Chapter 288
Bonnie, the same little girl I had gathered in my arms and rescued from the “bad men” the night before, the child who had clung to me, crying, calling for her mother, stood in a pool of blood near Faye, the same pink gown the doctor had gotten out of the closet for her to take home with her splattered in crimson. In fact, there was so much of the substance, the little girl was covered in it. It ran down her chin, off of her fingers, out of her hair. She was just shoving one of those chubby little digits into her mouth when she saw me. Her face lit up with a wide smile that showed perfectly normal teeth.
I could see that Faye was breathing, just like the other Guardians we’d seen in the hallway, but she looked worse than any of them. As I took a step forward, I signaled for Tara to stay behind me, and Dax stepped between us, but part of me wanted to trust Bonnie, to believe she wouldn’t hurt friends of mine. I still couldn’t quite grasp what role she had played in this. “Bonnie,” I said in a whisper, “are you okay?”
“You came to see me!” The child was delighted as she turned toward me, and seeing her face light up would’ve been great, if she hadn’t been a bloody mess.
“No….” Faye was trying to sit up, trying to warn me, but she couldn’t get anything out except, “No, Cass….”
In my head, I tried to reason through what might’ve happened. Did the adult Vampires do this? Was Bonnie simply sampling their leftovers “Are you hurt, Bonnie?” I asked, even though I knew she wasn’t capable of bleeding so none of this blood was hers. I wondered if she’d gotten caught up in anything that had gone on here.
“I knew you’d come back,” she said, ignoring my question and running to me.
I couldn’t help but kneel down and wrap my arms around her, even though she was covered in blood. I stashed my Glock in the back of my waistband and held her for a moment before I asked, “What happened, Bonnie?”
“The bad men,” she said, her eyes growing wide. Her pupils darkened, and her eyes took on a red glow. “The bad men came.”
“What?” I asked, trying to figure out who she could be talking about. Did she mean the Vampires? Surely she wouldn’t call them that, unless she’d seen what happened to Faye. Had there been Guardians in here? I assumed that’s what she meant. “No, honey. Not bad men. Good men.” I should’ve tried to explain it to her yesterday, but we were both so upset. I couldn’t blame her for being scared of them.
Her eyes narrowed now, going almost black as she said, “No. Bad. Very bad.” Her pale skin seemed to glow in the dim light.
“We are here to help you, Bonnie,” I said, keeping my voice even. I saw the changes overcoming her and thought they were from fear. I had easily been able to contain her the day before, so I wasn’t frightened of her at all. I should’ve been.
Her fangs protruded, and they were much longer and sharper than I would’ve expected, much deadlier looking than my own. What had been a cherub-like face shifted, and I could see the blue veins through her translucent skin in her face and neck. “Bonnie?” I asked, studying her carefully at arm’s length. “What’s happening?”
Somehow, Faye managed to croaked out, “Cassidy… r—r—run!”
I looked at Faye and saw terror in her eyes. Suddenly, it all came together for me. It wasn’t the adult Vampires that had done this. Shifting my attention back to Bonnie’s black orbs, I could see exactly what had happened. Bonnie had done this to Faye. When Lena had said, “Get Bonnie,” she didn’t mean to help her; she meant to stop her.
It was too late—I’d figured it all out just a second too late. I had thought there was no way Bonnie would hurt me, but I was wrong. She opened her mouth wide, hissed, and threw her claws at my neck. I felt a stinging sensation at the base of my throat, but it wasn’t me she really wanted. She was just distracting me. And by the time she launched herself off of my shoulder, there was nothing I could do.
“Tara!” I screamed, and Dax tried his best to block the blur of a child Bonnie had become, but the new Guardian was like a gnat in her way as Bonnie flung herself through the air. She pushed him across the room like it was nothing, and he hit one of the toy shelves, knocking its contents across the room.
Her gun was up in time, but Tara didn’t pull the trigger fast enough. Bonnie grabbed the barrel and tossed it over her head before she tore into Tara’s shoulder, knocking her to the ground in the doorway. I was moving as fast as I could, but by the time I got there and grabbed ahold of Bonnie from behind, Tara was already bleeding from her neck and left shoulder. It didn’t look as bad as Faye or the Guardians, but it was much more serious because unlike the others, Tara could die.
It took every ounce of strength and focus I had to pull Bonnie off of my friend. We both went flying backward onto the floor, and I could no longer reach the weapon I was lying on top of. She was doing everything she could to get free of my grip, but I had to keep ahold of her if I was going to keep Tara from further injury.
Bonnie was small, but she was wiggling around so quickly, so desperately, even with my legs wrapped around her, I couldn’t contain her. Dax ran over and tried to help, but she kicked him so hard, he went flying against the wall again.
I rolled over on top of her, hoping I could pin her to the ground that way. My hands were slick with blood and I realized some of it was mine. She was scratching at my hands and wrists. It didn’t hurt at the moment, though because I was so busy trying to defeat her, trying to hold onto her until help arrived.
Sensing my weariness, Bonnie tried a tactic I never would’ve imagined. Immediately, my mind filled with pleasant images of Bonnie and Mina together. I saw a field of wildflowers, the ocean as the sun crested the horizon, horses running through a pasture.
She wanted so desperately for me to let her go, she would do anything. But I realized at that moment what a horrible mistake I had made. None of this was real. Sure, the memories probably had taken place, but all of it was a ploy, a trick. Mina had played on my sympathy to get me to bring Bonnie here—so she could do this. And like an idiot, I had fallen for it! Not only that, but I had talked my team into subjecting itself to this sort of infiltration as well.
If Tara died, it would be completely my fault.
