Eventually, Cassie heard a strangled gasp behind her. Isabella, still with Jake in her protective arms, was staring in disbelief at the lifeless form of Katerina.
‘Is … is she … dead?’
Cassie couldn’t answer; her mouth was too dry, her breath stuck in her windpipe. Ranjit took a step towards Katerina’s immobile body, but then halted.
She had begun to move again.
The silver-blonde hair seemed to shine brighter than ever as Katerina’s neck turned, nightmarishly, almost experimentally. Again the head turned, to face the other way and smile at Marat. The porter seemed frozen, ecstatic, his breath caught in wonder. Facing forward once more, Katerina lifted her chin, then touched her cheeks gently with her hands.
A manicured nail found the vicious scar that Cassie had put on her cheekbone. Katerina frowned, drew a line along it with her fingertip, and the scar faded, and vanished.
She tilted her now-perfect face, and bestowed her evil smile on Isabella.
‘Dead?’ she murmured. ‘Why, Miss Caruso. I’m only just getting started.’
CHAPTER TWENTY
‘K-Katerina?’ whispered Cassie as the girl got smoothly to her feet.
‘Yes. And no. But mostly no.’ The voice coming from Katerina’s mouth was otherworldly, reverberating around the walls like rumbling thunder. Closing her eyes, Katerina raised her hands and gave a smile that was bursting with unbearable bliss. ‘Katerina Svensson was a faithful disciple. She has given her body to host me, for which I am grateful. Though my host matters not. Subjugation will begin soon, and none shall surpass me.’
‘She’s …’ Ranjit put his hands to his head. ‘She’s … The Eldest is in Katerina … ?’
Her face flicked round to him, grinning. ‘I still feel her. But she is now…me.’
Richard was breathing hard as he took a step forward. And another. ‘My God. Katerina.’
‘No. Don’t make me repeat myself.’ The voice was a dangerous, rumbling hiss. ‘Katerina Svensson is gone.’
Perfect lips drew back from white teeth, back further than was natural. The teeth grew jagged, and sleek sinewy muscles coiled and flexed under reptilian skin. Those crystal-blue eyes glowed with unearthly light, but it wasn’t the usual scarlet Few light that Cassie knew so well: this piercing radiance was emerald-green, brimming with hate and ancient hunger.
Cassie had seen Katerina before in her monstrous form, but this wasn’t it. It was far more terrifying. Cassie hadn’t thought that was possible.
‘And yet her form is perfect,’ murmured the Eldest, stroking Katerina’s slender arms. ‘Perfect. In this host I shall be beautiful, deadly, unstoppable. Naturally I won’t stop with her, but she is the best of beginnings.’
Cassie staggered to her feet, feeling strength begin to trickle back to her body at last as the spirit inside her rallied. And too late. She breathed hard through her clenched teeth. ‘Wh-what do you mean, you won’t stop?’
‘I am hungry, Cassandra Bell. So very hungry, after so many centuries. I must feed, and feed again, on the strongest spirits and the strongest mortals.’ She gave an elegant shrug, flexing her fingers. ‘Then the weak ones will be all the easier to dominate. I shall … farm them as I take their world.’
‘They’ll stop you. We’ll all stop you,’ Isabella shouted, tightening her arms around the prostrate Jake. ‘The world isn’t like you remember it, you ugly creature. Even us mortals have weapons now.’
‘I’m sure you do. I shall look forward to such a game. Perhaps you’ll destroy each other, and save me the trouble. Now.’ Curled talons beckoned to each of them in turn. ‘Which of you will be the first to submit?’ snarled the Eldest.
‘In your dreams, Dark One.’ Ranjit’s sharp teeth were bared now too, and his eyes blazed. With no more warning, he flung himself at the monster.
The Eldest responded almost casually. Ranjit rebounded from her fist, giving a cry of pain and rage as his body skidded back. The Eldest stalked past him towards Isabella and Jake.
‘NO!’
Cassie sprang at the Eldest now, feeling her own teeth bare like a wolf’s. The Eldest turned to her, looking irritated, and even as Cassie lashed out with her fists and teeth and feet, she knew she was making no impression on the hideous creature. Languid claws raked her side and she screamed and fell back. Ranjit caught her, and they rose together to face the oncoming monster.
But before they could do anything else, a burst of light and a colossal surge of power flung them back again, stunning them to the ground. Catching Ranjit’s eye, she saw the twisted Few features fade, and he was a young man again, scared, but determined. And angry. Just like her. But what could they do?
I think we’re going to die together, Ranjit …
Cassie felt herself lifted by unseen hands, then thrown hard to the ground so that the air was bashed out of her lungs. Dimly, she knew the same was happening to Ranjit; she could hear his ragged attempts to suck in one more lungful of oxygen, and then she was gasping too. Crawling towards him, she reached for his hand, but yet again they were torn apart and sent slamming into opposite walls. Cassie fell at Marat’s feet; she caught his grin of satisfaction.
The Eldest was a looming shape above her. ‘Katerina didn’t like you, did she?’ The voice was mocking. ‘I can sense it.’
‘Both of you can go to hell,’ she mumbled through the blood in her mouth. ‘If Katerina isn’t there already.’