grabbed her shoulders to drag her back from the edge. "What the hell are you doing?"
She took in a deep breath. Her head hurt a little. "Looking," she said, and coughed. It hurt. "Sorry. This way."
Moving away from the chasm seemed to make her feel better, though she now had a kind of odd, twisting nausea inside, and she wanted to breathe deeper and deeper, even though she wasn't tired. Claire focused on each step, every careful movement. She heard someone stumble behind her, and Frank Collins's quiet curse.
And then she heard West cough, an explosively loud sound. "Sorry," West said, but then she coughed again, and again, and when Claire looked back she saw that the tall vampire woman was hunched over, hands on her thighs.
She was retching up blood.
It was in that moment that Claire realized that something was very, very wrong. It seemed obvious now, but she wasn't sure why she hadn't understood before. Her brain didn't seem to be working quite right. Her vision swam in and out of focus, and now Oliver was coughing, too, deep, tearing sounds that left him gasping and wiping his mouth. Claire caught the red glimmer of blood.
Frank was now coughing, too.
Claire suddenly felt it hit her, too, the ripping pain in her lungs, the overwhelming convulsion. She gasped, instinctively pulled in a breath, and coughed. And kept coughing.
Gas. It was gas. For some reason, the vampires were more susceptible to it; maybe it was attacking them through the skin, or it just took less to make them sick. Michael was gagging now, and Eve and Shane were starting to choke, too.
Claire staggered from the force of her coughing, and almost fell. Oliver lunged and caught her, then lost his grip as he coughed again; she wavered, perilously close to the edge of a big, dark abyss that was--she now realized--spewing out some kind of toxin. She tried to hold her breath, but couldn't do it for long. It felt like she couldn't get enough air. She heard herself making gasping noises, like a fish out of water. Her head hurt, badly, and she just needed air. . . .
Claire felt hot and sick and scared and dying, but it came to her with sudden, brutal clarity that she had to get them out of there. She was the only one who could do it, the only one who knew the path. They weren't far from the exit to the cavern; she couldn't see it, but she knew it was there. It was right behind that outcropping of quartz--a quick left turn would put them on solid rock, and then they'd be out.
She had to get them there.
She reached back and grabbed Oliver's hand. It was wet; she didn't know if that was blood, and she didn't look. "Hold hands!" she shouted, and plunged ahead, not bothering to test the rock anymore. If it broke, it didn't really matter. Being careful was going to get them all killed.
She didn't know if everyone was linked together, but she couldn't wait. She only knew the feel of the stone beneath her feet, the hot, burning pressure in her lungs, the throb of pain in her head. The unreal glow of the flashlight reflecting back white from quartz and gray from stone and disappearing into the black . . .
She couldn't feel her feet now, but she couldn't stop. Claire lurched forward, dragging on Oliver's hand to pull him with her, and jumped across a two-foot-wide black chasm, landing badly and nearly sprawling. She felt the cool, blowing pressure of the gas rippling her clothes as she passed over the pit. Oliver's hand almost ripped free from hers, but she pulled, and he made it. As soon as he was across he turned and yanked Shane over, who pulled Michael, who pulled Eve, who pulled Frank.
West.
Where was West?
Claire spotted her, standing a dozen feet behind them, staggering. Blood was a black mask on her face, and as Claire watched, West dropped the bow she'd been carrying, and fell to her knees.
She pitched forward, into the darkness.
Frank lunged, trying to get to her, but Oliver held him back. With his other hand, Oliver shoved Claire in the opposite direction. She hated him right then, hated him badly enough to push him in, too, but she knew what he was doing.
He was saving their lives.
She plunged on. They were on the path now, and even though she was coughing helplessly, even though it felt like