Night of Never Read online

  Night of Never

  Girl of Glass, Book Three

  Megan O’Russell

  Visit our website at www.MeganORussell.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  * * *

  Night of Never

  Copyright © 2019, Megan O’Russell

  Cover Art by X Potion Designs (https://www.x-potion.net/)

  Editing by Christopher Russell

  Interior Design by Christopher Russell

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Requests for permission should be addressed to Ink Worlds Press.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Escape Into Adventure

  Nola’s Journey Concludes in…

  About the Author

  Also by Megan O’Russell

  DEDICATION

  For my mother

  * * *

  Who never doubted me, even though she thinks vampires are too scary

  Night of Never

  Chapter One

  “Nola!”

  Cold. She knew only cold. Unrelenting, irredeemable cold.

  Pain grew deep within the ice.

  The cold held no power to hurt her. The pain came from something else.

  A ragged, itching ache that blossomed at the center of her stomach, tingling like a thousand bugs burrowing inside of her.

  If the bugs were going to eat her away, it would be best if they worked more quickly. If there were nothing left of her, there could be no more cold.

  Maybe.

  Maybe it will all end.

  She formed the words in her mind.

  More words existed, fighting through the fierce frost that enveloped her.

  “If we don’t move now, we’ll never make it out.”

  The words faded from her ears before she could think of their meaning.

  “She would never, not in a million years…”

  A million years. The cold will keep me for a million years.

  The pain in her stomach changed as the insects fought for territory.

  Endless nothing would be better than a million frozen years.

  “She would understand. You don’t have to do this.”

  Agony seared through her chest and shot through her spine as something wrapped around her. The torment flooded air into her lungs.

  My lungs. There’s air in my lungs. Pain in my spine.

  I’m alive.

  Nola fought to speak the words.

  I’m alive!

  No sound came. The frozen part of her that was her mouth wouldn’t move.

  “I don’t care what you want, I’m staying with her.”

  The air tasted of blood, rot, fresh earth, and something else. Something with a tinge of chemical. A scent she’d smelled before.

  Before the cold took me. Before the knife cut me.

  “I’m too damn tired to fight you. You want to follow, follow.”

  “Then let me carry her.”

  “You will not touch her again, Domer.”

  Domer.

  The word had meaning that brought pain beyond the burning in her stomach.

  She had been a Domer. Lived trapped within glass, safely hiding from the end of the world.

  Then she ran away.

  Running through the city on her own legs. Legs that now bounced uselessly as the person carrying her ran.

  Before the ice had taken her body, she’d broken out of the domes. Saved her friends from being locked in concrete cages.

  They’d gone through the abandoned tunnels of Nightland and into the city. They’d almost made it out.

  Searching for Emanuel, for wherever the vampires of Nightland had found refuge.

  But they didn’t make it. Werewolves had attacked.

  She’d fought back. But the wolf had won, driving his blade into her stomach.

  She gasped at the remembered pain. Arms tightened around her, keeping her safe.

  Nola!

  The scream had echoed from so far away, but blackness had devoured her before she could see who had screamed her name.

  Blackness. Then cold.

  Now pain.

  Pain radiating from her stomach.

  Where he stabbed me. I should have died.

  This can’t be dying. The pain is getting worse.

  A stinging, like fire blazing in her veins, pushed farther from her chest with every breath.

  “We need to find a place to rest,” a soft female voice spoke.

  T. She made it.

  Nola wanted to smile, but the notion only spread pain to her face.

  “We can keep going a little longer,” Raina said, the words close to Nola’s ear. “The first bit of sun isn’t too bad.”

  “And if you get sick from it?” Beauford said. “We can’t find Nightland without you.”

  “Too right, so keep up,” Raina said.

  They made it. They all made it.

  Thank you for not leaving me!

  “We need to find a safe place for Nola,” T said. “She’s getting paler. She lost so much blood.”

  “She’ll be fine,” Raina said. “The chemicals are changing her. That’s never a pretty process.”

  Chemicals.

  Chemicals to change me.

  Meaning came as pain bit her frozen fingers.

  ReVamp. They gave me ReVamp.

  Panic quickened Nola’s breaths. Fire surged into her arms. She needed to scream, to move, to do something to break free from the pain.

  “We need to stop,” a voice spoke from far away, the sound nearly too low for Nola to hear.

  “This is as good a place as we’re going to find,” Beauford said.

  “There’s a safe place in another mile,” Raina said.

  “The sun will be too high by then,” T said.

  “We need to stop for Nola,” the far away voice spoke again. “Changing with a wound like that doesn’t happen easily.”

  Changing. I’m changing.

  “She can hold on.”

  A creaking echoed in Nola’s ears, zapping to the center of her brain, waking up the horrible itching insects that had lain dormant in her head.

  “Hold her,” Raina said.

  Pain shot through every inch of Nola’s being as new arms cradled her.

  They’ve made me a vampire. Does it torture all of them this much? Raina, how long until the pain and cold leave me?

  Please let me speak.

  Her body wouldn’t allow her to do anything but breathe.

  “Let me—”

  “Over your dead body, Domer.”

  Thumping footsteps carried away.

  “You’re hurt.” The far away voice had come closer. “I’ll hold her.”
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  “No,” Beauford said.

  “I would never hurt her,” the voice whispered. “You have to believe that.”

  “We don’t,” T said.

  Something damp cooled Nola’s forehead.

  The fire sought the cool, racing up to destroy the comfort, boiling away Nola’s thoughts.

  “I had to save…”

  The words wobbled in and out like lapping waves of sound.

  “…didn’t need your help.”

  Flames reached Nola’s knees, pushing the hateful cold toward her feet. The ice raged, ferociously fighting back the fire.

  Let me scream.

  “We don’t even know if she wanted this, so you can’t say…”

  “Upstairs will be the best place…”

  “…what she needs anymore.”

  Embers seared the insides of Nola’s ears.

  Let me slip away. Let me fall into the black far away from pain.

  “I’m not letting her out of my sight. I’ll tear down this house if you try and keep me from her.”

  The pain in Nola’s head doubled as she fought her way to the voice.

  “If you’re dumb enough to think I’m going to let you drag her back—”

  “The domes will never take either of us back.”

  Jeremy.

  A swooping ache tore the air from Nola’s lungs.

  Jeremy here. Jeremy protecting me.

  “I’m not going to take her anywhere, but I sure as hell won’t leave her,” Jeremy said.

  Jeremy had been there. Had known the domes betrayed her. Used her to murder hundreds of people.

  Then she had taken the others and run. Run through the city. Been stabbed by the knife. Been filled with cold that turned to fire.

  “I love her. I’m going to keep her safe.”

  Traitor.

  The urge to hit him, to stop him from speaking, drove past the flames, curling her fingers into a fist.

  Pain beyond fire surged through every ounce of Nola’s body as a scream tore from her throat and blackness stole her thoughts.

  Chapter Two

  Heavy weights pressed down upon her, leaving only her face open to the cool air.

  The urge to move zinged through her fingers and toes, but the weight brought comfort. And, lying still, nothing hurt.

  Voices whispered far away. Sounds of life came from nearby as well. A squeaking floorboard as someone shifted their weight. The soft sound of someone breathing.

  Nola lay still, letting her mind arrange everything in an order that made sense. On their way to Nightland, they had been attacked. Someone had given her ReVamp to save her. They were still heading to join the vampires of Nightland, and they had stopped to wait out the daylight. Jeremy was with them.

  Nola sucked in a breath as her muscles tensed.

  “You’re awake,” Jeremy said. His voice carried from across the room where the floorboards creaked. “You can lie still for as long as you want. It’s going to take your body some time to adjust to the changes. It feels worse before it feels better.”

  Tears squeezed from the corners of Nola’s eyes. The foreign heat of them trickling past her temples gave her the courage to move her lips.

  “Worse?” The word crackled in her throat. “Worse than being encased in ice and having your whole body lit on fire.”

  Heavy bootfalls pounded across the room.

  “Don’t touch her,” T said.

  “T.” Nola’s eyelids scraped open like sandpaper, blurring her vision.

  “I’m here, Nola.” T knelt by the bed, brushing Nola’s hair away from her forehead.

  “Are you hurt? Is the baby okay?” Nola blinked, forcing her eyes to focus on T.

  The edge of the bed hid T’s stomach from view.

  “I’m fine.” Only half of T’s mouth curved as she smiled. Purple bruises covered the left half of her face, swelling her cheek past the point of movement. “The baby will be fine, too.”

  “Good.” Nola sighed.

  “Nola.” Jeremy stepped toward the side of the bed.

  “Stay back.” T didn’t look away from Nola as she spoke.

  Pain shimmered through Jeremy’s eyes as he stepped away. “I would never hurt her.”

  Dried blood speckled his dark blond hair, the shiny pink line of a cut in the final stages of healing marked his jawline. The arm of his black Outer Guard uniform had been torn. The marks of fighting weren’t as startling as the worried lines etched between his eyes.

  Nola swallowed the instinct to ask if he was okay. “What are you doing here?”

  “Protecting you,” Jeremy said.

  “From what?” Nola asked. “From T? From Raina or Beauford? I trust them. I’ll be fine with them.”

  “I—” Jeremy looked up to the ceiling. “After what I saw last night, I agree. I don’t think any of them would hurt you.”

  “Then go home,” Nola said.

  Jeremy flinched.

  The twinge of regret at her words lasted only a moment.

  “I can’t go home any more than you can, Nola,” Jeremy said. “Even if I made it as far as the glass, they’d never let me in. I betrayed them.”

  “You should drink.” T heaved Nola’s backpack onto the bed. Blood stained the material.

  “She won’t need—” Jeremy began.

  “I don’t remember asking you anything.” T dug a water bottle from the depths of the pack. She pulled back the worn gray blankets that covered Nola.

  A dark stain marked the center of Nola’s shirt, surrounding the tear in the stomach.

  Nola’s head spun, her thoughts wrenching her back to the moment the knife had plunged into her flesh.

  “Breathe, Nola,” Jeremy whispered.

  T lifted Nola’s head, gently pouring a trickle of water into her mouth. The water tasted of minerals with a hint of chemical, like someone had tried to clean the contaminates from the water by adding other contaminates.

  “Thanks, T.” Nola pushed herself up onto her elbows. Her muscles shook from the effort.

  “Careful.” Jeremy reached for her.

  “Go home, Jeremy.” Nola fell back onto her pillow. “Tell them you were trying to capture me. Tell them you killed me when it didn’t work. Your father won’t be too angry I’m dead.”

  “I doubt my father will admit to having a son anymore.”

  “Why? Because you disappeared with Vampers for a night?” Nola clenched her fists. Her fingers moved without pain, the cut on her palm from two days before had disappeared. “I’m sure you can talk your way out of it.”

  “I don’t think so.” Jeremy stepped forward.

  “Don’t touch her.” T sat on the bed, glaring at Jeremy.

  “They gave an order over the coms,” Jeremy said. “Capture if possible, kill if necessary.”

  “For who?” Nola’s heart raced, faster than a heartbeat should have been able to go.

  “For you,” Jeremy said, “and the ones you took from the domes.”

  “They wanted me dead?” Nola could picture it. Jeremy’s father, the Captain of the Outer Guard, giving the order to kill her.

  Did my mother know? Did she try and stop it?

  Nola couldn’t answer for sure. Tears coursed down her cheeks.

  “I was in a search party in the city when the order came down,” Jeremy said. “I couldn’t let them hurt you. I knocked out my partner and started looking for you on my own. I found some downed werewolves in the street. Knife wounds in each of them. I knew it had to be Raina, so I started tracking the pack. If I had gotten there a little bit sooner, I might have stopped the wolf from stabbing you.” Tears trickled down Jeremy’s cheek. “I will never forgive myself for not getting to you faster.”

  “I’m sorry,” Nola said. “You shouldn’t have—”

  “Shouldn’t have what?” Jeremy said. “Shouldn’t have come after you? Shouldn’t have saved you?”

  “Shouldn’t have given up your home for nothing,” Nola said.

  �
�You aren’t nothing, Nola. You’re everything.”

  T held up a hand as Jeremy reached for Nola again.

  “And I couldn’t go back there anyway.” Jeremy didn’t lower his hand. “They wanted you dead. My father gave the order for your murder. I could never go back to the domes.”

  “And it wasn’t for nothing.” T took Nola’s hand. “He—we weren’t sure if you wanted the ReVamp. Beauford tried to ask you, but you were already fading. The case was caught in the middle of Raina’s fight. Beauford was going to try and get it, give you the injection and screw what you wanted. But…”

  “I got there first.” Jeremy’s hands shook. “There was so much blood. You wouldn’t open your eyes. I gave you the shot before Beauford managed to get near Raina’s case of ReVamp.”

  “A shot of what?” Nola pushed herself to sit up, ignoring the swaying of the room. “Jeremy, a shot of what?”

  “Graylock,” Jeremy said. “I had a triage kit on my belt. You were bleeding out. I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “Graylock?” Nola looked to T. “He gave me Graylock?”

  “He betrayed the domes as much as you ever have,” T said. “Raina’s furious he didn’t wait for Beauford to give you the ReVamp.”

  “Graylock is better.” Jeremy dragged his hands over his hair. Flecks of dried blood drifted to the ground. “Nola is healed and can still go out in the sun, eat food, and—”

  “And is stuck with dome medicine coursing through her body,” T said.

  “I saved her life, which is what you were trying to do,” Jeremy said.

  “No. We’re her friends. We were making a decision for her she had been too scared to make for herself. You weren’t there when we asked Nola if she’d prefer death over being a vampire.” T’s cheeks flushed as she spoke. “You betrayed her, chased her through the city, and made the decision to drug her. Maybe you love her and wanted to save her life, maybe you just felt guilty for being such a screw up. Either way, sticking her with that needle is the last decision you’ll be making on Nola’s behalf.”