Immortal Duty

by J. K. Coi

  “Then let’s go! We’ll find him. Bring my brother back.” Amy flinched even as she said the words, torn between fear for Gideon and the unfairness of sending her lover out to face such a being.

  “I intend to.”

  Amy sighed, “I know.”

  And she did. She sensed the coldness that slowly invaded his entire being, and she was glad for it. It would keep him from succumbing to the fear that Amy herself couldn’t stop shaking with. It would keep him alive and bring him back to her—with her brother in tow. She could believe in no other outcome.

  “Oh, and Rhys,” Baron interrupted, “he took your Harley.”

  “He took my—” Rhys shook his head. “The man has a serious death wish. Just for that, when I haul his ass back here he’s going to wish I had left him for demon food,” Rhys sounded pissed, but he turned then to give Amy a reassuring smile, and she knew he was teasing…mostly.

  “Baron, I want you to stay here and protect Amy while Alric and I hit one end of town and Roland and Kane start at the other.”

  Baron nodded in agreement, “Sure thing.”

  Amy looked from one man to the other, marveling at the astronomical levels of testosterone in the room all of a sudden. “Wait just a minute. No. I said I was going with you.”

  “No. You’re not.” Rhys’ tone was rigid. He would not argue and he would not negotiate.

  Amy wasn’t in the least intimidated. “Forget it, Rhys. You don’t know Gideon like I do. He’s my brother—my twin. I’m the only one who can find him quickly enough.”

  “Do you know where he went?” Rhys asked.

  “I could make a few educated guesses,” she hedged.

  “Then just tell me, Amy.”

  Amy opened her mouth to argue with him.

  “No.” His tone was hard, final. “You aren’t leaving the premises. If you won’t tell me where to find your brother, then I’ll just waste more time looking in all the wrong places and Gideon will be dead. Can you live with that?”

  Amy ended up giving Rhys the address of Gideon’s apartment and the location of two or three other places she knew he went when he had something on his mind. Rhys pressed a quick, hard kiss to her lips as a promise that he wouldn’t let her down.

  Rhys ended up sending Kane and Roland over to Gideon’s office at the IMO Labs to start. Then, after loading up with gear, he and Alric went to Gideon’s apartment.

  Amy paced. She’d been pacing since Rhys had left to find Gideon, worrying about them both.

  It didn’t help that she remembered seeing Doyle’s death in her mind. It had felt like she’d died right along with him. Amy was very aware of just how dangerous this Gray person was.

  How desperate.

  If she knew her brother as well as she thought she did, then he should be at one of the places she had listed off to Rhys and they would be able to find him without much difficulty.

  Right?

  God, she hoped so. She wanted them both back here safe and sound within the hour.

  But even if they returned safely today, would that really change what happened tomorrow or the next day? How long were they all going to hide in this building together? How long could she force Rhys to stay? Not long. And definitely not long enough for Gray to get tired of waiting. He would just come in after them or simply blow the place sky high to flush everybody out then pick them off like old tin cans on the back fence.

  How long before Rhys decided to take the fight out to Gray himself?

  He would want to do it tonight, even if they got Gideon back without incident.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Gideon had spent a lot of time analyzing the situation, exploring his options and just plain thinking.

  After returning to his apartment, he’d left again after a few minutes, taking only a change of clothes. For some reason he didn’t want any of the things that had once been his. They didn’t belong to him anymore, but to a man who no longer existed. He felt like he’d outgrown the trappings of his former life and was moving on to something…bigger.

  He’d been having trouble assimilating all of the shockers of the last few days. He needed time to himself to absorb all of the repercussions of what had happened and what it would mean for his life from now on. He was beginning to realize that these changes didn’t have to be bad. Granted, there weren’t a lot of women out there who would want to get serious with a guy who never grew old. It just wasn’t good for the self-image.

  But Gideon had never been one for long-term relationships anyway, and he was beginning to be able to see the advantages, the possibilities that existed for him as an Immortal…if all this was really true. He still planned to run some tests to verify what he had been told.

  He could continue his research. There was so much he would be able to do with the knowledge and resources that were now available to him. And he could be part of something more, something meaningful.

  Gideon didn’t know much about these demons, but if even half of what Rhys, Kane and Roland told him was actually true, then Gideon thought he would count himself in to do whatever he could. Because if he’d learned nothing else, it was that life was made up of a series of moments, of choices that affected everyone around you. If Gideon was destined to live forever, it was even more important that he be proud of the choices he made. He wanted to be able to say that he had helped others, made some small difference and been true to his destiny. He wanted to know that he’d done something worthwhile with the life his parents had given him, even if they were never able to know it.

  Gideon had left Rhys’ bike back at his apartment to go for a short walk and clear his head. He was walking back when he was overwhelmed by a sudden oppressive feeling of ice cold. He looked around, sensing the danger, but it wasn’t directed at him, it was… Oh God—Amy was in trouble.

  He could sense Amy’s fear—she was afraid for her very life.

  Amy, where the hell are you? he wondered, his system jammed with adrenaline and panic.

  Gideon? Gideon, hurry. Please get help.

  Was that…? Amy, how—?

  Please. Find Rhys. You have to hurry. Baron’s hurt and I don’t know how much longer he’s going to last.

  Gideon didn’t bother wasting time trying to figure out how Amy was communicating with him. He sprinted back to his apartment and just as he was racing out of the parking garage with the Harley, Rhys’ Hummer pulled up in front of him. The window rolled down and Alric poked his head out.

  “Hey, kid. We’ve been looking everywhere for—”

  “No time,” Gideon yelled. “We have to get back to the warehouse. Amy is in trouble.”

  Rhys didn’t wait for an explanation, but peeled rubber as he hit the gas. Gideon pulled ahead on the bike and they sped across town. When they arrived, Rhys jumped out of the car, ordering Gideon to hang back and wait.

  As much as he wanted to smash through the front door with his gun cocked and ready, he knew it wouldn’t be the smart thing to do, would just get Amy killed that much sooner. They had to do this right, go in prepared…and he had to try to bury his fear.

  “Rhys.” Gideon sounded worried. “Something’s happened. Amy said Baron was hurt and I…I can’t feel anything from her anymore.”

  This was his dream—his nightmare come true. This was the moment he’d been dreading for weeks. Rhys’ jaw tightened with determination. He wasn’t going to let it happen. He would be in time.

  “Alric, I want you to pull the car to the garage in full view of the cameras. Maybe if he’s watching you he won’t see us coming in from the back.”

  “Okay, but I doubt it’ll work. He’s smart enough to be expecting something like that.”

  “I know, but we’ll do it anyway. Gideon will go through the back door and I’ll try to slip past the cameras on the roof, to come in through the casement window.”

  Everyone nodded their understanding of the plan, then Rhys started running. He hoped to God he wasn’t already too late.

  * * * * *
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  Almost as soon as the others had left the building, Amy experienced a sense of unease and realized that Gray was near. The darkness inside him assaulted her with its perfect coldness. His was complete and utter ruthless determination.

  She felt him approaching and tried to warn Baron, but Gray was already in the building.

  “Amy, get out of here,” Baron told her. “Go while I try to slow him down.”

  “Forget it, Baron. I’m not leaving. We do this together.”

  “Amy, I said get out,” he growled at her.

  She ignored him. “No way. Don’t forget, Gray will benefit just as much from your death as he would from mine.”

  “Maybe, but I’m done either way.” He pushed her in front of him and they started to run down the hall to the back doors. “And I think I’d rather take my chances with the bad guy than face off against Rhys if I end up getting you killed.”

  Amy snorted and grabbed Baron’s hand. “Not gonna happen, so stop talking and get your ass moving.”

  As they raced down the hallway, the lights went out. Gray pursued calmly but relentlessly, and Amy felt like Linda Hamilton running from the Terminator.

  They weren’t going to make it out of the building. Looking back, she was just in time to see Gray aiming a gun at them and tried to push him out of the way. Too late. The bullet tore into his side, and she stumbled as he pitched over to his knees.

  “Come on, Baron. You can pass out later. Right now you’ve got to stay with me,” Amy told him sternly. She roughly pulled him back to his feet, forcing him to breathe through the pain. They lurched forward and she pushed him through the next door they came across.

  It was Rhys’ boardroom. Thankfully all the doors in the building had locks on them, and this was no exception, but the bolt was pretty weak. She snapped it into place anyway and dragged a chair over, jumping as Gray hammered against the door.

  Amy helped Baron down to the floor, steadying him against the back wall of the room. He wasn’t looking so good and she lifted his shirt to inspect the hole in his side, poking and prodding as softly as she could.

  “Damn, woman,” Baron gasped through clenched teeth. “I thought doctors were supposed to be gentle.”

  “Shut up, and just try to focus on not dying.” Amy gently smoothed aside a lock of sweaty hair from his forehead.

  “Won’t die…at least not from this. Hey…you keep that up…I’ll have to steal you away from Rhys,” Baron joked, a faint smile ghosting across his pasty face.

  Amy laughed, trying to keep the worry out of her voice. “You aren’t up to the challenge.”

  “You don’t think I could take Rhys?”

  “I meant you’re not up to taking me on.” Amy tore off Baron’s shirt and wrapped it around his belly as a makeshift dressing. The wound was bleeding steadily and it looked like the bullet hadn’t passed all the way through. She thought it might be lodged in a rib. If she couldn’t get them out of this soon, he was going to bleed out…and that would kill him.

  Thankfully, she felt Gideon trying to reach her and she was pretty sure she’d connected with him through their mental bond. She begged him to hurry. She knew he’d find Rhys. Hopefully soon. Very soon.

  Baron was fading fast. Amy worried that Rhys wasn’t going to make it in time. That door wasn’t going to hold Gray back for a minute longer. For lack of anything better, she had lodged a chair under the handle, but the result was pretty pathetic and she knew it was going to break. Gray had pounded on the door half a dozen times, but in the last few moments there had been silence from the other end, and it made her more nervous.

  As the boardroom door began to shake in its frame once again, this time with what seemed to be the force of a battering ram behind it, she prayed they’d be quick.

  Baron groaned as he got to his feet, looking for something to use to defend them with. Gray’s dagger was still lying on the boardroom table. Baron grabbed it.

  “Stay back.” His voice was hoarse, cloudy with pain.

  Amy ignored him. “Don’t waste your breath, Baron. The only way we’re making it through the next ten minutes is if we do this together.” The harassed look he gave her told her clearly enough that if he could have throttled her, he would have. Instead he clenched his jaw and sent her a tight nod, motioning for her to stand behind the door.

  As soon as Gray broke through the barricaded door, Amy was waiting to bash him over the head with a chair while Baron attacked with Gray’s dagger.

  Gray didn’t even flinch as the chair bounced off the back of his neck. He just turned and shoved her hard into the wall, then skillfully met Baron’s thrust by gripping his arm and yanking him closer, forcing Baron off balance and unable to block the hard kick in his side.

  Baron went flying across the room and landed in a heap on the floor. Gray turned from the young Immortal, motionless and moaning on the floor, and came right for Amy. Drawing on her martial arts training, she used Gray’s own momentum to flip him over her shoulder, then she lunged for the dagger where Baron had dropped it.

  Before she had a chance to use it, Gray rebounded back at her, catching her with a fist to the face and sweeping her feet out from underneath her with a quick pass of his leg. She went down, her breath whooshing harshly through her clenched teeth, and the dagger clattered across the floor.

  Amy grimaced at the coppery taste of blood in her mouth and figured that she had about three loose teeth. She recovered quickly, but not soon enough. Gray grabbed hold of one arm, twisting it hard behind her back, and she shouted with pain as she felt the bone crack and break. Gray let go and she dropped like a rag to the floor.

  He pulled back one meaty fist and Amy knew that it would break every bone in her face when it hit. It took everything she had not to flinch in anticipation of the blow, but she refused to cower in front of this monster.

  Unexpectedly, Baron knocked Gray away from her and they both went careening across the room. Gray managed to grab onto his dagger and stood up over Baron with it poised in his fist.

  Amy cried out and quickly moved to a crouch in front of Baron. She knew she didn’t have a chance against the elder Immortal, but she couldn’t bear for Rhys to lose another friend. He would blame himself forever for not being there in time. And so she would protect Baron with her own life.

  If she could just hold out for a few more minutes, she had faith that Rhys would come. She could shield Baron for that much longer.

  She had to.

  Amy felt dizzy and her vision blurred so that she didn’t even see Gray raising the dagger against her.

  “I know why you’re doing this.” She spoke desperately, hoping for a chance to reason with him. “Do you really think this is the answer to ending your pain?”

  Gray laughed. The sound made her shudder. “Lady, this is the only answer.”

  “You used to be one of them—us. If you stop this now, I’m sure there’s some way we could still help…”

  “Don’t be naïve as well as stupid. It’s far too late. The only thing I want from any of you is my chance at the Guardian. You can help me with that.”

  “Sorry, asshole,” Rhys said from the doorway. “But I just don’t believe we can accommodate you this time.”

  Rhys entered the room and went right for Gray, clocking him hard in the jaw and forcing him away from Amy and Baron. He tried not to look at Amy as she squatted protectively in front of the prostrate Immortal. Tried not to see the blood running down her face, or the way she cradled her arm to her chest. As it was, his first glance had almost made his heart stop. Then the rage had come, forcing the blood to move faster, hotter. The rage gave him strength, strength that he embraced and channeled.

  He let loose, fists flying, blood pounding in his ears.

  They were well matched, but as desperate as Gray was he couldn’t compete with Rhys’ dauntless focus and brute strength in the face of a threat against his woman.

  Rhys hit him again and again, and could feel Gray’s power flagging. Gray
stumbled, unable to get a shot in. Rhys was relentless, quick, and it wasn’t long before Gray was simply defending against Rhys’ merciless blows.

  Rhys moved to pull his sword, intending to take Gray’s head and finish it, but Amy reached for his arm, pulling him back. The red haze cleared enough that he let her, not wanting to accidentally have her caught between them.

  “Amy,” he said, breathing heavily. “Get out of the way.”

  “Rhys,” she pleaded, “don’t kill him. He’s only doing this because he hurts so much. We can find another way.”

  “What?” he said incredulously, “Amy, he’ll just keep coming if I don’t finish this now.”

  They were all thrown off balance by a bright flash of red light. A portal was opening up in the corner of the room, and the next moment a monstrous reptilian creature was standing before them.

  This was the Nina, Duncan’s killer, the demon he’d sworn to find and destroy. Its utter grotesqueness seemed somehow both alluring and seductive, and Rhys realized that was all part of how it worked to ensnare its victims. He quickly pushed Amy behind him, not wanting her to get anywhere near the thing.

  “The human isss Nina’s,” she said in a strangely hypnotic, hissing voice. “Give him to Nina. Massster sssaid Nina isss to have it.”

  She bared dripping fangs at Rhys and Amy. “Massster sssay Nina isss not here for Immortals now. Do not tempt Nina’s wrath in thisss matter.”

  Rhys glanced at Gray, who had paled visibly upon the Nina’s uninvited entrance. It seems whatever deal Gray had made with the demon lord had just been called off.

  Gray was trying to salvage the situation. “Nina,” he began in a pleading voice, “help me kill the Immortals and the Guardian can still be delivered. It’s not too late.”

  The demon’s smile was wide and toothy. “Too late for you, human. Massster sssay you Nina’s treat now, as long as Nina bring you back so Massster can watch you sssuffer the penalty of your failure.”