What the creature hadn’t been ready for was my mom’s huge blade. She must have jumped from fifteen feet away; she used all of that momentum in a huge overhead strike. The creature was still focused on me but managed to move at the last second as my eyes widened, giving my mother’s attack away. Her blade still found its way into the ghoul, but instead of splitting its skull in half, it buried itself into its shoulder. The ghoul screamed in rage and tried to run away. It was an amazing show of strength that it hadn’t still died outright. Her blade was buried into the ghoul’s shoulder as it lashed out, trying to dislodge it.
I walked up to the howling monster and slammed both of my swords into its feet, pinning it to the ground. Its struggles intensified as April limped forward from behind me. Marcus must have used some of his magic to heal her, and she had done the rest. Her arm was working again, but the rest of her looked bruised and broken. She kneeled to pick up her fallen blade and almost fell over. Marcus reached out to help her back up but stepped back as she cast him a withering glare. She walked slowly toward the ghoul; each step she took brought it closer to death.
I stepped out of the way as she drew near, letting her have this moment alone. My mother ripped her sword free, sending the ghoul into a fit of rage. It slashed out but was unable to remove my swords from its feet. April circled around it until she was standing behind the creature. Both of her blades were already coated in the beast’s black blood. She looked at me over its shoulder, and I nodded to her.
A cry of rage and pain escaped her throat as she crisscrossed her blades behind the creature’s neck. With all of her magically augmented fury, she crossed both blades back in an arc, neatly decapitating the ghoul. When its head landed on the ground, the black eyes blinked and its mouth was still moving. Marcus moved forward and shoved one of his beads into the stump of the creature’s neck. I ripped my swords out from its feet, motioning for everyone to run. My mom ran but in the wrong direction. She picked up the creature’s body and, after three steps, threw it into the remaining zombies.
Adam saw what she did, and with a cry of surprise, he raised a shield around our party. The ghoul’s body landed in the zombies and then exploded in a gigantic wave of fire. It was nearly twice as large as the last blast and nearly destroyed the remainder of the zombie horde. The pack rolled through the carnage, cleaning up the last fifty zombies within seconds. Marcus and I came to our senses and incinerated the bodies they left lying in pieces. Adam was watching the battlefield, looking for any signs of Gaston. His army and his ghouls had been destroyed. Now we had only to find the man himself.
April limped toward me, and Marcus watched her to make sure that she stayed on her feet. My mom stood away from us but kept a wary eye on all three of us as we grouped together. The remaining pack members formed together and howled into the night. Their cries of joy and loss were stopped as Gaston’s gravelly voice rolled over the battlefield.
“Give me the Jar or the girl dies.”
I looked around and then my heart sank. He had Britta. I couldn’t let him kill Britta. He was standing at the edge of the battlefield, his clothes ripped and tattered. All of us turned to face him, and Adam walked toward him. They stood for a moment, staring at each other as if one of them would break under the sheer force of the other’s will. I moved through everyone, shrugging off a few hands that tried to pull me back. I stood slightly behind Adam, my eyes firmly fixed on Gaston.
Adam broke the silence first. “I will not give you the Jar. The girl came here tonight prepared to die. Know this, though, if you kill her, I will not make your passing as easy as last time.”
Gaston held Britta off the ground by the back of her neck with one arm. His strength was incredible. He ran one claw over her belly, making her cry out. Her tears continued to fall, and she screamed. “Please, don’t let him kill me. I don’t want to die.”
I tried to move around Adam, but he put an arm out to stop me. I felt two hands clamp down on my shoulders, and looked back to see Lapointe holding me. My fingers flexed around the hilts of my swords, knuckles turning white. Why wouldn’t they let me go? I could save her or I couldn’t, but we had to at least try.
Gaston made her cry out again before he spoke. “So the boy has a thing for this one. Maybe if I killed her I would be doing you a favor, no?” The grating words of his voice washed over us.
Screw this guy. All I could think of was saving Britta and shutting him up. The inspector’s hand flexed once on my shoulders, and then he let me go. If he expected me to stand still while Britta died, he was out of his mind. Adam watched the lich with a detached patience that I would never be able to match. My body was humming with energy, ready to burst into action.
“You don’t gain anything by killing the girl. She is just a student. Remember how valuable we were to the order when we were just students? Let her go and face me. If you beat me, the Jar is yours.”
There was no way he would go for it, not with all of us here. The second he tossed her away, we would destroy him. He couldn’t be that stupid, could he? Would his pride and desire let him make that fatal choice?
“Ah, but as soon as I let this little flower go, how do I know you won’t all attack me at once?”
“You have my word.”
His grating laughter filled the air. “Your word, your word. I think we all know what that is worth.” His laughter continued for some time without stopping. “I had faith in you once, and you promised me the Jar. Look at me now; look at what you have made me become.”
Adam frowned for a moment, his eyes looking sad as he dredged up some deep dark memory from the past. He worked through it, and his eyes filled with determination. “You did this to yourself, Gaston. Look what your life has become—only death. You wanted to unlock death’s mysteries and you have. Has it been worth it?”
With a scream of rage, he tossed Britta aside and charged straight at Adam. Adam pulled the Jar from inside of his robes and lifted it into the air. Gaston abruptly stopped moving. “You hid part of your soul in the Jar all those years ago, and when someone foolish enough released it, they fell under your influence. Once they released you, you put your plan into motion. The only problem was that the Jar had been moved before you could secure it, secure your freedom.”
Gaston let out an unholy wail. The strength of it made my vision blur. Adam continued to hold the Jar out in front of him. “If only you had acted a little sooner, you might have succeeded. It is possible that with the Jar, you could have destroyed us all.”
He mumbled some words that I didn’t understand, and the Jar started to glow. At first the glass beads around its edges started to glow, and then the center filled with a bright light. Gaston’s body fell to the floor as he let out one last ear-shattering screech. When I looked up, I could have sworn I saw his face screaming in bright blue mist as it was sucked back into the Jar itself.
Everything fell into complete silence until Adam snapped his fingers and Gaston’s body burst into flames. He fed oxygen into the flames until they grew so intense, the ground underneath the body caught fire.
It was over; at least I thought it was. My brain finally flipped the switch, and I rushed toward Britta. I fell on my knees beside her and pulled her into my arms. She looked up into my eyes, and I knew that she was alive. I kissed her then. I couldn’t care less if the entire world was watching. She was safe and alive, and we were going home.
17
Jackson
None of us were in the mood for celebrating when we got back to base, and most of us had to head to the medical ward. Marcus miraculously managed to remain unscathed, and the Lycans went back to their own rooms. Marcus promised us dinner at my place as he walked away. Britta let the healers take a look at her for a moment, and then decided to leave. She walked over and gave me a kiss.
“Where are you going? It looks like you could use a little more attention.”
“Always the charmer.” She smiled at me and kissed me one more time. “They healed the worst of
it, and I’d much rather change into my own clothes and spend the night in my own bed. Plus, as you can testify, I can heal the bruising myself.”
“Oh, I remember.” Yep, still smooth as ice. “Don’t forget about dinner tomorrow night. I’m going to invite my mom.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said, turning away.
When she left, I wondered just what she was actually up to. It was a strange thought, something that would have never crossed my mind until April told me what Sarafina had said. Why would she check out of here knowing that I was going to have to stay, and why wouldn’t she ask me to come with her? I just felt this little twist in my gut, like something was off. It was still niggling at me when the healer moved the curtain aside.
“Let’s have a look at you. Get those smelly clothes off.”
“I, ahh, yeah, ok,” I managed to stammer out. I took off my jacket and shirt and sat back down.
“The pants too,” she said.
“I don’t think I hurt anything on my legs.”
“I’ll be judge of that. Now take them off.” She said it in such a stern no-nonsense way that I found myself complying even though I felt a little awkward doing it.
One look at her face, though, told me she was all business. She raised an eyebrow when I didn’t take off my boxers but didn’t push me any further. A quick exam of my legs and the painful prodding of a few bruises and then she let her magic flow into them, and I felt better instantly. I must have hurt my knees when I slid down next to Britta or after Marcus nearly blew me up.
Next she moved her fingers over the gashes on my chest. As a whole, our race was immune to most disease, and I might even have a little bit better chance of never getting sick or a virus because of my mom, but they took the cleaning of open wounds seriously. Doubly so when they were made by the claws of something deemed to be undead.
She gave me a little smile as I winced at a particularly sore spot on the end of one of the marks. “This is going to hurt a bit.” She almost seemed to relish in it. “We have to clean it out the old fashioned way. Once that’s done, I’ll check it to make sure there isn’t anything else stuck in it and we will wrap it up. In the morning, I’ll check it again, and if it looks good, I’ll hit you with a little more magic and you can be on your way.”
I could have sworn she smiled as I hissed in pain. There is nothing quite like the sting of hydrogen peroxide followed by the inescapable white bubbles of relief. She then cleaned the hydrogen peroxide off with water to get a good look at the wound. Thankfully there was nothing else in there. After three more rounds of peroxide, she hit me with the iodine. By the time she was done, I was pretty sure she could have sewn a dead cat into my chest and I would have been fine.
The nurse took one final look at the wound and then covered it with a temporary dressing. “The showers are over there, and there is a stash of sweats in the lockers. Find some that fit after your shower. When you’re done dressing, I’ll bandage you up and then it’s off to bed.”
“Ok, but can you make sure I get a bed next to April?”
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
I wandered off in the direction of the showers. The lockers showed a diverse catalogue of the exact same sweats. By diverse, I mean different sizes of the exact same dull grey color. I pulled out a pair of sweats that would be baggy but looked really comfortable. Laying them out on the bench so they would be ready for my return, I stripped of my boxers, tossing them into the trash on the way to the shower. The water was already running when I entered the white-tiled shower room. I wondered if that was some kind of magical thing, like a self-activating shower or something.
Then I turned the corner and I had my answer. Nope, it was not a self-activating shower; in fact, it wasn’t an unoccupied shower. All of the showerheads were on. We obviously weren’t too big on water conservation, but there was a figure down at the end of the row who kept me from worrying about that fact much.
April was at the far end of the stalls, washing her bright red hair out and singing a little song under her breath. I was about to turn around and head out when she spotted me standing there. I was naked and she probably thought I was some kind of creeper. She instantly destroyed my perception of the situation when instead of screaming, she smiled and waved for me to join her. It was a difficult journey trying to keep my eyes above the boarders and cover my own parts. I made the awkward stumbling shuffle toward her. I was sure I looked as graceful as a ballerina. Ok, maybe it was more like a jerky sideways slide, but I’ll remember it how I want to.
I turned toward the wall and let the water wash over me. It was easier not to think about her being naked right next to me when I was looking at white tiles. I also hoped the water was covering up the furious blush I could feel creeping up my cheeks.
“Shouldn’t you not be getting that bandage wet?” April asked playfully.
“I’m getting another one put on after the shower,” I managed to stammer out.
“Still, you’re going to make the nurse mad. You can turn around and still stare at the other wall if you want.”
Man, what I wanted was to not be here or to not have to fight against what I had just seen. I mean, I had started to fall for her, and all of sudden there she was naked. Whoa, don’t think naked thoughts. Bad things might happen. All of that kept rushing through my mind as I turned around. “I’m sorry, I thought this was the men’s room,” was all I could manage to say.
She slugged me in the shoulder. “There is no men’s or women’s room in the healing center. It’s just easier to get cleaned up all at once and either get put on a cot or back out into the field. It’s something you probably would have noticed if you ever showered at the gym instead of in your room.”
“Wait, the gym is this way too?” I gave her an incredulous look, one I hoped only stayed at eye level.
“Yep, we don’t share the human world’s taboos of being naked, especially when it’s all business. Think about it. Most of the sports teams all shower together, and you know in the army there are no special breaks. This is a fighting unit; we traditionally work, eat, play, and shower together.”
“It still seems a little weird to me.”
“Yeah, wait until you’re like five hundred and you’ve seen more naked bodies than you know what to do with,” she said.
Now that kind of made sense to me. When you live as long as the gifted do, some of the things we took as serious probably didn’t seem so important. Not to mention that almost all of us were in top physical condition, so there was nothing to be ashamed about.
“Some of the girls had been wondering if you showered in your room because, well, maybe you had a small . . .”
She stopped when I turned and looked at her with growing horror on my face. “What? You guys talk about my junk?”
“Well, rumors get started, and well, yeah, we talked about it.”
“Oh my God,” I said, turning back around and leaning my head against the wall.
“Don’t worry, I’ll report to all of them that they were wrong.”
I looked down and then back at April and then back down. What in the hell was going on? This was so weird. It had to be a dream or a joke. That’s it, April was just screwing with me.
April winked at me and then laughed. She turned back toward her showerhead and started to finish washing her hair. I tried to be logical about it, and coming from families and places where some people had been alive when bathhouses were a way of life, it kind of made sense. It still didn’t feel right. I probably wouldn’t get too much support from my mom in this area either since Lycans pretty much were naked every time they shifted.
It was still weird to me, but if I was going to be a part of this world, I was going to have to overcome some of what I thought of as normal. I decided to forget about it and just wash as fast as I could. April walked past me and made sure to give me a look before walking away. I told myself not to look, but I couldn’t help it. She walked away from me, and
well, I watched the entire time. When she was gone from the shower, I finished washing quickly and then got dressed in my sweats.
The nurse replaced my bandage and then pointed in the direction of the dormitories. They weren’t hard to find because, well, like everything else around here, they had clear signs. I walked in and was surprised at the scale of it. April was already there in the same non-descript grey sweats that I was wearing. It helped that she was wearing big baggy clothes because I still hadn’t been able to shake the image from her in the shower out of my head.
I lay down on my bed, and she got up from hers and curled in next to me. “We did good today, ya know.”
I put my arm around her, cuddling her as a friend would do. She obviously had some feelings she needed to share from the battle. “We sure did. The world is a safer place without Gaston in it.”
I felt her stiffen for a second and then relax against me. She wasn’t crying, but she was close to it. “You dropped everything to save me today.”
“You would have done it for me.”
“Yeah, but I want you to know how much I appreciate that you would do it for me.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek and then curled a little further into my side.
I pulled the blanket up to cover us, and within minutes, she was asleep. Sleep for me wouldn’t come as easy. I was still thinking about the fight and what happened after we got back. Just where in the hell did Britta go? She hadn’t even come back to check on me. Something was up. At least I had my real friends around to keep me company. When I finally felt sleep coming, I said a little prayer, hoping to avoid the same old nightmare.
18
Adam
In the end, we had won without even having to battle Gaston. It still seemed inconceivable to me that all I needed to do was pull his soul back into the Jar. It had been my own hubris that had led us into this potential disaster. I should have left the Jar of Souls well enough alone. Instead, I put it into the hands of people who weren’t ready to handle it, just in the hope of being able to find another weapon to use against the demons.
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