I raced around the curve of the wall, catching sight of Richard and his flashlight beam coming from the opposite direction.
With Richard here, the two of us could save Poppy.
Richard cast his light to and fro, searching.
Poppy stood with her back flat against a wall, terrified.
Someone leapt from the darkness, knife in hand. They plunged the knife deep into Poppy’s side. Poppy screamed.
The assailant glanced my way.
Kara.
Confused, I cried out for her to stop. She’d mistaken Poppy for a killer.
But Kara pulled out the knife and held its tip to Poppy’s throat. “Come closer, and I’ll slice her veins.”
Richard stopped short. “What the hell are you doing?”
Kara looked back to me again. “Walk past me. We’re going this way.”
“Please, Kara,” I begged. “Why are you doing this?”
Poppy moaned, clutching her side, dark blood staining her top. “Get this psycho away from me . . .”
“Do it,” Kara ordered me, her Southern accent steely, digging the knife into Poppy’s throat.
I obeyed, stepping around her and up to Richard.
Cormack came running up behind Richard, panting. “Thank God. I lost Kara and couldn’t find—” His words gagged in his throat as he drew close enough to see. “What . . . ?”
“Your girlfriend just stabbed Poppy in cold blood,” Richard told him.
“Cormack, I had to do this,” Kara told him.
“This is why you ran away from me?” Cormack’s face was white. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Who the hell are you?”
“Please don’t ask any more questions. Just keep walking. The way I tell you to,” Kara told him, her eyes hard.
“No.” Cormack shook his head. “You give me that knife and go. I don’t care what happens to you after that.”
Poppy moved her head to one side as Kara moved the knife lightly over her neck. “One cut and she’s dead. See this vein? If I slice it, the blood will spurt so far and fast she’ll lose three pints before you can blink. Her heart will race in a desperate attempt to pump blood through her body. Another blink, and her blood pressure will drop and her small blood vessels will go into survival mode, trying to do the job of the heart. But it will be too late.”
“Please,” Poppy whispered to us, her eyes wide and terrified. “Help me.”
I tried to rush to her, but Richard pinned me against the wall. “She’ll try to kill you, too. She’s one of them.” He stared at Kara, dropping his hold on me. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? The killers.”
“Please,” I begged Kara. “Let me wrap up her injuries.”
Kara shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
My knees went slack as I leaned against the wall. “You . . . you were trying to set me up. From that time I met you in the casino. That Wilson guy is behind this thing, isn’t he?”
Kara refused to answer.
My breaths were ragged in my throat as I turned to Richard. “But if she is one of them and she knows her way through the walls, then the other killers do too. We’re sitting ducks in here. We have to get out.”
“You did a good job of pretending,” Cormack accused her. “You had me fooled.”
“I didn’t fool you,” Kara said to Cormack calmly. “I told you that I can’t be with you. I told you I’m not what you see.”
“I never thought you could be this.” Cormack’s lower lip trembled, and his teeth set hard together.
Kara’s flat expression remained unchanged. “Well, I am this. I’ve always been this. We need to hurry now. We’ve wasted too much time already.”
“We can’t trust you now,” Cormack told her. “Not after what you’ve done.”
“The people you call the killers will be here soon,” she said. “You have one chance. I’ll take you down to the shore.”
“She’s going to kill us all.” Poppy’s voice grew ragged, breathy. “That’s what you plan to do, isn’t it?”
I could hear my own heartbeat in the moments that followed, the air disturbed but silent as Kara refused to answer.
“Kara, who are you?” Cormack demanded, his voice as hoarse as it was broken. “Who are the killers? You owe us at least that much.”
“Yeqon’s Saviours,” she answered.
The sound of feet echoed in the passageway.
Kara turned her head sharply.