by Richard Amos
Greg snorted. “Charming.”
“So, what about that kiss with Bliss?”
Greg told her what he’d told me. Rose came back in with the food and joined in the discussion about the werewolf woman, saying how she wished Randy would kiss her like that.
“Can he hear you?” I asked.
“I hope so!”
I chuckled and the bedroom door opened.
“Dean,” I said.
His normally quiffed black hair was in as much of a state as Nay’s. He rubbed his eyes. “Hi.” God, he looked so damned cute and needy.
Rose went to work, performing her tea and bacon sandwich magic. She was one awesome goblin.
Dean sat next to Nay, and she ruffled his hair. “You did good, fae-man.”
He chuffed. “I could murder a cigarette.”
“Want me to open the window?” Rose popped her head in. “I don’t mind.”
He shook his head. “I lost my fags back there. But thanks anyway.”
“Probably better for your lungs,” Nay added.
“Probably.” His eyes came up to meet mine.
I’d never done well with boys. Getting married was a massive deal for me, the odds of it happening like winning the lottery. But it’d happened. And I’d fucked it up. I’d not really sown my wild oats, as they say. There’d been offers, close calls, and two one-night stands that had really hurt me. That’s what happens when you expect so much from sex. I would often wish to be more detached, really zoned in on the pleasure of it all rather than the emotions. But it wasn’t me, I couldn’t do it. Maybe I was too obsessive. It drove Michael nuts, so no maybe about it.
Staring into Dean’s eyes, I was breathless. Michael had taken my breath away, but not like this. Every inch of me was sparking with wonder, wanting to fall into his arms and let him run his hands over those sparks. Why did my head have to spin like this? Love was so messy, and I didn’t know if I could take it.
Love?
Whatever. I was feeling something that wasn’t just lust. I loved the way he wanted to rescue me, be at my side in a fight. The others were too, but there was something in the way he did it that made me feel like his.
What the hell? I wasn’t his! What was that shit about? Gah!
He blinked and looked away. His attention was on Rose and the bacon sandwich.
“Thanks,” he said to her.
Damn the butterflies.
Fed and watered, we were getting ready to leave. Greg was hotwiring a car in the underground car park with Dean to take us back up to the north of the city.
Nay was filling Karla in on everything.
“The back streets are the only way now,” Rose said. She shook her head. “Those poor people on the overpass.”
I crouched down to her level and took her small hands in mine. “We’ll stop her. I promise.”
“I wish you’d let us come, Jake.”
“There’s no way I’m letting you go into the beast realm. You’ve done so much for us.”
“At least make the werewolves go with you.”
“They have their people to look after.”
“We’re all each other’s people.”
“I know, Rose. But Ashwood got hit hard. Sabrina needs her wolves to take care of business there.”
She sniffed and nodded. “I know.”
“Anyway, it’s all about the stealth.”
She touched a small hand to my cheek. “Our beautiful weapon.”
“Thanks.”
“You really are.”
“You’re making me blush.”
“I love your bashfulness.”
I really did blush then.
She giggled and returned to serious-face quickly. “Be safe. Please, be safe.”
“I will be.”
“Greg’s ready, babe,” Nay said.
“Okay. Time for us to go. Thank Randy for us.” The grumpy goblin was in the bedroom.
“He cares,” she said, “in his own stupid way.”
I nodded. “See ya.”
“Bye.”
Nay and I left the flat, hurrying down the stairwell to the underground car park where Greg had got a black SUV fired up.
We hopped in the back and took off into the streets.
Chapter Sixteen
Half an hour later, we were back in the north of the city, taking a road round to the industrial quarter.
I glanced up at the destroyed underpass in the distance. If only we’d come this way the first time, maybe we could’ve prevented this.
I sighed. Idiot! What the hell would going down this alternative road do? Absolutely sod all is what! The giants had been dishing out the carnage before our arrival.
Waiting for me …
I cracked my knuckles, resisting a chew-fest.
“We’re here,” Greg said.
We arrived at the industrial quarter—a maze of fences, cooling towers, factories and warehouses. Just how I remembered it. Within the maze of warehouses and factories, there was the old sugar factory where I’d killed Crystal. I shuddered at the memory of her, at the way she would murder her victims.
Greg drove through the massive industrial estate, taking left and rights as a man who knew where he was going.
My sparks ignited, and I gasped as the force hit me. It pulled the breath from my lungs, then shoved it back in. I coughed, muscles tensing. Bloody hell! It was a wallop of energy. My head whipped back, and I choked.
“Babe!” Nay cried. “What is it?”
Greg stopped the car. “What the fuck?”
It passed as suddenly as it’d come, though my sparks were still active. I gulped lungful after lungful of air, the tightness of my muscles loosening.
I lifted my head. Dean was leaning over from the passenger seat. “What happened?”
“Jake?” Nay asked.
“I …” I needed a moment to catch my breath.
“Nothing outside,” Greg said. “That I can see, anyway.”
“It’s … this place,” I managed. Green light flooded my skin. My breath came back. “Bloody hell. This place … it’s this place … the energy.”
“The beast gates,” Dean said.
“Yeah.” I blew out a breath and explained the sensation.
“Good to move?” Greg asked.
“Yes.”
He got the vehicle moving.
I didn’t know what to really expect, but it wasn’t the shimmering rainbow before me. It was so … pretty, iridescent and welcoming, a glowing bubble of fun that looked nothing like a gate. It lit the rain into a curtain of color.
“What is this shit?” I snapped. “Some sort of trick. What’s wrong with a traditional, creepy metal gate covered in rotten ivy?”
Nay laughed lightly.
We stood there in a line, the vehicle parked in the shadows. Every inch of me buzzed with energy, with bloodlust. This was the hub of all those I could devour. And it pushed against me, a cold weight on my chest.
Fuck you …
I pushed back.
Greg had the rocket launcher strapped to his back like it was nothing. He’d insisted we needed it now that there were dragons and giants to deal with. It didn’t look like much on his large frame and clearly wasn’t heavy at all to him.
“Playing field has changed,” he said, patting the four rockets strapped to him via a massive ammo belt. Nay had fixed an exploder potion to the rocket inside the weapon for extra boom.
It would be crazy to think that we had any sort of upper hand in terms of stealth anymore, no matter what I told Rose. I just couldn’t have her and Randy come up here with us. We still had to be careful, though, sneak as much as we could.
“No guards,” I said. “I don’t get it. That doesn’t seem right.”
“Indeed.”
I spun to see the white eye guy leaning against the SUV.
“What the fuck?”
“I’m here to help … again.” He winked at me.
“Bloody hell!”
“You didn’t think I’d let you do this alone, did you? I need to keep my eye on you, Jacob.”
“That’s our job,” Nay spat.
“And a fine job you do, Naomi. But I’m invested in our boy here. Plus, I make this my business all the time, unlike Sabrina West. The alpha is selfish to not offer her wolves to you.”
Greg growled. “We’re not getting into this.”
“Fine, but you know she is. She offers help and then snatches it away like a fool. Werewolves on the team permanently would be amazing, right?”
“They do what they can,” Nay said. “Don’t go there.”
Yes, it would be awesome, but it was what it was. I was always grateful for whenever the wolves helped. But they had their own territory to defend, and they were fiercely protective of it. The same with the trolls and those who guarded the facility, all those players protecting the city in their own way. I was the weapon of the goddess, and these were my guardians. It was us against Lilisian, and we needed to stop her so everyone else could get on with their own defenses and lives until I could figure out how I was gonna free Coldharbour. Or when the goddess figured it out.
I hated that so much was bloody hidden.
“Enough.” My tone was sharp, icy. “We’ve got a job to do. Come if you want, but keep it shut from here on in. Got it?”
The white eye guy saluted me.
Prick.
“Ready?” I asked my guardians.
“Let’s do it,” Greg answered.
As one, we moved toward the shimmering rainbow. Beyond it was the beast realm. It continued to push against me, but the resistance was nowhere near enough to stop me. The power of the realm tried to grab hold of me again. I fought back.
Not stopping me …
I was shoved back, yet I kept my footing and shoved back. Sweat beaded on my brow, and my teeth clenched together in a painful lock. Still, I pushed and pushed and pushed until my sparks blazed with blinding white light.
Not stopping me!
They flashed again and again, a beacon of fury against the will of the beast realm.
I’m coming in!
The wind lifted my hair as the resistance was ripped away. Retreated or ripped away? I wasn’t sure. Either way, it was gone and that was fine by me.
“You good?” Dean asked.
“I’m good. Doesn’t want me in there, but it’s given up for now.”
“Be ready for a welcome party,” Nay added.
“I’m so fucking ready,” Greg said. “Bring it on.”
The white eye guy said nothing. Good, he was listening to me.
We passed through the gate.
It was like wading through water, thick and suffocating. I scooped at the rippling rainbows around me. The colors withdrew from my sparking touch, recoiling into tight swirls and leaving a translucent space behind.
The thickness gave way, and I stumbled forward. Warm air hit me, like a balmy evening in July.
Before me, the landscape stretched in lush fields of green, the night sky full of more stars than I’d ever seen in my life. The moon was full, casting its lunar rays across the fields. We stood on an incline which lead down to the main stretch of green.
Mountains were shadows on the horizon, encasing this place. There were flowers, some blooming in the night, fireflies dancing around their stems and petals. And trees, leaves glittering in the moonlight, some with lush, red apples that looked more like sparkling rubies.
It was … beautiful.
In the distance, I saw the lake and the palace. It was a fairytale palace of towers and wonder, a golden giant lit up for all the creatures of the night to see.
An owl hooted. Though it wasn’t a proper owl. It had the head of an owl, the torso of a woman and the legs of a really large bird—like an emu.
And it had a sickle in its hand.
Before I could move, the white eye guy whipped the sickle from its hands with his power and used it against the beast. The owl head rolled to my feet. Yellow eyes blinked up at me. I killed it.
“I was expecting an army,” Nay said. “Where the hell are they? That owl beast can’t be it.”
Yeah, I was expecting at least one giant. “Maybe we still do have the element of surprise.”
Nay nodded. “Well, we can’t hang around in full view regardless.”
There was a small thicket over to the right, fireflies hovering there. It would provide decent enough cover for now.
“Come on.” I took point, heading over.
We waited in our little hiding place, listening to the night sounds. Crickets and hooting, but no owl beast came. My hands were hidden beneath my jacket to block out the white glow. Didn’t want any ‘Hello, I’m here!’ crap spoiling things.
“Too quiet,” the white eye guy whispered.
I was thinking the same thing. “One beast. They must know we’re planning on heading here seeing as the giants were where they were. And the dragon … I don’t get it. Maybe I’m over-thinking.”
“Let’s think about this,” Nay suggested. “Have we just walked into a trap?”
“Big possibility,” the white eye guy answered. Guess his silence was over. “Sitting ducks springs to mind.”
“Then what do we do?” I asked. “We can’t just wait for the trap to be sprung.”
“Do you think stealth would ever have been a possibility, Jacob?”
“I didn’t actually.”
“The beast realm will react to you; alarm bells will go off somewhere.”
“Obviously. But we can still be sneaky.”
“What if your every move is now being tracked?”
Man, did I feel like an idiot. “Shit!”
“Fuck,” Greg hissed. “How could we be so stupid?”
“It doesn’t mean I’m right,” the white eye guy added. “I’m just throwing it out there.”
“Good speculation,” Dean muttered.
“I guess so.”
“It’s all speculation,” Nay said. “This realm is new to all of us.” She frowned at the white eye guy. “Well, I presume so.”
The white eye guy kept on smiling. No, I couldn’t head-butt him again. Restraint and decorum all the way.
“What if we split up?” Nay suggested.
“No,” Greg snapped. “Not happening.”
“It has to.”
Greg shook his head.
“We can come at the palace from two angles—Jake and whoever, and then who remains,” Nay said.
The white eye guy was nodding.
“Teams?” I asked.
“Fuck,” Greg said.
“You need to separate the magic users,” the white eye guy suggested.
“So either you or Nay with me … Nay, please.”
He chuckled. “What a shock!”
What a knob head! “Let’s settle this now and move out.”
A stream of light cut across the sky, a shooting star. Only it turned mid-flight, coming right for us.
“What is that?”
“Move!” Greg boomed as the light came hurtling toward us.
I dove as it struck the thicket. It exploded. The ground shook violently, violet light crackling in the branches of the trees. They twisted and contorted into new shapes that they shouldn’t be able to, their barks becoming fluid.
“Run!” Dean cried.
The ground cracked and released spiders, huge fucking spiders with black bodies and dead twigs sprouting from their backs. Their fangs were so huge they could easily cleave any limb from the body. They screeched and scuttled toward me.
Oh, shit!
There were at least ten of them coming at me. I got ready for an attack when something grabbed me around the waist and lifted me into the air.
“Jake!” Dean yelled.
Flexible tree branches coiled around me like tentacles and squeezed. My hands were trapped by my side, completely useless. I called the shield and was thrown before it could do harm to the tree.
I hit the ground hard, rolled an
d cracked the back of my head on a rock. My right arm bent underneath me and screamed with hurt. The world spun, pain exploding in my skull.
Something scuttled up my body. One of those spiders came face to face with me, eight black eyes glinting in the moonlight. Its fangs dripped with venom so close to my face.
I had to call the shield or hold out for the healing power. My head was too fuzzy, and making a killing strike with my hands wasn’t about to happen.
Come on …
“Jake!” It was Dean again, and I heard the roar of Greg, the fury of Nay. The world was hazy, and the pain made me want to vomit.
Any moment now I would—
I was lifted by the familiar power of the white eye guy, the spider falling off me. He held me above the ground, out of reach.
The healing magic kicked in. Spiders shrieked beneath me. Nay’s exploding potions were going off.
A tree tentacle snagged me by the neck and ripped me out of the magical hold. It felt like my skin was on the verge of being torn off with the force of it.
The white eye guy yelled something, and I was thrown again, so far I cleared the sloping ground and went slap bang into the flat stretch of field. Before I could break every bone in my body, I was caught in the hold of the tree again, four tentacles catching me.
My healing magic worked on me again.
I called my shield but was dropped on the grass before the branches felt any impact.
“Ooff!” I got to my knees. “Where are you?” I may have had the wind knocked out of me, but I was ready to kill me a crazy beast tree.
A spider shrieked and landed on my back. I clawed at it, but a burning pain shot through me as fangs sank into my flesh.
“Fuck!”
I managed to grab it, all furry and gross, and slipped into the place of its essence.
I staggered over to the golden jewel light. Before I could reach it, spasms flared up in every muscle. I fell to the floor in agony, writhing for mercy.
“Not here!” I cried. “Not here!”
My back arched, and pain tore through me. I was gonna snap, my spine twisting. My fingers split as I clawed at the ground, longing for the pain to stop. This was worse than when my power had activated the first night I’d arrived in Coldharbour. There was something inside me—an invader—ravaging my body.