d ever seen. A pure, concentrated white light tinged in red as he darted down the driveway toward the mass of shadows gathering. His light flared intensely, and I threw up my arm, shielding my eyes. I thought of the DOD officers he’d turned to ash…and again I thought of an atomic bomb.

The light had turned that bright.

A bolt of lightning shot from Daemon and slammed into Residon, spinning him into the air. Suspended, the Arum flickered from shadows to human form and then froze, his upper body human and his lower body nothing more than smoke.

And he broke into a thousand shards with a loud crack that sounded like thunder.

The snow fell heavier.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vaughn leaping from behind my car—the spot he had been cowering in. Gun in hand, he rushed toward his Expedition at the same moment Blake spun toward the woods.

Before I could even move, Daemon threw out a light-encased arm and the Expedition lurched into the air, flipping over Vaughn, exposing him. The roof gave with a crunch. Glass exploded in every which direction as metal snapped.

In awe of such power, I froze.

Daemon whipped toward Blake, catching him by the throat. A heartbeat later, he had the boy against the hood of my car, and in his human form, he was no less frightening or powerful.

“You have no idea how painful I’m going to make this for you,” Daemon said, eyes like orbs of white light. “For every bruise you gave Kat, I’m going to return to you tenfold.” He lifted Blake off my hood. The boy’s feet dangled in the air. “And I’m going to seriously enjoy this.”

Vaughn made his move then. Rushing forward, he raised the gun.

“Daemon!” I shot toward them.

Vaughn pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. Three times.

Daemon’s head jerked around and he smiled—he actually smiled. And the bullets…they stopped inches from Daemon’s face. They just hovered there, as if someone had pressed pause.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” Daemon growled.

Comprehension showed in Vaughn’s pale face. “No—no!”

The bullets flipped over and returned to the sender with an alarming speed. They hit Vaughn in the chest and that was that. There was no chance for any more reactions. The man’s legs crumpled and he was nothing but a lifeless heap beside the twisted metal of the Expedition.

Red spread across the snow in a stream of scarlet.

Blake tore free, hitting the side of my bumper, and then he was up, running toward the woods. He was fast.