by Alyssa Day
Alejandro looked like he wanted to argue, but finally nodded. “You have my word. I will protect the child and your woman with my dying breath. Right now I’m going to check that everyone is in place. I’ll return within two minutes.”
Justice nodded and Alejandro slipped away as silently as one of the jaguars that roamed the jungle.
Keely watched him go, too, and then looked up at Justice, that flat, dead look still in place in her emerald eyes. “I can protect myself, and I’m nobody’s woman. You do what you need to do. We’ll take care of our end.”
Justice wanted nothing more than to take her and fly away from this miserable place, far from vampires and death and stolen children. He’d finally found the true mate to his heart, to his soul, and he would lose her so quickly. He knew the optimistic plan he’d fed the others had no chance of succeeding. The vampires would be more than ready for him.
He’d stepped into situations like this before, but always with his brothers and the rest of the Seven at his side. They could handle all of it as long as they were together.
Alone, he was nothing but vamp fodder.
There were so many things he wished he’d had the time to say. Abruptly he stood up, forcing himself to move. “Keely, know this. No matter what you are thinking or feeling, you have no blame in this. It was I who stole you away for those hours, I who failed to protect this village and the child. I am tasked with protecting humanity, and yet I chose selfishly instead of honoring my duty.”
A flicker of life moved behind her eyes, and she slowly shook her head from side to side. “I knew how much she was suffering, Justice. She’s just like me, except she was orphaned and treated like a pariah. I knew, and still I abandoned her.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, but her face was hard and unyielding. “If you fall, I will follow you and rescue that child, no matter what it takes.”
He took the shotgun from her hands, pulled her into a fierce embrace, and kissed her with every bit of love and longing his soul cried out to give her. Forcing himself to release her was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his long, bleak centuries of existence.
She caught his arm as he turned away. “Justice,” she said, so quietly he nearly missed it. “I love you, too.”
He said nothing. Words were beyond him, as his soul prepared for death. He simply began the solitary walk down to the San Bartolo temple, a condemned man walking to his own execution.
But he’d save the child first. When they remembered his worthless life, they would know that Eleni lived.
There was only one final act he must at least try. He stopped walking and closed his eyes, mustering every ounce of energy and power he possessed, and then he called for the portal.
This time it answered his call. Fickle godsdamned thing. As the familiar ovoid shape appeared and shimmered and stretched into shape, he saw the startled faces of the guards on the other side as they recognized him and lowered their weapons. When he made no move to enter, one of them called out to him.
“Lord Justice? Your brothers will be very happy to know that you’re back. The portal hasn’t opened for any of us, not even Alaric, since you left.”
Ah. That answered one question. They’d known he was in San Bartolo. Part of him had hoped—no, expected—that they would show up to save the day, as Ven liked to say.
“My lord? Are you entering?” the other one asked him. “Is there trouble?”
“Yes,” Justice finally answered. “Yes, there is trouble. Tell Conlan and Ven . . . Tell them to send help. Tell them we need reinforcements. Tell them the Star of Artemis is here but it’s guarded by a nest of vampires.”
“We will cross over right now to assist you,” the first guard said. He took a determined step forward and the portal’s magic shot something that looked and sounded like a high-wattage electric jolt at him, smashing him back and onto the ground.
“No, it looks like you won’t,” Justice replied, oddly unsurprised. “For whatever reason, the portal wants me to do this on my own, which makes me think Poseidon has set me some particularly vicious test.”
“But—”
“Tell Conlan and Ven . . .” Justice had to force out the words. “Tell them that I love them. Tell them that I’m proud to be their brother and that I’m sorry. That’s all.”
“Lord Justice!”
But Justice simply shook his head and walked away, not even watching to see if the portal closed behind him. While he talked to the Atlanteans, it had fallen full dusk. Eleni was waiting. If she even still lived.
If she did not, he would set the earth itself on fire with the power of his fury.
The Nereid spoke in his mind, in the resigned tone of one who has accepted his fate. So now we die, but at least we die gloriously. It has been an honor being part of you, Justice of Atlantis.
“It has been an honor being part of you, Justice of the Nereids,” Justice said, realizing as he spoke the words that he truly meant them.
For our final grand gesture, I propose that we truly merge into one being, more powerful together than either of us could ever be apart, the Nereid said, a dark glee in his tone.
“If you’re going to go, go big,” Justice said, laughing. “Let’s do it.”
As one, both sides of his being—both halves of his soul—crashed open the doors and shields and walls they’d built up between them over the long years of his existence. Power, finally unfettered, raced through his body and energized him with the towering force of a typhoon.
Laughter burst out of him at the sheer joy of so much power sweeping through his body—waves and waves of pure, silvery power. Suddenly, he knew what he might be able to do.
There was a chance. A tiny one, but still a chance that he was going to live through this.
Just one final thing. Bending down, he found a smooth stone on the ground, far from the riverbank where it had been polished by the water. Opening up his heart and his soul, he focused all of his emotion to absolute truth and poured it into the stone. I love you, Keely, and will love you until all of the oceans vanish from the desolate plains of the earth. Know now and always that you are my heart, my soul, and my life.
He clenched the stone so tightly in his fist that it hurt and then slowly opened his fingers. If his plan failed, it would be enough.
It would have to be enough.
Chapter 40
Justice was still laughing with the joy and force of the power crashing through his body when he reached the front of the temple. The two vampires who stood at the entrance sneered at him.
“Laugh now, mortal, for our leader will kill you slowly.”
“Nice. Original with just that hint of melodrama,” he said, thinking of Ven’s usual responses to situations like this. “Now give me the girl.”
“Move back and kneel to your better, fool,” the uglier of the two vampires said. “He comes now.”
“I kneel to none but Poseidon,” Justice said calmly, drawing his sword. Poseidon’s Fury gleamed like polished silver under the twilight moon. “Bring me the girl now or the two of you shall die cursing your names.”
They looked uncertainly at each other, clearly hearing the promise in his voice. But then the sound of many voices came from the entrance, and a swarm of vamps came out of the temple.
He’d been way, way off in his estimation. There were nearly one hundred of them, give or take a dozen.
He was a dead Atlantean walking.
But by all the gods, he could bluff.
“Bring me the girl now,” he repeated, this time talking to the peacock of a man in the pseudo-ancient Mayan getup. Maybe he thought it made him look more important. Kingly, even.
Justice didn’t give a damn what he looked like. He just wanted Eleni.
“Bring me the girl, or I will cause the biggest shock wave you have ever seen to explode every single one of you into an oozing pile of slime.”
The peacock bared his fangs. “I am Gultep’can, and you are a petitioner at the feet of my grea
tness.”
Justice shrugged. “Not much for feet, greatness or otherwise. I only petition to the greatness of Poseidon, and not very often.”
“Your sea god is a puny weakling compared to the glory of Anubisa,” Gultep’can sneered.
“I know your goddess, up close and personal,” Justice said with loathing. “But we can play ‘my god is greater than your goddess’ later. Right now, you have ten seconds to bring me that girl, alive and unharmed, or you are all going to face the true death on the eleventh.”
Gultep’can’s eyes flickered just enough for Justice to realize that he was buying the bluff.
“Bring the girl,” Gultep’can ordered. “I am the mighty Gultep’can and I proposed this bargain, and so I do decree that it will be so.”
Yeah, way to save face. But Justice didn’t care how it happened, so long as it happened. For now, the vamps were keeping a healthy distance. Clearly they’d heard what had happened to their buddies the night before.
But that wouldn’t last long if he didn’t back up his threats with action. And the problem was that he just didn’t know if the shock wave would kill Eleni, too, if he released its power. Last night it had only killed vamps, but had that been a fluke? Until he could fully understand and control his new, unified powers, he would not risk her life. If she still had a life to risk.
Finally, his mental countdown at nine seconds, he heard the most wonderful sound in the world. Eleni’s tiny voice.
“Señor Justice! You came! I knew you’d come!”
One of the vamps came out of the entrance, dragging her by her thin dress, and then let her go at a gesture from Gultep’can. She ran toward Justice as fast as her little legs could carry her and jumped into his arms. He hugged her quickly and then put her down at his left side so his sword arm was free.
She trustingly slipped her hand in his and looked up at him. “When you make the beautiful waterspouts, can I watch?”
He squeezed her hand. “Eleni, I don’t have time for games right now. You are going to head back to the village for me, over that ridge, okay?” He pointed up the slope exactly at the point where Keely and Alejandro lay, hidden from view.
“But I want to stay and help,” she said.
Justice tried to be patient with the traumatized child in spite of the fact that dozens of vamps were skulking closer and closer to them. He put the stone in her hand and folded her fingers over it.
“You are a very brave girl, but you can help me most by doing what I ask. Give this to Keely for me, Eleni. It’s very important. Now, please go and find—”
“Keely and Alejandro, yes, I know. They’re right over that hill,” she said artlessly, tightly holding on to the stone. “Will they let me help load the shotguns?”
Her innocent question, born of her psychic gift, galvanized the vampires like a lightning strike through water.
“You dare to try to betray our bargain?” Gultep’can roared. “Kill them!”
“Run, now, Eleni,” Justice shouted over the din. “I’ll protect you while you get away. Run!”
Eleni ran. He barred the way to her, sword flashing and striking death into any vamp who tried to get past him. He fought like he’d never fought before, but there were too many. They came at him from all sides, striking and biting and clawing, and soon he bled from a score of wounds, but he managed to keep any of them from following Eleni.
“We’re here!” Keely’s voice rang out and Justice saw her step out from behind a tree, shotgun braced against her shoulder. “Eleni, come to me! Run faster!”
Gultep’can screamed out commands and his minions went running in every direction. “Get her! Get the child! Kill Justice before he can bring the earth’s anger again!”
Four of them rushed Justice, grabbing him by each of his arms and legs and sinking four sets of fangs into him. He threw back his head and howled out his pain and rage, but they were vampire strong, and he was bleeding from dozens of wounds. Four against one was too much.
Yet another wrenched his sword out of his grasp, but the hilt set the bloodsucker’s hand on fire and the flames rushed up its body until it was a stinking pile of ash with a sword lying on top of it.
Justice watched in anguish as more of them started up the hill toward Keely and Eleni. “Keely,” he roared. “Get out of here.”
Eleni reached Keely as he watched and immediately dropped into a ball at Keely’s feet. The thunder of shotgun fire boomed out; first once, then twice, and Justice saw that Alejandro was in the game, too. As he watched, every one of the villagers stepped out of their hiding places, guns aimed and firing.
They thought they were protecting Keely, he realized, despair flooding him. All they were doing was getting themselves killed, and her with them.
Keely’s heart started beating again when Eleni reached her, safe and seemingly relatively unharmed. But it stopped again when she realized Justice was buried under a sea of vampires who were slowly biting and clawing his flesh from his body.
There was no way anybody could survive that.
With shaking hands, she settled the stock of the shotgun more firmly into the hollow of her shoulder, aimed at one of the vamps holding Justice, and fired. The report nearly deafened her, and she reflexively flinched. When she opened her eyes, she saw the now-headless vampire’s body falling to the ground.
Another shotgun blast sounded from very near her, and another vamp’s head exploded. Alejandro.
She turned to him and he gave her a thumbs-up, smiling grimly. “If we’re going to go out fighting, let’s at least give them a fight,” he yelled.
She nodded, no time or energy for talking, and took aim again.
In the space of seconds, two of the vamps holding him had been blasted to the true death. Justice grinned at the sight of Keely and Alejandro standing practically shoulder to shoulder, firing on the vamps.
Two to one was great odds, never mind the blood pouring down his face from a head wound. He slumped into a sudden deadweight, going down and taking his two remaining captors with him. It was a simple trick to snap one’s neck and then roll over the other one, grab his sword, and chop through its neck. In a flash, he was back up on his feet and back in the fight, slicing and stabbing and hacking.
Gultep’can waded into the battle, his eyes glowing a vicious red, and tossed his own vampires away from him so he could clear a path to Justice. “I will kill you myself,” he snarled.
“Come and get me,” Justice taunted, beckoning.
A space cleared out between and around them, just like it had in the schoolyard battles Justice had fought as a child. What a circle life was. He’d started out fighting bullies in a ring and now he would die that way.
But he was taking Gultep’can with him.
He shifted a little, so he could see Keely. The vamps had stopped stalking her as they all rushed over to watch their nasty-ass leader mop the jungle floor with Justice.
“Read the stone,” he shouted as loudly as he could. “And get the hells out of here. Now!”
A rushing movement at the corner of his peripheral vision alerted him, and he turned fast, but not fast enough to avoid the dagger Gultep’can hurled at him. He caught it in the ribs and staggered back. He ripped the dagger out of his chest and hurled it on the ground, then started laughing again. “Is that all you got? Big bad vampire god wannabe and all you got is a little knife?”
Gultep’can, enraged beyond all reason, howled and screeched and dove straight at him. Justice blocked the worst of the blow and sliced his sword out as best he could in the close quarters, slicing a long gash up the vamp’s abdomen.
“You’ll die slowly for that one,” Gultep’can screamed, holding in something that looked a lot like a piece of his intestines.
Justice laughed again, just because he could. The wounds were finally taking their toll, overcoming the burst of adrenaline-fueled strength. He’d always been immune to vampire bites but sheer blood loss could get him. He stumbled, suddenly dizzy, and the vamps
took it as their cue. They all swarmed him and he went down in a tangle of arms, legs, and slashing, ripping fangs.
The last thing he heard was the fading echo of the Nereid’s voice. We don’t have to die like this.
Keely saw Justice go down under what looked like hundreds of vampires and she fell to her knees, the gun falling from her nerveless fingers. Something fragile ripped wide-open in her chest, and she cried out in anguish.
Eleni sat up and leaned against her, throwing her arms around her in a fierce hug. “Don’t cry, Keely. The water god is coming, but first Justice will make the pretty blue waterspouts.”
The child pressed something round and smooth into Keely’s hand, and she automatically closed her fingers around it. A rock. Eleni was so traumatized, she was babbling nonsense and had given her a rock to comfort her. Keely didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Then the full force of Justice’s love swept into her from the rock, so powerful it permeated her glove, lifting her up and washing her away with the currents.
“I. Don’t. Want. To. Die. Like. This,” Justice gritted out, as he ripped one of them off him by the jaw. The vamp’s fangs took a chunk of skin with them, but at least that was one fewer. He smashed his elbow in the face of another, and suddenly his arms were—for just a moment—free.
He threw them up in the air and roared out a single word. A word in the ancient language of the Nereids. A word he didn’t even know that he knew, but that had suddenly swelled in his heart and soul, dangerous and sharp and deadly.
The word called power to it and turned tangible as it left his mouth, hanging in the air above the place where he lay on the ground, dying.
Being murdered.
He watched, his life’s blood draining out of him from so many, many wounds, as the word took shape and became real and raised in dark and terrible beauty the fearsome power of the universe.
A thundering boom shook the land and the trees and even the sky, and a shock wave visibly poured out from the word in concentric circles and turned the world to crystalline shades of blue and silver.