Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
But it’s not without consequence. It’s a double-edged sword, tearing as much into my soul, this haunting pain, one that feels like it could end me if I stare at it too long. I let the agony take over until I hear Syphor crying out.
Though it has no form, I sense it thrashing about in this psychological space we share. My pain makes me acutely aware of his, this terror I’m able to enflame with my own, stinging to the point where I think I can’t bear it, and then I keep going even more.
“You, get out!” I command, and it’s like a fucking bomb goes off before everything goes dark again.
When I open my eyes, Alexei is on his knees in front of me. “Matteo, please. Come on. Come on, man.”
“Matteo, I said you can move,” I hear Seth push.
I gasp for air, searching around, as disoriented as the first time I did this.
A sound echoes through the room, and Alexei turns back. Over his shoulder, I see Finnegan vomiting black goo on the cement floor. Seth stands beside him, at the bar, his arms around Cody, cradling him.
“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” Seth says as he watches Finnegan ejecting the entity from his body. Keeping his eyes on Finnegan, he nestles his face against Cody’s head.
Brad and Luke hurry to Finnegan’s side as Alexei’s attention returns to me. “Are you okay? What happened?”
I blink a few times, noticing the frats around us, standing like statues, frozen in place from Seth’s push.
We did it.
We’re alive.
I wrap my arms around Alexei, tugging him close.
“I thought that bastard was gonna kill you,” I say, tears welling in my eyes as I cling to him, cherishing a moment that, had things gone any differently, we may never have had again. I pull back to kiss the side of his face, and he kisses my cheek before we share a tongue-filled embrace.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I don’t even know whom I’m thanking. Maybe just the goddamn universe for not letting it end like this.
24
ALEXEI
I could feel myself desperately clinging to consciousness as a flash of terror gripped me. Not only because I was certain I was gonna die, but so would Matteo and the Sinners.
I wondered if that creature possessing Finnegan would hide my body. If there would be another search my family would have to endure. Another lingering question in their lives. I doubted they’d ever be able to get to a truth I had a hard enough time understanding myself.
After Finnegan’s first vomiting bout, there was an eerie silence as the Alpha Alpha Mus came to, trying to work out what the hell happened. Finnegan, now lying on the floor with Brad and Luke on their knees with him, vomits some more of that black tar, and Preston drops to his knees before him.
“What the fuck is going on?” one of the frat guys asks.
Seth glances around like he’s trying to figure out what the hell to push on everyone, when Preston jumps in. “You guys never got too drunk before? Everyone get back to bed. Nothing to see here.”
“Yeah,” Seth adds, “you just came down because you heard him throwing up. Now go to bed.” After he gives the command, he leans over Cody, like between what he pushed before and that, he’s run out of strength.
The Alpha Alpha Mus take a moment, like they’re trying to process what he said, then obey his instructions, leaving just the Sinners and Saints in the basement.
When the coast is clear, Seth asks, “Do any of you assholes know what Cody took?”
“It was a spell,” Spencer answers. “To make it easier for Syphor to jump inside him.”
“This is my fault,” Preston says. “Finn, are you okay?”
Finnegan trembles, tears sliding down his face as he curls in a fetal position.
“It’s okay, I got you, man,” Preston assures him with a sensitivity I haven’t seen from him before, especially not while he’s been controlled by Syphor.
“I’m calling the paramedics,” Matteo says.
*
Seth looms over Cody’s hospital bed, Matteo, Brad, Luke, and I camped out in surrounding chairs, waiting for him to wake.
It’s been a little over two hours since the paramedics arrived at Alpha Alpha Mu. We had a fairly plausible story. Two guys at a frat getting too drunk, and given that they both wound up passed out, between that and the black smudge across the basement floor, it was concerning enough to get them to take the guys to the hospital. We’ve been waiting, only a few rooms down from the Saints.
The door handle to the room clicks before it opens. Preston and Gage come in, and I have no doubt Gage is accompanying him in case one of us loses our shit. The guys don’t look like they did hours earlier when they were so hostile, ready to kill us. They’re tired, their expressions rife with guilt.