Taken by the Beast (The Conduit Series Book 1) (24 page)

I inched forward, eyeing the two police officers on either side of me. Their focus was on the crowd, but I wasn’t going to sneak away undetected by walking right into their line of sight.

I chewed my lip and looked around. Okay, I could do this. Just had to channel my inner actress, the same way I had at the Fright Night Runway Show in New York City. Direct my attention at some unseen danger and get the police officers to notice my reaction.

As I looked over my shoulder, one of the officers shifted their gaze to me. Slowly, I shifted my focus past him, at the empty doorway, channeling a sense of sheer terror. I drew my eyebrows together and opened my mouth in a horrified “o” shape, leaning back, inching away. I let out a small gasp.

The officer looked over his shoulder now, too, then back to me.

“What is it?” he asked.

I shook my head as though too afraid to speak and pointed toward the door.

“Wait here,” he ordered. He tapped the other officer on the shoulder, put his hand on his gun, and nodded his head toward the door. “I think he’s here,” he whispered. “Cover me.”

As soon as they disappeared into the hall, I zipped myself into the crowd where they would not be able to easily
retrieve me. Then I moved toward the front of the room, suddenly aware of how tired I was. It had been like this since almost my first day back in New Haven—one crazy turn after another. And for all my fighting, I ended up here, as desperate and alone as ever.

Abram was hurt. He might have already been dead—but I couldn’t entertain that. I
wouldn’t
entertain that. Abram was strong. But he wouldn’t be able to protect himself in the condition he was in now. The mob would find him, and they would kill him. If, of course, that other beast didn’t get to him first.

Suddenly, I realized that my own life had become very secondary. I would give it up easily if that meant I could keep Abram, Lulu, Jack, and Dalton safe. If turning myself over to this monster would be enough to spare New Haven all this tragedy, then I would happily put on my best pumps and march myself over to him.

But something told me we were past that now. No amount of sacrifice could get us out of this. I could only hope that my words somehow would.

A hand grabbed me and pulled me back. I spun, jumping back, fearing I had wasted my choice and the other officers had caught up to me.

“Char, it’s me,” Lulu said. Her face was pale and tired, and she wore loose-fitting black clothes. She threw her arms around me and pulled me closer. Her arms were so weak, though, that it felt as though she was using me to hold herself up. “Thank God you’re okay. I thought for sure that you …” She cleared her throat. “Thank God.”

“Lulu,” I choked out as tears streamed down my cheeks. “The baby …”

“Allison,” she answered through tears of her own. “She’s fine. She’s at the hospital with Jack and her dad.”

“You need to be there with her,” I said, and I looked her up and down, shaking my head in horror. “You just had a baby! You can’t be here, walking around. Lulu—”

She chuckled weakly. “Oh, Char,” she said, in that bemused way of hers. “You always worry too much. You do realize the prolonged maternity ward stays are a cultural thing. There are places where women have their baby and immediately go back to work in the field.”

She was undermining things. For my sake. And I hated myself for it. “We don’t live in one of those place, Lulu. You need to rest.”

“Rest?” she said. “My best friend was
missing
. I couldn’t just lay there. I had to do something, even if it was just sit here with the rest of the town and worry.”

I squeezed her tightly. This was a detour. I should push her away and start my tirade of crazy sense-making, but I needed this. I needed this respite to remind me of who I was, of what I was fighting for.

“Thank you,” I said over the noise of the crowd. “But I’m not missing anymore. Go back. I’ll be okay.”

“Will you?” she asked, her mouth twisting up. “Did that bastard hurt you?” She studied my face as though the answer might lie in my sunken cheeks or disheveled hair.

“It wasn’t like that,” I assured her. “Abram’s not who you think he is.”

“Don’t you mean he’s not
what
you think he is?” Ester’s voice screeched in my ears like fingernails on a chalkboard.

“I don’t have time for you,” I snapped, looking past Lulu and the epitome of privileged bitchiness that was Ester. Returning my attention to Lulu, I continued. “He’s not a monster, Lu.”

“The hell he’s not.” Ester tilted her coiffed head. “We all saw it, and the fact that you’re still willing to defend whatever that thing is, after what he did to you, means you’re either sick or stupid.”

“Ester!” Lulu spun around. “Charisse has been through a horrible ordeal. I can’t even imagine—”

“Neither can I,” Ester said, folding her arms. “But I don’t need to.” Ester’s eyes traced me, resting on my bosom. “Look, it’s no secret that you and I aren’t exactly friends. But that doesn’t mean I wanted to see you dead, and it sure as sugar doesn’t mean I wanted to see you kidnapped and harmed by some strapping man-monster.”

“Sure as sugar?” I repeated slowly. “What are you, from Pleasantville?”

“I have children to protect.” She pursed her lips. “We all do. This is our home and, unlike a certain washed-up slash never-was supermodel, we actually like it here. So, while I have all the sympathy in the world for you and your plight, if you’re insist on being the twenty-first century Patty Hearst, I’m just going to have to write your plus-sized behind off.” She looked to Lulu. “And you’d be smart to do the same. You’ve got as much to lose as any of us.”

“You’re right,” Lulu said, and my heart sank. Was it possible that she was turning on me, that one of my worst fears was coming to pass and Lulu had finally realized that she had outgrown me? “I do have a lot of things to lose, Ester. But a friend won’t be one of them. Certainly not my best friend.” She took my hand and, in some small part, that was enough. It certainly helped to see Ester’s face fall in recognition.

“I hope you know what you’re doing then.” Ester glared at me. “Putting your friend in danger like this.” She clicked her tongue and narrowed her eyes as she leaned in closer. “But I’ll say this much. You have brought nothing but trouble to our town since the minute you slunk in here. Death after death. One strange occurrence after the next.” Ester shook her head, then turned her attention back to my best friend. “Don’t come crawling to me when she gets you killed, Lulu.”

I would have told her dead people don’t come crawling back, but it wasn’t worth it, for more reasons than one.

Lulu squeezed my hand as Ester turned and walked away.

“She’s kind of a bitch, isn’t she?” Lulu asked, smiling.

“A little bit,” I answered.

Looking to her, I felt a wash of emotions. She had just had a baby, a baby I hadn’t even seen. And what if Ester was right? This
was,
in some way, my fault. What if knowing me, if choosing me, was enough to get Lulu killed? I couldn’t live with myself if that happened. But there was Abram to think about, too. He was out there somewhere, injured. If he died … 

I couldn’t even think about that.

“You believe me then?” I asked.

“I believe that you believe,” she answered, her face placid. “But I also believe that you’ve been through a lot, much more than anyone should have to.” She squeezed my hand again. “And maybe you’re not seeing things very clearly right now.”

Oh, Lulu. She meant well.

I felt hands on my back. I didn’t have to turn to know they were Dalton’s. I knew his hands and, though they had never been as rough with me as they were now, planted firmly against my shoulders, I recognized them.

“We need to go, Char,” he said softly. Looking ahead, I realized that the crowd was dispersing, funneling out the front of the building undoubtedly on their way to ‘take care’ of Abram. And Dalton wanted me to go with them.

“I won’t help you!” I spun around. “I won’t lead you to him! I can’t!”

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You need to rest now, and the doctor wants to run some tests on you.”

“No!” I shrieked. That was the last thing I needed. Being in the hospital, strapped to machines and surrounded by orderlies, would make it impossible for me to find Abram.

I turned on my heel and bolted for the
podium. I needed to tell everyone the truth. I needed to stop them before they left and did something that couldn’t be undone.

I stumbled up the stage steps, nearly tripping, but I caught myself on my hands and clambered the rest of the way up. I darted to the podium. My hands fumbled on the microphone.

“Everybody! Attention, everybody.”

I stared at the microphone in disbelief. It wasn’t on.

“Everyone,” I shouted, louder.

Dalton came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “Stop this, Char.”

No one could hear me. I needed them to hear me. “Everyone, please!”

As Dalton pulled me back, I gripped the podium, but he was too strong. My fingers slipped. He tugged me aside, set me down, and put his hands firm on my shoulders.

His face was inches from mine. “Enough, Char! Pull yourself together.”

If I couldn’t get them to listen, I needed to stop them, or find Abram and warn him. Help him. Somehow. I pushed Dalton off of me.

“I have to go!” I yelled, and I spun on my heel to run.

It was crazy, the sheer amount of running I had done since all of this started, and something told me this was far from the end of it. I just needed to find Abram, though. I needed to save him the way he had saved me. After that, we would figure the rest out. So long as we were together—

Hands latched onto me again, driving me to the ground.

“Let me go!” I yelled, struggling against Dalton’s weight.

“Doctor!” he yelled, pinning me down at my shoulders. “Doctor, I need your help! She’s not well!”

“No!” I screamed, struggling futilely to get up. I pounded my hands against his chest, but he was not fazed. Steps settled near me, and I saw brown shoes.

“Stay still,” a stranger’s voice said calmly. “It’ll all be better soon.”

Something pricked my arm and sent
a burning sting through my veins. The world darkened. My body got heavy, and my eyes struggled to stay open.

God, they had drugged me. Could they do that? I struggled to hold on to my consciousness. They were doing all kinds of things they shouldn’t do. None of this was right. Nothing in my world made sense anymore.

I was going to pass out. This was it. Abram would die out there without me, and I would lay helpless in some hospital until the other beast found me and drained every drop of blood from my body.

This shit never would have happened in New York. But I wasn’t in New York anymore.

***

I woke slowly, aching and with the worst headache I had ever experienced. The lights on the ceiling, bright and white, buzzed the way only hospital or school lights ever did.

I knew where I was. I could feel it in the uncomfortable bed and paper thin gown that scraped against my skin. I could hear it in the steady rhythm of a heart monitor. I could see it in the plain white walls and the dry erase board that displayed my name and condition.

Charisse Bellamy: Shock

The patient is to confined to bed rest

and remain under constant supervision.

Looking forward, I saw that ‘constant supervision’ took the form of an officer standing guard outside of the door. At least he didn’t seem to be very attentive. His head was slouched forward and an awkward angle.

I sighed as loudly as my sore throat would allow. Lulu was slouched over and sleeping on the chair adjacent to my bed. We were in the hospital. Her newborn was probably a unit or two away, and here she was with me. Guilt clawed its way up my chest.

“They’re all asleep.”

The voice startled me. Jumping, I turned back. I didn’t see her before, but Satina, still trapped in the body of the first missing girl, stood at the foot of the bed, flipping through my chart nonchalantly.

“Lulu?” I asked. “She’s the only one here.”

“It’s amazing what they’ve done with parchment in the last two hundred years,” she mused. “This would have all been done by quill in my day, and without near the penmanship. I’ll tell you that much.”

“You have to help me,” I said. “You have to get me out of here.”

“Do I?” she asked, arching her borrowed eyebrows.

“Abram is in trouble,” I said quietly. “He’s hurt, and the entire town is looking for him, not to mention that other beast. Have you told them the truth about yourself, about who you are? Maybe that’ll help them understand.”

“And why would I do that?” She shook her head. “So that I can spend the rest of this shell’s life beating against padded walls? No, thank you. It was hard enough dodging the police without a scene. I’d rather ride it out. I hear something called ‘spring break’ is right around the corner.”

“But Abram!” I said with tears in my eyes.

“Is halfway to whatever country now borders this one if he has the sense God gave a common house flea.”

“N-no,” I stammered. “He wouldn’t leave me.” I knew this was true, even though deep down, I wished what she said was true.

“Perhaps not,” Satina conceded. “But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t. There is no ‘win’ in this game, Charisse. Not for him, not for you, and certainly not for the both of you together. I know you think he loves you, and perhaps he does. But have you ever considered the idea that love, at least this love, isn’t what either of you need?”

“He’s here!” I said, much too loudly. “And he’s hurt, and I need you to help me get out of this hospital! If you want to leave after that, then so be it. But I won’t give up on him. He doesn’t deserve that.”

“When has what someone deserves ever mattered for people like us?” she shot back. “Listen to me, Supplicant. You need to leave, and not with a beast in tow. You need to run somewhere where you can fit in. Become a waitress, dye your hair. Blend in. Just don’t stick out, certainly not the way being in league with someone like Abram would force you to.”