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The darkness became too much to bear, too strong for me to fight.
I tried one more time before I gave in, and the darkness dragged me under for good.
ChapterThirty
Ash
She was fading fast. After the forest had run out and I hadn’t had trees to move through as fast as I had, I took my human form again and ran. I followed the road—this was the road they would have taken—and I hoped to the gods that I wouldn’t be too late.
The closer I got to her, the stronger I felt the bond between us. It was the only way I knew I was headed in the right direction.
I still couldn’t figure out exactly where she was. She was so weak, our bond was starting to fray at the edges.
She was dying.
Dammit! This was all my fault. I shouldn’t have slept with her, I shouldn’t have created this fucking bond with her. I should have kept her safe by staying away, but no, I just had to take what I wanted, didn’t I? I shouldn’t have let myself get so swept up in who she was. I shouldn’t have let her draw me in.
What was it with me and fucking humans?
I slowed to a stop after I’d run for hours. My legs screamed at me, every breath burning in and out of my chest. I could still feel her, but I didn’t know where she was. At least from what I could tell, they’d stopped moving.
How the fuck was I supposed to know where they were keeping her?
The only way I could know was if I reached out to her, if she could only reach back.
I closed my eyes and found our bond. I followed it, trying to find her. She was delirious, dreaming. I felt her floating around in a semi-unconscious state. I could use that—it was the last thing I could do to find her.
She was dreaming, so I changed her dream. I used it to speak to her, no matter where she was. As long as she was alive and our bond existed at all, I could get her to tell me where she was.
She didn’t know. Fuck, she was too out of it to know where she was, to know what to say to me to help her.
A warehouse? A factory? Asphalt, four gray walls, and a cold floor.
This was an industrial area—there were a million factories and warehouses around, a lot of them abandoned. I couldn’t work my way through all of them and hope I found her before it was too late.
It was already almost too late.
A tug at my bond jerked at me. I focused on the tug—she was using her last strength to find me, to help me. Another tug, weaker this time, but it was there.
I started running again, ignoring my body’s protests and following the bond between us, which was weakening at an alarming rate.
Ash, her voice sounded in my head, nothing but an echo.I’m here.
I’m coming!I tried to reassure her.Whatever you do, don’t give up! I’m coming.
When the bond faded to almost nothing, panic gripped my throat and squeezed my chest. I wasn’t going to let her die. Not on my watch. Not while I could do something about it.
I skidded to a halt in front of three warehouses standing in a row. Lorraine was in one of them, I just didn’t know which one. I didn’t have the time to search all three of them. I would have to guess.
I squeezed my eyes shut and picked one. Just before I headed toward the metal doors that made up the entrance, I noticed a black car in the parking lot of the second warehouse. It looked too fancy and shiny to be here. It was out of place, and out of place was exactly what I was looking for.
I changed direction and headed toward the second warehouse. She had to be here. If she wasn’t, that would be it—it would be all over.
I crept to the front door, but decided against it. If there were more of them, I would be outnumbered. I had to get to her, then get out as quickly and as quietly as I could.
A side door allowed me access to the warehouse. The large metal structure had been abandoned. The windows had all been broken, and the shards that remained, standing up in the window frames like jagged teeth, were dusty.
I crept across a large open space in the center of the warehouse, with chains and pulleys hanging from the ceiling. The back part of the warehouse had two floors of offices, with hallways that ran along the middle of the rows.
