Emeline groaned and a bomb detonated inside him. The hold on him shattered, lifting the fog from his mind.
He’d come close—too damn close—to handing his will over and placing Emeline and everything he loved in jeopardy. Avery charged across the distance separating him from the last remaining beast and Khuket. He didn’t need to look down to see if the claws were there. He knew they were there, a part of him now.
The quimaera and Avery collided. Flesh meeting flesh with bone crunching force. Together, they flew through a pillar. The stone disintegrated and they kept traveling to the grassy courtyard. The brittle grass didn’t cushion Avery’s landing. He hit the ground hard, jarring every bone in his body. No time to recover, he rolled to one knee.
The beast landed on top of him, rather, the exoskeleton shielding him. It absorbed the weight and kept the snapping jaws from clamping on his head.
Above them, Khuket floated to Emeline who leaned against the fountain. The gun in her hand trembled, but she fired. The bullets traveled through the goddess and struck the stone building behind her. Khuket didn’t pause. She wrapped herself around Emeline, smothering her in darkness.
Prepare to watch her die.
He flipped the beast onto its back and buried his claws in its neck. “Hurt her and lose your pet.”
It is easy to replace. Can you say the same about her?
The darkness tightened around Emeline. She gasped for air.
He couldn’t watch her die, wouldn’t. Yet whatever Khuket wanted from him, she couldn’t have it. “What do you want from me?”
I will start with everything. Her lips stretched into a semblance of a smile, but too many sharp teeth crowded the opening.
He ripped his claws from the animal’s back and charged Khuket. Surprise flashed over her face before she vanished. Avery scooped Emeline off the base of the fountain and ran into the wooded grounds.
The park swallowed them, though he had no illusions as to the ability of the quimaera and Khuket to track him. They would be on him soon, but hopefully not before he got Emeline to safety. He dodged trees and brambles, certain the street lay in this direction. But the more he ran, the denser the trees and wilder the brush. Up ahead, light speared the darkness and the whiz of traffic reached him.
He stopped on the edge of a hill overlooking the Hudson River and the Parkway. Somehow, he’d got turned around. Instead of heading out of the park and to the street, he traveled further into the park, toward the river and highway.
Dry grass and leaves crushed underfoot behind him. He was almost out of time. Avery scanned the area. A collection of leaves had gathered under an outcropping of bedrock. Carefully, he placed Emeline in the pile and covered her. Her eyes were wide, frightened.
“Hide here. I’m going to lead them away. When you hear me fighting, make your way to the car and leave.” He shoved the car keys into her hand.
She shook her head and wouldn’t release him. “W-w-we shouldn’t separate.”
Avery pulled away and threw more leaves on top of her. A last glance at her face peeking between the foliage opened a pit in his stomach. If they found her—he ran further down the ledge towards the parkway, creating as much noise as he dared without making it obvious.
He heard a sound, which turned into a stampede before he glimpsed the quimaera leaping in the air. The impact knocked him backward and flung him and the quimaera down the steep embankment. They rolled onto the Parkway. Horns blared. Tires screeched. They broke apart in time to avoid a delivery truck. Another car skidded through the guardrail and swiped a tree, which set off a chain reaction of crunching metal.
Avery backpedaled out of the road to the cliff, drawing the quimaera with him. His claws dug into the hard earth, sharp, shiny, and deadly. Worry about them later. He crested the ridge and watched the quimaera climb. He didn’t wait for him to gain his footing but helped him up by hooking his claws under the tender jaw and pulling.
Avery saw the punch coming to his weak arm before he dropped the beast. He braced for the impact, anticipating the blow. The fist punched through the exoskeleton and landed on his shoulder. Agony whiplashed through him and he stumbled. His claws pulled free. The quimaera’s tail lashed out and slammed into Avery’s body, lifted him off his feet and propelled him into a tree. He crashed into the trunk and plunged to the cold ground. The quimaera towered over him, arms open, claws extended, snout wide. Off to the side, Khuket waited.
Pain numbed half of Avery’s body. He shoved the anguish to the back of his mind. Suffer later, fight now. The beast had to have a weak spot.
Joints. The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone. The tell-tale itch surged once more. Avery punched through the tough skin and muscles, into the hip of the animal. His claws sliced the ligament and tendons. The quimaera collapsed. Avery didn’t pull out. Though the tail relentlessly pummeled him, he traveled his claws upward, through the abdominal cavity and into the chest. He opened up the beast like a can of tuna. Guts spilled and steamed in the November air.
You will still be mine. Khuket came close. Too close. Give me what I desire.
And then what? Not that he had a clue as to what she wanted. And didn’t care. “Not happening.”
Light flared, blinding him. When he could see again, both Khuket and the body were gone. Good. Hopefully, she cleaned up the mess he made of the other one in the gallery. By the flashing lights and sirens, the police were already at The Cloisters. He pushed off from the tree and started back through the park. He had to find Emeline.
But that still left the surveillance tapes. He had to get to a phone and have Quin do his magic. Otherwise, a picture of himself and the quimaera would headline the morning news.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Footsteps rushed by the rock where Emeline was buried. She waited until they faded, counted to fifty, then brushed the dead leaves away and climbed to her feet. Pain laced up her side and left her breathless. Blood trickled from a wound above her hip. The creature had tagged her good.
She slipped her fingers under her shirt and brushed the tender area. No gaping wound or torn flesh. From what she could tell, claws had punctured her, but hadn’t done any real damage. Nothing life-threatening.
For whatever reason, Ridley had made her expendable. Did that mean Grand too? Emeline had to check on her grandfather. And if Ridley hurt him, she would pay. This game she played was over.
Emeline limped from the park, leaving the sounds of battle and her heart behind her. Police cars whizzed by as she crossed the street and leaned against a parking meter to catch her breath.
Avery.
So what if he told her to go? I shouldn’t have left him. The conviction shredded her survival instinct and replaced it with a need to see Avery’s face, know he was safe.
But what about Grand? Go forward or go back. She had to choose.
At a red light, she marshaled her strength and recrossed the street. The opening of the park beckoned like a yawning maw ready to devour, with dry, bare tree branches scraping against each other and the trail leading the way into the belly of the night.
Illumination from the street lights ended a few feet in leaving her navigating by the sparse light from a crescent moon. Running away from darkness and terror, toward the light, was distinctly different than running toward the darkness and the unknown. Emeline’s feet picked up speed. She ignored her aching side until all she heard was her ragged breath and her boots crunching on the brittle grass and fallen leaves.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. “Hello?” she answered without looking at the screen.
“Give me what was in the storage unit!” Ridley snarled.
She sounded breathless. Was she running? “There wasn’t anything in it,” Emeline said.
“Liar. I want what you found. Don’t make me hurt an old man to get it.”
Emeline gripped the phone so hard the screen cracked. “Ridley, listen to me carefully. You hurt my grandfather and I will bury you.”
“I won’t
hurt him if you give me what I want!” A screech came across the phone. Ridley gasped. “I need it, Emeline. I want—” The line went dead.
Seemed something hunted Ridley while she hunted Emeline. Good. Whoever, whatever, Ridley was afraid of, Emeline wanted it to eat the bitch alive in small enough chunks to keep her busy for a while. At least long enough for Emeline to get to her grandfather.
Crunching leaves sounded to her left. Something was coming her way. Before she reacted, a body barreled into her. Strong arms clasped her to a familiar chest. Not caring about the pain in her side, Emeline wrapped herself around him and held tight.
“You’re alive.” God, he felt…good. So damn good, she had to blink away the tears blinding her.
“I told you to leave.” His gruff voice was soft against her ear.
“Whatever.” She pulled away and looked at him.
Blood covered his face and bits of other stuff clung to him. Her stomach rolled. It couldn’t be all his.
She yanked open his coat and moved her hands along his chest and abdomen. “Are you hurt?”
“Nothing I won't heal from.”
“You sure about that?” Panicked at the thought of losing him, she searched his face for the truth.
He nodded. “I didn’t know you cared?”
She shouldn’t. Caring complicated matters when her focus should be Windex clear.
Emeline shucked off her coat and used a sleeve of her sweater to wipe the blood from his face. Motionless, he submitted to her ministrations.
“You don’t have to do this.” His voice was a caress in the midst of danger.
“I—I can’t let you out in public looking like Jeffrey Dahmer at dinnertime.”
A burst of static and radio chatter alerted them to the police closing in.
“This way.” Emeline’s side ached, but she kept moving. They cleared the park and kept to the opposite side of the street, away from the U-haul storage units and the police. Traffic, vehicular and pedestrian, had thinned with the late hour, allowing them to remain inconspicuous.
“What happened? Did you kill them?”
“I stopped them. At least for the moment.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Means exactly what I said. Quimaera are hard to kill. There’s only one thing I know of that can kill them and I don’t have it.”
“Quimaera?” She swallowed the lump in her throat. The name brought memories of a page in the grimoire. A sketch of a creature she summed up as mythological nonsense now roamed the land.
A shiver raced through her blood from the wound in her side. She stumbled over her own feet and hissed in pain when Avery caught her.
“Where are you hurt?” He scanned her body first with his eyes, then with his hands gliding over her abdomen.
Emeline slapped his touchy mitts away. “It’s a scratch.” She pressed on, focused on getting to the car and getting to her grandfather.
Another block and they made it to the Range Rover. She unlocked the car and Avery led her to the rear. He opened the lift gate and sat her on the edge of the trunk
“Lift up your shirt.” His tone left no room for arguments.
Emeline leaned back and raised the hem. Cold air buffeted her skin and cooled the ache.
Avery eased closer, his gaze intense. “That’s more than a scratch.”
She glanced down at the three puncture wounds on her flank. “It’s less than a gouge.” No blood seeped from the openings. “Fix me up and let’s get out of here.”
Avery wadded some gauze and carefully taped the square to her skin.
“We need to get you to a doctor.”
Good thing they were going to the hospital to check on Grand.
Avery removed his shirt and doused himself with water from a gallon jug. Steam rose from his skin and curled in the November air. He used the shirt to mop up and did a pretty good job of removing the blood, and also gave her another tantalizing display of muscles. Too bad he covered it up with another shirt from a gym bag.
As he wiped down his leather coat, she walked around to the driver side and slid behind the wheel.
“You up to driving?” he asked, plopping himself in the passenger seat.
She started the car and pulled into traffic before saying, “Yep.”
“Do you have your cell phone? I lost mine somewhere between the storage unit and the museum.”
“Can the police trace it?” She fished the phone out of her pocket and handed it to him.
He shook his head. “No.” He stroked his thumb across the screen and dialed.
Emeline could hear the phone ringing on the other end. “Who is this?” Someone answered on the third ring.
“It’s me, Quin.”
“Glad to know you’re alive. We were about to hunt you down. I’m still checking on the info you wanted,” Quin said while someone yelled in the background.
“Nothing interesting yet?”
“No, but still digging.” She heard Quin say.
Avery switched the phone to his other ear. “I need you to check the status of two crime scenes.” He told Quin about The Cloisters and the storage unit. “And handle the cameras. I took care of most.”
He paused and she caught pieces of a garbled conversation.
“Yeah. I got a few things to say to him, too.” He closed the phone and gave it back to Emeline. “Concerned for Grand?”
“Yes.” She exited the highway.
“Why? He has no part of this. Those people at U-Haul couldn’t possibly know you or your grandfather. So he should be completely safe in his hospital bed. With his favorite pudding.”
His sarcasm smacked her, leaving her without a witty reply. Now was a good time to explain, but his cold, hard features didn’t make her warm and fuzzy. Her mouth opened and closed like a damn guppy while her brain sputtered.
Avery punched the glove compartment, denting and popping it open. The sound ricocheted around the car, frightening her as much as a gunshot.
“What the hell! Was that necessary?” she shouted.
Avery flexed his fingers and rolled those big shoulders. “Very necessary. Anything you want to divulge now would be a damn good time.” His low voice had a razor’s edge.
Wasn’t hard to imagine that line as the opening to an aggressive interrogation session. One you may not survive and the polar opposite of the voice that seduced her last night and caressed her this morning.
This was the man she watched and feared. Telling him the truth now, would he bail? Probably. She would.
Tell the truth and watch him walk away when she needed him? Not for herself, for Grand… “Wanna tell me about your girlfriend? Didn’t realize sleeping with you was so dangerous.”
A low chuckle grated from his throat. “Am I going to have to listen to a list of regrets?”
She gripped the wheel and bit her tongue. Tit for tat wasn’t going to work. “Just tell me what she is.”
Silence stretched. Emeline hazarded a glance his way. He had a confused look on his face which defied explanation. “For God’s sake, say something.”
“I don’t know, all right.” His voice whipped around the interior of the car.
“Did that cost you a kidney to say?” He had no right to be mad when they both needed information. “What did she want?”
He gave a solemn shake of his head. “I have no damn idea.”
Grrreat! She silently growled. Either she believed he was clueless, or she didn’t. Right now, she walked a fine line between the choices on her plate. Could she trust him? Was he telling her the truth? And who the hell was she to judge.
“What about your special powers?” She glanced at him. He stared at his knuckles, flexing and releasing his fingers.
“Not sure about that, either,” he whispered.
The Avery Nicolis she had stalked was sure about everything. Master of the Universe, et cetera...et cetera…at least she thought so. “When did it start?” His gaze landed on her while she focused on the
road.
“A few weeks ago. The brawl at RedZone.” His voice held a hollow note.
Quickly, her mind shuffled through the events of that night. “I remember you saved me, then I got caught up with the crowd and ended up outside. I didn’t believe the outlandish reports but after tonight… What changed after RedZone?”
“You remember that?” he asked surprised.
How could she forget? “Yeah. That chair would’ve knocked me out if you hadn’t blocked it.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “What are you hiding, Emeline?”
And the conversation swung back to her. “Not a damn thing.”
Emeline pressed the gas and the car leaped forward. She caught his glare in her peripheral. Was the lie that bad it couldn’t pass muster for ten seconds? Apparently, she thought, weaving through traffic. She exited the highway a block away from the hospital and circled, futilely looking for a parking spot.
“Park there in the deserted loading dock.” He pointed and leaped out of the car as soon as she stopped.
Emeline shifted in her seat and had to catch her breath. It took everything she had to beat back the pain. As soon as she checked on Grand, she’d go to the emergency room…and tell Avery the truth. He deserved that much.
She took a fortifying breath and exited the car. Avery crowded her. Her back pressed against the car and his body blocked her from seeing anything but him.
“After we make sure your saintly grandfather is all right, you will tell me everything. Don’t make me wring it out of your pretty ass, ’cause I will.” He pivoted and marched toward the hospital, leaving her to catch up. Together they entered the building. A security guard stopped them as soon as they exited the revolving doors. “Visiting hours are over. You’ll have to come back in the morning.”
Emeline glanced at his name tag and plastered a smile on her face. “Please, Officer Johnson, I just got in from out of town and I have to see my grandfather. He’s not doing very well.”
The guard’s gaze shifted between her and Avery. Fear and flirtation warred within their depths. “I wish I could let you in Miss, but it’s against the rules. I can call the floor and ask if they’ll make an exception.”
Evermore (Descendants of Ra: Book 3) Page 21