Nightstruck - Jenna Black Page 0,84

opening the door between our worlds. Every death and every loss can be laid squarely at your feet. The only way to escape what you’ve done is to come with me. One day, I’ll be king of this world, and you’ll be my queen.”

“You turned my best friend into a monster, and she killed my father right in front of me. You’re delusional if you think I’m coming anywhere near you.”

Aleric shrugged. “Piper would have turned, with or without me. The night magic finds fertile ground in the weak and the selfish, and her nature left her vulnerable. Only the night can take that pain away from you, can make you whole again. Come with me. There is nothing for you here but misery. I can—”

Nothing but misery? Of course there was nothing but misery! Because Aleric had made it that way.

My hand rose with no conscious order from my brain, and I squeezed the trigger, emptying the gun into Aleric’s chest despite knowing it would have no effect. He just stood there with a condescending smile and took it.

When the gun clicked on empty, Luke strode past me and slammed the door in Aleric’s face.

“You’re through listening to him,” he said, turning all the locks.

I sat down on the floor with a thump, my legs too jellylike to hold me. I should never have taken Aleric’s bait in the first place, should have done exactly what Luke just did and slammed the door. Aleric might be able to open it again, but it would have been hard to have a conversation while we fought over the door.

Luke and I both waited in silence for Aleric to start unlocking the door again. But with Luke standing there at the ready, there was no way Aleric could get all the locks open at the same time.

“It’s only going to get worse,” Aleric called. “The Night Makers are coming, with or without your help. Fight me if you must, but in the end you’ll find that I’m right.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Luke sat me on the couch and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. As if he wasn’t being awesome enough already, he also made me a cup of cocoa and brought Bob back downstairs to cuddle up next to me. Bob’s wound had stopped bleeding, and from what I could see through his fur, it was relatively shallow. I’d still take him to the vet and have it looked at in the morning, but at least it didn’t seem to be bothering him much.

I held my cocoa in my right hand, taking cautious sips, while with my other hand I scratched behind Bob’s ears and earned his undying love. Luke sat on Bob’s other side and patted his flank.

“Guess we’ll have to find some way to block the mail slot,” he commented. “I’m sure that asshole and his friends could have done a lot worse.”

I nodded but couldn’t find my voice. I kept hearing Aleric saying Blood of your blood over and over in my mind. Whatever that not-baby was, my blood had somehow triggered its dispersal, had triggered the evil magic that had taken hold of our city. Thousands had died already, and no one had any clue how to stop what was happening.

And it was all because of me.

Luke reached over Bob and put his hand on my shoulder. “Stop that,” he said gently.

“Stop what?”

He gave me a knowing look. “Just because Aleric said it, that doesn’t mean it’s true.” If he had any doubts, he did a great job of keeping them hidden.

“He told the truth about the bullets not being able to hurt him.”

Luke looked distinctly unimpressed. “So he told the truth about something you could verify yourself. That doesn’t mean he told the truth about anything else.”

“Remember how I told you that baby thing had weirdly green eyes? I didn’t make the connection at first, but those eyes looked exactly like Aleric’s, just on a smaller scale.”

“All of the Nightstruck have the weird green eyes,” he reminded me. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

I put my cocoa down and crossed my arms over my chest, clutching the blanket tighter. The heater was doing its best to counteract the effects of having the door wide open for so long, but it would take a while for the living room to get up to a comfortable temperature again. Though I suspected much of my own chill was coming from the inside.

“Just because we don’t want to believe what he said, it doesn’t make