Cian

With Nick gone to make final preparations, I paced the floor of the prison-like room in distress. He'd taken my cell phone a long time ago, so I had no way to dial up Lucie's number and tell her what I knew. She, Vinny, and Caprice all had to be long gone by now, and it's not like I could just walk out, at least not without making things worse.

I frowned at the bare floors underneath me. There had to be some way I could communicate with someone, anyone. The Order had to stop this, and in order to, they needed to know what this was. Otherwise, San Francisco and the world soon after would belong to the demons.

I shuddered at the thought of it.

"Come on, Cian," I ordered myself, not caring if it made me look crazy, "think. Think."

I collapsed down on the bed with an exhale, scrutinizing the ceiling, as if it held any sort of answer. The light from the ceiling fan filtered down within the windowless room, glinting off the IV needle that had been in my arm just a day ago, illuminating the scalpel just beside it—

I tensed.

A scalpel. Why hadn't I seen it before?

I slowly pulled myself to a sitting position, examining the surgical tool, wondering if this was my only choice. If I did this, it would be sending Caprice a vision; her heart would stop, and she'd know something was wrong. On the other hand, it could very well kill me.

I decided I had no other choice.

I reached for the tool, trying not to throw up when I saw the keenness of its blade, how easily it could end my life if the right artery was sliced. One moment there, the next moment, bleeding out against the floor.

Swallowing, I pressed its edge to the inside of my wrist. I winced—it was a cool, perilous kiss against my pulse, a nonverbal threat, an inauspicious promise. The last time I'd felt this had been when the demon venom had been coursing its way through every inch of me; it was one of the things I hated most about death. It was that undefeatable feeling of danger, that wavering knowledge that you were at the precipice between the known and the unknown. It was the thought that this breath could be your last.

I dug the blade in.

I gritted my teeth as blood began to pool, bright crimson against pallid skin. It wasn't enough. I dragged it down my forearm, and the blood followed, a blooming trail of red. I bit down on my lip to stifle my screams, hard enough to split the skin. The pain was agonizing, my skin searing and stinging.

The scalpel clattered against the floor, spattered with my blood. I had to get back to the hallway; it was where she'd sent Lucie and Vinny, so it had to be where she'd go, provided she'd got the vision.

I prayed that she had.

I wrestled the pillowcase off one of the bed's pillows, wrapping it tightly around my bleeding arm. Still wincing, I climbed to my feet and peered out into the hall. It was clear: Nick was nowhere to be found, and neither was Rae. They all had to be busy preparing for tomorrow, which was a bad thing because, you know, demons, but a good thing for me at the moment, because it meant I could go undetected.

I slipped from the room, away down the shadowy corridor.

I was there for twenty minutes before Caprice showed up.

She found me leaned back against the wall in the dark, shuddering and grimacing, the white pillowcase now stained red. The bleeding hadn't stopped yet, but had at least slowed to a trickle. Regardless, I was beginning to feel lightheaded, my skin clammy and pale.

"Oh my—" Caprice cut off, proceeding to recite a string of curses that ended in a whole lot of sizzling. She ended it with, "You idiot! You actual idiot! You could have—"

"Died?" I finished for her. "Yes, I know. What else was I supposed to do? It got you here, didn't it?"

Caprice pouted her full lips, her dark eyes regarding mine with an undying sense of authority. She folded her arms. "Mission accomplished, I guess, if it was your goal to make my heart stop and therefore cause me to drop my martini."

"You really need to stop day drinking."

"You are in no place to tell me what to do, little one," she scolded, then sighed, kneeling before me. Producing a first aid kit from her pocket, she said, "I saw all the blood in my vision. I brought some gauze, and antiseptic."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Gee. Thanks, Dr. Martinez."

"May I?" she asked with a roll of her eyes, and I nodded, holding my arm out towards her. As she began tearing open a pack of gauze, she said, "So I imagine you have bad news for me. Urgent bad news."

"Unfortunately—ow. Gentle, woman, gentle!" I ordered. Her nails were digging into the incision, drawing more blood and simultaneously more pain on my end. She blew a raspberry at me, but lightened up.

"Tell me," she said. "We don't have long before Nick notices you're not in your room."

"He's doing it tomorrow."

Caprice paused, the gauze halfway wrapped around my arm. "It?"

"He's opening the gate, Caprice," I finished. "He's opening it and he's opening it tomorrow. You have to tell the Order, Caprice; you have to stop this."

She finished bandaging me and sat back on her heels, hiding her face in her hand. "Goodness. This is more than bad news, it's, like, horrible news, Cian. I'll—I'll tell them, okay? We'll take care of this. You get back to—"

I reached out and grabbed her arm. She had started to get up, but I halted her, and she looked back at me over her shoulder. Her expression was undeniably stunned. "Little one?" her tone was wary.

"In case you don't," I said. "In case you don't stop this. In case you can't stop this...please get my brother and Lucie out of here. Tell them to leave San Francisco, and tell them I'll call them as soon as I can."

Caprice's eyes were wide, and I could see the pity in them, not a factor I often saw with a woman like her. "Cian..."

"Please, Caprice. I want them safe, even if it's just for a little while. Make sure they leave here before tomorrow. Get them out of the city—both of them."

Caprice watched me as I released her arm, twisting her mouth a little. "You know they're not going to want to leave you. Neither of them will."

"They never do," I agreed, "but they are the most important people in the world to me. If nothing else, I want them to be okay. Promise me, Caprice. Promise me you'll make them leave."

She scrubbed her hands across her jeans, closed her eyes, then nodded.

"Okay, little one," she said. "I promise."