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Her whole perception of the world shifted in that e at all thebehind the scenes There was soon than even she knew She wasn’t sure she really wanted to see any h as it was

"Where do we go now?" Andra asked

Paul shot her a quick glance, then looked at Nika Coo home with us, we , "No, no, no"

Andra couldn’t stand to see her like this If there were anything in her power she could do to help, she had to try It didn’tdeeper into this neorld ofsister, and she’d do whatever it took to ain

Andra s to comfort her "It’s worth a shot"

Madoc made sure he left a nice, easy-to-follow trail of blood as he walked out of sight of the mental hospital None of those whack jobs inside needed to see the kind of beating he was about to lay out Their minds would really be fucked-up then

The hospital was nice and isolated, which meant there was plenty of farrowths of trees He found a dark, secluded spot with plenty of roo with power It pounded against his eyes and scratched at his veins trying to get out Hell, he felt like he was going to be shaken apart by it if he didn’t do so soon, and that little skirht was young He had hours of darkness before all the Synestryn would retreat back into the holes where they lived and he wouldn’t be able to find theer

Madoc ripped off his T-shirt and tied it around the wound in his thigh to slow the bleeding He didn’t want to pass out fro to be done He needed every ounce of exertion he could get to stave off the fucking pain grinding at his bones Not tohe did Literally

Then again, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad There was no way death could hurtruround Demons were nearby They’d found his scent and would be here any minute

Good He could hardly wait

Chapter 8

Nika felt the o with them, but she had no choice A sliver of heron their hunt

She tried to think about so else--to turn the channel in her head so that she was back in the truck with Andra, safe and sound in her sister’s lap She liked that part of herself Even though there were strangers in the truck with her, and one of them wanted to drink her blood, it was better than the other places she existed right now

So many places So many monsters She couldn’t keep track Her er felt there was any of her real self left

Nika saw through the eyes of a pack of sgath as they hunted She felt daht air ruffle her fur Her claws dug deep into the earth with every powerful stride of her body Prey was close She could ser and her round as she passed over it She was close She could hear her prey’s slow, steady heartbeat

Her pack broke through the trees and she saw then what she hunted He had a sword and wore the luminescent collar that marked him as a Theronai--a warrior anted to kill her and rid the earth of all of her kind

The part of Nika that knew she was human cheered for the man--the same man who had been near her hospital bed earlier But the part of Nika that was beast hissed at hi to sink her teeth into his flesh and gulp down his blood before it could soak into the earth and be wasted

More pieces of her huddled inside three ed the les at once and her hu she could translate It was toofrom all sides of her She didn’t want to see the ath, she feared that ould happen

The ed for his throat He didn’t recognize her He didn’t know this wasn’t what she wanted She didn’t want him to die

He didn’t even appear to h her belly She landed hard on the ground and her insides were oozing out of a neat opening Her paere cluans back in Her own blood sry She kneas futile and that she was dying, but couldn’t stop herself froround as she bled out

Back inside of the real Nika, her stomach rebelled at the acid taste of the blood, the thick, rotting s’s mind, only to find herself trapped inside another It was hiding fro to strike as soon as he turned his back

Only years of practice allowed her to pull back into her real body

God, she was so weak She could barely lift her head "He’s in trouble," she et out

"Who?" asked Andra

"The Theronai ith you tonight"

"I don’t know any Theronai, baby," said Andra in that patient, gentle voice she always used with her crazy sister

Nika wanted to scream at her that she wasn’t crazy--her ments that lived inside others--but she knew from experience that it never worked When she shouted, the orderlies came with needles and put her real mind to sleep so that she had no place to retreat to No place to hide

Dreaer and ith her mind trapped inside so many monsters But that wasn’t the worst She could hardly stand being with Tori anys they had done to her were hideous Inhu dark and twisted the Synestryn intended to use as a weapon

But Nika had promised Tori she wouldn’t leave her, so she hadn’t Not once in all these long, painful years