“Have you forgotten the first conversation we had so long ago?”
“Corson.” I almost spat the name. He had been silent for so long that I had forgotten that part of him was inside of me. That is why I needed the ritual in the first place, because until he claimed my soul he would never leave.
“You are lucky Cane’s Demon reached me before you died. I was going to kill you for trying to break our bargain.”
“When you refused to help me I had to take matters into my own hands.”
“I understand that now and that is why you are still living. I have increased the amount of essence you have been imbued with. You won’t be able to so easily break our connection again.”
“All I want from you is the power to do what needs to be done. In two days’ time my soul is yours.”
“Then feed from my strength, accept it into you, and victory will be yours.”
I felt his power flow into me as I lowered the walls I had built to block it off. I felt younger, and stronger. I could hear my heartbeat and all of my senses sharpened. I could do this, with this kind of power there was no way that Adam could defeat me. I stepped out of the bath with renewed purpose. In two days I would secure my destiny.
I would need to track down a barber, was the first thought I had looking in the mirror. There was also the matter of a new suit and a shave. I could take care of one of those things right now. Wiping the steam away from the mirror revealed a face I hadn’t seen in a long time. Not since I had been imprisoned. I was lean and looked starved, but my eyes. My god, what had happened to my eyes? They were yellow.
I dropped the razor into the sink as the sound of laughter filled my head.
15
Adam
Today was the day. Today I would be facing one of my oldest friends in mortal combat. I had let him down and his anger consumed him. No matter how many people he killed I just couldn’t bring myself to hate him. Who he was, what he had become, part of it was my fault. I had the chance to stand beside him and I didn’t. Even today I didn’t want to kill him. It had come down to him or me, and as guilty as I felt I wasn’t ready to die.
A card from Cane had come this morning outlining the details for the fight. The location was going to be down the coast at a private wharf that he owned. He assured me that the area had been glamoured and I had no reason to doubt his word. We would be meeting at the wharf at seven and our fate would be decided. As much as I trusted that Cane would have the area secured, you could only trust a Demon so far.
I would be bringing John and Sarah with me. If Cane was using this as an opportunity to get me out of the way, then I had faith that John and Sarah would be able to pull me out of the fire. It was always possible I could be walking into a trap but I had the feeling Cane was up to something else. It seemed odd to me that he was willing to sacrifice the man he had spent the last sixth months protecting. If he was going to sacrifice him, that meant he had an end game and I had no idea what it was.
So I wondered just what was going to happen tonight. I sat in my office alone thinking about what the night would bring. I wrote something earlier for John and Sarah if for some reason I didn’t make it out of this. I wanted them to take over and prepare us for the future. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but I couldn’t stop wringing my hands together. There was so much uncertainty about the future, I just wanted it all to be over.
There was a knock on my door and I couldn’t move or speak. It was time, and I still didn’t want to go. Edward had been a friend, but for the last five hundred years he had become an enemy. When he almost sent San Francisco back into the depths I should have killed him. Instead I put him in a prison and we ended up here. How many people had died because I didn’t do the right thing? How many lives had been lost because I failed to stand by my friend?
The door opened and John poked his head in. “Ready to go?”
“Not even remotely,” I said with a sigh.
“I know how you feel about this, Adam. Just end it quickly. The longer it takes the harder it will be for you.”
I put a hand on his shoulder, ushering John out of the office. “Let’s go.” I got in the back of the car and sat down. Sarah spared me a quick look. I could tell she was tense, but that look also seemed to say that she understood. It was hard to turn your back on someone, and then have to face them. If anyone could understand it would be Sarah. She had been fighting her entire life. It had been lonely and isolated until she bonded with John. I was happy for them and I hoped they had a long and happy future together.
The drive to the wharf would probably take at least forty-five minutes and it would be spent in silence. I still didn’t want to kill Edward, but he had left me no other choice. The only way he would leave this city was if I died. I also knew that if he won, despite my wishes John would drop everything until he found him and killed him himself. I couldn’t let that happen. My mind kept darting back into the past, replaying snippets from the time we had spent together. I wished that I could turn it off, but it was as if a dam had broken open and the memories flowed like water through the breach.
When the car finally stopped it was almost a mercy. The time to wait was over. I felt an icy resolve flow through me. This ended now. No longer would I let my bad decisions affect the people around me. Edward was going to die, and then I was going to go back to my office, crack open a bottle of whiskey and celebrate his life. After a few days I would be able to come to grips with the choices I had made. Hopefully they would serve as a lesson for those that followed me.
John opened the door for me, and I slid out of the car. He let me move in front of him and then Sarah and John took up protective positions behind me. I could see two figures waiting under a light, one of them was Cane so the other had to be Edward. As I walked towards them I was shocked at how gaunt he looked, it was if he had wasted away since the last time I saw him. Life outside of the prison had not been kind to him. He turned his head away from Cane and his eyes met mine. I almost stopped in my tracks, as the animal eye shine reflected in the light. His eyes were yellow; he had finally fully allowed himself to bond with his Demon. This was going to be one hell of a fight.
Cane said something to Edward and his laughter filled the night. It had an edge to it, a hardness that I wished wasn’t there. He had been preparing for this moment for years. The smile he gave me as I approached reminded me of a crocodile. It was a good thing that I had come to grips with what had to be done; I would be receiving no quarter from this man. Cane said one more thing to him and then stepped away.
John and Sarah moved to stand beside Cane, leaving me alone to face the monster I had helped to create.
“Tonight it ends, Adam.”
“You are quite right. Tonight it will end; your reign of terror will finally be put to an end.”
“My reign of terror? Have you forgotten how we got here? The things I had to do to survive brought us to this point. My hatred for you burns as bright as the day you told me my wife was dead.”
“The guilt I felt over that moment, the guilt I still feel is why you are alive today. I should have ended you when you tried to destroy my city. Instead I let you live. You continue to let your anger blind you.”
“Enough words, old man. Tonight you die.”
Edward took off his coat and handed it to Cane. “Make sure this doesn’t get dirty.” He turned and walked down the wharf, prepared for battle.
I kept my coat on and nodded to John and Sarah. “He was right about one thing. Tonight this ends.” John moved forward and gave me a hug, catching me off guard. When I looked up I could see that he was worried. “Don’t worry about me; I’ve killed my fair share of challengers in my time.” Sarah placed a hand on my shoulder and our eyes met. She nodded once. That was all I was going to get from her. That single nod meant more to me than any words she could have spoken.
I turned away from my friends, the people I thought of as family, and walked down the wharf to meet my destiny. Edward seemed calm an
d his eyes were shining in the dark. The yellow in them concerned me. Just who was he taking orders from now? John was right, I needed to end this and end it quickly. There was no telling what kind of power the Demon could channel into him.
I felt him pulling on his power as I walked closer, and I started to draw on my own. Edward had always favored fire and earth, and here we were on the water in my favorite element. Was he so confident now that it didn’t matter? If any of our previous battles could be used as an indicator then giving me any kind of advantage was a gross miscalculation on his part. He had to have some kind of plan to beat me or he wouldn’t be here. I was just going to test him until he couldn’t keep up then I would press him and end it quickly.
I felt the magic begin to tingle in my fingertips and I pulled the water towards me. I formed a few orbs of the salt water and set them spinning around me. Edward’s hands lit with blue fire and I could feel the moisture he was pulling out of the air. He cast a jet of flame at me, and I pulled more water from the ocean to douse his flames. I was surprised when he didn’t try again but instead rushed at me. I froze the spinning orbs and sent them flying at him. They shattered against his shield and then he was in melee combat range.
His right hand formed a dark purple blade, something that I had never seen before. I blocked with a shield of ice, and was surprised when the blade cut through my magic like it didn’t exist. He slashed it back across his body and I had to roll out of the way. He continued to press me, and I sent up spikes of ice from the ground. I got lucky and one of them tore through the edge of his foot and Edward cried out in pain.
“Damn you!” he raged, backing away. The purple light faded from his hand and I watched as he stopped to heal his foot. He looked at me and his eyes glowed yellow, and then he charged again.
The ice spikes I conjured shattered as Edward ran through them. The shards flew around him as he burst through them. I hadn’t been prepared for another direct assault, and he closed the gap before I could move out of the way. His shoulder slammed into me, and I flew backwards a few paces using my magic to steady myself. Edward flew at me with a fury of fists and kicks. It had been a long time since I had been in an actual fist fight. I managed to block each of his attacks but I wasn’t able to counter back. When his eyes started to glow again I knew I was in trouble.
His hands started to become wreathed in that purple power again and the blades formed before I could think of a way to stop them. If I couldn’t block them with my magic then I was going to have to get creative. I created a sheet of ice under his feet and as he slipped I slammed a huge gust of wind into his chest. The crack his head made when it slammed into the ice echoed off the wharf like a gunshot. He rolled weakly, trying to get to his feet, and then slipped again. He looked at me with hatred burning in his yellow eyes. A large pool of blood started flowing from the back of his head, turning the ice around him crimson. He tried weakly to get back to his feet one more time and then fell against the ice and was still. I heard him mumble, “Not like this,” and then he was quiet.
When the silence continued I wondered if the fall had damaged him enough to kill him. Who would have thought that a man that could fight fifteen Lycans to a standstill would be brought down by a simple sheet of ice? I turned to walk away and then I felt an immense surge of power from behind me. When I looked back at Edward he was smiling. A ragged laugh broke through his mask of hatred. I could feel the power rolling off of him in waves. He smiled and purple light poured from his mouth. The laughter continued and I could see his body coming apart at the seams. I started to run, unsure of what was happening but knowing instinctively that I need to get as far away from him as I could. I came to a stop next to John and Sarah just as the explosion roared from behind me. I threw up a shield with all of my strength. I felt John move beside me and double it. Even Cane added some of his power to the barrier.
The blaze of power rolled over us, shaking our shield and driving us to our knees. The purple light faded and water fell from the sky around us. The last thirty feet of the wharf were gone, and as far as I could tell it hadn’t fallen back into the ocean but had simply been obliterated. Standing four feet in from the new edge was Edward. His clothes were clean, showing no signs of the battle we had just fought. He had a hat on now, and lit a cigarette before looking up at us. His eyes glowed yellow, but this time they didn’t return to normal. He walked past us, putting one arm around Cane’s waist and leading him away.
I sat there speechless looking at John and Sarah. Neither of them knew what had just happened. All of us stood in awe of the destruction that had happened. What stunned me more was the lack of any interest in me. Edward had been trying to kill me for hundreds of years. He wouldn’t just get up and walk away without fight, not after a display of power like that. What in the hell was going on? Before my feet could even start moving to follow, Cane’s car had already pulled away.
John looked at me. “What in the hell was that?”
I shook my head watching the taillights of Cane’s car fade into the darkness. “I don’t know.”
16
John
Adam had a few cuts and scrapes but he wasn’t looking too bad as we loaded him into the backseat. We needed to get back to base and find out if anything was happening in the city. From what I witnessed the battle had been going smoothly until the very end. When Edward had walked by us it had almost seemed that he was a different person somehow. The energy he radiated had been changed and he walked with a grace he hadn’t possessed before. Whatever had happened wasn’t good. Cane was involved and that meant the Demons were involved.
We knew that Edward had made a deal with the Demons, was what we just witnessed the culmination of that pact? What had he promised them, had he finally delivered? The questions kept swirling through my head as I navigated the dark streets of San Francisco. Something big was happening. I knew it, deep down in my gut I could feel it. As far as I was concerned that battle had been a hoax, a distraction, and we were in store for trouble before the night was over.
As we pulled into the gates of our base my suspicions were confirmed already. People were running around, and warriors were gathering weapons and hopping into cars.
Adam jumped from the back of a car and grabbed one of the men by the arm. “What is going on?”
“Demon attacks, sir. They are happening all over the city.”
“Damn it! I knew we couldn’t trust this deal,” Adam roared. He ran off looking for Henry so he could coordinate a plan.
The warriors were in place, ready to go, waiting for their final instructions from Adam. He had separated the city into grids. The hardest hit areas would be getting multiple teams. The apprentices were going to be used as runners to help get the right orders out. They had been given orders not to engage but I could already see that some of them would be ignoring those.
Gavin rushed up to me. “Are there really Demons out there?”
“I have a feeling there are, and more than a few. This will be like nothing you have ever trained for. Demons are ruthless and will not shy away from putting innocent people in danger. Do what you can but don’t throw your life away. I can’t have my first student ending up dead.”
He smiled. “I’ll be fine.”
“If you get in over your head run away.” He frowned at me. “Seriously, this isn’t something you have been trained for, just promise me that if something happens and you can’t win that you will find me.”
He looked at me unsure of what to do or say. Finally he nodded. “I will.” He turned his back on me and went back to stand with the others getting ready to be deployed.
He didn’t understand what was happening. This wasn’t some small-scale battle with the meat suits, or the Demon ridden. This was Demons in their true form out to destroy us all. I hoped that he would take my advice, but standing with his friends and joking I could tell it hadn’t really sunk in. All of them wanted to kill as many as they could and make some kind of name for themselves. What th
ey didn’t understand yet, is only the survivor’s names were remembered for long.
Sarah filtered through the crowd and found a place by my side. Her pack mates moved to join the warriors they had been assigned to. All of them had grim expressions on their faces. At least they understood what we were up against. It filled me with a sense of purpose and joy to see our vision of the Ascendancy coming to life. Lycans and the Gifted standing together as one, to destroy something that would try and kill us all. This is what Sarah and I had been fighting for all along. Now we were going to see it in action.
Adam stepped out of his office and all eyes turned towards him. He climbed up onto the hood of a car and turned to face us. When he spoke his words came out ringing with emotion. “Our great city is under attack. Tonight I must ask of you more than I ever have before. Many of us will not live through this battle, but those of us that do must be willing to spread the word about what has happened here tonight. Tonight we face the forces of hell, but we will win.” Wild cheering erupted around us. “Henry will be coordinating information as it comes in and relaying it back out into the field. Treat any order you receive from him as if it was spoken directly from my lips.” The crowd started to grow silent and restless. “Tonight I fight with you! We will send these bastards back to hell.” The screams of our warriors filled the night.
Adam jumped off the car and headed in our direction. Henry’s men moved through the crowds passing out orders and cars started to filter out through the gate. We hadn’t received anything yet so I wondered just what he had in store for us.
“John, I want you to go after Cane. This is our chance to finally rid the world of that smug little man.”
“Where will you be?”
“I’ll be trying to track down Edward, or what used to be Edward, and finally ending this.”
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