Ryze Series: Books 1 & 2

by N. Isabelle Blanco

  With five Refluths running directly towards us on the one side that is open.

  Yip-fucking-ee.

  We can dematerialize out of here, but there’s no way in any dimension, in any part of the fucking Universe, that I’m running away.

  And Dimithinia clearly feels the same way.

  Dimi’s back slams against mine, and together, back-to-back, we raise our guns. I set mine at the highest level, and all nine of the circles on the sides light up. The hum of Dimi’s gun doing the same reaches my ears. Then we wait until the creatures are a few feet closer.

  Our guns go off at the same time, pumping out bolts of energy faster than a machine gun on full-blast. We catch one creature after the other, but the open Kystms behind us apparently have a never-ending supply.

  “Die,” I command several of the creatures while taking out the others.

  Nothing. No mist. No wraiths.

  Panic shoots through me, but I try to tamp it down. Oh God, where is Zeniel? What’s happening? Why isn’t he reacting to my powers?

  I force my mind to stay level, telling myself that I would have felt if anything happened to my R’mann.

  Another guardian comes running towards us. I recognize him by his armor. He drops down and skids across the street, jumping back up to his feet once he reaches us.

  “Ladies.” He gives us a nod, ginger hair blowing in the wind. Pulling out what looks like a mini-grenade launcher, he stands with his back to our sides. “Name’s Tolsar,” he says in an Irish-like accent. “Pleasure.”

  I return his nod, but don’t look away from my target. The portals aren’t closing, and as long as they stay open, shit is going to keep coming through.

  “I need you ladies to cover me!” Tolsar yells.

  My head snaps around long enough to take him in.

  He shoots a beam at three ceFtuts, sending them flying back in a mess of broken body parts. Unfortunately, the moment they land on the ground, those body parts start sliding back together, the creatures reforming.

  Tolsar turns to me, his cerulean eyes hard. “I don’t have one of those nifty guns. Either get me one, stat, or cover me.”

  I shake my head. “I didn’t make them. Can’t materialize one, either. I wasn’t given the design. What do you plan to do?”

  “I can close the portals. Cover me.” He leaps over me and Dimithinia, running straight for the north Kystm.

  Dimi and I exchange a look. Then we turn, firing at everything that comes out of that portal as Tolsar fights his way closer. Problem with that strategy is that me and Dimi now have two sides unguarded, and if we turn away from Tolsar for even a second, he’s going to be overrun.

  He’s already willing the portal closed, his eyes focused on it and his brow drawn. No other Sesengts are around, either, so he’s our only hope of getting it closed.

  I feel and smell the breath of a ceFtut as it comes within inches of my exposed left side. My peripheral vision recognizes the figure that lands on its back just in time.

  I’m too shocked to stop my head from flying around.

  Ismini is standing on the ceFtut’s back, in purple and blue armor, and she just ripped off one of the gloves she’s wearing. Then the other glove is gone, and as soon as her hands make contact, her energy snakes through every part of it.

  It throws its head back, giving off a keening cry that makes several of the monsters around us pause.

  Other warriors land mere feet from us. Some go straight into hand-to-teeth battle against the monsters. Others point their spread hands at the street, and energy erupts.

  Vy’shis. They’re feeding off Ismini’s powers, their auras connected to hers through a thin, microscopic veil of energy that I can actually see.

  Concrete liquefies into cement, either swallowing the creatures, or rising like a wave to overtake them.

  It goes beyond any fucking laws of physics humans know about. It should be damn impossible.

  As is the way the ceFtut begins to morph under Ismini’s touch. White fur sprouts from its ugly skin and its flat, round face suddenly develops big, blue eyes.

  She just changed its species. Not only that, but once the creature has changed, she jumps off its back and points in the direction of other ceFtuts. The big, white fur ball wastes no time, obeying Ismini’s command and attacking its former comrades.

  “How the fuck did you do that?” I ask when Ismini reaches me.

  “I latched onto the only good DNA inside it and went with that. I don’t know what it was, but I could sense that it was obedient as hell—Behind you!”

  I turn around, shooting a Refluth that got too close.

  Dimithinia catches another one between the eyes.

  Suddenly, we all have to duck as a blazing hot, too-bright laser beam of white energy lights up the sky above our heads.

  CHAPTER 40

  EVESSE

  D yletri touches down, his hands extended, glowing like he’s the solution to the entire planet’s energy crisis. His form is barely visible behind the white glare that surrounds him. He shoots beams out of his hands, disintegrating every enemy around him in mass.

  Oh, wow. Sex really is good for him. He wasn’t able to do that before he mated Ismini, I’m sure of it.

  “No!” Ismini cries, running past him. “Don’t take out all of them!”

  “What?” He turns his head, watching as his female runs by him with a confused look. “Why?”

  “I’m going to change a few more of them!”

  “Baby, this is not the time to go shopping for pets!”

  “We need as many things on our side as we can get!” she yells back rebelliously before jumping on the back of a Refluth. It tries to grab at her when she clamps her hands around its big head. Grunting, Ismini shoots a wave of power into it.

  The change is almost immediate. One moment there’s rotting flesh on its hulking form, and the next it shifts, its beige leather skin morphing into something silver and metallic looking. All of a sudden, the Refluth goes from looking like the berserker in Gears of War to resembling a really tall version of the Silver Surfer.

  I prayed hard. All those years of reading comic books and playing video games, I prayed to be in one of them. I got my wish.

  But it isn’t nearly as fun as I hoped it would be, damn it!

  Another armored human runs towards me, teret raised. I materialize in front of him and slap the gun out of his hand. He blinks behind his mask, obviously surprised at how fast I moved. His green eyes look from me to the gun and back.

  “Just run, you idiot. I’m serious. What are you even fucking doing here?”

  He spins on one foot, obeying me just like that silver, giant thingy is now obeying Ismini and heading back into battle, on our side this time.

  “Let me guess?” I call out to her. “That species was obedient, too?”

  Ismini nods.

  A hot, white ray blasts past me, singeing the ends of my hair. “Dy! Watch it! Mind my fucking hair!”

  He glares at me, running in Ismini’s direction.

  Yet another Kystm shoots open one block down.

  What starts coming out of it makes my powers go into overdrive. Nearly blind from the overload that begins drilling into my frontal lobe, I stagger backwards, grabbing my head with my free hand.

  Beings. Hundreds of them. All of them resembling Enteax and Lisrn in freakiness.

  And, I know instantly, all of them are enslaved.

  Vermylea, Goddess of Bondage, sent her fucking army.

  Worse. I know what they’re after. “No.”

  I dematerialize before any of them can see me, reappearing in the alleyway between the building where I left Makayla and another just like it.

  No! Go back . . . kill. Guilty. All of them.

  I freaking know that, but I have to check on Makayla first!

  The thing inside me isn’t too happy at my decision. It claws at the tissue of my brain, sinking its nails angrily into the sensitive fibers. Fucking shit, I can barely focu
s enough to dematerialize up onto that rooftop—when I do, I land on the ledge, right before the Gnetica begins.

  Because I helped will it, I can see inside it, and Makayla is still standing there, eyes frozen on the battle below with a scary glint of satisfaction.

  For the first time, I have to wonder just what exactly I’m doing. Is protecting Makayla a good thing? Can she be trusted? That look in her eyes is almost crazed. Too damned happy considering what she’s looking at.

  She was given the power of Suffering. It’s not her fault. Nylicia gave her those powers for a reason. Besides, my powers are going berserk, aiming furiously at most of the beings below. But when I look at Makayla, I don’t get any urge to punish her.

  None.

  The ledge shakes, and Makayla’s head snaps around, her eyes going wide. I turn, seeing Enteax perched on the ledge mere feet from her. He’s bleeding dark blood from a huge wound on his shoulder.

  Makayla cries out his name, running closer to the ledge.

  Enteax shakes his head subtly, those completely light-blue eyes locked on me. “No,” he whispers, as if he can see and sense Makayla behind the shield.

  He can, I realize, staring at him. Which means he has to have some type of connection to her in order to sense her.

  A really strong connection.

  Is the God of Strength mated to the new Goddess of Suffering? Knowing Nylicia, the answer to that is a big, fat YES.

  Well, doesn’t this fuck up things even more?

  Makayla covers her mouth with her hand. The gleeful glint in her eyes is completely gone. Tears shimmer there.

  “He’s the only one I can’t stand to see suffer,” Makayla said before, and at that moment, it’s more than obvious.

  Mind-scrambling, too.

  “You will protect her,” Enteax whispers, his voice barely loud enough for me to hear. He unsheathes his sword, assuming a battle stance on the ledge. “Swear it to me . . . please.”

  Holy fucking mother of everything that ever could and would be unexpected.

  “Swear it to me,” Enteax grits out from behind his clenched, black teeth.

  I surge to my feet, materializing my own weapon. “You don’t get to ask anything of me. I should just kill you right here.”

  “Evesse, no. Please.”

  Ignoring Makayla, I lock eyes with Enteax—and feel like my whole world is spinning.

  This is the same motherfucker who kidnapped me and Ismini.

  The same cocksucking bastard who slapped me into the side of that mountain in the desert—and stabbed me in the throat with the sword currently in his hand.

  The same asshole who led us there so we could be thrown into that vortex and die. And he succeeded, too.

  There’s no denying that he’s pleading with me. Even as he shifts on one foot, preparing to come at me, facial expression frozen in battle lines, his eyes are pleading.

  Funny that I can see that even though his eyeballs are the same color as his skin.

  I still can’t believe I’m about to promise anything to him. “You’re lucky she’s an old friend. Or else I wouldn’t be doing shit for you. You get me?” I have to make that abundantly clear to him.

  He gives a nearly imperceptible nod, acknowledging with that one movement the wrong he did to me.

  I don’t have the whole story, but as I swing my sword around, the lack of hunger to see him bleed takes me completely by surprise.

  He’s done some fucked-up shit in the past. That’s a given. But right now, right here, he’s so ready to die for the girl on the other side of that shield, that it completely overlaps everything he’s ever done before now.

  That’s the moment I understand what constitutes true evil and what doesn’t. Selfishness and selflessness stand on the opposite side of the spectrum. Right now, Enteax is clearly standing on one side of it.

  “I swear it. I shall do everything to protect her.”

  The resulting relief on Enteax’s face is so palpable that I nearly forgive him that very second.

  “Make it look realistic. Rip me apart if you have to.”

  I understand what he’s asking. He’ll be killed if anyone suspects what he’s really up to.

  “God. No. Please don’t hurt him. Please, I’m begging you.”

  Sorry, girl. I rush at Enteax, ignoring Makayla once more. We race across the ledge at each other, swords raised—the impact rings out across the streets, our blades heating up and firing off sparks.

  We’re pushed back away from each other. That doesn’t last long. He comes at me, barely holding back, his sword thrusting at my side. I block it with my own weapon and elbow him in the face, pushing him back again. His leg shoots out, catching me in the arm and sending me flying off the ledge.

  I rematerialize behind him. He flips on his hand, cartwheeling on the ledge until he’s facing me. I appear in front of him, swinging my sword and catching him in the arm. More of his dark blood arches out.

  Makayla muffles a whimper.

  Enteax cranks back his other hand and catches me across the cheek, splitting it open. I grab onto his injured shoulder, digging my fingers in, and drag him close enough to knee him in the stomach.

  He elbows me in the nose.

  Motherfuck, he said make it look realistic, but damn!

  I return the favor, jumping up high enough to elbow him in the back of the head. Touching back down on the ledge, I ram my head into his middle, making him skid several inches backwards. I follow that with a left uppercut that catches him under the chin.

  He retaliates by kicking me right on the tit with the tip of his steel-toed boot. My rib cracks, the sound of it breaking almost audible.

  I stumble away from him, clutching at my chest. Fury is an atomic mushroom going off inside me. Yeah, we have to pretend, and do an Oscar-worthy job at it, but no one kicks me in the fucking tit, breaks my rib, and gets away with it.

  Crying out, I dematerialize, my molecules going hypersonic in his direction. I rematerialize right as I get in front of him, my body reforming just in time to collide with his and send him flying.

  Time seems to slow down. Enteax falls backwards, and I’m practically floating right on top of him. I raise my sword in the air before bringing it down on him. At the last second, I shift it so that it slices through his mid-section, going deep, but not far enough to cut him in half.

  His bloods hit my face, and there’s no denying that a part of me takes satisfaction in it. The part that still remembers what it felt like to be ripped apart by the power of that vortex. I propel myself upward, until my feet are right above where I just sliced.

  He takes the kick into his wound with barely a grunt, even though my boot goes deep into his abdomen, hitting what obviously has to be his intestines.

  This time, Makayla screams his name as his body flies at thousands of miles per hour towards the ground. It takes less than a second for him to make impact, and his body goes at least ten feet through the cement, dirt, and pipes that make up the town’s underground infrastructure.

  Water spews out of the pipes, flooding the hole, and the wave of mud that develops covers any sight of him.

  I dematerialize, landing on the rooftop next to the building Makayla is on. One look tells me Enteax isn’t coming back out of the hole anytime soon, but I can sense he’s still alive down there.

  Panting, I clutch at my rib as it slowly begins to heal. My blood-covered boot slides across the floor as I shuffle to the ledge, leaning on it.

  Big mistake.

  I look up, catching sight of a row of demolished houses. All of them are the simple, two-story kind, with their little front lawns.

  Lawns that are now littered with what’s left of the houses.

  And the houses’ inhabitants.

  I gasp as my eyes land on a dead little girl, her blonde hair and pretty purple dress covered in dirt and mud.

  A toddler.

  She was a tiny, adorable, completely innocent toddler.

  The scream that rips
out of my throat is an ear-splitting wave. It explodes into a high-frequency pulsation that rushes all around me.

  Glass explodes outward from the still standing buildings and houses.

  Below, anything with ears falls to their knees, clutching at their heads.

  And when that scream is done, the little girl is still lying down there in her own blood.

  I open my mouth, falling to my knees, tasting the blood that’s leaking out of my eyes as my powers incapacitate me.

  This time, the scream that leaves me is my R’mann’s name.

  Dersix, God of Impulsion, is using his powers to fuck with my powers of Vengeance.

  The red-skinned ass keeps trying to force me to turn the wraiths on my friends. Fucking asshole wants to circumvent my female’s commands.

  I feel Evesse calling for my Vengeance, and not being able to help her pisses me the hell off.

  I’m locked in hand-to-hand combat with Dersix when the fear of the humans breaks through everything, hitting me in the chest and unleashing my powers of Tranquility.

  There are too many of them huddled in one place, their minds nearly breaking from the horror they’re feeling.

  I slam my boot into Dersix’s face, sending him flying in Cyake’s direction. Cy’s still in his wolf form, his powers heightened by the power of his beastly instincts.

  He probably knew what I was planning to do before I did.

  He gives me a nod before turning on Dersix and attacking him. With the God of Impulsion distracted, I’m able to trace the source of all that fear.

  Forty humans are gathered together in the basement of a warehouse.

  My feet land on the cement floor of the basement with a crunch. The humans give a collective gasp when they see me, huddling away from me and holding onto each other.

  Seeing how injured they are is only the beginning of my rage-spiral. Their emotional grids are shredded to hell. Their minds are decimated, laid barren of everything but self-preservation and utter despair at what they’ve witnessed and gone through.

  Seeing their grids breaks the last of Impulsion’s hold on me, unleashing Vengeance inside me more powerful than ever.

  But first, I have to take care of the humans. Calm them and get them out. I won’t be able to focus on the battle knowing and feeling them here.