Alamut’s head bobbed on his fanned neck. “We are a ssstrange bunch.” Alamut seemed to sigh and gather his strength.
Avery braced. Primed for destruction.
“Time to whittle the Nicolisss family tree down to a ssstump.”
Faster than Avery blinked, Alamut had him around the waist and in the air. His claws dragged against the exoskeleton; sparks flew around both of them.
Avery didn’t know what the hell this was that surrounded him, protected him, and he’d never been happier in his life. He hooked Alamut under his chin, buried his own claws deep into the tender underside of Alamut’s snout. Flesh opened. Blood ran. Alamut’s howl sang in the air. Overhead, the lights flickered, burst, and died.
Alamut slammed Avery into a nearby pole. Ribs cracked, sounded like an explosion within Avery’s body, and an agonizing wheeze left his throat. Alamut yanked away, tearing a hunk of his own flesh. Avery dropped and wedged again between two containers.
Alamut stumbled, went down to one knee clutching his ravaged jaw. “Come to me, Emeline,” Alamut slurred.
Avery twisted his head as much as he could and glimpsed Emeline with the gun aimed and Grand on the floor by her feet, crawling away.
Shots rang. Alamut jerked, grunted, “Ah, foreplay. I like you.” And climbed back to his feet.
Avery shoved the box away, freeing himself, and causing more to tumble. One crashed inches from cracking open his skull. He picked it up, ignored his painful ribs, and threw it. The crate crashed into Alamut, carried him across the warehouse, and pinned him against a wall. The path to the exit was clear.
“Emeline, run!”
“I can’t!” She fought with Grand, who had managed to open the sarcophagus and was leaning inside. It wasn’t a coffin, but a damned storage container.
“I tire of this.” Alamut leaped in the air. His spiked tail lashed out. The impact rocked Avery, pierced the exoskeleton, and his chest.
A single, strangled cough, and his left lung collapsed. He drew in a ragged breath and blocked the pain racing through his side. Too much depended on him not succumbing to the agony rolling through his body. He latched onto the tail and pulled himself free, but didn’t let go. He dug his claws into the tough hide. Alamut bellowed, thrashed, lifted Avery in the air, and pounded him into the pile of boxes.
Head tilted back, low guttural chants came from Alamut, deeper than his throaty barks. Avery leaped onto Alamut’s back and climbed his way to the fanned neck.
Alamut threw himself on top of the crates. He rolled and kept chanting. His words gaining in volume, power, until he ended on a shout. The building groaned as if answering his call. Stacks of crates vanished as holes opened in the foundation of the building. From Avery’s angle, squashed beneath Alamut, he stared into a pit—and the quimaera stirring in the goop. Arms and legs pulled free as they separated from each other and rose from the abyss.
Two quimaera scrambled up a tower of boxes and faced Alamut. Smaller, with less body mass, that didn’t diminish their deadliness. Alamut snatched Avery from beneath him and tossed him in the air. When he landed the quimaera were on him. They pinned his legs and arms. One wrapped its tail around his neck and squeezed. The appendage worked in a tight rhythm against his throat. His muscles twitched, hungry for a sip of oxygen.
Vision dimmed to just a pinpoint of light, everything multiplied by three. Claws outstretched, tail snaking toward him poised to strike.
Gunshots boomed. One, two, three, four, he counted in rapid succession. The two quimaera jerked from the impact. They released Avery’s arms and scrabbled toward Emeline. He sucked in a lungful of air to his starving cells and freed his daggers from his coat. He flung them, watched as they cartwheeled through the air. Both hit their marks at the base of the beast’s necks, without pause they continued over the unsteady landscape. Alamut tossed the remaining quimaera away from Avery and stomped on the shield. All of Alamut’s weight focused on the spot above Avery’s heart. The exoskeleton splintered. The sound reverberated to his marrow. To keep the shield in place, he had to focus, but all he couldn’t take his gaze off Emeline.
From the sarcophagus, Grand tossed her a short Egyptian blade. She pivoted and threw it into the eye of the nearest beast while ducking beneath the claws of the second animal. His momentum took him past her. Before the first beast landed, she’d plucked the blade from his eye and used it to slash the tail off the second one. In one smooth motion, she picked up the bloody stump, and buried the barbed end in the first beast’s skull.
With the sword, Emeline sliced a deep gash in the animal’s throat. The quimaera flopped on the ground, twitched, and didn’t get back up. The first animal rose. She pivoted, jabbed the blade into the dip between the chest and neck, and twisted. Its cry died on a wet gurgle. They were down but not out. It was just a matter of time before they regenerated. This was a battle the home team couldn’t win.
Alamut roared, a terrifying sound to the uninitiated ear. He charged toward Emeline. Avery sprang to his feet. His body knitting together much too slowly to reach her in time. He willed Emeline to move, run, get the hell out of the way. She stood her ground. In one hand, the Egyptian blade; the other, her empty fist. On her face, a snarl instead of fear.
With a bounding leap, Avery caught Alamut around the neck. His aim to bring Alamut down. The move slowed Alamut’s momentum, not halted him. Avery hung on, squeezing with all his might. Alamut raised his arm, claws gleaming and extended.
Avery spotted Emeline as he peered over Alamut’s shoulder. “Move!”
She didn’t spare him a glance, but braced for impact, an impact that would kill her.
Alamut’s arm reared back. Avery hooked his own arm around the huge limb and let it drag him over the torso. Left jab, right jab. Uppercut once, twice, he released a flurry of blows. Still, Alamut’s deadly claws closed in on Emeline. They would rake her, fillet her.
No! Rose from his heart and stuck in his throat. Everything inside him braced for the inevitable.
Grand pushed Emeline out of the way. Claws tore the flesh from his side and flipped him in the air.
Emeline’s scream escalated and echoed before dying on an abrupt note. Avery tuned her out. He blocked a right cross and delivered his own. Alamut’s fists connected, but Avery didn’t feel the pain. And he didn’t stop until the wail of a siren halted their brawl.
Alamut grabbed Avery by his coat and hurled him through the single blacked-out window. Avery sailed over the sidewalk, slid across a parked car, slammed onto the blacktop, and skidded to a painful stop on his side.
Brakes squealed, tires smoked, a police car swerved to a stop inches away from crushing his head. Avery climbed to his feet before the officers exited their car. He ignored their orders to halt and ran back into the warehouse. His one thought: Emeline.
The door slammed shut behind him. He glanced over his shoulder at the quimaera blocking the only exit. But it wasn’t the only one he had to worry about. Other quimaera were up, leaving a trail of goop, and streaming through another vortex. They ignored him as he weaved through their ranks.
Alamut stood next to the swirling opening, ushering them in like a messiah pointing the way to the promised land. The gold jewel-encrusted dagger was clutched in his hand. He raised it high. Whatever Alamut planned to do with the weapon didn’t bode well. Their gazes locked, but Alamut continued with his flock.
Avery tracked deep into the recesses of the warehouse, skirting several pits before he found Emeline sitting on the floor with Grand stretched out, his head in her lap. Blood covered the hand she had pressed to her grandfather’s wounds.
Avery dropped down beside her. Grand’s chest moved in increments. He coughed. A wretched sound. Blood and spittle coated his lips. Tears streamed down Emeline’s face. Avery couldn’t find the words to make it better. Hell! There wasn’t anything that could make this better. And they had to move. “We have to get out of here.”
“We can’t move him! Just give him a minute to-to catc
h his breath!” She cried.
He cupped her face, wiped her tears, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. A lie would be gentler, but he wouldn’t do that to her. “I’ll carry him and we’ll get some help once we’re outside.”
“He c-c-can’t d-die. Won’t let ‘im,” she sobbed.
“Eme.” Grand sputtered weakly.
“I’m h-here, G-Grand.” She scrubbed a hand over her soaked face and visibly pulled herself together. “It’s okay. You don’t have to fight anymore. Let go. Just let go.” Her words broke on each note.
“Eme. Sweetie.” His trembling hand wavered as he patted her cheek.
She clutched his fingers, brought them to her lips. “I know, Grand. I love you too.”
Desperation. He never wanted to hear that note in her voice again. Red and blue lights dissected the warehouse. The police were gathering forces outside the building. Any moment, they would try to breach. If the quimaera were still in the building, there would be a bloodbath. And if not, what explanation could Avery give? Not that they’d believe his answers. Without proof, no sane person would.
Grand coughed. His chest heaved and caved and blood dripped from his scalp into his eye. He’d never seemed so frail. “So sorry.”
Her hand shook as she touched her grandfather’s face. Tears dripped onto his leathery cheeks “It’s okay. It’s all right.”
“Let’s get him out of here.” Carefully, Avery scooped her grandfather up while Emeline lifted his head. He adjusted his bundle and climbed a small crate which led to a larger one.
“Going somewhere, Brother?” Alamut said. The quimaera had completed their journey, leaving only Alamut by the opening. “But I have a presssent for you.” He destroyed a light bulb in a low-hanging fixture above his head. Sparks flew. Danced over the crates and landed in the slime left by the quimaera.
Flames erupted, trailed to the other pits and they erupted. Orange and greenish tongues licked up the walls and started feeding on everything in the warehouse. His lungs burned, choked, and plunged him back into his nightmare.
No. Not again. Only this time worse. Against Avery’s will, a memory of him crawling through a room engulfed in fire to reach his baby brother surged forward. The sear. The smell of his burning flesh. Flames everywhere. Nowhere to escape. He fell to the ground and covered EJ’s little body with his own.
No. The memory wasn’t right. That wasn’t how it happened. He got them out of the trailer. Didn’t he? The burned flesh on his shoulder tightened, demanding attention he didn’t have to give. Avery pushed the sensation back. Forced it away before his brain tumbled too far down that broken path.
He blinked back the memories to see Alamut racing toward him. He gave Grand to Emeline who carried her grandfather easily. “Go! Don’t look back.” He didn’t wait for an answer. But streaked to his death. Alamut or the flames. Tonight, one of them would kill him. But Emeline would live.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Emeline dodged pits engulfed in flames to reach the other side of the warehouse and the exit. She rushed through the door and into the fresh, smog-filled, yet sweet air. She dropped to her knees and breathed. Fire trucks and police cars surrounded the exterior. A fireman ran up to her and she placed Grand in his arms. More swept by and entered the building.
“Is he—Is he?” The words choked her.
The fireman lay Grand on the middle of the street. Paramedics took over his care, opening his coat, checking for a pulse. Four deep gashes had shredded the left side of his chest. “What happened to him?” one questioned.
She couldn’t tell them the truth because the truth was impossible to explain. “He fell on some equipment in the warehouse.” The lie had no legs to carry it, but it was all she could come up with.
They started compressions on his chest and pumping oxygen into his lungs. Even in the cacophony of noise created by the firemen and police, she heard her grandfather’s ribs snapping like kindling.
An explosion rocked the building. “Fall back!” The fire chief cried, not far from where she huddled next to Grand.
Avery.
He was still inside with Alamut, the animal who killed her grandfather.
Emeline rose from the cold asphalt. Hate pulsed in her veins, clenched her muscles to her bones, moved her around the fire truck and the firemen backing away from the building. She had three thoughts. Get inside, save Avery, and kill Alamut. Someone blocked her. Hands yanked at her, tried to stop her from reentering. She shoved them aside and heard the thud of their bodies landing a few feet away.
More hands grabbed her; a mistake on their part, because Emeline wouldn’t be stopped. She deflected, punched, tripped, and made her way through the men preventing her from her goal of finding Avery and killing Alamut.
Emeline darted back into the building and slammed into a wall of heat that baked her. Flames touched everything, feeding off the tinder provided by the crates and cardboard, and the items within. Thick smoke obscured and burned her eyes, burned her lungs.
“Avery!”
Emeline ran through the smoldering path the water had cleared. In only minutes, the entire landscape of the warehouse had changed. Visibility had reduced to an arm’s length. Combined with her tearing eyes and blurred vision, she may as well be blind. Flames crackled around her, sending her terror to a new level. She forged on.
“Avery.” Her voice had reduced by half.
Despair wrapped around her mind. Even if Avery had found a safe place to hole up in, he couldn’t survive the smoke and the fire. She wanted to tear through the place, but he could be anywhere, under anything. “Answer me!”
Grunts, flesh hitting flesh, the sounds came as music to her ears. She climbed the nearest tower of boxes and glimpsed a barbed tail vanishing and appearing, teasing her in the thick smoke.
A sharp piece of curved metal landed next to her from the collapsing roof. It was heavy, she hoped heavy enough to pierce the animal’s hide. The tail appeared again. Emeline didn’t wait. She rushed forward with her newly-found weapon aimed high.
As Alamut reared, he spun away from Avery and into the sharp end of Emeline’s improvised spear. She thrust the metal deep into the side of his neck. A gurgled scream rumbled out of his mouth and reverberated through the building.
Alamut clawed at his neck, but Avery slammed his fist into the metal, impaling it deeper.
“Let go, Emeline!”
“No. Not until he’s dead.”
Alamut knocked Avery aside and took her on a ride over the toppled debris and through the flames.
Bouncing against his side, Emeline held on tight to the end of the metal. Her name mingled with the crackle of the flames. She glimpsed Avery—the dark aura coating him—barreling after them through the smoke and flames and knew what it cost him. “Go back,” she screamed.
“Damn it, Emeline, let go!”
“Hang on, Emeline,” Alamut hissed and picked up speed.
“He’s headed for the vortex. Jump, Emeline. Now!”
“Too late, Brother. I’m already here.”
Power from the gate licked up her spine, flashed through her muscles. Emeline let go.
***
Why the hell had she returned?
Avery’s heart stopped when Alamut turned tail and ran. The last thing Avery expected was Emeline dangling from a pole in the beast’s back. So much for him thinking the ass kicking he was laying down caused Alamut to run away.
Avery caught Emeline before she plummeted into a smoldering pile of debris. They rolled toward the pulsating vortex Alamut has just escaped through. It vanished with a sucking sound and a pop, saving them from ending up God knows where.
“Emeline.” He gathered her limp body in his arms, but she was alive. Parts of the roof rained from above. She wouldn’t be alive long with the building falling apart around them. They had to escape.
Avery scanned the area, what he could see, which wasn’t much. He cradled Emeline and jumped down into the nearest fire free pathway. He turned t
o backtrack the way he had come, but flames blocked the route. Each way he spun, towers of orange death devoured everything edible. God knows, there was plenty to eat.
He stopped to shuck off his coat and wrap it around Emeline. She slumped in his arms, unconscious. Blurry eyed and frantic, he searched for a way around the inferno. But there was only one way out, through the fire.
Something crashed behind him. He looked up. Another section of the roof had collapsed. Fresh air added fuel to the flames. He had no time to brace. No time to think before they were on him. He covered her body with his own and prayed it would work one more time.
Avery kissed her. In their last moments alive, he wanted this to be his final memory.
The fire swept over them. He braced for the sizzle of flesh. The excruciating pain. None of that happened. He peeked at Emeline and saw a glimmering aura coating her. The exoskeleton covered him and extended over her. The inferno didn’t touch them. Gratitude flooded him. Never had he been more grateful for something he still didn’t understand.
A piercing whistle echoed above the crackling inferno. Avery turned. McIntosh stood inside the flames. They danced around him. Licked up one side and down the other. “You called. I came. In the nick of time, I see. Follow me.”
Questions exploded in Avery’s mind. The obvious: How the hell was he here and able to stand in the fire? And what the fuck was he? Answers could wait until they got the hell out of Hell.
Avery picked Emeline up and trailed behind McIntosh, the flames parting as they advanced to a dark corner in the back of the warehouse. “This isn’t the way out.”
“It is now.” McIntosh clamped a hand on Avery’s shoulder and shoved him into the dark wedge between the walls. Avery fell backward and kept falling. Sight, sound, air, all ceased, except for the reassuring weight of Emeline in his arms. He clutched her to him, afraid to lose her to the void.
A second later, he popped out of the darkness. All of his senses returned and he landed back first on the concrete with Emeline on his chest. He pulled his coat away from her face. Smudges covered her skin, especially around her nose and mouth. He leaned close to check her breathing.
Evermore (Descendants of Ra: Book 3) Page 28