“Then why would you betray him like this?”
Dalton bared his teeth, and they sharpened. “I want strength. I want to be feared.”
“Why?”
“Because when you’re Mah, that’s what brings you respect. That’s what makes you strong.”
“Luca’s strong enough to control the Anubis, and he doesn’t frighten people.”
The steering wheel creaked in Dalton’s grip. “Because he’s a Cana. The Varu practically worship him. Too bad for himtheydon’t feel the same.”
“They? They who?”
“I know less about those people than the ones I’m delivering you to.”
A dark van sat on the side of the road in the distance.
“Please don’t do this.” Reese knew whoever was in that vehicle, it would be the end. “Please, please, don’t.”
“Even if I would give up my chance, I could never go back.”
“You think Johnathan will kill you?”
Dalton laughed. “I know he will.”
“I’ll ask him not to.”
“And you think he’ll listen? You think he’ll bend to your will? Because I hate to break it to you he—”
Three sharp cracks sounded off, and Dalton’s face evaporated, spraying bone and brain matter, tossing it onto the hood with glass from the shattered windshield.
“Jesus.” Reese recoiled.
Dalton kicked and flailed. The car jumped in speed. Then the brake jerked it back.
Phillips leaned in between the seats and put the car in park. The wheels locked, throwing up a cloud of dirt.
Black threads covered the hole in Dalton’s face.
Phillips put the gun to the back of Dalton’s neck and fired until his vertebrae shattered, leaving his head hanging by strings of flesh. She reached around him and unlocked the door. “Some help here, Dr. Dante. Push him out. I’ve only got one good arm right now.”
Reese shoved and Dalton toppled into a pile on the ground.
Phillips slid behind the wheel, seeming oblivious to Dalton’s remains smeared over everything. She dropped her gun into the cup holder of the console.
“Where the hell did you come from?”
“The trunk.”
Reese looked.
One of the rear seats had been pushed out, leaving an exit from the trunk.
“Why were you in the trunk?”
“Because I didn’t exactly trust your friends to not leave me there when the curs reached the farmhouse.” She put the car in park and released the brake.
The car lurched backward. Reese faced the remnants of the windshield.