And drove it into my stomach.
My eyes snapped up to his, welling with tears at the pain, at the betrayal. I couldn't understand, it didn't make sense, he was my friend…
But there was nothing of Vann in those blue eyes, no amusement or scorn or cheekiness. There was no smirk on his face. The keepers had done something to him. The doctor had done something to him.
"Vann, please," I begged, praying there was still a part of my friend left.
But he didn't even blink at my plea before he ripped the knife out of me and watched dully as I clasped a hand to the pouring wound in my stomach. The pain sent me to my knees with a visceral thud.
I knew enough about killing someone to know it was a fatal wound. And as Vann lifted the knife again, I knew he wasn't anywhere near done hurting me.
25
The room wavered and dipped around me as I fell onto my back and stared at the ceiling, my stinging eyes following the crooked path of a crack caused by the explosion. Heat razed through my belly and back until I screamed, and an answering roar sounded through the room. Or through my imagination. Was it wishful thinking, another dream that someone would rush in on a shining white horse and save me?
I knew it must have been when Vann stood above me, looking down as I cried and screamed. His face was so empty, so cruel. It felt like I'd been stabbed again.
I tried to push off the floor, but searing pain sent me crashing back to the ash-covered boards and I lay there uselessly as another face peered at me, terrifyingly familiar. The Origin.
No one knew how many monsters she'd killed, or what exactly she was capable of. All we knew was she was the first monster hunter, and she experimented on herself—and her children—until she made the perfect weapon.
"Disappointing," she said, pursing her lips. Her severe white chignon made her look like a bird of prey, all sharp, predatory angles. Did I look like her, at least in bits and pieces? I hoped I didn't.
"Fuck," I choked out between screams, "you."
Her mouth thinned. "This behaviour is why you were always a terrible weapon."
I laughed, tight and twisted. If Vann could laugh while he bled to death, so could I.
I pressed my hand limply to my stomach, as if I could hold all the blood inside me.
"What should I do with her now?" Vann asked, meeting my pained, frantic stare with an emptiness that scared me. What had theydoneto him?
"You can back the fuck off for one," a new voice snarled, and my whole body jolted. Pain gathered in my chest, seeming to ebb away from my back to make my heart squeeze as painfully tight as possible. Mav…? "I've got you, firecracker, just hold on."
"Perfect timing," the Origin replied instead of Vann. "I've been itching to kill a monster all day."
"Try it, lady," Mav hissed, and shadows streaked over my head, knocking the Origin out of my line of sight. "See what fucking happens."
"So vulgar," the Origin replied, sounding far angrier than I'd heard before.
The pain in my chest stabbed deeper, reaching my stomach, and I gasped, clenching my teeth against a whimper. Tears streamed down my face, and drawing a breath was suddenly hard, but I grabbed onto Mav's words and let his presence fill me with strength.
Just hold on.
I wasn't alone. He was here. Everything would be okay now.
Except the Origin was here, and the keepers and weapons were waiting on her command, and Vann was … not Vann. Not dead, but nothing like the man I knew.
Another gasp tore my throat when the heat in my stomach flared higher, stabbing with needles of fire. My eyes were wide, my body flopping uselessly on the ground with every spasm of torture. But Mav stood over me, and when another burst of inky shadow streaked over me, I realised he had a void gun propped on his shoulder.
The armoury … we were still surrounded by weapons. If I could crawl somehow to the overturned tables, and get a gun, or even a knife…
I braced my body to roll over and crawl on my belly, but before I could move, the heat flashed unbearably in my stomach and then—vanished. I choked out a breathy sound when I realised the pain disappeared with it. I could breathe andthink.
My blurry vision cleared, and the weight of pain left my body until I could flex my fingers again, until I could move.
"You okay, Hala?" Mav asked, firing another rush of void at the Origin—a warning shot, I realised. Why wasn't he properly shooting her?